2019: "Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes…and he saw everything clearly" (Mk 8:25).
2020: "The sheep hear his voice … for they know his voice" (Jn 10:3b-4).
A wholesome Christian requires orthodoxy (right beliefs), orthopraxy (right practices) and osteopathy (right emotions / feelings). Since I became a Christian in 1980, I focused exclusively on orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Once I even said to my wife to her chagrin, "Feelings don't matter." It took me 3 decades to realize the error and distastefulness of my insensitive statement. So in my attempts to rectify myself…
To see Jesus more clearly (Mk 8:25) was our prayer for 2019. Jesus' healing of the blind man in Mark 8:22-26 is the only recorded healing of Jesus that occurred in two stages. I found that even if I thought [mistakenly] that I'd already seen Jesus clearly, I still needed to see Jesus more clearly…just like Jesus' own disciples who could not "see" or "get it," despite Jesus' repeated explanation and prediction of his impending death and resurrection.
To see Jesus more clearly was indeed what 2019 became for me and our West Loop (WL) community. Even though we prayed to see Jesus more clearly, it was still unexpected throughout 2019 when God "opened our eyes." It was though studying excellent New Testament books recommended to me by Herbert Lim—a Ph.D theology seminary student at U of C. These books opened my heart newly to see Jesus again through the gospels in ways I did not anticipate ... probably because I thought that I had already seen Jesus and already know him. Oh, what arrogance!
The New Testament books that helped us to see Jesus more clearly in 2019 were and continue to be:
1. The Moral Vision of the New Testament by Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School. This book—recommended to me by Yohan Hwang—is one of the top 100 Christian books (at #26) of the 20th century. This book helped me in January 2019 to begin to realize my need to see Jesus more clearly through Mark's Gospel (8:22-26). "The Moral
Vision of the New Testament is a very good book. It is certainly the best
treatment of NT ethics to appear in a very long time. Hays's insistence that we listen carefully and with contextual sensitivity to every text relevant to an ethical issue is one of
the most impressive features of the book. ...one of the things I
most like about The Moral Vision of the New Testament is its concern for
the pragmatic level: 'living the text.'" Douglas Moo.
2. Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas—who was voted as America's best theologian. His commentary inspired me to preach through Matthew's Gospel from chapter 1 to 15. God willing, we may finish Matthew in 2020. [“The main thrust is on the theological significance of the passage as a whole. This is not exegesis; it is theology...brought to bear to create a theological meditation on the passage and its contemporary significance.” Tim Chester.]
3. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels by Kenneth E. Bailey. This book was a 2012 Christianity Today Book Awards winner. Bailey helped me to see Jesus through Middle Eastern eyes in ways that I had never seen or noticed before despite having read through the 4 Gospels multiple times. [Texts enlightened by Middle Eastern cultural lenses—Jesus’ birth stories, the Beatitudes, and the Lord's Prayer—are central to Christians. Bailey also focuses on Jesus' actions, Jesus and women, and Jesus’ parables. A major contribution of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is the demonstration of the role that context plays in the interpretation, meaning, and application of Scripture. Bailey uses his lifetime of living and studying in the Middle East to illuminate Luke’s Gospel, with insights in languages other than the familiar Latin and Greek. He shows that Jesus' parables, like the tide, come in, peak, and then recede following the same logical path by which they arrived, with the high point or conclusion coming in the middle, not at the end. Thus the high point of the Prodigal Son is the middle with the father running, dignity and robes askew, to meet the returning son.]
4. The Cross & the Prodigal, Jacob & the Prodigal, Poet & Peasant AND Through Peasant Eyes all by Kenneth E. Bailey. These books opened my eyes to see Luke 15 afresh and helped me to see how the father is exactly who Jesus is and who God is (Col 1:15; 2:9; Heb 1:3). He is the God who not only welcomes sinners and eats with them (Lk 15:2), but who also runs to them to hug and kiss them (Lk 15:20)! This so infuriated the religious leaders who claim to "know" the Bible and the Torah the most. Four sermons from Luke 15 concluded my 10 months of preaching in October 2019.
5. The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament by Kennerth E. Bailey. This was Logos Bookstores' 2015 Best Book in Theology/Doctrine/Reference. The study of 9 texts regarding the good shepherd (4 OT and 5 NT) helped me embrace and love the shepherd image of our God in fresh, insightful and inspiring new ways. Bailey—who passed away in 2016—is my current favorite Christian author, teacher and mentor. The chapters of this book will kick off several months of our preaching for 2020.
These and several other books (Jordan Peterson's Tell It Slant, Helmut Thielicke's The Waiting Father) were truly God's grace and marvelous gift to me and to our WL community to see Jesus more clearly in 2019. Praise and thank God for his indescribable gift (2 Cor 9:15).
Thanksgiving. After much prayer, we added 3 elders at WL in 2019: Taneisha Robinson, Yohan Hwang and Chris Wada. Together with our 4 current elders (Rhoel, Tim Fitch, Jim Cook, myself) we have 1 African American, 1 Japanese American, 1 Korean American, 1 Filipino American, 1 Chinese American and 2 Caucasian Americans. Also we now have a woman and 6 men among our eldership. I thank God for his grace to grant us a greater diversity among our elders.
Let go of control. Over the past decade since the advent of WL in 2008, I've come to define the root of sin as the need to be in control—the irresistible desire to play God over our lives and over the lives of others (Gen 3:5). So I began praying for myself and to ask others to pray for me to let go of control over my life, my family and the church. This does not mean "kay se ra se ra, whatever will be will be." It is not an excuse for negligence or irresponsibility or indifference. I pray to let go of control while taking full responsibility over all matters that are within my sphere of influence. Practically, I pray that our eldership and leadership at WL church is a collective leadership that is equitable with no one person—such as myself—being dominant or domineering over others, which is always my strong temptation to do and to be. I pray to surrender and submit my life to God through the circumstances and through the people affecting my life.
Hearing and knowing the voice of our good shepherd Jesus is our prayer topic for 2020. It is based on John 10 and other Old and New Testament passages about the good shepherd beginning with Psalm 23. Thus, in 2020...
· We pray to hear Jesus the good shepherd. Jn 10:10:3b says, "The sheep hear his voice..." To hear our good shepherd we need to know his voice. Jn 10:4 says, "...for they know his voice."
· We pray to know the Lord in whom we lack nothing. Ps 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing."
· We pray to know our God who prophesied through out the Old Testament that he would shepherd his people at great cost and bring them back.
o Jer 23:3 says, "I myself will gather the remnant of my flock ... and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number."
o Eze 24:16 says, "I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak... I will shepherd the flock with justice."
· We pray to know our good shepherd who laid down his life for us. In Jn 10:11 Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
· We pray to know Jesus' heart to willingly shepherd God's flock without lording over them. 1 Pet 5:2-3 says, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care—not because you must, but because you are willing...; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock."
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