Unhindered
October 26, 2006
With our World Mission Conference behind us, I want to think again about the theme: Unhindered. The word is the final word of the book of Acts. Paul is in Rome, under house arrest, just coming off a rather unsuccessful meeting with the local Jewish leadership. We know from history that this about the time that Nero begins his rampage to ‘cleanse’ the city from the blight of Christianity. Paul will soon be a victim himself. Yet Luke describes Paul as preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.
Unhindered (Greek, akolutos) seems a strange word to describe the situation. The situation of Acts 28 sounds pretty hindered to me. But does this not tell us something about the kingdom of God? Does it not tell us that we judge things wrongly if we judge by what we see, that what we consider hindrances to the gospel’s advance do not really constitute hindrances? I think of Paul writing to Timothy, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory [2 Timothy 2:8-13]. The Word of God is not bound! Christ cannot be contained! The gospel cannot be silenced! The salvation of sinners cannot be stopped! This message is for everyone!
We look at obstacles: lack of laborers and money, uncertainty about vision and purpose, resistance and barriers in the community, hostile governments and religions. In the closing service I realized that the real hindrance is inside of me. I need the kingdom of God to get inside of me more and more so that unhindered becomes a reality in my life: content and relaxed, confident and humble, ready to spend and be spent, welcoming and bold, self-forgetting and Christ-remembering. Oh, that this would be the mark of our fellowship to increasing degrees! If the World Mission Conference is to be successful, it will be seen in more of all openness, unhindered among us. Oh, that Christ would open our hearts, our mouths, our homes, our checkbooks, and our fellowship.
Missions, messiness and love
October 25, 2006
We’re in the final day of First Presbyterian Church’s 51st World Mission Conference. We have certainly felt anew the welcome of God and the call of God in being a part of his beautiful and hilarious mission. You ought to download Steve Malone’s sermons at fpckosciusko.org (or better yet, get your free iTunes subscription to all FPC sermons for automatic download onto your computer! Instructions are on the FPC website too.).
I can’t help but think about how messy it all is: church planting in another culture or in the U.S., campus ministry, mercy ministry, training pastors, pastoring a congregation. Even putting together a missions conference gets messy! The Church is never an engine that one can build, then pull the cord and watch it run. Things are always going wrong. Plans are frustrated. Goals aren’t met. People fail to deliver what they promise. Committees don’t work efficiently. Roofs leak. Relationships are fragile.
Once upon a time such realities frustrated me. I usually felt guilty because I couldn’t make things work. If only I were better informed or a better motivator or better organized, then I could crack the whip and get everything to work. But God has taught me over the years through pastoral experience and through mission trips to Japan, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Russia and Mexico that messiness is always part of the picture. More than that, messiness is the setting for the love of Jesus to shine at its brightest. Read this from Eugene Peterson in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:
A primary task of the community of Jesus is to maintain this lifelong cultivation of love in all the messiness of its families, neighborhoods, congregations, and missions. Life is intricate, demanding, glorious, deeply human, and God-honouring, but–and here’s the thing–never a finished product, never an accomplishment, always flawed in some degree or other. So why define our identity in terms that can never be satisfied? There are so many easier ways to give meaning and significance to our human condition: giving assent to a creed or keeping a prescribed moral code are the most common in congregations….Belief and behavior are essential, but as the defining mark of the Christian they lack one thing–relationship. They are both prone to abstractions or programs. Abstractions (learning right belief) are good; programs (learning right behavior) are good; but it is also possible to master the abstractions and carry out the programs impersonally. In fact, it is far easier if done impersonally.
Such a deformed slut
October 19, 2006
Tony Reinke of Omaha, Nebraska, has one of the best blogs around–The Shepherd’s Scrapbook. This week he reprinted this from the original ‘Sweet Dropper’, Richard Sibbes:
No man is more ready to charge the church than she is to confess her infirmities.
She never hideth them, she never justifieth them;
she is black, she hath afflictions, she kept not her own vine,
she wants [lacks] knowledge, affection, discretion, love.
She never denies it, but confesses all freely from her heart;
she hides not her sin, but tells what she is, what she hath done,
that so she may give glory to the Lord God of Israel.
And indeed, it makes much for the honor of Christ, and commends his grace,
that he, such a king, will set his heart and his eye
upon such a deformed slut as the world deems her to be.
It makes for the comfort of her poor children, and much stayeth [sustains] them,
when they shall hear the church in all ages, and in her Abraham, David, and Paul, saying,
‘I am black,’ I have affliction, corruption, as well as others.
It makes for the silencing of all saucy [flippant] daughters that will upbraid her;
an ingenuous confession stops their mouths, and puts them all to silence.
It much quickens her to the use of the means, and maketh her cry,
‘Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest.’
And to seek her comfort in Christ Jesus.
Oh it doth her good to receive the sentence of death, shame, poverty, damnation,
in herself, that so she may be found in Christ,
arrayed with the rich robes of his righteousness.
Hence her plain-hearted openness in her confession.
Let us do the like, and leave it to the harlot and whore of Babylon
to say herself is a queen, she is glorious, she cannot err.
But let us say with the church, we are black;
yea, let us see it, let us speak it with sorrow, with shame,
as the saints have done,
and be so affected with our estate that it may truly humble us, and cause us to say,
‘It is the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.’
And let us so confess it in ourselves,
that we pity others, and bear with them, though full of sins and miseries;
so confess it, that we stir up others thereby to run, as Paul did,
and use the ordinances with all diligence,
to pray much, to read much, to hear, to confer, to advise, and be humble and sincere.
A verbal confession of frailties,
without humility, mercy, diligence, without the use of the means, is hypocrisy.
If we will speak with the church,
we must feel what we say, and so well understand ourselves and our estate,
that we may gain humility, mercy, and watchfulness by it.
- Richard Sibbes, Works 7:97-98
Unmarried households top 50% in U.S.
October 16, 2006
I’ve kept reading and re-reading this report that appeared on my Yahoo! home page, For First Time, Unmarried Households Reign in U.S. Longevity certainly plays a significant role in skewing the data a bit, as widows and widowers in an aging population account for more and more households, so it would be a mistake to rush to the conclusion that everyone is either divorcing or shacking up. Neverthless, the Church would be foolish to ignore such data and miss the opportunities to minister to people around us. Are we reflecting the welcome of Christ and lovingly speaking the demands of Christ to unmarried households? When we say we want to minister effectively to families, what do we mean?
What are the implications? I don’t know. What do you think? At the very least, it all drives home to me again the need for authentic, biblical community among us.
‘Imitation of Christ at its most naked’
October 12, 2006
Read this Rod Dreher editorial from the Dallas Morning News about a particular response by the Pennsylvania Amish community to the family of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the brutal murderer of five Amish children last week.
The election of grace
October 10, 2006
Today is my birthday. While shaving this morning, I thought back to something I first read in 1997–a bit of personal reflection about a shared birthday written by one of my favorite preachers, The Rev. Geoffrey Thomas of Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales. Here’s a reverse birthday gift for you: The Election of Grace.
I share a birthday with actress Helen Hayes (‘First Lady of the Amerian Theater’), David Lee Roth, Brett Favre and composer Giuseppe Verdi (which, being interpreted, means ‘Joe Green’, I think).
Holy laughter
October 5, 2006
When the gospel takes deep root in our hearts, laughter inevitably follows. Sometimes we laugh in joy and delight at God’s ways and our thick-headedness about it all. Sometimes we chuckle at the incongruities of life–the explanations of the world that 3-year-olds offer us, funny hats, and the catapult hurling Wile E. Coyote into the side of the mountain. Sometimes we imitate our Father and his prophet Elijah in mocking and ridiculing the arrogance of those who exalt themselves against God and his Christ (Psalm 2:2-4; 1 Kings 18:27).
Here are some thoughts from Charles Spurgeon on laughter and the Christian life.
I do believe, in my heart, that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry; and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter thoughts against God; while, at another time, I may laugh the laugh of sarcasm against sin, and so evince a holy earnestness in the defense of the truth.
I do not know why ridicule is to be given up to Satan as a weapon to be used against us, and not to be employed by us as a weapon against him. I will venture to affirm that the Reformation owed almost as much to the sense of the ridiculous in human nature as to anything else, and that those humorous squibs and caricatures, that were issued by the friends of Luther, did more to open the eyes of Germany to the abominations of the priesthood than the more solid and ponderous arguments against Romanism.
I know no reason why we should not,on suitable occasions, try the same style of reasoning. “It is a dangerous weapon,” it will be said, “any many men will cut their fingers with it.” Well, that is their own lookout; but I do not know why we should be so particular about their cutting their fingers if they can, at the same time, cut the throat of sin, and do serious damage to the great adversary of souls.
At no extra cost, here’s one from Martin Luther:
It is pleasing to the dear God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.
Sinful covetousness and godly ambition
October 2, 2006
Is there a difference between the two? Time did not allow me to explore this in my sermon on the 10th Commandment, which requires of us , “full contentment with our own condition.” Does this mean that a Christian should never desire to advance in a career, to move from a position of indebtedness to debt-free living, from being single to being married, to take another job, to trade in that clunker and buy a shiny new car, etc.?
In short, the answer to the question is NO. In fact, in some cases the Bible commends a godly ambition that is distinct from sinful covetousness. Here’s an example from 1 Timothy 3:1: “If a man desires the position of an overseer (i.e., bishop, elder), he desires a good work.” What is interesting is that Paul uses the same word for desire in chapter 6:10 to describe the greediness of people that drives many to stray from the faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows!
So is ambition good or bad? Well, that depends. The desire to be rich described in chapter 6 is a recipe for ruin, while the desire in chapter 3 is a good thing. Part of the answer lies in the object of our desires and ambitions? Do we value the right things in light of the kingdom of God? The other part of the answer lies in the 1 Timothy 3 passage. Right on the heels of commending the desire to be an elder, Paul spells out qualifications. While the desire may be godly, it could also arise from envy and self-seeking. Others must be able to look at a man’s life and recognize certain character traits and giftedness that an elder must possess. An examination of his life may reveal that he wants the respect and prestige of being an elder (which is overblown anyway, trust me on this one), but he may not take godliness seriously and may not care a whit about people. In that case, his desire is more akin to covetousness than to the good desire Paul praises. C.S. Lewis once observed that when a man is in the grip of lust for a woman, the truth is that a woman is the last thing that he wants! He merely longs for a physical sensation for which a woman is a necessary apparatus. If he wanted a woman, he would also want marriage, the long walks, the house, the curtains, the landscaping, the gravy boat, etc.
Sinful covetousness differs from godly ambition by the willingness to ‘pay the price’–in other words, to walk in submission before God, which another term to describe, well, contentment. Can I trust God and submit to him even if I am not given what I desire? Sinful ambition and godly ambition give two different answers to that question.
