in celebration of crossroads.

Later today, I will drive back up to good ol’ Boiling Springs, NC, to my native Gardner-Webb University, to speak in the evening service at the Crossroads Worldwide Camp. I’m dropping in a couple nights this month to preach there, and it’s significant for 2 reasons. One, it is actually the first time I will have spoken on the campus of GWU since I graduated from there in 2000. It won’t be the last, since I’m going back this Fall to preach a dimensions service (that was our version of chapel–pretty funny, since I failed Dimensions once due to non-attendance. I lived in Spangler Hall, literally right across from the LYCC where the services were held. Let’s just say I was a bit less conscientious those days about my academic career).

Two, I just love to speak at Crossroads events. They are always among my favorite ministry events to do outside preaching at Renovatus on the home court. There are many reasons I believe in the ministry and philosophy of Crossroads. The no-hype, no-frills emphasis on Bible teaching, spiritual formation and practical discipleship is unparalleled with any parachurch youth ministry I’ve seen (keep in mind youth ministry is my background). But beyond that, I find myself so blessed to be in the good company of my brothers in leadership there. Their integrity and authentic witness give me great hope. It is a beautiful and humbling thing to serve with peers who share something of your calling and your heart.

Crossroads was of course founded by one of my closest friends, Clayton King. While Clayton also graduated from GWU, he’s a couple years older than I am, and I somehow managed to go all 4 years there without ever actually speaking to him. He was already larger than life on campus–Crossroads camps were already in full effect, and those were the days he was hosting the music festival Jacob’s well (with bands like Bride and Guardian–holla back Dave Galloway!). I remembered an almost suppressed memory last week–that at least in my early days as a student, I don’t think I liked Clayton at all. For no other reason than that all of my friends liked him so much, and they were always going around quoting him. Specifically, I remembered how annoyed I got that they were always talking about, per Clayton, how you had to have an accountability partner–and you just had to keep a journal of what God was saying in your life.

If you can believe this, I thought the whole enterprise was quite stupid. I grew up all those years in the church escaping any meaningful spiritual formation altogether. I assumed that if such things were necessary, I would have heard about them before. And who is Clayton King to tell me now that I need an accountability partner and a journal? Now of course those of you who are well acquainted with my ministry are laughing now, because you know I talk so often about those basic spiritual practices now. But at 18 at GWU, I was not so enlightened. It is also funny because Clayton is one of the men of God in my life I most trust to encourage, challenge and pray for me, as well as keep me from ever doing anything stupid that would bring a reproach on my God, my wife, and my ministry. He has my back and I have his. Beyond being one of the finest preachers in the nation (which he really is), Clayton is an authentic follower of Jesus that has taught me much about what it is to be faithful.

And of course after I got to know Clayton, I later came to know Matt Orth, also now one of my greatest friends in the ministry. I tell people often that if I didn’t live and pastor in Charlotte, NC, there are 2 places I would be willing to move to in order to be part of a church: New Covenant Church of God in Cleveland, TN (led by Drs. Jackie and Cheryl Johns) and Broad River Community Church in Boiling Springs, NC where Matt serves as pastor. Matt has drunk from deep wells of pastoral wisdom in these early years of ministry there, and he takes seriously the word “pastor” in all of its nuances more than anybody I know. I tell him often that I would happily submit to his pastoral leadership, because I have such respect for his walk with God and his dedication to the people of God. He is grounded in the ancient and best practices of spiritual leadership.

In the years since I got to know Clayton and Matt, Jeremy Berger joined the Crossroads Ministry Team, one of my all-time favorite people. Jeremy was a groomsmen in my wedding. He and Amanda were best friends in college until I came in and wrecked everything. In fact, a little known piece of trivia–Amanda had already committed to go with Jeremy to the GWU spring formal when we rather abruptly started dating (a minor scandal on our fair campus, but that is another story for another time). So they went on to the formal, and then Amanda and I hooked up when it was over (meaning, we got together and hung out, not like we “hooked up” down at the gazebo, which would be a whole different thing). I am still hoping for a reprisal and reunion tour of Jeremy and Amanda’s legendary cheerleader sketches. This year he and his wife Katie gave birth to a beautiful and healthy son–I’m so proud of him and all that God is doing in his life. They are a remarkable couple.

Last chronologically but by no means least is Scott Ryan, another one of my most cherished brothers I will catch up with this week. Despite many mutual friends, I didn’t really know Scott at all until last summer, when he came to Renovatus as a pastoral intern to fulfill the requirements of the field education program for Duke University’s Divinity School. I think he wanted to come to a Pentecostal church so he could add some ecclesial diversity to his resume After 3 months not only working hard at Renovatus but living with us, I can tell you that Scott will forever be considered part of the family for me, Amanda and Cybil (that would be our shih tsu). Beyond having a disciplined mind, Scott is as sincere and passionate about following Jesus as anybody I know. We love him. And he is of course largely responsible for the freak of nature by which I somehow fell off the back of the covered wagon and landed at Duke for this season of my life, for which he deserves either credit or blame!

I could go on. I am always excited to be led in worship by my friend Carl Cartee. And there are many rich ministry friendships that extend beyond the current leadership of Crossroads–in particular, it was through Crossroads that I developed my friendship with Steven Furtick as well, during his years speaking for them. I don’t know exactly why I got up first thing this morning and wrote such an extended shout out, or if it is of interest beyond the individuals involved. I honestly just woke up with tonight on my mind, feeling so deeply thankful that God has given me such a wonderful extended community of peers and brothers whom I trust and love so much. It is an honor to be in such good company.

an introduction to stanley hauerwas.

We concluded the 6 month Follow series yesterday with “a conversation with Stanley Hauerwas,” with a record breaking crowd in attendance.  I had tried to throughly prepare everybody for how provocative he is…but there is no way you can entirely prepare for Hauerwas full-on the way we had it yesterday. I understand that for some it is hard to get around his language (which he attributes to being the son of a Texas bricklayer). It is also understood that is very rare that anyone is going to agree with everything that he says. But as a student of his, I now more than ever think his thought and work are desperately needed for a complacent church that is uncomfortable with being odd to the world.

I tried to really take the time yesterday morning to explain exactly why I think Hauerwas is important for the church at large and our church in particular (beyond the fact that he wrote a wonderful commentary on Matthew, which we have studied for the last 6 months. I began with the conventional bio stuff: Stanley Hauerwas received a Ph. D. from Yale. He went on to teach at the University if Notre Dame in 1970, until joining the faculty of Duke University in 1985 where he has served ever since. Time magazine called him “America’s best theologian.” Critics and admirers alike agree that he is one of the most important and provocative ethicists of our time. His Texan accent and penchant for profanity are legendary. Since September 11th, 2001, a wider audience has expressed interest in his consistent witness of pacifism (he’s been on Oprah?!?). Though I do love William Cavanaugh’s line from the introduction to the Hauerwas Reader,“Indeed of all the great Christian pacifists over the centuries, Hippolytus, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther King—Stanley Hauerwas is the one I would want on my side in a bar fight.”

But I wanted to explain in a more personal way how I have been influenced by Hauerwas. The text of my introduction are as follows:

Those are all things you are guaranteed to hear about Stanley Hauerwas whenever he is discussed. But for our purposes today, I would ask you to indulge me to speak more personally about why Dr. Hauerwas’ work is so significant to me and this young church in Charlotte. I hope to give you a context that will make the conversation you are about to hear make more sense.

I am a third generation Pentecostal preacher. My grandfather grew up just a couple minutes away in a little house on North Davidson Street and attended Duncan Memorial Methodist as a child. He didn’t become a Christian until well into his 20’s. He had met a pretty girl named Nellie who said she wouldn’t date sinner boys. Next thing you know he was converted in the sweaty fervor of the 15th Street Church of God, and his life was never the same. A Charlotte police officer, he came into the station one day and turned in his badge and gun, saying he had been called to preach—though he hadn’t yet booked a single revival.

He has been dead for 27 years now, and I am a product of the same tent revival kind of fervor, planting a church with an extraordinary group of folks here in Charlotte 2 and half years ago. I am thankful for my heritage, thankful for all I have been taught. But found myself lacking in many ways to articulate what it is we most deeply believe about the church (pretty important to establish as a young church planter). I have found myself spending countless hours reading the work of a Methodist theologian from Duke University’s Divinity School. And as the product of a renewal movement—I have found myself renewed, like no other time in my adult life, from the remarkable work of this theologian. How does one make sense of this?

After grappling plenty with how to explain the significance of Stanley Hauerwas for myself and this young church, I was almost agitated to see this influence explained so concisely by Samuel Wells in his book on the theological ethics of Hauerwas, Transforming Fate Into Destiny. Where I was born the son of a Pentecostal preacher in Lincolnton, NC, Wells, now the dean of Duke chapel, was born in England and became a fourth generation Anglican preacher. The impact of Hauerwas’ work so mirrored my own it took me aback. Let me read a section from his introduction:

“Since my father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all Anglican clergymen, few expressed surprise when I sensed a call to join the family business. As I began to work out the implications of this vocation, I realized that I had lost confidence in the capacity of the church to follow Christ today.

The loss of confidence was expressed in three ways. First, in an obsession with apologetics: I became one of those whose concern to see all come to faith had, in MacIntyre’s phrase, given the world less and less in which to disbelieve. Second, in an uncritical commitment to social action: since the Church was not bringing the kingdom, I sought to join anyone who looked like they might be. Third, in a quest for personal experience: the habits of the Church seemed to hamper as much as help my soul’s search for a direct experience with the living God.

When I read Stanley Hauerwas’ The Peaceable Kingdom I realized what had happened. Reading Hauerwas made me see that God genuinely intended the Church: and that the resources for its renewal lay in the habits and practices it had neglected. The theology that I hoped would help me change others had succeeded in changing me…I have written this book because I believe that the writings of Stanley Hauerwas offer the Church an invitation to renew its confidence and restore a true sense of identity.”

That is exactly the trajectory I found myself on. First in hoping to become an educated Bible thumper, a fundamentalist who could intellectually wrestle people into the faith. As a good Charlotte boy, where we gave the world the Nature Boy Ric Flair, I think I had something in mind of a spiritual/intellectual figure-four leglock that could force the infidels to submit to belief. Finding these approaches, “Ten ways to prove the Bible is true without ever using a Scripture,” ultimately unsatisfying, I too became restless with the apathy and indifference of the church to transform the world through acts of social justice. Uncritically then, let’s just find something good to do and get busy—without any context or framework to make “good works” intelligible. Finally, I came to believe that any shortcomings in my faith were surely do an impoverished experience—so being a disciple became a matter of chasing down the Spirit, running frantically and chaotically from one campmeeting or revival to another trying to hunt down God (some of you know what I’m talking about).

For Stanley Hauerwas, being a Christian is not a matter of believing the right ideas or propositions about God, nor a matter of simply being nice to the neighbors and co-workers, nor chasing down the thunder and lightning of Mt. Sinai (the place where Moses met God). For Hauerwas, to become a Christian is to learn the practices of a faithful community, what he would call a community of character, from a people committed to worship Jesus Christ in all things. This is a truthful community, a disciplined community that has a shared tradition, a faithful story that guides them and ultimately transforms them into people of virtue.

The language of virtue in Hauerwas’ work has captivated me. Growing up in the church tradition that I did, they taught me that God didn’t just want to deliver us from self-destructive behavior, didn’t just want to save us from sin, but that God wanted to change “your want to.” If I remembered that sanctification language at all, I think it was with a bit of condescension. For Hauerwas, that is exactly what this truthful community will teach us how to do—to live lives of virtue and holiness that come from the inside-out. But this is not an abstract or mystical act. It is as real, sweaty, earthy and practical as learning how to lay brick, a craft Hauerwas learned from his own father. Through learning the practices of a faithful community committed to follow Jesus together, disciples become so deeply embedded into the story of the community that it becomes their own story, that their practices become their own practices.

This church so elegantly and yet so plainly described by Stanley Hauerwas is not a conservative fundamentalist church that has taught us to retreat from an evil world into the “soul,” where the primary objective becomes the conversion of the inner self. Nor is this church the activist church, who would blandly reduce the gospel to nothing more than calling the world to social change through acts of kindness, without any context or story to make those acts intelligible.

This church is a radical alternative to both the left and to the right, a church “that exists today as resident aliens, an adventurous colony in a society of unbelief.” It is a living, breathing visible community of faith, a particular people with a particular story, the church that is in itself God’s gift of new language to the world. This is the church that has understood that salvation is not static, but life on the road. This church, to quote from one of my favorite essays of Hauerwas’, a moving theological reflection on Richard Adams’ classic Watership Down, is a “story-formed community.” Like the rabbits of Watership Down, Christians depend on a narrative to be guided. As the rabbits learned to rely on the oft-repeated story of their famous prince, this Christian community “depends on the narrative of a prince who was defenseless against those who would rule it with violence. He had a power, however, which the world knew not. For he insisted that we could form our lives together by trusting in truth and love to banish the fears that create enmity and discord. To be sure, we have been unfaithful to this story, but that is not reason to think it is an unrealistic demand. Rather it means we must challenge ourselves to be the kind of community where such a story can be told and manifested by a people formed in accordance with it.”

You know, I think I finally figured out how a Pentecostal preacher’s kid could resonate so much with the theological project of a Methodist bricklayer’s son from Texas. Men and women like my grandfather read the book of Acts in the New Testament, and were seized by this vision of what it meant to be the church, empowered to be Christ-like disciples full of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. They read these ancient words from Acts 2 about the sound of a rushing mighty wind, they read about tongues of fire that descended onto the early believers. They read about the gift of new languages, a gift that both captivated the crowds but also confounded them—they saw these disciples spilling out of the upper room, their speech and behavior so affected that they assumed they were drunk. The gift of God’s new language was at first unintelligible to the world because it came in such a violent, catastrophic, we might say apocalyptic way.

As Peter got up to preach the first sermon of the Spirit-empowered church, he said “These men are not drunk as you suppose, seeing as it is only the third hour of the day. They have been filled with the Holy Ghost.” Peter saw this as a fulfillment of an apocalyptic promise from Joel chapter 2, which envisioned a time when “sons and daughters will prophesy, old men dream dreams and young men see visions, male and female bondslaves speak the word of God.” The same text that promised this lovely vision is couched in violent, apocalyptic language—the text that promised dreams and visions also anticipated “blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke, the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come.” Joel’s prophecy, re-interpreted in and through the Spirit, was nothing less than that the Spirit would bring a new way of existence by disrupting our time. That’s what an apocalypse does, it disrupts time—a phrase Dr. Hauerwas is fond of.

And if there is any theologian I’ve read who knows what it is to have “time disrupted” by Jesus of Nazareth, a man who has been used both to bear witness to God’s new language to the world called church…and also a man who has provoked crowds and brought controversy and bewilderment, it is Stanley Hauerwas. He is not drunk as you suppose. Like those early disciples and like my grandfather, his time has been disrupted by the Spirit of God. And he continues to call us to put down our badges and our guns to speak the word of God. About as subtle as the apocalyptic imagery of Joel, he has been stirring up the holy imaginations of sons and daughters of the church, young and old, to dream dreams and see visions. I don’t know if this is good news to you or not, Dr. Hauerwas—but it turns out you are quite Pentecostal.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome to Renovatus a faithful witness to the peaceable kingdom of Jesus Christ—Stanley Hauerwas.

on being a bishop; hauerwas this sunday!

Just a quick update, for the faithful readers who have stuck with me despite an erratic summer…in about a month, the Renovatus website as well as my blog are getting a complete overhaul.  And this blog is going to be a significant part of the whole scheme…so hang on!  Along with the changes, I will be back at it full-on.

For now, just a quick update…I had a really special time Monday night, as I officially became an ordained bishop in the Church of God.  It’s the highest level of credentials in our denomination.  It was a cool and humbling experience to follow in the footsteps of my grandfather and father, with some good friends and family to celebrate with me.  Thanks to my mother-in-law Rita for the picture, that’s Amanda and I with Jerry and Paulette Chitwood, the Administrative Bishop for the Church of God in our region.  I know the Renovatus crew find it hard to believe I still own a tie, but it’s all true!

And just in case you haven’t got the word (which may be unlikely by now), You may not need this reminder by now.  But in case you haven’t got the word for whatever reason, this Sunday is it…the formal conclusion of the follow series, featuring Dr. Stanley Hauerwas!

Here’s the skinny:
–One service ONLY at 10:30AM.
–Dr. Hauerwas will be signing books immediately following the service (and we have books to buy: Resident Aliens, Where Resident Aliens Live, Prayers Plainly Spoken, The Hauerwas Reader, Community of Character, The Peaceable Kingdom, Commentary on Matthew, and Christian Existence Today)
–Picnic in the park 15 minutes following service (starting around 12:45), and it’s free.  We are providing Mac’s barbecue (the best in town) and our community life groups are providing everything else (special thanks to them).

So bring some folks with you Sunday, and be in prayer that God will really use this unique service in a mighty way.  It’s going to be rocking.  One week from Sunday, I’m eager to share the vision post-Matthew, diving into issues of the Spirit and the church.  I’ll be looking forward to seeing you this weekend!

follow-the mandate study.

Feel free to discuss!

To leaders:

I’m using the same format Amanda used last week, as it was simple and helpful. Don’t forget to solicit questions from your group for the conversation with Stanley Hauerwas, next Sunday at 10:30 AM only—and send them to me via e-mail.

INTRODUCTION: To begin . . . have someone in your group read aloud the Scripture and commentary.

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

Matthew 28.16-20

“The church, moreover, is but the name of a people who have been formed to worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To worship that God is to live a life described by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore, Jesus commands his disciples to teach those whom they baptize to obey all that he has commanded. Jesus’ death and resurrection cannot be separated from the way he has taught us to live. The Sermon on the Mount, how we are to serve on another as brothers and sisters, the forgiveness required by our willingness to expose the sin of the church, is salvation. The teaching and the teacher are one. The salvation that Jesus entrusts to his disciples is the gospel of Matthew.”
Stanley Hauerwas, Brazos Theological Commentary on Matthew, p.249.

PART ONE: Worshipping and Doubting– Discussion Questions

1. The disciples are said to be worshipping Jesus–and doubting! The worship of Jesus in Matthew 28 will become the central distinguishing feature of Christians throughout the ages. But even in this early act of worshiping Christ, Matthew (who is clearly not dressing up this story) is unashamed to include the detail that some–even of these 11 disciples–doubted. We do not know what they were doubting. It would seem unlikely at this point that they are doubting the reality of the resurrection…N.T. Wright suggests that perhaps they were doubting their own ability to carry out Jesus’ mission. At any rate, it is fascinating that these two can be held together. In what ways, even after a rich experience of Jesus and a lengthy study of Matthew’s gospel, do you still find yourself both “worshipping and doubting?” What does it mean that Jesus would give this powerful mandate to disciples who are still marked by doubt–and could it still be the same for us?
2. Before giving the charge, Jesus establishes the fact that “all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” You will recall that the devil tempted Jesus with worldly authority in the desert in Matthew 4. That authority would have circumvented the way of the cross. Now Jesus has this power anyway, through the path of the cross and resurrection. Another crucial feature of the New Testament is this constant insistence that Jesus Christ is already ruling the whole world. Knowing that Jesus is now in charge, how does that effect the way that we work and witness for Him? Clearly the world is not yet as Jesus is going to make it in its final form. What does it mean for us to believe in a Jesus who has absolute authority–while we still live in a world full of pain, suffering and violence?

PART TWO: The Missional Mandate

3. God’s salvation in the world is now going to come through these “worshipping and doubting” disciples, who have have been given the monumental task of “making disciples of all nations.” Pastor Jonathan spoke at length about this missional mandate, specifically as it relates to the Renovatus community. We have been a season of “basic training,” obeying the word of the Lord to “labor in the foundations.” But the ultimate outcome is that we will be sent into the world! If Jesus could change the world through these 12 disciples, what more could he do through us by the Spirit? Who are some of the people (and what are some of the places) God is sending you to? What would it look like for your group to fully embrace this commission to missional living, where the mission statement for everything we do is to make disciples of the nations? In the wake of the Follow series, where might this begin?
4. Pastor Jonathan noted Sunday that baptism is not optional for followers of Jesus. While our lives in Him are initiated when we first trust in Him, this is a way God embeds us deeply into the story of death and resurrection. Who in your group has been baptized? For those who have, what did that experience mean for you? For those who haven’t….why not? And why not Sunday July 27th at Renovatus?! (If anybody in your group wants to be baptized, please e-mail their name and info to Tracey at info@renovatuscommunity.com )
5. Jesus tells his disciples to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Dallas Willard calls this “the great omission” from the great commission, because so few contemporary American Christians take seriously the charge to really know (and teach) that which Christ commanded. Keep in mind those long blocks of teachings that constituted most of Matthew. What are some of the primary things you have learned from our sustained study of the teachings of Jesus? Why do you think those of us in the church are so often inclined to ignore those “red letters,” despite the fact that we are expressly charged by Jesus to know and to teach them? Notice that it is not just a matter of teaching…but of “teaching them to obey.” We are comfortable with teaching people to believe sometimes, but not teaching them to obey. Have someone in your group read James 1.22-26 and I Peter 1:3-14. Does it seem the New Testament places a greater emphasis on actual obedience than we do? What does it mean to live a life of obedience to the teachings of Jesus–or is such a life even possible?
6. The task at hand may seem overwhelming at times. But notice the words that this mandate is sandwich-ed between–”All authority on heaven and on earth have been given to me” and then “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” How does these final words inform the way you interpret the great commission? And what does this mean–or to put it this way, in what ways is Jesus present with us to the end of the age after He ascends?

CLOSING REFLECTIONS

I want to ask you to direct your prayer times towards those in the sphere of influence around your group who are apart from the love of Jesus. The mission of Renovatus is to make them into disciples, that they might know the joy and beauty we have found as His followers. Ask your group for some names of people heavy on their hearts who are in need of the embrace of Jesus, and take some time to boldly and to seriously intercede for them.

wordlessness (or the grace of saying nothing).

It was my friend and mentor Dr. Rickie Moore that I learned the phenomenon of “wordlessness.”  Deeply informed by the Old Testament prophets and a prophetic character himself, Dr. Moore taught me something about the sensation of the prophet who has no word to speak.  This was never more powerfully demonstrated than at a chapel service at the Church of God Theological Seminary, where Dr. Moore gave a few remarks, and then promptly and in fact abruptly sat down.  It was awkward and it was risky.  Given his own insight as a scholar, I find it hard to believe that there is ever a time Dr. Moore would not have something to say to someone like me that would not be instructive.  But he has a keen understanding that there is a difference between something instructive and the word of the Lord, and there are times when the prophet has no word and should therefore refrain from speaking.

The deafening silence was followed by divine utterance and then deep worship and repentance.  I will not go into more detail than that, for I find that such experiences do not play well either on tv or the internet. I prefer to simply leave it that God worked in a profound and tangible way, and it was one of the most memorable worship services I’ve ever been in.   

It is rare that I run out of things to say.  Wordlessness does not come naturally to me.  In fact, I would say I have much to learn about the times that honoring God and his people means refraining from saying much of what we think.  I am learning how uninteresting I really am, and just how desperately I have to depend on God to have anything worth saying.

This may or may not explain my lack of blogging as of late.  It is summer, and the pastorate and school schedule does take its toll.  I would not say that I have been utterly wordless.  Several messages I have preached as of late have had an almost ecstatic quality to them, both in the receiving and in the delivery–and have thus seemed especially inspired.  Beyond the pulpit, I have not shrunk from speaking words of pastoral authority, either in the form of encouragement or rebuke.  Rather I have this strange sensation of having more to say than ever and yet feeling so very stupid, so in need to be in the presence of God and at the feet of His saints to be instructed.  

It is strange to have such a new confidence in my pastoral work and yet feel alternately so uninformed.  I had a moving experience at our last Renovatus staff meeting where some life-giving words were spoken over me, specifically of the Lord’s delight in me.  It was a liberating word.  As a result, I have found myself tasting the freedom to speak as I feel prompted and shut the hell up when I don’t.  To speak or to write or to blog is a great grace, and hopefully for me an act of worship.  But I do not derive my worth or value from any of these things–to do so would be to turn a gift into a form of idolatry.  My words can be a gift only insofar as they are dependent on an authority beyond my own.  

Does this seem like I am rambling?  I don’t feel like I am, though this is all a little broad.  To be more specific, I find blogging particularly to be an ambiguous task, because I both recognize the validity of fresh theological reflection–and the risk of feeling that everything I think about is worthy of an audience.  I desire to worship Christ in all things, either in the speaking or in listening…perhaps even the wordlessness.

I have no conclusion to any of this.  Only that I’m pretty sure that the extent to which I receive the grace both to speak or to be silent under the authority of Christ will determine whether or not I am merely verbose or whether or not I become dangerous.  I aspire towards the latter.  

follow: put away the sword study.

Okay friends, this week’s Bible study–written very well by my wife Amanda! Feel free to discuss. I know the blog has been quiet these last two weeks or so–but I’m not dead yet. It is a combination of two things: legitimate “wordlessness,” which I will expound on in coming days via the prophets of the Old Testament, and number two, NBA Live 2008 on Playstation 3 has proved to be a far more delightful way to spend my very little free time in the last month rather than producing more, writing more, etc. So Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, there is fresh content to come. So on with the study:

Follow: put away your sword.

To leaders:

This week’s study follows the movement of the message in that it’s divided into three parts:
Intro/Discussion
1. Putting away the sword
2. Attempting to defend Jesus
3. Embracing the Cross
Closing Reflection/Prayer

INTRODUCTION: To begin . . . READ and discuss the following quotes from the message as a group. Read aloud and ask for reactions.

Excerpt from Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia farms:

Touring a large local church with a local preacher:
“You see that cross?” said the local preacher, “We paid ten thousand dollars for that cross alone!” “Imagine that!” said Clarence, “Why, they used to give them to Christians for free!”

H. Richard Niebuhr, The Meaning of Revelation

For H. Richard Niebuhr, a defensive posture with regard to revelation, wherein there is an attempt to “justify Christianity as the best religion” or “defend religion as an important element in human life” is the source of many aberrations in Christian thought. He believed that apologetic approaches all to often tempted us “to relinquish the standpoint of faith in God and to accept the point of view of pagan confidence in man.” Any approach to revelation that is not confessional will ultimately give in to the “tendency of self-defense and self-justification, the turning away from the object of faith to the subject.” The ultimate outcome of an apologetic use of revelation is that the revelation is “used to justify the church’s claims to superior knowledge or some other excellence” and thus “revelation is necessarily identified with something the church can possess.” Hence for Niebuhr, any effort to deal with the subject of revelation must be “resolutely confessional.” He notes that early Christian preaching is that it was “not an argument for the existence of God nor an admonition to follow the dictates of some common human conscience” but rather a “simple recital of the great events connected with the historical appearance of Jesus Christ and a confession of what had happened to the community of disciples.”

PART ONE: PUTTING AWAY THE SWORD - Discussion Questions

1. Read Matthew 26:47-56 as a group.

2. Reread Matt. 25:50. For discussion, why might Jesus have addressed Judas as “friend” knowing Judas’s intentions? How does Jesus’ reaction inform our response to those we would perceive as enemies of the cross? Our own enemies?

3. Jesus’ rebuke of Peter’s actions teach that Jesus does not need us to “protect” or “defend” Him. In the message, we discussed the fact that often our instinct to defend Jesus is because we ourselves do not want to be rejected. What are some ways you have been afraid of rejection as a believer?

PART TWO: ATTEMPTING TO DEFEND JESUS

4. As a group, read 2 Cor. 10:3-5. What are some “carnal weapons” that you have observed to attempt to defend Jesus? Were these methods effective? Pastor Jonathan mentioned his temptation to verbally arm wrestle people into belief in Christ. What carnal strengths are you tempted to use in defense of Christ?

5. Pastor Jonathan mentioned the pastor who said he “couldn’t worship a God he could beat up.” What is your reaction to this quote? Why might this attitude be problematic in light of the verses you’ve read?

PART THREE: EMBRACING THE CROSS

6. Read I Corinthians 1:17-25. Then read I Corinthians 2:1-5. The “foolishness of the cross” is the struggle of all people. The image of a God who dies is powerful and confusing, yet Paul says in I Cor. 1:18 that the cross is the power of God to those who are being saved. How is the crucifixion the image of God’s power when it seems like defeat?

7. This morning’s message addressed our fear of pain and rejection and our instinct to avoid situations we know will leave scars. Share some stories/testimonies of instances in the lives of the group members where embracing the cross and the model of Christ has left scars. What was the result?

CLOSING REFLECTIONS
8. Letting go of our dependence on our strengths, talents, intelligence as tools of God leaves us with dependence on the word of God, the witness of the community of God, and the word of our testimony. This means letting go of a lot of safety rails and security blankets, as well as a lot of control. Take some time to share the areas your group’s members still hang on to control of their lives and fear God’s will. Take time to pray in groups of two or three for individual growth and freedom and as a group for a deeper understanding/meditation of the cross.

follow: to the least of these.

This week’s bible study, for discussion in community life groups or online:

Follow: To the Least of These Study
Week of June 8, 2008

For Leaders:
Beyond the fact that I’m aware that you really don’t need a 7 page Bible Study each week (per the last two!), it would seem counter-intuitive to make this week’s study any longer than it needs to be. The problem precisely with Matthew 25.31-46 is that the implications are far more clear than we would like them to be! So in the spirit of that, I am offering a short study to be driven primarily by the questions.

Context:
Matthew 24-25 is all about patience, waiting, endurance—learning how to live in the time between the times. Jesus has already told us that no matter how bad things get, we have no reason to panic or to be afraid. Ultimately, the worst thing that could ever happen in the world is about to happen, in the crucifixion and death of God Himself. Yet God overcomes through the act of resurrection. Jesus Himself is the sing of the end of the age. Because He has apocalyptically disrupted time for us, we can now live lives of patience and obedience—we have no reason to be hurried.

In the sobering words of Matthew 25.31-46, it is more clear than ever what it means to live patiently, continuing the work of Jesus in the world. In this final portion of the fifth and final discourse in Matthew, Jesus is seen to be the judge of the world—in itself a remarkable statement. In the First Testament, God alone has the sole prerogative of final judgment—what does it mean to believe that Jesus Himself is the one who will judge the world? The Jesus who will rule over the nations is the very same Jesus who was despised and rejected by His own creation, vindicated now as the Lord of the cosmos.

The primary application of this passage is that Jesus will judge the world based on how the nations receive the humble servants He sends to continue his mission. They are his “brothers and sisters” through obedience to His word. Keep in mind that Jesus is not sending these disciples out as people of privilege, but to be sheep among wolves, to endure precisely the kind of persecution described in Matthew 24. Thus this is not a generic passage about humanitarian kindness.

Yet throughout the history of the church, this passage has been interpreted more broadly to address the ways Christians must receive each other, care for the weak and poor in their midst, and even care for the needy in the world as part of their worship of and witness for Jesus Christ. Retaining the Christological focus, by no means is this an improper use of the text. While Matthew addresses the way Jesus will judge the nations for how they treat his servants, nothing could be more consistent with the Jesus tradition within the gospels than the claim that receiving the hungry, thirsty, naked, poor and imprisoned is a vital dimension of Christian ministry and service. We have seen all of these things in Jesus’ own life and ministry, and to continue in this work is to honor and worship Him. Over and against our inclinations to make following Jesus abstract or esoteric, we must continue to find the face of Jesus in the real world.

Read Matthew 25.31-46 aloud in your group.

Questions for Study:

1. Matthew 24-25 has a lot to do with signs and times. Jesus has already told the disciples not to panic about the tribulations that are to come, but to bear faithful witness to Himself. Repeatedly we have seen that this requires patience and perseverance. So many in our society feel constricted by the tyranny of time. How has Jesus equipped us not to be hurried, but rather to have the patience that makes these acts of service possible? How has Jesus disrupted time so that we can act with compassion? To put it more simply, how is this passage connected to the broader theme of patience?
2. What are some ways that you have felt like you have been too busy to fulfill God’s calling to minister in the name of Jesus to the world? How can your group help you pray about this?
3. Does this passage work on the simple level of humanitarian kindness—that is, everybody should be nice to one another—or can it make sense apart from Jesus? What is the difference between the kind of general idea that we should be kind, good neighbors—and this scene of judgment in Matthew 25?
4. Have you ever had the experience of feeling an especially strong sense of God’s presence through your care for one of the weak ones? How have you seen the face of Jesus—or heard the voice of Jesus—through a person that you have served?
5. Among the major ideas in the message Sunday was that “Ministry is in the interruptions” and “Real ministry is always awkward.” How do you feel about these statements, and what do they mean for you?
6. Another idea from the message was that the people God has called you to care for are probably already in your path, we just don’t always have eyes to see them. Like the religious leaders in the parable of the good Samaritan, we may even walk past hurt, dying people on our way to Bible Study! Does this resonate with you—and if so, how?
7. It is easy to make generic statements about caring for people who are suffering, poor or needy (i.e. “I love the poor.”) without actually knowing any of them! Specifically, who do you feel the Holy Spirit may be calling you to serve in the name of Jesus—even if that just means giving “a cup of cold water in his name?”

Closing Reflection and Prayer:

I would love for you to conclude your discussion by reflecting together on one of these two passages below. Choose one of them to discuss before you go into your prayer time.

The first is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together:

In a Christian community everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable. A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them. It will be well, therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable. Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of fellowship.

The second is from Henri J.M. Nouwen’s The Wounded Healer, one of the books that has most influenced my understanding of Christian ministry:

The tragedy of Christian ministry is that many who are in great need, many who seek an attentive ear, a word of support, a forgiving embrace, a firm hand, a tender smile, or even a stuttering confession of inability to do more, often find their ministers distant men or women who do not want to burn their fingers. They are unable or unwilling to express their feelings of affection, anger, hostility, or sympathy. The paradox indeed is that those who want to be “for everyone” find themselves unable to be close to anyone…

It seems necessary to re-establish the basic principle that no one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entertaining with his whole person into the painful situation, without taking the risk of becoming hurt, wounded or even destroyed in the process. The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life to others. Thinking about martyrdom can be an escape unless we realize that real martyrdom starts with the willingness to cry with those who cry, laugh, with those who laugh, and to make one’s own painful and joyful experiences available as sources of clarification and understanding.

Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames? Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: “Who can take away suffering without entering into it?” The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there…we have forgotten that no God can save us except a suffering God, and that no man can lead his people except the man who is crushed by its sins.

In your prayer time, I would invite you both to bear the burdens of each other, to enter into the pain and needs within your group, as an act of worship to Jesus. I would also invite you to seek God for the discernment to see the people He is already calling you to serve. More than likely, He has already placed them in your path!

follow: until the end of the world.

Dare I even ask you to feel free to discuss this week’s bible study?  

Follow: until the end of the world Study Guide
Text: Matthew 24.1-44

For Leaders:

There are many different schools of thought as to how to interpret Matthew 24.  Some of course are more plausible than others.  There is no way I can solve all of that here in one short Bible study.    What I attempt to keep the main things the main things, as the overarching theme of the whole chapter is to avoid getting carried away by the chaos that is to come—and instead live lives of patience, perseverance, and endurance, bearing faithful witness to Jesus.  This message had special application to the disciples considering the persecution they would endure in an immediate sense.  But it is a timeless message that is always relevant to the church.  I hope you will follow my lead here in helping your community life group understand why all of this matters to them, without getting caught up in an endless array of end-times schemes.

For a different view than Hauerwas’ on Matthew 24, you may wish to consult N.T. Wright’s Matthew for Everyone commentary.  Wright places a much higher emphasis on the historical events that follow Matthew 24 than Hauerwas does.  Their approaches are different and in some cases mutually exclusive, but both helpful.

Note that discussion questions follow each movement.

Context:

Since Jesus became the embodied God, the world itself has been in convulsions.  In Matthew 24, Jesus uses language that is familiar to all of us, an image that most of us can understand at least to some extent—that the world is in birth pangs (Paul will pick up on this imagery later in Romans 8).  The arrival of Jesus into the real world of his creation was a beautiful event, but the fulfillment of God’s good purposes in the world will not be quick or easy.  En route to this birthing, where God will complete his plan and the ultimate joy of the reign of Jesus is realized in the world, there are convulsions.  In fact, soon after Jesus will give this teaching, the disciples are going to begin to feel the tremors.  Birth, as we know, is a violent event.  You can’t have the joy and beauty without the pains of labor.  That is one of the human images that help us get a handle on a challenging text like Matthew 24.

So when will these birth pangs occur, and what will they look like?  Throughout Christian history, we have seen equally devout believers come up with very different answers to this question.  There is a lot of talk in Matthew 24 about the end of the age.  Some therefore have interpreted these events entirely in light of distant (or not so distant) future events that will lead up to the parousia of Jesus.  Parousia is a greek word for “appearing,” a word used in Roman circles to describe a local appearance of a great ruler.  Christians have used this word to talk about the second coming of Jesus, when He will appear again to complete the work in the world he started.  Others have interpreted the events of Matthew 24 exclusively in light of the traumatic events that would ensue in the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  In a few years, the temple of Israel would quite literally be destroyed, and not one stone would be left standing.  While there is talk of the end of the age, Jesus also says that at one point that many of these events will come to pass “before this generation passes away.”  Interpreting this passage historically, it does seem that these prophecies have really immediate historical significance.  We might raise the question then of how much Matthew 24 has to do with “the end of the age” as in the end of this traumatic season in Israel’s history, or how much this has to do “with the end of the world” in the sense of last events?

Without wishing to wiggle out of making a difficult choice, I would humbly submit that these two interpretations are not entirely mutually exclusive of one another. I do believe that many of the events foreshadowed in Matthew 24 are very specifically to teach the disciples how to live in the time following Jesus’ death and resurrection, and in that sense have a very specific application to a very specific time.  In other words, I don’t believe that it is all about the very end of time per se, but rather a series of events (in the not-to-distant future for the disciples) that will in fact be birth pangs of God’s future moving forward.  But I also believe, as the early church did, that there is a time coming when Jesus Christ himself will quite literally appear to the world, to judge it and to finish what he started all the way back in Matthew.  And I think long after the temple in Jerusalem was literally destroyed and the city was brought to ruins, Matthew 24 is endlessly instructive for teaching us how to live in anticipation of that time.

Because the ground covered in this one chapter is so vast, as is the history of interpretation of the text, it is difficult if not impossible to do a satisfying treatment of Matthew 24 in one sermon or one Bible Study.  Nonetheless, I am resisting the impulse to make this into a sub-series, and choosing rather to survey it so we can continue to get a grasp of the larger movement of Matthew.  So while we will not be able to explore all the nuances of the text, we will hone in on a few of the major themes.

It would be worth saying just a bit about the role of apocalyptic language.  Apocalypse is a genre of literature employed by books like Daniel and Revelation (of course there are examples outside Scripture as well) that uses vivid, violent, and sometimes poetic language and symbols either to describe the present, or in some cases, to tell us something about the future.  Jesus employs apocalyptic language in Matthew 24.  It is important that we interpret apocalyptic language with great care.  Scripture employs this language to communicate vital truths to us, but we can miss the forest for the trees if we don’t pay attention to the form.  I don’t have time for a full primer on this here, I would just encourage you to be cautious—many of us approach apocalyptic texts without any regard to the particularity of the genre.  For a short, accessible introduction, I would recommend the chapter on apocalypse from How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.

Movements:

Movement One: The Destruction of the Temple/Signs of the End of the Age (Matthew 24:1-8 )

Jesus’ disciples, like us, want specific answers to specific answers to specific questions.  The temple was an ancient spectacle, the center of religious and cultural life for the Jews.  Jesus tells the disciples “not one stone will be left upon another, all will be thrown down.”  Naturally, they are burning with curiosity, not only as to when the temple will be destroyed but of when the end of the age will come.  So when they are sitting together with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, they ask him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.”   Incidentally, the temple would literally be destroyed during a war in AD 70.

But I want us to pay close attention to how Jesus responds to their questions.  It is especially instructive to note that here, as is common when the disciples ask Jesus such questions (see Acts 1.6-8, for example) that Jesus does not entirely answer their question, at least not on their terms.  They want to know when the action is going to happen.  The first thing Jesus says is “Beware that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying “I am the Messiah! And they will lead many astray.”  You can almost see Jesus gesturing with his hands to say whoa, calm down…let’s back up.  There are terrible things that are going to happen, but the most important thing is that you stay faithful to me.  It would be easy to get caught up in all of the hoopla, as there are going to be “wars and rumors of wars,” not to mention “nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”  But these signs are not the point for Jesus.  That is why it is always, always, always futile to try to read too much current events and try to fit them into prophetic charts and graphs.

Such an enterprise, while attempting to legitimately interpret these cryptic words of Jesus, ironically underwrites the assumptions of the disciples that “we have to KNOW!”  But notice that the signs Jesus gives here are reasonably generic.  He knows there will always be wars, rumors of wars, and natural disasters.  He doesn’t want the disciples hiding away with a mystical decoder ring trying to figure it all out.  He wants them to be aware that when things start to hit the fan, it will be tempting to panic.  “See that you are not alarmed,” Jesus says.  Don’t lose your head.  Stay cool.  Don’t abandon ship, don’t start looking for another messiah or a new movement, don’t be tempted to worship somebody or something other than me.  Stay faithful, and don’t let the birth pangs distract you from the task at hand.

1.    Compare Jesus’ response to his disciples, to Acts 1.6-8.  It seems that whenever the disciples try to nail Jesus down about the when and how’s of what is to come, he refuses.  Instead he gives them some broad signs, but makes it clear that the really important thing is that they stay faithful to him and continue to bear faithful witness.  How might many of the contemporary attempts to “figure out” precisely what God is up to in the end times serve to distract us rather than to keep us focused on the work God has given us to do?
2.    We know that many of these events would have an immediate application for Jesus’ followers in all of the turmoil following his death and resurrection.  But throughout Christian history, times of trauma tempt us to “be alarmed.”  Jesus instructs his disciples to stay calm when they hear about awful things happening all around them.  What are some ways that those of us in the church are tempted to panic?  Why is it important that rather than “reacting” when we difficult times come, that we don’t lose our cool?
3.    Bonus question: does popular contemporary Christian literature on prophecy generally help us to not be alarmed and stay focused…or give us more reasons to panic?

Movement Two: Persecution is coming (Matthew 24.9-14)

The convulsions to come are not just about nations and earthquakes, but real persecution for Jesus’ followers.  Jesus tells these disciples they will be tortured and killed because of his name.  At this point, they have no idea how true this is.  Historically we know that this prophecy would quite literally be fulfilled in the martyrdom of these disciples.  But notice again that the emphasis is not on figuring out how and when.  Rather Jesus again warns that “false prophets will arise and lead many astray.”  Because of the traumatic nature of the events that are to come, “the love of many will grow cold.”  So why is Jesus telling them all of this?  Because he wants them to know that “those who endure to the end will be saved.”  Ultimately then, the “good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to the nations; and then the end will come.”  We think here of another passage in an apocalyptic book, the revelation of John, where we read about those saints “who have overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, loving not their lives even unto death.”

Persecution and death really does await the disciples, and Jesus want them not to be surprised.  Rather he wants them to have full confidence that though they may lose their very lives, God will fulfill His purposes.  While this was true for the disciples in the first century, passages like this have brought and continue to bring endless comfort to Christians around the world who are suffering persecution.  They are reminded that they are part of something bigger than themselves, that the terror of persecution will not overcome the proclamation of the gospel to the nations.

1.    Do you or anyone in your group know anyone firsthand who has experienced the kind of persecution for the sake of following Jesus described in 24.9-14?  This would be a good place to share one of those stories.
2.    Jesus taught that the persecution that would come would cause many to run after false prophets and “the love of many to grow cold.”  Jesus wants his disciples to know that “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  What does it mean to “endure to the end?”   Is there a place to talk about “endurance” or “perseverance” with regards to salvation?
3.    “And the good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.”  We know that this proclamation to the nations begins on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Spirit of God is given to the church to empower faithful witness in every human language.  The work continues in the world today.  How is it possible for those of us who live in the Southeast U.S. to participate in the “proclamation to the nations?”

Movement Three: The Desolating Sacrilege (Matthew 24.15-28 )

Daniel was a popular book in Jesus’ day.  For Jews, it was an  imminently powerful book, because it spoke in stark, apocalyptic language of the various monsters that would overrun Israel and of God’s promise to overcome them.  Under the thumb of Roman oppression, the prophetic writing of Daniel was a great comfort that God would not abandon his people.  Specifically, Daniel speaks of an abominable act that would take place in the holy place, in the temple.  Speculation as to what this refers to is endless.  There would be a failed attempt within a few years of Jesus’ ascension to place the stature of a Roman god in the temple to antagonize the Jews.  The time would come later when pagan statues would quite literally placed in Jewish holy places.  This is all tricky because Jesus also prophesied that the temple would be destroyed in AD 70!

Others have anticipated this desolating sacrilege as a future event, and are anticipating this event still today (in a rebuilt “temple”).  Hauerwas gives an interesting reading that the crucifixion of Jesus is that act of radical evil, as he is now the true temple.  It’s worth investigating, for those of you that have the commentary.  Before getting lost in the maze of options, I would remind you again to keep a cool head and an attentive heart—what exactly is Jesus’ concern here?  Once again, Jesus says, these terrible events will cause his people to panic.  They will hear of other false Messiahs, of signs and wonders and prophets.  They will be tempted to abandon the patience necessary to be the people of God, give up on the waiting, and look for an escape.  When this happens, Jesus says, when you hear the reports of other messiahs and prophets, “don’t believe it.”  When they say the messiah is in the wilderness, “Don’t go out.”  Remain patient.  Endure.  Persevere.  Don’t be surprised or distracted by what is to come, only be faithful to me, bear faithful witness to the nations!

1.    It requires patience to live as the people of God.  Because the road ahead may be difficult, it is tempting to try and find a shortcut away from the suffering for something more spectacular, something less demanding.  What are some ways that Christians today may be tempted to abandon their call to live patient lives of faithful witness for the sake of following another messiah or prophet?  Not to complicate things, but do all of those distractions have to literally claim to be the “messiah,” or is possible for us to become idolatrous in many different directions?  What are some of the false “gods” or counterfeit “messiahs” that distract you from accomplishing your mission?  (I know I’m interpreting this broadly—but it would seem to me that any other object of faith, trust and security than Jesus may become a “false messiah.”)
2.    Bonus Question:  Hauerwas gives an interesting interpretation of the desolating sacrilege on pages 204-206 .  If you want to read about it and discuss it, feel free…or if you don’t want to go there, skip to the next section.

Movement Four: The Coming of the Son of Man and the Lesson of the Fig Tree (Matthew 24.29-35)

Jesus uses more apocalyptic language to describe the events that are to come: “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.”  All of this Jesus says, precipitates the “coming of the Son of Man.”  While the language is of the end of the world, Jesus wants to press the immediate relevance of these things to the disciples.   That is why in verse 34 he says “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”

I want to simply point out that while these texts may well have a future application, the fact that Jesus says “this generation will not pass” means that all of what he has taught thus far will be experienced to some extent by the disciples and their contemporaries.
This time of persecution and violence will begin with Jesus’ own crucifixion.  Soon after, the temple will be destroyed, and the disciples themselves will be tortured and killed.  They will experience firsthand these birth pangs.  That is why it is important that though Jesus talks about the “end of the age,” much of the passage thus far is related to the events that will occur soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  This season of history will come to a close, and of course this is not unrelated to the ultimate “appearing” or “Second Coming” of Jesus.  This series of events are all related.  The horrible things the disciples will experience are in fact a prelude to the time when Jesus will complete his work and judge the world.

Note: I did not include discussion questions for this section simply because there is not going to be nearly time enough to work through all of this in one session, though of course you are welcome to include something of this section with your group if you do have time.

Movement Five: The Necessity for Watchfulness (Matthew 24.36-44)

While many of these events will occur within the lifetime of the disciples, they gesture towards the time of final, ultimate judgment by Jesus. God is going to judge Jerusalem for rejecting Jesus by destroying the temple, and the Son of Man will ultimately be vindicated.  Eventually this judgment will be for the whole world.

It is in this context that we have one of the most crucial statements of Jesus in Matthew 24 comes in verse 36: “But about that day and hour not one knows, neither the angels of heaven, or the Son, but only the Father.”  Jesus says before He comes, it will be like it was in the day of Noah—everyone will continue with business as usual, living their lives for pleasure instead of looking for God.  Even though Noah had warned them of the flood that was coming and built his ark where all could see, they were still caught off guard by the flood that would come.  Jesus says this is what it will be like when He comes to judge the earth.

Verses 40-44 has often been interpreted as some kind of supernatural redemption for those who are seeking after God.  Some of you may remember the old Larry Norman song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready,” which contains the scenarios described here: two in the field, one take and the other left; two women grinding meal together, one taken and the other left.  The song, and a lot of popular Christianity, would lead us to believe that this is an image of redemption.  But such an interpretation ignores the context: this is a parable of judgment!  The image is not of redemption, but of a conquering force coming into a town or village and forcibly seizing people.  The image is not of God rescuing the devout, but of a “thief who breaks into a house” (thus “if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his home be broken into.”).  If this parable was about a supernatural rescue by Jesus, then why on earth would the devout stay awake so they don’t let Jesus in?!? The reason that people should be watchful is that we will ultimately all face the judgment of God, a judgment that will be brought into much clearer view in Matthew 25.

1.    Jesus says that no man knows the day or the hour of final judgment.  I have heard this interpreted many different ways, such as “just because you can’t know the day or the hour doesn’t mean you can’t know the week or the year!”  I don’t thin that fits the spirit of the text at all.  Jesus seems to go to great lengths to prohibit idle speculation about what is to come.  The sentiment seems to be that if he Himself doesn’t know exactly when all of this will occur, the important thing is to live such a watchful life that we won’t be surprised by God’s judgment, instead living lives of alert devotion.  Why is it so important that we avoid idle speculation about the end?  Are there ways that in contemporary evangelicals, we are still trying to be “smarter than Jesus?”  How might this actually work against the point of Matthew 24?
2.    It is so easy to be caught up in our day-to-day work and activities that we lose sight of final judgment.  We often live without the sense of urgency that life is short, and that we don’t have an infinite number of days.  For those of us who still have to punch the clock, care for a family, or pay the bills, what does it mean to be watchful?  How can we stay awake and ready, and not be sucked into a life of constant activity and little reflection on what really matters?  What does it look like for people like us to “stay awake?”

Final Reflections:

Take a few minutes to share some of the distractions and pressures that may be keeping members of your group from living the watchful, alert life described in Matthew 24.  Pray together that the Lord will give you the vision and focus to remain true to be patient….and most of all to continue to bear faithful witness!  Also take time to pray for those within your sphere of influence who are struggling to remain faithful because they feel their own world is coming to an end.

For Next Week: Read Matthew 25.

begetting children for the murderer.

Remarkably, this is a short post. But I do hope it’s pointed.

As I’ve been re-thinking and revisiting John Wesley, I have come across a haunting quote more than once in the last few weeks. As many of you know, in addition to being a great revivalist, he was especially known for his system of bands and classes, where new converts to Christian faith were placed into intentional spiritual formation groups. These groups were at the heart of what would come to be known as Methodism. Wesley was an eloquent preacher who was known to persuade many into saving faith in Jesus Christ, yet he saw this as a futile gift apart from this system of spiritual formation.

So John Wesley put it this way: “Preaching like an apostle, without joining together those that are awakened, is only begetting children for the murderer.”

For those protestant friends who might think this emphasis on Christian community is quirky, eccentric or particular to a certain expression of the body of Christ, consider these words. If Wesley was right, then preaching the gospel on Sundays–no matter how passionately, persuasively, or with whatever great unction, is utterly ineffective without spiritual formation. We might go as far as to say that not only does it not work, but it actually works against the gospel message. Is it not better for people not to hear the name of Jesus at all than to hear and not be given the necessary tools to follow?

If we are not careful, many of our ministries will end up like that of George Whitefield, the powerful preacher of the Great Awakening. He put up the stats in terms of getting converts, but those “awakened” had no place to go when the meeting was over and mostly fell to the wayside.

Spiritual formation groups are not just helpful resources for those Christians who are interested in this special category compartmentalized as “discipleship” for those who “want to go deeper.” They are not just a helpful outlet for those who need a good dose of so-called “fellowship.”

You either have them in place, you emphasize, cultivate and empower them, or you “beget children for the murderer.”

leadership blog: basic training

If there is anything I learned during our time of covenant at Renovatus, it is that I have to do less of the ministry and more equipping of ministers if I am going to be faithful to my calling.

Those who know anything about Renovatus know that for a church our size, we are blessed with an insane amount of influence. Specifically, God has sent us an amazing group of young leaders who share a sense of passion and calling for vocational ministry. I have felt a sea change of sorts for awhile, that I needed to develop an area of my gifting yet undeveloped–to play the role of spiritual father for these guys I love so much.

I am more confident in my ability to preach and teach than I am my ability to disciple. Preaching instructs by word, making disciples involves replicating who you are. Paul boldly charged his readers to “follow me as I follow Christ.” That is a bold claim, because the idea is that one lives a life worth replicating. I think in some ways I have wanted to avoid the responsibility of embodying that statement, because it is call not just to practice what I preach but to practice what I live. Despite my reservations, one of the clearest things God spoke to me during our season of spiritual renewal is that my mission is to train and equip these leaders in precisely this way.

So just over a month ago, we started out: 3 times a month at my house, a group of about 16 guys come over. I was forward with them right out of the gate that this is a high intensity, high expectation affair. Not only will these gentlemen be expected to attend our gatherings faithfully, but to read, study, and be deployed into active ministry as I direct them. I sent out an initial e-mail to this “fellowship of the ring” as I have called them, thinking the high commitment would scare them off. I even made brash statements about my time being precious, and not wanting anybody on board who wasn’t serious about following all the way through for the next year. Not only did it not scare them, but they begged me to bring it on. They were eager to pick up the gauntlet of disciplined community because they are serious about doing God’s work in the world.

So we have started basic training. For me, I feel like Rocky in Rocky III, the soft champion who has to go back to the old gym and relearn the basics. There is something much more primal, much more real, about what I am doing with these guys than what I do on Sundays. It feels riskier, for them and for me, to invest so much in them…and in turn to invest so much in each other. I think we have all felt this is more than a casual bible study, there is this sense of high stakes here.

So we are off and running. Each meeting is 2-3 hours of delving into both the life of the minister and the practices of the ministry, marked by times of deep prayer with and for one another. We established early on that we weren’t going to hold anything back. The times of sharing have already been magical, some of the most meaningful spiritual experiences I’ve ever had with a group of friends.

I gave each guy a copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, the manual he wrote for an underground seminary in Nazi Germany in 1935. The premise I gave to the group is that we are not qualified to lead Christian communities until we learn how to be in Christian community. The expectations for this kind of life, articulated with such remarkable precision in this little book, are both high and liberating. Their second assignment has been to listen to a great and provocative lecture on Biblical Interpretation and Preaching from Stanley Hauerwas. As they have come back and shared their insight from these works so far, I have already been astonished at both their humility and theological acumen. These guys are serious about being trained and prepared for the ministry, and the sheer amount of passion in that living room is extraordinary.

I’m telling you this for a couple of reasons. One because I want to celebrate what God is doing in raising up these leaders. I want to publicly acknowledge how proud I am of them, how much I believe in their gifts and calling. Secondly, I want to use this blog–at least once a week–as a forum for them to discuss what they are learning, and online journal of sorts for some of the less private things that God is forming in us (and of course any of you can join into the conversation!). We won’t be sharing from the depths as we do together, but I do think some of the truth they are mining together is worth documenting and sharing.  I also am going to feature some of these young leaders to post some reflections rather than myself to initiate these conversations.

For any of the fellas reading this, know how much I cherish and believe in you. In due season, your gifts are going to be unleashed onto the world. In the meantime, let’s not waste a moment we have together. As we journey together, I want to keep these words from Life Together in front of us: “The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.”

May we experience the blessing of the stronger Christ present in Christian community; living, breathing– incarnate in the words of each other.