Mercy Motivations--Kingdom and Church, II

New Creation Mercy

Where God exerts his rule through his Word and Spirit, the effects of sin are healed. Thus the kingdom is like a great banquet (Matthew 22:2) and is a state of total fulfillment of blessedness (Matthew 5:3, 10). This healing is always partial, because the kingdom is not fully come, yet this healing is substantial, because the kingdom is already present.


Edmund Clowney writes that kingdom evangelism must have a holistic focus:

“The renewal of Christ’s salvation ultimately includes a renewed universe… there is no part of our existence that is untouched by His blessing. Christ’s miracles were miracles of the kingdom, performed as signs of what the kingdom means…His blessing was pronounced upon the poor, the afflicted, the burdened and heavy-laden who came to Him and believed in Him…The miraculous signs that attested Jesus’ deity and authenticated the witness of those who transmitted the gospel to the church is not continued, for their purpose was fulfilled. But the pattern of the kingdom that was revealed through those signs must continue in the church…Kingdom evangelism is therefore holistic as it transmits by word and deed the promise of Christ for body and soul as well as demand of Christ for body and soul.” [from a chapter, “Kingdom Evangelism,” by Clowney, found in the book The Pastor-Evangelist (edited by Roger Greenway, 1987]

More from the book by Timothy J. Keller, Ministries of Mercy.


A man’s hands were wrapped to protect himself—he looked like a boxer with gauze and tape around his knuckles—and he was on a bed lying hemmed in, much like a large tent, with a mesh of nylon netting. He only moaned as I spoke with him. I read Psalm 23 to him this past Thursday—and he brightened up. I reflected with him on the Lord’s shepherding mercies. I spoke. He moaned. I prayed. He moaned. He didn’t/he couldn’t make eye contact with me. But his countenance told me that he was listening. I ministered with him for about 20-25 minutes. God’s providences are always gift-wrapped. Holistic gifts, encircling both body and soul, encompassing word and deed, are the ones that present the incarnation to us. God spoke out Himself; God enfleshed Himself. Word and deed, holistic stuff...a new creation already on the way.  


G. Mark Sumpter

Mercy Motivations--Kingdom and Church

Game-Changing Mercy

The kingdom of God is power, God’s ruling power present to heal all the curse of sin. It moves the people of God to meet psychological, social physical needs, bringing God’s kingly blessing as far as the curse if found.

“If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28).

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted” (Luke 12:32-33).


Francis Schaeffer has shown us that, because the kingdom is present partially, but not fully, we must expect substantial healing, but not total healing in all areas of life.


Quoted from Timothy J. Keller, Ministries of Mercy , p. 53

Substantial healing; ministries of mercy, even tiny steps, are weighty, influential, noticeable, and game-changers. THAT is doing the works of repentance, seen, for instance, from the preaching of John the Baptist.

G. Mark Sumpter

Cultured

Abstractions Needful, But There’s More

I first started to learn something about being cultured, as we would call it, around the Sumpter dinner table; this is what I remember as a young kid.

My folks would talk about being cultured. They aimed very practically by speaking, for example, of the pleasure and blessing of the Japanese violin players who were downstairs in our home; these young men were housed with us, the members of a Japanese symphony orchestra. This happened in Anchorage maybe at some point back in 1969, maybe ’70. Cultured—it’s having an interest in classical music, even more, supporting it with your presence at performances. That meant going to the West High auditorium to listen to the rapid saw-work of the bow on the strings. It was OK. For my folks, it was culture.

Later my experience—again speaking practically with an example—involved eating at a dinner table. I’m thinking of remembering and heeding that flatware, fairly finely arranged spoke of being cultured. The forks set on the left, spoon and knife on the right, and so on. I was scared at the home of Dick Stites, my coming, future father-in-law. The forks were noticeably on the left. I thought—but when do I pick it up? Do I use my knife to help get the peas in place? As a high school boy, I was scared because my home resembled 60-70% of the time the dinner table in the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was be a hog or get hogged—I was reared with three other big, knuckles-dragging-to-the-floor older brothers. We were nasty boys and squeaky fat.

So I was scared when I was invited to the Stites home. Likely, as I remember, it was not on the very first dinner with the Stites family, that I boo-booed a biggie by keeping the Pork Chops serving fork at my plate. Bad move and embarrassing—and not cultured. I showed irresponsibility around the table, an absence of table mindedness. My wife remembers. Yes, now a family joke; but I remember it as a want of art.

How does a kid growing up in this experience interpret the world around him? Fear it. Resist it. Resent it. Make fun of it. Harden myself against it. Decide that it’s for sissies.

The Gospel has grabbed me by the lapels the past 3-4 years. For some reason, God decided to give me a lesson in art, culture, life and liturgy in a most unusual way. Last month while at the Library of Congress at the Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., I got a lecture from Shirley MacLain. Let me mention it here.

While doing my tourist thing, waiting my turn for a tour, a library assistant urged me to meander over to the exhibit of Gershwin and Hope—George and Bob, that is. Can you spell c-u-l-t-u-r-e? Spell a-r-t (music)?—expression, rhythm, syncopation, lyrics, meter, mannerisms, an audience and context.

It grabbed me—of all things!—while surveying the pictures of Bob Hope and his dotted history of entertainment. The survey of pictures and memorabilia turned to a theological discourse. It’s Shirley MacLaine’s remark: Politics that are void of the insight of art—its compassion, humor and laughter—are doomed to sterility and abstractions. (1972)

Substitute the words, The people that are void…

Substitute the words, The churches that are void…

Substitute the words, The families that are void…

MacLaine nailed me.

I have been given to abstractions—that is, there in abstractions, there is life, truth, help, hope and meaning. She got me to thinking, “I’ve been a Christian, a pastor, encompassed by the stranglehold of abstractions and it’s been a life of sterility.”

I’ll try to write more on this. But I have learned the Gospel is not about mere abstractions. Just look outside—God invites us to his art room: mountains, plains, rivers, rolling hills, hay fields, checker-board farmlands, ocean deeps—and the constellations, hosts and dancing of the shooting stars. He is the Artist. He is cultured.

Each Sunday, at my home church, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It’s dinner time. Flatware, words of welcome, a minster who serves, cup, bread, trays, persons to eat. The Gospel gets down to a shared meal. The abstractions of preaching become taste and see. I am so very thankful for holding, tasting, seeing, smelling, swallowing truth. The head alone can take only so much.

Teach me, Lord, teach me of the necessity of the artforms and culture. I want to be cultured.

G. Mark Sumpter

Hospitality Levels the Field

Eating together minimizes, maybe reduces altogether hierarchical notions

“Because eating is something every person must do, meal-time has a profoundly egalitarian dimension.

...Often we maintain significant boundaries when offering help to persons in need. Many churches prepare and serve meals to hungry neighbors, but few church members find it easy to sit and eat with those who need the meal. When people are very different from ourselves, we often find it more comfortable to cook and clean for them than to share in a meal and conversation. We are familiar with roles as helpers but we are less certain about being equals eating together. Many of us struggle with simply being present with people in need; our helping roles give definition to the relationship but they also keep it decidedly hierarchical. As one practitioner observed, eating together is the ‘most enriching part but also the hardest part. When we were first here it was so hard. We didn’t have any specific things to do, just be with people.’”

I am convicted to the core.

I have been a part of congregations that serve meals to the homeless; I don’t think I ever remember a practice of sitting down with those dear folks. Serving them is safer; it's just too risky to be with them.

This quote comes from the penetrating, well-written volume, Making Room—Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Eerdmans, 1999), p. 74.

G. Mark Sumpter

Biblical Love for Such a Time As This

Tevye: Golde, I have decided to give Perchik permission to become engaged to our daughter, Hodel.

Golde: What??? He's poor! He has nothing, absolutely nothing!

Tevye: He's a good man, Golde. I like him. And what's more important, Hodel likes him. Hodel loves him. So what can we do? It's a new world... A new world. Love. Golde... Do you love me?

Golde: Do I what?

Tevye: Do you love me?

Golde: Do I love you? With our daughters getting married. And this trouble in the town. You're upset, you're worn out. Go inside, go lie down! Maybe it's indigestion.

Tevye: Golde I'm asking you a question... Do you love me?

Golde: You're a fool.

Tevye: I know... But do you love me?

Golde: Do I love you? For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes. Cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow. After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?.......

Edith Schaeffer writes about the LOVE in her home back in the 1960s-70s in L’Abri, Switzerland…with her husband, children and especially with ministry to others:

“Life wasn’t easy by any means. There seemed to be constant stacks of dishes to wash, a tremendous succession of meals to prepare, endless sheets to hang out, countless letters to write, hours on end of conversation which took precedence over all other work—because these were people sent to us for a purpose…

Sometimes when difficult times are being lived through it seems as though the difficulties are simply too mundane to be the least bit worthwhile. Martyrs being tortured or persecuted for their faith at least sounds dramatic. Having to cook, serve meals to two sittings at times without ever sitting down to eat in between yourself, having constantly to clean up spilled and broken things, to empty mounds of garbage, and to scrub a stove that things have boiled over on, or an oven in which things have spilled over and baked to a black crust is neither dramatic or glamorous!..

…The Lord was sending people and amazing things were ‘springing forth,’ but the prayer answers brought with them the need to be willing to accept all that the answers meant, in the way of work, as well as excitement.”

pp. 148, 155-156, in the book: L’Abri, by Edith Schaeffer, Tyndale House.

G. Mark Sumpter

Oregonians, Waffle Stompers and Granola Bars

“We are finite beings and therefore cannot be self-sufficient. We are utterly dependent upon others, and the longer we live, the more we feel this fact. He is a fool who thinks he can live by himself. It is impossible. Nevertheless, many people are very attracted to the Romantic idea of escaping into the wilderness, living by themselves, and not depending on anyone else. It is attractive because God alone is self-sufficient, and every rebel wants to be like Him. There is something in the heart of sinful man which dislikes being indebted to anyone. If man is indebted, he is obligated to show his gratitude, and sinful man is not grateful. Instead, he wants everyone to be indebted to him. But God will humble and teach anyone who thinks in this way. He will teach him, one way or another, that he cannot be independent and that God alone is self-sufficient.” From “Friendship: Its Necessity and Obligations,” a chapter out of the book Face to Face, Meditations on Friendship and Hospitality by Steve Wilkins, Canon Press, 2002.

When is the last time you've thought of the hunger for a getaway to a cabin retreat as rebellious, typifying self-sufficiency with respect to wanting to have your space, ample distance from others? Maybe if I saw people more and more as God's good gifts to help me along in my growth in dependency, the foolish longing to escape from others would be properly corralled.

Life is not only coram deo; it is also very much coram populo.

G. Mark Sumpter