What does it mean to share in Christ's sufferings? (Phil 3)

So what does it mean to share in Christ's sufferings? 

First, it means recognizing that he already shares in yours. He knows your every sigh, your every moan, your every ache, your every heartbreak. When Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me," he is invoking the partnership that a yoke entails. A yoke of oxen is a pair. He walks beside you, sharing your load as you share his. Though we are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus, this does not only mean following behind him, say, marching up Calvary; it also means matching your step to his as you walk your earthly way, sharing the cross-shaped bar of the common yoke.

Second, it means waiting. To be patient means to be "long-suffering." It means, taking a deep breath and refraining from precipitous action. In a time when people are growing disgusted and weary of so many forms of injustice, the Christian must be ever vigilant, but never a vigilante. "Wait upon the Lord" is a refrain that runs through the Psalter (esp. Psa 37) and the broader canon. Those who wait upon him will inherit the earth, they will mount up on wings like eagles.

Third, to share in Christ's sufferings means com-passion, to "suffer with" those who are suffering. This means listening to them, offering whatever divine counsel is given you at the time, praying for, but also advocating for those in your sphere, maybe even being a "patient advocate" — patient in a double sense — and standing with them if in no other way than with the ministry of presence. You are not alone, because Christ shares your sufferings. Your presence with the suffering can comfort them with the very same solidarity, not only your own presence, but that of Christ.

How do you understand what it means to share in Christ's sufferings? However you understand it, you can take comfort in the fact that our bodies and souls are not our own, but they belong to Him who purchased them with his own blood, his own suffering and death. He will not throw away or cast out anyone for whom he paid such a price of redemptive, merciful, tender ownership.

Know your congregation

Instruction in preaching always entails some consideration of the various contexts in which we preach, and should encourage a commitment to gain greater and more intimate knowledge of the congregations we serve regularly and are charged with shepherding (which includes protecting, as well as feeding, leading, etc.). Staple preaching textbooks that deal with congregational contexts look at things like generational composition, racial and cultural demographics, language, gender, income, and the like.

None of the textbooks that I know of, however, give much attention to health concerns as a major aspect of preaching's contexts. I wish I had known some of the following data and thought them through more carefully before preaching a recent sermon that, in light of the idea of suffering with Christ, raised the health concerns many people are facing, and often facing in isolation and shame because of the way their concerns have been dismissed by the dominant culture (which, it turns out, may not be so dominant after all).

But here are two key statistics (and two assumptions) that we can superimpose over one another in order to arrive at what I think is a fair representation of attitudes in both church and society, and thus add an important layer to our understanding of context. [After stating the statistics, I will round the stats to the nearest tenth, so that we can speak of a "congregation" of ten whole people, rather than partial people.]

The first statistic — documented here in a 2024 study published in JAMA — is the loss of "trust in physicians and hospitals ..." from April 2020 to January 2024, a shift from 71.5% in 2019 to 40.5% in 2024. That is a huge 31% drop in less than four years; let's call that 3 people in 10 who have lost trust in physicians and hospitals.

The second statistic is the roughly 80%/20% ratio of people who received at least one needle-based C-jab to those who did not. Some estimates place the rate of uptake at 79%/21%, others at 81%/19%. But let's say: 8 of 10 vs. 2 of 10.

The first assumption (which the JAMA study also suggests) is that the 20% (or 2 of 10) who declined were already distrustful of physicians and hospitals in 2020; so, that 20% (those two people) would be counted among the original 28.5% (roughly 3 in 10) who expressed distrust going in to the (nearly) four-year period in question.

The second assumption (for which I have no data) is that churchgoers responded basically along the same lines as the larger society. Most churches — no doubt in the interest of neighborliness and good citizenship (the standpoint of the humanitarian ethical sphere) — cooperated with public health recommendations, shut down, flipped services online, and went along with all the promoted protocols. Many urged participation in the medical programs, though I know of no churches that were overtly coercive. Very few churches refused to close and many of those that did so faced a number of legal challenges as a result. The present post will not weigh in on the wisdom of those responses, but simply assumes that the participation of the church was roughly equivalent (statistically speaking) to what was reflected in the broader culture: 80%/20%.

Rounding our percentages to the nearest 10%, we can characterize the views represented in our congregations (as of 2024) as follows:

• 40% — 4 in 10 (a distinct minority) took the C-jab and continue to trust physicians and hospitals and evidently see no reason to do otherwise. 
• 60% — 6 in 10 do not trust physicians and hospitals. This majority can be further distinguished among:
• 30% — 3 in 10 who trusted the system in 2019, took the C-jab, and now do not trust the system; 
• 10% — 1 in 10 who distrusted the system, reluctantly took the C-jab for whatever reason, and continue to distrust the system, either from persistent distrust or with reasons reinforced by recent experience; and
• 20% — 2 in 10 who never took the C-jab.

If you are ever led to mention this from the pulpit, do so with great care and caution, and may the Lord fill, anoint, and inundate you with grace, mercy, peace, and love for every group mentioned above. If you think — perhaps more wisely — this topic of conversation should be addressed outside the pulpit, say, in educational settings or around the kitchen table, may you likewise be blessed with abundant grace to listen well and temper your zeal. Perhaps circumstances will unfold that will make it unnecessary to address it directly at all, though I would suggest great yawning silences about such things have their way of gaining greater negative force the longer they are ignored. Either way, it is important to know your congregation. I hope this offers a clearer view of the attitudes and experiences reflected by those in the pews, and for that matter, those who are no longer in the pews. 

We face a spiritual crisis

According to the Surgeon General.

So how do we preachers awaken the church to this crisis and rally them to the cause?

Epistemic capture of one field vs. epistemic clarity in another

So while several important voices are calling for medicine to escape the epistemic capture of the sciences, here is my old, unassuming dissertation on The Homiletical Kierkegaard and his view of Preaching in Light of the Epistemic Spheres ...

Can Kierkegaard's biblically derived understanding of understanding help preachers — and perhaps even scientists — develop eyes to see? This was not written with science in mind, except to some extent "dogmatic science." But you never know what lights may come on if folks read outside their guild.

Avoiding the oppositional tone ...

Here is a snippet of the great Sinclair Ferguson warning preachers against using an oppositional tone in their preaching. He has a valid point. Sometimes what is intended as encouragement and grounds for hope comes across as judgment, and righteous indignation on behalf of one's congregation comes across as anger at them.

If I may be so bold, however, Ferguson uses such a horrific analogy to describe the effect of this oppositional tone that, in his own address, he basically replaces an oppositional tone with a destructive image. Ferguson knows his Bible. I wonder how he would square, e.g., Stephen's sermon and its fallout in Acts 7—8 with his characterization of oppositional preaching. All of which is to say that the challenge for preachers to use the right tone and image at all times, in every sermon, never goes away, no matter how much experience we have or how conspicuous and prestigious our platforms. 

Johnson hearings

Posted with no further comment:

https://x.com/SenRonJohnson/status/2104614515392577579?s=20

Two more reasons to read Oecolampadius' Sermons on the First Epistle of John

  

Cloth w/ DJ                                      Kindle                                      Paperback

(1) Oecolampadius has replaced Zwingli as the most important first-generation (Swiss) German Reformer. In case you missed it, Yale professor Bruce Gordon, in his recent biography of Zwingli, pronounces Oecolampadius the stronger theologian. Sadly, in recent centuries, English-speaking heirs of the German Reformed tradition — "German" referring to the language the first Swiss Reformers spoke; their reforming work, by and large, was not done in Germany per se, but in the Swiss cities and cantons along the Rhine — have been cut off from the tradition's most important founding father. But just last year several seminal works of Oecolampadiana (in addition to my own) appeared: a translation of his piece critiquing "the Paschal laughter" (i.e., preachers clowning it up in the pulpit), the complete collection of his correspondence with Zwingli, et al. Oecolampadius studies is a burgeoning field and not a moment too soon. (See below.)

(2) The Sermons on the First Epistle of John (preached in Advent 1523, published in the spring of 1524) represent the evangelical movement (i.e., early 16th c. Protestantism) at its most unified. Although the first-generation Reformers would gradually come to some strong disagreements over the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1525-1528), resulting in a rupture at Marburg (1529), there was a time when the Lutherans in Wittenberg were applauding the Reformer of Basel for his lectures on Isaiah and his Sermons on 1John (both unfolding in 1523-24). There had even been talk of hiring Oecolampadius to join the faculty at Wittenberg. The cracks would begin to appear in late 1524 with debates over Karlstadt's tracts criticizing Luther on the sacraments, but those would take some time to develop.

These days, my social media feed is awash in attacks on Calvinism. Many of these are likely from bots, others from those who have little understanding of Reformed theology. I also see many good-hearted souls rushing to its defense. 

Behind Calvinism, of course, are not only the Westminster Standards, but Calvin himself and the Institutes. Behind Calvin himself (a second-generation Reformer) stands the first generation of Reformers, and prior to the disagreements that beset the first-generation at Marburg, the evangelical movement looked with unanimous approval on this "Handbook for the Christian Life." In many ways, the series on the First Epistle of John represents the most mature distillation of the Gospel from a unified evangelical movement: from Oecolampadius as the chief expositor of the (Swiss) German Reformed, with the unanimous endorsement and congratulations of the Lutherans in Wittenberg. It was a moment of notable Christian unity marked by the Spirit, when the Gospel was clearly distinguished from the corruption of the Roman church at the time. 

There is a lot to be said for going back to the source material, especially this source material, which epitomizes the very best of the Protestant tradition (no less than one third of the global church). More than that, it represents the critical moment when, homiletically speaking, the Reformation grasped the baton from the ancient church (from Chrysostom, in particular)—the Eastern and evangelical movements connecting for a brief moment to jolt preaching itself back to life. And yet, this pivotal series has only been available to English-speaking readers since 2017. 

Laffer Curves across the map

Surely every field, every discipline, every profession will, at some point, demonstrate some corollary to the Laffer Curve. Art Laffer's famous napkin sketch (basically a frowny face) doodled for President Reagan describing how there is a tax rate above which revenue decreases rather than increases, i.e., becomes counterproductive—I assume—applies broadly, across the map. In my own area of homiletics, one often hears the objection that a sermon exceeding the attention span of most hearers will "tax" them overmuch, and instead of inspiring them will make them restless. What about your field, your experience, your congregation, your constituency?

Lord willing, I hope my sermon this morning does not run too long. I would much rather be greeted with smiles.

The Allison Inquiry

I wonder how many social justice preachers will be mentioning the Allison Inquiry in their sermons this week. I'll wager zero.

UPDATE: "Light will prevail over darkness. Good will prevail over evil."

ANOTHER UPDATE: A YT playlist for the Allison Inquiry.

Imago Dei

"Imago Dei" is an old track, one of my oldest. It was written and recorded in Andy Thornton's Jump Studio in Glasgow in the late summer of 1993 and debuted as a Late Late Service (LLS) track in the Rolling Magazine Tent at the Greenbelt Festival in the last week of August that year. Andy did the engineering and mixing and added just what was needed, the compelling ambient speech track that runs through the whole thing. What a gift. With no objection from LLS leaders at the time, it was later added as a bonus track to my 1991 record, A Soundtrack for the Close of the Age. Having reached its 33rd birthday, it seems like it is old enough to have its own video.

Three vital leadership principles from Scripture

In my first Doctor of Ministry cohort, I assigned The Peter Principle, which is absolutely hilarious. Surprisingly, I still had a job afterwards, it is so dated and politically incorrect. The point is that I have tried to live by that principle, i.e., not to get promoted beyond my level of competence. But to those who actually do have gifts for institutional leadership and seek to develop them: God bless you. Here are three biblical leadership principles you will likely never find in the leadership literature, at least not in their original settings. They are, however, divinely inspired, so even if they rub pragmatic leaders the wrong way and seem counter-intuitive, as they likely will, they promise real blessing to those humble enough and willing to act on them.

(1) Do not be Rehoboam. Rehoboam inherited the throne of a united Israel from his father Solomon. He asked advice of his counselors, and the older ones told him to lighten the load of his subjects. If he would do so, they said, the people would be loyal to him for life. Instead, he listened to his younger advisors, who told him to demand more and more and more of his subjects. They even crudely told him to claim it was all about whether he or his father had the bigger manhood, so to speak. As a result of following the juvenile counsel of the latter, he angered and alienated his people, found himself facing a rebellion, and lost the larger part of his kingdom, ten of the twelve tribes he inherited. He should have listened to his older counselors. He would have had loyal subjects for his entire reign. [See 1Kings 12.] Don't be Rehoboam.

The other two principles I hastily bookmarked in a previous post, but let me explain them here.

(2) This one is mentioned three separate times in the Bible, which conveys remarkably strong reinforcement:

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (Deuteronomy 25:4)

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (1Corinthians 9:9)

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (1Timothy 5:11)

Paul tells us this is not just about oxen, but about human workers, as well. So, when we can ask: "What do muzzles do?", we can answer: "They muffle speech, they inhibit proper breathing, and they prevent someone from eating, taking refreshment, and enjoying the product of their labors." If your workers have no way to speak to you or send you critical feedback, if your leadership structure allows for no one to lobby or advocate for your workers, if your style does not convey genuine openness to suggestion or critique, if workspaces are suffocating cages or the workload relentless and ever increasing, you risk killing the goose that lays your golden egg. If your mission really is "all" about your customers, clients, students, etc., and you show no awareness of or interest in how much work your people are doing, how much their burden has been increasing, how often you have been asking them to do more with less, over and over again, you will fail and deservedly so. Because muzzling an ox while it is treading out the grain is not only bad management, it is stingy, cruel, demoralizing, and dispiriting. Don't do it.

(3) Do not presume to appropriate divine promises of prosperity by wrenching them out of context. Here is an example that hits close to home for many evangelicals, but read the two verses in blue first (vv. 10 and 12), then go back and read the middle one (v. 11).

10 "This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jer 29:10-12)

Those seventy years refer to the Babylonian exile, after Jerusalem had been besieged, starved, and resorted to cannibalism, her leaders killed or captured. The Spirit of the Lord had departed the city. Ezekiel saw it happen. And the Lord set the sentence for the Jewish exiles in Babylon at 70 years. Why? To ensure the land was given its sabbatical years, every year an earned sabbatical that had been withheld, clawed back, or reneged by her leaders over the decades and centuries from Solomon and Rehoboam to Zedekiah. That is how serious the Lord was and is about honoring sabbatical years, serious as a 70-year exile. In this case the context places substantial and sobering conditions around the promise people try to appropriate, but without regard to those very conditions: When ... then.

Every preaching textbook, every Bible exegesis course, teaches the interpreter to look at what comes immediately before and immediately after the text in question. It is the very first step of proper interpretation. Good leaders should likewise be attuned to context. In this case, the context says: the middle verse — the promise of prosperity — is not for you unless you are prepared to honor its terms and conditions.

All of these principles pose a serious question and a challenge to those who seek to lead faithfully: Do you trust God and his Word? Do you trust him to provide through sabbatical years (which are spiritually regenerative and bear remarkable fruit), even when, e.g., your most productive Presbyterian elders and deacons are constitutionally required to take a year off after two consecutive three-year terms? Do you trust him to provide when the muzzle is off, the burden is lessened, the yoke is untied? Do you trust the Lord more than the efficiency experts, obsessed as they are with the bottom-line, who constantly goad you to demand more and more and more from your people and insist they make do with less (time), less (freedom), less (money), and less (rest)? "Show me the numbers" is an important part of good stewardship, but time and again the Scriptures attest that numbers are no match for God. 

Listen to your elders. Loosen the yoke. Lighten the load. Buck the self-defeating "do more with less" trend that other institutions are imposing so feverishly out of desperation and distrust, even if that trend seems like common sense and the only logical way to please your stakeholders and investors. Honor the Sabbath day (remember the Exodus) and build Sabbatical years faithfully into your culture (remember the Exile). Let them be an offering to God. Keep your promises. God will bless you and your institution. Your people will remember it and be unswerving in their loyalty. Others — those who break their promises and continually move the goal posts — will have trouble filling jobs with competent, loyal people, but everyone will want to work for you.

Choose wisely. Lead well.

A life well lived. The world is poorer for his passing.

 RIP, Wendell Berry. 

When/then: Thoughts about starving oxen and promises of prosperity taken out of context.

Here is a triply biblical thought:

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (Deuteronomy 25:4)

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (1Corinthians 9:9)

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." (1Timothy 5:11)

Why do you think the Holy Spirit saw fit to reiterate this three times, once in the Old Testament and twice in the New?

And I wonder if we might not see some astonishing outpouring of grace from on high if we stopped ripping Jeremiah 29:11 out of context and recognized how serious the Lord was and is about observing sabbatical years, you know, serious as a 70-year exile, so that muzzled oxen should not collapse and die from lack of nourishment and oxygen deprivation while grinding at the mill.

10 "This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jer 29:10-12)

 

Psalm 3 [St. Columba]

This was the first of the Revenant Psalms I worked up in 2021.  

It became Track 2 on the initial volume. Hopefully having the text before you will make it more singable. Meanwhile, this series of videos showing the capo arrangements, chord shapes, fingering, etc., may perhaps have the same effect watching a friend play his snappy technique had on me way back in 1993. It only took me 28 years (from 1993 to 2021) for me to actually put my pick down and do this, but I'm glad I did. I find this style of rhythm guitar much more fun to play and enjoyable to listen to than the more common strumming style that is ubiquitous among worship leaders. [Not even sure I could do it if I tried.]

"Deliverance [An Interlude]"

Here's a new video for the instrumental 12-string piece that opens Disc 2 of Revenant Psalms, Vol. V.

The track is so titled both for the mood, but also because it inhabits a place among several psalm settings that all seem to cry out for deliverance. Like many of the tracks on Vol. V, it makes use of odd time signatures: 5/4 has such a lilt, I use it a lot, but 11/8 gets a good workout here. 

Volksfaßliche Vorträge über den ersten Brief Johannis

Dies ist die beste mir bekannte Bibelauslegung, die die Grundlagen des Christentums in kompakter Form vermittelt. Der Schweizer Reformator bezeichnete den Ersten Johannesbrief als Schrift, die „das reinste Evangelium“ enthalte. Luther sagte Ähnliches über den Römerbrief, doch der Erste Johannesbrief umfasst nur fünf Kapitel, und der Prediger behandelt dieses Buch gründlicher als jeder seiner Vorgänger, einschließlich Augustinus. Diese Predigtreihe erfreute sich bei ihrem ersten Erscheinen außerordentlicher Beliebtheit. Sie prägte die Predigtpraxis in Basel über Generationen hinweg und war zweifellos auch Calvin wohlbekannt; er ließ die erste Ausgabe seiner „Institutio“ in demselben Haus drucken, in dem zuvor schon Oekolampad an so vielen seiner eigenen Übersetzungen und sonstigen Publikationen gearbeitet hatte. Wer nach einer frischen Darlegung des Wesens des Christentums sucht, nach einer gehaltvollen und konsequent biblischen Erklärung des Evangeliums, nach einer Besinnung auf das, was letztlich zählt, oder nach einem fundierten Text für den Konfirmandenunterricht oder die Einführung neuer Gemeindeglieder – für all das ist dieses „Handbuch für das christliche Leben“ genau das Richtige.

 

Revenant Psalms, Vol. V, is on Spotify

Here is the latest and last album in the series — a double! — on Spotify. That's full 1 hour and 38 minutes, nearly two Carnegie (50 min) hours! 

And here is the whole series of Revenant Psalms on Spotify. That would amount to four additional, or a total of six, class hours.

Sorry, I can't actually offer you class credit for listening, but in the grand scheme of things, I am sure it will edify and pay spiritual dividends. By all means, set up a playlist and share it with those you love, including the churches in your network. Let the God of heaven know that we, his church on earth, find his psalms worth singing, and worth singing to him in the name of Jesus, because we love and trust him. 

Blessings and peace in Christ.

Good.

TX can require the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools. 

So can, and should, every other state.

Preaching on the Ninth Commandment

When I said a long while back that I had a dream that one day preachers across the country would all preach on the Ninth Commandment, this was the sort of thing—one of many such—that I had in mind: organizations that take advantage of people's best intentions by alleging with false accusations and psychological projection the very hatred they purport to stand against. Lex talionis, BTW, means that false accusers are meted the same sentence they attempt to call down on others. 

Christians, before they rush to strike a moral pose, need to practice self-awareness and ask themselves whether their attitudes toward other people—family, (former) friends, neighbors, people of the opposing party—arise from what might boil down, in the eyes of God, to a false witness. I have seen some of the most lionized theologians on social media pronouncing certain public figures non-Christian because of how they pray or what they pray for in public, never mind the courage it takes to pray in public, never mind bothering to ask what biblical texts the prayer might have in view. Paul teaches a better way when he tells us to consider others as better than ourselves. That is the positive corollary to the negative prohibition in the Ninth Commandment.

Related.

Also related.

Very important poll

 ... that concerns medical freedom, therefore, freedom generally, which is a matter of not only the human body, but also the mind and spirit. "Where the Spirit is, there is freedom."

Because Year D is concerned with making the Word of God fully known — for the glory of God and for the well-being of his beloved world — I am linking this here. 

"House Lights Up [Postlude]"

Here is the final, final track from the Revenant Psalms project.

Revenant Psalms, Vol. V is streaming (in full)

Here is the full YT playlist, but without 1000 subscribers, YT pays literally nothing. Please visit your favorite streaming service to download this and other records. Why stream when you can own it and access it anytime, ad free?

Meanwhile, here is the latest track with video and lyrics/paraphrase:

"Psalm 110 [Quaternary Resignation]."

Thanks for your support.