Dwelling In The Word Testimonials The
Word that indwells, equips, sends After arriving home in Grand Forks, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The text was still fresh in my mind, as were the conversations from Yellowstone, and so, when one of our parishioners, a retired psychologist named “John,” called and said he would be deployed with Red Cross once again, I asked if I could pray with him and his wife before his departure, and I brought the Luke 10 text. “Go
on your way. See, I am sending you …” Because of our community’s flood and fires in 1997, we know what it feels like to be evacuated from our homes and return to devastation. We have learned to recognize the presence of God through people who are willing to give their time, energy and finances to help. We definitely received God’s grace through others and deeply understood the power of that gift! Now John was being sent to carry that gift to others. Last year he joined Red Cross in caring for victims of Hurricane Ivan. By all accounts, this year would be even more traumatic. “Carry
no purse, no bag, no sandals . . .” “First
say, ‘Peace to this house!’ ” The
Word in which we dwell It is the word he spoke to those who appeared at his empty tomb. It is the word he spoke when he encountered two travelers on the road to Emmaus as they discussed and lamented his crucifixion. It is the word he spoke to his disciples who had locked themselves away from the community fearing for their own lives after his death. It is the word we long to hear and experience when we face our own devastations in life. As I write this article, it is after John returned home for a brief break only to leave again. He has been deeply moved by the traumatic devastation, yet encouraged by the compassion and love of God revealed through God's people. He told me how often he reflected on our prayer time and how he felt blessed with additional wisdom to navigate some difficult situations and the strength to endure long hard days. Our congregation has also been stirred to adopt a congregation in the Gulf Coast region that John visited. Already, gift cards are being sent along with a booklet of posters made by our pre-school children. The first words inside the booklet's cover: “Peace! Even in bad times, God is near.” Ah, yes, the means of God’s grace is experienced through the mutual conversation and consolation of God's people. It is God’s Word that works through us and reveals the tangible reality of God. It is God’s Word that infiltrates and transforms us. It is God's Word that calls, gathers and sends us out as God-bearers into the world. It is God’s Word that nourishes John, Mary, their children, grandchildren and our congregation as we are transformed for God's mission. Thanks be to God! Rev. Kathryn
A. Brown “The theology was not new, but the Dwelling in the Word was. This time of listening and discernment has been key…The most important thing I have learned in this partnership is the time of discernment. The Spirit is on every believer, and you help them listen to God’s Word and share with one another. “For four weeks, I just used Luke 10 in my preaching. I heard things I would never have heard out of that text. I will never forget my child, about 10 years old, who shared with the music leader the interpretation that taking your purse with you can be a stumbling block on the journey because money can get in the way of how other people see you. She was listening to God’s Word in a new way. My preaching will never be the same because of Dwelling in the Word.” Manus Olivier is a pastor in Swakopmund, Namibia, and a participant in the Partnership for Missional Church clusters in South Africa. The Word of Luke 10 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. I didn’t set out to memorize this passage that we have been immersed in for the last ten months or so. Here at Federal Way it has just kind of gotten under our skin. And different words and phrases out of the passage keep popping up in our conversations. Words and phrases that we don’t necessarily know what to make of, but we sense there is a power in them that offers us hope in this call to be the church. The text of Luke 10 has created a new world for us. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising. God spoke into the void and created most of the things in the world with the words “let there be”. It seems that Luke creates in the same way. Luke has spoken its word into the void of our lives, of what we have understood as church, into the void of Christendom and has created a new world for us to explore. And it has been exciting to consider that new world, to look over into the Promised Land as it were. But we’ve found that the real challenge is living and acting in ways that moves Luke 10 from being the mystical land of Far Far Away, the world of Shrek, and Donkey, and Fiona, a world of make believe, and brings it into the land of Here and Now, of everyday life where we actually make our homes, and work at our jobs, and raise our families, and live with our neighbors, and worship as a church. We’ve come to realize that it is easier to read Luke 10 in church than it is to live Luke 10 on Tuesday morning. It would probably be easier to walk away from it, to continue business as usual. But Luke 10 has gotten under our skin. It won’t let us go. Its images keep popping up in our minds and stirring our hearts with sobering questions. Questions like, Are we humble enough to go in pairs, to learn from others, to partner with other churches to go where the Lord has sent us? Can our churches learn what it means to live as lambs among wolves…to become risk-takers for the Kingdom of God and yet at the same time to be gentle and defenseless in the midst of a violent world? Can we find the courage to leave behind some of the purses, bags, and sandals of our faith tradition that keep us from being effective workers in the Lord’s harvest? And in a tradition that has struggled with unity, won’t we need to find peace in our own house before we can extend peace to anyone else’s house? And do we have the patience to stay in one place long enough to have a ministry of presence that brings healing and wholeness? Those questions disturb us. Sometimes they convict us. Sometimes they create anxiety among us. Sometimes they just plain frighten us. Luke 10 has gotten under our skin. What are we supposed to do with it---or better yet, what is Luke 10 going to do with us? And that’s just the elders, ministers, and steering team. And then the congregation comes to us and asks us, “What have you gotten us into? Where are we going?” And we say things like, “we’re not sure yet. And we borrow Pat’s phrases of ‘We’re following the holy gust into God’s preferred future’ wherever that may lead us.” And beyond the puzzled looks we receive, that response doesn’t seem to offer them much comfort, because what Luke 10 calls us to is not comfort, but first and foremost a journey of faith. We may not yet have the answers to all of those questions. And because in our tradition we are fiercely independent, each of our congregations may have to answer them individually in slightly different ways. But one thing is becoming clear. The way we are sent is an imitation of the way Jesus himself was sent. Jesus went as a lamb into the midst of wolves for the sake of others. He went in faith, emptying himself, leaving behind the purse, bag, and sandals of his own desire. He risked rejection, and offered peace to those who would hear him. He sat at table with all who might receive him and ate the food and drank the cup that was set before him. With a word or with a touch he healed the sick and he announced that in his ministry the Kingdom of God had come near. Regardless of any other questions Luke may leave us with, he is exceedingly clear on this point. If we are going to go to the towns and places where Jesus himself intends to go, then we will have to pick up the cross that Jesus carried and take it with us as we go. Our churches will have to be the very imitation of Christ. Then, and only then, like Jesus, our ministry will be a sign that the Kingdom of God has come near. Jerry Wolfe |
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