Joseph's Legacy. (Chapter 1)

 What’s in a name?

Introduction to Exodus

Three men died 60 years ago, and each one had a tale to tell the planet. Their stories are more than fiction however. They impacted their worlds and as a result have affected ours even though none of them ever lived in Australia. The men are a pair of authors who were both obvious philosophers and the 35th President of the US. In order: CS Lewis, Aldous Huxley and John Kennedy. 

One of my favorite authors is Peter Kreeft who is prolific in his own way and a Lewis devoteé. He writes of these three in a book entitled "Between Heaven and Hell", Kreeft imagines a meeting somewhere beyond earth for these famous men. Dismissing the obvious theological problem of conversations in a sheol-type venue, the story line is quite good as he has them share their own philosophies. Lewis the believer, Kennedy the wishy-washy Catholic agnostic and Huxley the self-assured atheist. But in the realm of the after life, neither Huxley nor Kennedy is so sure. Lewis gains all the substance that the down payment of his faith had guaranteed him so many years before. 

Now sixty years after their passing, what remains of our awareness of these men? What about any historical person and what do we learn of life from them? I'm hearing the word 'legacy' as I ponder these opening comments. And I believe legacy is key in any long-ranged enterprise. Our concerns as fathers or as men or as Australians or as Jews or ... you fill in the blank... is 'what will remain?" 

This is the beginning of a series. I encourage you to read a section from the Scriptures and try to learn what that has to say to us as 21st Century people. For some, Bible rejecters we might call them, this consideration is old fashioned or irrelevant, filled with myths or fables from another time. But for others, this is a book with legacy. This is the handed-down traditions of men and women of God who had lives that were shaped by their relationship with the Almighty and who want to help shape our lives so many generations later. 

We could call this series "Out of Africa" since that's what the Latin compilers of the biblical texts decided to name the 2nd book, Exodus. The name of course means 'going out.' But the Hebrew name for the book, like all the biblical books, is taken from the first few words of the text. The Hebrew name for this book is "Sh'mot" meaning 'names.' 

In Shakespeare’s classic, Romeo and Juliet, the servant states “Find them out whose names are written here. … but I am sent to find those persons whose names are here writ.” After their first kiss, the star-crossed lovers separate. Act II features Juliet’s soliloquy, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo,” and continues with “Tis but thy name that is my enemy, thou art thyself though not a Montague,. What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O be some other name! What‘s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; so Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title/ Romeo, doff thy name and for that name, which is no part of thee, take all myself.” Like Juliet we ask, “what’s in a name?” 

And the answer is, it's our legacy. It's our past, our present, and our future. It's everything that has shaped us and made us into our person and our family and our community. It's what lies ahead for us in the future of risk and reward. And it's in the understanding of our name and our nature and our legacy that we forge our life's choices today. Knowing who we were and who we shall be is what helps us decide today what we will do. 

AND NOW Chapter 1....

Joseph's legacy

Exodus 1

Who we were

Who we are is directly related to who we were! Joseph was the hero of the last 13 chapters of the previous book of the Bible, that is Genesis. And this story does what every good author would do, brings in the past to begin our new story. We read "And Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation." (:6) It brings to conclusion the stories of the past. You would think that there would be residual effects from Joseph's life. He was the prime minister in the famine of 7 years that hit this entire region of the Fertile Crescent. But what effects were there? We read that after a time, "a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph." (:8). The history of Joseph and the family of Egypt was lost to the new Pharaoh. The new king either didn't read history or didn't care what had happened before. Remember, we can learn from what people teach or what people do or as in this case what people don't do. The Egyptians were in debt to the family of Joseph. They should have had a sympathetic relationship to the man and to the family of the man. But we Jews were too many and thus caused the new leadership to fear. (:10) It is estimated we numbered 3 million.

Who we are

The Jewish people are still called Hebrews here.  The first use of that term was in Genesis when Abram was so titled. (14.13) But now we are given a new name "Sons of Israel." Of course, this derives from the name of Jacob, father of Joseph, who got the new name, Israel after the wrestling match with the angel of the Lord. (Genesis 32) The 11 other sons of Israel are listed Reuben, Simeon, Levi…Gad and Asher (Ex. 1.2-4).

Who we will be

The hint of our tomorrow is in the text as well. What God did in the past is evidence of His plans for us in the future. He wants us to represent Him on the earth. And He will preserve us, no matter what others who devise evil will do. Note how difficult the Egyptians made our lives.  

Listen for these toughening verbs from verses 11-14:  "afflict them with hard labor...   And the Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them."

Pharaoh's antagonism is aimed at the little Jewish boys and thus at the future of the community. But that anger and hostility will be featured in the drama as we continue to read.

Conclusion: What do we learn as a result of reading this text?

1)              Choose well because your choices today become your life tomorrow

2)              God will preserve His people whom He foreknew

3)              God's choices of a people will override all other human choices

4)              We are called to a legacy and a future with God

 

 

What is the Great Story?

Given at Cross Points Church

Shawnee, Kansas

Missions Conference Dinner

November 2024

 

Tonight, I’m going to talk to you about story. The idea of story. The concerns that stories bring. The pleasures and mystery that is story. 

When I was a kid in Prairie Village, my mother would ask my brother and sister and me about a problem in the house and who caused the troubled situation. Each of us would report our side of the events, and my mom would look me in the eye and say, “Now don’t you story to me!” By that, she meant don’t lie. 

I’m not talking about story in the sense of lying. Today I’m talking about story-- we could say--a narrative. There is the backstory to an event and by that we mean all the circumstances that led the characters, especially the protagonist in view, to be the kind of person he’s become.

Stories, whether in front of us, or the backstory-- what is it about them that makes us sit up, turn on the television, read the novel, go to the movies, especially the sequel, just what makes us notice a good story? 

Peter Kreeft is one of my favourite Christian authors. He’s a professor in Boston and a CS Lewis devotee. Kreeft believes that the human story is told by God, who “uses crooked lines to tell the story straight.” Kreeft also believes that myths are stories about individuals, but they are also examples of universal archetypes. And he emphasises problems as very important to any story.

Let’s say, I have a story to tell. And it’s a story that includes religion and freedom and encounters and troubles. Does that sound interesting to you? Maybe it does. But the moment I say ‘religion,’ some folks are turned off. Puh-lease, they would say; I had enough of that when it was shoved down my throat as a kid. Others hear words like ‘freedom’ and wonder if I’m speaking about a political party with which they disagree. Or when I say ‘troubles’ they don’t want to hear it because they have enough troubles of their own. 

But if Kreeft is right, and a story is not a real story unless there is conflict, then my story and the God story we all believe here at Cross Points is one that has significance and which gives us hope and endurance. 

You see, we are at the annual missions conference. And many of us in this room are missionaries. So there must be a story about that. A biblical story. And I plan to share that with you. But here’s a problem.

The word ‘mission’ or ‘missionary’ is not found in the Bible. Nope. Mission is not there. Of course, neither is Trinity or toothpaste, but we all hold to the truth of God as Father, Son and Spirit, and we all wish everyone would bring and use their toothbrush after meals. But ‘mission?’

We Kansas City folks know about Shawnee Mission, don’t we? We drive on the Parkway, we swim in the park, and use the hospital or public school system bearing the name Shawnee Mission. But do you really know the story of the mission?

The mission itself was for what now are called native Americans. It was established before the Civil War as a manual training school attended by children from Shawnee, Delaware, and other Indian nations from 1839 to 1862. If you want a full history on Kansaspedia, check the bit.ly/ link here: https://bit.ly/missionshawnee

The mission was run by Christians and they saw themselves as missionaries. It’s a great history. Although I must say that ‘great’ might be a bit much for antebellum, pre-Civil War re-education of Indians and the views held by the elite in those days. 

So mission was in the heart of the Methodists who worked there for years.

Here’s more of note. The word mission is in the vocabulary of the modern Western business world, so almost every company has a mission statement. What is it that drives the company? What is its purpose in the world?  But did you know that even some companies like restaurants have mission statements, although it should be fairly obvious that they exist for food for their customers? 

Is that how we at Cross Points use the term? 

What about wartime missions? That is, when a general sends his fleet of aircraft on sorties, those missions are designed to accomplish the demolition of the enemy or at least to protect the ground troops. This may be a good time to see the double use of this word.

The activities of the pilots on mission are part of the overall mission of winning the war. Both enterprises can honourably be titled ‘mission.’

Closer to home, the activities of the Chiefs’ coaches at Arrowhead, in running offensive or defensive linemen through their drills, along with the kickers and punt returners working on their warmups all week in practice, are useful to the overall mission of winning the game tomorrow. And that winning tomorrow is part of the overall mission of winning the Super Bowl. See how this works? A mission is either a component or an overarching purpose.

With all that in mind, I think that’s how we as missionaries, all the 25 or 28 of us here tonight, view this week. We have met with you in small groups, in connect groups, after or before church, on the phone, and in so many ways to share stories of our work, so that you get the small AND the large picture, so that you walk with us in our mission, be it in Latin America or France, in the UK or Africa, where I’ve been working in Australia for 26 years, or here in the US.  Our mission however is not the big picture at all.

For that we have to look at the Bible, and even closely look at the heart of God. What is God up to in 2024? What did God want of his people in 1725? Or in the reign of King Solomon? Or in the beginning? 

After all that introduction, let me clearly state what I believe to be the mission of God. God, from the beginning, wanted a people of his own who would dwell together in Paradise with him. When sin entered the world, God’s mission involved ridding the world of evil and making us to be a new creation. And that mission is told and retold and wonderfully retold via story. The story of the Older Testament and in Yeshua our Messiah and throughout the Newer Testament. The story is the mission unfurled.

So then, what should be our mission statement? Not our organisation or our church. What is the mission of God for us as his people? Our mission is no different than it was in Genesis 1, to be fruitful and multiply and to care for the natural world. Really, that’s it, you say? Yes, that’s it, if we understand what fruitful and multiply means.

Fruitful relates to character and it springs from a seed. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James chapter 3.18) and has its reward in fruitfulness. 

Listen to these Bible texts:

Amos chides the people of God in chapter 6:12     

“You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,”

Paul the apostle uses these words in chapter 5 of Ephesians, “The fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth”, Eph. 5:9

Again we read Paul to the Philippians, 

 “having been filled with the ^afruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Phil 1.11)

And finally in Hebrews we read, 

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Heb. 12:11

God wants fruit to grow in us and on us and through us. That involves being planted in us and letting it have its perfect result. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

As many of you would also count, fruit in modern parlance involves the number of believers who convert to the Gospel which may be indicated in Paul’s Romans letter chapter one. Each of us on the mission field have been met with the question, “How many converts have you seen this year?” and we often ache. Many of our missions involve discipleship and not evangelism. Some are training leaders and not being out front in Gospel presentation online or in public. We do have to go beyond fruitfulness as evidenced only in conversions.

Fruit then is character and it is numbers of believers and it is growth. God wants that for each of us and for his church. Without character, what’s the point of growing? 

Peter ended his second letter with this

2Pet. 3:18 “ grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Back in Genesis, what did God say about our mission? Fruitful and multiply. That sounds like numerical growth. And God promised it to Abraham. He told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the sands on the seashore and the stars in the heavens. And although the Jewish people have never been more than a couple of dozen million on the earth, the sheer population of the planet today is over 8 billion, with a b. 

Now, beyond the human population, what is the population of the community of faith? And does that even matter? You bet it does. Every place God wants us to make a difference in the lives of others, we need the resources of people. To look after the children or to care for widows and orphans in their distress. To teach others how to live and to stand with folks in their discomfort and pain. I think it takes much more than a village; it takes the church!

Yes, God can work with 12, or with the inner 3. Yes, little Rhoda in Acts chapter 12 was the main believer in the release of the apostle Peter from prison. God can and does use the individual. Hallelujah! At the same time, he wants us to learn from Jesus and to bring others along into his fold. “Come and see” was the phrase that Jesus told the boys on asking where he was staying, in other words, asking if they could join him.   Come and see is still the phrase we should tell folks, as I did with my waitress at IHOP yesterday and as I did with a couple of Jewish couples this morning at synagogue. It’s how we begin to multiply. But the real multiplication happens when we all add our weight to the proclamation of the Gospel. One by one is done by one at a time; multiplication happens when we all invite our one-by-ones and numbers pour in. Think back to the 1970s when a little former Baptist minister got filled with the Holy Spirit and South 42^nd street in KCK was never the same. Explosion happens now and then, and it’s a good problem to have. May we here at Cross Points experience it soon, in light of the 30,000 goals in the three years in which we find ourselves. 

But, you might ask, what about the creation? We are to subdue it and to care for it and represent the Creator to his planet. Why? Because we are participants in this story. We are not outsiders reading about history and others and studying for an examination. We are reading about our family and our family home and carrying on the family legacy and story. We are actors in the great story and we have a mission, some say a Great Commission. 

By the way, the phrase “The Great Commission” was first coined by Hudson Taylor about 1890. And I wonder if we limit God’s mission when we only speak of evangelism and soul-winning as the Great Commission. 

The story of the Bible is God on mission. Blessing all nations, first through Abraham and the Jewish people, then through Jesus the Messiah. Blessing to result in redemption and a hope that does not disappoint. 

When I came to faith in Jesus in 1971, I found my Redeemer and my Saviour. I was the recipient of eternal life. It was a Monday night in Leawood, May of 1971. First thing I did was to go home to my parents’ home in Prairie Village and tell them what I had done, but honestly, to tell them of God’s love for them. God had a mission for me and for my folks. He wanted to repair our lives. Unfortunately, I was the only one who heard it. I was 19 years old. That story, that mission is still God’s heart for Jewish people and for Gentiles in Shawnee, for Latinos in the Argentine and Koreans out at 105^th and Metcalf. 

But remember what Peter Kreeft said. A story is not such a good story without conflict, suffering or opposition. Think of every Disney story you know. There has to be a villain, the Big Bad Wolf, Javar, Cruella de Ville, Gaston or Captain Hook. Without opponents, we have a fairly dull story. 

So the story of God’s mission for him and for us includes the main opponent Satan, and little opponents along the way. Those might include our own laziness, our own self-satisfaction, our own sins. But I trust in the Lord and surrender to him so that his victory is ours. We win when he wins, and this is the victory, even our faith. Honestly, our surrender is our victory.

Friends and fellow actors in the story of God on planet Earth, whether you are a paid missionary or paying to support missionaries, we are together in the Great Story. The paid missionaries here at the Missions Week conference want to say thank you to each of the donors and supporters who are here. We owe you each day. We are your hands and feet on the ground among the people to whom we are sent. Please hear me when I say, “We love and thank you.” And we invite you to continue to participate not only in our story but also in the Great Story of God’s love and redemption here in Kansas City and to the ends of the earth. 

Every person we help to be fruitful and to multiply, each soul who is brought near, every man, woman and child who now is partnering in the Great Story also sends their thanks. 

Let us exalt the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Amen?

 

Who wins?

Yesterday, the Sydney Swans came from 35 points down to beat the Richmond Tigers in a great Round 13 match at the MCG. I was cheering for Sydney, of course, but the real winner was footy. Anyone who likes the game will admit that the league came out the better, the winner.

Before 1989, the Berlin Wall was the Great Divide between East and West Germany. Many families were forced to be separated by the introduction of that divide when it was built in 1961. And although many submitted to its imposition, there were families that continued to meet and have reunions in Lake Ballaton, Hungary. Hungary was the winner; family was the winner.

I often speak in churches, from independent Baptist to messianic congregations to Catholic and ecumenical Pentecostal gatherings. It's such a joy to see the width of the expression of God's Kingdom. A friend of mine and I were speaking today about religion, and he's not yet convinced of the Bible's truths, about Jesus, about God's awesome love. Fair enough. When we spoke about the divides in the religions of Christendom, I suggested that he read the Gospel of John. There the words of the Messiah would be made clear. No one owns Jesus. Baptists and Presbyterians, Messianics and Penties.. none of us. That brought to mind these words of philosopher and Boston College professor Peter Kreeft.

"If the churches ever did reunite, it would have to be into something that was as sacramental and liturgical and authoritative as the Roman Catholic Church and as protesting against abuses and as much focused on the individual in his direct relationship with Christ as the Evangelicals, as charismatic as the Pentecostals, as missionary-minded as the old mainline denominations, as focused on holiness as the Methodists or the Quakers, as committed to the social aspects of the Gospel as the social activists, as Biblical as fundamentalists, and as mystical as the Eastern Orthodox."

I suppose to stay with my theme, the Church would be the winner. And maybe that's why I enjoy my preaching schedule. I so appreciate the width of the varied expressions of Messiah's life. Kreeft has it right. No one owns the messianic message. That is, none of us owns it. Yeshua Himself owns His own message. And when we stand together, we amplify His message to the waiting world. And then we become the winner. That's a classic win/ win. Who's with me?

To watch and listen to my sermon given today at an ecumenical gathering in Sydney, click here.

The deer, the water, and depression

A Christian man on Long Island wrote a song with words from Psalm 42. "As the deer panteth for the waters, so my soul longeth after thee." It's a prayer of the Sons of Korach, whichever sons those are. I always enjoyed singing this song. Not that I deeply considered the text from that particular psalm. Then last week, a group of us discussed Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 (they probably were originally one psalm) and this verse popped up.

Let me put this line of the song into its literary setting.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence. (Psalm 42.1-5)

The little 'Bambi' deer in the photo and in the Marty Nystrom song is exactly NOT what the Psalmists are writing. The author(s) are desperate, more like a vagabond, a lonely man, a starved, aching desperado. Their anguish is summarized in the words, "My tears have been my food", "I will say to God, “Why have You forgotten me?", and "Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me." Those are not gentle words of a smiling deer, but the deep, heart-felt cries of man-in-pain. Deep pain. Aches that describe a depressed, down-in-the-dumps singer.

So why is that in the Bible, anyway? Shouldn't a Bible-believer sing happy-clappy songs throughout his days? When someone finds eternal life in Messiah Jesus, shouldn't they have a good life, full of pleasure and without suffering or angst?

In his classic Making Sense out of Suffering, Peter Kreeft argues well for the need for suffering. Without it, we would have a bad story. Without it we would not learn kindness. Without it we fail to grow in wisdom. He says, "the most popular modern answer to the question of what it means to be a good person is to be kind. Do not make other people suffer. If it doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s O.K. By this standard, God is not good it he lets us suffer. But by ancient standards, God might be good even though he lets us suffer, if he does it for the sake of the greater end of happiness, perfection of life and character and soul, that is, self.”

The apostle John wrote about the overcoming of the Devil in Revelation chapter 12. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life unto death." The pain of life, in the midst of others' pleasures, that seems to be the fate of those who want to win.

Kreeft continues in that book, "“When the worldly toys in which we foolishly place our hopes for happiness are taken away from us, our foolishness is also taken away, and this brings us closer to true happiness, which is not in worldly things but in wisdom.”

Philip Yancey writes in Where is God when it hurts?, "God does not, in the comfortable surroundings of heaven, turn a deaf ear to the sounds of suffering on this groaning planet. He joined us, choosing to live among an oppressed people-- [Elie] Wiesel's own race-- in circumstances of poverty and great affliction... Jesus did not receive an answer to the questions of cause. "Why? ...why?" he called from the cross, and heard nothing but the silence of God. Even so, he responded with faithfulness, turning his attention to the good that his suffering could produce...Jesus' suffering was not a matter of impotence; he could have called on a legion of angels...God took the Great Pain of his own Son's death and used it to absorb into himself all the minor pains of earth. Suffering was the cost to God of forgiveness."

Suffering is purposeful, but depression? How is that useful? When is that to be relieved?

Maybe this article by Mary Leigh Keith will help. And the links they share at the end, also. You are not alone. We have walked this way before. And we are surviving. And finding God now and then. And that's worth it all. Like a deer, come find the water. The refreshing is in His presence. In that double psalm, it's at the altar. It's where the throngs were. The psalm ends with "hope in God." That conclusion, no matter the attending feelings-- that's where life really is.

What do you think?