A COMPELLING LIFE

com·pel-  /comkəmˈpel/ verb.  force or oblige (someone) to do something.  bring about (something) by the use of force or pressure.  drive forcibly.

com·pel·ling - /kəmˈpeliNG/  adjective.  evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way.  not able to be refuted; inspiring conviction.  not able to be resisted; overwhelming.

In Luke 14, Jesus was invited to a dinner party at the home of a senior Pharisee.  His host went all out.  He had the best food, forced his servants to work on the Sabbath, and invited all the best people to sit around Jesus, the guest of honor.  Everything about the dinner event was meant to be impressive, to be “compelling.”

Jesus was not impressed, but He did feel compelled to share some stories. 

The moral of His stories (Luke 14: 1-14) was basically, “If you want to put on and interesting, admirable, irresistible---- compelling----- dinner, then next time do the exact opposite of everything you’re doing now.”

·         Don’t hide behind legalism to indulge your greed for personal possessions and to hide your indifference to suffering persons.  Next time, forget your oxen and heal the sick. (Luke 14: 1-6)

·         Don’t scheme and politic for public positions of power and prestige.  Next time, deliberately seek out the position of greatest humility.  Don’t lobby for more, but accept only what is offered to you.  (Luke 14: 7-12)

·         Instead of choosing the rich and prestigious for your guest list, hoping that they will reciprocate with invitations to their next fabulous parties.  Next time, “you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.” (Luke 14: 13-14)

Jesus’ parables were designed to be instructive and convicting----- to be compelling.

And, as is usually the case, the first reply was something stupid.

All of the uppity dinner guest should have felt convicted by Jesus’ words.  They should have begged His forgiveness for their selfishness and hypocrisy.  They should have given up their seats of honor and made plans to bring the poor into their homes.  They should have felt compelled to repent and change.

Instead, somebody just got his “shout on” for no reason.

Now, when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”(Luke 14: 15)

The man’s praise break was supposed to impressive to Jesus. 

Jesus was not impressed.

He was like, “Really?  You’re just gonna throw back some random church cliché based on one word out of that whole exposition on ministering to the poor and the sick.”

Jesus jumped all over the guy with another story, a parable about insincere people making excuses about a dinner party (Luke 14: 16-24)

Jesus’ parable ended with the “Master” of the dinner feast declaring that none of the rich friends originally invited “shall taste my supper.” (Luke 15: 24)

In their place, the Master told His servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them (them being ‘the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind’) to come in, that my house may be filled.” (Luke 15: 21-23)

“Compel them, ”the Master said.  “Force them to come to me.” 

“But how?” the servant asks, “How can I compel these to accept what others have declined?   Our power can’t compel them?  Our positions and posts of honor doesn’t compel them.  Our impressive list of member and patrons isn’t impressive enough to drive them to us.”

“Bring them to Me,” says the Master, “by the power of a COMPELLING LIFE.”

Jesus tried so hard to teach the dinner party the same lesson He’s trying to teach the church.  Go out into the highways and hedges to the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and show the a COMPELLING LIFE.  Show the love.  Show them sacrifice for others.  Show them grace. Show them unity.  Show them wisdom.  Oh, for the love of God, show them actual holiness!

Lives like that are extremely COMPELLING.

If Christians go out and show that,  people will follow us back to where we worship. 

More than marketing, or technology, or real estate development, the greatest tool for church growth is a church full of people who live compelling lives.

Let your light shine so, that when people see your good works, they are compelled to seek out your Father in Heaven. (Matthew 5: 16, Anderson’s paraphrase)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

HONEST LOVE

The calling of the disciple Levi brought together the most hated, most respected, most sinful, and most religious people in the nation all under one roof for one meal and a lesson for us.

As we continue through the formative moments of the original church, we look at the calling of a tax collector and in a message that touches on this moment in our nation, in the church, and in our personal spiritual lives.

The message is called: HONEST LOVE.

(Quick confession:  Near the end of the sermon I reference the work of Harriet Tubman  but I call her Sojourner Truth.  I do know better.)

Listen well.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to:
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

BECOMING THE MONSTER

In the work we do in the ministry and in the community, we run into pockets of Pharassaic power.  They hold influence and access but they don't want to use it to fix problems.  They use their position to impose self-promoting demand protocols and to demand fealty. 

Like the Pharisees who didn't want to uplift the downtrodden Jews or resist the Roman oppressors.  They just wanted Jesus to tell them "Who do you think You are?  Who gave you permission to go out there and help people and heal folks and forgive sins?  You didn't check with US first!"  (Matthew 21: 23)

Remember.  Those Pharisees were Jesus' own people. 

The Pharassaic pockets of power today are also the very people who should be making good happen.  Instead they stand in the way of do-gooders until the do-gooders join their group or show them the "respect we deserve."

You have to fight those Phariseess so you can fight for the community.

But you must be careful.  See, sometimes when you win enough battles, the Pharisees invite you to dinner and they tell you what a good job you've done and they give you the honored seat and they offer you a position on their council.

Now it happened, as Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.  ….So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places… (Luke 14:1, 7)    

And once you get to sit in the high places of honor sometimes you may want to be shown the "respect you deserve."

Then you might  starting looking sideways at people who are trying to do good without following protocol.  Once you kind of arrive you might see somebody casting out demons and forbid them to do so because they didn't follow US. (Mark 9: 38).  Never mind that people are being delivered from demonic oppression.  The big question is: How dare they do good without checking with ME first?!

You become the Pharisees.

 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”.  ----- Jesus (Matthew 5: 20)

To avoid becoming the part of the Pharisaic power structure against which you were struggling, Jesus advises us:
- not to seek honor for ourselves (Luke 14: 8);
- to make space for the powerless at our tables of influence (Luke 14: 12, 13).
- And as Jesus demonstrated, you have stay prayerful and focused on the work more than the honors you could receive. 

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. …When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

But Jesus said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” (Mark 1: 35-38)

You have to understand that even promotion can be wrong if it’s at the wrong time or in the wrong way.   In those situations you have to do the counterintuitive---- and turn down a good thing.

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.  (John 6:15)

And most of all, most of all ----you have to be clear and sure of who you are. You can’t depend on the accolades of the crowd or the opiate of being needed.  A fragile ego is great weakness, and the enemies of the mission will exploit it.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. (John 2: 24)

A clear sense of who you are, a willingness to say no to honors, prayerful focus on your purpose, the habit of sharing space with the less powerful, and a willingness not to self-promote.   These were the tools Jesus used to shield Himself from the temptation to become the very devil He’d come to defeat.

These are the same tools that you and I need to avoid becoming the very monsters against which we battle everyday.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

----Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064