Children are not distractions from more important work. They are the most important work

C.S. Lewis

In last Sunday’s sermon I shared a poem and a quote that seemed to resonate with many people (If you missed the sermon, I have copied them below). They both pertained to one of struggles that many parents and guardians face when it comes to raising children, and that is not making other, less-important things a priority. My point was that just as we sometimes treat children as an interruption, we treat certain kinds of people as an interruption, which Jesus did not do to the “unclean” woman who came to him for healing. You may recall that after reading these things I made the comment that they could certainly be re-written to remind us of the importance of prioritizing lost people and not considering them an interruption or a distraction. Well, I think we ought to do exactly that, so I’ve taken the liberty of re-writing the quote from C.S. Lewis (see the image of this post).

I want to see what you all can do with the other one:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up we’ve learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I’ll play with my children cause children don’t keep.

What do you as an individual or we as a faith community prioritize over the proclamation of the Gospel? I think reflecting on this will help us direct our time and energy toward the things that matter most. Remember to be constructive! Let’s get those creative juices flowing! Post in the comments section below.

Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.

Mark 5:19

The tradition I grew up in had a reputation of leaning toward legalism, or reducing a relationship with God to a long list of rules and regulations. Alcohol and tobacco were off-limits, as well as mixed bathing, dancing, and attending the cinema. Technically, only those first two remained in the manual by the time I came along, but the others were still considered commandments by some individuals. When I challenged a church leader to explain to me why watching a “G” rated movie at the theater was wrong he said it was because paying to see that particular movie was supporting an institution that also showed movies that were very inappropriate. Many of the folks who felt this way didn’t see how the same argument applied to renting videos from the local Blockbuster. Thankfully, my parents recognized the inconsistency of this logic and allowed us to go to the movie theater.

So what does any of this have to do with Jesus’ healing of the demon-possessed man in Mark 4:1-20? It came to mind when I was reflecting on the reaction of the pig herders to Jesus’ miracle; they asked him to leave. Why did they do that? I suppose fear could have had something to do with it—watching a herd of some 2,000 pigs suddenly stampede into the sea and drown must have made quite an impression—but I think it was more than that. A herd this size would have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in today’s currency. More than fear, I think these pig herders were concerned about the economic impact of what Jesus had done. It was as if they cared more about their pigs than this man who was in bondage to evil spirits. In keeping with the story and the way pigs signified uncleanliness to Mark’s Jewish audience, we could say that these men are an example of someone who profited from sin, and were willing to accept the collateral damage that came along with it, which this demon possessed man was an example of.

Maybe we ought to think more about who is hurt by the things we make money from? Or maybe we ought to think more about supporting businesses and organizations that profit from things that cause people harm, from things that would be considered unclean by Jesus? It has been my experience that rules become legalistic when the reason they were instituted in the first place is forgotten and the rule is only followed for its own sake. I think the rule against going to movie theaters was meant to help people guard their hearts and minds from the evil that is in the world, which sounds like a pretty good reason. What this rule would look like today is hard to imagine, given the many avenues available to us in which ungodly media can enter into our homes and our hearts. Even so, I believe it’s worth thinking and praying about. When Jesus begins the work of cleaning up our lives and casting out our demons, we don’t want him to leave, do we? We certainly don’t want to sacrifice our freedom or the freedom of somebody else because we benefit in some way from something that keeps anyone in bondage or that deprives them of the abundant life Jesus wants to give them.

Whoever has ears to hear... Let him hear!

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

I imagine most everyone reading this will remember the catchphrase, “Can you hear me now?” made famous by Verizon’s TV advertising campaign in the early 2000’s. For nine years, actor Paul Marcarelli appeared in countless Verizon commercials, in all kinds of different locations, asking his imaginary conversation partner that all-important question and always receiving an affirmative answer. I can tell you from personal experience he would have gotten a different answer in Snow Camp, which is why I am now an AT&T customer.

While we can say with certainty that cell-phones were not on anybody’s mind in 1st century Palestine, that question was, at least as far as Jesus was concerned. Truly hearing what somebody else is saying has apparently always been a problem, especially between God and his people. In our passage from Mark last Sunday, Jesus uses the Greek word for hearing (sometimes translated as listening) thirteen times. He didn’t want his disciples to half-way hear what he was telling them. He wanted them to hear it completely, to internalize it, and to live their lives accordingly. But their spiritual deafness, i.e. their sin, was blocking the signal. Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection would eventually open up the lines of communication between God and all people. Even so, many people persist in their ignorance, refusing to listen to what God wants to say to them, preferring instead to listen to other voices that appeal to their sinful natures.

Brick Church, let’s receive the gift of hearing that God wants to give us in Jesus. God is still speaking—still calling, convicting, challenging, guiding, encouraging, and comforting. Let’s respond with, “Yes, we can hear you now,” and “Yes, we are listening.”

— Pastor Geoff

Last Sunday we began our thirteen-week series on the Gospel of Mark. If I had to pick a single word to summarize the entire message it would be “change.” In Mark 2:1-22 we learned of three major changes Jesus introduced in the centuries-old religion of Judaism: (1) The prioritization of spiritual and eternal matters over those that are physical and temporary, (2) an emphasis on the unconditional love that God extends to the worst of sinners, (3) a relationship with God that calls for times of fasting and repentance as well as times of celebration and resting in his loving presence.   

After describing each of these in detail, Jesus concluded by acknowledging that these changes were so incompatible with the way the scribes and Pharisees understood their faith, forcing them to adopt them would only lead to the destruction of both the only and the new. His only option, therefore, was to create an entirely different entity to fulfill his mission in the world; the Church, the body of Christ, was his answer. Interestingly, there were many Jewish followers of Jesus who defied the odds and joined his movement. The difference between them and those who rejected Jesus seems to be a humility, an openness to the movement of the Holy Spirit, a belief in a God who was always doing something new, and a desire to be a part of it.   

Brick Church, I believe God wants to do a new thing in us, both as individuals and as a community of believers. Many of you have shared with me a clear sense that the Holy Spirit is moving in our midst, preparing us to make some changes that will enable us to continue our mission of making disciples int his next chapter of our story, and embrace our three key words for this season: Love, Share and Grow. Will you join me in being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit at our Church? Will you join me in praying that we will be willing to make whatever changes are necessary for God to move in and through us to reach our community and world with the good news of the Gospel? 

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.

Mark 1:1 (ESV)

I would imagine that nearly every single person reading this receives the news in some form or fashion on a daily basis. At our house, the television in our living room is on most mornings while we are all getting ready, and many times in the evening, while we are preparing dinner, tuned in to one of our local news channels. Other folks get their news via cable or satellite, over the internet, or through their car radio on the way to work. Regardless of your preferred method, the majority of  what you hear will most likely be negative; stories of death, destruction, chaos and disorder… evidence of the fallen world we inhabit. Aren’t you so thankful we have an alternate source of information with a very different message?  

In the opening verse of Mark, the author describes the story he is about to tell as the “gospel of Jesus Christ.” As many translations attest, the word gospel comes from a Greek word that literally means, “good news.” In a world that seems so bent on its own destruction, that sounds like an appropriate way to refer to this story of a God who wants to save it. To their credit, most news outlets make some effort to throw in a feel-good story every now and then, but we know all the feel-good stories in the world won’t solve the world’s problems. We need a God who can destroy the forces of evil and forgive, redeem and recreate sinners. That is exactly the God that Mark and all the other New Testament writers present to us.  

Join us over the next several weeks as we take a journey through the Gospel of Mark during our Sunday morning worship services. Hearing the good news will make all the bad news bearable, reminding us of the hope we have in Jesus.    

“Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering”.

1 Peter 5:8-9, NRSV

Early this morning, while sitting outside and enjoying these unseasonably cool temperatures, a mosquito moved across my field of vision. As ridiculous as it sounds, I imagined that if I kept completely still, he wouldn’t see me and move on to another victim. I’m no entomologist, but I’m fairly certain mosquitos don’t rely on their sense of sight when seeking out a meal, but their sense of smell, and my odor is unfortunately not something I can simply turn off when the need arises.

In the passage quoted above, Peter warns his fellow believers to be on the lookout for the devil, whom he compares to a lion lurking about, searching for its prey. While lions are expert predators, their scarcity in North America may cause us to not take Peter’s warning too seriously. But mosquitos, on the other hand, are something we are intimately familiar with. If you imagine the devil to be one of them, you’ll get a better sense of what Peter is getting at. Like mosquitos on a warm summer evening, the devil has an uncanny ability to find us wherever we may be and do whatever he can to make our lives miserable by tempting us to sin. I’m not referring here primarily to temptations of the flesh. As James reminds us, those more often arise from desires within; the devil simply makes us aware of the opportunity. No, I think the type of temptation Peter has in mind here is more than likely a temptation to be overcome with doubt or despair. The devil wants nothing more than to make us forget that God loves us and that God is present with us in the midst of whatever we are going through.

I think this is a situation where being completely still may actually be the answer. By that I don’t mean motionless, but resting in God’s presence, relying on his strength and trusting in his power, which is infinitely greater than that of the devil. While you rest in God’s presence, remember these words from Paul, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV).

On this Fourth of July I’m reminded of a movie I watched recently entitled, Unbroken. I read the book several years ago and have always wanted to see the movie, so when it was released on Netflix I seized the opportunity. If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, Unbroken is based on the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who enlisted in the Air Force the same year Pearl Harbor was bombed. Not long after, while flying over the Pacific, the plane he was in crashed due to mechanical failure. After surviving on the open sea for forty-seven days, he was taken captive by the Japanese and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp, where he was subjected to unceasing brutality and torture, mostly at the hands of one particular military commander.

Zamperini’s Christian faith undoubtedly played a pivotal role in his (spoiler alert) survival and eventual decision to become an evangelist. While it isn’t really highlighted in the film, there is a scene where Zamperini, while adrift at sea on the life raft, makes a promise to God that he will serve him the rest of his life if he provides a means for his rescue. Then, in the closing credits, the movie explains the way Zamperini kept his promise was by returning to Japan years later to forgive his abusers, even the one who had hurt him the most.

Today we are grateful for the freedom we enjoy because of men and women who, like Zamperini, were willing to risk their lives, or even lost their lives, in defense of it. But Zamperini’s story highlights an ever greater kind of freedom, the freedom that comes when, by God’s grace, we are able to forgive those who have sinned against us. Feelings like anger, revenge, and resentment can serve as a type of prison that keeps us in bondage, stealing from us the joy, peace and rest that God has for us, and even preventing us from experiencing the fullness of his forgiveness. Our ability to forgive others flows from our realization of an amazing truth, that we have all sinned against God, and yet he has graciously forgiven us through the death of his Son, Jesus. If there is anyone in your life that you are struggling to forgive, I pray that you will cooperate with God’s grace and do what would otherwise be impossible, so that you can celebrate an exponentially greater kind of freedom on this Fourth of July holiday.

Word for Wednesday... Regulations

All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.

Colossians 2:22-23

After serving in pastoral ministry for several years, and administering the sacrament of communion on at least one hundred different occasions, it was brought to my attention that I had been saying the liturgy wrong; well not the entire liturgy, but one word of it. Instead of saying “This is the body of Christ, given for you,” I was saying, “This is the body of Christ, broken for you.” It may seem insignificant, but the Biblical narrative of Christ’s passion emphasizes that none of his bones were broken, which is not typical for people who are put to death through crucifixion. This was believed to be in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. As we read in John’s gospel, “These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘None of his bones shall be broken’” (John 19:36). In light of this revelation, I made the correction moving forward, but it never occurred to me that somehow God’s grace had not been extended as a result of my error.

I was reminded of this while reading an article recently about a Catholic priest in Arizona who was found to be saying one incorrect word while administering the sacrament of baptism, only in his situation the consequences have been far more severe. Instead of saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” he said “We baptize…” According to the Catholic Church this means the thousands of baptisms he performed over the course of his more than twenty-five year career have now been rendered invalid. Since Catholics believe baptism allows the believer to participate in the other sacraments, such as communion and marriage, it means those sacraments have been rendered invalid too, and may need to be repeated as well, after the individual has been baptized correctly. The article didn’t say, but I wonder what this means for those who were baptized by this particular priest and have since passed away. Will this put their salvation in jeopardy?

I think an argument could be made, using Scripture, that “We” could be an appropriate word to use, given that the Great Commission was given to the Disciples collectively, and one just one individually. I could also point to Augustine, one of the early Church fathers, and his suggestion that the validity of a sacrament found its source in God, and not in the perfection of his human representatives (for more on this see “Donatist Controversy” and “ex opere operato”). But my purpose here is not to vilify the Catholic church or argue against their action—I have much respect and admiration for them—but rather to make the point that we humans have a tendency to impose rules, requirements and regulations that, while well-intentioned, can actually hinder the Gospel and get in the way of the work God wants to do in the world. The passage quoted above, though it refers primarily to dietary restrictions that some early believers were imposing upon others, provides us with a perfect example. Whenever we feel the urge, or believe we have the authority, to start defining what it means to follow Jesus and live in relationship with him, let’s be absolutely certain that we are taking our cues from God and not from ourselves or our traditions.

Word for Wednesday... Hidden

For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light.

Luke 8:17

So far this winter we’ve been fortunate enough to have had three “snow events,” with the remote possibility of a fourth this coming weekend. Although none of these resulted in significant accumulation, they provided enough snow to do what snow does best, make everything outside look nice and clean and pretty. On three separate occasions I was able to forget how terrible my yard looks and how many weeds I have in my flowerbed. Unfortunately, when the snow melted I was brought back to reality, but there were some places where the snow did not melt, at least not immediately. In several seemingly random locations--the ditch alongside a roadway, a patch of lawn on the north side of the house, and a small area at the base of a tree--the snow hung around for days, and in some cases more than a week, long after the “snow event” was past us. The truth is, there wasn’t anything random about what I experienced; these were places where the ground stayed colder, where the wind blew stronger, and where the sun was less familiar. In these locations the snow proved it was not only a concealer, but a revealer of the coldest and darkest places.

Like these places where the snow lingers, we have deep recesses in our hearts, secret spaces where feelings like greed, bitterness, lust, jealousy, fear and anger have taken up residence. They are hidden in plain sight. We know how to cover them up, to conceal them with a façade of put-togetherness. We have been trying to fool other people for so long (and God too) we have almost fooled ourselves into believing they are non-existent. But deep down we know the truth, and God knows it too. As Jesus expressed in the passage quoted above, a day is coming when our whole selves will be exposed to the full light of day; hiding, deceiving, and concealing will no longer be a possibility. But by the grace of God, we don’t have to live in fear of that certain eventuality, we can be honest with God today. We can confess our sins to him and discover that not only does he already know all about them, he loves us anyway. He wants to cleanse and purify our hearts, fill us with his Holy Spirit and lead us on a journey of becoming like his Son, Jesus.

Word for Wednesday... Redemption

Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave…God will redeem my life. He will snatch me from the power of the grave.

Psalm 49:8-9, 15, NLT

I’m not a huge football fan, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Divisional Playoff between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills this past Sunday. The valiant efforts and brilliant displays of athleticism on both sides made the game one of the most exciting to see in recent memory. Like many of you, we held our breath as the Chiefs’ kicker, Harrison Butker, lined up to attempt the field goal that would take the game into overtime. In those brief moments I spoke to Butker through our television screen, reminding him that this was his one shot at redemption, his chance to make up for the field goal and extra point he had missed earlier in the game, which collectively would have been enough to secure the Chiefs’ victory. You never tell young children after a loss that their singular mistake made the difference, but overpaid professional athletes can handle the truth; if the Chiefs had lost it would have been all his fault. Thankfully, for his sake, he made it.

A popular online dictionary defines redemption as “the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.” In Butker’s case, the thing he stood to lose was his reputation as being an individual with the ability to kick a football through the uprights. With his successful field goal attempt in Sunday night’s game, he regained that reputation, thus achieving a sort of redemption. You could also say he repaid the debt owed by his two previous errors. We can only hope that he was very grateful to the Chiefs’ offense for giving him the opportunity.

From a biblical perspective, the hope for redemption takes on a whole other level of importance. The thing we all stand to lose is our lives. On account of our sin we owe a debt to God, and only with our lives can we repay it. Unlike Butker, we will never have an opportunity or the means to repay that debt and buy back our lives. It is simply too great. There is no amount of money we could earn, or no amount of good we could do to make things right between us and God. Realizing this, the psalmist decides the only alternative is to put his hope in God to somehow make redemption possible. He trusts that only God can snatch him from the power of the grave. And with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that his hope, which is our hope too, is realized in Jesus, who gave his life for us, redeeming us, so that we could live forever with him.

Brick Church

Our congregation was founded in central North Carolina over 275 years ago by immigrants from Germany. Since then faithful people have been gathering here to worship and glorify God. Thanks for visiting our website, and we hope you’ll visit Brick Church this Sunday.
CONTACT US
crossmenu linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram