Mercy. Justice. Worship. Part 3a/3

Easter Day 2016 has come and gone.  Last Sunday, churches everywhere were full of “heartfelt gladness” as described in Acts 2.  But, as we continue this examination of mercy and justice in the context of a revitalized church, we must not forget the other descriptive element given us in Acts 2:46 – generosity.  Every day, not just Easter day, a revitalized church is a healthy church that demonstrates both heartfelt gladness and generosity. After looking at some of the Old and New Testament teachings on mercy and justice, it is time now to explore how to express these biblical concerns in a local church that is on a path toward revitalization.

As I have said before, at Metokos Ministries we help churches in the areas of worship, discipleship and mercy ministries – a three-legged stool that must have three balanced and equally functional legs.  The three areas need to work in this balanced, equal functioning collaboration – at the same time – not sequentially, that is, one after another. We cannot postpone one aspect of the church life until the others are “right.” We cannot postpone one for convenience or comfort. The church is the body of Christ, and he paid for the souls of the church with his blood. Worship, discipleship and mercy ministries – all three in collaboration – make visible to a watching world the presence of, and our union with, the only head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I emphasize these concepts of collaboration and balance and equality of function because I believe I see that churches have strayed from the collaborative mindset.  Within the PCA denomination, for example, historian Sean Lucas has examined the roots of the church in his book, For a Continuing Church, and his research shows us how the collaborative approach goes against the history and the practice of the Presbyterian Church in America. The denominational roots often, and officially, rejected “social” and “justice” ministries in favor of evangelism and the changes that can follow new life in Christ.  In Lucas’ chapter, “Southern Presbyterians, Billy Graham, and the Mission of the Church,” we read

Other southern Presbyterian conservatives similarly distinguished between their understanding of the church’s mission and the liberals’ understanding. “In our modern age two general positions have been set forth as to what the position is in relation to the social problems of the world,” R.P. Robertson observed. The liberals held that “the Church’s primary emphasis is that of easing suffering, correcting social and economic problems.” Conservatives understood that “the primary message of the Church is the proclamation of the Gospel; that it is the prime duty of the church to make clear to a world dying in sin that the hope is in the Christ of the Gospel.” These questions were the primary ones facing the church: Would the church primarily be a social and educational agency, or would the church be an evangelistic agency? How did social change happen, and how might America be transformed – through education or evangelism? (p. 184. quoted from R.P. Robertson, “What is the Message of the Church,” in The Southern Presbyterian Journal, page 19, on 1 February 1949.)

My point here is that we cannot reduce the work of Jesus, his Church, his kingdom, down to one ministry that is more important than other Jesus-directed/mandated ministries.  The roots of the PCA rightly were concerned with doctrine, but were wrong in opposing a Biblical concern for the poor and opposition to segregation. I point again to Lucas’s book, this time to his fifth chapter “Red and Yellow, Black and White”: Southern Presbyterian Conservatives and the Crises of Postwar America.”  The author devotes over 30 pages to the history of the church’s dealings with issues of race. The discussion ends on page 133 with this paragraph:

This merger of doctrinal, political, racial, and economic conservatism represented the worldview of southern Presbyterian conservatives.  In their minds, it was not possible to separate the strands; the same Bible that taught of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection was the same Bible that legitimated segregation, championed individualism, and castigated Communism.  The disagreement with PCUS progressives, then, was not whether the Bible spoke to social issues; rather, the disagreement was whether the Bible supported traditionalist or progressive approaches to those issues.  In addition, the two sides differed on the way of achieving social ends: progressives generally favored institutionally driven change through pronouncements, while conservatives desired personal, “natural,” gradual change through evangelistic outreach and conversion.  Those differences would come to be represented more clearly in the decade ahead.

A healthy church will have a visible mercy and justice ministry, a vital worship ministry and a discipleship ministry that includes evangelism addressing all of life, not just the “spiritual.”  People and churches have focused on one ministry while understanding neither the unintended consequences of that choice nor the reason behind that choice.

Remember, again, the concerns for local churches expressed by Dr. Don MacNair:  Education, economics and ethnic differences (3Es) create divisions in our communities and neighborhoods where church members live, worship and minister. We need to create pathways and bridges for long-term relationships in those communities and neighborhoods with people who experience these 3Es differences – in both directions.

In the early ‘70s when my wife and I moved to St. Louis for seminary and graduate school, we attended a church plant located in the inner city near a university. The church began in a home and later moved to a storefront, and members of the fledgling congregation moved into the neighborhood.  Looking back through the 3E filter, I can see that though most of the core group had college degrees, at least, and many were working on post graduate degrees, the neighborhood population was largely poor or working poor.  Also, though a good number of the church’s members were “impoverished” students, and economically had a connection with their neighbors, the reality was that the students, whether St. Louis natives or transplants who had moved to St. Louis to further their education, and their backgrounds were different from those who were there first.  Racially, at least initally, the church was mostly white while the neighborhood was mostly African-American.  Yes, there was definitely the 3E climate there, but the church quickly began to reach out to the neighborhood around the storefront.  Children from the neighborhood attended our Sunday school.  Both morning and afternoon services had fellowship dinners each Sunday – well attended by those neighborhood children and others from the neighborhood. There was, from the start, an active diaconal ministry; a redevelopment ministry grew.  Two co-pastors and elders were a team from the start.  I am recounting here some early efforts of a congregation’s attempt to cross the 3Es.  The church learned many lessons and has persevered in the inner-city to this day, now with a multi-ethnic staff.

As described here, a healthy church works to have a vital, practical, and generous mercy ministry as its members work in building these pathways and bridges by whichever means God shows them. A healthy church also sees concerns for justice as part of Christ’s local church mercy ministry mandate. Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 can motivate, shape, and guide such endeavors: “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me,’” and Paul’s words in Acts 20, “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

As churches gather to worship, how are justice and mercy to have a role?  Does the following fit your general experience?  When Protestants, in particular Presbyterians, think about worship, that worship tends to have some music, after which there is a jump to the preaching. Now, of course, preaching, historically, has been a mark of the true church. Let’s look at some healthy collaboration between preaching and mercy ministries and then consider other aspects of the worship liturgy, as well as personal and family worship.

Preaching begins with text selection, and includes choice and development of illustrations and applications. Sometimes the text will come from Lectionary choices; other times the pastor is preaching through a Book of the Bible; or a sermon theme needs support. After selecting a text, many pastors have the choice to unpack the text in either an expository manner or thematically. In thematic preaching the text is more supportive and illustrative, while in expository, Covenant Seminary style, (The style I learned) the main or unifying point, supporting points and their sub-points all have roots and connection to the text. The sermon comes from the text. It is not overlaid on the text.

In our quest to keep our healthy, generous stool legs balanced, we can ask a few questions when we come to a text. Do these verses show any differences between people, 3Es? Is there an outsider, a poor person, a widow or someone whose illness defines them? What kind of sin is addressed – individual,   family, community or national? Does the passage address power or leadership? Is there a challenge to the majority culture?  Jesus and women and outsiders in the gospels are examples of some of these issues.

It can be too easy to overlook parts of texts because they might make people uncomfortable. With the news of today’s world, the words from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, blessed are the peace makers might seem out of place when we are looking for security. We also need to make sure that we subject prevailing political views and expectations to Biblical truth. People sometimes forget that a local church can become known for the political views its members hear expressed in preaching and conversation. That perception can become a wall that keeps others out before they have an opportunity to hear the Biblical gospel. It is too easy to forget that the 3Es hear differently because of their different backgrounds and experiences.

How different people hear what we say is the point where the choice of illustrations becomes critical. Using mercy illustrations to help open up passages can expand the listener’s view of the world. If poverty, economic, or ethnic issues are never used in illustrations, then silence becomes the norm. Both positive and negative stories are appropriate, but reinforcing stereotypes is not appropriate, nor is making assumptions or profiling. A most powerful illustration I recall came from an African pastor recounting the story of a widow and her three children, starving in a conflict zone. The mother found a dried up banana peel to feed her children. She stopped her children from eating until she could offer up a prayer of thanks. This poor woman saw God’s provision in that conflict zone and gave thanks for what many of us would put on the compost pile. This illustration is powerful using a few words – conflict zone, dried up banana peel, prayer of thanks – to demonstrate the situation’s humanity. We see human needs in a conflict zone, and we feel the connection with this woman and her family because of prayer and a common faith in the midst of trauma. A poor woman is a spiritual hero in the midst of her family’s trauma.

Some parents do not want their children exposed to the dark side of our broken world in sermons, but this illustration was true, not graphic. Unlike a photo, the story did not describe the appearance of children facing starvation. A story does not reflect on the damage done to brain development from childhood malnutrition. Unlike a photo, there is no visible image of the trauma of children living in conflict zones, seeing death and experiencing family loss. What we have learned about caring for children in the midst of the trauma of international conflicts can be transferred to care for inner city youth here in our own nation.

The application of a text is often what people are looking for in a sermon – the so what! Too often pastors chose safe applications to make listeners feel safe, or OK with their styles of life. Occasionally, that safety and okay-ness is needed, and warranted by the text. But more often than not, the text will push us to both change and repentance, making us uncomfortable. It is God’s grace that makes his people both glad and generous to those in need. Remember that.  Sometimes a sermon application will help us to see groups of people within our lives who have been invisible, unseen to us on account of how our lives play out each day. We work, go to school, shop, and live with people who are like us as defined by the 3Es. Using a mercy or a justice application that comes from the text is important, because to be silent reinforces the invisibility of the poor, the stranger, the weak and the needy.

Let’s consider a couple of texts and how what I have been suggesting might work out.

In Malachi 3:5 we read, Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Often people will jump to “I will draw near to you for judgment” and/or  “do not fear me” at the end of the text.  Our minds are trained by our culture to think about a personal application or to deflect the text’s application by assuming it “doesn’t apply to me.” Look slowly and carefully and we can see how this passage can be mined for religious sins, commandment violations, or systemic economic sins against the weak and powerless. There are family and neighbor sins. View this text through a political lens of either the right or the left. Point:  We need to let the text drive the application.

Next, let’s look at Galatians 5:13-15, For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Again, our culture teaches us to jump to the obvious – in this case, the freedom reference. The text pushes us farther – “through love serve one another…You shall love your neighbor as himself.” Here applications from mercy and justice can flow. One of the verbs is “serve.” Serving can be “drive-by mercy” or “vacation mercy,” not a long term commitment to a mercy ministry that can be messy and at times disappointing. This text fully reminds us to see people, who are all made in the image of God, as neighbors, not strangers or at the worst, invisible.

Worship, of course, takes place not only in corporate settings, but also in personal and family  contexts.  Alone, or with your loved ones, it is natural to pray for ministries that focus on mercy ministries or justice.  Keep those prayer letters, cards, and brochures in a folder to pray through in your time with God.  Encourage your children or teens to write an email to someone in a ministry offering encouragement or asking or an update.

Within the corporate setting, the time of our confession of sin can include acknowledgement of our sin of not saying anything to support the poor or just not seeing those who are not like us. Then we can ask forgiveness for these omissions. We can recognize past corporate sins dealing with the 3Es. I have been  reminded recently that President Woodrow Wilson, in working on the Treaty of Versailles,  rejected a request by the Japanese for a declaration of the equality of all races. The reality was that white Europeans and Americans were not willing to give up the superiority of the white race. The name of that show, my friends, was “Prelude to Pearl Harbor.” Our nation and others, publically and formally, by silence, continued to support international racism. Preach about these public sins, then confess them in prayer. Don’t just spin off a confession without hearing God’s word expounded concerning the issue.

In public corporate prayers of intercession, offer specific prayers for mercy ministries. To be able to make them specific, have the ministries provide the church with current needs and praises.   Many churches have ministry highlights during corporate worship services. These are blessed times for the members of a church to hear first-hand of mercy and justice ministries within your congregation or in the local community or denomination.

Last Sunday we celebrated in a special, intentional way The Risen Jesus. Prayerfully consider the implications of His resurrection as those implications lead to collaboration between worship and mercy ministries. Next time, we will look at the collaboration between discipleship and mercy ministries.

Mercy and Justice on the Path to Gladness and Generosity in a Healthy Church, Part 2/3

Remember that tired and discouraged pastor from early in this series about the focus of Metokos?  He shared a number of things about his church that had him down emotionally. We could hear his frustration at efforts his church made that seemed to show no results. Let’s take some time here to examine one area of congregational life in which people can sometimes forget the appropriate focus of their effort.  We are going to keep our conversation going with this next try of food for thought.  Remember, the common theme of this series of writings is the relationship between church revitalization, a healthy church, the ministry of mercy, and the role of justice in mercy ministry – and this theme is where congregations gain their God-given focus.  How do we keep that focus, in this case, in applying justice to our mercy ministry?

Flashback with me to Acts 2 and my comments at the end of the last entry. These verses show three ministries – worship, discipleship, and mercy – all working in collaboration, which means elements of all three ministries were going on at the same time and with the same people. Yes, this is a description, not a prescription, but this is what the Holy Spirit accomplished and had recorded in Scripture for the soon-to-come church to find awesome. We know that this picture of something beautiful would break down in a short amount of time, and there arose with that breakdown the need for deacons to minister to the economic needs of ethnically diverse believers.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

            As these early Christians went about the actions described in this passage, notice how Paul describes their attitude. “. . .they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” A healthy church has people with hearts that are “glad and generous.” Requirement Number #1.  This idea is certainly in stark contrast to our fearful and self-centered culture we share with our neighbors today. Let’s turn to some New Testament passages to continue to consider the relationship between a healthy church and the role of justice in the ministry of mercy in the church. Again, I would recommend Timothy Keller’s book Generous Justice for a broader selection of New Testament passages.

I have made reference before to Acts 20, highlighting “we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” We also saw the connection between passages in the Minor Prophets Malachi, Zechariah, and Micah and Matthew 24 where Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me,…”

Joy and generosity come together in 2 Corinthians 8 in an account of the church in Macedonia, “their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” Paul associates that generosity with a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Perhaps Paul was reflecting back to the church in Acts 2 when he tells us,

For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Mercy flows from glad, joyful, and generous hearts that are seeking fairness, aka  justice. We follow the one who became poor so that we could become rich. Our prayers need to focus on our need to see our abundance, and deliverance from the virus of covetousness passed to us in an infection from our commercial culture which trains us to only want more for ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul’s assumption is that people separated by geography are connected or united by grace and our Lord Jesus Christ. This connection, a union of ethnically diverse peoples, demonstrates a common faith that shared economic provisions to supply for each other’s needs. The gathering reference in 2 Corinthians 8 refers back to the sharing by and among God’s people during Israel’s 40 years of wandering – a time when they were fed manna by God’s grace.

Perhaps Jesus had in mind Israel’s wanderings and shared daily grace when he taught his disciples to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” The prayer, my readers, is a community prayer, “give us…our daily bread.” So often we, by default, overlook the plural and turn it to give me, my…! See how this prayer section of Matthew 6 comes after a warning,

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven…But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

     In today’s world, our Lord might say, “Keep your acts of mercy off of Facebook.” In any case, his message is that only our Father sees the secrets of our hearts. We wait for his rewards – in his time, in his way – and reflecting his values, mercy and justice. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Luke 4 reminds us that the first recorded text Jesus publicly read in his hometown was from Isaiah 61,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

     Jesus reflects on Isaiah 61, his mission statement, as he answers – in Matthew 11 – the imprisoned John the Baptist who has asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

     An identifying mark of the ministry of Jesus, in his mind, was to preach the good news – the gospel – to the poor. A healthy church will seek to include the poor in their worship ministry, evangelism ministry, and discipleship ministries, as well as mercy ministries. Our prayer should be that we will see the poor and not let them become invisible to our eyes and ignored in our ministry efforts. A healthy church will be intentional, like Jesus, to include the poor, because the hearts of the congregants are both glad and generous.

At a dinner hosted by the ruler of the Pharisees, recorded in Luke 14, Jesus continued his teaching about being intentional in our generosity and hospitality towards the poor. Jesus knew he was being watched when he made the following comments to his host, the other diners and to us, Luke’s readers,

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

     There. We have now read of the Father’s secret reward – referred to back in Matthew – for including the poor. Notice the intentional verb, given, actually, in the form of a command: “Invite them!” Mercy, Jesus tells us, is to be generous, because “they cannot repay you.” Sharing a meal across economic classes was a practice in the Acts 2 church and in the church of 1 Corinthians 11. By the time of the Corinthians account, church meals had become divisive because, “each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry,…” The shared meals of Acts 2 had been lost, as was the concept of  “our daily bread.” Paul asks a harsh question, “Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?” Economic divisions caused – and do cause – divisions in the local church.

Luke 19 records the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, a sinner in the eyes of the crowd.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.  And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”  And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

     Zacchaeus, hearing his Lord’s forgiveness, made a spontaneous promise to Jesus – “the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” Mercy and justice, we see here, are expressions of repentance and new faith in Jesus. Zacchaeus, in his first act of new faith, understood  it. He promised to be merciful and generous to the poor. Justice for those he had defrauded results in, “I restore it fourfold,” reflecting Exodus 22:1: “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” Zacchaeus was declared now “a son of Abraham.” Jesus stated, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” So it is that in Luke 19 we learn there are indeed economic consequences when God expresses his grace through Jesus, the one who seeks, saves, and restores – even a public sinner (who also may be a criminal) – and then brings that sinner into the covenantal family to be “a son of Abraham.” Justice, my readers, is treating everyone the same. Mercy flows from a generous heart that has been touch by grace – God’s grace. Jesus sought and saved all of us in his mercy and grace.

Allow me a final observation about Luke 19. Notice that the poor benefit from the evangelism and the conversion of the rich. As the poor hear the gospel and enter God’s covenantal family, they are to be cared for within their new, economically diverse family.

Paul played that justice card, illustrating legal rights for citizens,  when he was arrested in Acts 22 and began his pilgrimage to Rome.

But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.”

     Paul’s citizenship was a call for justice when the crowd/mob and the soldiers wanted to flog him without a trial. In the text we see the power of citizenship and the protection it should give against a crowd/mob or unruly soldiers, people with weapons and power. Again, I repeat Mr. Keller, “The three causes of poverty, according to the Bible, are oppression, calamity, and moral failure. Having surveyed the Bible on the texts numerous times, I have concluded that the emphasis is usually on larger structural factors.” (P. 38)So often, as 21

So often, as 21^st century Christians living in the USA, we only look at personal responsibility when it comes to a response to the poor among us. Yes, personal responsibility or moral failure is one of the reasons for poverty, but the Bible has an awful lot to say about oppression by way of systematic advantage or disadvantage and using the law to deny equal status or justice.

In the United States we have multiple examples of using the law to deny equal status or justice. Let me cite one of many Jim Crow laws at the Federal level that created legal discrimination or segregation. The GI Bill after WW2 provided loans for new or first-time homes, yet it was interpreted differently for whites than it was for African- Americans. Through the real estate and loan practices known as “red-lining,” the GI Bill did not give equal footing to African-American veterans in housing, education or employment. “Levittowns became the model for real estate developers across the country and helped establish a pattern of racial discrimination in housing that persists even today.” (Understandingrace.org) Paul claimed his Roman citizenship and the rights that came with it. Christians and the church in our country need to own injustices based on race and economic status. Whites used the law to separate themselves from African Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, and Japanese immigrants and give themselves legal privileges. Not only is the church to be about unity and not division, but Paul reminds us that public justice, ours by citizenship, is Biblically the right of all. (See the last blog on the Old Testament’s teaching about justice and equality before the law.) It is a birthright, a human right, from the Biblical point of view, rooted in creation, and all people are created in the image-of-God. (For more on housing discrimination, do a computer search GI Bill and red lining for a wealth of information.  Remember, the Federal Fair Housing portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not amended until 1968, just 50 years ago.)

Often a church may not see beyond the physical distance between the family and the church building. They do not see the separation or distance caused by Professor Don MacNair’s 3Es:  economic, education and ethnic diversity. All of us who have been around the organized church for any years at all know of churches that have poured loving effort into segments of their communities to no avail, humanly speaking.  We also know happier stories, such as one I know, of an entire family coming to Jesus through the conversion of their small daughter at a church’s neighborhood backyard club.

I want to challenge tired and downtrodden church members to focus on what I have called Requirement #1.  Pray for that glad and generous heart.  Pray before you move to do any thinking about HOW you can accomplish a biblically-based mercy ministry in your church. It may take you some time to get there as you try to get around the boulders of memories, but God promises that our agreement will bring his fulfillment.

It is now time to recommend again my friend Randy Nabor’s book.  As we move toward the HOW of mercy, read, Merciful, “The Opportunity and Challenge of Discipling the Poor Out of Poverty.”  There we find both a foundation and direction for working out the ministry and the role of justice.

Our discussion of Mercy and Justice will continue over a couple of more entries, focusing specifically on the HOW within the local church.

Mercy and Justice Part 1/3

If we think of a blog a free food – free thought food, if you will, then here is the next tray. As you help yourself to the topic offered, keep talking to your conversation partner(s). Soon that conversation can lead to a relationship.
The Metokos blog is centered on church revitalization. We collaborate with local churches to set a chosen mission for each local church. I have shown you our image of the three legs of the Metokos “stool” – worship, discipleship, and mercy ministries. Today, let’s begin to investigate the local church’s mercy ministry, focusing all the while on mercy and justice. Local churches all need to face this sensitive, divisive, emotional, biblical issue. Facing the issue and coming to terms with God’s direction in the matter will help these churches in the neighborhoods where they are rooted and where they live and witness as they seek revitalization.
We are all aware, no doubt, that the biblical issue of mercy and justice is a part of the political conversation our nation is having in this election year. In my own church, The Presbyterian Church in America, we are having internal conversations and debates about issues related to justice and mercy, and these issues will face votes at our next General Assembly in June.
I am indebted in this study to writings that have touched and taught me throughout my ministry, from school days to now. Two recent books by contemporaries, Tim Keller and Randy Nabors, stand out on this topic. Keller’s book, Generous Justice, gives a helpful beginning to a biblical survey of the topic. Then, we can see the nuts and bolts in Nabors’s personal writing in Merciful.
From farther back in my ministry, I bring you Jonathan Edwards’s Charity and Its Fruits. His sermon from Deuteronomy 15:7-11 “The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained, and Enforced,” sums up some of his thoughts and is on the web at http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=3417. Yes, Edwards owned slaves, yet he was used by God as a saved sinner. The whole of Jonathan Edwards can be another conversation, but his writings did shape my thinking about the topic at hand.
Finally, I will share with you later from my seminary professor for three courses in ethics. Dr. David Jones gave us Biblical Christian Ethics.
As we get going on mercy and justice, let’s look at two areas relating to mercy and justice and the local church. First, we will consider a brief biblical outline of mercy and justice, and then an explanation of why those topics need to be in the scope of a church seeking revitalization.
The whole of the Bible’s treatment of mercy and justice is obviously, and thankfully, Big. While I will point to a few significant texts, keep in mind that a more thorough treatment is available to you in Keller’s book.
Acts 20 is a good place to begin. Paul’s last words to the Ephesian elders in the 20th chapter address the church’s ministry to the weak, not only as a response to the Lord Jesus, but also as a chosen lifestyle – “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Paul, a former Pharisee and persecutor of the church, found himself shaped by the words of Jesus and the Old Testament. Let’s revisit a few of those passages.
The final book of the Old Testament, Malachi, is one of the labeled Minor Prophets (Minor simply means shorter). These shorter messages from God call the Covenant people back to Him to be revitalized, to have new life. In chapter 3 the LORD of hosts says,

Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Earlier Minor Prophet Zechariah 7 reflects the same concerns,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.                                                      

As we continue to move back through the Minor Prophets, we find the even-more-familiar text in Micah, chapter 6,

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

It should become clear now that God ties together justice and mercy in our social/political communities. As we read in Keller’s work on page 3,

The term for “mercy” is the Hebrew word chesedh, God’s unconditional grace and compassion. The word for “justice” is the Hebrew term mishpat. In Micah 6:8, “mishpat puts the emphasis on the action, chesedh puts it on the attitude (or motive) behind the action. To walk with God, then, we must do justice, out of merciful love.

Move now from the Minor Prophets to the Pentateuch and look at a foundational passage in Deuteronomy 15 – the one Jonathan Edwards chose for his sermon on the poor.

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, “The seventh year, the year of release is near,” and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.”

In this sermon from Deuteronomy, Edwards tells his listeners, “So Christ tells us, it is one of the weightier matters of the law.” He cites Matthew 23:23, Hosea 6:6, and then from Matthew again (9:13 and 12:7) as he builds his argument for those listeners – “Ye have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. The Scriptures again and again teach us that it is a more weighty and essential thing than the attendance on the outward ordinances of worship.” He reminds them that in the Hosea passage they read that their God “desired mercy, and not sacrifice. I know,” he continues, “of scarce any duty which is so much insisted on, so pressed and urged upon us, both in the Old Testament an New, as this duty of charity to the poor.”
Before God’s people even had a kingdom or the land, God gave them a text in Leviticus 24 concerning capital punishment. “You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” Further, Deuteronomy 16:18-20 speaks to the appointment of judges who are not to pervert justice or show partiality or accept bribes. Isaiah 10 warns against unjust laws that would deprive people of their rights and oppress them. Hear this: Mercy, my friend, is clearly to be with an open hand. Justice, my friend, will be the same for the “sojourner and the native.”
Our Lord Jesus reflects the words of the Minor Prophets when he teaches about judgment in Matthew 24. He notes those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison. His words, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me,” are hard words of judgment from the one who identifies with those who are poor, powerless, orphaned, widowed, oppressed, strangers, sojourners, non-natives, and immigrants. Jesus publicly berates the religious leaders of his day for neglect of justice in Luke 14:42, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
Come back to this space in the coming days as I address other texts, specifically from the New Testament, related to Justice and Mercy. The step after that will be to connect the texts from both testaments to the church as the Ministry of Mercy and Justice connects with revitalization – particularly, how does the revitalized church “live out” its new-found health.
According to Keller, “The three causes of poverty, according to the Bible, are oppression, calamity, and moral failure. Having surveyed the Bible on the texts numerous times, I have concluded that the emphasis is usually on larger structural factors.” (P. 38) I, Fred McFarland, writing to promote the ministry of Metokos, come away from reading and studying God’s appeal in his last prophetic books of the Old Testament with a clear call for mercy and justice – for the orphan, widows, day workers, and the immigrant – that relates to new life for God’s covenant people. A revitalized church will listen to ALL of God’s word, not just the words that give us comfort or support a comfortable and safe style of life. The vision held out for the healthy church is from Acts 2,

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Mercy, The Third Leg of the Healthy Church

Since we are looking at the health of the revitalized church as a three-legged stool, it is time to take a look at the third leg balancing the stool – Mercy Ministry. A revitalized church must address Mercy Ministries as well as Worship and Discipleship in order to be the church Jesus – through the Bible – calls us to be in our locality, our time and our culture, that is, our local neighborhood. Keep in mind that the God of scripture calls us not to a sequential approach but to a collaborative approach among these three legs of the stool. Each of these three God-given and God-commanded ministries beautifully shows His people a different reflection of his grace. Ponder as you read this examination of the scriptural basis for Mercy Ministry, and then the next two entries which will continue to unpack Mercy Ministries. We will be ready then for further reflection and discussion as we examine the art of weaving the ministries into that collaborative reflection of God’s Grace.
Consider this: “the essence of the diaconate: that the physical and financial cannot be divorced from the spiritual.” This part-sentence comes from Professor Don MacNair’s book, The Living Church, A Guide For Revitalization. Specifically, the words appear in Appendix A, “The Living Church and the Deacon,” and they are at the heart of the concerns for what we here at Metokos Ministries refer to as the Mercy Ministry of a local church. Professor MacNair also writes, “Under the direction of the elders, deacons must work to prevent physical and financial problems, deal with them when they occur and encourage healing of spiritual maladies exposed by physical and financial ills.” (p.155) So, what is the Scriptural basis for the practical suggestions offered by Professor MacNair and now, Metokos? Let me begin with a look at the mercy ministry in the book of Acts.
Paul, in his final address to the elders of Ephesus recorded in Acts 20, reminds us why the church matters, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood… And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” As Paul ends his address to leaders he loves, note the tears on the part of all with these words, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” These are the words that haunt my heart from this passage, “we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus,…” These words give us Paul’s only quote of Jesus, and they are used to provide support for the ministry of mercy, helping the weak.
Paul’s concern expressed in his last words to the Ephesian elders are a local expression of what happened in the church in the Jerusalem church in the early days of the church. The Greeks lodged a complaint against the Hebrews (recorded in Acts 6) “because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” The church had begun a first century “meals on wheels” in response to a need, and the needs of some were overlooked because they were Greek, not Hebrews. The first deacons were dealing with ethnic and economic issues as well as the lack of equality in the local church’s care for widows. This diversity issue is something Professor MacNair reminds us will be a part of a revitalized local church. See his Appendix C, “Diversity, Unity, and the Community in The Church” (p.163ff) to think about three areas of diversity for local churches to address – educational, economic, and ethnic.
For Presbyterians, the 1645 Form of Church-Government is the foundation for how we see the church. The brief section on Deacons – after reminding us what they are not – states that deacons are, “…to take special care in distributing to the necessities of the poor.” The footnote supporting this is the carefully-chosen passage from Acts 6:1-4. These words together give us that Biblical focus and mission statement for deacons, “…to take special care in distributing to the necessities of the poor.” They also echo Paul’s words, “we must help the needy.” In 1645, the church, imperfect as it is in every generation, expected an economic diversity so that “distributing to the necessities of the poor” would be part of a local congregation’s life and ministry.
Notice the wording of these 1645 document and Acts, “the poor,” not “the poor in the church.” Yes, we should begin with the poor among us. Paul reminds readers in Galatians 6, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Consider this passage from 1 John 3, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” The Biblical motive for “helping the needy” and “distributing to the necessities of the poor” is that we have been loved first. Within the church we are to lay down our lives for each other. Here is John’s big question in this passage, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” It is God’s first love in his son that revitalizes a local church – his abiding love. Mercy then, along with worship and discipleship are the response of the local revitalized church of that abiding love.
Now let us return to Paul’s words from Galatians 6, “let us do good to everyone.” Paul has just warned his readers “not to grow weary of doing good.” This idea takes us to the question in Luke 10, “who is my neighbor?” Here, Jesus relates the parable of the Good Samaritan to flesh out the background to the answer to a question Jesus asked the young lawyer, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” The parable ends with these words of Jesus, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The lawyer said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Yes, Jesus wants us to know that mercy is at the heart of loving your neighbor. Our Lord frames his story of a stranger helping a wounded victim around an outsider, both religiously, and ethnically from his audience.
These Luke 10 words of Jesus expand on his words recorded in a message to a multitude in chapter 6. Consider these parts of verses 27-36 from the middle of that message from Jesus, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,… Give to everyone who begs from you,… And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them… But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” We have much to consider in this passage. Take with you today what Jesus ends with – a call and a command, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” A revitalized church is merciful because its congregation has experienced in a fresh way the mercy of the Father and desires to be like the Father, that is – merciful. These words of Jesus challenge our safe view of the church and the Christian life, “Love your enemies…he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
Mercy ministry in a revitalized church will stretch the comfort zones of educational, economic and ethnic diversities as you begin to see the unseen poor all around you in your community and neighborhoods. Grace will become generous in helping the poor. To help us move beyond the finger food of a blog to consider the meat and potatoes of mercy ministry, I suggest Merciful, The Opportunity and Challenge of Discipling the Poor Out of Poverty by Randy Nabors. This book opens eyes about poverty in the USA and in our neighborhoods. Not only does he give practical suggestions for engaging the poor, but he also helps readers to understand the historical context of urban poverty. For those of us in rural communities, we can learn much and work on translations to our context. Randy’s passion for this ministry grows out of his own story, which he shares in Merciful.
In the next two weeks, we will build on this scriptural base and look at the relationship between justice and mercy, then the challenges of mercy ministry in a revitalized local church and presbytery.

The Christian Voice in the Public Square

Thank you all very much for this opportunity to share some of my thoughts to help answer a crucial question for Christians today.  In this multi-media-dizzy 21^st Century – What are we to think about, and how should we take part in, the Christian Voice in the World Village Town Square?  A Square that seems – at times – about to explode with “Public-ness.”

       Let’s look first at the end of the 20^th century and two prominent Christian voices in a public square that was smaller.  C.S. Lewis, an Irishman by birth, had an active career in Britain as a scholar, author and public speaker. American Pastor and evangelist Francis Schaeffer became a public figure later in his life as he evolved into a writer, speaker, and film maker. Both men appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Both men spoke and defended the historical Christian faith. Lewis was an Anglican; Schaeffer was a fundamentalist and conservative historic Presbyterian. I never met Lewis; he died on the same day that John Kennedy was killed in Dallas, and I was a teenager then.  As for Francis Schaeffer, I did meet him and studied under him – both at Covenant College and at Covenant Seminary. He holds a place now as one of the founding fathers from our denomination’s roots.

       Both men were prolific writers, not only of books, but also personal letters. If someone wrote to one of these men, he would take the time to answer. Both showed a strong commitment to the next generation – Lewis with his books and Schaeffer with conversations and conferences.

       I want to consider first how the public square has changed since the lives of Lewis and Schaeffer; then I want to suggest what we can learn from these men about the use of technology in the communication of the Christian voice in the public square. Technology for them did not match what we have available today, but they both cared about the clarity of the language of faith in their generation.    

       The history of a fallen people always includes the tragedy of war, and  wars and conflict are a major component of the shape of today’s public square.  C.S. Lewis, who was born in 1898, served as a line officer in the trenches in WW1. There are fascinating stories of his exploits on the battlefield. Schaeffer, born in 1912, never served in the military, but his ministry was shaped by WW2 as he and his family moved to Europe after the war as missionaries.

       When it comes to perspective on wars and conflicts, let me say this:  WW1 was a global war of Empires. WW2 was a global war of alliances. Both had start dates with formal declarations of war and end dates of surrender. Today, things are different. We have conflicts. We do not go to war with formal declarations. There have been no surrenders.  For our current circumstances, go back to the Invasion of Kuwait in 1990.  Move forward – event to event – and two months from today, we will have been involved in ceaseless conflicts for the past 26 years.

       In the days of Lewis and Schaeffer, wars started and wars ended. Today they do not. Those overseas conflicts, and their life-taking violence, now come to our American hometowns, as well as hometowns around the entire globe.

       Unlike the generation of Lewis and Schaeffer, the conflicts of our generation have become background noise in the public square. Conflicts, with United States military involvement, seem relentless. In WW2 refugees were part of the consequences of war. Today, with never-ending conflicts there comes a stream of never-ending refugees. After WW2 the refugees were European, some were Jewish. We often, as Americans, forget about our refusal at times to accept Jewish refugees just because they were Jewish – not like us. Today most refugees are not like us – in  religion, language, or cultural context and history.

       Speaking to the specific issue of war, we find an example of CS Lewis and the public square in a lecture he gave after Britain, on the first of January, 1940, called up 2 million 19 to 27-year-olds for military service. Lewis gave his famous “Why I am Not a Pacifist” speech at the Oxford Pacifist Society! He addresses the question, “How do we decide what is good and evil?” You can read the speech as an essay in his collection, “The Weight of Glory,” or you can use our contemporary tools and watch it on YouTube.  People still offer push-back to Lewis’s views, demonstrating the enduring strength of his voice in the public square.

       Christians need to understand that these military conflicts represent competing narratives with heroes, adventures, and goals – the “where-we-are-going” in the future last chapters of our earthly book. There are competing narratives in the Islamic world between those who would have peace and those who wage war by any means. In the west – in the US and Europe – there are competing narratives between what we refer to as secular narratives and religious narratives. As we are thinking tonight about the Christian Voice in the Public Square, in our context here, many of you likely think of this voice with an accent of Biblical conservative protestant.

              Ongoing conflict, with competing narratives – so far, these 26 years’ worth– is part of the changing Public Square in which Christians need to raise their voices. Before we move on, think, please, about two realities.  First, security has become an idol for people, demonstrated by the rise of all kinds of fears in the public square. Prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications are at their highest, even for children.  It is apparent that people will give up freedoms for security – and this fact is something Francis Schaeffer predicted back in the 60s. Remember what the Apostle John said, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” A second reality is our public and private response to the ongoing refugee crisis in the world. My church, the Presbyterian Church in America, works with refugees in overseas nations of transit. The church also helps with settlement here in the United States, loving their new “not like me” neighbors. 

              Technology came to Professor Lewis when the BBC asked him, and he agreed, to give BBC radio talks during WW2.  He was able to shift from the academic world and context to a national radio audience as he told stories and asked questions as background to spur his generation to consider the orthodox Christian faith. Radio stretched his great mind in ways academic writing and publishing did not. Lewis was not alone in the use of radio broadcasting in his generation and coming generations, but he left a multigenerational high water mark for Christians in the public square.

       Francis Schaeffer moved from his books and conversations and conferences to tape recordings and films. The tapes became part of study centers where people could listen to lectures on many topics and then discuss the content of the tapes. Besides the L’Abri study centers that Francis and Edith Schaeffer fostered, I recall seeing a prep school ministry on Martha’s Vineyard running a study center for high school students with Schaeffer tapes.  The vehicle of film served Schaeffer well as he presented his world view and European history – all the while raising his prophetic voice in the public square in the last half of the 20^th century.  

       I often wonder what Lewis and Schaeffer would think of today’s public square and its contrast with theirs. Today’s is crowded, and it is 24/7. Would Lewis be on talk radio or cable TV or have his own podcasts and YouTube channel? Wait! There is a CS Lewis YouTube channel – and more! Schaeffer’s tapes were copied and copied again and shared by mail. His films are now on YouTube. The tapes make their way to the internet as they are remastered and digitized for this century.

       The public square in today’s “search engine culture” has many voices, but who is heard? So often our public squares are just what we refer to as “echo chambers.” We search, view or read what we look for from people we trust and know already, people like us who speak with that Biblical conservative Protestant accent. The PCA’s Tim Keller gets a call from the cable talk shows occasionally, or Russell Moore, a Southern Baptist, gets print inches or is copied in the Huffington Post. Expand your searches to include African Americans who are in the PCA or another Reformed branch. Then move on to other African American Christians, who might be politically different and have different social concerns based on Biblical values. This deliberate exploration helps us ask ourselves whose Christian voice we are looking for in the Public Square. I am confounded by the main stream media’s use of “evangelical,” so much so that I stopped using “evangelical” to describe myself when asked. If I feel the need for an adjective before Christian, I quietly say, “confessional Presbyterian.”

       Let’s look now at the use of language by Lewis and Schaeffer in their desire for clarity in the language of faith. Lewis spent all his adult life in academia studying words. Read or listen to Lewis and hear the clarity of the use of words in a well-reasoned argument.  Schaeffer coined words or phrases that were startling in their clarity.  “True truth,” pointing to the truth of the Word of God, is the best known and maybe the most used because it makes its point so clearly. As for today’s world, we owe thanks to your native son Stephen Colbert, who has given us the perfect new entry for our dictionaries – “Truthiness,” or “what feels true to me.”  Yes, folks, that is the mindset of so many who are in our public square. People determine what is true for them – individually– based upon what feels right, but more importantly what makes them feel good. Again, this change of “thought gears” is something Schaeffer predicted in the 60s as a consequence of the shift away from “True truth.” Feelings and experience set the conversation for the public square.

       Christians who believe in a God who reveals himself and inspired men to write down revelation in a common language that is true are strangers speaking another language in the public square. People will say, “Sure, I believe in God.” But do they believe in a God who is both “There” and communicates in propositions and revelation in a common language that can be understood as Schaeffer said? Is that word of God true? Does it speak to all of life? The corruption of language in the public square makes common conversations almost impossible, but not completely impossible. Schaeffer taught that we should listen to people before we respond to people. Listening before responding is to enable us to understand what they are saying. For many people, God does not define himself; instead, men or women create a god in an image that comforts them and is controlled by the words and prayers of the worshiper. Have you heard of the IKEA god?  – some assembly required?  This human exercise is what the Bible calls idolatry, false gods. Yet in our age, the public square has made the crowd or individual the judge of what is true and false for any individual at any given time. We still have so much to understand about our neighbors and how they view the world. The good news is that the creator still sends his Holy Spirit to use his word and people to change hearts from stone to flesh, from enemies of God to children of God by saving faith.

        In looking at the public square of the past through the works and lives of CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer and seeing their examples as Christian voices in the public square we should first acknowledge that there will always be voices – plural – not one Christian voice. Second, those voices will be diverse, as were the published – and still available – works of Lewis and Schaeffer. Third, Christian voices in the public square will be global Christian voices because the public square is now a global square. Just as Lewis and Schaeffer’s books and other works are translated into other languages and cultures, so must we listen to Christians who are African-American, Spanish, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and more.    

       So, to conclude, what should we do? First, get to know our neighbors and neighborhood, even the new ones and the ones not like us. Have a passion for the next generation. Get the biographies of Lewis and Schaeffer and read about that.  Second, learn to listen. Schaeffer said, “Listen for 50 minutes for every 10 minutes of talking or answering a question.” To quote the title of Sherry Turkle’s book, we need to be about “Reclaiming the conversation.” If the issue is the Christian voice in the Public Square, what public do we think will listen to the Christian voice if we have not listened first? Third, we have much to say. But we need to say it in a way that – if they reject what we say – they will have understood what we were saying when they reject it. Learn to talk in a language our neighbors will understand, not some insider’s Christian jargon. Yes, there are important words people need to understand. Just as some of us need a translator to understand the internet, it’s the same for people not raised on the Bible – they need a guide. And, yes, much of Christianity is going to be offensive. The cross and atonement is almost impossible for many to understand or accept, as is the resurrection or the need for faith in Jesus as the only way of salvation. On the crowded and noisy public square today, these non-negotiable “one-ways” seem like a throw-back to another time. Fourth and finally, pray. Prayer is not a fall-back activity or strategy but it is the family language of the Father who has adopted us and taught us, to say “Abba.” The public square is global, but prayer, my friends, is cosmic. We pray before the creator of all and the redeemer of a global people.  Now listen and join in with the global voices in the global public square.

Presbyterians and Race, Reflections on an Epic Failure

          Today’s church – just as did the church of the past – should seek daily to grapple within God’s directives and love with issues of social justice.  Being a committed Christian myself, and having many Facebook friends who are also committed Christians, I see newsfeed material that touches on three issues, in particular. These subjects are race, abortion, and immigration. I was able to engage recently with a good friend who wondered why I post more on issues of race than I do on abortion (or immigration).  I enjoyed the discussion with my friend and am grateful for the opportunity to organize some of my thoughts. 

          My views on abortion, race, and immigration are a present day application of my understanding of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, his finished work on the cross and the biblical doctrine of the image of God in all men and women. Because of my biblical views, I find I cannot stand before God and choose one issue over another, any more than I can choose to obey one commandment over another. The church today should be addressing all three of these issues in some way. Some churches/people will be drawn to all three issues, and others will focus on just one.  As for my church, the PCA, immigration and refugee issues are addressed through our missions  agencies, both in the states and outside of the states. The denomination has a long history of publically being a pro-life church, both in policy and practices.  We have partnered, for example, with Bethany Christian Services and other pro-life groups as they strive to work out these policies and practices before the world.  The 61 million deaths due to elective abortions are often used to rally public support of abortion being the most important social issue. 

          Where Presbyterians have a long history of failure when it comes to these three issues is in the area of race relations and policy.  Many Presbyterians throughout history were slave traders/holders, supporters of Jim Crow and White Citizens Councils, and silent observers during the Civil Rights struggle from the ‘40s through the ‘80s. 

          After Ferguson, Missouri, in the summer of 2014, the conversation about race got louder and angrier, and people wanted answers quickly. I chose to wait for the findings to emerge. I have learned to not engage with angry people because I have seen my own anger produce self-inflicting wounds. I do not trust myself around anger. White folks were told to listen and wait to write online, and I did this. Then, in the summer, my church, the Presbyterian Church of America, postponed voting on a personal resolution “that called our denomination to ‘recognize and confess our church’s covenantal and generational involvement in and complicity with racial injustice inside and outside of our churches during the Civil Rights era’  and to ‘recommit ourselves to the task of truth and reconciliation with our African-American brothers and sisters for the glory of God and the furtherance of the Gospel.’” We were not ready to repent as a church. We went home, in June of 2015, and in a few weeks, the Charleston killings happened.  Nine fellow Christians were murdered at a prayer meeting, by a now- confessed killer with racial motives. Was this summer the tipping point in the conversation about race? Did the PCA miss an historic moment in its history?

          Let’s look at the shift that took place at the founding of our nation, at the same time that our Presbyterian Confession and Catechisms were being written by the Westminster Assembly. At that time, 1643-1647, the Westminster Assembly was the height of Reformed political power and influence. That influence grew even larger under the new King Charles II, restored in 1660. In the previous century, “The same anti-Catholic propaganda that had led Sir Francis Drake to liberate Negro slaves in Central America in the 1580s still prompted many colonists to believe that it was the Protestant mission to convert non-Europeans rather than enslave them.” (Strange New Land: Africans in Colonial America by Peter H. Wood. Published by Oxford University Press.) But costs changed everything and profits shifted the mission from conversions to chattel slavery.

          Wood writes about this shift of thinking from an identity based on religious faith to what we now think of as racial identity. People started thinking of themselves as white, European or British over thinking of themselves and their families as Christian.

Therefore, another fundamental key to the terrible transformation was the shift from changeable spiritual faith to unchangeable physical appearance as a measure of status. Increasingly, the dominant English came to view Africans not as “heathen people” but as “black people.” They began, for the first time, to describe themselves not as Christians but as whites. And they gradually wrote this shift into their colonial laws. Within a generation, the English definition of who could be made a slave had shifted from someone who was not a Christian to someone who was not European in appearance. Indeed, the transition for self-interested Englishmen went further. It was a small but momentous step from saying that black persons could be enslaved to saying that Negroes should be enslaved. One Christian minister was dismayed by this rapid change to slavery based on race: “These two words, Negro and Slave” wrote the Rev. Morgan Godwyn in 1680, are “by custom grown Homogeneous and Convertible”—that is, interchangeable…As if this momentous shift were not enough, it was accompanied by another. Those who wrote the colonial laws not only moved to make slavery racial; they also made it hereditary. Under English common law, a child inherited the legal status of the father. As Virginia officials put it in 1655: “By the Comon Law the Child of a Woman slave begot by a freeman ought to bee free.”

          Because all of this took place after the four years of Westminster, the Reformed community should have known better in so many ways and should have raised loud questions about the shift. Reformed theology is summed up often by creation, fall, and redemption, and some of us add restoration. Our theology also is rooted in God’s covenant of grace. Scripture and the WCF express the unity of all the children of Adam and Eve as image bearers of the creator who then fell together and needed a redeemer. Covenant theology expresses the foundation of the Gospel of Grace. Genesis 12 reminds us of the LORD’s covenantal promise to Father Abram, “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Revelation 5 tells of the new song, “…you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” This scriptural foundation was the basis– for the Europeans and British – of the  desire to convert the people they encountered in the new worlds. The every tribe and language and people and nation was part of those for whom Jesus died, “by your blood you ransomed people for God.” Greed, a fruit of covetousness, reshaped theology and created a form of racism so opposed to the Covenant and Gospel of Grace that it is still being undone today. Generations of Presbyterian pastors supported slavery based on race, supported Jim Crow and opposed the Civil Rights movement and would not allow the descendants of slaves to worship in their churches. 

          The next part of this history I want to examine is racial slavery by heredity. Such slavery was against both English Common Law and Covenant Theology. Let’s look at the Covenant Theology issue as it relates to white fathers and their slave children. (I will leave the rejection of English Common Law, as written into Virginia law by the Virginia Assembly in 1662, to some of my attorney friends. I also will leave for another time a discussion of enslavement-with-the-end-desire-of-conversion-leading-to-ultimate-freedom.) What I am addressing here is part of the issue, race-based slavery and the children of white fathers.  As a father, I cannot understand how a father would abandon his child and then grandchildren to slavery, yet this happened for generations in families that owned slaves. Where were the pastors to cry out against the violations of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and tenth commandments? Never mind that the whole system was based on a violation of the eighth. I want to put the spotlight of this conversation about the hereditary nature of our race-based slavery by considering the fifth and seventh commandments, family, and sex.

          In today’s world some wonder about our dated confessions and catechisms, but these are part of our faith link, and I think instructive, when we consider how profit can cause people to overlook faith and the teachings of Scripture and the church. Consider Larger Catechism question number 130, one of the questions dealing with the fifth command to honor our father and mothers. “What are the sins of superiors? The sins of superiors are, besides the neglect of duties required of them, (Q 129), inordinate seeking of themselves, their own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure…provoking them to wrath;…” Then we have Q131, “What are the duties of equals? The duties of equals are, to regard the dignity and worth of each other, in giving honor to go before another; and to rejoice in each others gifts and advancement, as their own.” I am saddened when I read these statements from the Catechism that was meant to shape our hearts as we live with others.

          God’s covenant promises were made to us and to our children. Peter reminded those who listened on Pentecost, “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” Again, I ask, how could a father abandon his child and the generations to follow to hereditary slavery? This happened for generations in families who owned slaves.

          Now to move to a consideration of the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” Someday a data crunching researcher will look through all the records from slavery and we will know how many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren had white fathers living in the “big house.” Consider the scope of the Shorter Catechism’s question 71, “What is the requirement of the seventh commandment? The seventh commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech and actions.” The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our neighbor’s chastity. Part of the consequences of race-based slavery was that white fathers abandoned and denied their children, as a matter of law. How many grew up knowing that their own father could not and would not free them? The sins of fornication and adultery were overlooked. The crime of rape was unreported and ignored for generations. The hypocrisy of this culture corrupted family life and gave us generations of angry people. The culture supported by slavery should never be glorified. Race-based slavery was evil and corrupting. The true cost and consequences to all and their following generations has yet to be understood.

          Our 16^th century spiritual fathers did not make the connections from Scripture and the Confession and catechisms to shape their hearts hardened by the worship of profits and the comforts that slavery based on race and hereditary brought. We need to own that part of our history and spiritual roots. We also need to search our own hearts, knowing that if one generation we so honor could fail so badly, we also can be distracted from the historical consequences of our choices in our own generation.

          Covenant theology brings generations together, both in their sins and salvation. Covenant theology, the foundation of the Gospel of Grace reminds all of us “that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,…” (Ephesians 2).

          Finally, I would share some thoughts and application from SC Q 71, “our neighbor’s chastity.” Christians have Biblical covenantal rooted responsibilities for our neighbors. (See the Good Samaritan story as told by Jesus.) To stand by and say, “not my responsibility, not my fight” or not speak up against injustice is Biblically indefensible.  We cannot undo the past, but we can make sure the whole story is told truthfully. Race-based slavery began just after Westminster, 1643-1647. For reasons we do not understand our country’s founders were silent, and in many cases were part of the economic system that stole people from their villages and families to become slaves for life and their children’s lives. Many Presbyterian pastors actively preached sermons to support race-based slavery in all its evil and owned slaves themselves. We need to own this history and repent as often as the consequences bear fruit in our generation. Because of grace, repentance bears fruit in forgiveness which can become the seeds for reconciliation, part of sanctification on our path to shared holiness. I am not sure if in my lifetime we will even begin to know the language of reconciliation; the layers of the conversation are both deep and hardened.

          I do hope the PCA will repent at the next 2016 General Assembly and not kick the issue down the road again city a need for perfection or an excuse that many are not ready to own our shared roots and heritage, both politically and spiritually. The Assembly must return to local churches to start conversations about race. We have resources to help local churches and Presbyteries move beyond this motion.

          May we repent and humble our hearts and churches. May we be that Great Commission Church we want to be, beginning in our own neighborhoods, cities, and counties, and moving across educational, economic and ethnic differences.