My Faith and My Military Experience

Veteran’s Day Speech

Gorman Christian School Durham NC

Rob Tennant

11-11-15

          Thank you for inviting me to your school today.  I am honored to be here.  One of the greatest privileges I have is to be able to stand before groups of people and talk about my Christian faith.  Today I will talk about my military experiences, but my most important message is this.  God loves you and that is why God became human.  Jesus is God in human flesh.  He died on the cross and rose from the grace.  When we give our lives to Him and receive forgiveness from Him, we are born again, made new in Christ.  I cannot say anything more important than that.

          With that said, I will share about my life in the military and how that is tied to my life as a follower of Jesus.

          Because of my experience with the army, I have traveled.  I have lived in Germany, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Texas.  And it all happened before I turned 3 years old!  This is because my father was in the army.

          My dad was a commander in a tank platoon.  He was stationed in Germany.  So even though my family is from Michigan, I was born in 1970 in Frankfurt, Germany where my dad was serving our country.  After I was born, we moved around a bit as he went from assignment to assignment.  Then, last in 1970, when I was about 9 months old, he was sent to Vietnam with the army.  I didn’t see my dad for an entire year.  Thankfully, he made it home safely.  In 1973, he got out of the army.

          But the military was kind of always in the background in my life.  My dad was a veteran.  Both of my grandfathers were World War II veterans.  One was with the army in Europe.  The other was with the navy in the Pacific.  And when I got to college, I could feel inside of me a pull.  I felt like I needed to serve just as my father and grandfathers had.  They never put any pressure on me.  But I felt it inside myself.

          I also needed to pay for college and at that time, the army national guard had a great program to help soldiers with their college tuition.  So I talked to my dad about it and he recommended I enlist in the National Guard.  I did not want to go full time in the army because I was playing college football at the time. 

          National Guard soldiers go through the same basic and advanced training that regular army soldiers have.  From late May until the end of August in the summer of 1989, I was at Fort Benning, Georgia, learning how to be an infantry soldier.  It the hardest, hottest summer of my life.

          We did hundreds of push-ups every day.  Some guys lose weight in basic training.  I actually gained because of the muscle mass I gained in my shoulders and chest.  We ran 3 or 4 miles several times each week.  For me those long distance runs were the hardest part.  We also learned how to fire and clean an M-16 rifle.  We threw hand grenades on the practice range.  We became soldiers.

          One of my most memorable days from basic training came after had done some training in the early morning.  We were back at our barracks, outside in the shade.  It was hot, but the shade felt nice.  We were all sitting around cleaning our rifles.  I kind of leaned back against a wall.  My rifle was all taken apart and I had the oil that you rub on the parts to keep everything working right.  I leaned back against that wall in the shade after the hard early morning training and I just fell asleep.    

          The drill sergeant noticed and before my buddies could get my attention he creeped over.  He quietly put his face right up next to mine.  And then he screamed, “You better wake up, soldier!”  He yelled some other things and had me do a lot of push-ups.  When my arms were tired from the push-ups, he had me roll on my back and do a bunch of flutter kicks.  When I was tired from the flutter kicks, he rolled me back over for some more push-ups.

          Now that treatment may sound rough, but it taught me to not fall asleep and to get my work done.  Most of the rough treatment sergeants give troops is really about getting soldiers ready.  Push-ups make us strong.  Running gives endurance.  When you train all night, then in real combat, you are ready for an all-night mission. 

          After basic training, I went back to college and joined my National Guard unit.  I would spend the next six training with them.  We trained one weekend every month and two weeks every summer.  We practiced all the basic infantry soldier skills.  We also trained on how to do riot-control.  And we did push-ups and marching and running.

          One of the neat things I learned in the National Guard was repelling.  That’s where you are up on top of a building or on a mountain or in a helicopter, and you come down a rope that’s hooked to your belt.  You lower yourself down.  I never got to do it out of a helicopter but we did get to do it off of a practice tower.  I was afraid of being up so high, but I learned that the best way to overcome a fear is to face it.  And even though we did not get to repel out of helicopter, we did get helicopter rides and that was very cool.

          In the early 1990’s the United States had reduced the number of soldiers with the plan that if conflicts came up, they might call up reservists and the National Guard.  Then Iraq invaded one of our allies, Kuwait.  That was the conflict known as Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  During that time, the American military got involved.  I was at college by the phone.  I wondered will I miss a year of school.  My dad had fought in Vietnam.  I wondered, would I be sent to Iraq.  The phone call never came. 

          That c0nflict passed without me being called up.  I continued my service through National Guard training. 

          One summer, at one of our two-week commitments, I had an experience that really was the first step in me deciding to get out of the military.  We were out in the woods and we were supposed to be picked up by helicopters.  So we were there waiting and it got later and later.  They never told us the helicopters weren’t coming.  We just waited until we all fell asleep around 9PM out in the woods. 

We had not set up shelters or tents or anything because we didn’t think we’d be staying.  Well, around 11PM, it was pitch black out in the woods, and the skies opened up with a hard rain that did not stop for five hours.  Those hours of laying uncovered in the rain were miserable.  The next day we learned that the helicopters didn’t come because of the weather forecast.

I thought about that.  While we were sleeping in the pouring rain those pilots were relaxing in the warm, dry barracks.  As soon as we got done with our training, I applied to go to school to be a pilot and I got accepted into the school.  But, it would mean I would have to miss a year of college and I would have to extend my time in the National Guard.

At that point, I knew God was calling me to be a minister.  I wanted to focus on learning how to be a pastor.  So even though I got accepted into the pilot program, I did not go.  I finished out my time in the National Guard.  I was offered a promotion to Sergeant in my final six months, but only if I signed up for a few more years.  I decided to turn it down. 

In May 1995, I put my uniform on for the last time.  I turned in all my equipment.  And in June, I receive an honorable discharge.  Eight years later, I was well into my career as a church pastor.  I got married.  My new wife and I talked about me possibly getting back into the military as an army reserve chaplain.  But she really did not want me to do that.

Her father was a career navy man.  He was gone from the family for many months at a time.  This was 2003, and our country had just begun the war with Iraq.  She did not want her new husband going off to war right after we got married.  So, I did not get back into the military.

In my story, you can see that at several point the sacrifice soldiers make.  The rock star Kid Rock has a song in which he sings about all campfires and parties throughout the summer of 1989 on the shores of Lake Michigan.  He and I must be the same age, but I also remember that summer.  But while he and many of my college classmates were having fun all summer, yelling drill sergeants were teaching me how to be a soldier.

My dad made a much bigger sacrifice as he was away from his family for a year when he went to Vietnam.  Had my unit been mobilized, I would have missed a year of college in Desert Storm.  This happened for a lot of men and women during the Gulf War.

Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines sacrifice a lot for their families and their country.  We enjoy a great deal of freedom in America and one of the ways that is preserved is the service of our military.  Today is a day to thank America’s veterans and to honor them.

 However, we must remember something very important whenever give honor to veterans.  We are Christians.  We are called by Jesus to love all people.  In God’s eyes, no one country is better than any other.  God’s concern is the Kingdom of God where people from all nations are joined together as brothers and sisters – children of God. 

Jesus was very specific on this point.  He said these words in his Sermon on the Mount.

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,^[o] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Soldiers should be appreciated and loved and honored, but not revered.  Reverence belongs to the Lord.  We worship God as we know God in Jesus Christ.  And our love for America should never produce in us hatred for people from other countries.  They love their nations as much we love ours.  And our deepest love is for God.  We are more strongly connected to other Christians than to other Americans.  First and foremost we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

As I said at the beginning, my most important message is to talk about following Jesus.  As a pastor I get the wonderful privilege of doing this in a lot of different places and settings.  I am very grateful.  All Christians are called to share their and to glorify God in all they do.

On this Veteran’s Day, I am thankful for the freedom we Americans have to live out our faith in Jesus.  And I am thankful to the sacrifice veterans have made to preserve that freedom.

AMEN

He Went with Him

“He Went with Him” (Mark 5:22-43)

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Sunday, November 8, 2015

          Ok then, today, ecclesiology.

          Say what? Ecclesiology, you say?  What’s that?

          Do what everybody does.  Type it into Google and see what comes up.

          E-c-c-l-e-s-i-o-l-o-g-y …  Ah, the first hit.  The common definition of ecclesiology: that which “refers to the theological study of the Christian Church.”[i] Some of you will find this seriously fascinating.   OK, a few of you.  Others are mentally checking out as I speak.

          Check back in.  I am going to give you my ecclesiology, my thoughts on God and church, but I promise not to use technical terminology. 

Instead, let’s get personal.  “In the midst of our stories, my life, your life, our stories, our lives – how in the middle of it do we each bear the image of God?” 

You and I are created in God’s image.  How do we live the life we were created to live?  As we pay taxes and discipline children and tolerate that intolerable boss and cheer at the football game and complain about the overhyped movie and call the power company about the outage and plan the Thanksgiving trip to grandma’s and recoil as we watch the news TV and vote and deal with cancer and pray – as we live, how do we do it as God’s image bearers?

One of the main purposes of church is to help people live life in Christ.  The church helps the people who make up the body of Christ live as God-worshipers, God-followers, and joyful, thriving witnesses to the truth of the Gospel and the promise of life Jesus gives.  Church does more than that, of course, but what I describe here is, I firmly believe, a crucial aspect of Church.  Church helps all who attend live the abundant life Jesus promised. 

The gospel writer Mark shows a couple of people who were having trouble living that abundant life.  In chapter five we meet a man and then a woman, two image-bearers, who for different reasons were in great pain. 

First came Jairus, a leader in the synagogue.  We don’t know if he initially scoffed at Jesus and the phenomena around him the way many other religious leaders did, or if Jairus had faith from the beginning.  But, when his daughter’s life hung in the balance that did not matter.  His little girl was going to die.  He knew it.  Everyone around him and his family knew it.  The sickness she had brought death.

So he did what dads do – whatever they can for their kids.  Everyone knew Jairus had a prominent role in public life.  He was a synagogue leader.  Everyone knew Jesus was popular, on the rise, and everyone witnessed the tension that was growing between Jesus and religious leaders.  Would Jairus join the chorus of those who critiqued Jesus?  Or would he go out on a limb and support the rabbi from Galilee?

Jesus had recently driven 1000 demons out of a man in the Gentile region of Gerasenes.  The people in that community saw the miracle, feared the power of God, and asked Jesus to leave and he did.  He and the disciples traveled back across the Sea of Galilee.  Upon arrival, Mark writes “fell at [Jesus’] feet and begged him repeatedly” to help (5:23.) 

We see Jairus’ stance.  Did he sing along with his colleagues?  No way!  As they were challenging everything Jesus said, he fell at Jesus’ feet.  What was Jesus’ response?  Mark write, “He went with him” (v.24).

That’s what Jesus does.  Last Tuesday, I went to vote.  Jesus went with me.  I don’t know if Jesus had specific choices for town council in Chapel Hill.  But I know the Holy Spirit of the Lord was with me then and is with me now. 

At same time that he was with me in that voting booth, that same Holy Spirit was with you.  Coaching a youth soccer team?  On the commute home from work?  Recover from a chemo therapy treatment?  Studying for an exam?  The Lord goes with us, always, reminding us that wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we are belong to God. 

So, they went, in process from the shore, through town, to Jairus’ house.  Jesus, 12 disciples, Jairus, probably other family members and friends from the synagogue.  There may have been more than 20 people in this cluster.  It would have been a site, the kind of thing that makes your head turn and take notice, this little motley grew trouping through town. 

One who noticed, a woman whose proximity to other people was itself problematic, wormed her way through the throng so that she was right next to Jesus.  Mark tells us she had been “suffering from hemorrhages for 20 years” (v.25).  While scholarly opinion about what exactly this means varies widely, we can say a few things with confidence.  First, her condition was not normal or healthy, was a sickness, and made her life extremely lonely and painful. 

Second, she was unclean.  Anyone who came into contact with her would also be ritually unclean.  When she forced her way through a crowd, she touched everyone.  Thus her desperate hope that Jesus might heal her from a malady that had ruined her life led her to an action that affected a lot of people.  But she did it.

Desperation leads synagogue leaders to beg in the dust at Jesus’ feet and it leads untouchable women to ignore all social conventions and wade right into the crowd they’re supposed to avoid.  All of it comes as Jesus is in the flow of his own mission to announce the Kingdom of God.

Jesus heals the woman and the way he does it tells us a lot about the church.  He notices; he senses that power has gone out of him.  When he realizes it is because someone who is both sick and cut off from the community has sought him, he is filled with compassion.  He calls her daughter.  He commends her faith.  He sends her on her way in peace.   

The church today is the body of Christ in the world.  The church is where hurting people encounter the Holy Spirit of God in life-changing ways.  Of course the Spirit touches people outside the church too, but even in those cases, the person who has met God then comes to the church to make sense of it.  We – the people who make up the church – must notice those around us who in pain, who struggle, who need help, and who find themselves in desperation.  We must notice as Jesus noticed and respond with compassion, the compassion of the Lord.

In the delay that came with helping the woman, the daughter of Jairus died.  Everything that occurred there happened while Jesus was on the way to help someone else.  And when Jesus was asked to help Jairus’ daughter, that request came as he was on his way somewhere.

Someone came, reported that the daughter had died, and told Jairus to stop troubling Jesus.  Jesus would have none of such talk.  A hurting person in absolute need was not a bother to him.  Jairus was not troubling him.  Helping a person in such a state reclaim God’s image is why Jesus came. Don’t trouble the teacher?  Oh no!  Once again, Jesus went with him.  He told him to have no fear, but to believe.  The he brought the dead girl to life.

Through his church today, he continues to bring life through the love of a welcoming community.  Specifically, I imagine our church to be an island in the middle of a broad, fast-moving river.  Our community is the river – people moving through.  Some come as visiting faculty and are here a year or less.  Some are graduate students.  They stay anywhere from 3-5 years.  The community is transitory.  It is different in the school year when students are on campus and we feel it as those who rent parking spaces fill our lower lot. 

Then, in early May it clears out.  We find it easier to get around on Franklin Street.  Our town changes.  In those times, many in our church go on vacation or away for the weekend.  It is like this at holidays too.  You never know who will be here.  Our Sunday morning crowd has consistent attendees, but it is different every week, sometimes slightly different, sometimes very different.  The river keeps flowing by.  As it does, we here so people can meet God here and be reminded of who we are supposed to be – those who bear his image. 

We have cited numerous life is broken and bearing the image of God is hard.  It seems impossible for someone just surviving each day to think of herself as one made in God’s image.  Our church is here to help her see that.

Our church is an island in this river. Some pass by and we have them for a summer or a semester or three-five years.  Others, are moving through but decide they love it here.  A semester turns into 20 years.  Someone began here as 18-year-old freshman and is now on the elder board.  That’s our church.

With God present, the woman, ailing from this uncontrollable blood flow – sick and cut off and alone – is healed.  She is healed, she becomes a daughter of God and she has the peace of God.  She forces the community to take another look at those who have been pushed to the margins. We realize that when God is present, no one is marginal or overlooked, unnoticed.  Everyone is God’s image bearer. 

With God present, a father who has been reduced to begging for his child is given that child alive and healthy.  Her restored to life is life for him and for the entire synagogue community.  The entire community now has to reckon with what it really means to say God is present.  It means death will never win.

Our church, planted in the middle of the unending flow that is UNC and Chapel Hill and the triangle, our church is a reminder that God is present.  When God is present that means something. 

In your life, what does it mean?  Are you the woman, injured, feeling totally outside of mainstream life?  Jesus sees you and has healing for you.  Meet him in this church family and allow your life to be remade.

Are you Jairus?  Do you feel powerless as some oppressions threatens to rob you of your joy and of your life?  Meet Jesus here, in this church, and reclaim the image of God in you.

Are you one of the disciples riding the billowing waves of the sea as you follow Jesus wherever he leads?  Where will He lead you next?  What is he going to do next?  What will be your part in it?  Meet Jesus in this place this morning and once again say, “Here I am Lord.  I am yours will do what you say to do, will say what you tell me to say, and will go where you lead.”

See?  Ecclesiology – the study of church; our church family is an island in a river where people are constantly flowing past.  Those who stop in meet Jesus in this place.  They are healed, restored, and reminded of what it is to bear the image.  Whether they stay go some other place because that’s where He led them, they meet Him and become His disciples. 

AMEN

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[i] https://www.google.com/search?q=ecclesiology&oq=ecclesiology&aqs=chrome..69i57.3360j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

Ominous Truth in 'Countdown to Zero Day' - Book Review

Review of the Book Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter

I found Kim Zetter’s ‘Countdown to Zero Day’ to be an extraordinarily challenging read because of the implications in what is written.  Zetter is an outstanding writer who keeps the reader in suspense in her telling of all that happened in the series of Stuxnet cyber-attacks.

The most chilling observation comes in the way she talks about ‘firsts.’  The same country that launched the world into the age of atomic weapons is the one who launched the world into the age of cyber warfare.  And it was done as an attempt to cutoff future nuclear conflicts.  The irony would be worthy of an eye-roll if the implications weren’t so ominous.

As wonderful as Zetter’s writing was, I did at points find myself bogged down in the technical details of computer code and computer viruses.  In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, she notes the difficulty of composing a compelling tale and at the same time being true to the necessity of comprehensive technical description.  I appreciated her transparency in the challenge of accomplishing both (a well-written story and one that would satisfy people who know about code, which I do not).  I think she accomplished the goal.  It was easy for me to skim the portions that were beyond my capacity regarding technical description.  It did not detract from me getting into the narrative she shared.

The bottom line is this book makes me feel a bit less secure about the future of international conflict.  This book is another in the line of works that show how the computer age is a dangerous equalizer.  For me the first such book was Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat.’  Zetter’s work shows the next logical step in the flattening of the world.

I hope someone overly talented programmer with serious emotional imbalance in his life doesn’t launch a virus or other type of attack that destroys crucial systems nationwide.  I hope that type of catastrophe doesn’t happen.  After reading ‘Countdown to Zero Day,’ I kind of think it will.  And that is scary.

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

Adoption

Many years ago, I met a woman who had adopted children through the same agency Candy, my wife, and I went through for our three children (one adopted from Russia, two from Ethiopia).  This woman’s children were from China.

            The woman was working with Candy and me to create a central North Carolina chapter of families who had adopted through this particular agency, a Christian organization.  One of the keys for our chapter would be the support of the pastors and churches where the adoptive families worshiped.  However the woman, the organizer, told us her pastor was not interested. 

She attended a large church, much larger than my church.  It was a church full of resources.  And the pastor flatly told her he had no interest in adoption ministry and she would not have any help from him or support.  She couldn’t even host events at the church building.  His interest was in the saving of souls.  He didn’t have time for social programs like adoption.

God has a decidedly different view.

In constituting a nation to be the nation of God’s people, God had this to say; “You must also give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows, and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then the Lord your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do” (Deuteronomy 14:29).  Provision for the fatherless was an essential ingredient for the people of God.  It was an unambiguous necessity.  Saying, “well, that’s not my ministry,” was not an option available to them. 

When faced with tribulation due to the assaults of “the wicked,” the Psalmist prays to God calling God a helper of orphans and one who gives justice to orphans (Psalm 10:14, 18).  In other words, the way the one praying identifies God is in terms of how God treats orphans.  Why can I pray to God??  Oh, I can pray to God because God is the one who aids those children who have no mother or father.  This is how God is known, as “helper of those without families” (also see Hosea 14:3).

When the prophets of Israel called for justice, or condemned the nation because of an utter failure of justice, one of the chief symptoms was how the nation treated orphans.  The way the fatherless were cared for or abused was an unmistakable indicator of whether the nation honored God or dishonored God.  Passages to consider: Isaiah 1:17, 23; Jeremiah 7:6; 22:1-3; Ezekiel 22:7.  Also, James 1:27 speaks to the necessity of caring for orphans.

We then see that from early in the days of Moses through the fiery exhortations of the prophets through the serene wisdom in the Psalms up to the New Testament ethic found in James, comprehensive care of orphans is a Biblical mandate.  What does that say to Christians who want to follow the guidance of scripture today?

It says the pastor who told the adoptive mom she’d get no help from him was flat out wrong.  He acted against God’s designs. 

I am thankful the church where I am a pastor has other members who are themselves adopted.  We have adoptive parents in our church.  And our church has many members who support at-risk children through sponsorship.  In November, we celebrate all who care for orphans and as we do, we call upon everyone in the church to pray earnestly, asking God how he or she is to join the effort. 

This is God’s call.  Are you being called to sponsor a child?  Give respite to foster parent?  Or, are you in a situation where you are being called to become a foster parent yourself or to adopt?  These are challenges.  But God does not call us to safety, comfort, and ease.  We are called to follow Jesus to the cross.  On the way of the cross, we carry another’s burden and enter his pain that he might be blessed and enter Jesus’ joy.  In doing so, we are filled with the spirit and live in a joy we’d never know if we stayed on the sidelines trying to take it easy.

Pray.  And when you do and you hear God calling you to radically change your life by making care of orphans a top priority (and this will happen), then answer that prayer will joyful willingness.  You’ll be eternally glad that you did.  

Grace for Distressing Days (2 Timothy 2:1-7, 2o-23; 3:1)

Sunday, October 18, 2015

          We are praying for wisdom and revelation – for individuals, as we each live as disciples and for HillSong Church as the body of Christ.  I believe God answers this prayer, but in order to receive that answer, we must be positioned toward God, listening, waiting, and ready to receive what God gives us.

          Last week we said we believe God has and continues to issue a specific call to us - HillSong church.  This prayer for wisdom and revelation comes in the context of an identity God has already given us.

We are to be a sanctuary – safe space that welcomes all people into the love of God.  We are to encourage discipleship so that people meet the Spirit of God here.  When we meet God in Christ, we become new creations.  As new creations, we are sent into the world to bear witness to the salvation we have in the crucified, risen Lord.  The key words for our church are Safe-New-Sent. 

          Within this model of church, what does God speak today? And when God speaks, can we hear what is said?

          There is noise that fills our ears and makes it hard to hear.  In 2^nd Timothy 3, we see a gauntlet of challenges that would throw us off track before we even begin our quest to find God’s word for us.  I mentioned last week that our enemies are Satan, sin, and death.  Satan is the tempter who would lead us to rebel against God by choosing our way instead of God’s way.  In doing that, we put ourselves in God’s role, that of ultimate decision maker and standard setter.  Satan tempts and our own tendency to sin make us vulnerable to the temptation. 

When, under the influence of the evil one, we set ourselves up as the ones who determine ultimate meaning, we have entered into idolatry.  This comes by way of pride, Satan’s and our own.  The way of God is life.  God is God of the living.  Any other way is the way of death.  Thus the forces that oppose God and oppose us in living out the purpose God has for us are Satan, sin, and death.

This morning, the second member of that malevolent trio, “sin” comes into focus. The opening to the 3^rd chapter of 2 Timothy says in the last days, distressing times will come.  Why? 

The chapter goes on to list 18 examples of destructive behavior.  This way of living is characteristic of the end times.  We are given 18 ways a person can turn away from God.  Our Father loves each of us unconditionally and eternally.  Here are 18 ways to tell God we’re not interested in the love he offers or in being involved with him at all.  Sin runs amuck in the last days.

Are we in the last days?

          I think so.  Sit down to watch a football game with someone under 10 years old.  See how frequently you have to mute the commercials because they are inappropriate.  Keep a tally of the stories of rape, extortion, tax evasion, mass shootings, terrorism, and poverty that are the content of any night’s evening news.  Go through in your mind the number of times someone in the last month has frustrated, hurt, insulted, or deceived you. And, consider those times you harmed others with words of condescension, dismissal, or shame. 

The degradation of humanity in rebellion against God is an obstacle to our design of seeking God, receiving God’s instruction, and following God’s path.  This obstacle, the tendency humans have to stand on pride, live in idolatry and reject God is everywhere and we cannot be a safe place where people are made new, and we cannot receive God’s revelation until we understand how we stay faithful in these end times.

Allow me to clarify my understandin of phrases like “the end times” or “the final days.” This is the period between Jesus’ resurrection, and the second coming of Christ.  It begins in Acts 2 and lasts until Jesus returns.   We don’t know the length last days will be, but we know we’re in the middle of it.

Yet in this midst of this turbulent time, our church is called to seek and serve God.  How do we do that?  We endeavor to bring the blessings of God to one another and to people outside the church. 

The blessings of God begin with salvation through faith in the resurrected Messiah.  We know many will initially reject that Gospel.  So we offer love through programs that promote education to those who can get it, help with rent to those who have trouble paying, fix houses for those who can’t do it alone, provide community and friendship for the lonely, and offer hospitality to those who come to us for reasons other than a thirst for truth.  We promote human flourishing. 

As we pray, listen, and wait for God to act, in our lives, we (1) strive for excellence in all that we do.  As we make excellence our standard, we (2) lean on God’s grace.  As 2^nd Timothy 2:1 says, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

That’s it.  We strive for excellence knowing our success is dependent upon God’s help and knowing God gives that help in abundance.  Our “no” to the forces of our age that would have us set ourselves up as gods and make our own sensual appetites our ultimate goal is to say “yes” to human flourishing.  We look around us and says, “How can I and how can we help make things good just the world was good when God first made it?”  How can we be God’s agents of redemption? 

Several pictures come from 2^nd Timothy 2 to help us get this.

First, verse 3.  “No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier’s aim is to please the enlisting officer.”  God is that officer and we live for God’s pleasure.  Through prayer, the support of our church community, and the constant empowering Holy Spirit at work in us, we don’t get bogged down by those 18 signs of distress in chapter 3.  We live with resurrection in view.  That’s our focus.  We live to please our commander.  And our commander’s greatest commands are that we love God above all else and love our neighbor with an extensive loves that speaks through acts of compassion.

The next picture comes in chapter 2, verse 5.  It says, “in the case of the athlete, no one is crowned without competing, according to the rules.”  Two words jump out.  First we have to compete.  Being a disciple is work.  We cooperate with the Spirit in trying to live compassionately, and generously.  Yes our success is Spirit-dependent, but we do our part.  We commit to compassionate God-love the way a great champion commits to performing at high levels in her sport.

We compete and the second word related to this athlete metaphor is we do it by the rules.  We do things God’s way.  Our ethic is as important as our result.  We love with integrity.  This is why we need to constantly pray for wisdom, by the way.  The balance of extreme compassion and extreme integrity is impossible for humans but doable when we act in God’s power.

The third picture comes in 2:6.  “It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the share of the crops.”  Effort is required to be strong in the grace that we have in Christ and strive for excellence in all things.  Our work does not save us.  Jesus does that.  But our effort to live as God would have us live and love as God commands us to love indicates how highly we value the life to which God calls us.  Worship, prayer, individual devotions, commitment to compassion in our daily lives, responsible living in our habits, family, and jobs, kindness, and generosity – these make up our work as disciples. 

That’s three pictures of living in grace while striving for excellence – the focused soldier, the competitive, committed athlete, and the diligent farmer.  For the fourth is in 2 Timothy 2:20-21.  There true disciples are compared to golden utensils, the household’s very best.  In a world that is dying, we belong God.  This means our lives have purpose – to point people to God.  Nothing matters more so we live in such a way that we are witnesses.  Whether out activity is religious or the stuff everyday life, we do what do properly and in kindness and generosity so that even in banal things we point people to the Lord.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven.”  If our striving for excellence in life and in discipleship draws an observer’s attention to God to the point that the observer then glorifies God, that observer is in the process of turning to God and himself becoming a disciple. 

Give attention to these pictures, metaphors that show what it is like to be a committed follower of Jesus in world hell bent on rejecting Him.  The focused soldier, the competitive athlete, the diligent farmer, shining golden vessel: this is the disciple. 

When we live into these images we are ready to accept God’s invitation to join Him as co-creators.  Through us, God enables people to flourish, to live the abundant life Jesus promised.

When God first created the universe, God’s intent was for human beings to be singled out among all God made.  God intended that we humans be in relationship with Him and do the types of things He did. 

God invited Adam into the creation process by giving him the responsibility of naming the animals (Genesis 2:19).  It says, God sat and waited to see what the man would name each animal.  Before sin came into the world, God gave humans work to do – the work of naming.  When the world is redeemed, God will again give us creative work.  God made us to be productive and creative.  Our striving for excellence is a way we live in anticipation of Jesus’ return.    

One day, in the Kingdom of Heaven, we will exercise our God-given, creativity.  Today’s prayer for wisdom and revelation is a reach toward human flourishing that can only happen in relationship to God. 

Now, if I were having a tough time in life and I heard this talk about excellence, I’d think, “Wow!  That sounds like a lot.  I barely make it from day to day. I can’t think about creativity or flourishing.”  That’s alright, if that is where you are today.    

God knows.  If doing your best is making it through today, then make it through today leaning on God.  The word is not “be strong in all the power you possess.”  We are all weak.  We are all broken.  The word is “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

That’s where we end – with God’s grace.  God’s grace is enough.  If I commit 1000 sins today, God’s grace is enough and I will be forgiven.  I need to stop all those sins, but until I stop, God will forgive.  If I never stop, God still loves me. 

If every day is a struggle for someone, God’s grace is enough to get her through. 

If someone appears to win in everything she does, take a closer look.  She hurts too and is as grace-dependent as you or me.  And I believe she and you and I have the potential to flourish.  We do when we learn to be strong in grace and live in Christ. 

Imagine what flourishing would look like in your life.  Pray and ask God to show you a picture of how God wants you to be a co-creator with Him.  Ask for help in getting past all the snares listed in 2^nd Timothy 3.  Imagine being strong in His grace and living a life of rich creativity and full, joyful flourishing in relationships with God and with people.  Pray for these things as we respond to God’s grace.

AMEN

Seek Wisdom and Revelation

Seek Wisdom and Revelation (Ephesians 1:15-23)

Sunday, October 11, 2015

        Are all churches the same?

        Or …

        Is each church unique?

        I believe the latter.  Each church has an identity. The church building factors in this identity, but it is the people who comprise the congregation that set a particular church’s culture and define an individual faith community’s character. Today we begin a 7-week project.  We will seek the specific call of God for HillSong.

        Our core identity is built on three principles.  We believe church is to be a safe place where people meet Jesus and are made new, and upon being made new are then sent into the world in Jesus’ name.  Remember those three words – Safe, New, Sent.

        We constantly strive for spiritual and emotional safety because Jesus was safe for the most vulnerable of people.  Those with diseases and disabilities were viewed as people under God’s curse.  They were called unclean.  They were pushed to the far margins of society, denied participation in the community.  Tax collectors, prostitutes, shepherds, and leather workers – these were all outsiders.  Shepherds and tanners were unclean because of the nature of their professions, even though both werere needed by society.

        Others were unclean and unacceptable because of their sins.  Everyone - the sick, the sinners and the outcasts – all were welcomed and loved by Jesus. 

If he was safe for people, then his body, his church should be a safe place.  We are to be a community where it is safe to explore Christianity.  It should be OK if someone doesn’t know the words to “Amazing Grace.”  This is a safe place to not know.  This is a safe place to cry. Emotional pain, can break a person.  This is a safe place to be broken.  This is a safe place to ask questions and acknowledge doubts.  Or to propose new ideas. 

        We are far from perfect in this.  Maybe you have had an experience where you felt this church was not safe for you.  Maybe you have felt I was not a safe person to approach or to speak with openly.  We have to constantly strive to be a safe place.

        The second word, New, is about meeting Jesus.  This is the part of our construct that is out of our control.  We cannot make anyone new.  We can set conditions so that people may meet the Holy Spirit in this place.  But actually being made new is something the Holy Spirit does in us.  This is God acting at God’s initiative, on God’s timetable.  Our worship, our groups, and the entire atmosphere is intended to help people meet God.  God will take care of the new birth, the transformation.  We try to foster the setting in which this can happen.

        Third, having found welcome and refuge in the family of God, and having met Jesus and become new creations as a result of the encounter, we are sent into the world to announce that Jesus is Lord and that all people can have life in His name.  We are sent each week to be witnesses in the communities of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Raleigh, and Hillsboro.  Some are sent from here on trips to faraway places.  Some receive the commissioning prayer as they move out of our town.  In those cases, we say goodbye with our arms open in love, not knowing when we’ll see them again. 

We all need a safe place because sin dictates that there is brokenness in the lives of every one of us.  We all need to become new creations in Christ.  And everyone who is His is then sent to give testimony to His salvation.

The third portion of this vision for church – “Sent” – is a joy, but our enemies, Satan, sin, and death can use the greatest gifts of God against us.  Read Luke chapter 4.  The devil tried to tempt Jesus by quoting something beautiful, passages of scripture.  Look at Mark chapter 10.  Two of the inner of circle of disciples, James and John, let sin – their own lust for power – take their eyes off of Jesus and His mission.  Read the Gospel accounts of Peter’s denial of Jesus.  His fear of death led him down a path in which he not only abandoned the Lord.  He denied Jesus, his rabbi.  Satan, sin, and death; these enemies of God conspire to attack the Almighty by hurting us. 

Midway through 2014 up through this past summer, we did the “sending prayer,” a lot.  Well over a dozen people who were core HillSong members, people who made our ministries run, moved on.  Each time, we laid on hands and joyfully expressed our love and tearfully said our goodbyes.  And we held tightly to our vision of Safe-New-Sent.  However, by Easter of this year, a spiritual enemy was speaking loudly to my spirit.

“Hey Pastor Rob!  You’ve lost a lot of people.”

My response.  This is part of our vision.  We know will say goodbye.  We are in a place where people come, stay for a few years, get a degree and then move one.  We as a congregation embrace that.  We thank God we can walk with people for a few years, love them and be a home for them while they are here and then send them on with our blessing.  That is who we are.

My enemy’s response.  “Keep telling yourself that, Pastor Rob.  You can’t sustain a vision like that.  It won’t hold up.”

I said back, listen, this church has maintained this reality long before I came.  I just put words together to describe God’s work here.

My enemy: “Sure.  But now you’re here and you’re a hindrance.  Take a look around.  You’re not getting new people to fill in the void left by those who’ve moved away.  And, in case you haven’t been paying attention, not everyone who is leaving is a recent graduate.  You’re losing people hand over fist.  Churches all over America are in decline and you are no different.”

This tortured conversation kept arising no matter how many times I drove it down to the depths.  I share all my struggles with my wife.  She heard me and almost in passing dropped a wisdom bomb on me.  She said, “Well, I have been in a Bible study that prays the words of Ephesians 1.  Why don’t you have our elders pray that scripture.”  So, I did.  Imagine that.  A Christ-follower has anxieties, comes to understand those anxieties are possibly a form of spiritual attack, and so that Christ-follower prays and asks others to pray.

If you think I am overspiritualizing concerns that can be explained along sociological lines and if I am guilty of seeing devils behind every problem, it makes no difference.  We are a praying community.  No matter what the source of the threat is one of our responses is to pray with great expectation.  Praying demands that we wait, listen (in the spirit), and live expectantly.  We wait on God, listen to God, and expect God to respond. 

The Apostle Paul did this.  In Ephesians 1, he says, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.” God wants HillSong to come together and ask for wisdom and revelation in our lives as individuals and collectively as the body of Christ.  God is calling us to pray for these things. 

Paul had a profound sense that God would give these things.  In verse 18 he speaks of our hearts being enlightened so that we know the hope of the resurrected Lord and the inheritance he gives us and his power at work in us.  He believed God would give the wisdom and revelation he sought.

To close out chapter 1 he says,

²⁰ God^[f] put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²² And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

That is us, the body of Christ.  When Paul writes the “fullness of him,” he means the Holy Spirit fills us – the church. 

So, our elders, and Heather, Nathan and I, prayed, listened, and expected in preparation for this season we now enter.  For the next 7 weeks, as a church family we will together pray for wisdom and revelation.

I conclude this morning by sharing a bit of wisdom God has given me and some specific things God has shown me.  Revelation is what God unveils, knowledge, truth, and reality that we cannot discover no matter how hard we try.  Divine wisdom and revelation are things God gives not things we earn.

I already mentioned one bit of wisdom.  When I was struggling spiritually, God, by way of my wife, led me to pray.  A second wisdom God has given is something that has helped me throughout my life at HillSong – the act of listening.  In more ways than I can count, God spoke to me when I chose to listen to people.  I pass that wisdom along.  If someone is talking with you or at you, take a moment to fully listen.  Listen and in your spirit, pray.  No matter type of interaction it is, I think God speaks in it, but most of the time we only hear what he has to say if we are listening.

So the wisdom is pray and listen.  What is the revelation?

What has God shown me?  Recall the national recession of 2008-2012.  In that time frame our church added an associate pastor and a youth pastor.  We also added a partnership with the Care Point for at risk kids in Kombolcha, Ethiopia.  Recall that from 2014 to 2015 nearly 30 people followed God’s call to other places.  HillSong lost that many people but we really didn’t lose anyone. 

We said goodbye knowing this is part of who we are as a church.  We had the privilege of loving each family and sending them with God’s blessing.  Moreover in that time, our church maintained the Ethiopia partnership, grew our Saturday tutoring ministry here in Chapel Hill, had one of our biggest Vacation Bible Schools yet, and explored partnerships in the Dominican Republic and in Quebec. 

The devil would love for us to focus on the losses – loss of money from 2008-2012; loss of people from 2014-2015.  When I heeded the wisdom to pray and when I listened, God showed me that God has been at work in our church family the entire time.  God has involved our church in God’s work around the world.  God does not depend on how much money we have or how many people are here. 

God expects us to know Him through the crucified and risen Christ.  God expects us to be responsive to the Holy Spirit.  And as we respond to the Spirit, God shows us Himself and leads us in the life God wants us to live.  And that life is where we experience the greatest happiness, deepest meaning, and lasting joy. 

We’re going to end with prayer.

As music plays, listen to the Holy Spirit.  After we’ve listened then pray for revelation.  Ask God to show you what God wants you to see and ask God to help you see it.  This can be revelation for your life or for our church.  First listen, then ask for revelation and wisdom. 

If you want to you can come and pray at the steps.  We will have people at the front and back ready to pray with you.  We enter into a time of prayer knowing that this is a season of seeking.  Over the next several weeks we will explore different scriptures constantly seeking God’s wisdom and revelation.

AMEN

Review of 'Life on the Edge' by McFadden and Al-Khalili

            The subtitle of this book is ‘The Coming Age of Quantum Biology.’  It is a book about science and I am particularly weak in my understanding of science.  Beyond that general disclaimer about me as a reader of science books, “Life on the Edge” is about the quantum realm and how it relates to biology.  The quantum realm is not fully understood, but where it is fully integrated in the conversation is physics, not biology.  I told a friend, a retire professor of biology at a major university, that I was reading a book on quantum biology.  A skeptical expression came over his face.  “Quantum biology?”  He asked.  My feeble efforts to summarize the book were unconvincing to him.

            So, that’s a couple of disclaimers.  I don’t understand science.  And I really don’t understand quantum science.  A third disclaimer is that I am a Christian pastor – a theist.  The authors make passing allusions to scripture.  There book is a science book, not a theology book.  But they cannot resist making theological assertions. 

            The first example comes on page 27.  They identify that prior to advancements in scientific knowledge, ancient people held that some kind of “vital force” or “spirit” animated nonliving things to make them alive.  “Vital forces” are terms the authors use.  Why they don’t just say “God,” I don’t know.  But that’s fine.  Here is what caught my eye on page 27.  They say, “We will [not] be claiming any kind of force, spirit, or magic ingredient animates life.  Our story is much more interesting than that.”  What?  I have heard scientists say that the only knowledge that is real knowledge is scientifically acquired knowledge.  This is the first time that beyond knowledge, I hear scientists claim expertise in the area of what is interesting. 

            So, just to summarize.  The authors assert that what they will discuss in their book, quantum theory as it relates to biology, is “much more interesting” than any type of theological contemplation.  And then they go on for over 300 pages of failure.  Because at the end, all they offer is a series of speculations that have not been proven nor gained widespread acceptance.  They say at the beginning, “It is worth remembering that even in this age of genetic engineering and synthetic biology, nothing living has ever been made by humans entirely from nonliving materials” (27). 

            The authors name as the biggest question in science as the question of how inert atoms and molecules found in rocks are transformed every day into running, jumping … living stuff.  That is the big question.  They also say, it has not happened, not by human efforts.  It has happened either by natural selection, a random process with no intentionality.  Or, it has happened by God’s intervention.  But real scientists aren’t allowed to point to God.

            By the way, I agree with that.  Once God is named as a cause, then something is happening and describing this happening is beyond what science is equipped to do.  Once God is an effective participant in the story, the story is beyond science.  Why that leads scientists to disregard God as if God doesn’t exist, I don’t know.  When they do that, they put all their trust, their faith if you will, in the scientific process of acquiring knowledge and understanding.  Natural Selection is the biologist’s god, not to be questioned, doubted, or challenged.  There is no question that cannot be answered by appealing to the evolutionary process that stands on the random process of natural selection.

            I am no young earth creationist.  I accept the evidence of a universe that is billions and billions of years old and the planet earth that is 4.5 billion years old.  I accept that living things are descended from common, simpler ancestors.  I have many scientist friends who over and over tell me this narrative is rock solid and the ground on which much of science stands.  My only problem with it all is when I hear a biologist describe it.  I find it very unconvincing. 

            The authors of “Life on the Edge” took their crack at describing the very beginning of life on earth in chapter 9.  What they share there is a narrative chalk-full of guesses and faith statements.  However, because that faith resides in a scientific milieu, it is not named and branded as such.  One thing that is clear to me after reading that chapter, something the authors would not want me to think, is this.  Life cannot happen without intention.  No undirected process will bring a nonliving thing to life, not even at the microscopic level, not even if we explain the event in terms of the quantum realm.  The authors are proposing just the opposite of what I just wrote.  But, I read the chapter closely.  There is no way, unless there is some evidence these two expert biologists do know, that life can come about through natural selection.  Natural selection is a survival process.  Prior to the first living thing being the first living thing, who or what is trying to survive.  And of course they end the chapter by saying everything they have just said is “highly speculative” (p.288).

            In the end, I find the book at many points difficult.  But that is my problem.  I have trouble understanding science most of the time.  The book is very interesting.  I might even say it is compelling.  But it is not convincing.  I cannot imagine a scientist, especially a biologist, reading this and thinking they’d want to consider the possibilities of quantum biology.  I am nonscientist, so I might be thoroughly misreading at that level.  At my level, I don’t find any of the ideas presented powerful enough to sway my thinking.  I am glad I read the book and I might recommend it to others.  But I nothing in my mind is affected by the argument made here.