Jesus fed an enormous crowd – over 5000 people – with just a few loaves and a couple of fish. A familiar story if you’ve been around the church for a while, right? What does this passage have to do with our quest to discover and use our spiritual gifts? Click below to hear Pastor David’s message based on Mark 6:30-44.
The Hunger Games
Yesterday, I finished reading Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. These are new fiction books that have become very popular in the past few years. In fact, the first book has already been made into a movie. The series portrays a distopian society in which violence and bloodshed are used by the government to keep the population controlled and obedient. The books tend to be fairly graphic, especially later in the series, so I suggest that you use sensitivity and discernment when choosing to read The Hunger Games.
What I find fascinating is a theme that persists throughout all three books. The main character, a teenage girl named Katniss Everdeen, frequently faces situations in which she must observe, confront, or even participate in violence – often directed against innocent people like herself. Yet from beginning to end, she is never comfortable with the violence that runs rampant in her society. She always desires peace and considers it a virtue worth pursuing as long as possible. Here is a quote that illustrates this theme, taken from the end of the final book:
…something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences. You can spin it any way you like. [One government leader] thought the Hunger Games were an efficient means of control. [Another] thought [a bombing campaign] would expedite the war. But in the end, who does it benefit? No one. The truth is, it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen. (Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, p. 377)
The above image is part of a photograph of the old “tabernacle” meeting house on the Church of God campgrounds in Anderson, Indiana. The building hosted multiple worship services every day at the Church of God’s annual week-long campmeeting. Over 5,000 people packed into the tabernacle to worship together and to hear preachers from around the movement. And where everyone could see them, banners printed with various scriptural phrases were hung around the building. One of these, which you see here, was printed with a quote from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV): “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.” Notice how the words “God of peace” are much more prominent than the other words on the banner.
As followers of Christ, we are to be in the business of bringing about peace in our world. We serve the God of peace – even Jesus the Messiah, who is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). We strive for peace between God and us, a peace that comes from the God who forgives our sins. We strive for peace between human beings, among family members, and in neighborhoods, because we value human life and understand that God (who is love) calls us to love him wholeheartedly and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We strive for peace among people groups and nations so that the kingdom of God, which the angels heralded as “peace on earth” at the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:14), might grow throughout the world.
What The Hunger Games lacks is an understanding that peace is only available through reconciliation with God. Katniss Everdeen ultimately desires peace but must live in a world of violence. If you are interested, check out a copy of The Hunger Games (that’s the title of the first book) and listen carefully for its cry for peace in the real world.
–Pastor David
Speaking Truth
Yesterday, we had the privilege of hearing testimonies, songs, and scripture verses from several guests from Mid-Michigan Teen Challenge, a Christ-centered organization in which men and women – many of whom have struggled with addictions to drugs and alcohol and are at the end of their ropes – can find spiritual healing, forgiveness, and a relationship with Christ. About ten of the young women enrolled in this 14-month residential program came to our church to share their stories with us. Pastor David’s abbreviated message, taken from Mark 6:1-13, summarizes this full day of worship by focusing God’s two-fold call on our lives: to become more like Christ and to share our stories with the world around us. Click the link below to hear this sermonette!
The Importance of Connecting
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 126th annual North American Convention of the Church of God. This week spent with friends, family, and colleagues reminded me of an important truth: we need to be connected to each other to fulfill God’s plan for the church.
As Church of God people, we place a high premium on a theological principle called “unity.” This doesn’t mean “hanging out with people who are like us” or even “accepting people who are different from us.” It doesn’t have to do with worship styles, Bible translations, labels on church buildings, or anything of that sort. Instead, unity has a great deal to do with our need to be connected to each other in order to accomplish God’s will for us.
In John 17:20-21, Jesus prayed for those who would believe in him in the future – even including us. He specifically prayed that we might all be one to illustrate the unity between Jesus and God the Father. And the purpose of that unity is so that the world might believe in the entire sweep of salvation history, culminating in the redemption made possible through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our unity – or lack thereof – has tremendous implications!
Last week’s convention in Anderson reminded me that we at Mt. Haley are not lone rangers; we are not isolated; we do not carry alone the torch of Christianity in general (or of the Church of God in particular). What’s more, I was reminded through a series of meaningful conversations that God calls not just individuals but also groups into his service. For instance, Abram was called to follow God into unknown territory in Genesis 12:1-3 – but his call extended to include his yet-unborn descendants, the Israelites. The boy Samuel was called by God (in 1 Samuel 3) to be a prophet, but he would also anoint the first two kings of Israel, namely, Saul and David. Even the early disciples were called individually to follow Jesus as a group, and these twelve disciples were the kernel through which the early church began to grow in the book of Acts.
I am still processing the concept of God calling groups of people into his service, but I believe there is something useful to be gained by studying this idea. We as a congregation, we as Mt. Haley Church of God have been called together by God – for what purpose? to what end? for whose glory? How can we encourage one another and spur each other on to become more like Christ? What difference will we, as a group, make for the kingdom of God in our local community and around the world? How does God desire to make himself known to the world through our expressions of unity with each other and other believers?
I know at least one thing is true: we need to be connected to each other to fulfill God’s plan for the church. Let’s practice this Christ-centered unity together!
–Pastor David
NAC2012: A Message of Hope
Pastor David participated in last week’s North American Convention (NAC2012) of the Church of God, which was held in Anderson, Indiana. In this message, he gives a summary of events that took place there, including a concern about the identity of the Church of God. Click below as he reflects on Judges 11:29-40 – a rather difficult passage to read! – and offers a word of hope from scripture to our situation.
Who Needs a Comforter?
Pastor David preached at the Monday morning service of this year’s North American Convention of the Church of God. This service was held in Park Place Church of God in Anderson, Indiana. The link below is a recording made by Pastor David from where he stood; we apologize for a few loud clinks and clanks in this audio file. To order official, production-quality CDs and/or DVDs of this message, follow this link.
Click below to hear Pastor David’s message on John 14:22-31.
A Dark and Stormy Night
It was a dark and stormy night… when Jesus calmed a life-threatening storm with just a few words. The disciples were amazed and terrified by Jesus’s display of power – who is this man? And why did he calm that storm, anyway? And how does this story relate to our quest to investigate our spiritual giftedness? Click below to hear Pastor David’s sermon on Mark 4:35-41.
Who Determines What’s Right?
Two recent stories have my attention today, and I’d like to share my reflections with you. First, though, please know that my primary concern with these stories is discipleship and serving Christ, not politics or even ethics.
Yesterday on the radio I heard an interview of a woman named Sarah Tuttle-Singer. She had an abortion at age 19, has become the mother of two children since then, and recently wrote an essay about her experience with abortion as a college student. She stands by her decision to have an abortion, even though she acknowledges that it was a “very challenging, very painful process” – especially when she later became pregnant again. At the end of the interview, she commented that when a woman is considering terminating an unwanted pregnancy, “the choice that’s made has to be in her best interest and has to come from what that voice inside of her says is the right choice to make.”
This goes against a biblical understanding of how we should make our choices.
Today, I saw online a “mashup” video – a video that combines two different things or ideas. With soft jazz music playing in the background, the video alternates between (a) biblical phrases taken from the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), part of Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount,” and (b) video clips of Christian pastors condemning homosexual behavior and the people who practice such behavior. (If you are reading this online, please take a couple of minutes to watch the video.) To be fair, many Christian pastors have gone too far in condemning individuals for specific sins, specifically those in the realm of homosexuality; it is God’s place to judge, not ours. I don’t believe people are easily attracted to Christ while being mercilessly criticized by Christians. What disturbed me, though, about this video was its conclusion: after showing so many pastors (and children!) preaching that terrible things should be done to gays and lesbians, the video concluded with these words:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10 NRSV)
My interpretation was that the video was giving gays and lesbians the designation of “those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”
This also goes against a biblical understanding of how we should make our choices.
Please remember that I am thinking about discipleship and serving Christ, not about politics or ethics. I am not advocating for abortion rights or gay rights; however, those issues aren’t my main concern. My main concern is how we view scripture, ourselves, God, and the nature of righteousness.
God has given us the immense responsibility of free choice, so that we can freely know and choose to follow him. Yet that responsibility does not translate into a self-determined righteousness that says, “I believe this choice is good; therefore it is good.” God has also given us the immense challenge to follow and to serve Jesus Christ with our lives, facing persecution if necessary from those who do not believe in the gospel message. Yet that call to suffer for Christ does not translate into a self-validation that says, “I choose to live my life how I please, and look how persecuted I am by people who disagree with me.”
These present-day stories about abortion and homosexuality are warnings to us who claim Christ as Lord: Our ethical choices about life and sexuality do matter to God. Beyond that, though, our understanding of right and wrong cannot begin and end with our own preferences. We must strive to become more Christlike, even when that goes against what we think or feel is right for ourselves.
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33 NLT)
–Pastor David
Serving Humbly
This Sunday, we continue our biblical study of “spiritual giftedness,” the way in which God blesses us and calls us to serve in his kingdom, by investigating the kingdom of God itself. Jesus’s only two parables in Mark regarding what the kingdom of God is like are found in Mark 4:26-34, and they both have to do with agriculture. What does this have to do with us today? Click below to hear Pastor David’s sermon on this passage.
God Redeems This World
Today I’d like to share with you a paragraph from a commentary on Mark’s Gospel. This was written in 1974 by William L. Lane, and it deals with the reason Jesus taught in parables to describe the Kingdom of God. Although this paragraph is full of academic-sounding language, I promise it will be worth reading:
Basic to parabolic utterance is the recognition of the two strata of creation: the natural and the redemptive. Through parables Jesus called attention to what had previously been hidden in the redemptive order. The realism of his parables arises from the certainty that no mere analogy exists between the natural and redemptive order, but an inner affinity, because both strata originate in the purpose of God. That is why the Kingdom of God is intrinsically like the daily natural order and the life of men. The createdness of the natural order thus becomes the vehicle for the tenor of the redemptive. A contemplation of the one order can reveal or illumine truths of the other, because both reflect God’s intention.
Wow! Allow me to try to unpack this paragraph.
Jesus taught in parables because he knew there is a connection between the world as it is (“the natural”) and the world as God intends it to be (“the redemptive”). Surely God wants to redeem his creation, including sinful people like us. In order to do that, God chose to reveal, through Jesus, what this redeemed life looks like. When Jesus used parables to teach his disciples and the crowds, he was using a form of speech that they could connect with. But that’s exactly the point: God’s kingdom is not going to replace this world. Instead, God intends to redeem this world (“the natural order”) by transforming it – and people in it, like us – so that it will be pleasing to him.
So we can reflect on the world around us and learn something about how God intends to bring his kingdom in its fullness. This is how Jesus taught: through parables that use our everyday lives to convey deep, meaningful truths about the Kingdom of God. For instance, as we’ll see this Sunday, the Kingdom of God is like a small, humble seed that grows mysteriously into a large, important plant.
On the other hand, we can reflect on God’s work of redemption through Jesus’s death and resurrection, and through that reflection we can discover truths about this created world. For example, God has brought about salvation through Jesus Christ and is bringing his kingdom into this world; therefore, this created world fundamentally matters to God and should matter to us as well.
In the end, to quote William Lane once again, “both strata originate in the purpose of God.” That is, both the created world and the work of redemption through Christ are part of God’s ultimate plan for the universe. They are intimately connected to each other because God uses both for the best purpose possible: to bring himself glory and honor.
–Pastor David