Luke 7. 37-50. Passionate spirituality

“Spirituality” is an unfamiliar word.  It simply means the processes involved in maintaining our relationship with God and being transformed by that relationship.  It's about knowing God and growing as  a result.

Passionate spirituality, is not the only kind of spirituality:  There are a number of other less helpful kinds!  The Pharisee demonstrates polite spirituality.  He has invited Jesus round after the synagogue service, for food.  He wanted to hang out with Jesus, and you can't invite people round without giving them some food.  But you can't have a hot meal because that would involve working on the Sabbath.  So the meal would be cold meat, salads, fruit, with bread baked the previous day.  The guests would be given water to wash their hands – that was the law.  But no foot-washing, no ointment, no welcome kiss: that was luxury.  So it was polite enough.  It was enough to get by.  But it wasn't on fire.  It wasn't an expression of love.  It was  a matter of doing the minimum. 

Many of us have a polite spirituality today.  We are measured, unemotional, respectable, in how we maintain our relationship with god. He gets his bit of our time – an hour or so on a Sunday, read a few verses every day; a few coins in the offering.  Jesus looks beyond the few coins, or the many – to see what is going on in our hearts.  He is looking for the things we do to be the overflow of  heart of love for him. 

And the danger is that the next step down from a “polite” spirituality” is a “spirituality of Pretence”:  the kind of thing that Malachi mentions – where worshippers bring a sacrifice – but it's a lame or blemished animal.  It withholds the tithes – the tenths of flocks and harvest that the Old Testament law required of every family in the nation.  And it says “This whole temple thing is such a bore! How long is it going to go on for?”  And some of us have been there: we like everyone to think we are people who pray and read our bibles, but we can go for days or weeks without doing either apart from in Church on a Sunday.  We like everyone to think we are  giving generously to the Church – but we know how much we are really giving.  We like everyone to think we are committed to Jesus but inside, we are thinking “this is such a drag!” 

Some people have a spirituality of “Entitlement”.  What I call a “push-button spirituality”.  We do our bit for god.  We come to Church, we sing, we praise, we give.  Maybe we don't brag about what we do; we are quiet and discrete about it.  We don’t complain.  But we believe God owes us something.  We feel as if our prayer, our walk with God, our Sunday worship and service, entitles us to have our prayers answered. 
We have a push-button spirituality when we preach “repent and believe” without any expectation that a person's life will be changed by Jesus.  Now I believe in “repent and believe”.  But repent and believe is more than a legal transaction; it is  dynamic event that brings about a transformation. 
We have a push-button spirituality when we teach that somewhere, there's a key, a way of releasing faith, that will get all our prayers answered by God.  Now I know Jesus said “believe that you have received it and it shall be yours.”  But that's not a formula to get what I want in prayer.  It's a challenge to bring our desires, our asking, into the service of kingdom faith, not to bring kingdom faith into the service of our desires.
We have a push-button spirituality when we expect that following a particular pathway will bring results – blessing, answered prayer, growth.  God never provides us with buttons to push. He is a person not a machine.  He is looking for relationship, for passion.
The trouble with a “push-button spirituality” is that, if we are motivated by the results, rather than the love, then, when we stop getting the chocolate, we stop pushing the buttons.

Passionate Spirituality, is the greatest commandment, the spirituality God desires.  Jesus recognises that the woman “loves much”.  And Jesus says “The greatest commandment is 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Mt 22. 37-40, cf Lk 10. 27)  This goes right back to the Old testament, to Deuteronomy 6. 5.  Passionate Spirituality is what God has always wanted.  For us to love him... with everything.

Passionate Spirituality, is seen in the woman's generous, extravagant, emotional response to Jesus.  Her response is total.  She has gone beyond the idea of giving a wee bit back to Jesus.  She is giving everything.  Mark tells us the ointment was worth 300 denarii, and a denarius is a day's wages. That means it was worth a year’s salary for a full-time labourer.  That's a lot of money.  The woman is giving everything.  Once a widow threw two tiny copper coins into the temple treasury, among other people who were throwing huge bags of money in.  Jesus saw her.  Maybe she was embarrassed, but Jesus said her gifts was worth more than all the fat cheques because he knew that she had given all she had.

So, passionate Spirituality is extravagant.  It is about everything we have.  And in fact, as the woman came into the presence of Jesus, not only did she give everything. she had materially, but indeed even her reputation – or what was left of it – was in tatters.  What she did was extreme.  But the nature of passionate spirituality, is extreme.

Some of us have fearful, self-preservation, calculating hearts that are reluctant to give in terms of money, time, praise, appreciation, opportunities or forgiveness.   We need to restore the passion in our hearts that can be extravagant because we are in love.

Passionate Spirituality is about emotions, because it is about everything. There is love, there is gratitude, there is wonder, and shame and fear and relief, all rolled into one.  So she is in tears; she gets embarrassed, she mishandles the situation, and ends up letting her hair down to dry Jesus' feet after soaking them with her tears. 

We need to find place for our emotions in our walk with Jesus.  Too often our spirituality is about our minds and our words.  And yes, we need to understand: but we need to respond, and part of that response needs to be with the emotions that God has created us to have.  So, do we get excited when we read God's word?  Do the tears ever flow when we are worshipping God together or praying on or own?  Do we ever feel like shouting out with uninhibited joy at God's grace?  Let's not be afraid of emotion. 

Passionate Spirituality, is our response to God's love.  Jesus says the one who is forgiven much, loves much.  That doesn’t mean she was forgiven because of what she did for Jesus.  It means that what she did for Jesus, she did because she knew she was forgiven. Somewhere backstage of this encounter, was another meeting with Jesus.   Passionate spirituality comes from a heart that knows it is loved.  That is where Passionate Spirituality comes from. It isn't worked up through tear-jerker music. It is our response to revealed facts.  The fact that made the difference for the woman in the story was that Jesus had accepted and forgiven her, messed up as she was.  The Pharisee in the story hadn't got Spiritual passion, because he hadn't got the facts. It's not that he didn't need forgiven: with his sneering criticism of both the woman and Jesus, he was about as nasty a piece of work as any Jesus dealt with.  He just hadn’t realised his need.   A key theme in the story is “Who is this who even forgives sins?”  Listen: joy comes, gratitude comes, passionate spirituality is birthed, in knowing who Jesus is and how his love forgives our worst mess.    


And Passionate spirituality makes a difference. 
What the woman did in Luke 7 led to truth being discovered about Jesus.  “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”  Truth is revealed when we get passionate about Jesus. Matthew and Mark tell us that the anointing prepared Jesus.' body for burial.  In telling a similar story, John 12. 3 says “the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment”.  When we get passionate about Jesus, the fragrance can go a long way!

And for the woman herself, Jesus says “Your faith has saved you; go in peace”.  Passionate spirituality, when we respond to truth with everything – releases assurance of salvation and enables us to journey towards peace. 




© Gilmour Lilly October 2015

Gift-Based Ministry.

 Gift-Based Ministry.  Romans 12. 1-8; 1 Corinthians 12. 4-14; Ephesians 4. 4-13

Firstly, ministry simply means “Service”!  The word the NT uses mainly one word both for ministry and service.  Scholars will try to tell you that sometimes the word is used “in a technical sense” to refer to church officials, and at other times it means just “service”.  That may well be true, but it obscures the simple inescapable point that the same word is used for both – so in the Greek Bible, what church officials do and what ordinary people do, sound the same.  It's all ministry.  It's all service.   So maybe we should abolish “ministry” and simply have service instead.

Everyone has Ministry because everyone has gifts.  Did you notice in each of the three readings, that certain words crop up over and over again?
On of these words is “to each”

• to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Eph 4. 7)
• to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Cor 12. 7)
• We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. (Rom 12. 6)

Another common theme in each of the readings is “unity in the body”!   Check out

• Romans12. 5 “we, though many, form one body”
• 1 Corinthians 12  “we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body”
• Ephesians 4. 4 “There is one body and one Spirit.”

Everyone has gifts – they are diverse, and different in their shape and size and colour and texture.  The NT uses different words for these gifts.  They are “grace-gifts”, favours from God, ; they are manifestations of the Spirit, signs of God's presence, ; and they are presents or payments.  So we can expect these gifts to work in different ways at different times.  

• Sometimes God will equip you for something because he is calling you to do it: maybe once only.  
• Sometimes God favours us with a gift to use over and over.  
• Sometimes we are given gifts that don't fit neatly into one of the categories of the NT.  You may not know what to call it but it's a favour from God and a manifestation of his presence when you use your gift.  
• Our gifts may be used in public worship, or in private service, inside or outside the Church.  

Everyone has gifts because everyone has grace.
Another word that crops up in each of our readings is “Grace”.  Gifts, how they are received and what they do in the lives of other people, is all about “Grace”.  Sometimes in Bible Churches we think we have the idea of “Grace” all summed up neatly: “God's Riches At Christ's Expense” and all that. But the danger is we have only begun to scratch the surface.  “God's redemptive Activity in Christian Experience” is a  bit more of a mouthful – but it gets nearer to the breadth and scope of what grace is about: god generously, freely at work in our lives, doing beautiful things, and making beauty out of our ashes, calling from us wonder, joy and gratitude.  Gifts are received from a generous, creative father, to make us generous, creative people. 

But there is something unique in each of the passages too.  Each one has a word for us today.
 
Reality check
In Romans 12. 3 Paul tells us not to think of ourselves too highly but to have sober judgement about our gifts:  literally “to think towards a sound mind”.  It's the same word that is used when Jesus drove the legion of demons out of the man in the caves in Mark 5, and then people found him “clothed and in his right mind”.   He was no longer screaming and self-harming; he was no longer naked and delusional. The demons were gone and his mental condition was healed. He was now in touch with reality for the first time in years.

In this business of gifts, then, we are to get in touch with reality. If you have gifts, use them.  The RSV helpfully supplies the words, although they aren't there in the Greek, the clear point about the list of gifts, is that we are to use exactly what we have been given.  Nothing less, nothing more.  If you are a teacher, then teach; if you are a server, then serve.  Use what you've got.  But be realistic: don't use what you haven't got.

That’s the way to emotionally healthy Christian service and to emotionally healthy Church.  The other kind of ministry, of service, where do what we're not gifted at, where we think outside of a sound mind, we get further and further awy from a sound mind, because the more committed we get to wrong thinking, the more delusional we become.  So whether it's the kind of person who says “Well, I have the gift of prophecy, so everyone ought to listen to me and nobody can ever tell me I'm wrong”; or whether it's the kind of thinkign that says “I'm indispensable, they can't manage without me, the show must go on so I ahvae to keep pushing myself;” we are thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought; we're thinking we are mori important and the stuff we aer doing is more important than it really is. We need to think ourselves towards reality. If we do what we are not gifted at, to fill in the gaps, to be like someone else whom we admire, to impress the congregation with how clever we are or how generous, or efficient or self-sacrificing, is not God's way.  It's not healthy. It's not the way that releases the Holy Spirit.  It's not the way that builds up the body.  Jesus says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

You are God's gift to the Church!
In Ephesians 4. 11f, the gifts are the people: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  Throughout history, we have assumed that these are “Special people” with a particular calling to ministry in the Church.  The AV put a load of commas in v 12 so it reads, “for the perfecting (equipping) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ.”   That implies that the special people build up the saints, do ministry and build up the body.

When I was a young Christian I was taught that one of these commas shouldn't be there: it should read “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”  That implies that the special people equip the saints (for their ministry or service) and build up the body of Christ.  In fact there are no commas, or punctuation of any sort, in the original Greek text.  So maybe the special people are meant to equip the saints so the saints can all do works of ministry and all build up the body.

But – remember what I said at the beginning?  Everyone has a gift.  “To each one grace was given...  When Jesus rose he gave gifts to men: and his gifts were that some should be ...”
Apostle – creative, visionary, outward looking people
Prophet – who bring insight and challenge
Evangelists – persuasive, relational, cross-cultural
Pastor – caring, consolidating, relating
Teacher – understanding, presenting, and demonstrating the truth.
And that's it.  There's no mention of healing, tongues, administration, or giving aid. So what if – whatever other gifts we may have – everyone is meant to have one of these as the direction of travel in our service for God.  That would mean that every one of us is God's gift to the Church – and the purpose is net-mending and body-building.  “To equip of the saints” is the same word that is used in Mark 1. 19, where the fishermen were getting their nets in working order. I love the idea that we can all play our part in net-mending – as the church is equipped to reach out – and body-building.

Let the Spirit work through you.
In 1 Corinthians 12. 7-11, Paul reminds us over and over that the source of all the gifts, is the Holy Spirit.  It doesn't matter what it is – whether it's playing an instrument you learned at School or praying in a  language you have never learned – whether we use our hands to apply a bandage or impart God's blessing – we look to the Holy Spirit to come through in what we do.  Walking with God, rooting our service in our spirituality, and moving in the costly, and powerful flow of the Holy Spirit, co-operating with him in what he wants to do through us, is a far better option than being busy for God, trying to impress him or others with our dedication or our cleverness. It's a far better option than trying harder and hander to squeeze more out of ourselves.  The flesh is a hard taskmaster.  But Jesus gives us his Spirit and says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

And so one of the qualities of a healthy Church is “Gift-based service for Jesus”.  We are realistic about what we can and cannot do.  We do what we are led to do by the Holy Spirit.  And as we are humble and realistic about what God has called us to do, we discover that we are each God's gift to the Church and we are each able to play our part in net-mending and body-building.

© Gilmour Lilly October  2015

Luke 5. 1-11 Empowering Leadership

So as the crowd milled around trying to listen to this young preacher and healer,  there they were, washing the seaweed and silt out of their nets, after a bad night when they had caught nothing.  And the preacher climbed into one of their boats and asked the owner, Simon, to put out a bit into the water.  The routines of life were interrupted,  grumpy fishermen for some reason did as they were asked... A boat makes a  great pulpit and still water carries sound, so it was an excellent solution to the problem that only the front few rows could hear. Whether they liked it or not Simon, Andrew, James and John were suddenly involved in what the young preacher was doing.  

The young preacher had a plan and a sense of purpose and direction: he knew what he wanted wanted to achieve.  And he got other people involved.

Then the young preacher, Yeshua ben Yousef, when he had finished teaching the people, told the fishermen “Go out a bit further, into the deep water and do some fishing”.  It was daytime, not the time for fishing. Daytime fishing needed different nets from the ones they had been using at night. It was getting hotter, the men were tired. And they have this young preacher ordering them about.  Simon argues: “Master (Governor!  But in fact it was the gentile Luke's way of translating “Rabbi!”) we didn't catch anything all night. But because you say so...”)

The young preacher pushed the fishermen.  He stretched them.  Floating about in the shallows, using their boat as a pulpit, was OK. It was doable.  It was comfortable.  But daytime fishing after a useless night, that was hard work.  It was going to look daft (and there was a crowd looking on).  It was an act of faith. It was out of the comfort-zone. And it worked.  As they did the crazy, unthinkable, counter-intuitive thing, they made this amazing catch of fish.  Simon and Andrew had to get James and John to come and help.

Simon's reaction was to say “Lord (“kyrie” – the Greed word used to translate the Old Testament “Yahweh” –  the name of God himself) you should leave, because I'm a sinful man. Suddenly he realised two truths:
(1) who he was dealing with.  He was beginning to come to terms with the fact that this man was God incarnate. 
(2) his own moral failure and utter unworthiness to have anything to do with this young preacher who has such authority.

The young preacher, Yeshua, Jesus, is Lord!  He is God the Son.  In what he has done and called the fishermen to do, he has revealed to them the truth about who he is and about their own weakness. 

In coaching and development, there is often a sticking point: the person being developed suddenly feels that the growing is too much to handle; they are never going to make it; there is a sense of inadequacy and cost.  Simon is at that sticking point when he suggests it's time for Jesus to leave – but Jesus responds by saying, “Don't be afraid -  from now on you will fish for people.”  Jesus isn't interested in experiments or experiences.  He is interested in transformation.  He would not have achieved much in the lives of the four fishermen, if they simply had “experimented” with working for Jesus, if they simply had this amazing experience – “Wow – what a wonderful catch of fish”.  Jesus was into life-transformation. 

That's what discipleship is all about.  It is life-transformation.  It involves participation: it involves getting out of our comfort zone.  It involves participating in the things God is doing.  It involves revelation.  It involves transformation. 

So the four of them pulled their boats up on the shore, and walk away with Jesus.  Others could take the boats out and fish.  They were pitching in with Jesus.  Full commitment, following Jesus, participation in his big project, going outside of their comfort-zones, learning to exercise a stretching, at-the-limits kind of faith.  We can call that discipleship. 

What Jesus had done in this first encounter, this initial call of Simon and Andrew, James and John, was set the tone for the rest of their journey together.  His leadership is empowering leadership.  Or to put it another way, it is about discipleship.   And Jesus called his disciples to make disciples.  That is a call to leadership.  It is a call to empowering leadership – for the disciples to exercise the same kind of empowering leadership that Jesus himself exercised.

“Empowering leadership” is one of the Characteristics of a Healthy Church.  It is one of the things, the first thing actually, which needs to be there for the Church to be healthy, catching the wind of the Spirit and bearing fruit.   A healthy Church is one with a culture of discipleship. 

So what do we mean by empowering leadership?

It is more than simply management.   Peter Drucker, the father of the scientific study of management once said, Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Management is about keeping the risks down, using the resources well, laying down the rules, understanding and controlling the processes so that everything runs smoothly.  Management will delegate and harness people's abilities.  When Jesus got into the boat, he was managing the situation.  Later on, when he was going to feed the five thousand, he told the disciples to sit everyone down in groups of fifty of a hundred – he was managing. We need management.  It's a start – but it's not enough. 

Empowering leadership, like all leadership, sees the future, it has a sense of vision and purpose. And it knows what are the right things to do to get to that future.

Empowering leadership is about everyone being involved. It starts with a simple call to perform a simple task.  “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it” says Andrew Carnegie.   But if all Jesus had done was delegate – involving the fishermen by having them row their wee boat out a bit – it wouldn't have been empowering leadership.

Empowering leadership is about challenge and invitation. Empowering leadership will stretch people.  It is not simply about harnessing what people can do easily, in order to get the job done.  It is about enabling people to discover new gifts, to exercise more faith and to see God at work.

Empowering leadership is about revelation. It is about enabling people to see God at work, not just as they hear wonderful testimonies and stories.  One of the outcomes of Empowering leadership – of disciple-making – is that we see God at work, in and through our lives, and we have a sense of humble inadequacy as a result.

Empowering leadership is about transformation. It nurtures and prepares people to take responsibility.  It's about growth, not just in knowledge but in experience and ability and character. 
Empowering leadership understands that such transformation is not just a matter of learning ideas and concepts.  It is about putting these into practise.  So the empowering leader needs to be living the life of the Kingdom himself or herself, putting it into practise.  We cannot lead people where we are not prepared to tread. 

That’s a challenge to those who lead – to exercise “empowering Leadership”. To make disciples who can make disciples.  That challenges us at the level of intentionality – because discipleship, empowering leadership, won't happen on its own.  It challenges our integrity – because we can only lead by example. And it challenges our skills.

It's a challenge to our Church life: we need a culture of discipleship.
 People are not “grunts” to get the job done.  They are not a workforce to keep the Church running.    They are disciples who are learning how to make disciples. 

And it's a challenge to each one of us to and put ourselves in the place of being disciples – ready to be transformed! To develop the art of “follower-ship”. And as we are discipled, to be disciples who can make disciples.

© Gilmour Lilly October  2015