A disturbing soccer game and some words teaching us to…Encourage one another, Part 1

When my second son was a junior in high school, his soccer team experienced something that pretty much everyone at the game found disturbing.  His team was very good that year, gaining the best record in their section, section one. As the section one winner, they were the top seed in the league playoffs, meaning that for their first-round play-off game, they went up against the second place team from section three, lowest seeded team. 

That lowest seeded team had a great season in their section, winning most of their games.  But there is usually a difference in quality between the larger section one schools and the smaller section three schools.  No matter. When you make it into the playoffs, you are excited, hoping and expecting to do well. Even if you are a smaller school, you believe you can be David to their Goliath.

It was not to be. My son’s section one team dominated the section three team.  In the second half of the game, when the score was something like 5-0, my son’s coach mercifully and wisely not only played his varsity substitutes, but he also played junior varsity players whom he pulled up to the varsity team for an expanded playoff roster.  Still my son’s team dominated the section three team.  

As the second half wore on, the section three team’s players started to melt down.  They were yelling at each other.  Committing fouls.  Making really stupid mistakes.  It was ugly, and very uncomfortable to watch. You know that feeling of coming upon a car accident? You think, “I really should look away,” but you just stare in morbid fascination. The soccer game was like that. The game wasn’t over, but it was as though the section three team were so thoroughly discouraged, they gave up.   

Yet you and I have most likely experienced similar feelings as that deeply discouraged soccer team.  Maybe you’re working hard to pay off debt, even working extra jobs, working overtime, and all it feels like you’re doing is working, but life is expensive, stuff keeps breaking, and you get discouraged thinking you’ll never get debt-free.

These past few months, my family’s water heater died, we needed new tires on one vehicle, our dryer was making a screeching sound and needed a repair, our well water pressure valve died, our freezer’s ice cube tub shattered inside the freezer, we needed new deck doors, and both cars inspected.  Money issues can be discouraging.

For some of you it’s not finances that are discouraging, but perhaps its relationships.  Maybe after the recent holidays, with a lot of family gatherings, those relationships, or lack of relationships, are discouraging.

Maybe it is health. Perhaps you’ve gone through a bout of sickness, cancer, or something that has you saying, “Growing old is not fun.” I feel the aches and pains myself, as this year is one of those big milestone birthdays or me. 

You might feel discouraged in some of those areas, or maybe in other areas. Are you discouraged today?  My guess is that you probably have a twinge of discouragement somehow or another.  Maybe you’re thinking, “It’s not a twinge…I’m really struggling.” 

As I mentioned in the preview post, I’m starting a blog series about relationships in the church.  The question we’re trying to answer in this series is “How should the people of the church relate to one another?”  Because discouragement is a widespread reality in our world, the people of the church should encourage one another. 

In the New Testament, there are a variety of words for encouragement:

I want to focus on two that have the same root paraklesis, parakaleo:

The literal meaning of this root word is “to call together.”  The word is used this way in Scripture, for example, when a person is calling together a group of people.  “You might be wondering why I called you together today.” 

But there is also a figurative way to use the word.  When we use the word figuratively, there is an urgency, an emotion about it.  It is defined this way: “to cause someone to be encouraged or consoled, either by verbal or non-verbal means—‘to encourage, to console, encouragement.’”[1]

This same word is actually a title for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, and is defined by Louw & Nida as “one who helps, by consoling, encouraging, or mediating on behalf of—‘Helper, Encourager, Mediator.’” Scholars tell us that this role of the Spirit is a very active encouragement.  In fact, they write that it could be translated “‘the one who mothers us’ or, as in one language in Central Africa, ‘the one who falls down beside us,’ that is to say, an individual who upon finding a person collapsed along the road, kneels down beside the victim, cares for his needs, and carries him to safety.”[2]

The word is often translated as “advocate,” for the Holy Spirit in John 14-16. The word is also used this way for the ministry of Jesus: “We have a helper (advocate) with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous one,” as John writes in 1 John 2:1.

Therefore, when we are encouragers, we are choosing to live like Jesus did.  We are choosing to behave like Holy Spirit.  Which is precisely how we should live.  In Galatians 5:24, Paul says that we should walk in step with the Spirit, and one way to do that is to be an encourager. 

So what does an encourager look like in practice? We’ll meet a famous encourager in the next post.

Photo by Tobias Flyckt on Unsplash

[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 305.

[2] Ibid, 141.

Introducing a new blog series: Relationships in the church

This past fall, in front of the whole class, I had to disagree with one of my students.  I was teaching Early Church, covering the New Testament books of Acts through Revelation.  In that class session, a student remarked at how unified the early church was.  It was early in the semester, so this student hadn’t read very far in the book of Acts.  The student is correct based on what they had read, Acts chapters 1-4.  In those chapters there are amazing descriptions of the church’s faith, love, generosity and unity.  See for yourself by reading Acts 1-4.  It won’t take long.  When you read, pay attention to Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-37.

Many contemporary Christians say that we should be more like the early church.  And we should.  That is, until we continue reading in Acts.  In chapters 5 and 6, we learn about two significant disruptions in relationships in the church.  We meet Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5, as they lie to the apostles.  Then in chapter 6, we read about an ethnic/cultural disturbance between early church members from a Hebraic background and those from a Greek background.

From there, the flood gates break open, and a near constant ebbing and flowing tide of disunity, struggle and broken relationships threaten to engulf the early church as it spreads across the Roman Empire.  That is not to say that there were never again any periods of unity and love.  There were, there are.  But when my student commented in front of the whole class that they were amazed at the unity and love among the early church, I had to respond “I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but there is more to the story. Keep reading.”

This relational struggle is not just ancient history.  It hits close to home when we think about our own denominational and local church history.  No matter what kind of church you are a part of, my guess is that there have been periods of intense drama, personality conflicts, differences of opinion that led to denominational splits, local church splits, people leaving the church, pastors fired, and people behaving very poorly in many other ways.

I praise God that my own church has been experiencing a period of peace and love in our church family.  Our past five or so congregational meetings have been a delight.  Our Leadership Team has not had to address any matters of church discipline for a long time.  But before we pat ourselves on the back, let’s remember that we are not perfect.  Let’s be learners, teachable and humble in heart, desiring to improve our relationships with one another.  That desire to become more like the descriptions we read about in Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-37 is why I’m starting a new series on Relationships in the Church.

Take a look at this article that will provide the structure for the series.  This coming week we’ll talk about how to encourage one another (easy for some, difficult for others).  Then we’ll continue with meeting together, holding each other accountable, praying for each other, caring for each other, speaking life into each other, studying God’s Word together, and growing in faith together. 

Photo by Small Group Network on Unsplash

This year, instead of resolutions, make a Rule of Life – New Year Psalm of Wisdom, Part 5

What guides your life? Do you have a plan? My suspicion is that most people haven’t thought about a plan for their lives. Instead many of have vague thoughts about working till quitting time, or working for the weekend, or making it to retirement. Perhaps when children come along, we devote our lives to them. Perhaps we focus on loving our spouses. We might also have some desires to volunteer or serve in our churches or communities. 

When New Year’s comes along, like it did earlier this week, we might think of resolutions and desire to lose a few pounds, save more money, pay off debt, exercise more, or have less screen time. I deleted a phone game and Instagram from my phone on New Year’s Day. I was wasting far too much time playing the phone game and scrolling through Reels on Instagram. This year I want to read more and turn my dissertation into a book. 

While the various ideas I’ve listed for life goals or New Year’s resolutions are good, what I’d like to suggest is that the reality of our future mortality, as we’ve learned this week in Psalm 39, encourages us to go beyond resolutions or vague goals. Instead, we should craft a rule of life. A rule of life? More on that in just a moment.

We began this series of posts on Psalm 39 by talking about evaluation (see post here).  One of the ways the psalmist invites us to evaluate our lives is by asking, “Why are we fearful?”  Is it because of wicked deceptions around us? Is our hope and our focus on God and his ways and the redemption only he can bring?

In Psalm 39, the psalmist concludes in verses 16-20,

“Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases; for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them. Though while they live they count themselves blessed— and people praise you when you prosper— they will join those who have gone before them, who will never again see the light of life. People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.”

Because of the fleeting life we live, pursue understanding, the psalmist says. How do we do that? Talk with someone who can help you evaluate which way your heart, your mind, your desires lean.  Are those essential deep parts of your life leaning toward God, toward his redemption, toward his mission, or are you leaning towards other and comparing, being fearful, being deceived?  We need loving, gracious help to answer those questions.  We need evaluation and accountability from those we trust, who know and love God.

There is an ancient tradition called a Rule of Life.  When you create a Rule of Life, you are creating a biblical guide for yourself.  You’re making goals and setting pathways for how you want to live. 

There are tools online (for example, here and here) as well as physical workbooks you can purchase to help you create a rule of life.  I used this one in a doctoral class, and I found it very helpful.  The idea is that, as disciples of Jesus, we want to create guidelines, habits, practices, so that in every area of our lives, we are following his ways.  Intellectually, relationally, physically, medically, financially, in our jobs, in our families, in our friendships, in our churches.  Because God’s ways are good.  They will be for our benefit and they will be for the benefit of helping us love our neighbors who God says we should love. 

The heart behind a rule of life is trust in God.  You trust in him, so you want to live a life that shows clearly that you trust in him in as many areas of your life as possible. 

We won’t do this perfectly.  But the hope is that each year we evaluate, we change, and we grow, in new areas and new ways.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

The important lesson pets can teach us about trust – New Year Psalm of Wisdom, Part 4

My dog turned 9 years old earlier last month.  It is likely he only has at most a few more years to live.  That is to be expected.  Dogs make it 12-15 years and die.  It is sad.  It will be sad.  But many people get past the sadness, and they get a new dog.  People get new pets many times over throughout their lives.  Is it possible that we humans sometimes view animals, even pets, as disposable?

We don’t think of humans like that, though. We see a higher dignity and worth in human life. Or do we?

We have been studying the wisdom psalm, Psalm 49, this first of the new year, and the psalmist makes a shocking claim about humans and animals in verses 12-14:

“People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.  This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. They are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd (but the upright will prevail over them in the morning). Their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.”

The psalmist says humans are like beasts who perish!  Why does he say that? His point is that no matter how much money you have, it cannot help you avoid death.  This is an undisputed fact of life.  It is so obvious, we could, at this point in the psalm, say, “Okay, psalmist, we get it.  You’re not telling us anything new.  Where are you going with this?”

He is actually going somewhere with this.  In verse 12 he hinted it at it when he said, “This is the fate of those who trust in themselves.”  This is a parallel to verse 6, where he said, the wicked deceivers trust in their wealth. 

What is at the heart of this proverb is a faulty placement of trust.  It doesn’t matter if we trust in ourselves or in our ability to generate wealth to try to preserve our lives, or make a name for ourselves.  The reality that we will all die reveals that humans can succumb to a faulty placement of trust.

It is faulty, unwise, lacking in understanding, to trust in ourselves.  It is unwise to trust in our wealth.  So what should we trust in?

Look at what he says next in verses 15, “But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.”

If we want to live with wisdom, with understanding, the psalmist says that we will focus our lives on God who is our redeemer.  Our heart, our mind, our decisions will lean towards him, not toward the deceptive ways of trusting in wealth and the things of this world.

Here we have a distinct contrast with verse 7.  There the psalmist said that no human, no matter how rich, can redeem the life of another human.  Now in verse 15, he points out that God, however, can redeem us.    

Our trust, therefore, should not be in the accumulation of wealth, and the insurance or assurance it will provide for us.  Our trust should be in God, in giving our lives to him for the purpose of his mission.  When I say “our trust should be in God,” I am not saying simply, “believe in him.”  I am saying, “we show that we believe in him by giving our lives to serve him.” 

I am also not saying that the only kind of serving him is in full-time ministry.  Not at all.  The vast majority of Christians need not become full-time professional pastors or missionaries.  Instead most Christians will serve God is many other ways both inside and outside the church. 

Most Christians, for example, will work in a variety of non-ministry career fields. Work has dignity.  As long it is ethical, work as unto the Lord.  Work ethically, work with gusto.   But do not work so as to trust in the money.  Trust in God.

Photo by Andrew S on Unsplash

Why you don’t know your great-grandparents’ names – New Year Psalm of Wisdom, Part 3

My 2yr-old grandson calls me “Pop-Pop,” because I wanted to be called “Pop-Pop” after my grandfather.  He calls my wife, “Grammy” because that’s what some of our best friends’ daughter called her grandmother, who was another close friend who passed away in 2020 after battling cancer.  These are both individuals we loved and admired.  We decided on those names for ourselves before our grandson was born.

But kids sometimes have a mind of their own. Would he call us by those names? Once our grandson started talking, it was fairly easy for him to say “Pop-Pop,” but it was not easy for him to say “Grammy.”  For the longest time, it came out of his mouth as “Gibble.”  Now as he has learned to articulate words better and better, he calls my wife “Grammy.” 

But “Pop-Pop” and “Grammy” are titles.  They are not our names.  In recent months, though, our grandson has also learned our names.  If you ask him, “What is Pop-Pop’s or Grammy’s name?” He will say, “Joel” and “Michelle.”  I think he will remember those names for the rest of his life.  At least I hope so. 

But I don’t know if he knows the names of his great-grandparents, many of whom are still living.  In time he will learn those names too, as his great-grandparents are only in their 70s, and he will hopefully have many years with them. 

How about you? How many of your great-grandparents’ names do you know? 

I’m talking about the names of great-grandparents because this topic of our ancestors’ names relates to the question: Why should I fear? It’s the question the psalmist asks in Psalm 49. We studied the question itself in the previous post. Here is how he begins to answer his question in verses 7-9,

“No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—so that they should live on forever and not see decay.”

When the psalmist mentions the impossibility of one human redeeming the life of another, what he means is that we cannot say, “I give my life so that another person doesn’t have to die.” Imagine a scenario where one of you loved ones is very sick, on their deathbed. My guess is that many people have prayed a prayer like, “Lord, I give my life for them. Place their sickness on me. Heal them.” But the psalmist suggests that it is not possible to give our life for another so that God says, “Okay, if you’re sure.  You will now die, and your loved one is now healed and will live.” 

In the same way, there is no amount of money that we could pay God so that God would say, “Thank you for this $1 billion dollars, you have now purchased an upgraded body that will not grow old.  I now give you a body that will not age and you will live forever.”

There is no fountain of youth.  Yes, science is working on it.  Trying to crack the code of aging.  Maybe they will make some advances.  But for the foreseeable future, at least, what the psalmist is saying here is still obviously true.  We will all die. 

The psalmist makes this very clear in verses 10-11,

“For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.”

Try a thought project with me. Think about the the names of your parents. Most people know the names of their parents, or at least one of their parents.

Now take it one generation back in time and think about the names of your grandparents.  I suspect most people know the names of their grandparents as well. 

Let’s now take our thought project one more generation backward. Do you know the names of your great-grandparents? 

That’s starting to get more difficult isn’t it? I know the name of one of my great-grandparents.  My mom’s grandfather, who we called “Pappy,” was a miner from Wales, England, who emigrated here in the early 1920s.  His name was Bert Lewis.  I do not know his wife’s name.  I do not know any of my other 7 great-grandparents’ names.  I once did a family tree that went back that far, but I can’t remember any of the names. 

Think about that.  Of my 8 great-grandparents, I know one name. 

Memories are fleeting aren’t they? 

Think about how many graveyards you have in your community. 

Think about the graves of your loved ones. You visit them. You can decorate the graves for a while, but will your grandchildren?  Will your great-grandchildren.  No. 

The psalmist’s point is that if we want to deal with our fears, we would do well to remember that we humans have a fleeting existence. And we cannot save ourselves. We cannot pay off God. 

So where is the psalmist going with this? We’ll find out more in the next post.

Photo by Tim Kilby on Unsplash

Are you struggling with fear? – New Year Psalm of Wisdom, Part 2

Are things in our world getting worse? While politicians boldly declare that crime is on the rise, an FBI report says the opposite: “Not only has violent crime fallen 23% from 2002 to 2022, but also in the past year alone murders fell 6% and violent crime declined 2% overall.” (Source: Time)

It can be difficult to know what to do with a report like that when every day we see the news about war in Gaza, war in Ukraine, and I could go on and on about troubles in our world. I don’t have to detail it. We humans are quite well-acquainted with fear.

As we continue studying Psalm 49, a wisdom psalm for the New Year, the psalmist continues in verses 5-6 with a question: “Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me— those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?”

He begins with the topic of fearing evil days.  It is very popular in our culture to describe the days as evil.  It is very popular to say, “Things are getting worse” or “I would never want to raise children in today’s world.”  Many people assume that things are getting worse, and that can be a focus of their heart, mind and conversations.

It would be incredibly difficult, maybe impossible, to scientifically prove that things are worse, but that kind of proof is not what people are interested in.  Instead, when people say that things are worse, they are communicating what they have been told by others, perhaps in the news or on social media, or they are communicating what they personally observe.  Their personal opinion is real to them. 

Some of you might have that personal opinion that we are living in evil days, days that are getting worse.  So the psalmist is bringing something up here that is quite common.  Many humans fear evil days. 

But notice how he frames it as a question: “Why should I fear evil days?”  He doesn’t answer the question yet.  He only describes the evil days a bit further.  The evil days, to him, are days when he is surrounded by wicked deceivers.  These wicked deceivers trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches. 

When I read that, it sounded very contemporary and American, trusting in wealth, boasting in great riches.  We swim in the cultural waters of capitalism, materialism, consumerism, and the economy.  The Dow Jones broke 37,000 for the first time ever a few weeks ago.  Inflation is going down.  The consumer spending index is strong.  The unemployment rate is low.  When we hear things like that, we Americans feel good.  The rest of the world can be burning, but our economy is doing great, so many of us feel great. 

Yet the psalmist is quite negative about people who trust in their wealth and boast of their riches.  In fact, he calls the people who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches, wicked deceivers who surround him.  He is actually saying that the evil days have come precisely because the wicked deceivers, those people who trust and boast in their wealth, surround him.  A deceiver is one who tries to fool people, giving an impression that their lives are great.

It’s as though he is surrounded by people who are saying out loud, “We have such great wealth, we are awesome, we have things figured out, we are steady, we are solid, we have it made.”  The psalmist asks “Why should I fear this?” 

I get that.  I immediately resonate with the psalmist.  Do you resonate with the idea of being surrounded by wicked deceivers?  Do you resonate with the idea of being surrounded by people who trust in their wealth?  Does it bring on an unsettled, fearful feeling? Is it tempting to compare your life with theirs? 

It can seem we are surrounded by wicked wealthy deceivers, and even if they are not purposefully attempting to attack us with their depictions of the good life, if we aren’t careful we can feel fear because we know that we don’t have what they have. 

What we wonder deep down is if we are going to be able to pay the bills, to retire, to have steady relationships, to have peace and joy in our lives.  We fear we won’t have that peace.  We can fear that we don’t measure up.  We can fear that we don’t have it made like those other people who clearly have it made.  We not only fear that we don’t currently have it made, we fear we never will.  Do you see where the focus is?   On ourselves, on comparing, and drenched in fear.

I’m not saying that everyone experiences that fear. But some of us do fear. We can feel as though we are surrounded by success and the good life, while at the same time we ourselves seem to be experiencing failure and the not-so-good life. 

Of course, our feelings can be exaggerated.  We can dwell on the negative, and make life out to be far worse than it really is.  But our feelings of fear are real feelings nonetheless. 

But again, notice that the psalmist is questioning.  He says, “Why should I fear?”  That question leaves us with the possibility that maybe he is saying that there is another option besides fear.  Maybe there is a way to look at this situation of being surrounded by supposed success stories without fear. 

In the next post, we’ll begin to learn how he answers his question. 

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

How to listen to a…New Years Psalm of Wisdom, Part 1

While it is true that New Year’s Day is just another day of year, I’m glad for a marker.  Yes, today, New Year’s Day 2024, is just another Monday.  A day off for people who work at companies that give off for New Year’s Day.  An extra day of family, food, football.  But I am personally glad that our culture has an emphasis on a new year.  A new you.  A new normal.  A new start. 

We sometimes need a new start.  We can talk about New Year’s resolutions, but I think that might be jumping the gun a bit.  Instead, let’s talk about how to evaluate the past year, or past years.  Maybe we evaluate the past year or years, and we realize that we don’t need to change anything, or very much at all.  Maybe we evaluate our lives, and we discover there’s a lot we should change.  But to determine that, we first need to evaluate our lives.

How do we evaluate our lives?  Just as with measurement, we have options.  When you’re taking your temperature, for example, the magic number is 98.6.  But 98.6…what?  My wife was recently working with one of the families who came to SEEDS ESL classes at Faith Church.  Their child was sick, and taking a temperature is very different if you measure in Celsius and Fahrenheit.

The same could be said for the driving as well.  If you’re in a country that uses the Metric system, kilometers per hour, when you get pulled over, what will happen if you say to the police officer, “I was looking at my speedometer’s miles per hour lines.” The officer probably won’t let you off the hook.

Likewise, when we evaluate our lives, we can use evaluation tools that will give us very different results. What measurement tool should we use?

During Advent we studied a variety of genres of psalms, helping us prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of King Jesus, and helping us ready ourselves for his return.  This week we finish the blog series with a psalm to help us evaluate our lives and thus be ready for Jesus’ return, which could be at any time. Very appropriate, I hope, for New Year’s Day, when we often look back over the past year and plan toward the new year.  So what kind of psalm will help?

Psalm 49, a psalm of wisdom, is just the psalm that can help us evaluate our lives. Here are verses 1-4:

“Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike: My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle.”

The psalmist begins by saying, “Listen up, everyone.”  What he has to say is for low and high, for rich and poor.  Notice the diversity of the various people groups.  Low and high refer to social status.  Rich and poor, of course, refer to economic status.  Whatever it is he’s about to say, he first wants to make sure that everyone is listening.  These words are for all.

We can often filter things out based on our sense of our standing in the world.  We can say, “Oh, that doesn’t apply to me,” and we can turn off our listening function and ignore it.  The psalmist is concerned that his readers will tune him out because they might think they know better.  Or they might think, these words are for others, not for themselves. 

So let’s not give in to that temptation. You and I need to hear this.  And what is it that we need to hear?  First, the psalmist tells us the category of what he is about to say.  It is wisdom. These words of wisdom, are a meditation from the heart of the psalmist, and they will give us understanding. 

That’s exactly what we are looking for if we want to evaluate our lives.  Wisdom and understanding.  Many people, when they hear those two words, “wisdom and understanding,” have a pretty good idea of what they are referring to.  As we evaluate our lives, however, let’s start from a place of humility and teachability and not assume that we already know what wisdom and understanding are. 

Likewise, let’s not assume that we are living our lives in a wise and understanding way.  The whole point of evaluating our lives is to check up on ourselves.  Are we wise and understanding?  Are we living rightly?  Probably a mix of yes and no.  The psalmist, in what he says through the rest of the psalm, will give us some further information that we can use to evaluate with.

Photo by Franco Antonio Giovanella on Unsplash

An evaluation of our lives – New Year Psalm of Wisdom, Preview

Each time I teach a class for Lancaster Bible College, there is a course evaluation.  It’s not just my classes.  Every LBC class includes an evaluation.  Here’s how it works: all students in the class are sent an email with a link that they can click on to evaluate the course.  In my experience, about half of the students complete the evaluation.  But I don’t blame those who choose not to.  If they are full-time students, they fill out 4, 5, or 6 evaluations every semester.  Given that these evals take place near the end of the semester when life is extremely busy for students, I can understand why many choose not to complete the evaluations. Still, I wish they did.

From a professor’s perspective, I both do and do not want to hear their feedback.  I want to hear good feedback, and I am nervous that I will hear negative feedback. No matter the feedback, I need to be evaluated.  So a few days after the evaluation period closes, the evaluation company compiles the results, and sends me an email with a link to the results.

I then find out what the students think of me.  First, they answer 21 questions about me and the course, with a ranking on a scale of 1 to 4.  As I review the results, I can also see how their rankings of me compare to the college average.  I really want my rankings to beat the college average.  Second, there are 34 open-ended questions to which the students can type any response they want.  What will they say?  Did they think I was a good prof?  Was I boring?

This past fall, the evaluation period ended while there was still a month of class to go.  I learned through the evaluation that at least one student wished there was more variety in my instruction method.  I found that very helpful. I was a bit embarrassed to read it, of course, but I needed to hear that.  I needed feedback.  I need to grow, learn, and change.

We all need feedback to help us grow.  We especially need feedback to help us become more like Jesus.  This coming week on the blog, we have the final sermon in our Advent series looking at a variety of genres of psalms.  This one, Psalm 49, is a wisdom psalm.   Psalm 49 is like my course evaluation, helping us evaluate our lives. Perfect for New Years Day.  Check out Psalm 49 ahead of time.  I look forward to walking through Psalm 49 with you.

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God’s surprising role as judge – Advent Psalm of Celebration, Part 5

At the conclusion of Psalm 98, a psalm of joyous celebration, suddenly, all the joy and praise and glory seems to stop.  Notice how the psalm concludes in verse 9b,

“For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.”

Judge?  What a different tone.  What a strange way to finish this song of celebration. 

Yet, the image the psalmist evokes is not one of negative judgment.  Typically when we think of God judging the earth, we think of the disasters in the book of Revelation.  Or maybe I have them in mind because this summer and fall I taught New Testament classes that covered Acts through Revelation.  We finished the semester just last week, studying the book of Revelation and all its wild imagery of disaster.  AKA judgment. 

But notice how the psalmist describes the Judge.  He first says that the Judge himself will come to the earth.  He is present.  He is not zapping the earth from afar like the Death Star in the Star Wars movies.  Instead this judge is there among the people.  He is present with his people.  Jesus is with us, becoming one of us.  That is the image of the word “advent.”  Jesus has come. 

I’m reminded of the Johnny Cash song The Man Comes Around.  In that song Cash depicts Jesus as the one who comes to judge. 

“There’s a man who decides who to free and who to blame/Not everyone will be treated the same/There will be a golden ladder reaching down/when the man comes around.”

That might sound the exact opposite of what the psalmist says when the psalmist says God will judge with equity.  But equity does not mean that everyone gets the same judgment.  Equity means that everyone is judged based on the same criteria.  But the results are not the same.

As judge, God’s not doing any zapping or world destroying at all.  When his judgement is described as “in righteousness and with equity.”

God is good, God is love.  When he shows up there is rejoicing!  We have spent the Advent season thinking about what it means to be ready for his arrival so that when he arrives there will be rejoicing. 

Because Jesus is coming again.  We don’t know when.  When is not our concern.  I know it is easy to look at what is happening around the world and think, “He is coming again soon.” I find that kind of speculation to be distracting and counterproductive.  What is far more important is to be ready for him to return anytime.  How do we ready ourselves? 

We spend time rejoicing at his salvation, just like this psalmist did.  That rejoicing is singing new songs, and it means a life of worship.  Because God has brought salvation, we live the saved lifestyle, the same lifestyle that Jesus himself live.  We live lives marked by loving selflessness.  We serve others, especially those in need.  We share the stories of God’s salvation.  We spend time with our Lord individually and with others, so that we might know him better.   

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Three important words about salvation that lead to exuberant praise around the globe – Advent Psalm of Celebration, Part 4

Most people enjoy a good celebration. Whether it is New Year’s, a birthday, an anniversary, a victory or achievement of some kind, it is wonderful to gather with friends and loved ones to celebrate. Psalm 98 is a psalm of celebration. In this post we’ll find out why.

In Psalm 98, there are three words in verses 1-3 that help us understand how a baby, God in the flesh, ushers salvation into the world.  The three words are “righteousness, faithfulness and love.” 

“Righteousness” is a word that is often translated “justice.”  It gives us the idea that God’s salvation is able to take people and structures that are broken and make them just and right.  Through Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, we learn that Jesus had victory over sin, death and the devil, so that we can have new life, just as he had new life. 

That brings us back to what we studied in the Helmet of Salvation sermon a few weeks ago: we are saved from and saved for.  We can be saved from sin and its consequences when we place our faith in Jesus and give our lives to him.  When we do that, God’s salvation works a process of making us right.  We have right standing before him, but he also saves us by changing our lives so that we become more and more right.  We are saved for experiencing abundant life here on earth, with the Fruit of the Spirit flowing from our lives (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control) as we serve him on the mission of his Kingdom. 

After “righteousness,” the second word the psalmist uses to illustrate God’s salvation is “love.”  God’s love. Some have said that this better rendered in English as “loving kindness” or “loyal goodness” from God toward his people.   It is a posture that God has toward us. He loves us.  He wants to save us because he loves us.  So out of that love, God who is spirit, becomes one of us, in the form of a newborn baby.  Jesus’ birth is a wonderful display of God’s love for us.

The third word the psalmist uses to describe God’s salvation is “faithfulness.”  Another way to say this is that God is trustworthy. We can place our trust in him because God is faithful.  This psalm itself illustrates God’s faithfulness.  In Psalm 98, God promises that he is faithful and he will save.  Then the promise is fulfilled in the baby Jesus, who would go on to live, give his life on the cross, and rise again to new life. The psalm predicted God’s faithfulness in providing salvation, and sure enough, God was faithful in providing salvation in Christ.

Next the psalmist makes a very important application of these three words.  Salvation from God means that he has revealed his righteousness, faithfulness and love to all other nations, to the ends of the earth.  God’s desire is that all people would experience his salvation.  This is why we sing Joy to the World. 

We see this world-wide focus when the angels sang new songs on the night Jesus was born: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Whenever we look into the eyes of our enemies, of people we dislike, of people that annoy us, we are looking at people who God loves, people who God wants to experience his salvation.  People who God might want us to communicate his love to. All those Israelis that Hamas killed, and all those Palestinians and Hamas that Israel killed.  All the Ukrainians that Russia has killed.  All the Russians that Ukrainians have killed.  All the migrants hoping to get into our country.  God loves each and every one of them and wants each and every one to be saved. 

There is a very real sense in which you and I now put flesh on God, our flesh, and we show people what God is like.  This enfleshment, this incarnation, is especially real when we consider that the Holy Spirit of God lives in us. 

At Faith Church, this is why we started a Prison Worship Team.  This is why we support SEEDS English as a Second Language classes for people in our community who have come from other countries.  This is why we are starting a Church World Service Refugee Welcome Team.  This is why we have supported international sister churches and missionaries for decades.  This is why we send gifts to children around the world through Operation Christmas Child. 

Just like the angels announced good news to the shepherds, we want to announce to everyone that God’s salvation is available to all people.

Back in Psalm 98, this incredibly good news of God’s salvation causes the psalmist to erupt.  Look at verses 4-6,

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King.”

Once again, this passage reminds us of the angels who sang at Jesus’ birth: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

God has done it!  God has brought salvation. 

So the psalmist continues in verses 7-9a, “Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord.” 

There is praise and worship all over the globe.  Even the natural world cannot contain its praise.

But then suddenly, all the joy and praise and glory seems to stop. We’ll learn why in the next post.

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