Last month, I had the privilege of gathering with about 60 other pastors from Michigan at our annual Pastors’ Institute. At this retreat for ministers in the Church of God, we learn from a guest speaker, we relax and play games together, and we share in times of worship as a community of faith. It is refreshing, in many ways, for pastors like me simply to be part of a worship service in which we have no responsibilities – other than to worship Jesus, which is always the responsibility of all of us. Continue reading
Meeting Our Muslim Neighbors
Listening is such an important skill to learn. Some of us were born with a tendency to speak (or scream!) more often than not. Others of us were born as more quiet infants. But all of us have had to learn – and must continue to learn – the art of listening. This is more than just hearing what someone else says, but really trying to understand that person from his or her perspective.
Yesterday afternoon I had one such opportunity, which I’d like to share with you today. Continue reading
How I Plan Our Worship Services
Worship means much more than “songs that we sing on Sunday morning.” To me, worship means “giving worth to God as the people of God,” or “showing God how much we love him,” or “celebrating God for his own sake.” And that can take lots of different forms, not just through music.
For a few years now, I have had the privilege and responsibility of planning our Sunday morning worship services at Mt. Haley. Today I would like to draw back the curtain a little bit, so that you can see what goes into these preparations and what I hope we can accomplish as we worship Jesus together. Continue reading
Rethinking Sodom and Gomorrah
Why were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed?
What if it wasn’t for that reason?
Recently, in my personal Bible reading, I came across this famous Bible story in the Old Testament book of Genesis. The quick summary is this: Abraham’s nephew Lot finds himself and his family in the city of Sodom. One day, a couple of (male) angels arrive in Sodom, and Lot insists that they stay overnight in his house. That evening, the men of Sodom demand that Lot surrender these two angels so they can have sex with them; Lot offers his two daughters to the crowd instead.
(Let’s just pause right there. Why do we condemn the men of Sodom for their attempt to rape the angels, but we don’t condemn Lot for offering his two daughters to experience that same abuse?)
The angels then cause the crowd to go blind, Lot and his family escape, the angels disappear, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone (what did the people of Gomorrah do?), Lot’s wife turns into a pillar of salt, and Lot ends up sleeping with and impregnating his own two daughters. Thus ends the biblical account of Lot. (Read all about it in Genesis 19.)
What is going on here? Why were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed?
The popular answer in modern-day Christianity is because the men of Sodom practiced homosexuality. In fact, that’s a fairly historical answer, too; the English word “sodomy” takes it meaning from this biblical story.
But what if it happened for another reason? Can we separate the story of Sodom from the highly-charged, emotional, political, religious issue of homosexuality? Let’s try.
What do we know about Sodom from the Bible? (This a more interesting question than asking about Gomorrah, because scripture always pairs Gomorrah with Sodom, but not vice versa.)
- Sodom is first mentioned in Genesis 10:19 as a border city in the ancient land of Canaan. (Review the sketchy beginnings of the Canaanites, descendants of Ham the son of Noah, in Genesis 9:18-29.)
- Sodom then shows up a few times in Genesis 13. In verse 10, it’s mentioned parenthetically as a town that God will eventually destroy. This is important: the Bible is aware of Sodom’s fate from the outset.
- But Genesis 13:10-13 is all about Abraham’s nephew Lot, who chooses a parcel of land for his family. He settles near Sodom, which is populated with wicked men who were sinning greatly against the Lord – but for undisclosed reasons.
- Then in Genesis 14, the king of Sodom goes to war with several other kings and against several other kings. It’s all very messy and bloody, but Sodom loses the battle, and Lot and his family are carried off into captivity. Abraham quickly rescues his relatives.
- The king of Sodom then has a unique meeting with Abraham himself in Genesis 14:17-24. In the middle of this meeting, quite unannounced and unexpectedly, Abraham has a powerful encounter with Melchizedek, priest of God Most High. This story forms the basis for our understanding of the tithe.
- Things settle down for Sodom until Genesis 18. In this chapter, God promises descendants to Abraham and Sarah, who are old and childless at the moment. After this promise, God mentions to Abraham that he’s going to destroy Sodom because of its wickedness (again unspecified). Abraham bargains with God: if God can find ten righteous people in Sodom, he will not destroy it.
- Then Genesis 19 happens, and Sodom is destroyed, but Lot and his daughters are saved.
So why were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed? I think the answer lies in the goal that the book of Genesis is trying to achieve: Genesis is all about explaining how God blessed Abraham and his descendants and made them into powerful nations. And God’s promise to Abraham is that God will bless all nations through him (Genesis 12:1-3).
The reason Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed is that they got in the way of God’s plan to bless the nations.
Take another look at Genesis 19, specifically verses 9 and 10. The nighttime conflict between the men of Sodom and the two angels ends when the men threaten Lot, not the angels and not his daughters. Lot is rescued by the angels. Lot survives the destruction of Sodom. Lot continues his family line through his two daughters (sketchy as that is). Lot becomes the ancestor of two of Israel’s ancient neighboring nations, Moab and Ammon.
Sodom is destroyed because God has plans for Lot, plans to bless him and to make a nation or two out of him. And let’s not forget the whole sweep of scripture: the entire Bible is about Jesus, whose human ancestry is traced (Luke 3 and Matthew 1) directly through a woman named Ruth, who is a Moabite, the great-grandmother of King David. No Lot means no Moab, which means no Ruth, which means no David, which means no Jesus.
I think the moral question of homosexuality – while still very important – is actually very far removed from what the Bible is trying to accomplish through the story of Sodom.
Just take a look at what the New Testament says about Sodom:
- Jesus refers back to Sodom and Gomorrah as a way of pointing toward God’s future judgment of all people. And that final judgment has everything to do with how people respond to Jesus himself. (See Matthew 10:11-16, 11:20-24; Luke 10:1-16, 17:20-37.)
- Romans 9:29 quotes Isaiah 1:9, which refers to Sodom and Gomorrah in a way that gives thanks for God’s provision for his people in the time of his judgment.
- 2 Peter 2:4-10 mentions Sodom and Gomorrah in a passage that encourages Christians to endure trials in the present world.
- Revelation 11:8 mentions Sodom in passing as John describes the greatest evil in the world.
- The only verse in the New Testament that connects Sodom to some kind of immoral sexual practice is Jude, verse 7. But even then the passage is more about God’s final judgment than it is about moral codes of sexuality.
Please hear what I’m trying to say. I’m not advocating for free sexual practice among all people; I’m not saying that I approve of homosexual activity.
What I’m trying to say is that the story of ancient Sodom is more about God’s plan to save people through Jesus than it is about creating laws regarding sexual behaviors.
What if we learned to retell the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as a story of how God protected his people, created nations, and carved a path in history for the future arrival of the Messiah?
Observing a Baptism Service
Yesterday afternoon, a neighboring church celebrated the baptisms of eight people, each of whom has experienced salvation in Jesus and is dedicating his or her life to following him. Together with seven other people who were baptized in September, the Midland Missionary Church has now seen fifteen people go through the waters of baptism in the past few months. Praise the Lord for how he is moving in that congregation! Continue reading
The Bible – Year in Review
Several of us committed to read the Bible all the way through in 2015. If you are in that group, did you make it? If you are not in that group, is there someone you know who participated? We used the “Chronological Bible,” a reorganization of every verse of scripture according to the order of biblical events. It has been a fascinating journey through scripture, and now that it’s complete, I’d like to offer a couple of reflections on the process. Continue reading
A Radical Christmas
John Rutter is one of the most famous composers of choral music in the 20th century. He is known as the founder and director of the Cambridge Singers, and his compositions and arrangements are widely known and sung throughout the world and especially here in the United States.
I recently became aware of a Christmas carol written by Rutter in 1990. The carol is entitled “Christmas Lullaby,” and Tara and I have the opportunity to sing it with a chamber choir this coming weekend. The lyrics to this carol are particularly meaningful to me this year, so I’d like to share them with you here. Continue reading
Hypocrisy and “Thanksgetting”
Today’s Chronological Bible reading includes this verse, Romans 2:24, from the New Living Translation:
No wonder the Scriptures say, “The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.”
There’s a problem among Christians, especially in North America, and that problem goes by a one-word name: hypocrisy. Echoing the words of Romans, it is no wonder that people outside Christianity have no room for God in their lives, especially when Christians are so adept at saying one thing but doing another. Continue reading
What’s Going On in the Church of God?
Earlier this month, several of us from Mt. Haley attended the Michigan General Assembly of the Church of God. This annual meeting gives us the opportunity to learn about what is happening in ministries around the state and even around the nation. The main speaker this year was Jim Lyon, the General Director of the Church of God in the US and Canada.
He shared some amazing news with us, and I’d like to share those updates with you, too. Continue reading
The Pattern of the World
A couple of weeks ago, on November 1, I preached on Romans 12:1-2. The sermon, part of our series on evangelism, was a call for us to experience deep transformation in Jesus Christ and then to live into the perfect will of God. The sermon led directly into sharing the Lord’s Supper together, an experience of deep transformation in which we encounter the crucified and living Christ in a mysterious, powerful way.
In the sermon’s conclusion, I spoke these two sentences:
The world’s way of living is to ignore the mercy of God and to live for our own comfort and preservation. When we separate ourselves from those who are not like us, we are simply accommodating to the pattern of the world.
I would like to expand on those thoughts with you now. Especially now, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Continue reading