Sardines and Such

Much to the chagrin of my co-laborers in the office, I stockpile cans of sardines and Wasa crackers in a cabinet for a quick inexpensive lunch.  The crackers are dry and crunchy and the sardines are . . . well . . . stinky fish.  This isn’t kingly food.  It’s not caviar and truffles.  

When Jesus provided bread and fish to the five thousand He did not give them a fancy feast.  John tells us it was barley bread.  This was the bread of poor people.  It was easy to make and traveled well, meaning, it was dry and hard to chew.  The fish were most probably small (sardine-like), transportable fish, dried for preserving.  Yum.  Wasa and sardines are lookin’ good now aren’t they?  

So if Jesus is going to do this miracle, why wouldn’t He do it up right?  Why not checkered cloths and Longaberger baskets filled with chicken salad, sparkling champaign, and grapes?  

Why?  Because Jesus is the Bread of life.  Could it be to show the vast difference between the bread of earth and the Bread of Heaven?  One is temporal and fleeting and the other eternal and infinite.  Since Jesus is using these signs and wonders to point to Him, He surely wants us to see that the things of this world on which we depend are insignificant compared to the life He brings.  

Jesus has given the things in this life to us just as He gave bread and fish to overabundance to the five thousand.  These things were never meant to bring ultimate satisfaction.  Now we taste in them of sorrow and strife and bitterness.  But life in Christ is hope that through these very gall-filled things we find life in Him and Him alone.  (John 6)

Fog Lifter

In April, I drove down to Edisto Island on the South Carolina coast to camp for a couple of nights.  When I arrived, the sun was out and the clapper rails were shaking their voices in the marsh out from my campsite.  Not long after the tent was set, a cool breeze pushed the marsh grasses in my direction and, without warning, fingers of a fog grabbed the grass and pulled its way quickly across the marsh tucking everything out of sight for fifty yards and beyond.  It was an unexpected and drastic event.  

I thought of the boatmen setting out traps for crabs, the shrimp boats heaving their catch on board, and the sailors reefing their mainsails as the fog bank stuck hard and fast.  I also thought of the novice.  I thought of the boater who suddenly found himself in the dark thick panic.  

An inexperienced sailor can be a great danger, not only to himself, but also to other boaters.  On the other hand, a weathered sailor knows to stay calm and to faithfully stick to his bearings.  

Likewise, the new and/or immature Christian will often come undone at the sight or feeling of a trial.  Seasoned Christians will also, often, lose their senses for a time.  When this occurs, we too become a danger to ourselves and those around us.  Everything seems thick as night and un-penetrable.  Panic sends us flurrying.  We grab hold of the ropes of the world to right ourselves, be it anger, distrust, hopelessness, or despair.  But we have every means on board to see our way through the fog.  We have a compass. 

Psalm 63:1-7

1  O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2  So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

3  Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

4  So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands.

5  My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

6  when I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

7  for you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

David was in a wilderness.  It was “a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  It was a place where a person could panic and die.  But David has been through adversity.  He has lost his bearings before in what seemed like many a hopeless day and night.  This psalm depicts David quickly coming to the means God has given for a firm grounding . . . a compass bearing.  His thoughts and meditations go to “the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.”  The sanctuary was the place where God’s people met with God.  It was the place where the sacrifice was made on behalf of sin.  It was the place where the necessity of Christ was depicted.  It was where the people saw  that God was for them and not against them as their sins were atoned for (covered) and His own righteousness given for them.  It re-set David like a knocked down sailboat now righted so that he could “be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and (his) mouth . . . praise . . . with joyful lips.”

We too have means of grace given to us to lift us when our circumstances are foggy.  We have a compass to direct us to our Savior who never leaves or forsakes us:  God’s Word, the sacraments, prayer, and fellowship with other Christians.  These three tools are the means, the compass, to steady us and cause us to see Christ as our safe harbor.  

We also have the privilege of the Holy Spirit, often depicted in Scripture as our paraclete - our comforter - one who comes alongside as a Help.  The Holy Spirit is a seasoned Captain who does not panic, but gently calms our spirits, using the means of grace to show us our Savior.  He reminds us to not trust our natural inclinations to panic and run aground or into others; not to cast blame, feel defeated, or self-important.

As we mature as believers, Lord willing, we come more quickly to see the means of grace as our compass to Christ.  We also, rather than become a hindrance to shipwreck ourselves and others, can be a help to direct others to calmly but surely look to Christ. 

Double WHAT?

Okay kiddos, it’s that time of day where we take a brief time out of our busy schedules for a theological moment.  Ready?  Double imputation.    

Have you ever been in a quandary about the seeming contrariness of some Bible passages?  Take the ones we are considering today for our lesson.  Some passages speak of our being ‘dead in sin’ and how even the most righteous thing we could possibly do (yes, even praying on top of a mountain after having fasted for a month, for the orphans in Russia’s most dilapidated orphanage) are as filthy as menstrual rags.  Other passages tell us that, when the judgment day comes, we will be judged by our works (Matt. 25; Rev. 20).  So . . . if all of our works are sinful, who can stand?  Ah . . . enter double imputation!

Double imputation is fancy terminology for our sins being imputed to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness being imputed to us.  Adam disobeyed God in the garden.  Because he was the representative being of the whole human race, all fell with him in his sin.  Kind of like when our Commander in Chief declares war on another nation.  It is not just the president going to war, the whole nation is at war.  Adam’s sin was imputed to us.  We enter into a war against God by virtue of partaking in Adam’s bloodline.  

But there is a Second Adam.  The first blew it, the second restores a humanity back to God.  Jesus is the second Adam.  He took our sin upon Himself.  We hear about that a lot in church.  “He died for my sin” is a regular confession from our mouths.  But just as important is the fact that “He gave me His righteousness.”  As tightly as we were bound to Adam’s sin, we are more tightly bound to Christ’s righteousness; that is, those who live trusting this to be true.  

Romans 5:17 - “If, because of one man's trespass (Adam’s), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” 

II Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

So do our works matter?  Yesirree they matter.  They matter because the works we stand on are the works of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us.  There is great worth in the good works we do.  Even though tainted with false motivations, they are covered by Christ’s righteousness which He paid for by His blood.  Eph 2:10 reads, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  

Our calling? To go glorify Christ by doing good to all, trusting in His righteousness on our behalf.

Do you relate?

Did you know that all relationships are rooted in the Trinity?  God said in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  Notice the personal pronouns ‘us’ and ‘our’.  When God made us, it was not just the Father who did the creating, but the Father, Son, and the Spirit.  Remember John 1?  Jesus was there in the beginning creating.  Remember the Spirit at creation present and hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2)?

So what does this mean that all relationships are rooted in the Trinity?  It means that a perfect representative example of how we are to relate to one another is displayed for us in how the three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit) relate to one another.  Jesus did not attempt to usurp the Father’s prerogatives, nor did the Spirit attempt a coup to overtake the other two persons.  Paul tells us that Jesus didn’t even consider equality with God something to grasp after (Phil. 2:6).  It was not His role.  He was subject to the Father to follow His Father’s will. . . and He was pleased to do it!

Have you noticed that we are very unlike this?  We strive to overtake the people we claim to love with our own agendas, secrets, lies, plans.  We get angry when our spouse questions our motives.  We demand our children behave “because we said so.”  We pilfer supplies from work to get back at the Big Man.  We feel we deserve recognition so we gossip to tear down others.  

Well . . . our sin creates a mess.  Our relationships are drastically broken.  Fortunately, the Trinity is more than just an example of what real relationship is to look like.  The Trinity is the only power by which we can also experience restored, renewed, and healthy relationship.  Because the Father sent the Son and the Son willingly came; because the Son lived willingly and obediently to the Father; because the Son sent the Spirit; because the Spirit willingly came; we can know a salvation that not only brings an example and a covering for our sin, but that gives the power to truly love through the power of the resurrected Christ and the Spirit who dwells within those who trust in Jesus.  Christ’s relational love which chose to love us (the unlovable), ought to compel us to humbly trust and rely on Him for change in how we relate to each other.  

If you are in relationship to Jesus Christ, then the ability to see your relationships made new is there to receive and in which you can actively participate.  As Jesus humbly carries out His role before the Father, we too are to humbly come before Jesus and ask that He work in us to submit our relationships to His care that we might submit ourselves to the change that we need to make.  Are we willing?

Living in Failure

John 5:

2  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 4  5  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8  Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9  And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

As some of you may know, I’m a wanna-be rockstar.  No . . . really.  In the third grade I wrote my first song (which I still remember) called “There’s a Big Black Bear Sittin’ in My Chair.”  It was a one note wonder.  Low E for you musicologists.  Since then I have semi-learned several instruments, not being accomplished at any one of them.  I sit at home and play.  When no one’s home, I play confidently.  On occasion I have snuck out and played publicly, and when I do, I am constantly looking for affirmation and trying to read between the lines at every nuance of how people respond.  Just so you know, if you come up to me now and ooze with affirmation I won’t believe you. So don’t even try.  

Because I have this secret desire that has never been (and I’m not expecting will ever, or should ever be) fulfilled, I tend to dwell on my failure as a singer/songwriter.  A result of that dwelling is a propensity to disdain others who I think should not have made it in the music business.  I listen to WNCW with a raised eyebrow and a hmmph in my gut.  “If they can make it to radio, then surely . . .”  Holly rolls her eyes.

All of this to say that we can often live out of, and for, our failures.  When we do, it harms our vision of who Jesus is, what Jesus can do and has done, and how we respond to others.  The invalid at the pool of Bethesda had been there many times over his 38 year life.  When asked if he wanted to be healed he was quick with a reason why he has not, putting blame on those entering the pool before him.  He’s looking in the wrong place.  Water can’t heal.  Jesus can.

Sometimes our failures are our security blankets that keep us from trusting Christ.  Whether our ‘failures’ are from besetting sin or some God-ordained circumstance, they are what we know and that to which we cling.  Jesus sets people free from their failures.  But we need to trust that our failures are not too great for Him, and are in fact used by Him to direct us to find Him as our only Source of joy.  

So . . . what does healing look like?  It might mean that your singleness is seen in light of Jesus' perfect plan and not in the light of His somehow punishing you.  Or, having the confidence to ask a girl on a date because another 'no' just means God is protecting you because he loves you.  Or, it means that in not getting that particular job, that God has something better and/or more beneficial for you.  Or, it might mean that your struggle with your particular addiction is meant to draw You in dependence upon Him and not define you by whether you succeed or fail in whipping it yourself.

Whether I am a good singer/songwriter or not, ought not either destroy my aspirations or push me to fame and acclamation.  It is not meant for that.  I am meant for my Savior and He has purposed for me to find my significance in Him and to trust His goodness on my behalf.  I'll keep singing and writing if only for the ability that He has given me to enjoy doing so.  But I'll do it recognizing that His ways are so much more glorious than my own no matter what the result.  

Rock on.

From the Theoretical to the Practical

“We have a lot of idea people but not many implementers.”  “The vast majority of the work gets done by the very few.”  “We’re not doing enough.”

We have all experienced this reality.  If you have ever been a part of a school project where you had to work on a team, you know the frustration of a few pulling the weight of the whole team.  Some just don’t seem to care or get it.  

The church is the same.  The church is a gathering of selfish sinners professing to know a gracious Savior and striving to serve Him and His kingdom purposes.  Very often there are big ideas for ministry, but little in the way of the resource of active labor.  What usually tends to happen is that the staff or leadership (because they want to see the church succeed) create ministries and press people to serve them.  

What’s the problem with this?  At it’s very root, it serves to appease the conscience of both staff/leadership and the member, but in reality creates several unhealthy products:

1. Can foster a divide between the leadership and the people they are called to serve.

Several years ago I planned an outreach event for our church.  I wanted something unique that would be attractive to the community and to which our members could invite their unbelieving friends.  Because I had successfully pulled off a crawfish boil at a college campus, I used the same event for the church.  

The result was some of the folks in the church didn’t like crawfish and just weren’t going to show up.  Also, a few friends were invited, but really not much effort was extended in outreach.  

What happened?  I was frustrated that the church members didn’t set aside their preferences for the outreach opportunity.  I became bitter and self righteous against the church I was called to help shepherd blaming them for a lack of heart for the lost.  

After several outreach type events, the church grows weary of yet another failed effort.  Thus, the church quits trying and owns the phrase, “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.”  So a divide can even be created between the church and any new leadership that later enters into that ministry and wants to implement outreach.

2. Can create a false pride.

If an event or ministry is successful it can create a pride in both the leadership and the participant.

If I, as a leader, can get a lot of people involved in a lot of different ministries then I look successful and the people feel spiritual because they are involved in ‘Christian’ activity.  I can pat myself on the back and the people pat me on the back for a job well done.  They can also pat themselves on the back and I can encourage them in a false sense of accomplishment.  

This is what often happens is that we do ministry stuff for the sake of appeasing our consciences and boosting our egos rather than growing people in the grace of Jesus.  Christian activity does not necessarily equal Christian growth to maturity!  Scripture gives a warning against activity with a spiritual stamp but wrong motive in Matthew 7:22-23: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

3. Can stress outward appearance over inward transformation.   

This is related to number two above.  What’s our goal?  Well, our goal should be the goal that Christ has for us.  He has commissioned us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).  

What is a disciple?  Colossians 1:9-10 shows us Paul’s goal for discipleship: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

Our goal ought to be to see inward transformation of people’s hearts with a love for Christ that moves outward in fruit-bearing ministry to others.  Outward conforming is not the same as inward transformation!  Matthew 7:17-18 reads,  “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”

What is bad fruit?  Fruit that comes from the motivation of self-service.  Bad fruit leads to those things which are opposite of the fruits of the spirit:  hatred, angst, divisiveness, harshness, quick-temperedness, evil, faithlessness, etc.   Bad fruit wants to be seen as good fruit.  In fact, this passage which speaks of bad fruit is the verse just prior to Matthew 7:22-23: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

So . . . now what?  How else is ministry accomplished?

This is going to sound so ridiculously simple, but here goes.  We encourage our members and help them grow in their knowledge and love of Christ, “because service flows from Christian growth and not growth from service” (The Trellis and the Vine, p.20).

This is the biblical ‘strategy’ of true Christian growth within the church.  As our people fall more and more in love with Jesus as they are confronted with Him in the Scriptures, the outflow of that love will be works of service . . . good fruit.  We will then not have to create ministry opportunities but hold on to our hats as ministry blows into and through the church body.  

Acts 2:37-47

37  Now when they heard this (the gospel message) they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40  And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41  So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 

42  And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44  And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

Okay, so this is not the norm, but the principle remains - the faithful proclamation and instruction in the gospel creates hearts of Christian growth.  Study the structure of every letter written by Paul to encourage the church and you will see the same pattern.  Paul tells first of our rootedness in Christ and the depth of the love of Christ for us.  Then, and only after he has done this, does he exhort toward fruitfulness.  It’s not a programmed ministry that motivates the churches he served.  It is a relationship that motivates.

Paul understood that at the heart of every problem there is a gospel issue.  If our church is not doing ministry, then there is a problem at the root of gospel proclamation and instruction.  How well are we sitting down with our people and re-telling the love of Jesus to them so that they are enthralled with Jesus?  Oh! that we would believe John 15:5!  “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

So often leadership gets taken in by the trap of creating ministry for the people when their job is to point people to Jesus.  It’s only when the leadership is convinced of the power of the gospel to change their own lives that they will have a revived heart to meet with the people they are to serve to, in turn, show them the power of the gospel in their lives.  That’s when the theoretical will become practical. 

Wine

The question had to cut deep.  Maybe even deeper, more penetrating was the wording.  He didn’t even say, “Mother.”  Woman.  Woman.  Thirty years she has leaned on him, depended on him, even sought his advice as her oldest son.  There is some evidence that she may have been widowed early leaving her that much more dependent on him.  Woman, what does this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.

The scene is a wedding party.  All of the bustling, joyous, expectancy of any wedding.  There was food to be prepared, dishes to be corralled, a great sense of hospitable service to be shared.  Make sure they feel welcomed.  She, it seems, is somewhat of a coordinator of sorts.  She recognized when the wine was ebbing.  It could have been an off-hand, over-the-shoulder, dependent comment to the eldest son.  We’re getting low on wine.

Mary, like all of Jesus’ disciples, had a difficult lesson to learn . . . strangely difficult because of her position as his mother.  Thirty years he has been her son.  But now he has officially entered in to his ordained ministry.  He has set his face toward Jerusalem, that city, that hill, that tree.  Golgotha.  His hour has not yet come, but the hands have been set in motion.  Now is the time to distance for the sake of real intimacy.  

But time stopped for an instant.  All of the banter, the music, the joviality ceased for a moment.  Woman, what does this have to do with me?

In that moment she knew.  Yes, she needed him, but she needed him not as her son any longer but as something more.  It was a moment she knew but dreaded.  In an instant he went from being a son to a Savior.  Bittersweet.  No longer was she Mary the mother of Jesus, but she was a woman, frail, finite, sinful, needful.  It was not what she wanted in the moment, but it was what she needed most and would soon desire more than anything else.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and Jesus’ beloved disciple, John.  Pushing himself up on the spikes driven through flesh and bone, he spoke.  Woman . . . look at John.  He is my replacement.  Behold your son.  John . . . take care her.  He was given a drink of sour wine.  It is finished.