Bishop David Kendall

GOING TO, ENTERING IN, MOVING WITH THE FLOW

As we head to Nigeria in a matter of hours, I’m reminded of what I heard Dr. Timothy Tennent say recently.  On the occasion of his inauguration as President of Asbury Theological Seminary, Dr. Tennent, and outstanding missiologist, observed that ground zero for the church has shifted in recent decades.  He put it in this graphic way.  At the turn of the 20th century the prevailing profile of Christ-followers was a 41 year old man living in England.  One hundred years later, the prevailing profile is a 34 year old woman living in Nigeria.

 

Ground zero for the church, epicenter of our Lord’s awesome transforming reach into our world has moved south and east (from our perspective).  Indeed, stories of Holy Spirit movement and courageous obedience of Christ-followers who enter that movement generate and spread as gospel goes viral.  And as a result we hear about Pentecost-like ingathering of people and transforming of world.  Such stories always bring me to places of great joy and deep sadness.  Joy because how dare we not celebrate what God is doing!  Sadness because Pentecost-like stuff appears oh-so-rare where we live and serve most of the time.

 

Lately, however, I’m coming to other places, places of willing support and of eager expectation.  The mighty deeds of God in Christ elsewhere do not mean we’ve been bypassed.  There are ways the U.S. church may support all that God is doing in the world.  Our prayers count as we pray God’s will to be done everywhere as in heaven.  Our wealth waits to be spent (read “invested”) so that kingdom blessing flows to unreached and untouched people.  Our expertise and talent and experience represent huge gifts to be offered to the world.  I am thinking of retired people, rapidly on the increase in numbers, who are young enough to use their skills, gifts and passions for global impact.  Wouldn’t it be so like God if it turned out that what many imagined was their career is actually the training for the real world-changing work God created them to do in their so-called retirement years?

 

Our support in these and other ways in the Pentecost happenings elsewhere may also help the Spirit shape us more exactly in Christ’s image.  We don’t have to be in the lead, in the place of “prominence,” in the driver’s seat, to make a huge contribution to what Christ does around the world.  In fact, it may be good for us to be in some other lesser or lower place.

 

All of this is not to say we should aim low or be content with the status quo or with whatever … whatever.  Not at all!  In fact, a move to places of willing support is also a move to places of eager expectation.  Weaned of the illusion that we are world-changers, we may run toward, enter into, and move with the flow of the grace that truly transforms everything everywhere.  Again, wouldn’t it be so like God to respond to our willingness to play any role he assigns as the basis for new outbreaks of Pentecost-happening.  In the beginning of the gospel story, an unassuming young lady said, “Lord, let it be to me as you have said,” and we have yet to see the end of that story.  I’m sensing that a similar humble and steady willingness today will yield outrageously wonderful kingdom consequences in his time and in his way.

AMNESTY FOR "ILLEGALS" AND THE HORRIFICATION FACTOR

Earlier this month the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) issued a policy statement on immigration reform.  It is an excellent statement.  I urge all to read it--I mean, actually to visit the website (see http://www.nae.net/resolutions/347-immigration-2009), click where you should and read it.  

I say this so emphatically because I know for a fact that many have not read it, but have not allowed their personal ignorance of the actual statement to keep them from decrying its presumed contents.

A blogger labeled the statement an "amnesty statement," and this has triggered a frantic effort to protest the "unjust, cruel, horrifying stance your church has taken."  This quote is not exact, but it expresses well the sentiments of hundreds of form-letters of protest we have received at the Free Methodist Church World Ministries Center.  Permit me just three anguished observations about this.

First, it seems so ironic that followers of the One who claims to be the way, the truth and the life, should care so little about the truth.  No wonder people on the outside of the "Household of Faith" in Jesus look side-ways at us when we talk about the truth.

Second, it seems so out of character for followers of Jesus to become so angry at the idea of "amnesty."  PLEASE BE CLEAR, the statement is not an amnesty statement.  I'm commenting on the red-faced, vein-in-the-neck-bulging anger over the idea that "illegals" should receive amnesty.  What causes me such wonderment is the fact that all true followers of Jesus benefit every day of their lives and will throughout eternity, they believe, as result of something very much like amnesty.  I mean, while they were still sinners, and didn't care that they were, Christ died for them and set them free, and offered them a clean slate, never mind their multiple crimes, some of which were truly horrific.  Yet, they received new life and a new start free and clear, in a place and on a path none of them deserve to be!  Wow, sounds like good news to me!  How come the very idea of it should make some of us so angry?  To be sure, maybe it would be unwise, and perhaps it's not a good idea.  Maybe it would be foolish as public policy.  But why should people whose very eternity hinges on an incredible "free pass" become so angry over the possibility of some others experiencing a bit of what they have?  Again, BE CLEAR, the NAE statement is not an amnesty statement!  Earning citizenship and assuming all the responsibilities of citizenship by definition could not be amnesty.

Third, it seems truly outrageous to me that some of these form-letter protests actually describe the imagined amnesty policy as "horrifying." This is outrageous because there are so many truly horrifying things in our world today, things that make Jesus weep.  How about the billions of people who do not know the free-gift Jesus offers them?  How about the millions of people who are starving, suffering from scarce or unclean water, victimized by tribal and racial animosity, enslaved by human traffickers, and languishing in refugee camps in drought stricken deserts?  How about the innocent, vulnerable children the world over not aborted by their desperately poor parent(s) (praise the Lord!) but whose living conditions should really more accurately be named "dying conditions"?

How about this final horrifying reality?  All of these horrific facts of life on planet earth could be eliminated or greatly relieved if enough people had the moral and spiritual will to do so, if enough of Jesus' followers became so outraged over these truly horrifying things and so driven by the Lord of love that something simply had to be done?

No Amnesty ... Hospitality!

Early this week, the Rev. Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), commented on a recent position paper adopted by the NAE dealing with the issues surrounding immigration policy in the US and the presence of perhaps millions of undocumented persons in our nation.  Anderson’s references to the policy statement  (see http://www.nae.net/resolutions/347-immigration-2009) set off a firestorm of protest among conservative peoples, some of them Christians, alarmed at a policy of “amnesty” which they mistakenly see in the NAE’s position.  Since then the FMC, as a member of NAE, has received a number of phone calls and faxes expressing dismay and alarm over our support of “amnesty” and all it portends in the minds of these protesters.

First, please read the statement on its own merits.  The controversial sentence sparking the firestorm is presumable this one:

“That the government establish a sound, equitable process toward earned legal status for currently undocumented immigrants, who desire to embrace the responsibilities and privileges that accompany citizenship.” 

Friends, this is not a call for amnesty.  This is a call for policy that is sound and equitable that would allow for earned legal status.  If it is earned it is not amnesty, by definition.  Furthermore, this is for persons desiring to embrace the responsibilities and privileges that accompany citizenship.  As such, it is not irresponsible and not contrary to any sound understanding of the Scriptures.

Indeed, there are many reasons for support of such a proposal.  Consider the following reflections.

The scriptures tell earnest followers of Jesus, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God … “ (1 Peter 2:9).

If we are the new people God makes us (chosen), we will understand that our birth-race, tribe, culture, government can never trump the claims of our rebirth-race—as children and servants of God, members of the new humanity created by grace and pioneered by the embodiment of grace Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ.  We will delight in the Father’s pleasure to show the world how to be human the Jesus-way, how to find and actualize His way of dealing with the foibles and failures of the all but wrecked story—His-story—that he will surely bring to a very good ending, or new beginning.  We will receive blessing and share blessing with all the families on earth.

If we are kingdom people (royal) we will seek first the interests of the king, indeed above all other interests.  The King declares his love for all, and especially for the last and least, those for whom no one will speak or act.  The King commands that we take care of the aliens and sojourners among us, for that is what we are—sojourners seeking a better country—when we are true to His call on our lives.

If we are the body of priests God calls his people to be, in fact, together constituting a priesthood for the sake of the many who do not know our God, the many who need to find some connection to the One who made and loved them and gave himself for them, then nothing will take priority for us than to be in position to sign-the-way to the true homeland of everyone our God claims as his own.  No competing interest can deter the priesthood in the fulfillment of their sacred duties.

If we are truly a holy tribe, an out-of-this-world ethnicity living and serving the many other ethnicities and showing them that what they most seek comes not through strategies of self-seeking and striving, but through receiving what God freely and lavishly rains upon us, and then sharing with others, then we will find ways to give of ourselves as a primary means of helping others receive.  We will commit to this way of losing ourselves in the pursuit of the others’ good, trusting God to see to their and our ultimate wellbeing.

For these reasons, we need have no fear but rather warm-hearted compassion for the many among us who are not documented.  We will want to find a way to protect the vulnerable, the weak and the imperiled whatever their circumstances.  We will seek to discover and bring to justice those who abuse and exploit them.  In many though not all cases we will want to find some means of offering them a place among us, not in violation of the law, but within the framework of the law of our land that, at its best, always aims to protect those who live under threat no matter the particulars of their situation.  In the faces of the strangers in our midst we will expect to see the Lord Jesus who chooses to be identified among the least of these—the homeless, the hungry, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned.  Indeed, in relation to the strangers we have strategic opportunity to act for them as Jesus would, which will be good for them—now and later, and will position us to hear a final well-done from the One whose judgment matters most.

WHAT IF ... CHURCH?

For many years now I have been passionate about understanding, advocating, and facilitating what I call "authentic church-being."  Quite simply, what if Jesus' idea really took hold and we were church, and we accessed the grace necessary to make us the people of His envisioning?

What if as church we were all about them--the others not yet aware or accessing the grace that will literally make their lives.  Jesus was all about them!

What if as church we were all about blessing--as chosen people, like Israel of old and now the church if God gets God's way with us, blessing fairly summarizes life and mission.  They receive blessing--indeed, what blessing!  And the very receiving of it draws them into sharing that blessing with others, and doing so until all the families of the world have opportunity to know, receive and live blessing.  (I know, talk of blessing is really slippery, and we are soooooooo good at satisfying ourselves by mouthing slippery platitudes.  I know.  But please get into the word and unpack that word "blessing."  What did it mean for God to bless people?  What happened--both to them, to their network of folks, to their entire world?  I think yo'll see some pretty nitty gritty stuff that could spell deep transformation--if indeed we were all about such blessing).

What if as church we were about kingdom--as Jesus was.  That was his message: Kingdom come!  That was his call--turn around and deal with it.  As much as he was in the world, he was clearly not of it, not gripped by it, excpet by love for it, not enthralled with it and its systems, not decieved by its lies, not trapped by its sickness and dysfunctions, not about to settle for its limited and empty promises.  He called people out of darkness into stupendous light.  He insisted we were made for more and better, and pointed the way.  Convincingly he pointed the way, so convincing that people followed.  What if instead or championing a cause entirely bound by here-and-now stuff we became obsessed with the realm Jesus brought our world?  What if there were a truly better way to be human--the Jesus way, and the conditions necessary for even us to live that way were now right in front of us?  What if we embraced those conditions so desparately and tenaciously that we got thoroughly conditioned ourselves, and it was noticeable to them? (on "them" see above)

What if as church we were all about connection--that is, if we became the communal connecting point between God and people?  What if the world became for us the arena where God was not only present, but also not passive, but powerfully at work, and we developed the eyes to see this?  What if we understood that we are not to send missionaries, because we are ourselves the ones who have already been sent?  What if we as church understood we are God's missionary right here and right now? 

What if we were a holy ethnicity or tribe--as God insists we are?  What if we were unlike any and all other ethnicities in the world?  If in fact, all the things, experiences, opportunities, blessings, resources, etc. etc. that any tribe or ethnic group wants in the worst way, so badly they are willing to kill for them--what if we wanted such things for them (there's that word again!), and we wanted such things for them so deeply that we were willing to die to see it happen, if necessary?  Kind of like Jesus did! 

What if?  Makes you think, doesn't it? Or dream or pray or expect!  In several weeks in the center of the US we gather to imagine together what could be if God got God's way with God's people.  Who can tell what the Lord of the church might do!

FACILITATING THE COMMUNITY GOD WANTS

Here are 10 things we can do as pastors to encourage the kind of community God wants to create among us.

 

1. Teach and preach the whole, full gospel.  Vertical (with God) reconciliation and fellowship—yes!—but also horizontal (with others).  They are two sides of the same coin.  We are recapturing the genius of our heritage here.  Holiness does not happen as an individual project.  That is why God draws us into fellowship.  We must have the support and challenge of others to become the Holy people of God.  Also, only when we are in fellowship with others do we reflect the God who is Triune, in the fellowship of holy love as Father, Son, and Spirit.

 

2. Model true fellowship, that is deep one another participation in the lives of others.  Delight and enter into such mutual participation.  Celebrate true fellowship in the life of the church personally and publicly.

 

3. Be real with people.  You are on the way, just as you wish your people to be.  You struggle, have growing edges, and sometimes fail.  Appropriate, Spirit-directed sharing encourages others to share, lets them know it is OK not to be perfect, to be on the way, and establishes your credibility as one who is walking the way you commend in preaching and teaching.

 

4. Discern the folk who have a heart for God, who truly want God to have God’s way.  Cherish them, encourage them, join with them in seeking God.  They can become the nucleus of a new movement of the Spirit within the church.

 

5. Let the fellowship of these God-centered ones become a think-tank, and a prayer-tank.  Make seeking God’s will for the church a priority among these folk.  Ask them to join you in seeking for God’s specific direction for the church.

 

6. Encourage, and facilitate small group- or cell group-sharing with one another within the church.  Focus on how it is the Holy Spirit is working transformation in our lives personally and relationally.  Focus also on how we are actually sharing (or could) in the ongoing mission of Jesus in our daily lives.  Make such communal seeking and sharing and mutual supporting the heart of discipling ministries.  If the church is not ready to develop a "small group ministry," then encourage this sort of small group interaction in S.S., mid-week, or even in worship settings.

 

7. Remember that in every gathering and meeting, you are first the church, and only secondarily a committee, board, task force etc.  Make prayer and praise, seeking God’s presence and direction, sharing praises and needs, a priority item on every church agenda.

 

8. Encourage inter-generational dynamics and activities—interaction between younger and older.  Find ways to mix people, bring them into connection, so the Spirit can impress the Body with how he is working in different people’s lives and so that our insights and gifts can be made available for others.

 

9. Encourage exposure to people of different cultures.  Ask people to consider a short term mission trip, or to visit a city mission, or prison or jail ministry—putting them into position to see how God creates bonds of fellowship and sharing between people who are very different from one another.  And, expect such exposure to lead to involvement. 

 

10. Let conflicts and relational strain stimulate: discerning essentials from non-essentials, with a commitment to yield and submit mutually on non-essentials, moving back to the cross to reaffirm what it is that binds us together, repenting of anger and hostility, dying to these by the power of the Spirit, and learning how to relate in Christ-like ways.

 

WHOSE-HEALTH CARE? DISAPPOINTING FEATURES OF THE DISCUSSION.

Early in his term our President announced his plan to enact health care legislation and he will not rest until he succeeds or all efforts fail.  I admire his determination.  I also share the core concerns that people receive basic care and that health systems are purged of injustices that may actually hurt the most vulnerable.  I'm convinced that addressing these concerns will require the wisdom of Solomon.  I'm trying to think and pray about the concerns in the light of the One who embodies such wisdom and promises it to those who ask.  In this connection, several things have disappointed me in the current discussion.

• Too much angry ranting and too much fear mongering.  Our Scriptures assure us that human wrath does not lead to righteousness and that perfect love casts out fear.  Where are these realities at work?
• A narrow perspective that forgets or dismisses the fact that most of the world could only dream of being in our situation.  In fact, multiplied millions would be far better off uninsured here than where they are now.  At least this should soften our tone and temper our expectations.  And, Christ-followers are drawn to consider the question, "whose-health care? and to do so mindful of a more global context.
• A selfish perspective that reflects a sense of entitlement--that we deserve the best on our terms.  In a world where millions never have access to the most basic medical attention and in a nation where way too many experience an appallingly similar deprivation, can Christ-followers get red-faced over their "need" to have multiple choices of physicians?
• A failure of Christ-follwers to imagine what the self-emptying, self-giving love of their Lord might mean for addressing the core concerns.  Do we know the meaning of sacrifice?  Are willing to sacrifice so those with no help get help?  What would that look like?
• Slowness to consider and much more to see and renounce grave systemic injustices in the systems that deliver health care.  How is it, for example, that people with insurance are given discounts and write-offs (technically it is their insurance companies who receive them "on our behalf") that people with no insurance are denied, so that services actually cost the poor more than the relatively rich?
• And, a legitimate concern that we pay for whatever we buy, pay with actual dollars that are clearly identified and made available.

I hope and pray that true reform takes place in our health care systems, that the left out and least receive care somehow, some way, that the whole world can be blessed by our reforms, and that Christ-followers contribute a wisdom that flows from the One we follow.

ANTICHRIST REVEALED

I write from Alexandria, Egypt where I've been privileged to share a biblical vision of church with the brothers and sisters of the Free Methodist Church in Egypt.  What a wonderful privilege!  But, what does that have to do with antichrist?

As you know the whole world loves our new President.  Obama-mania manifests everywhere, perhaps especially on the continent of Africa.  The other day, during an evening of Ramadan (when the streets are alive with teeming crowds of people celebrating what to them is the holiest time of the year) while walking in a marketplace I saw a sign that read:

BARACK OBAMA

 THE NEW TUTANKHAMEN

FOR THE WORLD

I have thought a lot about why the people here love our President so much.  It's not because they know much about him.  Most know nothing about the U.S. government in general and the President in particular.  I think it's what President Obama symbolizes for them.  A person of color can be leader of the most powerful nation on earth.  A relatively young man can be leader of the most powerful nation on earth.  A person belonging to a minority can be leader of the most powerful nation on earth.  And, such a person can become leader without violence or social upheaval.  These are huge, seemingly miraculous possibilities for people who live in Africa.  And now in our President such possibilities are realities.  If nothing else, it suggests there might be hope for other nations.  But, what does all of this have to do with antichrist?

I've been sharing from 1 Peter a biblical vision of the church.  One of the points I see so clearly and pray for so fervently is that the church is participant and agent of God's kingdom-made-real in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I've insisted that true Christ-followers are a new kind of people, a kingdom people.  It's as if we have immigrated to a new country--kingdom-country.  And, like all immigrants in a new land, it's necessary to learn the language of their new country. That language is a language of praise to God and blessing toward others.  Christ followers speak this language even when others speak or act in ways that hurt or even destroy them.  No matter what happens--good or evil--kingdom people speak the kingdom language--full of praise to God and eager to bless others.  But, again, what does this have to do with antichrist? 

As I was finishing final preparation for last night's presentation I recalled a story I read on line a few days ago.  It told of a U. S. pastor who told his church that he was praying for President Obama's death.  I had to read it several times!  Yes, indeed, he was praying that the President would contract brain cancer, as Senator Ted Kennedy did, and quickly die!  He is a pastor!  He represents Jesus Christ and his kingdom!  But, if the story is correct, he doesn't speak the language of the kingdom.  He speaks the language of some other place quite alien to the kingdom of God.  Sadly, in his words, so full of anger as they were, we have words designed to curse and kill, not to bless.  In these words, antichrist came out into the open!

On this point it doesn't matter why the Pastor said it.  It doesn't matter what the issues are.  It doesn't matter whether the President is on God's side on the issues or in his actions.  A kingdom person speaks the language of the kingdom.  As Jesus taught, "Out of the heart flows ... evil thoughts ... murder ... and this is what defiles the person"(Matt. 15: 17-20).  A pastor or anyone else who speaks such words as reported in that article, about the President or any other human being, reveals what is in his heart.  Words that reflect evil and murder reveal their speaker as antichrist in character. 

LET'S TALK SEX!

It’s not because I just wanted to get your attention.  It worked though, didn’t it?  It’s because almost everyone is talking sex, and the rest are thinking sex.  We can’t help it.  As I write I recall a recent Hardy’s commercial.  It features a beautiful Asian model, provocatively dressed, seated on apartment steps, pulling out a bacon-cheeseburger and in slow-motion taking a bite, dripping ketchup on to a leg … .  You’ve seen it and you understand it.  The commercial extols the virtues of a sandwich, but who doesn’t know they’re really talking sex?

The biblical world was as sex-crazed as ours.  The older nature religions understood the agricultural cycles as tied to the sexuality of the gods.  Often worship itself involved various sexual rites.  The sophisticated and cultured folk claimed sexual expression as a basic human right.  They would assert: One should not stifle whatever sexual expression fits one’s sense of self or served one’s personal pleasure.

Then and now, in a sex –charged world Christ-followers call attention to the beauty, sanctity, and—yes, pleasure of human sexuality.  We insist that human beings were not made for sex, but sex was made for human beings.  There’s a huge difference.  Among other things, it means we were not made to worship or serve sex, and sex cannot make our lives whole or complete.  We insist only God as known through Jesus makes life whole and complete.  And with God at the center of our lives, we claim to embrace a sexuality that God made for us, that yields the deepest pleasures, and that always enhances and ennobles it practitioners.

Please note: what I have said: We call attention to sexuality as God intended; we insist God must be at the center; and we make claims about a certain kind of sexual expression. 

You see: we’re talking sex.  But our best or loudest, our most fearful or angry words about sex in a sex-charged world will have no good impact apart from a life that is in order sexually!  Here’s where Paul’s teaching about sanctification and sex is helpful.   He says this is God’s will and your sanctification: abstain from sexual immorality (see 1 Thess. 4:3).  I do not have space in this column to spell out all Paul is saying.  But, let me cut to the chase.  Let me continue to talk sex for just a bit.

In a highly sexualized world, who or what will be the sun around which your sexuality revolves?  Will it be the world, other people, the glamorous, beautiful, desirable, yourself, or will it be Jesus the Son?  Bluntly, Christ is more important than sex.  This is true whether you are married or single, male or female, inclined toward people of the same or the other sex, or whether you feel sexually frustrated or fulfilled.  Christ is more important than sex.  Less, bluntly, Christ knows better than we do what we need to be whole, healthy, and happy.  Christ cares more about that than anyone else in our world.  And, Christ will take us there, to wholeness, health, and happiness.  He can be trusted.

When Christ-following becomes our most basic passion, more important than even sexual expression, our sexuality will find the place in our lives that best suits who we are and that most helps us access all God has for us, and not only for us.

As I have said, as Christ followers we must talk sex, but our talk will bless the world only if we are sexually in order.  The research I have seen suggests that the rate of premarital sex among young believing adults is about the same as among unbelievers.  Similarly, Christians commit adultery and divorce, as well as indulge in the use of porn about as much as anyone else.  The fact is: sexual disorder within the church has discredited the things we say about sex.  How can a sexually disordered people credibly advocate the virtues of God’s plan for marriage, proclaim God’s power to deliver from addiction or heal sexual brokenness? 

The sex-talk our world needs in the worst way is not just about individual piety and purity.  It is about the church’s spiritual credibility and authority to call the sexually broken, confused, and addicted to wholeness. 

For our own sake and for the mission, we must acknowledge our sexual disorder, repent of it, and seek grace.  We must welcome help and accountability, and receive grace that sets us free, cleans us up, reorders our hearts, minds and bodies for God-honoring sex that not only will feel good but be good.

DARE WE STILL HOPE?

I’ve been urging our churches to join Paul and Jesus in praying for the church’s sanctification (see 1 Thess. 5:23 and John 17:17-19), praying that the church would be utterly God’s to do with as God pleases, to use however God chooses, and to participate in God’s ongoing mission to reclaim and renew the whole of creation.  We’re way beyond church survival and even beyond church growth—we’re after the most comprehensive renovation of the whole of reality.  Nothing short of all God plans will do, if we have anything to say about it.

              

Here’s the problem, however.  Much of the church has been hijacked by the culture.  This is not a new phenomenon nor is it a stroke of genius to observe it.  It is a recurring problem.  Predictably the cultures of this world have deconstructed the gospel, the good news of Jesus and His kingdom, and then put the gospel back to together again in ways that fit or even enhance the culture.  For example, in our country people have harbored hopes of an American Dream—a vision of a kind of life that enjoys prosperity and peace.  For many generations this dream has exercised enormous influence.  So much so, that the gospel is often seen as a means to realizing this dream.  To put it way too simply, the dream has deconstructed the good news and put it together again so that accepting Jesus represents a fast track to realizing the dream.  Come to Jesus, join the church, be a good boy or girl, and God will bless you and the blessing will look like this dream-come-true.

 

When the culture stalls and the dream shatters, however, the gospel that was tweaked to accommodate this dream no longer seems adequate.  Followers of Jesus, on their way to the dream-come-true, suddenly realize that it’s not happening for them and nervously wonder about where Jesus is taking them.  There’s a lot of this going on just now.  Huge institutions once thought invulnerable now seem on shaky ground.  The economy no longer seems a safe harbor.  Many are wondering how life can continue or ever be good again, if things keep going on as they are.  Hand wringing is common, sometimes even in the church.

 

But when God owns us as church, when the church is utterly at his disposal, when there is nothing to lose because it’s all been surrendered for his use, when the good news of Jesus once again asserts itself against the bad news of our world, the good news deconstructs the culture, and helps us shape a life free of that culture’s illusions and idolatries so life goes on but in ways fully compatible with the kingdom Jesus declared and demonstrated.  If God were to foreclose on all our false hopes and assume sole proprietorship of the church, the good news would show us how to live even in a world that is passing away.

 

This is how it was when the church first came to be.  Followers of Jesus showed their world that life did not require the gods venerated by their contemporaries.  “The way it has always been” was shown to be a lie.  In fact, it hadn’t always been that way, and it could be another way that was better.  And followers of Jesus were often in the lead showing that better way. 

 

Not long ago in the country of Peru mountain farmers stood up against the drug lords that owned most of the land around them.  They had convinced everyone that the land could only grow coca plants, from which cocaine was made.  It had always been that way, and it had to be that way for the people to survive.  Of course this was a lie, but everyone believed the lie.  Everyone, that is, until a Christ-follower refused to use his land in that way and started to plant other crops.  Now, everyone knows that the land will produce many crops, most of which can be eaten and directly benefit the village.  Christ-followers exposed the lies that had kept people from possible blessing, and led them to a different and better life.

 

If the Christ-followers who are church courageously follow Christ in these days, dare we believe that once again lies about “the only way life can be good” will be exposed?  Dare we trust that if Christ has us wholly at his disposal, we may become agents of blessing and recreation to a world that thinks it’s falling apart?  Dare we still hope?

 

 

A PEOPLE FOR POSSESSION--QUESTIONS TO ASK

This summer I have been sharing with as many as will listen on the great prayer of Paul for the church found in 1 Thessalonians 5:23.  Many in our tradition will recognize this verse as a classic “holiness text.”  In fact, it is the only verse in the Bible that actually refers to “entire sanctification,” using that very terminology.   This verse, however, is not really a teaching on sanctification or encouragement to seek sanctification (directly).  It expresses Paul’s longing for the church everywhere, a longing he lifts to God.

This is a great prayer.  Paul prays that God would possess his people entirely, that his people would be his in ways absolute and without qualification; that his people would be all about whatever he plans and purposes for his world; that nothing about them would thwart his intentions for the ministry arena he calls them to serve. 

I think Paul’s prayer is that we would be a people for God’s possession.  This is a phrase that Peter uses in 1 Peter 2:9.  He describes the church as “ …  a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1Pe 2:9 NRS).  The phrase “God’s own people” is more literally, “a people for possession.”  It suggests that these people are owned by God, set apart for and completely at the disposal of God.  For a church, a people, on their way to such “possession,” here are some questions to ask in the company of one another and in conversation together with God:

¢  Does the community know we are there?  Would they miss us if suddenly we weren’t?  How long before they noticed?

¢  What kind of press has the church had as church lately?

¢  Are we known for joy and hope even, especially, in hard times?

¢  Are we known for God’s standards of morality & righteousness?  If so, well and good, but are we known for God’s standards by the seriousness with which we take them, insist on them, hold ourselves accountable to them, and by how we restore our own when they violate them? 

¢  Or are we just trying to tell everyone else how to live?

¢  Does the church engage in finding people—lost but cherished missing so far as God the Father is concerned? 

¢  Is the essential flow outward toward people in need of what only their God provides? 

¢  When people visit do they detect God, something they can’t explain which though weird still intrigues and draws them?

¢  When we’re together do we sense Someone?

¢  Is there joy and hope in the air?

¢  Do we make a place that convinces you we are not alone?  That God is real, present, taking us somewhere?

¢  When we work on the budget, making hard decisions, is the atmosphere sweet or tense?

¢  Are there subjects or events we shouldn’t bring up?

¢  Can we be real here? 

¢  Is it OK not to be perfect & not OK to be unforgiving?

¢  Can we laugh together, at ourselves? 

¢  Can we cry together?  Do we?  And do we cry and anguish over the things Jesus cried over?

¢  As you pray for the church’s sanctification ask, what’s really happening with us and between us, through us as church? 

¢  Does it trace back to the presence and power of the God who created all things out of nothing and raises the dead?