2012 bishop’s series: where are you leading us,...

Bishop Lawrence Wohlrabe

NORTHWESTERN MINNESOTA SYNOD

2012 BISHOP’S SERIES: WHERE ARE YOU

LEADING US, LORD?

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Table of Contents

January: Where Are You Leading Us, Lord? ................................................................. 2

February: From Slavery to Freedom ............................................................................... 6

March: When We’d Rather Not Follow ........................................................................ 12

April: Toward a Church That’s All About “Going” ...................................................... 17

May: Traveling Through Samaria .................................................................................. 22

June: Jesus Leads and Sends Followers ...................................................................... 26

July: Jesus Leads us on the Way of the Cross ............................................................. 31

August: The Risen One: Always Out Ahead of Us ...................................................... 35

September: Disciples Become Apostles ...................................................................... 40

October: A Persecutor Becomes a Proclaimer .......................................................... 45

November: The Throwaway Life ................................................................................... 51

December: For the Life of the World ........................................................................... 56

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January: Where Are You Leading Us, Lord?

Bible Study on Genesis 12:1-9

Whenever I travel I make sure I know where I’m

going. If I’m heading outside the United States I call

up a reliable travel agent. If I’m going somewhere

inside our country, I contact AAA to request a “triptik,”

maps, and tour-books for the area I’ll be visiting.

Even when I move around our synod I consult

Mapquest, tap into the nifty GPS app on my smart phone, call up folks to make sure I’ve got the right

directions, and calculate the mileage and time it will take to travel.

Nothing all that adventurous about this traveler! I even build in a “fudge factor” for getting lost or

running into bad weather. Get the point? When I go somewhere I do not travel “blind.”

Which makes this wild story from Genesis 12 so hard to swallow.

Traveling Blindly

It’s about 2000 B.C. There are no GPS locators, no Onstar systems, no cell phones. There aren’t

even any maps because paper hasn’t been invented yet.

Twenty centuries before the birth of Christ, a man named Abram, living in place located in present-

day Iraq hears a voice telling him that to “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s

house to the land that I will show you.”

It’s the LORD who invites Abram to take a flying leap of faith–to cut off all ties to the land he had

known, the clan he had grown up with, and the immediate family whom he loved in order to trek to

some mystery destination that the LORD will show him.

Talk about traveling blindly!

But here’s the kicker in verse 9 of our story: “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him…”

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And that turned out to be a very good thing because the whole world was counting on Abram to do

what the LORD had asked of him. For, “all the families of the world” would be blessed through

Abram and Sarai (a.k.a. Abraham and Sarah, renamed later in the story) and the amazing journey

they were willing to take.

First Step on an Unfolding Adventure

By faithfully setting out into the “wild blue yonder,” Abram and

Sarai opened themselves up to an adventure that took centuries

to unfold. You can read all about it in your Bible—the story of

Israel and the wild promises of God that eventually brought

God’s people to a manger in Bethlehem, a cross outside

Jerusalem, and an Empty Tomb on Easter morning. From this

Empty Tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ flow blessings that are

still turning the world upside down 4000 years after Abram and

Sarai set out on their perilous journey.

Wow! Who’d have imagined that it all could start with a man and his wife venturing forth to an

unknown destination, simply because a Voice asked them to?!

It takes our breath away, because we live our lives so sparingly, so safely, so cautiously. We covet

the familiar and the cozy. The mere thought of transition or change gives us the shivers.

But change is what God is after with us and with the whole human family. God wants to take us

somewhere—away from the “stuckness” of sin, the paralysis of faithlessness, the fear of the future.

And in this amazing journey we’re on, God is always out ahead of us, restoring, reclaiming, and

making all things new.

But it always begins with a first step….the first step that Abram and Sarai took from their home in “Ur

of the Chaldeans” (Genesis 11:31)…the first steps that a toddler named Jesus took, in the village of

Nazareth…steps that would bring our Lord Jesus to the Cross and the Grave, for us and for our

salvation.

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God is Always Ahead of Us

God is in the business of calling his people out of

“stuckness” into such radical newness. God singles out

Abram and Sarai and says: “Children, go where I send

you.” God sends forth his one and only Son, wrapped in

our flesh, tempted in every way as we are, feet on the

ground, walking this earth, uttering God’s promises, and

bearing the waywardness and rebellion of those he came

to save.

Such journeys are terrifying, frankly, and God’s chosen travelers are tempted to turn back more than

once (read the whole story of Abram and Sarai some time!) And even Jesus had some last minute

doubts in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But there’s one thing that kept them all going, Abram and Sarai, all their many descendants, our

Lord Jesus, and you and me. The one thing that keeps us going is our unshakeable conviction that

although we may

not know exactly where we are going, we believe God is always ahead of us. God will be there at the end of the journey. And that is enough.

A Question for this New Year

During this New Year, 2012, I invite you to bore in on this question: “Where are you leading us, Lord?” The question assumes some important things about disciples and their congregations: we

are not a “settled” church that simply stays put. We are, rather, a people sent on a mission into God’s world.

What shape is that journey taking for your congregation, here and now? That’s the kind of question I

hope will sink deep into our bones in 2012. May that question get under our skins and agitate us to

the point that God “tunes” us to discern in fresh ways where he is calling us to go— indeed, where

God is already leading us.

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I realize that this might seem scary, especially in moments when it feels as though we’re walking in

the dark, bewildered and unsure of our destination. But we are never alone. God, who knows you

better than you know yourself, is not about to stop walking with you in 2012.

And neither will all your fellow-travelers in our congregations and our synod. Like mountain climbers

scaling Mt. Everest, we are lashed together as we move ahead. God binds us to one another, not

because we see eye to eye on everything, but because together we follow our Lord Jesus, into

God’s mission field, into the adventure of blessing the whole world for Jesus’ sake, into all the

tomorrows that are still before us until we arrive in God’s New Creation.

Let us pray:

Lord, God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For reflection or group discussion:

1. Read Genesis 12:1-9. What words or phrases stand out? What is God doing here? How does this passage speak to you and your congregation?

2. What is holding you back from following God’s leading? What makes your congregation cautious about stepping ahead with God?

3. How do you perceive God always being “out ahead of us?” To what new place (a venture, a ministry, a risk) is God calling you? Your congregation?

4. Read Genesis 12:1-9 one more time. Pray the prayer again, and start to memorize it (we’ll be using it each month in this series of Bishop’s Bible Studies).

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February: From Slavery to Freedom

Bible Study on the Exodus

Dedicated to Dr. Darold Beekmann and in memory of his wife Marlene who died on December 21,

2011.

A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous… Deuteronomy 26:5

The journey that began with God’s call to Abraham

and Sarah (Genesis 12—last month’s Bible study)

continued in the adventures of their children, Isaac

and Rebekah, and their descendants—Jacob (later

named Israel) and his twelve sons. These rich stories

form the fabric of the Book of Genesis.

When we come to the Bible’s second book, Exodus, the worm has turned. At the end of Genesis,

famine had forced the Jacob’s family to leave the scarcity in Canaan for the abundance in Egypt—

abundance which reflected, in part, the faithful stewardship of Jacob’s son Joseph, who rose from

imprisoned slave to become second-in-command in the royal court of the Pharaoh. (I once heard

Joseph described as history’s first “Secretary of Agriculture,” who conceived of the idea of the ever-

normal granary in which crops are stored in good years, to tide over the hungry in the lean years.)

The word “Exodus” means “the way out.” Although we rightly associate the Book of Exodus with

the compelling figure of Moses (its primary human actor) and the astounding escape from Egypt (the

ten plagues and the wondrous crossing of the Red Sea), the book is primarily about God’s

continuing journey with his people. “Where are you leading us, Lord?” wasn’t just the question of

Abraham and Sarah; it continued to animate the conversation God’s people had with their traveling

Lord and Leader.

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When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. Deuteronomy 26:6-7

This part of the journey starts with God’s remembering of his people. The journey we’re on with God

includes times of trial and tribulation—harsh treatment and affliction. God does not shield us from

hard labor or oppression. But also, God does not forget us when we are down. Exodus 2:23-

25 notes:

After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them. Israel groaned. God heard. And God remembered his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Notice the verbs and the intimate interaction between God and his people.

Darold Beekmann was my first bishop when I became a pastor over 30 years ago. He was steeped

in the scriptures. After graduating from Wartburg Seminary he did graduate study in Old Testament

at Union Theological Seminary in New York. I have never forgotten Bishop Beekmann’s observation

on Exodus 2:23: “When God remembers, things happen.” When God remembers, it’s not for

nostalgia’s sake. When God remembers, God acts to save his people.

The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm… Deuteronomy 26:8a

To accomplish this rescue God calls forth the unlikely leadership of Moses, God oppresses the

oppressor (Pharaoh) with ten uncanny demonstrations of power, God opens a path through the sea

for Israel to escape—and for Pharaoh’s army to be annihilated. These are the familiar stories of

Exodus we’ve treasured from years of Sunday School or VBS lessons, not to mention epic movies

like Cecil B. DeMille’s classic, The Ten Commandments (1956), or more recently, The Prince of

Egypt (1998).

But what I want us not to lose sight of is the fact that all of this—the saga of Moses and the razzle-

dazzle of the Escape—was part of a larger journey God was again taking with his beloved people.

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Exodus means “the way out,” –and that way out involved a forty-year journey through the wilderness

of Sinai to the banks of the Jordan River.

Here’s what may not add up for us, though. It’s less than six hundred miles from the Nile delta (in

Egypt) to the banks of the Jordan River (east of Jerusalem). Even with a company of well over

600,000 travelers (Exodus 12:37), it didn’t have to take forty years to complete that trek! This four-

decades-long journey was about more, much more, than “getting there.”

The Book of Exodus narrates Israel’s foundational salvation-history. Read the whole book, if you will.

But for now, let me lift up four themes that emerge Exodus—themes that speak powerfully to our

own life as God’s journeying people in the 21st century:

1) No turning back

Almost immediately after they escaped from Pharaoh and his army, the children of Israel started

grumbling and pining for the good life they left behind in Egypt. How quickly they forgot the

oppression of their task-masters! Just six weeks after escaping from Pharaoh,

the Israelites said to [Moses and Aaron], ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ Exodus 16:3

Again and again the children of Israel grumbled, and again and again they had to re-learn a hard

lesson: the supposedly “greener grass” back in Egypt wasn’t all that green, and there would be no

turning back. It’s as if the Israelites had contracted a perverse sort of amnesia!

God had orchestrated their escape from slavery, and God would never allow them to sacrifice their

freedom. God had a preferred future for the children of Israel, and God was going to take them to it.

God’s goal for his people was nothing short of the Promised Land.

What about us? When the going gets tough in our faith-communities, do we sometimes pine for a

golden age in the past? Do we allow nostalgia, for an era that will not return, to prevent us from

doing God’s work today and moving forward into God’s tomorrow?

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2) Faith for now, bread for today

When the Israelites bewailed their hunger, God gave them unexpected food—a wondrous bread

from heaven they called “manna” (literally “what is it?” in the Hebrew language, Exodus 16:15).

Every morning there was enough manna to get God’s people through another day.

If anyone tried to hoard this amazing bread for more than one day, though, it became infested with

worms. “Leftover” manna went bad. God insisted on leading and feeding his people, but only in a

day-by-day way. And this went on for all forty years of their journey to the Promised Land (Exodus

16:35). It was as if God said: “Don’t worry about your future. That is in my hands. Trust in me today.”

We echo the experience of the Israelites when we pray, as Jesus taught us: “Give us today our daily

bread.” But is that enough for us? Are we not, even as the church, constantly tempted to secure our

future? How can we live in the trust that God holds us and sustains us—God gives us whatever we

need, but on a “one day at a time” basis?

3) God is with us for the long haul

Although we associate the Israelites’ time at Mt Sinai with the giving of the Ten Commandments, it

was a promise that first grabbed them by the ears.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… Exodus 20:2

This was God’s first word from the mountaintop. God committed himself unreservedly, unalterably, to

being in relationship with his chosen people. God’s gracious decision for Israel called forth their

answering response of faith, hope and love—which is still the basis for our whole life with God and

with one another.

Here too is a call that constantly comes to the 21st century church. In our well-meaning efforts to

serve faithfully and effectively, we can start thinking that the church is our “project.” But it’s not! The

church is always God’s gratuitous gift to us and to the world, grounded in God’s fierce determination

to be our God–to keep announcing God’s promises that establish us, sustain us, and move us

forward in God’s mission. God is with us for the long haul, and that is enough!

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4) The journey transforms both the people and their God

A lot can happen during forty years of traveling–as we read about in the books of Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers and Deuteronomy. The journey made a deep and enduring impression on God’s people; it

solidified their identity as a nation.

But as often happens in long family trips, the travelers got on each other’s nerves. The Israelites

complained repeatedly, lost faith, and stretched God’s patience to the breaking point. In Exodus 32,

following the golden calf incident at Mt. Sinai, God was ready to wipe out the Israelites and start

fresh just with Moses and his offspring—to make of them a new “chosen people” (Exodus 32:10).

But Moses argued persuasively with God, on behalf of the people of Israel (read about it inExodus

32:11-13).

And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people… Exodus 32:14

The Book of Exodus, along with other portions of the Old Testament, challenges the notion that God

is impassive or aloof—an Unmoved Mover (as the philosopher Aristotle liked to say). Rather, God is

intimately connected with, and related to, the people of his choosing. God affects his people, and the

people affect God. In the depth of this relationship–slowly over time—the children of Israel learned

the rudiments of trust. They were transformed by God’s giving, guiding, chastening hand.

This month, on Ash Wednesday–February 22, 2012 we will begin another Lenten season. For forty

days (an echo of the forty years’ journey of the Exodus) we’ll reflect anew on God’s grace toward us,

God’s chastening of us, and the journey God is taking us on, with our Lord Jesus Christ. Use this

Lenten season to ponder your own congregation’s journey with God, how that journey has been

transforming you, and where God is leading you. Consider using the synod resource, Lent 2012: A

Season for Prayer and Renewal, Seeking a New Vision for our Congregation’s Purpose in God’s

Mission.

For reflection or group discussion:

1. “Bringing good out of evil,” is a theme we encounter throughout the Bible. How do you see God bringing good out of evil in the Exodus story? In your story? In your congregation’s story?

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2. Why is it so tempting to get lost in nostalgia for a “golden age” in the past? How does such nostalgia sometimes keep you or your congregation from moving ahead, into God’s future?

3. How are you (or your congregation) learning to trust God, one day at a time?

4. As a disciple of Jesus, what difference does it make to know that the church is God’s gracious gift—not our human “project?”

5. What is one way you and/or your congregation, during Lent 2012, might ponder the question: “Where are you leading us, Lord?”

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March: When We’d Rather Not Follow

Bible Study on the Book of Jonah

There’s a way of interpreting the story of ancient Israel—

through the lens of hindsight—that idealizes the early history

of God’s people when they were on the move, following God,

traveling through the wilderness. Conquering Canaan, settling

on the promised land, building towns and cities (abandoning

nomadic life), pining for the order and stability of life in a

kingdom—all of these next chapters in Israel’s history may

have represented progress as a nation. But they were also

fraught with temptations–idolatry and injustice being two of

the most dangerous ways God’s people repeatedly strayed.

To call his people back to their roots—when God alone was their king who saved them repeatedly

(cf. Psalm 74:12)—God sent prophets to his people, time and again. As John Drane observes, “A

prophet is commonly thought of as a person who predicts the future. But this was not the way the

great Hebrew prophets saw themselves. They were essentially God’s messengers, sent to remind

their people of the covenant made at Sinai….The were not fortune-tellers or psychics, but politicians

and preachers.”1

Although most of the prophets in the Old Testament were sent to God’s chosen people, some

prophets were sent into the wider world. A case in point is Jonah whose story is set in the 8th

century B.C. at a time when the Assyrian empire was growing in power and threatening the security

of Israel. Please read the whole Book of Jonah at one sitting (trust me, it will take only a few

minutes). We’ll explore Jonah as a drama, with four scenes.

Scene 1: Nineveh or Tarshish?

The Book of Jonah begins with the call of God to “Jonah son of Amittai” (Jonah 1:1). God has a

simple task for Jonah the prophet: “Go at once to Nineveh (the capital of the Assyrians)…and cry out

against it; for their wickedness has come up before me” (1:2)

1 John Drane, Introducing the Bible (Fortress, 2005), p. 137

http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/4817/Introducing-the-Bible-Second-Edition

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God dispatches Jonah eastward, to Nineveh. But Jonah thinks to himself, “Tarshish—Tarshish must

be lovely this time of the year.” He boards a boat that will take him across the Mediterranean

Sea westward to Tarshish (probably in modern-day Spain).

Most of God’s messengers resist doing what God asks of them, at least at first. They come up with

all sorts of excuses. Jonah, though, is perhaps the most blatant of these prophets-on-the-run; he

actually imagines that by sailing to Tarshish, he can escape “the presence of the Lord” (1:3).

Reflect: In your own life of faith, have you tried running away from “the presence of the Lord?” When has that happened? Why did you run? And how did that work out for you? God isn’t in the habit of accepting “No” from those whom he calls. So, as soon as Jonah’s little ship

sets sail God hurls “a great wind upon the sea” (1:4). The crew of the boat try everything they can

think of— even prayer to their various gods—to keep the ship afloat. Finally it comes out that Jonah

and his attempt to run from God are the problem. Jonah assures his ship-mates that if they just toss

him into the sea, all will be well. Reluctantly, they do what Jonah asks of them, “and the sea ceased from its raging” (1:15). The pagan sailors, by the way, appear to become followers of the

God of Israel, right on the spot!

Scene II: In the Belly of the Beast

Reflect: Why is it that we often have to be brought low, in the belly of the beast, before we “remember the Lord?” C.S. Lewis said that “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: [Pain] is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” How have you experienced that in your own life or in the lives of people you know? Jonah almost seemed relieved when the sailors tossed him into the sea. He was going to die, but at

least he wouldn’t have to go to Nineveh. Imagine his horror when, instead of sinking like a rock, he

was gobbled up by a large fish in whose stomach he spent the next three days and nights!

This is the part of the story we probably know best. As little kids we first learned this as the story of

“Jonah and the whale.” But the large fish is more than a fantastical element in a yarn. It is pivotal for

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Jonah’s own development as a follower of the Lord. Not until this scene does it dawn on Jonah that

fleeing from the presence of the Lord isn’t really an option. Jonah finally opens himself up to God—

praying to God as fervently as the pagan sailors prayed to their gods in Scene One.

What appears at first to be “sudden death” in the jaws of a sea monster turns out to be Jonah’s

turnaround moment. His prayer is really a psalm of deliverance that he’d never have uttered had he

stayed safely on dry land. Jonah needed to confront his rebellion and the death he deserved. Only

then, in Jonah’s own words, “as my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord…” (2:7).

Scene III: About-Face

Vomited by the large fish on the same shore where his sea excursion began, wiping off the slime

and gastric juices, Jonah hears the Word of the Lord a second time: “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you” (3:2).

Reflect: What’s God up to here? How could a message calculated to fail achieve such astonishing success? Has this sort of thing ever happened in your life or in your congregation? So Jonah does an about-face, away from Tarshish in the west, toward Nineveh in the east. He

is obedient this time, though hardly overjoyed by the prospect of preaching in Nineveh.

So he sets out to do as bad a job as he could. Jonah walks only a third of the way into Nineveh and

proclaims one brief sentence in his own Hebrew tongue (no interpreter!) His message is pure,

unadulterated doom and gloom: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3:4).

Having done his duty, Jonah turns on his heels and leaves town.

But Jonah’s halfhearted effort is met by a wholehearted response from the Ninevites. His message

“goes viral” with the result that everyone believes in God, fasted, and dons the clothes of mourning.

From the king down to the livestock, every creature in Nineveh repents. Talk about an “about-face!”

Jonah does an about-face. Every creature in Nineveh does an about-face. And God does an about-

face:

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When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. Jonah 3:10

Scene IV: Begrudging God’s Generosity

You’d think that the story of Jonah would conclude with this happy ending. But Jonah was anything

but happy. Here we finally learn why Jonah tried to avoid Nineveh in the first place! Jonah suspected

all along that God would finagle a way to show mercy to the Ninevites, sworn enemies of Jonah’s

people of Israel.

Reflect: How do you feel about God’s preference for showing mercy? Who do you find it difficult to forgive? What’s your congregation’s track record when it comes to showing mercy to the undeserving? So, harboring the hope that Nineveh still might be destroyed (as Jonah proclaimed it would!), he sits

and waits outside the city, to see if fire and brimstone might still rain down from heaven. As Jonah

languishes in the hot sun God causes a wondrous bush to grow quickly and give Jonah shade.

Then, just as suddenly, God “appoints” (4:7) a worm to attack the bush, causing it to wither. On the

verge of sunstroke, Jonah prays one last time—prays that he might die. Why? Because he doesn’t

want to go on living in a world where God spares the evil from what they’ve got coming.

Here, finally, we see Jonah’s true colors. He tried every trick in the book to thwart God’s grace, even

though Jonah knew that he is “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (4:2).

But we also see God’s true colors. The emergence of the bush, along with its sudden

disappearance, was all God’s work—Jonah didn’t deserve the shade it provided, if only for a day.

Using the “parable” of the bush, God confronted Jonah with one final question:

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Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals? Jonah 4:11

God has never reneged on his promise to Abraham and Sarah, that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). God is not the tribal deity of a solitary nation; as Jonah

himself confesses, the Lord is “the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land”(1:9).

God will have mercy upon whomever God wishes to show mercy!

Who are we to begrudge God’s generosity?

For reflection and discussion

If you’re using this Bible study for church council “dwelling in the Word” time, I suggest that everyone

be asked to read the Book of Jonah and the Bible study—and ponder the reflection questions

above prior to the council meeting. During the council meeting itself, invite discussion around just

two more questions:

1. What is God revealing to us (as a council) through the Book of Jonah?

2. What is God calling our congregation to be and to do?

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April: Toward a Church That’s All About “Going”

Bible Study on Matthew 28:16-20

Based on a message Bp. Wohlrabe delivered at a Joint Lenten Service sponsored by the ELCA

Congregations of Fergus Falls

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ Matthew 28:16-20

Coming to Church

I grew up in a church that was all about “coming.”2

Whatever kind of question or longing or concern you might have could be addressed if you would

simply come—come to church. Church was a place where you came to learn about Jesus, where

you came to get close to God and your fellow Christians, where you came for the “straight scoop”

about all the big religious questions, where you came to be nourished with God’s Word and

Sacraments so that you could face all the ups and downs of life.

This church of my youth—which was all about “coming”, coming to church, coming to God—this

church worked best for those who were already part of it. In fact, we regularly thought of this church

as our church, a church that sturdy, no-nonsense German Lutherans– “our kind of people”–had built

and sustained.

It’s not that others weren’t welcome. Far from it! Among many other good things we were doing—we

were a church that engaged in “mission work,” especially in far-off parts of the world where folks very

2 I’m indebted to Pr. Stephen McKinley who wrote the popular “Pastor Loci” column in the dear-departed Lutheran Partners magazine, for the language of a “coming” and “going” church.

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different from us hadn’t yet heard of Jesus. We sent brave missionaries to those exotic places so

that they could invite people to come—to come to Jesus, to come to faith, to come to church. We

gave some of our money so that churches could be started in those far-flung corners of the world so

that Christians would have some place to come, too.

Closer to home, we honestly weren’t aware that we might have near-neighbors who didn’t know

about Jesus. In my little town in southern Minnesota everyone came to a church (or so we thought).

If newcomers showed up in town they certainly were welcome to come to our church. We even left

the doors to the church building unlocked on Sunday mornings. If they really wanted to come to our

church, no one would stop them. Shoot! We might even make space for them in one of the pews that

weren’t already taken by some of our long-time, faithful church members.

I grew up in a church that was all about “coming,” and perhaps you did, too. I am thankful for

this church of my youth. It’s where faith was planted and nurtured in my life. I’m glad I came to

church as a boy; it’s become a habit I haven’t yet broken.

I grew up in a church that was all about “coming.”

Going As Church

Today, I am growing into a church that is all about “going.” This “going” church feels a lot messier than the

church I grew up in. Things aren’t all buttoned up and nailed

down. There is more movement in this “going” church….it’s a

much more mobile and portable and (at times) chaotic than

the church I grew up in.

This “going” church isn’t so much a place as it is

a movement. Hard to capture it in a snapshot—the church

I’m growing into is best imagined in moving pictures,

testimonies, interviews with real live people…because this

“going” church is a people more than it is a place. And

these people are going somewhere, somewhere where Jesus already has gone, somewhere where

God is leading them to go.

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This church of today is less defined by what happens in just one place. It is more about how the

people who gather together every week are scattered into the mission field that is all around them.

Ideally, this church is aimed at those who AREN’T already part of it!

The church into which I am growing is a going church that continually sends people like me into the

world to carry Christ and to be Christ wherever life takes us. “Mission” isn’t one of many extra-

curricular activities of the church. No–“mission” is the flaming center of this church.

Today’s “going” church doesn’t just leave the door unlocked on Sunday mornings, in the hope that

some stranger will happen by and enter. Today’s “going” church goes to, intentionally seeks folks

who haven’t yet heard the gospel in a believable way. Through words and deeds and simply by

“being” the Body of Christ in the world, this church goes to whomever Christ is beckoning us,

whether that person is a near-neighbor or someone who lives far away.

Many of us grew up in a church that was all about “coming.” But we’re growing into a church

that is all about “going.” And we believe that this isn’t just a fad that will be popular for a while before

it fades away. We believe that this is actually a return to the church God always intended us to be.

Jesus’ First Word

Because after his resurrection, the Risen and Living Lord Jesus’ first word was: “Go!” “Go therefore

and make disciples of all nations.” Be and bring forth a church that will be all about going.

And this isn’t just a demand Jesus lays on us. It is an energizing invitation to be about what Jesus

himself has always been about. We are growing into a church that’s all about going because we

belong to a God who is all about going.

The God we meet in the Bible is a traveling God, don’t you know? Not enthroned, aloof, out of touch. God is always on the go throughout the scriptures. God walks with our first parents in the

Garden. God accompanies Abraham and Sarah to a land he would show them. God escapes Egypt

with Moses and the Hebrew slaves. God leads Joshua into the promised land. God sojourns with

prophets, priests and kings.

And when the moment was right God went into the world—intimately, personally—in the flesh and

blood of Jesus.

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Jesus, who had no place to rest his weary head, was always on the go, forever gathering up a

people who would be on the go with him. Jesus was always moving—healing diseases, casting out

devils, throwing parties for sinners, confronting opponents, recklessly proclaiming God’s rule over all

things, marching into the palaces of worldly power, trudging to the Cross, entering the grave, and on

Easter morning getting up and going once again.

Our Lord Jesus calls us to be a going church, not to be something he is not, but to fall in step

with him, the Going One, who is always going ahead of us, piecing back together the whole creation,

aligning heaven and earth, beckoning us forward into God’s future.

Tempted to Turn Back

I recently saw a great bumper sticker that read: “Don’t look back. You aren’t going that way!” If Jesus

drove a car, that could have been his bumper sticker.

Now at first blush, this sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it!? We’re not a bunch of sticks-in-the mud.

We’re a church that’s all about going.

But chew on that a while, and questions will start to pop up. It’s not easy, after all, to take a church

and put wheels under it….to take a comfortable, settled people and make them mobile, send them

out, have them go where Jesus is going.

For centuries, you see, we’ve been trying to get the church put together, nailed down, grounded,

stable, secure. And now we’re supposed to pry all that loose and have the church “go mobile?”

Really, now??

This “church on the go” sounds messy and downright scary. Because if Jesus bids us go

where he has gone…to move where Jesus wants us to be….we could find ourselves in a heap of

trouble.

Recently I read a new book entitled Simply Jesus. The author, N.T. Wright, declared that “the story

of ‘how Jesus became king’…across the world [as related to us in the Book of Acts]…is anything but

the smooth, triumphant process of a conquering worldly monarch, obliterating the opposition by the

normal military methods. The methods of kingdom work are in accordance with the message of

Jesus as king: that is, they involve suffering, misunderstanding, violence, execution, and in the final

spectacular scene [at the end of the Book of Acts]…shipwreck.” (pp. 200-201).

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Ponder that long enough, and we might get cold feet. We might retreat behind the walls of our well-

insured church buildings. We might prefer being a church that’s all about “coming,” being at the

center, getting folks to come to us and adopt our ways and be just like us.

We might look back and think about where we’ve been and say: “Let’s just try to be that kind of a

church again—all buttoned up, nailed down, safe and secure.”

But remember that bumper sticker on the back of Jesus’ car: “Don’t look back. You aren’t going that

way.” For if it’s Jesus we’re following….our noses will always be pointed toward his future, toward

God’s tomorrow, toward which our Lord Jesus, in the power of his resurrection said this word first:

therefore and make disciples of all nations.”


1. Was the church of your youth primarily a “coming” church or a “going” church? Or was it both?

2. Where is your church on the “coming” and “going” continuum right now?

3. What energizes you about becoming more of a “going” church? What concerns you about making this transition?

4. Where and to whom is God calling your congregation to go today?

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May: Traveling Through Samaria

When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him… Luke 9:51-53a

If in his time on earth Jesus had ever filled out an IRS Form 1040, what occupation might he have

listed, right behind his signature, on the bottom of page 2? “Son of God?” “Long-Expected Messiah?”

“Savior of the World?”

Any of those responses would have been accurate, of course. But, they’d never have “registered”

with the Roman empire’s tax authorities. I think something more on the order of “itinerant preacher”

or “traveling healer” might have made the most sense. Whoever Jesus was, whatever Jesus did, he was always on the move.

Traveling Man

Although there’s a hint in Mark 2:1 that Jesus had a home

in Capernaum, his ministry seems to have been

described best by his stark contention that “Foxes have

holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man

has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus was,

in short, a traveling man.

And that was true from the very beginning of his time on earth. Jesus was born while Mary and

Joseph were away from their home (Nazareth), having traveled under orders to their ancestral

village, Bethlehem. Matthew’s gospel tells us that because of the treachery of King Herod, his

parents had to flee to Egypt when Jesus was merely an infant (Matthew 2:14-15). The lone scriptural

story we have of Jesus’ childhood occurs in the context of his family’s annual pilgrimage from

Nazareth to Jerusalem, for the Passover (Luke 2:41-51).

From the very beginning, to the very end of Jesus’ earthly story, as related to us via the four gospels,

he was on the move. Jesus’ life was not a settled existence of comfort and ease. Jesus had places

to go, people to see, his Father’s will to accomplish, God’s rescue mission to pursue. Jesus didn’t

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wait for life to come to him; he was forever going out to meet whatever or whoever was on his path.

So the story of Jesus’ life, as the gospels tell it, has a breathless, constantly changing quality to it.

The pace of Mark’s gospel (which we’re focusing on this year in our lectionary) is especially

relentless and fast-moving. “Immediately” is one of Mark’s favorite vocabulary words!

Jesus travels to the Jordan for his baptismal “inauguration” in ministry, then treks into the wilderness

to be tempted for 40 days and nights, then begins three years of perambulating ministry—never

staying any one place for long, always feeling the tug of the Cross, eager for the dramatic final leg of

the journey. Along the way Jesus gathers followers who—literally (but also metaphorically) follow

him—trace his steps, travel where Jesus travels, on the move with their traveling Master.

The Gospels as Travel Narratives

This gives a “travel narrative” quality to the four gospels. The evangelists (writers/editors of the

gospels) even use this on-the-move character of Jesus’ life and ministry as a principle of organizing

and interpreting Jesus’ teaching, preaching healing, saving activities. As this happens, implications

are constantly drawn out for the continuing faithful lives of all Christ’s followers, in every time and

place.

In his book, Tell It Slant (2008, Eerdmans)3 Eugene Peterson points out that the center of Luke’s

gospel is an extended travel narrative (Luke 9:51-19:44) in which Jesus and his followers leave the

familiarity of Galilee (in the north) in order to spend significant time moving through the unfamiliar

territory of Samaria (in the middle) before the final chapter of Jesus’ story unfolds in Jerusalem (in

the south).

Peterson finds significance in the fact that so many of Jesus’ greatest parables and teachings on

prayer are “located” in this Samaritan portion of the journey. “It is while traveling through

Samaria…that Jesus takes the time to tell stories that prepare his followers to bring the ordinariness

of their lives into conscious awareness and participation in this kingdom life.” (pp. 15-16). Peterson

finds two things especially intriguing in this Travel Narrative:

First, it deals with what takes place ‘in between’ the focused areas of Jesus’ life and ministry, Galilee and Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples are traveling through the unfamiliar and uncongenial country of Samaria…(which) is not home

3 Eugene H. Peterson, Tell it Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers, Eerdmans, 2008

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ground to Jesus and his companions….They don’t know these people and have little in common with them….[Jesus and company] are outsiders to this country and this people. (p. 17)

Implications for Our Traveling

Peterson perceives an analogy here between the Samaritan part of Jesus’ journey and the portion of

our faith-journeys that happens “between Sundays,” i.e. in between our weekly “set-aside, protected

time[s] and place[s] for prayer and prayerful listening among men and women who are ‘on our side.’”

In fact, most of our lives of discipleship play out during the other six days of each week, away from

the church building, sort of like traveling through Samaria. The gathered church that we experience

on Sundays lives out most of its days as the scattered church in the world during the remainder of

each week. “We spend most of our time with people who are not following Jesus as we have been,

who do not share our assumptions and beliefs and convictions regarding God and his kingdom.” (p.

17)

The second thing that intrigues Peterson about Luke’s long Travel Narrative “is how frequently Jesus

tells stories, the mini-stories we name parables.” Why is this significant? It’s because the parable, “is

a way of saying something that requires the imaginative participation of the listener….a

parable involves the hearer.” Moreover, Jesus’ parables in the Travel Narrative are not

overtly religious in their language or focus. “They are stories about farmers and judges and victims,

about coins and sheep and prodigal sons, about wedding banquets, building barns and towers and

going to war, a friend who wakes you in the middle of the night to ask for a loaf of bread, the

courtesies of hospitality, crooks and beggars, fig trees and manure” (p. 19)

Peterson perceives a mission strategy in Jesus’ preference for story-telling while traveling through

Samaria. “Samaritans, then and now, have centuries of well-developed indifference, if not outright

aversion, to God-language—at least the kind used by synagogue and church people….So, as Jesus

goes through Samaria he is very restrained in his use of explicit God-language….Jesus circles

around his listeners’ defenses. He tells parables. A parable keeps the message at a distance, slows

down comprehension, blocks automatic prejudicial reactions, dismantles stereotypes. A parable

comes up on the listener obliquely, on the ‘slant’” (p. 20).4

4 This explains the title of Peterson’s book, Tell it Slant.

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There are profound implications here as we live out our own Travel Narratives as disciples of Jesus.

As we achingly seek out ways of sharing Christ with those (“Samaritans”) around us, might we not

discover that engaging stories will usually be more winsome than compelling arguments? (Please

tell me: How likely is it that we will argue anyone into the Kingdom of God?) In our own Monday

through Saturday journeying—in which we can’t always presume a shared God-story with the

“Samaritans” around us— how might we cultivate Jesus’ art of spinning yarns (parables) that crack

open the Good News in fresh ways?

A Church That’s Going Mobile

This month’s Bible study, as you may have noticed, reiterates themes from last month’s Bible

study, Toward a Church That’s All About ‘Going’. One of the biggest challenges before us, it seems

to me, is this: “How do we jack up the church and put wheels under it?” How is God un-settling

us in order to equip us for “going mobile” with the Good News of Jesus Christ?

If the church is the only Body the Risen One still has in this world—ought we not pay closer attention

to how Jesus himself lived in this world? As we do so, we will notice, time and again, how Jesus was

always on the move. He did not wait for people to come to him; he was always heading out and

meeting someone new, wading into the muck and mud of life, walking right up to hard questions and

prickly controversies. This Traveling Man still calls us to be a traveling church, does he not?


1. What strikes you about the notion that Jesus was primarily a “traveling man?”

2. How is it for you, “traveling through Samaria” each week? What is it like for you, living alongside folks who may not share your commitment to following Jesus?

3. Why might stories (parables) be more effective than arguments, in sharing Christ with others?

4. What are some of the reasons why it’s so challenging to “jack up the church and put wheels under it?”

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June: Jesus Leads and Sends Followers

Bible Study on Luke 10:1-9

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

In last month’s Bible study we saw how Jesus’

whole life and ministry was marked by purposeful

movement. Jesus’ life on earth was not a settled

existence of comfort and ease. Jesus had places

to go, people to see, his Father’s will to

accomplish, God’s rescue mission to pursue.

Jesus didn’t wait for life to come to him; he was

forever going out to meet whatever or whoever

was on his path.

There’s just one thing, though. Jesus refused to travel alone! All four of the gospels tell us that

very early in his earthly ministry, Jesus found traveling companions and invited them to accompany

him on his journey.

Jesus’ decision to share his journey wasn’t motivated by a fear of loneliness. Jesus was about

person-to-person ministry, the Good News had to be shared. This would be how Jesus would re-

constitute the people of Israel, with twelve followers (who echoed the twelve tribes of Israel.) Jesus

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had a plan in view: those who started out following Jesus would eventually be sent by Jesus, to

continue Jesus’ ministry.

The company Christ-followers actually numbered more than twelve, though. This story of the

Sending of the Seventy in Luke 10 has become one of my favorite guiding lights in God’s Word. It is

truly a touchstone for the mission-driven church of the 21st century.

This narrative, at first blush, seems so foreign to us, with its stark instructions for a strike force of 70

ambassadors who fan out across the countryside, all of them on foot, to prepare the way for Jesus’

own itinerant ministry. It seems odd, even exotic, to imagine persons traveling swiftly in such

Spartan fashion. Even if we wanted to, you and I could never do that, could we? Heading out with

just the clothes on our backs and counting on strangers to take us in—who would attempt a journey

like that in this time and place?

And yet as odd and as far-removed as it seems to be from the world in which we live, there is also a

striking immediacy to this gospel story. Although our context may have changed, our calling has not.

God invites us to announce and enact God’s rule over all things—the gracious and gentle rule

begun, continued and brought to fruition in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. As

we follow in the footsteps of the seventy disciples here in Luke 10, we will pay attention to three

surprises in this story.

Surprise #1: The Outcome is Assured

First, there is the up-front assurance of a bountiful harvest. True to form—for that is how God always

operates–the promise is central here. It comes first, before anything else. “The harvest is plentiful,”

Jesus declares.

Isn’t that just like him? Jesus leads with a promise, just as God is forever uttering promises—before

we can even get a word in edgewise. The promise leads the way: the harvest is plentiful. You

need to know that. Before you venture out into the field—trust in this fact: it’s going to be a bumper crop! God has decided that. And so you can count on it to be true.

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I grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, and one thing I

remember from those farming years is that we knew how

the harvest turned out only after every last ear of corn,

every last bushel of grain was safely tucked away in the

granary. Until that point, until the combines had scoured

every acre, until you were deep into autumn—not until

every last threat to the crop had passed away, not until the

last minute of the whole “gathering in” business, could

anyone say: “The harvest was plentiful.”

But that is not how God operates. That is not how Jesus does business. God in Jesus Christ always

leads with the promise, and here the promise is that there are all sorts of persons out there with ears for the gospel. There is no shortage—absolutely no lack—of potential disciples, followers and

believers. God isn’t stingy in any of that, and that is a promise we can count on as we serve God’s

mission in this time and place.

But it gets even better. If, by God’s grace, the harvest is plentiful, gathering it in doesn’t’ depend

solely on our good intentions or best efforts. Our personal warmth, our pleasant personalities, our

eloquence, our hard work—God will use all of those gifts. But the harvest doesn’t depend on any of

them. In fact, more often than not God will succeed despite our best efforts.

Surprise #2: We Can Travel Light

The second surprise in this narrative of the Sending of the Seventy is the freedom Jesus gives us, to

travel as lightly as possible.

Such advice flies in the face of how we normally prepare for a trip. Usually we think we must fill our

suitcases with everything we could possibly need and lug it all along with us.

In our life as the church there are plenty of folks out there who want to sell us oodles of plans,

caboodles of programs, 7-step approaches, and how-to guides for better, more faithful, more

effective ministry.

We’re tempted to load ourselves down with all that and more. Living in such an anxious age, we

naturally take steps to reduce our nervousness and uncertainty. We draw hard lines, we try to get

everyone lined up straight and moving in lockstep fashion, we feed our desire for uniformity on

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everything under the sun. Even we Lutherans (who, by rights, should know better!) add terms and

conditions and escape clauses to the simple Gospel of God’s gratuitous, overflowing love in Jesus

Christ the Crucified and Risen One.

One of the heaviest things we try to pack in our

suitcases is a load of expectations—expectations of

ourselves, of one another, and especially of our leaders.

Jesus’ instructions to the Seventy in Luke 10 is like a

liberating “reducing plan.” Jesus strips away the excess

baggage and returns us to the basic, the foundational,

the “one thing needful.”

When in doubt, give them Jesus. When expectations mount up like the Red River in spring flood

stage, give them Jesus. Shuck off all the flotsam and jetsam that piles up. Hone in on the only

essential thing. Proclaim Jesus, baptize in Jesus’ name, feed people on Jesus’ body and blood,

serve all people the way Jesus served—everything else is fine, but it’s window-dressing, really.

Jesus is who we need the most.

Surprise #3: Help Is Already Coming

Third, according to Luke 10, Christ’s followers can count on help along the way. Thank God, we’re

never alone in this adventure of serving God’s mission in the world.

That’s of course, why Jesus could send out the 70 emissaries in such Spartan fashion– no purse, no

bag, no sandals, no picnic baskets, no ATM cards, no GPS locators. Jesus sent them out with

virtually nothing because Jesus knew there would be persons along the way who would help

out. Simple as that.

Jesus sent out the seventy as lambs amidst wolves….and yet not everyone out there was a wolf.

There would be other lambs, there would be people of peace, and there would be hospitable hosts

who would receive them, shelter them, feed them, and perhaps even join forces with them.

What a welcome word for the missional church of the 21st century. Gone, thankfully, is the day when

we expect ourselves, not to mention our ministerial leaders, to “do it all.” Thirty-five years ago, when

I was just starting seminary, we were already kissing that tired old model for ministry goodbye. The

myth of the “omni-competent” pastor was starting to die, but it still had traction in many places.

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This is about more than preventing clergy burnout, though. It’s primarily about equipping the whole

people of God to take up their callings to serve God’s mission in the world. Over-functioning pastors

require under-functioning church members–but Jesus has a much better idea: a whole company of

disciples who pray, and study the Word, and worship, and bear witness, and give generously, and

serve their neighbors in countless ways….with pastors in the mix to tend the Word and Sacraments

for the nurturing and sustaining of all God’s baptized children.

Jesus’ vision, as he sends the Seventy, is so bracing here. Jesus perceives that there are more

allies out there than any of his seventy followers might imagine. Jesus could see this because he

wasn’t held back by our prejudices and hang-ups. We become focused on the sharp teeth of the

wolves—but Jesus sees life and energy and gifts for God’s work among folks who maybe don’t even

know they have it in them. Jesus expected the Seventy—Jesus expects you and me to form holy

partnerships for the sake of a sanctified synergy that will liberate everyone’s best gifts for ministry.


1. In your congregation or community, why is it hard to believe that “the harvest is plentiful?” What is Jesus seeing that you might be missing?

2. What is some “baggage” your congregation needs to get rid of, in order to “travel light,” as Jesus invites us to do? Hint: where in your congregation’s life are you held back by the “but we’ve always done it that way” syndrome?

3. Who are some of the “lambs” in your own mission field, who might join with you in serving God’s mission in Jesus Christ? Who are the folks you haven’t previously thought of as allies in serving God—persons who might turn out to be stellar co-workers in God’s kingdom?

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July: Jesus Leads us on the Way of the Cross

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Luke 9:51

In this series of Bible studies we’ve been pondering

what it means to follow a God who is always on the

move. We’ve focused on the One in whom we meet this

God right here on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus

was always on the move—frequently going wherever we

would prefer not to go.

In fact, as the four gospels unfold, we see this even more sharply and clearly. In short: Jesus moved determinedly toward death. We don’t do that. We avoid death, deny death, side-step death

at every turn. I’m not just talking about our own personal, individual deaths, either. We just as surely

avoid the “deaths” that happen in relationships, in our assumptions, in treasured institutions, in ways

of life, even in the forms of how we live together as Christ’s church. Our “default position” is to freeze

things in time and pray that nothing will ever change—about those realities or about ourselves.

Giving Life Away

We desperately want to hang on to what we have known and loved, what has worked in the past,

what we’ve always assumed must be true. “Change and decay in all around I see…” as the old

hymn puts it (ELW #629, “Abide With Me”).

Jesus didn’t do this. Clinging to life was not in Jesus’ game plan. On the contrary, Jesus taught and

lived a reckless abandonment of security and a continual giving up of life. Jesus embraced death. In

an astonishing way, Jesus lived his life by embracing his death.

Then (Jesus) said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. Luke 9:23-24

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This way of living has profound implications for our corporate life in the body of Christ, the church.

And we best ponder this all the days of our earthly lives—because living into Jesus’ amazing vision

represents such a radical break from life as we know it in this world. To say this somewhat

differently: taking Jesus seriously about “finding life by losing life” goes against the grain in every

aspect of church life.

So, I ask you to ponder questions like these:

• What is our congregation clinging to, even though it is no longer “working” or life-giving?

• How much time do we spend “living in the past,” versus “leaning into the future,” as a congregation?

• Where, in our congregation’s life and ministries, could we start giving our life away right now, right here, today? What would we lose? What might we gain?

Radical Honesty and Fearless Trust

How could Jesus live this way? Setting aside the obvious response (“Because he was Jesus, truly

God and truly human”), let me suggest two other responses:

1. Jesus could embrace death because he was radically honest about the fact that some things need to die. Some realities aren’t meant to have a future with us.

2. Jesus could give away his life because he fearlessly trusted his Father to set all things right. When Jesus, breathing his last on the cross, prayed: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” (Luke 23:46) Jesus wasn’t play-acting. That wasn’t just how Jesus died; it was how he lived his whole earthly life: trusting his Father implicitly in all things.

So, in Jesus we meet someone who was radically honest about our bondage to sin, death and the

power of the devil. Jesus knew and named the “curved-in-upon-ourselves” essence of sin (that’s

what was at the heart of Jesus’ confrontations with his opponents). Jesus repeatedly unmasked the

forces of evil that surround us (that’s what all the healings and exorcisms he performed were about).

Jesus boldly acknowledged the terror of death, but just as boldly unmasked death even as he

defeated death (that’s why Jesus defanged death by willingly embracing death, for us and our

salvation).

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Jesus could do all of this because he knew himself to be completely in God’s hands, at God’s

disposal in our world. Please don’t think of this as Jesus simply acting out his role in a drama, as if it

all was scripted ahead of time. Jesus experienced first-hand the terror of death—at Lazarus’ tomb

when Jesus wept aloud (John 11:35), in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus’ sweat drops of

blood—but rather than seeking an escape route, he entered the Dark Valley, for us and for our

salvation.

We see here more implications for our life and work in the Body of Christ, the church.

Ponder with me questions like these:

• What hard truths are we unwilling to face as a congregation?

• What is one area of our congregation’s life and ministry where a dose of radical honesty might open us up to more faithful and fruitful service to God and our neighbors?

• How is our congregation doing when it comes to living out of a fearless trust in God? What might we accomplish if we tossed caution to the wind and flung ourselves into God’s arms?

God Gets the Last Word

So Jesus willingly, freely follows his earthly life to its anticipated conclusion. Luke tells us memorably

that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) and all that awaited him there. Perhaps

you have noticed how the whole narrative slows down in the four gospels when we arrive at Holy

Week. It’s as if the gospel-writers want us not to miss anything, so they switch over to “slow motion”

mode on their video cameras.

Down through the centuries, Christians have detected, even in Holy Week, the

inexorable movement of our Lord Jesus toward his destination. One of the ways believers have

ritualized this is through our understanding of Jesus walking the Via Dolorosa (Latin for “Way of

Grief” or “Way of Suffering”). The Via Dolorosa is an actual street in the Old City of Jerusalem, held

to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. This winding route,

less than a half-mile long, is followed by Christian pilgrims to this day who pause at each of the

fourteen Stations of the Cross.

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But, please note, the Via Dolorosa does not end at the place of crucifixion. It ends at the Church of

the Holy Sepulcher (tomb), where the death and burial of Jesus is overcome by the Easter

proclamation: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5).

Jesus embraced death, because he knew that as fearful as death seems, it’s not all that it’s cracked

up to be. Death is no match for the God of both Good Friday and Easter. God isn’t going to let a little thing like death stand in the way of God’s promises to us. In Jesus we always have reason

to hope.

Again, I wonder about implications for the life of the body of Christ in our congregations. I wonder,

specifically, who or what usually gets “the last word” in our congregations. Too often I suspect that

fear or nostalgia or prejudice, in some way or shape or form, gets the last word with us. We sense

God leading us to a new, unfamiliar place or person or ministry—but we lose heart and are reluctant

to go. Someone other than God gets the last word.

So I ask you to ponder these questions:

• When your congregation is perplexed or in turmoil or pondering a major decision, who (or what) usually gets “the last word?”

• If Jesus is risen from the dead, nevermore to die again, what are we afraid of in this time and place?

• How might we tune our ears to hear more often, more compellingly, God’s “last word” to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

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August: The Risen One: Always Out Ahead of Us

But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you. Mark 16:7

When someone wins a race, they often take a

victory lap. Or they stick around the finish line for

some photo-ops, to receive the cheers and hugs

of their fans, maybe even to sign an autograph or

two.

But here, at the Resurrection Finish Line, Jesus is nowhere to be seen. Mark 16 does not show

Jesus taking a victory lap around the cemetery or pausing for a rest break after the torture of Holy

Week. In fact, in none of the four gospel accounts of the resurrection do we encounter a triumphant

Jesus meeting his followers in the Tomb.

Quite the contrary: Jesus’ grave is utterly empty on Easter Sunday, because Jesus is long gone

from the place of death. He is on his way to Galilee, the place of mission, where he conducted so

much of his earthly ministry.

This is astonishing, isn’t it? The Risen Christ doesn’t turn his grave-site into a shrine (complete with

entrance fee and gift shop!) He doesn’t park himself there like a guru, ready to impart deep wisdom

to wandering pilgrims. That’s because the Resurrection is so much more that a continuation of

“business as usual” (with passages like Paul’s amazing resurrection chapter I Corinthians 15 giving

us a glimpse of this fact!)

An Open Future

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means that everything has changed. The whole creation is

undergoing an extreme makeover. God is reclaiming heaven and earth and all who dwell therein.

The future—rather than being filled with fear and foreboding—is now marvelously open.

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Reflect: Are we able to drink this in? Do we reflect regularly on what this means for our future and the future of God’s people in our community of faith? This open future is entirely in God’s hands, and as a token of that fact the Risen One doesn’t dilly-

dally in the place of death. Resurrection means up and out—up from the grave, and out into a

renewed mission field–all because the future belongs to God who at the Cross has won the victory

over all his foes.

More specifically: do you imagine yourself (and your congregation) as living within a closed system

with a fearful, uncertain future or an open system with an open, hopeful future? As I travel around

our synod and sit with God’s people, particularly leaders of congregations, I am struck by how closed

or “stuck” we often are as we ponder decisions about the future. It’s as if our default position is to

view everything in terms of constricted either-or thinking, as if there were at most only two possible

solutions to every challenge.

This is closed-system thinking. It is thinking in terms of Good Friday, not Easter. But the God who

raised Jesus from the dead is far more imaginative and hopeful—and he invites us into the open-

system of his Resurrection future.

On the Road With the Risen One

What does this look like, though? We catch a tantalizing glimpse of that in the beloved story of the

Road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35. (Please take some moments to read this passage before

proceeding with this Bible study.)

I find in this text a profound parable for Resurrection life in Christ’s church of every time and place.

As we take careful notice of what Jesus the Risen One is up to we receive one of our best tutorials in

what it means to live as Easter people:

First of all,

watch closely who the Risen Jesus spends time with after he escapes from the Empty Tomb. The Risen Jesus hangs out with seekers and searchers. He goes looking for doubters, walks

with the confused, takes time to listen to skeptics.

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Reflect: How might your congregation best walk with persons who find it hard to believe the gospel? I love how this Emmaus road story begins. It starts with two bewildered disciples “getting out of

Dodge” on the first Easter Sunday, leaving Jerusalem to travel to nearby Emmaus—trying to figure

out all the things that have happened to Jesus in the preceding week.

And as they walk, a stranger falls into step with them, asking questions, listening to what they have

to say—hearing them, really hearing them—not just the words that they speak but the deep

emotions that engulf those words.

Imagine that. Jesus who knows better than anyone how the story ends—Jesus doesn’t just blurt out

what he understands. Jesus doesn’t butt in and take over the conversation. No. Rather, he walks, he

asks questions, he listens FIRST.

Living in the open-system of the Resurrection future, our congregations can be places where

skeptics get their doubts out in the open. As we follow our Risen Lord toward God’s future, we will

not shy away from earnest seekers. Rather, we will treasure them, make room for them, open up

safe spaces for them to “scratch the itch” that stands between them and faith.

Second,

as Jesus moves ahead in the power of the Resurrection, he immerses his traveling companions in the promises of God, as conveyed in the Scriptures. Think about it: the Risen

Jesus leads Bible study! He interprets current events in light of ancient texts to point persons toward

God’s future.

…Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. Luke 24:27

As we move toward God’s Resurrection future, we too will take our cues from the Scriptures,

drenching ourselves in the world of the Bible, developing among ourselves a fluency in “Biblese” as

if it truly were not our second lanuage, but our first language.

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Reflect: How does your congregation open up the Scriptures for hungry seekers?

Third,

just as he did in his earthly ministry, the Risen Jesus lets his actions do the talking. In

addition to cracking open the scriptures for them, the Risen Jesus grants the two disciples, after they

arrive in Emmaus, an experience of his real presence. So, when evening comes “[Jesus] took bread,

blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…”

(Luke 24:30-31)

Jesus speaks the Word, but he also does the Word with a loaf and a cup. Communities of faith living

in the open system of the Resurrection continue this pattern: wedding syllables to elements,

message to means, word to sacrament.

Reflect: How does your congregation’s sacramental life reflect the fact that you are following the Risen Jesus toward God’s future?

Fourth,

as a result of rubbing elbows with Jesus, persons are transformed. Persons don’t stay

“onlookers” or “inquirers.” The Risen Jesus offers a new way of life that is simply contagious. Others

get caught up in the excitement—others put their own running shoes on and get moving with Jesus.

Even though darkness has fallen and the two disciples intended to turn in for the night— even

though the road between Emmaus and Jerusalem was hardly safe—the two disciples cannot contain

themselves. They don their traveling clothes, strap on their sandals and hasten all the way back into

Jerusalem yet that evening—because something has happened to them. They have been altered,

changed. They aren’t the same “sad sacks” they were earlier in the day.

So also,

we today expect the Risen Jesus to make a difference in people’s lives. We regularly expect to

hear about change, transformation, and a growing reliance on God’s sheer grace. One of the most

encouraging things I’m hearing about is the number of congregations in our synod that are finding

ways to welcome ordinary Christians into the ministry of giving testimony to what God is doing in

their lives.

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Reflect: How does your congregation notice and celebrate the present-day activity of God in the lives of your fellow church members and friends? The Risen Lord didn’t hang around his Tomb, he didn’t take a Victory Lap around the graveyard,

because he had places to go—and he insists on taking you and me along with him. There are all

sorts of destinations, all sorts of endpoints in this Resurrection marathon Jesus is now running—and

he bids us run with him, travel with him, work with him and thereby announce his victory.

This is the life that has become yours in Jesus the Risen One. Because of the Resurrection,

everything has changed—God is making all things new (Rev. 21:5), including you and your

congregation. And God invites us all to envision life—no longer in a closed, futureless Good Friday

world–but in the wondrously open circle of Resurrection Life, in Christ Jesus.

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September: Disciples Become Apostles

Bible Study on Acts

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

So, as we saw in last month’s Bible study, the Risen Christ doesn’t hang around the place of his

temporary burial following Good Friday. Jesus the Living One has places to go, people to see, a

world to capture with the astonishing news of God’s victory at the Cross.

But in the first chapter of the Book of Acts the disciples

encounter a sharp curve in the road. Having broken

free from the grave, having returned to Galilee—the

place of mission—the Risen Christ takes his followers

by surprise. While he was speaking with them “he was

lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”(Acts

1:9)

Jesus’ Ascension stops his followers dead in their tracks—mouths agape, staring off into the

stratosphere. What now?

The disciples might have stood there forever, dumbfounded by the Ascended Jesus’s unexpected

departure. But fortunately two men in white appeared, snapping them out of their momentary stupor:

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up

from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

So Jesus was still alive, still out ahead of his followers, but no longer with his feet planted on the

earth, at least for a time. Ascension would not be the end of it all. Jesus would return one final time,

to complete all things and make the whole creation new.

But what were Jesus’ followers to do in the meantime?

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No Time for Distractions!

One thing the disciples were not to do was to get lost in speculation about the whys and wherefores

of Jesus’ subsequent return. Jesus himself called that a dead end.

It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. Acts 1:7 (emphasis added)

Despite the crystal clarity of the Risen Christ on this subject, generations of his followers have

ignored his teaching. As recently as last year, a radio “evangelist” Harold Camping predicted Christ’s

final coming on May 21, 2011 at 6 p.m. sharp. All over the world billboards were put up, possessions

were sold, “Rapture” sermons were delivered and “Left Behind” parties were planned. And, of

course, our Lord didn’t return on Mr. Camping’s timetable.

Reflect: How does your community in Christ sometimes become distracted from what matters most to God?

There is a genuine issue at stake here, though. We long for God’s final purposes to be achieved. We

ache for God toconsummate all of God’s saving work. All Christians affirm the final word about Jesus

in the Apostles’ Creed, that “he will come again, to judge the living and the dead.”

But how and where and when exactly will that happen? Jesus’ clearest answer is: “No one knows.

Not the angels in heaven. Not even the Son. Only the Father knows….and he isn’t telling!” (Matthew

24:36) Speculating about matters that are “beyond us” will only distract us from what matters most to

God.

Truth be told, we 21st century disciples still get distracted by other things—end of the world

speculating, moralizing about other people’s behaviors, arguing over church politics. We can

become so distracted by other, lesser things that we miss the Main Thing, which is sharing Christ.

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The Way Ahead

It is way above our pay grade to know all the details of Christ’s final coming. So we would be wise to

focus on other things. And fortunately here in Acts 1 Jesus tells us what those other things happen

to be.

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:6-8

It’s not for us to peer into God’s heavenly timetable. But what we can do is bear witness here and

now in this world.

Jesus paints a picture of how that would play out for his first disciples. Picture it as a series of

concentric circles. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” Jesus

declares, “and you will be my witnesses

• in Jerusalem,

• in all Judea and Samaria, and

• to the ends of the earth.”

It all starts where it all started for Jesus, in Jerusalem, where the Cross was raised up on the city’s

garbage heap and where the crucified Jesus was raised up three days later. Jesus says: “start here,

in Jerusalem, then move on out to the first ring of witness, Judea and Samaria. Walk where I

walked, and then keep on moving out to the ends of the earth.”

This is, in fact, exactly what unfolds in the Book of Acts. With the ascended Jesus no longer bound

to a single spot on earth, he now lives and moves in and through the community of disciples that bears his name. Their communal life mirrors remarkably the life of the earthly Jesus:

• By calling Matthias to replace the traitor Judas, they reconstitute the Twelve followers whom Jesus first called (Acts 1:12-26)

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• They are “baptized” by the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River, claiming his identity as God’s beloved, chosen one (Acts 2:1-21)

• The disciples proclaim God’s in-breaking Rule, as boldly as Jesus did, drawing thousands into the community of Christ (Acts 2:22-47).

• They continue Jesus’ redemptive ministry of healing (Acts 3). • They stand up before opponents—the same Council that condemned Jesus—and testify fearlessly to Christ (Acts 4)

• They shape a radical new life, along the contours of Jesus’ way of praise, service and generosity—even in the face of persecution “push-back” (Acts 5).

• They enter into their own Holy Week “passion,” exemplified in the arrest, trial and martyrdom of the deacon Stephen (Acts 6-7).

Reflect: Is this not true for Christ’s disciples, his followers in every time and place? How does your congregation, your community of Christ, reflect and re-present the life of Christ today? Slowly it must have become apparent to the disciples that Jesus did not leave them at his

Ascension. Jesus did not become absent from them—but rather, he became powerfully present to

them and in them, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Their new life as the community of Christ

replicated and re-presented the life of Christ in the world.

To the Ends of the Earth

Jesus’ pre-Ascension commissioning of his disciples in Acts 1:8 plays itself out in the first seven

chapters of the Book of Acts. There’s just one problem, though: the disciples don’t get any farther

than Jerusalem.

This reminds me of what a Christian leader from Africa once said: “Oh, you Americans! You’re

always trying to fish INSIDE the boat.”

But Jesus, in Acts 1:8, is crystal clear. His followers’ place to fish is OUTSIDE the boat, in Jerusalem

and in all Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. “Move on out,” Jesus commands.

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Follow the narrative in the Book of Acts carefully, and you’ll notice that Jesus’ first followers didn’t

actually DO all that Jesus commissioned them to do until Acts 8. The disciples got “stuck” in

Jerusalem until the horrific martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7). THEN, “a severe persecution began

against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the

countryside of Judea and Samaria.” (Acts 8:1)

God uses whatever’s at his disposal—even the horror of persecution—to pursue God’s purposes,

through God’s people.

Reflect: Do you think we might be in such a “rummage sale” moment in today’s church? How do you perceive God getting us “unstuck” so that God can get us all sent out once again? God doesn’t call us to stay stuck in one place or to try “fishing inside the boat.” God in Jesus Christ

calls us to move out, to advance into the world, bearing the Good News about Jesus, wherever we

are sent. God calls and energizes disciples (“followers”) to become apostles(“sent ones”).

When we get stuck, God gets us unstuck. In her book, The Great Emergence, author Phyllis Tickle

quotes an Anglican bishop who believes that about every 500 years the Christian church holds a big

rummage sale.5

Every five centuries, give or take, God turns the church upside down, in order to get us off our duffs

and move us out once again, to recapture for a new generation the freshness and alluring aroma of

the Good News of Jesus Christ.

QUESTION: How is God transforming disciples into apostles today? you?

ANSWER: Out of the boat. Into the world. Bearing witness to Jesus.

5 Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (Baker, 2008), p. 16.

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October: A Persecutor Becomes a Proclaimer

A Study on the Missionary Journeys of Paul

One of the critical milestones in the first century of Christian mission was the “conversion” (more

accurately, the call) of Saul of Tarsus to become a follower and proclaimer of Jesus Christ.

The back-story may be familiar to you. Saul first shows up in Acts, chapter 7, as a witness to the

martyrdom of Stephen the deacon. The writer of Acts observes that “Saul approved of their killing

him,” before going on to describe the severe persecution of Christians that followed Stephen’s death.

“But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and

women, he committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3).

In chapter 9 of Acts, however, the tables are turned on Saul. En route to the Syrian city of

Damascus, a heavenly light blinds Saul, and a voice confronts him: “Saul, Saul, why do you

persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). The voice belongs to Jesus, who takes the persecution of his followers

quite personally!

You can read the entire 9th chapter of Acts to learn how Saul the Persecutor became Saul the

Proclaimer of Jesus Christ. The story was so crucial in the life of the early church that the Book of

Acts reiterates it two more times (in chapters 22 and 26), and Saul himself writes about it in the first

chapter of Galatians.

Missionary to the Mediterranean “World”

We, of course, know Saul the Pharisee better by his Greek name, Paul. We think of Paul as a writer

of epistles that make up much of our New Testament. We remember him as a founder and pastor of

early Christian congregations. All of this activity of Paul, though, reflected his role as

a missionary in the ancient world.

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As a youngster I learned about the three “missionary journeys” of Paul, throughout the world as it

was known at the time (largely the “world” around the Mediterranean Sea, see the map above).

The first journey is narrated in Acts 13-14, and it begins and ends in the city of Antioch which was

apparently the “home base” for Paul’s missionary work. The second journey plays out in Acts 15:40

through 18:22. The third journey is described in Acts 18:23 through Acts 21:14, before Paul

journeys to Jerusalem where he was arrested and eventually taken to Rome where he was martyred

under the cruel emperor Nero in the mid-60s, A.D.

The picture I developed of Paul the missionary in my Sunday School days was rather simple, even

simplistic. I envisioned Paul as

• An intrepid traveler who braved hazards and opposition, largely on his own;

• A compelling speaker who won over non-believing Gentiles simply through the pure power of God’s Word; and

• A highly successful spreader-of-Christianity who moved from triumph to triumph as he established and supported fledgling congregations around the Mediterranean Sea.

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Although there is truth in each of these early impressions of St Paul, the Sunday School “picture” I

had of him was incomplete.

This fact was brought home to me recently as I read a new book, The Triumph of

Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’ s Largest Religion by

Rodney Stark (HarperOne, 2011). Stark, who grew up as a Lutheran in Jamestown,

ND, is a historian who teaches at Baylor University in Texas. What makes Stark’s

book so intriguing is his use of the techniques and principles of a social historian—

someone who looks at sociological “facts on the ground” such as recent archaeological discoveries,

new demographic information about the ancient world, and an awareness of how social interactions

influenced the rise of Christianity.

A More Nuanced View of Missionary Paul

Stark questions the impression folks have of Paul as an intrepid, solitary traveler on his missionary

journeys. Stark writes:

“In the beginning Paul and Barnabas may have just walked into a town with several apprentices in

tow and started preaching in the synagogue. If so, Paul soon learned better and refused to go

anywhere without careful prior arrangements and some commitments of support. Typically, he

began a visit to a new community by holding ‘privately organized meetings under the patronage of

eminent persons…who provided him with…an audience composed of their dependents.’ Paul did not

travel alone….(but) was often accompanied by a retinue of as many as forty followers, sufficient to

constitute an initial ‘congregation,’ which made it possible to hold credible worship services and to

welcome and form bonds with newcomers.”

(pp. 61-62)

http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062007681

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Stark also sketches a more complex picture of how conversions actually happened in Paul’s

missionary work. Paul preached Christ crucified, of course, though even he seems to have had

doubts about his own ability as a proclaimer (see I Cor. 2:1)—doubts shared by some of his critics!

But Stark suggests that conversion was more complicated than simply hearing the Word and

believing it. He writes:

“For generations it was assumed that religious conversions were the result of doctrinal appeal—that

people embraced a new faith because they found its teaching particularly appealing….Surprisingly,

when sociologists took the trouble to actually go out and watch conversions take place, they

discovered that doctrines are of very secondary importance in the initial decision to

convert….Conversion is primarily about bringing one’s religious behavior into alignment with that of

one’s friends and relatives, not about encountering attractive doctrines. Put more formally: People

tend to convert to a religious group when their social ties to members outweigh their ties to outsiders

who might oppose the conversion, and this often occurs before a convert knows much about what

the group believes.” (pp. 62-63, emphasis in the original)

In this regard, Stark nuances the picture we have of “Paul the apostle to the Gentiles.” While it is

true that Paul’s missionary work did contribute to Christianity moving beyond the confines of

Judaism, the means whereby Paul seems to have done this involved his deep connections with

Hellenistic (Greek- speaking) Jews and Gentile “god-fearers” who were already interested in and

obedient to the ways of Judaism. (pp. 69-70)

Finally, the picture we have of Paul moving from “triumph to triumph” as a missionary in the

Mediterranean world is belied by the ways even the Book of Acts (see Acts 14:8-20 and Acts 17:16-

33) portray the mixed results of his missionary preaching. Again, Stark writes:

“Given how conversion actually occurs, it follows that Paul’s visits were more like evangelistic

campaigns, such as a Billy Graham crusade, than they were like a visit to a community by a

missionary. Graham did not found churches, nor did he often bring the irreligious into faith. What he

did was to greatly energize the participating local churches by intensifying the commitment of their

members, which often led them to recruit new members. So it was with Paul’s visits. When he spoke

to the unconvinced as in Athens and Lystra, the results were meager, at best. But when he spoke

mostly to the converted or to converts-in-process, as he usually did, he aroused them to far greater

depths of commitment and comprehension.” (p. 64)

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Implications for the 21st Century Missionary Church

So what might we learn from Rodney Stark’s provocative insights on the missionary work of St Paul?

How might this more nuanced “picture” of the Apostle Paul inform our participation in God’s mission?

Let me share three observations on how 21st century mission outreach is happening:

• Lutherans have long valued social networking (even if we haven’t always used the term) as a means whereby God’s Word engages the lives of non-Christians. For example, members of Calvary Lutheran Church in Perham (and other neighboring ELCA congregations) have been showing up at worship services of our new Waters of Grace Lutheran Church in the Frazee-Vergas area to help “prime the pump” in the outreach work of Pastors Phil Johnson and David Beety.

• In our Companion Synod, the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church, social networking happens through the “Bible Women” ministry. “Bible Women” of the AELC befriend and walk with Hindu women who are considering the claims of Christianity, in transition toward becoming disciples of the Lord Jesus. The Word of God is powerful, not only in its message but also in the means of social interaction whereby living, breathing human beings walk with one another during the daunting process of conversion.

• Lutherans have a natural affinity for “relational evangelism.” The message of Jesus Christ has its best shot at winning new followers as this message is embodied in the daily lives of ordinary Christians engaging with their family, co-workers, neighbors and friends. We understand how doctrine plays a critical role in embracing the way of Christ. In this regard Rodney Stark’s comments on the role of doctrine make sense to Lutheran ears: “To say that doctrines play a quite secondary role in conversion is not to suggest that doctrines remain secondary. Once immersed in a religious group, people are instructed as to the significant implications of the doctrines, and most converts soon become very strongly attached to the doctrines—as are their friends.” (p. 64)

For reflection and discussion:

• How do the insights of Rodney Stark strike you? What is helpful? What is challenging?

• In what ways do you see congregations using “social networking” to engage with persons who are exploring Christian faith and life?

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• How is it helpful to realize that even the Apostle Paul didn’t always “succeed” in bringing others to Jesus Christ?

• How does your congregation preach and teach Christian doctrine for the sake of deepening persons’ faith-commitments?

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November: The Throwaway Life

Bible Study on Acts 6:8-8:4

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

Christianity is at its best when it is peculiar, marginalized, suffering, and it is at its worst when it is popular, credible, triumphal, and powerful. Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals

In the month of November, when the air turns frigid and all the trees are leafless, two “little Easters”

pop up on the church’s calendar.

All Saints Sunday (which falls this year on November 4) points us to the faith-filled lives of Christians

who have taken their Lord at his word, often to the point of suffering death “in the hope of the

Resurrection from the dead.”

Then two weeks later, on Christ the King Sunday (November 18 this year), the alleluias of Easter

poke through late autumn’s dwindling daylight, drawing forth our prayer that “all people of the earth,

now divided by the power of sin, may be united by the glorious and gentle rule of Jesus Christ, our

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Savior and Lord.” (Prayer of the Day for Christ the King, Year B, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p.

53)

If the climate of November remind us that death is inevitable, the witness of the church in November

tells another, contrary tale–about new life bursting forth where we least expect it.

Encountering Resistance

As the Way of Jesus Christ makes its way through this dying world, it always encounters resistance.

The Book of Acts makes this clear from the get-go. Fresh from the faith-engendering, church-

growing fire of Pentecost, Jesus’ sent ones (apostles) encounter opposition.

This opposition reaches a fever pitch in the martyrdom of Stephen the deacon. To appreciate the full

arc of the story, read Acts 6:8-8:4.

Stephen, though set apart with six others for humble service as a deacon (Acts 6:1-6) “did great

wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8) and was a powerful preacher of Christ. When his

Jewish opponents could not silence him, they accused him of blasphemy and brought him before the

same high council in Jerusalem that had condemned Jesus.

Acts 7 gives us Stephen’s lengthy testimony before the council. Recounting God’s leading of his

people throughout the Old Testament, Stephen does not shrink back from reminding his hearers that

their ancestors resisted God’s gracious overtures at every turn. Rather than softening his message,

Stephen declares that members of the council are continuing the same destructive pattern: “You

stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just

as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed

those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and

murderers.” (Acts 7:51-52)

Unable to bear Stephen’s testimony, the members of the council become enraged, grind their teeth

and cover their ears. Dragging him out of the city, they attack Stephen, stoning him to death. Yet,

even in his dying, he takes Jesus’ own words from the cross on his lips:

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit….do not hold this sin against them. Acts 7:59-60

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Martyrdom’s Paradoxical Effect

Stephen is considered the first martyr of the Christian church. The original meaning of “martyr” was

“witness.” However, because of what happened to so many early witnesses to Jesus Christ, the

word “martyr” acquired the meaning of “someone whose Christian witness leads to their death.”

The tragedy of Stephen’s martyrdom leads to a paradoxical effect in the life of the early church,

though. Rather than crushing the Christian movement in its infancy, persecution fosters the

spreading growth of the movement. “That day a severe persecution began against the church in

Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and

Samaria… Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word.” (Acts

8:1, 4)

This same pattern of growth-despite-persecution has continued in the church, down through the

ages. At the conclusion of a chapter on persecution and martyrdom in the first four centuries of

Christian history, author Rodney Stark writes:

“Of all the proofs and all of the testimonials, nothing approaches the credibility inherent in

martyrdom. How could mere mortals remain defiant after being skinned and covered with salt? How

could anyone keep the faith while being slowly roasted on a spit? Such performances seemed

virtually supernatural in and of themselves. And that was the effect they often had on the observers.

Christian viewers could ‘see’ that the hand of God was on the martyrs….The pagan onlookers knew

full well that they would not endure such tribulations for their religion. Why would so many Christians

do so? Were they missing something about this strange new faith? This sort of unease and

wonderment often paved the way for new conversions.”

The Triumph of Christianity, p. 135

There are still places in the world where Christians suffer all, even death, for the sake of their faith.

“Christians are in fact the most persecuted religious group in the world today, with the greatest

number of victims,” asserts Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious

Freedom.6

But, paradoxically, the Christian church continues to bear witness and grow despite such

persecution. “As recently as three decades ago, few researchers even within mainland China knew

6 “The Suffering Church” ChristianityToday.com Accessed on October 30, 2012

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/aprilweb-only/4-29-44.0.html

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whether religion had survived the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) initiated by Chairman Mao

Zedong. It is clear now, however, that religion not only survived but that hundreds of millions of

Chinese today have some religious faith, including tens of millions of Christians.”7

Bearing Witness from the Margins

What does all of this say, though, to Christians like us who live in a country that prizes and defends

religious freedom? How does the witness of the saints, the martyrs, connect with our lives as

Lutheran disciples in northwestern Minnesota?

Whether you and I will ever face the prospect of dying for our faith, we do live a time when

Christianity no longer enjoys the central, prized position it once supposedly had in American life.

Rather than being privileged as Christians, we increasingly offer our witness from the margins of

American life. Is that such a bad thing, though? Shane Claiborne, who spoke powerfully at last July’s

ELCA National Youth Gathering in New Orleans, doesn’t think so:

Christianity is at its best when it is peculiar, marginalized, suffering, and it is at its worst when it is popular, credible, triumphal, and powerful. Whether or not our blood will ever be shed for the sake of Jesus Christ, we do share with the martyrs

of every time and place the conviction that the “throwaway life” Jesus lived is imprinted upon each

one of us as well. Jesus lived and died among us to save us from our sinful propensity to cling to life

at all costs. “Those who want to save their life will lose it,” Jesus tells us, “and those who lose their

life for my sake will find it.”

Recently, at a “Pie With the Bishop” event, I was asked to share signs of growing, vibrant

congregations. Instinctively, my first response was: “A congregation is most alive when it is seeking

ways to give itself away in God’s world.”

How might it look for us and the churches we are part of to lead this sort of “throwaway life” of our Lord?

• I wonder whether following Jesus in this throwaway life of his might mean parting with our money with greater recklessness–giving so generously that the IRS suspects we’re up to something shady.

7 “Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population” PewForum.org Accessed on October 30, 2012

http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-china.aspx

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• Or: I wonder if following Jesus in this throwaway life of his might mean setting aside our comfortableness, turning ourselves so completely “inside out” that we refashion every way of “doing church” so that it’s aimed at newcomers and outsiders who have yet to hear the gospel in a believable way.

• Or: I wonder whether following Jesus in this throwaway life of his might mean sacrificing our respectability and embracing the marginalized so completely that we become known as “those people” who are always hanging out with the wrong crowd, letting just anybody into “their” church, helping just anybody who needs it.

Dear friends, as we follow Jesus, we can trust that he will present us with opportunities to give it all

up, to take breath-taking risks, to put in jeopardy everything that our humanity tells us is precious, to

embrace Jesus’ own wild, reckless “give it all away” life.


• Which saint or martyr has inspired you in your faith and discipleship?

• How might you or your congregation be mindful of Christians across the globe who suffer today for the sake of their faith in Christ?

• Why is it hard for us to give up the place of privilege that most North American churches have enjoyed? What would it mean for your congregation to give itself away for the sake of God’s world?

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December: For the Life of the World

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Isaiah 60:1-3

Savior of the nations, come; virgin’ s son, make here your home. Marvel now, O heav’n and earth: God has chosen such a birth. Ambrose of Milan (340-397 A.D.), translated by Martin Luther (1483-1546) ELW #263

One church year gives way to the next, as the rhythm of our weekly worship invites us to

contemplate Big Things—the consummation of the work of Christ the King, following quickly by the

Advent of the One who is most assuredly not best described as “my personal Savior.” No, Christ

comes to save all sinners, to reclaim the whole universe, to make all things new.

Herein lies the best antidote to our natural tendency to “cozy up” during Advent and Christmas.

Whether we’re are drawn into gauzy nostalgia about holidays past or cocooned in the intimacy of

tightknit circles of family and friends, the witness of the scriptures and the church is that this

season—and the entirety of our life in Christ–is always about more.

Christ comes to Bethlehem’s manger, Christ comes to us continually in Word and Sacrament, and

Christ will come again in the fullness of time, not just for “me and my kind” but for the life of the world.

So, we ask ourselves one last time in 2012: Where are you leading us, Lord? Let our December

answer be clear and simple: Christ leads us into a mission that spans the world, imbuing us with a global consciousness that resists any domestication or privatization of the life of faith.

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The Global Horizon of Advent and Christmas

From the very beginning of the Christ-story, the scriptures make

clear this global reach of God’s love in the Christ Child. Indeed,

the whole prophetic tradition of the Old Testament (the prequel to

the Nativity story) envisions a coming Messiah who will do more

than restore the fortunes of Israel. Isaiah’s witness is pungently

prescient:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Isaiah 60:1-3

When the Holy Infant arrives, the angelic announcement is broad and far-reaching:

Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

Days later, when the Child is presented in the Temple, old Simeon sings of the universal salvation

God is ushering in:

My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. Luke 2:30-32

The birth of Christ may have taken place in the backwater village of Bethlehem—“one of the little

clans of Judah” (Micah 5:2)—but this birth has cosmic reach. Just so, the community of Christ will

always, always, always envisions itself caught up in a mission that is globe-spanning. (Here’s

something to try during Advent and Christmas this year: pay attention in the hymns and carols of

these precious seasons for references to the globe-spanning, world-saving work of Christ.)

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Global + Local = “Glocal”

One of the most discouraging things I hear, with surprising regularity, goes like this: “Bishop, we

need to remember the mission in our own back yard first. It’s nice to care about people who live

around the globe, but charity begins at home.”

What I find discouraging about this isn’t so much that it’s not true. Indeed, the mission field starts

right outside the doorway to all our church buildings. And God’s mission certainly includes

redeeming and reclaiming the close-in corner of the world where God has planted us.

But why, oh why, do so many of us consider engagement in local mission and global mission as

mutually exclusive possibilities? Indeed, this is not an “either-or” choice. It is always a “both-and”

opportunity, and unless our concept of God’s mission is both local and global, it will be truncated and

incomplete. For this reason, our own ELCA Global Mission unit has been lifting up a provocative new

term— “glocal”—to describe more accurately the whole mission before us!

Some Ways to Widen the Circle

God’s call to us—as we wonder where God is leading our congregations—is to ponder together all

the ways we might do justice to the universal scope of Christ’s redemptive work. How might we so

“widen the circle” of our attention and engagement, to enrich our participation in God’s rescue and

renewal mission in the world? For starters, consider these possibilities:

Learn

Learning about God’s work in other lands, traveling abroad (or assisting those who do so on our

behalf), and welcoming visitors from global partners in ministry.

Because of our naturally tendency to turn inward and see little more than what’s right in front of us

right now, we need regular opportunities to lift up our heads and behold the world God loves so

achingly in Christ. Fortunately, our synod has been blessed over the last two years with

opportunities both to receive representatives of our companion synod, the Andhra Evangelical

Lutheran Church (AELC) of India (in September 2011) and to send nineteen representatives of our

synod to visit the AELC just last month. Many of our congregations also have an “oar in the water” in

terms of international exchanges, mission trips and global ministries that you have “adopted.”

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Nineteen representatives of the NW MN Synod traveled to the AELC in November 2012. They are available to speak in your

congregations about our companion synod and its ministries in southern India.

But such global mission awareness needs to be cultivated in all of our congregations. So, if your

congregation doesn’t already have one, draw together a global mission team/committee to

spearhead your church’s engagement with God’s work across the world.

• Subscribe to the ELCA’s Hand in Hand quarterly newsletter about our shared global mission work at http://blogs.elca.org/handinhand/

• Invite one of the nineteen travelers to our companion synod in India to speak in your congregation during 2013—just contact the synod office

• Invite a global missionary on home leave or a member of a global church to visit your congregation at least once a year

• Cultivate relationships with Christians in other lands via social networking websites like Facebook

Pray

Praying for global mission ventures and international service ministries in the weekly prayer of the

church.

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Pastor Andrew Ronnevik (right) prays with AELC youth at a synod gathering in Vishakapatnam, India

Time and time again last month, as we pilgrims from the NW MN Synod met with members of the

Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, we received this invitation:

Please pray for us. Pray for our church, the AELC, as we elect a new bishop next year. Pray for India. Pray for peace in our region and across our world. The NW MN Synod team plans to facilitate a way (using Northern Lights) to invite specific, weekly

prayer concerns for the AELC and its ministries. You can also download the current Hand in Hand

Annual for a listing of ELCA global missionaries and global partner churches—then pray for one of

them each week.

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Sponsor and Support

Sponsoring global missionaries and supporting global ministries of evangelism, mercy, and healing.

Hundreds of congregations across our ELCA have found how

gratifying and enlightening (for them) it is to have a face and a name that

matters to them in one of our global companion churches. The Hand in

Hand Annual referred to in the previous paragraph provides information

on the all the ways that individuals and congregations can provide

financial support to ELCA missionaries.

Pay attention, too, to the many fine opportunities in the ELCA Good Gifts catalog.

As your congregation approaches its annual meeting get ready to propose a congregational goal for

the ELCA Malaria Campaign, as we implement the synod assembly resolution (from last May)

committing our synod to raising at least $225,000 toward the whole ELCA’s goal of $15 million by

2015. More information and resources at elca.org.

Pay attention, as well, to the expanding work of our synod’s re-newed Hunger Table, advised by

Pastor Steve Peterson, assistant to the bishop — contact him to find out how your congregation can

get involved.

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ELCA Bishops Wohlrabe, Burnside and Rinehart help dedicate a LWR-funded well, serving 40 rural families in Nicaragua, August of 2012

In this regard I also want to encourage your deep engagement with Lutheran World Relief (LWR). The mission of this fine inter-Lutheran organization goes like this: “Affirming God’s love for all

people, we work with Lutherans and partners around the world to end poverty, injustice and human

suffering.” Many of our WELCA groups already contribute quilts, health kits and school kits through

LWR. But LWR does so much more across the world, as we learned from LWR Executive Director,

the Rev. Dr. John Nunes at last May’s synod assembly. Learn more at lwr.org

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Advocate

Advocating for peace, justice, religious freedom across the world and prisoners of conscience

wherever they suffer for the sake of Christ.

During Advent and Christmas we thrill again to the globe-spanning witness of Isaiah: “For a child has

been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful

Counselor,Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” With good reason, our hearts and

prayers will focus on the “state of the world” that God has created and is re-creating in Jesus Christ.

This too, has implications for how our congregations and church members develop a global consciousness for the sake of God’s mission.

As newly-elected (or re-elected) leaders assume their duties in our state capitol and in Washington,

DC, in January take time to write to them, urging them to make decisions on behalf of the common

good—across our state, our nation and our world. Freedom House is “an independent watchdog

organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world.” One of this organization’s

programs monitors the state of international religious freedom—find out more

at freedomhouse.org. Pay attention to world events via reputable news sources, e.g. to stay up on

what’s happening in our companion synod, go to the website for one India’s national English-

language newspapers, thehindu.com to get news from the “Andhra Pradesh” state, where the

Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church is located.

Thank you, dear friends, for using this Bible study and the others in this 2012 series on the

question: “Where Are You Leading Us, Lord?” I encourage you, especially as you do mission

planning in your congregation for 2013, to make use of the whole series.

My wife Joy and I wish you all a blessed Advent and Christmas. With you, we wait eagerly for the

birth of the Christ Child who is the hope of the whole world:

Our hope and expectation, O Jesus now appear; Arise O Sun so longed for, o’er this benighted sphere. With hearts and hands uplifted, we plead,

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O Lord to see The day of earth’s redemption that sets your people free! Laurentius Laurenti (1660-1722) ELW #244


• Why are we tempted to “domesticate” or “privatize” the saving work of Jesus Christ?

• How is your congregation already fostering a global consciousness among its members?

• What is one thing, suggested in this Bible study, that you’d like to see your congregation start doing in 2013?

• What phrase from an Advent hymn or Christmas carol best helps you remember that “Christ leads us into a mission that spans the world, imbuing us with a global consciousness that resists any domestication or privatization of the life of faith?”

2012 bishop’s series: where are you leading us,...

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