I have enjoyed Sabbatical for the
past months. In 7 days, I return to my
work as a church pastor. I will sit with
people over cups of coffee or lunch at Mexican restaurants. In the same conversation, I will listen as
they share their fears that the Tar Heels aren’t going to have a good season
and their fears that their young adult children aren’t going to live good
lives. I will talk with our
administrative assistant and our associate pastors about the daily details of
life in the church. I will get that
email that the surgery has been scheduled, and then I will meet the family at
the hospital at 6AM, and together we will pray.
We will pray that all will go well and she will be fine. And as I leave the hospital, I will pray that
my presence there helped with the anxiety, even just a little.
And sermons. I will be back to the work of studying
scripture and studying our congregation and studying our culture and world, and
all that study will merge on the interstate highway of ideas. After merging, one focused idea will exit the
off ramp that leads to the next Sunday’s message. Yes, I am ready and very excited about
returning to the flowing motion of sermon writing and worship planning.
To all of this, I am ready to
return. Who am I, the man returning to
this life? I’ve written in previous
posts that I want to learn to be gentle.
I want to be known as a person who gives graces. I pray that I can grow into gentleness. I pray that I can live grace-filled and be
extravagantly generous in giving grace.
What obstacles overshadow my
efforts? There are many, but one stands
out from my time of personal Bible reading.
I’ve been making my way slowly through 2 Corinthians. In chapter 3, Paul contrasts the old covenant[i]
and the new. Now, as an aside, I caution
Christians not to be dismissive of the Law of Moses (see Exodus-Deuteronomy,
books 2 through of the OT). We must not
see the coming of Jesus as rendering that scripture as obsolete. Jesus fulfills that Old Testament word of
God. Jesus does not negate it. Gospel is found in the Law, but we see the
law through the light of Jesus.
When Paul writes about the old
covenant, the discerning reader has to be very attentive. In 2 Corinthians 3 he says, “The Old Covenant
ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. The old way, with its laws etched in stone,
led to death” (see verses 6 & 7). Ends in death. In order for sins to be atoned, an animal
sacrifice was required. Something had to
die. In the new covenant, something
comes after death – resurrection: first Jesus, then us. The new covenant leads to eternal life.
Etched
in stone. That can be taken
literally. Moses ascended the mountain
and came down with laws that were inflexible – etched in stone tablets. But living out that fixed law requires a
dynamic relationship with God because questions arise. What if someone is in a situation where he
has to “bear false witness” (tell a lie) to prevent a murder? Is he breaking the law if in doing it he
prevents another of the commands from being broken?
The new covenant it written on our
hearts (Romans 2:29). Our very inclinations,
motivations, and impulses are guided by the Spirit – the Spirit of the same God
who gave the law that was originally etched in stone. There is continuity from the tablets Moses
held to the way of God the Holy Spirit who is active in our daily lives. However, we must live on the far side of
history, the post-resurrection side, where we live responsively. Our lives are a dance in which the Holy
Spirit is the leader and we the follower, the responsive dance partner.
What’s obstructed my path to gentleness
and grace are the laws etched in stone: laws I have etched in the rigidity of
my expectations. In some ways, this has
been my own personal bugaboo for my entire life. I expect things to go a certain way (in
relationships, in ministry, in sports). Then life turns our differently than I
expected. The girl breaks up with me, my
kids do the opposite of what I say, the church doesn’t like my new idea, my
team loses. And I am disappointed,
angered, and defeated. My poor children
bear the brunt of this when I get angry at them for not being who I expect them
to be instead of loving who they are. If
I can just learn to be gentle with them and give them (and my wife too) grace,
lots and lots of grace, I will change as a person. I will become a “graced” person. Or more accurately, I will begin living in
the graced identity Christ has already given.
One of my favorite Christian role
models, Tony Dungy, writes, “Your real influence [as a Christian] comes from
the foundation of your character.”[ii] I want God’s grace to be the foundation of my
character. That Rob Tennant, man. That guy
is full of grace. When people talk
about me, that’s what I hope they will say.
This is the “greater glory” under the “new way,” which makes us “right
with God” (Apostle Paul – 2 Corinthians 3:8, 9).
I am not there yet. I know from the ways I have harangued my
15-year-old the last few days, I am not even close. But because God is so grace-filled, God’s
grace for me is never exhausted. I fail
and then, with tail tucked between my legs, come repentantly to God. My sin is before me and I have to sit with it
a while, but the Holy Spirit showers grace and forgiveness down on me, and
cleansed, I try again.
My life rhythm is about to
change. I’ll return to the world of
church work. I come back with goals and
hopes and dreams, but the big story, for me, is the prayer that I will follow
the Spirit and walk alongside the Law (old covenant) down the path that leads to
life in Christ (new covenant). The further down that path I walk, the more
people will see newness in me. My life
will emit the fragrance of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).
To walk that path, I have to do what
I have struggled to do my entire life. I
will need to turn my expectations over to God.
I need to be freed from the stone laws I have set over myself, the
unyielding determination that things will turn out the way I think they
should. I need freedom from the yoke
with which I burden myself. One of the
songs we sing at church has this line in it.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” That’s 2 Corinthians 3:17. In the next verse says, “The Lord – who is
the Spirit – makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious
image.”
As I get ready for the world of
church work, I yearn for freedom the stone laws, freedom to live in the dynamic
of the Spirit.
[i] I
use “old covenant,” “Law of Moses,” and Old Testament interchangeably in this
post because each phrase represents the content that we find in Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy, and I read these texts from a
Christian/New Testament perspective. Thus, I also use “new covenant,”
“Christian,” and New Testament interchangeably.
[ii]
T. Dungy and Nathan Whittaker (2011). The Uncommon Life Daily Challenge,
Tyndale-Momentum (Carol Stream, IL), September 8 entry. This book uses calendar dates, not page
numbers.
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