HOLINESS: VERY DOWN TO EARTH DISCIPLINE

BLOG 6/30/20. HOLINESS IS A VERY DOWN-TO-EARTH SELF-DISCIPLINE

There is a very fascinating spiritual discipline which is called for in Hebrews 12:14: “Strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Holiness seems like such an ‘other-worldly’ concept, so removed from the “stink and stuff” or our earthly and existential struggles. But …not so! Holiness is the lifestyle of the new creation, of our identification with the character and image of the Triune God. It is God’s divine nature being radiantly displayed in our daily lives, and in the vicissitudes of our sojourn, not in some ‘never-never-land’ but in the struggles and realities of our pilgrimage as aliens and exiles, and in our discipline to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the garments of light.

One wag is reputed to have said that there were three things which they did not discuss in his church: “sex, politics, and religion.” We can laugh at that, but those are some of the most ever-present issues with which we struggle in our everyday lives, and from which we are to be putting off our old nature and putting on our new, our new humanity. We need to ‘get real.’ While we are assaulted on the internet with every conceivable dimension of our human greed, sexual misdemeanors (pornography), public and private characteristics of our cultural darkness, the apostle teaches that we are to think on “what is true, just, honorable, lovely, pure, and of good report” (Philippians 4:8).

Ah! So here we are in a year with all kinds of discouraging and ethically-challenged politics and are faced with an election which includes some candidates of dubious characters. We have to register as a member of a party, but we much choose the candidates, and the party who most conform to the ethics of our new humanity (which often is quite difficult to discern). Ah! but it in such existential realities that we are not to seek escape, but to seek peace and holiness “without which no man shall see God.”

Add to that, we ae inescapably experiencing a global pandemic that show no signs of diminishing, not to mention a world with over seventy million refugees. And replete with racial hatreds in nearly every quarter of the globe.

What is one to do?

I look at this world from my comfortable home, in a lovely sub-division with covenants of mutual caring and including residents from many ethnic backgrounds, and sexual orientations. And I am a disciple of Jesus who came to minister to the exiles and strangers, to feed the hungry, to visit this in prison, and to heal the sick—to love others as he loves us. How do I fit this into the injustices, the very real displays of unrighteousness, racial hatreds, and violence so obvious in our daily news reports?

I begin, doing my best to choosing in the election those persons and platforms that most hopefully exhibit the ethics of God’s new creation. Then I look at human need, and by taking seriously Jesus’ call, and to write into my budget those ministries that are efficiently bring real help to the world’s helpless, beginning with local food bank. Then giving generously to:

  1. The International Rescue Committee (which dates back to World War II.
  2. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees.
  3. The Southern Poverty Law Center (a legal ministry to the legally helpless).
  4. The American Civil Liberties Union (another ministry to the legally helpless).
  5. And, finally, Amnesty International (also a legal ministry to the helpless).

Holiness: That my offering for the day.

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 4.21.20. “I WILL RESTORE TO YOU THE YEARS WHICH THE LOCUST HAVE EATEN.”

In the bleakest years of Israel’s history (6th to 9th centuries BC) the prophet Joel reminded the Israelites that they were to be glad and to rejoice because the Lord would give them abundant rain, would fill the vats with wine, and would “restore the years which the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:23-25).

We need this reminder during this quarantine under which are living, when we, as the church, are not even able to meet together and encourage one another face to face. It may be that this is our most beautiful occasion to teach and encourage one another. Yes, it may be a beautiful time to encourage our faithful pastors and church leaders of our love and prayers for them. They have every reason to be anxious about the life and welfare of the Christian community for which they have oversight.

Hopefully, there are those others in the church community with whom you have warm relationships, and with whom you can share encouragement by way of text messaging, phone calls, and e-mail. I, having been sequestered for a year due to an injury, can testify how refreshing and what a blessing are communications with my friends in the family of God, and how much I am provoked to keep contact and to pray for them.

Having been a pastor for fifty years, I can also affirm to my readers here how much our pastors need to have communication with us as they seek to minister to us on-line during this pandemic. Share with them your faith journey, and your meditations in response to their on-line teachings. (Don’t overwhelm them, but let them know of your love).

Then, … remember that we are a people of hope. “Now may the God of hope bill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Ours is a future and a hope. Stay tuned.

________

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 4/10/20. “I WAS A STRANGER AND YOU TOOK ME IN”

I received some interesting responses to my most recent Blog having to do with Christ’s passion for the hungry and homeless, etc. That’s worthy of a bit more consideration here. We are so preoccupied with the corona virus that it is sometimes difficult to see beyond to the other human tragedies that are so heart-breaking in the world. The corona virus came inescapably to our doorstep and so disturbed all our securities, such that we couldn’t escape it. We speak of its victims in terms of hundreds of thousands of victims.

That makes it much easier to overlook the victims of violence and destructive regimes that have produced over seventy million homeless refugees, and untold numbers of victims of injustice that abound even on our own doorstep, and due to the present policies of our own government. Even though I/we may not be in personal contact with such victims, does that mean that I am absolved from any responsibility for them?

The themes of justice and righteousness permeate the Biblical documents. Doing what is right and what is just to “the least of these” belongs to all of us who bear the name of Jesus Christ. I have been asked by some respondents to suggest some ways to realistically bring tangible assistance to the refugees, the homeless, the victims of injustice and human tragedy. I live comfortably here in an urban suburb, secure (relatively), well-fed, and with a sufficient income, … but I bear responsibility to do what I am able, to all of those in the world who have no security and little hope. To that end I have researched which agencies are the best managed and the most efficient (I look for low overhead) in providing real aid to those victims, so here are my personal recommendations:

  • The United Nations High Commission on Refugees is on the scene with the practical necessities that those who have no other source, and is highly regarded.
  • The International Rescue Committee (founded in WW II by Albert Einstein to assist the Jewish victims, and has grown in scope and stature over time).
  • Doctors Without Borders, which is one of the most effective medical agencies in rapid response to disasters, having resources to make immediate medical help available in crisis areas.
  • Southern Poverty Law Center is a justice mission which becomes a legal advocate for refugees in this country who have no other recourse to legal help.
  • The American Civil Liberties Union, again, a justice resource for the “strangers with our gates. Access to legal help is critical to these refugees in our own country.
  • Amnesty International, likewise. The threat of being deported back to the hazardous scene from which they fled is a nightmare to these strangers within our gates.

Locally, there are often resources for refugees, those agencies that can provide furniture and housewares to those newly arrived. There are also food banks worthy of our support, who are a major resource. … Just be alert to the human crisis that is so much larger, but less in the news, than the very real pandemic we are living through.

I hope that these suggestions may help. “Blessed are those who hunger for what is right.”

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 4/10/20. “I WAS A STRANGER AND YOU TOOK ME IN”

I received some interesting responses to my most recent Blog having to do with Christ’s passion for the hungry and homeless, etc. That’s worthy of a bit more consideration here. We are so preoccupied with the corona virus that it is sometimes difficult to see beyond to the other human tragedies that are so heart-breaking in the world. The corona virus came inescapably to our doorstep and so disturbed all our securities, such that we couldn’t escape it. We speak of its victims in terms of hundreds of thousands of victims.

That makes it much easier to overlook the victims of violence and destructive regimes that have produced over seventy million homeless refugees, and untold numbers of victims of injustice that abound even on our own doorstep, and due to the present policies of our own government. Even though I/we may not be in personal contact with such victims, does that mean that I am absolved from any responsibility for them?

The themes of justice and righteousness permeate the Biblical documents. Doing what is right and what is just to “the least of these” belongs to all of us who bear the name of Jesus Christ. I have been asked by some respondents to suggest some ways to realistically bring tangible assistance to the refugees, the homeless, the victims of injustice and human tragedy. I live comfortably here in an urban suburb, secure (relatively), well-fed, and with a sufficient income, … but I bear responsibility to do what I am able, to all of those in the world who have no security and little hope. To that end I have researched which agencies are the best managed and the most efficient (I look for low overhead) in providing real aid to those victims, so here are my personal recommendations:

  • The United Nations High Commission on Refugees is on the scene with the practical necessities that those who have no other source, and is highly regarded.
  • The International Rescue Committee (founded in WW II by Albert Einstein to assist the Jewish victims, and has grown in scope and stature over time).
  • Doctors Without Borders, which is one of the most effective medical agencies in rapid response to disasters, having resources to make immediate medical help available in crisis areas.
  • Southern Poverty Law Center is a justice mission which becomes a legal advocate for refugees in this country who have no other recourse to legal help.
  • The American Civil Liberties Union, again, a justice resource for the “strangers with our gates. Access to legal help is critical to these refugees in our own country.
  • Amnesty International, likewise. The threat of being deported back to the hazardous scene from which they fled is a nightmare to these strangers within our gates.

Locally, there are often resources for refugees, those agencies that can provide furniture and housewares to those newly arrived. There are also food banks worthy of our support, who are a major resource. … Just be alert to the human crisis that is so much larger, but less in the news, than the very real pandemic we are living through.

I hope that these suggestions may help. “Blessed are those who hunger for what is right.”

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 4/7/20. “I WAS A STRANGER” (EVEN A MUSLIM?) “AND YOU WELCOMED     ME”

For generations, the Christian church has sent missionaries into the hostile culture of Islamic nations. It was always difficult, exacerbated by the memory of the atavistic and bloody episode of the crusades in the middle ages in which Islam and Christianity saw each other as enemies. Yet, there persisted the vision and passion of Christ’s ‘Great Commission’ at the heart of many in the Christian community, even with the antagonism between them culturally.

In more recent decades there has been more communication between the cultures, more economic inter-dependence, more conversation as the 20th century rolled into the 21st. More Islamic students began to come to the west for college and graduate school, creating sensitive Christian ministries for international students. But now, with the political, military, and economic turmoil in those Islamic nations there has been a growing tide of refugees and immigrants seeking a new life in our country, which produces a new challenge for the Christian church in these United States.

Put that on ‘hold’ for a moment. Let’s remind ourselves that God’s redemptive love in Christ is for the whole world. It is about a new creation, and a new humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is interesting, that even in Islam’s holy book, the Quran, the prophet Isa (Jesus) is given amazingly strong approval, at times stronger than the Prophet Muhammed.

All that said, we now have a flood of homeless Islamic refugees seeking citizenship in the United States. The Islamic mission field has come to us, to our shores. Ah! but with this flood has also come into being, from the conservative right-wing of our populace very vigorous anti-Islamic movement of frightening proportions (neo-Nazis, etc.). So, the question comes: What is to be the responsibility of the Christian church, whose mandate from its Lord is to make his gospel of the kingdom known to every kindred and tribe and people on earth? What re-examination of our own prejudices and misunderstanding of our church’s responsibility to the strangers and homeless that comes with our calling to be Christ’s disciples?

It certainly does not help to get into theoretical arguments. Rather, it is going to be by our good (humanitarian?) works, patterns of love and unselfish behavior that people can see. It needs to be the incarnation of Jesus teaching in Matthew 25:31 ff.: “Come you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the earth. I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. … I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it unto me.”

And, to those who don’t? “Depart from me.”… it doesn’t help to equivocate that we have no contact with such strangers. There are remarkable agencies that give practical assistance, physical, legal, and heroic to these (Islamic and others) at great cost, that deserve our support. Don’t blow this off! These are the real people of the world that “God so loved that he gave us his only beloved Son …”

Pass the word along. Peace.

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG. 4/3/20. ARE YOU READY FOR A MEGA-BLOG?

Blogs are supposed to be brief, pithy communications (which brief-ness many of us bloggers never accomplish). But given the fact that many of us are now in lockdown due to the coronavirus, and looking for something useful to occupy our time, … I thought that I would do something outrageous and post a mega-blog, … like recommending a book, that I wrote a couple of decades back, and which I have been re-reading this past week, and saying to myself: “Wow! Did I really write that? That’s really good stuff.” That sounds crazy, bit I am finding it a very positive and refreshing read. So, if you are looking for a fruitful way to pass some time, and can spare $25.00, here goes

It is a book entitled: Enchanted Community: Journey Into the Mystery of the Church. It is published by Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon, or also available through Amazon. Like many of my books, it was provoked by my young adult friends who were struggling with their encounter with the church. In this one it is with a young graduate student who is altogether confident in his Christian faith, but stumbled by his encounter with the church. He is witty, insistent, sassy, mentally very sharp, and a delight to engage in conversation.

In the course of many times together, the whole issue of why the church exists? What is its message and mission? Its Biblical and theological roots? And its necessary role in God’s new creation in Christ? This guy challenges me, argues with me, … but is essentially on the same quest that I have been on during most of my adult life.

I am prone to think, as I am now reading it again, that it may be the most significant of the dozen, or so, books that I have written. It is also the first in what would become a trilogy. It would be a great study book for any group of thoughtful young adults seriously engaged in understanding the church of which they are participants.

So, there is my mega-blog. Take care. Stay safe. These are perilous and trying days.

Peace!

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 3.30.20. THE CHURCH’S WEEKLY CONFRONTATION WITH REALITY

A few years ago, I was fulfilling a summons by an organization within my denomination to put together a ministry of encouragement for our students and faculty in our theological schools. So, for about ten years I scouted-out these students and faculty in about fifteen different seminaries across the country, and visited them. I engaged in many fruitful conversations with the students, with faculty, and administrations. We even conducted several national seminarians’ conferences.

That opened my eyes to some realities that were quite disturbing, and significant unrealities in the whole theological education process. There were almost no courses in disciple-making, or ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church), or missiology (the study of the church’s missionary mandate). It also revealed that most of the faculty had never had any successful pastoral experience, but were selected on the basis of their creditable academic degrees. It also turned up the fact that many of the students also had never demonstrated any significant or fruitful leadership in a Christian community, but were basically looking for themselves, i.e., trying to put their lives together. … I don’t want to appear too negative since there were any wonderfully gifted students and faculty present who were a blessing to each other.

But something was missing. The question comes: How do you discern and train those who are to equip God’s people for their own work of ministry in the realities of everyday life? How is the Christian community to be formed to be dynamically engaged in the mission of God?

Now, shift scenes. One of those denominational seminaries was about to initiate a curriculum revision, and had appointed a faculty committee to expedite this process. They were mad aware of my engagement with those fifteen seminaries, and invited me to meet with them over a continental breakfast on my next visit. It was a very congenial conversation, so that in the process one of them asked the big question: “What have you observed and learned that will help us in our assignment?” Now, hold that question for just a moment.

It just so happened that several weeks prior to this conversation, the official Presbyterian Poll had released its finding that the Presbyterian Church (USA) was: “a denomination of Biblically and theologically illiterate laity.” That’s a stunning indictment. I responded to their inquiry of me by passing along this finding from the poll, with the comment: “I don’t have the ability to evaluate what, or how you are presenting your present curriculum, but whatever it is … it simply isn’t coming through to the men and women who occupy our pews, and are the objects of our ministry.”

If the church is to be “the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity” (as some of our Latin American friends term it) then there must to be a dynamic and transformational engagement with the apostolic message. The ministry of the laity in the Monday morning world, and the realities of each person’s incarnation, simply has to be our consuming motivation. Stand by …

______________

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 3.24.20. THE PANDEMIC IS A WHOLESOME ‘REALITY CHECK’ FOR US

Humankind has an unrealistic tendency to avoid the troublesome and irresistible reality of root-issues such as: suffering, sickness, man’s inhumanity to man, war, violence. Our North American culture focuses on a wholesome economy, entertainment, sports, … and all of those more pleasant dimensions of our contemporary life.

That is so unreal!

Here we are in a world with over seventy million homeless refugees, whose lives were disrupted, not by any fault of their own, but by forces over which they had no control. It is a world where life is fragile, where there come periodic epidemics, where starvation is a daily reality, where ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ takes on nightmarish dimensions—and we seem surprised as though this were something abnormal.

And then comes the corona virus, and we freak-out, freak-out because we have never come to grips with the metaphysical issue of the origins of evil and suffering. Such difficult realities have no place in our understanding of reality. Oh, to be sure, we can routinely confess our sins in church gatherings (or in the Lord’s Prayer), but without much thought of the cultural and societal implications of such. But now, … it stares us in the face with the total disruption of our world.

Reading history, we come across the atavistic cruelty that was (and is) so common in human relations. We read, with some detachment, about the black plague in the middle ages, and about the many evidences if social injustice what with the coming of the industrial revolution. We are outraged now by the holocaust that murdered so many million Jews in Germany—but we were, ourselves, a bit more indifferent when it was happening. More recently there was the ebola epidemic in Africa … and on and on.

And now we can’t escape the metaphysical question: Where does suffering come from? What are its roots? … And what is our role in the realities of this moment when our lives are disrupted? We’re reminded of the question from the suffering saints under the altar, in the Book of Revelation: “How long, O Lord?” (Rev. 6:9).

One thing we know is that God’s new humanity, his truly human sons and daughters, are to be ‘salt and light’, agents of his love in the midst of this moment that is ours.

Stand by …

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON

BLOG 3.20.20. THE ETHICAL LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS MAKE POLITICAL ‘SOCIALISM’ SEEM RATHER TAME!

It would be hilarious, if not downright ridiculous, were it not such a tragic distortion. What I’m leading up to is the misappropriation of the designation of the description ‘evangelical’ by a segment of political conservatives to give some legitimacy to their cause. The word ‘evangel’ is the same as its English translation ‘gospel’. It refers to the the thrilling news of life and teachings of Jesus Christ, and his inauguration of God’s new creation. And, … boy! Is it ever radical stuff? It is obvious that these folks who use the desination of ‘evangelical, have never read the ‘evangel’ or they would not take the positions politically that they do.

I’m referring especially to their total rejection of the platform of one candidate because he is a ‘democratic socialist’. Back to my initial point: the teachings of Jesus make socialism seem mild. Jesus inaugurated his ministry with the announcement that he was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah who would proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the unjustly imprisoned, recovery to the blind, and freedom to all who are oppressed. Ah! then skip over to the end of his earthly ministry and he projects us to the end of the age when all humankind will be summoned before him and separated into those blessed and invited to inherit his kingdom/new creation and those rejected. The criteria for this judgement? Their hospitality to strangers, their feeding of the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty, their care for the sick, and their ministry to the unjustly imprisoned.

That’s radical humanitarian stuff, the implementation of justice, the making his message into flesh and blood behavior, the incarnation of the love of God to the victims of this broken world. In the course of Jesus’ ministry, he would say that the poor are blessed and conversely: “woe to you rich.” (Luke 6). He taught that if you have two cloaks, you should give one away. He taught that it is very difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God: his new creation. He told one aspiring very rich young inquirer who sought discipleship that he should give away all his possessions and them come, explaining that it is very difficult to a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (their wealth being an idol to them). “Unless a person forsakes all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.”

That makes socialism sound tame. Add to that the affirmation of the church over the centuries that the purpose of civil government is: “the welfare of all of its citizens.” Or maybe to insert here a line from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Christian discipleship is not tame stuff—just read the New Testament, Concern for minimum wages, for food for the hungry, and care for the sick … is the role of civil government. It makes the agenda of some form of socialism to be an “of course.”

One has to be radically realistic politically. Granted. But the wealthy have a political power that the hungry and the stranger and the unjustly imprisoned, etc. … do not have. And it is obscene to high-jack the term “evangelical” to oppose costly programs to meet those human needs. We who are Christ’s disciples become the salt of the earth and the light of the world by incarnating, here and now, in our personal and political lives, the life and radical teachings of Jesus. To be continued …

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BLOG BY BOB HENDERSON 3/13/20

BLOG 3.11.20. WHAT’S WITH THE CHURCH-I-FIED LAITY?

In the passing era of substantial institutional churches, being a ‘church member’ was considered a commendable commitment, and churches recruited members by producing multiple church activities for their membership. Many churches hardly mentioned discipleship at all. Churches were places of social contact, and clergy were often evaluated on how fruitfully they were able to attract and recruit participants to engage in their congregational activities.

The very idea of worship services and congregational activities having as their purpose to equip to Christian maturity (discipleship) for their ministry outside the church gatherings, i.e., in the 24/7 world: home, neighborhood, school, workplace, civic life, recreation and sports, etc. was hardly on the chart.

So, then, what developed was a church-i-fied laity, whose Christian expression was almost totally in the ‘church gathered’ and who were always somewhat ill-at-ease outside of that safe enclave. There were refreshing exceptions. Some congregations sought pastors and equippers to see their 24/7 world as the primary mission to which God had called them, and worship services at that weekly time of equipping, re-evangelizing, learning to diagnose the culture in which they operated and how to be true salt and light where-ever they were, how to have ‘coffee-cup conversations with those outside the church.

Such churches understood that God had called them to be the communal dimension of God’s new humanity, God’s new creation. The members of these communities who were advocates of the ministry of the laity in the workplace renounced the church-i-fied laity concept as a perversion of the mission of God for his church. Resources began to emerge. Dynamic equipping churches saw themselves as ‘the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity. The equipping ministry of the church became formative from youth groups all the way up. Community groups and house churches became dynamic factors in giving support, encouragement, mutual teaching and sharing to one another.

The mission of God for the church also determined the church’s self-understanding and its very real role in the missionary calling to God to be a transforming, salt and light community in very real neighborhoods and communities. For a few years, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship conducted a very fruitful resource in its Marketplace Ministry. One of the significant contributors to that was William Diehl (executive with Bethlehem Steel), whose book Thank God, It’s Monday is quite helpful and still available, along with other writings (Amazon).

Formal church institutions of the old sort are a dying breed. Equipping churches are pragmatic and contagious and motivated. Stay tuned. We are in a cultural whitewater where change is inevitable, and where every Christian community needs to be equipping all its members for their 24/7 role in the mission of God, and every meeting of the church gathered needs to have this goal in view. No more church-i-fied laity.

Hang on! It’s a great calling.

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