Engaging Scripture

Forgetting 9/11, Changing seats, and the breaking through the Invisible Wall (aka “3 ways we need to improve as a loving church family”)

Image result for invisible wall

Yesterday I mentioned 6 ways I think Faith Church does really well at being a loving church family. But how could we improve loving one another? We’re certainly not perfect. No church is. So today I am talking about ways that a church family can improve in their love for one another. I hope these will encourage you to love one another more deeply in your own church family.

Malcolm Gladwell had a recent podcast episode on memory. It really freaked me out. In the days after 9/11 scientists asked people a few basic questions like: “Where were you when you first heard about the attack?” “What were you doing?” “Who told you?” We love to talk about that kind of thing right? On September 11, 2001, I was in Kingston, Jamaica, feeding our neighbors’ rabbits because our neighbors were on vacation, and Michelle called me on the cell phone and told me to turn on their TV immediately. I was stunned. Where were you? What were you doing? Who told you?

So in the days after 9/11, people wrote down answers to these questions. Then they came back a year later, and the scientists asked them the same questions. Guess what? The people had different answers! In fact, the scientists pulled out the paperwork with the people’s original answers in their own handwriting, and the people stared at their answers in disbelief saying things like, “Why did I write that? That is not what I remember. That’s wrong!”

We’ve all experienced this, right? Memory fails us. You know this means? We should not automatically trust our faculties. Not that we doubt everything we think or remember. But when it comes to interacting with people in our church family with whom we disagree, we should be quick to say “I could be wrong about this.” That’s the first thing I want to encourage you to practice in love for one another. In a church family we need to give one another the benefit of the doubt. We should be quick to open up the possibility that we could be wrong.

I bring this up because in a church family we can disagree with one another. The presence of differing opinions is normal, and can even be healthy. I would actually be very suspicious if I heard of a church family that did not have differing opinions. In the family of Faith Church we have conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, young and old, male and female. We are diverse in those categories. That means we have plenty of opportunity for disagreement. We should not see that as a problem, but as the natural outflow of a family. We are not trying to achieve uniformity. Instead we are okay with variety and diversity. We are, however, trying to achieve unity, and that will require an intentional practice of humility, of saying “I could be wrong about this.”

Next it is easy to get in our comfort zone with our close friends, and it can be hard to reach out with someone new. We sit in the same seats during worship. So would you counteract this by sitting in new seats each week! That small gesture alone can help you interact with new people.

What can it look like to get out of your core group, or include more people in your core group? There is a comfort in what we know. It is familiar, expected. We generally feel best about that. To symbolize this, I encourage you to sit in a new spot every week.

But understand that some personalities will click more than others, and that’s okay. That’s part of loving deeply, that we find those we connect with and we dig deep. It is unrealistic to think we’ll be close friends with more than just a couple people in the church family. That’s normal. That’s how actual families are too. But don’t let that keep you from still reaching out to others.

Finally there is a phrase I have heard about a situation that has affected some in our church family.

In my almost 16 years here at Faith Church, I have heard multiple viewpoints on this phrase. This past week I asked numerous people to share their thoughts with me. It was quite interesting. There are many people who have moved to Lancaster for a variety of reasons, and with a variety of life situations, and unique points of view. In what I share here, I don’t want to give the impression that “one size fits all”. But I do think there is legitimate wisdom in many points of view, all of which I hope we can learn from.

The phrase I am talking about is what I call The Invisible Lancaster Wall. In our church family, most are from Lancaster, with a history in Lancaster. It is their home and they have a network here. But then there are some not from Lancaster. I’m referring to those who have moved here and maybe have lived here many years. Some of those not from Lancaster have told me that they feel like they hit The Invisible Lancaster Wall. Not all of those from outside Lancaster have experienced this, but some have, and they said it has been difficult.

Let me describe what those who have hit the wall have said to me. What they have said is that they felt very welcomed by the church, loved even, but then after a year or so, they hit a wall. A wall of exclusion. It is not necessarily an intentional exclusion. They have little or no family here, no network, and it feels to them like it is incredibly difficult to break through that wall and become family.

What I have heard is that the holidays, those times of the year with traditional family events, can be especially tough. Feeling alone, the holidays can be the loneliest, most painful times of the year, when the holidays are intended to be some of the most joyful times of the year.

My parents used to invite people from church over on the holidays. One guy who came multiple times was a really unique individual. He was previously homeless and came to us from Water Street Rescue Mission. He was unkempt, believed strongly in conspiracy theories (which led to some amusing behavior when my FBI uncle was at the family gatherings!), and had some bizarre obsessive behaviors like stroking his mustache really emphatically. But there he was at Thanksgiving dinner.

I have so appreciated what one family in our church has started. At numerous holiday meals they have an open invitation to anyone to join them. They have a heart for people who don’t have family! If you don’t have family to go to on the holidays, you can go to their house.

In any church family, there should not be a single person that is alone at the holidays, if they don’t want to be alone. Not a single one. Ask yourself: Who are the people in your Sunday School class, or in your small group, that might be alone on the holidays? Don’t assume that they are okay. Invite them to your home, and make them a part of the family.

But sharing meals at the holidays is not what makes a family. The loving relationships that Peter is talking about are day in, day out loving relationships. To be healthy they take work from both friends.

And that is what I found out when I talked with people from our church family who were not from Lancaster who had another view of making deep relationships in the church family. I got permission from them to quote them.

Here is what one of them said, “I never felt any non Lancaster vibes. I tend to think “If you want something, you have to go out and get it for yourself.” When I didn’t have a Lancaster network, I had to make one. Don’t get me wrong, most of those who would eventually become my Faith Church Family were welcoming and wonderful from the very beginning, but ultimately, once I was acquainted with the setting and people, how and where I got involved was my own doing.”

Another one said this, “In my season of blatant need, the church supported me, but did not spoil me. I had to learn that people were not at my beck and call every time I felt lonely or sad. And that benefited me greatly in the long haul. I learned that having a healthy personal life will lead to other healthy relationships. ”

One other person emphasized the importance of being in a small group and meeting consistently and choosing to open up to them.

So in conclusion, I hope you see this is a both/and. Reach out. Dig in. Mix it up. Go out of your comfort zone. Ask God to help you love deeply. This is for those of your who’ve been in a church family for a long time. And this if for those who are newer. Love. Look for new ways to love. And give grace to each other as we all learn and grow in this.

6 ways a church family can love one another

How would you say your church does at loving one another deeply from the heart? Today and tomorrow I’m going to talk about Faith Church, where I serve, and how we are doing loving one another. We’re not a perfect church, and we will look at some ways we need to improve, but I am also convinced that Faith Church is a loving church, and we are doing many things well. My desire in sharing about Faith Church is that perhaps all Christians and all churches can evaluate their own church families.

This week we have been looking at 1st Peter 1:21-25 and we have found that Peter is teaching Christians how they are a new family with a priority to love one another deeply. You can read the previous posts here and here.

Now nearly 2000 years later, the same calling exists for us. In our local churches, we must love one another deeply from the heart, thus creating a new real family.

Years ago we, Faith Church, updated our church mission statement and we decided it should focus on four key areas: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship and Outreach. It is the Fellowship area that most relates to what Peter is talking about. Here is what our mission statement says about Fellowship:

Fellowship – Being a Community of Love – We work toward loving one another, building authentic, accountable, healthy relationships.

I want to say I am very encouraged by how I see this happening. Here’s how I see Faith Church doing great loving one another.

First of all, about 70% of our church family is involved in small groups. We call them Care Groups, and they are about 8-12 people meeting regularly in one another homes, often sharing a meal together, and caring for one another through honest communication, prayer and discussion. This is incredibly important. Most of our groups meet once/month. That alone is fairly infrequent, and slows down the relationship development process. If you miss one month, it can be two months until you hang out. May I make a recommendation? Start meeting more often. If you are unable to meet more often, check in with one another throughout the month. Put a priority on getting face to face and catching up, even if it is just two of you. Also consider using technology, like texting or social media, to connect with one another between meetings. When you do meet as a small group, or as individuals, ask yourself: are you sharing honestly with each other and then following up with how things are going? Don’t wait for another person to do that within your group, you be the one to do it!

Our church leadership team is attempting to show loving care for the church family through what we call our Growth Process. (You can also learn about how our church logo tells the story of our Growth Process here.) The heart of the Growth Process is that our leaders want to help every adult in our church to move forward, or grow, in their relationship with Jesus. So we endeavor to get in touch with them a few times each year to check in and see how they are doing. Maybe there is some way we can point them toward a mentor who can guide them to go deeper in their relationship with Jesus. Maybe there is some way we can pray for them.

Another wonderful way that I see Faith Church loving one another is through meals. We have a ton of people making meals that go out when someone is ill, recovering from surgery, or just had a baby. Our Fellowship Serve Team sets up an online sign-up sheet, and it is amazing to watch how quickly people volunteer to sign up. Out of your love for one another, you make a meal and then deliver it to the family in need. I love when this comes full circle, and the recipient of the meals stands up during our worship service sharing time and expresses how they felt the love of the church family through receiving meals!

We also have Family nights 6-8 times each year. On the first Wednesday night of most months, fall through spring, our Fellowship Serve Team makes a meal, and we gather in our fellowship hall to eat and talk, just to get to know one another better and catch up. (Have you noticed how food seems to be a centerpiece in this post?) Simply put, loving relationships take time. Over the years, I’ve heard that when it comes to relationships we should put a priority on quality time over quantity of time. But I have found that it often takes a large quantity of time to achieve quality time. This is why availing yourself of additional opportunities to connect with people, be it small groups or Family nights, is vital to building loving relationships in the church. And I am so thankful how I see that happening in our Faith Church family.

Another thing I am so impressed with when I look at the family of Faith Church is how many visit others, especially visiting those who are sick in the hospital or who are homebound. A couple weeks ago, one our oldest living member passed away. Betty was 99 years old, just four months shy of her 100th birthday. She lived in a local retirement village, and for years, one of our Faith Church family visited her weekly. Dee would decorate Betty’s door for each season, bring her news of the church family, and care for her. We need more of that, and our Leadership Team recently talked about making a Visitation Team that will coordinate efforts to visit.

Thus far in the post, I have talked about formal ways that our church strives to gather and love one another. I know there is much happening informally too. We have people that on their own meet for coffee or lunch and praying for one another. They are accountability partners. They are prayer partners. They are friends. Do you have someone within your church family that you can share honestly with? If you do, that’s excellent! That’s more than some people have within their “real” families!

And by the way, in a series of posts where I am saying that the church should be a family, it is important that I pause and talk about real families. I’m saying this because if you have a close friend you can share deeply with, that could be more than what some people have in their real families.

We need to be realistic about families. There is no perfect family. There are members of families that don’t agree, and there are some that seem to agree about everything. There are some that are best of friends, while some only speak once or twice a month, or maybe not at all. There is laughter and there are tears in families. There are some members that work harder at relationship than others. There are misunderstandings, there are differing personalities. Family is made up of people. People will inspire, they will disappoint, and through it all we will hopefully keep trying, working and striving to be our best selves with each other, even if that looks different with each family member.

How can you love your church family more deeply?

If you want to be a loving church family, seize the 167!

Yesterday I said that Peter, in 1st Peter 1:21-25, says that a church family must love one another deeply from the heart. What is this love Peter is talking about? We all know what love is, right? It’s obvious. Love is love! Well even though there is one English word for love, Peter uses two words for love here:

First is the word, philadelphia. In the Greek language that Peter wrote in, it is literally the word philadelphian, one who practices brotherly love. Peter is referencing here the love that a Christian should have for his or her brothers and sisters in Christ, for their church family.

But notice that Peter tacks on another word to this. He adds the word “sincere,” and thus he is talking about brotherly love that is genuine, lacking in any pretense or show. It is real. This is the love that those Christians had for one another, flowing from their obedience. They had real brotherly love.

Peter says there is another kind of love too. This other love is called agape, and he uses the word agape in the phrase, “love one another deeply from the heart.” The word “deeply” means “unceasing or earnest.” But what is agape love? Scholars define it as “affection and high regard.” Peter is also using the imperative tense here, thus teaching the people that they must love like that. He is saying to them, add this love to the brotherly love you already have shown. And it is not just agape, but it is agape love that flows deeply from the heart.

Sounds great, right? Just love one another! No problem, right? The reality is that that kind of selfless love can be difficult. 1 Corinthians 13 is considered the love chapter in the Bible. “Love is patient, love is kind, love bears all things, never gives up, etc”? 1 Corinthians 13 is perhaps the best description of agape love anywhere. It is beautiful. It is used in weddings, because husbands and wives should love each other like that, but if you look at the chapters surrounding 1 Corinthians 13, you’ll see really quickly that the author, the Apostle Paul, was not talking about weddings or spousal love. He was talking about how people should love one another in the church family. That’s same group of people Peter refers to in 1^st Peter 1:21-25. What both Peter and Paul describe is a sacrificial, selfless love. It’s beautiful, but that kind of love is not easy to give.

One author that was quoted at our week pre-sermon roundtable Bible study remarked that it is easier to love Jesus who we cannot see, than it is to love our brothers who we can see. Isn’t that ironic?

But think about it. What do we think of when we think of Jesus? His love for us, his self-giving sacrifice on our behalf, his perfection. It’s easy to love that.

On the other hand, what do we think of when we think of brothers and sisters in Christ? Some we love deeply, some are easy to love. Others in the church family are difficult, and they rub us the wrong way.

Sounds like a family to me. Families are comprised of people with differing personalities, styles, emotions, and habits. And man oh man, can we rub each other the wrong way. Same goes for the church family. Think about your church family. My guess is that there are people whom you find very difficult, people you probably don’t want to spend time with.

When I say that, it could be easy to think, “Is he talking about me? Surely not me! Everyone would want to talk with me and hang out with me! I’m likeable. I’m easy to get along with.” If you are thinking that, think again. None of us should think that everyone would find us easy to get along with. Not me, not you.

Before we can love one another deeply from the heart, we need to admit that it can be hard. But let that not be an excuse!

As Howard Snyder says,

The church today is suffering a fellowship crisis.… In a world of big, impersonal institutions, the church often looks like just another big, impersonal institution.… One seldom finds within the institutionalized church today that winsome intimacy among people where masks are dropped, honesty prevails, and that sense of communication and community beyond the human abounds—where there is literally the fellowship of and in the Holy Spirit.^[1]

Is Snyder right? Well, before we answer that, let’s see how Peter finishes out the chapter.

In verse 23 he says, “you have been born again of something that is not perishable, but the imperishable word of God.” Then in verses 24-25 he quotes a passage from the Old Testament that agrees with and supports what he just said in verse 23. From Isaiah 40:6-8, the quote affirms the perishability of humanity, but the imperishability of the word of God. That imperishable word of God, he says, in verse 25, is the word that was preached to them.

There you see the continuity between the OT and NT. To people who are being persecuted, to people who are uncertain about life, this is a statement of the one certainty in life, the word of God.

So let’s put it all together. What can we conclude about Peter’s teaching?

Peter envisions a transformed community of believers. Peter is saying that a church is a group of people who have heard the imperishable word of God and are reborn into a new family which is marked by loving one another deeply and radically.

Peter isn’t just making this stuff up. Jesus taught it to Peter. 30 years before Peter wrote his letter, we can read a story in three of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) about a time when Jesus said something that could have been interpreted as being really cold to his family. He was in a town, healing people. Preaching. Crowds were following him. Huge crowds. Everyone wanted to see this Jesus guy. In this town Jesus was at someone’s house. We’re not told which town it was or whose house it was. But the crowd was packed in the house so tight, hoping to get close to Jesus, that people couldn’t squeeze their way in anymore. Guess who shows up? Check out Matthew 12:46-50. Be forewarned, when you hear who shows up, and then what Jesus says to them, it might shock you. Go ahead, click the link and read the story.

Now how about that? You see what Jesus is saying? In Jesus’ Kingdom, your family identity is not based on genetics, not based on blood, but based on how you respond to him! There is a new family for those who have been reborn in Christ.

This command was very much in the hearts and minds of the original 12 disciples because look at how the early church started out. In Acts chapters 2:42-47, 4:32-37, and 6:1-8. I think you’ll see in these chapters how the early church took Jesus very seriously and attempted to create a new family.

What we can conclude about this is that what happens during the one hour we gather on Sundays only scratches the surface of what it means to be a church family. One Christian organization I appreciate has started using the phrase “Seize the 167!”

The 167? What do they mean? There are 168 hours in a week. Most churches gather for worship on Sundays for approximately one hour. What about the other 167? The rest of the week is where we live out our faith! What we read in these passages in Acts, and what Peter describes is a practice of loving one another as a church family in the other 167 hours of the week.

Peter has to teach these new Christians how Christians are a new family with a priority to love one another deeply. That same calling exists for us. Faith Church we must love one another deeply from the heart, thus creating a new real family. But we can’t do it in one hour per week. A church family that loves one another deeply will have to do so in the other 167.

Check back in tomorrow as we start to look at how we can Seize the 167 and love one another.

^[1] McKnight, Scot. 1 Peter. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Print. The NIV Application Commentary.

The one thing needed for a church to become a family

One church I visited during sabbatical did something that weirded me out a bit. You know what they did? During the worship service they introduced themselves to new guests by saying, “We’re a family here, and we want you to be a part of our family.”

You might be thinking, “Joel, why did that weird you out? Don’t many churches say that?”

Well, as a first-time guest there, I have to be honest that when I heard them say they wanted me to be a part of their family, it felt intrusive and odd. I thought, “Does this church really think that I could become part of their family after one visit? I’m not part of their family after just one visit.”

Or how about Olive Garden Restaurants which once had an advertising slogan stating, “When you’re here, you’re family”? That’s nice, but it’s not true. Deep family-like relationships take time. You can’t just walk through the doors of restaurant or a church and instantly become family, right?

Then it hit me. I call Faith Church a family too! Our church newsletter used to be called The Family of Faith newsletter. We often start our weekly church emails with the line “Dear Family of Faith Church.” I had to admit that though I felt weirded out at that other church, I still want Faith Church to be a family, not just a label, but an actual family.

I believe that identifying as a family and acting like a family is a primary distinguishing feature of what any local church should be. But as I sat in that other church service, I had a whole new perspective. You can’t just declare that people are your family, can you?

I know, I know, maybe I’m being picky. Good for those churches or any organizations that want people to feel like family. That’s really the important thing, right? We want the people in our church to become like a family, to act like a family, and for new people to become part of the family.

This week we continue looking at 1^st Peter, and we come to the end of chapter one, verses 21-25. Remember that Peter is writing to Christians scattered around the Roman Empire. He has called them strangers and aliens. But are they a family? Read the passage and see what Peter has to say.

After you read the passage, look with me at the middle of the passage. Did you see in verse 23 that Peter brings up the idea of being born again? What does “born again” mean? This is the second time that Peter has mentioned this. The previous time was in verse 3. What does it mean to be born again?

Born again means a new beginning, a new life, but this time the Holy Spirit of God is with you, helping you and empowering you to be different.

It is an image that points to the transformation that we Christians should be seeing in our lives. And furthermore, just as we saw last week, our new birth in Christ means we have citizenship in a new country. In the same way, our new birth in Christ means we are born into a new family.

Now let’s go back and add verses 21 and 22. Peter says that being born again starts with belief (which he mentions in verse 21). Being born again starts with believing in God who raised Jesus from the dead, so that our faith is in God. Belief, faith, and trusting in God is the critical starting point. But it doesn’t stop there. True faith in God, and the evidence of new birth, Peter says, is obedience to the truth (as he mentions in verse 22). Put these two things together (belief in verse 21 and obedience in verse 22) and you get the words of the classic hymn “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

As we have seen so many times already in his letter, Peter is not teaching something new here. He is repeating what Jesus taught him. Jesus often told his disciples that they, followers of Jesus, first say, “Yes, Lord, I place my faith in you,” and then follow up that faith with action, obeying the teachings of Jesus. When that trusting and obeying happens we can know that we have been reborn into a new family that resides in a new Kingdom.

What is so interesting, then, is that when Peter talks about obedience in verse 22, he mentions one thing that is the outflow of the obedience. He has all kinds of actions he could choose from to illustrate obedience to Jesus here: Tell the truth. Be honest. Preach the Gospel. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Give to the poor. He doesn’t choose any of those. Later in his letter he’ll get to some of that. But for now, he chooses one thing and one thing only to illustrate obedience to Jesus. That means this one thing he chooses is probably very important for us to learn. What is that one thing? Look at the final phrase of verse 22.

“Love one another deeply from the heart.”

Once again, Peter is teaching something that Jesus taught him. Check out Jesus’ teaching in John 13:34-35. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”

There you have it: Christians, followers of Jesus, are born again into a new family that is marked clearly by loving one another deeply from the heart.

Check back in tomorrow as we explore further what Peter meant by “love”. It might surprise you.

Here’s how Christians should be strangers and aliens

Hey Christians, you should be different! You should be strangers and aliens, and it should show. It should be obvious.

A couple days ago I talked about my boys’ mugshots when we were immigrating to Jamaica. We lived in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, for a year from 2000-2001, and there were so many moments when we felt like strangers and aliens. I’ll pick one moment in honor of the World Cup starting yesterday. The USA men’s soccer team was coming to Kingston in 2001 to play a World Cup qualifying match against the Jamaican team. The guy who served as our money-changer had connections, and invited Michelle and me to join him at the game! I was so excited, but also nervous. This is crime-ridden Kingston we’re talking about. Not to mention that Jamaicans are incredibly passionate about soccer. Would we face any backlash?

I wondered if I should wear my US National Team jersey and wave an American flag, or maybe that would be a bad idea? I decided against the jersey and flag, but Michelle and I wore a bit of red, white and blue. Before we got anywhere close to the stadium, just driving through the city, people everywhere were wearing Jamaican colors, yellow, green and black. Most of them weren’t even going to the game. Then when we arrived at the stadium, it was a sea of Jamaican supporters. In a crowd of about 20,000, we saw 1 or 2 other American supporters. I really felt like a stranger. It was obvious. There was no mistaking who the Americans were.

That’s how Christians should be. Easily visible. But not in the way you think. As Peter shows us in 1st Peter 1:17-21 and 2:11-12 there are some really surprising ways that Christians should make it known that we are different.

As we have been saying all week, Peter teaches that the first thing we should do is say or believe that, “As a Christian, I am not ultimately a citizen of an earthly country, I am a citizen of God’s Kingdom.” Second, we need to leave behind the empty way of life and live according the principles of the country to which we are actually citizens, God’s country, the Kingdom of Heaven. Peter continues this line of thought in 2:11, “As aliens and strangers in the world, abstain from sinful desires.”

Why? “Live such good lives among the pagans”, Peter adds in 2:12, “that though they accuse you of doing wrong…” Wait! Stop there. Doing wrong sounds contradictory to “abstaining from sinful desires.” What were the Christians doing wrong? What were the people in their culture accusing the Christians of doing?

One historian describes what was going on when Peter wrote this. “In the middle of the first century, Christians were a distinct minority and often were the object of slander and subsequent persecution. For example, because of their refusal to participate in emperor worship, they faced false accusations that often resulted in suffering and death. To suppress the rumor that he himself had put the city to the torch, Nero blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome. He made Christians scapegoats by slandering and persecuting them.”^[1]

When the Roman Emperor said “You must worship me as Lord,” the Christians responded with, “Jesus is Lord.” And that didn’t go over very well. Those Christians were citizens of a greater king and a greater kingdom, and that meant they were strangers in Roman Empire. They were different.

Christians live a different way, and sometimes that way forces us to choose between living the way of God’s Kingdom or living by the way of our earthly society. If we choose the way of the Kingdom, we can face social and economic difficulties, stemming from shunning, slander, and lack of opportunity which can really affect checkbooks. Christians should look different! The way of life in the Kingdom of Jesus is different than the way of life on earth. We will stand out.

We watched a movie last night where the main character and his boss worked for the CIA and they were trying to get information from a Saudi banker. So they got him really drunk, left the restaurant and took his keys to go get his car. The Saudi guy is protesting that he is fine, he can drive. Clearly, though, he is in no condition to be driving. Then the CIA boss pulls the main character aside and says, “Let’s put the Saudi in his car, and let him start driving home. Then we’ll call the police and report a drunk driver. The police will catch him, he’ll go to jail, we can step in, and he’ll owe us.” The main character can’t believe it. His boss is about to put the Saudi guy’s life in danger, as well as anyone else on the road, for as long as it takes the police to track him down. It is wrong! So he stands up to his boss.

How about you? Christians live differently. We live based on the principles of our true nation, the way of the Kingdom of Jesus. That could very well mean that we will feel like strangers here. But that is as it should be. Because we are strangers here. We live differently!

Live such good lives among them, Peter says, that they will see your good deeds. This is why Faith Church has been so passionate about being involved in our community. Whether it is serving meals through the Summer Lunch Club or packing shoeboxes with helpful items for children in need around the world, I am so proud of how Faith Church gives and gives! I could list ten other ways we as a church are trying to follow the way of the Kingdom of Jesus.

But I want to conclude by focusing individually. What will it look like for you, Christian, to live as a stranger here in reverent fear?

How are you living in your neighborhood? In your work? In the places in the community where you associate with people who are not followers of Jesus.

In school? On sports teams? Volunteering?

Are the people around you saying of you “Wow, they are living such good lives!”

And by “good lives” Paul is not talking about the American good life of wealth and entertainment, but allowing the Holy Spirit to so transform you from the inside out that his fruit is flowing out of you. The Spirit’s gentleness, kindness, love, patience, etc., should be very evident in our lives.

So pray for the people around you. Love them. Serve them sacrificially.

Talk with your neighbors. Listen to them. Take an interest in them. Even if they don’t reciprocate! Look for the outcast and love them. Make a special effort to include those who are not included, the lonely, the new person, the person from a different ethnicity.

If asked by your friends at school to help them cheat on a test, graciously say “no thank you,” even if it means they might be upset at you or make fun of you.

When part of a group at work or school or in a mom’s group that is shunning someone who is awkward or shy or poor or quiet, don’t go along with the group, but instead strive to include the outcast.

I experienced this recently at my daughter’s elementary school Fun Fair a few weeks ago. My daughter ditched me quickly to hang out with friends, except when she wanted money to buy food. So I hung out with friends from church for a while. Then when they were talking with some other friends, I went to get french fries. On the way to the french fry stand, I spotted a bunch of soccer parents. This would be the equivalent of the adult cool crowd. They’ve all been friends for a number of years as their daughters have been on the team longer than mine. And many live in a neighborhood together. I felt within me those feelings I felt many years ago in high school, wanting to be accepted, to be part of the crowd.

Then I spotted another guy standing all by himself. Another dad. I’ve talked with him numerous times because his daughter and mine were in the same class together a few years ago. He is a different ethnicity than me. Talking with him wouldn’t help me get more in with the in crowd.

As a follower of Jesus, I am stranger here, a citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom. And we do things differently. So I went over and spent the next 20 minutes or so having a great conversation with that dad.

We Christians live different. You might be made fun of. You might take flak. Know that you are living by the way of your true home. You are a stranger here, an alien, and your true home is the Kingdom of Heaven. People will notice. By living such good lives among them, people will notice. You will be laying a foundation of preaching the gospel by doing good, by living good, that you will earn the right to preach the good news of Jesus in words.

^[1] Kistemaker, Simon J., and William Hendriksen. Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude. Vol. 16. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001. Print. New Testament Commentary.

Why the bizarre Christian teaching to be strangers and fearful actually makes a lot of sense

“Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” I love that phrase. It even rhymes. You know where it is from? It is from the biblical book of 1st Peter, chapter 1 verse 17. I’ve been posting all week about being strangers. You can read the previous posts (here, here and here) to see why this guy Peter was telling Christians that they were strangers in the first century Roman Empire. Now he says that that should live as strangers in reverent fear. What is reverent fear? In the original language that Peter wrote, Greek, this is just one word: “Fear”. In fact Peter uses the standard word for “fear” which you would use if you were scared or afraid. So why does the New International Version, which is the English version of the Bible we use at Faith Church, use two words to translate one word? “Reverent fear”. They could have just used the word “fear”. It is because in this context, the translators who were writing the New International Version felt that this use of fear was not the scared or terror kind of fear, but the fear of respect and awe. Reverence for God.

The most literal translation of this phrase is “conduct yourselves in fear during your sojourn on earth.” There you can see how the NIV is trying to help English readers understand what Peter was saying when he said, “live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” I like “sojourn” a bit better than “live your lives.” A sojourn is commonly understood as a temporary stay. It is not permanent. Peter wants us to remember that we are temporarily here on earth. This earth is not our true home.

Peter explains this further in verses 18-20. Why should they live not as citizens of an earthly nation, but as citizens of heaven? Because of the costly price paid to save them (Jesus’ gave his blood, his life for us!). This is an oft-repeated New Testament teaching. Paul once said in 1 Corinthians, “You are not your own. You were bought with a price.” Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection were an incalculable price paid to rescue you. Therefore, we have a wonderful, deep reason to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear. We have an allegiance to a new master, to his new country: the Kingdom of God.

And so, not only on Ash Wednesday when many churches write the cross in ash on people’s foreheads, but at all times, we live our lives under the sign of the cross.

Peter describes this allegiance to Jesus further by saying,”We were redeemed.” Redeemed is a slavery word. Slavery was a huge part of their society. Those ancient Christians would have understood what it meany to be bought and sold, to be redeemed. You paid money to buy slaves. A slave in the Greco-Roman era could even do this for themselves. So slavery was different then from what we know of slavery in our American past. Peter says it was not with money that we were set free from the empty way of life. We couldn’t pay for it ourselves. It had to be and only could be through the blood of Christ. The crucifixion of Jesus is pictured here. What a huge price was paid for our redemption.

Notice that Peter says even more about this. We were redeemed FROM the empty way of life. The empty way is the way of following selfish or sinful desires. Another word for the old kind of life is “futile.” One author says, it is a way of life that is “useless on the basis of being futile and lacking in content.”^[1] That’s a pretty strong statement.

But in our culture, we can see this as true, can’t we? How many people pursue an empty way of life? Think about the many problems in our society. Broken families. Drug addiction. Sexual predation. Racism. Gender inequality. Greed. Celebrity worship. Screen time. Video game, sports, and entertainment addiction. Obesity. I could go on and on. These kinds of things were going on 2000 years ago in the Roman Empire when Peter was writing this letter. He nails it all in one phrase: An empty way of life.

Praise the Lord, though, Peter is saying, we have been redeemed from that way of life. We have been set free! Those that life their lives as strangers here in reverent fear have been set free from the empty way of life, and follow a new way, the way of Jesus, the way of the Kingdom of God. Peter, earlier in the letter described this new way of living by using the word “holiness”. That’s another way of saying, “Allow Jesus to be the new master of your life, to follow his way.” It doesn’t mean that every follower of Jesus will become instantly perfect. Instead this reverent fear is a life of respect for God that desires to know him ever more deeply and seek to make his ways our ways. In other words, we learn from Jesus how to live because his Spirit has given us new birth, redemption, freedom, to pursue a new full life.

Want to learn how to get started? Comment below! And check back in tomorrow as we’ll see Peter describe another way to live our lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

^[1] Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996 : 624. Print.

What my sons’ mugshots taught me about citizenship

How about those two cute little mugshots? They are my two oldest sons in September 2000, when they were 3 and 2 years old. Our family of four had just moved to Kingston, Jamaica, and we had to apply for immigration status as legal aliens. That meant we had to get photos taken and use those photos for immigration cards which we carried with us. Even the boys at 3 and 2 years old had to have legal alien status.

Something curious happened, though, when the photographer took our photos. What you see above is round 2. In the first round of photos, he took the photos, developed them, and surprise, they showed nothing by eyeballs and hair. Two eyeballs on a plain background with no body! What? The photographer had not adjusted the camera settings to account for our light skin tone! That was one of the first times we felt a tinge of what strangers and aliens feel. After a good laugh and a few setting changes to the camera, the photographer retook the photos and all was well.

We often felt like strangers in Kingston, and we were official aliens in Jamaica.

All week long we’ve been talking about strangers and aliens. (You can review the previous posts here and here.) That might sound odd, depending on how you are thinking about the word “aliens.” Creatures from outer space? No. Peter is using the word “aliens” like we do when we use the phrase, “illegal aliens.” In our society, an alien is a person from one country that is trying to set up a new life in another country, just like we did in Jamaica.

So why would Peter use that concept to describe Christians? In our study of 1st Peter 1:17-21 and 2:11-12, Peter tells the Christians in the Roman Empire around 65 AD that they are aliens and strangers in the world.

It’s like the words of the old spiritual: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through.” All Christians, Peter says, are living in a foreign land. We have another true home country. We are from another place.

But what other country is he talking about? First of all, many of the Christians Peter was writing to were actual strangers and aliens. Some had fled for their lives, leaving their home country, and became refugees in another country, in order to escape persecution. They could easily have felt like strangers in their new country. Second, as Christians, followers of Jesus were a unique, tiny minority in the Roman Empire. Christianity was relatively new, only about 30 years old, and very few people understood it or accepted it. So Christians were perceived as strange in regard to their beliefs. In both areas the physical and the spiritual realms, those Christians were strangers and aliens.

Likewise, though we Christians today might not be strangers and aliens in our earthly country of citizenship, we are strangers and aliens in a very real spiritual sense. We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

We believe that, we claim it, but if we are honest it can be very hard for many of us to grasp how our citizenship in God’s Kingdom should impact our lives.

Why? Because we get so entranced by what we see, touch, and feel. It is super easy to get focused on what affects us. It is all too easy to think, “I am an American.” We were born here, we live here, we are comfortable here. It is all we know. Alien? Stranger? It sure doesn’t feel like it. It is hard to see ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of God, because it is invisible. It is much easier to identify as an American. So what Peter has to say is difficult and radical: you’re actually an alien, from another place. That American birth certificate, passport, voting card, social security number, ID card, and driver’s license? None of it depicts your true identity, or your true home.

Remember that concept of new birth in Christ, being born again, that Peter talked about in verse 3? When you choose to believe and follow Jesus, you are born again into his country.

I didn’t choose to be a citizen of the USA. I was born here, in Virginia. My birth certificate proves I am a citizen of the USA. When I travel abroad, I carry my US passport, and when I return to an airport in the USA, at the immigration checkpoint the officer glances at my passport and says, “Welcome home!”

What I need to dwell on more is that I did choose to be a citizen on the Kingdom of Heaven, through new birth. Christians, disciples of Jesus, have been born into a new place, and thus we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, and that citizenship is the true one.

How do citizens of an earthly country see themselves also as citizens of the Kingdom of God? Can we hold dual citizenship?

What Peter is saying is that we Christians do have a dual citizenship. But our citizenship in an earthly nation is temporary. That whole nation is temporary.

Tom Hanks’ movie, The Terminal, illustrates this well. Hanks plays a man who is from a small country. The man is traveling outside his country, and on the way home, while in a foreign airport, he is shocked to learn about a revolution in his country. In a very short time, that country is dissolved and a new one forms. The airline will not let him back without proper identification. What country did he belong to?

Some of us might have a change of citizenship like that while we are on this earth. And for all of us, no matter if they drape an American flag on our casket, when we die, our citizenship in the USA is over.

Citizenship in heaven, however, is forever.

So Peter is saying that we Christians must choose to live now during our earthly lives, by the principles of the Kingdom of God, which is forever. How do we do that? Check in tomorrow and we’ll begin to look at what Peter says Christians should do to live as strangers and aliens in the world.

The one thing you need (to make it as a stranger in the world)

In a world of partiality and discrimination and bias, where is the one place that still considers everyone impartially?

The church? Nope. Martin Luther King Jr. said years ago that Sunday morning is one of the most racially segregated places in America, and it is still true today.

I read an article this week that posed the question I started with. The one place in our society that still considers everyone impartially is the field of medicine. The author, Atul Gawande, tells a story about how he had to treat a scary prisoner who was making threatening comments. How would you feel if you were supposed to treat that patient? You’d have to be impartial.

Today as we continue our study in 1st Peter, Peter mentions the concept of partiality as foundational to the concept I mentioned yesterday, strangers.

I mentioned how off-kilter we can feel when we are placed in the position of being a stranger. Today Peter addresses his readers as “strangers”, and he connects strangerhood with partiality.

Read 1 Peter 1:17-21 and 2:11-12. (Then glance back at 1 Peter 1:1-2 where Peter started his letter by calling his readers “strangers in the world.”) Did you see how Peter repeats this description of his audience? In 1:17, he calls them “strangers”, and 2:11 he calls them “aliens and strangers”. The Christians Peter was writing to were more than likely refugees in their lands. Some of them had to flee to new areas to avoid religious persecution. Some of them were ethnically different from the people around them. But Peter has another deeper reason for calling them strangers and aliens. He seems to hint that their status as aliens and strangers is as it should be. Why? We’ll get to that tomorrow.

Before he delves in the importance of them living as strangers and aliens, Peter reminds them that God is impartial. He says “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” Why does he bring God’s impartiality into this discussion?

The author of the article I mentioned above wasn’t saying that all doctors and nurses and hospitals are perfectly impartial, but he was saying that impartiality should be their goal. I thought it was also an argument that should be made for Christians and the church. Why? Because Peter is right, our God is impartial! He treats everyone the same. We are all equally loved and valued in his eyes. We love to apply that thought to ourselves. God loves me! But when we start to apply God’s impartiality to the whole world, it can be hard to take.

ISIS people who chop the heads off captives? Equally loved by God.

Registered sex offenders who live in our neighborhoods? Equally loved by God.

Muslims celebrating Ramadan? Equally loved by God.

The super annoying neighbor or family member or co-worker or Facebook-poster? Equally loved by God.

Republicans and Democrats? Equally loved by God.

Illegal aliens from Mexico who want to jump over a border wall? Loved by God.

You are all loved by God. The people you hate are loved by God. The people who have hurt you are deeply loved by God.

And when you have that kind of love going for you, you can live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. Our ability to live as strangers is rooted in the impartial love of God. God is for us. If we feel alone at a new job, if we are having a hard time making friends at a new school, if our neighbors are not speaking to us, and if we have a broken relationship in our family, all of these things can make us feel like strangers in the world. But in the midst of any situation that leaves us feeling like strangers or aliens, we can always know that our impartial God loves us. Other people may judge unfairly and make us feel like strangers, but God will always love us impartially.

The impartial love of God is foundational for living our lives as strangers here in reverent fear! Do you need to be reminded of how much God loves you? Do you need to spend time alone with God, just soaking up the passages of Scripture that affirm God’s love? Do you need to reflect on the amazing self-giving love of Jesus, of his birth, life, death and resurrection?

One of my favorite reminders of God’s love is Romans 8:31-39. Maybe read this a couple times, and let the truth of God’s love for you sink deep into your heart and mind:

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Check back in tomorrow as we hear what Peter says about how to live as strangers in the world!

The day I felt like a stranger and couldn’t find my car

Years ago I was delivering a meal to refugees in the city of Lancaster. They had newly arrived from years of living in a refugee camp in a faraway country, having fled for their lives from their home country. They arrived at the refugee camp with extremely few possessions and hardly any opportunity. Imagine the feeling of not just losing all you have, but also having to leave your home and country and start over with next to nothing. It’s almost impossible for us to imagine.

Thankfully, many countries like the USA allow refugees to come to their countries to start over. After what usually takes at least 15-18 years, organizations like Church World Service helps families through the resettlement process. I was delivering a meal to a family that had gone through that long process and had just arrived in Lancaster, scared and anxious to start a new life in a country where they wouldn’t have to flee for their lives because of their beliefs or ethnicity. Imagine how unsettled they felt, moving to a new country, with a new language, new customs, new people, everything new. Imagine how it would feel to receive a meal from a stranger.

It was nighttime, and I was unfamiliar with that part of Lancaster city, so I was feeling just a tinge unsettled myself. Nothing like the unsettled feelings the refugee family was experiencing of course, but I still felt those uncomfortable feelings we all feel when we’re trying to find a house on a dark, unfamiliar street, and we are going to meet people we don’t know. Further, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to communicate with them. None of this was bad. I was glad to do it, but it definitely had me on edge a bit.

I finally found the house, parked outside it, delivered the meal, chatted with them briefly, as best I could, and then I needed to be on my way. I walked outside…and my car was gone! Immediately that feeling of fear and disaster took over me. You know it, right? Flushed red, body heat radiating from me, heart racing. I quickly scanned up and down the street. No car.

I was starting to really feel the nerves, when way down the block at the intersection, I noticed a car stopped in the middle of the intersection, waiting under the stoplights. It was my car!

What the???

Then it hit me. I had been thrown off, mentally and emotionally, trying to find the house, preparing to meet the new family, that when I parked my car, I must have forgotten to put the emergency brake on. My car at the time was a manual transmission, and the grade of hill in front of the house was just slight enough that when I stopped and put the car in neutral, I didn’t feel like I was on a hill. In the few minutes that I was in the house, the grade of the hill was enough that the car, with no e-brake on, slowly drifted down the street, into the intersection where the grade of the hill evened out, and the car stopped!

Whew! Even though I was super thankful my car was safe, as I ran down the street hoping no one was watching, my heart was really pumping at the disaster that could have been. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how off we can be when we are feeling like strangers.

I thought about how it feels to be a stranger in a new area. How much more the refugees must have been feeling like strangers.

How about you? Do you know the feeling of being a stranger? Have you ever been the new person at work? Have you ever had to change schools and start at a new school? Have you moved to a new neighborhood, new state? It feels awkward and difficult, right? Have you ever been in a new country, with a new language and new customs? In 2016 when I joined my wife Michelle on a trip to visit her work in Cambodia, with all the Buddhist temples and almost no evidence of Christianity anywhere, it was awkward.

The people Peter is writing to in 1st Peter are living the stranger’s life. They are a tiny minority. There were few Christians in the Roman Empire. So what does he say to them? Check in tomorrow and we’ll find out.

Reflections on perseverance in difficult times

This week, I’ve been reflecting on suffering and salvation from 1 Peter 1:6-12.

In verses 10-12 Peter takes a moment to talk about this salvation. He says that prophets in past spoke of this salvation. The Spirit of God, he said, was at work in these prophets. In verse 11 the Spirit of Christ in them, and in verse 12 the Spirit at Pentecost. He says that through the Spirit, the prophets predicted the Messiah, Jesus. These prophets looked forward to the day that the Christians receiving this letter were getting to experience. Peter is again trying to encourage the people.

He is saying, “Though you are going through hard times, you have the benefit of salvation brought to you by Jesus the Messiah. And the prophets never had that. They looked forward that!”

And then he says something that is shocking. Not only do the Christians get to experience the salvation of Christ that the prophets look forward to, Peter says, even angels long to look into these things.

Get that? The Christians have something that the prophets of old, and the angels don’t have. Salvation through Jesus the Messiah! Peter wants these persecuted Christians to know how special they are.

Salvation in Christ is such a compelling narrative that angels long to experience it!

I get it that there is much speculation about angels. If we could pull back the curtain and see the spiritual realm, we would be astounded. There are numerous places in the Bible that describe that curtain being pulled back, and people are shocked to see what is going on in the spiritual realm.

Because Peter differentiates between Christians and angels, it is clear he means us to understand that we will not become angels when we go to heaven. Clearly what we have is far better than what angels could offer.

McKnight: “Salvation in Christ…is so great that even the angels are looking down to gain a view, like wedding attendees attempting to steal a glance at the bride before her appearance. The angels are brought in here, not to invite us to speculate about their activities, but to press on our minds the privileges of salvation; neither the prophets nor the angels experience what the church assumes and enjoys.”^[1]

Therefore, Peter is saying to the Christians in his day, and he is saying to us: Press on in the faith!

Though you may be going through persecution for your faith, continue to love Jesus.

But what if we are not being persecuted for our faith? Does this passage not apply? I think it still does.

It could be that so few Christians are persecuted because we are so private about our faith. That is a tragedy.
Are you faced with choices at work or at home that cause you to pursue actions that are not in line with the Kingdom of God? What about at school? Keep the faith. Choose the way of Jesus, even if it means life will be harder for you!
Do the people in your life have any idea that you are a Christian? And what kind of Christian are you? Judgmental? Angry? Or Gracious and loving and kind? If people stop talking to you because you are judgmental or angry, then you are not being persecuted for Christ. You are being pushed aside for being unkind. The way we present Jesus matters.
What will it look like for you and I to be courageous and loving and gracious and bold about our faith? What will it look like for us to rejoice with great joy? What could be more attractive to that? Christians who rejoice in the Lord, not in an arrogant way, but with humility and grace and fun?

And, what will it look like for us to take on the challenges of the day with joy? Not necessarily happiness – but, inner joy – knowing we have hope in Christ. And, all suffering will come to an end.

^[1] McKnight, Scot. 1 Peter. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Print. The NIV Application Commentary.