Phoebe Was a Rockstar
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
Romans 16:1–2 (NIV)
Consider This
Phoebe was a rockstar. She was a deacon, which in New Testament terms means she was set apart by Jesus and marked (anointed) by the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary way to do the ordinary work of servant leadership in the kingdom of Jesus. She was a recognized leader in the church in Cenchreae—which in biblical times was the eastern port of the ancient city-state of Corinth. I have never explicitly noted it, but Paul wrote the letter to the Roman church while he was in Corinth.
From all we can tell, she was a linchpin kind of leader in the early church. You know the type. (On the Seedbed Farm Team, her name would be Micah!) Paul identifies Phoebe as dedicated, hardworking, wealthy, and generous. He called on her to deliver the letter to Rome and most likely to read it for the church, with the same kind of passion, emphasis, and nuance with which Paul would have done himself had he been there.
I love how he referred to Phoebe as, “our sister,” rather than just “my sister.” Here’s my question. Why did Paul feel the need to write this?
I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you,
Could it be because Phoebe was a woman? I’d say probably so. Throughout human history, as a rule, women have been treated as lesser than men, inferior to them, and thereby restricted from full participation in society. Sadly, the church has not only followed suit but often led the way in such treatment.
This is not how it was (or is) in the New Testament church. Of the twenty-six people named in chapter 16, nine of them are women. We should remember Jesus’s inclusion of women among his disciples was rabbinically revolutionary. Is it any wonder it was the women who were the last to remain at the cross and the first to arrive at the empty tomb? It was a woman who first proclaimed the resurrection. It turns out Mary Magdalene was the apostle to the apostles. Let’s not forget our dear sister known to history as “the woman at the well,” (aka Photine) whose witness was so great in the early years of the church she (along with Mary Magdalene) was given the title, “equal to the apostles.” It turns out there were at least seven women among the twenty-eight witnesses given this designation to date in church history. Among the nine women named in this chapter, he also names Junia, a woman who was regarded as an apostle in the New Testament church.
So what about the seemingly contradictory texts from Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2 where he seems to limit women and forbid them from speaking in churches? Christians have generally taken three approaches to these (and other difficult texts). 1. Dismiss the text or the author as misogynistic or homophobic or an otherwise inferior product of their times and culture. 2. Follow the surface or plain reading of the text (and often with fundamentalist zeal). 3. Follow the deeper interpretive and contextual reading of the text. Granted, the plain reading is often the correct reading, but there are many times Scripture requires a deeper dive given the time passed and cultural distance. This is one of those times.
As we have witnessed in Romans, Paul was writing his letters with the particular purpose to solve specific problems in the little churches. Of course, I can’t go into the particulars here, but I will point you to these resources (Craig Keener article; Ben Witherington videos Part I and Part II; Gary Hoag video) from some of the best bible scholars in the history of the church for a deeper treatment. Suffice it to say, when these texts are read in their biblical and first-century context, not to mention the larger biblical narrative, a clear picture emerges that not only supports women in the fulfillment of their various callings to servant leadership across the church but emboldens them.
Phoebe was a rockstar.
May her tribe increase.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you for the way your Son, Jesus, called women into the ranks of his disciples just as he called men. We confess our own personal history formed by cultural stereotypes and plain, bad teaching has led us to come to the table with a jaded vision. Cleanse us of such prejudices that our vision might be purified to receive and behold revelation in its nuanced depth. You formed us in your image, male and female. Forgive us for all of the gendered chaos we continue to foment from such simple and divine origins. Awaken us to your creational intentions that we might be fully aligned in your kingdom will for the whole world. We pray especially for our daughters today, from infants in our arms, through their girlhood and into womanhood. We want them fully invited and invested into your kingdom to claim their callings and vocations to serve and lead at every level, in every sphere, and in full scope—in the church and as the church in every sector of society. And yes we pray for our sons to grow up in a divine understanding of manhood as well as respect for womanhood. All of this for the glory of God in all the world. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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The Bond of a Band vs. The Rope of Sand
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Romans 15:23–33 (NIV)
Consider This
By the end of chapter 15, we see Paul’s fervent commitment to strengthen the church Jesus is building. He has labored through his magisterial letter to mend the net of the little church in Rome. Paul did not see the work of church planting and pastoring as sociological chaplaincy. It was theological and missional. Paul saw these little churches as microcosms of the kingdom of Jesus; little worlds of massive supernatural reality which pointed to the world to come—the new heaven and the new earth. He saw them as communities from the future—for the future—right here in the present. Jesus declared it in his first seventeen-word sermon,
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)
Jesus wrote the check. Paul was cashing it in every conceivable way. The fishing nets of the kingdom that these little churches represented were being riven by false teaching, stretched out of shape by spiritual warfare, stressed by poverty, and torn by interpersonal conflicts. Paul tied the knots that formed these net-like churches, paid them visits as the Lord allowed, and wrote them letters in between in order to keep the nets mended and in working order.
Isn’t it astonishing how those ancient letters are still mending the nets which are our churches today? As he closes out his letter to the church in Rome, he shares with us his plan to go to Jerusalem to take an offering for the poverty-stricken church there. After this, he plans to go to Rome, and already he’s talking about making Rome the mission base for a fishing expedition to Spain where he will tie the first knots of a brand new net (aka church plant).
You see, Paul knew most deeply what we have mostly never known at all. The church is the bond of peace in the unity of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It’s not an organization set up to provide religious services, spiritual help, and family chaplains. It’s not a building to come to and experience good worship and a relevant message. And no, the church is not “the people.”1 Christians gathered in a building in Jesus’s name are merely a Christian crowd. The church actually rises and falls based on the bonds between us. The church is the bond, the deep, bonded attachments between the blood-bought sons and daughters of God, bound together by the Holy Spirit in the very body of Jesus Christ. In him, we are seated in the house of heaven, and stretching out across the whole earth. It’s why our relationships are the mission. It’s why awakening rides on the rails of friendship, bound in the knots of our banded fellowship. It’s time we started working on the bonds. While there are many ways to do this, I know of none better than the band.
There’s a famous conversation from history we reference often in our work. It happened between the celebrated preacher George Whitefield and a man by the name of John Pool, an unknown member of the Methodist movement. Here’s the dialogue.
“Well, John, art thou still a Wesleyan?”
Pool replied, “Yes, sir, and I thank God that I have the privilege of being in connection with him, and one of his preachers.”
“John,” said Whitefield, “thou art in the right place. My brother Wesley acted wisely—the souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in class, and thus preserved the fruits of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand.”2
Prayer
Abba Father! Awaken your church to understand who it is and whose we are and even what we are in this world. We confess we have organized ourselves in ways that work against what you want to do. Even in coming to our gatherings we mostly see the backs of each other’s heads. We are desperate to see face-to-face, and to learn to know one another deeply and love one another profoundly; the way you know and love us. This is what we have to offer the desperate world around us—our very bond with each other in you. Awaken your church. Awaken me. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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Ask Me about My Band
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written:
“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.”
This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.
Romans 15:14–22 (NIV)
Consider This
Some years back, Nick, from the Farm Team at Seedbed headquarters, made my dream t-shirt. Nick is the designer and creator of all things bright and beautiful that come out of our Seed house. It’s a gray t-shirt with simple black lettering on the front. It says, “Ask Me about My Band.” I love it so much because it creates two opportunities for me when I wear it and someone does indeed ask. I can tell them about my country band, “J. D. and the Dukes,” or I can tell them about my Seedbed band. And if time permits I can tell them about both. And in the telling, you are already seeing how I am beginning to get them caught up in the fishing net of Jesus.
Well, you asked me about my band, so here goes. We tied the first knot on April 8, 2016. (Yep, that’s 4.8.16 for the numerical mystics among us.) At that point, I was halfway into what would be the worst and most tragic decade of my life so far. Two men, about a decade younger than me, approached me with the idea of starting a band. We would invent it as we went—you know the drill—build the bridge as we walked across it. We would anchor it in the great tradition of John Wesley and the Moravians before him and yet we would innovate on the tradition for twenty-first-century application. We knew it was an idea whose time had come again and we all knew we desperately needed a deeper form of relationship than the well-meaning but superficial community we had found in our churches.
It turns out our friend, Kevin Watson (aka the Master Yoda of banding), had been digging a deep scholarly well for the past decade into the community structures pioneered by John Wesley. Seedbed published his popular book on The Class Meeting and subsequently on The Band Meeting. Kevin was the one who famously said the church is addicted to curriculum and it is not adding up to transformational living (aka the emperor has no clothes). We knew he was right and that our own lives were evidence of the deficit.
So on April 8, 2016, Mark and Omar and I started Band #1 in the model of banding we set out to pioneer. I had mentored Omar and Mark about a decade prior through their seminary years when I served as dean of chapel at Asbury Theological Seminary. Little did we know in that first meeting the kind of friendship we were about to forge together. Going on eight years later, we have met together on most every Friday morning at 8 am for our band meeting. And we will never be the same.
We live in different states so we meet on a call; connecting in person annually or more as we are able. Here’s how the meeting unfolds:
After a few minutes of small talk banter, someone will call the band meeting to order with these words:
“Wake up, sleepers, and rise from the dead!”
And the other two will respond:
“And Christ will shine on you!”
Next, one of us, (usually me because I have rememberized it) will pray the Banding Prayer:
Father, we pray that out of your glorious riches, you would strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner being. We pray that would be rooted and established in love so that we may have power to grasp, with all the Saints, how high and how wide and how deep and how long is the love of Christ and that we would know this love that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Next, someone volunteers to go first and we take turns responding to the five banding questions:
- How is it with my soul?
2. What are my struggles and successes?
3. How might God be speaking to me through the Scriptures and the Spirit?
4. Is there any sin I wish to confess to the band?
5. Is there anything I wish to keep secret from the band?
I’ll be honest. It took us a while to get to questions four and five. We had to build deeper trust. But my goodness—what depths of love have been unlocked from adding them later. After one band member finishes responding to the questions (uninterrupted I might add) the others may speak a word of encouragement and affirmation and then one of us will lead in prayer for the one who shared. Then the next volunteer goes. Once all have shared we conclude the meeting with the rest of the Banding Prayer:
Now to him who is able to do abundantly above and beyond all we can ask or even imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus now and throughout all generations. Amen.
And we are done. It takes an hour and change. We have walked through green pastures and sat by still waters and yet also through the valley of the shadow of death, disease, divorce, and enormous discouragements and disappointments. Not only has Jesus preserved our lives through the band, but he has also transformed us and taught us what real love is—how to receive it and give it.
Here we are, going on eight years later, and thousands more bands have joined us. I would love it if you would too. You can learn more here. And I would love to hear your banding story. Share it here.
I’ll save the J. D. and the Dukes band story for another day.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you for the gift of each other. You have hidden our inheritance in the Saints. Would you give us the courage to begin searching for this treasure in a few other souls? Would you lead us to another two or three people with whom we can become more deeply known and hence more deeply loved? We confess, so often to be well known is not to be known at all. I want to be known well and I want to know a few others well. I want to do the work of real soul transformation. Actually, I know only you can do that work. I want to learn to show up where that work happens; where I can be transformed instead of endlessly trying to fix myself. Come Holy Spirit, lead me to this kind of fellowship—for my good, for others’ gain, for your glory. In Jesus’s name, amen.
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From Shepherding to Fishing
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name.”
Again, it says,
“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him.”
And again, Isaiah says,
“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”
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.
Romans 15:7–13 (NIV)
Consider This
I believe the Old Testament could fairly be called a sheep herding expedition. The primary exemplar is a shepherd. So what about the New Testament? I would call the New Testament a massive fishing expedition. But why did God call fishermen instead of shepherds? It is quite a change. I have wondered about this for years. I think I finally understand.
It’s because in the shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament, God is not looking to add a lost sheep here and there. This shift from the old covenant to the new covenant means the hope of adding to the community every non-Jewish person in the world. Today’s text reveals yet again how God’s plan is global in scope. It always has been. It took sending his Son to fulfill the plan. God’s plan has always been to raise up a people—a community living in covenant relationship together with him, through whom he could reveal himself to the world and reconcile them in relationship.
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name.”
Again, it says,
“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him.”
And again, Isaiah says,
“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”
No, this is not adding a few stray sheep from the tribe of Judah. We are now talking about the whole world. Yes, this is a massive fishing expedition.
Growing up I had another misconception. When Jesus said his followers would be fishers of people, I immediately assumed he meant cane poles and rod and reels replete with live bait and artificial lures. Yes, I assumed he was talking about bait fishing. It turns out, New Testament fishing was all about net fishing. Now, here’s the kicker. In this massive, New Testament-fishing expedition, the people of God would become the net. Now, let me ask you, what is a net? It is quite simply a collection of knots. And yes, the knots are our relationships. The knots are not just any relationships though; as though Facebook friendship level would suffice. No, the knots are covenanted relationships. The knots are friendships in the tradition of the friends of Jesus. You knew I would get here. Yes, the knots are banded and bonded relationships; people learning to love one another with the very love of God.
It turns out this is how other people get caught up in the net. They become enfolded into our relationships and in time they become knotted in. I believe the greatest biblical symbol of the New Testament church, the covenant community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the symbol we have largely left behind: the net. When those first disciples responded to Jesus’s call to follow him and become fishers of people, it says they left their nets behind. Jesus would transform their lives and relationships into that net and then he would throw them out like a net into the deep waters of the world.
It’s time we pick the net up again as the sign and symbol both of the church and of our churches. The success of our churches will depend on the supernatural strength of our relationships therein. Are you seeing it? Our relationships are the mission. Awakening depends on the strength of the knots.
Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, those hundred or so Christians in the city of a million, to mend the net of their community. To re-band those disciples by retying the tattering knots.
The most important work ahead of us in the churches of our time is learning to tie New Testament knots again. If “church” does not exist at the micro-level, it does not exist at all. Truth be told, we have to re-learn to net fish all over again as we have spent the last hundred years or so perfecting the mistaken model of bait fishing. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Bait fishing is trying to attract people to our churches with all manner of shiny things. Net fishing is about banding together and going out where the fish are, in the shallows and deeps of the real world.
What if it turns out the most loving, mission-oriented thing you could do is start a band? Would you do it?
And I know, you are still waiting to hear about my band. And you shall. Stay tuned. I’ll tell you the story of how we tied the knot, and how we keep tying it.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you for the way you sent your Son to catch fish, and how he started with fishermen and women, and how he tied them together in the knot of his relationship with you in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Teach us how to tie such New Testament knots in ways that become so unbreakable that others become caught up in the love we share. We pray for our churches to recover this net-fishing mindset. Start with me. Start with my band. Start with tying a knot between me and a couple of others, for the world. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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Unus Christianus—Nullus Christianus: One Christian—No Christian
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:5–6 (NIV)
Consider This
There it is. I’ve never spotted it before.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, (v.5)
It’s like holy dejavu. He said the same thing to the Philippian church (speaking of Euodia and Synteche)!
Have the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 2:5)
Of course, this takes us back to the Jesus Manifesto in Romans 12:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (v.2)
The Spirit transforms us by renewing our minds by giving us the mind of Jesus Christ. Here is the warning: We can only go so far in this process by ourselves. And “going to church” so often is sadly just another way to remain quasi-anonymous in a crowd. To “have the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,” requires consecrated relationships. (Remember the path—consecration, transformation, demonstration). We must press past the comfortable anonymity of being in a crowd. We must go beyond the cozy connections of our “community groups” and smaller “life groups.” These are good and good things happen there, but the church today is largely missing the critical connection of micro-communities; what history calls “bands.” A band is just that—a transformational micro-community.
It’s why in the early church they had a saying: Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. Translation: One Christian—no Christian. Making a decision to be baptized and follow Jesus is a personal decision. No one can do that for another person. However, to actually become a real Christian takes other Christians. Transformational faith is a team sport; it requires a lot of one-another-ing. Hence the saying: One Christian—no Christian.
We have largely thought the transformation by the renewing of the mind comes through learning more information. Consequently, most of our groups are built around bible studies and other curricular resources. Again, not bad, just inadequate for the real work of transformation. This is why our churches may be growing numerically but not in the metrics of the New Testament. This is why our own lives tend to be stuck in the same sin patterns and habits that have plagued us for years. We simply do not have the kind of relationships envisioned by the New Testament to sustain the kind of transformation needed to become who God made us to be and to do what God designed us to do.
Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. Translation: One Christian—no Christian.
What is needed is a smaller setting where our real lives become the curriculum. This is the place where we realize we can only become the trusted friends of Jesus by becoming the trusted friends of a couple of others in Jesus’s presence through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This is a band. It’s where this miracle happens:
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Endurance, encouragement, love, deep transformation, and the glory of God—that is what happens in a band. Note: This is not advanced Christianity. A band is not just for people who have been around the church for a while. It is for everyone. If our relationships are the mission, as we believe they are, and if awakening rides on the rails of friendship, which we believe is so, then banding is among the most essential practices in the kingdom of Jesus. I believe it is perhaps the most important work Seedbed is doing across the church.
Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. Translation: One Christian—no Christian.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you for Jesus, who is our endurance and encouragement in the Spirit. He is our glory and the lifter of our heads. Thank you for the way he would do this in us through a few others in the transforming grace of covenant love; in the bond of a band. Impress on us that while we tend to build our churches on crowds we call community, you build your church with the smallest bonds of love, with real friendship; showing us if we can truly learn to love two or three others we have learned to love the world. I confess, it is so easy to believe the opposite. Holy Spirit lead me into this old new way. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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Awakening Rides on the Rails of Friendship
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
Romans 15:1–4 (NIV)
Consider This
Last week I shared with you one of the core convictions of life in the kingdom of Jesus: Our relationships are the mission. I repeat this frequently with the Farm Team at Seedbed and soon I will be saying it all the time in the local church I serve as pastor.
There is another saying we are fond of in our community: Awakening rides on the rails of friendship. If our relationships are the mission, it makes sense that our primary work is in building these bonds as strong as we can. Relationships that are broken and in disrepair create barriers not only for the flourishing of the church but for the awakening of the unbelieving world.
Though Paul’s letters be filled with theological reflection and pastoral wisdom, we must remember his purpose in all of them was to build up the body of Christ. Much, if not most of the time, this meant dealing with the brokenness in their relationships. I marvel at these words of Paul in his letter to the church at Philippi:
I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, (Phil. 4:2–3).
How would you like to be Euodia and Syntyche, forever identified and called out as those two people who couldn’t work out their conflict? We don’t know why they were at odds or what it was about, but their unresolved conflict, small as it likely was in the scheme of things, is forever a conflict of biblical proportions. Why? Because it was becoming a hindrance to the mission of this first little church in all of Europe. If awakening rides on the rails of friendship, then a broken friendship can derail the whole train.
And that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s the small things. It is the unaddressed slight, the unspoken hurt, the passive-aggressive offense, and the untended hurt that leads to an unmended relationship.
Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
Remember Paul’s urgent exhortation to the little church in Ephesus: “Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
This is the whole reason Paul wrote this letter to the Romans—to try and rehabilitate their relationships which were threatening to derail the awakening afoot in Rome. Could it be that the broken relationships in my life are creating a barrier to awakening in my community?
Have you ever considered that the broken, unhealed, and untended relationships in your life could do so much damage? Is it worth it to let them persist? This is not a word of condemnation, rather, it is a word of great hope. What if it could be that simple? (Note, I didn’t say easy.) What if we began to mend the broken relationships in our communities? It would definitely be a firstfruits of awakening in our midst.
Prayer
Abba Father! We knew our relationships mattered to you, but we never really knew how much was riding on them. We are the body of Christ. Forgive us for thinking of it as a mere metaphor. We are actually part of each other so is it any wonder when our bonds with each other are broken the whole body suffers? Holy Spirit, awaken us to the gravity of this reality, not in condemnation, but with fresh hope—that our relationships mended and ever mending could lead to awakening in others; not to mention renewed love and joy in our own lives. We are willing. I am willing. Show me the next small step. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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Yes, Our Relationships Are the Mission
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Romans 14:19–23 (NIV)
Consider This
I began the conversation on Romans 14 with this bold declaration: Our relationships are the mission.
I say this based on my reading of the whole Bible, most notably the New Testament, and particularly these words of our Lord, Jesus Christ:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20–21)
He is praying for two things here: (1) For us to be in relationship with each other in the same way as he and the Father are in relationship with each other (in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit); and (2) For our relationships to be anchored in and animated by the relationship between the Father and the Son (in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit).
Why is this so important to Jesus? He could not be any more clear: The faith of the unbelieving world depends on the relationships of the people within the believing church.
Hence, my declaration: Our relationships are the mission.
But why? One word: love. The apostle John may have said it best: “God is love and those who live in love live in God and God in them” (1 John 4:16). The most sovereign demonstration of the power of God is the love of God and we need look no further than the cross. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we see the powerful, saving love of God on full display issuing forth in the justice, mercy, grace, and peace of God. The church Jesus is building is an ever-unfolding iconic revelation of these divine realities through the relationships of the people enfolded therein. If what people see in our relationships is a denial of what they read in the Bible we effectively give them a reason not to believe.
Hear Paul to the Ephesians on this point:
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:1–3)
The bond of peace is the strongest bond in the cosmos and yet it is also quite fragile. It is as strong as the sovereign love of God and yet it is as vulnerable as the brokenness of people. On the one hand, when it comes to the church Jesus is building—the gates of hell will not prevail against it—and yet when the followers of Jesus engage in permissible behavior that causes one another to stumble in their faith it can create a crisis of New Testament proportions. In first-century Rome, it came down to what they were having for supper.
From the first century to the twenty-first century, relational conflict within the church is a given. That’s not the issue. It all comes down to how we handle one another in the midst of it. In many ways, the history of the church is a history of conflict. Sometimes, especially when it comes to non-essential matters, the conflicts can be worked out and communities can reconcile. At other times, when the issues are entwined with more essential concerns, reconciliation may not be possible. Reconciliation or not, the peace of Jesus Christ is always available in our relationships. And it is imperative we make every effort to avail ourselves of this very costly peace. Remember, our relationships are the mission, regardless of the outcome. Peace can be made in the wake of the worst irreconcilable differences. Depart throwing roses; never rocks.
In the third stanza of the magisterial hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation,” we get these words:
Tho’ with a scornful wonder,
we see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping,
their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.
Let’s be clear. Our broken relationships within the church grieve the Holy Spirit and it may compromise the witness of Jesus through his church, but it neither disrupts nor disturbs the unity of the triune God. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ plays the long game. He has waited out many a hard-hearted bishop, suffered both necessary and needless schisms, made allowance for zealous fools, tolerated obstinate men and women, endured misguided heretics and absurd heresies, and allowed centuries to pass, yet all the while his truth is marching on. He may seem to lose a battle here and there—and even on our watch—but he will win the war.
Indeed, he has already won.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you for your son, Jesus, our Lord, who is the Prince of Peace. Keep us near the cross, day by day, hour by hour. Impress on us by your Spirit the importance of our relationships inside of the church. Holy Spirit, would you fill us with the love of God for one another; the love that is full of mercy and grace, that gives the benefit of the doubt, that forgives and makes peace, even when it is hard? Too much is at stake. Make our relationships places of your revelation. Make our relationships places where your mission of winning the world is accomplished. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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Sometimes When You Are Right You Are Wrong
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
Romans 14:13–18 (NIV)
Consider This
There is a saying which has circulated around the church since at least the time of Augustine. The saying has been attributed to many theologians, including John Wesley, and is widely accepted as wisdom. It is as follows:
“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity,”
The hard part, and where significant disagreement arises, comes in sorting out what is essential and what is non-essential. Paul seems to clearly say in today’s text that the matter of eating meat and drinking wine is a non-essential matter. In other words, there is room for people to adopt divergent positions. He goes further to say that no food is unclean. In non-essentials, liberty. End of discussion.
Not so fast. Just because people have the freedom to follow their own conscience here does not mean the conversation is over. It simply means the doctrinal issue has been adjudicated. The laws around eating and drinking under the old covenant are no longer applicable. It raises the last phrase in the famous saying: In all things charity. Does my exercising my freedom cause harm to you? Is my freedom being exercised in love for others or is it centered around myself and my own interests?
If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.
Paul is calling the church to wake up and realize they are now kneeling at the foot of the cross together. He has rebuked them for judging one another. Now he calls them to love one another. Can we recognize our common frailty as broken human beings? Can I realize Jesus died for me and Jesus also died for you, too? If me exercising my freedom causes you to stumble, is it worth it to persist in exercising my freedom? No. Sometimes, the exercising of my own rights can be wrong. In these times, the right thing to do is to sacrifice my right for the sake of my brother or sister. Sometimes, the exercise of non-sinful freedom can actually become sinful. The question is not whether it is legal or not but whether it is loving or not. It falls under the rubric—sometimes when you are right, you are wrong.
While the eating of certain kinds of food is not so much on the table anymore, the issue of drinking alcohol often is. The rationale differs from the first century, but the text seems still on point. Today, because addiction to alcohol is so common both inside the church and beyond and is such a stumbling block for so many, it is a discussion we should have sometime.
Bottom line:
Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
Prayer
Abba Father! I confess, sometimes I can get so wrapped up in whether something is right or wrong, I can easily fall into judging others with whom I disagree. Other times I can get so caught up in my own rights that I can be wrong in the way I stand on them. I ask you to forgive me for these sins and yet more than that to transform me such that love for others becomes not just my core conviction but my deepest nature. Save me from fooling myself into believing I can be all about Jesus without being all about other people. Holy Spirit, train my inmost being to love as Jesus loves. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God
Romans 14:10–12 (NIV)
Consider This
Let’s rehearse the story so far on Romans 14.
- Paul acknowledges the conflict and deems it a non-essential matter.
- He shifts the conflict from warring factions to personalized reckoning.
- He asks them to personally clarify their convictions.
- Now, rather than bringing them face to face into some kind of mediated conflict resolution, he pushes them to deal personally and directly with God.
- Now, in today’s text, ten verses in, he identifies the real issue and calls them out.
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister?
The presenting issues here are eating meat, drinking wine, and keeping sabbath. The underlying matter is of another order entirely. It is the soul cancer of judgment and judging one another. Paul knows nothing will destroy this little church faster than the spirit of judgment among the people. Paul knows where this goes next.
Or why do you treat them with contempt?
If the spirit of judgment constitutes the cancerous cells, then the sign of their malignant spread is contempt. Paul chooses a very strong word here: exoutheneó. It goes way past judging others and into the realm of mockery and despising them.
Some years ago, the celebrated Jewish psychologist John Gottman embarked on a landmark research study on divorce and its causes. He developed a model which could predict eventual divorce with a documented 90 percent accuracy rate based on the presence of certain behavioral markers. Through his research, he identified four relational cascading markers which point to and ultimately cause relational dissolution. They occur progressively and in this order, criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. He called them “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (If you are interested check out the wikipedia page for an overview).
Take note, modern readers—and especially those of us who are dealing with church conflicts (not to mention marital and other relational impasses)—of Paul’s prescription. Before we need an exploration of the conflict we need an examination of conscience before God.1 So often we enter into processes to resolve conflict with others before we have dealt with ourselves in the presence of God. It invariably results in escalating the conflict. This is so because most of our conflicts reach an impasse because of our own deep investment in being right in our own judgment.
For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
Translation: Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to the throne of God. Run to the foot of the cross. Bow and kneel at the feet of Jesus. Declare with your mouth: Jesus Christ is Lord. Refresh the faith of your heart that God raised him from the dead. Invite the Holy Spirit to lay bare your heart and search you and grant you a spirit of repentance. Repent of a judgmental spirit, of criticism, of defensiveness, of contempt, and of stonewalling.
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God
Paul is inviting the followers of Jesus, then and now, to go ahead and get in the habit of giving this account to God, who alone is the Judge, now—while there is still time to recover and make amends. This is the great miracle of mercy and the mystery of grace.
Prayer
Abba Father! Thank you that you are the Righteous Judge. Forgive us when we attempt to usurp your authority by inserting ourselves in your place. We confess we get crossways with other people and escalate our conflicts when we fail to find ourselves alone at the cross before you. You are the Judge, and we can entrust ourselves to you who judges justly—just as Jesus did. Holy Spirit would you teach us this way of turning away from the escalating conflict and turning directly to you? This is wisdom and for it we thank you. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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When the Conflict Is Not about the Conflict and What It Is Really About
By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
Romans 14:5–9 (NIV)
Consider This
So what do people living in Christian community do when they come to a disputed matter and it breaks down into an irreconcilable conflict?
They get out their Bibles, stake out the high ground, and play the God card of course! That wasn’t exactly the case with the Roman Christians, yet it was close. We all tend to appeal to a higher authority in order to win the day.
In today’s text, we have the Jewish argument for Sabbath-keeping and the Gentile case against it. Now watch Paul the Jew weigh in:
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike.
Paul wants them to be clear about the conviction on which they stand. What Paul is not doing is calling for anyone to compromise on their convictions. He is not looking for some kind of mushy middle compromise from people whose convictions are in conflict. Note his play here:
Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.
Remember, Paul is not making the mistake so many in our time make—which is to try and devise political solutions to theological conflicts which require untenable compromises against conscience. He actually does the opposite, leading us to think theologically about political conflicts. (Even prior to this, though, we must discern if we have a theological or political conflict.)
To do this, Paul doesn’t begin by trying to bring the parties together. No, he calls them to stand with their conviction before God.
Watch his masterful approach:
Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Paul shifts the issue from a dispute between fractured parties to a matter of one’s personal relationship with and devotion to the Lord—Jesus. The message: It is God with whom you have to deal.
In doing this he honors their competing convictions, defusing their division by calling them to stand before God, which is the higher ground of their unity.
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
When we find ourselves in irreconcilable conflict over matters of conscience and convictions we are not apt to work them out directly with each other. We must be brought personally before God, who alone can sift and sort our hearts and minds. We must be brought to a place beyond ourselves where we can recover our sense of what personal Lordship means. You saw it right there in the text:
Jesus, I belong to you.
We must come personally to the place of refreshing our consecration. That we are not our own. That we have been bought with a price. That there are great purposes and designs for our lives which are found most deeply in and through our relationships with each other.
Behold! In a Holy Spirit–inspired master stroke of divine genius, Paul takes us to the cross.
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
When conflict is high and solutions are low, it is only from this holiest of level ground that we can hope to really find each other again.
And this, my friends, is why the letter doesn’t begin with chapter 14. We needed the full panoramic view of God’s mercy first.
Prayer
Abba Father! We get the sense that our deepest conflicts are not about our conflicts but rather about the deep brokenness in our lives. We have all been broken in and through our relationships, and unhealed, we break others in relationships. We need the healing of the cross. We need our salvation to deepen way beyond a transaction of pardon and into the deep mercies of transforming grace. Lift us out of our conflicted and broken relationships and into your loving presence. Heal us in the deep places. Fit us for relationships with others by forming us in our relationship with you. Holy Spirit, restore us to belovedness that we might become beacons and bearers of belovedness to others—where in embrace we forget even what we were fighting about. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
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