Make All Things New

Come and join us this Friday night!

A young man was killed near our church building last weekend.

Saturday night we setup for church at Richmond Hall in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Finished up around 6:30 p.m. As I drove past the playground across the street, nothing was out of the ordinary. It looked like the beginnings of another typical night in the neighborhood. Sadly, what came later was anything but typical.

We arrived for worship the next morning completely unaware of anything tragic happening less than 100 feet away and merely 9 hours earlier. There are conflicting stories about the events but the end result is the same: a 21 year-old boy from the neighborhood is dead. He was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman in front of the playground. As I said, there are lots of different stories about how all this came to happened and I hate to speculate, so I won’t. Here’s the report from our local ABC station:

When I heard about this, I was settling in with my family after church. Got a text about it and read a brief news release. I asked myself, “How do you bring shalom to a situation you know nothing about, with people you don’t know and who may not care about what you have to offer them?” Thankfully, I didn’t have to spend too much time dwelling on that thought in the comforts of my home.

“Gonna go down there and check around” was the text from my good friend (pastor and co-laborer for the gospel) Rob Burns. My most excellent wife totally understood as I got up and left.

“How do you bring shalom in this situation to people you don’t know and who may not care about what you’re offering?” I thought to myself again. Then it struck me. “You enter in!”

We need not look farther than Jesus to see someone who entered into a world of pain where people didn’t know him and certainly most didn’t want what he was offering. Yet he came to bring shalom (in part at first) to the people. He did this by entering into their lives and sharing their pain, ultimately being rejected and killed so that we wouldn’t have to bear the wrath for our sin. That is true caring. That is true love.

I’m not saying that Rob and I do this perfectly like Jesus (hangout with us for a while and you will see our lives are marked by God’s grace, not our own accomplishments). But the Holy Spirit prompts us to be like Jesus (while conforming us more into his image) in our city.

So, we prayed, walked around the playground, talked with people, listened to people, talked to the police and just generally looked for ways we could help the people in our community. We tried to enter in.

I think the answer to loving your city, to serving it and bringing a foretaste of shalom to your city is simple but impossible. It’s simple in that it only requires you to go and enter into the lives of people around you. That really doesn’t take much (even if it may be uncomfortable sometimes). Besides, you are just following the leading of the Savior as he entered into this world.

However, it is impossible in that – on our own – we won’t seek the shalom of the city and we won’t enter into people’s lives until Christ has entered into ours. The gospel must first change us before we are propelled out on mission. It’s impossible because we can’t make that happen. It’s all God’s grace to us and through us so that we can be blessed and a blessing.

My question for all of us is: “If God has called you to himself, how is he sending you to spread shalom in your neighborhood?”

It’s about 10 p.m. on a weeknight and I run out to the local convenience store to get something to drink for Jill and myself. I park my car and quickly take in the scene. There’s almost always someone out front of this store asking for change so I looked to see if it would be the guy who doesn’t talk (just puts out his hand) our the drunk guy with the the basketball-sized growth in his abdomen. To my surprise, it was neither. It was a young girl. My heart sank. “She shouldn’t be out here by herself. What’s she doing out here by herself. She’s probably only 19 or 21 years-old.”

I saw her approach a couple other guys coming out of the store and they handed her some change. I said a short prayer and grabbed all the coins I keep in my cup holder. Got out of the car and headed in.

“Hey baby. Hey baby, Do you have a quarter honey? I’m just a little short and can use some help.” That was her opening line. Once again, my heart sank because that seemed entirely too forward an approach for a young girl to take.

“I have a few quarters. Here, this is all I have right now. Take it. We all come up short and I’m glad I can be of help.” I said to her as I was walking toward the door.
“Thank you baby” she said. It wasn’t so much what she said (really don’t think anyone has called me baby since I was in diapers!) but the way she said it that made me feel very uncomfortable. I have been propositioned by prostitutes on multiple occasion when I lived in California. This girl probably wasn’t doing that on this night. It was just the overtly sexual way she requested money that made me uncomfortable. Not that I thought she may be coming on to me but that she would use her sexuality to extract money from me (or anyone else). I wasn’t angry, jut sad. Sad that this girl was going up to lots of different guys and talking them up just to get a quarter. Sad that there wasn’t much I could do.

I went inside and bought our drinks and prayed again. Before I headed back outside, it hit me. “Dummy, you can give her something. You can give her the hope beyond what she is doing. The problem isn’t merely that she is putting herself into dangerous situations, it’s that she is settling for this as the way to live her life. I can talk to her and listen. By God’s grace, I can show her how Christ has changed me from someone who would at best dismiss her and at worst objectify her into someone who is compelled to serve her and tell her about the Gospel.

She engaged me again with the “Hey baby” stuff and poured on a bunch of compliments. I handed her the change I just got from the store, looked her right in the eye and said, “What are you doing out here? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, baby, I’m fine,” she answered.
“Seriously, what are you doing out here and how can I help you?”
“I’m just trying to get some cigarettes. That’s why I am out here. Just getting some change.” She proceeded to ask me what I do for a living. I told her that I work as a chiropractor and am in training to be a pastor. She responded as I would have expected.
“I hope you don’t think bad of me. I’m not really a bad person. I just do this to get by. I use to go to church. We’re Christians. Just stopped going. Wish I had listened to my mom. She gave me lots of good advice and I just didn’t listen to her and now I know she was right all along. I mean you’re a pastor and all, you probably think I am doing something horrible here.”
“Well, actually, I am not sure what you are doing out here. I am just concerned that you are alright out here by yourself.”

What followed was her pouring her heart out. I heard of how she struggled in her childhood with a learning disability, how she is still on SSI, how she has to live a life she doesn’t like at all because that’s the way it is. I just listened. She cried and laughed but the wall came down a bit. Sure, she still paused to ask others for change but in the moments when no one came by, she shared quite openly.

She told me that her life went really bad when she was young. Her dad drank a lot and completely neglected her and her twin sister. He would only pay attention to them when he would do crazy stuff in his drunken highs. At about this time, a man in his late forties rode by on his bicycle. She stopped him and said to me, “I want you to meet my boyfriend.” She introduced me to the guy on the bicycle as “a pastor” and he shook my hand saying, “God bless you,” in an alcohol-slurred dialect and rode away.

She continued on with how she doesn’t like living with him but doesn’t have anywhere else to go right now. She wants to go back to school and “straighten out her life”.

“You probably think I’m a mess, don’t you?” She asked me,
“Not really. None of us are good. We are all a mess. Believe me, I no better than you, I just have been forgiven because of Jesus.”
“Oh, I believe in Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and Savior. I just don’t go to church anymore. I love the Lord though.”
“That’s great. Can I just ask you one thing? If you love the Lord, what in your life shows that?” I don’t think I asked it as an accusation. I believe it was said in love.
“Yeah, I don’t really know. I guess I just like things that don’t make me look good or I’ve made bad decision and love other stuff too. I swear I’m not a bad person.”
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what I think of you. It’s what God see that matters the most. And you know what? He thinks you are settling for less than the best He has for you. You are finding joy in lesser things. He wants you to know that He is the ultimate joy. He loves you and will provide people to help you and care for you.”

She was a bit shocked. She’s spent her whole young life seeking pleasure and I was telling her that she wasn’t aiming high enough. I told her more about the gospel and she listened. I’d like to tell you that she repented and came to faith right then but I have no way of knowing. The Spirit moves where and when He wants. But I can tell you what happened next. She teared up and asked if she could use my phone. She wanted to call her sister. I let her. And she talked to her sister who apparently was in a worse situation than she. Her sister was crying and the girl told her she was talking with a “pastor” and handed me the phone. Her sister didn’t really want to talk to me (she was just crying) so I didn’t get to say much. She looked at me and said, “She needs to talk to a man, it would be good for her.” I told her that if she needed someone to talk to I would listen but if she needs a man just to make her feel better, I’m not that guy.

She ended the conversation with her sister and talked to me a bit more. Turns out she lives in the neighborhood where our church has a cafe. She knows about it. I invited her to stop by, to come meet some of the people there and meet some of the ladies that would love to talk with her and help her out. She said she would. Then she turned and walk over to a group of guys and started the whole act over again.

I was sorrowful and rejoicing at the same time. I was sad that she had been the victim of her dad’s sin. That she had been so abused. Sad that this city is so fully of homes where kids go to sleep without a dad. Sad that I grew up without my dad at home. Sad that this girl was so hopeless. Yet, I was rejoicing as well. Rejoicing in the knowledge that God is the True Father that even the best earthly fathers can only point us to. Rejoicing that for 30 minutes outside a convenience store, this girl shared her broken life with me and I could offer her a bit of hope. Rejoicing in the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:20… God continually makes his appeal through broken people like me.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

A couple nights ago I had to go out and FAX some paperwork. I was running up against a deadline but at least somewhat mindful that in the city, there are always Gospel opportunities.

Thankfully, I got everything done just before the store closed. As I got in line to pay, the guy in front of me was checking out and a little short of cash. “What am I going to do?” He said to the girl at the register. She appeared less than interested and just wanted the guy to go. He looked at me and said, “I’m a dollar short, can you believe it?”
Normally, I wouldn’t blog about my “good deeds” as I wouldn’t want to waste my reward here as opposed to storing it up in heaven (read Matthew 6:1-2) but I have to share this one because it is what God did with me after the fact that is my point. But let’s get back to the story…

So I set the dollar on the counter as I said, “I’ll gladly help you out. We all come up a bit short, don’t we?”

As he thanked me continually he said, “Do you like movies?” I thought that an odd thing to ask in the circumstances, but said, “Yes” anyway. “I’ll give you a movie, that’s what I do for a living. And that’s when I realized I may have made a mistake. That’s when I noticed that he was buying a very large spindle of blank DVDs.

Now I was born in Los Angeles and have been around people in the film industry. This guy, while shifty eyed, talking fast and smelling a bit like smoke, may have been able to fool others into believing he was in the industry, not so with this seasoned Angeleno. I realized I just helped a guy buy DVDs so that he could make more pirated DVDs to sell illegally.

“I’ve got a movie for you buddy,” he said excitedly. “It’s the right thing to do. Giving you something for what you gave me is the right thing to do.”

I wish I could have said something else. I wish that in that moment I had something helpful to say but all I came up with was, “No, the right thing to do is to help someone in need. Please don’t steal my joy by having to repay me. It’s not grace if you earn it.”

Yeah, he didn’t really understand that.

So, when I got outside. He was waiting for me to give me a movie. I’d like to say that I stood my ground and said no thanks or something like that, but I didn’t. I let him give me something, said thanks, waited for him to leave and tossed the DVD into the trash.

As I drove back home, I was thinking about how I had just tried to help someone in need only to find him using the help for less than good purposes. I was a bit frustrated with myself for not being more discerning. Had I just, even in a small way, been guilt of aiding and abetting a minor criminal? This guy is a scammer and thinks nothing of it.

And then I recognized that I am no better than a “copyright-breaking-DVD-pirate”. All too often I steal from God. I think more highly of myself than I ought to and take credit for things for which God alone deserves the glory. I am a “law-breaking-glory-pirate” trying to pass off myself as my own copy of God, hoping others will buy it. Ouch!

But God still offers undeserved grace to me. He sent His Son to live the life I couldn’t live and die a death in my place. He has called me as an ambassador of His grace. Yes, it kind of stinks that by showing grace to this guy, I kind of helped him to continue his illegal operation. But offering grace is what I am to do, even if it is to people who don’t deserve it… just like me.

Two months into walking out this calling to minister to the people of NE Philadelphia, I have found a tendency in my heart that scares me. It’s a tendency towards comfort and isolation. It’s a tendency to come home from work, park my car in the garage (yeah, we have a garage in our row home), go inside and close the door.

While it may seem like nothing is wrong with this picture, let me contrast it with how the first few weeks of life in the city were for us.

I would come home and we would go for a walk. We’d take our kids to the local playground each day and meet new people. We would sit outside and talk to our neighbors. We were new to the neighborhood and people knew it, so they talked with us. But now the newness is beginning to fade and routine is starting to set in. O how I must fight against complacency! I need to not listen to the lies: “You’re tired, it’s been a long day.” “You don’t need to go out and meet people, you’ve done enough this week.” On and on they spin.

Truthfully, missional living is not easy. You have to die to yourself and follow Christ. And that is the call to Christians. It is hard but it it joy-filled. Nothing harder, yet nothing greater.

So in my struggle to get myself out of the house the last couple of days, I was encouraged by a letter placed on our door recently. It read:
“Walker Street Block Party”
Yup, that’s right. If I was going to struggle with going to them, God was going to bring them to us. To our block even.

He continues to meet me in my weakness. Not to berate me or cut me down, but to gently encourage me and remind me that I am not the one determining the fate of my neighbors. He doesn’t really need me in Philadelphia to grow His Kingdom. It is a distinct privilege that I get to witness what He is doing in Philly and be used as I am. This just doesn’t seem fair. Why would I get so much when I’ve given so little?

It’s not fair. And that’s why it’s grace. So, would you pray for me to grow in accepting this? Would you pray that I would continue desire to share this with others, especially when I am tired?”

Mark Gali recently wrote in Christianity Today:

Francis of Assisi is said to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.”

This saying is carted out whenever someone wants to suggest that Christians talk about the gospel too much, and live the gospel too little. Fair enough—that can be a problem. Much of the rhetorical power of the quotation comes from the assumption that Francis not only said it but lived it.

The problem is that he did not say it. Nor did he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us something about the spirit of our age.

I have to admit, I’ve never liked that quote so it was encouraging to read this article.

All too often I like to think that there is truth in it (but that is just sin creeping in). The gospel is a message proclaimed not a deed done. Acts of mercy can point people to the gospel but they will never save anyone. O that I would have more boldness in heralding the Good News and not trying to hide behind my good works.

Earlier this week, our small backyard shed was broken into and the lawn mower and power edger were stolen. It seems we are having a bit of a crime wave in our small, suburban town. A number houses have been broken into and now a few lawn mowers have been stolen as well.

While I don’t mean to minimize these crimes (the police told me they suspect it is all drug related so that’s no good anywhere), I do find it highly ironic that – for all the warnings we have received about the dangers of moving to the city of Philadelphia – we’ve been victims of crime on more than one occasion here in the suburbs. I jokingly tell people, “We need to move to Philly quick, because the suburbs are dangerous!”

I am not writing this to try to demonize the suburbs or even making fun of them. My point is that sin is sinful and all around, no matter where you live. Crime occurs as a result of our lineage in Adam, not our place on a map.

Perhaps the most dangerous place to be has little to do with where we live but what we believe. Thinking that people are safer in the suburbs simply because the crime rate may be lower is one of the dangers of the suburbs. If we think we are safer because the crime is lower, could we not be lulled into complacency about the real problem? The real problem is sin. And the real danger is missing sin’s presence because of crime’s absence. I’m not suggesting that all suburbanities are disillusioned, simply sounding a warning to consider.

We must not be forgetful or ignorant of the sin and around us and most importantly, the sin within us. If comfort and security comes from where we live, we must fight it. Our battle is not merely with the crime and criminals of this world but with the evil powers that blind the minds and hearts of people (Ephesians 6:12. 2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, our only hope, our true security and comfort comes from Jesus, the One who has already defeated and overcome these evil powers.

Are you in? www.advance09.com

Tim Keller – Preaching the Gospel from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Tim Keller – The City from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Tim Keller – Cultural Transformation from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

If you like Keller, be sure to read his book “The Prodigal God”… awesome!

“When people, especially those who love rap music, when they hear Christian rap, it’s just an automatic respect if the quality is good,” Gray, a biblical counseling major, said. “… People stop in their tracks, and they lend you an ear. It’s almost like Mars Hill, the Areopagus. It’s just this marketplace where people want to hear your ideas.”

“When they hear relevant metaphors and similes that are from the culture but are affiliated with God’s Word and the Bible, it’s just a wonderful tool in the hands of God,” he said. “And I’ve seen so many people, I’ve just seen their jaws drop and I’ve seen the Holy Spirit dig inside of their heart and start to remove that stony heart. And they hear the Gospel through rap music.”

And those are just two of the great quotes from a Townhall.com article on Flame preaching the gospel through hip hop. It is well worth your time.