International Visitors Bring Hope and Blessing

International visitors to the university often are a blessing in surprising ways.  Today brought a special kind of blessing when I was privileged to spend an hour hosting eight visitors from an Asian country (to be nameless) for tea in my office.  The visitors included two principals of secondary schools, a university department chairman, and a vice rector (vice president) of one of their country's most prestigious universities.  In addition to the customary giving of gifts and photo opportunities, this particular visit was different because of a rather lengthy time of questions and answers.  They had an abundance of questions. The blessing was in reflecting and finding the answers that would make sense to them in their particular culture and in the context of a very different manner in which university education is delivered in their country.  In the challenge of the moment, I found myself wrestling with a very simple yet powerful question:  "What is your university's purpose for the future?" 

Universities are all about the future.  I told them that Trinity Western's purpose for the future could be summed-up in two words.  I didn't think talking about making disciples in a high gear would make any sense to them.  I get what that means, but that's even a hard sell to many Canadians and Americans.  I didn't say that our purpose is to be the number one university in Canada, though I already believe TWU is the most remarkable university in the nation.  The two words I shared with them were leadership and others.  We are passionate about developing leaders who, through a transformative education, will impact the world, but in ways that serve others and make the world a better place.  I think they understood that kind of purpose and at the same time they seemed surprised by the answer.  In their national, cultural context, developing leaders may have sounded familiar, but the emphasis on serving others may have been something new.

When they left waving, bowing, and smiling, I realized that we had just experienced more than a warm, human exchange.  I believe they were blessed and so was I.  The grace of God was at work.  The bond of friendship was strengthened.  The common ground of human dignity was affirmed. Their comfort zone was expanded.  The future possibility of greater mutual respect and trust across sometimes difficult cultural boundaries was enhanced.  In a convocation chapel address at TWU in 2008 entitled "A People of Hope" (in Called to a Higher Purpose, 2009, p. 58) I said these words:  "I have hope for the world because together we believe in wholeness, peace, and shalom as achievable outcomes.  We believe these are realities that are possible because we have seen and known wholeness and true peace -- true shalom.  It is something that, by the Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, can be an ever-increasing reality in the world."  I had hope then, and after today I continue to have hope.  We continue in Christ to be a people of faith, hope, and love!

A Sacred Day of Celebration

Today the seminaries, which together make-up the Trinity Western University Graduate School of Theological Studies, also known as the Association of Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS), meet to celebrate its graduates for 2012.  In short, it is seminary graduation day.  It is one of the university's finest hours in its partnership with five seminaries aggregated into a common mission in fidelity to our Lord's Great Commission: "Go!  Make disciples. . ."  The fulfilment of mission today is to release into the world disciple makers prepared to be human agency on behalf of and empowered by the Spirit of God to make followers of Christ, to build the church, to restore human kind to the Imgo Dei.  

Today is a sacred day, a day of celebration, a day pregnant with possibilities for the Kingdom of God.  Today we rejoice and praise our God who reveals himself, makes himself known, calls us to ministry and mission, and provides all that is needed to carry out his plan.  To graduates today, we remind them of the words of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians (2:6&7), "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built-up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Working On and Working In . . . Like the Lexus Commercial

In the past few weeks I witnessed the same remarkable transformation in two different places, at different times, with two different teams, in two different sports. My alma mater's men's basketball team, the University of Kentucky Wildcats, were down 13 points at half time and had suffered a beating by Mississippi State throughout the first half. This was the most they had been down at half time all season. I confess I had my doubts that they could come back. Mississippi State seemed to have great momentum on their home court. I wish I could have the video clip of what coach Calipari said to the team between halves. The Cats came roaring back to beat Mississippi State by nine points. The team became their old selves: focused, disciplined, together, committed to each other and the end game. It struck me that each player can work on their foul shots, on their conditioning, and their execution, but it takes more than just working on the skills and basics. There has to be an individual and collective working in and rising up from within of spirit, heart, desire, and will that is then disciplined and sacrificed on behalf of others. In this case it means mutual support and sacrifice on behalf of the team together. The expression of character shows forth from within when it has been working within.

This is what I witnessed recently with the Trinity Western University Spartan men's volleyball team. In the final game for the Canada West Conference championship, TWU was down two sets to one. The U of Manitoba had momentum. The TWU Spartans had struggled throughout the third game having placed six serves into the net. Then WOW! The come back. The character. The discipline. The rise from the ashes. TWU won the fourth set 25 to 14 and the fifth set 15 to 9. It was a remarkable ending. All the preseason conditioning and all the working on skills paid-off. TWU won the Canada West Conference championship with players receiving the conference gold medals for 2012. Then they went on to the national championship ranked #1 nationally and brought home the national championship for a second year in a row.

The UK Wildcats (27-1)and the TWU Spartans (21-1) have this wonderful thing in common: the experience of winning all season, knowing what it means to lose, but also knowing how to come back by reaching down and pulling-up that which has be working-in: Character, discipline, sacrifice for the other. This is why sport is such a good metaphor for life. In the Bible (Hebrews 13:20, and 21) it says - "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever."

What was evident in TWU winning both the Canada West Conference Championship and the Canada National championship was the obvious competence of the team, but more importantly the character of the players who showed what had been working in them all along - confidence, courage and humility. As they continued to improve and reach down deep inside themselves to win they continued being "perfected" by continuous improvement as players, as a team, and as people whose character is increasingly after the likeness of Christ ... like the Lexus commercial, "in pursuit of perfection!"

Divine Hospitality: A Christian Tradition

"Though part of everyday life, hospitality is never removed from its divine connections." - Christine D. Pohl, Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary

I remember a line in an old movie - "The meal was divine!" After more than four decades, I can testify that the meals prepared by my wife (and me: I am the sous chef) often seem truly divine as Irene has developed over the years into a world class master of the culinary arts (my opinion though no certification). What often makes our dining time together divine, however, is not the fabulous provocation of our taste buds, but rather the sharing of the meal with others and the fellowship around the table. This is because of what Christine Pohl says in her classic work - Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Eerdmans, 1999). On page 30, Professor Pohl states -

"Especially in the context of shared meals, the presence of God's Kingdom is prefigured, revealed, and reflected. Jesus as gracious host feeds over five thousand people on a hillside, and later explains to the crowd that he is the bread of life, living bread for them from heaven. He offers living water to any who are thirsty (John 6-7). He is himself both host and meal - the very source of life."

Dr. Pohl goes on to ponder the divine hospitality of the Eucharist and how closely a shared meal is to that divine act. . .

"In the last supper with his disciples, Jesus fills the basic elements of a meal with richest symbolic meaning - the bread is his body, the wine, his blood. Eating together, ritualized in the Lord's Supper, continually reenacts the center of the gospel. As we remember the cost of our welcome, Christ's broken body and shed blood, we also celebrate the reconciliation and relationship available to us because of his sacrifice and through his hospitality. The Eucharist most fundamentally connects hospitality with God because it anticipates and reveals the "heavenly table of the Lord." In that sacrament, we are nourished on our journey towards God's banquet table, even as we experience the present joy and welcome associated with sharing in that table. A shared meal is the activity most closely tied to the reality of God's Kingdom, just as it is the most basic expression of hospitality."

What a blessing it is to remember the last sentence of the quote above each time we sit down with others who respond to our invitation to dine together. When we do so in Jesus' name and say that the meal was "divine" we may be confessing a "double entendre" and absolutely the truth!

New Year Resolution: Continuing In Christ

In giving some thought to resolutions for this new year, I contemplated resolutions of heath (diet, exercise, etc.), of intellectual pursuit (more reading, less mind numbing TV, more discussion with friends of current events, etc.) and of spiritual benefit. I've concluded that his last one, pursuing spiritual vitality, is the key to the others because at our very core, our true essence is our soul. So my #1 resolution for 2012 is to continue in Christ. If you are also so resolved, here are some encouraging words from The Word . . .

John 14:23 – Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

John 15:4 – Remain in me and I will remain in you . . .

John 15:5 – I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:10 – If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my fathers commands and remain in his love.

Acts 2:42 – They continually devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:47 – And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – God made him (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 5:25 – Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Philippians 1: 6 - . . . he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:10 - We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: `1) bearing fruit in every good work

2) Growing in the knowledge of God

3) being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and . . .

4)joyfully giving thanks.

Colossians 2:6&7 – So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

2 Thessalonians 1:3&4 – We ought always to thank God for you, brothers (and sisters) and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

2 Timothy 1:6 . . .fan into flame the gift of God Which is in you . . .

1 John 1:7 – If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 2:28 . . . continue in him . . .

1 John 3:24 – Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them . . .

1 John 5:2&3 – This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands.

2 John v.6&9 – And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands . . .walk in love. . .Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

Revelation 22:11 . . . and let him who is holy continue to be holy.

Psalm 86:11 – Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Psalm 15 1&2 - Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from heart . . .

Psalm 17:15 – And I – in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

May every blessing in 2012 be yours continuing in Jesus Christ!