Crowd. Sourced?

Well, it’s about 2:00 in the morning here in the Bronx as I record these thoughts.

I was privileged to be in attendance at the banquet commemorating the 50^th anniversary of Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene. There were wonderful moments in the evening—great music, great worship arts, great speakers, and the spirit of joy that is characteristic of the atmosphere generated when Bronx Bethany members, friends, and allies are together. But, sadly, there were moments that were not so wonderful. As the evening progressed, one of our members became ill and had to be taken by ambulance to a local hospital. And we were caught off-guard by the challenges of the venue, which did not have sufficient resources to manage table service. Some tables were fed promptly, while others waited a very long time for their main course to arrive.

Though I work very hard to focus on the positive aspects of any given situation, God is teaching me a hard lesson from the two negative things I mentioned above. My lesson is still in process, and because I’m “in-process” this lengthy post is actually incomplete—but I want to share what the Spirit of God has put on my heart thus far.

The first lesson was the lesson of the sick guest. When she became ill, it quickly became apparent that there were several people in attendance who were qualified to assist her. Bronx Bethany’s nurses and doctors, emergency service personnel, and other medical professionals were quick to give aid. In the midst of this crisis of health, several of us prayed.

The second lesson was the lesson of the under-resourced staff at the venue. In the midst of laughter, picture-taking, and celebration, people were hungry. We pondered the strange reality of a food service venue that found itself so challenged in its effort to serve food. In the midst of this crisis of service, the few who prayed were outnumbered by the several who critiqued.

And as I’ve been thinking of these lessons, the Lord has been speaking to my heart. He says to me, “You keep praying for things to happen—healing, revival, provision, salvation—but are you really equipped to handle the flood that will come through your doors? Do you really have the spiritual resources that are necessary to feed My people, to bring healing to the sick, and to maintain an atmosphere of worship and praise even when things seem to be out of order? Are you really ready for Me to sweep through this place?”

Well, I am not ready. Just as I didn’t have the training needed to help the woman who became ill, and just as I didn’t have the skills needed to help with food service management, I don’t have what it takes to handle all that God is sending to Bronx Bethany. I know we have carved out more space on 227^th Street as a means of meeting more needs. But I also know, deep in my own heart, that I’m not cut out for the task.

During the banquet, the Governor-General of Jamaica spoke about the importance of having more volunteers lend their aid to the work of ministry. What does volunteering look like for those of us who, though wanting to help, are convinced of our own frailty and convicted by our own inadequacy? It looks like this: me, and you, and all who claim Jesus as their Lord, on our knees, crying out for the Spirit of the Living God to teach us all that is necessary to love one another as Christ Jesus has loved us. And God, who we confess as Faithful, will be faithful to His word. He still says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, New King James Version) He will help us to know His ways, and to do His will, and to be used by Him in bringing about the things that the world will call amazing.

But I wonder: what will we do when our own crisis moment comes? Will we be able to respond in a strength of training and equipping granted by God, and developed over time? Or will we be caught short-handed and underprepared?

Are we really ready for the next wave of ministry at Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene?

“Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35, New International Version)

Let us pray.

Spirit of Christ, be our Immanuel, God in us, though we falter and fail. Draw us in to the life of prayer and patient waiting as You do Your work in us. Give us the boldness that only comes when we have submitted all we are, and all we own, to You. Teach us. Train us. Equip us. We want to be ready to serve at all times. Please help us, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Well Said!

As we continue our reflections on providing access to God’s grace, let’s remind ourselves of the account of the woman at the well. In order to read the story in context we’ll need to read about 80% of John chapter 4. I hope we’ll all make the time to read the passage today, keeping the following points in mind:

The grace of God encounters us in the moments when we think we’re all alone. The woman’s choice to draw water in the heat of the day was an indication that she was reluctant to encounter anyone. But Jesus was there, sitting on the well in the noonday heat, positioned to meet with her. The Lord of Glory ordains kairos moments to meet with us.

The grace of God covers and protects for the purpose of redemption. Jesus, instead of condemning the woman for being involved in an adulterous relationship, instead pointed her to Himself as the way to life. The Lord of Glory, who is qualified to condemn us, instead showers us with His love and points the way to repentance.

The grace of God moves us to announce the good things He has done. As Pastor Sam shared with us on Sunday, when you have living water, you can’t keep it quiet. The woman, realizing that she had encountered the Messiah, left her waterpot at the well and returned to town in order to testify to her community. The Lord of Glory, who is good to us, inspires us to speak of His goodness to others.

Come and see! Go and tell!

John 4:1-42

Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee.

But he had to pass through Samaria. Now he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat on the well. It was about noon.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy food.) So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have no bucket and the cistern is deep; where then do you get this living water? Surely you’re not greater than our father Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or come here to draw water.” He said to her, “Go call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said to him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Well you have said, ‘A husband I don’t have’, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming – and now is – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever that one comes, he will announce to us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

Now at that very moment his disciples came and they were surprised that he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you seek?” or “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Christ, can he?” They left the town and began coming to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were asking him, saying, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are already white for harvest! The one who reaps receives a reward and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking him to stay with them and He stayed there two days, and they believed much more. They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world.”