Grace in a Gentle Rebuke

God has been especially kind and merciful in this season of weakness, as I slowly prepare for the upcoming mission to Nairobi.

A few weeks ago I was listening in on a meeting of the elders of Christ Presbyterian Church, the local congregation of which I am a member. They asked me to say a little bit more about the trip. I told them that my fundraising was going well enough (at that point: $910 out of $2000 raised) but that I was feeling especially overwhelmed about the teaching portion. I listed several things that were making the syllabus on Ezekiel seem unmanageable:

1. completing finals at WTS,
2. working at the after-school program (my “day job”),
3. preparing for leading the weekly small group throughout the summer,
4. beginning another summer teaching position at WTS,
5. preparing for a pilot summer camp in July (an extension of my “day job”), and
6. fundraising another $1,090.

At the conclusion of the meeting the elders prayed that I would be able to manage the many different teaching roles and still be able to prepare adequately for the mission in August. They also prayed that I would be free from worry and would look to the Lord in this season.

I thank God for my pastor and elders, especially for their reminder—the gentlest of rebukes—about what Jesus says in

Matthew 6.25–34:

NA28	Translation
Διὰ τοῦτο λέγω ὑμῖν· μὴ μεριμνᾶτε τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν τί φάγητε [ἢ τί πίητε], μηδὲ τῷ σώματι ὑμῶν τί ἐνδύσησθε. οὐχὶ ἡ ψυχὴ πλεῖόν ἐστιν τῆς τροφῆς καὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ἐνδύματος;	Therefore I say to you: do not worry about your life, what you eat or what you drink, nor about your body, what you wear. Is it not the case that life is more than food and the body more than clothing?
ἐμβλέψατε εἰς τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὅτι οὐ σπείρουσιν οὐδὲ θερίζουσιν οὐδὲ συνάγουσιν εἰς ἀποθήκας, καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τρέφει αὐτά· οὐχ ὑμεῖς μᾶλλον διαφέρετε αὐτῶν;	Look closely at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Do you not matter much more than they do?
τίς δὲ ἐξ ὑμῶν μεριμνῶν δύναται προσθεῖναι ἐπὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ πῆχυν ἕνα;	But who among you by worrying can add one arm-length to his extent?
Καὶ περὶ ἐνδύματος τί μεριμνᾶτε; καταμάθετε τὰ κρίνα τοῦ ἀγροῦ πῶς αὐξάνουσιν· οὐ κοπιῶσιν οὐδὲ νήθουσιν·	And concerning clothing, why do you worry? Observe the lilies of the field—how they grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin,
λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐδὲ Σολομὼν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ περιεβάλετο ὡς ἓν τούτων.	but I say to you that not even Solomōn in all his glory was clothed like one of these.
εἰ δὲ τὸν χόρτον τοῦ ἀγροῦ σήμερον ὄντα καὶ αὔριον εἰς κλίβανον βαλλόμενον ὁ θεὸς οὕτως ἀμφιέννυσιν, οὐ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὑμᾶς, ὀλιγόπιστοι;	And if God so dresses the field-grass, which today is here and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, does he not do much more for you, O little-faithful ones?
Μὴ οὖν μεριμνήσητε λέγοντες· τί φάγωμεν; ἤ· τί πίωμεν; ἤ· τί περιβαλώμεθα;	Now, do not worry, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink’ or ‘What are we to wear?’
πάντα γὰρ ταῦτα τὰ ἔθνη ἐπιζητοῦσιν· οἶδεν γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος ὅτι χρῄζετε τούτων ἁπάντων.	For all these are things that the Gentiles seek, and your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
ζητεῖτε δὲ πρῶτον τὴν βασιλείαν [τοῦ θεοῦ] καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ, καὶ ταῦτα πάντα προστεθήσεται ὑμῖν.	But seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Μὴ οὖν μεριμνήσητε εἰς τὴν αὔριον, ἡ γὰρ αὔριον μεριμνήσει ἑαυτῆς· ἀρκετὸν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἡ κακία αὐτῆς.	Now, do not worry for tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Sufficient for the day is the affliction belonging to it.

For a follower of Christ the to-do list, no matter how noble or necessary its items may seem, must always be subordinate to “God’s kingdom and his righteousness.” No work can be a good work if it is done apart from faith in the risen Christ (see John 15; Rom 14.23) whose perfect life, death, and resurrection are the basis for the Christian boast that one’s work is not in vain (see 1 Cor 15.17, 58; Phil 2.16). Apart from that faith, apart from the Spirit who unites a person to Christ through faith, all work is Gentile vanity, attempting to obtain something good in such a way that disqualifies oneself from obtaining anything good.

All the things on my to-do list seem noble. All of them seem so necessary to me. Yet all of them can be attempted apart the sufficiency of Christ out of a worry for tomorrow. Faithless planning is a snare that makes the work itself vain.

I have to confess that the past few weeks have been full of vanity. But now the gentle rebuke of my elders is coming back to bless me. As I meditate on the Law of my Lord Jesus, I find grace for today that redeems the vanity of yesterday’s work and removes it from tomorrow’s.

Tangible Graces

In addition, after the meeting that I mentioned above, the elders met again without my knowing and approved a $500 donation from the church to my trip.

Now my fundraising bar looks like this:

I had been hesitating to ask my local congregation for any kind of financial help. Even if I had asked, the amount approved by the session was far more than I would have put forward. Here came another rebuke, like the first: I was thinking primarily of human sufficiency (αὐτάρκεια) as something divorced from the grace of God. But we have the truth in

2 Corinthians 9.8:

NA28	Translation
δυνατεῖ δὲ ὁ θεὸς πᾶσαν χάριν περισσεῦσαι εἰς ὑμᾶς, ἵνα ἐν παντὶ πάντοτε πᾶσαν αὐτάρκειαν ἔχοντες περισσεύητε εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθόν….	And God is able to make all grace abound for you so that at every moment, in having all sufficiency, you may abound in every good work….

The context there is about giving generously, yet it is also applicable to asking God by faith and receiving from God by grace. The sufficiency of a giver comes from God, and I was wrong to keep myself from asking (cf. Jas 4.2).

I still have a to-do list. But it is matched by a to-ask list. And I depend entirely on the grace of God, who abounds in grace to enable me to seek his kingdom in Christ and his righteousness that comes by faith in Christ.