Monthly Archives: July 2024

Chapter-a-Day

Rules and Rifts

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Rules and Rifts (CaD Rom 3) – Wayfarer

…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:24 (NIV)

Wendy and I get along remarkably well despite the fact that we have very different temperaments. Wendy is an Enneagram Type Eight (the Challenger) and I am an Enneagram Type Four (the Individualist). The Enneagram Institute calls this relational combination the most “inherently volatile.” Nevertheless, Wendy and I somehow manage to be around one another pretty much 24/7/365. Not only have we not killed one another, but we actually enjoy our perpetual proximity. The Enneagram Institute goes on to describe the Eight/Four coupling: “Both types bring passion, intensity, energy, and deep (often unconscious) feelings to all aspects of the relationship.”

Wendy and I have also found ways in which we are very different. This occasionally creates rifts between us. For example, I was raised in a home where the rule was “the door is always open and everyone is welcome at any time.” My dad would be happy to regale you with countless stories of my friends, and the friends of my siblings, stopping by at all hours unannounced.

Wendy, on the other hand, believes firmly in the rule that the kind thing to do is always let people know in advance that you’d like to stop by. Thus, we had a rift that would regularly present itself in conversation while on our way to Des Moines to visit my parents. It started like this:

Wendy: “Did you call your parents and tell them we’re coming?”

Tom: “No.”

I’ll let you imagine the rest of the conversation.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to address the rift between Jewish and Gentile believers. The rift was rooted in the Jewish preoccupation with being rule-keepers. They had been given God’s rulebook through Moses, and good religious Jews were obsessed with keeping the rules. This presented a problem, however. It was a historic problem that presented itself almost immediately after the Law had been given. It then continued through the period of the Judges and the period of the Kings and perpetuated itself during Jesus’ ministry. Jesus confronted this problem time and time again.

The problem was relatively simple: People chose which rules they wanted to follow, and which rules they wanted to conveniently ignore. The rules that they chose to follow were the rules that others could clearly see with their own eyes.

Did you keep the sabbath?
Did you make your prescribed offerings?
Did you go to the Temple for the feast?
Did you circumcise your male children?

The rules they ignored were easier to hide and corporately convenient to simply sweep under the rug.

Did you love the foreigner in your midst and honorably treat them as you would want to be treated?
Were you generous, refusing to get rich at another’s expense?
Did you treat others lovingly and with equity?
Did you take care of the poor, the needy, and the outcast?

Jesus spent his entire three-year ministry trying to get His good religious Jewish brothers and sisters to see the problem. They cared more about Jesus keeping the rule about not working on the Sabbath (which is easy to see) and failed to see that the rule was never intended to keep them from doing something good for someone (e.g. healing, helping, lending a hand). Having God’s rulebook didn’t make the Jewish people righteous. It didn’t make them better at anything other than learning to keep up appearances with some rules while clandestinely skirting other rules for their selfish gain.

This cultural obsession with rule-keeping was deeply ingrained in them. Jews who became followers of Jesus and had been raised in this culture had a hard time not demanding that everyone be a rulekeeper. They looked down on those non-Jewish believers who never had the Law of Moses (and didn’t really care). Thus the rift.

In the quiet this morning, my mind drifted back to Wendy and me in the car on our way to Des Moines. One of the things we’ve learned about the rifts that appear in our relationship is that it’s rarely, if ever, an “either-or” issue in which one is right and the other is wrong. It’s often a “both-and.” My parents’ hospitality and generosity were wonderful aspects of a home that blessed countless people. It’s nice to know that they were always open to welcoming someone unexpectedly knocking at the door. Also, it is always a kind thing to call ahead and let people know you’re planning to stop by.

Paul is making a similar “both-and” argument for the rift between the Jew and Gentile believers. Yes, the Jews were blessed to have been given God’s rulebook, AND having the rulebook didn’t make them more righteous than the average Gentile. Both Jew and Gentile have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, AND both Jew and Gentile are justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus alone. The spiritual realities they share are greater than the differences they experience in the rift about rules.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Romans (Jul-Aug 2024)

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Each photo below corresponds to a chapter-a-day post for the book of Romans published by Tom Vander Well in July and August 2024. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

Romans 1: The One Thing

Romans 2: Kindness, Not Condemnation

Romans 3: Rules and Rifts

Romans 4: The Difference

Romans 5: The Need for Struggle

Romans 6: Water

Romans 7: From Rules to Raspberries

Romans 8: The Gospel According to Harry Potter

Roman 9: A Confession

Romans 10: God’s Righteousness vs. Self-Righteousness

Romans 11: Big Brother Mentality

Romans 12: Responding and Reacting

Romans 13: The Law of Love

Romans 14: Honoring Our Differences

Romans 15: Intentions & Realities

Romans 16: Send Phoebe

You’re all caught up! Posts will be added here as they are published. Click on the image below for easy access to other recent posts indexed by book.

Chapter-a-Day

Kindness Not Condemnation

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Kindness, Not Condemnation (CaD Rom 2) – Wayfarer

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:4 (NIV)

Every year our town has a three-day Tulip Festival that draws giant crowds from all over the world. For the past several years, a street preacher has set up his microphone on a corner right in the middle of the festivities and spews hellfire, damnation, and condemnation to all of us sinners. While I honor everyone’s freedom of speech, it’s really annoying on multiple levels. Most of all, it’s annoying because it is contradictory to the example Jesus set and His teaching. It misrepresents what Jesus’ message is all about.

In yesterday’s chapter, I pinpointed the “one thing” that Paul wants to communicate to the Roman believers in his letter. He said he wasn’t ashamed of Jesus’ Message because it was the power of God to save all people, both Jew and Gentile. The early Jesus Movement was a cross-section of those who had been Jews their whole lives and those who had never been Jews (a.k.a. Gentiles). This created significant rifts within local gatherings of believers. Much of this letter is intended to address those rifts.

One of the most predominant rifts was the fact that the Jews felt superior because they were “God’s people” who had been given “God’s Law” through Moses. Despite the fact that the Law commanded the Jews to love their neighbors and treat them as they would want to be treated the Jews of this period had been culturally raised to see themselves as superior and all non-Jews as inferior.

To address this, Paul begins by laying down the foundational understanding that Jews and Gentiles, indeed all human beings, are equally sinners. He then points out that there are Gentiles who, despite not having the Law of Moses, live as if they did. Likewise, the Jews who boast about having the Law of Moses continue to sin and break those laws. Therefore, no one has the standing to condemn anyone else. In fact, self-righteous condemnation of others is showing contempt for God’s love:

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

When James and John wanted to call down hellfire from heaven and burn up a town that had not welcomed them, how did Jesus respond? Did He condemn the town and burn them up? No, He condemned James and John for suggesting such a thing.

That same John would later write his own version of Jesus’ story in which he points out: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

So, in the quiet this morning I remind myself that the behavioral outcomes of being one with God’s Spirit include love, kindness, gentleness, and patience. Nowhere on the list of those behavioral outcomes (Gal 5:22-23) will you find judgment, condemnation, threats, or warnings. In fact, what Paul is pointing out so clearly is that the way to help lead a sinner to repentance is by being extraordinarily kind to them. That’s the very thing Jesus prescribed when He said that if someone steals your coat, give them your shirt as well. If someone asks you to walk a mile for them, walk two miles. It’s kindness that leads a sinner to repentance.

The street preachers at Tulip Time are misled and mistaken. But my response toward them is no different than with any other sinner. I am called to be kind, not condemning.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The One Thing

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The One Thing (CaD Rom 1) – Wayfarer

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Romans 1:16 (NIV)

I had a class in college in which the professor assigned us to write a paper of at least 10 pages about a historical figure. One day in class he returned our papers with his corresponding grade written at the top with a bright red Sharpie. One of my classmates was livid that he’d received a failing grade. In front of the entire class, he called out the professor for failing him. As I recall, the professor attempted to help our classmate save face by quietly telling him to read through the notes he’d made and it would explain. The classmate pressed on, insisting that there was no way he should have been given an “F” on the paper.

“The assignment was a ten-page paper. My paper was 35 pages long!” Our classmate yelled.

“Yes,” the professor replied calmly. “You wrote a 35-page paper, but you didn’t say anything.”

Over the past several years, I have had the privilege and honor of mentoring several individuals in our local gathering of Jesus’ followers in the art and craft of preaching. It’s given me great joy. I believe I may have learned more through the process than my protégés.

Among the things I have stressed in my mentoring is that when you have to say something it’s critical to clearly articulate what it is you have to say. I call it “the one thing” and I asked them “If there was one thing you wanted every listener to walk away and remember, what is it?” Among the most common struggles I observed with my charges was having too much content. Often fueled by fear of not being able to fill the allotted time or coming across as lacking knowledge, individuals would pack their outline or message with all sorts of information, references, and illustrations. However, the more content that was packed in, the easier it was for “the one thing” to get lost.

In the rom-com Sabrina, the chauffeur’s daughter says to her billionaire father’s employer, “You know, Linus, more isn’t always better. Sometimes more is just more.”

Today this chapter-a-day journey enters Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome. Paul has a lot to say to his friends. But in his opening words he clearly articulates his “one thing:”

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Roman society of Paul’s day was all about honor and power, shame and weakness. The idea of a suffering, servant-hearted Messiah dying on a cross was antithetical to citizens in the heart of the most powerful, most wealthy, and most worldly of human Empires. Most Romans looked down upon Jesus’ Message as foolishness. Paul is about to explain to the believers in the heart of the Roman Empire, in great detail, what real power and foolishness look like in the Kingdom of God; Power that leads from death to life, from chaos to shalom, from earth to eternity.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on my circumstances relative to the original Roman recipients of Paul’s letter. I live in the “heartland” of an American Empire in what is considered a post-Christian era. Many among the educated elite now consider Jesus’ Message not only foolish but evil. The world, they argue, would have been better off had Jesus and His followers never existed. Meanwhile, affluence affords me the luxury of focusing time, energy, and resources on a host of silly things and foolish notions. As I look back at my life journey, I’ve never felt such a contrast between the direction Jesus’ Message leads and the messages the world tells me I must believe under the threat of social and cultural cancellation.

I think it’s a good time to read the “something” Paul had to say.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Lifetime Lessons

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Lifetime Lessons (CaD 1 Chr 29) – Wayfarer

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”
1 Chronicles 29:14 (NIV)

Along my spiritual journey, I have found that there are some lessons that I learned in a moment while there are other lessons that have required my lifetime to learn.

As a young person, I confess that I wasn’t great with money. Looking back, I believe there were a number of reasons for my lack of financial wisdom and discipline. It took me many years and a few mandatory classes at the School of Hard Knocks for me to wise up. Some of the lessons I had to learn about money were financial, some were behavioral, and some were spiritual.

One of the spiritual lessons I had to learn is that there is nothing in this world that is truly mine. When Jesus said He was the “Alpha and Omega” I believe that there is more to the metaphor than simply meaning He was present at the beginning and will be present at the end. I believe that everything in creation flowed from Christ and eventually everything will flow back to Him. The priest philosopher Chardin wrote about the “Omega Point” in physics. It’s the notion that just as the universe expanded from a small point of matter in the Big Bang, it will eventually collapse back into itself.

In John’s version of the Jesus Story, he begins with an epic prologue about Christ in which he writes, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” In the book of Revelation, the same John is given a vision of heaven’s throne room. I have always found it interesting that as the multitudes praise Jesus they cry:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
    to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
    and honor and glory and praise!”
Revelation 5:12 (NIV) [emphasis added]

The Great Story presents Jesus as the Alpha Point. Everything comes from Him. It then presents Jesus as the Omega Point. Everything returns to Him. This brings me to the conclusion that nothing I have is mine. This includes my children and grandchildren who, like my finances, have been graciously given to me to steward. But, make no mistake, they belong to God. I’m simply a steward and a caretaker of all things in my dominion like the ones in Jesus’ parable of the talents. This, in turn, changes the way I think about everything I think I have or own. It’s taken me a lifetime to get here. I’m still learning.

In today’s final chapter of 1 Chronicles, David places Solomon on the throne, gives his personal treasures to the Temple building project, and encourages all the people of Israel to do the same. After the treasures are given to the construction project, David prays. As he prays he gives voice to this lesson it’s taken me a lifetime to learn.

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”

When I thought that everything was mine, I confess that I was Ebenezer Scrooge-like in my generosity. As I have embraced the spiritual reality that nothing is mine and I am God’s steward of everything have, it has fueled generosity. Once again, I think of Jesus’ parable of the talents. If it all belongs to Him then the real question is “How does He want me to invest it?”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself both grateful and convicted. I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned and to experience how far I’ve come from the days of fiscal foolishness and my utter lack of discipline with money. I know, however, that I’m not done learning. I’ve still got a lot to learn when it comes to stewarding all that I have been given.

The chapter-a-day journey continues tomorrow with the book of Romans!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Inspire, But Remember

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Inspire, But Remember – Wayfarer

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”
1 Chronicles 28:20 (NIV)

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that both politicians and pundits like to connect Presidents with their predecessors. I’ve seen it on both sides. Dan Quayle famously got in trouble by trying to wear the mantel of John Kennedy in a debate with Lloyd Bentsen. I’ve observed that pro-government candidates often reference FDR or have the connection applied to them. Andrew Jackson is mentioned consistently in reference to our current populist candidate. I’m just pointing out that it’s a thing.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler tells of David passing the plans for the Temple to his son, Solomon, and tasks the crown prince with carrying out the work. There are two fascinating observations on which I meditated in the quiet this morning.

The first observation is that the Chronicler, once again, chooses to present David in an idyllic fashion. It’s a very different retelling than is recorded in the Samuel account. There is no mention of David being infirm and bedridden in his old age. Nor is there any mention of the machinations and intrigue within the Royal family and court concerning succession. He also fails to mention the political rumblings and dissent within the Kingdom. The Chronicler chooses to simply tell of an event at which David clearly communicates that Solomon is his God-ordained successor and the son chosen by God to carry out the plans God had given him for the construction of the Temple.

The second observation is that the Chronicler, much like a modern-day pundit viewing a President as the 2nd coming of one of their predecessors, is silently presenting David to his readers as the 2nd coming of Moses. Moses received the Law and plans for the original traveling tent Temple (called the Tabernacle) from God on Mount Sinai. Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, but gave the task to Joshua with the command to “Be strong and courageous.” Here David claims to have received the plans for the Temple from God. He is not allowed to build the Temple but gives the task to Solomon with the command to “Be strong and courageous.”

The Chronicler is writing roughly 600 years after the events of today’s chapter and 1000 years after Moses. As we near the end of David’s story, I observe that the Chronicler has been very consistent in his treatment of David’s story. Throughout, he has stuck to presenting the most positive aspects of David and his reign. His motivation is to provide his people with the inspiration to see themselves in the same Great Story carrying on the same great task with strength and courage. The truth is that I commonly observe the same thing being done with both the Great Story and general history today.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reminded of the sage of Ecclesiastes who tells us there’s a time and purpose for everything under heaven. There are times when I need an inspirational reminder of historical people and events. There are also times when I need to be reminded that history is never as idyllic as it is often presented.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.