Larry delivers an exciting and engaging lesson on the Gospel of Mark through Mark himself. This narrative sermon immerses the listener into the thinking process of Mark as he tells the story of Jesus.

A Community Process of Discernment

We’ve come to an important time in the process of adding to our leadership. A church is a part of the body of Christ. We exist to help each other and the people around us know the God of the universe who shows himself in Jesus and lives in us in his Holy Spirit. That affects every aspect of life, but its priority is important. We want to discern, participate in God’s work.

We know from our world how cynically leadership is manipulated. Across history, the church is often no different, just another broken human institution. The process of discernment matters for those who believe/trust in God with renewed minds (Rm 12:1-2). There’s no set method or failsafe technique. We do our best. God works. The Holy Spirit acts among us. Always the challenge of Jesus shows us God’s reality turning our world’s values upside down. We must go back again and again to the scriptures as learners, looking at Jesus, growing.

Maturity, Task, Responsibility

In the early church several ideas came together to help shape leadership: (1) maturity / elder /older; (2) the metaphor of shepherd growing from Jesus’ as the good shepherd; (3) the challenge to be watchful, oversee the community so that the Gospel is not distorted.

Peter urges elders to work like shepherds who watch over the flock gladly - no compulsion, ulterior motives, self-aggrandizement, but desiring to set an example, the Gospel’s stamp.

Paul brings together the same ideas as he says farewell to a group of elders, calling them to shepherd and watch for the whole flock. But with a sense of danger - wolves. If they are not shaped by the Gospel, they themselves may become wolves. It is not the people who lead who are the standard but God’s message of grace in Jesus. Leaders strive always to learn that reality, to embody that message and teach it and avoid distortions. But they must also be evaluated by the message. The community thrives as it is shaped by that message.

In all of these there is great seriousness: Peter: "God’s flock," "chief shepherd." Paul: "Holy Spirit," "his own blood," the "power" of the message. Hebrews: "keeping watch for lives," "give an account." 1Tim 5: elders who are "stewards" and "work strenuously in word and teaching."

A Community that Grows toward Jesus

Ultimately, this whole process and how lovingly, joyfully, hopefully and responsibly we take it is a statement of who we are. We are becoming people who think, see reality, starting from the event of Jesus. He became one of us and gave these gifts for a transforming process. We’re never very good at the process, but it really matters to us and that shapes everything else.

There are shepherds so we can be shaped by Jesus, serving, becoming the body of the Messiah. The aim is for us to grow into the maturity, the serving, the loving, the self-giving, the understanding, the oneness, the beauty and creativity of Jesus, the fullness of God in him.

A Community that Broke Barriers Last week we talked about how 1 Tim. 3 showed how Paul urged Timothy to discern leaders that fit the distinct situation, life, and needs of the congregation. Remarkably, in its first cent. the Jesus movement struggled to be inclusive on every level. Success was real but limited. There were no patterns of associations with women or slaves as leaders. It was hard in that society for them even to speak, much less serve as prophet-teachers or leaders.

But they were pushed by the Spirit giving gifts, by theology/baptism, by Jesus’ example. Jesus treated every person as honored, valuable.

Developing Leadership in Early Christian Communities

The NT has a range of descriptions for leadership in the early communities of believers. There is an interplay between everyday and church language(episkopos= supervisor, overseer, into "bishop") (presbyteros= elder, later transmuted into priest) (diakonos = servant, deacon).

Jerusalem: apostles, elders, presided over by James, Jesus’ brother. Antioch: prophets and teachers. Paul appointed new converts as "elders" (Act 14:23). Philippi used the language of supervisors/overseers and servants (bishops and deacons). Many assemblies were evidently led by those in whose house they met (Mary, Lydia, Priscilla and Aquila, Titius Justus, Chloe). Paul usually describes leadership in terms of gifts of grace (charisma) with a range of functions (Rm 12). He never speaks of elders till 1 Timothy and Titus, near the end of his life.

Paul’s Instructions to Timothy and Titus.

In our own tradition, the descriptions of elders in 1Tim and Titus have often been the law, a kind of checklist, discussed and debated but controlling. We looked for a binding pattern and these texts were explicit enough to override descriptions of leadership in other letters.

It is important to ask what Paul intends in these texts. They’re very important as they show Paul dealing very explicitly with situations in Ephesus and Crete. What are we to learn?

Puzzles: Why write this to Timothy and Titus, who have worked with him for 15-18 yrs and served as his representative in many difficult situations? Don’t they know? Why must elders be married, when Paul earlier urged Corinthians to remain unmarried? Who is the "diabolos"? Why must pagans speak well of the overseer? The church faced dangers on two fronts, from heresies forbidding marriage, denying resurrection, etc., and from growing danger from the state under Nero. They were vulnerable to accusations of abuse/disgrace (oneidismos) by outsiders. Paul faced this in Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, but it became a general danger.

Paul assumes Timothy and Titus know the spiritual gifts needed for leadership like Rm 12:4-10. He is listing the particular needs he sees in the troubled groups in Ephesus and Crete. They face outside danger and need leaders who present a face to the threatening world that can protect the life/existence of the community, thus husband, good family, praised by pagans. Diversity of leadership came in round-about ways: widows who manifested pastoral gifts.

Restoring New Testament Christianity

Our challenge is to do as Paul did for Ephesus and Crete: to evaluate the situation and need of the community in the light of the Gospel and specific life. Restoring NT is not to treat 1Tim as a checklist law, but to do what Paul did for NYC with our gifts, challenges, possibilities.

Leadership by Community Discernment

We’re starting a process to expand the group of "elders" who lead this congregation. MCOC is within the Churches of Christ, part of the "Stone-Campbell" movement of "restoration" that became distinct early in the 19th cent. (About when the Church of Christ began in NYC in 1810.) Our identity as a church centers in a commitment to the NT and all of Scripture: the church will be healthiest when it stays closest to NT teaching. No hierarchy. Independent congregations. In practice, the CoC developed a pattern of local "elders," "deacons," and "ministers," with variations. Always within a deep commitment to being guided by scripture.

The leadership of this congregation has been stable for many years. It was about 15 yrs ago, (2003) when we last went through this process: Elders: Paul Stelzer (26 yrs), TR (25), Angel Reyes (15), Lark Mason (15). All the deacons (15+), Ministry staff (17+). The community is always evolving, diverse, learning, maturing. We have quite a number of men and women who are able to bring important spiritual gifts into leading this community. On March 11 we’ll ask for our best discernment of those who could best serve as leaders.

Beginning with a Focus on God’s Intention

Next week we’ll look at the descriptions of "overseers" and "elders" in 1 Timothy and Titus. These are important practical guides to what we’re doing. As a whole, the NT uses a variety of language and structure for the leaders of early congregations. It’s important to see the fundamental values and aims that God calls leaders to. It was always recognized that leadership was both important and a temptation to be conformed to structures of power. Jesus repeated worked to transform his disciples’ understanding of "greatness." Paul and others worked to shape communities based on the "message of the cross" not competition or hierarchy. Eph 4:1-16 gives us a vision of what Christ wants in this whole process.

1-6. (Sermon: 12-31-17). Paul starts by describing a life that fits the calling of Jesus. It leads to being able to live the Oneness created by the Spirit, uniting diversity, and to be the continuing incarnation/body of Christ. One Lord of faithfulness is One God, creator of all.

7-10. Everything is God’s action and flows from the Messiah’s gifts that touch every believer! Ps 68 tells of God ascending. How? God descended among us in Jesus. God wants not only to rule but to participate in his creatures, to fill all things with his life, love, and grace.

11. Jesus/God gives particular kinds of leaders that fit his purposes: people who are sent out; those who speak to the lives of people; those who announce God’s Good News, those who care for the community like shepherds, those who teach. No rulers or power brokers.

12-16. We all participate. Leaders are part of a community being equipped for service, growth in understanding, mature adulthood. As a body every part contributes to the growth. Leaders are responsible to help us all toward the Gospel, to become that distinct life of love and oneness, uniting all kinds of people. That is God’s purpose in "filling all things."

When the need of another person is made plain to us, we can enter into the universal experience of being human, and all distinctions disappear. But we need a humbling power to help us. We need a power greater than our own so that we can adequately relativize whatever authority has been given to us. And the only power that works on the privileged and the underprivileged alike is the divine power of Jesus.

We come at it from different places. Jesus comes to preach good news to the poor and the captive, all the while offering those of us who are not poor, who are not oppressed a place at the table if we can have faith like that of the centurion. However, we have to remember that the faith of the Centurion came at a cost. His faith moved him to an action of humility and letting go of power in the service of another person, that in his day would have been unimaginable.

Nearness - The Challenge and Mystery of other Faiths

As a child, I grew up in a sectarian world. We joked about being the only ones going to heaven, but thought it likely true. A small heaven. The religious "others" were Baptist, Methodist. The Nat. Geographic still explored unknown regions of earth. Now we’re all next door.

I’ve learned a lot by study and relationships: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, vast cultures and literatures. I’ve learned the vast variety in Christianity. There’s so much I’ll never grasp because I don’t live inside the world of Vishnu or Pure Land Buddhism or Greek Orthodoxy. We can’t escape human limitation. A continuing journey, drawing on resources of faith.

We live in a secular world that deals with faiths by saying none/all are "true." I partly share in that. I put little trust in "religion" as a general phenomenon in human culture. It’s both good and bad. My faith stakes all of life on Jesus, on the God of Israel known in Jesus, on the God who as creator is the source of all existence, the lover of all, giver of life and hope.

Modesty - Learning from other Faiths

I grew up in strong exclusivism: total agreement in all details of belief and practice required. There’s power in strong boundaries, but it’s not true to the NT. The Gospel, however, has a radical core in Jesus: incarnation, death, resurrection. Staking all on the reality of it.

At the same time, the NT itself points to a vast vision of the implications of that story. God is God of all nations. All things are reconciled in Jesus. God is doing more than we think.

We need modesty not about the Gospel but about our own understanding. Other faiths are important parts of the quest for God and help us to understand the needs of humanity and aspects of the Gospel that we have not seen. Power of suffering and desire. The interplay of religious law and society. One God and many gods, angels, saints. Etc., etc.

The task of learning requires real listening. We do not understand what it is to live in the world of another faith. How life fits together and works. Why it is powerful, attractive. We are destined to misunderstanding even as we struggle to listen and understand. That means welcoming people of other faiths into real conversation, exchange, sharing faith.

Wholeness - Letting each Faith be true to Its own Understanding

Faiths are specific and diverse. They have power as wholes. In wanting to understand other faiths, I’m striving to be true to God’s inclusive love, not to create a universal theology.

It is loss on every level if I try to install Jesus as one among many helpful guides to "truth." Buddhists are not desiring to go to a Christian heaven any more than I am worried about reincarnation in a lower caste or entering the Pure land or dissolving in Nirvana.

Power - Jesus’ Challenge to Love and Trust

People often feel that the great danger of religion is in truth claims, exclusivism, treating others as dangerous outsiders to be coerced or destroyed. The danger is visibly real.

As Christians our challenge is actually to learn and trust the power of God’s self-giving love, not trust the power of state coercion so deep in our history. Real trust in Jesus or love for God and neighbor cannot be coerced. We are still learning the message of the cross.

From Christendom to a Secular Age

We’re part of a society and world that is "Secular" - "God" may be important personally, but God in himself is not part of public discourse in government, culture, science, economics, technology, academics, education, social sciences, psychology, etc. It’s a radical change from 500 yrs ago - the demise of "Christendom" in Europe. [Charles Taylor, A Secular Age.]

Many Christians feel a loss- defeat, a desire to regain cultural and political power. But few want to undo the development of today’s world- Modernity. Renaissance, Enlightenment, end of feudal/clerical dominance, science, medicine(!), technological rationalism, political rights for individuals, human rights, diverse nation-states, innovative economies, freedom, democracy. But each word is complex, with a dark side. Materialism, loss of meaning.

American separation of church and state is "modern." Our movement drew on John Locke: The "modern" story is us. But we also inhabit "post-modern" sensibility: We’re sophisticated and ironic about our world. No big story is really true. All are attempts to impose power over others. Freedom requires the free play of differences with no claims to truth (except this one). Tolerance is virtue. Any misuse of power differences is sin. Post-modern critique powerfully undermines modernity’s claims, but also any morality or meaning, even itself.

We have a freedom to do what we want, but never to know who we (all) are ... are about.

We are always in process. "Post-modern" is not the end. We’re already post-post-modern. We can’t avoid living in our age, nor its influence on us. The challenge is creative interaction.

Jesus - the Challenge to Every Secular Narrative

Jesus did in the Roman empire many things that secularism did to the Middle ages. Jesus was a person, flesh, but also God, a concrete historical event, with place, time, context. But he became a multi-faceted story, told in memory, parable, poetry, and song, each reaching back to grasp some part of the Jesus event that surprised his closest followers.

Jesus communities undermined claims of empire and family, hierarchies of class and ethnicity, even slavery. Every person has real equality. But that equality is as a creature of God and servant of One Lord, who created all the individualities among people and relativizes every societal claim of power and privilege. Modern rationalized bureaucracy treats us as theoretically identical units. That’s good in some ways, but it becomes dehumanizing.

Christians remained intentionally outside the structure of power and empire, but claimed a truth that critiqued that world. Their "one-step hierarchy" with God unfolds in a complex narrative reaching back to a true event. The truth claim is serious. The story gives depth that takes human complexity seriously - its brokenness, suffering, nobility, and hope.

Emptiness and fullness: They found not just meaning, but the highest meaning - unity with God’s fullness. People in Jesus’ day knew the same kinds of emptiness and alienation that moderns feel. Through Jesus they knew their lives were filling up - wisdom, beauty, power, endurance. The reality of Jesus, mediated in story, filled them with new vision and hope.

Living in the World of Science and Faith

We breathe the air of science and technology: a smartphone is a powerful computer connected to a vast network. We share in a stream of discoveries in medicine, genetics, microbiology, physics, chemistry, geology, cosmology, archeology, paleontology, various fields of biology, etc.

We also live in a world of Biblical faith, the reality of Jesus, which reveals the deep meaning and purpose of human life, its freedom and brokenness, its hope and destiny. This event and story was firmly in place before modern technology. We embody the interplay of modern and ancient, both part of us, both flowing into the future. We feel the tension. Who are we? What is right? Does our life have purpose? We’re thinking, conscious beings, and our every thought has intention, is about something. Do we live in a world without mind, intention, purpose?

Learning to Read the Book of Scripture

Often tensions grow from not letting the scriptures be themselves. They were given to us long before modern science, which grew up based on the Biblical view of a world created by a wise, consistent God. Scriptures don’t speak in scientific terms even for their own day. In telling of creation, Genesis uses an everyday view of the world to teach about God and humans: vault, lamps, no planets, two different narratives. Not the scientific "Ptolemaic system."

Modern Christians decided God could not use such a non-factual story to teach anything. Gen was re-conceived as scientific fact, distorting what God gave us into what moderns desired.

Loving God’s Book of Creation

Scriptures reveal God through human history but also point to God’s revelation in creation itself. The world is magnificent to the naked eye. But new instruments like the telescopes of Galileo, supporting the conceptual leap of Copernicus, reveal new marvels on every level: the very distant, very small, measures of time, speed, radiation, electricity, etc., from subatomic particles to quasars. God’s creation contains vast information about itself and its history. It’s hard to read but tells the truth of the age of the creation, its orderly but counter- intuitive ways of working (relativity, quantum mechanics), its vast evolution from precise constants, to earth’s life, to self-reflective consciousness. It embodies God’s non-verbal work.

Every discovery of the natural world reveals God’s invention and choices in creation. Christians need to be active in the great enterprise of scientific research, understanding our world.

Naturalism - Methodological and Metaphysical

Christian faith does not depend on science to prove God. Science can’t do it. Belief that God created the world and pervades it does not mean that we know at all how He does it as scientific explanation. We don’t know how our own thoughts work! God’s work is completely invisible / inaccessible to us unless he chooses to make it a sign. Discovery is wonderful.

Scientific inquiry seeks understanding through explanations that are natural and within reach. This is methodological naturalism. It is completely appropriate for Christians to use.

For some, however, naturalism becomes metaphysical. Nothing but the material exists. There is no intelligence in the universe as a whole. No direction or purpose. Mind is illusion. God is delusion. Since Epicurus many desire a universe without meaning. The conflict is very real.

But for those with eyes to see, science is a profoundly theological activity. Not in a sense that it brings us salvation, but in that its entire subject matter is the prior work of God, the invention of his own mind and heart, flowing from a love that unites science and faith in God.

Carl and the volunteers from Community of Hope lead our worship service.