Longing for Home

I am writing this post from Manizales, Colombia. More specifically, from the Juan Valdez outdoor cafe near my hotel.

Maybe you are a happy traveler, ready for the next adventure wherever, whenever. I am not. I am much more of a hobbit. I like regularity, home, second breakfast, and no adventures. Yet here I am, a non-Spanish speaker very far from home. I have no idea how many people I’ve offended; hopefully not as many as I fear.

Some things are the same as in the USA, yet strange even in their sameness. American music from the 80’s and 90’s is played everywhere. Ordering coffee and checking in to the hotel follow the same pattern, so I can guess when we’re talking about size of drink (grande!) or the WiFi password. The Subway restaurant smells exactly like a Subway in the USA, though I can't read the menu. I found a non-Catholic church near-ish my hotel and showed up. They did their very best to welcome me. They played a song that had the same tune as “Bless the Lord, Oh my soul” and I think was a translation.

But things are still so different. The architecture and streets are...different. The food is different. At the church service, the interpretive dancers came out at some point and then there was (I think) a prayer I couldn’t follow at all. I decided to give it up and slip out as it was simply unintelligible to me.

The people here in Manizales are home, have all the implicit knowledge of how to operate, and probably see Manizales as how things are. But I do not. In Sylva I am home in my own house and family. Someone from Manizales who was dropped in Sylva would no doubt feel the same sense of being out of place.

There are a lot of things I can take away from this experience, but the one that comes to mind on this Lord’s Day is my longing for my eternal home. That is, the place that I ultimately long for, and where I really belong. Even in Sylva, we have conflict, trouble communicating (just between my wife and me, never mind anyone else!), and so many things that are not as they should be. We have sickness, sorrow, pain, and death as a result of our sin and God’s just judgment. While this is our lived experience, we who are in Christ and trust him to forgive our sins and adopt us into the family of God, have hope for better. The book of Revelation gives us a vision of God making all things new.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” - Revelation 21:1-4

To paraphrase Samwise Gamgee, my fellow hobbit, all the sad things will be made untrue.

It is my hope that this includes these barriers that divide us such as language, place, and culture, so we can worship and live together well in the new heavens and new earth, apparently in the one city of New Jerusalem. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Righteousness and Repentance

Over the past few weeks, we have seen many prominent men accused of sexual assault. Some have lost work. Some have lost political clout. All have lost their reputation.

As the people of God who have his Word, we should not be surprised by sin. Romans 3 is clear in condemning us all starting in v.9, including statements like "None is righteous, no, not one." We expect to find sin in everyone we meet. Looking for sin in someone is like going to the beach to search for the ocean. Each of us has sins that are more prominent than others, but the essential problem is our sinful nature.

Reformation Day

I know Halloween is the more popular thing going on today, but today is indeed Reformation Day. That is, the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door of Wittenberg. He wanted an academic debate to reform the church over practices he saw that were contrary to scripture. In the 500 years since, yes there are the many fractured branches of the Protestants. And the reformers were still sinners. Luther, Calvin, Knox, to name a few, had their clear faults.

However, what was recovered was the doctrine of justification; that we are dead in our sins, but that God, solely out of his mercy, has chosen to love his people and forgive them, placing the punishment for their sins on Jesus. We do not and cannot earn God's favor.

What else was recovered was worship. We, the regular folks, got to participate again, to sing, to hear God's word in our own language, and to take both elements of the Lord's Supper.

So, I encourage you who are my brothers and sisters to be thankful today for what was recovered. And, we can pray even now for the whole Church to be reformed, indeed conformed, more and more to what our God would have us believe and do.

Can Introverts Qualify to be Elders?

Ironically, I've thought more about this question after I was installed as an elder than before. Still, it is a fair question. Another is how could someone who is drained by social interaction serve well as an elder? We have plenty of examples in scripture of men who appear to be extroverts, such as Peter, James and John (Sons of Thunder), Paul, David, Nehemiah, and more. Looking at these, we may think introversion is hardly desirable in a leader in the church.

However, we have the confounding factor that an extrovert will stand out more than an introvert as a consequence of the behavior associated with each. The extrovert will draw more attention (and perhaps more narrative) due to their higher levels of social interaction. It is not necessarily so, but could be.

Our better guide is to look at the qualifications set out for being an elder. Let's take a look at I Timothy 3: 1-7.

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

There are many aspects of a man's life to consider in these qualifications. We can summarize most of this by saying we should look for maturity and leadership. Maturity encapsulates most of the personal morality references to being above reproach, self-controlled, gentle, etc. Essentially, is he along the road of sanctification? Leadership includes aspects such as able to teach and leading his own household.

When we look at those two major categories of maturity and leadership, neither plainly disqualify an introvert. Maturity can clearly be true of introvert or extrovert. Leadership is the same. Though an introvert may have to push through some very social situations, that doesn't eliminate leadership qualities. Of course, neither category eliminates an extrovert either! Perhaps an extrovert would have to push through being self-controlled in the time he spends socially, but the fact of being extroverted would not disqualify him.

So, based on the general categories and specifics of the qualifications for elder, the introvert may have to overcome some things and the extrovert may have to overcome some things. Neither is disqualified just by being on the introversion/extroversion continuum. Not being mature enough to press on with his duties in spite of introversion/extroversion being a barrier in a given situation would be a problem and perhaps indicate not being qualified. I think this is one of the beauties of the Presbyterian system where a church is run by multiple elders. Hopefully, elders with complimentary gifts (and weaknesses) will be found on a Session so they can encourage each other.

Image Source: photographer:☻☺ (the only name given), title: "the prayer continued," used with no modification under Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.0; source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/c0t0s0d0/2334183401

The Weight of Leading Worship

For most of my life, things at church just happened. That is, events are scheduled and I just show up and participate. Having been part of a church plant, and now a young church, I've learned that there are people doing the planning and preparation to make those things happen. For example, weekly worship on Sunday.

At Redeemer Church, we organize worship in two halves. The first half includes the call to worship, prayer, a hymn, first scripture reading, a corporate confession of sin, assurance of pardon, prayer for our needs, and another hymn or two. This part is led by one of the ruling elders (usually). The second half including the second scripture reading, sermon, Lord's Supper, final hymn, and benediction, and is led by our pastor or a guest pastor.

Even when I was young I had some notion that pastors prepared their sermon each week. However, I didn't think much about making the rest of the worship service happen. Now, as a ruling elder, I have to prepare to lead the first half about once a month. There is a two-part burden to this. One is the preparation, which for me is reading things out loud until I can read it clearly, and preparing notes for what to say and how to pray. The second burden is heavier - the act of leading others in worship.

Other elders may experience this differently. For me, it feels like a weight on my heart to go up to the pulpit and lead our congregation through worship. It's not fear of public speaking, which grad school trained out of me. The weight is more about the sense of coming before God and leading others in such a high and significant task. It is made worse knowing I myself am a sinner, in need of grace, and of no particular worth in myself to justify standing before others in such a place. For me, I try to use that weight or burden as I lead worship to convey the seriousness of what we're doing.

I also admit to thinking about the incident of Nadab and Abihu every now and then when going up the stairs to the pulpit.

But for all that weight, it is a deep joy to be a part of leading worship, to point others to our infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God, and to help make worship "just happen" for others.

It Is Better to Create

I got this message from two different sources. The first is a podcast from the Circe Institute: The Commons #11. Author S. D. Smith and the hosts examine the roles of critic, curator, and creator. Their conclusion is that the latter two are more valuable than the former as the creator (at his best) works to bring new good things into the world, and the curator points others to those good things they had not seen before.

The second is from the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch. Stitch is on a destructive rampage in Lilo's room when she says "You know, you wreck everything you touch. Why not try and make something for a change?" While Stitch didn't make something good, he did turn from destruction as his main purpose. 

The problem of course is that in our fallen world, it is much easier to destroy, tear down, and critique. I write quite a bit for my job and writing is difficult to do well, whether for an academic journal, a set of technical directions, or an email. But even so, I want to bring good things into the world and so strive to write clearly.

Thinking as an elder, those three roles of critic, curator, and creator all have their place in the church. We must be warned from evil and sin by the critic, but on the flip side we must point to the many good things such as faith, holiness, worship, the sacraments, and more. And, we must participate in the creating good things. I didn't say big things, just good things. We can make a joyful noise and participate in worship. We can make a meal for another family. We can make a men's breakfast where we can work through deeper issues in our hearts. We do not need to be experts to point others to the good and make good things ourselves.