Arresting Ministerial "Stop and Frisk"?

[This post was originally published on my pastoral advocacy blog called the Cupbearers Initiative, however, it has wider application than just pastors. It has to do with how we look at the world and how we engage those that we perceive as "other."]
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Since this is primarily a blog to support and encourage pastors and other ministry leaders, I like to be real about some of the issues we face. This post addresses one such issue.

A Dangerous Practice 

Photo: Creative Commons

One of the dangers faced by those of us in ministry leadership is having a “stop and frisk” mentality. I am referring to the well-known practice employed by Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Police (and many other agencies) in an approach to reducing their horrific violent crime and murder rates. They did so by stopping, questioning, and frisking people on the street to confiscate illegal weapons. While the policy arguably did reduce murder rates, it led to significantly unjust racial profiling and harmed the already tenuous relationship of communities of color with the police.

Photo: Greg K. Dueker

In this post, I am using “stop and frisk” as a metaphor to describe what happens when a shepherd’s heart is either lifted up in prideful self-righteousness or wounded by the pain, suffering, and trauma others have inflicted upon those they love. I have been one of those shepherds. As leaders, we don’t want to see the people we care for hurt so we can easily go into “protect mode” failing to remember that we have been called to love our enemies too. Our attitude can quickly become bounded by “us/them” feelings, thoughts, and words that lead to unwelcoming actions. We can become more about circling the wagons into a safe defensive perimeter that we fail to reach out in love and understanding (even in disagreement) to our neighbors. Jesus reminds us repeatedly that safety is not the highest value in the kingdom. When you read the previous statement, what verses come to your mind? I have my working list, but I prefer to let you develop your own.

Photo by Paul M on Unsplash

I remember a season, early in my marriage and my ministry, that while I was not actually stopping and frisking people on the street, I was ready to do so. I had become hyper-vigilant in a misguided effort to reduce the human damage caused by lawbreaking. I viewed strangers as suspects until they could prove otherwise. Though I was not deployed in any military conflict, I became quite good at real-time threat assessment in order to protect those I loved and to meet the challenge of the spiritual conflict that swirled around us.

The problem with this approach is that it loves people very selectively if at all. It does not love “others” as Jesus taught us to love. A probing question we should answer is, have we received the love of God so that we are content to keep it to ourselves, sharing only when seekers come and ask? Or, has the love of God so transformed our hearts and lives that we cannot help but share that steadfast love freely with others?

Wrestling Matches or Missional Welcome

Photo by Henry Hustava on Unsplash

While there is a very real spiritual battle surrounding us, we must remember that our weapons are not of this world and we are not to use the world’s methods when contrary to the scriptures (e.g., 2 Cor. 10:3-4). It seems to me that we are prone to compartmentalize this concept, limiting its declaration as applying only to literal weapons such as assault rifles, tanks, dirty bombs, and drone strikes.

Photo: Randy Fath on Unsplash

As Christian leaders who take the Bible seriously, we know that the kingdom of God is not established by the coercive force of human weapons but through sacrificial love (John 18:36; Rev. 12:11). We would certainly not want to commit again the sins of the Spanish Conquistadors and the accompanying Inquisition. However, do we engage those outside the church, or those from other churches, using the thinking processes of the world as a weapon? Paul writes in this passage that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Eph. 6:12) so while we don’t physically throw all the seekers, skeptics, and schemers against the wall and frisk them for weapons, we may do something even worse. We can desecrate the holy encounters God gives us with people when we treat them more like confrontations than conversations, more like wrestling matches against wrong thinking than really hearing and entering into a human story, and then topping it off by justifying our confrontational approach as “striving against sin.” Sometimes we need to be reminded that “the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God” (James 1:20; Prov. 29:22).

People want to be seen, heard, understood, and valued. Any ministerial stop-and-frisk ideology will hinder the type of outwardly focused love that best represents the way the Trinity shares their goodness with all creation. Stop-and-frisk processes remove the merciful welcome of hospitality. A mortal sin in the ancient world. These suspicious and confrontational approaches can make evangelism and gospel ministry more like a mugging than relational ministry. I would even suggest that we see conversion, and the larger discipleship process, as less transactional and more about the Spirit-led journey towards full faith in Jesus Christ.

Seeing Past the Edge of the Earth

Photo by Florian Rieder on Unsplash

It is normal for us to draw lines and make judgments. We engage and do life together with those people who are enough like us to dwell inside our circumscribed borders of us/them, the flat earth of our own making. We need Jesus’ to open our eyes to see beyond the edge of the earth with which we are comfortable. We need eyes to see and ears to hear as he does because his love is not constrained by our limitations.

What do we see when we look at others? How do we spiritually profile them? There was a time when Saul of Tarsus and others considered Jesus just a carpenter’s son. They could not see his true identity. We do the same thing when we fail to recognize that each person we meet is an image-bearer (whether they know it or not) and is precious in the sight of God. Saul/Paul later testified that their own attitude had been adjusted by Christ so that now, “we regard no one according to the flesh.” (2 Cor. 5:16)

Photo: Unsplash

We need to discern Christ in the least like of those we meet, humbly being ready to learn from their stories, struggles, and even their strange experiences as human parables. Will we have an ear to hear and a heart to respond? Does our perception end at the edge of our little earth? Or can we see beyond that, with eyes of faith, love, and hope what Christ intends for each person to become?

Even as many police agencies move away from stop-and-frisk tactics and embrace community policing through building positive and mutually helpful relationships, may we as evangelicals get a clue. Jeremiah 29:7 admonished the Jewish exiles to settle down and get busy, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” We are not in exile, but our mission cannot be any less engaged in seeking the common good. As ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, the love of Christ compels us to do so!

All Creatures, All Cultures

This post was originally published on a blog focusing on a devotional approach to the Psalms Honest2God. 

However, in light of recent ongoing racial tensions, it is appropriate to be reminded that the symphony of God's people includes and embraces all creatures and all cultures.

(Image painted by Hope G Smith www.hopegsmith.com)

This means that each individual creature and culture has value.

Psalm 150:1-6

1 Praise the Lord!
   Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
    praise him according to his excellent greatness!

3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
    praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
    praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
    praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
   Praise the Lord!

Comments:

Wang Xi on Unsplash

Hallelujah! This is the final psalm of praise (doxology) in a string of praise psalms! More than that, this final psalm is a doxology for the entire book as well. This psalm starts with a “Hallelujah “ and ends with a “Hallelujah!” It is a very ancient Hebrew word expressing worship to Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God of Israel who is revealed in the Bible. It has been transliterated into most languages on the earth, it is a word that now transcends language and culture to express praise to the one true God, our Creator and Redeemer!

Within this inclusio (of just six verses) there are eleven more exhortations to praise the Lord.

The phrase in verse 2, "praise him according to his excellent greatness" always makes me think. What kind of praise could ever live up to that? Could our worship ever actually be "according to his excellent greatness"? Maybe one day in heaven when we can see him as he really is and have eternity to express it...but probably not till then. 

However, one way that we can begin to praise more in accord with his greatness is to allow each culture to express true praise to God from within their God-given culture, and in their God-given language. "Praise in accordance with God’s greatness" cannot be contained or monopolized by one race, within one language, one culture, or one musical style!

 

This psalm subtly makes this clear through the lists of instruments that sound like those of different cultures and generations, from the fanfare of announcing royalty and priesthood (3a) to the quiet and contemplative tones of lute and harp (3b), from the rollicking Hebraic tambourine and dance (4a) to the Celtic or Bluegrass sounding strings and pipes (4b); or even the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) head-flipping rock opera or college marching band sound of sounding cymbals and crashing cymbals (4b). Music is universal…just not the same music. So is praise. 

When we gather in heaven, we may not all be singing Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Phil Wickham, or Hillsong, like I do, but we will join together nonetheless in that great hymn-dance of praise perfectly fitted to the greatness of our Savior. 

Could the new song that we raise be the choral tapestry of all languages, cultures, and styles singing their praise to our Triune God, blended together into one great multi-layered anthem by the love and wisdom of God? Very likely, for such is consistent with biblical teaching about the nature of the church!

I contend that these six verses also show us that, praise "according to his excellent greatness" would need to be praise that is offered everywhere, for all he is and does, on every instrument, with every living voice, from every culture and nation, with all that is in all of us! May it begin to be increasingly so in the church today and in the days to come!

This interracial and multicultural theme is echoed in the final book of the Bible, which in many ways serves as a doxology for the entire Bible and the plan of God in time and history. I will quote a couple of passages from the Book of Revelation that contain the praises of the church, that great multitude of redeemed humanity, to conclude this journey through the psalms. Amazing how familiar the language is and yet how unfamiliar the experience is to so many!

Revelation 7:9-12  ^“Hosanna!”

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  

Revelation 19:1-2, 6-8 “Hallelujah!”

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice 

of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
    for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
    who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

...Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Hallelujah! Amen.

[See also Revelation 14:1-3 “A New Song”, and 15:2-4 “Song of Moses” for other great choruses in the Kingdom]

 

Taking the Plunge: Baptism In Acts (Acts 2, 8, 10, 16)

[This article was also posted on my pastoral blog Our Long View.]

Last Sunday, we celebrated the baptism of eight souls. However, in response to a number of tragic shootings in our country in the last couple of weeks, we took extended time to seek God in prayer for justice and reconciliation in our nation. The president of our denomination, Glenn Burris Jr., had sent a letter to all our churches entitled, Call to Prayer and Action from which we took our prayer focus. This is not a new topic to us as recent sermons have touched on issues such as civil disobedience, and passive racism from the text of Acts. Our congregational readings included 2 Corinthians 5:4 "we groan"; and verse 16, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh" (e.g., our family line, wealth, height, race, education, religious affiliation, etc.). We also read 1 John 4:10-11, and 19-21,

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Then since we were doing baptism I did a short message on Baptism in Acts showing the road of reconciliation the church should take in matters such as we are facing today. We had the joy of baptizing 8 souls!

Our culture may emphasize our divisions (see list above), but the Book of Acts shows how we all come into the church the same way—through repentance and baptism. It also demonstrates that all who follow Jesus in faith may come, no matter how counter-cultural it may be.

Acts 2:37-38 Inclusively Translated 

The Apostle Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost was spoken to Jews gathered from many different cultures and languages. It contained the message of the resurrected Christ. In response to their question about how they should respond, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.” 3000 souls were added to the church that day. Notice that the number was not broken down according to our popular demographic dividers (men, women, adults, children, race, education, income, etc.). The gospel message was not subject to the cultural biases of that day, even within Judaism. The message was for all audiences, in their diverse heart languages, not in the color-blind way of cultural conformity. Since language is tied to culture, we see the diversity of languages as indicating that the gospel was for all cultures.

Acts 8 Including the Excluded

After the persecution of the church broke out in Jerusalem and Judea, Philip the Evangelist expanded the Mission in partial fulfillment of Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8. In the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, he preached, healed, and baptized...

• v.12 Even the hated Samaritans (a racially and religiously mixed people) responded to the gospel, believed, and were baptized, both men and women!
• v. 35-38 An Ethiopian Eunuch, treasurer to the queen of what would be modern-day Sudan, was eager to be baptized after learning about Jesus Christ. It is important to note that he was a non-Jew black man who had come to worship God in Jerusalem, but he did so as one who had a physical exclusion as a eunuch that would have kept him from full inclusion in Judaism (Deut. 23:1). However, the one who could not come close in the past was now in Christ included. Ironically, when Philip struck up a conversation with him, the man was puzzled as he read Isaiah 53 about the suffering Messiah, just a bit farther in Isaiah the text speaks about the inclusion of foreigners and eunuchs when the righteousness of the Lord comes (56:3-5). Oh, how that must have encouraged that man as it was explained to him!

Acts 9 "Before Breakfast"

Once Saul (Paul), the great persecutor of the church’s sight was restored (physically & spiritually) the first thing he did was get baptized even before breaking his three-day fast (v.18-19). By doing so he declared a change of allegiance, joining those he had formerly persecuted. The church has as its heritage down through the centuries the thankful inclusion of its repentant former oppressors. We truly are to be ministers of reconciliation.

Acts 10 Withholding Nothing

Here we find the story of Peter being supernaturally sent to the home/headquarters of the Roman “Cop” Cornelius (the Roman Centurion). Cornelius summoned all his friends and relatives to hear the message. While Peter was still speaking, all who heard the gospel received the Holy Spirit and praised God (v. 47-48). Peter responded rhetorically, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. It was this event that convinced the Jerusalem church that Gentiles were to be included as equal recipients of the gospel.

Acts 16 Two Families in Philippi “And all their household were baptized.” If we read the text of Acts 16 carefully, we will see the Gospel transforming two families from different socio-economic strata. Is it any coincidence that they are presented in tandem? No, for that is Luke's oft-repeated pattern.

• Lydia the wealthy merchant woman (she sold “purple” which only the wealthiest people could afford) was baptized with "her entire household." One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. (v.14-15)

• The lowly Philippian jailer who worked in a dungeon (inflicting and suffering many of the same conditions as the prisoners) was baptized "with his entire family." Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. (v.30-33)

Acts 21:16 “Why do you wait?” Finally, let’s consider Paul’s speech to those in Jerusalem who were stuck in their ways and old loyalties, “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.”

Without going into an exhaustive theological treatment of Christian baptism, let me say that baptism is…

• A death to ourselves and a resurrection to Christ. In this transformation, we find new life and a new purpose for living.
• A public declaration of our change of loyalty. We are now citizens of the Kingdom of heaven, loyal to Jesus Christ above all.
• A recognition of our new identity in Christ. Historically, converts received their Christian name at this time, hence the term, “Christening.” While we are not accustomed to changing our name, we get a new identity—one not based on our past failures, present poverty, or unjust and unkind labeling from others, but one based on the finished work of Christ. Once we were unloved, we didn’t belong to anyone, and we were scattered before the nations. Now we know that we are loved, adopted into the family of God, and planted in the world for the purposes of Christ and the common good.

I presented this brief list in a survey format and with a minimum amount of explanation. Hopefully, you can see the racial, gender, and economic reconciliation modeled in Christian baptism as demonstrated in Acts and seek the same in the church and our community today.

In conclusion, I leave you with a personalized form of Paul’s appeal, “Why do we wait?”