Cash Values

Posted by Chris on April 10, 2005 under Sermons

CASH VALUES or KINGDOM TREASURES
Matthew 6:19-34

In the news this week we have been given a rare look into the treasures of the Vatican. The museums of the Vatican are filled with artwork by Giotto, Caravaggio, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael among others. The libraries of the Vatican hold ancient manuscripts of the Bible and other literature – in some cases the only copy of a certain work. The buildings of the Vatican, especially St. Peter’s Basilica are ornamented with gold, silver, precious stones, and fine marble. Some say that it is impossible to calculate the value of the immense wealth in the Vatican, but it has been done. What would be the value of these treasures? According to its official books, all of the artwork and the ornate, grand buildings (including the Sistine Chapel) are valued at $1.29 (or 1 euro). How is that possible? The Vatican can never sell its masterpieces and these treasures are held in trust for all humanity. Add to that the fact that it would be impossible to assign them a market or replacement value because no amount of cash can replace the significance of these treasures. It is the Vatican’s way of indicating that it prizes the religious and artistic significance of the treasures over their financial worth. Just another of looking at it right? Of course, but then why do we often tend to look at such objects in terms of their monetary value?

We live in an age of cash values. The author of the book “Cash Values” (Craig Gay, p. 17) says that money has become one of the most important measures in determination of value in our world. The very idea of what something is “worth” is often expressed in terms of money. This “money metric” has given us what we assume is an objective standard in calculating value and worth. This supposed objective, secular standard enters into our lives at so many levels and we may think that we live in a rational, calculated, and enlightened society than doesn’t give into emotionalism, fanaticism, or subjectivity but in fact we are being seduced by powers and influences that we may not recognize because we are too close to the situation to see correctly.

For example, what makes for a good book these days? Often we are told it is the #1 book on the “best-sellers” list. We are interested in movies or music when they are box-offices hits or win an song title goes “gold or platinum.” What do these mean? How are we determining the value of a movie or music? Have you ever noticed how interested we seem to be in how much it takes to make a movie? We are amazed when a movie becomes popular and we find out that it was made with a budget less than $10 million. Does more money mean a better product? A report came out the other day stating that the average baseball pro makes $2.6 million. First of all, why do we care what they make? Second, has it improved the game?

Outside the sphere of entertainment and sports (which can be a bit extreme) we find the same forces and powers at work. Our rational, unbiased, secular standard of calculation has changed the definition of justice. Often cases that cannot be settled in a criminal court are now settled in a civil court. Justice may not be served but a huge check may be. Politics is influenced by this rational, impartial standard so that we have been told by politicians and spin doctors in no uncertain terms that “It is the economy, stupid.” Two of the key issues facing politicians right now have to do with money – the rising “cost” of health care (notice that it isn’t the quality) and social “security.” And what is it that makes one socially secure? Money! Homeland security is something else, but social security is really about money. Think about the words and images we use when we talk about it: most interesting of which is the social security “lock-box.” Don’t you picture this big huge treasure box somewhere in Washington with a padlock on it. Can’t you se someone going up to it with an iron key and popping the lid open only to see a spider web in it and a moth fluttering out?

Maybe there’s a lesson in that image about this so-called impartial and rational measure called money and the way it lulls us into misplacing our trust, our sense of security, and our devotion. I want to proclaim today that money and cash values are not secular and impartial. It is a force and power that demands our attention and wants to rule us if it were a god – and it often does. This is the word that Jesus proclaims in Matthew 6:19-33 … [read text]

There are three images here that Jesus is using to open our eyes so we can get beyond the cash values that prevent us from seeing real value and worth. It leads up to his final statement in verse 24 that we cannot serve two masters. Money is more than dollar and cents it is mammon, it is the Almighty Buck that will rule us in place of Almighty God!

The first image is treasure. Maybe it is good that social security has been portrayed as a lock box because one of the truths we all learn about treasures and wealth is that they are never secure. There’s always a problem with moths, rust, and thieves. In ancient times a bride’s dowry was a roll of exquisite fabric, but what tragedy when the bride unrolls the fabric only to find it full of holes and worms. In ancient times a family’s wealth could be amassed as coins or precious jewelry, how tragic when a thief finds these wonderful heirlooms and simply takes them away. In a moment the treasure of generations is simply gone. So, it made sense to hide the treasure, to lock it a strong box and maybe even bury the box in a secret location. But even then it could be tragic when the wealth that has been stored and saved for ages is needed and after the box is dug up and opened the metal is crusted with orange build-up and brittle to the touch. The treasure is transformed into trash.
We are so much more sophisticated these days however. Our treasures are much more permanent. We have stainless steal bank vaults with humidity controlled air conditioners. We have encrypted passwords and secure servers to save our virtual treasures that are really nothing more that numbers and lines of credit. Our treasures and treasure boxes are much better. And yet we have hackers and dishonest managers who can steal these treasures away and consume them even better than thieves and moths. Rust is only one force of nature we have to contend with and even if we can guard against it we have to deal with its kin that come in the form of tornados and tsunamis.
Yet, we still store up treasures on earth … or at least “stuff” on earth …
One of the signs of our times is the prevalence of TV shows, books, and services that help people with the problem of having too much. Have you ever seen these? A group of people come into a house that is about to pop at the seams because the family has too much stuff. This team helps the people get rid of their excess and it makes for good drama because inevitably someone, an adult, will be crying or upset because they don’t won’t to let go of a limited edition Star Trek Barbie doll that they bought on eBay. And when the potential monetary value of the item fails to be convincing the next strategy is to cite the sentimental value. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The false god named mammon, the Almighty Dollar, demands your heart! It will take your heart and lock it up in a treasure box or a stainless steel vault or a 16-layer secure digital encrypted server. Jesus calls us to give our heart to God and give these things away. Have a lighthearted attachment to the treasures of earth and a whole hearted devotion to the treasures of heaven.

The second image is the eye. The ancients knew more about eyes than we seem to with all of our modern science. They understood that the eye was about more than seeing. We still have that wisdom if we will pay attention to it and it shows up in some of the most uncanny places. Have you ever seen a cartoon where a character’s eyes fill with dollar signs? That’s the opposite of the good eye or single eye that Jesus speaks about. What catches our eye? What symbol of cash values clouds our vision? Money is a spiritual force, not a secular force and it can give us a sort of spiritual glaucoma that keeps us from seeing people and the world the way he sees it. It makes us miserly and stingy. It makes us worry about not having enough to eat, to drink, or to wear. It gives us anxiety about the future because we cannot see the light of God’s goodness and hope.
The Almighty Dollar will cloud your eyes! It will skew your vision so that you see all things through dollar shaped lenses, and such a darkened vision will extinguish the light of the body. Don’t live a darkened, worried life anxious about the future. Let the light of God open your eyes and fill your soul.

The final image is that of a master. Mammon is an Aramaic word. When Jesus uses this word for money he personalizes it. He lets us know that money is not just something we use but that it is something powerful enough to use us if we let it. Maybe we don’t speak Aramaic, but we have ways of personalizing the power of money: Dead Presidents, Benjamins (my name is now slang for money), bread and cabbage (our slang for money is attached to food, the basics of survival). The divine power of money is best reflected in our slang “The Almighty Buck.”
We would do well to pay attention to our slang. It should remind us that the Almighty Buck not only demands our heart and our vision but it also wants us to bow our knees. How much of our energy and effort is devoted to the Almighty Buck and much of it is devoted to Almighty God? Think carefully about this – which master sets our priorities, determines our choices, and schedules our time.

Our master determines what we use and what we serve. If God is our master, then we serve him and others and we use money. If money is our master then we use God and others and we serve wealth. These change our values and it isn’t just an individual problem. We live in a conflicted culture that is divided between two masters. Even if you declare that God is your master and Lord, this week someone has tried to convince you of what is truly valuable. Maybe you heard the truth or maybe not. Someone or something may have tried to convince you of what you are really worth. Maybe you heard the truth or maybe not. Money is still a force in our lives and we encounter it daily. Don’t treat money as if it is just material and secular and so acts as if it is nothing. Treat it as if it is spiritual and powerful and then treat it like nothing! That’s how we break the power of worry and wealth. We need Jesus to teach us how to treat wealth in a godly way — to use it rather than be used by it.

Trust in God and Give! Jesus your heart, your eyes, your energy and mammon will be left empty-handed. Give your wealth away generously and it cannot control you.

Engaging the Culture: The Context of Worship

Posted by Chris on April 3, 2005 under Sermons

In recent years there has been a lot of discussion about the "worship wars." This refers to the conflicts among churches over the style and order of worship. Some congregations have gone to two or more worship services to allow for different styles of worship – styles that some people want and styles that other people do not want. There are many reasons given for the cause of the worship wars: generational conflict, the rise of contemporary Christian music, the breakup of denominational structures, the influence of mass media and an entertainment culture. All of these have some validity, but I want to lay my cards on the table and tell my view. This is just my view and I invite discussion of other viewpoints: I think that many of the reasons I stated describe some of the reason for the worship wars, but the core reason we are in the mess called the Worship Wars is that we have made too much distinction between private worship and public worship. Or another way to put it is this: We have pushed worship to the margins of human experience and allowed it to be judged ultimately as a private and personal experience rather than a collective, communal experience. The blame cannot go completely on the church – it is a symptom of our age and our American culture.

For instance, in the case of Terry Schiavo, much can be said about this situation in terms of medical science, ethics, sanctity of life and quality of life. But one significant development has been the distinction between public policy and private choice. What do we do when public policy and private choice are in conflict? I agree with the President that perhaps we should err on the side of life. I wish our public policy always did so in all cases and not just in terms of euthanasia rather than simply give in to partisan preference on media-driven hot topics. But consider how the conflict between public policy and private choice is often at the root of our legal and political debates. How should the needs or desires of the individual be weighed against the needs or desires of the community?

We have played this question out in church as well. How do you balance the needs and desires of the individual member against the needs and desires of the church? Biblically, we are taught to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11; see also Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 1-4). If each of us is seeking the good of the other, just as God seeks our good, then we are at peace. This has never been easy, not since the time of Paul when he pleaded with Euodia and Syntyche at the church in Philippi to agree with one another (Philippians 4). Even before that Jesus was often settling conflicts between his followers by showing them how to take on the role of a servant (John 13).

In some ways it is even harder for us to have the mind of Christ and seek the good of others because we live in a culture of individualism and consumerism. The spirit of consumerism teaches us that the "customer is always right." I have heard people twist the teaching of Jesus to be a servant by approaching church leaders and imploring them to give into their concerns because they are the weaker, offended member and elders and minister are supposed to be their servants (or in this case customer-service managers)! That attitude of "demanding my rights as an immature Christian" is completely foreign to the mind of Christ. Christ did not call us to be servants so we would capitulate to immaturity and consumerism. [Of course this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ever go to our leaders with our problems, but let’s go to them to seek their help in managing ourselves rather than managing others. Paul urged the church leaders at Philippi to help their feuding factions to work out the differences – Philippians 4.]

The spirit of individualism has had an effect on church life and the worship in a much more subtle way. The spirit of individualism has taught us to view worship and discipleship as a personal and private matter. We cannot simply reject that. It is true that we must have a personal faith and there is an element of our worship and faith that is very private. What we must reject is the notion that worship is completely or totally personal and private. In fact, Jesus teaches us how to be persons who relate properly to others. However, there is a strong tendency in our culture to push matters of spirituality and faith completely into the realm of the private. In the private realm one avoids offended others with their own personal preferences and avoids intolerant conflicts or disagreements. (Stephen Carter calls this a "Culture of Disbelief.") So, any public expression of worship must be tame and bland. It should be safe for all and not disturbing. This is sort of the "social contract" we have developed so that "We can all just get along." The irony is that most of us are crying out for something to be passionate about, something to stake our lives on, something inspiring – even if have different opinions on how to get there. Such a "truth worth dying for" or a "God so awe-inspiring" cannot be limited to the private realm. In fact, many of the cultures in other places and other times who are not hindered by consumerism and extreme individualism realize that this is something that has to "go public." If you examine the history of worship (and not only Christian worship) we find that it is in fact a public act that calls the individual to something greater than himself or herself.

Just by its nature such worship is very public. For example, ancient worship, in Israel and elsewhere, often involved sacrifice. Can you imagine a pagan worshipper describing the sacrifice of an animal as "a very intimate and personal experience?" The festivals and events that mark ancient worship are very communal and they shape the identity of a people. They are not separate and apart from politics but intimately wed to politics – to war and government. In many cultures, the ruler was a sort of deity! They are not separate and apart from the private lives of families but they are intertwined with family issues as intimate as fertility! Pagan worship can be criticized and condemned on many levels but there is one thing that they did not do that we do: they did not compartmentalize human experience into artificial categories called religious and secular. Instead, they understand how "the religious" and the "everyday" are intertwined and interconnected. I think we would be better off if we understood that life cannot and should not be compartmentalized into boxes labeled "spiritual" and "material," or "church" and "business," or "private faith" and "public work." It doesn’t fit with what we believe about God. [Observe that in the Terry Schiavo case it is not an issue that one can easily separate from faith. Some will try, but this issue goes to the core of what is of ultimate worth and isn’t our worship the focus on what is worthy?]

Scripture will not allow such a distinction between our worship and our life. (Amos 5:21-26) Adapting this OT text for our age, we should agree that God is speaking through Amos to make it clear that our worship on Sunday cannot be separated from our life on Monday through Saturday. Worship of God turns us inside out. The test of worship is not "Did we follow the book with decency and order?" The test of worship is not "Do I feel better and happier?" The test of worship is "Have we allowed God to shape us into a people who are happy to live by his word and are better at bringing decency and order to our world?" Worship, according to Amos, is the source of a mighty flooding river that brings justice and righteousness to a parched land.

In the Old Testament, the faith of the Hebrews was public. It had to be! This was what shaped them as a people. [Exodus 8:1] When they were slaves in Egypt, Moses went to Pharaoh and said "Let my people go!" God had a purpose for their release – "So that they may worship me!" That is public and it is the mission of God connected with worship. The Almighty God is confronting the lesser god known as Pharaoh. This is a fight and it is public. The result is the plagues. Not private, personal plagues. The result of the plagues is not a bland secular statement that tolerates religious freedom. This is a conflict! Think about the worship of the Hebrews when they ate the Passover lamb dressed in their traveling clothes and eating bread baked quickly. They painted their door posts with blood. This is all very public and "in the open." Not to be spectacular! Not to be showy! But because it is real and the power of God and the mission of God involve shaping a people and saving the world. Now if the mission of God is so universally public, why do we think worship is somehow private and hidden?

I don’t want to suggest that the public worship of the people of God is always at odds with the culture. I only suggest that it ENGAGES the culture and that engagement can happen in many ways. In the book of Acts we have a brief description of worship that shows how the public worship of the church is attractive to the larger community. (Acts 2:42) The early church is worshipping daily in the temple and in their homes and their public worship invites those in their context to worship with them. The worship in Acts often transforms culture.

Review the Layers of Participating in Worship … Engaging the Culture: The inner layers are unchanging and fairly set (especially the inside). The outer layer is the most variable but not “anything goes.” In order to engage the culture we have to pay attention to the way the content and structure of our worship engage our cultural context

The engagement with culture in worship is complex: There are aspects of the culture we will embrace, but some we must reject. There are aspects we might transform and change and some we might adapt. (For more discussion see Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People, p. 176.) This is an on-going process because our context is fluid; the culture changes even though the gospel does not. (For instance, Paul told believers in Rome that the ruler was God’s agent, but John in the Revelation describes the ruler as enemy. Did the truth change or did context change?) Christianity is able to move into many different cultures and languages and thus it is viable in all contexts (unlike some belief systems). But the engagement with culture is always public as well as personal.

Our cultural context is going to play a part in determining the styles with which we worship. Not absolutely, but there’s no way to avoid it. Let me tell you some of the ways our cultural context is involved in our worship: We use English, I am not wearing special garments, our auditorium is arranged with the pulpit at the front center, we are used to the auditorium, we sing mostly songs that harmonize different parts, we serve the Lord’s Supper from the front and not sitting around tables, we worship on Sunday morning rather than only Sunday evening or afternoon, we feel it is important to dress well for worship as a sign of respect (you may say that is not just cultural) perhaps, but the clothes we determine as those that show respect are culturally based. [How many of our women are wearing gloves and hats? How many of our men are wearing tuxedos?]

If you think that my message is that these things are unimportant and to say that they are just culturally means that they are trivial then you misunderstand me. That is not what I am saying. I am saying that we should be thoughtful and intentional about the content and structure of our faith and how it should interact with our context. This will allow us to avoid the worship wars and focus on God and even call the public to focus on God because we are worshipping publicly in a way that engages our culture effectively and appropriately. I am not saying this is trivial. Certainly there are some things that venture on the edge of minutia and it is unfortunate that churches have split and disgruntled members have left congregations because someone used Good Value brand grape juice instead of Welch’s in the communion. Those are things we can talk about and the rule of love should guide us. But there are issues that have to do with our context that demand we are very thoughtful about the way we engage our culture in worship – especially if we are going to be true to the content of our worship

The downside of what could have been an even more heroic and Christ-like engagement with the culture of that time is that Lipscomb and other church leaders of the time conceded that Scriptures did not teach very much on social conditions and that segregated congregations were inevitable and unavoidable. This concession to the culture permitted Harris to reply to Lipscomb: "If it was right to build a house for the Negroes to worship in, then is it wrong to ask a Negro to go to that house after it has been prepared for them?" [Ultimately, Lipscomb declared his position that churches built upon racial lines of discrimination were contrary to the New Testament teaching. – Narrative Source: David Lipscomb & E. A. Elam, Gospel Advocate 49 (1907): 424-425, 488, 521.]

Perhaps this story illustrates why it is important that we intentionally, seriously, and publicly engage the cultural context in which we live in a way that is formed and shaped by the content and structure of our worship with God. God is engaging all cultures and we, the church, are those who have responded to his engagement with us.

A Matter of Life and Death

Posted by Chris on March 27, 2005 under Sermons

Song – “Jesus Loves Me”

Welcome and Call to Worship

Song #2 – “We Praise Thee O God”
Song #3 – “Hallelujah Praise Jehovah”
Song #4 – “To God Be the Glory”

Prayer

Song #294 – “You’re the One”
Song #296 – “We Have Come Into His House”

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Part 1 – This reading and reflection should prepare us for the Lord’s Supper. It should gather us around the table and proclaim encouragement and hope! What is proclaimed in the bread and the wine? What is preached? What do we believe?

Reading and Reflection: Acts 20:1-12

Luke takes up the account of their journeys after a riot in Ephesus …
      When it was all over, Paul sent for the believers and encouraged them. Then he said good-bye and left for Macedonia. Along the way, he encouraged the believers in all the towns he passed through. Then he traveled down to Greece, where he stayed for three months. He was preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some Jews against his life, so he decided to return through Macedonia. Several men were traveling with him. They were Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus; Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica; Gaius, from Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus, who were from the province of Asia. They went ahead and waited for us at Troas. As soon as the Passover season ended, we boarded a ship at Philippi in Macedonia and five days later arrived in Troas, where we stayed a week.
      On the first day of the week, we gathered to observe the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching; and since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight. The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps. As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the window sill, became very drowsy. Finally, he sank into a deep sleep and fell three stories to his death below. Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!” Then they all went back upstairs and ate the Lord’s Supper together. And Paul continued talking to them until dawn; then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and unhurt, and everyone was not just a little encouraged.

For many of us, verse 7 of this chapter is quite familiar – "On the first day of the week, we gathered to observe the Lord’s Supper." It is an important scripture that we have used to verify why we observe the communion supper weekly. But do we anticipate our gathering on the first day of the week to break bread? I am glad we have this story, not only to give us a glimpse into how important the first day of the week was for the early church, but also so we can anticipate that day as they did. I am glad we have this story, not only to show us how the gathering to break bread was something the early church did frequently, but also so we can anticipate the eating and drinking of the Lord’s Supper together, just as they did. Luke does not end with a simple instruction in verse 7; he records an event of special significance. I believe the sharing of this story should help with more than knowledge of what to do, it also builds our anticipation of what we do.

Don’t misunderstand, anticipation cannot be manufactured. It is not something we can produce with a crafty build up or emotional pep rally. Anticipation is the experience of waiting for something that is truly special. In Troas, the anticipation of the Sunday gathering is there because the church gathers together to be encouraged. These spiritually hungry souls long for the common meal that sustains their faith in the harsh environment where they live. Stories will be told around the Lord’s Supper table. Not idle talk, but experiences of how the living Lord has challenged and blessed them during the week. For many of the believers in Troas, this is the first honest and sincere talk they have encountered all week. They will share, along with the bread and wine, confession of weaknesses and need for help – sometimes real material needs. This is a new kind of family and in their eating and drinking together, in their honest talk they enact and embody the gospel. And they encounter the spirit of Christ in their midst.

As much as they anticipated every Sunday, on the Sunday Paul spoke at Troas they were reminded that communion is a matter of life and death – not just Christ’s but their own! The atmosphere of worship changes when someone falls out of a window to their death. Death has invaded the environment of encouragement. Like a sniper’s bullet that tears through a schoolyard or a holiday parade, death sneaks into the church house and makes its presence known. All hope would seem to be lost. A special Sunday is ruined. No pep rally can sustain artificial joy and enthusiasm at that point. But the gathering in Troas is not artificial. The real presence and spirit of Jesus Christ is there. They speak his words and eat his meal. Not even death can interrupt or distract a worship that is focused on the living Christ.

After his miraculous resuscitation, every eye must have been on Eutychus as he ate the bread and drank from the cup. He became a symbol of the meal and a very real participant in the significance of the meal too. His revived life was a testimony to the gospel of Christ and the power of the resurrection. Sunday after Sunday in Troas they must have told this story – and here we are telling it this Sunday! How has the power of the gospel and the presence of Christ revived you? How can he revive you? Death is all around us and it does more than yank us out of three story windows to our death. It can poison us slowly with fear, lies, guilt, and sin. Our worries and anxieties cause us to fall asleep and grow deaf to the truth, so much so that death creeps into our lives as a paralysis and we are dead long before our funeral. But, into our immobility and deadness comes a reviving embrace. It is the love of God. In Christ, there is life and hope – and that hope can grow Sunday after Sunday. Our meal witnesses that death does not hold a monopoly on the future. In Christ there is life and the worst things are never the last things!
Let us also be revived as we gather to hear the truth, to remember the promises, to eat and drink. Let’s anticipate new life and also anticipate the hope of eating and drinking in the kingdom that is to come.
"On the First Day of the Week, we gathered to break bread. – "as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we preach – we proclaim – the Lord’s death … until he comes!"

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Part 2 – This sermon should call us to respond to the word of the gospel. What have we just proclaimed? What encouragement do we need? How have we grown weary, tired? How have we fallen? How have we been mortally wounded? What forces conspire against us? We can be encouraged – "not a little comforted."
Eutychus went home alive and unhurt (see NLT). How will you go home today? The Lord is risen.

It is all about encouragement. That’s the beginning and end of this text. Paul starts off on a journey to encourage the churches. Encouragement is not secondary to evangelism. It is a vital part of the evangelistic mission. Christians are not simply birthed, they must also be nurtured. (Let us never forget that the Great Commission involves "making disciples" which includes baptizing them and teaching them.) This is why God has given us not only baptism, but also preaching of the Word and the Lord’s Supper – the word and the meal sustains and nurtures those who have been baptized. It shapes our faith and our life together. It encourages us.

Paul and his associates came to Troas from Greece via Macedonia. That is like going from Texas to Florida by way of Ohio. Why? Because Paul was a wanted man. There were plots against him and his life was in danger. The Christians Paul meets with live in hostile environments. The encouragement they need is found through encountering Jesus Christ in the preaching and the common meal. They are strengthened spiritually and sustained. Paul does not preach for a long, long time because he cannot get to his point. Paul preaches until midnight because these Christians who live in unfriendly territory desperately need this encouragement. They are not concerned about how late it is – – persecuted churches don’t watch the clock, they watch the door.

It is ironic and tragic that the gathering for Sunday worship is sometimes viewed as (at worst) a necessary intrusion into "our time" and (at best) an obligation. When our persecuted brothers and sisters gather in their various meeting places around the world, many of them in secret, I suspect that they long for the fellowship. They welcome the opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, or to gain encouragement for as long as possible. I suspect they linger in the place where they meet for nothing is better than what they are doing now.

We are not persecuted by the government in our own nation, but here in our own community, there are some of us who feel that way. For some of us, the places we reside during the week, the places we work in during the week are not places of encouragement. At best they may be stale and neutral environments. They are a network of uninspiring connections in which we fit like a cog in a machine or a worker bee. We plod through the aimless chores and responsibilities without much encouragement. At worst, our connections are sources of discouragement. We are filled daily with anxieties about the future. We are distressed by the inappropriate and unsettling behavior of others. We may even feel threatened or alienated. We come away from these connections wounded and hurt.

Remember that I said that this is how some of us feel. Praise God if you are blessed to dwell within an environment in which you are often inspired, encouraged, and given purpose. Perhaps what you have experienced is the result of God working in your situation to revive and resurrect. Perhaps you know the joy of having God transform your connections with your family, your work, your neighbors, even your brothers and sisters in the church. This is the encouragement of Lord. Do not feel guilty. Only give thanks and seek to extend and share the blessings and the word of encouragement that you have with those who are still dying for hope and meaning.

When Eutychus falls out the window to his death, everyone is ready to give up on him. But not Paul, he knows his Bible. He’s heard the stories of a widow in Zarapheth and a prophet named Elijah. He has heard the stories of a Shunnamite woman and a prophet named Elisha. He knows the story of a woman from Nain and a Messiah named Jesus. He has heard of Mary, Martha and how Jesus wept when they told him Lazarus died. Paul was surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. They all received back their dead – now are these just myths? Are these just wishful thinking or does the gospel really have power over death? Paul knows his gospel. He knows that death’s top agent – the cross – has defected to the other side. Paul knows that the purpose of gathering to break bread is about more than keeping a duty. It is about sustaining life and restoring health. This is why he is bold in his proclamation (really just a continuation of his sermon) that "The boy is alive." I love it that people don’t just get up and walk out after this – they eat the Lord’s Supper together. What better things do they have to do? And the result of the gathering for worship in Troas is encouragement. Luke is the master of understatement when he says, "they were not just a little encouraged."

Eutychus went home alive and unhurt. The disciples were encouraged. Perhaps you have fallen. Perhaps you’ve been hurt. Perhaps you dwell in an uninspiring or hostile environment. Maybe you have some connections with others that are hurting you. Did you know that you can leave here today alive and unhurt? You can find here the spirit that revived Eutychus. We preach and proclaim the story and the faith that Paul preached. We eat the same spiritual food that sustained the churches in Troas. None of have to leave here today dead, dying or wounded.

Embodying the Gospel: The Structure of Worship

Posted by Chris on March 20, 2005 under Sermons

Review: Content, Structure, Context

Worship has three layers that involve our heart, mind, body, and collective
In worship we not only enact the gospel (re-experience it), we also embody it what we do in worship. We are able to do this because worship has a structure, but what do we mean by structure? Are we talking about a set program for worship? Are we talking about certain elements or acts of worship? We are going to look at some scriptural examples for our final answer, but before we do that let’s introduce the concept with some examples of structure from God’s creation and then from our “everyday” experiences as embodied creatures.

Structure in Nature and Experience
Structure of trees (same but different)
Structure of human skeletons, human bodies (same but different)
Structure of time and seasons (Read Genesis 1:14-19) – In the creation of all things tangible and intangibleGod is bringing structure to the shapeless and dark earth – [In the beginning when God created theheavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while awind from God swept over the face of the waters – Gen. 1:1-2

Structure creates certain boundaries than define and shape objects and events. But within and around thatstructure there is still variation and uncertainty. This combination of unity and diversity is what makessomething natural and wonderful. This is the secret that good musicians know. They can improvise, butthey don’t just play anything. They follow certain patterns, scales, and modes. Even musicians whocannot understand musical notation follow these structures. And even if an orchestra plays a veryprecisely laid out piece of sheet music, they must still interpret what it sounds like because there are somany variables in musical performance.

The combination of structure and variety is what makes sport and games interesting. Take March Madnessand basketball as a current example. Basketball is a game with defined rules. We give a referee a hardtime when he makes a bad call not simply because it is against our team, but because we know he isfollowing the rules. We know the rules and we want him to enforce them – unless the bad call favors ourside and then we ignore it! The referee is there because the players have to work within the rules andboundaries. But within those boundaries and rules there is opportunity for great variety, and chance, andplay. (This is why predictable games or simple games are boring – there’s no creative element). Thetournament is another example of structure and variety. The tournament of 64 teams begins as a veryprecise structure. The #1 plays the #16, #2 plays #15, etc. and so on. Yet, the uncertainty and themystery of it all that creates the great moments high and low – the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!

Now let’s go from the lesser to the greater. If there is such a wonderful and beautiful and combination ofstructure and variety, unity and diversity in nature and human experience, shouldn’t we expect that we willfind and even more wonderful combination in worship. I think we should. And if we ignore this, then weignore the combination of structure and variety, unity and diversity that allows the human and the divine tointersect – what allows us to encounter God! As a result we reduce worship to a ritual or an obligation. Ourworship has a structure because we are embodied creature. We are bound by time and space. But theGod we praise is not limited in that way. Our worship embodies the gospel because the gospel itself is anintersection of the certain and the unexpected.

Consider the gospel event: Jesus is crucified, he is buried. Every explanation we give for that part of thegospel simply affirms the reality we know – we are sinful, we do not recognize God’s love, there is sufferingand cruelty in the world. But what part of the gospel event did I not mention? The resurrection! Theresurrection is unexpected and surprising! It is mysterious and powerful! Now there is hope where we hadnone. Now there is possibility where previously we had despair. And it is all because of God and who heis. (See Romans 11:33-36, the precursor to our spiritual act of worship)

Our worship embodies this experience with a certain structure. But we cannot experience the depth andthe riches of God’s grace if we are just ticking off a list of worship duties. Those are just daily chores – [Isn’t it interesting that a child that will balk at doing routine chores and will finish those chores off only to goand submit himself or herself to the rules of a game with other children – or the rigid structure of a videogame or the chapters of a book!] Without some understanding of how we “move” within the structure, wewill miss the opportunities to encounter God and enact his gospel together.

As an illustration, let’s talk about what we do when we have guests over to our house for dinner. There arecertain structures that are basically the same no matter the occasion. And we can even think of these interms of movement through the rooms of a house . . . Foyer, Living Room, Dining Room. Consider the waywe talk and converse in each of these. We move and talk in appropriate ways as we move from the foyerto the living room. Then we move in certain ways as we go from the living room to the dining room. In thefoyer we greet. In the living room we share news and tell stories. When do you bring up a serious subject? Certainly not in the foyer! Whether it is a cookout, a formal dinner with new friends, or PBJ sandwicheswith old friends, we have these little conventions that allow us to commune. Why? Because we arebodies, not shapeless minds floating thru space.

There is a basic structure of worship that enables us to encounter the God who is spirit and to communewith one another. Story and Feast. – Exodus 24:3-11 and Acts 2:42-47 demonstrates this basicstructure.

The “field of play” (or boundary) for worship that embodies the gospel is, I suggest, sort of like agravitational field. That is to say that it is the structure that orders the elements of worship in a naturalstructure that is sensitive to the gospel and our experience and we move through this field. We are shapedand order by it, even as we are allowed to move in it (like gravity). The structure of word and suppercommunicates our embodied similarities. It also enables us to embody the gospel and thus enact thegospel.

The gospel is real and so worship should be real. The death burial and resurrection of Jesus are real. Itwasn’t a myth or an act or a dream. God went through physical actions; he made a movement to show hislove. And we do the same in worship and mission (discipleship). Our faith is not just something to agreewith. It is an agreement that demands action. The images we use to describe our relationship (sheep andshepherd) are bodily, physical images. Just as our real baptism is a death and new birth.

Recommended Reading: I am indebted to Robert E. Webber for recognizing the Story & Feast structure ofworship in both the Old Testament and New Testament. Dr. Webber has discussed this structure in manybooks and seminars. Among these is Worship Old & New, Zondervan, 1994.

Enacting the Gospel: The Content of Worship

Posted by Chris on March 6, 2005 under Sermons

Review: Worship is "because of." That is to say that worship is our response to what God has done/is doing/will do. Not only do we respond to what God does, we respond to who he is. Our Response to God involves three elements. On the one hand we have the substance of worship. On the other hand, there is the experience of the worshipper and the worshipping church. When the substance of worship and the experience of the worshipper combine, worth is ascribed to God. Combined, these elements represent our way of participating together in our worshipful response to God. For simplicity we will call these the content of worship, the structure of worship, and the context (or style) of worship.

Preparation for worship is to prepare us as a collective group to participate. We are not always good at coming together. We have different opinions and different ideas, different tastes and preferences (which we often project on God assuming that he likes what we like). But our response is not simply individual. (If this were the case, then we could all "home church" and be done with assembly). God, however, intends for all of us to come to his banquet table. We experience his presence and activity among us not only as persons, but as a people.

The content, structure, and context of worship are layers of worship. Content is the most essential layer – the core or kernel. The content of worship is the gospel – we enact it. The structure of worship embodies the gospel we enact (or participate in), and the context is the level or layer at which we engage the specifics of our culture and context. This involves language, style, time, seasons, etc. (One of the amazing characteristics of the gospel is that it engages any culture, not without challenges, but the gospel is an "incarnated" witness and message from God. It can be translated into any language; it can speak hope and promises in any culture. It challenges all earthly powers and institutions. It is not bound by temporal or regional limitations.)

Content: Enacting the Gospel. In worship, everything we do "enacts" the gospel. By that we mean that everything participates in and communicates the gospel event. Baptism is connected to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection. Preaching affirms the gospel event and gives testimony to how that gospel power is worked out in our lives. Likewise, prayer and praise proclaim the gospel and affirm it. They assume it! We also re-experience the gospel that saves us and we are challenged to continue living it out so that we become better people.

• Do we believe that a dead marriage can be resurrected? When we enact the gospel in worship, we do.
• Do we believe that broken relationships can be reconciled? When we enact the gospel in worship we do.
• Do we believe that God can give us strength to endure suffering? When we enact the gospel in worship we do.
• Do we have hope that all things can be made new? When we enact the gospel in worship we do.
• Do we know that God’s power can help us overcome sin and temptation? When we enact the gospel of Christ in worship we do.

When we enact the gospel in worship we participate in the same gospel that is at the heart of God’s missions. We encounter the risen Christ whom the gospel proclaims. Read Luke 24.

Notice what happened as the gospel is enacted in this Journey to Emmaus: They encountered the risen Jesus. Before they recognize him are sad and downcast (v. 17). Their hope is expressed in the past tense (v. 21). There troubled and disturbed by the news of resurrection, they are not able to hear it as good news (v. 22 – 24); they are confused. The women saw him raised but our companions did not. What’s going on? They wonder.

1. Jesus teaches them, he opens the Scriptures to them. Through this teaching the news that Cleopas and his friends assume everyone knows is transformed into "good" news. Later they will remember that this encouraged them and their hearts were burning within them.
2. Jesus fellowships with them. It takes place in the context of hospitality and an invitation for continued company. He takes the bread, he blesses it, he breaks it, and he gives it to them. These are the same verbs used in describing what Jesus did with the apostles at the Last Supper. ("Do this in remembrance of me!") And they do remember him; it is at this point that they recognize him as Lord and Messiah.
3. Everything comes together in these events: meeting Jesus, teaching from the Scripture that explains their experience, the substance of the meal and the remembrance of Jesus. The action of God, in the gospel is at the center of this event. The presence of God in Jesus Christ is real. God’s action determines whether or not these disciples can see Jesus as Lord and Messiah. Just as the Holy Spirit empowers the hearing of the word, so the Spirit of God empowers the "seeing" of Jesus in worship.
4. The disciples ascribe worth to God and respond to what God has done. They are filled with faith and hope – consider how different they are now after encountering Jesus than how they were before. They are sent out to tell the good news that they not only believe, but that they themselves have experienced in worship. Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" It is a gospel moment!

We respond to the gospel that is enacted in our worship. Who enacts it? God enacts it and we participate in it just as Cleopas and his friend did. Why do we get obsessed on what others are doing in worship? Do we ever consider what God is doing? Consider how we are surrounded by the gospel in our worship: We remember what God has done. We anticipate what he will do.
We may journey to worship downcast or confused. But the encounter with God and our re-experience of the gospel has a way of changing us and changing how we feel, what we do, but most importantly who we are!

Why Content is Important … (So What?)
Encounter with Christ. We often try to respond to human needs with the gospel, but the gospel – what God has done and is doing – has a way of drawing out needs we didn’t know we had. (Just as it did with Cleopas and friend). If the gospel is the content of worship, then all needs will be met by God and just left up to us! When we invite each other to prayer and baptism and confession, we invite people to get right with God and we invite people to be ministered to by God and the Spirit of Christ. Worship isn’t our time to take care of "church business."

The gospel content affirms what God has done, is doing and will do. Our worship will be a response to God’s action rather than an experience of our self-interests. The gospel meets us in our culture and in our context, but it also challenges our context and culture also. When we come together in worship, the living Christ meets us on a journey as he did the Emmaus travelers, and we may find that our hearts are burning within us as the Lord opens the gospel to us!

Standing On Holy Ground

Posted by Chris on February 27, 2005 under Sermons

From last week: Jesus Christ is at the center of God’s mission. Jesus Christ is at the center of worship. When our worship is focused on God we cannot help but be turned outward into mission. Of course this means that something real takes place in the assembly we call worship. It means that we have a "close encounter of the HOLY kind." Throughout Scripture we see that those who draw near to God and his holy presence are also drawn into his mission.

• Read Exodus 3:1-12
• Read Isaiah 6:1-8

The Kingdom of God has broken into our world. The writer of Hebrews was aware of this; he understands the connection between God’s rule, God’s mission, and worship of God. "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire." – Hebrews 12:28-29. We lament the decline in mission and evangelistic fervor. We lament the decline in worship attendance and heartfelt worship. Perhaps we haven’t understood how these problems are related. We’ve isolated the problems. We have tried to inspire mission and evangelism by alarming ourselves and others with an unbalanced emphasis on sin and the fate of the lost. We have tried to manage worship and increase attendance with an unbalanced emphasis on obligation and procedure. These attempts are unbalanced because both are missing the same thing: A vision and experience of God’s holy presence and the good news of his kingdom rule.

Good worship is about awe, not strategy. Worship happens when people become aware that they are in the presence of the living God. This happened when Moses and Isaiah realized that they were standing on holy ground. This isn’t the same as being afraid of God. That will drive us away from Him. It isn’t the same as feeling sentimental about God. That reduces God to what Jim McGuiggan calls "the heavenly sweetheart." If we are afraid of God, then how can we ever know him and how can his news be good; if God’s only purpose is make us happy then how can we call him Lord? These reductions of God’s presence and his good news diminish God and approach him as a force to be manipulated. But when we are in awe of God we are aware of His power and goodness and we are compelled to worship. Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, describes awe: "Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offence; or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return."

Awe should not be reduced to a single emotion. Awe includes many emotions. For instance, we can be in awe of beauty or majesty. We can be in awe of power and strength. We can be in awe of talent and artistry. We can be in awe of mystery and wonder. Likewise, reverence should not be reduced to a single emotion. It does not simply mean sedate. For instance, we show reverence of marriage at a wedding and it is proper to be joyous. We show reverence for life and loved ones at a funeral and we feel grief and sadness but also may recall happy memories. Awe and reverence involve many moods and styles but they have one thing in common – response!

Reverence and awe are linked to the worship of God and it is instructive to take a look at the Hebrew and Greek terms Scripture uses for worship of God:

Worship is a verb. These are responsive verbs. Our response embodies our allegiance and devotion to the awesome God we encounter in worship. God has revealed his power, his mercy, his majesty and his grace. He has even awed us by drawing near to us in Jesus Christ and sacrificed his life for us. Awe and reverence are about more than "shock and awe" demonstrations of force. Do you recall how this time last year many were moved by the "Passion of the Christ?" No one watched that movie in a sedate, calm, reflective atmosphere. People were moved with grief and sorrow. They were, in the words of Scripture, cut to the quick. I remember at the end when the risen Christ leaves the tomb someone shouted "YES!" and applause broke out. This wasn’t exhibitionism. It was awe and reverenc! The film also convicted people. Some responded by changing their lives. This is what happens in worship: God’s presence and his actions are revealed and we respond …

The Dynamic of Response: We respond to God simply because he is God. We respond to God because of what he has done. We praise him because he is worthy of praise. Preaching declares who God is and what he has done, is doing, and will do. When we gather around the Lord’s Supper we are remembering and proclaiming the nature of God and the activity of God. All of this is response to God. This is how worship of God differs from worship of other Gods and powers; God has acted first. Worship of false gods and devotion to powers demand a "quid pro quo." There is an exchange or a transaction. In pagan worship and magic, the devotee offers something or promises something in order to gain a favor or a blessing from the god or power. This really isn’t different from our myriad forms of idolatry: I give my money away to any number of vendors and I expect a return for my money. I give my time, information, work to someone else and I expect some sort of satisfaction in return. Sometimes we try to get into this relationship with God and it warps our worship and discipleship. We assume that if we put in our hour a week on Sunday and take the communion, do a few good works and always give our tithe, then God will take that into account and he will either bless us here and now or he will consider our record when it is time to determine who gets into heaven and who goes to hell. This backwards perspective reduces worship to putting in our time and it reduces mission and ministry to manipulation or bargaining. [Read Romans 12:1 – "In view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship."] Did you notice the antecedent? As one version says, "considering what God has done, is this too much to ask?"

Our Response to God involves elements that we can speak of separately, but we must be careful not to break these down and separate them completely. On the one hand we have the substance of worship: these are things like the preaching of God’s word, praise, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, prayer, the public reading of the word, confession, and thanksgiving. We include all the actions, forms, and traditions that God’s people have always used to participate in worship and encounter God’s presence. On the other hand, there is the experience of the worshipper and the worshipping church. This involves current events, language, issues, problems, feeling, style, style of church music. For instance, worship after 9/11 was a little different than most Sundays. Why? Because God changed? No, but the questions we had for God and the feeling of our hearts were different. When a local congregation experiences a tragedy, perhaps a sudden death of a beloved member or leader, their worship that Sunday is going to be different than the congregation that on the same Sunday celebrates because people they have been praying for respond to the gospel. Each church participates in the same substance of worship, but their experience is different. That’s biblical; the psalms are a collection of Israel’s worship songs. Not every song comes from the same experience. Sometimes the psalmist is angry, confused, sad, thankful, joyous, or reflective. The experience can also vary because of culture. Our brothers and sisters, the Iglesia de Cristo, are worshipping like us but not like us. The language is different. The style of singing is different. Here in our annex our brothers and sisters, the Lao congregation, are worshipping like us but not like us. This is also true of other North American churches that use English but different styles of singing and worship. The substance of our worship is the same, but the experience may be different.

When the substance of worship and the experience of the worshipper combine, worth is ascribed to God. That is the core dynamic of our response to God’s presence and his mighty acts. Combined, these elements represent our way of participating together in our worshipful response to God.
Another way to describe these elements and to show their connection is to speak of the content of worship, the structure of worship and the context (or style) of worship. Preparation for worship is not ritual that allows God to manifest among us. It is not a prescribed order that obligates God to accept us. Preparation for worship prepares us and orders our minds, bodies, and spirits to respond to God. It prepares us as a collective group to participate. We are not always good at coming together. We have different opinions and different ideas, different tastes and preferences, but our response is not just individual. We experience his presence and activity among us not only as persons, but as a people. In the next few weeks we will be considering these layers of our response and how they enable us to participate in awe-inspired worship and then experience how that turns us inside out to participate in God’s mission.

The content, structure, and context of worship are layers of worship. Content is the essential layer – the core or kernel. The others are not unimportant, but there is an essential order here. For instance, we can focus on the context, or style, of worship and if the content is not evident, then our worship is empty. Here’s how we practically experience each of these:

Content: Enacting the Gospel. At the heart of worship is the gospel. In worship, everything we do "enacts" the gospel. By that we mean that everything participates in and communicates the gospel event. Baptism is connected to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection. Preaching affirms the gospel event and gives testimony to how that gospel power is worked out in our lives.
Structure: Embody the Gospel. The form of our worship is defined by the function – to enact the gospel. This middle layer is also the bridge between the content and the context. So we embody the gospel in ways that are particular to our culture.
Context: Engage the Culture. Most discussion about worship is limited to this layer. Most planning and experience remains here. This is often where the "Worship Wars" take place. But if we go back to content and enact the gospel – God’s saving event in Jesus Christ then we find a way through our conflicts over personality and personal taste.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you-unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

You are all invited to participate in this Gospel by enacting the rule of Christ in your life. May the content of Worship be the content of our lives! Worship is response, so may we all respond by proclaiming the gospel of Christ as we sing Victory in Jesus ( #470). You are also invited to respond by asking for prayers of encouragement or thanksgiving and offering yourself as a living sacrifice – that is worship.

Worshipping God for the Sake of the World

Posted by Chris on February 20, 2005 under Sermons

It may seem off-base to worship God for the sake of the world. We might be more inclined to think that we worship God for God’s sake or at least for our sake. But for the sake of the world? Without denying the other options I want to suggest that we really should consider what it means to worship God for the sake of the world; especially as we work to reconcile what seem to be opposite impulses in the life of the church: worship and mission. First let’s review what we have discussed over the last seven weeks about mission …

God’s Mission and the Christ
Christ is Lord over all creation. There is one kingdom. There are not multiple kingdoms with rulers other than Christ. The contest is over. Jesus is exalted as Lord or as Peter said, "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah" (Acts 2:36). All the earth and all creation may submit to this rule or resist it.
Christ’s people live by that rule – everywhere in the world. Our allegiance to Christ is not determined by political, national, or cultural boundaries. We are not any more or less Christian based on where we live. Whether or not America is considered a "Christian" nation does not determine our allegiance to the rule of Christ. Whether or not the south remains the "Bible belt" does not determine our allegiance to Christ. Those who call on the Christ and submerge their lives into live by the rule of the savior and are citizens of his emerging kingdom.
We are defined by his rule and his mission. So ultimately, our character and the character of the church is shaped by the common Lord and the common mission that gathers up the people of Christ and sends them out into creation. We are shaped by the character of our king (When you think of a kingdom, the kings image and name are printed on all the money and legal documents and seals and his own person becomes the standard of measurement – a foot, a span, a yard).

God’s Mission and the Church
God’s Mission is to the world – Now we see how this defines the church. The church is not an institution or organization to keep Christians busy. The church is not a place to get together and do stuff or go to worship. The church is a collection, a community, an assembly of people called out by the King. We represent his rule in the world. How do we do that? We are like the Jesus who was sent into the world to represent God. We are being gathered and also sent out. Our calling out has purpose. We are not different just to be different. We are different for the sake of the world so it too may turn to the King.
Mission is the character of the church – It is God’s mission and we are involved in mission to the world because we follow God and our Lord to give witness to what he is doing. Not a program of the church – We are not independent contractors. God did not give us the evangelism concession for this planet. God is operating in the world and we are recipients of that mission and witness to what he has done, is doing and will do. Sent by God for sake of the world – Thus mission is not simply limited to "missions" or "local outreach." Those activities are part of mission in the same way the college ministry, the youth ministry, small groups, benevolence, education and all other activities are part of the mission. This is because mission is part of who we are in Christ and not just what we do. So everything is mission – even worship? Ah yes, here’s where the reality of all this starts to rub against the grain of our ingrained concepts … By compartmentalizing and departmentalizing the activities of the church we have begun to think too rigidly about what is for "insider" and what is for "outsiders." It has created an "us and them" way of thinking that hampers our participation in God’s mission efforts in the world. This rigid "us and them" way of thinking is seen most vividly in the typical misconceptions about worship and mission and their relationship with one another.

The first, and probably the most prominent, view is a traditional one that for the purpose of discussion we will call the "Inside and Outside" view. The concept of insider and outsider or “us and them” separates worship and mission. Worship is for those inside the church. Mission takes place outside. The inside and outside approach views worship as the activity for those inside the church which equips them or refreshes them for the task of mission which is limited to work "outside" the church. Worship is reduced to motivation of the church for its mission to outsiders. Worst of all, worship and mission are distinct activities in the church’s life.

• Practical ways this model begins to break down: First, what do we do when our children and young people are added to the church? They have worshipped with us for years – perhaps their whole lives – and now they have somehow come "inside" the church. What nurtured them all those years and enabled them to make the decision to submit to Christ in baptism? In most cases it was the "insider" activities of the church. By participating in "insider" activities, like worship, these young people are now insiders but were they ever really outsiders?
• On the other side, consider the mission activities and the teaching that benefits many a so-called "outsider." We are amazed to see their lives transformed by their acceptance of the good news. Because they have undergone such a transformation of character and received hope when they thought all was hopeless they have a deep-rooted and sincere faith. They are so thankful and grateful for the good news. Many of these people go one to become some of the greatest evangelists. Now, if "outsiders" can benefit from hearing the gospel like that what about those of us who "grew up inside the church" and were nurtured to faith by the insider activities? Why can’t we benefit from outsider activities?

That’s why some have tried the next approach … The "Outside In" approach responds to the Inside and Outside approach by bringing the mission activity of the church inside to the worship assembly. (Bring the "outside" activity directly into the context of worship for a presentation of the gospel.) In this approach the worship is regarded as either a presentation of the gospel for a captive audience of outsiders. This approach may be an attempt to unite worship and mission, but in the end we can never be sure if what we come up with is worship or mission. Bringing the outside in to the inside is sometimes called worship evangelism. But attempts at worship evangelism do not consider the unity of the two. Instead, they attempt to re-orient the focus of worship on the outsider. (And though rarely admitted, sometimes the attempt is to bring some of that good stuff we’ve been dispensing on outsiders back in here on the inside.) The "us and them" thinking is still in effect. What remains is the false choice that worship is strictly for insiders and evangelism is strictly for outsiders. The concepts of mission and worship are both warped. Mission becomes nothing more than outreach or getting folks into the worship. Worship becomes an evangelistic presentation that admits to being of little use to the so-called "insider." Worship is reshaped to accomplish the tasks of the church’s mission. The tasks of mission become the purpose of worship and the result is that neither worship nor mission really happens.

Inside Out
The trouble with both of the previous approaches is that they are flat, two-dimensional and they do not account for God’s missional activity in the world and our participation in that activity. If we consider how God is the outreaching creator who sends his son and sends his people then we will understand how worshipping God turns us inside out to serve the world he loves and how his love gathers us up to worship him.

• God’s desire is to reconcile with the world. He is a reconciling God. This is his mission.
• God gathers the church and sends them out. The church are those who respond to the call to enter into and receive the kingdom of Christ’s rule. The church is formed and made visible in the world as a called out assembly and community that represents the kingdom. This church comes up from the culture, but is changed within the culture – and at times changes the culture. Since it remains in the world (though not of the world) it would not be accurate to draw a tight circle and declare it the inside and the world is then the outside. The boundary between world and church is "semi-permeable" and we cross through it as we are gathered in and as we are sent out. All were once outsiders. All are potentially insiders. The boundary is not static. What you get is a centered set (not a bounded set) that is centered around the worship of God in Jesus Christ.
• Christ is Lord over the entire world. He is the head and ruler over all things. When he is confessed as Lord there is worship. Worship is the proclamation of what God has done/is doing/will do – and it is also the response of the glad and liberated. Worship is as much the character of the church as mission. It is what we do because of who we are. The church in worship demonstrates its kingdom, Christ-like character in a very open and public way. Even churches that meet in secret, like our brothers and sisters in some of our related congregations, are still going public with their worship because they do come together and someone does see what they are doing to serve and praise their true ruler and authority. These governments understand what we sometimes do not: that worship is an act of allegiance to the only true authority that sometimes puts us at odds with the powers that be!

Warping and War
If we do not bring worship and mission together again, then worship and mission are both going to be warped – which leads to misunderstandings that get us into worship wars with one another and those on the outside. False Choices about worship: Traditional or Contemporary? Reflective or Emotional? Seeker or Founder? Meditative or Enthusiastic? Spontaneous or Ordered? These false choices are the result of separating and reducing worship and mission. The result will be distortions, or warping worship. And it leads to questions like "Which is more important – worship or mission? Which does God care about most?" It is difficult to find biblical answers to unbiblical questions.

• Worship divorced from mission, is manifested as introversion as the church puts its own survival before its mission. Worship becomes self-affirmation and no concern for the church’s relationship with and responsibility to the world is considered. Survival and comfort are more important than mission. The church cannot be introverted if it would be the Spirit of God incarnated. (Jesus brings His friends with Him!)
• The other type of distortion is mission divorced from worship. Mission apart from worship is prone to self-glorification and can become so aggressive and conceited that the church attempts to be the promoter or marketer of Christ rather than his servant. God-centered worship reminds the church that it exists for the sake of the world because God loves the world. Marketing worship to the culture may seem like extroversion rather than introversion, but the agenda for worship is still survival and self-promotion. A church formed by the gospel should not fear losing its life for the sake of Christ and others “for those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for [Christ’s] sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). When we forget that we are Christ’s servant, we become his proprietor. We become the marketer of gospel and the survival of the church means working harder to sell more product. We become a vendor of religious goods and services.
• Distortions create camps that lead to the worship wars. We fail to realize that worship and mission are balanced parts of life in God’s kingdom.

A Royal Priesthood
The biblical images always balance worship and mission. The connection between God and his mission to the world and the worship of his people who are gathered up in that mission is always clear. We will look at some others, but for now consider 1 Peter 2:9-12. Our connection with the world is clear: We share in the brokenness and suffering of the world. Once we were not a people but now we are the people of God! We are now a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation – but not to shun the world but to invite the entire world to our nation. We witness to the world and bring the world before God (we are representative of the world). Like the breastplate of the high priest that brought the names of Israel’s tribes before God we too bring the names of the world and its woes before our creator. In our worship we proclaim God’s power and grace for all to hear, and in our participation in his mission we bear witness to God before the entire world.

How do we worship God for the sake of the world?

1. Focus on God. True worship encounters the living God who is real and present. In worship, we respond to the call of God.
2. Enact the Gospel. Worship must be rooted in the gospel event as it is being re-experienced Our worship must be a response to the good news of God’s action rather than our self-interests. Worship that enacts the good news creates a people who share God’s mission. Worship that celebrates our church agenda is at best merely satisfying and at worst vulnerable to forces of a consumer market.
3. Structure worship to embody the gospel. Worship is an incarnational experience. Worship is more than mere talk or thought. It is a living event. The language and form are the body or outer shell in which the living event, the celebration of the risen Christ, is re-enacted and renewed.

Be My Witnesses

Posted by Chris on February 13, 2005 under Sermons

Acts 1:1-11

Proof of Life after Death
Last week we looked in on the gathering of the disciples after the crucifixion (John 20). No one was there because they wanted to be there. They were huddling together for self-preservation more than anything else. We can imagine that their conversations were focused on plans to secure their survival. And on top of that, they were probably consumed by feelings of guilt, grief, anger, and worry. Of course that began to change when the risen Jesus came joined their gathering.

Everything begins to change as Jesus is suddenly everywhere. Mary Magdalene speaks with him near the tomb. Then he is journeying to Emmaus with Cleopas and a friend. Next he is in the locked room with the disciples and shows them his wounds. According to Luke, these encounters with Jesus in the resurrected flesh take place over the next forty days. Jesus is able to give them, in Luke’s words, proof that he is alive. He shows them his wounds and he eats with them – he’s cooking breakfast by the lake in Galilee on one occasion (John 21)! According to Paul, at one time over 500 people saw him. Jesus teaches them and he ministers to them. He gives Peter a second chance to affirm him three times since Peter had denied him three times before. Jesus gives the disciples a mission and he prepares them for it. Luke says that the subject of their conversations is the kingdom of God. It is at one of the last gatherings near Bethany when they’ve gathered together for a meal that the disciples ask Jesus the question they all want to know …

Is This the Time?
There had been some serious misunderstandings about the kingdom during Jesus’ ministry with the disciples. They were expecting the Messiah to lead an invincible army into the holy city of Jerusalem and restore the kingdom of Israel. They were ready even to the last and Peter was brandishing steak knives at the last supper in defense of his king. But now they understood something new – especially about Jesus’ talk of dying on cross which upset them so much before. Now that Jesus tells them to wait in Jerusalem for power they have got to ask "Is this going to be the time you restore the kingdom?" Maybe their worldview has expanded somewhat, but they still have kingdom expectations. And they should; Jesus doesn’t deny them that. In fact, the church in Theophilus’ and Luke’s generation was probably asking this same question – "When will we see the full and complete restoration of the kingdom of God?"

Perhaps we have lost some of that expectation. The more comfortable we get in the power structures of this world the less expectation we have of a new government – the rule of God. Even though we have the church and are blessed to experience the rule of God in the church I don’t think we can say that all of our kingdom expectations are fulfilled. There are too many lost souls and too many unredeemed institutions out there to be satisfied in our expectations. It’s a fair question: "How long O Lord? When will we see the kingdom completely restored and established in its fullness?"

But Jesus will not answer the "when" question. God is not our contractor building a kingdom for our pleasure. We are not God’s contractor’s building him a kingdom. Such thinking makes us anxious and we get into a "hurry up" mode and we assume we need to know more, or do more. Jesus will not answer the "when" for the disciples nor for us because the restoration of the kingdom is God’s work. He controls the schedule, he designed the plans, and he sets the boundaries. Jesus redirects the question and teaches the disciples (and us) about our proper role in the kingdom: We are witnesses.

The Power to Be
Unfortunately, the term witness is a word we have "churched out" to the point it doesn’t communicate anything for us. Other religious groups use this term quite commonly but in ways we aren’t familiar with. You hear talk of giving a witness and witnessing. We think of Jehovah’s Witnesses or the preacher who says "Can I have a witness?" The way this term is used makes us think of evangelism, soul-winning, preaching, or door-knocking. These of course seem like work to us and call upon us to be very cautious about matters of technique, style, strategy. It lays a great sense of responsibility on us and we assume we need to know more or do more in order to be a witness.

Never mind that the Greek word for witness is also the word that gives us martyr. Never mind what it means to give a witness, get a witness, have a witness or witness Jehovah. Just think about what it means to be a witness in any other context. The general definition of a witness in a court of law is one who, being present personally sees or perceives a thing; a beholder, spectator, or eyewitness. One who testifies to what he has seen, heard, or otherwise observed. That’s easy right? Another way to think of witness is a witness to history. Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated? Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down? What were you doing when the twin towers collapsed? All of us have been witnesses to history and we have a story to tell about it.
The disciples were witnesses of the ministry, the crucifixion, the resurrection and they had a story to tell.

But the story wasn’t over because they have proof that Jesus is alive. And if the story ended at Pentecost then why does Luke waste ink and paper 26 other chapters? The story hasn’t ended and you and I are witnesses now of the on-going story! We have a story to tell. If you are a follower of Jesus then by default you will BE a witness. But the sort of witness you will be is not a given. Just as there are competent, credible, adverse, and hostile witnesses in a court of law, we may be good, bad, or indifferent witnesses. Being a witness carries a responsibility, and before we assume we need to know more or do more to be a good witness let’s simply focus on being a witness who tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And everyone who strives to do that – even in a court of law – always says "so help me God."

We witness to what we have seen, heard, and what we already know about Jesus Christ. We witness to what God is doing to form his kingdom in this world. And the power to BE the witness, to BE the church that gives witness of God’s work and Christ’s lordship is the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is for the Mission: The gift of the Spirit is for the sake of the mission. The spirit empowers, equips and enables all the sent church for the mission – we are empowered to live as witnesses in the world and we are empowered to tell the truth. So, the Spirit is for the Message: As witnesses we don’t just talk about what we know, speak about the one we know – we know Jesus through his Spirit. When the disciples are witnessing on Pentecost they are just as surprised and as awed as everyone else that day. Their message is not revelation of a hidden secret that only insiders can know – it is to name what is going on among them and to explain what they have witnessed – to name what God is doing even to the ends of the world. The invitation call to the kingdom is not something that we control or manage – it is not a policy we spin – it is something we must be faithful to as witnesses – so help us God!

Turned Inside Out
We have no control over the when and we must be faithful as witnesses wherever. Jesus makes it clear that his followers will BE witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This is why our definition of mission needs to be broadened. Our brothers and sisters in Guyana are witnesses, they are the church in Guyana. The Kweekuls and our brothers and sisters in Laos and Thailand are witnesses. Stephane is a witness in Vietnam. They are no less the church because they are organized a little differently than we are. The Hundley’s are witnesses in France. Our brothers and sisters in Nigeria are witnesses in their land. The brethren that Roy teaches in Africa are witnesses in Ethiopia, Sudan and other nations in Africa. And what about us? Are we not witnesses? Are we not also part of the same mission?

We have allowed our institutional forms and geography to form our relationships and titles. If you stay here you are an evangelist, but if you go over there you are a missionary. Jesus says you will be my witnesses. Whether we are in Jerusalem or at the ends of the earth we witness.

Even in Samaria, we can witness. It can be easy to witness close to home in Jerusalem – people understand you there. It can even be easy at the ends of the earth with the sense of adventure and the "there and back again" rhythm of it all. But it is a little harder in Judea and especially Samaria. I am sure the disciples must have winced when Jesus said they would witness among the Samaritans. It is hard to speak to a people you’d rather not associate with.

It gets messy to break down the physical and social fences that we assume make us all good neighbors. But while we are looking up into heaven praising Jesus the word from heaven comes to us and says, "Why are you gawking up here?" This same Jesus is coming back and he turns us inside out – we have been gathered, but we are also sent. If you are a Christian, you a witness, and Jesus turns you inside out to testify to the hope that is within you – even in Samaria – tell people about Jesus. When you get into the classroom, or the board room, the office, over the backyard fence or over the kitchen table, preaching can be more difficult. What you say and what you do matters. Nevertheless, empowered by God’s spirit and grace, you are able to preach – to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God.

Locked In or Sent Out (John 20:19-23)

Posted by Chris on February 6, 2005 under Sermons

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ²¹Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

That Sunday evening service in Jerusalem didn’t start out too well. It had been a full day for the disciples – really the end of a rather harrowing, disappointing, and frightening week. Everything had fallen apart the night Jesus was arrested. His followers were gathered together but possibly for self-preservation rather than for the faith or the cause. At the end of this day after the Sabbath the disciples of Jesus have heard all sorts of rumors. Some of them have been down at the tomb borrowed from Joseph of Arimathea and have noticed that the body of Jesus has been removed. Some of them have reported seeing Jesus alive again. There are reports that the leaders of the Sanhedrin and Roman forces are still rounding up followers of the Messiah. All of these wild reports contribute to the confusion. For now this group of men who once had dreams of restoring God’s kingdom are resolved to do nothing more than wait and hide. And so the Sunday evening gathering of this proto-church in Jerusalem begins in silence and fear among a remorseful band of disillusioned souls closed in behind a locked door.

Everything changes when Jesus arrives. His appearance is not expected and there isn’t much warning because it seems that Jesus doesn’t arrive through the front door like he used to. He just arrives and once the group is convinced that this is Jesus in the resurrected flesh they are overjoyed. Jesus’ interaction with his disciples calls our attention how He interacts with us and how we interact with one another through his presence. I call your attention to three things that happen in on the evening of Resurrection Sunday: 1) The Peace of Christ and the Marks of Christ, 2) The Spirit of Christ and the Sending of Christ, and 3) The Grace of Christ and the Church of Christ. Each of these has a blend of spiritual and practical concerns that we should meditate on as we consider what it means to be his disciples.

The Peace of Christ and the Marks of Christ
Jesus’ first word to his disciples is a greeting, "Peace, be with you." There hasn’t been a lot of peace among this group up till now. They are an anxious, guilt-ridden, frightened bunch. Peter has publicly rejected his Teacher to save his own skin. All the in-fighting over who gets to be second-in-command seems so petty at this point. No body wants to be a part of the inner circle right now. Some in the group have different ideas about what ought to be done. (Thomas is off doing his own thing at this point and others have already packed their bags and headed off to the country). Some are thinking about Mary’s claim to have seen Jesus and others are probably thinking she is grief-stricken or insane.
So, Jesus brings PEACE. Not the cheap imitation peace derived from self-preservation and maintained by a door latch. This is a real peace that overcomes the world. As proof of this peace, Jesus shows them his wounds. Of all things he shows them his wounds. Have you ever wondered why Jesus still has those wounds? He is resurrected after all. One would think that resurrection might also include a complete healing right? If God can resurrect Jesus from the dead he can certainly mend wounded flesh without a scar right?
I find it rather interesting that the risen Jesus still bears the marks of his crucifixion, and I don’t think it just an accident. There’s something we need to recognize in all this: before there is a resurrection there must first be a death. Death is a prerequisite for resurrection. The resurrection doesn’t erase the reality of the crucifixion – it redeems it and transforms it. Without the resurrection, the crucifixion is nothing more that an unjust tragedy. Redefined by the power of the resurrection it becomes much more. Now the cross is the way of hope. Now suffering is not the final word. The risen Jesus can show us the wounds he suffered unjustly and still bid us peace. Now keep in mind that suffering isn’t simply erased or swallowed up in sunshine and sugar. No, that’s escapism and saccharin optimism and the gospel is much more than that. Suffering, fear, weakness, loss, and shame are transformed by God’s power so that a new way to real peace, joy, and hope is made possible.
If we participate in God’s mission the peace of Christ should be ours even thought we may be scared and scarred. We refuse to hide behind a locked door and ignore this angry world because we have been brought near to Christ and witnessed his transformed suffering. We share this witness with the angry wounded world.

The Spirit of Christ and the Sending of Christ
Throughout John’s gospel it is crystal clear that Jesus has been sent by the Father.

• “My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” – John 4:34
• “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” – John 5:30
• “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” – John 6:38
• “I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true.” – John 7:28
• “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.” – John 12:44
• “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” – John 17:3

Jesus is sent to reveal the father, to teach and to gather disciples. And even in his prayer to the Father before the crucifixion, Jesus makes it clear that he will send his disciples just as God sent him (John 17:18). But look at this group he intends to send out! When Jesus appears among the disciples the air is stuffy and stale with anxiety, distress, and regret. So he brings the fresh air of the Holy Spirit which enables them to breathe in peace. Real peace and not the cheap imitation manufactured by their urge for self-preservation.
So here’s the question: "How do you send a timid, fretful, remorseful, group like this? Answer: With a lot of help! That help is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ departure from the sanctuary and peace of oneness with the Father must have been in some way like our trial of leaving the zone of presumed safety behind our locked doors – whether they are physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental. Jesus could not have been sent into an place less friendly. The risen Jesus sends his disciples into a world that may be only slightly friendlier and only a little less perilous. The toxic atmosphere of the curse still pollutes the air of this world, but the fresh wind of the spirit is blowing some of it away.
If the disciples who received the peace of Jesus and beheld his wounds needed such power to be sent out for the mission, don’t you think we need it all the more? You have this same empowering

The Grace of Christ and the Church of Christ
Christ’s peace and the Holy Spirit. These are the mysterious keys for unlocking the anxiety and fear that hinders us from being gathered up and sent out into God’s mission. They are gifts of the risen Lord and I am happy to let the Lord keep these keys in his pockets as we enjoy the privilege of following him through the barriers and barbed wire of this angry world. But there are other keys on the key chain – the ones that lock and unlock forgiveness – these are keys that Jesus wants us to carry. After giving them the Holy Spirit, Jesus says this to his disciples: " If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
It would be a mistake to assume that Jesus is saying that he cannot forgive anyone we refuse to forgive. That sort of authority is just not ours. But Jesus makes it clear that we have to take responsibility for using the keys of grace. One translation puts it like this …" If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Do we really want to retain sins? Here’s our choice – We can unlock the chain bolt of guilt, shame, bitterness, and remorse; or we can lock it down tightly and retain sin. It’s a good strong lock too. IN fact we can retain all our sins – yours, mine, and everyone we know and in time we will all be bound up in sin because we are not using the keys wisely. We begin to think that we are hiding out behind our protective locked doors when in fact we have just been locked awy in the prison cell of sin and death. We had better use these keys wisely.

Here’s the implication for mission: The Father sent Jesus to save and not condemn. We are witnesses to the power of God to create new life and transform pain, suffering, and sin. So why would we want to retain sins? As Anne Lamott says, that’s like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. Why retain sins, why bind them on ourselves or someone else when Christ has given us the key to let it loose? Our mission as the church of Christ is to reveal the grace of Christ; to participate in his mission to preach freedom for captives.

It is God’s Mission: the Church Gathered and Sent

Posted by Chris on January 30, 2005 under Sermons

What do falling towers, clay jars, a shifty money manager, and a Scottish King have to do with one another? It sounds like the start of a bad joke or a mysterious riddle. If you have been following the preaching of the word through January, then you know that each of these objects tells a story that enriches our understanding of God’s mission to rescue the world. They refer to biblical teachings that indicate how we are not only participants in the mission but also recipients of that rescuing mission.
These four images and the principles attached to each one summon us to focus our attention on what God is doing in the world, in the church, and in our lives.

It is God’s mission and we have been called to participate in it.
Luke 13:4-5 – "And what about the eighteen who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will also perish."
Natural disasters and crises in the world (9-11 and tsunamis) may cause people to ask questions about God, his protection, and our sinfulness. But whether the tragedies and crises in this world are the work of humanity’s sin or the result of nature the call to each of us is the same – turn toward God. Towers fall because this is a fallen world. God has a rescue mission to save it. Not simply to save us, but to redeem all things and to bring forth a new heaven and earth. We have been called to be a part of that. We are invited to enter into the kingdom of God. But before any of us can participate in God’s mission, we must realize that we are first and always recipients of his missional activity. To make disciples we must be disciples. We are called to worship him and at the same time sent out to serve others in his name. That means that the knee that bows is part of the same leg that walks a life worthy of the gospel. It is all part of repentance – which not only means turning away from sin, but turning toward God and aligning ourselves with his mission. It is God’s mission and we have been called to participate in it.

It is God’s mission and we are empowered to live in it.
2 Corinthians 4:7 – "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us."
It may seem intimidating to participate in such an awesome mission. We are right to ask, "Who could ever be worthy of such a task?" And we would be right to answer, "None of us!" But the good news is that we are not left to our own power and ability. This is good news because the Bible affirms that the mission is not a problem we have to solve alone by working harder, doing something new, raising more money, or generating more anxiety. We believe the word of God that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. (See Ephesians 3:20.) We do not believe the old saying that "God has no hands but our hands" to do His work. In fact, quite the opposite, we are God’s handiwork and our ministry and good works are God’s hand at work among us. (See Ephesians 2:10.) We are simply containers, humble clay jars or cardboard boxes, that carry the wonderful gospel treasure that God deposits within us. It is God’s mission and we are empowered to live in it.

It is God’s mission and all our powers and resources shall conform to His rule.
Luke 16:13 – "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
The parable of a clever money manager reminds us that the children of this age are more cunning and creative in achieving their objectives than the children of light are with the mission. If a devious and self-serving embezzler is able to use the power and money available to him to save his own skin, shouldn’t we, the recipients of God’s mission, apply of all our powers and resources for the saving of the lost? Someone might say, "But wait, didn’t we just affirm that God empowers this mission?" Exactly! And what powers and resources do we have that we think weren’t given to us by God in the first place. We are not saying that we offer God something he didn’t already have or cannot claim without our consent. Rather, we are redeeming the various resources, privileges, and powers that we have access to by conforming them to God’s rightful rule over all things. The way we use these powers and resources determines our master: We give them to God or they master us. God is our Lord and we shall be faithful even in the little things, the simple everyday resources and the everyday decisions we make about the way we use our time and money. We shall be faithful with the simple authority and influence we have whether as a neighbor, a relative, a co-worker, a supervisor, a subordinate, a salesperson, a shopper, a professional, a politician, a customer, or a clerk. It is God’s mission and all our power and resource – as individuals and as a church – shall conform to His rule.

It is God’s mission and we have been united for a common cause
The story of Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, is the one image not drawn from Scripture. But perhaps this parable taken from history about a King that united a divided people against a common foe will remind us of Jesus’ prayer for us.
John 17:23 – "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
It is tempting in this age to want to be served rather than serve. It is tempting to claim our status as a paying customer, a taxpaying citizen, or a faithful contributing church member and so demand our rights. It is tempting to focus on our individual needs and our personal relationship with God to the exclusion of our relationship with his people. But these are the lure and bait of the enemy who would keep us divided so that we do not recognize the joy and blessings of being gathered up by God into a community of those who are being saved. The enemy does want us to see the world from the vantage of God’s mission and so imagine ourselves related to one another and even to the world through the love of God. Unity is the prayer of our King, Jesus Christ, and the purpose of our unity in worship, fellowship, and ministry is that the world may know God. It is God’s mission and we have been united for a common cause – his mission to save the world he loves (which includes us).

The sum total of all these is that God is to focus our attention on what God is doing in the world, in the church, and in our lives. Believing that God is actually doing something in the world, the church, and our lives is no small thing. Even Christians can become conditioned to act, speak and think as if we can only trust in what we humans can achieve by our own will, our own power, our own resources, and our own organization.

It is (just) our mission.
Quite often we think that the mission is something we do. We may not do this consciously, but, as good Americans, we think that the effort is all up to us. We are a "do-it-yourself, get-r-done" type of people and have been so for many generations. Our problem is not that we are hearers and not doers of the word. Often we are doers but we haven’t heard a thing! When we think of mission as "our mission" or "the mission of the church" without placing it in the context of what God is doing our view of mission becomes flat, two-dimensional, and disconnected from the source of mission.

We view it like this: God is up there, and the world is down here. God’s effort is to establish the church, but once he has done so, the mission is delegated to the church. There really isn’t any point in God remaining in mission because the church must do it. Now the church, if it is to be faithful and survive, must go out into the world and bring in new members. That is how it grows and expands.
Problems with this view: This is ecclesiocentric or church-centered. It really doesn’t seem all that wrong and it isn’t wrong, it is just so incomplete. Mission is church recruitment. It is a program of the church among many efforts that the church and members can select and choose. It is always outside the church. And there is no sense of internal mission to those who are being save (1 Corinthians 1:18).

It is God’s mission and we are gathered and sent. I believe we will be refreshed and have a new sense of joy and hope when we perceive mission as the mission of God toward us and the world rather than a program of the church. Drawing from the biblical worldview let’s view it like this: Begin with God and the world. God’s desire is to reconcile with the world. He is a reconciling God. This is his mission. Implication: Mission is more than just an adjunct activity of the church. God sends Christ. He establishes the rule of Christ over all the earth. There are not two realms – one where Christ is Lord and one where he is not. He may not be recognized as Lord, but that does not change the reality of kingdom and authority. Where he is confessed as Lord there are a worshipping/ministering people who are the recipients of the mission and a visible witness of what God is doing to rescue the world – the church! The clay jars full of valuable treasure, the unified people who have been redeemed and aligned their purposes with God’s purposes. This people, the church, come up from the cultures of the world, but are transformed within the culture. Since they remain in the world (though not of the world) it would not be accurate to draw a tight circle and declare it the inside and the world is then the outside. Instead, this mission/worship shaped community exists in the world and has a dynamic relationship with the world that is in synch with God’s relationship with the world. God’s mission defines this relationship with the world by gathering people into the church and sending the church into the world. Please note that the sending and gathering are not solely the work of the church. Sending and gathering are part of God’s activity in the world, in the church, and in our lives.

End with John 20:23 – The Church Gathered and Sent. God sent Christ, Christ sends the church. More on this next week. Do you know Jesus? We believe he is risen and he is doing something in this world, this church, and he is able to do something in your life.