Faith without works…

Greg Ireland

The pen wobbled in my fingers as I reached for the restaurant check. $93.87. The receipt asked for the tip we’d like to leave; numbers floated into my head. $9 led the charge. It was a good dinner after all I thought, full of good conversation and good food. The receipt suggested $18.76 as a 20% tip. $18.76 I thought! Golly that’s expensive, almost an entrée by itself! As the pen floated, unsure of itself above the paper a nagging thought struck me: 3.5 trillion. 

Just a few minutes prior, over Alaskan halibut, the current state of politics had been discussed. How could the government even consider spending 3.5 trillion dollars on “social infrastructure”? Can that amount of money even be known? It is a mind bogglingly huge sum after all. How did we get to this point in our national situation? The answers and questions passed back and forth across the table. Notably absent however were any kind of solutions. Quite a bit of the proposed 3.5 trillion was supposed to go for welfare programs. The debate is bigger than dollars after all. At its core is the question: how do we take care of people in our society? As the conversation continued, I felt my mind wandering backwards into the first century…

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Oh, to sit at the feet of James as the words scratched onto the paper for the first time! What does it mean to be a “doer” of the word, I wondered?  Was he thinking of the frightening words of Jesus, who declared that not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ would enter heaven, but instead only the one who, “…does the will of my Father.” James seemed to think that taking care of orphans, looking after widows, putting clothes on the destitute and carefully watching what we say, qualified as doing the word. In the language of today we might say those same things are called: foster care, social work, social security, and welfare programs. Have we done so well as doers of the word that we’ve incorporated the doing of the word into our very governmental structures?

It is an interesting thing to notice how many hospitals have Christian names: St Peter’s, St. Luke’s, etc. In a time, maybe not so long ago when one considers the grand scheme of things, medical care was viewed as a Christian charity.  It was the family of God who took it upon themselves, often sacrificially, to provide for their neighbor’s physical needs. I’ve noticed in my travels around the world, that in countries that aren’t as developed as ours, in poor countries especially, that the medical systems are still mainly run by Christian ministries. Often, it is only the Christians who are willing to give sacrificially to take care of their neighbor. In our society however, Christians have ceded much of the social work that they used to do to the government.

Yet, it seems wrong to describe our government as a “doer of the word.” Scripture tells us that it is only Christ who can restore brokenness. When a Christian gives a dollar, a dime, or some of his time to orphans, widows, the poor and the homeless, he is doing it because of his faith in Christ. Sacrificial giving only flows from the sacrificial lamb after all. When a Christian combines works with faith, the Holy Spirit responds with restoration and healing. The problem with allowing our Christian responsibilities to be assumed by the government is that the element of faith is lost and consequently we are left simply with socialism. It should be a terribly convicting thing for a Christian to be put in the position of arguing against help for the poor, against social security for widows, and against finding homes for orphans. When he finds himself in that position, he will also find he has boxed himself into an impossible situation. He can no longer be a credible witness for faith when he argues against works.

Of course, the reason it is popular for the government to assume the Christian’s God-given role is that Christians are perceived as cheap. They build multi-million-dollar temples and hand out pennies to the poor. Think about it in your context. How many fellow followers of Jesus struggle to find more than pocket change to contribute to their church’s benevolence ministries? How many Church goers order their lives, by living debt free, so that they can be abundantly generous? How many God-dependent people hold on so tightly to heavenly treasure with one hand while holding onto earthly treasure just as tightly with the other?

I wondered that very thing as my mind returned to the present and the problem of the dinner receipt in front of me. $9, or 10% would say cheap. It would show how tightly this Jesus follower holds onto his earthly treasure. My convicted heart scribbled out a much bigger number and prayed that if anyone in the place had caught on to the fact that I am an emissary of King they would also see that the King has loosened the strings that bind my heart to my treasure…

James 1:22 NRSV

Matthew 7:21 NRSV

James 1:27; 2:15 NRSV

The papyrus sheet scratched in the afternoon daylight of the holy city as the stylus moved gently, slowly forming the words of a letter. Jerusalem was warm today day as a tall man, a man without any particular family beauty, bent diligently over his project. The stylus flickered again, and the words of a man’s heart gradually were revealed… “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault…” but then the utensil paused, unable to continue as a memory flooded back into the man’s vault. 

           His brother had entered a house. The crowds. All he could remember were the crowds, and the tension. There were important people in the crowd and more importantly there were people that knew him and his family in the crowd. They were all there to hear what his brother might say. The people from Jerusalem said his brother spoke the words of Beelzebub. In other words, they said his brother spoke the words of Satan. It was painful to hear someone from your own family publicly accused of speaking the words of evil, there was shame there. As he looked at the house he shook his head, silently agreeing with the teachers from Jerusalem. He was there to “take charge” of his older brother. His family had decided that this brother was simply “out of his mind.”

           James rubbed his temples as he considered the memory. Doubt had flooded his mind then and his stylus began to finish his thought, “…but when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” He put down his pen. That’s exactly how if felt during those couple of years. Blown and tossed by the wind. Who knew what to believe about his brother? On the one hand his brother outclassed him in every category, amazing the temple authorities from when he was 12, and yet on the other hand he often said things that were crazy. Who wouldn’t forget the time Jesus had been invited to speak at their home synagogue and had ended up almost thrown of the cliff at the edge of town, stoned to death most likely after he claimed that Isaiah 61 was fulfilled by himself, and yet the people of Nazareth wouldn’t be able to participate in the glory of the hometown hero; no miracles for them. Nobody in their family knew quite what to do with Jesus. Familiarity breeds contempt when pride rules in the heart, He thought, as another memory pushed onto the beachhead of his mind…

           The shame of it crashed over him first. It was late summer in Galilea and the feast of Tabernacles was approaching, and every Jewish male was supposed to be there.  He and his brothers had found their older brother in Capernaum and taunted him. They knew his life was in danger and yet they encouraged him to “show his miracles in Jerusalem” so that maybe “people would believe in him”. It was the height of unbelief. What must have been the Savior’s private pain when he said that “a prophet is never accepted in his hometown”?

           As the vertigo of the memory subsided a determined pen struck the papyrus, “That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man. Unstable in all he does.” That man. That man might as well be every man, James thought as the writing paused again. His thoughts swirled inside his head. So many truths to write. Faith, works, tongues and ships. The needs of the people under his care were many in Jerusalem and yet a half-smile began to curl at his lips when he thought for a second time about “that man.” A smile that can only come from knowing the end of the story before the story has been finished, “remember this”, he thought, “Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” That whoever could be whomever, when his brother Jesus is properly understood, remains one of the great mysteries of time. The rest of what James has to say would flow from that truth; an understanding of his brother, who despite a lifetime of misunderstanding saves us from our unbelief. Even those of us who are close to Christ and yet misunderstand him, are compelled to action when we catch a glimpse of the brother who saves us.

May the Lord bless you richly as you read the words of a brother who finally understands his older brother, and is living in the new relationship that flows from a proper understanding of Jesus.

James 1:5 NRSV

Mark 3:20-21 NRSV

James 1:6 NRSV

Luke 4:14-30 NRSV

Luke 4:24 NRSV

James 1:7 NRSV

James 5:20

Blog Post Courtesy of Greg Ireland. Thank you Greg!

Debate...?

Last night kicked off the presidential debate mania with a 90 minute showdown between the two candidates vying for our votes. In less than 34 days, millions of Americans will cast their vote for who they believe can fix the issues plaguing our country. On the discussion docket were: COVID-19, healthcare, jobs, the economy, the military, and much more (all things we the voters should be well-informed of as we consider who to elect as our next President).

I am no debate expert, but I believe the way that a debate is supposed to work is that the two debating parties meet over an issue and each deliver a clear and concise statement on their stance/response/platform. After each party has delivered their clear and concise response to the topic at hand, the floor is open for moderated debate in which the debating parties use logic, statistics, previous experience, or the logical inconsistencies of the other party to prove why their response to the issue at hand is the appropriate one. This is not what happened last night...

Based off last nights' debate, I couldn't honestly tell you where either party stands on a single one of the issues brought up by the moderator. If there were any platform-specific statements made, they were so shrouded in insults or argumentative language that they were hardly recognizable. Nothing on either side was clear, concise, or dependent on logical consistency and reasoning, leaving me with the distinct feeling that neither party was as concerned with informing me (the voter) as they were inflicting maximum damage on one another (and at times the moderator). We did not get a skillfully played game of chess where each opponent maneuvers logic to their benefit. We got a gladiator match with insults and bickering acting as swords and spears.

What can this teach us about unity in the Church?

Sadly, the debate last night is an accurate reflection of the state of our country right now. People are so polarized into positions of 'right' and 'wrong' that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, has become politicized debate. Battle lines have been drawn up all over the place over the simplest of issues and we have become divided as a nation.

Where this becomes a huge issue is when this mentality makes its way into the church.

This polarized climate is in direct opposition to Jesus' high priestly prayer for His disciples (and us) in John 17:22-23  “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."

We are supposed to have a unity that is completely different than that of the world around us and it is through this radically countercultural unity that we are identified as followers of Jesus.

As you look around the church today, would you say that is the image we portray? An image of unity that is so countercultural that the only explanation is Christ living in us? Or do we see the same attitudes and actions within the church that we saw in the debate last night?

It is as we grow in sanctification that we also grow in unity with others who are also being transformed by power of the Gospel. As we follow Jesus we are unified around a common command to love one another and a common goal in the Great Commission.

This unification around a common goal is what was missing in the presidential debate last night. If both parties were more worried about communicating the good they want to do for the people who will vote for them than they were in fighting one another, we would have all walked away from the debate more informed and ready to make the best decision possible come election day. Debate is good and healthy. Debate in the church can be great and lead to all sorts of amazing things if it is undergirded by a bond of trust and a commitment to love and unity above all.

We have to look different. We have to have unity if we are going to minister effectively in our current climate. While the stakes are extremely high, the opportunity to stand out amongst our culture because of our unity is even higher.

In what ways do you see the spirit of polarization and division in your own heart?

We can usually find these tendencies around areas that we are most passionate about. What are the areas/issues you are prone to speak negatively about others, be snarky or condescending, or become aggressive and vocal. At the end of the day, if your responses are not given in love, compassion, gentleness, kindness, and in an attempt to promote unity within the church...it is wrong...period!

Does this ever come out on social media or in conversation with people who you know agree with you?

Sometimes it can be hard to see the spirit of division and polarization that exists within us (we can't see the forest through the trees). A good place for us to look is in what we put out there on social media or in how we converse with those people we know will agree with us. Social media gives us the time to carefully craft the perfect response to something and provides enough distance that we feel we can get away with a divisive comment we know we would never make in person. Likewise, we will more readily feed the monster of division within us when we are around people we know agree with us. I think it is a good idea to run every conversation we have with someone who agrees with us through the lens of unity asking: 'Does this conversation feed a spirit of unity, love, and compassion for others who do not think like me or does is further polarize me?" It does not matter if you are right about a subject or not...division within the body of Christ is a serious issue that must be dealt with within our hearts and the Gospel of Jesus is the only power strong enough to deal with it.

Welcome!

If you are reading this, then chances are you are connected with or are considering connecting with The Outpost Church in Yelm. First off, thank you for making your way here and I hope this blog will prove to be an incredible blessing to you.

If you have been a part of our church planting team since the beginning, then you know that this journey has been anything but normal. While COVID-19 has seen businesses closed, social activities cancelled, and while most churches are facing an existential threat due to loss of members, we have attempted to plant a new church amidst the chaos. There simply is no explanation for the favor and response we have seen in this season other than God, through His goodness and grace, has been working, in spite of our frustrated efforts, to advance His Kingdom in Yelm.

One of the major ways this dynamic has affected our church plant has been in the area of facility. Under normal circumstances, in any given town, there are multiple venues ready to devour exorbitant amounts of a new church plant's overhead in exchange for a few short hours each month and the joys of setting up portable church...every...single...Sunday. During the pandemic, however; schools have been off-limits, community centers are closed, and other churches are dealing with their own issues of trying to do ministry in a socially distant world which preclude them from opening their doors to a second congregation meeting in their building. These factors are the main reason why these words (and many more after them) are being penned in a blog.

Why a blog?

Although we may feel like we are the first generation of Christians to deal with the issues in our world today, the reality is that we have an entire New Testament because there were groups of believers who could not be together. In the absence of a 'gathered' church, biblical writers still needed to communicate truth relevant to their fellow believers circumstances. This truth was believed so important that the letters and gospel stories were copied over and over again so that it could be sent to other groups of believers and thus the New Testament was born.

Now, I am not putting this blog anywhere near as important as what the biblical authors did in writing the New Testament. I am, however, saying that in times past, when the church has been unable to gather, this did not stop communication.

My hopes behind this blog are to explain biblical principles that should shape our response to social, cultural, political, family, as well as other issues relevant to our current context. Since we are unable to gather for an extended time in a corporate setting, my goal is to expand the conversation started in the sermon and expedition groups (small groups) each week providing further explanation, teaching, and room for dialogue.

I pray these articles are helpful to you as you navigate the many complex elements which shape the world we live in today. Engage with the content. Ask questions. Send in ideas for future articles and perhaps even help me write the content.

Thank you for joining us on the journey.

In Christ,

Pastor Devin