Extra: "The Cost of Lost Trust: Can We Recover It?"

Stephen M.R. Covey, son of the famous author, Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), has written his own book entitled The Speed of Trust. It has as its core idea that we establish trust with people through moral integrity and competence (doing well what we say we will do). He applies that to family life, business marketing and a host of other things. Warren Bennis (Leadership), Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) and James O’Toole have recently published a book entitled, Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor. I was taught leadership in an atmosphere where trust was assumed until it was betrayed. With widespread CNN treatment of breach of trust by nearly every public institution, all institutions (government, schools and universities, private foundations, businesses, service organizations and maybe, most of all, churches) are being pushed by their participants and their communities to prove they are trustworthy and transparent. We have a "black eye" partly of our own making and partly given us by other groups.

Part of that I regret, because there must be some level of assumed trust in order for a relationship to begin and for true progress to happen. That is why I take the vulnerable step of choosing to trust first and risk disappointment, rather than wait to have someone earn my trust. But there is another problem in behind this. The requirement that any human being be absolutely trustworthy is unreasonable. Our integrity will always be stressed by what remains of our selfishness and our competence will never be total. Authentic relationship requires that I place trust in those who are, in an absolute sense, untrustworthy. Because this is true, every healthy organization has a set of checks and balances. But the mistrust in society is so widespread that you not only have to earn trust in general, you have to earn the trust of each individual involved (who each have different views and standards about moral integrity and practical competence). It is no wonder that nearly every institution I know of is spending nearly as much time and money proving it is trustworthy as it is doing its main work.

Furthermore, many of us have grown up to believe that once trust is betrayed, it is nigh impossible to have it restored. If absolute trustworthiness is not obtainable in this life (either in integrity or competence) and is unable to be restored when lost, we have quite a mess on our hands. And what constitutes sufficient trust for people to move forward together – legal binding documents with powerful attorneys to enforce them, oversight groups that make people behave in a trustworthy manner (e.g. doctors and hospitals being monitored and controlled by government agencies), insurance policies that protect both the ones who have trust betrayed and those who will be accused of betrayal, etc, etc?

I don’t want us to ignore the huge betrayals that have happened all around us. And my doctrine of personal sin and sin of groups and systems understands that corruption and secrecy abound between human beings…and always will. From Madoff to insider trading, to doping in sports, to sexual sin by clergy and educators, to manipulated information from government, to dishonesty in banking, to widespread marital unfaithfulness, the case for mistrust is enormously compelling. But the question remains of whether these protective measures will create the kind of atmosphere that allows for healthy relationships and effective ministry.

Yes, let’s take our humanness seriously and put in necessary checks and balances that take our imperfect integrity and our limited competence into account. I also believe that we must meet our mistrusting society where it is and do the things necessary that cultivate an atmosphere where trust can grow. But we dare not let our accumulated mistrust shape the rest of our relationships and our ministries – or our entire lives for that matter. When my trust has been betrayed, I have had to come to a point of choice. I must determine what boundaries need to be set in order for me to relate in that situation and not be so easily hurt or duped. But having done that, the question of reconciliation and forgiveness comes marching to the front. Will I forgive those who have betrayed my trust, knowing that there is a real chance they will? Will those whose trust I have betrayed forgive me, knowing that I could mess up again? The words of Jesus come to mind, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He did so, knowing they would mess up again. Christ does the same for you and me. Who (or even what groups or nations) will forgive and let go of the pain and the prison it creates in them? Who will take the risk and trust again, thereby making renewed and even greater love and relationship possible? This is the gospel’s challenge to our insecure and mistrusting hearts individually, as families, as groups, as churches, as generations, and as society as a whole. Slavery to our mistrust or liberation through reconciliation, which will it be? And who said the gospel isn’t relevant.

Love Thy Neighbor VI

Matthew 5:28-38

Some of our neighbors do not have our best interests in mind. They want what we have or hate us for reasons we may not even know. They be the result of false information, personality differences, history or who knows what. Again, with a high priority of reconciliation, Jesus gives a teaching that is counter-intuitive (against what our natural reactions would be), difficult and absolutely crucial for his day and ours.

"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", a principle for measured retaliation for those who do wrong is mentioned three times in the Old Testament law: 1) Exodus 21:23-25 in the case of a woman who is struck so that she miscarries, 2) a violent attack in Leviticus 24:17-21, and a law suit in Deuteronomy 19:17-21. Note Leviticus 24:19-20:

"Anyone who maims another shall sufffer the same injury in return; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered."

As a guiding principle this makes sense. It's positive role is to keep people or the law from retaliating in more severe measures. It's negative role is one of deterrence, so that people count the cost before they do harm to another. But the limit of such a philosophy is best expressed in Broadway hit, The Fiddler on the Roof, when Tevye, the lead character says, "Eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth...and the whole world will be blind and toothless!" Measured retaliation, while better than increasing retaliation, still sets off a retaliatory cycle fed by hatred and revenge. The one who strikes on the right cheek is making an insult, likely with a backhand. Instead of retaliating, you offering him the other cheek. In the case of the extra coat and the extra mile, it is doing more than required. He also teaches to give the beggar what he/she wants. Against all of this, we raise questions. People will take advantage and abuse our generosity. Yet, Jesus wants to get us past fairness and doing "the right thing" or the legal thing to a higher righteousness, built on love and reconciliation.

"Loving our enemies" just follows. The Old Testament doesn't say that we should hate our enemies. That's just good old folk theology. Loving those who will love us back doesn't give us our distinctive edge in the world, loving our enemies does. We speialize in turning enemies into our friends, just as God in Christ has done for us.

Jesus concludes with "Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." The point here is that you could be Pharisaically perfect and still fall short of the God Standard. When you combine this standard with John's discussion of "perfect love", you arrive at one of the distinctive beliefs of United Methodists, the doctrine of Christian Perfection. Every pastor who seeks ordination is asked, "Will you be made perfect in love in this life?" We were expected to say yes. A "no" or a "no answer" would disqualify us for ordination. It is a question that still gives me pause. The perfection spoken of is not the absence of misjudgments or mistakes. It does refer to a point in our life where we no longer sin. In John Wesley's sermon, "The Scripture Way of Salvation", he explains it as a possibility in this life. He claims to know some who are perfect in love but never claims it for himself. I cannot say I have ever known someone who was perfect in love, though I can think of many who were close. It is nigh impossible for me to imagine myself perfect in love. My sinfulness is still painfully obvious. But I do believe in the power of God's grace more than the power of my sin. So I say yes. The more important question in ordination follows: Are you pursuing after being made perfect in love? That one is a much easier to answer, but just as challenging. But the call to Christian perfection is not just for preachers. It's for you, too.

I John 5:1-21

Remember that loving and believing are the two main themes of the letter. John now returns one last time to theme of believing. It is our faith in Christ that helps us overcome the world. Again, John strains to prove the reliability of our faith, offering the Spirit, the water and the blood as his witnesses.

After encouraging them in their prayers, John has an interesting section on "the sin that leads to death." While we are not sure what this sin actually was, some preachers and scholars have connected this with "the unforgivable sin." In Luke 12:10Jesus says,

"And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."

I used to think that I had committed this sin because there was a time when I in my mind had thought something profane in regard to the Holy Spirit. While I was on tour singing, a friend said to me, "I've struggled with this one, too. But the truth is that as long as you have faith in Christ and want to follow him, you cannot have committed that sin." I realized then that I had allowed the devil to slip in and take away my assurance that Christ was still in my heart. I believe it was no small coincidence that I was able to open up to God filling me with the Holy Spirit shortly thereafter.

Looking back, I now realize this is not so much about thoughts and speech, as it is rejecting the Spirit's call on us to follow Christ. We can reject God so much that eventually we become cold to God's promptings. But just as I have never known somebody who was perfect in love, I can never say that I have known a person had committed the unforgivable sin or "the sin that leads to death." As long as there is breath, there is a chance for people to accept Christ. Those who were leading the people astray in John's day did not believe the Jesus was God's Son and did not believe that he was God in the flesh. They were rejecting who Jesus was just as those who rejected Jesus and the prompting of the Spirit in Luke's gospel. John was saying that they were playing with fire, eternal fire.

Verses 18-20 have much in common with the Christian perfection discussion earlier. At Annual Conference, it is a tradition that we sing a hymn entitled "And Are We Yet Alive." The fifth verse sings,

Then let us make our boast
of his redeeming power,
which saves us to the uttermost,
till we can sin no more.

As Christians we are called to take sin seriously, both our sinful deeds and the sinful attitudes that are beneath them. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to both encourage one another and hold each other accountable for our sinfulness. Just as we have made faith a private matter, we have done the same with sin. The result is that we end up stuck in our private sin and brokenness, with no way out. There is a huge assumption here that must not be ignored, namely, that the person who holds us accountable is someone who loves us like Christ does (loving us just as we are and loving us too much to let us stay that way).

The final word from John is to stay away from idols. I hope we are self-aware enough to admit that the temptation to idolatry, to place our faith and our love for something or someone else higher than our love for God, is a challenge for all of us. See you Sunday.

Love Thy Neighbor V

Matthew 5:27-37

Verses 27-32 are commentary on the 7th commandment, "Thou shall not commit adultery." It's important to remember the angle for which Jesus is teaching. He is not trying to give a doctrinal position on divorce, but rather inviting people to go beyond the legalistic perspectives of the Pharisees. Those of us with a little history may remember the famous Playboy magazine article interviewing President Jimmy Carter, where he admitted to lusting in his heart. By appealing to unfaithfulness of heart, Jesus calls us to recognize that sexual temptation is a universal part of being human. In the context of marriage, it is part of the dance of love. That means all of us are vulnerable to the dark side of this desire. Jesus uses hyperbole to describe the discipline necessary to combat temptation to sexual unfaithfulness. Our whole culture invites us to play at the edge of unfaithfulness in what we think about, watch on television and in the movies, and in the things we wear and even in inapporpriate touch. Jesus counters that we need to stay as far from the edge as possible and meet the temptation with quick and firm boundaries.

Concerning adultery and divorce in verses 31-32, there has been much misunderstanding. The background for Jesus' words is the Old Testament rooted practice, in Deuteronomy 24:1-14, of granting a certificate of divorce(only for men) against women who did not meet the man's expectations. In the time of Jesus, divorces were granted for the smallest offenses, including failure to make meals to the husband's satisfaction. The "quickie divorce" is not new. Further discussion of this issue is found in Matthew 19:3-12. Shall we assume from this passage and the one in chapter 19 that spouses must stay in a marriage where there is abuse or neglect, that the only grounds for divorce is infidelity? I think this misreads Jesus' intent. He was countering quickie divorce and the great damage that is does despite how quickly it can be done. Remember that the Christian priority is for reconciliation. But I don't believe that Jesus was encouraging staying in a marriage that is abusive or neglectful. He is saying that divorce should be an act of last resort.

I will never forget the couple who came to me wanting to get married (this was when I was a Director of Music and Singles Ministries). He had not been married, but the woman was married twice before. The woman's first husband was abusive and the second abandoned her. The man asked me about verse 32 and whether they would be guilty of adultery when they married. I then asked him, "Has she dealt with the issues that brought about the demise of her other marriages? The behavior of her husbands was horrible, but has she healed from the hurt and worked on any issues of forgiveness?" He said, "Yes, she has." I invited them to talk with one of the pastors about the issue (which they later did) and said, "This teaching of Jesus does not mean that people should be trapped in the mistakes of their past. Forgiveness and the possibility of new beginnings is a bigger principle." This year, these dear friends are celebrating 28 years of marriage and the joy of being grandparents. The woman has a man who loves her with Christian love and she enjoys marriage as it was intended to be. If that isn't a picture of redemption, I don't know what is. Divorce is a tragedy and should never be done quickly, lightly or in the heat of conflict. But there is life after divorce and there is grace that restores and provides new beginnings.

Verses 33-37 we dealt with earlier in James' discussion on the subject of oaths. So I want to simply say that "loving your neighbor" involves establishing trust in our relationships. How much do people trust you, really? This week's "Extra" will talk about Trust and what the loss of it has cost us. It will appear here on Sunday.

I John 4:1-21

John now returns to his thoughtline from chapter 2:18ff. Just because something is communicated persuasively and sincerely does not make it true. The reason we have our creeds and even why the Bible's books were closed was because there were many false sources out there. The Da Vinci Code, a fictional work, makes use of sources deemed long ago to be pseudapigraha ("false writings"). In fact, if a writing that claimed to be of God said, "This is the only reliable and true testimony of Jesus Christ," you knew it was false. There were many competing religious ideologies with the Christian faith during its early development and it threatened the very existence of some of the churches. You find that in Galatians and Colossians with Paul and certainly in several of the seven churches in the book of Revelation. John tells his readers,"Test the spirits." If people deny that Christ came to earth as a human being, they are false teachers and should be rejected. If they deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God or that Jesus had a wife and kids, they should be rejected. If people create scenarios about Christ and are not believers who are led by the Spirit, they may provide interesting or provocative information, but they lack the life of Christ and thus have no authority in what they say.

Like a tennis match, John, beginning in verse 7,returns to his main topic, loving each other. These first six verses (7-12) bring the whole letter together in a way so powerful that we should all memorize them. Notice the basic line of writing: 1) Love comes from God; 2) those who love are born of God and know God; 3) God is love; 4) God demonstrated his love in sending Jesus; 5) Divine love has taken the initiative, and 6) When we love, God lives in us and His love becomes complete in us. Sometimes, we get so complicated about what we believe and struggle so much with difficult decisions that we forget the simplicity of the gospel and why Jesus came. This passage centers us, and John just builds from here.

Further discussion follows about "knowing" that God lives in us. Again, notice that there is no earth-shaking experience required here. We believe and trust, for God's love is reliable.

In verse 17, John connects God's love with Christ's coming and how it gives us confidence in the final judgment. Verse 18 is powerful for our relationship with God and with each other:

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

John's language is dramatic. Just as Jesus cast out demons from hurting people, so perfect love casts out fear. We live in a fear-driven society. The choice to love and put aside fear and mistrust is both risky and liberating. In the discussion of trust on Sunday's blog, I will talk about the necessity of forgiveness and choosing to trust again. We really do have to decide how big a role we want fear and mistrust to have in our lives. It means risking that we will be hurt again. Do we dare?

John concludes with lines that remind us so much of James. Our love for God must show in our love for those around us. Otherwise, we are just lying to ourselves, to God and to the world around us. Is your faith honest? Does your love for Christ show for those around you and is that love deepening and broadening? Or has your relationship with Christ gone dormant? We will finish I John tomorrow. Until then, keep on loving as Christ has loved you. There is nothing more challenging or world-changing.

Love Thy Neighbor IV

Matthew 5:21-26

This passage is Jesus' commentary on the 6th commandment. How easy it is for us to stand outside this commandment and holler for punishment of people who would commit such a heinous crime. Pharisaically, we can say, "At least I am not guilty of that." But Jesus is calling for a righteousness that exceeds that, so he invites us to consider our murderous attitudes. While few have committed physical murder, the incidents of at least attempted murder of the spirit have been done by many if not most. In the heat of conflict, it is so easy to reach for that weapon that will cut someone to the quick or emotionally and psychologically lay that person out. The strange thing is that our society seems to admire the ability for a person to do that. As near as I can tell, it takes no intelligence, wisdom or personal and physical strength at all. Jesus in verse 22 talks about this in terms of anger management. To place Christ's words in the context of the rest of the New Testament, the problem is not getting angry (a normal human response) but staying angry. The Greek refers to anger that we "bear" or "carry around." In Ephesians 4:26, Paul tells us not to "be angry and sin not," and "let not the sun go down on your anger." In Genesis 4:6, God asks Cain,

"Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to master you, but you must master it."

I have never found it helpful to say to myself or to someone else, "Don't be angry." In fact, if you supress it, it comes out in a multitude of harmful ways. But when we allow anger (an emotional gift for the short term) to become resident within us, it becomes toxic and lethal.

Two words of angry disdain are cited by Jesus as under God's judgment. The first one is raca, which in our language might best be translated "idiot." It questions mental capacity. Upon receiving such an insult, particularly in public, a person could be brought before the Jewish legal council. Some translations add a phrase here, "without cause." We can understand the amendment in some manuscripts. Some people really are idiots (but is it ever right to call them that?). The second word (translated "fool") is moray, and it questions moral character. A translation like "liar," "two-faced", might be better than "fool." In both cases, these are words that were unique to the time and place and have no direct translation today, but the power of demeaning and debilitating language still remains.

Our resident anger is also a problem between us and God, an inhibitor to our worship and our prayers. The initiative is clear, it is with the one who is angry - not the one who has done the offense. We want to wait for the offender to come to us in regret and ask for forgiveness, but that is not the Christian way. Jesus then brings up the practical advice to take care of the problem before it mushrooms into civil litigation. What a word for our day and time. I have two attorney friends who now specialize in mediation - a great development in my thinking. There is a priority here in Jesus' teaching. Love for our neighbor makes reconciliation a major goal any time there is anger or conflict.

I John 3:11-24

Right away, you can see how this passage dovetails with the previous one. John writes, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him." For John, the issue between Cain and Abel is not Cain's anger, but because he didn't want to admit that he was sinful with his offering and was jealous of the approval of his brother's offering. There has always been mystery around the suitability of Cain's offering and why it was unacceptable or sinful. Was it Cain's attitude as he gave his sacrifice? Was it that only blood sacrifice was acceptable, so the lamb was suitable while the vegetables were not? Was it Cain's lack of faith (Hebrews 11:4)? It looks like even the writers of the Bible are stretching to figure it out. Regardless, jealous anger is a rage that easily gets out of control.

The model for love of our neighbor is in Christ; a life of self-sacrificial and compassionate acts that reveal the love of God. In the end, for John there are only two parts to our Christianity: believing and loving.

Verse 24 is worthy of a strong look:

"Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

People have asked me often, "How do I know that I am saved?" Sometimes those who ask are yearning for a more dramatic encounter with God that will remove all doubts as to whether Christ lives in them. If only we all could be "blinded by the light" like Paul,or have been raised from the dead like Lazarus, or have been there at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them. I had one friend who actually made up dramatic experiences so that he could have a great testimony that proved he had a relationship with God. I have known others that have been baptized numerous times, hoping to find that sense of inner knowing that God was there. Similarly, others have prayed for years to be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues, but it just has never happened for them. I really want us to hear the yearning that is in the hearts of those who are reaching out to God and not feeling like there is a response.

Here are some of my own thoughts, confessing that I am still growing in this matter. I just don't believe that God plays "hard to get." He is more anxious to live within us than we are to have Him in our lives. I believe that when we invite God into our lives, he enters, whether we feel it or not. Feelings are important but not ultimate and certainly can be subject to every mood and physical condition. The other truth is that people who have dramatic conversion experiences are people who often have been through more dramatic experiences in general. Let's allow conversion experiences to express the great variety of personalities that we are. We can relax and accept God at His word. When we believe in Christ, he dwells within us by His Spirit. You can take that to the bank.

When we invite God to fill us with His Spirit, God does it, whether we speak in tongues or not. Speaking in tongues is not "the sign" but "a sign" of the Spirit's presence. When my friend Dale and I were filled with the Holy Spirit, we did not speak in tongues, but we did show "the sign," a faith in Jesus Christ that would not be kept quiet. Two guys who basically would have kept faith to themselves became people who would have witnessed to a fire hydrant, if it would have responded. We shared with people who didn't speak our language in Switzerland and Holland, in driving rain storms and we shared with Hare Krishas in a shopping mall. Again, we can relax with God. The more we surrender ourselves to God's leadership the more the filling of God's Spirit will show in what we say and do. When we do rest in the faithfulness of God to come into our hearts and lives, there is the sense of his presence. For some it can be loud and flashy and highly emotional, for others a "strangely warmed heart", and for still others a still inner knowing. As we saw in Romans earlier, "His Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God." Or as the hymn sings, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine." Yes, you can know that you know that you know God is in your life, but you have to trust in the faithfulness of God. It also means making sure we worship the Savior more than we worship the experience. Have a blessed and Spirit-filled day in our Lord Jesus Christ, where deeds of loving your neighbors fill your calendar and bless their lives and yours.

Love Thy Neighbor III

For the rest of the week, we will be looking at the ethical teachings from Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" alongside the letter of I John. The Parable of the Good Samaritan gave Jesus' answer to "Who is my neighbor?" But the question must now be raised, "What does it mean to love my neighbor?"

"The Biblical Concept of Love"

In Koine Greek (the common language of the people of Jesus' day and the language of the New Testament), there were three words for love. The first is eros, from which we derive the word "erotic." It is the love of attraction and sexual passion. Eros in Greek mythology was the son of Aprohdite, the god of lust and sexuality. This word for love is not found in the New Testament. The second word for love is philos, often called filial love, is love for those you have special relationship and affection, family and close friends. It is the word from which we get the city name, Philadelphia, "the city of brotherly love." This one is found a few times in the New Testament. Notice that both erotic love and filial love require a sense of mutuality, a give and take relationship. The one most often found in the New Testament is agape, which was quite rare in secular use, sometimes referring to affection for the gods. Christianity took this word as their own, redefining it as sacrificial love that did not require attraction, affection, or even mutual give and take. It is this kind of love that scripture calls for when we "love our neighbor," a love that acts and speaks for the good of someone else whether or not they return that love. This kind of love is what Roman society shunned as weak and stupid - "Behold how they 'love' each other" (with utter sarcasm).

Matthew 5:13-20

Loving as Christ loves is a powerfully counter-cultural move on our parts. We are to be salt in the world - adding flavor, preserving and curing those around us. We are to be light - making truth visible and sharing the good news of God's love and how it overcomes our darkness. I have had people say to me, "My faith in God is a very personal and private thing." I want to say in return, "Not if it's Christian faith." Our love for Christ, while deeply personal, is not a private matter. It must go public in practical and transforming ways. As Jesus says in verse 16, "...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Jesus then talks about the "fulfillment of the law," which is a theme for the rest of the chapter. The rest of the chapter is a commentary on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th of "The Ten Commandments". It is worthy noting that Jesus gave commentary on the remainder of the commandments in other places. Jesus, while not in harmony with the Pharisaical interpretations of the law, did believe in the law and saw his ministry as a fulfillment of it. But Jesus was not a legalist. What the "Sermon on the Mount" pushes for is a return to a regard for the law as a condition of the heart and mind, more than just following dos and don'ts. The law was given to Israel as a statement of relationship with God and to give them an identity over against the polytheistic and immoral ways of those around them. This is important for Christian-Jewish dialogue, for I fear that much Christian teaching has disparaged the Torah (as empty legalism) and not seen it for its greater value, for Jews and for Christians. A good faith check here would be to examine whether we have turned our own faith into legalisms rather than a growing relationship with Christ.

I John 2:18-3:10

Jesus wasn't the only Messianic figure out there proclaiming to be "the son of God." The Roman emperor at the time of John's writing had himself deified and declared "Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords." For John, the appearance of anti-Christs was a symbol of the imminent return of Christ. The truth is that every generation has its anti-Christs, those who claim to finish or even correct the work Christ didn't get done. In my own life-time, there has been Jim Jones, David Koresh, Sung Yung Moon and a host of others. Each of them followed the way of I John 2:19, starting in traditional situations and breaking away to form their own movements. There are some popular "new age" authors and personalities that come dangerously close to following the same pattern. John encourages his readers to hold fast to the truth they already know and not be led astray by something that is the latest and most popular.

One of the things to hold on to when there is confusion is what John calls "the anointing from the Holy One." In the Old Testament, a leader was anointed as a symbol that God's presence was with him. Anointing was also used medically for healing of people and animals from wounds. In James 5, as we read earlier, people anointed each other with oil during prayer as a sign of God's healing (which is still often done today, and occassionally right here at St. Luke's). Anointing was also a way that the early Church talked about people receiving the Holy Spirit. It seems that John could be referring to all three of these things. He is appealing to their life-changing experiences of God's presence as evidence that they have received the truth already and have no need for that which the antichrists bring. John will return to this later in his discussion of "testing the Spirits."

In verse 28, John returns to the theme of the Second Coming. While we may not know when Christ is coming, one thing we do know, it is closer today than it was yesterday. Because many preachers have used the second coming of Christ as something to scare people into heaven, it is worth noting John's emphasis. The second coming is not a threat, but rather a statement of victory and source of comfort. People have asked, "What if Jesus comes again and I am doing or saying something sinful? Will I get to go to heaven?" I believe the answer is "yes." We do not cease to be God's children when we speak or behave sinfully. This does not give us reason to be immoral or live our lives as if the standards of God don't matter, but we are not continually "at risk." As the old hymn sings, "The grace of God is greater than all our sin."

Having said that, we are invited into a growing relationship with Christ, so deepening and improving our daily walk is essential. We continually strive to become more like Jesus in what we think, say and do. United Methodists call that process sanctification and it too is a great work of the grace of God. Such a process means contending with the devil both outside us and within. Anyone that has been involved in the church very long eventually contends with the devil there. I have had seminary friends who said they didn't believe there was a devil and then became fast converts during vicious church conflicts. I remember an African-American female preacher who energetically said, "You know, I have discovered that the devil can get right in this pulpit and preach a sermon at times." The loudest amens to that statement came from the preachers. One thing for sure, if you are not contending with the devil in your world and in your own mind, you are probably losing the fight by forfeit. And one of the ways we show we are losing the faith is when we do not love our brother our sister. More on that, tommorow.

Love Thy Neighbor II

So you were thrown by the typo in the reading list for yesterday, eh? Yes, it should have read Leviticus 19:9-18. Thanks to Jon Lamberson for letting me know. Loving your neighbor is a great idea, if neighbors weren't sometimes noisy, incovenient and sometimes downright wierd. Just remember that to someone else, we are that way.

Luke 10:25-37

The lawyer is quick to counter Jesus by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” The parable of The Good Samaritan may be Jesus' most popular teaching story. We think of our times as so different from the days of the Bible, but there are some things that are remarkably similar. The landscape would have been much like today’s West Texas – semi-arid with limited water and resources. The demographics are similar too, with a mix of ethnicities and a society that played the groups off against each other for money-making and power purposes. In lifting up the Samaritan as “the hero”, Jesus was taking on all the stereotypical ways Jews regarded Samaritans. It would certainly have been noble for the story to have had the Samaritan as the one beaten and left for dead and how a holy priest or faithful Jew had helped the poor thing out. But it is the faithful Jew that is left for dead and it is that hated, low-life Samaritan that shows mercy. The lawyer is left to reluctantly admit that the neighbor in the story is the one that good Jews did not associate with, in fact, walked miles out of their way to avoid their neighborhoods.

Dr. Mark Abbott, son of Rev. Merriel and Darene Abbott, is a missionary to Spain. In a recent pastor’s gathering he said, “Do you really want to reach out to Hispanics in this region? Hereford is now more than 70% Hispanic. Student populations in Lubbock are approaching 50%. If you really want to reach out and be in relationship, you must be willing for your sons and daughters to marry them. Until then, you are not ready.” We are called not only to share with those we want to reach, but just as importantly to receive what they have to offer us. Loving our neighbor means getting past the stereotypical walls and rediscovering each other as loved and gifted human beings that also need each other to be whole.

I John 2:7-17

Repeated phrases in scripture are important and John, in this short letter, at least seven times refers to his readers as teknia, “dear or little children” (2:1, 12, 13, 18, 28; 3:7; 4:4 and 5:21). There are other words for child in Greek, but this is the most intimate. John is the only disciple we know that by scripture and tradition died a natural death. Some calculate that he wrote this letter in the early 90s AD (which would put him as the youngest disciple in his 80s). He writes as a spiritual patriarch or grandfather to the church. Like I Peter it is a general epistle, with no specific church or churches named. The other phrase he repeats is “dear friends.” This is not only a letter about love, it is sent with great love and affection.

John’s theme in the letter will be an old one that is forever new – loving one another. He applies that theme to the metaphor he has already been using: light vs. darkness. To live in love is to be “in the light” and to hate is to be “in the darkness.” The picture of the darkness is vivid, picturing the hateful one as groping and stumbling around in the night. His hate has blinded him. We all have our reasons for hating a person or group of persons. I am reminded of a song from the musical, South Pacific, that was sung during one of the memorial services following 9-11:

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

Sometimes we are taught through our own experiences of hurt and sometimes we are taught, often by quiet example or propaganda. I’m remembering that during the Cold War there were no pictures of beautiful women or smiling children who were Russian.

Hatred is highly addictive, creating a toxic energy that we have to keep feeding – always having to find yet another reason to hate, with those reasons always available because we are seeing things from hates perspective. John invites us to move from hate’s darkness into the light of Christ-like love. Even though hate, in some circumstances, is both understandable and human, it is always toxic over the long haul.

In verses, 12-14, John reaches out to the generations of the church, described as fathers, young men and little children (but surely females are also included). There has obviously been some text problems here, as phrases are duplicated. But he is emphasizing the enduring relationship of the older, the strength of the young adults and the experience of forgiveness and grace for the very young. We live in a day when there is such need for relationship between the generations. Churches have trouble doing that – because we fear losing our power and say (as older adults), we want those ahead of us to get out of the way and let us have our turn (as younger adults), and we will be noisy, inconvenient and messy (as children). Generational power plays are affecting churches in this generation more than any previous to it. Society at large plays the generations against each other in advertising, movies and even in some educational and business literature. The church needs the creativity and energy of the young adults and the mentoring and lasting faith of the older adults. And we always need the infusion of new faith experienced in the very young. At St. Luke’s we’re working on creating that coalition of people in relationship. I hope that you will be praying as we grow further in that effort.

John finishes this passage by telling us what not to love – the things of the world. Easier said than done, isn’t it? It is a struggle to choose that which lasts and takes longer to show results over that which is quick to yield and temporary. Again, I will resist a lengthy diatribe here. But we are to be people who put our life’s work and emphasis on that which is forever. Have a great day, you and that neighbor of yours.

Love Thy Neighbor I

We now move to the second of the great commandments, which is said to be "like unto" the first one. It doesn't mean they are the same, it just means that they are connected. In the words of I John, "How can you say you love God, whom you have not seen and not love your brother that you have seen?"

"On Loving and Liking"

I have always struggled with the idea that you could love someone without liking them. "I have to love you, but I don't have to like you." Perhaps it was because the people who said it to me spoke it so easily! But after many years, I must admit the truth of the statement. Our liking of another individual assumes that we have attractive pheromes (the scent that attracts us to each other), similar interests, and things we just enjoy about them. Sometimes we like and become friends with people because we just need to be liked and have friends. Often, we can't even describe why we like somebody. And the truth is, not everybody likes you or me (as hard as it is for us to believe!). But they can act in love toward us and us toward them even when we find each other unlikeable and even repulsive. I do believe this, that when we do act lovingly and are in prayer for those we don't like, the tendency in us to find something likeable about them often occurs. And we can work on our likeability to some extent, by improving our relational skills and becoming more aware of the thoughts and perceptions of others. I have trouble picturing an effective church outreach plan that says, "You may find me repulsive, but you'll love my Jesus." Having said that, the love of Christ does urge us past the walls of our liking to discover the power of loving people in His name.

Leviticus 19:9-18

It always good to find the context of a biblical teaching. "Loving your neighbor as yourself" is part of a larger discussion. I begin with verse 9, because it immediately begins to ask the question of tomorrow's study, "Who is my neighbor?" We have neighbors to love who are there only in passing. From the harvest, the gatherers are to leave some for the poor and the aliens. The harvest of their labors is spoken for by people they not only don't necessarily like but also may not know. What if every time we cultivated a garden, we gave some of the fruit and vegetables to people we didn't know, yet were in need? What if every time we bought groceries, we bought extra for those who had little, or at least gave a donation to the food bank (that is able to buy more for the money than we can)? Not all neighbors are resident, but instead are in proximity to us "in passing". This past week I was mowing our lawn and was startled by a man from behind who approached me, asking for assistance. I did help him some, but I didn't know him and may never see him again. In that moment, he was my neighbor.

In the verses that follow, a few of the ten commandments, and how they are lived out, become ways to love God in our neighbor. Acting honestly and with integrity, being "up front" in our negotiating, paying people on time, looking out for those who have disabilities, making fair and just judgments, refusing to manipulate or take advantage of people, and refusing to hate and take revenge are all ways to love God in your neighbor.

The end of verse 18 is the second great command: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." It makes a grand assumption, that people love themselves. The self-loathing that is part of our generation is foreign to the writer at this point, even though there are examples of self-hatred in scripture. I have heard it said by some, "I can't love you until I learn to love myself." It is true that lack of self-love can get in the way of acting lovingly toward others. It is also true that acting in love toward others can develop your self-love, as well as regular worship of the LORD. To refuse to act lovingly toward others because you don't love yourself is really a "cop out." Notice the repeated phrase in the passage, "I am the LORD." Loving thy neighbor is not something we ignore or negotiate our way out of.

I John 1:1-2:6

In my first year of Greek, we finished the course by reading the letter of I John. It is the simplest Greek in all the New Testament, written at the level a child can understand, but the lessons in it are profound. In a very real sense, the letter is a sermon on applied love of God and neighbor. The opening words of the letter remind us of the opening of his gospel, with the dominant themes of "life" and "light" and the incarnation (the coming of God in the flesh in Christ). The life we share is based on a historical fact - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In him light, life and love became touchable. Some people treat the Christian faith as just another philosophy of life, but our faith in Jesus is firmly joined to who we was on earth - what he did and what he taught.

The contrast of light and darkness (a major theme in all of John's writings)leads to a discussion about honesty and consistency in our Christian lives. We often say, "It is as simple as night and day." The church of John's day was being challenged by corruption and division and so he quickly wants to sort out truth from deception. There are many sincere Christians (even leaders) who speak quite eloquently the truth, but live contrary to what they teach. We are tempted, because of their appeal or their friendship, to excuse their duplicity, but John urges us to keep a clear view. It's either light or it's dark, and there is no-in between.

But honesty requires that we also admit that there is always some duplicity, because we find it impossible to live up to the standards of Christ. We are works in progress. Verses 8-10 call us to self-examination and confession, so that we can be forgiven and cleansed. This is not always easy. We want to pretend we are better than we are and to rationalize what we do. Often it takes someone who loves us enough to help us face the truth about ourselves. It is risky for that person, but what is at stake is our freedom and future Christian growth.

Thank God, we do not have to reform all by ourselves. We have one who knows us better than we know ourselves and He (Christ) is our advocate. In other passages of scripture Christ is also our judge. When we ignore his call to love and holiness, we experience judgment and the consequences for our attitudes and actions. When we come to him in humble confession, he becomes our advocate, calling for our forgiveness and cleansing. Schubert Ogden, one of my systematic theology professors taught that "grace" and "wrath" were like two sides of a coin, because of the love and holiness of God. When we buck up against that holiness and love we experience wrath and judgment, and when we open up to holiness and love we experience grace. Again, this gift of Christ is not just a philosophy. Jesus died a historic and vicious death to make it possible, not just for us, but for everyone.

John closes this passage calling for a consistent walk to match our talk, "to walk as he walked." When I was growing up, a song that was often sung by soloists was "I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked." It is a song that traces the life of Christ as if we were right beside him. It is a beautiful song, but I see John inviting us to "Walk Today as Jesus Walks", making his love flesh in our daily lives. The call of John is to faith (in Christ who really came and died in history), humility (that we commit sins and are helpless to overcome them on our own)and genuineness (letting Christ shine in all we say and do). How are you doing on those three fronts? Have a great day.

Week 5 Readings

"Loving God in Our Neighbor"


Monday, July 13
Leviticus 9: 9-18; I John 1:1-2:6

Tuesday, July 14
Luke 10:25-37; I John 2:7-17

Wednesday, July 15
Matthew 5:13-20; I John 2:18-3:10

Thursday, July 16
Matthew 5:21-26; I John 3:11-24

Friday, July 17
Matthew 5:27-37; I John 4:1-21

Saturday, July 18
Matthew 5:38-48; I John 5:1-21

High-Minded Love VI

So, in light of what we have read from God's Word so far, what does it mean to love the LORD intellectually? It means: 1)allowing our worship (which should be a daily and even moment to moment activity, not just on Sunday morning or something we do at night before going to sleep), our expressions of love, to God to be that which orients our thinking. We begin by rehearsing that we are God's children in relationship with a creator, a Savior, and an ongoing teacher and guiding presence. My best times when out walking or jogging are when I am mentally singing through hymns and choruses (which for me include "This is My Father's World," "I Love You, Lord," "Morning Has Broken", "When Morning Gilds the Skies," "Get All Excited" (Gaither), "Victory in Jesus," "Amazing Grace," "Soon and Very Soon," and "I Woke Up This Morning" (the old spiritual, which will learn together on Sunday), as well as many others. I am not defined by my problems, my calendar or even my celebrations and struggles with people, but rather by my relationship with God and His call on my life. 2) learning and applying God's word in regular study and practice. Another thing I do in walking/jogging is recall key scripture passages and reinforce my memory of them. The old hymn sings, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." We gradually know what the Bible says and it starts to develop a perspective from which we see life and make decisions. 3)connecting our faith to the celebrations and challenges in our daily life. What do you do for a living? You love God (in witness and service) through a certain line of work. Gradually, what we say, do and think about is informed, shaped, and energized by our relationship with God. There are no longer artificial divisions between what is secular and sacred. Our faith becomes as practical as it is spiritual, as the power, wisdom and presence of God are related to our personal and community lives. We also learn to take our faith and put it in terms that speak to those outside the Church. 4) boldly taking on difficult questions, confronting difficult personal and social concerns as well as our own doubts and times where we feel God is distant. A true relationship with God will broaden our thinking as we share God's concern and plan for action for a broken and hurting world. We will be gradually acquainted with Christ's vision for a different world (the Kingdom of God), a different standard of morals (holiness and justice), and a different way for people to relate with each other (agape love). The Church is where we are to be practicing that, so that we are ready to make that alternative way of life present in our world. 5)defending our faith and way of life against the onslaught of competing philosophies that empty life of its sacredness, demean human beings and create unjust and destructive systems. We also develop defensive skills personally so that resist that which calls on our darker sides (our sins and compulsions, our bitterness and our regrets, our cynicism and selfishnes, etc), so that our lives continue to grow in freedom, value and impact for Christ. How's that for a beginning point?

I Corinthians 2:1-16

One of the difficulties in loving God with our minds is that we sometimes want to limit God to what we understand, in other words form God in our own image. Again, there is a whole sermon here on how we tend to do that, which I will not preach here. But Paul here counters that tendency by inviting us to consider what it means to have "the mind of Christ." Paul begins by calling himself (and all of us along with him) a "proclaimer of the mystery of God." We live by faith and are justified by faith and that then seeks to understand. But God is never limited to our understanding. That's why close-mindedness is as much an enemy to our growing faith as it is to our relationships with people whose background and experiences are different from us. As children we were continuously curious - experimenting, taking things apart and trying to put them back together, imagining, and asking an infinite number of questions from parents and others around us. "Loving the LORD with all our minds," invites us to reclaim that child-like curiosity. When I hear people reduce the Christian faith to a set of principles, rules, and certainties, I get uneasy, because there usually isn't much room for the mystery or the freedom of God there.

As Christians, our thinking is formed by a higher wisdom, a wisdom that the world often considers naive, foolish and sometimes downright wierd. We actually believe that our thoughts, words and actions can be informed and shaped by an unseen God. Our wisdom is not just a catalog of lessons learned through conversations with others and "the school of hard knocks", but even more from our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit (our inner teacher and guide). I love the picture Paul gives us here of the Spirit being the great searcher of the things of God. The Spirit is also what searches us to reveal our true character, our gifts, and our places of inner need.

You'll remember that I wrote in the beginning that the divisions between heart, soul, strength and mind were artificial in the Hebrew mind. Here Paul is bringing together mind and soul in a powerful way. Consider verses 12 and 13 for a moment:

"Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these thngs in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual."

We believe that, by the Spirit, God gives us access to a whole new dimension of life, including our thinking. And one of the things that we do when we gather together for worship, fellowship, prayer and mission is to reinforce that new dimension of life with each other.

I must pause, however, and consider some who have taken this line of thinking to excess. You have met them. They are those who are "super-spiritual", where reason is pushed aside and they are open only to "what God tells them." It's almost as if God gave them a mind by mistake. This is a dangerous and often selfish form of spiritual arrogance that can be very damaging. We must find a point of balance. The other excess is rational arrogance, where we allow the world around us to set the parameters around what God does or does not do. We can be both reasonable and spiritual, full of curiosity about our amazing and perplexing world as well as the things of God. We are not called to anti-intellectualism (a growing movement throughout the Church in our day and time) but rather to a Spirit-led intellectualism, what Paul calls "the mind of Christ."

Philippians 4:2-23

If in I Corinthians Paul was advocating for a unity of mind and soul, Philippians invites us to a unity of mind and heart. This chapter is enthusiastic and passionate, and intellectually as honest as it comes. Having a Christian mindset is once again at the center of what Paul writes.

The first call of Paul is for reconciliation among these sincere leaders who have broken relationship. Where is reconciliation needed in your life, your family, and your church? Christ came to reconcile us to God and then our restored relationship with God will push us toward reconciliation with others. While reconciliation is not always possible (it does take two to reconcile) it can happen more often than we think. A passion for reconciliation is part of the Christian mindset. Consider how counter-cultural that is with our "let's fight" world and how we in the Christian Church have been dragged into that kind of thinking with each other.

The second call is to make holy choices. We choose to rejoice in the Lord, to be gentle with others, to put aside worry and instead trust our concerns to God, and choose to receive God's peace. Again, Paul points to God's peace as a major resource, here calling it "the guard of our minds." In Sunday's sermon, we will be talking about that further.

The third call is to postively structure our thought life. Paul writes,

"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is plesing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

I hate to admit how much of my thinking ends up being the very opposite of these things. How long will we allow that which is shallow and false, dishonorable and sinful, negative, angering and demeaning be our primary mental food? Our whole culture feeds that tendency. We get so stressed out, burned out and bummed out, because we're feeding on mental junk food. Again, in verse 9, Paul says, "...and the God of peace will be with you."

The fourth call is to confident contentment. We should all memorize verses 11-13,

"...for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what is it to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Another translation reads of verse 13, "I am ready for anything through Christ who gives me the strength." We as Christians are not victims and we are not abandoned. The peace of God is there in every triumph and every loss and we draw on it continually. Another hymn I enjoy walking and jogging to is "My Hope is Built." One verse sings,

"When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vale."

So no matter what life brings, we're able to hold on and even break through, because of the Christ within.

Today, may you "love the LORD with all your mind", centering on Him and his purposes for your life, drawing on His peace, and keeping your mind on the higher things of life in Christ. Then, you will indeed be ready for anything. Have a great day.

High-Minded Love V

Luke 13:1-9

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, there were many pulpiteers who proclaimed that God had carried out judgment against that city, just as in the days of Sodom and Gommorah. I do think we need to take the Genesis story of the destruction of those cities seriously. We have responsibilities as citizens and leaders (especially as Christians who have the kingdom of God as our model for individual and corporate life) to see that our communities are just and loving. I also believe there are judgments built in when we choose to build society around things that are unjust and harmful to the well-being of people. I could write a whole sermon at this point, but I will resist. But it is quite another thing to pronounce judgment on other communities from a distance when disaster hits. In the case of New Orleans, there were other areas (Mississippi, Alabama and many other Louisiana communities) who were hit just as severely by Katrina (who did not have the questionable lifestyle attractions of "the Big Easy"). Was their suffering due to their proximity to sinful New Orleans just bad luck on their part? Is there collateral damage when God does judgment or is God more accurate than that? And what about the geological factors involved: building a city at below sea level right at the emptying point of a lake above (and we are rebuilding at the same locale - human ingenuity, right?). The judgement was built in, and human error was all over it. Let's not blame that on God.

The passage in Luke describes two tragedies, but they are not due to weather. The first one is due to the tyranny of Rome and the second is due to faulty construction, human sin or error involved in each case. I heard pulpit judgments against New York and our national institutions when the World Trade Center was struck on 9-11. Human sin was the cause, rooted in hatred and a failure on many sides to build religious and political conversation between competing evangelistic faiths. There was judgment alright, but it was built into the behaviors of everyone involved. And when humans are involved there is lots of collateral damage. In the case of the Galileans, most southern Jews didn't like them anyway - a real problem for Jesus ("Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"). Galilee was a racially mixed ("clean and unclean"), poverty stricken and violent area of Israel, so it was easy to pronounce what was actually a bigoted judgment. The collapse of the tower of Siloam reminds us of what is happening to our aging bridges aorund the USA. We have major infrastructural issues whith our transportation systems that will cost a fortune to address. In tragedy, we tend to look for some ultimate divine cause or purpose. We don't want to admit that we are human people who are subject to human error that can cost other people's lives. It's easier to blame God or pronounce the judgment of God and blame others.

Jesus counters the tragedies as divine judgment by appealing to common sense. It couldn't be proven that the Galileans and the people on whom the tower fell were any more sinful than other Galileans or Jerusalem citizens. Jesus did not say why these events happened. Again, he left them with their vulnerability and the ambiguity of life (no easy answers). What he did was correct their tendency to judge from a distance and told them their own need to repent. In pronouncing their judgments on others, they were hiding from their own unjust and unloving behavior and attitudes. The parable in verses 6-9 tells us that each day is our opportunity to look within and make a change in our ungodly attitudes and behaviors, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Corrupt leaders make power plays and anybody could be killed. Towers can fall and the concrete and steel can fall on anybody. Everybody's at risk. So we are called to seize the opportunity of today to become new with God and with the people around us.

Philippians 3:12-4:1

In Paul's writing, we return to another part of the Christian mindset - determination. The gospel says of Jesus that "he set his face toward Jerusalem," where he would soon die for the sins of the world. He was determined to fulfill his destiny - knowing Christ fully in both the triumphs and losses of his life. He is not there yet, but he is on his way and will not be denied. He presses on. I picture this as a marathon race in which Paul hits the wall at mile 19 and, in the midst of the agony, continues on to finish the 26+ mile race. But to press on, he must do something that is so very difficult.

In the movie The Lion King, Poombah the warthog says to Simba, "In the words of my friend, Timon here, 'You've got to get your behind in your past.'" Timon replies, "No, dummy. I said, 'You've got to put your past behind you.'"

Regrettably, most of us have some areas where our behinds are in our past (past hurts, failures, tragic experiences) that keep us from embracing the opportunities and relationships of today. We replay them in our minds and we feel the emotional pain as if it was happening today. We do learn from history, including our own. But where our history becomes a millstone around our neck holding us under water, we must learn to prayerfully put those hurts, failures and tragic experiences in the hands of the LORD. And please note: we have a lot invested there and for many of us those hurts have become energizers for our lives. We are afraid if we let go that we will have nothing. But letting go of that which is toxic (the negative adrenaline rush, the energy of anger, bitterness and regret)is our opportunity to receive a whole new chapter of our lives. It is risky to let go and absolutely crucial.

Verse 17 contains a bold and possibly presumptuous statement: "...join in imitating me and observe those who live according to the example you have in us." I'm not sure that I want everybody imitating me, for there is a lot that no one should follow. But people do follow us. What parent among us has not experienced a child repeating some negative thing they learned from us? I hate when I see that happen. Children and even adults who follow us also repeat some of our good patterns. We certainly live by the patterns of others who we respect and love. So the question from Paul for us is, "In what people see in you, what would you like them to imitate?." Sorry Charles Barkley and other athletes and entertainers who argue to the contrary, you are role models in one way or another. People are really watching us, particularly when we are under stress or experience defeat. Because they know that someday that will happen to them and they're looking for resources. In contrast, Paul briefly talks about negative role models in verses 18-19, and the damage they do. Bad faith role models have done huge damage in our generation, making it difficult for many to come to Christ. They give me pause, because any of us are vulnerable to do and say the things they have. Another translation of verse 17 is, "Follow me as I follow Christ." That gets it said and should be the motto of every Christian parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, boss, employee, counselor and friend.

Paul finishes this passage with an appeal to the second coming of Christ. We have discussed this before. He reminds them of their great future and it gives them hope and strength in their present difficulties. As we seek to "love the LORD our God with all our mind," we today are given major guidelines: suspending judgment from a distance and instead looking within to see where our sins and growth areas are, letting go of the weight of our past so we can embrace God's greater future, and committing ourselves to being a multipliable, imitatable follower of Jesus Christ. Have a great day. Tomorrow's passages and Sunday's worship will be a marvelous finish to this week's journey.

High-Minded Love IV

Beginning with today's reading, we start to deal with our faith related to difficult life issues. Eugenia Price wrote a book many years ago entitled No Easy Answers, which described her journey from the easy answers she was taught as a child to finding a faith that worked for her in the real challenges of life. The bestseller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold Kushner tells the story of his family's struggle through the loss of their teenage son to cancer (using the book of Job as a primary source). Sometimes people offer what they hope will be comfort by saying things like, "God needed your loved one more, so that's why He took her/him" or "Everything happens for a reason." Others will try to make sense of unfair things in life by saying, "There must have been some sin in your family that caused this" or "If you had more faith this situation wouldn't be so bad." Often these easy answers make the person who says them feel good, but leave the person who hears them confused and hurt. In the next couple of articles, we will see how Jesus took on some of the easy answers of his day. We will also continue through Paul's great letter of Philippians.

John 9:1-12

It is the disciples who bring the question to Jesus, "Teacher (Rabbi), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Tex Sample, retired professor at St. Paul's School of Theology calls this kind of question "folk theology," things that people believe about God and life that are just accepted whether they are true to the Bible or not. "Everything happens for a reason", "God helps those who help themselves", and "Cleanliness is next to godliness", and God as "the man upstairs" are just some examples of folk theology in our own time. The main assumption behind the question by the disciples is that life is fair, so when tragedy hits there has to be a good reason for it. A secondary assumption is that if you are living a godly life, then God will protect you from the bad things that might otherwise come your way. Ever since we were kids, we wanted life to be fair and the child inside us still wants that. But alas, life is not fair, nor does our good behavior insulate us from tragedy and unfair treatment. Both those assumptions were part of the folk theology of Jesus' day.

Notice Jesus' response,

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned"..."but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

Does this mean that God gave him the condition of blindness or allowed it for his purposes? Now we're back at the issue of determinism I discussed in an earlier article. The truth is we are not told why the man was born blind. Genetics? Birth trauma? Something else entirely? And isn't it true that we often don't know why certain things happen? Can Christians deal with ambiguity and actually grow in faith when life doesn't make sense or is unfair or when we don't get the answers to our prayers that we desire? I dare say that helping people to develop a connection with God in these kinds of challenges is a huge gift we can offer the world around us. We help people cope and grow when life doesn't happen the way they wish. I don't believe Jesus was saying, "This man's blindness was part of God's plan." Jesus was saying, "This man's blindness is God's opportunity to work in his life."

In this case, God's work was to heal his blindness. But John 9 is more about the religious and spiritual blindness of other folks, particularly the Pharisees, than it is about the man's physical blindness. I must confess that I only rarely see immediate physical healings in response to prayer. But I see the work of God in nearly every instance, sometimes in a gradual physical healing but just as often as God does a major work in the hearts, minds and souls of people when the physical healings don't happen. Am I just excusing my own lack of faith or trying to explain things away? No, even faith healers claim immediate healings happen only a small percentage of the time. So is God not at work in those who are a part of that greater percentage? Not on your life or mine. As I shared earlier in the Romans 8 passage, "In everything God works for good."

Just a word about the methods used here. They were the ones that were used by the doctors of the day: believing that mud and saliva had healing properties. No doubt, the man may have had this done to him before without results. I am reminded here that God can and often does heal with the methods of the day. But this story also points to a greater healing that is both physical and spiritual. The man that is born blind is healed both inwardly and outwardly, but the Pharisees remain blind and are unable to admit it or "see" it. The disciples had their folk theology and the Pharisees had their limited and narrow faith perspective and both needed the gift of "sight" from Jesus. In what area of your life do you need sight?

Philippians 2:19-3:11

Loving the LORD with all our mind is not something we do in isolation. We need people to stimulate our growth (even to make us irritated and uncomfortable) and to encourage us in tough times. Paul is sending Epaphroditus, who comes to them having found the power of Christ through illness, ready to now encourage them in the tough times around them. We need examples of the power of God from time to time. Then he hopes to send Timothy to get the latest news, so that Paul can also be encouraged.

Loving the LORD intellectually also involves discerning when things are false and when the way things have been get in the way of things that could be. The Judaizers of Jesus' day wanted the new Gentile Christians to become Jews by undergoing circumcision. Paul has his own testimony that proved that being circumcised and being meticulously a follower of the Old Covenant law was insufficient. The "right" methods (what I'm used to), the "right music" (what I came to Christ with), even at times the "right beliefs" (what is familiar and doesn't stretch me too much), often get in the way of the most important thing, stated here so well by Paul in verses 7-8.

"But whatever was to my profit (i.e. what blessed me and gave me strength in the past), I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consdier everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

What if the right methods are wrong for this day and time, the right music is more varied than we ever realized, and the right beliefs need tested that we might grow deeper and broader in our walk with Christ?

Not long ago, I was bowling and doing horribly. In frustration, I decided to bowl the second game with the opposite hand. The first time or two I nearly fell into the lanes, as a change of hands required a change in steps, balance and who knows what else. But eventually I made two spares and a strike (pitiful but different!). Then in the third game I went back to my normal hand and it felt entirely new and my score was much improved. Somehow we must learn to let go of the ways we have been comfortable and open up to the new ways of the Spirit. For the goal is not our comfort...it is knowing Christ, an adventure that never stops.

High-Minded Love III

You and I live in a time when people are hungry to feel and experience things. In a movie or television show, the music and special affects are there to make us feel certain things and to vicariously experience what the characters do. In fact, our hunger for emotional stimulation (love, anger, fear, suspense, etc) is to the point of addiction. We want to get "a buzz" from everything we do. I have had people say to me, "I want to feel the Spirit in every worship service." There are several difficulties with that. First, emotions come and go, so there will be times when you will be in a service that is moving everyone else emotionally, but doesn't touch you at all (or the reverse of that). Second, emotions are not always indicators of God's presence. Third, the person often wants me and those who lead worship to create that emotional experience for him or her. That really runs the risk of the worship leaders becoming manipulators and even manufacturers of the presence of God for people (and there are many preachers who will do that). In our discussions about "loving God with all our hearts," I talked about the need to open up and love God emotionally. I love to feel the presence of Christ, but I have never been able to dictate when it will happen for me or for anybody else.

An appetite that seems to be lacking is in the thinking dimensions of our Christian faith. If our emotional love for God is what keeps our faith alive and vital, it is the intellectual love of God that keeps us grounded, growing, wise and resilient. Sincerity and passion are simply not strong enough to hold you and me for the long haul. We need to learn to "think through" things from a Christian perspective and then make wise choices that balance both our hearts and our minds. Sometimes I just want to say to people and myself, "Use your head. Your mind is a gift of God, too."

Psalm 119:97-106

As United Methodists, we have four sources that guide us in our thinking, decision making and actions: Scripture, reason, tradition and Christian experience, of which Scripture is primary. In an "extra", I will discuss the relationship of those sources, but for now, let's talk about the primary one, scripture. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in all the Bible (a whopping 176 verses), written in an acrostic arrangement with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters) marking a section of eight verses. In section 13 (Mem), verses 97- 100 read,

"Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts."

A major way that we love God intellectually is by the disciplined study of God's Word. One of the reasons for doing this blog is to encourage myself as well as you to regularly study God's Word at a time of the year when we tend to slack off. The first question we should ask at a point of question or decision is, "What does the Bible say?" Desire and sincerity must be balanced with truth. As a teacher said to me once, "You can be sincerely wrong, you know." Those who followed Hitler or those who have followed religious extremists or cult leaders were all sincere, but tragically wrong.

We don't just read the Bible quickly. We take our time. The Psalmist calls us to read (aloud), study and meditate (reflecting on what the Bible says and how it might relate to your life). The yield of Bible Study is rarely immediate. We are strengthened and made wise over time so that God's Word can be applied to a wide variety of situations and challenges we face. I am so thankful for my parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers, preachers, youth directors and other friends who taught me to love the study of Scripture. They gave me a priceless gift. I hope that you are giving that gift to those around you.

Philippians 1:27-2:18

In this passage, we get opening hints of a problem in the Philippian church that is further explained in chapter 4, verses 2-3. A power struggle is brewing centered in two leading women, Euodia and Syntyche (I like to call them Odious and Cynical). We know from chapter 4 that these have been faithful servants who now have gotten crosssways and are creating division in the Church. Our multi-site arrangement as a church makes us particularly vulnerable to this problem: two main preachers, two locations, two different styles of worship and ministry, two educational ministries. One of the comments the Staff-Parish Relations Committee made to us last year was that St. Luke's is served by three pastors who have complementary gifts but with very little overlap. They said, "You are the perfect fit for what St. Luke's needs, but because you are so different from each other, you will really have to work at communicating with each other and work at helping the church not to create divisions around your personalities." In the Philippian church, the people were faced with opposition from the outside and division on the inside. The old hymn we sing at Annual Conference, "And Are We Yet Alive" sings,

"What troubles have we seen, what mighty conflicts past; fightings without and fears within since we assembled last."

Healthy churches have to work at keeping unity amidst the diversity of styles, backgrounds and perspectives they have in their people. I am pleased to report that the leadership of St. Luke's (staff and administrative committees)are resolved in making sure we are unified and healthy.

But to accomplish that there has to be a certain mindset, a way of loving God together in the way we cooperate with and treat each other. We are to be "like-minded" - same love, same Spirit, same purpose. This certainly does not mean agreement on all perspectives (the excess of "group think"). I like to say about United Methodists, a corruption of Matthew 18:20, "Wherever two United Methodists are gathered together in my name, there is a difference of opinion!" John Wesley's great sermon, "The Catholic Spirit," highlights the many ways in which Christians can disagree (worship differences, communion, lesser belief differences etc,) and still be together. His famous line is "If your heart is as my heart, take my hand." What a great constructive word for our religiously polarized times! Like-mindedness seeks unity in that which is essential and embraces difference and diversity on that which is of lesser importance. Like-mindedness in love, Spirit, and purpose is a guideline for marriages, families, classes, and community service groups, as well as churches.

The mindset taught by Paul is something we must work at: putting aside self-serving ambition and vain conceit (an ever present demonic force)and cultivating humility and preference for the ideas and needs of others (not what comes naturally). The model for this mindset is Jesus, and Paul uses one of the earliest hymns of the Church do get his point across. It is often called "the kenosis hymn" (kenosis is the Greek word for "self-emptying" found in verse 7). God-in-the-flesh did not come "grasping" (a most apt word to describe what most of us end up doing in our lives - grasping for meaning, status, position, affection, etc.) but instead "emptied himself," becoming the slave among us. The "self-emptying" is complete when Christ offers his very life on the cross. This move of living with an "others first" perspective can appear weak and it is certainly counter to our natural ways and our culture. But the cross is not just an example of what Jesus did; it is a pattern for you and me who claim to follow him. The USAmerican way can be summed up in Frank Sinatra's hit, "I did it my way." But the Christian's song is summed up in a song I learned in Bible School as a kid, "Christ's way is my way," and that way puts the welfare of others first. This emphasis clearly reflects Jesus' teaching for us to "deny ourselves...take up our cross daily...and lose our life in order to find it." Which describes your mindset at this moment - grasping or self-emptying? Strangely enough, self-emptying is the strength move of the two.

Once we do that, we tap into the power of the LORD in a whole new dimension. We humble ourselves, deny ourselves and empty ourselves and God, in turn, lifts us up, blesses us and fills us with even more of Himself. As I heard a preacher say once, "God cannot fill a vessel that is already full." We empty ourselves in loving service to God for the benefit of others and then we're ready for a refill. That means we cannot be full of ourselves or still full because we haven't used up what God has already given us.

Paul closes this passage with an encouraging word for the Philippians to continue on their journey with Christ together. Interestingly, he makes the work of salvation something God works on and we work on as well. In the Walk to Emmaus, one of the themes is done in a dialogue in which the receiver of a cross says, "I am counting on Christ" and the giver of the cross says, "And Christ is counting on you." God does the greater work in this, but we are not passive participants. We study, we learn, we grow, we sacrifice, we broaden our love. And God works his purpose in each of us, which is nothing less than an unfolding miracle.

When I do a baptism, I try to consistently pray for the one baptized, that she or he may be a "light in a world of darkness." It is taken from this passage in which Paul challenges the people to "shine like stars in the universe." My drama coach in high school would say to me, "Willie, I'm gonna make you a star." He didn't succeed. But God will succeed with me and with you. In the words of the TV show, "You can be a star...all by the grace of God." Your light is the life you live in Christ that is so very different from the grasping, self-serving, contentious, dog-eat-dog world in which you live. So my word for you today is "shine!"

High-Minded Love II

Isaiah 26:1-4

I love this victory hymn from Isaiah. Interestingly, it is like the hymns in the end part of our hymnal, one that anticipates a victory that hasn't happened yet. One of my professors taught us that one's eschatology (the study of "last things") is the key to understanding one's theology (the study of God). Do we have hope for the future and if so, why? Isaiah cries out with confidence that God is going to come through for Judah. The same confidence is found in the book of Revelation, for despite all the arguments over it, the main messages of it are clear: 1) In the hell of our world, God is doing a heavenly work (eight major glimpses of heaven to give hope to the seven struggling churches), and 2) God wins in the end. With those two things in mind, we have reason to be hopeful and confident. Our confidence in the future is not just wishful thinking. Isaiah's words are hopeful because God has been faithful all along. We say that we don't know what the future holds - a half truth. We don't know all the details of how our lives are going to be lived out and where the wins and losses along the way will be. But we do know what the ultimate end is - God wins and because he wins, so do we.

Verses 3 and 4 speak a powerful word to our anxiety-driven lives as individuals, as the church, and as a society.

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. Trust in the LORD forever, for in the LORD God you have an everlasting rock."

I am often asked how we can know that God is guiding us or speaking to us. One of the clues for me is "Follow the peace." Where there is chronic anxiety and paralyzing fear, we have not yet allowed God to fully enter the picture, nor have we heard God fully. The peace I describe here is not absence of challenge or concern, but rather is a sense of God's presence that gives you restful confidence, sometimes in the most trying and conflicted situations. I think this is what Jesus was talking about in John 14 when he said, "My peace I give to you, not like the peace the world gives." How is your mindset today: anxious and driven, or peaceful and led by the Spirit of God. Is your focus on the problems you're facing or on the LORD who gives the strength and the wisdom to overcome them. May your mind be "stayed on Him" today.

Philippians 1:12-26

Paul is more descriptive of his prison situation. It has been tough and he still fears for his life, but he already sees the hand of God at work. He was imprisoned so that the spread of the gospel of Christ would be stopped, but instead his imprisonment has made the leaders around him more bold and the gospel is spreading faster than ever. He feels the helplessness of being away from the churches when some threatening and strange things are going on. He even rejoices in those who preach the gospel with wrong motivations or even wrong content. I must admit there is a lot of stuff taught in the name of Christ that makes me sick (egs. "the prosperity gospel," "might makes right," "revelation sensation" misinterpretations in both fiction and non-fiction, manipulative preachers), but God still uses them and people are saved through those approaches. Like Paul, I have to relax that God gets it done, even with bad motivations and content, which, I guess, means that God can use me when attitudes and content goes awry, too.

I love verse 21, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Either way, he is a winner. What's the old adage, "The one to fear most is the one with nothing to lose?" In this case, it is not desperation but hope that gives us nothing to lose. Notice the joy and confidence in Paul's writing. Either he is doing a good self-psych job or he really does believe in the power of the LORD. Which do you think is the case?

As you can see, Isaiah and Paul, are on common ground. Both are in difficult, even life-threatening situations, yet they are at peace within and joyously confident about what lies ahead. Bottom line is this: Our contentment, confidence and joy in life is not situation-dependent, but rather relationship-dependent. That's the gift of God that comes our way when we "love the LORD our God with all our mind." Have a peaceful and victorious day.

High-Minded Love I

When it comes to intellect or reason and the Christian faith, there seem to be very extreme postions that are highly publicized. For some, the intellect is an enemy of our faith, causing us to question, doubt, and factor God out of our decision making. They will quote some of the writings of Paul about the "carnal mind", and even advocate in some cases, "clearing your mind" before you can be led by the Spirit of God. I have been in prayer meetings where the people have prayed for the Lord to empty their minds so they could hear the voice of God. Their prayers were answered, in that I heard some of the most outlandish and ridiculous revelations that people felt the Lord gave them. Please understand that I don't believe the Lord emptied the people's minds. They just chose to be mindless. This has some common ground with the condition of "clear" that followers of the Church of Scientology advocate. I can't say strongly enough how unwise and at time dangerous this approach to prayer and spiritual guidance is. Paul's teaching about putting aside our "carnal minds" is about countering our selfish and self-sufficient thinking that refuses to submit to God and connect with Him. It is not about ignoring reason, common sense, and intellectual growth. Klaus Penzel at SMU was right, "Don't be afraid to think as a Christian. Jesus did say, 'Love the LORD your God with all your mind."

The other extreme is to make our reasoning an idol. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13 that "we see through a glass darkly." The mirrors of antiquity were not near as accurate as those of today (though I do like the mirrors that make us look thinner, don't you?), but instead gave a fairly distorted image. Paul writes that we "know in part." It is a passion for many people that their faith must "make sense." I had seminary professors who argued that our Christian witness had to be shared in the language and categories of the other disciplines (philosophy, science, history, business, etc). I agree that our witness should be on speaking terms with every arena of life, but I don't think those arenas can set the limits about which we can share. Each arena has its own "jargon," language that describes activity and thinking that is unique. A "forward pass" in football is "jargon" and in sexual ethics might be considered grounds for harrassment. Shall we call for football to eliminate "forward pass" from their language, along with "rushing" (running the ball or something fraternities do?),"safety" (a 2-point score by the defense or police work?)and a host of other terms? Other arenas would like us to eliminate faith terms like "miracle," "resurrection," "new birth", and others because they don't fit the parameters of their thinking. Instead, we must invite other arenas to learn our language of faith so that we can share the experiences and thinking that go with them. Christian faith can and must be reasonable, but it also must be open to God whose "ways are higher than our ways" and whose "thoughts are higher than our thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). One of the keys to understanding our Methodist history is the experience of the Wesleys of Christian experience that went beyond their preconceived intellectual categories.

Deuteronomy 6:1-12

Part of "loving the LORD our God with all our mind" is knowing and rehearsing the story of who and whose we are. Experts in leadership say that leaders must communicate the vision of a business every 21 days, because people tend to forget what business they're in because of the crush of so many other things to do. Deuteronomy 6:10-12 speaks that same concern for us as the people of God,

"When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you - a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant - then when you eat and are not satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

As United Methodists the vision is clear. We are called to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." At St. Luke's we are still clarifying how we will do that, with a little bit of variance between our two campuses. It has something to do with reaching out beyond our walls to hurting people and situations, leading people to Christ for salvation and healing, and building the next generation of Christian leaders for service both inside and outside the church. I must confess that I have not stated that as often as I should. Evidently Moses had the same problem, because they were always forgetting who and whose they were and what they were about.

Included in this passage is the shemach that still begins every Jewish worship service, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one." Against the surrounding polytheistic religions (believing in many gods) Jews are reminded of their monotheistic faith on a regular basis. In my hometown, the shemach was insribed on the front wall. How might we in our worship define ourselves in relationship to God over against the competing forces for ultimate loyalty (materialism, entertainment, profit, technology, etc)? What follows in the Deuteronomy passage, and is often included with the shemach in worship, is the Mosaic version of our theme scripture for the entire For the Love of God series. What you will notice is that loving the LORD with your mind is absent. While the mind is implied in the Hebrew understanding of heart, it is the gospels that give us the explicit teaching to love God intellectually.

In order to provoke continuous memory a strategy is given: 1) talk about the basics of your faith in organized gatherings and at times when you're on the way to something else, and at night before you go to bed and in the morning when you awake, 2) have reminders in your clothing to worn at special times - which today include "witness wear" in Jewish and Christian circles as well as games, and 3) make the story of faith part of your architecture and decor. We should not miss a key teaching here, namely how important teaching the faith in the home is. Many Christian homes do not have discussions about the content of their faith, nor about how their faith relates to daily challenges. The result is that our children are often sent out into the world with insufficient resources and they do indeed find themselves forgetting who and whose they are. We live in a day when multiplied millions of dollars are spent on movies, sports events, concerts, and advertising promoting a contrary understanding of life and what is important. We cannot compete with the money spent or the elaborate ways that contrary vision is communicated (even though I think we do need to constantly work on and update the way we communicate the gospel). The home is still the primary place where this battle must be fought. Dads and moms, grandads and grandmas, older brothers and sisters, take time to communicate who and whose we are as Christians. We are in the world, but we are not of it - lest we forget!

Philippians 1:1-11

Just as you read the letter of James to amplify loving God with our strength (actions, works), so this week we will be reading Philippians to amplify loving God with our mind. Two theme verses shout out to us. The first is found in Philippians 2:5, "Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus." As Christians we have a particular mindset, a particular attitude that guides what we do and say. The second is found in Philippians 4:8, "...whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Paul is calling us to intellectual discipline so that our thought life is both pure and conditioned for the love of God.

Philippi was a very special city to Paul. Paul's goal was to take the gospel eastward and eventually win the city of Rome (including the emperor) for Christ. The end of Acts describes that Paul never gave up on that goal, even though he didn't really see it bear fruit in his lifetime. After having all doors closed to going east, Paul had a vision in Acts 16 of a man from Macedonia crying out, "Come to Macedonia and help us." From there the gospel moved westward into Macedonia (Corinth, Thessalonica and Phillipi) and to Asia Minor (present day Turkey - home of Galatia, Ephesus, and Colossae). Paul's ministry in Philippi started rough, including an imprisonment, but the ministry eventually flourished greatly. The church there was a constant support to Paul in the rest of his ministry. This letter is written to them from prison, where Paul has Timothy at his side. As in other letters Paul (in verse 1) identifies himself and Timothy as douloi, "servants" is too weak a translation for the actual "bondslave" (someone with no rights, totally the possession of the master). The letters is sent to the members of the Church, who now have organized leaders according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit (deacons and overseers). The Philippian church is vital and growing - full of the spirit and organized to grow further with trained and gifted leaders. That model for growth and impact for Christian ministry has never changed.

The remainder of this passage is a statement of prayerful thanksgiving. You can just feel the love he has for the Philippians in his writing. No wonder we are so drawn to it. Even though he himself is in prison he is trying to "pump them up", reminding them of what God has done and is yet to do in them. He is "confident" and is calling for the same in them. Perhaps he was afraid that his imprisonment had discouraged this church that loved him so much.

What does all this have to do with "loving the LORD with all your mind." Note Paul's prayer in verse 9,

"...that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day oof Christ; filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ."

This is Paul's prayer and it is also his main agenda for writing the letter. At this point, it would be important to imagine that Paul was writing this to you and me. After all this is not just a letter; it is God's Word and has the ability to speak powerfully to all people and in all times. So during this week, may your love for Christ grow and deepen in knowledge and insight and may you be given discernment that will make your choices wise and godly. Have a great day in our Lord Jesus Christ.