Category: Bruce’s Newsletter Articles

The story of Balaam is probably one of the most widely recognized accounts from the book of Numbers, especially that part when God enabled Balaam’s donkey to speak. Talking animals make a lot of money for filmmakers because they catch our attention, and that’s what God intended with Balaam. Balaam was a professional sign reader, someone who was supposed to be able to look at the weather, animal innards, animal behavior, and such to identify signs of divine will and activity. When his donkey veered off the road several times, Balaam should have seen this unusual activity and tried to figure out what was going on instead of simply beating the donkey to get back on the road. God made this clear by opening Balaam’s eyes to see the angel of the Lord who told him, “I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me” (Numbers 22:32). The signs were there for Balaam to see, but instead of addressing the cause of the problem, he tried to beat his circumstances into submission. Had he succeeded, the angel would have killed Balaam and spared the donkey (Numbers 22:23).

It’s often easy to see when we’re getting off track, but it’s not always easy to see why. Have you ever been working on a project and found yourself hitting obstacles over and over again? Someone once said, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Unfortunately, when we keep on hammering away at our problems with no progress, we often reach for a bigger hammer instead of stopping to see that we really need a screwdriver. Maybe our problem is that we can’t read the signs clearly. However, when we keep encountering resistance, despite greater and greater effort, at some point we have to stop and take a closer look to see what’s in the way.

Balaam couldn’t see that it was God who was in the way, that God stood opposed to Balaam’s reckless path. Even though he claimed he “could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God” (Numbers 22:18), he also tried to “find out what else the LORD will tell me” (Numbers 22:19). Digging deeper into Balaam’s story, we find that Balaam was far less interested in pursuing a relationship with Holy God than in his own benefit. Even though Balaam claimed to be on God’s path, he was clearly following his own reckless path. Eventually, it killed him (Numbers 31:8) because he “loved the wages of wickedness” (2 Peter 2:15).

When we focused on Balaam’s account in Numbers 22-24, we found that Balaam was playing games with God, trying to stand between God who blessed Israel and Balak who wanted to curse them, hoping to receive blessings from both. Eventually, when Israel actually fought the Moabites and Midianites, we find that it was Balaam who advised them to seduce Israel to worship and serve the false god Baal (Numbers 31:16). Certainly, Balaam demonstrated the truth of Jesus’ words: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despite the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

While Jesus mentioned money specifically, it was in the context of staying on track in God’s kingdom. Where Balaam was seeking treasure in this life, Jesus calls us to seek God’s treasure in heaven. When we try to stand someplace in the middle, we will find ourselves getting off track, most likely heading away from God despite our hopes of staying close to God. Balaam said all the right things and tried to do what he thought were deeply spiritual, hoping that this would get him what he wanted. The fact is, his attempt to stand in the middle revealed his true position; again, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

There is no doubt that God himself draws people to himself because of his holiness in all of his attributes; however, there is no doubt that there are many other people and things in this world that attract us, as well. It simply isn’t possible to split our attention or affection and stay on track with God, so watch the signs, watch your heart, watch your words, actions, and focus. Where are you headed?

Medieval mapmakers would often embellish the edges of their maps with illustrations of dragons or other mythical creatures, especially on maps that charted only regions that had been explored. On a few such maps there has been found the phrase “Here be dragons,” indicating that what lay beyond the edges of the map was unknown. While there are many ancient stories of wild, untamed lands and seas beyond what had been explored, we are likely safe to assume that most of those stories grew out of accounts from sailors who were experiencing something unknown for the first time. Whether those stories were hyperbole or simply made up, the fear of the unknown was real.

When God led Israel to the edge of the Promised Land, he told Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites” (Numbers 13:2). Certainly, they were on the edge of the unknown. Even though the twelve men reported, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!” (Numbers 13:27), the people of the land frightened most of them, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33). Basically, they found that they were off the map; they were in uncharted territory.

We can relate, can’t we? Even when we have high expectations for what is to come, good resources to achieve our goals, and leaders and others who are able and willing to work together to get where we hope to go, fear of the unknown can stop us in our tracks. That’s exactly what we see happened among Israel. God promised that he was giving the Promised Land to them. God had demonstrated his power to fulfill his promise – he had freed them from slavery in Egypt, protected them from enemies, and provided for their needs. God had given them leaders – Moses and Aaron – who not only told the people what God expected of them but even interceded on their behalf when the people ignored or rejected God’s commands and provision. Yet with all the evidence that they could, should, and would be successful in the anticipated conquest of the Promised Land, the people were afraid and rejected God: “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” (Numbers 14:4).

While the evidence convinces some that following God is “easy,” like Joshua and Caleb, who tried to convince Israel saying, “If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us” (Numbers 14:8), for many others, going off the map is terrifying and defeating. There’s no doubt about it, doing what is familiar, doing what is “safe,” makes us feel better, but it usually leads us away from God.

Going off the map requires faith. Hebrews 11:1-2 defines faith: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” Then the writer gives us a great example: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). It’s easy to be wary of “blind faith,” but even though Abraham didn’t know precisely where he was going, he wasn’t following God with his eyes covered or closed. Abraham knew God, so he followed God in faith, even off the map. That’s “all” God expected of Israel, but they didn’t have faith. So God continued to train them, to help them grow in faith by leading them for 40 years through the wilderness, where the rebellious generation died.

As the events of this bizarre and frightening political season have emphasized, we’re headed off the map, but the upcoming election is hardly our primary concern. Confronted with the uncertainty of the future, we must be certain about who we’re following – and that had better be God and not some other leader. God may be leading us into, through, or out of the wilderness, but as long as we’re following faithfully, even if fearfully, we can be confident that we will reach him.

We live in an ideal world; that is, we live in a world that revolves around ideals. Whatever it is that we find ourselves doing or pursuing, we have ideals that establish standards for our words and actions. Ideals are different from goals. Where goals establish steps for achievement, ideals define the perfect. When we have ideals, we often set goals that guide us toward the perfect. Sometimes our goals are points along the way where we pause to evaluate our progress or even to stop, like when we decide we are close enough to the ideal. For example, when we served in Michigan, our family was able to spend a week at a friend’s cabin in the woods each summer; while I was sitting there alongside the river, sipping a cup of coffee, and reading a book, I had a fleeting thought of trying to own such a getaway property but realized that a week in the woods in a borrowed cabin was close enough to the ideal.

Sometimes “close enough” isn’t good enough; sometimes consistent, persistent pursuit of the ideal is imperative. As we approach Independence Day, we remember that our founding fathers recognized the importance of pursuing the ideal. They identified the ideal in the Declaration of Independence, stating, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That’s a lofty ideal, one that takes a lot of intentional effort to achieve. The founding fathers recognized that, having stated their goal in the Constitution, that is, “to form a more perfect union.”

There’s no doubt, as our country’s history demonstrates, it is a constant, on-going struggle to reach the ideal of equality among all people. Even if the ideal is “self-evident,” the practical reality doesn’t always reflect it, so we must keep working to achieve it. A few weeks ago, in an interview at Normandy commemorating the 80^th anniversary of D-Day, Tom Hanks summarized the efforts of all those troops as working to “mend the future,” striving to fulfill an ideal on a global level. He said, “That journey to a more perfect union has missteps in it…. Over the long-term, however, we inevitably make progress towards, I think, that more perfect union.” As we face another contentious national election, it’s important that we recognize what Hanks identified, that pursuing the ideal doesn’t mean we’re always living in it and that not living in the ideal doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be pursuing it.

This is vitally important for our spiritual lives, even more so than our civic lives. As Christians, as the church, we have an ideal, to be conformed to the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Again, that’s a lofty ideal, one that takes a lot of intentional effort to achieve. Praise God, in his infinite wisdom, he planned and established the church to help us achieve it. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:11-13:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The ideal gives us hope, that “we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Still, it’s a process, one that requires us to change, “to put off your old self… to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

There’s no doubt that we’re not living in the ideal, not in our own lives nor as the church, a fact Paul not only pointed out to the early church throughout his letters but recognized in himself, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). Yet, Paul still recognized God’s plan and work to change him: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). Our ideal is to achieve a “more perfect union” – to be more like Christ, more like God. Praise God that he has delivered us and transforms us through Christ!

Growing up, I experienced Memorial Day as Decoration Day, a day of remembering not only those who died in service to our country but also relatives who had died. It was the day we visited cemeteries to clear any debris from the graves of loved ones and decorate them with flowers. With these traditions I learned to honor and value the sacrifice of those who died in service to our country as well as the values and traditions of our family. These important lessons were taught not merely to prompt me to observe Memorial Day but to instill values that would affect my everyday life.

We have similar lessons within our Christian faith, and they more important for us to learn and remember and practice. Throughout the past few months, we have been focusing on the idea of restoring the health of the church by focusing on its mission, which is to make disciples of Jesus. Throughout the New Testament, especially among Paul’s letters, we find consistent reminders of the mission, emphasizing the gospel, such as in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

As Paul reminded the early church of the gospel – that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again – he stated that this was of “first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3). The message and the mission of the church are intrinsically tied to one another; there is no separating who we are and what we do as the church from the good news of new life that God has made available through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and our faith in him. The message and mission of the church, as we learn, remember, and practice them, lead us to become living memorials.

Paul encouraged the early church to develop and grow in this perspective. He wrote:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. (Colossians 1:3-6)

Paul acknowledged the growth of the church, calling it fruit and stating that it was evident in their love for one another. He also said that it grew out of their knowledge and understanding of the gospel. Obviously, the integration of the message and the mission of the church prompted healthy life.

Then Paul called attention to an individual by name, saying in Colossians 1:7, “You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf.” Later in the letter, we find that Epaphras was serving somewhere else, so Paul’s comment was a reminder, not just about the message or the mission but of his life; he wrote in Colossians 4:12, “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Paul described Epaphras as a living memorial of Christ, a life defined and lived by the message and mission of Jesus.

May we grow as individuals and as the church to be like Epaphras. It is imperative for us to remember the message of the gospel, which we do each week remembering Jesus’ death as we observe the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week, on which Jesus was raised from the dead. We must also live it out every day as living memorials of Christ, knowing, remembering, proclaiming, and growing in the message and mission together.

While there are risks to adopting business language and models for leading and living as the church, it is a good idea for us to evaluate who we are, what we do, and why we do it as the church to make sure, first, that we know and, second, that we’re doing it. For the past few months, we have been pursuing “re-mission,” that is, restoring our health by refocusing on the church’s mission as Jesus described it: making disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20).

Honestly, evaluating our foundations and direction is difficult, but reestablishing the right foundation and direction may be more difficult. Not only do we find ourselves questioning the past and challenging our traditions and preferences, but we find ourselves questioning and challenging people. We find ourselves questioning and challenging ourselves as individuals: what do I know, believe, and do? We also find ourselves questioning and challenging the people around us – the people we’ve known for years, the people we love as brothers and sisters, and especially the people who are questioning and challenging us.

Suddenly, we discover that our evaluation isn’t merely technical but also relational. The issues are not just practical but cultural. It seems easy to evaluate what we do from a functional perspective and identify things that work or do not, but it gets messy when those things involve people. Change – even good change, even the right change – can hurt, and when it does, we all hurt. Paul told the church in 1 Corinthians 12:26-27: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

Simply because the church is the body of Christ, each of us has a place and a purpose, and none of us is independent from the rest of the body. Again, Paul told the church in Romans 12:4-5: “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Paul went on to explain that because we don’t all have the same function, we all have gifts, so we need to use them so that we can accomplish our mission of making disciples. The problem is, however, when we, the body of Christ, get off mission and are not doing what we need to be doing in the way we need to be doing it, that likely means that we are not using those gifts in the right way, if at all.

That is when it’s time to change, not the mission but ourselves, both as individuals and as the body. That’s when it hurts, again, all of us. Hopefully, each of us is mature enough to understand that not everything that hurts us harms us. That’s the nature of discipline, both for ourselves and for others, right? Hebrews 12:11 reminds us, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” When the discipline of change hurts, we need to remember that God disciplines us because he loves us, otherwise we are not really his children (Hebrews 12:5-8).

Just as God disciplines us because he loves us, we need to love each other through the changes. This needs to be the culture of the church as we work together in our mission. Paul encouraged the church writing in Romans 12:9-11:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Even when the changes hurt, if we work through them loving one another, they will help us grow not only as individuals but as the body of Christ as we serve God together in our mission.

The world thinks that we, the church, are weird. They think we are strange, even foolish because not only do we follow the teachings of someone who died nearly 2000 years ago but we believe that he rose from the dead. As far as the world is concerned, “dead is dead,” and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. This has been the “problem” of the church since the beginning; Paul wrote: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.… But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:18, 23). Even when we don’t fully understand “how it works,” we accept this by faith.

Unfortunately, we don’t always think it through very deeply. Our strange faith goes deeper than believing that Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and rose again to give us eternal life; it goes deeper than believing that we will live forever in God’s presence in heaven after we die. Faith in Jesus is our own death sentence. Faith in Jesus necessarily leads us to our own spiritual death. Don’t take that sigh of relief just yet. Spiritual death is not merely symbolic death. Created in God’s image, we are spiritual beings, though we have physical bodies, and both body and spirit can and will die.

In fact, Jesus called his followers to die with him. When Jesus told his followers in Matthew 10:38, “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” he wasn’t telling them to wear a cross necklace or to put a cross icon on their car. He was telling them – us – we need to die with him so we might live with him. And he wasn’t talking about some time in the future; in Luke 9:23 he said “daily,” and that means dying spiritually right here, right now. Paul explained this in great detail, telling the early church:

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. (Romans 6:6-8)

Again, that’s not a statement of anticipation for a future state of eternal life but the recognition that by putting our faith in Christ, we necessarily die to sin and to ourselves. This is why Paul could write with confidence: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

The gospel, the Good News of new life through faith in Jesus, is not merely a promise for eternal life after physical death but a promise for new life in the here-and-now and into eternity after our own spiritual death to sin and self. Even though many remember Jesus’ death and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection each year, many don’t understand that our own resurrection requires our own death. There is no resurrection without death. New life now requires death to sin and self now. We die with Christ now so that we will live with him forever.

The Good News of the gospel is new life after death. Our mission and message is to invite people to death in Christ to find life in Christ. This is not easy news to receive and believe, and the world thinks we’re foolish. If we want the world to believe it, we need to live it, dying to sin and self and living with Christ, each of us as individuals and all of us together.

It hardly seems possible, but I’m already neck-deep in preparing for Resurrection Sunday, which is March 31. As I write this, that’s only five weeks away. Yes, it happens about the same time every year; yes, the preparation and celebration are just about the same every year; however, that doesn’t change the fact that the schedule, plans, and preparations have to be made. The day is coming, whether I’m preparing for it or not, so it just makes sense that I ought to be working on it now. In fact, simply because I know that Easter comes every year, I could easily be working toward it all the time, and perhaps I should, considering that Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of our faith. Paul made this simple statement about the gospel:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

That Jesus sent his disciples into the world to “preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) should tell us clearly that the mission of the church is all about the resurrection.

“The gospel” literally refers to the “good news” of God’s gift of new life in his kingdom that Jesus brought near through his life, death, and resurrection. It’s good news about new life from death, light in darkness, rescue from slavery, and forgiveness of debt. Just as Jesus’ kingdom mission in his life and ministry was resurrection, so is ours.

This ought to be obvious through the basic elements of our identity and practice as the church. As “Christians,” we are called to be and transformed to be more like Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13), and we experience that when we join with Christ, as Paul reminds us: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). We gather in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the week, following the example of the early church (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2). Our salvation is in his resurrection (1 Peter 3:21). Our transformation is through resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42). Our message is resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12). Our power is in his resurrection (Philippians 3:10). Our hope is in resurrection (1 Peter 1:3). There is nothing about the church that is not founded upon, explained by, or empowered by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

As we pursue our mission as the church, the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), we not only acknowledge his resurrection, we depend on it; we are changed by it; we are compelled by it. Knowing this to be true, anticipating our annual celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, we should also be living by his resurrection every day. Peter describes what that life is like: joy despite suffering (1 Peter 1:6); genuine faith (1:7); praise and glory to God through testing (1:7); love (1:8); and salvation (1:9). Certainly, we must not reserve the celebration of these things through Jesus’ death and resurrection for one day each year. We should celebrate daily, when we gather as the church, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, when we read the Word, when we approach God in prayer, when he guides and protects us through tests and suffering. This is how we can, as Peter told the church in 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.” This is how we stay on mission through the resurrection.

I’ve called the current sermon series through the first book of the New Testament, Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry, “Mission: Kingdom” because Matthew chronicles Jesus’ single-minded purpose to restore God’s kingdom among the people God created. We see this in the accounts surrounding Jesus’ birth – in his genealogy (Matthew 1:1) and in the visit of the wise men seeking the one who had been born “king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2). We see it in the accounts of Jesus’ ministry – in his primary message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17) and throughout his teaching every time he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” as he did in Matthew 13. We see it the accounts of his final days and moments before his death – in his entry into Jerusalem, welcomed as the promised Messianic King, and in Pilate’s question, “Are you the king of the Jews?” and Jesus’ answer, “You have said so” (Matthew 27:11). Matthew makes it clear that Jesus came as the king of God’s kingdom and that he came to make it possible for sinful people not only to enter God’s kingdom but to participate in Jesus’ mission and bring others into the kingdom, which we find in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Even though we have a clear description of Jesus’ mission and even our own as commissioned by Jesus, it seems that the church struggles to understand God’s kingdom and how our mission relates to it. Throughout Matthew, we see that Jesus most often refers to the kingdom of God as “the kingdom of heaven.” This phrase is distinctly different from the other New Testament writers who refer to God’s kingdom, and its emphasis on heaven points us toward a good understanding of what God’s kingdom is and how we can relate to it.

This distinction was very important for the people of Jesus’ day, especially since many were expecting the promised Messiah to come as a king who would conquer Rome and reestablish the nation of Israel to its former greatness, as when David and Solomon were kings. With Matthew’s emphasis on Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, as a descendant of David, it was important to emphasize that God’s kingdom is not an earthly kingdom ruled by earthly kings.

On the other hand, our understanding of the kingdom often goes to the opposite extreme. It’s easy for us to think of God’s kingdom as existing in heaven and to anticipate going there “some day,” so it’s also easy for us to forget about the kingdom in the here and now.

However, God’s kingdom is not merely the place where God reigns; it is the reign of God in and through the people who submit to his reign. Because God is the Creator of the universe, he reigns over absolutely everyone and everything in the universe across all time. As the King of kings, Jesus taught his disciples to think about God’s kingdom in terms of God’s heavenly reign in our everyday lives right here, right now. He taught them this when he taught them to pray, beginning in Matthew 6:9-10: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus came from the Father in heaven to do his will on earth. He taught his disciples to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, which is the accomplishment of God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. God’s will is to restore a relationship with sinful people, and his will is accomplished through Jesus’ death and resurrection and through those who have been restored to God through faith in Jesus. Our mission is to join in Jesus’ mission by making disciples of Jesus, preaching and teaching the Good News of God’s love, forgiveness of sin, and new life through Jesus. Pray for the kingdom; join the mission.

For the last couple of years, I have been trying to restore my physical health. Honestly, I’m not sure I can actually say “restore,” since I have never been measurably healthy by any reliable standards. I have been obese since grade school, and since I graduated high school, I have spent a large portion of every day sitting, usually to listen, read, write, drive, or relax. When most of every day is spent mostly motionless, everyday health dwindles quickly until it is nearly nonexistent.

In the last year or so, I lost about 100 pounds. While I’m proud of that, the bigger accomplishment is that I actually did what I have known for years needed to be done. It wasn’t easy. I didn’t like it much. Still, it had to be done, and I’ve got more to do. However, even though I know that what I did was successful and doable, just because it was so difficult I often just don’t want to do it again. I’ll admit that it’s kind of scary to know the truth but avoid it because it’s difficult. For whatever reason, there seems to be a disconnect between what we know we ought to do and what we want to do. It’s true with our health, our finances, our relationships, and it’s true with the church.

Unfortunately, the needed changes must be prompted by some hard conversations, so let me be frank: the Athens Church of Christ is not healthy. I state that with respect to this body’s past and with a great deal of personal regret for my part in our condition. While a lot of good has been done throughout this body’s life, the common measures of success – attendance, activities, and accounts – have distracted this body from recognizing its long-term poor health. As someone who at one time weighed nearly 400 pounds, I can attest that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean healthier. In the same way, busyness does not necessarily translate to healthiness. While healthy churches can do a lot of activities when they are healthy, unhealthy churches expect those things to make them healthy, like a fad diet. They might “work” for a while, but they mask unhealthiness that won’t become apparent until there’s a traumatic event or the body withers away.

The harsh reality is that we are withering away. It’s not for lack of desire to be healthy, but wanting to be healthy won’t make it so. It’s not for lack of effort, either, but erratic effort is ineffective. Erratic effort is evidence of confusion, disunity, and immaturity, which Paul described as being “infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). Paul redirected the church toward a single goal, writing in Ephesians 4:15-16:

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Our goal must be to become mature in Christ as we do the work of Christ, not simply to fill the seats in our building.

I hope that it is clear that I am “speaking the truth in love.” Restoring health is hard work, and sometimes the effort hurts. Those who have gone through surgery or treatments to restore their health know this to be true. That’s why my theme for preaching, teaching, and writing into 2024 will be “Re-mission.” Together we’re going to work on getting healthy by focusing on our mission, being disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus. Please pray for each other, pray for our leaders, as we work together, trusting God to transform us, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Is it just me, or does it seem that everybody is really looking forward to celebrating Christmas? As I’m writing this, it’s only the Monday before Thanksgiving, and I’ve been hearing Christmas music and advertisements and seeing Christmas decorations and sales for a couple of weeks, since before Halloween. Unfortunately, a lot of that early Christmas hype seems to be driven by an extra emphasis on holiday business.

Over the next few weeks, a lot of Christians – especially preachers – will get a lot of mileage out of that observation, commenting on the condition of “the world” and how it has lost the real meaning of Christmas. Many will be saddened by it, and others will even get angry. How can the world not know? Perhaps it’s because we have our own Christmas business to focus on. We’ve made the truth plain as day, showing everybody our “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season”™ hats, sweatshirts, mugs, plaques, ornaments, and hand towels. We’ve been vigilant, even belligerent to make sure everyone knows that “It’s Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays!”

Instead of focusing on how “they” don’t get it, perhaps we ought to focus on giving them what we’ve got. With all the emphasis the world seems to give Christmas, one thing becomes clear: people are looking for something in Christmas. People are hoping to find something valuable or useful in this celebration, whether they understand it clearly or not.

Hope is a good place to start. There’s a part of me that wonders whether this year’s early preparations for Christmas aren’t as much about getting back to normal as getting out of normal. For all the malaise that seemed to develop through the pandemic, it seems that there’s more today. People seem to need hope more than ever.

While that may be true, we must also recognize that this has been the condition of the world since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Condemning the serpent for his role in the fall of mankind, God pronounced this curse, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). From that moment on, the world sinned, suffered the consequences of sin, but also hoped for their deliverance from sin.

We find that longing for deliverance, the hope of mankind, in the Christmas song “O Holy Night.” In the first verse, these lines describe that hope:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,/ Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth./ A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,/ For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. (Adapted from French by John S. Dwight in 1855)

Sin and its consequences have plagued the world since the beginning, but when Jesus was born, there was a recognition of God’s love for us sinful people. In our celebration of Christ’s birth, we often, if not always, remember the angels’ praises, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). With the coming of Christ, God revealed that peace is possible! While this world has suffered and continues to suffer “in sin and error pining,” God revealed how much we are worth to him, giving this weary world a reason to rejoice.

So it makes sense that even though many don’t know why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus set into motion a celebration of hope for all people. However, his coming prompts a response, not just hope, which the song tells us in its choruses: “Fall on your knees!”; “Behold your King, before him lowly bend!” Why? Because “Christ is the Lord, Oh, praise his name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!” We celebrate the coming of Christ because he restores hope among sinful people, because he has the power to save and he offers that salvation by God’s restoring love. Let’s share that hope and love with the people around us, both in the church and in the world.