an outlet of encouragement, explanation, and exhortation
Here’s a quote from A.W. Tozer that Troy Wong has been using as an email signature lately.
And to expose our hearts to truth and consistently refuse or neglect to obey the impulses it arouses is to stymie the motions of life within us and, if persisted in, to grieve the Holy Spirit into silence.
Recently Arthur Roberts recommended to the Friends Theology email list a quote from a prayer by Charles Marshall, given at the close of a meeting in Grace-Church Street on March 11, 1693. The prayer is found in the Quaker Homiletics Online Anthology, a division of Quaker Pages, edited by Peter Sippel. Can we be as serious as this early Quaker about following Christ? I want it to be so. Here’s the quote Arthur Roberts sent to us.
And let not any content themselves with a bare profession of Christ, and the name of Christians, but make us Christians indeed, true Israelites, in whom there is no guile. We pray Thee, let the power of godliness shine forth in our hearts and lives. Let none be found among us that crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame; and trample upon the blood of the Covenant, and do despite to the Spirit of grace.
Bring such, we beseech Thee, to true repentance, as have made light of Christ and salvation, that they may seek Thee while Thou mayest be found, and call upon Thee while Thou art near. Glorious God of life and love! thine eye is over all thy people at this time, and their condition is known to Thee; and the living sense which Thou hast given thy servants of the state and condition of thy people, makes them humble mourners before Thee, and doth bow down their spirits in thy sight.
Aren’t the early stories in Genesis repetitions of the stories from earlier cultures? We read similar stories from older sources elsewhere.
Perhaps they are. Let’s consider. If significant event events in human history happened before the time of the Israelites, wouldn’t one expect there might be echoes of these events in the stories of many peoples? So, no problem there.
Well then, one might ask, shouldn’t we be like good historians and go with the older accounts of what happened, separated by less time from the actual events? Speaking as a Christian who believes in God and believes God inspired the books of the Bible, I would say no. God chose to retell his version of the stories to the Israelites so they would understand the past accurately and pass the stories on to us. If God is real and was there to see what happened, then we are hearing from a reliable eyewitness. Of course, such a view depends on taking God and his action in history seriously.
A few years ago, I was involved in early discussions with some friends from various Friends churches who were interested in using their business acumen as ministry to do economic development in areas of serious economic need where we were planting churches. Out of those discussions with the EFCSW Mission Board, these friends started a new ministry initiative called “Marketplace Ministries” and began looking for ways to do business as ministry. I just received [July 8, 2010] an email announcing their first venture, called “Fair Trade Friends, Inc. – Coffee for a Cause”. Here’s a link to their brand new website where you can buy coffee that benefits various ministries.
They sell coffee that is connected to Christian mission in some form. I would particularly direct your attention to the coffee from the Leiva family, whose story is told here.
Note that Ruth Esther Smith, who is mentioned in the story, went to Guatemala after pastoring Long Beach Friends Church. Also, the lady who was traveling with her may have been her partner Cora Wildman, a member of LBFC who went with Ruth Esther Smith to Guatemala in 1906. (One of our members was named after Ruth Esther, I think… Can you guess who?)
Another coffee sold on the website is grown in a village in the Thai highlands where missionaries discovered a way to bring some economic prosperity to a remote village. Read about it here.
I’m about to place my first order. Wait just a minute….
There. I just ordered some Abuela Reina’s Blend Guatemala Regular Roast and Chanita Thai Select – Full City (Medium). I’ll probably be drinking some of it in the office once it arrives; come join me!
The prices are pretty good for this kind of coffee. I’d say the shipping charge – about $10 – was a bit steep compared to what other coffee sites charge. On the other hand, I just bought coffee from a family in Guatemala who first heard the gospel from missionaries sent by our church, and from a village in the Thai highlands that provides employment for local villages who support their church with the income they receive. Cool. From idea to pressing the “Place Order” button on the web. This same group is currently recruiting a national coordinator to develop marketplace ministry in Cambodia. Michelle Murray’s father is one of the leaders getting this ministry going. God is good. Have some coffee!
A friend of mine was recently in Houston. His report:
A street person asked me for change. I asked him if he could direct me to the best nearby restaurants. He knew every one, but confided that the cafeteria in the Presbyterian Hospital had the best deals. I gave him $5.
This is magnificent! Exchange. Dignity. Wow.
God’s kingdom is one where love and justice and holiness reign unhindered.
The trouble with politicians today, my friend said to me the other evening, ‘is that they always tell us that if we vote for them things will get better. If only they’d tell us the truth that the world is a dangerous place, that there are lots of wicked people trying to exploit each other, and that they will do their best to steer us through – then we might believe them.’ ‘Yes,’ another friend chipped in, ‘and that’s what happens in the church as well. We are so eager to tell people that God loves them, that everything’s going to be all right, that God welcomes wicked people as well as good ones -and then ordinary Christians have to live in the real world where people lie and cheat and grab what they want. Somehow it doesn’t fit.’
…But now for the good news – though it wasn’t good news for the people who were originally invited. God was sending out new messengers, to the wrong parts of town, to tell everyone and anyone to come to the party. And they came in droves. We don’t have to look far in Matthew’s gospel to see who they were. The tax-collectors, the prostitutes, the riff-raff, the nobodies, the blind and lame, the people who thought they’d been forgotten. They were thrilled that God’s message was for them after all.
But there was a difference between this wide-open invitation and the message so many want to hear today. We want to hear that everyone is all right exactly as they are; that God loves us as we are and doesn’t want us to change. People often say this when they want to justify particular types of behavior, but the argument doesn’t work. When the blind and lame came to Jesus, he didn’t say, ‘You’re all right as you are’. He healed them. They wouldn’t have been satisfied with anything less. When the prostitutes and extortioners came to Jesus (or, for that matter-, to John the Baptist), he didn’t say, ‘You’re all right as you are. His love reached them where they were, but his love refused to let them stay as they were. Love wants the best for the beloved. Their lives were transformed, healed, changed.
Actually, nobody really believes that God wants everyone, to stay exactly as they are. God loves serial killers and child molesters; God loves ruthless and arrogant businessmen; God loves manipulative mothers who damage their children’s emotions for life. But the point of God’s love is that he wants them to change. He hates what they’re doing and the effect it has on everyone else – and on themselves, too. Ultimately, if he’s a good God, he cannot allow that sort of behaviour, and that sort of person, if they don’t change, to remain forever in the party he’s throwing for his Son.
That is the point of the end of the story, which is otherwise very puzzling. Of course, within the story itself it sounds quite arbitrary. Where did all these other guests get their wedding costumes from? If the servants just herded them in, how did they have time to change their clothes? Why should this one man be thrown out because he didn’t have the right thing to wear? Isn’t that just the sort of social exclusion that the gospel rejects?
Well yes of course, at that level. But that’s not how parables work. The point of the story is that Jesus is telling the truth, the truth that political and religious leaders often like to hide: the truth that God’s kingdom is a kingdom on which love and justice and truth and mercy and holiness reign unhindered. They are the clothes you need to wear for the wedding. And if you refuse to put them on, you are saying you don’t want to stay at the party. That is the reality. If we don’t have the courage to say so, we are deceiving ourselves, and everyone who listens to us.
Addiction cannot be defeated by the human will acting on its own, nor by the human will opting out and turning everything over to divine will. Instead, the power of grace flows most fully when human will chooses to act in harmony with divine will. In practical terms, the means staying in a situation, being willing to confront it as it is, remaining responsible for the choices one makes in response to it, but at the same time turning to God’s grace, protection, and guidance as the ground for one’s choices and behavior. It is the difference between testing God by avoiding one’s own responsibilities and trusting God as one acts responsibly. Responsible human freedom thus becomes authentic spiritual surrender, and authentic spiritual surrender is nothing other than responsible human freedom. Here, in the condition of humble dignity, the power of addiction can be overcome.
Addiction and Grace; Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions
Henri Nouwen:
Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
It seems nearly impossible for people from conventional backgrounds, particularly Christians, in my experience, to approach those who are homeless or otherwise in unconventional circumstances without trying to “fix them”. It seems that we are afflicted with a desire to play God for other human beings. Watch the movie The Soloist for a great depiction of the temptation and where it leads. The book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert has an excellent section covering this topic.
In our ministry at LBFC, we are committed to the idea that every person deserves to be treated with dignity. People are not primarily a target for our evangelism. We love to introduce people to Jesus, and are outspoken in pointing to Jesus; but it is all too easy to objectify people, carving notches on our Bibles when we get them to “pray the prayer”. God forbid that we treat people with anything less than authenticity. People on the street are accustomed to being herded and disrespected by those who represent authority (which includes pretty much anyone who is not on the street too). We must intentionally establish relationships of a nature that allow authentic exchange. Frankly, while I’m glad to share the gospel when the opportunity arises, I do not usually ask people if they want to make a commitment to Christ until we’ve come to a place in the relationship where I feel as though the person will be able to respond truthfully, having some idea of who I am and why I think this is important. Par for the course in Christian ministry to the homeless is that the homeless know they need to “pray the prayer” in order to access resources from Christians who favor those who cooperate in their evangelism efforts.
We simply must not see people as primarily objects of our improvement efforts. To think in these terms is to assume a superior position that is not worthy of the king who washed his disciples’ feet, and called us to follow him. Human beings are created in the image of God. They are inherently worthy of respectful and dignified treatment because they bear his image, however tarnished. It is tarnished in me, too! People on the street need real friendship, not co-dependency or pandering or condescension.
What are some common big mistakes?
Number One. The most pervasive and pernicious mistake that Christians make is to expect dramatic change in a short period of time. Yes, it is true that God can do miracles and there can be changes “overnight”. However, even in those who trust him, it seems more often that God works through normal human relationships of honest caring over extended periods of time to build people to be like Christ. God created families for a reason. The family is the primary setting for socialization and discipleship. It is where we learn the skills, values, and habits that are vital to healthy relationships. When a man or woman has lived a life without the shaping that comes from a healthy family – or even worse, has been deeply scarred by an abusive family – the void or damage does not evaporate overnight. Instead, what has been lacking must be replaced by constructive and formative relational experiences – family and community experiences. This shaping takes years in a normal family. Why would we expect it to take less when undertaken at a later age after years of scarring? (Think of the advantages of learning a language while young…)
Number Two. We like to play God. We don’t think of it that way, but that’s what we do. I have my act together; you do not. Let me help you. I’ll take over your life (at least the important parts) and (perhaps) let you have them back when you are ready. In truth, hardly anyone would say this so bluntly – but we act like it is what we believe. In truth, this is playing God. In truth, we who feel superior are broken people who are not qualified to run even our own lives, let alone someone else’s. If we do not acknowledge this reality, we will hurt ourselves and others when we try to “help”. The book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert has an excellent section covering this topic.
That’s not all, but that’s enough for now. Pray for me to avoid these pitfalls.
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.
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