Bethany Community Church

This final week of teaching, we’ll be consider the far ranging implications of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church
the communion of saints
the forgiveness of sins
the resurrection of the body
and life everlasting. Amen

All of these elements stem from our life “in the Spirit” and the reality is that the New Testament has a great deal to say about what it means to “walk in the Spirit” and “be filled with Spirit”. Here are some questions to guide your thinking as consider the far ranging implications of the Holy Spirit when we gather this coming Sunday:

1. It seems that all churches struggle with finding the proper place for the Holy Spirit in their life together. The Spirit is sometimes granted supremacy, as if Jesus were an afterthought, and is other times treated like the little brother of the trinity who has two, much older siblings. Why do we struggle to find this right place?

2. What has your experience with the Holy Spirit been? Can you identify ways in which the Spirit has been clearly helpful in your life?

3. You’ll learn on Sunday that I believe all Christian HAVE the Spirit, but not all Christians are FILLED with the Spirit. Have you ever sought to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What did that look like?

I’ll close by pointing you to this web-site, which tells the story of DL Moody, a man for whom I have the deepest respect and who shares his testimony of being filled with Holy Spirit. Don’t be put off by the retro looking website or the language – some of the best stuff is hidden in the plainest packages! Moody basically said that he’d served God for years without being filled with the Holy Spirit, but that when he was finally filled with the Holy Spirit, it made all the difference. Yes – that’s the deal for me too. I’ve not always remained filled with the Holy Spirit, because, as I’ll share next week, I’m a firm believer that if I’m holding on to some sins, or refusing to go into places God wants to take my heart, the Holy Spirit is sort of bound up, unable to express life through me. But when that Spirit is free… indeed it does make all the difference. Moody said that he wouldn’t trade this being filled with the Spirit for all the money in the world. Neither would I.

If this isn’t something you’re confident you’ve known in your life, I’m hoping to have some material available this Sunday to help you pray through this matter. We’ll be talking about other things too, as we ponder what it means to live, with all who have gone before us down through centuries, as a people committed not only to declaring, but to living, the Apostle’s Creed.

If you were in the services last weekend, you heard in my poem a reference to an angel named Kelly. Kelly was a miracle for myself and the men and women who helped to build the new playground. We had just started the demolition of the old playground. We had rented a backhoe and were beginning to rip out all of the timbers from the old playground. Along came Kelly on his bike in full bike gear and saw us in our plight. Even though he is not a regular attendee at BCC, he stopped and asked one of the guys working if he could drive the backhoe for us. Kelly told us that he does this for a living and would love to help us finish our project. For the next eight hours (yep, he was there ALL DAY) Kelly tore down timbers, broke up concrete (a lot of concrete), buried concrete, loaded trucks with concrete and dirt, and leveled the area. His talents and skills were used by the Lord that day and I know that I am incredibly grateful that he decided to stop and play. What an awesome demonstration of a servant’s heart. I am reminded by his example of our call to “love your neighbor as yourself”. May I seek to respond to that call with my talents and skills in the same way Kelly did.

Brian Hallberg
Children’s Pastor

The notion of God as the judge is, in our culture, one of the most difficult declarations for people to accept. Our culture likes tolerance better than judgment, or at least that’s what we like to think. Other cultures around the world, though, find the mercy of God more offensive than the justice of God, feeling that His mercy is a sign of weakness.

Setting aside the discussion about our propensity to pick and choose which parts of God to believe in based on which parts we find appealing, there are some careful considerations to make about God as the judge:

1. Judgment is about moving the story of God’s redemptive plan forward by curbing, containing, or destroying evil. The goal is seen in Ephesians 1:10-11 where we learn that history is moving to Christ’s life filling all things. This will require the subduing of all that refuses to be filled, and this subduing is judgment. We say we don’t like judgment, but we really do, when understood in this light. We like it when ‘cancer’ is subdued so that it doesn’t spread. Most people were happy when the holocaust ended. We like it when child molesters are contained so that they can no longer inflict their damage on young lives. So, before we get too bothered by the notion of God as a judge, perhaps we’d better consider the reality that we really do look forward to the containment of death, evil, and suffering. Such containment is judgment. Perhaps the best being in the universe to orchestrate that containment is God!

2. Judgment is therefore motivated by both love and justice – Containment of evil is an act of love and justice for the whole of creation, eventuating in blessing and fullness of life for all who are willing to receive it.

In enlightened days like these, it’s politically correct, perhaps even spiritually correct to avoid any discussion about judgment, to believe that all roads lead to the pot of spiritual gold at the end of rainbow. But this is not only a contradiction to the Bible, it’s a contradiction to the real world, where evil things happen at the hands of people. So here are some things to ponder:

1. Are we resistant to the idea of God as the judge? Why or why not?

2. Is judgment similar to discipline?

3. Share a time when discipline are judgment served a redemptive purpose in your life.

4. What are the dangers of the doctrine of judgment and how can we avoid them?

Jesus rose again from the dead.  The topic is more timely than we might first think, because a healthy view of Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead helps us escape some of the prevailing destructive world views that course through the veins of history. Which ones?I Corinthians 15:3-8 / 20-28

1) the notion that we will eventually evolve to a state of collective perfection. This is a difficult view to own with much conviction if one looks at history for the reality is that, while we’ve evolved in some area (consider the 109 year old African American woman who voted last night – she is testimony to how far our country has come), there are countless areas where darkness continues to grow. Children continue to die of treatable diseases. Should I mention Darfur? Rwanda? Congo? The Middle-East? Cancer? Environmental degradation? How long until we reach the state where, through our own powers of education and value structures, we achieve perfect justice? Apart from Christ, never, that’s when, because the reality of human evil is rooted deeply in our individual and collective humanity.

2) the last sentence in point one is the seedbed for a 2nd, equally grievous error: our disengagement from this world as we passively wait for a future rescue by Jesus. Such a faith is not only stripped of all power and relevance for most of the world, it’s also rooted in a grave misunderstanding of what Jesus had to say about his kingdom. Nevertheless, being certain that we’re not “left-behind” and trying hard to get our neighbors in the lifeboat too remains a high priority for many who claim the name of Christ.

In contrast to both of these views, the early church declared, not a future kingdom of God someday when Jesus returns, but a kingdom present in seed form, so that visible outposts of justice, hope, peace, and generosity could be here on the earth right now because Christ’s resurrected body is here on the earth right now. And yet, mysteriously, though He’s here, it’s equally true that He is yet to come, and that only when He comes in fullness will the reign of Christ be full and complete. On that day, all enemies will be conquered, and all the universe shot through with the glory of God. This “now” and “not yet” mystery is at the core of the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ. It roots us in a deep commitment to the present while equally calling us to a confident hope in Christ final triumph. Learning to live in this space is deeply connected to my belief in the bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus, as we’ll see this Sunday.

1. If you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, is your belief rooted more in the right side, or left side of your brain (right = subjective, emotive) (left = scientific, objective)

2. Would Christianity have any value if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? Why or why not?

3. How do you relate Jesus’ resurrection to your thoughts at funerals? How does this resurrection affect your politics?

The votes have been cast. Two stirring speeches were given, both striking in their humility and call for unity. American democracy was on a world stage last night and we collectively demonstrated that the ideals of giving everyone a voice are still alive and well, perhaps more visibly demonstrated this year than any other.

But now that it’s over, millions of believers are waking up either elated or exasperated, overjoyed or angry, delighted or despairing. I know this because this is a time of seismic political shifts among people of faith, with fractures growing along geographical, generational, theological, and economic lines, depending on your particular situation. I know this because in this first election since the rise of the blogosphere, inflammatory pixels have been hurled, believer at believer, with such intensity that outsiders would think the left and right worship different Gods.

Millions of Christians are feeling that the country is headed, more than ever, in the wrong direction, while the rest are conviced that better days are finally ahead and the right man won. Many are angry at the other side, incredulous that Christians could vote as they did. But behind the sound bytes, blog attacks, and flashes of apocalyptic rhetoric, if one listens carefully, there’s a humble Jewish man saying, “by this all men will know that your are my disciples, in that you have love for one another.” This love has largely gone missing during the recent political season. Continuing to wallow in bitterness or gloat in triumphal pride are not acceptable options for people who follow Jesus. We must find a way to move towards the healing of relationships and unity of heart and purpose that is foundational to our calling. Yes, we must.

Recovery begins by realizing that the winner is neither Messiah nor Anti-Christ. Believing that any party is God’s party leads to heights of elation or depths of despair unbecoming to those who claim that Christ is our true king, His reign our true hope, and embodying that reign our true ambition. The reality that Jesus stands outside the confines of our political structures was demonstrated during His short stay on earth, when He was no party’s poster child, no ideology’s champion. He came offering a different kingdom, whose ethics and calling stand apart from the warring systems of this world. This is where we must place our hope.

We must realize that our calling is to live, right now in the present, in accordance with the priorities and ethics of our eternal King, and His coming kingdom. This will mean offering bold critique and resistance at some moments, and enthusiastic support at others, for various positions and reforms offered by both the left and the right. As we seek to embody this Kingdom, the walls that have divided us will fall down, because we will care about life in the womb, and life on the streets; we’ll care about justice and mercy; we’ll care about loving our enemies and standing up for those who are unprotetcted. We’ll become artisans of genuine hope, spilling the colors of beauty, reconciliation, celebration, serivice, justice, peace, and compassion on the canfass of our communities. This, I’m convinced, is not only our calling in Christ, it’s what our world desperately needs in these immensely challenging days. We must lay our weapons down and commit to being the presence of Jesus in the world. Yes. We must.