“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God.”

Lego depictions aside, the story of Uzzah isn’t a particularly funny one. If you just drop in on the story in 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah’s death seems pretty radically unfair. Here he is helping escort the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem, he reaches out to steady the ark when the ox pulling it trips, and — BAM! — God strikes him dead. Sure, you’re not supposed to touch holy things like the ark… But isn’t death a rather harsh punishment for trying to keep the thing from falling into the dirt?

As David so clearly pointed out in his sermon yesterday, Uzzah’s error was greater than this short passage immediately makes clear. No matter how split-second a decision it may have been, Uzzah did choose to set his hand the ark rather than let it fall to the ground. And at some fundamental level, that choice reveals that Uzzah thought he knew better than God did what the best thing for the ark would be. Pretty big error.

More significantly, that ark should never have been on that cart in the first place. As God makes abundantly clear in Exodus 25, the ark was supposed to be carried by priests using the two gold-covered poles that fit through the gold rings on each of the four corners of the ark. We don’t know for sure why the Israelites decided to transport the ark up to Jerusalem using a cart — but evidently they didn’t care much for following the rules that God had set.

So this has me thinking… While the error of touching the ark was clearly Uzzah’s own, he wasn’t the only one who’d had a hand in the whose situation. There were any number of other people involved in deciding to use the cart to transport the ark. Sure, Uzzah could have — and perhaps should have — objected… but so could — or should — have all the others. Whether they knew the instructions for how the ark was to be carried and simply ignored them, or whether they’d never been taught them in the first place, the community around Uzzah bore some responsibility for the situation which ultimately resulted in Uzzah’s death.

The implications for us are a little uncomfortable. As a church, we are a community. And while each of us bears the responsibility for and the results of our own sin, we seldom commit those sins in total isolation from our community. Whether by failing to share with others in the community the instructions that God has given us for faithful and righteous living, or by participating in creating situations or decisions that set others up for temptation or bad choices, we often bear some responsibility for each others’ errors.

I say this not to suggest that we should take on more responsibility for others’ sins than is really ours. After all, Uzzah was the one who died for his error — not the whole crowd of 30,000 merry-makers. Nor should we go indiscriminately prying into each others’ lives for the sake of uncovering some sin-in-the-making. But I do think this passage should raise some questions for us, questions about how well we do understand the ways in which our actions and our choices are bound up in others’ actions and choices, how well our lives reflect the fact that faithful, righteous living is a community matter as much as it is an individual one.

This is one of the reasons I’m so grateful for Restoration’s small groups. These little communities are places where we learn from and teach each other the truths that God has given us about the kind of disciples he wants us to be. They’re the places where we can offer support where others are weak, humble challenge where others might be in error, and heartfelt celebration where others experience the joy of God’s healing work in their lives. These little communities are some of the best examples I know of the way that our relationships with God are deeply personal but never private.

If Uzzah had been a part of that kind of community, I wonder how his story might have been different. Could a small group have saved Uzzah’s life?

- Erin

Our goals were straightforward—introduce the girls to the love of Christ, give them a safe, familial environment where they could develop meaningful relationships, and provide them with valuable skills that would enable them to be self-sufficient. God has been very faithful to these girls. They have all come to know the Lord. Each has developed confidence and a relational aptitude that will serve as a valuable foundation for the rest of their lives. And each girl is either developing vocational skills or pursuing higher education! Praise God for their personal and spiritual growth and for their promising futures!

To support these girls, Restoration worked with World Orphans and two local Moldovan partners. As a congregation, we set out to partner with this ministry for three years, and then scale back as our Moldovan partners developed the ability to sustain the project on their own. They have recently managed to get funding from other sources (mainly their denomination) and so we are no longer going to be supporting the home financially.

Please continue to pray for the girls regularly and we will post updates as we hear from them from time to time. Restoration will remain open to supporting the project on an as-needed basis. Thank you all for your interest and ongoing care for the project and the girls. As mentioned in the beginning, God has done a great work in the lives of these girls, and for that we can celebrate. We are content to know that care for the girls will continue – and are grateful to be part of a global body of Christ!

Jesse Blaine

Here is a practical handle to put on this idea.  Live throughout the week as an heir of the kingdom, listening for his voice, obeying his word.  Since you have heard his voice throughout the week, you know that you will hear his voice as you gather for public worship.  Enter the service ten minutes early.  Lift your heart in adoration to the King of glory.  Contemplate his majesty, glory, and tenderness as revealed in Jesus Christ.  Picture the marvelous vision that Isaiah had of the Lord “high and lifted up” or the magnificent revelation that John had of Christ with eyes “like a flame of fire” and voice “like the sound of many waters” (Isa. 6; Rev. 1).  Invite the real Presence to be manifest.

Next, lift into the light of Christ the pastor and other worship leaders.  Picture the Shekinah of God’s radiance surrounding them.  Inwardly release them to speak the truth boldly in the power of the Lord.

When people begin to enter the room, glance around until you see someone who needs your intercessory work.  Perhaps their shoulders are drooped or they seem a bit sad.  Lift them into the glorious, refreshing light of his Presence.  See the burden tumbling from their shoulders as it did from Pilgrim’s in Bunyan’s allegory.  Hold them as a special intention throughout the service.  If only a few in any given congregation will do this, it will deepen the worship experience of all.

My encouragement to you is to take the spirit of this concept and make it your own.  What is God calling you to do?  It might not look exactly like Foster wrote it.  It might look friendlier.  You may even go over to the sad person, introduce yourself, and tell them that you are happy they are there.  This is a time when people in the body of Christ fulfill more of what makes them who they are.  Both exercising and receiving this practice can help David to be more fully David, Cindy more fully Cindy, and Adam more fully Adam.

I’m looking forward to spending time with you this Sunday as we focus on what it might look like to abide in the Lord as wait on and in him.  Check out the readings and the music at restorationmusic.wordpress.com .

I loved singing At the foot of the cross on Sunday.  These words in particular:

Now I can trade These Ashes In For Beauty
and Wear Forgiveness Like A Crown
coming To Kiss The Feet Of Mercy
I Lay Every Burden Down
at The Foot Of The Cross

This song is from Isaiah 61:3

to provide for those who grieve in Zion—  to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes…

As I go through my week, I hear so many stories of longing–  will God heal me?  Can God set me free from this addiction?  Can God restore this relationship?  Can God provide for this ache in my heart?

We walk around knee deep in ashes.  Yes, the image is of mourning.  But knee deep in reminders of our brokenness, of stuff that didn’t work out, of pain caused by us, and pain done to us.

If you pick up ash, it sifts through your fingers.  It’s really hard to hold–  much less ‘to exchange’.  It has little remunerative value.

So I am deeply moved by grace, by a picture of holding as much ash as I can, maybe in my scooped up shirt or a rag or a wheelbarrow and walking up to Jesus…  I know it’s just ash…

And he takes it.  And he hands me beauty.  Stunning.  Priceless.  Unique.  One of a kind.  Beauty that I could never afford, but can hold my gaze for a lifetime and beyond.

I lay every burden down.

-David

Pastor Pearl is ethnically half-Chinese and half-Burman, and we met her in a township just outside Yangon. Ethnicity is always one of the first things you are told about someone in Myanmar as both historically (the government recognizes over 135 distinct ethnic groups) and geographically (they are surrounded by 5 countries), ethnicity is a significant source of identity, but one thing became clear as we visited a number of different pastors, ethnicity was no barrier to adoption! I’m not too sure how many orphans Pearl cares for – or widows – but her house was FULL: she is a walking, living, breathing Prov 31:20 woman, She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

Orphans is a term which is often used quite broadly – Pearl’s orphans could have lost one or both parents or be ‘economic’ orphans (abandoned permanently or temporarily because the family can’t afford to keep them) – but what is true about all of them is that they need care. Pearl welcomes them all – and feeds, clothes, loves them and teaches them about Jesus, whilst also pastoring a church and caring for a number of widows, and other poorer families. The development term often used for children like these is OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) and in May OVCs are our focus at Restoration. The Weekly Good Ideas on the bulletin each week will run with the theme and we will spend time at the Tuesday prayer meetings interceding for children.

As a church community we try to support a few things well – Casa Chirilagua (and Dawnielle, the Hoppes and others) www.casachirilagua.org and World Orphans (and the Blaines) www.worldorphans.org are our two major connections in this area. Within the congregation many individuals are involved in other organizations: e.g. Cindy Darnell is an enthusiastic board member for David’s Hope http://www.davidshope.org , Jade and Melanie Totman advocate for Compassion (Simon and I also support five children through Compassion) http://www.compassion.com/ and I expect that friends in your circle of influence can recommend similar organizations. We also have a number of families in the congregation who have adopted children, or who are fostering. Look out for them, talk to them and ask them their stories! And, please tell me your story. How are you involved? How are you walking or would you like to walk with the poor, the widow and the orphan?

The type of worship that Casa Chirilagua and other ministries allow us to engage in is so close to the heart of God.  Scripture is riddled with passages that show God’s desire for us to care for the orphan, the widow, the alien, and the poor.  I used to equate this type of service with worship seeing them as inseparable.  As I reread Richard Foster’s chapter on worship, I think I was wrong.  Yes, God can receive glory from anything he chooses to receive glory from, but I think that may be different than worship.  I’ll let Foster explain:

If the Lord is to be Lord, worship must have priority in our lives.  The first commandment of Jesus is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).  The divine priority is worship first, service second.  Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving, and adoration.  Service flows out of worship.  Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry.  Activity is the enemy of adoration.

Now I don’t know if I agree completely with this last sentence, but activity definitely can be the enemy of adoration.  The staff at Casa Chirilagua can share how difficult it is to try to make everything “work” by their own strength and can distinguish it, at times more easily than others, from relying on the Spirit and giving him glory and adoration as they move into whatever act of service they are called to.  I admire the Casa Chiri staff and volunteers for their desire to worship the Lord through their acts of service.

This Sunday we will be singing, “Hallelujah!  Our God reigns forever, all my days.  Hallelujah!”  As you do whatever act of service you are called to do, I encourage you to make every effort to do it with a “hallelujah (Praise the Lord)” on your lips.

Well, I’m off to go work with the middle schoolers…Lord, help me to make this service an act of worship to you.

restorationmusic.wordpress.com - Scriptures and Songs for this Sunday’s service
www.casachirilagua.org – learn more about Casa Chirilagua’s ministry

There was rain.

And a beautiful sunrise, brilliant clouds.  We watched the weather roll in hour after hour.  We had dueling camp fires.  We pitched about 30 different tents, including a big one that came in handy when that downpour finally came.

Over the course of 24 hours, we heard from 4 men in our church.  They talked about building a relationship with your father, giving God permission to work in your life, living with integrity, and bearing God’s image in community.  We have some Godly, vulnerable, wise guys that walk around in this community.  I loved listening to what God had said to them through His Scripture.  And I loved talking and praying about it in small groups.

I think for all of us, it was a needed time to connect with other men.  The agenda afforded lots of time to talk, to play wiffle ball, to knock things off PVC pipe, to look at a gun, to listen to Coldplay, to burn stuff, and to talk.  My face was sore from laughing and chatting. I loved hearing so many different stories.  I loved the poundage of steak and bacon that was bought.

In the words of Wendell Berry, we are not alone.  One of the gifts of this church is the opportunity to build relationships with brilliant, fun, engaging people–  men and women alike.  That certainly happened in a field in Middleburg.  I hope it happens for you.

TFC Church Planters

There is another community to which I belong.  Over the past 10 years, The Falls Church has planted 7 churches.  The guys who started them, Rector them, or who are in the shoot to plant another one, get together 3-4 times a year at a farm in Linden.  We roll in after our Sunday duties [and after we have put kids to bed].  There is dessert, a fire, camp chairs.  Each of us gets a chance to update what is happening in our church and family.  On Monday morning, we get to sleep in a bit, then run or fish [we are divided on which is a better early morning activity].  We always spend some time talking through the Scriptures and praying for each other.  These prayer times are significant for me.  Then we talk strategically about ‘what’s next’.  Who is getting ready to launch, or build, or hire, or change locations?  How do you deal with conflict?  How do you serve and utilize your vestry?  Lots of nuts and bolts that young clergy need to think about.  I am grateful for the wisdom and leadership of John Yates.  He is generous with his time and experience.

So lots of time in the country for me over the past few days.  I am grateful to God for the folks He has put in my life.  And I am grateful for ways He is building in to you, too.

-David

We decided it was important to let Roman know what he looked like – that he was using his anger to hide something very serious.  His brain started to churn, his whole face softened, and our little boy started to cry – not his typical whiny attention-getting cry.  But his face transformed beautifully into this humble and contrite sorrow.  Tears trickled down his face, and he let himself experience the grief of his own sin.  He finally saw his sin for what it really was.

“To see who the Lord is brings us to confession.  When Isaiah caught sight of the glory of God he cried, ‘Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ (Isa. 6:5).  The pervasive sinfulness of human beings becomes evident when contrasted with the radiant holiness of God.  Our fickleness becomes apparent once we see God’s faithfulness.  To understand his grace is to understand our guilt…(in worship) we see the Lord of hosts ‘high and lifted up,’ ponder his infinite wisdom and knowledge, wonder at his unfathomable mercy and love.” – (Richard Foster from Spirit of the Disciplines)

This week we will sing:

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart
Dissolved by Thy goodness I fall to the ground
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found

I encourage you to make time sometime between now and Sunday morning service to have some extended confession.  I use Psalm 51.  I read the first three verses, take a long time to reflect and ask God to reveal my sinfulness, and continue with “For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.”  But then we reach the part in verse 8 when David writes, “May the bones that you have broken rejoice!”  His mercy is so good and worth rejoicing about; and we can only experience it when we look at who God is, look at our sin, and realize how far we are from perfection.  Our God has “steadfast love” and “abundant mercy.”  Hallelujah!

Feel free to use http://restorationmusic.wordpress.com/ to help you prep for Sunday.  I have been receiving a lot of good feedback from those who are engaging with this site.  Take a look!

This map shows the ethnic group areas

Myanmar (Burma) has been fairly closed for decades as a military dictatorship, civil war, sanctions etc have all put off foreign visitors. But thankfully, God has not been stopped. Quietly, steadily he has been raising up his people in Myanmar in a quite remarkable way. He has called pastors, evangelists, church planters from all the ethnic groups – and they have obeyed his call. Chin reach out to Karen, who reach out to Shan, who reach out to Burmans …. Ethnic divides not stopping the flow of the Holy Spirit. Men and women faithfully seeking to respond to Gods call in often trying circumstances. Most of the pastors I met were not only faithfully preaching and running their churches, but often had between 5-30 orphans living in their homes that they had taken under their wings, perhaps a few widows that they cared for and they were almost universally involved in church planting: training young and old people to go with the gospel into unreached areas of the country, where they were often seeing remarkable fruit.

It was a humbling trip. Every day Fiona and I went looking for open doors, and every day a number opened and some did not. We had been invited to teach a ‘youth’ bible class -for 5 hrs on Saturday – where the ‘youth’ were aged between 5 and 72 (we later realized that the class could more aptly  be called a ‘beginners’ class: this was where we donated the crayons and t-shirts collected by the children and youth at Restoration, and offered a financial gift for the ministry salaries and expenses – thank you ALL for your generosity), I preached in a village church on the Sunday, and we followed breadcrumb trails of contacts which resulted in numerous meetings where we sat and drank bitter leaf tea and heard stories of where and how God was at work.

Over the ten days in-country we met people broadly from three different strands of society: villagers, educated ‘middle class’ and foreigners. Each group had similar stories to tell. Each group was uniquely equipped and being used by God in complementary ways to reach different areas or groups of people. It was incredibly exciting to hear how their ministries complemented and dove-tailed each other. We also got to spend a few days in Bagan – an incredibly beautiful area North of Yangon.

I was reminded daily that God is sovereign and that he may choose to use me in ministry but really he doesn’t need me in the way I would sometimes like to be needed. I was allowed to walk with people from a variety of contexts, economic groups, denominations, educational backgrounds, to hear their stories and to sing and pray and talk about the goodness of God with a broad range of God’s precious family and I am so grateful. I also got to see a country on the cusp of change- perhaps not all of which will be good, but where unexperienced freedom is on the horizon for many. I don’t know where these relationships will go in the future, but I have new friends to pray for, new dreams to dream and a deeply refreshed reminder of the goodness of God.

On May 22nd  at the next global prayer meeting at church I will share a little more and show some pictures. If you’d like to hear more (and see some of my hundreds of pictures) before then, feel free to invite me to your small group, or to coffee/lunch/dinner! I’d love to tell you more….. meanwhile please pray for the church, for wise leaders, for the spread of the gospel, for good governance, and for a peaceful democracy to emerge… and for the many lovely people that we met.

Liz

We had a wonderful weekend with Bishop John Guernsey and his wife, Meg.  I hope you were able to ask questions at our reception or worship with us during confirmation services.  I recognize that many of us grew up in traditions that did not have a bishop.

So here are a couple thoughts on the office of ‘episcopos’. This is how the apostle Paul described what he was looking for in a bishop.  He is writing to one of his church leaders, Titus, telling him what sort of people he should seek for the leadership and administration of the church.

Titus 1:5    This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and  appoint elders in every town as I directed you—  6  if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife,  and his children are believers and not open to the charge of  debauchery or insubordination.  7 For an overseer,   as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not  be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent  or greedy for gain,  8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy,  and disciplined.  9 He must  hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in  sound  doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

From this little introduction, we learn three things about bishops:

1. They are to put things into order.  They build systems that allow churches to be connected to each other.  They lead leaders and help accomplish more through the aggregation of resources and efforts.  Bishop Guernsey oversees relational opportunities for clergy, he encourages people in similar church positions to collaborate on projects, he brings together like-minded thinkers to share best practices.  Bishops provide an umbrella for partnership in mission.
2. Bishops are to have character that is exemplary.  They are to model what maturity in Christ looks like.  There are clear instructions on how they treat their family, their finances, and their ability to exhibit self-control.  Bishop Guernsey is a man of great prayer.  When I asked him for any advice for starting a building program, he replied, ‘First, create a team of dedicated intercessors for the project.’  Prayer support always undergirds everything that Bishop Guernsey leads.  I really admire that.
3. Bishops are given the responsibility of teaching sound doctrine, of refuting error, and of encouraging what is right.  Throughout the history of the church, bishops have gathered in councils to pray, discuss, and articulate what is true about the Christian faith.  The theology and doctrine we hold most dear was hammered out by bishops who were ‘contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.’ [Jude 3]  The church has always looked to her leaders for guidance and trustworthy instruction.  Bishop Guernsey preached a powerful sermon on resurrection bodies–  bodies matter, now and for eternity.

Bishop Guernsey was consecrated almost 5 years ago in the Church of Uganda.  He was elected by our Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic in May of 2011.  Before that, he was the rector of All Saints Anglican Church in Woodbridge for 29 years.  I am so thankful to God for leaders in our movement like Bishop Guernsey.  If you would like to receive his pastoral letters to our diocese, you can sign up for them here.

It was a great weekend.  Hope you enjoyed it, too.

-David