7 natural barriers to sustained church growth by Ron EdmondsonIn church planting, we defied the rules of growth for several years. There are “rules,” which when they happen will naturally stall growth. We were convinced they didn’t apply to us. What we learned is it just takes more time — sometimes.
Recognizing these early and addressing them is key to sustaining growth and momentum.
Here are seven natural barriers to growth:
Facilities: There is something to the 80 percent rule of capacity. When your attendance at a service reaches 80 percent full you will eventually begin to stall. It’s not immediate, but it is eventual. In church planting we defied this one for several years. We were convinced it did not apply to us. And it didn’t for a while. I am still convinced it can be addressed without the only solution being building bigger facilities, but leadership must be intentional. One way we addressed it was to use “fullness” as a part of our vision-casting. It works for a time but eventually one of these other barriers begins to occur.
Mindset: When the resistance to change is greater than the need for change you can expect growth to stall. It doesn’t matter if it’s a church plant or an established church — eventually people get comfortable with the way things are and traditions begin to take shape. When you begin to alter those traditions some people will naturally resist. To continue to grow leaders must consistently challenge the norm and encourage healthy change.
Burnout: It could be volunteer or staff burnout. In a church plant, after people have spent so much time setting up and tearing down, eventually they grow tired. The key is to find ways to motivate them again or continually add to the volunteer base. Doing both is probably the best option.
Complacency: When people no longer seem to care if growth occurs or not. They may be satisfied or passive, but their attitude is always contagious. This is why leaders must continually cast and recast vision. It’s also why we must continually embrace change, because “new” stirs momentum.
Country club small group Bible studies: I’ve noticed this one is often overlooked in the established church — especially when church growth has already plateaued. Whenever a group sits together with no new people entering long enough they become closed to outsiders, even if they think they are not. Newcomers can’t compete with the inside jokes and confidential information the group has already developed together. One way to address this is by continually starting new groups. Some churches “force” or strongly encourage groups to break up and start over with new people.
Leadership void: Continued growth requires new leadership. There will need to be new initiatives, creative ways to do things and simply replacement of the leaders who move or quit. One key to sustain growth is a successful leadership development program.
Leadership lid: This one is the capacity of the senior leadership. If a leader is controlling, for example, there will be a cap. The church will be confined to the leader’s personal abilities. When leaders realize they have reached their personal lid they must be humble enough to admit it and seek help from others. Empowering and delegating become even more important. (Of course, they're always important.)
These are some I have observed and experienced personally. I’m certain there are others. The biggest mistake I see leaders make, and I’ve done this as well, is to deny there are issues. They may be subtle for a time but if you wait until they are obvious the damage will be much more difficult to address.
Ron Edmondson blogs at RonEdmondson.com.
No, the world isn't getting worse by Dave BarnhartThe sincere ladies who stopped by my house had Bibles and binders full of literature from their church. They had practiced their pitch and knew their talking points well. After shaking hands, smiling, and talking about the fall-like temperatures, one of them made their opening statement:
“When you look around at all the things going on in the world today, doesn’t it seem like the world is getting worse?”
“No, actually. I don’t think the world is getting worse.”
She looked appalled.
I was as surprised as she was. I had prepared to tell them that I was a United Methodist pastor, and that I didn’t want them to waste their time with a theological discussion that wouldn’t benefit any of us. But something in her sureness that the world was going to hell in a handbasket provoked something inside of me.
I would agree that there are a lot of problems in the world. We may be living in the midst of a great extinction brought about by our profligate use of the world’s resources. Gun violence in our country and extremism in the world present us with visions of humankind’s brutality. Mass incarceration and systemic racism perpetuate inequality. And — oh yeah, I almost forgot — the church seems to be hemorrhaging.
Christians who talk about the end times often seem to be the most pessimistic about the future. Louis Evely wrote that, “The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world do not believe in God.”
But it’s not only religious folks who believe bad news about the end times. One of my atheist friends believes we are on the eve of humankind’s extinction. Human nature is so perverse, he believes, that there is no way we will get off the planet and become a space-faring race before we either blow ourselves up or ruin our planet. In his eschatology, the salvation of the human race, whether from God or from human ingenuity, is a naive hope.
He, the ladies in my driveway and presidential candidates of diverse political views would probably all agree that the world is going downhill. They might agree on nearly everything except God and their preferred policy solutions.
But I believe Christian eschatology is about Good News. We can catch glimpses, and there are signs of hope for the world, if we dare look for them. A recent video that helps us visualize thedeath toll of World War II also makes the point that violence worldwide has been decreasing over the last several decades. People have a hard time believing that fewer people are being killed because the news is so full of violence all of the time. But if peace broke out all over the world, how long would it be until we knew it?
And although economic inequality, systemic racism and oppression of all kinds are still very much a part of our public life, there is a growing awareness that we cannot wait on a centralized leadership to address these issues. Grassroots movements like #blacklivesmatter have illustrated the ability of everyday people to shift the cultural conversation.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that we're marching inevitably toward utopia. I don’t place my faith in human progress. But I do take Jesus seriously when he says, “the Kingdom is among you.”
In his “Theology of Hope,” Jurgen Moltmann writes that both despair and presumption are symptoms of hopelessness, a kind of “sin against hope.” The assertion that the world is steadily declining and that the best future for us is a quick death, the rapture or the destructive wrath of God are all hopeless responses. Hope, Moltmann argues, is the distinctive quality of Christian eschatology that connects the problems of the present with an openness to Christ’s future in the resurrection. We live in “the world of possibilities,” which is on rails neither to heaven nor hell in a handbasket. Instead, Christ creates a “new horizon” which calls Christians forward into active engagement. Followers of Christ have a future-oriented yet in-the-moment attitude toward life.
The future does not depend on our “building” the kingdom of God. Our activity of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly of God is a response to the coming justice of God. Seeing the reign of God approaching on the horizon, we move to do what we can to “humanize” our present world.
So, when missionaries at my door, or preachers in the pulpit or presidential candidates speak fondly of the past and talk about the world getting worse, I think about what Moltmann calls the “Exodus Church.” Our God is active in history with an unfinished world. God invites us to be part of God’s salvation project.
So, no, I don’t think the world is getting worse. I think the Kingdom is breaking in.
Dave Barnhart is the pastor of Saint Junia UMC in Birmingham, Ala. He blogs at DaveBarnhart.net.
Having the Ashley Madison ‘talk’ by David PersonNow that millions of members of the cheating website Ashley Madison have been outed by hackers, it’s time for pastors to start giving their members — especially the ones considering marriage — The Talk.
It needs to be as frank as the talk that African-American parents give to their children so they can survive — hopefully — encounters with biased or bigoted police officers. It should be as real as the talk that many modern parents seem to be having with their children about sex and sexuality — even though some of us with children and grandchildren are still waiting for parents to give us “the talk.”
Maybe pastors should start by having couples do a Google search of words like “infidelity,” “extramarital affairs,” and “cheating spouses.” They’d get a serious reality check about how prevalent and pervasive infidelity is — and perhaps that it’s easier than they might think to mess up.
They also need to know how to gauge the internal warning signsthat indicate a person might be vulnerable to having affairs. Perhaps pastors should lead couples through an emotional and psychological inventory to uncover any potentially problematic experiences, feelings or memories.
What may be most challenging is facing the reality that being Christians and going to church don’t inoculate a couple from adultery. Couples need to see the statistics regarding adultery and Christians.
And if the pastor is healthy, transparent and brave, she or he will make it clear to the couple that even some clergy cheat on their own spouses — some falling prey to seduction; others by being predatory themselves. Of all the affair scenarios into which a Christian can fall, it may be the worst. Clergy-lay person affairs not only can destroy a marriage, but can make any future connections with God or the church difficult, if not impossible.
Sex is one of the most important aspects of a marriage, yet many of us have been ill-prepared for its physical, emotional, mental and spiritual impact. Some of us tripped over it on our way into puberty without understanding fully what we’d discovered until years later, accumulating painful mistakes and destructive bad habits along the way. Some have been forced into sex by molesters and rapists who preyed on unsuspecting victims in Sunday School classes and choir rehearsals.
Marriage is, of course, a good thing. I believe in it so much that I decided to try it again after my first marriage failed.
But marriage is not a fairy tale. Husbands aren’t Prince Charmings. Wives aren’t Cinderellas. Marriage requires an unwavering commitment to personal growth, to each other and to the concept of marriage itself.
Couples need to know upfront that Ashley Madison — or her dastardly brother Allen — are always lurking in the shadows, looking for an opportunity to poison their love and destroy their marriage. And if they are going to make their marriage work, they need to know how to identify the enemy, especially in the church where Jesus said the wheat and tares will grow together.
Making guns our God
By Mark LockardIt’s difficult to write critically about guns in America. Not because there aren’t clear or definitive statements to make, but because you know exactly what kind of responses you’ll get before you type your first word. Guns are a passionate topic in a land that includes right to their ownership (though most ignore the ‘well-regulated militia’ part) in its highest legal document. I’m confident that, as you’re reading this, several comments will be posted by people who read only the title and began typing.
It’s frustrating and defeating, whether I’m thinking about the issue religiously, socially, logically, emotionally, or any other possible way. It’s incredibly hard not to be cynical, which I wasafter hearing about the deaths of two local television employees in Viriginia, shot dead live on the air by a former coworker. Two young people, cut down and added to the ever-swelling tally of those dead by gun in the United States.
It’s frustrating that there is sharp disagreement among Americans on the realities of gun violence. There are few issues in this country that create such seemingly irreconcilable division as gun ownership and its results. I’m fully aware that nothing I say here will change anyone’s deep-seated beliefs. Commenters will call me out as naive, stupid, or against “freedom,” however ambiguously that’s defined. Others will share this article with their like-minded friends, perhaps offering a hearty “Amen!” with it. Both will be liked, retweeted and affirmed among their community of believers.
Personally, I’m not sure there’s any progress to be made. Sadly, I agree with Dan Hodges:
In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.
So let me be clear about where I stand. I don’t have a problem with hunting rifles used to hunt animals for food. Other than that, I’m opposed to civilian gun ownership. Guns are made for dealing death. And if they’re not made for the death of an animal, that means they’re made for the death of a human. And given that reality, I see no way to reconcile owning handguns, assault rifles and the like with reality of Christ, which is fundamentally about dealing life. Not death.
I expect to have several arguments quoted at me. One will be the right to self-defense and the preservation of one’s own life in the face of danger, to which I say (if the arguer is a Christ-follower) Christ himself rebuked the use of the sword upon his own capture, knowing capture meant his own death and the possible deaths of those associated with him. We must also examine the claim of self-defense when it comes to guns, as they aren’t elements of defense in the first place. As Professor Adam Kotsko said rather well:
“Guns are devices for causing grave bodily injury, up to and including death. That's their express purpose. Pretending that the purpose of a gun is to "defend yourself" is euphemism and sophistry. You cannot directly "defend yourself" using a gun. It's not a shield or a barricade. Nor can you shoot bullets that will intercept or deflect those being shot at you. You "defend yourself" with a gun only indirectly by threatening to kill someone — or actually wounding or killing them.”
This presents a severe complication for the Christ-follower. If we truly believe Christ offers us life abundant, life beyond life, and that this same Christ commands us to love all, even our enemies, then the knee-jerk reaction to first kill those who might cause us bodily harm is something other than Christian.
This is how I’d also respond to the other argument I know will be thrown at me: just war theory. I’ll be told that, as they read it, St. Augustine long ago laid out a clear understanding of how and when Christians should deal death. To which I can only say, “I don’t buy it." While I do think there are situations in which violent conflict can be justified (the classic example being fighting to bring down Nazi Germany in WWII), I don’t think it can ever be done so in Christian terms. Theologically, we cannot agree if you assert that killing of any kind can be justified in the name of Christ. I believe this for the reasons given above, namely that Jesus lived, died, and lived again to affirm the blessedness and the sanctity of the lives we live together.
The Christ I know is one of life and peace, even in the face of death. Christ shows us that even if we can’t avoid death, much as we might like to because we are human and a fear of death is natural, we know that life wins out. This is what we’re asked to affirm in when faced with the empty tomb. Losing our fear of harm and death, and lifting up a savior who delights in lives lived fully, is our Christian call. Why can’t we trust in that more than a gun?
How to pray for everything your soul needs
By Clifton StringerOver the last six months, I have had the chance to do some research on both Thomas Gallus (early 13th century) and Peter John Olivi (later 13th century). (Full disclosure: My teacher Boyd Taylor Coolman is currently finishing a book on Thomas Gallus.) Peter John Olivi gets one of his teachings on prayer from Thomas Gallus, so Gallus' teaching obviously stuck with him. This particular teaching on prayer has stuck with me too. (I also refer to it here.) When I started to wonder why this particular teaching on prayer stuck with me, it slowly became clear. It is extremely helpful as a tool for considering one's actual prayers, and the needs of one's soul. It helps me pray better.
I think it can help you too.
First, I'll run through the teaching, then I'll show you what I mean about how helpful it is.
Thomas Gallus himself loved the writings of the sixth century Syriac monastic mystic who wrote as Dionysius the Areopagite. In one of Dionysius' treatises called Divine Names (section 3.1) he refers to "all pure prayers". Thomas Gallus wrote spiritual commentaries on Dionysius' writings, and it is from this simple phrase that he unfolds his teaching on chaste prayers.
Tomb of Thomas Gallus in the Basilica of Sant'Andrea at Vercelli, Italy.
Gallus says that there are three kinds of chaste prayers. First, there are chaste prayers; second, more chaste prayers; third, most chaste prayers.
Each of these kinds of chaste prayers is appropriate to us since, as members of Christ's church, we are spiritually engaged to him: we are Jesus Christ's beloved bride, awaiting the day of our marriage and its consummation. Praying chastely is how we wait for our wedding day, so to speak. Thomas Gallus makes these connections biblically by reading the Song of Songs allegorically in light of New Testament passages like Ephesians 5:21-33, which depicts the marriage of Christ and the Church, and Revelation 21:2: "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband". Since the Bible depicts the whole people of God as spiritually betrothed to Jesus Christ, and so awaiting for our full uniting to God, Thomas Gallus thinks that describing different kinds of prayers as different degrees of chaste prayers makes sense of where we are spiritually.
Here's how he does it.
Plain old chaste prayers, for Gallus, refer to prayers where we ask for bodily or temporal or material things. We might ask for an illness to be removed from a family member, we might pray to be able to get a certain job, etc.
More chaste prayers, in turn, refer to prayers we pray for spiritual things. This could be a prayer for more faith, a prayer for spiritual refreshment, a prayer for wisdom for oneself or someone else (James 1:5). If we pray for the ability to love a particular enemy, or for an increase in our soul of spiritual love for God and neighbor, it would qualify to Gallus as a more chaste prayer. Or if we pray that our friend would be guided by the Spirit to resist a certain temptation, it is a more chaste prayer.
Most chaste prayers, however, are not for anything bodily or even anything spiritual. Most chaste prayers are prayers for God himself, for God alone. Most chaste prayer is the prayer which asks for divine union, for the consummation of Jesus Christ’s spiritual betrothal to the soul. These, Gallus thinks, are the best and highest prayers of all.
Notice how the hierarchy Thomas Gallus (among many others) sees between material things, spiritual things, and God himself is reflected in the threefold order of prayers. Material things are lower than spiritual things, and God is even beyond spiritual things. Also, notice how this makes most chaste prayers a kind of limit prayer: Chaste prayers and more chaste prayers both ask God for some good that God creates, whether it is a material good or a spiritual good. But most chaste prayers ask for nothing created at all: They only ask for God, who is beyond all things, even all spiritual things, as their creator. It is only because God is beyond all things that God can be lovingly present to each thing in his entirety, without neglecting something else or encroaching on the material and spiritual things God is near. In theological language, it is only because God is absolutely transcendent that he is able to be absolutely imminent, more lovingly near to each thing than it is to itself, nearer to us than we are to ourselves.
OK, so that's Thomas Gallus' teaching: chaste prayers, more chaste prayers, and most chaste prayers. Here's how I've discovered it is so helpful.
When I first heard this teaching of Gallus, I sort of thought: How cute and quaint. A medieval mystical theologian has thought of a nice neat orderly device for thinking about our prayers. Medieval Christians saw divinely given order everywhere else, so why not there too? But since the teaching stuck with me, it eventually happened that one day I analyzed my prayer life in light of it. The result was convicting!
I noticed that the vast majority of prayers I pray are prayers for material things, prayers for myself or my family regarding bodily conditions or health or success of one kind or another. In comparison, very few of my prayers in an average day are for spiritual things. Even worse, I noticed that I had gone several days without intentionally praying a single prayer Gallus would regard as most chaste!
I've noticed that keeping Thomas Gallus' teaching about chaste, more chaste, and most chaste prayers handy in my mind helps me to pray for all three. I shouldn't just pray for bodily things for myself and others, but for the spiritual gifts, the wisdom, the moral guidance and renewal my family and friends (and the whole church and world!) and I need. But, when it comes down to it, my soul, and your soul and everyone's soul doesn't just need God's material gifts or spiritual gifts or guidance and help. We need God.
As a deer longs
for flowing streams,
so longs my soul
for thee, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God? [Psalm 42:1-2]
We need God more than anything. We need God more than all things put together. We need divine union, in the language of Dionysius or Thomas Gallus.
Keeping Thomas Gallus' teaching on chaste prayers close helps me remember to pray for everything my soul needs. I hope it helps your soul too.
Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of "Christ the Lightgiver" in the Converge Bible Studies series.
What Instagram taught me about God
By Shane Raynor
Did you hear the news? Instagram is no longer requiring photos to be perfectly proportioned squares. Now you can upload photos in portrait and landscape… and square as well if you like the simplicity of not having one more thing to decide when you take a photograph.
Besides the fact that Instagram is owned by Facebook, the square rule has been one of the reasons I've preferred apps likeGoogle Photos and Flickr.
But think about this: the simplicity of the square format is one of the things that made Instagram so successful. You don’t have to figure out whether portrait or landscape is best. One aspect ratio fits all. And photos display neatly and consistently on your Instagram page and everywhere else.
Many people like boundaries and they also like simplicity. But for a while now, Instagram users have found workarounds to the square rule. That’s why you see the weird black or white padding on so many Instagram photos. These photos follow the letter of the law: they’re square. But they don’t follow the spirit of the law, because they’re not really square. They’ve been shoehorned to fit the right format. The powers that be at Instagram figured out that people like some flexibility. So they relaxed the square requirement.
This reminds me a little of Christianity. How many times have we put God in a box — or a square if you will — for simplicity’s sake? How often do we use our pet doctrines to make God more understandable, more accessible, more predictable or less dangerous?
Boundaries are a good thing unless they keep us from experiencing God’s fullness. And sometimes our doctrine and theology become so rigid, we risk not seeing the entire picture.
But we certainly don’t want to have no standards at all. That would be even worse. Thankfully Christians have the Holy Spirit and each other to help us find the right balance.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t always make things simpler. But he does make our faith experience a lot richer.
Brace yourself for Ashley Madison's impact on church kids
By Chelsen Vicari
The recent Ashley Madison hack leaves us watching marriages within the church crumble before our eyes. But the betrayal of an affair doesn’t just affect husband and wife. Children too are devastated by the unfaithfulness of a parent.
An affair drove me and my unsaved family to the cross. For kids whose families are entrenched in the church, an affair could drive them the opposite direction.
Josh Duggar, who formerly served as Family Research Council’s Executive Director, admitted to cheating on his wife Anna after it was discovered he had two separate accounts on Ashley Madison. The young Duggar couple have four small children. No doubt the Duggar children will be tainted by the rejection of their father, not to mention the public scrutiny and devastation of their mother.
Yesterday, Tabletalk editor R.C. Sproul Jr. was suspended from his teaching fellowship with Ligonier Ministries. Christianity Today reports that Sproul’s suspension was a consequence of the ministry leader’s visit to the Ashley Madison website. On hisblog, Sproul admitted, “In August 2014, in a moment of weakness, pain, and from an unhealthy curiosity, I visited Ashley Madison. My goal was not to gather research for critical commentary, but to fan the flames of my imagination.”
Sproul explained on his blog that he did not sign up for Ashley Madison’s services and promised he was always faithful to his wife while she lived. Sproul’s wife Denise died in 2011 after battling cancer. He has seven surviving children.
Josh Duggar and R.C. Sproul Jr. merely scratch the surface of prominent ministry leaders exposed by the Ashley Madison hack.
In his Christianity Today article, “My Pastor Is on the Ashley Madison List,” Ed Stetzer, the Executive Director of LifeWay Research, estimated 400 church leaders, including pastors and lay leaders throughout the United States and Canada, were looking for an affair through the Ashley Madison website.
However, you don’t need Ashley Madison to have an affair. And you don’t need a website hack to expose infidelity.
For my family, my father’s extramarital affair brought my broken-down parents crawling to the doors of a local church. They were craving just about any help they could get. Here they were introduced to Jesus, who provided their healing and total transformation.
I vividly remember life without Jesus. I remember the screaming and fighting. I remember being woken up in the middle of the night, carried to the car by a crying parent, and driven to grandma’s house because an affair came to light.
As the child of an unfaithful parent, you too feel rejected by the affair. Though the level of rejection is different than your mother’s devastation and rejection, you as the child go through a type of grieving period. You wonder that if only you were smarter, better behaved or prettier, then your parent wouldn’t have temporarily left your family in search of someone else. It might sound strange, but this is the raw emotional devastation that occurs when a parent’s cheating is uncovered.
Thank God of heaven that the affair did drive my family to the cross. Because I then experienced life with Jesus in our family. It wasn’t perfection, but I finally knew peace, stability and the accountability that the church provided my family.
The opposite effect threatens to occur for parents who commit affairs, yet ensure they and their children are at church every time the doors are open. I was devastated, deeply wounded, and developed distrust and commitment issues because of a lost parent’s affair. I can’t imagine how a child whose parents knew Christ yet still had an affair would feel.
Already we see a burgeoning trend among young evangelicals raised in the church who have grown callous towards the traditional Christian teachings of their parents and reject the church. Hypocrisy has certainly played its role. Because they see failure within the church, many young evangelicals have turned Jesus Christ into something of their own making.
In his article, “10 Counterfeit Jesus Figures,” Daniel Darling, Communications Director for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, explains that the believers who accept Christ, but reject the church, are worshiping a “Post-Church Jesus.” Darling writes:
“Burned out by the overly political, legalistic church of your youth? The Post-Church Jesus allows you to worship him without all the trappings of the institutional church. In some ways, this Jesus is attractive for those who’ve grown tired of a gospel that sounds more like traditionalism than the gospel of Christ.
“But the real Jesus doesn’t offer his followers the option of following him without being part of the church. The very act of regeneration by faith baptizes the believer into the body of Christ. Christ loves his bride and offers no fruitful path of faith outside of the community of faith.”
Pastors and youth ministry leaders need to prepare themselves now to minister to worshippers of a “Post-Church Jesus.” They will be wounded by the infidelity of their parent and, in turn, distrust those in ministry leadership. They will develop bitterness towards others and live with the expectation of others to eventually betray them.
We recognize that the church is not perfect nor can it ever be on its own. Sin still affects us all and, as Darling points out, the community of faith is not optional. But the impact of the Ashley Madison hack and infidelity as a whole, are further reasons why it is imperative for the church to prove ourselves trustworthy. As Philippians 2:15 instructs, “above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
There is good news after an affair. The Good News can and must still be shared with those inside of the church impacted by infidelity. This will not be easy. In some ways it will be even harder than witnessing to those unfamiliar with the gospel. But, thank God, our job is simply to share the truth in love. Then we let God take care of the heart-transforming. Trust me, he will.
Chelsen Vicari serves as the Evangelical Program Director for the Institute on Religion and Democracy. This article originally appeared at Juicy Ecumenism and is published here with permission.
An unpopular idea about ISIS
By David Dorn
I've got an unpopular idea about the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) based on the story of Jonah and the fish.
Related link: Help Children in Iraq
David Dorn is the Lead Contemporary Pastor for Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas. He is also the author of “Reclaiming Anger,” “Under Wraps Youth Study” and the founder of The PREPOSTEROUS Project.
Have you ever wished you could unsend an email?
By Joseph Yoo
I recently discovered that Google’s Gmail has an “undo send” function. Turn it on and you can have up to 30 seconds to unsend an email that you just sent.
Of course, I enabled it and thought, “This is a great feature! I’ll probably need to use it!”
Then I felt a little sad — ashamed even — that I believed I needed such a feature.
There's something about a screen and keyboard that helps us feel detached from the people we're communicating with. It gives us a false sense of security, and we feel like we can express anything from the depths of our minds. Thus trolling has become a big part of Internet communications.
It’s probably safe to say that the majority of us would think twice about the things we say on comment boards and in emails if we were face to face with the actual person. (What always drives me crazy is when I reach out to someone [in person or over the phone] who sent an angry email and they totally play it off. “Oh, you got that? It was nothing really. Don’t worry about it.” No, it obviously was something.)
I know a colleague who has a habit of firing off emails and then apologizing for them later. But who hasn’t sent emails that we later regret and/or have to apologize for? We’ve all been recipients of those emails, too.
And if you’re anything like me, the first thing you want to do is to send a response that is equally scathing and sarcastic and shaming. But the recipient of that email usually fails to see your humor and intelligence. Now they’re even more offended and the likelihood of them responding with an even nastier email has increased.
So then we receive another email … and the situation escalates from there. The maddening thing is that the majority of the drama, ill feelings and misunderstanding could be avoided with a phone call or (even better) a face-to-face.
My goal is to never have to use the “undo send” feature.
Before I knew it even existed, I came up with some personal guidelines to follow when writing an email or blog post in response to something I don’t like:
I always write on a word processor, because the temptation to push the “send” or “post” button is often too much to resist.
Sleep on it. Contrary to popular belief, not everything has to be FAST and NOW. Sleeping on it helps clear your mind and spirit and helps eliminate the initial strong emotional reaction. 24 hours usually works best.
During that time of sleeping on it, I often do something to work off built-up stress. Sometimes it’s a walk. Sometimes it’s a quick round of whatever is in my PS4. Sometimes it’s getting ice cream with the family. Sometimes it’s a quick workout. (When I do go to work out, all of my workouts are quick). In all that I’m doing, prayer is involved. Anything to ground me back to the here and now; to reframe my thoughts; to remind myself of grace.
After some time away, I reread the email/post and edit it.
Then I sleep on it again, but this time I ask myself: a) can this email help make things better? b) would (and could) I say this to the person’s face? If the answer is no to either of the questions, then I know I should not send it. If the answer is yes:
I read it one more time and send it.
Are these steps fail-proof? Absolutely not. But the point for me is to eliminate the knee-jerk reaction that usually does the bulk of the damage.
While I hope to never have to use the “undo send” feature, the one absolute way to guarantee that is to reach out to the person in, well, person. A phone call at minimum but a face-to-face conversation is the best way to resolve conflict, even if there is no resolution.
You’ll at least be proactive in keeping conflict to a minimum and decreasing the chances of misunderstanding and miscommunication. Being reactive rarely helps defuse tension.
Yes, a lot of the times, you’ll have to be the “bigger person” to refuse to continue the dialogue in email and to continue it in person. And usually it sucks to have to be the bigger person. But most of the time, you’re better off for it in the long run.
A good book on doubt
By John Meunier
My blogging friend Talbot Davis sent me a copy of his new book, “The Shadow of a Doubt,” recently. In honor of a regular feature on his blog, I’d like to share my top five things I like about this book.
5. It engages an important pastoral topic in a faithful way. The book is based on a sermon series Davis preached at Good Shepherd Church on the topic of doubt. This is an important topic, but one I’ve heard handled in unproductive ways in the past. Davis acknowledges doubt — including his own — without praising it. In five sermons, he tackles important questions about doubt and makes relevant connections to people’s lives.
4. It displays Davis’ skill as a preacher. The book chapters are edited versions of Davis’ sermons, which makes this a bit of a sermon anthology for preachers such as myself who are still mastering their craft. Davis is a big fan of Andy Stanley’s one-point preaching style. If you’ve ever read Stanley’s book on preaching and wanted to see how such sermons look in actual practice, this book is a great resource. It also demonstrates Davis’ wonderful use of language and deep engagement with the biblical texts. Which brings me to …
3. It is biblical. Each chapter takes a close look at a key text. This is not a book collecting what secular authorities say about the topic of doubt. It is a book that brings our questions to the Bible and lets the Bible shape our answers.
2. It would be perfect for a small group. Each sermon is followed by well-crafted questions designed to promote small-group conversation, devotional activities, a prayer, and some scripture readings for the week ahead. This would be an easy and interesting five-week small-group curriculum.
1. My copy is autographed. I’m sure if you asked, you could get an autograph, too. I understand Davis will be signing books at the upcoming New Room Conference.
I recommend the book, especially as a resource for small group ministry. At 112 pages and $9.99, it is well worth the price.
Full disclosure: I was provided with a free (autographed) copy of the book and asked to write about it. I was only too happy to do that for a pastor who has a vital ministry in the United Methodist Church.
John Meunier is a part-time United Methodist pastor serving two churches in the Indiana Conference. He blogs at johnmeunier.wordpress.com.
Vatican backs plan to name Rome square for Martin Luther
By Rosie Scammell / Religion News Service
Pope Francis leads the “Via Crucis” (Way of the Cross) procession, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, at the Colosseum in Rome on April 3, 2015. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
ROME (RNS) The Vatican has given its backing to a central Rome square being named after Martin Luther, a church reformer excommunicated by the pope nearly 500 years ago.
A German Catholic priest and theologian, Luther was a key figure in the Protestant Reformation and sparked considerable controversy by challenging the authority of the Catholic Church. He denounced the corruption he saw among clergy in Rome and believed salvation came through faith alone — views that did not sit well with Pope Leo X.
Luther was excommunicated in 1521 and was never allowed to return to the Catholic Church, but now the Vatican’s views have changed.
Next month a hilltop square in Rome is due to be named Piazza Martin Lutero, in memory of Luther’s achievements. The site chosen is the Oppian Hill, a park area that overlooks the Colosseum.
The move has been six years in a making, following a request made by the Seventh-day Adventists, a Protestant denomination, Italian daily La Repubblica said. The original plan was to inaugurate the square in time for the 500th anniversary of Luther’s historic trip to Rome in 2010. City officials were not able to discuss the process behind naming the square or the reason for the holdup.
Despite Luther being thrown out of the Catholic Church during his lifetime, the Vatican reacted positively to news of the square’s upcoming inauguration. “It’s a decision taken by Rome city hall which is favorable to Catholics in that it’s in line with the path of dialogue started with the ecumenical council,” said the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, deputy director of the Vatican press office, referring to a gathering of churchmen to rule on faith matters.
The move contrasts sharply from views held by Luther around the time of his visit to Rome, when it was said he repeated the saying, “If there is a hell, Rome is built over it.”
Dialogue between Lutherans — a Protestant denomination that follows Luther’s teachings — and the Catholic Church was cemented in a document signed by bishops of the two churches in 2013. Pope Francis has also shown an openness to different churches, earlier this year supporting the need for a more unified Christian voice in Europe.
But within Italy there are very few Protestants; just 435,000 Italian citizens identify as Protestant, according to research published in 2012 by the Center for Studies on New Religions. Catholicism continues to be the dominant religion, with 97.9 percent of Italy’s 60 million residents having been baptized Catholic as of 2009.
This Sunday September 6, 2015
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125 (or Psalm 124); James 2:1-10 (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
Read more…
Gallus says that there are three kinds of chaste prayers. First, there are chaste prayers; second, more chaste prayers; third, most chaste prayers.
Each of these kinds of chaste prayers is appropriate to us since, as members of Christ's church, we are spiritually engaged to him: we are Jesus Christ's beloved bride, awaiting the day of our marriage and its consummation. Praying chastely is how we wait for our wedding day, so to speak. Thomas Gallus makes these connections biblically by reading the Song of Songs allegorically in light of New Testament passages like Ephesians 5:21-33, which depicts the marriage of Christ and the Church, and Revelation 21:2: "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband". Since the Bible depicts the whole people of God as spiritually betrothed to Jesus Christ, and so awaiting for our full uniting to God, Thomas Gallus thinks that describing different kinds of prayers as different degrees of chaste prayers makes sense of where we are spiritually.
Here's how he does it.
Plain old chaste prayers, for Gallus, refer to prayers where we ask for bodily or temporal or material things. We might ask for an illness to be removed from a family member, we might pray to be able to get a certain job, etc.
More chaste prayers, in turn, refer to prayers we pray for spiritual things. This could be a prayer for more faith, a prayer for spiritual refreshment, a prayer for wisdom for oneself or someone else (James 1:5). If we pray for the ability to love a particular enemy, or for an increase in our soul of spiritual love for God and neighbor, it would qualify to Gallus as a more chaste prayer. Or if we pray that our friend would be guided by the Spirit to resist a certain temptation, it is a more chaste prayer.
Most chaste prayers, however, are not for anything bodily or even anything spiritual. Most chaste prayers are prayers for God himself, for God alone. Most chaste prayer is the prayer which asks for divine union, for the consummation of Jesus Christ’s spiritual betrothal to the soul. These, Gallus thinks, are the best and highest prayers of all.
Notice how the hierarchy Thomas Gallus (among many others) sees between material things, spiritual things, and God himself is reflected in the threefold order of prayers. Material things are lower than spiritual things, and God is even beyond spiritual things. Also, notice how this makes most chaste prayers a kind of limit prayer: Chaste prayers and more chaste prayers both ask God for some good that God creates, whether it is a material good or a spiritual good. But most chaste prayers ask for nothing created at all: They only ask for God, who is beyond all things, even all spiritual things, as their creator. It is only because God is beyond all things that God can be lovingly present to each thing in his entirety, without neglecting something else or encroaching on the material and spiritual things God is near. In theological language, it is only because God is absolutely transcendent that he is able to be absolutely imminent, more lovingly near to each thing than it is to itself, nearer to us than we are to ourselves.
OK, so that's Thomas Gallus' teaching: chaste prayers, more chaste prayers, and most chaste prayers. Here's how I've discovered it is so helpful.
When I first heard this teaching of Gallus, I sort of thought: How cute and quaint. A medieval mystical theologian has thought of a nice neat orderly device for thinking about our prayers. Medieval Christians saw divinely given order everywhere else, so why not there too? But since the teaching stuck with me, it eventually happened that one day I analyzed my prayer life in light of it. The result was convicting!
I noticed that the vast majority of prayers I pray are prayers for material things, prayers for myself or my family regarding bodily conditions or health or success of one kind or another. In comparison, very few of my prayers in an average day are for spiritual things. Even worse, I noticed that I had gone several days without intentionally praying a single prayer Gallus would regard as most chaste!
I've noticed that keeping Thomas Gallus' teaching about chaste, more chaste, and most chaste prayers handy in my mind helps me to pray for all three. I shouldn't just pray for bodily things for myself and others, but for the spiritual gifts, the wisdom, the moral guidance and renewal my family and friends (and the whole church and world!) and I need. But, when it comes down to it, my soul, and your soul and everyone's soul doesn't just need God's material gifts or spiritual gifts or guidance and help. We need God.
As a deer longs
for flowing streams,
so longs my soul
for thee, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God? [Psalm 42:1-2]
We need God more than anything. We need God more than all things put together. We need divine union, in the language of Dionysius or Thomas Gallus.
Keeping Thomas Gallus' teaching on chaste prayers close helps me remember to pray for everything my soul needs. I hope it helps your soul too.
Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of "Christ the Lightgiver" in the Converge Bible Studies series.
What Instagram taught me about God
By Shane RaynorDid you hear the news? Instagram is no longer requiring photos to be perfectly proportioned squares. Now you can upload photos in portrait and landscape… and square as well if you like the simplicity of not having one more thing to decide when you take a photograph.
Besides the fact that Instagram is owned by Facebook, the square rule has been one of the reasons I've preferred apps likeGoogle Photos and Flickr.
But think about this: the simplicity of the square format is one of the things that made Instagram so successful. You don’t have to figure out whether portrait or landscape is best. One aspect ratio fits all. And photos display neatly and consistently on your Instagram page and everywhere else.
Many people like boundaries and they also like simplicity. But for a while now, Instagram users have found workarounds to the square rule. That’s why you see the weird black or white padding on so many Instagram photos. These photos follow the letter of the law: they’re square. But they don’t follow the spirit of the law, because they’re not really square. They’ve been shoehorned to fit the right format. The powers that be at Instagram figured out that people like some flexibility. So they relaxed the square requirement.
This reminds me a little of Christianity. How many times have we put God in a box — or a square if you will — for simplicity’s sake? How often do we use our pet doctrines to make God more understandable, more accessible, more predictable or less dangerous?
Boundaries are a good thing unless they keep us from experiencing God’s fullness. And sometimes our doctrine and theology become so rigid, we risk not seeing the entire picture.
But we certainly don’t want to have no standards at all. That would be even worse. Thankfully Christians have the Holy Spirit and each other to help us find the right balance.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t always make things simpler. But he does make our faith experience a lot richer.
Brace yourself for Ashley Madison's impact on church kids
By Chelsen VicariThe recent Ashley Madison hack leaves us watching marriages within the church crumble before our eyes. But the betrayal of an affair doesn’t just affect husband and wife. Children too are devastated by the unfaithfulness of a parent.
An affair drove me and my unsaved family to the cross. For kids whose families are entrenched in the church, an affair could drive them the opposite direction.
Josh Duggar, who formerly served as Family Research Council’s Executive Director, admitted to cheating on his wife Anna after it was discovered he had two separate accounts on Ashley Madison. The young Duggar couple have four small children. No doubt the Duggar children will be tainted by the rejection of their father, not to mention the public scrutiny and devastation of their mother.
Yesterday, Tabletalk editor R.C. Sproul Jr. was suspended from his teaching fellowship with Ligonier Ministries. Christianity Today reports that Sproul’s suspension was a consequence of the ministry leader’s visit to the Ashley Madison website. On hisblog, Sproul admitted, “In August 2014, in a moment of weakness, pain, and from an unhealthy curiosity, I visited Ashley Madison. My goal was not to gather research for critical commentary, but to fan the flames of my imagination.”
Sproul explained on his blog that he did not sign up for Ashley Madison’s services and promised he was always faithful to his wife while she lived. Sproul’s wife Denise died in 2011 after battling cancer. He has seven surviving children.
Josh Duggar and R.C. Sproul Jr. merely scratch the surface of prominent ministry leaders exposed by the Ashley Madison hack.
In his Christianity Today article, “My Pastor Is on the Ashley Madison List,” Ed Stetzer, the Executive Director of LifeWay Research, estimated 400 church leaders, including pastors and lay leaders throughout the United States and Canada, were looking for an affair through the Ashley Madison website.
However, you don’t need Ashley Madison to have an affair. And you don’t need a website hack to expose infidelity.
For my family, my father’s extramarital affair brought my broken-down parents crawling to the doors of a local church. They were craving just about any help they could get. Here they were introduced to Jesus, who provided their healing and total transformation.
I vividly remember life without Jesus. I remember the screaming and fighting. I remember being woken up in the middle of the night, carried to the car by a crying parent, and driven to grandma’s house because an affair came to light.
As the child of an unfaithful parent, you too feel rejected by the affair. Though the level of rejection is different than your mother’s devastation and rejection, you as the child go through a type of grieving period. You wonder that if only you were smarter, better behaved or prettier, then your parent wouldn’t have temporarily left your family in search of someone else. It might sound strange, but this is the raw emotional devastation that occurs when a parent’s cheating is uncovered.
Thank God of heaven that the affair did drive my family to the cross. Because I then experienced life with Jesus in our family. It wasn’t perfection, but I finally knew peace, stability and the accountability that the church provided my family.
The opposite effect threatens to occur for parents who commit affairs, yet ensure they and their children are at church every time the doors are open. I was devastated, deeply wounded, and developed distrust and commitment issues because of a lost parent’s affair. I can’t imagine how a child whose parents knew Christ yet still had an affair would feel.
Already we see a burgeoning trend among young evangelicals raised in the church who have grown callous towards the traditional Christian teachings of their parents and reject the church. Hypocrisy has certainly played its role. Because they see failure within the church, many young evangelicals have turned Jesus Christ into something of their own making.
In his article, “10 Counterfeit Jesus Figures,” Daniel Darling, Communications Director for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, explains that the believers who accept Christ, but reject the church, are worshiping a “Post-Church Jesus.” Darling writes:
“Burned out by the overly political, legalistic church of your youth? The Post-Church Jesus allows you to worship him without all the trappings of the institutional church. In some ways, this Jesus is attractive for those who’ve grown tired of a gospel that sounds more like traditionalism than the gospel of Christ.
“But the real Jesus doesn’t offer his followers the option of following him without being part of the church. The very act of regeneration by faith baptizes the believer into the body of Christ. Christ loves his bride and offers no fruitful path of faith outside of the community of faith.”
Pastors and youth ministry leaders need to prepare themselves now to minister to worshippers of a “Post-Church Jesus.” They will be wounded by the infidelity of their parent and, in turn, distrust those in ministry leadership. They will develop bitterness towards others and live with the expectation of others to eventually betray them.
We recognize that the church is not perfect nor can it ever be on its own. Sin still affects us all and, as Darling points out, the community of faith is not optional. But the impact of the Ashley Madison hack and infidelity as a whole, are further reasons why it is imperative for the church to prove ourselves trustworthy. As Philippians 2:15 instructs, “above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
There is good news after an affair. The Good News can and must still be shared with those inside of the church impacted by infidelity. This will not be easy. In some ways it will be even harder than witnessing to those unfamiliar with the gospel. But, thank God, our job is simply to share the truth in love. Then we let God take care of the heart-transforming. Trust me, he will.
Chelsen Vicari serves as the Evangelical Program Director for the Institute on Religion and Democracy. This article originally appeared at Juicy Ecumenism and is published here with permission.
An unpopular idea about ISIS
By David DornI've got an unpopular idea about the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) based on the story of Jonah and the fish.
Related link: Help Children in Iraq
David Dorn is the Lead Contemporary Pastor for Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas. He is also the author of “Reclaiming Anger,” “Under Wraps Youth Study” and the founder of The PREPOSTEROUS Project.
Have you ever wished you could unsend an email?
By Joseph YooI recently discovered that Google’s Gmail has an “undo send” function. Turn it on and you can have up to 30 seconds to unsend an email that you just sent.
Of course, I enabled it and thought, “This is a great feature! I’ll probably need to use it!”
Then I felt a little sad — ashamed even — that I believed I needed such a feature.
There's something about a screen and keyboard that helps us feel detached from the people we're communicating with. It gives us a false sense of security, and we feel like we can express anything from the depths of our minds. Thus trolling has become a big part of Internet communications.
It’s probably safe to say that the majority of us would think twice about the things we say on comment boards and in emails if we were face to face with the actual person. (What always drives me crazy is when I reach out to someone [in person or over the phone] who sent an angry email and they totally play it off. “Oh, you got that? It was nothing really. Don’t worry about it.” No, it obviously was something.)
I know a colleague who has a habit of firing off emails and then apologizing for them later. But who hasn’t sent emails that we later regret and/or have to apologize for? We’ve all been recipients of those emails, too.
And if you’re anything like me, the first thing you want to do is to send a response that is equally scathing and sarcastic and shaming. But the recipient of that email usually fails to see your humor and intelligence. Now they’re even more offended and the likelihood of them responding with an even nastier email has increased.
So then we receive another email … and the situation escalates from there. The maddening thing is that the majority of the drama, ill feelings and misunderstanding could be avoided with a phone call or (even better) a face-to-face.
My goal is to never have to use the “undo send” feature.
Before I knew it even existed, I came up with some personal guidelines to follow when writing an email or blog post in response to something I don’t like:
I always write on a word processor, because the temptation to push the “send” or “post” button is often too much to resist.
Sleep on it. Contrary to popular belief, not everything has to be FAST and NOW. Sleeping on it helps clear your mind and spirit and helps eliminate the initial strong emotional reaction. 24 hours usually works best.
During that time of sleeping on it, I often do something to work off built-up stress. Sometimes it’s a walk. Sometimes it’s a quick round of whatever is in my PS4. Sometimes it’s getting ice cream with the family. Sometimes it’s a quick workout. (When I do go to work out, all of my workouts are quick). In all that I’m doing, prayer is involved. Anything to ground me back to the here and now; to reframe my thoughts; to remind myself of grace.
After some time away, I reread the email/post and edit it.
Then I sleep on it again, but this time I ask myself: a) can this email help make things better? b) would (and could) I say this to the person’s face? If the answer is no to either of the questions, then I know I should not send it. If the answer is yes:
I read it one more time and send it.
Are these steps fail-proof? Absolutely not. But the point for me is to eliminate the knee-jerk reaction that usually does the bulk of the damage.
While I hope to never have to use the “undo send” feature, the one absolute way to guarantee that is to reach out to the person in, well, person. A phone call at minimum but a face-to-face conversation is the best way to resolve conflict, even if there is no resolution.
You’ll at least be proactive in keeping conflict to a minimum and decreasing the chances of misunderstanding and miscommunication. Being reactive rarely helps defuse tension.
Yes, a lot of the times, you’ll have to be the “bigger person” to refuse to continue the dialogue in email and to continue it in person. And usually it sucks to have to be the bigger person. But most of the time, you’re better off for it in the long run.
A good book on doubt
By John MeunierMy blogging friend Talbot Davis sent me a copy of his new book, “The Shadow of a Doubt,” recently. In honor of a regular feature on his blog, I’d like to share my top five things I like about this book.
5. It engages an important pastoral topic in a faithful way. The book is based on a sermon series Davis preached at Good Shepherd Church on the topic of doubt. This is an important topic, but one I’ve heard handled in unproductive ways in the past. Davis acknowledges doubt — including his own — without praising it. In five sermons, he tackles important questions about doubt and makes relevant connections to people’s lives.
4. It displays Davis’ skill as a preacher. The book chapters are edited versions of Davis’ sermons, which makes this a bit of a sermon anthology for preachers such as myself who are still mastering their craft. Davis is a big fan of Andy Stanley’s one-point preaching style. If you’ve ever read Stanley’s book on preaching and wanted to see how such sermons look in actual practice, this book is a great resource. It also demonstrates Davis’ wonderful use of language and deep engagement with the biblical texts. Which brings me to …
3. It is biblical. Each chapter takes a close look at a key text. This is not a book collecting what secular authorities say about the topic of doubt. It is a book that brings our questions to the Bible and lets the Bible shape our answers.
2. It would be perfect for a small group. Each sermon is followed by well-crafted questions designed to promote small-group conversation, devotional activities, a prayer, and some scripture readings for the week ahead. This would be an easy and interesting five-week small-group curriculum.
1. My copy is autographed. I’m sure if you asked, you could get an autograph, too. I understand Davis will be signing books at the upcoming New Room Conference.
I recommend the book, especially as a resource for small group ministry. At 112 pages and $9.99, it is well worth the price.
Full disclosure: I was provided with a free (autographed) copy of the book and asked to write about it. I was only too happy to do that for a pastor who has a vital ministry in the United Methodist Church.
John Meunier is a part-time United Methodist pastor serving two churches in the Indiana Conference. He blogs at johnmeunier.wordpress.com.
Vatican backs plan to name Rome square for Martin Luther
By Rosie Scammell / Religion News ServicePope Francis leads the “Via Crucis” (Way of the Cross) procession, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, at the Colosseum in Rome on April 3, 2015. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
ROME (RNS) The Vatican has given its backing to a central Rome square being named after Martin Luther, a church reformer excommunicated by the pope nearly 500 years ago.
A German Catholic priest and theologian, Luther was a key figure in the Protestant Reformation and sparked considerable controversy by challenging the authority of the Catholic Church. He denounced the corruption he saw among clergy in Rome and believed salvation came through faith alone — views that did not sit well with Pope Leo X.
Luther was excommunicated in 1521 and was never allowed to return to the Catholic Church, but now the Vatican’s views have changed.
Next month a hilltop square in Rome is due to be named Piazza Martin Lutero, in memory of Luther’s achievements. The site chosen is the Oppian Hill, a park area that overlooks the Colosseum.
The move has been six years in a making, following a request made by the Seventh-day Adventists, a Protestant denomination, Italian daily La Repubblica said. The original plan was to inaugurate the square in time for the 500th anniversary of Luther’s historic trip to Rome in 2010. City officials were not able to discuss the process behind naming the square or the reason for the holdup.
Despite Luther being thrown out of the Catholic Church during his lifetime, the Vatican reacted positively to news of the square’s upcoming inauguration. “It’s a decision taken by Rome city hall which is favorable to Catholics in that it’s in line with the path of dialogue started with the ecumenical council,” said the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, deputy director of the Vatican press office, referring to a gathering of churchmen to rule on faith matters.
The move contrasts sharply from views held by Luther around the time of his visit to Rome, when it was said he repeated the saying, “If there is a hell, Rome is built over it.”
Dialogue between Lutherans — a Protestant denomination that follows Luther’s teachings — and the Catholic Church was cemented in a document signed by bishops of the two churches in 2013. Pope Francis has also shown an openness to different churches, earlier this year supporting the need for a more unified Christian voice in Europe.
But within Italy there are very few Protestants; just 435,000 Italian citizens identify as Protestant, according to research published in 2012 by the Center for Studies on New Religions. Catholicism continues to be the dominant religion, with 97.9 percent of Italy’s 60 million residents having been baptized Catholic as of 2009.
This Sunday September 6, 2015
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125 (or Psalm 124); James 2:1-10 (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
Read more…
Lectionary Readings:
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
Psalm 124
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 7:24-37
Lectiionsry Scripture:
Proverbs 22:1 Rather than wealth, choose a good reputation,
esteem over silver and gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common —
Adonai made them both.
8 He who sows injustice reaps trouble,
and the rod of his angry outburst will fail.
9 He who is generous is blessed,
because he shares his food with the poor.
22 Don’t exploit the helpless, because they are helpless,
and don’t crush the poor in court,
23 for Adonai will plead their case for them
and withhold life from those who defraud them.
Psalm 125:(0) A song of ascents:
(1) Those who trust in Adonai
are like Mount Tziyon,
which cannot be moved
but remains forever.
2 Yerushalayim!
Mountains all around it!
Thus Adonai is around his people
henceforth and forever.
3 For the scepter of wickedness
will not rule the inheritance of the righteous,
so that the righteous will not themselves
turn their hands to evil.
4 Do good, Adonai, to the good,
to those upright in their hearts.
5 But as for those who turn aside
to their own crooked ways,
may Adonai turn them away,
along with those who do evil.
Shalom on Isra’el!
Psalm 124:(0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) If Adonai hadn’t been for us —
let Isra’el repeat it —
2 If Adonai hadn’t been for us
when people rose to attack us,
3 then, when their anger blazed against us,
they would have swallowed us alive!
4 Then the water would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us.
5 Yes, the raging water
would have swept right over us.
6 Blessed be Adonai, who did not leave us
to be a prey for their teeth!
7 We escaped like a bird from the hunter’s trap;
the trap is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of Adonai,
the maker of heaven and earth.
James 2:1 My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags. 3 If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to him, “Have this good seat here,” while to the poor man you say, “You, stand over there,” or, “Sit down on the floor by my feet,” 4 then aren’t you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven’t you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?
5 Listen, my dear brothers, hasn’t God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to receive the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? 6 But you despise the poor! Aren’t the rich the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones who insult the good name of Him to whom you belong? 8 If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[James 2:8 Leviticus 19:18] you are doing well. 9 But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors.
10 For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all. 11 For the One who said, “Don’t commit adultery,”[James 2:11 Exodus 20:13(14); Deuteronomy 5:17(18)] also said, “Don’t murder.”[James 2:11 Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17] Now, if you don’t commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah.
12 Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah which gives freedom. 13 For judgment will be without mercy toward one who doesn’t show mercy; but mercy wins out over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, 16 and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? 17 Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.
Mark 7:24 Next, Yeshua left that district and went off to the vicinity of Tzor and Tzidon. There he found a house to stay in and wanted to remain unrecognized, but keeping hidden proved impossible. 25 Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit in her came to him and fell down at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, by birth a Syro-phoenician, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 28 She answered him, “That is true, sir; but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s leftovers.” 29 Then he said to her, “For such an answer you may go on home; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went back home and found the child lying on the couch, the demon gone.
31 Then he left the district of Tzor and went through Tzidon to Lake Kinneret and on to the region of the Ten Towns. 32 They brought him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and asked Yeshua to lay his hand on him. 33 Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put his fingers into the man’s ears, spat, and touched his tongue; 34 then, looking up to heaven, he gave a deep groan and said to him, “Hippatach!” (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 His ears were opened, his tongue was freed, and he began speaking clearly. 36 Yeshua ordered the people to tell no one; but the more he insisted, the more zealously they spread the news. 37 People were overcome with amazement. “Everything he does, he does well!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!”
John Wesley's Notes-commentary for Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Verse 1
Verse 8
[8] He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
The rod — That power which he used with fury shall be taken from him.
Verse 9
[9] He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
He — Who looks upon the wants and miseries of others with compassion.
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
Psalm 124
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 7:24-37
Lectiionsry Scripture:
Proverbs 22:1 Rather than wealth, choose a good reputation,
esteem over silver and gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common —
Adonai made them both.
8 He who sows injustice reaps trouble,
and the rod of his angry outburst will fail.
9 He who is generous is blessed,
because he shares his food with the poor.
22 Don’t exploit the helpless, because they are helpless,
and don’t crush the poor in court,
23 for Adonai will plead their case for them
and withhold life from those who defraud them.
Psalm 125:(0) A song of ascents:
(1) Those who trust in Adonai
are like Mount Tziyon,
which cannot be moved
but remains forever.
2 Yerushalayim!
Mountains all around it!
Thus Adonai is around his people
henceforth and forever.
3 For the scepter of wickedness
will not rule the inheritance of the righteous,
so that the righteous will not themselves
turn their hands to evil.
4 Do good, Adonai, to the good,
to those upright in their hearts.
5 But as for those who turn aside
to their own crooked ways,
may Adonai turn them away,
along with those who do evil.
Shalom on Isra’el!
Psalm 124:(0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) If Adonai hadn’t been for us —
let Isra’el repeat it —
2 If Adonai hadn’t been for us
when people rose to attack us,
3 then, when their anger blazed against us,
they would have swallowed us alive!
4 Then the water would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us.
5 Yes, the raging water
would have swept right over us.
6 Blessed be Adonai, who did not leave us
to be a prey for their teeth!
7 We escaped like a bird from the hunter’s trap;
the trap is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of Adonai,
the maker of heaven and earth.
James 2:1 My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags. 3 If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to him, “Have this good seat here,” while to the poor man you say, “You, stand over there,” or, “Sit down on the floor by my feet,” 4 then aren’t you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven’t you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?
5 Listen, my dear brothers, hasn’t God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to receive the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? 6 But you despise the poor! Aren’t the rich the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones who insult the good name of Him to whom you belong? 8 If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[James 2:8 Leviticus 19:18] you are doing well. 9 But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors.
10 For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all. 11 For the One who said, “Don’t commit adultery,”[James 2:11 Exodus 20:13(14); Deuteronomy 5:17(18)] also said, “Don’t murder.”[James 2:11 Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17] Now, if you don’t commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah.
12 Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah which gives freedom. 13 For judgment will be without mercy toward one who doesn’t show mercy; but mercy wins out over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, 16 and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? 17 Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.
Mark 7:24 Next, Yeshua left that district and went off to the vicinity of Tzor and Tzidon. There he found a house to stay in and wanted to remain unrecognized, but keeping hidden proved impossible. 25 Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit in her came to him and fell down at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, by birth a Syro-phoenician, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 28 She answered him, “That is true, sir; but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s leftovers.” 29 Then he said to her, “For such an answer you may go on home; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went back home and found the child lying on the couch, the demon gone.
31 Then he left the district of Tzor and went through Tzidon to Lake Kinneret and on to the region of the Ten Towns. 32 They brought him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and asked Yeshua to lay his hand on him. 33 Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put his fingers into the man’s ears, spat, and touched his tongue; 34 then, looking up to heaven, he gave a deep groan and said to him, “Hippatach!” (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 His ears were opened, his tongue was freed, and he began speaking clearly. 36 Yeshua ordered the people to tell no one; but the more he insisted, the more zealously they spread the news. 37 People were overcome with amazement. “Everything he does, he does well!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!”
John Wesley's Notes-commentary for Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Verse 1
[1] A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
Favour — A good report among men, especially good men, and that hearty kindness which attends it.
Verse 2
[2] The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.
Meet — They live together, and need one another.
The maker — Not only as they are men, but as they are poor or rich, which difference comes from God's providence. They have one common creator, and Lord, and judge, and the one cannot despise nor grudge at the other without reflecting upon God.
Verse 8[8] He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
The rod — That power which he used with fury shall be taken from him.
Verse 9
[9] He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
He — Who looks upon the wants and miseries of others with compassion.
Verse 22
[22] Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
In the gate — Under pretence of justice.
Verse 23
[23] For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
Spoil the soul — Take away not only their goods but their lives too.Psalm 125
Verse 3
[3] For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.
The rod — Their power and authority.
Not rest — Not continue long.
The lot — Upon the habitations and persons of good men.
Lest — Lest they should be driven to indirect courses to relieve themselves.
Verse 5
[5] As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.
Lead them — Unto sinful courses.
Israel — Upon the true Israel of God.Psalm 124
Verse 5
[5] Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
The proud — Our enemies, compared to proud waters, for their great multitude and swelling rage.James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Verse 1
[1] My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
My brethren — The equality of Christians, intimated by this name, is the ground of the admonition. Hold not the faith of our common Lord, the Lord of glory - Of which glory all who believe in him partake.
With respect of persons — That is, honour none merely for being rich; despise none merely for being poor.
Verse 2
[2] For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
With gold rings — Which were not then so common as now.
Verse 3
[3] And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
Ye look upon him — With respect.
Verse 4
[4] Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Ye distinguish not — To which the most respect is due, to the poor or to the rich.
But are become evil-reasoning judges — You reason ill, and so judge wrong: for fine apparel is no proof of worth in him that wears it.
Verse 5
[5] Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
Hearken — As if he had said, Stay, consider, ye that judge thus. Does not the presumption lie rather in favour of the poor man? Hath not God chosen the poor - That is, are not they whom God hath chosen, generally speaking, poor in this world? who yet are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom - Consequently, the most honourable of men: and those whom God so highly honours, ought not ye to honour likewise?
Verse 6
[6] But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
Do not the rich often oppress you — By open violence; often drag you - Under colour of law.
Verse 7
[7] Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name — Of God and of Christ. The apostle speaks chiefly of rich heathens: but are Christians, so called, a whit behind them?
Verse 8
[8] If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
If ye fulfil the royal law — The supreme law of the great King which is love; and that to every man, poor as well as rich, ye do well. Leviticus 19:18.
Verse 9
[9] But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
Being convicted — By that very law. Exodus 23:3.
Verse 10
[10] For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Whosoever keepeth the whole law, except in one point, he is guilty of all - Is as liable to condemnation as if he had offended in every point.
Verse 11
[11] For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
For it is the same authority which establishes every commandment.
Verse 12
[12] So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
So speak and act — In all things.
As they that shall be judged — Without respect of persons.
By the law of liberty — The gospel; the law of universal love, which alone is perfect freedom. For their transgressions of this, both in word and deed, the wicked shall be condemned; and according to their works, done in obedience to this, the righteous will be rewarded.
Verse 13
[13] For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Judgment without mercy shall be to him — In that day.
Who hath showed no mercy — To his poor brethren. But the mercy of God to believers, answering to that which they have shown, will then glory over judgment.
Verse 14
[14] What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
From James 1:22, the apostle has been enforcing Christian practice. He now applies to those who neglect this, under the pretence of faith. St. Paul had taught that "a man is justified by faith without the works of the law." This some began already to wrest to their own destruction. Wherefore St. James, purposely repeating ( James 2:21,23,25) the same phrases, testimonies, and examples, which St. Paul had used, Romans 4:3, Hebrews 11:17,31, refutes not the doctrine of St. Paul, but the error of those who abused it. There is, therefore, no contradiction between the apostles: they both delivered the truth of God, but in a different manner, as having to do with different kinds of men. On another occasion St. James himself pleaded the cause of faith, Acts 15:13-21; and St. Paul himself strenuously pleads for works, particularly in his latter epistles. This verse is a summary of what follows. What profiteth it? is enlarged on, James 2:15-17; though a man say, James 2:18,19 can that faith save him? James 2:20. It is not, though he have faith; but, though he say he have faith. Here, therefore, true, living faith is meant: but in other parts of the argument the apostle speaks of a dead, imaginary faith. He does not, therefore, teach that true faith can, but that it cannot, subsist without works: nor does he oppose faith to works; but that empty name of faith, to real faith working by love. Can that faith "which is without works" save him? No more than it can profit his neighbour.
Verse 17
[17] Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
So likewise that faith which hath not works is a mere dead, empty notion; of no more profit to him that hath it, than the bidding the naked be clothed is to him.Mark 7:24-37
Verse 24
[24] And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
Matthew 15:21.
Verse 26
[26] The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
The woman was a Greek (that is, a Gentile, not a Jew) a Syrophenician or Canaanite. Canaan was also called Syrophenicia, as lying between Syria, properly so called, and Phenicia.
Verse 31
[31] And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
Matthew 15:29.
Verse 33
[33] And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
He put his fingers into his ears — Perhaps intending to teach us, that we are not to prescribe to him (as they who brought this man attempted to do) but to expect his blessing by whatsoever means he pleases: even though there should be no proportion or resemblance between the means used, and the benefit to be conveyed thereby.
Verse 34
[34] And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Ephphatha — This was a word of SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY, not an address to God for power to heal: such an address was needless; for Christ had a perpetual fund of power residing in himself, to work all miracles whenever he pleased, even to the raising the dead, John 5:21,26.
Verse 36
[36] And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
Them — The blind man and those that brought him.
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[22] Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
In the gate — Under pretence of justice.
Verse 23
[23] For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
Spoil the soul — Take away not only their goods but their lives too.Psalm 125
Verse 3
[3] For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.
The rod — Their power and authority.
Not rest — Not continue long.
The lot — Upon the habitations and persons of good men.
Lest — Lest they should be driven to indirect courses to relieve themselves.
Verse 5
[5] As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.
Lead them — Unto sinful courses.
Israel — Upon the true Israel of God.Psalm 124
Verse 5
[5] Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
The proud — Our enemies, compared to proud waters, for their great multitude and swelling rage.James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Verse 1
[1] My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
My brethren — The equality of Christians, intimated by this name, is the ground of the admonition. Hold not the faith of our common Lord, the Lord of glory - Of which glory all who believe in him partake.
With respect of persons — That is, honour none merely for being rich; despise none merely for being poor.
Verse 2
[2] For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
With gold rings — Which were not then so common as now.
Verse 3
[3] And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
Ye look upon him — With respect.
Verse 4
[4] Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Ye distinguish not — To which the most respect is due, to the poor or to the rich.
But are become evil-reasoning judges — You reason ill, and so judge wrong: for fine apparel is no proof of worth in him that wears it.
Verse 5
[5] Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
Hearken — As if he had said, Stay, consider, ye that judge thus. Does not the presumption lie rather in favour of the poor man? Hath not God chosen the poor - That is, are not they whom God hath chosen, generally speaking, poor in this world? who yet are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom - Consequently, the most honourable of men: and those whom God so highly honours, ought not ye to honour likewise?
Verse 6
[6] But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
Do not the rich often oppress you — By open violence; often drag you - Under colour of law.
Verse 7
[7] Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name — Of God and of Christ. The apostle speaks chiefly of rich heathens: but are Christians, so called, a whit behind them?
Verse 8
[8] If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
If ye fulfil the royal law — The supreme law of the great King which is love; and that to every man, poor as well as rich, ye do well. Leviticus 19:18.
Verse 9
[9] But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
Being convicted — By that very law. Exodus 23:3.
Verse 10
[10] For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Whosoever keepeth the whole law, except in one point, he is guilty of all - Is as liable to condemnation as if he had offended in every point.
Verse 11
[11] For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
For it is the same authority which establishes every commandment.
Verse 12
[12] So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
So speak and act — In all things.
As they that shall be judged — Without respect of persons.
By the law of liberty — The gospel; the law of universal love, which alone is perfect freedom. For their transgressions of this, both in word and deed, the wicked shall be condemned; and according to their works, done in obedience to this, the righteous will be rewarded.
Verse 13
[13] For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Judgment without mercy shall be to him — In that day.
Who hath showed no mercy — To his poor brethren. But the mercy of God to believers, answering to that which they have shown, will then glory over judgment.
Verse 14
[14] What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
From James 1:22, the apostle has been enforcing Christian practice. He now applies to those who neglect this, under the pretence of faith. St. Paul had taught that "a man is justified by faith without the works of the law." This some began already to wrest to their own destruction. Wherefore St. James, purposely repeating ( James 2:21,23,25) the same phrases, testimonies, and examples, which St. Paul had used, Romans 4:3, Hebrews 11:17,31, refutes not the doctrine of St. Paul, but the error of those who abused it. There is, therefore, no contradiction between the apostles: they both delivered the truth of God, but in a different manner, as having to do with different kinds of men. On another occasion St. James himself pleaded the cause of faith, Acts 15:13-21; and St. Paul himself strenuously pleads for works, particularly in his latter epistles. This verse is a summary of what follows. What profiteth it? is enlarged on, James 2:15-17; though a man say, James 2:18,19 can that faith save him? James 2:20. It is not, though he have faith; but, though he say he have faith. Here, therefore, true, living faith is meant: but in other parts of the argument the apostle speaks of a dead, imaginary faith. He does not, therefore, teach that true faith can, but that it cannot, subsist without works: nor does he oppose faith to works; but that empty name of faith, to real faith working by love. Can that faith "which is without works" save him? No more than it can profit his neighbour.
Verse 17
[17] Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
So likewise that faith which hath not works is a mere dead, empty notion; of no more profit to him that hath it, than the bidding the naked be clothed is to him.Mark 7:24-37
Verse 24
[24] And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
Matthew 15:21.
Verse 26
[26] The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
The woman was a Greek (that is, a Gentile, not a Jew) a Syrophenician or Canaanite. Canaan was also called Syrophenicia, as lying between Syria, properly so called, and Phenicia.
Verse 31
[31] And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
Matthew 15:29.
Verse 33
[33] And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
He put his fingers into his ears — Perhaps intending to teach us, that we are not to prescribe to him (as they who brought this man attempted to do) but to expect his blessing by whatsoever means he pleases: even though there should be no proportion or resemblance between the means used, and the benefit to be conveyed thereby.
Verse 34
[34] And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Ephphatha — This was a word of SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY, not an address to God for power to heal: such an address was needless; for Christ had a perpetual fund of power residing in himself, to work all miracles whenever he pleased, even to the raising the dead, John 5:21,26.
Verse 36
[36] And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
Them — The blind man and those that brought him.
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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 "Sowing Correctly" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 6 September 2015 with Scripture: Proverbs 22:1 Rather than wealth, choose a good reputation,
esteem over silver and gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common —
Adonai made them both.
8 He who sows injustice reaps trouble,
and the rod of his angry outburst will fail.
9 He who is generous is blessed,
because he shares his food with the poor.
22 Don’t exploit the helpless, because they are helpless,
and don’t crush the poor in court,
23 for Adonai will plead their case for them
and withhold life from those who defraud them.
Thourgh the years very few preachers have preached from the Book of Proverbs due to the conficting nature of the meaning, but I remember one pastor who preached from the whole Book of Proverbs from Chapter 1 to 31 with excellent insights that were received by many including myself. It is amazing how this particular passage goes along with the other passages that were read today. This comes to realize that the early Messianics after the death, resurrection, and ascenssion of Jesus back to His Father sending the Holy Spirit to empower His followers whether Jews or Gentiles. It is amazing that God speaks about the Rich and the Poor have one thing in common is God, Himself yet he gones on to say that if one sows injusice there will be trouble. We read this and realize that is the concept of Jesus teaching for His Disciples and he early Messianic Community to never play favorites with the rich, but treat the poor as God's blessings to the society at whole. With this poor to often people have defined the poor as poor in spirit rather than the poor in earthly goods that they possessed. Yes, the rich our poor when they cannot see others who are less fortunate than they are to be a part of their community rather than in a separate community. We have seen this type of injustice the way the whites have treated the people who are different in color and all colors have treated the people who happen to be immigrants, LGBT, and people who are impaired. In some cultures, they view people with impairments as less than human or even demonic with their impairmens whether the impairment is physical, mental, emotional, or intellectual. This has been taken into the church to often keeping them separate from the rest of ccommnity. This is a sin that has not been recognized a sin because God has called all the people to be responsible for each other no matter who they are. We have seen that in the 19th Century Methodist who not only lost they way in avoiding to stand up against slavery and watering down the meaning of Biblical Holiness seeking to please the world rather than God. The Church of the Nazarene has done similar in the 20th century when they had a chance to take the reigns of the poor, but giving it to the government to handle their needs because it was becoming too expensive as the Nazarenes began to gain more wealth and status then when they refused to stand up against the segregatin of the Blacks and condoning segregation of the whites from the blacks even failing to approve of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and Apartheid in South Africa. Both of these issues have to be recognize as sin and needs to be repented within the institutions to be legimate in proclaimin the whole Gospel of Jesus to raise up a Holy People to fight against injustice in the world, as well as how both denominations have excluded people who are impaired to be actively involved in the church locally, regional, nationally, and globally. We realize sin is sin and God is God as we come to eat the body of Jesus and drink His Blood in the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come to receive from God all He calls us to be in singing the Hymn "Sweet Humility" by Charles E. Orr, pub.1907
1. Humility, O grace so sweet!
Come, dwell within my heart;
Oh, press me to my Savior’s feet;
There lowliness impart.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
2. Humility, in Christ complete,
I seek thy pleasant ways;
For lowly place at Jesus’ feet
My heart with longing prays.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
3. Humility, the sweetest cup
Of which my heart e’er drank!
I’ve taken but one little sup,
But deep within it sank.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
4. Humility, O gift divine,
Thine odors fill the air;
And while our hearts to thee incline,
Oh, shed thy fragrance there.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
5. O sink my heart to nothingness,
Down, down to lowly planes;
Then up, far up in joyfulness,
My soul in glory reigns.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
6. O heaven’s grace—humility!
Thy cherished charm I’ll wear;
I must be humble, Lord, like Thee,
Thy holy image bear
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
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esteem over silver and gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common —
Adonai made them both.
8 He who sows injustice reaps trouble,
and the rod of his angry outburst will fail.
9 He who is generous is blessed,
because he shares his food with the poor.
22 Don’t exploit the helpless, because they are helpless,
and don’t crush the poor in court,
23 for Adonai will plead their case for them
and withhold life from those who defraud them.
Thourgh the years very few preachers have preached from the Book of Proverbs due to the conficting nature of the meaning, but I remember one pastor who preached from the whole Book of Proverbs from Chapter 1 to 31 with excellent insights that were received by many including myself. It is amazing how this particular passage goes along with the other passages that were read today. This comes to realize that the early Messianics after the death, resurrection, and ascenssion of Jesus back to His Father sending the Holy Spirit to empower His followers whether Jews or Gentiles. It is amazing that God speaks about the Rich and the Poor have one thing in common is God, Himself yet he gones on to say that if one sows injusice there will be trouble. We read this and realize that is the concept of Jesus teaching for His Disciples and he early Messianic Community to never play favorites with the rich, but treat the poor as God's blessings to the society at whole. With this poor to often people have defined the poor as poor in spirit rather than the poor in earthly goods that they possessed. Yes, the rich our poor when they cannot see others who are less fortunate than they are to be a part of their community rather than in a separate community. We have seen this type of injustice the way the whites have treated the people who are different in color and all colors have treated the people who happen to be immigrants, LGBT, and people who are impaired. In some cultures, they view people with impairments as less than human or even demonic with their impairmens whether the impairment is physical, mental, emotional, or intellectual. This has been taken into the church to often keeping them separate from the rest of ccommnity. This is a sin that has not been recognized a sin because God has called all the people to be responsible for each other no matter who they are. We have seen that in the 19th Century Methodist who not only lost they way in avoiding to stand up against slavery and watering down the meaning of Biblical Holiness seeking to please the world rather than God. The Church of the Nazarene has done similar in the 20th century when they had a chance to take the reigns of the poor, but giving it to the government to handle their needs because it was becoming too expensive as the Nazarenes began to gain more wealth and status then when they refused to stand up against the segregatin of the Blacks and condoning segregation of the whites from the blacks even failing to approve of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and Apartheid in South Africa. Both of these issues have to be recognize as sin and needs to be repented within the institutions to be legimate in proclaimin the whole Gospel of Jesus to raise up a Holy People to fight against injustice in the world, as well as how both denominations have excluded people who are impaired to be actively involved in the church locally, regional, nationally, and globally. We realize sin is sin and God is God as we come to eat the body of Jesus and drink His Blood in the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come to receive from God all He calls us to be in singing the Hymn "Sweet Humility" by Charles E. Orr, pub.1907
1. Humility, O grace so sweet!
Come, dwell within my heart;
Oh, press me to my Savior’s feet;
There lowliness impart.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
2. Humility, in Christ complete,
I seek thy pleasant ways;
For lowly place at Jesus’ feet
My heart with longing prays.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
3. Humility, the sweetest cup
Of which my heart e’er drank!
I’ve taken but one little sup,
But deep within it sank.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
4. Humility, O gift divine,
Thine odors fill the air;
And while our hearts to thee incline,
Oh, shed thy fragrance there.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
5. O sink my heart to nothingness,
Down, down to lowly planes;
Then up, far up in joyfulness,
My soul in glory reigns.
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
6. O heaven’s grace—humility!
Thy cherished charm I’ll wear;
I must be humble, Lord, like Thee,
Thy holy image bear
Refrain:
Come softly from thy throne above,
O grace so sweet and fair;
Come, touch my heart in gentle love,
And scatter meekness there.
____________________________
Gary Lee Parker
4147 Idaho Street, Apt. 1
San Diego, California 92104-1844, United States
____________________________
____________________________
Mark 7:24-37
Sometimes people find it difficult to treat all people the same. We have a tendency to judge one another and treat others different according to their status in life. The car they drive, their color of skin, how they fit in socially, and even their physical appearance are measurements we use to judge people. What’s true today was also true in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
In Mark 7, Jesus spends a significant amount of time teaching the people the dangers of principle; not fulfilling human-made laws. The Pharisees were judging the disciples because the disciples had eaten with unwashed (defiled) hands. Jesus responds by warning the Pharisees about obeying human commandments and ignoring God’s commandments.
When traditions become the driving force of our lives, we find ourselves living in a dangerous place and we may lose our perspective if we are not careful. It has been well stated: “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Jesus said it this way: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Jesus also once said, “That which comes from within a person is that which defiles.” Jesus not only taught by what he said, he went on to teach by example. In our text, verse 24 tells us that Jesus left and journeyed to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. What is significant is that Jesus left the Jewish communities and traveled to the Gentile areas of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus (who was clean) traveled to an area considered unclean to face and love unclean people.
When Jesus arrived at the edge of town, a woman from Syrian Phoenicia, a Greek woman, approached him on behalf of her sick daughter. Whereas the Pharisee’s would not address her at all, Jesus responded to the woman’s plea.
However, Jesus does not respond like we might expect. Jesus’ response to her request is that she must wait until all the children have been attended to first. In other words, this Gentile woman came expecting to be treated like a Jew. Matthew gives us a little more insight into this account. The woman pleads with Jesus by saying, “Son of David,” which was a Jewish reference. She approached Jesus with pretense and not in honesty. Jesus forced her to speak from the heart, out of her concern for her daughter. Jesus then healed her daughter, but not because of the woman’s speech, or who she knew. Once she was honest and spoke from the heart, Jesus answered her request. When the woman arrived home, her daughter was well and the demon had left her.
It would seem somewhat a surprise that Jesus would deal with the woman in the manner he did initially. Jesus seemed somewhat abrupt. Yet, we understand that Jesus cared very much for this woman and her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus wanted to accomplish three things in this encounter.
Jesus wanted the people to understand that all people are worthy of our love and compassion. People are not unclean because of race or nationality. They are precious in God’s sight and we should be reaching out toward these persons.
Jesus also wanted the woman to understand how much he cared about her, not because she spoke in Jewish terms. She didn’t have to do that for Jesus to care about her. She needed to be transparent. She needed to come to Jesus as she was and let Jesus love her in that condition. God is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance. That promise includes us. We must come to God as we are and allow God to love and forgive us.
The third thing Jesus desired from this situation was that the woman’s daughter might be healed. Jesus had every intention of healing the daughter. Jesus longs to see healing in our lives too. For the daughter, it was a demon that had her trapped. For us, it is sin. Jesus longs to free us of sin’s grip. Sin will paralyze us; Jesus will set us free. Sin will attempt to defeat us; Jesus promises us victory over sin and the devil. We, too, can be free. We must put our trust in Jesus.
Jesus follows this miracle of healing the daughter with the healing of a deaf man. Jesus and the disciples travel to Galilee where a group who bring a deaf man to Jesus confronts them. Jesus responds by touching the man and opening the man’s ears. Suddenly this man can both hear and speak. A miracle had taken place—that which had bound him was now gone. Can we relate? We, too, can be bound and gagged; we, too, can be left speechless by Satan the destroyer and by our own sin. But once Jesus moves into our lives, suddenly Satan is the one bound. He can’t get to us. He can’t control us. He cannot possess us.
It is a great and wonderful thing when Jesus moves into a life. It does not matter where you live or what your race. Your salary doesn’t matter, nor does the kind of car you drive. Jesus loves you as you are. Jesus simply doesn’t want you to stay bound. Jesus says, “We are free.” Free from sin. Free from bondage. Let Jesus open your ears of understanding and you will then learn from him. And to know Jesus, in a personal way, is to be free forever and ever.
WORSHIP ELEMENTS: SEPTEMBER 6, 2015 by June BoutwellFifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125 (or Psalm 124); James 2:1-10 (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
THEME IDEAS
We are to tend to the needs of those around us—the needs of the less fortunate and marginalized. Failure to do so results in godly wrath and calamity. There is a strong distinction in these scriptures between rich and poor, especially in the Epistle lesson. There is a strong theme of God’s favor for the poor and a call to live righteously. The Gospel recounts the story of a deaf man healed and a Syrophoenician woman who challenges Jesus to view those outside the Jewish community as worthy of grace and blessing.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Proverbs 22:2, 9; Psalm 125:1-2, 4; James 2:5)
Those who trust in God are like the mountains,
immovable and abiding.
God shelters the people:
today and for eternity.
Rich or poor, God creates us to pursue justice
and to care for one another.
Be a blessing, O God, to those who are good
and upright in heart.
God calls us to be rich in faith,
to honor our heritage as heirs of the Kingdom.
We are blessed when we share our blessings,
that peace may be upon the people.
Opening Prayer (Psalm 125:3-4; Proverbs 22:1, 17, 21)
Holy One,
we call upon your name,
for we know that your name and favor
are more precious than human riches.
You hate wickedness
and abhor the neglect of your people.
You call us to righteousness,
to reach out to others with justice and mercy.
You teach us right from wrong,
that we may truly live in your grace.
In the shadow of that grace,
we offer compassion and mercy to others.
Abide with us this day,
that we may serve you forevermore. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 125, Proverbs 22, James 2)
Gracious God,
we come before you today
knowing that we often fall short of your call
to love one another well.
We allow ourselves to be blinded
by wealth and power.
We ignore those around us
who suffer injustice, poverty, and rejection.
We tune out the cries of the poor
and those on the edges of our communities.
Help us to see your great generosity,
hear your word of mercy,
and feel your great love
for all who need your redemptive grace.
Strengthen us to reach out in service
to those who are in need.
Make us aware of those outside our own communities,
that we may see them as your precious children
and serve them in humility and joy.
May we continue to grow in grace
as we learn how to serve you
in the name of the great Servant,
even Jesus Christ. Amen.
Words of Assurance (1 Corinthians 2:12)
We have received, not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit that is from God.
May we understand the grace and forgiveness
bestowed upon us by God,
that others may find the Kingdom
within us and among us.
Passing the Peace of Christ (John 14:3, 21, 27)
Knowing that God has prepared a place for us; knowing that Christ has come to bring us peace, let us greet one another now in the power of God and the glory of Christ’s peace.
Response to the Word (James 2:14-17, Psalm 125)
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the pain of the world. We want to turn off the evening news and tune out the stories of human suffering, but God calls us to pay attention to those around us, to do more than simply give to worthy causes, to do more than pray the situation into God’s hands. Our faith is to be lived out in righteous actions, that we might resist wickedness and avoid condemnation for our lack of compassion. We are challenged to meet the needs of others, to reach out with hand and heart, to provide for the real human needs of others.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering
We who have been richly blessed are called to share that blessing with the world. Give freely in the joy of serving your neighbor and your God.
Offering Prayer (Proverbs 22:1-2)
All that we do is in your holy name, O God.
Even as we share the riches of our labors,
may we continue to honor your name
in all that we do.
Bless these gifts given freely,
that your justice and mercy may prevail
in a weak and weary world. Amen.
Invitation to Communion
This table is open to all who recognize Jesus Christ as healer and redeemer. This table is open to all who work to bring God’s Kingdom here on earth. No one is turned away because of life circumstances. No one is barred from this table. No one seeking God’s abundant grace and mercy is turned aside. We see before us the abundance that a life of faith offers as we respond to God’s everlasting mercy in prayer and deed.
The Great Thanksgiving (James 2, Mark 7)
Eternal God, Creator of the heavens and the earth
and all who dwell therein,
we give you thanks for all that surrounds us.
We thank you for making us
but a little lower than the angels,
children of your grace.
We are grateful for your mercy,
forgiving our human pride
and our blindness to those in need.
We rejoice in the hope and salvation
found in the person of Jesus Christ,
who shared our earthly suffering and joy.
We remember Christ’s death,
celebrate with joy Christ’s resurrection,
and seek to follow in Christ’s way,
serving those around us.
In the steadfast comfort of the Holy Spirit,
we offer ourselves to your service
as we unite our voices to glorify you.
Holy, holy, holy God of love and majesty,
the whole universe speaks of your glory,
O God Most High.
Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of our God!
Hosanna in the highest!
At this table we recall the night
when Jesus was at table with his friends.
As they were eating, Jesus took bread,
blessed and broke it.
He gave it to the disciples, saying,
“Take, eat. This is my body
which is broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same manner, Jesus also took the cup, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me.”
By partaking at this table, we proclaim Christ’s death,
celebrate Christ’s resurrection,
and await Christ’s return.
Communion Prayer
Gracious God,
we ask you to bless this bread and cup.
May we be strengthened through your Holy Spirit
to be the body of Christ,
your servant people,
faithful in all things and humble in our service
to you and your people. Amen.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
We give thanks, almighty God,
that you have refreshed us at your table
by granting us the presence of Jesus Christ.
Strengthen our faith,
increase our love for one another,
and send us forth into the world
in courage and peace,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit,
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (James 2:5, 17)
Go forth to love one another.
Be rich in faith and serve one another
in all joy and humility.
And may the power of God our Creator,
Christ our Salvation,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with us now and forever. Amen.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (James 2, Psalm 125, THE MESSAGE)
Friends, don’t let public opinion
influence how you live out your faith.
God lives by different rules.
God lifts up and honors the poor
while sending the rich away empty.
God’s favor is promised to those who love God.
Love is more than saying the right words,
it is doing the right thing for others.
Be good to your people, O God.
The hearts of the people are right!
—OR—
Contemporary Gathering Words (Luke 7, Psalm 125, THE MESSAGE)
We can trust God.
God is like the mountain: rock solid.
God loves all the people:
the poor, the disabled, the outcast,
the stranger.
We can depend on God.
God feeds the hungry, heals the sick,
and restores relationships.
Praise our Loving God.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
From “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2012,” edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © 2011 by Abingdon Press. “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2016” is now available.
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125 (or Psalm 124); James 2:1-10 (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: Lord, open our hearts this morning to hear your words of compassion.
P: Lord, help us to truly listen to you.
L: Lord, open our spirits this morning to strengthen our faith.
P: Lord, help us to work for you.
L: Lord, make us ready to serve.
P: Lord, make us ready to witness to your healing love. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2
L: We are called here this morning to learn of Christ’s healing love.
P: Help us, O Lord, to learn your lessons of compassion.
L: Everyday there are many ways in which we can offer help to others.
P: Help us, O Lord, to be ready to reach out to all in need.
L: Come, let us worship the One who prepares us for service.
P: Let us sing our songs of praise to the One who has healed us. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2086, “Open Our Eyes, Lord”, offer the following call to worship as directed]
L: We are blind, yet we believe that we see.
P: Lord, heal our blindness.
L: We utter words of prejudice and hatred, yet we believe that our words hold compassion.
P: Lord, heal our thoughts and our words.
Choir: singing “Open Our Eyes” through one time.
L: Help us to see our compassionate Lord.
P: Help us to hear Jesus’ words of forgiveness.
L: Reach into our hearts, Lord, and give us healing.
P: Reach into our lives, Lord, and teach us to love. AMEN.
Choir and congregation singing “Open Our Eyes” through two times
Call to Worship #4
L: Jesus brought healing love to all people.
P: They talked and marveled about his miracles.
L: But they really didn’t understand him.
P: They wanted the healing, but not necessarily a change in their lives.
L: Jesus brings us transforming compassion.
P: Lord Jesus, keep our minds and our spirits open to your life-changing words. AMEN.
PRAYERS, READING, BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer
Lord of mercy and compassion, be with us this day as we hear of the healing love of Jesus. Remind us that we are also recipients of his compassion and we are called to bring the same hope and love to others. Prepare us for service in His Name. AMEN.
Prayer of Confession
Patient Lord, you know us so well. We are fascinated by healing and can talk all day about the miracles, but we do not understand the compassion of Christ. We often say, “Just heal us; or Just make me rich; or Just make things go better at work” or other such deals and then we promise our faithfulness and witness.. But in our hearts, we just don’t get it. Please forgive us, Lord, when our greed and fear gets in the way of understanding. Help us to know the transformational power of your love. Get us ready to be faithful witnesses to you in all that we say and do. It is in Jesus’ Name that we pray. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
In the Name of Jesus Christ you have been healed. Praise be to God who has given you new life. AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
Lord, you know how great our needs are. In these difficult times when jobs are threatened, homes are being lost, families are experiencing great stress, come and bring your healing love to us. Help us to place our trust in you. Remind us again of how you transform lives, not just with healing, but with a spirit of hope and compassion. Keep us hopeful. Teach us not to give up when things are going wrong. Give us faith that can move mountains. Give us hearts that are ready to be of service to others in all times and in all places. As we have lifted up people and situations which concern us and have asked for your hand of healing, remind us that that same healing hand rests on us also. Enable us to be people of compassion and trust; for we ask these things in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Reading
Narrator: They sat in church, waiting for prayer time, each one with his and her own thoughts and needs; each one reaching out.
Reader 1: What are we going to do? I’ve just lost my job. What meager savings we had have disappeared into the usual bills and needs for our family. I’m embarrassed. I know that I need some help, but I don’t want to ask…..I don’t want people to know how hard this is.
Reader 2: I don’t know why the pastor keeps harping on giving things to the food pantry and the used clothing closet. No one helped me when I was down. Let them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, I say. It’s every one for themselves.
Reader 3: My son asked me the other day what we could do to help people in need of food. I suggested that we look at some of the food that we have and find ways to share it with others. We could do this through the food pantry or through special meals for shut-ins. He wanted to get started right away. “Let’s do it!” he said. “Right now!” And we did. We discovered how much stuff we had and we contacted the food pantry to find out what they needed. We also went to the market and got some of the items they had mentioned. What a great feeling! I love it when we all can help, and now my kids are enthusiastic about finding new ways to share the bounty we have. I’m so proud of them.
Reader 4: I’m paralyzed by the tremendous needs. I just don’t know where to start. I’m a good reader, maybe I could help out at the school. Or maybe I could give some simple cooking lessons to folks who are struggling and want to do better nutritionally.. I wish I had more direction. It all seems so overwhelming.
Voice: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
Narrator: And they each bowed their heads in prayer, offering their thoughts and needs to God. And Christ, in great love and mercy, touched each heart. To one he gave a spirit of courage and hope; to one he poured our his healing compassion; to another he gave a spirit of joy and commitment; and to the last he gave direction and strength. To each of us Christ gives strength, peace, joy, and love. Receive the Good News of Jesus Christ and be healed. AMEN.
Benediction
Feel the power of Christ’s healing love restoring you. Go in peace, offering help and hope to others. And may the peace of God always be with you. AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional color for this Sunday is: GREEN.
[Note: this setting will need some explanation. The green fabric stands for hope and faith. The center riser, on which the cross is placed, represents Christ and the two candles on either side represent all of us. The ivy vines, which should trail across the ends of the table and down the front, represent the word and hope of Christ which is spreading from person to person. The piles of rock remind us of the difficulties encountered in life, and the candles around them suggest that we can be part of the healing love Christ offers. I suggest placing a basket or two on either side of the worship center so that items for the local food pantry, brought by the people, can be received. At the end of the worship service, or the reading, these items should be blessed by the pastor]
SURFACE: Place a 10” riser at the center back of the worship table. Place two 6” risers on either side of the 10” riser. Place a riser in front of the worship center.
FABRIC: Cover the entire worship center with dark green cloth so that all risers are covered and the cloth puddles to the floor in front of the worship center.
CANDLES: Place two 6” white or light green pillar candles on the risers on either side of the center riser. Beside the mounds of rocks on the worship center and riser, place four or five votive candles.
FLOWERS/FOLIAGE: Place ivy or other trailing plants on either side of the 6” candles.
ROCKS/WOOD: In the center of the worship table, place a pile of rocks approximately 2 feet long, and build them up (or mound them). Place another pile of rocks on the riser in front of the worship center.
OTHER: Place a brass cross on the center riser. Place two baskets near the worship center to receive the food donations for the food pantry.
From a Child's Point of View
Old Testament: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23. Though children may know several proverbs, they often do not recognize the term proverb or know what a proverb is. Pointing out familiar proverbs, such as "A penny saved is a penny earned" is a good introduction.
Today's proverbs deal loosely with riches and poverty. The Good News Bible offers clear translations that make sense to children. Few of the ideas in these proverbs are new to them, but they come to life when illustrated with everyday examples of the truths they state.
In verse 9, be sure to point out that the blessings one receives when one shares food with the poor are not special rewards, but the experiences one has in the process of sharing food.
Psalm: 125. The first two verses offer images of dependability that children enjoy. Because they think literally, they hear in verse 1 that a good person is physically stuck in one place just as a mountain is. Help them grasp the poetic meaning of "cannot be moved" by comparing a person who is your friend today but says mean things about you tomorrow, is honest today but cheats tomorrow and generally cannot be depended upon, with a person who is always your friend and always honest.
Verse 2 tells us that God is as likely to move away from the people as the mountains around Jerusalem are likely to move away from Jerusalem. Clarify the point by paraphrasing it in terms of the geography of your region God will not leave God's people, any more than the James River will go around Richmond instead of through it's center.
Verses 3-5 are a prayer children readily offer, because it expresses their longing that everyone should receive what they deserve, and it admits, unlike some of the proverbs, that sometimes those who sin are not punished, but rewarded. Again today, The Good News Bible offers the clearest translation of this psalm for children.
Epistle: James 2:1-10 (11-13), 14-17. Because children think specifically and concretely, they can speak of treating "the poor" well and then make fun of the poorly dressed kid in their class, not recognizing the inconsistency. James' story of the two people who come to worship is helpful because it identifies a poor person in terms they understand. To continue what the story begins, offer other descriptions kids who bring funny lunches or get free lunch, kids whose books are always a mess because they don't have a backpack to carry them in, and so forth. Such specifics help children recognize "the poor," and therefore enable them to treat "the poor" among them well.
Consider omitting verses 11-13, which are beyond the understanding of children.
Gospel: Mark 7:24-37. Everything about the story of the Syrophoenician woman confuses children. The conversation takes place in poetic vocabulary they cannot understand. And though they do not understand what is said, they are bewildered by what they sense is Jesus' unkind treatment of this woman. Mark's point is lost to them. The most helpful introduction is to point out that though it sounds as if Jesus is being unkind, he was really being more kind than anyone there expected. Explain Jesus' kindness, but do not expect many children to understand. Instead, know that, before tuning out, they will have designated this story as "difficult to understand" rather than "disturbing."
The healing of the deaf-mute is more interesting and child accessible. All the details give the story a reality that other healing stories lack. Older children appreciate Jesus intimate touching of a person whom many considered "dirty" or "gross."
Watch Words
The Syrophoenician woman lived in Tyre, which was a Phoenician port city in Syria. That means she was a Gentile. Gentiles were people who were not Jewish, and Jewish people thought they were not as good as Jews.
Speaking of the poor gives the children the idea that the poor are easily identifiable and definable, and can be treated as a group. Speaking of people who do not have enough money for food or clothes, or who cannot afford a decent place to live, identifies the poor simply as people with specific needs and problems.
Let the Children Sing
Explain the first two verses of "Help Us Accept Each Other" before singing them. Children will miss the meaning of the last two verses.
The phrases repeated at the beginning and end of each verse of "Go Forth for God" invite young readers to sing at least those phrases.
Celebrate the healings with "Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands," sung by the congregation or by a children's class or choir.
The Liturgical Child
1. Introduce the topic of today's proverbs, then ask several children to read or recite one each.
2. Highlight the two healing stories in the Gospel reading by having them read by different readers, or by pointing out the change of story as you read. Use your hands to illustrate how Jesus healed the deaf-mute man.
3. Before the offering, describe some of the ways your church uses money to help the poor. As you dedicate the offering, pray that it brings real relief to people in need.
4. Base a Prayer of Confession on our tendency to treat others as inferior:
Loving God, we admit that we often think we are better than others and therefore treat people very badly. We look down on and tease people whose clothes look strange to us. We feel sorry for and ignore people who live in houses that are shabbier than ours. We boast about our grades in front of those whose grades are worse, and we describe our accomplishments in detail to people whom we know could not do what we have done. We are even willing to make others look worse than they are, so that we can look better than we are. Forgive us. Teach us to accept one another as we are and to treat all people as brothers and sisters in your family. We pray in the name of Jesus, who made friends with and taught and healed all who came to him. Amen.
Sermon Resources
1. There is a frequently told story about a great preacher who was to preach at a certain church. The crowd that gathered that Sunday included many community leaders who seldom attended church, all dressed in their best. As time for the service arrived, the ushers became nervous because the preacher had not appeared.
They were also bothered by a poorly clothed barefoot man who waited quietly to be seated. After debating about asking him to leave, they decided to seat him in the very back corner. Those seated in the area shifted away as he sat down.
Then at pause in the music, the man quietly walked up the center aisle to the lectern and opened the Bible to today's text in James. As he read, people realized that he was the great preacher. (If you use this story, invite children to draw pictures of the man and what happened.)
2. Natalie Babbitt's The Devil's Other Storybook contains the short story "Boating," which tells of three sisters who spent eternity circling hell in a very cramped boat, because they felt they were too good for the other people there.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
PROVERBS 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
A name is only composed of letters that make a sound. It is the person that bears those letters who is important. No matter how many other people in the world carry your name, each is different and you are the only you. I want my name to stand for God.
Solomon wrote in Proverbs 22 some of the characteristics that I want people to see in me when they call my name.
I. I Want My Name to Carry Honor (vv. 1-2)
How can we gain respect and honor for our names? It comes through high ethical and moral conduct—label it integrity. We adhere to a high standard of justice and responsibility that is derived from our connection to God.
The word honor for a Greek living during Christ’s lifetime meant “weighty” or “heavy.” Gold, for example, was the best example of something of honor because it was both heavy and valuable. When we give honor to certain people, we’re saying that they carry great weight with us.
People will honor us because we are faithful to our spouse, ethical in our conduct at work and church, and have a godly standard. We are an asset to God.
II. I Want My Name to Be Synonymous with Generosity (vv. 8-9)
An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained to the class why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas Day. The teacher said, “The gift is an expression of joy over the birth of Jesus and friendship for one another.”
When Christmas Day arrived, the young boy waited around after class to see his teacher. When everyone had left he handed her a sea shell of exquisite beauty. The beauty startled the teacher and she inquired where he had found such an unusual shell. He told her that there was only one spot where these particular shells were to be found—a certain bay several miles away.
“Why it’s gorgeous, but you should not have walked all that way to get a gift for me,” the teacher told him.
His dark eyes sparkled as he answered, “Long walk part of gift.”
Generosity often means sacrificial giving that comes from deep inside the heart.
III. I Want My Name to Be Synonymous with Compassion (vv. 22-23)
The world lacks compassion. Sometimes it seems as if all we do is shove to get to the head of the line, like junior high students at lunch time. Let somebody else be the last. Who cares? The Greek word for sympathy signifies that we are “to feel or suffer with.” We align ourselves with the hurting of the world.
Generosity is the response to people’s need whereas compassion is the reason. Compassion comes because God’s Son is with us. With Jesus eyes we see the hurt, bleeding, dying world with new appreciation. We see the external and internal needs of humanity. (Derl G. Keefer)
LIVING FAITH
JAMES 2:1-10, 14-17
I have two plants in my office. One is alive and the other is artificial. The artificial one is a very low maintenance plant with only occasional dusting required. It never blooms and never gives any signs of life, even though it is green. The living one shows all the signs of life. It needs water and sometimes the leaves bloom. Other times some leaves turn brown and must be trimmed. A cursory glance at the plants will not reveal which one is living and which one is plastic. A closer and more thorough examination does reveal which plant is the living one.
Some people in the church resemble the two plants in my office. While some are genuine and alive, others only give the appearance of spiritual life but in reality are fake. How can I know whether I have a living faith or a false faith? The second chapter of the book of James helps to give us some answers to that question.
I. Living Faith Is Impartial (vv. 1-10)
Discrimination is evidence of partiality. James is quite clear that we should not hold our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a sign of personal favoritism. Nor should we be partial to anyone. As we read this passage in James chapter 2, we must be struck with how similar our day is to James’s day. We tend to cater to those who are wealthy or are dressed well or look good. In so doing we are showing partiality.
How do you and I respond to the person who doesn’t dress as well or smell as nice as others? A living faith is one that welcomes equally the poor and rich, the black and white and brown, the educated and uneducated, the well-dressed and the poorly dressed. While we might downplay this type of sin, James is quick to say that whoever breaks the law at one point is guilty of breaking the whole law. Discrimination is sin and we need to call it such, no more or less loudly than we speak of every sin.
Living faith, on the other hand, is not concerned with skin color or bank accounts or anything except the individual person. May God grant us a faith that shows no partiality!
II. Living Faith Produces Good Works (vv. 14-17)
While I was in high school and college one of my sisters lived in Florida. Every spring break I made a visit to see her. Driving through the orange groves I began to stop and enjoy the sights, smells, and tastes. Those trees naturally produced oranges because that is what they were—orange trees. The oranges grew from the inside of the tree out.
In the same way, Christians ought to produce good works because on the inside God has changed us. To use another biblical analogy, we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We are not the same anymore, and because we have been changed from the inside out we naturally produce good works. It is as natural for a Christian to produce good works as it is for the orange tree to produce oranges.
Good works for the Christian, as do oranges, come in all shapes and sizes. Developing Christian character, ministering to the needs of others, and sharing the Word of God are all examples of good works. Time would not permit an exhaustive list of good works that the believer could perform. The key is that a living faith produces good works.
Living faith is the result of the work of God in bringing a person to salvation. Impartiality and good works are the results of a living faith. Just as the true nature of the two plants in my office will be eventually revealed, so will a living faith and a false faith be made plain. A living faith produces good things that bring praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Douglas Walker)
BEYOND THE BORDERS
MARK 7:24-37
In the preceding verses Jesus declared all foods are clean (v. 19), because it is what is in the inner person that counts. In these stories, Jesus declares all persons clean, whether a Syrophoenician woman in Tyre, or a man of unknown but non-Jewish race in the region of the Decapolis. These two stories recorded by Mark are also documented in Matthew (15:21ff.).
We should not get bogged down in the details of the story, but rather see the broad sweep of the theological brush. We have here two examples of the same religious principle illustrating Jesus repudiation of the traditional Jewish beliefs that the true faith is only for those of the house of Israel.
While as a matter of strategy Jesus started with Israel, as a matter of practicality he expanded beyond those borders. These two stories make this point clear. The Christlike God is a God for all people, who seeks all people everywhere, who calls on them for faith in him and is desirous for the commitment of all, so that all might be saved. As Paul wrote counseling Timothy: “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4).
To the best of our knowledge this is the first and only journey of Jesus beyond the borders of Israel, and the fact that he traveled here is symbolically significant. His actions speak volumes of words.
Jesus often stated that it was his intention to go first to the house of Israel, to those of the Jewish faith. He never claimed to be starting a new religion. He was brought up a Jew and knew well his Jewish Bible (Old Testament), often quoting it, even on the cross (see Mark 15:34; Ps. 22:1) . He claimed that he had come not to destroy Judaism, but to fulfill it. To fill it full of new meaning. To bring it to its proper climax. To fulfill the words of the Jewish prophets. This was his intention.
While he still desired this, he had what spaceflight engineers would call today a “midcourse correction.” He drew his circle larger to include the Gentiles—all non-Jews—and this is nowhere more evident than this passage where a desperate Gentile mother pleads with him to come and heal her daughter, who was possessed with “an unclean spirit.”
He states first his original intention to go to the Jews: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (v. 27). The Jews often referred to Gentiles as “dogs.” Jesus uses here the common vernacular, as he often did in order to be understood by the common people. The woman’s clever repartee drew him out so that he healed a foreigner in a foreign country, an astounding theological event for one who claimed to come to fulfill Judaism.
The second episode, where a person who cannot hear or speak is healed, is recorded more for the comments attributed to the crowd than for the actual healing. The healing was not a new lesson, other than it was again done to a Gentile beyond the border of Israel.
The most astounding thing was that the people were now saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak” (v. 37). These were carefully crafted words that were used to echo the prophet Isaiah who, when he spoke of the coming Messiah, said, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” (Isa. 35:5-6a). The use of these words verified in the minds of those using them that Jesus was in fact the Christ spoken of by their prophet Isaiah.
When General Douglas MacArthur was forced to leave the Philippines because of the advancing Japanese army during the Second World War, he told them, “I shall return.” When he returned near the end of the war, he chose very carefully his words when he landed and said, “I have returned.” It was a fulfillment of his earlier promise. Jesus is claiming to be the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah by going beyond the border to non-Jews. (C. Thomas Hilton)
_____________________________
Ministry Matters
2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37228 United States
____________________________
PROVERBS 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
A name is only composed of letters that make a sound. It is the person that bears those letters who is important. No matter how many other people in the world carry your name, each is different and you are the only you. I want my name to stand for God.
Solomon wrote in Proverbs 22 some of the characteristics that I want people to see in me when they call my name.
I. I Want My Name to Carry Honor (vv. 1-2)
How can we gain respect and honor for our names? It comes through high ethical and moral conduct—label it integrity. We adhere to a high standard of justice and responsibility that is derived from our connection to God.
The word honor for a Greek living during Christ’s lifetime meant “weighty” or “heavy.” Gold, for example, was the best example of something of honor because it was both heavy and valuable. When we give honor to certain people, we’re saying that they carry great weight with us.
People will honor us because we are faithful to our spouse, ethical in our conduct at work and church, and have a godly standard. We are an asset to God.
II. I Want My Name to Be Synonymous with Generosity (vv. 8-9)
An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained to the class why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas Day. The teacher said, “The gift is an expression of joy over the birth of Jesus and friendship for one another.”
When Christmas Day arrived, the young boy waited around after class to see his teacher. When everyone had left he handed her a sea shell of exquisite beauty. The beauty startled the teacher and she inquired where he had found such an unusual shell. He told her that there was only one spot where these particular shells were to be found—a certain bay several miles away.
“Why it’s gorgeous, but you should not have walked all that way to get a gift for me,” the teacher told him.
His dark eyes sparkled as he answered, “Long walk part of gift.”
Generosity often means sacrificial giving that comes from deep inside the heart.
III. I Want My Name to Be Synonymous with Compassion (vv. 22-23)
The world lacks compassion. Sometimes it seems as if all we do is shove to get to the head of the line, like junior high students at lunch time. Let somebody else be the last. Who cares? The Greek word for sympathy signifies that we are “to feel or suffer with.” We align ourselves with the hurting of the world.
Generosity is the response to people’s need whereas compassion is the reason. Compassion comes because God’s Son is with us. With Jesus eyes we see the hurt, bleeding, dying world with new appreciation. We see the external and internal needs of humanity. (Derl G. Keefer)
LIVING FAITH
JAMES 2:1-10, 14-17
I have two plants in my office. One is alive and the other is artificial. The artificial one is a very low maintenance plant with only occasional dusting required. It never blooms and never gives any signs of life, even though it is green. The living one shows all the signs of life. It needs water and sometimes the leaves bloom. Other times some leaves turn brown and must be trimmed. A cursory glance at the plants will not reveal which one is living and which one is plastic. A closer and more thorough examination does reveal which plant is the living one.
Some people in the church resemble the two plants in my office. While some are genuine and alive, others only give the appearance of spiritual life but in reality are fake. How can I know whether I have a living faith or a false faith? The second chapter of the book of James helps to give us some answers to that question.
I. Living Faith Is Impartial (vv. 1-10)
Discrimination is evidence of partiality. James is quite clear that we should not hold our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a sign of personal favoritism. Nor should we be partial to anyone. As we read this passage in James chapter 2, we must be struck with how similar our day is to James’s day. We tend to cater to those who are wealthy or are dressed well or look good. In so doing we are showing partiality.
How do you and I respond to the person who doesn’t dress as well or smell as nice as others? A living faith is one that welcomes equally the poor and rich, the black and white and brown, the educated and uneducated, the well-dressed and the poorly dressed. While we might downplay this type of sin, James is quick to say that whoever breaks the law at one point is guilty of breaking the whole law. Discrimination is sin and we need to call it such, no more or less loudly than we speak of every sin.
Living faith, on the other hand, is not concerned with skin color or bank accounts or anything except the individual person. May God grant us a faith that shows no partiality!
II. Living Faith Produces Good Works (vv. 14-17)
While I was in high school and college one of my sisters lived in Florida. Every spring break I made a visit to see her. Driving through the orange groves I began to stop and enjoy the sights, smells, and tastes. Those trees naturally produced oranges because that is what they were—orange trees. The oranges grew from the inside of the tree out.
In the same way, Christians ought to produce good works because on the inside God has changed us. To use another biblical analogy, we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We are not the same anymore, and because we have been changed from the inside out we naturally produce good works. It is as natural for a Christian to produce good works as it is for the orange tree to produce oranges.
Good works for the Christian, as do oranges, come in all shapes and sizes. Developing Christian character, ministering to the needs of others, and sharing the Word of God are all examples of good works. Time would not permit an exhaustive list of good works that the believer could perform. The key is that a living faith produces good works.
Living faith is the result of the work of God in bringing a person to salvation. Impartiality and good works are the results of a living faith. Just as the true nature of the two plants in my office will be eventually revealed, so will a living faith and a false faith be made plain. A living faith produces good things that bring praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Douglas Walker)
BEYOND THE BORDERS
MARK 7:24-37
In the preceding verses Jesus declared all foods are clean (v. 19), because it is what is in the inner person that counts. In these stories, Jesus declares all persons clean, whether a Syrophoenician woman in Tyre, or a man of unknown but non-Jewish race in the region of the Decapolis. These two stories recorded by Mark are also documented in Matthew (15:21ff.).
We should not get bogged down in the details of the story, but rather see the broad sweep of the theological brush. We have here two examples of the same religious principle illustrating Jesus repudiation of the traditional Jewish beliefs that the true faith is only for those of the house of Israel.
While as a matter of strategy Jesus started with Israel, as a matter of practicality he expanded beyond those borders. These two stories make this point clear. The Christlike God is a God for all people, who seeks all people everywhere, who calls on them for faith in him and is desirous for the commitment of all, so that all might be saved. As Paul wrote counseling Timothy: “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4).
To the best of our knowledge this is the first and only journey of Jesus beyond the borders of Israel, and the fact that he traveled here is symbolically significant. His actions speak volumes of words.
Jesus often stated that it was his intention to go first to the house of Israel, to those of the Jewish faith. He never claimed to be starting a new religion. He was brought up a Jew and knew well his Jewish Bible (Old Testament), often quoting it, even on the cross (see Mark 15:34; Ps. 22:1) . He claimed that he had come not to destroy Judaism, but to fulfill it. To fill it full of new meaning. To bring it to its proper climax. To fulfill the words of the Jewish prophets. This was his intention.
While he still desired this, he had what spaceflight engineers would call today a “midcourse correction.” He drew his circle larger to include the Gentiles—all non-Jews—and this is nowhere more evident than this passage where a desperate Gentile mother pleads with him to come and heal her daughter, who was possessed with “an unclean spirit.”
He states first his original intention to go to the Jews: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (v. 27). The Jews often referred to Gentiles as “dogs.” Jesus uses here the common vernacular, as he often did in order to be understood by the common people. The woman’s clever repartee drew him out so that he healed a foreigner in a foreign country, an astounding theological event for one who claimed to come to fulfill Judaism.
The second episode, where a person who cannot hear or speak is healed, is recorded more for the comments attributed to the crowd than for the actual healing. The healing was not a new lesson, other than it was again done to a Gentile beyond the border of Israel.
The most astounding thing was that the people were now saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak” (v. 37). These were carefully crafted words that were used to echo the prophet Isaiah who, when he spoke of the coming Messiah, said, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” (Isa. 35:5-6a). The use of these words verified in the minds of those using them that Jesus was in fact the Christ spoken of by their prophet Isaiah.
When General Douglas MacArthur was forced to leave the Philippines because of the advancing Japanese army during the Second World War, he told them, “I shall return.” When he returned near the end of the war, he chose very carefully his words when he landed and said, “I have returned.” It was a fulfillment of his earlier promise. Jesus is claiming to be the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah by going beyond the border to non-Jews. (C. Thomas Hilton)
_____________________________
Ministry Matters
2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37228 United States
____________________________
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