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Speaking the Truth in Love

When Jesus spoke about “planks of wood” and “specks of sawdust” that we have in our own eyes and spot in each other’s (Matthew 7:3-4), he was not laying down a mandate for us not to bring the truth to each other. I cannot see the “plank of wood” sticking out of my own eye (very likely because I do not want to!). But you can see it! I don’t like that you can see it because, quite frankly, it ruins my image of myself. For lo, in mine own eyes, I am awesome! … until you ruin everything by telling me differently. 

So how are we to speak to the speck that we see in another person? How do we speak God’s truth to each other? The apostle Paul lays out the ground rules: we are to be a people who are continuously “speaking the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15). 

There is a remarkable lesson in how to do that found in the book of Daniel. When you read chapter two it is almost like the ultimate double jeopardy version of speaking the truth in love. If Daniel gets this conversation with the king wrong, he is going to die — literally, horribly. Hopefully, the stakes will not be that high for us, but certainly if we can learn to speak the truth in love it will always bring life. The key to Daniel’s success is all in the mercy that he brings to the task. 

1. Mercy in Relationship: King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (605 B.C. – 562 B.C.) was the richest, most powerful man on the face of the planet at that time. He was in the process of creating an empire that would, at least in his imagination, immortalize him. And yet his nightmares give away a deep insecurity. These dreams signal a change in his fortunes and we find a man whose desperation to know the truth has made him dangerously paranoid. He called for his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers, and demanded that they interpret the troubling dream. They begin, “O King, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” (verse 4). But they have missed a subtle detail. Nebuchadnezzar had demanded that they not only interpret the dream but first they must tell him what the dream was. The penalty for getting this wrong is death as well as the destruction of their houses. With a visible sweat forming on their brows, they eventually answer, “What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.” (verse 11).

Paradoxically, they are speaking the truth. Nobody can do what the king is asking. Human wisdom is inadequate. Pagan wisdom has no answers. Only God can do this. So, what is the king’s response to this deposit of truth? We are told that Nebuchadnezzar became “angry and furious” and issued a decree that “all the wise men of Babylon” should be executed. That broad category included Daniel and his friends. 

At this point Daniel enters the scene. Daniel has some relational history with the king and his servants. One of the young men who had been handpicked from the Jewish people taken into exile, he has turned up for his Babylonian fine art seminars, learned the language, and built a trusted relationship with the king’s officers [Daniel 1: 3-4]. Daniel has been observed to stand firm on just one issue (concerning what he will eat) but this has added to his integrity. And at the end of chapter one we are told that the king himself found Daniel and his friends to be “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” (Daniel 1:20b). 

This relational investment now comes into play. He speaks to the officer of the guard who has orders to find the wise men and put them to death. We’re told that he speaks with “prudence and discretion” (verse 14) as he inquires as to what is going on. Nebuchadnezzar agrees to the audience, listens to Daniel and grants him his request for extra time. The Babylonian wise men are being gathered up and put on death row. Why this reprieve for Daniel? Why does Daniel get the break?

The point here is that if we want to be able to effectively speak God’s truth in love to another person then the quality or the integrity of our relationship with that person is a crucial prerequisite. 

2. Mercy in Prayer: The first thing that Daniel does is to pray with his friends. Daniel urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery. What we later learn is that the whole of Daniel’s life was centered upon this deeply prayerful relationship with God (“…he knelt down on his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” – Daniel 6:10).

When we feel like some great deposit of truth is burning a hole in our hearts and we need to unleash that truth upon some unsuspecting beneficiary, have we prayed about that? In making our deposit of truth, what is our motivation? With how much mercy have we prayed before we wade in with both feet? If we are not inclined to pray, then it is probably not our job to drop this little bomb of truth. If we can’t pray with mercy in our hearts for the person we think we need to talk to, then we are not ready for the conversation.

3. Mercy in Truth: During the night, the Lord miraculously showed Daniel the vision that the He had given Nebuchadnezzar of a large statue of a man comprised of different elements (gold, silver, bronze, iron, and a mixture of iron and clay) that was destroyed by a rock that then grew and filled the whole earth. Daniel also received the meaning. Without a doubt, Daniel has some tough news to deliver. The summary of Daniel’s vision is “King Nebuchadnezzar, your kingdom is toast!” 

But Daniel brings mercy to truth as he speaks to the king. Daniel told him the dream. Listen to how he begins the interpretation: “You, O king, are the king of kings.” Daniel does not begin by assaulting Nebuchadnezzar’s ego and I doubt he was purposely starting with flattery. What he has said, from a purely earthly perspective, is correct. The king is still listening. Daniel gets to do some more talking and broadens the king’s perspective. “The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2: 37-38).The King is still listening and now Daniel brings him the greatest mercy. At the heart of his interpretation is this clear message: King Nebuchadnezzar, what you possess is yours only by God’s hand and it will be taken from you. There is, however, a Kingdom that belongs to God that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. This Kingdom, represented as a rock in the vision, will crush all the kingdoms of this world and will itself endure forever.

This Kingdom Daniel is referring to, of course, is the Kingdom of heaven of which we hear a great deal about in the New Testament. This rock is Jesus Christ. He is the rock that crushes the kingdoms of this world because He is the one into whose hands the Father has committed all judgment. He is the living word of truth that speaks to us from the Cross where mercy and justice meet. In fact, the Cross is where we see exactly the mercy of relationship, the mercy of fervent prayer, and the mercy of truth that will eternally set us free. 

How does King Nebuchadnezzar respond to this word of truth that there is a plank of pride that is causing him to not see his position clearly? We are told, “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor… The king said, ‘Surely your God is the God of Gods and the Lord of Kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.’” (verse 46-47). The king not only receives the truth but he recognizes Daniel as a representative of the one true God.

We are all called to be little “Daniels.” And if we are to get it right, we will speak in love, in the mercy of a relationship that has integrity, the mercy of prayer that seeks both the Lord’s leading and His forgiveness, and in the mercy of His truth. 

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2020: Fearless in This Great Adventure

“I, I am He that comforts you; who are you that you are afraid…” (Isaiah 51:12)

I wonder how many of us stand at the dawn of the new year and feel more apprehension than excitement. Jesus is faithful to meet us here but without His help, fear can be enormously disabling in our walk with God. There is, of course, a healthy fear or reverence of God – but there is also a fear of inadequacy, a fear of failure, or a fear of disappointing people. Surprisingly, this kind of fear has much more to do with pride. Isaiah records the Lord’s promise, “I, I am He that comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass?” (Isaiah 51:12).

It is curious that the Lord would say, “Who are you that you are afraid?” But the truth is that God knows us so much better than we know ourselves. He sees clearly that my fear is so often a manifestation of my pride. The Lord very emphatically says, “I, I am He that comforts you!” (Isaiah 51:12). And yet fear barges in and tries to take over God’s role of protector and guide and comforter. It’s as if fear climbs up on God’s throne and presumes to say, “Don’t do that; You could get hurt! You’ll be humiliated.”

Fear presumes to set its wisdom above the wisdom of God.

As we step into a new decade of mission, who are we really trusting? Is our faith founded upon our emotions or all that feels safe, comfortable, “doable” in our own strength, or are we looking to the promises of God, which of course are so much bigger? As a Diocese – a family of churches united by His Word, Spirit, Sacrament, and Mission – we are called to serve Jesus in the re-evangelization of New England. This is a task that is quite beyond us to accomplish. And yet together, upon our knees, in complete dependence upon God’s wisdom, provision, leading and strength we discover the Spirit-led posture of heart and action against which the gates of Hell cannot prevail. Here, the seemingly impossible is made possible in God. The poet, Minnie Haskins, puts it well, “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,” Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.”

May the Lord Jesus make His face to shine upon you, the Lord fill you with a true and lasting hope and a greater joy than the world can give, the Lord make you and those you love to sleep in peace and dwell in safety. And the blessing of the Father’s protection, guidance, faith, wisdom, and love be with us, as we begin this new decade, held together in His Spirit in the great adventure of the increase of His Kingdom across New England and beyond.  Amen.

In His great love,

+ Andrew

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Mobilizing the Royal Priesthood

At the turn of the 20th century, the one-eyed son of former slaves was receiving tuition from a Methodist-trained minister from Topeka, Kansas in order to attend Bible school in Texas. Because this student was African-American, he was segregated from the white students. From his place seated in the hall outside the classroom, his heart (to use John Wesley’s expression) was strangely warmed by God’s Spirit. 

In spring 1906, he was invited to speak in a Nazarene church in Los Angeles where he preached that it really had been the Lord’s intention to pour out His Spirit on all people – even the poor, black ones. He was locked out of the church. Not to be dissuaded, he continued to speak to the poor on front porches and in any home that would receive him. Interest swelled and an abandoned warehouse at 312 Azusa Street was commandeered to be a place of gathering for the revival that was now underway. 

The Los Angeles Times reported on April 18, 1906: “Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and the night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of the worshippers who spend hours swaying back and forth…”

This itinerant preacher was William Joseph Seymour and he opened the door to a move of God that Los Angeles Times readers could never have imagined. That movement placed the Word, the Spirit and the mission of the Church into the hands of poor, multi-racial people. Seymour let loose what was deemed to be an entire underclass of men and women to reach out with the love of God. 

From these beginnings, the Pentecostal church increased steadily throughout the world until by 1991 it took its place as the largest family of Protestant denominations in the world. In January 1999 it was recorded that more than 450 million people were involved in Pentecostalism, with an annual increase of 19 million per annum. Sixty-six percent of this movement is found in the developing world. 

As he obediently put down his small, shabby suitcase in downtown Los Angeles, did William Seymour have any idea what the Lord was planning? When we faithfully do what the Lord has asked of us, when the people of God are mobilized in His love and work together to complete the task, beyond our comprehension, beyond anything we could ask or imagine, the world is transformed. 

God has set a passion in our hearts that the family of churches across New England that is the growing ADNE, would play its part in the re-evangelization of New England; to turn the spiritual tide; to be relevant in the face of cultural change while remaining Biblically faithful; to be a church of His Word and His Spirit, expressed in gracious and loving evangelism and justice, distinguished by radical generosity and compassion. This will require a movement of God’s Spirit. But this does not mean that we get to sit back and watch God do all the work. There has been no significant move of God in the whole history of salvation that did not embrace, did not mobilize, all of us ordinary people in the hands of an extraordinary God. 

We are all called, each one of us. In the hands of an extraordinary God, we all have something unique and essential to contribute to the advance of God’s Kingdom. The apostle Peter wrote to followers of Jesus (and that includes us today): “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10).  

Bishop N.T. Wright put it this way: “The long story of God’s plan to put things right, starting with Abraham, climaxing in Jesus and the Spirit, and looking ahead to the new heavens and new earth, is not the story of guilty humans being forgiven so they could go to heaven, but of guilty humans being rescued in order to be worshippers and workers in God’s restoration movement, God’s kingdom-project.” 

How do you know what your ministry is? Look at your talents, gifts and abilities. When you use those talents and gifts to help other people, that’s called ministry. You may be at home, at work, at a sporting event, in the aisle of a grocery store, at a committee meeting, at an exercise class, on the train — anytime you’re obediently helping other people in God’s name, you’re ministering. And when take our small step of obedience, we can be sure that God will take it and bless it in ways beyond anything we could have imagined.

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The Company of Angels

There are parts of the Christmas story that are really very earthy: the embarrassment of an unmarried pregnant girl; the harsh Roman world that would make that same woman take a long journey to register for a census; the nativity of hills and caves, Caesar Augustus, kings, and shepherds that watched their flocks by night. And then there are parts of the story that are just bizarre and wildly supernatural. It was to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph and even shepherds on a lonely hillside that the angels attended and gave great news. When I was first a follower of Jesus there was for me this extraordinary revelation that Jesus was real. And then it followed that in this new reality, angels were somehow part of the package! I remember saying once in a prayer, “Angels? You have got to be kidding me!”

There is a huge amount of interest around angels. Even the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s wife has written a book on angels. The Bible is surprisingly forthright on the subject. Unlike the Trinity, angels have not always existed; they are part of the universe that God created. Ezra wrote, “You are the Lord, you alone have made the heaven of heavens with all their angels.” The Apostle Paul tells us that God created all things visible and invisible. And there are lots of angels. Ten thousand are said to have accompanied God at Mount Sinai. The Bible speaks of “the chariots of God” as “tens of thousands and thousands of thousands.” John talks about myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands of angels (which is a number so large you can’t even count them!).

What do angels do all day? The short answer is, as God’s servants, whatever God asks them to do. It would seem that in a standard day’s work they are sent by God to guard and protect and to bring God’s word to people. From time to time, angels take on a bodily form to appear to various people (we see this in the Bible).

The Bible also gives us some angelic health warnings. We are not to worship or pray to angels. An angel speaking to the Apostle John warned John not to worship him, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” (Revelation 19:10).

Two parallel but unequal kingdoms simultaneously occur: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom that is this broken world. One night, in the cold, in the dark, among the wrinkled hills of Bethlehem, these two worlds came together at a dramatic point of intersection. Jesus’ birth is really a story of invasion—the Kingdom of God breaking into the kingdom of the world.

When the Kingdom of God breaks in it is the most wonderful thing. His Kingdom of hope breaks into the kingdom of despair. His Kingdom of light breaks into the kingdom of darkness. His eternal Kingdom breaks into our finite kingdom and the miraculous breaks into the mundane.

I have a very good friend in the UK (with a Ph.D.) who became the principal of my former seminary. As a student, she worked at a summer camp that was beautifully situated on the dramatic coastline of North Devon. She vividly recalls a runaway tractor careening across the camp field and headed over the cliffs, where a group of young people were enjoying themselves on the beach below. She and many others standing with her watched a man run across the field and jump into the moving vehicle. With the tractor brakes broken, he managed to pull the tractor around and make a dramatic stop at the very edge of the clifftop. She and the others who witnessed this rescue, ran toward the tractor to help and thank the hero of the hour, only to find no one inside the cab of the tractor.

Another good friend was a missionary in a downtown part of Sydney, Australia. Returning home late one night and all alone, she made the mistake of taking a shortcut through a dark underpass. In the middle of the tunnel, out of the shadows, she was threatened by a gang who demanded her money or her life. The gang suddenly fled when a large man appeared behind her. Shaken, she turned to thank the stranger but found herself completely alone. 

You might ask, why does this stuff not happen to me? If we are committed to the idea that all of this angel stuff is nonsense, then I suspect we won’t see it, even if it is right in front of us. Faith is a gift. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8) But faith is, at the same time, a choice. Your part is to choose to accept the gift. Faith is, therefore, trust. Of that night in Sydney, my friend wrote, “As I look back to my time in Australia, I know that during that year of my life, I had to choose to rely upon God in a whole new way. I remember that this increased my prayer life dramatically. This, in turn, increased my expectancy that God would act. I became more aware of the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom compared to any other time in my life.”

In the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing the Cross was before Him, Jesus was confronted by “a great crowd with swords and clubs” who had come to seize him on behalf of the chief priests and elders. A disciple with Jesus drew a sword, prepared to defend Him, but Jesus rebuked him. Jesus said, “Put your sword back into its place … Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Why didn’t Jesus call on the angelic guard? He made this choice because our eternal destiny was at stake. All of us who were “careening toward the cliff,” separated from God, were about to be rescued. The company of angels serve God in the continued in-breaking of His Kingdom, in the continuing story of our rescue.

There is a world out there that is seen and unseen—visible and invisible—and God sees it all. So if in God’s estimation, I am in need of rescue, then I humbly accept His lifeline. If in God’s estimation, I need some angelic backup, then bring it on. Personally, I would not be without Jesus and I am very grateful to be living in the knowledge of the company of angels.

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To Love and be Loved

As much as we write about it, talk about it and claim to build our lives around it, true love is a rare commodity. But the real thing stands out. True love draws a crowd. 

What does true love look like? Many consider these verses written to the church in Corinth to be the Apostle Paul’s greatest literary work: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a). We are instinctively drawn to and desire such a love. It is the love that we innately know is somehow, “out there,” even if we have never experienced it. Couples often choose to have this passage read in their wedding ceremony as a sincere aspiration for what they truly desire their love to be for one another. As glorious as Paul’s writing is, his goal was not to definitively describe love. His words are more of a description of a boundless love displayed. More accurately, he was defining attributes of the heart of God. 

I wonder if there are moments when we find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves us personally?  And yet Paul’s words are, all at once this tender, compassionate, gentle, extraordinary, explosive, revolutionary symphony of Christ’s love for us. This “furious love of God” (to quote G.K. Chesterton) knows no shadow of alteration or change. 

  • God is and will always be patient with you. 
  • He has and will always champion and believe the very best of you. 
  • He has and will never lose hope in you.
  • His love has and will always seek to defend and protect you.
  • His is a love that has and will always faithfully endure all things with you. Through all of life’s challenges, His love has not once left your side and He never will. 
  • His is a love that is never too proud to forgive you.
  • His is a love that is not too proud to pursue you when your intellect denies it and your emotions refuse it.
  • God loves you without condition or reservation.
  • God loves you this very moment, just as you are and not as you “should be.” 

Of such a love, Brennan Manning wrote, “Jesus says: ‘Acknowledge and accept who I want to be for you: a Savior of boundless compassion, infinite patience, unbearable forgiveness, and love that keeps no score of wrongs.’” 

We so often hear the phrase “love is a decision” or “you have to choose to love.” Do we perhaps find ourselves nodding in agreement with this exhortation because we fear that love is, after all, just a feeling —and therefore prone to contrary equivocation and recalcitrant volatility ? I am grateful to John Piper for pointing out that many (if not all) of the things that Paul lists are not really ours to choose. Paul tells us love “…is not arrogant.” That is not a choice but an attitude of the soul. Similarly, to “bear all things, hope all things, endure all things” is again much more about the capacity of my soul. If it is the kind of decision that I must make, miserably and begrudgingly, is that really love at all? Paul is, by inference, showing us that love is so much deeper than our day-to-day choices. 

The central motif in the movie “The Moulin Rouge” is “the greatest thing is to love and be loved in return.” Jesus would personally agree with this. For us, however, He has mercifully reversed the order. The greatest thing is that we are loved by God and only then, out of His unconditional love, do we find the right conditions within us to begin to love one another as He has loved us. This means that we will fail to love as God loves us if we attempt to tackle true love head on. Instead, Jesus would first have us receive and define ourselves as radically loved by God. Manning wrote, “The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea. When it permeates mind and hearts it determines why and at what time you get up in the morning, how you pass your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, and who you spend time with, it affects what breaks your heart, what amazes you, and what makes your heart truly happy.” In other words, only when we rest upon the unconditional love of God do we find the in-born means for His love to flow through us to others. 

How can we be sure that we can rely upon Jesus to do this kind of work within us? How do I know that I am not better off left to my own devices? Paul’s words on what love is and isn’t, as beautiful as they are, are not a full definition of love. He leaves that for Jesus. Jesus defined the pinnacle of love with these words: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:3). Jesus was, of course, speaking of His own death. His sacrifice on the Cross is the ultimate expression of His self-giving love for all humanity. “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) His love is, therefore, patience to the point of sacrifice. His love is kindness to the point of sacrifice. His love protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres, all to the point of sacrifice. 

Paul also penned, “…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3: 17b-19). In other words, we could no more easily contain Niagara Falls in a tea cup than we can comprehend the vast and uncontainable love of God for us. Rather, Jesus would have us stand anew each day before Him and, with the titan tumbling torrent of Niagara Falls in our mind’s eye, pray: “Lord, be like that, through me!”