Reed Mueller

This past week I preached out of Jeremiah 29. If you don’t recognize that passage right away, you probably aren’t remembering the verse that so many people place somewhere in their home (Jeremiah 29:11). It’s interesting how that particular verse is pulled out of context when we frame it up by itself and put it on a placard. For in doing so it implies that the Lord has only “positive circumstances” just around the corner for us. In reality, the circumstances we will face today or tomorrow have very little to do with that verse because that verse itself is a kind of capstone to what he’s been saying in the previous ones.

In essence, here’s what the Lord said before that famous verse: “I took you into exile… you’re going to be there for longer than you wish… under a dominating power that has destroyed your life, even killing some of your loved ones… and you know what you’re called to do now? Live there in peace by building your lives for the best and by being excellent citizens insofar as you can do so while keeping true to me. Oh, and by the way, in about seventy years, I’ll be bringing the community back home.” The implication is that most of the Jewish people who had been captured and taken off to Babylon would live and die there in captivity because most wouldn’t live another seventy years. This, then, is the context for the great plans the Lord has for them.

The applications from the sermon were simple:

• when your circumstances change for the worse, live as if nothing has changed at all (for nothing has, the Lord is still in control and in the long term will make good on his promise of beneficence).
• when faced with a  government that is against you, giving you no voice, you should still strive to pray for it and be great citizens insofar as your conscience allows.

It was this last point that received a question: yes, but what are we to do if the government is unjust (not just a little unjust, as all governments are, but really unjust)?

That’s an excellent question and one I would guess was asked by those in the Jewish community during their exile. As we look at the testimony of what actually happened in their case, we see something interesting. Daniel and his companions served to their best ability. But that service only went so far for they would not be party to anything that compromised their faith. Consider, for example, Daniel in the den (Daniel 6) or the account of the three, uh, four, in the furnace (Daniel 3).

And then consider Jesus’ example when moving in an unjust world having all the power he needed to overthrow an unjust oppressor. Did he call the angels to a giant bloodbath? No. Instead he used a power greater than the sword, he used the power of  meekness; he served, he sacrificed, he loved, he forgave… and the world was changed.

What we call the meekness of Our Lord is more than an aspect of His character: it is its fundamental principle. There is nothing in it of the “inert door-mat”; it was, and is, the practice of uncompromising and unyielding love, the exposition of a new technique in dealing with evil. I believe it to be the business of Christians, especially to-day, first to realize, and then to proclaim, this revolutionary technique as the only way to peace and justice. It won’t be easy, for meekness has little “face value” compared with armaments; but, if the Cross means anything at all, it is the vindication of meekness as the most dynamic and explosive force that humanity has ever known… Donald O. Soper (1903-1998), Popular Fallacies about the Christian Faith, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938, p. 76 (via cqod.com)

He’s our example. He’s our guide. And we should follow in his steps, steps, by the way, that only make sense if we believe his promise to bring us home one day from the exile of our sins. Not only that, but we should follow in his footsteps because he shows us the most powerful means of changing the world for good: love in his name and by his power.

I’ve lost many things in my life, most of which I can’t even remember because they held little meaning to me. I suppose I’ve lost a few socks in the wash (how does that happen anyway and where is the world’s repository of lost socks?). I’ve probably even dropped a few dollars on the ground from time-to-time. But really, I only remember those times vaguely. The occasional lost sock or lost five dollar bill isn’t a big deal. I didn’t call for an all-out search when I discovered these things were missing. I might have glanced around, but little energy was expended overall.

Now contrast that with what any parent would do if they suddenly discovered that their young daughter had wandered off. At first, they might yell out her name, but if that didn’t yield results, everything would be dropped: neighbors would be called, the police would be called, and the search would ensue.

The interesting thing about the situation which I just described is that the child may not feel as though she was lost at all. Perhaps she was just exploring, as children are prone to do. Regardless of whether the child felt lost or not, we know what she will feel when found: sought out and loved.

When she is reunited with her parents, this child will suddenly discover that heaven and earth were moved to find her. She will discover that her parents love her greatly and that she is missed when she is not around. And finally, she will discover the great joy that her parents have in being reunited with her. In the end, she will have the experience of being sought out. Don’t you think that she will smile, reflecting back her parent’s joy?

Jesus lived a life that proved, if nothing else, that every person who has ever lived and every person that will ever live is of immeasurable value to God; each person is sought out. Take, for instance, his words as recorded by Luke:

“If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it? And then you would joyfully carry it home on your shoulders. When you arrived, you would call together your friends and neighbors to rejoice with you because your lost sheep was found. In the same way, heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” Luke 15:4-7 (NLT)

Jesus spoke these words to those who were known to be “notorious sinners.” What must it have felt like for those people, people who had been rejected by the religiously inclined in their community, to have been sought out by Jesus?

Did they feel lost? Not likely. Instead they probably felt that they were doing their best and that they knew where they were. And if you really think about it, it is not so much that these people were lost, as in being in an unknown location or state, to God. Nobody is in an unknown state or location as far as God is concerned; he knows our location and experiences at every moment. Instead, they were lost to a full relationship with God, through Christ. And that is something they might have realized, if only deep down somewhere in the unspoken thoughts of the heart.

Because God so very much wants to share all life with us, he seeks us out, all the time, whether we are Christians or not, “good” or not, or whether we have a sense that we are lost or not. This is why I prefer the concept of “Sought Out Ones” in the place of “Lost Ones” – it more readily applies to us all…we are all “Sought Out Ones” all the time.

So how did those listening to Jesus feel about his words? I imagine that they felt much like the child we discussed in the first paragraphs of this article: they felt a sense of joy in being looked for, searched for, loved. They might even have wondered: “Was I really lost? And why do I matter so much? Whatever the reason, I’m glad I do.”

As followers of Jesus, we are to be seekers of those who are sought out by God. Sometimes these “Sought Out Ones” will not feel as though they are wandering. That is okay, it is our joy to help them discover the One who is on an all out search for them anyway. At other times, those who are found will indeed feel as if they’ve been lost, and find incredible peace in being found. Either way, our job is to seek them out and to celebrate with God when they are found. Our job is to understand that no person matters little to God and therefore no person can matter little to us.

The following quotes were culled by Mark Waltz, a pastor in Indiana, as he worked on some thoughts about community. As they reflect very well the perspectives developed in our Life Together / Serving Together series earlier this year, I thought I’d pass them on as reinforcement.

Our life is full of brokenness – broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God’s faithful presence in our lives? – Henri Nouwe

Community is a place of pain, of the death of ego. In community, we are sacrificing independence and the pseudo-security of being closed up. We can only live this pain if we are certain that for us being in community is our response to a call from God. If we do not have this certitude, then we won’t be able to stay in community. – Jean Vanier [emphasis mine]

The call to community is clear; we can’t escape it. Yet, neither can we escape the fact that leaning into the community we have been placed in (whether we like it or not) – the Body of Christ – is exceedingly difficult. It is difficult because of our brokenness. It is difficult because of others’ brokenness.

In light of this, what Vanier says is so important: we must be certain to take the call to community, to life together, seriously and live it out in faith, through both pain and joy.

If you’ve missed the last five messages in our Life Together series, you’ll get a fair overview of them in the following two quotes…

There are many things which a person can do alone, but being a Christian is not one of them. As the Christian life is, above all things, a state of union with Christ, and of union of his followers with one another, love of the brethren is inseparable from love of God. Resentment toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart with love to God. The personal relation to Christ can only be realized when one has “come to himself” as a member of His Body, the Christian fellowship. – William T. Ham, “Candles of the Lord” (via CQOD)

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when He called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone, you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called–the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together

Yesterday my message focused, more or less, on moving in step – or in rhythm – with the Holy Spirit. One of my points was that it is impossible to keep pace with the Spirit if we ignore his functional roles in his life. One such role is that of our instructor. Just so happened that I found the following quote on this today and thought I would pass it on:

The Spirit instructs us through the reading and exposition of the scriptures. The same Spirit who created the holy scriptures as he inspired its writers (2 Peter 1:20-21) illuminates its meaning and significance through its exposition (Romans 7:7; 1 Corinthians 2:12-14). Obviously this includes the meaning of a biblical text in its original context. Limiting his role to textual interpretation ignores two issues. First, any honest student of the scriptures quickly sees that those without the Spirit may reconstruct the literal-grammatical-historical meaning of the text just as well as those with the Spirit can. Secondly, New Testament references to “meat” and “milk” (1 Corinthians 3:1-23; Hebrews 5:11-6:12; 1 Peter 2:1-3) have less to do with the meaning of the scriptures than with their application. These suggest that illumination has more do with application than exegetical understanding. The Spirit directs our acts toward his goals of holiness and unity in community. He convicts us where we fail to live up to what we already possess. He enriches our worship according to his larger design for God’s sanctuary on the earth.

Ralston in The Spirit’s Role in Corporate Worship

I had a unique experience last Friday: I left a “Leadership Summit processing lunch” a very troubled man. I’m not at all used to that because typically I’m flying high after our team discusses what we learned! So why was I so troubled? First, because I didn’t effectively manage that particular meeting. Poor execution really bugs me and there was nobody to blame but myself. Second, because of a theme that emerged from a conversation we had about inviting others to our corporate worship gathering. We as a group of leaders seemed to flounder, even to the point of (apparent) division, over the issue of whether or not every one of us should invite the unchurched to our corporate worship gathering.

As I left the meeting this observation came to mind (an observation that I hold to tentatively and then only to help me think): Many, maybe most, Columbia Ridgers experience little or no impulse to invite the unchurched to weekend worship; some, maybe many, may actually have an impulse not to invite thinking that it isn’t their role or that it may be detrimental because it sends the wrong message. [NOTE: I don't believe that this is because Columbia Ridgers just don't care... I think there are other reasons for this that I'll explore here and in an additional post.] Others will have to assess for themselves the validity of the observation. I won’t argue with any who disagree because I’m only raising it to show how this particular ball got rolling in my mind. True or not, I’m glad I had the thought because it caused me to think more deeply about the entire issue.

As Pastor of this exceptional church family, I am called to pay careful attention to the theology that shapes my own life and our local church, a church I have been called to nurture toward maturity (Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 4:16; Ephesians 4:11-13). Thus, I reflected… and in reflection this question came to mind:

Have I left us with an inadequate theology of worship?

Just having to ask the question gave me a sinking feeling. I’m not sure that we understand that authentic worship in a healthy church is simultaneously an act of grace for those in Christ and a witness to those who are not. Paul dealt with an issue in the Corinthian church that points to this fact.

²³If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? ²⁴But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, ²⁵the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. ²⁶What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 1 Corinthians 14:23-26 (ESV)

Notice several important things here:

1. Paul expects that unbelievers (those opposed the gospel) and outsiders (the uninitiated, not opposed to the gospel, yet not accepting it to that point) will be in attendance at the regular worship gathering of this local church (v23).
2. Paul claims that an unbelievers/outsiders will be drawn toward God if the believers gathered together enter into authentic worship in an orderly, understandable, and orderly manner (v25: “…he will worship God and declare that God is really among you”).
3. Each believer of the body will have a special role in the worship gathering as they share the light that God has given to them (v26). This doesn’t happen exclusively on the platform, it happens as we move with each other in fabric of community before, during and after the ‘service’.
4. The end result of this will satisfy Paul’s command: “Let all things be done for building up” (v26).

Bottom line: We must understand that we are missing out on something remarkable if we rely solely on ourselves to witness to unbelievers: the power of the Holy Spirit moving in the gathered local church. The healthy church, gathering for corporate worship, is perhaps the strongest witness we could offer to someone. Because of this, it may actually be unkind not to do everything we can to bring our unbelieving friends to our weekly gathering (and once there, we can let God be God and do what he will with his word and the fellowship and worship he empowers).

While I can always identify things that I wish we had done with greater excellence during a corporate gathering, I cannot think of any service that I didn’t wish that all of my unbelieving friends were in attendance. I can’t think of a single one because I have seen how God works in and through our congregation when we gather. I can’t think of a single one because the Christian life is a hollow shell apart from the local church, at least for me. I can’t think of one because I believe God’s word doesn’t return void (Isaiah 55:11). I can’t think of a single one because apart from the gift I’ve received in being part of our worship gathering week in and week out I most likely wouldn’t have a living faith at all today.

Together we are, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9 “…a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light.” With regard to worship is he recalling passages in the Psalms that called believing Israel to gather in worship as a witness to unbelieving nations (e.g., Psalm 105:1-2)? Whether he is or not, we must remember that we have been given an incredible gift in being the Lord’s gathered and gathering people. It is a gift to receive his word and to proclaim his praises in such a way that it glorifies him, builds us up in the faith, and witnesses to the unbeliever.

I’ll have more thoughts that I’ll post soon. Until then I look forward to your comments.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Yesterday in our worship gathering we continued our discussion of truth of the Trinity. In so doing we moved from the fact that has revealed himself as One Being, Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to a study of what this means about who he is in essence. To try to learn something of God’s essence is to sneak a peek into the interior life of the Trinity rather than to observe his work in the world as Trinity. Theologians describe the pursuit of the former as the study of the Ontological (or Immanent) Trinity while the pursuit of the latter is the study of the Economic Trinity. Saying this doesn’t imply there are two Gods; rather, it is just a way for us to develop categories of thought that help us grow in our understanding of Him.

So with that said, what did we learn yesterday at our gathering? In three short words, we learned that God is love (1 John 4:8). If you want to know who God is in his essence – who He has always been even before the creation of time and the world and you and me – you must understand that God is love. How else could love have existed prior to the creation of anything unless the persons of the Trinity were loving one another at that time. Love, as we discussed yesterday, requires another to love to be true. The Trinity, this One Being, Three Persons has always been in a kind of Dance of Love (perichoresis) from eternity past to eternity future. In this dance, there has always been an open, authentic, and serving love beyond the limits of our imagination and before anything that is a thing existed.

Why does this understanding of the Ontological Trinity matter?

• First, theologians argue that apart from the existence of perfect eternal love, there can be no explanation for love in the world. 1 John 4:7 implies as much in suggesting that the origin of human love is not to be found in any of us, but rather, emanates from God. Thus, if we want to gain ground on our desire to love truly, we must return to the origin of love, the God who revealed himself in the reciprocity of his persons. We cannot and do not produce any love apart from him; where there have been moments of love in our lives, they are built upon the foundation of his love and resulting from it.
• Second, it matters because it gives us that sneak peek we wanted into the essence of God himself. To say that God is love is profound. Love isn’t god, as I mentioned in the sermon; God is love. If we know this about God we know what we need to know to discover freedom from fear, for love isn’t something he does, as if he could stop loving somehow or because of some thing done or not done. Because God is love it is not in his nature to be unloving. Bank on that and the fear of abandonment (1 John 4:9,16) and judgment (1 John 4:10,17-18) will slowly melt away from your life as you grasp the full significance of that truth. To know that God is love is to know the core of his being, inasmuch as we can grasp it (and we will spend eternity coming to discover how deep and wide his love is /Ephesians 3:14-19).

God is love. This is the truth revealed to us not only about what we most desire to give and receive (i.e., love) but also about who God is ontologically, in himself, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a dance of love. I can express this important truth no better than Robert Letham, a theologian who suggests the following:

God is a triune communion of persons. Love is intrinsic to who he is. Attributes like grace, mercy, justice, and even holiness are all relative to his creatures… Love, however, belongs to who he is in himself in the undivided communion of the three persons… The reciprocal love of the three persons exists in the unbreakable union of the undivided Trinity. In that we are enabled to be “partakers of the divine nature,” (2 Peter 1:4) “changed from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) by the Spirit of the Lord, we are brought into this communion of the love of God. (emphasis mine)

As we entered into our four week series on the Trinity, a central doctrine of the Christian faith (a doctrine, in fact, without which our salvation, worship, and fellowship might simply crumble into dust) I felt it important to bring into focus both how the knowledge of God arises in us as well as what we might understand of God once such knowledge is received.

With regard to the basic knowledge of God, it is important for us to consider two facts. First, it seems evident that for some a review of nature and its wonder, the universe and is awesome magnitude, that is, taking in the whole of creation insofar as we able to do so, points toward the plausibility of a creator. For sure, the bible suggests that the heavens declare the glory of the Lord and therefore can point us to this fact (Psalm 19:1). However, it seems that there is a limit to what such “natural” revelation might lead us to discover. Whereas we might ascertain that there is a creator, we do not know from our knowledge of the universe whether that creator is even still present let alone whether such a being would be good and loving in character and action. To know such things, and even deeper things such as the very essence of God, rather than his nature or actions, would require some other form of knowledge that we might receive elsewhere.

That being the case, from a Christian perspective, if we are to know God’s character and essence it is important that we supplement our own observations of the universe with what God might reveal about himself to us apart from such natural observations. To many theologians…

[our knowledge of God] …is not predicated upon any human capacity or mode of thinking, but upon the initiative of God in making himself known to us and reconciling the world to himself.” Murray Rae in Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology

In this regard, Rae calls us to consider what Paul implies in 1 Corinthians 12:3 when Paul writes “…no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” While anyone with vocal chords produce the vocalization “Jesus is Lord” the point is that no one can truly know who Jesus really is, Lord above all, apart from the intervention of the Holy Spirit in our lives prior to or in support of that knowledge (see also Matthew 16:16-17). My contention in the message I preached on Sunday was this: The direction of deep knowledge about God must flow primarily from him to us, not us to him. This basic point seems to be a necessary foundation from which to begin the study of the doctrine of the Trinity. If we are to know who God really is, we will need to supplement what we can perceive of him in general and our own understanding what is possible and logical with what he has revealed of himself through his word, according to his desire.

This being said, I have some questions for you to consider before we move on later this week to specific scriptural references that bring us to the doctrine of the Trinity.

1. Can you know God’s essential nature and essence only through ‘natural revelation’? Does Romans 1:18-20 suggest that you can?
2. What role does scripture play in revealing the very nature or essence of God beyond such natural revelation?

These are the questions we’ll begin with as we study the Trinity together as a congregation… let the discussion begin (and if you’re reading this on email log on to my blog at reed.teammueller.com and post your responses there so we all can benefit from the discussion).

Every once in a while life slows down enough to create a real opportunity for rest. That is exactly what happened to me on vacation last month, but not in the way you might imagine. I’m not physically rested at all. We traveled a lot, saw a lot of new sites, and got less sleep than we probably should have. Yet, I had time to rest my soul through this annual change in my schedule and by being out in God’s imaginative and beautiful creation for an extended period of time. It was in this gift of spiritual rest that I was reminded in various ways about one of the most important things I’ve ever come to understand about God. I pass it on to you, just in case you’ve forgotten or haven’t rested in a while.

The first reminder came through the simple enjoyment of being with my family. Ever had those moments when your relationships just seemed 100% right? I enjoyed that this vacation. I loved seeing my kids play in the sand, hike in the woods, and play Kick the Can. I loved seeing my wife enjoy the peace of a small lake in the North Woods. I loved exploring new places together as a family. All of this was part of resting, part of knowing one of the most important things that can ever be known about God. Because of that knowledge, the joy was better and I was more grateful.

As many of you know, I used to deal with considerable flight anxiety. Against that history, the second reminder came to me in the form of a joyful smile moving across my lips as I deplaned for the first time on our vacation. I didn’t smile because the flight was over and I was again on terra firma; rather, I smiled because I realized that I no longer worry at all when flying. The reason is simple: I now know one of the most important things that can ever be known about God and because of that, the fear is gone.

The final reminder came to me as I read a novel (which is rare for me): The Shack. The main character, Mackenzie, is a father who has his worst fears come true (I won’t give away any more). As the story unfolds, the reader observes God’s loving encounter with this hurt and angry man…

“The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you don’t think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything – the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives – is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me. But you don’t.”

Time with my family, a smile upon deplaning, and a small section of a story all pointed me to one of the most important things I’ve ever known about God. It is something I have come back to again and again across the years. I come to it when I don’t understand some loss or hurt occurring in my life. I come to it when I don’t understand why God works in the world as he does (especially when I think he should work differently). I come to it when I work with those who are going through their worst fears. Finally, I come to it when I struggle with the more difficult and less popular truths that God has revealed about himself.

So I again remembered a fundamental truth and this is where I found – where we can always find – rest: God is completely good, better than we can imagine in every way, he always has been and always will be. He is good in the great times and just as good in the dark times. It is in God’s goodness that we can find rest in and through all the fear, the anger, and the sadness of life. It is in God’s goodness that we can enjoy the blessings even more. It is in God’s goodness that we see him for who he is and can trust and worship:

He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is! Deuteronomy 32:4 (NLT)

Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.” Revelation 15:4 (NLT)

In the end, all will come to realize this. All will see how good our God is. But why wait? Rest in who he is now as you remember, no matter what, that he is good!

Ever had to reconsider the wisdom of a common saying? I had to when I read John 9:6-11, an account of one of Jesus’ miraculous healings, recently:

6…Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

“Seeing is believing” is an old saying that I’ve never really questioned. Yet, after reading this account I reconsidered it and came to the conclusion that in certain cases it’s 180 degrees wrong. According to John, this blind man found sight because he believed Jesus, trusting him enough to do something that must have seemed quite silly, before he could physically see him. And what happened when he trusted Jesus’ lead? He found that he could see… and see Jesus no less! In his case, believing preceded seeing.

Sometimes seeing, and more spectacularly seeing Christ, requires of us to grope toward the place he calls us. We may not understand – and certainly this man did not – yet, if we move after truly hearing the call of Christ, then our eyes are opened even if ever so slightly at first. So maybe when it comes to ultimate matters, matters of faith, a more appropriate saying would be this: “Believing is seeing!” That is, taking a step of faith leads us to see God in a new and deeper way; he reveals himself to us as we trust him.

Want to see him in your life? Then follow his lead by responding to his word and his still small voice… and just see what happens… for believing leads to seeing.