Colossians 3:24 Different Classes of Service

One day, a few years ago, this little sentence embedded in Paul's letter to the Colossians struck me: "It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (3:24b). Growing up in church as a kid, there always seemed to be a hierarchy of "service" to God. Upper class service was the work done by missionaries (always at the top of the heap), followed by pastors and then other full-time ministry workers and maybe full-time moms. Middle class service involved volunteering at church or in some para-church organization, and if you worked really hard you might be approaching upper class. Lower class service involved what people did in their jobs, which basically helped to make money to support the church and to give us an opportunity to evangelize our co-workers. Pastors never talked about kids growing up to be truck drivers, computer programmers or clinical biologists for God. No, if you were the good kids, you went for the pastorate or the foreign missionary life.

But this sentence, "It is the Lord Christ you are serving." gave me new perspective, because it comes right at the tail end of Paul's instructions to slaves:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. - Colossians 3:22-24

Slaves had no choice in their lowly tasks. Slaves had no choice in their lowly position. They couldn't choose to become a missionary or a pastor (see Onesimus in the book of Philemon). But they had a choice of boss: Jesus. With that choice, they gained the dignity of a calling as high and as spiritual as any pastor or missionary, because they are obedient. With Jesus as boss, he could reassign them at any time to those roles, or he ask them to remain in their current role. The notion of calling is not reserved for full-time ministry positions (cf. 1 Corinthians 7) but rather to being exactly where God placed you. And being invested where God placed you is the essence of godly living.

Paul told believers what their ambition should be:

...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thess. 4:11-12)

Don't worry, there is a balance here. I have every respect for those who are called into full-time ministry and I have seen first hand the necessity of God's hand in those professions. But I refuse to feel guilty or lower class because my gracious calling from Jesus is to write code and design firmware. Sermons and C++ code are both the product of grace and, as such, are from God (James 1:17).

There is more here, and a number of believers seem to be rediscovering the dignity of the other 24/6 portion of our lives before God. I'll share more later.

Judges 8: The Dangers of Being a Hero

When I was growing up, Sunday School was often full of the exciting stories from the Bible. The Lion's Den. Noah's Ark. David and Goliath. Gideon's 300 Men. Reading those same stories now, as an adult, makes me wish that I had learned the rest of their stories, because it turns out that being a "hero" can be a pretty dangerous profession, spiritually.

I had just finished reading Tim Keller's short, but profound, commentary on Judges and then was reading Judges again as part of my morning Bible reading when I came to chapter 8. Normally, in Sunday School, we only covered chapters 6 and 7, because that has all of the good bits about trimming down the army, using a fleece to determine God's plan, the visit to the Midianite army's camp and the noisy trumpet/pitcher/torch victory scene.

As in life, there is the hero's quest but then there's the hero's test.  The hero's quest involves overcoming the obstacles, internal and external, to reaching the goal. But the hero's test involves how you handle what comes after you've reached the goal. That's Judges, chapter 8.

In chapter 8, Gideon's men scatter the Midianite army and Gideon rallies the other tribes of Israel to cut off their retreat.

1. He has to downplay his own heroic deeds to placate one of the other tribes (8:1-3) that is much larger and more powerful.
2. When his heroic deeds are not recognized by people (8:4-9, 15-17) he promises and delivers revenge. (King David almost falls into the same trap in 1 Samuel 25)
3. He is taunted by his enemies about being the hero (8:18-21)
4. He turns down the offer of kingship, but takes the hero's reward, creates an idol in his home town (8:22-27), and draws Israel and his family away from God.

You can certainly see this played out in the world at large, and even within the microcosm of the church. We desire to be recognized and significant, not just in the eyes of God but in the eyes of other people. But we are clever enough to realize that if we are too blatant in our desire, it will back fire.

So it leads to a weird cycle of hide-it-crave-it-abuse-it behavior that we see in Gideon's life and ours as well. Gideon hides it from the Ephraimites who are more powerful, but wants it and takes it out on two villages who are less powerful. Gideon hides it from the Israelites by refusing to become king, but wants it and takes a reward, and then fashions it into the ephod that draws attention to his home town.

The cycle actually continues into the lives of Gideon's sons, especially Abimilek (vs. 31) in the next chapter: "They [Israel] also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them." (Judges 8:25)

In church, we see these same desires for recognition played out, just a different venue. We work hard in church and sacrifice our time and our money and, in some cases, our reputation for the good of the church. We are overlooked. And if we are noticed, we have to downplay it so that we don't look too prideful. Then we get hurt because no one noticed or angry because someone else got noticed or someone treated us carelessly. Or if we are noticed, we use it regularly in the future to subtly point attention back to ourselves (and away from God).

Helen pointed me to a quote by Oswald Chambers, where he said,

Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor it is sin. The trap we fall into is, extravagantly desiring spiritual success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live.

The truth is: Gideon didn't win because he was biggest, best or smartest, and neither do I. He won because he bet everything he did have on God and God is the biggest, best and smartest. Gideon's faith was nothing to shout about, it took two fleece miracles and a dream from God to move him along. But he had it. He bet everything because God... That phrase puts the credit right back where it belongs.

I struggle with this. I'm not sure how it plays out in every scenario. But I can see in Gideon's life and in my own life, the destructive down-side of needing to be recognized for my work in God's kingdom. And the positive up-side of recognizing God's win as my win.

John Paul in Taiwan

It's not the pope, but rather John Paul Lin. As I was walking down the mountain from visiting Wufengqi falls in Jiaoxi, Taiwan, he was riding up on his bicycle. He noticed me, crossed the road and asked me where I'd come from. I mentioned the falls to which he replied, "Did you also go to St. Mary's?" (referring to the Catholic Church nearby). I indicated I had not (I'd tried but got lost part way and turned around) and he said I should come back and try again.

It turns out that he is a volunteer at the church, welcoming the many visitors who come this time of year who are also visiting the falls. "You need God to transform your heart." Then as he left (he what overslept), he asked, "Do you have God in your heart?" "Absolutely," I replied. He said, "Good. He is the one who gives you all your good ideas. Innovation."

Amazing to meet a fellow pilgrim on a Saturday in Jiaoxi.

How Then Should I Search?

One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament is from Habakkuk 3:

Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known;
    in wrath remember mercy.

There are times when entropy seems to have taken hold of my world and, valiantly as I struggle, things fall apart. Oh, I run to fix them up, hold them together, and patch them with duct tape and the measure of the grace of God given me. But these days produce in me a deep longing for things to go right, for once! Many of my prayers have centered around this.

Worse is the creeping fear that Jesus has passed by and I didn't notice. Maybe I didn't notice because I'm just not smart enough. Or maybe I didn't want to notice.

The first one, I understand because I am continually discovering how ignorant I am and scrambling to recover. That's my job. Sheesh, that's my marriage. That's my life in the kingdom of God. So I search intently for evidence of God's movement (1 Peter 1:10-12). That is a disciple--an apprentice.

The second one is more subtle. Jesus told a story about people like us (Luke 14:15-24) who were too busy to go to the huge party, probably a wedding. They'd just purchased a new field, a new set of 5 oxen or they'd just gotten married themselves (cf. Deut. 24:5 and what it implies) and couldn't be bothered to celebrate. For us today, perhaps this might be a new business, a new car or a new relationship. They all are saying, in essence, "I'm in the middle of the good life. Don't bother me with what God is doing." We didn't miss God. We traded him away.

So I pray for God to show his power in my day, because I'm tired. But I also pray that I am ready to see, participate and celebrate.