GCI Equipper

The Ascension and You

As Jesus approached the cross, he prayed, “So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.” (John 17:5 NRSV)

The ascension of Jesus signaled the successful end of his earthly ministry, the return of his heavenly glory, his exaltation by the Father, the beginning of his new work as high priest and mediator of the new covenant, and it allowed him to prepare a place for us.

The Ascension was not a retirement, it was the beginning of a new job and glorified job description. He had finished his task of dying for the salvation of the world (John 19:30) and began living for believers as our intercessor and advocate. When he ascended to the throne of God and sat at the right hand of the Father, his kingly ministry for us began.

According to T.F. Torrance, four verbs are employed in the New Testament that speak of the ascension of Christ. All four of these words speak of the role of Jesus being the king, priest, and prophet.

  • anabainein, to go up or ascend.
  • kathizein, to sit down.
  • analambanein, to take up.
  • hupsoun, to exalt.

Anabaino – to go up, to ascend – is used in the Old Testament and speaks of the ascent of Moses of Mount Sinai, when he ascends to speak to the Lord. It was also used when referring to the high priest going into the holy of holies. Additionally, it was used when referring to the offering of sacrifices. When used to describe Christ’s ascension, it speaks to the ascent of the king to his enthronement as the king of glory; to the ascent to the temple or the presence of God for priestly service, and of the ascent of God as the whole burnt offering – or prayer.

In these ways the term ascension is essentially concerned with the royal priesthood of the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ, a priesthood exercised from the right hand of divine power. (Atonement, p. 267)

Kathizo – to sit – reminds us of the mercy seat in the heart of the holy of holies. The priests were not to sit, but our great high priest sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) Here he rules as the messianic king who dispenses divine mercy and peace.

Analambano – to take up – refers to the lifting up of our hearts in prayer. It’s only use in the New Testament is in Luke 9:51, where it is often translated “receiving up,” and refers to the death of our Lord. Torrance says the indication here is that the ascension of Christ began with his being lifted up on the cross.

Hupsoo – to lift up – refers to Jesus’ exaltation from humiliation to glory. Again, this points to a connection between the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. The exalted one is no longer bound by human restraints and self-limitations, but is clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Note, that Jesus tells the disciples that we will be clothed in the same way.

Questions for reflection:

  • How does the idea of Jesus being the “whole burnt offering” change your view of your relationship to God?
  • What does it mean that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice? (Hebrews 9:23-10:18)
  • What does it mean for you and me that Jesus is sitting on the seat of mercy?
  • In what ways do you see a connection between the ascension and the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord?

Torrance sums it up like this:

The ascension of Christ in this sense is his exaltation to glory and power but through the cross, certainly an exaltation from humiliation to royal majesty, but through crucifixion and sacrifice. For the power and glory of the royal priest is bound up with his self-sacrifice in death and resurrection. (Atonement, p. 270)

David prophesied about the exaltation of Christ in his messianic psalm, saying, “The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1)

The ascension was the beginning of a new ministry for our Lord. He finished the task of dying for the world and offered salvation to all who believe. He now lives as our intercessor and advocate – our high priest. The ascension has a powerful impact on the life of all believers. Here are just a few things the ascension brought for us.

  • The blessing of a mediator, advocate, Savior, and friend who sits at the right hand of the Father – (1 Timothy 2, Hebrews 4, 1 John 2, John 15).
  • The sending of the Holy Spirit – we will celebrate this at Pentecost and live in this reality year-round – (Acts 2, John 14-17, 1 Corinthians 6).
  • The giving of spiritual gifts – as he sits on the mercy seat, he imparts gifts to us through the Holy Spirit – (Ephesians 4, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12).
  • The indwelling of the Holy Spirit and imparting us with spiritual power – (Luke 24, Ephesians 1, Romans 12)
  • The preparation of our heavenly home – he reminded us that the Father has many rooms – (John 14:3).
  • The promise of salvation, justification, sanctification – (Ephesians 2, Romans 8).

As we look forward to Pentecost, I encourage you to reflect on these blessings of the Ascension. They give us cause for praise, and they point to our participating with Jesus in his work of bringing many sons and daughters to glory. Focusing on the Ascension enables us to better celebrate Pentecost and look forward to the season of Ordinary Time.

Rick Shallenberger
Editor

“Homeless No More”

Pentecost reminds us of our true identity as the children of God and brought us into a new community as the body of Christ.

By Bill Hall, National Director, Canada

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Saskatchewan Homelessness Conference. For two days I listened to presenters talking about the causes of homelessness and what is being done to address the plague of homelessness.

I was again reminded that homelessness is the symptom of many issues. That any one of us could find ourselves in the same situation given our life circumstance. Or as one speaker said, “When life life’s us.” Many times, addictions cause homelessness. Yet, there is always something behind those addictions. People don’t just wake up some morning and say, “Hey, I want to be addicted to drugs or alcohol.” Their addictions are a way of coping with the times when “Life life’s us.”

But what are some of the solutions? Time, and time again, I heard the mantra of reclaiming one’s “identity” and the importance of “community.” In a first nation’s context, this means trying to keep people in their smaller isolated communities, instead of having them become lost in a larger urban centre, away from their family support systems.

During that conference I heard the terms of “identity” and “community” in relation to those who find themselves homeless, but these are things all humans deal with.

For those of us who are versed in God’s written word, the theme of identity and community fill the pages of the Old Testament, starting with the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Before “the fall,” Adam and Eve had a firm identity as the children of God, and community referred to humankind in relationship with the God who created them.

When they rejected that community or relationship, they also lost sight of their identity. Instead, they sought a different identity and community of their own making.
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Symbols of Pentecost

The Holy Spirit came as wind and fire, symbols that help us focus on God. Included in this article is a spiritual practice using one of these symbols.

By Justine Paolo G. Parcasio, Associate Pastor, Philippines

Pentecost is part of the Christian Worship (Liturgical) Calendar. This year, it is celebrated on May 28, 2023, and is a celebration that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter, which is 50 days after Easter Sunday. The name “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word pentekoste, which means “fiftieth.”

The celebration of Pentecost can also commemorate the birth of the church, as it was the day when the disciples followed Jesus’ instruction and gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us of this remarkable event in Acts 2.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:1-4 ESV)

From this great outpouring, the believers were empowered to go out of the upper room and be witnesses of Jesus. It is interesting that churches find different liturgical ways to commemorate Pentecost, including the use of symbols. In the early days of the church and today, symbols play a big part in helping Christians to teach, preach, and to create a more meaningful celebration. God often uses symbols like those we read about in the above passage, to bring our attention back to him. The symbols give us new ways to think about God. There are several objects from the day of Pentecost that often symbolize the Holy Spirit.

Mighty rushing wind

In a conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8 ESV). Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as like a wind. The symbol of wind can remind us of the movement and the power of the Holy Spirit, we may not see him, but we know that he is working and that we can experience him.

When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we also speak about the breath of God, breathing in us. Jesus breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. The Greek word for “spirit” is pneuma, which means “breath.”

Tongues of fire

Fire is another symbol that remind us of the Holy Spirit. Not only that God made himself evident through “tongues of fire” on the day of Pentecost, but we are also reminded of God as the “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29 ESV). The fire that appeared and rested on each of the believers symbolized the Holy Spirit that empowers many. The Holy Spirit spreads like a fire, covering all believers.

Dove

Though a dove is not specifically mentioned in Acts, all four gospel writers refer to the Holy Spirit coming as a dove. Doves remind us of new beginnings – recall Noah sent a dove from the ark to find new life. Doves also represent peace, reconciliation, and unity. Many churches will include an image of a dove in their worship service.

As we celebrate Pentecost, let us take this opportunity to teach, preach, and make the celebration meaningful by thinking of creative practices our local churches can use in our worship services. One of which is the use of liturgical symbolisms. Some churches would use these symbols to decorate their worship halls. Some churches would have their team use red as a theme color. Red symbolizes the Holy Spirit’s fire.

The spiritual practice of breath prayer

There is an ancient spiritual practice called “Breath Prayer.” This spiritual practice can be used to position ourselves to focus on the wind/breath of the Holy Spirit in us. Here is a simple prayer guide that we can use:

  • Find your comfortable position, sit back, and relax.
  • Close your eyes.
  • Start breathing in (inhale) and breathing out (exhale) for a few times.
  • As you are in the rhythm of breathing, you might integrate these phrases:
    • “Breathe on me, Holy Spirit” (Inhale)
    • “Holy Spirit, Breathe on Me” (exhale)
  • Continue for as long as feels comfortable and meaningful for you.
  • End your breath prayer with thanksgiving to the Lord.

You may want to choose other phrases that feel prayerful to you. Most breath prayers are six to eight syllables and fit easily into one inhale and exhale.

This spiritual practice is just one of many forms of prayer that we can do that reminds us of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the breath of life.

Have a Spirit-filled celebration of Pentecost.

The Gift of “Gotchas”

The importance of debriefing after a Love Avenue event.

By Ceeja Malmkar, Love Avenue Champion, Grace Communion Surrey Hills, OK

I’ve enjoyed event planning for as long as I can remember. As Jesus drew me back into church and ministry, that passion never changed. In fact, it opened a whole new world of ministry for all of us in a little church in Oklahoma.

As a Pioneer/Connecter, I love to bring people together, and I love to think outside the box. I have been blessed with an amazing Love Avenue team who are diverse, unique, and full of passion. What started as a neighborhood camp and a water balloon battle has flourished into six big events we plan throughout the year (one every other month). I cannot begin to explain how wonderful it has been to have found a healthy rhythm of events/outreaches that work in our target neighborhood. Once we found the events that worked, we were able to continue to build on them and make them better each year. We do this through our tradition of debriefing after each event.

There’s a common understanding that once you do something, it’s always easier the next time you do it. While this may be true as we become more comfortable and confident in our ability to actually execute a repeat event, it does not mean the event will automatically grow in quality or attendance.

Chances are, you have heard some form of the saying “Those who cannot remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.” This is why debriefing after any outreach, mission, or event is vital. I’m 38 years old, and my husband likes to say that I have a “steel trap” when it comes to memory. While his confidence in my brain power is flattering, I can’t remember what I did last week most of the time. I have learned that this is true for most people, regardless of age. I live my life always utilizing a planner and lots of notes.

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Church Hack: Planning & Budgeting

This month’s Church Hack demonstrates the importance of developing an annual church calendar and budget to ensure that the congregation’s resources, time, and money are being invested in alignment with the church’s mission and values.

Follow this link to read the full Church Hack:

2023-CH4-Planning-Budgeting.pdf (gci.org)

Process of Development: Engage

By Cara Garrity, Development Coordinator

As previously mentioned, the 4 Es – engage, equip, empower, encourage – provide an intentional process to guide the development of the priesthood of all believers for participation in Jesus’ ministry.

So where do we start? Engage is the first of the 4 Es for a reason. The process of development begins where all good things begin – in relationship. Engage is all about relationship. Through purposeful engagement with one another, we grow in Christ-centered relationships and community. It is within such relationships that we begin to recognize what God is doing in the life of another. We see that God has given one person a gift of teaching, another with hospitality, and another still with a missional mindset. We see that the Spirit is urging one person to volunteer with the youth ministry, another to pass the baton to facilitate the connect group they started, and another still to build friendships with their neighbors.

When we first recognize in relationship what God is up to in the life of another, we can recruit for ministry participation in a more meaningful way. We are more likely to recruit team members, volunteers, mentees, and new leaders who are gifted for an area of ministry rather than recruiting simply out of need. This honors the body of Christ that is made up of many parts.

The Spheres of Participation tool is designed to provoke thought about who we engage in the church community and how. If we believe in a priesthood of all believers, then development for ministry participation is meant for the whole community. It is not reserved only for those who aspire to leadership, have ministry experience, have served for years, or have been long-time members.

Church leaders, I encourage you and your leadership team to use the Spheres of Participation tool to discern what engagement can look like in your church. Consider questions such as:

  • What would it look like for everyone in the local church community to be engaged?
  • How can we foster recruitment in the context of recognition in relationship?
  • What impact would this have?
  • What shifts would current leaders have to make to achieve this?
  • How can you discern with your volunteers and leaders whether their current area of ministry participation is a “good fit”?
  • How will new members of the church community be engaged and invited into meaningful ministry participation?

They ARE the Church

The “church” includes all – Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, children, teens, and adults.

At the end of this month, we will celebrate Pentecost, the day the church was born. Luke describes the event in Acts 2:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. (Acts 21-6 NIV)

Amazing! What a miraculous way for the church to begin! What a vivid image! For a moment, I want you to try to imagine the scene. As you replay this miraculous event in your mind, are children and youth part of your mental movie? If you are anything like me, for most of my life, the answer was no. When I thought about the church, I had adults in mind. Maybe children could grow up to be members of the church someday.

 

Sadly, I had this flawed view throughout the 10 or so years I served as a youth minister. It was not until I was a new pastor that the Spirit led me to repent. I was shepherding the GCI congregation in Waltham, MA, and we were overhauling the children and youth ministry. We had ministers, parents, and young people gathered together to talk about the best way for us to disciple our youth. The young people were doing most of the talking, and the adults were listening and asking questions. One of the things that struck me was the extent to which the young people wanted us to create spaces where they could invite their friends. In other words, the youth wanted the adults to help them evangelize their friends in a relational way. Amazing! Many adult Christians struggle to understand mission, yet those young people intuitively understood it. It was then that I began to understand that our young people are not becoming the church; they ARE the church.

I believe “the church” is the collective term for those who, by the Spirit, know and worship Christ, bear witness to the present reality of the kingdom in words and demonstrations, and participate in Christ’s work to reconcile all relationships to the glory of the Father. I ask you to read this definition slowly — phrase by phrase. Now, think about the extent to which you are equipping your young people to be active members of the church now. Teaching about God and the stories of the Bible are good things for us to do, however, knowledge is only useful if it can be used to fulfill the purpose of the church. And it is never too early to start helping children be the church.

In Waltham, I learned that we had to restructure the way we approached discipleship if we wanted to treat children and youth as valuable members of the church. This article may cause you to reach the same conclusion. Unfortunately, I cannot give you three easy steps to get started. Every situation is unique. However, I can tell you a couple of things that helped me.

First, I used the definition of the church to guide a prayerful study of how Jesus equipped his disciples and how the emerging church “lived out” Christ’s teaching. Second, I talked to my young people and asked them how they wanted to be spiritually formed. What came next was not perfect, just like what we did to disciple adults was not perfect. Yet, it was a big step forward because our young people saw that they were valued.

As we celebrate Pentecost, let us change our mental movie to include the younger members of the church. They, too, are included.

Dishon Mills
Generations Ministry Coordinator

Gospel Reverb – The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets

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Welcome to the latest episode of Gospel Reverb. Your host, Anthony Mullins, is joined by our guest, Dr. Myk Habets. Myk is the Head of Theology at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand, and is the author of several books including The Spirit of Truth: Reading Scripture and Constructing Theology with the Holy Spirit, Trinitarian Theology After Barth, and Reconsidering Gender: Evangelical Perspectives. He also serves in pastoral ministry at Albany Baptist Church, alongside his wife, Odele, who is the senior pastor.

June 4 – Trinity Sunday
Matthew 28:16-20, “The Way of the Triune God”

June 11 — Proper 5 of Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26, “Man, Interrupted”

June 18 — Proper 6 of Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:35-38; Matthew 10:1-8, “Workers Wanted”

June 25 — Proper 7 of Ordinary Time
Matthew 10:24-39, “Like the Master”


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Program Transcript


The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets

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 Mullins, and it brings me joy to welcome our guest, Dr. Myk Habets. Myk is the head of theology at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand. Don’t we all want to go there?

And he’s the author of several books including The Spirit of Truth: Reading Scripture and Constructing Theology with the Holy Spirit, Trinitarian Theology After Barth, and Reconsidering Gender: Evangelical Perspectives. He also serves in pastoral ministry, alongside his wife and senior pastor, at Albany Baptist Church.

Myk, thank you for being with us. Welcome to the podcast, and since this is your first time joining us, we’d love to get to know you. Tell us a little bit about your story and how you’re participating with the Lord these days.

[00:01:31] Myk: Thanks. Thanks for that introduction. Thanks for the welcome onto the podcast. And feel free to cut me off at any point you need to. Sometimes when we tell our own stories, we could just go on and on.

But yeah, I’m head of theology at Laidlaw College, which is an Evangelical Interdenominational College here in Auckland, New Zealand. We have about 1000 students and about 700 of those are in theology, and the others are doing counseling and education. I’m a professor of theology, so systematic theology is what I teach and what I love. And I’ve been doing that for about 20 years.

And love it. I love teaching Christians. I love the fact that we’re able to open Scripture, the tradition, wrestle with reason and experience within context and then just bring people to a deeper understanding of the faith—faith seeking understanding, and that old quip that we use quite a lot, digging wells which go deep rather just wide and shallow is really what we’re about.

And so, I spend most of my time around Christians and Christian community when I’m not at work. I’m an associate pastor of Albany Baptist Church, as you said, where my wife is the senior pastor. We’re a small Baptist church—small but desperate to grow. So doing lots of missional and community work in our area, which is on the North Shore of Auckland, which is a wealthier part of the town. And of course, with wealth, the gospel doesn’t typically flourish. People don’t think they need Jesus or salvation, but we are now getting a lot of immigrants into New Zealand and so they’re coming and quite receptive, quite open to the gospel. So, there’s a mission field right on our doorstep, and that’s waking up some of our secular New Zealanders.

New Zealand where I work and live is one of the most secular countries in the world. So very different from parts of America, very different from other parts of the world, which show their religion publicly. Here you’re not persecuted for your Christianity or having religious views, but it is very odd. It’s very unusual to be religious and to have convictions, which makes it really post-Christian, post-secular, very post-modern, post everything, which creates challenges, but also those challenges are opportunities to go back to basics. And the gospel still speaks to people today. And so that’s encouraging in and of itself.

And my story as I came to faith as a young guy, my mother was converted by a lady in our community who desperately wanted to be a missionary to India, but her husband didn’t. He wanted to stay here, so she became a missionary to the people in her neighborhood. Through her, God converted a number of the wives who then converted their children. I was one of them. And the rest is history really.

I grew up in church youth group leadership, had some good mentors who pointed me in the right direction through a bit of a circuitous route. I investigated pastoral ministry, but I don’t have the real gifting or temperament for pastoral.

I looked into mission, but I don’t have a particular gift in evangelism. And so, teaching came a bit later for me, but when it did, it was an obvious thing where I’m gifted, where I’m passionate. And yeah, been doing that for the last 20 years.

And then writing books, so research and publishing, so perhaps 20, 30 books now. Many edited where I invite friends to contribute to things I think are important in the church needs to be thinking and talking about. So that’s a real privilege as well to have a wider international audience, through books, through conferences and meeting people like yourselves somehow online and been able to do podcasts, and that’s what’s brought me here today.

[00:05:43] Anthony: Amen and amen. We’re so glad that you said yes, and we ask God to have his way by his Spirit in Auckland as you continue to minister the gospel to those who are thirsty for living waters. May he have his way!

Let’s get on to the lectionary passages that we’ll be discussing for this month. We have four.

Matthew 28:16-20                                                    “The Way of the Triune God”

Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26                                              “Man, Interrupted”

Matthew 9:35 – 10:8                                                “Workers Wanted”

Matthew 10:24-39                                                    “Like the Master”

Let me read the first pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 28:16-20. It’s from the New Revised Standard Version, and it’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Trinity Sunday, which falls on June 4.

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Myk, this passage is going to fall on Trinity Sunday in the Lectionary cycle. And as sometimes our understanding of the Trinity is askew, it’s reduced often to unhelpful metaphors or seen, even worse, as a mathematical conundrum. So, let’s flip the script.

How is the Trinity so much more, and what would you have us to know about the way of the triune God revealed in this pericope?

[00:07:42] Myk: Thanks, Anthony. Yeah. Where do we start and where do we finish? Contemporary Christians have to be reminded (or probably now instructed, I think) that the church did not invent the doctrine of the Trinity around the year 300 AD or something like that, which some people have purported.

The early Christians, the first Christians right from the disciples, at least midway through Jesus’ ministry, were invited by Jesus to worship Yahweh as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as they watch Jesus, as they live with Jesus, as they walk and talk with Jesus, they start to see him do things, say things, act in particular ways, which resembles Yahweh.

And I love that text halfway through his ministry, they see him praying—Jesus praying. He did it often. And they nudge each other. I think we read in between the texts, they nudge each other. You ask him; I don’t want to ask him. You ask him, I’ll feel silly. So, someone asks him. Lord, teach us how to pray.

And it’s ridiculous really, that a Jew, a faithful Jew, would be asking someone how to pray because they’ve had several thousand years of being taught how to pray. They know how to pray. So, it’s not really a technique question; it’s not a “how” question that they’re asking. It’s really a “who to” question.

We pray to God; we pray to Yahweh. Behold, the Lord your God. The Lord is one. We do that every day and often, but you look like God. You talk like God. You act like God. Are you Yahweh? And Jesus answered them, I think, in the first two words of that Lord’s prayer, our Father.

And I’m sure they had a theological conference because I’m a theologian. Of course, they did. And they withdrew, said he wants us to pray, “our Father,” but he’s not our Father. He’s the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the exclusive son of the Father. And so, what’s he asking us to do? And I think in the “our Father,” they get the gospel of the triune God. He is only the Father of the Son.

Unless we are the son, he’s not our Father. And that would be blasphemy that we are the son of God. Or the next best thing, unless we are united to the Son, unless we are in the Son. And therein is the gospel, as Christ sends the Spirit who unites us to Christ. And Christ brings us before the Father. We acknowledge and we worship that Yahweh is indeed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And here in this text, Matthew 28, the famous commission, the Great Commission, go make disciples. Don’t just make converts, whatever that might translate to. Don’t just get notches in your belt. Don’t just share a brief message and walk on, but make disciples, make people who will follow the living God.

And as you do baptize them, that sacramental, that means of grace, that ceremony, baptize them into “the name” (singular) Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the one God who is three persons. And from there, I think the Trinity becomes the ground and grammar of our theology, of our Christian lives, of all that we do.

And surprisingly, I think, for some today, the Trinity is one of the most practical doctrines, if not the most practical doctrine we have. It’s not a set of esoteric teachings that are reserved for theologians or students who want to pay lots of money to go to a classroom. It’s actually incredibly practical.

The fact that God is personal, that God defines what it means to be a person. Those three persons, one being in mutual relationship with one another in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son who is of the same substance as the Father, who becomes human without ceasing to be. God shows us that the image of God is actually the image of Christ—one who is rightly related to God, to the world, to creation, and to himself.

And the Trinity teaches us that God is personal, that God is absolute, that God is relational, that God is love. And we could unpack each of those four things and many others. We worship a God who is not static. We worship a God who is not removed.

We worship a God who was dynamic in his very being, who was love, who before the creation of the world was already involved in loving relationship. He didn’t need the world to love, he didn’t need creatures to love. He’s not that kind of a being. In some ways, he is not a being at all really. He is a completely different thing. He is God. He is the self-existing triune one.

And I think in that dynamic trinitarianism and that utterly relational triunity, that again becomes the ground, the grammar of all that we do, all that we say, all that we are. And then we start reading scripture, like this passage but so many others, in that Trinitarian key: if there is one God who is Father, Son, Spirit, then was God in the creation narrative the triune God?

And again, we see the Father, and I think we’re supposed to read that as the Father speaks; the Word, the dabar, the logos, the Son goes forth; the Spirit hovers over the waters of chaos. As St. Basil said in the early church, there seems to be a pattern, the Father, if you like, purposing or directing; the Son achieving, accomplishing; the Spirit perfecting.

And we see that pattern throughout almost every story and scripture, either explicitly or implicitly. We come into the New Testament, and it just becomes so clear. How creation came into existence is how our spiritual rebirth comes into existence. As the Father sends the Son, as the Son sends the Spirit, as the Spirit draws, convicts, convinces, unites us to Christ, as Christ brings us back into the presence of the Father.

So, we can now pray “our Father,” and then we go back out into the world in this work of participating in Christ’s mission to do Matthew 20, to teach others to make disciples, to start the birth of the church communities of the body of Christ that are worshiping in spirit and in truth.

And so I think this is one of these fantastic texts, one of these great texts—not just about evangelism (although it is about that), not just about the church and building it (it is about that), but it’s about those things because it’s first about who God is: the God of love, the God of grace, the God of glory, who is Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

And that gives us a message that gives us an impetus, a compulsion to share that love with others. And we call that mission. So, we could go on and on, but those are some of my opening thoughts about that text.

[00:14:59] Anthony: In other words, the way that we often view the Trinity is just a reductionist view. You’re saying, ultimately the ground and grammar of theology are a way of understanding not only God, but the entirety of the world, is fantastical because of who he is and what he’s accomplished in his Son.

You talked about the rest of this passage, about how he tells us to go and make disciples. But before he does that, because of the beauty, the dynamic nature of this triune God, he gives us indicatives of grace first and surrounds all the imperatives he gives us, in his grace.

So, what would you want us to know about the imperative here that’s often referred to as the Great Commission?

[00:15:45] Myk: Yeah, I’ve been reflecting on that. I don’t have anything unique to say other than the fact that I am struck always when I attend a baptism today, as to how unusual this is, whether it’s as infants or as adults.

I’m a Baptist, so it’s mostly adult believers’ baptisms, I attend. But’s an enacted parable. It’s a sacramental act and means of grace whereby we are cleansed of our sin. We are united to Christ. We testify to the reality of faith in our lives. We rise from the baptismal grave into Christ’s new life in anticipation of the resurrection.

As the end of days comes closer, let us not be found lacking in evangelism. So, I’m just struck by the unusualness in our world of this deeply Christian act, and it just reminds me that physically, when we baptize people or are baptized, we are physically entering into the strange new world of the Bible.

As Barth said a long time ago, this alternate universe. This everywhere—what is it? Everywhere, always, all at once! What is the movie? You could almost be describing the Christian worldview really: the already, the not yet; the king is close, the kingdom is near, all this type of teaching.

And I think baptism is a microcosm of that. So, the imperatives here and the indicatives, we must go. Why do we go? Not because we have to, not because it’s some external law. We must. In the sense that, how can we not share the euangelion, the good news? How can we not want to baptize? How can we not want to replicate and reproduce?

This is what Christians have been doing since day one. This is what Jesus does. He could have stayed, as we read in the New Testament, Colossians and Philippians, without considering deity a thing to be exploited. He offered himself, he humbled himself. He humiliated himself. He became a servant for us and for our salvation to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And then God exalts him. He didn’t have to do that. We don’t have to do anything, I guess, but again, we default back to, but who is the God who loves and saves? It’s the triune Lord of grace and glory. Who are we as Christians? We are those who are becoming like the one we worship. And so, the indicatives and the imperatives here are connected.

I am told to go because I really do want to, and I want to go because I’m told. And there’s a circularity about faith and works. I think that Christians somehow get we are rewarded for doing what Christ does in us and through us, like children where we reward them with their own gifts in order to gift them back to us.

And it just seems to make sense.

[00:18:51] Anthony: Yes. All right, so let’s transition to our next pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 5 in Ordinary Time, which falls on June 11. Myk, would you do the honors of reading it for us please?

[00:19:11] Myk: Yeah, thanks.

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread through all of that district.

[00:20:50] Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God. It’s been said, Myk, that if Jesus didn’t eat with sinners, he would’ve always dined alone. So, what should we make of the God revealed in Jesus, that he would so openly feast with notorious crooks?

[00:21:06] Myk: You wouldn’t write a sanitized version of the life of a great Savior or a God and have them hanging out with shady characters like this.

If you were making it up, if this was a fabrication, if this was some story that was mythological, these episodes wouldn’t be in sacred Scripture. There’d be nothing there would even remotely tarnish the reputation of the holy figure or the God that we’re talking about. And yet for us and as Christians, if these texts weren’t there, I wonder how many of us would still believe.

I certainly appreciate the fact that Jesus is a real character. He’s a real character who relates with real people in a fallen world. That historical particularity of walking through first century Israel and encountering people he loves, the Israelites, people he weeps over, but he doesn’t shun them. He reaches out to them, and in this story, he lets them reach out to him.

That’s a scandal, that an unclean woman would touch him, actually defiling him and making him unclean. And yet here the opposite happens. She reaches out the unclean one and the clean one, Jesus, heals her and sanctifies her, and sets her apart and restores her back to community. This is precisely why I like Jesus. This helps my faith.

Quite frankly, if this type of realism was not in Scripture, I think I might doubt his real existence, or he certainly wouldn’t be relatable. He wouldn’t be our sympathetic high priest. Our fellow human, homoousion, as the church says, of the same substance, as much as us as he is God.

I’m a sinner. This text tells me I’m not beyond the reach of a holy God. I’m not beyond the reach of a pure Jesus Christ. That even in my sin, even in my shame, even in my fallenness, I’m not beyond the reach of an all-holy God who has left heaven, who has descended to the earth, who took the form of a servant in order to redeem and glorify me.

And so the fact that these people entering the house of the dead, being touched by an unclean woman, dining with Pharisees and calling tax collectors as followers, asking little people who climbed trees because they were too arrogant to see him on their own terms and dining in his house with people and sinners—his is what Christ invites himself to do in our world as well. Maybe not physically, but nonetheless real.

And so, I love stories in church, I love testimonies in church, not necessarily of people’s conversions—I’m happy to hear about people’s Sunday school and childhood experiences over coffee one-on-one—but in church, what I really appreciate is those powerful stories: how I came to Christ, but more importantly, how I remain in Christ because we don’t stop sinning, sadly, once we become Christians.

And I think today, particularly with the mental health challenges we have, with the high levels of anxiety and depression because of what’s going on in the world (certainly here in New Zealand, we have really high rates of mental illness amongst young people), what they really need to hear is these types of stories. You are not beyond the reach of a holy God who will accept, redeem, heal, and restore. And so, for me, these are the stories that need to be there, as well as the mountaintop ones. If that makes sense.

[00:25:10] Anthony: It does. Amen. If we were writing the gospel story, the narrative, we wouldn’t write it like this, would we?

This is not the kind of God we would’ve come up with, but thanks be to God, this is the God we have revealed in Jesus Christ.

[00:25:23] Myk: We prefer the strong stuff, the powerful stuff. We’d probably paint him as a muscley, six foot six. We just buy into all the worldly tropes of power.

Jesus just demolishes all that and says, no, that’s just a social construct. Real power is the ability to stoop down low and relate to people where they’re at and then lift them up. That’s real power, and I need reminding of that every day.

[00:25:51] Anthony: And thanks be to God that the Son of man has been lifted up and is drawing all people to himself.

And once again, in this passage, Myk, we see that our Lord is interrupted. It happens constantly. So, if you are preaching verses 18 – 26 to your congregation, what would you preach about these ongoing interruptions and the fact that Jesus, our Lord, is willing to submit to the situation?

[00:26:17] Myk: Yeah. I’m the personality type that is very task focused. I have lists and I have to-dos, and I pride myself on getting through those and rewarding myself when things are ticked off. And when people interrupt those plans and when other stuff comes along, my first reaction, I have to confess, is how this is going to put my whole day out. This is not helping my productivity or my efficiency whatsoever.

[00:26:46] Anthony: Yes, we should hang out a lot, Myk. We’re wired the same.

[00:26:50] Myk: Yeah, that’s right. And Jesus has got more important work to do than I have, and yet he keeps getting interrupted, and he seems to welcome it.

He just goes with the flow, and it is incredibly intentional. And so how would I preach this? I’d start with a story of my own testimony, like I just did, saying how annoying, how frustrating! There’s a time and place for everything you get in line take a ticket wait your turn.

And yet for Jesus divine interruptions are the norm, not the exception. We should expect God to bring people and events into our lives, not to interrupt our real work, but actually this is our real work because people are not a means to an end. They are the end, and Jesus knew that, and we need to learn that. So, I’d probably talk about that.

And then second, Jesus shows his absolute sovereignty. All creation was made by him and for him. And here we see a glimpse of that reality through those healings. And I think that’s really important. I’ve preached about the woman who touches him before.

And that sermon was entitled “From Shame to Wholeness,” where I talk about people who enter into the life of Jesus, and he takes them from where they are in their shame, in their embarrassment by being unclean, by being on the margins, and through simple but powerful acts, he brings them to the center. This unclean woman was made clean. Her whole livelihood would’ve been spent on the margins, outcast. She, too, would’ve been one of those women who collected water in the heat of the day because she was avoiding people. Now she’s restored back into community.

And third, I think Jesus is not beyond being asked for things. The faith of this person to ask on behalf of his daughter was immense. He was clearly desperate, as we all would’ve been. But what faith! And Jesus has compassion, and he’s loving, and he reaches out, like the woman here. But then with the man, goes to his house, takes time out of whatever else he was doing to take a detour. But what we actually find is this is not a detour, this is the point. He was probably there at that time in that place precisely for this. And he honors the faith of the woman. He honors the faith of the man. And so, for us too, I would want to say that we too can reach out in desperation.

We too can ask in faith, we too can expect Jesus to heal, Jesus to intervene, Jesus to bring from the margins back into the center. That’s the type of God that we have.

And when we compare Jesus to many other holy figures in history and today, when we compare him to other gods, he doesn’t compare. He simply contrasts. Other gods (we won’t be too specific), but you simply serve, you simply do. Their entire faith’s based around simple allegiance. And god says, jump. And they say, how high. We too are soldiers under command. That’s true. We too are citizens of a kingdom which has a king, and we do what he says. But it’s never framed, or very rarely framed, like that.

It’s a relational king and a relational kingdom where he invites his subjects to ask, to come before him repeatedly and ask for audacious things: healing, wholeness, life for a dead person. Yeah, it’s just utterly audacious. And Jesus isn’t even mildly offended by that. There’s no rebuke, there’s no, who do you think you are? You’re not important enough for me to do that. And it’s almost, yeah, that was actually on my to-do list today. I just needed you to ask me about it.

And so I go back into the world and I would want to preach to the congregation that as we go about our doctoring and nursing, our building, our plumbing, whatever it is that God has got us doing on our daily basis, that we would also be looking out for the people that he brings into our lives and those small tidbits of information are probably the main narrative of that day. And if we’re not attuned to those, we’re going to miss opportunities that God has for your day. So “look out for the small things in life, because they’re probably the main things in life” might be the title of my sermon.

[00:31:39] Anthony: Yeah, that’s a good word. And it never stops being astounding that this God would condescend to humanity, enter in, take on the form of a servant and die. And not just any death, death on a cross. I mean it’s just holy other, it transcends anything that we know. And how can it lead to anything but worship? Like we always say, theology should lead to doxology or we’re doing something wrong.

Let’s transition to our next pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 9:35-10:8. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 6 in Ordinary Time, which is June 18.

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

I find it interesting, Myk, that Jesus told the disciples to ask the Lord to send workers into the harvest field, and they became the answer of that prayer because they were sent out themselves. What should we make of this, if anything?

[00:34:00] Myk: Yeah, that’s an interesting observation. I take a principle from that: be careful what you pray for.

Seriously though I think we often pray to God for things he’s already given answers to. I certainly heard that, hear that a lot in church where—again, I’m not being mean about people—but we often hear lots and lots of prayers to God for this and that, and I’m sitting there thinking he’s already answered those prayers. He’s already given us the answers to those things. He’s already given us half of what you’ve talked about through Jesus or in Scripture.

And I think we need to be more educated, if I could say that. (I would say that cause I’m a theologian, of course.) But God has actually given us more than sometimes we even think. And so just being reminded of that is a good thing.

And then here, I think, is a leadership lesson. Leaders aren’t those who climb the top of a tree or climb onto a throne and then dictate and delegate to others. There may be some delegation in large organizations, that’s fine. I’m not against that, but leaders aren’t ones who don’t do the work and get others to do it.

Leaders are ones who do the work, and they’ll lead in the work. And I think Jesus is teaching these disciples here a really countercultural lesson: don’t be like the Romans. Don’t set yourself up in legions and hierarchies and try to get up that totem pole of success. That’s not how it works.

The harvest is there, the workers are a few. So, you guys lead the way. You show what it’s like. You do the work. That is what leadership looks like. Perhaps Jesus is reminding the disciples not to get too big for their boots. We see on various occasions, disciples arguing with each other about who might be the greatest in the kingdom and who might sit at the head of the table and close to Jesus.

And I think here, perhaps Jesus is trying to say to us as a church (and we need it), that often that the higher you get in church leadership, the more you should still be doing the work, not not doing it. It’s a curious thing in church circles where the bigger a church gets, the senior pastor somehow invariably becomes a CEO [chief executive officer].

And the very things that they wanted to do as a pastoral leader initially are the first things they give up, pastoral care for one of them. I’ve never quite understood that, other than perhaps a sacrifice to power and the regime of the world. And so here, I think the gospel of Jesus Christ for leaders and disciples is there’s no ladder to climb.

Those with leadership have greater responsibility and will be judged more than others because they have to continue to do the work. And so, I do find it interesting. Yeah, be careful what you pray for because most often, we are the answer to the solution. We are the solution to the problem. I should say the answer to the prayer.

Yeah. I think that’s a really curious thing in that text.

[00:37:17] Anthony: Yes. And I appreciate what you said that often what we’re praying for, it’s already been given in Jesus Christ. And so, when we say God bless you, and of course, that is an appropriate thing to say, but we should also say God has blessed us.

Just look at Jesus. We are ultimately blessed. Jesus gave the instructions—oh, go ahead.

[00:37:38] Myk: Yeah, just these sometimes, constant prayers: show me your will for my life (as kind of the teenage, young adult angst.) Yeah, he’s done that quite clearly in Scripture. He is showing us his will for each of our lives. If we are faithful and passionate and true to him, then the rest will take care of itself. We seem to be praying for the insignificant, rather than the important things, if that makes sense.

And it is just a constant challenge not to conform the gospel to our culture, but to conform our culture to the gospel. And so, in our—particularly in our western industrialized, over-industrialized worlds where we’ve learned to control and manipulate everything, we then try to do that in our faith. And again, here, I think Jesus is saying quite clearly to us today: you won’t manipulate or control me. If you want to harvest, then you are going to be the harvesters. That’s how it works.

And when we get back to grassroots stuff, we fall in love with it all over again, talking to people, sharing the faith. When someone actually receives Christ, there’s rejoicing in heaven. There’s also rejoicing on earth, and again, sadly for some of us, it’s been a long time between drinks, if you like.

Oh, I did that when I was in youth group, and we did a lot of that stuff when we were young adults. Now that we are mature and we’ve got mortgages, and we’ve got jobs and we’ve got children, and we’ve got all the rest, we tend not to do that anymore. And again, I take from this text, you never outgrow doing the work of God and particularly leaders.

[00:39:29] Anthony: Yeah. You talked about how in Western society, it’s a challenge, ongoing challenge, not to conform our prayers to culture and the way that we view our worldview, if you will. But also, not to center ourselves. Jesus is the center, not me. But often I’ve got to catch myself that I’m praying in terms of myself at the center of the story, which makes my prayers pretty small.

And we want to remember who’s at the center of all this. The one who is at the center gave instructions to herald Good News, which is the kingdom of heaven has come near!

Let me ask you this, is it possible to herald that good news about the kingdom, but not really understand what the kingdom is?

[00:40:16] Myk: Yeah, that’s interesting. Yes and no. Surely, you can’t herald or proclaim that of which we know nothing about. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have anything to say. But neither can we know everything about what the kingdom of God means. So, it’s a yes and no. And I don’t mean that to escape the question.

We can have confidence in the reality of his reign, the scope of his reign. We can proclaim that to all and sundry, and we can do that as a five-year-old, as a 15-year-old, as a 50-year-old. You know that we don’t need a massive IQ for any of that stuff. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me, that’s as good as it gets.

But so, we can hear all that, we can hear all the kingdom to that extent, but to think we know everything about the kingdom, wow that’s where we get in trouble. That’s where people like me, theologians, can sometimes get in trouble by thinking we know more than we do. So, for me, it’s having that deep and utter confidence in the clear things that Jesus tells us.

Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He lived, died, rose again, and is coming again. For us, we know these things for a fact. Other things that we do believe, we hold a bit more lightly. I don’t know what is the exact best form of church government. I’m in a Baptist church. I think that’s really close. But so does every other church and every other form of church government, and we just agree to disagree on that stuff. I don’t know what that might look like in the kingdom.

I wrote a little book, a popular book on heaven, an inkling of things to come, where I make this point that there are things we know for certain, and we should proclaim that from the rooftop. But in between those things, there are things we don’t know for certain. But Jesus gives us hints. He gives us teaching. We have in Scripture little insights.

So why did he give us some information, but not everything? So why didn’t he tell us everything or nothing? And I think the reason is he gives us enough to pin our hope on, enough fact, enough reality, enough truth, that we have hope and that rises within.

And then the other things I think he wants us to talk about as Christians. I want you to talk about this amongst yourself. What will heaven taste like? What will heaven smell like? What will heaven sound like? And that too is part of this—I call it after Lewis, a baptized imagination. James Smith might call it a social imaginary. Again, Barth calls it the strange new world of the Bible. We start to see the world in different ways.

There are more possibilities open to us than the non-Christian can see. I’m looking out my window now. They see a tree. We see a tree created by a good God. And so, the tree leads us to God. For others, it’s just a tree. So, I think we can proclaim the kingdom, we can proclaim the reality of it. We just need to be chasing that. We don’t know the full. And we keep bringing that back to Scripture, back to Christ, and back to discussion in the church—that’s social imaginary.

Which is something that we haven’t done very well, I think, in modernity. The last couple of hundred years, it’s all become mathematics (to be crude), rather than imagining the reign and realm of Christ now with a chastened humility.

[00:44:08] Anthony: That is so profound what you said about imagination, and it made me think of a Eugene Peterson quote from his book, Tell It Slant.

He said, Jesus used language to teach, but unlike the teaching in schools, lecture is designed to do the thinking for us. Often Jesus is teaching sparkle with scintillating aphorisms. He wasn’t so much handing out information as reshaping our imaginations.

I think that is so true.

[00:44:38] Myk: Yeah, that’s a good quote. I’ve got a post-grad student at the moment who’s trying to answer the question, what is a theologically informed definition of the imagination. So, I’ll be pointing her to that book. It’s helpful.

[00:45:01] Anthony: Good. It’s fantastic.

Our final passage of the month is Matthew 10:24-39.  It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 7 in Ordinary Time, which is June the 25. Myk, would you read it for us please?

[00:45:08] Myk: Yeah, I’d love to.

24 “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! 26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, 36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

[00:46:52] Anthony: Wowzer. That’s a difficult statement. Jesus said he didn’t come to bring peace, but the sword in verse 34, and this seems a bit antithetical to him being the Prince of Peace. So, help us reconcile it.

[00:47:07] Myk: Yeah. Tough text. Time and again, Christ put little sayings like this to the people. I’ve come to divide families; I’ve come with violence. I’ve not come to bring peace.

And in context, I don’t think he—I’m sure he doesn’t mean he is violent; he is chaotic, or he wants us to hate our earthly parents. We know that from other texts. He is challenging, I think, the basis of our allegiances. We are to put Christ first in all spheres of life, above family, work, nation guild and so forth.

And he puts that in the most striking (and I think rather Hebraic way) possible. It’s love or hate, it’s black or white, it’s night or day, it’s me or the devil, Beelzebub. This is the genre of this particular text.

I’m the son of a Dutchman. I relate to this. This is how we think. It’s absolutes, and at times, you need the absolutes. At other times you need the nuance. Here, it’s the absolutes, but sometimes the nuance in between that is lost on us, and Christ knows. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Remember that from the beatitudes? But the Son of God was crucified for his beliefs. The son of God was violently killed for his beliefs, for being a peacemaker.

People don’t like peace, and they certainly don’t like the peace of Christ. And so, when we offer peace, when we offer the peace of Christ, when we offer the gospel of the good news to others, it ironically can look like violence. What you mean I’m going to have to–and then they just give their catalog of things they think they’ll have to give up.

Some of which they will. You mean I can’t serve God and money? You mean I can’t continue to take advantage of people? You mean I can’t continue to steal and rob and cheat? You mean I can’t continue to be a narcissist? I’m not the center of the universe?

And that gospel of peace, that gospel of grace is so often encountered in a fallen world as violent because it will separate people from their allegiance to money, to family, to nation, to work to everything. My identity now is meant to be a child of God primarily, not primarily the husband of Odele, not primarily the father of Sydney and Liam, not primarily a theologian, not primarily a homeowner or whatever I might put my trust, my allegiance, my identity in.

And so, I think in today’s terms, this is Jesus challenging identity politics. He’s challenging identity theory. He’s challenging it all. He’s saying if there is anything in your psyche that is at the basis of who you are other than me and allegiance to me, then it’s wrong.

And in the most striking terms possible, you must hate your father and your mother to be a follower of me. Again, this hate, this is a very Hebraic way of speaking. It’s a very Teutonic, German, Dutch way of speaking. It’s love or hate. Those are the only options. There’s nothing in between in this type of text.

We need to read it in that context. And Jesus again, he’s human. He’s utterly human. He’s completely a hundred percent human. And so, he knows what will arrest us, what will get our attention, what will cut through the—we could use lots of synonyms there—but cut through the nonsense.

And so, the rich young ruler comes off, I paid all the laws, what more must I do to be saved? And Jesus just looks at him and knows his heart and says, why don’t you sell everything, all of it, every single thing? And then come follow me.

Now he doesn’t ask all of us to sell everything we have. That’s not a requirement to enter the kingdom, that we have no possessions. Jesus had some possessions. We know that Jesus relied on a number of disciples and followers in his larger group who had wealth to fund his ministry. So, he wasn’t against that. Jesus visited friends of his, Mary and Martha who owned a house, maybe they had at other property.

But he’s saying to that rich young ruler, you are serving money. That’s the basis of your entire identity. You need to change that to being a child of God. And then the way you earn money, the way you think about money, the way you spend money will be completely different.

For other people, it’s family and they need to be broken of that primary allegiance. For others, it’s their nation, king and country, president and country before all else. Sadly, I think we are seeing that being played out on an international stage with Russia and Ukraine. Unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church is fully supportive of the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine and the slaughtering of innocent people.

I just think that’s reprehensible, and I think Jesus would say to them, this text, you need to put me first and hate your country. Again, it doesn’t literally mean you must hate the country that you’re part of. You should be a good citizen. We’re told that elsewhere, but where is your primary identity? And so, I think again, Jesus is the master of knowing what humanity and humans are.

He puts his finger on the things we love most. What could be dearer to our hearts than family? Your mother, your father, sibling, children and he says, even them. I must be the primary identity marker for you.

And then what we find in the gospel, and I think we probably have to go on to say that today, is that when Jesus, when God is our primary identity—I am a child of God; I am in Christ Jesus; I am full of the Spirit—when that’s the basis of my identity, it will actually make me a better spouse, a better husband. It will make me a better father. It will make me a better citizen. It will make me a better slave in this context, worker in the workplace. And Jesus knew that.

So, it’s a powerful text. It’s a confronting text. It’s a black and white text, but I think in context, it doesn’t lose any of its power. But it does explain part of the nuance that Jesus is talking.

[00:54:04] Anthony: You’ve already spoken to this, but maybe you’d want to put some more meat on the bone, so to speak. As I look over verses 37 – 39, the word “surrender” keeps coming to mind.

What does it mean to surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ above all else? Anything else you’d like to add there?

[00:54:23] Myk: Yeah. Speaking as one sinner to many others. I’m no saint, and so surrendering is a daily thing. So, I don’t want people who don’t know me listening to this to get the wrong opinion of me. I’m just a fellow sinner.

What does it mean? I think it means standing on a precipice, a ledge a thousand feet in the air and having Jesus say, I want you to step out in faith and I will be there. I want you to trust me to save you. And I think the Christian life is a daily struggle in stepping off the ledge and into the presence of God.

And it’s a struggle because the things Jesus talked about, family and work and the many other things, they do have a hold on us. And daily, this surrender idea, this practice, this virtue of surrendering is God releasing us from the shackles of all that binds us to the earth.

I’m reminded of this wonderful little C.S. Lewis notion. He says, I think it was St. John of the Cross who talked about God being a sea, an ocean, and inviting us in further. And what we miserable creatures do, we tie our rope around our waist, we tie it to a peg of steak, and we stake that into the sand on the seashore, and we slowly let ourselves out with the safety rope so that we’ll just get up to our ankles, maybe up to our knees, but no more so that we won’t get swept away and lose control. Whereas God wants us to cut that rope, dive into the ocean, which is him. And he will keep us afloat, and he will take us into the depth.

So, I see surrender as a daily practice of trusting the faithfulness of God. And the more we do that, the more we’re loosed from those shackles of all the things that bind us to the earth.

But then the irony is, as I said earlier, we find that when we do that, we do become better people, better parents, better spouses, better citizens. This is the great irony, the great reversal of the Christian gospel: to those who give up everything and accept Christ. Christ then gives them everything.

[00:56:53] Anthony: Everything. Everything. Hallelujah. Praise God. And I want to remind our listening audience that what we see revealed in Jesus is a God who keeps the covenant, he receives the covenant and accomplishes it in the one person Jesus Christ. And in this way, the covenant giving, and the covenant keeping is a partnership within God’s self on humanity’s behalf. Hallelujah. Praise God.

Myk, you’re a beloved child of God. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you to our listening audience, and certainly I want to thank two key people that help make this podcast happen. Reuel Enerio, our producer, and Elizabeth Mullins, who does the good work of transcription. Thank you both.

And Myk, it’s our tradition here at Gospel Reverb to end in prayer. So, would you pray a prayer that the Spirit leads you to, to bless our listening audience?

[00:57:42] Myk: I’d love to and thank you again for the opportunity.

I’d like to finish by praying something from the Orthodox Paschal Liturgy. Let us pray.

It is fitting and just to sing to you, to bless you, to praise you, to give thanks to you, to worship you in every place of your dominion. Out of nothing, you brought us into being. And when we fell, you raised us up again, and you will one day bring us to heaven and grant us a place in your future kingdom for all these things.

We thank you and your only begotten Son and your Holy Spirit for all these blessings, both known and unknown, manifest and hidden, that have been bestowed upon us. We thank you, Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, 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!

Worship Calendar w/ Michelle Fleming

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In this episode, Cara Garrity, interviews Michelle Fleming, Hope Avenue Champion in the Charlotte, NC church plant, and the GCI Communications & Media Director. When she’s not serving in these roles she spends her time reading, puzzling, and exploring the outdoors. She has always been drawn to liturgy and finds comfort in thinking seasonally. Together Cara and Michelle discuss the worship calendar and how it can be a framework for developing healthy church rhythms.

It’s important … that we’re intentional in our worship services, in our discipleship groups, even in how we’re engaging with our culture, in thinking about, what is God doing? How is God moving in this season of the calendar? And that helps us live out our faith in our daily lives, because we are not a people who are only in our brains. And we’re not transformed by just the information we receive. We have a faith that we live out. And the Holy Spirit’s in us, helping us participate in that. If we’re following the worship calendar, it helps us remember that Jesus is at the center of his story, that he moved history to draw humanity to himself. … we follow the calendar to be formed more into the fullness of the image of Christ, to have the full understanding of who God is.
—Michelle Fleming

Main Points:

  • What is a worship calendar? The GCI worship calendar? 4:11
  • How can the worship calendar help us build healthy church rhythms? 9:37
  • What would you say to those of us concerned the worship calendar may be overly constrictive, repetitive, prescriptive, or traditional? 13:49
  • How can organizing church rhythms around the worship calendar contribute to a healthy and well-integrated local church ministry? 18:09
  • What advice do you have for those of us getting started using the GCI worship calendar? 22:12
  • What final words do you have for our listeners? 27:57

Resources:

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Program Transcript


Worship Calendar w/ Michelle Fleming

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 the latest 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 so happy to interview Michelle Fleming. Michelle is the Hope Avenue Champion in the Charlotte, North Carolina church plant and the GCI Communications and Media Director. When she’s off the clock, she spends her time reading, puzzling, and exploring and enjoying the outdoors.

She has always been drawn to liturgy and finds a comfort in thinking seasonally. So, I’m really excited about what she has to share with us today. Thanks for joining us, Michelle.

Michelle: Thanks for having me, Cara.

Cara: We are going to be talking about the worship calendar and this episode is going to be released during the Easter season in the worship calendar.

So, before we really dive in, I’m wondering what is one of your favorite practices for the Easter season?

[00:01:09] Michelle: Even in preparing for this, I have all these big ideas because I love liturgy and the worship encounter so much. And I know you’re asking about Easter, but I can’t think about Easter without thinking about Easter preparation or the Lent season, because really as the title that we use in GCI mentions, we are preparing for Easter. And so, a practice that I have in the season of Easter Prep is naming our deaths. Because in that season, we are modeling Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, and we are remembering our need for a Savior.

We’re naming the things that we turn to for comfort, for safety, for security instead of turning to him. And so, in that season, it’s been a practice for a few years to just name the things that I need to let go of, name the things that are no longer serving me.

And then in the Easter season—which also is not just a day. They’re actually 40 days between Easter Sunday and the Ascension. And I think it’s because Jesus knew his disciples needed to grieve not having him on earth. They needed time to process the whole idea of what was happening. And then he ascended into new life. And so, we need to be in a season of Easter too where we’re naming the births.

I think sometimes in our spiritual lives we pretend that we want resuscitation instead of resurrection. We want to bring back to life things that have served us before that are no longer working. But the Christian life, being a follower of Christ, we are letting go of the old and embracing the new.

And in our humanity, Jesus answers that and gives us space to do that. And so, in the Easter season, for the past few years, it’s a prayerful posture because I’m not the one manifesting this new life. I’m paying attention. I’m saying, okay, this is what I’ve spent time letting go of. This is what I’m grieving, letting go. God, what are you growing?

What are the seeds of new life that you’re planting in my life, in my community, and in my relationships as well? It’s an openness to saying, okay, we are not a people who are mourning; we are people who are celebrating. But we are also limited. And it takes us time to process that. That’s a long answer, but it is my favorite practice for Easter is just claiming that new life.

[00:03:23] Cara: Yeah. No, that’s beautiful. And it’s a really powerful image that you give resuscitation versus resurrection. I’m going to hold onto that.

[00:03:32] Michelle: Yeah. And sometimes it’s because it’s all we’ve known. Once we want that resuscitation because it’s comfortable, it’s familiar.

As we know who our God is, he does more than we can ask or imagine. We just have to ask for a holy imagination to want those things too. Because in our flesh we don’t always want those things.

[00:03:53] Cara: Yes. That’s a great example of how the worship calendar can be formative in our journeys of discipleship. And as we talk about the worship calendar today, I want to come back to even the basics. What is a worship calendar? And then specifically can you talk to us a little bit about the GCI worship calendar?

[00:04:18] Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. I think before we talk about the GCI worship calendar, we have to think about, why a calendar in the first place?

And that is something that humans have always done. It’s not just a western thing. It’s not just a modern thing. We have had calendars, we mark seasons, and I think it’s because we are people who look for patterns. We look for routine, we look for those rhythms. So, whether we explicitly say that we have a liturgical calendar or worship calendar, we have one.

And we also are drawn into culture as people too. So, we have a cultural calendar as well, which I think is equally as important to think about when we are talking about our formation, because God has called us to be a people in this time and place, and we have to be aware of the time and place that we’re in.

We also have to be intentional that we’re not just following the liturgy and being formed by the culture around us. But it’s a both / and. We have to pay attention to both. For example—I tried to think of a non-American example, but that’s where I’ve lived most of my life. And we have a calendar where we think about New Year’s celebrations, 4th of July, Thanksgiving. Those are things that form us as a people to our culture.

And in GCI, we have been following for the past, I’d say, four or five years, we’ve been really intentional about laying out the worship calendar, which follows the liturgical seasons. And I think we do that because the worship calendar forms us around the full story of who Jesus is. We can be biased and drawn to certain seasons. I’m someone who [inaudible] doesn’t want to always pay attention to the negative. I might just live in Easter forever. Let’s just claim this new life. But that’s not the full story of who our God is and what he’s been doing in his people.

And so, the anchors of the gospel story are Christmas and Easter, but those are a pretty big deal. We can’t just celebrate those for two out of 365 days, and say we’re being formed into the image of Christ.

And so, there the seasons build on each other. They transition. I could go through a whole thing, so I don’t want to go through the whole calendar. We’ll drop in the show notes an example of what the calendar looks like, but it’s important to think about the seasons that come before those big days.

So, in Easter Preparation, like we talked about in the beginning, that prepares us for Easter and it gets us ready for Resurrection Sunday, which is a day that changed human history. So, I think it’s pretty important that we don’t just spend 90 minutes in church thinking about that. But that we’re intentional in our worship services, in our discipleship groups, even in how we’re engaging with our culture, in thinking about, what is God doing? How is God moving in this season of the calendar? And that helps us live out our faith in our daily lives, because we are not a people who are only in our brains. And we’re not transformed by just the information we receive.

We have a faith that we live out. And the Holy Spirit’s in us, helping us participate in that. And if we’re following the worship calendar, it helps us remember that Jesus is at the center of his story, that he moved history to draw humanity to himself. And the seasons of Epiphany and Ordinary Time are the seasons of his earthly ministry, of the building of his church, that he invites us to do with him. And the biggest chunk of the calendar is Ordinary Time. And I think that’s intentional. That’s on purpose because that’s what we’re doing until his ultimate return.

And so, I don’t know if I said everything I wanted to say about the calendar, but I think big picture, we follow the calendar to be formed more into the fullness of the image of Christ, to have the full understanding of who God is. And it’s a mystery. So, it’s not something we can do one year, and we’re like, okay now I understand resurrection life; I’m holy forever.

But we go deeper every year in understanding. And what’s happening in our circumstances, what’s happening in our culture, God is present and moving and active in that too.

[00:08:30] Cara: Yes. And I love this idea of the worship calendar helps us remember and to tell and bear witness to the whole story of who God is. I think that’s really important. And then what you said, how it impacts all aspects of how we live an embodied life, not just oh what we think we know, but even how we live, how we engage with our culture, our neighborhoods, the people that we encounter in our lives. I think that’s a really beautiful thing that just the calendar, how we mark time, if it can be centered around Christ, that’s a really cool thing.

[00:09:12] Michelle: I kind of like the idea of orienting our lives around Christ and who he is. And I’m glad you said the word remember, because I think that’s something—we are forgetful people, like we see that in the story of Israel in the Old Testament. We constantly need to be reminded of how constant and faithful God is. And the calendar helps us do that.

[00:09:32] Cara: Yes. Amen. And so that leads me to the next question that I had for you. How can our worship calendar help us in building healthy church rhythms?

[00:09:46] Michelle: Like I said before, I think it really has to be a combination of the worship calendar, but also the cultural context that you’re in.

I think it can help us even in the biases of ministries that we are bended towards. I think especially if you’ve been a follower of Christ for a long time, we just want to come together and worship. But we’re also sent.

So, I think about Ordinary Time in the northern hemisphere. It aligns really well with the summer. And one way that it can help with healthy church rhythms is in Ordinary Time, we’re talking about building the church, we’re talking about mission. We’re talking about evangelism. That’s a perfect time, also culturally, where people are not in school; they’re not as busy. It’s a great time to have events where people want to be outside in a lot of places.

So, you tie those things together to think about not just the full story of who God is, but our full calling as Christians too. And I think that’s the benefit of the Avenues, which we’re not getting deep into in this podcast, but I think that’s why we use both frameworks.

Because God is creative. I believe in being creative. But I also think we are limited, and if we don’t work within frameworks, we’re going to be put into what we are drawn to. And that’s not necessarily how the Spirit is always calling us for. In my experience, he often pulls me out of my comfort zone and reveals new ways of thinking and being. And I think working within a framework where you can contextualize and be creative, allows you to have the unity among your people, but also the ability to think in new ways, to not get stuck in a rut or be in cruise control.

[00:11:33] Cara: Yeah. And the way that you connected the story of Christ to how we participate in it, in our rhythms as a church, I think that’s really important because it’s connecting how we’re living as disciples to who God is. And so, holding those two things together, the cultural calendar and then the worship calendar, helps us to do that because we say, oh, it’s Ordinary Time. So, this is part of the story of Christ, that means it’s part of who he is making us to be too, so we should live or we’re invited to live this aspect of who he is instead of just thinking about this one aspect of who Christ is as a one-dimensional way of being Christ-like.

[00:12:16] Michelle: Yes. And I think it’s also important too, to look for where it naturally overlaps. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about in our current culture because in the States, it’s a claim that this is a Christian nation and a majority of people have been followers of Christ. And there is that influence, but you don’t see that in the daily rhythms. If you look 40, 50 years ago, things weren’t open on Sunday. But now that’s when a lot of us get stuff done.

So, we don’t have that rhythm of following what a church life calendar would follow. But we still do have Christmas and Easter. And so, I think it is important to think about maybe before Easter, having some missional small groups, building relationships, exposing people to experience who Christ is. And then those people are probably most likely to come on an Easter Sunday.

So, thinking of even okay, where are the handles we can hold onto where there still is overlap. And in other places there might not be any overlap. And that’s something you have to think about. But then I think of regions like Africa, or even in the Philippines, where those are places where their cultural contexts are more Christian. They’re going to have even more overlap that they can benefit from.

[00:13:30] Cara: Yeah. No, that’s this is rich. I think I can see in this a lot of examples of how the worship calendar can help us to build in rhythms as a healthy church, rhythms that kind of center on the life of Christ and who he is in our midst and what he’s up to.

So, what would you say to those of us who might be a little bit concerned? Because you mentioned, there’s a creativity to this too but we also have a framework that is helpful to work within. So, for those of us who might be concerned that the worship calendar might be constrictive or might be too rigid or prescriptive, maybe even too traditional or repetitive, what words of encouragement would you give to us?

[00:14:18] Michelle: Yeah, I think I would say, you don’t have to decide to do the whole calendar all at once. I think ease your way in and ease your way in with the days or the celebrations that would match your cultural context. I’ve seen more and more churches celebrating Advent, which I don’t think was true 10 or 20 years ago, but that I think is an easy entry point to say, okay, we are preparing for the Incarnation. And there were hundreds of years when between the prophecy of Jesus coming and Jesus’ actual arrival. And can we just be like, okay, it’s Christmas, and then we put up a tree, and we’re celebrating. But can you build in some advent practices into your congregation?

Also, I think the idea that like, okay, well then let’s do an Advent candle lighting. Just because you’re following the calendar, doesn’t mean you have to do the, maybe, more traditional ways of celebrating it? I think there is beauty in the symbolism of a lot of the traditional celebrations, but I think the fruit of the calendar is from understanding how God is moving in that season.

So, if you can capture, okay, how is Jesus being revealed in this season of the calendar? How can we express that in our congregation, in our Sunday services, in our Faith Avenue discipleship groups, in how we engage with our neighbors? I think you’re starting to live out the calendar in ways that could be more creative and innovative.

It doesn’t have to be this restrictive thing of, okay, it’s this season and this is how you celebrate this season. It’s about getting to the heart of it, about how we’re being formed in who God is and who he’s revealing himself to be.

[00:16:08] Cara: And so, there’s still a lot of room to be responsive and discerning and expressive based on what God’s doing. So, there’s a lot of room to play even within this rhythm of the worship calendar.

[00:16:21] Michelle: Yeah. And I think just in my experience as a Hope Avenue champion—which has been for about a year—I think it can even keep us from getting into that cruise control and going stale. I think we can actually be more rigid in not following a calendar because life gets busy, and we just end up doing the same things all the time.

And so, our team comes together before each season begins, and we talk about: what does the season mean? What’s happening in our community right now? What does our congregation need? And we change the order of service to reflect that. And I think it’s helped us grow closer together as a community, grow deeper in who our experience of who God is, because we’re being intentional, we’re being prayerful.

I could go on—and I think it’s also the beauty of being team-based. I hate to keep going back there. But you know, as the Hope Avenue champion, I could come up with a theme, and I could email it out. And I could ask the worship leader to send me some songs that align with that theme. But when we sit, and we share a meal, and we talk about it, and we were prayerful before we even come together, there’s ideas that come up that I don’t think any of us could come up with by ourselves. But the Spirit is moving in and among us and is revealing to us what we need as a congregation.

[00:17:33] Cara: Yes. No, that is a really beautiful point about the corporateness, too, that the worship calendar leads us to celebrate with. I love that.

You’ve already talked a little bit about how when we follow the worship calendar and organize our activities and rhythms around the life of Christ, that it gives us kind of a focus. What is God doing at this time, in this season?

And I’m wondering, can you speak a little bit more to what that means as we collaborate across the ministry Avenues? How does organizing church rhythms across or around the worship calendar contribute to a healthy and well-integrated church ministry?

[00:18:25] Michelle: Yeah, I think I can give you an example based on what I was talking about before, how we come together and we brainstorm what’s going to happen for this season, but how that even builds out, outside of the Hope Avenue team, into our other team meetings. And how we are, I guess, being transformed together.

So, in Epiphany, the season of Epiphany is the good news that Jesus came for everybody—not just for one group of people. And so, when we were brainstorming, okay, what does this mean for our worship services? We decided to take our intercessory prayer time and make that dedicated to praying for a specific group of people. And because we want to be a neighborhood church, and we are a church plant, and so we’re exploring our neighborhood, a lot of our prayer time in church, corporate prayer time—which is something I think that’s being lost in a lot of cultures where faith is not necessarily at the center of the culture—was dedicated to praying for our neighbors and praying for our schools, and praying for our government leaders and just really asking God to give us a heart for these people, a heart for our neighbors, to have the eyes to see them how he sees them.

Epiphany leads to Easter Preparation, which leads to Easter, and so then a few weeks later, we’re talking about missional small groups, and we want to launch several of those within the Epiphany and Easter Prep season so that when we get to Easter, we’ve made some connections so you can then be invited to an Easter service. And then even within the different seasons of the calendar, we often will create a guide, which draws on the Faith Avenue. This is how you can participate in this posture of worship and in this way of understanding who God is outside of the Sunday service.

And so, I think in that way, you can see that all of the Avenues are working together for the fullness of the story of the gospel. But also, for the fullness of experiencing participation in ministry with Christ.

[00:20:25] Cara: Yeah. And so, the worship calendar and the life of Christ and his present ministry becomes that unifying thread between all the ministry Avenues, so that they can actually collaborate well, and not become their own little silos, because they’re being united and telling the story of who God is and united in inviting into participation in that ongoing story and ministry of Christ. That’s beautiful.

[00:20:53] Michelle: Yeah. And we’re meditating on who God is in the same kind of ways. We’re experiencing him in similar ways, and so we’re being formed more and more like him, in those ways together, as a people.

[00:21:02] Cara: Yes. No that’s really wonderful. And then I think even like on the practical level, then when you’re able to collaborate like that. And you have a kind of a framework that you’re working with, and you can agree upon. Then it makes it a little bit easier to think about, oh, what does—we talk a lot about, follow up events, right? Or what comes next? How do we connect people in, after this thing or this on-ramp, this connection point? If we are able to collaborate around an organizing framework, we have a little bit of a pathway to figure out, what’s the next step? How do we go from here?

[00:21:45] Michelle: Yeah, it’s like implicit synergy.

[00:21:46] Cara: Yes. No, this is excellent. So, I we’ve talked a lot about different aspects of the worship calendar, and for some of us it’s a new thing to put into practice the worship calendar, to embody the rhythms of the worship calendar, and to organize the life rhythms of the church around the worship calendar.

What advice do you have for those of us who are getting started using the GCI worship calendar?

[00:22:19] Michelle: I think my advice would be to, like I said before, begin with what matches your cultural context and what your congregation would be familiar with or comfortable with. And I think also too, the idea of understanding the themes for every season, which I haven’t really said yet, so maybe I can go into that a little bit.

So, for example, in Advent, Advent is the celebration of the coming of Christ. We know that he’s come, but it’s a both / and because we’re also waiting for him to come again. And culturally, we skip over that. And it’s—at least in America—it’s Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

And so, I think the posture, I would say is a slowing of remembering what it means to wait, that we’re waiting on Christ. We’re waiting on our Savior. That is our one true hope. He is our one true hope.

And some practices that I’ve adopted even this year was someone—I receive their blog; I don’t even remember their name—but they don’t decorate for Christmas all in one day. Every Friday or Saturday they get their house a little fancier. They slow-build the celebration. And I think so much of this life is waiting, but we separate that from our spiritual life.

We create idols of what we’re waiting for. I’m waiting for that promotion. I’m waiting for that next step in my relationship. I’m waiting for all these different things, but really we’re waiting on Christ to return and make all things well. And so, if we can build into our everyday lives the idea and advent that he’s coming. He’s coming again, and we’re waiting. And we know he’s been faithful. He’s come before.

I think that kind of can form us and prepare us to experience a deeper Christmas celebration. Which isn’t also just one day, that’s 12 days. So, in Christmas, we can soak in that celebration of who he is, that we do have a Savior that entered our world. And I think that’s one time in the year where I spend probably the most time just in Scripture reading about the prophecy of his coming and then reading the story of his arrival and then what that meant.

Then in Easter Prep, I know people often think of that as fasting, but it’s actually fasting from idols and feasting on Christ. And so that is a shift I’ve made recently too, of okay yeah, I’m going to fast during the week from the comfort and the ease that I seek instead of seeking Jesus. But then on Sundays, I’m going to feast on him. I’m going to go to church, and then I’m going to be outside in nature, and I’m just going to soak in all the ways that I experience him in the already, but not yet.

And then in Easter it’s a pretty big deal to conquer the grave, I think. And so that’s a time of worship and gratitude and acknowledgement that he’s continuing to draw us to himself. That he is going to come again and make all things well, and to ask for the eyes to see the seeds of that, of that fruit in your life now.

And Ordinary Time, as we’ve talked about, is a great time for place-sharing, for remembering. We’ve spent all this time in the calendar remembering the story of who Jesus is. Now we’re remembering that we’re invited to participate in it, so to listen to other people’s stories, to share our stories when appropriate. Let’s start with listening. But sometimes our stories can be encouraging to other people too.

So that’s a great time for missional connect groups because also to people travel, it might not be the time to do an in-depth study. But it’s time to think about, okay, what are these postures? How can these postures be lived out in our lives personally, but in our lives corporately as the church?

[00:26:21] Cara: No, that’s excellent advice. And for those of our listeners who are wondering where they can get even more information, or—you just went through the quick one liner of what each of the seasons are—but for those of our listeners who are interested in getting some more information about what these seasons mean as they get started, where can they find that information?

[00:26:47] Michelle: We will put the calendar in the show notes. And then also in Equipper, (which is our monthly ezine) for every season of the calendar, we address what that season means, but then we also have an article on spiritual practices for that season, that kind of gets to some of these things of what you can do practically individually and as a congregation.

[00:27:07] Cara: Yeah. So as y’all get started, we don’t have to get started alone. We’re doing this together, and that’s part of the beauty of the worship calendar, too. It’s not just us in GCI, but followers of Christ all around the world are united in telling and remembering the story of Christ.

So y’all don’t have to do it alone. We’ve got some resources for you.

[00:27:29] Michelle: Yes. And I want to say again, that you don’t have to do it all at once. If you just are like, this is a lot to take in. Let’s just start with our Hope Avenue. Let’s just think thematically for this season, let’s think about it, what it means. And then move from there.

You don’t have to build it all in one day, but I do really see so much fruit in it, in my life personally and in the life of the church.

[00:27:50] Cara: Absolutely. Michelle, we’re coming up to the end of our time, so I just have one more question for you. What final words do you have for our listeners here today?

[00:28:00] Michelle: I’m filled with gratitude thinking about our listeners. Thinking about not just in the cultural context that I know or I’m familiar with, but in all different kind of cultural contexts, we’re declaring the glory of who God is. We’re revealing his love for the whole world for people. And so, I feel unity and affinity and I just encourage you to share your stories with us too. I would love to hear different ways that you are celebrating and maybe engaging with the calendar in a way I haven’t thought of.

I think, just like you said, remember we’re in this together. And it’s such a good story to tell. Let’s be proclaimers of the good news.

[00:28:50] Cara: Amen. Amen. That was a wonderful bundle of insights that you shared. Michelle, I’m so thankful for you joining us. I know that the worship calendar is something that you’re really passionate about.

But before I let you go, we have our fun segment where I’m going to ask you—I know, your favorite thing—a bunch of random questions that you don’t even know what they are, and you’re going to have to tell me the first thing that comes to mind. So, if you’re ready for the fun…

Michelle: I’m ready.

Cara: Here we go. All right. First question. What have you completed on your bucket list?

Michelle: Oh! One of my bucket lists is to see all the US National Parks. And last year I ran a half marathon through Lake Powell and that was really, really cool.

And so that’s the most recent thing I’ve crossed off of that bucket list. And it was beautiful to take in. I ran between two different states in those 13.1 miles and it’s so interesting. It’s a desert area, so it’s so different than anywhere I’ve ever lived.

But to take in the beauty of that because I love lush, green, beach mountains. But just to take in canyons and valleys and just think about the metaphors of that’s the depth of God’s love for us. It’s like these canyons that we’re running through and how life can even be sustained in what seems like such a dry place.

I don’t know. It’s really cool to take in.

Cara: Yeah. No, that is cool. That’s awesome. Speaking of running though, would you rather be able to run a 100 miles an hour or fly at 10 miles an hour?

Michelle: I’m not patient, so I’d rather run 100 miles an hour. Let me get where I’m going.

Cara: It’s about the speed, not the mode. If you could invent a holiday, what would it be?

Michelle: Oh I think my introvert takes over and it would just be like a day of silence. Everyone just pause. Let’s just be in solitude. Let’s just rest. Yeah, that sounds really lovely to me. In whatever way you want to, just don’t speak or engage because I don’t want to miss out on anything, but I also would just really some time for myself.

Cara: It’s for you to have time alone without any FOMO [fear of missing out]. That’s excellent. All right. Final question. Would you go on an expedition to Mars?

Michelle: In heaven, in my renewed body without all my anxiety, fear of claustrophobia, with a mind that is not living in fear…

Cara: I’m going to take that as a no.

Michelle: Would I? If I’d already died, yes. Would I on this side of heaven? Probably not. I think my heart would explode.

Cara: Yeah. No, me either. Oh, we are on the same page for that one. Let me tell you.

I really appreciate you joining us today. As we wrap up, it’s our practice to end our show with prayer, and so could you say a prayer for our churches and pastors, ministry leaders, and members in GCI?

[00:33:08] Michelle: Absolutely.

God, we just praise you for being a God who so relentlessly pursues us with your love, a God who is constant, who is faithful, whom we know we can trust. You’re just so vast that we can’t wrap our minds around who you are.

But in your grace and mercy, you slowly reveal yourself to us. You do it in the fullness of your time so that we can keep up in our limited capacity. You move at the pace of your love and our lives. And you don’t do it just for us individually, you do it for us corporately. So, we thank you for the beautiful church that you have established, a church that declares that you are near, that you are love and that there’s hope.

And so we pray for, specifically, our congregations around the world, that we will be churches who declare those things to the people around us. That we will be churches who embody those things to the people around us. And that we will be a people who point to you, who point to your glory and whose fragrance is among us.

We know that is a beautiful thing, but it can also be overwhelming in the day-to-day. So, I pray for our members, for our ministry leaders, for our pastors who’ve answered the calling of shepherding your people. I pray just for a movement of your Spirit, for encouragement, for inspiration, for new ways of doing ministry in this ever-changing world.

We thank you that we see the fruit of your life, of you in their lives. And so, we trust, and we pray, knowing that you are moving for our good, and we pray that we will move for your glory. We pray all these things in your holy name. Amen.

Cara: Amen. All right 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 June 4, 2023 – Trinity Sunday

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5028 | Trinity Sunday
Greg Williams

Today marks the midpoint in our annual Christian worship calendar, all of which points to Jesus. The first half of the calendar is made of several seasons of celebration starting with Advent and ending on Pentecost. The second half of the worship calendar falls under one continuous theme called Ordinary Time. Essentially, the first half of the calendar focuses on the significance of the life and ministry of Jesus and the revelation it gives us. And the second half focuses on living out the implications of what was revealed in the first half. A deep understanding of who Jesus is – his nature, his salvific acts, his manner of interaction with others … this all informs and empowers us to better participate with him in the world today.

Appropriately, the first Sunday that serves as the transition between the first and second half of the liturgical calendar is given a special name—Trinity Sunday. As a recap, we begin the year celebrating the coming of Jesus with Advent and Christmas. Then we celebrate the Father’s love for the world revealed in Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection during the Easter season. Finally, we conclude the first half of the year by celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost. It’s a good lead to Trinity Sunday, where we are reminded that the God we worship is not the Father, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit in isolation from each other. Rather, the God we worship is the triune God who exists in the perfect communion of all three, Father, Son, and Spirit. So, on this special day, we do more than celebrate a doctrine. We celebrate the beauty and mystery of the God we come to know in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

There will be much to unpack in the second half of the Christian calendar. But for now, we can conclude the first half of the calendar with the same words Paul used to conclude his second letter to the Corinthians.

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 (ESV)

This, my friends, is a good way to conclude the first half of the Christian calendar – rejoicing and aiming to live out the grace, love, and fellowship of the triune God revealed and given to us in Jesus Christ.

Happy Trinity Sunday, and may the next few months of Ordinary Time be extraordinary!

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 8:1-9 • Genesis 1:1-2:4a • 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 • Matthew 28:16-20

This week’s theme is beginning and ending with the Trinity. The call to worship Psalm points to the majesty of the Triune God’s glory declared in creation along with the exalted status of humans within it. The Old Testament reading revisits the classic creation account where God speaks into existence a cosmos of orderly and fruitful relationships. The epistolary text from 2 Corinthians is Paul’s farewell pronouncement in the Triune name of God. The Gospel reading from Matthew is also the conclusion of the book where Jesus commissions his disciples to make disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In The Name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV)

Today is Trinity Sunday and for our text we have the classic conclusion to Matthew’s Gospel where we are given the Great Commission by Jesus. So, we may want to ask ourselves today, what does the doctrine of the Trinity have to do with mission? To be sure, it’s not really the doctrine of the Trinity that we are concerned with. It is the very being of God who has revealed himself as Father, Son, Spirit, that is of upmost importance, not only for our understanding of mission, but to everything else in our lives. The text for today may be a great opportunity to explore the significance that comes with worshiping a God who has revealed himself to be triune.

Our entire text makes up the conclusion to Matthew’s Gospel. Let’s begin with verse 16.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. (Matthew 28:16 ESV)

Before we get started, it may be good to note that each writer of the Gospels chose a different way to end their account. Mark chose to focus on the empty tomb along with the fearful first witnesses. Luke concludes with the account of Jesus’ ascension, serving as a transition to his part-two book of Acts. John chooses to focus primarily on Jesus’ appearances to his disciples. And Matthew chooses to conclude his account with Jesus commissioning his disciples to make disciples. Matthew’s ending does draw on many of the themes and claims he has been using in his book, so it is a fitting end to all that has gone before. But, his ending also signals a new beginning, namely by noting the disciples return to Galilee, the very place that Jesus’ ministry began. Jesus’ ministry is not coming to an end, rather, he will set out again from Galilee, by sending his disciples into all nations.

Also note that these disciples were directed by Jesus to meet him on a mountain. The mountain is not named but a good Jewish reader would not miss the implications of Jesus calling his disciples to meet him up on a mountain. Mountains were a place of divine revelation (e.g. the Transfiguration in Matthew 17). We should not miss the importance of first knowing who God is as he has revealed himself to us before we launch out on any kind of mission or ministry in his name. Jesus is still directing his disciples today, you and me, to meet him on “the mountain.” We must come to know who he is, and who we are as his followers. And that is one great benefit of having the Great Commission text for the celebration of Trinity Sunday. We must never separate the revelation of God as triune from our efforts and engagement of mission. If we pursue missions apart from knowing who God is as revealed in Jesus Christ, our missional efforts will risk being reduced to some humanitarian project or social change program. We also run the risk of doing mission on our own power, apart from the God who calls us to himself to be on mission with him. Mission must always move down from the mountain of God’s revelation.

If you were reading the entire book of Matthew, there is one detail included in the conclusion that is a bit unnerving. Does it not leap off the page for us? There are only eleven disciples. Up to this point every part of Matthew’s story includes twelve disciples. Matthew doesn’t give us any indication that this deficiency will be rectified before the disciples set out on their mission. Matthew’s conclusion does not resolve the tension. Imagine concluding the story of Snow White with only six dwarves. Wouldn’t that need to be resolved before moving on? Not only that but having only eleven disciples painfully reminds us of the troubling and heartbreaking story of betrayal and desertion that must still be fresh in the minds of the remaining eleven. But now they are being called to go on mission. Perhaps we can make a couple observations regarding mission given the unavoidable and awkward number eleven stubbornly sitting in the passage.

First, Jesus does not send us on mission when everything is perfect. We don’t have to have a certain number of people before we can respond to his call. Life is never that tidy. Let’s face it, we all have deficiencies in our lives that we may believe disqualify us from ministry and mission. Surely, we need to get our act together, tie up some loose ends, and fill in some gaps before we can be considered qualified or legitimate as God’s representatives to the nations. But Matthew chose to begin his conclusion with the uncomfortable detail of the disciples’ diminished roster. Perhaps he wants us to see what he has learned. Jesus does not call us to himself once we are qualified. Remember, Jesus called Matthew while he was a tax collector. If any disciple felt illegitimate, it would have been Matthew. Jesus can handle all our deficiencies. After all, as we will see, it is Jesus’ mission, and he goes with us. He is not sending us out on our own or on our own merits and power. We may need to see the number eleven, as uncomfortable as it may be, to remind us that Jesus’ mission does not rest on our shoulders. We are always a person short.

Second, Jesus takes our baggage. The eleven disciples have barely processed their hurt and dismay that came from Judas’ betrayal. Yet, Jesus is calling them to go on mission together. They may not have a problem going on mission with Jesus, but their experience may make them a bit timid to trust their fellow brothers again. Can we relate? How often are we hesitant to engage in mission or ministry after we have been betrayed or hurt? That’s to be expected. But Jesus is our reconciliation, and he is the mediator of all our relationships, even the ones we cannot revisit or set right in this life. These eleven disciples will have to trust Jesus with their baggage involving their brother Judas. We will need to hand over our baggage as well.

Matthew has another deficiency he draws our attention to in the next verse:

And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. (Matthew 28:17 ESV)

It seems Matthew recalls that doubts do not disqualify us from being on mission. One man is missing, and some are doubting. But Jesus still calls them up the mountain and commissions them as his representatives. We should focus on the one thing they all have in common – they all saw Jesus and they responded in worship. This seems to be the fuel of mission. Seeing Jesus. From there, worship and witness go together. And this worship and witness is initiated by Jesus himself. The disciples did not work up their worship by some self-generated effort. They were simply responding to seeing Jesus. It is in seeing Jesus and the revelation he gives us of the Father, that worship is called out of us. Like seeing a beautiful mountain overlook that draws out our praises, Jesus is the catalyst for worship and witness. When we see how beautiful he is, we will not be able to contain our worship of him, and we will want to share what we have seen with others. So, Jesus has set the stage for commissioning the disciples by revealing himself to them on the mountain. However, this does not mean all doubt is removed this side of heaven. But Jesus is coming to us from the other side of heaven. He has passed from death to resurrection life, and he has no doubt of who his Father is. Our doubts do not cancel his faith in the Father. It’s his mission, and it is his faithfulness that will see us through.

And Matthew will make that abundantly clear in the next verse.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Matthew 28:18 ESV)

Notice that Jesus takes the initiative and comes to his disciples. He does not stand far off and tell them to come to him. We should take note of how he deals with us when we go on mission to others. Not only does Jesus come to the disciples, but he comes with something to say. And what he says is exactly what the disciples need to hear in light of their noted deficiencies and doubt. Jesus makes it clear who will be in charge of the mission they are to go on. He has been given all authority. And Jesus was sure to say this first before he gave them the commission. He knows that we will need to be reminded of whose mission it is and by whose authority it will be carried out before we receive our marching orders.

Also note that his authority is an authority given. Just as he receives his authority from the Father, we receive our commission from the Son. God is a God of grace. He is a giver. And we can trust that his gifts are good, for us and for others. Jesus’ authority is not like the tyrants in Matthew’s age or like the ones in ours. Jesus uses the authority given him for our good, and not to dominate and coerce us into obedience. The more we walk with the Lord, the more we come to celebrate and rejoice in the fact that it is Jesus who has all authority. Thank you, God! The world, and our own hearts, has proven time and time again that too much authority and power in our hands often ends with disastrous results.

Now Matthew records the mission Jesus gives his disciples, the eleven on the mountain, and all those that will follow, like you and me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)

This passage begins with “Go therefore.” The word “therefore” is a reference to what Jesus just said about being given all authority on heaven and earth. It is on the basis of Jesus having all authority that we can go on mission. Our deficiencies and doubts do not disqualify us or determine the outcome. Because of that truth, we can boldly proclaim the gospel to the nations, even when that proclamation gets resisted. We are assured that Jesus gets the final say.

And if that wasn’t enough, Jesus sandwiches the commission between the truth of his authority and the promise that he will be with the disciples to the end. We must not see mission as something we do apart from Jesus. That will be claiming an illegitimate authority and attempting to achieve something for ourselves, apart from the will of the Father.

Before we close, we must make mention of the obvious reason this text has been chosen for Trinity Sunday. The commission to make disciples of all nations has everything to do with being “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This phrase implies belonging. And this is a new belonging, not to the father of this world but to Jesus’ Father. And this belonging is in the Spirit, not the spirit of this age, but of the Holy Spirit. To become a disciple of Jesus is to belong to his Father in the Spirit. Jesus is giving us a real part in sharing this extraordinarily good news of who God is and what he has done in Jesus Christ. He didn’t have to commission us, but that would undermine what it means to be a disciple. Disciples are those who are in union with Christ. Disciples are those who share in all the Father, Son, Spirit share in their life together. To be in union with Christ, sharing in his life with the Father in the Spirit, means we are not left out of the triune God’s mission in the world. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that God is a sharing God. And the Great Commission is the Lord giving us a share in the triune life of sharing. And that is some good news to share.

The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets W1

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June 4 – Trinity Sunday
Matthew 28:16-20, “The Way of the Triune God”

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Program Transcript


The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets W1

Anthony: Let me read the first pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 28:16-20. It’s from the New Revised Standard Version, and it’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Trinity Sunday, which falls on June 4.

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Myk, this passage is going to fall on Trinity Sunday in the Lectionary cycle. And as sometimes our understanding of the Trinity is askew, it’s reduced often to unhelpful metaphors or seen, even worse, as a mathematical conundrum. So, let’s flip the script.

How is the Trinity so much more, and what would you have us to know about the way of the triune God revealed in this pericope?

Myk: Thanks, Anthony. Yeah. Where do we start and where do we finish? Contemporary Christians have to be reminded (or probably now instructed, I think) that the church did not invent the doctrine of the Trinity around the year 300 AD or something like that, which some people have purported.

The early Christians, the first Christians right from the disciples, at least midway through Jesus’ ministry, were invited by Jesus to worship Yahweh as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as they watch Jesus, as they live with Jesus, as they walk and talk with Jesus, they start to see him do things, say things, act in particular ways, which resembles Yahweh.

And I love that text halfway through his ministry, they see him praying—Jesus praying. He did it often. And they nudge each other. I think we read in between the texts, they nudge each other. You ask him; I don’t want to ask him. You ask him, I’ll feel silly. So, someone asks him. Lord, teach us how to pray.

And it’s ridiculous really, that a Jew, a faithful Jew, would be asking someone how to pray because they’ve had several thousand years of being taught how to pray. They know how to pray. So, it’s not really a technique question; it’s not a “how” question that they’re asking. It’s really a “who to” question.

We pray to God; we pray to Yahweh. Behold, the Lord your God. The Lord is one. We do that every day and often, but you look like God. You talk like God. You act like God. Are you Yahweh? And Jesus answered them, I think, in the first two words of that Lord’s prayer, our Father.

And I’m sure they had a theological conference because I’m a theologian. Of course, they did. And they withdrew, said he wants us to pray, “our Father,” but he’s not our Father. He’s the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the exclusive son of the Father. And so, what’s he asking us to do? And I think in the “our Father,” they get the gospel of the triune God. He is only the Father of the Son.

Unless we are the son, he’s not our Father. And that would be blasphemy that we are the son of God. Or the next best thing, unless we are united to the Son, unless we are in the Son. And therein is the gospel, as Christ sends the Spirit who unites us to Christ. And Christ brings us before the Father. We acknowledge and we worship that Yahweh is indeed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And here in this text, Matthew 28, the famous commission, the Great Commission, go make disciples. Don’t just make converts, whatever that might translate to. Don’t just get notches in your belt. Don’t just share a brief message and walk on, but make disciples, make people who will follow the living God.

And as you do baptize them, that sacramental, that means of grace, that ceremony, baptize them into “the name” (singular) Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the one God who is three persons. And from there, I think the Trinity becomes the ground and grammar of our theology, of our Christian lives, of all that we do.

And surprisingly, I think, for some today, the Trinity is one of the most practical doctrines, if not the most practical doctrine we have. It’s not a set of esoteric teachings that are reserved for theologians or students who want to pay lots of money to go to a classroom. It’s actually incredibly practical.

The fact that God is personal, that God defines what it means to be a person. Those three persons, one being in mutual relationship with one another in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son who is of the same substance as the Father, who becomes human without ceasing to be. God shows us that the image of God is actually the image of Christ—one who is rightly related to God, to the world, to creation, and to himself.

And the Trinity teaches us that God is personal, that God is absolute, that God is relational, that God is love. And we could unpack each of those four things and many others. We worship a God who is not static. We worship a God who is not removed.

We worship a God who was dynamic in his very being, who was love, who before the creation of the world was already involved in loving relationship. He didn’t need the world to love, he didn’t need creatures to love. He’s not that kind of a being. In some ways, he is not a being at all really. He is a completely different thing. He is God. He is the self-existing triune one.

And I think in that dynamic trinitarianism and that utterly relational triunity, that again becomes the ground, the grammar of all that we do, all that we say, all that we are. And then we start reading scripture, like this passage but so many others, in that Trinitarian key: if there is one God who is Father, Son, Spirit, then was God in the creation narrative the triune God?

And again, we see the Father, and I think we’re supposed to read that as the Father speaks; the Word, the dabar, the logos, the Son goes forth; the Spirit hovers over the waters of chaos. As St. Basil said in the early church, there seems to be a pattern, the Father, if you like, purposing or directing; the Son achieving, accomplishing; the Spirit perfecting.

And we see that pattern throughout almost every story and scripture, either explicitly or implicitly. We come into the New Testament, and it just becomes so clear. How creation came into existence is how our spiritual rebirth comes into existence. As the Father sends the Son, as the Son sends the Spirit, as the Spirit draws, convicts, convinces, unites us to Christ, as Christ brings us back into the presence of the Father.

So, we can now pray “our Father,” and then we go back out into the world in this work of participating in Christ’s mission to do Matthew 20, to teach others to make disciples, to start the birth of the church communities of the body of Christ that are worshiping in spirit and in truth.

And so I think this is one of these fantastic texts, one of these great texts—not just about evangelism (although it is about that), not just about the church and building it (it is about that), but it’s about those things because it’s first about who God is: the God of love, the God of grace, the God of glory, who is Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

And that gives us a message that gives us an impetus, a compulsion to share that love with others. And we call that mission. So, we could go on and on, but those are some of my opening thoughts about that text.

Anthony: In other words, the way that we often view the Trinity is just a reductionist view. You’re saying, ultimately the ground and grammar of theology are a way of understanding not only God, but the entirety of the world, is fantastical because of who he is and what he’s accomplished in his Son.

You talked about the rest of this passage, about how he tells us to go and make disciples. But before he does that, because of the beauty, the dynamic nature of this triune God, he gives us indicatives of grace first and surrounds all the imperatives he gives us, in his grace.

So, what would you want us to know about the imperative here that’s often referred to as the Great Commission?

Myk: Yeah, I’ve been reflecting on that. I don’t have anything unique to say other than the fact that I am struck always when I attend a baptism today, as to how unusual this is, whether it’s as infants or as adults.

I’m a Baptist, so it’s mostly adult believers’ baptisms, I attend. But’s an enacted parable. It’s a sacramental act and means of grace whereby we are cleansed of our sin. We are united to Christ. We testify to the reality of faith in our lives. We rise from the baptismal grave into Christ’s new life in anticipation of the resurrection.

As the end of days comes closer, let us not be found lacking in evangelism. So, I’m just struck by the unusualness in our world of this deeply Christian act, and it just reminds me that physically, when we baptize people or are baptized, we are physically entering into the strange new world of the Bible.

As Barth said a long time ago, this alternate universe. This everywhere—what is it? Everywhere, always, all at once! What is the movie? You could almost be describing the Christian worldview really: the already, the not yet; the king is close, the kingdom is near, all this type of teaching.

And I think baptism is a microcosm of that. So, the imperatives here and the indicatives, we must go. Why do we go? Not because we have to, not because it’s some external law. We must. In the sense that, how can we not share the euangelion, the good news? How can we not want to baptize? How can we not want to replicate and reproduce?

This is what Christians have been doing since day one. This is what Jesus does. He could have stayed, as we read in the New Testament, Colossians and Philippians, without considering deity a thing to be exploited. He offered himself, he humbled himself. He humiliated himself. He became a servant for us and for our salvation to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And then God exalts him. He didn’t have to do that. We don’t have to do anything, I guess, but again, we default back to, but who is the God who loves and saves? It’s the triune Lord of grace and glory. Who are we as Christians? We are those who are becoming like the one we worship. And so, the indicatives and the imperatives here are connected.

I am told to go because I really do want to, and I want to go because I’m told. And there’s a circularity about faith and works. I think that Christians somehow get we are rewarded for doing what Christ does in us and through us, like children where we reward them with their own gifts in order to gift them back to us.

And it just seems to make sense.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • What special days or seasons can you name that fall on the Christian calendar?
  • According to the video, how would you describe the difference in focus between the first half of the Christian calendar and the second half called Ordinary Time?
  • Can you think of reasons why the Trinity would be an appropriate focus to transition from the first half to the second half of the Christian calendar?

From the Sermon

  • When it comes to mission, do you ever feel like the eleven disciples, deficient for the job with too much baggage to carry?
  • Have you ever thought that your doubts hinder God’s mission?
  • The sermon referenced the “mountain” as being a place of divine revelation. In what way does mission flow from revelation, seeing who God is in Jesus Christ?
  • Jesus sandwiches the commission to the disciples with a truth and a promise. What was the truth or reality he stated? What was the promise?
  • What difference does it make to go into mission remembering Jesus words of truth and promise?
  • Reflect on the sermon’s reference to the statement “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” as essentially meaning belonging and sharing in the relationship of the Triune God. How does this inform mission?

Sermon for June 11, 2023 – Proper 5

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5029 | It Ain’t Over…
Heber Ticas

Yogi Berra famously said, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” in 1973, when the baseball team he managed, the New York Mets, was on the verge of being defeated in its effort to go to the World Series. The Mets were able to rally and come from behind to win the division title. As a result, the statement became a well-known rallying cry for underdogs everywhere. Yogi Berra’s simple, yet profound quote has given strength to many who faced seemingly insurmountable odds. When Berra said, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” he was not making a promise or guaranteeing a victory. Yet, his statement about the possibility of success was enough to give his team hope.

I wonder if we have similar confidence in the promises of God. Do God’s words give us hope? In the Bible, God has made many promises to his children. Yet, our circumstances can often cause us to lose hope or doubt the truth of God’s word. It is understandable to lose faith in God’s promises of healing when given a challenging medical diagnosis. It can be hard to maintain hope in God as our provider when we do not have enough money to pay our bills. At one time or another, we have all been tempted to doubt God’s promises. Yet, following Christ requires us to believe in God despite our circumstances. None of us have perfect belief and we need to turn to God for his help in trusting him.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul encouraged his audience with a story illustrating the faith of Abraham, who is the spiritual ancestor of all believers. Despite his circumstances, Abraham learned to trust God when facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. In Romans 4:18-24 it says this:

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Romans 4:18-24

Like our spiritual ancestor Abraham, as we encounter God in spiritual practices like discipleship, mission, fellowship, and celebration, we come to see that he cannot and will not go back on his word. We may not always understand how he goes about fulfilling his promise, but we should not doubt his faithfulness. God may approach things in ways we may not expect. During those times we find ourselves doubting his ability to fulfill his promises, all we need to do is look to Jesus. In Christ, all of God’s promises are fulfilled. He has triumphed over sin and death. And he has assured ultimate victory over all the trials and tribulations of this life. Jesus has the power to raise the dead and make all things new, and he is the one who stands with us in our hard times.

In light of God’s faithfulness, I would like to amend Yogi Berra’s quote: “It ain’t over ’til God says it’s over.” His Word is trustworthy and true. These are words by which we should live.

Mi nombre es Heber Ticas, Hablando de Vida.

Psalm 33:1-12 • Genesis 12:1-9 • Romans 4:13-25 • Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

We are in the early weeks of Ordinary Time, where our focus is on our being, behavior, and actions as disciples of Jesus Christ. As followers of Jesus, we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, so it is important that we trust what God says. The theme for this week is the word of God is a promise. The call to worship Psalm speaks about the fidelity and rightness of God’s word. In the Genesis passage, we read how Abram acted upon the promises God made to him. In asserting the superiority of faith over legalism in our Romans passage, Paul argued that Abram received the promises of God through faith in a promise-keeping God. Finally, in Matthew, we read four times when we see Jesus administer different types of healing. We see the lengths Christ is willing to go to fulfill his promise to heal the spiritually sick and call the sinner.

Jesus Heals Completely

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 (NIV)

How should followers of Christ approach healing? What should be our posture? On one hand the Bible promises that by the wounds of Jesus we are healed (1 Peter 2:24). At the same time, in this present evil age, Christians get sick all the time and do not always receive physical healing. We have all likely prayed for someone with a physical ailment and seen them make a miraculous recovery. Likewise, we have all prayed fervently for someone who eventually succumbed to their sickness. Is it a matter of chance? Do our prayers even matter? How can we stand on God’s promise to heal us when it seems like people get sick and recover at random?

Trying to make sense of the relationship between God and human sickness has rocked the faith of many believers. Dealing with sickness either personally or in someone we love can cause us to question God’s goodness. As a result, many of us struggle with how to pray when someone we care about becomes ill. This discussion is especially relevant as we are in the early weeks of Ordinary Time on the Christian calendar. In this season, we give our attention to how the church participates in the life and work of Jesus Christ, especially Christ’s mission in the world. As we engage our neighbors, we will encounter sickness. We may also encounter people who want to know why God allows human suffering. It is important for those who bear witness to the reality of the kingdom to have a sufficient response.

Before we continue, I would like to make two things clear. First, no one has all the answers to the question, “Why do we suffer?” In this life, we will never know all the reasons why one person gets sick and another one does not; why one person recovers, and another person does not. There is no single answer that speaks to every situation. So, this sermon is not setting out to give a comprehensive response to the complex issues surrounding human sickness. Second, there are those who are reading (hearing) this message and the topic of sickness is personal. You or someone you love may be suffering with sickness or loss at this moment and this sermon may be reminding you about a hurtful situation. The intent of this sermon is not to harm, but to comfort. Despite the pain we experience in this life, God is a good God. We are the children of a God who cares deeply about our suffering and is continually working to make us well.

If God is continually working to make us well, why don’t we always experience wellness? Why does it sometimes seem like we cannot trust in the promise of God’s healing? Part of the reason is that we may not be looking in the right place for healing. When it comes to sickness, human beings are hyper-focused on the physical self. It seems logical – if a person has a physical ailment, we seek after physical healing. However, humans are not simply physical beings. We are spiritual, social, emotional, and intellectual as well. And, as a result of The Fall, all of these aspects of the self are diseased to some degree. I believe our eternal God prioritizes the sicknesses that most get in the way of us enjoying communion with him and other people, which is not always our physical ailments. So, God is always working to heal each of us. However, we may not experience him working on every form of sickness we carry at the same time.

God obviously has the power and the inclination to heal us at every level. And one day he will banish sickness, and we will enjoy perfect health for all eternity. Until then, we can be assured that he is continually working to heal us completely. In the ninth chapter of Matthew, we see Jesus healing people who are carrying different forms of sickness. By looking at the willingness of Jesus to make people well, we can be encouraged that we serve a God who proactively heals. In Matthew 9 we read:

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13 NIV)

Jesus chose to call Matthew, a tax collector, to be a disciple. Tax collectors were reviled by most Jewish people at the time because they collected taxes on behalf of the Roman occupiers. Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with Rome who turned against their own people for money and personal security. Not only does Jesus call Matthew as a disciple, but he had dinner at Matthew’s home with other tax collectors and marginalized people. In the ancient world, table fellowship was an intimate act. A person was strongly associated with those with whom they ate. Most Jewish people, especially young rabbis like Jesus, would not eat with tax collectors. Yet, Jesus makes public his close association with the outcasts. In this way, Jesus was working to heal the socially sick because he values the tax collectors and those called “sinners.” He does not put upon us the labels we put on each other. When he looks at us, he sees children of the Most-High God. In Matthew’s case, at least, he began to see himself through Christ’s eyes, and the work Jesus did to heal the socially sick was transformative.

Jesus’ association with outcasts led to criticism from certain Pharisees. Those in this Jewish sect were held in high regard by most Jewish people. Yet, Jesus had to routinely call up their hypocrisy and false piety. These Pharisees dehumanized the tax collectors and “sinners,” and viewed them as unclean. They believed that God condoned their superior attitude, which implied that God, as they understood him, valued some of his children more than others. In this way, the Pharisees revealed their spiritual sickness because they believed something about God that was not true. Jesus patiently corrected their perspective, encouraging the Pharisees to grow in mercy.

In these few verses, we see Jesus proactively trying to heal two forms of human sickness. Later in Matthew 9, Jesus healed two other forms of sickness. In verses 18-26, we read:

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. (Matthew 9:18-26 NIV)

The synagogue leader – in Mark and Luke we learn his name was Jairus – had to be emotionally distraught when he found Jesus. There are few tragedies as heartbreaking as the death of a child, and I pray for the Lord to comfort those who have experienced this kind of loss. I imagine Jairus could not see a way forward in his life without his only daughter, and begged for mercy from the one person who could change his circumstances. The miracle Jesus performed was not for Jairus’ daughter. She had been freed from pain, suffering, or sickness. However, I would argue that Jesus raised her for the sake of those she left behind – for their emotional well-being. In this way, Jesus brought healing to the emotional sickness of Jairus and all others who mourned his daughter.

Finally, Jesus healed a woman afflicted with bleeding for twelve years. The beauty and power of this miracle is undeniable. Obviously, Jesus healed the woman’s ailment, making this story an example of God’s ability to heal our physical sickness. Given the woman’s circumstances, one could argue that Jesus healed her emotionally, socially, and spiritually as well. Most of us cannot imagine the emotional strain of dealing with a humiliating and debilitating malady that sapped our strength. Not only that, but the book of Mark tells us that she suffered under doctors who could not help her, spending all of her money on treatments that did not work. This went on for twelve years! The emotional strain of her condition and financial ruin must have been unbearable. Additionally, she was socially isolated and cut off from community because of her sickness. Under Jewish law, touching blood would leave one ritually unclean. Since anyone who came in contact with her would be unclean, she could be severely punished for being in close proximity with anyone. Her desperate faith caused her to risk her life to get to Jesus. Lastly, Jesus took a moment to compassionately affirm her faith, which likely brought spiritual healing. The woman had not been able to enter a synagogue for twelve years, and likely felt cut off from most faith practices. For the Messiah to be kind and recognize her faith must have been a like a balm on her spirit.

These stories that illustrate four types of healing are not templates for how to get relief from the things that ail us. We have to resist the temptation to seek a transactional relationship with God, where we say, “If I do this, God will give me that.” As much as I would like it to be otherwise, there is no formula that guarantees healing in this life. Therefore, we must learn to de-center our suffering and not judge God’s love based on whether or not he heals us in our desired timeframe. It is not for us decide for ourselves what is “good” – which is exactly what we do when we say things like, “If God were good, he would heal my friend.” That implies if he does not heal your friend, he must not be good. Instead, we must start with assuming the truth of God’s goodness, and try to make sense of our circumstances through that lens. It is hard, but this is what faith is all about: believing God to be good even in the midst of our misery.

While the stories in Matthew 9 do not show us healing formulas, they do show us the proactive mercy and love of God, revealed by Jesus Christ. These words reveal the deep desire of our God to see us made well in every way. He does not need to be convinced to be good. Rather, he proactively and persistently seeks our well-being. From our perspective, it may appear that God says “no” to our prayers for physical healing. However, the truth is that any suffering we endure in this life must be weighed against the guaranteed eternal sickness-free, pain-free life we have been freely given by Jesus. God has already been good. God has already healed. He has already said “yes” to our healing. Soon and very soon we will take off the corruptible. We will put on the incorruptible. This is good news for us and for those who do not yet know Christ. As we think about how we engage our neighbors in this season of Ordinary Time, we do have an answer for those who ask why God allows human suffering. Jesus has made, is making, and will make all things well.

In the meantime, we can still seek God for the healing of our illnesses. How do we ask God for healing in a way that is not transactional? First, we need to approach God assuming his goodness and his proactive efforts to make us well. We ask God for healing not because he needs to be convinced or he is unaware of our suffering. We ask God for healing because he cares about what we care about, and because he is the source of every good thing. He invites us to boldly make our requests known because he desires for us to participate in the story he is unfolding. Within every request we make of God, we should embed a “yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39) frame of mind. In this way, we state our desire, but we leave our hearts open to willingly accept whatever God wants to do, trusting that whatever he decides to do is best.

Next, we need to pray for our physical healing while looking for the other ways God is working to make us well. We need to assume God is working at all times to heal us because this is our reality. As we pray for healing, if possible, we should shift our focus to our social, emotional, and spiritual selves. Pain and discomfort can often consume our thoughts and emotions so this might not always be possible. However, if we are able, we should try to find ways that God is making us well. Doing so will show us that God has not abandoned us in our sickness and is always working to heal us.

I thank God that one day sermons on healing will no longer be necessary. Until that time it is good to know that Jesus, indeed, is our healer. And, he is working, even now, to heal us completely.

The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets W2

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June 11 — Proper 5 of Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26, “Man, Interrupted”

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Program Transcript


The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets W2

Anthony: All right, so let’s transition to our next pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 9:9-13; 18-26. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 5 in Ordinary Time, which falls on June 11. Myk, would you do the honors of reading it for us please?

Myk: Yeah, thanks.

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread through all of that district.

Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God. It’s been said, Myk, that if Jesus didn’t eat with sinners, he would’ve always dined alone. So, what should we make of the God revealed in Jesus, that he would so openly feast with notorious crooks?

Myk: You wouldn’t write a sanitized version of the life of a great Savior or a God and have them hanging out with shady characters like this.

If you were making it up, if this was a fabrication, if this was some story that was mythological, these episodes wouldn’t be in sacred Scripture. There’d be nothing there would even remotely tarnish the reputation of the holy figure or the God that we’re talking about. And yet for us and as Christians, if these texts weren’t there, I wonder how many of us would still believe.

I certainly appreciate the fact that Jesus is a real character. He’s a real character who relates with real people in a fallen world. That historical particularity of walking through first century Israel and encountering people he loves, the Israelites, people he weeps over, but he doesn’t shun them. He reaches out to them, and in this story, he lets them reach out to him.

That’s a scandal, that an unclean woman would touch him, actually defiling him and making him unclean. And yet here the opposite happens. She reaches out the unclean one and the clean one, Jesus, heals her and sanctifies her, and sets her apart and restores her back to community. This is precisely why I like Jesus. This helps my faith.

Quite frankly, if this type of realism was not in Scripture, I think I might doubt his real existence, or he certainly wouldn’t be relatable. He wouldn’t be our sympathetic high priest. Our fellow human, homoousion, as the church says, of the same substance, as much as us as he is God.

I’m a sinner. This text tells me I’m not beyond the reach of a holy God. I’m not beyond the reach of a pure Jesus Christ. That even in my sin, even in my shame, even in my fallenness, I’m not beyond the reach of an all-holy God who has left heaven, who has descended to the earth, who took the form of a servant in order to redeem and glorify me.

And so the fact that these people entering the house of the dead, being touched by an unclean woman, dining with Pharisees and calling tax collectors as followers, asking little people who climbed trees because they were too arrogant to see him on their own terms and dining in his house with people and sinners—his is what Christ invites himself to do in our world as well. Maybe not physically, but nonetheless real.

And so, I love stories in church, I love testimonies in church, not necessarily of people’s conversions—I’m happy to hear about people’s Sunday school and childhood experiences over coffee one-on-one—but in church, what I really appreciate is those powerful stories: how I came to Christ, but more importantly, how I remain in Christ because we don’t stop sinning, sadly, once we become Christians.

And I think today, particularly with the mental health challenges we have, with the high levels of anxiety and depression because of what’s going on in the world (certainly here in New Zealand, we have really high rates of mental illness amongst young people), what they really need to hear is these types of stories. You are not beyond the reach of a holy God who will accept, redeem, heal, and restore. And so, for me, these are the stories that need to be there, as well as the mountaintop ones. If that makes sense.

Anthony: It does. Amen. If we were writing the gospel story, the narrative, we wouldn’t write it like this, would we?

This is not the kind of God we would’ve come up with, but thanks be to God, this is the God we have revealed in Jesus Christ.

Myk: We prefer the strong stuff, the powerful stuff. We’d probably paint him as a muscley, six foot six. We just buy into all the worldly tropes of power.

Jesus just demolishes all that and says, no, that’s just a social construct. Real power is the ability to stoop down low and relate to people where they’re at and then lift them up. That’s real power, and I need reminding of that every day.

Anthony: And thanks be to God that the Son of man has been lifted up and is drawing all people to himself.

And once again, in this passage, Myk, we see that our Lord is interrupted. It happens constantly. So, if you are preaching verses 18 – 26 to your congregation, what would you preach about these ongoing interruptions and the fact that Jesus, our Lord, is willing to submit to the situation?

Myk: Yeah. I’m the personality type that is very task focused. I have lists and I have to-dos, and I pride myself on getting through those and rewarding myself when things are ticked off. And when people interrupt those plans and when other stuff comes along, my first reaction, I have to confess, is how this is going to put my whole day out. This is not helping my productivity or my efficiency whatsoever.

Anthony: Yes, we should hang out a lot, Myk. We’re wired the same.

Myk: Yeah, that’s right. And Jesus has got more important work to do than I have, and yet he keeps getting interrupted, and he seems to welcome it.

He just goes with the flow, and it is incredibly intentional. And so how would I preach this? I’d start with a story of my own testimony, like I just did, saying how annoying, how frustrating! There’s a time and place for everything you get in line take a ticket wait your turn.

And yet for Jesus divine interruptions are the norm, not the exception. We should expect God to bring people and events into our lives, not to interrupt our real work, but actually this is our real work because people are not a means to an end. They are the end, and Jesus knew that, and we need to learn that. So, I’d probably talk about that.

And then second, Jesus shows his absolute sovereignty. All creation was made by him and for him. And here we see a glimpse of that reality through those healings. And I think that’s really important. I’ve preached about the woman who touches him before.

And that sermon was entitled “From Shame to Wholeness,” where I talk about people who enter into the life of Jesus, and he takes them from where they are in their shame, in their embarrassment by being unclean, by being on the margins, and through simple but powerful acts, he brings them to the center. This unclean woman was made clean. Her whole livelihood would’ve been spent on the margins, outcast. She, too, would’ve been one of those women who collected water in the heat of the day because she was avoiding people. Now she’s restored back into community.

And third, I think Jesus is not beyond being asked for things. The faith of this person to ask on behalf of his daughter was immense. He was clearly desperate, as we all would’ve been. But what faith! And Jesus has compassion, and he’s loving, and he reaches out, like the woman here. But then with the man, goes to his house, takes time out of whatever else he was doing to take a detour. But what we actually find is this is not a detour, this is the point. He was probably there at that time in that place precisely for this. And he honors the faith of the woman. He honors the faith of the man. And so, for us too, I would want to say that we too can reach out in desperation.

We too can ask in faith, we too can expect Jesus to heal, Jesus to intervene, Jesus to bring from the margins back into the center. That’s the type of God that we have.

And when we compare Jesus to many other holy figures in history and today, when we compare him to other gods, he doesn’t compare. He simply contrasts. Other gods (we won’t be too specific), but you simply serve, you simply do. Their entire faith’s based around simple allegiance. And god says, jump. And they say, how high. We too are soldiers under command. That’s true. We too are citizens of a kingdom which has a king, and we do what he says. But it’s never framed, or very rarely framed, like that.

It’s a relational king and a relational kingdom where he invites his subjects to ask, to come before him repeatedly and ask for audacious things: healing, wholeness, life for a dead person. Yeah, it’s just utterly audacious. And Jesus isn’t even mildly offended by that. There’s no rebuke, there’s no, who do you think you are? You’re not important enough for me to do that. And it’s almost, yeah, that was actually on my to-do list today. I just needed you to ask me about it.

And so I go back into the world and I would want to preach to the congregation that as we go about our doctoring and nursing, our building, our plumbing, whatever it is that God has got us doing on our daily basis, that we would also be looking out for the people that he brings into our lives and those small tidbits of information are probably the main narrative of that day. And if we’re not attuned to those, we’re going to miss opportunities that God has for your day. So “look out for the small things in life, because they’re probably the main things in life” might be the title of my sermon.

Anthony: Yeah, that’s a good word. And it never stops being astounding that this God would condescend to humanity, enter in, take on the form of a servant and die. And not just any death, death on a cross. I mean it’s just holy other, it transcends anything that we know. And how can it lead to anything but worship? Like we always say, theology should lead to doxology or we’re doing something wrong.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Why do you think it is tempting to doubt God’s promises?
  • Can you think of a time when you thought “it’s over” when God had other (better) plans?

From the sermon

  • Thinking back to your early years, how were you taught to think about God and human healing? How did that impact you?
  • Why do you think it may be hard to believe that God is actively working for our healing?
  • Can you think of ways that God has healed you physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually?

Sermon for June 18, 2023 – Proper 6

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5030 | Calling 911
Greg Williams

Have you ever had to call 9-1-1? I hope not, but if you have, it was probably because you were in a serious situation that needed an immediate response. That’s why we call 9-1-1 here in the US. It’s the one number we know will be answered immediately and we will get a quick response to our needs. Could you imagine calling 9-1-1 and getting a recording or being put on hold? Hopefully, that will never happen to you. When an emergency occurs, there is a bit of peace knowing we can depend on someone answering us when we dial 9-1-1.

For those who have grown to know the Lord, 9-1-1 is likely the second call we make because our first cry for help is to the Lord himself. Like so many other believers, we have learned that the Lord is even more reliable than 9-1-1. He is always there to answer our call for help. Experience teaches us we can always turn to the Lord with our troubles, great or small because he has proven to be faithful to hear our call time and time again. Here is the beginning of a Psalm that expresses this trust:

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;
He heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2 (ESV)

If you are watching this video, you probably don’t need to call 9-1-1. But I’m guessing many of you are facing troubles and trials. I encourage you to follow the wisdom of the one who wrote this psalm. Know and be confident in the truth that whatever troubles you are facing, either now or later, you can call on the Lord. Even when it seems he hasn’t answered, or answers in a way different than you desired, you can be sure you are not getting a recording or being put on hold. He hears you and always responds with the right answer at the right time.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 • Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) • Romans 5:1-8 • Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

This week’s theme is God’s response to human need. The call to worship Psalm is a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s response to human need. The Old Testament reading from Genesis recounts Abraham’s and Sarah’s responses to God fulfilling his promise of a son. The epistolary text in Romans expresses confidence and trust in the God who provides justification, peace, and grace through Jesus Christ. In the Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is proclaiming the gospel while healing out of his compassion for the crowd, and he commissions the disciples to do the same.

Like Master, Like Disciple

Matthew 9:35-10:8 (ESV)

Today we continue our early steps into the season of Ordinary Time. You may recall this season was kicked off with Trinity Sunday where we looked at the end of Matthew’s Gospel where he commissions the disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Last week the lectionary track for the Gospels continued in Matthew with a selection from chapter 9 that begins with Jesus calling a tax collector to be a disciple, who, according to early church tradition, also happens to be the author of the Gospel that we are following. That calling is met with some scorn by the Pharisees, which prompts Jesus to say, “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). That is followed by a beautiful story of Jesus healing a woman who had been suffering for twelve years as well as raising a little girl back to life who had died at only twelve years of age.

Today, as we continue in Matthew, we will see a theme emerging – discipleship. And more precisely, what it means to follow Jesus. This is an appropriate theme to begin our season of Ordinary Time. This season is a time where we unpack all that we have learned about Jesus during the first half of the Christian calendar, to live it out in our lives. Or in other words, we look to live in alignment with who Jesus is, and who we are as those who belong to him. The passage we have today will help us further along that journey, as we see once again a little more of who Jesus is, and what that means for those who are his disciples.

Let’s see how Matthew chooses to begin this section:

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. (Matthew 9:35 ESV)

Matthew begins with Jesus and what he did in his ministry. We must remember who Jesus is as the second person of the Trinity if we are going to gain the significance of what Matthew tells us about Jesus’ activity. In short, when we grasp that Jesus is God’s Son, we come to see that Jesus is God on earth, or as the name Emmanuel means, “God with us.” That means that when we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ activity on earth, we are not just reading stories about a man with a mission. We are being given a revelation of who God is in his very being.

When it comes to God, who is pure without any misalignment between his actions and his being, we can know that what God does flows out of who God is. We can’t say this of any other human being. We are sinful creatures, meaning that there is much distortion and brokenness between what we think, say, and do. Not so with God. He never says or does anything that is out of line with his being. Therefore, James can refer to God as “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). We can trust that all we see in Jesus, in his words and actions, are perfectly consistent with the character and heart of God. In light of that truth, when we have a written account of Jesus’ activity, we are given a great gift from above that reveals to us who God is. And that is exactly what Matthew gives us before he records Jesus’ instructions to his disciples.

This one verse gives us three things worth considering as revelations of who God is toward us.

First, we see that Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages. We can see in this description that God is a God on the go. He is not a static God carved in stone sitting on a throne. He is active and takes the initiative to bring us into relationship with himself. This is good news seen in the work of Christ. God takes the initiative to come to us. We do not have to find him, he finds us. This echoes the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:8: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus did not first conduct a survey of the surrounding cities to see which ones were worthy of a visit. He went to “all the cities and villages.” God’s love is greater than our sin.

Also, this sound very similar to Jesus’ Great Commission to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” Jesus does not commission us as disciples to do something he is not doing. As disciples, we can follow him into “all the cities and villages” and participate in what he is doing in them, without any limiting requirements of those we are sent to. We are not left to go out on our own.

Second, Jesus was teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. This shows us that God comes to us with good news. And that good news is of his kingdom that he shares with us. The God revealed in Jesus Christ is a God who shares. He is not stingy, holding back the best for himself. Rather, he aims to give all things to us, his very best. And we see that God is a speaking God. He comes to us, not to smite us into submission, but to teach and proclaim. He speaks to us personally. And his words are not words of condemnation, but words of healing and restoration. We could rightly say that God’s words aim to woo us back to him.

Third, Jesus backs up his words of teaching and proclamation with acts of healing. We are told that he heals “every disease and every affliction.” This reveals a God who does not settle for a little improvement in our afflicted state. He aims to cure all that afflicts us. The God revealed in Jesus Christ is not a part-time healer. He aims for a complete restoration.

Also, it is important to note the order of Jesus’ ministry being carried out. He begins with words. This is his primary ministry as he is the Word of God. The actions of healing only confirm the words that he speaks. The proclamation of the kingdom entails the good news of the complete healing and restoration that comes by way of God’s redemption of his lost children. When Jesus heals, he is giving a physical witness, although partial, to what can be expected in full in the kingdom of God. The order of Jesus’ ministry is important for disciples to understand if they are going to go and do likewise. The words of teaching and proclamation are primary. The deeds are secondary and serve to confirm the words. The words and deeds must be aligned if they are to serve as a faithful witness to God’s kingdom.

That’s a lot of revelation about God in one little verse. Jesus’ actions are packed with significance. Let’s see what more may be revealed in the next verse:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36 ESV)

The first thing that we see about God is that he sees us. Do you ever feel like you are lost in a crowd, and no one sees you? I think we all feel this way often. We may feel overlooked and misunderstood. But we are told here that Jesus “saw the crowds.” And he didn’t just see a mass of indistinguishable people. He saw beyond the numbers and into the depth of their sorrow and suffering. As Matthew describes it, “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” The crowd did not become a hindrance to Jesus seeing their need and situation. Often crowds become hindrances to knowing. We can group people into “crowds,” or aggregates, in an attempt to gain some kind of understanding of them. But this approach only gives us a depersonalized understanding. It does not, and cannot, grasp the individual need or specific situation of the one in the crowd. This is not the kind of God revealed in Jesus seeing the crowds. In fact, we are told explicitly that Jesus was seeing through the eyes of his “compassion for them.” If you ever feel alone in a crowd, this story tells us that God sees you, and he has compassion for your very need.

Matthew begins this section by telling us what Jesus is doing, and in doing that he has shown us first who God is. It is only after this that he moves to tell us the implications of what this means for those who are called to follow him. The primary impulse of ministry is God’s activity first, which we then participate in.

Now Matthew records what Jesus says directly to the disciples, which is also intended for us as his disciples today:

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38 ESV)

Again, let’s take note of the order of what Jesus says to the disciples. This is the first thing he wants to convey to them, and he sets up what should serve as our primary ministry. Jesus starts by letting them know the situation. Basically, those who are in need are ripe to hear the gospel. But there is a labor shortage. If we were to guess what Jesus was going to say to them as a solution to this problem, I suspect we would come up with something very different than what Jesus tells us. I would imagine we would guess that Jesus would tell us we need more laborers. Perhaps we would imagine Jesus giving a call-to-action speech, full of emotional appeal and affirmative “you can do its.” Maybe he would follow that up with some strategic program amounting to an all-out blitz of recruitment. That is, after all, how we so often react to dire predicaments. Pull up our bootstraps and get busy. However, did you notice what Jesus says to do? His solution is “therefore pray…” I hope we don’t overlook that and dismiss it with a “Well yeah, we pray but what we really need is to address the situation.”

Jesus begins here. Pray. That is the primary emphasis of how we are to address the mission of the church. Prayer. And not just a passive, obligatory nod to prayer, but earnest prayer to the Lord of the harvest. In other words, we live in complete trust of the one who oversees the mission in the world. It is not our mission; it belongs to the Lord. On that basis, we pray knowing that that is the most powerful and effective thing we can do in light of who God is.

Prayer is not just a pious thing we do to appear righteous. It is a real participation in what God is already doing. And did you notice what it is that we pray for? It seems like the prayer should be for more laborers. But that is not what Jesus is concerned with; he wants us to pray that the laborers be sent out. That’s an interesting detail is it not? Why wouldn’t we just pray for more laborers? For Jesus, what is more important than the number of laborers, is that those laborers are followers of Christ. Just as Jesus “went throughout all the cities and villages,” disciples are to grow to be more and more like Christ, imitating him by going out into all the world. In other words, Jesus is more concerned about growing the faith of those who are present disciples. More disciples will be added in God’s good time, but what is the point of having more disciples if the ones you have are not following the Lord.

The emphasis Jesus has placed in this prayer is on the laborers, not the results of the labor. Our God is not looking for workers to get a job done that he is not willing to do. God is far more interested in us growing up to be more like his Son Jesus. And that is exactly what we see in this passage, is it not? The disciples are being called to look just like Jesus. Their mission will look just like Jesus’ mission in the way Matthew records it. This starts emerging in the next verse.

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. (Matthew 10:1 ESV)

Do you see the parallel to what Jesus has empowered his twelve disciples to do? It sounds very much like what Jesus was doing at the beginning of this section. In fact, “heal every disease and every affliction” is the exact wording describing Jesus’ mission. To be a disciple is to participate in the very ministry and mission that Jesus is doing.

Now, here is a trick question. When you read this verse, what would you say the disciples are primarily called to? We may miss the obvious and think their primary calling is to cast out that which afflicts and heal people from those afflictions. But that is not what the text says. They are given authority to do these things, but their calling is to Jesus: “And he called to him his twelve disciples.” That is our primary calling. We are called to the Lord. We follow him wherever he leads, receiving the authority he gives and exercising that authority for his good purposes. But disciples, by definition, are those who follow the one who has called them to himself. Again, we see that Jesus is more concerned about our relationship with him as we participate with him in his ministry and mission. He is aiming to grow our faith in him and grow us up to be more like himself in his relationship with Father.

The next verse perfectly follows this personal focus Jesus has for his disciples:

The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Matthew 10:2-4 ESV)

If Jesus was more interested in the task at hand, why would Matthew include in this section the personal name of each of the twelve disciples – not only their names, but some distinguishing attributes of their identity? Matthew, who walked with Jesus, did not see this addition as out of place or out of step in a section dealing with Jesus’ mission. For Matthew, this is the exact place to list and identify the twelve disciples. In this section, it serves as the connecting hinge between Jesus’ mission and the sending of the disciples into that mission. God is more concerned about you and I growing up into the Lord, than he is about the results of our missional involvement.

One final thought on the listing of the disciples. Matthew included a few details that would further emphasize that the mission does not depend on us. He begins the list with Peter who denied Jesus and ends it with Judas “who betrayed him.” That is a bookend that does not present a polished resume for the group. Not only that but he includes himself with the title “the tax collector” and Simon with the title “the Zealot.” One worked for the Romans, the other fought against them. Why would these two be chosen to work together? Perhaps Matthew’s structure of naming the twelve disciples in pairs gives us the answer. As we are called to the Lord as his disciples, we are also called to one another as brothers and sisters. Reconciliation and fellowship is implied in discipleship.

From here Matthew is now ready to shift this section from Jesus’ ministry to his instructions to the disciples.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. (Matthew 10:5-8 ESV)

Jesus is now going to instruct the disciples on exactly how they are to go about the ministry he is sending them on. Verses 5-8 contain the beginning of those instructions that entail a description of the apostle’s work. You can also read further to hear Jesus’ instructions regarding other matters that they will need to contend with in ministry – economic concerns and matters of hospitality as well as how to handle the opposition that will come from proclaiming the gospel. We will not explore those issues today. Rather, the main point to see in this section is the dynamic of Jesus being the one who is instructing them. To be a disciple is to follow the Lord’s instructions. Notice that the first thing they are told is the boundaries of their ministry. They are only to go “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” If you remember, this boundary changes and is expanded to “all nations” by the end of Matthew’s Gospel. Following Jesus in ministry means we must listen to him as we go. His instructions to us may change. What he has us doing one day may have to change on another. This fits the nature of being a disciple of a living Lord. He is present with us, and we are in a real, dynamic and personal relationship with him. We should not expect any static, predictable, or cookie-cutter approach to ministry. The Lord may have a few surprises along the journey. After all, he is more interested in us coming to know him than he is in the task we may be asked to do along the way.

But we can also expect some consistency in the ministry he shares with us. The disciples are instructed to continue to do what Jesus himself had been doing. Namely, proclaiming that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” while doing deeds that point to that proclamation. Jesus lists several such deeds – “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.” We are not to read these too literally, but rather we see in them all in the context of healing the kingdom reign of Christ brings. In ways big and small we can witness to this kingdom primarily with our words that proclaim Jesus’ words to us, along with deeds, great and small, that confirm the words.

Our section today ends with “You received without paying; give without pay.” This final instruction can point us to how all ministry must be carried out: by God’s grace. The ministry and mission Jesus gives us is a gift. We receive it freely, meaning we do not earn it on our own merits. It is a gift to be received. Likewise, the proclamation to others must not be twisted into a message that turns the gospel of grace from a gift to be received into a task to be achieved. Ministry is not a means of exacting some kind of “payment” for the gospel. It is grace all the way through. As we participate in Jesus’ ministry, coming to him daily, listening to his instructions, and receiving his grace, we will grow to know him and his Father better by the Spirit. In so doing, we grow more and more to look like Jesus.

The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets W3

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June 18 — Proper 6 of Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:35-38; 10:1-8, “Workers Wanted”

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Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • Has anyone ever had to call 9-1-1? What was your experience?
  • In what ways can you think or remember from the video that calling 9-1-1 is like calling on the Lord? In what ways is it different?

From the Sermon

  • Discuss the significance of knowing Jesus is God’s Son when reading stories of Jesus’ ministry and actions on earth. What do Jesus’ actions tell us about his Father?
  • Discuss any revelations given about the Father seen in Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ ministry. Did anything in the sermon stand out to you? Do you see additional points that could be made?
  • What observations from the sermon were made about the listing and description of the twelve disciples? Do you have other observations from these descriptions?
  • The sermon mentioned how Jesus’ instructions for ministry may change at times. Can you think of examples where his instructions to you for ministry have changed at different times?
  • The sermon also mentioned some things that do not change in ministry. Can you recall what these were?
  • What examples can you think of where deeds of ministry confirm the words of ministry? Or, in other words, in what ways may our proclamation of the kingdom be confirmed by specific deeds that point to the kingdom?

Sermon for June 25, 2023 – Proper 7

Program Transcript


Speaking Of Life 5031 Dead to Me
Cara Garrity

The phrase “dead to me” has unknown origins but saying that someone is “dead to me” communicates that you no longer want to speak or have any kind of contact with that person. This can be a harsh statement to make, especially if we consider that forgiveness benefits us as well as the person we think wronged us. But what if we use the phrase “dead to me” differently and apply it to the shadow side of ourselves? You know, the parts of ourselves that we wish we could change, like acting selfishly, thinking ourselves better than others, or feeling abandoned by God and other people.

The truth is, you and I should consider ourselves dead to these negative behaviors and thought patterns and be alive for something bigger and more life-giving.

The apostle Paul has written about this idea of considering certain aspects of ourselves as being “dead”, especially in the way our baptism mirrors Christ’s death and resurrection. Let’s take a look at what he says in Romans 6:

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.
Romans 6:5-7 (NRSVUE)

We learn that when Christ was crucified, our “old self,” our shadow side, was crucified with him. Why? So we would no longer be enslaved to sin. When we are in him, we are “dead” to those behaviors and thoughts that make us cringe and think, “Why did I do that? What was I thinking?” Christ’s death frees us from the power of sin and gives us another alternative.

The old self, now dead to us, was preoccupied with egoic concerns, like personal preferences and opinions. If sin is dead to us, then we can be alive for something else. We’re free to be alive in Christ. Let’s continue this passage:

But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:8-11 (NRSVUE)

Notice that Christ’s resurrected life is lived to God, and Paul is encouraging us to remember that we, too, are “alive to God in Christ Jesus.” We are freed from our compulsion to egoic concerns and our feelings of unworthiness or separation from God. Instead, we are liberated to live a life of radical love, using our skills and resources to help those who are in need.

Being alive to God means we view the world through Jesus’ eyes and view others through his eyes as well. He often noticed tax collectors, women, and children – those who were judged by their culture. As we live to God, no longer slaves to sin, we allow him to bring to our attention the God-given dignity of all people.

May you realize that sin is dead to you and no longer holds you in its grasp, thanks to our Savior Jesus. May you know the freedom of being “alive to God in Christ Jesus.” And may you always join Jesus in looking for ways to lift up and bless others who need his radical love.

I’m Cara Garrity, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17 • Genesis 21:8-21 • Romans 6:1b-11 • Matthew 10:24-39

The theme for this week is the revolutionary responsibilities of discipleship, and it’s our opportunity to consider that real discipleship requires us to let go of closely held opinions and worldviews to love and advocate for others the way Jesus did, trusting that God will be with us. Our call to worship in Psalm 86 helps us understand God’s revolutionary willingness to be small, to bow down just to reach us, and we can be challenged to do the same for others in humility. Genesis 21 tells the story of Abraham’s family conflict between Sarah and Hagar, and how God resolved the problem outside the typical cultural constraints. In Romans 6, Paul discusses the way baptism can mirror Jesus’s death and resurrection, and he encourages us to think about what we are “dead to” and “alive for” in light of Christ’s loving example. Our sermon text is Matthew 10:24-39, which offers Jesus’ perspective about the challenges of radically loving others, the anti-empire arc of the gospel, and the implications of love’s inclusive nature.

Radical Love

Matthew 10:24-39 (NRSVUE)

If you live in the US, you probably have heard of the non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity. This organization, founded by Clarence Jordan, and later joined by Millard and Linda Fuller, began as an interracial community farm called Koinonia Farm outside Americus, Georgia. Its mission was to ensure that everyone was treated equally, resources were shared, and the land and natural resources were stewarded wisely.

As part of the community farm, the Fullers came up with the idea of “partnership housing,” where people who needed a home worked with other volunteers to build a home at no profit. By starting “The Fund for Humanity,” using money from supporters and fundraising efforts, no interest loans were provided to the new homeowners. Their house payments, in turn, would be used to continue “The Fund for Humanity” and build more houses.

What you need to know, though, is that Koinonia Farm was started in 1942 and the partnership housing effort got off the ground in 1965, during the era of segregation and before the Civil Rights movement had made any progress. Their good works got them into trouble with those who disagreed with their views about racial equality and how a Christian should live.

For example, Clarence Jordan was accused of befriending a communist named Myles Horton. Jordan told his accusers, “I really have trouble with your logic. I don’t think my talking to Myles Horton makes me a Communist any more than talking to you right now makes me a jackass.”

Koinonia Farm ran into conflict with the Ku Klux Klan, and the group blew up the farm’s roadside peanut stand, one of its fundraising efforts. When Jordan put up another roadside peanut stand, the Klan blew that one up, too. Jordan refused to quit but changed his business plan. Instead, Koinonia Farm began selling peanuts by mail order with this advertisement: “Help us ship the nuts out of Georgia.”

Though some progress has been made toward equality for all people, regardless of race, gender, economics, and lifestyle choices, inequities have been built into the fibers of the governmental systems in place, not only in the US but other countries, too. As Clarence Jordan and the Fullers found out, bucking the system and advocating for the poor and marginalized is often not well received. This should not be a surprise, though. As we look at our scripture passage for today, we’ll read that Jesus warned his disciples that they would face suffering and conflict because living the way of love toward all people is difficult but worth it.

Read Matthew 10: 24-39

Baylor University assistant professor of religion Jonathan Tran summarizes Matthew 10: 24-29 this way:

I, Jesus, do things that will get one in trouble. Inasmuch as you, disciples, do what I do, you’ll get in trouble, too. But don’t worry too much about that as you’ll be taken care of. If you find yourself overly worried about getting into trouble, that means you are confused in one of four ways: that the things I do are not so significant that they should cause trouble; that who I am is not so significant that what I do should matter very much; that the significance of what I do and who I am do not bear on your long-term welfare; or, all the above.

Let’s look more closely at each paraphrased section of the passage.

I, Jesus, do things that will get one in trouble. Inasmuch as you, disciples, do what I do, you’ll get in trouble, too. (v. 24-25)

Jesus makes the point that if the disciples (including us) lived as he lived, caring for people in ways that often broke cultural norms, the guardians of the existing system supporting those cultural narratives would not be happy. They might even be vindictive as we can see from the way the Jewish leaders influenced Pilate to sentence Jesus to death. Jesus invites his followers to participate in the suffering that comes from loving others in a radical way.

In v. 24, Jesus makes the point that “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master.” The word translated “slave” is doulos, and it suggests “involuntary servitude.” In other scripture passages (such as Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:10; Philippians 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1), the disciples refer to themselves as douloi of Christ. The passage goes on to state that “it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master” to provoke persecution. Jesus reminds the disciples how people accused him of doing good works by the power of Beelzebub (see Matthew 9:34 and 12:22-27), and if they thought Jesus’ works were produced by demonic power, any works the disciples did would also be thought to be demonically influenced. In short, if Jesus suffered, even died, for the way he moved through the world and interacted with its systems, it should not surprise his followers when they suffer by living out love in ways that conflict with deeply held cultural narratives and systems of empire.

But don’t worry too much about that as you’ll be taken care of. (v. 26-31)

Jesus encourages the disciples and us not to be afraid when we face conflict from caring for people in ways that conflict with societal norms. Jesus reminds us that any evil secrets will be brought into the light (v. 26), and we should speak on behalf of those who are marginalized and oppressed, listening for God to whisper in our ears what we should say (v. 27).

Another reason we should not be afraid is that the power held by others over us is limited. Verse 28 says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” The last half of verse 28 helps us keep the right perspective about who is most powerful: “rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The wording of v. 28 is contrasting the limited control human beings have over one another with the power of our Creator who desires nothing more than to give us life.

Verses 29-31 offer “proof” that our loving God cares for us despite any difficulties we might face from following Jesus’ example of loving others. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (v. 29-31).

The phrase “apart from your Father” could be interpreted “without your Father’s knowledge,” and the phrase “even the hairs of your head are all counted” conveys the fine detail that God loves in each one of us. God loves and values sparrows and people, but loving someone or something deeply does not mean that the loved one will not suffer. Suffering and pain are the shadow side of beauty and joy – we could not know or appreciate either side without the other.

If you find yourself overly worried about getting into trouble, that means you are confused in one of four ways: that the things I do are not so significant that they should cause trouble; that who I am is not so significant that what I do should matter very much; that the significance of what I do and who I am do not bear on your long-term welfare; or, all the above. (v. 32-39)

Verses 32-39 sound harsh, but Jesus is clear that cultural and governmental systems of oppression are not aligned with the kingdom of God. As translated by The Message, Jesus did not “come to make life cozy” (Matthew 10:34). His use of the literary technique of hyperbole (i.e., exaggeration) helps us understand that we are not being asked to start a family fight (i.e., “set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother,” found in v. 35). Instead, Jesus wants to prepare his disciples for the conflict that comes up when we choose to love others in radical ways, especially those people different from us and our families.

Because of Christianity’s affiliation with empires, beginning with Constantine in 312 CE (Common Era) and his later Christianization of the Roman Empire, many Christians have been reluctant to point out the inconsistencies between governmental policies and the way Jesus lived.

One example of this is found in the US government’s treatment of Native Americans. In Steven Charleston’s book, The Four Vision Quests of Jesus, he recounts the popular myths perpetuated by American history books that only focus on the last-ditch, desperate efforts of Native Americans to fight back during the last decade of the 1800s. While those accounts are accurate, they don’t include what was the experience of the majority of Native Americans, which was much less dramatic but just as destructive. It involved treaties with the US government that Native Americans were forced to sign under duress, which gave large sections of land to the federal government. These same treaties were broken, more land was taken than was included in the treaties, and Native Americans were forced to leave their land. Native communities were devastated by disease introduced by pioneering settlers, defrauded of their land, and deported to reservations or the Oklahoma territory (pp. 116-117). Charleston writes:

The majority of these people, the Native American survivors of ethnic cleansing, were Christians. Among the first buildings to be erected in the refugee centers of Oklahoma were churches. My great-grandfather was a Presbyterian pastor who was responsible for building several of these churches in Oklahoma…, [and] Christians cheating and oppressing Christians is the historic subtext of most of the story between Native Americans and white people during the nineteenth century.” (p. 117)

Jesus lived with and loved people, even those outside his culture and those often called “sinners,” and he ultimately was put to death for it. Jesus pointed out the inconsistencies between the Pharisees’ laws and what God’s intention was, along with the hypocrisy in the cultural system. Jesus was not interested in “power over,” saying in John,

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. (John 15:15 NRSVUE).

Jesus was interested in “power with.” He opened his relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit to us, including all people.

What Jesus did was significant, and it upset those in power. Who Jesus was and the love he showed the poor and oppressed offended those in power. Anybody who professes to love Jesus and desires to follow him will also upset those who are intent on maintaining power structures, and governments that continue to promote policies destructive to the well-being of all people. Unfortunately, our tendency is to focus on ourselves and self-improvement rather than identifying social justice issues occurring around us.

American Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon writes about the church’s tendency to focus on personal morality at the expense of social justice:

The sad fact is that the church, both now and at far too many times in its history, has found it easier to act as if it were selling the sugar of moral and spiritual achievement rather than the salt of Jesus’s passion and death. It will preach salvation for the successfully well-behaved, redemption for the triumphantly correct in doctrine, and pie in the sky for all the winners who think they can walk into the final judgment and flash their passing report cards at Jesus (183).

Consider again the example of Clarence Jordan and Millard and Linda Fuller. Think of the courage and conviction it took to build an interracial community farm in 1942. Think of the perseverance it required to rebuild a roadside peanut stand and then come up with another fundraising plan when that rebuilt stand was dynamited. Jordan and the Fullers were following Jesus’ call to love and care for all people, and it wasn’t an easy road. If we are radically loving others, targeting the marginalized, oppressed, and poor, we will also encounter pushback and conflict. That doesn’t mean we are doing anything wrong. Losing our lives is another way to talk about kenosis or the self-emptying love that Jesus exhibited by dying on the cross. In fact, Jesus promises we will actually “find” our lives when we follow his way of radical, kenotic love for all (v. 39).

Application:

  • Recognize our tendency to focus on “moral and spiritual achievement rather than the salt of Jesus’ passion and death.” While it’s true that Divine love transforms us, our personal transformation is secondary to our call to live in our true identity as the beloved of God. This means we will participate with Jesus in radically loving others and working to ensure the well-being of all people, especially those who are marginalized by the cultural and governmental systems.
  • Consider our fear of conflict with those who are intent on maintaining systems of power that oppress people of color, women, and other marginalized groups. Think about how we often focus on the cross as forgiveness of personal sins rather than corporate or systemic sins, forgetting that the cross happened because of Jesus’ love for all, as well as his conflict with the power structures in ancient Judea. Be encouraged by the example of Clarence Jordan and Millard and Linda Fuller, who were excommunicated in 1950 by the Rehoboth Southern Baptist Church because of their beliefs about racial equality. Notice how their conviction to radically love and support the oppressed and the poor fueled their radical love and determination.
  • Realize that radical love only asks us to love others the way Jesus did and to use the skills and resources we have to take action. Clarence Jordan used his college education in agronomy to start an interracial community farm. Consider what skills and resources you have been given to join Jesus in convey his radical love to others.

The following poem from Steve Garnaas-Holmes shows how radical love begins with small steps:

When injustice strides so easily,
When evil reigns
And you feel there’s little you can do,
Remember we are all one.
You are part of the Great Oneness –
some call it the Body of Christ –
And what you do affects the whole.
You can choose goodness.
When you change your life, you change the world.
An immense grace hums beneath
The noise of this world.
When you live in harmony with it,
You intensify the great music of life
That renews earth.
You are a voice in the chorus,
A string on the Beloved’s guitar;
When you change your note
You change the whole chord.

Jesus’ talk in Matthew 10:24-39 contains some challenge for us if we say we are his disciples and followers. But it also offers us the comfort of knowing we aren’t alone when we follow his footsteps, participating with him in radically loving others and working toward the kingdom of God on earth.

For Reference:

Capon, Robert Farrar. Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002.

Charleston, Steven. The Four Vision Quests of Jesus. Morehouse Publishing, 2015.

https://www.habitat.org/about/history
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-12/commentary-on-matthew-1024-39
https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/not-peace-but-a-sword
https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/do-not-be-afraid-2
https://blogs.baylor.edu/truettpulpit/2017/06/01/matthew-1024-39/

The Way of the Triune God w/ Myk Habets W4

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June 25 — Proper 7 of Ordinary Time
Matthew 10:24-39, “Like the Master”

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Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life

  • What does the phrase “no longer enslaved to sin” mean to you? Contrast how you might live or behave as a “slave” to sin and how that would change as you more fully embrace the freedom you have being “alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
  • If we are liberated to live a life of radical love, what are some practical ways we can work to support each other and those who are marginalized by cultural norms and systems of power?

From the sermon

  • How would you feel to be in the shoes of Clarence Jordan and the Fullers, excommunicated from their church in 1950 and in conflict with the Ku Klux Klan because of their views on racial equality? How would you seek encouragement to continue to radically love others, especially the marginalized?
  • What can you do with your skills and resources to radically love and support those who suffer from oppression or discrimination?