GCI Equipper

A Season of Preparing Ourselves for Easter

Incarnational trinitarian theology encourages us to take a new look at the 40-day season of Easter Preparation – what many call Lent.

“Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These are the words many priests and pastors will say on Wednesday, February 22, as they use ash to draw a cross on a believer’s forehead. Thus, the name, Ash Wednesday, which is traditionally viewed as a sober time. While we don’t perform the Ash Wednesday ceremony in GCI, there is nothing wrong with it. It is meant to be a simple reminder that Jesus is Lord, and we are not. Without him, all we have to look forward to is returning to dust and ashes. Ash Wednesday begins the season of what we choose to call Easter Preparation. There is reason behind our choice of words.

The season of Lent is often equated with a focus on seeing ourselves as finite and sinful. It is viewed as a sober time, a time of humble reflection, a time of simplicity and even sorrow, as we examine our mortality and our morality. It is viewed as a sojourn, reflecting on Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness and the temptations he faced. Many emphasize Lent as a good time to focus on turning away from our sins and temptations and turn towards God. Fasting is a big part of the season. Many view fasting as a time of repentance and atonement, asking God to forgive us for our weaknesses and asking for strength. Many fast by abstaining from something they especially enjoy, showing their desire to seek God rather than those material things. None of these things are wrong, and it is not my attempt to make less of anyone’s traditional view of Lent. I’d simply like to suggest that when we see the season under the traditional umbrella of Lent, it is easy to view the season as a time of penance and to focus on the self as we reflect on our mortality and our morality (or lack of it). Further, we might be so focused on the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness that we miss some important observations. When we view these 40 days as a season of Easter Preparation, we look at Jesus’ time in the wilderness a bit differently, and we see his reason for being in the wilderness is not just so he can pass the three temptations, and we see that fasting has nothing to do with penance. Let’s notice three important things from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

  • Notice the timing of Jesus going into the wilderness. The Gospel writers agree that Jesus went to the wilderness right after he was affirmed by the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism.
  • Notice Jesus was led to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. It was clear he was following direction from the Father and was going where he was supposed to go – this would give him confidence.
  • He was not alone. Mark tells us angels “waited on him.” How’s that for affirmation.

These are important observations. Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit and with the Father’s affirmation ringing in his ears, surrenders to the lead of the Holy Spirit and heads to the wilderness. So, let’s ask ourselves why the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and why did he spend the 40 days fasting?

I would suggest this is an important time in Jesus’ life as he transitions into public ministry. This is the beginning, you might say, of his journey to the cross. For the next three plus years, Jesus does nothing without the intentionality of moving toward the cross. This is the time he desires to fully immerse himself into the Father’s will. And what better way to do that than to spend intimate time with his Father and under the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit. This was a definitive triune time.

There are two other Biblical accounts of a 40 day fast. In Exodus 34:28-29, we read that Moses was in the presence of God for 40 days without food or drink, as God gave him the “words of the covenant.” In 1 Kings 19, we can read the account of Elijah who was walking to the Mount of God in Horeb. Prior to his journey, he was fed by an angel of the Lord. While the number 40 often symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation, it doesn’t always. Moses’ example shows us it was a special time with God. Elijah’s example shows us it was preparation to meet with God. Jesus is spending time with his Father in preparation for ministry. Yes, that time included going through the temptations with Satan, but after spending 40 days with God, do you really believe Jesus was tempted? Just because something is called a temptation and tempts others, doesn’t necessarily mean you are tempted. I submit Jesus may have been weak from lack of food and water, but after spending 40 days with his Father, 40 days of preparing for his ministry, 40 days being cared for by angels, I would suggest that spiritually, Jesus was anything but weak.

He knew he was the incarnate Son of God, in whom the Father was well pleased. He was completely secure in his identity – an identity we should more fully embrace in our personal preparation for Easter.  He knew he was in the Father’s hands and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

What can we gain from this? Incarnational Trinitarian theology constantly reminds me that God is Father, Son, and Spirit. It continually points to who Jesus is, who I am in him, and who others are in him. It emphasizes to me that I’ve already been forgiven, that I am always in the Father’s hands, and that I have been invited to participate with Jesus in his mission of bringing many sons and daughters to glory. It encourages me by telling me Jesus lives in me through the Holy Spirit, who is my comforter and teacher, and who will even pray with and for me as I grow in relationship with the triune God. It emphasizes the new commandment I have been given, to love others as he loves me (John 13:23).

With this in mind, here are a few reflective questions to consider during this time of Easter Preparation:

  • How might this change my view of the purpose of fasting during this season?
  • Do I benefit more from giving something up for 40 days – coffee, meat, sugar, alcohol, or do I benefit more from adding something – a time of devotion, specific prayers for others, finding others to love and serve, giving more for the great commission, calling those you know are lonely and need encouragement?
  • Rather than focus on my own weaknesses and enter a season of penance, what can I do to focus on God’s goodness and enter into a season of deeper intimacy with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
  • What are the God-sightings or divine appointments I see and can journal and/or share with others during the next 40 days?

Let’s make the 40 days of Easter Preparation a time of deeper intimacy and closer relationship, a time of praise, and a time asking our Lord how we can more joyfully join him in his mission.

On a journey with Jesus,

Rick Shallenberger
Editor

Roadblocks to Growth

As your teams continually work toward healthy church, here are some roadblocks you might face, and some strategies to guide you along the way.

By Michelle Fleming, GCI Communications Director

If you’re anything like me, the idea of trying something new is completely different from the reality of it. Creative is one of my top voices, so facilitating a brainstorm session, making a plan for a new experience, or developing a new iteration of an old process are all my jam.

But something happens when I go to move from provisional to plan when developing something new. I hit a speed bump or roadblock that requires me to persevere as I work toward my goal. The reasons may be different for different voice and personality types, but I think the idea versus actual experience disparity of trying something new is common for all of us.

Although many of us have served in ministry for a large part of our lives, and we are in year five of adopting to the Team Based – Pastor Led model of ministry, many of our ministry processes are still new to us. Continually evolving technology, new means of communication, and shifting cultural rhythms and norms have us changing the way we connect with and minister to our neighbors.

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Spiritual Practices for Easter Preparation

Lessons from the man with the impure Spirit (Mark 5:1-20).

By Cara Garrity, Development Coordinator

Easter Preparation is the 40-day (plus Sundays) season preceding Easter in the GCI worship calendar when we individually and corporately acknowledge that Jesus is saving. This year’s dates are February 22 to April 8. During this season we seek to open ourselves to more fully appreciate our deep need for Jesus as we nurture a posture to receive the overflowing graces of Good Friday and Easter.

For some, this season may bring to mind somber traditions of fasting and sacrifice, shame and scorn, striving and suffering, or worst of all, no coffee! For this reason, many of us may be particularly hesitant about this liturgical season. Thus, we miss out on an important time of renewal.

This season is about more than sentiments of suffering, feelings of unworthiness, or acts of arbitrary self-sacrifice. It’s about Jesus and going deeper into relationship with him. We go into the season under the reality and the hope of the resurrection, which changed everything,

In Jesus’ resurrection we encounter humanity’s great hope—the good news that makes sense of the past, gives peace for the present, and provides hope for the future. By leading us to encounter our need for Jesus, Easter Preparation prepares us to receive the good news of our risen Lord anew each liturgical year.

Opening ourselves to an appreciation of our deep need for Jesus is a humbling experience. The Gospel accounts are full of examples of those who came before Jesus in humble recognition of their deep need. There is one account in particular that I want to explore to illuminate Easter Preparation season.

 

In Mark 5:1-20, Jesus encounters a man with an impure spirit that was beyond the help of human effort. No one was able to save him or even to ease his suffering. He lived his life in the tombs amongst the dead. Upon meeting Jesus, the impure spirits knew they had finally met the only one who could save the man they had seized. After a seemingly unusual exchange between Jesus and these spirits, we read that the man is found “dressed and in his right mind.” Beyond the help of human hands, this man was saved by Jesus alone.

I believe that in this account, we encounter the heart of Easter Preparation. In more ways than we care to admit, we are beyond the help of human effort. While we may not find ourselves in the exact predicament as this man, apart from Jesus we are also the ones who live our lives in the tombs. We are in deep need of Jesus, and he is the only one who can save us.

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Place-sharing with George

A personal example of place sharing.

Glen WeberBy Glen A Weber

Several years ago, I was helping facilitate a gathering of about 50 pastors and Christian leaders. We were spending three days in prayer and worship together. We had a chair in the center of the circle so leaders could sit and ask for specific prayer. During one of those times, “George,” a pastor for more than forty years, went to the chair to seek prayer for a struggle he had faced all his adult life. In fact, he confessed that at one stage the struggle had led to him being removed from ministry for several years. He had been restored to ministry but still struggled and suffered with severe nightmares as a result. Numerous pastors gathered around and prayed for George. At a later gathering, George again went to the chair and gave praise to God that the struggle and nightmares had been completely healed.

We believed we were following instruction from Paul when he wrote to believers in Galatia.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)

Our praying for George was essential and fit this instruction from Paul. But there is more than just praying for someone, there is also sharing their life, joining them in their journey. In many circles, we call this place-sharing. We’ve heard a lot about this recently in several GCI articles and podcasts. Brad Jersak shares the same concept in his new book, Out of the Embers, Faith After the Great Deconstruction:

When we see another’s sin (Glen’s comment: or any other struggle) not as lawbreaking behavior but as the self-destructive effect of their affliction, our hearts may be stirred to shed tears the other person can no longer cry. Dostoevsky’s tales demonstrate the saving powers of co-suffering love that flows from eyes that see our suffering, that empathize, that draw near in solidarity.

Although George had been restored many years before, had returned to pastoral ministry, and now was healed from the struggle and nightmares, I felt drawn to invite him to have breakfast. My desire was to stand with him in his walk so his struggle would be less likely to return. Although George was more than a decade older than me and was considered a little “quirky” by some people, he was very encouraged to have me support him in friendship (place-sharing with him). George and I met together for breakfast at a quaint diner every Wednesday morning for the next five or so years until I moved out of the area. Along the way, he had asked me to preach on the weekends when he was on vacation. We walked through so many events in both of our lives, and I was able to support him through challenges with his church leadership, his and his wife’s health challenges, and his eventual full retirement from ministry – all of which were stress points that could have triggered an unhealthy response in George. Ultimately, I was probably more blessed by my time with George than he was, as he helped me face some big life events, and he helped me in my decision regarding transferring to another church area!

 

Place-sharing doesn’t have to be painful or scary! It is simply getting out of our comfort zone and sharing life with another child of God. Who around you might be in a different age group than you, or even considered a little quirky by others that would be blessed by your presence? You will be blessed as much as they will be!

Prayer: Father, you place-share with every person through sending the Holy Spirit. Jesus, thank you for being the ultimate place-sharer as you joined humanity through the womb of Mary and became human. You lived our life. You shared with the disciples and so many others, and now you share with us. Holy Spirit, help us follow Jesus’ leadership to share our lives with one or more people around us. Amen

Church Hack: Mentoring

Jesus’ invitation to us is to join him in making disciples. Through the mentoring process we help others discern their gifting within the body. Check out this month’s Church Hack for a guide to Christ-like mentoring. #gcichurchhacks 


https://resources.gci.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-CH1-Mentoring.pdf

GCI Easter Preparation Playlist

Worship is our response inside of Christ’s perfect response. During our Sunday services we intentionally prepare for an inspirational worship gathering. In our Hope Avenue Toolkit we recommend planning the themes of your worship gatherings around the seasons of the worship calendar – by doing this we are formed as remember and participate in the meaning of each season. In Equipper, this year we will be providing playlists with songs that algin with the theme of the season. We have included a variety of styles. When developing your song set for each week consider of the songs will flow together during the worship gathering and look for versions or arrangements that fit the context of your congregation. 

 GCI Easter Preparation 2023 Playlist

In Christ Alone – Passion and Kristian Stanfill

Living Hope – Phil Wickham

King of Kings – Chandler Moore and Essential Worship

God So Loved – We The Kingdom

10,000 Reasons/What a Beautiful – Caleb & Kelsey

Gracefully Broken – Matt Redman and Tasha Cobbs Leonard

Sovereign Over Us – The Worship Initiative, Shane & Shane

Guiding Behavior Like Jesus

The ways in which we guide the misbehavior of young people says something about who God is to us.

When I worked at the South Boston Boys and Girls Club, there was a little girl named Jill who decided to be my shadow. This would be a sweet story except that Jill was an angry shadow. Due to the life experiences she faced during the seven years she was on the planet, she learned to express her fondness and need for attention with violence. As soon as she arrived at the Club, she would immediately run up to me and punch me. She would grab onto me until I did what she wanted. When I ignored her, she would ruin the games I played with other children. I wish I could say I was always loving in my treatment of Jill, but after weeks of this behavior, I often spoke to her out of my frustration. I tried several strategies — from time-outs to talking to the director about the situation — and none of them worked.

At some point, I was exposed to the Cooperative Discipline Model, by Linda Albert. In this positive behavior guidance approach, most misbehavior has its root in something the child wants. After being exposed to this model, I began to understand that Jill was simply seeking attention. Armed with better strategies, the next time I saw Jill, I proactively asked to talk with her. I asked her if she liked playing games with me. She nodded her head to say “yes.” I told her that I liked playing games with her too, but I also needed to spend time with the other kids. She agreed with me. I offered to make her a deal. I said, “Jill, if you want to play with me, just come up to me and ask me politely. When you do that, I will either play with you right then or tell you exactly when I am available — down to the minute. Is it a deal?” She excitedly shook her head to say “yes.” I never had a problem with Jill after that. She learned how to get what she wanted without misbehaving.

Guiding the behavior of children does not always go this way. Strategies do not always work immediately, and sometimes counseling or other interventions are needed. However, the way we treat others and conduct ourselves in social settings are things we need to be taught. How we are taught has a big impact on our self-image and mental wellness.
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Gospel Reverb – Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom

Video unavailable (video not checked).

In this episode, Dr. Marty Folsom joins our host, Anthony Mullins. Marty is a Relational Theologian, who completed his Ph.D. with Alan Torrance and Douglas Campbell, asking what it means to be free persons in the context of our relational ways of being, especially with God, but also with other humans. He is the author of the Face to Face trilogy, a relational take on rediscovering the relational nature of faith and science, learning to live with a deeper sense of personal connection. His most recent book is Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone, Volume 1. Volume 2 is due out in May.

March 5 – Second Sunday of Easter Prep
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, “Justified”
4:31

March 12 – Third Sunday of Easter Prep
Romans 5:1-11, “Peace With God”
16:19

March 19 – Fourth Sunday of Easter Prep
Ephesians 5:8-14, “Wake Up, Sleeper!”
30:34

March 26 – Fifth Sunday of Easter Prep
Romans 8:6-11, “Spirit of Christ”
43:18


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Program Transcript


Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom

Welcome to the Gospel Reverb podcast. Gospel Reverb is an audio gathering for preachers, teachers, and Bible thrill seekers. Each month, our host, Anthony Mullins, will interview a new guest to gain insights and preaching nuggets mined from select passages of scripture, and that month’s Revised Common Lectionary.

The podcast’s passion is to proclaim and boast in Jesus Christ, the one who reveals the heart of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And now onto the episode.


Anthony: Hello friends, and welcome to the latest episode of Gospel Reverb. Gospel Reverb is a podcast devoted to bringing you insights from scripture found in the Revised Common Lectionary and sharing commentary from a Christ-centered and trinitarian view. I’m your host Anthony Mullens, and it brings me great delight to welcome our guest, Dr. Marty Folsom.

Marty is a relational theologian who did his PhD with Alan Torrance and Doug Campbell, asking what it means to be free persons in the context of our relational ways of being, especially with God, but also with others. He is the author of the Face-to-Face Trilogy, a relational take on rediscovering the relational nature of faith and science, learning to live with a deeper sense of personal connection. His most recent book is Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone. You can pick it up at Amazon or other major book outlets.

Marty, thank you for being with us and welcome to the podcast. This is your second time being with us at Gospel Reverb. But if I’m being real, it’s actually the third time, because last month we recorded an episode, but yours truly—me—used the incorrect lectionary passages for that episode.

I’m just so delighted that you would trust us to come back and try this again one time. But I want you to know that I have double and triple checked the passages. They’re right this time. So, I think we’re good to go since—yes, hallelujah.

It’s been a while since our listing audience has heard from you, so why don’t you catch us up on how you are participating with the Lord these days?

Marty: Right. Well, I have moved from Snohomish, Washington, to [inaudible] Island, so I have a beautiful window to look out and see all of God’s good creation. And I moved my library—it was 16,000 books and I’m down to about 12,000 books behind me now.

So that has been a huge piece, is just moving and getting settled in for a next chapter of writing. As you said, my first volume of the Karl Barth series came out. And I get comments virtually every week, people saying, oh, this is what I needed. This is really helping me to understand who Barth is and what he’s doing, and to really open up the nature of the gospel as God’s good givenness to us and the person of Jesus.

Volume 2 is in, and in May that should be out, which I’m really looking forward to that coming out.

It really builds on the theme of who is this God who’s revealed, the God who loves in freedom, and follows themes of music. Karl Barth woke every morning and listened to Mozart in his house. So somehow, I can see Mozart playing in the back of people’s mind as they read that.

And I’m almost three-fourths of the way through the third volume as well. So that’s what I’m doing every day anywhere from four to six hours is writing on Karl Barth, as well as engaging TF Torrance studies and the Psalms and other things that I’m writing on. My life is largely an author and a podcaster now.

You’re not the only podcast actually that I’ve had. I’ve had about six podcasts. So, I’m delighted that the world wants to hear the good news that is going out into the world.

Anthony: Amen and amen. Only 12,000 books. Marty, you need to step up with your game, brother.

Marty: It was hard to get down to that. It’s a matter of room. But anyway, I’ve been out there this morning pulling books off in preparation for this. So, it’s a delight to have resources.

Anthony: Yes, yes. Well, welcome back. It’s so good to hear your voice, and let’s get to why we’re here. Let’s look at the passages for this month. They are:

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17                                                      “Justified”

Romans 5:1-11                                                                “Peace With God”

Ephesians 5:8-14                                                             “Wake Up, Sleeper!”

Romans 8:6-11                                                                “Spirit of Christ”

 

Let me read the first passage of the month. It’s Romans 4:1-5, 13-17. I’m reading from the Common English Bible. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the second Sunday of Easter Prep, also known as Lent, on March the 5th.

1So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God. What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousnessWorkers’ salaries aren’t credited to them on the basis of an employer’s grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve. But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don’t work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous. John the Revelator saw a new heaven and new earth. What is the good news? 13 The promise to Abraham and to his descendants, that he would inherit the world, didn’t come through the Law but through the righteousness that comes from faith. 14 If they inherit because of the Law, then faith has no effect and the promise has been canceled. 15 The Law brings about wrath. But when there isn’t any law, there isn’t any violation of the law. 16 That’s why the inheritance comes through faith, so that it will be on the basis of God’s grace. In that way, the promise is secure for all of Abraham’s descendants, not just for those who are related by Law but also for those who are related by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. 17 As it is written: I have appointed you to be the father of many nations. So Abraham is our father in the eyes of God in whom he had faith, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that don’t exist into existence.

Marty, if you were preaching from this passage, what insights would you bring to bear? Let’s tell the story of the God we encounter in this passage.

Marty: Well, there’s just hardly anything here, as you can see. Anthony, that was a joke.

Anthony: I got it. I’m with you.

Marty: It’s so packed. I mean, the first thing I would just say is that it’s really an inquiry—the questions. So, what are we going to say and what does scripture say, is to say the nature of this is an inquiry. Which I use the word science for that; this is really the very science of what is really real in the world.

And Paul is trying to engage us with all of those ways that we think that we engage life and maybe engage God. But he is really going to the deepest part of the child that has curiosity to say if we can get life right here, everything’s going to flow from that in a way that’s going to give us the life that’s intended.

So just to recognize that this isn’t all the answers. If we can become curious like children, then we will be living with Paul with the wonder and awe of what it is that gets unveiled along the way—without having to have final statements that we kind of walk away and say, I’ve got it. And so, to live with that curiosity and wonder is to be drawn into the embrace itself.

I think that’s something that we just can’t miss the nature of the structure of what Paul’s doing here. And he is really inviting us into a story. And we could ask, so who is this story about? And it’s really easy to jump to Abraham and think, oh, this is Abraham’s story, but we would be off by at least one step.

This is really a story about who God is, that Abraham is the one who is embedded in this story that God is, is rolling out here. But the nature of who God is and what God has done is really the undergirding nature of what’s going on in this story. And the fact is that God has been faithful in creating and sustaining, and Paul steps into this.

And we are seeing here in Romans that people have all kinds of wrong ideas and so—wrong ideas about Abraham? No, it’s mostly wrong ideas about God and the nature of law and how do we get right with God and what does God do with our messing up, and all that.

And it’s like, hey folks, God is faithful. Abraham’s a great picture to see how God’s faithfulness works out. So, the nature of getting the story right here, and letting it be about a story about God in the first instance. And to see that Abraham comes for us as one who we recognize reveals something about God. Abraham is a pointer.

I think of the picture that hung over Karl Barth’s desk with John the Baptist pointing at the cross. Abraham’s kind of a John the Baptist. Here he is pointing at the one who is faithful. So, we don’t want to get absorbed entirely with Abraham, but we do identify with Abraham. And so, the nature of what it looks like for us to live within the story is part of the question here.

And so, preaching on what is the nature of faith and to say that the nature of faith is something that we have or we do is going to going to miss the point. The whole nature of gift is going to be significant here. Now we think of science as the world of objects, and so we don’t think about the science of gift.

But if we read this passage with these questions that are laid out and we say, we’re trying to do the science of going, what’s really happening here? Then the science is going to lead us to the idea. The gift is always unconditional. It is given to somebody who doesn’t deserve it, has not earned it, or in any way is compelling the person who is the gift giver to give it, then we are living into what the preaching of this is supposed to do—is that we are absolutely giving ourselves to one who is giving himself to us, and all we’re doing is submitting.

Or as the title of this section is, “waking up” to what it is that God has done. When you wake up in the morning, all you’ve done is wake up to what was really there. But when you’re asleep, then you’re unaware of what is really there. So, the call to wake up that is present within this passage, to recognize that our observing of the world so much leads us to think that reality is just what we see and observe.

But we have to see, as CS Lewis talks about, deeper magic from before the dawn of time to recognize the nature of who God is and what God is doing. And that Abraham is the invitation for us to wake up to the goodness, greatness, grandeur of the grace of God that overwhelms us. To become those who, having been beloved, are able to then bear witness to God and what God has done, and to live with humility and graciousness towards others because we have experienced that ourselves.

So that’s probably a good start as to some of the things that I might do with this passage.

Anthony: Yeah. I so appreciate that because if Abraham is our model of faithfulness, we can sometimes get stuck there because it’s like using Michael Jordan as a model. I might be able to play basketball, but I’ll never be able to play it like him.

And sometimes we look at the faith of another human being who’s gone before. And yes, we aspire to that. But I’ve just found in my own faith sometimes, it’s two steps forward and three steps back. It can sometimes feel a little anemic but it’s God’s faithfulness that we look to and we live in.

And so, I wanted to ask you, as we think about faith that is credited as righteousness, what would you say to someone who maybe is like me? Sometimes it feels strong and sometimes it feels a little puny. What say you?

Marty: Yeah. Well, each of these words, if we carefully say, what does righteousness mean here in this passage?

And we can easily think of righteousness as the standard that Michael Jordan or Abraham sets for us. But to say that the nature of righteousness is being made right with another person. It’s a way of being in relationship and so to say, either we work towards getting right or somebody can gift us with that, which is the point here.

The word credited is to recognize that a gift has been given, and it goes on say to those who don’t work. So, it’s acknowledging that there’s no contribution on the part of the human but that it’s God who is the one who makes us righteous. In other words, something is given to us that we didn’t earn, couldn’t earn, and we then are acknowledging what’s going on.

So, this idea of acknowledging that God has made us right, that we are included because of his choice to include us, that is to say then that our faith is simply waking up to that reality. You have been seen, known, chosen. Acknowledge the reality that is there.

We live in a world that tends to think that science focuses on the world of the impersonal. Science studies the objects of the world. And so, God becomes an object. And we even make our faith an object. You know, how do we measure it? How do we study it?

But to say that what Paul’s doing here—and really the nature of the faith that we’re talking about—it’s a personal way of being. And when we do the science of the personal, it means that in crediting, we listen to the one who tells the truth, and the one who tells that is the God who comes from the person of Jesus.

And so, he tells us that before we could do anything, he has acknowledged, acted in such a way that we would be his. And so, the word “credited” there is to say that his action is more important, more significant. His personal way of being is the reality of our life. And so, we’ve been made right with God by nothing of ourself.

And so, if we feel anemic or puny or unable to do or be something, then we’re going, well, what do I have to do? And Jesus says wrong question. Your inquiry here to just be able to say, oh, there’s nothing I could do. Oh, I get it. There’s no way that I could do anything to earn or to credit to my account anything, because you’ve already filled that account and done all that’s necessary.

So, either I receive it as gift, or I live denying the gift. And so, the very nature of the gospel is at stake here. Are we going to accept, acknowledge, receive [that] we have been included? And people do deny it and walk away from it. But even that doesn’t take away what it is that he has done and is doing.

So, if we judge ourself as anemic or puny, then that’s just our judging ourself, and we’re missing the point. So, to allow that to drop away, to be cleansed, to wash away, our conscience is cleansed from all that, to receive the goodness of that invitation.

Anthony: Isn’t it really our walk to wake up and to simply receive with open hands, to receive what God has given to us out of his determinative love? His action on God’s side is so, so important.

And so, as I heard somebody say this week, Buddha’s dying words were strive without ceasing, whereas Jesus’ dying words is, it is finished. So, we get to pick our master, right? Who are we going to walk with and go with? And in this case, we go with Jesus, the one who reveals the heart of the Father.

Well, let’s move on to our next passage, which is Romans 5:1-11. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday of Easter Prep (Lent) on March the 12th. Marty, please read it for us.

Marty:

1Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10 If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life? 11 And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God. [Common English Bible]

Anthony: Wow. That passage is eaten up with the gospel. Right? Like you said in the previous pericope, there’s not a lot there.

That’s sarcasm because there is so much there, and you’ve already alluded to this, but let’s continue to scratch that itch. Paul wrote that we have righteousness through God’s faithfulness, which was revealed in Jesus Christ. How might we get this all wrong? What do you want us to know?

Marty: Right. Well, the word faithfulness there implies faithful to something or someone. And so, the question of the covenant that lies behind all this—God has promised to create a world and to love it in very concrete ways.

And that is through a covenant relationship that says, “Hey, I’m going to love you no matter what. It is not a bilateral covenant where I’ll do my part loving, and you do your part loving. I’m just going to do all the loving here. And you’re just going to get to live within that love. That’s going to be my faithfulness expressed to you. And the degree to which you live faithful to my faithfulness, it’s going to make a difference for you, but it’ll never condition my love.”

If we can just recognize that faithfulness there is the outworking of the free, abundant, loving nature of God toward us, that acts in a way that transforms our experience of who we are, what we do, how we relate to others. All of that comes because God has created the unconditional, unstoppable context of his love, so that the nature of what flows from it is going to be true love.

And if you get it wrong, you’re going to turn that word faithfulness into something that I have to do something. Well, if God’s going to be faithful, then I must have to meet a condition (which makes it about us) in order to receive what’s going on. So many people read faith and faithfulness as, what about me? And that is grand misstep because you take your eyes off God and put it on yourself.

We can become casual where we just take for granted. Well, he’s loved me. Okay, fine. I’ll go on my way. Thank you very much, sir. And away you go. Kind of taking it for granted and saying, I wouldn’t deny it, it’s just that we don’t live as though it’s really true.

So we’re overestimating the nature of the implication of what is going on in a way that has just taken it for granted. My wife says, don’t spoil the kids. And I say, a kid’s not spoiled until they take it for granted. To give them lavish love is wonderful. The day they take it for granted, that’s the day they’re spoiled. And it’s easy to take the faithfulness of God for granted. And we become spoiled in a sense because we’re missing the dynamic and the nature of what’s there. So to live with gratitude is not to be taking it casually.

Some people might say, “This is just too crazy. I mean, you talk about a God who’s faithful, I don’t think I can ever understand that. So it just seems too crazy for me.” And crazy’s not a bad place to be. To say this love is so crazy, I can’t fathom it in my way of thinking—a God who loves me no matter what and all that. It’s the closest to being right. And yet it can also, of course, lead us to think that it’s irrational.

So if we have kind of a sense of the love of God is so crazy, I’ll never understand it, but I’ll take it anyway. That’s a pretty close kind of thing.

But the nature of turning a covenant into a contract, that is always going to be the problem. Contracts are based in fear. We think God says, if you do this, then I’ll give you that. And we say, okay, well, I’ll do this if you do that. And the fear of losing something is what undergird something as a contract. When we think of God’s faithfulness and our faithfulness in contract terms, it’s bound up with fear. It lives from fear. It sustains the fear that something’s going to go wrong, and that we need to look at the consequences of what go wrong.

So we’re always paying attention with fear to where the relationship might go wrong. And so that’s again, a huge problem with how people think about being righteous and being faithful—either on God’s part or on our part. And there is no peace in that, which is the telltale sign something is wrong here.

Anthony: Thanks be to God that he is not quid pro quo. Right? I can recall JB Torrance talking about one of the greatest travesties in the church is when we say, God has done his part; now you’ve got to go do your part. And it minimizes this big God into something very small and anemic. And that’s not who God is revealed to be in Jesus Christ.

And as I’m looking back over this passage, my eyes, Marty, are drawn to verse 5. This hope doesn’t put us to shame. It’s a hope that is bedrock. It’s not going to embarrass us, leaving us at the altar, so to speak, on our wedding day. Our bridegroom’s going to be there, and we’ll share in that feast.

Anything you want to say to that?

Marty: Well, the nature of shame, when there is shame, somebody has to be right. And I mean, the word right shows up in righteous, but I always say shame, blame, and guilt are all about somebody being right. And in the case of blame, I’m right and somebody else is wrong. In the case of shame, somebody else is right and I’m wrong.

And in case of blame—this is Adam and Eve, right? Pointing at each other and the snake. I’m making myself the judge. So, the whole nature of shame is that we’ve just taken our eyes off of the grace of God. And once you get your eyes on the love of God, which is poured in our heart, all of that blaming, of needing to be right, goes away.

And I say in counseling, who’s right here is always the wrong question. The question is always, how do we be loving here? And that really stems from my theology. How do we be loving here is always asking the question: how we live in light of the God who has loved us and ask what is best for everyone here?

Because God is always doing that. God’s righteousness is always going to work out as a love that transforms us towards himself and towards our relationships with others. No shame.

Anthony: No shame in his game. Let’s exegete versus 6-8. And I’m going to read them again. And share with us how it overflows with gospel.

While we were still weak at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that somebody will die for a righteous person, though. Maybe somebody might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What say you?

Marty: Amen. So, I grew up in a world where people talked about sin first. You focus on the sin first. We are sinners and there’s all these kind of reflective things on what’s wrong with our thinking, our desires, our lusts, all those things. And then once you’ve got that really embedded in, then you bring in Jesus as one who saves us from ourself, in a sense.

But it’s quite clear here that the gospel begins with the God who has loved us. God shows his love because while we were still sinners. And so to really get the ordering of the logic of what Paul’s unfolding here, when we start doing science here and delve into the deep reaches of what this is pointing to—the love of God that’s poured out (regardless of where we are in our relation to God) is given in a way that that precedes anything that we might do. Meaning again, it is unconditional. So, to say, the gospel begins with the love of God. Any gospel that begins looking at the human (what’s wrong there) ultimately becomes a human-centered gospel. It’s about our problems, our inadequacies, all those things.

So to say, when you get that the gospel is about what God has done before we did anything wrong, right, or otherwise, then you’re starting to think out of the gospel, and then we see that love seeks a healing for the world. Our body, soul, and spirit, all that is poured out as the Spirit is given to us. And seeking the healing that ultimately brings the peace that was mentioned back in the first verse. Peace, shalom, a way of being with God that God creates and only God can give. The kind of peace that God gives. The peace that the world has is usually held with a Roman peace. We manage it through our powers. But to say that gospel is a peace that comes because God gives his very self to us by his Spirit. He brings us to know who we are so that we cry out Abba Father, which the other side of that is I am your child.

So, the gospel is that identification. When we cry out by the Spirit sharing in the cry of Jesus, who said Abba. In being those children, we begin to recognize a whole new identity, which the gospel is wanting to bring to us, whatever we may judge of ourself to be wrong, separated, isolated, distant, failures.

All of that was preceded by the love that came healing us with our whole being. And the Spirit is the one who was from the beginning and still is at work in bringing us into the gospel life.

Both TF Torrance and Karl Barth had versions of the question, so when were you saved? My version of that is I was saved in the heart of the Father before the foundation of the world. I was saved on the cross as Jesus took my place and my sin and said for you. And I was saved when the Holy Spirit awoke me to the heart of the Father who looked down the corridors of time and saw me. I was saved as Jesus said, Father, forgive him and embraced me into himself.

The Spirit wakes me up. And again, Wake up, oh, sleeper, to say, here you’ve got the Spirit giving us the experience of the gospel. And again, JB Torrance said, we don’t just begin with our experience (that is a kind of evangelical speaking), but to really say the depth of the evangelical experience is the heart of the Father, the life, action, and ongoing ministry of the Son who is our high priest, into which we are awakened by the Holy Spirit.

But we can’t make that the focus. It is the outcome, the story within which we’re living. And so here you’ve got all that in these passages being played out—the deep love, the act of love, the experiential love—all being brought into focus so that we become those who live within the gospel, having discovered the depth of reality, the nature of what is there that we don’t just see when we look at the world through our eyes and just think, well, I’ve got to do something today.

No, God has done something that creates the space, the presence, the very life that I’m living and to live within that is to live within the gospel.

Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God that the biblical story starts in Genesis 1 and not Genesis 3. You know, we don’t start with the fall, but we start with our original belonging and a goodness in the way that God creates. And he loves his creation. Thanks be to God.

Marty: Yeah, the gospel is even there in [Genesis] 3. When Adam and Eve are hiding, they just have a wrong story, but God comes looking for them. That’s gospel. That’s this right here. So, it’s our bad theology of thinking we need to hide from God, but God is consistently the one who looks for and comes and cares for them even there.

So we again, we can’t miss looking through God’s eyes and collapse into just looking through Adam and Eves fearful eyes.

Anthony: Yes. So may we walk with God in the cool of the evening as we go.

Marty: Hallelujah.

Anthony: Hallelujah.

Let’s move on to the next passage, which is Ephesians 5:8-14. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the fourth Sunday of Easter Prep and Lent on March the 19th.

8You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. 10 Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, 11 and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. 12 It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. 13 But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. 14 Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. [Common English Bible]

Paul, the apostle, seems to be making the case that our actions as children of light should align with the truth of our being, our ontology.

What damage is being done when we don’t live in congruence with goodness, justice, and faith? And how can someone more faithfully receive, embrace, walk, act as children of light?

Marty: Right. so not living in congruence? I mean, if you just think of not living in congruence with your spouse or your kids or your parents, you’re going your own way. And what comes from that is called conflict.

And so to say that the nature of being congruent, is that there is something of being aware of the person, the ways of being that would be aligned with that. And so that is the call of what happens when God comes to us in love. That he calls forth from us a love, which again, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, self-control. These are all ways of being that are congruent with the one who’s given himself to us.

So, the very nature of what it means to be children of light is that when light comes into the world, the light comes into the darkness, as the Gospel of John begins. There is a congruence of the Son with the Father.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we who beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” [John 1:14] So that which we are being congruent with is the very nature and character of God, which has goodness and justice and truth.

When God’s light shines in us, we recognize we’ve been stumbling around in the dark. The reality’s all there. That’s the thing about darkness and blindness is the reality’s all there. We just can’t see it. I wrote a song once. “Waking up to reality. God loves me, not for what I do or say, but freely. And I stand as one transformed by love (that’s his love), living in the one who gives me hope.”

And so the recognition of the waking up is that once you see who this God is, you understand the love that has come to you. It transforms the nature of who you are in response to that having been loved. We love because he first loved us. And so, congruence is that coming into alignment with what it is that he’s doing.

So, congruence is like to be integrated with God. It’s to have our life woven together, interwoven in a life with him. The opposite of congruence then would just basically be living a lie. You have not been given a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. Living in fear is what Adam and Eve had. And so to not be congruent with God is to live in fear.

And what does perfect love do? It casts out fear. What does perfect fear do? It casts out love. And therefore, we become incongruent. We lie, we hide, we distance from God, we distance from one another. We cover up those things we don’t want people to see. That’s the shame coming in and in covering up.

Then, we have all of our favorite addictions from drug and alcohol to religious addictions, to workaholism—all the ways we cover up in our hiding and lying because we’re not congruent with the love of God. And we work out of a system of fear that says, if I’m going to survive, I need to take care of myself. Nobody else is, and I need to make sure that I’m not going to be embarrassed or shamed in the world.

And so that whole incongruence that comes from that is damaging at the deepest level. And so basically say the Christian life is not a call to being good or measuring up to standards and ideals. It is a call to honesty. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1:9]

And so to say to people, you know, being honest is really the place to begin here. That is the life of congruence. You know, homologoumena—which is the word confession there—homo [means] same, logoumena [means] word. To say the same thing as God. God I’m struggling here. You know what, you’re struggling here. Good. Thanks for being honest. Let’s talk about this.

In counseling, I often say if you’re angry to just say, I’m angry, is actually the best thing you can do because then you can talk about what you’re angry about. If you just act angry, then that anger is going to come out in tones of voice and actions that are damaging. So to just be honest and say, I’m really angry here. Can we talk about? It’s beginning in a place of getting congruent.

And so the Christian invitation is not to say, how can I live better? How can I be more loving? It’s to so know the love of the one who’s come to us, that our life has that light shine in us. And we can be honest about what’s there, and in just seeing it and accepting that’s who we are and that we are loved, the transformation happens. The Spirit, who’s poured out, does the work, as God’s goodness and God’s justice become our way of being because we know that we have been loved, that we have been treated with kindness by this God, allows us then to treat others with the same thing.

And the third word of the three you threw out there—truth. The idea of truth comes from the idea of troth, which is to be bound to another person. So to be betrothed to a person—you can hear the troth in that—truth is a way of being in relationship. So whenever we’re out of congruence with God, we’re out of relationship.

Guess what? Our way of being true to ourselves and true to others in relationship crumbles. And so the invitation in knowing the light of God’s love and Christ’s light in our life, is we can see that he has bound himself to us, and it gives us the capacity—having been loved and accepted—to not need to hide or perform or those other things, which releases us into the freedom of a life of love.

Anthony: In his book, Mediation of Christ, TF Torrance wrote, “God loves you so utterly and completely, that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ as his beloved Son and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation.”

And in light of that astounding love that is unconditional, it does allow us to be honest. And as you were saying, even in counseling, just being able to name it is a huge step in our subjective experience of healing. And thanks be to God that his faithfulness doesn’t wax and wane based on our moment of what we’re feeling then. But in light of that, we can wake up by the Holy Spirit. Oh, that’s so, so good.

In verse 14, Paul makes the statement that everything revealed by light is light. What does that mean? Help us understand.

Marty: Right. Well, again, TF Torrance, who you just mentioned, talks about light as the constant of the universe and that the very nature of using that imagery of Jesus being the light of the world, there is something about the light that comes from the Father who is the Father of lights.

And so, to say this God is the constant of the universe who gives being and order and meaning and purpose to the world as the Creator. And when Jesus comes into the world—which has become dark, meaning, missing an awareness of who this God is—Jesus is the light who allows us to see that which is real.

And so, if somebody is in the darkness, you don’t really have a sense that they are there or what your relationship is to them. And so fear is a natural thing when you’re walking down a dark street at night and somebody’s coming, something in you goes, Hmm.

So the nature of the light that the Spirit brings, is that there is this sense of seeing the other. And if we see them through the eyes of Christ, if our sense is I’m on this street at night because I’m looking for people who are in need of love and care, I’m not going to be afraid. I am going to be somebody who is about being the presence of love on this dark street. And yeah, maybe I’ll bring a flashlight, but to say that just like the moon has no light of its own, when light shines on it creates light that lights up the night.

And I love those nights with a full moon. And you can see things in their own unique kind of way. And so the moon is also given as a gift to the earth. The sun rules the day, and the moon rules the night. And ruling there doesn’t mean dominating over. It’s a provision. If you look at the providence of God, God provides that which is necessary to operate in all the spheres of life.

And so the light of Christ, as CS Lewis said, “I believe in the Son not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.” And so the nature of this light that reveals us and those around us.

The light of Christ enables us to see the meaning and purpose for which things are created, including broken things. And to not just say, throw it away, but what does redeeming, healing, making well of this look like? And so light is being revealed in us. We are being seen for who we are.

Those people around us who are easily written off—which my wife always says when she sees people on the streets of Seattle, “I just think that’s somebody’s child.” That person who’s sitting there begging, that’s somebody’s child. And if we can see through those eyes the light of that, that to know that they have been beloved by someone, created by someone, gives us eyes to see the light of knowing that even this person who our eyes could look at and judge and write off, can also be looked at with the eyes of love. And suddenly our eyes become redeeming and healing and wishing for the best for them and asking, what can we do out of love for them?

So the nature of light—also, TF Torrance says, in the spring, the light comes and warms the ground, and that very thing that God created is brought to come out and be what it was made to be. The plants grow, the birds come out and do what they do, and all of those things. Instead of say, the light of God’s shining in creation is the same as the work of the Spirit that brings us into the being that made for and all the fruit of the Spirit flows in us as light warms our hearts and creates in us that which only God can create—a fruit that lives in congruence and extends his life in the world around us.

Anthony: I appreciate the way that your wife thinks about others, even those who are down and out. And it reminded me of CS Lewis his amazing sermon, The Weight of Glory. He talked about how there are no ordinary people. Your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses other than the blessed sacrament itself.

What a beautiful thing. A way of seeing the world as best we can by the Spirit, the lens of Jesus Christ for those that belong to him.

Well, our final passage of the month is Romans 8:6-11. It’s from the Common English Bible. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the fifth Sunday of Easter Prep (Lent) on March the 26th.

Marty, would you read it for us please?

Marty:

6The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God. But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. 10 If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. 11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.

Anthony: God is triune and other-centered. The Father is for the Son. The Son is for the Spirit. The Spirit’s for the Father. And so, it goes.

And yet this pericope points to how destructive selfishness and self-centeredness is in our walk with God. But Marty, anywhere you look, you see selfishness, selfishness everywhere. Sometimes even in our churches, we’ll see it. So during this season of preparation for Easter, many Christians see it as a time of a spiritual reflection.

What would you say to us about what is being revealed in this passage?

Marty: So a couple things about Lent just to throw in here. We often think of Lent as a time to get rid of those things, the selfishness, the attitudes and all that. And so we focus on getting rid of those things.

I like to think of Lent as like a honeymoon. Now, when people go on a honeymoon, there’s all kinds of things they leave behind, but they don’t think about what they’ve left behind. They think about the one who they get to be with. And the whole nature of that is to have a time of serving, caring, learning to integrate our life with the other, to have this new life that’s in a sense determined by a lifestyle of love.

And so do you leave things behind? Do you change when you come back because of it? I hope that the time dedicated to loving the other becomes so transformative that there are things that naturally are left behind because they no longer serve the nature of what love looks like in this relationship.

So if we think of Lent as a season of focus, that prayer and fasting is not a getting rid of. It’s the attentive love of the person of Christ who has come into the world. And the anticipation that the celebration of Easter is going to be the fullness of the covenant life that we are going to be living into, and that we are reminding ourself of who is most important and how that affects us.

Then the nature of destructive selfishness and self-centeredness is already washed away because we’re not focusing on trying to get rid of our self-centeredness, which becomes its own kind of moral failure. If we’re focusing on trying to get rid of something bad in ourself, then we’re focusing on ourself and that is a moral problem because we’re focused on ourselves.

So the whole idea of the world that we live in is that, as you have said, it is a culture of individualism. Individualism is what everybody’s focused on. How do I be happy in the world? And from that, we want to defend our individual rights. Rights are all about the individual looking out for themself.

If we thought out of responsibility, responsibility is what do I owe others? And if we were always asking, what do I owe to others in love, then we wouldn’t even have to talk about rights because others would also be looking out for us by virtue of what it is that for them to be responsible or loving to us.

But because we focus on rights, then everything becomes about me protecting my way of being. And that just feeds the self-centeredness. We want to own more, consume more. Everything just feeds into this problem of self-focusedness. And so, if we recognize that the nature of the gospel that is being put out here is to recognize all of that stuff just leads to separation from others from God.

And so there is no peace there. The law of God is ultimately the law of love. But if the law is, how do I get more? How do I use the economy, the politics, the whatever, to get more for myself? Then we will be enslaved to that. And so the language of selfishness and death and slavery and fear is all bound together.

The alternative to that then is that the God who looks at us with love, who comes to us in love, pours his Spirit into us. And so Lent is this openness to the Spirit so that we’ll be open to the life of love. And there is a reprioritizing because the Spirit focuses us on the one who has loved us, what it means to know about the meaning of the cross, that it removes all of that need for making our own way in the world, to see all as gift.

And so, if our season of Lent is to ask the question, how do I more focus the value of who Jesus is? And to say Spirit, if you’re going to show me what it is that’s selfish in myself, show me the flip side even more as the enduring sense of what is that God has given me and continues to give me every day as the gift from which I would live.

And therefore to say, when we get the gift, then we have the way of gratitude and thankfulness. If we thought of Lent as more about gratitude and thankfulness that the Spirit awakens in us, there would be a sense in really a living according to the will of God. What is the will of God?

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18] That’s Lent.

Anthony: Yeah. It reminds me of what Eugene Peterson said, that Christian discipleship is focusing more and more on Christ’s righteousness and less and less on our own.

Yes. And that’s where you’re flipping Lent on its head. And I think there’s something to that. It’s like Peter keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus walking on water, but as soon as he focused on himself, that’s when he ran into trouble. So, I think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying.

You know, the epistle writer said that if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to Christ. How does someone know if they have the Spirit of Christ? And additionally, does this mean, Marty, non-believers don’t belong to Christ?

Marty: Right. It’s a very interesting passage and it’s very easy to read it wrongly.

So one of the things about being alive as a human being is that the God that made you, sustained you by his Spirit. So to say, you wouldn’t be alive, were it not for the Spirit sustaining you. The question, do we live as though that is true?

Do human beings generally know that the Spirit of Christ is the one who gives them that which Karl Barth says is the distinctive what it means to be human rather than animal, and that is that we have the Spirit who gives us this connection, this being with the God who has loved us. Do we acknowledge that? Well, obviously much of humanity does not.

So, when we say, how does someone know they have the Spirit of Christ? We never possess the Spirit of Christ. Rather, when we are aligned with or attuned to the reality of the Spirit, our life will look like the fruit of the Spirit. When the Spirit is sustaining our very life and breath and being, we can live in denial of that. And then all of the shadow darkness that we’ve talked about, all that comes into play. The Spirit is still the one who gives us life, but we’re living our life as though that’s not real. So we can call that living in unreality, living in denial of the Spirit of Christ.

And so when we go on then and talk about: do they belong to Christ if they’re in that place? To say, we cannot use the word belong in a way that is a possession as though somebody owns something. But to say that we steal ourself, we have stolen ourself from the one who owns us. We are not rejected by the Spirit. We are not rejected by Christ. We have simply stolen ourself and are living a lie that we are separated.

And so to say that we don’t belong to or that this person doesn’t belong to Christ, is to say the same way a child may say I don’t belong to that family anymore. Well, the fact of the matter is that mother, that father gave them birth and so to say, the reality is that they do belong in the truest physical sense. They are saying, I am choosing not to identify myself as being connected to those people.

And so they’re rejecting in a sense, something that you would say cannot reject the truest reality of it, though their personal experience through their individual judgment is that they don’t belong. So, the human being who rejects the love of God, who rejects the Spirit at work in them, will live as though the Spirit is not giving them life and breath.

But that is not the deepest reality, though, as JB Torrance would say, that is their experience of it. And therefore, the blessings of what it means to live from the life of love, they will be those who walk in darkness. They will be those who will stumble. They will be those who do not receive the benefits of having been loved, being able to love.

So the word belonging there has to be seen in a deeper sense. There is nothing that we can do, neither height nor depth, angels nor principalities. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And the Spirit is the one who gives us the very breath and life to bring the work of Christ to us.

And that amazing passage in Romans in 11 where he has condemned all under sin, that he may show mercy to all. That he may show mercy to all means that in the eyes of the God who has given all for all people he will say, this one belongs to me also, even though he doesn’t know all have sinned, all could be judged, but I have shown mercy to all, they all belong to me.

Not all have awakened to that. And so insofar as someone lives as a quote unquote non-believer, they’re living incongruent with reality. They’re not doing the good scientific work of investigating what is really real. Who am I really? What is this God all about who I’ve heard because I’ve heard some crazy things and there are a lot of crazy things people say about what it means to be a Christian and who the Christian God is?

But the Spirit is always at work in awakening us, inviting us, unveiling our eyes, waking us from the sleep so that we will experience the love of God and the truth of what this is saying is the Spirit does live in us and the Spirit has been given to us 100% gift. There’s nothing we could do to earn it, no condition that we could meet that would make the Spirit come to us.

The question of our allowing the reality to shine through instead of hiding in the ways that we think we can manage our world if we maintain a kind of power that deceives us in the same way that Adam and Eve were deceived. And I say the day they ate that apple, it was kind of like going from the absolute delight of a child to becoming a teenager who becomes independent and says, I’m going to do it my way. I don’t care what you have to say. The Adam and Eve move was in a world of independence, that is the problem.

When the Spirit moves, a third thing happens. And that’s what I call the life of interdependence. And that’s what you hope to have with your adult children. You are a person. I am a person. We belong to one another, and we will love each other with the distinctions of who we are, but also recognize that we belong together.

People who are non-believers are those who are still part of the family, but they’re living in their teenage mentality. And there are a lot of 70, 80-year-olds who still live with a teenage mentality. Maybe it’s even childish. I’ll do it myself. And so are they loved by Christ? Yes. Does the Spirit give them life and breath? Yes. Do they know that that is true? Nope. They’re living in denial of that. So we can never be held back from saying to any person, I have no doubt that you are loved by God, sustained by his Spirit, whether you know it or not.

I can preach that to you as the gospel because I know the God who is there. Your choices are going to live in the light of that. And whatever you do, you will never be outside of God’s love.

Anthony: Mm. Hallelujah. Praise God. And therefore, we can say, wake up sleeper and experience true reality that you are beloved of God. As I heard Pastor Brian Zahn once say, salvation is best understood as belonging. We belong to God, and you, Marty, belong to God. You are beloved in his sight.

And this is fun. It what a great conversation. It’s such a joy to do this with you. And I hope you’ll come back sometime, and maybe we’ll have you sing one of your songs that I heard you reference earlier in the podcast.

But I also want to take this moment to thank a couple of people who really make this podcast go: Ruel Enerio, who is our producer, and also Elizabeth Mullins, who does the transcription of the podcast. So you can read what Marty said, word for word.

Marty, thanks for being a part of this. And as is our tradition on Gospel Reverb, we like to end with prayer. So, would you please pray for us, our listening audience?

Marty: I’d be delighted to.

Dear Abba, we do thank you this day that we get to celebrate your life that embraces our life. As we prepare for Lent, we recognize that the goal of Lent is to live within the embrace that you have for us in Jesus. We know that this is a time that we walk with you, a rugged road, a challenging road, but one that has purpose and meaning.

Help us to find our purpose and meaning in the love that you’ve poured out for us. And the grace that isn’t something separate from yourself. It is you looking us eye to eye. Help us to lift our eyes and our hearts to see your gaze into us. To know that we are loved by you and Holy Spirit, you who have been poured out into us.

We pray that as we listen to these gospel words that you would bring them to resonate in our being, that they would cause us to awaken a way that we have never had before, and that Lent would be all lived in the light of the dawning sun of the resurrection. That gives meaning and purpose of what it means to be fully alive.

Help us to live the fully-alive life, embraced by the one who we have on our lips as Abba, or dear Father, to know the companion of Jesus who goes with us, and that you, Holy Spirit, give us life and purpose and meaning and do your work in us. Do that, we pray, now and in this season of preparation. We pray all these things in your name, you who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.


Thank you for being a guest of Gospel Reverb. If you like what you heard, give us a high rating and review us on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast content. Share this episode with a friend. It really does help us get the word out as we are just getting started. Join us next month for a new show and insights from the RCL. Until then, peace be with you!

Process of Development w/ Greg Williams

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In this episode, Cara Garrity, interviews GCI President, Greg Williams. Together they discuss how the 4 Es fit together into the bigger picture of the process of development, and it supports GCI’s vision of Healthy Church.

“Stay the course. We often think back to Eugene Peterson who said, it’s a long journey in the same direction … I see it as the great adventure too. Every day is a new opportunity. Let’s utilize the time that we have, and let’s be intentional at the same time, realizing it’s not all on our shoulders. Realize that we really do look to Jesus as the head of the church. We really do look for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and that discernment. And I just think if we can learn to really, truly put our hope and faith in Christ, but at the same time, we show up and participate—I don’t think we can go wrong with that.” –Greg Williams


Main Points:

• Where do we see the embodiment of a process of development in the life of Jesus? 1:09

• Talk to us more about the term process – there are a lot of processes in this world. What kind of process are we talking about? 5:33

• What difference does having an intentional process of development make? 11:19

• What are some things you expect we’ll see within the life of the local church as we intentionally live out processes of development? i.e. What are the fruits of development? 36:38

• What encouragement do you have to those who are beginning to intentionally live out processes of development in the life of the local church? 39:20

Resources:

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Program Transcript


Process of Development w/ Greg Williams

Welcome to the GC Podcast. A podcast to help you develop into the healthiest ministry leader you can be by sharing practical ministry experience.


Cara: Hello friends, and welcome to this episode of GC Podcast. This podcast is devoted to exploring best ministry practices in the context of Grace Communion International churches.

I’m your host, Cara Garrity, and today I am blessed to have GCI President, Greg Williams, join us. Welcome, Greg.

Greg: Thank you, Cara. Great to be here.

Cara: I’m so glad to have you join us today. We’re going to be jumping into talking about a process of development. Now in the last episode, folks, we talked about, how do we define the 4 Es? Engage, equip, empower, encourage. If you haven’t checked that out yet, go check out that episode as a refresher before you dive into this.

But today we’re really going to be looking at that bigger picture. What happens when you put all those pieces together and really live it out as a process of development.

I’d love to just go on ahead and dive right on in. We always, when we think about our practices in ministry, we always come back to the who and the why. I’m wondering, can you tell us where do we see the embodiment of a process of development in the life of Jesus?

Greg: Cara, I think you see it almost throughout.

Even when he began his public ministry, and he had selected those that were going to be his disciples. I think of Andrew had met him, and Andrew went and told his brother, Peter, you need to come and see, you need to come and see.

And Jesus just invited them. It was a process of invitation and relationship: come and be with me. And then throughout, as he begins to work with them and to build that camaraderie with them. They get to see him doing miracles. They get to see him interacting, sometimes in some pretty hostile situations, Pharisees questioning him, situations where he’s put to the test.

But there are times too when Jesus says, no, we’re going to work through you. I think of the feeding of the 5,000. I wrote an article—it’ll be in Update next year, put in a little plug here—but just talking about that one episode of the feeding of the 5,000.

Again, he asked them on the front end, the crowd’s hungry. And one of the disciples says, we don’t have that kind of money. We just couldn’t afford to be able to feed this crowd. And then Peter looks around, says there’s this kid who has a basket with loaves and fishes. And so, this is something to start with.

And for Jesus, doesn’t matter how small, he can work with it. But the miracle that took place there happened in their hands as they distributed and even when they collected at the end. What’s amazing is they took up 12 baskets. How many disciples were there?

Cara: I think there’s 12.

Greg: I think so. So, they got a takeaway meal for themselves too. But Jesus was always good to include them, to get their input, to get their involvement. And they got to see how he operated with people. They got to learn to imitate the way he was, his being with other people.

And then, finally at the end, he says, I’m going away, and I will send the Spirit. But he felt confident. Now, were they fully prepared to jump into being apostles? I don’t know. But Christ felt like they were. And again, they were going to learn as they go too.

And that’s the beauty of how Jesus even trusts us too. Most of us, when we jump into ministry, we feel so underqualified. We feel so inexperienced and out of our depth, and yet in his faithfulness and through the power of the Spirit working in us, that’s to me the real magic of what happens in this process.

Cara: Yeah, that’s a really good word.

And so, we could even say that Jesus, he’s the perfect developer when we look at his earthly ministry and the way he really invested in the lives of the 12 and who they were becoming as they walked alongside him.

Greg: Yes, they were. And I think we have to look at this as not just some kind of a project. This is not something where it becomes mechanical. It really is discipleship all the way through and the reliance that we have on knowing that Jesus truly is the head of the church. The Holy Spirit is our faithful guide even throughout this process.

But then we get to be shoulder to shoulder with other human beings too, who are different from each other. Some are gifted in certain ways. Some have different personalities, different life experiences, but we all have that commonality that we really want to point people to Jesus. We really are about being citizens of the kingdom and pointing toward that reality of what Jesus proclaimed as what he’s about: the kingdom that will be coming in its fullness. We are already citizens of that kingdom. So, this process is all leading into that direction.

Cara: Yeah. That’s good.

And you talk about that process. Talk to us a little bit more about that term process, because there’s a lot of processes in the world. What kind of process are we talking about when we say a process of development?

Greg: Yes. I think that’s a great question because people who know me—and again I have the opportunity as the president of the church to travel around, and I get to meet, not just in the US but around the world. And they know that my voice, one of my primary voices is that of pioneer.

So, they think of me, let’s go forward, let’s push forward. And I do want to see progress for the church. I really do. I think Paul says that we want to press forward to the high mark of the calling we have in Christ Jesus. And some of the things in the past, we need to move on from some of the things in the past.

But a process to me—I was going to use the example of an old cassette tape recorder. I hope for our younger audience that you know what I’m talking about.

Cara: If not, they can Google it.

Greg: Yeah, Google that. You could go on YouTube and see what one looks like.

But like with a cassette tape, with it going forward, you’re putting it in play, and you can go forward. You can even fast forward. Sometimes you can, I don’t like this song, so I’ll jump forward to the next song, type of thing. But there’s also a time to pause. Sometimes we need to pause and reflect.

And there are times, it’s wow, I didn’t quite catch that. So, we rewind, we go back. And we go back to a place that we had already covered before, but we need to cover it again.

So, process involves all those stages. It’s not just always, fast forward or trying to move at a pace that’s too fast for the group. Because in a process, if the individual leader is out too far ahead, the old adage is, if you get too far ahead, you start to look like the enemy out there. You don’t look like the leader anymore.

So, we have to be careful. And to me, that rhythm process means there’s a rhythm of how we go about doing this. It’s in community with others, but it’s also really in a sense of seeing where the Spirit’s leading, what the Spirit’s doing. That’s why we have to hit that pause button and come back and say, okay, what have we seen the Spirit doing? What has happened and what does that mean for us and for going forward?

So even as we try to see what the Spirit’s doing and try to make plans, we always want to come down to the conclusion: it seems good to the Spirit and to us. We always want to use that as our filter for what we do.

Cara: Yeah, absolutely. And I love what you had said previously too, that it’s not like a mechanical kind of process. Because what you’ve just described, even with this visual of the cassette, it’s organic.

It’s dynamic. You need to be in discernment with the Spirit about in this moment, in this season. Do we pause? Do we fast forward a little bit? Do we rewind? And it’s not—I talk a little about a cut and paste, a copy and paste, or input/output. But it’s: what is God doing in this moment?

What does this process look like in this moment because of what he’s doing and how we’re participating?

Greg: Yes. A process requires community and relationship, doesn’t it? There’s a sense that we have to check in with each other. We have to share ideas with each other, observations with each other, and to hopefully draw conclusions together, again, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

And there’s times that we may not always get it quite right. We think we see something, and we go in that direction, and it doesn’t always work out the way we want. But God’s merciful. Those are learning opportunities.

I hope we don’t get caught into some of the metrics of the world, like this is a success and this is a failure. No, all the things we’re doing in ministry, they are learning opportunities. Some will be more fruitful than others.

I love what Paul says when he writes to the Corinthians, and he talks about the work that we’re involved in, and Paul calls himself a master builder. Paul was not an architect. Paul was not an engineer. He did make tents on the side to support himself financially. But he called himself a master builder because he was building on the right foundation, which is Jesus. And he was doing it with Jesus by the power of the Spirit.

But he says, when we build, we need to be careful about how we build and what are we building with. Is it precious metals and costly stones? Or is it wood, straw, hay, stubble, this kind of thing? And he says that some of the things we do, they’re going to get burned up.

And that’s okay in the greater scheme of things. But some of the things that we do in ministry, as we participate with him, some of the things are going to echo into eternity as well, which gets me excited to think about.

How do we best stay in tune with what the Spirit is doing and in tune with one another, so we are building with the precious metals in the costly stones? That we are participating in things that are going to last? That’s my prayer for GCI. That in our processes, that we have that kind of discernment through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we’re able to see those things that really are meaningful and that will make an eternal difference.

Cara: Amen. And that makes me think too, that I want to come back to, you had mentioned development alongside as discipleship. And I think that’s important because that’s really what we’re talking about when we talk about a process of development. It’s really entwined; it can’t be separated from discipleship.

Can you talk to us a little bit more about that? Because that’s part of the stuff that’s eternal.

Greg: It is. Again, that’s building as a master builder like Paul did. When Jesus said that to go and to make disciples and he would be with us always, he didn’t say, just go make converts. He didn’t say, just go and have people win arguments and try to help them understand the truth of who I am. The Holy Spirit does that conviction. Anyway, I don’t know about you, Cara, but I don’t know that I’ve ever fully persuaded or convicted anybody too much of anything.

But I do see how the Holy Spirit does that, and I love being able to participate in that process. But it is a process, like we were saying, and discipleship is a lifetime journey. It’s not a one-time decision. It’s not something [like] the “one and done,” and check that box; that’s over with. Discipleship is a lifelong journey.

I think of even the example of Jesus. As we record this, we’re in the season of Advent now. And we’re thinking about Jesus coming and the incarnation of him coming in the flesh. In Luke’s recording of the birth, he goes on and even to him being taken to the temple and the dedication and the things that happened. And it says that he grew in stature, in favor, both with God and man, I’m thinking, how amazing is that?

The second member of the Godhead, Jesus himself, in the flesh, was growing and learning and developing. So, if that’s true for Jesus, how much more is that true for us? So, this is really the foundation of when we’re talking about discipleship and development.

We are talking about growing in stature, in favor, both with God and with man. That’s exciting to think about.

Cara: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think about even how that is one of the powerful things about that idea of process or a journey of development—this idea that we don’t ever arrive. There’s always more of who we are in Christ, that who he’s called us to be, that we can grow into, that is more left to explore.

And having this idea of processes, oh, we didn’t just check that box and now we’re done. But we are lifelong learners. Lifelong disciples.

Greg: We are, and I think of the context. If we can see what we’re called to in our relationship with Christ, with our relationship within the community, the church, if we can see it as a great adventure. I think so often, a lot of times Christians will see this life of struggle. And yes, it does include struggle. We’re not going to sugarcoat that. It’s not that there aren’t struggles. We are in a fallen world. We’re going to face some pain and suffering. That comes with the human experience.

But what we’re called to—and again, I said earlier, the whole sense of seeing even out further than what we’re doing right now today. But what is the fullness of the reality to come, the fullness of the kingdom that we’re called to be a part of? We’re kingdom citizens right now. Do we live in that reality that that’s really who we are? We belong to Jesus.

And yes, we live in this world. You and I are citizens here of North Carolina. We have to follow the rules and the regulations and pay our taxes and all those things that come with it. But this is not my home. This is my temporary home. The reality of what I’m called to be a part of, that reality is “already, but not yet.” So, we live in that tension.

So again, this is what God has designed and created. It’s hard for our minds to fully grasp the “already, but not yet.” So, let’s stretch your minds a little bit.

But for the present, being here in the flesh, being in time and in space, it means we have another day to live and to grow. And that’s what development is. I hope that all of us think of our life as being lifelong learners. That we are, again, like I said, growing in that stature, in favor with God and with man. We’re not called to be static.

Cara: Yes. No, that’s excellent. And even what you’re saying, it shows us what the almost—not to use to metric kind of terms—but what is the target of our growth? What’s the aim of our growth too?

It’s not just, I need to do this task, or I need to have this kind of success to find in this … whatever kind of earthly way. But our aim of growth is something that is eternal. It is something of a kingdom that’s going to last forever. It is something in Christ who is life itself.

And he’s just everything. It’s not just, oh yeah, I just got to do this thing, let me develop for that. But I’m developing into the person that the Creator made me to be. That’s pretty special.

Greg: It is. It truly is. God has created and designed us all uniquely.

We have, like I say, different personalities, different capacities, different passions—this type of thing. But I would throw out a bit of a warning because we live in such an individualistic society. We don’t necessarily always see the value of being part of community and how that is.

I think we all want to come to the place that we know who we are in Christ. First of all, Christ is the one who gets our worship. It’s so easy for us to turn back around on ourselves and think, okay, it’s a good day when God’s will matches up to my will.

We have to really mean it when we pray, thy will be done. We really have to come to rest in that and to know that yeah, we are in his hands. I’ve always found it interesting when people pray, “We’ll put him in God’s hands,” like we’re not already there. But we’re already there. We live and breathe according to his will. So, we need to relax in that and to live into that, so that we don’t get too self-important.

But we also need to think about—part of our role in this whole process of ministry development, to think about the other. Who are they? Because a lot of times people don’t see themselves clearly.

They see themselves with labels that other people have put on them. A lot of times they’ve been beaten down. They haven’t had a lot of opportunity in their life, and some of their experiences have been negative experiences.

And so, they just don’t really quite see who they are, but to help them come alive to see who they are—that they are a child of God, that they are loved. There is a place at the table for them, but even to come into the reality that there are spiritual gifts—that God gives out these gifts. And the Holy Spirit is like the director of all of this, and some people have a gift of service, some of leadership, some of generosity.

There’s various gifts that people have. What Paul says in Romans 12, if you have a particular gift, then really lean into that. Go ahead and live that out. Be the person God created you to be. And our role in ministry, especially with pastors, those who are Avenue champions, we need to help people see what God’s doing in their life, but where they fit in the body and the life of the church too.

The process involves helping people find their best fit. And boy, isn’t that great? Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a congregation where it is a priesthood of all believers? And wouldn’t it be fantastic to see everybody fitting in a spot that really is living out who they are in Christ and serving out of that? I know that sounds idealistic, but why not? Why shouldn’t we be idealistic?

Cara: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And as you say that, I come back to this idea of when we think about development, really it’s God who is the author of where we’re developing to, what’s the direction of our development. Because even as you say that, we come back to the importance of discernment in community and the active role of the Spirit as we’re doing this.

Because who am I to say what part of the body I am? Just because I want to be the hand, doesn’t mean that I am. Just because I want somebody else to fill a certain role because maybe that’s what I need right now in the church, doesn’t mean that is how they’ve been fashioned, right? And we do need to, like you said, see people well, see people clearly as part of this process in community and in discernment and not act out of our own needs or our own desires.

But let God be the one that’s showing us: wait, what’s the direction of this development? What’s the direction of this discipleship in community?

Greg: So, ministry is not a contest, it’s not a competition. It really is fitting where you fit, and part of that even does come back to a person’s passions too.

We have to be careful. It’s a tricky thing because it’s in community that gifts are confirmed. People will think that they want to be this, or they’ll have an aspiration. And some people may be good at a certain ministry skill or practice. They may be good at that, but it may not be life-giving to them. And it may be that that’s just not where they fit.

I’ve often thought in our church, when I was pastoring, because I was working primarily with volunteers, occasionally I would have an intern who might be paid who I could work with a lot more directly and be more intentional with, especially with their time because they were paid in that role.

But volunteers, you have to be careful. You don’t want to over overtax them, overwork them. But there are those volunteers who are eager, they’re going to say yes to a lot of things. And that’s not bad. But sometimes we have to help them see, they may have an aspiration for a certain aspect of ministry.

I’ll use myself as an example. I love music. I love praise worship. I love to sing with other believers. But I love to be in a bigger crowd because I don’t sing so well. I don’t know that I’m tone deaf, but I know that I’m not going to do a solo in church. Okay?

That’s for the love of everybody who’s in the audience listening. Okay. I know that’s not my gift. It doesn’t mean it’s not my passion, because music is really a passion for me. But I have to understand that I’m really more of a music appreciator than I am someone who has that ability. Maybe in my glorified body I’ll—maybe God will do something to my vocal cords and my ability to hear the tones that maybe that will be healed as well.

I hope so. But even with the host of angels, I can sing to the top of my lungs because their voices will drown mine out. But I think we all have to be careful with that. And that’s why in community we care for one another in that way.

So, this process that we’re talking about, as we’re interacting, we can help people to see, that that’s great that you have a desire for that, but let’s think about where you really bring the best of who you are. And how’s that going to work together as a body of believers.

There’s some people who want to be greeters at church. I’m often thinking of that role, and a greeter is really there to have a smiling face, a welcoming face, but to help people move along. There’s the information table. The coffee’s over here. You might want to get seats in the sanctuary, we fill up. This kind of thing. The greeters who just were to stop and have a conversation with everybody, they’re not really doing their job well. They need to be behind the coffee table. They need to be sprinkled in other places, but you see what I’m saying? Sometimes people have this notion that this is a good fit for me. Let’s be humble enough to let the confirmation from the body help us to see where we fit.

Cara: That’s right. And even as we’re talking, I hope one of the things that’s coming to life or becoming more apparent is that a process of development is very nuanced. It is very dynamic. It is not mechanical at all.

It’s very relational, very much a part of the journey of discipleship and done in discernment, in community. And one of the things that we’ve done in GCI is we’ve put together the 4 Es—engage, equip, empower, encourage—as maybe a guiding framework as a process of development.

But it is definitely not, “Here’s 1, 2, 3, 4,” as our listeners should hopefully hear in the conversation we’re having. But part of the Spirit of that is that we’re encouraging ourselves to be intentional with our processes of development.

Greg: I’m glad you said that.

The word intentional. See, sometimes people get this notion because we are a spiritual organism—the church is a community of faith. We know that. But sometimes people, I think they don’t go deep enough, that somehow that means things are just going to happen. And that it’s going to be organic, that that all sounds good to us.

Now, there’s a certain sense that, does God make plans? What do you think?

Cara: Even organic things need to get planted, right?

Greg: They do. We could talk about this all day. But I think back, even in Genesis, it talked about how the Spirit was hovering. There was this time of just thoughtful consideration. And what was going to happen with the creation story and this type of thing. And things don’t just poof, magically appear. And relationships are not that way either. We have to be intentional about that.

We talked about the relational side of the 4 Es but being relational also does mean being intentional too. We have to make ourselves available, and I think, at least my experience speaks to this—I believe that the God has gifted me to see talents and abilities in other people.

I feel like God’s given me that ability to invite people in. You can call that sponsor, mentorship, or something like that, if you want to put a label to it, but to invite people in. And even Jesus when he said, send them, sending them out two by two, he knew there was a dynamic there.

They’re stronger together. But there’s also this learning that takes place because two people are not just alike. Two people are going to be a little bit different and a big part of sending them out when he did in that original sending, was partly because witness, each of them had their own story of how they knew Jesus, of how Jesus had transformed them and their life.

And there’s nuance in that too, isn’t there? So, the witness of two people is stronger than the witness of one person. So, the testifying of how they knew Jesus, it actually was stronger going out two by two.

But there’s something about sharing in that process of going two by two as well. That’s why oftentimes when we’re talking about the 4 Es and how we do this, don’t do ministry alone. Include someone else. And especially if it’s someone who’s new and eager and showing some potential, help them with that.

But don’t treat them as in a way like, they’re here to do my bidding for me. Don’t look at them in the sense of like, okay, here’s a need and I’m going to fill this need with this person. Be loving and careful enough to understand that they may need exposure to some ministry opportunities to find out really what they are good at and some exposure to find what they truly are passionate about too.

They may go through some experience with you and it’s, eh, that’s just not for me. That’s just not my thing, and that’s okay. That’s part of the learning, but you see the intentionality in that too.

Those of us who’ve been around a while, that we have the ability to invite others in and to bring them along. It requires that we actually be intentional. We’ve got our eyes open. We’re seeing these people. We’re open to the invitation and come and let’s do this together and experience this together.

Just like Jesus said, come and be with me. Come and watch me. Come and participate with me. Now you go and do these things. It just works so well when you do it relationally.

Cara: No, absolutely. That intentionality in the relationship. I think bears a lot of fruit and the way that I think about the 4 Es is maybe even less of a checklist and more of a check in.

It is check in on your intentionality.

Greg: It is, but there’s a flow to it as well. We’re not just going to take that newest person that we really don’t know much about. They may just be a new believer, and they’re learning just how to establish their walk with Christ.

Paul talks about that a lot in his writings. There’s a time when you only need the milk of the word. You’re not ready for the meat yet. They’re still growing in their understanding.

And I’m not waiting for someone to be a Christian for 10 years before they participate either. You can be extreme in this, but we don’t just all of a sudden empower somebody that we don’t know, that we’ve not built some relationship with, some confidence with.

But over time, if we really go through the 4 Es, the beginning of the engagement and—even in the engagement doesn’t mean that they can’t participate on certain levels. They can still do some things. They can come and help and be a part of the life of the church.  There’s no reason that they can’t do that. But you’re not going to have them up giving a sermon their second week, at a church service. That’s not what we’re going to do.

I think, again, the word discernment comes into play. We’re being intentional, but we’re also being discerning. I don’t mind giving people to do something that they’re going to feel that the task is bigger than them. That’s okay to give them a challenge. But have we done some preparation that they don’t even realize that they’re as prepared as they are?

When you put people in that opportunity, that there’s already been some preparation done. Even when Jesus said he sent them out and then when they came back with the reports, they came back with mixed messages. There were times they were received well. There were times when we met with opposition, and it didn’t go so well. And Jesus says, that’s okay.

And that’s true in this process today in ministry as well, with the ones that we’re working with. Let’s make time to review.

That’s part of being intentional again, isn’t it? It’s back to the cassette tape. Let’s hit the pause button. Let’s take the time to process what happened. What did you experience? Where did you meet Jesus? And what are our next steps? Where do we go from here?

So, there’s that continual processing that goes on. So, when you say, “process of development,” the word process has a whole package of meaning, doesn’t it?

Cara: It sure does. And even what you’re saying, I think, that that’s what I mean, even as a check-in is an intentionality check-in for myself as somebody who may be developing, as an example. Am I being intentional in my development or am I being haphazard? Am I letting somebody who has been here for two weeks give the sermon? If I check back in, do an intentionality check-in, oh, maybe I didn’t engage them very well yet.

And so, it’s less checklist-y of, oh, am I just doing this? But it’s a tool for reflection of: are we thoroughly, intentionally going through this process?

Greg: It is. When we say process, all the 4 Es—so engaged. Back to Jesus and working with the disciples, it’s one thing to have them set the group of 5,000 into seating arrangements and then to pass the basket of food and to take up the basket of food. That’s more task oriented. It’s a little bit different of standing up on the day of Pentecost and giving a message of what they’ve been experiencing with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Those have different levels, don’t they?

And so, there’s a certain sense in the engagement process that we are putting our toe in the wading pool, so to speak, but we’re not asking people to do a back flip off the high dive into the deep end into the pool, and they don’t know how to swim. We’re not going to do that. So, the 4 Es keep us accountable in that way.

So, we go from engagement to where there’s just the relationship-building, the introduction. And then going to the equipping stage is a little more involved because in the equipping, we see that to where there’s going to be true mentoring happening. Come and follow me as I follow Christ. The imitation we’re talking about.

There’s also going to be a little more of a push toward the growth in their development. In terms of even being students of the Bible, learning how to be more engaged in spiritual disciplines and just learning the depth of walking with Christ. It takes time. That doesn’t happen overnight.

And we go through that process and that’s a big part of the equipping. And we get to the place too, where we see that, boy, the Lord’s really working in this person’s life. And now we start giving them meaningful things to do. We start empowering them. And in that empowerment stage, it doesn’t mean that now we just exit the building.

They still need—I know, I even, at my stage, I still need people who have eyes on that see what I’m doing. I still need a sense of accountability. I also need to know what I’m doing is meaningful, that it’s making a difference. So not just accountability, but even approval.

We need that. We all need that. And to know that they’re attentive, that they’re approving, that bleeds over to the encouragement stage, doesn’t it? The encouragement stage is not always just pats on the back and you’re doing a great job. That’s a big part of it, but it’s also bringing some challenging questions too.

Like, “I see you’re doing this, you’re engaged here. You’re not so engaged there. Explain to me what’s happening,” to create some of the challenge too. Our mantra in GCI … you know what it is. Tell me what it is.

Cara: Oh, high support. High challenge. Grace always.

Greg: Amen and it works. I mean that applies in all these situations.

So, at all stages of all the 4 Es, the high support, the high challenge, and doing it in grace, it works. And again, why does it work? Because it’s the way of Jesus. That’s why it works. It’s the way of Jesus.

Cara: Yeah. And speaking of it working, back to the intentionality in relationships being fruitful, what are some of the things that you expect we’ll start to see as we really live out these processes and the life of the local church?

Greg: We talk about a culture of liberation. There’s a freedom when people are really able to thrive in who they are in Christ and to do that in community. There is a sense of freedom that really points back to who Jesus is. We really become true ambassadors for him because we really are. It’s his light being reflected through us, is what it is.

And I just see that transforming our church. Our vision has been healthy church. This is a big part of what we’re talking about with Healthy Church. This becomes a culture too. This is not just a programmatic piece, and we’re going to try this for a couple years and see where it goes.

Now we’re talking about transformational things here. We’re talking about participation with Jesus through the Spirit is what we’re talking about. If that’s really happening and we see that in the life of the church, this is where it’s going to lead us to. It will lead to a priesthood of all believers.

It will lead to the sense and care for others that we want them to find their best fit. It will be to me, like I say, liberating, because now even as a pastor, you’re not pastor centric. You’re not trying to carry the weight of everything. You become that liberator.

Hopefully, as this gets built out over time, you really become the cheerleader for your church. You’re the great encourager. If all the Es are being done—not just by the Pastor, Avenue champions, the other ministry leaders—if they’re all following these same processes and that’s happening at multiple levels, the pastor can be the preacher of the gospel and the encourager of the group.

Man alive, if I could—I’m feeling a call to pastoral ministry again, Cara.

Cara: No, I’m sure.

Greg: No, like I say I don’t want to make it sound like it’s an easy 1, 2, 3. It’s not. It’s not at all because real life happens. People move because of jobs, people die. All those things come in, so the attention to the health of the church is a constant thing that we have to continue to keep our eyes on and stay focused.

Cara: What encouragements, Greg, would you have for those of us who are beginning to live out intentionally this process of development, to embody this rhythm of the 4 Es in the local church?

Greg: Just keep it up. Stay the course. We often think back to, I believe it was Eugene Peterson said it’s a long journey in the same direction. But again, I see it as the great adventure too. Like I say, every day is a new opportunity and so let’s utilize the time that we have and let’s be intentional at the same time, realize it’s not all on our shoulders.

Realize that we really do look to Jesus as the head of the church. We really do look for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and that discernment, and I just think if we can learn to really, truly put our hope and faith in Christ, but at the same time we show up and participate. I don’t think we can go wrong with that, Cara.

And I think as long as we just, again, the Bible says don’t grow weary in well doing. So, I’m just saying even though there will be challenges and we know there will be. That’s okay. That’s okay. Sometimes it’s those challenges that shape us the most. And it’s sometimes in those challenges, that we meet Jesus even more personally than when things are going well, and things are going smoothly.

So again, we are where we are. God knows where we are. He’s not surprised. He’s not even disappointed. Sometimes we become disappointed. Or we become disillusioned, and we get into a negative space.

You see examples throughout scripture like that.  I know Elijah, he had this great—remember the story with the 500 prophets of Baal and this great day of ridding Israel of all these false prophets. And then, his life is threatened by the queen, and he goes and hides in a cave. And he just has a pity party for himself. We can be like Elijah too.

We can go up and down in that way, but then God meets us with a small still voice and God brings relief to us when we need that too. So, he’s a God that does leads us to the valley the shadow of death, but also leads us in the green pastures in the still waters too. He’s such a good God.

Cara: He sure is. He sure is. Yes. And, as we close up our time today in this episode, what final words or thoughts would you share that maybe we haven’t covered yet in terms of a process of development?

Greg: Cara, I think we’re in a good space right now. This past year I’ve traveled to just almost all the regions around the globe in GCI.

I’ve got to meet with leaders from different cultures, from different nations in Africa, to the UK to Canada, to France, in so many places. Beautiful group of people in Fiji I got to visit with. And I’m seeing we really are speaking the same thing. There’s a unity that we’re experiencing right now that we can’t create by our own means.

It really is a spiritual thing. The Holy Spirit really is helping us to stay on the same page, to go in the same direction. It always has to be contextualized based on our culture. It also has to fit what the personality of the group is, and those things have to be nuanced as well.

This is again, not a program. We’re not checking boxes, but we do have a framework. Like you said, you said that well, we have a framework. The Team Based—Pastor Led framework, the Faith, Hope, and Love Avenues to help us to see who Jesus is, how we participate with him in his ministry, because it is his ministry.

So those things have been lining up so well, and I am just thrilled as the president of GCI, I couldn’t ask for more in that way. But I feel like we’re just getting started too.

One of my good friends, pastor Gabriel Ojih, who’s down in the Dallas area, Richardson, Texas, he told me he was here at the [Home] Office not long ago, and he says, Greg, I think the Lord’s really building our capacity right now and preparing us for what he has for us really to do.

And I thought that was a good word. I really resonated with me. I’ve dwelt on that quite a bit and this is what we’re talking about, this process of development is really about building capacity, if we really do transform into a priesthood of all believers, that we’re all actively engaging in the ministry of Jesus. Because I think one of the greatest problems in the Christian world, Cara, is that too many Christians act like consumers, not participants. And there’s a big difference in that.

So, you can use that as a topic for another podcast on another day. But I really believe that’s if we truly are engaging and participating with the living head of the church, with Jesus Christ, there’s nothing better to do. We can’t go wrong with that.

Cara: Amen. That’s a great word to end on. Thank you so much, Greg, for joining us today.

But before I let you go, we do have our little fun segment. So, I’m going to ask you a couple of random questions.

Greg: Uh, oh, this is rapid fire too, isn’t it?

Cara: Yes, it sure is. So, first thing that comes to mind, you just got to shout it out.

So, if you’re ready, I’m ready.

Greg: I guess I’m as ready as I will be.

Cara:  All right. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Greg: Holiday tradition. I love the white elephant exchange at Christmas.

Cara: Ah, yes, that’s a good one. What sport would you compete in if you were in the Olympics?

Greg: I would strive to be a decathlete because I like all those different things.

I was a disco thrower. I was actually a pretty good runner in the day. I don’t know, with the pole vault and the high jump, I’d have to work on those but otherwise, I think I’d do okay.

Cara: Yeah. That’s good. That’s good. Okay. If you had your own late night talk show, who would you invite as your first guest?

Greg: Oh, my goodness. My first guest. I probably would have David Letterman come so that I could learn from him even as I interviewed him.

Cara: Yeah. You got to learn the trade.

Greg: That’s right. Bring in an old pro.

Cara: Almost like you’re getting developed.

Oh. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Greg: The best piece of advice I’ve been given? Oh me. Follow Jesus, and point others to Jesus. That’s it. Because anything else is less than.

Cara: Amen. And then finally, what is your favorite hobby?

Greg: I would have to say golf. I don’t get to do it as often as I would like, and I’m not as proficient as I would like to be either. But the beauty of golf is, it’s you against the course, not so much you against the other competitors. And every once in a while, you’ll hit a shot that’s just amazing.

I was talking about our good friends in Fiji. The last shot I hit—we played nine holes over there. I love the idea of playing on international courses. And I was using rental clubs too, so it makes it even a little more interesting. But I hit a shot from across the water about 85 yards from the hole that hit up on the green and rolled, and then went into the hole. Yeah, I was pretty excited. I threw the club pretty high in the air and did my little happy dance.

But no, I really enjoyed that because if you play golf, you have to concentrate and leave everything else behind and really devote yourself to the game.

Cara:  So, it’s a meditative hobby in that sense.

Greg: It is. Yeah. I was told, and you were talking about advice that you were given, I was told many years ago, and this is true, I think it’s good advice for pastors and ministry, find something you enjoy doing that you lose track of time.

And I think that’s really helpful because we are so engaged, and we can be workaholics and we can get to the place that we burn ourselves out but find something where you lose track of time. And I thought that was really good advice.

Cara: Yeah, that is good advice. All right. We really appreciate you joining us today, Greg.

Thank you so much for all the insights that you’ve shared. And it is our practice with GC Podcast to end the show on a word of prayer. So, would you be up for praying for our churches and pastors, ministry leaders and members in GCI?

Greg: Absolutely. And it’s my pleasure to be here today too, Cara. I always enjoy conversations with you, so let me pray for us.

Father, our Almighty God, Jesus, you are the head of the church. Holy Spirit, you are at work not only unifying us, but energizing us, leading us into truth, giving us ministry ideas. You’re the one who transforms the people around us and you let us participate. What a marvelous thing that we’re able to do, that we’re called into the participation with Father, Son, and Spirit to the ministry of humanity. Thank you so much for inviting us, for engaging us, for also equipping and empowering and encouraging us all the way through, because that comes from you, God. So, help us to be better at those things too. Help us to be better at engaging.

Help us to be better at equipping, empowering, encouraging those new ones who come along and those younger ones who come along. Help us, Lord, to just be a transformed church that really when people see us and participate with us, they’ll say, those folks have been with Jesus. That’s what we want to hear more than anything else.

So, bless our churches, bless our pastors. We thank you that we are a global church in 69 countries across this globe. What an amazing thing and what a gift that is for us in GCI. So once again, Lord, we just say thank you. Thank you for loving us, including us. Thank you for never leaving us and never forsaking us.

And thank you for calling us to this great adventure that we’re a part of in relationship with you. We pray in the awesome name of Jesus, and we do it with enthusiasm and love from our side. Amen.

Cara: Amen. That’s all we’ve got for today, folks. Until next time, keep on living and sharing the gospel.


We want to thank you for listening to this episode of the GC Podcast.  We hope you have found value in it to become a healthier leader. We would love to hear from you. If you have a suggestion on a topic, or if there is someone who you think we should interview, email us at info@gci.org. Remember, Healthy Churches start with healthy leaders; invest in yourself and your leaders.

Sermon for March 5, 2023 – Second Sunday of Easter Preparation

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5015 | Blessed to Be a Blessing
Cara Garrity

There is a popular old hymn called “Count Your Blessings”.
The chorus simply says: 

Count your blessings, name them one by one. 

Count your blessings, see what God hath done. 

A friend of mine shared a story of how he was reminded about counting his blessings while stocking greeting cards at grocery stores. In one store, the greeting card section was right near one of the checkout lines and he could hear the checker give a compliment to every person that went through his line. My friend also noticed there were several people in this checkout lane, and not many in others.

He decided to buy something and the checker quickly complimented him on his new haircut. My friend then asked the checker how his day was going. The checker responded by saying, “Oh man, I am blessed!” To which my friend responded, “Yeah, I’m doing good as well.” The checker then said, “I didn’t say I was doing good. I said I am blessed.” My friend appreciated the reminder, smiled, and admitted that he was also, indeed, blessed.  

In Genesis 12, we see a story of blessing-happy God. This story is the pivotal moment in the history of the nation of Israel and would become equally important to the whole world. 

TheLordhad said to Abram, Go from your country, your people and your fathers householdto the landI will show you.” “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 
Genesis 12:1-3

In this passage of scripture, we see the word “blessing” five times, making God’s intention to bless both Abraham and the whole world abundantly clear to Abraham. Although God had the power to accomplish his will, because of who he is, he invited Abraham to participate to follow where the Spirit led. And where he went, he went with the blessing of God and the promise that through him all people would be blessed.  

This promise has been fulfilled in the person, and work of Jesus Christ. He took upon himself the consequences for the sin of mankind. He has taken our darkness and has restored us to fellowship with our Heavenly Father. 

Paul says this in his letter to believers in Galatia:

He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” 
Galatians 3:14

We have been abundantly blessed in Christ Jesus, whom we follow by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Every day is a walk with God to leave behind our old ways and walk into a life that is blessed beyond measure.  

Like Abraham before us, we have been sent out into this world to make a blessing-happy God known to others. It’s so much easier to be a blessing to others when you know how much you have been blessed.

Like the hymn reminds us, let us count our many blessings and see what God has done.

I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 121 • Genesis 12:1-4a • Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 • John 3:1-17

This week’s theme is the eyes of faith. In our call to worship Psalm, we have the psalmist lifting up his eyes to God to trust and see God’s care for him. In Genesis, we see God asking Abraham to leave behind everything and to trust that God will show him where to go. In Romans, Paul confirms that Abraham did trust God by faith in what was unseen to him. And in John’s gospel, Jesus talks to Nicodemus about being born from above and seeing the kingdom of God as a result.

Abraham’s Children: By Law or by Faith?

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 (NRSVUE)

Today, we find ourselves in the second Sunday of Easter preparation. This is a time to reflect on the importance of Jesus’ victory over sin and death through his resurrection. However, a church can sometimes struggle with keeping the most important things in mind, which was the case with the church in Rome.

If it appears that we are looking at the middle of a longer conversation, that’s because we are. Paul is addressing a Roman church that is in danger of fracturing. The lines have been drawn between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. And so, Paul is trying to do damage control here.

What Paul is attempting to deal with is no less important for us to understand as it was for his intended recipients. And he is going to appeal to Abraham to make his case. With the first few verses he’s going to start by asking a question, he will then build his argument in the middle verses, and then finish with his definitive answer in verses 16 and 17.

The Question

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? Romans 4:1 NRSVUE)

What matter are we talking about here? Well, right before we got to this section of the letter, Paul is addressing the fact that God is not only the God of the Jews, but of the Gentiles as well. And as such, all are justified by faith and not by the works of the law.

Paul’s question could be rephrased this way, “have we found Abraham as our forefather according to the works of the law or by trusting God?” Can the law bring about our righteousness before God? Can we boast in what we have done or are able to do? Or are we supposed to accept our righteousness as a gift? Abraham trusted God in what he said he would do, and it is on that basis alone that God’s righteousness is credited to him.

It seems like Paul is having to spend a lot of time on this issue. Perhaps it wasn’t so easy to convince people that their righteousness was by faith. Put yourself in the sandals of the Jewish believers. The law had dictated every part of their life. It was the lens through which they viewed all things.

While the Jewish believers welcomed their new life in Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, it sounds like they were still struggling with the idea of not having to keep up their side of the bargain.

They were probably thinking “we’ve had to live with all these requirements our whole lives, what happens if we don’t continue living by them?”

And here is where we need to be honest with ourselves. Do we really believe that we are justified by the faith of Christ Jesus, or is something still required after believing? In our minds, we take out religious insurance policies. “What if I’m wrong and I overestimate God’s grace? Just in case, I better supplement my salvation with works. I may be saved by grace, but I better work for the kingdom like it’s up to me.”

 A little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6), and soon we do end up thinking that we need to keep up our end of the bargain, or else…

When this line of thinking gets exposed, it sounds absurd, doesn’t it? Yet, that is often our temptation. The world gives us the message that we are the ones that should be in control of our destinies. That “if it’s got to be, it’s up to me!” We like to take credit for any good we do, and we don’t like to ask for help either. But this is not the way of the kingdom.

Another temptation is to “blur” the lines of the covenants. Some well-meaning Christians are known to say “well, I believe in the entire bible.” That’s great! I don’t know many believers that would say that they don’t.

But the problem is that not every scripture carries the same weight. We have to look at the scriptures in context. We have to be careful not to put the old wine into new wine skins. The old covenant does not mesh with the new.

There were no small numbers of Jewish believers in Rome who had a hard time trusting Christ for their righteousness alone, and they insisted that others should not be allowed to either. This is still a problem for us today.

The Argument

For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. (Romans 4:3-5 NRSVUE)

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression. (Romans 4:13-15 NRSVUE)

Imagine if you worked for the next month but never saw a paycheck. I’m sure that you would remind your employer that they have an obligation to pay you. Here in the United States, we have labor laws that are in place to protect workers to ensure that they are getting paid properly. It is against the law to work and not get paid.

I think we can all understand that wages are not a gift, but an obligation of payment for work done. But here’s where things begin to shift. Paul then says that to the one who doesn’t work but trusts God, he is totally just and considered righteous with Christ’s righteousness.

Once again, what Paul is saying flies in the face of how the world works. And yet, this is precisely how the Kingdom operates. We have a saying that goes. “If it’s too good to be true then it probably is.” But in this case, our righteousness in Christ is too good not to be true.

Appealing again to our forefather Abraham, Paul reminds the Romans that Abraham simply believed the promise that God had given him. And it was because of that belief he was made righteous in God’s sight.

The Mosaic law had not been instituted at that point and wouldn’t be in place for at least another 400 years. Therefore, keeping the law had nothing to do with being a child of Abraham.

Paul allows for no middle ground in this argument. Law and faith are not compatible. Those who are trying to earn their place with God through the law are making their faith useless. Our relationship is no longer to the law, it is to Father, Son and Spirit by faith that we are heirs of Christ.

Very few believers today would admit that they are still under the law with all of its demands. Yet many live lives that are full of all sorts of moral or ethical imperatives they believe they must follow to please God. To them, faith isn’t enough, because they choose to trust more in their abilities than in God’s grace. And where there is no trust, you can’t leave anything to chance.

Their standing with God, they assume, is predicated on their performance. When we believe this, we are tempted to start judging the performance of others based on our own self-righteousness. Which is what the Jewish believers in Rome were guilty of.

You may have recognized the futility of keeping Old Testament commands, statutes and judgments, but where is it that you might still be trusting in the law to keep you in good standing with God? The problem with the law is that it will always demand more of you. (Examples might include resting your home garden every seven years, not mixing fabrics on clothes, not mixing dairy and meat, which meant no more cheeseburgers.) There is no satisfying the law.

The Answer

For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:16-17 NRSVUE)

Paul’s “for this reason” in verse 16, is the answer to the question posed back in verse one. It is also the punctuation mark for his argument that he settles for the Roman church. Jew and Gentile alike are the offspring of Abraham, made so by faith. The many nations, the Gentiles, are now included by way of Christ.

An appeal is made here to end the judgment and enmity that had sprung up between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. Paul is emphasizing that all of us have one father according to human heritage, and that is Abraham. Spiritually, we also have the same father in heaven.

We can appreciate our spiritual pedigree. We can take pride in Christian traditions and institutions, but that does not give us the right to boast in any of our good works. We are not permitted to think more highly of ourselves than others who profess the same faith.

God loves all who follow him; our doctrines and beliefs are not superior; they are what God has given us. Following incarnational trinitarian theology is a blessing, but it doesn’t make us better than other Christians, or unbelievers. We are all God’s beloved.

All are included by faith in Jesus’ forgiveness. All are included in his offer of redemption and reconciliation. We all have received the righteousness of Christ Jesus as one body, one church, with Abraham as our father, according to the faith, through Jesus Christ who has brought us all into right relationship with the Father.

Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W1

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March 5 – Second Sunday of Easter Prep
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, “Justified”

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Program Transcript


Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W1

Anthony: Let me read the first passage of the month. It’s Romans 4:1-5, 13-17. I’m reading from the Common English Bible. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the second Sunday of Easter Prep, also known as Lent, on March the 5th.

So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God. What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousnessWorkers’ salaries aren’t credited to them on the basis of an employer’s grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve. But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don’t work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous. John the Revelator saw a new heaven and new earth. What is the good news? 13 The promise to Abraham and to his descendants, that he would inherit the world, didn’t come through the Law but through the righteousness that comes from faith. 14 If they inherit because of the Law, then faith has no effect and the promise has been canceled. 15 The Law brings about wrath. But when there isn’t any law, there isn’t any violation of the law. 16 That’s why the inheritance comes through faith, so that it will be on the basis of God’s grace. In that way, the promise is secure for all of Abraham’s descendants, not just for those who are related by Law but also for those who are related by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. 17 As it is written: I have appointed you to be the father of many nations. So Abraham is our father in the eyes of God in whom he had faith, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that don’t exist into existence.

 

Marty, if you were preaching from this passage, what insights would you bring to bear? Let’s tell the story of the God we encounter in this passage.

Marty: Well, there’s just hardly anything here, as you can see. Anthony, that was a joke.

Anthony: I got it. I’m with you.

Marty: It’s so packed. I mean, the first thing I would just say is that it’s really an inquiry—the questions. So, what are we going to say and what does scripture say, is to say the nature of this is an inquiry. Which I use the word science for that; this is really the very science of what is really real in the world.

And Paul is trying to engage us with all of those ways that we think that we engage life and maybe engage God. But he is really going to the deepest part of the child that has curiosity to say if we can get life right here, everything’s going to flow from that in a way that’s going to give us the life that’s intended.

So just to recognize that this isn’t all the answers. If we can become curious like children, then we will be living with Paul with the wonder and awe of what it is that gets unveiled along the way—without having to have final statements that we kind of walk away and say, I’ve got it. And so, to live with that curiosity and wonder is to be drawn into the embrace itself.

I think that’s something that we just can’t miss the nature of the structure of what Paul’s doing here. And he is really inviting us into a story. And we could ask, so who is this story about? And it’s really easy to jump to Abraham and think, oh, this is Abraham’s story, but we would be off by at least one step.

This is really a story about who God is, that Abraham is the one who is embedded in this story that God is, is rolling out here. But the nature of who God is and what God has done is really the undergirding nature of what’s going on in this story. And the fact is that God has been faithful in creating and sustaining, and Paul steps into this.

And we are seeing here in Romans that people have all kinds of wrong ideas and so—wrong ideas about Abraham? No, it’s mostly wrong ideas about God and the nature of law and how do we get right with God and what does God do with our messing up, and all that.

And it’s like, hey folks, God is faithful. Abraham’s a great picture to see how God’s faithfulness works out. The nature of getting the story right here, and letting it be about a story about God in the first instance. And to see that Abraham comes for us as one who we recognize reveals something about God. Abraham is a pointer.

I think of the picture that hung over Karl Barth’s desk with John the Baptist pointing at the cross. Abraham’s kind of a John the Baptist. Here he is pointing at the one who is faithful. So, we don’t want to get absorbed entirely with Abraham, but we do identify with Abraham. And so, the nature of what it looks like for us to live within the story is part of the question here.

And so, preaching on what is the nature of faith and to say that the nature of faith is something that we have or we do is going to going to miss the point. The whole nature of gift is going to be significant here. Now we think of science as the world of objects, and so we don’t think about the science of gift.

But if we read this passage with these questions that are laid out and we say, we’re trying to do the science of going, what’s really happening here? Then the science is going to lead us to the idea. The gift is always unconditional. It is given to somebody who doesn’t deserve it, has not earned it, or in any way is compelling the person who is the gift giver to give it, then we are living into what the preaching of this is supposed to do—is that we are absolutely giving ourselves to one who is giving himself to us, and all we’re doing is submitting.

Or as the title of this section is, “waking up” to what it is that God has done. When you wake up in the morning, all you’ve done is wake up to what was really there. But when you’re asleep, then you’re unaware of what is really there. So, the call to wake up that is present within this passage, to recognize that our observing of the world so much leads us to think that reality is just what we see and observe.

But we have to see, as CS Lewis talks about, deeper magic from before the dawn of time to recognize the nature of who God is and what God is doing. And that Abraham is the invitation for us to wake up to the goodness, greatness, grandeur of the grace of God that overwhelms us. To become those who, having been beloved, are able to then bear witness to God and what God has done, and to live with humility and graciousness towards others because we have experienced that ourselves.

So that’s probably a good start as to some of the things that I might do with this passage.

Anthony: Yeah. I so appreciate that because if Abraham is our model of faithfulness, we can sometimes get stuck there because it’s like using Michael Jordan as a model. I might be able to play basketball, but I’ll never be able to play it like him.

And sometimes we look at the faith of another human being who’s gone before. And yes, we aspire to that. But I’ve just found in my own faith sometimes, it’s two steps forward and three steps back. It can sometimes feel a little anemic but it’s God’s faithfulness that we look to and we live in.

And so, I wanted to ask you, as we think about faith that is credited as righteousness, what would you say to someone who maybe is like me? Sometimes it feels strong and sometimes it feels a little puny. What say you?

Marty: Yeah. Well, each of these words, if we carefully say, what does righteousness mean here in this passage?

And we can easily think of righteousness as the standard that Michael Jordan or Abraham sets for us. But to say that the nature of righteousness is being made right with another person. It’s a way of being in relationship and so to say, either we work towards getting right or somebody can gift us with that, which is the point here.

The word credited is to recognize that a gift has been given, and it goes on say to those who don’t work. So, it’s acknowledging that there’s no contribution on the part of the human but that it’s God who is the one who makes us righteous. In other words, something is given to us that we didn’t earn, couldn’t earn, and we then are acknowledging what’s going on.

So, this idea of acknowledging that God has made us right, that we are included because of his choice to include us, that is to say then that our faith is simply waking up to that reality. You have been seen, known, chosen. Acknowledge the reality that is there.

We live in a world that tends to think that science focuses on the world of the impersonal. Science studies the objects of the world. And so, God becomes an object. And we even make our faith an object. You know, how do we measure it? How do we study it?

But to say that what Paul’s doing here—and really the nature of the faith that we’re talking about—it’s a personal way of being. And when we do the science of the personal, it means that in crediting, we listen to the one who tells the truth, and the one who tells that is the God who comes from the person of Jesus.

And so, he tells us that before we could do anything, he has acknowledged, acted in such a way that we would be his. The word “credited” there is to say that his action is more important, more significant. His personal way of being is the reality of our life. And so, we’ve been made right with God by nothing of ourself.

And so, if we feel anemic or puny or unable to do or be something, then we’re going, well, what do I have to do? And Jesus says wrong question. Your inquiry here to just be able to say, oh, there’s nothing I could do. Oh, I get it. There’s no way that I could do anything to earn or to credit to my account anything, because you’ve already filled that account and done all that’s necessary.

So, either I receive it as gift, or I live denying the gift. And so, the very nature of the gospel is at stake here. Are we going to accept, acknowledge, receive [that] we have been included? And people do deny it and walk away from it. But even that doesn’t take away what it is that he has done and is doing.

So, if we judge ourself as anemic or puny, then that’s just our judging ourself, and we’re missing the point. So to allow that to drop away, to be cleansed, to wash away, our conscience is cleansed from all that, to receive the goodness of that invitation.

Anthony: Isn’t it really our walk to wake up and to simply receive with open hands, to receive what God has given to us out of his determinative love? His action on God’s side is so, so important.

And so, as I heard somebody say this week, Buddha’s dying words were strive without ceasing, whereas Jesus’ dying words is, it is finished. So, we get to pick our master, right? Who are we going to walk with and go with? And in this case, we go with Jesus, the one who reveals the heart of the Father.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • When was the last time someone really blessed you?
  • Count how many ways God has blessed you this year.
  • How has God equipped you to bless others?
  • How have you seen God’s blessings after stepping out in faith?

From the Sermon

  • Name some ways that believers try to earn righteousness.
  • How do you respond to those whose faith is more legalistic than yours?
  • How does it make you feel to know that you are righteous? Do you struggle with believing that?
  • Do you have any “religious insurance policies,” things that you do to earn something from God in case his grace falls through?

Sermon for March 12, 2023 – Third Sunday of Easter Preparation

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5016 | Busy Work
Greg Williams

Have you ever been assigned “busy work?” I despise doing “busy work?” It’s the type of work that doesn’t have a purpose except to keep you…well…busy. Sometimes this happens on a job where the boss feels like he needs to keep the employees working even though there is nothing left to do. I understand some busy work was necessary to keep employees employed during the pandemic, but I am easily frustrated with busy work – I want to be productive.

Suffering can sometimes seem like busy work; it can take up a lot of our time and keeps us from accomplishing the goals we have. And there is no getting around suffering; it is something we all face. And for someone like me, I get can get frustrated at the lack of productivity that suffering can induce. But perhaps during those times of suffering, there is a different way to be productive.

We know we will suffer, Jesus himself told us we would. He doesn’t bring suffering to us, but he wanted us to be aware it would come. Then he told us he came to take our suffering upon himself. And he did. He took (and continually takes) all our suffering, including our self-inflicted suffering, to the cross, and redeems it for his own good purposes toward us. The totality of our sufferings are now his which he took through death into resurrected life.

Because of this, our sufferings are now Christ’s own sufferings which we can endure with hope, knowing they will be used to contribute to the ultimate purpose he has for us. But what does this have to do with feeling like suffering is busy work – keeping us from being productive?

Paul addresses this in a rather shocking manner. He speaks of suffering as a point of rejoicing. He tells us that suffering, because of what Jesus has done, can actually produce something important:

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)

Suffering is a part of our broken world. Paul doesn’t mean we will enjoy suffering or that we should go looking for it. But, when it comes our way, which inevitably will, we can be assured that Jesus will meet us in our afflictions. This is why we can rejoice.  Because our suffering is not lost, through Christ our suffering is redeemed. We can anticipate the good work the Lord is doing in us, through all our circumstances. It’s not a time of busy work – where we are just waiting for the suffering to end – it’s a time of God producing good fruit in us.

Just as Christ learned through his suffering, we too are formed more into the image of Christ through our suffering.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 95 • Exodus 17:1-7 • Romans 5:1-11 • John 4:5-42

This week’s theme is thirsting for love. The call to worship Psalm presents a liturgy of praise celebrating God’s provision of water in the wilderness to his people, while also using their example of complaining as an admonishment against hardened hearts. The Old Testament selection from Exodus recounts this story of Israel complaining about thirst, which is met by God’s gracious act to provide water through a rock Moses was instructed to strike. The epistolary text in Romans provides a contrast to Israel’s complaining hard hearts, using Paul’s picture of endurance that flows from God’s love poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel reading from John, we witness Jesus offering living water to a Samaritan woman.

Repentant Response of Faith, Hope, and Love

Romans 5:1-11 (ESV)

Today’s text begins with the word “therefore.” Paul often uses this word to look back on something he had just established in his writing, as the foundation for the implications he is about to present. This is a good word to begin with for the season of Lent, or as GCI calls it, “Easter Preparation.” During this season we are encouraged to take time and look back on who God has revealed himself to be in Christ Jesus, and what he has done for us. This is the ground for our repenting and turning again to the Lord. As we are reminded of God’s faithfulness and love toward us revealed in Jesus Christ, we can turn from unfitting responses born out of fear and guilt, to responses filled with faith, hope, and love in all that we do. We will see in Paul’s words following his “therefore” that all three – faith, hope, and love – will make up the fitting response of those who have come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, turning to him again in preparation of receiving his life more fully by the Holy Spirit.

Let’s pickup with Paul’s transitional word, “therefore.”

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1 ESV)

With the word “therefore,” Paul begins a new section in Romans by drawing a conclusion from his argument that he has been making through the first four chapters. He will go on to tell us of three things that “we have” on account of Jesus Christ. It is important to note that the three things are not presented as three things we must achieve or acquire on our own merit. Rather, they are three statements of reality that believers already have.

The first thing we already have is justification. As Paul says, “we have been justified by faith…” It may be hard to grasp the reality Paul states here with the words “we have been.” This means that we have already been made righteous. How can this be since we so often fall again into sin? During this Easter Preparation season we become painfully aware of our great need as sinners to be made righteous. Our experience indicates that we are not yet righteous and our justification, or being made right, still lies in the future. We are easily convinced that righteousness is a goal to pursue rather than a present reality to receive. But Paul leaves no room for a potential justification, only a justification that is already accomplished and real. Paul does add the qualifier that this justification comes to us “by faith.” That’s important in Paul’s statement.

Paul is not saying that our faith is what justifies us or saves us. Rather, faith is trusting in Jesus for our salvation. It is only in him that we have justification. The righteousness we have is the very righteousness of Christ that he gives to us through the work of the Spirit. In this way faith is a means of receiving, not a means of achieving. We don’t work up our own faith in order to accomplish something towards our own justification. Rather, in trusting Jesus, we receive what he has already accomplished on our behalf. And even this faith is a gift that comes to us as we come to know who God is in Jesus Christ. There is nothing we do that makes ourselves righteous.

So, in verse one Paul has already brought in the fitting response of faith upon knowing who God is as the one who has made provision for our justification. During this season we are reminded and encouraged to once again live in the faith of Jesus Christ who is ever faithful to us. We are reminded and encouraged to turn once again from other competing objects of our faith. We do not put our trust in any other person, thing, or ideology to justify us. It is only in Christ, who is faithful to give us his righteousness, that we can place our whole trust and allegiance.

From here Paul tells us the second thing we have as a result of this justification given to us: peace with God. Again, Paul states boldly that we already “have peace with God,” not that we must pursue or attain peace with God. That would be a pagan concept. But this God of grace revealed in Jesus Christ literally takes our sin and guilt, along with its ultimate consequence of death and alienation from God, and overcomes it in order to bring us into a right relationship with himself. This is all done “through our Lord Jesus Christ,” which indicates Jesus as our High Priest. He is the one who mediates our peace with God by cleansing us of our sins and clothing us with his righteousness. Again, this is a reality to receive by faith, not works. We do not have to work ourselves into the Father’s good favor.

How might this change how we go about our day? We are not called to cower in fear of a god who is angry at us, seeking to catch us in some sin in order to blast us on the spot. We have peace with the Father. His thoughts towards us are only for our good, not our destruction. Peace, biblically understood, is an active peace. It seeks the good of those who live in this relationship of peace. It is not merely a cease fire or cessation of conflict. It is a dynamic, intentional, and active relationship aimed at the good of the other.

This will mean that the Father will not turn a blind eye to our sins and shortcomings. On the contrary! That would not be a loving Father who has our best interest in mind. That would be a god who is disinterested in us, who doesn’t care about us at best, or who aims for our destruction at worse. No, the Father is intimately concerned with our life choices as they reflect an orientation of either trusting in him for the life he gives, or an orientation that rejects what he gives in favor of providing our own life, which he knows will never amount to a life of peace. And that is why the season of Lent, or “Easter Preparation” stands among all the other liturgical celebrations. Repenting and returning to receive from the Father is part of the life of faith into which we are called. He is calling us further into his relationship with us in Jesus by the Spirit. He is not a God of neglect.

Let’s move to verse 2 to see the third thing Paul says we “have” by faith:

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2 ESV)

Paul wants us to see that not only does Jesus bring us into a life of peace with the Father, but he also brings the Father’s life of grace to us. Again, this is a life that Paul states we already have. Further, he says “we have also obtained” grace in such a fashion, that it can be said that we take our “stand” on it. Our standing with the Father is secured by his grace. Like God’s peace, his grace is also active toward our good. God’s grace is not some exception or pass, but rather a committed and determined will to bring us fully into the righteous life he has for us. That’s why Paul can go on to say, “and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” God’s glory is our destination, and we can rejoice in hope because God’s grace is determined to bring us there.

Here Paul has introduced the second fitting response to knowing who God is as revealed in Jesus Christ—hope. And this is not the type of hope we refer to as a child may “hope” to get dessert after dinner. He may or he may not, but hope has nothing to do with it. The hope we have in Christ is a sure hope, a guaranteed reality that we know is here now, and is coming more fully in the future. Living in this kind of hope grounds all our thoughts and actions on the sure foundation of who God is and what he has done to bring us into “the glory of God.” That’s where we are going, and we have absolute assurance he will get us there.

Paul has more to say about rejoicing in hope:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3-4 ESV)

Paul does not divorce the glory of God from the glory revealed on the cross. Because of what Christ has done on the cross, even our sufferings now serve the good purposes of bringing us into the life of glory the Father intends for us. I think it is safe to say that virtually everyone hates to see or experience senseless suffering. For Christians, we know that all our suffering, no matter how small or large, is assumed in Christ’s sufferings. In fact, what we see on the cross is Jesus entering into our very sufferings. He has made them his own. Because of this, we are assured that our sufferings are not senseless. They now serve God’s purposes to bring us further into his glory. Our sufferings are never a waste or a senseless occurrence in our lives. God has employed them into his work of bringing us to share in his own glory.

As Paul puts it, our sufferings now “produce” something. They add up to “endurance” which comes from the nearly untranslatable Greek term hypomone. This word means a patient waiting upon the Lord in the confidence that comes by Jesus’ faithfulness to us, even though our circumstances scream otherwise. Through this dynamic, our sufferings produce character, which in turn adds up to more hope. In this way, hope becomes the disposition and orientation of the believer regardless of what they are experiencing in this life. They become more and more like Christ, entering more fully the glory God has for us in his Son.

Paul is not done talking about hope:

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5 ESV)

This hope is a resurrection hope that “does not put us to shame.” We will not be shamed or embarrassed or disappointed for putting our hope in Jesus, just as he was vindicated through his resurrection. Suffering will end in glory. And Paul gives us assurance of this by telling us another reality that has already happened. Namely, that the Holy Spirit has already come to us and poured God’s love into our hearts.

As we grow in receiving the Father’s love, we are given a sign and seal by the Holy Spirit that what he is presently giving us is what we will eternally be receiving in the future. And here we see the final fitting response to knowing who God is—love. As we come to know more and more who God is for us, we will be receiving his love more and more, enabling us to love others with the same love we receive.

During this season we can repent and turn away from all our distorted and ineffectual attempts of love that do not flow from God’s love poured out into our hearts. We do not need to manufacture or signal our own love to the world. The Father’s love is not kept at a distance for us to try and emulate. It is given to us through the Holy Spirit to participate in with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Now Paul is going to turn our attention to the cross for a fuller revelation of God’s love.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 ESV)

In these verses Paul has shown the extreme radical nature of God’s love. This is not a love that comes to the deserving or lovable. Rather it has come and continues to come to the weak and ungodly sinners. These verses confront us with two realities we must deal with during this season of repentance. First, we are not deserving of God’s love. Our pride may resist the stark reality of our sinfulness that Paul captures with the words “weak,” “ungodly,” and “sinners.” Not only are we ungodly sinners, but we are too weak to do anything about it. There is no room to justify ourselves or better our situation. To turn to the Lord, one must realize there is something to turn from. There is no life gained by holding onto our miserable state. But Paul knows that just being confronted with this dismal reality of the human condition does not move us one inch forward in repentance.

From the description given, we must conclude that even our attempts of repentance would be sinful as well. Paul mingles our sinfulness with the proclamation of God’s love demonstrated in the very thick of it. Only by seeing who Jesus is as the very coming of God’s love to us, even in our sinfulness, can we begin to turn to him. Perhaps Paul knew this best as his history of persecuting the church came to a halt once he was encountered by the resurrected Lord. Paul knows that we do not turn to the Lord until we first see that he has turned to us.

It is God’s love that comes to the unlovable that initiates the first steps toward him. Paul is trying to show how completely paradoxical God’s love toward us is. There is no human justification for his divine justification. We are given in Christ a revelation of God who is love all the way down. He loves us because that is who he is. Our unlovable and ungodly stance against him does not turn his love away. Our position simply prevents us from seeing it and receiving it. But in Jesus we are now shown the love of God.

It may be important to mention here what Paul is not saying. He is not saying God loves us as sinners. God does not love our sin. His love moves to remove our sins and not leave us in our weak, godless, and sinful state. His love aims to perfect us and bring us into his glory. The Bible is not antiquated in proclaiming God’s love when it warns against the many sins that our world pridefully celebrates and promotes. On the contrary, our loving Father knows we are not created for sin. It is not the fitting response humans were created for. We are created to respond with the same love he loves us with. And this love does not include a life orientation that worships itself over its Lord.

Paul will now return to his opening statement of being justified, but with a difference. He has “much more” to say on account of our justification.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:9 ESV)

Paul began by saying “we have been justified by faith.” Paul now states that “we have now been justified by his blood.” He is moving from how we receive our justification, to giving us the assurance that our justification is a secured reality because of what Jesus has done for us through his death. The crucified Christ is the bedrock reality that we have justification. It is on that solid ground that we can acknowledge, receive, and participate by faith, in the justification secured for us by Christ. Paul wants to ground our justification on an objective reality. In other words, our justification is real and sure, and we do not have to live in fear or doubt about it.

Paul springs from this objective statement to give us assurance that we can be confident that God will not leave us in our sins. Paul says there is “much more” to come on the basis of the justification we now have. Namely, the complete deliverance from our sins, or as Paul states it, we will be “saved by him from the wrath of God.”

For Paul, divine wrath is understood to be the opposition God has toward sin. This wrath is manifested in God’s final judgment. So, we can rightly say that Jesus took God’s wrath against sin on the cross as he assumed all our sin. This doesn’t mean that Jesus took some arbitrary punishment from his Father that was intended for us. Rather, Jesus took on the punishment that sin delivers, the penalty of death, by dying on a cross. The Father was not going to let sin have the final word over us. He sent his own Son, the Word of God, to speak the final word, “It is finished.” Therefore, Paul can conclude that we are saved from God’s wrath on account that Jesus has already exercised God’s wrath over sin on the cross.

Paul is still not done, he still has “much more” to say:

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10 ESV)

Paul now speaks of our reconciliation as connected to our justification. And he once again grounds this in the reality of what Jesus has done for us. Clearly, we do not reconcile ourselves to the Father, as this was accomplished “while we were enemies.” God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus’ death, not on account of anything we have done. But Paul wants to move from the death of Christ to his resurrection. So, he gives us another “much more” statement.

On the present reality of our reconciliation accomplished by Jesus’ death, we are assured that we will live out this reconciliation on account of Jesus’ resurrection. In other words, when Paul says that we are “saved by his life” we are being assured that we are now participants in that life. That is what salvation amounts to. What would be the point of being reconciled to someone if you never engage in the relationship? That would be an empty reconciliation. The Father didn’t only save us from something – sin and death – but he saved us for something – righteousness and life. And that life is now available to us in the risen Lord, who ever lives to share with us his life with the Father.

Paul has one final thing to say.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:11 ESV)

Have you noticed that Paul keeps using the word “more.” Even with two previous “much more” statements he wants to say even “more than that.” And we will be glad that he did. Paul wants us to know that our justification and reconciliation, the righteous life of knowing the Father through the Son and by the Spirit, given to us all by grace, is a life of great joy. We are brought into the righteous life of God to rejoice. We are assured that the life we are given in Jesus is not going to be a disappointment.

As we come to know the Father as Jesus knows the Father, we will come to share in Jesus’ joy of knowing the Father. In other words, we have much more to look forward to. Even now in the present, as we come to know the Father more in Jesus, we grow in faith, hope, and love. We come to see more and more the goodness of God, and how richly blessed we are to belong to him. But, in the end, we will come to see that on this side of heaven, we have only scratched the surface of the depth of all that God has in store for us. We will not be disappointed that we have turned to him in faith, hope, and love.

Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W2

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March 12 – Third Sunday of Easter Prep
Romans 5:1-11, “Peace With God”

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Program Transcript


Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W2

Anthony: Well, let’s move on to our next passage, which is Romans 5:1-11. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday of Easter Prep (Lent) on March the 12th. Marty, please read it for us.

Marty:

Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10 If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life? 11 And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God. [Common English Bible]

Anthony: Wow. That passage is eaten up with the gospel. Right? Like you said in the previous pericope, there’s not a lot there.

That’s sarcasm because there is so much there, and you’ve already alluded to this, but let’s continue to scratch that itch. Paul wrote that we have righteousness through God’s faithfulness, which was revealed in Jesus Christ. How might we get this all wrong? What do you want us to know?

Marty: Right. Well, the word faithfulness there implies faithful to something or someone. And so, the question of the covenant that lies behind all this—God has promised to create a world and to love it in very concrete ways.

And that is through a covenant relationship that says, “Hey, I’m going to love you no matter what. It is not a bilateral covenant where I’ll do my part loving, and you do your part loving. I’m just going to do all the loving here. And you’re just going to get to live within that love. That’s going to be my faithfulness expressed to you. And the degree to which you live faithful to my faithfulness, it’s going to make a difference for you, but it’ll never condition my love.”

If we can just recognize that faithfulness there is the outworking of the free, abundant, loving nature of God toward us, that acts in a way that transforms our experience of who we are, what we do, how we relate to others. All of that comes because God has created the unconditional, unstoppable context of his love, so that the nature of what flows from it is going to be true love.

And if you get it wrong, you’re going to turn that word faithfulness into something that I have to do something. Well, if God’s going to be faithful, then I must have to meet a condition (which makes it about us) in order to receive what’s going on. So many people read faith and faithfulness as, what about me? And that is grand misstep because you take your eyes off God and put it on yourself.

We can become casual where we just take for granted. Well, he’s loved me. Okay, fine. I’ll go on my way. Thank you very much, sir. And away you go. Kind of taking it for granted and saying, I wouldn’t deny it, it’s just that we don’t live as though it’s really true.

So we’re overestimating the nature of the implication of what is going on in a way that has just taken it for granted. My wife says, don’t spoil the kids. And I say, a kid’s not spoiled until they take it for granted. To give them lavish love is wonderful. The day they take it for granted, that’s the day they’re spoiled. And it’s easy to take the faithfulness of God for granted. And we become spoiled in a sense because we’re missing the dynamic and the nature of what’s there. So to live with gratitude is not to be taking it casually.

Some people might say, “This is just too crazy. I mean, you talk about a God who’s faithful, I don’t think I can ever understand that. So it just seems too crazy for me.” And crazy’s not a bad place to be. To say this love is so crazy, I can’t fathom it in my way of thinking—a God who loves me no matter what and all that. It’s the closest to being right. And yet it can also, of course, lead us to think that it’s irrational.

So if we have kind of a sense of the love of God is so crazy, I’ll never understand it, but I’ll take it anyway. That’s a pretty close kind of thing.

But the nature of turning a covenant into a contract, that is always going to be the problem. Contracts are based in fear. We think God says, if you do this, then I’ll give you that. And we say, okay, well, I’ll do this if you do that. And the fear of losing something is what undergird something as a contract. When we think of God’s faithfulness and our faithfulness in contract terms, it’s bound up with fear. It lives from fear. It sustains the fear that something’s going to go wrong, and that we need to look at the consequences of what go wrong.

So we’re always paying attention with fear to where the relationship might go wrong. And so that’s again, a huge problem with how people think about being righteous and being faithful—either on God’s part or on our part. And there is no peace in that, which is the telltale sign something is wrong here.

Anthony: Thanks be to God that he is not quid pro quo. Right? I can recall JB Torrance talking about one of the greatest travesties in the church is when we say, God has done his part; now you’ve got to go do your part. And it minimizes this big God into something very small and anemic. And that’s not who God is revealed to be in Jesus Christ.

And as I’m looking back over this passage, my eyes, Marty, are drawn to verse 5. This hope doesn’t put us to shame. It’s a hope that is bedrock. It’s not going to embarrass us, leaving us at the altar, so to speak, on our wedding day. Our bridegroom’s going to be there, and we’ll share in that feast.

Anything you want to say to that?

Marty: Well, the nature of shame, when there is shame, somebody has to be right. And I mean, the word right shows up in righteous, but I always say shame, blame, and guilt are all about somebody being right. And in the case of blame, I’m right and somebody else is wrong. In the case of shame, somebody else is right and I’m wrong.

And in case of blame—this is Adam and Eve, right? Pointing at each other and the snake. I’m making myself the judge. So, the whole nature of shame is that we’ve just taken our eyes off of the grace of God. And once you get your eyes on the love of God, which is poured in our heart, all of that blaming, of needing to be right, goes away.

And I say in counseling, who’s right here is always the wrong question. The question is always, how do we be loving here? And that really stems from my theology. How do we be loving here is always asking the question: how we live in light of the God who has loved us and ask what is best for everyone here?

Because God is always doing that. God’s righteousness is always going to work out as a love that transforms us towards himself and towards our relationships with others. No shame.

Anthony: No shame in his game. Let’s exegete versus 6-8. And I’m going to read them again. And share with us how it overflows with gospel.

While we were still weak at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that somebody will die for a righteous person, though. Maybe somebody might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What say you?

Marty: Amen. So, I grew up in a world where people talked about sin first. You focus on the sin first. We are sinners and there’s all these kind of reflective things on what’s wrong with our thinking, our desires, our lusts, all those things. And then once you’ve got that really embedded in, then you bring in Jesus as one who saves us from ourself, in a sense.

But it’s quite clear here that the gospel begins with the God who has loved us. God shows his love because while we were still sinners. And so to really get the ordering of the logic of what Paul’s unfolding here, when we start doing science here and delve into the deep reaches of what this is pointing to—the love of God that’s poured out (regardless of where we are in our relation to God) is given in a way that that precedes anything that we might do. Meaning again, it is unconditional. So, to say, the gospel begins with the love of God. Any gospel that begins looking at the human (what’s wrong there) ultimately becomes a human-centered gospel. It’s about our problems, our inadequacies, all those things.

So to say, when you get that the gospel is about what God has done before we did anything wrong, right, or otherwise, then you’re starting to think out of the gospel, and then we see that love seeks a healing for the world. Our body, soul, and spirit, all that is poured out as the Spirit is given to us. And seeking the healing that ultimately brings the peace that was mentioned back in the first verse. Peace, shalom, a way of being with God that God creates and only God can give. The kind of peace that God gives. The peace that the world has is usually held with a Roman peace. We manage it through our powers. But to say that gospel is a peace that comes because God gives his very self to us by his Spirit. He brings us to know who we are so that we cry out Abba Father, which the other side of that is I am your child.

So, the gospel is that identification. When we cry out by the Spirit sharing in the cry of Jesus, who said Abba. In being those children, we begin to recognize a whole new identity, which the gospel is wanting to bring to us, whatever we may judge of ourself to be wrong, separated, isolated, distant, failures.

All of that was preceded by the love that came healing us with our whole being. And the Spirit is the one who was from the beginning and still is at work in bringing us into the gospel life.

Both TF Torrance and Karl Barth had versions of the question, so when were you saved? My version of that is I was saved in the heart of the Father before the foundation of the world. I was saved on the cross as Jesus took my place and my sin and said for you. And I was saved when the Holy Spirit awoke me to the heart of the Father who looked down the corridors of time and saw me. I was saved as Jesus said, Father, forgive him and embraced me into himself.

The Spirit wakes me up. And again, Wake up, oh, sleeper, to say, here you’ve got the Spirit giving us the experience of the gospel. And again, JB Torrance said, we don’t just begin with our experience (that is a kind of evangelical speaking), but to really say the depth of the evangelical experience is the heart of the Father, the life, action, and ongoing ministry of the Son who is our high priest, into which we are awakened by the Holy Spirit.

But we can’t make that the focus. It is the outcome, the story within which we’re living. And so here you’ve got all that in these passages being played out—the deep love, the act of love, the experiential love—all being brought into focus so that we become those who live within the gospel, having discovered the depth of reality, the nature of what is there that we don’t just see when we look at the world through our eyes and just think, well, I’ve got to do something today.

No, God has done something that creates the space, the presence, the very life that I’m living and to live within that is to live within the gospel.

Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God that the biblical story starts in Genesis 1 and not Genesis 3. You know, we don’t start with the fall, but we start with our original belonging and a goodness in the way that God creates. And he loves his creation. Thanks be to God.

Marty: Yeah, the gospel is even there in [Genesis] 3. When Adam and Eve are hiding, they just have a wrong story, but God comes looking for them. That’s gospel. That’s this right here. So, it’s our bad theology of thinking we need to hide from God, but God is consistently the one who looks for and comes and cares for them even there.

So we again, we can’t miss looking through God’s eyes and collapse into just looking through Adam and Eves fearful eyes.

Anthony: Yes. So may we walk with God in the cool of the evening as we go.

Marty: Hallelujah.

Anthony: Hallelujah.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Can you think of a time you were given “busy work?” How did it make you feel?
  • Have you ever thought of suffering as a form of “busy work?”
  • How might we respond during times of suffering differently when we know our sufferings are producing something immeasurable good?

From the Sermon

  • The sermon stated that the ground of repenting is seeing who God is as revealed in Christ. How does this inform what we do during the season of “Easter Preparation,” also known as Lent?
  • What difference does it make to know that believers “already have” justification? How do we account for our sins with the fact that we have “already” been made righteous?
  • What part does faith play in our justification?
  • The sermon stated that the biblical understanding of “peace” is an active peace, meaning that those who live in peace with others seek the good of the other. How does this understanding inform how we understand Paul’s words that we now “have peace with God?”
  • Paul’s “much more” statements make a distinction between what we are saved from and what we are saved for. Both are part of Jesus’ saving work. How would you answer the questions, “what are we saved from” and “what are we saved for”?
  • According to the sermon, why will “we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ”? What does this say about the life we are called into?

Sermon for March 19, 2023 – Fourth Sunday of Easter Preparation

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5017 | He Sees the Heart
Jeff Broadnax

I once saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said, “I don’t know why judges get paid so much. I judge everyone for free!” Unfortunately, this funny line has a lot of truth in it. Human beings are often quick to judge others and place labels on them. If we do not see a person as part of our group, we can be tempted to overlook his or her wisdom, experience, personality, value, and ability to change and we place them into a little box whenever it is convenient.

We can disregard another’s humanity, dismissing them with labels like liberal, conservative, millennial, boomer, vaxer, anti-vaxxer, not to mention racial and ethnic labels. Many times, we do this unconsciously and without even thinking. Other times, we may consciously harbor bad feelings towards others because of how we were taught or how we interpret our life experiences.

God knows about this human tendency; however, he does not share it. In the book of 1 Samuel, God sent Samuel the prophet to the house of Jesse with an important task. One of Jesse’s sons was to be anointed by Samuel as the next king of Israel, but God did not tell the prophet which son to anoint. Jesse brought seven impressive-looking sons before Samuel, yet God rejected them all. Eventually, God chose David to be the next king — the youngest son who was almost forgotten and looked the least how Samuel imagined a king should look. As Samuel viewed the first seven sons, God spoke these words to him:

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7

We can often be like Samuel and incorrectly judge a person’s value by superficial things.

Like Samuel, none of us can see others clearly because we cannot see what lies in a person’s heart. The good news is that Jesus Christ can. As Christians, we must learn to rely on Jesus and see others through his eyes, which are filled with compassion, empathy, and love.

We cannot hope to have healthy relationships with our neighbors by relating to them without acknowledging Christ’s relationship with them. When we see them as belonging to him, we seek to love our neighbor as Christ loves them. This is the new commandment Jesus gave his disciples in the Upper Room.

Jesus loves each and every one of us. This is our most important label. To him, this is the identity that defines us. He does not judge us by one aspect of our character, but by who we are becoming in him. We are all beloved children. While that might not make a funny t-shirt, it is the truth by which Christ-followers live.

I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 23:1-6 · 1 Samuel 16:1-13 · Ephesians 5:8-14 · John 9:1-41

This is the fourth week of the Easter Preparation season (Lent), a time when we ready ourselves to commemorate the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and when we prepare to celebrate the glorious empty tomb of our resurrected Lord. To participate in the process of examining our walk with Christ, we have to recognize our inability to accurately discern spiritual things. We need God to reveal us to ourselves to be aware of the ways in which we need to spiritually grow. It is only by the Spirit that spiritual growth takes place. This week’s theme is God leads us through spiritual darkness. In the call to worship Psalm, we read how the Lord leads the psalmist peacefully through the darkest valley. In the passage in 1 Samuel, we learn that God is far better than we are at judging human hearts. In Ephesians 5, Paul is speaking to an audience who God has brought out of darkness and into light. Finally, John tells the story of a man whose sight was restored by Christ.

Being Light

Ephesians 5:8-14 NIV

You are at your congregation’s Sunday gathering when you see Phyllis coming your way. She is a wonderful person, but she tends to be heavy handed with her perfume. It is a scent you do not enjoy but she obviously likes it…a lot! Phyllis is a wonderful person — salt of the earth — but she is also a chronic hugger. Most people would agree that hugs are great. However, not everyone thinks hugs are great, and not everyone thinks hugs are great all the time. Phyllis is not one of those people. Phyllis is a wonderful person — a ray of sunshine in this cold, cruel world — but she does not know her own strength. She has wrapped you in a hug of the bear variety and you are fairly certain that you have sustained some mild rib damage. On top of your physical pain, you now smell like Phyllis; and you will keep smelling like Phyllis for the rest of the day. Every time you breathe in you have a powerful aroma that reminds you that Phyllis is…wonderful.

You may or may not know a Phyllis, but you have probably had the experience of getting an unwanted aroma stuck on you. Getting someone’s scent on us can be unpleasant. Even when we think the cologne or perfume smells good on them, it is not the scent we chose for ourselves. If we did not intend to smell a certain way, it can sometimes feel like another person’s scent was imposed on us.

This is what it is like for some Christians when they encounter people who are doing things they believe are wrong. They believe that if they are around people who do “bad things,” they risk picking up the scent of their sin. Perhaps they also fear that other Christians will think they condone the behavior of “sinners” if they “smell” like them? Many believers avoid engaging their neighbors because they fear being corrupted by those who make different life choices. They feel it is important to be separate and distinct from “the world,” and they avoid sharing space with those who do not follow Christ.

To some extent, one can understand this perspective. Our society is filled with a lot of distractions, and it is easy to have our eyes turned away from God. If we are not careful, we can allow others to influence us and make it easier for us to act in a way that is outside of God’s will. At the same time, we have to consider if Jesus feared picking up the scent of humanity’s sin. If Phyllis represented the world and the stench of its sinful ways, would Christ try to avoid hugging her? Was Jesus afraid of “catching” humanity’s corruption? The answer is “no.” Jesus put on human flesh and became one of us. He was not afraid of catching our corruption. Rather, we caught his health and wholeness.

So, what does that mean for us? How are we supposed engage those who might live in spiritually harmful ways while not imitating them? Paul gives us some guidance in his letter to the Ephesians. He writes:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible — and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:8-14)

In Ephesians, Paul addressed an audience that was experiencing divisions between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish (Gentile) Christians. Also, Ephesus was a cosmopolitan city where several belief systems vied for new adopters. Given this context, Paul encouraged his primarily Gentile Christian readers to behave in a manner fitting of their calling in Christ, and he used the metaphor of darkness and light to convey his message. In the context of Ephesians, darkness symbolized sin, especially sexual immorality, obscenity, greed, and idolatry. Light, on the other hand, stood for love, goodness, righteousness, and truth. Now that we have a bit more context, we can get a better understanding of how this scripture applies to us.

Paul began this passage with a startling truth about who we are. While the light metaphor is used often in the New Testament, no statement is quite as strong as what we find in verse 8. In other passages, we are called the light of the world (Matthew 5:14) and children of light (John 12:35-36). However, here we are called “light in the Lord.” We have been made light, just as Jesus is the “light of the world” (John 8:12), and “God is light” (1 John 1:5). We have not been made light by our good works, and our status is not something we earned. Rather, it is because we are in Christ; his atoning work has made us light. Since, we are light, Paul encourages us to be light.

If we fear being corrupted by the darkness in the world, could it be that we think of ourselves as less than what we are? Perhaps we think too little of what it means to be in Christ? Maybe we underestimate the profound transformation that takes place in all those who accept the new humanity offered in Christ? In Jesus, we are light, and light has no reason to fear darkness. If he lives in us, we need not fear catching the corruption of the world. Working through us, Christ will spread the health and wholeness of his light.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. When we separate ourselves from Christ, we can find ourselves living in the shadows – we can start to slip back into our dark ways. Because of this, we sometimes find ourselves striving for perfection. But God does not require perfection; he looks for the willingness to repent – to turn back, to see Jesus as he truly is and to see ourselves in him. The fact that we will make mistakes does not prevent God from declaring us as light. The light of Christ shines brightest through imperfect vessels.

To Paul, chasing away darkness is part of the role of Christians. In order to chase away darkness, light needs to be in proximity to it. In verse 11, the apostle exhorted his audience to “have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” Notice that Paul says to have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness themselves, not those who sometimes do dark things. In other words, we are to share spaces with those who do dark things, but we are not to adopt their ways. We are to be in proximity with those who at times do dark things so they can see the futility of their behavior — so they can see a better way.

How are we then to show others a better way? Some have read this passage and interpreted it to mean that Christians should confront sin and call it out in our neighbors. People with this view take it upon themselves to tell others how they are sinning and that they need to repent. They can even be combative and view their engagement with their community as some kind of war to be won for God. It is true that believers should oppose the works of sin, but how we oppose sin matters.

We do not expose darkness by assuming a posture of confrontation. Rather, we expose darkness by treating our neighbor with compassion, empathy, honesty, openness, and love. Verse 14 reminds us that Christ is the light that causes the sleeper to emerge from the darkness of sleep. In other words, darkness is exposed when believers try to be like Jesus to their neighbors. Jesus did not constantly call out the sins of those around him. Rather, he lived amongst them and through love showed them the light. Similarly, we do not chase away darkness by focusing on darkness. We expose darkness by focusing on the love of God demonstrated in Jesus Christ.

Did you hear that? Followers of Christ who live in the light do not chase away darkness by focusing on that darkness. We expose darkness by focusing on the love of God demonstrated in Jesus Christ.

This happens through authentic relationships. It happens when we meet our neighbors where they are and love them right where they are, seeking nothing in return. It happens as we live questionable lives causing others to ask about the joy they see in us. It happens as we join in the normal life rhythms of our neighborhood and seek to be a force for good in our community. It happens as we practice random acts of kindness and outrageous generosity. It happens as we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. It happens as we listen to the stories of others, especially those who seem different from us. It happens as we practice radical forgiveness and uncommon humility. It happens as we put our faith, hope, and love into action for the glory of God.

Loving others is not always pretty. Sometimes, loving others is a challenge. However, as we go forward in love, we should remember that the behavior of our neighbors is not the most important thing about them. The most important thing about our neighbors is what God thinks of them, and the value he places on every human being. The most important thing about them is that in Christ they have been reconciled to God and to us, even if they do not know it. This is good news for all of us. I am so glad that my behavior is not the most important thing about me. I do not always do right. I mess up. I miss the mark. Yet, every time I turn to God, he is waiting with open arms. He does not throw my sin in my face, and he does not shame me. When I confess my sins to God, I do so knowing that, in Christ, my sins have already been forgiven. Therefore, I am free to enjoy my relationship with God despite my sin and even though I will sin again. Shouldn’t we imitate this loving posture when dealing with our neighbors?

To me, the most amazing truth about Paul’s teaching is that darkness can become illuminated, and what is illuminated can become light. Darkness does not need to stay dark. It can be turned into light! In this present evil age, darkness will not be completely dispelled. However, this passage can give us hope that some of the darkness around us can be turned into light. If I am honest, it is easy to doubt that this is true. When I look at my neighborhood, I see a lot of darkness. I see so much pain. I see so many self-imposed prisons. I see so much anger. I see so much prejudice. I see so much oppression. I sometimes wonder if it is possible for the darkness to be made light.

Yet isn’t that what Jesus did on the cross? Jesus, by the Spirit and to the Father, lovingly bore all darkness — all the sins of the world — and was not overcome. His spilled blood and pierced body forged a new humanity by which anyone who calls on his name becomes light. In this Easter Preparation season, let us be reminded of the hope that can be found in Christ. In him, darkness can become light. As we go into our neighborhoods, let us carry this hope with us.

Since we are in Christ, let us live as children of light. Let us participate without fear in the work he is doing to bring light to all dark places. Let us shine in our families and on our streets. Let us shine in our neighborhoods and communities. Let us shine at our jobs and at our schools. Jesus is in you so shine on!

Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W3

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March 19 – Fourth Sunday of Easter Prep
Ephesians 5:8-14, “Wake Up, Sleeper!”

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Program Transcript


Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W3

Anthony: Let’s move on to the next passage, which is Ephesians 5:8-14. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the fourth Sunday of Easter Prep and Lent on March the 19th.

8You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. 10 Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, 11 and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. 12 It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. 13 But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. 14 Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. [Common English Bible]

Paul, the apostle, seems to be making the case that our actions as children of light should align with the truth of our being, our ontology.

What damage is being done when we don’t live in congruence with goodness, justice, and faith? And how can someone more faithfully receive, embrace, walk, act as children of light?

Marty: Right. so not living in congruence? I mean, if you just think of not living in congruence with your spouse or your kids or your parents, you’re going your own way. And what comes from that is called conflict.

And so, to say that the nature of being congruent, is that there is something of being aware of the person, the ways of being that would be aligned with that. And so that is the call of what happens when God comes to us in love. That he calls forth from us a love, which again, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, self-control. These are all ways of being that are congruent with the one who’s given himself to us.

So, the very nature of what it means to be children of light is that when light comes into the world, the light comes into the darkness, as the Gospel of John begins. There is a congruence of the Son with the Father.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we who beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” [John 1:14] So that which we are being congruent with is the very nature and character of God, which has goodness and justice and truth.

When God’s light shines in us, we recognize we’ve been stumbling around in the dark. The reality’s all there. That’s the thing about darkness and blindness is the reality’s all there. We just can’t see it. I wrote a song once. “Waking up to reality. God loves me, not for what I do or say, but freely. And I stand as one transformed by love (that’s his love), living in the one who gives me hope.”

And so, the recognition of the waking up is that once you see who this God is, you understand the love that has come to you. It transforms the nature of who you are in response to that having been loved. We love because he first loved us. And so, congruence is that coming into alignment with what it is that he’s doing.

So, congruence is like to be integrated with God. It’s to have our life woven together, interwoven in a life with him. The opposite of congruence then would just basically be living a lie. You have not been given a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. Living in fear is what Adam and Eve had. And so, to not be congruent with God is to live in fear.

And what does perfect love do? It casts out fear. What does perfect fear do? It casts out love. And therefore, we become incongruent. We lie, we hide, we distance from God, we distance from one another. We cover up those things we don’t want people to see. That’s the shame coming in and in covering up.

Then, we have all of our favorite addictions from drug and alcohol to religious addictions, to workaholism—all the ways we cover up in our hiding and lying because we’re not congruent with the love of God. And we work out of a system of fear that says, if I’m going to survive, I need to take care of myself. Nobody else is, and I need to make sure that I’m not going to be embarrassed or shamed in the world.

And so that whole incongruence that comes from that is damaging at the deepest level. And so basically say the Christian life is not a call to being good or measuring up to standards and ideals. It is a call to honesty. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1:9]

And so, to say to people, you know, being honest is really the place to begin here. That is the life of congruence. You know, homologoumena—which is the word confession there—homo [means] same, logoumena [means] word. To say the same thing as God. God I’m struggling here. You know what, you’re struggling here. Good. Thanks for being honest. Let’s talk about this.

In counseling, I often say if you’re angry to just say, I’m angry, is actually the best thing you can do because then you can talk about what you’re angry about. If you just act angry, then that anger is going to come out in tones of voice and actions that are damaging. So, to just be honest and say, I’m really angry here. Can we talk about? It’s beginning in a place of getting congruent.

And so, the Christian invitation is not to say, how can I live better? How can I be more loving? It’s to so know the love of the one who’s come to us, that our life has that light shine in us. And we can be honest about what’s there, and in just seeing it and accepting that’s who we are and that we are loved, the transformation happens. The Spirit, who’s poured out, does the work, as God’s goodness and God’s justice become our way of being because we know that we have been loved, that we have been treated with kindness by this God, allows us then to treat others with the same thing.

And the third word of the three you threw out there—truth. The idea of truth comes from the idea of troth, which is to be bound to another person. So, to be betrothed to a person—you can hear the troth in that—truth is a way of being in relationship. So, whenever we’re out of congruence with God, we’re out of relationship.

Guess what? Our way of being true to ourselves and true to others in relationship crumbles. And so, the invitation in knowing the light of God’s love and Christ’s light in our life, is we can see that he has bound himself to us, and it gives us the capacity—having been loved and accepted—to not need to hide or perform or those other things, which releases us into the freedom of a life of love.

Anthony: In his book, Mediation of Christ, TF Torrance wrote, “God loves you so utterly and completely, that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ as his beloved Son and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation.”

And in light of that astounding love that is unconditional, it does allow us to be honest. And as you were saying, even in counseling, just being able to name it is a huge step in our subjective experience of healing. And thanks be to God that his faithfulness doesn’t wax and wane based on our moment of what we’re feeling then. But in light of that, we can wake up by the Holy Spirit. Oh, that’s so, so good.

In verse 14, Paul makes the statement that everything revealed by light is light. What does that mean? Help us understand.

Marty: Right. Well, again, TF Torrance, who you just mentioned, talks about light as the constant of the universe and that the very nature of using that imagery of Jesus being the light of the world, there is something about the light that comes from the Father who is the Father of lights.

And so, to say this God is the constant of the universe who gives being and order and meaning and purpose to the world as the Creator. And when Jesus comes into the world—which has become dark, meaning, missing an awareness of who this God is—Jesus is the light who allows us to see that which is real.

And so, if somebody is in the darkness, you don’t really have a sense that they are there or what your relationship is to them. And so, fear is a natural thing when you’re walking down a dark street at night and somebody’s coming, something in you goes, Hmm.

So, the nature of the light that the Spirit brings, is that there is this sense of seeing the other. And if we see them through the eyes of Christ, if our sense is I’m on this street at night because I’m looking for people who are in need of love and care, I’m not going to be afraid. I am going to be somebody who is about being the presence of love on this dark street. And yeah, maybe I’ll bring a flashlight, but to say that just like the moon has no light of its own, when light shines on it creates light that lights up the night.

And I love those nights with a full moon. And you can see things in their own unique kind of way. And so, the moon is also given as a gift to the earth. The sun rules the day, and the moon rules the night. And ruling there doesn’t mean dominating over. It’s a provision. If you look at the providence of God, God provides that which is necessary to operate in all the spheres of life.

And so, the light of Christ, as CS Lewis said, “I believe in the Son not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.” And so, the nature of this light that reveals us and those around us.

The light of Christ enables us to see the meaning and purpose for which things are created, including broken things. And to not just say, throw it away, but what does redeeming, healing, making well of this look like? And so light is being revealed in us. We are being seen for who we are.

Those people around us who are easily written off—which my wife always says when she sees people on the streets of Seattle, “I just think that’s somebody’s child.” That person who’s sitting there begging, that’s somebody’s child. And if we can see through those eyes the light of that, that to know that they have been beloved by someone, created by someone, gives us eyes to see the light of knowing that even this person who our eyes could look at and judge and write off, can also be looked at with the eyes of love. And suddenly our eyes become redeeming and healing and wishing for the best for them and asking, what can we do out of love for them?

So, the nature of light—also, TF Torrance says, in the spring, the light comes and warms the ground, and that very thing that God created is brought to come out and be what it was made to be. The plants grow, the birds come out and do what they do, and all of those things. Instead of say, the light of God’s shining in creation is the same as the work of the Spirit that brings us into the being that made for and all the fruit of the Spirit flows in us as light warms our hearts and creates in us that which only God can create—a fruit that lives in congruence and extends his life in the world around us.

Anthony: I appreciate the way that your wife thinks about others, even those who are down and out. And it reminded me of CS Lewis his amazing sermon, The Weight of Glory. He talked about how there are no ordinary people. Your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses other than the blessed sacrament itself.

What a beautiful thing. A way of seeing the world as best we can by the Spirit, the lens of Jesus Christ for those that belong to him.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Why do you think it is so easy to put labels on others?
  • “Christ does not judge us by one aspect of our character but by who we are becoming in him.” What do you think this means?

From the sermon

  • Have you ever felt tempted to avoid people in “the world”? Why or why not?
  • Is it sometimes hard to believe that darkness can become light? Why or why not?
  • What are some practical ways you can be light to your neighbors?

Sermon for March 26, 2023 – Fifth Sunday of Easter Preparation

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5018 | Two Kinds of People in the World
Greg Williams

Have you ever heard someone say, “There are two kinds of people in the world”? This is usually followed by a joke or some oversimplified statement about people.

Here is one that does both: “There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who put everyone into two groups… and those who don’t.”

Well, I guess that was someone’s attempt to make fun of the idea of dividing people into two groups. But it’s no laughing matter when people are depersonalized by such groupings. Surely there is more to being an individual than the generalizations often attached to group labels.

Some group labels do have an element of truth to them: “There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who live as if they belong to Christ, and those who don’t.” This is similar to a “two kinds of people in the world” statement found in the Bible.

Although it is not worded exactly like that, let’s notice how Paul puts it in the book of Romans.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 
Romans 8:6-9 (ESV)

Unlike many “two kinds of people in the world” statements, this one is not depersonalizing. In fact, it is intended to do just the opposite. Paul can make this division between two groups because he is basing it on reality. When God came in human form, he chose all of humanity. All people were created to belong to Christ and have abundant life in him.

But not everyone believes that or wants it yet. However, there is no other option left for us. We either live by the truth of who we were created to be, or we choose to live a lie, which amounts to no life at all. So, Paul is encouraging us to embrace the life we have in Christ and live it out. That is a personalizing life. That is a meaningful life that carries forward into eternity.

Paul reminds us that no matter how many kinds of people there are, there is no life outside our life in Christ, who is continuing to pursue, draw, and embrace all of humanity to himself. Embrace the one who has embraced you.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 130 • Ezekiel 37:1-14 • Romans 8:6-11 • John 11:1-45

This week’s theme is living into life. The call to worship Psalm is an individual’s prayer offered in hope that the Lord will save him from trouble on account of the Lord’s steadfast love. The Old Testament reading from Ezekiel offers a vision of dry bones coming to life as a prophecy to Israel that they will be delivered from the death of exile to live again in their own homeland. Romans records Paul’s comparison of life in the Spirit with death in the flesh. In the Gospel reading from John, Jesus raises Lazarus to life after being dead four days.

A Mindset of Life and Death

Romans 8:6-11 (ESV)

We are now five Sundays into Easter Preparation (referred to as Lent in many Christian denominations). We have a text before us that may serve well in guarding us from making some common mistakes when it comes to this season on the Christian calendar. During this season we seek to align our lives with the reality we have come to know in Jesus Christ our Lord. This alignment leads us to make changes, repenting of things in our life that do not fit the revelation of who Jesus is, and who we are in him. When we see who we are in Christ, we no longer want to live as if we are living apart from Christ. That is a life of contradiction and chaos. We want to live in our true identity as those in whom Christ lives.

But here is a common misstep that can take place during this process. Our focus can turn from Christ and get fixated on our sins. If we are not careful, we can become preoccupied with our individual sins where our actions and inactions blind us to the larger issue. The larger issue that our text will focus on is our mindset. The point of the Easter Preparation season is not to make a list of every little sin that we struggle with and then commit to overcoming those sins. That can quickly become a list of dos and don’ts that serve as a scorecard of our righteousness. Our focus is diverted from Christ and onto our actions.

 

Here is an analogy that hopefully is not too oversimplified. Let’s say you are trying to eat healthier. In this analogy, chocolate cake may represent the sin you most easily fall prey to. If you spend all day thinking of chocolate cake and how you need to avoid eating it, guess what’s going to happen. You are probably at some point going to eat chocolate cake. Why, because it’s what you have been thinking of all day. Your mind is set on chocolate cake, not eating healthier. If you are focused on eating more vegetables, getting exercise, and so forth, then you will not be tempted by chocolate cake unless it is put under your nose. You’re not even thinking about it. The point of the analogy is that it’s the mindset that is more important than making a list of sins to avoid. And that is what we will see in our text today. So, let’s dive in.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6 ESV)

Right out of the gate we are given what is important during this season. Our mindset. Or more precisely, what our mind is set on. Paul will give us a comparison to make his point. He contrasts a mind that is set on the “flesh” with that of a mind that is set on the “Spirit.” And Paul is clear that this contrast is a matter of life and death. A mindset on the flesh is death. A mindset on the Spirit is life.

More than that, a mindset on the Spirit is also peace. Not only does the Spirit bring us into life, but this life is a life of peace. And peace biblically understood, is living in relationship with the good of the other in mind. It doesn’t just mean there is no fighting. The peace of the Spirit is an active peace, seeking and working for the wellbeing of the other. This kind of peace in a broken world may actually amount to “fighting” at times. Like Jesus telling Peter to “get behind me Satan.” Those are some serious fighting words. Peter was going down a dangerous path resisting what Jesus was sent to do. So, Jesus “fights” for Peter, to set him back on the right path. So, a mindset on the Spirit cannot be spiritualized away as if we are talking about some ephemeral realm outside the body. Peace will mean living in this present world with a mindset that seeks to be a blessing to others. It’s a mindset that does not want any harm to come to another even if it means harm to one’s own self. That’s the kind of peaceful living we see in Jesus Christ.

And to avoid confusion, let’s be clear. Paul is not saying that there are two competing parts to being a human. (The pagan Greek philosophy of “dualism” taught the mind and body were two distinct and separable entities.) He is not saying our bodies are bad and we just need to be “spiritual.” That would not stand to the fact that Jesus Christ assumed a human body, was raised in the flesh, and will return in the flesh. This come into sharper focus in the next couple of verses where Paul first deals with the mind that is set on the flesh.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8 ESV)

It’s important to understand that when Paul contrasts the terms “flesh” and “Spirit” he is making a contrast between two “ways of life.” He is not talking about the body as if our material flesh is in some way evil or sinful on its own. No, God created us with bodies, and he blessed it and said it is good. Again, for Paul, the “flesh” is a mindset, a way of living, one that is shaped and controlled by the ways of the world, which stands in opposition and outright rebellion against God. So, Paul is also not referring to a list of bad behaviors, but a mindset that wants nothing to do with Christ. This type of orientation is a focus on death because it is not focused on the author of life. It is a mindset that will lead to nothing. Paul is so bold to say that this mindset, this way of life, is not even capable of pleasing God. It’s worse than just making some bad decisions, it is a form of slavery, an inability to live according to who we are created to be.

Those strong statements may lead us down to another misstep that can occur during the season of Easter Preparation if we are not careful. We may be tempted to look around and try to determine who has the Holy Spirit and who does not. We may even begin to wonder if we have the Spirit. We will need to move to the next couple of verses to avoid that pitfall.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:9 ESV)

Now Paul is going to move to the other mindset. And it is important to remember that he is writing to believers. So, he is trying to encourage them to live out the reality of who they are. He begins by confirming who they are as those who are first, “not in the flesh,” and then second, “in the Spirit.” If we ever begin to wonder whether we are in the Spirit, let Paul’s words here remind you that you are. In fact, if you ever are concerned about not being in the Spirit, it is only because the Spirit is nudging you to live into the fact that you are. If you weren’t in the Spirit, it wouldn’t even cross your mind. Remember, for Paul, living in the Spirit is a mindset. In this case, the mind is turned to the reality of living in Christ.

If you ever get discouraged over a sin in your life and begin to doubt that you have the Spirit, or fear that you don’t belong to Christ, remember that if you did not belong to Christ, you would never be discouraged or disappointed that you have sinned. You wouldn’t care one bit. So, Paul is not trying to beat us down and tell us we need to get with the program and quit sinning. No, he is reminding us of where our focus needs to be, what our minds should be occupied with. And that is Jesus Christ whom we belong to. Focusing on him is the only way we ever overcome any of our sins, because the reality is we don’t overcome our sins, we come over to the one who has overcome them for us. Paul has not turned from grace and now is preaching works. He is trying to turn our eyes and our minds back to Jesus. And that is the whole point of this season. To turn to him again and again, for only in him is there life and peace.

This verse and the two following will also give us three things to remember about living in the Spirit which flows from God’s grace.

First, the Spirit is not something that belongs to us. We do not possess the Spirit like we do an object. The Spirit is “the Spirit of God.” It belongs to him and is a gift to us. The Spirit is a “who” and not a “what.” And it is given to “dwell in you.” Living in the Spirit is living in the relationship we have with the Father through Christ, all by the power of the Spirit. The mindset of the Spirit is to remain and abide in this life-giving communion we are given in Christ. We no longer live as if we are not in relationship with Jesus.

Second, the gift of the Spirit empowers us. Let’s look at the next verse.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10 ESV)

Paul has already established that his hearers are in the Spirit. So, his “if” statement is not set up as a question to see “if” Christ is in them. Rather, he is stating a reality on account of having Christ alive in them. He is letting us know that our body of sin is dead. It has been crucified with Christ and it no longer has any power over us. We are free from the bondage of sin, and free to live a life of righteousness. That righteousness is not our own, but the righteousness given to us in Christ by the power of the Spirit.

This is a staggering new identity that is hard to believe. But, since you are in Christ, you are actually given his righteousness. You don’t have to work up your own righteousness. You can’t get more righteous than you already are in Christ. But, in this life we do need to have our mind set on that reality in order to live it out. We won’t do it perfectly this side of heaven, but we are given hope and assurance that in the end, our lives will perfectly align with who we truly are in Jesus Christ. And that’s the third and final point we see in the last verse for today’s text.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11 ESV)

Third, living in the Spirit today will not be taken away tomorrow.

One thing the season of Easter Preparation will force us to acknowledge is that we still sin. Even as believers we still struggle to live a life of righteousness and peace. The more we walk with the Lord the more we will see our sins and hate them. We are growing to be more like Christ, and anything that does not look like him we will not want to see in ourselves. But we are assured that the Spirit was not given to us to leave us in our sins. He is determined to bring us to resurrected life, the very life Jesus has for us. So, even when we fail today, we have hope for tomorrow. And it is on this ground of hope that we can repent and turn to him once again. He’s not going anywhere, and his grace is always towards us.

Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W4

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March 26 – Fifth Sunday of Easter Prep
Romans 8:6-11, “Spirit of Christ”

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Program Transcript


Wake Up, Sleeper! w/ Marty Folsom W4

Anthony: Well, our final passage of the month is Romans 8:6-11. It’s from the Common English Bible. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the fifth Sunday of Easter Prep (Lent) on March the 26th.

Marty, would you read it for us please?

Marty:

6The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God. But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. 10 If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. 11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.

Anthony: God is triune and other-centered. The Father is for the Son. The Son is for the Spirit. The Spirit’s for the Father. And so, it goes.

And yet this pericope points to how destructive selfishness and self-centeredness is in our walk with God. But Marty, anywhere you look, you see selfishness, selfishness everywhere. Sometimes even in our churches, we’ll see it. So, during this season of preparation for Easter, many Christians see it as a time of a spiritual reflection.

What would you say to us about what is being revealed in this passage?

Marty: So, a couple things about Lent just to throw in here. We often think of Lent as a time to get rid of those things, the selfishness, the attitudes and all that. And so, we focus on getting rid of those things.

I like to think of Lent as like a honeymoon. Now, when people go on a honeymoon, there’s all kinds of things they leave behind, but they don’t think about what they’ve left behind. They think about the one who they get to be with. And the whole nature of that is to have a time of serving, caring, learning to integrate our life with the other, to have this new life that’s in a sense determined by a lifestyle of love.

And so, do you leave things behind? Do you change when you come back because of it? I hope that the time dedicated to loving the other becomes so transformative that there are things that naturally are left behind because they no longer serve the nature of what love looks like in this relationship.

So, if we think of Lent as a season of focus, that prayer and fasting is not a getting rid of. It’s the attentive love of the person of Christ who has come into the world. And the anticipation that the celebration of Easter is going to be the fullness of the covenant life that we are going to be living into, and that we are reminding ourself of who is most important and how that affects us.

Then the nature of destructive selfishness and self-centeredness is already washed away because we’re not focusing on trying to get rid of our self-centeredness, which becomes its own kind of moral failure. If we’re focusing on trying to get rid of something bad in ourself, then we’re focusing on ourself and that is a moral problem because we’re focused on ourselves.

So, the whole idea of the world that we live in is that, as you have said, it is a culture of individualism. Individualism is what everybody’s focused on. How do I be happy in the world? And from that, we want to defend our individual rights. Rights are all about the individual looking out for themself.

If we thought out of responsibility, responsibility is what do I owe others? And if we were always asking, what do I owe to others in love, then we wouldn’t even have to talk about rights because others would also be looking out for us by virtue of what it is that for them to be responsible or loving to us.

But because we focus on rights, then everything becomes about me protecting my way of being. And that just feeds the self-centeredness. We want to own more, consume more. Everything just feeds into this problem of self-focusedness. And so, if we recognize that the nature of the gospel that is being put out here is to recognize all of that stuff just leads to separation from others from God.

And so there is no peace there. The law of God is ultimately the law of love. But if the law is, how do I get more? How do I use the economy, the politics, the whatever, to get more for myself? Then we will be enslaved to that. And so, the language of selfishness and death and slavery and fear is all bound together.

The alternative to that then is that the God who looks at us with love, who comes to us in love, pours his Spirit into us. And so Lent is this openness to the Spirit so that we’ll be open to the life of love. And there is a reprioritizing because the Spirit focuses us on the one who has loved us, what it means to know about the meaning of the cross, that it removes all of that need for making our own way in the world, to see all as gift.

And so, if our season of Lent is to ask the question, how do I more focus the value of who Jesus is? And to say Spirit, if you’re going to show me what it is that’s selfish in myself, show me the flip side even more as the enduring sense of what is that God has given me and continues to give me every day as the gift from which I would live.

And therefore, to say, when we get the gift, then we have the way of gratitude and thankfulness. If we thought of Lent as more about gratitude and thankfulness that the Spirit awakens in us, there would be a sense in really a living according to the will of God. What is the will of God?

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18] That’s Lent.

Anthony: Yeah. It reminds me of what Eugene Peterson said, that Christian discipleship is focusing more and more on Christ’s righteousness and less and less on our own.

Yes. And that’s where you’re flipping Lent on its head. And I think there’s something to that. It’s like Peter keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus walking on water, but as soon as he focused on himself, that’s when he ran into trouble. So, I think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying.

You know, the epistle writer said that if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to Christ. How does someone know if they have the Spirit of Christ? And additionally, does this mean, Marty, non-believers don’t belong to Christ?

Marty: Right. It’s a very interesting passage and it’s very easy to read it wrongly.

So, one of the things about being alive as a human being is that the God that made you, sustained you by his Spirit. So to say, you wouldn’t be alive, were it not for the Spirit sustaining you. The question, do we live as though that is true?

Do human beings generally know that the Spirit of Christ is the one who gives them that which Karl Barth says is the distinctive what it means to be human rather than animal, and that is that we have the Spirit who gives us this connection, this being with the God who has loved us. Do we acknowledge that? Well, obviously much of humanity does not.

So, when we say, how does someone know they have the Spirit of Christ? We never possess the Spirit of Christ. Rather, when we are aligned with or attuned to the reality of the Spirit, our life will look like the fruit of the Spirit. When the Spirit is sustaining our very life and breath and being, we can live in denial of that. And then all of the shadow darkness that we’ve talked about, all that comes into play. The Spirit is still the one who gives us life, but we’re living our life as though that’s not real. So, we can call that living in unreality, living in denial of the Spirit of Christ.

And so, when we go on then and talk about: do they belong to Christ if they’re in that place? To say, we cannot use the word belong in a way that is a possession as though somebody owns something. But to say that we steal ourself, we have stolen ourself from the one who owns us. We are not rejected by the Spirit. We are not rejected by Christ. We have simply stolen ourself and are living a lie that we are separated.

And so, to say that we don’t belong to or that this person doesn’t belong to Christ, is to say the same way a child may say I don’t belong to that family anymore. Well, the fact of the matter is that mother, that father gave them birth and so to say, the reality is that they do belong in the truest physical sense. They are saying, I am choosing not to identify myself as being connected to those people.

And so, they’re rejecting in a sense, something that you would say cannot reject the truest reality of it, though their personal experience through their individual judgment is that they don’t belong. So, the human being who rejects the love of God, who rejects the Spirit at work in them, will live as though the Spirit is not giving them life and breath.

But that is not the deepest reality, though, as JB Torrance would say, that is their experience of it. And therefore, the blessings of what it means to live from the life of love, they will be those who walk in darkness. They will be those who will stumble. They will be those who do not receive the benefits of having been loved, being able to love.

So, the word belonging there has to be seen in a deeper sense. There is nothing that we can do, neither height nor depth, angels nor principalities. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And the Spirit is the one who gives us the very breath and life to bring the work of Christ to us.

And that amazing passage in Romans in 11 where he has condemned all under sin, that he may show mercy to all. That he may show mercy to all means that in the eyes of the God who has given all for all people he will say, this one belongs to me also, even though he doesn’t know all have sinned, all could be judged, but I have shown mercy to all, they all belong to me.

Not all have awakened to that. And so insofar as someone lives as a quote unquote non-believer, they’re living incongruent with reality. They’re not doing the good scientific work of investigating what is really real. Who am I really? What is this God all about who I’ve heard because I’ve heard some crazy things and there are a lot of crazy things people say about what it means to be a Christian and who the Christian God is?

But the Spirit is always at work in awakening us, inviting us, unveiling our eyes, waking us from the sleep so that we will experience the love of God and the truth of what this is saying is the Spirit does live in us and the Spirit has been given to us 100% gift. There’s nothing we could do to earn it, no condition that we could meet that would make the Spirit come to us.

The question of our allowing the reality to shine through instead of hiding in the ways that we think we can manage our world if we maintain a kind of power that deceives us in the same way that Adam and Eve were deceived. And I say the day they ate that apple, it was kind of like going from the absolute delight of a child to becoming a teenager who becomes independent and says, I’m going to do it my way. I don’t care what you have to say. The Adam and Eve move was in a world of independence, that is the problem.

When the Spirit moves, a third thing happens. And that’s what I call the life of interdependence. And that’s what you hope to have with your adult children. You are a person. I am a person. We belong to one another, and we will love each other with the distinctions of who we are, but also recognize that we belong together.

People who are non-believers are those who are still part of the family, but they’re living in their teenage mentality. And there are a lot of 70, 80-year-olds who still live with a teenage mentality. Maybe it’s even childish. I’ll do it myself. And so, are they loved by Christ? Yes. Does the Spirit give them life and breath? Yes. Do they know that that is true? Nope. They’re living in denial of that. So, we can never be held back from saying to any person, I have no doubt that you are loved by God, sustained by his Spirit, whether you know it or not.

I can preach that to you as the gospel because I know the God who is there. Your choices are going to live in the light of that. And whatever you do, you will never be outside of God’s love.

Anthony: Mm. Hallelujah. Praise God. And therefore, we can say, wake up sleeper and experience true reality that you are beloved of God. As I heard Pastor Brian Zahn once say, salvation is best understood as belonging. We belong to God, and you, Marty, belong to God. You are beloved in his sight.

And this is fun. It what a great conversation. It’s such a joy to do this with you. And I hope you’ll come back sometime, and maybe we’ll have you sing one of your songs that I heard you reference earlier in the podcast.

But I also want to take this moment to thank a couple of people who really make this podcast go: Ruel Enerio, who is our producer, and also Elizabeth Mullins, who does the transcription of the podcast. So, you can read what Marty said, word for word.

Marty, thanks for being a part of this. And as is our tradition on Gospel Reverb, we like to end with prayer. So, would you please pray for us, our listening audience?

Marty: I’d be delighted to.

Dear Abba, we do thank you this day that we get to celebrate your life that embraces our life. As we prepare for Lent, we recognize that the goal of Lent is to live within the embrace that you have for us in Jesus. We know that this is a time that we walk with you, a rugged road, a challenging road, but one that has purpose and meaning.

Help us to find our purpose and meaning in the love that you’ve poured out for us. And the grace that isn’t something separate from yourself. It is you looking us eye to eye. Help us to lift our eyes and our hearts to see your gaze into us. To know that we are loved by you and Holy Spirit, you who have been poured out into us.

We pray that as we listen to these gospel words that you would bring them to resonate in our being, that they would cause us to awaken a way that we have never had before, and that Lent would be all lived in the light of the dawning sun of the resurrection. That gives meaning and purpose of what it means to be fully alive.

Help us to live the fully-alive life, embraced by the one who we have on our lips as Abba, or dear Father, to know the companion of Jesus who goes with us, and that you, Holy Spirit, give us life and purpose and meaning and do your work in us. Do that, we pray, now and in this season of preparation. We pray all these things in your name, you who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • What is your favorite “two kinds of people” statements that you have heard?
  • How would you describe the “two kinds of people in the world” from a biblical basis?

From the Sermon

  • Have you ever fallen into the trap of focusing more on your sins than your savior?
  • What are some characteristics of a mindset of the flesh?
  • What are some characteristics of a mindset of the Spirit?
  • The sermon described the biblical understanding of peace to be an “active peace” which sought the well-being of another. How does this understanding inform how we pursue peace with one another today?
  • Discuss these three points brought out in the sermon:
    • The Spirit is not something that belongs to us.
    • The gift of the Spirit empowers us.
    • Living in the Spirit today will not be taken away tomorrow.