GCI Equipper

The Truth About Healthy Church

A healthy church is filled with those who need healing.

A man I highly respected made a statement that stuck with me. He said for years he looked for the perfect church in hopes he could join and be among those wonderful believers. But when he joined, he realized two things: one, his presence made the congregation less than perfect because of his own weaknesses and struggles; and two, no one in that congregation was perfect – though many pretended to be.

One of the great misnomers about Christ followers is that we have it all together. And honestly, that misnomer comes in large part from our efforts to appear more than we are and our failure to be transparent about our personal needs for healing. I submit that a healthy church is a sanctuary for those who need healing – and that includes each and every one of us.

Let me pause my point for a moment to emphasize that our GCI Healthy Church initiatives are meant to do just that – help us be a sanctuary for those who need healing. We represent Jesus to others through our Love Avenue; we invite them to participate in worship and fellowship through our Hope Avenue; and we help them see we are all learning and growing together in relationship in our Faith Avenue. But let me get back to the point about being a sanctuary.

It’s been said that church is to be a hospital for sinners rather than a museum for saints. I submit it should be an inclusive place of healing and growing for all, and we look to Jesus for the example. Notice the variety of people he stopped for, those he touched, those he brought attention to.

  • Mary Magdalene – a woman who had seven demons. (Since seven was considered a number of completion in Jewish tradition, this means she was completely overwhelmed by them.)
  • Nicodemus – a pharisee who evidently came to believe, as evidenced by placing Jesus in a tomb.
  • The woman at the well – a woman scorned and rejected by her community for unknown reasons.
  • A woman bleeding – someone who was ceremonially unclean, rejected, sick, and who had lost hope.
  • Zaccheus – a chief tax collector who was hated for working with the Romans.
  • The adulterous woman – to whom he said, “Neither do I condemn you.”
  • The dying thief – a criminal who had been condemned to death.
  • The man with leprosy – feared and scorned by his community.
  • The blind, mute, demoniac – one who was uncontrollable and caused fear.
  • A centurion – a Gentile and a Roman soldier whose very presence caused fear.
  • His disciples – which included a number of fishermen, a tax collector, and a zealot. We don’t know all the professions, but it’s still quite a mix.

The point is clear; Jesus was not a respecter of persons. He served the rich and the poor, the popular and the downcast, male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, and he has called us to do the same. A healthy congregation will follow this pattern and be welcoming to people from all parts of society, and ideally their membership will be reflective of their neighborhood. That means people with all kinds of backgrounds, dealing with a number of issues, all seeking the same thing – healing, identity, acceptance, forgiveness, love. In other words, a healthy congregation will be a microcosm of the neighborhood and community it serves.

You might be saying, “Well, Mr. Obvious, we know this.” My question is do those in the neighborhood you’ve been called to serve know this? The perception many have about church is the same as my friend had when he was looking for a place to worship; he thought the church was full of righteous and perfect people. We laugh at the absurdity of that, but there’s another side to that we should also be aware of. Many perceive the church to be full of people who “believe” they are righteous and perfect and better, and who look down on others. Ouch. That might hit closer to home than we like. Sure, we know we aren’t righteous except through Jesus, and we know only he is perfect, but too often we give the impression that because we are believers, we have it all together. I’ve heard people say something to the effect of: “If you just come to Jesus, all your problems will be solved.”

Really? It didn’t work for me. Yes, he is the solution, but sometimes he lets me stay in my problems because his solution is on a different timeline than my solution. And sometimes (often) – and we don’t like to admit this – my problems are of my own doing. Bottom line: I am a Christ follower, and I don’t have it all together. And this is the message I need to be willing to share with others as I build relationships with them. And please note the last part of that sentence, “as I build relationships with them.” We don’t need to carry placards announcing, “I’m a sinner too!” But we can and should be transparent with people about how Jesus is working with us, healing us, transforming us, blessing us, encouraging us, correcting us in his patient and gracious way. It’s called being transparent about our ongoing need for Jesus. (If you’ve not read it, I recommend the book, What If Jesus Meets us in the Good, the Bad and the Messy? by Greg Williams and Mark Mounts. Click here to download.)

A healthy congregation is already filled with people in need of healing if you and I attend that congregation. And the good news is, a healthy congregation is a place that continually points us to the one who does the healing, and together we grow in his grace. Together! A key word here.

So, here’s an assignment for you. As you pray, ask God to help you see where you can be more transparent. Ask God to help you see where you might be giving the impression that you have it all together, and to whom. Look for one person this week who needs to hear the message that your congregation or fellowship group is a place of healing, a place where no one really has it together, but a place where all are growing closer to Jesus individually and collectively.

Ask God to help you be part of the path to Healthy Church.

Rick Shallenberger
Editor

Becoming a Missional Church

The four-fold process of focusing on local neighborhood mission.

By Tim Sitterley, US West Regional Director

A church I visit often for various pastoral association meetings has a sign immediately adjacent to their parking lot exit. “You are now entering your mission field.” I have to wonder how many of the members who pass that sign Sunday after Sunday really understand its implications.

It’s far too easy to read “missional” and think “missionary.” We are all familiar with the idea of journeying to a far-off land to share the gospel with people who have never heard the name of Jesus. I’ve done the missionary thing a couple of times, and I have to admit that my short presence left little (if any) mark on the country I was visiting. Stretching out a sheet and projecting The Jesus Film provided an evening of entertainment to a village where electricity was a rare luxury. But if there was any transformational change, it was more likely the result of the relationship and example between the villagers and the indigenous pastors and local Christians. It’s possible that the presence of a handful of wealthy (by their standards) and somewhat self-righteous Americans may have done more harm than good.

But if we are going to live out the great commission – to think and behave as a “sent” people – we are going to have to become far more familiar with the concept of living missionally rather than just as visiting missionaries. Many articles have been written on this subject in previous Equipper issues, but let’s take a moment to briefly review the four-fold process of becoming more missional and less missionary in our thinking.

The first element is to develop a missional mentality.

On the wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC are the words of Lincoln’s second inaugural address. In that message he petitions that rather than praying for God to be on our side, we should seek to be on God’s side. In a nutshell, this is the missional mindset. We are called to participate in Jesus’ mission, not our own.

You can find dozens of books dealing with the best practices to engage your immediate neighborhood. We’ve written articles on the subject. But rather that picking a ministry outreach from a long list, we must first prayerfully seek to discern what Jesus is already doing in our neighborhood. Have we taken the time to walk through the streets surrounding our meeting place? Have we engaged the neighbors directly to see who they are? What are their needs? To which part of our neighborhood is the Holy Spirit leading us?

This leads us to the second element: missional development.

As you discern the needs of your community, it is equally important to assess the giftings of your existing members. This is where the 4 Es come into place. This is where equipping becomes crucial. And this is also where frank honesty is equally important. If you are a group of 60-somethings, you are probably not going to start a basketball camp. If you don’t own your own building, and only rent on Sunday, a food pantry is out of the question.

But in the midst of potential negatives, there will always be a wealth of possibilities remaining. A group of 60-somethings may be just what the local school needs for their afterschool reading program. What organizations or businesses are your members already embedded in? What are ways you can partner with those outside of your membership to engage the surrounding community?

Which brings us to the third element: missional movement.

I don’t know how many times in my pastoral career that I quoted John 4:35: “…open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (NIV) How many times had we prayed, as Jesus commanded in Matthew 9:38, for the Lord of the harvest “to send out workers into his harvest field”? And how many years did it take us to finally begin to understand that WE are the workers, and the harvest field is not our Sunday worship service?

What is the day-to-day life of the neighborhood surrounding our church, and how can our members best interact and insert themselves into that rhythm? What community events are taking place where we can serve? Participation is nice, but service gets noticed. What are the local organizations? Where do people hang out?

Which of course leads us to the final element of becoming a missional church: missional rhythms.

When we first published the circular graphic we use to depict the Christian calendar, I had someone question why we were placing so much importance on something that had not been that important in our past. The easy answer was to point out that the Christian calendar reflects the annual life of the greater Christian church. Hopefully, this answer is obvious to us all. But what I did was to ask the individual to tell me what his friends and family were doing during each of the larger seasons depicted on that graphic. Together we quickly began to outline the seasonal rhythms of his immediate community. Even during Ordinary Time, there was a clear rhythm of activity.

Add to this recognized national and local holidays, school calendars, and activities and events specific to your local community, and you begin to see and feel the rhythm of your neighborhood. The rhythm of your missional interaction with your neighborhood needs to sync with this greater rhythm. And in that rhythm, consistency is extremely important. Doing an event once, or attending some community activity once, will have little noticeable effect. To live missionally is to become a part of the neighborhood around you. The more you are consistent in your presence, the more you will become visible. And the more you are visible, the greater the opportunity to actually live out and share the gospel.

As I said in the beginning, this is only a brief overview. Living missionally will look different for each of us. But regardless of our age, experience, culture, or surrounding community, we each share a calling to emulate the one who established the very notion of living as one sent. As Eugene Peterson paraphrased it in the first chapter of John, the Word (Jesus) “moved into the neighborhood.”

The fields have always been ripe for harvest in our neighborhood. And we have always been called to get out of the barn.

Ministry Action Plans

A nuts-and-bolts approach to developing your MAP

By Cara Garrity, Development Coordinator

It’s that time of year again – time for Ministry Action Plans (MAPs)!

What are MAPs?

A Ministry Action Plan is a “living document” that identifies specific ministry goal(s) and charts an intentional pathway to move from the current ministry conditions towards the stated goal(s).

MAPs are a tool for strategic Healthy Church planning. The process of developing a comprehensive MAP provides an opportunity to discern what God is doing in our midst and make intentional decisions about how our ministries will participate in the coming year. The level of clarity and intentionality that a MAP brings out of us helps create an order and harmony to our participation in Jesus’ ministry. When strategy is done in prayerful, discerning community – it is a powerful way to seek and sync with God’s will.

What does that look like practically?

We may take the opportunity to discern ways our ministries need to grow in Healthy Church rhythms, what our priorities are, what our opportunities and challengers are, what our greatest needs and assets are, where we may be choosing comfort over mission, etc.

Why put it in writing?

A written MAP supports alignment and integration of ministry Avenues for unified and synergetic Healthy Church growth. It creates clarity which builds trust. It is a sign of commitment to steward our leadership well.

What does it mean that a MAP is a “living document”?

We are not legally bound to our MAP; it is simply a guide to help us participate in Jesus’ present ministry. We are bound to Jesus. Discernment is an ongoing process. As we continue to observe, reflect, and pray about what we see God doing in our midst, refinement to our MAP is bound to happen.

If it is bound to change, why use a MAP at all?

Clarity is kind. When we re-route in response to discernment in community, we don’t want to go alone. Updating a MAP when circumstances change helps us continue to move forward towards Healthy Church in unity. Just like a geographical map, we use a MAP so that we all can make it safely to the target destination together.

As we define what a MAP is, it can be helpful to also define what it isn’t.

IS IS NOT
Tool for strategic planning To-do list or calendar of events
Intentionally growth-oriented Passive description of ministry “as is”
Tool for alignment Job description for ministry leaders
Tool for discernment, reflection, and assessment Annual report to supervisor

There are two MAP formats that are helpful to consider for a local congregation. A TEAM MAP and INDIVIDUAL MAP.

A TMAP is a MAP that is developed by and for the entire team. The TMAP will identify the ministry goal(s) for the congregation and for the entire team, then chart the agreed upon pathway towards these goals.

An IMAP will flow from a TMAP. It will address the specific goals, action items, deadlines, and responsibilities that each individual has committed to in order to achieve the goals agreed upon in the TMAP.

Why both? Individual MAPs without a team MAP risks each team member going off in different directions – resulting in not being aligned, integrated, and unified in our Healthy Church expression. A team MAP without individual MAPs risks lack of clarity and specificity about what each team member is responsible for.

Here is a TMAP WORD template TMAP PDF template and an IMAP WORD template IMAP PDF template to prompt/guide you in creating your TMAP and/or IMAP for the coming year.

RCL Resources for 2024

By Michelle Fleming, Communications Director

My team and I are wholeheartedly committed to serving you. We admire your commitment and faithfulness in serving in Jesus’ ministry through GCI. Our main goal is to provide resources that empower you and your team to continuously focus on living and sharing the gospel within a vibrant and Healthy Church community. Below, I’d like to share with you a crucial component to our RCL resources for next year, and a change we are making in hopes to better serve you.

Embracing the Worship Calendar 

In GCI, our liturgy of adhering to the worship calendar enriches our worship as we commemorate the significant milestones of Jesus’ life, from his birth and ministry to his death, resurrection, ascension, and eventual return. By aligning our focus with this calendar, we are continually reminded of God’s transformative deeds for humanity. Jesus is the center of the calendar, symbolizing God’s loving pursuit of humanity.

Our embrace of this calendar isn’t rooted in obligation, but rather in the recognition that its rhythms and reminders profoundly influence and shape our spiritual journey. This principle is a driving force behind GCI pastors and ministry leaders adopting the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for sermon planning.

To provide additional support, here is a link to the pericopes for Year B which begins on December 3, 2023, with Advent 1.

Additionally, we have established an archive, allowing you to cross-reference GCI resources from previous years in the RCL, where we delved into the interpretation of these pericopes.

Embracing Transition: A New Chapter in our RCL Resources

We want to share some exciting updates regarding our programming. After careful consideration, our team has decided to embark on a new journey, transitioning away from the weekly “Speaking of Life” series. This decision stems from our commitment to evolving and aligning our efforts with projects that empower and inspire you with stories of how we are living and sharing the gospel around the world.

Our commitment to providing you with uplifting content remains steadfast, and we are thrilled to introduce upcoming initiatives that resource, connect, and inspire. We will be dedicating our time to sharing stories of Healthy Church across GCI, producing equipping videos similar to the place-sharing series we released in 2022, and developing inspirational videos aligned with the worship calendar.

To ensure a smooth transition, we’ve curated an extensive archive of “Speaking of Life” episodes, allowing you to revisit your favorite moments whenever you need a dose of encouragement. Additionally, recognizing the significance of the series in your lives, we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be airing weekly reruns of “Speaking of Life” throughout the next year. This will provide a bridge as we transition towards our new direction.

We’re deeply grateful for the unwavering support you’ve shown us and the invaluable connections we’ve built through “Speaking of Life.” We’re excited about this shift and look forward to continuing to inspire and empower you through our upcoming projects. Thank you for being part of our community and for embracing change alongside us.

Place Sharing vs. Confrontational Evangelism

Scare theology might bring people in, but it doesn’t build relationship.

By Danny Zachariah, Superintendent, Asia

“If you died today, where would you go?” Certainly, this is an “in-your-face” question that gets one’s attention, but it’s also a question that might instill fear. Sadly, it’s a common starting point for many Christians who are eager to share the gospel with others.

The noted American pastor, Jonathan Edwards, used his “scare theology” to good effect when he preached his famed “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon. His graphic description of hell and the horrific “wrath of God” that would be poured out on unbelieving sinners caused some of those listening to the sermon to pass out!

This is called confrontational evangelism and is used by far too many Christians. These well-meaning Christians believe that Jesus and his disciples used the fear of the last judgement to warn people of “storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath” (Romans 2:5). In his commentary, Fear of Hell or the Joy of the Gospel? Daniel Amiri explains the flip side of resorting to scaring people into the kingdom of God:

Fear limits the imagination. Fear stops only to consider the least we must do to escape suffering. Far from encouraging evangelical zeal, our fear can become self-serving and insular. Ultimately, fear is corrosive; it lacks the hope that can spur us on through life’s challenges … Fear of suffering is self-consuming … Living in fear inevitably causes anxious worry. Eventually, we burn out and lose our zeal, becoming filled with frustration, despondency, and despair. [i]

 

Confrontational evangelism, ultimately, can become manipulative. It resorts to exerting an intimidating influence that mitigates and, sometimes, even violates the free will of an individual. It robs the gospel message of its real focus – Jesus Christ. As Roy Tay says, “If it were possible to enter heaven with merely the intention to escape hell, then I wonder if heaven would feel much like hell since we never really wanted God – much less an eternity with Him!” [ii]

Like the use of fear, it is unfortunate that over the years, the Christian witness has become transactional. Relationships are often abused to get people to “come to my church” rather than allowing others to develop a genuine relationship with Christ. This approach has led to coercion and, sadly, many times the use of violence and force. This, by and large, has brought ill repute to Christianity, as many talk about Christianity’s “bait-and-switch.” The gospel is used as a tool to influence people to do something rather than to bring “God’s person and presence itself,” as Dr. Andrew Root argues. “The minute we seek to use the relationship as a tool, people are no longer persons but have become objects (or projects) that we seek to influence to a new interest.” [iii]

There is no denying that the Bible does have warnings about the fate of those who will not want to ultimately have a believing relationship with Jesus Christ. But the overarching message of Biblical Scripture is the love inherent in our triune God and the overflow of that great, amazing love for humanity. The Incarnational Trinitarian Theology that GCI is committed to reflects this love in our outreach through what we call place-sharing.

An expression coined by Deitric Bonhoffer, place-sharing is to manifest the love of Jesus as he did in his incarnation – or as Jesus put it, to love others as he loves us. Dr Andrew Root, in his paper on place-sharing, writes this:

The incarnation is about God, it is about the incarnate one Jesus Christ, sharing our place, representing us and loving us by fully sharing our humanity so that we might be in relationship with God not beyond, over, or around our broken humanity but within it.[iv]

Like Jesus, who was the ultimate place-sharer, a more effective way to help others to understand and appreciate the gospel is to identify with them in their situations and move towards them in love, compassion, and empathy. It is to share in the person’s life, offering understanding in their confusion and empathy in their suffering. Therefore, to place-share is to model and be a witness to a God who is love and to express that in a relationship of sharing and participating in a real life-on-life scenario. Even as Jesus acknowledges, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

The question may be asked, will those we encounter ever come to have a saving relationship with Christ via this method? It is necessary to believe that we are not bringing Jesus into the relationship, but Jesus is already present in every situation in and through his incarnation, resurrection and ascension. The Holy Spirit makes that possible. As we share in Christ’s ministry of place-sharing, transformation takes place in a way we might not fully fathom. All I can say with the apostle Paul is, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:38, NIV). As Root states, “The personal empathic encounter possesses the power to bring forth transformation … Personal encounter is transformation.” (The Surprising God Blog, part 2)

[i] https://wherepeteris.com/fear-of-hell-or-the-joy-of-the-gospel/
[ii] https://thirst.sg/the-gospel-of-fear/
[iii] Root, Dr. Andrew, The Relational Pastor: Sharing in Christ by Sharing Ourselves, p.55
[iv] Root, Dr. Andrew, The Incarnation, Place-Sharing and Youth Ministry: Experiencing the Transcendence of God, Luther seminar, St. Paul, MN, p.6

Church Hack: Communion in Worship

Through the symbols of bread and wine, the act of Communion offers us an opportunity to remember and rejoice in Jesus’ love, which he poured out for us. This unifying practice, also known as the Eucharist, displays the remarkable unity present in the body of Christ, regardless of diverse backgrounds, races, or social standings. As participants share in the bread and wine, we symbolically partake in the essence of Christ, uniting as a single body, echoing Christ’s invitation to partake in his flesh and blood for eternal life.

This month’s Church Hack is all about communion. To download and view the pdf, click here: https://resources.gci.org/…/2023/08/2023-CH9-Communion.pdf

The GenMin Webinars

When I worked for the Boston Public Schools, I had several school-based afterschool program directors assigned to my department. One of our directors was approached by a local bank representative who was trying to be helpful. In an effort to be charitable to the 60 elementary-aged students in our director’s program, the bank rep offered to give the program staff the day off. The idea was that their bank employees would take the place of the program’s staff and run the activities in their place. In typical Boston fashion (aka snarky sarcasm) the director said, “Sure!” “Sure” was pronounced more like “shaw.” She continued, “Then, next week, my staff can take your employees’ place at the bank and handle all that money for you!” The poor bank representative looked shocked and tactfully explained that it would not be appropriate for afterschool program staff to work at the bank. The director asked, “If we cannot do your job, what makes you think you can do ours?”

 

Since most adults know children and have been to school, a common error made by grownups is to mistake familiarity for competency. Just because a person is familiar with children or has children of their own does not mean that person will demonstrate competence in teaching and caring for young people. In Christian congregations, there is often an assumption that all one needs to disciple young people is a willing heart. A willing heart is crucial, but working with children and youth requires training. We have to be taught how to effectively minister to them and have ongoing training. Paul gives his mentee, Timothy this advice:

You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. (2 Timothy 2:2 NLT)

Paul believed that teachers needed to be taught, so he taught Timothy and asked his protégé to teach others. GCI believes the same thing. That is why Generations Ministries (GenMin) recorded a webinar series aimed at equipping those who work with children and youth. The webinar series is designed to teach participants how to connect with young people in their neighborhood and share the love of Christ with them. The hope is that GCI congregations will use the GenMin webinar series as a training tool for those who work with children and youth.

Each webinar was recorded, and the videos will be available for those who were unable to attend through the GCI website for $25/download. We want to equip congregations to be able to train their children’s ministry teams for years to come.

The four webinars we offer include:

  • Understanding Youth Culture with Cara Garrity
  • Engaging Young People with Ceeja Malmkar
  • Building Relationships with Young People with Carrie Osborne
  • Starting a Neighborhood Camp with Anne Stapleton

The last webinar takes place October 10 between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The cost is $25 per webinar per screen. With each registration comes a FREE download of the webinar video that can be used for training purposes. To register please click here. For more information, please contact me (dishon.mills@gci.org).

GCI does not typically charge for its resources like this, but it is doing so to be a blessing to its young people. The proceeds from the webinars will go to support GCNext and other initiatives that support children and youth. It is our intention that the funds we raise will go right back to local congregations and/or to our younger members.

(We will include information on downloading the videos in a future article.)

Please be praying for God to use this webinar series to equip those working with our children and youth. We want to see those working with our young people reflecting who Jesus is in the way we care for our children and youth. More importantly, we want our young people to see it so they can know how precious they are to God and to us.

Dishon Mills,
Generations Ministry Coordinator

Gospel Reverb – Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison

Video unavailable (video not checked).

Listen in as Dr. Michael Morrison joins host, Anthony Mullins, to unpack this month’s lectionary passages.

Mike is the President of Grace Communion Seminary, has been a writer and editor for Grace Communion International since 1983, and is the Associate Pastor of GCI Glendora (CA). Mike earned a PhD in New Testament Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary.

November 5 — Proper 26 of Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13, “You Are Witnesses”

November 12 — Proper 27 of Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, “Resurrection Reality”

November 19 — Proper 28 of Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, “Hope in Jesus”

November 26 — The Reign of Christ
Matthew 25:31-46, “Reign of Christ”


If you get a chance to rate and review the show, that helps a lot. And invite your fellow preachers and Bible lovers to join us!

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Program Transcript


Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison

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’s my joy to welcome our guest, Dr. Michael Morrison. Mike is the president of Grace Communion Seminary, has been a writer and editor for Grace Communion International since 1983, and works on a local level as a practitioner, as the associate pastor of GCI Glendora in California. Mike earned a PhD in New Testament studies from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Mike, thank you for being with us and welcome to the podcast. And since this is your first time on Gospel Reverb, we’d love to know a bit about your story and how you’re participating with the Lord these days.

[00:01:27] Mike: Thanks, Anthony. Thanks for inviting me to be part of this podcast. I listen to it every month, and I hope that more people learn about it and learn from it.

I grew up in Sparta, a small town in southern Illinois. Our family was religious but did not go to church. We had a Bible study every week at home. I went to the University of Chicago for a couple years, and then Southern Illinois University, getting a bachelor’s degree in biology. I was studying for a graduate degree in zoology when I had some personal failures and I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord.

That led to a career change, and I worked on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kansas for two years, and then I went to Ambassador College to study theology. It was there that I met my wife, Janet. We were married in 1984 and we had two children, who are now married, and we have two grandchildren.

As you mentioned, I’ve been working for our denomination since 1983 as a writer and an editor. A few years after I started, the department manager told all the employees that we need to start studying for an accredited degree relevant to what our job was. At least I think that’s what he said. Nobody else seemed to hear it, or at least they didn’t do anything about it. So, I started studying at Azusa Pacific University, and with only one class at a time, it took a long time to get a Master of Divinity.

Then I was encouraged to study for a doctorate. We already had personnel who had specialized in theology, history, ministry, and Old Testament, so I chose to focus on the New Testament, and I wrote my dissertation on the book of Hebrews and finished in 2006.

Grace Communion Seminary started in 2004, and I was involved in it from the start, writing lectures on the Background of the New Testament, the four Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, and so forth. When we started to seek accreditation in 2010, I was given the title of Dean of Faculty, to coordinate the faculty and our courses. When Gary Deddo retired from being president a couple of years ago, I was asked to be the president in addition to teaching the same courses. So, I bounce back and forth from administrative work to the day-to-day work of teaching one course each semester.

How am I participating in what the Lord is doing? The seminary work is one of the ways. I am convinced that the church – any church – needs formal education to help us from going off in strange directions. As part of the Great Commission, we are supposed to teach people what Jesus taught, and we want to do our best to get it right. We will always make some mistakes along the way, but we won’t make as many if we take time to study what we’re doing, and to learn from others.

Another way that I’m participating in what the Lord is doing is in my local congregation in Glendora. I’m an associate pastor and one of the speakers. We put on a few events for the neighborhood each year, and I am part of the team that distributes fliers to all the houses in the surrounding area. I was actually doing that this morning.

Our congregation is also involved in the process of merging with another GCI church in the area, and that’s helped me think more about the purpose of the church. It’s not about survival, or self-preservation – it’s about mission. Survival wouldn’t do much good unless we also had a mission, a purpose beyond ourselves, so we need to think about what we are doing in order to be a blessing to other people.

If we merge two churches that have been declining, then the result is going to be just a continuation of the decline, unless we start doing something different. So, in a merger, our priority is not about making sure that each group feels like its own preferences are being honored. Rather, our priority is making sure that our practices will help us carry out the mission Jesus has given us. It’s not to please ourselves, but to serve others.

For example, it’s not about what kind of music we happen to like – it’s about what music is going to help other people who aren’t even here yet. We are supposed to be mature enough to handle a few things outside of what we prefer, and to think of what others might need. That’s part of what it means to be sent by a Lord and Savior who gave up his own privileges in order to serve our needs. He set an example that we should follow.

Another area of life in which I am participating with the Lord is my family. Even after 39 years of marriage, I have a lot to learn there, and it’s a ministry to serve what others need.

[00:06:28] Anthony: Knowing you and knowing your wife, Janet, she’s mentioned to me that you have a lot to learn. No, I haven’t heard that at all from her.

I’ll just tag on to what you said. You mentioned Mike that one of your primary ways of participating with the Lord is through the seminary where you serve as president and not everybody in our listening audience has heard of Grace Communion Seminary.

I want to give you an opportunity, as the president, to share why people who desire an advanced education—maybe in theology or biblical studies, maybe somebody wants to pursue a Master of Divinity—why should they consider GCS?

[00:07:06] Mike: Thanks. Thanks for that question. I do hope that the listeners desire advanced education. No doubt, some of them already have it.

One reason is that when we go to a dentist, for example, we don’t want somebody who is essentially self-taught. we want somebody who has studied the subject, and I think that the general public might reasonably want similar qualifications. for the area of spiritual health.

There are lots of seminaries out there, and most of them offer courses online, and many offer degrees that are completely online. And you can get a decent education at many of them. So why should someone want to take classes at Grace Communion Seminary rather than somewhere else?

The biggest reason, I think, is that we have the best theology. That might sound like I’m bragging, but really, if I could think of a better theology, then I’d try to change what we have. We want the best!  (I suppose most other seminaries do as well, so you’d expect any of them to say that they have the best.) But we really do have the best.

For those who work in the GCI context, or those who like the theology they hear on this podcast, or on the You’re Included video interviews, then they would be interested in getting more theological training from this perspective, and that’s what we offer at Grace Communion Seminary.

It’s not just in the theology courses. Theology should have an effect on the way we read the Bible. It should have an effect on the way we do ministry. It should affect even the way we read about church history. So, one of our goals at Grace Communion Seminary is that we don’t just give nuts and bolts of how to do ministry, how to press the right psychological buttons to get people to do what you want them to do.

Rather, we want good theology to be the basis for everything we do, how we go about it. We want to make sure that we’re doing the right job and that we’re doing it in the right way. As we teach and interact with other people, are we doing it with the love of Jesus? Are we modeling for others the way he’d want it done?

So even our ministry courses have a theological foundation, and that’s one reason people should consider enrolling at Grace Communion Seminary. And last, maybe this isn’t a very good reason, but it does affect some people: we are one of the least expensive accredited seminaries around. We need to charge some tuition so we can stay in business, but we try to be administratively efficient, so that the cost doesn’t exclude all the people who need it.

So, Anthony, thanks for giving me the opportunity to let more people know about what we offer.

[00:09:58] Anthony: Yeah, absolutely. And I was able to take advantage of the education at GCS and earned a master’s degree there recently.

And for people that are interested, I would highly recommend the seminary. And even though it might be secondary, it is cost effective. And for some of us that really matters. But if you’re interested and want to know more information visit their website www.gcs.edu.

All right, let’s move on to the lectionary passages. That’s why we’re here today. We’re going to be looking at four pericopes.

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13                                          “You Are Witnesses”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18                                        “Resurrection Reality”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11                                            “Hope in Jesus”

Matthew 25:31-46                                                 “Reign of Christ”

Our first pericope of the month is 1 Thessalonians  2:9-13. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition, which is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 26 in Ordinary Time, which falls on November 5.

9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. 11 As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12 urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.

Now, Mike, if you were exegeting this passage to prepare for a sermon, what would be the focus of this, from this pericope in your proclamation?

[00:12:19] Mike: The word exegesis means to draw something out. We want to get something out of the passage rather than reading our own ideas into it. Now, on any passage, there are a couple of basic questions we can start with.

First, what is the author trying to say? What’s the main point? And second, why is he saying it? How does he want the readers to respond to what he writes? In this passage, Paul is writing about himself, and the people who were traveling with him. He says, We worked night and day. Why is he saying that?

He says they had good behavior. What’s the point of saying that? Why is he reminding the people in Thessalonica of something that they already know?

That’s part of the pattern in the chapter. Verse 1 starts out, You yourselves know. Verse 2 includes the phrase, As we know. Verse 5 says, As you know. Verse 9 says, You remember. Verse 10, You are witnesses. Verse 11, As you know. And then, verse 13 reminds them of what they did, and of course they know that as well. He is rehearsing this history with the people.

Why?

We get a clue in verse 12, where he reminds them of what he was teaching them. He was “urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God.”

That’s part of his earlier message to them, and he thinks it’s worth repeating. That’s why he reminds them of the example he set in labor and toil, working night and day. We read later in the epistle that some of the people in Thessalonica are not working, and here Paul is helping reinforce what he will tell them later.

So, it seems that Paul wants the readers to live in a way that God wants. We can see some confirmation of that if we keep reading in the letter. In chapter 3, he says more about the relationship between Paul and the people in Thessalonica, and then in chapter 4, he makes his point. “We ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learn from us how you ought to live and to please God … you should do so more and more.”

He wants them to have good behavior and he’s pointing them to his own behavior as an example: You learn from us how you ought to live. So that verse in chapter 4 confirms that we’re on the right track when we see that behavior is the main purpose of the passage in chapter 2. His concern is the way they’re living.

He wants them to be a good example to others, just as he was to them. So, the main point is that believers should live a life worthy of God.

Ah, wow. What does that mean? To live a life worthy of God? Isn’t that a rather tall order? Yes, it is. But we should note that Paul is not saying that we can earn our salvation by living a good life.

He is not saying we have to be perfect. We can’t. We will fall short. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t try. Being saved by grace through faith does not mean that God doesn’t care about the way we live. It doesn’t mean that he wants to leave us in a life of sin.

It’s a matter of living up to who we really are. God says he made us in his own image. We are his children, and we are supposed to live like he does. And that can be summarized in the one word, love. Humans are broken, and we don’t always know what love really is, so God tells us what it looks like. For example, it looks like being truthful with one another, being respectful, being faithful.

One reason that salvation is a good thing is that people will have good behavior. If people are just looking out for themselves and are willing to hurt other people in order to get their own way, then eternal life won’t be very enjoyable, at least for people on the bottom. Eternal life will be good for everybody, only if it is characterized by humility, service, and love for others.

We don’t want everybody deciding for themselves how to live, and what’s good and what’s bad. We want everyone to trust that God is giving us the best possible instructions for how to live.

And the best part of eternal life is that it will be with God. He actually wants to live with us, but that won’t be much fun for us unless we also want to live in the way that he does, in the way of love and kindness. And if we really want that in the future, then we will want to live that way now as well. If it’s good then, it’s good now.

[00:17:22] Anthony: Yeah, and thanks be to God that it’s not just the instruction, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that God gives himself to empower us to live the life he is calling us to live—a life, as you said, worthy of God.

And one of the ways that we live this life worthy of God, especially those who are called to teach others, is to point to Jesus. Like John the Baptist did in John 1, “There he is the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world.”

And in this passage Paul states his words weren’t human, but God’s word. My question for you, Mike, is how do pastors, preachers, teachers safeguard themselves from preaching their own word instead of God’s word?

[00:18:07] Mike: All right. Yeah, Paul tells us that in verse 13. Some translations start a new paragraph at verse 13, but the Revised Common Lectionary includes it here as part of the same passage. Its function in this context is that it is a subtle reminder that Paul is writing with God’s authority. Just as the people received God Paul’s teaching as God’s word back then, so he wants them to receive his letter in the same way. He’s calling them to be attentive and responsive.

Your question reminds me, or this verse reminds me of what 1 Peter 4:11 says, that “whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God.” I’m not sure that we ever do that 100 percent right. I would not want to say that my sermons should be canonized and be used as the standard of right and wrong from now to the end of time. But I do hope that God can speak through me or that people will hear at least something from God in the words that I speak.

Church history and YouTube agree that preachers often speak their own words instead of what God is saying. Sometimes the speakers aren’t even trying to speak the words of God. But sometimes they are, and they don’t do a very good job of it. Your question presupposes that we want to get it right, that we want to present God’s word for the people and not just our own opinions.

One key to doing that is to stick close to the text. Don’t just use the text as a springboard to something else. It’s not just the introduction to our sermon, but it is the basis of the sermon. The sermon should re-present what the text says, and it should try to have a similar effect on the audience as the original text had.

Of course, our audiences are in such different circumstances we can never do it exactly the same, even if we do nothing but read the words of scripture exactly as they are. Because our audiences are in different circumstances, they are going to react to the words of Scripture in a way that might be different than what the original audience did.

So that’s part of the role of the preacher, to discern what the text is doing and to try to do it again for a different audience, when we as readers are in different contexts, thousands of years and thousands of miles away. So, we want to understand the original context, the historical and literary contexts.

And we want to understand our own context. Our own context will affect what we expect to find in the text, what questions we will ask, and even what things we don’t notice because we aren’t looking for them. A person who is in grief is going to notice different things than a person who is in a celebratory mood. So, we, ourselves, will notice different things in the Word of God based on our own context.

And then we also want to understand the context of the people we’re speaking to. Are they happy or sad? Are they worried about their salvation? Or are they taking it for granted? Are they puffed up with self-importance or dejected about their lack of importance? We want to give them a word from God that will meet them where they are. That’s why we need preachers and not just Bible readers.

It’s not an easy task. It requires an attitude of humility on our part and prayer that God might guide us to an appropriate message from the text for this audience at this time. A seminary course in biblical interpretation might help, a course in preaching might help, but a seminary course cannot give us humility and faith, and it cannot tell us what our audience happens to be thinking at this particular moment in the flow of time.

So that still leaves us with the question you ask, and perhaps that’s what each of us should ask when we are preparing to speak: am I being honest to what the text is trying to say, or am I using the text as an excuse to cover one of my own pet peeves or one of my favorite topics? That’s actually one of the advantages of using the Revised Common Lectionary. We don’t just choose our own passages according to the topics we happen to like but we submit to the text that is given to us that week.

The devil can quote scripture. But he will do so in a way that promotes selfishness, self-reliance, self-determination. Does our sermon promote our own ideas? Or does it respect what God has said? Are we pointing people to the Father, Son, and Spirit? And in this passage here in 1 Thessalonians, are we encouraging them to live a life that is appropriate to the way that God wants us to be?

[00:23:09] Anthony: Thinking about respecting the text—the word that God has given us, that’s been canonized for us—it’s one of the reasons I encourage preachers and teachers to read the scripture, in a scripture reading, like it’s the most important word that’s going to be stated instead of our commentary about the scripture, which can be really helpful, of course. But the word stands the test of time. So read it in such a way that is of utter importance, and I think that will keep us safeguarded.

One of the prayers that I pray in preparation for preaching is that I would speak the truth revealed in Jesus Christ. And if I do, rub that in deeply, Holy Spirit, into our hearts. But if I say anything that is less than reflective of what’s real and what’s true, may it be forgotten quickly like water off a duck’s back and just gone. That’s my ongoing prayer so that I as a gospel proclaimer can focus on the gospel himself, Jesus Christ, as it’s revealed in Scripture.

So that’s really helpful, Mike.

Let’s move on to the second pericope that we have for this month from the lectionary. It’s 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 27 and Ordinary Time, which is on November the 12. Mike, would you read it for us, please?

[00:24:35] Mike: Sure.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

[00:25:39] Anthony: Verse 13 says, “so that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope.” For me, it’s just such a paradox to grieve and yet to do so in hope. And I’ve heard it said that lament gives voice to what hurts while hope gives voice to what heals.

How is this even possible that we can grieve, but do so in hope? What is the apostle leading us to?

[00:26:02] Mike: The passage is about death, and it’s about resurrection and eternal life with the Lord. The Bible tells us that death is an enemy. But it is an enemy that Jesus Christ defeated on our behalf, and we will share in that victory when we rise to meet him in the air. But even though death has been defeated, it still happens, and it is still an enemy. It takes loved ones away and that hurts. It breaks relationships and that hurts.

It is reasonable for people to mourn the loss of something good. It is reasonable to mourn the breaking of something that God created to be good, to break the relationships that are actually supposed to be reflections of the relationships that the Father, Son, and Spirit have always had, the relationships that they want us to share in.

It’s appropriate to grieve these things. Even when we know that the loss is not permanent. We have hope, or the better word is faith, that these good things will be restored through the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We live in a time between the first and second coming of Christ. The last days have begun, but they have not yet been brought to completion. There are lots of things in this world that aren’t going the way they’re supposed to. And there are lots of things to grieve, not just death, and for all of them, we have hope in Jesus Christ. Everything will be set right.

We do not need to despair, no matter whether we are concerned about the death of a loved one, or the destruction of the environment, or politics, or the economy, or the threat of war. We can grieve that such things may happen, lament, but we also know that this is not the end of the story. The story does have a happy ending, and it comes at the hand of someone who was crucified and killed for our salvation. He lives again, and he will cause us to live again, too, in a much better world. We have sorrow, yes, but we also have confidence in Christ.

We see that many of the world’s problems have selfishness at their root, and we see that the only path toward world peace is that people will consider others as more important than themselves. And we see that the one person who actually lived that way consistently was killed for it and yet raised back to life. And it’s the person who’s been there and done that, who also promises to do it again.

He will return and make it right, and we can have confidence in that.

[00:28:56] Anthony: Amen and amen. The scripture exhorts us to encourage one another with the words found in the pericope, but maybe a better way of saying that, to encourage one another with the reality that’s being revealed in this passage. And you’ve already done so, Mike. But is there anything else? Any meat left on the bone, so to speak, of ways you can encourage our audience based on what you find here?

[00:29:19] Mike: Yeah, good wins in the end. Yeah. What could be better than that?

Yes, there is something better than that. It is mentioned in the text. We will be with the Lord forever. The more we realize how good God is, how much Jesus loves us, the more we will rejoice that we will be with him.

We can rest in complete safety, security, comfort—everything we need. That’s the good life, not just in physical circumstances, but in the relationships that we’ll have. There’ll be no more death, no more disruptions, no more doubts, no more disappointments.

Karl Barth said that God does not want to be God without us. He chooses to be with us. He wants to live with us, and that is incredibly astonishing, if we know what we’re really like. Why would God want to live with feeble, infallible creatures, such as ourselves? Just to know that he is the Creator, and he has created beings like ourselves to be his eternal companions—that’s just astounding. We are eagerly desired. We are the love of his life, the apple of his eye, the pearl of great price for which he sold everything he had so he can have us too.

When we know that we are loved that much, we will eagerly look forward to his coming. We will know that all our sacrifices are not in vain. We will know that the sufferings are not worth being compared with the good things that God will give us in Christ. The one who did not spare his own son, will he not give us all good things that we will ever need? Will he not share his Spirit with us without limits? Will we not be loved without end?

Nothing can separate us from his love. That’s what I see especially encouraging in this text: “we will be with the Lord forever.”

[00:31:31] Anthony: I can remember several years ago, Mike, reading a book from Skye Jethani called With. And it really did flip the script in my own mind about my perspective of what I do in partnership with God.

Because often we think about doing things for God, which we do. But I had this mindset that I was a servant for the lord, which I am, but it’s not just that. I’m his friend, and the Lord wants to be with me. And it’s like you said, how is that so Lord? I know me. Who wants to be with me for eternity? And yet that tells us more about a God who chooses rather than our chosen-ness.

He’s a choosing God who loves to be with us and that was really good encouragement. Thank you for that.

Our third pericope of the month is 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. It’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 29 in Ordinary Time, which is November the 19.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So, then, let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober, for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

It seems to me, Mike, that Paul is insisting that knowing the date of Christ’s coming is not the best way to prepare for his appearance. Rather he points us to being awake and sober as the way to be ready. So, help us understand. What does that mean in reality to be awake and sober?

[00:34:11] Mike: It means lay off the liquor, don’t get drunk. It means don’t ever go to sleep. Oh, wait a minute. Sleep seems to be necessary, doesn’t it? Maybe it doesn’t mean that.

It seems that Paul is using these words as metaphors, as figures of speech. And we have to figure out where the key similarity is.

There are several metaphors in the passage — the thief, the knight, labor pains, children, daylight, breastplate, helmet. Paul is using words that usually refer to physical things, but he is using them to refer to something spiritual. He is saying that the day of the Lord will come at some unexpected time, but we do not need to be caught unprepared.

If our spiritual life is right, we might be surprised at the timing of it all, but we won’t suffer any loss. The thief, metaphorically speaking, won’t be able to take anything away from us. It will be a time of rejoicing, not a time of fear.

So, what might it mean for us to be asleep? It would mean being unaware, not knowing what’s going on. For example, if we are on a long road trip and someone else is driving while we’re sleeping, and suddenly we are awakened by the screeching of brakes, a loud sound, the car shaking, the seatbelt tightens, and we think the worst. But if we had been awake and watching, then we would have known it was just a bad pothole in the road.

Paul was saying we don’t need to be unaware, that we know the day of the Lord is coming. We don’t know when or exactly what’s going to happen that day, but we know it’s coming, so when it does, we’re better able to figure out what’s going on. We won’t panic. Being awake means that we know what’s going on. We can see it coming.

Now, what might it mean to be spiritually drunk? It means not thinking straight. It means slow reactions. It means lacking self-control. The book of Revelation talks about a woman who was drunk with the blood of the saints. She was intoxicated because she had such power over them. She thinks she’s going to win the war, and she’s so excited about it that she doesn’t see reality. Power is intoxicating. People get so thrilled with their own abilities that they are blind to their problems.

People can be spiritually drunk because they are so thrilled with success in one area that they don’t see where they fall short. That happens to some church leaders who are so successful in building a big church or inspiring complete loyalty from their followers that they become unaware of their weaknesses. People keep telling them how wonderful they are, and after a while they start to believe it.

But it’s not just the leaders who can become drunk. Revelation also talks about people who are drunk because of their illicit relationship with the woman. They are so focused on the temporary pleasures they are getting, that they’re unable to see where that way of life really goes. They’re getting something they want. But they don’t realize that they’re missing out on something else that they need. They are victims of bad leadership—many of us have had experience with that sort of thing, but even so they are drunk. Their thinking is distorted.

Paul wants us to be sober, to think clearly, to be aware of our weakness, to be aware of our need for the Holy Spirit to guide us, give us strength. We do not say, ah, I’ve got it all figured out, my theology is perfect, I know every detail of what is right and what is wrong.

And, on the other hand, we do not want to think that we are worthless, never getting anything right. Thinking soberly means to know that Christ is with us, the Spirit is with us. And church history shows that he uses fallible people, but because that’s the only option in this age. God knows how to use fallible people.

Now, the text gives us a couple of ways that we should be sober. We should put on the breastplate of faith and a helmet of hope. That will protect our vital parts. It will protect our thoughts and emotions. We will not put our hope in the wrong things. We won’t put our faith in the wrong things. We’ll let the Word of God inform us of where our faith and hope need to be.

Sobriety means knowing that we are children of God. And our identity in him is a word of exhortation to do right, as well as a word of comfort when we fail. And I might add, it’s hard to get the right balance when we are drunk, when we are filled with the wrong kind of spirits.

[00:39:21] Anthony: And put the exclamation point on it right there, Mike. I hear you loud and clear.

It says in verse 9 that God has not destined us for wrath, but salvation through our Lord. And that seems to me to be rather good news, don’t you think? Tell us more about it.

[00:39:42] Mike: Anthony, yeah, that is good news. And salvation is much more than an escape from punishment. The word “salvation” originally meant a rescue from something. People can be saved from an illness, or saved from a shipwreck, and they are restored to the way they were before.

But in the New Testament, the word came to involve much more than a rescue from some physical problem. It came to mean a rescue from spiritual dangers, including sin and death, and feeling alienated from God. And the result is much more than what we had before. Even looking at the history of humanity as a whole, what we get with Christ is much better than what the first humans had before sin entered the picture. The first humans were capable of sinning and dying. But after the resurrection, we will not be capable of either one.

Maybe we might be capable of sinning if we wanted to, but the real point of salvation is that we won’t ever want to sin. We are rescued from the desire to sin, and that, in itself, is very good news. It’s one of the astonishing things about the salvation we are given in Christ.

We struggle with sin throughout life. Some say we sin every day of our lives, and then in the resurrection, in the blink of an eye, at the snap of a finger, we won’t ever sin again. It’s like a cacophony of powerful noise suddenly comes to a stop. And there is silence.

Actually, there’s not silence, there is beautiful music instead. We don’t just come to a point of inactivity, of breathless awe at the majesty and wonder of God. There may be some of that, but there may be praise as well. Maybe faint at first, but soon rising to this triumphant song that will make the Hallelujah chorus seem to be a weak imitation.

I’m speaking in metaphors here because I really don’t have the language to describe the joys and beauties of a spiritual life. And the Bible says that the love of God is beyond our ability to understand. His joy is beyond our ability to put into words. And his peace is beyond our comprehension.

Paul writes that God didn’t plan for us to experience wrath. He plans for us to experience salvation. Paul doesn’t say much about what’s involved in that wrath, but he points us instead to the better outcome. We need to be concerned, not just with what we’re saved from, but also what we’re saved for. And we can talk about the benefits of salvation in this life, as well as in the next. In this life, we’re given love, joy, peace, faith, meekness, kindness, gentleness, and goodness.

But when push comes to shove, as it does for many Christians in other nations, who are persecuted for their belief in Christ, then we have to focus on the benefits in the next life. We want a faith that is willing to accept hardship in this life, or even a painful death, if that’s the cost of being loyal to the Messiah who suffered and died for us. What kind of person are we if we are willing to betray the one who loves us most just in exchange for a few sad years in a horribly corrupt world?

You asked for good news. That may not seem like good news, but it is part of the gospel that Jesus preached and the gospel that Paul preached and the gospel that both of them lived. The good news of the gospel is made more evident. When we compare it with the ungodly things being done around us. This is all the more reason we need to look beyond this life, beyond the blessings we might have in this life, and look to the future life with Christ, which is far better.

Paul says in Romans, sufferings of this life are not worth to be compared with the glories of the future life. That’s true of our blessings too. They are just trinkets in comparison to the spiritual riches that we will enjoy. And quality and in quantity, the good times will never end. It’s a billion trillion quadrillion years of blessings. We can’t even begin to measure. It’s good, good, good, nothing but good!

And the best part is that we’ll be with Father, Son, and Spirit. He wants to be with us. A love that we can only begin to imagine will be with us. As Paul says, if we’re thinking clearly, then we’ll put faith and love on our heart, hope on our head, and encourage one another as indeed you are already doing.

[00:44:37] Anthony: Hallelujah. From glory to glory. Talking about wrath, it’s not a subject that people often want to hear in their worship gatherings on Sunday, but it’s an important part of the gospel story. And I recall this from George Hunsinger—and I think I pulled this from one of his lectures—but he said, “The wrath of God is a very important part of the gospel, but it’s not split off from his love. It’s the form that God’s love takes. It’s the wrath of God’s love when God’s love is resisted, and God’s wrath overcomes all forms of resistance. This is what God is doing in Jesus Christ.”

Hallelujah. Praise him.

Our final pericope of the month is Matthew 25:31-46. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the reign of Christ Sunday on November 26.

Mike, do us the honors, please.

[00:45:33] Mike:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”

[00:47:46] Anthony: Okay. There’s a lot to unpack here, Mike, and this is a Reign of Christ Sunday. Some call it Christ the King Sunday.

And let’s start there. People often raise arguments about the sheep and the goats and eternal punishment, and we’ll get to that soon enough, but the passage starts with the Son of Man on his rightful throne as the king of his kingdom. How does that reality shape the rest of the passage?

[00:48:13] Mike: Perhaps the most important aspect of this is that the Son of Man is not only the king, but he’s also the judge. In our democracies, we’re used to a separation of powers that the judiciary has some independence from the executive power, and generally the highest court in the land is actually a committee to prevent any one person there from having too much power. But the ancient world was ruled by what we today might call dictators.

They had power over all branches of the government, and it was just assumed that a king was also a judge. Although he would delegate smaller decisions to his subordinates, he had the ultimate authority to make all judicial decisions, whether it was to sentence people to death, to free them, to fine them, to give them victory in a civil case over their neighbor.

When people in the first century heard the word “king,” they would understand that kind of power went along with it. Now here, the Son of Man is the king. It’s Jesus, the representative of all humanity. We call him Lord, as well as Savior, because he has the authority to tell us what to do. But that authority is always used with perfect wisdom, perfect compassion, and perfect love. We worship him not just because he has overwhelming power, but because he is overwhelmingly good.

Now the passage starts off like a simple prediction—here’s what’s going to happen. But it quickly turns into a parable about sheep and goats. A parable is the best way to describe what’s going to happen. When Jesus returns in authority, what will it be like? How will he judge his people? What criteria will he use? It’s going to be like this.

One thing that caught my attention on this reading was the phrase “inherit the kingdom.” People in the first century knew what that phrase meant. Today, we might say, if you inherit a mansion, it’s not just that you can live there for a while. No, it means that you own it. And similarly, in the ancient world, if you inherit a kingdom, it’s yours.

When King Herod died, for example, his will said that his sons were to inherit his kingdom. The Roman government had the final say on that, but the idea of inheriting a kingdom was part of the way the ancient world operated. The king’s son would inherit his kingdom, or sometimes they’d split the kingdom so that more than one of his children could inherit a kingdom.

So, when the Son of Man tells people to inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, It’s not just a matter of living in God’s kingdom, it’s also a matter of having our own kingdom, part of God’s empire, we might call it.

In a different parable, Jesus talked about ruling five cities or ten cities. He is talking about a significant reward and a significant responsibility. Now, that may be a metaphor that Jesus is using examples from his own day of a fabulously extravagant reward. If Jesus were making a parable for modern times, he might talk about inheriting some multinational corporation, maybe the Walmart empire, or controlling stock in Microsoft.

The point is that it’s an exceedingly large inheritance, a reward far out of proportion to what ordinary people imagine is possible. As king of all kings and as judge, he can be extravagantly generous with people.

[00:51:59] Anthony: Mike, how do you hermeneutically preach about the sheep and goats in verse 32 and eternal punishment that we read about in verse 46?

What say you?

[00:52:10] Mike: It goes back to the two questions I mentioned earlier. What’s the main point? And how did the author want the readers to respond? Is there something in there that we need to learn? Or is it telling us about something we need to do? Knowing and doing can rarely be completely separated, but there is often an emphasis on one or the other.

For example, a passage might tell us that God is great and good, completely trustworthy. That’s something to know. And we might respond to that knowledge with worship, faith, and trust. The knowledge and action are connected, but I’d say that the emphasis is on the knowledge. God isn’t interested in fake worship, in us going through the motions, even when we don’t believe it. The emphasis, in this case, would seem to be on what we know and believe.

A different example is the Great Commission: Go into all the world, make disciples, baptize, and teach. That’s something to know, yes, but the emphasis is on that we ought to be doing something.

Here in Matthew 25, where is the emphasis? I don’t think it’s in knowing the typical habits of sheep or goats. They provide the setting for the introduction of the parable, but there is no further development of that particular detail. And similarly, there is no further development of the angels who come with Christ at his return.

What about the difference between right and left? In the ancient world, is good and left is bad, and the parable uses that as part of its setting, but it’s not developing that in either way. It’s not telling us that our left hands are bad or anything like that. It’s just part of the framework of the story.

The main part of the story, the part that seems to be emphasized, in this case by repetition, is found in the idea, I was in need and, you either helped me or you didn’t help me. In the story, the people ask, when did we see you in need? When did we help or not help?

Now, this is not some script that we all have to act out on the day of judgment. After all, if we know we are supposed to ask that question, then we also know what the answer is. And it’s just play acting. It’s pretending. The story includes this dialogue mainly as an opportunity to repeat the words, to give emphasis to the key concept: I was in need, and some people helped me, and others didn’t.

The point of the story is that we need to be helping the hungry, helping the thirsty, helping the stranger, helping people who need clothes, who are sick, who are in prison. That’s something that Jesus will be judging on. Perhaps I should say he’s already judging us on. That’s something that he cares about.

It’s only one of many things that he cares about. The parable doesn’t intend to list all the points of judgment. It’s just making one point, one illustration. It’s not an encyclopedia of ethics or faith or worship.

Life is much more complex than a simple story can picture. But the illustration here does tell us something that Jesus wants his people to be doing, and that is helping others even without any motive of reward.

Some people might want to make another point out of the story that Jesus is actually in all these needy people. In one sense that’s true, but that actually weakens the point of the parable. The point is not that we should help people because we know that Jesus is in them. Or rather, it’s that we should help people even when we do not know that Jesus is in them. That gets repeated in the parable, and we shouldn’t try to undermine that part of it.

I’ve already commented about the reward mentioned in the parable and that we’ll inherit a kingdom. As a side point, it’s interesting to note that this kingdom has been prepared for us from the very beginning. It’s been part of God’s plan all along. It’s even tied into one of the first things that we learn in the Bible, that humans are made in the image of God, and we’re supposed to rule over other aspects of his creation. God wants to give us authority, but not until we can be trusted with that authority, not until we’re going to rule in the good way that God would.

You specifically asked about the penalty part of the parable. The people who were sorted out on the left will go into eternal fire and eternal punishment. What’s that about?

What should you do if you’re preaching this passage? It goes back to our initial questions: What’s the main point, and what’s our response? The main point is that we should be helping people who need help, even if we don’t see Jesus in them. Where does eternal fire fit into that picture? It doesn’t, really. It was not the main point.

Jesus did not tell this parable so his disciples would know more about the details of the end time day of judgment. We are not to expect massive herds of people being moved around on the terrain of the new world. He did not tell a parable so that we’d know more about what the future reward will be like.

It’s good, yes, but we really don’t know many details. That wasn’t the main point. And in the same way, the punishment for not doing this wasn’t his main point either. It’s just part of the framework of the parable.

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus talked about a conversation between the rich man and Hades, and the poor man and Abraham’s bosom. Jesus is not trying to teach us that such conversations will occur, or even if they’re possible. Instead, Jesus is using a common belief of the day as part of the scenery of the parable, without attempting to either endorse or refute the common belief.

Similarly, in another parable, a man who owed a debt was thrown into prison to be tortured until he could pay. But the purpose of the parable is not to tell us about the nature of the end time punishment. That’s simply part of the framework of the parable using imagery that was borrowed from the customs and beliefs of his time period.

In some places, Jesus talks as if the end time punishment is fire. In other places, it’s outer darkness. It’s difficult to put all these together into a sensible picture for the simple reason, I think, that they are not supposed to be put together into a sensible picture. Jesus is just using ideas that circulated in his culture and he is not endorsing them or trying to set them straight. He never attempts to settle our curiosity about what the details will be like.

But I think it’s fair to generalize the overall picture by saying that if we make certain choices in life contrary to what Jesus wants, then we are going to regret it. Jesus says we should make every effort to avoid that.

If we are preaching this passage, what should we do with it? Just read it and move on.

It’s not what the parable is really about. Jesus saw no need to elaborate on it. And we don’t need to either. Jesus saw no need to refute the idea or clarify it, so we don’t have to either. So, I recommend that we ignore it.

Now, if we are writing a commentary or conducting a series of Bible studies about the parables of Jesus, then we ought to deal with it in an excursus or as a side point. If we are presenting a class about the future, then we should deal with it. But in a sermon, it’s just too much of a can of worms to deal with it well. The sermon gets dominated by a side point. And the main point is pushed to the side.

It reminds me of a class I took a long time ago on the book of Galatians. There was a lot in the book that the teacher didn’t like. So, his class was mostly that Galatians doesn’t mean this, and it doesn’t mean that. And he never got around to telling us what it actually does mean.

That’s what’s likely to happen if we try to deal with the topic of eternal punishment when we really ought to be spending our time trying to get people to respond to the parable in a way that Jesus wanted his people to respond to the parable. We’re supposed to help the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give clothes to the naked. And so forth.

Now, it’s also true that we should give hope to the hopeless, give the gospel to those who haven’t heard it, and teach people who don’t know very much about Jesus. Those are true, but they are not the point of this particular parable.

And if we preach those other things too much, it will come at the expense of the main point of this parable, which is about helping people with physical needs eve when we don’t know that Jesus is there. Doing good to others has simply become so much a part of us that we really aren’t keeping score.

We’re not doing this to earn future rewards, but simply because it’s a good thing to do. We love these needy people as we love ourselves.

[01:01:37] Anthony: And I think it’s helpful, Mike, in reading this passage Christologically to consider what God has already accomplished for us in Jesus Christ, that he found us thirsty and was living waters for us. He found us hungry, and he gives us himself in the cup and the bread, that he clothed us, that all good things come from above.

So in that way instead of judging others as the least of these, we realize we were the least of these, right? And God found us in Jesus Christ in the far country. Hallelujah praise him!

You know, sometimes in the past, Mike, I’ve heard this passage preached as separation, judgment, and punishment alone, and of course, you’ve already dealt with this, but in terms of closing out our commentary on this passage, what other pieces of good news can we find or glean that maybe we haven’t touched on yet?

Anything else?

[01:02:35] Mike: Is there good news in this? Does it just lay a burden on us? So, we got to do this, we got to do that. If you think that being kind to other people is an unpleasant burden, then maybe there’s no good news here for you because that’s really what we ought to do, or at least it’s one of the many things we ought to do.

But the good news here is that Jesus Christ transforms people from self-centered to other centered, from stingy to generous, from callous to caring. People do good to others without keeping score, without expecting anything in it for themselves. And when that happens, the world is a better place. That’s good news.

And as other passages in the New Testament tell us, it happens because Jesus lives in us. The Spirit lives in us, changing us from the inside out. That’s good news, even for the people who don’t believe it.

Of course, there’s also good news in the future, as the passages in 1 Thessalonians and here in Matthew point out. The good works that we do now are good, but they’re just a cup of cool water compared with the oceans of blessings that God will give us in the future. What we do now is just a child’s crayon drawing compared to the IMAX theater version that we will enjoy in the future.

[01:04:09] Anthony: IMAX. I did not expect that reference in our conversation, Mike. Thanks for that metaphor. That’s pretty vivid.

And you mentioned that as we serve others, even when we don’t know Jesus is present, he is. And it reminds me we are not a delivery service hired by Jesus to take him to our neighbors. But we are witnesses to Christ already at work in the neighborhood. So, let’s be in the neighborhood, being a blessing to others as we have been blessed ourselves.

Mike, thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. I’ve enjoyed our conversation. I’m so thankful for you and the call to ministry God has on your life.

And I want to take a moment to thank the people that make this podcast possible, Reuel Enerio and David McKinnon, our podcast producers, as well as my beloved wife, Elizabeth, who does the transcription. So, you can read every good word that Mike has spoken here today.

Mike, it is our tradition here at Gospel Reverb to end with prayer. So, if you would do the honor of praying for and with our people, I’d be so appreciative.

[01:05:11] Mike: Thanks, Anthony, for inviting me and giving me the opportunity. Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for Scripture, for things that you inspired people to write for our encouragement and instruction.

Thank you for giving us glimpses into the glory that you want to share with us, and the joy of being chosen by you for a life of never-ending joy and love in your presence. Thank you for Jesus who gave up his phenomenal riches and came to us even though he knew we would kill him. Thank you for raising us him up and for including us in his life.

Thank you for the people who make the podcast, for the people who listen because they want to be better at handling the words of God. We ask the Spirit to encourage them in what they do, in the sacrifices they make to serve others, in the joy they have in sharing good news with the people they love.

Some of our listeners are seriously ill, and yet they serve anyway. Some of them battle with depression, even as they intellectually know that the news is incredibly good. Help each of them day by day. Help us all when we are spiritually hungry, spiritually thirsty, spiritually naked, feeling sick, and all alone. We all need help, and you are the help that we need.

And thank you for the intercession of the Spirit and the Son on our behalf. Amen.

[01:06:46] Anthony: 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!

Rhythms of Healthy Leadership w/ Daphne Sidney

Video unavailable (video not checked).

In this episode, our host Cara Garrity interviews Daphney Sidney – superintendent of Australasia. Together they discuss rhythms of healthy leadership, and the patterns that can hinder their development.

 

Like many, I struggle with busyness, the busyness of life and work too. But I realize that spiritual formation is vital for the Christian leader, for that stability, sustainability, and growth. Not just for the self, but for all those that we serve, for the whole church community and for our neighborhoods. So that Christ is in us enabling us to reach out and touch lives with love and compassion.” —Daphne Sidney

 

 

Main Points:

  • What does healthy leadership mean to you? 1:02
  • What are some ways that you intentionally develop rhythms of healthy leadership? Personally, as a leader and regionally as superintendent? 12:01
  • What is something you wish you knew early on in your leadership development regarding rhythms of healthy leadership? 25:35
  • What are some patterns or ways of thinking that get in the way of healthy leadership rhythms? How have you addressed these in your leadership? 34:31
  • What encouragements or advice would you give your pastors and local leaders developing personal and corporate rhythms of healthy leadership? 43:03

 

Resources:

 

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Program Transcript


Rhythms of Healthy Leadership w/ Daphne Sidney

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 today’s episode of GC Podcast. This episode 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 overjoyed to interview Daphne Sydney. She’s this GCI Superintendent of Australasia, and she is blessed to be married with two children, one grandchild, and two dogs. Her hobbies include art—both creating and appreciating art—and books, which is something that we both share.

Daphne, thank you so much for joining the GC Podcast today.

[00:00:51] Daphne: Thank you Cara, so much. I really appreciate being able to have this discussion with you this evening. It’s a real privilege, and warm greetings to all our listeners.

[00:01:02] Cara: Yes, I’m looking forward to it as well. And today we’re really going to be focusing our time on rhythms of healthy leadership.

So, to start, I’m curious, what does healthy leadership mean to you, Daphne?

[00:01:15] Daphne: Thank you, Cara. By way of introduction, I came across a statement from NCLS, that is the National Church Life Survey here in Australia, which noted that leadership is everyone’s business. And one aspect of church life is creating a leadership culture, which I thought was really interesting. It is really what we are contributing to tonight, where leaders are developed, supported, validated, and given opportunity to grow.

So, I just thought that’s a really nice introduction. And they also say that two things that really are important keys to growing healthy church are inspiring, empowering, leadership, coupled with growing and owned vision.

So those are two important keys for healthy church leadership and vision. So, what does healthy leadership mean to me? I’d like to start with the incarnational ministry of Christ. Incarnation ministry and leadership is not something we can do on our own. In that sense, we are participating in the life and mission of Jesus. And incarnation leadership is about Jesus who became flesh and dwelt among us, where Jesus fully divine, became fully human, and he was willing to come down to us to enter our world of pain and sorrow in spite of the fact that he is our God and creator.

And in Galatians, it says, it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in us. And so then may we be the hands and the feet of Jesus as we are called to participate in that mission of ministry and leadership of Jesus Christ. I just feel that Jesus was so transformational in his life and leadership, and he is the way, the truth, and the life.

So, for us to embody him in our leadership, Jesus faced the full extent of temptations yet without sin. Jesus is one who could empathize with our human experience. Yet he did not capitulate to sin but maintained his identity and his purpose for coming. And I think this sets a very interesting tone for our leadership today as we live in this post-Christian skeptical world, undermining of Christianity.

We empathize with people. We care, and we love them. But at the same time, we need not to lose ourselves or be overwhelmed by the philosophies of the day, but to hold onto our identity in Christ. Jesus was determined and so courageous as he surrendered his will to the Father. And we can recall Jesus in the garden and his prayer, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

And then in the same setting, Jesus heals the ear of the servant of the high priest, which Peter had cut off. This was mercy and compassion for those who had come to arrest him. So only love and compassion can bring us such transcendence as it is God’s love overflowing, which makes for a transformational leader.

In researching contemporary leadership theories, I was interested in the work around transforming leadership. There’s quite a bit of material on that, and one statement that stood out to me was in Burn’s work. And to cut it very short, in all that he had written, he said he advised leaders to develop their followers to be leaders themselves.

I thought that was a beautiful statement. No longer just followers, but encouraged to become leaders, encouraging the followers to become leaders—allowing for questions, encouraging questions, encouraging discussion and input. And I think this helps put language to how Jesus was transformational because he invested in his followers to become leaders themselves.

He led and inspired those motley 12 disciples—Peter, headstrong fisherman, and Matthew, a tax collector. Imagine the variety of people that he worked with and increased this circle and inspired them to take his message right to the ends of the earth. That’s inspiration, isn’t it? Jesus certainly shared the vision with them.

He was relentless in preaching about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus equipped them for three and a half years on the ground with them talking through every experience and every encounter. And Jesus didn’t shy away from difficult encounters. He said he had to go through some area where others would avoid that area.

Jesus said, I have to go through some area, a cross-cultural experience. Not only a different culture, but crossing cultural norms in speaking to a woman, giving her dignity and empowering her to go and give her testament to the village. And I love that it says in John 4, many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of that woman’s testimony. A marginalized woman, non-Jewish, made a very effective leader by her presence with Jesus.

And Jesus led with such grace and compassionate heart, demonstrated so many times, and we know that he wept with Mary and Martha as he felt very deeply for them and their loss of their beloved brother. Jesus cared for the crowds who were hungry and fed them. He healed the sick and oppressed.

He also took time out alone with the Father. He treasured that time in connection and connecting with his Father. Jesus felt great compassion as he saw the people who were weary and worn out like sheep without a shepherd, Matthew 9. So, he is the good shepherd, and that also provides a wonderful example of leadership for us today. The shepherd and sheep analogy is used both in the Old Testament and the New and can be viewed as a very relational kind of leadership.

David himself was a shepherd, so he understood this shepherd to sheep relationship, and David was a man after God’s own heart. The shepherd loves his sheep. He knows them and calls them by name. And as we read in John 10:3, the sheep listened to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

He leads them. Verse 4, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. This speaks to trust and respect, an intimate relationship, which is a beautiful model, again, for leadership. And I think this would also lead us into the model of servant leadership where we have, Jesus Christ once again, the one who wrapped the towel around himself and proceeded to wash the disciple’s feet.

The one who told us, go and do likewise. Matthew 20:28, just as Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many. What an incredible gift. Hence, our team-based, pastor led model of leadership, serving and building a team, utilizing giftings, collaboration, and building community through a shared vision.

Jesus Christ, in Philippians 2:5-8, shows how we are to have the same mindset. That mindset of a servant leadership. In verse 5, it says, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even on the cross.

I just think Jesus is really our all. He is the way, the truth, and the life when we think of that approach to leadership.

[00:10:00] Cara: Absolutely. And what I love about what you’ve shared and how it lays a foundation for how we can think about healthy leadership as, first and foremost, Jesus is our one and only most perfect, healthy leader.

[00:10:17] Daphne: Yes. That’s it.

[00:10:18] Cara: And so, we lead in and through him only as a participation in who he is. And he’s the one who leads in and through us. I think that’s an incredible, beautiful thing. And it’s also both freeing and challenging for us as leaders in the church. I really appreciate that you started us off there, Daphne. So, thank you so much for that.

And then also bringing it back to even an organizational practical level, how that informs our team-based pastor led model.

In what you shared, I heard even those threads and rhythms of engaging and equipping and encouraging and empowering because those are things that we have been wanting to build into, like you said, our culture of leadership in GCI because those are rhythms that we see in who Jesus is.

Those are the particular words that we’ve chosen in GCI to use as part of our own culture. But they’re based on that foundation that you’ve so beautifully laid out for us, that are modeled after Jesus, our one true and perfect healthy leader. And so, thank you so much for that.

[00:11:44] Daphne: Oh, you’re welcome.

Yeah. I think it’s so beautiful the way we see the 4 Es all through the way Jesus did everything. You know how he engaged people, how he equipped them and empowered them and encouraged them. It’s just so evident in his life.

[00:12:01] Cara: Absolutely. And now that we’ve looked at that foundation of what healthy leadership is and how we want to define that, Daphne I’m wondering what are some ways that you intentionally develop rhythms that point to and form healthy leadership? And both personally for you as a leader in GCI, but also regionally as a superintendent, what are some of the things that you do to encourage those rhythms of healthy leadership for those that you lead?

[00:12:40] Daphne: Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Cara. Personally, and of first importance, I think is that of growing in Jesus Christ. That he becomes prominent in our thinking, living, and being. And Peter’s final words in 2 Peter, grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior to grow into Jesus Christ.

And that’s something I think, in terms of rhythms, that’s a daily thing that we need to be doing. Paul also writes about this, how he labored for Christ to be formed in the brethren, and that was his deep desire. Again, it comes down to these daily rhythms of looking to really grow in Jesus Christ through that, through the spiritual disciplines.

And Paul, you can see he just had such a heart for Christ to be formed in them that he said he describes that moment of childbirth as Christ being formed in them. And now the letters, he also says, and Christ in you, the hope of glory so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And this is a journey of faith, and Christ must increase as I decrease. And it’s a realization that Christ is in us, that he’s doing the work along with all the others in whom he has formed. And it’s not about us and our works, but it’s Christ and his work in us.

So, I’m still much a work in progress of Christ being formed in me. And I pray to be more prominent that Christ can be more prominent and evident in my work. And I think, as I said, spiritual formation then is that ongoing process. It’s day by day rhythm, really, which involves that regular rhythm of reading the word and prayer and meditation, which helps keeps us in that formation process.

And I like Mulholland’s description of spiritual formation. And I think it’s so beautifully expressed. I just like to read it out for our listeners.

It is a process of being formed in the image of Christ, a journey into becoming persons of compassion persons who forgive persons who care deeply for others, and the world persons who offer themselves to God to become agents of divine grace in the lives of others and their world. [Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.]

In brief, persons who love and serve as Jesus did. Like many, I struggle with busyness, the busyness of life and work too. But I realize that spiritual formation is vital for the Christian leader, for that stability, sustainability, and growth. Not just for the self, but for all those that we serve, for the whole church community and for our neighborhoods.

So that Christ is in us enabling us to reach out and touch lives with love and compassion. So there does need to be that daily rhythm of seeking Christ and having him being formed in us, being very mindful of that, so that we can have Christ in us and his love and compassion, because humanly we can run dry.

In terms of other rhythms, there’s my family rhythms, spending time with family and on weekends getting together sometimes, and then Christmas time. So, there’s also those family patterns and rhythms.

And I think another rhythm is important in terms of a leadership is being a lifelong learner. It’s a trait needed for healthy leadership. And I’ve been blessed with the freedom over the years and enjoyed that rhythm of taking courses or classes or learning something. Always learning something, always learning and having that posture of curiosity. And even now, if someone mentions a book, I’m eager to buy it, to discover and think, what are they finding so interesting.

And I have a friend who loves poetry and so he’s picked my interest lately again in poetry. And I think great communicators have been poets or have at least appreciated poetry. And I’ve also taken art and painting courses. because I believe that having a wide range of interests enables us to relate to people and communicate with them in many varied ways. So, creativity and arts, having a rhythm of that also helps us to thrive and not merely survive.

So, in terms of rhythms of healthy leadership development for our region, we can look at this from a weekly to an annual cycle or rhythm. Pastors are encouraged to take their annual leave to ensure they have time off for refreshing and family time off during the week, because usually their weekends are a busy time engaged in church and activities and ecclesiastically.

First of all, we have the Christian calendar, which supports leaders in conducting those annual rhythms of worship centered around the life of Jesus, that we as a church communion are kept in those annual seasons of worship. And I think that’s a beautiful rhythm that we have from the calendar and for a couple of our focus churches, outreach to neighborhood.

I hold events around seasons too, such as Christmas or Easter. And I think it’s good to think of rhythms in terms of those seasonal outreaches, so it’s not just a one-time event. There’s a follow-up and rhythm to work towards. And that is so important in leadership roles that our thought processes are to discern what Jesus Christ is already doing and how do we participate in that?

How do we participate in his rhythms, discerning what’s next or what is the next step? And most of our church services now have included a rhythm of either weekly or monthly communion. So that brings much more depth now and meaning and Christ-centeredness to our services. A couple of churches also hold youth and children’s church on a regular basis, and it’s vital to be mindful of our children and youth.

And I’d like to see more rhythms of activity for our youth. We also have other established rhythms, like the National Board has an annual retreat at the beginning of the year. John Mclean has given some excellent board trainings at these. The national ministry team held a retreat at the beginning of this year, and we’d like to do that as an annual rhythm.

We have monthly trainings on Zoom for the Australian pastors, where we invite guest speakers. I think we’ve invited you to some of those, Cara. We recently had Dr. Charles Fleming on Missional Living. They’re wonderful having guest speakers that help us in our journey. We’ve had other GCI superintendents, and it’s wonderful too to be able to learn from their experiences.

And we have presentations on GCI materials, from Media on Healthy Church, the three Avenues, team-based pastor led model, et cetera. We also hold national pastoral conferences every year or so, and a large Australian conference every three years. And last year, we were blessed to have Greg and Susan Williams attend, which made it very special.

New Zealand also holds an annual retreat, and this year they are having trainings on the 4 Es. With Coach Martin Bailey, the Caloundra and Echuca annual celebrations have resumed again after Covid, as we had a bit of a break during Covid. And Tasmania’s having an Advent retreat again this year at the end of November.

We also commit to annual trips to visit our brethren in the islands in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Otherwise, they can feel quite isolated, and they really look forward to those annual visits. So, it’s wonderful that we’re able to do that and that’s a rhythm or something that they look forward to, to keep us connected and together.

So, we give God the glory for what he is doing, and we have so much to learn. And we pray that as Christ is being formed in us, we become pliable in his hands, that we are being shaped and molded by him because we can’t do it on our own. And we just pray that we’re in his rhythms as he’s showing and leading us.

[00:21:29] Cara: Amen. Daphne, there’s so much richness in what you just shared. I can’t even decide what I want to highlight first. I really appreciate—and I hope that our listeners, this isn’t lost on them—that the first thing that you mention again, is the rhythms of spiritual formation.

Because if we take seriously what you said that Jesus is our one and only perfectly healthy leader. And he’s the first of the new humanity, right? Then the first rhythm of healthy leadership for us as his followers is to be formed in his likeness and to continue to be in agreement, in being formed into his likeness by his Holy Spirit.

And so, to be in that rhythm of formation, of seeking him, that is a beautiful thing. And because first and foremost, we are his disciples and his followers, even before we are leaders in his church. So, I really hope listeners that’s not lost, that is definitely the wisdom that you have, that you started with that.

And then corporately, I love those rhythms of healthy leadership that you mentioned. I saw a balance of rhythms of rest and learning, of doing things hands-on, that there was a balance of that. Not just coming aside to learn, but then putting things into action and truly participating in Jesus’s ministry.

So not just rhythms of learning things of how to be a healthy leader, but to put healthy leadership into action. And then I’m really impressed with the rhythms that you described. They’re not rhythms in isolation. They’re rhythms where leaders are able to come together and be together.

Community as the body of Christ, and that is so key for healthy leadership. You mentioned things like retreats. And both, retreats just for rest and retreats for trainings and for learning. And being prepared to go out and participate in ministry. Daphne, that is so important for the development of healthy leadership.

That’s such important rhythms because the statistics on how isolated many church leaders feel; it’s devastating. And so that your rhythms include coming together for leaders is such a healthy thing. God created us for community, as his body. And so, I love that you highlighted that and that those are some of the rhythms that are being encouraged in your region.

That is such a beautiful thing, such richness in the rhythms that you described.

[00:24:54] Daphne: Oh, thank you, Cara. One thing that has helped us out of Covid actually is being able to Zoom. Because we are a large country, Zoom at least once or twice a month with all the pastors has been fantastic.

 

[00:25:07] Cara: Yes. That being able to come together, that’s a sacred thing, right? We weren’t created to be alone. Absolutely.

[00:25:18] Daphne: That’s right. Because isolation and loneliness can be quite a difficult thing for leaders. So, it’s very important to have those meetings either on Zoom, and of course getting together in person, that cannot be replaced as well.

[00:25:35] Cara: Absolutely. Like I said, there’s so much richness and wisdom and I think experience in what you just shared. So, I’m wondering for our newer emergent leaders, what is something you wish that you knew early on in your leadership development, regarding your growth or rhythms of healthy leadership?

[00:26:04] Daphne: Perhaps it’s not just new things I wish I knew early on, but things which I would like to have understood more deeply. God gives us more depth of understanding as we face some of those tough experiences through our Christian journey and leadership. I think in any kind of ministry leadership, we walk with people through good times, the peaks of life, and we walk with them through the valleys. It’s such a privilege to be part of people’s lives and it’s sacred ground really.

We have our own ups and downs, and I realize more and more that it’s really a journey of the heart, both head and heart, but a lot of heart. And sometimes there’s just no words. We groan in the spirit, so to speak. We need his interceding for us in both how we respond and encourage others, but also how we manage ourselves.

Coming back to that self-awareness acknowledging our own feelings and failures. One verse I’ve learned more about recently is finding the rhythm, so to speak, of rest and peace in Jesus and being able to let go of many things. Because there are a lot of worries and concerns about the future that we can hold onto if we wanted to.

It is okay to be human. Even leaders are humans. But I love Matthew 11:28 where Jesus says, come unto me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart.

And I’ve never really noticed before so much the heart aspect of Jesus. [inaudible] in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And it’s only in recent times that I’ve realized that this is really preceded by verses showing the relationship of the Father to the Son and the dynamics of the Trinity.

In verse 27, just preceding it says, all things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

So that handing over to the Son is like letting go. That pouring out and emptying of yourself, it’s that letting go and it’s that giving and the receiving. And it’s all done in that mutual love and oneness. And these are the beautiful rhythms of our triune God. And I’ve come to realize how this pattern can help us in our rhythms of life and the experiences that we face—that pouring out, the letting go, and the receiving of God’s love.

Sometimes we forget to receive his love and that gives me strength to embrace the human circle of life and be able to help others through it. Because I think as we’re an aging church, we are having quite a few of our beautiful, longtime members who are passing. And that’s, I think, a time of grief for our church in many ways.

But by thinking about this in terms of that beautiful rhythm of the triune God, I think it gives us that strength. Sometimes that is through being vulnerable, humble in heart, being human and real about ourselves and acknowledging our feelings. Just as Jesus wept, he didn’t hide that Jesus wept so that others can relate.

Just as an example, we’ve kept in touch with our neighborhood, with our neighbor from our previous residence. We moved a couple of years ago, but she still likes to keep in touch. And just recently she called us because she’s just been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. And she’d like us to visit her.

She just really wants to pour out her heart and have a hug, and we’d be more than happy to do that. But it’s just lovely that we’ve still got that connection. And you can see that the needs of the heart and how people just need to be heard and perhaps just need that hug and help people let go.

Her husband is very ill, and he has a brain tumor. And she’s probably likely to die very soon as well. Letting go is a big part of life. Even seeing your own child grow to adulthood and handing over responsibility to their lives. It’s that letting go of your children or losing loved ones is the hardest as we go through grief and loss or watching your child with a disability go through the disappointments as they’re not able to keep up with their peers.

Or sometimes feeling a failure when your messages feel like they’ve been a flop or perhaps [inaudible] this day. It’s interesting to go back one verse further, even to verse 26. It says that these things have been revealed to little children, reminding us again of our vulnerability, just needing to be childlike.

Not in an immature way, but just in regard to the childlike openness to love. Children make mistakes. They fall over, but they get up again. And we can give all of this to Jesus. And when I think of Jesus who emptied himself, he was stripped of everything and stretched out on that cross, he was mocked and doubted.

So, Jesus can truly empathize with our feelings. He invites us to bring all of ourselves to him, not just part of us, but all of ourselves to him, to be buried in the tomb with him, but most importantly to be raised up again with him. And he gives us that help to be persistent, to get up again, to persevere.

He raises our spirits and helps us through. The point is we can safely leave things to him. And I think that’s the most beautiful thing because sometimes when we talk about letting go, it’s not like you can just let go to the thin air. But we know with God, we can give it to him, and we let go because he holds it.

And then he raises us up, and he raises our spirits and helps us through. And sometimes when you think about little children, you know that circle of security, we see that children will come to a parent for a hug and then they venture out and do something. And then they come back again to the parent’s lap for love and security. Then they venture out a little bit further. And it’s a rhythm and it’s a rhythm of that giving and receiving and letting go. And we have that with Jesus. When we have that wonderful relationship with him, we know that he holds us. And then he gives us the courage to go out. Then we come back again for more feeling of his love and strength and security.

So, we have that beautiful rhythm in that circle of security.

[00:33:08] Cara: Thank you, Daphne. I think that’s beautifully described and I like the way you said too, it’s not necessarily a new thing, but a depth of knowing and a grounded-ness in that truth.

And I do think that’s a beautiful thing and what a gift that it would be for those early on in their development as leaders. If we could package that up and give that grounded-ness and give that sense of grounded-ness even on those toughest days in ministry and in life. The firmness of that truth of who Christ is. That’s beautiful.

I’m wondering too because you’ve described a lot of really rich and beautiful things about what Jesus teaches us about healthy leadership and how we can participate in that, what that looks like when we allow ourselves to be formed by him and his spirit in that healthy leadership.

What are some patterns that you’ve seen over your time in leadership or maybe ways of thinking that can get in the way of developing those rhythms of healthy leadership?

[00:34:48] Daphne: John Maxwell claims that what sabotages more leadership efforts and derails good teams more than anything else is that lack of self-awareness. And he goes on to say, when leaders don’t see themselves clearly or are unaware of their strengths and weaknesses, or fail to recognize their negative interactions, they limit their influence and undermine their own effectiveness.

And as Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. And I always thought that’s a hard statement, but it seems a very strong statement to make. But it is important as the toughest person to lead is always our self.

Even Edmund Hillary in climbing Mount Everest, and he reached the peak. He said, it’s not the mountain we have to conquer, but it is ourselves. So that self-awareness really is important. However, in contemporary leadership theories, it’s noticed that despite recognition of the importance of self-awareness and continuing self-evaluative processes, relatively little attention has been directed at understanding how this type of leadership is fostered.

So, I think this gives value to the work of Giant authors, in those articles, know yourself to lead yourself and the tools that they’ve developed. And Giant uses the infinity symbol to show leadership is a journey ongoing, and that self-awareness is a never-ending process in terms of infinity.

It’s ongoing, and the self-awareness angle that they put it into two simple commitments, which I think makes it easy to understand, isn’t it? A commitment to understand how you’re wired, the tendencies that result from such wiring and the impact those tendencies have on others. And two, a commitment to change your negative tendencies in order to become the best person and leader you can be.

So that willingness to change really is the hard part, isn’t it? If I’m not willing to change and grow, then all the efforts around self-examination really are pointless. But it’s just the difficult part really.

The truth is we need help. And that’s where the Psalms, I think—in praying the Psalms is a wonderful help because this reminds me of Psalms 19:12. It says, who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

Because sometimes there are things that are hidden to us, but God knows us better than anyone, than even we ourselves know ourselves. In Psalm 139:23-24, God, the Psalm says, search me. Oh God, know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

And other translations say, see if there’d be any hurtful way in me, or if there’d be offensive tendency or any way in me that is grievous, then please lead me in that way everlasting—meaning, lead me in the ways that reflect Jesus.

It’s Jesus that really can only change our heart. And that’s what’s important to the Father, really is our heart. And he can change any hurtful or harmful tendencies and that can be our prayer. And instead to change them to those tendencies of his that reflect him of love and love of God, love of neighbor, and wanting to see the best for others, even to the love of our enemies.

And I think Hebrews 12 also touches on something else which can get in the way of healthy leadership. In verse 15, it says, see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble. So bitter roots can also be a big hindrance. And in dealing with roots of bitterness, again, we must first deal with ourselves.

It comes to that self-awareness and what is in our own hearts, because roots, they grow under the ground. They’re not visible to the naked eye, and sometimes they’re not even visible to the person. And it could be hurts or pains from childhood issues or rejection or abuse or painful experiences later in life. And if they’ve not been dealt with, they can cause anger and hatred and envy.

Sometimes those things just sit and simmer and could even be the seeds of mental illness or emotional instability. And one tendency which is not healthy, is to deal with these symptoms through self-medicating, which often happens through alcohol or drugs or destructive behaviors like very impulsive anger or outbursts.

So, a healthy leader is one who recognizes this and seeks help and encourages another to seek help if there be underlying issues, which is holding someone back. And it’s not shameful to get help through counseling or spiritual direction or chaplaincy supervision. It’s a healthy thing. And I think we need to overcome the stigma that it’s a weakness to ask for help.

It’s a great power in having professionals to talk to and talk things through—someone who can help us work through painful issues because it can be a wonderful release and a healing to the mind and the body. So myself, coming from a psychology and social work background, it’s very normal that we have that regular and ongoing supervision so that we have someone professional to talk to about that journey of life so that things don’t get below the surface and develop those unhealthy roots.

So instead, we really to be rooted in the love of Christ to be digging into his word, into the meaning of grace and forgiveness. Realize the lavish love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and the power of forgiveness and of grace. God is a healer, and we can trust him that he knows is best.

He is a God of compassion and care, and we can trust him with our thoughts and our anxious thoughts. And at times he would also allow us to get help from humans, other people who can help us. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. But also, as it says in Peter, cast all your anxiety or burdens on him because he cares for you.

In fact, the verse before this says, humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. And one commentary notes that casting your cares on him is not offering a new command but is defining how believers are to be humble. Taking that word casting, and it should be connected with the word humble, which means enriching the understanding of both verbs, humbling ourselves and casting our cares on him.

And that’s not a negative, but a positive action and one of active dependence on God for help, and God will help us. And sometimes that is in the form of another person and there’s no shame in reaching out for help. I think that’s an important aspect of answering the question on how to address issues or things that come up which may hinder healthy leadership.

And just to encourage that open conversation one-on-one, encourage people to seek professional help, either in the form of chaplaincy or spiritual direction or counseling and always try to be the active listener and try to listen for what’s happening for the person. Let people know that you’re there for them and with them and be willing to challenge when needed.

But as our model suggests, always with high support and grace always.

[00:43:03] Cara: Thank you, Daphne. That is excellent word for our listeners and our leaders. And so, as we come up towards the end of our time together in this particular conversation, what final encouragement or advice would you give our pastors and local leaders who are developing their rhythms of healthy leadership?

[00:43:38] Daphne: I think that one of the big things, as I said, is really about the spiritual formation. And that development of that healthy inner life as the first protocol when we’re encouraging healthy pastors or healthy leadership because I believe the spiritual disciplines help shape those daily or weekly rhythms in promoting that healthy inner life.

In his book, Eugene Peterson gives a quote, which is quite provocative because the book’s working the angles, the shape of pastoral integrity. But he quotes and a call for all pastors to abandon their preoccupation with image and standing, administration success and economic viability and return to the three basic critical things for the pastoral ministry: praying, reading scripture, and giving spiritual direction.

It comes again, I think, to that spiritual formation. And I love the way that Mulholland explains about the map for spiritual formation because we live in a world of instant gratification, and we look for quick fixes and search for right techniques or proper methods or perfect programs that can immediately deliver. But really the spiritual formation is about spiritual maturity and wholeness. And that is very much a process. And spiritual growth can be likened to the nature of physical growth. And when we think of a baby and spend the first year patiently changing diapers, feeding him or her with milk and gradually [inaudible] and measure the growth pound by pound, and inch by inch.

And we try to build in routine and healthy rhythms of feeding and sleeping to enhance and ensure the baby’s nurture and growth. And similar in the spiritual journey, having that nurture and growth in a rhythm. Thus, in summary, he notes “that Christian journey is an intentional and continual commitment to a lifelong process of growth toward wholeness in Christ. It is a process growing up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, Ephesians 4:15, until we attain to the mature personhood, to the mature measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

So, in practical terms of encouraging leaders in the spiritual journey we have a few different tools. We have the ACCM course on spiritual formation and other courses and Grace Communion Seminary courses. One of our pastors [in Australia] now has graduated from GCS and others are in the process. And John Mclean is running cohorts of the six core courses of ACCM.

And spiritual disciplines can also be studied in connect groups. And my connect group is just preparing to go through Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, which goes through the disciplines. I think these are wonderful tools that we have.

And Foster talks about the inward—this is referring to the privacy of our intimate walk with Jesus, the meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. And then the outward—those things that affect how we interface with the world, the simplicity, solitude, and submission and service. Then the corporate disciplines these are practiced with others in worship, and all of the disciplines culminate in that worship of God because there’s nothing more valuable or worthwhile than a transforming relationship with the God who made us.

And coming together in worship is so encouraging. The disciplines may come in different orders or with different authors, and that’s fine. We are not meant to default to a legalistic posture with them, but they’re meant to draw us into his love and into his grace. And the spiritual disciplines remind us that we’re human beings and not human doings.

God’s concern for us is also about who we are becoming as they help us detach from the hurried busyness of this world. And I think we’re all trying to cope with that. And I love the prayer of Mulholland in relation to working with the inner life. And I’ll just read out the last portion. This is so beautifully expressed. It says,

You wait in infinite patience for me to open my life to your cleansing and healing, liberating, transforming grace. You wait for me to willingly cooperate with your purposes for my wholeness. Help me, oh God, to offer to you the deep inner yieldedness of my being that will enable my spiritual disciplines to become avenues of your grace in me.

I thought that “avenues of grace” is very beautiful.

[00:48:39] Cara: Yes.

[00:48:40] Daphne: Because that’s really from the avenues of grace that can then flow over into our model of the three Avenues for healthy church: faith, hope and love, but really stemming from those avenues of grace. Mulholland too doesn’t stop with the personal disciplines but notes the imperative of the corporate spirituality.

And we ask the question why? And that is because we’re on a spiritual pilgrimage together in the church, the body of Christ. It’s a collective.

He gives a wonderful story of Dwight Moody. And Dwight was sitting or visiting with the man on a cold winter’s day, and they ushered into a nice, warm sitting room with a blazing fire on the hearth. And after some chat, the man began to argue that it was possible for a person to be a Christian without participating in the life of the church.

Moody remained silent, but he leaned forward in his chair, grabbed the poker, and pulled out one of the burning coals. He left the burning coal by itself on the hearth. Slowly the coal dimmed and died out. After a long pause, the man conceded. “Mr. Moody, you have made your point, because that one coal by itself burnt out and became cold.”

But I think that’s a great segway into the topic of healthy rhythms of corporate leadership. Then firstly is the corporate worship, that coming together for weekly worship services. We have the rhythms found in the Christian worship calendar, which also keep us focused and centered on the life of Jesus. And then we have the RCL, which provides scriptures and readings that keep us in those seasonal patterns and coming together for those celebrations.

It’s a great time of joy and fellowship, and I think that’s a beautiful strength of our church. We love coming together and we love the fellowship. And in terms of the corporate rhythms our president Dr. Greg Williams has provided the GCI 3-year plan towards Healthy Church, which came out in February 2022.

So that’s another rhythm for us to be working on during those three years. And that 3-year plan sets out the plan and action for Healthy Church, healthy leaders, Team based – Pastor led, and the implementation of the three Avenues, the Faith, Hope, and Love. And so, these are three great expressions of who Jesus is and the formation of vision or for our focus churches.

So, our pastors are encouraged to hold those regular pastoral team meetings to be collaborative and encourage ideas and input and to have that excitement about our vision. One of our church areas holds two pastoral team retreats each year for the development of Avenue leaders is ongoing.

Coaching, we have on a regular basis that’s been implemented. And monthly pastoral Zoom meetings, as I mentioned before, are held for the training and fellowship of our pastors. And then we’re encouraged to utilize the 4 Es, which are an amazing tool or a set of principles for any setting.

So, I think we are blessed to have so many tools, and to have the Christian calendar and to have those spiritual formation rhythms, as well, that keep us close to God and keep us focused really on the important things to really promote that healthy inner life from which everything else flows with Jesus Christ in us.

[00:52:23] Cara: Thank you Daphne, for that final encouragement, but I’m not finished with you just yet. Okay. We have on GC Podcast, our tradition is our last segment is a fun rapid fire question segment. So, I have a couple random fun questions for you, and you can answer the first thing that comes to mind.

Are you ready for that? So, the first question is, what’s something that brings you childlike joy?

[00:53:04] Daphne: Just spending time with the family, with my daughters, with my grandson. He is so much fun because we can do the artwork together. We pick up pencils and coloring, making rainbows.

It’s just a childlike enjoyment that I can have with my family and with the dogs.

[00:53:25] Cara: Yes. I love that. Yeah. Okay. What’s the best phrase or piece of slang people in your hometown use?

[00:53:36] Daphne: Australian slang. Oh, we have so many slang words. Maybe one of them I like is, “Good on ya, mate.”

That’s a form of encouragement. Good on ya, mate. Okay.

[00:53:52] Cara: Okay. I like it.

[00:53:53] Daphne: Maybe I should slow it down. It’s good on you, mate, but we say Good on ya.

[00:54:00] Cara: Good on you, mate. Yeah, I like that. That feels encouraging. Yeah. Good.

[00:54:05] Daphne: Good on you, Cara.

[00:54:08] Cara: Oh, thanks, Daphne. All right. If you’re going to a potluck, what is your favorite dish to bring?

[00:54:18] Daphne: One to bring that I cook myself, or one that I’d like to enjoy there? Okay. One that I remember very much from the Philippines is chicken adobo. Oh, I love that. It’s not that I’m very good at cooking that myself, but if that’s there as part of the potluck, I’ll certainly go for chicken adobo. I still remember the beautiful dishes from the Philippines.

[00:54:45] Cara: I’m with you on that one. All right. In your city, what is your number one recommendation for activities or places to visit, things to do?

[00:54:59] Daphne: The Gold Coast is considered a city, and we’ve got beautiful beaches here. So, the high rises are along the beaches.

So, you can stay in one of the high-rise apartments. In the morning, you can just draw the curtains and look at this beautiful ocean with a beautiful white sand. And if you like surfing, you can surf. If you just like to walk on the beach’s beautiful sand. If you like to build sandcastles, it’s all there.

And then best of all, we have good coffee, so you can go enjoy coffee shops, or the lovely places also for meals. But yeah, the Gold Coast is known for its beautiful beaches and relaxed lifestyle, in terms of being able to go surfing or living near the water. But mostly that’s the tourists that enjoy that.

Another beautiful thing is too, during the season you can go to some parts and overlook or go out in a boat and see the whales coming up as they’re migrating. That’s a beautiful, awesome thing to watch too, is the whales have their little calves with them. It’s a wonderful site.

[00:56:13] Cara: Oh, wow. Oh, that does sound really fun.

[00:56:16] Daphne: Yeah. You’ll have to come to visit, Cara.

[00:56:19] Cara: It’s settled. Yeah. I like a nice beach coffee and some animal sightings.

Alright, Daphne, the last question I have for you. If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would you go?

[00:56:43] Daphne: Ooh, that’s a hard one, Cara, because we’ve been blessed to have lived in India and the Philippines and around New Zealand, and I’ve visited Fiji. So, any of those countries, I could easily spend one year in because there’s so interesting and such variety of cultures and foods. And we have many fond memories of our time in India with the brethren there, with the beautiful sarees and the beautiful hot curries, and our wonderful time in the Philippines and our visits to Fiji and Solomons and …

Oh, Cara, I have to pick one. It would be very hard, really for me to just choose one.

[00:57:26] Cara: You can hop all around for the year. Okay. As they all sound like wonderful places. I can understand why you have a hard time choosing.

Daphne, thank you so much for your time today. This was a wonderful conversation.

You brought some really incredible insights, some encouragement, and even some challenging words for us and our listeners. So, I thank you so much for just the time that you’ve spent today with us and for all of your thoughts that you’ve shared on healthy leadership. It has been an incredible blessing to hear from you today.

It is our practice with the GC Podcast to end our show with prayer. And so, I would love, if you’re willing, to ask you to pray for our churches and our pastors, our ministry leaders in GCI.

[00:58:26] Daphne: Thank you so much, Cara. It’s been an absolute privilege to be part of this conversation and I’m very happy to pray for our leaders.

Let’s just pray now as we come before our wonderful Father in heaven.

We just thank you, Lord, so much for the love that you bestow on us and the just the beautiful life, Jesus, that you live, that we can live into you, that we can live into your love and into your grace. Father, we pray this for our leadership and for all of our brethren, Father, our pastors, our leaders, our brethren and listeners, that everyone, Lord, would be encouraged by you, Father, that you are there for us.

You stand with us. You intercede for us, Lord, when we do not even have words to say, Father. And we’ve groaned sometimes in pain or with the loss of loved ones and people who are suffering illnesses, Lord, but we just lift them to you, Father, and we are inspired by Jesus and his life that, he wept, he weeps with us.

He knows us. He empathizes with us, but he doesn’t stop there, Lord. He lifts us up as he was raised up. He raises up our spirits. And I just pray, Lord, that if anyone’s discouraged or hurting in any way, please Lord, lift them up, encourage them and let them talk to people and have friends, Lord.

Friendships are a wonderful thing as well, Father, and we have that with you and with our fellow brethren and we thank you, Lord, so much. We thank you for Cara and for this time together and for the support crew. And just thank you, Lord, so much that you made this possible and we just lift it all to you, Father and just pray for your help and encouragement and your blessing on GCI.

We love this church, Lord. We’ve been brought into it, and we thank you for that. We thank you for the privilege, and we just pray especially for our president, Dr. Greg Williams and Susan and for your blessing over them, Lord, to continue to guide and to lead us and to really bless the leadership, Father, of our church that we can be strong and healthy, we can be a healthy church, and we can be excited, Father, about the vision and what you have for us, what you have in store for us.

And may we be led by your rhythms. Father of love and grace, we thank you so much now in Jesus’ name, amen.

[01:00:58] Cara: Amen. Until next time folks, 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 November 5, 2023 – Proper 26

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5050 | Expect the Unexpected
Greg Williams

We typically don’t like the unexpected. We don’t like it when our car unexpectedly refuses to turn over, or our computer unexpectedly crashes. Worse, an unexpected loss of employment creates great turmoil and loss of personal confidence. And we certainly don’t like unexpected health difficulties. But these are the realities we face, and we quickly learn to expect the unexpected along with all the frustration and heartache it can bring.

However, not all things unexpected are bad. An unexpected gift or raise can turn a sour day around in a hurry. I’m sure we can all remember with joy some unexpected blessing that came our way, large or small.

So, here’s a question. What should we expect from the Lord? Is he full of unexpected surprises?

The biblical witness seems to present… well, an unexpected answer to that question. We are presented with a God who is unchanging, yet, at the same time, full of unexpected surprises.

Listen to Psalm 107 the paradox of God’s unchanging nature described by images of unexpected natural events.

“Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. And there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in; they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.”

Psalm 107:31-37 (ESV)

It’s interesting how the psalmist refers to the Lord’s steadfast love but then equates that steadfastness with images of great reversals. It appears that the Lord is steadfast in bringing the unexpected. But did you notice the direction of the unexpected? It was always for blessing. We can expect the rivers of evil to run dry, while also expecting the deserts of his children to become fruitful.

With God, there is always good news ahead. Rivers run dry, but he refills them. Deserts become springs of water. Sinners become believers and followers of Christ. It’s easy to look around and get discouraged at the state of the world, so Jesus tells us to lift our eyes and gaze upon him. He is the restorer of all things. He is the one who works his blessings in unexpected ways.

As we wind down the season of Ordinary Time and enter the season of Advent, let’s continually look to him and learn to expect the unexpected. Ordinary Time ends with Christ the King Sunday – and no one expected the King of kings to enter our world as he did. God loves to surprise with the unexpected – it’s part of the mystery of who he is. 

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 • Joshua 3:7-17 • 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 • Matthew 23:1-12

This week’s theme is divine paradoxes. The first section of the call to worship Psalm expresses gratitude for God’s redeeming love, and in the second section of the Psalm, God’s redemption is illustrated by staggering natural reversals. The Old Testament reading from Joshua records the dramatic scene of the priests standing on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan river when its banks were typically overflowing. The text from 1 Thessalonians records Paul’s thankfulness for the acceptance and power of God’s words even though they were spoken by mortal tongues. The Gospel reading from Matthew records Jesus’ great statement of reversal that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

God’s Word at Work

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 (ESV)

Today for our message we have a short passage from Paul’s letter to the church of the Thessalonians. Paul has been writing this letter with passionate thankfulness of what he sees the Lord doing in the lives of these new believers in the striving metropolis of Thessalonica. Paul wasn’t able to stay with the church very long before he was run out of town by those who did not like his message. So, Paul was concerned about these new believers, moving him to send his traveling partner Timothy to find out how they were doing. Timothy brought back a glowing report to which Paul responds with his letter. In this section, he is going to remind them of the time they had together when he first brought the gospel to them.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. (1 Thessalonians 2:9 ESV)

It may seem odd to our ears when we first hear this verse. It sounds like Paul is bragging about himself in how he conducted his affairs when he was with the Thessalonians. Is Paul trying to build his reputation with the Thessalonians? Is he trying to obligate them in some way based on his past actions? What’s going on here?

Perhaps you have heard a wise pastor pray something like this before delivering a sermon: “Lord, may I get out of the way so you can be seen.” Or, “Lord, may my words only be what you are saying today.” Or some variation of that. The pastor is praying that he will not distract or become an obstacle to hearing God’s word. That prayer conveys what is of most importance for the speaker and the hearers – God’s word, not man’s. It’s the same recognition John the Baptist had when he said of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is essentially what Paul is saying here. He is reminding the Thessalonian believers that when he came proclaiming the gospel to them, he did not want to get in the way of the gospel message. He did not want to be a burden to them while proclaiming God’s word. So, he labored and toiled, night and day, to take care of his own needs. Paul was following his own principle stated to the Corinthians, that he would “endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ” (1 Cor.9:12). We could say Paul was working awfully hard to get out of the way of the message.

We may ask, how does Paul working night and day avoid being a burden, or a barrier to the gospel he was proclaiming? The first thing is it would free them of additional financial burdens. But it probably goes deeper than that. Paul also may have in mind the common practice of traveling philosophers who would charge the listeners for their messages. Some of these philosophers were charlatans. Perhaps Paul does not want the Thessalonians to assume that he was just another traveling philosopher peddling his thoughts. Paul may see that this cultural practice could become a hindrance if he appeared to be doing the same. So, instead of asking for financial support, he worked to provide his own support in order to share the gospel. This would distinguish him from being a possible false philosopher. Paul knows that what he is bringing is God’s word of grace and truth. It can’t be sold or bought. It is a gift to receive. And it can be trusted.

Paul knew he had a right to compensation for his services, though he did not always invoke that right (1 Corinthians 9:7-18). Also, at that time Paul was also receiving aid from the Philippians (Philippians 4:16).

Also, in the Greco-Roman world societies depended on the patron-client relationship to operate. The patron would financially support people of a lower class, but in return those people would have to pay allegiance to the patron. This created an informal yet binding agreement between the patron and those he was supporting. In short, it made the relationships between upper class and lower class contractual. Perhaps Paul did not want the Thessalonians to presume they would be entering into such a social arrangement with him. Whatever Paul had in mind, what is apparent is his desire not to allow anything to get in the way of hearing the gospel message for what it is.

We see in Paul’s action towards the Thessalonians an important reminder that God is at work in the world, and it’s about his work, not about ours. Paul worked hard not to make the gospel about himself. The center is Christ, not the messengers of Christ. How often we are tempted to turn the finger away from Christ and point to ourselves! This is not what we are called to do in proclaiming the gospel. We are to point to Christ, not to ourselves, not to our churches, and certainly not to some social construct that everyone else is doing. God’s word does not need any help from us. Yes, by God’s grace we are given the privilege to participate in God’s sharing of himself to the world. Most of us may not ever plant a church like Paul did. However, we too must still remember to keep Jesus as the focus of our proclamation of the gospel. How often are unbelievers invited to hear the gospel while being sold on our church programs or our amazing sanctuary and invigorating worship music or the inspiring and dynamic preacher? These things may be great, but if they take center stage, we will be left with the results those things can bring which will be far less than the results which come by the power of God’s word.

You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 ESV)

Again, it may sound to our ears that Paul is bragging about his character. But he is reminding the Thessalonians that he did not need to conduct himself like many do in the surrounding culture. He did not need to compromise his message by manipulating, lying, or pulling a fast one. He let the gospel message do its own work. There was no need to try and sell it or twist any arms. Paul was proclaiming the gospel while trusting the gospel. It’s when we don’t trust Jesus to call people to himself that we may be tempted to compromise in ways not becoming to the gospel message. When we trust Jesus, our lives will be marked by holy, righteous, and blameless living. And this too will be a witness to the one who has set us free to live in his freedom.

Paul then equates the way he interacted with the Thessalonians as a father would his own children. By doing this he is serving as a pointer to the reality that they are really God’s own children. As God’s own children they are to trust in the Father – made evident by walking “in a manner worthy of God.” They are to walk in a manner that is holy, righteous, and blameless. Paul piles up the words “exhorted,” “encouraged,” and “charged” to express the importance of walking in this manner. He wants the Thessalonians to know that this is what it is all adding up to – living as children of God. And notice that Paul doesn’t just leave it at “God,” but declares that this God is the one “who calls you.” It’s not Paul calling them to the Father. It is God himself who is calling us to him. And the calling is in the present tense. It is an ongoing calling. This is the reality we face every morning. Our Father is continually calling us to himself, as a loving Father calls his children.

Then Paul adds one more qualifier saying, God calls us “into his own kingdom and glory.” His calling is not generic or up for negotiation. It is a calling into a very specific kingdom and glory—his kingdom and his glory. This means that they are not called into the kingdom and glory of Rome. Their walk will be very different from the walk of their fellow citizens in Thessalonica.

Ultimately, what Paul is exhorting, encouraging, and charging is for us all to live according to the reality that God and his kingdom are real. Jesus is Lord. There is no getting around it, and one day all kingdoms will bow to that reality. So, Paul is passionately reminding them to continue to put their full trust in the gospel, in Jesus. To live in a manner that takes that reality seriously. If Jesus is Lord, then our walk will be in his footsteps, not another’s.

Paul will now conclude with another expression of thankfulness which is seen throughout Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV)

Paul has reminded the Thessalonians of how hard he has worked to not be a burden for them to receive God’s word. So, it is fitting for him to conclude this section by giving God the thanks that this has indeed happened. The Thessalonians heard the words of the gospel articulated from the mortal lips of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy; however, they received the words for what they really are, God’s word. What a paradox and miracle that God’s divine word to us can actually come by mere men and women proclaiming the good news that Jesus is Lord! And Paul concludes by giving the glory where it belongs. It is God’s word that is doing the work in the Thessalonians and among us. It’s not Paul’s work, your pastor’s work or anyone else’s. And for that we say, “Hallelujah, praise God!”

Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W1

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November 5 — Proper 26 of Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13, “You Are Witnesses”

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Program Transcript


Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W1

Anthony: All right, let’s move on to the lectionary passages. That’s why we’re here today. We’re going to be looking at four pericopes.

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13                                          “You Are Witnesses”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18                                        “Resurrection Reality”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11                                            “Hope in Jesus”

Matthew 25:31-46                                                 “Reign of Christ”

Our first pericope of the month is 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition, which is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 26 in Ordinary Time, which falls on November 5.

9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. 11 As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12 urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.

Now, Mike, if you were exegeting this passage to prepare for a sermon, what would be the focus of this, from this pericope in your proclamation?

Mike: The word exegesis means to draw something out. We want to get something out of the passage rather than reading our own ideas into it. Now, on any passage, there are a couple of basic questions we can start with.

First, what is the author trying to say? What’s the main point? And second, why is he saying it? How does he want the readers to respond to what he writes? In this passage, Paul is writing about himself, and the people who were traveling with him. He says, We worked night and day. Why is he saying that?

He says they had good behavior. What’s the point of saying that? Why is he reminding the people in Thessalonica of something that they already know?

That’s part of the pattern in the chapter. Verse 1 starts out, You yourselves know. Verse 2 includes the phrase, As we know. Verse 5 says, As you know. Verse 9 says, You remember. Verse 10, You are witnesses. Verse 11, As you know. And then, verse 13 reminds them of what they did, and of course they know that as well. He is rehearsing this history with the people.

Why?

We get a clue in verse 12, where he reminds them of what he was teaching them. He was “urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God.”

That’s part of his earlier message to them, and he thinks it’s worth repeating. That’s why he reminds them of the example he set in labor and toil, working night and day. We read later in the epistle that some of the people in Thessalonica are not working, and here Paul is helping reinforce what he will tell them later.

So, it seems that Paul wants the readers to live in a way that God wants. We can see some confirmation of that if we keep reading in the letter. In chapter 3, he says more about the relationship between Paul and the people in Thessalonica, and then in chapter 4, he makes his point. “We ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learn from us how you ought to live and to please God … you should do so more and more.”

He wants them to have good behavior and he’s pointing them to his own behavior as an example: You learn from us how you ought to live. So that verse in chapter 4 confirms that we’re on the right track when we see that behavior is the main purpose of the passage in chapter 2. His concern is the way they’re living.

He wants them to be a good example to others, just as he was to them. So, the main point is that believers should live a life worthy of God.

Ah, wow. What does that mean? To live a life worthy of God? Isn’t that a rather tall order? Yes, it is. But we should note that Paul is not saying that we can earn our salvation by living a good life.

He is not saying we have to be perfect. We can’t. We will fall short. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t try. Being saved by grace through faith does not mean that God doesn’t care about the way we live. It doesn’t mean that he wants to leave us in a life of sin.

It’s a matter of living up to who we really are. God says he made us in his own image. We are his children, and we are supposed to live like he does. And that can be summarized in the one word, love. Humans are broken, and we don’t always know what love really is, so God tells us what it looks like. For example, it looks like being truthful with one another, being respectful, being faithful.

One reason that salvation is a good thing is that people will have good behavior. If people are just looking out for themselves and are willing to hurt other people in order to get their own way, then eternal life won’t be very enjoyable, at least for people on the bottom. Eternal life will be good for everybody, only if it is characterized by humility, service, and love for others.

We don’t want everybody deciding for themselves how to live, and what’s good and what’s bad. We want everyone to trust that God is giving us the best possible instructions for how to live.

And the best part of eternal life is that it will be with God. He actually wants to live with us, but that won’t be much fun for us unless we also want to live in the way that he does, in the way of love and kindness. And if we really want that in the future, then we will want to live that way now as well. If it’s good then, it’s good now.

Anthony: Yeah, and thanks be to God that it’s not just the instruction, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that God gives himself to empower us to live the life he is calling us to live—a life, as you said, worthy of God.

And one of the ways that we live this life worthy of God, especially those who are called to teach others, is to point to Jesus. Like John the Baptist did in John 1, “There he is the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world.”

And in this passage Paul states his words weren’t human, but God’s word. My question for you, Mike, is how do pastors, preachers, teachers safeguard themselves from preaching their own word instead of God’s word?

Mike: All right. Yeah, Paul tells us that in verse 13. Some translations start a new paragraph at verse 13, but the Revised Common Lectionary includes it here as part of the same passage. Its function in this context is that it is a subtle reminder that Paul is writing with God’s authority. Just as the people received God Paul’s teaching as God’s word back then, so he wants them to receive his letter in the same way. He’s calling them to be attentive and responsive.

Your question reminds me, or this verse reminds me of what 1 Peter 4:11 says, that “whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God.” I’m not sure that we ever do that 100 percent right. I would not want to say that my sermons should be canonized and be used as the standard of right and wrong from now to the end of time. But I do hope that God can speak through me or that people will hear at least something from God in the words that I speak.

Church history and YouTube agree that preachers often speak their own words instead of what God is saying. Sometimes the speakers aren’t even trying to speak the words of God. But sometimes they are, and they don’t do a very good job of it. Your question presupposes that we want to get it right, that we want to present God’s word for the people and not just our own opinions.

One key to doing that is to stick close to the text. Don’t just use the text as a springboard to something else. It’s not just the introduction to our sermon, but it is the basis of the sermon. The sermon should re-present what the text says, and it should try to have a similar effect on the audience as the original text had.

Of course, our audiences are in such different circumstances we can never do it exactly the same, even if we do nothing but read the words of scripture exactly as they are. Because our audiences are in different circumstances, they are going to react to the words of Scripture in a way that might be different than what the original audience did.

So that’s part of the role of the preacher, to discern what the text is doing and to try to do it again for a different audience, when we as readers are in different contexts, thousands of years and thousands of miles away. So, we want to understand the original context, the historical and literary contexts.

And we want to understand our own context. Our own context will affect what we expect to find in the text, what questions we will ask, and even what things we don’t notice because we aren’t looking for them. A person who is in grief is going to notice different things than a person who is in a celebratory mood. So, we, ourselves, will notice different things in the Word of God based on our own context.

And then we also want to understand the context of the people we’re speaking to. Are they happy or sad? Are they worried about their salvation? Or are they taking it for granted? Are they puffed up with self-importance or dejected about their lack of importance? We want to give them a word from God that will meet them where they are. That’s why we need preachers and not just Bible readers.

It’s not an easy task. It requires an attitude of humility on our part and prayer that God might guide us to an appropriate message from the text for this audience at this time. A seminary course in biblical interpretation might help, a course in preaching might help, but a seminary course cannot give us humility and faith, and it cannot tell us what our audience happens to be thinking at this particular moment in the flow of time.

So that still leaves us with the question you ask, and perhaps that’s what each of us should ask when we are preparing to speak: am I being honest to what the text is trying to say, or am I using the text as an excuse to cover one of my own pet peeves or one of my favorite topics? That’s actually one of the advantages of using the Revised Common Lectionary. We don’t just choose our own passages according to the topics we happen to like but we submit to the text that is given to us that week.

The devil can quote scripture. But he will do so in a way that promotes selfishness, self-reliance, self-determination. Does our sermon promote our own ideas? Or does it respect what God has said? Are we pointing people to the Father, Son, and Spirit? And in this passage here in 1 Thessalonians, are we encouraging them to live a life that is appropriate to the way that God wants us to be?

Anthony: Thinking about respecting the text—the word that God has given us, that’s been canonized for us—it’s one of the reasons I encourage preachers and teachers to read the scripture, in a scripture reading, like it’s the most important word that’s going to be stated instead of our commentary about the scripture, which can be really helpful, of course. But the word stands the test of time. So read it in such a way that is of utter importance, and I think that will keep us safeguarded.

One of the prayers that I pray in preparation for preaching is that I would speak the truth revealed in Jesus Christ. And if I do, rub that in deeply, Holy Spirit, into our hearts. But if I say anything that is less than reflective of what’s real and what’s true, may it be forgotten quickly like water off a duck’s back and just gone. That’s my ongoing prayer so that I as a gospel proclaimer can focus on the gospel himself, Jesus Christ, as it’s revealed in Scripture.

So that’s really helpful, Mike.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life
  • Can you think of something unexpected that has happened to you that you didn’t like? What about something that you did like?
  • What did you think of the description in Psalm 107:31-37 of God’s steadfast love expressed with images of unexpected reversals?
  • In what ways can we expect the unexpected with the Lord’s unchanging love toward us?
From the Sermon
  • Did this passage at first strike you as strange? How do you understand Paul’s statements that could appear as bragging?
  • Can you think of ways we can get in the way of others hearing God’s word?
  • How does putting our full trust in Jesus empower us to walk as holy, righteous, and blameless?
  • If our walk is different from the culture around us, what implications can be expected?
  • What does Paul attribute his thankfulness to at the end of this section (1 Thessalonians. 2:13)?

Sermon for November 12, 2023 – Proper 27

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5051You Don’t Have to Be a Girl Scout
Michelle Fleming

I was involved in Girl Scouts when I was younger. Maybe you were a Girl Scout or Boy Scout, too. The motto for Scouts is “Be Prepared.” This reminds me of the way Christians have been warned to be prepared for Christ’s return. One example that’s often cited is the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids where Jesus is telling his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is like.

The story goes like this:

Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Matthew 25:1-13

Passages like this one have often been plucked from scripture without thinking about them in the context of other direct commandments Jesus said or the way he behaved in the world. This story sounds out of character for Jesus who told us to love and serve others and put them first.

We don’t base theological doctrine on a parable because a parable wasn’t meant to be used that way. It’s a story that offers us the opportunity to consider truth from the point of view of different characters. In this parable, we see that the five bridesmaids who had plenty of oil believed that being self-reliant was more important than helping others. The five bridesmaids who didn’t prepare believed they deserved help from the ones who prepared. I mean, they had fallen asleep, waiting. But what if the parable isn’t about what the bridesmaids should have done or shouldn’t have done? What if it isn’t about the bridesmaids at all? Let’s consider a different perspective.

We assume that the five bridesmaids who ran out of oil are called foolish because they ran out of oil. But what if the reason they’re called foolish is because they listened to the other bridesmaids who told them to go buy more and then ended up missing the wedding? Maybe they were foolish because they forgot who the Bridegroom was and what he was capable of. This bridegroom was The Light of the World, and he didn’t need their lamps. They were foolish because they allowed their shame over running out of oil to drive them to try to fix it, and thus they missed the wedding banquet.

When the Bridegroom says, “I don’t know you,” he’s also saying that they didn’t really know him. And this is part of the lesson of this parable. When we focus on Jesus, we know he is the one who makes us enough. He is the light we need when our own lamps run low. He is sufficient.

May we be blessed with the understanding that we are made whole and enough in Christ.

I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 78:1-7 • Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 • 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 • Matthew 25:1-13

The theme for this week is the hope of patient waiting. Psalm 78 talks about the importance of remembering the good and sharing the good works of God from one generation to the next. Joshua 24 offers an example of one of those monumental blessings when the Israelites acknowledged their commitment to a covenant with God because of his deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The parable of the ten young women (or bridesmaids in some translations), found in Matthew 25:1-13, seems to talk about how Christians should wait and be prepared for Christ’s return, but like any parable, it provides an opportunity to think that perhaps the focus should be more on the returning Bridegroom than on us. The sermon text comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and it explores our assumptions about Paul’s role as a pastor vs. a theologian, the way hope informs our lives now, and Christ’s return.

Lessons from the Checkout Line

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NRSVUE)

If you’ve ever shopped for groceries on the weekend or went to an amusement park, you’ve had to wait in line. It’s been reported that Americans spend about 37 billion hours a year waiting in line. Waiting in line has its own system of rules based on the idea of fairness: no cutting in line (unless you’re behind me), and “first come, first served,” which means that those who show up first are served first.

Researchers have studied people’s responses to wait times, and we have a number of unspoken expectations about waiting. For example, we think that the length of the line should be somewhat equal to the item or service we’re buying, and this resulted in the creation of an express lane for those purchasing fewer than 10 items. We also tend to be preoccupied with a line’s length rather than how fast it is moving, choosing to wait in a short line that’s moving slowly rather than a long one that’s moving faster. Why do you think that Disney employs circuitous wait lines for its rides?

Some of the stress of waiting comes from our fear of wasting our time and the question of uncertainty. After all, our lives are simply time, and as older people can attest, the years seem to fly by faster the older we become. As for uncertainty, we like to think we have some control, so we like feedback, such as the amusement park monitors that overestimate the wait time. When the wait is significantly less than expected, we feel good about the time spent waiting. But waiting for a diagnosis or for failing health to improve doesn’t provide feedback like those park monitors. Uncertainty from waiting in these situations can be stressful.

Our sermon text speaks to the uncertainty of waiting. Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica to answer their concerns about loved ones who had died by reminding them about God’s promises. He also helps us understand the foundation of our hope while waiting in grief and uncertainty. Let’s read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Read More

Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica talks about community, hopeful waiting, and Christ’s coming. Let’s look at these three themes:

Community

Paul was addressing a church’s concern about their loved ones who had died. They weren’t concerned about the loved ones’ salvation but whether they would ever see them again. We can certainly identify with their concerns. Paul’s focus on community is highlighted in his description of Christ’s return.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with [those who have died] to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:17 NRSVUE)

This verse emphasizes the reconciliation believers experience. Associate Professor of New Testament at the Seminary of the Southwest Jane Lancaster Patterson explains it this way:

The vision of Christ’s triumph that Paul develops in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is one in which heaven and earth are suddenly and beautifully reconciled in an embrace (‘caught up together’) that takes place in a newly opened space between heaven and earth (‘in the air’) and which will never end (‘and so we will be with the Lord forever’). The image gathers together Paul’s deepest beliefs about God’s reconciling purpose in Christ…and paves the way for the ethical counsels to follow (1 Thessalonians 5:4-24).

Paul was acting as a pastor in this passage, not as a theologian. He took their concerns and explained Christ’s second coming in their context. While this scripture has been used to justify modern doctrine such as “The Rapture,” if we look closely at the context of 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, which immediately precedes this passage, we’ll notice that Paul is encouraging the church to continue to live faithfully, as they were already doing, but they “should do so more and more” (4:1). He is ministering to a congregation’s need for assurance and comfort rather than establishing a doctrinal order of who is to be resurrected first, second, and so on. This means he uses imagery and metaphors that they would be familiar with to illustrate that God will be faithful to the promises made.

Hopeful Waiting

Paul is best known for the phrase “faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love,” found in his first letter to the Corinthians 13:13 (NRSVUE). However, in 1 Thessalonians, he changes the order to faith, love, and hope (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Notice how he emphasizes the need for hope, especially during times of grieving:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13 NRSVUE)

Paul points out that this hope is not wishful thinking, but something that informs the way believers live now. This is hope founded on Jesus’ death and resurrection, and in the next verse the Greek used in the phrase “for since we believe” is best translated as a “condition of fact or reality:”

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. (1 Thessalonians 4:14 NRSVUE)

It’s important to note that Paul didn’t criticize the Thessalonians for grieving the deaths of their loved ones. Instead, he pointed out that as believers, their grief was deeply interconnected with their hope in Christ.

As mentioned in the introduction, waiting is part of life. And as we wait for Christ’s return, we must understand that God is in our waiting. Lutheran Seminary Professor Karoline Lewis says this about waiting:

Not that we should say, “This is how it is, get over it.” But that what we choose to utter or how we choose to be in the waiting matters. Not necessarily for God, but for ourselves. ‘Lord, do not delay’ is simultaneously a claim of urgency but also a witness to promise. That is, yes, we want the wait to be over. But, at the same time, we trust that God will show up. God will show up in the midst of any manifestation of our waiting. God will show up to be what we need God to be depending on how we experience the waiting. If our waiting is experienced in fear? God comes with peace. If our waiting is experienced in longing? God arrives with deep and abiding satisfaction. If our waiting is experienced in anticipation? God accompanies us in the joy that should be our present… To keep awake does not mean the absence of God. It means to recognize our absolute dependence on the presence of God.

Christ’s Coming

For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. (1 Thessalonians 4:15 NRSVUE)

Because two thousand years have passed since Christ ascended and he has not yet returned in all his glory, some Christians see their hope in parousia [pronounced PAR-oo-SEE-ah], which means “appearance or presence,” as almost a dream or a silly wish. In addition, while Paul offers apocalyptic language in the description of Christ’s return, we need to remember that apocalyptic language was used to remind those who were upset or even persecuted that God was in charge and he would bring about change. Paul’s audience would have been less interested in the when of the Lord’s coming and more interested in meaning – the “why” of their suffering in light of loved ones’ deaths.

Maybe our interpretation of “the coming of the Lord” is too narrow and confined to our material existence. Patterson defines it as the transformation of believers due to the workings of the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit:

But the full appearance, or full presence of Christ that the earliest Gentile Christians were awaiting was grounded in their lively experiences of the power of Christ and the Spirit to bring them into right relationship with the one true God and their neighbor in righteousness and justice, in holiness and love. In other words, their partnership with Christ in their day-to-day moral decision-making was the first edge of the presence making its way into human life. They could see it, touch it, believe it, because it wasn’t solely in an imagined future; it could be seen in the transformation of themselves and their communities.

Thus, the coming of the Lord was already happening, the “first edge” of the appearing. The church could trust and hope in the fullness of spiritual fruit and transformation that would be theirs at the coming of the Lord by living with the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:1-13), expressing love toward each other as Paul detailed in 1 Corinthians 8.

As human beings, we don’t like to wait. But waiting is part of our reality, whether it is in the grocery store checkout or for Christ’s coming.  In the context of the coming of the Lord, we can understand that our waiting is not in vain and certainly not a void. We wait within a community that has hope and with a tangible expression of the Lord’s coming as spiritual fruit birthed in us. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are at work in us and through us, the first edge of parousia reconciling us to each other, to creation, and to God.

Call to Action: When you have to wait this week, pause and think about how you are feeling and what you need. Remember that God meets our need while we wait and notice how this shows up in your experience. Observe another’s need while waiting and ask God to meet that need. Give thanks for God’s presence in your daily life.

For Reference:

https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/how-to-wait
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-32/commentary-on-1-thessalonians-413-18-3
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-32/commentary-on-1-thessalonians-413-18-4
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/why-waiting-in-line-is-torture.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W2

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November 12 — Proper 27 of Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, “Resurrection Reality”

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Program Transcript


Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W2

Anthony: Let’s move on to the second pericope that we have for this month from the lectionary. It’s 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 27 and Ordinary Time, which is on November the 12. Mike, would you read it for us, please?

Mike: Sure.

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Anthony: Verse 13 says, “so that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope.” For me, it’s just such a paradox to grieve and yet to do so in hope. And I’ve heard it said that lament gives voice to what hurts while hope gives voice to what heals.

How is this even possible that we can grieve, but do so in hope? What is the apostle leading us to?

Mike: The passage is about death, and it’s about resurrection and eternal life with the Lord. The Bible tells us that death is an enemy. But it is an enemy that Jesus Christ defeated on our behalf, and we will share in that victory when we rise to meet him in the air. But even though death has been defeated, it still happens, and it is still an enemy. It takes loved ones away and that hurts. It breaks relationships and that hurts.

It is reasonable for people to mourn the loss of something good. It is reasonable to mourn the breaking of something that God created to be good, to break the relationships that are actually supposed to be reflections of the relationships that the Father, Son, and Spirit have always had, the relationships that they want us to share in.

It’s appropriate to grieve these things. Even when we know that the loss is not permanent. We have hope, or the better word is faith, that these good things will be restored through the work of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We live in a time between the first and second coming of Christ. The last days have begun, but they have not yet been brought to completion. There are lots of things in this world that aren’t going the way they’re supposed to. And there are lots of things to grieve, not just death, and for all of them, we have hope in Jesus Christ. Everything will be set right.

We do not need to despair, no matter whether we are concerned about the death of a loved one, or the destruction of the environment, or politics, or the economy, or the threat of war. We can grieve that such things may happen, lament, but we also know that this is not the end of the story. The story does have a happy ending, and it comes at the hand of someone who was crucified and killed for our salvation. He lives again, and he will cause us to live again, too, in a much better world. We have sorrow, yes, but we also have confidence in Christ.

We see that many of the world’s problems have selfishness at their root, and we see that the only path toward world peace is that people will consider others as more important than themselves. And we see that the one person who actually lived that way consistently was killed for it and yet raised back to life. And it’s the person who’s been there and done that, who also promises to do it again.

He will return and make it right, and we can have confidence in that.

Anthony: Amen and amen. The scripture exhorts us to encourage one another with the words found in the pericope, but maybe a better way of saying that, to encourage one another with the reality that’s being revealed in this passage. And you’ve already done so, Mike. But is there anything else? Any meat left on the bone, so to speak, of ways you can encourage our audience based on what you find here?

Mike: Yeah, good wins in the end. Yeah. What could be better than that?

Yes, there is something better than that. It is mentioned in the text. We will be with the Lord forever. The more we realize how good God is, how much Jesus loves us, the more we will rejoice that we will be with him.

We can rest in complete safety, security, comfort—everything we need. That’s the good life, not just in physical circumstances, but in the relationships that we’ll have. There’ll be no more death, no more disruptions, no more doubts, no more disappointments.

Karl Barth said that God does not want to be God without us. He chooses to be with us. He wants to live with us, and that is incredibly astonishing, if we know what we’re really like. Why would God want to live with feeble, infallible creatures, such as ourselves? Just to know that he is the Creator, and he has created beings like ourselves to be his eternal companions—that’s just astounding. We are eagerly desired. We are the love of his life, the apple of his eye, the pearl of great price for which he sold everything he had so he can have us too.

When we know that we are loved that much, we will eagerly look forward to his coming. We will know that all our sacrifices are not in vain. We will know that the sufferings are not worth being compared with the good things that God will give us in Christ. The one who did not spare his own son, will he not give us all good things that we will ever need? Will he not share his Spirit with us without limits? Will we not be loved without end?

Nothing can separate us from his love. That’s what I see especially encouraging in this text: “we will be with the Lord forever.”

Anthony: I can remember several years ago, Mike, reading a book from Skye Jethani called With. And it really did flip the script in my own mind about my perspective of what I do in partnership with God.

Because often we think about doing things for God, which we do. But I had this mindset that I was a servant for the lord, which I am, but it’s not just that. I’m his friend, and the Lord wants to be with me. And it’s like you said, how is that so Lord? I know me. Who wants to be with me for eternity? And yet that tells us more about a God who chooses rather than our chosen-ness.

He’s a choosing God who loves to be with us and that was really good encouragement. Thank you for that.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life
  • The parable of the ten bridesmaids is often interpreted as a warning to Christians to “be prepared.” How does shifting the focus from the bridesmaids to the Bridegroom change your perspective?
  • The typical interpretation of the parable of the ten bridesmaids highlights our tendency to think the Bible is about us and what we need to do, rather than viewing scripture as a revelation about God and God’s love for creation. How does changing the focus from us to God change our mindset from legalism and harsh judgment to one of grace, love, and gratitude?
From the sermon
  • The sermon points out that God is active and present in our waiting. How does that change your attitude toward waiting?
  • The common usage of “second coming” implies that Christ is not at work in today’s world. How does the idea of experiencing “the coming of the Lord” as a “partnership with Christ in…day-to-day moral decision-making” change that?

Sermon for November 19, 2023 – Proper 28

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5052 | The Heart of the Father
Greg Williams

Do you ever notice how often we are drawn into the negative rather than the positive? You give a presentation and several people comment on how helpful it was, but one person tells you it was a waste of his time. Which comment do you spend the most time thinking about? For many of us, we allow the negative to outweigh the positive. We can look at Scripture the same way. Rather than see the blessings of what is being said, we focus on what we perceive as the negative. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 is a good example of this.

In this parable, Jesus talks about a man who is preparing to go on a journey. He calls his servants in and entrusts part of his property to each one. To one servant he gives 5 talents, to another he gives 2 talents and to the third, he gives 1 talent.

When he returns, the one who had 5 invested wisely, doubled the value and now has 10 talents for the owner. Likewise, the one who has 2 doubled it and now has 4. But the one who had one talent didn’t do anything with the talent, he buried it and simply tried to return it because he implied he was afraid of the owner. I’ve heard many sermons focusing on the unprofitable servant – and certainly, there are lessons there. But we fail to see the good news in this parable. Note how the man responded to the other two servants. 

 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Matthew 25:20-23 (ESV)

Jesus is showing through this parable that God wants to bless us. He wants us to enter into his joy. He gives us gifts and talents so that we can use them, investing them into relationships, service, and loving others. The result is greater blessings and living in his joy.

What is the Father’s joy? Among other things, being with us, listening to us, walking with us, and loving us because we are his beloved children.

Jesus uses this parable to show us the Father’s heart. He will never force us to love him or use the gifts and talents he gives us, but when we do, he multiplies them beyond our wildest dreams. That’s the heart of the Father.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 123:1-4 • Judges 4:1-7 • 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 • Matthew 25:14-30

This week’s theme is preparation for the Lord’s rescue. The call to worship Psalm humbly casts eyes upward in calling for mercy and deliverance from the proud. The Old Testament reading from Judges recounts the story of Deborah who emphatically delivers God’s command to Barak, son of Abinoam, as God’s response to the cries of the Israelites in captivity. The text from 1 Thessalonians includes Paul’s instructions to prepare for the Lord’s return by living in faith, love, and hope. The Gospel reading from Matthew records Jesus’ parable of the talents that emphasize faithfulness to the master while awaiting his return.

Returning to Jesus’ Return

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (ESV)

Today, we have a wonderful opportunity to look at a subject often neglected in many churches – the return of Jesus Christ. This falls under what is called eschatology, or the study of “last things.” This topic has been so abused and misunderstood in so many ways throughout the church’s history, that it is not surprising that many may avoid the subject. There tends to be two ditches we can fall into when talking about “the end times” and Jesus’ return.

One ditch is a preoccupation with the details of how and when Christ returns, while paying little attention to who is actually returning. Detaching Christ’s return from his identity leaves us at a loss in our understanding of who God is and his good purposes toward us. This will often lead to presentations of Jesus’ return that amounts to some scary doom and gloom depiction of “end times.” I’m sure we have all witnessed to some degree a presentation that does more to scare you than encourage you. And that is unfortunate seeing that the biblical presentations of Jesus’ return are always meant for our encouragement as we will see in today’s text.

Another ditch we may fall into, mostly from a reaction to this first ditch, is to simply avoid the topic altogether. It does seem that is the prevalent approach often taken. Lucky for us, today’s lectionary text will force us to deal with this often neglected and misunderstood topic. We will do our best not to bring in any preconceived ideas of Jesus’ return, and instead, let the Apostle Paul speak on the subject as he does to the church of Thessalonians. As we do, we will see that the faithful way forward in understanding Jesus’ return, the end times, and all things pertaining to eschatology, is to avoid both ditches by remaining focused on the center of who Jesus is and what he has done for us and will ultimately do for us upon his return. In doing that we will receive great encouragement.

Let’s see where Paul begins.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 ESV)

Paul is being gentle here in how he brings up the subject. He tells his newly formed church that they already know all that they need to know in these matters. But, for good measure, he is going to remind them of what they know anyway. He is not berating his brothers and sisters in Christ for having concerns or confusions about the end times. Rather, he is going to remind them what he has already taught them. This shows the importance of being reminded of the truth. Not in a way that is condemning, but in a sensitive way aimed to build up. We are forgetful creatures, and a reminder of what we know can be just the word of encouragement we need. There is always a temptation to act out of fear or emotion based on some other pressure that may come our way. Paul is skillfully soothing their fears by bringing them back to the center of who the Lord is.

Paul begins by avoiding the first ditch. There must have been some concern about the how and when, the “times and the seasons” of Jesus’ return. So, he answers this concern by reminding them that they are “fully” aware that his return will come like a “thief in the night.” The word “fully” here means “exactly.” Paul is saying they already know the details, the how and when of Christ return. He will return “exactly” as a “thief in the night.” You can almost hear the tone of a loving father answering a child’s bad question. Instead of telling them that they are asking a stupid question, he just gives them the answer to the right question. Paul is not interested in pointing out their misunderstandings as much as he is interested in bringing the truth alongside their misunderstandings to do the correcting.

It may be good here to clarify what Paul means by the phrase “day of the Lord.” In the Old Testament “day of the Lord” was understood as a time of judgment for the enemies of Israel. This judgment was not understood to pertain to Israel. However, in the New Testament, and how Paul is using it, the “day of the Lord” is understood to be God’s judgment for the entire world.

Judgment often gets a bad rap these days. It seems the main thing Christians are told never to do is judge another. There seems to be some confusion between being “judgmental” and exercising biblical judgment. Judgment as the Bible speaks of it is first and foremost simply sifting through and sorting out between what is and what is not. It is the process of discerning by separating things out. Judgment is a very good and necessary thing, not something to be avoided. We value someone who is discerning when it comes to our doctor or our mechanic. When we have a health concern that we can’t figure out, we hope our doctor will be able to sort through it and judge what is wrong with us. We don’t take our car to a mechanic for them to say, “It’s ok that your car is not running, it’s beautiful just the way it is.” No, we want the mechanic to find the problem and fix it. And to fix the right problem. If our car needs new brake pads, we sure hope the mechanic doesn’t replace the transmission. We want them to judge, shall we say, “righteously” or rightly. That’s the biblical understanding of judgment.

God’s judgment serves the purpose of healing and making us whole. This is how we understand God’s judgment and wrath, another word that comes up later. Wrath also serves the purpose of God’s grace to make us his children, whole and fully healed and redeemed. God’s judgment for the Christian is a most encouraging word to us. God will come to sort out, sift through, and set things right. That’s what we can expect to fully be accomplished in Jesus’ return.

When Paul uses the picture of a “thief in the night” to refer to Jesus’ return, he is simply saying that Jesus’ return will be unexpected. Even though we know he is coming back, we do not know exactly when. Paul is not saying you better get your act together because Jesus may return and catch you in the act. That is sometimes how we read Paul’s word picture here. But that is not what he is saying. He is not using some fear tactic to get the Thessalonians in line. No, he is saying you know he will return, and there is great comfort in that, even if we don’t know exactly when and how he will return. Jesus’ coming back is not a threat for the believer, it is a promise we cling to for encouragement and hope.

However, this unexpected return will not be a welcome return for the unbeliever. So, Paul will now address that.

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3 ESV)

It’s very possible that the “people” who are claiming “There is peace and security” is a specific reference to the Roman empire’s message of Pax Romana. Pax Romana was a catch phrase during Rome’s rule of the world that meant “Roman Peace.” It meant to claim a peace that would come by belonging to the Roman empire, regardless of the different nationalities existing within it. However, this peace had a catch. It came by the power and might of the Roman military. It was a peace that came by way of coercion and force. People would keep the “peace” because they knew that upsetting the Roman apple cart could lead to being nailed to a wooden cross. Let’s face it, complying out of fear and intimidation is not exactly what we would call peace.

In more general terms, Paul has in mind that these “people” are those who reject Christ and the peace he brings. They claim that “peace and security” only comes by their own means. They advocate a man-made peace and security. Only, it comes by doing as we say without protest. Just trust in us or our ideology. No need to trust in Jesus. In that way, it is a word to all our self-striving and self-sufficient attempts to attain our own peace and security apart from Christ. There are many voices today who are saying God does not exist and Jesus is a myth. We can be our own god and create our own future. Who needs Jesus to return? We got this.

Paul switches metaphors here from a “thief in the night” to “labor pains” with the description of “sudden destruction.” This picture indicates that for those who reject Christ and don’t want his way to peace, his return will also be unexpected, but also painful. The pain will come as everything that runs counter to God’s peace in Jesus Christ will be destroyed and there is no escaping it. They will not escape God’s good judgment and the end of evil. The words of those who are saying follow us and not Jesus, will be silenced in the end. For those who want to hold on to the evil ways of this present evil age, there will be severe consequences. And this is because there is only one true source of peace and that is in Jesus Christ.

So, we may want to ask ourselves, “Where do we look for our peace and security?” If it is in anything other than Jesus, we can know that it will come to a sudden end. So, we can let go of those false hopes of peace and security and put our trust in Jesus which will prove to be true in the end.

Now Paul will switch back to those who do put their trust in Jesus.

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 ESV)

Clearly, this is not a passage meant to scare us about Jesus’ return; it is a word of hope. This is the reality that we can cling to as we wait and watch for Jesus’ return. Something better is coming and the evil in our world does not get the last word. We know the thief is coming, even if we don’t know when. There will be no surprises because we know who is returning. He will deliver the very promises that we have been clinging to. As children of light and children of the day, we see clearly who Jesus is for us. We know he is faithful and true. We know he brings his peace and security, not by coercion, but by the Father’s love for us. Knowing Jesus now puts us in a very different place when he returns.

Paul has some implications on account of this.

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 ESV)

In simplest terms, what Paul is saying is, since you know the reality, live in it. Live today in light of who is coming tomorrow. Align your life with the reality of who Jesus is. Paul is using the word sleep here, not as a metaphor for death, but for moral indifference. He is warning against living in such a way as thinking that it doesn’t matter what you do. Sober, on the other hand, means mental alertness. We are to remain alert to what is real, to Jesus, and put our trust in him every day. Paul’s picture of those who “sleep at night” and “are drunk at night” is a picture of living in a non-reality. They are not aware of what is really going on, like being lost in a dream or stumbling around drunk.

The command for us that Paul issues is that we “be sober.” But he also gives us the preparations to keep that command. He says, “having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” He is not saying that we must put these on, he assumes that we already have. So, being sober is the command and living out of the faith, hope, and love given to us in Christ is how we live “sober.” As we continue to live in faith, hope, and love, we will wait and watch for Lord’s return, standing on his promises and praying unceasingly. Our entire lives are oriented heavenward, anticipating the return of the one who has saved us to be children of his kingdom.

Paul will conclude with a final word of encouragement.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 ESV)

It’s not apparent in our English translations but “sleep” here means death, not moral indifference like he used it earlier. Paul uses a similar expression in Romans 14:8, and he is not undoing what he just said. Paul is telling the Thessalonians, and you and I today, that we are not the object of God’s wrath. He is not aiming to destroy us in the end, but he will bring the salvation that comes fully with Jesus who poured out God’s wrath on all that does destroy us. He comes to fully deliver us from evil and all that dehumanizes, including death. He saves us completely and that is what we look forward to. And Paul concludes that we should continue to “encourage one another and build one another up.” That’s what Paul has being doing as he reminds the Thessalonians and us of Jesus’ return. For our encouragement it is good to return to Jesus’ return. May we keep our eyes watching for his return as we continue to pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W3

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November 19 — Proper 28 of Ordinary Time
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, “Hope in Jesus”

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Program Transcript


Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W3

Anthony: Our third pericope of the month is 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. It’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 29 in Ordinary Time, which is November the 19.

1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So, then, let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober, for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

It seems to me, Mike, that Paul is insisting that knowing the date of Christ’s coming is not the best way to prepare for his appearance. Rather he points us to being awake and sober as the way to be ready. So, help us understand. What does that mean, in reality, to be awake and sober?

Mike: It means lay off the liquor, don’t get drunk. It means don’t ever go to sleep. Oh, wait a minute. Sleep seems to be necessary, doesn’t it? Maybe it doesn’t mean that.

It seems that Paul is using these words as metaphors, as figures of speech. And we have to figure out where the key similarity is.

There are several metaphors in the passage — the thief, the knight, labor pains, children, daylight, breastplate, helmet. Paul is using words that usually refer to physical things, but he is using them to refer to something spiritual. He is saying that the day of the Lord will come at some unexpected time, but we do not need to be caught unprepared.

If our spiritual life is right, we might be surprised at the timing of it all, but we won’t suffer any loss. The thief, metaphorically speaking, won’t be able to take anything away from us. It will be a time of rejoicing, not a time of fear.

So, what might it mean for us to be asleep? It would mean being unaware, not knowing what’s going on. For example, if we are on a long road trip and someone else is driving while we’re sleeping, and suddenly we are awakened by the screeching of brakes, a loud sound, the car shaking, the seatbelt tightens, and we think the worst. But if we had been awake and watching, then we would have known it was just a bad pothole in the road.

Paul was saying we don’t need to be unaware, that we know the day of the Lord is coming. We don’t know when or exactly what’s going to happen that day, but we know it’s coming, so when it does, we’re better able to figure out what’s going on. We won’t panic. Being awake means that we know what’s going on. We can see it coming.

Now, what might it mean to be spiritually drunk? It means not thinking straight. It means slow reactions. It means lacking self-control. The book of Revelation talks about a woman who was drunk with the blood of the saints. She was intoxicated because she had such power over them. She thinks she’s going to win the war, and she’s so excited about it that she doesn’t see reality. Power is intoxicating. People get so thrilled with their own abilities that they are blind to their problems.

People can be spiritually drunk because they are so thrilled with success in one area that they don’t see where they fall short. That happens to some church leaders who are so successful in building a big church or inspiring complete loyalty from their followers that they become unaware of their weaknesses. People keep telling them how wonderful they are, and after a while they start to believe it.

But it’s not just the leaders who can become drunk. Revelation also talks about people who are drunk because of their illicit relationship with the woman. They are so focused on the temporary pleasures they are getting, that they’re unable to see where that way of life really goes. They’re getting something they want. But they don’t realize that they’re missing out on something else that they need. They are victims of bad leadership—many of us have had experience with that sort of thing, but even so they are drunk. Their thinking is distorted.

Paul wants us to be sober, to think clearly, to be aware of our weakness, to be aware of our need for the Holy Spirit to guide us, give us strength. We do not say, ah, I’ve got it all figured out, my theology is perfect, I know every detail of what is right and what is wrong.

And, on the other hand, we do not want to think that we are worthless, never getting anything right. Thinking soberly means to know that Christ is with us, the Spirit is with us. And church history shows that he uses fallible people, but because that’s the only option in this age. God knows how to use fallible people.

Now, the text gives us a couple of ways that we should be sober. We should put on the breastplate of faith and a helmet of hope. That will protect our vital parts. It will protect our thoughts and emotions. We will not put our hope in the wrong things. We won’t put our faith in the wrong things. We’ll let the Word of God inform us of where our faith and hope need to be.

Sobriety means knowing that we are children of God. And our identity in him is a word of exhortation to do right, as well as a word of comfort when we fail. And I might add, it’s hard to get the right balance when we are drunk, when we are filled with the wrong kind of spirits.

Anthony: And put the exclamation point on it right there, Mike. I hear you loud and clear.

It says in verse 9 that God has not destined us for wrath, but salvation through our Lord. And that seems to me to be rather good news, don’t you think? Tell us more about it.

Mike: Anthony, yeah, that is good news. And salvation is much more than an escape from punishment. The word “salvation” originally meant a rescue from something. People can be saved from an illness, or saved from a shipwreck, and they are restored to the way they were before.

But in the New Testament, the word came to involve much more than a rescue from some physical problem. It came to mean a rescue from spiritual dangers, including sin and death, and feeling alienated from God. And the result is much more than what we had before. Even looking at the history of humanity as a whole, what we get with Christ is much better than what the first humans had before sin entered the picture. The first humans were capable of sinning and dying. But after the resurrection, we will not be capable of either one.

Maybe we might be capable of sinning if we wanted to, but the real point of salvation is that we won’t ever want to sin. We are rescued from the desire to sin, and that, in itself, is very good news. It’s one of the astonishing things about the salvation we are given in Christ.

We struggle with sin throughout life. Some say we sin every day of our lives, and then in the resurrection, in the blink of an eye, at the snap of a finger, we won’t ever sin again. It’s like a cacophony of powerful noise suddenly comes to a stop. And there is silence.

Actually, there’s not silence, there is beautiful music instead. We don’t just come to a point of inactivity, of breathless awe at the majesty and wonder of God. There may be some of that, but there may be praise as well. Maybe faint at first, but soon rising to this triumphant song that will make the Hallelujah chorus seem to be a weak imitation.

I’m speaking in metaphors here because I really don’t have the language to describe the joys and beauties of a spiritual life. And the Bible says that the love of God is beyond our ability to understand. His joy is beyond our ability to put into words. And his peace is beyond our comprehension.

Paul writes that God didn’t plan for us to experience wrath. He plans for us to experience salvation. Paul doesn’t say much about what’s involved in that wrath, but he points us instead to the better outcome. We need to be concerned, not just with what we’re saved from, but also what we’re saved for. And we can talk about the benefits of salvation in this life, as well as in the next. In this life, we’re given love, joy, peace, faith, meekness, kindness, gentleness, and goodness.

But when push comes to shove, as it does for many Christians in other nations, who are persecuted for their belief in Christ, then we have to focus on the benefits in the next life. We want a faith that is willing to accept hardship in this life, or even a painful death, if that’s the cost of being loyal to the Messiah who suffered and died for us. What kind of person are we if we are willing to betray the one who loves us most just in exchange for a few sad years in a horribly corrupt world?

You asked for good news. That may not seem like good news, but it is part of the gospel that Jesus preached and the gospel that Paul preached and the gospel that both of them lived. The good news of the gospel is made more evident. When we compare it with the ungodly things being done around us. This is all the more reason we need to look beyond this life, beyond the blessings we might have in this life, and look to the future life with Christ, which is far better.

Paul says in Romans, sufferings of this life are not worth to be compared with the glories of the future life. That’s true of our blessings too. They are just trinkets in comparison to the spiritual riches that we will enjoy. And quality and in quantity, the good times will never end. It’s a billion trillion quadrillion years of blessings. We can’t even begin to measure. It’s good, good, good, nothing but good!

And the best part is that we’ll be with Father, Son, and Spirit. He wants to be with us. A love that we can only begin to imagine will be with us. As Paul says, if we’re thinking clearly, then we’ll put faith and love on our heart, hope on our head, and encourage one another as indeed you are already doing.

Anthony: Hallelujah. From glory to glory. Talking about wrath, it’s not a subject that people often want to hear in their worship gatherings on Sunday, but it’s an important part of the gospel story. And I recall this from George Hunsinger—and I think I pulled this from one of his lectures—but he said, “The wrath of God is a very important part of the gospel, but it’s not split off from his love. It’s the form that God’s love takes. It’s the wrath of God’s love when God’s love is resisted, and God’s wrath overcomes all forms of resistance. This is what God is doing in Jesus Christ.”

Hallelujah. Praise him.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life
  • Can you remember a time that you felt that you had had enough?
  • Why is reaching this point a good place to be?
From the Sermon
  • What usually comes to mind when you hear about “Jesus’ return” or the “end times?”
  • According to the sermon, what are the two ditches we should avoid concerning eschatology (study of end times)?
  • In what ways is Jesus’ return for believers like a “thief in the night”? How does Paul’s analogy of Jesus’ return being like a “thief in the night” strike you?
  • In what ways is Jesus’ return for unbelievers like labor pains?
  • What examples can you think of from people who are saying, “There is peace and security?”
  • Why do you think Paul chooses to continue to remind the Thessalonians of what they already know?

Sermon for November 26, 2023 –The Reign of Christ

Program Transcript


Speaking of Life 5053The Why of Praise
Jeff Broadnax

Many people are familiar with Psalm 100. It’s called a “psalm of thanksgiving,” and it encourages the entire earth to “make a joyful noise.” That sounds like a good time to me! But what I want to focus on today is the why – why should we “make a joyful noise?”

Let’s set the stage by reading what we should be doing:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him; bless his name.
Psalm 100:1-4 (NRSVUE)

Notice all the things we “should” be doing – making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, singing, knowing that God is our Creator, and giving thanks and blessings to the Divine. While these verses can be instructional, if you’re like me, you often want to know “why” you need to do something. And by knowing why, it connects the head with the heart. Our actions become linked to heartfelt emotion, and what might have been routine, mindless acts suddenly become infused with meaning.

Let’s look at the last verse of Psalm 100 to understand why we would even consider making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, or any of the other actions the first four verses tell us we should do:

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100: 5 (NRSVUE)

The reason we respond with a joyful noise and thanksgiving is because God is good, but verse 5 does more than leave the definition of “good” up to our human imaginations. It defines God’s goodness as “steadfast love” and “faithfulness.”

The phrase “steadfast love,” can be more expansively defined as “kindness or love between people” or the idea of giving yourself fully to another. God gives steadfast love fully to each one of us, and we know this by Jesus’ crucifixion, where God’s Son endured the hatred and mistreatment of humankind so that we could be brought into the triune relationship. We also have evidence of the fullness of God’s steadfast love through the gift of the Holy Spirit, our Helper and Comforter, who lives in us.

The word “faithfulness,” refers to trustworthiness in relationships. God’s way of moving in the world reflects his loyalty and commitment to humanity. This trustworthiness in relationships was demonstrated by Jesus’ commitment to people who were often marginalized in his culture, like women, children, and Gentiles. Jesus went out of his way to encourage, hang out with, and even heal those who had no power or money to offer him. This is God’s way of showing his trustworthy commitment to people while pointing out the problems with man-made systems and cultures.

God’s complete commitment and loyalty to all of humanity is what inspires our praise. When we make that “joyful noise,” it’s because we understand the goodness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

May we make a joyful noise, knowing the fullness of our triune God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.

I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.

Psalm 100:1-5 • Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 • Ephesians 1:15-23 • Matthew 25:31-46

Today marks the last Sunday of the church calendar, known as Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday. Next Sunday begins Advent and a new church year. While we can express gratitude (after all, Thanksgiving was this past week in the US), the Reign of Christ gives us pause to think about our participation in God’s kingdom on earth now. We can think of this day as a church “New Year’s Day,” complete with a review of how we participated in kingdom work over the last year and with imagination to see areas we might move toward in this next church calendar year.

The theme for this week is the why, what, how, and when of kingdom participation.  Psalm 100 sets us up to think about why we want to participate in kingdom work and why we praise God at all. Ezekiel 34 further defines the why by using rich metaphors of a caring shepherd and flock, as well as showing what caring for others looks like. In Ephesians, the how of kingdom participation is outlined with a focus on the hope we’ve been called to and the power we’ve been given through Jesus Christ. The sermon text comes from Matthew 25 where the what, how, and when of kingdom participation is detailed in the well-known metaphor of sheep, goats, and judgment.

The Most Important Time Is Now

Matthew 25:31-46 (NRSVUE)

There’s a children’s book by Jon J. Muth called The Three Questions. It’s based on a short story by Leo Tolstoy, and in the story, a boy named Nikolai was thinking about what it meant to be a good person. He decided that there were three questions he needed to be answered to understand how to be a good person:

When is the best time to do things?

Who is the most important one?

What is the right thing to do?

Nikolai’s three friends, a heron, a monkey, and a dog, tried to help, but their answers were limited. Nikolai decided to check with a wise old turtle named Leo. He found Leo digging in his garden and asked him the three questions. Leo just smiled, and after watching him a bit, Nikolai decided that he could help Leo dig in his garden since he was young and strong. While they were digging, a storm blew up, so they hurried back to Leo’s house. On the way there, Nikolai heard a cry for help and discovered an unconscious panda whose leg had been injured by a fallen tree. He carried her into Leo’s house and made a splint for her leg. When the panda woke up, she cried, “Where is my baby?” With that, Nikolai raced back into the storm to the place where he found her, and there in the forest, he found the baby panda, cold and shivering. Nikolai took the baby to her mother and helped dry and warm her. The next day, the storm was gone, and the mother panda’s leg was feeling better, but Nikolai still did not have the answers to his three questions. He asked Leo the turtle again, and the wise turtle responded, “But your questions have been answered!” He went on to explain:

“Yesterday, if you had not stayed to help me dig my garden, you wouldn’t have heard the panda’s cries for help in the storm. Therefore, the most important time was the time you spent digging the garden. The most important one at that moment was me, and the most important thing to do was help me with my garden. Later, when you found the injured panda, the most important time was the time you spent mending her leg and saving her child. The most important ones were the panda and her baby. And the most important thing to do was to take care of them and make them safe. Remember, then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear boy, are the answers to what is most important in this world.” (Muth, The Three Questions).

This children’s story illustrates today’s sermon text from Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus talks about judgment and how we are to participate in the kingdom of God now. Let’s read the passage together: (read sermon text)

The scripture passage concludes Matthew’s theme of righteousness. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says,

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20, NRSVUE)

Later verses in Matthew point out that this righteousness doesn’t come from our keeping the law, but from mercy and love for God and others (Matthew 9:13; 22:37:40).

When we focus too much on the scary judgment verses in the passage (v. 41, 46), we miss important points about what, why, when, and how we participate in the kingdom of God. As we reflect on this scripture passage, let’s consider these ideas:

We can be ignorant of what God’s kingdom looks like: Neither the sheep nor goats recognized what they were doing (or not doing) as participation in the kingdom of God. American theologian and Duke University professor Stanley Hauerwas writes, “The difference between followers of Jesus and those who do not know Jesus is that those who have seen Jesus no longer have any excuse to avoid ‘the least of these.’”

Even as Nikolai in The Three Questions did not see his actions as his intuitive answers to the three questions, we also do not always perceive the mystery that is the kingdom of God at work on earth right now.

The “why” behind our questions and actions matters: Both the sheep and the goats express surprise at the king’s allegations, and both groups ask a similar question: “Lord, when was it that we saw you…” (v. 37-39, 44).  However, their motivation for asking the question was quite different. The sheep acted kindly toward “the least of these” without considering whether they would be rewarded or praised. The goats, on the other hand, ask the question with an unspoken caveat: “if we had only known it was you.” The goats were still trapped in the works and reward mentality, misunderstanding that grace extended to others doesn’t expect anything in return.

Sometimes in our outreach efforts, we are focused more on identifying and serving those we determine to be “the least of these” than we are on expressing the natural compassion that arises as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. New Testament scholar and author Stanley Saunders writes the following:

Even the broadest definition of the least ones, as anyone and everyone in need, carries a similar consequence if the ensuing acts of compassion are motivated by the reward promised in the parable. When motivated extrinsically, in fact, such deeds cease to be ‘compassionate’ at all. They devolve into the kinds of charity that preserve the vulnerability of the least ones in order to confirm the ‘righteousness’ of the benefactors. In other words, as we pursue our quest to identify the least ones, the jaws of the parable snap shut. We discover ourselves in the goat pen.

We can learn from the example of the boy Nikolai in The Three Questions that we often don’t need to look much further than those who cross our paths during the course of ordinary life. Keeping our eyes and ears open to a need that we might be able to meet is one way to answer the questions of what, when, and how we participate in God’s kingdom.

Creating relationships helps prevent us from turning people into projects: When we take time to develop relationships, we find value in caring for others and in being cared for by others. Rather than turning a person into a social justice or evangelism project, we become the hands and feet of Jesus; we wash others’ feet, and sometimes we are the ones lavishly anointed with perfume.

New Testament professor at Wesley Theological Seminary Carla Works writes:

The blessed ones are those who have seen a King who is not like the kings of this world.  They are blessed because they know a King who brings real peace, who sees the needy, and who hears the cries of the oppressed. In God’s kingdom, no one is hungry, naked, sick, or alone. To bear witness to Christ as King is to be a messenger of this kingdom – to serve others and thereby profess the invasion of God’s glorious empire.

The who, what, where, and why questions all revolve around our participation with Jesus. He has invited us to join him in what he is doing. He is building relationships with others and often includes us in the process. If we consider the sermon text in conjunction with the children’s book The Three Questions, we learn that the most important time to show kindness and love is now, the most important person is the one we are with now, and the most important action we can take is to do good, whatever that looks like in the situation we are in. The why is always, always a deep love for Christ the King, whom we serve as we live and move on this earth.

Call to Action: Be aware of opportunities to show kindness to someone. Do good within your means and abilities, and then give thanks for a chance to join Jesus in what he is doing – some phrase this as being the hands and feet of Jesus – bringing many sons and daughters to personal relationship with Father, Son and Spirit. In other words, participating with Jesus in doing his work for God’s kingdom on earth.

For Reference:
Muth, Jon J. The Three Questions. Scholastic Press, 2002.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9jaxUKfXu0
https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/throne-mentality
https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/sheep-and-goats-and-judgment-oh-my
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/last-judgment/commentary-on-matthew-2531-46-2
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/christ-the-king/commentary-on-matthew-2531-46-3

Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W4

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November 26 — The Reign of Christ
Matthew 25:31-46, “Reign of Christ”

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Program Transcript


Reign of Christ w/ Dr. Michael Morrison W4

Anthony: Our final pericope of the month is Matthew 25:31-46. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the reign of Christ Sunday on November 26.

Mike, do us the honors, please.

Mike:

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”

Anthony: Okay. There’s a lot to unpack here, Mike, and this is a Reign of Christ Sunday. Some call it Christ the King Sunday.

And let’s start there. People often raise arguments about the sheep and the goats and eternal punishment, and we’ll get to that soon enough, but the passage starts with the Son of Man on his rightful throne as the king of his kingdom. How does that reality shape the rest of the passage?

Mike: Perhaps the most important aspect of this is that the Son of Man is not only the king, but he’s also the judge. In our democracies, we’re used to a separation of powers that the judiciary has some independence from the executive power, and generally the highest court in the land is actually a committee to prevent any one person there from having too much power. But the ancient world was ruled by what we today might call dictators.

They had power over all branches of the government, and it was just assumed that a king was also a judge. Although he would delegate smaller decisions to his subordinates, he had the ultimate authority to make all judicial decisions, whether it was to sentence people to death, to free them, to fine them, to give them victory in a civil case over their neighbor.

When people in the first century heard the word “king,” they would understand that kind of power went along with it. Now here, the Son of Man is the king. It’s Jesus, the representative of all humanity. We call him Lord, as well as Savior, because he has the authority to tell us what to do. But that authority is always used with perfect wisdom, perfect compassion, and perfect love. We worship him not just because he has overwhelming power, but because he is overwhelmingly good.

Now the passage starts off like a simple prediction—here’s what’s going to happen. But it quickly turns into a parable about sheep and goats. A parable is the best way to describe what’s going to happen. When Jesus returns in authority, what will it be like? How will he judge his people? What criteria will he use? It’s going to be like this.

One thing that caught my attention on this reading was the phrase “inherit the kingdom.” People in the first century knew what that phrase meant. Today, we might say, if you inherit a mansion, it’s not just that you can live there for a while. No, it means that you own it. And similarly, in the ancient world, if you inherit a kingdom, it’s yours.

When King Herod died, for example, his will said that his sons were to inherit his kingdom. The Roman government had the final say on that, but the idea of inheriting a kingdom was part of the way the ancient world operated. The king’s son would inherit his kingdom, or sometimes they’d split the kingdom so that more than one of his children could inherit a kingdom.

So, when the Son of Man tells people to inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, it’s not just a matter of living in God’s kingdom, it’s also a matter of having our own kingdom, part of God’s empire, we might call it.

In a different parable, Jesus talked about ruling five cities or ten cities. He is talking about a significant reward and a significant responsibility. Now, that may be a metaphor that Jesus is using examples from his own day of a fabulously extravagant reward. If Jesus were making a parable for modern times, he might talk about inheriting some multinational corporation, maybe the Walmart empire, or controlling stock in Microsoft.

The point is that it’s an exceedingly large inheritance, a reward far out of proportion to what ordinary people imagine is possible. As king of all kings and as judge, he can be extravagantly generous with people.

Anthony: Mike, how do you hermeneutically preach about the sheep and goats in verse 32 and eternal punishment that we read about in verse 46?

What say you?

Mike: It goes back to the two questions I mentioned earlier. What’s the main point? And how did the author want the readers to respond? Is there something in there that we need to learn? Or is it telling us about something we need to do? Knowing and doing can rarely be completely separated, but there is often an emphasis on one or the other.

For example, a passage might tell us that God is great and good, completely trustworthy. That’s something to know. And we might respond to that knowledge with worship, faith, and trust. The knowledge and action are connected, but I’d say that the emphasis is on the knowledge. God isn’t interested in fake worship, in us going through the motions, even when we don’t believe it. The emphasis, in this case, would seem to be on what we know and believe.

A different example is the Great Commission: Go into all the world, make disciples, baptize, and teach. That’s something to know, yes, but the emphasis is on that we ought to be doing something.

Here in Matthew 25, where is the emphasis? I don’t think it’s in knowing the typical habits of sheep or goats. They provide the setting for the introduction of the parable, but there is no further development of that particular detail. And similarly, there is no further development of the angels who come with Christ at his return.

What about the difference between right and left? In the ancient world, is good and left is bad, and the parable uses that as part of its setting, but it’s not developing that in either way. It’s not telling us that our left hands are bad or anything like that. It’s just part of the framework of the story.

The main part of the story, the part that seems to be emphasized, in this case by repetition, is found in the idea, I was in need and, you either helped me or you didn’t help me. In the story, the people ask, when did we see you in need? When did we help or not help?

Now, this is not some script that we all have to act out on the day of judgment. After all, if we know we are supposed to ask that question, then we also know what the answer is. And it’s just play acting. It’s pretending. The story includes this dialogue mainly as an opportunity to repeat the words, to give emphasis to the key concept: I was in need, and some people helped me, and others didn’t.

The point of the story is that we need to be helping the hungry, helping the thirsty, helping the stranger, helping people who need clothes, who are sick, who are in prison. That’s something that Jesus will be judging on. Perhaps I should say he’s already judging us on. That’s something that he cares about.

It’s only one of many things that he cares about. The parable doesn’t intend to list all the points of judgment. It’s just making one point, one illustration. It’s not an encyclopedia of ethics or faith or worship.

Life is much more complex than a simple story can picture. But the illustration here does tell us something that Jesus wants his people to be doing, and that is helping others even without any motive of reward.

Some people might want to make another point out of the story that Jesus is actually in all these needy people. In one sense that’s true, but that actually weakens the point of the parable. The point is not that we should help people because we know that Jesus is in them. Or rather, it’s that we should help people even when we do not know that Jesus is in them. That gets repeated in the parable, and we shouldn’t try to undermine that part of it.

I’ve already commented about the reward mentioned in the parable and that we’ll inherit a kingdom. As a side point, it’s interesting to note that this kingdom has been prepared for us from the very beginning. It’s been part of God’s plan all along. It’s even tied into one of the first things that we learn in the Bible, that humans are made in the image of God, and we’re supposed to rule over other aspects of his creation. God wants to give us authority, but not until we can be trusted with that authority, not until we’re going to rule in the good way that God would.

You specifically asked about the penalty part of the parable. The people who were sorted out on the left will go into eternal fire and eternal punishment. What’s that about?

What should you do if you’re preaching this passage? It goes back to our initial questions: What’s the main point, and what’s our response? The main point is that we should be helping people who need help, even if we don’t see Jesus in them. Where does eternal fire fit into that picture? It doesn’t, really. It was not the main point.

Jesus did not tell this parable so his disciples would know more about the details of the end time day of judgment. We are not to expect massive herds of people being moved around on the terrain of the new world. He did not tell a parable so that we’d know more about what the future reward will be like.

It’s good, yes, but we really don’t know many details. That wasn’t the main point. And in the same way, the punishment for not doing this wasn’t his main point either. It’s just part of the framework of the parable.

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus talked about a conversation between the rich man and Hades, and the poor man and Abraham’s bosom. Jesus is not trying to teach us that such conversations will occur, or even if they’re possible. Instead, Jesus is using a common belief of the day as part of the scenery of the parable, without attempting to either endorse or refute the common belief.

Similarly, in another parable, a man who owed a debt was thrown into prison to be tortured until he could pay. But the purpose of the parable is not to tell us about the nature of the end time punishment. That’s simply part of the framework of the parable using imagery that was borrowed from the customs and beliefs of his time period.

In some places, Jesus talks as if the end time punishment is fire. In other places, it’s outer darkness. It’s difficult to put all these together into a sensible picture for the simple reason, I think, that they are not supposed to be put together into a sensible picture. Jesus is just using ideas that circulated in his culture and he is not endorsing them or trying to set them straight. He never attempts to settle our curiosity about what the details will be like.

But I think it’s fair to generalize the overall picture by saying that if we make certain choices in life contrary to what Jesus wants, then we are going to regret it. Jesus says we should make every effort to avoid that.

If we are preaching this passage, what should we do with it? Just read it and move on.

It’s not what the parable is really about. Jesus saw no need to elaborate on it. And we don’t need to either. Jesus saw no need to refute the idea or clarify it, so we don’t have to either. So, I recommend that we ignore it.

Now, if we are writing a commentary or conducting a series of Bible studies about the parables of Jesus, then we ought to deal with it in an excursus or as a side point. If we are presenting a class about the future, then we should deal with it. But in a sermon, it’s just too much of a can of worms to deal with it well. The sermon gets dominated by a side point. And the main point is pushed to the side.

It reminds me of a class I took a long time ago on the book of Galatians. There was a lot in the book that the teacher didn’t like. So, his class was mostly that Galatians doesn’t mean this, and it doesn’t mean that. And he never got around to telling us what it actually does mean.

That’s what’s likely to happen if we try to deal with the topic of eternal punishment when we really ought to be spending our time trying to get people to respond to the parable in a way that Jesus wanted his people to respond to the parable. We’re supposed to help the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give clothes to the naked. And so forth.

Now, it’s also true that we should give hope to the hopeless, give the gospel to those who haven’t heard it, and teach people who don’t know very much about Jesus. Those are true, but they are not the point of this particular parable.

And if we preach those other things too much, it will come at the expense of the main point of this parable, which is about helping people with physical needs eve when we don’t know that Jesus is there. Doing good to others has simply become so much a part of us that we really aren’t keeping score.

We’re not doing this to earn future rewards, but simply because it’s a good thing to do. We love these needy people as we love ourselves.

Anthony: And I think it’s helpful, Mike, in reading this passage Christologically to consider what God has already accomplished for us in Jesus Christ, that he found us thirsty and was living waters for us. He found us hungry, and he gives us himself in the cup and the bread, that he clothed us, that all good things come from above.

So, in that way instead of judging others as the least of these, we realize we were the least of these, right? And God found us in Jesus Christ in the far country. Hallelujah praise him!

You know, sometimes in the past, Mike, I’ve heard this passage preached as separation, judgment, and punishment alone, and of course, you’ve already dealt with this, but in terms of closing out our commentary on this passage, what other pieces of good news can we find or glean that maybe we haven’t touched on yet?

Anything else?

Mike: Is there good news in this? Does it just lay a burden on us? So, we got to do this, we got to do that. If you think that being kind to other people is an unpleasant burden, then maybe there’s no good news here for you because that’s really what we ought to do, or at least it’s one of the many things we ought to do.

But the good news here is that Jesus Christ transforms people from self-centered to other centered, from stingy to generous, from callous to caring. People do good to others without keeping score, without expecting anything in it for themselves. And when that happens, the world is a better place. That’s good news.

And as other passages in the New Testament tell us, it happens because Jesus lives in us. The Spirit lives in us, changing us from the inside out. That’s good news, even for the people who don’t believe it.

Of course, there’s also good news in the future, as the passages in 1 Thessalonians and here in Matthew point out. The good works that we do now are good, but they’re just a cup of cool water compared with the oceans of blessings that God will give us in the future. What we do now is just a child’s crayon drawing compared to the IMAX theater version that we will enjoy in the future.

Anthony: IMAX. I did not expect that reference in our conversation, Mike. Thanks for that metaphor. That’s pretty vivid.

And you mentioned that as we serve others, even when we don’t know Jesus is present, he is. And it reminds me we are not a delivery service hired by Jesus to take him to our neighbors. But we are witnesses to Christ already at work in the neighborhood. So, let’s be in the neighborhood, being a blessing to others as we have been blessed ourselves.

Mike, thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. I’ve enjoyed our conversation. I’m so thankful for you and the call to ministry God has on your life.

And I want to take a moment to thank the people that make this podcast possible, Reuel Enerio and David McKinnon, our podcast producers, as well as my beloved wife, Elizabeth, who does the transcription. So, you can read every good word that Mike has spoken here today.

Mike, it is our tradition here at Gospel Reverb to end with prayer. So, if you would do the honor of praying for and with our people, I’d be so appreciative.

Mike: Thanks, Anthony, for inviting me and giving me the opportunity. Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for Scripture, for things that you inspired people to write for our encouragement and instruction.

Thank you for giving us glimpses into the glory that you want to share with us, and the joy of being chosen by you for a life of never-ending joy and love in your presence. Thank you for Jesus who gave up his phenomenal riches and came to us even though he knew we would kill him. Thank you for raising us him up and for including us in his life.

Thank you for the people who make the podcast, for the people who listen because they want to be better at handling the words of God. We ask the Spirit to encourage them in what they do, in the sacrifices they make to serve others, in the joy they have in sharing good news with the people they love.

Some of our listeners are seriously ill, and yet they serve anyway. Some of them battle with depression, even as they intellectually know that the news is incredibly good. Help each of them day by day. Help us all when we are spiritually hungry, spiritually thirsty, spiritually naked, feeling sick, and all alone. We all need help, and you are the help that we need.

And thank you for the intercession of the Spirit and the Son on our behalf. Amen.

Anthony: Amen.


Small Group Discussion Questions

From Speaking of Life
  • We are often more preoccupied with what we should be doing than why we are doing it. Why do you think we have this tendency, especially when it comes to our worship and service of God?
  • Have you ever considered what inspires our praise? How does thinking about God’s steadfast love and trustworthiness inspire praise? How does it inform the way we meet life’s challenges?
From the sermon
  • Why do you think we focus on the “scary” portion of the sermon text (i.e., verses 41, 46)? How does our tendency to want to be good, like Nikolai in the children’s story, often obscure our natural compassionate response to others’ needs?
  • Why do you think it is important to consider our motives for showing compassion toward others? How do you think others feel if we turn them into a “project” rather than creating a genuine relationship?