A Sunday Morning Question

The preacher this morning finished up a month long series on Paul's letters to the Church at Corinth. Unfortunately, life has taken me elsewhere during the month of the sermons so today was a moment for hearing the final sermon of the many preached.  Somewhere in the midst of the sermon, the preacher verbally considered the possibility of Paul writing a letter to the church of today.  It sent me scurrying to find an offering envelope with white space on the back so I could write my own question. "If Paul were to write a letter to the church today as he did to Corinth, who would want to read it?"  

"Who would want to read it?"  I fear not the church.  I fear the church would dismiss someone like Paul as one had been hiding from reality too long.  I fear the church has no real interest in hearing the prophetic voices which would call it to repentance.  Regardless whether we are liberal or conservative, we are sure we have it right and everyone else has it wrong.  The church is like the altar worker who kneels beside someone confessing their sins to tell them they are not so bad.  Maybe there was a time in the life of the church when sin was seen lurking behind every bush, but nowadays, it is doubtful the always right among us would recognize sin if it stared them in the face.  

I cannot help but believe that Paul would have something to say to a church which is more about self-preservation than sacrifice.  I cannot help but believe that Paul would have something to say to a church more interested in making "me" the center of its proclamation instead of Christ.  I cannot help but believe that Paul would have something to say to a church too interested in tickling ears instead of stepping on toes.  I cannot help but believe that the letter would end up in the trash instead of the heart.   

Lay Him There

"Lay him there, " He said.

And I said, "Are You sure?

He's a good boy, You know,

Gathered all the wood below.

When asked, he always does.

How 'bout we talk this over

Like reasonable folks do?"

"Once more, lay him there."

"But, Lord, he's all I got.

You promised him long ago

to me and a barren woman.

If's he gone, how will she 

live without him, and with me.

I'll have no heir,  and no hope." 

I said, "Lay him there!

What can't you understand?

Who do you think I am?

A liar and  deceiver,

A breaker of promises?

I promised You blessings.

Why can you not believe?"

"Once again, lay him there!"

So loud He spoke, I awoke,

A shaking body by Sarah.

Freed now to breathe again,

Still afraid, but now I know

Who has spoken in the dream

and so I will lay him there.

(Genesis 22:1-19)

A Morning for Pondering

While I am not one prone to climbing a hill and flying a kite during a thunderstorm, or even walking across the farm during those stormy moments when thunder and lightning come in the same second, I must confess to enjoying the rain.  When I was a student at Young Harris College, I would often take walks across the campus on rainy nights.  Later in my middle years when running was a part of my routine, rain never kept me away from lacing up the running shoes.  At the farm the front porch is a favorite place to sit and be a part of the rain that is falling.  

As anyone who has ever dabbled in the dirt knows, rain is a blessed gift.  The story of Elijah reminds us what happens to the earth when the rain ceases to fall.  The creek, or wadi, from which the prophet drank his water dried up and worse than hard times came upon the land.  And even as too little can be a serious problem, we know, too, that too much of it at one time can bring flooding, destruction, and even death.  Jesus spoke of the rain falling one the wise and the foolish.  Indiscriminately, the rain falls.  Sometimes it comes and sometimes it does not.  Sometimes it rains buckets and sometimes a thimble is enough.

From my window there seems to be much to ponder as the rain falls.  This morning it seems to be speaking about the nature of life itself.  We have no real control over our life.  It unfolds bringing seasons of tears and laughter.  It is unpredictable.  It is full of things not understood.  Some speak of it as mystery.  Perhaps, life can only be rightly understood and lived when we see it as a gift.  Though we live through the dark stormy days, the sunshine comes.  There is no darkness which can overcome the Eternal Light.  There is no power, not even death, which will keep us from finally reaching the glorious light of Home.  

Rainy Morning Musings

The first rain of the morning was gentle.  It would have been good walking weather.  Such is not the case now. The rain is pounding the ground.  Walking would put the walker at risk of drowning!  It is also the kind of rain which sets the mind going off in directions not anticipated.  One of my thoughts as I look out the window is to wonder why there is no mention of rain in the Genesis account of creation.  A little head scratching and page turning revealed the first word about rain in Genesis 2:5 which said, "the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth."  How strange that the first mention of rain is a report that it exist only in the mind of God.   

The first record of rain comes in Genesis 7:2 where we hear the Lord saying to Noah, "There's going to be a floody, floody, get them children out of the muddy, muddy, children of the Lord."  Forgive me for getting carried away with a memory of a childhood song.  The Scripture actually says. "For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights."  Another big and memorable rain came of Mt. Carmel at the end of Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal. (I Kings 18:45).  And, of course, there a few good storms described in the gospels, one of which is famous for the moment Jesus walked on stormy seas.  

What are the takeaways from this morning of musing about the rain?  Not everything visible to us was mentioned in the Genesis story of Creation.  It took seven chapters before we are able to see a decent rain.  How many years did the wheel lurk in the realm of the invisible before it became a means of transportation?  How long did the technology of airplanes and computers exist in the realm of the invisible before we were able to see it?  The creation is not yet done. There are things out there unseen which will one day be revealed.  The cure for diseases like cancer is surely one of those things.

A Heritage Lost

Although contemporary Methodism seldom gives cause to think of holiness, holiness was a dominant theme in John Wesley's theology.  It could be said with some justification that Wesley would, as some folks in this neck of the woods say,, "roll over in his grave" at the disappearance of holiness in the church that speaks of him as its theological father.  He spoke of Methodists as "people who profess to pursue holiness of heart and life, inward and outward conformity...to the revealed will of God."  

The holiness of which Wesley spoke was an inward matter of the heart and also something outwardly expressed through a life which reflected the heart of Christ.  Theological words which show up in Wesley's theology are Christian perfection, sanctification (both gradual and entire), and purity of heart.  When I was ordained back in 1971, we were asked by the Bishop at our ordination, "Are you going on to perfection?" In these words of covenant, the Wesleyan heritage was verbally and visibly affirmed.  

Like many denominational groups, there seems to be an abandonment of the inward part of Wesley's theology of sanctification as the outward aspect of it becomes more and more dominant.  Holiness must always include the work of the Holy Spirit on the believer's heart in order to be true to its meaning.   Holiness is about that work of the Spirit which shapes and transforms our hearts so that they more clearly reflect the heart of Christ.  It can never be one or the other, but both if our holiness heritage is remembered correctly.

A Second Work

In many holiness circles where sanctification was preached, it was often described as "baptism of the Spirit" or "a second work of grace."  The preaching was more focused on sanctification being an event to be experienced through an intense time of seeking this gift from God than it was preached as a moment in a believers life which began a process of living in submission to the will of God.  One of the common elements of the different approaches to the Spirit filled life was the desire in the heart of the believer for something more in their spiritual life.    

Those who disliked the image of a second work of grace affirmed, and rightly so, that at the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit came to abide in the heart.  There was no need to talk about Him coming a second time.  The Spirit did not come on the installment plan.  When we said "yes" to Jesus we received all of the Holy Spirit and not just a part of Him.  The problem experienced by many of us is that while we received all of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit did not receive all of us.  

Beginning faith can often be filled with enthusiasm, but also filled with the conditional.  This results in the kind of life the Apostle Paul described in a moment of confession, "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me." (Romans 7:19-20).  It is when we grow weary of such a life and when we long for something more that we find that our heart is receptive to the Spirit calling us to surrender not a part of ourselves but all of ourselves so that the emptiness cannot only be filled, but also controlled by the Holy Spirit.

"Them Holiness Folks"

Not far from the small town Methodist Church that licensed me to preach was an empty lot that stayed vacant except for one week out of the year.  On that exceptional week a big brown tent would suddenly appear along with at least a hundred wooden folding chairs and several hundred funeral homes fans.  The people who showed up in the evening to sit in those chairs and wave those fans were not like the orderly dignified Methodist folks who drove by this tent revival after dark to see what all the singing and shouting was about. 

When asked, the keepers of righteous order would say, "It was them holiness folks!"   Never did it occur those of us being shaped by the Methodist Church on the corner that "them holiness folks" was really us.  Holiness was not mentioned much on Sunday morning.  When the words, "baptism of the Holy Spirit" sounded across town from that turned wide open speaker system at the tent, we were mystified.  Sanctification might have been a part of the spiritual heritage of those Methodists on the corner, but it was mostly kept a secret.  

It was years later when I went to a college that had, "Holiness Unto the Lord" written in large bold letters across the front wall of the auditorium that I began to see and understand a different understanding of holiness.  It was true that the Scripture called believers to holy living (I Peter 1:15-16) and a familiar and much quoted word said, "Blessed are the pure in heart..." (Matthew 5:8), but it required a season of soaking before such words settled in my heart.  In a world in which the church seems to have lost its spiritual identity, maybe it needs to have a season of soaking in the words of Peter, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people..." (I Peter 2:9).