Nicaragua Mission Trip

First Presbyterian Church of Sylva is sending a group to Nicaragua from June 23-30, 2018.  We will be joined by members of the Refuge Church in Dillsboro and by two Presbyterian Churches in Newland and Banner Elk, NC.  We will be working with a student ministry called Young Life (or “Vida Joven” in Spanish) in the town of Esteli, where we will stay with local families and complete work projects before traveling to a Young Life camp in the mountains of Jinotega.  Throughout this, we will build relationships with Young Life leaders, spend time with their youth, and learn more about what God is doing in Nicaragua.

Our goal for this trip is one of mutual benefit.  In contrast to other mission or work trips, we hope to come alongside the leaders who are already there so that we might serve with them and learn from them.  If God gives us the opportunity to share with them or teach them, great!  Regardless, we hope to show a posture of curiosity, humility, and love as we enter another culture.  In a world of so much division, inside and outside the church, I for one am looking forward to the opportunity to build bridges and make surprising friendships among people very different than me. 

As a team, we would love your financial support.  Each team member needs to raise $1,600 to cover the costs of travel, room, and board.  We have several group fundraising events scheduled, but we are also looking for individual donations to offset the cost.  To give, simply write a check to "First Presbyterian Church" and put “Nicaragua” in the memo line.

In addition, we would love your prayerful support.  Paying for the trip is one thing, but traveling with the confidence that friends, family members, and brothers and sisters in Christ are praying for us is even more important.  I will be sending out particular prayer requests as the travel date approaches.  Would you pray for us as we prepare, visit, and return?

I am so grateful for a church with a global perspective; thank you for your support thus far, and for your support to come.

Blake

Jesus Says: I Am the Way

““Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.””

— John 14:1-7

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Today we turned to the "Farewell Discourse" in John's Gospel (chapters 14-17).  It begins with Jesus giving his disciples a word of assurance, a challenge of allegiance, and a call to adventure.  Take a look at these other resources that complement the sermon.

- Blake

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““Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.
”I am dying of thirst,” said Jill.
”Then drink,” said the Lion.
”May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

”Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.
”I make no promise,” said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
”Do you eat girls?” she said.
”I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

”I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.
”Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.
”Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”

”There is no other stream,” said the Lion.””

— C.S. Lewis, "The Silver Chair"

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“It has become customary to classify views on the relation of Christianity to the world religions as either pluralist, exclusivist, or inclusivist … [My] position is exclusivist in the sense that it affirms the unique truth of the revelation in Jesus Christ, but it is not exclusivist in the sense of denying the possibility of the salvation of the non-Christian. It is inclusivist in the sense that it refuses to limit the saving grace of God to the members of the Christian church, but it rejects the inclusivism which regards the non-Christian religions as vehicles of salvation. It is pluralist in the sense of acknowledging the gracious work of God in the lives of all human beings, but it rejects a pluralism which denies the uniqueness and decisiveness of what God has done in Jesus Christ.”

— Lesslie Newbigin, "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society"

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“The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped — it requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.”

— Eugene Peterson, "The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus is the Way"

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Happy Easter!

“Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”

— John 20:11-18

“As the risen and ascended Lord, Jesus does not now sit in heaven with his arms folded waiting for us to do something religious that he can affirm (an image from Karl Barth). Jesus is not our cheerleader from the heavens hoping we will get faith and ministry right. Neither does Jesus want to get more involved in our ministries. Why would he? Our ministries are not redemptive. We don’t raise the dead, forgive the sinful, heal the sick or bring in the reign of God.
Rather, Jesus has his own resurrected ministry to do — raising the dead, forgiving the sinful, healing the sick, bringing in God’s reign (note the present tense!) — and he wants us in on it! ”

— Andrew Purves, "The Resurrection of Ministry"

                        I have seen the Lord!

Reflections on Maundy Thursday

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday.  What on earth does that mean?

On Maundy Thursday the church remembers the last evening Jesus shared with his disciples in an upper room before his arrest and crucifixion.  During this evening, Jesus washed his disciples' feet and shared his "last supper" with them.

Maundy Thursday begins the Triduum, the three-day period from sunset on Thursday to sunset on Easter Sunday.  The name “Maundy Thursday” comes from the Latin mandatum novum, referring to the “new commandment” Jesus taught his disciples (John 13:34).*

At First Presbyterian Church, our worship service on Maundy Thursday is the primary midweek event during Holy Week.  As such, our service also draws attention to Good Friday and the suffering, death, and burial of our Lord.  The removal of the elements from the sanctuary represents the humiliation, nakedness, and abandonment of Jesus as he was arrested and crucified.  As we leave in silence, we contemplate the darkness of his death on the cross for us.

This is a sacred and a somber time.  Yet it is not a time without hope, for we gather as a people who know that out of the darkness of the tomb will shine the brilliant light of resurrection on Easter morning. 

It may be Thursday... but Sunday's coming.

Blake

P.S. - Take a look at the other resources for reflecting on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday:

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"A Humble Call" - Ann Voskamp

“What Happened on the Cross?" - N.T. Wright responds

'It Is Finished' But It Is Not Over - An Excerpt from Cross Shattered Christ by Stanley Hauerwas

"Countdown to Calvary" - a new BBC series chronicling the last days of Jesus' life

"Good Friday & The Stations of the Cross" - Poet Malcolm Guite

Who's Your Shepherd?

Today we heard John 10:1-21: Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd! Here are some additional resources to aid you as you reflect on this powerful passage.

-Blake

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“As a shepherd he is gentle towards his flock, but fierce and formidable towards wolves and thieves; in like manner, Christ is kind and gentle towards those who commit themselves to his care, while they who willfully and obstinately reject his yoke, shall feel with what awful and terrible power he is armed.”

— John Calvin, commentary on Psalm 110

“When so much shepherding has gone so wrong,
So many pastors hopelessly astray,
The weak so often preyed on by the strong,
So many bruised and broken on the way,
The very name of shepherd seems besmeared,
The fold and flock themselves are torn in half,
The lambs we left to face all we have feared
Are caught between the wasters and the wolf.

Good Shepherd now your flock has need of you,
One finds the fold and ninety-nine are lost
Out in the darkness and the icy dew,
And no one knows how long this night will last.
​​​​​​​Restore us; call us back to you by name,
And by your life laid down, redeem our shame.”

— Malcolm Guite, "The Good Shepherd"

Reflections from Atlanta

Recently I had the privilege of attending the national gathering of The Fellowship Community, a group of Christ-centered, biblically-rooted, mission-minded leaders and congregations within the Presbyterian Church USA.  (Some of you may be familiar with Presbyterians for Renewal; the Fellowship is a similar organization.)

The gathering took place at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, and its theme was “Come Together: Discipleship in a Divided Time.”  Each speaker and activity focused on the theme of unity in the body of Christ.  For example…

• Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, encouraged Christians to see themselves as living together in “exile” today rather than in the “promised land,” as was the case with ancient Israel under Babylonian rule in the Old Testament
  • Romans 8, for example, calls us to wait and hope and groan for the beauty that will revealed to us by Jesus Christ, which means we live in a "time between the times," a time of groaning beauty.
  • As American Christians, we love a "Promised Land" story.  Can we learn to live an "Exile" story?  Can we learn to give praise to the Lord (YHWH) while living in Nebuchadnezzar's house?  The truth is, in our cultural moment, we are living in exile as Christians.  We are strangers in a strange land.  We should embrace this story and live it out faithfully.
  • You can see a version of Mark's talk by clicking here.
• Harvey Drake, pastor of Emerald City Bible Fellowship, spoke of the challenges and blessings of leading a multiethnic congregation in Seattle, Washington.
  • Harvey says that to reach across divides (racially, cultural, and otherwise), we need to do three things: Admit (that there's a problem and that you're part of it), Commit (to learning from those who are different than you), and Submit (to walking in humility with God and others).
• Michael Bruner, professor at Azusa Pacific University, led a workshop on the author Flannery O’Connor, who was able to speak the prophetic truth of the gospel in a culture of “weak-kneed religious sentiment” and “domesticated despair.”
  • Michael pointed out that O'Connor's stories often contain dark, grotesque characters.  He followed this with a quote: "In God, there is no darkness, but in the darkness we see God."  How might God reveal himself through messy human lives?
• Hope Lee, pastor of Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, taught about the gifts of women in the Bible and about the need for such gifts in today’s ministry climate.
  • Hope pointed out that no large, evangelical Presbyterian Church has a female head-of-staff.  Why do you think this is? 
• A visit to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta reminded us of the legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, where faith in Jesus Christ led to tremendous social change for the better.
  • I wonder how Dr. King's legacy is still rippling out today?  It wasn't that long ago that he gave his "I have a dream speech" (55 years ago this year).  Has his dream been realized?  Why not?  What role can we play in his vision of the "beloved community"?

I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to feel discouraged and cynical in this cultural moment.  We live in a world of conflict.  We are so divided as a church.  We are so divided as a country.  We are so divided as persons.  Yet this conference gave me the space to slow down, to worship, and to be reminded from thoughtful speakers and like-minded friends that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth.  And since that’s true, as the hymn reminds us, how can we keep from singing?

Billy Graham: His Life and Legacy

From Faith & Leadership:

 “America’s pastor,” who was an adviser to presidents and preached the gospel to millions across the globe, died Feb. 21, 2018, at age 99. This resource page gathers Faith & Leadership essays about the great evangelist and his wife.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Grant Wacker: Billy Graham and Christian humility
Graham’s ministry was marked by personal humility -- but that never meant disparaging his accomplishments.

Grant Wacker: Billy Graham was a model for what Americans wanted to be
The author of “America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation” explains how Graham reflected and changed 20th-century American culture.

Excerpt from ‘America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation’ by Grant Wacker
In the epilogue of his new book on America’s most influential evangelist, Duke Divinity School professor emeritus Grant Wacker recalls a visit with Billy Graham.

Grant Wacker: Billy Graham’s legacy
Despite his flaws, Billy Graham is a model for Christian life and ministry, says Duke Divinity School professor emeritus Grant Wacker in this audio talk.

Related

Anne Blue Wills: Ruth Bell Graham was more than Billy Graham's wife
The story of Ruth Bell Graham is not well-known. Although she embraced her role of “preacher's wife,” she also lived out a deeply personal Christian commitment, says a scholar at Davidson College who is writing her biography.

Originally posted at: 

https://www.faithandleadership.com/billy-graham-his-life-and-legacy 

You Are What You Eat

Malcolm Guite, "I Am the Bread of Life":

Where to get bread? An ever-pressing question
That trembles on the lips of anxious mothers,
Bread for their families, bread for all these others;
A whole world on the margin of exhaustion.

And where that hunger has been satisfied
Where to get bread? The question still returns
In our abundance something starves and yearns
We crave fulfillment, crave and are denied.

And then comes One who speaks into our needs
Who opens out the secret hopes we cherish
Whose presence calls our hidden hearts to flourish
Whose words unfold in us like living seeds
Come to me, broken, hungry, incomplete,
I Am the Bread of Life, break Me and eat.

Alexander Schmemann, "For the Life of the World":

Centuries of secularism have failed to transform eating into something strictly utilitarian. Food is still treated with reverence...To eat is still something more than to maintain bodily functions. People may not understand what that 'something more' is, but they nonetheless desire to celebrate it. They are still hungry and thirsty for sacramental life.

John Donne, "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions," Prayer:

Therefore I beg of thee my daily bread; and as thou gavest me the bread of sorrow for many days, and since the bread of hope for some, and this day the bread of possessing, in rising by that strength, which thou the God of all strength hast infused into me, so, O Lord, continue to me the bread of life: the spiritual bread of life, in a faithful assurance in thee; the sacramental bread of life, in a worthy receiving of thee; and the more real bread of life in an everlasting union to thee.

A Blessed Lent

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. If you didn’t grow up with Lent (and I know many of you didn’t, myself included), here’s a bit of background. The word “Lent” comes from the Old English word for “springtime.” It refers to the length of time before Easter, traditionally forty days, when the Church prepares to commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Just as Advent helps us prepare spiritually for Christmas, Lent helps us prepare spiritually for Holy Week and Easter.

You may be asking, Do I have to observe Lent? The first answer is, Of course not. But the second answer is, Why wouldn’t you? This season is a gift to us wherein we may pause and reflect on our lives in light of Jesus Christ. So, I encourage you to observe it this year. Typically folks use this time as a chance to give something up: certain foods, certain media, certain habits. In recent years it’s become popular to take something on: daily prayer, for instance, or journaling and letter-writing. Regardless, the goal isn’t self-promotion (pride) but self-effacement (humility). What will help you humble yourself over the next forty days, so that you can see Jesus more clearly? Whatever the answer is, do it.

Much more can be said — but for now I’ll leave you with the sage words of St. Ambrose of Milan. Let’s pray this together, and mean it:

O Lord, who has mercy upon all:
take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me
the fire of your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore You,
a heart to delight in You,
to follow and enjoy You, for Christ's sake,
Amen.

Image credit:  Agnolo Gaddi, “Crucifixion”

Do You Want to Get Well?

Today we heard the story of Jesus healing an "invalid" at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-18).  Jesus asks a probing question: "Do you want to get well?"  The man does, and Jesus heals him. 

One-fifth of all the material in the Gospels is concerned with Jesus' healing of some form of physical disease.  This has dramatic implications for our life today as Jesus' followers.  The Son of God came to save us and to heal us - in body and in soul, in this life or in the life to come.  

Take a look at these extra resources, especially the Wilson article I referenced in my sermon.

- Blake

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“We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that He has power but also wonderful foretastes of what He is going to do with that power. Jesus’s miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.”

— Tim Keller, "The Reason for God"

• God Always Heals by Andrew Wilson
• Why has God answered others' prayers for healing but not mine? by Nancy Ortberg
• Death, the Prosperity Gospel, and Me by Kate Bowler (see this and this, too)
• The Purpose of Biblical Miracles by Tim Keller (see this, too)

Image credit: Rembrandt, “Christ Healing” 

Come and See

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”
They said to Him, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”
He said to them, “Come and see.” - John 1:38-39

Week 2 in John’s Gospel finds us making the turn from knowing about Jesus to following after Jesus. John the Baptist acts as our guide, helping us (and those first disciples) get their bearings for this new adventure. What will you do when he comes calling, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?

- Blake

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“We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must capture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel.” - Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love

"Those who aren't following Jesus aren't his followers. It's that simple. Followers follow, and those who don't follow aren't followers. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it." - Scot McKnight, One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow

John the Baptist and the “pointing hand” (Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece)

The Light Has Come

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” - John 1:4

Today we started our new study of John. Here are a few of the things I mentioned. Hope you can join us in reading and praying along through this beautiful Fourth Gospel. 

 - Blake

“John flies like an eagle above the cloud of human weakness and looks upon the light of unchanging truth with the most lofty and firm eyes of the heart. And gazing on the very deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he is equal to the Father, he has striven in this Gospel to confide this above all...” - Thomas Aquinas

From Falling Up by Shel Silverstein, gettin’ all theological: 

“Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (because sometimes hymns say it best):

And never, ever forget: 

Coming in 2018: The Gospel of John

Starting Jan. 7, I'll be preaching through the Gospel of John.  This is a first for me.  I've tackled bits and pieces of John before, but never the book in its entirety.  I'm looking forward to digging in with you.  Give it a read and see what you notice about Jesus, the Word made flesh who made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).

- Blake

P.S. -- Take a look at these resources and commentaries to go deeper:

Keeping Time Like a Christian

This coming Sunday (Dec. 3) marks the end of "ordinary time" and the beginning of "Advent."  What in the world does that mean?

For centuries, the church (meaning the whole church, Christians everywhere) has kept time in a unique and particular way.  We Christians have our own calendar, distinct from the Roman calendar used throughout Western civilization.  This Christian or "liturgical" calendar reminds us of our identity as God's family and attunes us to the rhythms of God's salvation story. 

Here is how Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove explain it:

“If we in church are going to take our citizenship in heaven seriously, we must reshape our minds by marking our calendars differently.  We must remember the holidays of the biblical narrative rather than the festivals of the Caesars, and celebrate feast days to remember saints rather than war heroes and presidents.  Our inception as a church was on Pentecost, not on July 4... The point is to keep God’s story at the center of our lives and calendar.  And it is through the lens of Jesus that we read history and interpret whether an event is good or bad... When we look at the Christian calendar, we are reminded that we are in the world but not of it.  We are citizens of the kingdom that transcends time, but we sojourn on a time-bound earth.  Without liturgical time, we can easily forget our eternal identity.  We can get lost in the hustle and bustle of business and efficiency that shapes our culture and society.  Likewise, without the cosmic calendar, we can become so heaven-bound that we ignore the hells of the world around us.  And the glorious goal we are headed toward is not just going up when we die but bringing God’s kingdom down - on earth as it is in heaven.”

— Common Prayer

As a pastor, I don't consider myself a high-church traditionalist (for example, I don't regularly wear a robe and colored stoles and preach through the Revised Common Lectionary).  But I do believe deeply in the church calendar as a tool that that grounds us in the truth of the Gospel and unites us to all Christians everywhere.  I very much agree with what Lauren Winner writes:

“I want the Christian story to shape everything I do, even how I reckon time. I want it to be truer and more essential to me than school’s calendar, or Hallmark’s calendar, or the calendar set by the IRS. I want the rhythms of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost to be more basic to my life than the days on which my quarterly estimated taxes are due.”

— Living the Christian Year

So you will notice the church calendar being referenced this time of year at First Presbyterian Church.  The songs and anthems will all reflect the Advent season (and notice, it's not the Christmas season - that comes on Dec. 25!).  The banner and parament colors will change to purple as a reminder of the royal birth of King Jesus.  The Advent wreath will be lit each week as a reminder of the light Christ brings.  I will be preaching through the assigned lectionary Bible texts to help us remember Israel's hope for the long-awaited Messiah.  None of this is for the sake of rote traditionalism.  We don't do it because it's what we have to do to be good Christians.  Rather, we do it for the sake of a lived faith, learning from those who have gone before us so that we might worship the Lord with gladness today.  I hope you'll join us during this beautiful time in the life of the church, so that all of us may be shaped by the Spirit in rhythms of grace.

- Blake

P.S. - Looking for more resources on this topic?  Check these out:

• Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year
• Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
• Bobby Gross, Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God
• The Calvin Institute for Christian Worship, especially their resource The Worship Sourcebook (edited by John Witvliet)
• What in the World is Worship?, a document I put together to explain our services at FPC

Praise the Lord

Psalm 134 - the last of the songs of ascent - ends with a call to praise:

“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
who minister by night in the house of the Lord.

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and praise the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.”

This reminds us that we are made to praise God.  That our chief end (as the Westminster Catechism says) is to glorify God and enjoy him forever!  Could there be a more fitting call for Christ the King Sunday?

Eugene Peterson says this:

“Glorify.  Enjoy.  There are other things involved in Christian discipleship... But it is extremely important to know the one thing that overrides everything else.  The main thing is not work for the Lord; it is not suffering in the name of the Lord; it is not witnessing to the Lord; it is not teaching Sunday School for the Lord; it is not being responsible for the sake of the Lord in community; it is not keeping the Ten Commandments; not loving your neighbor; not observing the golden rule.  ‘The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’  Or, in the vocabulary of Psalm 134, to bless God.”

— A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 198

Live in Unity

You can't be a Christian alone.  We can't be Christians alone.  As Scot McKnight says, When it comes to the Bible, WE is always bigger than ME.  So how is God challenging us to go a bit deeper with our brother or our sister?  How is God calling us to expand our horizons and see his hand at work through our church, and not just in our individual lives?

Reflect on these questions, and on the quotations below, as we seek the Lord's blessing together.

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“I have come to feel that the primary reality of which we have to take account in seeking for a Christian impact on public life is the Christian congregation. How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross?

I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. I am, of course, not denying the importance of the many activities by which we seek to challenge public life with the gospel– evangelistic campaigns, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature, conferences, and even books such as this one.

But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that they have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.”

— Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989), 227.

“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this…

The death and the life of the Christian is not determined by his own resources; rather he finds both only in the Word that comes to him from outside, in God’s Word to him. The Reformers expressed it this way: Our righteousness is an “alien righteousness,” a righteousness that comes from outside of us (extra nos). They were saying that the Christian is dependent on the Word of God spoken to him. He is pointed outward, to the Word that comes to him…

But God has put his Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.

And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

“I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world. summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God...

I believe that the community-in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures-is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms. ”

— Wendell Berry, Health is Membership

Hope in the Lord

Psalm 130 begins in the depths and ends with redemption.  This movement -- from lament to hope, sin to forgiveness, suffering to redemption -- is at the heart of the Gospel.  How do see this in your life?  What do you hope for in the Lord?

For added meaning to today's sermon, check out these resources:

• Philip Yancey, God Behind Barbed Wire: How a Nazi-soldier-turned-theologian found hope
• Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope
• Hope in The Shawshank Redemption (spoiler alert!) 
• When in doubt, read a poem...

Christina Rossetti, De Profundis (“Out of the Depths”)

Oh why is heaven built so far, 
Oh why is earth set so remote? 
I cannot reach the nearest star
That hangs afloat. 

I would not care to reach the moon, 
One round monotonous of change; 
Yet even she repeats her tune
Beyond my range. 

I never watch the scatter'd fire
Of stars, or sun's far-trailing train, 
But all my heart is one desire, 
And all in vain: 

For I am bound with fleshly bands, 
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope; 
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands, 
And catch at hope. 

John Donne, Hymn to God, my God, in My Sickness

Since I am coming to that holy room, 
         Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore, 
I shall be made thy music; as I come
         I tune the instrument here at the door, 
         And what I must do then, think here before. 

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
         Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
         That this is my south-west discovery, 
      Per fretum febris, by these straits to die, 

I joy, that in these straits I see my west; 
         For, though their currents yield return to none, 
What shall my west hurt me? As west and east
         In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, 
         So death doth touch the resurrection. 

Is the Pacific Sea my home? Or are
         The eastern riches? Is Jerusalem? 
Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar, 
         All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them, 
         Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem. 

We think that Paradise and Calvary, 
         Christ's cross, and Adam's tree, stood in one place; 
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me; 
         As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face, 
         May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace. 

So, in his purple wrapp'd, receive me, Lord; 
         By these his thorns, give me his other crown; 
And as to others' souls I preach'd thy word, 
         Be this my text, my sermon to mine own: 
"Therefore that he may raise, the Lord throws down." 

Emily Dickinson, Hope is the Thing With Feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Faith & Work

"Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain."

Looking for ways to connect your work to your faith in light of this morning's sermon on Psalm 127?  Take a look at these resources:

See The Center for Faith and Work for more from Katherine Alsdorf & Tim Keller.

You may also enjoy these books:

Surprised by Joy

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!" - Psalm 126
"Joy is a not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence." - Eugene Peterson

Today's song of ascent (Psalm 126) is about the joy of following Christ.  Here are some more resources to help us reflect and cultivate deeper joy, that this fruit of the Spirit might blossom and grow to the glory of God, even in the midst of struggle.

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"Joy" according to C.S. Lewis (see also his book Surprised by Joy and sermon The Weight of Glory)

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"Theology of Joy & the Good Life" Project at Yale Divinity School

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"Hidden Joys: A Sonnet for the Visitation" - poem by Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

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Reflections on "Joy" by theologian Stanley Hauerwas