City of Peace?
On Dec. 6th, President Trump made the following announcement, “Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital… This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.” Over 20 days later many of us still have more questions than answers. I’m guessing some of the more common questions are: isn’t Jerusalem already the capital? Shouldn’t we support Israel? Why is this a big deal? So here are five things that you might need to know about Jerusalem. (Warning: This is a heavy history post)
1. Jerusalem is one of the most important cities in three major world religions.
And this is why Jerusalem is such a fought over area. The three major religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three of these religions trace their roots back to Abraham, and from Abraham to King David who first captured the city between 1005-999 BCE. For the Jews, this is where the temple was built, where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac, and where most religious festivals are centered. For Christians, in addition to the Jewish significance, it is the place where Jesus spent a lot of his time teaching and healing people in the temple courts, performed miracles, had the last supper, prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, was crucified, resurrected and ascended into Heaven. For Muslims, Jerusalem, more specifically the Dome of the Rock, is where Muhammad ascended to Heaven and received the second pillar of Islam (praying five times a day). And since Abraham, David, Solomon, and Jesus are also prophets in Islam, the city carries significance for many of the same reasons that Christians hold it significant.
2. Jerusalem has rarely belonged just to the Jews.
To say Jerusalem has seen some hardship is an understatement. When David first took Jerusalem 3000 years ago, it belonged to the Jebusites, and therefore wasn’t part of the land allotted among the 12 tribes. This meant that David could set it up as the capital city to signify a united Israel and not show favoritism to one tribe over another. When the kingdom divided in 930 BCE after Solomon’s death, Jerusalem became the capital of the Kingdom of Judea. Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and many Jews were exiled. Enough Jews returned to Jerusalem between 538-515 BCE that they were able to rebuild the temple. Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem again 332 BCE, and it remained under Greek rule until the Romans captured it in 63 BCE. Israel remained under Roman rule, and then Byzantine rule until 614 CE. It was mainly under Arab rule until the Crusades where Christians and Muslims fought for hundreds of years over religiously significant sites. The Mamluks controlled Jerusalem from about 1291-1516 (if you’ve never heard of the Mamluk it’s ok, I hadn’t either). The Ottoman Empire took control for the next 400 years before losing it to the British during World War One.
This is where we come to the crux of the current conflict. In 1947 the United Nations came up with a plan for the British Mandate to be terminated and for Jerusalem to become an international state, or “corpus separated.” Basically, the plan was for Jerusalem to not be owned or controlled by any one group of people. This would allow all three religions to have access to their holy sites and have some benefits for the Palestinians and Jews. The Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted the plan, but Arab leaders refused to sign anything that had any form of territorial division. This started the Arab-Israeli wars, which saw Jerusalem declared the capital of Israel in 1949, and the final Arab-Israeli war was a six-day war in 1967 in which Israel declares Jerusalem unified and gets us pretty close to today’s current state of affairs. All in All, Jerusalem has been “destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked an additional 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times," according to Eric H. Cline’s tally in Jerusalem Besieged.
3. There is a difference in the nation of Israel and the decedents of Israel.
This might seem obvious, but I think this is an important distinction to make. During all of the conflicts, exiles, and conquests (not to mention marriages) very few people can tell you which of the 12 tribes they descended from. Even before Jesus’ time, several people converted to Judaism (Esther 8:17 gives us one of those instances) and what we call the Old Testament was translated into Greek which leads to many Greeks becoming converts who were later called Gentiles. GotQuestions.org has this to say:
“It is a common misunderstanding that following the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in the Jewish-Roman wars of ad 70 and 135, the Jews of Palestine were driven from the land as a people and that modern diaspora Jews are their descendants. There never was a great “dispersion” or “mass exile” of Jews following the Jewish-Roman wars of ad 70 and 135. Most of the Jews were “people of the land”… peasant farmers indifferent to politics but devoted to their homeland. Keeping a low profile, they remained in Palestine, many becoming Christians and Muslims under Byzantine and Arab rule. As mentioned earlier, Jews of the Diaspora, including the ancestors of today’s northern European, Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim, continued to be largely the descendants of proselytes. Today, dark-eyed, brown-skinned Palestinians are more likely to be Abraham’s physical descendants than the light-skinned northern European Ashkenazim displacing them.”
Even today, about a quarter or Israel’s population is non-Jewish. I bring this up to try to accentuate the difference between a people group and a political state. Support for Israel is not synonymous with support of God’s people.
4. The word you are looking for is Zionist.
It’s a pretty common belief among Christians that Israel belongs to the Jews. This hasn’t always been the case though, and it has gained a lot of popularity in America since the formation of the Moral Majority the 1970’s and a famous televangelist saying in 1980 that “I firmly believe God has blessed America because America has blessed the Jew. If this nation wants her fields to remain white with grain, her scientific achievements to remain notable, and her freedom to remain intact, America must continue to stand with Israel.” A Zionist wants Jewish people to return to Israel to claim their homeland according to the Bible. A Christian Zionist sees this as one of the steps required for Jesus to return to Earth.
Another term you might hear in this conversation is Dispensationalist Christian, which is a view that Christianity has restored lost elements of Judaism. Again, Jews returning to Jerusalem is a big step to the end of the world. However, in this scenario, two thirds of the Jews will die, and the other third will convert to Christianity. Both Zionists and Dispensationalist Christians have ulterior motives for their support of Israel. Whether it comes from a gratitude for being part of the Christian story, hopes in speeding up the coming of Jesus, or hoping to eventually convert the Jews to Christianity, their support of the nation of Israel has very little to do with the country of Israel itself, and in fact their political stances are usually very different (Jews leaning more liberal while Zionists and Dispensationalist are more conservative).
If you are looking for more information or things to look into yourself, another major view is Supersessionism, or Replacement Theology, in which Christians have “replaced” the Jews as God’s chosen people.
5. The Methodist church has made an official statement concerning Jerusalem.
The full statement can be found here. However, this is an excerpt:
“The decision by the President of the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there goes against 70 years of consensus within the international community that Jerusalem should be an international city, a city of peace, open to people of all faiths. As pilgrims who have ourselves visited Jerusalem, we know first hand the deep significance it holds for people of many faiths.
The United Nation’s partition plan adopted November 29, 1947, called for Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be a corpus separatum (a separate entity) that would be open to all. Today, not one government has its embassy in Jerusalem. Every U.S. president from Truman until now has affirmed that any final status of Jerusalem must embrace such openness and be negotiated by Israel and the Palestinian people.
United Methodists have long supported the international consensus that the things that make for just and lasting peace in the Middle East must include a shared Jerusalem. Our General Conference declares: “Jerusalem is sacred to all children of Abraham: Jews, Muslims, and Christians. We have a vision of a shared Jerusalem, as a city of peace and reconciliation, where indigenous Palestinians and Israelis can live as neighbors and, along with visitors and tourists, have access to holy sites and exercise freedom of religious expression. The peaceful resolution of Jerusalem’s status is crucial to the success of the whole process of making a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Power of Praise
On a typical Thursday night usually, the praise team meets to rehearse for the upcoming Sunday. We all walk into rehearsal with that week’s burdens, or joy’s on our shoulders. Just before we begin, I normally say a short prayer asking God to guide our hearts and instruments to a place where we will honor God with our efforts. Now I will be very honest; there have been nights where I feel my personal worries were so heavy on my shoulders I was questioning how I would lead the rest of the team. All who know me know I carry my heart on my sleeve. If something is on my heart, I will share it, good or bad.
Here is the amazing thing which happens when we lay our troubles down to the Lord. He will ease the load!
During our rehearsal time, we will typically run over each song three times sometimes more. And by the end of the rehearsal, each musician will realize when we began playing the songs they were a bit rough. However, by the time we finish, we feel we are giving out best to God. And if it is not our best we will not do the song on Sunday. We are to bring our first fruits to the lord. An amazing transformation happens in the hour and a half or two hours we are rehearsing. If we truly are living what we are singing all the stuff we are bringing to rehearsal has eased up and God has lightened my load.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
If we honestly bring our open hearts to worship and ask for Gods help and sing his praises, those burdens, we entered with become lighter.
In the Bible, in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 Jehoshaphat is going to battle a massive army. Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, stood and told King Jehoshaphat God says “this is not your battle but Gods. Have faith.” Jehoshaphat sent the musicians out in front of the army to sing praise to God.
“Early in the morning, they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God, and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets, and you will be successful.” After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”
As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”
We are just normal everyday people, but the power of praising God is an unstoppable force. Too many times we are put into situations, and we are telling ourselves we have everything under control. Let’s be real; we are not in control. What we do have is the power to step back and ask God for help, guidance. God has never left you or will forsake you. If we ask for God’s will, we are trusting him no matter what the outcome.
“But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me”
Some of my quiet, genuine moments on the platform is early on Sunday morning when no one is in the sanctuary. Just God, me and the piano. For me singing praise to our father is a way of surrendering to his will and laying my heart out.
You do not have to be on a platform to have those moments with God. You just have to make yourself available.
God does not ask us to be biblical scholars; he just wants us to give thanks, spend time with him and come to him with humility.
Mike Conrad serves as our Worship Director. When he's not preparing for worship or playing an instrument, he enjoys spending time with his wife boating and fishing. Learn more about Mike here.
#ChurchToo
Christmas Eve is one of the biggest days for churches. In our church alone we’ll see about three hundred people more than we usually do on a Sunday. Even though most of America’s traditions point otherwise, we celebrate Christmas because Jesus was born in Bethlehem to the virgin Mary. If you read Matthew 1:19-26 you’ll see one of the two passages in the entire Bible that talk about that virgin birth. I don’t know how many sermons I’ve heard on Joseph being a good guy for trying to dismiss her privately or secretly instead of public shame and disgrace, but there is a new hashtag on twitter called #ChurchToo that has completely changed the way I see this story now.
You might have heard of the #MeToo that came around a few weeks ago, and all of the Hollywood accusations going around, and closer to home we have Roy Moore’s accusations. They all involve sexual abuse, some have publicly apologized, some have flat out denied the accusations, but it’s been hard to watch. But then I came across #ChurchToo, and my heart broke. Here are a few excerpts:
“When I was in college, a male Sunday school teacher taught my class that rape wouldn’t exist if women just learned to say yes more often.”
This sentence plays in my head every single day. #ChurchToo
A teacher and an esteemed member of the baptist church in grew up in was caught with a student. 4th grade. Others came forward. The church protected him. My best friend was one of his victims. She committed suicide in High School. #ChurchToo
I was 13 and the pastor’s daughter. A prominent church member molested me, and I reported him to the church. The church covered it up, fired my father, and made the church member an elder. #ChurchToo
That and, questions like "what were you wearing?", "did you lead him on?", "are you sure it was rape- did he *actually* penetrate?" from my Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) leader #ChurchToo
A guy I met at my church’s junior high camp sent me sexually explicit emails about how he’d molested his sister’s friend while she was asleep. He was proud to finally be brave enough for his “confession.” I got in trouble for opening the emails. #ChurchToo
At a friend’s youth group, in response to a talk on purity and modesty, l went with tears in my eyes to a female volunteer. I shared that l had been raped and felt shame about not being pure. She responded by asking if l had repented of my role in what happened. #ChurchToo
I wish that these were the worst or the majority of the stories shared, but they aren’t even close. There are literally hundreds of stories shared, most of them without mentioning names or churches involved, and therefore having no ulterior motives for the person sharing. The fact that I feel the need to specify that these women who are finally sharing their experiences with churches and abuse don’t have a reason to make up these stories is sickening. This isn’t a witch hunt; this isn’t thousands of people from all over the world unifying to bring down the church with made up stories. This is people opening up about times the church, the people who claim to follow him, got it wrong and stopped being the bride of Christ.
Yes, the Bible talks about modesty. It also talks about cutting off body parts that cause you to sin (Matthew 5:29), being better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around your next if you cause a little one to stumble (Luke 17:2), and killing the rapist and protecting the woman from shame (Deut. 22:25-27). And just for the record, the verses right before and after that last one do not say that a rapist gets to marry his victim and just pay off the father, it’s more along the lines of two consenting people having sex before marriage and having to stay committed to each other (Hebrew words don’t always translate nicely into English).
Some of the other misogynistic misinterpretations of the Bible have to deal with Eve being the sole reason sin entered the world (Adam ate the fruit right along with her and Romans 5:12 says it was when he sinned that sin entered the world, not when Eve sinned), wives submitting to their husbands (which is not the same thing as submitting to abuse) and women not being able to speak in church (some denominations still believe this means women can’t be pastors, even though there has long been solid exegesis to show that Paul didn’t mean all women for all time).
The church has a very real problem. We claim to believe “in Jesus Christ, [God’s] only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary”. One of our core beliefs is believing that a teenage girl didn’t have sex with her fiancé. We praise her fiancé for not wanting to shame her even though it had to be difficult. In our own modern lives, some have little hesitation in saying women are just liars when it comes to sexual assault. We take their pain and their bravery and twist it around to make them out to be the bad guy. And at our worst, we acknowledge that there is abuse but cover it up because they are a big tither (or whatever other reason we think makes it ok).
I don’t know what the solution is. I am much more thankful now for our church’s Safe Sanctuaries policy that tries to prevent abuse from happening. But a policy doesn’t solve everything. There are still dozens of other areas we need to address, but an awareness that a problem exists is the first step in doing something to bring about change. So read through some of the comments, weep with those that are hurting, and pray that we can start to do something about this.
Is That In The Bible?
Thanks to the internet there has been an explosion of different prospectives on your favorite movies. My personal favorite is the new plot summary for Finding Nemo - “The protagonist’s wife is murdered by a serial killer while his son is left physically disabled. After his son is kidnapped, the man must travel thousands of miles with the help of a mentally unstable woman in order to get him back.” Of course, there are many others that just completely change the whole mood of a movie. The most depressing for me is about the Lord of the Rings trilogy - “Nine hours of men returning jewelry.” There are dozens of these plot lines explained badly out there, and I always laugh at them.
So then I thought, how would this work with Bible stories. David and Goliath - teenage boy, cheats in single combat and then chops off the head of his defeated opponent. He proceeds to break the rules of the agreement by chasing down his enemies stabbing them in the back all while holding the decapitated head of a giant. Gideon, the story of a scared farmer who reluctantly obeys God, raises an army, down sizes that army twice, and then proceeds to trick the worlds biggest army into killing itself. Jesus was basically on a three-year backpacking trip with 12 outcasts who didn’t quite understand what was going on. John the Baptist is killed because of a striptease.
There is a reason that this is usually called explain a movie (Bible) plot badly. These descriptions leave out some of the most important things, especially the Bible examples. They leave out the most important component of the story, God. Gideon isn’t about how Gideon tricks the big bad army into killing themselves but about how God can use the least important person possible who has the least credentials to do his will. But even though these bad explanations aren’t the points of the story, they help us do something we often are bad at - read the Bible like it’s our first time.
There’s this well-known parable called the parable of the sower. This guy is throwing seeds around. Some seeds land on good soil, some land on a path, on rocky soil, or among the thorns. Jesus goes on to explain what happens to the seeds that fall on the various soils and let’s just say it only turns out good for the seed that falls on the good soil. As a kid, I heard this parable all the time, and the message was usually “be the good soil” so I thought I was the good soil. But then Francis Chan wrote a book called Crazy Love where he used this parable to say “don’t assume you are the good soil”. It blew my mind. I had read that story so many times and knew the punchline that I forgot to put myself into the story; I never thought about if I was good soil or not. More than likely most of us fall into the weedy soil, we have some roots, we are growing, but we are constantly fighting to grow in our faith journeys because of all the distractions (weeds). We have to deal with. We love Jesus, but we also love football. We love the church, but we want to spend time at the beach. We would love to give 10% of our income to the church, but the new iPhone just came out.
So read the Bible as you’ve never read it before. Put yourself into the stories, and then put yourself into a different character’s place in the story and see if that changes anything for you. Try to picture exactly what is going on and place it within the larger context of what is going on. Learn to read the Bible for all it’s worth.
What?
We all have seasons of change. Some we plan on and others that we do not plan on and we adapt. Many of you know that my wife and I are in a season of change in geography. Moving from the hustle and bustle of Orlando to Navarre with all the pieces, which have to fall into place. We have not moved in 20 years so you can imagine the chaos of packing. A friend of mine said everyone should move once every ten years to get rid of the stuff you don’t need. We feel very blessed to be moving here, and through everything, God’s hand is guiding us.
There is a huge amount of trust associated with this change in season. Vicki and I love to fish, and we are excited to be in an area where we can explore new bodies of water to cast our lines.
Jesus is standing on the shore after the disciples have had a long night of fishing but no catch.
“Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. ”
If you have spent any time fishing in a boat and you have been anchored in a current or with the wind blowing you always throw your line or nets with the wind. So your line will stay tight. This is what the disciples have been doing throwing the nets with the wind. When Jesus said throw your net on the right side of the boat, which would go against all rules in fishing. “When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.”
How many times in your life have you been casting a net and come up empty? Then there is God saying try it my way. You might lean your head to a 45-degree angle and say WHAT? Which I am sure the disciples were saying the same thing. But they trusted Jesus and the nets were full of an abundance of fish. We all have that moment when we say “you want me to do what?” Trusting God will align you with God’s desires and not yours.
A friend of mine Pastor Steve Hambrick once told me while he was preaching a sermon, he heard a voice say “Do 10 Push-ups now” WHAT? He thought to himself. He said he continued the sermon and heard the same voice say “Do 10 Push-ups now” So not to be disobedient he did ten push-ups in the middle of his sermon. At the end of the service, a woman came up to him crying tears of joy. She had been trying to get her husband to church for ten years, and he came that day. The husband told her the only way he would come back to church is if the pastor started doing push-ups in the middle of his sermon.
“You never know what God will ask you to do; he is asking you to trust in him. Regardless of your circumstances, take the time to align yourself with God. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The last thing Jesus said be for he ascended into heaven is “I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS” This reassurance that God is with us always. It is up to us to be intentional to be still in God’s presence.
This is the season of change for Vicki and me, and we are trusting God, and we are aligning ourselves up to his wishes and desires. Whatever your circumstances take the initiative and ask God for his guidance and his direction.
Mike Conrad serves as our Worship Director. When he's not preparing for worship or playing an instrument, he enjoys spending time with his wife boating and fishing. Learn more about Mike here.