Living Jesus: Context (pt 2)

We are going through this series of Bible classes on the Sermon on the Mount with a team of three teachers. We each teach for two weeks, then the next guy is up.

The text of last week's lesson was Matthew 7:1-12

My handy-dandy NIV Study Bible tells me that this is two separate and distinct sections.
First, verses 1-6 is about "Judging Others"
Then, 7-12: "Ask, Seek, Knock"

What should I do for class?
Focus on one or the other or somehow divide the class time between the two lessons?

Then I read the section in the Randy Harris book, Living Jesus that deals with this text. He lumps the whole thing together and speaks of this idea of us being "generous" people because God has lavished His generosity upon us.

Hmmm....

Thanks for turning the light on for me Randy. How could I not have seen this before?

Verse 12 provides a great bookend for 1&2:
...do to others what you would have them do to you...
...in the same way you judge others, you will be judged...

When separate we are taught that we should not judge others, but perhaps after some self-reflection and prayer we can help out brothers with their struggles. Then we are taught that (traditionally) if we ask anything of God, He will give you what you ask. We usually buffer the idea of God as Santa Claus with James 4:3 (must have right motives) & 1 John 5:14 (must be in line with God's will).

If we look at 1-12 as one cohesive teaching unit then the asking and seeking and knocking would be understood in light of not judging others and doing to others what we would want them to do to us.

What are we asking for?
We can presume that Jesus is not speaking literally when we speaks of fish and snakes and bread and stones. He is saying, "Who would do that?" and the answer is "No sane person would"

I think that essentially, what we are asking for is wisdom.

Here is my take.

in 1-5 Jesus tells His audience not to judge each other. Then He gives an example of what it looks like when some people go around trying to nitpick the sin in other people's lives when their own lives are fraught with it. It looks ridiculous.
We often overlook that Jesus then says that the man with the plank in his eye should remove it and then go help his brother who has a speck in their eye.
This is where that tricky verse 6 comes into play (do not cast your pearls before swine).
This is the other side of Jesus' real teaching here.

*PAUSE*
I just have to take a moment to say that I don't hate Bible editor's divisions and headings, but we have to recognize the power they have over us as we interpret the Word of God. Every time you read Matthew 7, in nearly any English Bible you read it from, you will be directed to believe that this section is about judging others. It is not evil to believe that, but it is a little misleading. How we judge each other is definitely part of what is being taught in this Scripture, but it is not the main point. The main idea is about how we treat other people (which includes judging/not judging).

*PLAY*
So in verse 6 Jesus is tapping into His education and remembering everything He was taught about wisdom and fools. Fools hate wisdom. Fools will reject wisdom. So here you are now. You were a hypocrite. But now you have rightly seen the plank in your own eye and you can see clearly to help your brother remove the speck from his. Jesus says, "Be careful! You can have a pure heart and good intentions, but some people will respond in vicious ways if you mess with their specks."

In my mind now I hear someone from the crowd respond to Jesus, "Master, what should we do then?"

Jesus says, "Ask God....

             ...to see the plank in your eye and remove it
                          ...to be able to discern who to help
                                      ...to not be a hypocrite/not be a harsh judge of others
                                                     ...to be generous like God is generous

A good place to start, a good rule of thumb is to treat other people the way that you would want to be treated.

In the end this whole section becomes a lot less about not judging and a lot more about actually helping other people.

Proverbs 2:3-5

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

3 For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.

Living Jesus: Context (pt 1)

Studying the Bible is most definitely a fruitful endeavor.
Although there are some aspects of Bible study that should be clear to nearly any reader, there are verses and sections in which the reader has to dig deeper to find out what is going on. If anyone is teaching someone else how to interpret the Scriptures, a necessary lesson is the lesson of context. Basically, a Scripture should be interpreted based on the Scriptures around it.

Then comes the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus divulges so many juicy morsels of teaching soundbites that it becomes so very easy to dive in, find what we want and get out while easily ignoring the context. The people who kindly divided up our Bible's have, in the case of the Sermon that we read in Matthew 5-7,  done us a bit of a disservice by adding a new heading every time it seems as if Jesus is switching topics.

In Living Jesus, Randy Harris says he wants the focus of the study to be living the life Jesus is teaching about, not dissecting the Sermon and arguing about what it means.

That being the case I was quite pleased when Randy, in my opinion, "rightly divided" a couple of the Scriptures in the Sermon that are commonly used out of context:

Matthew 6:22-23a "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." (NASB)

The common misinterpretation, especially in modern times with our nation's pornography epidemic, is that we need to be careful what we look at. If we set our eyes on detestable things, those unholy images will corrupt our souls.

This does not fit the context at all however.

Matthew 6:19-21 tells us not to store up treasures in heaven. Matthew 6:24, says that you cannot serve both God and money.

Why would Jesus stop in the middle of making a point about not focusing on money and being greedy and serving it to say, "And by the way, don't look at picture of naked women!"
(I'm not suggesting that we should do so, just that it is not the proper application of these verses)

So what does it mean?
The new NIV that came out in 2013 helps us out a little. It interprets the word "bad" as "unhealthy" and has a footnote that "unhealthy here implies stingy." They also note that in verse 22, what the NASB says is "clear" is "healthy" and then that "healthy implies generous."

Deuteronomy 15:9 is a good Scripture reference here. It is a verse that speaks about the coming 7th year, which for the Jews meant that they would be cancelling all debts against them. What could happen when that date is coming near is that some Jews might get stingy and decide not to make the loan because so little of it would ever actually get paid back. Here we have the NIV saying, "do not show ill will toward the needy person." The NASB, which is more literal says, "Beware that... your eye is hostile toward your brother."

The concept of relating the eye to generosity makes sense. There are at least two Proverbs that seem to carry the theme:

Proverbs 28:22, "A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth And does not know that wealth will come upon him."

Proverbs 28:27, "He who gives to the poor will never want, But he who shuts his eyes will have many curses."

Considering what the Old Testament teaches about the evil or hostile eye and then looking again at the context of what Jesus is teaching, it becomes more clear what Jesus meant by the clear/healthy eye versus the bad/unhealthy one:

If we put our treasures are made up or earthly things and we are greedy then we are serving money and not serving God. That life and attitude is ultimately a very dark one. If we have our treasures in heaven, then we will be much more generous with our earthly resources and the person who serves God will have a life that is full of light.

Before closing I want to mention Dr. Bruce Terry who taught my Scripture Interpretation class at Ohio Valley University. Thanks Dr. Terry for stressing context and shedding light on the Scripture above and the ideal of the "evil eye" in the OT.

In part 2 we will look at Matthew 7:7-11

Living Jesus: Being Different

There are two main ways to read the Bible.

The first way involves me looking at the problems and/or questions in my life and going to the Bible for answers. What does God say about this, that or the other thing?

The second way is to read the Bible as God's Word and think, what is God saying here? What is He teaching me?

Interpretive mistakes can be made either way. Our deceitful hearts get in the way. Too often we open God's Word to either try to prove ourselves right or at least OK or we are trying to prove someone else wrong.

Matthew 5:31-32 (Jesus' words on divorce and adultery) have been used and abused over the years.

There are so many commentaries and opinions that are going in different directions that it makes my head spin. That should not dissuade me from seeking out the truth.

So when I pan out and look again at the bigger picture of the Sermon on the Mount and reflect on what Jesus is teaching to this crowd, how can I make sense of this?

Jesus says, "You are the blessed ones of this earth"
Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth, the light of the world"
Jesus says, "Righteousness is not just for the Pharisees any more"
Jesus says, "I'm raising the bar"

I think Jesus wants His followers to be different.

Not just that we don't murder people, but that we don't hate people and we don't put people down.
Not that we don't ever have issues with people, but that we value peace so much that we will settle matters quickly
Not that we will avoid adultery, but that we will be wholeheartedly faithful.
Not that we would be proud of legal divorces but that now matter how wronged we are or feel by a spouse we would still have concern for their well-being.
Not that we would swear by holier things than the world swears by, but that we would have so much integrity that people could always count on us for speaking the truth.
Not that we would demand justice when we are the victims but that we might even sympathize with our robber or attacker. That we would have love for our enemies and pray for the people who try to belittle us.
And when we would do things that might cause other people to give us praise for being good or righteous or holy, we would actually try our best to do those things quietly, even secretly so that the good would be done but God would get the credit.
We would be different when it comes to money and possessions as well. Jesus' followers would not worry about the basic necessities of life. Our concern would be with pleasing God and we would have the confidence that if we do that faithfully, He will always take care of us. All of the chasing and running after things that worry the world and get people angry at each other and hating their own lives, we would be virtually immune to that. When we did have a need, we would bring it to God first.

Christians should take a break from trying to make the Sermon on the Mount a new law that can be kept or broken and  ask themselves some of these things:
Do I look more like Jesus or the world? Am I heading in the right direction?

There are a lot of people in this world who have not killed anyone, have not technically committed adultery, have perfectly legal divorces, are very keen on justice and are the friendliest of friendly to their friends and yet still look nothing like Christ. Some of these people go to church with you every Sunday.

Jesus wants His followers to be different.

Living Jesus: Slow to Anger

This Sunday I asked the class to fill-in-the-blank: Anger leads to _____________.

"Death"
"Destruction"
"Trouble"
"Nothing good"

and the list goes on.

Of the 8-10 answers we had, only one was positive:

"Sometimes justice"

Our experience coincides with God's good Word.

We can read about times that God got angry or Jesus got angry.
So the point is not "don't get angry" the point is what we do with that anger.
Jesus is clear in this section of the Sermon in Matthew 5:
First, don't call people names and then settle matters quickly.

To "live Jesus," Christians need to be the peacemakers that Jesus just spoke about in the beatitudes.

Proverbs 15:1 says, "A gentle answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger"
If we answer our offenders with harsh words, we only perpetuate the problems. If we can respond gently, we can put out fires.

*If you do a survey of the Bible to find out what the Word says about how we should be instead of angry you will find terms like "gentle" "self control" "love" "patience" "peace" and "rejoice"
It is uncanny that these are all things listed as the fruit of the Spirit!
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

Living Jesus: Fulfilling the Law

Jesus boldly proclaims in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

Jesus is going to accomplish them. He is going to put flesh on them bones.

Jesus expects the same from His listeners.

There are 2 choices:
You can either ignore parts of the law that aren't convenient to you
or
You can practice AND teach the whole thing.

Jesus loved to jab at the Pharisees. Here is one of first pokes at them. They are very righteous, but they were flawed. They would change the law to suit them, they would exalt the points of the law that were easy for them and they would do it all to try to get praise from other people.

Let's say you take a multiple-choice test with  a fill-in-the-dot type answering sheet. What the Law does is provide you with the answer key. You can compare what you have done, with what is correct and judge yourself by that standard. You can even give yourself a score. Unfortunately (for us and them), the only score that is acceptable to God is 100%

Jesus comes in and says, "I'm not getting rid of the answer key. I'm going to explain to you what is right and why it is right and how to get to the right answer." Instead of learning that "b" is the wrong answer, you are going to learn what the right answer is and how to get to it. Jesus is going to write the problem on the board and step-by-step solve it for you.

Let's revisit the 2 choices I listed above:
Ignoring parts of the law would be like using that answer key to determine you've earned a score of 82%, then going back and crossing out the questions you got wrong or deciding that some of the ones you got right were worth double. You change the rules in your mind so that you can still get 100% and be right with God. This is only in your mind and God does not accept your scoring system. You can however probably convince a lot of human beings that you have succeeded in your venture to be righteous.

Practicing and teaching the whole thing implies a nice mix of knowing and doing.
Jesus is giving a tremendous pep talk to start this lesson:
YOU ARE BLESSED BY GOD
YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH
YOU CAN BE MORE RIGHTEOUS THAN THE PHARISEES!

The Son of God, who quickly establishes Himself as "one who teaches with authority" is actively pursuing the lost sheep of Israel. He is finding the people who have lost their way and feel beat down and thrown out. He is taking all of the people who have done poorly on life's exam and is telling them that He will be their tutor.

I believe that offer still stands today. For the lost sheep in the world, they need to see Jesus as their Great Shepherd. For those who are in Christ, how can we "live Jesus"? I think that comes down to what Jesus told the disciples much later in Matthew's gospel, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

Living Jesus: Who we are in Christ

"You are the salt of the earth," Jesus said. "You are the light of the world."
I don't know how you can divorce these words from the ideas we learned about last week in the Beatitudes. There, Jesus speaks to the lowly people of the world and says, "You are the blessed ones!"
His encouragement continues - "You are the salt, you are the light!"

Ironically, thus far in the journey of "Living Jesus" we still don't need to do anything.

Perhaps that is the lesson that we have to learn.

Following Christ is not thinking that what we do makes us who we are but understanding the Christ transforms us into something we could never attain on our own and then in Him and through Him, simply by being the people He's remade us to be, we will have a profound impact on the world around us.

The action comes but without transformation and understanding we will be like the branches cut off from the vine. We could work as long as hard as we could and would never bring forth any fruit. The branch that is connected to the vine however has no claim except that it is connected to the vine. The result of simply staying attached, fruit is born.

Those who follow Christ will, on account of following Him, be salt and light.

Living Jesus: See the Blessing, Be the Blessing

Here are some continued thoughts and reactions to the Beatitudes, Jesus' blessing-filled opening to the Sermon on the Mount.

In his book, Living Jesus, Randy Harris encourages readers to identify with the "anawim," (the poor in spirit or the pathetic ones) that Jesus blesses first. When we realize that most of us are essentially "losers" we can come to appreciate how great and important Christ's blessing is AND we recognize that His blessing extends to us as well. In other words, we don't have to try to be poor in spirit, most of us already are.

After some inward reflecting on who we really are and what Jesus' blessing means to us, we should stop and look around.

Harris says, "I believe that it's impossible to live out the Sermon on the Mount if we don't first understand that we are loved and blessed by God."

Perhaps we should add to that thought that it is impossible to live out the Sermon on the Mount if we don't first understand that the world around us is also loved and blessed by God.

Brian McLaren puts it well in The Secret Message of Jesus: 
        "After all when you see your students, constituency, clients, or customers as people who are          loved by God and as your fellow citizens in God's kingdom, it becomes harder to rip them            off or give them second best. And when enough people begin to live with that viewpoint, in          little ways as well as big ones, over long periods of time, things truly change... each of us              not only prays, 'May your kingdom come,' but we become part of the answer to that                        prayer in our sphere of influence."

When we start seeing the blessing in other people and in the world around us, we are energized to be the blessing in their lives. A great Christian truth is that God uses his people as agents to distribute His truth and blessing to the world. He did it with Israel and He does it now through Christ and His following. 
     2 Corinthians 9:8-12

8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say,

“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
    Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.

***The famous "sermon on the mount" is recorded in Matthew 5-7. Last week we started our study of this sermon with the help of the resource "Living Jesus" by Randy Harris, with Greg Taylor. All of the blog posts that have "Living Jesus" in the title follow the Utica church of Christ's Sunday AM Bible study in the 1st quarter of 2014***

Living Jesus: The Upside Down Kingdom

Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with a series of blessings for people who may not have been accustomed to receiving such blessings from their Rabbi.

Their world, much like ours tended to honor the strong and mighty, those who seemed wise and who had wealth.

Jesus starts His most famous sermon saying, "I'm going to pay attention to everyone else: the little guy. Everyone that the world looks down on, everyone who is in some kind of pain or confusion and especially those who might suffer because of believing and following me, that's who I will cater to." (These are not His exact words)

The thing is, that was not a whimsical moment in Jesus' ministry, that was the hallmark!

Jesus would go on to spend ample amounts of time with "sinners and tax collectors," because its not the healthy who need the doctor... He would teach things like, "the first will be last and the last will be first." and, "if you want to become great in God's kingdom you have to become a servant... or like a child." Oh, and by the way, if you get your reward or recognition in this world, you won't be getting it in God's kingdom... You still need to be righteous and holy, but rather than trying to impress men, you should be aiming to impress God. You can please God by helping out the "least of these": poor, hungry, naked, imprisoned, sick, etc.

Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world." That means that how we live and find success are going to be very different as well. People that follow Jesus would be very different, almost like light shining in darkness (or exactly like that). And even if a small group of people would commit to living the kingdom lifestyle in this world, they would even "turn the world upside down."

***The famous "sermon on the mount" is recorded in Matthew 5-7. Last week we started our study of this sermon with the help of the resource "Living Jesus" by Randy Harris, with Greg Taylor. All of the blog posts that have "Living Jesus" in the title follow the Utica church of Christ's Sunday AM Bible study in the 1st quarter of 2014***

Living Jesus: Before You Go

This blog is oriented toward living out Christianity in real and simple ways.

"Living Jesus" is all about reading and studying the "sermon on the mount" with the intent of actually living out the teaching of Jesus.

Last week we saw that action is the foundation of the Christian life. Well, Jesus provides the foundation with his teaching. Wisdom or foolishness is proven by how we respond to those teachings. If we put them into action, we are wise. If we ignore them and do not live them out, we are fools.

So here we are, our minds and bodies are ready for action.

Go ahead Jesus, give us something to do.

Jesus Christ, however, does not start the sermon on the mount in this manner. He does not come out swinging with a list of commands. Instead, He opens His talk with BLESSINGS: we generally call them the beatitudes.

Christians can easily slip into two different pockets of error. In some cases (as we discussed last week), we consider the commands of Christ and rationalize our inactivity by determining that those things are just too hard to do. "Certainly God doesn't expect us to be perfect."
The other erroneous route is when we take things that are said about how to be, who to be or as in the case of Matthew 5:1-12, simple blessings to people as they already were and we translate those things into commands. Sometimes we are always looking for things to do to feel righteous or accomplished.

Geoff Surrat writes in Christ Follower (Seacoast Church), "It's easy for us to hear these words and think, Oh, so I need to be poor, I need to mourn... These are not commands to be poor, to be hungry, to be sad, to be persecuted. Actually, Jesus is explaining how life really works in the invisible, eternal kingdom of God."

Geoff also quotes Dallas Willard from The Divine Conspiracy: The beatitudes in particular are not teachings on how to be blessed. They are not instructions to do anything. They do not indicate conditions that are especially pleasing to God or good for human beings..."

Jesus looked around as He was about to speak and like any good orator would He "knew His audience." They were the downtrodden and outcast, the meek and the poor. They came to Christ with the mindset of, "we are not the blessed ones." So Christ makes it very clear to them, "Yes, you are. Blessed are... all of you."

So we don't get to DO anything quite yet. But that's OK.

We'll conclude with some words from  the book Living Jesus, "There are a lot of commands in the Sermon on the Mount, and through the rest of this series we'll look at those commands; but I believe that it's impossible to live out the Sermon on the Mount if we don't first understand that we are loved and blessed by God."



***The famous "sermon on the mount" is recorded in Matthew 5-7. Last week we started our study of this sermon with the help of the resource "Living Jesus" by Randy Harris, with Greg Taylor. All of the blog posts that have "Living Jesus" in the title follow the Utica church of Christ's Sunday AM Bible study in the 1st quarter of 2014***

Living Jesus

Over the course of the next 12 weeks this blog will follow the progress of our Sunday morning adult Bible class on the Sermon on the Mount. This class will be using as a guide the book called Living Jesus, by Randy Harris with Greg Taylor.

The approach that will be taken will be to examine the Sermon on the Mount with a goal of answering the question, "How can I live this out in my life?"

Perhaps that should always be the goal or at least a goal of any Bible study, but we are often content with merely trying to figure out what a particular text means.

Todd Egstrom writes, "In large groups, studying the Bible often feels like you've obeyed it. Knowledge is not necessarily obedience, however, and we need specific accountability to help our hands obey what our head and hearts know."

A friend and author of Dying to Control, Leon Hayduchok used to compare the modern day church to the Gnostics of New Testament times. For many, knowing the truth is good enough for them and even gives them feelings of entitlement and superiority. 

We must be moved by James' words, " don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves" (1:22 NLT).

And that is precisely how the Sermon on the Mount ends... 
Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish builders and makes it clear to the people who just heard His teaching: If you don't live these things out, if you don't follow them or put them into practice then you are a fool and when trouble comes you will fall. On the other hand, those who hear the teachings and put them into practice will be considered wise and stand firm when the storms of life pass through.

So what is the least we can do to put these things into practice?

Each week we will answer that for the section of the sermon we dissect, but for now, the main point that Harris and Taylor want us to digest is that Jesus said what He said in Matthew 7:24-28 because He fully believed that is audience (then & now) could do all of the things He taught from Matthew 5:1 - 7:23.
That is the least we can do as we begin this study: know and believe that by the grace of God, the power of His Spirit and the strength of His Son, we really can do all things and in particular, live the life that Jesus teaches.

Reconsider Grace

In this gift-giving season, something we rarely consciously think about is that nearly all gifts are given or received with expectations.

You give someone a sweater for Christmas... you have expectations. You expect them to wear the sweater. You don't expect them to hate it. You don't expect for them to use the thing as the new liner for their cat's bed.

Even when we give to a charity, we expect that the money we send will be used for good things. We would be upset to hear that our charity was mismanaged. We would be outraged if we heard that all the top people at the Make-a-wish foundation were getting Ferrari's for Christmas bonuses. We would be astounded if we heard that UNICEF spent a million dollars on Barbie Dolls and beach balls.

Ironically, all of us who are in Christ are managers of a charity. The word grace and the word charity come from the same word in Greek. God has given us all grace. It is a gift from God and like most gifts, it comes with expectations. God has been charitable to you and I. He has blessed us with the gift of life and then continues to heap up our lives with blessings.

What does God expect from us?
When He sees how you and I are managing this charity, what response might He have?
Will He be pleased or will He be beside Himself?

Watch the sermon: Everyday Grace

Belong (part 4)

When people are looking for a place to call their church home, a huge factor is feeling like they fit in. Ultimately, they want to feel like they belong.
We can all relate to this.

Unfortunately as I have conversations with my peers and read the content of their posts and blogs on the internet I get the sense that there are more and more people who do not want to belong at all.

There are obscene amounts of people who have been hurt by their churches. They have been ignored, insulted, bullied, shamed and in various other ways, abused.

That is a problem.

Maybe the bigger problem is that people don't belong to the church any longer.
I'm not trying to throw these hurt people under the bus. The violators are the ones who should take responsibility and seek reconciliation... right?

To catch up and get some context I would encourage you to read parts 1 and 2. Basically these posts are working from and ideal point of view that the relationship between the individual and the church is a loving one and so the "belonging" is desirable and can be trusted.

In part 3 I conclude that to truly belong, one must take ownership.

Let me illustrate in a couple of ways.

I subscribe to Netflix. A couple of years ago they shifted their focus from movies to TV shows. There was an uproar. If I am merely a subscriber of a service I could get frustrated and cancel my subscription. Others (like me) liked some of the television shows that were being featured and continued to subscribe.
This is the nature of the relationship. We evaluate the services we receive and decide to be members or not based on what we get for the fee we pay.
How would all of this change if I was one of the owners of Netflix. I am still concerned with the product, but my focus is less on if I am being served by it, and more on if others are being served. As the owner I am committed and always want things to get better.
As the customer I am finicky and when I don't get what I want I will leave.

Church membership has two paths. You can take ownership or you can become a customer.

I knew of a man who left the church because his mother was very sick. For years she prayed for healing. For years the church prayed for her healing. She was never healed. Someone from the church said something to this old, sick woman, they suggested that maybe she hadn't been healed because she didn't have enough faith.
Ouch!
The woman was hurt and her whole family was hurt.
They left the church.

What should they have done?

I will just write this... if they had a keen sense of ownership they could still say "Ouch!" They could still be hurt and upset, but the ultimate reaction would not be to hightail and leave. It would be to seek out the brother or sister who hurt them and seek reconciliation.

I think that people assume that if they leave, people will change. That is far from the truth. If you leave, people will assume that you don't really love Jesus (not saying that's a right or fair judgement, but it is the most likely). If you love the church and are involved with a church where there may be some problems, don't walk away, help the church change for the good. If you are the only one seeing it, maybe God is calling you to be a prophet to His people.

The least we can do is belong to the church and that means that we are members of Christ's body and belong to each other. The least we can do is identify with the church. I belong to you and you belong to me, we are the church. God is calling us to be joint heirs with Christ and share in the ownership of the church. The least we can do is stop being customers and consumers and start being owners.

Belong (part 3)

So what is the least that I can do to belong to the church of Christ? (Yes, I'm still asking the question)

In the first part of this series we discussed what it means to belong to another and that the least we can do is belong to the church.
In part 2, we looked at what belonging is not.
So now we finally get to our answer...

INDENTIFY

In my opinion the least we can do to belong to the church is to identify with this group of people.

In a practical way this means that when referring to the church we will use the term "WE" and not "THEY" or "YOU GUYS"

In nearly 10 years of full time ministry I have had way too many conversations with members of Christ's body who amazingly did not identify themselves with His church!?

It's like they are not a part of the body. They are some kind of fashion accessory.
You and I are the arm and the leg and they are the necklace, knee brace or iPod armband. If the body gets too sweaty or smelly or just doesn't pay enough attention to them they may leave. It is more likely that they will stick around to cause a rash or some other kind of allergic reaction. Oddly, most of these people attend church meetings regularly, are often involved in ministry and are sometimes even a part of the church's leadership.

The least we can do is be like Moses (Hebrews 11:24-26)
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

So where are we going wrong?
Are we too selfish to let "die to self and live for Christ" include being joined to the church?
Is the church so far off from where it should be that people should not identify with her?
If it is, how can her course be corrected except if faithful and righteous people do identify with her and right the ship?

To identify oneself with the church means that we take ownership.
This, actually fits in perfectly with what the scripture is saying in Romans 12:5, all the parts belong to each other. In order for me to correctly belong to the church I have to understand that everyone else belongs to me. In order to identify with the church I have to take ownership of the church.

Part 1: The Least We Can Do to Belong to the Church
Part 2: The "what" vs the "who" of belonging.

Part 4: What is the least I can do to belong to the church? Ownership

Belong (part 2) The "what" vs the "who" of belonging

What's the least I can do to belong to the church?

In part 1 we explored the idea of belonging to someone: it can be scary, but it can also be beautiful. In our relationship with God, being His means being loved, safe and secure.

When it comes to the church the same should hold true.

Before I say what I think the least we can do is, I want to discuss one thing that is a major road block to rightful belonging.

Just a week or so ago I blogged about the term "worship" and how it is quickly supplanting the term "church" as the place that we go on Sunday mornings (You can read more about that here). The problem is that neither worship nor church are places we go...
unfortunately "church" had become synonymous to the building in some contexts and in others it is used as an institution. Both are incorrect and can be harmful.

Saying that the church is an institution hurts us because then it becomes another organization that we are a part of. In most situations this means that there are a select few who run everything and make all the decisions and everyone else becomes a consumer of goods & services. People become members of such institutions because of the benefits or perks that are associated with membership.

OK, I say all of this to establish that many who "join a church" are not joining themselves to a group of people who are set apart by God, but they are joining a non-profit organization that they feel they can get some kind of benefit from.

This is important to point out because if we are going to talk about the least we can do to belong, we must first take "false-belonging" out of the equation.

The Romans 12 verse (5) that says that we each belong to one another is in the midst of comparing the church to being like a body that, though it is made up of many parts, comes together to form one unit.

So the idea that must guide our sense of belonging is not "what do I belong to?" but, "who do I belong to?"

Belonging to the church means I am in submission to the head (Christ) and I belong to all the other members.'

That means that you belong all the other Christians in the world and more directly you belong to the people who make up your local congregation.

so... what's the least I can do to belong to these people?

Part 1 can be read here.
Part 3: What is the least I can do to belong to the church? Identify
Part 4: What is the least I can do to belong to the church? Ownership

Belong (part 1)

Some of the tension of belonging first came to my mind through a wedding sermon I had used a couple of times. In it I compare the love of the newlyweds to the love that God has for His people in Isaiah 43. What God says at the end of verse 1 is "you are mine."

In human relationships belonging to someone else can be a very scary prospect. Many would first think of slavery. Others may think of an abusive relationship in which one partner views the other as a possession rather than a person.

There is another side to belonging to someone else though.

Every February 14th a common term of endearment thrown around is, "Be Mine." We are not saying, "I want to own you, I want you to be my possession." The language, although similar, has very different meaning.

The Bible uses the analogy for the church that we are the Body of Christ. One of the discourses on the body and it's parts says, "and each member belongs to all the others." The context suggests that God has given each member something to contribute to the larger group and, because together we are one body, we should use those gifts for the good of the church. There is nothing oppressive about that (at least there shouldn't be).

Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd and we are His sheep. His sheep will not follow the voice of the stranger because they know that their shepherd is good and will care for them, protect them and well do everything else that Psalm 23 talks about. Belonging to God is a beautiful and peaceful thing. Belonging to His church should be an extension of that.

If I am a part of the Body of Christ, then the least I can do is belong. But what does that mean?


Part 2: The "what" vs the "who" of belonging.
Part 3: What is the least I can do to belong to the church? Identify
Part 4: What is the least I can do to belong to the church? Ownership

Sunday Marriage

Redefine Worship

Over the years I have heard a lot of different ideas come from the lips of men concerning "worship."
Worship has taken center stage in the Christian church world. Sometimes churches divide over it. In fact this happened so often the the term "worship wars" was coined. Other peaceful resolutions have been made to create additional service times to accommodate different worship styles and preferences.
Lots of questions get asked about worship...
When should worship begin?
What can we or can't we do in the worship service?

This branding of worship has hurt the church and it hurts Christians.

Every Word Counts
As a bit of a word-nerd I can appreciate some of what has happened in the church world over the past several years. We figured out that you cannot really say that you are "going to church" because the church is not a place, it is the people of God. Many have begun restating in attempts to fix this. It is important because we believe what we say and if 90% of your congregation starts saying they are going to church, then where are they when they are not at your church's building? Who are they at home and work and school?
They are still the church, but our false labeling supports the concept and consequent behaviors that imply that when my Sunday, spiritual activities are done, I have done what is required of me.

The Wrong Answer
Too many of us (yes, I have been guilty of the crime I am writing about today) have dropped the term "church" for the Sunday gathering of the saints and have latched on to "worship" or "worship service." It is now my opinion that using these terms muddies the waters even more and should be avoided and replaced.

What is worship? There is a bit of mystery already surrounding worship. The dictionary is pretty simple in its definition. It says that worship is a feeling or expression of reverence or adoration for a deity. My Vine's Dictionary tells me that the Greek word for worship is Proskuneo, and comes from the words that mean "towards" and "to kiss."

So what happens on Sunday when the church meets? Is everything we do a kiss or act of reverence toward God? Probably not. Do I stop expressing my adoration toward God when I hop in my car to head home? I certainly hope not!

Two Paths
Many, not all, but many Christians unconsciously believe that "worship" is a special thing that happens on Sunday. They need the church to be able to worship. In other words, if you asked people how they worship through the week, you'd get a lot of confused looks.

Other people have come to be disappointed with the worship of the church. It is too drab, not sincere, "it doesn't move me," is their attitude. And that has led to them ceasing their participation. That's right. Many have chosen to stay home to have a meaningful worship experience on their own rather than to be bogged down by the apathetic church.

The Right Answer?
Will redefining worship fix everything? I'll leave people's hearts and mending them to Jesus. But if we use the right words for the right things, that could help, right?
If you say of a teenager regarding someone they idolize, "She worships the ground they walk on." What do you mean? Do you mean that on Sunday mornings she gets her friends together and in an orderly and specific manner they pay tribute to their idol? Probably not, you probably mean that in many ways and on many occasions they show their hero reverence and love and adoration.

That is how we need to be thinking about what it means to worship God.

Worship God all the time.  Deuteronomy 6:4-9
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Worship God Everywhere! John 4:21-24

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The Word-Nerd Conclusion

Perhaps I am being finicky. Maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill. But why don't you join me in this new quest? Stop going to church. Stop going to worship. 

Why don't you start meeting with the church or go to the church's building? Maybe you can go to the assembly? or the meeting? Just make sure what you say you are doing is what you will be doing. Mislabeling our Christian activities has stunted the growth and understanding of too many and for what reason?

check out the sermon on "Everday Worship"

Fear God

Fearing God is a difficult concept for us to understand. We know that God is loving and compassionate and merciful so fearing a God like that sounds backwards. 1 John 4:18 even says that "perfect love casts out fear" and that there is "no fear in love."

How can we reconcile these things?

I think the key (at least for me) is to think of these concepts relationally rather than characteristically.

In other words, instead of interpreting the idea of "fearing God" as a desciption of God (i.e. God is scary), I need to see it in the context of who God is and how I relate to Him.

So, God is loving and merciful and compassionate. God is also righteous and just, perfect and holy. There is nothing inate about these characteristics that would make me fear God. Yet when I put myself in the picture, fear can easily sneak in. When Peter recognized Jesus' deity he told Christ to get away from him because he was a sinner. God's holiness is scary because it causes us to recognize our imperfection.

WHY WE FEAR GOD

For an imperfect analogy consider this: you are going to try out for a singing competition for which there will be only one winner. The first contestant sings and their performace gives you a renewed confidence. Why? Because you listened to them and judged their abilities. You decided that you would do better than they did and that made you feel better about your chances to win. There is another contestant before you. This singer nails it. They hit every note with perfect pitch and inflection. How are you feeling now? Their perfection makes you acknowledge the areas in which you fall short.

Jesus says that evil hates the light because light exposes evil deeds (John 3:19-21).

When prophets of old encountered God they fell flat on their faces and trembled. They were gripped with fear. Meeting God exposes every ounce of imperfection within us and that is scary because He is also the judge of the world. God is almighty.Even complete knowledge of all of God's goodness and mercy cannot curb this reaction.

This is why we try to hide. It is why when my son has done something he knows is bad or wrong he tries to either conceal it or hide himself. It is why Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the garden.

God is mysterious.There is a mystery about God and we tend to fear what we do not know. Proverbs 9:10 is insightful here: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

FEARING GOD IS A GOOD START

The Bible lets us know that how we begin our journey is not how we will end it. God is transforming us, His Holy Spirit is sanctifying us. As spiritual beings we should always be growing and maturing in Christ. This is true for individuals and whole people groups. Galatians 3:24 tells us that the Law was a tutor that would lead us to Christ. When Christ came, there was no longer a need for the tutor. When the new covenant was established, the old covenant became obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).

So Proverbs tells us on more than one occassion that fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear is not the goal, it is not the finish line, it is where we start.

FEAR AND LOVE

Let's look at fear and love quickly. Fear is, in this context, very selfish. I should obey they Lord because I fear His wrath. That is not a wrong reason to obey, but it is selfish. I do what is right for my own good. I will do what is right because it saves me and preserves my life.

Love, on the other hand, is unselfish. Love can be sacrificial. I will do what is right, even if there are consequences, because I love God and want to please Him. You see how the target of pleasure has switched from "me, me, me" to God? When I get to know God (Pr 9:10) I will gain understanding of who He is and how He will act. His perfect love is expressed as His Son being sacrificed for my sins. If I can perfectly love Him, I will obey His every command. Now, even sinful me can have confidence in approaching God because the blood of His son covers me and washes away all sin and imperfection. When perfect love is present, there is no room for fear.

CONCLUSION

I read another proverb today: A servant pampered from youth will turn out to be insolent (29:21)

And how about this famous verse, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."

As a father I know that it is good that my son fears me. When I come home from work he is the first one at the door, welcoming me with a hug or something exciting to tell me about. He does not run and hide and cry when I return. Yet he fears me and I discipline him and these are good things. If he had no fear,he would have no reason to listen to me or obey. No reason except for love. Though I am sure that he loves me, his love is immature. His little mind has a hard time piecing together that obedience is an act of love. As he grows and matures his love will mature and gradually replace fear.

So YES, the least we can do is fear God, but may we all have the goal of a perfect and mature loving relationship with our Maker and Creator!

 

Fear the Lord - beginning of wisdom (Pr 1:7, 9:10)

Know the Holy One - understanding (Pr 9:10)

Trust the Lord - blessing, prosperity, safety (Pr 16:20; 28:25; 29:25)

Love the Lord - obedience (Deut 11:1; John 14:15)

 

 

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle

^{1 Timothy 6:6-8  
6} But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 

The sentiment of the "least we can do" has been to look at the commands and call of Jesus and reduce them to the least common denominator. Jesus to go into the world and make disciples, TLWCD is trying to figure out what the first step looks like.

This post has a different feel to it. 

I don't think the Bible calls us to be raging environmentalists. Having put a considerable amount of study time into the subject the last couple of weeks I do believe that God has given us this earth and all of creation, not to lord our dominion over them but as a gift we are responsible to take care of. It is for us, but it is still His.

Last night the woman who is the director of our county's recycling program came and spoke to our church. 

What's the least we can do?

In Oneida and Herkimer counties the recycling process has been made so easy. Reducing waste and reusing what we can...
It is a free process
and actually saves you money if you do it.  

Again, I don't think that God burns with anger if someone uses a styrofoam coffee cup. I don't think Jesus is clenching His fists over a battery that makes it into your garbage. 
But if Jesus lived in Utica, NY in 2013... I think He'd recycle. 

I know He would live a simple life with little to be wasted.

and now am I inspired to write a poem that I will call "Carbon Footprints in the Sand"

Wait Upon the Lord

I have been a minister at the church of Christ in Utica, NY for 8 1/2 years now. I have learned many lessons. Perhaps the lesson (that I am still learning) that is both the most frustrating and yet the most reassuring is that God is in control of everything.

It is frustrating because sometimes you work very hard on things and with people but feel as if you have nothing to show for your labor. You invest, you commit, you pray, you plead, you cry out, you study, you spend time and often it is with these people that you get hurt. They tease you with their interest in the gospel and either it was a hoax from the beginning and a way for them to get some money or attention or they are like some of the soils in Jesus' parable about the sower and the seed: they have no root and get scorched or get choked by the worry and deceitfulness of life.

Then God works. People you don't know are pushed into your life and they are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. You don't need to poke them or prod them (because the Holy Spirit already has). They are eager to learn and anxious to get involved. It is so refreshing. (John 4:36-38)

Preaching a sermon every week (or most weeks) has the same emotional toll and contribution. You study and study to try to be as true to God's Word as you can be. This means that the flow of the lesson will usually change several times throughout the week or month or however long you are working on it. So then, you finally have the lesson but it is not a sermon - if you were present your current materials to the church it would take on the form of a 3 or 4 hour lecture. As a Bible nerd, you are pleased, but you know your work is not done. Now you must run this material through a filter to try to determine what the most important things to share are. What do people need to hear? Sunday is almost here and if you are like me, sermon prep doesn't really end until the sermon is over - constantly mulling over in my head what to say and how to present it. You get up there on Sunday morning preach your heart out and afterwards you hear, "It was a good sermon BUT,..." and "sorry I fell asleep" and, "you went a little long didn't you?" There are always positive comments too and you cherish those and they keep you going sometimes, but the negative and ignorant comments always seem louder.

Inevitably there comes a week that everything else happens. You end up doing a lot of running around, visits and moves and breakfasts and meetings and it is Friday and you remember you are supposed to preach on Sunday. You give it your best the day you have to work it out, you preach and return to your seat fully expecting that the church will be asking for your resignation soon. But something else happens. Someone approaches you who rarely does and tells you how touched they were by the day's message. Another person is excited, they shake your hand and tell you that might have been the best sermon you've ever preached. God's Word is good. (Isaiah 55:9-11)

If I put my trust in my own ways I will be a fool (Proverbs 28:26) but if I put my hope in the Lord, He will continuously renew my strength (Isa 40:29-31).

It is the least we can do: wait on the Lord.

 "Wait on the Lord" is not an excuse for a Christian to be lazy. Christian waiting requires action (see Matthew 24:45-51). Waiting is planting and watering as we anticipate Him making things grow.

Ephesians 2:8-10
 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

As a people we are called to follow Jesus, to be faithful to the end, to hold firmly to the Word. We are not called to produce certain results but to do what He asks and go where He sends. We hope in Him and wait for Him, trusting that it is part of a bigger and better plan. Abram had this trust when he left his homeland for God. Ezekiel had this trust when God told him to prophecy even though he was speaking to  a rebellious nation who would "listen or fail to listen." God sent him so that, "they will know that a prophet has been among them."

So, if anyone is reading this, I encourage you to abandon any performance-based Christianity that is within you. Cling to the faith that God is calling you to and cling to it until the end.
And if no one is reading this, I have the confidence that everything God has called me to do, every path to walk down, sermon to preach, person to approach or blog to write has some use in His kingdom. For me it cannot be about making some grand achievement but that everyday my grand achievement must be about being faithful to God. I will not try to do His Work for Him, but I will do the work He has planned for me and watch in anticipation as He moves where I often least expect.