Good Trouble, Bad Trouble

Good and Bad Trouble: Daniel 12: 1-3; Mark 13: 1-8

            A friend of mine says she has two siblings, and the three of them have all assumed a unique role in the family. One is the troublemaker, one is the instigator, and the final one is usually the innocent. And for their entire lives, this is how things have worked out. One gets in trouble constantly. The other one never gets in trouble but is always causing the trouble, and the last one steers clear of all the trouble from the get-go. Now, for today, we’re going to leave to the side the idea of one being innocent because we all know what that means, and frankly, troublemakers are a lot more fun to talk about than people who are perpetually obedient. 

            That leaves us the troublemaker and the instigator. It is easy to assume that both are generally bad. And, in fact, usually when someone makes trouble, it’s not a good thing for those around. That’s not always necessarily true, though, for it was the late John Lewis who taught about “good trouble” which challenges things which are sinful, unjust, or cruel in society. Likewise, we all want to blame the instigator for trouble. There’s an old saying that “those who stir the pot ought to lick the spoon,” and usually what’s in the pot in the saying is none too appetizing. However, again, an instigator is not always bad, for Jesus instigated trouble for the cleansing of the temple, when challenged by the pharisees, and at other times when he saw that human made rules caused cruelty and suffering. 

            So, what good can come from being an instigator of trouble? Does something in the scripture give us this answer? I think it is safe to say that at times Jesus could be a bit of an instigator. His words and teaching ruffled the feathers of those around him. Here the disciples are praising the beauty and majesty of the Temple. Jesus could have simply agreed, saying, “Yep, they are nice.” Instead, he pushes and challenges his disciples by saying that the buildings are nice, BUT “they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another,” in verse 2. Certainly, this was not what the disciples were expecting. 

            But it’s not the only time Jesus was provocative with his words and actions. Each time he is questioned by the Pharisees, Jesus tells a parable or asks a question which humiliates them. On the Sabbath, Jesus breaks the law to heal folks in need and practically dares the leaders to say something about it. Jesus instigated not for the sake of causing trouble but to challenge what was sinful in the world around him. By contrast he warns the disciples that many will come in his name claiming to be the Messiah, and many will be victims of this religious swindling. 

            Those who come to teach false doctrine, to redefine who Jesus is in terms of a personal or economic agenda, those who remake Jesus in a form or fashion he is not—they are instigating pure trouble. It was John Hagee, in fact, who said that Jesus will not come back as a white, Southern Baptist preacher in a grey suit. And yet many of our churches still confuse nationalism and Christianity, politics and power with faith, and human society with the Kingdom of God. Jesus instigated trouble to challenge us to stop thinking in terms of what is around us, and instead, to think in terms of God’s purpose and God’s kingdom. 

            As we’ve heard, trouble can also be good or bad. I’m sure all of us are well-acquainted with what bad trouble looks like. And I’m absolutely certain I have no troublemakers at all in this congregation. I tease, but it is the truth. As a pastor I’m extremely blessed with you all. But I’ve seen other churches where troublemakers toiled endlessly to bring chaos and selfishness into a place intended to be holy. Many of you have lived that same awful experience with houses of worship that felt more like the Temple filled with pharisees than a church filled with people supposedly following Christ. It’s unfortunate and only serves to run people away from a faith which is meant to bring wholeness and a loving embrace from God and God’s people.  

            But there are times where trouble is good. If we think back to Jesus at the Temple in the Gospel of John, he arrives to see money changers, animal sales, practically a full farmers market of religious stuff. People were supposed to come for worship bringing their best sacrifice to God, not bartering for something somewhat suitable at the half-done ancient Wal-Mart in the Temple courtyard. Jesus makes a whip and drives people from this place calling it a den of thieves and decrying the desecration of a place intended to be holy. Truthfully, Jesus was causing trouble—big trouble in the Temple. But it was good trouble because it pushed away the sinful actions of the people and called on them to live more for God instead. 

            Jesus describes all manner of trouble to the disciples including the destruction of the Temple, wars, threats of wars, earthquakes, and famines, all bringing trouble and tribulation on the earth, but the ending is not a nightmare of trouble. Jesus adds, “This is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.” Birth pains? Trouble can lead to something good, or something new? Well, Daniel also seems to echo this idea. Daniel’s prophecy talks about a time of great anguish, but Daniel also talks about great rescue and of new life for those who live in faith.

Trouble can lead to a new and often better way of doing things by changing up bad habits and old ways of being that lead to a sinful staleness in our faith and turmoil in our lives. A friend of mine was the organist at a church. For years, the church had been neglecting maintenance of their pipe organ, and for years my friend had been fixing it as best he could while begging for some money to repair and maintain it. Those pleas fell on deaf ears until one Sunday he made a little trouble. 

Right in the middle of service the organ had a cipher. Now a cipher means a smaller pipe has gotten dislodged or stuck open somehow causing the wind to be pumped into it constantly. Imagine a high-pitched flute, wide open, with an endless air supply squealing constantly through the middle of service. The pastor turns and asks my friend, the organist to fix it. He decides it’s time for some trouble, so he makes a big scene of climbing up into the chamber where the pipes are and clanging and banging around for 10 minutes making the worst racket possible. Finally, the squeaking stops. The next day, the church leadership voted in an emergency meeting to fully fund an organ repair. What they didn’t know is that to fix a cipher, you only have to pop the loose pipe back into place and all is well…takes about 5 seconds. 

In our lives there will be instigators and troublemakers. Some of them come to make life difficult, painful, and burdensome. But there are some wise troublemakers and instigators in our world who see that in the example of Jesus, sometimes we have to rock the boat a bit to push society towards what is just and holy. Sometimes it is that very act of causing a bit of trouble that can lead to the birth pains of a new and better way of living—a temple more attuned to God, a society more just in its treatment of God’s children, a people less selfish and more focused on Jesus as the Savior and holy example for us here. If we follow Jesus and never challenge the world in which we live, what, exactly, are we doing with our faith and God’s call? May we follow the example of Jesus and make a bit of good trouble in this world, but may we also follow that trouble with the Good News of God’s love and peace. 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1087427975422265

A Message to the Church: Final

Philadelphia--The Church Triumphant: Psalm 27: 1-5; Rev. 3: 7-13

            Have you ever just had one of those weeks where you just want to crawl into a hole and hide from the entire world? Whether it’s a long day, bad week, deep sadness, or just an overwhelming sense of tired, I’m sure we’ve all had those moments. Or maybe it’s lasted even longer than moments. It’s a familiar, yet unsettled place to be in life. Writer Walker Percy in The Moviegoer gives a good description in the title character. It feels like just as you’re about to go into a deep, peaceful sleep, being jolted right out of it by a litany of “what if’s?” Those “crawl into a hole” days can leave us feeling depressed and defeated. I’ll be a bit vulnerable for a minute with you. In my lines of work I deal in the church with death, heartache, decline, disappointments, counseling people at dark moments in their lives. And I deal with horrific cases of abuse, suffering, neglect and the misery of financial ruin of elders and adults who are profoundly disabled. Then I come on Sunday mornings and summon some kind of last vestiges of the Holy Spirit I’ve got to give you something positive in what can be a hard, cruel world. 

            As we know, people make up our churches, and often all of our personal struggles can spill over into our church lives. It’s normal. It’s expected. We come here as we are with baggage, pain, regrets, whatever feelings that sometimes we can and sometimes we cannot hide. A friend of mine said that sometimes as the people of God and as the body of Christ we live in a place of opposition against us and torment within us. The churches in Revelation lived with these struggles, whether false prophets, their own sin, the spiritual blahs, oppression and opposition, all of the faced some kind of trouble, and that trouble threatened them to their core. Except for one…this church at Philadelphia somehow held firm.  

            What was different here? It’s the only church to get a good report with no criticism or warning, only commendations were given. First and foremost, they had faithful endurance. John’s repot says in verse 10, “Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you,” and in verse 11, “Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown.” It’s often hard (and somewhat disheartening) to say to someone in the midst of their struggle, “Just hold on and get yourself through it.” Nobody wants to hear that the fix for their troubles and heartaches is “to just suck it up and deal with it.” 

            But the more I ponder on those words, there are two things which softened the impact: first, we often don’t have much choice about what we face. In this world we will trouble, is the painful promise offered in the Gospel of John. Philadelphia was not spared all the world’s trouble, for Revelation says, “You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.” They also had to persevere at some point in their existence, so the church was not completely spared all the trouble of the world. The old saying is that there are two guarantees—death and taxes, but I submit to you there’s a third one that at some point we will face trials which shake us deeply in our spirit and soul. And the hard truth is, we will have to endure through it. 

            But the easier truth, the second realization I have found, is that endurance and perseverance do not have to be struggled with alone. God says to the church at Philadelphia, “I will protect you from the great time of testing.” God adds that all who are victorious will become pillars in the Holy Temple and will be citizens of God’s kingdom, a kingdom of peace and love with no end. That is a promise given to us in holy covenant from God, that with faith, there is a mighty presence of one who loves us, leads us, guides us, and walks with us when the darkest of days descend upon us. 

            The Psalm for today is one that speaks to this powerful presence of God in difficult places of life. It’s one I often go to when my own mood is a bit sour and unpleasant. It says to us that God is our light and salvation, and because of that there is no reason to be afraid. God is strong in our weakness like a fortress protecting us from danger. God will keep us from being devoured and ruined by the evil around us, through love, through a community that joyfully embraces us, and through helpers who stand beside us. Even if all the powers of evil and hell attack us when our spirits are most fragile, we can be confident. Why is this so? We can sum up the words of verses four and five to say, because God’s presence never leaves us. 

            There are two promises within this that can also speak to us. Romans 8:28 (often quoted in such times) says “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to [God’s] purpose for them.” But a less quoted, and I think more powerful promise is found in Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust. [God] will not forget how hard you have worked…and how you have shown your love…by caring for other believers, as you still do.” 

            God remembers. All of that pain, struggle, and difficulty of life, God remembers and is present with us. A lady I worked with for a number of years talked about how hard winter could be. Her office did not have a window at the time. She would roll her eyes and say that for five whole days a week she arrived at the office while it was still dark, and when she left the office, it was still dark. After a few days it almost felt like there was no sunlight at all. She said it always caused a bad case of seasonal affect disorder which is similar to depression. And, of course, cold weather only made it worse. For a whole week there was this horrendous dark and depressive state that she lived and worked in. 

            But on Saturday morning, she got up just before sun-up, and wrapped up in a big blanket in the all-window sunroom. She had her book and a good, hot cup of coffee, and she waited. In just a few minutes the darkness was pierced by these brilliant rays of sunlight, and for an entire morning she was bathed in the bright, golden rays which cast out the darkness, the struggle, and the suffering of the week. 

            Maybe that’s a bit how the church at Philadelphia felt. Through whatever they had persevered and held on to overcome by faith, they could see this bright dawn just breaking before them. It was a dawn of hope, of peace, coming from the protection of the very God in whom they’d kept their faith without wavering. Philadelphia was an earthquake-prone area, so I imagine that just after that light of hope broke forth in their lives, they set about rebuilding brick by brick, stone by stone until the church was strong again. 

            We know that in life we may face death, taxes, and probably some kind of personal suffering or struggle. In fact it’s almost a guarantee. And it’s true there’s often no way around it causing us to have to bear through life’s pain and struggle. But even as we know this will come, God’s protection and ever-present help will be with us. God’s promised presence was known in the words of the Psalmist. God’s promised presence was known in the letter to the church at Philadelphia, and God’s word gives us that same hope: yes, indeed, there is victory in Jesus. 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/903284717019554

A Message to the Church Part 6

Laodicea: Lukewarm at Best—Hosea 6; Rev. 3: 14-22

            I read an article in The Atlantic the other day that said something like this: 2020 was a hard year to pastor a church, but 2021 is even harder. Masks, common meals, social distancing, hymn singing, physical touch, temperature checks…all have the potential to cause disagreements and fights. But if I were honest with you now, the absolute hardest part of this has not been COVID protocols. It’s really people. Now, that sounds severe, but it’s not meant that way. Let me explain a bit. Imagine, as a pastor, I had to spend the bulk of 2020 telling people NOT to come to church because it wasn’t safe. That’s literally the opposite of my job. But, how do I now go back and say, everybody needs to be in church not watching at home. We need you back! How do I authentically say that? Worse than that is this wavering sense of commitment our society is finding towards anything and everything.  

            A friend of mine the other day talked about his office returning everyone to the physical location. He said, “I’ve spent over a year working from home, I do not want to go back into a cramped little office again!” And the truth is, I don’t blame folks, and I really don’t have an answer. The pastor of St. David’s Episcopal in Virginia, who wrote the article I mentioned, noted that their attendance went from about 130 pre-COVID to around 60 now. Some of this is still fear, and I completely understand that with no judgment. But some of it is also a change in how we live in society. With all the technology, we’ve learned that physical presence is maybe not as important as we once thought, and that can lead to both good but also dangerous outcomes. 

            In the letter to the church at Laodicea, the writer again notes that the church does many things, but there is a condemnation. They’ve gotten what I like to call “a great sense of blah.” They’re not hot. They’re not cold. They’re just kind of there and feel kind of “eh” about everything. But there is a little information that truly makes this clear. Many assumed, traditionally, that hot meant good and cold meant bad. This letter, though, isn’t a reference to the figurative church on fire or frozen over and dying. It’s a reference to water supplies. 

            In nearby Hierapolis, there was a hot spring which produced hot water for cleaning or bathing. In nearby Colossae, the water was pure and cold, which could be used for drinking, cooking, and other activities. The aqueduct that supplied Laodicea, though, drew from the hot springs at Hierapolis over 5 miles away. By the time the water reached Laodicea, it was lukewarm—too cold for cleaning and too warm for good drinking. Like the water which supplied the city, the church was not useful. It was neither hot, bringing a cleansing wave, nor cold giving a reviving drink to a thirsty people. 

            They were blah at best, lukewarm, gross. Some folks, I know, like room temperature water. But any good Southerner who has enjoyed the miracle of an icy drink in the middle of July can tell you, a big old drink of lukewarm water will get spit right out. This is where our modern-day church finds itself, caught in the middle of a political and social divide, lost as how to minister to people who have become accustomed to sitting at home away from church, worried that any bold moves will land them on the viral news as being “one of those super-spreader churches.” No matter what the choice is, there is no good answer. 

            Laodicea was also a wealthy city. They had a banking industry, but they are called poor and wretched. The city had a medical school which housed a famous ophthalmologist (or eye doctor as we say), yet they are blind. They had a huge garment industry of wool, but they are naked. Every worldly thing they take pride in is now being yanked away from them by the writer of the letter. You cannot take stock in worldly treasure and expect to be spiritually useful. 

            The writer instead tells them to buy gold and garments which are refined by the fire of God’s love. They are told to get an eye ointment that only God can provide. It’s a reference to the words of Jesus saying store up treasures in Heaven and not on earth where moths and rust corrupt and where thieves may steal all the possessions. They had much, but they had a blah spirit which hindered their relationship to God, and ultimately, a life of the blahs will lead to a church and a Christian’s undoing.

            The same is begged of Israel and Judah in the prophetic words of Hosea. The people have been ruined, but God is still trying to find a way to bring them back, to find that sense of relationship, of usefulness once more. God says to them that they should show love over offering sacrifices. They should know and have a relationship with God over doing the rituals of burnt offerings. But the people have a case of the blahs. They’re happy doing rituals but still living in this ghastly state of being lukewarm, useless, unhelpful, and downright sinful. 

            How does the church overcome its case of blahs? Revelation 3: 19 says, “be diligent and turn from your indifference.” That’s about as helpful as the lukewarm water they’re already being fed, isn’t it? Just will yourself to turn away! Let’s magically be passionate next week. I don’t think that helps. But there is something more helpful in verse 20, “‘Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.” 

            There’s an old, old hymn that nobody sings anymore and there are few videos on YouTube to even watch. It’s called “Who Is That Knocking,” and the second verse says this: “Who is that following after me, troubling my sleep at night? Who is that asking for my poor heart, saying, ‘Come into the light?’ Who is that knocking, calling, seeking, who is that troubling my soul? Surely ‘tis Jesus, asking, pleading, wanting to make me whole.” At some point of living in the blahs, we miss that sense of wholeness, that understanding that we and all of who we are wanted by God, for the kingdom of God, and to live out the purpose God has for us. 

            What are we missing out on because our churches have lost their motivation? Or, an even more convicting question, who is losing out because the churches are still trying to find their motivation. Make no mistake, a church and a Christian can live for a long time being lukewarm, but there is a cost, and it’s a heavy price to pay. Hot water keeps you clean, fresh, and unsoiled. Cold water keeps you nourished, hydrated, and healthy. A lukewarm church is too cold to really make a difference and too warm to truly refresh and hydrate. 

            But just as the writer says to the church at Laodicea, God is still calling us to a holy work which brings grace and salvation, but also seeks peace and wholeness in our communities. If you hear God’s voice and open the door, God will come in and share a meal together as friends. And as you join together with God, you’ll find that the meal looks a lot like a loaf of bread broken and a cup of wine poured out for you and the whole world. With a meal like that, how can you ever feel lukewarm? 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1451074075275069

A Message to the Church Part 5

Sardis: A Church Essentially Dead—Isaiah 52:1-10; Rev. 3: 1-6

            On Monday I attended the closing sale of a church building. For around 40 years this church celebrated hopes, joys, baptisms, funerals, dinners, faith and fellowship of all kinds. But as the congregation dwindled, it was time to re-think ministry and merge with another church. This is becoming an all-too-familiar refrain for churches these days. I subscribe to a Facebook group for appreciating old homes. At a rate of almost 2 per month there are churches being sold on there, and the churches are being converted into condos or private homes. 

            In the past year, we have witnessed an acceleration of the decline that everybody knew was happening. With COVID closing churches, businesses, and gatherings, it became clear that folks could either watch online, or they found something else to do on Sunday mornings. There was a grimly titled article on one of my clergy email lists which said, Dear Church, They’re Not Coming Back. The depressing and dire news is not just fond on television anymore. And yet, all this misery and concern leaves us asking a simple question? What now? Is the church in her dying gasps? Like Sardis, is the modern church essentially dead? We consider that question today in our series on the seven churches of Revelation and what the modern church can learn from them. 

            When John writes to the church at Sardis, he offers a rather awful message: “[Sardis], you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.” How exactly could they have this good reputation, but problematic assessment? There were many lively things going on—the church at Sardis was always doing stuff. This was by no means a declining congregation. But they were spiritually as good as dead. So many people came to Sardis, and they all lacked a spiritual depth. It reminds me of the rebuke Jesus gave to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27, “You are whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.” In modern times I think we struggle with this, for we look at numbers as a mark of growth and strength. But thousands of people make no difference if there is not a spiritual foundation and depth of faith within. The church must grow in faith and understanding of mission before it can ever consider growing otherwise. 

            In essence, there are three things a church does: maintenance, ministry, and mission. We can define maintenance as keeping up the physical location and a center for church work. Ministry is the work that a church does to grow in and of itself and develop its members. Mission is the way the church reaches out and connects to the community. Most churches are quite good at the ministry portion—there is a sense that they take good care of their members. And so long as the money holds out, churches are good at maintenance. But the real struggle in or churches today is this idea of mission. Mission is what we are lacking. 

            John, in Revelation 3, tells the church at Sardis, “Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again.” If we go back, we can find this call to mission in Matthew 28 where Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all the nations,” with further instructions to baptize and teach the world. Go out into the world and make disciples—it’s a mission for the church. The words of Isaiah echo this idea, saying, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation.” Even now as it was then, there is beauty and rejoicing at those who bring good news to a weary people. 

            Why do we have this good news? What is this push to “go into all the world?” The church at Sardis appears to have been busy—what were they doing? The short answer to that, is “who know?” All of their busyness lacked substance, and it was killing them because they had no deep roots, no real depth of faith. If our faith is going to blossom and grow, then we have to grow in the depth of wisdom, knowledge, and faith. The church at Sardis had lost its depth and the total collapse of the church was not far behind. 

            So, can this dire prediction for the church be avoided? The short answer here is yes. When we think of the Christian faith, there is one central overarching theme stands out as the core of what we believe: resurrection. What our faith comes down to is a belief that Christ died and was resurrected from the dead. You’ve been to enough Easters to know the story. Either we fundamentally and truthfully believe in resurrection as the hallmark of our faith, or we don’t. And if we believe that Christ can live again, then we must also believe the same of Christ’s church. We do this by reclaiming our mission—to go out into or communities, neighborhoods, towns, and cities proclaiming good news and living out that good news of Jesus’s love. 

            The Rev. Fred Craddock told a story of an old church he pastored many, many years ago, which I’m going to generally paraphrase. This church had an incredible opportunity to minister to folks who were seasonal visitors to the community—making them part of the church and capitalizing on their presence for the several months they were there. Instead, the church moved to block these people completely and totally from coming in and joining in ministry, and Rev. Craddock left as pastor soon after. In telling this story, he says that he came back to this isolated, unyielding, and unwelcoming church many years later and was surprised to find a beautiful white-painted building, perfectly maintained. The picket fence was still intact, and there were dozens of cars on Sunday morning. The place was packed. The warm, welcoming sign said to everyone who came there, “All you can eat buffet. $9.99.” 

            What the modern church is missing is this passion for mission and for God’s people. We ask our friends to church, but they’ve attended another church for 50 years. We ask our kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews to come back and visit from their churches. But John did not tell Pergamum, Sardis, Ephesus, and others to share folks around as needed. Jesus did not tell the disciples to visit a few synagogues with their friends. The church, instead, got a much harder mission: go into the world preaching the good news to all people. Make disciples. 

            Statistics say that our churches are declining. There is no way around that cold, hard fact. Like Sardis, there’s a lot going on, but much of it is full of sound and fury signifying nothing as Faulkner so eloquently said. There is a cold, hard realization that the universal church, all the denominations together, are nearing a crisis point. But God’s people have been here before. Isaiah is a prophetic word to a people suffering in exile, slavery, oppression, and decline. And Isaiah 52:10 reminds both them and us that, “The Lord has demonstrated his holy power before the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth will see the victory of our God.” Are we, then, going to be a people tethered to a statistic of decline, or are we fundamentally, at our core, a people who believe in a God of resurrection and life? 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/239475264821382

A Message to the Church Pt. 4

Thyatira: Missing One Piece—Psalm 1; Rev. 2: 18-29

            This week, in our series on the seven churches of Revelation, we look at the church at Thyatira. This church reminds me of the harrowing experience of doing puzzles, and why I struggle with such pastimes. I will never forget this beautiful, 1,000 piece puzzle of a nightscape I was working on with a friend. We agonized, worked, toiled over this puzzle for weeks. It all came down to one piece in the middle-right. But the remaining piece was a bright orange color…which didn’t fit in the middle of a tree…in a nightscape. Thyatira was much the same way. So much was going well for them, but the were struggling with one missing piece. The lessons we, the modern church, can learn from Thyatira are these: listen to good counsel and hold steadfast to the faith you have when all the pieces fall into the right place. 

            Now you may want me to get right to the answer: what were they missing? But that’s not how a puzzle works because first you have to get the other pieces in place. In this word from Revelation, we see the importance of listening to good counsel. There is much debate on what the sin at Thyatira was. It appears to be two-fold. They were eating food dedicated to idols and false gods. As this was a city of tradesmen with a number of guilds, it was likely a mix of foods at business dinners. There is also a reference to sexual sins. Scholars believe that Thyatira, like the church at Corinth, had listened to prophets and preachers who were not connected the original apostles and were far too permissive in their behaviors.

            Psalm 1, though, gives us the most important piece here: “Oh the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,” we are told. This demands that we are educated, discerning, willing to dialogue, open to learning and growing as God leads. But the Psalm does not stop there. It adds to that list, “Or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers,” in Psalm 1:1. As hard as this is to hear, the Psalm condemns guilt by association. It’s not enough that you avoid doing bad things—don’t be found even be found going along with bad ways! You don’t have to cut people completely out of your life, but compromise your walk with God for earthly things either. 

            I’ll give you an example that is also a bit of a confession. Years ago, I was confronted by an intern at the office. It appears someone had said to her that I was bad-mouthing her, gossiping, about her, and putting her down. She confronted me about whether or not I had said these things. I told her honestly that I had not. But as I thought about it, there was still a sense of guilt. So, I explained further that, while I did not say anything about her, I was present when it was said, and I had neither defended her nor removed myself from the situation. “Oh, the joys of those who do not stand around with sinners or join in with the mockers,” says Psalm 1. I promised in the future if something was said, I would properly tell them to stop and defend her against those hateful words. We must remember that if we do not stand with courage against sinful behaviors in this world, we send the message that we tacitly approve of what is being said or done. 

            Now, in a slightly different take, we must be careful how we analyze this biblical guilt by association. It was easy for people in John of Patmos’s day to say, “Oh those liberal Corinthians and Thyatira Christians…they’ll let anything go…overly tolerant, permissive, no morals, eating whatever. You know they even got some Jezebel up there leading them around.” But it is equally as easy and hateful for others to say, “John and those Jerusalem Apostles don’t know what they’re saying. It’s a culture thing. They’re all weird and conservative about what they eat and how they live. They still follow all those Jewish rules that they had back before Jesus. Wake up y’all, it’s a new day in Christendom!” I know that back and forth sounds nothing like today, at all, right? 

            And yet, it’s a reminder that we must listen to wise counsel. There is no liberal truth to faith, and there is no conservative truth to faith. There is the biblical truth which bids us to be conservative in our dealings, thoughts, and actions, but also to be liberal in love, welcome, and grace to others. Thyatira had many of these things. They were filled with love, with faith, with service, and with patient endurance. In perhaps the biggest compliment of all, they are told, “I can see your constant improvement in all these things,” in Revelation 2: 19. This was, by no means, a floundering congregation or hopeless cause. The Church at Thyatira was a beautiful depiction of church growth in numbers, faith, and Christ-like ways. But they still had one missing puzzle piece. 

            So, what were they missing? The hint is in Revelation 2: 24 where John addresses those “of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching.” The problem is they followed a philosophy based on Christ, but they did not fully follow Christ. They understood the apostles’ teachings on this rabbi who talked of love, hope, and a new way of life. They grew in these teachings and in the life-philosophy found in the example of Christ. But they also listened to false teachings because many hadn’t found that Holy Spirit which comes from following Christ. 

            The Psalm reinforces this idea instead of “chillin’” (as the kids say) with the sinners and joining in with mockers, blessed are the ones who “delight in the law of the Lord” and meditate on it day and night says Psalm 1:2. When we meditate carefully on God’s truth, we will be more careful to avoid this Thyatirian sin of following the idea of Christ without actually following Christ. I’ll give you an example. You can eat a plate of vegetables, but that does not necessarily make you a vegetarian. You can meditate in the mornings, but that does not necessarily make you a Buddhist. You can appreciate the wisdom and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, but that does not necessarily make you a follower of Christ. There’s a commitment a surrender that has to happen as well where our whole being: all that we were, all that we are, and all that we will be must be attuned to God’s grace given to us through the love and work of Jesus. I guess more simply, the question is this: do you admire Jesus or do you follow Jesus? 

            To those who have committed to the faith, John has a message from God as well. God will ask nothing more than to hold tightly to what you have until the end. If all the puzzle pieces fit together well, God says, “hold tightly to what you have until I come.” The question we must ask, then, of ourselves is whether all the puzzle pieces fit together. Do we listen to the good counsel of God’s truth? Do we hold fast to that holy word instead of looking for a political, societal, or just plain wrong answer? Have we committed to following Jesus with or whole hearts? If so, then may we continue to hold fast to the faith which sustains us. If not, let’s start putting the puzzle pieces of faith together today. 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1243044836160114

A Message to the Church Pt. 3

Pergamum: Loyal But Not Faithful—Exodus 32: 1-16&19; Rev. 2: 12-17

            As we continue or study of the message to the modern-day church from the prophetic words of Revelation uttered to the seven churches, we come to the church at Pergamum this week. Pergamum reminds me of a church I played organ for only briefly as interim It’s a church I rarely speak about because of its briefness in my life. I was only there a few weeks filling in as the church had found a new organist after an exhaustive search nationwide. They were welcoming a fantastic musician who was excited to come to this church with a full-time music director position. 

            Unfortunately, a senior member of the congregation was not happy and let it be known. He came into the pastor’s office fussing one day while I was making copies. This organist was not the person he wanted, he declared. He knew someone who was local and could do the job without bringing in this fancy, new person. As a side note, the person he wanted was a former night club Hammond organist from the 1950s and his cousin. She had never actually played for churches before. The pastor politely explained that the search committee and board had made a decision, and that was the end of the story. 

The man, enraged, promised it was not the end. He began a phone campaign to the board behind the pastor and board chairperson’s back. He wanted to lead the rest of the church leadership down a path of in-fighting and turmoil. The pastor, to his credit and having learned what was going on, stood up in the pulpit and told the whole story to the congregation. The man, now exposed as a troublemaker, stormed out of the service slamming the door and took his generous tithes with him. He was loyal to the church and would do anything asked, but that loyalty came with the price tag of control because he was not faithful to God in following the mission and ministry to which that church was called. 

            Pergamum had a similar problem. The people were loyal. Though they had faced great pressure from a city described as the “throne of Satan,” they had not waivered. They even proclaimed their loyalty to God when one of them was martyred. But what was strong from the outside was rotting on the inside. It reminds me of when I cut into an apple recently. The outside was beautiful, but with one slice of the knife, I learned the whole inside had rotted to goo. Pergamum had allowed idolatrous teachings. They had allowed leaders to guide them into sin. This was a church which could stand against persecution but was on the verge of imploding should they not repent and repent quickly. The remedy was a strong and truthful word naming their bad deeds and calling them back to repentance. 

            The problem at Pergamum is often difficult to wrap or heads around. We assume that if a church’s faith or practice is wrong, then it will be clear from their coming downfall and demise. But that’s not necessarily true. Some of the biggest churches have some of the most questionable teachings. Pergamum looked like the best of the best as far as the churches go; however, they had already started down a slippery slope with allowing bad teachings, sinful practices, and wrong influences into the core of the church. There are people who come into churches with the best of intentions and the strongest of loyalties, but those loyalties are based on power and control and not on faithfulness to the leading of God. The writer says that the remedy is this: “Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against [the wrong leaders] with the sword of my mouth.”  

            The only way to stop bad influences within a church and its leadership is open, clear, truthful words which call out the problem and gently rebuke it. Biblically we are called to meet first with the person in private, then with the congregation if they won’t listen. The same struggle is seen in the Old Testament for today. The people knew God had led them out of Egypt. They knew God had parted the Red Sea. They saw the cloud and pillar leading them. However loyal they might have been to the idea of God, they struggled to be faithful to the true God. So, while Moses was away, they turned to other gods. Moses had been gone for some time and they had been camped there waiting. Perhaps they reasoned that God was done and they needed some new god to lead them? Whatever their wrong motivation, they were loyal to the idea of a god, but not faithful to the one true God. 

            But Moses did return after begging God not to destroy the unfaithful people. And he threw the truth of God’s words at them…literally…as the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments came hurtling down at them. The people quickly learned the power of the “sword of God’s mouth.” 

            It is actually quite easy to avoid the disaster that awaited Pergamum. First and foremost a church must be led by the Bible as the Living Word of God. II Timothy 2:15 says, “Work hard [or some versions say ‘study’] so you can present yourself to God and receive…approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.” This means both reading your Bible and having a good commentary to make plain where the Bible is confusing. 

            It is also important to remain in open, honest communication in a church both with God and with one another. Proverbs 1:5 tells us, “Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance,” and James 1:19 reminds us to be “quick to listen.” In our modern society, we have lost the desire to listen to understand and truly communicate. We only listen now to argue, and that is a bad habit. James 1:19 goes on to say “quick to listen [and] slow to speak.” We, instead, are filled with this spirit of “I hear you, but..” or “I hear you; however,…” If Pergamum had stopped to listen to wise counsel, perhaps they would not have been led astray by fancy teachings which sounded nice but confounded the truth of God’s word.

            Much of this struggle comes from faithless loyalties. We become loyal to or ideas, or social norms, our history, our politics even. The Hebrew people were enslaved to Egypt and an entire generation or more knew nothing else. But God was calling them on a new and different journey to a promised land. Pergamum had all the strength, loyalty, and spiritual power of a truly strong church, yet both had to be faithful to God even if it challenged ideas they were loyal to for many years. In order to stand on God’s promises, you must first be faithful to the God who never breaks a promise to us. So let us pray that God will take the strong foundation of or loyalties and make us faithful in all things God calls us to, for what is the point of believing if we are unwilling to follow the God in whom we believe? 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/4686327734766201

A Message to the Church Pt. 2

Smyrna: A Church that Overcomes—Isaiah 41:8-13; Rev. 2: 8-11

            We continue this week looking at the seven churches in Revelation. We consider this week the church at Smyrna, a church which God proclaims will overcome the trouble and opposition against it. Smyrna was a large city of 100,000 people or more right on the coast of modern-day Turkey. It was the closest to the Island of Patmos where the writer of Revelation was exiled. Smyrna was a city with a small Jewish population, was very politically and religiously close to Rome, and was wealthy from commerce. Because of those close ties to the Roman Empire, the city would have been very hostile to a Christian presence that stood in opposition to Rome. John, who is writing from his exile on Patmos, would have felt a close kinship with this church as he, too, was oppressed by Rome. 

            This church was a church of overcomers. They faced opposition and were not destroyed by it. Indeed, John says they would inherit a crown of life for their suffering here. His words draw upon the Beatitudes which say that blessed is the one who is persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  There are two big lessons on suffering and oppression the congregations of today can learn from the church at Smyrna: first, do not let suffering and oppression consume you with fear; second, let faith move you from the hope of overcoming to a mission of overcoming. 

            There’s an old saying in my family I’ve shared with you before, “When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream, and shout.” Very often when we encounter opposition, turmoil, or suffering in life, we are tempted to respond this way—with fear and worry. The same is true of the church at Smyrna. The letter in Revelation warns them, “Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer.” Our instinctive mental and physical responses to opposition are often fear, fighting, or flight. But God’s message to the church at Smyrna is to hold fast without fear or worry for what would come. They are further reminded that “if you remain faithful even when facing death, [God] will give you a crown of life.” 

            The prophetic words of Isaiah echo this encouragement: “Don’t be afraid for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” Over and over the Bible give stories, reminders, and lessons that run counter to this fight, flight, and fear response. Instead, we are told to stand fast, not give up the faith, and remember that whatever powers of hell or scheme of man might come our way that in the end a crown of life awaits us. 

            How do we do this? How do we hold fast in the face of struggle and turbulence? We must let faith move us from the hope of overcoming to a mission of overcoming. I often hear people who are about to face a great struggle say, “Well, I hope I get through it.” Now this is not a biblical hope, like hope in Christ, or the hope rooted in God’s power. This is a hope which says, “I’m already resigned to total failure, but maybe something miraculous will happen.” That’s not how we approach struggles and oppression. There must be a sense of resolve in us. The letter in Revelation says to the Smyrna church, “But if you remain faithful even while facing death…I will give you a crown of life.” That is, if you remain faithful. 

            When faith is at work in us, the maybe, the possibly, the hopefully becomes a certainty. Faith should move us from a place of simply hoping for the best to a mission that we will overcome, succeed with God’s help, and find the strength to lift up others in the process. The church at Smyrna faced strong opposition. The writer here notes that they are suffering and live in poverty. They are blasphemed and spoken of harshly. They are oppressed by false religious authorities who use their religious positions to win political favor and clout. The writer even predicts that they will be imprisoned and face death. This was a grim reality for the early church. 

            In our Sunday School we talked about the martyrdom of Stephen and how this set off a wave of oppression of the early church. They faced imprisonment, false trials, illegal death sentences, cruelty, suffering, and all manner of terrible things. And yet the found a mission to overcome through their faith in God. You know sometimes my smart mouth gets me in trouble. I had someone whine to me a couple weeks ago that the church was under attack and persecution. I responded, “Until you have stood opposite a lion in an arena or a burning stake, please don’t say you’re persecuted. It cheapens what our forebearers suffered for Christ’s sake.” I can tell you the rest of that conversation did not go well. 

            But that doesn’t mean we don’t face struggles, suffering, and pain in our daily lives whether it is religious persecution or personal struggles. These nitpicky, irritating, incessant things will rob you of joy and suck the very life right out of you till there’s only anger and frustration. Revelation’s message to the church at Smyrna celebrates their ability to stand firm in the midst of turmoil and attacks. They are commended for a faith which makes overcoming a mission for them. And in that overcoming they will testify to the strength and power of God as seen in them through the risen Savior who is with them each step of the way. 

            In the 1950s and 1960s a gospel song became the rallying cry of the Civil Rights movement. That song said, “We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.” As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. drew on the words of that hymn he said in a sermon four days before his assassination, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.” There was a resoluteness and strength in his words. Overcoming life’s struggles was a mission, and it was a mission that would not be deterred. 

            The words of Isaiah ring true when we live in faith and have a mission to overcome like the church at Smyrna, “You will look in vain for all those who tried to conquer you. Those who attack you will come to nothing. For I hold you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God.” To the ones who suffer and strive and face such things with strength, steadfastness, and faith, God promises a crown of life. But ultimately we can find a hope beyond wishful thinking that is grounded in God’s promises that (as the hymn says) because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow. Whatever toils, troubles, and struggles come your way, lean into your faith, and know that God is with you and will hold you up. 

            Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/416759503127079

A Message to the Church Pt. 1

Ephesus: A Church Without Love—Jeremiah 29: 1-14; Revelation 2: 1-7

            In ten years here, I have miraculously avoided delving into Revelation. It’s one of the most mysterious and misunderstood books in the Bible. People ask questions about all the wild and fantastic imagery of the book, and for the most part, preachers pretend to have answers. It is complex, difficult, prophetic, and personal to the author and his anger at Rome. But one part which is clear is God’s message to the seven churches. Each one of them receives a word of encouragement, critique, or reprimand. And, I believe, that message to the churches still holds true in a very prophetic way to our churches today. 

            In this first part of God’s message, the Book of Revelation addresses the church at Ephesus. While there are many positives for this church, there is one very strong and overwhelming rebuke: they have forgotten their first love, God. The book gets right to the point saying in verse four, “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first.” God calls to them to “turn back to [God] and do the works [they] did at first.” It’s a call for the church at Ephesus to return to their first love, and that love is God. 

            Now, as I was preparing this sermon, I tried hard to think of hymns, songs, and praise music which might fit with the sermon. Though I think the hymns fit well with theme, there’s one song which kept coming back into my mind, and it’s not exactly a hymn. The chorus says this, “I was looking for love in all the wrong places, lookin’ for love in too many faces…lookin’ for love.” And while this may fit well with the theme, I don’t think God would approve of me fully including a 1980s country song about a single man philandering around till he finds his true love in a church service. 

            This was the problem of the church at Ephesus. They had right doctrine. They did not tolerate evil. They stayed true to the apostles’ teachings. They had suffered for the sake of righteousness, and truly one could think this was a solid institution of faith. But the writer of Revelation points out their shortcoming. They were, if you’ll pardon the reference, looking for love in all the wrong places, and God says they must back to their first love—God. Love is a very powerful force in faith and the life of the church. 

            Look at what Revelation says. Though they have done almost everything right, the fact that they have misplaced their love of God and one another has them fully in danger of God’s full wrath, for their lampstand will be removed from its place among the churches. But we know the importance of love. For Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord, Our God, with all our heart, soul, and mind, and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. I Corinthians 13 puts it even more clearly: “If I could speak all the languages of earth and angels, but did not love others, I would only be a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.” And the final verse of that chapter says, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” 

            Yet the church at Ephesus had lost their love. They loved neither God nor one another as they first did. A church and the people of God can have everything right and perfect as much as they want—doctrinally, educationally, programmatically—everything can be right and perfect, but if a church or God’s people fail at love, they fail completely. You cannot make substitutes for God’s holy love. But I read my Bible, we say, and know every book in fact! But I go to church every Sunday! But I’ve studied and figured out what church is supposed to be about! “Too bad!” God says. The church at Ephesus did these things too. 

            Still nothing can substitute for this love which God sent to us to learn and know in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for us. Ephesus did everything technically correct, but they still failed completely in their faith. God warned them that they would be finished if they did not turn back to loving God and one another as they first did when the church began. 

            In many ways, our modern churches are like the church of Ephesus. We bring people in, plug them into a program, a youth group, a small group, a Sunday School, a hundred different programs. We see churches that have everything a person could want right down to a petting zoo, but there’s something wrong, something amiss. Too many of our churches are looking for love in all the wrong places. Too many have forgotten their first love. Today, just like in Revelation, God is calling to the church to return to her first love—the God who saves, loves, and redeems. 

            The church has gone off looking for love in the strangest of places. First and foremost, these days, the church has lost herself in political battles. Of all the places God’s holy church should not be is in the sinful waste of politics. The church is so consumed by arguing over the next political topic on the news that it has forgotten to feed the hungry, heal the sick, care for the broken and hurting, preach good news in a weary world. These things are rapidly losing ground to the theology of political commentary, and the church has lost its mission and its witness as a result. That lampstand is teetering on thin ice, just like in Ephesus. 

            For the people of God, the two questions by which we should weigh our decisions go right back to what Jesus said are the two most powerful commandments: does it show our love of God, and does it show our love to our neighbor, whom we should love like ourselves? No matter how right we are about something (or wrong, perhaps), if what we say and do, how we act and live, does not show love then all we can offer is the noise of a gong or clanging cymbal. 

            God is saying to Ephesus, and in a prophetic way to us as the modern church, that we must go back to what is our first and primary calling, to the mission which Christ gave us: preach the good news, care for the least of these our brothers and sisters, love God with our whole heart, and love our neighbors as ourselves. There’s an old story of a tiger and a donkey having an argument over the color of the grass. They donkey insists that it’s blue, while the tiger says green. They go to the lion as the king to sort it out. The donkey blurts out that he believes the grass to be blue then asks the lion to punish the tiger because the donkey was right. The lion tells the donkey if he believes it, it must be true, then punishes the tiger with three days of silence. 

            The dumbfounded tiger asks why the lion told the donkey what was wrong, and then punished him. The lion says, “This is not about the color of the grass. You are punished because it is degrading for a brave, intelligent, powerful creature like you to argue with a donkey. If you allow yourself to be led on a fool’s errand, you will wind up yourself a fool.” 

            Do not be led astray. Do not go looking for love in all the wrong places. Do not try to substitute what is second best for the perfect, grace-filled love of God that has the power to transform all of humankind through faith in a risen Savior who showed us exactly what it means to show God’s love. As the hymn says, “My Jesus, I love Thee; I know Thou art mine,” and may we never, ever forget it. 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/592217715265376

Shocking Grace--Final

Nicodemus and Learning: Numbers 21: 4-9; John 3: 1-17

            Many years ago, I got to visit London and go to a few shows at West End of London. It’s basically their version of Broadway in New York. Now, because I’m an American and was with a bunch of other Americans, we decided to do a very American thing—watch a musical—specifically Wicked, which retells the Wizard of Oz in a new way. One of the songs has a line, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” The audience is left to wonder whether “for good” means for goodness, permanently, or both. 

            In our final installment of Shocking Grace, we see a man who, many years before Broadway or West End musicals were invented, came to Jesus looking for something. He truly got the shock and the grace. But it is evident that, whatever Nicodemus took away from his encounter with Jesus, he was changed for good. That is the power of Christ, when it meets us, there’s something overwhelming, unexplainable, breathtaking, even. It comes to us and changes us as well. 

            Nicodemus was a respected Jewish leader who had become curious about Jesus and the miracles, signs, and wonders that Jesus displayed. In our Gospel, he comes to meet Jesus in the dark of night to avoid being caught. It clearly was not a random meeting for Nicodemus had sought out Jesus to talk with him. And the first words out of his mouth should knock the socks off any reader. We gloss over them, I think. Nicodemus says, “We all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” They knew. They all knew of Jesus’s power and authority. Nicodemus outs his fellow Pharisees. They weren’t worried about the law, what was right, or anything. They were afraid of Jesus, the change his preached, and the way he welcomed people, yet they had him killed despite knowing all of the holy power he possessed. 

            Jesus, for his part, speaks powerful words to Nicodemus which confuse him. He is shocked at this teaching, these ideas that Jesus is saying. “You must be born again.” This is followed with, “You must be born of the Spirit.” It’s one of the first times Jesus references the Holy Spirit. He is basically laying out the roadmap of all of God’s plan to Nicodemus, who is still at a loss. But then, Jesus makes it plain, saying, “As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” This is a reference Nicodemus would know well. We’re not told what Nicodemus’s response is. Jesus’s teaching ends abruptly at verse 18, and in verse 19 he and his disciples leave Jerusalem. 

            But, I believe we can get the answer a little later on in the Gospel of John. Nicodemus is heard from two more times. In chapter 7 he defends Jesus to Sanhedrin or temple court. And after the crucifixion, it is Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who help bury Jesus. Nicodemus brings the myrrh and aloes for Jesus’s body. Who can say what Nicodemus took away from his meeting with Jesus? However, it appears he was changed for good. 

            The first big thing we see here is the grace of a Rabbi who patiently taught the teacher. Jesus gives a confused Nicodemus the full brunt of a message, “You must be born again.” Finally, Jesus makes it plain. In Numbers the people griped, complained, and turned against God and Moses rejecting them both and cursing the manna God provided. They had become filled with evil and poison in their hearts, minds, and words. So, God sent poisonous snakes to show them how filled with venom and poison they were. Then God provided a way for them to be healed when they called out for mercy. 

            What Jesus is saying is that people have become filled with poison again. It’s our humanity, or corruption. To cure that, to take that poison out, Jesus would be lifted up on a cross like the bronze serpent. With that act of love and grace, we would be healed like the Israelites. Jesus put it into words Nicodemus would know and understand. For us it’s the same. I get tired when people talk about “born-again Christians.” Jesus isn’t making distinctions here. There’s no such thing as “born-again” Christians and other Christians. Either you follow Christ and have the Spirit or you don’t. There’s not some layers or levels to this, and it’s wrong for people to make false divisions over whether there is one type of Christian or another. It’s simple: do you believe in and follow Jesus or not? 

            But there’s an even bigger lesson here—that of Jesus’s act of love to welcome. Verse 16, so often quoted, tells us that God loved the whole and entire world, and if you believe in this, you have life. But even more powerful is verse 17—that our God is about giving salvation over suffering, life over death, grace over judgment. This is our God, and our God did not come to judge or condemn. We seem to do it a lot, but God does not. 

            Jesus appears to welcome people as they were. Nicodemus was welcomed in the dark of night with all his questions and doubts. Zacchaeus the tax collector was welcomed despite his sneaky, cheating past. The woman at the well was welcomed despite her messy love life. The sanctimonious, the sinner, the would-be saint, the betrayer, the wicked, and the unwashed masses of people all searching for something new were welcomed to come to Jesus. 

            Unfortunately, Christ’s church has not always been so good at this. In the past the church drew a line to keep African Americans out, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world.” In the past, the church drew a line to keep gifted women out, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world.” In my formative years, the church drew a line to keep LGBT people out, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world.” In times past the church has looked down on people with criminal records, who didn’t seem to fit, who looked different, but Jesus over and over again brought people into his presence to pull them upright and show them God’s miraculous and life-changing, unexplainable love. 

The truth of the matter is that not one of us, and not any single person was ever condemned, refused, or turned away by Jesus. He welcomed everyone who came to him. The church cannot and should not ever keep anyone out. This is exactly where people need to be: here, welcomed to find love beyond human understanding and God’s grace for whatever burdens are carried. Yet, none of us can come to Jesus without expecting to be changed by that holy power and presence—that grace which makes us new, gives us life, gives us hope now and forever, and gives us purpose.  

            And how does this happen? For all of us, no matter what we’ve done, we hear those words of our hymn, “My sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul.” But we are also, in a sense, born again because Christ gives us a new life, a new way, and a new direction in our walk here on earth. We lay down our old ways of being and thinking, and we find this new way where Christ leads us through God’s Spirit in us. It’s unexplainable, but no less miraculous and powerful. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he was looking for an explanation. Instead, he got something completely different—he was changed for good. The same is true for us: Jesus still loves the whole word and yes, you and me too. But that love calls and tugs at us challenging us to be changed by the power of our loving Savior Christ—and changed for good. 

          Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/544022290234351

Shocking Grace Pt. 2

Ezekiel: Weariness—Ezekiel 37: 1-14; John 14: 15-20

            I saw a joke the other day that said, be careful how much you leave your kids with their grandparents. I asked my nephew the other day how old he was going to be. He replied, “I’m going to be 7 if the Lord sees fit to let me live that long.” Although in our day and age, that 6-year-old is probably just as weary as the rest of us, I imagine. As we continue our series on Shocking Grace, we look today at how God’s grace inspired and stirred the weariness in Ezekiel as he was led into the dry and desolate place of the valley of dry bones. We see in this scripture that God made life happen there, that Christ lives in us to make life happen in us, and that we must change our mindset of frailty to one of faith. 

            First, we read in Ezekiel that God brought the prophet to the valley filled with bones. It was a dry and desolate place where no life was found. I imagine the valley was a desert filled with sand which could fully dry out the bones. God then asks Elijah, “Son of man, can these bones live again?” Every morning when the alarm goes off, I ask that same question, “Lord, can these dry bones live again?” Usually after a couple cups of coffee I get close enough to shuffle out the door. Ezekiel, the valley, and whoever the bones belonged to were all weary. But out of that weariness, God brings life. 

            God first tells Ezekiel to speak a prophetic word, then God makes life happen from that word. Our God is no stranger to the power of the spoken word. In the beginning, God spoke the earth into existence. God called Moses with words from a burning bush. There is power when God’s word is spoken. Ezekiel, tired himself, goes out with what energy he can summon up and prophesies to dead bones as odd as that sounds. 

            But then the miraculous happens. God’s power pulls the scattered, weary, dry bones together and creates whole and complete humans. Then with another, more excited prophetic word, the breath of God enters the bodies and breathes life into them. The same God who created the heavens and earth can breathe life into our weariness and help us to live again. It’s not just words spoken to bones. You can chatter over your rack of ribs at the barbecue joint all day long, but they’re not going to leap up from the plate and become a human. It’s the power of God’s prophetic word coupled with the power of God to make life happen out of nothing. The Bible is filled with instances where God brings the dead back to life, where God creates out of nothingness, where God proves over and over again our calling, our faith, our hope is in a God who gives life. 

            In particular, it’s even easier in our situation. God’s words of life and strength do not have to trickle down through a prophet. John 14:16 tells us that God “will give [us] another Advocate who will never leave [us].” Verse 17 goes on to remind us that this Advocate, the Holy Spirit lives in and works through people of faith. It’s as if God is right here all the time. Even as we become weary, tired, and worn out by the world, God is saying, “Over here! I’m ready to give you strength and power and life in your dry bones!” This is the same God who reminds us of that perfect strength given to us when our strength is gone…that even when we are weak, in Christ, we are actually strong. 

            When we pray, when study and spend time with God, do our prayers ask for this strength, this life? Do we say in our prayers, “O Lord speak to me so that my dry and weary bones can live again!” Or are the prayers we say as bleak, dry, and dreary as our own outlook on life? We cannot come and sing that we’re “leaning on the everlasting arms” if we’re still tethered to crutches of insecurity, instability, and weariness. 

            I remember substituting for the music director at the Presbyterian Church in Danville, Kentucky, and the pastor told a story. A man went to church one Sunday. It was an old and well-established monument of a building with an old and well-established congregation who were just as much fixtures of the church as the historic pews. When the preacher made the first point, the man said audibly, “Amen!” Everyone looked around, shocked. On the second point, the man said, “Hallelujah!” There were notable sighs, gasps, and looking around. At the last point, the man loudly proclaimed, “Glory be to God!” Finally, an exasperated Deacon got up and asked the man what was wrong with him. The man said, “I can’t help it—I got the Spirit of God!” The deacon replied, “Well you didn’t get that here, so stop it!” My friends, Christ, through the Holy Spirit, lives in us to give us life. 

            So, then, we must change our words and attitudes from that of frailty to words and attitudes of faith. God tells Ezekiel to say to Israel that God knows they’ve lost hope; God knows they have become old, dry bones—weary, tired, and seemingly done for. But God has a prophetic word for them, “O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you and, and you will live again.” Mark those words! You will live again! But if we live convinced of our own frailty and weariness, that hope of life will escape us. 

            Now I’m not talking about being tired. We all get a bit tired sometimes. I’m talking about a weariness, a dry devastation that empties us of our faith, our hope, and our will to plunge forward into God’s spectacular calling. There’s a lot to make us weary. Any time I turn on the news these days I grow weary enough to pass out on the couch. Faith and this breath of life from God call us to look beyond the circumstances in front of us. Think of it like a big rainstorm. You have two choices: you can sit down and go nowhere, or you can put on your raincoat, get your umbrella and boots, and go out to forge ahead to where you need to be. God is like the rain gear. You may still get a bit wet, but you face the storm with protection. That’s what it means to lean on the everlasting arms that hold us up, give us strength, and save us from drowning in the weariness of life. 

            First it begins with our words spoken together with God’s Holy Word. How do we pray? How do we speak? How often do we convince ourselves we are too weary to live out God’s calling? How often do we let difficult circumstances overtake God’s hope in our lives? This isn’t a question of sin or bashing saying you’ve done something wrong. We do that too, don’t we? We compound our struggles with the belief that because we have struggled, we’re so sinful that there’s no way back from the deep, dark pit we’ve dug for ourselves. 

            This isn’t a question of sin or conviction. It’s a question how deep the roots of God’s words are. God promises, and indeed has proven, that in and through God there is life. The Spirit lives within us to make sure we can pray for that strength. And, if we change our minds and hearts from this focus on weariness and frailty to that of faith, perhaps we can find that hope again. God asks, “Can these dry bones live again?” The answer is yes, but the choice to say, “Yes, these dry bones can live again,” is yours to make. So, what do you say? “Child of God, can these dry bones live again?” Amen. 

Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/162054359402224