Where You Don’t Want to Go
The end of John contains an image I continue to reflect on as I work on my dissertation in Missional Spirituality and pastoring a church. Jesus looks at Peter and says,
“Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (John 21:18).
I find these statements a bit cryptic, but they touch an issue with which I continue to wrestle. I find that I want to go where I want to go and I want to do what I want to do. Perhaps Peter was that way too. In fact, Jesus said when Peter was younger he would fasten his own belt and go where he wanted to. However, when he grows old someone else will fasten his belt and take him where he does not wish to go. I’m not sure I really like that.
Yet, in trying to allow God’s missional imagination to take hold of me I find places where I don’t really want to be. Being missional, at its core, is allowing God’s life to put on flesh and blood. For years I’ve heard that I am the hands and feet of Jesus. Far too often that statement becomes some type of Christian cliche. We say it, but we really don’t allow it to be a reality.
What I find is that God is leads me to where I do not want to go. I want to be honest in that. Following Jesus doesn’t mean that life is going to go the way I want it to go, or that I will be where I want to be. It means that I will seek God’s will and allow his will to be done in my life.
Jesus is the model. In the garden, it was evident the cross was not where he was wanting to go (see also John 12:22-28). One of the things I am beginning to learn is that it is okay to go where you do not want to go. I think it is even okay to say that. The reason why is because you are trying your best to follow Jesus whatever that means. Of course, it might be where you want to go, but then it might not be either.
Allowing Jesus to lead me to where I don’t want to go is a challenge in my life. It is also a challenge in the church. I do not think our churches can be missional until we deal with our reluctance to be led by Jesus to wherever Jesus is calling us to go. One of the requirements of being missional is following Jesus in God’s mission.
Jesus Sacrificed…so You Don’t Have To
Right now I’m reading Michael Slaughter’s new book Change The World. So far it is a great book and I really admire Slaughter for changing gears when he senses that God is moving in a different direction. At one point he writes,
“It is not acceptable to make doctrine and church meetings a substitute for sacrificial service.”
When I read that I found myself reflecting on the term “sacrificial service.” I don’t find our culture interested in much sacrifice. While we celebrate those who do sacrifice for others it seems like most of our lives are about avoiding sacrifice. To sacrifice means we are giving up things that we might not want to; things we care for, things we need, things we want. To sacrifice means we give them up, usually, for greater purposes.
That is not the message I get from culture, or many times, from the church. The message I continue to hear goes something like this: Jesus sacrificed, so you don’t have to. The message basically goes: Because Jesus gave himself up for us (which he did), we can have a good life with all of our dreams and desires. In fact, I just saw a video the other day where the tag line was, “What can God do for you?” Catchy? yes. I don’t think it is good theology though.
God is not our servant. We are his however. I believe Slaughter is right. If we are serious about our faith, our relationship with God, and being faithful to the gospel, there will be sacrificial service. It means we might be driving our cars a few more years so we can give the amount we are saving from car payments to God’s purposes. It might mean we take less expensive vacations, or put less in our 401Ks. It might mean we spend less time watching tv or entertaining ourselves so we can be available to God’s purposes. Whatever the case, it will mean we are giving up (sacrificing) something that we believe is important.
Culture tells us that it is okay to give to God’s purposes what we think we can afford. For most of us after we give to God we are still able to live at a very high level. In fact, we give to God only those things we believe we can live without. That is not sacrifice.
I wonder how the world would be different if those of us in the church began sacrificing more.
My Dissertation Project
I have started my dissertation project which is a good thing. Trying to explain it though is kind of difficult. The reason I have such difficult explaining it is because the project address cultural issues and the church’s response.
I have read that there is an old Chinese proverb that says, “If you want to know about water, don’t ask a fish.” For me, that explains the problem I have with explaining my project. I’m sure if I asked a fish, it wouldn’t even know it was swimming in water. It is the same with our culture. Culture is so pervasive that we don’t even know much about it. Our culture is just “how things are.”
My project has to do with the church’s response to culture. Not just the culture we live in, but any culture. In order to respond, we must first take a look at the culture and see how and where it flows against the gospel. This is difficult to do because for most of us, culture is simply “the way things are” and we don’t think too much about it. In fact, throughout our lives we merge the gospel with culture in which we live. The result is we believe that some aspects of our culture are actually biblical even when they are not. This is a difficult thing to discover.
The most biblical response I have found is offered by Missional Ecclesiology (a fancy way to say “thoughts about the church”). A Missional approach to church basically says that we have been sent by God into the world to be an agent, instrument, sign, and foretaste of God’s kingdom. The church (or rather people making up the church) is to understand the differences between the current “kingdoms” (cultures) and God’s kingdom and work to put God’s will and way into practice.
The question that my dissertation attempts to answer is, How can this happen in the life of an individual? In other words, how do we get from where we are (children of our culture…or fish in water) to where we are working and living by God’s will and way?
I hope to be able to explain it better as I work on the project more, but for now, that about sums things up.
John Wesley on Providence
I was reading Ken Collin’s book The Theology of John Wesley and was surprised when I read about Wesley’s view on providence:
…Wesley viewed the particular providence of God in a threefold circle of increasing intensity and care. Thus, the outer circle incldues all of humanity, which is composed of “not only the Christian world . . . but the Mahometans . .. . and the heathens likewise.” The second, smaller circle, contains all who are Christians, all who are called such, and all who “profess to believe in Christ.” And finally, the thrid circle, the innermost one, embraces only real Christians, those “that worship God, not in form only, but in spirit and truth.” (page 41)
This view of providence is contained in Wesley’s sermon 68 “On Divine Providence” (which makes quite a bit of sense). Wesley begins by acknowledging God as creator of all things and also knowing all things. From that foundation he writes:
He hath made us, not we ourselves, and he cannot despise the work of his own hands. We are his children: And can a mother forget the children of her womb? Yea, she may forget; yet will not God forget us! On the contrary, he hath expressly declared, that as his “eyes are over all the earth,“so he “is loving to every man, and his mercy is over all his works.” Consequently, he is concerned every moment for what befalls every creature upon earth; and more especially for everything that befalls any of he children of men.
Of the first circle of providence he writes:
We do not now speak of that over-ruling hand which governs the inanimate creation, which sustains the sun, moon, and stars in their stations, and guides their motions; we do not refer to his care of the animal creation, every part of which we know is under His government, “who giveth food unto the cattle, and feedeth the young ravens that call upon him;” but we here speak of that superintending providence which regards the children of men. each of these is easily distinguished from the other, by those who accurately observe the ways of God.
The second circle Wesley writes:
Yet it may be admitted, that He takes more immediate care of those that are comprised in the second, the smaller circle; which includes all that are called Christians, all that profess to believe in Christ. We may reasonably think that these, in some degree, honor him, at least more than the Heathens do: God does, likewise, in some measure, honor them, and has a nearer concern for them. By many instances it appears, that the prince of this world has not so full power over these as over the Heathens. The God whom they even profess to serve, does, in some measure, maintain his own cause; so that the spirits of darkness do not reign so uncontrolled over them as they do over the heathen world.
Wesley says that God takes more immediate care of those who honor God. In short, God honors those who honor God.
Yet, there is another more inner circle in God’s providence. Those in this circle, Wesley says, are the real Christians. Wesley in other sermons has also made a distinction between Christians and Real Christians, or True Christians, or Scriptural Christians. For a short study one might want to look at his sermon Almost Christian where Wesley describes those who are “almost Christian” and those who are truly Christians.
Those who are “real Christians” are those who worship God in spirit and in truth. He writes:
18. Within the third, the innermost circle, are contained only the real Christians; those that worship God, not in form only, but in spirit and in truth. Herein are comprised all that love God, or, at least, truly fear God and work righteousness; all in whom is the mind which was in Christ, and who walk as Christ also walked. The words of our Lord above recited peculiarly refer to these. It is to these in particular that he says, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” He sees their souls and their bodies; he takes particular notice of all their tempers, desires, and thoughts, all their words and actions. He marks all their sufferings, inward and outward, and the source whence they arise; so that we may well say,
I don’t know how those in Wesley’s world viewed such a teaching on providence, but I’m not sure this view of providence would be considered politically correct today. We like to say that God treats everybody the same. Or, at least view no difference between those who “profess Christ” and those who are real Christians.But as I reflect on this, I can make some sense of it. After all, if a parent has a child who trusts them so much that they listen to what the parent says (third circle) is more protected than a child who doesn’t listen to their parent very well (second circle). After all, when the first parent yells at their child before the child runs into the street, the child will probably stop and thus not be hit by a car. The child who doesn’t listen runs the risk of being hit because they continue running into the street even if the parent tells them not too. Of course the first circle, given this analogy, represents those children who have no idea it is their parent, who loves them, who is telling them to stay out of the street and therefore the child doesn’t pay much attention at all.
What’s the point of all this? Well, if Wesley is right, then those who are sold out to Jesus and his way experience a greater intimate care than those who simply profess Christ. There is a message for those of us who believe that we can profess Christ yet live outside of Jesus’ will and way. In fact, if Wesley is right, we hinder and forfeit God’s care and influence in our lives.
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Where Am I Heading?
Today is the first day of my class. Even though we have multiple sessions each day, it is a retreat setting. That means we are away from….just about everything. We eat here, we sleep here, we do everything here. That means there will be time. Time to reflect, think, read….oh yea…and use the internet connection 
Yes, we do have internet and my cell phone works. I was amazed. Perhaps cell phone service and Internet access are becoming a basic service such as running water and having showers in your room.
One of the questions that came up this morning, that I believe is important for everyone to pause and ask, is, where am I heading? It is easy to get caught up in our day to day stuff. We have responsibilities, errands to run, kids to take care of, and stuff to do. It is easy to allow all of that to drive our lives. Yet, we must remember, what we do is not the same as who we are.
In Psalm 84:5 the Psalmist writes, “Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” The professor said that “strength” could be translated as refuge and “Zion” isn’t in the text, but rather implied. The image is of pilgrims making their trip up to Jerusalem for one of the yearly festivals. The Psalmist is reflecting on those who are heart is on a pilgrimage of sorts.
So the question, “Where am I heading?” is a good one. Is my refuge God, or is it in my own strength and ability. When things come up, is my first response (to myself), “I can do that!” or is it looking to God as a refuge and strength? Is my heart on a highway that leads to God and God’s will for my life or am I traveling down a highway that brings me a sense of accomplishment, pride, or validation?
So….where are you heading?
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