Stripping away

Stripping away

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church Scripture: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Consider: The clock ticks, the inbox fills, and a quiet whisper echoes in the modern heart: You are what you accomplish. We live in a culture obsessed with the resume. From social media bios to networking events, we are constantly prompted to introduce ourselves by our titles, our productivity, and our accolades. It is a exhausting trap that conditions us to value others—and ourselves—solely by what can be measured on a spreadsheet or engraved on a trophy. But this performance-trap is not a modern invention. Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul ran this exact race, and he won it by every human standard. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul reflects on his own pedigree. If anyone had a right to boast in human achievements, it was him. He writes: “Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” Look at that resume. Paul had the perfect heritage, the elite education, the ultimate religious status, and unmatched drive. By the standards of his day, he was at the absolute top of the ladder. He was highly productive, fiercely committed, and universally respected in his circles. But then, Paul does something radical. He looks at this towering mountain of human accolades, and he reevaluates its worth. He continues: “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him...” The word Paul uses for “garbage” or “rubbish” in the original Greek is skubala—a gritty, shocking term that refers to street filth or refuse. Paul takes the very achievements that defined his worldly worth and declares them worthless when compared to his fundamental identity in Christ. Why? Because Paul realized that human accolades are a shifting sand. If your identity is built on your titles, who are you when the title is taken away? If your worth is tied to your productivity, what happens when you burn out, grow old, or fail? When we value people based on their achievements, we reduce the image-bearers of God to mere utility. We turn relationships into transactions. But Christ shatters this trap. Our fundamental identity is not earned; it is received. It is not built on our doing, but on what Christ has already done. In the eyes of God, your worth is locked in. You are loved, chosen, and redeemed—not because of your flawless performance, but because of God’s flawless grace. Let us step off the treadmill of human validation. Let us stop measuring the people around us by their productivity and start seeing them through the lens of the cross. Respond: Think about the people you interact with most often (colleagues, family, neighbors). Do you subconsciously value them based on how efficient, successful, or helpful they are to you, or do you view them fundamentally as image-bearers of God? Pray: Lord, We confess that our hearts are prone to wander into the trap of performance. We confess that we so easily tie our worth to our work, our identities to our titles, and our value to our productivity. Forgive us for the times we have looked at others through the lens of utility rather than the lens of grace. Thank You for the reminding example of the Apostle Paul. Today, we choose to step off the treadmill of striving. We lay down our resumes, our need to prove ourselves, and our hunger for human applause. Anchor our souls in the truth of who we are in You: loved, chosen, and redeemed. May Your unconditional grace free us to rest in our true identity and empower us to love others not for what they can do, but for who they are in Your sight. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Tipping Point

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church Scripture: Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord;who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. Consider: I don’t know how much attention you’ve paid to what I call “the tipping wars”. Ever since many establishments moved towards the touchless pay systems - you know the ones where you can tap your card or phone to pay - the tip screen has become ubiquitous. You’re being asked to tip everyone you encounter. My reaction is always to feel extreme guilt I’m about to commit a social sin by not tipping someone who I really should or “wasting money” tipping someone I really shouldn’t. Do I need to tip at the pick-up counter if all they did was hand me my food? Someone please help me! Now, I was a waitress for many years prior to seminary. My first job for pay was at the airport restaurant in Clarksburg, WV. I say the restaurant because the airport only ran to one and actually only offered three flights a day. One to Cincinnati, one to Pittsburgh, one to DC. I worked at this restaurant for mostly tips because the minimum wage for servers was $2.15 per hour. So I know how important tips can be for our lowest paid workers. That being said, the tipping economy has made every interaction in our life transactional. I’ll do this for you if you do this for me. It requires us to measure to the penny how much a person’s effort and labor are worth - and it is measured differently by each person. Let’s see, was today’s effort worth 10%? 18%? Some custom amount I make up in my head? It transactionalizes and quanitifizes relationship and human beings. This Psalm asks us to step away from the transcational relationship our cultures encourages towards a life where all people are treated the same AND our behavior is the same no matter the circumstance. This life of integrity takes away the burden of negotiating every interaction for its relative value because it gives us the freedom to be absolutely the same every single time. We live into its values by treating each other with respect and kindness despite how much value the person can offer us in return. We speak the same with the Senator as we do the sketchy guy on the corner by the traffic light. We give freely and generously with no strings attached. Imagine how freeing it would be if we could step away from the tipping machine? We can stop the quid pro quo stress and never worry about a social faux pas ever again. I already feel more relaxed. Respond: Think for a moment on a time when you stepped away from a transactional relationship into one of mutual respect? What would it look like to shift towards an attitude of integrity where your attitude towards other people isn’t affected by what they can do for you? Pray: Loving Lord, give me eyes to see beyond faults and failures (my own and others) and recognize Your image in those around me as well as in myself. Teach me to build true community through kindness, compassion, patience, and forgiveness. May my relationships reflect the love You have poured out on me. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Danger of the Performance

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church Scripture: Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2023%3A1-15&version=NIV#fen-NIV-23924a]] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. 13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. 15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. 25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Consider: Do you remember trying out to make a team? Whether a sports team, or dance or theatre performance, or to get accepted into the school, or be part of a special project, event, elite group… you name it! Many of us are conditioned to work hard and be competitive and make that team because there are only a limited number of slots available. This puts us in the difficult situation of not just trying to be better at something, but to be better than the competition which could be a friend or a colleague. Then the results are published, and we may be disappointed not to make the team, or it can be a bit difficult not to get puffed up with pride when we do make it. Well, thank God that His kingdom is not like that! We need to shift out of the paradigm of competition and scarcity mentality. God’s kingdom is not out of anyone’s reach. When Jesus came, he dramatically changed the rules, in fact he turned the whole game upside down. Now, to be first you must be last, the exalted are humbled, the humbled are exalted, the greatest is the servant. Then He not only talked the talk, but He walked a walk that no one else would ever have to walk. He did it with the disciples when he wrapped a towel around his waist and washed their dirty, stinky feet, just like the lowest of servants. Then, He humbled Himself to be humiliated in the worst of ways by being crucified like the vilest of criminals. The problem for the Pharisees and the scribes, is that they had already invested and dedicated much of their lives to compete and make the team. They tried to elicit a standard which deep inside they knew they could not meet. But they were good at their game. They wore the uniform to be recognized. They thought they were on the team. They thought they had beat out the competition, and by setting the high bar they fended off the common who were not as good at their game. When we read a passage of scripture like this, it is easy to put ourselves in team Jesus, and “other” the Pharisees and the scribes. However, we need to understand the context and what they were doing and examine ourselves to identify where we may eliciting similar hypocritical behaviors. This is not an easy task, but we need to step off the soap box which only has room for One and consider how we may also be falling into this trap. The good news is that the kingdom of God is not a team with limited slots, and Jesus came so that the whole world might be saved through him (John 3:17). The warning to the scribes and Pharisees, and to us, is that we are not the dispensers of grace. We do not get to say who is or who isn’t worthy of receiving His grace. Just when we thought we had figured out this whole grace thing, Jesus turns around and pours it on the wrong guy (or so we think). But the one thing that really makes Jesus mad is when any of us “lock” anyone else out of His kingdom because they didn’t make the cut, they aren’t enough, because of how they vote, what they post, the hat or t-shirt they wear, the issue they support or oppose, who they love, or because their sin just happens to be more visible than ours. Jesus himself told us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, so if we’re putting heavy burdens on people to make team Jesus, something is amuck. Respond: Where have we limited God’s grace? Have we excluded anyone out of God’s kingdom because they don’t meet a certain standard? Let’s examine ourselves and ask, who is Jesus calling me to love with his love? Pray: Father God, You are eternal and omniscient and your grace really is amazing and beyond comprehension. Give us a heart to love those who we find it hard to love. Help us to understand today, how we may be limiting your grace. Give us the humility to open our hearts to those who we misjudge as not enough or not worthy of your love. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Looking Past the Brokenness of Mistakes

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church Scripture: Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab:“Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Consider: Rahab could be called many things. Business owner. Mother. Entrepeneaur. Beloved Child of God. Resident of Jericho. That lady with the hair. There are many names the Bible could have used to explain her relationship to the story and her importance to the narrative of Joshua. Yet the word they chose was a perjorative one. Prostitute. And so Rahab, like Mary Magdalene, came forever to be known for their brokeness and not their vital role in the story of God. Though for Mary Magdalene there is no biblical proof she was anything like a prostitute or, as she is sometimes known, the woman with many husbands. All the Bible tells us is she was an apostle and the first witness to the resurrection. It’s her hands which are trusted with the first words of good news in the gospel. “Go and tell you brothers”, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene. And yet the historic church chose to lessen her by assigning her mortal sins for which there is no attribution except imagination. Rahab wins the story in the end. Of all the people who are named in Jesus’ pre-birth genealogy in Matthew, there are only two women. Rahab and Mary, Jesus’ mother. Matthew took the story of Rahab and turned the label on its end. No longer defined by the worst moments of her life, Rahab became a hero and essential part of the story of God. Without her, Jesus could not be. We all carry labels and stories which are attached to the worst moments of our lives or, like Mary Magdalene, completely made up by ourselves or others. Those labels could define our story if we chose to let them. Drug Addict. Mental Patient. Lazy Slob. Angry and Mean. Bossy. Ugly. You pick it, we all carry a label which is supposed to make us feel shame. But the Gospel story invites us to shed that sticker - peel it right off and throw it to the ground, leaving it in the dirt behind our feet as we walk away. We do not need to be defined by the worst thing or worst name of our lives. We are so much more than those words in God’s eyes. In the moments when we tell our story, we have the opportunity to name something different and tell a different story. Respond: What label do you carry which causes you shame? Name aloud or in your heart those words which others have used to try and confine or make you less than you are. Count them on your fingers as you go. Now, name an equal number of names and labels which are more true, remembering as you do those positive stories of really who you are. When you’ve counted down an equal number, add one more, remembering those words are more powerful than the labels others have given you. Pray: Lord, give us the humility to accept help when we need it and the courage to reach for the hand You provide. Thank You for the friends, family, mentors, and brothers and sisters in Christ who help us stand again when life knocks us down. Teach us to be that kind of presence for others too. Make us quick to encourage, ready to restore, and faithful to walk beside those who are struggling. Let our words bring hope, our actions bring healing, and our lives reflect the love of Christ. Strengthen our hearts today to keep walking forward together. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Empathy and Community

These posts will always be free, however, if you find them meaningful and would like to consider supporting our online outreach, you can donate using this link. [https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church] https://account.venmo.com/pay?recipients=WakeForestPresbyterian-Church Scripture: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Consider: I don’t know about you, but Paul’s letter, for me, laundry lists all the things I DON’T always want to put into practice in my life…especially when they are not practices being returned in kind to me by others. Paul speaks of bearing with one another in love, reaching full maturity in faith when unity and peace is achieved. In a world that feels more and more fractured and divided by the year, these plans of Paul’s seem so very unattainable that I could close the bible and walk away fully defeated. I could, but then I would be fulfilling the very thing Paul rebukes in this letter…I would be choosing to stay the course in what is current, what is earthly, what is not in and of and about God. I could do that, it would be pretty easy to fall into the well of negativity and jaded perspective. But as we’ve learned over and over and over again, we are not called by God to take the easy road. Paul describes true faithful community not as a gathering of perfect people, but as a family of redeemed people learning to live together under the grace of God. The chapter calls believers to humility, patience, gentleness, forgiveness, and love (all the qualities that sound great but are oh so much harder to live out). These qualities are not optional extras; they are the mandates of a life lived transformed and shaped by Christ. One of the greatest challenges in community is learning to see beyond the scorekeeping of injuries, move past our sinful desire to be right all the time and prove someone else wrong. People can be difficult, disappointing, and imperfect. Yet Paul reminds us that the standard for our treatment of others is not their behavior toward us but God’s grace toward us. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We show compassion because we have received compassion. It’s pretty simple math when you get right down to it. So, how do we go about being a true Christian community? We love one another, we show up for one another, and we stay at the table even when it gets hard. God stays, no matter what. Let’s try to stay as well. Respond: Think for a moment on a time when grace was truly extended to you, without any deserving on your end… how did that make you feel? How did it shape the action you took next? Now think on your response moving forward, how should God's grace toward you shape the way you respond to others' weaknesses? Pray: Loving Lord, give me eyes to see beyond faults and failures (my own and others) and recognize Your image in those around me as well as in myself. Teach me to build true community through kindness, compassion, patience, and forgiveness. May my relationships reflect the love You have poured out on me. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wfpc.substack.com [https://wfpc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]