on the walk

We began a fun new series at Mountain today. It is entitled “Kappa Delta Pi:God’s Frat Party.” It is a fun opportunity to re-examine the core values of our community. Each letter is the first letter of a different Greek word.

This week we examined koinonia. Koinonia is the great word used to describe the deep fellowship that God intends for the church. The whole service was a great reminder of the importance of relationships, both with God and with others. You can check out the sermon here.

Ben began his argument by drawing our attention to Jesus articulation of the greatest commandments: Love God, Love Neighbor. This pair of commands (which inspired the title for the fine blog Jesus Creed) outline the ethic of Christians, and articulate the shape of Christian relationships.

I hope to have more to right about this later, but for now, I cannot resist the opportunity to mention Eph 2. In the chapter, Paul is trying to outline what God was made possible through Jesus. It is such a clear and powerful articulation of God’s work both to restore us in relationship to God, and restoring human relationships.

When we reduce Jesus work to just “forgiving sins” and forget that this is part of a larger process of restoring and recreating relationships, we short-change the work that God is trying to do. So I am glad for the sermon today. It is not some side topic, or some nice extra. Christian community is one of the core purposes for which Christ came and so when we invest in God honoring relationship we are honoring the very mission and ministry of Christ. When I build into Christian unity, I am working on the very task for which Christ died.

I like Jesus style. He gives a command - Love God and love your neighbor - and then he dies so that we are able to keep it. So when we build into koinonia, we obey Christ’s command and honor his death.

on the walk

-Ethan

It wasn’t the main point of the sermon but it captured my thinking.  Aaron Wymer (Senior Minister at Grandview Christian Church, Johnson City TN) was introducing a fine sermon on the wisemen.  He said that the difference between a magician and a worshiper of God is that the magician will not say, “Thy will be done.”

The basic principle behind ancient magic is that through the manipulation of certain words or objects,  the gods could be controlled.  Power rested in the hands of the magician, and the goal of magic was to control the forces of the divine as well as the forces of nature.

In contrast, the worshiper makes requests, but does not presume power or the ability to control.

This reflection on magic, made me think about my prayer life.  I am tempted (and I know from my conversations with others that I am not alone) to  pray like a magician.  I am tempted to think of prayer as some sort of incantation whereby my will and agenda can be promoted.  This is not the kind of prayer that God desires.

Just as a parent wants to know about their child’s needs and desires, but does not want to be blackmailed or manipulated or cajoled, God insists that we not think of prayer as some sort of simple exchange.  (In fact anyone who does think of prayer in this way will be quickly disappointed.)

Nevertheless I still find myself approaching God with frustration, thinking to myself or even saying to God, “I prayed three times, why haven’t you done anything.”  When I do this, of course, I know that I am praying like a magician.

These are not the prayers that God desires.

on the walk

-Ethan

As I continue to reflect on this past week’s sermon on forgiveness, I find myself struck again by the primacy of forgiveness with respect to repentance. This is of course the opposite of how we normally expect forgiveness to work.

In our normal thoughts about forgiveness, we expect that after someone offers sufficient apology, we might then offer the release of forgiveness. But in God’s kingdom of grace, the offer of forgiveness precedes rather than follows repentance.

However much this may seem counter intuitive, there are at least two reasons why this is the only way it makes sense. Continue Reading »

In our services in preparation for Christmas, we are examining the manifold gifts that are ours in Christ. This week we encountered forgiveness. However I was delightful surprised by the way we encountered forgiveness.

We did not focus on the forgiveness that comes to us in Christ.  At the end of the sermon, strong mention of the forgiveness offered by God through Christ was made, but this was not the main focus.  The main focus was the through Christ was are able to forgive others.  Having heard the sermon this no longer seems surprising to me, but as I reflect on it, I recognize that it is not immediately obvious that forgiving others is a gift to me.

Perhaps vengeance would be a better gift.  Perhaps reclaiming what was taken would be a better response those who have wronged me.  Wouldn’t the perfect gift be the opportunity to extract perfect recompense to all those who owe me.

But this is not what Christ offers.  Instead Christ offers forgiveness for the wrong we have done, and commands that we forgive those who have done wrong to us.

It was this first point of the sermon that struck me as the most powerful.  Vengeance for a wrong done to me, is no gift to me.  Forgiving that wrong is, in a surprising way, a gift of great worth.

I hope to write more on this.  If you question this conclusion, I would encourage you to follow the link above and listen to the sermon.  It might just be the perfect gift.

on the walk

-Ethan

Ben began a great new series today. This series will lead up to our Christmas Sunday/Christmas Eve services. It is called “The Perfect Gift.” The whole series is about how Jesus is the perfect gift and through the work of Christ we receive exactly what we need. As we saw today however, what we need is not always what we wanted.

Today Ben shared that through Christ we receive the perfect gift of confession. Confession is not the perfect gift because we want it. Confession is a gift because we need it. Confession is a gift because most of us struggle with guilt, and confession is part of the process to freedom.

I hope to have some more time to reflect on confession in this forum, but before I wax theological I thought it was important to actually confess. If you are a small group leader, you may want to encourage your group to spend some time in confession at your next meeting. As the old joke goes: A guy goes up to a preacher and says, “Good Sermon.” The preacher says, “We’ll see.”

So lets make sure that this weeks sermon was a good sermon by practicing what we heard.

To help us all in our confession, here is a great confession that has been used by many Christians throughout history. For a fuller exercise of confession and forgiveness, you can check out The Walk which includes several confessional prayers at the end of the grace chapter.

If you want to begin to receive the gift of confession, you are invited to experience the following prayer:

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

—Book of Common Prayer, Morning Prayer

on the walk

-Ethan

Growing up in East Tennessee, I learned that there are two religious holidays each winter: Christmas and the Super Bowl.

Each one has a important rituals of observance. Both consume the attention the whole populace. Even those that are normally irreligious find themselves participating in the worship on these two days. (For most of my life I watched exactly one NFL game each year, but for some reasons I never missed that one.) Continue Reading »

It was challenging day of worship today. We were challenged to recognize that Jesus went to hell to care for those far from God and we are called to do the same thing. You can hear it all here.
This sermon has just added to some serious soul searching that I have been doing about how to increase my service to God. But before I blog about that I want to share a poem from my Father that describes Jesus motivation and practice of going to hell. I encourage you t find a time when you can read it slowly and aloud.

Continue Reading »

I was grateful to be able to preach this morning on thanksgiving. It was a good morning to give thanks to God and remind ourselves that thanksgiving is a critical discipline for the Christian life.

I loved being able to discuss 1 Chronicles 16.  I find that to be a wonderfully inspiring text.  David as king could have easily turned that victory into an event that was all about him.  The people have already shown their readiness to sing his praises and proclaim his greatness, but he does not let the situation move in that direction.  Instead he focuses the people on God.  I want to be that kind of leader.

on the walk

-Ethan

We are approaching the final sermon in our series on finances. As we have tried to “Get a Grip” on our finances, I have been pondering. This is a series that goes beyond teaching about materialism and generosity. We have been discussing specific financial situations and offering some specific financial advice. This has left me wondering about a few basic questions.

Should we preach about specific financial crises?

How much advice should the church offer for those struggling with finances?

Is it appropriate for the church to give specific suggestions about financial strategies? Continue Reading »

I got to preach this week. As always it was a great honor and I was glad to be able to preach through one of my favorite texts: 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

In my final edit to get my sermon down to the right length, I had to remove an illustration that was important to me personally, so I thought I might share it in this forum. (As an aside, that final task of removing good material to focus a sermon and bring it to an appropriate length is my least favorite part of sermon writing.) It was valuable to me but ultimately it was not essential to the sermon.

Before I do that however, I want to draw your attention to a post that recently went up. Due to technical difficulties, gripping talk - four did not make it up at the right time. It is up now if you want to go back and check it out.

Now on to my illustration. Continue Reading »