Morling Tuesday Chapel: Vulnerability: treasure in clay jars

Topic: Vulnerability: treasure in clay jars

Speaker: Megan Powell du Toit

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:1-12

One of the reasons why people come to college is to reduce their vulnerability.

Helmut Thielicke: Truth seduces us very easily into a kind of joy of possession: I have comprehended this and that. Knowledge is power.

V1: Ministry of the gospel: This arise out of having received mercy. Mercy is not something we earned, it is not a career, but from a grace that has been given to us.

V5: We do not proclaim ourselves, but proclaim Jesus Christ. Reject any gospel that has a sense of self-promotion.

V7: We have this treasure in clay jars. God’s power is contrasted with others’ weakness and vulnerability.

V8-9: Paul talks about being defeated/struck down etc. Megan personally suffered from depression and knows that the feeling of God’s power is not always there.

It is God’s strength that empowers the ministry. Paradox of the gospel: from death and suffering come life and hope. We are decaying/dying creatures. In this we identify with the death and suffering of Jesus, so that we may be with him in new life.

V12: So then, death is at work in us, and life is at work in you.

We often think of Paul as someone who’s multi-gifted and knowledgeable. But he argues it is God’s power within his weakness.

Churches want pastors to be invulnerable. Megan worked >1 decade in pastoral ministry: burnout, due to the need for superhuman pastors, pastors who need less downtime, behaves perfectly, turn their hand to every possible ministry in church and excel. Female pastors are expected to do it even better than men!!

“The vulnerable pastor” by Mandy Smith, “Our work as pastors are impossible!” The impossible task of imperfect beings representing a perfect God.

We idolise strength, but when power is spoken of with approval in the bible, it is not human power, but God’s power! It’s not that power and perfection are bad, but as human beings, we do not have real power and real perfection. So an appearance of invulnerability in human is mad, because it’s incredibly dishonest.

Every human life has its limitations, vulnerability, and weaknesses. We are born needy and we die helpless. Jürgen Moltmann.

Does that mean authenticity is the buzzword? In reality, we don’t deal with authenticity well. We often make the authentic inauthentic! A bit of vulnerability makes us more relatable, but it can bite us back in the bum and tip into undermining ourselves. Just like the pitiable cry vs ugly cry: We still care about our self-image even as we display vulnerability.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. Brené Brown.

https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en

Brown talks of all the good that can come out of vulnerability: Hope, accountability, authenticity. However, it doesn’t mean being vulnerable will make all well for you.

The only thing worse than vulnerable is to refuse to be vulnerable. Some take ministry as PR and spin, rather than the power of God shining through.

However, this is not about false humility either. The repulsion of false humility: You need to do an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you’re a good baker, you don’t need to keep that from others.

Paul doesn’t puff up his strengths and disguise his weaknesses.

There is a temptation to put on a front in ministry: resist this temptation. You are not Mary Poppins, perfect in every way.

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen, Anthem.

https://youtu.be/mDTph7mer3I

Today’s talk reminded me of a book I read more than a year ago, “Fail”, by J.R. Briggs:

Notes:

http://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/fail-jr-briggs.html

My personal thoughts and review of the book:

http://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/book-review-fail-finding-hope-and-grace.html

Today's talk also reminded me of a talk I heard a few years back, given by a pastor, James Goll: Shooting star vs North star... There are different types of stars in the sky: Shooting stars are brilliant and lights up the night. Sometimes these stars shoot up quickly, gave a bright brilliant burst, and falls. Another type of star, the North Star, is a fixed star. It doesn't release a brilliant flash, but has been used at all time as a stationary light, giving us guidance in the path of navigation. Some ministries are genuinely called, anointed, rises very fast with great glory, but might not finish well. James Goll says he wants to finish well: It is not so much about ambition as it is about pleasing the One. He wants to be the one used for clear navigation.

Morling Tuesday Chapel: Two sides of love?

Topic: Two sides of love?

Scripture: 1 John 3:11-24; 4:7-12

The first question the speaker asked us was: How many love song titles can you think of in one minute?

Two sides of love? There’s often a debate seen on this:

Truth, champions of the Word of God, of love towards God through Christ. Complain the lovers of grace do not love the truth enough.  

Grace, champions of the concept of kindness, to change hearts in life. Complain the lovers of truth don’t love people enough.

Vertical and horizontal dimensions to love.

What demonstrates true love?

It’s made real in actions. You see it through the demonstration of it. It is concrete, anchored in history.

Vertical dimension:

·       Jesus shows it in 1 John 4:9: “He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.”

·       Sacrifice proved it. 1 John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

·       God started it. 1 John 4:7. It’s not by our own credit.

·       God is love. 1 John 4:8.

Horizontal dimension:

·       We share God’s love.

·       Love those close to you. 1 John 3:11-16. We ought to lay down our lives for your brothers. Lack of love is death.

·       It’s one thing to love conveniently. It’s truer to love at a cost, when it costs your life. Eg. Queensland flood 2011, 13y.o. Jordan Rice said “Take my brother first.” How often do we love like that?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/take-my-brother-first-heroic-final-act-saves-sibling/story-fn7iwx3v-1225986648911

·       Love those in need. 1 John 3:17. This love spreads to those outside of our comfortable reach.

·       Love with action. 1 John 3:18.

·       Loving God=loving others. 1 John 3:23-24. 1 John 4:7-8,11

Two sides of love? A false story. It’s not either or! It’s both and.

Unity in diversity: Some parts of the scripture, if pulled apart, can lead to heresy! Truth and grace should not be pulled apart!

Truth and grace come together and meet in love.

The speaker describes how he went on a combined church ministry outreach on the docks of Honolulu: He saw Filipino fishermen singing hymn songs. Why were those fishermen there? He spoke to one of them and found that he had been away from the Philippines for two years. When these fishermen are not on the boat, they’re just on the dock. Each vessel holds only 6 people. Crime was bad on the dock until a guy called Chris started visiting and making friends with these fishermen. Chris began a ministry to the fishermen. They also arranged for medical students to do free medical checks for these fishermen. They say these guys have a horrible life, sometimes having only 3 hours of sleep in their fishing trips. So many have blood pressure problems and the medical students gave them some medications for their blood pressure (Now I don’t quite understand this point… medical students can’t prescribe medications!). They run a congregation for these guys, and the fishermen experienced the love of Jesus through the love of these people to them, and enjoy the congregation. Many of these fishermen got baptised. Their lives changed, crime has dropped, and these miserable fishermen got kind of hopeful.

http://www.thealabamabaptist.org/print-edition-article-detail.php?id_art=33868&pricat_art=8

http://michaelabagon.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/people-behind-seafarers-ministry.html

https://www.facebook.com/chris.r.evans

My thoughts: Speaking of love songs… Interestingly when I woke up today, I received “a love song from heaven” from the Israel marching prayer team’s chat group (a Line chat group for the team I was in during my trip to Israel last year)! Joe King’s “I Will Always Love You”.

https://youtu.be/oJnorv_V1YU

There is an interesting testimony behind the writing of this song.

Testimony in English:

https://youtu.be/xNMqx7QhqtI

Testimony in Chinese:

https://youtu.be/gEpc9mALTHk

The horrible bird monster of Pokemon Go

Even though Pokemon Go appeared several weeks ago, when I downloaded the program, it keeps freezing, so I didn’t feel interested in playing it. So far, I only caught two monsters: Squirtle the turtle in my sunroom and Spearow the sparrow in the tea room of Morling College!

The creepy thing is, I caught that bird monster last Saturday, and when I went to the tea room on Thursday, I saw two wild birds staring at me angrily for a few seconds before flying away! This was the first time I saw wild birds in the tea room!! Then, I saw a new notice in the dining room: “Please close the screen door on your way in &out of the dining room. This prevents THE BIRDS from coming into the dining room! There’s a bird plague now, how scary is that!

Then came a series of association of ideas:

And apparently there is some correlation between Pikachu (Raichu, the thunder mouse), Raijin (Japanese god of Thunder), and Zeus!! Raichu evolves from Pikachu when exposed to a thunderstone, and is basically a beefier, shockier version of its predecessor. The name is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for “thunder” and “squeak,” but also an allusion to the rather horrific Shinto god of thunder, Raijin. Throughout world mythology we see allusions to thunder gods, such as Zeus in Greek mythology. Therefore, Raichu wields a power that’s nothing less than divine.

http://genius.com/annotations/2718893/standalone_embed?dark=1

Speaking of birds, the eagle is a bird of significance in the Roman Empire. The eagle was carried with the legion. Another figure used in the standards was a ball (orb), supposed to have been emblematic of the dominion of Rome over the world. 

http://www.bible-history.com/archaeology/rome/2-roman-eagle-bb.html

http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/breaking-down-understanding-our-enemies/97203-aquila-eagle-roman-antiquity.html

In modern days, a similar symbol is still in use in the United States Marine Corps! According to their website: “There is no better symbol for the purpose we serve than the emblem every Marine earns: the Eagle, Globe and Anchor. The eagle represents the proud nation we defend. It stands at the ready with our coastlines in sight and the entire world within reach of its outstretched wings. The globe represents our worldwide presence. The anchor points both to the Marine Corps' naval heritage and its ability to access any coastline in the world. Together, the eagle, globe and anchor symbolize our commitment to defend our nation—in the air, on land and at sea.”

http://www.marines.com/history-heritage/symbols

Sea and land... now this sounds a bit creepy... The Beast (Greek: Θηρίον, Thērion) refers to two beasts described in the Book of Revelation. The first beast comes "out of the sea" and is given authority and power by the dragon; the second beast comes "out of the earth" and directs all peoples of the earth to worship the first beast. The second beast is described in Revelation 13:11-18 and is also referred to as the false prophet. The two beasts are aligned with the dragon in opposition to God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(Revelation)

Morling Tuesday Chapel: Mary and Martha

Recently I've read through a helpful book called "Grace rules". Although this book has got nothing to do with the speaker in Morling Tuesday Chapel today, some of the message with respects to "works" is quite similar. 

Topic: Mary and Martha

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42

Mary and Martha was Jesus’ friend as they already knew Jesus prior to this event according to the Bible passages.

Mary and Martha are polar opposites.

Martha was on overdrive, goes through a lot of trouble, eg. this is for Jesus so it must be very good, or to meet social expectations of the day.

Mary host Jesus by sitting at his feet and giving him her full attention.

Why did Jesus drop in? For gourmet food, or to spend time with his friends?

Martha: What must I do? Activity driven approach to Jesus.

Mary: Approach marked by devotion.

What would I do when Jesus drop by to visit us? Jesus isn’t going to drop by because He lives in us!

What kind of host are we? Do we tend towards Martha’s activity or Mary’s attentiveness? Tasks vs relationship?

Distraction is something that happens in our heads: when our thoughts get consumed by other things (it’s not necessarily busyness). Even ministry can be a distraction, if our minds get preoccupied with what we must do to serve Jesus.

Busyness: Martha’s struggle, she feels she has more to do than she has time to do it. “More time exists at some point in the future” is a deception! Life doesn’t get less busy. Be attentional in our choices, including saying no to some things.

When the speaker served as minister in church, ministry was a real struggle: the messy people stuff, not enough helpers, etc. Work hard and little fruit. It drove her towards devotion. It started with discipline initially: One hour a week initially, in the bath, because she’s so activistic that this was the only place where she doesn’t get distracted into doing something. Then gradually the discipline got transformed into a desire for God. She learned how to do ministry through the power of the Holy Spirit, and paying attention to what the Spirit might be prompting.

Serving and devotion are not “either or”. But serving must come out of our devotion to God! We need to be like Mary as the basis of what we do. Devotion is the foundation of effective service.