The Sin of Certainty

The Sin of Certainty

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Experience
September 8, 2024


1 John 1:1-3, Romans 8:16

see also:
John 5:39-40, Matthew 7:15-23

We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.  The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.  What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:1-3

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“We announce to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.”  In other words, what we proclaim to you about God is what we ourselves have seen, heard and touched.  Or to put it another way, we are sharing with you our “experience” of God.

Some have said that we cannot trust our experience because we are fallen human beings tainted by sin.  While there is certainly truth to the ways sin skews our perspective, it is equally true that we cannot know  anything except through the lens of our lived experience.  There is no idealized form of any object that can be described apart from the way one perceives it.  If ten people were to describe a particular tree, for example, there would certainly be similar elements such as color, parts like bark, leaves or branches, perhaps certain textures, etc.  And yet each description would be so unique in other ways that one might wonder if they are all describing the same tree.  One person might notice tiny holes from bugs that were eating at it, and another might notice the moss along the base.  Still another might zero in on a birds nest or a particular knot where a branch seemed to grow in an unlikely direction.  All of these details say as much about our experience of the tree as they do about the tree itself.

If each person would notice different aspects of a tree, how much more will each person have their own unique experience of God.  Even scripture is not “immune” from the impact of experience.  The Biblical writers to not have an objective source of information about God that is universally accepted as scientifically tested and verified fact.  Rather, they each write through the lens of their own experiences of God in their lives.  Abraham encounters God in the visitation of three strangers.  Moses experiences God in a burning bush.  Elijah sees God in the all consuming fire, hears God in the silence, and is nourished by God through bread and rest under the broom tree.  

People experience Jesus differently too.  The lepers and the tax collectors, for example, have a very different perception of who he is than the Jewish leaders who put him on trial.  Everything we know about God is mediated through someone’s experience and more likely, through the culmination of many people’s experiences throughout the centuries including our own.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that we “...received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children.  (Romans 8:15-16). 

God sent the Spirit so that we could fully experience his loving presence and share that experience with others along the way.

We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are

~ Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani, as quoted in the Talmudic tractate Berakhot (55b.)

When the Bible isn't "Biblical"

When the Bible Isn’t Biblical

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Reason
September 1, 2024


Romans 12:2, Acts 17:11

see examples of problematic scriptures such as:
1 Samuel 15:1-3, Exodus 21:20-21, Ephesians 6:5-6

This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: I am going to punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel: how they attacked the Israelites as they came up from Egypt.  So go! Attack the Amalekites; put everything that belongs to them under the ban. Spare no one. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”  

1 Samuel 15:2-3

Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.

Romans 12:2

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When reading the passage above from 1 Samuel 15:3 about God commanding the slaughter of every man, woman, child and even infant among the Amalekites, one would think someone might pause to question whether this is actually what God desires.  It doesn’t exactly sound like the loving God we see in Jesus, or even the God of the Old Testament who brought his people out of slavery and walked with them even through the valleys of the shadow of death. 

Yet to my shock and horror, I actually sat in a church meeting where church leaders said that all Muslims should be killed before they kill us and mutilate our children, or at the very least be run out of our country.  I’ve heard pastors say that gay people should be locked up behind electric fences and separated from society.  And I’ve been personally told by a church member that he should beat me to a pulp until admitted that my stance against violence was foolish and that I must fight back if I wanted to live.  In each instance, they used passages like the one above to justify their positions.

Like the text in 1 Samuel, these are extreme examples and fortunately do not represent the majority of Christians.  Nevertheless, passages like this and other “God ordained” violence throughout scripture have been used time and time again to justify violence of every kind: “Holy  Wars”, oppression, slavery, and even genocide. 

Other texts have been misappropriated in different ways; to subjugate women both in the church and in the family and society, to elevate our nation to the status of “God’s chosen” or “The promised land” over and against every other nation, or to justify abuses of power and authority in the name of God’s will, among others. 

The point is simply this.  When we turn off the rational minds that God gave us and interpret scripture at face value with no consideration for context, history, trends and progressions, literary style, and any other number of factors, we can quickly assume that every verse is a prescriptive example or instruction for how to live in all times and all places.  Certainly there are such passages, such as the greatest commandment, to love God and neighbor.  But most reasonable people do not assume that passages about genocide, slavery or other forms of oppression are offering us universal principles for all times. 

We need reason to understand how to appropriately interpret and apply scripture to our lives and in our world and we need the Spirit to renew our minds so that we may discern with humility and wisdom.

Reading with the Saints

Reading with the Saints

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Tradition
August 25, 2024


2 Thessalonians 2:15, Hebrews 12:1, Romans 15:4, Matthew 28:19-20

see also how Jesus uses tradition - "You have heard"
Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-45

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether we taught you in person or through our letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we could have hope through
endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.

 Romans 15:4

_______________

Whether we come from a religious family or not, we all grow up with traditions.  Perhaps we remember family traditions around holidays, birthdays, trips, or other special occasions.  Maybe it was as simple as Sunday dinner at a family member’s home or a weekend movie or game night.  No matter how small or elaborate, our traditions say a lot about what our family most values and those values have shaped much of our lives. 

In addition to family traditions, we also have religious traditions.  For some, that tradition may simply be that you didn’t go to church at all, but maybe a grandparent or other family member had a church at some point.  For others, it may have just been going to church on Christmas or Easter, or perhaps you were one of those who was in church every time the door was open.  Regardless of how often or how little you were in church, you no doubt learned something about faith from members of your family or from your church.  Some of those traditions may have given you a negative view of faith or religion, others may have been very positive.  But again, all of these religious experiences helped form our value systems and our faith or lack-there-of.

My own religious tradition was a mixed bag.  I grew up in the Catholic church and hated it, but I didn’t know there was anything else.  As a teenager I was “saved” in a Baptist church.  As a college student and young adult I branched out to a number of different denominations and finally landed in a United Methodist Church when I took a job as a part time youth pastor in 2003.  I chose to remain United Methodist for a many reasons, but when I look back on my religious background, I am deeply aware of the mixture of pain and blessing from each congregation and tradition.  Some things I have grown beyond and others that I once rejected I have come to appreciate more deeply in more recent years. 

Just as our own religious experiences are part of our tradition, so the larger tradition of church history has shaped our denominations and even much of our culture.  No matter how fresh or modern a church might be, it is still rooted in a long tradition of faithful saints who have gone before us.  We are not the first to study the Bible, to worship God, or to have a relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit, and we will not be the last. 

In all of our efforts as humans to make our mark on the world and leave our legacy, it is easy to forget that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.  As we study the scriptures, we can find tremendous blessing and wisdom in walking with the Saints who have gone before us, both ancient and recent. 

We cannot escape it. 

The tradition is part of who we are.

The question is, how will we allow it to teach us, to shape us, and to bless our lives?

The Myth of Sola Scriptura

The Myth of Sola Scriptura

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Scripture
August 18, 2024

Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:105, John 20:30-31

… God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. 

Hebrews 4:12

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In the 16th century, church leaders challenged various forms of corruption and abuse in the church, ultimately leading to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, or “Scripture Alone.”  Martin Luther, John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers said that Scripture alone is the ultimate authority in matters of faith, over and against the rules and traditions established within the church.  People, they believed, could err in their judgment or even intentionally spread false teachings and heresies, but Scripture was always unchanging and reliable.

In theory, this sounds reasonable.  After all, we as Christians believe the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and as Paul writes to Timothy, are useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character (1 Timothy 3:16).  The problem is that no one can read the Bible in a vacuum.  The fact that we are not reading in Hebrew or Greek means that there is always at least one layer of interpretation in the  translation itself.  Not to mention all of our preconceived ideas about God, theology, and what we have been taught.  In some religious education, theology classes are required before taking Biblical Studies, which ensures that when students actually get to studying the scripture, they are already steeped in a particular  denominational viewpoint on how to interpret it. 

The Wesleyan tradition still holds scripture as our primary source of authority when it comes to knowing God, but we also recognize that scripture always comes to us through various lenses of interpretation and that it is quite possible for us to get some things wrong.

Rather than Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), we might say a more accurate way is Prima Scriptura (Scripture First, or primary).  Reflecting on John Wesley’s practical methodology for interpreting scripture and doing  theology, Albert Outler coined what is known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” consisting of Scripture,  Tradition, Reason, and Experience.  Of course scripture has more weight than the other three, but this process of theological reflection reminds us that whether we like it or not, scripture is always interpreted through the lens of the other three.  When we read the Bible, we cannot separate ourselves from the church tradition in which we were taught.  We cannot and should not shut off the intellect God gave us.  To ignore reason leads not to a perfect understanding of scripture, but to a blind acceptance of what someone else told us it means.  And finally, we can never separate ourselves from our own experience, particularly our experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  God’s word is alive and breathes in us through the Spirit, teaching us how to apply what we read in our own unique context and circumstances. 

When we recognize these lenses, we open ourselves to the work of scripture that seeks to penetrate our hearts and transform our souls.  We come humbly, acknowledging that we have much to learn about the text from those who have gone before us, from deep study, and even from the fresh voice of the Spirit today.

Seen and Heard

Seen and Heard
August 11, 2024
Back to School Sunday

Matthew 18:1-5, 19:13-15

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then he called a little child over to sit among the disciples,  and said, “I assure you that if you don’t turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Matthew 18:1-5 (CEB)

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Jesus teaches that to enter the Kingdom of God, we must become like a little child.  Ironically in our culture, like the culture of Jesus’ day, children are often dismissed or ignored.  They are to be taught, but we rarely learn from them.  They are expected to listen and to respect adults, but adults so often refuse to listen to and respect children in turn.  Children, our culture says, are to be “seen and not heard”. 

This also sadly applies to our own “inner child” who may have a lot more to teach us than we realize.  No matter how much responsibility, stress or even trauma we have built up, our inner child is always with us and is often wounded.  Here are a few ways to know if your inner child is hurting:

• Hypersensitive to emotions, constructive criticism, and negative situations.

• You’re a chronic people pleaser

• You seek heavy validation through achievement

• Your sense of worth is tied to your work or productivity

• You feel numb or avoidant of your feelings

• You avoid conflict like the plague

• You find it difficult to set and stick to healthy boundaries in relationships

So how can we begin to nurture and care for our inner child so that we can get back to that child-like spirit that Jesus invites us to? 

Here are a few ways to start:

• Acknowledge and validate memories from your childhood, even the painful ones.

• Listen closely and pay close attention, especially when dealing with tough emotions and which emotions you tend to most gravitate toward.

• Reconnect with your sense of joy, remembering what it felt like to be a child and maybe even picking up a favorite childhood hobby again.

• Be silly, use your imagination, let go of having to have everything under control.  Have fun.  Play.

• Be curious and excited.  Allow yourself to be amazed by the beauty and joy of life.

• Be fearless.  Take risks.  Try new things and don’t be afraid of failure. 

• Live in the present moment and fully experience the depth of your feelings.

What is God trying to teach you right now through children in your life?

… through the younger generation in general?

… through your own inner child?

We spend our whole childhood wanting to grow up  faster.
But we spend our whole adult life, wanting to go back to the simplicity of being a kid again.

anonymous

 __________

Source Material from:

• 20+ Inner Child Activities to Heal and Feel Alive

• 6 Important Life Lessons We Can Learn From Children

Stay in Love with God

Stay in Love with God
August 4, 2024
Psalm 105:3-6, Colossians 2:6-7

Give praise to God’s holy name!
    Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
Pursue the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always!
Remember the wondrous works he has done,
    all his marvelous works, and the justice he declared

Psalm 105:3-5 (CEB)

So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. Be rooted and built up in him, be
established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught.

Colossians 2:6-7 (CEB)

_______________

The third simple Rule from John Wesley is to “attend upon the ordinances of God.”  In short, this means to attend to regular spiritual practices like prayer, fasting, Bible Study, participation in worship, etc.  These are the practices that helps us nurture our ongoing
relationship with God.

In modern times, we don’t think as much about “ordinances,” so it is often reframed as “Stay in love with God.”  In other words, do whatever you need to stay in love with God.  Consider any loving relationship you have; a marriage, another family relationship, a friendship, etc.  Every relationship takes work.  You have to spend time together.  You have to communicate with each other.  You have to have a genuine interest in one another’s lives.  You even have to serve one another, which sometimes requires sacrifice. 

Spiritual practices or disciplines are the ways we do all of these things with God.  They are like a trellis that supports our relationship with God and helps us grow more deeply in love with our creator.  Without these regular spiritual practices, it is nearly impossible to live out the first two rules, to do no harm and to do good.  Why?  Because it is our love for God and God’s love flowing through us that produces the fruit of good works. 

Here are a few questions to consider as you think about your own trellis, or “rule of life.”

1. What rhythms / practices is God inviting you to establish or strengthen at this time in your life?

2. Tinker with arranging your calendar to  accommodate your chosen practices. Rearrange where necessary. Experiment. Revisit and revise it.  A rule of life is to support growth in holiness of heart and life.

3. What do you feel are the challenges you might face as you seek to live into these new rhythms?

4. Consider the arrangements that will need to be made. How will you need to adjust your schedule in order to consistently choose this rule of life?  What conversations or arrangements do you need to make with those with whom you live and work?

5. How do you need prayer from another as you move forward?

“IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS there is nothing we can do to transform ourselves into persons who love and serve as Jesus did except make ourselves available for God to do that work of transforming grace in our lives”  (Robert Mulholland, Invitation To A Journey).

Do Good

Do Good
July 28, 2024
3 John 1:11, Acts 10:38, Luke 4:18-19

Friend, don’t go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God’s work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn’t know the first thing about God.

3 John 1:11 (The Message)

You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him.

Acts 10:38 (CEB)

_______________

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

While the attribution of this well known quote to John Wesley is heavily questioned by scholars, it remains true to the Wesleyan Spirit and the second of our General Rules, “to do good.”   As our conference youth put it, we are called to “do good however, whatever, wherever, whenever, forever.”

Like our rule last week, “Do no harm,” the rule to “Do Good” seems fairly simple and straight forward, but there are a lot of  open ended questions.  How much good must we do?  How often?   To whom?  How much do we have to sacrifice for the sake of doing good to others? 

I once saw someone pose the question, “What is the least I have to do and still be a Christian?”  While we may not ask it quite so crudely, if we’re honest we often ask a lot of similar questions.  We try to be good people, but in the back of our minds we may question if we have been good enough or if we have done enough?  The truth is there is always more to be done and compassion fatigue is very real.  Our resources are limited, not only financially, but also physically and emotionally.  We don’t always have enough information or enough bandwidth to do all the good we would like to do and it is easy to feel overwhelmed and give up altogether. 

I think that’s all the more reason to reflect again on the quote so often attributed to Wesley.  Consider using it as a prayer of examen at the end of each night.

1.  Today, did I do all the good I could do?

2.  Did I use every means possible to do good?

3.  Did I do good in every way I thought of?

4.  Did I do good in every place I went?

5.  Did I do good to every person I encountered?

6.  Did I keep doing good to the end of the day without giving up?

If we’re honest with ourselves, the answers will often be “no.”  We all fall short and these questions should never make us judge or shame ourselves.  They should, however, invite us to ask in every moment, what is the most good I can do, right here, right now, in this situation… and trust that God will use it and multiply it and that it will be enough.  They also give us an opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for the good God empowered us to do.

In what specific ways is God calling you to do good this week?

Do No Harm

Do No Harm
July 21, 2024
Galatians 5:13-15, Proverbs 3:28-29

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love.  All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other!

Galatians 5:13-15 (CEB)

Don’t plan to harm your neighbor who trusts and lives near you.

Proverbs 3:29 (CEB)

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John Wesley, in his instructions to all those desirous of salvation, explained that the evidence of their
sincerity was "First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most
generally practiced ..." (Book of Discipline 2000, ¶103, p. 73). Even before listing good things to do, Wesley began by listing harmful things to avoid doing. There is a powerful lesson for Christian leaders in this instruction — as valuable as good works may be, it is even more valuable to avoid those things that might harm others or destroy the foundation of trust of the congregation. 

~ excerpt from UMC Discipleship

In theory, the idea of doing no harm seems simple. 

Perhaps that’s why Bishop Reuben Job calls it the first of “Three Simple Rules.”  It’s simple because in general, we do not seek to do harm to others.  We don’t usually try to hurt people.  At the same time, we know the reality that it is often the people who are closest to us that we hurt the most, often without even realizing it. 

Consider a few of the ways we commonly do harm to others without necessarily intending it:

1. Gossip - We all have opinions and easily find fault with other people, but it is far to easy to talk “about” those people rather than talking “to” them or “with” them. 

2. Unfair Criticism - It is so easy to criticize someone for not living up to our expectations, but in truth, we have no idea what is going on  in their lives.  Scripture calls us to turn our criticism into encouragement to build one another up in the Lord.

3. Rumors - similar to gossip, rumors or mis-information is widespread in our culture.  Even fact checkers have been challenged as false when they don’t line up with “what we have heard” or “what we already think.”  As Christians, we must be far more discerning about the information we spread, especially when it is about someone else.

4. Respectful discourse even in disagreement - As much as we may want to avoid conflict, often brushing our disagreements under the rug and not dealing with them can do even more harm.  We must learn to respect one another’s opinions while also challenging those places where those opinions, including our own, may cause harm to others. 

5. Apathy - One of the easiest and most common ways we do harm to others is simply by not doing anything at all.  When we refuse to speak up on behalf of a person or group who is experiencing harm, we are part of the problem. 

What other ways do you see harm in our world, or even in your own life? 

How will you work intentionally to “do no harm” this week?

Entwined

Entwined
July 14, 2024
John 15:1-17

As the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.  This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends. 

 John 15:9-13 (CEB)

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Jesus’ teaching on the vine and the branches is fairly commonplace in the church, and in many ways, the
lesson seems obvious.  A branch that is not connected to the vine will die.  In the same way, we must remain connected to Christ or we will die in a spiritual sense.  Simple as that… or is it?

The problem is that too often we interpret this like we interpret far to many passages of scripture, through the lens of modern American individualism.  So long as “I” remain connected to Jesus, “I” will be ok.  But what if the “you” is plural?  What if it’s not just about each individual and their own private, personal relationship with God, but more about our collective connection to the vine.  After all, Jesus says “you are the branches”, not “the branch” or even “a branch.”  “You” is all of us. 

The thing about a vine is that it is impossible to tell where one branch stops and another begins.  They are entwined together as they grow out of the central vine.  Yes, each branch must be individually connected to the vine, but it is equally true that branches are inextricable from one another and if one is broken or diseased, it must be cut off in order not to hinder the growth of the other healthy branches.  In other words, each branch depends on the health of the others.  We depend on each other.  Christianity can never just be about “me and Jesus.”  The health of our connection to the vine impacts the health of every other branch as theirs impacts our own spiritual healthy.  We are always strong together than we are apart.  A vine with one lone branch can never be healthy or fruitful.  We need every one.

Part of this means that we do not come to church for ourselves.  We do not come to hear a good message, sing our favorite hymns, and go home feeling better about ourselves.  No, we come for one another.  We come not to be served, but to serve.  We come not just to receive, but to give.  We come because we belong to one another, we are part of one another, and we cannot simply choose to disconnect from our fellow branches without also cutting ourselves off from the vine. 

It seems easy to love God, or to love Christ, but other people are not always so lovable.  As Episcopal Priest Sheila McJilton puts it, other people “demand too much of us.  They disagree with us.  They don’t act the way we think they should act.”  Yet, to stay connected with Jesus is also to stay connected with them.  To abide in Christ is also to abide in community with others who may not be very easy to abide with.  Being a Christian is not about what we get out of it.  It is about being part of something bigger than ourselves, committing ourselves to the good of one another, whether we feel like it or not.  “As branches, we connect to Christ until we encircle each other in intricate, interwoven relationships.  In Christ, we grow in love."   

Completing the Work

Completing the Work
July 7, 2024
Philippians 1:3-7, Galatians 5:22-23, Mark 4:26-29

I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6 (CEB)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this.

Galatians 5:22-23 (CEB)

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For me, this is a week of transition… sort of.

July 1st marks the first Sunday of a new appointment year in the United Methodist Church and as pastors, we are always only appointed one year at a time, though thankfully longer appointments are becoming more commonplace. Until this week, I have never served an appointment more than 3 years, but July 1, 2024 marks day 1 of my 4th year at Shiloh. I sometimes joke that this means I have to start writing new sermons now, though in truth, I regularly use a good mix of new and old material in sermon preparation.

So how is this a season of transition if I’m starting a 4th year?

Answer: because it also marks my 1st week as the new pastor at Grace UMC in Salisbury, NC. Shiloh and Grace are now linked on what we call “a two-point” charge, meaning primarily that two congregations share one pastor. There are many reasons why I believe this will be a wonderful season of new opportunities for shared ministry together in our local community. As a United Methodist who strongly believes in and practices the spirit of connectionalism, I am convinced that as individuals and churches, we can always do more together than apart.

Nevertheless, as July 7th is my final Sunday preaching only at Shiloh, I am taking some time to reflect on these past 3 years and what it means for me to have the privilege of continuing in ministry with this congregation. The opening of Paul’s letter to the Philippians describes well what I feel for the people of Shiloh and I hope describes well what many pastors feel for their congregations.

Philippians 1 -

• 3 I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. 4 I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. 

• 5 I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel…

• 6 I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus. 

• 8 God is my witness that I feel affection for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

• 9 This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight.

• 10 I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. 

• 11 I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.

As a person who is always looking toward “the next thing”, I am particularly drawn to verse 6, the promise that God will complete in them the good work which has already begun. I believe this is true for every one of us and for every one of our churches. We are all works in progress. We are not finished yet. We are not who we were, but we are also not yet who God wants us to be.

For some, this may be uncomfortable, but for me it is great news.

• It means the journey isn’t over.

• It means no matter how much I have fallen short, there are still new opportunities to learn, to do better, and to become more like Christ.

• It means that in seasons where we don’t feel very productive, it may simply be that our fruit is just not ripe yet. Sometimes a plant is most healthy when it has been pruned back to the point where it looks dead, but it is preparing to be more fruitful in the next season than ever before.

I’m not saying Shiloh looks dead. In fact, quite the opposite!

I see signs of new life all over this little church in Granite Quarry and I’m excited to see what they will bloom into and how they will combine their fruit with the fruit God is producing at Grace in order to feed more of our community.

Admittedly there have been seasons over the past three years when things did not look so good.

There were times it felt like decline was inevitable and that I would have no choice but to move. There were times when the discouragement was overwhelming and a spirit of negativity permeated everything. Then our wonderful Deacon, Rev. Tangela Cameron, beautifully reminded us that genuine lament does not end with sorrow but with hope. It does not end with despair, but courage to press on. It does not end with death, but resurrection and new life.

And over this past year I have been blessed to see us live into this new life filled with new hopes, new dreams and new possibilities. I’ve seen us start to take new risk, and open ourselves to fresh ideas and fresh leadership. I’ve seen people step up and use gifts they didn’t always even knew they had for the sake of building up the community.

That is why I am filled with joy entering this 4th year and why I believe that in our new partnership with Grace, God will make our love become even more, that we will be able to more deeply discern what really matters, and that together we will be filled with the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, which comes from Christ Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Wherever we see these traits in ourselves, in others, and in the church, we see glimpses of God’s ongoing work.

• Which of these fruits do you see the most in your life or in your church right now?

God brings the growth, but we also have work to do to plant and nurture the seeds.  In whatever areas we find ourselves struggling to bear fruit, we have to ask some hard questions about what blocking that growth. 

• What seeds are we trying to hold onto for ourselves instead of planting and nurturing them for the sake of others?

Sometimes when we fail to see growth in our congregations or in our own spiritual lives, it is because we have certain expecations about what that growth should look like that may not match up with reality.

Pediatrician and Parenting Coach, Dr. Hope Seidel, describes children as little bags of seeds. As parents, it’s our job to water them and help them grow. We don’t always know what the seed will be, but our job is to nurture it into the wonderful plant it was made to be

I belive the same is true in our spiritual life and in our churches. Just as children grow, so the seeds that God plants in our lives and in our communities also grow.  If something is not growing, it is dead. 

The problem is that we never know what kind of fruit will bloom.

Sometimes the problem is not that the fruit is bad, but simply that it’s not what we expected. Maybe we thought we were raising an apple tree but it turned out to be beets or carrots or a durian, jackfruit, or some other delicacy we didn’t even realize existed.

If we are expecting a giant redwood or an entire citrus orchard, we will be disappointed if it turns out we are growing root vegetables underground where we cannot see any progress at all.

• What expectations do we need to let go of about our church in order to better see the good fruit God is producing?

• What needs to die in us or be pruned back in order for new life to sprout and bloom?

• Name at least 1 specific “next step” you believe God is calling you to as you reflect on your participation in the good work God is completing in you.  Of the various fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, which one do you believe needs the most attention and nourishment in this season? (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control)

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability —
and that it may take a very long time.

~ Teilhard de Chardin

Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

~ John 12:24-25 (The Message)

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*** This service incorporated a significant portion of table conversations which I cut out of the recording. The audio of my brief message and reflections on Philippians 1 can be found below.