Tyndale Chapel Podcast

George Sweetman
Good morning everyone. Welcome to our community chapel this morning. We're glad that you are here, both here on campus, as well as those of you who are joining us online. As we begin this gathering, I'd like to invite you to hear these words of challenge and instruction from Micah chapter six, "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." Let's pray together. We come today, O God, desiring to abide in Your presence. So, open our minds to Your spirit of wisdom, that we may know how to live as Your people. And open our hearts to Your spirit of truth, that we may love all Your people with a love that speaks of justice, kindness and radical grace. And may these moments of worship this morning, be pleasing to You. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Before I sit down, I want to do two things. Number one, we have a number of prospective students here with us today that are checking us out to see if seminary or graduate studies are the right thing for them here at Tyndale. So for those of you who might be here discovering our hallways and our classrooms and our lounges, we are glad that you're here, welcome, and we hope that we'll see you again in the fall or next winter. I'd also like to do another thing. I want to introduce you to today's speaker. We are delighted this morning to have Cheryl Nembhard with us. Cheryl is a speaker, podcaster, television host and justice advocate. Through the years, she has been dedicated to community service that includes working with at risk youth, former gang members and sexual assault victims. Some of you may know Cheryl from her work as a longtime co host with "See, Hear and Love" on Yes TV. Along with her media work, she is currently Executive Director of the Women's Speakers Collective, a worldwide organization focused on equipping, amplifying and empowering the voices of women across the globe. And on an institutional note, we are very proud that Cheryl is a graduate of Tyndale University, and we look forward to your words with us this morning, Cheryl. Now, friends come let us worship our God and our King.

Cheryl Nembhard
I think you guys planned to mess me up completely before I speak. I didn't get the memo to bring the waterproof mascara. I'm not happy about that. I think part of my tears were connected to watching Renee lead so beautifully. Can we just actually honor the worship team one more time. I've watched Renee grow up, I can literally say I've got auntie vibes from head to toe right now, it's amazing to see what God does with our young people. Well, it's truly a joy to be here. It's a deep honor to be back here today, and I love that word "back", feels good. And I'm not only here as a guest speaker, but I'm a proud alumni of Tyndale Seminary, but I will confess it was called Ontario Bible College back then, or Ontario Bridal College. Actually, I'm ashamed to say I mastered in both degrees quite well, very studious. This place has helped shaped my theology. It's shaped my calling. I know I'm not alone in this, and it shaped my understanding of what it means to serve Christ in the real world, and I remain deeply grateful for the formation that has happened and is happening in these walls, amen? Oh, by the way, memo, I'm going to anoint you all Pentecostal, let me get my water real quick. I love a lot of "amen" so, talk back to me. If something is resonating, I don't mind an amen or two. We're celebrating. It's Black History Month. We're going to be a little bit more boisterous, amen? There we go. And yet, at these times, you know, these moments of chapel, they're not only moments of preparation for future ministry and how we show up in the world but they're also a present call to obedience now. Because the truth is, is that the world is not waiting for us to graduate before it starts hurting. Can I get amen on that? Ministry is not something that begins after seminary and after university. It's actually already unfolding in real time all around us, and it's something that the Holy Spirit is calling you and I to respond to in this moment. Here's the truth we are living in a time marked by deep division, economic strain, war, displacement, loneliness, the list is long: protest, polarization, distrust in institutions, moral failings in leadership, talk to me, and exhaustion, burnout in and also of the Church. Many feel pushed to the edges in every area, socially, economically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally. And the question I want to pose to you today, as they would say in the black church, I came all this way to say, "Where is hope found when people are existing in the remote margins?" And even more pointedly, "Where is the church's role in carrying hope to the margins?" We hold fast to God's promise found. Oh, I should have gotten the memo on this. How do I push this? Oh, you, thank you. Can Can Can I just say slide? Could we just work together? Great. I'm from a different generation, so we're just going to do it that way. The Bible says, "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, [we know this well] and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land." But here's what I want you to dial in on. Healing first begins with humility; the recognition that we are in the need of rescue from a Savior. And renewal begins with repentance and acknowledging of wrongdoing and wrong acting. And transformation begins when God's people move from merely seeking the heart of God to replicating the heart of God on the earth towards a broken generation, amen? I'm thinking right now about Luke, chapter 10, verses 25 to 37, I'm talking to Bible scholars I don't need to read it, but here we see a powerful moment played out. We encounter a lawyer testing Jesus, almost putting Him on test there, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" A question many of us have asked. Jesus turns the question back. "Well, what does the law say?" We know this very well. The lawyer, a highly educated man, he answers correctly and he says, "Love God fully and love your neighbor as yourself". Big smile. Jesus said, "Do this and live." Jesus essentially says, you know the command, now, let your life become the evidence. Thank you for the "amen" in the amen corner over there. But wanting to justify himself and narrowing his own responsibility, the lawyer then pushes back and says, "And who is my neighbor?" And Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. We know this very well, a beaten man left half dead. Religious leaders of the day passing by fully ignoring the pain around them, passing a dying man on the road; and a Samaritan, culturally socially despised, stops, tends to the wounds, lifts him up, pays for his care, and promises to return and fill in the gaps if needed. Jesus then asked the lawyer, "Which one of these was a neighbor?" Well, the answer is unmistakable family, it's the one who stopped and showed mercy, correct? Yeah. And Jesus says, "Go and do likewise." But you see, the lawyer wanted compassion with conditions. He wanted boundaries. He wanted qualifications. He wanted to know a question that so many of us are still struggling with today, "Who deserves my love?", but Jesus flips the script. Somebody say, "Flip the script." That's just a Pentecostal testing of you, I was just checking if you're alive; signs of Pentecostal life in the building. The real question here is, when he flips the script, not "Who is my neighbor?" The real question today is, " What kind of neighbor am I becoming? What kind of neighbor are you and I becoming daily?" And this matters profoundly for ministry today, because our temptation in every generation that has ever been is to love and serve those who are easiest to serve, safest to serve, and look most like us. It's a hard truth, but the ministry of Jesus consistently centers those living at the margins and where others always move away Jesus moves toward. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. When we examine Scripture, we notice something very striking. God consistently shows up in the margins. I'm thinking about just a few here. Hagar cast out betrayed. She meets God in the wilderness of her moment, and is the first to name God, El Roi, the God who sees me. Ruth, a foreign widow facing extreme poverty, uncertainty, inserted forever in history and becomes part of the lineage of our Messiah, wow. Shepherds, social outsiders chosen to receive the birth announcement of Christ. Lepers, tax collectors, women of scandal, children, foreigners, the demonized, the poor; these are those that Jesus chose to spend time with and live among. And if we can go to the next slide, Luke 4:18,19, Jesus clearly declares this mission. We know this well. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... to proclaim good news [to the who? shout it out] to the poor... freedom for the captives... recovery of sight for the blind... and to set the oppressed free." You see, my friends, hope is not reserved for the powerful. Hope is not reserved for the notable or the wealthy or the most connected. Hope is announced first to the overlooked, to the discarded. So we wrestle with this question today, "If Jesus consistently moved towards the margins, why are we so comfortable staying in the warm center?" I want you to notice what moved the Samaritan, the Scripture says that when he saw him he had compassion; not irritation, not fear, not inconvenience, not even obligation of ministry, compassion. You see, compassion interrupts schedules. Compassion causes us to take notice. Compassion costs something. Compassion moves us towards pain and not around it or away from it. Compassion doesn't ask the question, "What will happen to me if I stop?" No, no, no. Compassion actually asks, "What will happen to them if I don't?" And this question confronts us today, because the truth is, people, we we are seeing the margins all around us. There are people in the margins, in and amongst our everyday lives; youth struggling with identity and a sense of belonging; refugees and immigrants seeking safety and harbor; communities impacted by racism or generational cycles; people battling addictions or incarceration cycles; those rejected because of a difference or misunderstanding. But I'm also thinking about those that are lonely in crowded spaces. Anyone ever been lonely in a full room? Talk to me. I'm talking about the exhausted pastor, one hair from white flagging; the disillusioned, wounded, church hurt believer. There are many kinds of margins here. Margins aren't always geographical or cultural. Sometimes they're emotional and spiritual margins, amen? And so, hope often arrives when ordinary believers choose not to walk past. One of my favorite educators and activists, just in in honor of Black History Month, is Cornel West. And he famously said this, you may know this quite well, "Justice is what love looks like in public". You see, biblical love is not passive sentiment, it's not, it's not something that is warm and fuzzy and nice to have. It's active mercy; it's feeding the hungry; it's welcoming the stranger; it's tending the wounds; it's advocating for the vulnerable and the voiceless. It's not a political ideology. I'm not spouting anything except biblical obedience. We are called by God to love everyone. Slide. I'm thinking of Micah 6:8 right now, that says, "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Justice without humility, we got to be careful with that, because that becomes arrogance. Well, mercy without justice, it only relieves the suffering, but it doesn't address the systems and the things that are wounding the offended. But together justice, mercy, humility, it reveals the fullness of God's heart towards us. Family, I need to say this again. Maybe I've come just to be one that blows the shofar. Maybe I'm the watchman on the wall shouting to wake up. We are living in a complicated hour. Trust in institutions is fraying by the second, not even the minute; church communities are feeling the weight of political and racial division around us; leaders are weary; congregations are feeling the pull of the opposing currents of our time; and beyond our walls, Christians are being known more for condemnation than compassion. But what if the church became known again for something simpler, something more powerful? What if we became the people who always stop? What if we became those who always notice; those who will stop to listen; those who will kneel beside pain and beside the ugliness of the world instead of walking past it or away for it from it. What if we were those that would love without qualifications and obligation? What if we were the ones who carried hope into the places that others avoid? You see, because ministry is not only proclaimed from the pulpit, can I help you today? It's practiced on the roadside. It's practiced in hospital rooms. It's practiced in shelters. It's practiced in detention centers. It's practiced in addiction centers. It's practiced at the kitchen table. It's practiced in quiet conversations. It is the work of binding wounds, making room for healing, and it's the restoring of dignity to those the world has shunned and overlooked. So what kind of neighbor will you and I be? Jesus didn't end the story with inspiration. In fact, He ends it with a commission that I want to say again in your hearing, so you all can't say you didn't hear it. "Go and do likewise." My brothers and my sisters, "Go and do likewise". So here is the question for us to sit today with throughout the week, if I can get the slide up. These are questions that I've created for you. I want you to take a picture if this matters, if maybe this is where you're sitting, or you're feeling challenged by this word. These are just reflection questions for you to sit with in your quiet time, in your devotion time with God. Feel free to talk them through in community or on your own. "Where have I allowed theology to replace compassion in my response to people's pain? Who have I quietly decided is too complicated, too different, too difficult to love well? And if Jesus walked through my city today, who would He stop for that I have somehow, over time, found a rhythm to ignore?" Because hope at the margin often arrives through ordinary, faithful obedience. Here's a word to all of you. I call you future leaders because that is who you are. As you're preparing for ministry, and as you're preparing for the next steps of your life. And I'm not going to do the Pentecostal black church as I close, which is as I close like four times, "In closing...", 20 minutes later, "In closing..." This is the second in closing. We just got one more. As we wind down, let's do that, for those that are prepared for ministry, your calling is not merely to preach the truth. It's to embody Christ in a broken world. It's to lead with compassion. Somebody say "compassion", somebody say "compassion", yeah, it's to see people and not problems. It's to love across difference. It's to carry hope into wounded, broken spaces. You know, as the theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, love this simple, powerful quote slide, I think you're good. You can come with me. We'll just, I'll pay for the airfare. We'll travel around the globe, and then I don't ever have to deal with this thing again. This is what Dietrich says, "The church is the church only when it exists for others." Can I say that again? "The church is the church only when it exists for others". Bonhoeffer reminds us that the church loses her identity when she turns inward. We rediscover who we are actually, when we begin to shift our gaze and move towards a dying world; when we begin to look and and and consider the brokenness around us; when we stand with the wounded, the forgotten, the displaced, and we embody and bring with us Christ's presence there, amen? Because ministry at its deepest is not about building platforms. Whoo, oosa, I got, I almost did tongues, I had to push that one down. Cause we are in a platform, talk to me, we are in a, if I had my phone, I would, we are in a platform building generation. But ministry is not about building platforms or creating "... cool church spaces. So good. We've got lattes now with oat milk, we're really making a difference. Yeah." It's not about preserving comfort. It's it's actually partnering linking arms, joining with Jesus and partnering with Him in the work of bringing hope, dignity, and love to those who are existing, and can I insert this word? Barely, existing in the margins. I wonder if you could, wherever you are, would you join me in this? I've got a bit of a commission for us. Could you rise to your feet? And let's say this together as we close. And I just want you to repeat this after me and just declare it with your whole being,

Cheryl Nembhard
"May we not only pray for healing, but become agents of healing." Yeah. "May we not only preach love, but live it where it is hardest to give." Thank you, Lord. "May we not only proclaim hope, but carry it into places where hope feels lost", and lastly, "May we have the courage to go, where Christ already is." Let's pray,

Cheryl Nembhard
God of the margins, we come to You, empty, challenged, maybe convicted, maybe coming once again to be recalibrated in our hearts and minds. Father, I pray that You would place on us a heavy burden to live, love, and serve among the forgotten. God, give us a heart for the wounded. Give us a heart for the broken, a heart for the discarded, the overlooked. Father, the ones that are pushed aside. Let our hearts burn with compassion and Jesus' love for the least of these. Father, remind us every day that hope is at the margins, and as we bring Your love and reflect the light of God, shine it in the darkness, that we are bringing hope to those who truly need it the most. Use us for Your glory. We surrender to You. And every one said. Amen. Oh, I forgot that I was closing the service. I got a little caught up in the word there. I hope that you were blessed by the word, and I pray that you would talk it through. There's a beautiful way of just pulling down what's been said here and having it live and come alive in your heart. So take this word with you and be blessed today in Jesus' name. Have a wonderful day. Amen.