May 5, 2013
© 2013
Four weeks from today your new pastor, Mike
Snell, will preach to you for the first time. I hope you are all excited as you
anticipate that day and the beginning of a new adventure for First Christian Church,
Midwest City. I appreciate those of you who have said you’re going to miss my
preaching, but I’m sure some of you will be glad for the change. Mike will
bring a fresh voice with fresh insights and fresh energy. Like children
anticipating a birthday or Christmas morning eager to open the presents, you
will soon discover the gift God is sending you with Mike Snell as your pastor.
We read in Acts 16:9 that Paul had a vision
of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to “come over to and help us.” If you
went back to the beginning of the paragraph in verses 6-7, you’d see that the
Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going where he had planned. I sense the frustration
of Paul, Silas and Timothy at knowing where to go next.
After Paul had the vision, the pronouns in
the story change from third person – “they” to first person – “we.” From here
forward in Acts, most scholars agree that the pronouns indicate when Luke, who
wrote Acts, was travelling with Paul. Verse 10 says that after Paul’s vision we crossed over to Macedonia, convinced that God had called us to preach the good news to them.
While we can’t say for sure, it may be that Luke was the Macedonian man in Paul’s
vision. Practical and mystical worked together.
I know the Search and Call Committee put in a
lot of practical work, and I know many of you have been praying for God to call
just the right new pastor for you. I believe that through your congregational
vote, Mike Snell heard the voice of God calling him to come to Midwest City and
preach the good news to and with you.
Instead of waiting to see if Mike Snell will
be a great pastor, together you can make him a great pastor.
Your new pastor, Mike Snell, will be a great
success when you prevail on him with hospitality, listen for God to speak
through him, and pray for him.
The Macedonian man in Paul’s vision said, “Come
over and help us.” He did not say, “Come and take over for us.” Ephesians 4:12
says that among God’s gifts to the Church are pastors who “equip the saints for
the work of ministry.” Pastors do not do ministry, they motivate, prepare and
deploy the people of the church – you – to do ministry. For that reason my
personal preference is to be called “a pastor” rather “a minister.”
Some congregations are prone to what I call
the “magic pastor syndrome.” They somehow expect that a new pastor will solve
all of their problems and get the church and its budget to grow without doing
anything themselves.
Counseling is not my specialty, but over the
years I have learned that when people start to explain their problems to me by
saying, “I’ve made a mess and need help,” they almost always get better. But if
they start by saying, “Things just aren’t working out. People keep messing me
up,” they almost always stay stuck in their problems. The man Jesus healed in John
5:1-9 seems to just such a passive dependent person. Only John’s Gospel tells
of Jesus making visits to Jerusalem. The other three only tell of him going to
Jerusalem for his destiny with the cross. Only John reports Jesus healing
anyone in Jerusalem. In John 4, Jesus had been moving around Galilee and
Samaria. In Cana he healed the royal official’s son.
After
this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now
in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha,
which has five porticoes. 3In
these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5One
man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When
Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said
to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7The
sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the
water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down
ahead of me.”8Jesus said to him,
“Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9At
once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that
day was a sabbath.
This story leaves me with a myriad of
troubling questions. Many invalids lay in those porticos. Why didn’t Jesus just
shout, “Everyone who wants to be made will, get up and walk!”? This man didn’t
ask to be healed. Jesus didn’t commend his faith, nor did he articulate any
faith. As the story continued, when he was questioned about carrying his mat on
a Sabbath, he seemed clueless about who healed him, and when Jesus identified
himself, he ratted Jesus out to the Temple authorities. He didn’t even say, “Thank
you.”
One curiosity of this story is that we don’t
actually know the name of the pool: Bethzatha, Bethesda, Bethsaida all show up
in good ancient manuscripts. As a result for many years scholars questioned if
there was such a pool. But it has recently been excavated, revealing a trapezoid
with a portico between two levels, making for five porticos. You can see a
picture of the excavations and a model of what the pool may have looked like at
the QR code or web page on the bulletin. You may have missed verse 4 from the
KJV about an angel stirring up the water. That is not in those best manuscripts
but seems to have been added to explain a superstition that apparently did circulate
at the time but was not endorsed by John.
The man had been ill for 38 years, but the
illness is not identified. Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?” As my
granddaughter Elizabeth would say, “Well, duh!” But I think Jesus was
challenging the man’s will, his mental and spiritual health more than his
physical health. Jesus told him not to make excuses for not getting in the
pool. Don’t blame Jesus when you’re challenged about carrying your mat on the
Sabbath. No more sin, no more passive dependency: “Get up and start walking!”
The magic pastor syndrome I mentioned earlier
is a form of congregational passive dependency. I think the words of Jesus to
the man by the pool are also suitable for a congregation about to welcome a new
pastor, “Stand up and walk!” Lydia whom Paul met in Philippi is a great example
of how to welcome a new pastor. She was a Gentile, God-fearer who joined a Jewish
women’s Bible study and prayer group in this Roman city with too few Jewish men
to form a synagogue. Lydia will show you how your new pastor, Mike Snell, will
be a great success when you prevail on him with hospitality, listen for God to
speak through him, and pray for him.
She opened her heart to listen eagerly for
what God was saying through Paul. When Mike Snell preaches, don’t compare him
to me, Don, Les or any other preacher. Don’t analyze and evaluate his sermons. Open
your heart to listen for the voice of God in what Mike Snell says.
That Paul met Lydia at a women’s prayer group
is no accident. Prayer is not about us informing and instructing God about what
to do. Prayer is about us getting enough in touch with God that we can be
informed and instructed about what to do. So praying individually, in groups
and even with Mike Snell is the way to tap into God’s leading and power for the
new era opening for this congregation.
Lydia was apparently a wealthy business
woman. She prevailed on Paul, probably with Silas, Timothy and Luke to stay in
her home, which became the home base for the church in Philippi even after Paul
and company were run out of town. Her example of radical hospitality suggests
that by prevailing on Mike Snell to be at home with you, will open your hearts
so he can prepare you to do the work of the ministry in Midwest City and Choctaw.
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