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Category: John (Page 16 of 30)

To This You Were Called

April 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Maundy Thursday. Yeah, I wasn’t overly certain of what it meant until I was asked by Howard Griffin, my neighbor and friend and senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church here in Amarillo, to preach their traditional Maundy Thursday service this evening. The communion gathering remembers that last dinner Jesus had with his disciples the night he was betrayed. The traditional text is John 13, specifically Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And I’m so honored and blessed to be bringing the message this evening.

Part of the reason Howard asked me to do this, he says, is because we Church of Christ folks have a pretty good handle on communion. I like to think that we do. And that’s another reason I’m so excited about tonight.

It’s a communion service. It reminds us that Christ’s table is an open table, that all are invited to participate together in his presence, that we are all one people together in his death, burial, and resurrection. There are no divisions at the table of our Lord. When we gather around the table there are no barriers to fellowship, no differences in our status or standing with one another or with our Savior. We are all accepted, all justified and sanctified, all saved by the same faith in the same risen and coming Lord. And we eat together and share the meal together as a universal symbol and reminder of that blessed unity.

So, naturally, this became a “4 Amarillo” event.

We’re expecting a full house at First Pres tonight. Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and a bunch of CofC’ers sharing the Lord’s meal together, lifting praise to our Father together, praying together, and committing to serving one another and considering the needs of each other more important than our own.

I’ve always known that this is the way it’s going to be in heaven. What a glorious blessing, an unexpected gift, to experience this sliver of eternity in downtown Amarillo tonight.

Peace,

Allan

Good Reminders

April 14, 2014 / / 1 Comment

The Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus tell us that those who experienced the empty tomb up close and personal responded with wonder and amazement. Matthew says the women at the dug-out tomb were afraid. Mark says they were alarmed or astonished. The women are also described as bewildered and trembling. Other translations say they were stunned. The women in Luke’s version were “wondering” about the empty tomb. After Peter looks inside the empty grave, he, too, is said to be in wonder. With each of the Easter stories, the sense of resurrection wonder or mystery is building. It accumulates. So far, not one person who witnessed the empty tomb has been able to make sense of it. Not even those who encountered the risen Lord have it figured out.

And these are good reminders for us today.

The Resurrection confused everybody. At the time it happened, nobody could explain it. It’s obvious that those closest to the event had no idea what had happened or why. And that’s a good reminder for us. That we don’t always have God’s plan figured out. We don’t always know what God is doing. Or when he’s doing it. Or why. And that disorients us. But it’s OK.

Nobody had prepared for the Resurrection. Those women were going to the tomb that morning with burial spices to anoint a dead body. They weren’t bringing Jesus a fresh set of clothes and a toothbrush. When he shows up for dinner with the disciples that evening, they have to scramble to find a chair and an extra place setting. Peter’s wife pulls her husband aside and says, “You didn’t tell me your boss was coming!” Of course not; he didn’t know! None of them had prepared. And that’s a good reminder for us. We’re all beginners in this resurrection business. There aren’t any experts. We don’t control what God is doing. And that unsettles us. But it’s OK.

In the Resurrection stories, the marginal people are the main players. It’s the women. In this patriarchal society, these women had no rights, no status, no standing in the community. Especially Mary Magdalene. She had been possessed by seven demons before she met Jesus which might mean she had been living a reprehensibly horrible moral life or perhaps she was mentally ill. Either way, this lady lived on the edges of her community. She didn’t fit in. But she’s the only name we read in all four Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. And that’s a good reminder for us. That we don’t ever judge or rule out anybody we think might be beyond the reach of Resurrection. More than likely, it’ll be the ones we least expect who wind up at the very front of what God’s doing. And that surprises us. But it’s OK.

Some of the most exciting words in all of Scripture are when God says, “Behold! I am doing a new thing!” God is always doing new things. And it’s exciting. Right now, today, our God is doing new things in your church, new things in your city, new things — maybe unforeseen things — between people in different Christian denominations. God is speaking in new ways. He’s moving in new ways. He’s drawing men and women to himself in brand new and surprising ways. Things are changing.

And that can be disorienting. Unsettling. Scary. Because we don’t do well with change. We’re not always real good with new. But we have the Spirit of our risen Lord within us. Christ Jesus inside us gives us the power and the peace to embrace the mystery and the wonder of what God is doing; to not just accept it with our heads, but to jump into it with our hearts; to let God in Christ have his way with us; to fully submit to what we may not fully understand. Not just to be OK with it, but to rejoice in it.

Peace,

Allan

Hearing God at Central

April 9, 2014 / / 0 Comments

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” ~Mark 4:9

Our God is a God who speaks. Our God is not silent. That truth that our God is a talking God is what differentiates him from all other gods, it’s what separates Christianity from all other religions. Our God has a voice and he uses it. Our God creates us to hear his voice, he indwells his children by his Holy Spirit in order to communicate directly to us. But we rarely tune him in. In a world growing louder and noisier with distraction and static, we are increasingly unable and, maybe, unwilling to hear the voice of God. Or, possibly, we’re just not trained and equipped.

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.'” ~Isaiah 30:21

As children of God and followers of his Christ, we need to improve our hearing. We need to grow in our capacities to hear the voice of our God. We need to diligently work to eliminate the barriers to our hearing so that our Father’s merciful encouragement and direction can come through loud and clear.

We’ve just concluded a six-weeks study here at Central on “Hearing God.” Yes, I admit, I stole most of the ideas from a three-session series Rick Atchley presented at several conferences a little over a year ago. The main point during the study here was that our relationship with God is intended to be a dynamic, personal, intimate, two-way relationship. It’s not a monologue in which we’re the only ones doing the talking; it’s a dialogue in which God talks back! And it was good for us. It was good for the preacher and for the congregation.

As part of the series, we handed out a few hundred blank canvases and asked our church family to illustrate what “Hearing God” means to them. As the art projects came in, we displayed them on the walls inside our worship center as a continual reminder that we each experience the voice of God in different ways. It’s different; but it’s real. Very real.

Our Worship Minister, Kevin Schaffer, made an excellent slide show presentation that highlights each of the paintings. And we shared it with our church family on the last Sunday of the series. You can see the video by clicking here to get to our church website and scrolling down that home page to the “Hearing God” video. It’s about five-and-a-half minutes and well worth your time. It’s an excellent video and, again, highlights the varied ways we all hear the voice of our God.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” ~John 10:27

 

 

 

 

 

 

God wants us to hear him in order to know him. He longs for an intimate and dynamic relationship with his children. Let’s commit together to continuing our practices of listening for his voice, of being still and tuning in to the many ways he communicates with us, and responding to his loving guidance in trusting obedience.

Peace,

Allan

Thanksgiving 4 Sunday

November 22, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.” ~John 17:22

We’ve been given a profound intimacy with the Father and Son that changes all of human life. It’s a unity that encompasses the Father with the Son, all disciples with them both, and all disciples, in turn, with one another. This is the gift of Jesus’ prayer. It’s not what we have to do or maintain; it’s what God through Christ has already given us and continues to maintain through the power of his Holy Spirit. It’s just a matter of whether we recognize it or not.

This Sunday, we are set to gather in gratitude to give thanksgiving to our God for the gracious gift of this unity. We will acknowledge the fellowship we share with the other Christian congregations in downtown Amarillo on this day of worship and praise and thanksgiving. Together.

Our guest preacher here at Central on Sunday is Howard Griffin, my good friend and the senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church. As has become our custom on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we will share a special time of communion around several tables in the worship center piled high with a wide assortment of breads, representing the divinely-ordained diversity in Christ’s Body, his Church. Then at 6:00 Sunday evening, all four churches are meeting at First Baptist for the first ever “4 Amarillo” Thanksgiving service.

As God’s children, unity is our nature. This is who we are: One with Christ and one with his followers everywhere. What that means is that there is very little, if anything, outside of denying Jesus as Lord in word or deed that can separate us. If that’s the case — and it is! — then our diversity and our differences are not just tolerated, they’re embraced and appreciated. Even celebrated. Thanksgiving seems like a perfect time for just such a celebration.

Peace,

Allan

Around the Table: Part 4

October 8, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered how the Church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper actually began? There’s no right or wrong answer to the question; the Scriptures don’t give us a time and a place or a lined-out history of communion practice among members of the early Church. But think about that just for a second. I believe the New Testament is full of communion references. I think we see Lord’s Supper practices both assumed and described in lots of places other than the obvious ones in 1 Corinthians and Acts. But how did it begin? Who organized the orchestrated the first official Lord’s Supper?

Consider that on Resurrection Day — Easter Sunday, the actual day of Christ’s coming back to life and walking out of that garden tomb — Jesus appears to his disciples and eats a meal with them. It’s the first time they see the risen Lord. At dinner time. Sunday night. And he joins them and eats with them. At dinner time. On Resurrection Day. Sunday night.

On Resurrection Day, Jesus sees his disciples for the first time and eats with them: “Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating” (Mark 16:14), “They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence” (Luke 24:41-43), and “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together…” (John 20:19)

These disciples experienced the real presence of the resurrected Christ at meal time on Sunday: “Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating” (Mark 16:14), “Jesus himself stood among them” (Luke 24:36), “Jesus came and stood among them” (John 20:19).

These disciples experienced the realities of the risen Lord at this Sunday evening supper; their eyes were opened and they understood. In Mark’s account, Jesus rebukes his disciples for not believing he’s been raised. But he speaks to them at the meal, he commands and commissions them to preach the good news, and they are empowered to preach “everywhere.” Luke tells us that the disciples look at the wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet during this dinner, they touch the Lord and eat with him, and they confirm that he is indeed not a spirit or a ghost. “Then he opened their minds so they could understand…” (Luke 24:45). Jesus teaches them at the table, commands and commissions them, empowers and reassures them. In the fourth Gospel, after seeing his hands and his side, the disciples “were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). A very similar Resurrection Day meal experience occurred with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke24:13-35).

Remember, too, that Thomas was not there for that first post-resurrection meal with the Lord. He missed small groups that night. But he heard about what had happened (John 20:24) and made sure he was present for that next Sunday night (John 20:26). Thomas was there early for that next Sunday gathering. The Cowboys were down by four with six minutes to play, but Thomas still got there early. He pulled up to the driveway at 5:45, ready to go. And, sure enough, as the disciples were eating their meal on that second Sunday, the Lord showed up (John 20:26) and revealed himself to Thomas in the same ways he had opened the eyes of the other disciples the Sunday night before.

So, my question is this: What do you think happened on that third Sunday?

Again, there’s no right or wrong answer. There’s nothing in the Scriptures to tell us what happened on that next Sunday night. But my assumption is that the disciples got together for a meal, expecting to see Jesus. Again. Expecting to eat with Jesus. Again. Anticipating another wonderful dinner with their risen Lord with all the food and drink, fellowship and communion, teachings and commissionings that go with it. And it only makes sense that these dinners would continue every Sunday night with the hope of seeing the Christ. It makes sense that, early on, most disciples had heard the amazing stories about that Resurrection Day meals; they each knew somebody or knew of somebody who had eaten with Jesus on a Sunday after his resurrection. So those Sunday dinners became a very natural way to remember the Lord, to anticipate the Lord’s coming, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

If this is true — nobody has been able to convince me otherwise; in fact, nobody’s even tried — this makes the Lord’s Supper of the early Church a resurrection meal, not a funeral meal. It’s a meal that remembers his resurrection, not his death. It’s a meal that celebrates eternal life, not one that memorializes a temporary demise. Most scholars agree:

“It appears likely that the idea of the Resurrection of Christ was associated, in the minds of the disciples, with the recollection of one or more meals taken with their Master during the period from Easter to Pentecost. And when later these same disciples met to eat together, the recollection of the other meals during which the Risen One appeared to them for the first time must naturally have been very vivid to them. We can now understand why the Christian community in the Apostolic Age celebrated its meals ‘with joy.’ The certainty of the resurrection was the essential religious motive of the primitive Lord’s Supper.” ~Oscar Cullmann, Essays on the Lord’s Supper, 1958.

“The first day of the week, as resurrection day and as the day that Jesus ate with his disciples, became designated as the day when disciples would gather weekly to break bread together.” ~John Mark Hicks, Come to the Table, 2002.

“By eating and drinking with the disciples between Easter and the Ascension, Jesus demonstrates at least three things: he has been raised bodily; he resumes full communion with people who have forsaken him and despaired of the salvation they hoped he would bring; and he equips them to be trustworthy witnesses to his resurrection and to new life, to the life that he has brought to sinners such as they are.” ~Markus Barth, Rediscovering the Lord’s Supper, 1988.

“The promise of Luke 22:16, 18 is fulfilled: Jesus is risen; he is alive and now abides with his people. Therefore, we come to the table in joy, because Jesus is risen. Nowhere is this joy celebrated more appropriately than when believers have fellowship at a meal. Throughout Luke and Acts, meals function as an expression of the joy of the Kingdom of God, where the Lordship of Jesus shines forth in clarity.” ~Allan McNicol, Preparing for the Lord’s Supper, 2007.

We share the Lord’s Supper on Sundays, not Fridays. At the table, our risen Lord joins us and eats with us as we celebrate his resurrection, not his death. We eat and drink with one another and with the Christ with gladness and joy, not sadness and grief. Sunday is resurrection day and the Lord’s Supper is a resurrection meal.

Now, how do we better practice this?

Peace,

Allan

Around the Table: Part 3

September 22, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Good morning, Lon.

Alert all the local and regional safety agencies. Sound the alarm and post the warnings. The state of Texas has granted Valerie a driver license. On Friday morning, our Little Middle parallel parked like a champ and then aced the driving test, nailing it with a 96. So, consider carefully this advice: be extra cautious around the southwest part of town and, in the early evenings. between here and Canyon.

Congratulations, Valerie. Now, can you run to the store and get some bread and more Diet Dr Pepper?

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After two weeks of intense Old Testament study concerning the covenant between God and man, the history and nature of covenant meals, the fellowship sacrifices and meals, the presence of God at those meals, and the great joy commanded and experienced around those tables, our Wednesday night Bible class in Sneed Hall has crossed the threshold into the New Testament and the ministry meals of our Lord Jesus. It’s a class on the Lord’s Supper, yet I think most everyone is surprised at how much we explored before we ever got to the Gospels. Well, we had to.

God comes to us in the person of Jesus as a fulfillment of the covenant: “I will make my dwelling place with you; you will be my people and I will be your God.” Emmanuel means “God with us.” And that’s just what/who Jesus is: God with us. God in Christ comes here to dwell among us (“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” John 1:14). He came to earth to reveal himself to us in Jesus (“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9). And God put on our flesh and came to this planet in order to eat and drink with us, to commune with us, around a table.

“I confer on you a Kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom.” ~Luke 22:29-30

“Many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.” ~Matthew 8:11

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet…” ~Matthew 22:2

You don’t have to read too far in the Gospels and you don’t have to pay too close attention to see that meals, eating and drinking with people, are the focal point of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus eats with his disciples and with his enemies, with the “righteous” and the “sinners,” with crowds of Jews and crowds of Gentiles, with tax collectors and prostitutes, with Mary and Martha and teachers of the Law. Jesus ate and drank with everybody. He was eating and drinking all the time, so much so that he was accused on several occasions of being a drunkard and a glutton.

And in all these Jesus stories, the meals are critically important. They reveal great truths about what God is doing through Jesus in the world. The meals teach lessons about what it means to live as citizens in God’s Kingdom. They express forgiveness and healing, they celebrate restoration and fellowship.

Jesus is eating with Levi and the other tax collectors, showing us in visible ways that the invitation to enjoy fellowship with God is open to all. He’s criticized for his choice in dinner companions and answers by proclaiming that “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners!” (Luke 5:31) You get the same thing with Zacchaeus. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Jesus forgives the sins of the prostitute at the dinner at the Pharisee’s house in Luke 7. He teaches on hypocrisy and taking care of the poor during the meal with the Pharisees and teachers in Luke 11. At the supper with the Pharisee in Luke 14, our Lord declares again that he’s here to eat with everybody: “Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame!” (Luke 14:21)

Aside from the last dinner with his disciples and the post-resurrection meals, the most important meals during Jesus’ ministry came at the feeding of the multitudes. All four Gospels go to great lengths to report on the miraculous feedings of the five thousand Jews and the four thousand Gentiles. The imagery is unmistakably Messianic. Here’s this great prophet of God providing food for God’s people in the desert. They eat until they are full. Baskets of leftovers are collected. This fulfills Moses. This fulfills prophesy. This is the Anointed One, the Christ!

The early church made a pretty big deal about the feeding of the multitudes. The first churches ate their communion meals in the context of these feedings and the truths those stories revealed. It’s why the earliest communion art we have contains images of fish with the bread and the wine. The connections were made not just by the common themes and the prophesies, but by the deliberate wording the New Testament writers used to relate these important meals. They tied the church’s meals to the last supper, the post-resurrection dinners, and the feedings of the crowds with the four-fold liturgy of “take, bless, break, and give.”

In every account of these miraculous feedings, Jesus is said to “take” the bread, “bless” it, “break” it, and then “give” it to the disciples. Look it up; it’s in every passage (Luke 9:16, Matthew 14:19, Mark 6:41, Mark 8:6, Matthew 15:36). The same language is even used for the fish in John 6:11. Interestingly, the exact same formula is used in the Last Supper accounts. Jesus takes, breaks, blesses, and gives (Luke 22:19, Mark 14:22, Matthew 26:26). The same four words are used in the same order in the stories of Jesus’ post-resurrection meals, too, tying together all the meals Jesus ate during his ministry to the meals the church was sharing together at the time the stories were recorded. Everything that was going on in those meals — the teachings, the revealed truths, the fellowship and thanksgiving, the invitation and celebration, the anticipation of the final heavenly feast — is also going on today in our church’s meals.

They are all Kingdom meals. The feedings of the crowds, the last dinner, the post-resurrection suppers — they are all Kingdom meals, eaten in community, in the presence of the Lord, with great joy. They each anticipate the fullness of the Messianic banquet in the new heaven and new earth. They’re each characterized by joyful celebration and an abundance of food. To eat with Jesus (God) is to experience and celebrate redemption and acceptance. All the meals proclaim that the Day of great joy for all the people has dawned.

With this understanding, how in the world would the first Christians eat the “Lord’s Supper” in a quiet, somber, individualistic way? How would they imitate or recreate the Lord’s meal with little crumbs of cracker and tiny sips of juice?

Of course, they didn’t.  But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit.

Peace,

Allan

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