"After Orlando: Homophobia, gun control and 'radical Islam'"
By Shane Raynor
News and Religion podcast
Shane Raynor and the panel discuss the Orlando shooting, homophobia, gun control and the term "radical Islam." Guests are Kira Schlesinger, Juan Huertas and Mark Lockard.Photo courtesy of Colt Coan / Flickr
On this episode of News and Religion, Shane Raynor and the panel discuss the Orlando shooting, homophobia, gun control and the term "radical Islam." Guests are Kira Schlesinger, Juan Huertas and Mark Lockard.
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"11 ways to improve your church's brand"
By Len Wilson
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1. Analyze your audience.
"In defense of resting on your laurels" by Rebekah Simon-PeterBigstock
“We’re always on to the next thing,” one pastor friend confided to me. “At least that’s how the people in my annual conference see it. We’re ever on to the latest, greatest solution for church growth.”
“Do you ever pause and celebrate what you have accomplished?” I asked.
“No.”
That got me thinking. These initiatives may seem like passing fads which annual conferences mindlessly chase after. But I doubt that’s what’s actually happening. In my experience, denominational executives are working on several fronts at the same time. After all, different kinds of congregations and leaders need different kinds of approaches. Congregational renewal is not one size fits all. My work with emotional intelligence demonstrates that.
I have often wondered, though, if people would respond more favorably to the myriad processes their annual conferences offer, if only they were aware of how much had actually been accomplished with each one.
There’s no way of knowing what’s been accomplished if we don’t pause, communicate and celebrate. That’s why I’m defending the oft neglected practice of resting on your laurels.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with savoring our successes. When the Romans borrowed the Greek idea of presenting a wreath of laurel leaves to victorious military commanders, there was no implication that “resting” on them was bad. That negative connotation didn’t come for another 10 centuries.
Getting back to my friend’s annual conference — I wonder how many new ministries they have launched since focusing on processes for renewal? Harder to measure but equally important — how many fights have been avoided, how many members and volunteers have been re-energized? How many callings to the ministry have been reclaimed?
We can’t know these things unless we make space for collecting and telling these stories. That means taking time to rest on our laurels. Not forever. Not even for a long time. But long enough to actually soak up and celebrate all that has been gained.
As the semi-frenetic pastor of an active congregation, I had habitually pushed on to the next thing. And the next. And the next. Driven by both the joy of accomplishment and the fear of boredom.
“Rev. Rebekah,” my active lay leader sheepishly confessed to me one day, “we’re tired. We need a rest. Can’t we just stop for a bit and see how far we have actually come?”
When Jesus went into the wilderness to pray, we have no idea what he prayed. But we do know this: he paused. Surely something good and life-giving happened during that time.
Year-end reports are a statistical attempt to pause and to reflect on what has been done. But we have to look beyond our own particular congregations to get the big picture. Sure, worship attendance or membership may be down in your setting. But other numbers may be trending upward. In one annual conference I work with, church attendance is down, but baptisms are up! Not bad. In another, average worship attendance itself is actually up.
There’s no way of knowing this stuff unless we, as a body, actually stop and reflect. Then take it one step further: Celebrate.
What could you celebrate in your annual conference? Look for what you are doing doing well, and then emphasize it. Perspectives shift when we focus on what is going well.
Recently, I listened to a panel of General Conference delegates report on what happened in Portland last month. I expected a reprisal of the tougher issues that emerged at GC including painful disagreements over how to address human sexuality. I was not disappointed.
What most captured my attention, though, was the report of a first-time laywoman delegate. “This was my first time at General Conference,” she smiled. “I didn’t even begin to think about it until about a week or two before I went. I arrived with an open mind.”
She went on to relate her delight about the milestones celebrated: the 250th anniversary of John Street Church in New York City, the 200th anniversary of Bishop Francis Asbury’s death, the 60th anniversary of full clergy rights for women, the 30th anniversary of Disciple Bible Study, the upcoming 25th anniversary of Africa University and 150th anniversary of the United Methodist Women. She was amazed at all the church had accomplished in such a short period of time.
Now I’m the last person to whitewash history. Much of my work has been about empowering the church to embrace a truly Jewish Jesus, unlearn anti-Semitism, deal with what our Scriptures say about environmental stewardship and creatively address the reality of church decline.
But still! What a breath of fresh air to listen to her celebrate our accomplishments. For a moment, we all rested on our laurels.
I wonder what would happen if we insisted on these breaths of fresh air more often? If we purposefully paused and savored our successes more than once every four years?
No, it wouldn’t resolve all our challenges or erase our differences. But it might just energize us to carry on creatively — conscious of the positive impact we are having on the world around us, and proud of the gains we are making.
Rebekah Simon-Peter blogs at rebekahsimonpeter.com. She is the author of The Jew Named Jesus and Green Church.
"Renegotiating midlife"
By Mike Poteet
Bigstock/Steve Byland
Rethinking midlife
In her recent book Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife, Barbara Bradley Hagerty asks readers to rethink the “midlife crisis.” Proposed by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in 1965 and popularized by journalist Gail Sheehy in her 1976 bestseller Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, the midlife crisis has entrenched itself in the popular imagination. The phrase is shorthand for the anxiety people supposedly face when mortality confronts them and they realize (in an image attributed to Joseph Campbell) the ladder they’ve been climbing their whole lives is leaning against the wrong wall.
But as Hagerty points out in an interview to promote her book, researchers from the 1990s on have failed to find evidence of a “common or inevitable midlife crisis,” and as few as 10 percent of men actually suffer this “existential angst about aging.” She encourages readers to reframe midlife as a time marked by “optimism and renewal, happiness and growth.”
According to the psalm-singer, “The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong” (Psalm 90:10, NRSV). This biblical estimate’s upper limit is now the average American life expectancy — 78.8 years, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a Pew Research report in 2009 found that 79 percent of Americans say “old age” begins at 85. Our lengthening lifespans demand we reconsider what “midlife” means, as well as what to expect from and make of it.
Midlife markers
Midlife confronts us with many changes. Some of the most obvious are physical. Our bodies start showing the wear and tear of being alive, from graying hair to creeping weight gain. We can choose — as my doctor said when I visited for a checkup around my 40th birthday — to see midlife as the time “when our bodies begin to betray us.”
Midlife also brings mental changes. Our fluid intelligence — our capacity to recognize new patterns and solve new problems — peaks in our 20s. “Certain capabilities fall off as you approach 50,” writes Patricia Cohen, author of In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age, in The New York Times. “Memories of where you left the keys or parked the car mysteriously vanish. Words suddenly go into hiding as you struggle to remember the guy, you know, in that movie, what was it called? And calculating the tip on your dinner check seems to take longer than it used to.”
Emotional challenges also confront many people during midlife. Parents may die. Children may move away. Jobs may end. Spouses may leave. No one’s circumstances remain exactly the same through life, and significant life changes naturally create stress. But does midlife stress constitute a “crisis” or something less perilous and more promising?
The U-curve
While true crises seem rare, midlife’s physical, mental and emotional changes often do breed dissatisfaction. As Hagerty says, “Midlife ennui — that flat feeling, that perpetual question: is this all there is? — that feeling is practically universal.”
In the 1990s, economists researching correlations between work and happiness discovered a recurring, worldwide pattern. Journalist Jonathan Rauch summarized the findings for The Atlantic: “Life satisfaction would decline with age for the first couple of decades of adulthood, bottom out somewhere in the 40s or early 50s, and then, until the very last years, increase with age, often (though not always) reaching a higher level than in young adulthood. The pattern came to be known as the happiness U-curve.”
The U-curve doesn’t describe everyone’s experience. In low-income nations, for example, people tend to remain dissatisfied throughout life. But the curve has manifested itself frequently enough that it may provide some comfort to people who feel frustrated or disappointed during their middle years. Some midlife unhappiness may simply be, as economist Carol Graham calls it, “a statistical regularity. Something about the human condition.” Whether we experience it as a “crisis” may be mostly up to us.
‘True Adulthood’
In a 2012 British survey, almost one in five respondents said, “Being middle age is a state of mind.” Such sentiment mirrors growing consensus among experts that the concept of midlife, despite real changes in the middle years, is not a helpful social construct.
As do many mental health professionals, psychotherapist Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., writing for Psychology Today’s website, suggests instead that people “think of a broad period of true adulthood”: a span of several decades, beginning in the 30s, in which “men and women face a range of truly adult challenges” and “grapple with the challenge to ‘evolve’ into a fully adult human — emotionally, creatively, relationally, and spiritually.”
This perspective enlarges rather than restricts our present and future. We can treat the middle years’ changes and challenges not as “midlife crises” to impulsively indulge or passively endure, but rather as opportunities for growth:
According to author, speaker, and leadership development coach Amy Kay Watson, “Most North Americans reaching midlife (or later) would rather pursue a scenario in which they own their choices more than they’ve been doing. That doesn’t mean reverting to the impulses and desires of a 17 year old … The adults I have worked with far prefer to get clear on their personal values and start making sure those are present in their lives.”
The quest to clarify values and fully own one’s choices strikes me as a way of living wisely. Several authors suggest wisdom is the goal of the middle years. New York Times columnist David Brooks, for instance, views midlife as “the moment when you can look back on your life so far and see it with different eyes … You might have enough clarity by now to orient your life around a true north on some ultimate horizon.”
For Christians, the call of midlife is a particular expression of the general call God always sounds: to mature “in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people,” as Jesus did (Luke 2:52). Jesus saw with clarity the horizon to which his values and choices would lead. While few, if any, of us will find our midlife journeys leading toward self-sacrificial physical death, we may need to sacrifice long-held ideas about who we are and what we are supposed to do. Like the single grain of wheat falling to the ground (John 12:24), we may need to “die” in order to live wisely and well for the days of this life we have left. May the psalm-singer’s prayer be ours, in midlife and always: “Teach us to number our days so we can have a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12).
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
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"We need to DO something"
By William H. Willimon
Bronx vigil for Orlando on Wednesday June 15. Photo courtesy of Ruben Diaz Jr. / Flickr
After the carnage at Mother Emmanuel in Charleston (which brought our tally of mass shootings to something like a dozen), James Howell (Pastor, Myers Park UMC, Charlotte and Western N.C. nominee for Bishop), got a text from a parishioner: “Pray if you want, but we need to do something. We need to pray, but we need to do something.”
Howell began his sermon that Sunday with that text. He told his congregation not only that America’s ways with guns and race is an “assault upon God” but that this sin requires resourceful Christian reaction:
We need to pray, but we need to do something. Over and over again in this country when something happens — Ferguson, Baltimore — we pray, but we never change anything …
When you bring up guns and race, white people don’t want to talk about it. People say ‘It’s too political” … It’s not just political and personal, it’s theological … what we say about God. If we get that wrong, then this country has no hope. But if we can say something true about God in all this, then this country may have some hope …
In his sermon Howell made pleas and proposals for specific changes in American gun laws and challenged his congregation to engage in specific acts of contact and conversation with African-Americans.
Let’s do something. God is eager for us to do something, to have a different kind of community … I think God wants us to look take a look at our world and say, ‘We could do this. With God’s help we could do this.’
Howell, the eloquent preacher, dared to become Howell the risky instigator.
In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed grave disappointment with “white moderate” churches and their clergy (my sort of church) who showed some of the right attitudes and voiced some of the right words but who lacked “persistent and determined action.”
I had hoped that the white moderate would see … Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearning of the oppressed…, still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.
Since the attack upon the gay, Latino club in Orlando, there has been an outpouring of response — contributions for victims and their families, prayer meetings, silent vigils, candlelight demonstrations.
Good. But not good enough for Christians.
It was nice that at a baseball game there was a moment of silence to honor the victims. In the face of such a horror, such outrageous evil as what happened in Orlando, numbed, sad, silence is an appropriate response.
But when is the response of silence a lack of response? As Christians we can thank God that we have more to offer than respectful silence in the face of tragedy. God gives us something to say. For one thing, we can preach. We can testify, condemn, speak up and speak out, and we can organize and act.
I just heard from a United Methodist who said that at her church on the Sunday of the shooting there was only one mention of the crime in the service — a vague intercession for the “victims.” She was indignant. “Does the church have nothing to say at such a moment that the world needs to hear? Does God expect nothing more?”
Her Wesleyan Christianity was showing. Methodists are those Christians who believe that God should not only be loved but also served, not only respected but also obeyed, that evil must not only be noted but also actively confronted by the risk of righteous deeds in Christ’s name.
We have seen some touching photos of law enforcement officers handing out candles at vigils. The Sheriff in Orlando asked for blood donations and prayers.
Good, but not good enough. Christians are big on candles and prayers. However, at this time in our national life we need more from our law enforcement officials. Donald Trump speaks as if American law enforcement supports him in his servility to the NRA. We therefore need more police officers to stand up and to speak out against our epidemic of gun violence. The FBI is busy seeking the motives and any collaborators with the killer in Orlando, as if it’s a great mystery why our nation has more mass shootings than any country in the world. Why doesn’t the FBI have the courage not merely to investigate after the incident but to say that we already have many of the means to keep such carnage from occurring?
One man, one man walked into a gun store and legally bought aSig Sauer assault weapon, and thereby forced the entire Orlando law enforcement to take three hours of extreme, risky, heroic measures in order to stop his killing rampage. If the killer had not been wielding an assault weapon, would the police have taken so long and used such deadly force to end his murdering?
Our law enforcement officers need to tell us how horrible it is to witness that a sad, hate-filled loser can walk into a store and buy the means to wreak carnage on a scale that once was reserved for military. Who cares if the shooter was related to ISIS or some hostile foreign government? (Turns out he’s just one of us.) Now, because of our lack of gun laws, because of our cowardly, compromised Congress, and because of the silence of too many of us, one sorry individual can literally declare war on our entire country.
I know a church where, after another street murder of another child, organized and went to every law enforcement official, every elected office holder in town and said, “How can we help you better protect our town? We know that you share our grief over this situation. How can our church help you to do some of the work needed to make our town more closely resemble what God wants?”
Maybe now is the time for the church to stand up and say that candles, moments of silence and makeshift memorials are not enough. Even prayers to God are insufficient. God did not create the most violent society on earth — we did.
After the Sandy Hook shooting, a commentator said, “Once America decided killing children was bearable, the gun debate was over.”
When the church of Jesus Christ is known only for its prayers and its limp expressions of sympathy for the oppressed rather than its speaking up and acting out in Jesus’ name, we have decided to be a bit of honey to sweeten the world’s evil rather than to be what Jesus commanded us to be: salt, light and agents of a new age.
Is this a Kairos moment for the church to show a violent culture that, because of Jesus Christ, there is another way? It’s high time for us preachers and our congregations to show that Jesus Christ makes possible a people who can do what nine-out-of-ten average Americans appear to be unable to do: speak the truth and then love our neighbor through acts of love.
This is awfully Wesleyan of me, but I remind you that Jesus did not say, “Light a candle for me,” or “Every now and then when there’s a spectacular criminal act, pray to me.” You know what Jesus said. “Follow me.”
Will Willimon is Professor of Christian Ministry, Duke University and a United Methodist Bishop, retired. His book, Fear of the Other, confronts xenophobia from a Christian perspective and offers some specific proposals for pastors and congregations.
"Obsessing over numbers"
By Joseph Yoo
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Confession: I rarely check my posts that go live on Ministry Matters. It’s not to avoid commenters and discussions that may come as a result of the posts. I’d actually like to follow up on comments and questions folks may have. (You can always tweet me @josephyoo).
It’s because I start obsessing over the wrong thing. Right underneath the title of the post are the share buttons/icons that allow you to share the post on your Facebook page, Twitter feed, email the article, share it on Google+ (That’s still around?) and other options. And then, there’s a red badge that indicates how many times that article has been shared. There’s also the Facebook page that shares with you how many people liked the article, how many shared, and how many commented. Forget the comments, forget the content, it starts becoming about, “Oh wow, I wonder why a lot of people liked this article.” Or worse, “Oh wow, may this one was as I bad as I thought…”
Then when I sit in front of my laptop with a blank word processor page, all I can think of is the stats. It can (and sometimes does) affect what I write.
I wanted to write this but last time I did, nobody really read it.
Or, What can I write to get the response I got last time?
Numbers, well, they can be such a toxic thing. The bigger numbers we get, the better we’re doing, right? In my United Methodist Conference (California-Pacific Annual Conference) there’s an annoying (to me) tendency we have when we talk about our churches. Inevitably someone asks how big one’s church is. And the usual response is membership roll first and worship attendance.
Oh, we’re a 1,500 member church. But we have 200 in attendance.
I don’t know if folks in other conferences describe their churches in this manner.
When we measure the “success” of a church we tend to use, as Dr. Soong-Chan Rah says, Western culture values over biblical values.
We may subconsciously conclude that a pastor is better if she has a book published and even more successful if she’s a New York Times best-selling author. We may think that a church is doing far better just because it’s bigger and that a small church is no good — without ever setting foot in either church. We judge books by their covers more often than we’d care to admit.
There’s a campus ministry out there that has about 40-50 students coming weekly. But the powers that be are constantly pressuring the campus pastor about the size of that ministry and its lack of (numerical) growth. Especially when that other campus ministry draws over 5,000 students weekly. Why can’t you even get to a tenth of that size?
It’s easy to conclude that the campus ministry is not doing well — that it’s unsuccessful and perhaps it’s time for a change of leadership — after all, the campus pastor has been there for decades.
But over those decades, over 100 students have answered the call to ordained ministry. The pastor has mentored and guided over 100 students who are now ordained ministers.
Numerically, perhaps we can conclude that the campus ministry is not successful, but can we argue that it might be an effective ministry?
I’ve been reminding myself that, in ministry, success is overrated. (Spoken like an unsuccessful person.) I’ve been working on focusing (and helping my church to focus) on being effective. Chasing success can make me result-oriented.
This won’t be a success unless x amount of (and, preferably more) people show up. This article won’t be a good one unless it’s read and shared by x amount of folks. It becomes about me. And my worth is based on what I produce rather than who I am.
But ultimately, it’s not about what we produce. It’s about the One who produces in and through us. My worth isn’t determined by my success, the number of church members I have or the number of readers and shares I have.
My worth is in that I am God’s beloved. As are you.
Perhaps we'd do well to stop obsessing over results, the end game, our numbers or the fruit that we should be bearing. (That’s often difficult to do because even in ministry our success is usually determined by our attendance, our giving and budget, our professions of faith and how many baptisms we’ve had.)
Maybe the healthiest thing we could do is focus on the journey that God has us on and do our part by offering ourselves wholly for the work God wants to complete through us.
Joseph Yoo is pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of Practical Prayer and Encountering Grace. He blogs at JosephYoo.com.
"Roots' and Christian calls for justice" By Mike Poteet
Image courtesy of A&E Television Networks
Last month A&E Networks presented a new version of the classic miniseries Roots. Based on author Alex Haley’s novel,Roots tells a generation-spanning family history. The story follows Kunta Kinte — a warrior from the Mandinka people of West Africa who is captured and brought to colonial America — and his descendants as they struggle to hold on to their identities and dignity while enduring the injustice of slavery.
In 1977 the original Roots became a television milestone. 85 percent of U.S. homes with a TV watched some or all of it; almost half the country, or 100 million viewers, watched the final episode. Also, Roots motivated many people to research their family trees. More importantly, it sparked conversations about how slavery shaped America. “Never before,” American studies professor John McWhorter wrote for CNN, “had the whole nation seen slavery enacted so vividly and with such tragic pull.”
Uncomfortable but important truth
The new Roots aims to present truths about slavery and the continuing shadow it casts over American society in ways that will engage today’s audiences, especially teenagers and young adults. TV critic Jeff Jensen says the new Roots “is resolute in producing credible historical fiction and presenting it through a slave’s perspective. It is also disinterested in assuaging white discomfort.”
Roots’ graphic depictions of violence and racism frequently make it uncomfortable and upsetting. But Roots tells important truths about an injustice that cannot be ignored as our society struggles to live up to its ideal of “liberty and justice for all.” We must learn about the injustices of the past to understand and resolve those of the present.
Jesus and justice
Jesus’ understanding of salvation embraced all of life, including justice for those who were oppressed (see Luke 4:16-21). As his followers, we have a responsibility to identify and work toward correcting social injustices today.
Question of the day: When have you refused to go along with something you knew was wrong?
Focal Scriptures: 2 Samuel 12:1-10; Luke 13:10-17; Luke 3:7-14[2 Samuel 12:1 Adonai sent Natan to David. He came and said to him, “In a certain city there were two men, one rich, the other poor. 2 The rich man had vast flocks and herds; 3 but the poor man had nothing, except for one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and reared. It had grown up with him and his children; it ate from his plate, drank from his cup, lay on his chest — it was like a daughter to him. 4 One day a traveler visited the rich man, and instead of picking an animal from his own flock or herd to cook for his visitor, he took the poor man’s lamb and cooked it for the man who had come to him.”
Shane Raynor and the panel discuss the Orlando shooting, homophobia, gun control and the term "radical Islam." Guests are Kira Schlesinger, Juan Huertas and Mark Lockard.Photo courtesy of Colt Coan / Flickr
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"11 ways to improve your church's brand"
By Len WilsonBigstock/Rawpixel
1. Analyze your audience.
- Who is target demographic?
- What do numbers show is your current reality?
- What is your aspiration?
- Pore over Google analytics. What are most common pages and clicks, types of content used, routes, destinations?
- What are missing opportunities?
- Same for new members. What are averages, high and low points, retention rates? The object is to look for trends.
- Why do people stay?
- Why do they leave?
- What are best things about church? Worst?
- What do people think about the church?
- What are signature ministries?
- What are ministries in need of development?
- If you were coming on campus for the first time, what makes the biggest impression, and why?
- Where is the brand from the exterior view? Is it obvious enough? Where can it be improved?
- What are existing channels for campus messaging? Missing any?
- Any presence of core values and stories that reflect brand visible on campus?
- If your church is in a denomination, you have two (often competing) brands — the local church and the denomination. You need the local church brand to be more dominant, but from an audience awareness view, the denomination is probably more dominant.
- Decide what to do about this — build both? Lose the denomination? Marry the values?
- To members who love the denominational brand, conduct a survey: Why?
- If you stick with the denominational brand, (re)define what it means in your context. This requires extensive storytelling.
- What did you do in the beginning?
- What were the big struggles and victories?
- Look for ways these stories can build the brand.
- What’s the why for the church?
- Why do your leaders do what they do in ministry?
- What is your source of un-peace?
- Differentiate purpose statement versus marketing statement.
- Large church staffs have a lot of assumptions about the whys — a lot of different understandings about what it means to do church. Don’t allow assumptions, but clearly state what “success” looks like to create a clear sense of purpose.
- Ask, what does an image of a disciple look like at this church?
- Within specific ministry areas? Point to specific people and articulate why they’re an image of discipleship at your church.
- Are existing values ever used in decision-making? If not, they’re not good enough. Values should drive strategy.
- Do exec and/or staff exercises to deepen understanding of group values. I write more about values here.
- Share your research results with staff and lay leadership.
- Tell core stories to the staff and to the congregation.
- Development brand guidebook.
- Tweak vision and values statements to reflect this research.
"In defense of resting on your laurels" by Rebekah Simon-PeterBigstock
“We’re always on to the next thing,” one pastor friend confided to me. “At least that’s how the people in my annual conference see it. We’re ever on to the latest, greatest solution for church growth.”
“Do you ever pause and celebrate what you have accomplished?” I asked.
“No.”
That got me thinking. These initiatives may seem like passing fads which annual conferences mindlessly chase after. But I doubt that’s what’s actually happening. In my experience, denominational executives are working on several fronts at the same time. After all, different kinds of congregations and leaders need different kinds of approaches. Congregational renewal is not one size fits all. My work with emotional intelligence demonstrates that.
I have often wondered, though, if people would respond more favorably to the myriad processes their annual conferences offer, if only they were aware of how much had actually been accomplished with each one.
There’s no way of knowing what’s been accomplished if we don’t pause, communicate and celebrate. That’s why I’m defending the oft neglected practice of resting on your laurels.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with savoring our successes. When the Romans borrowed the Greek idea of presenting a wreath of laurel leaves to victorious military commanders, there was no implication that “resting” on them was bad. That negative connotation didn’t come for another 10 centuries.
Getting back to my friend’s annual conference — I wonder how many new ministries they have launched since focusing on processes for renewal? Harder to measure but equally important — how many fights have been avoided, how many members and volunteers have been re-energized? How many callings to the ministry have been reclaimed?
We can’t know these things unless we make space for collecting and telling these stories. That means taking time to rest on our laurels. Not forever. Not even for a long time. But long enough to actually soak up and celebrate all that has been gained.
As the semi-frenetic pastor of an active congregation, I had habitually pushed on to the next thing. And the next. And the next. Driven by both the joy of accomplishment and the fear of boredom.
“Rev. Rebekah,” my active lay leader sheepishly confessed to me one day, “we’re tired. We need a rest. Can’t we just stop for a bit and see how far we have actually come?”
When Jesus went into the wilderness to pray, we have no idea what he prayed. But we do know this: he paused. Surely something good and life-giving happened during that time.
Year-end reports are a statistical attempt to pause and to reflect on what has been done. But we have to look beyond our own particular congregations to get the big picture. Sure, worship attendance or membership may be down in your setting. But other numbers may be trending upward. In one annual conference I work with, church attendance is down, but baptisms are up! Not bad. In another, average worship attendance itself is actually up.
There’s no way of knowing this stuff unless we, as a body, actually stop and reflect. Then take it one step further: Celebrate.
What could you celebrate in your annual conference? Look for what you are doing doing well, and then emphasize it. Perspectives shift when we focus on what is going well.
Recently, I listened to a panel of General Conference delegates report on what happened in Portland last month. I expected a reprisal of the tougher issues that emerged at GC including painful disagreements over how to address human sexuality. I was not disappointed.
What most captured my attention, though, was the report of a first-time laywoman delegate. “This was my first time at General Conference,” she smiled. “I didn’t even begin to think about it until about a week or two before I went. I arrived with an open mind.”
She went on to relate her delight about the milestones celebrated: the 250th anniversary of John Street Church in New York City, the 200th anniversary of Bishop Francis Asbury’s death, the 60th anniversary of full clergy rights for women, the 30th anniversary of Disciple Bible Study, the upcoming 25th anniversary of Africa University and 150th anniversary of the United Methodist Women. She was amazed at all the church had accomplished in such a short period of time.
Now I’m the last person to whitewash history. Much of my work has been about empowering the church to embrace a truly Jewish Jesus, unlearn anti-Semitism, deal with what our Scriptures say about environmental stewardship and creatively address the reality of church decline.
But still! What a breath of fresh air to listen to her celebrate our accomplishments. For a moment, we all rested on our laurels.
I wonder what would happen if we insisted on these breaths of fresh air more often? If we purposefully paused and savored our successes more than once every four years?
No, it wouldn’t resolve all our challenges or erase our differences. But it might just energize us to carry on creatively — conscious of the positive impact we are having on the world around us, and proud of the gains we are making.
Rebekah Simon-Peter blogs at rebekahsimonpeter.com. She is the author of The Jew Named Jesus and Green Church.
"Renegotiating midlife"
By Mike PoteetBigstock/Steve Byland
Rethinking midlife
In her recent book Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife, Barbara Bradley Hagerty asks readers to rethink the “midlife crisis.” Proposed by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in 1965 and popularized by journalist Gail Sheehy in her 1976 bestseller Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life, the midlife crisis has entrenched itself in the popular imagination. The phrase is shorthand for the anxiety people supposedly face when mortality confronts them and they realize (in an image attributed to Joseph Campbell) the ladder they’ve been climbing their whole lives is leaning against the wrong wall.
But as Hagerty points out in an interview to promote her book, researchers from the 1990s on have failed to find evidence of a “common or inevitable midlife crisis,” and as few as 10 percent of men actually suffer this “existential angst about aging.” She encourages readers to reframe midlife as a time marked by “optimism and renewal, happiness and growth.”
According to the psalm-singer, “The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong” (Psalm 90:10, NRSV). This biblical estimate’s upper limit is now the average American life expectancy — 78.8 years, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a Pew Research report in 2009 found that 79 percent of Americans say “old age” begins at 85. Our lengthening lifespans demand we reconsider what “midlife” means, as well as what to expect from and make of it.
Midlife markers
Midlife confronts us with many changes. Some of the most obvious are physical. Our bodies start showing the wear and tear of being alive, from graying hair to creeping weight gain. We can choose — as my doctor said when I visited for a checkup around my 40th birthday — to see midlife as the time “when our bodies begin to betray us.”
Midlife also brings mental changes. Our fluid intelligence — our capacity to recognize new patterns and solve new problems — peaks in our 20s. “Certain capabilities fall off as you approach 50,” writes Patricia Cohen, author of In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age, in The New York Times. “Memories of where you left the keys or parked the car mysteriously vanish. Words suddenly go into hiding as you struggle to remember the guy, you know, in that movie, what was it called? And calculating the tip on your dinner check seems to take longer than it used to.”
Emotional challenges also confront many people during midlife. Parents may die. Children may move away. Jobs may end. Spouses may leave. No one’s circumstances remain exactly the same through life, and significant life changes naturally create stress. But does midlife stress constitute a “crisis” or something less perilous and more promising?
The U-curve
While true crises seem rare, midlife’s physical, mental and emotional changes often do breed dissatisfaction. As Hagerty says, “Midlife ennui — that flat feeling, that perpetual question: is this all there is? — that feeling is practically universal.”
In the 1990s, economists researching correlations between work and happiness discovered a recurring, worldwide pattern. Journalist Jonathan Rauch summarized the findings for The Atlantic: “Life satisfaction would decline with age for the first couple of decades of adulthood, bottom out somewhere in the 40s or early 50s, and then, until the very last years, increase with age, often (though not always) reaching a higher level than in young adulthood. The pattern came to be known as the happiness U-curve.”
The U-curve doesn’t describe everyone’s experience. In low-income nations, for example, people tend to remain dissatisfied throughout life. But the curve has manifested itself frequently enough that it may provide some comfort to people who feel frustrated or disappointed during their middle years. Some midlife unhappiness may simply be, as economist Carol Graham calls it, “a statistical regularity. Something about the human condition.” Whether we experience it as a “crisis” may be mostly up to us.
‘True Adulthood’
In a 2012 British survey, almost one in five respondents said, “Being middle age is a state of mind.” Such sentiment mirrors growing consensus among experts that the concept of midlife, despite real changes in the middle years, is not a helpful social construct.
As do many mental health professionals, psychotherapist Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., writing for Psychology Today’s website, suggests instead that people “think of a broad period of true adulthood”: a span of several decades, beginning in the 30s, in which “men and women face a range of truly adult challenges” and “grapple with the challenge to ‘evolve’ into a fully adult human — emotionally, creatively, relationally, and spiritually.”
This perspective enlarges rather than restricts our present and future. We can treat the middle years’ changes and challenges not as “midlife crises” to impulsively indulge or passively endure, but rather as opportunities for growth:
- We can acknowledge our physical limitations without resigning ourselves to decay. “Studies show that while there is some drop in muscle mass as you age,” Hagerty wrote for NPR, “you can slow those changes to a crawl by getting your heart rate up a few times a week.”
- We can admit our fluid intelligence flows less freely but take confidence knowing our crystallized intelligence — our ability to solve new problems by applying old, learned knowledge — can keep growing into our 70s. Older adults possess “a wealth of experiences that tend to support superior reasoning and judgment abilities,” writes University of Minnesota assistant professor David Crawford, “if given time to think and reflect on the learning activity.”
- We can use the life changes we experience to refine or even reinvent our sense of self. Marriage and family therapist Joan Sherman writes about counseling a woman who spent a week sleeping and crying when her children left home for college. “You’re not losing your identity,” Sherman told her. “You have an opportunity to create a new one.” In consultation with a college career center, the woman began to explore doing just that.
According to author, speaker, and leadership development coach Amy Kay Watson, “Most North Americans reaching midlife (or later) would rather pursue a scenario in which they own their choices more than they’ve been doing. That doesn’t mean reverting to the impulses and desires of a 17 year old … The adults I have worked with far prefer to get clear on their personal values and start making sure those are present in their lives.”
The quest to clarify values and fully own one’s choices strikes me as a way of living wisely. Several authors suggest wisdom is the goal of the middle years. New York Times columnist David Brooks, for instance, views midlife as “the moment when you can look back on your life so far and see it with different eyes … You might have enough clarity by now to orient your life around a true north on some ultimate horizon.”
For Christians, the call of midlife is a particular expression of the general call God always sounds: to mature “in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people,” as Jesus did (Luke 2:52). Jesus saw with clarity the horizon to which his values and choices would lead. While few, if any, of us will find our midlife journeys leading toward self-sacrificial physical death, we may need to sacrifice long-held ideas about who we are and what we are supposed to do. Like the single grain of wheat falling to the ground (John 12:24), we may need to “die” in order to live wisely and well for the days of this life we have left. May the psalm-singer’s prayer be ours, in midlife and always: “Teach us to number our days so we can have a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12).
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"We need to DO something"
By William H. WillimonBronx vigil for Orlando on Wednesday June 15. Photo courtesy of Ruben Diaz Jr. / Flickr
After the carnage at Mother Emmanuel in Charleston (which brought our tally of mass shootings to something like a dozen), James Howell (Pastor, Myers Park UMC, Charlotte and Western N.C. nominee for Bishop), got a text from a parishioner: “Pray if you want, but we need to do something. We need to pray, but we need to do something.”
Howell began his sermon that Sunday with that text. He told his congregation not only that America’s ways with guns and race is an “assault upon God” but that this sin requires resourceful Christian reaction:
We need to pray, but we need to do something. Over and over again in this country when something happens — Ferguson, Baltimore — we pray, but we never change anything …
When you bring up guns and race, white people don’t want to talk about it. People say ‘It’s too political” … It’s not just political and personal, it’s theological … what we say about God. If we get that wrong, then this country has no hope. But if we can say something true about God in all this, then this country may have some hope …
In his sermon Howell made pleas and proposals for specific changes in American gun laws and challenged his congregation to engage in specific acts of contact and conversation with African-Americans.
Let’s do something. God is eager for us to do something, to have a different kind of community … I think God wants us to look take a look at our world and say, ‘We could do this. With God’s help we could do this.’
Howell, the eloquent preacher, dared to become Howell the risky instigator.
In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed grave disappointment with “white moderate” churches and their clergy (my sort of church) who showed some of the right attitudes and voiced some of the right words but who lacked “persistent and determined action.”
I had hoped that the white moderate would see … Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearning of the oppressed…, still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.
Since the attack upon the gay, Latino club in Orlando, there has been an outpouring of response — contributions for victims and their families, prayer meetings, silent vigils, candlelight demonstrations.
Good. But not good enough for Christians.
It was nice that at a baseball game there was a moment of silence to honor the victims. In the face of such a horror, such outrageous evil as what happened in Orlando, numbed, sad, silence is an appropriate response.
But when is the response of silence a lack of response? As Christians we can thank God that we have more to offer than respectful silence in the face of tragedy. God gives us something to say. For one thing, we can preach. We can testify, condemn, speak up and speak out, and we can organize and act.
I just heard from a United Methodist who said that at her church on the Sunday of the shooting there was only one mention of the crime in the service — a vague intercession for the “victims.” She was indignant. “Does the church have nothing to say at such a moment that the world needs to hear? Does God expect nothing more?”
Her Wesleyan Christianity was showing. Methodists are those Christians who believe that God should not only be loved but also served, not only respected but also obeyed, that evil must not only be noted but also actively confronted by the risk of righteous deeds in Christ’s name.
We have seen some touching photos of law enforcement officers handing out candles at vigils. The Sheriff in Orlando asked for blood donations and prayers.
Good, but not good enough. Christians are big on candles and prayers. However, at this time in our national life we need more from our law enforcement officials. Donald Trump speaks as if American law enforcement supports him in his servility to the NRA. We therefore need more police officers to stand up and to speak out against our epidemic of gun violence. The FBI is busy seeking the motives and any collaborators with the killer in Orlando, as if it’s a great mystery why our nation has more mass shootings than any country in the world. Why doesn’t the FBI have the courage not merely to investigate after the incident but to say that we already have many of the means to keep such carnage from occurring?
One man, one man walked into a gun store and legally bought aSig Sauer assault weapon, and thereby forced the entire Orlando law enforcement to take three hours of extreme, risky, heroic measures in order to stop his killing rampage. If the killer had not been wielding an assault weapon, would the police have taken so long and used such deadly force to end his murdering?
Our law enforcement officers need to tell us how horrible it is to witness that a sad, hate-filled loser can walk into a store and buy the means to wreak carnage on a scale that once was reserved for military. Who cares if the shooter was related to ISIS or some hostile foreign government? (Turns out he’s just one of us.) Now, because of our lack of gun laws, because of our cowardly, compromised Congress, and because of the silence of too many of us, one sorry individual can literally declare war on our entire country.
I know a church where, after another street murder of another child, organized and went to every law enforcement official, every elected office holder in town and said, “How can we help you better protect our town? We know that you share our grief over this situation. How can our church help you to do some of the work needed to make our town more closely resemble what God wants?”
Maybe now is the time for the church to stand up and say that candles, moments of silence and makeshift memorials are not enough. Even prayers to God are insufficient. God did not create the most violent society on earth — we did.
After the Sandy Hook shooting, a commentator said, “Once America decided killing children was bearable, the gun debate was over.”
When the church of Jesus Christ is known only for its prayers and its limp expressions of sympathy for the oppressed rather than its speaking up and acting out in Jesus’ name, we have decided to be a bit of honey to sweeten the world’s evil rather than to be what Jesus commanded us to be: salt, light and agents of a new age.
Is this a Kairos moment for the church to show a violent culture that, because of Jesus Christ, there is another way? It’s high time for us preachers and our congregations to show that Jesus Christ makes possible a people who can do what nine-out-of-ten average Americans appear to be unable to do: speak the truth and then love our neighbor through acts of love.
This is awfully Wesleyan of me, but I remind you that Jesus did not say, “Light a candle for me,” or “Every now and then when there’s a spectacular criminal act, pray to me.” You know what Jesus said. “Follow me.”
Will Willimon is Professor of Christian Ministry, Duke University and a United Methodist Bishop, retired. His book, Fear of the Other, confronts xenophobia from a Christian perspective and offers some specific proposals for pastors and congregations.
"Obsessing over numbers"
By Joseph YooBigstock/dolgachov
Confession: I rarely check my posts that go live on Ministry Matters. It’s not to avoid commenters and discussions that may come as a result of the posts. I’d actually like to follow up on comments and questions folks may have. (You can always tweet me @josephyoo).
It’s because I start obsessing over the wrong thing. Right underneath the title of the post are the share buttons/icons that allow you to share the post on your Facebook page, Twitter feed, email the article, share it on Google+ (That’s still around?) and other options. And then, there’s a red badge that indicates how many times that article has been shared. There’s also the Facebook page that shares with you how many people liked the article, how many shared, and how many commented. Forget the comments, forget the content, it starts becoming about, “Oh wow, I wonder why a lot of people liked this article.” Or worse, “Oh wow, may this one was as I bad as I thought…”
Then when I sit in front of my laptop with a blank word processor page, all I can think of is the stats. It can (and sometimes does) affect what I write.
I wanted to write this but last time I did, nobody really read it.
Or, What can I write to get the response I got last time?
Numbers, well, they can be such a toxic thing. The bigger numbers we get, the better we’re doing, right? In my United Methodist Conference (California-Pacific Annual Conference) there’s an annoying (to me) tendency we have when we talk about our churches. Inevitably someone asks how big one’s church is. And the usual response is membership roll first and worship attendance.
Oh, we’re a 1,500 member church. But we have 200 in attendance.
I don’t know if folks in other conferences describe their churches in this manner.
When we measure the “success” of a church we tend to use, as Dr. Soong-Chan Rah says, Western culture values over biblical values.
We may subconsciously conclude that a pastor is better if she has a book published and even more successful if she’s a New York Times best-selling author. We may think that a church is doing far better just because it’s bigger and that a small church is no good — without ever setting foot in either church. We judge books by their covers more often than we’d care to admit.
There’s a campus ministry out there that has about 40-50 students coming weekly. But the powers that be are constantly pressuring the campus pastor about the size of that ministry and its lack of (numerical) growth. Especially when that other campus ministry draws over 5,000 students weekly. Why can’t you even get to a tenth of that size?
It’s easy to conclude that the campus ministry is not doing well — that it’s unsuccessful and perhaps it’s time for a change of leadership — after all, the campus pastor has been there for decades.
But over those decades, over 100 students have answered the call to ordained ministry. The pastor has mentored and guided over 100 students who are now ordained ministers.
Numerically, perhaps we can conclude that the campus ministry is not successful, but can we argue that it might be an effective ministry?
I’ve been reminding myself that, in ministry, success is overrated. (Spoken like an unsuccessful person.) I’ve been working on focusing (and helping my church to focus) on being effective. Chasing success can make me result-oriented.
This won’t be a success unless x amount of (and, preferably more) people show up. This article won’t be a good one unless it’s read and shared by x amount of folks. It becomes about me. And my worth is based on what I produce rather than who I am.
But ultimately, it’s not about what we produce. It’s about the One who produces in and through us. My worth isn’t determined by my success, the number of church members I have or the number of readers and shares I have.
My worth is in that I am God’s beloved. As are you.
Perhaps we'd do well to stop obsessing over results, the end game, our numbers or the fruit that we should be bearing. (That’s often difficult to do because even in ministry our success is usually determined by our attendance, our giving and budget, our professions of faith and how many baptisms we’ve had.)
Maybe the healthiest thing we could do is focus on the journey that God has us on and do our part by offering ourselves wholly for the work God wants to complete through us.
Joseph Yoo is pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of Practical Prayer and Encountering Grace. He blogs at JosephYoo.com.
"Roots' and Christian calls for justice"
By Mike PoteetImage courtesy of A&E Television Networks
Last month A&E Networks presented a new version of the classic miniseries Roots. Based on author Alex Haley’s novel,Roots tells a generation-spanning family history. The story follows Kunta Kinte — a warrior from the Mandinka people of West Africa who is captured and brought to colonial America — and his descendants as they struggle to hold on to their identities and dignity while enduring the injustice of slavery.
In 1977 the original Roots became a television milestone. 85 percent of U.S. homes with a TV watched some or all of it; almost half the country, or 100 million viewers, watched the final episode. Also, Roots motivated many people to research their family trees. More importantly, it sparked conversations about how slavery shaped America. “Never before,” American studies professor John McWhorter wrote for CNN, “had the whole nation seen slavery enacted so vividly and with such tragic pull.”
Uncomfortable but important truth
The new Roots aims to present truths about slavery and the continuing shadow it casts over American society in ways that will engage today’s audiences, especially teenagers and young adults. TV critic Jeff Jensen says the new Roots “is resolute in producing credible historical fiction and presenting it through a slave’s perspective. It is also disinterested in assuaging white discomfort.”
Roots’ graphic depictions of violence and racism frequently make it uncomfortable and upsetting. But Roots tells important truths about an injustice that cannot be ignored as our society struggles to live up to its ideal of “liberty and justice for all.” We must learn about the injustices of the past to understand and resolve those of the present.
Jesus and justice
Jesus’ understanding of salvation embraced all of life, including justice for those who were oppressed (see Luke 4:16-21). As his followers, we have a responsibility to identify and work toward correcting social injustices today.
Question of the day: When have you refused to go along with something you knew was wrong?
Focal Scriptures: 2 Samuel 12:1-10; Luke 13:10-17; Luke 3:7-14[2 Samuel 12:1 Adonai sent Natan to David. He came and said to him, “In a certain city there were two men, one rich, the other poor. 2 The rich man had vast flocks and herds; 3 but the poor man had nothing, except for one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and reared. It had grown up with him and his children; it ate from his plate, drank from his cup, lay on his chest — it was like a daughter to him. 4 One day a traveler visited the rich man, and instead of picking an animal from his own flock or herd to cook for his visitor, he took the poor man’s lamb and cooked it for the man who had come to him.”
5 David exploded with anger against the man and said to Natan, “As Adonai lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 For doing such a thing, he has to pay back four times the value of the lamb — and also because he had no pity.”
7 Natan said to David, “You are the man.
“Here is what Adonai, the God of Isra’el says: ‘I anointed you king over Isra’el. I rescued you from the power of Sha’ul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives to embrace. I gave you the house of Isra’el and the house of Y’hudah. And if that had been too little, I would have added to you a lot more.
9 “‘So why have you shown such contempt for the word of Adonai and done what I see as evil? You murdered Uriyah the Hitti with the sword and taken his wife as your own wife; you put him to death with the sword of the people of ‘Amon. 10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house — because you have shown contempt for me and taken the wife of Uriyah the Hitti as your own wife.’; Luke 13:10 Yeshua was teaching in one of the synagogues on Shabbat. 11 A woman came up who had a spirit which had crippled her for eighteen years; she was bent double and unable to stand erect at all. 12 On seeing her, Yeshua called her and said to her, “Lady, you have been set free from your weakness!” 13 He put his hands on her, and at once she stood upright and began to glorify God.
14 But the president of the synagogue, indignant that Yeshua had healed on Shabbat, spoke up and said to the congregation, “There are six days in the week for working; so come during those days to be healed, not on Shabbat!” 15 However, the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Each one of you on Shabbat — don’t you unloose your ox or your donkey from the stall and lead him off to drink? 16 This woman is a daughter of Avraham, and the Adversary kept her tied up for eighteen years! Shouldn’t she be freed from this bondage on Shabbat?” 17 By these words, Yeshua put to shame the people who opposed him; but the rest of the crowd were happy about all the wonderful things that were taking place through him.; Luke 3:7 Therefore, Yochanan said to the crowds who came out to be immersed by him, “You snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming punishment? 8 If you have really turned from your sins, produce fruit that will prove it! And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘Avraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones! 9 Already the axe is at the root of the trees, ready to strike; every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown in the fire!”
10 The crowds asked Yochanan, “So then, what should we do?” 11 He answered, “Whoever has two coats should share with somebody who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.” 12 Tax-collectors also came to be immersed; and they asked him, “Rabbi, what should we do?” 13 “Collect no more than the government assesses,” he told them. 14 Some soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we do?” To them he said, “Don’t intimidate anyone, don’t accuse people falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.”]
For a complete lesson on this topic visit LinC.
"Trump suggests 'profiling' Muslims"
By David Jackson / USA Today
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: Bigstock / Gino Santa Maria
Donald Trump, who has proposed a moratorium on Muslim immigration into the United States and possible surveillance of mosques, is now talking about "profiling" Muslims as a response to terrorism.
"I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country," Trump said on CBS' Face The Nation.
While adding that "I hate the concept of profiling," Trump said that "we have to start using common sense and we have to use, you know, we have to use our heads."
Profiling is an oft-criticized law enforcement tactic. The National Institute of Justice — the research and development of the Justice Department — defined racial profiling as a "practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin."
African-Americans and Hispanics have long protested police profiling that ranges from traffic stops to questioning about alleged crimes.
Trump has stepped up comments about "radical Islamic extremism" in the wake of last week's mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, and his proposals have drawn criticism from opponents.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the Muslim migration ban and other proposals would help the Islamic State and other extremists recruit new members, and alienate Muslim nations who are helping the U.S. fight terrorism.
Trump's approach "is un-American," Clinton said last week. "It goes against everything we stand for as a country founded on religious freedom. But it is also dangerous."
In his CBS interview, Trump said Israel and other nations use profiling. "We're not using common sense," he said.
"5 (first thing) tasks to gain serious traction"
By Chad Brooks
In episode 53 of The Productive Pastor podcast, Chad Brooks shares five intentional moves you can make to gain traction in your ministry. [Show notes]
THE PRODUCTIVE PASTOR
Five (first thing) Tasks to Gain Serious Traction | PP 53
Read more at http://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4454657/height/90/width/600/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/FF630E/#kOIMkE2LlVKUS3ZC.99Subscribe to The Productive Pastor podcast:
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"This Sunday, June 26, 2016"
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
"Trump suggests 'profiling' Muslims"
By David Jackson / USA TodayRepublican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: Bigstock / Gino Santa Maria
Donald Trump, who has proposed a moratorium on Muslim immigration into the United States and possible surveillance of mosques, is now talking about "profiling" Muslims as a response to terrorism.
"I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country," Trump said on CBS' Face The Nation.
While adding that "I hate the concept of profiling," Trump said that "we have to start using common sense and we have to use, you know, we have to use our heads."
"I hate the concept of profiling but we have to start using common sense," says Donald Trump. Watch:
Profiling is an oft-criticized law enforcement tactic. The National Institute of Justice — the research and development of the Justice Department — defined racial profiling as a "practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin."
African-Americans and Hispanics have long protested police profiling that ranges from traffic stops to questioning about alleged crimes.
Trump has stepped up comments about "radical Islamic extremism" in the wake of last week's mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, and his proposals have drawn criticism from opponents.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the Muslim migration ban and other proposals would help the Islamic State and other extremists recruit new members, and alienate Muslim nations who are helping the U.S. fight terrorism.
Trump's approach "is un-American," Clinton said last week. "It goes against everything we stand for as a country founded on religious freedom. But it is also dangerous."
In his CBS interview, Trump said Israel and other nations use profiling. "We're not using common sense," he said.
"5 (first thing) tasks to gain serious traction"
By Chad BrooksIn episode 53 of The Productive Pastor podcast, Chad Brooks shares five intentional moves you can make to gain traction in your ministry. [Show notes]
THE PRODUCTIVE PASTORFive (first thing) Tasks to Gain Serious Traction | PP 53
Read more at http://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4454657/height/90/width/600/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/FF630E/#kOIMkE2LlVKUS3ZC.99Subscribe to The Productive Pastor podcast:
iTunes
Google Play Music
Stitcher
RSS
"This Sunday, June 26, 2016"
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
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Lectionary Readings
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 26, 2016
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
Scripture Texts for: 2 Kings 2:1 The time came for Adonai to take Eliyahu up into heaven in a whirlwind. Eliyahu and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal, 2 when Eliyahu said to Elisha, “Please wait here, because Adonai has sent me all the way to Beit-El.” But Elisha said, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Beit-El.
6 Eliyahu said to him, “Please wait here, because Adonai has sent me to the Yarden.” He replied, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty of the guild prophets went and stood watching them from a distance, while they stood by the Yarden. 8 Then Eliyahu took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it; and the water divided itself to the left and to the right; so that they crossed on dry ground. 9 After they had crossed, Eliyahu said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away from you.” Elisha said, “Please! Let a double share of your spirit be on me!” 10 He replied, “You have requested a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, you will get what you asked for; but if not, you won’t.”
11 Suddenly, as they were walking on and talking, there appeared a fiery chariot with horses of fire; and as it separated the two of them from each other, Eliyahu went up into heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Isra’el!” Then he lost sight of him. Seizing his clothes, he tore them in half. 13 Then he picked up Eliyahu’s cloak, which had fallen off him. Standing on the bank of the Yarden, 14 he took the cloak that had fallen off Eliyahu, struck the water and said, “Where is Adonai, the God of Eliyahu?” But when he actually did strike the water, it divided itself to the left and to the right; then Elisha crossed over.
Psalm 77:1 (0) For the leader. For Y’dutun. A psalm of Asaf:
2 (1) I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God; and he hears me.
11 (10) Then I add, “That’s my weakness —
[supposing] the Most High’s right hand could change.”
12 (11) So I will remind myself of Yah’s doings;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
13 (12) I will meditate on your work
and think about what you have done.
14 (13) God, your way is in holiness.
What god is as great as God?
15 (14) You are the God who does wonders,
you revealed your strength to the peoples.
16 (15) With your arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Ya‘akov and Yosef. (Selah)
17 (16) The water saw you, God;
the water saw you and writhed in anguish,
agitated to its depths.
18 (17) The clouds poured water, the skies thundered,
and your arrows flashed here and there.
19 (18) The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind,
the lightning flashes lit up the world,
the earth trembled and shook.
20 (19) Your way went through the sea,
your path through the turbulent waters;
but your footsteps could not be traced.
Galatians 5: What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery.
13 For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. 14 For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself”;[Galatians 5:14 Leviticus 19:18] 15 but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!
16 What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. 17 For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.
19 And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; 20 involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue 21 and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. 25 Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.
Luke 9:51 As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, he made his decision to set out for Yerushalayim. 52 He sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village in Shomron to make preparations for him. 53 However, the people there would not let him stay, because his destination was Yerushalayim. 54 When the talmidim Ya‘akov and Yochanan saw this, they said, “Sir, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?”[Luke 9:54 2 Kings 1:9–16] 55 But he turned and rebuked them.[Luke 9:55 Some manuscripts have verses 9:55b–56a: . . . and he said, “You don’t know what Spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save.”] 56 And they went on to another village.
57 As they were traveling on the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Yeshua answered him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me!” but the man replied, “Sir, first let me go away and bury my father.” 60 Yeshua said, “Let the dead bury their own dead; you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, sir, but first let me say good-by to the people at home.” 62 To him Yeshua said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit to serve in the Kingdom of God.”
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Lectionary Readings
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 26, 2016
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
Scripture Texts for: 2 Kings 2:1 The time came for Adonai to take Eliyahu up into heaven in a whirlwind. Eliyahu and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal, 2 when Eliyahu said to Elisha, “Please wait here, because Adonai has sent me all the way to Beit-El.” But Elisha said, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Beit-El.
6 Eliyahu said to him, “Please wait here, because Adonai has sent me to the Yarden.” He replied, “As Adonai lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty of the guild prophets went and stood watching them from a distance, while they stood by the Yarden. 8 Then Eliyahu took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it; and the water divided itself to the left and to the right; so that they crossed on dry ground. 9 After they had crossed, Eliyahu said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away from you.” Elisha said, “Please! Let a double share of your spirit be on me!” 10 He replied, “You have requested a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, you will get what you asked for; but if not, you won’t.”
11 Suddenly, as they were walking on and talking, there appeared a fiery chariot with horses of fire; and as it separated the two of them from each other, Eliyahu went up into heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Isra’el!” Then he lost sight of him. Seizing his clothes, he tore them in half. 13 Then he picked up Eliyahu’s cloak, which had fallen off him. Standing on the bank of the Yarden, 14 he took the cloak that had fallen off Eliyahu, struck the water and said, “Where is Adonai, the God of Eliyahu?” But when he actually did strike the water, it divided itself to the left and to the right; then Elisha crossed over.
Psalm 77:1 (0) For the leader. For Y’dutun. A psalm of Asaf:
2 (1) I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God; and he hears me.
11 (10) Then I add, “That’s my weakness —
[supposing] the Most High’s right hand could change.”
12 (11) So I will remind myself of Yah’s doings;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
13 (12) I will meditate on your work
and think about what you have done.
14 (13) God, your way is in holiness.
What god is as great as God?
15 (14) You are the God who does wonders,
you revealed your strength to the peoples.
16 (15) With your arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Ya‘akov and Yosef. (Selah)
17 (16) The water saw you, God;
the water saw you and writhed in anguish,
agitated to its depths.
18 (17) The clouds poured water, the skies thundered,
and your arrows flashed here and there.
19 (18) The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind,
the lightning flashes lit up the world,
the earth trembled and shook.
20 (19) Your way went through the sea,
your path through the turbulent waters;
but your footsteps could not be traced.
Galatians 5: What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery.
13 For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. 14 For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself”;[Galatians 5:14 Leviticus 19:18] 15 but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!
16 What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. 17 For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.
19 And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; 20 involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue 21 and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. 25 Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.
Luke 9:51 As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, he made his decision to set out for Yerushalayim. 52 He sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village in Shomron to make preparations for him. 53 However, the people there would not let him stay, because his destination was Yerushalayim. 54 When the talmidim Ya‘akov and Yochanan saw this, they said, “Sir, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?”[Luke 9:54 2 Kings 1:9–16] 55 But he turned and rebuked them.[Luke 9:55 Some manuscripts have verses 9:55b–56a: . . . and he said, “You don’t know what Spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save.”] 56 And they went on to another village.
57 As they were traveling on the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Yeshua answered him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me!” but the man replied, “Sir, first let me go away and bury my father.” 60 Yeshua said, “Let the dead bury their own dead; you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, sir, but first let me say good-by to the people at home.” 62 To him Yeshua said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit to serve in the Kingdom of God.”
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John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Verse 1
[1] And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
About to take, … — It is supposed, (tho' not expressly revealed) that Elijah flourished about twenty years, before he was translated, body and soul, to heaven, only undergoing such a change, as was necessary to qualify him for being an inhabitant in that world of Spirits. By translating him, God gave in that dark and degenerate age, a very sensible proof of another life, together with a type of the ascension of Christ, and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Verse 2
[2] And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
Tarry here — This he desires, either, 1. That being left alone, he might better prepare himself for his great change. Or, 2. Out of indulgence to Elisha, that he might not be overwhelmed with grief at so sad a sight. Or, 3. That he might try his love, and whet his desire to accompany him; it being highly convenient for God's honour, that there should be witnesses of so glorious a translation.
To Beth-el — Which was truth, tho' not the whole truth: for he was to go a far longer journey. But he was first to go to Beth-el, as also to Jericho, to the schools of the prophets there, that he might comfort, and strengthen their hearts in God's work, and give them his dying counsels.
Verse 7
[7] And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
To view — To observe this great event, Elijah's translation to heaven, which they expected every moment: and whereof they desired to be spectators, not to satisfy their own curiosity, but that they might be witnesses of it to others.
Verse 8
[8] And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
Smote the waters — These waters of old yielded to the ark, now to the prophet's mantle; which to those that wanted the ark, was an equivalent token of God's presence. When God will take his children to himself, death is the Jordan, which they must pass through. And they find a way thro' it, a safe and comfortable way. The death of Christ has divided those waters, that the ransomed of the Lord may pass over.
Verse 9
[9] And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
A double portion — Or, rather double to what the rest of the sons of the prophets receive at thy request. He alludes to the double portion of the first-born, Deuteronomy 21:17. But though Elisha desired no more, yet God gave him more than he desired or expected; and he seems to have had a greater portion of the gifts of God's Spirit, than even Elijah had.
Verse 10
[10] And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
A hard thing — A rare and singular blessing, which I cannot promise thee, which only God can give; and he gives it only when, and to whom he pleaseth.
If thou seest — This sign he proposed, not without the direction of God's Spirit, that hereby he might engage him more earnestly to wait, and more fervently to pray for this mercy.
Verse 11
[11] And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
A chariot of fire — In this form the angels appeared. The souls of all the faithful, are carried by an invisible guard of angels, into the bosom of Abraham. But Elijah being to carry his body with him, this heavenly guard appeared visibly: Not in an human shape, tho' so they might have borne him in their arms, but in the form of a chariot and horses, that he may ride in state, may ride in triumph, like a prince, like a conqueror. See the readiness of the angels to do the will of God, even in the meanest services for the heirs of salvation! Thus he who had burned with holy zeal for God and his honour, was now conveyed in fire into his immediate presence.
Verse 12
[12] And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
My father — So he calls him for his fatherly affection to him, and for his fatherly authority which he had over him, in which respect the scholars of the prophets are called their sons. He saw his own condition like that of a fatherless child, and laments it accordingly.
The chariot, … — Who by thy example, and counsels, and prayers, and power with God, didst more for the defence and preservation of Israel than all their chariots and horses. The expression alludes to the form of chariots and horses which he had seen.
Verse 13
[13] He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;
Which fell — God so ordering it for Elisha's comfort, and the strengthening of his faith, as a pledge, that together with Elijah's mantle, his Spirit should rest upon him. And Elijah himself was gone to a place, where he needed not the mantle, either to adorn him, or to shelter him from weather, or to wrap his face in.
Verse 14
[14] And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
The Lord — Who at Elijah's request divided these waters, and is as able to do it again.
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Verse 2
[2] In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
Night — Which to others was a time of rest and quietness.
Verse 13
[13] Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
In holiness — God is holy and just, and true in all his works.
Verse 16
[16] The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
Afraid — And stood still, as men astonished, do.
Verse 17
[17] The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.
Poured — When the Israelites passed over the sea.
Arrows — Hail-stones or lightnings.
Verse 19
[19] Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.
Not known — Because the water returned and covered them.
Verse 20
[20] Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Leddest — First through the sea, and afterwards through the wilderness, with singular care and tenderness, as a shepherd doth his sheep.
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Verse 1
[1] Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty — From the ceremonial law.
Wherewith Christ hath made us — And all believers, free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage.
Verse 13
[13] For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Ye have been called to liberty — From sin and misery, as well as from the ceremonial law.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh — Take not occasion from hence to gratify corrupt nature.
But by love serve one another — And hereby show that Christ has made you free.
Verse 14
[14] For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
For all the law is fulfilled in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself — inasmuch as none can do this without loving God, 1 John 4:12; and the love of God and man includes all perfection. Leviticus 19:18.
Verse 15
[15] But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
But if — On the contrary, in consequence of the divisions which those troublers have occasioned among you, ye bite one another by evil speaking.
And devour one another — By railing and clamour.
Take heed ye be not consumed one of another — By bitterness, strife, and contention, our health and strength, both of body and soul, are consumed, as well as our substance and reputation.
Verse 16
[16] This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
I say then — He now explains what he proposed, Galatians 5:13.
Walk by the Spirit — Follow his guidance in all things.
And fulfil not — In anything.
The desire of the flesh — Of corrupt nature.
Verse 17
[17] For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
For the flesh desireth against the Spirit — Nature desires what is quite contrary to the Spirit of God.
But the Spirit against the flesh- — But the Holy Spirit on his part opposes your evil nature.
These are contrary to each other — The flesh and the Spirit; there can be no agreement between them.
That ye may not do the things which ye would- — That, being thus strengthened by the Spirit, ye may not fulfil the desire of the flesh, as otherwise ye would do.
Verse 18
[18] But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
But if ye are led by the Spirit — Of liberty and love, into all holiness.
Ye are not under the law — Not under the curse or bondage of it; not under the guilt or the power of sin.
Verse 19
[19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Now the works of the flesh — By which that inward principle is discovered.
Are manifest — Plain and undeniable. Works are mentioned in the plural because they are distinct from, and often inconsistent with, each other. But "the fruit of the Spirit" is mentioned in the singular, Galatians 5:22, as being all consistent and connected together.
Which are these — He enumerates those "works of the flesh" to which the Galatians were most inclined; and those parts of "the fruit of the Spirit" of which they stood in the greatest need.
Lasciviousness — The Greek word means anything inward or outward that is contrary to chastity, and yet short of actual uncleanness.
Verse 20
[20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Idolatry, witchcraft — That this means witchcraft, strictly speaking, (not poisoning,) appears from its being joined with the worship of devil-gods, and not with murder. This is frequently and solemnly forbidden in the Old Testament. To deny therefore that there is, or ever was, any such thing, is, by plain consequence, to deny the authority both of the Old and New Testament.
Divisions — In domestic or civil matters. Heresies are divisions in religious communities.
Verse 21
[21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Revellings — Luxurious entertainments. Some of the works here mentioned are wrought principally, if not entirely, in the mind; and yet they are called "works of the flesh." Hence it is clear, the apostle does not by "the flesh" mean the body, or sensual appetites and inclinations only, but the corruption of human nature, as it spreads through all the powers of the soul, as well as all the members of the body.
Of which I tell you before — Before the event, I forewarn you.
Verse 22
[22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Love — The root of all the rest.
Gentleness — Toward all men; ignorant and wicked men in particular.
Goodness — The Greek word means all that is benign, soft, winning, tender, either in temper or behaviour.
Verse 23
[23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Meekness — Holding all the affections and passions in even balance.
Verse 24
[24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
And they that are Christ's — True believers in him. Have thus crucified the flesh - Nailed it, as it were, to a cross whence it has no power to break loose, but is continually weaker and weaker.
With its affections and desires — All its evil passions, appetites, and inclinations.
Verse 25
[25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
If we live by the Spirit — If we are indeed raised from the dead, and are alive to God, by the operation of his Spirit.
Let us walk by the Spirit — Let us follow his guidance, in all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.
Luke 9:51-62
Verse 51
[51] And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
The days are fulfilled that he should be received up — That is, the time of his passion was now at hand. St. Luke looks through this, to the glory which was to follow.
He steadfastly set his face — Without fear of his enemies, or shame of the cross, Hebrews 12:2.
Verse 52
[52] And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
He sent messengers to make ready — A lodging and needful entertainment for him and those with him.
Verse 53
[53] And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
His face was as though he would go to Jerusalem — It plainly appeared, he was going to worship at the temple, and thereby, in effect, to condemn the Samaritan worship at Mount Gerizim.
Verse 54
[54] And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
As Elisha did — At or near this very place, which might put it into the minds of the apostles to make the motion now, rather than at any other time or place, where Christ had received the like affront.
Verse 55
[55] But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Ye know not what manner of spirit — The spirit of Christianity is. It is not a spirit of wrath and vengeance, but of peace, and gentleness, and love.
Verse 57
[57] And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
Matthew 8:19.
Verse 58
[58] And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
But Jesus said to him — First understand the terms: consider on what conditions thou art to follow me.
Verse 61
[61] And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
Suffer me first to bid them farewell that are in my house — As Elisha did after Elijah had called him from the plough, 1 Kings 19:19; to which our Lord's answer seems to allude.
Verse 62
[62] And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Is fit for the kingdom of God — Either to propagate or to receive it.
Verse 1
[1] And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
About to take, … — It is supposed, (tho' not expressly revealed) that Elijah flourished about twenty years, before he was translated, body and soul, to heaven, only undergoing such a change, as was necessary to qualify him for being an inhabitant in that world of Spirits. By translating him, God gave in that dark and degenerate age, a very sensible proof of another life, together with a type of the ascension of Christ, and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Verse 2
[2] And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.
Tarry here — This he desires, either, 1. That being left alone, he might better prepare himself for his great change. Or, 2. Out of indulgence to Elisha, that he might not be overwhelmed with grief at so sad a sight. Or, 3. That he might try his love, and whet his desire to accompany him; it being highly convenient for God's honour, that there should be witnesses of so glorious a translation.
To Beth-el — Which was truth, tho' not the whole truth: for he was to go a far longer journey. But he was first to go to Beth-el, as also to Jericho, to the schools of the prophets there, that he might comfort, and strengthen their hearts in God's work, and give them his dying counsels.
Verse 7
[7] And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
To view — To observe this great event, Elijah's translation to heaven, which they expected every moment: and whereof they desired to be spectators, not to satisfy their own curiosity, but that they might be witnesses of it to others.
Verse 8
[8] And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
Smote the waters — These waters of old yielded to the ark, now to the prophet's mantle; which to those that wanted the ark, was an equivalent token of God's presence. When God will take his children to himself, death is the Jordan, which they must pass through. And they find a way thro' it, a safe and comfortable way. The death of Christ has divided those waters, that the ransomed of the Lord may pass over.
Verse 9
[9] And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
A double portion — Or, rather double to what the rest of the sons of the prophets receive at thy request. He alludes to the double portion of the first-born, Deuteronomy 21:17. But though Elisha desired no more, yet God gave him more than he desired or expected; and he seems to have had a greater portion of the gifts of God's Spirit, than even Elijah had.
Verse 10
[10] And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
A hard thing — A rare and singular blessing, which I cannot promise thee, which only God can give; and he gives it only when, and to whom he pleaseth.
If thou seest — This sign he proposed, not without the direction of God's Spirit, that hereby he might engage him more earnestly to wait, and more fervently to pray for this mercy.
Verse 11
[11] And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
A chariot of fire — In this form the angels appeared. The souls of all the faithful, are carried by an invisible guard of angels, into the bosom of Abraham. But Elijah being to carry his body with him, this heavenly guard appeared visibly: Not in an human shape, tho' so they might have borne him in their arms, but in the form of a chariot and horses, that he may ride in state, may ride in triumph, like a prince, like a conqueror. See the readiness of the angels to do the will of God, even in the meanest services for the heirs of salvation! Thus he who had burned with holy zeal for God and his honour, was now conveyed in fire into his immediate presence.
Verse 12
[12] And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
My father — So he calls him for his fatherly affection to him, and for his fatherly authority which he had over him, in which respect the scholars of the prophets are called their sons. He saw his own condition like that of a fatherless child, and laments it accordingly.
The chariot, … — Who by thy example, and counsels, and prayers, and power with God, didst more for the defence and preservation of Israel than all their chariots and horses. The expression alludes to the form of chariots and horses which he had seen.
Verse 13
[13] He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;
Which fell — God so ordering it for Elisha's comfort, and the strengthening of his faith, as a pledge, that together with Elijah's mantle, his Spirit should rest upon him. And Elijah himself was gone to a place, where he needed not the mantle, either to adorn him, or to shelter him from weather, or to wrap his face in.
Verse 14
[14] And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
The Lord — Who at Elijah's request divided these waters, and is as able to do it again.
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Verse 2
[2] In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
Night — Which to others was a time of rest and quietness.
Verse 13
[13] Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
In holiness — God is holy and just, and true in all his works.
Verse 16
[16] The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
Afraid — And stood still, as men astonished, do.
Verse 17
[17] The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.
Poured — When the Israelites passed over the sea.
Arrows — Hail-stones or lightnings.
Verse 19
[19] Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.
Not known — Because the water returned and covered them.
Verse 20
[20] Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Leddest — First through the sea, and afterwards through the wilderness, with singular care and tenderness, as a shepherd doth his sheep.
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Verse 1
[1] Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty — From the ceremonial law.
Wherewith Christ hath made us — And all believers, free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage.
Verse 13
[13] For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Ye have been called to liberty — From sin and misery, as well as from the ceremonial law.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh — Take not occasion from hence to gratify corrupt nature.
But by love serve one another — And hereby show that Christ has made you free.
Verse 14
[14] For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
For all the law is fulfilled in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself — inasmuch as none can do this without loving God, 1 John 4:12; and the love of God and man includes all perfection. Leviticus 19:18.
Verse 15
[15] But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
But if — On the contrary, in consequence of the divisions which those troublers have occasioned among you, ye bite one another by evil speaking.
And devour one another — By railing and clamour.
Take heed ye be not consumed one of another — By bitterness, strife, and contention, our health and strength, both of body and soul, are consumed, as well as our substance and reputation.
Verse 16
[16] This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
I say then — He now explains what he proposed, Galatians 5:13.
Walk by the Spirit — Follow his guidance in all things.
And fulfil not — In anything.
The desire of the flesh — Of corrupt nature.
Verse 17
[17] For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
For the flesh desireth against the Spirit — Nature desires what is quite contrary to the Spirit of God.
But the Spirit against the flesh- — But the Holy Spirit on his part opposes your evil nature.
These are contrary to each other — The flesh and the Spirit; there can be no agreement between them.
That ye may not do the things which ye would- — That, being thus strengthened by the Spirit, ye may not fulfil the desire of the flesh, as otherwise ye would do.
Verse 18
[18] But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
But if ye are led by the Spirit — Of liberty and love, into all holiness.
Ye are not under the law — Not under the curse or bondage of it; not under the guilt or the power of sin.
Verse 19
[19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Now the works of the flesh — By which that inward principle is discovered.
Are manifest — Plain and undeniable. Works are mentioned in the plural because they are distinct from, and often inconsistent with, each other. But "the fruit of the Spirit" is mentioned in the singular, Galatians 5:22, as being all consistent and connected together.
Which are these — He enumerates those "works of the flesh" to which the Galatians were most inclined; and those parts of "the fruit of the Spirit" of which they stood in the greatest need.
Lasciviousness — The Greek word means anything inward or outward that is contrary to chastity, and yet short of actual uncleanness.
Verse 20
[20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Idolatry, witchcraft — That this means witchcraft, strictly speaking, (not poisoning,) appears from its being joined with the worship of devil-gods, and not with murder. This is frequently and solemnly forbidden in the Old Testament. To deny therefore that there is, or ever was, any such thing, is, by plain consequence, to deny the authority both of the Old and New Testament.
Divisions — In domestic or civil matters. Heresies are divisions in religious communities.
Verse 21
[21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Revellings — Luxurious entertainments. Some of the works here mentioned are wrought principally, if not entirely, in the mind; and yet they are called "works of the flesh." Hence it is clear, the apostle does not by "the flesh" mean the body, or sensual appetites and inclinations only, but the corruption of human nature, as it spreads through all the powers of the soul, as well as all the members of the body.
Of which I tell you before — Before the event, I forewarn you.
Verse 22
[22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Love — The root of all the rest.
Gentleness — Toward all men; ignorant and wicked men in particular.
Goodness — The Greek word means all that is benign, soft, winning, tender, either in temper or behaviour.
Verse 23
[23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Meekness — Holding all the affections and passions in even balance.
Verse 24
[24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
And they that are Christ's — True believers in him. Have thus crucified the flesh - Nailed it, as it were, to a cross whence it has no power to break loose, but is continually weaker and weaker.
With its affections and desires — All its evil passions, appetites, and inclinations.
Verse 25
[25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
If we live by the Spirit — If we are indeed raised from the dead, and are alive to God, by the operation of his Spirit.
Let us walk by the Spirit — Let us follow his guidance, in all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.
Luke 9:51-62
Verse 51
[51] And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
The days are fulfilled that he should be received up — That is, the time of his passion was now at hand. St. Luke looks through this, to the glory which was to follow.
He steadfastly set his face — Without fear of his enemies, or shame of the cross, Hebrews 12:2.
Verse 52
[52] And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
He sent messengers to make ready — A lodging and needful entertainment for him and those with him.
Verse 53
[53] And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
His face was as though he would go to Jerusalem — It plainly appeared, he was going to worship at the temple, and thereby, in effect, to condemn the Samaritan worship at Mount Gerizim.
Verse 54
[54] And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
As Elisha did — At or near this very place, which might put it into the minds of the apostles to make the motion now, rather than at any other time or place, where Christ had received the like affront.
Verse 55
[55] But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Ye know not what manner of spirit — The spirit of Christianity is. It is not a spirit of wrath and vengeance, but of peace, and gentleness, and love.
Verse 57
[57] And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
Matthew 8:19.
Verse 58
[58] And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
But Jesus said to him — First understand the terms: consider on what conditions thou art to follow me.
Verse 61
[61] And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
Suffer me first to bid them farewell that are in my house — As Elisha did after Elijah had called him from the plough, 1 Kings 19:19; to which our Lord's answer seems to allude.
Verse 62
[62] And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Is fit for the kingdom of God — Either to propagate or to receive it.
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The Upper Room Ministries
The Upper Room Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
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For a Gospel that is twenty-four chapters long, it seems quite startling to read in the ninth chapter of Luke, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (v. 51). However, in the story as Luke tells it, that’s how close we are to the Passion. What follows in Luke’s Gospel are more than eight chapters (through 18:14) that are for the most part unique to Luke.
As Jesus set out for Jerusalem, he attempted to enlarge his party. After being rebuffed while trying to enter a Samaritan village, Jesus and his disciples continued on their way. They encountered a quick succession of three persons. The first offered to follow Jesus wherever he went, but Jesus discouraged him with a comment about foxes having holes and birds having nests, but Jesus having nowhere to lay his head. He invited the second person they met to follow him, and he seemed amenable to the idea, except he needed to tend to some family matter first. The third offered to follow, except that he begged off long enough to stop by his home to say farewell. In every case, Jesus seemed unduly harsh, allowing that there is absolutely no excuse, absolutely nothing that must get in the way of following Jesus.
There are abundant excuses why we do not follow Jesus, or why our following of Jesus is less committed than it should be, or why we are less than enthusiastic about following Jesus all the time or at all costs. Any preacher and many folks in the pew have heard them all as they pertain to church attendance. The kids play soccer on Sundays. I was up late on Saturday night. It’s the only day I can play golf, or fish, or hunt, or sleep in. We had company. I had to fix a big dinner. And so it goes.
The most outrageous excuse I ever heard for why a person wasn’t in church on Sunday came from a woman who lived across the street from one church I served. I went to see her on Monday. She explained her absence this way: “I got up in the morning in plenty of time for church, so I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. Then I began to debate whether or not I would go to church, and by the time I made up my mind, church was over.”
As surely as people have excuses for why they are not involved in the life of the church, the same can be said for the shallow properties of the faith of too many people. It’s too hard to be a Christian. One little sin never hurt anyone. It conflicts with what is expected of me at work. Those words just slip out. And on it goes.
I had an uncle whose byword was, “That’s good enough.” Whatever he set out to do, he did what was expected, sometimes even more than was expected. But he rarely did his best. He would reach a certain point where he would stop and say, “That’s good enough.” Well, it wasn’t. Just good enough is never good enough. More is expected of us, and that just becomes one more excuse.
Follow Jesus? I can’t because . . . and the text lists some good ones. It’s a difficult life. I have family business to tend to. I must see my family first. I want to be a Christian, but not yet. I have something else that I must do first. Interesting, isn’t it, how often a person’s excuses have to do with family. That’s probably why Jesus always insisted that the Kingdom must come first, that you may have to turn your back on your family, that following him might even turn brother against brother and sister against sister.
As surely as people make excuses for why they are not better Christians—better followers of Jesus—churches make their own excuses for why they are not fully committed to bringing the Kingdom into fruition. People forget whose church it is. They think of it as their own private club, or they think because they are charter members or because their great grandfather was a charter member, they have some sort of authority. They fashion the church to their own liking and resent the newcomer who would sit in their pew or take their parking place or bring a new idea. Anyone who has ever been fool enough to suggest that a church try something new, something different from the way they’ve always done it, knows what I mean.
The best church I ever served was in a once-small village. When the growing city encroached upon their turf, rather than batten down the hatches and try to drive the newcomers away, they threw the doors open wide and invited one and all into the Lord’s house. Yes, it was the Lord’s house, and they instinctively knew that, and that church grew and prospered and did the Lord’s work.
You know all the excuses, and if you are wise, you know that not one of them will hold up. You know who it is that has called us, and you know what God has called us to be and what God has called us to do. Let nothing get in the way of your being the person God wants you to be and doing the things God wants you to do.
A first-year teacher I knew was given the assignment of being the adviser for the high school yearbook in a rural school district. Early in the year, she gave the students the weekend assignment of coming up with a theme for their yearbook. When Monday came, they submitted their idea for the theme: “It don’t matter.” Of course, their idea didn’t fly. And that teacher decided it was her last year in that school system. But all too often, we hear those students’ sentiment echoed in the hall of excuses. “It don’t matter.”
They were wrong, of course. Not only was their grammar at fault, but it does matter. It really does matter.
No excuses. You cannot dream up better ones than have already been used, and not one of them will hold up. No excuses. Jesus wants you to follow him. Period. Follow him. No excuses. It matters. A lot. Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
THEME IDEAS
The readings from 2 Kings, Luke, and Galatians look at times of transition, turmoil, and transformation. As the time nears for Elijah to ascend to heaven within the whirlwind, Elisha discovers his unique gifts of spiritual leadership. By pledging to follow Elijah as disciple, helper, and son, he gains experience, guidance, and his teacher’s blessing. Likewise, Luke speaks of the time before Christ ascends to heaven, when his disciples also learn what it will take to follow him wherever he goes. The Galatians passage adds Paul’s advice to believers—to act in accord with the Holy Spirit. He urges them to become living fruit of the Spirit, using their unique gifts for the kingdom of God.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (2 Kings 2, Galatians 5, Luke 9)
Throughout the ages, disciples have said,
“I will follow you wherever you go.”
Lord, give us the freedom to follow you
in the ways of love.
We come from busy homes, filled with little time
to consider Christ in our lives.
Lord, give us the strength to follow you
in the ways of peace.
In times of struggle, we look to God for help.
Lord, give us the opportunity to follow you
in the ways of kindness.
Today, we celebrate the Holy Spirit,
who shows us the joy of following God.
Lord, give us the patience to follow you
in the ways of faith. Amen.
Opening Prayer (2 Kings 2, Galatians 5)
Holy One,
we come before you today:
full of hope,
full of desire,
full of promise.
Help us take up the mantle of faith
you have laid before us,
that we may use our own gifts of the Spirit
to face the challenges before us.
Help us face the turmoil
within and around us,
that we may face the future unafraid.
Show us your way, your truth,
and your life. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Galatians 5)
Gracious Lord,
you have blessed us with freedom—
freedom to follow or to turn away;
freedom to love or to hate;
freedom to heal or to hurt.
You ask only that we follow your ways,
loving our neighbors as ourselves.
In the midst of our turbulent lives,
help us find teachers
to show us the gifts you set within us.
And help us claim these gifts today.
Words of Assurance (Galatians 5)
Harvest the fruit of the Spirit, freely given by God,
and share it freely with others.
Know that you are loved and forgiven.
Trust that you are treasured, now and always. Amen.
Passing the Peace of Christ (2 Kings 2, Luke 9)
Disciples have said to their teachers, “I will follow you wherever you go.” May the peace of Christ follow you wherever you go: at home, at work, and in the world. Let us turn to one another and offer signs of this peace in our lives.
Response to the Word (2 Kings 2, Galatians 5)
We have each been fashioned for a unique purpose; each been given unique gifts; each been blessed with varying abilities. During times of turmoil and transition, we can choose to become stagnant, or we can choose to be transformed by God’s love. When we choose transformation, we choose to fully share in the vision of a community led by the Spirit—a community of love, gentleness, selfcontrol, joy, patience, peace, faithfulness, kindness, and generosity. When we follow Christ, we take up his mantle, moving forward together. May we all say, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Offering Prayer (Galatians 5)
Receive our humble offerings, O Lord,
for your work in the world.
Bless those who give,
those who send,
and those who will receive these gifts.
May our offering sow seeds of hope
and bear the fruit of love
wherever they are sown.
Invitation to Communion or Communion Prayer
As the prophets of old knew, so may we also know. When we live by the Spirit, we will inherit the kingdom of God. The Spirit of love and forgiveness grows on the tree of life. This Spirit is available to all who seek it. Eat of this fruit, for it is the body of Christ, given for you.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (Galatians 5, Luke 9)
May the transforming love of God
work in your lives, today and always.
Go forth into the world with peace, love, and joy.
Follow Christ wherever he leads you.
Fulfill the promise found in the fruit of the Spirit. Amen.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (2 Kings 2, Luke 9)
We gather today as a community led by the Spirit.
Your way, O God, is holy.
Pick up the mantle of faith and follow Christ today.
Your way, O God, is holy.
Listen, pray, and believe.
Your way, O God, is holy.
Praise Sentences (Galatians 5, Luke 9)
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.
Christ has set us free!
Follow Christ and know God’s love! Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
COLOR: Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1:
L: Great is our God and greatly to be praised!
P: The whole earth reflects God’s power and might.
L: When we recall the wonders of God’s creation….
P: We rejoice at the awesome complexity of it all.
L: Lord, you have brought us up from fear to hope.
P: Let us worship and praise God for all God’s faithfulness. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2:
L: We gather here today to praise God for God’s mighty acts in our lives.
P: There are many people who do not believe in God’s presence.
L: We are called to learn of God’s love and power.
P: We are called to proclaim God’s transforming love to all people.
L: Let us worship God who is with us now and forever.
P: Let us open our hearts, souls, and spirits to hear God’s word. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3:
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2137 “Would I Have Answered When You Called”, offer the following call to worship as directed]
L: Following Jesus is difficult. So many things have laid claim to our lives.
P: We don’t know if we can let go and truly follow him.
Soloist: Singing verse 1 of “Would I Have Answered When You Called”
L: Lord, search our hearts and speak to our spirits. Encourage us to freely follow you.
P: Help us to be dependable disciples, joyfully proclaiming your transforming power and love.
ALL: Singing verse 4 of “Would I Have Answered When You Called”
Call to Worship #4:
L: Welcome to worship today. Bring your joys and burdens to the Lord.
P: For God hears the cries of our hearts and heals our wounded souls.
L: Remember the wondrous deeds that God continues to perform in your life.
P: Let us be thankful for all the mercies and tenderness that God offers to us.
L: Come, praise the Lord with all your heart and soul.
P: Let our voices raise in a powerful concert of praise and thanksgiving. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY/READING, BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer:
Lord, we want to follow you whoever you lead. Reach out to us this day, stirring our souls and spirits with the winds of your power that we may faithfully be your disciples. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Prayer of Confession:
Merciful Lord, we know that you want the best for us. It must really disappoint you when we fail to be the kind of devoted followers that you need. You know of the needs in this world and the capability that we have of meeting those needs and bringing words of hope and healing through actions of compassion and justice. Yet we are hesitant in our commitment to you and to ministries of peace. We want good things to happen. We just aren’t sure that we are up to the tasks you set before us. Forgive us when we so easily doubt your call, your presence, and your abiding love. Lift us up from lives of self-pity and self-centeredness, and bring us to you with hearts filled with joy, praising you for opportunities to witness to your love in our service to your people. Heal us and restore us, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Words of Assurance:
Although following Jesus is difficult, you can be assured that God is always with you, bringing you encouragement, strength, and peace. Rise up and follow the one who offers his life for you. AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer:
We need your healing love today, O Lord. Create in us a new heart of compassion, as Christ has called us to be witnesses of redemption rather than alienation. Hold us gently. Heal us. Enable us to truly be your disciples, O Christ. AMEN.
Litany/Reading:
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2133 “Give Me A Clean Heart”, offer this dramatic reading as directed]
Reader 1: I’m not good enough to follow you, O Lord. I haven’t been the kind of person that you would seek for your disciple. I’ve lied, cheated, been hostile to others. I have not welcomed people who are different from me.
Reader 2: I’ve tried my best to be a good person. I have faithfully participated in ministries of justice and help. I have worked tirelessly so that others may have hope and peace. I am truly ready to be your disciple.
Reader 3: I get a picture of disciples in my mind that is a group of people who are smiling and following Jesus along the dusty roads and green hills of Galilee. It seems nice, just walking with Jesus. Discipleship shouldn’t be a problem for me. I can fit it into my schedule, I am sure.
Reader 4: I’ve seen those “disciples” before. They talk a good game, but when it comes to really being part of ministries of justice, they don’t want to get their hands dirty. They aren’t truly disciples. They are just playing a game. I watch out for them. They are hypocrites!
Voice: Come, follow me. I will heal your wounds, give you strength, stand with you, help you to bring peace, hope, and justice to others. But I warn you, the path is not easy. There is no simple way to be a disciple. It means truly dedicating your life to loving others. So again, I invite you to come, and follow me.
Soloist: singing “Give Me A Clean Heart” through one time.
Small group: singing “Give Me A Clean Heart” through one time.
Congregation: singing “Give Me A Clean Heart” through one time.
Benediction:
You have been healed and restored in Christ Jesus. Go in peace, proclaiming the good news of God’s absolute, eternal love through ministries of peace and hope. AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional color for this Sunday is Green.
Surface: Place a central riser on the worship center (on this riser a cross will be placed).
Fabric: Cover the worship center with green fabric. Use a long strip of shelf-lining paper, white, on which you have placed foot prints, place it under the cross at the center of the worship center and let it flow across the center and down onto the floor.
Candles: On either side of the cross, place white pillar candles, about 6” high
Flowers/Foliage: On either side of the candles you may use leafy plants or small bouquets of flowers. At the base of the worship center on either side of the footprint strip, place ferns or ivy, or other green leafy plants.
Rocks/Wood: Place some rocks at the base of the footprint strip to hold it in place. You may also scatter small stones on the footprint strip, being careful not to obliterate the footprints themselves.
Other: Use a brass cross on the center riser on the worship center.
PULPIT RESOURCE
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Today's texts cluster around the theme of discipleship.
Old Testament: 1 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14. This story can be told to compare Elisha's persistent faith with the excuses of the would-be disciples in the Gospel lesson. (Children are impressed by Elisha's refusal to leave Elijah, and also with his bold request of his hero.) Or it can be told with the focus on the passing of "the mantle." (If Elijah's life has been the focus for several weeks, children are pleased to hear about God's recognition of Elijah's work in the story of the fiery chariot—a neat way to die!) Whichever your focus, present this story with the same open wonder with which we tell the story of Cinderella or the Knights of the Round Table.
Psalm: 77:1-2, 11-20. Verses 11-15 form the most child-accessible section of this psalm. Children easily understand the call to remember all the powerful things God has done. If this service culminates a series on Elijah's ministry, children can use these verses to review the ways God acted powerfully through Elijah.
The water and references in verses 16-25 confuse children, who cannot make the connection between the poetic references and familiar stories.
Epistle: Galatians 5:1, 13-25. These passages will not make much sense to children as they hear them read. However, with some help, they can grasp Paul's message in verses 14-15. (The emphasis on Christian freedom in vss. 1 and 13 will be understood in later years.) Paul begins with the command to love your neighbor as you love yourself (vs. 14). Then he presents a list of what happens when people do not follow this rule (vss. 19-21), and another list of what happens when they do follow this rule (vss. 22-23). The first list, in particular, is more clear in the vocabulary of the Good News Bible or New International Version. Although some items on the list may make children giggle, the need to hear Paul's condemnation of activities that television and today's culture seem to accept. Because they often are told not to act like animals, children enjoy Paul's comparison of the people who do not love to packs of destructive animals.
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62. This passage includes two separate stories. Verses 51-55 are a lesson in what to do when someone you have tried to love refuses to love you. Children will need background information on Jewish-Samaritan relations to understand the story, but they will need no help in understanding its "reality" message. The reality is that even Jesus was turned away by some people he tried to befriend. Children need to realize that the same probably will happen to them when they try to reach out to lonely, unhappy people at school and in their neighborhoods. When this happens, they are to be as forgiving as Jesus was.
Verses 57-62 report Jesus' conversations with three would-be disciples. A child's version of these excuses: "I am not ready to be a real disciple yet. When I grow up, Ill be one. But now I'm just a kid. All I can do is learn about Jesus." Jesus' response is that now is the time to be a disciple. Jesus needs children to do his work on the playground, in the swimming pool, the locker room, and all those other places where adults are not as influential. So children are called to be disciples now.
Watch Words
In speaking of discipleship under difficult conditions, avoid terms such as perseverance and forbearance.
Before reading the Old Testament story, explain that a mantle is a coat, and urge worshipers to listen for how Elijah's mantle was used.
Avoid using the flesh and the spirit as tag words for life based on disobeying or obeying the command to love one another. Instead, speak of obeying and disobeying.
Translate into today's vernacular the unfamiliar or obsolete words that describe sexual activities.
Let the Children Sing
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian," "Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated," and "Breathe on Me, Breath of God" (in order of ease) are discipleship hymns children can sing.
"O Jesus, I Have Promised" will be hard for younger readers, but preadolescents often appreciate and claim for themselves this musical prayer.
Ask the childrens choir or the congregation to sing "I've Got a Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy, Down in My Heart." Add verses that celebrate Paul's "fruits of the Spirit." A lighthearted congregation can enjoy even a final verse: "If the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack—and stay!"
Sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," pointing out its base in Elijah's story. Either "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" or "For All the Saints" can be sung to honor both Elijah and Elisha.
The Liturgical Child
1. If you have been following the Elijah readings, review them and celebrate Elijah's life with a litany. A worship leader makes a series of statements that describe what Elijah was like or recall the things Elijah did. The congregation's response to each: "I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your wonders of old" (Ps. 77:11) .
2. To stage the three conversations in Luke 9:57-62, enlist the help of three would-be disciples (standing in a group at one side of the chancel) and Jesus (standing at the center). The worship leader (standing in the lectern) serves as narrator, introducing the passage and reading the introductory phrase for each conversation. Actors should memorize their parts, plan the emphasis and tone of their speaking, and work together to present the sequence smoothly.
3. Base a prayer of confession on Galatians 5:
Lord, when we read Paul's list of the results of living apart from you, we recognize many of them in our own lives. Each of us has done things of which we are deeply ashamed. (Pause for worshipers to offer silent confessions.) Though most of us have not practiced witchcraft, we have treated our own wants as gods. (Pause) Each of us has made enemies and waged war with them. (Pause) We know what it is to be jealous of what others have. (Pause) We are amazed at how quickly we can become really angry and lash out at others. (Pause) We often put our ambitions first, even before doing what is right and loving. (Pause) We have been part of groups that shut others out. Forgive us and help us change our ways to reflect your love. For we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God does forgive all who repent and change their ways. We are promised that when we do love one another, we will find that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control fill our lives to overflowing.
Sermon Resources
Tell a story about two children in a sports camp at your state university. Put them in a group with two campers from a different area of the state who are very push about playing "their" plays and are very loud in their support of opposing university teams. Tell how the two disciples reach out to these difficult outsiders by helping them find a practice field, eating with them in the cafeteria, and setting up plays in their favor during practice sessions. Let the outsiders respond by showing no appreciation for help in finding a field, making rude jokes about the disciples' favorite teams and players at the cafeteria table, and stealing a play from the disciples to cause their team to lose the game. After hearing this story, worshipers of all ages will be ready to walk in the shoes of Elijah, Jesus, and his disciples; they will think about discipleship that does not give up when faced with discouraging results.
ESCAPE HATCH DISCIPLESHIP
1 KINGS 19:15-16, 19-21
I wonder why more little boys aren't named Elijah. His spiritual commitment towers above the wickedness of his day. Emerging from out of nowhere, he single-handedly (or so he thinks) confronts Queen Jezebel, whose very name is synonymous with wickedness. In a day when pagan idolatry was rampant among God's people, Elijah was the catalyst God used to demonstrate who really was the Supreme God.
As so often happens after a time of spiritual conquest, Elijah is completely drained—spiritually, physically, and emotionally. He runs from Jezebel, who has promised to take vengeance upon his life. He gets to the point of wishing he could just die. It may be hard for us to imagine the contrast between Mount Carmel and the cave in Horeb but implicitly we know that it is in the times of fatigue that come from intense spiritual struggle that even God's choice servants are subject to depression. Some great Christian leaders have struggled against "the black curtain."
I. God Had a New Challenge for Elijah
As the text opens for this Sunday, we see God issuing a new challenge to Elijah. God has demonstrated compassion in sending an angel to provide food and drink for his weary ambassador. Out of the experience of having a "still small voice" speak to him, God issues a new challenge to Elijah. Elijah probably would have been just as happy to have God say to him, "You've done a great work. You are the only one who is still serving me. But, since Jezebel is still on your case, I'll let you retire and to back to Tishbe and enjoy your retirement." God reminds Elijah that there is still—and will always be—a believing remnant (a curious omission from the lectionary text) and tells him that he has a new challenge for him.
Isn't it true that our need is not to retire or retreat or give up as much as it is for something new to devote our energies to?
II. The Call of Elisha
Elijah's commission involved anointing new leadership—kingly leadership for Aram and Israel and spiritual leadership for Israel in the person of Elisha. As God corrected Elijah's understanding of the remnant, he also let Elijah know that he was not indispensable. There would be a successor to his ministry.
When Elijah comes upon his young protégé, he finds him in the community field plowing behind one of twelve oxen. He threw his cloak around him in an act symbolic of anointing. As Elijah appears on the scene without any prior reference, this is the first time we read the name Elisha. I believe that confirms that God is more interested in our present devotion to him than he is in our past or our credentials.
The prophet's background is not nearly as important as his availability to be God's spokesperson. Elisha wanted to have the opportunity to bid adieu to his family, a reasonable request, which Elijah did not dispute. Jesus rebuked a young man who made a similar request because it was seen as putting off discipleship. Elisha demonstrates his earnest desire to follow the prophet by sacrificing the oxen and using his plow equipment as the fire with which the oxen would be prepared.
Elisha was burning his bridges behind him quite literally. His discipleship was one that left no escape hatch. Elijah wanted to escape the responsibilities God had given him. Elisha made sure any temptation to turn back from following God would be done away with. What fires have you lit lately? (Mark A. Johnson)
PAUL'S LISTS
GALATIANS 5:1, 13-25
There is a whole new life to which Christians have been called, as different from the old life as night is from day, Paul says. And he wants the Galatians to know that they are not living in the transcendent freedom of that life yet. Nor have they realized that the goal of that freedom is to be bound to one another in love. So he has given them checklists, to show them specifically and beyond any doubt how they were not yet living the life to which they had been called, or the life they claimed to be living.
We do not know exactly what they did with these lists. So we may as well look at them with ourselves and our own experience in the church in mind.
I. List #1: Works of the Flesh
At first glance Paul's list of "works of the flesh" (v. 19) might look pretty foreign to us. We're not "fornicators" or "licentious." Somebody might have an uncle who goes "carousing," but we don't do that stuff. The list doesn't really seem to apply to us.
But let's look a little closer, to be certain. Almost hidden there in the middle of the list is "quarrels." He is not talking about knife fights. Is there anyone who hasn't had a simple quarrel in their family in the last month? Then there was that finance committee meeting with the capital funds expenditures debate. Could that be a little "dissension" or "strife" breaking out? Is there still someone who hasn't found themselves in the list? How about the sweet elderly widow, who feels some "envy" of her friends who still have husbands. If anyone is still out there, we might wonder if they have felt any "anger" lately. Not even righteous anger? Yes? That is "anger." All you need to find is one thing and you are on the list. There are many more than Galatians on it—everyone's life is in that list.
It is a list of things we do that are a degradation and abuse of physical, mental, and emotional power. It is characterized by self-righteousness, selfishness, judgmentalism, manipulation, intellectualism, and intentionally muscling one's way through life by force. There is a biting viciousness about its atmosphere that even animals do not have, unless they are sick.
II. List #2: Fruit of the Spirit
Surely we are on this list. We try to be "kind"; but you cannot be a fool, of course. I feel such "gentleness" and "peace" in church, until I get upset. She is getting better at handling her problems with "patience" and he cannot feel really "joyful" with so much hunger and crime. We are working on all this, going to groups, therapy, reading self-help books.
No. There is nothing in Paul about working on it. "The fruit of the Spirit" (v. 22) just automatically blossoms and comes to fruition, like fruit on a tree, in a transformed life. Better ask ourselves the question: Are these things growing in my life, day after day, more and more?
Let's not make a spectacle of this very personal question because that encourages the real danger here: people might try to disguise their symptoms (the things on list 1), to appear to be on list 2. This leaves no room for real help and we can get caught in the wrong list then by denial, which makes you a sorcerer in your own life, always conjuring to keep the dark side hidden and under control.
III. Getting on the Escape List
How do we get from one list to the other? Not by anything we do, or by anything we don't do. We cannot work our way from list 1 to list 2. The things on list 2 are not the opposite of those on list 1. You do not become loving by not being jealous, for example. There is no way out of list 1 through our efforts. There is no way out of the grave. Crucifixion is absolute.
There is a way to be transplanted from one list to the other. You just die to the first and are reborn in the second. It is doable. But not by you. It is a miracle of God's doing. As we vividly see the difference between the lists, we could well want to put our whole hope on God's power to do this. The Pearl is the possibility of ending up on that other list. We could pray that the Spirit takes over our life, so the old life is literally gone.
Oh, but do we even lift up this greatest of all the promises, of transformation and a whole new life in our churches anymore? Or are we just another hard-working self-help group? Poetic and not practical, some say. If we lived and moved and breathed out of list 2, we'd be wiped out, like lambs among wolves—we'd have no power! True, except for the power to naturally bear all the fruit of the Spirit. (Kathleen Peterson)
WHAT FOLLOWING JESUS REALLY MEANS
LUKE 9:51-62
Every Christian's desire should be to follow Jesus. Unfortunately, few believers seriously consider what following Jesus really means. In Luke 9:51-62, Jesus' words and actions shed light on the high expectations he holds for all those who truly seek to be obedient to him. In particular, Christ reveals three qualities necessary to be counted as a faithful disciple.
I. A Consistent Purpose
The time had come for Jesus to begin the journey to Jerusalem (9:51); a journey that would seemingly conclude in a cruel death on a Roman cross. He had tried to prepare his disciples, telling them that he would suffer this execution but would be raised on the third day. In fact, he said the coming events "must" take place (v. 22) and that it "is going to" happen (v. 44). This truth and Jesus' foreknowledge of it demonstrates the sovereignty of God in the life of Christ.
God had one plan for his Son: to die on the cross for the sins of all who will believe. Jesus willingly submitted and allowed God's will to unfold. In the same way, God has a consistent purpose for our lives: to follow his Son and to share him with others. Every ministry, activity, and thought should reflect this goal. When Christians lose sight of the example Christ gave, they sidetrack God's purpose. Consistently pursuing this mission is the first step down the path of discipleship.
II. A Christ-Centered Perspective
The second quality necessary to be a faithful follower is having a Christ-centered perspective. In the spring of 1996, a group of Montana outlaws known as the "Freemen" held local, state, and federal law enforcement officials at bay for almost three months. They established their own government, threatened to kill the local judge and sheriff, and stole private property—all in the name of Christ.
When the disciples went ahead of Jesus into Samaria to find a place to spend the night and were rejected, they asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy them (v. 54). Jesus rebuked them because they did not understand his perspective: Love your enemies, pray for those who mistreat you, turn the other cheek, and on and on (6:27-31). Maybe some of those same Samaritans would come to believe in Jesus through the evangelism of the early church (see Acts 8:1, 4-25; 9:31; 15:3). Christ was on his way to die for humankind, and yet they wanted to kill the very ones for whom he would shed his blood.
When human "obstacles" seem to prevent us from accomplishing God's will, a Christ-centered perspective enables one to view them with love and compassion rather than hatred and anger. Allowing Jesus to change hearts and lives rather than resorting to worldly means requires his point of view. Seeing the lost through the eyes of Christ refocuses the true follower on a Christ-centered perspective.
III. A Considerable Price
As Jesus and his disciples walked down the road, three people had the opportunity to follow the Lord. However, each individual offered an excuse to delay their compliance. Why did Jesus respond so harshly toward their procrastination? He was attempting to disclose a third quality about discipleship: the first priority must always be obedience to him.
When a person accepts Jesus as Savior and Lord, a radical shift in priorities should occur so that following him becomes the primary objective. One's relationships, job, social life—all diminish in comparison to the quest of loyalty to Christ. As mature Christians know, placing Christ at the top ensures that every other concern will fall into its rightful place.
To be a true follower, Jesus demands that we recognize a consistent purpose, reorient our thinking to a Christ-centered perspective, and pay the considerable price of placing obedience to him as our top priority. Most Christians claim to follow Jesus. But when you seriously consider the requirements, one wonders how pleased he is with the response. (Craig C. Christina)-------
Ministry Matters
2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard
1 KINGS 19:15-16, 19-21
I wonder why more little boys aren't named Elijah. His spiritual commitment towers above the wickedness of his day. Emerging from out of nowhere, he single-handedly (or so he thinks) confronts Queen Jezebel, whose very name is synonymous with wickedness. In a day when pagan idolatry was rampant among God's people, Elijah was the catalyst God used to demonstrate who really was the Supreme God.
As so often happens after a time of spiritual conquest, Elijah is completely drained—spiritually, physically, and emotionally. He runs from Jezebel, who has promised to take vengeance upon his life. He gets to the point of wishing he could just die. It may be hard for us to imagine the contrast between Mount Carmel and the cave in Horeb but implicitly we know that it is in the times of fatigue that come from intense spiritual struggle that even God's choice servants are subject to depression. Some great Christian leaders have struggled against "the black curtain."
I. God Had a New Challenge for Elijah
As the text opens for this Sunday, we see God issuing a new challenge to Elijah. God has demonstrated compassion in sending an angel to provide food and drink for his weary ambassador. Out of the experience of having a "still small voice" speak to him, God issues a new challenge to Elijah. Elijah probably would have been just as happy to have God say to him, "You've done a great work. You are the only one who is still serving me. But, since Jezebel is still on your case, I'll let you retire and to back to Tishbe and enjoy your retirement." God reminds Elijah that there is still—and will always be—a believing remnant (a curious omission from the lectionary text) and tells him that he has a new challenge for him.
Isn't it true that our need is not to retire or retreat or give up as much as it is for something new to devote our energies to?
II. The Call of Elisha
Elijah's commission involved anointing new leadership—kingly leadership for Aram and Israel and spiritual leadership for Israel in the person of Elisha. As God corrected Elijah's understanding of the remnant, he also let Elijah know that he was not indispensable. There would be a successor to his ministry.
When Elijah comes upon his young protégé, he finds him in the community field plowing behind one of twelve oxen. He threw his cloak around him in an act symbolic of anointing. As Elijah appears on the scene without any prior reference, this is the first time we read the name Elisha. I believe that confirms that God is more interested in our present devotion to him than he is in our past or our credentials.
The prophet's background is not nearly as important as his availability to be God's spokesperson. Elisha wanted to have the opportunity to bid adieu to his family, a reasonable request, which Elijah did not dispute. Jesus rebuked a young man who made a similar request because it was seen as putting off discipleship. Elisha demonstrates his earnest desire to follow the prophet by sacrificing the oxen and using his plow equipment as the fire with which the oxen would be prepared.
Elisha was burning his bridges behind him quite literally. His discipleship was one that left no escape hatch. Elijah wanted to escape the responsibilities God had given him. Elisha made sure any temptation to turn back from following God would be done away with. What fires have you lit lately? (Mark A. Johnson)
PAUL'S LISTS
GALATIANS 5:1, 13-25
There is a whole new life to which Christians have been called, as different from the old life as night is from day, Paul says. And he wants the Galatians to know that they are not living in the transcendent freedom of that life yet. Nor have they realized that the goal of that freedom is to be bound to one another in love. So he has given them checklists, to show them specifically and beyond any doubt how they were not yet living the life to which they had been called, or the life they claimed to be living.
We do not know exactly what they did with these lists. So we may as well look at them with ourselves and our own experience in the church in mind.
I. List #1: Works of the Flesh
At first glance Paul's list of "works of the flesh" (v. 19) might look pretty foreign to us. We're not "fornicators" or "licentious." Somebody might have an uncle who goes "carousing," but we don't do that stuff. The list doesn't really seem to apply to us.
But let's look a little closer, to be certain. Almost hidden there in the middle of the list is "quarrels." He is not talking about knife fights. Is there anyone who hasn't had a simple quarrel in their family in the last month? Then there was that finance committee meeting with the capital funds expenditures debate. Could that be a little "dissension" or "strife" breaking out? Is there still someone who hasn't found themselves in the list? How about the sweet elderly widow, who feels some "envy" of her friends who still have husbands. If anyone is still out there, we might wonder if they have felt any "anger" lately. Not even righteous anger? Yes? That is "anger." All you need to find is one thing and you are on the list. There are many more than Galatians on it—everyone's life is in that list.
It is a list of things we do that are a degradation and abuse of physical, mental, and emotional power. It is characterized by self-righteousness, selfishness, judgmentalism, manipulation, intellectualism, and intentionally muscling one's way through life by force. There is a biting viciousness about its atmosphere that even animals do not have, unless they are sick.
II. List #2: Fruit of the Spirit
Surely we are on this list. We try to be "kind"; but you cannot be a fool, of course. I feel such "gentleness" and "peace" in church, until I get upset. She is getting better at handling her problems with "patience" and he cannot feel really "joyful" with so much hunger and crime. We are working on all this, going to groups, therapy, reading self-help books.
No. There is nothing in Paul about working on it. "The fruit of the Spirit" (v. 22) just automatically blossoms and comes to fruition, like fruit on a tree, in a transformed life. Better ask ourselves the question: Are these things growing in my life, day after day, more and more?
Let's not make a spectacle of this very personal question because that encourages the real danger here: people might try to disguise their symptoms (the things on list 1), to appear to be on list 2. This leaves no room for real help and we can get caught in the wrong list then by denial, which makes you a sorcerer in your own life, always conjuring to keep the dark side hidden and under control.
III. Getting on the Escape List
How do we get from one list to the other? Not by anything we do, or by anything we don't do. We cannot work our way from list 1 to list 2. The things on list 2 are not the opposite of those on list 1. You do not become loving by not being jealous, for example. There is no way out of list 1 through our efforts. There is no way out of the grave. Crucifixion is absolute.
There is a way to be transplanted from one list to the other. You just die to the first and are reborn in the second. It is doable. But not by you. It is a miracle of God's doing. As we vividly see the difference between the lists, we could well want to put our whole hope on God's power to do this. The Pearl is the possibility of ending up on that other list. We could pray that the Spirit takes over our life, so the old life is literally gone.
Oh, but do we even lift up this greatest of all the promises, of transformation and a whole new life in our churches anymore? Or are we just another hard-working self-help group? Poetic and not practical, some say. If we lived and moved and breathed out of list 2, we'd be wiped out, like lambs among wolves—we'd have no power! True, except for the power to naturally bear all the fruit of the Spirit. (Kathleen Peterson)
WHAT FOLLOWING JESUS REALLY MEANS
LUKE 9:51-62
Every Christian's desire should be to follow Jesus. Unfortunately, few believers seriously consider what following Jesus really means. In Luke 9:51-62, Jesus' words and actions shed light on the high expectations he holds for all those who truly seek to be obedient to him. In particular, Christ reveals three qualities necessary to be counted as a faithful disciple.
I. A Consistent Purpose
The time had come for Jesus to begin the journey to Jerusalem (9:51); a journey that would seemingly conclude in a cruel death on a Roman cross. He had tried to prepare his disciples, telling them that he would suffer this execution but would be raised on the third day. In fact, he said the coming events "must" take place (v. 22) and that it "is going to" happen (v. 44). This truth and Jesus' foreknowledge of it demonstrates the sovereignty of God in the life of Christ.
God had one plan for his Son: to die on the cross for the sins of all who will believe. Jesus willingly submitted and allowed God's will to unfold. In the same way, God has a consistent purpose for our lives: to follow his Son and to share him with others. Every ministry, activity, and thought should reflect this goal. When Christians lose sight of the example Christ gave, they sidetrack God's purpose. Consistently pursuing this mission is the first step down the path of discipleship.
II. A Christ-Centered Perspective
The second quality necessary to be a faithful follower is having a Christ-centered perspective. In the spring of 1996, a group of Montana outlaws known as the "Freemen" held local, state, and federal law enforcement officials at bay for almost three months. They established their own government, threatened to kill the local judge and sheriff, and stole private property—all in the name of Christ.
When the disciples went ahead of Jesus into Samaria to find a place to spend the night and were rejected, they asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy them (v. 54). Jesus rebuked them because they did not understand his perspective: Love your enemies, pray for those who mistreat you, turn the other cheek, and on and on (6:27-31). Maybe some of those same Samaritans would come to believe in Jesus through the evangelism of the early church (see Acts 8:1, 4-25; 9:31; 15:3). Christ was on his way to die for humankind, and yet they wanted to kill the very ones for whom he would shed his blood.
When human "obstacles" seem to prevent us from accomplishing God's will, a Christ-centered perspective enables one to view them with love and compassion rather than hatred and anger. Allowing Jesus to change hearts and lives rather than resorting to worldly means requires his point of view. Seeing the lost through the eyes of Christ refocuses the true follower on a Christ-centered perspective.
III. A Considerable Price
As Jesus and his disciples walked down the road, three people had the opportunity to follow the Lord. However, each individual offered an excuse to delay their compliance. Why did Jesus respond so harshly toward their procrastination? He was attempting to disclose a third quality about discipleship: the first priority must always be obedience to him.
When a person accepts Jesus as Savior and Lord, a radical shift in priorities should occur so that following him becomes the primary objective. One's relationships, job, social life—all diminish in comparison to the quest of loyalty to Christ. As mature Christians know, placing Christ at the top ensures that every other concern will fall into its rightful place.
To be a true follower, Jesus demands that we recognize a consistent purpose, reorient our thinking to a Christ-centered perspective, and pay the considerable price of placing obedience to him as our top priority. Most Christians claim to follow Jesus. But when you seriously consider the requirements, one wonders how pleased he is with the response. (Craig C. Christina)-------
Ministry Matters
2222 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37228, United States
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