Ora et Labora (Pray and Work)
There is a saying that floats around the Christian community that deals with work and prayer. The saying is “When we work, we work; When we pray, God works”. I’ve been thinking about this statement the last couple of weeks for a number of reasons including the hit that North American churches often take for not being prayerful enough or as someone somewhere said, “It’s amazing what American churches can get done without prayer” (this was not said positively).
So is it true that when we work, we work, but when we pray God works? As far as I can tell this statement is based on faulty theology and faulty piety. The idea that when we work, we work misses completely the truth of the scriptures that when we work it is God who is at work through us. Jesus makes this clear in John 15.“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 when he speaks of our being given gifts by the Spirit to carry out the work of God in the world. Romans 10 speaks of the powerful way that God works through people when it insists, “11 As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
God works through us to bring His message to the world, to renew communities in ways that reflect His coming kingdom, and so much more.
Now some may argue that we go off in our own power to do these things, while in prayer we rely on the power of God to do things. It is true we can go off trying to do things in our own power, but Jesus tells us that these things will not bear fruit. Our fruit comes from our connection to God. In another sense we could say something similar about prayer. Our prayers can be just as insincere and focused on accomplishing our goals rather than God’s goals as when we try to get things done on our own.
There is also in the “when we work, we work; when we pray God works” idea a faulty piety. It holds that a truly pious person prays, while the less pious person just works. But nowhere that I can think of do we find that prayer is held up as a more spiritual position and action than working for the kingdom. Indeed, when one reflects on the life of a pious person a picture of work is often at the forefront. From the “Noble Woman” of Proverbs 31 to the call to “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God” to Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2.9-10, “…likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works…”, we find that a pious person works.
Certainly prayer and piety go together, prayer and godliness go together, but more importantly prayer and work go together. The Latin phrase has it right “Ora et Labora”, pray and work. The two are a package and through them God does His work in the world. To lift prayer (or work) above the other truncates God’s desire for a full-orbed life.
Read MoreOsama Bin Laden, Love Wins, and the Scandal of Grace
The news is buzzing with the reports of the death of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. Special forces. The cheers at the new of his death have been loud, the declaration that justice has been done is everywhere.
As I have been reflecting on the death of Bin Laden I couldn’t help but make a connection to Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. Whether or not you agree with Rob (I haven’t read the book yet, only multiple reviews) his basic premise is that there are second chances to accept Christ and end up with him for all eternity. Finally, God’s love will have his way with us.
This all sounds wonderful until we bump into Osama Bin Laden. Here is someone that people want to have rot in Hell for all he has done, they don’t want any second chances. Where is the justice in Bin Laden dying, getting to Hell and 15 minutes later seeing Jesus Christ, his love and wanting it, accepting it and being released from his punishment into an eternity with Christ? “He needs to pay for his crimes” is the cry we might very well hear from the lips of Americans and from the lips of all who suffered from his atrocities. Let good people get a second chance, but not Bin Laden.
However, when you think about it, this is exactly the scandal of grace. That people like Bin Laden, people like you and me are accepted not because we are good, but because Christ took our punishment in his place. If Bin Laden, like the thief on the cross, would have given his life to Christ as the bullet came toward him he would have heard the same words as the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” This is absolutely scandalous and it is absolutely the hope and wonder of the gospel.
This reality also makes us wonder all the more at the cross and what Christ must have suffered there. We know what people want for someone like Bin Laden, we know the kind of punishment that is deserved, we also know that people like Bin Laden have become followers of Christ and had their sins taken on the shoulders of Christ. What was it like to bear that level of wrath against sin on the cross? What was it like to bear the wrath of God against our sin on the cross? It is good for us to remember that as horrified we are by what Bin Laden did, so what we have done in the eyes of a holy God is also a thing of horror and deserving punishment, a punishment taken by Christ.
The scandal of grace is that another pays for our sins, even the worst of our sins, even the sins of the worst of sinners. So will Bin Laden get a second change to experience this grace? Rob Bell seems to think so, I’m not sure from what I’ve seen of his book that his case has as strong of merit as he wants it to have. But even without that second chance grace remains a scandal–and the only hope we have.
Read MoreJude 3: When Heaven and Earth Meet
Jude 3 “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Jude 3 brings us up close and personal with Jude’s love for this church. He, like God, loves this group of people and wants the best for them. In this longing for what is best we find echoes of Jesus who when he saw the crowds and their needs met their needs in an unexpected way, namely, he taught them. We read in Mark 6.34 “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” What is best for the people is that Jesus teach them truth. They are like sheep without a shepherd. They have no one to guide them in the way of truth (the failure of the leaders of Israel to shepherd the people fills the Old Testament e.g. Ezekiel 34). Jude, like Jesus, wants the best for these people and the best means shepherding them by teaching them so that their faith is deepened (in terms of knowledge and commitment).
This emphasis on teaching is a powerful reminder in our anti-intellectual culture that we need to know the truth of God to live the faith well. N.T. Wright in his book Scripture and the Authority of God points out that one of the central places to gather this truth is in sermon, “…sermons are supposed to be ‘audible sacraments’. They are not simply for the conveying of information, though that is important in a world increasingly ignorant of some of the most basic biblical and theological information. They are not simply for exhortation, still less for entertainment. They are supposed to be one of the moments in regular Christian living when heaven and earth meet. Speaker and hearers alike are called to be people in whom, by the work of the Spirit, God’s word is once again audible to the heart as well as to the ears. Preaching is one key way in which God’s personal authority, vested in scripture and operative through the work of the Spirit, is played out in the life of the church.”
Wright’s words are somewhat surprising. Little did most of us realize that in the preaching of the Word heaven and earth meet. It’s a good reminder for me, whether preaching or listening, to be attentive and prepared to participate in this awesome time when heaven and earth meet.
Read MoreLetter from Japan
Larry Spalink is the director of the Christian Reformed mission team in Japan. This is a recent update from him.
Dear friends, family and supporters,
As you know, Ruth and I arrived back in Japan on the 8th. At around 2:46 PM, while we were both at home, Northeast Japan was struck by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in its history, that was felt throughout the entire country.
Though we were about 200 miles from the epicenter, it was by far the strongest earthquake we have ever experienced in our 30 years here. The quake was followed by enormous tsunami waves, some reportedly as high at 10 meters, that destroyed many coastal areas and severely compromised a nuclear power generating plant. Before and after pictures are now being posted on the Internet, and the extent of the damage takes your breath away. Estimates of lives lost are approaching 20,000 now, and will probably exceed that in the end. Hundreds of thousands are staying in refugee centers, having lost everything, including many family members. Churches within our immediate circle of fellowship were damaged, and at least one church building was destroyed by a tsunami, the elderly pastor and his wife managing to escape only with their lives. Some of our friends and colleagues have no water, sewage or gas, things we tend to take for granted, right? And the post-traumatic stress of it all still is to come.
Even in Tokyo, which other than getting a good shake (and many subsequent ones from hundreds of aftershocks), didn’t have the kind of damage you are seeing on your TV news, people have gone into a heightened state of preparedness and alarm, which translates into hoarding of foods, fuel and many other daily necessities. This has made life a little difficult. While it is little more than an inconvenience for us, in the northern areas, these shortages are life threatening. The government, military (US as well as Japanese), many NGOs, and many free-lance volunteers are mounting a tremendous relief effort, but at this point, it is not enough. It’s flu season in the refugee, and cholera is not far behind. Hospitals in the area are running out of even basic supplies.
I have been given a role similar to the one I played for the Reformed Church after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. I am serving with Emergency Response Headquarters to translate from Japanese into English the reports of damage, appeals for support, and summaries of relief and rebuilding activities, so that churches around the world will have this information.
How things will go over the next few days at the nuclear plants is perhaps the biggest issue for us personally. Christian Reformed World Missions has a Crisis Management Team that has been monitoring numerous reports. –Excuse me. It’s 6:57 PM, and we just had a fairly strong aftershock, the first one I felt today. The ground is still swaying as I sit here. Makes you feel a little dizzy.– Naturally, we have been monitoring these reports too, to try to determine the best course of action to ensure our personal safety, especially from the threat of radiation. –The emergency news announced that the aftershock’s magnitude was 6.1, a fairly strong quake that certainly gave our church in Hitachinaka a good rattling, as the epicenter was right nearby. That’s the strongest aftershock in two days, I believe.– Unlike the nuclear expert who is preaching doom in the USA, I am pretty optimistic that they are getting on top of things. But with the variety of opinions and many rumors, it’s hard to know whom to believe. Considering all this, World Missions has strongly urged us to evacuate to another area of Japan where there is little or no risk of exposure to significant doses of radiation, should the worst case scenario occur. I want everyone to know, that we are not experiencing any kind of significant radiation exposure here in Tokyo. I have dutifully urged my colleagues to leave, and as of Monday afternoon, I will be here alone with two other partner missionaries. Ruth left for Thailand today on a previously planned trip with the senior class of Christian Academy in Japan. She’s supposed to come back to Japan on 3/27. I hope we have our reunion here then, but who knows? I am making a contingency plan for myself to evacuate, but at this time, I don’t feel a sense of urgency to leave my home, and I have plenty to do keeping up with the role I’ve been given.
I can’t even count the number of emails, thankfully short ones, from so many of you, telling us of your love and concern and prayers. Thank you so much! And many are asking what they can do to help. I have been working closely with the disaster response coordinator of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, Wayne de Jong, and I am pleased to refer you to them. World Missions is naturally incurring extra expenses (I’ve given out about $5,500 in the last two days to help with evacuation expenses, and that number will climb.), so your gifts to our general fund would be helpful, but anything you designate for earthquake relief should go to CRWRC. Please look up the special website that has been created to give you updates and giving information at . Also I asked the web people to put up a link a colleague from South Africa sent me, but I also give it to you here: . It allows you to download (in English or Afrikaans) a Power Point program you will find interesting.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Thank you to those who have already given, to those who will give, and to those who will give again and again for the sake of our mission work and now for the sake of extending the love of Jesus Christ in a very concrete way as we reach out to our Japanese neighbors in his name.
I know this update is already long, but bear with me just a little more. Some have suggested that these natural disasters are the judgment of God on a people that have merited it. I refer you to Jesus words found in Luke 13:1-5. I know it’s a tease, but you’re going to have to look it up! Others have suggested that perhaps many hearts will be shaken open by these things to be more prepared to receive the Gospel. No one will deny that God is sovereign in all things, and we pray that this will indeed be an outcome of these terrible tragedies unfolding around us. Meanwhile, we will do our part to give as much relief as can be given, and trust that our Lord will bless it. We pray for his mercy and grace.
Thanks for standing with us. Please keep watch and pray for God’s protection for all of us still here.
Larry
A Little Word…a Big Change
Jude 1.1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ…
When I was in middle school one of my favorite things to do was to play football at night under the lights that illuminated the front area of a local church. My friends and I would play until our fingers were cold and we had done too much damage to that church’s front yard. Somewhere in the midst of our game I was sure to hear the voice of my mom calling me to leave the game behind and head home (we lived next door, a good shout or three would get me home). When I heard that voice I knew (although I would not have put it in these terms in middle school) that I was being called out of one thing and into another. I was moving from playing a game and hanging with my friends to doing homework, getting read for bed, and being with family.
Jude, in his tightly packed first verse, tells us that we have been called. Like my calling on those cool autumn nights, God’s calling calls us out of one place and into another (see also 1 Peter 2.9-10). What we may miss in this concept of call is that God is not simply calling us out of one state into another state. In other words, He is not calling us out of being unforgiven to being forgiven. Instead God, like my mom, is calling us to a new place. Through the good news of Jesus Christ He is calling us out of our present way of life and into His kingdom; He is calling us out of the people we are presently a part of, and into being part of the new people of God.
This calling changes us in dramatic ways. We now begin to live the values of the kingdom. When we are part of this kingdom we see far beyond our own salvation and into God’s great plan to redeem the cosmos. Our lives become part of this overarching goal of God’s redemptive plan. As N.T. Wright reminds us, “…in Scripture itself God’s purpose is not to just save human beings, but to renew the whole world. This is the unfinished story in which readers of Scripture are invited to become actors in their own right.” Not only do we begin to live the values of the kingdom, we become part of a new people, the people of God — the church. We become committed to this community where we strive to love, honor, and care for one another, and we discover that our commitment to the community we were called out of calls for our commitment in new ways. We are committed to that community and the people in it to help them see the wonders of God’s kingdom, to serve them in ways that enhance the kingdom, and to invite them to hear God’s call.
“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called…”
