Joy Carriers (Psalm 126)

Sunday, December 14, 2014 – 3^rd Sunday of Advent

          “May our Homes be filled with Dancing.  May our streets be filled with joy.”  Jesus has come, salvation is offered to all who repent and turn to him.  He promises to return and invite all who are his to inhabit the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven as children of God.  Yes, dancing and joy; yes, that sounds right. 

We heard it when Tim and Laura lit the candle and read Isaiah 61:  I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God.

Mary, the mother of Jesus: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

Our songs, our scriptures, our reading, our ears – we are full of joy and we should be.  It is Jesus’ birthday.  We are reminded that we have been born again in Christ.  At Christmas we celebrate our birthday, our awakening to God, our receiving forgiveness, cleansing, and eternal life. 

Psalm 126 offers a beautiful expression of what we have in Christ.  We are who we are because he is who he is.  “Our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy.  May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.  We were like those who dream.”  That last line calls to mind the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28).  You and I will dream.  We will see the Kingdom of God. 

The tension comes when we take our eyes off Christmas and the magic and wonder, the holiness and love, and we look around us. Reading Psalm 126 rubs against the hard edge when we step out of the warm soft light of worship into the biting winds of the world around us. 

We won’t let go joy.  We won’t.  We hold it, proclaim, live in it, and spread it because of Jesus.  However, we do this with eyes wide open.  We do this full of compassion which demands that we have empathy for people whose experience of life is different than our own.  That means we have to be joy carriers.  We have to carry joy to people who are having trouble seeing it right now. 

America has blown up in a 21^st century version of racial strife.  Much of the vitriol is spilled all over Twitter and Facebook.  These media can be pathways where we share the Gospel.  I have participated in redemptive conversations on Facebook. 

However, there is no filter.  So, people can tweet, post, or email extremely insensitive thoughts.  Readers see a message and respond with aggressive words.  Insults are thrown back and forth and what started as a thoughtful even hopeful discourse is, in the end, a hate-stained verbal battle ground. 

Remember the Psalm – our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy.  We won’t let go of joy.  We will spread it.  This is the feel-good seasonal joy that can be reduced to a greeting card (not that I oppose Hallmark, I don’t).  No, we are here talking about the deep joy of Heaven.  That is what we in Christ are called to share. 

Michael Brown’s family is having trouble with laughter.  Their son is dead.   

Eric Garner’s wife is not raising shouts of joy.  Her husband, a black man, died when a white officer used an illegal choke hold to subdue him.  Conservative commentator Bill O’Reily condemned the actions that led to Garner’s death.

The one that gets me is Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old child in Cleveland, Ohio who was shot by police men because he had a BB gun.  My 12-year-old son runs through our neighborhood all the time playing with his friends playing with pretend guns and swords and having fake battles.  Boys love BB guns.  I don’t have to worry about my son being confronted by police – he’s white. 

But my younger son is black.  All my kids are adopted and the younger two are black.  My neighborhood is mostly white we a few Chinese and Koreans also there.  It is educated, middle class America.  Is my neighbor going to call the police because my black son is playing too aggressively?  When my white son plays that way, it is “boys will be boys.”  Why doesn’t my black son get the same space and grace?  If my neighbors call the police and they come and confront my black son for doing what all his white playmates have done all around him all his life, then what happens? 

He’s seven.  He was listening as we had NPR on recently.  He asked my wife “Is it going to be hard for me because I am black?”  She had to be honest and say, “Yes.  It might be.”

This is real.  A few years ago, someone in our neighborhood saw two black boys going door-to-door through neighborhood.  She emailed the neighborhood list serve asking if she should call the police.  They were football players from Chapel Hill high school selling calendars to raise money for the team.  Why didn’t she ask the same question a year before?  She didn’t ask because a year before, the players who went door-to-door were white. 

So just to be clear, parents of black boys have to teach their kids not to play with BB guns – you might get shot.  Parents of black boys have to teach their sons to be careful if you go through a neighborhood because your football team needs money – someone might call the police. 

Our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy.  We cannot let it.  We are of Christ.  We are in Christ.  We know what this season, why joy is the word for it.  Nor can we blithely proclaim joy as if everything is alright.  Everything is not alright.

Much of what I have said is toxic and divisive.  Some white people stand with their black brothers and sisters; other white people decry aspects of black culture they find unappealing.  Some people damn the police – all police.  Others rush to the defense of the police. 

I read an impassioned appreciation shared by the daughter of a law enforcement officer.  I really could feel her heart as she thanked her dad and all officers for his service in protecting the public.  The work the police do is essential in keeping our society safe and ordered.  When you are listening to K-Love or another radio station and the public service announcement comes on calling for thanks and prayer for those in the armed forces, also say a prayer of thanks for police officers and fire fighters.  We need the people who do these tough jobs. 

My only question is this.  Could a black woman offer the same word of appreciation to the police?  Or would her experiences of police pulling her son over to ask why someone like him was driving such a nice car lead her to a different statement?  Does she feel forced to plead with the officials to give her son the same grace and guidance and protection they white boys?  That such a question even warrants asking shows the complexity and difficulty in our culture. 

We have to name it.  We have to insert ourselves into tension and carry the joy of Jesus into it.  As I said, I understand the appreciation for policemen and women I read this week.  That makes sense.  I think I understand that groups of people are fearful of the police.  That also makes sense. 

Many times in recent weeks, reading about Ferguson and Staten Island and grand juries, I have been at a loss for what to say. This morning, with the light of Christmas filling my heart and the even brighter light of Christ illuminating all of life, I know what we have to do.  We have to carry joy to people whose hearts are soaked with tears so that the Holy Spirit can give laughter to those who need it most.  How do we do this?  I have a few thoughts.

First, we listen.  I urge Christ followers to find people whose perspective is different than our own and hear what they have to say.  We listen without judgment and without condition.  Just see the whole picture from their perspective.  Feel their pain.  We listen to them and with them and we do so with compassion and understanding.  You don’t have to agree with everything they say.  Just stand with them and offer compassionate embrace.  It will be uncomfortable, and awkward.  Accept that and go there. 

Second, we pray.  We pray before we listen.  We pray as we listen.  And we pray as we watch.  You turn on the news, find out the grand jury is not going to indict and the rioting and looting starts.  Before we post on Facebook how evil rioting is, we turn our hearts to Heaven and think about with Jesus.  Imagine simply sitting – you and Jesus together – thinking together.  Why does someone see the death of a teenager as an occasion to rob stores?  Because that person, that looter, does not know the joy of Jesus.  He is so lost, his great joy this Christmas will be the TV he stole from a Ferguson store.  You and I want to rant and rave about how stupid looting (and it is).  Is Jesus joining us in our indignation? 

Or do we see this from Jesus’ view?  Yes, Jesus hates sin.  Jesus also weeps when a child dies.  Are we weeping with Him?  Yes, looting is a sign of how broken the world is.  When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, another broken place, he wept (Luke 19:41).  Into Jerusalem, into Ferguson, into Cleveland, are we flicking our tongues in disgust or weeping alongside Jesus?  When our hearts are where Jesus is then we are poised to have our tears turned into laughter.  Only when Jesus has done this in us are we ready to carry his joy to another.

Third, seek.  Seek out good stories amidst the not so good.  In Richmond California, the chief of police led the protest march against police abuses of power.  His message to the community was I see with you that something is broken and my intent is to be part of the solution.  It can be wearing to constantly hear stories of more deaths, angry rants, and divisive rhetoric.  It is tempting to turn it all off and stick to schmaltzy Christmas movies. We are in Christ.  We cannot just stick to safe, nice things.  Jesus does not do that.  We have to go where Jesus is.  The media magnifies tragedy because bad news sells.  The media buries positive stories.  But those positives are out there.  We seek the good as we pray for all and listen to those whose perspectives differ from ours.. 

A fourth thought I have is to hold on.  Hold on to joy.  We cannot carry it and share it if we drop it because our hearts are full of other things – anger, irritation, judgment.  Let’s drop those things and hold onto joy.

If we listen, we see the other, whoever the other is – black, Asian, police gay, immigrant – we see the other as human.  Joy comes when human hearts join with each other.  Our differences become beautiful variety and likenesses are signs that we are all made in the image of God and in Christ adopted as children of God. 

If we pray, we submit ourselves to Jesus. We let go of everything.  He sets the agenda.  We have already seen in the scriptures that God fills us with laughter and joy. 

If we seek the good, we are inclined toward the light and without realizing it the light of God shines through us.  We gravitate toward stories of hope and people are pulled along with us. 

If we hold onto joy, we release other thing, negative emotions, hateful words.  We are all of limited capacity.  We can only carry so much.  Let joy be what we carry.

I have not mentioned protest – Christians participating in peaceful demonstrations like ‘die-ins’ and other things like that.  I don’t feel I understand protest movements enough to give thoughtful comment.  But I think if we commit to listening, praying, seeking the good, and holding tightly to joy, we will be equipped to be people of the light of Jesus if participate in protests.  If we choose not to participate, we are at least ready to love those who do.  Jesus calls us to love.

When the Lord restores [our] fortunes, we will be those who dream.

² Then our mouth will be filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said of us, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

Healing the world is God’s work, which began with the coming of Jesus.  In the age of the church, we bear witness to Him.  In His perfect time, he will return to complete the work of the cross and resurrection.  This is God’s work.  We carry the message of God’s work to those who need it most and we do so with compassion.  Christmas highlights what God’s people are all year – joy carriers.

AMEN

Review of Addie Zierman's "When We were on Fire"

Addie Zierman’s memoir about growing up in evangelical culture, When We were on Fire, is extremely difficult for me to review because it hits so close to home.  My own experience, growing up in an evangelical church and then serving as a youth pastor and senior pastor bears striking similarities to the stories she tells.  I am a little more than a decade ahead of her.  Much of what she experienced as a student in church youth groups I went through as a wet-behind-the-ears youth pastor.  I remember “Acquire the Fire,” “True Love Waits,” and “See you at the Pole.”  I did not get involved in all these things, but in some of them, I was taking youth groups through the programs the year they came out.  I get where Addie is coming from.

            I feel a deep sadness for her.  Being an evangelical Christian can be so wonderful.  It should be.  I grew up as the virgin waiting for marriage.  I was, the kid who may have laughed at the dirty jokes, but secretly blushed knowing God saw me laughing.  I was the one in youth group who took “true love waits” seriously only to discover my friends in youth group were sleeping with each other.

            Yet, I look back on it and my memories are extremely fond.  Unlike the author, I became more evangelical as I grew up.  I may have gone through seasons of sadness, but most of the time, I reacted by running to God, not from God.  So I find the sections of the book disillusion and rebellion exceedingly sad.  Her final section, redemption, left me feeling empty and disappointed. 

            The book also gave rise to a fear in me.  I worry that some of the kids in youth groups I led from 1993-1999 may have fallen away as Addie Zierman did.  She was always a believer, a Christian.  But, she went through a painful, lost season.  She came out of it thinking differently about Christianity.  I fear that in my inexperience as a young pastor in the early ‘90’s, I may have led teens in a way that hurt them as much as she was hurt.  I fear that I may have driven them away from God when I was trying to help them find Him.

            Other readers will not the experiences I did that led me to be affected by When We were on Fire as I was.  It is extremely well written.  Her ability as a write empowers to make compelling experiences that are not particularly remarkable.  Even though she is writing about stuff that is pretty normal for evangelicals, her ability to tell it makes it really good reading.

            I don’t know how to recommend it.  I don’t know how many stars to give it.  She did some things that made me really mad.  However, her writing about it is good, and for that reason, I’d recommend the book.  But I recommend it warning you that if you are like me, you might not feel favorable toward the author.  The pastor in me wants to care for and protect the author.  The evangelical Christian in me who went through high school as an evangelical Christian is mad at the author because I was disillusioned by my Christian peers in high school, and it did not lead me where it led her.  I conclude by saying I would read more of her stuff because she is a skilled communicator. 

           

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrookMultnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Confessions of a Failed Evangelical

December 30, 2012

 

I begin with the premise that there is urgency in the task of evangelism.  I can think of no worse condition for a human being than to be alienated from God, and I believe all people are sinners and sin cuts us off from God completely.  The solution for sin, which make relationship with God impossible, is the teaching, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Many will reduce the gospel to Jesus dying on the cross.  I see his work of salvation in his life and words, and in his death and resurrection.  Without the resurrection, the death on the cross is empty.

But he did rise.  He did conquer the greatest enemies – Satan, sin, and death.  To be protected from the enemy, to be free from the damning effects of sin, and to be assured that we will be resurrected and have eternal life, we need Jesus.  He is God in the flesh, by him all that we know was created, he is the eternal one, and he is the way, the truth, and the life.  All people need Jesus.

I offer this simple definition.  Evangelism is helping people meet Jesus as Savior and Lord.  In upcoming weeks, I will say more about why as we come to be saved from sin and by Jesus, it is just as important that we come to follow Jesus as master and Lord.  Evangelism is helping people come to Jesus. 

It is the work of Christianity.  Paul writes in 2^nd Timothy, “In the presence of … Christ Jesus, … and in view of his coming and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you; proclaim the message; be persistent, whether the time is favorable or unfavorable” (from v. 1, 2).  Why did he think this so important?  He writes in chapter 3,

in the last days distressing times will come.²For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,³inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good,⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,⁵holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power (v.1b-5).

And in chapter 4,

³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

 

Who are the people who not only don’t have a relationship with God, but don’t even want to?  Who are those who don’t believe there is a God at all?  Who are they that are hostile to Christians and Christianity?  I don’t know who they are in your life.  In my life, they are uncles and cousins, people I have loved my entire life.  They are some of my closest high school and college friends.  They are neighbors, the parents of my son’s friends.  These people I care about deeply are the ones who are going through their lives with no relationship with God.  They don’t know the love of Jesus.  They don’t know they can turn to him for purpose in their lives.  They don’t know he rejoices when they become parents or when they graduate.  They don’t realize they have a heavenly Father who delights in them.  They don’t know that when life gets really hard they can turn to him.

On top of that, like me, they are mortals.  Like every person, these that I care about are one day closer to their own deaths each time they wake up in the morning.  Unless there is some evangelistic intervention, they will go into eternity without a relationship with God.  They will go to judgment day without Jesus covering their sins.  They will face judgment and then a godless eternity.  That is what is at stake. 

I grew up in a Baptist church that taught that people who did not know Jesus were lost and hell-bound. From what I have said, it’s clear I still believe this and it leads to the question: how do people go from being lost to being saved?  This is a New Testament issue. 

From Romans 10, beginning in vers 13.

¹³For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”¹⁴But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”¹⁶But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”¹⁷So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

 

And also of Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

These passages make it clear and the church in which I was raised reinforced this message. We must go out and share the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ.

To be Christian is to be evangelistic. I don't believe there are non-evangelical Christians. However, I do see a few problems with the evangelism teaching I received.

First, we were told what to do, but not taught how to do it. Go share Jesus. OK, how do I do it? If technique was taught, I sure did not hear it. We were sent off on a mission but not equipped for that mission. In my life, trying to live out the lessons I received at church, I found myself in conversations about faith with people outside the umbrella of church, and often they were far more prepared for those conversations than me.

A second problem with the teaching I received on evangelism is I did not see it modeled in the church. The people who taught the lessons were, at least when I saw them, with other Christians. Go share Jesus with unbelievers. But I only ever saw the adults who gave that instruction when they were with other Christians.  I did not really see effective evangelism.  I had no model to copy.

No practical equipping. No good modeling. A third problem is one I have discovered more recently. What we were taught did not exactly match up with what the New Testament emphasizes.  I have heard many pastors definitively state that nothing is more important than getting people out of Hell and into Heaven.  This idea has a common-sense feel about it.  If Hell is unending torment, then it is the worst possible conclusion for any soul.  No matter what else happens in someone’s life, it is crucial that we Christians do whatever we can to keep them out of Hell.

Though this seems to make sense, it is a flawed approach.  Recall the passage we began with, 2 Timothy 4.  This chapter says nothing about Hell.  Neither do Romans 10 or Matthew 28, passages cited earlier.  In Romans evangelism is urged because unbelievers need prayer but don’t know God, so cannot pray.  In Matthew the motivation is obedience.  We go because Jesus is sending us.  In 2^nd Timothy, we are urged to evangelize because people have “itching ears” (v3) full of false teaching.  They cannot know God because their minds are clouded with false doctrines.

To help people pray; to obey Jesus; to help people meet the real God and move away from false teachings: these are some New Testament reasons for evangelism.  Going to Heaven and staying out of Hell is part of evangelism, but I was taught that it is 95% of evangelism.  The Bible does support such an unbalanced approach.

So with no real equipping, no role models, and a skewed, limited view of what it is to share Jesus, I entered college, then seminary, then ministry and adulthood.  I was in a terrible place.  I did not know how to do evangelism.  I did not know fully what evangelism is.  Yet as the pastor, I was supposed to motivate the church to do evangelism and to show them how!

I won’t bore you with all my mistakes, just two of the glaring ones.  The first involves one of my best high school friends.  In our first year out of college, we were both back in Roanoke, Virginia where we had gone to high school. 

My friend wasn’t really a church-guy.  He would come once in a while, but walking with Jesus was not a driving force in his life.  I am not sure what role Jesus played for him back then, and 20 years later, I am still unsure about that.

Here’s what I did with my friend.  I went over to his house to play video-game football.  It was the 1992 version of Madden or something that preceded Madden.  Anyway, we’re playing the video game and arguing about the NFL like we always did.  All of sudden, I said, “Hey, I have to talk to you about something.”  And I whipped a gospel tract out of my back pocket and took him through it, step-by-step.  This conversation had the potential for unbelievable awkwardness because I didn’t prep him at all for what was coming and it was way out of the ordinairy.

What prevented it from falling apart completely is how easy-going my friend his.  He patiently listened, nodded his head in a show of interest.  When I was done I gave him the tract and he read it again without my commentary.  He did not ask any questions.  I did not push him to respond in one way or another.  And within a few minutes we were back to the game.

I can definitely say I clearly presented the gospel to my friend.  There is no mistaking that the tract which I read to him, with explanation, and then he read again, called for the reader (him) to make the decision to pray to receive Christ.  Some of you might think me a stumbling goof for forcing such a formulaic approach into a situation where it did not fit.  Others may commend me for using the tract but think me a coward for not pressing my friend to respond on the spot.

            All I can conclude about the episode is that he heard the gospel.  Since then he has heard me preach sermons.  We are still best of friends.  I still do not know where he stands with God. 

            Here is a second example from my own life, one that happened in completely different circumstances with completely different people.  I was a pastor, 30 years old.  I was rooming with some guys in Alexandria, Virginia, one a former college roommate and a really dedicated Christ follower.  Another of our college friends came to visit us.  Of course Alexandria, – that’s the Washington DC area.  Our friend was coming to participate in the national Gay pride march.  That he stayed with us while coming for that event was momentous.  He was coming out of the closet to me and my roommate.

            When we had all been in college together, we did not know he was gay.  We played rugby together.  We did 3 and 4-mile runs every morning together.  We were all in the bass section of the touring choir together.  I thought I really knew this guy well. 

            So there we all are at my apartment, reunited after being out of college 8 years, and our friend is explaining his sexuality and why homosexuality for him was affirming and wonderful.  As he talked I listened, and when he stopped, I said, “All those things you’re saying, I get that from Jesus.”  What I said was totally true – completely true.  The timing of it was terrible.  This guy needed to know his Christian friends wouldn’t judge him.  He needed to know we would love him.  What I communicated was hey, you’re OK if you follow Jesus, like I do. 

My intent was for my friend to know the Lord.  But my words did not communicate my intent because I had not earned the right to speak my piece.  Not with him anyway.  He would not have been able to hear me talk about Jesus unless he knew I was a safe person.  He was sharing something totally new in our friendship.  In other contexts, he had suffered from cruel words spoken by Christians.  He needed to know his Christian friends would love him.  By going with Jesus language so abruptly and bluntly, I lost the opportunity to actually share Jesus with my friend.   I did not say the wrong thing.  I said the right thing at the wrong time. 

I still see that friend once in a while.  Whenever I do, I try to be a good listener.  But something changed that day that we talked.  It was already changing as he was growing into honesty about his orientation.  But the change became stark when he looked to me for safety and friendship, and I said, “Jesus.”  I could see it in his eyes immediately.  When I said “Jesus,” he did not hear the name of one who loved him unconditionally.  He heard me judging him.  I needed to show Jesus-love first.  Had I done that, I think I would have had a better chance at sharing Jesus’ name and the salvation Jesus offers. 

These evangelistic attempts are not failures because of the response of my two friends.  Success or failure in evangelism is not determined by whether or not the unbeliever becomes a Christ-follower.  We have no control over that.  The Holy Spirit ultimately must speak and the Spirit speaks on the Spirit’s time table, not ours.  When the Spirit speaks, and I personally believe the Holy Spirit speaks to all people many times in their lives, then the person has to respond in faith or respond by rejecting God and rejecting faith.  We cannot control the Holy Spirit’s initiative or the person’s response.

My two examples are failures because I was not artful or tactful or patient in setting the circumstances.  In my eagerness to do my evangelistic duty, I failed to see how complicated this entire business is.  With my video-football playing buddy, I needed to press our conversations to where they were about matters that go deeper than who will win, the Redskins or the Cowboys.  I needed to get him talking about things that matter at the heart level.  Then, when he talked, I needed to listen.

My friend from college was already at the heart level.  He was already talking.  I needed to listen.  I needed to spend a lot of time listening compassionately and prayerfully. 

In both cases, listening was the key.  This will be a central teaching in this series on evangelism.  We might even call it “listening evangelism.”  Of course it cannot be only listening.  We aren’t therapists.  We are disciples of Jesus Christ and we want to help our unchurched, unbelieving friends to become not only saved, but passionately devoted followers of Jesus.  We most certainly need to speak the Gospel.  But not first.  Speaking cannot be where we start because our friends won’t hear a thing we say if we aren’t safe and trustworthy. 

The unbelieving world expects the church to be self-righteous and judgmental.  We have to shock the world with our love.   Paul says in 2^nd Timothy 4:2, “be persistent … with utmost patience in teaching.”  This is not soft evangelism.  This is evangelism that I think will actually gain a hearing.  We don’t just want to tell people that Jesus saves.  We want them to listen when we say Jesus saves.  I have too many stories of my own failure to wait for the other to be listening before I began talking. 

I invite you on a journey into the world of listening evangelism.  We’ll look into scripture – the stories of Jesus and the first evangelists in the early church.  We’ll hear from each other.  And together, we will go into the world with the good news that before God Satan is powerless, death is defeated, and sin is covered.  It’s all because of Jesus.  We will share that message and we will do it slowly, patiently, listening, so that when we share our friends will hear. 

 

AMEN

"Suffer with ..."

I have spent this year writing about the practice of Christian evangelism.  What is a Christian who hears the call of God to follow Jesus and share the Gospel to do in light of these violent shootings?

In Oak Creek, WI, yesterday (August 5), a shooter entered a Sikh temple and killed six and injured four before he was killed by police.  Two weeks before that a random shooter several people in a theater in Colorado.  In February of this year teenager Travon Martin was killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.  And how many killings aren't in the national news?

What is a Christian committed to sharing the Gospel with a lost and hurting world to do?

We are to open our arms and offer compassion, comfort, love, and prayer to all who experience such tragedy.  Specifically regarding the shootings in Wisconsin, we need to love our friends who are Sikhs.  I do not know a lot about that faith.  There are Sikhs in North Carolina, but I do not know any personally.  What I know is Jesus loves them and calls us to love them.

In another time, a more peaceful time, that love can include sharing why Jesus is so important to us.  For now, with such psychological devastation and emotional pain inflicted on their community, not to mention the tragic, senseless deaths, we should reach out with compassion and love and with no judgment.  As human beings and as Christ followers, we express to our Sikh neighbors in our state, in Wisconsin, and throughout America our support and our care.  And we do the same for others who have had violence imposed upon them.

There times when God speaks through our words.  This is a time for God to speak through our acts and hearts of love.

Christopher Yuan's "Out of a Far Country" - One Gay Man's Journey

I think the best endorsement I can give for Christopher Yuan's book Out of a Far Country is that I based a sermon on the book.  The sermon text is below.  I consider Out of a Far Country to be a must read for Christians in our country right now.  With all that is happening in the news regarding marriage, homosexuality, and Christian response, Yuan's book is essential.

            Christopher Yuan is the son of Chinese immigrants.  His parents Angela and Leon were born in mainland China and then lived in Taiwan before immigrating to the United States.  Angela worked and supported Leon as he went through dental school.  After his graduation, with two young sons, Christopher the younger, the Yuans set up their dental practice in Chicago.  Theirs was an American success story – hard working people making the most of their opportunity.

            The plan was for the sons to follow their father in business, becoming dentists and working in his practice.  Cracks began to form when Christopher was in dental school.  He was home from break.  The relationships in the family were thoroughly icy – husband and wife barely talked to each other.  Christopher seemed distant and utterly annoyed by his parents. 

            Things came to a head.  Leon had been checking the insulation in the crawl space off Christopher’s bedroom and found a VHS tape (this was the early ‘90’s).  It was hidden, not to be found.  It was a gay pornography video.  When Christopher was confronted by his parents he proudly admitted his homosexuality.  For him, it was a rite of passage among his gay friends.  For his family, it was utter scandal and they did not know what to do. 

His horrified mother told him he had to choose.  He could be gay or he could be in the family.  He responded that he had no choice.  He was gay.  It was who he was and his real friends accepted him for who he was.  He told his parents he knew they’d react that way.  He left them in Chicago and headed back to Louisville. 

One thing to know is at this point in the story, no one in the Yuan family was a believer.  They were agnostic or atheist, but definitely not Christian.

Christopher’s announcement filled Angel with utter horror, but her husband, Christopher’s dad Leon, was nonresponsive.  He continued on in his dental practice like he did every other day, not even acknowledging what their son had said.  In despair at Christopher’s announcement and Leon’s indifference, Angela decided to take her own life.

But, she wanted to see Christopher one more time.  So she got a train ticket to Louisville.  She would go from Chicago to Louisville, see Christopher, and then end her life.  She doesn’t know why, but before leaving Chicago, she went to see a priest.  He listened to her story, shared with her some religious literature, and gave her the number of someone she could call if she wanted to talk more. 

She read the book the priest had given her while on the train.  It was written to tell gay people that they are loved by God, but Angela felt it was written for her.  She had never heard that God loved her.  Many people haven’t.  Wheaton College theology professor Gary Burge reports that 90% of his students – kids from evangelical families – are for more afraid of God’s wrath than comforted by God’s love. 

I wonder what would happen if we surveyed the people of HillSong Church?  Are we (a) more fearful of God’s angry wrath or (b) more comforted by God’s grace-filled love?  Angela Yuan had never thought about God, but after boarding the southbound train intent on killing herself, she arrived with a new discovery.  God loved her. 

She ran to tell Christopher, but he wasn’t interested in what she had to say.  He gave her an indifferent “whatever.”  Such a dismissive, cutting response previously would have injured her heart, but she was on a path of discovery – learning for the first time of God’s love.  She didn’t take her life.  And she didn’t go back to Chicago.  She called the number the priest gave her and the guy who talked to her knew a woman in Louisville she could meet.  That woman discipled Angela Yuan in her early life as a Christian.  First John 4:8 says “God is love.”  She was learning that truth in her own life.

Meanwhile, Chris was going wild.  He had multiple partners including countless strangers.  He constantly exposed himself to the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.  Worse, drugs had become a part of his life.  In a short time, he went from marijuana to ecstasy, and from user to dealer to distributer.  His life consisted of parties, drugs, and sex. 

Obviously, it’s hard to keep up the academic rigors of dental school in such a life, and he didn’t make it.  Just a month short of his graduation, he was kicked out of the program, but he didn’t care.  He was making load of money and having unending fun.  As his family was shamed, he drifted even further away.  He moved to Atlanta, bought an expensive condo, and set up shop. 

Then, the unending fun ended.  The knock at the door was not another customer, but a dozen DEA and FBI agents.  He could have gotten 10 years or even life in prison, but he cooperated by testifying against an even bigger dealer than himself.  So, he got off with six years in prison. 

During that time, adjusting to prison life, he was summoned by the prison nurse.  All convicted drug users had to submit to regular blood tests.  This time he was positive for HIV.  He was pretty sure his life was over.  As he lay in the prison bunk, he saw that someone had scribbled on the wall, “If you’re bored, read Jeremiah 29:11.”  So, in his absolute despair, he found a Bible and read, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.”  Just as his mother was astounded to learn that God loved her, Chris couldn’t believe God had plans for him. 

That scripture and a group of Latino prisoners brought Chris to Jesus.  He wandered into their prison worship service, and on the spot, they decided their Spanish worship would be bilingual so their English-speaking Chinese guest could understand.  He kept going to the services and pretty soon, they had him preaching.  He was blown away.  He was gay.  He was an addict.  He was in prison.  And a bunch of Hispanics loved him and showed him that God had gifted him as a preacher.

Eventually Christopher Yuan surrendered completely to Jesus just like his mother.  So too did his Father Leon.  Leon and Angela’s dead marriage came to life when they met Jesus and gave themselves to him.  The details of Christopher Yuan’s story are told in a book I highly recommend, Out of a Far Country.  It’s one of the most compelling stories I have read this year.

And, the timing of reading is, I believe providential.  We are in First John 4.  First Corinthians 13 is often called “the Love Chapter,” but 1^st John 4 could certainly compete for that title.  “Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God (v7).”  “If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (v.12).  “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (v.8).

That last verse rings in my ears.  On CNN’s website, two North Carolina pastors were mentioned both for saying hateful, awful things about gay people.  One suggested that all gay people be locked behind an electric fence and left there the rest of their lives.  Such a preposterous idea would not happen, but what’s disturbing is that someone claiming to be a follower of Christ suggested such hate while preaching a sermon in a Baptist church here in North Carolina.  I am sure that pastor would call himself a Bible literalist.  And I am equally sure he would proudly admit he does not love gay people.  So, I guess he doesn’t know God at all.  Chapter four, verse 8, “Whoever does not love does not know God.”

This especially sensitive issue has been front-page news since the election three weeks ago when our state joined 30 others in banning same-sex marriage.  I struggled then because I really thought God was telling me it was time to deal with this issue at HillSong, but I didn’t know exactly how.  Too often in life, when I don’t know what to say, I blurt something out.  I am glad in this case I waited.

When Chris Yuan’s parents became followers of Jesus Christ, their one prayer was that they would get to see Chris come to believe in Jesus.  They didn’t ask that he receive a shortened prison sentence.  They did not ask that his HIV be cured.  They did not ask God to take away his homosexuality.  They asked that they get to see Him come to follow Jesus.

In one account in the story, one of Chris’s friends was dying of AIDS.  This man had been a magazine cover-model and movie star.  He had been rich, famous, and popular.  Yet, when AIDS ravaged his life, the only people to visit his hospital room were Chris, Angela, and Leon Yuan.  They embraced this man and showered the love of Jesus on him.  They did not preach on him.  They did not throw Bible verses in his face.  They dealt heavy doses of compassion, mercy, and love. 

At HillSong, our philosophy is three-part.  We want you to come, whether you are a first-timer or have come for decades.  We want all to feel safe coming into this place.  This must be a place of love where people can come, be welcomed, embraced, and loved no matter who they are or what they have done.  This has to be a safe place  and it will be when we all conspire to love everyone who walks through that door extravagantly and generously. 

First John 4;10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  The minute we want to condemn someone else, we remember Jesus did his love-work for us while we were condemning him in our sin.  We have to be a safe place for sinners.  Whether the sin is deception, gossip, pride, greed, gluttony, or a sin of a sexual nature (and as many are hetero as are homosexual), we are all sinners.  HilllSong must be a safe place for sinners.

Second, sinners must come into this safe place and meet Jesus here.  And once someone meets Jesus, he will never be the same again.  Chris Yuan has not become heterosexual.  He describes his life as a life of holy sexuality.  When the yearnings for drugs and homosexual temptation arise, and for him these temptations are still there, he turns to Jesus.  His holy sexuality is commitment to a single life in which he glorifies Jesus with his words and actions.  He is now a Bible professor at Moody Bible Institute.  He has achieved a master’s degree from Wheaton and is almost done with a doctorate in theology from Bethel Seminary.  He met Jesus and changed.  He did not go from homo to heterosexuality.  He went from prodigal lost in a far country to son of God.

HillSong must be a safe place.

HillSong must be a place where people meet Jesus and are transformed by the encounter – changed from lost to adopted, from purposeless to living on mission for God.

Finally, having been transformed by Jesus, we are sent.  We are sent on mission trips.  When people move, we send them into the world to follow God’s mission for their lives.  And today, we are all sent into the world to love.  Verse 11, “Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”  Having been refreshed in this safe place, made new by Jesus, we are sent by Him, with the Holy Spirit to love.

Who is it you find impossible to love? 

I think the evangelical church in America has done an awful job of loving homosexual people.  Loving does not mean approving a life style.  Jesus loved tax collectors and sinners.  The Gospel does not say he approved of corruption.  He did not say illicit sex was OK.  Nor does it say he loved sinners as long as they changed their ways.  Jesus loved regardless, and we must too. 

Holy sexuality involves a man and woman who are husband and wife; and it equally involves single individuals who remain celibate.  Anyone who has been involved in other forms of sexuality, hetero, homo, or other can be made new and reborn in Jesus Christ. 

Our First John 4 calling is to love whether or not people turn to Jesus.  They won’t hear our words about the gospel until they feel they can trust us.  They won’t listen until we have invested a lot of time listening to and loving them.  They won’t hear our words about Jesus until they know we are safe.

Who do you find it impossible to love?  Homosexuals?  Arch conservatives who hatefully condemn homosexuals?  Who can you simply not love because the enmity and hate is too deep?  Communists?  The father who abused you?  The husband who left you?  The person who threatened your child?  Democrats?  Republicans? 

Safe – New – Sent; we are sent out into a fallen, sin-stained world, and we are sent to love. 

As we pray, in your mind, see the person you find it impossible to love.  Ask God to show you how you will actively love that person this week.

AMEN