Preacher’s Personal Life

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon Preparation – Part Three

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Defining moments are pivotal decisions that will impact the essential nature of your sermon. So far we have thought about getting started, and about the move from passage to message. Now let’s add a couple of unplanned moments that tend to show up quite often in the process:

5. The moment of breaking through a log jam.  Most messages are not a smooth journey from passage selection, through each sequential step, to a pulpit-ready sermon.  Somewhere along the way, there tends to be a log jam and we get stuck.  It could be the wording of the main idea.  It might be a needed illustration.  Or perhaps the sermon is ready, but the introduction feels bland and in need of a major overhaul.  Sometimes the whole thing might feel okay, but flat.  You are stuck and you feel it.  What can you do?  Sometimes the jam is the necessary reminder to really pray about the message – wrestling with God for some kind of breakthrough.  Sometimes the jam needs to break you free of your computer – stand and preach it out loud, then when it seems to flow better, go back and try to capture what you said into your outline.  Sometimes the jam will break only after you take a break – pray about it and leave the preparation for a walk, a night’s sleep, or a conversation with someone else.  I suspect new preachers will know the panic a log jam can create in your heart.  And I suspect that seasoned preachers will know how often a log jam occurs in the preparation process, and then proves to be a defining moment.

6. The interruption or even, the attack.  Maybe you have a nice predictable rhythm.  Perhaps you start preparing on a certain day, then take X number of sessions to study the passage, move on to shape the message on another day, and then have X number of hours to complete the message.  It may be nicely and neatly regimented by years of practice.  But then there is the interruption.  It is almost predictable.  The washing machine breaks, the family member’s computer goes down, the phone call from the congregant in a crisis, the thing that demands several hours that you do not have to spare.  It happens.  If it happens so often that you feel under-prepared every time, perhaps you need to review your standard plan for sermon preparation.  Perhaps it is time to lift some stress and get further into the process sooner in the week.  At the same time, it is good to recognize that God has used many sermons that felt under-prepared from the preacher’s perspective.  Sometimes the interruption, or even spiritual attack, is the necessary mechanism to push our dependence back onto God, where it belongs.

Do you experience variations of the log jam and the interruption? How often?

7 Defining Moments in Your Sermon Preparation

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

As you prepare your sermon, there are numerous defining moments.  That is to say, pivotal decisions that will impact the essential nature of the sermon.  The whole process is important, and every little detail of your preparation will build the character of the message.  But the defining moments will fundamentally change the outcome of your process.  Therefore, it is helpful to be especially aware of these key points in the process.

Here are seven defining moments in your sermon preparation:

1. The choosing of the passage.  If we genuinely believe in expository preaching, then the choice of passage will always be a key moment in our preparation.  Why?  Because that passage will be the boss of the message.  We cannot say whatever we want using any passage.  Some preachers do.  We must not.  If it is a series from a book, then the moment will primarily be the selection of the series, although the length of the next section to be covered will also matter.  If it is a one-off message, then the choice of the passage matters for the content of the sermon.  And also the timing of that choice will matter for how much time we can give to the preparation.  Some preachers make a good choice, but they make it so late that the preparation is adversely impacted by lack of time. 

2. The decision to start preparing.  If you have a tendency to procrastinate, and many of us do, then deciding to start preparing is important.  If your routine is established and it works well, then this may not be a key point for you.  However, if you find that life often presses in and the week is often eaten up before you even start the process, then this point is for you.  Decide to start early.  Just the first step.  For me, that means pasting the passage into a document and starting to recognize the shape of the passage.  Once you have started, even if only just, then the brain starts to collect and sort exegetical information, and the heart starts to bow to the truth of the text.  Some helpfully choose to get started, even if only just, more than a week before preaching.  Some even take some time to get started on every series, and even every passage, months before the time comes to preach.

In the next post we will continue the list of seven defining moments in the preparation of a sermon.

Food and Following (Matthew 9:9-17)

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It seems like food is significant in every culture.  Whether a culture is known internationally for its food or not, something about sitting down together to eat carries more significance than the mere fuelling of the body or renting restaurant space for a meeting.  In Jesus’ time, it is evident that table fellowship mattered greatly.

In Matthew 9:9, Jesus called Matthew from the tax booth to a new life as a follower of Jesus.  That may seem like a familiar idea to us, but having such despised sinners as followers was a radical act by Jesus.  Who deserves to be his follower?  Who deserves to be his apprentice, learn from him, become like him, relate to him, and be launched into a life of ministry representing him?  Did Matthew deserve it?  Do you or I deserve it?  May we never lose the wonder of the call to be his followers!

Immediately, we read of Jesus reclining at the table with many tax collectors and sinners.  Luke’s account points out that Matthew laid out a “great feast,” although Matthew was too humble to mention that detail.  (Luke 5:29)

The Fellowship Question (Matthew 9:10-13) – The meal sparked a fairly obvious food-related question – who should Jesus eat with?  To the religious evaluators, it was obvious that Jesus should not be eating with tax collectors and sinners. Indeed, they were the ones who’d earned the invite to the special meal.

I was recently with a pastor whose church seeks to reach out to the marginalized and the maligned of society.  He took my family to dinner, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal together at his favourite restaurant.  He told us how, when his church had started, they hired this restaurant and filled it with people who may never have eaten in a restaurant before.  The feast was a gift.  The gift was not just the food; it was a fantastic way to get to know a Jesus who would sit and eat with societal nobodies like Matthew’s friends.

It is interesting how Jesus responded to the question.  He differentiated between those who are healthy and those who are sick.  It is the sick who know they need the help of the physician.  After all, whoever says, “Let me allow my broken ankle to heal, and then I will head for the hospital,” or “Let me wait for this abdominal pain to pass before I go and get checked out?”  It makes no sense to hold back when you know you need help.

Jesus called the religious to soften their hearts toward those who knew their spiritual need.

The Fasting Question (Matthew 9:14-17) – Matthew follows up with another food-related question.  Why do Jesus’ followers eat?  Some of John the Baptist’s disciples wanted to know about fasting.  After all, the Pharisees were promoters of the Old Testament Law and promoted fasting.  Then, they were followers of the final Old Testament prophet and were into fasting, too.  So, indeed, if Jesus were a step forward religiously, he would promote fasting even more.  The Law, the Prophets, and now came Jesus; therefore, his followers should be fasting extra!  But they missed something: Jesus was not just another step forward. He was the goal of it all!

Jesus spoke in wedding terms.  A wedding day is not a normal day.  You never walk into a wedding reception and expect to find people fasting.  It is a day of feasting!  It cannot be a typical day when the bridegroom is present! 

Jesus went on to give two everyday examples to make a point.  Nobody would put a piece of unshrunk cloth onto an old garment because it would self-destruct when it got wet and dried again.  Everyone knew that.  Likewise, nobody would put new wine into old, hard, shrunk, leathery wineskins.  Again, it would self-destruct when the wine fermented and expanded.  Everyone knew that, too.  So, to Jesus’ point – his work was not just another step forward in the Old Testament line of promise.  It was the launch of something profoundly new that could not be contained in the old framework.

We may not be from a Jewish background and tempted to try to squeeze the radically new gift of New Covenant life into the framework of the Old Covenant.  But actually, we are all tempted to try to add the new life Jesus offers into the old way of religious effort that always characterizes humanity.  It is so easy to think that becoming a Christian adds a few more responsibilities onto my to-do list of moral efforts for respectable living.  However, that is not how it works.  It is a radically new life.

Jesus came to transform our lives by his presence.  He calls us to live a radically new life as his followers.  We are called to be with him, enjoy time together, learn from him, and be transformed from inside to out.  We are called to feast in joy because he has come.  We are called to fast in earnest because he is currently away.  Jesus is not asking you to become more religious; he is offering something far more radical than that.

As our thoughts are drawn to the first Easter, remember the radical nature of all that Jesus has done for us.  And then don’t settle for a modified version of religious living.  We get to follow the risen Christ through the year ahead.  Jesus offers a radically new life to really needy folks like you and me.

The Least Resolution for 2024

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

January does not just bring a new page on the calendar but a whole new calendar.  And with the new year, we tend to generate renewed commitments.  Maybe you have already determined what 2024 will mean for you.  Perhaps your mind has already pondered daily step counts, gym visits, dietary changes, or other healthy habits.  Or maybe you are thinking about Bible reading, daily prayer routines, or other spiritual goals.  May your resolutions last and bear good fruit!  But perhaps the resolution we need for 2024 is more foundational than healthy habits and more straightforward than spiritual practices.

As I write this, I am in Budapest, where I have just visited a museum of the political terror of the twentieth century.  As you can imagine, it is a sobering experience to see the vast walls of victims, the displays focused on the political prisoners, a room commemorating the persecution of the religious leaders, the torture chambers, the prison cells, and the gallows.  But perhaps the lingering memory for me will be the final room.  With red walls and hundreds of pictures, it felt like yet another presentation of victims.  But it was not.  It was a room of “victimizers” – ordinary people who were merely doing their job, simply following orders, just playing along, and thereby facilitating the evil machine.  We can remember the victims, and we must.  Yet we must also face the uncomfortable reality that most cogs in the cruel machine of death were ordinary people.

Fifty years ago, in February 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was arrested in the Soviet Union and exiled to the West.  There, he was welcomed as a hero.  On the day of his arrest, he released a document entitled “Live Not by Lies.”  He knew the power of an ideology that sought to reshape society.  He also knew the power of individuals who simply refuse to lie (and the even greater power of a crowd joining together in this conviction).  He knew that the ideological system would totter and collapse when it ran up against the brick wall of reality, exemplified by many individuals refusing to play along with the evil fantasy.

Fifty years later, perhaps it is time for us to revisit this document.  Are we living in times where some, on behalf of all, have determined what society should look like?  Do we see a mounting pressure to conform with what ‘they say’ is acceptable human thought and belief? Indeed, we should not be so naïve as to assume that the absence of marching military on our streets means we face no ideological threat. 

The pressure is growing for everyone quietly to conform.  More than that, the pressure is growing to affirm openly and celebrate what we know to be false.  Surely, it would be better to speak the truth now instead of growing our tendency to fit in and play it safe as the stakes mount.

Truth and Lies – Choosing not to lie was not an original idea for Solzhenitsyn.  Paul urged the Colossians not to lie to one another.  Not only had they put off their old self, but they had put on the new self to reflect their creator’s image (Colossians 3:9-10).  He told the Ephesian believers to speak the truth to one another since they were no longer defined by the lie (Ephesians 4:25).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses the anger underneath murder, the lust underneath adultery, and the daily consistency of speech beneath more flamboyant oaths (Matthew 5:21-37).  There is plenty of Old Testament support for the expectation that God’s people should be consistent speakers of truth (Exodus 20:16; Leviticus 19:11; Proverbs 14:5).  God does not lie, and his people represent him.

Fear and Lies – Solzhenitsyn knew the impact of fear on a population.  He wrote of the great threat facing humanity in his day, which was “about to flare up and engulf us.”  And he described the fear: “While we continue to smile sheepishly and babble; ‘But what can we do to stop it? We haven’t the strength.’”

God asked Isaiah’s listeners, “Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not lay it to heart?” (Isaiah 57:11).  Their fear led to lies, as they forgot who was really in charge.

Our world seems to be changing at a frightening rate.  Trying to keep up with the latest adjustments to sense and morality can be tiring.  And it is increasingly revealing how much fear lies within most of us, who are so prone to play along with society’s expectations rather than speak what is true.  It is concerning how easily we fear and perhaps lie while forgetting who is really in charge. 

Some will capitulate completely and speak what is false.  Others hide behind a cloak of not wanting to “sound political” and speak out about the reducing set of acceptable Christian declarations.  Fear of being labelled and criticized leads many to hold back from speaking the simple truth.  After all, it is much easier to quote a Bible verse on social media or avoid the hot topics in conversation rather than offer the most minor form of resistance.

Solzhenitsyn wrote that the fear his people felt was not primarily a fear of nuclear death or a third world war.  The fear was of taking a “civic stance.”  He wrote, “We hope only not to stray from the herd, not to set out on our own, and risk suddenly having to make do without the white bread, the hot water heater, a Moscow residency permit.”  The penalty for a civic stance may have changed, but the fear of the herd has not.

History has never smiled on the timid, and yet each fearful choice always makes sense at the time.  How often do I justify timidity when society needs me to show courage and speak the truth?  We have almost constant opportunities to speak the truth about marriage, gender, sexuality, race, free speech, bodily autonomy, science, medical ethics, corruption, or whatever other prescribed view is being pushed at any given moment.

We cannot simply wait for an ideology to fall apart.  We must be part of the brick wall of reality into which it must crash.  And yet, it is always easier to “continue to acknowledge, glorify, and strengthen” that which we want to see collapse.  At the very least, we must not “recoil from its most vulnerable point.  From lies.”

Violence and Lies – Solzhenitsyn described how violence bursts into peaceful situations with great self-assurance.  “But violence ages swiftly, a few years pass—and it is no longer sure of itself.  To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally—Lies.  For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies.”

So, even under overt tyranny, people do not have to experience violence at all times.  The demand is only of a “daily participation in deceit” – the tribute paid to maintain one’s position under the power of the oppressive system.  Just play along, it is safer.

The connection between violence and lies is also not a discovery made under the rule of twentieth-century totalitarianism.  Micah wrote to the city in his day, “Your rich men are full of violence, your inhabitants speak lies and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth” (Micah 6:12).

We may not have to stand and fight against violence.  We may not even have to step out publicly and boldly declare the truth. “But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think!”

The Consequences of No Lies – In the Soviet Union, there was a cost to this most simple of stands.  It could cost your job and complicate life.  It could cost your success in education and impoverish your future.  But Solzhenitsyn was clear:

“And as for him who lacks the courage to defend even his own soul: Let him not brag of his progressive views, boast of his status as an academician or a recognized artist, a distinguished citizen or general.  Let him say to himself plainly: I am cattle, I am a coward, I seek only warmth and to eat my fill.”

To choose not to lie was not an easy choice in his day.  It will increasingly not be an easy choice for social standing, or even for physical wellbeing, in our day.  But the choice not to lie is “the only one for the soul.”

The implication of no lies is worthy of note. “The more of us set out together, the thicker our ranks, the easier and shorter will this path be for us all!  If we become thousands—they will not cope, they will be unable to touch us.  If we will grow to tens of thousands—we will not recognize our country!”

As we head into a new year, may we not simply play along with the world.  Instead, let us graciously, prayerfully, and wisely determine that whatever else may happen, we will not participate in the lies expected of us in society.  As representatives of God in this world, this is the least we must do!

(Source of AS quotes: https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/live-not-by-lies)

The Heart of Hermeneutics – Part 4

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

A Relational Responsive Heart Check

The process of Bible study must begin “back then.”  We need to look carefully at the text to see what was actually written.  And we need to learn diligently what the author intended to communicate.  Then we need to appreciate the intended impact of the text “for today.”  That means a careful consideration of the love response that the text should stir in us, as well as the appropriate transformation in how we live our lives.

 

After studying a passage and seeking to interpret it as well as possible, consider the following facets of a relational responsive heart check:

1. God himself.  Since every biblical text is ultimately a revelation of a personal God, ask yourself what this text has revealed about God?  Is it revealing his nature, his character, his heart, his values?  Is it revealing his Son in some way that you can ponder?  The answer is yes.  Every biblical text is a revelation of a personal God, so there will always be value in considering what that revelation should stir in your heart as you read it.

2. The Biblical characters. The Bible is much more incarnated theological truth than it is written code.  That is to say, there are real people on the page.  Theological teaching is usually wrapped up in real people, living in real situations.  There is more narrative than any other type of text, which means lots of characters living out their response to God’s word.  But every text has a narrative nature to it.  Poetry offers a glimpse into a narratival setting, even if you don’t know the details.  Direct communication like speeches and letters were not written in a vacuum.  There was a situation and we are given the glimpse offered by an epistle penned purposefully for the recipients at one moment in their story.  The Bible is ultimately a revelation of God.  And that revelation is wrapped up in the people on the page.  Be mentored by them.  Learn from them.  Allow your heart to engage with them as you watch how they responded to God.

3. The original recipients.  The original author of each book wrote with relational intent.  He wanted to do more than just transfer information.  Each book was written to stir the hearts of the original recipients.  Why not consider them?  What did Moses want Israel to feel as they read his great foundational collection?  What did Paul want to stir in the believers in Galatia, or in his representative Timothy serving in Ephesus?  The text is ultimately about God, it presents itself with characters on the page, and it was written to real people in real situations.  Ponder the intended impact on their hearts as you consider the impact on yours

4. Me.  The original author of each book could not have known about me, but the divine Author has preserved the Scriptures, superintended the collection of the Scriptures, sovereignly overseen the translation of the Scriptures, and graciously provided the opportunity for me to own the Scriptures.  He has given me if I am his child, a new heart that relishes the goodness of God in Christ.  And so, I should look at the Scriptures to see my God, as well as be mentored by the people on the page, considering the impact for the original recipients, and overtly considering how the text should stir my heart as I read it.

5. Others.  As I study the biblical text and consider how it should be stirring my heart, the result will not just be a Godward response.  Yes, there should be wonder, awe, worship, praise, gratitude, devotion, and so on.  But also, a God-stirred heart will be a heart that reflects God’s other-centred heart.  How can what I am seeing in the text, which is stirring my heart in response to God’s revelation, be carried to others evangelistically or pastorally?  At this stage, there might well be a stirring of prayer for others, even if the action of sharing remains in the future from the time I am studying the text.  A truly relational response to the Bible will not just be Godward, but it will also spill over to others because we are relational beings.

Perhaps this five-point checklist can be helpful as we seek to more overtly recognize the role of the heart in the Bible study process.  Look, learn, love, live.

The Heart of Hermeneutics – Part 3

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How Does Hermeneutics Require Love?

Last time we looked at John 5 and Jesus’ critique of the Jewish leadership.  They were eminent Bible scholars, but something was missing.  They could well have been an example to us in terms of observing the text, technically interpreting the text, and fastidiously applying the text.  They thought that in the Scriptures they would find life.  But they were missing the person revealed there.

For the Jewish leadership, there was apparently confidence in the inductive process.  However, their incurved hearts spelled the corruption of that process.  They did not see the person, and the reason was a heart issue.  Why is the heart so often left out of hermeneutics?

A More Complete Process

A complete approach to biblical study needs more than “look, learn, live.”  We need to put the heart back into our hermeneutics.  What does the text say?  What does the text mean?  What should the text stir?  What difference should the text make? 

Look —- Learn —- Love —- Live

When we lose the sense that the biblical text is primarily revealing a person, and that the intent of the author is to stir the reader’s heart in response, then our approach will necessarily fall short.  Even if we progress from “back then” and arrive at “for today,” we can end up with something stripped of its relational dynamic.

Principles and Morals

In a process that is blind to the significance of the heart, some will end up with just an abiding theological principle.  This statement of truth and instruction is what remains after traversing the millennia from back then to our own time.  Others will end up with a “moral of the story.” 

That’s what people do with old stories.  Since the people are all dead in history, or figments of fiction that will soon fade from memory, at least there is a lasting lesson for us all.  So, our children might enter the land of make-believe for an old tale, but what remains when the story ends and it is time to sleep?  Well, the moral of the story is that we should be like the tortoise, or don’t speak to strangers who look like wolves or witches, or whatever.  These may well be good life lessons well worth learning.

And what of the people in the pew?  After entering the world of a Bible story in the sermon, they must then re-enter normal life.  As the story fades and present reality dawns, at least they can carry an abiding theological principle into their week. 

The Bible is Not a Fable

But isn’t the Bible different?  Is not the goal of the Bible something more than divinely sanctioned and historically accurate Aesop’s fables?  It is critical that we keep clear the ultimate purpose of Scripture – to reveal the living God, his heart, his plan, his Son.

In the next post, I will suggest a relational responsive hermeneutical checklist to enliven the critical love stage of the Bible study process.

Everyone Hides, But Where?

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For several generations, some of us have lived with relative stability.  Yes, our cultures have shifted and changed.  And yes, we have seen our military forces participate in conflict.  But seismic shifts that rock our world have not been so familiar to many of us.  The past few years have changed that.  If the world can change so suddenly, then maybe we would do well to be ready for significant events.  Actually, if we are involved in church leadership, we should be both preparing our people for the future and preparing ourselves for major moments that will surely come.

Recently, my wife and I enjoyed another anniversary and took some time together in Psalm 46.  This is a great passage to soak in for your own benefit.  And it is a great passage to be ready to share with others both before and when the need arises.  It is a Psalm of healthy hiding.

When the constant stream of news is suddenly shattered by something genuinely significant, where can we go?  When the normal rhythm of daily tasks grinds to a halt because something huge is happening, how can we find safety?  And when we look beyond the normal news narrative and see such significant and terrible agendas at play, who can be trusted?  Psalm 46 points us to the answer.

Psalm 46 falls neatly into three stanzas, neatly demarcated by a Selah to give us the opportunity to contemplate.  The first stanza establishes a key thought that is then picked up in a refrain at the end of stanzas two and three.  It is a clear Psalm, easy to read, and probably well worth committing to memory!

Stanza 1 serves to establish a truth that will weave through the whole Psalm.  Our refuge and strength is God himself, and our God is always accessible to us.  The result is that we will not fear.  Four situations are described to underline how secure we are in our God.  Even an earthquake, even mountains being relocated, even raging seas, even the normal secure boundaries of creation trembling – even if the whole created order should revert to utter chaos, we will not fear.  The character of God is more trustworthy than the apparently permanent mountains and boundaries of the seas?  Yes.  Selah.

Despite appearances in the first three verses, I do not think the writer is really focused on natural disasters.  He seems to be using them as descriptions of having your world rocked.  Even a hypothetical upheaval that impacts everything considered permanent and stable would not undermine the reality of God being our ever-present refuge and strength.

In the second stanza, from verses 4-7, the writer zeroes in on the threat of war.  He begins with two verses describing the tranquil city of God, the place where he reigns and is present.  And then, just as our hearts calm to ponder the hope of one day experiencing life in that city, verse 6 breaks in with a reminder that in this world everything is going crazy!  The nations are raging and tottering, like mountains falling into the seas.  When geopolitical change crashes down around us, and we might add, when the ethical foundations of society are completely turned upside-down beneath us, then we find ourselves experiencing a seismic shift from the stability we have always known. 

But the truth of the first stanza is the anchor for us.  Our God is the LORD of hosts, he is with us, and the God of Jacob is our refuge.  Selah.

Let’s pause and ponder that refrain for a moment.  The LORD is the God who makes promises and keeps them; he is faithfully committed to following through on his plans and purposes, and he will continue to care for us.  He is also so very strong.  He is the LORD of hosts – the God of angel armies.  One angel killed 185,000 Assyrian warriors in one night – presumably powerful, intimidating, physically impressive, well-armed Assyrian warriors.  Imagine two angels.  How about ten?  What if there were 100?  Now try to picture a number so big that it could not be counted – that is the army of heavenly hosts.  Our God leads that army, and that God is with us.  And since that God is our refuge, we run to hide in him.

In light of that truth, the final stanza, from verses 8-11, invites us to come and consider what God has done.  Implicitly, then, we are also to consider what he will do in the future.  God ends wars, he topples powerful foes, and he will take away every weapon.  The armies of the world – whether they fight in military uniform, or with any other costume of control –will one day be commanded to stop!  To stand still.  To be quiet.  Hush.  Know that God is God.  Know that he will be exalted above all.

This world can generate raging nations, swelling armies, plotting despots, powerful dictators, destructive terrorists, and no end of new versions of evil.  But it can never generate anything or anyone that is more powerful than our God.  He is the God of angel armies, and he is with us.  He is our fortress, and we must run to hide in him.  The refrain repeats in verse 11.  This truth needs to repeat in our hearts and drive us to him whenever this world generates the slightest hint of fear in us.

When threats rise up, everyone hides.  One option is to run to God.  We know that he is bigger than anything in creation.  We know that he wins in the end.  And yet, we often struggle to believe that he is with us, or that he will do anything when we cry out to him.  What if I have to face more than discomfort for my faith and God does not immediately show up?  What if standing for what I know is true costs me pain and suffering – is he still a fortress even then?  Psalm 46 is an anchor to the truth that God can and must be trusted in the darkest of times.

The other option that many seem to choose is to hide their heads in the sand.  Just live life pretending there is no threat.  How often does the media reinforce the distraction of this perspective?  Stories get spun so that we think the threat is coming from the opposite direction.  When we have more information than ever before, are we actually growing more numb, and maybe more dumb, the more we watch our screens?  There could be a genocide taking place all around us, and yet we are trained to have our gaze redirected to Hollywood’s latest newsflash.  Our propensity to hide our heads in the sand is supercharged by the media we lean on so heavily.

When the news stirs fear in you, do not choose distraction and pretend all is well.  Instead, hide in a healthy way – running into the fortress that is our God.  That is, our God, the God of angel armies, the God who has chosen to be with us.

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Have you seen the ABCs of application?

Love, In the Church

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The most famous literary description of love is surely 1 Corinthians 13.  It has been read aloud at countless weddings, and yet, it was not written for a wedding.  It was written for a church.  Actually, it was written for a struggling and divided church in Corinth.  This was a church that was splintered by factions, by immature Christians flaunting their supposed superiority, and by a whole host of interpersonal tensions and issues.  This was the church into which Paul unleashed “the love chapter!”

The chapter sits at the heart of a section addressing the right use of spiritual gifts in the church.  It begins by underlining the necessity of love (v 1-3) and ends with the never-ending reality of love (v 8-13).  And at the heart of the chapter, in verses 4-7, we find a familiar and poetic depiction of the nature of love.  In just four verses, Paul offers fifteen descriptions of love.

Their world, like ours, was a confusing melee of ideas when it came to love.  There was romance, passion (appropriately marital and many harmful alternatives), family, and friendship.  I don’t know whether they used “love” to speak of food and sport, quite like we do in English, but let’s not imagine their culture was any less confused than ours.  In the face of that confusion, Paul offered a confrontation with God’s kind of love.

What do we do with a list like this?  Our tendency is to see it as a behavioural checklist and to consider it as a suggestion for greater effort on our part.  The problem is, not only do we all fall short of God’s perfect love, but we are unable to self-generate genuine godly love.  We can only love, John tells us, because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).  So, while it may look like a list of descriptions, actually, Paul wrote it as a list of verbs.  This is love dressed up and going to work! 

So, as we consider this love in action, we should let it confront our own areas of lack, but also point us to the only one who perfectly lived out God’s love in this world.  Let this list point you to Jesus, and then let his love flow more freely in your local church setting.  As we look to Christ’s love, it will stir Christlike love in us.  And when the body of Christ starts to look like Christ, we can pray for the church to have an impact like Christ!

1. Paul begins with a basic foundation: Love gives.  He begins his list with two positive statements: love is patient and love is kind (v 4a).  Patience here speaks of having a long-fuse with other people, giving them space and time, instead of flaring up at the first opportunity.  Patience is partnered with kindness, which gives of our own usefulness for the higher good of the other.  A loving church is a place where grace infiltrates every relationship.  Grace for the weaknesses of others, and grace that gives of ourselves to build them up.  Love gives.

2. Paul zeroes in on the Corinthian core issue: Love is not selfish.  His list shifts into a sequence of nine points, most of which are negative.  The central thought in this list of nine points is like a summary of the whole section: love is not self-seeking (v 5b).  Ever since the Garden of Eden, we humans have been largely unaware of how self-oriented our hearts now are, by nature.  Our selfishness is built-in from birth, but it is only because our nature is fallen.  It seems so normal to seek our own good, but God’s design is love that is not self-seeking.  (Look at the Trinity for the greatest example of this: how consistently does the Father lovingly honour the Son, and vice versa?  Our God is a God who lovingly and selflessly lifts up the other, and the good news is that can even include us!)

Before and after that central thought, Paul offers two sets of four descriptions of love.  When there are differences between us, love does not self-elevate (v 4b-5a).  It does not envy what others have, longing for self to be satisfied by that salary, that house, that spouse, etc.  Neither does love boast, trying to make the other person long for my ability, possessions, or strengths.  Love is not arrogant, puffing up self to push others down.  And love does not disregard accepted standards of behaviour to elevate self and so disregard and dishonour others.  Some versions have “love is not rude” at this point.  That might bring to mind inappropriate vocabulary or noises at the dining table.  But Paul’s word goes beyond the odd little social faux pas.  It is the same word used for unnatural sexual relations in Romans 1.  It is that casting off of restraint and acceptable norms, because, well, because I want to . . . so I should.  Actually, love wouldn’t.

And when there are problems between us, love does not self-protect (v 5c-6).  Love is not easily angered, that is, it is not irritable and touchy.  If we take any of Paul’s negatives and pursue the opposite, we will discover a painful loneliness.  Now, there is a place in the Bible for legitimate provocation.  Jesus was provoked by death at Lazarus’ tomb, and Paul was provoked in spirit by the idols of Athens.  Luther was provoked by a false view of God and so launched the Reformation, and Wilberforce was so provoked he sought to end the slave trade.  Maybe today many of us have grown too nice before the provocations of society, but perhaps still too easily angered at little personal slights in church life.  Love is not easily angered in church fellowship.  When people say and do wrong things, love lets the grievances go instead of inscribing them in our internal memory ledger of grudges against others.  And when those people that grate on us turn out to be sinners in some way or other, love does not rejoice in their sin.  Rather, it rejoices in what is true – God’s love for them, their position in God’s family, their gifting, and their key role in our lives. 

3. Paul points them beyond any notion of personal ability because true love relies on God (v 7).  Undoubtedly, Paul is offering a literary flourish to complete the list.  The last four descriptions add the word “always” or “all things.”  It feels good to the ear, but if you consider it carefully, it feels impossible to the heart.  How can I always protect?  The idea is to cover, like the seal on a ship that keeps all water out.  One commentator describes the idea of “throwing a blanket of silence over the failings of others.”  Obviously, there are legal and moral exceptions to this.  But as a general rule, when I am annoyed, provoked, antagonized, and bothered, love will keep that sin hidden from others who do not need to know about it.  Paul points upwards to God – love always trusts and always hopes.  That is not easy.  And back to the struggles here below again, it always perseveres.  That kind of persistent endurance of inter-church tensions can easily take us beyond ourselves. 

Paul’s great list is a bit like the Law of Sinai.  A wonderful revelation of what is right and good, but beyond our ability to keep.  And so, let 1 Corinthians 13 not only confront your struggle to love like Jesus.  Let it also point you to Jesus.  We can only love at all because God has first loved us.  May our hearts be so captivated by his love that our churches increasingly look like the body of Christ!  We can only live this life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.

4 Love is patient, love is kind.

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It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others,

it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

~

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (NIV)

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What’s the Big Deal with Worship?

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

What does gathered worship do?  Sometimes it can make our souls soar.  Other times not so much.  It is easy to understand why non-believers scratch their heads at Christian worship.  If I saw a small group of people awkwardly singing, listening to someone talk about an old book, and sharing a tiny amount of bread and wine, I’d scratch my head too.

As I anticipate returning to Poland for the European Leadership Forum, I am reminded of the sacrifices made by so many during the Communist era.  Russian Baptist pastor, Yuri Sipko, remembers Christians who were sent to prison camps or lost their jobs or their children. “Without being willing to suffer, even die for Christ, it’s just hypocrisy.  It’s just a search for comfort.”  Challenging words, but ponder this thought: “You need to confess him and worship him in such a way that people can see this world is a lie.”

What does gathered worship do?  It declares that this world is a lie.

At the end of Revelation 3, we find that famous verse about Jesus standing at the door and knocking.  He was knocking on the door of the church at Laodicea, but would they open the door and let him in?  They thought they had everything they needed, but actually, they desperately needed Jesus.  As we turn to chapter 4 and John’s great vision from Jesus continues, we find the heavenly door is open for John to come up and participate in the ultimate worship gathering.

In Revelation chapters 4-5, we get to glimpse the ultimate worship gathering, and it reminds us what gathered worship does.  Here are five things that gathered worship does:

1. Worship centres us around God’s throne. (4:1-2)  In worship, we are invited, by Jesus, to gather at the throne of God.  In Eugene Peterson’s Reversed Thunder, he points out how we live in a world that feels like a storm-tossed sea.  We are thrown all over the place by every wind, every wave, every advert, every news story, every problem, and every threat.  But as Christians, we have an anchor that holds us firm, gives us a circumference, and centres us.  God is on the throne, so there can be a constant source of stability in my heart and life. Gathering with God’s people to sing his praise is an anchor point in the frenetic chaos of life.

2. Worship gathers God’s people around his throne. (4:3-11)  In this glorious vision, there is layer upon layer of rich meaning.  The vibrant colours seem to reflect God’s holiness and justice, as well as his life-giving nature as the Creator.  The 24 elders probably represent the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Church (there is debate on all these details, of course).  Perhaps they represent God’s great work through the centuries to reveal his plan and rescue people for himself.  Then there are the four living creatures – a picture of God’s creation (noble, strong, wise, and swift), and some have seen here four glimpses into the person of Jesus Christ.  God’s people, God’s creation, all falling down and worshipping God on the throne.  In worship, we are united together, not only with one another but also with God himself, in the uniquely trinitarian worship we find in the Bible.

3. Worship points us to Christ and his payment. (5:1-7) At the start of chapter 5, John is struck by the disconnect between God’s greatness and the need of humanity.  The sealed scroll, Earth’s title deed, God’s plan of judgment – its existence underlines that no human is worthy to open the seals.  Even apart from the judgment context of Revelation, our gathered worship cannot be satisfied with just lauding God the Creator for his power and majesty.  Christian worship always points us to Christ and his payment.  John turned to see the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and was confronted by the slain Lamb.

4. The Lion/Lamb Redeemer stirs greater songs of worship. (5:8-13)  When God’s people encounter God’s goodness and grace, they sing.  Moses, Miriam, Deborah, David, Mary, Angels, Jesus and the Disciples, Paul and Silas – they all sang.  When we become aware of who he is and what he has done, then we will sing too.  In chapter four, there were two songs to the Creator (4:8, 4:11).  Now the singing swells as more voices join in and more richness is reflected in two songs to the Redeemer (5:9-10, 5:12).  Finally, there is one song to both the Creator and the Redeemer combined (5:13).

5. Worship finishes with a great Amen! – the ultimate reality of God’s person and plan is definitively affirmed!  (5:14)  If you think about it, we humans have a history of saying no to God.  We are all quite adept at saying no.  But Revelation 4-5 underlines that in the end God’s great yes will overcome every one of our noes.  In worship, we are confronted by the reality of God the Creator King on his throne, and of God the Redeeming Lion/Lamb, and we cry out, “Yes!”  When we worship together, we get a pre-taste of what is to come.  “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Gathered worship is like an anchor to both the future, when all our questions will be answered, and to the ultimate reality in the present – that God is on the throne and he has redeemed us.

So what does gathered worship do?  It declares that this world is a lie.  More than that, it centres us around the throne of God – for God is on the throne whatever we may be facing down here.  It gathers God’s people around his throne – for God is worthy of every note of praise that can be uttered by any part of his creation.  It points us to Christ and his payment – for we worship not only in response to the majesty on the throne but also to the scars on that Lamb.  It stirs us to sing greater songs of worship – for God the Creator and our Lion/Lamb Redeemer.  It definitively affirms the ultimate reality of God’s person and plan – for in the end we will cry out our great “Yes!” and “Amen!” to God.

Whether we are gathering in a great crowd at a Christian event, or with a handful of dear saints on a Sunday, let us appreciate the privilege of gathered worship and declare with joy that this world is a lie.

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Sipko quote from Live Not By Lies, by Rod Dreher, p185-6.

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