Rachael’s helpful perspective galvanized my conviction of what our focus in the pulpit needs to be starting in early September.  Now that we have spent seven weeks looking at the story of God’s mission and have emphasized the necessity of engaging in mission as an overflow of our identity as God’s people, it is time to ask some pressing questions of our hearts and lives.

Take, for example, Jesus’ imperative to make disciples of all nations.  We saw this as the mountain peak of the church’s mission until Jesus returns.  But if we are to seriously engage the command to make disciples, we need to address some nitty-gritty questions:

–What specific non-believers are we hoping will become disciples of Jesus?
–What other believers are we relying on for this work?
–Are we spending time in prayer for God to empower this work?
–If our mission is to put God on display, how are we going to intentionally do that with these specific non-believers?  That is, how we will practically be a blessing to them?  What are their needs that we can address in a way that portrays the gospel?
–What is the cost of this mission in terms of time, money, resources, emotion, and energy?
–How will we engage these non-believers with the verbal message of Christ crucified and risen and call them to repentance and trust in Jesus?
–Are our relationships in the church currently filled with grace, forgiveness, and sacrifice for one another?  If not, what steps do we need to take so that God’s character is more reflected in our fellowship?
–Is our desire to engage in the steps above driven by our mission as God’s chosen, priestly, beloved, redeemed people?  If not, what aspects of our identity as God’s people do we need to embrace more deeply?

These are the types of rubber-meets-the-road questions I want us to explore in September.  Until then, let us plead with God to embed an awareness of our identity as his people deeper into our hearts as we seek to join in his mission until Jesus returns.

On God’s mission with you,

Pastor Chris

I have two developments in mind.  First is Anne Rice, popular atheistic-vampire-author-turned-Christian, who last Wednesday made this announcement: “Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Rice further qualified, “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

This is provocative, to say the least.  Leaving aside the “Can she do that?!?” response, let us hear what Ms. Rice is saying.  To her, the church in our day, specifically the evangelical and Catholic church, is essentially defined by what it is against: gays, feminists, Democrats, etc.  And she cannot continue to affiliate with such an organization.

The second event emerged in the news this Wednesday, namely a US district court judge’s decision to overturn California’s Proposition 8, which states, “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”  Of course, this will likely go to the Supreme Court, so nothing is final, but the ruling serves as a litmus test to determine whether Ms. Rice’s critique truly applies to us.

Here is the test: when we heard the news about Proposition 8 being overturned, did we feel this as a blow to the church and to the mission of God?  Setting aside all our convictions about how our country should function, was this political event a setback for the kingdom of God?

If we answer in the affirmative, then perhaps Anne Rice was right in her decision to abandon this institution.  Perhaps we have become defined by our antagonisms and are worthy of disbanding.  However–speaking only for Whitton Avenue Bible Church–I cannot imagine that our pursuit of engaging God’s mission will put us in such a category.

As we have seen throughout the story of the Bible, the mission of God is to make himself known in all the earth through his people.  Thus our purpose in this world is nothing short of displaying the character of God–his mercy, loyalty, holiness, creativity, wisdom, kindness, etc.–through our relationships within the church and toward our neighbors.  Essential to this mission is our proclamation of God’s holiness and impending judgment of sinners, his provision of deliverance from this wrath through his own Son’s death, and his inaugurated work of redemption and New Creation through his Son’s resurrection.

Within this context it would be accurate to say that the church defines homosexual activity as sinful behavior.  Likewise, our embrace of God as creator will be labeled “anti-science” by many.  These are hot points over which secular media love to hover.  But as far as it depends on us, we must never allow these “anti-” points to ultimately define us.  What defines us is our commitment to make our glorious God known in the world through our life together and through our proclamation of his truth.

Let us prove Anne Rice to be wrong.  Let us not equivocate in our Biblical convictions about contemporary issues, but neither let us allow such issues to become central to our identity.  May the Spirit so work in our church that the singular testimony about our community is this: the church is where we see what God is like.

Pastor Chris

Firstly, if you’re already heavily involved in full-time ministry - paid or otherwise - for your church body, find time to rest. Rest well. We try very hard to shepherd the flock, and we place ourselves on a pedestal in which we must be strong, and take on an increasing amount of duties, and we attempt to appear strong, but instead we wear ourselves to the bone. If you feel bogged down by your work, take time to stop what you’re doing to reflect, reinvent, and revamp your own ministry. Make a habit of staying in the Word, deliberately creating a quiet-time to listen to the Spirit, and meet with other church leaders who undertake similar duties throughout your community. It’s not weakness – it’s being smart, being in touch with yourself, and being in touch with the Holy Spirit.

For everyone else? I’ve said this many times – if you attend a church body, you’re in full time ministry. We are called vocationally to glorify God and portray His image to others through our communities, schools, and workplaces. Furthermore, as we live in our body, the church, we all have a role to play, as the Spirit has given us all gifts to serve Yahweh in His church. Remember when Paul talks about “some are an eye, some are an ear” and so on? There’s nothing in your physical body that doesn’t do anything, but many of our Western churches act as if this were true. Yes, the brain and heart are the important ones (though, allegorically, these places are taken by Christ and his Gospel) but does that mean that the skin is unimportant? Or the kidneys, or lymph nodes, or hair? We all have a part to play, so please act like it.

I’ve heard so many people saying how they want to be a part of full-time ministry, but they want the glorious parts, and perhaps they aren’t listening to the Spirit in how they can serve their local church. Sure, everyone wants to sing up front to show off their voice, but do they have enough passion for Christ to fold bulletins? Most people don’t jump at the opportunity. Or to voluntarily clean up, or give rides for those who can’t drive themselves? This is a challenge to myself primarily, and to anyone in the body. But Paul says in Philippians 2 that our motivation to serve one another comes from our encouragement in Christ, not something we bring about on our own. Reflect on Christ’s passion for us in worship, letting the Spirit flow from you, and serving can be as refreshing as worshipping through song.

Find a role, plug in, love God, love others, drink the Water you serve, and be the Body.

Setting aside that the article was trying to disprove a creator God, what alarmed me most about it was the blatant pot-shot to the idea of Christian faith in general. The article ended with the Mennonite-raised (an assumedly turned secular evolutionist) archeologist celebrating the inspiration of the whales in connecting you to something bigger than yourself.  “There’s room here for all the religion your could possibly want.”

The assumption here–and in our culture at large–is that Christianly is, as a mentor of mine recently put it, “in a state of continual dying.”  It is not dead, but always dying. Christianity has lost its credibility, its plausibility, and appeal in western society at large. It is always seen as pathetically gasping for its last breath, and our culture can’t wait for it to stop being a bother… The question is, what does this mean for the youth of our church as they face a future as believers in Jesus where they increasingly “can no longer rely on cultural support systems to keep [Christianity] alive”?

It means that the only way to be a Christian is by living the life of faith that God calls us to live, as opposed to living the Christian life because our (sub)culture dictates it to us.  This is a faith that must deny holding onto its culture for tradition’s sake, as well as deny applying worldly glitz and glamor to validate it. This is a faith that must leap a little farther in trusting God as circumstances grow more adverse, love God a little deeper than our stuff (as ones who have been perfectly loved by Him already), and pull together as an authentic community identified as God’s true family in Jesus - which is the only way of communicating to such a culture that God and his love for humanity is real.

This is the idea behind the Missional Communities that WABC Student Ministry has endeavored in the last year, and a vision for Missional Communities at Whitton in general. Not only is the life of Christian faith the only way to really be a Christian, its also the only way that Christianity will impact people in a culture where Christianity is in a perpetual terminal state.

Is Christianity endangered in our culture? I don’t think so. Jesus said He is the builder of the church, and even the gates of hell won’t overcome it. Christianity isn’t loosing. We simply find ourselves following Jesus into new territory, and we are excited for what he is going to do.

Following Jesus with you,

Aaron

First, we watched a movie at home. By that I do not mean that we drove down to the Blockbuster on 28th and Indian School, picked out a movie, drove home, watched it, and drove back to return it the next day. The Blockbuster on 28th and Indian School is no more. Why? Because all we had to do to rent a movie was click a few buttons on Amazon, and there it was on my computer screen. Voila. Our second movie experience was equally futuristic. Toy Story 3 in 3D. I had my expectations up for the movie rather than the cinematic experience, but both ended up being spectacular. The 3D previews alone convinced me that watching movies in 3D is definitely the wave of the future.

These changing times became evident not only in entertainment but also in personal communication. On Thursday I finally caved to what many families have done already: drop the landline. Though there was a bit of sentimentality and trepidation in the experience, two things helped. First, we will save $30 a month. Second, when I half-apologized to the lady at Qwest, she responded, “Oh, that’s OK. We do not consider ourselves a phone company anymore. We consider ourselves an Internet provider.” Smart move. If only Blockbuster had a plan B.

All this change sparked further meditation on how we as a church think about the future and our mission in a changing world. From the outset there is a significant juncture in how we think about such things. One path of thought is to ponder how the church should adapt in fundamental ways to the change around us. While beneficial shifts have come of this–like updating our English Bible translation from the Elizabethan era–so have destructive shifts. One liberal German theologian was so swept up by Enlightenment assumptions that he claimed it was impossible to flip a light switch and continue to believe in miracles at the same time.

Yet another path remains as we see everything changing before our eyes. We can think outside the box. Rather than allowing our identity, beliefs, and mission to be transformed by the world, we must focus on the transformation our message will bring to the world. Smartphones, 3D movies, and light switches are small beans compared to the spiritual and moral metamorphosis of the human heart. Advances in transportation, communication, and medicine pale in comparison to the resurrection of the body and eternal, direct communion with our Creator. And these truly futuristic realities are only made possible through the resurrection of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth.

These claims are no inflated posturing or verbal trickery. Ours is a gospel that, at its heart, is about “making all things new” (Rev 21:5; cf. 2 Cor 5:17). As outdated as the cross and empty tomb may seem next to the latest gizmo, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is the most future-oriented reality of human history. And our mission as a church centers on proclaiming and portraying this Christ.

Let this upper-hand we have in the department of true change motivate us to stay on mission. By God’s mercy we steward the one message that will usher people into the age to come. This is the highest of callings with the greatest consequence imaginable, so let us carry it out with humility, urgency, and endurance.

Pastor Chris

On Saturday we had an amazing time of celebration, feasting, and play.  Few things communicate “We love you and want to bless you” to the dozens of neighborhood children who came more than snow cones, hot dogs, soccer, and a 15-foot tall inflatable water slide.  You as a church family were spectacular.  You pitched in, you served, and you reached out to the neighbors who came.  Your love for one another and for our neighbors was on display throughout the event.

What is the connection between this and the mission of God?  Do not organizations have events with snow cones and water slides all the time?  Absolutely.  Actually, that very fact is the reason why it is crucial to understand the bigger picture of what God is doing and how our labor fits into it.

As we will see over the following weeks, a central component of God’s mission is his drive to make himself known in all the earth.  In his unsearchable purposes, he has decided to make himself known through the people he is redeeming and bringing into his family.  From Abraham to the present his mission is to bless all the nations through his people, climaxing in the blessing of being enfolded into that people to dwell with him forever.

So when we invite neighborhood children to enjoy a festive event and seek to engage their parents, what we are most interested in them experiencing is the character and blessing of God himself.  If God is on a mission to make himself known in all the earth and we are agents in that mission, then the servant hearted, unified blessing you displayed on Saturday is of eternal consequence.

Such bearings can be easy to lose.  It is not difficult to enjoy doing an outreach like Saturday’s-or any act of kindness-for its own sake.  Yet without the broader bearings in why we are doing this, we can get derailed when we face challenges or even opposition; we can get distracted by other pursuits in this world that capture our fancy; most tragically, we can miss key opportunities to speak of God’s greatest purposes to bless broken sinners by sending his son to redeem them for himself.

My prayer is that our journey through the mission of God would be much more than an academic pursuit.  Rather, I hope it gives breadth, scope, and purpose to the work God has already called us to do and that it would propel us into even bolder work as we seek to engage in his mission that cannot fail.

With you in this greatest cause,

Pastor Chris

The dedication goes a third way.  You as the family of God at Whitton Avenue Bible Church will be asked to dedicate yourselves to these children with the following questions:

-Do you pledge as a church family to provide a safe environment for these children to grow physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually?
-Do you commit, with God’s help, to build the word of God, the character of Christ and the joy of the Lord into these children’s lives?
-Do you promise, God helping you, to make it your regular prayer that by God’s grace these children will come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and for the fulfillment of all his promises to them, even eternal life; and in this faith follow Jesus as Lord and obey his teachings?

This is a tall order.  And while I should clarify that answering “We do” to these questions does not commit you to any explicit task for life, it does give shape to the posture we want to have toward our children at Whitton Avenue.  The questions above represent nothing short of a commitment to making disciples of our children, that is, helping them become faithful follower of Jesus Christ.  This requires not only passing along the teachings of Jesus, but modeling what it looks like to obey Jesus as a community.  Again, this is no small pledge.

As we approach Sunday’s service, take 10-15 minutes to read carefully through these questions and ask whether this indeed is your commitment to the children (and parents) of our church.  If not, ask God to grant you such a heart for the lambs of our flock.  If so, then prepare to affirm this high calling on Sunday morning and, more importantly, to devote yourself to helping our children become faithful followers of Jesus.

With you in this high calling,

Pastor Chris

When I told Gabe of my plans for this sermon series, he reminded me of a book of the same title, The Mission of God by Christopher Wright.  Since I have spent much of this week preparing for this series and working through Wright’s phenomenal work, I thought I would share with you some nuggets of his biblical perspective that have been shaping my thoughts.

“The whole canon of Scripture is a missional phenomenon in the sense that it witnesses to the self-giving movement of this God toward his creation and us, human beings in God’s own image, but wayward and wanton.  The writings that now comprise our Bible are themselves the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God” (48).

“The authority of the Bible is that it brings us into contact with reality-primarily the reality of God himself whose authority stands behind even that of creation…Reading and knowing the Scriptures causes us to engage with reality…The authority for our mission flows from the Bible because the Bible reveals the reality on which our mission is based.

“If the God YHWH…is really God, then that reality (or rather his reality) authorizes a range of responses as appropriate, legitimate and indeed imperative.  These include not only the response of worship but also of ethical living in accordance with this God’s own character and will, and a missional orientation that commits my own life story into the grand story of God’s purpose for the nations and for creation.  Mission flows from the reality of this God-the biblical God” (53-54).

“In Jesus we have become part of this people, sharing the comprehensive range of identity and responsibility that was theirs [Israel].  For through the cross and the gospel of the Messiah Jesus, we have become citizens of God’s people, members of God’s household, the place of God’s dwelling.  Such an identity and belonging generate an ethical and a missional responsibility in the church and the world, which the New Testament spells out in some detail” (58).

I look forward to sharing more with you from God’s word as we seek to understand God’s great plan for this world and our place in that plan.

On God’s mission with you,

Pastor Chris

I believe one the great things God has in front of us is a deepening call to mission.  Not “missions” in the sense of packing up our family, moving to another country, and reaching out to another culture, but a sense of mission toward the people in our lives and city who need to know Jesus.  Recently this mindset has been called “missional,” giving a category to those who are on this mission without moving or targeting a different culture.  Whatever the wording, the point is that we as a church are here to do something in this world.

There are a handful of scripture texts you can probably identify that relate to this mission.  There is the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel (”Go and make disciples of all nations…”) and the charge of Jesus at the beginning of Acts (”You will be my witnesses…”).  But if we consider the bigger story of the Bible, we find that these high points are merely peaks of a magnificent mountain range that spans from Genesis to Revelation.  And this mountain range is not ultimately about our mission but God’s mission.

“The Mission of GOD” is the title of our adventure to scale this mountain range from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation.  We are limiting this study to seven weeks in hopes that we can get the big picture without being lost in the details.  The big picture is that the only reason we have a “mission” in our neighborhood, city, and world is because God has been on a mission from before creation.  These seven weeks will not be an effort to muster up missionary motivation through guilt over what we ought to be doing; rather, they will be an opportunity to explore what God is doing and learn how we can engage in his plan in a meaningful way.  My hope is that at every step of the story-from creation to Abraham’s call to Jesus to Paul-that we would experience a deepening sense of purpose as we join in what God has been about from the beginning.

We will begin this journey on June 27th, and I look forward to preparing for it more in the weeks to come.

Pastor Chris

First is the “young, white, trendy, conservative pastor” category.  One friend is for the law, one is against it.  The one for it also works as a farmer in Casa Grande and has some very personal reasons behind his view.  In one incident, the man who farms the land next to his was held at gunpoint and had his truck stolen by someone who had recently crossed the border illegally.  My other friend in this category is working on his doctorate and has written a 50-page paper on the issues surrounding illegal immigration.  He is against it because he is convinced that the system is thoroughly exploitative, in that our economy depends on immigrant labor yet does not make such labor accessible through temporary work visas.  He believes the law does little to address the real problems.

Second is the “older, heart-for-the-poor, Civil Rights veteran, victim of racial profiling, African-American pastor” category.  Again, one friend is for the law, one is against it.  With vehemence, I might add.  How these two men that I respect are on opposite sides of the rallies is beyond me, but there they are.

Third and finally comes the “surprise!” category, both of which happened on Thursday.  The first came when I read an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal by Robert Morgenthau, the district attorney of immigrant-dense Manhattan from 1975-2009.  I fully expected him to join the chorus supporting the law, and it turns out that he strongly opposes tying local police work with federal immigration work, for many of the reasons stated by the Phoenix Police Chief.  Only a few hours later I was getting a haircut from a Latino brother in Christ who attends a largely Latino, English-speaking church.  When I asked him about their general vibe, he said that the congregation was largely supportive of the law.

With views like these all over the map, I am deeply grateful that our clear place on the map transcends these categories.  Whatever “side” we land on politically, our unquestionable, irrefutable commitment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and to call them to join us in following Jesus Christ.  We must be relentless in reminding ourselves that we are talking about human beings created in the image of God, and that to categorize them as “illegals,” “victims,” or anything in between will hinder the real work we are called to do as God’s people.

Please continue to pray with me that God would show us how we as a church might move toward our neighbors in portraying and proclaiming Christ’s love.  Make sure to mark your calendar for our neighborhood picnic on June 19th, and pray that God would display his glory through that event.  Let us be the salt and light we are called to be as we fulfill the disciple-making mission Jesus left us to do.

Pastor Chris

What struck me most as I perused the stand for my desired periodical was the obvious work these magazines put into capturing the “interest” of human beings, whether they be 10-year old girls crushing on Justin Bieber or a late-50’s couple concerned about their financial security.  If there is one thing capitalism has perfected in America, it is marketing, and if there is one thing marketers want to do, it is to capture our imagination with what they have to sell.

This is significant for us to understand if we are to make headway in fighting the idolatry that such marketing invites.  Consider this insight from Tim Keller:

“Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God, it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God.  This cannot be remedied only by repenting that you have an idol, or using willpower to try to live differently.  Turning from idols is not less than those two things, but it is also far more.  ‘Setting your mind and hearts on things above’ where ‘your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:1-3) means appreciating, rejoicing, and resting in what Jesus has done for you.  It entails joyful worship, a sense of God’s reality in prayer.  Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol.  That is what will replace your counterfeit gods.  If you uproot the idol and fail to ‘plant’ the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back” (Counterfeit Gods, p. 171-2).

We find a scriptural example of this in the way Isaiah prophesied to God’s people about their idolatry.  Knowing that the Israelites were enthralled by the splendor of their various idols, God spoke through Isaiah to both denigrate the value of these gods and to excite their imaginations regarding his own glory.  The false objects of worship “are empty wind” (Isaiah 41:28), “profitable for nothing” (44:10), “a lie” (44:20).

Israel’s God, however, is everything we could imagine wanting in a God.  He is so intimate and gentle that he is likened to a shepherd who “will gather the lambs in his arms” and “will carry them in his bosom” (Isaiah 40:11).  Yet he is as majestic and transcendent as he is caring.  “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?” (Isaiah 40:12)  To YHWH, “the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust” (Isaiah 40:15).  “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness” (Isaiah 40:22-23).

If we are to rise above the small, transient (and often good) things our hearts turns into idols, we must be captivated in our imaginations by who God is and what he has accomplished for us.  As one of our core values states, we must remain “awed by the glory of God and the mercy of the gospel.”  This requires consistent exposure to God’s revelation of himself in scripture and pleading for his enablement to both taste and see that he is ultimately good.  With such an enthrallment of heart, no glossy cover can turn us to the right or to the left.

Pursuing this awe with you,

Pastor Chris

1. More Prayer

During the last two weeks we have used the Sunday School hour to study significant prayers of God’s people.  We have observed a striking pattern: God’s people always begin their corporate prayers focused on God himself-his attributes, his mighty acts, and his promises.  Then we see how these prayers of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving affected the confession or requests that followed.

This Sunday during the 9:30 hour, we want to come together to seek God in prayer.  We want to exult in who he is, remember what he has done, and claim our trust in what he said he will do.  Then, by his grace, we will focus our prayers of request on our neighbors: praying for their salvation, for their protection, and for their fears to give way to trust in God.  And we will pray for God to direct us concerning how we can be part of his work in their lives.

Please plan to come to the adult Sunday School class and be part of this crucial means of loving our neighbors.

2. Communicating Our Heart to Our Neighbors

In the years I have served as your pastor, I have never felt the need for us to “make a statement” to our neighbors.  Yet the atmosphere of fear, suspicion, and distrust that has developed over the last few weeks in the immigrant community demands some form of communication.  After much discussion with the broader leadership, we decided that putting up a simple banner with a simple message would be a wise, strategic move.

God willing, early next week we will hang a 8′ x 3′ banner facing the street that reads, “We extend Jesus’ love and salvation to ALL our neighbors” written in English and Spanish.  This may seem like the most self-evident thing possible for a church to say.  However, if you put yourself in the shoes of a frightened neighbor questioning their future, we believe it is a necessary re-affirmation of our commitment to love our neighbors as Christ has loved us.  Pray with us that this will have a positive effect in moving toward our neighbors with mercy so that they might come to trust in Jesus for salvation.

3.  June 19th Neighborhood Picnic

In the past one way we have sought to reach out to our neighbors is through sharing food and fun with them on our church property.  Once we spread the word through the neighborhood children, we have had up to 75 neighbors come to enjoy games, sports, and a meal.  Tomas Barrera, who works extensively in our neighborhood, has shared with me that, for families used to being ignored by non-Latinos in higher tax brackets, such a gesture is a powerful testimony to the mercy of Christ.

Because of this potential of portraying the gospel, we want to plan another neighborhood picnic for Saturday evening, June 19th.  We announce this 6 weeks in advance so that you will join us in praying about how we can best bless our neighbors through this event.  While we have a basic formula for making the picnics work, we want to be creative in how we display Christ’s love.  Please be in touch [chris@whittonavenue.org] with any ideas you have.

Let us continue to pray that God would be glorified in our church as we seek to share his love with our neighbors.

On God’s mission with you,

Pastor Chris

This particular letter is set in the context of World War II, as the young demon is inquiring whether to influence the patient toward pacifism or patriotism.  Here is an excerpt:

“I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them. Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutual admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the “Cause” is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal. Even when the little group exists originally for the Enemy’s own purposes, this remains true. We want the Church to be small not only that fewer men may know the Enemy but also that those who do may acquire the uneasy intensity and the defensive self-righteousness of a secret society or a clique. The Church herself is, of course, heavily defended and we have never yet quite succeeded in giving her all the characteristics of a faction; but subordinate factions within her have often produced admirable results, from the parties of Paul and of Apollos at Corinth down to the High and Low parties in the Church of England.

“Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the “cause”, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war-effort or of Pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours-and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.”

God willing, on Sunday, I will address how we keep our mission and calling as God’s people central in the midst of the various “causes” surrounding the immigration debate.  Pray the God would give us clarity and reinvigorate our sense of purpose in this world as we anticipate the return of our King.

Pastor Chris

Few have written about the reality of this coming glory more imaginatively than C.S. Lewis.  He famously stated, “If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”  As sensible as this seems, Lewis was aware that believers lose sight of our glorious hope, being inebriated with the acorn-sized pleasures of our current reality.  He captured this struggle fictionally in The Silver Chair, one of the Narnia books, through a conversation between the Queen of Underland (a Satan figure) and four characters newly introduced to her world.

The Queen speaks to the children in a sweet voice while her enchanting aroma and captivating music cloud their minds.  She questions their claims of anything beyond Underland existing, noting that their concepts of a sun or a lion-which do not exist in Underland-are mere childish imaginings of something greater than a light bulb or a cat-which do exist in the Queen’s domain.  Her intoxicating scents and songs bring the children to such a stupor that they finally admit, “There never was any world but yours.”  To use our language from Sunday, “There is no oak tree; there is only acorn.”

What breaks the spell is when one of the characters desperately rushes toward the fire and stamps out the source of the enchanting aroma.  The pain of this act made the character’s “head for a moment perfectly clear” so that “he knew exactly what he really thought.”  Lewis observes, “There is nothing like a good shock of pain for dissolving certain kinds of magic.”  Indeed the courageous effort brought clarity to all the children, and they saw the beautiful, charming Queen for the vicious, green serpent that she was.

For Lewis, this children’s fantasy tale represented his convictions about pain.  In another well known quote he claims that “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  Pain is first and foremost a byproduct of man’s rebellion against God and the consequential brokenness of the creation.  Yet Lewis sees pain functioning as an indicator that this world is not all that there is, that we were created for something more, something whole, something lasting.

There is certainly nothing virtuous about pain or sinful about painlessness in this world.  But as we do experience physical, emotional, and relational pain, let us embrace the opportunity to yearn for the transformation of our bodies to resurrection glory.  Let us yearn for the shalom of God’s perfected kingdom.  And let us be set free from the notion that “there never was any world but this” to live for the world to come.

Pastor Chris

Consider the gospel grace that we saw in our Bible reading plan as we wrapped up Joshua earlier this week.  Notice what God accomplished for his people, then the response expected of them:

I took your father Abraham…and led him…and made his offspring many.
I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac
I gave Jacob and Esau. And
I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And
I sent Moses and Aaron, and
I plagued Egypt with what
I did in the midst of it, and afterward
I brought you out. ” ‘Then
I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the LORD,
he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what
I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then
I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and
I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and
I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel…So
I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you…And
I gave them into your hand. And
I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.
I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant’” (Joshua 24:3-13).

How were God’s people to respond to all his activity on their behalf?

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:14).

Let us hold fast to the gospel by intentionally recalling all God has done for us to redeem us for himself.  Let us soak in God’s long list of “I did …. for you” and respond to him with trust, fear, love, and obedience.

Pastor Chris