On the Power of Unity and Pebbles In Your Shoe

Mike Leake

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“If being hurt by church causes you to lose faith in God, then your faith was in people not in God.”

A few weeks ago this quote was making the rounds on social media. At first, I gave it a hearty ‘Amen’ but then I had a check in my spirit. “Something is missing here,” I thought.

I understand much of the sentiment behind this quote. It’s saying some helpful things. Though everyone abandons the faith it doesn’t make the truth less true. The hypocrisy of Christians doesn’t negate the reality of Christ. We want our faith (and all the other graces of the Spirit) to be grounded in the objective reality of Christ. We must be ultimately tethered to Christ and not to others. So, I give all those points a thumbs up but I still think this statement is missing something about the reality of New Testament Christianity.

This pithy quote, I believe, is missing the fact that our greatest apologetic is other Christians. Or as Francis Schaeffer said,

…after we have done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gave is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians. (The Mark of the True Christian, 29)

Schaeffer makes his point by showing the difference between Jesus’ points in John 13 and John 17. In John 13 Jesus tells his disciples that they’ll give evidence that they truly are followers of Jesus by loving one another. But in John 17 Jesus is tying the veracity of His own claims to our ability to actually love one another.

So when church folk do hurt you and it rocks your faith—it doesn’t de facto mean that your faith was in people instead of God. John 17 helps us to see that a rattled faith in God is an expected byproduct of Christians not modeling Christ.

Yes, there are people who are needlessly offended. Yes, sometimes “Christians are hypocrites” is just a smokescreen to keep from having to actually wrestle with the claims of Christ. But on occasion the disunity among professing followers of Jesus actually will rattle the faith of others. And that’s not because they are weak—it’s because our love for others was weak and we weren’t accurately imaging Christ. And such a thing ought to give us pause to consider how our interaction might actually harm the faith of others.

That’s why that statement didn’t sit well with me. It minimizes the interconnectedness of believers and it mutes our final apologetic. I get it that God is sovereign and He cares for His sheep and He ultimately keeps us. But John 17 has to weigh something. Does my love for other believers and the way I interact with them proclaim that Jesus Christ is the crucified and risen Son of God who actively transforms hearts? Or does my interaction give lip service to those claims whilst clearly evidencing a heart still grabbing for another kingdom?

Think of it this way. Your unity with other believers is a means that God uses to keep me in the faith. The way you interact with others is something that God uses to strengthen and enliven my belief that the Spirit of God really does change hearts. Or your interactions and your disunity calls into question whether or not God is powerful enough to bring the unity he said that he would. And your disunity leaves a little pebble in my shoe forcing me to wonder whether or not this whole thing is just a sham.

Don’t read me wrong. My faith is grounded in the objective reality of a resurrected Christ. You can’t ultimately cause me or anyone else to lose my faith. In fact, I’m firmly convinced of the living Christ. Because I know Him. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a few pebbles in my shoe that I wish weren’t there. And in John 17 Jesus calls us to care about the pebbles we are putting in the shoe of others. As well as the active way our unity can shine a massive spotlight on Jesus. 

Our unity matters this much.

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Photo source: here

Read This! 01.23.20

Mike Leake

Say What No One Else Will

I’m not sure how this was received when it was originally posted but I think it’s an encouraging post. We men need to be who God has called us to be.

Abortion: Leading Cause of Death Worldwide in 2019

Sad.

How to Overcome Anxiety in the Workplace

I appreciate the article and think it’s very helpful. I also question whether our use of overcome is the correct one. Because I think we read, “how to stop feeling anxious”. But that’s not necessarily what overcoming means. What word would you suggest?

1 Simple Step to Encouragement

I’ll spoil it for you. That one step is to “be there”. And I think it’s spot on. Read the article and see why that’s a great way to encourage someone.

Most Important Books for Pastors from the 2010s

Good list but it’s missing two of the most helpful books. I’m glad Eswine is on there but it really needs to include The Sacred Wilderness of Pastoral Ministry by Dave Rohrer and The Pastor’s Justification by Jared Wilson.

Ten Ways Materialism Brings Us to Ruin

Yep. It’ll lull us to death.

(Anti) Virtue-Signaling

I really appreciate this thought-provoking article. There is a danger in virtue-signaling. And this piece really gets at the heart of the matter.

What Shattered My Mother’s Mind

Wow. That’s really all I can say after reading this one.

Who are the 144,000 in Revelation? Tom Schreiner offers an answer:

Why Does Jesus Call the Canaanite Woman a Dog?

Mike Leake

I’ve always been a bit unsettled by Jesus’ reference to the Canaanite woman as a “dog”. I’ve heard all the explanations given and none of them seemed all that satisfactory, they seemed like an attempt to get around the very offensive thing that Jesus said to this woman. But I noticed something a few nights ago when our associate pastor was teaching on this passage. I’d never noticed this thread before and I think it’s actually the key to understanding the passage.

First, you need to know a little about Tyre and Messianic expectations. Consider these words from the extra-biblical Psalms of Solomon:

Cleanse Jerusalem from the nations that trample it in destruction, to expel sinners from the inheritance in wisdom, in righteousness, to rub out the arrogance of the sinner like a potter’s vessel, to crush all their support with an iron rod; 27 to destroy lawless nations by the word of his mouth, for Gentiles to flee from his face at his threat, and to reprove sinners by the word of their heart. (Pss. Sol. 17:25-27)

This was an expectation of the Messiah. When he comes he is going to go into places like Tyre—the very embodiment of paganism—and destroy them. You expect a Messiah to go to such a wicked place, call them all dogs, and leave—maybe lighting a match on his way out.

But the Gospel of Mark is painting a different picture of the Messiah. He’s just spoke to the Pharisees about what defiles a person. It’s not what is on the outside but it’s the stuff of the inside. That kind of talk would lead a Messiah into Tyre to provide redemption instead of wrathful rebuke.

But then when Jesus gets into Tyre he sounds more like the Messiah of the Psalms of Solomon than the type of Messiah of the Gospel of Mark. What gives?

Now some will say that Jesus is testing this woman’s faith. Others will point out that Jesus uses a term that means “puppy” instead of scavenger dog. And those are fine points to make, because I think Jesus is speaking in parable here to the woman. And so far in the gospel of Mark she’s the only one who actually understands his parable. But the key word in this passage isn’t “dog” but “bread”.

That’s actually the question that this whole section is about. Who is the blessing of Messiah for? Who gets to enjoy his reign? If you ask the Pharisees it’s them—they are the children of Israel. To hell with the Gentiles, unless of course they become like the Pharisees. Messiah bread isn’t going to be lavished upon a place like Tyre.

And so Jesus uses this language—and yes, I think he uses the diminutive term here to invite her into the parable. You don’t take the kids food and feed it to the puppy dog. Who qualifies for Messiah’s bread?

In Matthew’s account those around Jesus are telling this woman to be silent. She’s an unqualified Gentile. A defiled person isn’t going to reap the benefits of the Messiah’s healing ministry. She’d do far better to go home and find some other remedy…maybe her paganism will help her. Defiled people don’t get Messiah bread.

But the woman, quite rightly, sees the whole in this entire way of thinking. Who puts a limit on Messiah’s bread? Why should we assume that the kids starve if the puppy gets some crumbs? She’s just asking for a crumb. Just a touch of his garment. Surely, there is enough Messiah to go around.

And that is the point of this entire passage. That’s why Mark and Matthew put it right here. Here is why I firmly believe that’s on the right track. Why in the world do the gospel writers include two miraculous feedings? We get it, Jesus can feed people without much resource. But notice where these feedings occur? One in Jewish country the other in Gentile territory. I don’t think that’s an accident. Nor do I think it’s accidental that chortazo (“be fed”) appears in the gospel of Mark only hear and in both of the miraculous feedings.

So, yeah, I think there is a bit of a test of faith for this Canaanite woman. There is wordplay going on here. But more than anything Jesus is teaching his disciples about what it really means that he is the Bread of Life. It means that He’s enough. And He doesn’t have to be stored away in fear that somehow he’s not sufficient to be given away freely to Jew and Gentile alike. Messiah takes the bread of redemption to Tyre.

Haven’t you learned the lesson of the loaves? Jesus is enough.

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Photo source: here

I’d also be remiss not to give a hat tip to James Edwards’ excellent commentary on Mark.

Why We Welcome Noisy Kids in Our Sunday Service

Mike Leake

There is discussion on the interwebs these days about a pastor who stopped his sermon to rebuke a lady and her noisy baby. The video that was posted is pretty cringeworthy. For the record, I don’t share his view. But I’ve also opened my mouth from the pulpit when I shouldn’t have. I’m guessing he feels like a schmuck today. And it’s sad that public mistakes like this can define your entire ministry in our cancel culture. He shouldn’t have said it—but I bet this pastor is far more than just that moment.

This video got me thinking about the nature of pastoral ministry and preaching. I think that’s really what is going on here. And I think it’s a faulty, though prevalent, view which causes a pastor to stop a sermon to rebuke a mama and her noisy baby.

I think we’ve put the preaching moment on a pedestal and given it a weight that it cannot bear. And yet at the same time I don’t believe our view of preaching is lofty enough. What I’m attempting to say is that there is a very earthy component to preaching and yet at the same time an otherworldly aspect. The pulpit is a sacred space in sacred moments but its inhabited by a faulty creature attempting to obey a perfect God.

And so I agree wholeheartedly when Zack Eswine says, “pastoral ministry is creaturely”. What he means by that is that only a couple hours before entering the pulpit I likely drank a Mt. Dew, wrestled with feelings of pride or inferiority, tried to decide if I needed to use the bathroom before or after the sermon, and etched out a few notes so I wouldn’t forget to make important announcements then promptly forgot to make those announcements.

It’s forgetting these things that causes a pastor to stop a sermon mid-sentence and rebuke a mom. I get the notion that we only get 30-45 minutes per week to exposit the Word for some of our folks. And it seems like telling a mom to exit with her baby and watch the sermon out in the lobby is somehow exalting the place of the Word of God. “We don’t even let a crying baby get in our way of hearing the Word”, we think we’re communicating. But in reality what we’re doing is denying the Incarnation. God’s Word is enfleshed. He came as a crying baby—thus making God’s Word and the exposition of God’s Word a creaturely enterprise.

A noisy kid is what the exposition of the Word is all about. God’s Word doesn’t meet us in the serene it meets us in the chaos. Yes, the preaching of the Word is a holy moment. Yes, it demands our attention. But not in a way that robs us of our creaturely status or doesn’t meet us in the ordinary parts.

At Calvary we encourage families to worship together. Even if your kids are noisy. Even if you have kids with behavioral issues. Even if you fall asleep because you worked the night shift or your meds make you uncontrollably sleepy. That’s not to say we don’t attempt to teach our children to give attention to God’s Word. It’s simply to say we believe God’s Word meets us in the chaos. And so the preaching moment doesn’t need a “little Lord Jesus with no crying he makes”, it’s quite the opposite. The Word creates in chaos not in the lobby.

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Photo source: here

I also know there is another point here to be made about parents/guardians teaching kids how to listen and give respect to those speaking. But my thinking is that the glory of God is captivating. Preach Jesus full and passionately and you’ll see kids engage.