United in the fellowship of His Word:

2003 Annual Council

United in the Fellowship of His Word : The Word - Among us, With us or In us?*

Dr. Peter Bath, Senior Pastor,

Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, Takoma Park, Maryland

Hear again the words of Ps 42:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" Ps 42:1-3 NIV

- As a deer longs for water, so longs my soul

o For clear cool water, to quench the parched soul

- But my longing is met with tears, tears as I seek the LIVING God

- Those about me chide me saying where is your God

This is a psalm written by a church leader just like you and me, yet a church leader who got lost in church, a leader for whom the unity and fellowship around the word was so important and central to his world yet he drifted away.

Today we will study this psalm and other scripture as we seek to listen to the Living Word who makes all one!

Thank you for the wonderful music, and the reading of God's Word.

It is good to be among you and I bring you greetings from the church called Sligo and her family of believers who come from all around the world.

I also bring you greetings and Happy Thanksgiving wishes from all my fellow Canadians.

There is another psalm that captures the essence of this session, Ps 133. One of the shorter yet profound teachings it is a psalm of ascent. You will notice that it is in the section of the psalms of ascent and was cited sung chanted as the people of Israel made there way to Jerusalem for festival, for camp meeting, for Fall council.

They were called ascent because no matter where you came from the high mountains for low valleys, whenever you journeyed to Jerusalem you climbed, you went up, you ascended, because there was the temple of the Lord, the city of David.

Ps 133

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard,

upon the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,

life for evermore. RSV

A wonderful psalm that if you study and see the parallels with Pentecost will realize that as Jesus our High Priest was anointed after His ascension, the oil that fell off His robes ignited as it came to earth and fell on the heads of His disciples.

Behold how pleasant!!

I am aware that today I speak as a Canadian living in the US, who pastors an international church in the midst of American secularism, who today speaks with church leaders from around the world who probably have greater insight to faith than I may ever, who have certainly seen this world wide movement up close and personal, and, as such, appreciate the journey of faith and the spirit's blessings much more profoundly than I am able to.

Yet despite the many differences, the countries of origin, the ministries offered, the miles traveled, the airports endured, we all got here the same way didn't we?

We all came here through Calvary's cross, and we all live because of the empty tomb, and we are all empowered and impassioned by the event called Pentecost.

We are here untied in the mission, united in the grace that forgives us, united in the responsibilities of office, united in the joy of service, untied in the hope and we are also united in the loneliness of responsibility.

The unity we cherish is being challenged, and will always be challenged for we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with the power of darkness. Humility is the word of the day; humility that helps us realize that it is "Not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord". It is the one who is in us who is greater than the one who is in the world.

I stand here with you today humbled by the challenges we face in ministry, humbled by the evidence of His grace that blesses so many, and humbled realizing that there is much yet to do, but perhaps more importantly there is much yet for us to hear and understand if we are truly to be united in the fellowship of His Word.

United in the fellowship of His Word. Not the easiest topic to address in 35 minutes:

- There is so much to share!

- The power of His Word to transform fear into hope, doubt into grace, to give meaning, purpose and direction to life

- The Word which compels compassion and convicts us to share the Gospel to the ends of the world

There is so much to share, yet the questions that raced through my mind as I reflected, studied and prayed about this topic were many.

- What do we mean by the fellowship of the Word?

o Is it our common journey of repentance and grace, or is it what we hold in common in our belief and ministry, or our history and tradition

- What is the Word around which we unite?

o Is it only the Word upon which we all agree, the Word of the majority?

o Is it the Word that comforts us?

o Or is it the Word that troubles and disturbs us?

- Is it the living Word or the word of history that we leave safely locked in the past?

- Is it the Word of spiritual simplicity or of accommodated secularism?

- Is it the Word as presented by America or is it the Word that transcends culture?

- Is it the Word that justifies or the Word that challenges?

- Is it the Word that sooths or the Word that quickens our souls to service?

- Is it the Word that is safe, or

- Is it the Word that disturbs?

- Is it the Word of Christ, or the word of the corporate church?

o This word? POLICY BOOKS Or,

- Is it the Word that is born into the heart of each who would be a disciple of Christ? BIBLE

I set before you two Words. There are some who would argue that they are both His Words, given by human hand. We all agree that the levels of inspiration are different, but sometimes our practice reflects the opposite.

For too often what we accept in fact, we deny in practice. The word of tradition and policy becomes more important than the Word of grace and salvation.

We drift and loose our bearing, what we say is different from how we act, and the unity of fellowship becomes more a slogan than reality.

For your example, your leadership sets the tone, sets the pace in so many ways.

It is an awesome responsibility to lead the church of Christ, to set the tone, to establish the priorities to create the environment of grace and growth that glorifies the Savior.

Joseph and Mary were given the sacred responsibility of caring for nurturing the Word. The story in Luke's gospel tells us that after one festival, they started their journey home each thinking the other had Jesus, or at least knew where he was. I can imagine Mary asking Joseph, Have you seen Him? O Mary, he is playing with his friends. Sees friends but no Jesus. Joseph I don't; see Him...He will be with us for supper. Supper comes no Jesus. They rush frantically, around have you seen Him, when was the last time you saw Him? A day's journey.

We shake our heads how could they loose Him.

Well let me ask you ...when was the last time you saw him? Walked with Him talked with Him, heard Him call your name?

When life hands you a challenge and you look for Jesus, is He a day away, a week away.

We are all challenged to keep the first things first aren't we? Getting lost is such an innocent thing. Busy, distracted, involved in too much, we go about good and honorable things yet find ourselves at times uncertain of where we are, confused about the Lord's love, or will, perplexed by the challenges before us. Committees, frequent flier miles, sometimes the work of the Lord becomes more important than the Lord of the work.

We run the very risk of Joseph and Mary, the risk of our psalmist in 42/43 of getting lost in church!

Don't believe me?

NORTH.

Our scripture is from PS 42 and 43, a Psalm about a church leader who got lost in church. A leader who no longer was connected with the living God, but found that the God of ceremony and tradition was dead and lifeless. This is the story of his journey.

As a leader in the church, he was crucial to temple worship. V 4

Ps 42:4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. NIV

A man for whom the work of the Lord had become more important that the LORD of the work.

We shake our heads and wonder why anyone would let that happen, yet let me get personal for a second. How many days do you spend at home, how much time are you able to spend in prayer and meditation? How often are you caught up with mind numbing meetings that do little but affirm much that is already know and discover nothing new?

Lost and seeking. Refrain: 5, 11, 43:5

So he did what each of us should do when lost: remembered the last place he was found re-establish NORTH:

VV deep calls to deep

Yet we face the reality in our hearts and in our ministry

:10 adversary taunts me : where is your God?

The Adventist church is a worldwide communion and global fellowship, which is a wonderful image, yet presents many challenges as we seek to present the square gospel in a round world. Which Word /North do we share with each other or the world?

- The American Word,

- The European Word,

- The Word of males, the Word of females,

- The Word of the emerging nations, the Word of wealthy nations

- The Word of suffering or the Word of affluence?

Which Word do you gather around?

A simple but a profound question because each of us are quick to reply; "I gather around the Word of Christ!" And we all would shout AMEN, but I still ask you:

- Which Jesus?

- Which Word?

When I was pastoring the Kettering church in Ohio, I inherited a beautiful penciled sketch of Christ. Huge and riveting, the eyes never left you.

Tony Compolo was invited to speak about how we make Christ into our image, comforting us instead of challenging us, soothing us instead of stirring us. Tony blew me a way with his question. He said, "Pastor, I have a problem with the picture of Christ in your office. What color are his eyes?" I said, "You know I don't know, black I guess." "You are wrong, your picture of Jesus has one with blue eyes, and I have never seen a person from the Middle East with blue eyes!"

I was blind to what was really there, comforted by a Jesus like me, not challenged by a Jesus who is different. I had my own north!

E. Stanley Jones a United Methodist missionary to India wrote a stunning book, actually two books that I am reading, The Christ of the Indian Road, and The Christ of the American Road. I thank Dr. Raj Attiken, president of the Ohio conference for introducing me to his works. These works are stunning because while written after WW1, Jones cites the very issue that Christianity and Adventism wrestles with today the Christ we worship should not be of our making but the Christ who calls our lives our cultures to be transformed by His grace, the Christ of scripture.

Which Word do you gather around? The Christ of culture, of church or the Christ revealed in scripture,

To even to ask which Word do you gather around is incorrect and highlights a very real problem we face as Christians of the postmodern age. The term "gathering around" reminds me of the campfires we had this past August in Northern Ontario as two of our three daughters and I canoed the wilds. We gathered around for comfort, for story telling for warmth, and for marshmallows!

Gathering around the Word isn't the image of scripture. Scripture speaks of a Word that comes to us, seeking and calling.

- A Word that first dwelt "with" the Israelites in the temple of old,

- Then appeared in the temple of human flesh as John says: And the Word became flesh and dwelt "among" us, John 1:14 RSV

- And finally dwells in us as Paul says:

o Eph 3:16-17 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

o Col 3:16 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,

So let me ask you another way, which Word dwells within you?

o The Christ of the cross?

o The Christ of the empty tomb?

o The Christ who is all-powerful or the Christ who is meek?

o The Christ of answers or the Christ of questions?

o The Christ of the affluent or the Christ of the poor?

o The Christ who is returning?

o The Christ who is resurrected?

o The Christ of history, or the Christ of today, living convicting, and calling?

Too much of our sharing of the Word stops at the cross, and then jumps forward in time to the Second coming.

The people of our churches in the west, are left with a Jesus who died for our sins but rarely do we see the empty tomb, and even less frequently do we see or experience the resurrected Christ, changing and challenging the life we live or the world we live in.

As a people we are more comfortable explaining the details of the plan of salvation, the earthly and heavenly sanctuary service, along with the signs of the end, than we are living it.

We are more comfortable giving answers than facing or acknowledging, dealing or struggling with questions that challenge, convict or compel.

Ask yourself, which Christ, which Word, which north dwells in me? Which Christ? Which Word dwells in the hearts of the thousands of people who call you their spiritual leader?

O Lord, open Your Word to us, and open our hearts to Your Word!

I have posed some serious questions thus far, and want to share a poem that Pastor Rebecca Brillhart of the Sligo church shared with me. It is entitled

Questions: Macrina Wiederkehr Soul Weavings, A Gathering of Women's Prayers

It seems to me Lord that we search much too desperately for answers

When a good question holds as much grace as an answer.

Jesus,

you are the Great Questioner.

Keep our answers alive,

That we may always be seekers rather than settlers.

Guard us well from the sin of settling in with our answers hugged to our breasts.

Make of us a wondering, far-sighted, questioning, restless people

And give us the feet of pilgrims on this journey unfinished.

I offer this as we consider the Word that unites us:

In my ministry of 25 years, I have found that by and large Adventists in the West have forgotten more scripture that the average Christians knows. Teaching Bible facts and story has been a priority. However, I also have found that increasingly, the Adventists that I meet and teach and minister to and with, understand less of grace, and hope, or of what it means to surrender and be a disciple of Christ today than do others.

We have the facts, we speak of the truth, but it is too often in our heads more than in our hearts. We need to experience the transforming power of the Word, to experience the Person who is the Word not just the truth about the Word.

To experience personally and know Him in our hearts.

Unity occurs when we rejoice equally in:

- His gifts that make us different and

- His grace that makes us one,

It is the Christ of the universe, the One who cast the heavens and stars into their diamondiferous orbits, the One for Whom mysteries are common place, the Supreme One, the Lord Almighty Who has every right to ignore you and me, yet chooses to call us by name,

The One whose name is righteous, and Just, whose very nature is Holy and divine, the One before Whom nothing tainted or impure can stand. The One who has every right to condemn us and judge us, yet because of His love chose to take upon Himself the punishment that was ours so we could have the blessings that are His. This One who loves us with an everlasting love has also provided us with signs of His covenant: the experience of His Spirit that reminds, encourages and empowers us.

He alone gives unity to those who call Him Lord, for He is enthroned upon the praises of those who love Him and worship Him in His purity. So long as we keep Him first.

Unity falls apart when we take our eyes off of Christ, when He ceases to be LORD of everything.

I have a test for you one that will determine whether or not you are lost:

NORTH

We are all lost unless we spend time opening our hearts to this reality; the word is a person not just a fact, a relationship more than a doctrine, a living spirit not a judging rule.

A person just like you, filled with good intentions, zeal and energy, but finds himself on the outside looking in and asking, where is the living God?

A person for whom the Word became stale, for whom the mystery of the Transcendent One had become tarnished, for whom the relevance and experience of relationship had dimmed into routine and regulation. No longer was the LORD the one of creativity; instead He had become the LORD of policies and procedure. No longer the Lord of the work, He had been replaced by the far more immediate and rewarding work of the Lord.

We like so many others read the Word with eyes that are conditioned, hearts that already know the story, already know the answer before we even encounter the mystery. And for many of us there thrill is gone. Study simply affirms what we know; the Word is stilted and struggles to live, because we have it safely placed in the past where it cannot get out.

Two boat stories, both involve storms, both involve life and death. Few of you have sailed, let alone at night let alone in the teeth of a howling gale, looking at eh inky blackness of waves that would swallow you whole. But nonetheless we all read these stores and pass judgment:

Think of familiar Bible passages, exciting ones such as Peter walking on the water with Jesus. Matt 14:26-33. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." NIV

So familiar we can all say the teaching of the passage is Peter took his eyes off of Jesus so he sank. Poor Peter and we insist on that understanding because it keeps us safe for if we really believed that Peter walked on water, if we really looked at the passage we would see that it is about a faith being born, that instead of blaming Peter for getting out of the boat and taking his eyes off of Jesus we should focus on the other 11 disciples who are like us an refuse to get out of the boat. Peter got out of the boat, he walked on water! Do you hear what the Lord is saying? Do you realize that you too can walk with Him?

The next story comes form the current Sabbath School lesson on Jonah. To see the Word anew with grace and light is to see an old story in modern terms. As story of a prophet who sleeps during a storm that terrifies seasoned sailors, a sleep few of us understand. If anything Jonah should have been wrestling with a guilty conscience! Listen to the teaching, for the heathen awaken then man of faith in the midst of the storm and beg him to pray.

So tell me leaders of the church, what are the storms swirling about the millions of lives in your fields? What are the storms that would vanquish them, AIDS, poverty, injustice, political oppression, slavery, child exploitation?

We don't even know the storms that are raging, yet the heathen beat on our doors asking us to pray.

There lies the question...what do you do about it?

Understanding like that takes away the mystery of Christ the power of His resurrection and gospel.

We too cry out with the Psalmist:

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. NIV

As leaders who are human and prone to the challenges of life we too get lost.

We too need to be found. Yet a critical problem is our pride that will not allow us to admit we are lost.

Want proof...Ladies how many of your husbands will admit they are lost when you are driving together?

There!

Remembers the past, last place found, moves forward.

43:3 key send out thy light and thy truth and let them guide me to thy holy hill.

His truth, His word, then we can unite not because we affirm the same doctrines, but because we serve the same Lord, and live with the questions as much as the answers as we seek to live the gospel in a broken world.

My friends if you have ever been lost, if busyness has become your God, if you have found yourself drifting away,

If you have approached the Word looking to polish answers instead of finding questions, if you fin d your self-longing to experience the living Lord, I invite you to make a commitment with me today. Ask you to come forward as we sing the chorus spirit of the living God.

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* Text was adjusted in the sermon broadcast live on the Adventist Television Network