Bishop Matthew Thomas

Are You Perspicuous?

Perspicuity is when you can be clearly understood due to precise or accurate presentation.  It is not simply about clarity or understanding.  It contains the notion that what might be otherwise unclear becomes clear due distinctly to the accuracy of the ones argument or explanation.  Perspicuous people are people who have that innate or learned ability to make complicated things very simple.  They take complex truth and make them easy to understand.  I have had perspicuous language teachers- taking the hard-to-understand elements of linguistics and making them like a fun and easily decipherable word puzzle. 

I think we have often heard people who were the opposite of that.  They make complex truths even more complicated.  They are able to take something simple and make it muddy.  A friend of mine told me of his relative who said about a convoluted message from a long-winded preacher, “The only way that preacher could have said less would have been to talk more.”  That makes me smile.  I think I heard the same guy.  Perhaps from time to time, I’m that guy.  I hope not. 

However, I have heard people do that.  In fact, one time I heard a pastor preaching a message about the relationship between God’s grace and our faith.  The deeper he delved into the subject, the less grace and faith sounding his description became.  He was forging into deep theological jungle without a verbal machete.  His audience’s confusion became more and more obvious as the furrows in their brow became deeper.  It was so exhaustingly confusing that I was praying for him to quit while there was still some sense that grace and faith were good things.  I did not realize that my prayer that was intended to be a private one was verbalized (a problem I have from time to time- praying aloud when intending to be quiet).  I muttered, “Lord, help him land the plane now before it crashes.”  A weary woman in front of me said, “Yes, Lord!  Please!” 

The reason I mention this is that most people I know pray for wisdom and clarity in proclaiming the life giving message of salvation in Christ.  I think anyone who possesses the truth would like to share it meaningfully with others.  However, many of those people who pray for clarity spend very little time working at being clear, convincing, helpful and informative.  They just kick the mouth into gear, step on the gas, hope the brakes don’t give out and eventually arrive at a good destination.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  Those folks often quote a Scripture that Jesus reserved for uniquely critical times of intense and unpredictable persecution (Luke 24:14-15), “Don’t worry in advance what you should say.  I will give you the right words and wisdom. . . .”  That should not be used by a teacher who didn’t take time to prepare the lesson plan.  It should not be the strategy of a paid counselor who gave no thought to the critical session of a frail counselee.  It should not be the rationale of one who is going to have coffee with a friend who is desperately looking for answers.  In those cases, Colossians 4:3-4 is more pertinent to our approach. 

So, work to become perspicuous.  Look for ways to clear things up in your own mind.  Then, figure out ways of making it understandable for others.  Listen to people who say important things in ways that make it easy to understand.  Take the time to practice your own explanations with others.  Then, let the Holy Spirit take your words and have his way.  Your words, of themselves, will never convict or convince.  That is ultimately the Holy Spirit’s job (John 14:26; 16:8-11).  However, work with Him rather than against Him.  Don’t make Him work overtime to patch up a job poorly done. 

A Tribute to Japan

I was in Asia two weeks ago when the tsunami hit.  Though I was in the region, I was in a place not immediately impacted by the disaster. 

I know several people in Japan.  After making or trying to make contact with several of them, I discovered that they were very measured in their response.  Their compassion for those affected was high.  Their eagerness to help was moving.  Their resolve to make it through was clear. 

What I didn't hear was panic or despair or assigning blame or any form of over-reaction or caustic criticism.  As a result, they had the ability to focus upon remedy, rebuilding and reaching people in a tangible way.  That is how to make something good out of something bad.  That is how to keep the eyes open enough to see potential out of the wreckage. 

I wish that people around the world could see how much hope comes from those who channel their love and will toward blessing, restoring and planning for good.  There would be no disaster big enough to rock our world if a God-sized faith and love was securely in place. 

Freedom Sunday

There is no greater tragedy than the trafficking of humans.  It is the consummate devaluation of human beings.  We are committed as a church to freeing captives, bringing perpetrators to justice and creating education, training and job opportunities for the captives in order to keep them from being repeat victims. 

On Freedom Sunday (March 13), Free Methodist Churches around the globe have been engaged in doing their part to raise awareness, raise funds for the cause and increase a serious plan for future action.  I want to thank those who worked hard to make the day a success and also to make future action an ongoing part of our vital ministry.  Thank-you very much for your participation. 

Eyes to See

There is much talk these days about loving neighbors and being missional communities and doing good to others.  I am not very much interested in the talk.  I am, however, very interested in the action.  I can’t think of anything more inspiring than to see someone truly caring about another.  Anytime anyone has deeply cared for me, I have been moved.  I guess that is why I am moved when I see one human caring deeply for another- helping them when they can’t or don’t know how to help themselves. 

Caring for another- truly loving our neighbor- begins and ends with love for sure.  What I mean is that we aren’t interested in loving people if we aren’t loving people in the first place.  And, we can’t follow through to the ruddy end unless we have the perseverance and passion that only love can sustain when things get discouraging, messy and impose upon our freedoms. 

But, there is something in the middle between being loving people and actually loving others.  I believe that there are a lot of loving people walking around who would very much like to deeply love someone who needs it desperately.  The middle part, however, is our ability to see the need.  There are many people who need to be loved.  But, they don’t wear it on their sleeves or tip their hat to that need.  They simply go about their day, suffering as Thoreau noted, “living lives of quiet desperation.”  They are so unnoticeable that only a trained and watching eye will see them.  I am confident that there are scores of loving people who miss opportunities to demonstrate their love to others. 

To that middle, I would like to note something that Jesus spoke about (Matthew 13:15-16) when he quoted Isaiah (6:10).  He spoke about people who possess functional eyes and ears.  But, for some unusual reason, they neither see nor hear.  They have working minds.  But, they cannot understand.  They have all of the functional parts to discern what is happening around them.  But, they are apparently so determined to get where they are going or set in their rigid ways or calloused by life’s struggles or dulled by their own selfishness that they cannot see, hear or understand clearly.  Now, of course, Jesus was speaking about hard hearted folks who couldn’t see the truth if it kicked them in the face and likely wouldn’t care or change if it did. 

But, if I may, I would suggest that there are also good natured, loving people who also struggle with seeing and hearing because they too can be overly concerned about where they are going, their own concerns for life, or romanced by the texting, tweeting, driving, reading, writing or thinking that they walk right past one of those folks very close to drowning in their own depression or hurt. 

I would hope that I would be the kind of person who is loving in the first and last place and also has the ability to see the hurts and hear the cries of others, giving me the ability to respond.  I was walking by the sea last week on a vigorous exercise walk in Tampa.  I like to pray during my walks.  The sun was setting and there were bikers and runners on the same path.  I walked past a woman who was sitting alone by the water’s edge about 20 feet from the path.  Without really thinking at all, I walked past.  It wasn’t until, on my return walk back to my car, that I thought, “I wonder if she is in some kind of trouble and has no one to talk to.”  So, I stopped and simply asked, “Is everything O.K.?”  She responded that it was.  She was only there to enjoy the sunset.  I asked her if I could pray a quick prayer for her.  She smiled and said, “Please.”  I did and then went on my way.  She had no particular need.  That was not the point.  The point was that I walked past someone without giving the slightest thought to their possible distress.  It was not a matter of the capacity to care or having functional eyes or being a sensitive person.  It was being oblivious to a possibility.  I simply want eyes to see and ears to hear; not only the truth that Jesus wants me to know, but the people he wants me to serve.  Just as I need to be a loving person, I need to be a discerning one.