Sniffing out the work of God in the world…
Good morning from Nashville. I’m listening to the local news. The anchors keep cutting away to the Music City marathon, and more than once they’ve pointed out “it’s going well.” Ha! As I recall from the marathons I’ve run, “it’s going well” is a perspective from the anchor booth, not from the pavement.
Jack and Jill will be drawing in our assembly tomorrow. I’ll be finishing the two-week message on “Lunchables That Change the World” (on justice).
Last night I spoke at the graduation ceremony for FaithWorks, a Highland ministry that started three or four years ago. It may be one of my favorite speaking gigs of the year.
Nine women, having finished the 13-week program, got to receive their diplomas. These are women whose lives have been challenging. But they entered the program, bonded together, and completed the work.
Three of them spoke briefly at the graduation ceremony. One talked about being told that she had cancer in an advanced stage. She had two choices: she could accept her likely fate, try to stay as free of pain as possible, and die quickly or she could fight a painful battle with all she had in her. She looked around at her nine children, and decided it was time to fight. I looked in amazement at this strong woman of faith as she received her diploma.
Sunday morning at second service we’ll recognize these incredible graduates.
I’ve seen lots of angry Christians on television in the past week. One late-night comedian said, “They’re tired of being the persecuted majority, and they’re not going to take it any longer!” The ironies are too great.
We can hardly understand the New Testament when we live with a “persecuted majority” complex where we’re mad at people all the time.
As the church’s influence continues to decline, some will just continue to be apoplectic. Others, perhaps, will return to founding documents like 1 Peter. There we’re told to expect persecution — especially since we follow one who was crucified. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
Peter encourages Christ-followers to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in them — but with GENTLENESS and RESPECT for those who aren’t (yet) believers. He tells women who have unbelieving husbands that the key isn’t to nag them into the kingdom but to live with beauty–the beauty of GENTLE spirits.
Right now many don’t accept our status as “aliens and strangers” in this world.
I am braindead this morning. Here’s the best advice I can give you. Take a moment and check out the last few blogs from Larry James and Wade Hodges. (Both are linked to the right.)
Here’s a taste from Larry. (Why can’t he just leave us alone?) This comes in a list of suggestions for churches who are trying so desperately to reduce their moral voice to one or two issues.
Re-think, in a comprehensive manner, the annual church operating budget with a view to the inner city and its residents who live in poverty.
This is a tough one, testing the authenticity of a congregation’s resolve and actual commitment to answering the question, “How can we help?” in a serious way.
No disrespect intended–and remember, I served as a senior pastor for almost 25 years–but, churches tend to serve themselves. Many a preacher has counseled his or her congregation to do an assessment of personal priorities and commitments by looking at checkbook ledgers.
What is good advice for individual members of faith communities is excellent advice for congregational decision makers. Take a hard look at your church’s annual financial plans. Who benefits most from the story of the numbers? What are the percentages?
Here’s a hard one: compare the funds earmarked for facilities and those set aside for action among the poor.
How about a similar comparison between adult education or discipleship training and a commitment to overcoming poverty in the city? I ask that question based on my assumption that most adult members of congregations already know and understand more about what should be done as a person of faith than is actually being done!
Take a long, hard, honest look at your congregation’s financial plan.
A few more thoughts about Chris and Austin after watching them side-by-side at Passover last night. For the sixth straight year (so they claim), one of them found the hidden afikomen — worth a bit more last night with “Uncle” Randy Harris providing the reward cash. They used to agree that if one of them found it, they’d split the money 50-50. Last year they decided that while they should work together there should still be some extra reward for actually finding the hidden treasure. So now they have a 70-30 agreement. Winner gets 70% of the haul; partner gets 30%.
These boys were born just a month or two apart in 1992. And they’ve been buddies ever since.
One loves music and likes sports. The other loves sports and likes music. The former has perfect pitch, a father who was a band director, and a mother who is an incredible classical pianist. The latter has parents who think the best musical instrument is a Bose speaker. The parents of the first child love all sorts of music, especially classical. The parents of the latter consider classical music to be the Eagles, CCR, and the best of Buffett.
One of the boys has suffered the loss of a sister. The other has gone through the divorce of his parents. (I will say that it’s been a divorce where he has continued to be completely loved by both parents, and where the parents have refused to turn against each other. They’re in houses very close to each other so he and his sisters can walk back and forth.)
On January 16, they were, not surprisingly, in the same vehicle coming back from WinterFest. One was taken by helicopter to Cook’s. The other was taken by ambulance to Abilene and then flown in a plane to Cook’s. They wound up side-by-side in ICU. It was just unbelievable, really. They had one little corner of that cavernous area. One nurse was assigned at each shift to the two of them. To make it easier to follow the vital signs, they would program the monitors so that each monitor had the numbers for both boys — again, side-by-side.
Last night as they sat across from me during Passover, I was so glad, so incredibly glad, that those places weren’t empty this year.
I’ve coached them both, I’ve preached to them both, and I’ve watched them together for the first twelve years of their lives. And I’m reminded of this:
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up! (Eccl. 4:9-10)
Who knows if they’ll always be friends? I’m guessing so. Of course they both have lots of other buds to hang around with too. (For the most part they haven’t discovered girls — at least I don’t think they have. But what do I know? I am an aging preacher.) But this friendship goes back to the very beginning of their lives.
Anyone out there have one of those friendships — one that goes back to your earliest days and that has lasted through the years?
Passover at our house this evening. Schedules were just too hectic around Easter, so we opted for the Jewish Passover date. I guess this is our 12th straight year to celebrate with our covenant group.
What a memorable evening. The lighting of the candles, the cup of sanctification (with the four questions: Why matzah? Why maror? Why dip twice? Why recline?), the cup of deliverance, the cup of redemption, and the cup of praise. Dayenu! Communion. “Next year in the New Jerusalem!”
“May the year be filled with peace for each family here. If this year brings prosperity, we give God the credit; if failure, we ask for hope; if sadness, we expect encouragement from each other as we strive to live for God in a world of conflict. O God, please transform us into the image of Jesus, our Messiah. Amen!”
I’m so thankful that we’re setting 20 places tonight rather than 18. Chris Cope and Austin Lemmons both took terrible blows to their bodies in the rollover accident in January. Tonight, the bitter herbs and the haroseth will carry special meaning as we remember the wreck that sent them flying to Ft. Worth and took the life of their friend Brody. We’ll remember not just the bitterness of slavery, but the bitterness of mourning for a child (as we have for Megan for a decade and as the Bourlands are now). And yet the whole meal captures our belief that slavery and bitterness and mourning and death do not speak the final work. God does. He has spoken definitively in Jesus Christ. Maranatha!
As I end two years of Spanish today (since I can’t make it next week), I think about the gap between my eyes, my ears, and my mouth. I can READ a lot; I can even UNDERSTAND quite a bit (especially when spoken s-l-o-w-l-y and distinctly by my wonderful profesora, Senora Walker). But when it comes to actually SAYING something, I feel like a first grader. Mi boca no trabaja. Hopefully language school this summer will help.
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I’ve been sent several copies of an ad that’s supposed to appear in the Christian Chronicle soon. I think it will have a list of Church of Christ scholars who signed it. I’m especially proud of the many who have opted NOT to sign it. Wish that list could be published, too!
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There are so many beautiful signs of spring in Abilene this year: lots of redbuds, bluebonnets everywhere, and actual green grass. (The drought seems to be over!) Two things I miss from the past: the awe-inspiring azaleas of North Carolina (where we lived from 82-84) and the dogwoods of Arkansas (84-91) and Missouri.
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Looking forward to hearing Alan Roxburgh today at ACU. He’s one of the core members of the Gospel and Our Culture Network.
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We get x-rays today for Chris. Would be wonderful to find out that the fracture in his vertebrae is healed and that the compressed part is growing back. He’s still going to school in a wheelchair. He’s thinking about going to a little league game tonight to watch. Just hasn’t been able to up until now. Too sad about not playing. I’m sad about not coaching, too. But on the other hand, I’m not hacking and wheezing every night after practicing in the dust and pollen. (I would gladly take the hacking and wheezing!)
Rwanda and Sudan.
For those who read and pray about what’s happening in the world, those are two countries that bring shivers. The former suffered a genocide a decade ago; the latter is experiencing one now (in the area of Darfur).
This summer, two young couples from Highland–grad students at ACU–are traveling to those countries to consider the possibility of planting mission teams there. They’re going with their eyes wide open, eager to see what God may have prepared. I almost don’t have words to describe my admiration for their faith and spiritual passion.
Greg and Sara Kendall-Ball will be visiting Rwanda, and Houston and Kelly Shearin will be going to Sudan. (They will be in the southern part of the Sudan–quite a ways away from Darfur.) Both are going to be with older, more experienced missionaries as they survey and pray.
Think of all the prayers we’ve lifted for these two countries. Think of how often we’ve prayed for the Shalom of Christ to fall on them, and of how often we’ve prayed “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Both of these trips are very expensive. But how could they really commit to a long-term mission without visiting first? Highland has made generous donations to both couples, and both have been trying to raise money from friends, family, and other churches.
But both still need several thousand dollars. (Think, for example, of the expense of having to charter a private plane just to get into Sudan.) If you’re interested in joining Diane and me in helping them, you can make a check out to “Highland Church of Christ” and mark either “Shearins/Sudan” or “Kendall-Balls/Rwanda.” Also, if you’re possibly interested but would like to visit with either couple by phone or e-mail, please let me know (e-mail gina@highlandchurch.org) and I’ll pass that along to them.
I don’t think I’ve ever done this before in the history of my little blog. But this is weighing on me. We’ve asked the Lord to raise up workers and now workers have been raised up. Will we send them?
From the incredible book (in The Gospel and Our Culture Series) StormFront:
“In the Bible, talk about salvation refers primarily to God and God’s victory over all the powers that resist and distort God’s gracious purposes for the world. The Bible sees life as a great struggle between life and death, between sin and righteousness, between faithfulness and rebellion, between peace and violence. The good news of salvation is the announcement that God wins: God’s life is stronger than death. God’s righteousness is deeper than human sin. God’s faithfulness outlasts human rebellion. God’s peace is more enduring than human violence. For North Americans, by contrast, salvation is more focused upon how God meets our needs. It’s about overcoming our guilt, solving our problems, discovering meaning in our existence, feeling included and loved, and overcoming the threat of our death and the death of those we love — all of course with God’s help. . . .
“In the final analysis, the biblical understanding of salvation is not merely that our lives will be set right again at last. The biblical understanding of salvation is that our lives become swept up into something larger and greater than ourselves, into God’s purposes for the world. In other words, the receiving of salvation and the call to mission are not to be conceived sequentially, as if one followed the other (first salvation, then grateful obedience in mission). Rather, to receive salvation is to be called into something larger and greater than we are, to be invited to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world. That is why the gospel is primarily about God, and only secondarily about us.”
What a wonderful day:
A morning in Larry and Linda Bridgesmith’s home in Nashville, surrounded by redbuds, tall oaks, and dogwoods. So THAT is what spring looks like. I’d forgotten . . . .
Hours to be with dear friends to plan next fall’s Zoe conference. The conference will be held in Nashville (fall 05), Fresno (winter 06), and Denver (summer 06).
Lunch at Baja Burrito. Please, please come to Abilene! And bring Barnes and Noble with you. Along with Pappasito’s.
A chance to read and re-read an article about the Yankees’ losing streak. Spend more money, George!
Home to Diane and Chris. Since Chris came home from the hospital following the wreck, I’ve had to shower him. He’s converted me into a shower singer. So I enjoyed washing his hair tonight as we sang at the top of our lungs “Said I Wasn’t” and “You Gotta Take the Lord With You.” (Sorry for that image.)
Finally, a chance to read further in Anne Lamott’s PLAN B and in STORMFRONT.