by Elizabeth | Aug 11, 2010 | Learning Story
I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14 Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Galatians 4:12-20
Anyone in ministry knows the joys come with great sorrows and struggles. I picture Paul screaming internally as he speaks these words to the Galatians? What happened? he wants to know. I preached the gospel to you, you were so warm and welcoming and self-sacrificial. Now your hearts are joyless and your mouths speak words of contempt. Anyone in ministry knows these days come, when those who once loved us turn against us. Paul isn’t so worried about the Galatians turning against him; his concern is that they are turning against Christ. And he calls them to do a most astounding thing: “Become like me.” That’s a pretty bold statement, one we should only ever utter if we are sure “like me” means one pursuing Christ.
As ambassadors, all of us are in ministry, whether formal or informal. Read what Tim Keller comments about this portion of Galatians and then take a good look at where you are in ministry. Are they opposers? What is your heart for them? Are you in a place that you would feel comfortable telling people to “become like YOU?” Bring all of your sorrows and struggles to the One we must become like if we are going to live as his ambassadors. Thank him that he forgives you for all the ways you are unlike him, and step into the difficult reality that he sends you as you are.
“In a healthy ministry, your own life is so consistent and your heart so satisfied with Jesus Christ that you can genuinely long for others to have what you have. And if you are truly living in community with people (see the first “difference,” above), then people will see your motives and your joy, and will be attracted by it. If you are enslaved to idols through works-righteousness, you will demand that people live just like you, but out of a desire to justify yourself and deal with your own anxiety and need to believe you are “all right.” But if you are free from idols and self-righteousness, you will simply want others to share your freedom. Your efforts at ministry will be warm and personaland self-revealing (“become like me!”) not condemning and harsh and impersonal.”
by Elizabeth | Aug 9, 2010 | Learning Story
I’ve been writing an article on living the gospel in uncertainty, studying Sarah’s story. Today I share with you a portion of my research, on the END of the story, from Eugene Peterson’s The Message.
Genesis 21:1-7
1-4God visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; God did to Sarah what he promised: Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set. Abraham named him Isaac. When his son was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded.
5-6 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
Sarah said,
God has blessed me with laughter
and all who get the news will laugh with me!
7 She also said,
Whoever would have suggested to Abraham
that Sarah would one day nurse a baby!
Yet here I am! I’ve given the old man a son!
“The story is plainly and simply told. God promised a son to Abraham and Sarah. But the son never came. They waited and waited. Years passed, and Sarah’s childbearing years came to an end. She and Abraham gave up hoping and made other arrangements for an heir. But God reaffirmed the promise, and a year later, when Sarah was ninety and Abraham one hundred, she conceived and bore a son.
Simple as it is, that birth story sends an important message to people of faith, one that needs repeating over and over again. The message is that God invades us with new life, and that life changes who we are. God isn’t a means by which we solve problems. And he isn’t a means to avoid problems. God creates new life — he is a Creator of persons, not a Solver of problems.
We read Scripture — like this story of the birth of Isaac — not so much to find out what happened but to find out what can happen. We’re curious not about the past but about ourselves. Can he do it again? we wonder. Can he bring forth birth out of barrenness? Can he birth love out of a loveless marriage? Can he bring a viable business out of bankruptcy? Can he bring faith out of the barren womb of our unbelief? Eugene Peterson, Conversations: The Message Bible with Its Translator
What about you? Are there areas where you are wondering if “God can do it again?” Truly bringing a viable business out of bankruptcy? Or bringing new love out of a cold, distant heart? What are the Sarah situations in your life, where waiting has given way to wondering if…God is really working? Bring those to the God who doesn’t solve problems but who does truly love you more than you can ever imagine, the God who brings new life and hope out of dying dreams.
by Elizabeth | Aug 7, 2010 | Learning Story
Heard this song on Pandora radio the other day — by Mary Gauthier, who would not likely associate herself with Christian music, but sings dark reality and real redemption. I had never heard this story before but it struck me as one that many of us could claim as our own in some way. See what you think…
I couldn’t find a Youtube of it, so hopefully it will work to read the lyrics and listen:
Karla Faye
Lyrics | Mary Gauthier lyrics – Karla Faye lyrics
by Elizabeth | Aug 6, 2010 | Learning Story
…don’t fix it…” The problem is, it is broke!
Though this is a long quote from Restoring Broken Things by Scotty Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman, it is really really good and gets at an essential point we all need to grasp. I’m not on commission or anything, but I do recommend this book for the way it explains what The Story of Scripture means for how we live our lives in the nitty gritty:
Understanding the Relationship Between Broken and Brokenness
Because the language of brokenness is used is so many different ways, I hope the following section will clarify this important concept. There are two type of brokenness we need to understand and experience… both of which are vital to God’s STORY, and to the process of restoration. Let’s call them Brokenness A and B. And to illustrate both of them, we’ll use the Biblical theme of “the heart”.
Definition of Brokenness A – Something is broken to the degree it contradicts God’s design and distorts his glory.
Explanation: God created our hearts for loving him as he deserves and demands—with our thinking, emoting and choosing. Therefore, our hearts are Broken A to the extent they don’t think the thoughts of God, desire the things of God, and choose the will of God.
Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Isaiah 29:13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me..”
Hosea 10:2 Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt.
Jeremiah 5:23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.
Definition of Brokenness B – Brokenness B is an attitude of contrition, humility and repentance in response to the specific ways we contradict God’s design and distort his glory.
Explanation: Our hearts were created for loving God as he deserves and demands—with our thinking, emotions and choices. Therefore, we are Broken B to the extent we are convicted, humbled and repentant for the specific ways we don’t love God with our mind, will and emotions.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Example: One of the most well known examples of Brokenness B is found in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). The younger son demonstrated Brokenness B when he “came to his senses” and began to grieve over the way he sinned against his loving father; then he humbled himself and returned home as a repentant son.
Another way to connect with Brokenness B is to think of Jesus as a great horse trainer “breaking” a wild, independent bucking bronco. He intends to tame us, not harm us. The goal of brokenness is to bring us to a humble submissive spirit, not to self-contempt and fearful compliance.
To become a character and carrier of God’s STORY requires us to engage with both Brokenness A and B: We need Jesus to show us our brokenness (A) and to bring us to brokenness (B).
by Elizabeth | Aug 5, 2010 | Learning Story
Yes, we are two days before the Sabbath we celebrate, but I found this today. I am constantly challenged to think of my capacity to say ‘yes’ to rest in my life, and when I read this by writer and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor, I was blown away. (By the way, if you are fairly new to this blog, you will know I take Sundays off from posting — only part of my small attempt to break from labor on the Sabbath.) Read what Taylor says and ask, “Do I wish to rest and be free?” If so, “How might I guard these gifts for myself and all other living things?” “How is guarding rest a way of worshipping God?”
Sabbath is…God’s gift to those who wish to rest and to be free – and who are willing to guard those same gifts for every living thing in their vicinity as well. Remember the commandment? It is not just for you. It is for your children, your employees, your volunteer helpers, your hunting dogs, your plow horses, your fields and your migrant workers. It does not matter in the least whether they believe in God. You do, so they get the day off. Anyone who engages this practice discovers saving habits of work and rest that promise life not only for each of us individually but also for our families, our communities, our far-flung neighbors, our systems of justice, our human economies and our planet.
According to the rabbis, those who observe Sabbath observe all the other commandments. Practicing it over and over again they become accomplished at saying no, which is how they gradually become able to resist the culture’s killing rhythms of drivenness and depletion, compulsion and collapse. Worshiping a different kind of God, they are shaped in that God’s image, stopping every seven days to celebrate their divine creation and liberation.
– Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
by Elizabeth | Aug 4, 2010 | Learning Story
More on Gospel Brokenness from Scotty Smith, in Restoring Broken Things, by Scotty Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman. If you’ve never read this one, do not delay. Full of stories, about THE BIG STORY, the grand narrative of hope Scripture tells.
But Jesus doesn’t draw attention to the broken places in our lives to humiliate us, but rather to humble us and to heal us. He gives grace to the humble, not grades. As Darlene and I watched the sun transfigure layers of decaying sediment into kaleidoscopic beauty, I got a tiny glimpse of the beauty of brokenness—a glimpse that grew to a gaze the next week. Jesus shines the light of the gospel on us both to expose our brokenness (revealing the broken places in our lives) and to bring us to brokenness, (to honesty, humility and repentance).
I call this gospel brokenness, because only the gospel of God’s grace can enable us to be completely honest about our stuff without falling into toxic shame or self-contempt. And only the gospel can humble us, gentle us and give us the power to repent… and not run away or rant . When followers of Jesus walk openly in this kind of brokenness, gospel brokenness, angels in heaven rejoice… and people without faith, or those with much cynicism about Christians, are likely to reconsider the person and work of Jesus.
Write this down… no greater beauty can be found at any point, or in any place in God’s STORY than the times when God’s people manifest gospel brokenness—for there the glory of God is revealed most clearly. This is the musical score of the restoration that Jesus has come to bring.
What does this kind of brokenness look like? It’s seen in …
A notoriously sinful woman who shamelessly enters the home of a scorning Pharisee to wash the feet of Jesus… with tears of adoration and astonishment. For Jesus welcomed her and lavished her with his restoring grace. She loved him extravagantly because she was forgiven extravagantly. (Luke 7:36-50)
A rebellious, now broken and broke son, who returns to his father’s home… with sorrow and humility, but without excuses or promises… only to find himself dragged onto the dance floor of mercy and feted with the fatted calf of grace. (Luke 15:11-32)
A promiscuous woman, guilty of sequential affairs who, who, after receiving living water from Jesus, drops everything and risks everything to invite the men and women of her Samaritan community “to come and see the One who told me everything I ever did.”(John 4:7-42). Her story of prostitution was enveloped into his story of restoration.
A self-righteous Pharisee, bigot and murderer—who is struck blind that he might see the beauty of Jesus, and receive the immeasurable riches of his sovereign grace. His arrogance gave way to Apostleship, and Paul’s story became sweeter as he grew older. What else can explain the freedom which enables a proud man to proclaim, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1Tim. 1:15-16)
