imagining how the church can reorient around mission

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

crown of glory – psalm 8 and romans 8

You should know Dr. Haley Jacob, a notable theologian who was supervised by the renowned N.T. Wright during her Ph.D. studies. We are so fortunate that she is a member of our church community and on our preaching team at Immanuel. Her research on Romans 8 is unique, even groundbreaking, and needs to be heard by every Christian. I am not exaggerating. It will set you free to imagine following Jesus in a new, IMHO, more beautiful way. In fact, I was so moved by her teachings that several times during the presentation, I physically gasped. Trust me; you don’t want to miss out on what she has to explain.

liturgy after charlotteville

The following are the brief remarks I made at Immanuel Church on the Sunday after the White Nationalist rally in Charlotteville, Virginia

I don’t have many words because, frankly, I’m embarrassed and broken hearted. For most of the weekend, as I saw report after report as to what had happened, my emotions went back and forth between sadness and infuriation. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because I have been predicting this stuff for a long time now, but I was still flabbergasted that what I was watching could be happening in my country in the year 2017.

I’m sad because as a pastor now for 33 years, I am watching a church that is, in many ways standing on the sideline silent. I am not talking about Immanuel now so much, but some of my emotions originate with how I have observed how many Christians have reacted to much of the violent unrest in our land. I have observed some white people be quick to respond to BLM’s stuff as divisive, while are strangely quiet now. I’ve been frustrated by white people who say stuff like, “Why don’t Muslim condemn terrorism,” yet are not leveraging their voice about this weekend.

I am only speaking to white people now, now is your chance to do what we’ve wanted and expected others to do. This weekend, we literally had white terrorist parading through an American city with torches (they aren’t even wearing hoods anymore) while in many ways the church remains silent. If we do not speak now, our moral voice will further disappear from the national landscape, a landscape that is in desperate need of an authentic Gospel witness.

Yesterday, my friend and denominational colleague, Liz Verhage wrote in response to the events (and I’ve personalized it), “I just want to say this…as your pastor, as a father, as a white American, and a human being, I reject the evil, hate, and violence being stoked by white nationalists, racists, KKK, and or whatever else it is called today, in Charlottesville this weekend. This is evidence of a profound and historically accepted disease, a spiritual sickness, of powers and principalities that must be called out, named, and resisted, because it always seeks death and is against the Lord Jesus Christ…This is also exhibiting the racist realities and lies that many folks of color see, feel, and fear on a daily basis, it’s now just been given air to breathe and take off its mask.”

So, I am making 4 commitments:

  • I commit to live a life (beyond the “hot takes” and news cycle) that denounces racism in its many forms. This cannot be softened or mitigated. It must be denounced as sin. Any “and, if or buts,” simply continues the toleration of this national evil. I am committed to live my life and use my voice as a reproach against this evil. As the great Apostle Paul wrote, “I will weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice…” Today, I weep once again.
  • I commit to witness to the loving heart of God toward all and the reconciling life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the one who is called our peace and who has broken down every wall. I will seek to live into the Gospel that says all are valuable, all have dignity and all are loved. Church, there is no way out of this outside of loving others. We cannot hate our way to the other side! We say we follow Jesus, but this same Jesus is our peace, our shalom. That peace is for separated peoples, not just racially divided, but people who have dramatically divergent views of what the world should look like. Jesus said it this way, “We are not only to love those that love (or agree) with us, but love our enemies.” We cannot surrender to hate, in any way.
  • I give myself to the dream of the Beloved Community. It is a King phrase – Martin Luther King wrote, “The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.” I am absolutely persuaded that we, as the church hold the key to reconciliation. A community that lives into the ultimate “healed future,” the hope of all things being made new, will not only spark a voracious hunger for God in others but will stand as a prophetic reproach against this systemic sin. It is our song at Immanuel and we will continue to sing it loud and often.
  • Lastly, I commit to pray. Barth said, “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” Eugene Peterson said this about prayer:

“…a subversive activity [that] involves a more or less open act of defiance against any claim by the current regime.”

Time of open prayer, followed by…

Prayer:

Leader: Lord Jesus, your Kingdom is good news for a world caught in racial hostility. We ask that you would give us grace for the deep challenges facing our country.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord, we confess our anger, our deep sadness, and our collective sense of weakness to see this world healed through our own strength.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord, we honestly confess that our country has a long history of racial oppression, that racism has been a strategy of evil powers and principalities.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord, we confess that the gospel is good news for the oppressed and the oppressor. Both are raised up. Both are liberated, but in different ways. The oppressed are raised up from the harsh burden of inferiority. The oppressor from the destructive illusion of superiority.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord, we confess that the gospel is your power to form a new people not identified by dominance and superiority, but by unity in the Spirit.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord, we ask that you would help us name our part in this country’s story of racial oppression and hostility. Whether we have sinned against others by seeing them as inferior, or whether we have been silent in the face of evil. Forgive us of our sin.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord we pray for our enemies. For those who have allowed Satanic powers to work through them. Grant them deliverance through your mighty power.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord, we ask that you would form us to be us peace-makers. May we be people who speak the truth in love as we work for a reconciled world.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Leader: Lord we commit our lives to you, believing that you are working in the world in spite of destructive powers and principalities. Bring healing to those who are hurt, peace to those who are anxious, and love to those who are fearful. We wait for you, O Lord. Make haste to help us.

Congregation: Oh Lord, only you can make all things new.

Prayer found at http://www.missioalliance.org/congregational-prayer-churches-charlottesville/

r

What is the Gospel? (HT: Out of Ur)

There has been much discussion about the meaning of the Gospel.  What is the Gospel?  Entrance into to heaven?  A list or propositions?  In this video, Dallas Willard talks about what the Gospel is and how we live in it.

 What do you think about Willard's perspective?  Do you think he captures the essence of what the NT calls the Good News?

A Prayer for Those Who Love the Gospel More than Jesus.

      Dear Jesus, we tremble at the thought of you speaking these words to us. What could be more sobering and tragic than to hear you say, “You talk about me a whole lot, using plenty of spiritual language and Bible quotes. You’re very quick to recognize and correct false teaching. You’re even quite zealous to apply what you know to others. But your heart is very far from me.”

via thegospelcoalition.org

I found this linked on my friend and colleague, Steve Hart's FB. I thought it was important, hopeful and well worth pushing out further.  Thanks Steve (and author, Scotty Smith).

Contextualize This

Contextualization

Attempting to contextualize the Gospel is a very acute and sensitive endeavor. Push the envelope too far and you will be lost in the ocean of syncretism, or really just pervert the Gospel until it is no longer the good news of Jesus Christ, but the good news of whatever culture or society you are in. On the contrary, if you fail to contextualize at all, or just contextualize too little, evangelism really just becomes assimilation and or socialization unto the church culture – or Christian imperialism. Stanley Hauerwas seems to insinuate in his book Resident Alien that the first apologists in the early church were inadvertently (it should be noted that Constantinian Christendom was also a major contributing factor) laying the groundwork that would perpetuate into modern theologians fruitless attempts to accommodate or make the Gospel – perceived to be ancient and outdated due to its ancient near eastern Hebraic roots – seem relevant and intelligible to the post-modernity, post-enlightenment, and increasingly anti-Christianity intellectual realm of the current times. (There is obviously more to be said and more to explain, but for the sake of the brevity of the blog post, and retaining your interest, I must go on.) This, Hauerwas goes on to argue, “transforms it [the Gospel] into something it never claimed to be – ideas abstracted from Jesus, rather than Jesus with his people.” 

So how then do we go forth and contextualize the Gospel? That is of course, if you do not believe that contextualizing is a necessary theological discipline, then you have no horse in this race and should go read a different blog. I am starting with the basic underlying assumption that it is necessary to contextualize the Gospel. After all, God did it – the Word became flesh. Anyways, I am not trying to hint that Hauerwas is suggesting that we give up trying to contextualize the Gospel (Hauerwas is a boss, he would never suggest such a thing), I am merely attempting to intelligently express and publicly vent a frustration that I have over contextualization. I believe it is not just important, but it is absolutely necessary. But I am also very put off by all the implicit dangers that come with, if it is not done properly. Rene Padilla argues and points out that it is not a science, but an art, to which I whole-heartedly agree. Unlike science, Scripture is not to be read, studied or translated with an indifferent disconnect between the object and the subject. There is an undeniable, subjective, and emotive relationship between the two. read more