community

Sep

2020

Work is essential

by David Sellnow

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, state governors issued orders identifying essential workers whose labors were needed for community health and sustenance and safety. As pandemic conditions have persisted, we’ve come to see how work is essential for everyone. Those who’ve been forced into unemployment are painfully aware of how much their work mattered, especially as extended unemployment benefits ran out.

Even in Eden, work was provided for Adam and Eve. We may sometimes think of work as a necessary evil, but meaningful labor is actually an ongoing good that God intended for us in this world. Being on a perpetual vacation with nothing to do would not be paradise. Vacations provide needed respite from overwork. A weekly day of rest (sabbath) is a divinely designed time to withdraw from busyness and renew our spirits in communion with our Creator. But work itself is a vital part of our human experience. Anyone who has ever lost a job and been out of work knows what a blow to personal identity and security and hope it is.

Work is God’s way of providing for our needs in daily life, as well as the needs of our neighbors and communities. Studies have found that job loss and insecure employment have damaging effects on individuals’ emotional well-being and overall health. A 2009 study found that “unemployed workers died more than a year earlier than average” (Houston Chronicle, 2/1/2019). As to community wellness, a study published in 2001 in The Journal of Law and Economics found that “a substantial portion of the decline in property crime rates during the 1990s [was] attributable to the decline in the unemployment rate.” When work is unstable, our own health and the stablility of whole communities is threatened. .

All work that has a beneficial purpose is godly work. A devoted church worker, Martin Luther, labored hard to teach this truth about work outside of church. In his era, clergy persons were held to be somehow holier than ordinary people simply by virtue of the religious positions they occupied. Luther reshaped the outlook on vocation or “calling,” assigning honor to all community members who were doing good work for their neighbors.

In his address To the Christian Nobility in the German lands (1520), Martin Luther wrote: “A cobbler, a smith, a peasant—each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops. Further, everyone must benefit and serve every other by means of his own work or office so that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, just as all the members of the body serve one another.” Luther also has been quoted saying, “Every occupation has its own honor before God. Ordinary work is a divine vocation or calling. In our daily work, no matter how important or mundane, we serve God by serving the neighbor and we also participate in God’s ongoing providence for the human race.” Marc Kolden, writing in the Lutheran Journal of Ethics (2001), emphasized that Luther’s thought wasn’t so much about what formal occupation you might have. Any and every role in which you labor for others–even “the most mundane stations” and lowest tasks–”are places in which Christians ought to live out their faith” and help others by their efforts. In his writing On the Estate of Marriage (1522), for instance, Luther highlighted the noble duty of a parent changing diapers as an act of faith and love and service.

As COVID-19 began to ravage the United States, healthcare workers were hailed by members of their communities, from the banging of pots and pans each evening at 7:00pm in New York to residents going outside and howling at 8:00pm each night in Colorado. This was welcomed as recognition of essential efforts. I pray that through this present crisis, we learn to applaud work and workers in all sorts of needed roles, and also respect and remunerate workers appropriately for what they do to hold our communities together. Many of those considered “essential workers” under governors’ orders are in positions that are paid minimum wage or not much more. In my state, someone working full-time at minimum wage must spend roughly half their income to afford a one-bedroom apartment. They’d spend quite a bit more than half their income on rent in a metro area. According to government-defined standards, households that spend more than 30% of their income on rent are defined as “cost-burdened” and qualify for public assistance. Those spending more than 50% of their income on rent are “severely cost-burdened.” Something does seem amiss when persons doing work that we consider essential to community life have a hard time making ends meet as residents in the community.

So, as we observe Labor Day, let us pray:

with deep thanks for our own employment if we continue to have employment;
with passionate concern for all who are facing unemployment or reduced employment and income;
for generous gifts to churches and charities who work with persons in need;
for strength and hope and help if we ourselves are financially burdened and at risk;
for recognition of all workers’ worth and the value of others’ work on our behalf;
for a willingness to share in supporting one another as neighbors in society;
for wise leadership in our nation and world to guide economies through difficult challenges;
for personal commitment to do all forms of labor and service as acts of faith in answer to our calling as Christ’s people.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms“ (1 Peter 4:10).

“Brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good” (2 Thessalonians 3:13).

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Dec

2019

Being Christ to our neighbors in the city

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on August 11, 2015. Henry Tyson wrote this powerful testimony in connection with his ministry in Milwaukee WI. He passionately urges all of us, in every city and town and village, to be living witnesses for Jesus to those among whom we live — to the communities we are called to serve in the name of Christ.

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Living as Christians in Milwaukee’s Central City

by Henry Tyson

How is it possible that there can be so many Christians and churches in Milwaukee’s central city and yet the church seems powerless in the face of segregation, poverty, and crime? What can we say about the life of Christian and what such a life will look like in a city so gripped with ungodly behavior? From a biblical standpoint, one can see that the life of a Christian in Milwaukee’s central city – in the face of all that we see – will be marked by extreme joy, increasing holiness, radical love, and urgent, prayerful solitude, all to the glory of God.

Satan has laid claim to this city by leading people away from the Lord and thoroughly destroying the fabric of traditional families and communities. The resulting chaos enables Milwaukee to lay claim to the ignoble titles of most segregated city in America, city with the highest incarceration rates among African Americans, an extremely high homicide rate, and one of the highest rates of child poverty in the richest nation on earth. If Christ were a Milwaukeean today, what would his ministry look like? Where would we find him? What would people make of him? Surely we would find him joyful in demeanor, radical in love, urgent and prayerful in solitude, and fruitful in his ministry.

In his first letter, the apostle Peter explained why the life of a Christian will be a life filled with joy. Following a clear and concise explanation of the pure gospel, Peter wrote, “Though you have not seen Christ, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). The “salvation of your souls” is in reference to the Christian’s movement from eternal death to eternal life as described by Paul: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). Therefore, the life of a Christian is filled with joy regardless of events or circumstances, because we have been justified by faith and our salvation is certain. This is not something that we have to wait for but it is something that we have already received. For this reason alone, the life of a Christian will be marked by a length and breadth of joy that cannot be understood by the world.

In addition to joyfulness, the life of Christian will be marked by increasing holiness. What does this mean? It means that the life of a Christian, as he or she matures, will be increasingly identified with the life of the Lord Jesus and therefore increasingly look like the life of the Lord Jesus. The apostle Paul got at the heart of the matter when he wrote: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). The process of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” is the process of sanctification – the process by which the Holy Spirit shapes the Christian’s life into a oneness with Christ.

The great 20^th century theologian, Oswald Chambers, captured this wonderfully when he assured his readers that “sanctification does not mean anything less than the holiness of Jesus being made mine manifestly,” and “it is his patience, his love, his holiness, his faith, his purity, his godliness, that is manifested in and through every sanctified soul” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest). The Christian life therefore — in Milwaukee and at any time and in any place — is a life that increasingly reflects the holiness of Christ.

It is this concept of increasingly becoming and reflecting the holiness of Christ that mandates that the life of a Christian in a broken city and a hurting world will be marked by radical love. Martin Luther King, Jr., understood the radical love of Christ when he wrote from Birmingham City Jail, “Was not Jesus an extremist for love – ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you’” (Letter from Birmingham City Jail)? Dr. King understood that “Jesus love” goes far beyond the usual interpretations and extends as far as loving enemies and blessing those who insult us. Further evidence of Christ’s radical love is found in Jesus’ tendency to hang out with sinners (Mark 2), his willingness to break social norms and talk to a Samaritan woman (John 4), and his willingness to forgive the very men who were conducting his execution (Luke 23). And for those who doubt the radical nature of Christ, perhaps it is worth considering his very death – a wicked, lonely, brutal death that he chose out of obedience to the Father and love of mankind.

What sort of actions, then, does radical love display in the life of a Christian? It will certainly look different from one to another but it will always be radical. It might be radical in how much one gives to the poor, or where one chooses to live, or how much time and energy one sacrifices for children, or the boldness with which one speaks against the moral depravity of 21^st century America. Certainly, the life of a Christian in our hurting world will look nothing like the pursuit of the American dream, for the American dream is contrary to the holiness of Christ. Indeed the natural reaction of the world to the radical love of Christ will be to persecute the Christian and view him or her as someone strange and different. Peter identified this reality in his first epistle when he referred to the friends to whom he was writing as “aliens and strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2:11). The life of a Christian, therefore, is on track and appropriate when he or she completely identifies with Christ and self-describes as an alien and stranger in the world. This is the natural outcome of the radical love of Christ.

When the life of a Christian is full with a glorious and inexpressible joy, is increasingly holy, and responds to the world with an exhausting, radical Christian love, the Christian life — like the life of Christ himself — will be drawn toward and indeed will depend on times of solitude and prayer. We note in Christ’s life, how in response to the beheading of John, the feeding of the five thousand, the fear of the disciples, the faithfulness and subsequent faithlessness of Peter, and the healing of the sick, that on more than one occasion, Jesus “went up on a mountainside by himself to pray” (Matthew 14). So engaged is the Christian worker in the life and activities of Christ, that he or she will, by both desire and need, find himself or herself in regular solitude and prayer. Just as Jesus needed this time to connect with the Father, so the Christian worker needs this time to connect with Christ and the heavenly Father. The Christian life is not just praying in church or at bedtime. The Christian will, in the words of Paul, “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). Regular times of solitude and prayer will be a mark of the Christian life in the central city.

The Gospels and the books of the New Testament paint a wonderful picture of the life of Christ, the lives of the earliest church workers, and provide a clear road map for modern day Christians. In a city with so much hurt, so much divisiveness, so much ungodly behavior, it is easy for Christians to retreat to their homes and churches and disengage from the world. But we must not. Instead, we stride forward and exhibit the glorious joy that comes through our justification by way of the cross, the holiness that comes through sanctification, the radical, engaging love of Christ, and constant times of prayer and solitude that fill us up and draw us ever closer to oneness with Christ. This is the life of a Christian in Milwaukee’s central city.

Dec

2019

Be liberal with your love

Originally posted on the Electric Gospel on July 3, 2018.

Last year for Independence Day, I posted a message titled, “To Change a Nation, You Must Change Souls.” I thought I’d post something again this year for the national holiday — something that says a little bit about how the culture of politics often differs from how hearts are moved by faith.

Feel free to share this post with others.

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Be Liberal with your Love

by David Sellnow

I want to be liberal, and hope you will be too. I’m not talking about political liberalism, but the kind of liberality that every Christian will want to espouse. Our hearts go out to all those in need of spiritual guidance or physical assistance. Our gifts will flow freely, liberally, in order to bring needed benefits to them.

I fear that some within the Christian community have so adopted the doctrines of political conservatism that they become unwilling to practice liberal Christian kindness, which is eager to assist those in need. A church member—a dear, dedicated lady—argued against giving aid to struggling families. Our congregation was providing them with vouchers to the community food bank. Bear in mind, we paid pennies per pound for the food, and our annual expense for this charitable effort was less than one percent of our congregational budget. It wasn’t the amount of our donations that sparked this woman’s objection. It was the principle of the matter. She was firmly convinced that helping the poor encouraged helplessness and dependency. This can sometimes be the case, but is not always so. The Bible writer James described a scenario in which an individual is truly in need of help. You can’t tell him he should budget his income better; he has no income. You can’t say he should work harder; he has no job and no prospects. The person James pictured is literally naked and absolutely lacking. He’s got nothing. He’s totally helpless. Will you help him … or will you pass by on the other side of the street? James’ brother, Jesus our Savior, told a parable that warned against behavior like that. Jesus’ parable pictured a priest and a Levite passing by on the other side of the road when they encountered one of their countrymen who had been robbed and beaten and left for dead (cf. Luke 10:30-37). Being a true neighbor means helping anyone that you see in a position of need—as the good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable exemplified.

Along with our inaction toward neighbors in need in the communities where we live, we have allowed ourselves to fall into similar attitudes globally. We see Third World inhabitants as the concern of international policymakers, not of personal concern to us. We fear foreigners as threats to our jobs through outsourcing, or we want them as markets for our products through exporting. We fail to remember that they are, first of all, people. They deserve our evangelistic concern and Christian compassion. If love for others—including strangers and foreigners—is not in our hearts, can we say the love of God is in us? “He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. … If a man says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:8,20)?

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“Be liberal with your love” is excerpted from the book, Faith Lives in Our Actions: God’s Message in James Chapter 2. Get the eBook for your Kindle, or you can download the free Kindle app to read on any device

Dec

2019

Faith must act

Originally posted on the Electric Gospel on June 23, 2018.

Faith must act

by David Sellnow

This installment of The Electric Gospel is an excerpt from the recently released book, Faith Lives in Our Actions: God’s Message in James chapter 2. The full book is available through Kindle Direct Publishing.

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It is a central Christian truth that we are made right with God through faith, not by keeping commandments (cf. Romans 3:28, Galatians 3:11, Ephesians 2:8,9). Yet it is also true that where faith exists, doing good is to be expected. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? … Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself” (James 2:14,17).

Faith that generates no works isn’t really faith. True faith always has actions flowing from it. For example, the thief on the cross next to Jesus had only a few moments of life as a believer. Yet he was moved to confess Christ aloud and rebuke another man’s mockery. An elderly grandmother in a nursing home may not have ability or opportunity to do community service, but her heart regularly offers prayers from where she lies in bed.

Most of us are not confined by bodily frailty. None of us are being held down by nails through our feet. There is so much good that we can be doing. Why is it that at times we seem so inactive in serving the Lord and loving our neighbor? Is there some sort of glue that has us stuck in our recliners in front of wall-sized TV screens?

James said faith by itself—without actions accompanying it—is dead. It no longer exists. That’s because faith never exists by itself. Faith always acts. A man with faith would never say, “Look at me! I have no deeds!” He would be ashamed of his inaction. A person of faith is always seeking opportunities to put faith into practice. Having faith without works is like having fire without heat. It just doesn’t happen.

James gave a specific example of how faith connects with works. He challenged us about our attitude toward the poor and called us to a greater love. James asked, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, ‘Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;’ yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16).

Ask yourself the uncomfortable sort of question James is asking you. What do you do if you encounter someone who is destitute? That’s an uncomfortable question for many of us because we seek to avoid such encounters. We build our homes in the suburbs, out of sight of urban poverty. We teach our children that there are certain parts of town you just don’t go to. We say this in the interest of safety. But are we inferring that the poor are inescapably criminal and utterly beyond hope? Might it also be that, underneath it all, we have an aversion to dealing with the poor?

James’ example demonstrates how our aversion works. We are pious about it. We say we’ll pray for people whom we see struggling. We wish them well … but are eager to send them on their way. We are reluctant to get our hands dirty and get into the ghettos and get involved. We say to the person who can’t afford food or clothes, “God bless you, you poor dear! I hope you will be okay.” What good is that? God puts needy persons in front of us for a reason. How will their needs be met if we don’t respond to their needs?

In James’ time, a common farewell was to say “Go in peace.” It is similar to our “goodbye,” which derived from the phrase, “God be with ye.” Most of the time we speak expressions like “farewell” and “goodbye” as trifling slogans—indeed, how many of us even recall their original meaning? We even say “God bless” as a parting word in a similarly empty way. We don’t utter these words as true prayers, for that would lead to our personal involvement. We prefer to remain detached. To say, “I’ll pray for you,” is often a dodge to avoid doing something concrete. Yes, we should pray for the less fortunate, and prayer is “powerfully effective” (James 5:16). But God also wants to use us as an answer to others’ prayers, to be his agents to bring mercy into their lives. “Let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:18).

Let’s look at the full picture. We have Christians in our congregations who could use assistance. There are persons across town or in nearby cities whose need cries out to us in our affluence. And the world has grown closer within our reach in the centuries since James’ time. If we ask ourselves now, “Who is my neighbor?” we must include the throngs of humanity crowded into impoverished regions all around the globe. When I was a child, my mother said I should eat my vegetables because starving children in China would be glad to have such food. (I suspect everybody’s mother used some similar admonishment!) I don’t recall, though, that we ever tried to send a care package to the starving in China or India or Africa or wherever. Maybe a plateful of one kid’s green beans wouldn’t make much global impact. But in our world today, we have access and ability, through missionaries and other charitable organizations, to share shiploads of necessities with neighbors all over the world who are “naked and in lack of daily food” (James 2:15), or who need medical care or other basic humanitarian services. Do we think much about them? Do we do much to help them? James’ powerful urging is: Do something! The world’s poor are not to be viewed as a drain on the world’s economy, but as opportunities for us to put faith into action.

Dec

2019

Blessed are the peacemakers

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on September 12, 2015.

Blessed are the peacemakers

by David Sellnow

“Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18).

What does it mean to be a peacemaker? Is it about negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration? I suppose if you’re a diplomat trying to resolve tensions and conflicts on this or that part of the planet, that’s what peacemakers do. But that’s not exactly what James was writing about when he spoke of sowing peace and reaping a harvest of righteousness.

Think of the message of peace you hear in the Bible again and again. What sort of peace is it? Where is it found? Let me remind you of some prominent passages:

Psalm 29:11 … The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Isaiah 9:6-7 … To us a child is born, to us a son is given … He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
Isaiah 53:4-5 … [The Servant of God] was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 54:10 … “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
John 14:27 … Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Romans 5:1 … Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 4:7 … The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And the beginning lines of several epistles: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 2 Thessalonians, Philemon).

Peace comes from God, from the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace was brought into the world for us by Jesus Christ. True peace, lasting peace, saving peace is what God gives us in Christ. It is just as the angels announced when Jesus was born into this world for us, saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).

So again, when James says, “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18), remember that he’s writing to us as “believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (James 2:1). The peace we sow is the peace that comes from Christ. The righteousness we reap is the righteousness found in Christ.

In tangible terms, how do you sow peace day by day? How do you act as a peacemaker?

Well, it starts with talking to people. It starts with greeting people, caring about people, getting to know people. The early church had a tradition of the kiss of peace. At the end of several of the epistles in the New Testament, God’s people are encouraged, “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians). Maybe you’d think a kiss in church would be weird – it’s not your cultural custom. But the point is to connect with each other, to relate to each other, to be encouragers of one another in Christ. A hug, a kiss, a handshake, an arm around someone’s shoulder – along with the reassurance of peace and love and hope in Jesus – that’s how we are peacemakers with one another.

As Christians living in community with one another and with other neighbors, does it happen that sometimes we don’t even take the time or the care to introduce ourselves to each other? At school or at work, we don’t go over to sit at lunch with someone we haven’t met before. In the neighborhood, we avoid interactions more often than we befriend and connect with others. In the community, we pass each other in our cars on the street or with our carts in the stores, but maybe not much more. I know; I understand. We’re all so very busy. We all have so much work and so many tasks to do. But what is our first calling to one another? Is it not to be peacemakers – to be peace-bringers – to be gospel encouragers to one another day by day, sharing the peace of Jesus? Paul put it to us this way: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. … Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:15-16). The Bible tells us to “carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2), to “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Day by day, in the midst of each day’s business and busyness, Jesus is calling us to be peacemakers in his name, to sow seeds of his peace, his hope, his love, his forgiveness. As we do so, the Spirit of God produces a harvest of righteousness in our lives and in our relationships with one another.

I urge you to follow up on this message with intentional action. To those you know and those you don’t yet know, keep reaching out with a hand of fellowship, with a kiss of peace, with the love of Christ. You are peacemakers to one another and to all the world in his name.

Living as Christians in Milwaukee’s Central City

Be Liberal with your Love

Faith must act

Blessed are the peacemakers

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