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| "So, Clemenza, let me get this straight: Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?" "Fuhgetaboutit!" |
When it comes to faithfully and honestly expounding the word of God as he has given it to us, there is simply no substitute for working through a book together, Sunday by Sunday, as a church. Thematic or topical series have their place throughout the church year, but if we claim to take the Bible seriously in our congregations, then book studies must be given primacy.
A criticism that this approach often attracts is that it lacks the flexibility to address issues the church might be dealing with at any particular moment. This can be fairly easily countered. Firstly, when choosing books to teach as a series, a church should be considering the current needs of its congregation anyway, and prayerfully selecting texts which speak to those. Secondly, as stated above, a good church will make room for thematic or topical sermons throughout the year anyway, and these provide particularly gilt-edged opportunities for such ministry.
But I cannot imagine I am alone in positing a third, far weightier reason: we have good reason to trust that God will speak powerfully to us through his word as it has been presented to us. Time and time again in my own preaching ministry, God has aligned circumstances and text in such a way that the particular text, of the particular book, in the particular preaching series, that was programmed for that particular Sunday some months ago, is precisely what the church needs to hear. This is all of God, and all the more reason to give him the glory.
This has certainly been the case here in the last couple of weeks, where I have been working through Galatians 3 and 4. We elected to preach Galatians some months ago owing to the Reformation's 500th anniversary this year, and it being Martin Luther's favourite book (his only commentary was written on the epistle, and if you know anything of his biography, it's not hard to see why). In the particular passages I was preaching on, Paul is showing that God's law, which the Galatians were depending on, is inferior to God's promise (because it came later and through an intermediary), but that it is still integral in that it demonstrates in Technicolor just how far we fall short of God's standards -- and therefore, just how much we need to respond to his unconditional promise in Jesus! He then reminds the Galatians that, as heirs of the promise, they are free -- so why go back to a life of enslavement to works-righteousness?
We have all, then, as Christians, gone from slavery to salvation-by-works, to the freedom of salvation-by-grace. But the funny thing is that Amanda and I have had a lot of experiences here recently, in our own church and in para-church settings, where the noises from the pulpit seem to suggest the opposite, particularly among young people. Something along the lines of: "Don't be like those friends of yours who are having the time of their lives; don't dance, don't drink, don't get into relationships with the opposite sex." And that's it.
I recently read a book on preaching that contained the following simple, yet powerful, thought: that if you reckon you could get away with your sermon in a mosque or a synagogue, then it isn't worth preaching in church. So many factors, too numerous to detail here, have brought about an 'evangelical' church culture where legalism and The Stuff We Must Do have come to dominate Bible teaching, particularly among those pesky young people, who just can't control themselves, can they. And so, sermons you could get away with in a mosque or synagogue are the meat and potatoes of church experience.
It all comes back, of course, to a faulty understanding of God's salvation. Having been brought up in the school of no-free-lunches, we struggle to accept its totality, finality and unconditionality (I have this moment at least once a day!). And as a result, our obedience is motivated by fear when, in fact, if we really grasped the fullness of what God has done for us, it would flow from us naturally as an expression of love and thankfulness. Why, indeed, settle for these fleeting pleasures, when life in abundance can be ours today?
Going back to my sermons, then, it has been interesting to see how God, in the last few weeks, has used this hefty reminder of his grace to really get people thinking about the kinds of messages we are sending as a church, particularly among our young people; bear in mind that our young people are vulnerable not only because of youth culture in general, but also because they largely come from unchurched homes -- and those whose parents have brought them up in some kind of faith know only the works righteousness so ingrained in this culture.
So this message is causing people to sit up and pay attention. Two separate young men, both regular youth-group attendees, approached me in the last week to tell me that they had never heard this before. I was simultaneously encouraged and challenged: encouraged that they were simply paying attention to the Sunday sermon (!) and that the gospel was being clearly understood; challenged that this seemed to be inconsistent with the kinds of messages they were hearing elsewhere. That was confirmed to me when a youth leader approached me to say he was concerned that the general teaching for the youth on Saturday nights wasn't consistent with the kind of gospel message being preached on Sunday mornings.
I am not currently involved in the youth ministry, but Amanda is, and has also had some interesting conversations this week on the topic with her fellow workers in the ministry; they are great, committed people, but most are new enough in the faith to be susceptible to these kinds of errors. The material used on Saturdays is essentially solid, but much of it is about making good decisions, and so the possibility of 'synagogue sermons' is very much a live one. It seems like, pretty soon, the teaching on Saturday nights will have to come under some serious scrutiny, and we are encouraged that it's not just us foreigners, for once, asking the big questions.
Of course, as with all such matters, The Godfather nailed it. Hitherto blue-eyed-boy Michael Corleone is in some anxiety as to the impact his upcoming 'hit' on a family rival will surely have on inter-mafiosi affairs in New York. Peter Clemenza ("Leave the gun; take the cannoli.") endeavours to help him see the bigger picture:
That's all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood.
While by no means looking to 'get rid of the bad blood' (!), I wonder if, in the church of Jesus Christ, these little grace shake-ups also "gotta happen every five years or so", much like we are experiencing now. Indeed, I suspect we depend on such seasons. If I, as I mentioned above, need to be reminding myself of God's grace every day, we can never preach this message too much. But first of all, we need to learn accept it for ourselves.
Prayer
- We are thankful for this little reawakening which might be taking place among us, and doubly conscious that we must, as a couple, be patient and, yes, gracious with the people we are working alongside, so as not to compromise this message in any way. Pray for tact, for diplomacy, for love.
- Our fellow Latin Link workers, Graham & Debbie Frith, are due here any moment now for a weekend visit. Please pray for a time of mutual encouragement.
Praise
- The Gore family (see last week) have settled in well after their move from Cochabamba and we have enjoyed getting to know them a little better this week.
¡Que Dios les bendiga!
Craig & Amanda
