Jesus Is the Right Answer

I suspect that you are familiar with the Sunday School Cop-Out. It typically occurs on drizzly Sunday mornings when the conversation in class drags and the lesson isn’t landing its usual punch. The coffee hasn’t kicked in yet and we’re more interested in doing mental planning or daydreaming than we are in diving deep into the scriptures.

Perhaps I’m the only one who has ever felt this way.

But I doubt it.

In these moments, we tend to settle on a pat ‘Sunday School answer’ for the queries that our teachers pitch at us. These responses are often trite, plainly obvious and void of depth and complexity. They are also usually right.

A wise teenager once leaned over in class one Sunday to tell me this Sunday School hack when I was a youngster: “Always answer with, ‘Jesus.’ He’s always the right answer to every question.”

True. Who is going to argue with that? Jesus is always the right answer to our questions. And yet, this answer also proves to be unsatisfactory because it doesn’t take seriously our own responsibility in the circumstances that we face.

The question that we have been holding these last couple of weeks has centered on our ability to be One in the Spirit when our differences are many. Yes, Jesus is the right answer, but we can’t stop there. For us to truly be One, as Christ and God are One, we’ve got to actually do something to work for love and unity.

Romans 12 provides a fitting response to this question. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul gets specific. He becomes directive. He employs strong verbs like honor, share, bless, rejoice, and live. Undoubtedly and without question, Paul’s writings are spot-on. They are the right answers to the question about how we are to live in unity together.

But what is it that we’re supposed to do next? What does the next step look like for the church of the 21st century? What does it look like today to practice these instructions?

In Romans 12, Paul writes:

Love must be sincere.

Translation: Love is not a feeling. Love is an action that we do to one another. Our acts of love must be genuine and fully expressed.

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Translation: Double-check your definition of evil. Consider that what you think is evil may just exempt you from being guilty of practicing evil, yourself. Look to Christ as your measure to determine what is good and evil.

Be devoted to one another in love.

Translation: Make a commitment to one another. Stay connected to those who irritate you, annoy you, and who hurt your feelings. Practice resiliency and don’t check out on relationships when they don’t go your way.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Translation: De-centralize yourself. Resist the effort to act solely out of your own self-interest.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Translation: Serve God with the passion and enthusiasm that is due Him. We serve God when we serve others.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Translation: Anticipate God’s power to redeem the dark moments we experience. Remind yourself that it will not always feel the way it does when you feel under assault. Take on the characteristics of the persistent widow that Jesus references in praying without ceasing.

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Translation: Be generous. Check yourself when your head tells you, “They don’t deserve help. They haven’t earned our investment. They won’t help themselves—why should we help them?”

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Translation: Do acts of loving kindness to those who hurt you. Pray for their well-being. Refrain from damning those who stand for the things you oppose. Instead, demonstrate your love for them in tangible ways.

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

Translation: Allow yourself to rejoice in the good news of others. Have open eyes to see the ‘least of these’ in our community and do acts of loving kindness for them. Be present with them. Take their hurts and pain seriously.

Live in harmony with one another.

Translation: Stop posting inflammatory political messages on social media. The one-upmanship inflames passions and distorts truth. But most importantly, it does not encourage healthy dialogue or unity. It only fosters discord. We need to have good and rich conversation about any number of difficult items. Social media, as we are learning, does not help accomplish this kind of discourse. When in doubt, post pictures of your grandchildren. Or your cats.

Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Translation: Strive to see Christ in everyone that you see and meet.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

Translation: When someone hurts you, refuse to succumb to the temptation to hurt them back. Recognize that we oftentimes respond to evil and pain with disengagement, anger, pouting, passive-aggressive actions, plotting, and by inciting discord. Do not do these things in response to evil or hurt.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Translation: Do not gossip. Have the right conversation with the right person at the right time. Listen to people’s reflections about themselves, not other people. Respond to vitriol about another person with the response: “I think you should talk to _________.” Encourage individuals to connect with one another. Do not try and mediate on their behalf behind closed doors.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Translation: Remember the words of Billy Graham who said: “It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love.”

On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Translation: We love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because Christ commands us to, not in order that they will feel pain through our passive-aggressive activity. Read Billy Graham’s quote again.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Translation: The ends do not justify the means. Doing evil to overcome evil is evil. Period. Diffuse wrong with right.

In summary: Look like Jesus in all things and in all ways.

Because Jesus is the right answer. 

First Baptist Loves Guests and Visitors!

Church members and guests are always welcome to visit us at First Baptist Church throughout the week. Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM until 12:30 PM, and then 1:15 PM until 4:30 PM. You are welcome to stop in and visit us in our church office, get some work done on a mission project, or take a few minutes of quiet in our church sanctuary. If our doors are locked when you arrive, that means children are on our premises learning about Jesus and how to be church together. Simply press the 'call button' beside our two main entrances (our back parking lot door, and our Landis Street entrance), and someone from our office will ‘buzz' you in momentarily. 

Pulpit Guest for Sunday, March 4, 2018

After a 13-year career in church music, serving congregations in Alabama, Virginia and Kentucky, the pursuit of a new ministerial calling led Seth Hix and his family to North Carolina, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree from Wake Forest University School of Divinity.  Seth began as Church Engagement Coordinator for CBFNC in June f 2017.   His responsibilities include providing leadership of the Ministerial Transitions Team, Reference and Referral program, and a focus on strengthen relationships with local congregations.  Seth and his wife, Genelle, live in Greensboro, NC with their two young children, Caleb and Madilyn.

Choral Worship with Gardner-Webb Concert Choir

On Sunday, March 11, we have a special treat in store for us during the 10:30 worship hour.  The Gardner-Webb University Concert Choir will present a "sermon in song."  The choir is under the direction of Dr. Paul Etter and accompanied by Timothy Scruggs.  Several of our church families will be keeping students in their homes, and we will be serving them a covered dish lunch following the service.  The housing is covered, but if you would like to support this effort by bringing food for the lunch, please contact Virginia Burrell, who is coordinating the meal.  I know that you will enjoy this special music from one of our NC Baptist universities.

Bob Holquist

Children's Ministry Day 2018

Children's Ministry Day 2018 was a success as children took "missions on the road" last Saturday. The children visited HomeBase on the WCU campus where they learned about this student ministry sponsored by the Baptist Children's Homes, toured the building, and met interns working with the program. 
The highlight of the "missions road trip" was packing over 130 gallon-sized ziplock bags with toiletry items or breakfast foods. Those will be available to students who come to HomeBase for help meeting basic needs. 
After a pizza lunch provided by WMU, the children and adult helpers boarded the church bus and headed back to Sylva, ready for more mission adventures over the next few months!
Nineteen people participated from Sylva FBC on the trip, with many others providing soap, shampoo, granola bars, etc. A big thank you to all who helped. A special thanks to these children who participated: Lucie Moore, Mattie Moore, Ellen Mathis, Zeb Mathis, Oliver Kindy, Parker Kindy.
We are proud of you!

Not Receiving Our E-mails?

If you know someone who is not receiving our e-mail communications and would like to (the Chimes, prayer list, etc.), please e-mail the church office at fbcsylva@gmail.com or call at 828-586-2095. 

BALL Club Charades and Bingo

Ball Club will meet Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 10:30 am for Charades and Bingo.
Bring a sandwich for lunch.  Drinks will be provided.
Jennie and Sheila. 399-0623

One in the Spirit?

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
 
In the dim recesses of my mind, I can still hear my friends singing this song.
 
It must have been in the mid-1990s. I was a student leader in the Baptist Student Union at NC State. My role on our leadership council was to lead and direct our weekly programming events.
 
We called it, Monday Night Live, I believe. Yes, the name of our evening programming was shamelessly stolen. To the best of my awareness, though, no one from NBC ever called us to ‘cease and desist.’
 
Our hour-long program involved the following elements: a welcome, an ice-breaker, some singing, a prayer, some kind of content or guest speaker, and at least 15 minutes of announcements (yes, this sounds strikingly similar to our modern-day worship hour at church).
 
But our evening needed some kind of closing element that would help us to feel like the group that we were hoping to become. So, we alighted on the familiar song, “We Are One in the Spirit.” All 50 of us would circle up, hold hands and sing the song that Jesus, himself, prayed to the Father: “I ask… that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you (John 17:20-21).”
 
In truth, it was not a throw-away element. It was an earnest plea for unity…because our campus ministry group was a mess. And by ‘mess,’ I mean a disaster.
 
Oh, we were a jolly bunch (at times). We got things accomplished on campus and in the community (mostly). And we grew in our relationship with Christ (occasionally).
 
But my lasting recollection of my time in the BSU was that we were divided. We were an odd mix of insiders and outsiders, social misfits and intellectual snobs, attractive and repugnant. We came from different church backgrounds and brought with us a host of flashpoints and disagreements. We argued, fussed and fumed. We debated headlines, championed our points of view, and retreated into tribes that would wage social war with one another.
 
One thing I must give us credit for: we were resilient. We fought and made up, we argued, and we laughed at ourselves. We would vilify one another on any particular issue, but we’d still lead Bible studies together. We were becoming adults together and campus ministry was an important part of our social and emotional development.
 
Our ending song, then, was a plea that in the midst of our disagreements and divisions, we could still be ‘One in the Spirit.’ And truly, God answered our prayers.
 
In light of our current socio-political, and socio-theological realities, 1995 feels quaint.
 
At best, our differences are fault lines that lie quietly beneath the Church’s surface, only occasionally splintering the Body of Christ. At worst, Christians are so divided that we demonize any hint of ‘otherness’ and shade the world into right/ wrong, black/ white, good/ evil. Fundamentalism—that is, the idea that our worldview is absolutely right, and that all others should be damned—is prevalent on both the right and on the left.
 
For over a century, our own particular church has prided itself on being a church that eschews fundamentalism and values the fact that we are not all of the same mind. We are a faithful bunch that populates most every station on the continuum from anarchy to communism. And while our church’s tolerance for a variety of opinions and beliefs is what helps to define us as followers of Christ in the Baptist tradition, we also must concede that our way of being church is no longer normative in our day and age. The friction from the movement of tectonic plates that litter our Facebook feeds causes us to increasingly not want to have anything to do with one another.
 
I find a strange comfort in the reminder that none of this is particularly new in the span of human history. No, we have always been a wily, tribally-loyal mishmash of a people throughout the ages. But we shouldn’t get too comfortable knowing that we are not alone in our toxic and broken reality. History teaches us that fundamentalism (I’m right, you’re wrong!) and the inherent discord that it sows results in horrific violence, civil strife, and genocide. Much of this was done in the name of Jesus, so we’d best tread carefully.
 
A judicious reading of the Gospels reveals that the disciples were just as divided as my campus ministry buddies were—arguably even more so. The disciples hailed from different backgrounds. There were people who were intimately related to one another, and others who were strangers, sinners and social outcasts. Some were power-hungry. Others were vengeful and mean-spirited. There were revolutionaries and blue-collar workers. They were ambitious. They were naïve. They were liberal. They were conservative.
 
Upon a final analysis, the only thing holding them together was Jesus.
 
And even that had a limited shelf-life.
 
The only way for us to be One in the Spirit when our differences are many is Jesus. If Christ is at the center, and if we are all facing him, a circle will form. So long as we’re all facing Christ, we will find ourselves side by side with those we might ordinarily dismiss. This, I believe, is the only way we can experience unity in the Spirit.
 
To that end, consider Paul’s practical suggestions for maintaining unity in Christ during tumultuous times. Romans 12:9-21 provides us with a template for how we are to be One in Christ’s Name.
 
Romans 12
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
 
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this is who God is calling us to be.
 
Jesus is telling us: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid…In the same way, you must let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.”
 
Our Father. Yes, Our Father.
 

Church-Wide Hike

Phenomenal weather blessed our first church hike! Make plans to join us on our next church-wide hike on Sunday, March 25. 

Dust Worth Dying For

“Remember that you are from dust, and to dust you shall return.”
-Genesis 3:19

Remember.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of our journey to the cross. We do not travel alone, and we are not leading the way. We follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he makes his way to Jerusalem. The journey will take us some 40-odd days. But when we arrive at the destination of the cross, we will see firsthand what love truly looks like.

Our faith is based on remembrance. Our communion table is etched with Jesus’s own words: “Do this in remembrance of me.” When our church gathers together, we rightly remember Christ’s words, his ministry, his miracles, his sacrifice and his love.

But we are called to remember far more than that.

We are to remember our ancestors of faith in God’s Chosen People—the nation of Israel. We are to recall their struggles. We are to remember their triumphs. We are to remember that like them, we too were once slaves in captivity. We remember God’s liberating power. We remember His promises to the patriarchs and matriarchs, the prophets and the judges. We remember that God is Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and King.

Although this sounds like a comprehensive list of remembrances, there is but one more significant thing to recall:

“Remember. You are from dust. And to dust you shall return.”

It is a familiar trope in literature, folklore and film. The child leaves home with the well-intentioned admonition from a parent:

“Remember who you are, son. Remember your family name.”

“Don’t forget where you are from, daughter. Don’t fail to recall the people who shaped your life.”

In these moments, the listener is reminded that our identity is shaped by our past. The truth about our beginnings is the True North that will keep us focused and centered when we venture away from the familiar.

It is significant, then, that we remember who we are in the grand scheme of things. We remember the truth about ourselves so that we can be clear about where our power and redemption come from. We are the created. God is the Creator.

Lent is a season that confronts us with this truth. We are not our own gods. We cannot save ourselves. The One True God has made a promise with us and we have willfully broken the covenant through disobedience and unfaithfulness.

Remembering our sin during the season of Lent does figure prominently, but not in the way we might assume. The purpose of remembering our sin is not to flog ourselves, but to remind us of our absolute need for Jesus.

John the Evangelist says it well:

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
-1 John 1:5-10

When we remember faithfully who we are, what we’ve become, and who God is calling us to be, God provides us with the gift of perspective. When we accept the ashes and begin our pilgrimage with Christ to the cross, the way in which we see ourselves can be reoriented. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to the One who has created us. And because of the saving love of Christ Jesus, we belong to the One who has bought and redeemed us.

We may be dust. But during Lent, we are able to remember that we are dust worth dying for.