"LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO JESUS"


Whew! It has certainly been a busy few weeks, full of added responsibilities and no small amount of stress since Pastor Bruce retired on February 28. Daily ministry activities, people “issues” and concerns, the death of a parishioner (with all of the attending details of that), some deeply emotional situations--all of this, on top of trying to handle my own areas of ministry. Then, added to this, the countless details of presenting our huge Holy Week production, “A Living Easter”--my life has not been slow or dull, to say the least!

But in the midst of everything swirling around me, I am adamant about keeping myself centered and solid in my relationship with God. It’s amazing how I can wake up in the morning and feel the pressures of the day as soon as I open my eyes, but everything shifts into its proper place and perspective as I read the Scriptures, my three devotional helps, and I turn to God in prayer. The load is lifted, even the most intense and difficult situations that I know I will have to face later in the day, and I always gain fresh understanding and a certain peace about the responsibilities that lie ahead.

There definitely IS something to this “Holy Spirit” presence that is available to us who follow Jesus; the Counselor-Comforter-Advocate-Intercessor-Paraclete whom our Lord promised to send our way once He ascended to His Father.

I wish we talked about the Holy Spirit more in our evangelical Covenant expression of Christianity! Guess we’re just a little too afraid of getting all pentecostal......

“Following Jesus...” This admonition from our Lord showed up again Thursday in my Oswald Chambers reading.


His daily devotional contained a provocative perspective that I’ve continued to reflect on since reading it. Here it is:

March 24: Jesus said to them, “Follow Me.” (Mark 1:17)

We have come to the conclusion nowadays that a person must be a conscious sinner before Jesus Christ can do anything for him or her. The early disciples were not attracted to Jesus because they wanted to be saved from sin; they had no conception that they needed saving. They were attracted to Him by a dominating sincerity, by sentiments other than those which we say make people come to Jesus. There was nothing theological in their following, no consciousness of passing from death to life, no knowledge of what Jesus meant when He talked about His cross...They did not follow Jesus because they wanted to be saved, but because they could not help following. Three years later when again Jesus said, “Follow Me,” it was a different matter; many things had happened during these years; now it was to be a following in internal martyrdom (see John 21:18-19). (emphases mine)

Is this true? Was it a “dominating sincerity” that caused those early disciples to follow Jesus, “so they could not help following” Him? What exactly were those “sentiments” that attracted them to Jesus; sentiments that Oswald Chambers says were different “than those we say make people come to Jesus” today? It seems that, if these ideas ARE true, then they have important implications for the manner and methods we use today in getting people to “follow Jesus.” Personally, I think Oswald’s ideas are very much in tune with contemporary thinking regarding evangelism, outreach, and salvation--and he was writing a hundred years ago!

Earlier this spring, I read another similar thought from Chambers: “We are in danger of putting the cart before the horse and saying one must believe certain things before one can be a Christian, whereas one’s beliefs are the result of being a Christian, not the cause.” Chambers is shifting the emphasis to a more practical, practiced, lived out, “real life,” “put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is” approach from the strong dependence on intellectual processes and theologically systematic ideas that have characterized most evangelical approaches and understandings as to how and why people come to Christ.

I think the impact of the way Oswald is grappling with “following Jesus” could have a strong, positive impact in our culture today. We are well aware how resistant people are, generally, to former approaches to witnessing. In our increasingly post-Christian society, many people don’t believe many of the essential components of our faith, and don’t even grasp the meaning of the words we toss around when we try to present Christ to them. New times demand new methods (NOT a new message!!!). Sincere relational approaches to evangelism, rather than the more intellectual ones we have relied on to hook people and get them to believe first and then follow, will certainly be more effective in this day and age. I don’t think nabbing people on the spot and coaxing them to “accept Jesus” is what our Lord ever had in mind either. This method comes out of our Western cultural heritage and understanding and approach to life/reality.

What would it look like to help people get acquainted with Jesus first; to experience Him, hear Him, get a grasp of the amazing, unique, topsy-turvy twists and turns Jesus took in His approach to life, relationships, spirituality, etc. before getting people to believe certain propostions and truths about Him? How might people embrace our Savior if they became attracted to Him the way Chambers says the disciples did (“they could not help following”)? Perhaps too often the Jesus that people experience from us who have followed Him for many years is a Jesus of do’s and don’t’s, who demands right and wrong ways of believing stuff, a rather distant, high expectations, holy, unrelatable type of figure who is not very compelling to follow. This is not, of course, universally true, but...I don’t know; I’m just musing here!

But what if Oswald Chamber’s ideas and approach are, indeed, true? Then how will people meet this Jesus; the Jesus the disciples “could not help following?”

Well, probably not in a book. Probably not just by hearing someone preach or talk about it. For most people, probably not through a rational, intellectual exchange or apologetics approach. Maybe by seeing a portrayal of this Jesus (think “Jesus” film, or “A Living Easter”).

Of course, we already know where and how people would meet this Jesus: in and through US! You and me. And in the “body of Christ” on earth, the Church. Basic; simple--the way it has always been!

Now, if this is actually going to occur, it means that we who are going to “incarnate” our Savior must “be” the same kind of living, breathing, active presence that Jesus was when He was incarnate on earth 2000 years ago--again, the same kind of Jesus the disciples “could not help following!” All of our talk and action and interaction and values and convictions will need to line up with the Jesus his followers were attracted to ”by sentiments other than those we say make people come to Jesus.” People will be watching us all the time, wondering if such a life can really be true--and once they see the implications and observe the redemptive, grace-filled, sacrificial and saving truth of Jesus, they will embrace the fullness of Christ with passion, thankfulness, and joy!

Doesn’t this seem like a positive, unencumbered, even exciting approach to reaching people for Christ? A more natural, relational, unmanipulative way for people to follow Christ? Perhaps churches--the body of Christ on earth--could once again grow in America and help people give their lives to Jesus if those of us within churches focused more on being the body of Christ consistently, individually and together, rather than on all the other matters, concerns, and issues that monopolize our time and attention these days. These priorities of ours matter only to us who are already inside the body of Christ. They don’t mean much, if anything, to those outside the Church.


Next Sunday at Hilmar Covenant we will be bringing our “One Step Closer” cards back to church and offer them to God, filled in with the names of people we know and care for--and who we desire to help take “one step closer” to Jesus. Perhaps they are already Christians, and we want to encourage them in some way (“prayer--care--share”). Or maybe they are people who are interested in Jesus and just need encouragement to know Him better. Maybe they are family and friends who have drifted away, or who have never shown any interest in our Lord. “One Step Closer” is a way to show our concern and commitment to help everyone in our circle of relationships to do just that: draw nearer to Christ.

To me, this is the approach Oswald Chambers is encouraging in his devotional. It is an organic, genuine, natural way of living out our faith in Jesus and helping others answer His call: “Follow me!”

What say YOU?

LOOKING BACK/LOOKING FORWARD
or
BACK TO EGYPT/FORWARD INTO THE PROMISED LAND!


Nearly a week has passed since our farewell weekend for Pastor Bruce. It was quite a time, full of wonderful memories, acknowledgements, humorous moments (Bruce’s driving, Arie Roest’s colorful stories!), sincere tributes, visual histories, a celebration of the many good things that occurred under Bruce’s pastorate. It was an emotional time too, as the realization that “This is it!” truly sank in. Pastor Bruce is, indeed, retiring; leaving as senior pastor of our church after 28 years; no longer the spiritual leader that we have known, grown accustomed to, and relied on.

It really struck me the previous Sunday during the Confirmation service. As I watched Bruce interact with the students and heard their stories of coming to faith, I got that empty feeling in the pit of my stomach that always signals EMOTION! I felt a wave of sadness and loss sweep over me. It hit me hard, that I will no longer experience the many things that Bruce and I have been through together, from the daily routines (worship planning, ministry discussions, practical details, etc.) to the bigger occasions (holiday planning, special events, Holy Land tours, etc.). I will no longer be able to count on the familiar patterns and habits that characterized our working relationship, and our friendship. All of the unspoken awarenesses and understandings that we’ve developed over 28 years are now over, and will have to be consciously begun all over again with someone new/someone different. Wow! This is difficult. A huge unknown. A seismic shift. A time for new behaviors, attitudes, understandings, patterns.

A part of me just wanted to freeze the proceedings, halt the action, and hit REVERSE. To take back all we’ve been through as a congregation recently, back before Bruce even mentioned the word “retirement,” back into a comfortable bubble of familiarity full of “knowns,” assumptions, customary patterns and habits. It was so much easier then! So much less unsettling that way! Remember when... Remember how... Remember the...

But nice and warm and fuzzy as those thoughts and desires may be, they are not reality. We can never truly go back to what was. We know this--we really do! And we know that the past we want so much to recapture was never as pristinely perfect and delightful as we imagine it to be. The challenges, the discomforts, the bad stuff that was also part of “back then” falls away when we recall “what was,” leaving just the “good bits” for us to dwell on and long for: a reality that never was truly real at all. (Makes you wonder if you can even trust anything that historians tell us about our past, doesn’t it?!)

This week in my Bible reading I was continuing through the book of Numbers when I came across something that got me thinking about where we are as a congregation these days. It’s from Numbers 11 and 20:


“Now the people complained about their hardships. The rabble with them began to crave other food and again the Israelites started wailing, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.’”

“The whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin. Now there was no water for the community, and the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink.’”

Earlier in Exodus, not long after they passed through the Red Sea and away from their slavery in Egypt, we read of similar complaints and familiar memories:

“The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve the entire assembly to death.’”

Not much later in Exodus:

“The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephadim, but there was no water to drink, and they grumbled against Moses: ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children die of thirst?’”

It occurred to me that we, as a church in this extended time of transition, are in a kind of “desert” between what we knew so well (Egypt) and where we are headed, into something new, different, unknown (the Promised Land). It is not pleasant here in the “desert” either! What we’ve counted on in the past, assumed to be available and present for us, felt in control of--whoosh! It’s no longer here. We are vulnerable, surrounded by uncertainty, very much the way the Israelites in the hot, dry, barren desert were vulnerable. They no longer had their homes, the food and water they had always taken for granted, their familiar routines, their usual patterns of living--no! Now they were adrift in the desert, wandering around, only able to rely on what was present in that moment, for that one day. The Promised Land, and all the good things that it held (“a land flowing with milk and honey”) seemed far far away, completely unreal and unattainable; an impossible goal. In the midst of the many discomforts of the present, they harkened back to what they thought was a much better existence in Egypt--totally forgetting the oppression, the hardships, and the cruelty of slavery that was their lot in that previous place. In the middle of the desert--that in-between place of uncertainty and not knowing--their memories captured their hearts, grew bigger and stronger than their hopes and dreams of what lay ahead, dampening the incredible, wonderful promises that the Lord had in store for them in Canaan.


But as we learned through the Veritas process, “If your memories are bigger than your dreams, you are on the path to death!”

Now before I say anything more about this Egypt/Promised Land analogy, let me make it abundantly clear what I am NOT saying! I am not insinuating that our “Egypt” here at Hilmar Covenant was negative and bad, the way “Egypt” was for Israel. Of course not! Nor am I implying that we are like the rabble in Numbers, wailing about our current situation and grumbling about what has taken place. No! I’m using “Egypt” as an attitude or perspective, and the “desert” as an image of vulnerability and insecurity. (I feel I have to spell this out because sometimes people jump to conclusions, make wrong connections from what I am trying to say, and think I’m being negative, cynical, or critical in some way...)

My point is simply this: It is very easy, in the midst of a “desert” experience like the transition time we are currently in as a church, to wish for the past; to harken back to “what was;” to avoid the discomfort, uncertainty, and painful change that are called for in a more fluctuating, moving, “nomadic” existence, like the one we are living in right now. It is hard to keep our “preferred future”--our Promised Land--in view when we are experiencing the continuous uncertainties of these transition times.


Human beings crave stability. We like predictability. We prefer certainty, what we can expect, the assurance that “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich) Thus, it is natural for us to feel nervous, unsure, even frightened--both about our current state in this “desert” of transition and about what the Promised Land actually holds for us in the future. (Remember: some of the spies said “There are giants there!” Ahhh! Scary...)

My hope, and my challenge to all of us here at Hilmar Covenant, is to embrace fully this journey that we are on together right now, to trust that we are solidly in the midst of God’s plan for us, no matter how unclear it might seem to us right now, and that He will continue to direct us, just as He did His own chosen people from Egypt through the desert to Canaan. Let us go forward as a strong, united, committed community of faith, and not be like those Israelites who grumbled, trusted other things than God (think “golden calf”), and doubted that the desert was the perfect place for them to be: the place where their faith and relationship with God would be forged even stronger, deeper, and made more real. This is our opportunity during this time of transition too: to see our faith and relationship with God strengthened, deepened, and made more vibrant as well.


And always, it will be about making us ready to enter a new chapter--a new, promising reality--as a congregation: a truly revitalized, healthy (“pursuing Christ”) missional (“pursuing Christ’s priorities in the world”) church here in Hilmar.

The journey has begun...

(Watch our church website for a photo gallery of Pastor Bruce’s many farewell moments!)