WHAT WE CHOOSE TO SEE IN DISAGREEMENTS?

The following perspective arises from the blessings I received at the DOXOLOGY retreat this past week.

In any disagreements that take place in the local congregation, each person has two ways of seeing those on the other side of every issue. This is especially true when a person begins using whispering campaigns, force, threats, and intimidation to attain the outcome he or she desires.
When a person uses such methods in a disagreement, what do you see when you look at the one doing such things?
Do you see that person as “stubborn”, “arrogant”, “wrong”, or “hard-headed”?
On the other hand, do you see that person as one who is captive to the power of his/her own sinful pride’s illusions? ... someone captive to the illusions and reasoning of Satan? One does not have to be demon possessed to be deceived by Satan and his wiles.
To see that person apart from the cruel confusing and confounding power of sin and Satan is to see that person with eyes other than those of Jesus Christ. To see them this way, we are left to manage them and the issue ourselves. This being the case, we will have to turn to the same methods that sin and Satan have convinced them to use. Our only hope of winning the issue requires that we use their sinful ways in greater measure and with more cleverness.
To see them as one captive to sin and Satan is to see them as one pinned in a crashed car. So let us consider:
If they wrecked their car, would that keep us from calling 911?
If we caused their car to wreck, would that keep us from calling 911?
If they could not get out of the car, would that keep us from calling 911?
If we could get them out of the car, would that keep us from calling 911?
Of course, the answer to all four is NO!!! Definitely not!!!
We would call 911 because we would want to have those who can – to get to them, free them, and bring the needed aid to their wounds. We would want them to do for them, what we cannot do.
Yet in truth, such is the real spiritual condition of anyone who turns to whispering campaigns, force, threats, and the like. They have crashed their faith on some issue and they are trapped and cannot free themselves.
As with any accident, the first issue cannot be who is right or wrong, or who caused it. The issue must be their injuries and meeting the needs for which their injuries cry out. Only the eyes of mercy can see this.
We can stand around looking at the crash and the person pinned inside, describing them, their driving and even the crash, but to what end? None of this frees them from the crash. None of this brings that aid they need. None of this summons the ones who can get to that person and help them. None of this frees them from their crash.
On the other hand, we can see with the eyes of mercy, and bow to their needs by calling on the Lord Jesus Christ to come and set them free.
Just as none of us can save ourselves from our sin or sustain ourselves in saving faith, neither than can we save those in sin’s crash or sustain them in their journey of faith. He alone came to our crash site. He alone allowed himself to be pinned in the damning crash of our sin, not by us or our sin, but by His own love for us. “… He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.” Is 53:5.
Christ alone mercifully forgives us so freely that we are saved from the crash and set back again upon the journey of faith and unity with one another.
What we choose to see in others will determine whether we “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ep 4:1-3.
In addition, what we choose to see is always determined by what we believe the Lord sees and does to us, and those that we see: “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Psalms 103:10.
What will you choose to see today?
A bunch of selfish, self-serving, stubborn, arrogant and apathetic people?
Or will you choose to see personal crashes of faith in desperate need of someone to call – not 911, but God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to come in mercy and rescue those who have crashed their faith and been crushed and pinned in sin?

Lord God, heavenly Father, have mercy upon us and give us eyes to see and tongues to call upon You for our deliverance from sin and Satan, and for the same constant deliverance of all those You have given to us at home, at church, at work or wherever we find ourselves. In the blessed name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

- pmwl

All depends on faith

"All depends on faith [in Jesus Christ alone].  He who does not believe [in Christ alone] is like one who must cross the sea, but is so timid that he does not trust the ship; and so he must remain and never be saved, because he does not embark and cross over." 
- Martin Luther.
A Treatise Concerning the Blessed Sacrament and Concerning the Brotherhoods - LW II.

Blessed are the "un-cool"

An excellent article on why worship isn't about what's cool or makes the worshippers feel cool. 

"People sometimes assume that because I’m a progressive 30-year-old who enjoys Mumford and Sons and has no children, I must want a super-hip church—you know, the kind that’s called “Thrive” or “Be” and which boasts “an awesome worship experience,” a fair-trade coffee bar, its own iPhone app, and a pastor who looks like a Jonas Brother.
While none of these features are inherently wrong, (and can of course be used by good people to do good things), these days I find myself longing for a church with a cool factor of about 0.
That’s right.
I want a church that includes fussy kids, old liturgy, bad sound, weird congregants, and…brace yourself…painfully amateur “special music” now and then.
Why?
Well, for one thing, when the gospel story is accompanied by a fog machine and light show, I always get this creeped-out feeling like someone’s trying to sell me something. It’s as though we’re all compensating for the fact that Christianity’s not good enough to stand on its own so we’re adding snacks.
But more importantly, I want to be part of an un-cool church because I want to be part of a community that shares the reputation of Jesus, and like it or not, Jesus’ favorite people in the world were not cool. They were mostly sinners, misfits, outcasts, weirdos, poor people, sick people, and crazy people.
Cool congregations can get so wrapped up in the “performance” of church that they forget to actually be the church, a phenomenon painfully illustrated by the story of the child with cerebral palsy who was escorted from the Easter service at Elevation Church for being a “distraction.”
Really?
It seems to me that this congregation was distracted long before this little boy showed up! In their self-proclaimed quest for “an explosive, phenomenal movement of God—something you have to see to believe,” they missed Jesus when he was right under their nose.
Was the paralytic man lowered from the rooftop in the middle of a sermon a distraction?
Was the Canaanite woman who harassed Jesus and his disciples about healing her daughter a distraction?
Were the blind men from Jericho who annoyed the crowd with their relentless cries a distraction?
Jesus didn’t think so. In fact, he seemed to think that they were the point.
Jesus taught us that when we throw a banquet or a party, our invitation list should include “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” So why do our church marketing teams target the young, the hip, the healthy, and the resourced?
In Bossypants (a book you should really go out and buy this very instant), Tina Fey describes working for the YMCA in Chicago soon after graduating from college. This particular YMCA included, “a great mix of high-end yuppie fitness facility, a wonderful community resource for families, and an old-school residence for disenfranchised men,” so Fey shares a host of funny stories about working the front desk. One such story involves one of the residents forgetting to take his meds, bumping into a young mom on her way to a workout session, and saying something wildly inappropriate (and very funny—you should definitely go out and get this book). Fey writes, “The young mother was beside herself. That’s the kind of trouble you get when diverse groups of people actually cross paths with one another. That’s why many of the worst things in the world happen in and around Starbucks bathrooms.”
Church can be a lot like the Y...or a Starbucks bathroom.
We have one place for the un-cool people (our ministries) and another place for the cool people (our church services). When we actually bump into one another, things can get awkward, so we try to avoid it.
It’s easy to pick on Elevation Church in this case, but the truth is we’re all guilty of thinking we’re too cool for the least of these. Our elitism shows up when we forbid others from contributing art and music because we deem it unworthy of glorifying God, or when we scoot our family an extra foot or two down the pew when the guy with Aspergers sits down. Having helped start a church, I remember hoping that our hip guests wouldn’t be turned off by our less-than-hip guests. For a second I forgot that in church, of all places, those distinctions should disappear.
Some of us wear our brokenness on the inside, others on the outside.
But we’re all broken.
We’re all un-cool.
We’re all in need of a Savior.
So let’s cut the crap, pull the plug, and have us some distracting church services… the kind where Jesus would fit right in.
Do you ever get the feeling that church is just one big show? Have you found a congregation in which Jesus and his friends would be welcome?"

From:  http://rachelheldevans.com/blessed-are-the-uncool