LITTLE BY LITTLE

Dearest Family,

Immediate satisfaction … instant success … same day delivery … bigger is better … enough is never enough … instant gratification takes too long … download now … the more the merrier … behind schedule … can’t do it … don’t have it … sooner rather than later … now or never …

There are a host of ways that we express our need for immediate fulfillment, but also our awareness of limited abilities, capacities and resources. Of course, it is not a bad thing to be focused, to be productive, to have vision, to stick to a plan, to increase one’s efficiency, to pick up one’s pace, to acquire legitimate assets. But on Sunday, I drew your attention to a repeated biblical theme: “little by little”. This is not about lowering our standards or expectations, or settling for less, or giving up on goals and dreams. This is not condoning sloth or neglect, dereliction of spiritual duty or disengagement, disobedience or withdrawal and saying it will all work out for you. (It won’t!) It’s talking about the commitment to obey as best as one is able, regardless of one’s estimation of capacity and ability, possibility or resources, and regardless of how one compares oneself to someone else’s spirituality. Anyway, at the end of the day, it isn’t about our ability to get but His ability to give.

I explained how I went back to Psalm 37 that Pastor TL preached from last week and the first words that my eyes fell on, probably because they were smack in the middle of the page, were just a little further into the psalm than where he was expounding. I read v16: “Better is the little of the faithful than the abundance of many faithless people.” The Bible is full of statements that begin: “better is the little …” What is morally and spiritually better may not be bigger, longer, richer, smarter. I encourage you to listen to the download of the different passages I looked at. Here is my outline of points, different areas in which the “little” was not a hindrance but a help, not a bane but a blessing, not an obstacle but an opportunity.

  • POSSESSION: (Deuteronomy 7:22; Exodus 23: 29-30)

  • PROVISION: (Exodus 16:18; 1 Kings 17: 7-20; 1 Kings 18: 44)

  • PROFESSION: (2 Kings 5:2)

  • POTENTIAL: (Ezra 9:8; Micah 5:2)

Scripture delivers us from the external judgments of place, size, quantity, capacity, history, location. A pattern is emerging. It is the little that bears the big. The incarnation, the birth of the greatest ministry on the planet, comes out of the place that is little and the least among the clans of Judah.

Little by little, by and through the little, God does enormous things which of course convinces us that it is all of Him and not of us. This counts us all in to the purposes of God: little advances, little manna, little jugs and jars, little space, little place, little job, little known – the key word for the manifestation of God’s greatness seems to be our little. It seems that Jesus, by what He did and said, can use my little and can do something big with what is little. There is hope for my smallness and my small supply, and my sense of paucity is no threat to His potential. Listen to Jesus:

  • “Let the little children come to me …” (Matthew 19:14)

  • “Receive the kingdom like a little child” (Mark 10:15)

  • “I praise you … because you have revealed these things … to little children” (Luke 10:21)

  • “Little flock, the Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

  • “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed … though it is the smallest of all the seeds” (Matthew 13:31)

  • “faith as small as a mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20)

  • “A poor widow came and put in two small coins worth a fraction of a penny” (Mark12:42)

  • “seven loaves and a few small fish” (Mark 15:21) For 4,000!

  • “five small loaves and two small fish” (John 6:9) For 5,000! It seems that the greater the need the less He needs to meet it!

  • “small is the gate that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14) For small people!

Do your own study of scripture.

  • Goliath saw “only a boy … and despised him” (1 Samuel 17:42)

  • “Who dares to despise the day of small beginnings?” (Zechariah 4:10)

  • The Philadelphia church only had “little strength” (Revelation 3:8) and yet it overcame and out-lived every other of the churches mentioned by 1400 years.

Maybe I can conclude with the words of Jesus: “Because you have been faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.” (Luke 19:17) Not till heaven will we fully understand the relationship between small steps of obedience, of faithfulness in a little, and the mighty effects and outcomes they displaced to the glory of God. It is better to steward the little well, to take one small step of obedience to satisfy the intentions of Father God, that take one big stride in the flesh to fulfill the expectations of men.

Yours, little by little,

Stuart

October Prayer Points

THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY

Dearest Family,

Together this past weekend we have borne the sadness of Stephen’s death and the grief of his bride, Jeffanie, and both families. The sadness is accompanied by the suddenness of it all, amplified by the context of a honeymoon. It is awful beyond words, so one wonders if there are indeed any words at all that can be comforting in such apparently tragic circumstances. What to say?

At the Memorial Service for Stephen on Saturday at 2:00p.m. different voices will no doubt speak about him and for him, but we also need the voice of scripture in such times, to remind us of what life and death are about according to God. But it is so challenging. On Sunday I mentioned that when ‘Christianity Today’ did an interview with Pastor Stuart Briscoe about what it was like speaking after a tragic death, they entitled the article ‘Preaching after the Unthinkable’. I share his conviction that the only sure context in which to do it, is one of worship, as we did on Sunday, simply because, though the body returns to dust, the spirit goes to God, and it is the glory of heaven not the grave of earth that has the final word for us. But I gave you a loving pastoral word. Though this is true, that does not mean it is appropriate to slap the person who is grieving on the back with a “praise the Lord, he’s in glory!” There is a valley of the shadow of death that has to be walked through to sometimes get to that light, but the promise of His presence in that valley is as sure as His presence the other side of heaven’s door. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”

This is why our continuing prayers are so necessary at such times. Prayer is simply bringing the present reality of our lives and circumstances into the presence of God, exactly as we are experiencing them, as chaotic, confusing, inchoate, unimaginable, unbelievable, unbearable as they may be: real pain, real irregular and jagged sorrow, real disbelief, real discouragement, real shock, real questionings. There are a host of emotional realities, particularly for those whose loss is familial or marital, including real loneliness and emptiness, not to mention survivor’s guilt. Yes, we battle the imaginings and the visualizings, the fragmentations and the reality of that sense of unreality. We bring the whole jumbled mess to the Lord in our prayer.

It is our pain and need that drives us to ask in the first place, and thus, to quote P.T.Forsyth, “We pray for the removal of pain, pray passionately, and then with exhaustion, sick from hope deferred and prayer’s failure.” He goes on to argue that there is a “higher prayer than that … It is a greater thing to pray for pain’s conversion than for its removal.” This is easier said than done at a place of suffering, but it is worth considering that the very fact that we are asking about what pains us, serves to take that situation out of the arena of the devil’s gladiatorial assault, and bring it into the gravitational pull of God’s grace, not to mention bringing us into closeness with Him. This sacralizing of our pain through our asking about it, robs the enemy of our souls of a means to impugn God through it, or to turn it into a weapon to beat us further into bondage to despair, doubt and unbelief.

In the face of death, Paul tells the Corinthians that “we do not lose heart” (1 Corinthians 4:1-16). He was not an optimist but a sober realist when it came to matters of suffering and death itself. September 25, 2018 He is trying to get the Corinthians, and us, to understand what life and death are really all about and he does this by setting up a series of contrasts so that they, and therefore we, can discern how two ages of time, the present and the future, not only relate but also more importantly, how they differ. Some of the contrasts that he mentioned are: the seen and the unseen, outward and inward, earthly and heavenly, momentary and eternal, temporary and permanent, heavy and light, suffering and glory, destroyed tent and newly built house, getting worse and getting better, the end and the beginning, judgment and joy. Essentially, he is showing how this life that we will leave with inevitable death, regardless of how that happens, relates to the life to come with life for evermore.

As Christians we sorrow, but we know that we do so not as those who have no hope. If a believer who has died has exchanged the temporary for the eternal, then our grief cannot be absolute but temporary. It is strange to even talk about losing someone. The truth of Paul’s message about how it is for Christian dying is the explanation of why a Christian’s spirit just gets stronger and stronger, their peace gets more palpable, their assurance more confident, and their joy more vibrant as they continue to mature in Christ. Regardless of any physical weakness, of anything that could possibly waste away, inwardly, their life that was eternal, their life that was of the age to come, is going from strength to strength, being renewed day by day, just as the text says. While things from one point of view, the present, are in fact getting slowly worse, everything from the future point of view, is getting better. It is an amazingly brilliant paradox, a mystery of God’s ingenious grace. Things are falling apart, and as a result, everything that really matters is coming together. Time is running out but timelessness is kicking in. Health is deconstructing and a new body is being constructed. As Paul puts it, the old tent is falling down and a new building emerges. The process of losing an old personality is overtaken by the creation of a new person. Every sign of wear and tear becomes the forerunner of renewal and refurbishment. Preparing for the end turns out to be a preparation for the beginning. C.S.Lewis concludes that though the accident was the end of the story for the Narnian children “it was really the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

All that appears to be achieving nothing but gloom as a body fails and falls, that seems like a law of diminishing returns, happens to be God’s accruing investment in the future. As we lose, and appear to be disappearing into nothing, God is achieving a weight of glory. What we call “the end” is so for a Christian only in this sense – it is the finishing touch on a new creation. Even the groaning that goes with the pain, and the burden-bearing that goes with the pressures, are transformed and transmuted and instead, become the groaning and burden-bearing that Paul talks about, that wish and desire to be clothed with a heavenly dwelling. At the moment that we become homeless through our death, we are re-housed in the life to come. The moment we become naked in our death, we are clothed forever with His glory, resplendent as the sun, or as Lewis says, we become a creature of such brilliance and beauty that if we were to be seen someone would want to worship us. May I thus present to you Stephen Kramar in his present life, which will be yours too when you are found in His presence.

Sorrowfully but hopefully yours,

Stuart

Kramar Invitation

MINISTRY TO THE CITY AND NATIONS

Dear Church Family,

We addressed several significant developments for our church in the service this past Sunday. First, the elders presented Brent & Elizabeth McBurney as candidates to join our team of elders. Brent & Elizabeth have been at COSC for 25 years and have served in just about every aspect of church ministry during that time. We believe that they are called by the Lord to eldership at this time. Our Constitution stipulates that the congregation will vote to confirm this calling and we will have this vote by written ballot on Sunday October 7. Members who will not be in service on that Sunday are invited to email in their vote to affirm or not affirm to office@christourshepherd.org. Last Sunday we reviewed our statement of Vision and Values because the elders decided that we needed to keep that statement in front of ourselves and the congregation more than we have been. This past Sunday we also focused on an aspect of our life together that the elders want the congregation to be more aware of. This is the ministry of Stuart and Celia McAlpine that takes place outside of our congregation.

What was shared are not new initiatives or a change in the ministry roles of Stuart & Celia. Instead, this is what is currently taking place and has been happening for several years in increasing measure. It is the will of the Lord and an intentional decision of the elders, to support the expression of their Stuart & Celia’s gifts for the edification of the larger body of Christ. As the founding pastoral couple of COSC, their gifting has planted and built up our body. And the Lord has called for us to support them in a role of ministering in His church worldwide and in Washington DC. We purpose to do a better job of informing and involving the congregation in this calling. This is not primarily about the McAlpines or their work. It is the Lord’s work and it is an important aspect of our calling as a congregation.

Celia shared about ASK and how the Lord is impacting the world through this ministry. Most of the times that Stuart and Celia are away, they are attending ASK conferences for this worldwide organization that they founded and provide ongoing leadership for.

The other major area that Stuart & Celia are involved in is what we have labeled City Wide ministry. Stuart has always had a heart for meeting with other pastors for mutual encouragement and for the promotion of church unity. But this has become more central to his life and ministry as the elders have instructed him to prioritize City Wide ministry in how he spends his compensated time. The truth is that while virtually all churches and pastors will talk about the value of church unity, the demands of local church pastoring leave very little room for the time needed to pursue and express church unity. On the priority list, relationships with other pastors and churches gets squeezed out.

We realized that Stuart & Celia are uniquely gifted to gather and minister to a wide variety of pastors from different theological camps and backgrounds. So, our commitment to church unity needed to be expressed by freeing a significant amount of time from COSC pastoral needs for the promotion of church unity in our City. Stuart shared some of the current fruit from this endeavor, exciting and significant developments of relationships amongst pastors.

We also welcomed Pastor TL and Mable Rogers, who will be sojourning with us for a season, bringing their gifts and experiences to mature us as a body. This is one of the relationship fruits of the City Wide ministry. We look forward to how the Rogers will help us with racial reconciliation and greatly desire to be a blessing to them in this season of their lives.

If you missed Sunday’ service, be sure to listen online to Celia, Stuart, TL and Mable and get caught up on Church life.

Pastorally Yours,

Bo Parker

REDEEMING TIME

Dearest Family,
(trusting you take precious time to read this as I took precious time to write it!)
In the second message of our summer series, ‘IT’S ALL ABOUT TIME’, my comments were grounded in Paul’s admonition to redeem the time, and his repeated exhortation to “make the most of every opportunity” (Ephesians 5:17; Colossians 4:2-5).When we hear the word ‘stewardship’ the first thing we tend to think about is money. We have all heard the truism: ‘show me your checkbook and I will tell you what your priorities are.’ The idea here is that our use of money is one of the best measure of our values. But it is not just about your check-book but about your calendar, that I would argue is an even more fundamental measure. Is the matter of time in most people’s asset analysis? It never is about a few organizational techniques, or schedule manipulations. Time is a creational measurement but it does not often feel like a gift, more like a demanding bill that we have to pay. More often than not it is an enemy not a friend. So why does time need to be redeemed?

Why does it need redeemed? For the reasons that Paul gives to the Romans, Ephesians and Thessalonians. It is a precious commodity. Because the days are evil, the opportunity for good is diminishing, and because the day of reckoning is coming, the availability of time to live and serve God is also diminishing. Why is it precious?

  1. Because of its value.

  2. Because there are eternal consequences. Our eternal destiny and welfare is dependent on our stewardship of time. (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:12; Hebrews 4:13, 9:27

  3. Because it is short. Like any commodity, its rarity and brevity enhance its value. Scripture is full of images that present this fragile reality to us. We are uncertain of our time’s continuance. Three score years and ten are not guaranteed. The fact of its shortness provokes many things for a Christian: cool affections to worldliness, timely repentance in order to keep short accounts; humility; a valuing of grace.

  4. Because it cannot be recovered when it is past.

  5. Because it is not our own: a gift but also a loan for the sole purpose of serving the purposes of God. Wasting the gift of time insults the giver of time.

  6. Because the days are evil: Paul acknowledged that there were unredeemed challenges to a godly use of time: limitations, temptations, distractions. There are so many invitations to a wasted life. Given the direction and current of culture we need to be pro-active against the tide.

  7. Because there are enemies that oppose our stewardship of time. There are thieves of time. I mentioned about 20 of the more obvious ones. Do your own A-Z, starting with Anxiety, and make it a combative prayer list.

Christians are presented “as wise” and told to “be wise” (sophoi), marked by these two things:

  • Making the most of the time, making the most of the opportunity. Our word comes from the Latin ob portu which described a ship out of port waiting for the moment that the tide came in and it could go into safe harbor and unload and load and fulfill its mission. This implies watchfulness, commitment, effort and work, creativity, fruitfulness, understanding of calling.

  • Discerning the will of the Lord. Also James 4:17 “Instead you ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will.” It is about being a wise son and daughter (Word saturated, thoughtful, listening, biblical problem solving, prayer, wise counsel) not foolish ones (governed by feelings, by personal desire, impulse, instincts, inconsideration of consequences, immediate returns and needs, acting out of impatience.)

The Greek word for measureable time is chronos, from which we get words like chronology, and chronometer. It is used to describe the succession of minutes, clock time, the time passing. However, there is another word for time, used 80 times in the NT, kairos, that has more to do with the content, the significance of what happens in chronos. It can refer to a point in time, a period of time, like the right time, a favorable time, a convenient time, an occasion, a window of opportunity, a season. If chronos is about time spent, kairos is about time invested. If chronos is clock time, then kairos is kingdom time. Scripture is clear that we cannot have a spiritual handle on chronos, if we do not have a spiritual character, and manifest the fruits of the Spirit (especially self-control, longsuffering and patience), Jesus’ character no less. The fact is that if you do not manage yourself you will not manage your time. If you do not value yourself you will not value your time. If you are short on purpose you will be long on procrastination. If you were listening carefully on Sunday you would have noted the relationship between a right understanding of time and personal holiness.

Lest we minimalize and sentimentalize this matter of patience and treat it as if it is just a nice social tool, we should note that time is presented in scripture as a principality and a power and appears in two of Paul’s most strategic lists of antagonistic spiritual powers (1 Cors.3:22 “the present or the future”; Roms.8:38 “neither the present nor the future…will be able to separate us from the love of God” – but they will surely try!) Time is a spiritual power that wreaks great havoc and control and fear on people’s lives. It becomes an enemy that provokes people to do terrible things in their impatient rush to get the most out of life on their terms. This is why we are exhorted to experience the Lord’s presence in our experience of time “Surely I am with you always even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20); to experience the power of God to redeem the time, to know that we can indeed make the most of every God-given opportunity in a godly way (Ephesians 5:16; Cols.4:5). So patience is a spiritual power that takes on the invasive and intrusive, controlling and consuming agendas of time passing, of what has been termed “the tyranny of time”, or the “tyranny of the urgent”. Of course, it is the fear of death, the last enemy, that gives time such a spiritual power over the hearts of men and women. There is little to choose between the depictions of Father Time and The Grim Reaper, who both carry the scythe, the weapon of choice of Saturn, known by the Greeks as Chronus, and by the Romans as the Deity of Time. The scythe was the crescent moon representing the rise and fall of cycles of life. Thus patience is not some temperamental attribute of demure and spineless people. It is a necessary demonstration of the power of the Spirit, of spiritual strength, in the face of the enmity of time.

I pointed you to three simple things that every disciple needs in order to number their days aright, in order to be disciplined in their stewardship of time passing.

  1. Restoring the past

  2. Redeeming the present

  3. Remembering your end

Please listen to the download to revisit these important necessities for the discipleship of your time and its consequent redemption. If you got to here, thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Patiently yours (!)

Stuart

Mission Trip Prayer..

HOSPITALITY: THE CROSS AND THE PINEAPPLE

Dearest Family,

If I had to give a title to my message on Sunday I would have called it: ‘The Cross and the Pineapple.’ I spoke about Christian hospitality, exhorted at the beginning of Hebrews 13. I reminded you that the church was born in homes. Hospitality was the DNA of the fellowship. They met house to house ((Romans 16:5); teaching reflects a home context (Acts 20:20); worship was clearly participation worship in the home including the manifestation of spiritual gifts (Colossians 3:16); the agape meal was served in the home (Acts 2:46); all the “one another’ exhortations assume a home gathering. We also noted that the Last Supper, in a home and around a table, expressed everything we understand to be basic to a church gathering: developing relationships, worshiping God, hearing the Word, asking questions, offering prayers, celebrating communion, serving others and reaching the world. Again, all this was in a setting of hospitality. Similar settings had been the contexts for massive breakthroughs and breakouts of the kingdom of God: at the wedding at Cana of Galilee; at the Samaritan village where the woman at the well lived and the good news came to the non-kosher rejected Samaritans; at the home of the Pharisee where the redeemed prostitute washed His feet and the power of forgiveness is demonstrated; at the home of Zaccheus where Jesus establishes what it truly means to be a son of Abraham; at Bethany where He shows that hospitality is not just about Martha Stewart’s great meal, but about Mary’s intimacy; at the home in Emmaus where He reveals His resurrection power when He breaks the bread.

All these observations raise the necessary and non-negotiable matter of the practice of hospitality as fundamental to our understanding of the character of a Christian disciple, and therefore of Christian community, Christian relationships, but also of the church’s relationship with the world. We noted some things that relate hospitality to the foundations of community (you will have to download for all the details):

1. Hospitality is the basis for communion and community with Jesus and the Father. It is the image of spiritual relationship and salvation. “We will make our home with him” (John 14:23)
2. Hospitality is the non-negotiable means for the proclamation and propagation of the gospel. When Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into the nation and preach and heal he added this instruction: “Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave” (Matthew 10:11). Hospitality was the sign of receptivity. It is the hospitality of a Gentile to Peter the Jew that breaks open the mission to the Gentiles. Hospitality is the key bridge to racial reconciliation, and here, the greatest irreconciliation of Jew and Gentile is overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hospitality shatters social and racial boundaries, and invites a deep sharing of cultures, as expressed in how we live and how we eat and what we eat, and how we decorate and what we hang on our walls. Talking of world-shaking breakthroughs that began with hospitality. It was in the home of Philemon that reconciliation was effected when a slave became a brother. It started with hospitality. It was there too that Paul could write with confidence, “Prepare a guest room for me.” It is Lydia’s hospitality in Philippi (“she invited us to her home” Acts 16:15) that led to a church in her home that became the door for mission to barbarian Europe.
3. Hospitality was the context for discipleship and training. In Acts 18: 24-26 we read that when Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos teaching, “they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.” Paul’s summary of his ministry in Acts 20:20 was that he taught “house to house.”
4. Hospitality is the key to relating to fellow believers and to reaching your neighbors and the world. My heart and my home become the building blocks of the church. It is hospitality and not the building fund that accommodates the work of the church. How accessible is your home. Can people come in? Are people invited in? The privatization of the home has deformed the life of the church. John writes in his epistle “we ought to show hospitality” (3 John 1:8). He is writing to Gaius who has already been referred to in Romans 16:23 “Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy”. Paul’s thinking is clearly presented in Romans 12:13 “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” Peter writes, “The end of all things is near … Love each other deeply … Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). But there is a cost to hospitality, a sacrifice. It requires generosity. Why does he say “without grumbling”? Because it is seldom what we want. It is bothersome, intrusive, time consuming. Taking both the Romans 12 and Petrine text together let’s make the point. Hospitality is a non-negotiable expression of our faith working through love. Perhaps most telling are the words of Jesus. “When you have a dinner … do not invite your friends … invite the poor” (Luke 14:12-14) How much more reconciliation, how many more conversions would there have been if we were hospitable. Most discomforting are the words of Jesus’ parable in the words of the judging King: “I was a stranger and you did not invite me in.” Hospitality is a sign of kingdom ministry which attracts the blessing of God. Its absence attracts words of judgment. God takes our lack of response to others personally – it is a failure to welcome Him, befriend Him, bless Him, invite Him. Just one important scriptural observation. “The overseer must be … hospitable … Since an overseer is entrusted work … he must be hospitable” (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8). This is the most neglected qualification for leadership in the church. It should be noted that hospitality comes after the requirement that a leader be “self-controlled”. Someone has written that this is because: “self-mastery makes self-giving possible.” If there is no hospitality there is no church growth.
5. Hospitality was a moral, an ethical issue for everyone, not just a possible practice for those who felt so inclined or gifted. In the ancient world, hospitality was incumbent on all, was always regarded as a sacred duty. The moralism of hospitality is not difficult to understand given the way that it affirms human dignity and equality, and seeks another’s good, and gives rather than takes. Someone put it like this: “Christian hospitality was a subversive act that obliterated societal barriers involving gender, race, economic condition, and citizenship status, and also directly attacked the often deadly devaluing of the personhood of 'undesirables'. The extension of hospitality was a moral statement with moral overtones.”

Of course, there are obstacles that we all have to deal with. What would be on your list? Would it include: Too much to do, too little time, too little energy, too little money, too much bother, too much work, too intrusive on private space, too much shame, too little skill and experience, too insecure, too shy. These hindrances explain why hospitality is a command, a discipline. Hospitality is a conscious decision because it involves a conscious obedience, and a conscious commitment and a conscientious effort. We should begin by asking for two things:

  • For a prepared heart for Christ’s concerns and affections and perceptions

  • For a prepared home – for others not just oneself. Asking not only for those we want but for those who need us

Take some first achievable steps. Open your home for something, to someone. Jesus was sensitive to how hospitality was shown to Him, or not shown to Him. Get intentional about community building through hospitality. When I did premarital counseling I asked couples to accept one particular discipline: once a month do a dinner party, inviting Christian friends one month, nonChristian friends the second month, and a mix the third month. Repeat every quarter. We cannot be sure of the guarantees of the continuance of public worship in church buildings. But no matter. As long as we understand that the church in the home is the basis of community life, we will not miss a beat. Hospitality is also a corporate discipline, which will determine how we are as a place of welcome and incorporation. Hospitality requires that we be a community for all nations, that we be committed to be a reconciled and reconciling community. How are we expressing hospitality corporately? How are we doing at it?

We are invited to co-host the church and the world with the supping and serving Christ. May His grace as a guest and His generosity as a host, be our example as we cultivate and preserve our obedience to scripture. “Pursue hospitality.” And by the way, while you are doing that, He is also still in the hospitality business. “I go to prepare a place for you … In my father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). The Bible began with hospitality and it ends that way with the presentation in Revelation 19 of the marriage feast of the Lamb for a reconciled crowd. It never ends … He will not be outdone. His reward is with him. Let the discipline of hospitality recover its meaning and its joy in all our homes, and may it become the clearest expression of the presence of Jesus in our domicile, for as He said, when you invited them, you invited me to be present. And when you didn’t invite anyone, guess who else did not show up?

This is a costly discipline, but it is powerful to the pulling down of strongholds like marginalization, privatization, institutionalization, separation, isolation, irreconciliaition and loneliness, and it is powerful to the building up of relationship, friendship, trust and shared joy … in a word, building up God’s house of living stones. May our tables be the extension leaves of the table of the Lord. May the cost of our hospitality be a willing sacrifice, given the cost of the meal of bread and wine that we share every eucharist that brought us into this household. I raise my glass to hospitality! Cheers to bread and wine, to loaves and fishes, tacos and salsa, to burgers and fries, soup and salad, cheese and crackers, to dessert and coffee – cheers to your house that is the truest expression of God’s house. Practice hospitality.

Hospitably yours,

Stuart

MEMORIAL DAY: TO THE UNKNOWN SOLDIERS

Dear Family,

The Book of Hebrews, the substance of Bo’s present series, has a well-known Memorial passage. Chapter 11 is an illustrious roll of honor for deceased heroes of the fight of faith, including many of the great patriarchs and leaders – all among the soldiery in the Faith Hall of Fame. The fact is that Memorials, most of them anyway, celebrate well-known events or well-known people. Our city is full of such: The Lincoln, The Jefferson, The FDR, the Veterans of the Vietnam and Korean Wars, The Washington Monument. But we have another Memorial in the Arlington Cemetery, whose history is rooted in the grave of a British soldier who died on the Western Front in WW1. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey and at the Arc de Triomphe became the precursors of such tombs in so many nations. The one in Arlington was established by an Act of Congress in 1921, and is called ‘The Tomb of the Unknowns’. Written on it are these words: “Here rests an American soldier known but to God.”

This Memorial Day weekend, we looked at the closing verses of Hebrews 11: 35-40 and read words like these: “women … others … some … still others … they … these … them…” The people referred to by these general designations were equally worthy of memorializing, but we just don’t know who they are. They are nameless, and they appear on the pages of scripture unknown, and unknowingly. But in some strange way, more than the heroes, they speak in a relatable way to our own unpublicized lives. For every memorial to a well-known hero of faith, there are thousands of unknown and unidentified faithful, and that counts us in to be members of the Faith Hall of Fame too. Paul understood this. “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). But the fact is that “He chose the lowly … the despised … the things that are not.”

When you read scripture, be on the look out for these kind of unknowns. On Sunday, I referred in more detail to several of them just from the Gospel records, who fought the good fight of pure faith. There was:

  • the little guy in John 2 who served the miraculous wine to the master of the wedding feast;

  • the guys in Mark 2:3-5 who tested the homeowner’s house insurance policy and lowered their friend through the roof;

  • he unknown boy with the now well-known lunch in John 6: 5-10;

  • the nameless, penniless widow in Mark 12:43 who is mentioned just every time anyone teaches about a Christian view of giving and stuff;

  • the leper, Samaritan, foreigner in Luke 17:15 who should never have been known by anyone;

  • the guys called “they” and “them” in John 11:41, who engaged the corpse of Lazarus by ignoring all the religious prohibitions, all the social and aesthetic protestations about bad odors, all the argumentations of natural reason that denied that dead men can live again;

  • the unknown, outcast, untouchable woman in Mark 5:24-34 who ends up being renamed a “daughter”, an intimate because of her faith;

  • the “guy with a water jar” and “guy with a house” who seemed to have been prepared for that strategic moment in Holy week when they facilitated the Last Supper no less and May 29, 2018 were simply at the right place at the right time for Jesus, despite appearing to be happenstance bit players, walk on’s, extras.

A bunch of nameless and unknown men and women were faithful and obedient and they are memorialized in scripture, the ultimate Book of Remembrance, and are memorialized today as you read this!

Like those nameless characters in the gospels, all of whom had nothing whereby to commend themselves, we come too – unknown. The gospel unknowns did not have the resources to commend themselves: they had no wine, no food, no legs, no money, no skin, no breath, no future, no hope. They had no leverage and they had no resources to buy in. But everyone of them ended up having an encounter with Jesus, and discovering that he had taken care of everything including the cost. They just arrived at His feet, put all they had into His hand, just simply trusted Him and obeyed what He spoke to them against the rational odds. Yes, they were on the fringe but they found out that touching the fringe of His garment and His life was enough. And despite the fact that their faith was unformed and uninformed, fragile and imperfect and even immature, the saving, healing grace of Jesus transformed them, and they were all memorialized, joining the roll call of Hebrews 11:39 – the myriads of unknowns who have found a place in God’s Faith Hall of Fame, not because they were voted in there by man’s approval, but planted there because of God’s personal remembrance of their faith and works of faith.

We are unknowns and there are plenty of reasons for us not to be included in the company of the faithful in the Faith Hall of Fame. No one is planning a memorial for us, or even writing about us in a book of remembrance. Our grave stones will mark the resting place of unknowns, but in the words of the Arlington Tomb, “known but to God.” We choose to be remembrancers of the Lord in our worship as we remember His works and His ways and His wonders; as we kneel at the altar and receive the eucharist; as we remember the way He has led us, as we recall the meanings of what He has done, and inventory afresh the requirements these memories make of us. But we are also provoking a remembrance of God through our lives and testimonies, making memorials like Cornelius (Acts 10), through our prayers and our generosity. We’re not just being memorials but making memorials.

There was one Memorial on the Mall I did not mention at the beginning. Did you notice it? It is the Martin Luther King Memorial, commemorating the death of a soldier in a battle for the image of God in all men. Would it ever be possible to imagine or believe that there could be sufficient memorials of prayer and giving that would attract God’s attention and invite His intervention to build a memorial as He did in Caesarea, to the breaking of the bondages of our racially rooted irreconciliations by the power of the same gospel?

Though you are unknown to the world at large, your prayers and your obedient works of faith, your daily trust in the Lord, your entrustment of your loaves and fishes assets into His hands, your gifts to the poor – all of these are a memorial offering and like Cornelius, you are thereby known to God and memorialized by Him. In the fight of faith, waging our warfare, armed and armored, we may live and die unknown by men – like those in Hebrews, we are the nameless others, the “these” and the “them”, but in the words of the Tomb to the unknowns, “known to God.” And may reconciliation be His reward to us as it was to Peter and Cornelius.

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

HOPE: AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL

Dear Family,

On Sunday we dropped anchor, as it were, and looked at the metaphor that the writer to the Hebrews used for hope. Download the message for a full treatment. I pointed out that the anchor was one of the key symbols for the early Christians and used as a secret sign, possibly even more than the icthus, the fish. If we are going to exegete the metaphor we have to know what purpose an anchor serves for those who sail the seas.

• It keeps them in place: That means that there is something about this biblical hope that helps us to hold our position despite prevailing ungodly winds and waves that would sweep us off our bearings. Clearly then, hope is the vital contribution for the maintenance of spiritual faithfulness. If the anchor is not connected to something that will hold it fast, there will be no fixity or security. Our anchor of hope is secured in the ground of history, in the mighty acts of God. The remembrance of the historical works and miracles of God recovered hope for the psalmist when he was tempted to think that God’s love had faded or His promise had failed (Psalm 77:8-11). When hopelessness caused his spirit to faint he “remembered the days of long ago.” Remembering that the anchor was deep in history recovered his hope: “You are my God … I have put my hope in You” (Psalm 143: 5-11). Thus, the anchor of hope connects and secures our relationship with God and saves us from two main things:

  • Drifting: This is when the currents, whether of external conditions or internal emotions, whether of cultural persuasions or relational influences, determine our direction and movement. This may end up in us going backwards, an image of backsliding, or of returning to a place that we came from. So, an anchor does not only protect against the effects of external weather and water conditions but it is also strong enough to hold the weight of the vessel. Regardless of the weight of what we are bearing that would appear to threaten spiritual drowning or sinking, we can still maintain our place of safety, of surety, of stability. Hope is the great anti-drift virtue.

  • Driveness: To be drifted by contrary currents is one thing, but to be driven by contrary winds is another. There are undertows that we can choose to submit to, but there are external winds of circumstance that we did not choose that can drive us away from our mooring. Potentially the worst outcome of drifting is the slow slide into an exposed place where we are vulnerable to that which would make shipwreck of us. Remember Paul’s reference in to those who “have shipwrecked their faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). The anchor of hope, if held on to, serves to protect us from being driven by the forces of temptation or falsehood, specifically because it keeps us so focused on the gospel of hope, both its wonders and its warnings. Yes, future hope includes the redemption of our bodies, but also the judgment seat of Christ.

• It keeps them in peace: Our passage tells us that those who have this “hope as an anchor” experience a “strong consolation” (Hebrews 6:18-19). There is no peace where there is no hope. The prophet Isaiah understood that perfect peace was the experience of those who hoped in the Lord (Isaiah 26:3). The prophet Jeremiah lamented that he had been “deprived of peace” April 24, 2018 (Lamentations 3:17). A few verses later we learn that the only thing that restored it was the recovery of hope, specifically because of God’s great love and great faithfulness (3:21). The peace that is the fruit of hope is the antidote to fear. Despite the exterior conditions that might assail and rock the vessel, there is a protection from fear, because our hope is anchored in the outcomes that God has promised. Faith that looks forward in hope to God’s future, overcomes the fear that looks only toward the present immediate outcomes. When hope withers then fear flourishes (Zechariah 9:5). Again, was there any greater hopelessness than that experienced by the disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus? They huddled behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” Jesus appears to them, the risen Christ the hope of glory, and His first word to them is “Peace” (John 20:19). The peace of recovered hope dispelled the fear. Spurgeon wrote this: “The condition of every believer in Jesus is very similar to that of the landlubber on-board ship, who, when the sea was rather rough, asked, ‘Captain, we are in great danger, are we not?’ He received no answer, and so he said, ‘Captain, don’t you see great fear?’ Then the old seaman gruffly replied, ‘Yes, I see plenty of fear, but not a bit of danger.’ The ship was safely anchored.” Hope overcome fear; despite the threat there was peace.

Although some may think that hope is a fluke in the sense of that word when it means an unlikely or chance occurrence, that is clearly not the sense I am using it here. It is important that an anchor has sufficient substance and weight to secure in place, and in peace, what it is attached to. From being just a bag of heavy rocks, the anchor soon developed into having two arms, or flukes as they are known, that can dig and lodge into the seabed. It is really interesting that the anchor of hope in our passage has two such strong flukes, representing the double certification that God gives to hope:

  • The promise: “God made His promise … what was promised” (6:13, 17). This is the guarantee of the inheritance, the promise of the completion of our salvation which is firmly secured.

  • The oath: “He confirmed it with an oath” (6:17). This is the sheer grace of God that would give man what he needed for his assurance. As God cannot swear by a higher authority, He swears by himself. Thus, the hope for the future is sealed “By two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie” (6:18).

There are also two words used to describe the two flukes:

  • Sure: our anchor hope is outwardly strong, it is attested, and safe against external threat

  • Steadfast: our anchor of hope is internally unalloyed; it is pure, integral because integrous. We have a grip on hope but this is not about being clear about an idea, but being connected to a person, to Christ. Spurgeon put it best: “Be sure you have a secure hold on your sure anchor.” How unsafe is it not to be in the place of refuge, the anchorage of hope, with the conviction and assurance of our eternal destiny and hope.

Holding on to the anchor that holds us
This is a two-way street. You see, as much as it is about our hold on hope, the other part of this truth is that the anchor at the other end of the rope has a grip on us, because it holds us. It has the effect, against all the conditions and currents, of pulling us toward itself. It is this invisible hope that is hidden like an anchor beneath the surface of the sea, but nonetheless doing its assuring and securing work. Of course, the more the pressure and strain, the deeper the anchor goes. Even so, the more that the storms challenge our hope, the stronger hope becomes as it holds us firm and steady against that which would pull us away. Instead of a defeat, it gives us another victory. In one of his sermons on hope, Spurgeon had a lovely thought: “Our anchor will never return to us but it is drawing us home; it is drawing us to itself, not downward beneath devouring waves but upward to ecstatic joys. Do you feel it? You who are growing old, do you not feel it drawing you home?” He then quotes the lines of an old hymn: “O that we now might grasp our guide / O that the Word were given / Come Lord of Hosts, the waves divide / And land us all in heaven.” The writer longed for hope to give the final pull. He then drops this gorgeous but poignant line. “My cable has grown shorter lately.” That is true for all of us. We too are losing some links as we get closer to where the anchor is holding us fast.

The anchorage But what about the anchorage?
This is what everything has been leading up to. As we grasp God’s promises, as we lay hold of our future hope and choose to follow the rope to see where it leads and where the anchor actually is, what do we find? The text tells us that the anchor is “within the veil” (6:19). Our anchor is in heaven. We have no need to drop anchor anywhere else. We have no other anchorage. We need worry no more about our security. We can go anywhere and minister anywhere, and there may be some swells and even sea-sickness but wherever we are harbored by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to minister and live with authority and surety, because the end of the rope is secure. The anchor of our hope is already in the presence of God and that is where we are already moored and attached and being drawn to. To emphasize the point, Jesus is described as the “forerunner” – He “went before us” (6:20). He has already entered there for us. Since Jesus is there and He is our hope, our anchor is inseparably linked with Him. He is not going anywhere so nor are we, other than to be where He is. He will not slip or lose His grip and nor will we. We cannot be separated, we are secured, there is a place prepared. What a brilliant hope! Because He is the forerunner, we will follow. Truly He has gone to prepare a place for us, so that we may be where He is. In the end, our hope is all about who Jesus is, and where Jesus is. It is not primarily about our secure position, though that is surely true. It is all about the person we are secured by. Our hope is not something but someone.

Fully hoping,
Stuart

ABRAHAM: OUR FATHER OF HOPE

Dearest Family,

Normally my pastoral letters are either a summary of what I taught about on Sunday or a focus on a particular point that was raised. This week, I am going to do something different and give you the gist of what I did not have time to complete. So here goes. If you remember, I was talking about Abraham, our father of hope, out of Hebrews 6. In Romans 4 he is described as our father in the faith, and how he is presented there gives us an anatomy of biblical hope.

Our father in the faith and in the hope.

1. Hope is about a Person: Everything is “in the sight of God, in whom he believed” (4:17). Our hope is all about who God is.
a. before Him: hope is utterly related to the dependability of God. It is not about my insight but about being in His sight. It is not about my perspective on the future but on the assurance of God’s presence there as well as here.
b. In whom: this is not about the grade of our hope or faith, but about the goal of our hope, to believe in Him, and to forever be with Him. Hope limits itself only to what God Himself promises.

2. Hope is about a Promise: “I have made you … Abraham in hope believed.” (4:17-18) Our faith is first in the One who promised, and then we exercise our hope in what was promised, but the ‘what’ never displaces the ‘who’. When there is nothing to go on, there is something to stand on. In the words of the hymn: Standing on the promises that cannot fail / When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail / By the living word of God I shall prevail / Standing on the promises of God. “I have made you…” (promise) is followed by “in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead” (hope) and concludes with “Abraham … became” (fulfillment).

3. Hope is about a Persuasion: “Being fully persuaded” (4:21). Where there was no conceivable hope (literally!) Abraham did not allow the facts of what he saw by sight (“that his body was as good as dead”) to overcome the holy facts of faith. The text says that he “faced the fact” but did not weaken or waver. It was a matter of fact, not a matter of fate. Hope did not deny the reality or the state of his virility or Sarah’s fertility. The New Testament nowhere plays down suffering and trial in order to elevate hope. On the contrary, as we have seen, they so often seem to be found in the same context. We are called to an unthreatened examination of the facts and to the unintimidated exercise of faith in the future facts that God has promised for us. As the saying goes, “Weak faith on thick ice is better than strong faith on thin ice.”

4. Hope is about a Provision: This deserves a full treatment, but there are endless products of hope in God’s future promise that are reaped in our present life. Strength and effectiveness of present discipleship is utterly contingent on our biblical hope. Abraham reaped present blessings as a result of his future hope. The birth of Isaac was not the full fulfillment of the promise. You could argue that until Jacob was born it was all up in the air. How interesting then that Isaac and Rebekah had trouble conceiving and also had to learn first-hand what it was to hope in nothing but the promises of God about their future. We cannot spare ourselves this calling to hope. We were saved in hope, have entered a living hope and so will never be apart from it. A study of the provisions of hope in the present will reap great benefits for you. For example:

a. Listen to Peter: He is committed to serve “as long as I live in the tent of this body because I know I will soon put it aside” (2 Peter1:13). It is because of the hope of what is to come that he is aware of the temporary nature of this life and therefore the need to escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires and live a cleansed life. Hope provides both a motivation to change our life but also an empowerment to do so. Peter is also motivated to serve the Lord with “every effort.”

b. Listen to Paul In Titus 2:1-13, Paul lists many manifestations of godliness in those who seek to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. The common mark of these people is that they are “looking for the blessed hope”. Biblical hope will totally affect how we steward our lives – “our talents, our time and our treasures.” You could argue that the differing qualities and strengths of believers’ discipleship are calibrated by their convictions about biblical hope.

c. Listen to Jesus: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20). The hope of heaven as a spiritual habit of mind, a “supernatural orientation” as Harry Blamires described it, settles the issues about what we value, and how we make decisions about what we invest in. It will also help us decide what we divest as of no usefulness in the work of the kingdom of God.

The biblical presentation of the challenges and choices of Abraham when it came to trusting the promises of God, believing in hope, hoping against hope and being persuaded that God had power to do what was promised, remains the curriculum for our own walk of hope. As his spiritual progeny, we should expect the same fruit in our lives as he experienced in his: strengthening in our faith and an explosion of continual glory to God. Hope fuels our work for God and our worship of God. Not only was his obedience at Mount Moriah a prophetic preview, a pre-run, of the sacrifice that would secure the hope of our salvation in and through Jesus’ death, but his refusal to lose his mind in response to the incursion of potential hopelessness, meant that he “reasoned that God could raise the dead.” Thus Abraham’s hope not only foresaw the cross, but also the resurrection, the conviction that was the ground of his hope, and the ground of ours. With Abraham, we will share the experience of what the resurrection of Jesus secured – our secure hope that we too shall be raised. Here’s hoping!

Hope fully,
Stuart