Choices v. Circumstances

Note: It may be helpful to read my introduction to this series in order to have some context and understand my disclaimers. You can find that post here.



This video was short and to the point. To be honest, I was so refreshingly surprised by Rowe’s proposition in this video, and I couldn’t agree more. Some people make horrible mistakes. I am a person who believes in second chances, and so do most of my readers. When people make mistakes and then respond to those mistakes appropriately, they should be given the opportunity to keep building on that positive momentum. Some of the greatest contributions to this world will come because of some of our worst errors.

What I love about what Rowe did here was that he did more than just agree to an idea. He didn’t just nod his head and decide not to get in the way of someone’s rehabilitation; he actually put his foundation out there to help the person be successful.

To be honest, if any of us are going to rebuild from our major mistakes, we are going to need more than just the tacit agreement of our right to do so. We are going to need proactive and compassionate help from others investing in our success. 

The math doesn’t seem to work right. You take one negative (a person’s mistake) and add it to another negative (some other person’s sacrificial investment), and it seems like you should be losing ground and ringing up negative growth. And yet, the Kingdom economy doesn't work that way. It takes those two negative variables and turns it, somehow, into positive growth — often exponential in nature.

Is it possible we somehow end up even better by responding to mistakes properly than if we would have done it by the book in the first place? I think it is.

I know this series is supposed to be about conventional wisdom, but sometimes that wisdom takes us right into discovering some post-conventional truths, as well.

Missing More than His Limbs

Note: It may be helpful to read my introduction to this series in order to have some context and understand my disclaimers. You can find that post here.



This video is loaded with good stuff — perspective, inspiration, personal challenge. Just from the perspective alone, the video is worth a watch. We often have opportunities to see things, hear stories, or meet people, and each helps us put things in perspective. That is one of the blatant and surface-level takeaways from this video, at least for me. Some people have it bad — really bad — and it helps me to remember how my circumstances stack up against those of others.

I live quite a life of opportunity, comfort, and privilege. This video reminds me of that, as I’m sure it does many others. In addition, it reminds me that some of those comforts and privileges have come from the sacrifice of others. I don’t take that lightly.

It’s important to note that the power of these stories lies in the stories themselves — and the people who get to tell them because of their own experience. One of the dangers of this video is that people watch it from a place of opportunity and privilege, feel the conviction and the inspiration, and then project it onto everyone else from their place of comfort. I’m not faulting Rowe for this, but the danger is there.

The power is in the story and the inspiration of seeing life lived out in a compelling way.

The danger is when we take that inspiration, turn it into a principle, and then expect everyone else to do the same. We cannot do that. Travis has his story: He is a human being with unbelievable complexity and nuance, personality, training, context, relationships, etc. Every human life is different, and every human story is valuable. The story is powerful when it is shared and used to start great internal and external conversations. The story is dangerous when it stops being a story and becomes an expectation projected onto everyone who struggles.

The projection is doubly dangerous when it is being projected by people who speak from places of comfort, power, influence, and privilege. We need to be aware of those things. I am purposely leaving out political buzzwords that will set off my audience, but I think we all need to be challenged (on all sides of our many debates and conversations) to think about where and how we project those things.

But I digress in a serious way, because after writing a whole post on the dangers of this video, I actually really enjoyed its conventional wisdom. The video ends with Rowe asking two questions.

“If [Travis] can get through the day without whining and complaining, why can’t I?”

This is the dynamite question we can all be challenged with. This is the question that inspires me and challenges me today.

His second question, appropriately qualified, is where it gets dangerous:

“With respect, why can’t anyone?”

May we be challenged to live with less whining and complaining. May we be resolute in our commitment to pursuing our day with a more positive attitude. But may we also ask that second question with much less assumption and more genuine intrigue. May our personal conviction lead to a better life (a “good eye” to call back to our previous discussion), and our intrigue lead us to more compassion and a less assumptive, less critical spirit.

And in this, may we find and help create a better world.

MAKING AN IMPACT: Community

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the third week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

Let’s talk about the value of community.

Like last month’s post on character, this is another one of those buzzwords I don’t think too many people are going to disagree with. We might call it relationships or fellowship or community, but we all value people, don’t we?

We might know that it’s important, but I think truly valuing community in our world is incredibly tricky business. Relationships are difficult and messy. There are a lot of things that must get done. In order to truly value community, it’s going to take more than just lip service. It’s going to take a hefty reorganization of our priorities. It means relationships are going to have to take precedent over productivity, consumerism, and busyness.

On one hand, I am deeply committed to the value of community. I have long treatises about the theological and ecclesiological importance of community. Anybody who has participated in my BEMA study or been able to participate in one of our trips to Israel and Turkey will know that “community” is one of my “four pillars” and a major tenet of what I want every participant to take home. I run around the desert and throw my hat as I critique our commitments to true community and caring for each other.

And yet, I think this may be the ICM value I am challenged by the most. To be honest, I like community when it’s on my terms. I like relationships when I get to call the shots. I like the idea when it is convenient and not messy.

Don’t we all?

This value at Impact Campus Ministries does not speak of the buzzword or shallow commitment to relationships. This value is not on our vision posters for the times it is convenient, tidy, and on our own terms. The value of community is stated for all of those times when it is none of these things.

This value says that we will be there for one another when we need help — any kind of help.

This value says that we will prioritize relationship over rightness.

This value says that we will try to work together whenever possible.

This value says that we will avoid working apart because it is easier or more expedient.

This value says that we will care not about what you can do, but who you are.

This value says that we are not human doings, but human beings.

This value says that we will care about the whole self.

This value says that we are going to fight for your place in the family.

This value says a lot. I have not always lived up to this value well or modeled it to our staff the way that I ought.

Ironically, I have found that the healthiest way for me to hold myself accountable and grow in this area is to make sure I’m surrounded by other members of the family. Ironic, but not counter-intuitive.

I want to become better at community. I have places where I have planted my flag and grown in the last decade of my life. I can say with confidence that I am much, much better at community today than I have been in the past. I could not say with confidence that my life is a beacon for the value of community.

And for this reason, I want to continue to grow and value this more. Will you grow with me?

MAKING AN IMPACT: Character

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the third week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

The next value we will talk about with our MAKING AN IMPACT series is one that is stated in almost every organization, is incredibly important, and is yet a struggle for so many churches, organizations, and fellowships. This is the value of CHARACTER.

Why is this such a struggle for the Christian world? I think the short answer is that we are just a bunch of people who are screwed up. That is true, but how many of us are tired of reading what feels like a continuous news feed of Christian organizations that harbor abusers, struggle with sexual conduct, mistreat women, and succumb to other “moral failures”? It’s exhausting.

I think the answer is that theology matters. I won’t be taking this time and space to pull apart the pieces of theology I think are most responsible for these stories, but I will say that our theology is often the bedrock we build our culture on. The way we understand the nature of who God is and what He is doing in the world, the way we understand the nature of humanity, and the way we define the gospel, breeds a particular culture in the missional communities we belong to. If we foster a theology that believes God is looking for the unflinching devotion to a moral code, we will simultaneously breed a culture that puts on a show, afraid to be vulnerable to the struggle we all experience to become the kinds of whole people God has designed us to be.

So what do we do? Impact Campus Ministries has said — like so many others — that we want to be people of integrity and great character. How will we succeed where so many others seem to fail?

A large part of this will reside in our commitment to community and each other (more on this value in another post). The greatest form of accountability will be the fact that we don’t do life (or ministry) alone. Of course, this commitment is only powerful if we trust each other enough to be vulnerable. We have to work hard to build a culture of openness and honesty from the top of our organization all the way down to the bottom. We don’t want to be people who fight for privacy, but fight for each other.

This isn’t to say that privacy is not important or that wisdom would dictate open vulnerability with all people in all circumstances — it would not. But within our family at ICM, we need to learn how to trust each other with our struggles and our failures. This means we can’t be quick to punish others when they slip up, but we also need to be resolute in our commitment to each other, to help each other become the people God is inviting us to become.

Hopefully you can see how well our value of character works alongside the tension of excellence and compassion. We have to have a commitment to excellence in our integrity, but that will only be achieved if we can be gracious in our failures. I really believe that the destructive and harmful failures in character come as the byproduct of a culture that doesn’t foster healthy growth and compassionate belonging. When those things don’t exist, we begin to hide. When we begin to hide, our lack of character begins to fester until it erupts in something horribly destructive.

Unfortunately, this culture of hiding is often cultivated in our faith communities.

We want to be better than this. We want to be the kind of family — brothers and sisters — who make sure we all have a place to belong and that the space can be trusted. We want to build a culture that says, “I am FOR you!” — and doesn’t doubt the sincerity of that stance. Only then can we be honest about who we truly are and who we are trying to become. And only when we are honest can we find family who help us strive to develop as we pursue character in our organization.

This will be an ongoing struggle. We are far from perfect.

But may God bless ICM’s efforts to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly [together] with our God.

PULL UP A CHAIR: Stories on Excellence & Compassion

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the fourth week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

Andrew Hodges is the Team Leader for our ICM team in Indianapolis at the campus of IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis). He and his wife, Samantha, as well as their beautiful children have been ministering in Indy for years and reaching out to the campus for the most recent of those years. Andrew is a driven and committed minister who leads a high-octane and "excellent" outreach. However, he is also shaped by the grace and way of Jesus. I knew that his thoughts about this tension would be worth reading, so I invited him to write this installment for our PULL UP A CHAIR series.

One of the things I’ve struggled with more than anything in ministry is the balance between excellence and compassion. For example, picture me feverishly working away on tasks in my office. In walks a college student last semester wanting to show me a cat video on YouTube in which the cat is speaking what I believed to be Russian. Do I really have time to watch the cat video? Do I really want to watch the cat video? No is the answer to both of those questions. Yet there is a third question to be asked in the midst of that scenario. How can I afford not to watch this video? By watching this cat-speaking-Russian video, I will be able to connect with the student on a deeper level and this will lead to even more opportunities for discipleship. A week later, that same student was then able to trust me enough to ask for my advice about a fraternity brother who was struggling with suicidal thoughts.

All from a cat video?

Kinda.

I recently read the following quote from Rick Warren: “You may have heard it said, ‘If it can’t be done with excellence, don’t do it.’ Well, Jesus never said that! The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it—that’s how we learn. At Saddleback Church, we practice the ‘good enough’ principle: It doesn’t have to be perfect for God to use and bless it. We would rather involve thousands of regular folks in ministry than have a perfect church run by a few elites.”

I believe this is where excellence and compassion meet.

Two examples in our ministry at IUPUI that immediately come to my mind are our Worship Team and our Student Leaders.

WORSHIP TEAM

When we first moved toward a fully-student-led band for our worship times on campus, I nearly had a mental breakdown. What songs would they choose? Would they sing in the right keys? Can we really have two violins playing at the same time? Was that the right chord?

Yet the teams we’ve had since then have done an incredible job leading.

The students have loved it.

I have loved it.

I did not have a mental breakdown, entirely.

We valued the worship team over their ability to play or sing, while at the same time encouraging them to step into a place of serious preparation for each night of praise to God. The good enough principal has been used in full effect.

STUDENT LEADERS

It was during our second year on campus that we started to have student leadership positions. These students would assume more responsibility and help us disciple other students. At first I really didn’t know what I was doing (I still mostly do not), but what they allowed us to do was to be organized in our effort to Pursue, Model, and Teach in so many more areas to so many more students. We’ve expanded into vision casting, service projects, intentional hangout times, small groups, intramural sports, worship, art, social media posts, and so much more.

My prayer was (and is) constantly, “God, help me not to underuse them, but help me also not to overuse them.” I’m not sure I’ve figured out where that balance is yet, but I know that the more I care for them and their souls, the more God reveals that sweet spot with both excellence and compassion.

The more I’ve invested in the few, the more God has allowed us to invest in the many.

What we will find is that discipleship requires both excellence AND compassion.

We let people see glimpses of what they are capable of (through God’s power) and we give them affirmation all along the way.

To do something with excellence is to do something “according to your ability” (see Ezra 2:69) and to do something with compassion is to “see the huge crowd” (Matthew 14:14) the way Jesus did before he fed the five thousand.

Ultimately, we are stepping into the very footprints of our Savior, Jesus.

I leave you with this last thought from Philippians 2 that lays out our mission and purpose so well:

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges ; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

MAKING AN IMPACT: Excellence & Compassion

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the third week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

We want to close out the rest of this year with our MAKING AN IMPACT series by looking at our stated values at Impact Campus Ministries. Our values are the things that drive our decisions and determine the way in which we pursue our mission and vision. In a sense, our mission and vision are built upon and performed on the foundation of our organizational values.

Today, I want to write about two of our six values. I do this for a couple reasons: First, there are only twelve months in a year and thirteen items that I need to talk about — so I need to combine two (seems like a pretty good mathematical reason to me); but second, I combine these two values because they are two that always seem to exist in tension.

These values are EXCELLENCE and COMPASSION.

ICM has the value of excellence. We want to pursue excellence in all things; we always want to fight against the mentality of, “Meh, it’s good enough.” We want to resist the urge to cut corners or stop short, even when it appears that it won’t make a difference. We value this because we believe it always makes a difference. While going the extra mile might not have a practical application in the immediate situation, we believe it has an impact on who we are as people. In addition to this, we want to be reminded that our work is powered by God’s provision through the generosity of others. Their investment in God’s Kingdom deserves our best stewardship; their dollars (or God’s dollars given through them) need to be planted and watered with nothing less than our best.

But ICM also has the value of compassion. The truth of the matter is that we all blow it — routinely. We want to practice grace with each other and demonstrate a hospitable and generous spirit with others when we are less than excellent. This is a stated value with ICM not only because we want it to be true internally, but externally as well. We want to demonstrate compassion for those we work with in churches and with our supporters. We want to demonstrate compassion to those who might seek to make our lives difficult. Most importantly, we want to treat our students with compassion and model a life of compassion so they can experience and see the fruit that comes from a life modeled after Jesus.

We find that pursing these values simultaneously is very difficult. But we also find that this tension is very, very good. We want to be able to challenge ourselves to run hard and push for the best. We want to celebrate when God takes our efforts at excellence and does something awesome with them. But we also want to guard each other from the shame and guilt of never feeling like we’re enough.

In the words of Jeff VanderLaan, ICM’s Vice President, “We want to always be raising the bar and lowering the fence.” What a great line! We need to raise the bar — raise our sights and our expectations — while simultaneously lowering the fence of who can participate in pursuing those goals.

It is important to learn that these two values are not at all mutually exclusive. Just because we value excellence does not mean we have to be jerks, unrelenting as we demand excellence from ourselves and our teammates. But just because we value compassion does not mean we can be halfhearted in our efforts. We can still challenge each other to be the best possible stewards of our talents and resources.

This tension is difficult, and yet I feel like parenting has taught me more about this tension than anything else. I have the highest hopes for my children. I want them to be the absolute best version of themselves that they can be. However, I also love them tremendously and would do anything to make sure they are never treated with anything less than unconditional love and acceptance. I want to teach them the value of excellence and model the compassion of a loving father to them the entire way. This is one of the only soils in which healthy parenting can exist.

May we as leaders seek to foster this same culture in the ministries that we lead.

A DAY IN THE LIFE: Real Life on the Palouse

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the second week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

One of things that has defined my weekly work presence over the years has been my family’s relationship with Real Life on the Palouse. It’s been an incredible blessing to have a church family that we love as much as we do here on the Palouse. Those of you who know me know that I don’t qualify as “normal” (easy with the jokes). The church has often struggled to know what to do with those who lie outside the bounds of typical. But RLOTP has been incredibly accepting of me and all of my quirks; there are days when I still can’t believe the level of involvement they’ve encouraged (not just allowed) us to have.

Becky and the kids love serving in the children’s ministry here. They have been a fantastic encouragement to my children, identifying their ability to lead and encouraging their involvement at every level of the ministry. They treat my kids as true volunteers, inviting them to the same events and awards they would offer to any other volunteer.

When I first arrived on the Palouse in 2011, I was certain I would not be welcome in the faith community. Instead, I was ushered right into staff meetings and invited to staff retreats; I was immediately given a seat at the RLOTP table and was never forced to “earn” a voice at the table. I found my first place to serve as I always have in church — behind the drums. I enjoyed helping lead worship on almost a weekly basis for the first few years.

Eventually, I was invited to fill the pulpit for a Sunday when Aaron was gone and that led to a place on the teaching team. For years, we have met for what we call “Sermon Club,” a weekly get-together where we plan upcoming sermons and sketch out the message for the upcoming week. We share ideas and give feedback on how to design each message and what we think might be important. It’s a wonderful practice. Obviously, preaching and teaching are my greatest joys and most prominent gifts, so I love to get to use them on a regular basis. I know I’m playing my part in the body in a way that blesses others.

We have served the community in different ways throughout the years — leading small groups and helping establish accountability and mentoring — but what I mention above has definitely been the places where we have found our home as members of RLOTP.

With recent changes to my job and the increase in my travel schedule, I have had to continue to step further and further back as I do the things my position requires. This has been one of the most difficult things to navigate in living here on the Palouse. I suppose this kind of connection is a good thing and a testimony to the kind of family we have. I have made some of the deepest friendships I have ever had in my life here in this body of faith, and I’ve experienced acceptance like never before.

Here is a video diary of my weekly time at RLOTP:

Top 12 of CiHD: #9

For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (the first week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.

We’ll continue our look at the Top 12 Blog Posts at Covered in His Dust by looking at my ninth-most-viewed post of all time. It doesn’t surprise me that this post made the list, and it is one of my favorite topics to wrestle with. The post discussed the book of Hebrews and the specifics of atonement theories. You can read the post titled “HEBREWS: Atonement 101” here.

In this series, as we look at each post, I want to ask three questions: why, what, and what else? Why do I think this post got so many views; why were others drawn to it? What do I hope people found when they got here; what do I hope they heard? Finally, what else have I learned about this; what else would I say about these ideas?

WHY THIS POST?

There are two answers to this question in my mind. On one hand, this has been a growing conversation in the theological world for the last few decades. Many studied scholars, academics, and theologians have weighed in on a reexamination of the ideas that drive our understanding of atonement. This would discount voices that had been wrestling with these theories for decades before, but the larger conversation really took on a head of steam more recently. For those who could use a definition of terms here, atonement is the reparation for our sin and trespasses. It is the act of reconciliation — the explanation for how we are made right with God.

The other reason is much less academic and I mention it in passing in the original post. I think people who have been in the church for a while (or not) and are used to the theological conversation surrounding the cross and how we are forgiven by God have lots of questions about things that just never sat right with us — things that didn’t quite seem to fit. It didn’t work in our head, it didn’t work in our heart, and it seemed to betray the goodness of relationship (with God and others). Most of my observations assume(d) that my readers have their greatest exposure in the evangelical world and were exposed to an astutely articulated penal substitutionary atonement theory. If they were not raised in this world, they may not resonate with this post the same way.

WHAT DO I HOPE THEY FOUND?

As is often the case, I hope readers found an explanation of how the conversation is bigger and wider than they were ever told. The more I study the stream of orthodox Christianity, the more I come to realize that there has been far more going on in this stream than I was told. This is incredibly comforting to me and I hope it is comforting to others, as well.

I also hope they found a conversation that didn’t discount the many theories discussed. While I sought to point out the limitations of each theory, I hope such a discussion did not discount or cause a reader to reject the positive attributes that each theory brings to the table. This stands true even for me, and you’ll notice I have a theory that I struggle with the most (penal substitutionary atonement) and a theory that is my favorite (scapegoat/mimetic theory). I have certainly battled on a personal level with the idea of rejecting PSA and then embracing Girardian thought without critique. Which leads me to some recommendations…

WHAT ELSE WOULD I SAY?

I wouldn’t add much other than recommendations for further reading. One book that has really helped me in the personal struggle I describe above is a book by Scot McKnight titled A Community Called Atonement. In it, McKnight argues that all of the different theories should be seen (and used!) as a golf bag full of different clubs. Just as a golfer will pull out a different club based on the scenario, the circumstances, and the goal, so should we be prepared and willing to use different theories for different purposes. This metaphor has been very helpful and the book is very good.

I would also recommend finding anything by Rene Girard that is related to mimetic theory and atonement. It will be heady and academic, but it will have shaped more of this ongoing conversation than we realize. If you would like a summary of Girardian thought, I recommend reading The Jesus-Driven Life by Michael Hardin.

And of course, check out the books and authors I recommended in the original post. Look at the work of Greg Boyd on atonement to find a crucifixion-centric theology that reclaims a more modern form of Christus Victor. Find books by Tony Jones to examine the ideas that drive solidarity theory.

And while you study and grow, learn and wrestle, don’t ever forget that the main takeaway of any theory is that we can be made right with God. There is freedom available for anyone who would look to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the most liberating moment in human history.

CHURCH HISTORY: AD 1300 thru AD 1550

NB: For readers who missed it, I suggest going back to review my setup to this section on church history to know about my disclaimers. For the graphics used in this post, the timelines are not to scale, and the dates represented are not intended to be exact. They are meant to be visual aids for understanding the larger conversation.

So Christendom emerges from the period of the Crusades in horrible shape: completely beaten up, completely broken. Having spent everything they had on war and conquest, they now turn their sights toward rebuilding. In order to do this, they need to find a way to get resources.

Well, in a world that is largely illiterate, where the educated are priests and leadership, studying the Text that is written in an archaic, foreign language is difficult. It becomes simple to manipulate the truth that the masses depend on you to communicate. With a little shaping here and a little gloss there, the narrative of God quickly becomes something that can enslave people in a system of fear, guilt, and control. At its best, you had priests and Church leadership who were maintaining a commitment to sound doctrine, modeling a self-sacrificial life, and instilling a message of hope into people who needed the gospel so badly.

At its worst, we saw the rise of the Age of Indulgences. While the entire conversation is incredibly complex and usually oversimplified (as even I am about to do for the sake of brevity), the general understanding of the problem is relatively accurate. As parishioners came for their typical interaction with the sacraments, the Church leveraged this need to help control the general populace.

To understand this conversation, one needs a basic understanding of sacraments. To the orthodox faith of the Middle Ages, people believed you would interact with the many different practices of the Church in order to experience the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God. You might remember the liturgy and order we spoke of when we talked about the contribution of Gregory the Great. The Church had identified seven sacraments to serve as corporate practices for experiencing the dispensation of grace. For these early thinkers, there is nothing magical about the sacrament itself, other than its service as a conduit to receive the grace of God into your life. Things like baptism, the Eucharist, confession, marriage — these all allow the grace of God to flow into your life.

You can imagine, as people come to engage these sacraments and anticipate the reception of God’s grace in their lives, it is a short leap for the Church to start manipulating this system for their ends. At some of its worst moments, the Church was even offering forgiveness at a monetary price. Come to confession and absolve your sins by going through the appropriate motions — and offering the appropriate gift.

In short, we are seeing a rabid abuse of Church leadership and priesthood.

Not all the educated were prepared to turn a blind eye to these abuses. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are littered with names of those who stood up against this corruption and fought to reveal the gospel as it ought to be seen. Two popular names in the world of scholasticism are Wycliffe and Hus.

John Wycliffe — Wycliffe was known for consistently attacking the imperial privilege of the Church at large. He hated the separation between the clergy and the laypeople and thought the gap should be dissolved. While he railed against the pomp of the high Church system, he also argued that the Text should not be held captive in an ancient language. He wanted the Scriptures to be accessible for all and thought they should be translated into the common vernacular for people to understand in services. In a lot of ways, Wycliffe paved the way for the Reformation.

John Hus — Sometimes referred to as the true father of the Reformation, it’s hard to see Hus apart from the work of Wycliffe. Hus led an informal resistance to the papacy and was eventually executed for leading what history knows as the Bohemian Revolt. There were two successful regional Crusades against the reigning papacy. While his methods may be subject, his thinking deeply shaped the thought process in western Europe and definitely laid the groundwork for what we know as the Protestant Reformation.

Part of the issue in this period of Catholic history was the geopolitical context. With a new sense of what I call “medieval nationalism,” the power structures in the world were shifting entirely. No longer was the world ruled by one giant papacy; as Christendom tried to figure out how to hold onto their outdated systems of governance, the world changed around them. People were seeing their allegiance aligned more with the powers of the state and country than they were with a foreign church. People associated with being French or German as a more immediate identification than they did with being “Catholic.”

This made it easier and easier to reject foreign papacy and rule. The papacy of Avignon actually shifted the seat of power away from Rome and into France for a period of seven popes, leading to what would later be called the “Western Schism” — when the Western Church was spilt between western and eastern Europe.

The Church continued to suffer from divisions and schisms.

In light of the many abuses of religious power, the Protestant Reformation was simply waiting for good leaders. How “good” these leaders were is left to historical debate. I will leave my personal opinions out of it; so much material has been written about the Reformation and I encourage you to do your own study. Needless to say, people like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin led reformations away from the Catholic Church in their respective lands, each with their own nuances to their understanding of theology.

At this point, we begin to split over the smallest of nuances. No longer held together by a common hierarchy or papal leadership, we were free to disagree over the smallest details, often fueled by our nationalistic identifications. However, each national identity will get a denominational affiliation: Germans would be Lutheran, the French might be Calvinistic Reformers, and the Swiss would follow Zwingli.

Their many opinions splintered the faith of Christendom, and we don’t have time for that full conversation. However, as far as the good this movement did, it is hard to overstate. The invention of the printing press allowed the widespread distribution of the Text in the language of the common person. The Reformation changed the face of education and cinched up the gap between the educated and the uneducated, especially in reference to theology — both orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

And while this might seem like an unbelievable amount of change for the world to endure, the change is only beginning.

3 JOHN: Diotrephes

Finally, we come to the incredibly short letter of 3 John. We see through the study of these letters that John has a group of disciples he is sending out to do teaching among the churches. Some scholars have even suggested that it’s these disciples who pen the three letters of John. I disagree with this assessment, but it does provide some explanation as to why the author of 2 and 3 John calls himself “the elder.” Of course, this title would be more fitting for John himself, but I digress.

The elder, 

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. 

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Penning the letter from Ephesus, John writes about how his disciples have returned (or other believers have visited) and told of the love and hospitality they received from Gaius. John encourages him to continue walking in this truth. Note again how the idea of truth is attached to the idea of loving others; without loving others, there is no truth, only falsehood. Love is what makes the truth — well, the truth.

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

Notice the use of the phrase “for the sake of the Name.” Back in our study of David we spoke of the phrase in rabbinic Judaism, rendered in the Hebrew as kiddush HaShem or “to hallow/sanctify the Name.” This idea continues to live into the New Testament where John tells Gaius to continue in his ways of love and hospitality, because it is here where we’ll find a life that truly does kiddush HaShem.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

However, not everybody is practicing hospitality. There’s a member of the community there refusing to welcome others (particularly John’s disciples). In this he is acting like the pagans mentioned above. This is the defining characteristic that sets believers apart from the pagans — hospitality. It’s interesting to note that Diotrephes means “loved by Jupiter” in the Greek. Could it be that he’s having a hard time letting go of his pagan ways?

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true. 

I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. 

Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

But Gaius is not alone. Those who follow God rarely are. Demetrius is also a fellow worker who has a reputation of generosity, love, and hospitality.

The letter of 3 John always serves as a reminder to me of a couple realities. First, there have always been and always will be people who oppose the work of the gospel and our call to be people of love in the world. For whatever reason (and there are often many), there are those who stand opposed to work that would kiddush HaShem. But second, this letter reminds me, yet again, that the way of truth is not truth because some abstract, absolute truth exists. The way of truth is truth because it is the way of love.

I know it’s very popular to say that “truth without love isn’t truth and love without truth isn’t love.” That may be true, but the Bible does not teach this idea directly. Yet the idea is undeniably evident, especially in the writings of John, that love is the foundational element, and you will find truth within love. Love always has truth in it.