"To Him be glory forever": mission

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Punctuated Equilibrium

"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.""

Those are the words of the first verse of Genesis 12, and they mark the beginning of a tremendous adventure. Abram is in his own country, with his father and extended family, and God calls him and tells him to "go."

I understand that equilibrium is a state of relative balance. Things are holding together in a stable manner. A force may be acting on something but the thing itself doesn't really change as a result. There is a theory in natural history called 'punctuated equilibrium.' It was developed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge and widely disseminated through the essays Gould wrote for Natural History for many years. Applied to evolution, punctuated equilibrium means that changes to a given species did not happen incrementally over a great many years, but in short bursts of activity interspersed with long periods of evolutionary quiet.

A brief aside: Gould was an unabashed and ardent Darwinist, with no toleration for anything but a scientifically orthodox view of creation. I read several of his collected essays when I was not a Christian and found them engaging. I recently read one of his books and was startled by his persistent disregard for any consideration of a divine hand in creation.

Enough of the introduction….now to return to the topic at hand.

Abram lived in a state of equilibrium. He was with his family, his flocks, doing his own thing. And then God spoke into his life, saying, "Go." God's call punctuated the equilibrium of Abram's life. As a result of God's speaking, nothing in Abram's life was the ever same. And the path that God set Abram on led to the most glorious of destinations.

Ripples of Abram's movement in following God's call are still felt today, and it was the privilege of myself, my family, and the congregation I serve as pastor to feel them this week.

Our congregation was host to a group of 31 people who had come to Dulce from Denver, spending the week here as a part of their own response to God's call in their lives.

When God calls, people of faith follow. Sometimes the call can be very dramatic, as with Abram, and other times it may be less so, such as the call to leave home for a time and serve God in another location.

Last week was a very full one for me, occasionally bordering on chaotic. The mission group punctuated the equilibrium of ministry in Dulce, with a powerful presence of God working through their hands and hearts.

Now, in the quiet following the past week's activity and this morning's worship, I feel a sense of equilibrium returning. And as I rest and reflect, I do so knowing that God will again speak, to me, to those who were here last week, and to all who follow Him in faith.

And when I hear Him say, "Go" may I do as Abram did, trusting that He will always lead me to places that are better than any that I would have settled for, places that serve His purposes, to His glory.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Easy to love

"We love because He first loved us."

Those are the words of 1 John 4:19, and they have taken on a new shade of meaning for me this week. We are in the midst of a mission week. In the past mission meant that I was a part of a group from my church that was in service to a person or group of people different from myself. This week, serving here in Dulce it is the reverse. We are the recipients of the service of others. There are about 25 people who have traveled from the Denver area to work on a number of projects at our church and in our community.

Windows are being repaired. Buildings and fences are being painted. Ramps are being built. The children of the community are attending a vacation Bible school. These are all very good things but the thing I value most this week is the relationships that are being built.

We have met a few of the people in the group before. Others we are just getting to know and they are quickly becoming dear to us. They come from four different congregations, and are a very diverse group, so they are also getting to know each other better. Some are camping at the church property and others are staying at the motel. They have a skilled cooking crew and lots of food so we are eating all of our meals with them. Between working side-by-side, sharing a meal and sitting around the campfire it is has been my privilege to hear their stories and share my own.

Yesterday, at the end of the day, it occurred to me that a thread that ran through all we have shared together is that, through all of the ups and downs of our lives, God is unchanging.

I have heard a lot of stories of hard times, yet always times in which God remained present. A situation may have been spiraling out of human control, but it was always in God's control. And that perspective, which was not always in the front-and-center as a hard time was going on, was the place where peace was found. A storm may have raged but it turned out that the ship was always safely in port.

Each person I have talked with knows, in their own way, that God, and God alone, is the anchor of their life. And so I find these people easy to know…to know deeply…to love, because of the love that God has poured out on us in His Son.

It is a love that He freely gave me when it was the last thing I was looking for or thought that I needed. But it was truly the best gift ever. And having received it I am able to love others in His name, to His glory. Amen.