What Following Jesus Looks Like

I was in a discussion a while ago that was pursuing the basic topic, “what does following God look like?” There was one side of the conversation that seemed to be arguing that following God makes things easy spiritually so that it doesn't matter if they are hard physically. I had heard this sort of thing before, and something about it never rang true, but I couldn't quite call it out. But something about the starkness and naivete with which it was said in that discussion (and perhaps some things I'm dealing with currently) finally helped me to put my finger on the error:

The reality is that following God can be just as hard spiritually.

Following God can look like waiting so long you wonder if God has forgotten his promises.

Following God can look like sacrificing your son.

Following God can look like being denied the goal of your life's work.

Following God can look like watching your wife die and being told not to grieve.

Following God can look like suffering abandonment by friends and shame before enemies

Following God can look like begging again and again for comfort and being told “no.”

And those are just examples from scripture.

And yes, of course there are the blessings in Christ – peace with God and forgiveness and family. But we need to be careful that these objective realities are not overlaid with rainbows and sparkles and made to be primarily about feelings. I am increasingly convinced that too many people say of Christianity, “it's not about the physical things you get, it's about the spiritual things you get,” but by “spiritual things” they actually mean “how you feel.” If we don't call that out, if we allow Christianity to be about feeling better, then we're still selling a product, and we're no better than those who are trying to peddle health and wealth. The life of the upside down kingdom sometimes sounds fun and hippy and radical, but the realities are harsh. Living means dying. Peace means suffering. Winning means losing.

I follow Jesus because he is the only master who loves me.

I follow Jesus because his are the only words that make any coherent sense.

I follow Jesus because his is the only endgame filled with hope.

But if Jesus is the one we follow, then we must be prepared for the fact that greatness and glory are only found after shame and suffering and anguish.

You Want to be Where?

We sing a lot of songs about being near to God. And, before I get into trouble, I like many of them. They're good songs. Songs like “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross” and “I Just Want to be Where You Are” express some very valid spiritual yearnings. And yet, when I look at the biblical picture, I find myself wondering if we've had a bit of a misfire. Increasingly, I'm seeing that the vision in scripture is of the God who longs to dwell with his people. The Tabernacle was about God in the midst of the camp. The temple was about God in the midst of the nation. The incarnation of Jesus, and even more so the sending of the Holy Spirit, is about God in our midst. And some of the last words of scripture state, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them” (Rev 21:3). In our very right desire to find ourselves near to God, have we missed the fact that the big story of the Bible is about God being with us? What if we had a song like this:

You just want to be where we are

Dwelling daily in our presence

We don't have to worship from afar

You are near to where we are

You just want to be where we are

In our dwelling place forever

You're coming to the place where we are

You just want to be with us

You want to be where we are

Dwelling in our presence

Feasting with us at your table

Surrounding us with glory

In our presence

That's where you've always longed to be

You just want to be

You just want to be with us

There are parts of that that were uncomfortable to change. As I sing it through, it almost feels selfish and prideful. There's a discomfort here that may explain why the reality of God's nearness to his people doesn't seem to be well represented in our hymnody. But let's get comfortable – not less awestruck at his greatness, but more comfortable with boldly singing the things that he reveals about himself. Yes, we want to be near to him. But even more, we anticipate the day that he will be truly be as near to us as near can be. It's what he has always wanted.

How to Grow

I first met Darryl Dash when I took his class in seminary on preaching. He talked about the purpose and the practice of the exposition of scripture in ways that I had not heard before. It was a class that blessed me greatly, and changed the way that I think about communicating the word of God to the people of God. But we're here to talk about growth, and the book that Darryl has written on the subject. While Darryl has moonlighted as a professor, he is first a pastor. He has committed his life to following God, and leading others in doing so. Aptly titled How to Grow, his inaugural book discusses the gospel and the means of grace that help us to grow spiritually, as well as in other aspects of our lives. The book has three significant qualities:

1) Accessible. Darryl doesn't assume that people know what the Day of Atonement was, or who Martin Luther is. He doesn't even assume that every reader will be a Christian. And perhaps best of all, he doesn't assume that people understand the gospel. Before he tells us about the gospel's effects, he tells us about the gospel's reality, in meaningful, natural language.

2) Practical. The book is not only practical in having questions for discussion and “next steps,” but the book has a deep practicality. There is evidence of deep study, both exegetically and psychologically, but the book answers the immediate questions of how to grow. It has almost a life hack feel to it: how do you hack your habits and your thought processes to move you closer to the places where you will meet God's transformative grace. It's a book that tells you what to do and how to do it, while never feeling like a “quick fix.”

3) Encouraging. There is not a trace of “try harder!” in this book. Darryl suggests that such sentiments are unhelpful (p. 45). Indeed, a book rooted in right gospel teaching won't tell people to “try harder,” as the gospel message teaches us that we are unable to fix ourselves. But neither does he fall into the trap of “let go and let God.” He calls us to make what effort we can: to use habits to place ourselves in the path of grace (p. 99).

I believe that no review is complete without some critique. It is yet another indication of the excellence of this book that I have a difficult time coming up with something that Darryl could have added or changed or done differently, without the result weakening the work. Possibly the book – particularly his chapter “Know Where You Are,” – could have benefited from a session on stagnation: what if you feel like your growth has stalled or hit a rut? He describes a good model for Christian growth, but as I looked for where I generally fell in his system, I realised that I only felt like I was there half of the time, and wondered where in his system fit “feeling stuck and not sure how to move forward.”

This book is full of grace and wisdom, much like its author. You will be blessed by reading it.

And finally, a few gems from the book itself:

“Hard things somehow seem easier when we know we're loved.” (p. 27).

“Our greatest problem isn't that we lack freedom. We've been offered freedom and unimaginable wealth through the gospel. Our problem is that we have a hard time living as if it's true.” (p. 37).

“Growth isn't about changing our behaviour or controlling ourselves when we're tempted to sin. It goes much deeper....We miss out if we settle for merely acting differently if it's not flowing from inner transformation. God wants to accomplish much more in us.” (p. 46-47).

“You were made to grow. Not only that, but you can grow. God has given us means by which we can experience his grace and be transformed....He's given us his Spirit and his people to help us to grow. So let's pursue growth, for ourselves and our churches. You were made for this.” (p. 51).

“What we miss so often is that the Bible isn't written to solitary individuals but to the church. More often than not we could read "y'all" rather than "you." The Christian life doesn't make sense when lived alone. We were meant to live it in community with others.” (p. 91).

(For the sake of full disclosure and all that: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I'm sad to say that the rest of you will have to visit a local Christian bookstore or click here to buy it, but it'll be worth it.)

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday

Tuesday we finished 1 and 2 Timothy, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude. Many of the questions that they ask are either not directly answered by scripture, or far outside my experience. I do try to answer their questions, but I also have told them them that I would rather them learn HOW to think than WHAT to think. There are some core issues. There are some things about which Christians must have agreement to be truly Christian. But there are also matters about which good Christians will disagree, about which there is no clear statement in scripture. There are many places where the Bible simply does not answer the questions that we have. And as people who will likely, by the very nature of having this education, be leaders in their churches, I want them to be able to study well and to reason well, and to be people full of compassion as they work to reconcile lost people to the God who loves them.

Tuesday afternoon we went to a nearby handicraft market. It was a cultural experience as much as a shopping experience. I have never before been to the sort of market where there are almost no prices, but rather you wheel and deal and haggle. You walk by shops (most of which are selling mostly the same goods as the shop before) and people ask you, people almost beg you, to come in and “just look.” Garry kept asking various shopkeepers “what do you sell here?” and invariably the answer was “everything.” People kept offering us their “special Tuesday prices” or the “special price because you've been so kind” or in one case “special birthday prices because it's my birthday.” It kind of left me wondering how many birthdays he's had this year! They quite cleaned me out of the emalangeni I had left – not that I had that much, but I hadn't quite expected to spend all the rest of it. I probably paid more than I ought to have, but I did haggle, and paid less than I might have, and I was really impressed with some of it (particularly in the “birthday” man's shop).

Tuesday evening some of the staff invited us for dinner. Sydney and Misozi Mhango are from Zambia, but after coming to ACC they stayed on, Sydney as the director of the Tree of Life operations, the macadamia farm that provides so much of ACC's expenses, and Misozi as their librarian. I have rarely felt such incredibly warm hospitality

Wednesday

Today I finished lecturing, concluding with the gospel, letters, and revelation of John. In a school such as this where the students come from a variety of denominational backgrounds, we had quite a diverse set of viewpoints on Revelation. I explained to them first the main interpretive options, a few interpretive keys that I use to try to understand apocalyptic literature, and then I dove in and explained to them how I understand it: a message of hope to the suffering people of God, that no unjust human or demonic power can stand against the worthy risen lamb who fights for his people and promises a day of final renewal.

No outings today – a quiet afternoon, a time to finish up some work, and dinner and evening service tonight. A good day to relax and reflect, and to get my last bit of work done – marking the assignments that they had to hand in at the beginning of the week, and figuring out how I'll mark their sermons. I am glad to be done teaching, and I am sad to be done teaching. I am looking forward to the next two days of getting to be on the receiving end as I hear them preach as part of their evaluation.

Bringing You Up to Date

Tuesday

Tuesday in class we covered social and cultural backgrounds of first century Palestine, the reliability of the New Testament (particularly the gospels), and a section on definition and development of the canon. That last part didn't seem to resonate much – whether because it was too technical or because they'd simply never thought about it before (or both) I'm not sure. But the rest of these sections went really very well.

Tuesday afternoon we (Garry, Hillary, and I – the various excursions are for our sake) went with Ndumiso, one of the ACC staff to the Mantenga Swazi Cultural Village. He's a lovely, gentle, good-natured man, and great company on such an outing as he is a Swazi. The cultural village is a little like the pioneer villages we used to go to in primary school, but with Swazi flavour (and in fact, we were there with a quite a number of rather loud school kids, maybe aged 11-13). We saw a number of traditional dances, and then walked through a replica of a traditional Swazi homestead. Somewhat amusingly, our guide (the village guide, not Ndumiso) was wearing a traditional Swazi wrap – and heavy winter coat. That is the thing with winter here: many of them dress for winter not far different from how we dress, only their daytime winter temperature is 15-20 C., rather than -5-0 C. Each morning I'm standing before my students in short sleeves, and many of them are wearing touques and scarves and winter jackets and gloves. I am quite amused. They think I'm crazy. I've tried to explain to them when they comment on my short sleeves that to me, winter involves an accumulation of ice and snow on the ground, with temperatures below freezing, and that their winter feels like my late spring. Usually, they respond in quite a bit of surprise. Many of them have never actually touched snow.

We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant there, and had the chance to pester Ndumiso with more questions, which he very patiently and graciously answered. Both our conversation the previous day with Brad and that day with Ndumiso really helped me to begin to understand that cultural backgrounds of many of my students (though certainly not all, as only about a third of ACC students are Swazi).

Wednesday

My goal Wednesday was to get through James, Romans, and Thessalonians. We got through James, and Romans 1-8, at which point we ended up talking the rest of class about grace, particularly out of Romans 5-6. Despite the effect on my schedule, I was happy to do so. Grace has been a concept with which we have often struggled in the Church of Christ, and to get a chance to help these students from a variety of cultures and religious backgrounds to understand the meaning and effect of grace was worth every moment.

On Sunday and Wednesday nights, the school holds their own service. The worship here is vibrant, the singing is amazing, and there is much more dancing than I am accustomed to – it is a beautiful place to be. I will only be here two weeks, but it's going to be more difficult to return home to the style of worship that I know than it was to adjust to the worship here.

Thursday

Thursday we made it through the remainder of Romans, Thessalonians, Galatians, and we started into 1 Corinthians. The students often ask questions or make comments that I have simply have never thought of before. Elsewhere I will write about their perspective on James. One asked if the man who had his father's wife in 1 Corinthians 5 might have been demon possessed, based on verse 5. We had difficult discussions in Romans 13, around what it means to submit to a government that is not worthy of respect. We had difficult discussion in Romans 14, around the use of alcohol and Christian liberty (which, as I observed to them at the end, really demonstrated what Romans 14 talks about – that Christians will come to differing conclusions). We together came to realise how culturally informed “children, obey your parents” is – from the point of view of most of them in the class, I am a poor daughter, as I will make decisions with which my father disagrees. It is a fascinating experience – multiple cultures coming together to examine scriptures that were written first to yet a different culture – and it is a beautiful experience, as we all had to begin to see how our cultural assumption affect our interpretations of the oracles of God.

Thursday afternoon we went for lunch at Malandela's, a hotel and restaurant with beautiful gardens. We went with Manuel, one of the full-time lecturers at ACC, and his wife Pam. They are truly lovely people, functioning as parents and grandparents to a community that is mostly much younger than they are. They are South African, but have been in Swaziland for quite some time now, and have developed a deep love of the Swazi people.

Friday

On Friday, we finished 1 Corinthians, and got through 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. My students impress me so. Even with such a long, intensive week, at break time I saw a few of them with their bibles out, discussing scripture. They are eager to learn, eager to study, and take it seriously. It is such a joy and an honour to teach them.

For lunch, we went out with Brad Carter, his wife Rachel, and their three daughters to a local restaurant that is in the same market as a candle factory that is apparently quite well known. It was a chance to relax, and pick up a few gifts.

Saturday

It was so nice to wake up Saturday morning and not need to teach. I love teaching, but a little over twenty hours in one week is a lot of mental energy. It was also exciting to wake up Saturday morning and leave on my first safari! Garry and Hillary had opted to go to Kruger Park in South Africa, a trip that lasted all day Saturday and a good bit of Sunday. I decided I needed some rest, and to get some work done, so I went to eSwatini's largest and best-known park, Hlane. Tsitsi and Justice, two of the staff at ACC, were kind enough to take me. Together, they probably comprise the Radar O'Reilly of the operation: Tsitsi is the registrar, and seems to largely keep things spinning in the academic office. Justice is in charge of operations, literally keeping the place running and organising the student work details.

Sunday

This morning Miriam and I went to the Tubungu Church of Christ, which is very near to ACC. It is very small, but has a large and popular children's program, and many of the students worship there since it is in walking distance of the school, so they don't need to get rides. There are more children than youth or adults, so they use the building for Sunday school, so the adults meet outside. This is why I very nearly got my first ever sunburn at church. Fortunately, I eventually noticed that I was getting quite warm, and moved to join the other pasty people who were sitting in the shade!

Monday

This morning we were back in the saddle, powering through Philemon, Philippians, Mark, Luke, Acts, and Titus. I still have not caught up from when I fell behind last week, and this week I'll really have to make time. That's the sad part of a survey course – you can only give your students a taste of a few of the good things that each book has to offer, rather than sitting and savouring each one.

This afternoon we went with Justice and Tsitsi, first to Nando's for lunch, and then to a glass factory and shop in Mbabane, the Swazi capital. I think that everyone is most amused by my deep and abiding love for Nando's. The chicken may have been slightly better than the Nando's chicken at home, but they had no perinnaise (peri-peri sauce mixed with mayonnaise, giving you the world's best hot yet creamy sauce), so in my mind, the experience was about equal to what we get in Kitchener. The glass factory was fascinating. They work with the glass by hand, making both functional and decorative pieces, and there is a balcony from which you can observe their work.

Also, it rained this afternoon. This is noteworthy, as it's the first hint of environmental moisture that I've seen in my week and a half here. For some reason, I had always pictured tropical winters as a rainy season, but at least in eSwatini, it's most definitely dry.

In the last few days, three different students in the school have experienced losses in their families, two of them especially sudden and tragic. Please pray for the peace, comfort, and strength of the students. All I can think is that there's some serious spiritual warfare going on. And perhaps it says something too, about what a great threat to the gates of hell that is here at ACC. I believe that many of these students will do great things for the kingdom.

This evening, at the suggestion of a few of my students, we held a movie night and watched Paul, Apostle of Christ. My Dad and I saw that when it was in theatre, and I was most impressed. Probably about half of the class came, and I think it was a good opportunity for them to get in their minds a bit of a picture of the New Testament world that we have discussed. It was also the perfect time to watch it, as we will finish Paul's writings tomorrow.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday

Sunday morning, I went to church with my friend Miriam and her children. Miriam and her husband Paul were members at the Brantford Church of Christ while he completed a PhD in church history, and he is the one who invited me to teach at ACC. Sadly, Paul is gone for the entirety of my visit, but Miriam decided to adopt me, and I have enjoyed many meals with her and her kids. They attend the Fairview Church of Christ in Manzini, one of eSwatini's largest cities. It is a church of perhaps 100, though it was hard to tell, as Miriam said that many were away. Service was in siSwati and English, with everything being translated. It was a very, very friendly and welcoming church. At the end, myself and the two other visitors were invited up, hugged by the preacher, and then a sort of receiving line formed where every member of the congregation came by and shook our hands. Even the very little ones did this – if you were old enough to walk, you were old enough to shake the visitors' hands.

Sunday afternoon Garry Bailey and one of his students, Hillary arrived. Hillary and I have been staying together, and it has truly been lovely. They are teaching a course on Conflict Resolution that is a requirement for all the second and third year students.

Monday

Some of my first day I've talked about previously, so forgive any overlap. Class started on Monday. Perhaps my biggest surprise was learning that teaching from 8:00-1:00 includes an hour for chapel and breakfast, making my five hours of daily instructional time actually four hours. And my students are serious talkers and question askers – which is lovely, but there are times I've had to cut them off, because we just have to keep moving. My first day I taught intertestamental history and social and cultural backgrounds of the Greco-Roman world.

One of my biggest concerns about such an extended period of teaching was how my lame foot would cope. I hate teaching sitting down. I had never considered myself an extremely expressive person, but I just don't like making presentations while sitting. I made it through Monday standing – carefully, being sure to keep the joint moving so it didn't seize up – and it went as well as I could (reasonably) imagine. If anything, the greater trouble came that afternoon, as Brad Carter, ACC's president, took Garry, Hillary, and myself on a tour of campus, during which we peppered him with all manner of questions about ACC, Swazi culture, and everything in between. That would have been OK, except we stopped and stood a lot, and standing is really murder on my foot. I seriously considered sitting for my class on Tuesday, but I didn't, and I didn't really feel too much worse for it. So while it has been physically strenuous (foot-wise), I have been adapting, and it's gone alright.

My First Day

So my first day went well. My students were mostly engaged, which is a real win when the topic of the first half was mostly dates and dead people. Hopefully my own enjoyment of the topic rubbed off on them. They've also been really, really patient when I fail to understand their accent (which is a problem that they don't seem to have with me).

The second part of the class today was social/ religious/ philosophical backgrounds of the Greco-Roman world. That ended up generating more conversation than I expected. As I discussed the development of Gnosticism, I found that many if the students were much more comfortable with Gnostic philosophy than I had expected. It certainly left me thinking about what a recurring problem in the church we have had with the "physical is bad and spiritual is good" mentality.

The afternoon was largely taken up with a fantastic tour of the grounds with ACC's president and my fellow visiting lecturers. It took about six times longer than it needed to, as we asked him question after question about Swazi culture, the history of ACC, education in a southern African context -- you name it. Tomorrow we will be going to what they keep calling the cultural village. I think it's a one stop shop for Swazi art and dance traditional way of life, but I'll let you know.

A few random thoughts:

1) I'm tired. It's a good tired, but it's hard to resist the urge to go to bed, especially since the sun has been down since about 5:45/6:00. The middle of winter and a lack of daylight savings time make for very early nights.

2) I learned today that spring is their rainy season, not winter. It is very, very dry here -- everything is a little gritty, the grass crunches under your feet, and I never quite seem not to be thirsty. It also makes the heat of the day much easier to tolerate: it got up to nearly 30 Celsius today (unseasonably warm), but it was infinitely more pleasant than an Ontario 30 C.

3) I saw my first lizard last night, on the (inside) wall of a classroom. He was so small and so still, I wasn't sure at first that he wasn't a sticker of some sort. I almost got a picture of him, but he darted away at the last moment. He was adorable.

Maybe Next Year

One of the songs I've recently come to love from Andrew Peterson's new album "Resurrection Letters" is called "Maybe Next Year." The title is borrowed from one of the final statements of the Passover liturgy where the participants look at each other and declare, "next year in Jerusalem!" which is to say, "may we be able to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem next year, as the Law instructs." In the song, Peterson reflects on a trip he took to Jerusalem, and particularly his visit to the Western Wall (wailing wall) of the temple mount, and how meaningful it was to see the Jews gathered there in prayer, and how much more meaningful it was to see that place that has always been central to God's promises of salvation. He then goes on to tie their longing for the temple mount to our longing as Christians for the Jerusalem that is to come.

This morning, a few rows ahead of me on my flight, a Jewish man rose and pulled out a book, and faced the direction that he best could reckon was Jerusalem, and prayed. I have never before seen a Jew at morning prayer. Something about seeing that made me really quite emotional. (Though when I've had this little sleep, EVERYTHING makes me emotional!) There was a passionate reverence just in his posture and movement that was compelling -- never mind his willingness to stand up on a plane and pray in front of hundreds of people, regardless of the weirdness.

My day job is basically thinking about the Jewish faith. I spend a lot of time contemplating the common origins of my faith and theirs. And I'm about to teach a class on New Testamemt Survey: an overview of Judaism fulfilled, a look at God's end game as realised in Jesus the Anointed Priest-King. And more and more I want to ask every Jew I meet (or, apparently, see on an airplane), "why not Jesus?" Because more and more I understand what Paul says at the beginning of Romans 9 that the Jews have everything going for them, that they have the theological home field advantage. What God gave them was exceptionally great, and what they could have is so much greater still. Paul says elsewhere, "If there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it (2 Cor 3:9-10).

And so this has become my "maybe next year." It has become to me a call to the mission of God. Maybe next year they'll see. Maybe next year they'll understand that everything they've ever hoped for is here -- and more. Maybe next year they'll be citizens with us of the New Jerusalem, grafted once more into the people of God.

Preparing for Syncretism

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my upcoming class in eSwatini (Swaziland still rolls off the tongue more easily!). As I have been thinking about how to highlight the relevance of the New Testament for cultures and churches that are in many ways different from my own, one question that came to mind is “how much religious syncretism do they deal with?” And fairly immediately, the answer that occurred to me was, “probably about as much as we do.”

When we think of syncretism, it's easy to picture an indigenous religious practitioner lumping Jesus in with the gods of his tribe, or people who treat prayer like a spell that goads God into doing what we want. But the Oxford dictionary is nowhere near so narrow. It defines syncretism as, “the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.” A definition like this leaves us with the convicting reality that when we import our strongly held cultural values into our gospel, we become guilty of syncretism.

I just read an article that made reference to “the problem of individualism.” Something about that phrase stopped me in my tracks, and I realized that it was because I have never heard individualism talked about that way. Now, the Bible is not communist, as some have tried to argue. My understanding is that it interweaves a strong community orientation with individual responsibility. But almost no one (at least in the Canadian circles I know) talks about individualism as “a problem.” Individualism in North America is so celebrated that we have brought it into the church with nary a thought. It is a hard thing to look past our cultural biases, and let our values be reprioritized and reshaped by scripture. I think that this is one of the reasons why missions – a missions that is from everywhere to everywhere – needs to continue. We can see the blind spots of other cultures, and they can see the blind spots of ours.

The point of this post is not to rag on individualism. If it needs doing, there are others who can do that as well or better than I. The point is that religious syncretism isn't something “out there” that we have to stop. The problem with syncretism is in our hearts. We're all guilty of it. It is in fact the first lie, the first sin, the one that said, “You can have God and everything else.”

So am I prepared for syncretism in eSwatini? Who knows. But the better question is, “Am I prepared for the syncretism that rears its ugly head in my own life?” That is the greater challenge.