Hungry in the Desert - Part Five

When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, "We brought no bread." But Jesus, aware of this, said, "O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
[Matthew 16:5-12]

Here we go again. Jesus and his disciples retreat across Galilee to a desolate place. Robertson’s “Harmony of the Gospels” suggests that this is the fourth trip recorded. (Thomas & Gundry’s Harmony doesn’t specify the number). Whether there were four trips, or more than four trips, there is clearly a pattern that develops. When ministry becomes too intense, Jesus takes his disciples away until things calm down.

And ministry had been intense. Just prior to this trip, Jesus fed the four thousand in a desolate place with seven loaves and a few small fish. And the Pharisees and Sadducees had demanded a sign from heaven!?!?! His popularity, and the accompanying opposition, required him to withdraw. Why? Because neither those who praised him nor those who opposed him understood his mission. That should not surprise us, because neither did his disciples.

Jesus’ disciples were concerned with getting through the day. Amidst a busy schedule, it is easy to forget the basics. Like the plate spinner, we can begin to focus on the thing that is wobbling, without taking time to step back and see what is actually the priority. It is easy to make things complicated. The secret to success is to make the complicated simple.

There has been a running joke within our ministry about my idea of what it takes to run a conference. With conferences of hundreds of students turning up, the issues are quite complex and there are many, many details to keep track of. With the way we run our Mid Year Conferences, an error in the budget of a dollar or so per student can be the difference between breaking even or making a huge loss. But I have said for many years, the key to a successful conference is to have a good venue, a good speaker, and to have students turn up. Keeping the principles simple allows us to make good decisions about the details.

The disciples were worried about the “here and now”, but Jesus had brought them on retreat in order to train them for future ministry. So, he gives them a warning, but it goes straight over their heads. He is warning about dangers posed by outsiders, they think he is pointing out their own failing. (I have done that too – taken a general comment as a personal criticism).

Why warn his disciples about the Pharisees and Sadducees? The religious leaders looked like the good guys. As one commentator put it, no one needs a warning that the guy coming at you with a knife is dangerous. But the Pharisees and Sadducees were the “good guys”. They were religious. They taught the Bible. They sought to honour God with their whole lives. In many ways, the differences between Jesus and the Pharisees, at least on paper, were quite subtle.

The big difference was in their picture of what God was doing in the world. Their teaching, which is what Jesus warns about, reflected their understanding of how God was working and how he was going to work. It was in direct conflict with Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God.

How we view God and his work in the world directly impacts our thinking and our actions and our emotions. The challenge Tom Wright poses is,
“If we are beginning to understand what Jesus’ mission was all about, and to make it the foundation of our faith and hope, do we understand what he is doing right now, not only in our lives, but in our world?”
Tom Wright “Mark for Everyone” p.105

We need to get our big picture of God and the kingdom right if we are going to make wise and godly decisions about life and ministry in the detail.

One illustration of this comes from the business world. Many companies have moved, over recent decades, to a more flat organisational structure. The employees on the “frontline” – at the retail store, or on the factory floor – have been given more and more responsibility to make decisions that used to rest with middle management. Now there are two ways of helping those frontline employees make the right decisions.

The first way is to think of every possible scenario that they might face, decide ahead of time what the best response would be (from an organisational point of view) and develop a system – a training program or a manual – which would then empower those employees to respond appropriately. The weakness of this high control approach is that it is well nigh impossible to anticipate every possible scenario. And the multitude of scenarios and variations result in manuals that are like a series of phone books that no one can really absorb.

The second way is the impart a clear and compelling vision of what the whole organisation is working towards, and a set of values that the organisation wants expressed as it works towards that vision, and then release the employees to make up their own responses within those parameters. This is incredibly motivating for employees who are given real power to make real decisions. The greatest challenge for the organisation is to keep the vision fresh and at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Some people, when warned to watch out for the teaching of the Pharisees, want to go through the details of their “training manuals” and query whether each proposed solution was right or wrong. But what I think Jesus is doing here with his disciples is warning them that the Pharisees’ whole vision and values were coming from a wrong place. If the disciples followed the details of the Pharisees teaching it would eventually lead them to adopt a wrong picture of God and how he worked in the world.

Now let’s return to the moment when the disciples took Jesus comment as a personal criticism. Obviously it was because they were focussed on the here and now issue of the bread. And Jesus rebukes them for that too. Over and over again he has taught them not to worry about their physical needs. Twice now in Matthew’s gospel he has turned a few loaves into enough bread to feed thousands, with basketfuls left over. And still the disciples are concerned that they haven’t adequately provided for themselves.

We experience anxiety when we fail to recall God’s previous acts of provision. How many times, and in how many ways, has God provided for you? And yet with each new challenge, do you immediately respond with anxiety and fear? One of the things I admired about Dr Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade) was his faith. As I read his biography it became clear to me that he was not born with an amazing faith. It was not bestowed upon him in a unique moment by a benevolent God. It was like a muscle that he exercised. God called him forward into the unknown and each step was an adventure into the unknown that required faith in the God whom he did know. His first efforts at fundraising were for thousands of dollars, but within a few years of launching the ministry they needed to acquire a headquarters that meant raising millions of dollars. No one sets out initially to raise millions of dollars. You have to build up to it. As you learn to trust God to provide a little, he will then challenge you to trust him for more.

When you are surrounded by plenty, you don’t need to trust God. But God’s vision and values for the world invite you to engage with something much bigger than the resources you currently have, or can access yourself. That’s the life of faith. If you are living within your current resources – time, money, influence, ability, knowledge – and if you think that is all that God expects of you, I wonder if you have accepted some view of God that is not the one revealed in the Scriptures. Faith means living out trust in God. If we are relying on ourselves, we aren’t trusting God. If we aren’t trying things which are beyond ourselves, we are relying on ourselves. But the reed will splinter in our hand. We need to, and we are called to, trust in God.

And what about those times when we try to trust God and it all falls flat?

Firstly, consider whether we are still in the desert. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied” was Jesus promise. But when will they be satisfied? Unlike the crowds who had a bit of a tummy rumble as the sun was setting, Jesus endured 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness and he was HUNGRY! I’d hate to last 1 day or 7 days or 39 days in the desert, and then conclude that God wasn’t going to provide and give up.

Secondly, consider what provision we are hungering for. What is “righteousness”? JP Moreland describes two contrasting views about the goal for our lives. He begins,

“From Old Testament times and ancient Greece until this century, the good life was widely understood to mean a life of intellectual and moral virtue. The good life is the life of ideal human functioning according to the nature God Himself gave to us… the successful person was one who knew how to live life well according to what we are by nature due to the creative design of God…. So understood, happiness involves suffering, endurance and patience because these are important means to becoming a good person who lives the good life.”
[Love Your God with All Your Mind, JP Moreland, P.35]

Then he continues,

“According to the modern view, the good life is the satisfaction of any pleasure or desire that someone freely and autonomously chooses for himself or herself. The successful person is the individual who has a life of pleasure and can obtain enough consumer goods to satisfy his or her desires.”
[Love Your God with All Your Mind, JP Moreland, P.37]

Let me finish this part with one final quote, from Tom Wright. In Mark’s account of this episode, Jesus quotes from Jeremiah 5:21 saying,

“Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?”

Tom Wright says that the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus’ day reminded Jesus of the people of Jeremiah’s day,

“People were so caught up in their own concerns, and so unconcerned about injustice and wickedness in their own society, that God had no alternative but to abandon them to their fate at the hands of foreigners”
[Tom Wright, Mark for Everyone p.105]

Hungry in the Desert - Part Two

Part Two:

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Matthew 5:6 (ESV)

"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied."
Luke 6:21 (ESV)

While teaching the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to hunger. This is not a physical hunger, but a strong desire for righteousness that is best described by the gnawing ache we have for something without which we cannot live.

The beatitudes are a list of wonderful promises. The poor, the starving, the destitute will have their longings fulfilled in the kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating. There is a promise of satisfaction.

There is a battle between different Christian traditions as to whether the beatitudes refer to material satisfaction (i.e. justice for the poor and oppressed) or to spiritual satisfaction (i.e. for the spiritually poor and needy). I don’t know if we have to choose between the “freedom for the oppressed” interpretation (which usually relies on Luke’s account of the beatitudes) and the “saving our souls” interpretation. With our “now but not yet” kingdom of God, I think there is room for both meanings.

Some have also suggested that the desire for righteousness, or justice, is limited to the poor and oppressed who do not have the power to demand (political, economic) justice in this world. I think, however, that Jesus is referring to our desire for spiritual righteousness, which is also definitely beyond our power to obtain by ourselves. But is that righteousness, which can only come from God, the righteousness of being justified by faith (i.e. the rightness of God received, even though we are not perfect) or is it the righteousness of a totally transformed, sanctified life? I don’t think anyone who has been truly justified can be satisfied by anything less than total transformation – of themselves and of the world.

And this leads us to think about what is meant by righteousness. It is more than just fulfilling the legal code, the Law, as the Pharisees aimed to do. It is more than fulfilling the moral code. Righteousness is about right-relatedness. It is about being in right relationship with God and with each other. To hunger and thirst after righteousness, then, is to hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God – not just to begin the relationship, but a “whole of life” relationship. It is also about being in a right relationship with those around us – which means we must treat them honestly, fairly and lovingly. Who is our neighbour? Jesus’ response is, “Anyone in need”. Therefore it is appropriate to talk about righteousness in terms of political or economic justice in the here-and-now, because it flows out of a right-relatedness with God in the hear-and-now.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness means, then, that we recognise at the core of our being our own unrighteousness, our wrong-relatedness to God and each other, and we set out on a quest to find what we are missing. And as I reflect on my own culture, I see a desperate lack of awareness of our own unrighteousness. The dominant deception is that “I’m an ok bloke” or “she’ll be right”. The quests people are on at the moment are for increased consumption – the fleeting satisfaction that comes from a new TV, or a fancier car, or a better job. They are looking for greater security. Amidst the fast pace of life, it is easier to skip over our failures – our failures to keep our word or to live in healthy relationships or to examine our morals. In Part One we considered Jesus’ model of stepping away from the hustle and bustle and seeking his Father. In such periods of reflection, we should not be surprised to be confronted with our failures and weaknesses and our sin. That is the true “us”. And we should be especially aware when we are in close proximity to the totally perfect and Righteous One. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness must lead us to the Righteous One.

The first time I remember responding to the gospel was when I was 8 years old. I remember standing with a few other children after Sunday School being led in a prayer by a teacher. But as important as that moment was, and has been, there were other times through the years I became aware of my sinfulness. I remember, as a teenager, crying out on my bed to God saying that, if I didn’t really surrender to him when I was 8, then I was doing it now. It wasn’t until I joined Student Life that I was taught about assurance of salvation, and how to deal with subsequent sin in my life. Each time I become aware of my unrighteousness, rather than run from God, I now know I should turn to him, ask for his forgiveness and commit to following him again.

The focus of the beatitudes is on being “blessed”. This picks up the Old Testament theme: from Yahweh’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3), and to Israel through Moses (Genesis 27). God’s people were “blessed” by being the objects of God’s affection and favour. Being blessed is more than just being happy. It is a whole sense of well-being that comes from God’s favour.

Blessing comes through having these needs, these longings for right-relatedness satisfied. The promise of satisfaction comes through very strongly in each of the beatitudes. Yet the method of satisfaction is not mentioned.

I should note here that the phrase “will be satisfied” is future tense, passive voice. In other words, it is something that will happen to those who “hunger and thirst”; it is not something they do for themselves. In the context, it is God who satisfies those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. No one can satisfy themselves out of their own resources. Only God, the Righteous One, can give us righteousness and make us righteous. The question becomes, how can we put ourselves in a place where God will cause us to be satisfied?

The beatitudes are not the whole sermon. The whole sermon, known as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, goes for 3 chapters. Its focus is on life in the new reality of the kingdom of God. Jesus talks about his follower’s relationship with the outside world, the place of the Law, spiritual disciplines, dependence on God, relationships with others – especially fellow believers - and finishes with a warning about building to withstand a storm. Luke’s account is briefer, it only goes for one chapter, and covers only some of the material in Matthew – loving your enemies, judging others, and building to withstand a storm.

Is there to be found in these sermons a method of blessing or satisfaction? I think the common conclusion to these sermons is the key. Let’s reflect on Luke’s account of Jesus’ conclusion:

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."
Luke 6:46-49 (ESV)

This is the more confronting version of the parable (compared with Matthew’s version). But there are three simple actions that Jesus spells out as being necessary to survive the storm:
1) coming to him;
2) hearing his word; and
3) doing his word.

May I suggest that those of us who want to satisfy a hunger for righteousness follow these three steps?

Firstly, we come to him. We don’t look elsewhere for our needs to be satisfied. We focus our attention on him. We acknowledge his supremacy. We don’t look to others to satisfy our hunger, although we need to be open to whatever God uses to satisfy us. Our attention must be on him. Our first priority is to get our relationship with God sorted out. And that is not a complicated or long process. It simply means that we humble our hearts before him, admit to our failures, brokenness, sin, pride, and selfishness. Our only source of true righteousness is from God the Father through Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God was proven when Jesus died in our place – he dealt with sin once and for all. When we are united with Christ, we receive his righteousness. As Paul says in Romans 5:17,

If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we hear his word. Jesus’ word reveals to us the reality that God created, the reality of the emerging kingdom of God. And as we listen to him speak we realise that he places demands on us – on how we think, what we say, what we do. Our priorities are challenged. We have choices to make. We have to choose to align ourselves and our lives with the reality he reveals to us. This battle for the will is not a once-for-all experience. We need to keep hearing Jesus’ word (by which I mean the whole Bible), keep listening to him, and keep choosing to live in light of his word. As Paul says in Romans 5:15,19:

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! … For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Finally, we do his word. This supernatural life is the normal Christian life. It is only possible because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who seeks to live Jesus’ life through us. Satisfaction comes when we choose to live in light of this new reality, this emerging kingdom. That is when we experience the blessings of being a Spirit-empowered Christ-follower. We learn to side-step the errors of sin which cause us and those around us so much pain. We learn to practice the disciplines that bring healthy bodies, minds and relationships. We experience the blessings in the here-and-now and into eternity. But do not think that such blessing is only comfortable and pleasurable. Take heed of Jesus’ last line in the beatitudes:

"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12 [ESV]

Compare this to Paul’s words,

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5 [ESV]

Why Is Leadership The "In-Thing"?

It appears that, over the past 10 to 20 years, leadership has become the one big thing that has attracted so much attention in evangelical circles. Why is that? Is it a good thing, a bad thing or neutral?

Leadership Focus
A quick search of Amazon.com or Christianbook.com reveal dozens and dozens of books written on the subject of leadership. There are even books being written about the books written on leadership. Adding to this are the conferences - some with world-wide followings - that emphasise the development of leadership. I personally have benefited significantly from Bill Hybel's teaching and example and the WillowCreek Leadership Summit. I also subscribe to plenty of email newsletters, etc. that are sent regularly on the topic of leadership.

So, why is leadership the subject of such attention?
Leadership is the art of moving a group of people from their present position to a desirable future. Key elements include exercising influence, direction setting, strategic planning, and change management.

It is this last element that provides the clue to its present popularity. Change is a constant reality in western society. There are plenty of ways of understanding the changes we have been through over the past 50 years. We have moved from an industrial society to an information society. Our national boundaries have become increasingly porous with the globalisation of media and technology. The increasing speed at which life is lived strains relationships, breaks down communities and creates a tribal mindset.

The church has changed from a rural village (parish) concept to a suburban (regional) concept. [Over 80% of Australian now live in the major cities.] These changes were led by highly skilled leaders, such as Bill Hybels and Rick Warren.

The shift of our culture, through multi-culturalism, from Christendom to a post-Christian reality has produced a new generation of leaders arguing for the development of "missional" churches in this "emerging" culture.

So, as I have implied above, leadership is the art of helping the community of the church negotiate the process of change to maintain relevance and connection to the cultural context in which it lives and serves.

When cultural change is fairly minimal, leadership is not greatly needed. Other spiritual gifts - e.g. teaching, pastoral care - come to the fore. But as cultural change occurs leadership is the gift that is needed to keep advancing the Kingdom of God.

Is it good, bad or indifferent?
Teaching may be done well, poorly or indifferently. The style of teaching may be the issue, or the content may be the issue. It's the same with leadership.

Leadership is very demanding within the Christian church, and many people fail to do it well.

Some have an issue with leadership style - they are domineering or vacillating or inappropriate or uncertain of the legitimacy of leadership itself. [Some of this can be traced back to the weaknesses of various church governance approaches.] Several books, including Hybel's "Courageous Leadership" identify different leadership styles. The key to good leadership is using the appropriate leadership style in the appropriate context.

A "command and conquer" style of leadership is appropriate in a team where the leader is vastly more experienced and the deadline is urgent. A "consultative" style of leadership is appropriate when leading an experienced group of peers. But if you switched the situations and didn't switch the leadership styles, both would be inappropriate.

Some leaders have an issue with content. And these are far more dangerous. Like attractive false teachers, false leaders can take a lot of people in a totally wrong direction.

The first sort of bad leader is the one who uses their influence to maintain the status quo within the church when the cultural context surrounding the church is changing. This leader doesn't prevent change because the church will eventually succumb to the surrounding forces. All they do is postpone the pain - sometimes until after their death!

Another bad leader is the one whose firm convictions - on how their church needs to function or what they need to believe - are actually at odds with spiritual reality. No one's views are totally "right" because we are all fallen creatures. The process of sanctification is as much an alignment of our thinking with God's truth as it is a process of aligning our actions with God's moral requirements. Therefore, we need to have convictions about revealed truth and have a humble attitude towards others who hold different views to ours. Our goal as leaders is to keep moving our understanding (knowledge, instinct, etc.) towards the perfect truth of God. I believe that this involves theological reflection, cultural analysis, historical perspective and strategic formulation.

A third bad leader might be driven by subconscious motives for self-fulfillment, power, status, etc. It is wise for leaders to examine themselves, identify their potential "darksides" and question their own motives when sailing close to the wind. Every leader has a darkside. A darkside is simply the opposite of their greatest strength. For example, a firm, visionary leader has the potential to trample over people. Knowing your greatest weakness allows you to compensate when operating as a leader. Spiritual disciplines can be very helpful in combating issues of pride, lust, seeking approval or popularity.

Conclusion
Leadership is a gift God has given the churches to allow his kingdom to advance most effectively during times of change. It may be used well or poorly, but it deserves the increased attention it has received over the past decade or two.