Sunday, June 25, 2017 | 8:00 a.m.

Operating from That Inner Place

Victoria G. Curtiss
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 86:1–10, 16–17
Romans 6:1b–11
Matthew 10:24–31

The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.

Bill O’Brien

We Christians in America don’t face persecution and physical death because of our faith. It’s true that the church in the United States today has become more sidelined in our influence in society, but American Christians don’t feel threatened.

Not so for the followers of Jesus. Jesus warns his disciples that they are going to face hostility and persecution because they are following him. He is sending them out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Their future includes being arrested and dragged into prison by the government and flogged in the synagogues. Family members will betray and hate one another, even arranging for their death, because of their discipleship. What a scary, gloomy prospect.

Jesus instructs his followers how to respond to such hardship. Even though we don’t face the same threats, the instructions Jesus gives his followers are words we also need to hear.

Listen to these imperatives:

Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Beware of others. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.

Have no fear of them.

What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light.

What you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.

Jesus also gives words of comfort and assurance:

The one who endures to the end will be saved.

Don’t worry about how you are to speak or what you are going to say, for it will be given to you at the time needed.

Do not fear those who can kill the body but not the soul.

Not one sparrow will fall to the ground apart from God’s care, so don’t be afraid—you are of more value than many sparrows.

Don’t worry. Don’t be afraid. Fear not. Remember God is with you. God saves you. We need to hear those words as much as the early disciples did.

It’s not that we face persecution, but if we are living out our faith fully, we will find ourselves working against the status quo. God calls us to show mercy to the outcast, to forgive our enemies, to seek justice for the oppressed. That sometimes means going against the grain. It is challenging, hard work.

There is an international organization of Christians who know this well. It is the International Justice Mission (IJM), founded by its CEO, Gary Haugen. International Justice Mission does incredibly important work in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia to stop violence and end slavery—slavery in the form of sex trafficking and forced labor, on children and adults; violence in the forms of rape, abuse, and other physical and emotional harm. Slavery is against the law in every land, but justice systems are not enforced in all places. Lawyers and their aids on the staff of International Justice Mission dedicate years of their lives trying to take legal action against perpetrators of slavery and violence to bring them to justice. Sometimes they travel a long time on bumpy, dusty roads for a hearing of a case, only to arrive and discover the courthouse is closed. It may be many months before their case will be heard again. It may take six or seven years to finally close down a trafficking operation or get a slaveholder sentenced. The work can be very discouraging.

Gary Haugen gave a talk a few years ago that featured a line from a song whose refrain included “the Book of Love is long and boring.” “The Book of Love is long and boring.” Gary was not sugarcoating the effort it takes to fight for people’s justice and freedom. He was saying this is what it takes to be faithful and loving: it is long, boring, demanding, requiring persistence, faith, and hope.

At a recent retreat with staff from International Justice Mission, Gary Haugen reminded them that “IJM is primarily a community of Christian spiritual formation.” Their primary goal as employees is to become more like Jesus Christ; the work of justice is one of the core means by which they go about this development.

IJM has high expectations for all of its 800 to 900 employees worldwide to ground themselves in prayer.

There are several components of IJM’s spiritual rhythms:

Stillness: Every work week, Monday through Friday, at 8:30 in the morning local time, every IJM employee around the world stops whatever work they’re doing and observes thirty minutes of stillness. The offices basically shut down. One of their staff in Chicago, Jon Good, said, “The idea is that we take thirty minutes at the start of each workday to remind ourselves that the ministry we’re doing is God’s work, not our own, and that it will not be significantly advanced by our ‘prayer-less striving.’”

Corporate prayer takes place from 11:00 to 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, at their Washington, D.C., headquarters, and involves all U.S.-based employees. Those who work remotely connect through their computers or phones. All employees gather in one room and share prayer requests for the first ten to fifteen minutes, and then spend the remaining time in group prayer. These are typically led by Gary Haugen or another senior leader. At the seventeen field offices around the world, this is done for those in the office.

Quarterly Prayer Retreats are held in D.C. for U.S.-based employees. Field offices determine how best to make these happen in their local context. All U.S.-based employees get together at a church for an entire day of worship, prayer, small-group time, and some kind of teaching. Each year there is an overarching theme for the four retreats; this year’s is trust. These retreats are mandatory, and IJM covers travel expenses for remote employees.

Day of Solitude: Every employee is given an annual paid day of solitude. They are encouraged to spend it at a retreat center or church and take time in prayer for themselves, their work, and the IJM family.

This regular immersion in prayer is what guides, sustains, and strengthens the employees of International Justice Mission for their very demanding, long, boring work of love and justice. They are an example for us.

Not all of us at Fourth Church are involved in such demanding work. However, we need to face the fact that to be a faithful witness to God’s love and justice, we need to change and grow. Compared to a few decades ago, respect for and adherence to Christian faith has lessened. In our increasingly secularized society, many more people don’t know or care about Jesus Christ and the church. More than encountering a hostile reaction, Christians are likely to experience complete disregard or “ho hum.”

As our culture no longer supports churchgoing and participation as it once did, the church is discovering that our old ways of being church don’t always work anymore to reach people or nurture their faith journeys. The majority of parents no longer bring their children to Sunday school every Sunday. School and sports activities are scheduled on Sunday mornings, with no attention paid to when worship services are held. Gone are the days when stores were closed on Sundays for families to observe the sabbath. The church is not able to draw people into faith in the same ways as it did in the 1950s. The church cannot make an effective public witness for justice or do mission in the same ways it used to. Many churches face difficult challenges because of declining membership. Fourth Church is declining in membership, too. The challenges of that are not so obvious for us because we are much larger and have more resources to begin with than most churches. Still, we need to face the fact that we must find new ways to call forth faith in others and different ways to be church and work for justice.

We must change. It’s not our physical death or persecution we face. It’s the death of old answers and ways of doing things. Change scares most of us. We cherish certain traditions and cling to habits of thinking. What’s familiar feels safe, even sacred. We don’t want to let go. That is where we need to hear Jesus say, “Do not be afraid.”

Knowing in advance that danger or change is coming can raise anxiety and fear. However, it can also be strangely comforting if the one warning you is preparing you for what to expect, normalizing the opposition or resistance coming. Jesus sought to help his disciples realize that when they faced resistance, that was to be expected. Don’t be surprised. This is what he faced as their master, so why should it be different for his servants? Expect pushback. Don’t be discouraged by it.

Lyle Schaller, a church consultant, used to teach that with every new idea, there will come a “no.” Anticipate it. Be prepared for it. If the “no” comes early in the process, be grateful. But don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged by apathy or resistance. Know that change comes with difficulty. To discover new ways to do ministry, we must experiment and explore. We will fail. We must risk failure for that is the way we learn.

Christ Jesus prepares us for facing challenges. He assures us and instructs us. Don’t give in to your anxiety. Don’t be discouraged or lose faith. You cannot be an effective leader for change if you aren’t willing to let go of the past. You must bring an open mind, an open heart, an open will to let God’s desires and design be the driving force. If you are stuck in the past, afraid of the future, you will not move forward.

There is a change management theory I recently learned about called Theory U. The “U” comes from the shape given to the phases of the process of going through. The downward left side represents all we must let go of in order to have an open mind and heart. The bottom of the U represents a place of stillness, a time to connect with the deepest source of discovery and inner knowing. The right side of the U reflects taking action on what we were inspired to see and do from that inner place of knowing. The bottom of the U, that threshold place, is essential for effective change. Proponents of this change theory say, “The quality of the results that we create in any kind of social system is a function of the quality of awareness, attention, or consciousness that the participants in the system operate from.” Theory U points to how essential it is to connect to the more authentic or higher aspects of our selves, or as people of faith, we would say how essential it is to connect with God. Said another way, “The success of our actions as change-makers does not depend on what we do or how we do it, but on the Inner Place from which we operate” (www.presencing.com/theoryu).

The inner condition of the leader is the most significant factor in whether new possibilities will bear fruit. Our inner condition as disciples is the most important factor to our faithfulness. Will we approach our future with fear, anxiety, cynicism, despair, or helplessness? Will we cling to what is familiar and hide from the challenges of change? Or are we willing to let go, be playful, experiment, learn from failures, and take risks? We are called to stay connected to God and God’s promises, draw strength and courage from God’s presence, and be guided by God’s Spirit.

Jesus Christ instructs us for facing whatever the future may bring. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Don’t worry about how you are to speak or what you are going to say, for it will be given to you at the time needed. Don’t be afraid—you are of more value than many sparrows, and God values even one sparrow. Remember, God is with you. Let us operate from that inner place of knowing. Amen.