Ten Words that will Make or Break a Church (a belated Advent reflection)

by Matthew McEwan

When I worked in retail I was taught that customers are driven by a basic question informing their decision making. The question is contained in five simple little words. Just five words, and yet they make up a truly powerful question such that when the question is answered a retail associate can make an easy sale. Those five words are: what’s in it for me? If a customer understands a perceived benefit of owning some do-dad is greater than having some money in a wallet or bank account, the sale is a given. A consumer culture is based on this question and the message of advertising is that unless the latest and most recent version of something is purchased, we will remain incomplete and unfulfilled. A consumer culture is raised to ask: what’s in it for me?

When this simple little question is applied to a church, the results can be disastrous. A 90’s Christian rock band called “All Star United” did a song called “La La Land” with the haunting lines:

All the saints and martyrs alike, well they would have called a national strike
Demanded less pain, more personal gain, if only they’d known their rights
Well I take it very personally, I’ve got to know what’s in it for me
Ain’t it grand, when you’re living in La La Land
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5YGZlTO4Os)

The question “What’s in it for me?” changes disciples into consumers, and when a consumer finds their perceived needs are not being met, it becomes easy to move from one church to another, like changing brands or retail stores. People evaluate a church based on what it can offer them rather than seeing the opportunities where they can serve in that church. “What’s in it for me?” can destroy a church.

A more redemptive statement to replace the destructive question “What’s in it for me?” is another five word phrase. These other five words are guaranteed to bless a church, and they can be found in the pages of Scripture. In Luke 1:38, Mary said to the angel Gabriel, “I am the Lord’s servant.” When people say to God, “I am the Lord’s servant” there is no room to ask, “What’s in it for me?” Jesus picked up a towel to wash the feet of his disciples, and he expects his followers to do the same. A church filled with people saying, “I am the Lord’s servant” is a church where you will see the “one-another’s” of the New Testament being practiced. A church filled with people saying, “I am the Lord’s servant” will be a church where people gather to serve rather than be served. A church filled with people saying, “I am the Lord’s servant” will be a church that is blessed.

Whenever I encounter this phrase in the Gospel of Luke, I’m reminded of the painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) of “The Annunciation” (1898). In this painting, the angel Gabriel appears as brilliant light. In this painting we see no angelic wings, no halo, no cherub with a baby face but instead we are presented with an angel in the form of pure, brilliant light. The glory of the angel is ineffable and almost overwhelming , much like a glance at the sun. In contrast with the angel we find Mary and her surroundings painted in earth tones. Mary has no halo and the rug is dishevelled. Obviously the annunciation has come unannounced; were I expecting an angelic visitor, I might have straightened up the room! Mary’s body posture is reflective of her heart. She is in quiet submission and answering “Yes” to God’s plan. Like Mary, may we all answer with “I am the Lord’s servant.”

Focus on the Family

by Matthew McEwan

The birth of a child is an exciting time, and for my wife and I that’s how the year 2013 came to a close. Micah was born on his due date, December 31st at 2:30 PM. Expecting a child through the season of Advent and Christmas forced me to make alternative arrangements for both worship services and church and family events should our baby’s arrival have come early. I knew that Christmas Dinners and programs could continue without me, but for worship services a lay minister was willing to provide pulpit supply and for the Christmas Eve Communion Service I invited a retired minister (Rev. Arthur Perry) to join us and help serve the Lord’s Supper. While the world celebrated the close of one year and anticipated the dawn of a new year, my family and church family celebrated the safe arrival of Micah.

Leaving the hospital I was aware that the year 2013 could have ended quite differently for us and our story could have been one of sorrow. A hospital is one setting where Romans 12:15 (the people of God are to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn) is in effect with full force. When some people in a hospital are welcoming a new life into their family, at the same moment you can find others on a different floor saying goodbye. Even in the labour and delivery unit, there are some families saying goodbye even before they had the opportunity to say hello.

After the arrival of each of my children I’ve left the birthing unit with gladness, but I’ve also experienced sorrow after the loss of a miscarriage. When my wife suggested that we have a service or a time of prayer, I found that I had no available resources. Although services for dedication or infant baptism are common and easy to find, there are fewer services for times of sorrow. Following the miscarriage I worked with the Study Commission on Doctrine to create a service to help begin the healing process for those who are grieving the loss of a miscarriage or stillbirth. Example of a service can be found here: http://fmcic.ca/index.php/en/who-we-are/position-papers/4-who-we-are/position-papers/899-service-for-miscarriage-or-stillbirth.

It’s not just a miscarriage or still birth that can cause sorrow, but also issues of infertility. Couples facing infertility and childlessness need empathy and support, and the Church must be equipped to deal with that form of loss. Unfulfilled hopes and dreams of a family are not instantly healed with the possibility of adoption. For couples seeking emotional healing with regards to infertility, good pastoral care and even counselling are needed.

There are a few examples in Scripture of women dealing with infertility, but perhaps the most striking example is Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1. The Gospel begins with Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth being described as being honourable people who were “…righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” (Luke 1:6). The next verse says that they were childless and in that cultural and historical context most would have assumed this couple’s barrenness was a form of God’s judgment. Like Job’s friends who accused Job of sin for the cause of his suffering, or the disciples asking Jesus about whose sin was to blame because a man was born blind in John chapter 9, the stigma of infertility was such that Elizabeth said on the birth of her miracle child, “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people” (Luke 1:25). This is a strange statement coming from Elizabeth since we’re told that even though she was righteous in God’s sight, her infertility was a source of disgrace among the people. While people today may not automatically equate infertility with sin or God’s judgment, couples facing childlessness still experience significant sorrow and grief much like the stories in Scripture whether one considers Sarah, Hannah or Elizabeth.

Again I return to Romans 12:15. It is easy for people in the Church to celebrate with a couple on the safe arrival of a new baby, but we are also called to mourn with those who mourn. Congregations that over-emphasize family ministry, family events and family programs may unintentionally make a couple mourning because of childlessness feel isolated. The Song of Songs presents a relationship between a man and a woman with no references to children. There is certainly a mystery to the sad reality that some who want children are unable to conceive, others may want a child yet experience a miscarriage, while still others choose to have an abortion. The challenge for the Church is not to understand this iniquity or even attempt to explain it, but simply rejoice with those who rejoice, and have awareness, empathy and sensitivity to be able to mourn with those who mourn.

On Temptation

by Matthew McEwen

“On re-reading this book ten years after I wrote it, I find its chief faults to be those two which I myself least easily forgive in the books of other men: needless obscurity, and uncharitable temper.” This was how C.S. Lewis began the afterword to the third edition of The Pilgrim’s Regress, his first novel following his conversion. Although the book is challenging and often difficult to understand, there is a scene in the story that is a vivid description of temptation. Before going to the passage describing temptation, here is how the subject of temptation is handled in Scripture:

In the Bible there are two different, but effective examples of responding to temptation. In Genesis chapter 39, Joseph runs out of the house when his master’s wife makes advances on him. He left the source of temptation as quickly as possible. But sometimes escape seems impossible and the temptation lingers. In those situations, the Gospels present us with a scene where Jesus responds to the ongoing temptation by quoting Scripture (Luke 4). As Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” while James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When it comes to temptation, there is always a way out. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1st Corinthians 10:13.

Here is how C.S. Lewis described the feeling of temptation from his story, The Pilgrim’s Regress:

They resumed their journey, John lagged a bit. I dreamed that the witch came to him walking softly in the marshy ground by the roadside and holding out the cup to him also: when he went faster she kept pace with him.

"I will not deceive you," she said. "You see there is no pretence. I am not trying to make you believe that this cup will take you to your Island. I am not saying it will quench your thirst for long. But taste it, none the less, for you are very thirsty."

But John walked forward in silence.

"It is true," said the witch, "that you can never tell when you have reached the point beyond which there is no return. But that cuts both ways. If you can never be certain that one more taste is safe, neither can you be certain that one more taste is fatal. But you can be certain that you are terribly thirsty."

But John continued as before.

"At least" said the witch, "have one more taste of it, before you abandon it for ever. This is a bad moment to choose resistance, when you are tired and miserable and have already listened to me too long. Taste this once, and I will leave you. I do not promise never to come back: but perhaps when I come again you will be strong and happy and well able to resist me -- not as you are now."

And John continued as before.

"Come," said the witch. "You are only wasting time. You know you will give in, in the end. Look ahead at the hard road and the grey sky. What other pleasure is there in sight?"

So she accompanied him for a long way, till the weariness of her importunity tempted him far more than any positive desire. But he forced his mind to other things and kept himself occupied for a mile or so by making the following verse….

When Lilith means to draw me
Within her secret bower,
She does not overawe me
With beauty's pomp and power
Nor, with angelic grace
Of courtesy, and the pace
Of gliding ships, come veiled at evening hour.
Eager, unmasked, she lingers
Heart-sick and hunger sore
With hot, dry, jewelled fingers
Stretched out, beside her door,
Offering with gnawing haste
Her cup, whereof who taste,
(She promises no better) thirst far more.
What moves me, then, to drink it?
--Her spells, which all around
So change the land, we think it
A great waste where a sound
Of wind like the tales twice told
Blusters, and cloud is rolled
Always above yet no rain falls to the ground.
Across drab iteration
Of bare hills, line on line
The long road's sinuation
Leads on. The witch's wine,
Though promising nothing, seems
In that land of no streams,
To promise the best -- the unrelished anodyne.


And by the time he had reached the word anodyne the witch was gone.

The Great Divorce and Plato

by Matthew McEwen

Books like Howard Snyder’s Salvation Means Creation Healed or Steven Bouma-Prediger’s For the Beauty of the Earth have done much to reframe a theology of the physical world, replacing a more common Platonic world view that considers matter and the stuff of earth to be worthless or even evil. Although C.S. Lewis is one of my favourite authors, I used to be concerned about his use of Plato in his writings. A clear example of this Platonic influence can be seen in his work, The Great Divorce. In that story, souls from hell are granted an excursion to the outskirts of heaven. What they left was a Gray town (with shops that sold the works of Aristotle), and what they came to was a place alive with colour. The crowd from hell, or the gray town, felt like ghosts and shadows once they arrive in a place that is described as being solid. A single blade of grass would not bend under the feet of the ghosts, and even water in the river nearby was solid enough for a ghost to walk on it.

According to The C.S. Lewis Reader’s Encyclopedia:

Lewis had a high regard for Plato, the great Greek Philosopher. In his final Narnia Chronicle (The Last Battle) Lewis had the professor say, “It’s all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!” What Lewis admired most about Plato was his metaphysics. Plato believed that there are two real worlds, not one. There is the world of changing physical things that we apprehend by means of our senses, and there is the world of eternally true ideas that we apprehend by means of our minds. Plato was looking for stable things in a world of change; he found this stability in Being in contrast with becoming, in forms or ideas in contrast with matter or particulars, in the invisible and eternal in contrast with the visible and the temporal.

I found a blog with an article called “Unshakeable Reality” that considers this contrast between the shadow and solid reality in The Great Divorce with teaching from the Scripture. From that blog:

“Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:26-29). We dwell among “things that are being shaken,” but are receiving “a kingdom which cannot be shaken.” St. Paul does with shaking what Lewis does with solid. It is the less solid, the less stable, which can be shaken. Or, as St. Paul says, “the things that are made.” It is the things that are merely “created” that can be shaken. Only the uncreated remains. It is beyond understanding, but the promise of the fathers (and here in the Scriptures) is that in Christ we are to become “uncreated by grace.” God alone is “uncreated.” But by His grace, we become partakers of His uncreated life (which alone is unshakeable).

This blog made me re-think my understanding of what Lewis was trying to communicate in The Great Divorce. The contrast between shadow and solid reality in that story was not to reject or despise the created order or physical realm. The opposite is true. In the preface Lewis writes:

But what, you ask, of earth? Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.

Creation is included in the description of the landscape of the Heavenly realm, including details such as grass, apples and a river with a waterfall. Near the end of the story there is a procession that came from a nearby forest, and at the centre of all the commotion was woman named Sarah Smith. She was a person of no importance on earth, but someone special in Heaven. In addition to angels in Saint Sarah’s procession, there were also children singing a song of beauty, and animals. Among the animals were dozens of cats, countless number of dogs, birds and horses. Confused, Lewis asks his spiritual mentor if this woman kept a zoo. His teacher answers, “Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.” (Musician Phil Woodward has set this scene to music: http://www.ghostsandspirits.net/the-album/saint-sarah/). Far from denying or rejecting the importance of the created realm, The Great Divorce affirms the beauty of the earth and presents a picture of salvation as being creation healed.

http://glory2godforallthings.com/2012/07/10/unshakeable-reality/

Reflections on the Connecticut Tragedy

by Matthew McEwen

The tragedy in Connecticut has been described by many people using colourful words expressing disgust and horror, but situations like these expose the limitations of the English language. No words can truly define the horror, and words defy any search for an explanation. The limitation of words is also evident when you consider the incapability of offering comfort to those who grieve. What can you say?

Perhaps this is why Job’s friends did their best work in the early chapters of Job’s story, where they simply sat in silence with Job. Yet silence is uncomfortable and we feel the need to speak, to say something and fill the void. And much has been said and will continue to be said as the debates intensify.

My first thought when I heard this terrible news was to turn to Scripture and read from Matthew 2 and the rage of King Herod who gave orders to kill the boys in Bethlehem. This was also Bishop David Kendall’s reflection on his blog: http://fmcusa.org/davidkendall/2012/12/15/the-massacre-of-innocents/

The wonder at Christmas is that Jesus would enter into this dark and broken world, and with the season of advent (a word that means coming) we not only look back and remember the birth of a baby, but also look forward to His second coming. When Jesus comes again, He will judge the living and the dead and on that Glorious Day, God will make all things new. On that Day there will be no more mourning, or death, or crying, or sickness or pain. And so the prayer of the Church has been and will continue to be “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.”

Others speaking about this tragedy focus on the topic of gun control, but a deeper root to this issue is mental health. A resource document on mental health is an ongoing project for SCOD. The statistics show that 72% people would freely share the information that a family member has cancer, but when the issue is mental health the number drops to 50%. A conversation about mental health must take place to offer people hope, assistance and remove the stigma associated with these illnesses. (http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/perspective.php).

Another response to the tragedy that I have seen has been Christians who lament the public school’s hostile environment towards Christianity. I have seen people lament that “God need to be put back into public schools”, or that “God can't be in schools anymore because He is not welcome there.” I’ve heard it said that “He won't force His way in where He is not wanted.” In making that final statement, people will then refer to the Warner Sallman painting of Jesus knocking on the door and mention that there is no handle on the outside and imply that we have to open the door to let Jesus in. John 20:19, however, is clear that locked doors are no barrier to Jesus.

Here is where Wesleyan theology needs to speak up and be heard. Jesus cannot be evicted from school because He remains with the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized (Matthew 25:40). Even without the presence of Christians who are called to be salt and light in the world, the Holy Spirit is at work. Some parts of the Church family call it “Common Grace,” whereas we Wesleyans will speak of prevenient grace.
Prevenient grace “…is the grace that ‘comes before’ (pre-venio) we are conscious that God is seeking us out, using subtle, and not so subtle, nudges to awaken us to our true condition” (Runyon, 27). Before a person can enter into justification, there must be an awareness of sin for repentance to take place. This awakening is the work of the Holy Spirit in the act of prevenient grace. Therefore, “Christians are sent into the world knowing that the Spirit is preparing the way in the lives of those to whom they go…. If the Spirit is not intimidated by unbelief, should we be? Wesley’s ‘optimism of grace’ is a confidence grounded in the universal activity of God” (Runyon, 33-34).

The doctrine of prevenient grace means that God is at work in the world, and Christians have an opportunity to be a partner in the mission of God. Even without a single Christian in a public school that may be hostile towards Christianity, the Holy Spirit remains active in working in the lives of the students and teachers, preparing them for when they will encounter the next follower of Jesus. You can’t evict God, see Psalm 139 for more information.

The New Creation: John Wesley’s Theology Today. Theodore Runyon, Abingdon Press, 1988.

About Time

By Matthew MacEwan

One assignment the Study Commission on Doctrine at the FMCiC is beginning to explore is a resource document that discusses a theology of possessions.  The thought that immediately comes to my mind is that this is a statement on stuff.  A theology of possessions, however, must cover more than just materialism and the things that we can possess.  In an initial brainstorming session other subjects were raised such as tithing, the discernment between luxuries and necessities, sharing versus ownership, social status, care of our bodies, creation care and time.

The subject of time is interesting because of all the different ways a theology of possessions could be examined, time is something everyone has in equal measure.  We speak of time being money, and become frustrated with wasting time, yet in our busy and fast paced world it seems like there is never enough time. 

One of the most unusual books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, deals with the concept of time.  Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says that there is a time for everything, and some would suggest that a good translation for the term hevel, translated as meaningless throughout all of Ecclesiastes in the NIV, is temporary or momentary.  When people burn out because they operate 24/7, they have forgotten the command to enjoy a Sabbath rest and have done what the author of Ecclesiastes has described, chased after the wind. 

In the New Testament there are two Greek words translated into English as time.  The first word is chronos, from which we get our English word chronology.  This word means time, and can include a limited time, or span of time, or a measure of time.  Chronos can refer to a point of time and a specific date.  This word was used in Acts 1:21 in talking about finding a new disciple to replace Judas. The disciples said the replacement, “…will have to be a man who was with us the whole time (chornos) the Lord Jesus lived among us.” 

There’s another word the Greeks had for time and that was Kairos.  Kairos also meant time, but was used instead of Chronos when they wanted to speak about a decisive moment in time.  Kairos is used of the moment when prophecy is fulfilled.  Kairos is more than just time as we know it.  Kairos is a Divine appointment and God’s moment of opportunity.  The word is also used throughout the New Testament to speak of opportunities that we have to do good (Gal. 6:10, Eph. 5:15-16, Col. 4:5).  These opportunities or moments are not just random occurrences, but divinely ordained God moments where we can participate and engage in something significant.  Our perspective on life will change if we stop being driven endlessly by Chronos and living in the hour of Kairos. 

In the Free Methodist Manual, chapter 8 paragraph 801 is advice to minsters with a statement on the use of time.  I think this simple statement works well as a principle for all people: “USE OF TIME: Be disciplined. Live an orderly and balanced life. Manage your time well. Resist both laziness and workaholism.”