Prayer (Community Basics - Week 5)

(This is an older sermon. Somehow I missed posting it.)

May 9, 2010
Josh Broward


Once upon a time, there were a group of cooks who never ate. They met together to cook. They made the most incredible dishes - adding just the right spices and holding the pan over the heat just so. But each week after they finished cooking their masterpieces, they tossed them into the trash bins and returned home.

Once upon a time, there was a Manchester United fan club. They all had the Man-U shirts and hats. They new all of the players’ names and statistics. They had autographed balls and photos. Their fan club met every week, but they never talked about soccer. They never watched any Man-U games. They weren’t even interested in the celebrity gossip about the Man-U players. Externally, they were the biggest fans in the world, but internally, their club had very little to do with Manchester United.

Once upon a time, there was an artists’ guild that didn’t do art. Artists from around the city met together to talk about the art of art. They discussed brush strokes and the tools for chiseling marble. They had heated debates about the best kind of paper to use when painting with water colors. However, the curious thing was that none of these art experts ever did any art.

Once upon a time, there was a book club that met every week even though nobody ever read the books. They would talk about this and that and have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, while the books sat on the coffee table unopened - with fresh, uncracked spines.

Once upon a time, a Supreme Court won a reputation for hearing an amazing quantity of cases. The judges seemed to have amazing endurance. They heard cases day and night on every possible subject - everything from sexual harassment to constitutional law to internet commerce. It was quite some time before people realized that, although this Supreme Court listened intently to many complex legal problems, they never actually gave any rulings.

Once upon a time, there was a church that was always meeting and talking about God and singing about God and praying to God and working for God. They had good music and good preaching and good children’s ministries and good Bible studies and a good community service project and good partnerships and mission trips. But for all of their talk and programing, they didn’t act or feel like God was really active among them.

The Church is a human organization, and, like any human organization, it works by certain social and psychological rules. If we acknowledge and work with these psycho-social rules, we can build a strong and effective organization. If we get our style and structure and environment right, we can grow in size and productivity - just like any human organization. This is good and healthy.
The problem is that the Church is not just a human organization. The Church is also a Spiritual organism. The Church is the Body of Christ. The Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Church is the in-breaking of God’s future into our present. The Church is the community of the Kingdom of God. The Church is the living experience of God’s heavenly life. The Church is God’s body for God’s mission of healing our world. The Church is the “place” where God and humanity connect. The point of the Church is to reconnect God and humanity - healing our brokenness by soaking us in God’s grace.
Like the cooks who never ate, we can spend all our time around God-stuff and be starving inside.
Like the soccer club that wasn’t interested in soccer, we can look like God’s greatest fans but ignore him in practice.
Like the artists’ guild that never painted, we can become experts in theology and speak with the highest church-talk but never live Church.
Like the book club that didn’t read books, we can come together to in the name of God without ever engaging God himself.
Like the Supreme Court that never made decisions, we can spend all our time mulling over all of the issues related to Christianity without ever touching the Christ.

One of my great fears is that we will be a church that misses the point.

There are two traditional ways for churches to miss the point. When I was growing up, pastors loved to preach against the church as a social club. The pastors would go on and on about how we don’t come to church just to meet people or to build relationships. That is surely part of the point of church. We need those social relationships. But when they become the primary point, we miss out on something important.
Unfortunately, most of the churches I participated in, when I was growing up, missed the point in another direction. They became religious clubs. They became escape routes out of our world. Church became the place to huddle and hide from the pain of our world. The emphasis of church became wholly spiritual. The answer to every problem was prayer. The only thing that mattered was whether you were going to heaven where all our problems would disappear.
In our attempts to avoid the errors of the social clubs and and the religious clubs, we sometimes stumble into a different error: service clubs. Sometimes, the church becomes little more than a service organization that meets for regular “pep rallies,” propaganda, and inspirational speeches. Sometimes, the church becomes a human organization of people trying to make our world better under the banner of religion. We talk about God. God is our motivation and our example and our unifying doctrine, but we don’t actually expect God to be active and present in our daily lives - much less in our organization. (This seems to be the most tempting option for our church.)
The most dangerous thing about each of these clubs is that they each have part of the truth. Each of the clubs focuses in on one of the core purposes of the Church. The problem comes with over-emphasis.
The Church exists for three fundamental purposes:
To help people connect with God
To strengthen the community of God
To shape us into the mission of God.
We need all three. The Church is all three. The Church exists for all three of these purposes. Every local church lives and breathes based on these three purposes: connecting with God, being the community of God, and engaging in the mission of God. If we leave any of these out, if we over-emphasize any of these, then we go astray. We may build a strong organization, but we build a weak church.
Let me speak frankly about our church. We have a lot of strengths as a church. We are diverse and loving. We are deeply committed to God’s mission - here and abroad. I am thrilled with our partnership with Bangladesh. We are growing in our internal organization and effectiveness. Our music is getting better and better. We are learning how to work together across cultures and expectations. We are beginning to engage our creativity more through art.
However, I think we are missing out in connecting people with God. We are trending toward the social club and service club danger zones. We need to go deeper in God’s Spirit together. We need to experience God’s Spirit more when we gather to worship. We need to see more people’s lives changed by God’s revolutionary grace. We need to make more space for the holy, for the mysterious, for the unmanaged, uncontrolled experience of God.
To be very honest with you, I’m not sure how to do that. I know what we need, but I don’t know how to get it. “Only God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going” (John 3:8, CEV). I know we need the Spirit, but I can’t control the Spirit. I know we need a deeper sense of God’s Spirit, but I can’t make that happen. “The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to.”
To be honest with you again, I tend to be skeptical about movements or programs that promise revival. I have a great emotional resistance to prayer chains and loud prayer meetings and all night prayer vigils. That may be a strange thing for a pastor to say, so let me explain.
Many of the prayer or revival programs I’ve seen promised much but delivered little. In the end, they were cheesy little programs that we patched onto existing programs to try to convince God to do something new. (Or at least to convince ourselves that we wanted God to do something new.)
Many of the prayer programs I’ve experienced had an over-emphasis on prayer. Their philosophy was that prayer would solve everything. We could keep running our out-of-date ministries in out-of-date ways. We could keep living our same sin-filled lives. We could keep neglecting the poor and ignoring our neighbors. But somehow we believed that if we prayed loud enough or long enough, then God would do something really cool and justify our screwed up out-of-balance lives. I don’t want to be part of anything like that.
I also have a great fear of failure when it comes to prayer. I sometimes have a great doubt that my prayer will actually change someone. Sometimes, I’m afraid to pray because I’m afraid to be let down again.
On the other hand, I also have a fear of success. What if God really does answer our prayers and do something completely new and amazing among us? What if we get caught up in a movement of God that is so incredible and so far beyond us that it changes all our plans and sucks us into a whole new world, a whole new way of being? That’s exciting and scary all at the same time. Sometimes, I’m afraid to pray deeply for something like that.
Lastly, some of my emotional resistance against prayer and prayer movements stems from a basic confusion about prayer. I should really understand prayer by now. I have been a Christian for 20 years. I have 8 years of formal theological education and 6 years of pastoral experience. But I don’t really understand how prayer works. I kind of get communing with God. I get sitting in silence with God and meditating, but I don’t really get intercessory prayer. How does our asking for something make God more likely to do it? How does all of this work for a God who is in eternity? Does he already know we’re going to ask before we ask? Then, why do we need to ask? And does my prayer in Korea really make a difference for a missionary in Africa? I still don’t really get it all.

I’m guessing that most of you are kind of like me. We have a whole lot of mixed feelings about prayer. We want prayer to work, but we’re confused about how it works. We want prayer to work, but we’re afraid that it won’t and afraid that it will - all at the same time. We want more prayer in our life and in our church, but we’ve seen prayer abused and misused, so we’re afraid to go down that road again.
In many ways, we’re kind of like the people in Acts chapter 12. Listen to their story.
About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.) Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.
The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”
When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”
“You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”
Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place. (Acts 12:1-17)

We pray, but we’re surprised when God answers. We ask for a miracle, but at the same time, we think miracles are kind of crazy and unlikely. We don’t really know what to pray or how to pray, but we keep on trying because we are God’s people and God’s people pray.
Next week, we are beginning one week of 24-7 Prayer. We don’t have any big promises here. We aren’t claiming that this is going to start the next worldwide revival or that our church will double in size if we’ll just pray hard enough. This won’t solve all your problems, and it probably won’t make our church into a miracle factory. We are doing this as part of our over all participation in God’s community and God’s mission.
The 24-7 prayer movement is kind of an “accidental” movement that just kind of happened to a bunch of people who love rock music and tattoos. We are joining in as part of our attempt to connect with God.
There will be all kinds of things happening in our prayer room. There will be a repentance station, a wailing wall, a simple quiet space, a whole wall with prayer request cards posted all of the place, a place to write our thanksgivings and praises, a cross for us to kneel in front of, a CD player for music.
But in the end, this 24-7 prayer room isn’t about praying for a long list of things or even praying in a bunch of new ways. 24-7 Prayer is about our Church being the Church - helping people connect with God. This is about each of us giving one hour to be with God. You can cry, laugh, draw, talk, journal, read the Bible, sing, play a guitar - whatever you want. How you do it isn’t the point. The point is to be with God. We are all going to be with God - for one unbroken string of time. 24 hours a day for 7 days. 168 hours. Our church connecting with God.
What’s going to happen? To be honest, I don’t know. I really don’t know. But I do know this. We are going to connect with God. We are going to connect with God, and that is why we are here.

Thunder Farting Leadership (And Other Ways to Change the World): Community Basics

KNU International English Church
May 2, 2010
Josh Broward


Today, we are continuing our series on Community Basics. We come to a basic issue: Leadership. (You’ll have to wait till the end to understand this title. That should keep you interested!)
Leadership is a must in any organization, but we often get confused about what leadership really is. Leadership is influence. Leadership is affecting change. Leaders are not always at the front or at the “top.” Influence and change can come from anywhere in the organization, family, or system. Leadership is not constant. It shifts and moves. Sometimes one person exercises more leadership. Sometimes another person steps forward with a special gift or moment of leadership. Leadership happens in different measures all at the same time. Everyone shares some influence in every environment.
In some ways, we’re all leaders. In fact, there are some basic forms of leadership to which we are all called.

1. EXAMPLE: This is the most fundamental truth of leadership. We are all leaders through our example. People will follow what we do far more than what we say. Paul talks about example again and again and again (e.g. 1 Corinthians 11:1).
If you come late to the worship service, you are leading by example. That example sends a message to others: “This isn’t very important to me. Nothing exciting is really happening here. You should be like me and come late too.”
If you come early to the worship service, you are leading by example. That example sends a very different message: “This is really important to me. I’m excited about what’s going on here. I expect this to be one of the best parts of my week.” If you want to be a leader here, I want to give you a challenge - 10:15. Be here at 10:15. Come early and pray and greet people. That will cause a huge positive influence in our community.

2. ENCOURAGEMENT: To encourage means to give courage to someone. When we encourage others, we are building them up, making them stronger, more hopeful, more able to fulfill their dreams and callings. This is a powerful form of influence. As the book of Hebrews says, “Spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).
The first church gave one leader the nickname of Barnabas or “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36). He made those around him better and stronger. He helped people in his community become their best, connect with their dreams, and stretch out to fulfill their potential.
LeBron Fairbanks says that the real test of leadership is in the growth of those around us. Are we helping those around us become better and stronger and more able to do whatever they are called to do? If so, then we are effective Christian leaders.
Maybe you don’t have special gifts to be an official leader. You can still lead by encouraging. Encourage our leaders. Tell them that you appreciate what they do. Help them with their projects. Pray for them. Build them up. Give strength to them, and you will be participating in the leadership process.

3. INVITATION: Simply inviting someone else to participate is a form of leadership. Invitations are powerful forces for change.
When Philip met Jesus, the first thing he did was go find Nathanael to tell him about Jesus. Nathanael had doubts, so Philip said, “Come and see for yourself!” (John 1:45-46).
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, she had been married and divorced 5 times, and she was living with man #6. In a highly religious society, she was the most unlikely of leaders, yet when she said, “‘Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did’ ... the people came people came streaming from the village to see him” (John 4:29-30).
You can be a leader just by inviting your friends to church or to a party or to join you in a ministry. Invitations are a force for change and a quiet form of leadership.

4. MENTORING: This may surprise you, but everyone is called to be a mentor. Everyone is called to disciple others in the way of Jesus. This is an act of leadership that belongs to all of us. Parents naturally coach their children in the ways of life. Teachers are mentors not only in their content area but also in their attitudes and perspectives on life. We all have a responsibility to be teachers and learners. We all need mentors, and we all need to be mentoring someone else.
Right now, I have two mentors. I email Ron Benefiel, the president of Nazarene Theological Seminary, once or twice a month to talk about ministry issues, and I just started meeting Father Kelvin, an Australian priest who lives in Seoul, for spiritual direction. He’s helping me work through my spiritual life as a pastor.
Who is mentoring you? A fundamental act of leadership is learning. Who is coaching you as a Christian and as a leader? I encourage you to make sure you have a clear mentoring relationship. I will be starting a discipleship and mentoring group this summer. It will be an intense small group, focused on growing together in the heart and practices of Christian leadership. If you’re interested, please talk to me.
Who are you mentoring? This isn’t something that we can put off or deny. Paul tells the older women to look after the younger women, to teach them about life and God. Paul tells the older men to care for the younger men, to guide them in the process of becoming faithful men. (Titus 2; see also 1 Peter 5.)
If you have a position of leadership in our church, who are you training to do your job? Who will do what you are doing next year? Make sure you are mentoring someone to carry on your role. This is important in any church, but in our church with so many people coming and going, this is extremely important!
Jesus was the classic mentor. He did somethings in large groups, but he invested deeply in 12 people. He poured his heart into 3 people (Peter, James, and John). When Jesus died, he had a few hundred followers. That’s not bad for a church, but that’s not exactly earth shaking. However, Jesus had invested so deeply in these key leaders: the 12 and the 3, that they were able to go out and live like him. They were able to lead like him, to serve like him, to love like him, to pray like him, to heal like him. Jesus changed the world by mentoring a few key leaders who could take over when he was gone.
Be like Jesus. Do the same thing. Mentor a few people. Spend time with one of our kids or youth. Coach them in the ways of life and faith and our church. This will change the world.

So far, everything we’ve talked about is for all of us. We can all do these things. We can set an example for others to follow. We can encourage others. We can invite others to join in. We can mentor someone in the ways of life and faith. By engaging in these four basic practices, we can all be leaders on a basic level.

However, some of us have special gifts and skills for leadership. Throughout the Bible, some people are specially equipped to be leaders in unique ways. Some are positional leaders like kings or priests or governors or elders. Others are leaders for a moment or a season like prophets or warriors or advisers. To really understand leadership, we have to understand these special leaders as well.
In our world, the spiritual and the natural often merge. This is especially true in leadership. Leadership involves certain skills and habits, but leadership also involves what Christians call “spiritual gifts.” For now, I’ll call these gifts, but with these gifts come skills that can be developed.
Leadership takes special shape through 6 key gifts. You might have some of these gifts for most of your life, or you might step into one for a moment or a season.

1. SEEING: Some people can see things others can’t see. Sometimes this is getting a vision for what we can do as a church or as an organization. Sometimes, it is seeing a connection between two people or two ideas that don’t seem to go together.
When the church was debating what to do about the Gentiles who had become Christians, James stood up and made a connection between the Old Testament prophet Amos and the current situation (Acts 15:16-17). This is the gift of seeing.

2. SPEAKING: Some people can say things others can’t say. Some people have the ability to say things in a way that moves us to tears or to action or both. Sometimes, the gift of speaking is a carefully timed question. Other times, the gift of speaking is in speaking the truth that everyone knows but no one is willing to say.
After David killed Bathsheba’s husband and took her as his wife, no one would tell the king the truth. But Nathan walked into the palace and spoke the truth to David through a parable so that David could really hear it (2 Samuel 12). This is the gift of speaking.

3. ART: Yes, you heard me. Art is a form of leadership. Let me ask you a question, and if you have the sermon paper, don’t answer! ;) Who was the first person in the Bible who was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It wasn’t Moses or Abraham or Adam. It was Bezalel. Who?!? Bezalel. Come on, don’t you know Bezalel?! He should be famous, right? He’s the first person - as far as we know - who was filled with the Spirit of God. So what did he do? Was he a prophet or a priest? A king or a warrior? Maybe a judge? No, none of those. He was an artist.
Seriously. God was giving Moses all of these detailed instructions for how to build God’s first house of worship, and he said, “See, I have chosen Bezalel ... and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship” (Exodus 31:1-5).
Art and beauty are very important to God. God is the first artist. Beauty draws us closer to the heart of God. Art is influential. Good art is a form of leadership.
If you are an artist, you have a unique gift to create beauty or to display beauty. As God’s people, we need you to help us connect with your beautiful God. Using your artistic creativity is a key act of leadership, for art opens our hearts to God’s Spirit - the Author of beauty. If you want to do art here in this church, please talk to me. We are desperately in need of more artistic leadership.

4. ORGANIZATION: Sometimes this is called the gift of administration. Some people look at a big mess of things or ideas or people or tasks and feel overwhelmed. Other people start organizing. OK, this goes with this, and if we do this first, then later that will be much easier. (These are the people with the carefully arranged sock drawers!)
Moses was a great leader. He had courage and hutzpah and the ability to unite people around a common mission, but - bless his heart - he was a terrible organizer. He tried to do all the leading all by himself. People came to him from morning till night with every little problem or dispute, and they were wearing him out.
But Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, had the gift of organization. He said, “Moses, what are you doing? You’ve gotta get organized. Teach some people how to lead and how to settle disputes. Then, appoint them over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten. Then, everyone will be happier.” (See Exodus 18:13-26.)
People with the gift of organization are great at event planning and system organization. We NEED organizers. If you have a well organized sock drawer or other skills at organization, we need you! We need you to step up to the plate and help us plan things and get our systems straightened out.

5. TEAM-BUILDING: Some people don’t seem to have any special skills. They aren’t excellent communicators. They don’t see way into the future. They aren’t especially organized. And yet, they are still great leaders. Why? Because they are able to gather a team of people who have all of those skills.
Maybe you think you don’t have what it takes to lead. That’s OK! You don’t have to “have what it takes.” You just have to find people who do. It’s like cooking. Nobody is the flour and the cinnamon and the sugar and nuts and the chocolate chips. We all have different gifts, and for some people, their special gift is just getting the right people together to bake the cookies.
The apostle Paul had many leadership gifts, but he may also have been a team-builder. Throughout the New Testament Paul is always with someone. Paul is never alone, just doing things by himself. In Romans 16, Paul mentions 34 different people who have worked with him or along side him. Paul seemed to know a basic truth about leadership: Teams are stronger than individuals. Don’t do it alone if you can do it together.

6. CARING: Have you ever been around someone who is an outstanding listener? They make you feel like you’re the only person in the room. They really enjoy just listening to you talk about your feelings, your plans, or your problems. These people probably have the gift of caring. Listening is a deep act of leadership. It may not seem like it, but it’s true. Listening to others and caring about their well-being strengthens them. It helps them to understand what they are thinking and feeling. It proves to them that they are not alone. Someone cares. Someone is with them.
This is what the Bible calls “compassion.” This word “compassion” means literally, “together-suffer.” You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to solve someone’s problems. Sometimes, your gift of leadership is simply to suffer-with, to listen to the problems and to share the burden emotionally and spiritually.

I want to wrap this up with one Bible passage and one story. First the Bible passage. Paul tells us a lot about leadership and community in Romans 12.
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. (Romans 12:3-11)
And here’s the story. Patricia loaned me a children’s book with a traditional Korean story translated into English. It’s called - I’m not kidding! - The Thunder-Farting Daughter-in-Law.
The story begins with EunMi, living together with her husband JunSeok and her father in law MinTaek. The father-in-law notices that EunMi doesn’t seem comfortable around him. She always has a sour look on her face, and she moves awkwardly. So he complains to his son, “Why is EunMi always so grumpy and grim?”
JunSeok laughs and says, “Oh, don’t worry about EunMi. She just has these incredible, horrible farts, so she’s holding it in around you.”
So the old man goes to EunMi and tells her to relax and let her true self out. She tells the old man to brace himself, and she lets out a fart that rocks the house. The old man is shocked, and he says, “Dang girl! You sure can fart! You’ve got something special there.”
Well, things seem to go on as usual for a while, with the addition of the occasional roof shaking fart. Then, a group of merchants travels through their area. EunMi meets them under a persimmon tree. The merchants are looking longingly at the lush persimmons, but they are all out of reach. EunMi offers to get them down for the merchants, and everyone laughs. So EunMi says, “Will you give me all of the silk on that donkey if I can get you all of the persimmons?” The lead merchant takes her bet. He thinks there is no way possible that this mild little lady can scale the tree and get all of the persimmons.
--- And here comes the best part of the story! --- Next, EunMi turns away from the merchants and points her rumpus up in the air at the persimmon tree and lets out a gigantic thunder-fart. The wind and sound from her nuclear fart shake the tree so hard that every last persimmon falls to the ground, and EunMi walks away with the donkey load of silk.
Back at home the husband and father-in-law are overjoyed, for they are now very wealthy. They slap each other on the back and say, “Boy aren’t we lucky to have a thunder-farting woman in our house! We’re sure glad she isn’t holding it in anymore!”

OK, now here’s the application. Are you listening? God has given each of us a gift. It may be organizing or art or speaking or listening or helping others or thunder-farting. (Half of the men are thinking: “Yes! I’ve found my spiritual gift!”) But here’s the deal. Like the thunder farting daughter-in-law, if you hold it in, you’ll be uncomfortable. You’ll always feel like something’s missing, and your community will be missing out on your unique contributions.
Here is the main point about leadership. Use what God has given you. Accept your role as an influencer in our community. Others WILL follow your example, whether you realize it or not. You can encourage others and give strength to them. You can invite others to participate. You can mentor someone younger or newer. Step up and be a leader. Use the gifts God has given you, no matter what they are. And this ... this will change our world.

Reconciliation: Community Basics - Week 2

KNU International English Church
April 18, 2010
Josh Broward


Today we continue our series on the basics of Christian community, and I need to start with a disclaimer. In any church of our size, there are usually some conflicts brewing or hiding below the happy smiles and handshakes. Over the past few months, I have talked with some of you about various kinds of conflicts. Today, you might feel like I’m preaching at you in particular. You might feel like I’m aiming my pastoral guns right at your heart. You need to know that I chose this sermon topic in November of last year, and I already had in mind in November most of what I’m going to say today. This topic isn’t because of you. We’re talking about reconciliation because this is a fundamental issue for Christian community. We always need reconciliation.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
The most important Jewish prayer is about the unity of God: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). There is one God, one Creator. There is one creation made by one God to live in one whole, loving relationship.
The great tragedy of our world is the breaking of this oneness. We have become fragmented. We are disconnected from God. We are disconnected from others. We are disconnected from our environment. We are disconnected from our very selves.
Jesus died for reconciliation. God died to bring us back to God’s essential oneness - whole and loving relationship.
Reconciliation is the heart of the Gospel. What is broken can be healed. What is separated can be rejoined. Enemies can become friends. Rebels can become sons and daughters again.
Jesus died for reconciliation.

Most of the time, we understand that God wants us to be reconciled to God. Yoni showed us the classic bridge illustration last week. We were separated from God, and Jesus gives us the bridge for reconciliation. Most of the time, we get that. We can be reunited with God because of Jesus.
Jesus died for reconciliation.

But most of the time, we stop there. We stop with being reconciled with God. We stop with asking God to forgive us. We stop with trying not to have problems in our relationship with God. Most of the time, we forget the rest of our relationships. Most of the time, we try to be reconciled with God without worrying about our other conflicts or broken relationships or disconnections.
But Jesus died for reconciliation.
God doesn’t stop. God doesn’t stop with our “spiritual” life. God doesn’t stop with our relationship directly with him. God doesn’t stop with our prayers and Bible reading and church attendance and giving.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
And that includes reconciliation in all of our relationships. That includes reconciliation with our parents, our brothers and sisters, our friends, our bosses, our neighbors, the people who have wronged us, people of other ethnicities, people who think differently from us, people of other religions. Jesus died for reconciliation in all of these relationships as well.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
In his last night before Jesus went to the cross, he prayed for his disciples and for us: “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father - that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me” (John 17:20-21). Maybe our biggest problem is not that we’re too old fashioned or too new and liberal. Maybe our biggest problem is not that we don’t know how to communicate or that our music isn’t right. Maybe our biggest problem is that we aren’t one. “My prayer for all of them is that they will be one ... so ... the world will believe you sent me.” Maybe our biggest problem is that we are unreconciled. No wonder people don’t believe our “message of reconciliation.”
Jesus died for reconciliation.
“For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us... He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death” (Ephesians 2:14-16).
Jesus died for reconciliation.
Human reconciliation is so important to God that he said we can’t be reconciled to him without it. Jesus said, “So if you are standing before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to God, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God” (Matthew 5:23-24).
Jesus died for reconciliation.
God won’t stop with being reconciled to him. When we are reconciled to God, when we draw close to the heart of God, we find our neighbor there. God loves our neighbor just as much as he loves us. We can’t be close to God and have hostility with our neighbor. It just doesn’t work.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
Remember Jesus’ story of the “unforgiving debtor”? The king forgave a man a huge debt. Then the man wouldn’t forgive a little debt from another man. Then, the king threw the first guy into prison. Jesus said that unless we forgive our brothers and sisters from our hearts, God won’t forgive us. (Matthew 18:21-35).
Jesus died for reconciliation.
But it’s even more difficult than that. Jesus said that even if people sin against us, it’s our responsibility to “go privately and point out the fault” so that we can “win the person back” (Matthew 18:15-17). Even if we didn’t do anything wrong, we still have to work toward reconciliation.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
So understand this clearly, if you hurt someone else, it’s your job to go and make it right. It’s your job to work for reconciliation in that relationship. You can’t just ignore the problem and be faithful to Jesus.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
In the same way, if someone else hurts you or sins against you or is breaking apart our community, it’s your job to work for reconciliation in that relationship. You can’t just ignore the problem and be faithful to Jesus.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
This is not some optional addition to the Christian faith. Reconciliation is at the heart of the Gospel. The Gospel is at the heart of reconciliation. Because God has forgiven us so much, we can forgive those who have hurt us. Because God has reconciled the world to himself, because God is making us all one in Christ, we can’t allow any rifts or brokenness to continue in our relationships. The Gospel is reconciliation. The Gospel is reconciliation between God and people and between people and people.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
Jesus said the two most important commandments are: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27). Sometimes we think of this as vertical and horizontal. Love God (vertical). Love people (horizontal). Sometimes we think that if we have a problem here on the horizontal line, that doesn’t really mean anything on the vertical line.
But what Jesus describes is really more of a circle than two separate lines. There’s this big circle of love flowing between God and us and others. If there is a problem anywhere in this circle, then there is a problem in the whole circle.
Jesus died for reconciliation.
Maybe that’s why Jesus said, “Leave your sacrifice at the alter and go and be reconciled to your brother.” Maybe that’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us” (Matthew 6:12). If there’s a problem anywhere in the circle, then there’s a problem with the whole circle. God has made us to be one.
Jesus died for reconciliation.

God has made us to be one, but sometimes we get confused about what that reconciliation really means. Many times we settle for substitutes of reconciliation.
Reconciliation does not mean sameness. We don’t have to dress the same, look the same, think the same, believe the same, vote the same, and act the same. Oneness is something different from sameness.
Jesus died for reconciliation, not sameness.
Reconciliation does not mean agreement. We are just going to disagree about some things. We may even disagree about some important things. But reconciliation means that we can still be one even though we disagree. We can be one in mission, one in mutual respect and love, one in following Jesus.
Jesus died for reconciliation, not agreement.
Reconciliation does not mean silence. Oneness does not mean never talking about our conflicts. Sometimes, when someone starts talking about conflict, others say something like, “Sssshhh! What are you doing?! Don’t disrupt the peace.” There’s no peace there. There’s just silence. Sometimes the only way to bring peace is to open up the conflict that is there under the silence.
Jesus died for reconciliation, not silence.
Reconciliation does not mean “kiss and makes up.” It’s not like we can just push people together like kids and make them hug and then everything is all better. We’ve all seen kids do the “kiss and make up” thing. Maybe that’s a step, but it’s not reconciliation. Sometimes reconciliation involves restitution or system modification. Sometimes, we have to go through the hard work to talk about what it will take for us to figure out how to become one again. What will it take for everyone to feel respected and cared for in this relationship? Sometimes, that’s hard, and sometimes it takes time to figure out what the solutions are.
Jesus died for reconciliation, not false peace.

Jesus died for reconciliation, and these half-way substitutes of reconciliation will never be enough for Jesus.

Let’s talk a little about the most common mistakes we make regarding reconciliation. These are the six NEVERS of reconciliation.
NEVER: ignore it. It won’t go away. Ignoring conflict is like ignoring cancer.
Jesus died for reconciliation; don’t ignore broken relationships.

NEVER: just pray about it. Yes, pray. That’s good. But then take action.
Jesus died for reconciliation; don’t pray and do nothing to solve the problem.

NEVER: gossip. Don’t go around talking about your conflict or other people’s conflict. Keep it to yourself unless you are seeking advice for reconciliation in a private setting.
Jesus died for reconciliation; don’t spread the brokenness around.

NEVER: talk to others instead of the person you’re really mad at. If you come to me with a conflict, the first thing I’m going to say is: “Did you talk to the other person?”
Jesus died for reconciliation; go to your brother and be reconciled.

NEVER: start angry. Wait until you are calm - even if that means walking out of the room and coming back later.
Jesus died for reconciliation; wait until your heart is ready for reconciliation.

NEVER: send an email. Email is a terrible way to resolve conflict. It almost never helps. It almost always makes it worse. Go to the person directly, face to face if possible. If you think you won’t be able to say what you need to say, then write a letter and bring it with you.
Jesus died for reconciliation; don’t send an email. Email is for chickens.


So what is real reconciliation? What does it mean to be children of the Gospel of reconciliation? What does real reconciliation look like? How do we do reconciliation well?
Admitting our own wrongs. Jesus said, “First get rid of the log in your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your own eye” (Matthew 7:5). Reconciliation begins with our own admission of guilt. Sure maybe we didn’t do the wrong this time, but we’ve sure been in the wrong other times. And, if we are really honest, we probably share part of the guilt this time, too.
Remember, Jesus died for reconciliation. It’s worth it.

Honest and personal discussion of the conflict. We actually have to talk about it. There’s no other way. We have to talk about what happened and why it hurt. We may not agree about everything. We might have different recollections of what actually happened. That’s OK. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The important thing is that both people feel heard and understood.
Remember, Jesus died for reconciliation. It’s worth it.

Forgiveness. After we understand the conflict, we need to forgive the other person and ask forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t mean we agree. Forgiveness means that we aren’t going to hold this conflict against each other. We aren’t going to let this ruin our relationship.
Remember, Jesus died for reconciliation. It’s worth it.

Restitution. We can be tempted to stop with forgiveness, but we also need to do the even harder work of repairing the damage and working to keep it from happening again. Without restitution, we will quickly return to the same conflicts. Restitution helps us change our ways.
Remember, Jesus died for reconciliation. It’s worth it.


Jesus died for reconciliation. Jesus died so that we could be one with God and one with each other.
Jesus died for reconciliation. Now, as followers of Jesus, he calls us to live for reconciliation. We have to be honest. This is a difficult way to live. But we also have to be honest and hopeful. This is a beautiful way to live, and this will change the world!

Questions:
When have you broken some of the “NEVERS of Reconciliation”?
Do you have an active conflict with someone?
Do you have some old conflicts that were never resolved?
How can you seek reconciliation today? What can you do TODAY to reconcile with someone?

Easter 2010 - Stories of Resurrection

Josh Broward
April 4, 2010

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

SoYoung’s Story
Gu SoYoung was my friend and neighbor. She was Emma’s piano teacher. She was a member of our church’s Advisory Council. She went with us to Tanzania in 2008. She was beautiful, and she loved beauty. She was an outstanding piano player, and she taught herself how to play the violin at the age of 30. She loved new foods and new experiences. She was full of joy and life. Her smile was always contagious.
In the last months of 2008, SoYoung began having stomach aches and digestive problems. In January of 2009, she was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. There was nothing the doctors could do. Her health declined quickly over the next few months.
SoYoung spent the last month or so in a hospice out in the countryside on the east side of Cheonan. As we drove out to visit her, we could see the trees and fields and flowers slowly emerging with the new life of spring, and yet, each day, we also watched the life fade out of our dear friend.
SoYoung died on the morning of April 4 at about 6 a.m. Sarah and I quickly went out to the hospice to join the family. We passed the word to the church, and we held a quiet memorial service at the funeral home on Sunday night.
That was a difficult and extremely painful season for her family and for many in our church. Many of us still miss SoYoung deeply.
This winter has been one of the longest winters I can remember. Many people have said that it feels like winter will never end. The gray skies, cold weather, and snow have seemed to last forever. Just when we think they are gone, they come back again.
Our world is in a long winter of death. Death was never part of God’s plan, but it is here, and we can’t stop it for now. Sometimes, the gray skies and pains of death seem like they will last forever. Just when we think they are gone, they come back again. Someone else dies. We lose another loved one. There is another senseless killing or disease. This long winter of death seems like it will go on forever. It seems like we will never escape all of this dying and waiting for more dying.
Last week, it was still cold. I was wearing my winter coat, and I had my hands shoved into my pockets because they felt like ice. I was walking past the Owens Building, and I saw something that encouraged my heart.
I saw the first buds of spring. They weren’t much, but they were there. They were the magnolia blossoms. They were these gray, green, fuzzy blossoms on the ends of bare tree branches. Everywhere around me looked cold and dead, but there were these magnolia buds. There was unmistakable proof that spring is in fact coming. Spring is coming! Winter will not last forever. The warm weather will come. The life will return. The trees will burst into flowers. The grass will turn green. The bushes will fill with leaves. Azaleas will set our campus ablaze with bright starbursts of pink and orange and red. Life is coming back!
Our world is in a long winter of death. Sometimes it feels like our world is cold and dying. Jesus is like the first bud of spring. Jesus is the first sign of new life to break through our winter. Jesus is “the first fruits of the resurrection.” Jesus is “the firstborn from the dead.” Jesus has broken through the cold chains of death. He has burst into our world of wintery death with the spring of new life.
We believe in the resurrection of the dead. SoYoung will be raised again on the last day, and all who die in Christ will be raised with Christ. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and all who live in him will always live even though they die. We may not feel it now. We may still feel cold and sad, but we can look at Jesus and see unmistakable evidence that spring is coming. Life is coming. Winter will not last forever. The Spring of eternal life is breaking through to our world. Someday, our world will be blooming with great flowers of life all over the place. Life is coming, and death can’t stop it!


Luke 23:44-46, 55-56; 24:1-9

Eta’s Story: A Story of Hope (Matt)

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you think everything is lost when you are completely hopeless? When you cannot even dare to hope that things will get better. This is how the disciples felt when Jesus died. They were heartbroken and scared.

And this is how Eta felt. She is an African student here at Korea Nazarene University; in the Owens International College. She had no money to keep going to school, and no hope. Then, KNU remembered that our church gives a scholarship for the university, and they gave our scholarship to her. It helped her a great deal. She was able to stay in school. Here is the letter she wrote us:

A LETTER OF THANKS AND APPRECIATION: I wish to say thank you for your tremendous contribution to my studies this semester. You gave me hope when all hope was lost. To say I am happy will be an understatement. Rather, I am overwhelmed with joy. May the Lord Almighty continue to bless you and all your endeavors. You have impacted my life in a very special way. Once again, thank you. Yours sincerely, Eta
When we can give hope, then our church can follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We get to give hope to those who have no hope - just like Jesus gave us the ultimate hope when he arose from the dead.


Isaiah 65:17-25

Country X Story (For security reasons, we cannot publish the name of this country.)

Sometimes terrible things happen. No matter where you live, sometimes life goes wrong. Sometimes, the people you love the most die. Sometimes, there is nothing you can do about it. It happens to us. It happens to people in every culture in every nation on earth.
For most of us, when the terrible things happen, we have a circle of support to help us through that dark time. We can turn to our family and friends for emotional or financial support. For most of us, when the terrible things happen, we have a reserve of savings we can rely on to keep us going while we grieve. For most of us, we have enough skills and training to survive in the market place - even if we were to suddenly find ourselves completely alone.
However, this is not the case for many, many women and children in Country X. When terrible things happen there, terrible follows terrible. If a husband dies, his wife is socially condemned. In addition to dealing with the grief of the loss of her closest companion, her lover, and her provider, she must also cope with her society’s belief that she is somehow guilty for her husband’s death. She is considered cursed or bad luck. Often, her own family rejects her - out of fear that she will bring bad luck to their own homes.
Most widows have no financial savings. Whatever resources the husband owned are passed on to the husband’s family. This leaves the widow with nothing. To make matters even worse, most widows have no marketable skills and no training. Most are unable to find a job that provides enough resources to care for themselves and their children.
A widow in Country X is often faced with a choice between three difficult options:

• The “best” option is to become a household servant. This provides the most stability. At least she will eat. However, she becomes little better than a slave, and she can be subject to beatings and sexual abuse.
• The “independent” option is to roam the streets as a beggar. She is homeless and dirty and without protection, but she’s free. However, she may go days or weeks without eating.
• After trying the independent option for some time, and growing tired of an empty stomach, she may decide to leverage her last remaining resource - her body. Many widows decide that the would rather be prostitutes than starve.

Unfortunately, all three of these options usually mean that the widow is completely unable to care for her children. Children are not usually welcome in a household servant role or in a brothel. As a beggar, she may lose her children to the streets or release them to fend for themselves.
Children who have lost their fathers face circumstances of unimaginable difficulty. They have lost their provider and protector. They have lost their anchor in the world and their shelter from the rain and pain of life. They are usually thrust into the world helpless and alone. All opportunities for education are permanently lost. Regular food and safe places to sleep quickly become distant memories. Many orphans face similar choices as widows. If they are “lucky,” they can become household servants. If they cherish their freedom, they can gamble their lives on the streets as beggars or petty thieves. If they are unlucky, they maybe sold or stolen as sex slaves or child laborers. All of these options leave them helpless and hopeless.
To be a widow or an orphan in Country X is to have your life stolen by death. It is to have your future stolen by your unfortunate past. To be a widow or orphan in Country X is to have life stripped away day after day after day - leaving you a decomposing human being who still breathes and talks. To become a widow or orphan in Country X is to die years before you go to your grave.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Death for the father doesn’t have to mean death for the whole family. Christians in Country X are beginning to change their culture, little by little, one widow, one orphan, one village at a time.
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries is building a village for widows and orphans near the city of Y in northwest Country X. There will be a community center, for education for the kids and the widows. There will be a central rice paddy that will be farmed by Nazarene laymen. There will be 50 houses around the village, and each house will hold 2 widows and 5-7 orphans in a new blended family. Each house will have its own vegetable garden, and each widow will learn skills to earn enough income to support their new families. Each of the children will be able to go to school and eat regular meals.
The land for this village is already purchased, and the building permits are currently being secured. Over the next year, the Nazarene leaders there will build the community center and the first houses. This village will give new life to about 150 orphans. They won’t have to choose between bad and worse. Instead, they will be protected and empowered to choose between good and better.
Our church has formed a long term partnership with this village. We hope our partnership will be marked by:

• mutual giving, sharing, and learning
• transparency
• commitment
• empowerment
• holism (care for body, mind, and soul)
• regular communication
• friendship
• prayer.

We expect the core components of our partnership to include:

• construction projects
• child sponsorship
• economic empowerment projects
• prayer partnership
• outreach to people from Country X living in Cheonan.

Over time, we may also be able to add:

• local education projects
• scholarships for students from Country X to study at KNU
• clean water projects
• micro-financing for small business development
• infrastructure development for the village (such as adding internet access).

This past winter was unusually cold, and many people in Country X died from the cold weather.
Our church gave 1,000,000 won to pay for blankets for all of the widows and orphans who will live in our village. Thanks to your generous giving, they were able to stay warm at night. We now have pictures from the day when they gave our blankets to the widows and orphans who are waiting to live in our village.
Because of our church’s partnership with Nazarenes in Country X, this woman will not have to become a beggar. Instead, she can tend a vegetable garden and help care for some orphans who have lost their mothers and fathers.
Because of your generous giving, this girl will not be forced into prostitution. Because you are giving, she will not be robbed of her innocence for the price of a cup of coffee. Because you are giving, she will laugh and play and go to school and eat when she is hungry.
Because of your generous giving, this woman will not become a household slave. Because of your giving, she will learn how to weave the cloth for that beautiful sari she is wearing. She will sell her products in the city market and earn enough money to support her children and the other children who are entrusted to her blended household.
...
Because of your generous giving, and because our brothers and sisters in Country X are giving their lives to care for the poor in their midst, these women and children are given new life. A new spring of beautiful flowers is budding in the midst of their long and dark winter of death. Because you are giving, Jesus is becoming real to them.

God raised Jesus from the dead, and God is still raising people from the dead today. God is giving new life to people who have lost all hope. God is raising us from the death of consumerism and isolation. God is using us to raise others from the death of hopelessness, starvation, and abuse. Christ is risen! And Christ is still giving new life in us and through us!

Love (Christian Basics: Week 6)

March 28, 2010
Josh Broward


Throughout the Season of Lent, we have been thinking and talking about the Christian basics. What does it really mean to be a Christian? Well, here in our last week, we come to the most basic part of being a Christian: love. Love is the goal of Christianity. Our mission is to be a loving community that changes our world, and the first part of our vision is to be renewed by God’s love so that we love God, ourselves, and others. Love is fundamental to who we are as Christians and as members of this church.
I love how John Wesley explains this: “If you look for anything more than love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal way, and when you are asking others, ‘Have you received this or that blessing?’ if you mean anything but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them upon a false scent. Settle it then in your heart, that ... you are to aim at nothing more than that love described in [1 Corinthians 13]. You can go no higher than this, till you are called to” heaven.1
Well, then, let’s read 1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Of all the Christian basics, love is the greatest. Love is more important than faith or the Bible or hope or anything else. Love is supreme. Without a life filled with love, everything else is beside the point. Everything God wants for us is summarized in one word: love.
Then, why do we find it so difficult to love? Why is it so hard to be patient and kind? Why is it that, no matter how much we pray, we still find ourselves being jealous or boastful or proud? Why do we demand our own way? Why are we so irritable with each other? Why do we keep mental records of the wrongs others have done to us - especially our bosses? Why do we give up on relationships so easily? Why do we find ourselves turning again and again toward selfishness and away from love?

Because we are buried alive. Our true selves are buried deep within us. Our true selves hold our deepest dreams and joys. Our true selves carry our pain and longing and hope and fear. But that is so incredibly scary to us, that we bury ourselves. We push our true selves way down deep within us - far below the surface. And we pile on the dirt. We pile on busyness. We pile on music and computers and games and work and laundry. Anything - so that we don’t have to face who we really are. Anything - so that we don’t have to face what we really feel. Anything - so that we don’t have to think about what we really want and who we really are. We are buried ... deep ... deep ... deep in the ground.
And when our true selves are buried that deep, then our true selves cannot be changed. All of that dirt not only keeps true selves buried, but it also keeps God away. It keeps God out of our heart of hearts. It keeps God away from who we really are.
So we pray, and we go to church, and we ask God to change us, but we only give God access to the surface of who we are. God can only work on the “tip of the iceberg.” The rest of us is buried deep inside us. Our hearts - the deepest parts of our hearts are off limits to God and to us. We don’t even know what is in there. Most of the time, we don’t even know the deep pains and joys that are buried in our hearts. We don’t even know who we are. If we want to know God, we’ve got to start by knowing ourselves. If we want to love others, we’ve got to understand and love ourselves.
This is not “New Age pop-psychology.” This is “Old Time Religion.” This is really, really, old-time religion.

• About 150 years after Jesus, Iraneus said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
• In the late 300’s AD, John Chrysostom (bishop of Constantinople) preached, “Find the door of your heart, you will discover it is the door of the Kingdom of God.”
• In 400 A.D. Augustine wrote: “How can you draw close to God when you are far off from your own self? ... Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know you.”
• Around 1300, Master Eckhart said: “No one can know God who does not first know himself.”
• In the 1500’s Teresa of Avila wrote, “Almost all problems in the spiritual life stem from a lack of self-knowledge.”
• About the same time, John Calvin the Swiss reformer, said: “Our wisdom ... consists almost entirely of two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”

Jesus said what God wants is simple. Love God with all of yourself, and love your neighbor as yourself. Here is the simple truth. To love God and to love people, we have to bring out our true selves. We can’t love God with everything we are if we don’t even know what’s going on deep within us. We can’t love our neighbors well if something deep within us is driving us to be irritable and impatient and unkind. We’ve got to bring our true selves out into God’s light so that God can heal us with his love.

How do we do this? Well, really this is a life-long journey. The Christian way is all about stripping off our “old false” selves and learning to let our “new true” selves live and shine out God’s love. Let me suggest four basic practices that will help us live out God’s love from deep within our true hearts.

1. Slow down. In his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Peter Scazzero says, “Almost everyone is busy. Whether a teenager or a senior citizen, a mom at home with small children or a corporate executive, a teacher or a student, rich or poor, Christian or not, we are overscheduled, tense, frantic, preoccupied, fatigued, and starved for time.”
If we ever want to know our true selves, then we have got to get away and alone. We have to spend time with ourselves - just us and God. Silence and solitude are key ingredients for knowing ourselves and being changed by God. SLOW DOWN! Slow down and quietly reflect with God on what is going on in your heart and live. This will radically change your life.

2. Stop pretending. Many of us go through life thinking that negative emotions are bad. We think it’s wrong to be sad or angry or afraid, so we bury those feelings. We pretend we aren’t feeling what we are in fact feeling. We push it down. We cover it up. We bury it. ... We bury ourselves. Peter Scazzero explains it like this: “When we deny our pain, losses, and feelings year after year, we become less and less human. We transform into empty shells with smiley faces painted on them.”
Be honest about what you are feeling. Ask yourself why you feel that way. Ask yourself how that connects with your past history. It’s OK to feel angry or sad or lonely or anxious or afraid. But ask yourself what is really going on. Dig a little whole and let your true self speak about what is really happening within you. In their book The Cry of the Soul, Dan Allender and Tremper Longman challenge us: “Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God ... Change comes through brutal honesty and vulnerability before God.”

3. Follow your heart. Yes, of course, not everything that feels right is right. I know that. You know that. But what we forget is that our hearts know things that our minds can’t express. Listen to your heart. Let the real you shine through. Who are you really? What are your real dreams? What are you deeply passionate about? Find the answers to those questions. Live from those passions and dreams, and you will live close to the God who put those passions in you.

4. Love boldly. I just finished reading The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I know ... I know ... that’s not a very manly book to read. But I’ll be honest. I loved it! This book tells the story of a group of women who are learning how to be themselves and who are passionate about loving each other boldly. Don’t be shy with your love. Give hugs. Give kisses. Give compliments. Laugh together. Cry together. Spend time together. The true you longs to love and be loved. God made us for love. When we love, we live close to God. In fact, as 1 John says, “If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 John 4:12).

In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were repeated outbreaks of cholera. One of the symptoms of cholera is a drastic drop in blood pressure. Sometimes, in fact, a sick person’s blood pressure would drop so low that they appeared to be dead. This is what gave rise to the classic Monty Python quip, “I’m not dead yet.” In efforts to keep sanitary conditions, people were promptly buried after death. However, it sometimes happened that people would actually be buried alive. Later, when their blood pressure rose again, they faced a horrifying death of suffocation inside their own casket.
As an attempt to solve this problem, in some places a new tradition emerged. People were buried with a small rope running from their coffin to a bell in the graveyard. That way if they woke up, they could ring the bell to tell people that they were actually alive. Then, the towns people could come and dig them out.
We have buried ourselves alive. Our true selves are deep within us longing to get out. God is ringing the bell of our hearts asking us to go deeper. God is working within us, trying to get us to dig down so that he can set us free. God wants to set the real us free so that we can love and be loved. This is what the Christian life is all about.
Let God love you. Let God love the real you - deep inside. Then, we will be set free to love God with all that we are. We’ll be set free to love and to be loved with boldness and joy and life.

The Bible (Christian Basics: Week 3)

March 7, 2010

2 Timothy 3:14-17
Matthew 5:17-39

The Bible is the most famous, most diverse, most difficult, most profound, most challenging, most acclaimed, most criticized, and most powerful book ever written. More people in the world read the Bible than any other book in the history of the universe.
Yet even so, we read the Bible with a mixture of fear and hope, faith and doubt, understanding and confusion. Some of this great mixture of biblical experience comes from the complexity of the Bible itself, and some of it comes from our misunderstandings of what the Bible is and how it still works today. In the next 15 minutes or so, I want to talk about 5 basic characteristics of the Bible that may help us understand it and reclaim its power in our lives today in the 21st century world.

Sometimes, when we look at the Bible we can feel completely overwhelmed by its complexity and its cultural distance from our world. For many people, even for many Christians, it is hard to see any significant connection between those words written in far away worlds and our life in our world today.
However, the Bible is absolutely NECESSARY for us as Christians. In fact, it is non-negotiable for all who want to follow Jesus. The Bible is one of God’s key tools in accomplishing God’s mission in our world. God intends for the Bible to shape us and to guide us into his mission. N. T. Wright summarizes it like this: “To be a Christian while not letting the Bible do all the things it is capable of, through you and in you, is like trying to play the piano with your fingers tied together.”1

Second, the Bible is ALIVE. The book of Hebrews explains, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our inner-most thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12). The Bible is not a dead book filled with dead words about people and times long dead. The Bible lives. It has power. It takes action in our world and in our hearts.
But why? How? It is filled with the Spirit of God. Paul explained to Timothy that “all Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). The original Greek phrase here is “God-breathed.” All Scripture is “God-breathed.” We can get a feeling for what this means by going all the way back to the creation story: “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7). The man was a lifeless body. Then God breathed the breath or spirit of life, and he became a living being capable of action and thought and passion.
Mere words on a page have no power. Words are dead things. They record thought or action, but they are not alive in themselves. But the Bible is different. Somehow God breathes his Spirit into the words of the Bible, and they come to life. They are able to take action in our world. They challenge us. They correct us. They guide us. They cut past the layers of our persona and reveal the depths of our hearts. The Bible shows us who we really are and helps us become who God really wants us to be.

Third, the Bible is DIVERSE. The Bible is like a huge mosaic that comes together to form the greatest picture of all time. The Bible was written and edited by dozens (maybe hundreds) of authors over a span of almost two thousand years. It has a wide variety of styles of writing and also a wide variety of perspectives. This is part of what makes reading the Bible so frustrating sometimes. Sometimes its authors seem to disagree with each other.
One of the clearest examples is in Proverbs chapter 26. Verse 4 reads: “Don’t answer fools when they speak foolishly, or you will be just like them.” Verse 5 (the very next verse) reads: “Answer fools when they speak foolishly, or they will think they are really wise.” What we have here is a collection of two different perspectives on how to deal with foolish people. Each perspective has an element of truth in it, so the author or editor included both.
What we see here on a small scale is repeated on a broad scale throughout the Bible. The book of Job and the book of Deuteronomy vary radically on the problem of evil and suffering. The writings of Paul and the letter of James sometimes put very different emphases on the role of faith and works. Most challenging of all, Jesus seems to be at odds with much of the Old Testament. Jesus uses some parts of the Bible to reinterpret other parts of the Bible. Jesus rejects many of the Old Testament laws as obsolete or beside the point in his more advanced world. Jesus says the creation story about God’s intentions for the man and woman is a deeper part of the Bible than the part where Moses says that divorce is OK as long as it is done legally. (See Matthew 19:1-9.)
The result for us is that the Bible seems to be diverse in spiritual or authoritative depth. The depth of the Bible looks kind of like the side view of the ocean floor. Some parts seem to have more moral or theological depth or weight than others parts. So the deeper parts reinterpret the other parts.
This is the most challenging part of reading the Bible. Sometimes it’s really hard to understand how the different perspectives and angles and depths of the Bible work together. Thankfully, the next characteristic of the Bible really helps with sorting all of this out.

The Bible is STORY. The Bible tells a great story from the dawn of creation to beyond the end of the world. The different parts and perspectives of the Bible all come together as part of this grand narrative. And the grand narrative, the over-arching story of the Bible, is our best interpretive lens for understanding varying parts and perspectives of the Bible.
The story the Bible gives us is like an incomplete five act play. We have the full (or almost full) script for acts 1, 2, and 3. We have an outline for act 5, the final act. But act 4 is missing. Act 4 is now - the present age, and we are the actors on the stage of life. Our job is to immerse ourselves in the story God is telling, so that we can faithfully act our parts to bring the story to the final scene God has outlined. We read and we study acts 1, 2, and 3. We look closely at our world and how the story of Act 4 has taken shape over the past 2,000 years, and we imagine together what faithful actors would do or say to move God’s story forward toward the outline we see for act 5. We pray and listen and meditate and try to hear God’s directions for how to move and how to act.
But we are faithfully committed to the story. We do not want to act beyond the story God has given us. We can clearly see that some actions would take the story away from its goal. They would be distracting and destructive for the story God is building. As we go deeply into the story, we are able to see the major themes which must continue on and the minor themes which need to fade away so that the story may reach its conclusion. The story shapes and guides our lives as we live within it.

This leads us to our last point. The Bible is HOMELESS. In a way, the Bible - this book - is wandering around the world looking for a home. The Word of God contained in these pages is homeless. Paper and ink are not a home for the Word of God. Leather binding cannot contain the message of God to the world.
When John was beginning the story of Jesus, he said, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [or home] among us” (John 1:14). Jesus was the living Word of God.
The Word of God is still trying to become flesh, to become human and make his home in our hearts and lives. Paul prayed, “May the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16).
The Word of God as a book is really just a step on the journey to the Word of God enfleshed in people. We put flesh to the story of God. We make it real. God makes it live by making it live in us.
The Bible is NECESSARY.
The Bible is ALIVE.
The Bible is DIVERSE.
The Bible is STORY.
The Bible is HOMELESS.
This diverse, living story stands at our doors and knocks. (See Revelation 3:20.) The Word of God asks for entrance into our lives. The Word of God wants to be rewritten into the story of our lives. The Word of God wants to be retold in our actions and words. The Bible is homeless standing outside the door of your life. Well you let it in? Will you let it take root in your heart? Will you let the Bible live in you and retell its story in your own life? If you will, this will surely change the world!

Isaiah 55:10-11

10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens
 and stay on the ground to water the earth.
 They cause the grain to grow,
 producing seed for the farmer
 and bread for the hungry.

11 It is the same with my word.
 I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
 It will accomplish all I want it to,
 and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

Here I Am (Isaiah 6:1-8)

Here is our first Wednesday night sermon.

Isaiah 6:1-8

Josh Broward
March 3, 2010

There are some short moments in time which forever change our lives. The day I became a Christian was one of those days. I had rejected God for several years. Then one day, I was overwhelmed by the presence of God. I had two powerful sensations: 1) God was right, and 2) I was wrong. I confessed my sin, and I asked God to change me and to lead me in his ways for the rest of my life. I have never been the same.
This is one of those moments for Isaiah.
Isaiah has a vision of God in his Temple, and he is overwhelmed by God’s glory and holiness. Isaiah knows that God is right and that he is wrong. God forgives him, and God burns away his sin.
Then, God asks Isaiah one of the most powerful questions in the Bible: “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8).
Most of us stop with confession and forgiveness. We know that God is right. We know that we are wrong. We know we need to confess. We know we need God to forgive us. We know we need God to change us. But then we stop.
But God doesn’t stop. God keeps moving forward. There is a progression for God. Confession --> forgiveness --> transformation --> sending.
“Whom should I send? Who will go for us?” God is a sending God. God doesn’t just forgive us and change us. God will never rest content until all the earth experiences his glory and celebrates his love and grace. God is on an unshakable mission to give forgiveness and healing to every person in every place in the world.
Paul’s shocking experience was similar to Isaiah’s. There was blinding light. There was confession of sin. There was forgiveness and healing. There was sending. Later, when Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, Paul explained that we all go through this same process:
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)
God is calling us to be his representatives in the world. God is asking us to live so that people see God in our lives. God is asking us to speak in ways that help people hear God’s calling for them. “Who will go for us? Whom shall I send?” What is your answer?

Isaiah said, “Here I am. Send me.” HERE I AM. That’s a very simple sentence, but each word is very important to our response to God’s calling.

HERE.
Sometimes, we say, “Lord, if I were over there ... Lord, if I had a different job ... God, if only our church were bigger ... God I could talk for you if I were in a different situation ... God I could help people get to know you if the people around me were nicer or kinder or smarter ... God if only I were on a real mission field, instead of just teaching English or being a student ... If only I were there in that other place.”
Do you think God doesn’t know where you are? Do you think God doesn’t know what your life is like? God knows where you are, and God is calling you to be his messenger right here where you in your life right now.
Sometimes it’s easier to go all the way around the world to be God’s messenger than it is to cross the street to be God’s messenger. Sometimes it’s easier to be God’s messenger in another country than in our own classroom or in our own apartment building.
God is calling us. What will you say? HERE I am. Send me.

I.
Sometimes we want to say, “Send somebody else.” We’re like Moses: “God, I can’t go. Send my brother Aaron.” We tell God, “Not me - send somebody smarter ... Not me - send somebody richer ... Not me - send somebody prettier ... Not me - send somebody who speaks English better ... Not me - send somebody holier.” The root of all of this is feeling like we aren’t good enough. But God says, “I know who you are, and I know who you will become. I want you. You go for me.”
But other times, we say something a little different. Instead of saying, “Here I am,” we say, “He ain’t there.” We say, “God it’s not fair to expect me to go if he isn’t going.” But here’s the thing. Other people’s failure does not change our responsibility. No matter what others do, God is calling us. What will you say? Here I am. Send me.

AM.
Sometimes we say, “Here I was. Oh, God remember when I was there. Remember those good times when you sent me and I went. That was so good.” Was is never enough. God is a present-tense God.
Sometimes we say, “I will be here. One of these days, I’ll do it. After I graduate ... After I get this promotion ... After I retire ... When I get a new job ... When I start making some more money ... When my kids grow up ... Then I’ll do it. Then, I’ll say, ‘Yes,’ God.” Later is never good enough. Later almost never comes.
Now is the time. Respond now. Live this moment, this day, as God’s representative.
God is calling us. What will you say? HERE I AM. SEND ME.