PREACHING DEUTERONOMY

What Does the Lord Require of You?  A blueprint for a chosen people’s citizenship!

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Happy Fourth of July!  Aren’t we thankful for the freedom that we have in our country to be able to worship God freely, and to assemble together here today.  May God continue to bless America, and may we the Church, the chosen people of God in America continue to shine and burn bright for His glory!

The passage I have chosen for today’s sermon comes out Deuteronomy 10:12-22, and is part of Moses’ exhortation to the people of Israel, as they are right on the cusp of entering into the promised land, where they will reside and be a nation.  But they were not just another nation and people group occupying a geographic region.  No, they were a special and chosen people group, chosen to be the Lord God’s covenant people, through whom the Lord would bring salvation unto all the world.  And here we are in America in the year 2010, in our 234^th year as The United States of America, One nation under God.  And indeed, this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, but here, America is not the Church.  But we are the Church here in America.  It was only to Israel that God said that they were the chosen people, and today, it is only to all who name the name of Jesus Christ as Lord, who are as it is written in

1 Peter 2:9-10   ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  ¹⁰ for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And although our first allegiance and primary citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, we also find ourselves here today as citizens of this country, in the United States of America.  And our brothers and sisters in Christ spread throughout all the world, find themselves in their own respective countries, as dual citizens, both of the Kingdom of God, and of whatever country they live in.

And we are instructed  in 1 Peter 2:13-15  ¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,  ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.  ¹⁵ For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

We are to be as the people of God, a bright and shining light for Christ, in whatever place we are, as a testimony to all who see us and live with us, so that the testimony of the love of God, and the reign of the Kingdom of God will go out to all the world, inviting them to repent and believe, for the Kingdom of God is upon us.

So, let us take a look at this portion of Scripture in Deuteronomy 10:12-22, which serves as a model blueprint, for how the chosen nation of Israel was to conduct themselves, and which also serves as our blue print, for Christians everywhere to conduct themselves; to be that bright and shining city set upon a hill for all to see, so as to bring glory to God, and point all people everywhere unto Him.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22   ¹² "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  ¹³ and to keep the LORD's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?  ¹⁴ "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.  ¹⁵ "Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.  ¹⁶ "Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.  ¹⁷ "For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.  ¹⁸ "He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.  ¹⁹ "So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  ²⁰ "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.  ²¹ "He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.  ²² "Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

12   ¹² "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  ¹³ and to keep the LORD's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? 

To Fear the Lord Your God…  First off, it sets the premise that the Lord God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, must be your God.  First off we must believe in Him, and trust in Him as our God and our Salvation.  But we are above all things called to Fear and Reverence the Lord.

God is calling us to walk in all of His ways, and to be holy as He is holy.  The only reason that God would ask us to walk in His ways, is if it were possible.  And it is possible, but is only possible by the grace of God.

But God is not asking for mindless and heartless obedience, but for our obedience to be done in LOVE of Him.  We are called to Love the Lord our God.  He’s not just interested in our obedient action, but He’s interested in our hearts, and in having a relationship with us!  Did you ever wonder why God who always existed, created this world in the first place???  I believe He did it because love needs an object.  God who is love wanted to be in relationship with us, and He has chosen us, and invited all to be in this loving relationship with Him.

And our serving the Lord, isn’t supposed to be out of mere duty, as if it were drudgery!  God wants us to serve Him with all of our heart and all of our soul!  Whatever we do, we are to do it heartily and joyfully as unto the Lord.

And the Lord wants us to continue in, keep, and preserve His commandments and statutes, for the whole of our life.  He wants us to hang on to and cherish every word that He has spoken to us….and do you know why?  Because it is for our Good!  It is for our Good!

How could this God require and ask so much of us???  Because ¹⁴ "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.  

This is all His.  We are His.

Did you ever wonder how God could finalize and end His Ten Commandments with the commandment to not covet or be jealous, but yet it says in Scripture that the Lord God is a jealous God!  That’s because He is the only One who is worthy to be Jealous!  It is all His, and rightfully so!  The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.

(Come Down)

Now verse 15 must have brought some real humility, and maybe even some shame.  You see, Moses had just gotten done reminding them of their rebellion against God.  He had just finished reminding them of how they had built an idol of a golden calf to worship, instead of worshiping God alone, and this so shortly after they had seen the biggest miracles done in the whole Bible.  After they had seen the biggest miracles that any generation had ever seen, and to this day have ever seen.  Moses reminds them, that they weren’t chosen because they were so great and deserved it, but were chosen based on the merits and favor of their ancestors.

You know, it is the same for us here today.  None of us in here today are here because we were so great and so righteous.  None of us here today can say that we deserve to be here, and that we deserve to have the favor and love of God upon our lives.  None of us here can see that we have not been stained and tarnished by sin, for we are all guilty and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

(Start Bringing it UP!!!!!!)

We are all here today, only by the grace of God.  We are only here today, because God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.  We are only here today because of God’s amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!

But glory glory hallelujah, I once was lost but now am found!  Was blind but now I see!  Praise God! Praise God!!!!

It doesn’t matter how you got here, it only matters that you ARE here!  It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, it only matters where you are and where you are going!  That’s God’s Grace!  That He has forgiven me of my sins, and He remembers them no more!

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free! My God my Savior, has ransomed me! And like a flood His mercy rains! Amazing love, Amazing Grace!

(Pause….then Take it Home!!!)

So what should be our response!!!????

.  ¹⁶ "Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.  ¹⁷ "For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.  ¹⁸ "He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.  ¹⁹ "So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  ²⁰ "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.  ²¹ "He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.

We are to cast off all the weights and sins that hold us down, and circumcise our hearts, casting off all our stubbornness and the callous of our hearts that rebels against the Lord, and make your life to be like soft and moldable clay, to which God, the great Potter, can mold into whatever He wants, for His own glory!

And because He loves the whole world, and because He loves the orphan, the widow, and the stranger in our midst, and because we too can remember from whence we came, as a sinners saved by Grace…we too are called to love the stranger in our midst!  We are called to love one another, even as Christ has loved us.  And were are called not only to love by our words, but also by our deeds, by meeting other people’s needs.

(Come Down……)

And finally, in verse 22, Moses reminds them again of their very humble beginnings.  And we too need to remember our humble beginnings.  We need to remember that what we are today, is not of our own doings, but is only by the grace of God.  We need to remember that we deserved death, but that God gave us life.  We need to stay in that place of humility, fully knowing that we have to cling to God at every moment, and that we depend upon God for every breath we breathe.

Because God resists the proud, but gives more grace to the Humble.

But it is not in wallowing in the past that we gain our strength.  It’s not in dwelling in our past sins and failures that results in the victory.

It’s when we give ALL of ourselves to the Lord.  It’s when we totally focus on Him, and with ALL that we have, cling to Him, as we Fear Him, Serve Him, and Love Him!  It’s only when we intently, and intensely, fix our gaze upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, that we find the strength for today, to live our lives to the glory of God, to be able to serve Him in love, and to serve others as He’s commanded.

When we follow His word, and live out this heavenly blue print that God has laid out for us to follow, then we will be that bright and shining city set upon a hill for all to see, so as to bring glory to God, and point all people everywhere unto Him.

When we really live this way, then we will truly fulfill what was said of us in

1 Peter 2:9-10   ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  ¹⁰ for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Jesus spoke about this Heavenly blueprint this way:

Mark 12:29-31   ²⁹ Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.  ³⁰ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'  ³¹ The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."

ETHICS CHRISTIAN PASTORAL

Daniel Ivey

CS 601

Dr. Edgar

The Ethical Role of Pastors: In light of Modernity and Postmodernity

            In The Pastor as Moral Guide, Miles lays out the difficulties of the task of being a moral guide as a pastor, and gives several words advice, as well as words of warning in terms of ethical issues.  In Choosing The Good, Hollinger clearly lays out the cultural changes of thought in the Western world for the past few centuries of Modernity and Post-Modernity.  Now of course there are many ethical issues of boundaries that a pastor must maintain with one’s parishioners so as to not fall into misconduct, however I believe that the falling away from the Biblical mandate as a pastor in light of the pressures to change from the Biblical mandate to the philosophies of Modernity and Postmodernity would be the most unethical pitfall we could ever fall into.  For the liability that a pastor carries is much greater than that of a medical doctor.  If a doctor gives unethical advice to a patient, the worse that can happen is death.  But if a pastor falls into the pressures of society, and declares peace when there is no peace, as the false prophets in Jeremiah’s day did, then death could happen not only on the physical level, but also on the eternal.

            Pastors are still faced with the pressures of modernity, even though we live in a postmodern era.  The main evil that happened during modernity for pastors and all the world was the dethronement of God, and the coronation of human reason and science.  Society began to believe that they had evolved to the point that they no longer needed God.  Religion began to only be tolerated if it did not carry over into the public specter.  But still, pastors were faced with the burden to declare the truth of the Gospel, and to guide their flock in the way everlasting.  The pressure was to keep their light hidden, and their lamps under a bushel.  But this is no Gospel at all.  Christ called us to be the light of the world, and not be hidden and private.  Pastors were faced with watering down their message, and give way to the new gospel of the day, a humanistic world of progress, where humankind could evolve into greatness.  There also was a great pressure to mix the holy with the unholy, and preach more from Psychology Today than the Bible.  But as pastors and moral guides, we are called to lead and guide, regardless of what our parishioners and the world want to hear.  Pastors had to take heart, and be bold just as Daniel’s three friends stood up to Nebuchadnezzar and all his princes, and declared that no matter what was being said about what or how to worship, they would only worship God, even if it meant their life.  Many pastors had to risk losing their flocks who were being so persuaded by the philosophy of their day, and risk being without a job.  Sadly, we saw many if not most pastors transition the Gospel of the Bible, to the gospel of modernity, and this is when Seminaries took a great nose dive into godless theology, and explaining away the power of God.

            Today in the postmodern era, pastors are faced with a similar hurdle.  They are faced with the pressure to change the message of Jesus from the narrow road where few enter in, to the message that all roads lead to Rome, and that any religion is as good as another.  In counseling on ethical issues, they are faced with parishioners who have no loyalty to Jesus Christ and the claims of the Gospel, but are a la carte spirituals, with ears only ready to hear what will soothe their guilt away.  Pastors are now faced with having to counsel in the age where the therapeutic is king, instead of the Lord of Lords.  But pastors have the same duty to deliver the word of the Lord to all, no matter where they are coming from.  It is the allure of being relevant in the masses eyes, so that they can continue to receive the praises of man, and enjoy their greetings in the marketplace.  Pastors are faced with having to preach a message that is not popular today, just as it was in the times of the Bible.  Pastors must decide whether their life will be ruled by Christian ethics, or the ethics of the time and culture.  They must decide to either be satisfied with the praise of God, or compromise to receive the praise of man.  This is the great ethical battle for pastors today.

PSALM 100

Praise Realization Psalm 100

8/8/10

Daniel Ivey

Psalm 100:1-5  ^NAS Psalm 100:1 A Psalm for Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.  ² Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.  ³ Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  ⁴ Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name.  ⁵ For the LORD is good; His loving-kindness is everlasting, And His faithfulness to all generations.

I’ll never forget the great and loud shouts I heard in Athens, Georgia while I was in college at the University of Georgia, attending football games in Sanford Stadium, surrounded by 93,000 screaming fans.  When our team would come into the stadium, there was a joyful shout that rang out that could be heard from a mile away!  It’s an amazing thing to be part of such a crowd of people, all shouting out for the same thing.

But that is where this Psalm comes in.  This is the situation that surrounds this Psalm of Thanksgiving.  Just imagine, being front row at the Temple Gates, or maybe in the Temple courts…and a great throng of people are gathering to worship the Lord. Thousands upon thousands have gathered in the city of Jerusalem from all over the earth.  They’ve all gathered for one purpose, and they all with one voice, shout out a cry of praise unto God most High. A joyful shout unto the Lord God, as they make their way to the Temple of the Lord, to worship Him all together.

But what really is different about this gathering here today, and their gathering back then?  We are the people of God gathered here today, with one purpose, and with one voice. We are gathered here today to lift up our voices in thanksgiving, praise, and adoration unto the same God.  The Lord God.  But maybe we aren’t as used to shouting as they were back then.  At least not in worship on a Sunday morning.

We have always been reminded all of our lives to use our inside voices, and to do all things decently and in order.  We are more accustomed to gathering in the Lord’s house with reverence and awe.  And I assure you that they were too, and that they too came before the Lord with reverence and awe.  But they came before the Lord with such a joyful realization of who God is, and who they were in God, that it brought forth a joyful shout of praise unto God most high. It was their praise realization.  I think we could stand a little more of that kind of spirit in our worship today.  I want to have such a joyful realization of who God is in my heart, that I can’t help but let out a shout of praise.

“A shout?”, you may be asking. Here? Now?

Make no mistake about it. The writer of this Psalm meant to use this word shout.  It is the same word that was used to describe the great shout that came out of the people of Israel when they marched around the city of Jericho and by the mighty hand of God, brought those walls tumbling down with a great shout.

But they aren’t here shouting just to make a loud noise.  They are shouting for joy because of who God is, and because of His great goodness, faithfulness, and loving-kindness that God showed to them, the people of God, created and made by Him, the sheep of His pasture.

The Psalmist says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth.”  When is the last time that you let out a shout of praise to God?  Has it been a while?  And if you never have, know that the Bible is giving you permission.

While my wife Nicola grew up in a home where it was okay to shout and be loud, I didn’t grow up in an Italian family.  I grew up in a family where we all kept our voices down.  I grew up in a family where shouting was only okay on the baseball field, or out in the park.  I most definitely did not grow up in a church where shouting was ever heard!  There were deacons waiting in the back to escort you out if you were of the shouting persuasion.

But whether we are a church that literally shouts in worship or not, which would be fine with me and fine with God, I believe that what we need to take from this reading of Scripture, is that it is about the praise realization, of knowing God in His fullness that would ever bring about this joyful shout of praise.  I believe that it is about knowing the Lord in such a way, and knowing the promises we have in Him as His special chosen people, the royal priesthood of believers, that we are not able to contain the joy within us due to this revelation of God’s love and God’s goodness.

Psalm 100:2  ² Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.

As we serve and worship the Lord through our daily living, and as we come before Him to worship God in song, the Lord is wanting all of your efforts and all of your praise to be offered unto Him from a cheerful and joyful heart.  God is not interested in mere lip-service in our singing.  God is not interested in us just going through the motions, and doing our religious duty.  God is interested in having a relationship with us, where He is our God and Savior, and we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

God had to remind the people of Israel of this several times in the course of their history.  And God has had to remind me of this far too often as well.  Listen to the words that God spoke to Israel through the writer of Psalm 50 about this issue.

Psalm 50:7-15  ⁷ "Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God.  ⁸ "I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.  ⁹ "I shall take no young bull out of your house, Nor male goats out of your folds.  ¹⁰ "For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills.  ¹¹ "I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine.  ¹² "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all it contains.  ¹³ "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of male goats?  ¹⁴ "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High;  ¹⁵ And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."

Hear O MY PEOPLE! I am God Your GOD! Don’t you hear the relational words!?  God wants you to serve Him and sing to Him out of the joy that the relationship brings!  And God knows that He is that good, that loving, and that faithful, that if you really know Him and are in relationship with Him, that He can ask of you such things, and that He can get it from the bottom of your heart!

I know that my wife Nicola loves to receive flowers and gifts from me.  But if she found out that I was only giving her the flowers and gifts simply out of duty, instead of from the joy of my heart, she wouldn’t want them.  That’s because she loves me and wants my love in return, not just what gifts I could give to her.

God doesn’t need our shouts of acclamation, our service, or our singing in worship, but He wants it from us because He wants relationship.

And this relationship grows sweeter and sweeter the more that we know Him.  God has already offered to us His best.  God spared no expense when He gave His very best, the precious sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, because He loved us so much.  God has always realized His love for us, because He always has been, and always will be love.  But we are the ones who are slow to realize His love for us.  We are the ones who slow things down with our doubts about how great God’s love for us really is, and how great our God really is.  We are the ones who hold things back when we believe the lie that our sin is greater than His amazing grace.

But there is a solution!  There is a solution because there is an invitation!  God is inviting us to know Him and be in relationship with Him.  God has revealed Himself to us through His great demonstration of love, by sending His Son Jesus to die for us, even when we were still sinners.

Psalm 100:3   ³ Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Know the Lord!  God is inviting us to know Him. God is wanting to Ephesians 3:16-19   ¹⁶ grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;  ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

When you get the chance to taste and see that the Lord is good, and begin to be filled with the love of God, you won’t be able to contain the shouts of praise that will arise from your heart.  God’s limitless oceans of love will flood your heart.  As Jesus said in John 7:38   ³⁸ "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"  God has more to give to us than we can contain, and He loves it that way.  That way you can freely give to others what you have freely received.  And that way you can worship and praise the Lord with joy, in the way that He desires.

When we grow in the experiential knowledge of God, then and only then do we begin to know ourselves.  Until we know that the Lord God alone is God, and understand that it is He who created us, He who called us, He who loved us first, we won’t really know ourselves or what our created purpose is.  Until we realize our full dependence on God for every breath that we breathe, and until we realize that we are His creation, created to be in relationship with Him, as His own special people, the sheep of His pasture, we won’t really know life.

But when you do begin to know God, and when you continue to increase in the knowledge of God, realizing that He alone is God, that He is your creator, and that you are His people, the sheep of His pasture, then you will really begin to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth with a joyful heart,

Entering His gates with thanksgiving, and entering His courts with praise, giving thanks to God and blessing His name,

·       Because the Lord is good and His loving-kindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness extends to all generations.

So I invite you now to sing joyfully to the Lord for all that He’s done, and for all that He is.  Give thanks to the Lord, and bless His name!

Will you stand to your feet and sing to the Lord with a cheerful heart as we sing hymn #89, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”?

Ethics Christian

Daniel Ivey

CS 601

Dr. Edgar

Case Study: Option 1; Angela

            This case study is of a woman, Angela, married approximately 18 years to Bob, with two children still under their care.  Angela is a member and a part time office worker at the church I serve as Senior Pastor. Tipped off by Angela’s daughter, I meet with Angela and Bob separately, and find out that Angela is wanting a divorce from Bob due to marital dissatisfaction which she says was the case from the beginning, of which she entered into because she was pregnant with Bob’s child.  Bob does not go to the church, but feels the marriage is okay, and desires to work to mend any problems, which he believes are only stress related to the mortgage and his long hours.  Angela is also in an established ‘emotional’ relationship with a man named Martin, and this is fairly public knowledge amongst other members of the church, and especially to the church leadership.

            The ethical issue here is that Angela wants to divorce her current husband, and assumedly continue her relationship that she has established with Martin.  While there is a huge ethical issue with her marriage and divorce to Bob, Angela seems to fail to realize that this decision would affect the whole community, and especially her children and the church.  Angela who is at least nominally a Christian by her membership at my church, is failing to listen to the demands of Scripture as a Christian, and is only concerned with her own self-fulfillment.  She expresses no concern for the implications of divorcing her husband Bob, and in fact shows great irreverence to the sanctity of marriage already by her somewhat public relationship she has already established with Martin.  Her only concern is her romantic feelings and needs.  She is completely ignoring the Biblical mandate to make sure that sin such as immorality not even be able to put to you name, Ephesians 5:2, because she is in a semi-open relationship with Martin.  I will also assume that Martin is somehow connected to the church, and thus it is known to the people in the church.  She is showing disregard to the reputation of the church, especially since she is church staff, engaging in a relationship while still married.  She is showing disregard to her husband, by being with another man.  She is acting unethically in regards to her children, not respecting their father, and bringing shame onto the family name.  She is showing complete disregard to the Biblical definition and mandate to marriage, even marriage to an unbeliever.

            Angela is influenced by her own selfish ideals of love which are representative of popular opinion and psychology, and is completely self- absorbed, showing no concern for the broader effects of her desired choice.  She is under the delusion that her marriage is simply her marriage, and is in no way connected to her husband, her children and relatives, the church, the community, and the Lord.  Marriage is bestowed through the church by the Lord, and is therefore accountable and responsible to the church and the Lord.  It is participated in and witnessed by the community.  Dr. Virginia Holeman points out that married people hold a mutual ‘stake holding’ relationship with that community and especially the church.  Marriage is not just two people individuated from society, but the “blessed bond of marriage is a matter of both personal and corporate destiny.” (Boulton 326)  Marriage is the God ordained institution in which Christian love and discipleship is to be experienced.  “When Christian marriages and families lose their sense of belonging and purpose within the community of faith, the church is weakened; and lessened is its ability to witness to Christ and his Kingdom.  This is a great loss to a world in need of redemption.” (323)  This case not only brings an ethical concern for the well being of Angela and Bob and their two children, but could also be a great cancer and defilement within the church, which would also defame the name of the church and the faith in the community.  As the pastor, I have to be concerned with all the levels and all the people involved in this matter.  Being that she is church staff and a member, and that I am now aware of the situation, I have an ethical responsibility as a fellow believer, and as the pastor, to confront this matter, and call it for the evil that it is.  However, I would have to ascertain to what level Angela truly believes the Scripture to be able to know where my starting point is to counsel and guide her back in the right direction.

            As a person of society, her grounds for divorce are shoddy, although in the age of the therapeutic and the age of self-actualization, her reasoning is accepted and even encouraged.  However, on the grounds of Christian ethics, she has no place to stand her ground in wanting to divorce Bob, or to start a new relationship with Martin.  Deuteronomy 24:1-4 was written to stop serial marriages amongst the men, and Jesus combats this desire for serial marriages in the Gospels.  While Angela has not explicitly said that she plans to leave Bob to be with Martin, it would absurd to assume otherwise that this is not her plan.  Though she claims to have been unhappy in her marriage the whole time, it cannot be overlooked that she is bringing up plans of divorce now that she is in a relationship that she desires.  Her initial claim that she never felt ‘married’ but only married because she was pregnant, is suspect for several reasons.  She was into Bob enough to have been sleeping with him initially.  She had another child with him approximately 5 years into their marriage, and she has now remained married to him for 18 years.  She is obviously wanting to move on to fulfill her own desires with Martin.  This is no ground for divorce, which God hates altogether. (Malachi 2:16)  The only grounds that she is coming on to back up her reason for divorce is that she doesn’t like the way that it feels!  It is completely based on her selfish emotions.  And if she wants to argue on the grounds that Martin understands her spiritually, and that Bob doesn’t because he is an unbeliever, these are not grounds for divorce either.  For the Biblical admonition is clearly for the believing wife to stay with her unbelieving husband! (I Corinthians 7:12-13)  Here she is also placing her selfish emotional desires above the possibility of his eternal salvation!  On top of this, Bob is wanting the marriage to succeed and is willing to work on it.

            Christian love is about looking out for the concerns of others, not the concerns of oneself.  Christian marriage calls us to love and serve the other, and to submit the whole of ourselves to our spouse.  Outside relationships are strictly forbidden.  Only the “two shall become one flesh”. (Matthew 19:5)  We are to guard against and make sure that we let no person tear asunder what God has put together. (19:6) It is God’s ideal that Angela and Bob stay together, period.  It is God’s desire that Angela be able to win her husband to Christ by her good behavior. (I Peter 3:1-2)  Christ also calls us to people of our word, with our yes being yes and our no being no. (Matthew 5:37)  Angela would be breaking her marital vows to Bob, and thus become a liar.  She is already breaking her vows to Bob with her illicit relationship to Martin.  Is it true that Angela should be able to expect emotional support and love from Bob, yes.  But a lack of emotional support and love from Bob is not reason for divorce, especially being that Bob desires to be there for her and continue the marriage.  There are two choices of how to be in a marriage.  “The two characters are covenant-keepers and self-maximizers.  Culture tells us to be self-maximizers; the commandment tells us to be covenant-keepers.” (Boulton 348)  Christ calls us to be covenant-keepers, as a testament to faithfulness God has shown to us.  If Angela is to name the name of Christ, she must stay with her husband, who to me, sounds like a more righteous one than her.

            I would call Angela to live up to the Biblical standard of marriage for a Christian and would not enable her, by validating her reasoning for divorce at all.  I would confront her with the leadership of the church, as a fellow believer, member of the church, and as a staff member, to abandon her relationship with Martin.  And if Martin were part of the church as well, I would do the same with him.  I would make sure not to run her off, so that I would lose a platform in her life to guide and counsel her, for her sake and that sake of all those involved.  I would instruct Angela and to some extent her husband as well, as the glorious design God has for marriage, and offer words of hope that they both could find all they desire for their marriage in each other if they would both put their lives in proper alignment with God.  I would let them know that this is God’s institution and therefore they need to live it in God’s way.  I would pray like crazy for them, and keep a watchful eye and a listening ear out for Kathy and her older brother.  I believe that this marriage would be easily salvageable, if Angela would abandon the philosophy of self-maximizing, and take on the Christian worldview, founded in the knowledge and relationship with God

Bibliography: Works Cited and Consulted

Bockmuehl, Markus.  Jewish Law in Gentile Churches: Halakhah and the Begtinning of Christian Public Ethics. T&T Clark. Edinburgh. 2000.

Boulton, Wayne G., Thomas D.Kennedy, and Allen Verhey, eds., From Christ to the World: Introductory Readings in Christian Ethics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.

Campolo, Tony. 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch. Word Publishing. Dallas. 1988.

Grunlan, Stephen A.  Marriage and the Family: A Christian Perspective. Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, MI. 1999.

Hays, Richard.  The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics. Harper Collins. San Fransico. 1996.

Holeman, Virigina.  Reconcilable Differences: Hope and Healing for Troubled Marriages. InterVarsity Press.  Downers Grove, IL. 2004.

Hollinger, Dennis, Choosing the Good: Christian Ethics in a Complex World. Grand Rapids:Baker, 2002.

Miles, Rebekah L., The Pastor as Moral Guide. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999.

Education Methodist Methodism

Education in Methodism

CH 600-Dr. Robert Tuttle Jr.

Daniel Ivey

            The beginnings of Methodism started in the halls of education at Oxford in England with the holy club.  It is only right that this great movement which was started by the men with the highest level of education and possibly also the highest level of piety, would continue to emphasize the importance of education for all, as part of their mission to spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land.  Whether it was to refine the theology of the many preachers who were travelling Europe or America, or to offer a much needed service to the poor children and uneducated adults, Methodism has made its mark in the annuls of history as an educational force that must be recognized.  For John Wesley and the rest of the Methodists to follow, all people whether rich or poor were of invaluable worth and thus were deserving of education, the necessities of life, and the knowledge of the way to salvation.  From the old country Sunday School teacher to the professor of ancient languages at the Theological Seminary, attempts were being made to equip individuals with a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to produce persons who would be able to demonstrate and practice the knowledge they professed.  John Wesley who was a self described homo unus libre, (man of one book, and that the Bible) was also a man who appreciated and prescribed understanding into all the forms of knowledge from medical science to philosophy and all the subjects in-between.  All the Methodists who followed in his footsteps also took to the same appreciation, as even in the Sunday Schools, reading, arithmetic, and science were taught.  At all levels of scholarship, Methodism sought to educate individuals and society in the ways of God, and the ways of man through teachers in classrooms and society meetings, sermons, one on one discipleship, and of probably the greatest impact, through the multiple thousand published works it manifested.  John Wesley and Methodism were of the top producers of literature in the world through their printing presses, and published articles and pamphlets on a whole range of topics from home medicine, philosophy, teaching manuals, Biblical commentaries, abridged works, and religious instruction.  Though at times, Methodism was at odds with various forms of education, as a whole it has been one of the biggest and broadest sources of education in America and throughout the world through its instruction, writings, and the many primary and secondary schools, colleges, and seminaries.

            John Wesley was a man who was no stranger to education.  From homeschooled instruction from his mother Susanna to formal world class instruction at Oxford in England, John Wesley was a learned man.  But unlike most of his contemporaries at Oxford, as well as the majority of clergymen in the Church of England of which he was an ordained priest, Wesley zealously pursued vital piety with the love and fear of God as his center.  John Wesley was not sufficed to only know about God, but also wanted to have an experiential knowledge of God.  For Wesley, this experiential knowledge of God also necessitated that this knowledge would lead to performance.  The love of God would play itself out in the love of neighbor.  John Wesley knew no holiness but social holiness which meant faith working itself out in love and good works to his parish, the whole world.  Wesley took serious the tenants of John 3:16 that God truly loved the whole world and all who were in it, and this theological truth played itself out in John Wesley’s mission to minister to all people, as he viewed each person as one for whom Christ had died.

            Against the popular and widely accepted view of the poor in England in his day, Wesley believed that they were deserving of all the necessities of life, as well as the right to an education.  “Wesley was not satisfied with lamentation about deplorable conditions or accusations against the responsible agencies; instead, he committed himself to remedying the deficiency through the strenuous efforts of the Methodist communities.  To that end he employed repeated sermons and conversations on the education and training of children, regularly checked the schools he had founded, conducted conversations with children, gave hours of instruction himself, wrote his own school books, outlined instructional plans, counseled parents on questions of child-rearing, enlisted teachers, and regularly assisted with various emerging difficulties.” (Marquardt 53)  Wesley jumped right in to the situation and took action, taking seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46.  Simply put he saw his neighbors in need, and in Christian love he acted as best he could to meet that need by taking action himself and by rallying and employing the help of others.  Wesley viewed salvation in holistic terms, caring both for the spiritual and temporal needs of every person, and this meant clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and healing the sick.  While the common view of the children of the poor in England at that time was that it was a waste of time for them to go to school and that they should as quickly as they can get to working, Wesley insisted that they should be afforded at least basic instructions in reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. “Wesley’s chief motive for establishing such schools and developing them within his sphere of influence was primarily a religious and humanitarian one.”, but “above all else, they were meant to guide the children into basic Christian truths and lead them to a life in harmony with the will of God.” (Marquardt 52)

            John Wesley established several schools for the children and also helped to formulate the Sunday Schools to be implemented by his societies, but Wesley also had a concern for adult education.  One of Wesley’s most chief ways of educating the masses of uneducated adults, was through the printing press.  “The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries brought some revolutionary innovations in printing and publishing…(and) Wesley very quickly made use of these technological advances for a comprehensive and well-organized publishing program in order to supply “His” poor people with books.” (57)  But Wesley’s writings were not only to educate the poor adults and the children, he also sought to better educate the many preachers he had commissioned to preach the Gospel.  Since most of his preachers and class leaders were uneducated men and women, and the cost of books and education was too high for most of them, “Between 1749 and 1755, there emerged what is probably the most important of Wesley’s editorial achievements, the fifty-volume Christian Library, which was supposed to contain “all that is most valuable in the English tongue,… in order to provide a complete library for those who fear God.”” (58)  Wesley instructed his preachers to diligently read these materials, as well as to disseminate his other writings and make them readily available to all whom they ministered.  Wesley made his works available at the lowest prices possible. “Thanks to Wesley, the Methodist Societies became educational agencies with a systematic pursuit of reading.  Reading Christians were knowledgeable Christians; and the uneducated people, of all people, were not to be excluded from this opportunity.” (59)

            Through the many ways that John Wesley employed to bring not only the saving knowledge of Christ, but also instruction into the various other faculties of knowledge, Wesley made a great impact on England, which greatly attributed to the move for nationwide reform in education and the treatment of the poor, along with later child labor laws.  Through his extravagant philanthropy of his own time and money, his brilliant execution of organizing bands and societies which held Sunday Schools, his many writings of pamphlets, treatises, abridged works, sermons, and instruction, and his fervent circuit rider preachers who helped teach and distribute his message and writings, the establishing of many schools, and his uncanny ability to persuade the minds of the men and women all across England, Wesley effected great change in England and advanced many thousands of people who would have otherwise been left in poor conditions.  John Wesley’s effects are still felt today, and England has never been the same.  But now we will turn to look at the flames of reform and revival that swept over America through Methodism as John Wesley’s spirit was carried over into the newly found nation by other faithful men and women.

            Since the beginnings of the nation until the present day, Methodism has played a vital role in education in America.  Today the United Methodist Church boasts of having 13 Theological Seminaries, and is responsible for starting some of the nation’s best colleges including Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory, and Drew.  The Methodist church is also able to boast in being the first denomination to establish colleges for women and through the Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia which was founded in 1836, is able to claim as their graduate the first female in the world to receive a B.A. degree. (Kingwood 117)  But though the first bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America were men of outstanding educational achievement in line with John Wesley, this church in America did not always embrace education as we know it does today.  But in regards to educating the poor, the children, and the masses, they continued in Wesley’s spirit and became a leading force in education for America.

            “Methodists were rather obviously behind many other denominations in their approach to the higher branches of education. (But) On the other hand, none could claim prompter attention to the needs of elementary education, religious and general.” (Norwood 217) “In 1790 the first recognition of Sunday-schools by an American Church was made by the vote of the Methodist Conferences, ordering their formation throughout the Church, and also the compilation of a book for them.” (Stevens 535)  This was only six years after the 1784 Christmas Conference when the newly formed American “Methodist Episcopal” Church was founded.  From the very beginning, education was a great priority.  By 1787, American Methodism’s first educational institution was already built and opened for school, named Cokesbury College after the first two bishops Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke.  In 1791, Bishop Asbury wrote a letter to the conferences instructing them to erect academies in their areas “to give the key of knowledge in a general way, to your children, and those of the poor in the vicinity of your small towns and villages.”, to nurture both mind and spirit, being free from “any restraints from refractory [perverse] men.” (Kinghorn 112)  Education of the youth was well on its way through the establishment of these academies and through the Sunday School system which Bishop Nolan Harmon calls “the mightiest of all church agencies.” (Harmon 143)  While the education of the youth was taking flight, and was ascending with great ease, reaching new heights, the impetus for the establishing of colleges performed poorly as it faced major setbacks such as the destruction of Cokesbury College shortly after its opening in 1795.  Then after reopening it in a house in Baltimore, the school again was destroyed by fire, which led Bishop Asbury to declare, “The Lord called not…the Methodists to build colleges.”  “With its ruin, the Methodist built no more colleges for three decades.” (Kinghorn 112)

            Just as in England, the newly formed American church championed their Sunday School system along with their academies that they were building. “The  Annual Report of 1816 reports on the improvement in the moral condition of the poor thus: “Multitudes of children brought up in a state of total ignorance have been sent to Sunday Schools for the habit of regularity and acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures which inculcate their various duties to God and man.”” (Heitzenrater 135-36)  By 1866 it was able to reported that, “The numbers of conversions among pupils of the schools, as reported for the last eighteen years, amount to more than 285,000, showing that much of the extraordinary growth of the Church is attributable to this might agency.” (Stevens 536)  Stevens also says that historically, “The Sunday-school system of the Church has been closely allied to its Book Concern.” (535)  About the great proliferation of the Book Concern and its printing presses, Stevens says in 1866 that, “If Methodism had made no other contribution to the progress of knowledge and civilization in the New World than that of this powerful institution, this alone would suffice to vindicate its claim to the respect of the enlightened world.” (534)  Although John Wesley had once warned, “Beware you be not swallowed up in books: an ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge,” he also later said, “Our little books you should spread wherever you go.  Reading Christians will be knowing Christians.” (Norwood 210)  The itinerate preachers and the leaders of classes were all encouraged to be avid readers of these materials, as well as be the chief salespeople of the materials to ensure that the Methodists were reading them.

            “In 1827 the church founded the Methodist Sunday School Union, which by 1830 listed more than 150,000 pupils in Methodist Sunday schools.” (Kinghorn 114)  The Sunday School teachers were aided by many printed tracts, pamphlets, and books directed at Christian education, all from the church’s printing press through the Book Concern.  In 1868, the church elected the “creative and indefatigable champion of the Sunday School”, John Heyl Vincent as the Secretary of the Sunday School Union, who would further aid the teachers of the Sunday School classes by establishing in 1874 the Chautauqua Assembly in New York for the training of the teachers.  Here the teachers could come and here lectures from experts on various subjects all aimed at inspiring each teacher to become motivated to study the Bible and be able to relate its teaching to all phases of their students lives. (Kinghorn 114-15)

            But as America continued to grow, so did the government’s involvement with education, and the beginnings of publicly funded education were underway.  “Methodism early on embraced with only minor quibbling, and has sustained, opposition to state support for sectarian schools on elementary and secondary levels.” (Campbell 181)  Fears began to arise out of many Methodists over their concern about what content would be taught to their sons and daughters with the minds in government making the decisions over the curriculum.  Bishop J.C. Kilgo publicly raised his concern on this issue when he said, “The issue is joined in the South…. We have got to answer for all time this supreme question, Shall Americans Christianize their Schools or shall the Schools paganize Americans?  This is no mere dream; it is the awfullest reality we have ever confronted in this country.” (Norwood 303-04)  Not only were there fears about the government’s hand being involved, but there was also great tension and rivalry against the Roman Catholic parochial schools.  In 1839, Reverend and later bishop Edmund S. Janes “vigorously argued public schools could never adequately implant Christina morality or introduce you to the truth of Scripture.  Furthermore, he asserted, “education has an important and necessary connection with our missionary work.”” (Campbell 186)  In an 1844 Episcopal address at the General Conference, the bishops asked “Methodists to use their influence to assure that the Bible “is universally introduced as a text-book in the common-school systems of education in this country.””(186) However, Christians were not all together on this front, as there was division between Protestants and Roman Catholics as to which translation of the Bible should be in the classroom.  Later there was a great push by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union for “scientific temperance” or prohibitionist ideology to be taught in the public schools, which was met with opposition by others who wanted the textbooks to include that moderate ingestions was acceptable.  However the WCTU was successful in requiring 34 states and territories to teach their prohibitionist ideology in the public schools. (190)  But as time passed on, and the Methodists along with the other leading denominations saw, it was not right nor plausible to champion certain denominational ideologies in the publicly funded school, and the government should not be allowed to champion one view above another.  As time went on, the issue of the Bible being read in public schools came all the way up to the Supreme Court.  In 1962, required Bible reading was barred from all public schools, and prayer was taken out as well. “United Methodists would come to agree with the court rulings on prayer and Bible reading, although that was not self-evident in the early 1960’s.” (194)  The Church had made sure all of those years that the State was not going to impose their will upon the Church, but the Church up to this point did not see (or at least chose not to see since it was in their favor) that they were imposing their will on the State in the public schools.  But today in the 2008 Book of Discipline in the section of Social Principles ¶164.c. it states, “The state should not use its authority to promote particular religious beliefs (including atheism), nor should it require prayer or worship in the public schools, but it should leave students free to practice their own religious convictions.  We believe that the state should not attempt to control the church, nor should the church seek to dominate the state.”  The tensions and concerns of United Methodists over the curriculum being taught in public schools still exists today, but the official stance of the UMC is that all people have the right to education and that the public schools are the best means for this to happen.  This does not however mean that the United Methodist do not still favor their educational institutions over the public school system, but that they are committed to seeing the right of education for all people to be realized.

            My last topic to deal with in regards to education within the church from John Wesley to the United Methodist Church is on the issue of the education of the preachers and the ordained.  Although John Wesley was a highly educated man, most of his preachers were not.  In the beginning of the Methodist movement, Wesley was not concerned with ordaining these preachers as priests, which in the Church of England did require formal education, but was only concerned with sending them forth to preach the message of salvation and to carry forth his other sermons.  Therefore, Wesley was not as concerned with the preacher’s formal education as he was in raising up several laborers for the harvest.  With the way Wesley had his movement set up with itinerate preachers, class leaders, and so forth, a disparity in the educational achievements of the various leaders was okay since they all had oversight from somebody else, all the way up to Wesley.  But when the Methodist movement in America was forced by the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence to become separate from England, and thus was necessitated to become its own church with their own ordained priests, the question of the education of the ministers started to come into focus more.

            There existed for many years in the Methodist Church, a great paranoia of formal Theological training for preachers.  “Prior to the 1840s, at least two-thirds of Methodism’s preachers opposed theological schools.” (Kinghorn 119) “As late as 1866, Bishop George  Pierce, of the ME Church, South, asserted, “It is my opinion that every dollar invested in a theological school will be a danger to Methodism.  Had I am million dollars I would not give a dime for such an object.” (119)  “As late as 1890, the southern general conference was warned by the Board of Education itself that, though the church could take just pride in its educational institutions, there remained a danger that too much reliance on human intellect might prove disastrous.”  (Norwood 304)  It is strange to me to believe that the very people who trusted their leader John Wesley so much, and now their American Bishops who were also highly educated men, would have such a fear about what formal Theological Education would do to them.  Even in the later forming of Theological Seminaries such what is now Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary, it was carefully labeled Garrett Biblical Institute when it started in 1855.

            The training of the ministers in the Methodist Church in America was derived from reading the Bible, along with being encouraged to read the works of Wesley and his recommended sources, being “discipled” by the presiding elder in the circuit, and from on the road experience. Though in the beginning, Coke and Asbury sought to start a college for training in 1787, the destructive fire of 1795 and the fire again in Baltimore put theological training on hold for the Methodist Episcopal preachers.  After all, they were winning souls and the church was growing, so there was not as much of a felt need for the preachers to gain any more instruction.  It wasn’t until 1816 that a Course of Study was talked about for the preachers to learn from as they were in ministry.  “A uniform program with formal listings was prepared for the M. E. Church in 1848 and for the M.E. Church, South, in 1878.” (Norwood 306)  In the first two decades in the 1800’s, Methodist people began to be more financially stable, and thus were able to send their children to college.  The 1820 General Conference responded to this need by calling all Annual Conferences to accordingly start building schools.  Thus as more and more Methodists went away to college and became better educated, they also became less sympathetic to the commonly poor grammar being employed by their uneducated ministers.  And when the powerful Methodist congregants begin to grumble and complain, the people in charge begin to listen.  Randolph S. Foster published a short book on the need of the training of ministers which received a good hearing.  By that time, with other developments preceding it such as the Methodist Academy’s Theological School in 1839, the church was ready to make the shift.

            In the 1856 General Conference, they began to make plans for the formation of Theological Seminaries.  John Dempster who would later be known as “The Father of Methodist Theological Education”, was one of the biggest movers and shakers in the development of the Methodist Seminaries.  He became the president of the Methodist Biblical Institute of Newbury, Vermont, which later would be known as Boston Theological Seminary.  Dempster later went on to help found the school, Garrett Biblical Institute, and became the first president of the school.  The Seminary system was able to be built up by the generous gifts of such people as Eliza Garrett and Daniel Drew to name a couple.  Their generous philanthropy to the cause of Theological Education is what made this endeavor possible.  But even as late as 1939, “More than half of Methodism’s ministers received their theological educations through the Course of Study.  Not until 1956 did General Conference make seminary education the norm for ministerial preparation.” (Kinghorn 112)

            The work of education in the history of the “People Called Methodist” is a fascinating thing.  From their great Book Concern and their publishing house putting out thousands upon thousands of books, pamphlets, treatises, and magazines, to the faithful Sunday School teachers, to the builders of the academies, to the professors of the Theological Seminaries, the Methodist Church has been hard at work in passing on the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, while remaining concerned for the temporal needs of the poor as well in their educational endeavors.  I believe that the educational ministry of the United Methodist Church will continue to serve the church well if they hold onto the roots of the movement, putting the Bible in its rightful place, and holding reason, tradition, and experience in their rightful places as well.  Philippians 3:10