Christian Unity

Our congregation’s theme for 2009 is “Jesus is Lord!”

A few weeks ago I blogged about “Living for God.” The challenge facing Christians today is actually to live for God, and not to be consumed by worldly pursuits. Most of us spend our time, our energy, and our money on ourselves, for our own convenience and comfort. We are living for ourselves and not for God. So both husband and wife work outside the home to bring in as much money as possible, which is then spent to acquire the highest lifestyle possible — the biggest house, the fanciest car, the most impressive collection of stuff, and whatever else we think might fill the void of meaning in our lives. Many of us are chasing the wind, not living for God.

The Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, admonished us to live differently:

2Co 5:14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
2Co 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

There is a wide gap between the life we’ve been called to live and our present reality. What should church leaders do about that?

In our congregation, we’re beginning by teaching the biblical standard to the church. A few weeks ago I taught a midweek men’s class covering the material from the Living for God post. This weekend we will meet with our deacons and family group leaders to talk specifically about the biblical model for the family, and about the plague of materialism that is consuming us. We’ll be calling on them to develop deep convictions and to start making changes toward the biblical model. By doing this they will be setting an example, and earning the right to call others in the church to make room in their lives for serving God.

In Titus 2, Paul instructed Titus what must be taught to the church. That teaching included that women should be busy at home (verse 5.) And he closed the chapter by telling Titus to teach these things, and to encourage and rebuke with all authority. He was instructed not only to teach these things, but also to expect the members to obey the teaching.

Most of our families need to downscale their lifestyles so that wives don’t have to work outside the home. The two biggest obstacles to doing that are a lack of conviction on the subject, and a supersized house payment. We are beginning by addressing the conviction. Addressing the house payment problem may be harder. Today’s housing market is not an ideal environment for downsizing the house. But with the right convictions, I think people will be able to find a way.

For many, the first step toward downsizing our lives will be to get out of debt. We will be starting up our second session of Dave Ramsey’s FPU classes in a few weeks.

If we are going to live out our good confessions, we will have to make room in our lives. Living for God requires time, energy, and money. We have to restrain ourselves from consuming everything ourselves, so we will have something left to share with others.

First of all we have to make room for God in our hearts. There is not enough room in our hearts to love our material world and also to love God (1 John 2:15) Do we really love God more than we love the things that are currently preoccupying us? If so, we will make the necessary changes. That’s what it means for Jesus to be Lord.

From Thanksgiving through the end of the year is always a busy time, and this year is no different in that respect. Aside from all the personal and family business (“busy-ness”) that the Christmas season brings, there is the year-end church business and planning for the coming year.

We’ve chosen as our congregation’s theme for 2009 “Jesus is Lord.” (I wonder how many other churches choose themes for the coming year?) We will be tailoring our classes and activities during the year around that theme. So, beginning in January, we will be teaching a class we’re calling Red Letters, in which we will teach classes on what Jesus actually said. (“Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?”) Of course that’s not to diminish the other scriptures, which are also the word of God, but the recorded words of Jesus seemed to be a great place to start if we are going to call the church to live out “Jesus is Lord.” We will be team-teaching this (four of us rotating weeks) so we’re immersed in the project at this point, defining individual classes and assigning responsibility for each.

The last couple of weeks have been exciting for our church, as three of our teens have been baptized! We’re thrilled with the fine work our new teen ministry couple is doing… especially thrilled are the parents of those three!

Along with that good news there are challenging times as well. Many in our church have serious illnesses, or have family members in failing health. Several are dealing with the recent loss of a family member. This will be a difficult holiday season for some dear folks.

With all that and more going on, my blogging has been on the slow side recently. I’ll try to pick up the pace when my time frees up a bit.

Thanks to salguod for pointing out a riveting article in the Time magazine archives from December, 1940 describing the faith and perseverance of German pastors who dared to preach in opposition to Hitler:

Not you, Herr Hitler, but God is my Führer. These defiant words of Pastor Martin Niemoller were echoed by millions of Germans. And Hitler raged: “It is Niemoller or I.”

This defiant preaching by Niemoller and others was not without effect. Over a year before America entered the war, the writer states:

Though the Nazis have jailed over 10,000 pastors, priests and monks for long or short periods, an unknown number have been beaten to death, the churches stand far higher in German esteem today than they did in the easygoing ’20s. Church congregations have grown remarkably. Sales of the Bible have shot up from 830,000 copies in 1933 to 1,225,000 in 1939, topping Mein Kampf by about 200,000.

Protestants and Catholics alike were facing a moral crisis. Would they disregard the pervasive evil taking over Europe, and lend their voices in support of Hitler? Or, would they speak out against the evil, at risk of their freedom and their lives?

Some certainly did choose the path of least resistance. Niemoller, on the other hand, was recognized as a “living martyr and symbol of Christian resistance in Germany both to Germans and the whole world.” At the time the article was written, he was being held in the Germain concentration camp at Sachsenhausen:

At Sachsenhausen Pastor Niemoller has been placed on a regime of half rations, double heavy labor, solitary confinement. Rock-breaking, roadbuilding, ditch-digging, harsh treatment are fast wearing him out. He has not been beaten, but has told his wife on the rare visits she is permitted that he has seen others beaten unconscious. “When I write the address, ‘Concentration Camp, Sachsenhausen,’ ” said one daughter, “then I am always very proud.”

Niemoller survived the concentration camps and went on to advocate peace and to serve as the president of the World Council of Churches. His pre-war record is not without blemishes. But his faith and depth of conviction led him to risk his own life inside Hitler’s Germany.

Rev 12:11 They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.

When I think of those jailed and martyred pastors, I cannot help but wonder how the church of today would have handled such dire circumstances. Are we really living for God? Or do we love our lives too much to risk death for our convictions?

Sometimes it seems that churches of Christ fancy themselves as the only ones who have cared enough to get their doctrines right. As the argument goes, if the others cared as much, they would study harder and come to the same doctrinal conclusions we have. That line of reasoning does not stand up very well when contrasted to the very real demonstration of convictions described in that Time magazine article. I think I know which kind of conviction Jesus considers more important.

This week Jay Guin has started a discussion on how we use the scriptures.

Regardless of our doctrinal background, each of us has to deal with certain “blue parakeets” — things that just don’t seem to fit our model. In these cases, we tend to come up with some plausible way to reconcile the difficulty which allows us to hold onto our preferred doctrinal positions. There is a strong tendency against changing our views based on new evidence. That is not entirely a bad thing — if you start out with the right basis, you will tend to remain right — but if you are wrong, you will tend to remain wrong.

Typically I think people grow up trusting what their church, their parents and grandparents have believed and have taught them. Occasionally a conversion happens, and a person transfers that trust to a new value system. Those conversions happen infrequently if at all in an individual’s life. They are emotionally expensive because they require changing fundamental premises on which our entire system of values is built. It takes a long time to work through all the implications of such a conversion, and often that process never approaches completion. Often people end up with an internally contradictory set of beliefs that produces instability and anxiety.

Whether or not we have experienced such a conversion, our underlying values color how we read scripture. We relate what we read to what we have already accepted, which might or might not be completely accurate. Our understanding is therefore colored by our presumptions. So our reading is fallible. We generally are not even be aware of all the factors affecting what we see in scripture.

Knowing this, how should we read scripture? Humbly!

There are some passages that are unmistakably clear. Those should form the foundation for our understanding. The less clear passages should be understood in relation to the clearer ones.

The passages of scripture that create difficulties — the “blue parakeets” — in each of our doctrinal models should be treated with great respect, as the very words from God. They are the passages that can teach us the most. They might reveal the most significant errors in our belief systems. Rather than diminishing them, we should wrestle with them alongside the related passages that are more comfortable to our way of thinking. We should seek an understanding that honors both passages equally. And when we think we have come to a plausible conclusion about how the two fit, we should humbly admit that we might be wrong.

Psalm 136

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.

       His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

       His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

       His love endures forever.

to him who alone does great wonders,

       His love endures forever.

who by his understanding made the heavens,

       His love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters,

       His love endures forever.

who made the great lights–

       His love endures forever.

the sun to govern the day,

       His love endures forever.

the moon and stars to govern the night;

       His love endures forever.

to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt

       His love endures forever.

and brought Israel out from among them

       His love endures forever.

with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;

       His love endures forever.

to him who divided the Red Sea asunder

       His love endures forever.

and brought Israel through the midst of it,

       His love endures forever.

but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;

       His love endures forever.

to him who led his people through the desert,

       His love endures forever.

who struck down great kings,

       His love endures forever.

and killed mighty kings–

       His love endures forever.

Sihon king of the Amorites

       His love endures forever.

and Og king of Bashan–

       His love endures forever.

and gave their land as an inheritance,

       His love endures forever.

an inheritance to his servant Israel;

       His love endures forever.

to the One who remembered us in our low estate

       His love endures forever.

and freed us from our enemies,

       His love endures forever.

and who gives food to every creature.

       His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

       His love endures forever.

Now permit me to personalize it:

Give thanks to my merciful God,

 His love endures forever.

Who forgave all my sins

  His love endures forever.

Who gives me everything I need, and more.

  His love endures forever.

Who adopted me as his son,

  His love endures forever.

Give thanks to God my Father,

  His love endures forever!

Amen!

Most Christians live our lives serving ourselves. And most of us carry an additional burden — the costly addiction to a lifestyle we really cannot afford. As a result, we have little or nothing left over to serve God and our brothers and sisters. That needs to change.

2Co 5:14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
2Co 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

The above passage is one that most Christians know, one that we love to sing. But many of us do not think about it in sufficient depth. It tells us that the cross compels us to live for Christ, and not for ourselves. Living for God is not just a good idea. It is not optional. We are compelled to live for Christ. Do we even know what it looks like to live for Christ? How are we are doing at that?

I’m afraid that too many Christians are not doing so well at it. Most of our days are spent earning money (both husband and wife) so we can pay for all the things that make us feel successful — the house, the cars, the furniture, the wide-screen TV, the clothes, the cell phones, the vacations, the luxuries for our children… We are spending our lives accumulating stuff. We are slaves to consumption. That is living for ourselves, not for him who died for us and was raised again.

In many cases, the standard of living we pursue is one that we can scarcely attain. The pursuit leaves us exhausted and stressed out at the end of the day, and leaves us broke at the end of each month. We are earning money as fast as we can, and are spending it faster than we earn it. Our habit of material consumption is an addiction every bit as enslaving as an addiction to drugs. And just like addiction to drugs, this addiction leads us to a miserable place. While seeking joy and fulfillment, we find instead anxiety and emptiness.

Is this what God had in mind when he called us to live for him?

The early Christians had a different perspective on life, and particularly on material things:

Act 2:44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
Act 2:45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Act 4:34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
Act 4:35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

The early Christians were expected to have a different attitude toward material possessions:

1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1Ti 6:7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
1Ti 6:8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
1Ti 6:9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Are we content with food and clothing? Or do we really have to have that big house in the best school district?

Our pursuit of material things has lured us far afield from the model of the family presented in scripture. Today, in most families, both husband and wife work outside the home to earn enough money to pay for the standard of living they have chosen. But in the biblical model, the wife managed the home while the husband earned a living for the family. Paul wrote to Titus that the older women were to teach the younger women as follows:

Tit 2:4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
Tit 2:5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Women “busy at home?” Our culture absolutely hates that teaching! But as Christians, those who call Jesus our Lord, we are obligated to live according to God’s will. Yet we also struggle with this biblical teaching. And we suffer as a result.

Paul also wrote to Timothy describing the kind of life that Christian women were called to live:

1Ti 5:9 No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband,
1Ti 5:10 and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

Women “bringing up children?” Women “showing hospitality?” Our contemporary western culture rejects that model of the family. It sounds so “sexist” to modern ears. Today, women are encouraged to work outside the home to find fulfillment and to reach their potential. But that hasn’t been working out too well. Combining a career, household management, and motherhood is producing stress, fatigue, and frustration in millions of households. How fulfilling is a life in which you are always frustrated and exhausted? Too many women are at the end of their rope all the time, never really satisfied with the results on any of their various battlefields. For many, the ultimate frustration is that after all the sacrifice, instead of receiving gratitude at home, the children are rebellious and disrespectful, and the marriage is on the rocks. This was not how these mothers envisioned it turning out.

Adding to the frustration is that these families tend to be getting deeper and deeper into the financial hole. Instead of being comfortably well off with a second income, the family has become addicted to every dollar the two parents can earn. There is no room for error. Every dollar is spoken for. Whenever an unexpected expense comes along, or when one of them loses a job, the stress skyrockets as they desperately seek some way to meet their obligations.

At the end of the workday, the parents struggle to catch up with household and parenting responsibilities. But there is neither time nor energy for it. Tempers are short. Relationships are strained. So the couples reap what they have sown. In too many cases that includes screaming fights with rebellious teenagers, strained relations with the spouse, and even divorces.

And, of course, there is no room in such a life to “live for God.” Every nickel, every minute, and every ounce of energy is spent living for ourselves, trying in vain to deal with all the family issues that were caused by our choice of lifestyle. This is living for ourselves, not for God — and it is not working out very well! As Paul said, those who live like this are piercing themselves with many griefs.

There really is a better way. Downsize your life! Simplify! That may mean selling the house and buying a smaller one. It may mean letting someone like Dave Ramsey help you get out of debt and gain control of your financial situation. It probably means budgeting to live on the husband’s income, so the wife can fulfill her biblical role at home. It certainly means saying “No” to a lot of urges to buy, to consume, to possess. Peace and happiness really do follow from self denial and serving others. You can map out a plan to get there, and spend your remaining blessed days serving the creator of the universe!

1Pe 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
1Pe 4:2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

How will you spend the rest of your earthly life?

In your old age, sitting in a rocking chair at the old folks home, you won’t be wishing you had worked longer hours in your job. You won’t be wishing you had lived in a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood. You won’t be wishing you had bought a bigger TV screen.

Instead, you might be wishing you were still on speaking terms with your children. Or your spouse. You might wish you had spent your time helping others instead of chasing the wind. You might wish you had stored your treasure in heaven.

Or maybe you will be glad you lived your life serving God. It’s your choice. Make room for God in your life.

1Co 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

So much to do, and so little time!

How can a Christian fulfill all his or her responsibilities in this modern world? Everyone wants a piece of our time: the day job, the household chores, the children, the spouse, the neighbors, the relatives.

Oh, yes, also the church. Sunday service, midweek service, small group meetings, Bible study, prayer, evangelism, feeding the homeless, visiting the sick, taking meals to the bereaved, children’s classes to be prepared and taught, adult classes, newsletters to be written, struggling members to be helped, and relationships with other congregations to be maintained. There are conferences and retreats. There are budgets and facilities requiring attention. All that, and more.

How can anyone do all of that and stay sane?

The answer, I think, is that we cannot. We have to specialize. That’s the message of 1 Cor 12. Not everyone does everything. Each member finds a place to serve and does it to the best of their ability.

There are a few things we cannot delegate.

Every Christian is responsible to love his neighbor, through meeting physical needs as well as sharing the gospel. But those are things we do as we go about doing all the things we do in life. They are not scheduled slots on the calendar.

Every Christian needs to meditate on the scriptures and pray. We cannot call Jesus Lord if we do not learn and obey his will.

Specialization is even more important for leaders. The apostles demonstrated that when they selected the seven to take care of the Grecian widows:

Act 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
Act 6:3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them
Act 6:4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

No one can do everything. That is why we need the other parts of the body. We need to let them do their parts.

But the truth is that most of us are far too busy with things of this world. Two income families have little time left for all the other responsibilities. After a long day at work, the kids and the household demand all the remaining time and energy. Who has time to go to a small group meeting? Who has the energy to serve?

There is a better way — a way that puts the things of God ahead of our worldly pursuits. The better way runs counter to the culture in which we live. But then, that shouldn’t surprise us. God calls us to live a different kind of life.

Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In the next post I’ll lay out the basics of that different way of life. Be prepared for a hard teaching. I hope we can accept it.

CNN money is currently running an article about what Citibank is doing to help people avoid foreclosure on their mortages. Their program is targeted at people who are current on their mortgages but at risk of falling behind, and particularly those whose outstanding balances are higher than the current market value of their houses. Quoting from the article:

For borrowers who have yet to default, Citi will now aim to reduce their monthly mortgage payment, including property taxes and insurance, to 40% or less of their income. To do that, it will freeze or reduce interest rates, extend the lifetime of the loan or even reduce the loan principal.

It would be hard to overstate my amazement at the above quote. If they are reducing the mortgage amount to 40% of income, what was the percentage before they reduced it? 50%? 60%? What were these people thinking when they signed the contract to borrow that much money?

Let me offer a little perspective. When my wife and I bought our first house, I was making around $20k per year. She had a job but we were budgeting to live on my income alone. So we bought a house that cost $39,000 — less than 2x my annual salary.

Fifteen years later, we moved to Florida. I was contracting 40 hours a week at $49/hr, giving me approximately $100k in annual income. Again, we budgeted to live on my salary alone. So we bought a house that cost $156,000 — just over 1.5x my annual income.

When we moved to Atlanta a year later, I took a substantial cut in income to become a “native” employee of a large software firm. We bought a house for $159,000 and put $30,000 down. Still, our starting mortgage balance was much less than 2x my annual salary. Again, we budgeted to live on one salary alone.

We still live in that house. My salary has risen dramatically in the 13 years we’ve lived here. But the idea of “moving up” to a more expensive house has not even crossed our minds. Instead, we are aggressively working to pay off the mortgage. Once that is done, our plan is to downsize to a smaller house and retire. We are on track to accomplish that in a few years.

We could easily buy a half million dollar house here, or more. Even in today’s tight mortgage market, I have no doubt we could qualify for the loan. But why would we do that? Our current mortgage payment is about 12% of my monthly salary. We like it that way.

I’m currently driving a 1995 Toyota Corolla. My wife drives a 1997 Toyota Camry. Of course we could buy newer cars, but why would we do that? These are perfectly good, reliable cars. We like not having to make car payments! Instead of making car payments, we are saving money so that when we do have to replace these cars, we can pay cash.

I am a big advocate of budgeting to live on one income. I fear for those families who have to pay 40% or more of their combined household income on their house payment. Most of them have little or no cash reserves. In this weak economy, some of them are going to lose one of the two jobs in the household, and then they will lose their house and their credit rating. It didn’t have to be that way. They could have heeded the instruction Paul gave to Timothy:

1Ti 6:6-10 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Sadly, those griefs are piercing a lot of people these days.

The CNN article closes with another stunning comment:

The single best thing about the bank programs, according to Bernstein, is that they don’t cost the taxpayers anything. “You have to be happy about that,” he said. [ Jared Bernstein, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute ]

I hope our government officials are getting better advice than that. How did a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute forget so quickly about the $750 billion bailout bill… which will be covering the bank’s losses on these mortgages? Who did he think is paying for that? And the AIG bailout, which has now reached $150 billion? Not to mention the losses in everyone’s 401k portfolios resulting from the economic collapse brought on by the credit crisis, caused by bad mortgage loans? There is no free lunch. The taxpayer ultimately pays the tab.

Meanwhile, I still have food and clothing, and a place to live, two good cars, and a mortgage payment I can afford. That should be enough.

Some people who grossly overextended themselves may still be able to avoid financial disaster. If you are not yet upside down in your house, perhaps you can sell it and buy something with a house payment you can afford — or rent an apartment. If you are upside down in your house, consider getting the bank to renegotiate your loan. Get some financial counsel from someone who has managed their own finances well. Be prepared to cut way back. You will sleep better at night.

Today our worship service was closed out by singing the song “God Bless America.”

When the song was announced, I got a funny feeling. I knew some people present would feel that it was inappropriate to sing a national patriotic song at church. Let’s examine the question to see what the scriptures have to say.

Paul instructed the Ephesian church to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. So, a song that fits any of those types should be fine in the assembly.

Further, Paul told the Corinthians that everything they did in the assembly must be for the purpose of building up the church. So a song that is appropriate for a church service should build up the church in the way the Holy Spirit had in mind in that passage.

Many of the Psalms are prayers sung to God, and singing of Psalms seems to be unquestionably appropriate. So, singing a prayer to God seems to be quite appropriate in the assembly, assuming the prayer itself is appropriate.

The song “God Bless America” is a prayer of supplication. It requests that God bless our country– to stand beside her, to guide her through the night with a light from above. When we sing this prayer, we are appealing to God to bless our leaders and the American people in general. That is exactly what Paul instructed Timothy to teach. And as Paul told Timothy, we can be confident that such prayers please God, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

There are other familiar patriotic songs (“My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, “America the Beautiful”, etc) which appeal to God for blessings of one sort or another, though sometimes these parts are buried in the more obscure later verses. To me, those songs seem more focused on praising America than on appealing to God for blessings. “God Bless America,” on the other hand, puts the appeal to God right up front, even in the title itself.

Growing up, I was a Boy Scout. I remember the scouting pledge to do my duty to God and my country. As I remember my scouting days, “God and country” seemed to be on nearly equal footing. I no longer think that is appropriate. And I think that is in part why singing “God Bless America” at church gave me that funny feeling.

I don’t think it gave God a funny feeling. But I do think it felt uncomfortable to some of my brothers and sisters. In cases like this I think we need to help our brothers and sisters with a gentle and reasonable explanation, and to be considerate of their feelings as we ask them to be considerate also.