Harmony #56: The Cost of Following Jesus (Luke 9:51-62; Matthew 8:19-22)

Now when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set out resolutely (“set his face”) to go to Jerusalem.

In both Matthew and Luke’s Gospel, this incident is placed on the heels of Jesus doing the kind of miraculous things that drew a large crowd (even though the incidents are different). In Matthew’s gospel, he is trying to get away from large crowds when this incident happens.

It’s no surprise, then, that these three conversation reflect a Jesus who wasn’t interested in people following him because he was popular, or because they thought it was cool, or believed they could follow Jesus when it was convenient. Jesus demonstrated over and over that he wasn’t interested in numbers for numbers’ sake. He didn’t want Himself or His Kingdom to be trendy.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus had just finished talking to his disciples about his upcoming death. Consider the grim circumstances as we see Jesus’ response to three potential followers. He knows what’s coming; he knows what his disciples are going to go through. They have no idea that he is literally going to be taking up a cross, and that they will follow him to Golgotha. The metaphors are about to become reality.

  He sent messengers on ahead of him. As they went along, they entered a Samaritan village to make things ready in advance for him, but the villagers refused to welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem.[1]

Now when his disciples James and John[2] saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you belong to. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them,” and they went on to another village.

There was a reason Jesus had not sent the 12 to Samaritan villages yet. They weren’t ready. First, they took this insult way too personally. It wasn’t a secret that Samaritans did NOT worship in Jerusalem. This was part of the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. When the Samaritans found out Jesus was going to the Temple in Jerusalem, of course they weren’t going to help. To them, that was enabling false worship. Their response should not have been a surprise.

The disciples could have said, “Well, we tried. The worst they could do was say no.” Instead, they decided the best response would be to kill everyone – without having to get their hands dirty. Could God do it for them? Did God feel the same way about these Samaritans as they did?

The answer is, of course, no. “You do not know what kind of Spirit you belong to.” That was not the heart of God for the Samaritans. Don’t forget, this is right after all this teaching on forgiveness. Yikes. Tough crowd.

“Whatever…errors may be in religion, we must never persecute [those who believe them]. Let us, if needful, argue with them, reason with them, and try to show them a more excellent way. But let us never take up the "carnal" weapon to promote the spread of truth. Let us never be tempted, directly or indirectly, to persecute anyone, under pretense of the glory of Christ and the good of the Church. Let us rather remember, that the religion [professed] from fear of death, or dread of penalties, is worth nothing at all, and that if we swell our ranks by fear and threatening, in reality we gain no strength… The appeals that we make must be to…consciences and wills.”      - JC Ryle

Let’s pick up from there.

As they were walking along the road, an expert in the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Jesus said to another, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”[3]

Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say goodbye to my family.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

* * * * * *

The first man seems to be sincerely eager to be a part of what Jesus is doing. After all, he just saw some amazing things. Who wouldn’t want to be closer to that? I think Jesus’ response is similar to the response Jesus gave the Rich Young Ruler who also wanted to follow him.[4] Jesus said to that ruler, “Go get rid of all your money.” Jesus identified the idol that had to go.

To this man, Jesus uses an image from nature to point out that there is no expectation of comfort. I mean, they had just been denied access to town to spend the night. They were on their way to Jerusalem where Jesus would be killed and his disciples scattered.

My sense is that Jesus jumps straight to his vulnerability, his idol: the desire for comfort, maybe even popularity. “People won’t like you. They will reject you. You may even be denied ordinary, normal things by those who reject you. Follow me, and you might become deeply unpopular, despised, rejected, even unable to have the material comforts others enjoy.”

We should expect to be made uncomfortable as followers of Jesus. And our response should not be longing for God to judge them, but to save them.

* * * * *

The second man makes what seems to be a reasonable request (burying his father), but there is more going on here than first appears. Several options have been offered.[5] I think one stands out, but you will see the others in commentaries, so let’s take a look at them.

The first option is that the guy’s father had died and Jesus was telling him not to go help bury him. This is the least likely. In Judaism, someone who died had to be buried the same day.[6]There was no way that man would have been hanging out with Jesus. It was a really big deal to honor your parents with a proper burial. It’s also likely the father was not sick and close to dying, or the man would have asked Jesus to heal him.

The second option is that this was an expression meaning that he had to stay with his father as long as his father was alive. G. Campbell Morgan refers to a traveler in the Middle East who was trying to enlist a young Arab man as his guide. The man replied that he could not go because he had to bury his father. When the traveler expressed his sympathy, he learned that the young man’s father had not died; he was waiting to be a guide until he no longer had to take care of his father. So perhaps this man was saying, “After my father is gone, I will follow You.”[7]

[Another layer: the man would likely receive his inheritance when his father died. Leaving him might cause him to lose out on his share of his father’s estate.[8]]

The third option is that the man is waiting for the time a year after the body was first buried when the bones of the deceased were placed in an ossuary box and interred with other deceased relatives.[9]

Depending on which option is correct, it will change how you view what Jesus meant when he said, “let the dead bury the dead.”

Options #1 and #2 implies,

• “Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead; let those not yet alive to the claims of the kingdom bury the naturally dead.” [10]

• Some wonder if this is about the vespillones, the corpse-bearers who carried out the bodies of the poor at night; in Hebrew phraseology, they were “the men of the dead.”[11]

Option #3 would read more like, “Let the already dead (the ancestors) take care of their own.”[12] After all, the man’s father had been honored in the burial already; the second step was tradition, and it was not an insult to his father not to observe it. I favor this reading.

“Jesus was saying in essence, “Look, you have already honored your father by giving him a proper burial in the family burial cave. Instead of waiting for the flesh to decompose, go preach the kingdom of God and tell the people that faith alone in Christ is the only true means of atonement.” (“Let The Dead Bury Their Dead - Meaning.” Alice Anacioco. biblical-christianity.com)

* * * * *

The third man’s request also seems reasonable – he’s going to follow, but he needs to say his goodbyes. This is not unprecedented in Jewish teaching.

Earlier in Luke 9, Jesus had already been connected with Elijah several times. Near the end of Elijah's ministry, God told him to call Elisha to take his place. Elijah found Elisha plowing a field with twelve yoke of oxen and placed his cloak on the younger man's shoulders. Elisha knew what this meant and asked permission to say goodbye to his parents, which Elijah allowed. Only then did Elisha follow Elijah (1 Kings 19:19–21).  So far so good. Reasonable request. But….

“’To bid farewell’ signifies to set apart or assign, as a soldier to his post or an official to his office, and later to detach soldiers. Hence to dismiss one with orders...the man desiring to return home, not merely to take formal leave, but also to give his final instructions to his friends and servants.” Vincent's Word Studies

In other words, it sure looks like the man has a back up plan. Whatever happens to him while following Jesus, Plan B is waiting for him if necessary. Jesus responds by playing off this same Old Testament text, since Elisha was plowing in his family’s field when Elijah met him:

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

I like the careful wording of this verse in Meyer’s NT Commentary:

“No one who has offered to labor in my service, and, withal, still attaches his interest to his earlier relations is well fitted/adapted to labor for the kingdom of the Messiah.” 

The farmer must keep looking forward in order to plow a straight furrow. Likewise, a disciple constantly distracted by past associations cannot provide effective service for the kingdom of God.[13]

* * * * *

Jesus tells these three would-be disciples that a true disciple…

1.    Risks rejection by the world (57-58). Disciples do not put attach their hearts to earthly material comforts: wealth, comfort, reputation, tradition. “Don’t pity Jesus for having no place to rest his head. Pity the man so chained to his mortgage that he can’t respond to the call of Christ. Don’t pity Jesus for sleeping by the campfire. Pity the woman so sold to her career that she cannot follow Christ to a foreign land. Don’t pity the disciples who are called the “scum of the earth.” Pity those who are enslaved to the opinions of the world.“[14]

2.    Makes proclamation a priority (59-60) In the OT, only prophets were permitted to neglect funeral customs in order to reveal God’s revelation. So, Jesus’ call to ignore funeral customs signals that an important period of time has arrived on the divine calendar.“Nothing should delay or stop us from spreading the good news that the Kingdom is here, not even good obligations and attachments.” (Daniel l. Sonnenberg)

3.    Leaves the old life behind (61-62) It is not an emotional, spur-of-the moment decision. It is not a decision that can be postponed till later. It is not a phase we go through while we keep our options open. Following Jesus means signing away the rights to your own life. You sign on the bottom line and let him fill in the details. It means Jesus first. No conditions. No delays. No buts. No excuses. A disciple cannot trust Jesus halfway. “Christ must reign in the heart without a rival. All other loves and all other loyalties must be secondary.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

* * * * *

So, how do we summarize the lesson today?

I wonder: what is really first in your life? Are we saying to Jesus, “I will follow you,” but adding our qualification, our disclaimer under our breath, perhaps hoping Jesus won’t hear? God first…but really being successful first, career first, financial well-being first. God first…but really being a good citizen, or being nice and well-liked first. God first…but really comfort and safety and security first.

When God calls you, and you say yes to following Jesus, what are the “buts” that are on the tip of your tongue, or muttered under your breath, or the truth you really mean instead? How do you finish this sentence to Jesus, “I will follow you, but first let me…” what?

Jesus tries to convey to us a sense of urgency. The good news doesn’t have time to wait. The world needs the message of Jesus right now. Look around. Look at the news. Look at the headlines. Look at our nation. Look at our community. Look at our congregation. Look at your own life.

We need the message of Jesus, the news about God’s reign on earth, the good news of God’s grace and favor and God’s way that rejects the ways of greed and selfishness and oppression and we need it now. And so Jesus needs disciples, messengers of the good news right now. People who are ready to say “But first you God, and then everything else can come next.”

 – Beth Quick, bethquick.com

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[1] The Samaritans probably rejected the messengers because Samaritans did not accept Jerusalem as the place of worship (see John 4:20)

[2] James eventually gave his life as a martyr; John became known as the Apostle of Love.

[4] Mark 10:17-27

[5] I’ll add here in the footnotes that it is possible that Jesus, who is about to take a Nazarite vow, is giving this man a heads up: if he truly follows the example of Jesus, he would not be able to bury his father when it was time.‘All the days of his separation to the LORD he shall not go near to a dead person. He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.” (Numbers 6:6-8)

[6] “In Jesus’ culture, the obligation to bury one’s father took precedence even over saying the Shema (The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N.T. Wright)? So how could Jesus tell His disciples not to go bury their fathers?According to first-century Jewish burial customs, when a person died, they were normally buried immediately (usually on the same day) in the family burial cave that had been hewn out of bedrock. This custom is based on the injunction found in the Mosaic Law not to leave the corpse of an executed person on the tree overnight (Deuteronomy 21:22-23).” (Let The Dead Bury Their Dead – Meaning,” Alice Anacioco, biblical-christianity.com)

[7] As cited by Steven Cole at preceptaustin.com

[8] “He wanted to make sure he received his inheritance. Then, when his circumstances were secure, he’d be equipped to be a disciple.” (Tony Evans Study Bible)

[9] “After the body was placed in a burial cave and is left to decompose, the family will separate itself and mourn for seven days. This initial mourning period is called shivah which is followed by a less intense 30-day period of mourning called shloshim. However, the entire mourning period was not fully over. The final act of mourning is when the family would return after a year to gather all the bones and place them with the bones of other family members on another shelf or the floor. This is now the secondary burial, also referred to as ossilegium. In the Jerusalem Talmud, it says, “When the flesh had wasted away, the bones were collected and placed in chests (ossuaries). On that day (the son) mourned, but the following day he was glad because his forebears rested from judgment” (Moed Qatan 1:5). (“Let The Dead Bury Their Dead” Meaning. Alice Anacioco.) biblical-christianity.com)

[10] Blessed Theophylact gives a concise explanation: “He is saying, “Let your dead relatives, that is, those who do not believe, take care of your unbelieving father in his old age until death.” To bury means here to bestow care on him even to the grave. Even in common parlance we say, “So and so buried his father,” which means not only that he placed him in the ground when he died, but that he also did every other good thing for him that was necessary, caring for him until his end and his burial.” (Let The Dead Bury Their Dead,” Fr. John Whiteford, OrthoChristian.com)

[11] Expositor's Greek Testament

[12] “The phrase “own dead” indicates the inclusion of the fathers among the dead.
“He's essentially making a joke, saying, "Your dad's bones aren't going anywhere. They are safe in the family tomb with all your other ancestors. I'm sure they'll keep him company"; in other words, "Let the dead (your other ancestors in the family tomb) take care of your father's bones until someone else in the family shows up to bury them." (“Let The Dead Bury Their Own Dead,” http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2018/07/let-dead-bury-their-own-dead.html)

[13] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament

[14] The Three Rookies: Christ Speaks to the Problem of Convenient Excuses.” Ray Pritchard

Harmony #51: Carrying The Cross Of Christ (Matthew 16:21-28; Mark 8:31-9:1; Luke 9:22-27)

From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and be rejected and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

So Peter (interrupted and) took him aside and began to rebuke him: “God forbid, Lord! This must not happen to you!”But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Adversary (Satan)! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”

Then Jesus called the crowd, along with his disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

For whoever wants to save his psuche (life)[1] will lose it, but whoever loses his psuche (life) for my sake and for the gospel will save it. For what benefit is it for a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his psuche (soul)?  What can a person give in exchange for his psuche (soul)?

Interesting. Last week, Peter’s confession of faith meant he was the kind of person on which the church would be built (“You are petros, and upon this petra I will build my church”). Jesus followed this immediately with a teaching on how this kind of person would have permission to ‘bind and loose.’ The idea was that his followers had the ability to make decisions that would clarify godly restraints and freedoms - if they were done in line with the order God had already established in heaven.

Well, Peter seems to have misunderstood the scope of this new authority. He does something unthinkable in Judaism: he, the disciple, flexes that ‘binding’ power by stepping in and not only stopping but correcting the rabbi he is following. Worse than that, he stopped and corrected the person he had just described as The Christ, the son of the living God. It’s not his finest moment.

It must have been cool when Jesus made a pun with his name when he declared him to be the Rock. Now, there is another pun on his name: he’s a “stumbling block,” skandalon, “the native rock rising up through the earth, which trips up the traveler.”[2] Peter did not ‘bind on earth’ what had been bound in heaven. As Jesus notes, “You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”

I’m sure it seemed wise in the moment, but if Peter had gotten his way he would have stopped God’s plan of salvation. By offering the King a kingdom that bypassed the road to the cross, Peter unwittingly echoed the path of ease laid out by Satan when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (see Matthew 4). In Peter’s intervening words, Jesus recognizes the plan of the Adversary at work.

Then Jesus turns Peter’s attempt to save Jesus’ physical life into a teachable moment concerning priorities in life that will have an impact on our physical and spiritual life. Here, I paraphrase from what Paul wrote to the Philippians:

“If you are going to follow me - if you want to experience the power of my resurrection -  you have to follow me into the fellowship of my suffering on the cross.”[3]

* * * * *

The call to discipleship is a call to “deny ourselves”, which broadly speaking means giving up self-rule. It’s not as simple as passing up that third donut or doomscrolling for one hour instead of two. It’s bigger than that. We have a King now. We are called to align ourselves with the plans of the King and the commitments of the Kingdom. This means, among other things, we will take up a cross and follow Jesus into a kind of death before we emerge into newness of psuche (life of the soul). Only God’s will matters for life and for eternity.[4] 

We are going to end up talking about the call to spiritual death and resurrection, but I’d like to start by talking about physical death in order to make some comparisons. I think there are some connections between the two. What we can learn about the clash between what we believe and what we feel in relation to physical death may be instructive as we consider the call in the Bible to be crucified with Christ, to die so we may live.

If you are a follower of Christ and study Scripture, there are two things you know/believe about death:

·      Life as we know it is going to end.

·      There is life on the other side, better and different than this one.

I think the hurdle of believing this in our head is often not as daunting as really feeling the truth of this in our soul. I noticed this contrast recently when I was re-reading a journal I kept after my father’s death from cancer.  At one point I began a poem this way:

My fountainhead shriveled, dried up in his bed.

With my tears I watered the grave of the dead

then staggered back home,

a few miles too far from a father who loved me,

and who is not anymore.

At the time the thought that would not leave me was that my father was dead. It was so hard to say those words out loud:  “My father is dead.”  It was so final. The finality of it was overwhelming to me. There seemed no way for me to say, “Death, where is your victory?” when there was a body in a grave. In spite of what I knew in my head to be true about Dad’s life to come – I mean, I’ve been soaked in Scripture all my life - letting that to soak into me was a different story entirely.

I found help in an unexpected area – movies. I think my imagination needed to be captured to remind my emotions about the “hope that lies within me.”

There is a scene in Lord Of The Rings in which Pippen says to Gandalf, in the midst of battle,

“PIPPIN: I didn't think it would end this way.
GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?
GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.
PIPPIN: Well, that isn't so bad.
GANDALF: No. No, it isn't.”

Indeed. I remember singing a hymn growing up that described the life that awaits followers of Jesus as “joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”

So in my journal, I had written a poem about my father who loved me, but who was not anymore.But later I wrote something different.  I was making a list of things that I wanted God to help me remember in the midst of my grief, and one of those was:

“Help me remember that my father did not stop living; he just stopped living here.”

We fear death because it looks like existence is over. It certainly appears that way. But as I was so powerfully reminded in those months and years following Dad’s death, both in Scripture and in good stories, death is not the end. And if I only knew what kind of new life waited on the other side, I would be a different man. This is seeing the living that is found in dying. But…

 If I want a new life, I must first have a death.

So, let’s apply the physical principles to the spiritual part of our lives.

#1  Life as we know it is going to end.

I suspect we process the challenge of spiritual death in much the same way we process physical death. The Bible is not confusing on this issue. If you plan to be a follower of Jesus, you must commit to dying.

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with…”(Romans 6:6)

"I affirm by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily."  (I Corinthians 15:31)

Life as we knew it before following Jesus is going to end.  It’s going to feel like a death, because it is. And it’s going to be hard, because dying is hard.

• I have to stop judging people when it makes me feel so good about myself?

• I have to overcome my addictive behaviors when they numb me so well, or entertain me so much, or make me feel so good?

• I have to stop gossiping, even though my friendships have a lot of “shared prayer concerns” and adrenaline-inducing scandals of our neighbors and friends?

• I have to go home and work things out with my spouse when holding a grudge is so much easier?

• I have to choose my words wisely and carefully and think about how what I am about to say is going to land on other people?

Yes.  We have to die. Life as we know it – with us at the center of our own little world - is supposed to end.

The funny thing is, before we died to the sinfulness in us - the habits and behaviors and mindsets - life was already hard. Sin takes a toll on us. What we reap, we sow. And yet we are really reluctant to leave it at times.

" When we make our own misery, we sometimes cling to it even when we want so bad to change because the misery is something we know. The misery is comfortable."            - Dean Koontz

This idea of dying suggest pain, which is true, but until we believe that the result of death will be better than the result of the life we now have, we won’t change.[5]

• It’s hard to stop judging people, because if that’s the only way I have to feel good about myself, then apparently I will be miserable if I stop.

• It’s hard to overcome addictive behaviors: what will numb me now?  What will entertain me now? What will make me feel good now?

• It’s hard to stop gossiping, because then I will realize how few things of substance I actually say, and how talking about others has allowed me to avoid talking about myself, and that’s a can of worms that I don’t want to open.

• It’s hard to go home and work things out with my spouse: I would much rather savor the idea that I am right and she is wrong, rather than allow her to hold up a mirror and show me a little more clearly who I am.

• It’s hard to take the time to analyze the power and impact of my words, because now I can’t just blurt things out, and I have to get to know other people so I can better understand how they might experience what I have to say, and I might be wrong in what I was just about to say (and I might have been wrong before, now that I think about it…)

#2  We believe there is new life on the other side of resurrection – but it is so hard to see.

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." C.S. Lewis

If if I am correct that we process spiritual and physical death the same way, then I suspect that we have a hard time matching what we believe to be the truth about life on the other side of spiritual death vs. what it feels like in the moment as we think about getting there. But notice what the Bible says awaits us on the other side of spiritual death.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)

Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:24)

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him… count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus…Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. (Romans 6:8-14)

“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish (garbage thrown to the dogs). (Philippians 3:8-9)

"If, then, you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory."  (Colossians 3:1-4)

So from just these verses, I know that if I die a spiritual death, and God raises me up,

A)  I am brought from death to life (transformed)

B)  I am no longer enslaved to sin (free)

C)   I will produce much grain (impactful)

D)  I will be an instrument of righteousness (effective)

E)   I will know Christ Jesus my Lord (connected with God)

F)   I will share in God’s glory (identified with God)[6]

But new life is not just about us. It’s about my wife, my kids, my friends, my neighbors. They need me to die, so that I can really learn how to live.

• When I, as a husband, die to self-justification and defensiveness, I am raised into a life of self-awareness and growth, and I am relieved of the obligation of making my wife the scapegoat for our problems, and that is a marriage with new life.

• When we die to addictive behaviors, we are raised to a new life in which we are free of the control of sin; instead of numbing our pain we meet it and conquer it; instead of being constantly distracted from life we engage it; instead of relying on the occasional rush of drugs or adrenaline to make us happy, we rely on the presence of God to find peace.  And now the community has yet one more person who is engaged, and conquering (or at least working on it), and a little more steady, and a little more peaceful…

• When we die to gossip, we are raised into compassion for others.  Now instead of everybody wrestling with shame as they wonder how many people are talking about them behind their backs because they, in a moment of weakness, talked to you, they are looking forward to meeting with you again because they know that you are safe, and that you care.  And now our conversations with others can take on some depth.  “No, we can’t talk about Bob today.”  “Now what?”  How about your kids, your marriage, your walk with God…”

• When we die to unthoughtful speech, we free the people around us from living in fear about what we might say next, how we might callously offend, how we might belittle or undermine or dig. We replace thoughtlessness with thoughtfulness; we replace our right to say what we want with the responsibility of saying that which “fills people with good things.” (Proverbs 12:14)

I like how C.S. Lewis summarizes this idea:

"The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life... Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in." (Mere Christianity)

And for all of us who want to celebrate spiritual resurrection, let’s practice a rhythm of dying and living this week.  Die to yourself and then live with a friend over coffee; die to yourself and then live with your spouse over supper; die on your own, in prayer before God, and then stand and walk in newness of life.

Take up your cross this week and let Resurrection reveal its power.

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[1] Jesus seems to use both definitions of this word to make a point. From HELPS Word Studies:
“5590 psyxḗ (from psyxō, "to breathe, blow" which is the root of the English words "psyche," "psychology") – soul (psyche); a person's distinct identity(unique personhood), i.e. individual personality.” This is translated as “life” in the first half of the paragraph.

“5590 (psyxē) corresponds exactly to the OT 5315 /phágō ("soul"). The soul is the direct aftermath of God breathing (blowing) His gift of life into a person, making them an ensouled being.” This is translated “soul” in the second half of the paragraph.

[2] One of the definitions according to HELPS word studies.

[3] What Paul wrote in Philippians 3:10

[4] “To follow Him means to live as He lived with all that involves of humility, poverty, compassion, love, grace, and every other godly virtue…Jesus warned that those who hug their lives for selfish purposes would never find fulfillment; those who recklessly abandon their lives to Him, not counting the cost, would find the reason for their existence.”(Believer’s Bible Commentary)

[5] “You find that the things you let go of while following Jesus were the things that were going to destroy you in the end.” Francis Chan

[6] “I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?” Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

Harmony #4: “Stay and Follow” (John 1:35-51; 2 Peter 1:3-9)

When we read about the calling of the first disciples last week, Jesus used two key phrases:

So they said to him, “Rabbi” (which is translated Teacher), “Where are you staying?” Jesus answered, “Come and you will see...”On the next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 

We talked about the “come and see” part last week. Today will focus on the following, which I am going to call “stay and follow” so it matches with “come and see.” J  Last week we talked about the challenge of sprinting toward Jesus when faced with choices so that we increasingly reflect His character. When that happens, people who ‘come and see’ Jesus aren’t soured on Jesus by what they see in the people of Jesus. In addition, there is an increasing number of people are having such a bad experience in churches that they are leaving church so they don’t leave Jesus.

Today, let’s talk about what it looks like to follow Jesus well so that rather than being roadblocks on the way to the cross, we are “‘preparing the way for the Lord, and making straight paths for him.”[1] Our text is from 2 Peter 1:3-9. 

His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue. Through these things, we have received God’s great and valuable promises, so we might escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature. 

 To achieve this, you will need to add virtue to your faith, and then knowledge to your virtue; to knowledge, add discipline; to discipline, add endurance; to endurance, add godliness; to godliness, add affection for others as sisters and brothers; and to affection, at last, add love.  

For if you possess these traits and multiply them, then you will never be ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with and true knowledge of our Lord Jesus the Anointed;  but if you don’t have these qualities, then you will be nearsighted and blind, forgetting that your past sins have been washed away—2 Peter 1: 3–9

  To [share in the divine nature], you will need to add/supply/equip (epichoregein)…”

Epichoregein comes from a word that means "the leader of a chorus." Greek plays needed ‘choruses’ – groups that gave commentary and filled in the plot line for the audience. This was expensive. Wealthy people would voluntarily fund these choruses at great cost. Epichoregein eventually became associated with other generous and costly things: equipping an army with supplies; equipping a soul with virtues.

Peter said for Christians to equip their faith in this way: be lavish, be generous, overwhelm your faith with the following gifts that will enable your faith to flourish. It’s like they are singing along with your life, constantly giving commentary and filling in the plot lines. There’s a great line in Hamlet when Hamlet turns to his cousin – who won’t stop talking – and says, “You are as good as a chorus.” That’s what we want our virtues to be in our life. This adding/supplying/equipping language reminds us that Christians cooperate with the grace of God.

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).

It’s a sanctifying faith in which our human wills cooperate with the divine will. Think of the Parable of the Ten Virgins (five wise and five foolish) going to a wedding. Only the five with oil in their lamps end up going. A German theologian named John Bengal wrote:

"The flame is that which is imparted to us by God and from God without our own labor; but the oil is that which a man must pour into life by his own study and his own faithful effort, so that the flame may be fed and increased."

The list here is the oil which we pour onto the flame God has given us. These lists were a common literary tool (often for memorization purposes) in the ancient world and the early church. [2]

FIRST STEP: FAITH

The list begins with faith: “trusting, holding to, and acting on what one has good reasons to believe is true in the face of difficulties” (Tim McGrew) Maybe think of it this way: Faith is a lifestyle of confident trust. Each step we take in this list moves us into sharing more fully in life in and with Christ.

It’s worth noting that faith is not a feeling, though feelings can and do accompany faith. Faith is a life orientation, a purposeful allegiance, a world’view’ that orients our world’do’ (@ copyright 2022 J) It has to do with things to which we trust the weight of our lives (like this chair, and your chair). We do this all the time with physical things: ladders, cars, airplanes, skyscrapers, etc.

A number of years ago, I went out on my deck one spring to find that a portion of it had sagged about a foot down the house wall. Turns out whoever built it hadn’t fastened it right. So I fastened it, propped it up, etc. When I walk out on my deck now, I put my weight on it.

We also do this with people. Maybe a friend, a counselor, a doctor, a spouse, a parent. We lean on them; we sag on them; we trust who they are, and what they say and do.

Faith has to do with trusting Jesus such that we put the weight of our life on him.

SECOND STEP: VIRTUE

The word is arete, which is virtue, courage or moral excellence. It was used by the Greeks to describe land which is fertile; it also described what the gods did (or were at least supposed to do). It was used to describe people who had the moral backbone not to back down in the face of difficulty.

Our lifestyle of confident trust must be joined with a commitment to moral excellence as seen in the character of God and the person of Jesus, and it must be held tightly in the face of challenges or persecution. We want the land of our life to be fertile soil in which good things grow.

When we tilled our garden this year, my wife and I both commented on how rich the dirt looked. Well, yeah. We put stuff in it last year: compost, manure, leaves. We made it fertile so things would grow.

We start by trusting Jesus; from that, we look to the virtuous character of Jesus as a standard for the soil of our lives, and we take what God has given us and work into the soil so that good virtues grow well.

THIRD STEP: KNOWLEDGE

The word is gnosis - practical knowledge, or practical wisdom.

Worth noting: this comes after virtue. Knowledge in the hands of non-virtuous people can be disastrous. This is why the phrase “Knowledge is power” always made me uneasy. It was posted everywhere to encourage people to get an education. Well, sure, but if you educate a moral fool, you just give power to a moral fool. Knowledge itself is not enough. It is meant to be given to a virtuous person. If you want to be known for your knowledge, please desire to be known for your virtue first.

Key takeaway, though: knowledge matters. We don’t all have to know the same things or know the same amount about the same things. That would actually be quite boring. But we should have a habit of studying God’s two main revelations to us: His work and His Word. His work is general revelation (God’s creation); His Word is special revelation (the Word of God in print and in Person). From both of these we learn more about our Creator, as well as his design and purpose for us.

Don’t we study words and work all the time? When I first came on staff here, I needed to know how to be in a leadership position in the church. Ted hired me to be youth pastor; I had been helping Anne as an assistant when she led youth. I listened to Ted and Anne’s words – and watched their work, both of which happened because I spent time with them. I got to know them. I still do this with those in leadership in this church and others because I still need to learn. I listen to their words and watch their work.

Spend purposeful, focused time learning to know God through His Word and His work.

FOURTH STEP: DISCIPLINE

A person full of virtue and knowledge will know the importance of and see the appeal of self-control. The Greek word used here, egkrateia, is what happens when reason fights against passion and prevails. This is a realistic view of life. Being a Christian does not necessarily remove our passions; it tames, orders and directs them.  As we become a servant of Christ, our passions become a servant of us.

For example: I’ve told my boys that the best way to deal with sexual desire isn’t to try to pretend it’s not there or to get rid of it. God made you to have sexual desire. The passion is not a problem; it’s a gift meant to lead toward great pleasures within covenant marriage. The question is this: is your passion directed in the service of God? Is it ordered toward the good? What does it look like to harness that energy in the service of God and His world? It’s more than just this area, of course.

• There is a holy and a sinful form of anger.

• There is a holy and a sinful form of sorrow.

• There is a holy and a sinful form of happiness.

• There is a holy and a sinful form of longing.

• There is a holy and a sinful form of desperation.

• There is a holy and a sinful form of a work, and play, and relaxation….

Jesus did not come to obliterate our desires; he came to redeem them. And part of that redemption involves putting banks around the raging rivers of emotions that want to flood the world so that we bring life to the world rather than ruin.

FIFTH STEP: ENDURANCE

Cicero defines patientia, its Latin equivalent, as "the voluntary and daily suffering of hard and difficult things, for the sake of honor and usefulness."

Odds are good that if you have faith, virtue, true knowledge and self-control, endurance [or steadfastness] will follow. A dude from Alexandria named Didymus wrote of Job (and this combines what we looked at in the self-control section):

“It is not that the righteous man must be without feeling, although he must patiently bear the things which afflict him; but it is true virtue when he deeply feels the things he toils against, but nevertheless despises sorrows for the sake of God.”

The Greek word used here (hupomone) is more than endure, though. It is full of anticipation and hope. Jesus, “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). This is what we are talking about.  There is no moment in life that does not contain hope, either for this life or the next.

Maybe recovering from surgery is a good analogy here. The pain…the physical therapy…the need to stop doing certain things you love…. We set them aside for what awaits on the other side: (hopefully) health. We pay the cost because of the greatness of the reward that awaits.

SIXTH STEP: GODLINESS

The word use here, eusebeia is hard to translate, apparently, but it’s about the closest you get to a word that could be translated as religion, worship, or piety.  Basically, it is simultaneously worshiping God and serving others. It reminds me a little bit of the Hebrew word shalom, which includes peace with God and others.

To the Greeks, Socrates embodied this (for historical context, Socrates died about the time the Old Testament ends). A writer named Xenophon describes as follows:  

"He was so pious and devoutly religious that he would take no step apart from the will of heaven; so just and upright that he never did even a trifling injury to any living soul; so self-controlled, so temperate, that he never at any time chose the sweeter instead of the better; so sensible, so wise, and so prudent that in distinguishing the better from the worse he never erred."

Okay, that is definitely an exaggeration, but you get the idea of what the Greeks thought of when they thought of this word. Even pagan cultures had a notion of what true religion was supposed to accomplish in a person.

I don’t want to re-preach last week’s sermon, but we saw it there in the early church. God intends righteous words and righteous lives to be inseparable. God intends knowledge of what’s holy to translate it into actions that themselves are holy. 

SEVENTH STEP: FAMILIAL AFFECTION

Philadelphia literally translates as “love of the brethren.” If people are generally seen as a nuisance that get in the way of the projects that are really important to us, something is out of tune. I’m not so sure this means that we super-duper like every individual person as much as it means we ‘have affection for’ the community of God’s people (which will include trying to like them as best we can with God’s grace).

Epictetus was Stoic philosopher who would have been a contemporary of Peter. He is famous for saying that he really had an impact on the world because he didn’t get married and produce snotty-nosed children. He once said,

"How can he who has to teach mankind run to get something in which to heat the water to give the baby his bath?"

Peter sees it differently (and these are my words, not his):

“How can those who want to teach mankind not run to do things just like that?” 

I think this has to do with a mindset, a posture, an orientation of actively pursuing being in community with others. I thought of this Wednesday night at the park. There were people who knew each other well and others who didn’t, but they wanted to be together and get to know each other. That desire to know and be known by others oriented them in a particular way. Now, you don’t have to be at the picnic for that to happen J It just an example that stood out to me Wednesday night.  

* * * * *

So far, the list is about who you are called to be, because that is really important. It finishes with what we are supposed to do as a result of being a particular kind of person.

EIGHTH STEP: LOVE

Agape love is a deliberate choice to work for the highest good of another, engaging in sacrificial action toward that goal. It comes from our will, not our emotions or feelings (though emotions and feelings may be a part of it). It is deliberately and sacrificially loving the unlovable when there is nothing that makes us want to love. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, (Gal. 5:22) a sign that we are sharing in the divine nature.  

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and every one who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) 

There is a phrase I like: “If God calls you, He will equip you.” God calls us to agape love, yes? He has given us the equipment we need.

• faith (a lifestyle of confident trust)

• virtue (moral excellence)

• knowledge (practical wisdom)

• discipline (self-control)

• endurance (hopeful patience)

• godliness (worshiping God/serving others

• philadelphia love (affection for others)

He has equipped us in this way to allow us to “share in the divine nature” – which, I think, finds its culmination in agape love as an expression of genuinely knowing and becoming like Jesus.

“For if you possess these traits and multiply them, then you will never be ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with and true knowledge (epigenosis) of our Lord Jesus the Anointed.”

No matter who you are or where you are in life, if you are on this path, you life is not useless and unproductive, but fruitful. These spiritual graces can be added to faith in any circumstance by anyone, and you will never be ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with and true knowledge of Christ.

Now, let your chorus sing as that it points toward the Composer and Conductor who makes all of this possible.

______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] What Isaiah prophesied John the Baptist would do (Mark 1:3).

[2] You see lists several other places in 1st century church writings: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23); righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11);  faith, self-control, simplicity, innocence and reverence, understanding, love (The Shepherd of Hermas)

Disaster-ship and Disciple-ship

Moving from 2019 into 2020, it was my sense that we had some really good momentum here in the church on a number of levels: Small groups were going strong, kid and youth ministries were doing well, Message+ was having great post-sermon conversation, the worship team was clicking, we had a new stage and a new sound system, the Mission Board had new life. Then, COVID-19. Granted, COVID hit everyone. That wasn’t unique to us. Still, it felt like going virtual derailed a church train that was picking up some steam.

Then election tension was everywhere. Once again, not unique to us. In that sense, between COVID and politics, the church in the United States has had a refining year –or at least the opportunity to be refined. And since we are a church in the United States, we get that opportunity too.

We started meeting using our outdoor space in May, I think. It was a beautiful summer and our facility enabled us to get back together in a way that observed safety and fostered community. There were some bumps, then we settled in. Then we moved indoors in September. Some bumps again, but we settled in.

The first Sunday we had a full band back on stage in December - the third week of beautiful Advent decorations - was the day of the fire. So not only didnwe lose the gym space and a few more weeks of holiday cheer, we lost the full band just as it was coming back.

A bunch of us had a meeting the Monday night after the fire, and the working assumption (based on some discussion that day with contractors giving estimates) was that it would be a 10 week process. “We will be back in the gymnatorium by the beginning of March.” That was 8 weeks ago and we haven’t started yet. It’s probably going to be at least two more weeks before we can start doing anything. It’s already going to take twice as long as we thought. Honestly, May seems realistic.

So here we are in the lobby. And people who had legitimate concerns about meeting in person because of health or job concerns but or the ripple effect for people around them if they got sick were okay with how much room we had before now aren’t comfortable with this cozy experience (that’s not a criticism; it’s an observation). And while the family of those who consider this church home is significantly larger than those who are here on a Sunday (around 300 vs 50), it still feels like community steps backward also.

Some days I feel like we’re in a 21st century update of Job: God says to Satan, “Have you seen my servants in the world? (pandemic) In the United States? (election tension) At CLG?” (Satan cracks his knuckles and says, “Do they still have Advent candles?”) I don't mean to say that is how it went down. I’m just saying it feels like it.

I have an opinion: I am increasingly convinced that God is using this season to deconstruct us individually and corporately so He can reconstruct something better. Because do you know what all of this sparked at CLG? A huge, messy sanctification process.

Most of us drained our emotional reserves last year, with the result that we burned through all our filters and just kind of started saying what we probably should have been saying for years. So it got messy. It was hard. Is hard.

But what if it was a gift? What if God’s intent is to strip away all our routine and comfort and facades and get our eyes refocused on him for our good and His glory? In a sermon a while ago I quoted the poet Auden, who once said, “We who must die demand a miracle.” What if it’s not that dramatic? What if it’s simply God’s intent to get us as a congregation to the place where we say,

“We who are frustrated and angry at half the people in our own church and in despair about our ability to do life together because we are sooooo different and this lobby will only feel cozy for so long before it gets crowded... We need a miracle. We beg for a miracle.”

And God’s like, “I think that’s a great idea, so if we are going to do this, let’s do it right. Settle into the lobby and settle down. I'm going to need this time to work with y’all. All y’all.”

That’s where I’m at right now. This trial, this test, is a gift that God will work for our good if we indeed love him, and are indeed called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). I believe He plans to rebuild something beautiful and better from the ashes (fire pun intended). We can’t rebuild this with merely our own power or intelligence or personality, or it will fail. Unless the Lord builds it, our labor is in vain. (Psalm 127:1)

* * * * *

Today’s sermon is about cooperating with the Lord’s rebuilding. I’m going to use a ship analogy because why not?

In the business meeting, we are going to talk about how we are restructuring and reorganizing in a way that we are patching holes in the infrastructure of the ship of CLG. The ship needs not only maintenance, but some remodeling. Someone last week who thinks about ships more than I do said, “We’re in dry dock: scraping barnacles, patching things, scrubbing off algae.”

The best sailors in the world are going to have a hard time getting to their destination (or even staying afloat) if they are constantly bailing water and fixing communication coms. So we are restructuring and reorganizing a lot of things in ways that I am convinced were Holy Spirit inspired for this time in this season of CLG, and I am really excited about where we are moving. I don't think it would have happened without the Holy Spirit using last year to shine a glaring spotlight into the shadowy overlooked and ignored corners of CLG’s structure and organization. Because I believe this is the Lord’s inspired rebuild plan, I think you will see ministerial and relational fruit in our church and in your life from this.

But I am also reminded of something T.S. Eliot once wrote: “They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within, by dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.” I’m really excited about the system we are moving into, but it’s not our savior. It will be as good as the people who are a part of it.

As we have begun to address that need more honestly, something else very important has come into focus: the passengers and crew have some issues and unresolved tension, and by passengers and crew I mean the people on the ship, and that’s all of us.

The business meeting will show you what’s happening during dry dock so that the ship of CLG is more seaworthy. This sermon will be about sanctifying the passengers and crew.

So, here’s the sermon.

This church is a ship that has set sail. It will either be a Disciple-ship (yay!) or a Disaster-ship (boo!). I am going to give 5 ways both courses can happen, building from what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.”

How to create a Disaster-ship

1. Don't take ‘keeping the faith’ seriously.

First, don’t take orthodoxy seriously. How do we know what orthodoxy is? The Bible; the Creeds; two thousand years of Christians wrestling with how to properly keep the faith (note: their are open and closed hand issues, open hand being they ones on which Christians in good faith can disagree as they continue to seek clarity and truth grounded in the things around which they have closed their hands – the divinity of Jesus, his atoning death, his bodily resurrection, etc.). Latest polls among evangelicals show only 52% strongly agree that the Bible is their highest authority; only 58% believe that Jesus’ death is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of sin; only 48% believe that only those who trust solely in Jesus will receive eternal life. That’s building a disastership. That is not a sustainable faith, because it’s not built on the faith.

Second, don't take orthopraxy seriously. Don’t live as if we take God and His path of righteousness seriously. Remember: obedience is a means of getting to know God. Disobedience is a means of getting to know “not God.” This speaks to integrity and character, consistency and commitment, not perfection. Paul knew what was true and knew what to do. If you don’t want to keep the faith, keep yourself in the dark about what is true and ignore what God has called you to do.

2. Fight all the secondary fights in church instead of focusing on the good fight

. I talked about this last week also. We can get so busy fighting skirmishes off to the side that we are distracted from the course of the race: spreading in the good news of the grace of God. The fact is, we can get very good at winning battles that feel super important while losing wars that are far more crucial. There is a scene in Wonder Woman where she is being taken to the front lines of the battle. She keeps seeing heart-wrenching scenes and wants to stop, but they keep reminding her: “We need you in the front. If that changes, the rest of this changes.”

It wasn’t that what broke her heart wasn’t important. It was. It just wasn’t going to change if the source of the problem didn’t change. She could fix that, then be back to fix it again in a month. True change flows from truly changed people. We can get so busy directing the hands and feet of people that we forget that if their hearts are in the right place, their hands and feet will go in the right places. It’s not an either/or – it’s good to stop hands from doing evil and feet from taking us there– but clean hands are connected to a pure heart (Psalm 24:4).

On Disasterships, people spend their time butting heads over the wall color in the galley and the kind of wax to use on the floors (silly), or how to best protect and secure the sails (serious), but they happen at the expense of the most important thing, which is to know the captain, love the crew, and sail toward those who need the good news the ship carries.

3. Hide from each other.

Lack of honesty and transparency is like a cancer in the church. A couple weeks ago Tom Gordon talked about ‘choosing our hard.’ Often the courses laid before us are all hard. We want to choose the hard that bears good fruit. In some ways, dishonesty or lack of transparency or failure to confront biblically is its own kind of hard. We develop bitterness and anger and judgment and it undermines friendships in community. That’s hard. Walking into tension is another kind of hard, but it's a hard that has the potential for good fruit if both parties are committed to being focused on fighting the good fight.

4. Be too near sighted or farsighted (inwardly/outwardly focused.)

It's like either having a magnifying glass or a telescope as we look at the world. It's seeing the things right in front of us but being very blurry about what's far away, or being crystal clear about what's far away and being very blurry with what's right in front of us.There are probably two ways that churches can veer off course with excellent intentions and for excellent purposes.

• One is to get so outwardly focused (on other people or other places) that discipleship fails to happen within the church and within ourselves.

• The other is to get so inwardly focused (on ourselves and our church) that evangelism and ministry fails to happen outside our lives and our church.

Granted, it is not easy to balance those two things. Often the history of churches will look a bit like a pendulum as they continue to self assess and respond. However, a sure fire way to head toward disaster is to ignore the tension and settle unthinkingly into one side or the other.

5. Don't take love seriously.

Love is the heart of Jesus’ teaching.

• Love of God first, which manifests itself in love of others. (Matthew 23:27)

• If we love him we keep his Commandments. (John 14:15)

• If we say we love God and hate our brothers and sisters we are liars. (1 John 4:20)

• The greatest commandment involves love. (1 Corinthians 13)

• Love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

Without love, we are just loud, obnoxious cymbal crashers. The noise will drown out our words. The noise will overshadow our actions.

How to create a Disciple-ship.

1. Keep the faith.

First, take orthodoxy seriously.

• Study the Bible. Bible Gateway is a good place to start. There is a cheap membership that gives you access to a ton of commentary that you can read side-by-side with a passage. Read a passage and prep a class. Take notes. Put together an outline. Make an application.

• Study the creeds , which represent two thousand years of Christians wrestling with how to properly keep the faith. Generally, the further back you go in history, the more they focus on ‘closed hand’ issues. When you get into modern denominational creeds, they will sometimes include what you need to at least tighten your hand around to be a part of that denomination, so just know the difference. Our church has a Statement of Faith, which is different from a creed, but is worth absorbing.

• We are evangelicals. Go to the National Evangelical Association and check out their statement of faith, and then click on “topics” and “resources” for a boatload of helpful information.

Second, take orthopraxy seriously.

Live is if we take God and His path of righteousness seriously. Remember: obedience is a means of getting to know God. It’s also a means of honoring his image bearers. Become part of a small group or a circle of close friends in which you genuinely hold each other accountable – not telling each other what we want to hear, or complaining about common causes, but surrendering our privacy to trusted people for the sake of discipleship. What two things did Paul land on? He knew what was true, and he knew what to do. Let people help you discern if that is in fact happening in your life.

2. Focus our primary effort of fighting the good fight.

Wrestle on behalf of the Honorable Cause, which Paul described as “testifying to the good news of God’s grace” and displaying a God whose perfect patience is good news for even the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:12-17). God knows that I know how easy it is to become distracted. I think you do too. Once again, it’s not an either/or, because there are secondary causes that are deeply intertwined with our primary calling. This is a question of focus, time, emotional investment, guiding principles. Our prayer should be that God gives us the wisdom and strength to engage in wrestling primarily for this Noble Cause while always asking the question: “How is this creating more or better disciples?” Do righteous secondary causes speak to the nobility of our primary cause? Sure. Just don’t make a good thing the ultimate thing. That’s idolatry.

3. Be honest with each other.

We commit to being fully known and fully knowing so that we can be fully loved and fully love. It is impossible to do this without the grace and the love of God filling us. I mean, look at us.

• We are too politically, socially, and psychologically diverse for CLG to work by any cultural standard. So was the early church, and God brought them together for the express purposing of displaying His glory by unifying un-unifiable people.

• We are too broken. We are too easily offended and too casually offensive. Let’s be honest: for about a year now, we have felt it whenever we walk into a room with masked and unmasked people. We fill up this room with our baggage on any given Sunday.

• The range of backgrounds and preferences and quirks and strengths and weaknesses is simply too much for us on our own strength to go about creating this New Humanity that the Bible talks about that is found in Christ.

Ephesians 2:4 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Let’s be honest: forming a closely knit community from this group will take the same kind of miracle now that it took then. We who are called to be a new humanity beg for a miracle! We cannot do it on our own.

Remember how Paul said God’s perfect patience was revealed in Paul, as if anything less than supernatural, miraculous patience would not suffice? We are the kind of people who require the perfect patience of a long-suffering God to transform us into his image, let alone into a cohesive body ☺ But that’s part of the way we testify to the good news of God’s grace. “Look what God has done. We thought it was impossible. With God, this is one of the many impossible things that becomes possible.”

4. Get bifocals.

Pray that God helps us to see clearly near and far away. How do we do this as a church? Those of you who are nearsighted do the work of nearsighted people and draw the rest of us in with you so that we see what you see. Show us how to be and make better disciples, to do the hard work of sanctification in ourselves and in our church. Those of you who are farsighted, do the work of far-sighted people and draw the rest of us in so that we see what you see. Show us how to make more disciples, how to go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in, so that the house of God is full. (Luke 14:23) This is part of the diversity we need. It will cause tension because it’s easy to get really frustrated with others whose vision is blurry when ours is clear. But it’s a necessary and good tension as “iron sharpens iron.”

5. Take love seriously.

While this love has aspects of friendship and being nice to each other (and even ideally liking each other!) it's much deeper than that. It's what I mentioned last week in talking about those who ‘have loved the appearance of Jesus.’ It's being committed to thinking God's thoughts, and preferring what God prefers, weeping and rejoicing over the same things that caused Jesus to weep and rejoice. I'm not sure where to go with this other than to ask you to wrestle with, from day to day, what love looks like in this moment and with this person and in this situation. What are the most loving words I can say? What is the most loving attitude I can have? What is the most loving action I can take?

1 Corinthians 13 What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. 2 What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. 3 I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts. 4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; 5 it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs 6 or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! 7 Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. 8 Love will never become obsolete.”