Be Afraid to Know Your Neighbors

 Originally published by The CiRCE Institute in May of 2014.  Reprinted with permission.

by Brian Phillips

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.”

- From “Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front” by Wendell Berry

We arrived home after church on the second Sunday of Easter, my wife leading our children into the house while I unloaded our van of its many bags and miscellanea.  We greeted our next door neighbor as he pressure washed his siding, and noticed that another neighbor, Mrs. Edith, was making her way across the street to us. 

We seldom see Mrs. Edith outside (in the South, we often use “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, or “Miss” along with the first name of our elders), as she has a little more trouble getting around these days, and when she neared my wife and me, it was clear that she had been crying.  She wanted us to know that her husband had been taken to Hospice and given two weeks to live.  Liver cancer.

It took a few moments for us to reply.  Mr. David had always gotten on so well, even though we knew him to be in his 70s.  He still drove around, worked in the yard when he could, walked the sidewalks often, and quickly offered cheery greetings anytime we saw him, but it seems that men of his generation refuse to discuss such matters. 

Our children love Mr. David.  They call out their “hellos” to him in loud chorus, and my 6-year-old daughter wept quite openly when she heard the news.

It is sometimes easier not to know your neighbors.

Across the street, and on the same weekend, our neighbors of nearly nine years moved.  More than neighbors, they are friends.  Over that span, they have seen our family go from zero children to number four on the way.  We have shared nine years of birthdays, cookouts, borrowed lawnmowers, loud laughs, heart-breaking news, and countless missing ingredients for cooking.  They did not move far, but I still expect to see them bound out of the garage or front door every time I look towards that house.  Upon hearing the news of Mr. David, I needed them in that house.

After lunch and tucking the kids in for their Sunday afternoon nap, I drove to the Hospice House in town.  Getting out of the car took some doing and not a few prayers.  “I’m a minister,” I reminded myself.  “I’ve been a minister for nearly 13 years.  I can do this without tears.”  Actually, I’ve never been able to, and I didn’t believe my own pep talk that Sunday either.  At his bedside, my tears fell while my I prayed “…comfort him with the promise of life everlasting, given in the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.” 

Driving home, I wondered, is this why people put up 8-foot privacy fences, keep closed garages, and live like vampires, even in closely packed suburban neighborhoods like ours?  With all the talk of “community” that swirls about our neighborhoods, churches, and schools, we talk too little of how painful it is.  Community does mean love, connection, friendship, and feasting; but it also means loss, separation, disappointment, and death.  Rejoicing with those who rejoice must include weeping with those who weep (Romans 12:15).  We cannot “cross the road” from our neighbors’ suffering like those in Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Wendell Berry said, “Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.”  Deep “conviviality” or friendliness is rooted, not in pleasantries and small talk, but in suffering.  True community brings healing to those who hurt, and it cannot be attained any other way.  The Lord has made us for community, with Himself and one another, but not for community in mere abstraction.  It is a community forged in tears, and when we experience it – even in the midst of its weeping – it is a beautiful thing.

Living through Dying

An Exhortation by Pastor Brian Phillips to Holy Trinity Church on October 18, 2015

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:35-45

James and John approach Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  That sounds absolutely outlandish to us, not because we haven’t thought the exact same thing, but because most of us would never be honest enough to say it out loud.

Jesus plays along, asking them what they want, to which James and John reply, “Grant to us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  The other disciples are angered by this, perhaps because they didn’t think to ask first.  Their angry reaction was just a sin of a different kind and Jesus uses the opportunity to tell them that they have no idea what they are asking for – “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  Jesus is using sacramental language of baptism and communion, but He is referring to His own suffering and death.  

James and John would participate in that baptism and communion, as we do, but they did not realize that it was an act of dying to self, not exalting self.  We need to take two reminders from this passage.  First, Christ came to serve, not to be served and we are to walk as He walked – serving others, not seeking to be served.  Second, serving Christ means dying to self.  When we are baptized, the old man is washed away and we are called to walk as new men in Christ.  When we take communion, we are communing with Christ in His body and blood, which were given in death.  When we take the bread and wine, we are reminding ourselves of the need to die to self and live for Christ.

Too Easily Pleased

Pastor Brian's Exhortation to Holy Trinity Church on October 11th, 2015

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’  And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’  And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’  Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Mark 10:17-22

When this young man asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life, Jesus quotes all of the commandments that specifically address his relationship to other people.  When the young man claims to have faithfully kept those commands, Jesus adds something – go and sell all you have and give it to the poor.  

Wait!  That’s not one of the commandments, is it?  Yes, it is.  In fact, it is the one the young man most needed to hear – “You shall have no other gods before me.”  The young man was sorrowful because his riches were his god.  He wanted eternal life, but not enough to receive it as a child – with complete abandonment of himself into the arms of Jesus (v. 15).  He wanted the kind of faith that made him feel assured that he was okay, without requiring anything of him.  But, that kind of faith does not and cannot save.  

Do we believe Christ’s words that the last will be first, that those who lose their lives will find them, that the poor in spirit receive the kingdom of God?  “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

The rich young man was too easily pleased.  As C.S. Lewis said, "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

More Echoes of Christ

Originally published by The CiRCE Institute (used by permission)

by Brian Phillips (Pastor of Holy Trinity Reformed Church)

Christ as Temple, Food, and the New Jerusalem

Only the Gospel of John records Jesus’ meeting with the woman at the well. Only John records Jesus’ declaration of Himself as “the living water.” Only John tells of the miracle at Cana – the turning of water into wine, an echo of baptism and the communion feast. Only John mentions Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, in which He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And John’s is the only Gospel to record this detail of Christ’s crucifixion.

“Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.  So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him.  But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:31-34). 

Certainly, this detail echoes all of John’s previous allusions to Christ as water (4:13-14, 7:37-38), but it does much more.  The piercing of Christ’s side introduces another echo, back to Ezekiel 47.

“Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar.  Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.

Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep.  Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep.  Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through” (verses 1-5).

Christ is the water, but He is also the temple.  After Jesus entered the Temple in John 2, overturning the tables of the money-changers and swindlers, He told the disciples about His upcoming death and resurrection, describing it in these terms: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up…but he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21).  The real temple is Christ. 

While not recording the water and blood coming from Christ’s side, the other three Gospel writers describe the Temple veil, which is Christ’s flesh (Hebrews 10:19-20), being torn in two at His death (Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45).   

Ezekiel continues:

“And he said to me, ‘Son of man, have you seen this?  Then he led me back to the bank of the river.  As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other.  And he said to me, ‘This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh.  And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.  Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea.  But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt.  And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing’” (verses 6-12).

Jesus is the Temple and the water flowing from Him waters the earth, filling it and producing food - fish, trees, and fruit.  If we are thirsty for righteousness, Jesus is living water that quenches the earth, and gives the Spirit of righteousness.  If we are hungry, Jesus brings forth food.  In fact, He is food, the bread of life.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:47-51). 

The picture of Christ as water, Temple, and food (not to mention light) finds completion in another of John’s writings, Revelation:

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.  They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.  But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (21:22-22:2).

Sunday at Holy Trinity - "Water, Bread, & Wine"

"Man is a hungry being.  But he is hungry for God.  Behind all the hunger of our life is God.  All desire is finally a desire for Him.  To be sure, man is not the only hungry being.  All that exists lives by “eating.”  The whole creation depends on food.  But the unique position of man in the universe is that he alone is to bless God for the food and the life he receives from Him."

- Alexander Schmemman, For the Life of the World

On Sunday, October 11th, we will take a brief hiatus from 1st John to remind ourselves of what God does to, in, and for us in the sacraments of baptism and communion.  

We will look at several passages, beginning in Matthew's Gospel 3:11-17 and 26:26-29, then moving to quite a few others as we connect baptism and communion to the Old Covenant sign of circumcision and the feasts.

We have the joyful privilege of celebrating the baptism of little Benjamin Cranford and welcoming him into the Church as well!

Let the Little Children Come

Exhortation at Holy Trinity Reformed Church (October 4, 2015)

“And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.  But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’  And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them” (Mark 10:13-16).        

In the Gospels, we see Jesus angry with the money changers in the temple, we see Him angry with the Pharisees on occasion, but here Jesus is not just angry but “indignant” with the disciples.  Why?  Because they would not let the little children come to Him.   

The parents of these children, it seems, believed that just the touch of Jesus would bless their children.  The disciples did not.  Jesus, they thought, surely had more important things to do.  Jesus disagreed, and it was not the parents who were rebuked for being “superstitious,” but the disciples for their unbelief.  In fact, Jesus commends the simple trust of these children and, I would add, their parents, who believed that their children simply needed to be near Jesus.  “And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.”

Having children in the church service is not always easy.  They "whisper" loudly, they fidget, cry, drop things, spill things, and can distract entire rows with their smiles.  But, Jesus wants them near.  Not just in the same building, but near Him, where He may bless them with His Word, His body, and His blood. 

This is the most basic reason, we baptize little ones - because Jesus wants them near Him.  We give little ones communion because Jesus wants them near Him.  And because Jesus blessed the simple faith of both these children and the parents, we cannot take this lightly.  The touch of Christ matters, so may God grant us to “receive the kingdom of God like a child,” for our children and ourselves.    

Breaking Bread Together

On Sunday, October 11th, our congregation will join with the saints of Trinity Lutheran Church to honor their annual Homecoming Sunday.  Join us for a great time of feasting, conversation, and mutual celebration as the Body of Christ!

Where: 3747 Trinity Church Road, Concord, NC

When: Sunday, October 11th @ 12:00 (after morning worship)

Miscellaneous: Bring food if you can!

Echoes of Christ

Originally published by The CiRCE Institute (used by permission)

by Brian Phillips (Pastor of Holy Trinity Reformed Church)

Christ as Water, the Gospel of John, and Listening for Echoes

In Matthew 5:6, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  In the previous Beatitudes, Jesus spoke of those who are “poor in spirit” (verse 3), those who “mourn” (verse 4), and those who are “meek” (verse 5), those who are "hungry and thirsty" (verse 6); none of which carry the appearance of righteousness or strength.  Those who are blessed by God are those who are needy and know it.  

It is a strange paradox of the Kingdom that those who are the neediest are those who are most blessed. The one who dies will live.  The one who loses his life will find it. The one who is first shall be last, while the last shall be first. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. The one who is wise in his own eyes will be shown a fool, while the one who cries out in need of wisdom will be given it. All such needs are filled in Christ. 

The language of hunger and thirst frequently appears in Scripture. David prays, in Psalm 42:1-3, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’” Expressing his great thirst and hunger for God, David found only tears for food. 

But David answers his own soul in verses 5-7 of the Psalm: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.  My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.  Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.” 

What happens to those who hunger and thirst for God? They are filled. David was fed and quenched by his tears for a time, but God answered him with deep waterfalls, breakers, and waves over him. 

Isaiah 55 provides a similar picture: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” 

God has compassion on the hungry and thirsty.  Verses 6-7 of the same passage says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

When man hungers and thirsts for righteousness, what does God do? Verses 10-11 say, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  God’s compassion and mercy are not merely enough, they are overwhelming.  God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness with water from the very heavens (“rain and snow”), with bread to eat and with seed – that is, plenty of bread to come.

Earlier, in Isaiah 12:1-3, “You will say in that day: ‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.  Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.’  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” 

Jesus alludes to this passage in the Gospel of John chapter 4. There He met a Samaritan woman to whom He identified Himself as “living water.” He said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13).  Later, in John 7:37-38, Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 

Jesus flows with the rivers of living water and those who come to Him receive the Spirit of righteousness (John 7:39) and they too will flow with rivers of living water.  No longer thirsting for righteousness, they will overflow with it.

Only the Gospel of John records Jesus’ meeting with the woman at the well. Only John records Jesus’ declaration of Himself as “the living water.” Only John tells of the miracle at Cana – the turning of water into wine, an echo of baptism and the communion feast.  Only John mentions Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, in which He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” 

Such beautiful connections, echoes, or traces are found throughout Scripture and, indeed, all of life because all reality is rooted in the Triune God Himself, and incarnate in the Person of Christ. Learning to listen for such echoes is a source of joy in reading, teaching, and all of life.