Ministry Matters: Preach. Teach. Worship. Reach. Lead. "When people push back on your vision | Transgender Christians | Era of darkness?" for Tuesday, 28 April 2015
When people push back on your vision by Rebekah Simon-PeterInspiration has finally hit. You’ve prayed. You’ve listened to your congregation. You’ve surveyed the community. Now, guided by the Holy Spirit, in consultation with trusted leaders, you have crafted a bold, inspiring, kingdom-oriented vision. You’ve tested your assumptions and thought through implications. You’ve prayed for and received confirmation.
In fact, you have dotted every i you can think of and crossed every t.
And then the unthinkable happens: People start pushing back. The very people who seemed to support it before are now raising objections.
Now what?
Caught unaware, too many church leaders get taken out at this stage of the game. But before you get discouraged and throw in the towel, I want to share with you four pushback paradoxes that will help you gather momentum and move the vision forward.
A few years back, I was mentoring a lay leader who was experiencing some push back in his congregation. He’d done just the kind of homework I mentioned. Which made him all the more defensive when the objections started. It got to the point where every time someone raised an objection, he saw it as an attack. The more attacked he felt, the more he closed himself off and hunkered down. The more he hunkered down, the more shut out and shut down they felt. It was quickly turning into a no-win situation.
Here are the four pushback paradoxes that helped him rebound with grace. I believe they can help you too.
1. Take pushback as a sign of interest. You’re introducing something new that is catching people’s attention. That’s a good thing. Because it’s likely to introduce new dynamics and change up the way things are going, people want to have their ideas, concerns or refinements included in it. Take their objections as a sign of interest. This shift in your perspective will set the stage for a more productive process.
2. Don’t shoot from the hip. At this point in the game, people will want some details. Don’t shoot from the hip. Take time to organize your thoughts. The pushback may simply be a sign that they don’t understand some key details or how it will all come together. Pause, organize your message and communicate, communicate, communicate.
3. How receptive are you? Check to see if you are criticizing or challenging every new idea or tweak suggested. If you are, take a deep breath, close your mouth, open your heart and listen. Many people will want to have their fingerprints on a major change in the church. Suggestions and objections actually help them buy in to your vision.
4. Be open to exchanging perspectives. Belief in the vision is commendable. But check to see if you are simply presenting your vision as a done deal or if you are open to give and take. Even if you don’t ultimately incorporate their ideas, being heard has a calming effect. It reduces anxiety, buoys morale and lets people know they matter.
The truth is, pushback is necessary for buy-in. Without pushback, you can’t be sure that people have had a chance to fully consider and think through the new direction God iscalling you to. Better to have it surface now than simmer just below the surface.
If you listen closely, your people will tell you what’s missing to make the vision a new and shining reality. Remember: Take time at this stage of the game to organize your thoughts, communicate with clarity, be receptive to what people have to say and to do some give and take. This will strengthen your vision and make implementation that much easier.
You’ve heard it said, “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” (Proverbs 29:18.) Now consider this: Without pushback and buy-in, the leader will perish … because they’ll be in it all by themselves.
Rebekah blogs at RebekahSimonPeter.com. If you want to dive deeper into the ideas presented here, check out Rebekah'sprogram Creating a Culture of Renewal.
Are transgender Christians welcome at church? by David PersonThis past Friday night, a self-described conservative Republican revealed what may be the church’s next and most challenging frontier. Bruce Jenner, celebrated Olympian and reality TV star, announced to the world that he is, at heart, a woman. (And in keeping with the choice Jenner expressed during his interview, I will refer to him using the pronoun “he.”)
"I've always been confused with my gender identity," Jenner told ABC’s Diane Sawyer. "Are you a woman?" she asked. "Yes, for all intents and purposes, I am a woman ... That female side is part of me ... And that's very hard for Bruce Jenner to say. Because why? I don't want to disappoint people."
Throughout the two-hour special, images of the gold medalist from the 1976 Olympics were juxtaposed with Jenner’s current softer, decidedly more feminine appearance. It looked like two different people — and based on what Jenner said, it was.
"Let's give him the soul of a female," he imagined God saying at the moment of his birth. “Maybe this is my cause in life," he went on to say. "This is why God put me on this earth; to deal with this issue.”
Rough estimates are that approximately 700,000 people in the U.S. are transgender, meaning that they no longer identify with their birth gender and may be anatomically and biologically transitioning away from it. We can now count Bruce Jenner among this group, which also includes well known people such as Chaz Bono, whose famous parents are Cher and the lateSonny Bono, and Laverne Cox, star of Netflix’s hit series "Orange Is The New Black."
Jenner has made a complicated conversation even more so because he refused to make it easy for conservative church folks. Like it or not, Jenner said he is a conservative and a Christian, and he appears to believe that neither conflicts with his being transgender.
The fact that many in the church don’t and won’t agree is beside the point. Perhaps unintentionally, Jenner has issued achallenge to people of faith across the nation: I may not fit your image of a believer, but I am one. So what are you going to do with me?
So what should the church do with transgenders such as Bruce Jenner? Should they be barred from attendance? Or should they be allowed to attend but not allowed to join? Should they be allowed to join, but not hold positions of leadership? Or should transgenders be as welcome at church as any other member, without restrictions or conditions?
Some churches have already answered these questions. While the Metropolitan Community Church appears to be the only denomination in the U.S. that is committed to being welcoming, various church networks within many of the major denominations identify as welcoming and affirming to transgenders as well as lesbians and gays.
Jenner was known to attend a non-denominational church in southern California. If he still does, I wonder if he will still be welcomed there now that he has confirmed his transition?
I believe he should be. For most of my life, this has been a very conditional proposition: You are welcome to join us as long as you believe and live as we do. What I now wonder is how we expect people to do that if we don’t welcome them unconditionally with open arms. I’m not talking about people who represent a physical danger to a church member, but those like Jenner whose identity or lifestyle doesn’t mesh with traditional Christian practices.
Agree or not, Bruce Jenner knows who he is. As Christians, do we know who we are as it relates to Jenner and other Christian transgenders? And, is who we are who we should be?
Are we entering an era of extraordinary darkness? by Shane RaynorIf current events are any indication, it’s about to get a lot more difficult to be a half-committed Christian.
Religious persecution is on the rise in many parts of the world, especially persecution of Jews and Christians. Millennia-old morality is being challenged and overturned, in some cases even within institutions of Christendom. And there’s also the disturbing trend of free societies moving toward the suppression of free speech, whether through laws or through intimidation by individuals, groups and corporations.
The apocalyptic movies of my youth where people were hunted down, arrested and killed because of their religious views once seem far-fetched. Now, not so much.
Whether all this is cyclical or a sign that humanity has entered a period of unusual darkness is something we may only be able to see with clarity years from now when we look back on everything.
In the meantime, I believe Christians should focus on how we can influence outcomes and we should do everything we can to bring in God’s kingdom now.
We can start by asking ourselves these questions:
What can I do to hear God better? If the church is preparing to face a season of trials, staying tuned in to God is going to be paramount. However, there’s no formula for hearing God, and based on my experience, God rarely speaks the same way twice in a row! So what can we do?
For many of us, a good start is reading more Scripture. I don’t mean simply checking off the readings in a one-year Bible or on YouVersion, but praying through Scripture passages and meditating over them. Ask God to speak to you. I’ve found that doing this regularly is an effective way to “prime the pump” if you’re trying to hear God’s voice.
But the key is usually quality, not quantity. Some of the bestBible studies I’ve ever had were with a single verse of Scripture. If you get caught up with knocking out chapters on a reading list, you may be in danger of reading right over what God wants to say to you.
Does everything I’m doing have a meaningful purpose? Like money, if our time isn’t budgeted, it tends to get away from us without us knowing where it went. Should everything we do be a “religious” activity? Not at all. But even our down time should be intentional.
I like watching baseball, for example. It relaxes me and it gets my brain out of news and analysis mode. I find that it recharges me and keeps me sharp, and helps me hit the reset button so that when I go back into “serious mode,” I’m at my best. It’s down time that I've planned and it has a purpose.
Whether it’s recreation time, prayer time, family time, meal time, volunteer time, work time or study time, figure out what’s important for you to keep (or drop!) and experiment to find the right balance.
The bottom line is, we all have a finite amount of time to impact eternity. How should we be spending it so we can have the maximum positive effect?
Who should I be praying for? It’s my conviction that the most effective prayers are prayers that are specific. And from my experience, I pray most intensely for the people I’m closest to. So I intentionally keep my prayer list short. Praying for fewer people allows me to spend more time praying for each person individually, and it keeps me disciplined. Certainly I’m open to the Holy Spirit guiding me to pray for someone who pops into my mind out of the blue. But I can’t pray for everyone by name, and that’s OK. If prayer really does change the course of history, then I should be praying for those I'm called to pray for with a laser focus. And I should be expecting God to answer.
How can I up my spiritual game? We like to think that society has become much more civilized in recent years, but a glance at the news headlines tells us otherwise. Not only have we notlearned the lessons of history, many of us have also underestimated the power of evil, both human and diabolical. Christians all over the world are facing significant spiritual opposition, and unless we understand this, we’re likely to remain unprepared for it. Praying, fasting, reading and studying Scripture and sharing Communion with other believers are a few ways that we can stay sharp and keep our spiritual edge during times of moral ambiguity when wrong seems right and down becomes up.
Every month, it seems there’s another survey published declaring an increase in the number of people leaving the church or claiming no faith at all. While this isn’t good news, the move toward a so-called post-Christian culture does offer an opportunity for a more intense, authentic Christian faith. When a belief system is no longer the cultural norm, odds are those who subscribe to it are going to be the real deal.
All this is a reminder that beliefs matter and the stakes are high. Time will tell whether we’re entering an unusually dark time in human history. But if we are, we can know we’ve been put here for such a time and be assured that God has equipped us to persevere.
Baltimore riots and the vocation for order
By Mark Tooley
In fact, you have dotted every i you can think of and crossed every t.
And then the unthinkable happens: People start pushing back. The very people who seemed to support it before are now raising objections.
Now what?
Caught unaware, too many church leaders get taken out at this stage of the game. But before you get discouraged and throw in the towel, I want to share with you four pushback paradoxes that will help you gather momentum and move the vision forward.
A few years back, I was mentoring a lay leader who was experiencing some push back in his congregation. He’d done just the kind of homework I mentioned. Which made him all the more defensive when the objections started. It got to the point where every time someone raised an objection, he saw it as an attack. The more attacked he felt, the more he closed himself off and hunkered down. The more he hunkered down, the more shut out and shut down they felt. It was quickly turning into a no-win situation.
Here are the four pushback paradoxes that helped him rebound with grace. I believe they can help you too.
1. Take pushback as a sign of interest. You’re introducing something new that is catching people’s attention. That’s a good thing. Because it’s likely to introduce new dynamics and change up the way things are going, people want to have their ideas, concerns or refinements included in it. Take their objections as a sign of interest. This shift in your perspective will set the stage for a more productive process.
2. Don’t shoot from the hip. At this point in the game, people will want some details. Don’t shoot from the hip. Take time to organize your thoughts. The pushback may simply be a sign that they don’t understand some key details or how it will all come together. Pause, organize your message and communicate, communicate, communicate.
3. How receptive are you? Check to see if you are criticizing or challenging every new idea or tweak suggested. If you are, take a deep breath, close your mouth, open your heart and listen. Many people will want to have their fingerprints on a major change in the church. Suggestions and objections actually help them buy in to your vision.
4. Be open to exchanging perspectives. Belief in the vision is commendable. But check to see if you are simply presenting your vision as a done deal or if you are open to give and take. Even if you don’t ultimately incorporate their ideas, being heard has a calming effect. It reduces anxiety, buoys morale and lets people know they matter.
The truth is, pushback is necessary for buy-in. Without pushback, you can’t be sure that people have had a chance to fully consider and think through the new direction God iscalling you to. Better to have it surface now than simmer just below the surface.
If you listen closely, your people will tell you what’s missing to make the vision a new and shining reality. Remember: Take time at this stage of the game to organize your thoughts, communicate with clarity, be receptive to what people have to say and to do some give and take. This will strengthen your vision and make implementation that much easier.
You’ve heard it said, “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” (Proverbs 29:18.) Now consider this: Without pushback and buy-in, the leader will perish … because they’ll be in it all by themselves.
Rebekah blogs at RebekahSimonPeter.com. If you want to dive deeper into the ideas presented here, check out Rebekah'sprogram Creating a Culture of Renewal.
"I've always been confused with my gender identity," Jenner told ABC’s Diane Sawyer. "Are you a woman?" she asked. "Yes, for all intents and purposes, I am a woman ... That female side is part of me ... And that's very hard for Bruce Jenner to say. Because why? I don't want to disappoint people."
Throughout the two-hour special, images of the gold medalist from the 1976 Olympics were juxtaposed with Jenner’s current softer, decidedly more feminine appearance. It looked like two different people — and based on what Jenner said, it was.
"Let's give him the soul of a female," he imagined God saying at the moment of his birth. “Maybe this is my cause in life," he went on to say. "This is why God put me on this earth; to deal with this issue.”
Rough estimates are that approximately 700,000 people in the U.S. are transgender, meaning that they no longer identify with their birth gender and may be anatomically and biologically transitioning away from it. We can now count Bruce Jenner among this group, which also includes well known people such as Chaz Bono, whose famous parents are Cher and the lateSonny Bono, and Laverne Cox, star of Netflix’s hit series "Orange Is The New Black."
Jenner has made a complicated conversation even more so because he refused to make it easy for conservative church folks. Like it or not, Jenner said he is a conservative and a Christian, and he appears to believe that neither conflicts with his being transgender.
The fact that many in the church don’t and won’t agree is beside the point. Perhaps unintentionally, Jenner has issued achallenge to people of faith across the nation: I may not fit your image of a believer, but I am one. So what are you going to do with me?
So what should the church do with transgenders such as Bruce Jenner? Should they be barred from attendance? Or should they be allowed to attend but not allowed to join? Should they be allowed to join, but not hold positions of leadership? Or should transgenders be as welcome at church as any other member, without restrictions or conditions?
Some churches have already answered these questions. While the Metropolitan Community Church appears to be the only denomination in the U.S. that is committed to being welcoming, various church networks within many of the major denominations identify as welcoming and affirming to transgenders as well as lesbians and gays.
Jenner was known to attend a non-denominational church in southern California. If he still does, I wonder if he will still be welcomed there now that he has confirmed his transition?
I believe he should be. For most of my life, this has been a very conditional proposition: You are welcome to join us as long as you believe and live as we do. What I now wonder is how we expect people to do that if we don’t welcome them unconditionally with open arms. I’m not talking about people who represent a physical danger to a church member, but those like Jenner whose identity or lifestyle doesn’t mesh with traditional Christian practices.
Agree or not, Bruce Jenner knows who he is. As Christians, do we know who we are as it relates to Jenner and other Christian transgenders? And, is who we are who we should be?
Religious persecution is on the rise in many parts of the world, especially persecution of Jews and Christians. Millennia-old morality is being challenged and overturned, in some cases even within institutions of Christendom. And there’s also the disturbing trend of free societies moving toward the suppression of free speech, whether through laws or through intimidation by individuals, groups and corporations.
The apocalyptic movies of my youth where people were hunted down, arrested and killed because of their religious views once seem far-fetched. Now, not so much.
Whether all this is cyclical or a sign that humanity has entered a period of unusual darkness is something we may only be able to see with clarity years from now when we look back on everything.
In the meantime, I believe Christians should focus on how we can influence outcomes and we should do everything we can to bring in God’s kingdom now.
We can start by asking ourselves these questions:
What can I do to hear God better? If the church is preparing to face a season of trials, staying tuned in to God is going to be paramount. However, there’s no formula for hearing God, and based on my experience, God rarely speaks the same way twice in a row! So what can we do?
For many of us, a good start is reading more Scripture. I don’t mean simply checking off the readings in a one-year Bible or on YouVersion, but praying through Scripture passages and meditating over them. Ask God to speak to you. I’ve found that doing this regularly is an effective way to “prime the pump” if you’re trying to hear God’s voice.
But the key is usually quality, not quantity. Some of the bestBible studies I’ve ever had were with a single verse of Scripture. If you get caught up with knocking out chapters on a reading list, you may be in danger of reading right over what God wants to say to you.
Does everything I’m doing have a meaningful purpose? Like money, if our time isn’t budgeted, it tends to get away from us without us knowing where it went. Should everything we do be a “religious” activity? Not at all. But even our down time should be intentional.
I like watching baseball, for example. It relaxes me and it gets my brain out of news and analysis mode. I find that it recharges me and keeps me sharp, and helps me hit the reset button so that when I go back into “serious mode,” I’m at my best. It’s down time that I've planned and it has a purpose.
Whether it’s recreation time, prayer time, family time, meal time, volunteer time, work time or study time, figure out what’s important for you to keep (or drop!) and experiment to find the right balance.
The bottom line is, we all have a finite amount of time to impact eternity. How should we be spending it so we can have the maximum positive effect?
Who should I be praying for? It’s my conviction that the most effective prayers are prayers that are specific. And from my experience, I pray most intensely for the people I’m closest to. So I intentionally keep my prayer list short. Praying for fewer people allows me to spend more time praying for each person individually, and it keeps me disciplined. Certainly I’m open to the Holy Spirit guiding me to pray for someone who pops into my mind out of the blue. But I can’t pray for everyone by name, and that’s OK. If prayer really does change the course of history, then I should be praying for those I'm called to pray for with a laser focus. And I should be expecting God to answer.
How can I up my spiritual game? We like to think that society has become much more civilized in recent years, but a glance at the news headlines tells us otherwise. Not only have we notlearned the lessons of history, many of us have also underestimated the power of evil, both human and diabolical. Christians all over the world are facing significant spiritual opposition, and unless we understand this, we’re likely to remain unprepared for it. Praying, fasting, reading and studying Scripture and sharing Communion with other believers are a few ways that we can stay sharp and keep our spiritual edge during times of moral ambiguity when wrong seems right and down becomes up.
Every month, it seems there’s another survey published declaring an increase in the number of people leaving the church or claiming no faith at all. While this isn’t good news, the move toward a so-called post-Christian culture does offer an opportunity for a more intense, authentic Christian faith. When a belief system is no longer the cultural norm, odds are those who subscribe to it are going to be the real deal.
All this is a reminder that beliefs matter and the stakes are high. Time will tell whether we’re entering an unusually dark time in human history. But if we are, we can know we’ve been put here for such a time and be assured that God has equipped us to persevere.
By Mark Tooley
The Baltimore riots reminded me of a passage I read last eve from Richard Norton Smith’s excellent new Nelson Rockefeller biography about the 1971 Attica prison riot.
About 1,000 prisoners took over the New York prison, taking 42 security guard hostages, threatening their execution. An immediate effort by security forces to retake the prison was pressed only halfheartedly, ultimately withdrawing into a siege. The inmates demanded and received on site representation by Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, ACLU radical lawyer William Kuenstler and New York Times journalist Tom Wicker.
Predictably, Farrakhan and Kuenstler inflamed the crisis, with the latter demanding the prisoners be transferred to “non-imperialist” countries. Negotiations continued for days to no good effect, and finally Governor Rockefeller, falsely informed that hostages were being mutilated, ordered recapture of the prison. 43 were killed, including 10 hostages, most of them mistakenly by security bullets.
Conditions in the prison were horrid but there were plans for improvement by a well-intentioned state prisons commissioner. Yet his failing to retake the prison immediately, instead pursuing fruitless negotiation, again with good intent, had disastrous consequences. Aggression, riot and disorder, if not quickly countered, always fester and grow in confidence, making their defeat all the more problematic and likely even more violent.
Apparently the Baltimore rioters were not met from the start with decisive force, so unsurprisingly they grew. Some religious activists on Twitter are tut-tutting the violence as the understandable consequence of police misconduct. Some sound like clergy versions of Leonard Bernstein’s infamous “radical chic.” But rioters and looters are not typically concerned social activists raging for justice. Likelier they are hooligans exploiting opportunity. If successful, they burn, bash and steal with even greater fury.
John Wesley referred to 18th century English mobs as “beasts,” with demonic and murderous personalities of their own. Such is human nature, to which we are all prone. Wesley insisted, in syncwith nearly all Christian teaching from the start, that the state’s primary purpose is to restrain violent evil with its own force, to uphold public order, without which there can be no social justice.
Riots rarely occur in neighborhoods of the rich. Instead, they torment the poor, destroying small businesses thereafter prone to leave, and destroy the property of those who already have little. Allowing rioters “space” may sound kind, or wise, but it’s nearly always disastrous, and grossly irresponsible, amplifying the fire, and ensuring the largely lower income neighborhoods are set back even further. Meanwhile, the rich are merely discomfited in their television viewing.
Some Baltimore clergy reportedly have marched in the streets to urge calm, which is admirable. But they and others should also demand in the future that in defense of public order for all, especially the poor, the police will act decisively from the very start against mob violence. To do otherwise is a moral and spiritual failure of the state’s divinely ordained purpose in our fallen world.
About 1,000 prisoners took over the New York prison, taking 42 security guard hostages, threatening their execution. An immediate effort by security forces to retake the prison was pressed only halfheartedly, ultimately withdrawing into a siege. The inmates demanded and received on site representation by Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, ACLU radical lawyer William Kuenstler and New York Times journalist Tom Wicker.
Predictably, Farrakhan and Kuenstler inflamed the crisis, with the latter demanding the prisoners be transferred to “non-imperialist” countries. Negotiations continued for days to no good effect, and finally Governor Rockefeller, falsely informed that hostages were being mutilated, ordered recapture of the prison. 43 were killed, including 10 hostages, most of them mistakenly by security bullets.
Conditions in the prison were horrid but there were plans for improvement by a well-intentioned state prisons commissioner. Yet his failing to retake the prison immediately, instead pursuing fruitless negotiation, again with good intent, had disastrous consequences. Aggression, riot and disorder, if not quickly countered, always fester and grow in confidence, making their defeat all the more problematic and likely even more violent.
Apparently the Baltimore rioters were not met from the start with decisive force, so unsurprisingly they grew. Some religious activists on Twitter are tut-tutting the violence as the understandable consequence of police misconduct. Some sound like clergy versions of Leonard Bernstein’s infamous “radical chic.” But rioters and looters are not typically concerned social activists raging for justice. Likelier they are hooligans exploiting opportunity. If successful, they burn, bash and steal with even greater fury.
John Wesley referred to 18th century English mobs as “beasts,” with demonic and murderous personalities of their own. Such is human nature, to which we are all prone. Wesley insisted, in syncwith nearly all Christian teaching from the start, that the state’s primary purpose is to restrain violent evil with its own force, to uphold public order, without which there can be no social justice.
Riots rarely occur in neighborhoods of the rich. Instead, they torment the poor, destroying small businesses thereafter prone to leave, and destroy the property of those who already have little. Allowing rioters “space” may sound kind, or wise, but it’s nearly always disastrous, and grossly irresponsible, amplifying the fire, and ensuring the largely lower income neighborhoods are set back even further. Meanwhile, the rich are merely discomfited in their television viewing.
Some Baltimore clergy reportedly have marched in the streets to urge calm, which is admirable. But they and others should also demand in the future that in defense of public order for all, especially the poor, the police will act decisively from the very start against mob violence. To do otherwise is a moral and spiritual failure of the state’s divinely ordained purpose in our fallen world.
By Cameron Merrill"You know what Francis said to me when he proposed? I remember his exact words. He said, 'Claire, if all you want is happiness, say no. I'm not gonna give you a couple of kids and count the days until retirement. I promise you freedom from that. I promise you'll never be bored.'"
With these words we are initiated into the dark and deformed reality at the center of the Netflix series "House of Cards." Remembering her husband’s proposal to her, Claire Underwood wields these words anew against a former bodyguard who admits his love for her as he lies dying of cancer.
By this time, with the third season’s release on the streaming site, it has become apparent that this friendship is the story’s arc. The audience members find themselves drawn into the life of Francis and Claire, as the viewer finds herself rooting for these two characters even as she feels a bit sullied along the way. The Underwoods’ story has all the terrible beauty of a disaster just before it happens, and that beauty is gathered up in their friendship. Their friendship and marriage is one arranged toward those greater heights of political power, a carefully constructed means by which they might become world-makers and shakers. Claire’s quote, and the effect that its remembrance has on her, indicates what constitutes just such a friendship.
Francis describes their relationship as one of freedom: the freedom from the boredom of a ‘normal’ life, the freedom from mediocrity and the middle ground, the freedom to become truly self-made and self-determined. Perhaps the dark beauty that finds so many marathoning episode after episode comes in how well these two epitomize the darkest edges of desire we find in ourselves as we speak of things like “freedom,” “the pursuit of happiness” and “self-determination.” Their friendship is solely a means to that end of greatest possible freedom.
As the show has progressed, however, the title’s appropriateness becomes more apparent. This friendship of freedom is building a house of cards around these two, and each episode leaves us wondering if this will be the one where it all comes tumbling down (even as we know there are at least four more episodes left in our marathon). Indeed, for all our fascination with the amorality presented in their relationship, we can also sense its demonic actuality.
Their friendship is a source of bondage by which these two figures are ensnared in an increasingly faster descent toward annihilation. If we are honest, those who are watching the show are still watching at this point because we want to see the disaster actually happen. We want to see the surely catastrophic eschatological end of this friendship in all of its terrible glory.
This vision of friendship, while certainly exaggerated, nonetheless has great force in the public sphere. So often friendship is viewed with a utilitarian bent — “what will our friendship gain me?” Through workplace competition or neighborhood maneuvering, we find ourselves caught in systems that make friendship a means toward the freedom that Francis and Claire imagine, albeit on somewhat different scales.
Friendships are made and ended because the usefulness ends, or because the friendship becomes a barrier to the perceived telos of a “happy” life. Oftentimes friendships are composed of intrigue, backbiting, social maneuvering and advantageousness that lead toward bondage no less extreme than that of the Underwoods.
A friend with whom I share both a love for the church and for "House of Cards" recently noted that we have another Francis and Clare who can offer an alternative vision of friendship. St. Francis of Assisi and his relationship with St. Clare of Assisi imagines a friendship between members of different sexes that wonderfully counters the Underwoods’ demonic vision. These saints’ friendship offers a space of mutuality and benevolence, where both want the other to flourish and be happy. Their friendship stands within the church’s story as one of the best places to see the friendship made possible by Christ and his gospel. Indeed, the relationship between Francis and Claire becomes a source of illumination on the sanctifying work of love, spoken of by Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas and so many others others.
At least two significant differences worth noting exist between these saints and the Underwoods. Unlike the "House of Cards" stars, Francis and Clare have a friendship sustained by a liturgical life that includes rhythms of confession, repentance and forgiveness. When fault lines occur, such rhythms make it possible for truth to be spoken in such a way that reconciliation and forgiveness are truly possible. Any harm done by one to the other can be named and repaired, rather than becoming another link in the chains binding them together.
The friendship between Francis and Clare is also a profoundlymissional relationship. While the partnership between the Underwoods serves to promote their own self-interests, Francis and Clare share in a rapport that directs each toward the greater wholeness of the Lord’s kingdom. Their ends define these friendships. One seeks the happiness found in the Beatitudes’ blessings and the obedience toward holiness in Christ, while the other seeks only after the gratification of personal desire, ambition and individual choice.
We would do well to look to Francis and Clare to see how friendship might indeed be a school of love and not death. With them, we see something of how the Gospel calls us into relationship with the other, with the stranger who becomes brother or sister in Christ, with the outsider who becomes companion in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup. With Francis and Clare, we see how liturgical rhythms of confession and repentance can sustain a truth-telling that makes our friendships places where mutual growth in holiness is in fact possible.
Sharing in their “simple” intention to live life according to the Gospel, Francis and Clare moved beyond expected boundaries and norms to develop a relationship that has sustained the church itself. Their friendship is devoid of sentimentality, superficiality or the destructive utility that we find with the Underwoods. Instead, it is sustained by the Spirit’s power that makes it possible for them, and for us, to befriend the poor as Christ himself has befriended us.
By Laura Turner / Religion News Service
SAN FRANCISCO (RNS) The first thing I had to do is enter my favorite Bible verse.
I debated for a while, thinking I could go the easy route and say it was John 3:16 or Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,”) but I was feeling cheeky so I entered Ecclesiastes 1:2 (“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'”).
Then I entered my denomination — Protestant — and said that I’m looking for men. I allowed it to integrate with my Facebookaccount and I was in.
Welcome to Collide, a new app being billed as “Tinder for Christians.” It is one of many in the dubious tradition of (fill-in-the-blank) for Christians (Netflix, yoga, clothes), and as I went through the motions of joining, I wondered what good this was going to do, what perceived need it was filling.
The idea behind the wildly popular Tinder app is to go on dateswith your match, of course, but it’s also to make split-second judgments based on your level of physical attraction to the person on the screen in front of you — and then maybe go have sex with them.
What I know of Christian culture — the kind of evangelical subculture that would spawn something like this, at least — would be pretty well set against the idea of a Christian Tinder.
I was beginning to suspect that this app was not, in fact, made by actual evangelical Christians. So I kept digging. Here, my expanded list of clues:
I asked the founders — Steven Gaan, Nelson Wang, and Steven Rueter — to expand on their religious backgrounds, and they confirmed what I thought. Between the three of them, one is agnostic, one is not religious, and one believes “in God but doesn’t follow a specific religion.”
“The reason we made the dating app is because we’ve always been focused on one goal: helping people make deep and meaningful relationships with others,” Wang said. “And we felt the Christian community didn’t have a good way to do this with mobile apps, so we wanted to solve that problem.”
I haven’t gotten any matches yet, and I like to think that’s more because my profile picture features me in a wedding dress than because it also features me smoking and holding a flask, but I’m not sure. It’s also possible that the dearth of new users — I’d estimate there were 20-25 men when I flipped through, total — has something to do with that.
In the meantime, remember that appearances — and apps — can be deceiving.
In Boston, engaging both sides of the church's debate on gays
By Jonathan Merritt / Religion News Service
I debated for a while, thinking I could go the easy route and say it was John 3:16 or Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,”) but I was feeling cheeky so I entered Ecclesiastes 1:2 (“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'”).
Then I entered my denomination — Protestant — and said that I’m looking for men. I allowed it to integrate with my Facebookaccount and I was in.
Welcome to Collide, a new app being billed as “Tinder for Christians.” It is one of many in the dubious tradition of (fill-in-the-blank) for Christians (Netflix, yoga, clothes), and as I went through the motions of joining, I wondered what good this was going to do, what perceived need it was filling.
The idea behind the wildly popular Tinder app is to go on dateswith your match, of course, but it’s also to make split-second judgments based on your level of physical attraction to the person on the screen in front of you — and then maybe go have sex with them.
What I know of Christian culture — the kind of evangelical subculture that would spawn something like this, at least — would be pretty well set against the idea of a Christian Tinder.
I was beginning to suspect that this app was not, in fact, made by actual evangelical Christians. So I kept digging. Here, my expanded list of clues:
- There was no place to enter my gender. That was sort of strange, because the evangelical subculture is not exactly known for being progressive about gender identity. Especially when it comes to dating, it’s the kind of thing that would be important for people to identify up front.
- Entering your favorite Bible verse as the one identifying factor that shows up on your profile (besides your picture) seems like exactly the kind of thing a non-Christian would think a Christian would do. Sure, Christians have favoriteBible verses, but it’s not a thing we talk about in casual conversation. “So I’m Laura, I’m a writer, and my favorite verse is Hebrews 8:1.” Maybe some people do this, but in all my years in the evangelical subculture, I’ve rarely ever seen someone mention a favorite Bible verse as a conversation starter.
- The denomination list was, though, the real clincher for me. Here are the choices: Christian, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Catholic, Church of God, Church of the Nazarene, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalian, Evangelical, Jehovah’s Witness, Lutheran, Methodist, Mormon, Orthodox (Eastern), Presbyterian, Protestant, Pentecostal, Quaker, Seventh-Day Adventist. I could write a dissertation on why these choices would be strange for an evangelical, but we can focus on the inclusion of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, who most evangelicals categorically deny are Christians. Then there’s the addition of “evangelical” and “Protestant” as denominations, both of which are larger organizing categories and nothing else. “Episcopalian,” “Methodist,” and even “Quaker” would all fall under the “Protestant” category.
- The site’s two blog posts don’t mention God at all.
- Finally, there was the payment scale. If I wanted to find out the denomination of a person I was interested in, I would have to shell out some cash. Same if I wanted to identify mutual friends. This is a very Silicon Valley way tocreate an app, but not a Christian way. That might sound weird, but I can guarantee you that if this app were created by people who identified as evangelical Christians, they would have come up with a different kind of pay scale. Christians want to avoid the appearance of loving money — whatever the reality — so they would have done an upfront payment, like eHarmony, or something else.
I asked the founders — Steven Gaan, Nelson Wang, and Steven Rueter — to expand on their religious backgrounds, and they confirmed what I thought. Between the three of them, one is agnostic, one is not religious, and one believes “in God but doesn’t follow a specific religion.”
“The reason we made the dating app is because we’ve always been focused on one goal: helping people make deep and meaningful relationships with others,” Wang said. “And we felt the Christian community didn’t have a good way to do this with mobile apps, so we wanted to solve that problem.”
I haven’t gotten any matches yet, and I like to think that’s more because my profile picture features me in a wedding dress than because it also features me smoking and holding a flask, but I’m not sure. It’s also possible that the dearth of new users — I’d estimate there were 20-25 men when I flipped through, total — has something to do with that.
In the meantime, remember that appearances — and apps — can be deceiving.
By Jonathan Merritt / Religion News Service
BOSTON (RNS) Only a few dozen worshippers attend Boston’s Tremont Temple Baptist Church on a typical Sunday, but the historic church was once so prominent that legendary preacher Dwight L. Moody called it “America’s pulpit.”
This week, Tremont’s massive auditorium played host to influence once again when 1,300 Christian leaders gathered for the Q conference to discuss the most pressing issues facing their faith. There was no official theme, but one strand wove its way through multiple presentations and conversations: America’s — and many Christians’ — debate over sexuality.
While at least three other Christian conferences during the past year focused on same-sex debates, this is the only one to bring together both pro-gay speakers and those who oppose gaymarriage and same-sex relationships.
“The aim of Q is to create space for learning and conversation, and we think the best way to do that is exposure,” said Q founder Gabe Lyons. “These are conversations that most of America is having, and they are not going away.”
Which is not to say Lyons’ decision was without controversy.
Eric Teetsel, executive director of the Manhattan Declaration project that aims to rally resistance to same-sex marriage, urged Lyons to rescind his invitations to pro-gay panelists, whom he called false prophets professing to be Christians. Owen Strachan, president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, echoed the sentiment and tweeted that he was “shocked that @QIdeas features pro-‘gay-Christianity’ speakers.”
Lyons did not respond publicly to the criticism, but said such positions were rooted in fear.
“Some people are afraid that if those who are theologically progressive are invited, it suggests they hold an equally valid idea,” Lyons said. “We still believe the historic view of sexuality is true, but we are also confident that the trueness of that view can carry its own weight.”
By committing to this sort of dialogue, the Q conference is a microcosm of the larger debate on same-sex issues happening around many kitchen tables in Christian America. These conversations have moved beyond outmoded questions such as “Is homosexuality a choice?” and “Can gay people be made straight through prayer and counseling?” and instead wrestle with biblical interpretation and questions of how LGBT people of faith should live.
But more importantly, the shift in this year’s Q conference reflects the reality that those conversations do not occur in echo chambers of monologue, isolated from those who disagree. They happen between gay and straight people, between traditionalists and progressives, between young and old. Some are maintaining their long-held views, others have changed their minds, and still others aren’t really sure what they believe.
Richard Stearns, president of the humanitarian group World Vision U.S., discussed his organization’s controversial decision to hire people in same-sex relationships and the agency’s abrupt reversal. “World Vision never changed our view of biblical marriages,” he said, but was merely trying to find common ground on a divisive issue.
Even when the speakers weren’t discussing sexuality, they seemed to be discussing sexuality. Andrew Sullivan, a gay writer who formerly blogged at “The Dish,” spoke on how intellectual diversity makes us better people. Gordon College President Michael Lindsay, who sparked controversy when he reaffirmed his school’s conservative stance on homosexuality, delivered a talk titled, “Do We Have to Agree?”
A pre-conference survey found that almost half of those in attendance were church leaders, and 53 percent heldgraduate degrees. Thirty-one percent self-identified as “conservative,” 8 percent as “liberal,” and 59 percent as either “independent” or “moderate.”
Tension rose during two discussions moderated by Lyons that pitted one side against the other. One explored whether the church’s historical teaching on sexuality was reliable. For this, California pastor Dan Kimball argued that pro-gay Christians were elevating their personal experiences with LGBT friends and family over the clear teaching of Scripture.
On the other side, David Gushee, a prominent evangelical ethicist who recently announced he had changed his mind to become LGBT-affirming, countered that traditional interpretations of relevant passages of Scripture were flawed and amounted to a “toxic body of tradition that bears bad fruit.”
Another panel on “The Church’s Gay Dilemma” featured two Christians who identify as LGBT. Julie Rodgers, a leader among the increasingly visible movement of celibate gay Christians, argued from the right, and Matthew Vines, author of “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships,” took the opposing side.
While they differed on whether the Bible allows for committed same-sex relationships, they both emphasized the need for Christians to make amends for their historically poor treatment of LGBT persons. Vines said straight people should acknowledge their “history of oppression,” and Rodgers said Christians should “repent of our treatment of gay and lesbian people.”
And on that point, the divided crowd was united, erupting in multiple rounds of applause.
Lyons, whose 2007 best-selling book “unChristian” included research indicating that Christians were perceived as “too political” and “anti-gay,” said he personally believes the Bible prohibits homosexual activity. At Stanford University in 2013, he debated the matter with openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson.
Lyons said his debate with Robinson taught him about the importance of listening to those on the other side, and inspired his decision to include a range of voices at the Boston conference.
The conversations at Q — both onstage and off — do not mirror the raging debates common on cable news networks, but they more closely resemble the national conversation as it occurs in many homes, workplaces, and churches. And in this way, it may be a model for other Christian organizations who are seeking to engage the same-sex debate.
As Lyons said from the same stage where Frederick Douglass first read the Emancipation Proclamation, “What starts in Boston tends to work its way around the country.”
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act
By Mike Poteet
A significant backlashThis week, Tremont’s massive auditorium played host to influence once again when 1,300 Christian leaders gathered for the Q conference to discuss the most pressing issues facing their faith. There was no official theme, but one strand wove its way through multiple presentations and conversations: America’s — and many Christians’ — debate over sexuality.
While at least three other Christian conferences during the past year focused on same-sex debates, this is the only one to bring together both pro-gay speakers and those who oppose gaymarriage and same-sex relationships.
“The aim of Q is to create space for learning and conversation, and we think the best way to do that is exposure,” said Q founder Gabe Lyons. “These are conversations that most of America is having, and they are not going away.”
Which is not to say Lyons’ decision was without controversy.
Eric Teetsel, executive director of the Manhattan Declaration project that aims to rally resistance to same-sex marriage, urged Lyons to rescind his invitations to pro-gay panelists, whom he called false prophets professing to be Christians. Owen Strachan, president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, echoed the sentiment and tweeted that he was “shocked that @QIdeas features pro-‘gay-Christianity’ speakers.”
Lyons did not respond publicly to the criticism, but said such positions were rooted in fear.
“Some people are afraid that if those who are theologically progressive are invited, it suggests they hold an equally valid idea,” Lyons said. “We still believe the historic view of sexuality is true, but we are also confident that the trueness of that view can carry its own weight.”
By committing to this sort of dialogue, the Q conference is a microcosm of the larger debate on same-sex issues happening around many kitchen tables in Christian America. These conversations have moved beyond outmoded questions such as “Is homosexuality a choice?” and “Can gay people be made straight through prayer and counseling?” and instead wrestle with biblical interpretation and questions of how LGBT people of faith should live.
But more importantly, the shift in this year’s Q conference reflects the reality that those conversations do not occur in echo chambers of monologue, isolated from those who disagree. They happen between gay and straight people, between traditionalists and progressives, between young and old. Some are maintaining their long-held views, others have changed their minds, and still others aren’t really sure what they believe.
Richard Stearns, president of the humanitarian group World Vision U.S., discussed his organization’s controversial decision to hire people in same-sex relationships and the agency’s abrupt reversal. “World Vision never changed our view of biblical marriages,” he said, but was merely trying to find common ground on a divisive issue.
Even when the speakers weren’t discussing sexuality, they seemed to be discussing sexuality. Andrew Sullivan, a gay writer who formerly blogged at “The Dish,” spoke on how intellectual diversity makes us better people. Gordon College President Michael Lindsay, who sparked controversy when he reaffirmed his school’s conservative stance on homosexuality, delivered a talk titled, “Do We Have to Agree?”
A pre-conference survey found that almost half of those in attendance were church leaders, and 53 percent heldgraduate degrees. Thirty-one percent self-identified as “conservative,” 8 percent as “liberal,” and 59 percent as either “independent” or “moderate.”
Tension rose during two discussions moderated by Lyons that pitted one side against the other. One explored whether the church’s historical teaching on sexuality was reliable. For this, California pastor Dan Kimball argued that pro-gay Christians were elevating their personal experiences with LGBT friends and family over the clear teaching of Scripture.
On the other side, David Gushee, a prominent evangelical ethicist who recently announced he had changed his mind to become LGBT-affirming, countered that traditional interpretations of relevant passages of Scripture were flawed and amounted to a “toxic body of tradition that bears bad fruit.”
Another panel on “The Church’s Gay Dilemma” featured two Christians who identify as LGBT. Julie Rodgers, a leader among the increasingly visible movement of celibate gay Christians, argued from the right, and Matthew Vines, author of “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships,” took the opposing side.
While they differed on whether the Bible allows for committed same-sex relationships, they both emphasized the need for Christians to make amends for their historically poor treatment of LGBT persons. Vines said straight people should acknowledge their “history of oppression,” and Rodgers said Christians should “repent of our treatment of gay and lesbian people.”
And on that point, the divided crowd was united, erupting in multiple rounds of applause.
Lyons, whose 2007 best-selling book “unChristian” included research indicating that Christians were perceived as “too political” and “anti-gay,” said he personally believes the Bible prohibits homosexual activity. At Stanford University in 2013, he debated the matter with openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson.
Lyons said his debate with Robinson taught him about the importance of listening to those on the other side, and inspired his decision to include a range of voices at the Boston conference.
The conversations at Q — both onstage and off — do not mirror the raging debates common on cable news networks, but they more closely resemble the national conversation as it occurs in many homes, workplaces, and churches. And in this way, it may be a model for other Christian organizations who are seeking to engage the same-sex debate.
As Lyons said from the same stage where Frederick Douglass first read the Emancipation Proclamation, “What starts in Boston tends to work its way around the country.”
By Mike PoteetOn March 26, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana signed into law Senate Bill 101, a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). “With the passage of this legislation,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial, “Indiana will continue to be a place that respects the beliefs of every person in our state.”
The right to exercise one’s religion freely is enshrined in the Constitution’s First Amendment. A state law reaffirming that principle might seem uncontroversial, but Indiana’s RFRA provoked significant backlash. The CEOs of such major corporations as Angie’s List, Apple, Eli Lilly and Yelp expressed opposition. The NCAA, on the eve of college basketball’s Final Four championship in Indianapolis, announced it would “closely examine the implications of this bill” when considering holding future events in the state. GenCon, a video game convention that attracts tens of thousands of visitors to Indiana and generates over $50 million annually, threatened to seek another venue. Some local business owners put stickers on their doors and windows indicating displeasure with the law. “Was I expecting this kind of backlash?” asked Pence at a press conference. “Heavens no.”
Why the outcry? While the law’s supporters see it as a necessary protection against government intrusion into religious practice, its opponents see it as a license to discriminate — particularly against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) — in the name of religion.
Reading Indiana’s RFRA
Indiana’s RFRA states that government “may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion ... any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief,” unless it can demonstrate that the burden advances “a compelling governmental interest” and is the “least restrictive” way to advance that interest. The law grants any “person” — defined as an individual, a church or other religious organization, or a corporation — legal standing to sue for redress when burdened or potentially burdened. Scott Bomboy of the National Constitution Center summarizes the law’s reasoning: “Government has to show a very strong state concern if a law forces someone to do something against their religious beliefs.”
Indiana’s law resembles the federal RFRA signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, as do similar laws in other states. But it is broader in two ways. First, it includes for-profit businesses among “persons” possessing a right to exercise religion. According to constitutional law professor Garrett Epps, “The federal RFRA doesn’t contain such language, and neither does any of the state RFRAs except South Carolina’s; in fact, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, explicitly exclude for-profit businesses from the protection of their RFRAs.”
Second, Indiana’s RFRA, unlike any other except Texas’s, allows persons to make a claim or defense of religious freedom in court “regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding.” “In other words,” writes South Texas College of Law professor Josh Blackman, “the law provides a defense against a private discrimination suit. ... Does the federal RFRA also provide a defense? It depends on what Circuit you’re in.” (Federal courts are split on that question.)
License to discriminate?
In an official statement, Governor Pence wrote that “many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action.” As an example, he cited insurance coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act that the University of Notre Dame challenged as violations of its religious convictions. (These provisions, not specified in Pence’s statement, includerequirements that employers provide employees with certain contraceptives.) Pence also mentioned last year’s Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, pointing out that the federal RFRA by which the Court “upheld religious liberty ... does not apply to individual states or local government.” The stated intent of Indiana’s RFRA was to afford similar protection at those levels.
The law’s opponents, however, claim that it could legally protect discriminatory practices. “This law makes me feel like I’m being bullied all over again,” one man told CNN. “If I go into a restaurant and the owner doesn’t like me because I’m transgender, because their religion has told them that I’m bad, does that give them the right to refuse to serve me?”
Recent years have seen such incidents. In 2010, a cookie shop at Indianapolis’ City Market refused to fill a gay student group’s order for rainbow-iced cookies. In 2013, an Indianapolis bakery refused to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. Critics of Indiana’s RFRA say the law will make such incidents more common because it will let business owners invoke personal religious objections to homosexuality as reasons to deny service to LGBT consumers.
Some advocacy groups supporting the law did make such arguments for its passage. For example, Advance America told members on its blog, “Christian bakers, florists and photographers should not be punished for refusing to participate in a homosexual marriage! A Christian business should not be punished for refusing to allow a man to use the women’s restroom! A church should not be punished because they refuse to let the church be used for a homosexual wedding!” After the RFRA became law, the co-owner of a pizzeria in Walkerton, Indiana, told reporters that while the restaurant would serve anyone, “if a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no” for religious reasons.
The law’s timing also concerns some observers. Matthew Anderson, a South Bend, Indiana, attorney, notes this law “comes right after Indiana’s very public and very unsuccessful bid to ban gay marriage.” According to The Indianapolis Star, the RFRA was “widely expected” as a response to last June’s decision by a federal judge that the ban was unconstitutional.
Pence says the new law was not designed to encourage discrimination. “RFRA only provides a mechanism to address claims [of a burden],” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “not a license for private parties to deny services.” It does not grant automatic immunity but “only allows a defendant to raise a defense,” explains Blackman, “which a finder of fact must consider.”
Some legal experts doubt the law would lead to more discrimination. Indiana University law professor Daniel O. Conkle supports same-sex marriage rights and also supports the RFRA. He says its “compelling interest” test is the same standard that led the US Supreme Court to rule that a Muslim prisoner could wear a half-inch beard required by his religion, and it is the same standard that led a Pennsylvania court to protect some Philadelphia churches from a city ban on feeding homeless people in public parks as an expression of their faith. Courts “generally have ruled that the government has a compelling interest in preventing discrimination and that this interest precludes the recognition of religious exceptions,” writes Conkle. “Even in the narrow setting of wedding-service providers, claims for religious exemptions recently have been rejected ... including [in] states that have adopted the RFRA test. A court could rule otherwise ... But to date, none has.”
“We serve everyone”
On April 2, Pence signed a legislative “fix” to Indiana’s RFRA. The law now states that it does not authorize providers to refuse services because of customers’ sexual orientation and gender identity, among other factors. It also explicitly exempts churches and nonprofit religious organizations and their personnel.
These changes do not address the fact that Indiana, like most states, has no statewide LGBT civil rights protections in place. (Only 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws banning sexual orientation-based discrimination in employment and housing.) Many people in Indiana’s LGBT population felt at risk even before the new law. A press release from the Lambda Legal civil rights organization states that “gay and transgender people in much of Indiana are terribly vulnerable to arbitrary discrimination by businesses, refusal of housing, and being fired just for being who they are. ... That unacceptable situation requires a full solution.”
Until that solution comes, many Indiana businesses are displaying stickers that declare, “We serve everyone.” Some churches, too, are spreading the sticker’s message of welcome and inclusion, because they see it as Jesus’ message. The Reverend Darren Cushman Wood of North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis calls the RFRA “contrary to the example of hospitality and humility we see in Jesus ... RFRA seeks to limit who will be served, but Jesus served everyone.”
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
By Christian HawleyToday — Wednesday, April 22nd — a little church on the outskirts of Austin, Texas will celebrate the Feast Day of John Muir(founder of the Sierra Club) and Hudson Stuck (Archdeacon of the Yukon) according to the Episcopal Church’s published cycle of Holy Women, Holy Men. As expected, this crowd-sourced service will include scripture, music, prayer, and a Eucharist. Unexpectedly, this liturgy will hold together motivations for creation care, motivations which are too-often regarded as at odds with one another.
In making room for all of these voices to join together in common worship, we’ll try to do right by John Muir and Hudson Stuck, reaffirming the belief that diversity in a community is good for creation and good for the body of Christ.
The liturgical planning group for this ecological feast day brought together about thirty folks from varying Austin backgrounds: ranchers and hippies, techies and teachers. This curious cross section of central Texas chose Matthew’s beatitudes as the Gospel reading. Our reading will announce that the poor, the hungry, and the oppressed are the ones God favors. Reading these verses in the context of a John Muir service, we hope that all will be made aware that the earth and all her creatures fall into this especially blessed category.
According to our reading, creation care is a justice issue. The voice of John Muir rings out across the decades as his prophetic fight against the Hetch Hetchy Dam finds present-day amplification in the eco-justice writings of Sally McFague and the courageous actions of local conservationists who drive their Priuses all over TX to Lower Colorado River Authority meetings to rally against the subsequent damming of local rivers. However, creation care is not just a justice issue.
There is a groundswell of support for the re-introduction of native plants into urban areas of central TX. Much of the momentum behind this transformation comes from people claiming their role as stewards of creation. To these folks, creation care is an issue of faithfulness. Our service will reflect on this idea, using Genesis 1:26-31 as the Old Testament reading. In this reading, God blesses and charges humanity with the care and responsible management of the earth.
Filtering these verses through the life of Hudson Stuck reveals that true “dominion” involves service to the other (as he served the native people of the arctic) and to “subdue the land” is to work with it to help life flourish. Many of the principles that guided Hudson Stuck’s remarkable life in the Yukon are brilliantly refined in the writings of Aldo Leopold, whose Sand County Almanac can be found on the front seat of every pickup driving around Austin helping to replant the long lost little blue stem grasses.
And so the Prius and pickup lie down together and they find peace in the hill country because they recognize their common creatureliness. Our final reading will be Romans 8:18-23; all of creation groans for redemption, or, as Jurgen Moltmann put it, “There is no salvation without this earth.”* Even to compartmentalize and reduce creation care to a justice issue or a faithfulness issue alone ignores the breadth and interdependent nature of the gospel. To chop up and cordon off our natural environment into isolated pockets of parks and wilderness is to shrink the Kingdom of God. To relegate and pigeonhole worship to the realm of humans and angels is to silence the greatest Hosannas.
This recognition of interdependent salvation is especially vivid in the writings of Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry, and I suspect some day they’ll join John Muir and Hudson Stuck in the cycle of Holy Women and Holy Men. In the meantime, though, we do their words credit by amending our personal and communal lives; such an amendment emerges as this liturgy moves from word to sacrament.
As we finish the readings, we will confess our sins against God and our neighbor to include all of creation. We will then offer up not just the prayers of the people, but the prayers of the land. Our offertory shall consist of monetary gifts, the first fruits of our gardens, and the seedlings we intend to plant to heal our lands. The birds will join in with the choir in the singing of the sanctus, and the communion bread will be made with local ingredients by familiar hands.
We are all in this together; this is our common prayer. This is the body of Christ.
*from "Jesus Christ for Today's World"
Recently, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schorilabeled climate change denial "sinful."
This summer, Pope Francis will release an encyclical—an authoritative Catholic teaching—on the environment.
In the past year, 140 rabbis from five countries have created “Shomrei Breishit,” a Rabbis’ network for the Earth.
A new Muslim Climate Action Network is mobilizing Muslims internationally on climate change.
During the recent Hindu Environment Week, thousands of Hindus demonstrated concern about Mother Bhumi (the earth).
It’s important that all these faith leaders and groups are stepping forward. When it comes to our response to the climate crisis, this year matters more than any other in history.
All of history.
World leaders will meet three times this year to address climate issues. In July, they will discuss financing for the world’s futuredevelopment. In September, they will adopt the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In December, they will try to create an agreement that locks in sizable emissions reduction commitments from all the world’s major carbon emitters.
The context for these meetings is morally urgent. Their outcome will pre-determine whether we pass a livable planet to our children and grandchildren.
Scientists have warned for two decades about the dangers of a warming climate: intense and powerful storms and rising sea levels in some areas, extreme droughts and wildfires in others. Reduced crop yields, increased insect outbreaks, and dying oceans. All of these impacts are increasingly visible. All of them hit people who are poor hardest. All of them are getting worse.
But there is reason for hope. In the face of some unavoidable suffering, bold commitments now will help prevent climate catastrophe. We need our leaders to commit to transforming the world’s energy systems. It’s as galvanizing a challenge as we’ve ever faced.
The commitments needed are epic. Three quarters of all fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground. The world’s energy systems must become carbon-free by 2050. We must stop in its tracks the degradation of forests, grasslands, and ocean eco-systems. We need to invest over $1 trillion per year for the next 36 years to create a new clean energy infrastructure.
These massive commitments have widespread scientific support. They are as real as life itself. We need them this year. Not in 2020 or 2025. Now. Time matters—a lot.
The Ancient Greeks used two words to talk about time. One of these words, chronos, referred to normal, everyday time, the kind of time we experience from one moment to the next. Kairos, the second word, described those particular times that arise only several times in a person’s lifetime, times of great significance in which the decision that is made influences everything that follows. Originally used as a term from archery, kairos describes a fleeting moment during which an arrow must be fired precisely in order to hit a moving target, "a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved."
In regards to climate change, we have arrived at our kairosmoment.
To protect and preserve life, we need forceful, decisive action. To create a healthy, prosperous future, we need large scale change. If we do not act decisively, the natural systems which support our lives will disintegrate, causing great harm and painful suffering for billions of people.
Will you join in efforts, this year, to call for change? It is an unavoidable question. It is a question of faith.
In Deuteronomy, God says, “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity … Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”
Around the world, people of faith are choosing life.
They are cutting their own carbon footprints.
They are taking to the streets to demonstrate. Witness the 400,000 participants in last September’s People’s Climate March.
They are telling their elected officials that they want action.
Will you join them?
OurVoices.net offers us all an opportunity to lift our voices in support of these actions. A multi-faith, international climate campaign, it is a new face of religious leadership where traditional faith communities use digital organizing tools to press for change. Sign the OurVoices.net pledge. Show our leaders your support for change.
We have all been blessed by the incredible gift of life and aprecious planet that sustains it. This year, take action to protect it.
Because this is our kairos moment.
This Sunday, May 3, 2015
This summer, Pope Francis will release an encyclical—an authoritative Catholic teaching—on the environment.
In the past year, 140 rabbis from five countries have created “Shomrei Breishit,” a Rabbis’ network for the Earth.
A new Muslim Climate Action Network is mobilizing Muslims internationally on climate change.
During the recent Hindu Environment Week, thousands of Hindus demonstrated concern about Mother Bhumi (the earth).
It’s important that all these faith leaders and groups are stepping forward. When it comes to our response to the climate crisis, this year matters more than any other in history.
All of history.
World leaders will meet three times this year to address climate issues. In July, they will discuss financing for the world’s futuredevelopment. In September, they will adopt the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In December, they will try to create an agreement that locks in sizable emissions reduction commitments from all the world’s major carbon emitters.
The context for these meetings is morally urgent. Their outcome will pre-determine whether we pass a livable planet to our children and grandchildren.
Scientists have warned for two decades about the dangers of a warming climate: intense and powerful storms and rising sea levels in some areas, extreme droughts and wildfires in others. Reduced crop yields, increased insect outbreaks, and dying oceans. All of these impacts are increasingly visible. All of them hit people who are poor hardest. All of them are getting worse.
But there is reason for hope. In the face of some unavoidable suffering, bold commitments now will help prevent climate catastrophe. We need our leaders to commit to transforming the world’s energy systems. It’s as galvanizing a challenge as we’ve ever faced.
The commitments needed are epic. Three quarters of all fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground. The world’s energy systems must become carbon-free by 2050. We must stop in its tracks the degradation of forests, grasslands, and ocean eco-systems. We need to invest over $1 trillion per year for the next 36 years to create a new clean energy infrastructure.
These massive commitments have widespread scientific support. They are as real as life itself. We need them this year. Not in 2020 or 2025. Now. Time matters—a lot.
The Ancient Greeks used two words to talk about time. One of these words, chronos, referred to normal, everyday time, the kind of time we experience from one moment to the next. Kairos, the second word, described those particular times that arise only several times in a person’s lifetime, times of great significance in which the decision that is made influences everything that follows. Originally used as a term from archery, kairos describes a fleeting moment during which an arrow must be fired precisely in order to hit a moving target, "a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved."
In regards to climate change, we have arrived at our kairosmoment.
To protect and preserve life, we need forceful, decisive action. To create a healthy, prosperous future, we need large scale change. If we do not act decisively, the natural systems which support our lives will disintegrate, causing great harm and painful suffering for billions of people.
Will you join in efforts, this year, to call for change? It is an unavoidable question. It is a question of faith.
In Deuteronomy, God says, “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity … Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”
Around the world, people of faith are choosing life.
They are cutting their own carbon footprints.
They are taking to the streets to demonstrate. Witness the 400,000 participants in last September’s People’s Climate March.
They are telling their elected officials that they want action.
Will you join them?
OurVoices.net offers us all an opportunity to lift our voices in support of these actions. A multi-faith, international climate campaign, it is a new face of religious leadership where traditional faith communities use digital organizing tools to press for change. Sign the OurVoices.net pledge. Show our leaders your support for change.
We have all been blessed by the incredible gift of life and aprecious planet that sustains it. This year, take action to protect it.
Because this is our kairos moment.
Fifth Sunday of Easter: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
Fifth Sunday of Easter - COLOR: White
Lectionary Texts:
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
Lectionary Scriptures:
Acts 8:26 An angel of Adonai said to Philip, “Get up, and go southward on the road that goes down from Yerushalayim to ‘Azah, the desert road.” 27 So he got up and went. On his way, he caught sight of an Ethiopian, a eunuch who was minister in charge of all the treasure of the Kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia. He had been to Yerushalayim to worship; 28 and now, as he was returning home, he was sitting in his chariot, reading the prophet Yesha‘yahu. 29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot, and stay close to it.” 30 As Philip ran up, he heard the Ethiopian reading from Yesha‘yahu the prophet. “Do you understand what you’re reading?” he asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him.
32 Now the portion of the Tanakh that he was reading was this:
“He was like a sheep led to be slaughtered;
like a lamb silent before the shearer, he does not open his mouth.
33 He was humiliated and denied justice.
Who will tell about his descendants,
since his life has been taken from the earth?”[a]
34 The eunuch said to Philip, “Here’s my question to you — is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip started to speak — beginning with that passage, he went on to tell him the Good News about Yeshua.
36 As they were going down the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Here’s some water! Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be immersed?” 37 [b] 38 He ordered the chariot to stop; then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip immersed him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch saw no more of him, because he continued on his way — full of joy. 40 But Philip showed up at Ashdod and continued proclaiming the Good News as he went through all the towns until he came to Caesarea.[Footnotes:
Acts 8:33 Isaiah 53:7–8
Acts 8:37 Some manuscripts include verse 37: And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Yeshua the Messiah is the Son of God.”]
Psalm 22:25 (24) For he has not despised or abhorred
the poverty of the poor;
he did not hide his face from him
but listened to his cry.”
26 (25) Because of you
I give praise in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my vows
in the sight of those who fear him.
27 (26) The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek Adonai will praise him;
Your hearts will enjoy life forever.
28 (27) All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to Adonai;
all the clans of the nations
will worship in your presence.
29 (28) For the kingdom belongs to Adonai,
and he rules the nations.
30 (29) All who prosper on the earth
will eat and worship;
all who go down to the dust
will kneel before him,
including him who can’t keep himself alive,
31 (30) A descendant will serve him;
the next generation will be told of Adonai.
1 John 4:7 Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. 8 Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. 9 Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. 10 Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.
11 Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us. 13 Here is how we know that we remain united with him and he with us: he has given to us from his own Spirit. 14 Moreover, we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as Deliverer of the world. 15 If someone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God remains united with him, and he with God. 16 Also we have come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them.
17 Here is how love has been brought to maturity with us: as the Messiah is, so are we in the world. This gives us confidence for the Day of Judgment. 18 There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.
19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.
John 15:1 “I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. 3 Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned. 4 Stay united with me, as I will with you — for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me.
5 “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing. 6 Unless a person remains united with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up.
7 “If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 This is how my Father is glorified — in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.
Lectionary Texts:
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
Lectionary Scriptures:
Acts 8:26 An angel of Adonai said to Philip, “Get up, and go southward on the road that goes down from Yerushalayim to ‘Azah, the desert road.” 27 So he got up and went. On his way, he caught sight of an Ethiopian, a eunuch who was minister in charge of all the treasure of the Kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia. He had been to Yerushalayim to worship; 28 and now, as he was returning home, he was sitting in his chariot, reading the prophet Yesha‘yahu. 29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot, and stay close to it.” 30 As Philip ran up, he heard the Ethiopian reading from Yesha‘yahu the prophet. “Do you understand what you’re reading?” he asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him.
32 Now the portion of the Tanakh that he was reading was this:
“He was like a sheep led to be slaughtered;
like a lamb silent before the shearer, he does not open his mouth.
33 He was humiliated and denied justice.
Who will tell about his descendants,
since his life has been taken from the earth?”[a]
34 The eunuch said to Philip, “Here’s my question to you — is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip started to speak — beginning with that passage, he went on to tell him the Good News about Yeshua.
36 As they were going down the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Here’s some water! Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be immersed?” 37 [b] 38 He ordered the chariot to stop; then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip immersed him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch saw no more of him, because he continued on his way — full of joy. 40 But Philip showed up at Ashdod and continued proclaiming the Good News as he went through all the towns until he came to Caesarea.[Footnotes:
Acts 8:33 Isaiah 53:7–8
Acts 8:37 Some manuscripts include verse 37: And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Yeshua the Messiah is the Son of God.”]
Psalm 22:25 (24) For he has not despised or abhorred
the poverty of the poor;
he did not hide his face from him
but listened to his cry.”
26 (25) Because of you
I give praise in the great assembly;
I will fulfill my vows
in the sight of those who fear him.
27 (26) The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek Adonai will praise him;
Your hearts will enjoy life forever.
28 (27) All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to Adonai;
all the clans of the nations
will worship in your presence.
29 (28) For the kingdom belongs to Adonai,
and he rules the nations.
30 (29) All who prosper on the earth
will eat and worship;
all who go down to the dust
will kneel before him,
including him who can’t keep himself alive,
31 (30) A descendant will serve him;
the next generation will be told of Adonai.
1 John 4:7 Beloved friends, let us love one another; because love is from God; and everyone who loves has God as his Father and knows God. 8 Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love. 9 Here is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world, so that through him we might have life. 10 Here is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the kapparah for our sins.
11 Beloved friends, if this is how God loved us, we likewise ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us. 13 Here is how we know that we remain united with him and he with us: he has given to us from his own Spirit. 14 Moreover, we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as Deliverer of the world. 15 If someone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God remains united with him, and he with God. 16 Also we have come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love; and those who remain in this love remain united with God, and God remains united with them.
17 Here is how love has been brought to maturity with us: as the Messiah is, so are we in the world. This gives us confidence for the Day of Judgment. 18 There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.
19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.
John 15:1 “I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. 3 Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned. 4 Stay united with me, as I will with you — for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me.
5 “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing. 6 Unless a person remains united with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up.
7 “If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 This is how my Father is glorified — in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.
John Wesley's Notes-commentary for
Acts 8:26-40
Verse 26
[26] And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
The way which is desert — There were two ways from Jerusalem to Gaza, one desert, the other through a more populous country.
Verse 27
[27] And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
An eunuch — Chief officers were anciently called eunuchs, though not always literally such; because such used to be chief ministers in the eastern courts.
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians — So all the queens of Ethiopia were called.
Verse 28
[28] Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
Sitting in his chariot, he read the Prophet Isaiah — God meeteth those that remember him in his ways. It is good to read, hear, seek information even in a journey. Why should we not redeem all our time?
Verse 30
[30] And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And Philip running to him, said, Understandest thou what thou readest? — He did not begin about the weather, news, or the like. In speaking for God, we may frequently come to the point at once, without circumlocution.
Verse 31
[31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
He desired Philip to come up and sit with him — Such was his modesty, and thirst after instruction.
Verse 32
[32] The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
The portion of Scripture — By reading that very chapter, the fifty-third of Isaiah, many Jews, yea, and atheists, have been converted. Some of them history records. God knoweth them all. Isaiah 53:7
Verse 33
[33] In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away — That is, when he was a man, he had no justice shown him. To take away a person's judgment, is a proverbial phrase for oppressing him.
And who shall declare, or count his generation — That is, who can number his seed, Isaiah 53:10; which he hath purchased by laying down his life?
Verse 36
[36] And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And as they went on the way they came to a certain water — Thus, even the circumstances of the journey were under the direction of God. The kingdom of God suits itself to external circumstances, without any violence, as air yields to all bodies, and yet pervades all.
What hindereth me to be baptized? — Probably he had been circumcised: otherwise Cornelius would not have been the first fruits of the Gentiles.
Verse 38
[38] And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
And they both went down — Out of the chariot. It does not follow that he was baptized by immersion. The text neither affirms nor intimates any thing concerning it.
Verse 39
[39] And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip — Carried him away with a miraculous swiftness, without any action or labour of his own. This had befallen several of the prophets.
Verse 40
[40] But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
But Philip was found at Azotus — Probably none saw him, from his leaving the eunuch, till he was there.
Psalm 22:25-31
Verse 25
[25] My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
Great congregation — In the universal church, of Jews and Gentiles.
Verse 26
[26] The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Satisfied — This is doubtless to be understood, of those spiritual blessings, that grace and peace, and comfort, which all believing souls have in the sense of God's love, the pardon of their sins, and the influences of God's spirit.
Seek him — That seek his favour.
Your heart — He speaks of the same persons still, though there be a change from the third to the second person, as is usual in these poetical books.
For ever — Your comfort shall not be short and transitory, as worldly comforts are, but everlasting.
Verse 27
[27] All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
The world — All nations from one end of the world to the other. So this is an evident prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and a clear proof, that this psalm immediately speaks of Christ; to whom alone, this and divers other passages of it, belong.
Remember — They shall remember their former wickedness with grief and shame, and fear; particularly in worshiping dead and impotent idols. They shall remember their great and manifold obligation to God, which they had quite forgotten, his patience in sparing them so long, in the midst of all their impieties, and in giving his son for them: they shall remember the gracious words and glorious works of Christ, what he did, and suffered for them; which possibly divers of them had been eye and ear-witnesses of.
The Lord — Into the only true God, and unto Jesus Christ, to whom this name of Jehovah is often ascribed in scripture.
Verse 28
[28] For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations.
For — This is added as a reason, why the Gentiles should be converted, because God is not only God and the Lord of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, and of all nations.
Verse 29
[29] All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
Fat — Kings and princes, and the great men of the world.
Shall eat — Shall feed upon the bread of life, Christ and all his benefits.
Worship — This is added to shew what kind of eating he spoke of.
Go down — That is, all mankind, for none can escape death.
Verse 30
[30] A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
A seed — Christ shall not want a seed or posterity, for though the Jewish nation will generally reject him, the Gentiles shall come in their stead.
A generation — That believing seed shall be reputed both by God and men, The generation, or people of the Lord, as the Jews formerly were.
Verse 31
[31] They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
They — The seed last mentioned.
Come — From Judea and Jerusalem (from whence the gospel was first to go forth) to the Gentile world, to the several parts whereof the apostles went upon this errand.
His — God's righteousness: his wonderful grace and mercy unto mankind, in giving them Christ and the gospel; for righteousness is often put for mercy or kindness.
Unto — Unto succeeding generations. Whereby David gives us a key to understand this psalm, and teaches us that he speaks not here of himself, but of things which were to be done in after-ages, even of the spreading of the gospel among the Gentiles, in the time of the New Testament.
That he — They shall declare that this is the work of God, and not of man.
1 John 4:7-21
Verse 7
[7] Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Let us love one another — From the doctrine he has just been defending he draws this exhortation. It is by the Spirit that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Every one that truly loveth God and his neighbour is born of God.
Verse 8
[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
God is love — This little sentence brought St. John more sweetness, even in the time he was writing it, than the whole world can bring. God is often styled holy, righteous, wise; but not holiness, righteousness, or wisdom in the abstract, as he is said to be love; intimating that this is his darling, his reigning attribute, the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all his other perfections.
Verse 12
[12] No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
If we love one another, God abideth in us — This is treated of, 1 John 4:13-16.
And his love is perfected — Has its full effect.
In us — This is treated of, 1 John 4:17-19.
Verse 14
[14] And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
And in consequence of this we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son - These are the foundation and the criteria of our abiding in God and God in us, the communion of the Spirit, and the confession of the Son.
Verse 15
[15] Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Whosoever shall, from a principle of loving faith, openly confess in the face of all opposition and danger, that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him.
Verse 16
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
And we know and believe — By the same Spirit, the love that God hath to us.
Verse 17
[17] Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Hereby — That is, by this communion with God.
Is our love made perfect; that we may — That is, so that we shall have boldness in the day of judgment - When all the stout-hearted shall tremble.
Because as he — Christ.
Is — All love.
So are we — Who are fathers in Christ, even in this world.
Verse 18
[18] There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
There is no fear in love — No slavish fear can be where love reigns. But perfect, adult love casteth out slavish fear: because such fear hath torment - And so is inconsistent with the happiness of love. A natural man has neither fear nor love; one that is awakened, fear without love; a babe in Christ, love and fear; a father in Christ, love without fear.
Verse 19
[19] We love him, because he first loved us.
We love him, because he first loved us — This is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. None can say more: why should any one say less, or less intelligibly?
Verse 20
[20] If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Whom he hath seen — Who is daily presented to his senses, to raise his esteem, and move his kindness or compassion toward him.
Verse 21
[21] And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
And this commandment have we from him — Both God and Christ.
That he who loveth God love his brother — Every one, whatever his opinions or mode of worship be, purely because he is the child, and bears the image, of God. Bigotry is properly the want of this pure and universal love. A bigot only loves those who embrace his opinions, and receive his way of worship; and he loves them for that, and not for Christ's sake.
John 15:1-8
Verse 2
[2] Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Every one that beareth fruit, he purifieth — by obeying the truth, 1 Peter 1:22; and by inward or outward sufferings, Hebrews 12:10,11. So purity and fruitfulness help each other.
That it may bear more fruit — For this is one of the noblest rewards God can bestow on former acts of obedience, to make us yet more holy, and fit for farther and more eminent service.
Verse 3
[3] Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Ye are clean — All of you, to whom I now speak, are purged from the guilt and power of sin; by the word - Which, applied by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of purifying the soul.
Verse 4
[4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Abide in me — Ye who are now pure by living faith, producing all holiness; by which alone ye can be in me.
Verse 5
[5] I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
I am the vine, ye are the branches — Our Lord in this whole passage speaks of no branches but such as are, or at least were once, united to him by living faith.
Verse 6
[6] If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If any one abide not in me — By living faith; not by Church communion only. He may thus abide in Christ, and be withered all the time, and cast into the fire at last.
He is cast out — Of the vineyard, the invisible Church. Therefore he was in it once.
Verse 7
[7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
If ye abide in me, ye shall ask — Prayers themselves are a fruit of faith, and they produce more fruit.
Verse 8
[8] Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
So shall ye be my disciples — Worthy of the name. To be a disciple of Christ is both the foundation and height of Christianity.
Acts 8:26-40
Verse 26
[26] And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
The way which is desert — There were two ways from Jerusalem to Gaza, one desert, the other through a more populous country.
Verse 27
[27] And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
An eunuch — Chief officers were anciently called eunuchs, though not always literally such; because such used to be chief ministers in the eastern courts.
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians — So all the queens of Ethiopia were called.
Verse 28
[28] Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
Sitting in his chariot, he read the Prophet Isaiah — God meeteth those that remember him in his ways. It is good to read, hear, seek information even in a journey. Why should we not redeem all our time?
Verse 30
[30] And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And Philip running to him, said, Understandest thou what thou readest? — He did not begin about the weather, news, or the like. In speaking for God, we may frequently come to the point at once, without circumlocution.
Verse 31
[31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
He desired Philip to come up and sit with him — Such was his modesty, and thirst after instruction.
Verse 32
[32] The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
The portion of Scripture — By reading that very chapter, the fifty-third of Isaiah, many Jews, yea, and atheists, have been converted. Some of them history records. God knoweth them all. Isaiah 53:7
Verse 33
[33] In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away — That is, when he was a man, he had no justice shown him. To take away a person's judgment, is a proverbial phrase for oppressing him.
And who shall declare, or count his generation — That is, who can number his seed, Isaiah 53:10; which he hath purchased by laying down his life?
Verse 36
[36] And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And as they went on the way they came to a certain water — Thus, even the circumstances of the journey were under the direction of God. The kingdom of God suits itself to external circumstances, without any violence, as air yields to all bodies, and yet pervades all.
What hindereth me to be baptized? — Probably he had been circumcised: otherwise Cornelius would not have been the first fruits of the Gentiles.
Verse 38
[38] And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
And they both went down — Out of the chariot. It does not follow that he was baptized by immersion. The text neither affirms nor intimates any thing concerning it.
Verse 39
[39] And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip — Carried him away with a miraculous swiftness, without any action or labour of his own. This had befallen several of the prophets.
Verse 40
[40] But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
But Philip was found at Azotus — Probably none saw him, from his leaving the eunuch, till he was there.
Psalm 22:25-31
Verse 25
[25] My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
Great congregation — In the universal church, of Jews and Gentiles.
Verse 26
[26] The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Satisfied — This is doubtless to be understood, of those spiritual blessings, that grace and peace, and comfort, which all believing souls have in the sense of God's love, the pardon of their sins, and the influences of God's spirit.
Seek him — That seek his favour.
Your heart — He speaks of the same persons still, though there be a change from the third to the second person, as is usual in these poetical books.
For ever — Your comfort shall not be short and transitory, as worldly comforts are, but everlasting.
Verse 27
[27] All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
The world — All nations from one end of the world to the other. So this is an evident prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and a clear proof, that this psalm immediately speaks of Christ; to whom alone, this and divers other passages of it, belong.
Remember — They shall remember their former wickedness with grief and shame, and fear; particularly in worshiping dead and impotent idols. They shall remember their great and manifold obligation to God, which they had quite forgotten, his patience in sparing them so long, in the midst of all their impieties, and in giving his son for them: they shall remember the gracious words and glorious works of Christ, what he did, and suffered for them; which possibly divers of them had been eye and ear-witnesses of.
The Lord — Into the only true God, and unto Jesus Christ, to whom this name of Jehovah is often ascribed in scripture.
Verse 28
[28] For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations.
For — This is added as a reason, why the Gentiles should be converted, because God is not only God and the Lord of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, and of all nations.
Verse 29
[29] All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
Fat — Kings and princes, and the great men of the world.
Shall eat — Shall feed upon the bread of life, Christ and all his benefits.
Worship — This is added to shew what kind of eating he spoke of.
Go down — That is, all mankind, for none can escape death.
Verse 30
[30] A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
A seed — Christ shall not want a seed or posterity, for though the Jewish nation will generally reject him, the Gentiles shall come in their stead.
A generation — That believing seed shall be reputed both by God and men, The generation, or people of the Lord, as the Jews formerly were.
Verse 31
[31] They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
They — The seed last mentioned.
Come — From Judea and Jerusalem (from whence the gospel was first to go forth) to the Gentile world, to the several parts whereof the apostles went upon this errand.
His — God's righteousness: his wonderful grace and mercy unto mankind, in giving them Christ and the gospel; for righteousness is often put for mercy or kindness.
Unto — Unto succeeding generations. Whereby David gives us a key to understand this psalm, and teaches us that he speaks not here of himself, but of things which were to be done in after-ages, even of the spreading of the gospel among the Gentiles, in the time of the New Testament.
That he — They shall declare that this is the work of God, and not of man.
1 John 4:7-21
Verse 7
[7] Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Let us love one another — From the doctrine he has just been defending he draws this exhortation. It is by the Spirit that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Every one that truly loveth God and his neighbour is born of God.
Verse 8
[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
God is love — This little sentence brought St. John more sweetness, even in the time he was writing it, than the whole world can bring. God is often styled holy, righteous, wise; but not holiness, righteousness, or wisdom in the abstract, as he is said to be love; intimating that this is his darling, his reigning attribute, the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all his other perfections.
Verse 12
[12] No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
If we love one another, God abideth in us — This is treated of, 1 John 4:13-16.
And his love is perfected — Has its full effect.
In us — This is treated of, 1 John 4:17-19.
Verse 14
[14] And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
And in consequence of this we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son - These are the foundation and the criteria of our abiding in God and God in us, the communion of the Spirit, and the confession of the Son.
Verse 15
[15] Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Whosoever shall, from a principle of loving faith, openly confess in the face of all opposition and danger, that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him.
Verse 16
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
And we know and believe — By the same Spirit, the love that God hath to us.
Verse 17
[17] Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Hereby — That is, by this communion with God.
Is our love made perfect; that we may — That is, so that we shall have boldness in the day of judgment - When all the stout-hearted shall tremble.
Because as he — Christ.
Is — All love.
So are we — Who are fathers in Christ, even in this world.
Verse 18
[18] There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
There is no fear in love — No slavish fear can be where love reigns. But perfect, adult love casteth out slavish fear: because such fear hath torment - And so is inconsistent with the happiness of love. A natural man has neither fear nor love; one that is awakened, fear without love; a babe in Christ, love and fear; a father in Christ, love without fear.
Verse 19
[19] We love him, because he first loved us.
We love him, because he first loved us — This is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. None can say more: why should any one say less, or less intelligibly?
Verse 20
[20] If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Whom he hath seen — Who is daily presented to his senses, to raise his esteem, and move his kindness or compassion toward him.
Verse 21
[21] And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
And this commandment have we from him — Both God and Christ.
That he who loveth God love his brother — Every one, whatever his opinions or mode of worship be, purely because he is the child, and bears the image, of God. Bigotry is properly the want of this pure and universal love. A bigot only loves those who embrace his opinions, and receive his way of worship; and he loves them for that, and not for Christ's sake.
John 15:1-8
Verse 2
[2] Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Every one that beareth fruit, he purifieth — by obeying the truth, 1 Peter 1:22; and by inward or outward sufferings, Hebrews 12:10,11. So purity and fruitfulness help each other.
That it may bear more fruit — For this is one of the noblest rewards God can bestow on former acts of obedience, to make us yet more holy, and fit for farther and more eminent service.
Verse 3
[3] Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Ye are clean — All of you, to whom I now speak, are purged from the guilt and power of sin; by the word - Which, applied by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of purifying the soul.
Verse 4
[4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Abide in me — Ye who are now pure by living faith, producing all holiness; by which alone ye can be in me.
Verse 5
[5] I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
I am the vine, ye are the branches — Our Lord in this whole passage speaks of no branches but such as are, or at least were once, united to him by living faith.
Verse 6
[6] If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If any one abide not in me — By living faith; not by Church communion only. He may thus abide in Christ, and be withered all the time, and cast into the fire at last.
He is cast out — Of the vineyard, the invisible Church. Therefore he was in it once.
Verse 7
[7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
If ye abide in me, ye shall ask — Prayers themselves are a fruit of faith, and they produce more fruit.
Verse 8
[8] Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
So shall ye be my disciples — Worthy of the name. To be a disciple of Christ is both the foundation and height of Christianity.
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Upper Room Ministries, a ministry of Discipleship Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004 United States
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Sermon Story "Staying Connected" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 3 May 2015 with Scripture: John 15:1 “I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch which is part of me but fails to bear fruit, he cuts off; and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. 3 Right now, because of the word which I have spoken to you, you are pruned. 4 Stay united with me, as I will with you — for just as the branch can’t put forth fruit by itself apart from the vine, so you can’t bear fruit apart from me.
5 “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing. 6 Unless a person remains united with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up.
7 “If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 This is how my Father is glorified — in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.
I have heard. I have read, I have even read some thoughts on this passage of Scripture where Jesus calls Hmself he Vine and His followers are the branches. The branches stay connected to the vine and bear much fruit. There have been many interpretations or understandings what bearing fruit is here even that one must daily or constantly bring others into the fellowship with Jesus, but let us look at the Scripture in I John 4 about love. There is a possibilty that the fruit Jesus is talking about is Love. The Love fully God, the loving all other people, and the loving ourselves in an uncodtional way that we may Love other people as God loves us. This love brins a iight to the people who love unconditionally while hate appears to whither people up into a disgruntled and bitter life. Could love be the fruit that we are to bear? How have you heard this passage understood in your lifetime? How are yo understanding this as we see so much hatred in the world that causes violence? We know that if we truly love others no matter who they are we have a tendency not to hate them or do harsh things towards them in violent words or actions. We seek our lives and see how we are remaining connected to Jesus and showing His love in our lives for us, others, and mostly God. We come and examine ourselves as we ccome and eat His body and drink His blood in partaking of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to receive more of His love to give to all other people. As we come to receive, we come singing the Hymn "The Love of God" by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917 verse 3 and by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai, 1050 verse 3 translated by Anonymous/Unknown
5 “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing. 6 Unless a person remains united with me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, where they are burned up.
7 “If you remain united with me, and my words with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 This is how my Father is glorified — in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.
I have heard. I have read, I have even read some thoughts on this passage of Scripture where Jesus calls Hmself he Vine and His followers are the branches. The branches stay connected to the vine and bear much fruit. There have been many interpretations or understandings what bearing fruit is here even that one must daily or constantly bring others into the fellowship with Jesus, but let us look at the Scripture in I John 4 about love. There is a possibilty that the fruit Jesus is talking about is Love. The Love fully God, the loving all other people, and the loving ourselves in an uncodtional way that we may Love other people as God loves us. This love brins a iight to the people who love unconditionally while hate appears to whither people up into a disgruntled and bitter life. Could love be the fruit that we are to bear? How have you heard this passage understood in your lifetime? How are yo understanding this as we see so much hatred in the world that causes violence? We know that if we truly love others no matter who they are we have a tendency not to hate them or do harsh things towards them in violent words or actions. We seek our lives and see how we are remaining connected to Jesus and showing His love in our lives for us, others, and mostly God. We come and examine ourselves as we ccome and eat His body and drink His blood in partaking of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to receive more of His love to give to all other people. As we come to receive, we come singing the Hymn "The Love of God" by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917 verse 3 and by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai, 1050 verse 3 translated by Anonymous/Unknown
1. The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
2. When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
3. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
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Gary Lee Parker
4147 Idaho Street, Apt. 1
San Diego, California 92104-1844, United States
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1 John 4:7-21
“Cut to the chase.” A quick search on the Internet reveals that this saying goes back a long way, back to moviemaking in the 1920s. The saying refers to moving from a dramatic scene to an action scene. There are times in life when we want to say, “Cut to the chase,” aren’t there? When a story has gone on too long, for example. When a sermon has gone on too long, for example! When it seems we’re dealing with peripheral matters when we have no time to waste, we want to say, “Cut to the chase. Get to the point.”
Sometimes we are under such pressure and need desperately to know some answers and get some help that we know we don’t have time or energy to wade through a lot of trivialities. We’re facing a crisis and we want help. We’ve received a diagnosis about our health or someone else’s and suddenly a lot of the issues we thought were important aren’t important any longer. We face some decision that will affect our lives radically. Life has gotten down to the basics for us in some way and we feel we don’t have time left for anything but getting to the point.
This passage is “the point.” It’s “the chase.” It’s the focus of so much of what we want to know about life and how life is to be lived. Here’s what it tells us about what we might call, “the heart of it all.”
This passage tells us what the bedrock of life is like when it tells us what God is like. It says that God is love. Maybe you’ve never wondered about this, but many of us have wondered whether there is indeed a God and what that God is like. It makes all the difference whether there is truly a God or we’re alone, completely alone, living an essentially meaningless existence that is going nowhere, with that little hyphen between the date of our birth and the date of our death all there is. It matters, too, what this God is like. Is God distant and uncaring, ignoring us? Is God distant and unable to help, with no strength to enter into our lives? Is God mean and out to get us?
Those three little words, “God is love,” get to the heart of it all. They cut to the chase. They tell us that God is pure self-giving love. God cares. Indeed, God cares deeply.
What a reality to build a life on! We are not alone, neglected, orphaned. God is love.
How do we know this? Of course, it’s a matter of faith, but the reality to which John points is that God “sent his only Son into the world.” God did not keep his distance from us. Any parentknows how precious his or her children are. God’s sending his Son shows us unmistakably how much God loves us. There’s more, of course. God “sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God sent his Son to rescue us from the mess we are in, although much of it is our own fault.
How do we know that God loves us and that this little statement, “God is love,” is not just syrupy sentiment, a deep-seated wish, or a figment of our imagination? Here, too, we are at the heart of it all. God in Christ has entered into our experience, our drudgery, our crises, and our need.
Have you ever flown directly over your home community, the place where your own family lives? As others looked out the airplane windows, perhaps they could make out roads and see the dots of houses. You, however, saw that and more. You saw places familiar to you and knew that people who loved you and whom you loved lived there. You had an attachment to that place that others on the plane didn’t have. You’d been there. Well, God’s been here. Indeed, in God’s Spirit, God—this God who is love—is here, right where you and I live. God has “sent his Son” and “given us of his Spirit.” The God who is love did that for us.
So how does this affect our lives? All of life is changed when we live on the basis that God is love. Living on the bedrock belief that God is love helps us “cut to the chase.”
The heart of it all is that knowing, truly knowing, that God is love gives us confidence. No longer do we need to be afraid or uncertain about facing life—or death. We can count on the reality that God is love.
God’s been here, right here, right where we wonder about life, face threats and hardships, and worry about what might happen, has happened, or is happening. We can count on the God who is love.
This great truth affects our lives in yet another way. You see, if God is love and indeed loves us, then that has to affect our relationship with our fellow human beings. How can we ignore our fellow human beings if we know and worship a God like this—a God who is love? How can we harm our fellow human beings if we know and worship a God like this—a God who is love? How can we fear our fellow human beings or anything else if we have confidence in a God like this—a God who is love? Indeed, since we serve a God who has structured the universe so that love is what is most important, our only proper response is to live with love ourselves and love other people just as God has loved us. To love a God who is love means that we must love our brothers and sisters, all our fellow human beings, also. That’s the heart of it all.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
COLOR: White
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
Call to Worship:
L: Come and sit with me; we shall study the Word.
P: Together we shall read and understand.
L: Come and kneel with me; we shall break the bread.
P: Together we shall eat and be satisfied.
L: Come and walk with me; we shall part the waters.
A: Together we shall risk, and, behold, we shall be changed.
Invocation:
O Lord of the broken chain, the peoples of your earth seek their freedom. We kneel in the night, breathless runaways, breathing the silent prayer of the preyed upon.
O God of the North Star, we shall not be able to find our way unless someone guides us. Bend to us and lift our chins, and point our eyes to the brilliant light in the sky, that we may have a beacon upon which to fix our hopes. We have dared to stumble away from slave row, but unless you lead us, Lord, we can go no farther.
Litany:
L: The world arrested Christ our brother. It betrayed and boundhim, it tested and mocked him, it tortured and killed him.
P: But he stood silent against the madness, and in that silence of his humiliation, justice was denied. It was betrayed and bound, it was tested and mocked, it was tortured and killed.
L: Who can describe the generation that took his life from the earth? Who can cleanse the hands that slaughtered the lamb?
P: O God, make of us another generation,
L: And let our hands be those not of murderers but midwives.
P: Let us not mock justice, but embrace it. Let us not take life, but deliver it.
L: Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and whoever loves is born of God.
P: When our brothers are silenced by false accusers, let us be their voice. When our sisters appear before unjust judges, let us be their defender.
L: Let us bring our world to its knees before the Lord, that guilt may be declared.
P: And let us stand when God bids the world rise, that mercy may be granted.
L: For the Christ who was mortified at our hands has been glorified by the hand of God. His freedom has been restored and his life has been renewed,
A: That our world's captives might find their liberation and our world's dead, their resurrection.
Prayer for One Voice:
O God, in the beginning you created heaven and earth. And, one day, as you walked upon the land, you came upon a very fertile hill and imagined there a vineyard purple with grapes. So with your own hands you dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; long you tended it and looked for it to yield its fruit, but it yielded only wild grapes.
No more could you have done for your vineyard, Lord. Your pleasant planting turned bitter and rebelled against you. You looked for justice, but, behold, we bore bloodshed; you looked for righteousness, but, behold, we produced a cry!
You could have become angry, Lord. You could have removed the hedge that protected the yard, that we might be devoured by the beasts. You could have broken down its wall, that we might be trampled. You could have laid it waste, and let our briers and thorns grow up; you could have commanded the clouds to withhold their rains, so that nothing would grow.
But even as you are our Creator and Sustainer, O God, you are our Redeemer. And you planted again in our midst. You set out at the center of the vineyard the true vine. And the vine has grown; it cannot be destroyed, it cannot bear bad fruit. Its good fruit hangs heavy on the branches, bearing witness to your care.
Christ is the vine, Lord; make us the branches. Whatever you ask us to be, we shall be; whatever you ask us to do, shall be done.
This truth amazes us, that you sent the true vine to save us not because we first loved you, but because you first and last loved us. By this we are humbled, Lord, for you are Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, Love that began the beginning and knows no end. Yours is the love that birthed the world and makes it grow. It is the love that grasped Philip as he preached and drove him to carry the news of his new faith beyond the bounds of Judaism—even to places his old faith had considered unclean. It is the love that grasped the mighty Ethiopian as he sat in his chariot and drove him with a new faith into the waters of his baptism—to a new life his old life had never imagined.
Yours is the love, Lord, that changes the world, inside and out. The ones unclean in the world's eyes, your love makes clean. The ones mighty in the world's eyes, your love makes humble. The ones guilty in the world's eyes, your love ushers into paradise.
Lord, for this we praise you, that you first and last love us. Now what remains is for you to teach us how better to love one another. Teach us, Lord, the truth of life, before the hour is late; lead us, Lord, in the way we should go, before the gate is closed.
Bring us now into your vineyard, Lord. Prune us and tend us, that we may bear good fruit. We offer you all that we are; press us into the wine of the new covenant, that the cup of the new kingdom may be filled to overflowing.
Benediction:
No one has ever seen God. But, if an angel appears and tells you to rise and go down a desert road, do not be afraid. Though barren, the desert is the place of revelation. As you pass through, someone will draw near. It may be the risen Christ, disguised as a weary stranger. Behold the face of your God, and offer the stranger your water.
From Litanies and Other Prayers Copyright © 1989, 1992 by Abingdon Press.
Call to Worship
Leader: From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
People: my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
Leader: The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD.
People: May your hearts live forever!
Leader: All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD;
People: and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
Leader: For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
People: To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
Leader: before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
People: Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the LORD.
Leader: and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
ALL: saying that he has done it.
Pastoral Prayer:
Almighty God, whose love is beyond understanding, whose mercy is beyond comprehension—we lift up our hearts to you inprayer. Though we were captives of our sinful and rebellious ways, your love has released us. You have freed us to experience divine love in our own lives. Your atoning love has freed us from the penalty of sin, which was rightfully ours to pay. How can we express our thanksgiving, except to praise your name and to allow your love to be seen in us. Grant to us a determined faith and a fervent love, that we might be reflections of your divine grace. Hear our prayer, O Lord, as we offer our petitions in the name of the One who is love, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From The Abingdon Preaching Annual Series 2, Copyright © by Abingdon Press.
Becoming One
Acts 8:26-40
The story of Philip and the Ethiopian is full of surprises. We are dazzled by the speed and action of the account. The story functions mainly as a reminder that in God’s new community—the church—old boundaries are not only smudged, they are being erased. The Ethiopian’s conversion is one in a series of three conversions (the Ethiopian, Saul, and Cornelius), which redefine for Jewish-Christians the dimensions of the people of God.
All people have a built-in sense that observes life and makes judgments about life from each person’s unique perspective. Quoting Thoreau, Eugene Peterson affirms this in his book Working the Angles: “I should not talk so much about myself if there is anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.” People can only assume truth from their angle of vision. Acts, however, changes all of that. God’s gracious perceptions of persons make them fit and, therefore, God’s realm keeps expanding.
One of many surprises in this story is that anyone would be traveling in the middle of the day in the Near Eastern heat. Afriend who lived in Iraq said that often the daily temperature reached 135 degrees F. Thus, the question of why one would travel in the heat would naturally arise. We might also ask how Philip was transported to and from the Ethiopian, but the text is interested mainly in telling us something else. The text wants us to see God’s grace in action.
This new community of the Spirit, seen in its ideal vestment at Pentecost in Acts 2, opens up the community of faith to even those who live at its very edges. Ethiopians in biblical times were generally thought of as persons of color, as well as foreigners who lived beyond the reaches of the African desert. Therefore, Ethiopians were viewed as marginal in a negative sense, but also in a positive sense as persons who engendered curiosity. They were often held in esteem and amazement. Since the Ethiopian was a minister for Queen Candace, we can only assume he was a person of high status. Whether he was a Jew or Gentile is still open for debate.
God, of course, created all people and created them to be in fellowship with one another. Sometimes, though, humans put limits on who is welcome and who is not in particular communities. As pastor in my first church, I was curious why the members seemed to be so open and warm toward me. I was young, inexperienced, single, a recent progressive seminary graduate, just returned from Africa and, on top of all that, I was from California. These, after all, were not particularly stellar pastoral credentials to bring to a small United Methodist church in rural central Texas! But the people seemed to respond to my ministry, making me all the more curious.
One morning before Sunday school I cornered two of my older members in the kitchen and asked them: “Why did you accept me so completely, since I am about as different from anyone here as we could imagine?” They merely replied, as if waiting months for the question, “You are one of us, now!”
When the church welcomes all persons as those for whom Christ has died, then we will be near the kingdom of God. (David N. Mosser)
Love at the Center
1 John 4:7-21
The Roman army had subdued his kingdom, and now the king of Armenia stood before the conquering general. The king fell to his knees and pled with the Roman general: “Do whatever you wish with me, but I beg you to spare the lives of my family.” The general spared the life of the king and his family.
Later, the king asked his wife what had been her impression of the Roman conqueror, but she responded, “I never saw him.”
“How could you have failed to see him?” asked the king. “He was only a few feet away. What were you looking at?”
With tears welling up in her eyes, the queen replied, “I saw only you, the one who was willing to die that I might live.”
Each of us who has given his or her life to Christ can put ourselves in the story, for we know what it is to have someone love us enough to die for us. Such remarkable love is at the very center of the character of God, and thus it is at the center of our walk with Christ.
I. God Demonstrates His Love to Us
God has shown his love to us through Jesus Christ (v. 9). Through his death on the cross, Christ paid the price for our sin at the cost of his own blood. God so loved us that he “sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v. 10). Never has there been a more awesome display of love than on Good Friday, when Jesus took our sin upon himself and carried them to a cross. And never has there been a more awesome display of the power of love than on Easter morning, when Christ emerged victorious from the tomb.
God has also shown his love to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit (v. 13). We have ongoing evidence of God’s love in our lives, through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Just as a wedding ring on the finger is a constant reminder of the love of a husband or wife, so the continuing presence of God’s Spirit within us is a reminder of God’s love for each one of us.
II. Our Response to God’s Love Is to Love One Another
The implication of God’s amazing love is clear: “since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (v. 11). If we have experienced God’s atoning love through Christ, and if wecontinue to experience God’s love through the indwelling presence of the Spirit, then we are compelled to become instruments of God’s love to others. Just as metal conducts electricity, we are to be “conductors” of divine love—allowing it to pass through us and touch a lost and hurting world.
If God’s love has really come to dwell in us, it makes a transforming difference. It is impossible to be a repository of divine love and, at the same time, be motivated by hatred for others. Love and hatred are like oil and water—they do not mix. If God’s love is present, there is no room for hatred or bitterness.
Have you experienced God’s love in your own life? As you yield your life to Christ’s saving presence, you will come to understand authentic love as you have never known it before. Let love transform you! (Michael Duduit)
Formula for the Good Life
John 15:1-8
Every day is the first day of the rest of your life. What are you going to do with it? What are you doing today for tomorrow? What are you going to do today that will make you happy for the rest of your life?
The formula for the good life is incredibly simple: Holiness = Happiness.
Jesus explained, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you . . . I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (vv. 4-5 NIV).
The degree of happiness in a person’s life is directly related to the degree of holiness in a person’s life. As branches, our life and energy are linked to our connection to the vine, or God.
A man with a debilitating alcohol problem went to his doctor for help. The doctor said, “Now sit down and let me show you something.” The doctor proceeded to fill one glass with whiskey and another glass with water. He put a worm into each glass. The worm in the whiskey quickly keeled over, while the worm in the water seemed to be getting along quite well. The doctor asked his struggling patient, “What does that tell you?” “Well,” the man said, “I guess it means I won’t get worms if I drink whiskey.”
Some folks just don’t get it. Some folks just don’t get Jesus. They don’t see the obvious. They don’t see Jesus as the answer to all of their questions. They don’t see Jesus as the way to the good life. Some folks, as Jesus said, just don’t have eyes that see or ears that hear (Mark 8:18).
We can’t do too much about the spiritually deaf and blind. They require God’s intervention. But as the parable of the sower reminds us (Matt. 13:1-23), we still have the privilege and responsibility to work with our Lord for the salvation of the world. We can point people to Jesus as Lord and Savior. We can proclaim Jesus as the way to the good life.
Let me be direct. I have never met a person who has invited Jesus into her or his life and nurtures that relationship through the spiritual disciplines who isn’t happy, whole, joyful, and secure.
Let me be even more direct. If a person isn’t happy, whole, joyful, and secure, that person isn’t close to Jesus (vv. 5, 7-8). If a person is holy, that person is happy. If a person isn’t happy, that person isn’t holy.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. If you want to be happy, get closer to Jesus! If you want to be happier, get holier! (Robert R. Kopp)
From a Child's Point of View
First Reading: Acts 8:26-40. Some older children will recognize Ethiopia as a modern country. Others will need to have this pointed out. (Identifying Ethiopia on a globe or map enhances everyone's sense of its reality.) In any case, Ethiopia seems as far away and foreign to children today as it did to Luke. So they can appreciate Luke's point that God sent Jesus not just for people "like us," but for people as far away and as different as the Ethiopians. By sending Philip to tell the Ethiopian about Jesus and to baptize him, God further insisted that people of all nations and races be included in the church.
Psalm: Psalm 22:25-31. This is a complex passage filled with difficult poetic images. Children are more likely to catch occasional phrases that describe people who should praise God than they are to hear the whole text. The New Jerusalem Bible offers the most, though not completely, satisfactory translation for children.
Epistle: 1 John 4:7-21. Worshipers of all ages have the same problem with this passage. It overwhelms us with good one-liners about God and love, all of which are true and important, but we need to pick each one up and examine it alone. Some speak more powerfully than others to children.
"Let us love one another because love comes from God" speaks more clearly to literal thinkers than does "God is love." The latter associates a "person" with an activity or feeling. The former suggests an activity that God inspires and endorses.
"Those who say they love God but hate their brothers and sisters are liars" and "Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters" are related to one of children's daily concerns. They need to hear that this applies both to our brothers and sisters at home and to all our brothers and sisters in God's worldwide family. They also need to be reminded that love describes a way we treat people, not just how we feel about them. We can treat with respect even people we do not like or admire.
Gospel: John 15:1-8. Urban children, except those with gardening parents, have little experience with the process and purpose of pruning. It will need to be explained, and then its relation to the way God works in and through us must also be explained. (That's a lot of explaining!)
Provide specific examples of what it means for a person to be pruned. Bad habits can be cut out. The way we spend our time can be changed for example, we can watch less TV so that there is time for more stimulating and giving activities. We can learn something new that will change the way we do things (a good reason to go to church school).
Watch Words
Speak of the Ethiopian official, to avoid dealing with the definition of a eunuch. Or define a eunuch as a man who had an operation so that he would never have children. Point out that often eunuchs were the only men allowed to serve queens. Still, few men chose to become eunuchs, even in order to obtain the high office of the Ethiopian Philip met. So the Ethiopian probably had had an unhappy life and knew what Isaiah was talking about when he wrote of being humiliated and denied justice.
Abide is not a commonly used word today, especially among children. The New Jerusalem Bible's translation of today's Gospel does not use the word at all. If you use it, define it as staying close to, and provide lots of specific examples babies must abide with their parents to survive; dedicated students may abide with or "shadow" their teachers in order to learn everything they can from them; Christians abide in their church in order to grow as a disciples. Some children will have heard the exclamation, "I can't abide him!"
Children often define love in terms of sexual passion or drippy sentimentality. Be sure they know that John is talking about caring about people and being ready to give up what you want so that others can have what they need.
Let the Children Sing
For children, "Come Christians Join to Sing," with all its Alleluias, is the best hymn for the latter part of the Easter season.
Invite a children's choir or class to present, as an anthem, one of the many songs about love from its Bible school and church camp repertoire. "We Love Because God First Loved Us" and "Love, Love, Love" are two that are generally well known. "For the Beauty of the Earth" is one of the easier hymnbook hymns that list the ways God loves us.
Many new hymnals intentionally include hymns from other cultures, and even other languages, to celebrate the worldwide Christian family. Sing one of them to celebrate Philip's encounter with the Ethiopian. The simple words and melody of "Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love," a Ghanian hymn, make it a particularly good choice.
Children have trouble with some of the traditional hymns about God's presence. "Abide with Me" is filled with impossible poetic images. Though the language of "I Need Thee Every Hour" is certainly child-accessible, the melody and passion with which some adults sing it can lead many children to sing it overdramatically, through giggles.
The Liturgical Child
1. Feature Ethiopia in your worship center. Display a map or globe with Ethiopia highlighted. Hang a banner or other art by Ethiopian artists. Display flowers similar to those that bloom in Ethiopia.
2. Be ready to tell worshipers about your denomination's connection to the church in Ethiopia. Pray specifically for the church in Ethiopia and for the people of Ethiopia in general. As I write, Ethiopians face both famine and war.
Another prayerful response to the story of the Ethiopian is to pray not only for Ethiopians, but for people all over the world. Pray your way around the globe, noting specifically the joys and needs of national and ethnic groups. To participate more fully, the congregation can respond to each prayer, "Lord, hear our prayers for our brothers and sisters."
3. To keep the Easter Alleluias going, turn the psalm into a praise litany. During the reading, the congregation says, "Alleluia!" after each of the following verses: 25, 26, 28, 29a, 29b, and 31 (based on the versification of The New Jerusalem Bible).
Sermon Resources
1. Display prominently a large potted plant that has been allowed to grow profusely. During the sermon, demonstrate, or ask a gardener in your congregation to demonstrate, while you describe the pruning of this plant. Work in the order of the verses of the Gospel text. The result should be an attractive plant that will grace rather than disgrace the chancel.
2. When churches welcome refugee families, it is often the children on both sides who form the quickest, strongest bridges. Because children can play and work together with few words, refugee children often learn American ways by mimicking American children, and then they teach their parents. Children also learn new languages more readily than most adults. If the story of Philip and the Ethiopian leads you to speak of refugee resettlement, be sure to include stories about the ways children have helped. Point out to children that because they can do what adults cannot, they have special responsibilities in reaching out to "foreigners."
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