Through The Valley To A New Life of Service and Excitement

My final Sunday as Interim Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Tomball, TX. is next Sunday, May 24. That afternoon the congregation will accept Pastor Chris Hull from Illinois as their new shepherd.  He will be installed into office at a special service that afternoon. He is scheduled to arrive with his wife and family the middle of this week. He will preach his first sermon on May 31, Holy Trinity Sunday.

These past two weeks I've received a few friendly comments about my returning to retirement. My usual response has been that I can find no mention of retirement in the Bible. However, upon reflection, I may have to take back that statement. It does occur to me that for one reason or another some of the primary personages in the Bible did indeed retire—at least for a time. Here, for example, I'm thinking about Moses. When Moses impulsively killed an Egyptian who was beating one of Moses' people, he fled—retired if you will, because the Egyptian Pharaoh wanted to kill him.

"But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.  .  ." - Exo 2:15 ESV

Midian was on the other side of the Red Sea. Life changed radically for Moses in that land. He married Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian, and retired from the luxurious life of a prince of Egypt to the relatively quiet one of a shepherd. Later, in his 80's, the LORD God confronted him in a "burning bush that was not consumed by fire" on Mount Horeb. And so began the well known story of his being sent to lead the exodus of the children of Israel.

I've reflected often upon that story during these past 20 months while serving Zion. Like Moses, I was 80 years old when I received and accepted God's new Call to serve again as a public minister of His Word. By God's grace I have not been asked to serve for 40 years in the wilderness, however. My 20 months of service come now to an end. What awaits ahead I do not yet know.

The simple point I make is that each of us has a call to follow Christ, the Good Shepherd, who leads us through a sometimes bewildering journey to the Father's house. He leads. We follow. He feeds and provides. We lie down in His green pastures. We take comfort knowing that He watches over us with His rod and staff. One day soon He will lead me and all who follow Him safely home.

Then will begin an eternal retirement from the darkness of this world's valley. Meanwhile I can hardly wait for the joy and excitement of that new phase of my life eternal with Him.

Praying For God's Kingdom To Come

As noted in yesterday's blog, Jesus came to depose the devil from his throne. The devil had successfully taken over control of the people of this world and become their god, even when they did not know they were worshipping him. Now a new king has appeared, the rightful ruler. And we are taught by the  true King! to pray, "Your kingdom come!"

The true LORD and God, Jesus the Messiah, has begun His reign. So we join the people of Jerusalem who welcomed Him into Jerusalem with their prayer: Hallelujah—LORD save us! Save us from our folly, from the powers of darkness, from the craziness of a world that worships those powers! Set us free to be children of God (Romans 8:20-21).

From an early 1900's Bible card illustration

Already that is happening. His Spirit is at work through His Word, calling us to faith and leading us to follow where He leads. So we are sent back into the world, not to be of the world, but to be in the world with the Good News. This is our calling, our vocation. Peter writes about it in this manner:

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. - 1Pe 2:4-12 ESV

I'll not expound in detail upon what Peter says above. Only note that he emphasizes that we who acknowledge Jesus as the true King understand that we gave been called out of darkness into His marvelous light! We have received undeserved mercy in Christ. What follows is that we abandon the ways of the world, what Peter calls the passions of the flesh. These passions wage war against our very souls. So in deep humility we follow Christ the King wherever He sends us to live honorable lives. Our purpose in all of this is that the people of the world (who are not yet God's people), may see our good deeds and give God the glory on the great day when Christ returns in glory.

So teaches also the Apostle Paul,

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name." And again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him." - Rom 15:8-11 ESV 

We who have been adopted into the people of God go then out into the world to live out our vocations, our varied callings—father, mother, business person, doctor, nurse, lawyer, soldier, and on and on—under the kingship of the true King. The "Gentiles" are watching our good deeds. Through this witness, we pray that the kingdom of God may come indeed, also among them. And so together we shall rejoice and praise the LORD forever and ever. 

Called By Christ To Be What You Alone Can Be

Brother Tim, as I continue this week's letter to you—and anyone else for that matter, both pastors and laity—I want to bring up something I said somewhere in the middle of yesterday's letter: 

In the next part of this letter I'll have more to say about what to pray for . . . 

And that brings me to some scattered thoughts for today, particularly about how I feel that we who are called to serve the church as pastors DO NOT know what to pray for. By that I mean to say that we are out of touch with much of what is going on around us, in our culture, and are NOT helping our people to confront it. Maybe that's because we afraid of the really hard questions before us—or we don't even know how to ask them. 

Let me explain by throwing out some things Os Guinness said 15 years ago about "Calling, Postmodernism, and Chastened Liberals."  

When I came to Christ in the early sixties, the central search for me—second only to the joy of knowing Christ—concerned my sense of sorrow at how marginal and pathetic much faith is in the modern world. Part of my response to that has been to look back at times in the past when faith has been dynamic and very powerful, and to examine the truths that made it so. . . 

Most of the secular alternatives to the gospel are in total disarray. The only dominant ones are negative, and as such they won't survive because they aren't satisfying.

MHR: What do you mean by the "dominant ones are negative"? 

OG: I'm referring to postmodernism. And humanism in any sixties sense, in which hardly anyone believes anymore. There are hardly any optimistic, post-Christian answers around. So we have one of the greatest apologetic opportunites we've had for five hundred years.

And yet most churches have lost their hold on apologetics. Many Christians don't even know what the term means. Those who do know what it means usually quarantine it very carefully in the seminaries on the east or west coasts. It never actually gets out to the streets to reach real people. As a result, we're missing one of the major moments of our time.

Guinness goes on to say some very important things about the Christian's calling, things that you too need to hear Tim, as you ponder your own calling. And, may I add, things that you need to teach to your people about their callings. Listen to this and then take a careful look at what he wrote. In this quote he's telling us to look beyond the empty new age ideas floating around.

OG: I think there should be an additional position—one classified as "called to be." We are not only created to be something—indeed, we are given some things at birth—but we are called to be something as well. 

It's fascinating to see this borne out in the scriptures. People who met the Lord face to face almost invariably fell flat on their faces (with a few exceptions, such as Joshua, who was too big for his boots and thus was told to take off his shoes). In most instances, such people are like Daniel and Ezekiel, who fell absolutely prostrate.

The Lord's words to them are almost always the same: "Stand up." In other words, calling not only singles us out—so that it's our name being called, and not someone else's—but it also stands us up. We arise to be what Christ alone knows us to be.

Tim, I pray that you will indeed struggle in prayer to be the man called to be, to "stand up" to be what Christ alone knows you to be. He will surely bless you.

My Mom's Influence

My mother had a very strong influence upon my decision to become a pastor. I've sometimes wondered if I even made a conscious decision. It was like I always knew that was my calling. You see, from the time I was a tiny child, I remember her telling me that she prayed the Hannah prayer:

And she vowed a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head." - 1Sam 1:11 ESV

G van den Eeckhout -Hannah  presenting Samuel

My Mom's firstborn died in childbirth. I was her second born and her pelvic region was damaged in giving birth. The doctors told her she could never bear another. In thanks for her only son she promised to dedicate his life to the LORD. So, as I said, she and my Dad did everything they could to direct my life toward the vocation I've known all my life. And for this I have ever been thankful.

There are many Biblical studies about motherhood on the Internet. Here's a sampling:

Mothers in the Bible - 8 Blessed Mothers in the Bible Who Served God Well
These mothers lived in an age when women were often treated as second class citizens, yet God appreciated their true worth, just as he does today. Motherhood is one of life's highest callings. Learn how these eight mothers in the Bible put their hope in the God of the Impossible, and how he proved that such hope is always well-placed.

• Includes studies of  Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Jochebed (Moses' mother), Hannah, Bathsheba, Elizabeth and Jesus' mother Mary.

11 Bible verses about Motherhood

• Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her - Proverbs 31:28 ESV
• And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. - Titus 2:4-5 ESV
• Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death. - Proverbs 19:18 ESV
• For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:11 ESV 
• When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. - John 19:26-27 ESV 
• Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him - Proverbs 13:24 ESV
• Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice. - Proverbs 23:22-25 - ESV
• O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. - Psalm 139:1-24  ESV 
• Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. - Genesis 32:11 ESV

The Majesty of Motherhood - Motherhood is undoubtedly one of the most complex and exacting callings in life. A poll among women revealed overwhelming agreement that raising children properly requires as much intelligence and drive as holding a top position in business or government. And that task falls mainly on mother’s shoulders for the first six years of the child’s life. Even after that, her contacts with the children will of necessity be more frequent and prolonged than dad’s. While dad is the leader in the house, mother sets the tone. The hours her children spend in her presence will have a lasting influence on their lives. They will become largely what she makes them. She faces the noble challenge of molding their young lives for eternity. Motherhood is one of life’s highest honors, and one of its heaviest responsibilities.

The Challenging Vocation Of Motherhood

Yesterday I was deeply moved by our pastor's sermon about motherhood. The basis for his sermon was words spoken by our Lord Jesus as he told his disciples what was about to happen to him. His words are recorded in John 16. Our pastor focused particularly on the part about women giving birth.

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, 'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me'? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. - Jhn 16:19-22 ESV

Pastor pointed out that the family is under attack and that motherhood in particular is less and less seen as a vocation, a calling in our culture. Women are told they should find something more significant to do with their lives other than merely raising children.

Out in the narthex after the Service one group in the congregation was taking orders for corsages for mothers. We're planning to celebrate Mother's Day in a couple weeks. But is that enough? Should we not be doing more than having a once a year worship service? Do we really believe in motherhood ? Are we prepared to go out of our way to support those women who are moms?

What exactly is motherhood? How do you define it? This is a very difficult question in today's culture. For many women it is not at all a simple question. They also have vocations as writers, artists, teachers, lawyers, business execs or engineers. How does one balance two vocations? And what about the vocation of wife? Or what if you are a single mom? The answers to these and related questions are always going to be specific to the individual.

And the answers will be different depending on the children to whom you are a mom. Being a mom to a mentally challenged child is different from being a mother to a gifted child. And raising one child is different from raising five. And it gets more complex if a woman and her husband are not on the same page when it comes to the how of raising kids. What if your husband has no interest in spiritual matters, for instance? Or what if his vocation as a soldier or a businessman takes him away from the home for months at a time?

Kate Harris writes about motherhood as a vocation. She says, "As I think about what it means to faithfully pursue my work as a mom, I hope myself and others can commit to this larger vision of our role as “culture shapers” who can hold our own beside PhDs and playwrights, lest we be tempted to think our daily occupation as nose-wipers and shuttle drivers is anything less than a grand enterprise."

I'd like some input from some of you my readers this week as I pursue this question. Let me hear from you.

The Cross Of Marriage

My wife and I have often shared the story of how we met and what incidents led us to become engaged and finally married. Every couple has such a story to tell. The Christian couple says with the confidence of faith, "This was the LORD's doing. He led us to one another." Or to use formal language, our marriage is a vocation, a calling. Lets look at that understanding of marriage.

We start by defining what the Bible means by a calling or a vocation. In this life on earth Christ our Lord calls us to follow Him. The old hymn says it well.

Come, follow Me, the Savior spake,
All in My way abiding;
Deny yourselves, the world forsake,
Obey My call and guiding.
Oh, bear the cross, whate’er betide,
Take My example for your guide.

We understand our calling in the light of Peter's words,

"For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:20-21). 

And again, Jesus words,

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25).

There are two calls. The first is a call to faith. That happened when we were buried with Christ by baptism into death and brought forth again to life. As a result, we Christians confess,

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). 

This is His call into the Kingdom, His call to receive the rich gift of forgiveness and life eternal. The second call is to take up our cross and follow Him. In that call we find our lives. Jesus emphasizes this again and again.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mat 10:39).

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Mat 11:29). 

So when Jesus calls us, man or woman, to take up our crosses and follow Him in the marriage relationship, He is calling us in very specific and concrete ways to lose our lives in the service of our spouses—for His sake. In other words, I am called by Jesus as a husband to love my wife, Sylvia, by dying to my own desires and rising again with Jesus to serve her, to forgive her, to care for her, to nourish and protect her. The same is true for each and every Christian spouse. This is what the Apostle is getting at in Ephesians 5:20-26 when he calls upon us believers to serve one another—in the name of Jesus .

Now it may seem strange to use the language of the cross when speaking about marriage. The world around us would certainly reject such an attitude. From the world we hear talk about love, love, love. The offended spouse says, "I don't love her any longer. She's not attractive to me. That's why I fell in love with this other woman. Now I want a divorce so I may marry my new found love."

"Not so," says the believer. "Jesus has called me to take up my cross and follow Him. I will serve my Savior and Lord by denying my self-centered, sinful, selfish desires for the sake of my wife whom He has given to me to serve. I will forgive her and reject the temptation to get involved with that other. I will be there for her, to guide, protect and care for her no matter what. When she offends me, I will forgive her. When she gets sick, I will nurse her. When she is happy, I will celebrate with her. When she is afraid I will protect her. When she is lonely I will come to her. And when she is sad and troubled I will comfort her. This is my calling, my cross to bear in the name of Jesus and as His servant."

The amazing and wondrous thing is that in so doing I find life. I come upon a mystery otherwise hidden from me. I discover what it means to be a whole, complete person. From Jesus I learn a new gentleness, contentment, deep joy, happiness and rest—an inner, psychic peace unknown before.

This is the cross we believing spouses bear in our marriages. And in our cross we find peace and joy!

 

With A Deep Sense of Vocation

Things had really changed for the man named Saul. He had the name of Israel's first king--not a great one, but a king nevertheless. Now he had taken to himself the name of "Little One," Paulos in Greek. It was because he saw himself as the chief of sinners, unworthy to be called a follower of Christ, let alone an apostle.

But here he was--a man with a calling and a purpose! That's how he starts out his letter to the Corinthian Christians: "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God."

How few of us go around feeling we have a purpose and a calling from God. What a difference it makes when you do. The whole idea of vocation or calling changes everything. The Reformation lifted up the ordinary believer to an exalted position by helping us all to reclaim this teaching. Now each believer can rejoice in the mundane and daily tasks of his or her calling. It is a high calling from God to be husband, wife, father, mother, fireman, scientist, farmer, etc.

Paul, the little one, saw the hand of God reach out to him to bring faith in the cross of Christ. His calling was to proclaim that wondrous Good News most especially to the non-Jewish Gentile world. So he begins, with a proud and deep sense of vocation. The very will of God is being accomplished through him. Listen up!

My prayer is that each one of us may approach the tasks of today with that same deep sense of being called. He who calls, also promises to be with us, to bless and guide as we go about our vocations.

My Vocation

Tomorrow the congregation of believers I have assisted during the past several months, the congregation to which we recently transferred membership, will gather in a voters' assembly to discuss their need for expanded pastoral care. The pastor who has served them will continue, but neither of us is able to devote our full time to this task. Yet we both sense the calling and guidance of the Holy Spirit to serve them in this manner. This leads me to a brief discussion of my vocation.

Here's a definition from Wikipedia:

The idea of vocation is central to the Christian belief that God has created each person with gifts and talents oriented toward specific purposes and a way of life. Particularly in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, this idea of vocation is especially associated with a divine call to service to the Church and humanity through particular vocational life commitments such as marriage to a particular person, consecration as a religious, ordination to priestly ministry in the Church and even a holy life as a single person. In the broader sense, Christian vocation includes the use of ones gifts in their profession, family life, church and civic commitments for the sake of the greater common good.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a rather ponderous definition that I will not quote here. Suffice it to say the emphasis is upon what that part of the Christian community calls serving God in a religious or ecclesiastical state.

Over the centuries the temptation has been to make the vocation to serve God in the church as a pastor or church worker as somehow a higher calling than serving as a lay member of the Body of Christ. I often hear the phrase, "I'm only a layman." This was an issue in the Reformation of the church led by Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. The matter is discussed in detail in many places in the official confessional writings growing out of that period, The Book of Concord.

It is given particular attention in Article XXVII of the Apology (defense) of the Augsburg Confession. Following are some relevant comments by Dr. Paul McCain on this matter.

"The insight that Luther and his fellow Reformers brought to light once more is the teaching that all of life is an opportunity to serve God, in whatever a person's place/station and calling in life is. Modern Lutherans would do well not to think that monasticism is an issue that is of no immediate application, or relevance, to the church today. There has arisen a new kind of monasticism among us: the view that a person is really only engaged in "church work" if he, or she, is a member of a church committee or taking part in some church-sponsored activity. It would be tempting to regard Sundays as our time to be "religious" while the rest of our week is in the "secular" world, regarding Sunday as the time for sacred things, while the rest of the week we must live in the profane world. This article extols the Christian virtues lived out in all of callings and stations in life: mother, father, husband, wife, son, daughter, employer, employee. Specifically rejected and condemned in this article is the imposition of lifelong celibacy on a person who does who truly does not have the gift of chastity. Forcing chastity on those without the gift is a horrible sin against God's good creation and led many in Luther's time to think that their standing before God depended on the degree to which they could imitate the "holy life" of the monks and nuns."

While I view the tasks that I am about to assume as a calling from God and while I further assume that serving Him in this manner is my vocation, this does not in any sense make me more religious or more deserving of His grace and mercy. This does not make me more holy. As Dr. Melanchthon says in this Article, "callings vary. . .Callings are personal, just as matters of business themselves vary with times and persons; but the example of obedience is universal."

Like you, I have other vocations as well. In all of them I am called to follow Christ. I have been called by Him to be husband to my wife, father and grandfather to my children and neighbor to the people and friends He places before me. In the instance of this Blog I follow His calling to serve you in this small manner with His Word. So we all have various callings to believe and obey. Quoting Article XXVII again, "So it is perfection for each of us with true faith to obey our own calling."