A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The CMA Conference

 

Yep, I just got back late Sunday night from the CMA (Church Multiplication Associates) Organic Church Conference in Ontario, California. It was a good conference (as always, Neil Cole & his team always do top-drawer stuff. No surprise there!). It was good to see old house church friends, get caught up and get challenged. My fasting time made it somewhat awkward around meal times, but after 12 years of this I've come to accept it as one of the prices for obedience. If you have opportunity to get some of the session or workshop CDs I would encourage you to do so.

 

But my biggest experience took place on the airplane on my way to the conference. Yep, if you read my newsletters you already know that these things tend to happen to me on the way to conferences. Don't volunteer to travel with me unless you want God to teach you a lesson along the way!  Hmmm. Something going on there. As I flew out of Spokane I decided to spend the one hour trip to Portland by having devotions. I chose to read a familiar passage that God has impressed on me over the past year (Matthew 25:31-46), but this time I decided to spot-translate it out of the Greek. So I pulled my Reader's Greek New Testament out of my backpack and began to read. And that's when it happened. Before I finished the passage I found myself weeping. And, I suppose, that needs an explanation.

 

Now, mind you, Greek can bring a person to tears for several reasons. It tends to happen frequently among first year Greek students, especially when confronted by a Greek teacher who calls them to the front of the class, hands them a quarter and says, "Call home and tell your parents you'll never be a Greek scholar." Yep, that'll do it. But this was different. As I read the Greek text and began to appreciate the nuances of what I found there, I began to sense the Holy Spirit convicting me of how poorly I had understood this passage before now. Left to our own devices we all tend to interpret Scripture in that way which best suits or agrees with our preconceived understanding of the world. Yes, sometimes we only see what we want to see. It takes a fresh illumination by the Holy Spirit, giving us new perspective and allowing us to see what was always there. I don't want to belabor this point, or bore you with a Bible study which is only meaningful to me, but I want to briefly share just a few of these "new" (new-to-me) insights:

 

Insight # 1:  This passage isn't a "parable" but a description. Parables were illustrated stories drawn from everyday life, which both revealed and concealed spiritual truth. Some of them were downright hard to understand without explanation. Just ask the Disciples who were constantly asking Jesus, "What did you mean?" That isn't the case here. This passage a description of what is going to happen to us on the Day of Judgment as Jesus ("the Son of Man") comes in glory and sits "on His glorious throne". To spend endless word studies on the significance of a "throne" and what it means is to miss the point. It's judgment day and Jesus is on His throne. Simple & straightforward . . . even in the Greek. We're about to be judged, and the question we should be asking is, "Judged for what?"

 

Insight # 2:  We are trapped by our "religious vocabulary". I saw this in Verse 34 in the phrase "blessed of My Father". The word "blessed" conjures up "religious" feelings and notions among professing believers. As Christians we then tend to throw around the word "blessing" without ever thinking about it beyond how religious and spiritual it makes us feel. The Greek word (eulogeo) simply means "to speak well of" someone or something. Really want to "bless" me? Stop talking about me behind my back and begin to "speak well" of me instead. So, let me ask you a question: Do you want to be 'spoken well of' by God on judgment day? If you do, then you might want to pay attention to the rest of this passage, because it sets forth the terms and conditions for that to happen. O.K., at this point you might be asking yourself, "What's the alternative to being spoken well of by God". We find that in verse 41: "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire . . .". There it is. The alternative to being spoken well of by God is to be told to "go away" and to be called "accursed" by that same God. Now, if you can find a positive way to "spin" being told by God to "go away from Me" and being called "accursed" (not to mention the whole "eternal fire" part) knock yourself out. I can't.

 

Insight # 3: God's concern is our concern. In verse 36 I was struck by the phrase "you visited me". The Greek word episkeptomai - from the root skeptomai  referring to a watch, a sentry - is where we get our word "skeptic". The prefix epi serves to intensify the meaning of the root. It means to examine something very closely. When applied to relationships it carries the force of  "to show such concern for someone's welfare that you go looking for them and check on their condition". When was the last time you were so concerned for someone who was hungry, naked (poorly clothed), a stranger (lonely), sick, imprisoned or otherwise marginalized that you went out of your way to seek them out, find them and check on their welfare.

 

Insight # 4:  Fattening people up is a good thing. Over my years of reading Greek (started in college) I've come to appreciate some of the nuances of the language. For example, in verse 37 we read "Lord, when did we see you hungry (i.e., in a continual state of being hungry) and feed you." The Greek word "feed" (trepho) means "to fatten, to pamper, to rear, to bring up, to nourish". This isn't simply feeding hungry people. This is pampering them with food to the point of fattening them up! Want an illustration of what's going on here? Think of the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Ray's Italian mother (Marie) is constantly forcing food on him, "You're looking pale, son. Let me fix you something to eat." For Marie, food wasn't simply food. It was a way of expressing genuine love and concern. Because I feed 30-40 men at a local homeless men's shelter every Thursday night, one of my first tasks when I arrived home from the CMA Conference was to go on my weekly "food hunt". I called one of my local food sources. When she informed me that she had a dozen beef roasts I nearly dropped the phone. "I'll meet you in 20 minutes and pick them up," I blurted out. Cooked for about 36 hours in BBQ sauce these roasts will fall apart into pulled beef BBQ sandwiches. Add a couple pans of small red potatoes and mixed vegetables and the guys will be eating well Thursday night. When I cook, I want them to eat as well at the shelter as I do at home . . . sometimes even better. Why? Because I think that's what Jesus meant when he said "When I was hungry you fed me."

 

Insight # 5: When did that become my ministry?  The insights I've shared so far were powerful and I was deeply struck by them. But they really didn't prepare me for what came next. I found it at the end of verse 44. In the English it reads, "When did we see you . . . . and not take care of you". In the Greek, the phrase "take care of you" is the word diakoneo (yes, we get our word "deacon" from this one). This word means "to wait on or serve someone, to act as a deacon, to minister". Again, because we often get trapped in our religious vocabulary, words like "deacon" or "serve," we miss the force of what is really being said. What these people (i.e., the goats) were asking Jesus was simply this, "When did feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, seeing to the sick; when did these things become my ministry, Lord?" Haven't you ever asked that same question? Of course you have. And here is the answer: These things became your ministry the day you decided that you wanted to be well spoken of by God on the Day of Judgment. (Ouch! That one's going to leave a mark!).

 

Insight # 6:  This stuff is important enough to have eternal consequences. For a growing number of professing Christians today, Christianity is increasingly becoming a spiritual form of no-fault car insurance; no one gets blamed for anything and it all gets fixed in the end. Just pay your premium (tithing?) and life will be good. Historically speaking, whenever the Church has lost it's sense of the eternal consequences of it's actions or non-actions, missions has died (i.e., don't worry about the lost cause they'll all get saved eventually by a loving God) and eventually the Church has died. Missions and the Christian life are inextricably tied to consequences. Get over it. When we read this passage (Matthew 25:31-46) we are (at least I was) confronted with a stark reality. Our actions or in-actions have eternal consequences. I see this particularly in verses 41-46. The word "eternal" (Greek: aionios) occurs three times in this passage. The word can mean "eternal" or simply "a long-but-limited period of time". But it can't mean both things in the same sentence (I'll talk about that in a moment). The first occurrence (verse 41) refers to "the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." Whatever this "eternal fire" is, it was originally prepared by God for Satan and that portion of the angelic host which rebelled against God before the creation of the world and were booted out of heaven. God determined and prepared their punishment (i.e., the lake of fire, see Revelation 20:11-15) before man ever came on the scene. But when mankind rebelled in Adam & Eve in the Garden, mankind became subject to the same punishment for its rebellion as Lucifer & his followers were subjected to for theirs - the eternal fire. The question inevitably arises whether this punishment is eternal or temporary. That issue is resolved in verse 46, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." As I said before, the word aionios cannot mean two different things in the same sentence, especially when used as a comparative value. To put this in simple terms: the punishment (whatever it may be; fire, separation, etc.) is as eternal as the life; or the life must be as temporary as the punishment. You can't have it both ways. Consistency is a basic principle of hermeneutics (the art of biblical interpretation). Once we grasp the reality of eternity, we must next grasp the reality that this stuff (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting the prisoner, attending the sick, reaching out to the marginalize) and how we respond to it has eternal consequences. Personally, I want to be spoken well of by God on the Day of Judgment, and if it requires the fear (or attraction) of eternal consequences to make that happen and to jolt me out of my sense of "no-fault-insurance-Christianity", well, so be it.

 

Fasting To End Hunger In Spokane

 

I'm now entering the second week of my 40 days of "Fasting To End Hunger" in Spokane. The front page newspaper article which appeared last Tuesday, the 5th, was somewhat intimidating, but I have accepted my role and have been blessed and encouraged by the responses I have received. My body has "downshifted" and adjusted to the new routine and I am doing well. The first week and the last week are always the most difficult - the first because you're trying to tame your body and get established in the new routine, and the last because you're just trying to survive. The longest I have ever gone is 50 days - and by the time I reached the end I was all but incoherent and having to let my wife drive because I couldn't focus. This time around, fasting is a reminder to me of how the homeless and the hungry must feel on a regular basis - seeing food that other people take for granted & enjoy, but which I'm unable to eat. It changes your perspective. If you get a chance, check out the Feed Spokane website at www.feedspokane.com. I would love to have some of you get involved with us. It would really bless my socks off to see the Christian and Church communities embrace this time and support us . . . we'll see.

 

Christian Guest Ranch Looking For Administrative Manager

 

I don't usually do the "Christian Classified" thing, but this was given to me by a friend, and I agreed to pass it on. Living Waters Ranch in Challis, Idaho is looking for a year-round administrative person. Reading the job description they seem to be looking for an office manager with bookkeeping experience, computer skills, general office skills and able to work with people (guest relations). Housing will be provided and salary will be determined by experience and education. If you're interested, contact Christopher James (lwatersr7@custertel.net) at (208) 879-2888. Their website is www.livingwatersranch.org. Let me know if something works out.