HOW'S THE ATMOSPHERE?

 Many are familiar with the episode from Jesus' life when He visits His hometown of Nazareth.  

Matthew 13:54-58     Mark 6:1-6      Luke 4:16-31

The thing about these passages that I would like to address is the fact that He was unable to do many miracles there because of their unbelief [Mt. 13:58;  Mk 6:5-6].

Matthew's wording is blunt and provocative:

And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.  [NASB]

Mark's wording is even more revealing:

And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them.  [NASB]

The implication is clear!  Jesus needed an appropriate environment to be able to do miracles.

I know!  This sounds slanderous!  Hal is a heretic!  :-)

But consider other passages like Mark 8.

After feeding five thousand people, Jesus got into a boat with His disciples and headed for Dalmanutha.  The Pharisees immediately came to Him and pressed Him for a sign.  

And sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, "Why does this generation seek for a sign?  [v.12 NASB]

Then Jesus got right back in the boat and headed for Bethsaida.  

What happened here?  Why did He land and leave so quickly?  The implication is that He immediately saw that He wouldn't be able to accomplish much because of the opposition of the Pharisees.  Environment matters!

While sailing to Bethsaida they have some confusing misunderstandings about bread and yeast as Jesus tries to warn them about the contamination of the Pharisees and followers of Herod.  Interesting timing for this dialogue.  

When they arrive in Bethsaida, a blind man was brought to him for healing.  The very first thing that Jesus did was to lead the blind man outside of the village!  You may remember this two-step healing.  Jesus spit on his eyes and then asked him if he could see.  The man could see, but his vision was blurry.  Next, Jesus touched his eyes and his vision became perfect!  

Now, don't leave this story yet!  Before leaving the man and moving on, Jesus gave the man clear post-surgery instructions:  Do not even enter the village.  [v.26  NASB]

What's going on in this village?  Why didn't/couldn't Jesus heal the man while in this village?  Why did he warn this man not to even go into this particular village?  

ENVIRONMENT MATTERS

I've tried hard to give you a fair picture of several passages that clearly indicate Jesus' need for an appropriate environment for healing/miracles to take place!  

That being true, what about our environments today?

As a nation we have indisputably moved away from our Judeo-Christian foundation!  We are on the front end of blatant persecution of Christians.  It's not harsh - yet!  We're not being hauled away and placed in prisons.  But COVID did close many of our doors for an extended period of time.  So much for freedom of religion!  We have little reason to believe that this persecution will subside.  It's likely to grow!

The church is shrinking!  We've been closing churches vigorously since the turn of the century.  COVID threw gasoline on that trend, with many churches closing due to financial distress as a result of low attendances.  Evangelism is a rare occurrence in a world where we are told to mind our own business and respect the rights of others.  

For decades we were a missionary-sending bastion of strength, wealth and evangelistic zeal.  Not so, today.  The church prospers in Asia and Africa while it shrinks in Europe, Britain and the United States.  We need pastors from Thailand and India to come and mentor our American pastors!  

As a family, how are we doing?  You'll each have to answer this on your own.  Are you from a Christian family?  Are their passions, practices and priorities consistent with biblical teaching?  The word compromise has weakened many Christian people.  We've been hearing for decades now that Christians are no different from lost people.  We seem to have lost our distinctives.  No wonder that the church is dying.  If you're a Christ follower, answer the following tax-season question:  If you multiplied 2021's tithes by ten, could you live on it?  That's just one area;  there are so many more!

As a church, are we a healing and miracle environment?  The following prayer is taken from my newest novel, OVERWHELMED:

Blessed Jesus,

You have created this place for friendship!

If we aren’t friendly with every person that walks through these doors – then we have failed!

You’re the door-keeper here – You bring them to us so that we can lead them to You!

There are NO exceptions!

Help us never to be so busy that we’re distracted from this vital mission!

It’s all about You, Jesus!

Amen.

If some lost-but-seeking person walked into your church service this Sunday, 

• would they be warmly welcomed?
• would someone invite them to sit with them?
• would they connect to any liturgy being used?
• would the music inspire them?
• would the message be understandable to them?
• would they leave feeling hopeful?  

Churches are intimidating places!  Even if people are distressed and searching for meaning, it's unlikely that they would turn to the church.  If they did, however, do we provide them with a healing environment?  If Jesus wanted to touch and heal them, would He have to take them out of the building to do so?

As a follower of Christ, are you salting your community with the flavor of Christ?  Do you live Christian values consistently?  Does your light shine?  Or is it under a bushel?  Do your co-workers know that you're a Christian?  

An environment reflects the nature of those in the group!  If we're not passionate about our service to Christ, it's unlikely that our church will be!  And if our church isn't energetic about serving Christ, it's unlikely that our community will be changed or influenced!  And if our communities aren't faith-filled, then what hope is there for our nation?    

It has to start with me [and YOU]!  

BREAKING BREAD

I just read Mark 8:1-9, where Jesus feeds a crowd of four thousand people with seven small loaves of bread and a few fish.  The Message Bible reads:

Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. After giving thanks, he took the seven bread loaves, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples so they could hand them out to the crowd. 

One of my favorite times in church while I was growing up was when we would have a Love Feast!  It was usually done on Sunday nights and it didn't happen real often.  

Some of the women would cut up table bread into one-inch-long strips and cover them with a cloth.  After the pastor's message, he would invite people to come forward and get a piece of bread.  Then we were to go to one another and "break bread".  I would take a small piece of your bread and you would take a small piece of mine.  Then, we would exchange some form of brief Christian greeting.  If you ran out of bread, you would simply go up front for more.  We would be given about fifteen minutes to mingle and try to get to as many people as possible.  

Children and youth were involved right along with adults.  It had its awkward moments since we didn't always know what to say, but we loved being allowed to eat in church!  When the love feast ended, we always made sure we had several pieces of that bread to get us through the rest of the service.  ;-)

It was intended, of course, to help us to mend any broken relationships we might have with those in our worshiping community.  Occasionally, there would be a very obvious healing of relationship between two people who had been arguing or avoiding one another.  These interventions were sometimes dramatic and brought a great sense of joy to the congregation!  

Eventually, concerns about passing germs increased and the practice fell into history.  However, I continued it in the churches I served by copying a shape of a loaf of bread on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper and having people sign one another's sheet instead of actually breaking bread.  

I saw the value of connection that was increased by this practice!  Too often people enter and leave worship with little or no interaction with others.  How is this the "body of Christ?"  I also used it frequently in youth meetings and camps.  But, I haven't done so in many years now.  

I'm not suggesting we re-introduce this practice;  COVID has created a whole new package of fears that now regulate our activity.  Even back in the day, I noticed that some people didn't eat the bread that they broke from a person's piece of bread.  Instead, they were very subtle about tucking it in the palm of their hand.  That's okay.  I can understand that kind of caution.  At least they participated and didn't scoot out the back door!  

All of us have noticed that as a result of COVID, some still don't want to shake hands.  Many will stick out a fist to bump instead.  Live and adapt, right?  

But we must find 21st century ways to maintain and celebrate the community of faith!  

I loved Holy Communion Sundays and always tried to make them special for the congregations that I served.  We always had people come forward to receive the bread and the cup.  They were given an opportunity to kneel at the alter - if they so desired.  [Later, we introduced a third point of service at the back of the sanctuary for those who desired to be more discreet.]  People were encouraged to greet one another as they stood in line to receive Communion!  I used couples or pairs of singles to hold the bread and the cup to heighten the involvement of our parishoners.  We tried to always have a few people designated to pray with anyone who had a special need.  It was kind of an organized free-for-all, but packed with meaning!  

Again, if a church was not too large and if it had an appropriate space, we had fairly frequent 'cover-dish' or 'carry-in' meals!  Everyone contributed a food gift proportionate to the size of their family and we would all simply eat together.  These were wonderful!  Such good food!  I always loved them!  While in New Middletown, we had a man who made delicious chicken.  He would come before daylight to start the fires and then roast enough chicken for the whole church family.  We brought all the other stuff.  We ate in the picnic shelter.  Sometimes we had our whole service outdoors smelling the chicken as we worshipped!  Thanks, David Fitch, for your wonderful gift to us!  But, again, issues were raised about appropriate preparation, cleanliness and the passing of germs - so this practice too fell by the wayside.  

Please understand!  These ruminations are not a plea to resurrect these practices;  but we do need to find events and forms that bring us together and increase our contact with one another.  There's a chorus we often sang to express this:

We are the body of the Lord;

We are the body of the Lord.

United in Christ and working together,

We are the body of the Lord.

We are the temple of the Lord;

We are the temple of the Lord.

United in love and growing together,

We are the temple of the Lord.

EVERYTHING RISES AND FALLS ON LEADERSHIP

I’ve been known to ask the congregation to turn to the book of Hezekiah.  It’s fun to watch them try to find a book that doesn’t exist.  I know – dirty trick.

However, there was a king of Israel by that name.  The story of his reign can be told in several short vignettes.

BIG TROUBLE

Sennacherub, king of Assyria, brought a mighty army and set siege against Jerusalem.  This struck fear into the hearts of all the people;  they knew they were going to be crushed.  In a meeting between the leaders (that took place near the city wall), the Assyrians spoke loudly enough (in Hebrew) for the people to hear them.  They were extremely intimidating.  They assured the people that there was no way possible for them to survive.  They tried to convince them to surrender, promising that they would be set free to roam in the wilderness. 

The Assyrian messenger gives a VERY INTIMIDATING warning for them to just surrender:

· You’re weak – “You’re no match for my weapons.”
· Don’t lean on Egypt – they’re weak!
· Don’t pull the ‘We’re leaning on GOD’ card.
        >  Hezekiah just closed all of the places of worship.
        >  Besides, “It was your GOD who told me, Make war on this land. Destroy it.”

As a final threat he told them that if they resisted, they would soon be eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine! 

When the summit ended and the report was brought to Hezekiah, he put on sack cloth and ashes and went to prayer.  Then he encouraged all the people to do the same. 

As a result, Isaiah the prophet came to the king with the following message:

“God’s Message:  Don’t be upset by what you’ve heard, all those words the servants of the Assyrian king have used to mock me.  I personally will take care of him.  I’ll arrange it so that he’ll get a rumor of bad news back home and rush there to take care of it.  And he’ll die there.  Killed – a violent death.”

That’s exactly what happened – and Jerusalem was delivered!

UH OH!

Sometime later, Hezekiah got sick.  God sent Isaiah to him and told him to get his house in order because he was going to die.  Hezekiah prayed:

“God, please, I beg you: Remember how I’ve lived my life. I’ve lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours. You’ve seen how I’ve lived, the good that I have done.” And Hezekiah wept as he prayed—painful tears.

God sent Isaiah back to tell Hezekiah that He heard his prayer and saw his tears and that he would live for another fifteen years.

FOOLISH DECISIONS!

A little later, the King of Babylon sent an envoy to visit Hezekiah and present him with gifts, having heard that he’d been sick.  Hezekiah proudly gave them the royal tour, showing them all his treasures, silver, gold, spices, expensive oils and all his weapons. 

After hearing of this, the prophet Isaiah pronounced: 

…the time is coming when everything in this palace, along with everything your ancestors accumulated before you, will be hauled off to Babylon. God says that there will be nothing left. Nothing. And not only your things but your sons. Some of your sons will be taken into exile, ending up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “Good. If God says so, it’s good.” Within himself he was thinking, “But surely nothing bad will happen in my lifetime. I’ll enjoy peace and stability as long as I live.”

                    _____________________________________________________

How could a man be so wise in one situation and so foolish in another? 

God had given Hezekiah a great gift of grace by causing the Assyrian army to suddenly leave and abandon their attempt to overthrow Jerusalem.

Then, God gave Hezekiah another great grace gift by promising to extend his life for another fifteen years! 

On the heels of this, Hezekiah reveals the wealth and pride of Jerusalem to the visitors from Babylon!

If that wasn’t enough, he shows complete nonchalance by comforting himself that at least during his lifetime he would rule in peace.  No concern at all is expressed for his sons and the future of his kingdom! 

There are special lessons here for leaders, but there are also lessons for all of us.

      1.      God responds to our prayers (and fasting).

2.      When He does, it is appropriate to express heartfelt gratitude!

3.      All of us should seek and depend on wisdom from God;  however, it’s all the more important for leaders to do so!

4.      Finishing well is vital!  Hezekiah started good, but finished poorly.  He allowed himself to become self-focused.  He quit caring about his family and his nation.  His life does not have a happy ending.