It's Too Small A Thing ...

I may be spiritualizing this text a bit that refers to the Messiah and the scope of his ministry. The LORD said, “It is too small a thing” for Jesus to redeem the nation of Israel; the Messiah will bring salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa 49:6).

This brings two things into focus for me. First, that planting a church is too small of a goal, and it isn’t specific enough. We could call ourselves a church with just two or three Jesus-followers gathered together. Jesus is not against the church, He is her Head. But Jesus is not interested in seeing a local church established, even one that we might call a “life-giving church.” The goal of the church is not to have children (new baby churches that grow and mature). The goal is to fill the earth, not make children, if we are going to use the parent-child analogy, or mother-daughter image. We can’t have one offspring, pat ourselves on the back, kick back and think we’ve done our duty. The goal, role, mission of the church, as the incarnation of the Messiah, is to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

If 25% of people in America who don’t go to church would visit a church if invited by a friend (according to a Barna Research Group survey), are we going to be satisfied to find that 25% and build our own little kingdom? What about the other 75%. What strategies will we initiate to reach the 75%? And do we have the best purposes and goals that chart the course for the church to help us develop the right strategies?

If we live in a community of 20,000 people and 30% (6,000) are in church on any given Sunday morning, we could establish a significant church with the 25% (5,000) who would visit if asked. But what about the remaining 9,000 people in the community? Will they be left out all together? They obviously have no interest in the “church.” Should we just wait till they do have an interest so that they will attend “church” with us? Or can we be assured that they will develop some interest in visiting a church if we just leave them alone? The more penetrating question that we need to answer is, “Do we have any responsibility for these 14,000 people that have no relationship with a local church?”

The second thing that strikes me from Isaiah 49:6 is that creating a relevant Sunday worship gathering (or high energy children’s and student programs, you name the ministry or program), even if it is the “best” in our area is “too small a thing.” Eighty to 100% of the focus and energy of the people who make up the church can’t be spent on one morning (and/or one evening) out of the week. But when we think about “church” we think about Sunday morning and maybe about our small group that meets one other hour during the week. At most, we are talking about five hours out of the week that receives almost all of the attention and energy, the resources of the local church. And all of that goes toward the 20% of the population of our communities (if we live in the Bible Belt) that attend “church” on Sunday morning. It’s way too small a thing to focus most of our effort on the few that show up every Sunday. This is not the heart of our redeeming God.

Turning Faith into Elevator Music

There’s something about “Christian” legal organizations and the like that makes my stomach hurt. I don’t always like the decisions our government makes, be it congressional, presidential or judicial. I want our government to do more to protect the life of the unborn than the convicted murderer. And because I’m inclined to think issues like abortion are quite serious, it influences my involvement in the political process.

At the same time, there are “Christian” organizations (often functioning like PACs) that would have me feel guilty if I don’t financially support their work. It’s not that I want the government to make laws and policies exactly opposite of what these “Christian” PACs are fighting for, but my deep conviction is that God doesn’t want me spending His money that way.

There is a thoughtful article dealing with this topic called Turning Faith Into Elevator Music. Here is a taste of what William J. Stuntz, Professor at Harvard Law School, has to say.

“Seeing the Ten Commandments in public spaces is a little like hearing the Miranda warnings on "Law and Order," which doesn't make anyone think about the real meaning of Miranda (whatever that is) because it doesn't make anyone think at all. It's the social equivalent of elevator music. Religious people shouldn't want their faith to be elevator music.”

Read it! It's worth thinking about.

Love Hurts, But That's What Makes It Great

Do we really know love, great love, apart from pain?

I feel pain, an internal kind of heart pain if I sense that my wife is disappointed with me, or if I have done (left undone) something that has pained her. I may not be aware of the specific cause, only the apparent hurt because I know her. Pain is real.

In love there is both trust and expectation. We expect that the one we love, the one who loves us, will do or act according to what is best for us and we will behave in order to obtain what's best for the one we love. We trust them with our love, with our very heart, our person, our soul. In loving someone we give ourselves to them with the expectation that they will in turn love us and not hurt us.

This will never work perfectly on the human level because we are all broken - we don't work exactly like we're suppose to. If we know we are broken and the person we love is broken, then we know also that by loving someone we are creating a relationship, and pain is part of relationships between broken people.

Then why do we bother with relationships? First, without relationships we experience the pain of loneliness, which is unnatural and potentially worse than being wounded by someone we love. Second, I believe there is the hope of love, the hope of relationships void of pain. This was possible with the first man and woman until they doubted God. And there is the possibility of partially experiencing this with God as He loves us perfectly even though our love for Him is not yet perfected.

It's as if our souls remember a story of perfect love from long, long ago that has such a ring of truth and reality to it that we want to believe it and go searching for it. But over time, pain may so scar the soul that this story of perfect love is finally forgotten and hope dies.

This is not true for the child of God though. He has a new heart that cannot be overcome by the scars of pain. The blood that pulses through this new heart is the blood of Jesus and the temporary wound caused by broken people don't scar this heart. The Great Physician's surgery leaves no scar. Even though woundings come and still cause pain, the new heart never loses hope. Because His love for us, toward us, in us; His love that flows through us to those around us; is perfect, steady, always achieving what is best; we are able to persevere, to never give up even though the ones we love will hurt us and we will hurt the One who is perfect love.

DO NOT DOUBT THE GREATNESS OF HIS LOVE FOR YOU!
Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12