Spiritual formation

Empty!

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This blog, like Easter itself, if full of empty. Unlike this blog, though, Easter empty is full of God’s promises. The empty cross is full of God’s promise of forgiveness. The empty tomb is full of God’s promise of eternal life. The empty grave clothes are full of God’s promise of a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Even though you clicked on the link to read what you thought was a blog filled with profound insights into the mystery of Easter only to be disappointed by its emptiness, you will not be disappointed by the empty things you find on Easter morning.

My prayer for all of us this morning is that we will live into the fullness of God’s promises in the empty cross, the empty tomb and the empty grave clothes.

Now, get up and go to church!

Until next time, keep looking up…

I Still Don’t Understand…

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I’ve been contemplating Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son all week in preparation for Sunday. I’ve preached the parable many times before (find one example here), so one of things that makes it so difficult to preach again is finding something fresh and new to say.

You remember the parable, right? A man had two sons. The younger son tells the father that he wants his share of his father’s estate now. The father divides his estate between his two sons and the younger son travels to a distant land where he wastes his money in “prodigal” living.

When the younger son “comes to himself,” he devises a scheme to return home to the father. Surprisingly, the father receives him back and throws the grandest of parties for his lost son who is now found.

Meanwhile, the older son returns home after working in the father’s fields. He discovers the party being thrown for the younger son and becomes angry. He refuses to go in and participate, so the father comes out to him. “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found‘” (Luke 15:32).

A Story Once Told

I’ve shared the story of the first time my grandfather let me drive solo (find it here), so I’ll not share it here again, but I said that I didn’t understand it then that my grandfather was painting me a picture of God’s grace. As a matter of full confession, now that I’m so much older (that was almost 50 years ago!), I’m not so sure I understand it any better. Oh, I understand what my grandfather was doing, but I don’t really understand grace any better.

Okay, okay, okay! Yes, I do understand grace better…and, that’s the problem. I understand it. I just don’t want to live it. In my old age…the age when I should be living more as the Father than either of the sons…I find myself in the older son.

Jesus told the story to the scribes and Pharisees who were complaining about Jesus eating with sinners. In response to their complaint, he tells three stories: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Each one builds upon the other with the climax being the return of the lost son to the family. It is no wonder, that in response to the Pharisee and scribes, the story ends with the father’s interaction with the older son. The implication is clear: the older son was representative of the scribes and Pharisees.

Good Guys or Bad Guys

This is where it gets sticky for me. The scribes and the Pharisees in the New Testament are the bad guys, right? But, I consider the older son for a moment and I think, “Wait! He’s really not that bad.”

Here’s what we know about the older son. First, he was industrious. He was working the fields. He was doing his duty. Aren’t those laudable characteristics?

He was also very prudent. He said to his father, “…this son of yours has squandered your property…”

The older son exhibited loyalty to the father. He was where he was supposed to be doing what he was supposed to be doing. As a matter of fact, it was his loyalty, industriousness and prudence that kept the family farm together. It was because of him that the younger son even had a place to return to at all. He was the good son.

I want to be the good son. I like hard work. I like industriousness. I like prudence. I like loyalty. What is the danger in any of those qualities? Well, I can only tell you what I see in me…

The Pharisee in Me

First, sometimes I think I care more about tradition than I do people. I get too busy working that I don’t see the need of people around me…or I just don’t care. Apparently, the older brother knew what the younger son was up to: “squandered your property on prostitutes” (vs. 30). He knew but he didn’t do anything about it. Was it because he didn’t care?

Have I become hardened to the brokenness of others? Am I indifferent to the suffering around me? I’m reminded of what Clovis Chappell said, “There is no more dangerous or cruel sin than that of indifference–the ability to look upon the wounds and woes of others and be unmoved.”

God help me, but sometimes I really feel like I don’t care! I feel like a man standing on a pier watching someone drown and rather than throwing them a rope I simply say, “Shoulda’ learned to swim like I did.”

The world is going to hell. The world needs grace and I need to show it, but it’s just so hard! It’s hard because of the second thing I see in me, and that is that my sense of duty and justice have taken the place of joy in my life. My sense of justice can cause me to get angry. I didn’t say righteously indignant. There’s a difference.

Righteous indignation is born of love. Anger is born of envy. Jesus demonstrated righteous indignation when he drove the money changers out to the Temple (Matthew 21: 12-17). It was his love and concern for the people that motivated him. On the other hand, it was the envy of the Pharisees that motivated them to pursue Jesus, even to his death. What motivates me? I wonder?

Become the Father

This older son was farther away from the father than the younger son ever was. He may have been close in proximity, but he was further in experience. I think it is because the older son just didn’t understand the father. The father tells him, “Everything I have is yours…(vs. 31).” The father had already given it to him: “So he divided his property between them (v. 12).” The older son spent a lifetime trying to earn what he had already been given.

The implication of the entire story is for all of us–both older sons and younger–sons to become like the father. But, I’m just going to leave it right here–grace is easier to receive than it is to give. Honestly, the Father has got a whole lot more work to do in me.

So, I guess that’s why I still don’t understand. Maybe one day I will.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Pondering Tozer…

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The recent fire in our home put the reading of A. W. Tozer as part of my devotional habit on hold for a few weeks. My books were in the living room that was filled with soot and ash, and it was three weeks before the books were cleaned.

Okay, it’s been over a month since the fire and my house still isn’t clean, but that’s another story I’ll save for another time. I need to get over my frustration with the cleaning company before I express my sentiments publicly. Mama always said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.” So, I’m not saying anything.

I picked up Tozer again this week, and there are several quotes that I have been ruminating over the last several days. I share them here. Perhaps the quotes will prompt you to ponder, as well. Please keep in mind that Tozer died in 1963. If it was bad in 1963, how bad must it be today?

These quotes are from The Pursuit of God:

Self-Sins

“To be specific, the self-sins are these: self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them.”

Tozer identifies self-love as a sin. I get that, but at the same time, I wrestle with what Jesus said to the scribe in Mark 12: 31–“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself‘.” Where is that line? I know it has much to do with being as forgiving of others as I am of myself. I know when I screw-up, I am very quick to extend grace to myself, and make several excellent excuses for what I’ve done. I should be so quick to do that for others. I know there’s more to it than that, but I still want to know, “How do I love myself without being guilty of the sin of self-love?”

Self Promotion

“Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.”

Oh, the things we do in the name of Christ that have nothing to do with Jesus! Jesus gets credit for a lot of things he would really rather have nothing to do with, and he gets the blame for many things that are absolutely not on him. I suspect it is (at least in my case) because we want to avoid responsibility and accountability for ourselves. I noticed that self-responsibility and self-accountability are not in Tozer’s list of the “self” sins.

Scribe or Pharisee

“Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God.”

I am especially convicted by Tozer’s quote above because of one old seminary professor. That professor, after hearing one of my sermons, approached me and said, “Lynn, you have the gift of prophetic utterance. Use the gift wisely.” I fear I have not used it wisely, but rather have not used it at all. Unfortunately, I have fancied myself more the scribe (who has read) than the prophet (who has seen). Oh! To be one who has seen the Lord, high and lifted up, glorified and sitting on the Throne, instead of one who only knows what he has read of the glory of the Almighty.

Dying to Self

“Let us remember: when we talk of the rending of the veil we are speaking in a figure, and the thought of it is poetical, almost pleasant; but in actuality there is nothing pleasant about it. In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free.”

Every disciple must die–he/she must die to self, and as Tozer says, “It is never fun to die.” The greater pain comes in knowing that I must die to self everyday, and everyday that death is no less painful. Perhaps that is why I avoid it so much. Didn’t Jesus say, “If anyone desires to be my disciple, they must take up their cross daily…?” I am reminded in these moments of the words of the great G. K. Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

I think that’s quite enough pondering for one day (probably enough for a week). I admit I long to read Tozer because I know he’ll light a fire under me, but then I read Tozer and the conviction often outweighs the anticipation with which I began.

Tozer. Always compelling. Always interesting. Always convicting. Always challenging. Always worth it. May I commend him to you?

Until next time, keep looking up…

On the Glory of God and AI…

/ pastorlynnmalone / 1 Comment

So, this is Transfiguration Sunday, which in the Christian calendar, is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It was serendipitous (providential?) that our Bible in a Year readings for the week included Mark’s account of Jesus’s transfiguration.

I thought it would make good sermon fodder (it being Transfiguration Sunday and all), though Luke’s Gospel is the Revised Common Lectionary‘s chosen text for 2025. I’m committed to preaching from one of the texts we read in a given week, so Mark’s account it is.

As part of my preparation, I always go back and leaf through my sermon files to see what I’ve preached before. I found a sermon from Luke’s Gospel that I preached in 2007 (see it here). I had three points in that message from 2007:

  • Jesus was unique in His person.
  • Jesus was unique in His mission, and
  • Jesus was unique in His message.

Why am I telling you this? Because of what I did later in my preparation. I went to ChatGPT and put this in the chat box: “Sermon on Mark 9: 2 – 10.” Do you know what ChatGPT returned? A three-point sermon. What were the three points? In order, they were:

  • A Revelation of Christ’s Identity,
  • A Confirmation of Christ’s Mission, and
  • A Call to Christ’s message.

It was, basically, my sermon from 2007 sans the illustrations. Needless to say, I was as speechless as Peter was on Mount Tabor that day. It made me think ChatGPT has been reading my mail! Then I thought, “Well, yeah, that’s exactly what Artificial Intelligence does!”

As I understand it, Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence by computers. Admittedly, I don’t really understand it, but this much I know: AI is a machine, and a machine can only spit out what is put into it (I’m sure some computer geek out there will correct me), and someone, somewhere has somehow input all the information that’s ever been published online, so that when I put in “Sermon on Mark 9: 2 – 10,” it spit out a sermon very close to the sermon I wrote in 2007, and that countless other preachers have probably written, too over the centuries. Because that’s what AI does.

I’ll admit, AI is special. It is (and will be going forward) life-changing, maybe even earth-shattering. We might even call it a glorious discovery. AI is not, however, nearly as glorious as the discovery Peter, James and John made on the mountain with Jesus that day–that day they discovered God’s glory in human form.

Of this much I’m certain: Even if AI takes over the world (some say it will), it will never overcome the glory of God. One day, even AI will bend the knee (hypothetically speaking) to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let AI take over the world, for His Kingdom is not of this world. This world and all its wisdom will one day pass away and its glory will be gone, but the glory revealed on Mount Tabor will shine for all eternity.

So, yes, I have a sermon for today, and yes, it is from Mark 9: 2 – 10, but no, it was not written by AI. If you want to hear it, you’ll have to come to Haughton Methodist Church at 10:30 a.m.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Failure Doesn’t Have to be Final…

/ pastorlynnmalone / 1 Comment

The church where I pastor (Haughton Methodist Church) is reading the Bible through in a year. I made the commitment to the congregation that if they would read the Bible through in a year, then I would preach from one of the passages they read over the previous week. So far, except for one week, I’ve kept that commitment. The weekly readings have become my lectionary for the year.

This week, we read Matthew’s account (Matthew 26: 69-75) of Peter’s denials of Jesus. I love the Apostle Peter. One reason I do is because Peter’s journey through life (and faith) so greatly reflects my own. Peter’s is a life that experienced many transformations, and I believe there is something for all of us to learn, even in Peter’s (seeming) failure. I think Peter’s life reminds us that transformation is an on-going thing. It’s never a one-time event. That’s kind of what the whole “sanctifying” grace idea is about.

Sanctifying Grace

Let me focus on sanctifying grace here just a moment because I believe I see it at work in Peter’s life in these moments. In John Wesley’s understanding, God’s grace is real (primarily) in three distinct ways—prevenient grace, justifying grace and sanctifying grace.

Let me try to illustrate: I went to the heart doctor this week. Whoopee! The price of getting old, I suppose. The doctor informed me that I did, in fact, have a heart problem. Prevenient grace is like going to the heart doctor and finding out there is something wrong with your heart. There is a dawning awareness that something has to change…that transformation is needed.

Justifying grace is that moment when we come to embrace the reality that something is wrong with our heart, and that we’ll embrace the prescription offered by the doctor. A better analogy would be discovering you need a heart transplant (prevenient grace), and actually submitting to the surgery necessary to get a new heart (justifying grace), but hey, I don’t need a heart transplant so…

Sanctifying grace is learning how to live with your new heart condition. The diet has to change. The exercise routine has to change. There may even be a few medications involved (there is!). If we’re going to honor the gift we’ve been given, we have to stop doing the things we did before and start doing new, healthier things.

What does any of that have to do with Peter? I’m glad you asked.

Peter’s Tale

Peter’s life was filled with transformative moments. He walked on water (Matthew 14). That is a transformative moment. Yet, Peter had such small faith that he couldn’t sustain it.

Another transformative moment came when Jesus changed Peter’s name and called him “the Rock” (sorry, Dwayne Johnson), yet almost immediately after, Jesus rebukes him and calls him satan (Matthew 16: 21 – 23). Talk about whiplash!

Still another transformative moment for Peter came on Mount Herman when he witnessed Jesus transfigured, and Peter wanted to build three shrines for Moses, Elijah and Jesus (Matthew 17: 1 – 13).

Perhaps the most transformative experience of Peter’s life was his denial of Jesus. It’s interesting that the most transformative event is also considered Peter’s greatest failure.

Peter, who was ready to die for Christ, had a change of heart (a transformation?) when confronted by a young lady around a campfire.

His world had been turned upside-down when Christ was arrested…and yes, this same Peter who would deny Jesus three times was the same Peter, who at the time of Jesus’ arrest, cut off the ear of one of the Roman guards. Brash, daring, adventuresome…yet, humbled under a colossal failure.

God would, however, use Peter’s colossal failure to transform him into a disciple who would change the world. There is hope for me yet! Failure doesn’t have to define us. Failure doesn’t have to be final!

Let me share three brief lessons I learn as I survey Peter’s failure.

Temptation

First, temptation gets us all sooner or later. Peter, who walked on water, saw Jesus transfigured and even had his mother-in-law healed from her sick bed (wonder what he thought about that?) gave in to the temptation he faced.

Call it fear, call it peer pressure, call it whatever you’d like to call it–he was tempted and he succumbed. What’s worse, Jesus had warned him that it was going to happen. Peter, in his brashness, said, “Never, Lord!”

Never say never. Temptation will get even the best of us. Temptation will get us when we least expect it in the most subtle ways.

What a stark contrast between this Peter, cowering before a servant girl in a courtyard, and the Peter who would grab the sword and cut off a soldier’s ear.

It’s a good reminder that battlefields (spiritual ones) are everywhere, even in the most mundane places. There are battlefields even in the quiet, routine moments of life.

Lying

A second lesson I learn is lying gets easier with time. Peter denies Jesus not once, or twice, but three times, and with each denial he takes one step further away from the Truth.

Lie #1–“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lie #2–“I don’t know the man!”

Lie #3–“Dad-gum it, people (I didn’t want to use the language Peter probably used), I told you I don’t know that man!”

This is a moral failure in the worst sort of way. Seriously, lying to protect your own skin? How low can you go? Wait! Don’t ask. You might get the chance to find out. Friends, the truth matters. It always matters.

From Failure to Faith

One final lesson I learn (perhaps the most important one) is that faith comes after failure. Look it up in Merriam-Webster. Faith comes after failure (cute, huh?).

Peter heard the rooster crow and he was immediately reminded of Jesus’ previous warning. Matthew tells us that Peter wept bitterly. Peter could have chosen to wallow in this shame and his failure would continue to define him for subsequent generations, but we know that is not what happened.

Peter’s journey defines for us our response to our own failures. This moment of bitter weeping is significant. It marks the beginning of Peter’s repentance. Regret is a painful emotion, but it can also be a catalyst for transformation. When we are confronted with our own failures, we have two choices: we can either sink into despair or allow our brokenness to drive us back to God.

In Peter’s tears, we see a heart that is broken but not hardened. Unlike Judas, who also experienced regret but fell into hopelessness (Matthew 27: 1 – 10), Peter’s sorrow leads him toward restoration.

Restoration

Remorse, repentance, restoration. That’s God’s plan for our failures (moral or otherwise). All of it is a gift of God’s sanctifying grace. I’m reminded of the words to the old hymn of the Church “Grace Greater Than Our Sin:”

“Grace, grace, God’s grace; grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God’s grace; grace that is greater than all our sin.“

Peter, this Peter, who failed so greatly would go on to become the great leader of the early church, and would eventually give his life for the cause of Christ. His failure did not define him. Neither should ours.

Step Into Your Calling

One final point I would make…and it gets sticky here…our failures do not disqualify us from God’s service. Many would argue that point, depending on the particular failure, but I would say, either we believe in grace, or we don’t. We either believe in forgiveness, or we don’t. We either believe in restoration, or we don’t (ask the Prodigal Son).

Yes, one can be restored to ministry, but remorse and repentance are requisite. Peter wasn’t restored immediately. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus was intentional in alerting Peter of His resurrection. Jesus told the women at the tomb, “Go tell the disciples AND PETER…(Mark 16).

And, in John’s gospel, we find Jesus coming to Peter and the other disciples after His resurrection to fully restore Peter (John 21: 15 – 19) to leadership among the disciples.

This is a hard one to swallow, for sure, and it needs its own blog to unpack, but the reality is that Christian discipleship is hard work. It’s ugly work. It is, however, necessary work. And, there is no greater work that needs to be done.

This is a hurting world full of hurting people, both inside and outside the Church. This hurting world needs the message of grace in Jesus Christ. This hurting world and these hurting people need the message that failure doesn’t have to be final…now…or ever!

Until next time, keep looking up…

The Road Between Work and Worship…

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Part of my present devotional exercise is reading a sermon a day from Eugene Peterson, beloved translator of The Message paraphrase of the Bible. Though Peterson suffered some damage to his “evangelical” reputation near the end of his life, I refuse to throw the baby out with the bath water. Peterson was gifted with the ability to turn a phrase with elegance and simplicity, and with over 50 years in ministry, he turned many phrases that are both abounding in truth and utterly challenging.

If you’ve never read Peterson (outside the occasional look at The Message), I commend his work to you. If you are a pastor, you would benefit greatly from his memoir The Pastor: A Memoir, whether you’re just beginning the work of pastoral ministry, or whether you’re nearing the end of the journey. Another classic I would recommend any Christian read is A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. This book will change the way you view Christian discipleship. Well worth the read.

So, one of the sermons I read this week offered me a particular challenge in how I view the church (little “c” intentionally used–meaning the local congregation). Here are the two paragraphs that challenged me:

“The ideal church, as far as I’m concerned (which is rooted in my understanding of Scripture), would be one where nobody came near the church for six days and everybody came on Sunday. The best kind of church would be one with no committees or organizations–nothing happening here between Sundays. Not because we have nothing to do but because we have everything to do. During the week we’re out carrying crosses, denying ourselves, following Jesus, making our witness, helping our neighbors, serving God, working responsibly and as hard as we can to be the people of God in serving and suffering the way he’s called us to do it. We work. We do.

“But, then, on the “seventh day” (the first day for Christians), we come here and leave all that behind. And we enjoy everything that God is doing. We become carefree. Free. We become children again. We let God do it all, and you sing and adore and become aware of his presence.”

Sermon “Transfigured”, Eugene Peterson

Ah! A congregation with “no committees or organizations.” A pastor’s dream! But, without the incumbent “work” of ministry that all Christ-followers are called to do in the interim, I’m sure it would soon become a nightmare. Perhaps it has…

I am reminded by Peterson’s words that there is to be no distinction between our work and our worship. We worship AND we work. Worship is meant to fuel our work. Too often, we compartmentalize our lives such that our worship is divorced from the everyday-ness of life. “This” is my religious life, and “that” is my work (everyday) life. I get so much out of the “worship” part that I want to return tomorrow or the next day to experience it again, but in doing so, I neglect the necessity of the “work” part of loving my neighbor or greeting the stranger. Worship becomes the excuse for my failure to work. Ouch!

It is easy to be Christian on Sunday. It is much more difficult to be Christian on Monday when we are met with the challenge of actually putting feet to our faith. And, if I can go to enough bible studies and serve on enough church committees, I can find solace in the fact that “I’ve done my Christian duty.” It becomes easier to forgo the loving my neighbor or caring for the orphan part of our Christian duty.

As a pastor serving full-time in vocational ministry, I thought it was my responsibility to lead Bible studies and develop programs that enhanced the life of the congregation and fostered discipleship in its members. To do otherwise would likely have gotten me fired! Besides, how would anything ever get accomplished in the life of the congregation without committees and organization? Right? Someone has to lead all that. The “work” of the church does need to get done, after all.

Now, serving as a bi-vocational pastor, I’ve come to appreciate the necessity of the work that must be done outside the walls of the church. Listen, folks! The lost aren’t coming to the church anymore. If we would encounter the lost, it will be in the ordinary, everyday encounters we have with the people where we live most of our lives–our work and our home. It is in that environment that we must live obediently and faithfully. It is in the Monday through Saturday of life where disciples are formed. It is in the Monday through Friday of life where the lost are introduced to Jesus, and are offered the opportunity to embrace him as Lord and Savior.

Worship is not an escape from the world…a welcome respite from the challenges of life. Worship is meant to propel us into the world where our work becomes our witness, and our service to others reflects our faithful obedience to Jesus Christ.

I certainly don’t mean to diminish the work I did as a full-time vocational minister, nor am I casting dispersion on the many friends and colleagues who continue to do that work faithfully. I am, however, calling into question the motivations for doing what I did as a pastor, and for doing what we do as congregations. Age and context have given me a different perspective, and that change in perspective has me questioning some of my deeply held beliefs concerning discipleship. That’s all…

I guess the long and short of it for me is that there is no distance between worship and work. The journey of discipleship follows the same road between worship and work. I suppose faithful discipleship is learning how to “keep it between the ditches” along that road.

Until next time, keep looking up…