“If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

The last three sentences changed my life, and I hope they change yours.

Pursuing strong pleasures in God himself,

Pastor Chris

The second tour is documented in Ezekiel 40-48, where the prophet is shown a vision of the new temple in intricate detail. Amongst all the perplexing questions this vision raises, one thing is certain: God dwells in the temple and his people worship him in purity. The final sentence of the vision–and the book–captures this succinctly: “And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There” (Ezekiel 48:35).

These tours have startling relevance to us, in particular because the New Testament goes to great lengths to describe us, the church, as God’s temple. So we must ask where we land between Ezekiel 8 and Ezekiel 48. Where is our worship of God on the spectrum between perverted and pure?

The answer to this boils down to one issue: the presence of God. The perverted worship of Ezekiel 8 was fueled by the conviction that “The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land,” while the worship of Ezekiel 48 was driven by the unquestionable reality that “The LORD is There.” Perverted worship cannot thrive in the presence of Yahweh. Not only is he too holy for us to continue false worship without guilt, he is too beautiful for us to actually believe that our idol has value. When God is present, nothing else remains convincingly worshipable.

Such a reality speaks volumes about God’s absence from our lives when we consider what we do in the dark in our room of pictures. The obvious parallel, of course, is pornography, which is tragically pervasive in Christian homes. Yet we can equally engage in false worship as we view another person’s life through their Facebook profile, coveting our neighbor’s house, work, and spouse. The objects of worship our picture-displaying devices afford us are as endless as our hearts are sinful.

Yet God is calling us to personal and corporate worship in which the driving truth is “The LORD is There.” The Spirit inhabits our hearts and our gatherings to bring us into a real experience of God’s presence. And, in the words of Paul, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Freedom from images that lie to us. Freedom from mirages that offer sand rather than water to our thirsty souls. Freedom from our dark room of pictures. Freedom to worship the only One who is truly worthy of worship, whose glory will last and satisfy eternally.

God is calling us to dwell in his rich presence, by the Spirit and through the sacrifice of the Son. As the LORD becomes increasingly “There” in our lives, may he root out false worship and make us a place where other idolators can find the One True God.

Pastor Chris

Of course, the very reason Rachael is taking a breather day is because we are made for seasons of quiet and solitude. Jesus set this example for us in the rhythms of his ministry, and we should follow suit. To be honest, the only reason I am able to pause and write these words is thanks to the wonders of Netflix and the intrigue of Shaun the Sheep. Yet the example of Jesus and subsequent Jesus-followers is that life with God and ministry to others happens in the midst of craziness and chaos. If this were not the case I do not think we could expect young mothers to be disciples of Jesus.

For my part, as a husband and father who is tempted to see my children’s needs as impediments to doing ministry, I am reminded of the story of theologian B.B. Warfield, who taught at Princeton Seminary from 1887 – 1921. Consider how he responded to an increased demand in his family commitments:

“B.B.Warfield married his wife Annie in 1876 and they left for honeymoon in Germany. He was also studying at Leipzig at that time. On a walking trip in the Harz mountains they were overtaken by a terrible thunderstorm. It was a shattering experience for Mrs. Warfield from which she never recovered. She was more or less an invalid for the rest of her life. They had no children and Warfield cared for Annie all her days.”

“Through all the years of their married life Dr. Warfield faithfully cared for his invalid wife. He guarded, protected, and stood by her while carrying his full teaching load and pursuing demanding writing assignments. The seminary students often noted his gentle and loving care for Mrs. Warfield as they walked together on Princeton streets and, later, back and forth on the porch of their campus home. Finally she was bedridden and saw few people besides her husband. By his own choice Dr. Warfield became almost confined to his house; he was never away from her for more than an hour or two at a time. He set aside time to read to her every day. They left Princeton only once in the ten years before her death, for a vacation that he hoped would help her. With his excellent health and varied interests Dr. Warfield must have felt this restriction, but he never complained.”

Warfield was one of the greatest minds and foremost defenders of Biblical Christianity of his day, yet he adherence to Jesus as Lord defined his servant’s heart toward his wife, his posture of love and sacrifice toward his nearest neighbor. As I wrap up this article and go to pastor my own little flock, I can only pray for a Christ-likeness of the same sort.

Pastor Chris

The complainer was involved in the literacy ministry at the church I served in West Virginia. She was venting to our pastor, who asked her a simple question: “Is that why you did it? So she would say ‘thank you’?”

Silence. Then, “Well, no.”

“So why are you so upset?”

This vignette highlights one of the challenges of loving other people: our pure motives are often tainted by the desire for recognition. We want our light that shines before others to bring glory to our Father who is in heaven…as well as ourselves who are on earth. We are the Hollywood agent who wants to step on the red carpet with the movie star we represent. We want to siphon off just a bit of the glory.

Perhaps this language of glory seems strong to us. We do not want the limelight; we simply want to be noticed. This is the word that stood out to me when I read an interview with a veteran pastor, who commented on why he became restless in ministry: “I was in an obscure place and nobody seemed to be noticing me. I just thought, ‘Well, I’m 40 years old — I’d better make a move so somebody notices me.’”

Whatever our particular role or title, we are all followers of Jesus seeking to love others in his name. Inevitably, others doing similar work will be more noticed than we are, which brings us to the question my pastor in West Virginia asked: “Is that why you did it?”

Jesus himself anticipated that we would wrestle with this desire to be noticed. So as part of his teaching on how to live rightly under his rule, he gave this warning: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

Our Lord identifies the true nature of our desire to be noticed by others: we love the approval of others more than the approval of God, which means we value others more than we value God. In other words, this is idolatry, an issue of worship.

As stinging as this may be, it at least gives us an understanding of where to go when our hearts crave to be noticed. It sends us back to our Father who is in heaven, who not only noticed us but who sent his Son all the way down to us. Because of Jesus’ work for us God the Father forever looks upon us with an approving gaze. And, strangely enough, it is this gospel that is to motivate our loving acts of service toward others in the first place.

God will call us to increasingly radical ways of loving our neighbors, and as he does, we must stay close to our Father’s heart and remain aware of his approving gaze. When we do, being noticed for our service to others will be beside the point.

Pastor Chris

Here is a question for beginners: who or what do I worship? By that, of course, I do not ask whether you substitute “Baal” or “Ashtaroth” for “God” and “Jesus” when we sing songs

This is not a life that Jesus demands from a distance; it is the life he himself modeled. No ounce of hate or lust compromised his dealings with people. No impure motive tainted his words of rebuke or instruction. Jesus lived out in front of us a life that was entirely right toward God and toward others. And he gave us a word that captures the essence of this life: love.

Apart from the cross, Jesus’ most poignant display of love came in the upper room when he took the basin and towel, knelt down, and served his followers by scrubbing their dirt-caked, dung-encrusted feet. Following that display of the law’s fullest expression, Jesus summarized how we should live this out: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

On Thursday evening at 6 PM we will gather for dinner in homes to meditate on Jesus’ love for us and his command for us to love one another. Assumed in this gathering is an acknowledgment that our hearts do, in fact, produce hatred and lust, and that the life of love Jesus calls us to is only possible through repentance and trust in the heart-cleansing sacrifice he made for us. To feed such trust we will partake of the meal that anticipates this Good Friday sacrifice. And we will discuss what it means to receive Jesus’ love for us and show his love to one another.

These are profound realities: our sin, Christ’s sacrifice, a life of love. I hope you will plan to be a part of the Maundy Thursday gathering as we remember these together.

Pastor Chris

P.S. You can sign up for Maundy Thursday by e-mailing me [chris@whittonavenue.org] or signing up on the sheet in the foyer on Sunday. I will contact you with what home you will meet in.

Here is a brief description of the services that will comprise our commemoration of Holy Week. I hope you will join us as often as possible to plumb the depths of what Christ has done for us.

Palm Sunday — April 1st
On Palm Sunday we will celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!” (which means “Save, now!”). We try to recapture a small piece of this experience by having children walk to the front of the church, wave palm branches, and shout “Hosanna!” as we begin our worship time.

Maundy Thursday — April 5th at 6 PM in Homes
The word “Maundy” traces back to the Latin word for “commandment,” which Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper. His commandment was simple: love one another just as I have loved you (John 13:34). In order to best approximate the context in which Jesus shared this meal and commandment with his disciples, we have our Maundy Thursday service in homes where we share a meal, take the Lord’s supper together, and discuss what it means for us to experience Jesus’ love for us and to love one another.

Good Friday — April 6th at 6:30 PM
Our Good Friday service is one of the more meaningful times of reflection and remembering that I have experienced. We sing some hymns focusing on Jesus’ death for us, then listen to the story of Jesus’ betrayal, trial, and sufferings. The readings from the gospels are accompanied by images depicting these events in a reverent, sobering, contemplative setting.

Resurrection Sunday — April 8th at 8:30 AM
Jesus’ resurrection is the first burst of new creation in this decaying world, and we remember the early morning empty-tomb experience with an early morning service (but not too early!). We will meet at 8:30 AM to declare together, as the early church did, that “The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!” Following the service we will share a breakfast together in the back yard of the House. This is a great opportunity to invite your friends who do not know Christ and expose them to the central message of the gospel. A handful of us will be going throughout the neighborhood on Saturday to invite neighbors to the service.

May the gospel of Christ’s love in his death and resurrection for us be central to our experience this Holy Week! I look forward to walking through this sacred time with you.

Pastor Chris