Today, I am posting to alert readers that I have now republished a Second Revised Edition of Centered Living/Centered Leading: The Way of Light and Love. Frankly, I did not like the numerous typographical errors in the book and also wanted to slightly revise some of the wording. In the Preface to Second Edition  I note that it is four years since I finished the first edition. In the interim, some of the situations that pushed me to write the book have come to completion and new challenges and problems have arisen. The book is often a part of my early morning routine and a companion during times of stress and difficulty. What fascinates and encourages me is the utility of the book in working out problems, and especially problems that find their source in people and their conflicts.  I believe the book continues to prove its utility, at least in my life and work.

As I anticipated, there have been people who feel that the work is not sufficiently Christian. For those folks I can only say that I never read the book without an eye to places where I might have strayed from orthodox Christian faith. While it is true that “where words are many trespasses will not be lacking” (Proverbs 10:19).  I am satisfied that the work embodies an orthodox, Trinitarian theology. In any case, it is my intention that everything I write be such that the founders of the Christian faith and of the tradition of which I am a part would find the work faithfully Christian.

The second complaint has been I did not expound the doctrine of Grace sufficiently. This is true; however, if one reads carefully, one will see that grace is fundamental to the “Tao of Christ”—as Chapters 62 and 63 make clear.

For those who prefer a specifically Christian working out of the implications of a wisdom approach to Christian faith and life, my book Path of Life attempts to confront the problems of contemporary society and its rejection of Christian faith and morals in one long sustained argument for the reality of Christian faith, morals, and wisdom. I would not have spent the time I spent writing the book if I did not think it made an important point for how contemporary Christians can best serve our culture.

Those who know me well know that I believe that it is important for the future of the church, of our society, of our families, and of our world that people, and especially those who have the ability and opportunity to influence others begin to recover the ancient wisdom of the Christian faith and some of the ancient wisdoms of the world. In the Preface, I state my belief that Christ is the Ultimate Truth, and when a person has come to that Truth, one is free  to see and adapt truth wherever one finds it. I put it this way, “When we have confidence in the truth of Christian faith, we are free to accept and value all truth. As the great Methodist missiologist E. Stanley Jones put it, ‘I was free, free to explore, to appropriate any good, any truth found elsewhere, for I belonged to the Truth, to Jesus Christ.'”[1]

I hope that some of my friends and readers will purchase and study the updated version of the book. It can be purchased at Amazon.Com. There is a link to the page on this blog site.

[1] E. Stanley Jones, A Song of Ascents (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1968), 92.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved.

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Eccl 1:1-2).

Many people consider Winston Churchill the greatest person of the Twentieth Century. Most of us know he was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II. Many people know of his oratorical skills. Fewer know that he was a writer and author of highly regarded histories, including histories of the English people and of World War II. Fewer people know that he was also an above average painter. His life and career began near the end of the Victorian Era and extended until the 1960’s. He retired from Parliament at ninety. Near the end of his life, as he pondered his life and the decline of Britain, he exclaimed over and over again, “All has been for nothing.” [1] If Winston Churchill could not find meaning in his achievements, what about the rest of us?

At our staff meeting this week, we talked about the many futuristic movies that come out each year: many are what are called Dystopia’s. Utopia’s are ideal societies Dystopias are degenerate societies. Both Utopia’s and Dystopia’s represent what writers and moviemakers think the future will be like. Increasingly, movies describe a future that is violent and dangerous. Movies like Deviant, Blade Runner, the Terminator movies, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and others portray a society characterized by poverty, violence, corrupt governments, police states, squalor, suffering, oppression, and social decay. Make no mistake: these movies are successful because people increasingly fear this is the future we face. More and more young people view the future negatively. They don’t see life as having any stable meaning. They distrust existing institutions and see little hope for their improvement. They lack hope for the future and confidence in historic faith and morals. This is a big problem for our nation and for many other nations

In the last blog, I talked about the problem of suffering and the wise life. This blog deals with the problem of meaning and the wise life. As I mentioned in the prior blog, the wise men and women of Israel were aware that undeserved or disproportionate suffering was a challenge to their notion that wisdom brings blessings, including prosperity to a people. They were also aware that wise living, as important as it is for successfully facing life’s practical problems, does not guarantee meaning and purpose in human life.

The Problem of Meaning.

Practical wisdom has its limits. It can only profit human beings in the practical things of life. it can help us chose wisely, make a living, save for retirement, make friends, raise children, build a business, and the like.  Practical wisdom cannot, however, answer life’s most difficult questions. Questions involving the meaning and purpose of life, the reason for suffering, and the often-dubious moral nature of the universe cannot be answered by human wisdom. These questions require a supernatural wisdom.

The search for wisdom is a human enterprise, and like all human enterprises, it is limited by our human finitude, sin, and shortcomings. Because we are human and understand that we must some day die, all of us are in some way aware that what we do, what we look like, what we accomplish, what we experience, where we go on vacation or to enjoy our hobbies: these things cannot give our lives ultimate meaning or purpose. They are all doomed to pass away. Therefore, all merely human attempts to construct a meaningful life are doomed to failure. This is one reason why the so-called “Enlightenment Project” has failed so spectacularly. It is also why modern attempts to construct an ultimately meaningful life outside of some religious tradition (such as existentialism) have largely failed. Over the long run, they simply cannot succeed.

Not long ago, two authors, Richard Leider and David Shapiro wrote a book entitled, “Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life”  [2] In writing the book they found that most people’s number-one fear is living a meaningless life. According to a recent poll, 97 percent of “Generation Y” (twenty-somethings) are looking for work that will allow them to have an impact on the world. Even in our secular culture, the search for meaning is important. It is also important for Christian faith to address the issue of meaning, for it is in religious faith–a faith whose ground lies beyond the horizon of human life and human potential–that ultimate answers to the greatest questions of life, including the question of meaning, are to be found.

Therefore, if the problem of meaning was important in the ancient world, it is even more important today and in the emerging post-modern culture of our society. Today, people and especially young people, live in a culture of meaninglessness. In movies, on television, in the media, and in the lyrics of songs, they and we confront a culture in which many cultural elites and ordinary folks have lost confidence in the things that for generations gave life meaning. In particular, there is a kind of revolt against the “American Dream” and the notion that increasing affluence and personal peace can make life meaningful.

Solomon: The Ultimate Example

The Book of Ecclesiastes was written as if Solomon were the author. The book and Solomon’s life are one big illustration and meditation on the problem of life’s meaning and purpose. Solomon began well. He began his adult life with a sense of his limitations and a pleasing humility. When David died, Solomon carefully solidified his power, relying on this mother and some of David’s closest advisors, like Nathan the Prophet (see 1 Kings 1-2). He made wise diplomatic alliances (1 Kings 3:1). When God appeared and offered to give him whatever his heart desired, Solomon asked for wisdom (1 Samuel 3:7-9). God was so moved by Solomon’s request for wisdom that he promised Solomon that he would receive wisdom, riches, honor, a long life, and all the many other things for which Solomon might have asked—and that is exactly what occurred. Solomon was the most successful king of his day, known all over the ancient middle east for his wisdom. Unfortunately, his life did not end in the way it began.

Solomon’s initial wisdom is nowhere more obvious than in the most famous incident from his life. Two women, both prostitutes, brought a child to him. [3] One of the women had rolled over in the night and smothered her baby. Both women claimed the living child was theirs. No one could tell who was the real mother. Solomon ordered the baby cut in half, with half given to each woman. Naturally, the real mother cried out at this result, offering that the other woman her baby. Solomon awarded the baby to the woman who cried out in defense of the child. The people were amazed at Solomon’s wisdom.

The writer of Ecclesiastes recounts all of the ways in which a wise and active king like Solomon might attempt to find or create meaning in life. He undertook great building projects, just as Solomon undertook to make Jerusalem a lovely city with the Temple to God as its centerpiece. Unfortunately, his building projects could not give his life meaning. The writer had many women and enjoyed all of life’s pleasures. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Many of these women were, however, from foreign countries and brought foreign gods with them. In marrying these women, Solomon violated God’s command that the people of Israel were not to intermarry with the surrounding people (I Kings 11:2). Just as God prophesied, Solomon’s wives led him astray. These women did not provide meaning or purpose for Solomon’s life. Solomon has children to whom he may leave his throne, but his son is foolish and his kingdom does not last but a short time after his death. In the end, the story of Solomon is of a man who begins well, but ends poorly.

In Ecclesiastes, the writer, like Solomon, begins his quest for meaning by seeking wisdom. He studies, observes, and reflects upon life. But, the complexities of life are too great. In the end, he admits that achieving all-embracing wisdom is beyond human capacity (Ecclesiastes 7:23). Faced with the realization that the search for wisdom is unending, the writer seeks to find meaning in success and pleasure. He exercises his human abilities, building houses and gardens, acquiring flocks and herds, and planting crops and fruit trees (Ecclesiastes 2:4-7). He eats and drinks to his heart’s content (Ecclesiastes 2:1-2). He amasses great wealth (Ecclesiastes 2:8). He denies himself nothing his heart desires. In the end, it does not give his life meaning (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11). The message is simple—not even Solomon, the greatest and wisest of the Jews, could give his life meaning and purpose by his accomplishments and experiences. Neither can we.

The story of Solomon is like the imaginary story of Allen I tell in Path of Life. [4] Allen is introduced as a successful businessperson who built a fairly large company and is, by any standard, a wealthy person. He has several homes, a private airplane, and many of the outward signs of wealth. For a time when he was younger, he kept a mistress. His success was not without cost, however. He worked long hours and sacrificed time with his family and children. By the time his children were in college, they were all more or less estranged from him. His son, who he once hoped would take over the family business, has not been home for some years and lives in a different state. Some years ago, his wife left him—tired of living alone with a man who most often ignored her. Since the divorce, Allen spent most of his time working. Not so long ago, he was visiting with his lawyer about his will. It was a difficult conversation. Finally, the lawyer looked at him and said, “Allen, you are trying to run your business from the grave—and you cannot do that. When you die, it is all over.” Allen comes to see the wisdom of that remark. His years of work seem wasted. As he reflects on his life he thinks, “I have just a few months to live, and I have to wind down this business or sell it. My life’s work is wasted.”

In each of our own ways, we can end up just like Allen: we can spend our lives on things that don’t really, ultimately matter. We live in a materialistic and romantic culture. We all, whether rich or poor, are tempted to find meaning in possessions or in experiences that bring us some form of pleasure. Experience teaches that these attempts ultimately fail us. When I was in seminary, I worked for a few weeks at a retirement home. It was filled with all sorts of people. Interestingly, those who had a religious faith were most often content, if sad that they had to leave their home. Many were walking with a kind of calm dignity towards the end of their lives. Those who were not, were often people who placed all of their sense of worth and meaning on accomplishments,  things or experiences of the past.

The Limits of Wisdom

In the end, the writer of Ecclesiastes like a burned-out shell gives up the search for meaning. The search for meaning and purpose, whether by wisdom or foolishness, by work or leisure, by the search for beauty or a life of self-denial, whether by goodness or self-seeking selfishness, fails. Ecclesiastes concludes that all a reasonable human being can do is enjoy the simple pleasures of life and accept what comes from the hand of God (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26). It turns out that a good marriage, honest business partners, children who are well-raised and who take care of parents when they are old, using our God-given talents as best we can for the benefit of ourselves and others, having a good name, and all the other teachings of wisdom are good things we should practice. They just cannot provide ultimate meaning.

Our human quest to find ultimate meaning within the boundaries of one finite human life cannot succeed. Yet, the author of Ecclesiastes is not a nihilist or a moral relativist. In fact, he is quite the opposite. Faced with the limits of human wisdom, the writer is thrown back into the arms of God (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Despite the limitations of human life, we are still well-advised to respect God and obey his commands. In this world, and in the next, we will be called to account for our practical and moral failures. However, for meaning, we must look elsewhere.

This is not to say, we should not enjoy life and its simple pleasures. While it is true that our accomplishments cannot provide meaning and purpose for life, this does not mean we should not enjoy them. One good piece of advice the writer of Ecclesiastes gives is that we should enjoy the pleasures of youth while we are young because they will not last forever (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7). The writer believes that we should be good and follow the law of God, but remember that this law is for this life. It cannot give our lives meaning and purpose. The writer believes we should enjoy food, family. feast days, good wine, the love of our spouse and all the other blessings of life. We just cannot ask more of them than they were intended to provide for us.

When All is Said and Done

I love the image attached to this paragraph. [5] It is a series of four pictures representing the spring, summer, fall, and winter of life. In the beginning, there is a young boy flying a kite, perhaps on a family farm. Then, there are two young lovers kissing at the same place, representing the summer of life with all its passion, commitments, and striving. Third, there is an old man looking at his wife’s grave at the spot they first kissed, remembering their love. Finally, there is no one, just two graves at that sacred spot.

Ecclesiastes reminds us that our earthly lives have a beginning, middle, and end. We cannot be children forever. We cannot be young lovers forever. We cannot succeed forever. We cannot build forever. Life is a journey from the cradle to the grave. We don’t even know for sure how long that journey will be. The best we can do is love and respect God, live with wisdom and goodness, love God and other people, and enjoy at each stage of life the pleasures that stage or time of life offers to us. However, we cannot give those things ultimate meaning. For ultimate meaning, we must look to God and to Easter morning.

[1] Richard Toye, Churchill’s Empire: the World that Made Him and the World He Made (New York, NY, Henry Holt and Company, 2010), 303. This quote appears in my book, Path of Life.

[2] See, Hugh Whechel, “Fear of a Meaningless Life” (July 3, 2012) at blog.tifwe.org/fear-of-a-meaningless-life/#sthash.oLyPv99I.dpuf. I have not read the books quoted; the passage is based on the blog.

[3] This story is found in 1 Kings 3:16-28.

[4] As always in this series of blog posts, a great deal of this blog is from G. Christopher Scruggs, Path of Life (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014).

[5] See, http://souljournaler.blogspot.com/2010/07/examining-scripture-xc-under-sun-i.html

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

Then Job replied: “Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God? Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? … When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him. If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ … “How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him? … “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot. (Job 9:1-4, 11-21, 14, 32-35).

There is no question a pastor hears more frequently than, “Why does God permit suffering and evil?” It comes in many forms. It comes when a child dies or has an incurable disease. It comes when someone is seriously injured in a freak accident. It comes when there is a natural disaster that inexplicably takes the lives of many innocent people. It happens when some great injustice is discovered. [i]

In Path of Life, I tell a story concerning “Jane,” a mother of several young children, who contracted an incurable disease.[ii] Naturally, her Christian friends and Sunday school class prayed for her healing. For a time, the cancer went into remission. Unfortunately, the remission was only temporary. After a time the disease returned, and there was little that the doctors could do. All this time, her well-meaning Christian friends continued to pray for her. After a time, they began to wonder why their prayers were not answered. Finally, they came to the conclusion that it must be that there was some unconfessed sin in Jane’s life preventing God from answering their prayers. Of course, Jane confessed every sin she could imagine, but there was still no healing. Her prayer partners were unsatisfied, until finally a more mature Christian friend stepped in to assure the young mother that her suffering might have nothing to do with sin, and her lack of healing certainly could not be related to any failure to repent. How could well-meaning Christians be so insensitive? A partial answer is that we, like the wise men of old, want a just and fair universe. We all want to believe that the created universe will be predicable, that good will be rewarded, and evil punished. When things don’t turn out that way, we wonder, “Why?”

Job: The Problem of Suffering.

Job is introduced to a reader as the the most righteous, God-fearing person of his generation. He is healthy, wealthy and blessed. Everyone respects him. Then, one day, Satan convinces God to take away his hand of protection from Job. Satan believes that Job must not truly love God, but only respect and follow God’s laws because of the blessings he receives. God believes this is not true. In order to settle the argument, they enter into a wager, and God allows Satan to deprive Job of all his blessings, health, family, wealth, friendship, respect of others—all these things are taken away. Three friends come to comfort Job, but when Job loudly complains about his suffering, they begin to defend God and accuse Job. Basically, they primarily argue that Job must deserve his punishment, either personally or as a member of the human race afflicted by sin. Job must have sinned as all people do. Job needs to accept God’s discipline and repent. Over and over again in the book, Job argues against the various explanations of his friends, continually defending his own righteousness and the unfairness of his suffering. .

A Problem in the Wisdom Tradition

 Thus far in this series of articles on wisdom, we have been dealing with what I might call “basic, elementary, practical and moral wisdom.” We have been dealing with the basics of how to conduct ourselves so that we make good decisions in life, manage our affairs wisely, and have sound human relationships. In this blog, we come to deeper issue and problem beyond a superficial understanding of wisdom. If before we could come to a kind of human understanding of how to live wisely, now we must be satisfied with a mystery.

The wisdom tradition holds, as one of its most basic teachings, that the wise, prudent, righteous, God-fearing life is the blessed life. However, the ancient Jewish wise men and women were not unrealistic romantics. They saw that life is often unjust. They were as aware of the injustice of much human suffering as any modern cynic. Therefore, they asked the question, “Why?” “Why would a righteous, holy God permit innocent people to suffer undeserved harm?” We have exactly the same questions as the ancient wise men and women. We, like them, can see that good people are not always blessed and sometimes suffer terribly. We see in our own lives and in the lives of others that a lot of suffering is not deserved or is hugely disproportionate to what we deserve. We also see that unrighteous, irreligious, even evil people sometimes never suffer for their deeds and misdeeds. We see that evil people often avoid punishment for their sins and appear more blessed than those who seek to do God’s will. We wonder how a righteous God could allow such a situation. No matter how much we think about the problem, the problem remains only partially and inadequately answered.

In response to Job’s suffering and complaints against God, Job’s friends all argue for God’s justice. They are not persuasive for a basic reason: at the beginning of Job we are told that there is no satisfactory human reason for Job’s suffering (Job 1:1-2:7). God, in inspiring the writer or writers of Job, did not want to give us easy or pat answers. He wanted us to recognize that the problem of suffering is a divine mystery we will never fully understand (Job 38-42).

Jesus and the Problem of Suffering

In the New Testament, there is a story about a man blind from birth. Jesus’ disciples, formed in the culture of the Jewish faith, knew that traditional Jewish teaching requires that suffering have some explanation in sin. So they asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind” (John 9:1-2)? The disciples posed the same questions to Jesus that Job poses: “Would someone please explain suffering to us?” Jesus does not answer his disciples on the basis of the wisdom tradition. Instead he says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). It is as if Jesus is turning the question of his disciples into a demonstration of the loving presence of God.

This leads to another way of looking at Job. The wisdom teachers were so focused on the wisdom and the power of God that they did not address the real question people have: “If God is a God of Love, then how can God allow suffering?” If there is an explanation that we can accept, it will come in the form Jesus revealed: a suffering God, a God who is present with us in our suffering and who works in self-giving love to redeem suffering from within human history and human life. In other words, any attempt to create a wisdom of suffering, takes us beyond our previous ideas of God to the feet of a God who is himself present in human suffering and redeeming it. God is not outside of our suffering but within it.

In the end, neither Job, nor the disciples, nor contemporary people, nor a philosopher, nor a theologian, nor a pastor can satisfactorily explain suffering. It is a part of life we must endure. There is an old gospel hymn that puts it this way:

“Jesus walked this lonesome valley;
He had to walk it by himself.
Oh, nobody else could walk it for him;
He had to walk it by himself.

“We must walk this lonesome valley;
We have to walk it by ourselves.
Oh, nobody else can walk it for us;
We have to walk it by ourselves.”

The writer of the hymn almost had it right. Jesus had to walk the long road to Calvary alone, and he cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34). [iii] He cried out in solidarity with every sufferer—past, present, and future. However, there has always been something about this old gospel hymn that bothered me. It stops too soon. By faith, we hear another verse that goes something like this,

“When we walk our lonesome valley,  We don’t walk it by ourselves. For, Jesus Christ, he walks it with us; W e don’t walk it by ourselves.”

I don’t know about you, but when I feel abandoned by God and by human beings in a moment of suffering, it is helpful to sense that God is still present in Christ redeeming and sanctifying what I cannot understand.

Christians and Suffering

All of us are going to have two experiences in life: we are going to suffer, and we are going to have friends that suffer. When we suffer, it is important not to deny the suffering. Suffering is real, it is painful, and it threatens our relationships with God and others. God understands this. There is no sense in not being totally honest with God about how we feel. God knows how we feel. One thing that everyone who reads Job immediately understands is that Job is not suffering in silence. He expresses to his friends and to God what he feels. Finally, suffering is an area where we need to understand the difference between being faithful and understanding. Faithfulness is not enjoying what is happening to us or understanding what God is doing in and through our suffering. It is accepting what God is doing and living through it. Suffering is always a test of patience and endurance.

Job’s three friends do not fare well in the eyes of commentators or in God’s eyes. Before we criticize his friends, we do need to remember that they were there for Job. Hearing of his misfortune, they came to be with him for seven days and seven nights. (Seven and three being perfect numbers in Jewish numerology, we might see in his friends a perfect attempt to console a sufferer.) The fact that they sat silently before the destitute and deformed figure of their friend speaks well of them. They tried as best they knew to comfort him. They did not begin with a series of sermons on sin and its consequences. Nevertheless, they fell into a temptation into which we too easily fall: the temptation to defend God and explain suffering. Job’s friends did well when they were simply present for their friend, Job. They erred when they began to talk.

When our friends are suffering, we need to be present, as Job’s friends were present. People need to know we care—and we need to show we care in words and in deeds. Some years ago friends of ours suffered a loss. Kathy went immediately to be with the wife. Immediately after church, I went to be with the husband. We cried and sat together. We helped with arrangements and around the house. We spoke about the loss with them, and we tried not to minimize or deny the tragedy. We spent time with them after the event was over. Years later, they mentioned that they appreciated that we were there, that we did not try to explain, and we were not afraid to talk about and sympathize with their loss. Sometimes, all we can do is come, love, sympathize, and be silent. That is enough.

The Present One

In the end, suffering cannot be explained; it can only be endured. Job does not come to understand his suffering by an exercise of human wisdom. He comes to understand that as a human being he cannot know the secret purposes and counsels of God (Job 40:4). The answer to the problem of undeserved suffering, if it can be found, cannot be found in the human wisdom tradition.

Where, then, is God in our suffering? Perhaps the best explanation is that God is in the midst of it all in Christ, the Word of God, suffering with every sufferer, taking upon himself the guilt and pain of the world, deserved and undeserved. In the words of the scientist turned religious thinker, John Polkinghorne:

“He is not a spectator, but a fellow-sufferer, who has himself absorbed the full force of evil. In the lonely figure hanging in the darkness and dereliction of Calvary, the Christian believes that he sees God opening his arms to embrace the bitterness of the strange world he has made. The God revealed in the vulnerability of the incarnation and in the vulnerability of creation are one. He is the crucified God, whose paradoxical power is perfected in weakness, whose self-chosen symbol is the King reigning from the gallows.” [iv]

On the Cross we see revealed the truth that God not only reigns in glory over his creation, but paradoxically, suffers the travail of its finitude, incompleteness, sin, and suffering. In the end, the wisdom tradition points beyond itself to One greater than Wisdom—to the Crucified and Suffering Savior of the world.

[i] It is helpful to think about the kinds of suffering we undergo in order to fully appreciate the difficulty of the subject matter. There is, of course, the suffering we all bring upon others and ourselves because of stupidity, finiteness and evil. Others or we make a practical or moral mistake and suffer the consequences. This kind of evil, we may call “moral evil.” The suffering of Europe under Hitler do to the moral mistakes of the German and other peoples and Hitler’s own evil is the most common example. There is another kind of suffering we endure: “natural suffering.” We live in a world in which there are tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, cancer and various life and health threatening disasters. Many people cannot understand why the world could not have been made differently. It is helpful, I think, to remember that any world capable of producing the human race is capable of producing natural disasters and disease. See, John Polkinghorne, Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science with Religion (London, ENG: SPCK, 2005), chapter 8 for a long and, I think, very helpful discussion of this problem.

[ii] A large part of this blog is based on G. Christopher Scruggs, Path of Life (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 179-193. As I say in the book, the vignettes are not reflective of actual incidents, but composites of many years of ministry.

[iii] In crying out these words, Jesus is quoting Psalm 22, which begins as a hymn of abandonment in suffering, but ends as a hymn of praise for deliverance. Against those who see in the words of Jesus a simple cry of abandonment, I like to think it is both a cry of abandonment and a cry of faith in God’s delivering power, even from death.

[iv] John Polkinghorne, Science and Providence: God’s Interaction with the World (Philadelphia, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 1989), 79.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. … Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. …. Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her (Selected from Proverbs 3:5-15).

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed (Proverbs 11:25).

A Biblical Take on Generosity

Pastors frequently speak of how much the Bible talks about money—and the Bible does have a lot to say about money. What surprises me is the volume of teaching about giving and generosity. Right at the beginning of Genesis, in the story of Cain and Abel, we see the importance of giving back to God. In the Pentateuch (the beginning of the Old Testament), offerings are made, tithing is taught, and the importance of generosity is underscored. Jesus tells stories and parables about giving and generosity, and some of Paul’s most moving and most quoted phrases, like, “God loves a cheerful giver” come from his letters (I Cor. 9:6-7). Generosity is encouraged and taught throughout the Bible. It is part of the wise and righteous life. Furthermore, the Bible teaches that a generous person is a blessed person. There is no living wisely without living generously.

God is a Generous God.

The Bible begins with a majestic retelling of the story of creation. In that story, we see God creating the entire world—and everything that is in it. We see the creation of the heavens and the earth, of the sun, moon, and stars, of the wonders of the heavens and the beauty of the earth. At last, God creates the human race, into whose care God places his beautiful creation. Not only does he put creation under our care, but he specifically says that the human race can use all of the bounty he has created to meet our human physical and other needs. Our Generous God generously gave the human race the entire world.

The writer of Psalm 8 puts it this way:

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

In this psalm the generosity of God is clearly laid out. God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. God is the creator of the human race. However, God is not just our creator. God is also our defender and savior. This we see most clearly in the Prophets, like Isaiah and in the New Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus, the wisdom of God in human form, comes to save the world. God is so generous that he sent his “Only Begotten Son,” the very “Word of God, God himself, to save his lost and wandering creation and creatures.

It is important to remember all God has done. God created each one of us. God provided for each one of us. God saved each one of us. God gives to us more generously than we could ever give to God. God is not just good. God is generous—generous unto death.

Called to be Generous Like God.

One of the least understood teachings of the Christian faith is this: God desires us to be like God whom we see revealed in Jesus. Jesus says that if we love him, we will do his works (John 14:15, 23). Jesus also says that we are to be perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:28). Paul urges believers to be imitators of Paul as he is an imitator of Christ. In First John it is put this way, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2).

One of the most beautiful and important doctrines of the church is its teaching that we are by faith and God’s grace children of God—part of God’s family, carriers of God’s spiritual DNA, which is self-giving love. When Jesus says, “If anyone would be my disciple, let that person deny his or herself, take up his or her cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24), Jesus is saying we must be transformed into people of generosity who have the same love for the world and others that God had when he sent Jesus. The process of what we call “sanctification” is a process of becoming true children of God, just like Jesus.

Years ago, I had a friend who died young of heart problems. Before he died, once in a while we would go out to lunch together. I don’t like being panhandled, and when we were walking down hot, crowded Houston streets, I often passed by beggars. My friend never did. He always gave something from his pocket to the poor. One day, I asked him why. “Because God has asked us to be generous to the poor,” he answered. Since then, I’ve been a lot more generous in similar situations. My friend was a generous person, and in showing the virtue of generosity, he was like a Jesus not just to the poor but also to me.

Principles of Generous Living

The Bible and wisdom literature are full of teachings as to how we can become generous, like our generous God.

1. First, if we are going to be generous, we must be creators of value. That is to say, we must use our God-given talents to create value in the world. As I mentioned in my last Blog, not all this value is monetary. If we are going to be generous with our time, we have to develop the talents God has give us so that we will have those God-given, developed talents to share with others. As workers, to be generous, we have to work hard enough to make a living.
2. Second, if we are going to be generous, we must learn to save, that is we must learn not to consume all the wealth we create. We need to learn to live simply, so that we are not constantly buying more things, borrowing money to buy more things, consuming all that we earn and can borrow to keep up with either the Jones or some idea we have of what a good life entails. If we don’t save, we won’t give generously.
3. Third, if we are going to be generous, we must learn to give of our first fruits. Our text says that we should share the first fruits of all that we have. In the ancient world, it meant giving of the first fruits of the harvest. Today, this means putting our giving first, not last, in our monthly budget. My particular gifts to our church come automatically out of my paycheck, first. If I receive a check for income from outside of Advent, I try to remember to write Advent a check right then and there. A generous spirit does not wait until all the other bills are paid to give. A generous spirit budgets so that all the bills will get paid after giving.
4. Fourth, If we are going to be generous, we have to have a heart for the lost, the poor, and for what God is doing in the world. Without compassion, without a sense of how blessed we are to have the things we have, we will never be generous. We will never give to missions and evangelism if we do not have a heart for how blessed we are, and what our city, state, nation and world could be like if God’s kingdom were to expand.
5. Finally, we have to have a generous heart. We will never be cheerful givers unless and until our hearts are like God’s heart, filled with a desire to reach out, create, use our time, talents, and treasures to bring the peace of God’s Kingdom upon the earth. Generosity, real generosity, is a matter of character, of discipline, of heart transformation. We all need to pray for generous hearts.

Blessings of Generosity

Finally, to become generous like God we must come to a clearer understanding of what God is promising us when the Bible promises “bursting barns” and “vats of wine flowing over” (Proverbs 3:10). We need to understand why we are promised that. “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” (11:25). The ancient wise men and women knew that life is a little more complicated than, “If you are generous, you will be financially blessed.” Nevertheless, they observed that generous people were very frequently blessed. That has been my observation as well. As I joked with our staff this week: God promises that our barns will be filled to overflowing. He does not say just exactly how big that barn is going to be! Nevertheless, it is amazing how many stories there are about the blessing of generosity.

In addition, we need to look at what we might call the “hidden” or “non-obvious” benefits of generosity. First, and perhaps most important of all, generous people are normally some of the most well-balanced, happy, joyful people in the world. [1] Generous people are less stressed, happier, have better marriages, and have better mental health than people who are not generous. This should not surprise us at all! Who could be healthier and more adjusted than God? Therefore, it follows that when we have the character of Christ, we will experience the blessings of a transformed life and increased Christ-likeness! This does not mean that we are all going to get rich. It does not mean that we will not have hard times. It does not mean that we will not share in the sufferings of our family, friends, fellow church members, neighbors, and nation. It means we will share the blessing of the Divine Life of God.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] This part of the blog was helped by Amanda L. Chan, “7 Science-Backed Reasons Why Generosity Is Good For Your Health” The Huffington Post   Posted: 12/01/2013 9:24 am EST; Updated: 01/23/2014 6:58 pm EST http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/generosity-health_n_4323727.html (October 22, 2014)

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man” (Proverbs 6:6-11).

There is nothing so characteristic of contemporary life as the intense importance people place on work. Modern people often spend more time at work than with family, friends, children, or spouses. Based on time alone, our work is an area in which we human beings most need wisdom and have many opportunities to demonstrate wisdom or foolishness. [1]

For a lot of people, work has become more than a way to make a living and provide for a family. It has become a source ultimate of meaning and purpose in life. Many people primarily find their self-identity in their work. The first question many people ask in a conversation is, “What do you do?” A few people find not only self-identity in work, but also the meaning and purpose for their lives. For these people, work has become an idol, a part of created existence through which they try to give their lives meaning and purpose. We have a technical name for such people: we call them “workaholics.” The problem with the workaholic is that work has taken on a meaning it was never meant to have.

On the other hand, there are people in our and almost all other societies, who spend a great deal of time and energy avoiding work. Years ago, for a couple of years, our church was bedeviled by a person who was constantly asking for money and hotel rooms. This person was smart, attractive, convincing, and dishonest. She called every six months or so with another story about needing money. On one occasion, she accidentally made a mistake that let us know she was a fraud. Otherwise, we would never have caught on. This person would have been a fabulous honest sales person or manager. She spent more energy avoiding work than she would have spent working!

Proverbs and Work

Proverbs and wisdom literature has a lot to say about work. In my office, I have a workbook I made listing all the sayings in Proverbs that deal with work, finances, and the like. It takes up ten single-spaced pages. This does not count the wisdom sayings about work that appear in other books of the Bible. The Bible has a lot to say about work and about wisdom and foolishness in working.

Just as family life in the ancient world differed from ours, economic life was very different as well. The culture of ancient Israel was both agrarian and family-based. Just as the family was the fundamental social unit of society, the family was also the fundamental economic unit of society. Today, most people do not live on farms and work and family are separated. Nevertheless, the Bible has a lot to say about our modern work lives.

What is Work?

One thing I quickly realized as I thought about work is that we need to be clear what we are talking about when we talk about work. In Genesis in the story of the Garden of Eden, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden to tend the garden, to be his stewards of the garden, and to enjoy the fruits of the garden (Genesis 1-2). Unfortunately, Adam and Eve sinned, with the result that Adam was judged and his relationship with his work tending the Garden changed. Here is what God says in Genesis:

Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:17-19).

Too often, we focus on this quote when thinking about work and fail to remember that we were created to tend God’s garden—and anyone who has ever gardened knows that gardening is often hard work. Work is not a curse. It is part of God’s intention for human life. Work is not just about making money: there was no money when God put Adam and Eve in the Garden. Work is about adding value to God’s creation.

So, what is work? Here is my definition: “Work is that which we do that expands the Kingdom of God in the world while providing for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of ourselves, our families, and others.” The spouse who cooks for children, the spouse who works in an office, the farmer planting a crop, the poet writing a book that will never sell, the engineer writing a manual for a new computer program, the man fixing his neighbors fence, all are working. We work to meet the needs of ourselves, our family and others, not just for money. In fact a lot of work does not involve making money at all.

Not All Work is Work

This definition, “Work is that which we do that expands the Kingdom of God in the world while providing for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of ourselves, our families, and others” reveals to us a fact: not everything we call work is really work. It is something else. It is more like “anti-work”. It is work that does not bring God’s kingdom into the world, but instead brings chaos, suffering, evil, and darkness into the world. Just doing something and getting paid does not mean you are working by God’s definition of work.

First, real work is honest; dishonest gain is not work—it is crime. Real work brings more beauty, truth, order, goodness, and peace into the world. Anti-work brings ugliness, lies, disorder, immorality and violence into the world. This is where we come face to face with a big problem in our society. If I make $100.00 selling legal pornography to teenagers and if I make $100.00 inventing a cure for cancer, the people who calculate our Gross Domestic Product count those two $100.00 as equal. Unfortunately, experience teaches us that the $100.00 earned the first way will bring suffering, a need for counseling, marital problems, and a host of evils, which will cost our society much more than the original $100.00. As a society and as individuals, we need to see that work, to be real work, for the Garden of Earth God has put into our care to be a better, richer, more pleasing place to be, we have to do honest, legal, life enhancing, wealth-creating work.

Second, we must remember that because I am at the office does not mean that I am working. One aspect of workaholism is that people who consistently overwork eventually lose their edge. They may be in the office all the time, but they are not necessarily working. Years ago, I had a good friend in a major law firm. He was famous for the hours he billed and spent at the office. However, it was also true that years of over-work had taken a toll on his mental, physical, and emotional acuity with the result that he had to work really long hours to accomplish tasks. Unfortunately for my friend, the toll it took on his health was very traumatic. There is a lot of wisdom in the old phrase, “Don’t just work hard. Work smart.”

Things to Avoid in our Work and Economic Life

Proverbs is filled with behaviors we are to avoid in our economic life. There are many, many proverbs about work. Some of them have to do with working hard and avoiding laziness (Proverbs 6:6-11; 13:4; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15; 19:24; 20:4; 20:13-17). Just on numbers of proverbs along, God must think we need to know about the danger of laziness. It is in our human nature to be lazy. Someone this week pointed out that even those of us who do not think of ourselves as lazy at the office may be lazy in our chores at home, in relating to family members, in taking care of elderly parents, in raising our children, etc. Therefore, all of us need to ask the question, “Is there some place in my life in which I am lazy?” Working hard and avoiding laziness are important virtues (Proverbs 12:24, 27; 13:4)

The Bible also constantly warns against borrowing too much money and guaranteeing the debt of others (Proverbs 6:1-5). There are many proverbs that speak of the dangers of partnering in business with unscrupulous people, criminal enterprises, and the like (Proverbs 10:2-5; 15:27). Basically, any business strategy or practice that involves taking advantage of other people by dishonest means is condemned in Scripture (Proverbs 10:2-5; 11:1).

One of the most unfortunate aspects of contemporary American business life is the degree to which people have come to accept taking advantage of others as a reasonable business practice. In Path of Life I tell a story about the financial crisis in the U.S. during which a particular investment bank was approached by a valued hedge fund customer to create a pool of high-risk mortgages it intended to short. The investment bank did that very thing and itself shorted the portfolio without fully disclosing that neither it nor one of its best customers believed in the product and in fact were shorting it. I was amazed at the number of business people who thought nothing wrong with this. It so happened that I was in Scotland when the mortgage crisis began—and retirement plans in places like Norway were impacted by their purchase of similar investments. [2] Honesty counts and dishonest practices are to be avoided.

The Blessing of Work

Mike Rowe, the television personality, was host of “Dirty Jobs” on the discovery channel. [3] In this capacity, he milked camels, worked on road crews picking up road kill, castrated sheep, slithered through sewers, and held a variety of other really bad jobs. He discovered that those who worked in such jobs were frequently the happiest, most balanced people he ever met. Unfortunately, our culture too often demeans manual labor. [4] All honest labor is a blessing to the person who labors and to everyone else. We have made work about success, money, and security. We have made our economy about making money. This is not a good way for us to think. Our national economy needs to be organized to provide opportunities for everyone to earn a living, provide for their family, and save for old age. It should not be a giant lottery to see who can get the richest. In fact, that sentiment is a distortion of what God intends.

The blessing of work is first and foremost the contribution we can make to the health, security, happiness, and welfare of other people. The blessing of work is in the way in which it allows us to use our time and our talents and our energies to make the world a better place for ourselves, those we love, our fellow citizens—everyone. True work is a blessing because it is part of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into the world.

The Bible and Christian faith do not think that the only professions that are sacred are those practiced by religious professionals. Every honest profession, every honest job, and every craft that makes the world a better place involves a calling from God to make the world a better place. It is as much a calling to run a restaurant as to be a priest. It is as much a calling to build houses as to be a pastor. I could go on and on.

This is an especially important point in our culture. In many ways, people have come to distrust the church and pastors. In many ways, the church has been shoved out of the public square. Many people are hesitant to enter the doors of a church. However, we can minister to co-workers, clients, customers, employers, and employees as we incarnate the character of Christ, becoming more like Jesus, and slowly ever so slowly bringing the Kingdom of God into our working relationships.

Like most homes, growing up in our house, Mom was the most frequent witness to misdeeds and normally the first person to give advice or discipline my brother and me. Many times, I’ve shared with you advice of my father, who was a fund of aphorisms. This does not mean that Mom was not without her favorite proverbs. One of her favorites was “To whom much is given, much is expected.” The first proverb I heard every time I made a bad grade. (Mom, like my teachers, was of the opinion that I failed to live up to my potential as a student.) As often as I heard that saying, even more often I heard the saying, “Be careful who your friends are.” Mom used this proverb if either Tim or I had a friend she did not think was a good influence.

Tim and I were especially blessed with a best friend, Mark Schmidt. The Schmidt family moved to Springfield a short time after the Scruggs family. Mark was my best friend. He was Tim’s big brother in their college fraternity. He was in our wedding. He was in Tim’s wedding. Tim and I were part of his marriage. Bob Schmidt, Mark’s Dad, was my Dad’s best friend. Pat, Mark’s mother, Pat, was my Mom’s best friend. We were in church together, Boy Scouts together, school together, and in the case of Tim and Mark, in engineering school together.

This is not to say that there were not bad elements in Springfield. One particular little boy, who thought of himself as the local Tom Sawyer, was known to be the source of endless pranks, snowball fights, war games, attempts to derail trains, and other activities in which the property and health of others might be injured. I can remember my mother calling in my brother to tell him to be careful who his friends were while all the time looking directly at me! I am sure Mrs. Schmidt did the same thing.

In this blog, I am talking about relationships. Healthy relationships of many, many kinds are essential to human health and human happiness. The text is the first in Proverbs to speak of the importance of healthy relationships. It comes from Proverbs 1:

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood. How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves! Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it (Proverbs 1:8-19).

The God of Healthy Relationships

It cannot be said too often that Christians believe in One God in Three Persons. The Three Persons exist in a relationship of self-giving love. Since love is a relation, it can be said that God exists in relationship. [1] It is not surprising that a God who exists in relationship would create a being in his own likeness that is also constituted by relationships. And, that is exactly what psychology tells us: Human beings develop as a result of loving relationships with significant people, especially parents and family. When human beings are denied loving relationships, they fail to develop normally. [2] God, it seems, implanted in us the same capacity and need for self-giving relationships as characterizes God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our relationships are also important because, like the choices we make, our relationships determine the person we are and will be. If we have healthy relationships, we will become healthy people. If we have unhealthy relationships, we will become unhealthy people. If our family and friends are violent, rebels, immoral, and the like, we are in trouble. If we have relationships with the God of wisdom and with wise, moral and emotionally healthy people, we will likely become wise, moral and emotionally healthy. If we have a healthy vertical relationship with the God of Love and healthy horizontal relationships with loving people, we will become loving people. If we have relationships with people who are on the Path of Life, we will remain on the Path of Life. Relationships are important.

Family: The Basic Relationship

Wisdom literature assumes that there is a place where wisdom grows first and best—a place that must be created, protected and treasured. That place is the family. It is within a family that children are conceived, born, loved, and raised until they achieve adulthood. They will belong to that family when their parents have grown old, and they are the family leaders. The family is not just the place where wisdom is learned. It is the first and primary place where it is practiced during all of life. [3]

Over and over again, Proverbs begins with an exhortation using the narrative voice of a concerned and loving parent. For example in Proverbs 4,

Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight; for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother’s favorite, he taught me, and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you (Proverbs 4:1-6, NRSV).

Throughout wisdom literature, wisdom speaks as a parent attempting to impart wisdom to her children. Often, there is a sense of urgency—the resolve of one who deeply desires to impart a most important lesson to a beloved child. The representative parent is desperately attempting to see that the child has the wisdom and life skills to meet the difficulties of life.

Scholars are almost unanimous in their evaluation of the American family: it is extraordinarily weak. [4] If in ancient Israel families lived in large, intergenerational groupings, today the basic family unit is a mother, father and children. Many children in America will spend at least a part of their lives in a family unit lacking one of their biological parents. An increasing number of children may live with neither of their biological parents but with grandparents or other relatives. Grandparents seldom occupy the same home as their grandchildren, and many live a long distance away and are seldom seen by the children. Children are not regularly exposed to the wisdom of the eldest and most experienced members of the family. This is a great loss to children and grandchildren as well as to the elderly. This statement is not meant to shame anyone. It is meant to alert us to the need as a church and as individuals to find ways to impart wisdom to children in our own day and time.

Marriage: The Key to Family

The main reason that families are weak in America today is that marriages are weak in our society. In our society, people marry for love—what we call “soul-mate marriage.” We take this for granted. We also think that somehow it is wrong to marry for other reasons, though a lot of people do. It is helpful to observe that people in traditional cultures did not always or even often marry for love. Marriage was a family affair. Frequently, parents chose the spouse for their children. In almost every case, a spouse was someone who lived fairly close by because people did not travel.

Some people ask the question, “Does the Bible approve of love, and especially the love of a man and a woman?” A complete answer to this question is beyond the scope of this Blog. In Path of Life, I devote en entire chapter to Song of Solomon and God’s endorsement of human love. It is fair to say that the Bible clearly teaches that love is important; that families are important; that God created human beings, male and female, with families in mind; and that sex is important as that biological way in which we human beings continue our existence and reflect our love in our physical relationship with a spouse. Marriage is especially important because family is the way in which the moral, spiritual, and practical part of our human nature can best be developed.

Just outside of Fithian Illinois there is a cemetery at the edge of my great grandfather’s farm. On my mother’s side, I am related to almost everyone in that little cemetery, all of whom married into our family in some way. This happened because all those people farmed little farms around that cemetery. One of the people buried there was a very difficult person. I think that today the spouse would have divorced that person. At the time they lived, divorce was unknown and the marriage survived. I am personally glad it did, because if it had not, I would not be here.

Friendship: The Key to a Full Life

My parents are now both dead. My Dad’s friend, Bob Schmidt, is now dead. Only Pat is still alive. Three times now, Tim, Mark, and Chris have made the long trip to Springfield, longer for Tim and Mark than for me, to attend a funeral service at the little church in which we grew up, say goodbye to one of our parents, go to the veterans cemetery for a burial, and share a meal. Someday, you will come to church and find that I am not here because I must make one last trip to Springfield to say goodbye to the last of the generation before ours. The friendship of Bob, Pat, George, and Betsey, and the friendship of Tim, Chris, Mark, and Mark’s sisters, continues to this day. This friendship, which is now half a century old, has been important and continues to be important, even though we do not see each other very often. I would certainly not be who I am without my family and this essential friendship from the past.

Proverbs 24 contains a verse that reads like this, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). It is good to have a lot of friends. I admire people who do. Friends are great. However, we all need a few friends who are as close as family. We need friends who will warn us when we go astray, who will rally to our side when we are hurting, and who will be with us through thick and thin. The philosopher Aristotle said that there was no truly good life without friends, and my experience is that Aristotle is right.

The great British missionary theologian, Leslie Newbigin, famously and frequently commented that when Christ came to earth to dwell among us, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), he did not write a book. He created a community. [5] It When the God of Relationships desired to save the world, he did so not through power, politics, or intellectual intimidation, but through friendship. He came among us and loved us in the form of specific people he met on his earthly sojourn. In particular, he called out a small group of people who were to be the church, his special body to witness to his grace and truth after he was gone.

During his last night on earth, Jesus made the following incredible statement to his disciples:

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other (John 15:9-17).

 God, when he came to be with us, made friends with us. God, today, wants to gather around himself a group of friends—people he calls the “Family of God.” He wants this group of friends to show the world just how important healthy relationships are. He wants us to show this in our families, in our marriages, and in our friendships and other relationships with people.

Copyright, 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] See, john D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion (Crestwood NY: St. Vladimir’s, 1985).

[2] There is a vast body of literature on this subject. See for example a fine article, Richard Boyd, How Early Life Attachment Affects Adult Intimacy and Relationships Energetics Institute, Perth, West Australia at www.energeticsinstitute.com (2011).

[3] As is often the case in this series, a large part of this sermon is from G. Christopher Scruggs, Path of Life (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014).

[4] See, Barbara Defoe Whitehead & David Popenoe, The State of our Unions: Social Health of marriage in America in Theology Matters vol. 10. no. 2 (March April, 2003), 1-8.

[5] Newbigin frequently repeated the following observation: “It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community. He committed the entire work of salvation to that community. It was not that a community gathered round an idea, so that the idea was primary and the community secondary. It was that a community called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord Himself, and re-created in Him, gradually sought – and is seeking – to make explicit who He is and what He has done. The actual community is primary; the understanding of what it is comes second.” Leslie Newbigin, The Household of God (New York, Friendship Press, 1954), 20-21.

Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction; do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life. Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way. For they cannot rest until they do evil; they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble (Proverbs 4:10-19).

Many years ago as a Boy Scout, I forgot my flashlight and had to make my way at night across a ridge and through a valley while returning to the main camp. Once down in the valley, there was barely any moonlight. It was difficult, even impossible, not to make wrong turns and become lost. It was a nervous and harrowing hike—and I was very glad when I saw the light of the dining hall in the distance. The memory of the small amount of fear and danger of that evening, when I might have lost my way, has never left me. Imagine then the terror a person might feel in the vast wastelands of the ancient world.

Life is a series of choices. Sometimes in unclear situations, day in and day out we decide what course of action we are going to take—what path we are going to follow—in a variety of situations. The character of our decisions depends not only on what we know but also upon our experience and our character. C. S. Lewis describes the importance of the decisions we make this way:

[E]very time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. [1]

Choices are important, because our choices determine who we are and what kind of person we are going to be now and in eternity.

This morning, we are talking about the importance of choices—and in particular about the importance of the fundamental choice we make concerning how we will approach life. Proverbs describes the basic decision we make in life as a decision among fundamental path we might take to guide our life. There are basic choices we all make in life. Those basic choices determine, for better or worse, our future. [2]

The Two Paths.

 One constant theme of wisdom literature is that we all make a fundamental choice concerning how we will live and what will guide all the choices we make in life. Everyone has a basic orientation in life. We have a basic way of seeing the world. Human beings always make motivated decisions. That is to say, we decide what to value and what to do based upon our perception of the advantages and disadvantages of a particular choice. We normally choose the path we think will lead to our happiness, one way or another. Many of the motivations for our choices are unconscious and may involve our human brokenness. Consequently, it is important for us to be conscious of our motivations and control them.

Wisdom literature presumes that there are basic orientations we all have that guide our decision-making. Often, this basic orientation is described as a decision between two paths or ways of life. Sometimes, these two ways are described as the choice between the Path of Wisdom and the Path of Foolishness. On other occasions, they are described as the Path of the Righteous and the Path of the Wicked. On occasion, they are described as the Path of Light and the Path of Darkness. Finally, frequently the two paths are characterized as a Path of Life and a Path of Death. The first path (the path of wisdom) leads to life, wholeness and happiness; the other path (the path of foolishness) leads to frustration, failure, and death.

Psalm 1 is a kind of poetic meditation on the two paths. It reads as follows:

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Psalm 1 beautifully portrays the results of two paths. Those who love wisdom and righteousness are like trees in a fertile field by a stream of water growing strong, healthy and fruitful. Those who love the way of wickedness and foolishness are like grass planted in the desert. When the winds of life blow, they dry up and die. Our basic choices in life matter because our ultimate happiness depends upon our basic choices.

Listen to the Voice of Wisdom.

Years ago, I had an opportunity to backpack across Europe. One day in Athens, I had an experience that has impacted my life in a big way. For some reason, I was left alone for a long time. I sat on a bench in a museum and stared for close to an hour at a statute of Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. Athena, if you know of her, was a lovely maiden and an athlete—a huntress as well as the patron of wisdom in Greek culture. The ancient artist who carved the statute I was looking at did a wonderful job. Athena was presented with one arm and hand outstretched as if offering someone standing across from her a gift. The brilliance of the sculptor was shown in the expression on her perfectly lovely, composed face. Somehow, despite portraying Athena as quiet, calm, and composed, he or she left an impression of sadness upon her face, as if the goddess were offering the human race a gift she knew they would not take the gift of wisdom.

Over and over again in wisdom literature, two ladies are portrayed as vying for the attention and devotion of the human race. The two ladies are Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly. For example, in Chapter 9 of Proverbs, Lady Wisdom is pictured as preparing her home for a party:

Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live;  walk in the way of insight” (Proverbs 9:1-6).

This image of wisdom as a lady crying out from a prominent place in an ancient city urging human beings to follow her path and enjoy the riches she offers appears over and over again in wisdom literature (Proverbs 1:20-33; Proverbs 8:1-11). Even more frequently in Proverbs, wisdom is portrayed as a parent urging a child to follow the path of wisdom and good behavior. Always, financial security, honor, peace, long life, and blessing are promised to those who follow the path of wisdom and resist the always-popular path of foolishness and immoral behavior.

Do Not Listen to the Voice of Folly.

There is another lady Proverbs presents to us over and over again. It is the voice of Lady Folly. Lady Folly is portrayed as a seductress, luring human beings into a life of infidelity, violence, foolishness, darkness and evil (See, Proverbs 5:1-23; 7:1-27; 9:18-18). Proverbs 9 is interesting because it begins with a description of Lady Wisdom and ends with the following description of Lady Folly:

Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!” But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead (Proverbs 9:13-18).

In this little passage, Lady Folly is seen seducing passers-by into a life of thievery. In other passages, she is pictured as enticing human beings into a life of infidelity (Proverbs 7:1-27). In still other passages, folly is seen as enticing a person to violence (Proverbs 1:10-19). In all cases, the result is pictured as punishment, destruction, and death: physical (See, Proverbs 1:18; 2:18-19; 7:27; 9:18) and moral (4: 19; 6:33).

I am afraid that the voice of Lady Folly is loud in our society—so loud that she often drowns out the voice of wisdom and reason. The media constantly portrays the pleasures of illicit sex, and seldom pictures the ruined lives that too often result. The media often glorifies violence as a solution to human problems, and seldom pictures the terrible results violence always brings with it. [3] The media often glorifies illegal behavior and a person who takes advantage of others because of their intelligence, and seldom the human suffering that results in real life. We may think we have outgrown the wisdom of the ancient world, but the voice of Lady Folly is the loudest voice of all in our culture today—and listening to her seductive voice ruins many lives. Unfortunately, the young are always the most vulnerable to the voice of Lady Folly.

Walk on the Path of Life.

This has been a Great Banquet Weekend, so I could not help myself from sharing the picture I have on the screen for the final slide this morning. Just as I was finishing the first complete draft of Path of Life last fall, we had a Great Banquet at Camp Pinecrest. One evening, it rained, and then the sun came out. Several of us had just left the Dining Lodge when we turned around and saw the loveliest rainbow you can imagine. It seemed to cover Camp Pinecrest. Kathy took a picture from a bit down the road entering into the campground looking towards where the guests were located with a tree, which could be the Tree of Life illuminated in the background. You could see the road leading towards this vision of life. I wanted to use it as the cover for the book, but the publisher thought it was too busy. Nevertheless, to me it symbolizes the Path of Life.

We all want our children and grandchildren to have happy lives. Almost all parents want their children to avoid some of the mistakes they have made. Unfortunately, our society is not taking the steps that are necessary if our hopes and dreams are to come true. We have come to believe that it is easy to make good decisions, that if we live pretty much like our friends and neighbors we will find the joy and happiness we seek. Unfortunately, the evidence is to the contrary. Americans today are more worried, have more emotional problems, are in more financial bondage, and feel less hopeful about the future than ever before. The key is to stop being like everyone around us and to start being like Jesus—to start being attentive to the voice of the wisdom of the ages in Christ. It is true, as Jesus said, “…wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

It is easy to walk on the Path of Foolishness, at least at the beginning, and hard to walk on the Path of Wisdom, at least at the beginning. However, in the end, it is hard to walk the path of foolishness and it leads to a kind of death and destruction. The Path of Wisdom, on the other hand, leads to life. In Deuteronomy, Moses asks the people whether they will choose to follow the Lord or other gods. He describes the choice they will make as a choice between life and death, and then urges them to “Choose Life” (Deut. 30:19). We all make fundamental choices. Wisdom literature urges us over and over again to “Chose Life.” [4] It this message we need to give to our families, our friends, our nation, and our world in these troubled and dark days.

[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (London, England: Collins Fontana Books, 1952), 82.

[2] Most of this sermon is taken from my book, Path of Life (Eugene, OR: Wipf&Stock, 2014).

[3] See, G. Christopher Scruggs, Centered Living/Centered Leading: The Way of Light and Love (Cordova, TN: Shiloh Press, 2010). The Bible and Tao of ancient China warn frequently about the danger of violence.

[4] Moses puts it this way, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (Proverbs 30:19).

“The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom, and Humility comes before honor” (Proverbs 15:33).

Many people misunderstand what wisdom is. Many people think of wisdom as something highly abstract or metaphorical. Wisdom is not abstract knowledge. Wisdom is the practical ability to face and overcome the daily problems of life. Wisdom is about making good decisions, avoiding evil or foolishness, working hard, saving money, caring for children and parents, living simply within one’s means, facing unfairness, suffering, and death, and not expecting too much of life. It means living in the present, learning from the past, and keeping an eye on the future. There are two words we must understand if we are to begin the quest for wisdom: We must understand what it means to fear the LORD God, and we must understand what it means to be humble.

How can we become wise? What is the first step we must take? Proverbs begins with an epitaph, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and understanding” (Proverbs 1:8). Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy one is insight.” This morning’s Old Testament verse reads, “The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor” (Proverbs 15:33).

The first of two words we need to think about is “Fear.“ Wisdom begins with recognizing that we are not God, and we must respect the One who is God, the Lord of the Heavens and the earth and the Creator of all things visible and invisible. Modern folks have a problem with the idea of “fearing God.” A better translation of the Hebrew in this context is something like “Deep Awe and Respect”. For example, I have always had a fear and respect for electricity. When I was a child, I got a pretty bad shock putting my hand in a socket. We want our children to be afraid of touching a hot iron, or a burner, or an electric socket because we have a deep respect for what can happen if they do not have a healthy understanding of what heat or electricity can do.

Years ago. one hot late July or early August day, I was part of a tie-gang repairing rail near a siding just outside of Black Rock, Arkansas. We were replacing worn out tie-plates with new plates and spikes. The foreman left us for a while, and we were working and goofing-off not watching where we were or where we were going. Normally trains knew where repair gang was, and the foreman had a radio to warn him when we needed to get off the rails. For some reason, the warning failed. I don’t know why.

In any case we were working along ahead of a curve when all of a sudden a freight train going full speed came out of what we thought was nowhere. You never saw a bunch of guys move so fast in all of your life! I was near the front of the group, and I will never forget hearing that horn, looking up, and seeing a train pulled by four engines going all out come straight at us around that bend. For a second, I was frozen with fear. Looking up and seeing that train on the rails that day was frightening because we knew what would happen if we did not get ourselves and our tools off the track and away from the danger of being hit by a moving object of such speed, weight and power.

God is like that train: we cannot move God, change God, or avoid God. God the source of all the power in the universe, and only a fool does not respect that power. Our only and best choice is to go with the power and wisdom of God; we cannot change it.

The second word we must understand is the word, “Humility.” Over and over, the Bible teaches us that humility is important. Wisdom literature and the New Testament tell us that, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; I Peter 5:5). Many people, including many Christians, have a bad feeling about the word “Humble.” That is too bad because humility is one of the most important virtues a person can have. Humility is remembering who and what we are.

The Latin word for “Humble” is the same word from which we get out word, “Humus”. Humus is basically dirt. Those who know the creation story of Genesis know that humans were made of the dust of the earth. The name “Adam” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “dust” or “dirt.” At graveside services, we say “Words of Committal,” which go something like this: “We commit our dear departed to the earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” It is a reminder that we are all made of dust, and it is to dust we will all return. This recognizes our human condition.

Humility, then, is remembering who we really are: frail, fallible, bent, and sinning human creatures—all of us. We are not gods, and we cannot become gods. We are just men and women, creatures of the dust. We cannot see all ends, and we often do not know the consequences of what we are doing. We make terrible mistakes. We even make terrible mistakes when we are trying to do our best because we are as the hymn has it, “frail creatures of dust and feeble as frail.”

Humility is necessary for us to learn anything. Humility is a fundamental stance towards creation and others that admits that we do not know everything. We don’t even know enough to keep ourselves out of trouble without a bit of grace and good luck. The first thing we must learn before we can learn something new about anyone, including people we have known for years, is admit we don’t know everything and we need to know more. To be humble is to be teachable; and, if we are not teachable, we are proud and certainly going to get ourselves in trouble.

We know a lot about a lot of things in the modern world. However, I am afraid that our scientific success has made us proud and foolish. For example, we have thought as a nation that we know more than the ancients and God’s word about money, so we have borrowed our nation to the point of national ruin. We thought that we knew more than God and God’s word about sex and sexual relations, so now we live in moral wilderness in the midst of an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases that grows daily in the face of all the drugs and all the penicillin and other drugs we throw at it. As Paul says in Romans, “Thinking ourselves wise, we have become fools” (Romans 1:22). In almost every area of life, the modern world is arrogant and foolish—and increasingly dark. I often say that wheh the history of the modern world is written, it will be called “The Age of Arrogance.”

There is no way of knowing for sure if our nation and culture will escape the spiritual and moral wilderness in which we find ourselves. One thing for sure, we will not succeed in sustaining our culture and society unless we learn and relearn the two basic principles of wisdom: A Deep Respect for the One who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things and the humility to understand that we are not gods and we cannot become gods. We are “frail creatures of dust and feeble as frail.”

Copyright 2014 G. Christopher Scruggs

This Post is from a Sermon of September 21 &28. 2014 Drawn from the book, Path of Life.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of God’s “hidden wisdom.” Different cultures have different definitions of wisdom for practical purposes, but none of them can conceive of the hidden wisdom of the cross. Thus, Paul says in I Corinthians:

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,  so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord (I Corinthians 1:22-31).

Both the Greek and Hebrew notions of what was rational and wise excluded God from saving the world through a great act of self-giving love. In both cases, the notion that an All Powerful, All Knowing God would condescend to be abused and crucified would never occur to them as being rational. Nevertheless, God chose to act in this completely unexpected way to save the world. In so doing, God revealed a wisdom–a wisdom of self-giving love–that the world would never have imagined possible.

The same thing is true in our day and time. Those who are wise and powerful increasingly feel that they may retain and use their power by any means that allows them to advance their agenda. This is true on the left and on the right. Increasingly, those in power and those seeking power believe they are entitled to do whatever it takes to advance their agenda, no matter who gets hurt, what happens to the poor or the middle class, whatever the impact is on families and local communities. Possessed of unbounded arrogance and pride, they follow an ideological agenda irrespective of human consequences.

God has another way. His way is a way of self-emptying. His way is a way of humility. His way is personal in the extreme. This is why when He came to dwell among us he could say, “My kingdom is not of this world.” His kingdom comes into this world one person at a time. It cannot be brought in by law, by regulation, by executive order, by militia, or by armies. I can only be brought into the world by personal acts of self-giving love. This is why in Ephesians Paul could say, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not your own doing; it is a gift of God, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The way of arrogance and false pride is excluded by grace. If those in authority began to feel that their power, position, wealth, and influence were the result of grace, the unmerited favor of the One Who Is and Will Be, they would act from a different premise and in different ways than they do. The world would begin to be healed by humility, a sense of service, and self giving love. We know that this is true because, when God determined to institute his Kingdom, it is the path He chose.

The purpose of this blog is not to sell books, but this post is about two writing endeavors connected to the search for the wise and loving life. This spring, I published a book, Path of Life The Way of Wisdom for Christ Followers. Our congregation decided to turn the book into an eight-week sermon series and church-wide experience. Therefore, I wrote a companion book, Path of Life: A Devotional Study Eight Weeks Living out the Wisdom of God. The devotion was designed to allow those who don’t want to read the book an opportunity to experience its basic lessons by reading no more than one page per day for eight weeks. 

At the very beginning of Path of Life I make a comment that I believe is true: The biggest cause of human misery is a lack of love in early life. Time and time again the pastors of ours and other congregations see the results of people not receiving unconditional love at an early age. However, the second biggest cause of human misery we see is poor decision-making. Unfortunately, the weakness of American families combined with our cultural lack of respect for elders and for the experience of prior generations result in people making seriously flawed decisions in a number of important areas of life.

Path of Life is a sixteen-chapter book that seeks to introduce a reader to the importance of wisdom literature and the need to seek wisdom in every day life. The chapter headings are as follows:

Chapter One: What is Wisdom?

Chapter Two: The Source and Use of Wisdom

Chapter Three: The Heart Attitude of the Wise

Chapter Four: A Real, Personal Wisdom

Chapter Five: The Parental Voice of Wisdom

Chapter Six: The Two Ways

Chapter Seven: The Faithful Lover

Chapter Eight: Where Wisdom Grows

Chapter Nine: The Life of Self-Control

Chapter Ten: The Life of Labor

Chapter Eleven: Life in Community

Chapter Twelve: Does Wisdom Matter?

Chapter Thirteen: The Problem of Suffering

Chapter Fourteen: The End of Understanding

Chapter Fifteen: One Greater Than Wisdom

Chapter Sixteen: Wisdom and our Time

The eight-week study looks at Biblical wisdom in a number of areas and seeks to help people with a number of questions of life. It begins with orienting us to the importance of faith, a humble spirit, and respect for God as the only way we will ever achieve true wisdom.

The second week focuses on choices. We all make a few basic choices in life concerning what kind of people we will be and what we will value. These choices determine our character. Wisdom literature urges human beings to choose the path of faith, wisdom and righteousness as fundamental anchors for all decisions.

The third week concentrates on relationships. To be human is to in relationship with other people. One key to happiness and fulfillment is to have healthy relationships with honest, honorable people.

The fourth week covers wisdom and work. Hard work is essential for happiness and security in this life. However, Biblical wisdom warns against placing our confidence in possessions and devoting our entire lives to accumulating wealth. To live wisely and well, we must learn to work, to save, and to give.

Week Five covers the virtue of generosity. How we manage our money is an important part of life, and we cannot manage our finances in a Christian manner without developing the virtue of generosity.

Suffering is an inevitable part of human life. Week Six focuses on the Book of Job and on a Christian response to the problem of suffering. How we confront suffering is important to whether we find a kind of happiness as Christians that the world cannot provide.

Where and how can a person find meaning in Life? The book of Ecclesiastes is about the problem of meaning and purpose in life. What gives life meaning? Accomplishments? Work? Pleasure? Honor? Wealth? Week Seven deals with the problem of the meaning of life and how we can find meaning in out day-to-day lives.

Finally, in confusing, chaotic, and difficult times, people have always sought to understand the future. People as questions like, “How will my life end?” and “Where is human history going?” Week Eight focuses on the Book of Daniel and the wisdom we get from thinking about the end of our lives and of history. If we cannot know, as Jesus says, the day or the hour of our own death or of the end of history, what can we know that will give us faith and courage to confront the problems of our day and time.

Naturally, no one book or one Bible study can answer all the questions people have about how to live wisely. Learning to live wisely is the work of a lifetime. What a single book can do is set out a basic orientation to the search for wisdom and seek to answer a few fundamental questions. These books are designed to help people begin a lifetime journey on what wisdom literature calls the “Path of Life.”

“I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit. I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love” (Ephesians 3:16-17, NCV).

What does it mean to live by faith? It is not enough that we believe that there is a God, read God’s word, and ask God for help in our prayers. God wants to live in us. Paul prays that God will live in the hearts of believers. By “heart” Paul means he desires God to live in our spirits, in the center of our personality, in the core of our human will and desire. God does not want us to know about him. God wants us to become like him—as seen in the wisdom, love, and mysterious hidden power of Christ Jesus.

I don’t remember very much about my seminary Greek. One thing I do remember is the term “Spherical Dative.” A Spherical Dative (“If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, the old has gone—behold the new has come” (1 Corinthians 5:17) connotes that we live in the sphere of something or someone else. To be within the sphere of something is to be within the penumbra of its power, for good or for evil. Applied to Christ, it connotes that believers live in the sphere of Christ’s wisdom, love, and power, so that the wisdom and love of God permeates our being.

We just returned from Ireland on a pilgrimage to the home of St. Patrick. St. Patrick puts the point of this meditation this way in the famous “Breastplate of St. Patrick:

Christ with me.

Christ before me; Christ behind me.
Christ in me.

Christ beneath me; Christ above me.
Christ on my right; Christ on my left.
Christ when I lie down. Christ when I sit down.

Christ when I arise,

Paul says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). This is an awesome vision and promise. When Christ is in us, the glory of God is in us. The hope we have for ourselves and for our children—abundant life here in this world and eternal life in heaven—depends on Christ living in us. We do not necessarily experience this glory today, but we live in expectation and hope of the day in which we will in fact live “in Christ” and Christ will be “in us.”

Here we have a paradox of the Christian faith: We live in Christ/Christ lives in us. This may also help us understand the paradox of human freedom. We live in the sphere of God’s wisdom, love, and power. God is in and all around us. As we come to Christ, we now are able to consciously, from the core of our being, cooperate with God’s great, wise and loving purposes. We are in God; and, God is in us. We are free human actors, but we are free human actors gradually being transformed into the image of God—and paradoxically into the persons we would choose to be if we were not warped by sin and selfishness.

Questions for Feedback and Thinking:

Do you sense that Christ is with you, before you, behind you, in you, beneath you, above you, on your right and left, with you when sleeping, sitting, working, walking, etc.? What difference would it make in your life if that were true?

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

Moses’ father-in-law was astounded and said, “What you are doing is a really bad idea! You and everyone else are going to wear out! Being a leader of so many people is too difficult for one person. Here’s some adviceGod will bless you for obeying. Be the people’s representative and bring their disputes before God.You also need to teach them God’s word, showing them the way to behave.In order to make time for this, select capable people who fear God, are trustworthy, and who hate dishonest gain. Make them leaders over groups of various sizes. Have them decide most things, so that you only have to deal with hard problems. Then, your work load will be lighter, because others are sharing it. If you do this as God commands, you will be able to stand the strain of leadership, and everyone will be better off” (Exodus 18:17-23, Author’s Paraphrase).

Wisdom is essentially the practical ability to react to concrete situations in ways that enhance human life and the functioning of human societies. Leaders, in every area, need wisdom. Most of us don’t necessarily think of management and organization being an act of wisdom, but they are. A good leader understands his or her organization and how to structure it effectively. Many groups fail because of faulty organization.

Unfortunately, churches are not exempt from this truth. One of the jokes I hear at nearly every church leadership and church growth seminar I attend goes like this, “All over America there are thousands of churches organized to grow rapidly–if ever the year 1950  comes around again.” As a church leader, I have seen churches with complex, committee-heavy organizations that simply cannot adapt to the rapidly changing religious environment of our time. Worse, sometimes I think that I am one of those caught in an old paradigm of church leadership and organization.

The text for this blog is from Exodus Chapter 18. It concerns a visit Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, made to see him while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Perhaps to show his father-in-law how busy he was, Moses allowed Jethro, who himself was a tribal leader and a priest of God, to see him working day and night leading Israel. At this point, Moses was personally settling every dispute and making all decisions.

Moses was a prime candidate for burn out. He was the leader of a huge number of people wandering around the desert. Israel was the size of a fairly large city, certainly large by the standards of the ancient world. God had used Moses mightily in freeing his people from captivity. Moses stood up against Pharaoh, and against the Jews themselves, as he freed them from captivity. You can imagine that Moses was tired by the time the people crossed the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he kept on going. He worked Morning to night. He was the chief political leader of Israel, the chief judge of Israel, and the chief religious figure of Israel. By the time Jethro came to visit him, Moses was undoubtedly tired and near burn out. He needed to hear the words of Jethro, “What you are doing is not good” (v. 17). When I retranslated it, I almost translated the phrase, “What you are doing is completely crazy!”

Not long ago, I was driving around a strange city with another pastor, lost in a rainstorm, looking for a home neither of us had driven alone to before. It took a while to get our bearings. Leading into today’s environment, in business, in government, and in the church is a lot like driving in a strange city on a rainy, dark night.

During that long drive we talked about our churches and about the future of the American church. We talked about the endless books on leadership and the endless array of programs and possibilities among which pastors and church leaders must choose. Along the way, one of us made this comment, “The one thing we can know is that forming small groups will be the right decision no matter what else is right.”

In the army, the primary unit is what is called a “Squad.” a squad is about ten to thirteen people usually led by a non-commissioned officer. Squads are combined into platoons. Platoons are combined into companies. Companies are combined into battalions, and so on, until an army, however large, is created. The largest army is composed of these small groups of men and women led by young officers and enlisted men. These units determine the success and failure of the entire army. They are its fundamental unit of action.

About thirty years ago, churches, pastors, and church leaders recognized that vital churches are essentially made up of small groups usually between three and twelve people, who commit for a period of time to work together to become better disciples or perform some ministry. [1]  This should be nothing new. Jesus mentored and discipled in small groups. He spent time with Peter, James and John, a small group of three, and he spent time with the Twelve. It was in these intimate, small group times that he revealed himself most powerfully to those who would lead the church when he was gone. From what we know of Paul, his ministry was primarily one of traveling with a small group of companions and entering cities and forming small groups of Christians in the places they visited. The early church was a church of rapidly multiplying small groups.

In reality, in order to grow as disciples, people need to be in close relationship with a small number of people with whom they can share their Christian walk and Christian struggles. People need to have friends with whom they can share life at a deep level. In my book, Path of Life, I share how this need begins to be met in healthy family life, then in other social relationships, including the church. In the end, our civilization will be rebuilt by small groups of Christians sharing their lives in light of God’s Word in Jesus in little communities of wisdom and mutual love.

In recent weeks, I have had the opportunity to think about what matters in ministry and in the church. There is a temptation for church leaders , myself included, to focus on visible accomplishments.. By that standard, Jesus was a failure. What he accomplished that changed the world was changing the lives of a few men, who would take his message to the ends of the earth. If Jesus could focus on a small group, is suspect so should we.

Jesus was wise enough to focus his energy and attention on a small number of people with whom he shared himself as much as shared information. Jesus did preach to crowds. He did spend time in larger groups. Nevertheless, Jesus focused his energy on a small group of disciples. If Jesus adopted this strategy to found the church, we should think carefully about spending a lot more of our time and energy on small groups.

Leaders have to make fundamental decisions about how to move a group of people into a better future. Some of these decisions are organizational in nature. In the church, the fundamental unit is the small group, whether we call it a Prayer Group, a Bible Study Group, a Mission Team, a Ministry Team, or whatever. A good church organization focuses first on these groups and how to make and keep them healthy. This is the first principle of wise organization.

[1] Jeff Arnold, The Big Book of Small Groups (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 1992, 1.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:5-7, NIV)

The Importance of Cities to God

Recently, I heard Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and prolific author, speak. He spoke to a small group meeting urging pastors and church leaders to take seriously our call to plant churches in the great cities of the world. “Cities,” he said, “are important to God.” [1]

Today’s cities are large and complex. The size and complexity of our cities can make us oblivious to what a city is. In the ancient world, cities were primarily places of safety. A basic ancient difference between a city and a town was the existence of a wall. Ancient cities were walled, and so people were safe. When we work for the peace of our city, we work for it to be a safe place for us, our families, our friends, our co-workers, and everyone else that works in a city.

From the most ancient times, cities were also places of culture. Alexandria in Egypt, Babylon in Iraq, Athens in Greece, Troy in Asia Minor, Rome in Italy, these were places of beauty and culture. When we seek the peace of our city, we make of it a place of safety, cultural growth, excitement, prosperity, and peace. We want it to be a place where people can find good jobs, build houses, raise families, and prosper.

Christians are “Exiles” in any Earthly City

When Jeremiah 29 was written, some of the Jews already had been been transported from their homeland, most of them from Jerusalem, to Babylon. In Babylon, they had to live as exiles in a strange city. It is hard to live in a foreign land, especially at the beginning. First of all, there is the disorientation and fear that goes with not knowing a language. Even if one speaks the language, there are customs and habits an outsider find hard to adjust to in the beginning. The people of a different land may have a different religion or no religion at all.  Finally, a stranger finds it hard to navigate a city. A newcomer don’t know where the grocery stores are, where the banks are, where to get common needs met. It is difficult to adjust to a strange city in a strange land.

The Bible speaks of Jews and Christians as being “strangers,” “sojourners,” “pilgrims,” and “exiles” in a strange land, wherever we live. The word “exile” is an interesting and even threatening word. An exile is someone who can’t return to his home country for one reason or another yet is not a citizen of the nation in which he or she is actually located. An exile lives in a legally precarious situation all the time. In most nations, such a person has limited if any civil rights. They may be limited in the amount or types of property they can own. They may lack access to public services. The Jews were exiles both in Egypt and Babylon. They understood that exiles live in an uncomfortable situation most all of the time.

The Bible says that Christians should look at ourselves as exiles in this world. Our true home is heaven, but we can’t go there just now, just as the Jews could not return to Jerusalem. Peter puts it this way:

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (I Peter 4:11-12).

Among other things, Peter is saying that First Century Christians were never going to be completely at home in this world. They lived among people whose customs and values, morals, and world-view were different than theirs. In response to this situation, Peter says, “Just be such a great person that those among whom you live see your good life and thank God for you, even though you are different.”

I think if Peter were here today, that is exactly what he would say to us. He would say, “You American Christians, and especially American Protestants, are used to being in the majority and being in control. Things are changing in your country. What you need to do is recognize that you are now in the same situation we were in with respect to the pagan Roman world. The way to endure is remember that you are an exile and a foreigner even in your own land. Stay faithful. Live like a Christian. Don’t be afraid to be different. Keep the faith. Pray for your city and nation. Finally, lead such pure and good lives among the people that everyone is glad you are part of the culture. Be content to be an exile, because you have an eternal home.”

Pray and Work for the City

How do we do this? As Jeremiah says, we pray for the city. We work to make our city more prosperous and peaceful. We build homes, and we look after our neighborhood and businesses. We get involved in community organizations that work to make our city a better place. We share Christ and the love and wisdom of God with our friends and neighbors. We live as exiles, but not in a religious ghetto of our own making. We live in the city and we become engaged in it culture and life, all the while remembering we are exiles.

American Christians are accustomed to being at home in our culture. We were cultural leaders. The denomination to which I belonged for much of my life loved to point out how many Congressmen, Senators, Presidents, and Judges had been Presbyterian. Since the end of the Second World War, slowly but surely, America has become more and more secular. Today, our culture is a giant mission field. We cannot, if we are wise, engage that mission field the way we engaged our culture in the past. We have to engage our culture in with self-giving love, the same love that God showed for the world when, as John says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son, what whosoever believes in him should have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Look Forward to a City to Come

There is a tendency to look backward and to seek to return our culture, our city, and our nation to some point in the past where we feel we would be more comfortable. It is important to remember that time has only one direction, and it is forward. History has only one direction, and it is forward. We need to study the past, honor the past, and seek to preserve what is most precious about the past of our families, businesses, neighborhoods, city, nation, and culture. However, we must remember that we can’t return to some imaginary point in history when things were better for us, or our families, culture, race, or whatever.

God is taking the world forward. God is moving history to that day when Truth and Love will rule and there will be a Peace that will never end. God even says that our future involves a city—not a city as we know it but a heavenly city. Here is how John describes that city:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4, NIV).

One reason for God’s people to pray and work for our cities, all the while remaining faithful to God as revealed in Christ, is that we are meant to be the presence of a City of Peace  unearth today–foretaste of a city yet to come.

[1] Tim Keller, Why Cities are Important to God (Pamphlet from Sermon of November 7,1993.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

As a fellow elder, witness of Christ’s suffering, and partaker in his glory, I, Peter, encourage elders as follows: Feed your flock, looking over them not because you must, but because you want to serve other people; not for what you get out of leadership, but with a servant spirit; not out of arrogant pride, but with humility. If you lead in this way, when Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, appears you will receive an eternal crown of glory (I Peter 5:1-4, GCS translation).

During the 1970’s, an executive for AT&T wrote a leadership book entitled “Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness.” The book was a culmination of Greenleaf’s years as an executive and his interest in leadership. In the book, he developed a theory that servanthood is the key to real, authentic leadership. In so doing, he was sharing in secular terms a notion of leadership that began with Jesus–a vision of leadership that, in my view, is not sustainable without faith in the God of Wisdom and Love revealed by Christ. Greenleaf’s interest in leadership began in college when a professor spoke these words: “There is a new problem in our country. We are becoming a nation that is dominated by large institutions—churches, businesses, governments, labor unions, universities—and these big institutions are not serving us well.” [1] If a lack of true, transforming, life-enhancing leadership was a problem in Greenleaf’s youth, it is a worse problem today.

The notion of “servant leadership” would never have emerged without the revelation of Christ nor can it be sustained without an underlying Christian World-View. Why do I believe this? If you look at contemporary leadership in business, government, churches, universities, and other institutions, one is struck by the following paradox: leaders often mouth concern over those they lead but seldom actually serve their best interests in humility. There is a lot of talk about “servant leadership,” but very few actual servant leaders. A good bit of the time, so-called “Servant Leaders” talk about servant leadership, while all the time receiving exorbitant salaries, abusing the symbols of power and influence provided for them by their institution, and making decisions and engaging in behaviors completely at odds with the best interests of the members, shareholders, stakeholders, citizens they reportedly serve. Often, they engage in a despicable tradeoff: “You give me power in return for my promise to serve your best interests, a promise I do not intend to actually keep.” Worse, some of these leaders are what I would call demonic leaders who engage in this tradeoff: If you will give me power, I will do things that will not improve your life. In fact I will do things that may cost you your job, your sense of security, or your sense of self-respect.”

In order to develop and sustain servant leadership, there must be leaders whose character is formed in such a manner that they are wiling to suffer for those they lead. By “suffer,” I mean servant leaders must constantly be willing to exercise self-denial and self-control, seeking the best for those they lead and resisting every temptation to manipulate or take advantage of them. Without the notion implicit in Christian faith that self-giving love is the way to true leadership and wholeness both personally and for those one serves, it is almost impossible to sustain a servant posture in the face of the temptations that leadership always brings. Christians have a ministry as they serve humbly, with a servant spirit, in whatever form of leadership to which they are called.

For many years, I had the privilege of being mentored by a person with great leadership ability, yet never or rarely misused his power. There are many stories people tell about this person. One involves a day on which he and a local mega-church pastor were to be honored as outstanding community leaders. The other pastor arrived in an expense “power suit,”  surrounded by a retinue of assistants. My friend arrived in khaki’s, all alone, and sat in the back of the room until his name was called. He was actually embarrassed to be honored. Over and over again, my friend would warn me not to think more highly of myself than I ought and to avoid getting carried away with leadership. One of this most telling observations went something like this: “Do not emulate those pastors who take themselves too seriously and get too involved in high profile, self aggrandizing ministries. They always come to a bad end.” Most of the time, he has turned out to be right.

[1] Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1977), 1.

Copyright 2014, G.Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says,
 I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions, 
your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, 
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below, 
blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Acts 2:14-21).

This post is a about reaching the next generation of young people for Christ. It focuses on what is called the Millennial Generation, but it applies to most young people today from about twenty to forty years of age. There is no question but that Christians face a tremendous problem reaching the next generations for Christ. America seems to be traveling down the same road that Europe followed following the Second World War.

Fortunately, The challenge we face is not as big as the challenge the first church gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem on Pentecost morning! They were just a few provincial Jews from Galilee, some women and a few men. They had no real formal training. Few of them had ever traveled further than the short journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. They did not have the problem of a weak church out of step with the culture. They had the problem of no church at all.

In the Upper Room, they waited for the Power of the Holy Spirit, just as we must wait. We also have to pray and wait for the Spirit with open hearts willing to reach out to people God puts in our path. We have to be willing to reach out to those who are trapped in sin and brokenness, who are different, who are outsiders, who have different customs and traditions. We have to wait and pray not hoping that God won’t come so we don’t have to change, but hoping that God will come so we will change and receive the blessings God has for us.

We Worship an Unpredictable God.

Most people, young and old, expect things to stay the same. The Old Testament name for God translates, “I Am that I Am” or, “I Will Be What I Will Be.” The Name God chose for himself before Moses on Mt. Sinai reveals God as the inexhaustible source of everything that is, was, or ever will be. Therefore, it is not surprising that God embraces change. God is a God who is deliberately bringing about the future in surprising, unexpected and mysterious ways—ways we can hardly imagine.

In Acts 2, Peter quotes from the Prophet Joel, who prophesied that, when the Last Days come—that is the long awaited “Day of the Lord,” God would pour out his flesh upon people in a new way (v. 17). Not just adults, but sons and daughters would prophesy (v. 17). Not just prophets and especially religious people, but young men as well would see visions, and old men would dream of the future (v. 17). God’s Spirit was not going to be the province of one sex. Instead, the Spirit was going to be poured out on men and women alike (v. 18). There were going to be wonders and disruptions and strange signs like those that accompanied the Jews leaving Egypt (v. 19-20). In the midst of all this change and disruption, anyone who calls upon the God would be saved. Before human history is over, God intends to do a lot of unpredictable things. Peter is proclaiming to the crowd that the day of the Lord has now come. A new era is beginning. We are a all a part of that New Era in which God intends to use everyone to reach the world with the Gospel of Love.

Loving a New Generation.

There is no question but what it is God’s desire that every generation of Christians be reached. Unfortunately, recently American Christians have not been good at reaching young adults, what sociologists have called “Millennials,” or young people who entered adulthood right around the beginning of the new Millennium. Today, the oldest Millennials are about 35 or so and the younger Millennials are in their late 20’s.

Millennials are the first generation to grow up in Post-Christian America. They are the first generation to live all their lives in a nation where having babies is a personal choice, birth control is common, abortion is frequent, sex is always on television, in movies, and in the media, and the technology to communicate information and images is in their pockets. This is the first generation that has always relied on media and technology for information and communication.

Around half of Millennials grew up for a part of their young life in a home in which one parent was missing. Because of the prevalence of two income households, Millennials are a generation that spent a great deal of their childhood alone. This is the generation that first heard the term “latch key kid” used for a large number of children. Scholars say that his is a generation that has not known stable family and community relationships, and is hungry for them.

My generation, sometimes called “the Boomer Generation,” saw the beginning of this phenomenon. We also saw the beginning of another phenomenon: Our parents, the Builder and Silent Generations, built institutions, public and private. During the Viet Nam War, for the first time in American history, a generation began to mistrust institutions. As Boomers became cultural leaders, our children became the first generation that never trusted the institutions of our society and was educated not to do so. Therefore, this generation is hard for institutions to reach, including churches.

For those of us who grew up going to church with our parents before the Cultural Revolution, it is hard to recognize that more than half of the next generations grew up never, or almost never, going to church. What they know of churches is largely what the media tells them, which is that churches are harsh, legalistic, judgmental, and mostly led by white, abusive males. In order to overcome this stereotype, it is important that churches go out of their way to welcome and empower young people and shows them God’s love. We must be interested in them, not just interested in their coming to our church.

Millennials grew up with technology. They instinctively use the Internet for communication and information. They love to tweet, post, and text. Many of us are not as tech savvy as our children and/or grandchildren. Using technology wisely is a part of reaching the next generation that is really important. This will impact everything from how we structure worship and write sermons to what kind of discipleship materials we use, to how we communicate information.

Perhaps as a result of the technological revolution, and perhaps as a result of media saturation, this is a “post-printing press” generation. Older adults primarily learn from reading. This is a generation that is used to getting its information visually from the media. It is a generation in which posting on Instagram is as popular, or even more popular than posting text on Facebook. Anyone who has used social media knows that experts encourage posting pictures and not just text because of the difficulty of getting people to read just text.

We are the People God will Use.

By now a lot of readers are thinking, “I am not qualified for this. I don’t even want to do this! I am happy just as things are.” I feel this way a good bit of the time. I am sixty-three years old. I am an old dog not too crazy about learning new tricks.

We don’t know much about the disciples. Paul indicates that they were all married. I suppose this means that they had children. We have every reason to believe that Peter, Andrew, James and John were successful business people. Matthew was a wealthy tax collector with a mind for business. Paul was a Pharisee and moving into a position of power in Israel. I suppose none of the apostles wanted leave Israel and go to the ends of the earth. I’m certain they did not want to be around Gentiles, eat unclean food, and die far away from home. Nevertheless, they went in the power of the Spirit and along the way a lot of things they were accustomed to changed.

Reaching a New Generation.

To reach another generation, we must be willing to change and embrace a series of challenges and paradoxes. Here are just a few:

• We must be willing to change how we do things, without compromising the Gospel.
• We must be willing connect emotionally with people, while still communicating the cognitive, truths of Christian faith and life.
• We have to be willing to make our ministries accessible and relevant to new generations using the communication styles they are accustomed to using.
• We need to emphasize relationships, including mentoring relationships. In a world of technology people want and need deep personal relationships. In a world where people live alone, isolated, and away from family, we need to provide a place of healthy, stable, relationships.
• We need to be real not slick. We don’t have to change who we are; we need to be interested in a new generation, tolerant of generational differences, and ready to embrace Millennials with God’s love.
• We need to be mission and ministry focused. This is a generation that wants to serve as well as learn.

One of the young people who helped with this sermon made this comment: “We can’t just want young people to come to our church so it won’t die. We have to want them to come and build something new.” [i] One of the most successful congregations in reaching young people is a pretty traditional Reformed congregation. It has a lot of small groups, what they call “Life Groups,” which are led by young people. It has a community garden, run by young people. It even has a worship service led by Millennials. The older church members did not decide to do these things. Young people decided to do these things, and the congregation, young and old, encouraged them. It did not shame them into doing what they were doing. It opened its arms and welcomed them to do what they desired to do.

May it be so with our churches.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved.

[i] I have consulted a variety of sources, including Paul Fritz, Ten Keys to reaching Young People (December 2002) and an entire issue of Presbyterians Today entitled, Young Adults: Their Vision for the Church Special Millennial Issue A Guide for Young Adult Ministry (May 2014). Several of the young people of Advent were shown an early version of the sermon. They made many good comments, and I want to thank them for those comments. The sermon could not have been written as it was without them. I also need to thank the Long Range Planning Task Force and the Communication Task force for their comments, which I have tried to embed in the text. David Shotsberger, Don Kerns, Dan Eubanks, Coenraad Brand, and Cindy Schwartz did not see an advance copy of the text, but they have been working on how Advent reaches a new generation for a long time. Their work and advice is appreciated.