Reading the Sky

Today is the first day in, well, about a week when it hasn't been raining. The boys have been itching to ride their bikes. I have been diligent about checking www.weather.com to see what the local forecast will be (since having children, I have forgotten about the local television news stations). The weather forecast said that it would rain - 30-50% chance. However, we all know about the accuracy of weather forecasts.

The boys would watch out the windows with me, or we would go outside, and we would look at the sky. If it got cloudy, gray, or if the sky turned dark, we knew that it would rain...or as the boys say, "The rain has come to fall on the green grasses." I've always looked at the sky to know what the weather would be like...except in Ghana. In Ghana, you don't look at the sky to determine if it will rain. Instead, you gauge by the heat of the sun. As we rode with our coordinator, he would say, "the sun is hot," and we would know that the weather would be fine. If he said, "the sun is very hot," or "very, very hot," we knew we were in for a thunder-and-lightening, get-drenched rain. It didn't often happen at that moment - it was sometimes 2-3 hours later, but he was right.

In Matthew 16, Jesus is being tested by the Pharisees. They've asked him to show them a sign from heaven, and Jesus says this: "He answered them, "When it is evening, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, "It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah." Then he left them and went away."

In the end, does it really matter how we determine what the weather will be? So what if I can tell by the sun's heat, or by the color of the sky? So what? In the end, we waste our time, and God's time, being concerned about trivial things.

And so it is with the church. We have our eyes to the sky, looking for signs and wonders that we can interpret, and we have forgotten that it's not about reading the signs. The church exists for one purpose, and one purpose only: to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We do not exist to be a social club, a support group, a center for study, or even as a center for music and art. If we are looking for a sign, we need to know that the plethora of activities the church engages in should be measured and evaluated on the basis of their effectiveness in making disciples. Otherwise, while those ministries may be helpful to us, they are helping us be counterproductive in bringing God's kingdom to earth.

You want a sign? Don't look to the sky! Instead, look for places where disciples are made. Search for evidence that the kingdom of God is breaking in. Nothing else matters.