Bucks and bodies have for long been metrics of ministry success. Leaders of churches with money and people are many times perceives as successful leaders. At their core, regard for these metrics alone, without the substance of spiritual maturity and transformation into Christ-likeness, betray the core of what ministry is all about. In these verses,...
We are not the Savior. Jesus is. There are many voices in the journey that seek to distract us and try to keep us from keeping the main thing the main thing. Jesus is the foremost priority of the church and proclaiming his supremacy and sufficiency the mission of every one of his people. In Col. 1:15-23 Paul makes no room for concessions when it comes to the supremacy of Christ, either he is Lord of all or he is not Lord at all.
We live in an age of low institutional trust. From politics to finances, education to religion, business to philanthropy, every day we hear of the scandals of those who use their power for selfish gain. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul articulates God’s plan to make his people, the church, a community of people who are worth thanking God for, a community of faithful, hopeful, and loving people. A healthy church is made of people who believe God’s word and demonstrate this faith with good works, people who are all in for the sake of God’s call.
What is the final destination to which the Shepherd’s call summons us? The final destination of those who answer his call is pictured as God’s eschatological banquet in his very palace where he himself is the host! God’s lavish generosity and life-satisfying sufficiency poured on those whose favor rests is the final destination of his people. Paradoxically, this banquet is also an invitation to the enemies of God’s people to repent and be reconciled with their gracious host. God’s gracious, ever-pursuing love for humanity is, thus, the rich and fertile ground out of which our mission grows. God’s Table is an invitation to dwell in his house forever. Until the Kingdom comes, there is always a place at his Table for those who would answer his call.
To be saved does not mean to be pain-free. At least not this side of the resurrection. Receiving the gift of eternal life assures us of our ultimate destination in God’s presence but also ushers us into a journey where pain and suffering are part of the Shepherd’s call. As we grow in our commitment to the Shepherd’s way, we grow from faith into hope. It is in this part of the journey that we learn to embrace God’s sufficiency as he overcomes our deepest fears leading us through the valley of the shadow of our own mortality. Victory over our deepest fears is possible for as the psalmist declares “I will fear not evil, for you are with me.
Conversion is our first step in the disciple-maker’s journey. We cannot give what we have not received. The Shepherd’s call is first a call to salvation where we turn our back to sin to embrace God’s life-satisfying sufficiency. Salvation is not about what we do for God but what he has already done for us.
After the exile, the people of Israel lived under the domination of gentile nations. The Davidic throne was deposed, and the reality of the kingdom gave way to the promise that one day God would restore David’s throne through the coming of the Messiah. Many waited to see what seemed like an impossible promise. But in the fullness of time, God sent his son to make sure that his every promise would in him find fulfillment. The king would come not to satisfy the expectations of men but to make sure God’s will is done as it is in heaven.
He had it all and lost it all. The story of God’s people in the kingdom of Israel is a series of ups and downs. Even the greatest kings have dark chapters. When we fail, we are sometimes tempted to quit and give up in our pursuit of hope. Beyond human performance, God’s promises lift our eyes to see beyond the horizon of our capacity to what only God can do. The God of the Bible is a God who succeeds where our efforts fail.
Every name in the story of Christ’s genealogy from Abraham to David shows the obstacles that hope must face when hoping against all human odds to succeed. Whether it is infertility or a rebellious child, immorality or being foreigners in a foreign land, marginalization or obscurity waiting to be found, the hope of God’s people to be seen, heard, and known finds fulfillment as God calls us to become what we could not become on our own.
Waiting is hard when we are under pressure or in need. Hope is the result of patiently waiting on God to fulfill his promises. Hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, Isaiah prophesied of the day when our every hope would be fulfilled in the coming of God himself. Beyond all doubt God’s people would be able to declare “Behold this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us” Isaiah 25:9. Christ is indeed the fulfillment of this prophecy for he is Emanuel, God with us.
