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Ministry Matters: Preach, Teach, Worship. Reach, and Lead for Tuesday, 18 November 2014
You know when someone invites you for dinner, and from the moment you arrive you feel thoroughly welcomed and properly hosted? I don’t mean stiff-but-proper Martha Stewart style hosting. I mean the kind of hosting that seems both effortless and personal, as if they’ve been waiting all along for you to show up.
Preaching at someone else’s church should be more like this.
It’s often overlooked, but the difference between a pastor and church who take their hosting seriously and those who don’t is stark. Our churches have been focusing more and more on how to invite and receive visitors, pushing ourselves to see properties, procedures, and liturgies through the eyes of strangers. As someone who is often invited to preach at other churches, it occurs to me we might spend a little time considering how to invite and host guest preachers, too.
Be specific when you extend the invitation to preach. Don’t assume the guest preacher will know you have three services or that since it’s the fifth Sunday worship will be in a different location. Ask her to preach on a certain date and name all times and locations at the time you make the invitation.
Know what you’re asking — and ask for it. Take a thorough look at your order of worship and decide whether you will have the guest preacher do everything you normally do or whether you will ask congregation members to take on some parts of the service. If you want the guest preacher to choose hymns, tell her this and tell her when you’ll need to know these in order to produce the bulletin. If you expect the guest preacher to also preach a children’s sermon, ask her. You forgetting to ask the guest preacher about the children’s sermon does not mean she should have to create one during the introit.
If you as the church pastor won’t be there, designate someone from the congregation to host that day. If you are arranging this so you can be out of town, be sure you ask a congregation member to be on hand throughout the morning to meet the guest preacher when she arrives. Give the parishioner and the guest preacher each other’s contact info in advance, in case of emergency or trouble along the route.
If your church does not have a bathroom, make this abundantly clear. I’m not kidding. I was once invited to preach at a charge more than an hour away from my home in a rural part of our district. When I arrived at the first church, having enjoyed a full cup of coffee along the way, I was met with the sad truth that there was no bathroom — not even an outhouse — at this church. This was unwelcome news and that moment was the first I’d heard of it.
Have a secure location for the guest preacher to stash things during the worship service. The carrying bag her robe comes in, extra notes, Bible, car keys, purse, etc. I happen to think this is a hosting courtesy to all guest preachers but it’s especially needed for female guests, many of whom carry purses and don’t want to leave them down the hall in the unlocked children’s classroom (or carry them into worship). Be sure to make time for the guest preacher to access her belongings between services. Whomever is hosting that day should have a key or access code.
Give the guest preacher a few moments alone. She may not take you up on it, but offer this. Take her to the place she can store her belongings and let her know when she needs to be ready to process into worship. Then let her know you’ll be back a few minutes before then to collect her. If yours is a busy church with multiple services or if yours is one church on a charge and she’s been traveling all morning, these solitary moments can help center her before the next thing.
Have a cup of water ready at the pulpit. Your guest preacher may want water before this, but at the very least prepare this cup and let her know it’s there for her. Don’t make her guess how long that cup’s been sitting there and who else has been sipping from it.
We Christians like to talk about hospitality and its extravagance but sometimes we overlook the ordinary, thoughtful, basic elements of hosting. Look over this list and you won’t see deep theological arguments. I’m talking about bathrooms and a cup of cold water — because this is where it starts, always. We welcome the stranger as a brother or sister who’s been traveling a dusty road and might need a pit stop or a place to gather her thoughts before she joins you for worship.
Deborah blogs at DeborahLewis.net.
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During the ratings dominating days of the talent finding reality show “American Idol,” my favorite part of the season was the beginning. I absolutely loved the awful auditions and even more, I loved the judges' reactions and comments that followed the train wreck. Good 'ol Simon Cowell was never one to hold back punches. He'd share his thoughts and then some.
The thing that always got me was how offended and shocked singers were at the negative feedback their performance received. They could barely hold a note in key, yet they were convinced — convinced — they were the next best thing in the music industry. They'd leave the audition cursing a storm up and down claiming that the judges wouldn't know talent if it hit them upside the head.
They genuinely believed they were great singers while the judges and the rest of America saw the reality — they were far from it.
How we perceive ourselves can be different from how others perceive us. Which led me to think about my church.
If you ask anyone from our church what our church is like — what our church is known for — they'll tell you, without skipping a beat, that we are a welcoming church. That we are a loving church; that we are filled with warm, kindhearted folks; that we are a missional church trying to embody the heart of Christ; that we are a generous church; that we are a praying church. And I believe we are all those things.
But I began to wonder, how much of those things are we really when we're the ones describing ourselves in those ways? How welcoming are we when we're the ones saying we're welcoming? Isn't that sort of similar to someone saying that they are the most humble person they know?
A few months after I was appointed to my current church, I attended a gathering of clergy serving in our community. In the fellowship time before the meeting, I began to introduce myself to the other clergy present.
Apart from my United Methodist colleagues, not one of them knew where my church was located. There's a Catholic church that we share a name with and most of them thought I was talking about the Catholic church.
I began to meet people in our community, particularly in the coffee shop near my church. No one knew where I served. One of the baristas lives on the same street as my church and she had no idea where my church was. I told her we were located next to the elementary school.
"Oh! I jog by that place all the time! I had no idea that was a church!" Did she never see the sign out in the front that said "United Methodist Church"? But that's besides the point.
How welcoming are we when no one knows where we are? How generous are we if no one outside of our family experiences such generosity? How loving are we if no one receives that love? If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
It drives me crazy when athletes (or anyone in general) give themselves a nickname (yes, Kobe "Black Mamba" Bryant, I'm looking at you). Nicknames should be given and/or earned (I'm looking at you Magic Johnson and Shoeless Joe Jackson).
I sort of feel that way about how we describe our churches. We (the already members) can't be the only ones saying that we're welcoming, loving, invitational, generous, grace-filled, etc.
The bad thing is, no one knows about us. The good thing is, no one knows about us yet. We have a clean slate to build a reputation of being loving and kind. Better to be known for nothing than to be known for something awful, right?
We are working hard to show our community what God is doing through us and inviting people to participate in what God is doing. We're trying to extend the invitation to our neighbors and strangers so that we can truly back up the boast that we are welcoming.
What is your church known for? What are folks — particularly those who aren't part of your church — saying about your church?
May our churches be as loving as we claim we are!
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Having come to know grief on a personal level over the last few years, I’ve learned that when it it is time to comfort a grieving person, people just do not know what to say or do. We sort of stutter around and try to navigate the awkwardness of it all because, in most of our lives, we just try to hide grief or deny it. So when we’re undeniably confronted with it – at a funeral, in the face of a friend who lost a child, in the announcement of a terminal illness – we simply don’t have the skills to navigate with wisdom.
This lack of skill leads us to say all kinds of things that seem wise, but are often just attempts to assuage our own discomfort. So in this post I will relay to you a number of things you should avoid saying to grieving people. I’m going to be direct and even a bit cynical at points. But I really want to get my point across.
I know how you feel.
No, actually, you don’t know how I feel. Even if you’ve lost your dad, you didn’t lose my dad. Even if you lost your nephew, you didn’t lose my nephew. The fact is, your situation may be similar on the surface, but relationship is what makes each similar situation so vastly distinct. My love for my dad may have been like every son’s love for his father, but the particularities of our relationship – both good and bad – make my love for him unique, and make your love for your father unique. Yes, you may know the pain of losing a father. And that pain may have some overlap with my pain. But our pains are unique to the people and memories we lost. So, no, you don’t know how I feel.
God has a will in this. / There is a reason for everything. / God is in control.
I’ve heard it said before that you should never utter something about God that you can’t say while standing before the gates of Auschwitz. I take that even further, never utter something about God that you can’t say to parents who lost a child.
To tell parents that “there is a reason for everything” or that “God has a will in this” implies that God did this to them. To tell Jews in a concentration camp that “God is in control” implies that God did this to them.
Unless you believe that God is killing children or empowering the Nazis, then you’d better just avoid these phrases altogether.
Can God bring good out of evil? Yes. Absolutely. But that is a very different thing than saying that God is controlling evil and causing it to happen. It’s a very different thing than saying that God has a reason he’s taken kids from their parents.
How are you doing?
This is a difficult thing to tell you not to say because, at its heart, it does show compassion. It realizes that instead of pithy proverbs, the best thing to do is ask a question.
However, the nature of this question is what makes it off-limits. The question assumes the person has processed their feelings enough to be able to articulate them. The question assumes, as well, that not only have they processed their feelings, but that they want to talk about their feelings with you.
Further, grief is so multifaceted that when you ask me how I’m doing, I honestly don’t know how to answer the question. How I’m doing depends on the moment (grief comes in waves), and that means a given moment in which you ask me the question may solicit a different answer than if you asked me an hour later.
The question is also so open-ended that when you ask me, I don’t really know how to answer. And because I have such mixed feelings, such waving grief, and because I know I’m going to have trouble articulating the complexities of it all, I’ll probably settle for an easy answer (easy for both of us): I’m fine. I’m good. I’m okay. You asked a simple question to get at a complex problem. So I offer an easy answer. And the question never really gets answered.
He’s in a better place.
First of all, you don’t know this. The eternal condition of any human being is not for me and you to know with any kind of surety. This line is often thrown about with the assumption that everyone gets to go to a better place just because. We know too little of the afterlife and we know too little of people’s disposition toward the afterlife to warrant our confidence that everyone is simply in a better place.
Nevertheless, even if we have a lot of confidence that someone is in eternal bliss, the fact is, God designed us to be earth dwellers. Made from the dust of the ground, humanity is an earth-bound, earth-loving creature. Our best place, the place for which we were created is right here.
What we mean by “a better place” is that these people are in the presence of God and are no longer suffering. That’s fine. And I’m good with that. But I find it hard to believe, given how we were created, that heaven is better than earth, or that people are closer to God because they’re “in heaven.” No, in biblical theology, heaven and earth are together and God is here in this place.
You can have another child. / At least you have other kids.
First, of all, you don’t know that a mother/father who just lost a child can have other kids. You can’t know this. So that, in itself, ought to disqualify such a comment.
But more specifically, the comment is insensitive in that it attempts to distract the parent’s pain by providing an opiate alternative. Is the ability to have children automatically supposed to make the loss of this child somehow more manageable or better? No. It wouldn’t. It doesn’t. So let’s stop saying this one too.
God just wanted another angel.
Not only is this statement theologically wrong (people don’t turn into angels when they die; they remain people), but the more dangerous theological assumption in this comment is that God is somehow involved in the taking of a child from parents. That God selfishly wanted this child to be present with him so he snatched them from the parents to whom he gave the child not too long ago.
What does such a thing actually say about the character of God? What kind of God gives children to parents and parents to children to take them back after a short period of time simply because He wanted to be with the kid?
And might I point out a third theological problem? The statement assumes a strict dichotomy between heaven and earth – a birfurcation or division that is foreign to the biblical writers. To the writers of Scripture, God is just as present with us here on earth as he is in heaven. The Spirit of God indwells God’s people, in particular. This means that God doesn’t need another angel, or another person because he’s lonely or something. God is present with us.
Children were made for earth. They were not made to be angels. They were not made for heaven. They were made to be creatures reflecting the image of God. They were not, in fact, meant to die. And to place such silly reasoning – God needed another angel – at the feet of God is to completely misunderstand the character of God.
It was his time to go.
I’m not really sure what this means, especially in the face of accidental death or death by disease. If a person dies a nice, peaceful death in old age, then maybe I could understand such a statement. But nice, old-aged, peaceful deaths are not generally what we refer to as “tragedy.” In the case of genuine tragedies, part of the pain is precisely that it was not the persons time to go. They were taken early. They were taken against their will by a disease or an accident. To tell grieving people that it was their loved one’s “time to go” is actually not only dismissive of their pain, it’s also objectively, verifiably wrong.
You have to be strong for X…
This gets said too much to grieving people. It places the burden of “bucking up” and pretending everything’s okay on a person precisely at the time when nothing is okay.
As if a person doesn’t feel enough pain, experience enough pressure, we are now telling them that their grieving loved ones are going to be worse off if they don’t “get themselves together” and pretend like everything is okay and normal.
Let’s get this straight. What we’re really asking these people to do is lie. We’re asking them to pretend that they are in a reality of daisies and sunshine when all around them there are gravestones and darkness. And we’re asking them to lie for the sake of their loved ones, but who are we to assume we know anything about what their loved ones actually need? Maybe their loved ones need to see grief and vulnerability modeled. Maybe the last thing they need is someone else trying to pretend like things are okay when they so clearly are not.
God never gives us more than we can handle.
How do you know God never gives us more than we can handle?
Seriously. How do you know that?
Did you read that in Scripture somewhere? Did you see it on a bumper sticker? Did God come down and tell you that?
Because from everything I know about God, two things are absolutely clear:
God does not “give” tragedy to people. God does not cause evil. A God who causes evil (for testing or because he needs another angel) is an evil God. I understand that there is a more nuanced philosophical discussion that could happen here, but at the root of it, I will always insist that God never be the cause of evil.
The second thing I’m clear about when it comes to God is that God is always allowing people to find themselves in situations that are bigger than they can handle. That’s the nature of learning to trust God and understand God’s loving care for us – it’s all bound up in the idea that when we are out of control, God is still sovereign and still working the waves and the darkness and death into something, not that we can control, but something that can be redeemed.
So, no, on all accounts, this statement misses the point and should be avoided, as well.
Is there anything I can do for you?
This question often comes from a good place. Unlike many of the comments and clichés above, this question at least focuses on the needs of the grieving person instead of the discomfort of the person voicing the trite comments.
Nevertheless, I advise avoiding this question because it isn't specific enough. When you ask me if there is anything you can do for me, the options are too many. I may be too overwhelmed by everything I need to tell you only one thing, so I’ll opt for saying, “No, I’m fine.”
Think about it like this: When many of you went to church on Sunday you were handed a bulletin. It probably had so many announcements and events on it that your eye wasn’t drawn to any one of them. Because of how many there were, you probably didn’t read any of them… unless the sermon was just that bad.
The same thing can happen at restaurants. When there are too many choices on a menu, I can get overwhelmed and instead of choosing something specific that is unique to the restaurant, I'll often just fall back on chicken strips. All because there are so many options.
When a person is grieving, there are so many things they need – even things they need that they’re not aware of yet. Instead of asking the general question, find out through the grapevine what their specific needs are and then ask them, “Can I do X for you? Or do you have someone else doing it?” If they have something else specific for you to do, they can tell you at that time, “No, someone else is doing that, but could you do Y for me?”
In the end, most of the silly things we say to grieving people could be avoided if we simply keep our mouths shut. Silence is better than stupidity, I think. In some of these sayings, we mean well, but the sayings don’t effectively communicate our concern. In others of these, we’re not really concerned about the grieving person, we’re concerned with our own discomfort. So, really, if in this post I took away your “go-to” sayings, always know that the grieving person doesn’t need you to solve anything. A hug will do just fine. If Jesus is right and God blesses those who mourn, then the last thing we need to do is be a curse to them by saying things that are more hurtful than helpful.
Your turn: Is there anything you would add to this list? Have you ever had someone say these things to you? How did you respond? Have you ever said these things to anyone? How did they respond?
Tom Fuerst blogs at Tom1st.com. You can subscribe to his blog via email here.
What would I do differently if I were raising my family again?
I’ve been asked several times recently for my advice on raising a family.
The only advice I have is from personal experience. My boys are grown. On their own. Self-sustaining. Independent young men. Everyone who knows them is impressed with my two adult sons. They are incredible.
But I’ve been honest with all of them. Cheryl is too when she’s asked. It’s all been grace.
I do have the opportunity, however, of looking back on that experience. Parenting looks different to me now than it did then. Isn’t that how all of life works? We can only see what we can see, and when we are in the middle of something, it’s harder to see the whole picture.
And if I had it to do over, I’d do some things differently.
Not everything. I have great adult children. The best, in fact. Seriously. Let’s compete. I’ll win.
Okay, it’s not a competition, but if it were — just saying. :)
But, if I had it to do over, I’d do a few things differently.
Here are 5 examples:
I’d control more early on. I’ve said this before and I get push back, but so much of life is built upon those beginning years. And every parent knows things that are best for the child early that the child may not choose correctly left on their own. You have much control early in life. Parents often act like they have no control — they do. I’d control what they watch. What they listen to. Whether they attend church — or not. I know — bad dad. You may not think you can’t, but you can. There will be days when you can’t — and shouldn’t try — to control them. But while you can, do! And I don’t know that age when you have to move from more control to more influence, but I know it isn’t 3. I’d give them a strong foundation to pull from the rest of their life.
I'd limit outside interruptions. There’d be less travel ball and outside activities. And less everything where lots of other people were involved. I know. That would be unpopular. Families are always on the go it seems. But I’d make sure there was less time with a coach and more time with us, the parents. And that’s just it. We are the parents, and those parenting opportunities pass too quickly anyway. And it seemed the dynamics of family always changed when others were around. It often became more about others than about us as a family. And it’s harder to really parent well in those settings. I’d be more selfish with our family time so I could increase our individual time with our kids.
I’d be more selfish with my time too. My personal time. My play time. And my work time. I’m not saying that would be popular with my friends or even with my work, but I would be more concerned with my influence on my kids than what other people think.
I’d plan our week around church. Okay, you think this one is self-serving to me now. And I know it’s not as culturally relevant anymore, but I’ve never met a family who was sorry they did this. (Including us.) I’ve met several families who, when it was too late, wish they had.
I’d get less upset about minor annoyances. Each of my boys did things that upset me at times. And I often overreacted. Like squeezing the toothpaste tube in the middle or always waiting to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune time, even though we asked a dozen times before. (See, minor.) But, they have outgrown them. And it wouldn’t matter anyway. They are minor now and looking back, they were minor then. I would react differently to the minors, so I could major on the majors — things like character, that really matter — then and now.
Those are quick thoughts. Parenting is hard. I’d never want to put more pressure on parents than they already feel. Each parent has to own their parenting. However, quick thoughts are needed in parenting. Parenting happens fast.
But the results of parenting last generations.
Ron Edmondson blogs at RonEdmondson.com.
I never met a Muslim I didn't like.
Yeah, okay, so I know they’re out there. We see them every day on the television, these “radical jihadi terrorists” bent on America’s destruction. It’s just that I’ve never met one. I’ve only ever met nice Muslims.
Yesterday, I sat down to lunch with Imam* Hassan Selim, a young man from Egypt who moved to Cedar Rapids to be with his wife, a native of this city whom he met while she studied abroad. Hassan was an active participant in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, part of that larger protest movement we call the Arab Spring. You can read a little about his story here.
We had never met before, but we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and long conversation. I hope there are more to come.
At one point in our discussion, we were talking about the value of visiting other places, learning about other cultures. I told him a story about when I went to Russia as a high school senior in 1995. This was only a few years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and for most of my childhood I had known Russia to be the dark realm of our enemy, a terrible place full of communists who hated freedom. It wasn’t that my parents ever told me this. My culture did, and the message somehow stuck.
Still, the exchange program was presented to us as a free trip sponsored by Iowa State University with funding from the federal government. This was a new age. Russia was maybe not so bad anymore. We students had to apply for the opportunity to go there, as if it was a privilege.
Even if it was only a trip to crappy old Russia, I figured I might as well fill out an application. When else would I be able to afford to travel halfway around the world with a group of my friends? Plus, a big part of the program was about studying the use of this new thing called “e-mail”, which I had never heard of before. Supposedly, with “e-mail” you could send a letter to your Russian pen pal and it would arrive instantaneously, whereas an actual letter might take a month to arrive. That sounded pretty cool to me.
Lo and behold, my application was accepted, and that month in Russia turned out to be one of the best months of my life. I saw so many amazing places, made wonderful new friends, and learned a whole lot I didn’t know about the world. I even fell for a beautiful Russian girl and had a brief but bright romance. This place and people I had always thought of as distant and threateningly “other” suddenly meant so much to me that it was hard to leave them for home.
After hearing my story, Hassan told me about his trip to England. As you probably know, Egypt does not have a great relationship with Israel, and much like we heard about Russia, Hassan listened his entire life to propaganda about those “evil Jews.” Then, shortly before traveling to England, he found out that his host family was Jewish.
He was scared. Friends and family were worried for him. Some suggested that maybe he shouldn’t go. Or, if he did go, he would have to be extremely vigilant. Those Jews could sneak poison into his food or find other ways of harming him.
Of course, when he met his host family in England, they turned out to be very kind, generous people. They were hospitable and thoughtful enough to accommodate any of his needs. Initially confused by their warmth, Hassan soon realized that his Jewish host family was offering genuine friendship. He could not believe how wrong everyone back home had been to label an entire people as evil.
“From then on, I decided that I would not accept other people’s opinions as truth until I had the chance to experience that truth myself,” Hassan told me. He applied this kind of test to more than just the stereotypes he had heard about other cultures. It also helped him think more carefully about his religious beliefs. Today, as an imam, Hassan gently encourages his congregation to do the same, to use critical thinking as a tool to strengthen their faith.
I resonated deeply with this idea. Too often in my own tradition, I see people proclaiming without question a set of beliefs or practices handed down to them from previous generations as inerrant truth. They don’t think about testing those beliefs or how old assumptions born from a certain history can be harmful when carried into a new reality.
I also thought about the Muslims I have met in my life. In spite of the way Muslims or Arabs are often depicted as America’s unholy enemy, I have to tell you every single one of them I have ever met has been friendly, thoughtful and generous to me. Frankly, I've often thought they put “Midwestern hospitality” to shame.
Of course, I know there are bitter, hateful, violent “Muslims” out there. I know that we have been at some state of war in various Muslim countries for decades. There is a history that prompts such negative feelings toward Islam and the Middle East.
However, I've also met bitter, hateful, violent people right here in my own neighborhood, people who wholeheartedly advocate the killing of innocent people across the world simply because our government has labeled them as “enemy”. But knowing these people exist down the street from me does not mean I think anyone would be justified in labeling all people in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as violent extremists. To assume so would be totally absurd. Still, you know, we Americans do it all the time with entire swaths of the world’s population, and often churches join right in.
I won’t. I refuse to participate in the demonization of whole cultures or nations when I know for a fact I could find friends in every group of people I am asked to hate.
Instead, I want to do like Jesus did. I want to break bread and sit with those I am taught to call outsiders. I want more conversation, more beginnings of friendships like I experienced yesterday with Hassan. I want to ignore what the kingdoms of men tell me to think, and instead live like Jesus taught us to, as a citizen in the Kingdom of God.
*In Sunni Islam, “Imam” is a title given to a Muslim cleric, like “Pastor” in a Christian church.
You can see more of Courtney's work at CourtneyTBall.com, or sign up to receive his weekly email, “Life and Depth.”
(RNS) A federal court of appeals rejected a case brought by an atheist organization that would have declared tax-exempt clergy housing allowances — often a large chunk of a pastor’s compensation — unconstitutional.
“This is a great victory for fair treatment of churches,” said Luke Goodrich, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed an amicus brief on behalf of pastors from several major denominations.
“When a group of atheists tries to cajole the IRS into raising taxes on churches, it’s bound to raise some eyebrows,” he said. “The court was right to send them packing.”
Thursday’s (Nov. 13) ruling overturns a 2013 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb, who had ruled that the exemption “provides a benefit to religious persons and no one else, even though doing so is not necessary to alleviate a special burden on religious exercise.”
But the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wis.-based First Amendment watchdog group that has pursued the case since 2011, vowed to fight on.
“We are disappointed but we are not giving up,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF’s co-president. “We are so clearly right and the law is so clearly unconstitutional.”
The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Crabb’s ruling in favor of the atheists because it found Gaylor and FFRF lacked “standing” — meaning they had no right to sue because the law did not affect them.
Gaylor and Dan Barker, her co-president and an ordained minister, did not seek a housing allowance for themselves under the law.
“Dan took the allowance when he was a minister, but now that he is head of the largest atheist and agnostic organization in the country, he cannot take it,” Gaylor said. “That clearly shows preference for religion.”
Churches routinely designate a portion of a pastor’s salary as a housing allowance. So, for example, a minister who earns an average of $50,000 may receive another third of income, or $16,000, as a tax-free housing allowance, essentially earning $66,000. Having to pay taxes on the additional $16,000 ($4,000 in this case), would mean a 6 percent cut in salary.
The exemption is worth about $700 million per year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Estimate of Federal Tax Expenditure.
Supporters of the tax break say it helps alleviate government costs for social services by routing that assistance through houses of worship. Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, said “society has tried to relieve the clergy’s housing burden because of the tremendous social benefits churches offer the culture.”
Most clergy, he said, “despite their exceptional educations, receive only modest salaries.”
The Orthodox Union, which represents Orthodox Jews, noted that the housing allowance helps many rabbis live in homes they might not otherwise be able to afford because “congregational rabbis and other clergy members must reside within walking distance to their synagogues” because observant Jews do not drive on the Sabbath or most holidays.
Gaylor said FFRF was reconsidering its legal options and would not drop the case. The only venue left to hear the case would be the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We are regrouping,” she said.
CANTERBURY, England (RNS) Twenty years after women were ordained as priests, the Church of England is set to appoint its first woman bishop by year’s end or at the start of 2015.
On Monday (Nov. 17), the church’s two most senior leaders, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, signed the change into church, or canon, law after asking the General Synod, made up of bishops, clergy and laity, to signal their approval by a show of hands.
The shattering of what’s called “the Church of England’s stained-glass window” marks the culmination of years of campaigning for reform.
In July, the synod, voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation to create women bishops.
Hilary Cotton, chairwoman of Women and the Church, an advocacy organization, told reporters she is now hopeful the reform will lead to “changing the culture of the church.”
U.S.–born Christian Rees, a member of the synod’s House of Laity, said Monday’s ceremony would change the public perception that the Church of England has “a problem with women.”
Speculation mounts on who will be the first woman to wear purple in a church so long divided on this issue, but no front-runner has emerged in reports coming from Canterbury.
Four contenders for the title of first woman bishop are Vivienne Faull, dean of York; June Osborne, dean of Salisbury; Canon Philippa Boardman, canon treasurer of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London; and Jane Hedges, dean of Norwich.
Isaiah 40:1-11
During the funeral service of the civil rights icon Mrs. Evelyn Lowery, Bishop Woodie White preached a brilliant sermon on the topic “Leaving or Going.” Bishop White talked about leaving in terms of departing. He illustrated the pain of leaving with the sadness parents might feel as they prepare for a child leaving home to go to college, the anxiety one might experience in leaving one job to take on a new endeavor, or the pain of losing someone dearly loved with the throat tightening words — “she has left us.” Leaving focuses us on the person or the place that will no longer be with us. Leaving evokes a sadness or sense of loss.
Bishop White then juxtaposed leaving with the theological implications of going. Going, he said, points to a destination. Going is a word of hope. When a parent’s language changes from “my child is leaving home” to “my son is going to Morehouse,” or “my daughter is going to Spelman,” there is a change in the tenor of the voice to one of expectation and promise, even though the pain of leaving is still present. Likewise, the pain and hopelessness of the death of a loved one is softened by the knowledge that, yes, my dearest has left us, but my loved one is going to be with the Lord. The sense of destination elicits hope and comfort. His point, and the theme of our text, is that God’s Word offers us hope, even in the midst of difficult situations. The grass withers, and flowers fade, but the hope and strength of God’s Word stands forever.
In my book “Hope in the Holler: A Womanist Theology of Hope,” I discuss the resilient hope of African-American slave women to persist in the midst of abuse and oppression. Their holler was a primal cry to God to come see about them. The holler was an appeal to God to comfort them and to provide solace in the darkness of spiritual and physical exiles. The hope deposited in the narratives of these slave women was a hope based on their trust in a faithful God who would see them through. It was a radical incarnational hope given by God. Their hope was a bridge between liberation and oppression. The hope of Isaiah functions similarly. It begins in the midst of Israel’s holler as indicated in verse one. There is no need to cry “comfort, comfort my people!” if Jerusalem was not upset or in distress and in need of comforting. So it is imperative that we remember the context of this word of hope. The people of Jerusalem have been in exile and have experienced Babylonian captivity, economic devastation, and upheaval of life as they knew it. The prophet is challenging them to cease their focus on what they have left and to rejoice about where God has promised to take them. They are to imagine cities rebuilt, restoration of the nation, thriving economic life, and their restored relationship with God. God offers them a word of hope not based on their current condition, but based on their future, directed with promise and abundant life. It is not based on leaving, but rather, based on where they are going.
It is so easy to get stuck in the holler of life — the pain, the struggles, what we don’t have or can’t afford to do — rather than to focus on the hope provided to us in the birth of Christ Jesus. Our Advent hope is based on the knowledge that our joy comes from God leaving heaven, giving up the crown of glory to come to earth. When God asked, “Who will go for us,” God decided to take on flesh, come in person, and dwell among humanity to light the way for us. God’s destination was not just to come as a babe in a stable. Even in leaving glory, God had a final destination in mind — the cross and Resurrection. So on this side of Calvary, we can celebrate the light of Christ preparing the way for us. We understand that the birth of the Christ Child points to a destination for our salvation.
God does not say that we will not have valleys, mountains, and crooked places in life. Adversity, pain, and trial are a part of life’s journey. Yet even in the midst of traversing life’s difficulties, God cries “comfort, comfort my people!” Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the light that makes the crooked paths straight and lifts the valleys of oppression from our lives. Jesus is the light sent from God to illumine our paths back to right relationships with God. He destroys the mountains of depression, anxiety, and stress from our lives — in God’s time and in God’s way. Advent is a reminder that Jesus Christ is our hope in the midst of the hollers of life.
What do you need to leave behind this Advent season? What holler can you renounce, and what hope do you hold on to?
This is an excerpt from Elaine Crawford's Advent study, The Lord Is Our Light.
It doesn’t take long after flipping through TV channels or scrolling through social media to see that the most recent dominant news story has been the Ebola crisis. While West Africa is experiencing the worst outbreak in its history, Ebola is unlikely to present a serious threat to countries that have strong health care. Media coverage and misinformation has led to unnecessary fear and, in some cases, panic. This outbreak surely deserves media attention, but the primary concern should be for our African neighbors. As followers of Jesus we are called to respond not from fear but from a heart of compassion through prayer, giving of resources, and promoting education about Ebola.
The need-to-know facts About Ebola
• Ebola has infected more than 10,000 people in West Africa, leaving nearly 5,000 dead.
• This most recent outbreak began in Guinea from a two-year-old boy who may have handled or eaten bad meat. The boy died and the disease spread to his family and nearby villages.
• Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, and a rash leading to internal bleeding; it is only contagious through contact of bodily fluids; it is not airborne.
• At this time, there is no available cure or vaccine for this disease.
• The U.S has four known cases of people infected with Ebola, of which one resulted in death.
• On average 50 percent of people who get Ebola die from it.
Beyond the hype
God’s Word encourages Christians to serve God and others rather than focusing on self. It is certainly necessary to take proper precautions in our efforts to stop the spread of this disease, but it shouldn’t monopolize our thoughts and cause us anxiety. Christ reminds us that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves (see Matthew 22:39). Help your youth look beyond the hype surrounding Ebola and show acts of love and compassion to our African neighbors fighting this disease.
Question of the day: What is the most recent act of compassion you've witnessed?
Focal Scriptures: Psalm 103:8-18; Philippians 2:1-11; 1 John 3:16-20
For a complete lesson on this topic visit LinC.
JERUSALEM (RNS) It’s a site holy to both Jews and Muslims — considered the most religiously sensitive square kilometer on earth.
These days, the Temple Mount — known as the Haram al-Sharif to Muslims — is at the center of an intense debate over messianic religious Zionism. How Israeli society deals with it may hold the key to the peace process.
Temple Mount tensions were sparked by last month’s attempted assassination of U.S.-born Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who was seriously wounded.
Glick is a fierce advocate for building a third Jewish temple on the site of the Temple Mount, where two Jewish temples stood thousands of years ago. He is also at the forefront of a campaign to allow Jewish prayers at the site. Israel currently bans Jews from praying on the plateau to prevent clashes with Muslims worshipping at the nearby Noble Sanctuary, a mosque considered to be Islam’s third-holiest site, and Jerusalem’s most iconic gold-domed landmark.
A Palestinian shot Glick four times in the chest after a seminar at the state-sponsored Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. As Glick fights for his life, Israelis and Palestinians ramped up violence and traded recriminations over whether he and like-minded activists are responsible for the clashes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed “terrorists” for the clashes over Temple Mount. On Monday (Nov. 10), he ordered his security Cabinet to increase the number of security forces on the ground and move forward on the demolition of “terrorists’ homes.”
On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in Ramallah at a speech marking the 10th anniversary of the death of the former PLO leader Yasser Arafat, said Israel’s settlement policies and actions at the Temple Mount have led to a “detrimental religious war.”
That “war” has driven rifts in the Jewish community, too.
After the assassination attempt, Deputy Knesset Speaker Moshe Feiglin went to the Temple Mount, ignoring Netanyahu’s call for restraint, and vowed to “change the reality” of a ban on Jewish prayer at the site.
Later, speaking at the funeral of a teenage victim of a Palestinian attack at a Jerusalem light rail station last week, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef lashed out against politically motivated visits to the site.
“We need to stop the incitement provoked by people going to the Temple Mount,” said Yosef, according to Israeli news site Ynet.
Motti Inbari, a religion professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, worries about the increasingly open popular campaign to build a third temple — a proposal that would fan the flames of hatred against Jews around the Middle East.
Inbari noted how advocates of a third temple recently posted a video on Facebook and YouTube that uses computer-generated graphics to illustrate a reconstructed shrine on the Temple Mount. The video then links to an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that has generated $104,814 toward the construction of the temple.
In the video, “you don’t see any mosques on the Mount,” said Inbari, who specializes in studying fundamentalist movements. “The clip suggests that the temple replaces the mosques on the Mount. This can explain why Muslims are nervous.”
Inbari said Temple Mount activists mobilized financial and political support in Israel, particularly through the Temple Institute, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding the temple.
“The Temple Institute is supported with millions of shekels by the state every year,” he said. “They get money from the Ministry of Religious affairs and the Education Ministry, and even the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption is giving them money, so it is already part of the mainstream being supported by the state.”
The tensions have sparked concerns in Jordan, too. Jordan is the official guardian of the Noble Sanctuary and other Islamic institutions in Jerusalem according to the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Jordan withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv last week after Israeli police instituted closures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a few steps away from the Noble Sanctuary.
Reflecting the views of many Muslims in the region, Wasfi Kailani, director of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for the Restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the two buildings that make up the Noble Sanctuary, said Glick and his compatriots are dangerous.
“It’s good for Israel and it’s good for Jordan not to go too far in ideological goals of speeding up the messiah and God’s will on earth because this is not different actually from the thinking of the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant.”
The Islamic State declared a new Muslim caliphate this summer after gaining a large swath of territory in the region.
Just how influential Glick and other third-temple enthusiasts are is a bone of contention. Several lawmakers from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition were in attendance at the seminar where Glick had been speaking before he was shot. And after being removed from a respirator, Glick called Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, according to Israel’s Channel 7 website.
But Mordechai Kedar, an Arabic language lecturer at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, rejected the idea that Temple Mount activists were influential or violent.
“I know Yehuda Glick — he’s one of a handful of lunatics who represent nobody but themselves,” said Kedar.
Kedar insists the Palestinian leadership has provoked the crisis in Jerusalem. He slammed Abbas for sending a condolence letter to the family of the suspect in Glick’s shooting, who was killed by Israeli police after the attack.
“The Temple Mount activists are not violent,” he said. “They are not going to kill anybody … unlike those thugs. They just work on the Jewish right to pray at the Temple Mount. Did Yehuda Glick attack somebody?”
We hear lots of gloom and doom around the topic of young people and the church. The usual articles focus on declining church involvement, decreased giving, and the rise of the “nones” as a religious category. But this past weekend, I discovered there is more reason to celebrate than to lament.
On November 7-9, I attended Imagine What’s Next, a United Methodist conference for college students held in Denver, CO. Sponsored by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry and organized by an amazing launch team, Next 2014 focused on the “spaces where church/world and present/future meet.” I went as a representative of The United Methodist Publishing House, and was blessed to connect with 600 college students and collegiate ministers from around the country.
Let me share with you some of what I witnessed this weekend, some of the ways God is working among our United Methodist college students.
I saw powerful, moving worship. Worship was thoughtful and enthusiastic, and it regularly went over schedule (in the very best way). It continued afterwards out into the common areas, as people kept right on singing, praying, and speaking God’s word to one another. It was as if we feasted on God’s presence together and nobody wanted to be the first to leave the table.
I saw our connectional church at its best. Every student I met has a deep desire to serve God and neighbor. Many of them connected with the agencies and seminaries of the United Methodist Church to explore what that will look like in their future. This is how our connectional church is supposed to work: men and women with a passion for the church’s mission are finding support and direction through our denomination.
I saw technology used responsibly and effectively. Online interaction enhanced, not hindered, our real-world experience of Christian community. Event organizers used Livecube to manage the event’s social media presence, enabling participants to interact in real time and share insights and celebrations with one another throughout the weekend. It was a look at how social media can be done right to build up our churches.
I saw the Spirit moving. The hotel’s atrium, our main gathering space, had a piano off to one side. More than once, two or three would begin playing and singing hymns, and others would quickly join in. A small group quickly would become 15, then 20, then 30, playing the piano, drumming on chairs, and singing loudly and beautifully in praise of God. Spontaneous worship in response to the Holy Spirit is a wonderful thing to be a part of.
I saw students thinking deeply and theologically about the future of the church. One student is interested in communications, and he spoke with me about the foundational role communication plays in the church’s identity. What are we called to do, after all, beyond proclaim—communicate—the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ? I high-fived him. Then he took it a step beyond that, reminding me that creation itself is God’s communication. God spoke the world into being, and Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. Carry on, my friend. You are doing good work.
I spoke with several women and men who have a knack for writing, and who feel God calling them to serve with this gift. Their talents are diverse, some with creative fiction and nonfiction, others with curriculum for youth or adults. But what impressed me most was their keen insight into things that must be written. They all have a clear sense of the conversations that Christians need to be having today and in the future. And they have a willingness to tackle those conversations head-on.
I saw ministers and student leaders guiding the body of Christ within college communities. One Wesley Foundation celebrates communion weekly and builds their life together around worship. Another gathers it students into intentional Christian communities within their college campus, making their Christian walk a daily lived experience. It is not easy being a Christian in a college community, but these students and leaders are living out their faith boldly and with deep commitment.
I saw ordinary Christians being faithful. My favorite moment was speaking with two 20-year-olds who attend church every week, without fail. They want to serve God in other ways as well, but I was struck most by their steadfast, ordinary faithfulness. One talked about how she spends her Saturday nights differently than her peers, because Sunday morning church is non-negotiable. The other regularly offers rides to fellow church members, especially the youth she works with. “I’m the only 20-year-old there,” she said with a smile. “They love me.” Such regular commitment is rare for any demographic in 2014, especially college students. I want to write their churches and tell them what a gift they have. “Keep it up,” I tell them both. “You have no idea how important you are to them.”
The weekend’s conference invited participants to “Imagine What’s Next.” What’s next, I believe, is faithful, informed, and energetic Christians following God and leading the church. And from what I saw this weekend, that is not at all a stretch of the imagination.
On October 3, 2014, the movie “Left Behind” opened in theaters. Based on the series of novels by the same name written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the film takes place in the aftermath of the rapture, the gathering of the Christian faithful in the clouds to meet Jesus, which marks the beginning of the end times.
The book series actually first appeared on the New York Times bestseller list in 1995. The first 11 books in the series sold more than 40 million copies, all leading up to the release of the 12th and final book, “The Glorious Appearing,” in 2004. An attempt to turn the success of the books into a movie franchise occurred in 2000, when Kirk Cameron starred in “Left Behind: The Movie.” There were two other films in the series before it stalled out in 2005.
Now, the stories and characters so familiar to those who read the books and saw the movies are back in a reboot. Along with them come the theological questions raised by the plot: Will believers be taken up into heaven before the “tribulations” marking the beginning of the end of time? Does the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptic literature in the Bible give a literal blueprint to how the world as we know it will end and God’s reign will begin? What exactly does our faith teach us about the end times?
It might be important to point out that the current version of “Left Behind” has not done very well at the box office, and it is difficult to find a positive review anywhere except on the film’s website. At the time of this writing, the movie was number 21 at the box office, having fallen in four weeks from the number six spot it occupied on the opening weekend.
The issues raised by the film, though it has fallen flat at the box office, are still challenging for some people of faith who wonder what will happen at the end. These questions are of particular interest as we approach the Advent season, which begins next week. The readings for Advent — and even for today, Christ the King Sunday, suggested in the Revised Common Lectionary — tend to focus our attention on the future coming of Christ, even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming among us.
The last things
Though the name of the movie is “Left Behind,” which puts particular emphasis on the concept of the rapture and, more specifically, on those who did not get to meet Jesus in the clouds and are therefore “left behind,” it is important to note that the rapture is just one part of a theological system that attempts to describe what the end times will be like. The high-dollar word theologians used to describe the study of the end times is eschatology, which comes from a Greek word meaning last things.
The system of thought that includes the rapture is actually a rather new development within Christian theology. Commonly called “dispensationalism,” it is based on the 19th-century writings of John Nelson Darby, a former priest in the Church of Ireland who grew dissatisfied with the established church and joined a reform movement. Darby believed the history of the world to be divided into seven different dispensations, or eras, culminating with the rapture and the second coming of Christ. Darby was the first to separate the rapture from the Second Coming, making them two separate events. In 1909, C. I. Scofield published the Scofield Reference Bible, which popularized Darby’s thought and made it an important piece in fundamentalist and evangelical theology.
Scripture references for the rapture are scant. First Thessalonians 4:13-17 describes Jesus descending from heaven at the sound of a trumpet and meeting the faithful in the air, those who have died and those who are alive at the time. Paul was writing to give hope to those who were concerned about their loved ones who had died. It was thought that Jesus would return within the lifetimes of the first generation of believers. When people began to die, there was some concern about what would happen to those who already passed away before Jesus came back. Paul’s response was an answer to that concern, and it did not give any more information about this event taking place before or after any sort of end-of-the-world “tribulations.”
Luke 17:26-35 is sometimes referenced as a description of the rapture. Here, Jesus describes people being suddenly rescued or left behind, as in the days of Noah and Lot, to face destruction. He says that “on that night two people will be in the same bed: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left” (verses 34-35).
After the rapture
As mentioned previously, the rapture is just one component in the dispensational interpretation of the end times. There are various schools of thought about the timing of the rapture:
• Pre-tribulational: The faithful will be caught in the clouds with Jesus before the suffering at the end of the world begins.
• Mid-tribulational: As it sounds, believers are raptured in the midst of the suffering.
• Post-tribulational: The rapture takes place after the suffering.
Darby named the dispensation that coincides with the end times “the Millennium.” So, what is that all about? Revelation 20:1-10 describes a thousand-year period during which Satan is restrained from terrorizing the earth and Jesus reigns with the faithful. Then, Satan is released to create more mayhem until finally being conquered for good. The Left Behind book series describes this and the other events portrayed in the Book of Revelation as literal occurrences being predicted by John.
The end or the beginning?
It is easy to get bogged down in the lingo of eschatology; dispensationalism; millennialism; and pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation. It can be appealing to debate the finer points of the theology. But one thing is for sure no matter which system you follow: They all lead to the same place — the restoration and renewal of creation described in Revelation 21.
In the first verse of this chapter, John describes “a new heaven and a new earth.” It is a place where pain and suffering are no more. God is there in the midst of the people, and there is no need for a temple or even the sun, for that matter, because “God’s glory is its light” (verse 23). The final chapter of Revelation describes a beautiful garden, a mirror of Eden, with a tree whose leaves are “for the healing of the nations” (22:2).
The traditional creeds of the Christian church, particularly the Nicene Creed, simply state that Jesus will come again “in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” The early church leaders did not feel it necessary to spell out the particulars of the occurrence. They just thought it important that believers recognize that Jesus will indeed return.
They did not see this as something to be feared. In fact, the very end of Revelation, at 22:20, is a plea for Jesus to “come!” We can trust that God has great things in store for God’s people at all points in history. The fulfillment of all of God’s promises at what we call the “end times” is really the most hopeful news we have to share. It is, in fact, not an ending at all, but a beginning of the best of times.
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups. FaithLink motivates Christians to consider their personal views on important contemporary issues, and it also encourages them to act on their beliefs.
This is a follow-up to last week’s article, “Can we stop making excuses for small churches?” My intention for writing that was not to suggest that churches of smaller size do not matter (they most certainly do) but to say that any church of any size that isn’t seeing growth is “small” when God wants us “big.” I don’t want to settle for anything less than a church that is flourishing. It is the Body of Christ, and I see it as a serious problem if that body is not growing – not only in deep ways (spiritually maturing) but also wide (numerically).
We count people because people count. I believe the church is God’s hope for the world, therefore, if it is not seeing an increase in size then it means people are dying without Jesus. This should be unacceptable to those of us called out of darkness and into God’s glorious light.
Why is it that in any other venue of life we would not tolerate stasis or, worse yet, regression? If the CEO of Apple showed zero numerical growth over the last several years (to say nothing of drastic decreases) but argued that his employees are all very happy, doing lots and lots of continuing education, therefore everyone is “healthy,” we would look at him like he’s got two heads. Yet this is precisely what we do all the time in our churches. While it is certainly true that the health of a church has much more to do with numbers it is not true that numbers do not matter.
Where would any of us be today if the 11 apostles who witnessed Christ’s ascension contented themselves with their small house church gathering and did not replicate themselves? Would Christianity exist today if the early church performed like the great majority of modern-day American churches? I don’t believe so. And this ought to unsettle us. It ought to upset us. It ought to convict us.
I don't believe God is pleased with our Sunday gatherings when they aren't generative in nature. If we appease ourselves and our lack of growth by telling each other that the most important thing is a “healthy church” full of “maturing disciples” than I have to ask: What is the measure of a maturing, healthy disciple? Would not such a measurement include, at the very least, obedience to Christ’s command to go into the world and make more disciples? Or is the Great Commission merely the Great Suggestion?
If the church I'm blessed to serve sees not a single profession of faith, nor a single baptism, nor a single life transformed then I will have to conclude that I have been ineffective in my mandate to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12). And I cannot forget John Wesley’s mandate to his pastors: “You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work.”
Christian, let me ask you: How many souls have been saved because God saved you?
I am convinced of this: Our faithfulness will lead to fruitfulness. I want to be the sort of Christian who takes God at his word that if I am planting seed and watering seed, God will make it grow (1 Cor. 3:6-9). If I am not seeing growth in my service and or ministry than it is not God’s fault, it is mine. Perhaps I need to take a look inside my own heart and ask God to reveal what needs to change — how can I better plant and cultivate — so that God can do his part in bringing the increase. I need to ask: Is this a place God would send his lost sons and daughters? Would God trust his children into my care? Am I pursuing righteousness, falling more in love with God and my neighbor, so that I have something to offer those whom God is wooing when they show up on Sunday?
So allow me to share three things that I believe have helped both me and our congregation move from a small mentality to a big, growing mentality over the past year.
Develop a holy discontent. I believe God’s heart breaks over the lost. Like Jesus weeping over the death of his friend Lazarus, or crying out over Jerusalem with longing to gather them in like a mother hen gathers her chicks. God is the Hound of Heaven who does not sleep and will not rest till every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord.
We must develop a heart like God’s which breaks for the lost in our communities. Like the psalmist who cried, “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law” (Psalm 119:136) we must weep. When was the last time you cried over the least, the last, the lost and the lonely in your neighborhood? Ask God to give you tears for them.
Pray. Two prayers (both I attribute to Jorge Acevedo, pastor at Grace Church in Florida) have changed my heart, and, as I have encouraged my church to pray them with me, have changed our focus. The first is to ask God to send us the people nobody wants or sees. That’s the prayer, but when I first introduced it to our church I confessed that there are times I don’t want the people nobody wants or sees! So I needed to first pray, “Lord, make me the kind of person who wants the people nobody else wants or sees.” Because let’s be honest. Many churches are not growing today because we have simply forgotten (or perhaps have yet to really know) the great mercy and grace God lavished upon us and over time we have grown callous and blind towards a hurting, broken world around us.
The second prayer is taken from Matthew 9:37-38, where Jesus describes the harvest as plentiful — there are plenty who need Jesus all around us! — therefore, he commands, pray earnestly — fervently — for laborers who will rise up and bring in the harvest. The word for “earnestly pray” which Jesus uses is δÎομαι, which has with it the sense to “beseech, to feel a pressing need for due to lack, to make an urgent appeal.” This is related to developing a holy discontent over the state of things-as-they-are.
My church has been led to set the alarm clock on their phones to 9:38 (corresponding to the verse, Matt. 9:38) so that every day when that alarm goes off we are reminded to make urgent appeals to God for laborers to bring in the harvest. As long as there are people in our communities who do not know Jesus — as long as the harvest is still ripe for harvesting — how can we be content when our churches never or rarely see a new face in their midst?
Expect transformation to occur. When our hearts are breaking along with God’s for the lost in the world, when we are praying for God to change us into the kind of people who can love without limits or judgment and work tirelessly to bring in his harvest, expect God to fill his church! Expect God to answer!
About six months ago we began opening every worship service with this welcome: “If this is your first time with us today, welcome! Here at Mountain View we believe God is changing lives!” And the whole church erupts in a cheer. Every week. I have witnessed how this practice is cultivating an expectation among us that God is saving souls and setting captives free and healing marriages and restoring families and breaking the chains of addiction and giving hope to the hopeless. We expect new people to come through our doors every Sunday and we expect their lives to be impacted by the risen King Jesus.
Nothing worth doing happens overnight, nor without great cost. But may we be found faithful in desiring to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, and may that kingdom know nothing of small but of that which is greater than any of us can think or imagine (Eph. 3:20).
To God be the glory.
WASHINGTON (RNS) It used to be that defining an “evangelical” was pretty straightforward: some version of a “born-again” experience, a deep appreciation for the Bible as the written Word of God and a conviction to spread salvation to the masses.
Opposing homosexuality wasn’t part of that holy trinity, but for most evangelicals, it was more or less a given that all sexuality outside of man-woman marriage is sinful. Not so much anymore.
Growing cultural acceptance of homosexuality is leading many Christians to reconsider their historic opposition. As intractable as the debate itself can be, American evangelicals nonetheless are experiencing lively conflicts over maintaining boundaries. What can you believe about gays and still call yourself an evangelical? And who gets to decide?
In October, the Vatican’s Synod on the Family and a major conference of establishment evangelicals in Nashville both featured softer rhetoric on gays and lesbians while reaffirming the view that homosexuality is morally disordered.
Last week in Washington, however, a gay evangelical activist laid out a biblical argument for an affirming view.
Matthew Vines was raised in a conservative Presbyterian congregation in Wichita, Kan. Realizing and accepting that he was gay, Vines neither abandoned religion nor sought out a more affirming church. Instead, he delved deeply into the Bible and Christian teaching. He came away with the conviction that biblical Christianity could affirm same-sex relationships.
Evangelicals are less likely than other religious groups to affirm gays and lesbians. Many evangelical elites have expended a great deal of energy keeping the issue of homosexuality front and center. Even as same-sex marriage seems destined for permanent enshrinement in law, a constant spate of sermons, books and conferences reminds evangelicals that they must hold firm on their opposition.
Yet rank-and-file believers increasingly know — and like — gay people who do not seem bound for eternal torment in hell. Vines is showing what can happen when a compassionate, winsome evangelical comes along with the aim of helping Christians realize that they do not have to choose between affirming the authority of Scripture and affirming their gay friends and loved ones.
In a series of public appearances and in his recent book, “God and the Gay Christian,” Vines articulates a biblical case for support of same-sex relationships. The handful of Bible verses that mention same-sex sexual activity is familiar terrain to both affirming and traditionalist Christians, but Vines is sensitive to the concerns of evangelicals who claim to prefer literal interpretations and view biblical scholarship with suspicion.
He concludes that the biblical authors had no conception of the modern understanding of sexual orientation. While the Bible condemns sexual excess, he says, it does not condemn loving, monogamous, lifelong same-sex relationships.
To underscore the threat Vines poses to conservative evangelical leaders, a group of Southern Baptist seminary professors hastily published a response to Vines’ book and made it available free of charge.
Vines’ organization, The Reformation Project, welcomed 350 registrants to its D.C. conference. Held at a liberal Disciples of Christ church a few blocks from the White House, the conference drew participants from across American Christianity.
I asked Vines if this was an “evangelical” conference. “Yes,” he said, “but that is not the totality of it.”
At least half of the conference participants hailed from gay-affirming churches and institutions. But Vines rattled off a list of prominent evangelical churches and colleges whose members and students were in attendance: Brian Houston’s Hillsong Church and Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, as well as Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church in Atlanta and Gordon College outside Boston.
Though they have rebranded evangelicalism as a prophetic minority rather than a moral majority, evangelical leaders are beginning to lose their own people. As churches and colleges start to shift, Vines suspects that elites will simply try to withdraw the “evangelical” label from people who don’t agree.
“They don’t have that power,” he said. “And they will not succeed in the long term.”
David Gushee, a leading evangelical ethicist, announced his support for LGBT equality at Vines’ conference and is already facing attacks for his change of heart. Long suspect by other evangelicals for his work on torture and climate change, Gushee, too, is being dismissed as not authentically “evangelical.”
“Conservative evangelical elites can hold the line with their own leaders and pastors for maybe another 10 years,” Vines predicted. “There is no other issue for which young evangelicals are so hesitant to strongly and clearly affirm their elders’ teachings.”
Variations of this debate have played out at other evangelical institutions. Earlier this year, the relief group World Vision was forced to backtrack on a policy to recognize same-sex marriages for employees — the blowback was equally fierce from both traditional evangelical elites and from younger evangelicals who actually welcomed the change.
At flagship institutions like Wheaton College outside Chicago, students and alumni under the banner of “OneWheaton” say they stand in solidarity with LGBT students, even as administrators hold the line on traditional sexuality standards.
For some evangelicals, Vines’ collaboration with mainline liberals and secular LGBT organizations makes it easy to dismiss him. Yet Vines reiterated his commitment to a big-tent strategy.
“The Reformation Project is not an exclusively evangelical organization,” he said. “Even though I align with evangelicalism theologically, I do not believe that progressive Christians are somehow not Christians. Some in the evangelical world do, but I find that presumptuous.”
QAMISHLI, Syria (RNS) A Kurdish boy who looks no older than 11 mans the entrance of a military base in northeastern Syria.
His pants drag on the ground and his shirt hangs off his bony shoulders as he stands in an ill-fitting military uniform next to a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. Like many of the child soldiers in local Kurdish forces, he refuses to give his name or provide his age for fear of retribution.
The State Department says it has raised concerns about the use of child soldiers, even as the U.S. aids these Kurdish fighters battling against Islamic State militants in Syria through airdrops of weapons and supplies provided by Iraqi authorities.
Local authorities pledged this summer to remove all 149 child soldiers from the ranks of the main armed Kurdish force, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), but the group’s spokesman, Redur Khalil, admits some remain among its 50,000 troops in the region.
“It is not completely strange that cases of child soldiers still exist,” he said, adding it’s hard to know how many are left.
The besieged Syrian city of Kobani is a special case because “it is under attack, so we haven’t had a chance to check who is fighting underage there,” Khalil said.
Back at the Kurdish base in the Tel Hamis region, a 15-year-old fighter insists the boy manning the checkpoint is the same age as him. That’s not saying much since the teen is still under the legal age for a soldier — 18 — and international law prohibits using children in direct hostilities, including checkpoints.
With older soldiers watching, the teen, who volunteered his age, refuses to provide his name, obviously fearful. No cameras are allowed on the base or any other locations where child soldiers are seen.
At a residential apartment on the outskirts of Derike in northeastern Syria, dozens of fighters are recovering from their battlefield injuries. Among them is Naso, who received two gunshot wounds after clashing with the Islamic State at the Rabia border-crossing between Iraq and Syria.
Naso — who, like the other boys, won’t give his full name — said he joined the Kurdish forces two months ago after his two brothers were killed in combat.
He also says he’s 16 years old.
An older soldier then whispers in his ear.
“Oh, sorry, I got confused. Actually I am 19,” Naso all-too-quickly corrects.
Many of the children-turned-soldiers were politically motivated and indoctrinated from an early age by their families’ support for the Kurdish fighters, said Mehmet Balci, program director for the Middle East at Geneva Call, a Switzerland-based organization that protects children in armed conflict.
Of the 149 removed from the Kurdish forces in the summer, some returned home, Balci said. “But it is thought that some others would have run away …. most probably to join again the YPG,” he added.
To combat the ongoing issue, the region’s self-declared autonomous government set up six training camps to remove children from the fighters’ ranks and provide an outlet for those who want to join but are too young.
Even the camps, designed for older teens ages 16 to 18 to teach Kurdish language, politics, women’s rights and self-defense, have problems. Galia Naamet, who is responsible for child soldiers in one of Syria’s three Kurdish enclaves, said children as young as 13 are allowed to join.
“It is important to understand that everyone has been influenced by the YPG, so it has been hard to close the door to a certain group of society — that is, those under 18,” she said.
There are good signs: Some children were removed from fighting in Kobani to the camps to ensure their safety, Naamet said. They’ll be given new clothes — traditional navy pants and a purple shirt — that will distinguish them from the legal-age fighting force.
When the children were removed from fighting, “we had a strong reaction,” she said. “It has been hard to make children understand why. They saw themselves as soldiers, as grown adults.”
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Many times we highlight what worship accomplishes in the life of the church or how well its style connects with us, but this assumes worship is for us instead of for God. In this video from Seedbed, Marva Dawn shares what gives worship its unique nature, what makes it royal, and why it really should be a waste of time.
(RNS) Is the pope Catholic? Is the president of the Christian student club Christian?
These questions might seem equal in their wry obviousness. They’re not. In the massive California State University system, as at some other universities, new anti-discrimination rules for student groups mean it can no longer be required that the president of the Christian student fellowship is Christian, or that the head of the Muslim association is Muslim, or that the officers of any group buy into the interests and commitments of that group.
Student clubs that refuse to accept the new rules will find themselves on the sidelines when it comes to meeting space, recruitment opportunities and other valuable perks that go with being an officially recognized group.
Such is the fate that has befallen InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a national campus ministry that finds itself “derecognized” in the 450,000-student Cal State system for insisting that student leaders of its campus chapters affirm the basic tenets of evangelical belief.
Not surprisingly, the situation has become one of the latest talking points for Christians invested in the grievance industrial complex. The difference between this and much of the other ax-grinding is that in this case, the objectors have a point. Let the Christian student groups reserve their leadership roles for Christians if they want.
Those of us opposed to discrimination can appreciate Cal State’s good intention in enacting the new policy this fall. But any good principle played out to the nth degree, and in isolation from other important principles, can lead to strange results:
Such as the possibility of a Christian taking over leadership of a campus’ secular student organization. Or a white supremacist becoming president of a support group for students of color. Or a homophobe grabbing the leadership reins of a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group.
At first glance, this seems as if it’s a fight over something that’s never going to happen. Why would an atheist want to become leader of an evangelical group such as InterVarsity? To this point, there are no reported instances of the kind of absurdities the situation conjures.
Yet in a time of hardball politics, and given the creativity of campus pranksters, one can imagine the opportunities for mischief. What better way to bring down your political rivals on campus than to stack the membership of their group and elect a new president who is opposed to its beliefs and activities?
Then there is the principle of the matter, which is where InterVarsity is making its stand. It’s only fair and logical to allow a group based on common beliefs to expect its leader to share those beliefs.
Kudos to InterVarsity students at several of the Cal State campuses for continuing, undeterred, despite losing their official student-group status. To compensate for their inability to recruit at the student activities fair, InterVarsity members at Sonoma State took to the campus with large vertical banners worn like backpacks. This kind of cheerful resilience is a better advertisement for their faith than complaining.
But it does not come easy, or free. InterVarsity estimates the cost of operations could rise by many thousands of dollars annually on some of the Cal State campuses. This is part of the reason why InterVarsity is continuing to pray and plead for relief from the new policy.
University officials and state lawmakers should reconsider, and not merely for the sake of InterVarsity. In addition to the freedom from discrimination, there are other relevant freedoms to factor: freedom of religion, freedom of association and our freedom to exercise common sense.
Lectionary Scriptures:
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46
Ezekiel 34:11-16 “‘God, the Master, says: From now on, I myself am the shepherd. I’m going looking for them. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I’m going after my sheep. I’ll rescue them from all the places they’ve been scattered to in the storms. I’ll bring them back from foreign peoples, gather them from foreign countries, and bring them back to their home country. I’ll feed them on the mountains of Israel, along the streams, among their own people. I’ll lead them into lush pasture so they can roam the mountain pastures of Israel, graze at leisure, feed in the rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. And I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make sure they get plenty of rest. I’ll go after the lost, I’ll collect the strays, I’ll doctor the injured, I’ll build up the weak ones and oversee the strong ones so they’re not exploited.
20-22 “‘Therefore, God, the Master, says: I myself am stepping in and making things right between the plump sheep and the skinny sheep. Because you forced your way with shoulder and rump and butted at all the weaker animals with your horns till you scattered them all over the hills, I’ll come in and save my dear flock, no longer let them be pushed around. I’ll step in and set things right between one sheep and another.
23-24 “‘I’ll appoint one shepherd over them all: my servant David. He’ll feed them. He’ll be their shepherd. And I, God, will be their God. My servant David will be their prince. I, God, have spoken.
Psalm 100: A Thanksgiving Psalm
1-2 On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
Ephesians 1:15-19 That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
Matthew 25: The Sheep and the Goats
31-33 “When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
34-36 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
37-40 “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’
41-43 “Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—
I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’
44 “Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’
45 “He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’
46 “Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.”
John Wesley's Notes-Commentary:
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Verse 12
[12] As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
In the cloudy and dark day — In the time of general distress.
Verse 16
[16] I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
The fat — The powerful and rich.
I will feed — I will judge and punish them.
Verse 20
[20] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.
I will judge — I will vindicate the poor.
The fat cattle — The rich.
The lean — The poor.
Verse 23
[23] And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
One shepherd — Christ, the great good, chief, only shepherd, that laid down his life for his sheep.
My servant David — The seed of David, the beloved one, who was typified by David, and is in other places called by his name, as Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 37:24; Hosea 3:5.
He shall feed — Do all the office of a good and faithful shepherd, and that for ever.
Verse 24
[24] And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
My servant — Christ was in this great work his fathers servant, Isaiah 42:1.
Psalm 100
(Read all of Psalm 100)
An exhortation to praise God and to rejoice in him, verse 1-5 A psalm of praise.
An Exhortation to Thanksgiving
100 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all [1] generations.
Ephesians 1:15-23
Verse 15
[15] Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Since I heard of your faith and love — That is, of their perseverance and increase therein.
Verse 16
[16] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
I cease not — In all my solemn addresses to God.
To give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers — So he did of all the churches, Colossians 1:9.
Verse 17
[17] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
That the Father of that infinite glory which shines in the face of Christ, from whom also we receive the glorious inheritance, Ephesians 1:18, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation - The same who is the Spirit of promise is also, in the progress of the faithful, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation; making them wise unto salvation, and revealing to them the deep things of God. He is here speaking of that wisdom and revelation which are common to all real Christians.
Verse 18
[18] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
The eyes of your understanding — It is with these alone that we discern the things of God. Being first opened, and then enlightened - - By his Spirit.
That ye may know what is the hope of his calling — That ye may experimentally and delightfully know what are the blessings which God has called you to hope for by his word and his Spirit.
And what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints — What an immense treasure of blessedness he hath provided as an inheritance for holy souls.
Verse 19
[19] And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
And what the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe — Both in quickening our dead souls, and preserving them in spiritual life.
According to the power which he exerted in Christ, raising him from the dead — By the very same almighty power whereby he raised Christ; for no less would suffice.
Verse 20
[20] Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
And he hath seated him at his own right hand — That is, he hath exalted him in his human nature, as a recompence for his sufferings, to a quiet, everlasting possession of all possible blessedness, majesty, and glory.
Verse 21
[21] Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion — That is, God hath invested him with uncontrollable authority over all demons in hell, all angels in heaven, and all the princes and potentates on earth.
And every name that is named — We know the king is above all, though we cannot name all the officers of his court. So we know that Christ is above all, though we are not able to name all his subjects.
Not only in this world, but also in that which is to come — The world to come is so styled, not because it does not yet exist, but because it is not yet visible. Principalities and powers are named now; but those also who are not even named in this world, but shall be revealed in the world to come, are all subject to Christ.
Verse 22
[22] And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
And he hath given him to be head over all things to the church — An head both of guidance and government, and likewise of life and influence, to the whole and every member of it. All these stand in the nearest union with him, and have as continual and effectual a communication of activity, growth, and strength from him, as the natural body from its head.
Verse 23
[23] Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
The fulness of him that filleth all in all — It is hard to say in what sense this can be spoken of the church; but the sense is easy and natural, if we refer it to Christ, who is the fulness of the Father.
Matthew 25:31-46
Verse 31
[31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him — With what majesty and grandeur does our Lord here speak of himself Giving us one of the noblest instances of the true sublime. Indeed not many descriptions in the sacred writings themselves seem to equal this. Methinks we can hardly read it without imagining ourselves before the awful tribunal it describes.
Verse 34
[34] Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Inherit the kingdom — Purchased by my blood, for all who have believed in me with the faith which wrought by love.
Prepared for you — On purpose for you. May it not be probably inferred from hence, that man was not created merely to fill up the places of the fallen angels?
Verse 35
[35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink — All these works of outward mercy suppose faith and love, and must needs he accompanied with works of spiritual mercy. But works of this kind the Judge could not mention in the same manner. He could not say, I was in error, and ye recalled me to the truth; I was in sin, and ye brought me to repentance.
In prison — Prisoners need to be visited above all others, as they are commonly solitary and forsaken by the rest of the world.
Verse 37
[37] Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Then shall the righteous answer — It cannot be, that either the righteous or the wicked should answer in these very words. What we learn herefrom is, that neither of them have the same estimation of their own works as the Judge hath.
Verse 40
[40] And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it to me — What encouragement is here to assist the household of faith? But let us likewise remember to do good to all men.
Verse 41
[41] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Depart into the everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels — Not originally for you: you are intruders into everlasting fire.
Verse 44
[44] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then will they answer — So the endeavour to justify themselves, will remain with the wicked even to that day!
Verse 46
[46] And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life everlasting — Either therefore the punishment is strictly eternal, or the reward is not: the very same expression being applied to the former as to the latter. The Judge will speak first to the righteous, in the audience of the wicked. The wicked shall then go away into everlasting fire, in the view of the righteous. Thus the damned shall see nothing of the everlasting life; but the just will see the punishment of the ungodly. It is not only particularly observable here, 1. That the punishment lasts as long as the reward; but, 2. That this punishment is so far from ceasing at the end of the world, that it does not begin till then.
____________________________
 THE SHEPHERD KING by Melissa Scott
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Matthew 25:31-46
Whenever a new monarch has come to power throughout history, people have asked, What kind of king (or queen) will this be? Today we celebrate a king; for today is the day in the church year when we celebrate the reign of Christ. It seems appropriate for us to ask, What kind of king is Jesus? Scripture shows us that Jesus is an unusual kind of king—a shepherd king, much like his ancestor David.
What does that mean? It means that Jesus, in all his glory, lays aside a crown and picks up a shepherd’s crook. In our Old Testament text, Ezekiel reports that God himself will search for his sheep and seek them out. It is interesting that God must seek out his sheep because they have been scattered “on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Sheep, at the best of times, have very poor eyesight. On a foggy day, they have little chance of finding their way without some guidance. Are we so different from these sheep? We, too, have a tendency to be very shortsighted when it comes to staying on the path we should follow. Sometimes, even with our good intentions, the storms of life scatter us. The good news is that Jesus is still a shepherd king today. Jesus still seeks us out, wherever we may have wandered, to bring us back to the meadow where we can be safe under Jesus’ watch.
As the shepherd finds the sheep, he guides them to green meadows where food and water are plentiful. The shepherd provides for them all that they need. In Ezekiel 34:15-16, God describes this in detail: “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will 361 bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” A shepherd does so much more for his sheep than simply turning them loose in a hayfield. The shepherd makes sure that they have plenty of rest and goes after the lost sheep, collecting those who have strayed. The shepherd heals those who are hurting and builds up those who are frail. What a promise! Whatever our needs, our shepherd king is already working to meet them.
God’s provision is not always what we are looking for, or even what we think we need. The verse we read just a moment ago does not actually end there. It goes on to say, “But the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” Sometimes, the shepherd must act as judge, separating the flock. This seems harsh, but it is the shepherd’s love that causes action. “Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged.” There are times when the shepherd must guide and lead the sheep along a path they do not wish to follow, in order to make things right for the rest of the flock.
Ezekiel’s words foreshadow today’s New Testament passage in which Jesus tells of his return. Here, the king is in full regalia, shining in glory, sitting on a throne surrounded by all his angels. While Matthew’s image of the king differs from the shepherd of Ezekiel, the king’s actions are the same. The king sorts out the nations of the world, putting some to the right, and others to the left. The criteria for the sorting is also the same. Those who have butted their way through life without regard to the people being pushed away by their actions are chastised. The sheep, those loyal followers of the king, have followed the king’s lead without even realizing that is what they were doing. Their love for the one who cares for them has led them to imitation. Thus, they ask, “Lord, when did we feed you or give you something to drink? When did we ever visit you in the hospital or in jail? When did we provide a home or clothes for you?” The king answers, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” The shepherd king leads by example. Just as Jesus spent his time on earth with those society looked down upon, with those who most needed him, Jesus expects his sheep to do the same. Jesus walks along that path and waits for them to follow. This shepherd is not content for his sheep to simply be like other sheep. They have more potential, and so part of his feeding them involves leading them to a truer understanding of who they are and to whom they belong. Only those sheep who truly know their shepherd’s nature are rewarded; only those citizens who honor the king by loving other people will inherit the kingdom God has prepared for them.
And so, we come back to our question: What kind of king is Jesus? Jesus is a king who will seek us out where we are, a king who provides for our every need, a king who corrects us and guides us along the path we must follow. Jesus is a shepherd king who seeks us, feeds us, and leads us so that we can prosper. It is up to us to decide what kind of sheep—what kind of citizens of God’s kingdom—we will be.
 WORSHIP ELEMENTS: by Ken Burton
Color: White
Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46
Theme Ideas
Ezekiel speaks of the shepherd who searches for lost sheep, rescues them from danger, and feeds them from rich pastures. Mathew makes the metaphor personal, as Jesus blesses the “sheep” who feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Truly, this manner of shepherding is an occasion to join the psalmist in making “a joyful noise to the LORD,” for we are indeed God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture. We, like the early Christians at Ephesus, know the hope to which we have been called and the riches of our glorious inheritance in Christ. Thus it is that we are both broken and whole, at once healer and healed, at the same time shepherd and sheep.
Invitation and Gathering
Call to Worship (Psalm 100)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord.
Worship God with gladness.
Come into God’s presence with singing.
We are God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture.
Give thanks to the Lord; bless God’s holy name,
for God’s steadfast love is present now and endures forever.
Opening Prayer (Ezekiel 34, Ephesians 1, Matthew 25)
Tender, comforting Shepherd,
your steadfast love is present in this place
and resides within each of us.
But sometimes it is hard, so very hard,
to open ourselves to your love.
We feel like scattered sheep,
frightened and alone.
Help us know your loving presence
as we live as your gathered community.
Enlighten our hearts,
that we may know the hope
to which we have been called. Amen.
Proclamation and Response
Prayer of Confession (Ezekiel 34, Matthew 25)
Holy One,
we are like sheep
that stray from your fold.
We are the perpetually hungry,
ever in spiritual need,
and at times in physical want.
We are the naked,
with wounds exposed and bleeding.
We are the sick,
fevered, chilled, and in pain.
We are the strangers,
separated from others
and even from ourselves.
Hear us now as we confess our brokenness
and our need. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Matthew 25)
Our creator God sees our hunger and gives us food.
Christ, the healer, touches our wounds,
offering comfort and blessed relief.
The Spirit blows through us,
cools our fever, and eases our pain.
God sees and touches and heals our wounds.
Passing the Peace of Christ (Matthew 25)
When we were strangers, Christ welcomed us. Let us share the peace of Christ with friends and strangers with words of welcome: “The peace of Christ be with you.”
Response to the Word (Ephesians 1)
Faithful Comforter, we have heard your word of power and blessing. May it give us a spirit of wisdom, that our eyes and hearts may be opened, and that we may know the hope to which we have been called. Amen.
Thanksgiving and Communion
Invitation to the Offering (Matthew 25)
We are shepherd and sheep, wounded and healer. In the same spirit, we are both giver and receiver. Even as we have lavishly received, so now may we generously give.
Offering Prayer (Matthew 25)
Holy One, you have given us all that we have and all that we are. Through these gifts and in our lives, help us be the shepherds and healers and lovers that you are calling us to be. Amen.
Sending Forth
Benediction (Ezekiel 34, Matthew 25)
Come, you who are blessed!
Inherit all that is prepared for you!
We leave this sacred space
to claim the riches and glorious inheritance
that are ours through Christ.
Go out into the world to share your blessings with all in need. Amen.
Contemporary Options
Gathering Words (Psalm 100, Ephesians 1)
Be here now and give us wisdom!
Give us hope and make us strong!
Let our hearts be filled with riches!
We praise you, God, and sing your song!
Praise Sentences (Psalm 100, Ephesians 1)
God is great and God is cool!
Hang with me, God.
Make me an instrument of your love!
God is great and God is cool!
Hang with me, God.
Make me an instrument of your love!
From “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2011,” edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © 2010 by Abingdon Press. “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2015” is now available.
 WORSHIP CONNECTION: by Nancy C. Townley
fChrist the King Sunday
Color: White
Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46
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CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: Now is the time of harvest; the time when we gather in the bounty
P: We bring before God our bountiful lives.
L: Come, offer your praise and thanksgiving to the Lord of the Harvest.
P: We offer our praise to God who blesses our lives with goodness.
L: Gather us in, Lord. Gather us in.
P: Let our praise and worship be a tribute to your greatness, O God. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2
[Note: Using the United Methodist Hymnal, p. 97 "For the Fruits of This Creation", offer the following call to worship]
Choir (singing): For the fruits of this creation, thanks be to God; for good gifts to every nation, thanks be to God; for the plowing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping, future needs in earth’s safe keeping, thanks be to God.
L: Come, let us praise the God of Creation who offers to us such bounteous love.
P: We bring our praise to God in gratitude for the many gifts which God has given to us.
Choir: (singing): In the just reward of labor, God’s will is done; in the help we give our neighbor, God’s will is done; in our worldwide task of caring for the hungry and despairing, in the harvests we are sharing, God’s will is done.
L: As we reach out in love to each other, God’s love shines through us.
P: As we reach out in caring to each other, God’s love brings healing light.
All: (singing): For the harvests of the Spirit, thanks be to God; for the good we all inherit, thanks be to God; for the wonders that astound us, for the truths that still confound us, most of all, that love has found us, thanks be to God. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3:
L: Come, let us praise God who has so richly blessed us!
P: Let us celebrate the many ways in which God has touched our lives.
L: God is always with us offering blessing and hope, comfort and peace.
P: Praise be to the God of harvest and hope, of joy and salvation for the wonders God has given to us. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY, BENEDICTION
Invocation/Opening Prayer: ]
God of rapidly moving times, of holidays and gatherings, of sadness and loneliness, be with us this day as we gather to offer you praise in thanksgiving for the many ways you have touched our lives. We open our hearts to your stirring, healing words of love, poured out for us throughout all creation. We praise you for the bounty which surrounds us and for our time together. AMEN.
Prayer of Confession
Since September, Lord, the malls, stores and media have blared the music of Christmas. Each call comes to us, inviting us to spend, hurry, plan, participate. It is easy to get caught up in the mood of the coming season. We confess that we, too, have gotten caught up in the secular "reason for the season" which is to buy and spend. Slow us down, Lord. On this day of Thanksgiving, let us put aside our rush to Christmas and offer our prayers of gratitude for your constant care. As the man who was healed of his leprosy returned to Jesus thanking him for the healing; so help us return to you with our songs and spirits of praise. You have blessed us with work to be done, harvests to be gathered in, and people with whom to share our bounty. We are called to look beyond our laden tables and filled cupboards to those for whom this time is just another day of hunger and loss. Help us to reach out to our friends and neighbors and to those whom we have called strangers. Remind us that the harvest is given to be shared and not hoarded. Open our hearts in actions of gratitude that we may truly offer our praise and thanksgiving to you. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
We are not alone. No matter how lonely we may feel, God is with us. God’s loving care surrounds each and every one of us. Feel the power of God’s love in you. Be at peace. AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
"Thanks" is a word we often say in passing. It is a way to end a conversation, to move on without having to express further our gratitude and appreciation. "Thanks for the memories", "thanks for the help", "thanks, thanks, thanks". These phrases we utter far too often without thinking about what we are saying. Today we gather together to thank God for all the bounty and blessings that God has provided. We cannot just simply say "thanks" and leave it at that. We can’t just pass God’s blessings off as though we deserved or merited them. God has blessed us for a purpose. The blessings are given not because we been good and therefore have earned them. God’s blessings are the outpouring of God’s love. Just as the man who was healed by Jesus, turned back to him, thanking him and praising God for the healing; we are called to turn back to Jesus in gratitude for the ways in which he has taught us to lived and healed our lives. Thanksgiving is not an easy or a light thing. It is a moment of acknowledgment and power when we come face to face with our faith. God hears our prayers and responds with love. We have experienced that and we can trust that. What we are called to do, remembering the blessings, is reach out in love and hope to others. Thanksgiving is hollow if it is only a sumptuous meal. It is hollow if it is only a holiday to get out of the way so that we can get on with the Christmas festivities. Thanksgiving becomes real when our lives become THANKS-LIVING, living each day in gratitude for all that God has done and continues to do in our lives. Thanksgiving becomes real when our bounty is offered to others in need, when the blessings are shared not only with those near and dear, but with those who hunger and thirst for food and hope. Thanksgiving becomes real when we stop rushing around and take time to really praise the God of love who has called us into God’s service. In Jesus’ Name, we offer this prayer. AMEN.
Offertory Prayer
From tables laden with food; from families gathered; from lives which have been so richly blessed, we offer these gifts. Bless these gifts as you have blessed each of us. Cause us and these gifts to work for you in this world; for healing and hope, so that true thanksgiving may be found everywhere. AMEN.
Litany [WBW: Yr A, Thanksgiving, Feast, God’s Presence, God’s love, Mission, Witness]
L: Everything is almost ready.
P: Wait. Maybe we’ve forgotten something.
L: Everything is almost ready.
P: We’re not sure. We have the feast and all the fixings.
L: Everything is almost ready.
P: The house is clean. We have gotten everyone’s favorite item.
L: Everything is almost ready.
P: What are we missing? What’s not right about this?
L: What do you think?
P: Food, lodging, people. The feast is almost ready.
L: What about the most important element: attitude?
P: Attitude? We don’t have an attitude problem!
L: What about this day makes it different from all the other gatherings?
P: It’s Thanksgiving. A day of giving.......giving thanks.
L: It is a time to remember and celebrate God’s blessings in our lives.
P: We are grateful. Look at all that God has done for us.
L: Everything is almost ready.
P: Everything, but the most important thing is thanking God and living our lives in appreciation for all God has given us.
L: Everything is almost ready.
P: Now is the day of Thanks-living! Living our praise in service to God’s people. AMEN.
Benediction, Blessing, Commission:
Go, remembering God who has given us all that we have and all that we are. Go in peace to serve God in this world. May your lives truly reflect your thanks-living. AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
Thanksgiving Day offers a richness for artistic elements. Generally we are invited to cover the worship center and decorate it with harvest items for the season. The following are two suggestions for a worship center for this day.
[Note: Suggestion #1: Traditional harvest display]
SURFACE: Place several risers on the main worship center. They should be placed with the higher riser in the center back of the worship setting. Other risers may be placed on the worship table. Place a riser in front of the worship center.
FABRIC: Cover the table in landscaper’s burlap, making sure that there is enough fabric to cover the riser in front of the table and that the fabric "puddles" on the floor. Using orange, rust colored or burnished gold fabric, drape a long runner from the upper left portion of the worship center, diagonally across the table and puddling the fabric on the floor.
FLOWERS AND FOLIAGE Generally baskets and pots of autumn mums in yellows, rush, and burgundy look well in this setting. You may also use vegetables, such as pumpkins, squashes, corn and other seasonal vegetables, and fruits as you desire. Cornstalks look nice, framing the worship center.
CANDLES Use a large white or tan pillar candle on the top riser to represent the autumn colors. Use smaller pillar candles in the various areas in the worship center.
[Note: Suggestion #2: This is a variation on the harvest theme, emphasizing generosity out of gratitude]
In place of the full harvest display of mums, gourds, and other vegetables (or using those things as accents to the following), in the center of the worship table, place a place setting of china dishes, silverware, and glass goblets, with a napkin in a napkin ring on the plate. Place a willow or wicker basket, leaning on its side on the worship table, upper right hand side. Place a cardboard box, with its open side exposed on the worship table, left side. Fill the box with canned and boxed goods which will be brought to a local food pantry or shelter. Fill the basket with good clothing which will be brought to a shelter. On the floor in front of the worship center place several boxes. Have quilts, towels, blankets, jackets, and other items filling the boxes and spilling out onto the floor. During the worship service, as an element of Thanksgiving, have members of the congregation bring forward their gifts for the food pantry and shelter and place them in the worship center. Following the placement of the food and clothing items, have two people remove the china place setting and the glass goblet, replacing them with a Chalice filled with communion wine, and a Paten (plate) on which there is a loaf of bread. Celebrate holy communion at this time.
 WORSHIP FOR KIDS: by Carolyn C. Brown
From a Child's Point of View
Here the church concludes one Christian year and looks forward to Advent-Christmas-Epiphany, with which the next year begins. Christ the King Sunday looks back over the whole story of God's revelation in Christ and looks forward to the consummation of that story. But this is beyond the comprehension of children. For them it is simply a Sunday to think about Jesus as the King, the ultimate power of the universe. Today's texts invite us to praise and serve Jesus, the King who chooses to be a shepherd.
Epistle: Ephesians 1:15-23. Paul's compound-complex sentences and long abstract words totally overwhelm children. There is no way they can follow the text as it is read. But its proclamation of Christ as King, and of ourselves as power-filled subjects of Christ, is the heart of today's texts.
If verses 20b through 22 are read separately, children can hear the proclamation of Jesus as King of the universe. Though they take that proclamation literally, they also grasp the truth that Christ is the absolute power of the universe. No power—not scary storms, not threatening military powers, not monsters that seem to lurk in the closet at night, not even people who make life hard for us—is as powerful as Christ the King.
When it is pointed out to them, children also appreciate God's wish to put that same great power to work in and through us. This means that as servants of this King, we are very powerful people. We have the power to love others as Jesus did, to care enough to heal the sick (using medical as well as prayer power), and to teach people God's ways. We need not be timid about doing the King's work. We can be brave and daring. For children to see themselves as the power-filled servants of Christ the King builds their Christian self-esteem.
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46. Though the text mentions shepherds, this passage describes Christ the king as a judge. To the basic question, How do we serve Christ the King? the answer is, We take care of "the least of these."
For children, "the least of these" includes the youngest child in any multilaged neighborhood group, all younger brothers or sisters (especially bothersome ones), the most ignored kids in the class, the kid who is always chosen last, and so forth. Children, especially idealistic older children, would prefer to care in dramatic ways for the starving, the homeless, the abused. But the King's orders are that we look around us and take care of those close at hand. Children need to hear that until they learn how to care for "the least ones" that they encounter every day, they will not be able to do much about the big problems—like hunger.
Old Testament: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24. The mixture of national and shepherd images make this a difficult passage for children. The text does, however, repeat the promise that God's King will care for the people as a shepherd cares for the sheep; it also offers a promise/warning that is of particular interest to children. That promise/warning is that the King not only will protect the sheep from outside enemies (wolves, fast running water, etc.), but also will protect the weaker sheep from the more aggressive sheep. With help, children can connect the "pushing with shoulder and flank" in verse 21 to their pushy attempts to grab attention or get their own way in their classes and activities. Children therefore learn that Christ the King insists that his subjects treat one another gently.
Watch Words
Watch your shepherds vocabulary. It is a foreign language for urban children, to whom shepherds are large dogs, and a staff is the group of paid people at the church or recreation center.
Let the Children Sing
"Rejoice, the Lord, Is King." "Come, Christians Join to Sing," "When Morning Gilds the Skies," and "From All That Dwell Below the Skies" praise Christ the King in short phrases and simple words. Their repeated choruses or phrases make them easy for nonreaders.
The spiritual "He Is King of Kings" can be sung by the congregation or by a children's class or choir.
As Thanksgiving approaches, children are studying about the pilgrims. "All People Who on Earth Do Dwell" sets Psalm 100 to music, in the style the pilgrims sang. So sing this hymn to recall that people in other times have also worshiped God the King.
Avoid the complex theological language of most shepherd hymns. If you focus on the shepherd King, sing the most familiar hymn version of Psalm 23.
The Liturgical Child
1. Read Ephesians 1:21-22 as the Call to Worship. Conclude the reding by saying, or by inviting the congregation to respond, "Let us worship the King!" The Good News Bible offers the clearest translation for children.
2. The short phrases and simple vocabulary of Psalm 100 invite rsponsive readings. Fifth-and sixth-graders can usually read along in the New Revised Standard or Good News translations. Third- and fourth-graders can read several lines with practice. The psalm can be read responsively by halves of the congregation, by congregation and choir, or by two children's classes.
3. Turn a section about Jesus from a familiar creed into a responsive affirmation of faith by asking the congregation to respond after each phrase: Christ is King! For example, in the Apostles' Creed:
I believe in Jesus Christ, [God's] only Son our Lord,
Christ is King!
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost (Spirit)
Christ is King!
[who was] born of the Virgin Mary,
Christ is King! [and so forth.]
Sermon Resources
1. Talk about the various symbols of several countries (e.g., an eagle for USA, a dragon for China). Describe the characteristics of the creature being claimed by each country. Then examine what we can learn about a king who chooses as his symbol not a fierce, strong animal, but a gentle shepherd who works hard and risks his life for his sheep. Talk about how such a king would act and what the subjects of that king would do.
2. Paraphrase Matthew 25:35-36. For example:
I sat alone in the cafeteria, with little to eat, and you sat with me and shared your lunch. Kids laughed at my old clothes, but you treated me as if they were brand new. I was never chosen for any team, but when it was your turn to choose, you chose me. Everyone laughed at my mistakes, but you said kind words to make me feel better. When I stayed home, I thought no one would miss me, but you called me and asked when I would be back.
Adapted from Forbid Them Not: Involving Children in Sunday Worship © Abingdon Press
 SERMON OPTIONS
The Search is On
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
A pastor overheard a little girl ask her mother, "Mommy, does God believe in us?"
The more I've thought about it, the more serious that question has become. Does God believe in us? God created us. God sustains us. But does God believe in us?
God believes in us and wants to help us find our way to him.
I. We Must Admit We Are Lost Before We Can Be Found
The Texas educational bureaucracy recently received and approved a new set of textbooks. A group of concerned parents conducted their own review. They found 231 errors, including the following: Napoleon winning the battle of Waterloo, President Truman dropping the atom bomb on Korea, and General Douglas MacArthur leading the anti-Communist campaign in the 1950s (it was actually Senator Joe McCarthy). When called to account for these errors, the bureaucrats studied the texts again and found more errors than the parents first found. Then the parents found more. Now the tally stands at 5,200 mistakes.
How did the publishers react to this mess? One publisher's spokesperson argued that "except for the errors," everyone agreed that these were the finest textbooks they had ever seen. "Except for the errors"? "Except for the error," that teenage girl wouldn't be pregnant and contemplating an abortion. "Except for the error," that man's wife wouldn't be leaving him because he had an affair. "Except for the error," the young man and that young women wouldn't have AIDS.
"Except for the errors." Except for his drinking problem, he is a pretty good guy. Except for her drug problem, she is a pretty good mother. Except for his sticky fingers, he was a pretty good banker. Except for her gossiping, she is a pretty good friend. Who are we kidding, except ourselves? We make excuses. We let ourselves off the hook. And when we do, we become lost.
II. God Seeks and Saves the Lost: Even Us
The good news is that the search is on. Like a shepherd, God seeks us. Sometimes we run. Sometimes we hide, but God always seeks us. For we are lost and the lost must be found.
Sitting on a table near the sanctuary was the Lost and Found box. It was just a cardboard box with "Lost and Found" written in bold letters. But in the box was a little girl's doll. The doll looked as if she was resting comfortably, waiting for her little girl to claim her. Her arms were extended, and it looked as if she were saying, "Please come get me. I'm lost and I need to be found. Please hunt for me and take me home."
That's a parable for today. Sometimes we think that God has forgotten us or left us sitting on the pew in church when, in reality, we have lost our way. The good news is that Christ searches for us.
III. Only Christ Can Bring Us Home
We don't have to go in search of our salvation. God came to us in Christ. God loves us so much that Christ sought us out. And if we will but stretch out our arms to God through Christ, then we will become the lost who have been found. God will rescue us. And once we are found, God will lead us to good pastures. God promises to be our shepherd. Does God believe in us? Of course God believes in us. God believes in us so much that he sent his only Son to die on the cross for our sake and to be the Good Shepherd. (Billy D. Strayhorn)
Not Yet Finished
Ephesians 1:15-23
Most of us tend to shy away from religious bumper stickers. They are usually long on tackiness and short on theology. There is one, however, that has proven to have lasting appeal. No doubt you have seen it many times. It reads, "Be patient with me. God isn't finished with me yet." That attitude is reflected in the words of Paul to the Christians at Ephesus.
Paul writes with thankfulness in his heart. He has learned the lesson of thankful praying. He knows of the joy of praising God for God's marvelous grace. He begins this text by offering praise for the church at Ephesus. They have demonstrated their "faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints" (v. 15). He continues to offer prayers of thanksgiving to God for their good work. Paul then points to the future, knowing that there is more to be done, more growth to come, and more grace that will be needed.
In the verses that follow, Paul shares with his readers a glimpse of his prayer list. Knowing that "God is not finished with them yet," he prays that they will have the wisdom to know God better, and that their eyes will be opened in appreciation of God's grace.
I. The Wisdom to Know God Better (v. 17)
It is Paul's desire that the Christians of the Ephesian church progress to maturity. Reflecting the attitude of James who writes, "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly" (1:5), Paul prays that these Christians might have more wisdom so that they will develop a deeper relationship with God. Paul wants them to grow up. Growth is the result of the right environment, diet, and exercise. Spiritual growth occurs as believers place themselves in an environment of wisdom, created by the Spirit of God.
Each generation of believers should challenge all the notions concerning the identity of God. Christians should be involved in a self-discovery of God: asking new questions, discovering new ways of seeing and relating to God. Our knowledge of God must increase. We, too, must seek the wisdom to know God better.
II. Eyes Opened in Appreciation (vv. 18-19)
With apologies to Robert Fulghum, I did not learn everything I need to know in kindergarten. I learned some lessons much earlier. One lesson that I was taught at a very early age was the lesson of thanksgiving. I was taught to say "thank you" when people did nice things for me. In turn, my wife and I are trying to instill that lesson in our children.
Paul desired that the Ephesians appreciate God's continual grace in their lives. Paul had offered his prayers of thanksgiving, and now he prays that these Christians will also have their eyes opened in appreciation.
Many of our day-to-day blessings go unappreciated. We do not remember to be thankful for some things until we no longer have them. Spend a warm week without air-conditioning in your car. Try living without a telephone. Imagine living without running water in your home. It is easy to neglect our thankfulness for simple blessings that are ours to enjoy each day.
The blessings of God in our lives are so constant and boundless that we almost forget to acknowledge them. Paul prays that the Ephesians will have an awareness of God's grace displayed in three ways. Paul challenges them to appreciate the hope that is in Christ Jesus, the glorious riches of salvation, and the power made possible by a "Spirit-filled" life. By having their eyes opened in appreciation of these things, all uncertainty of the future is dispelled, and daily struggles with temptation and anxiety are defeated. God is not finished with us yet. Let us pray for the wisdom to know God better as we appreciate divine grace in our lives. (Jon R. Roebuck)
Extending Love
Matthew 25:31-46
In this text, Jesus delivers a message on the topic of judgment. He states that the people who extend a heart of love to a hurting world will receive a righteous assessment. God's judgment is in accordance with our reaction to humanity's need. God's estimation of us depends not on how scholarly or famous we become but on the help we choose to give others.
Missionary Albert Schweitzer, known for his life of sacrificial service, appeared on a late night talk show. The talk show host told him, "I'd like to be an Albert Schweitzer if I could commute." Many want the fame without the work of love. As we love, we give back to the world God's holy love and compassion.
I. Extending Love Means Going Back to the Basics
I enjoy a good game of racquetball. The exercise and competition make my heart pump rapidly with excitement. Often I find myself beginning to trail my opponent so I have to analyze the reason. Usually, it happens because I have not focused on the basic principles of racquetball. I must then begin a routine of talking to myself with these words, "Center the ball and patience." I repeat them often to draw myself back into the basic game plan and intensity. Too often the Christian becomes distracted from the basic game plan of God. The game plan of God's priorities as Jesus outlines them includes caring for the needy by giving the basics of food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, and clothing to the poor.
The Christian's game plan includes inspiring hope to the hopeless. Hal Lindsey said, "Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air...but only for one second without hope."
The basic game plan of hope brings us to looking for the good in people and not dwelling on their failures. It asks what can be done instead of grumbling about what cannot be accomplished. It views problems as challenges and opportunities. It moves ahead when it would be easier to stop. Extend that hope in love!
II. Extending Love Means It Comes from the Heart
William Barclay stated that those Jesus cites in the text did not even realize they were being helpful to the world around them. They helped because they could not stop themselves. Christ's love in the heart compelled them to compassionate action. It was the natural, instinctive, uncalculated reaction of a loving heart. It was honest generosity.
Francis Clark said, "To feel sorry for the needy is not the mark of a Christian—to help them is." Earl Allen pointed out, "The fragrance of what you give away stays with you."
If you claim to have a religious experience, it must be verified in the action of extending love. Who can you be generous to in the name of the Lord of love?
III. Extending Love Means It Goes to People and God
Myron Augsburger tells of taking his wife to Basel, Switzerland. While there they visited St. Martin's Church. Both of them were impressed by the sculpture on the front wall of the church depicting Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier converted to Christianity.
The inspiration for the sculpture originated from a story that occurred on a bitterly cold winter's day. Martin was entering a city and was approached by a beggar pleading for alms. Having no money, Martin removed his coat, cut it in two, and gave half to the beggar. That night he had a vision that he had died and gone to heaven. There he saw Jesus, and on the back of Christ was half of a Roman soldier's coat. An angel asked the King of heaven and earth, "Master, why are you wearing that battered old coat?" Jesus answered, "My servant Martin gave it to me." We are called to action in our extension of love. Will you respond? (Derl G. Keefer)
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Nashville, Tennessee 37202 United States
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