Hope – LOVE | ACCEPT

The Greatest Love

A Rolling Stone Sings of God’s Love || Warren Rachele

[Originally published in the Times-News during the Time of Covid, 2020]

The most familiar verse in the Bible reads “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus says this to a man who is trying to understand the Messiah. He went on to describe his mission in the next sentence, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Life and love are the essence of Easter.

When Jesus said these memorable words, his crucifixion was still some distance in the future and the way God would ‘give’ the son still a mystery. The degree of sacrificial love that motivated the gift, however, was not. The two letters of ‘so’ describe the great extent to which God loved the creation and all in it. The love would not be measured in a blanket forgiveness and not in requiring the rebellious humans to earn it. Instead, the promise of forgiveness and salvation would be fulfilled by one perfect sacrifice, a sacrifice that was pure and unblemished, a sacrifice that human effort could not attain. The price of redemption would be the life of the Son of God, the Messiah Jesus.

The love of Easter is not merely an emotion. Emotional love is subject to change, it can be influenced by circumstance, it can be lost in an instant. The love that God has for his creation is none of those things. It is a facet of his character, a state of being. God’s love for the world is unchanging and unwavering. It cannot be earned nor can any human action result in its termination. The measure of this love is nearly beyond human ability to understand. Despite this, the full measure of God’s love is seen in the most horrific act in history, the crucifixion the Messiah Jesus.

How is this love? The rebellion of humanity in the earliest days of history create a chasm between creator and creation so wide that it cannot be bridged by any human effort. God, loving the world and its inhabitants so deeply, longs to close this divide, to be united in peace once again. He knows that without action on his part, his creatures are lost. In their pitiful state they cannot make restitution or pay a sufficient penalty, and try as they might humanity can never leap, fly, swim or find any way of transporting themselves to the other side. If this dark expanse is to be crossed, it will have to be done by God himself.

The paradox of the good news is that God, in the depths of his love, takes it upon himself to pay this penalty owed by humankind. His holy nature does not permit the option of dismissing the charges, a penalty is due in equal measure to that holiness. No human work can make a dent in that debt and so, out of an immeasurable love, God sends His Son to be the payment for the debt. The sobering truth in that good news? The debt could only be satisfied by sacrifice, the blood of Jesus on the cross paying the cost in full.

This ‘giving of his son’ would become the measure by which love is measured. As the cross grew nearer, Jesus described its heights, the personal challenge for his followers, telling them that “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” More than a challenge, his followers realized the judicial change that would be brought about, they would be friends and no longer enemies of God. The gulf would be bridged and the lost would be able to make their way home.

If it ended at the cross, this love would be unmatched. God had a higher expression of love to give though. The debt paid on the cross became the new life of Easter morning when the Messiah rose from the tomb. The perfect judge who paid the penalty himself rose as he had assured, condemnation behind and new life in full ahead. Easter became two parts of the same story, horror and celebration, mourning and joy. The rise of the sun on Easter morning brings all the promises of the Savior to light. Forgiveness came through the cross for those who would believe. For his friends, Jesus’ death became life in full. No greater love has ever been shown, nor will it be again. The love of Easter assures us of that.

Watch Your Blind Side

Expecting the Unexpected by JD Pearring

Many leadership books focus on the act of leading, as though by sheer will, one can create success with no unanticipated outside interference. Anyone who has ever been in a position of leadership, however, knows this isn’t true. There are dozens of things that can come out of nowhere and derail your efforts toward reaching your goals. In his excellent new book Expecting the Unexpected, JD Pearring catalogs eighteen of these actions, feelings and events that we do well to be looking out for. He talks about anticipating these things as you go about your leadership duties, but the book is also useful in hindsight as you reflect on ways that each of us could have handled these negative influences better.

JD combines personal anecdotes, stories and scripture to structure each chapter. From these, he offers several ways to deal with the unexpected as it comes. The option to give up, quit, surrender, etc. is mostly missing from his suggested actions. Instead, by applying scripture to each type of event, leaders are encouraged to overcome in the best moments, or endure with faith in the more challenging instances. The Big Challenge conclusions to each chapter range in application from simple [don’t quit] to character challenging [serve in obscurity]. Depending on your situation, some will be more helpful than others.

Take some encouragement. It is out there for you.
JD Pearring

Expecting is a book to keep on a lower shelf for reference in the future. You may not be experiencing discouragement (now), but chances are you will at some point. Pull the book out, turn to chapter(s) on discouragement (and smears and complaining and fools and so on) and let JD’s wisdom get you back on track. This is a good book for new leaders who have yet to experience these troubles, as well as more seasoned leaders who have seen them all. I plan to use this material in coaching relationships with renewal leaders who often find themselves overwhelmed by these negative effects on the health of their church, as well as negatively affecting their leadership. Don’t miss this book.

Joy Comes in the [Easter] Morning

Joy Rises with the Easter Sunrise || Warren Rachele

[Originally published in the Times-News during the Time of Covid, 2020]

Easter is a holiday marked by stark contrasts. The pastel pinks and sunny yellows of the springtime celebration feel out of place against the deep crimson and shadows of Good Friday. The sadness, despair and horror of the passion of Jesus give way to the elated celebration of Resurrection Sunday. Happiness and joy have similar contrast, though they are often spoken of as having the same meaning. The happiness of a beautiful Easter sunrise can be swept away by a snowstorm the following Monday. In contrast, joy that is anchored in the Easter miracle is lifelong and stands up to these storms of life. Americans are fond of quoting the Declaration’s promise regarding the “pursuit of happiness”, recognizing the ongoing desire of the heart but also, the elusive, sometimes fleeting nature of that emotion. What people really want, even if they can’t put it into words, is joy. Joy that is not easily stripped away and this is the joy of Easter, the joy of Grace.

If a poll were taken, the results would probably show that everyone wants to be happy. People throughout history have chased happiness in countless forms. Some find it in things, some find it in experiences and others still find happiness in relationships. But once found, can happiness be kept? Can this emotion be protected from the changes in life or are people looking for the wrong thing? Perhaps, rather than settling for momentary happiness, what their heart needs is the state of being joyful.

In our talking with one another people often use the words happiness and joy to mean the same thing. Though similar, feelings of happiness are generally controlled by what’s going on in life at any moment. If things are going great, happiness follows. If things take a turn and troubles become the norm, happiness can fade quickly into unhappiness. The heart wants something more stable, something that is not bound to the way things appear at any given moment. The heart wants joy.

The heart wants joy because it’s a windbreak against the storms of life; the storm will still pass over, but its effect will be less severe. Joy is anchored to a foundation of long-term contentment. The foundation results from having faith in something unchanged by day to day circumstances. A person who has this faith faces the darkest of dark moments and says, “this too shall pass.” Joy is built on this faith. Joy rests on belief that even if a storm doesn’t pass anytime soon, there is still confidence in the solid rock on which it stands. People who have joy trust in the way things are going to work themselves out.

Easter lays the foundation for people to know joy. Understanding Easter begins with the contrast of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and it appeared that all the evil of the world had been revealed in that moment. The crucifixion gave the appearance that all hope was lost to even his closest followers. The happiness they felt from the promises they had seen in him was swept away. In their sadness they scattered, each looking for a new way to be happy again.

When Jesus rose on that Sunday morning, joy rose with him. His unhappy followers were the first to discover the truth of joyfulness. They learned that what had appeared to be defeat and snatched their happiness was something far greater, something eternal. Jesus was restored to life and he put all the momentary promises into the perspective of history. His followers were given an intimate demonstration of the contrasting natures of happiness and joy. While things might’ve been dark for a moment in their lives, the eternal promises of redemption assured their joy in both the rain and the sunshine.

The promise of joy is as true today as it ever has been. The joy of Easter is woven into the promise of redemption, of all things being made right. Jesus is the centerpiece of things being made right, his death making it possible for the restoration to proceed. The empty grave of Easter morning assures us that restoration is proceeding as planned. Joy, indivisibly welded to that truth, sustains through a day or two of trouble or a thousand nights of darkness. Happiness is fragile and positive thinking might maintain it for a day or a week, but if there is not the peace of deep-held joy, happiness will eventually turn to sadness. The deepest, darkest red of the crucifixion cannot strip the joy of belief that the bright sun of everything being made right is held in place by the eternal promises of Easter morning.

Reverend Warren Rachele is the pastor of Hope Community Church in Paul, Idaho.

A Hope For Easter

[Originally published in the Times-News in the Time of Covid, 2020]

Hope is an optimistic outlook that is tested every single day. Hope sustains people and gives meaning to life. Hope, true hope, is not wishful thinking. Rather, it is a trust based on unchanging truth and this hope will not falter. This is the hope that accompanies the first glimmer of sunrise on Easter morning.

For the groups big and small that had followed Jesus into Jerusalem in the week of his passion, the crucifixion gave the sense that all hope was lost. The Messiah was dead and destined for a borrowed tomb. His followers, no doubt recounting the many thoughts they held about him, didn’t know what to believe. The hope of many of these followers turned out to be little more than wishful thinking when the Messiah Jesus did not fulfill their preconceived notions. Doubt plagued them and hopelessness crushed them.

When the sun broke the darkness on Easter morning and a tiny group of his followers approached the tomb, hope was reignited. Jesus was not in the tomb, an angelic agent giving the incredible news that the Lord had risen. Hope had risen. Not hope that was based on wishful thinking or far-fetched scenarios but hope that was now anchored to eternal promises and unbreakable. This was the hope of Easter.

The hopelessness that plagues our world today, especially among the vulnerable young, is caused by hope in things that are temporary, things that are change by the next day or the next hour. The betrayal of a friend or the bullying of the crowd, not enough likes for the last picture that was posted or any number of other here-today-and-gone-tomorrow things that people believe will give meaning to their life. Each fails and hope slips further away, turning out to be no hope at all.

The hope that rises on Easter morning is rooted in the eternal, making it the antidote to hopelessness. Jesus rising on that Sunday morning was a promise made and a promise kept reaching all the way back to the earliest days of human history. Rebellion against God had created deep, wide gulf separating him from humankind. God knew that those who bore his image would be forever lost unless he bridged that gap. The perfect holiness on one side of the gulf required his sacrifice to create a bridge to the other side. No sooner had rebellion entered the world than God promised that he would make a way for the two to be together again. Jesus was that eternal promise fulfilled. Redemption and restoration began and hope was the result.

The hope of Easter morning has no expiration date nor is it limited to a certain group of people. It is eternal and available to all people. The foundation of hope formed by the promise made and the promise kept gives a solid footing. The promise that everything would be set right was made in the beginning of history, fulfilled early in the first century and stretches into eternity. It is this unending nature that makes the resulting hope unique. The ephemeral things that people often attach their hope to disappoint because they are just that, anchored in little and threatened by the west wind. When hope is followed by this disappointment time after time, it reveals itself to be untrustworthy. A lift of the eyes and one finds the superior hope of new life, the hope of Easter.

Hope anchored in the promise of redemption and restoration sustains through the temporary ups and downs of life in this world. The daily news of pandemic and the enormous personal costs being counted reveal shallow hopes in countless ways. Money that was counted on suddenly disappears. Plans made are abruptly canceled. If hope is tied to such easily changing things then it’s really no hope at all.

The hope revealed in the sunrise and the empty tomb of Easter morning does not change nor waiver. It is a hope that is untouched by the crisis of today or the sorrow of tomorrow. Hope resting on the foundation of eternity is the source of inner strength that have carried many over the bumps and challenges of life. It is this hope that enabled Beethoven to compose the Ode to Joy even as deafness stole his hearing. Eternal hope carried Abraham Lincoln from total poverty to the presidency. Rosa Parks, steeled in her resolve by the promise of eternal hope, ignited the press for civil rights for all. The hope of the empty grave is the hope that transcends any of the countless challenges people will face in this life. This is hope for all. This is the hope of Easter.

Measuring Surprise and Delight

One of the great surprises for gardeners is the volunteer, those that blossom in unexpected places. Sometimes delightful, like the beautiful poppies that arise in my tomato beds, and sometimes not; the virtual maple forest that germinated in my backyard one spring required a lot of undesirable labor. The hundreds of little saplings were not all that surprising given the countless seeds that had dropped in the grass beneath the tree the fall before, but the flowers that sprout in the vegetable frames far distant from the flower beds are a welcome wonder. As every gardener knows, the appearance of these plants is not attributed to my work or intention; birds or wind or the coats of the dogs had serendipitously been the sowing agent that brought these joys to my soul.

There’s a similar joy found in the ministry of believers blossoming in unexpected places. What makes these unexpected joys stand out is that they are not where we expected them, and they’re measures of spiritual movement that a stagnant church easily misses. Many churches measure their health and ‘success’ using a yardstick marked out in segments labeled attendance, budget and programs. When the pews and offering plate are full, and the program schedule grows more and more crowded, we celebrate ministry. When the opposite is true and fewer seats are occupied and the budget constrained, these measures of success move the pointer into the red. A sense of failure rises, soon followed by discouragement. This can lead to an unfortunate blindness to the power of God at work, especially where we least expect it.

Wild abandon is the natural state of the forest and the volunteer doesn’t stand out among its equally random neighbors. The volunteer in our garden is surprising because of its location. The seed that falls to the ground and germinates, even if carried a distance on the wing, is doing what it is designed to do, creating after its own kind [Gen 1:12]. If we as Christ followers are faithful in discipling others, we too will reproduce after our own kind and the fruit they bear (Rom 7:6) will be the natural result. This is the genius of God in making soul shaping a normal part of life and not a program. We teach by living out our beliefs (Dt 6:6-8; Mt 28:19) and shaping hearts as we walk along and when we lie down and when we rise.

We’ve become accustomed to looking for ministry results as an outcome of a program. If we have the right music and preaching style, worshippers will come. We pour into the children and teenagers so that they make it successfully to adulthood. Our discipleship, more often than not, has a start and end date where success is measured by a completed workbook. We need to look deeper though; we need to spy out the volunteers that have been carried by the wind to unexpected places. By the design of the Lord, this is where the measure of a spirit-guided heart is going to be found.

What of the ministry that a transformed heart started that now serves the community? What about the bible study conducted by folks who take their discipled souls south for the winter? Your ministry plan didn’t have a bullet point for either one of those activities. What of the fellowship that surrounds an elderly member who is by themself and refuses to let them be alone? This is the work of the heart surrendered to the Lord. Success is not measured by programs, the Lord measures it by heart and if your discipleship is transforming hearts, you never know where the spirit is going to take them next. Your church is never commanded to be the biggest or have the most programs. It is called to be faithful in shaping the hearts of Jesus’ people and then trusting Him to put them to work in the places we least expect.

Longing for Revival

I passionately believe in the possibility of renewal in the church, particularly the legacy church where the devotion to the Missio Dei has grown cold in favor of comfort and familiarity. I believe that the best way, but not the only, for revival to come to the church is through a return to first principles, a devotion to prayer and worship.

As a matter of regular meditation, I consider the list of things I believe:

The eternal God of the Bible created, sustains, and has a purpose for the universe and my life within it
Jesus gave His life to atone for the sins of the world (Mark 10:45) and by vesting belief in Him, people are saved (1 Corinthians 1:21)
The Holy Spirit of Christ miraculously indwells redeemed people (1 Corinthians 6:19)
The Colorado Rockies will win the World Series (someday, no scripture reference)
Many churches need and can have revival

I passionately believe in the possibility of renewal in the church, particularly the legacy church where the devotion to the Missio Dei has grown cold in favor of comfort and familiarity. I believe that the best way, but not the only, for revival to come to the church is through a return to first principles, a devotion to prayer and worship. A renewed sense of the mission of disciple-making results from the first sparks of spiritual life that ignite, giving evidence to my belief. I believe these things are Scripture honoring and God glorifying.

There are doubtless many reasons that churches fall into decline, some beyond their control. As we talk about revival, it’s important to distinguish between spiritual and material poverty as a contributing factor. Geographic factors and demographic shifts can be the reasons that churches find themselves in material decline, making closure a choice that has to be made. We can identify numerous other external factors as reasons for the death of a church, and we need to be clear-eyed in assessing these realities. Conversely, spiritual decline has but a single source, the dimming of the passion of the members of a body for the gospel mission. Jesus spoke of this as forsaking “your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

While external factors may be beyond the control of a local church, the spiritual fire they exhibit is not. I believe that the Lord’s promise to be with His Church always (Matthew 28:20) assures us that any spiritual spark can be fanned into a roaring flame through His power. What does it require? I believe this inferno lies at the juncture of a return to heartfelt worship and the restoration of the Church as a house of prayer. Does this guarantee revival? Perhaps not, but it ensures that any ministry that emanates from a church is glorifying to God.

Sparking a Movement

A summary of Spent Matches by Roy Moran

The Christian church has used a range of participatory metrics to evaluate her success in the modern era. Conversions, baptisms, the number of people present in worship: we fastidiously record these numbers throughout the year and then pore over them at year-end leadership summits. We define success as an increase in these totals; failure, plateau or decline. The analysis of these numbers governs the design and direction of the programmatic functions of the church. Leaders will tweak the edification programs to push for a more active evangelism, believing that transferring more information will make more effective evangelists. But how often are these same leaders referring to the commission given to the Church by her Lord to check the validity of their choices?

As Roy Moran states in his invaluable book Spent Matches, not often enough. The flaw in these metrics of success is that we no longer live in an era where information transfer to our neighbors and friends is effective in igniting their interest in God and His grace. To state this is a more colloquial fashion: the lives that surround the typical evangelical church are not the least bit interested in knowing what goes on inside. What people respond to is running into a radical life, one that is radically committed to Jesus and His teaching. Telling people what we believe puts their hypocrisy radar on full alert (as they have become conditioned to do in all areas of life). Living what we say we believe makes us stand out from the rest of the world clamoring for attention in the lives of our family, friends and neighbors.

It can be tempting to read the book as the outline for implementing a program, particularly because it includes ‘suggested’ outlines for meetings in the closing chapters. Mortify this temptation by slowly considering the imagery of the dire condition of the Church Moran paints at the beginning of the book. He suggests that our metrics should show the declining influence of modern Christian practice, likening the condition to a burning oil drilling platform surrounded by miles of churning sea. In the modern day we have two choices, jump or fry. To stay on our current platform is to die slowly on a long slope of decline. To jump is the join a movement back to the first principles of the Lord’s commission for His community of followers: make disciples who make disciples.

Moran is not the only author to put this idea into print. The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne leads to a similar conclusion, and has been influential in many churches by offering a ladder down from the burning platform. Moran is more forceful. We must jump and return with fresh eyes to the text of Matthew 28:18-20 and stop the bifurcation of the Gospel movement. Following a declaration of the expansive authority given to Him as the basis for the commission, Jesus commands His Church to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (ESV). The command to baptize these new disciples into the family and to teach “them to observe [obey] all that I have commanded you.” The Church has been obedient to this commission, but the methods have resulted in a bifurcated gospel practice where we separate life from faith. We have defined discipleship as an education process (information transfer) and then convinced ourselves that discipleship precedes evangelism (“sharing our faith”). The outcome of this process? Disciples never feel ready to evangelize others, so we double down on teaching them, hoping that someday their ship will launch. All the while, the platform burns.

The myth of preparation-perfection that plagues the information-transfer Church is refuted by reading the verses in the passage that are not a part of the memorized commission. The audience for the Lord’s command is His remaining eleven disciples, some of whom worshipped, but some of whom doubted! Perfection was not to be the enemy of progress, as Jesus commanded them to jump from the platform into the unknown. As Moran says,

“Jesus didn’t exhibit any sense of alarm indicating this was out of the ordinary or unusual. He was quite comfortable with a team that didn’t have it all together. In fact, He was comfortable commissioning people who not only lacked complete faith but were confirmed doubters.”

This is a catalyzing moment in the book, setting in relief the encouragement to jump and ignite a new movement within the Church, disciples who make disciples as they go along, each edifying and encouraging the other rather than relying on subject-matter experts that students feel they have to imitate before moving on the Mission. The Lord does not expect to create a class of mission-minded within the Church, specialists who carry on the Commission while others sit and watch. To be a Christian is to be a disciple, one involved in daily learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus and then putting that into practice. Moran’s take on John 15:8 (“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”) is accurate and puts our current process is stark relief:

“Jesus’ hope was that it would be normal for His followers to make disciples as they lived out a dangerous message that would divide families ad heal the brokenhearted, challenge the well-off and encourage the impoverished, transform the oppressors and bring freedom to the oppressed. To fail to make disciples would indicate followers weren’t connected to Jesus and the heart of His mission.”

Owning this concept is the spark of a movement that puts away information transfer and replaces it with community life. Jesus did not commission us to be taught principles about Himself, he said we were to be taught and then apply what he commanded. This obedience is the missing part in most programs in the modern Church; we are never challenged to show what we’ve done with what we’ve learned and so we never do. This is the source of the apathy we see in the pews. We have more information than we can possibly process at our fingertips, but scarce few opportunities to put it into practice and fewer still partners in the discipleship life holding us accountable. The discipleship patterns that Moran suggests through the book aim to fill this vacuum.

A fair number of churches today claim Acts chapter 2 as their model, seeing a return to the ancient church as a solution to moribund Christianity. The component missing in many is the discipleship pattern given by the Lord’s example and command: disciples, however imperfect, who make other disciples (who repeat the process) in community. This is what will capture the imagination of a world that has long ago become inured to the invitations of the Church. I invite you to read the book a few times and see if you are tempted to jump from the platform into the raging sea of the culture, trusting the Lord’s promise for our weakness, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Good News | Hopelessness Defeated

29863962483_562ceffb39_z Varying degrees of hopelessness are an accepted part of life in our world. Better stated, hopelessness has marked life since the moment that rebellion against God entered the mortal plane. Hope requires a foundation, and when it is vested in the ever shifting, rapidly changing, only marginally trustworthy structures of the human world, that foundation can crumble in an instant. Claiming hope while secretly wondering when the ground beneath our feet will give way is no hope at all.

True hope is found in the one thing that never changes; true hope is found in the promises and assurances of God. Through the prophet Malachi, God gives hope to the descendants of Jacob saying “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” (Mal 3:6) God gave similar assurance in the midst of the words of doom that the prophet Isaiah was charged with proclaiming, God gives this hopeful reminder about the proper placement of hope, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isa 40:8)

The Savior Jesus Christ, Son of Man and second member of the Trinity, never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb 13:8) Faith in Christ results in an unchanging hope. This is a hope that may be buffeted by the challenges and trials of life but whose roots driven deep in the rock allow it to bend like a reed and not be broken. This is a hope that may be challenged by the many worldviews that swirl about but are ultimately found wanting. Hope rooted in Jesus is hope that will carry you through the worst storm, shine light in your darkest hour and can be counted on when all else inevitably fails.

The gospel of the life, sacrificial death and the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ fuels the hope of all those who put their faith in this good news of God’s love through His Son. God’s eternal promises from the seconds after the hope-stealing rebellion in the garden come to fruition in the Savior and remain, unchanging, into eternity. The deeper the good news settles in our soul, the greater our hope. The more the good news defines our lives, the greater our hope.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. An I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:16-19)

Be hopeful.

Psalm 118 ~ Rejected Stone

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad. Psalm 118:22-24

These stanzas carry a familiarity for the Christian as they are heard in both the New Testament and modern worship. Christ uses the words of himself in all three of the Synoptic accounts, not only making it memorable but also, markedly important across the three diverse audiences for each book. In its NIV84 form, not a week goes by that the day the Lord has made doesn’t ring out in music from the stages of His church. We hear these words and envision the imagery through Christ’s voice, but what does He intend to convey?

Psalm 118 is a hymn of thanksgiving for deliverance. In the case of the Psalmist, deliverance from military enemies who threatened to encroach upon the sovereignty of God’s people. The author leaves no historical context from which to apply the celebration to a particular victory, leaving it open to wide range of interpretations. Regardless, the hymn begins and ends with a vibrant call to praise that cements the goodness of God in the minds of the celebrants:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;

His love endures forever. (v1)

Is your maturity such that you can say the same thing? Can you look over the record of your life, its struggles, troughs and troubles and say with confidence that God is good every minute of every day and this His love is on full display in your life? Should He elect not to deliver you from trouble, will you sing the same words?

When Jesus speaks these words of the monumental change in the kingdom, He has just told the parable of the Tenants to a dumbstruck audience, most of whom would fail to see themselves as actors in the story. If the parable applied to them, their thoughts would run to a world turned upside-down, something they were wholly unprepared to face.

Salvation for followers of Christ is inextricably bound up in this monumentally changed kingdom. While travail may still be a part of our lives, we can take a celebratory attitude in the hope and promise that this change engenders. For a short time we may suffer, but at an appointed time the Lord’s goodness will be more than a promise. It will be the reality of His enduring love.

Grace and peace to you…

Hope–Second Sunday of Advent 2010

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

One of the great reminders that our observance of Advent brings, is that we have not been left alone to patiently endure until the Lord returns for us. As Paul wrote in the verse that precedes the passage above, every word of the Scriptures was written that we may be encouraged and have hope. Perusing those scriptures we find that we not only have hope from these words, we are surrounded with like hope in our family, community and church. We are both recipients and providers of this hope, from and to other Christians. Together, we look to the flame that edges closer to His coming with each week and together, we await his second arrival.

Paul uses the scriptures to remind the reader of a promise from years past that applied to them in that day, and which remains applicable to us in our hour:

“The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in Him.” (15:12).

Jesus, the ‘Son of David’ is that root. He is the source and center of our hope. His life provides the model for our endurance and servanthood to others. Others within the church know the source of our hope. Our calling is to take that hope outside of the church and into the world, living lives that exude such joy and assurance that it sparks the spirit in others to seek out the fount of promise.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (v13)

Grace, peace and hope to you.

image Per Ola Wilberg