Terrace Bay Gospel Assembly c/o Kevin Bahm

Box 298

Terrace Bay, On

P0T 2W0

or email to:  terracebaychurch@yahoo.ca

Mother, father please explain to me Why a world so full of mystery

A place so bitter and still so sweet So beautiful and yet so full of sad, sad…

 Mother, father please explain to me Why forests march to desert speed

While snow-capped mountains melt away

What do we tell our babies, when do we say, oh

 Mother, father please explain to me How a man who rocks his child to sleep

Pulls the trigger on his brother’s heart

He digs a hole right to the middle of this storm of hatred

 Mother, father please explain to me How it could be so this world has come to be

A precious balance in between Such cruelty and such kindness please

 Mother, father please explain to me How this world has come to be

Unequalled in her blessings, oh, I see Unbridled hatred so extreme, please tell me

 Mother, father please explain to me How this world has come to be so

Twisted between time and dreams

Oh, mother, father please explain to me

Oh, what’s all this talk about? All this talk about it

Spinning down, down, down, down, down

All this talk about Endless words without Nothing’s done

 Mother, father do you know Why one man’s belly overflows

Another sleeps in hungers bed Oh, we trade our world for a piece of bread

 Oh Mother, father please explain to me How this rare world’s come to be

A place so full of color yet overflowing Always in black and white

Drowning in the waters of our…

 Mother, father please explain to me How this world has come to be

While still blessed in all the things we see

Such a sad, sad home for you and me

 Come out, and hold, Come on out you

Come on out you Come and save yourself

 Come on out you Come on we’re taking the water

We’re taken the water We’re taken the water

But you know We got the freedom We got the freedom

 There’s no God above And no hell below

Oh, it’s here with us It’s up to us To keep afloat

How this sweet world has come to be to keep afloat

 Mother, father please explain to me How this rare world has come to be

Oh, let the blue planet Let the blue planet

Mother, father please explain to me

Mother, father please explain

Many of the questions do not warrant a pad answer.  Many of these questions actually require a lifelong discussion.  The “why” questions are the hardest, eh dads?

It was the same 2000 years ago in Israel.  When the New Testament happened and was written Israel had been under persecution and dominance for centuries.  They lived in a time when Rome dictated how to live, how to practice religion and more specifically, how to and who to pray to.  But before we go there the issue of state/prayer goes way back.  Way back.

Hundreds of years, before the times of Jesus, Israel was a nation called by God to bring the story of reconciliation to the world.  The deal went something like this:  God and Israel were a team to make this world better.  If Israel broke the covenant other countries would remind Israel of their fault.  Well, Israel forgot the promise and a nation named Babylon came to remind them.  And remind them they did.  They destroyed Israel’s main place of worship.  Killed half of the population.  Took half of that half back to Babylon, while the others remained in a broken and desolate place.

When the group arrived in Babylon, a man named Jeremiah stood up and said “This is not how things are suppose to be – we forgot the promise.  But don’t just sit around here in Babylon and do nothing – make home’s, plant gardens and pray for the Babylonian leadership.  Pray that they will be successful, fruitful and peaceful”.

Many people did not agree with him.  He believed this is what God wanted.  Jeremiah’s answer to the tough time’s they were going through was to pray.  Pray for blessings upon their oppressors.

Let’s move forward a little in time.

The more the kingdoms that overtook Israel, the more those kingdoms wanted prayer by Israel on their behalf.

Then Rome.  Rome was the “Babylon” of Jesus’ day.  Roman leadership said that “Caesar was Lord and you pray to him.”   But Israel was passionate about monotheism, about praying to the one true God and Rome was passionate about Pax Romana – Roman Peace.  Israel had such a big population in the Roman Empire that Rome allowed them to pray to their own god in order to keep peace, but it had to be on behalf of the King.  This became an issue in the first churches.  The questions, the “why’s” of Rome became something the church had to come to terms with. These churches contained many “non-Jews” whose former religion was based on emperor worship.  Do they need to pray like the Jews?  Should they pray for an authority that thinks they are deity?  Should they pray for strength to start a rebellion?  Why?  Why?  Why?  In the spirit of Jeremiah Paul writes to Timothy the following words:

1 Timothy 2   ¹I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— ²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, ⁴who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. ⁷And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.

Let’s paraphrase this to get the full impact.  “Rome is not really our rulers.  Jesus is.  King Jesus.  But let’s pray for Rome.  Things are not right.   King Jesus even died for Rome.  We are not zealots – let’s not rebel (remember Jeremiah), we are not Pharisees, or Sadducees and we are not the Essenes (let’s not hide), but let’s live in peace in this turmoil, but first, let’s start with prayer.”

Paul does not answer the questions of “why?”  He gives no pad answer at all.  But what he does is admit the way things are and get’s the conversation going by including God in it.  Pray. 

We all can plainly see that this world is still not right.  Kids are still asking big questions about the way things are.  Dads, start with prayer.

Our family bought a GPS for the car and I love it.  We can travel through the States, type in “Water Park” and boom, it brings us to a water park.  Awesome!  You want a Tim Horton’s, type it in and boom, you’re there.   Looking for that bike store that someone told you about, the GPS brings you right there – “turn left in 100m”.  It has saved us from going in circles many a times.

Now imagine you want your GPS to tell you that where the local grocery store is and it says “Don’t got there, you might get your car scratched by a cart”.  You tell your GPS that you want to go out for a nice dinner.  It replies “No, you may get food poisoning”.

That just wouldn’t work.  The whole point of GPS is to tell you where you can go, not where you can’t.  And that is the main emphasis that Paul is making when it comes to being under the “LAW” or under the “GOSPEL” in his letter to Timothy.

Paul’s understanding of the law is that it tells you what not to do, where not to go and how not to do things.  Paul’s understanding of the message of Jesus is the polar opposite.  The gospel says:  this is where you can go, what you can do and this is how you can do it!  Of course, there is more to it than this but for Paul’s letter to Timothy, this would be the context to help us understand what is going on.

The main point of our present passage is this:  The Jewish law is like a map which only marks danger.  Let’s read it, try to understand the circumstances that this was written under and then conclude.

1 Timothy 1:3-11 (New International Version)

 ³As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer ⁴nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. ⁵The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ⁶Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. ⁷They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

 ⁸We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. ⁹We also know that law^[a] is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine ¹¹that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

Timothy was placed in Ephesus to get a church that was falling apart put it back in order. Ephesus was considered the wealthiest and most hip place in the time of Paul.  It had a great harbour, it contained one of the 7 Wonders of the World and it boasted continuously of its great athletic compounds and games.  Actually, they were the hub for great theatres, government buildings (which were also worship centers), commercial markets, baths and gymnasiums, stadiums, medical schools (they trained the best of the best there) and festivals.

And of course, the Temple of Diana (Artemis).  What you need to understand is that no matter where you went it had pagan worship connected to it.  The theatre, the market, the gym, the doctors – everything.

So, there were these people in the Ephesians church who said “The GPS says don’t go there you could blah blah blah….”  In other words, stay where it is safe, where you won’t be influenced and so on.  Why? Because the law says so.

Paul’s view is that “That’s good for the people who never have come into contact with Jesus.  If you want to know what not to do, the Jewish law is perfect.  But it won’t tell you what you should do”.  As NT Wright puts it:  It may be good for people who are always wandering off to the danger areas, who seem bent on going too near the moral cliffs, or trying to cross bridges that will crumble underneath them.   

What are those danger areas?  This is where this little letter gets really cool.  Paul lists some types of danger areas – but he is also playing with words here.  Paul lists commandment’s numbers 5-9 out of the Ten Commandments but brings them to an extreme.  In other words, this list is list of the most perverted places you can go with breaking the Ten Commandments.  Let’s look:

Commandment # 5 – Honour your parents.  Paul’s extreme slant “those who kill their parents.

Commandment #6 – Do not murder.  Paul’s extreme slant “murderers” (refer to my message on the top ten)

Commandment #7 – Do not commit adultery.  Paul’s extreme slant “adulterers and perverts”

Commandment #8 – Do not steal.  Paul’s extreme slant “slave traders”

Commandment #9 – Don’t give false testimony.  Paul’s extreme slant “liars and perjurers”

Paul says, these types of people obviously never had a Jesus moment – so the law is for them.  If you are this “perverted”, you need more than the law, you need Jesus.

The bad leadership in the Ephesus church was probably telling the church “Don’t go to market, or you will stumble, you will break the law” or “Don’t go to town hall or you be disobeying the Torah” or “Don’t go to the gym, or God will be displeased with your lack of commitment to the Ten Commandments”.  Pauls reply to this is “They do not know what they are talking about.  God wants you to be salt and light in those places.  Not the law, but the gospel.  Bring God’s glory to those places”.

Church, we are not called to be an introverted Jesus club.  We are called to go into the world with the glory of God with us.   Well, this is what Paul says to Timothy that all things need to “conform to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.” 

Let’s go there church, let’s go there.

Does this seem harsh?  Yes maybe, but for a book published in 2008, I did not expect to read the same stuff I did 8 years ago.

But there was some stuff  I did like about the book.  And of course some more things I didn’t.  So, let’s change momentum here and bring out the positives.

My thinking in buying this book was this:  I am a pastor who deals with people who feel let down or have given up on Christianity.  And this book does reach out of those type of people… and I will definitely pass this book on to them.

Here are a few pastoral highlights.

Highlight #1 – faith is not a system of beliefs but a relationship

Highlight #2 – meeting physical needs is directly connected to spiritual needs (holistic)

Highlight #3 – sin management vs. story involvement (read the book for definitions)

As a pastor, I  can use this stuff, and I really think people who are struggling could use it too.

Here are a few pastoral lowlights.

Lowlight #1 – Pagitt spends a chapter on deconstructing “systematic theology”, and yet uses that same system to make his case for holistic living.

Lowlight #2 – He tends to say that the bibles narrative is “holistic”.  He uses the word “integrated” to describe the main theme of the bible.  Wright would strongly disagree (and so would I)

Lowlight #3 - Pagitt goes nowhere with this book.  Great, it’s okay to practice yoga and write books in coffee shops, but what was the point?  Maybe he did this so he can write another book about the same stuff.  (sorry for my sarcasm)

My thinking is that this book was written for the person searching.  Well, if there is someone searching the used book shelf, they can buy my copy.  Again, sorry for the sarcasm.  Read it and judge for yourself.  I have to admit though, I was reading Wright’s “Justification” at the same time – night and day, night and day.

The other day I was listening to a radio program that discussed the power of the exclamation mark.  The purpose of the show was to help the listeners understand that the exclamation can be both overused and underused thanks to text messaging, email and facebook.  The punctuation mark once had some punch to it. Now it is overused making it seem cheesy or, underused, making it seem harsh.

Let me show you how this is true in both cases.  Have you ever seen a text message or facebook message of a tween?  “OMG!!!  LOL!!!  !!!!!”.   That would be considered an overuse of an exclamation point.

The undeuse of the xclamation mark would look something like this (let me set up the scene for you):  An employee is asked to put together a business strategy for the upcoming fiscal year.  Hours and hours went into this business plan by the employee.  Finally the document ends up on the desk of the CEO a day early.  The employee is beaming with pride and anxiety as it is delivered.  The employee leaves a note for the CEO to text the employee with some thoughts on the business plan.

Two days later the employee receives that message.  It says:  Great.  We’ll talk.

Can you imagine what the employee was feeling when receiving that message?  They are wondering if this is good or if this is bad. An exclamation point would change the whole feel of that message.

The person doing the radio commentary of the exclamation point said that the power of the punctuation marked died when talking and the hand written letter died.  I think he made his point.  It’s true, we don’t write many letters anymore.  But there is a positive side to our lack of writing letters.  Since we don’t write letters much anymore, when you do get one it has great impact.  You feel extra special (or extra angry depending on the contents of the letter).

This month we are going to look at a letter written to a young Pastor who was left in charge of a church with tons of problems.  His name was Timothy and the person who wrote the letter was Paul.  Paul was mentoring two young pastors actually.  Their names were Timothy and Titus.  When Paul started a church in a town called Ephesus, he had left and it had fallen apart.  So he goes back there with his young apprentice (Timothy) and writes this letter of encouragement to him for Timothy is now in charge of this messed up church.

The odd thing about this letter though, is that it really was not for Timothy.  This letter was actually for the church.  The contents were to be read by Timothy, but explained to the church in Ephesus.   A church that had huge issues.  What were those issues?

Issue 1:  Paul wasn’t around much.  If the guy who started the church, taught the church and influenced the leaders is either somewhere else starting a church or is in jail, issues tend to come up.  As  the old saying goes “When the shepherd’s away the sheep will play”.  This letter is not just to encourage Timothy as pastor, but to get the leadership to be responsible while Paul’s influence is from a distance.

Issue 2:  Because Paul was not present, wrong teaching (which meant wrong teachers) infiltrated the church.  There is some debate whether there was “Gnosticism” going on in the church, but the letter seems to point out that there were people who were semi-Gnostic plus Jewish who were trying to water down the Jesus story.   In other words “escapism” and “law” were being preached instead of freedom in Christ.  Paul did not hold Timothy accountable for this diversion.  Instead he held the leaders of the church (overseers and deacons) responsible for this issue and they needed to fix it.  What you need to understand is that church did not just take place in one building on one day.  Ephesus had many house churches that Timothy was the pastor of.  But all of these houses had overseers and leadership.  They were the ones that were responsible for making sure that each house stayed doctrinally correct.  Timothy taught, prayed and loved, the overseers and deacons kept things going straight and narrow.  They had missed their call.  Actually, in the first letter to Timothy, Paul calls out two people who were diverting the true gospel message (1 Tim 1:20).

Issue 3:  The church seemed to believe (like many churches in that day) that Jesus was going to return any minute.  And that was true.  But Paul recognized something that was awry and encouraged Timothy to encourage the church for the long haul.  In other words “Don’t be idle waiting for the great day – keep living, working, loving…”.  This issue I believe is connected to issue #2: Gnosticism.

This letter is a letter that was meant for a church going through a shift.  A church going through a crisis.  A church that needed people to step up to the plate and be leaders.  This letter was a letter that was to encourage a young pastor to keep on keeping on.  A pastor who was entrusted with a message of love and life.  This is a letter that said to a congregation “Don’t go back to the way things were”.  As NT Wright puts it:  Don’t go back to the default setting.  What were the default settings?  Law and escapism.

Paul gave the church the amazing news that there is a better way at life.  Keep working that out!  Timothy was placed there to keep that message alive.  Really, that is the point of his letter.  (Note the proper use of an exclamation point).

 My sources for this series are as follows:

IVP Dictionary:  Paul

Paul for Everyone:  The Pastoral Letters by NT Wright

NIBC, 1and2 Timothy, Titus  by Gordon D. Fee

Hermeneia:  The Pastoral Epistles by Martin Dibelius and Hans Conzelmann

Remember the movie that starred Charlton Heston called “The Ten Commandments”.  For the year it was made in, the special effects were top of the line.  I remember two scenes from that movie.  The first one being the mass exodus of the Israelites through the Red Sea.  I watch it now and I cannot believe how cheesy the effects are – but back then it was considered the best.  They left Egypt because they were slaves.  All they did was make bricks.  And I also remember Moses holding the Ten Commandments on the mountain.  Awesome!

Well, the reason for the whole movie (and the bible story) is this:  Israel were brick making slaves, and now they are not.  The Ten Commandments were a guide for how this new community were going to live.

Now, when Moses finished getting the 10 Commandments from God, God had a couple more things to say to Moses and Israel.  God told them “Don’t build any altars with cut stone”.  What does that have to do with anything?

Well, let me tell you!  Israel is going to worship God.  Worship takes place somewhere – in their day it was at altars.  If they start making fancy altars they will be doing what they did in Egypt as slaves, making bricks.  In other words God says “You were slaves in Egypt, you will not be slaves again – even religious slaves”.  God sets a standard here – he wants a relationship, not a religion.

Hundreds of years later a guy named Paul (who was an Israelite) wrote a letter to a group of people who had the same struggles as ancient Israel did – that religion verses relationship struggle.  Do you know what he wrote?  Paul said “There is nothing that can separate you from the LOVE of God”.  Love is a relationship word.  God is looking for a relationship – not a religion.

This Sunday we are going to look more closely at this command by God and how Israel always seemed to want to be back in slavery.  Check in later for the audio!

A classic for your viewing pleasure!

There are two things I need to admit when reviewing this book. 

First, I had written Brian McLaren off.  If you have read any of his books you would quickly realize that he was being extremely repetitive.  I understand that the general public may not read all of his books, but it  just seemed that since the “New Kind of Christian” series to “The Secret Message of Jesus” to “Everything Must Change” Brian went on and on about the same themes.  Those themes being:  the Kingdom of God, Jesus in his historical setting and how the current systems (economic, spiritual….) are not working.  I am greatly indebted to his insight but honestly, I was getting a little bored.  BUT, when I realized that this book was part of a series edited by Phyllis Tickle and that Scot McKnight was doing one of the themes, I decided to pick it up and give it a try.  In short, I bought the book not because of McLaren, but because of all of the added features that came along with it.

Second, like all books, there is nothing new said.  This book is a “Readers Digest” version of other great books about the “comeback” of sacred practices.  (Just a side note:  I am co-reading Jacques Ellul’s “The Subversion of Christianity” at the same time.  The premise of his book is that the only things that should be considered ‘sacred’ are God and redeemed humanity.)    Back to my point.  In the introduction McLaren mentions a few authors that influenced this book.  I highly recommend just reading those books.  Those books include Eugene Peterson’s “Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places”, Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy” and Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline”.  If you do not have the energy to read those books, McLaren is the way to go.

Now, with all of that out of the way, here are a few reasons to buy this book.  McLaren has a knack for great story telling.  He can make the most boring subject personal, interesting and touching.  A generalized book about spiritual practices (fasting, divine reading) does not seem that action packed, but McLaren makes it relevant.  He puts life back into why these practices are so important.  McLaren can also explain things to a wide audience.  With those who find Dallas Willard a little too heavy, Brian McLaren will make it seem like you are having a beautiful conversation over coffee.  That is truly a great gift.

Most importantly, Brian McLaren is popular right now.  And right now he has some good things to say.  If a person is in Chapters and decides they are going to try a McLaren book for the first time, they buy this book and they take it to heart, how wonderful would it be to know they are more people connecting with God because of the contents of this book?  No one can argue with people connecting with God.

Connecting with God.  How our world needs more of that.  Brian McLaren is hopefully introducing a new group of people to this way of life.  Again, this book is just the introduction to the whole series, so don’t look for an in-depth study on the disciplines.  What this does though is whet the appetite for what’s coming.  Kudos to McLaren for that.

 

As we continue our journey through Exodus, we come to the part of the story that directly follows the Ten Commandments.  It is an odd little story where Israel says to Moses “You talk to God, we’re too scared”.  This was the beginning of a long line of things Israel botched up.  What do I mean by that?

Since Israel decided to use Moses as a mediator between God and themselves, that was how things would be done from then on.  In other words, God would speak only through priests or prophets from that time forward.  They really messed things up.

But that is not the end of the story.  Listen in on Monday to hear how the author of Hebrews reconciled a history of mess.