Sermon May 20 2007 "The Weak, Strong, Commitment to Community” (part 3 of 3) aka "cleaning up the mess from not communicating clearly two Sundays ago"

(speak a bit about failing to communicate what I thought to be the heart of Paul’s message to the Roman church because I repeated myself and mixed the whole process up, but I found a story of a guy who’s had a pretty big impact on my life that I think illustrates the kind of thinking Paul is calling the Romans to do)

My friend Greg and I have been talking quite a bit about what it means to follow Jesus. Greg would not consider himself as someone who takes Jesus seriously, but he admits to having questions. I didn’t have a formula for him to understand how a Christian conversion works, but I told him that many years ago, when I was a child, I had heard about Jesus and found the idea of Him compelling, then much later while reading the Gospels, came to believe that I wanted to follow Him. This changed things in my life, I said, because it involved giving up everything and choosing to go into a relationship with Him.

Greg told my that he had seen a pamphlet with four or five ideas on it, ideas such as man was a sinner, sin separated man from God, and Christ died to remove that separation. He asked me if this was what I believed, and I told him, essentially, that it was. “Those would be the facts of the story,” I told him, “but that isn’t the story.”

“Those are the ideas, but it isn’t the whole picture,” Greg stated then.

“Yes,” I told him.

Earlier that same year I had a conversation with my friend Omar, who is a student at a local college. For his humanities class, Omar was assigned to read the majority of the Bible. He asked to meet with me for coffee, and when we sat down he put a Bible on the table as well as a pamphlet containing the same five or six ideas that Greg had mentioned. He opened the pamphlet, read the ideas, and asked if these concepts were important to the central message of Christianity. I told Omar that they were critical; that, basically, this was the gospel of Jesus, the backbone of Christain faith. Omar then opened his Bible and asked, “If these ideas are so important, why aren’t they in this book?”

“But the Scripture references are right here.” I said curiously, showing Omar that the verses were printed next to each idea.

“I see that,” he said. “But in the Bible they aren’t concise like they are in this pamphlet. They are spread all over the book.”

“But this pamphlet sums up the ideas,” I told him.

“Right,” Omar continued.”but it seems like, if these ideas are that critical, God would have taken the time to make bullet points out of them. Instead, He put some of them there and some of them here. And half the time, when Jesus is talking, He is speaking entirely in parables. It is hard to believe that whatever it is He is talking about can be summed up this simply.”

Omar’s point is well-taken. And while the ideas presented in these pamphlets are certainly true, it struck me how simply we had begun to explain the ideas, not only how simply, but how nonrelationally, how propositionally. I don’t mean any of this to fault the pamphlets at all. Tracts like the ones Omar and Greg encountered have been powerful tools in helping people understand the beauty of the message of Jesus. Millions, perhaps,have come to know Jesus through these efficient presentations of the gospel. But I did begin to wonder if there were better ways of explaining it than these pamphlets. The greater trouble with these reduced ideas is that modern evangelical culture is so accustomed to this summation that it is difficult for us to see the gospel as anything other than a list of true statements with which a person must agree.

It makes me wonder if, because of this reduced version of the claims of Christ, we believe the gospel is easy to understand, a simple mental exercise, not in the least bit mysterious. And if you think about it, a person has a more difficult time explaining romantic love, for instance, or beauty, or the Trinity, than the gospel of Jesus. The apostle John opened his gospel by presenting the idea that God is the Word and Jesus is the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Not exactly bullet points for easy consumption. Perhaps our reduction of these ideas has caused us to miss something.

(Talk about how, when gospel becomes simplified and “easy-to-digest” and driven by principles, we lose the central call to be in healthy relationship with God (which is much more complex than several Biblical verses) and the call to live in healthy relationships with others around us)

When that happens, we get lazy and start slotting things into black and white, wrong and right, here or there…and that deeply affects the way that we read the Bible. Specifically, when we see Paul speaking to the early church about how to live, we apply our categories of black and white to his instructions, and very quickly, if we’re being honest, we find our approach is deeply flawed;

We read Paul say one should not eat food sacrificed to idols, “about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the one God.” Well, we might assume, using our way of thinking, clearly eating food sacrificed to idols is ok because there’s only one God.

But then later in the same letter, Paul says “what is sacrificed on pagan altars is offered

to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot

drink from the Lord's cup and also from the cup of demons; you cannot eat at the Lord's

table and also at the table of demons. .” So, in using our way of thinking, clearly eating

food sacrificed to idols is not ok because we don’t want to eat something that has been

sacrificed to demons. (we’ve got a problem here now)

We read prohibitions against drunkenness and we say, “well, that means don’t drink.”

But do we apply the same thinking, then to prohibitions against adultery, and conclude, “well, that means all sexual expression is bad?”

Gluttony is a Biblical sin. Eating so much that your body suffers and your quality of life drops. Do we apply the same logic in approaching this problem? If gluttony is wrong, do we quit eating?

We read prohibition against babbling in tongues during worship without interpretation, does that mean we quit talking?

Do we see the flaws in that approach?

Everything in moderation is not the answer (cause some things are flat out unhealthy in general); you’d be hard-pressed to suggest that heroin or marijuana or gossiping are good for you even in small doses.

Ultimately, God has called us out of our self-centered lives into a relationship with Him, and because it is a serious relationship, there won’t always be black and white answers. And God has called us out of our individualism into relationship with other human beings, and those won’t always be black and white.

Some things are simple, but because some things are does not mean all things are.

But Paul doesn’t dwell on this subject, and quickly moves on, saying “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.” Romans 14:15-18

And so Paul moves on in chapter 15 in two careful twin sections (1-6 and 7-13) to describe Jesus, the Messiah, as the example both for the community’s life together (like Jesus, they are not to please themselves but to be committed to building up their neighbors) and for their mission in the world (like Jesus, they are to bring hope to the Gentiles). (repeat)

Both 1-6 and 7-13 have three main parts to their approach

1) an appeal to the community to act in a particular way

2) the identification of Jesus as the pattern for the recommended behavior

3) a prayer that God will empower the community to live as Jesus set the example to do

1-6 directed to the internal life together of the community

Summarizes the discussion in Romans 14 of the primary responsibility of the powerful to accept the weaknesses of the powerless as their burden (this time christologically defined)

The appeal to the death of Christ on behalf of the same powerless ones (14:15) is dramatically recalled by the quotation of Psalm 69:9 in verse 3

- by showing the Roman Christians, particularly the “strong” to see the willingness of the Messiah to take on the additional burden of insults that he didn’t deserve, Paul gave them a model for their own attitudes towards those with whom they disagree

- Paul is claiming not only that the death of Jesus the Messiah on the cross fulfills Scripture, but also that the Jesus who died for others is an example for Christian obedience.

- For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

- this has HUGE implications!

o (so when Scripture speaks of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52 and 53, it’s not just talking about what Jesus will eventually do on behalf of the entire world, but is also illustrating what every faithful Servant of God should do

o this illuminates deeply Jesus’ call before his crucifixion that “whoever would follow after me must pick up their cross daily,”

§ so the significance of Jesus for his followers is not just as Savior, but also as Supreme Example in life

Therefore, if we want to know how to treat our fellow believers, we look to Jesus. If we want to know what righteousness looks like, we look to Jesus. If we want to know how to treat our enemies, we look to Jesus. Even down to the nitty-gritty of seeking a proper balance of work and relaxation; serving others and taking time out to seek God and renew, we look to Jesus. (that is, on a practical level, what it means for us to say Jesus is Lord)

Focus on: “Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us.

shows the immense importance of the word of God first by the fact that he writes as an apostle of Christ, creating Scripture for us, and in his writing Scripture he quotes the Old Testament Scriptures that are already written. Take Romans 12:19 as just one example. In calling us to love again, he says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” “As it is written”! Then he quotes Scripture (Deuteronomy 32:35). And what he quotes is a promise: God will settle your accounts! God is just, and God will sweep no evil under the rug of the universe. All accounts will be settled. That is Scripture. That is something we learn when we read the Bible.

Paul closes this section of his conclusion to the letter with a prayer- that the God of hope will unite the community of Christians at Rome, powerful and powerless together, in conformity to the pattern of the Messiah and therefore as a sign of the fact that God is breaking down the walls that we build up between people groups to reconcile all of humanity.

And what is its effect? It lifts the burden of vengeance. We don’t need to carry this. God will. He promises that no wrong against us will be overlooked. It will be avenged on the cross, if our abuser repents and believes. Or it will be avenged in hell. You don’t need to carry the load of being God. You can hope in him. You can count on future justice. And in that hope you can rejoice and endure and love--even those who abuse you

(So seeking a Biblical worldview and a God-centered reality does not result in finding “Biblical principles” to apply to our modern lives, but becoming a people who trust the living and just and powerful God of the Universe with all of our lives!)

He is asking us some central, central questions; What difference does it make in your life, practically speaking, that Jesus Christ was crucified? (which carries secondary questions: does your daily life look different than a non-believer? If not, what can you change?) What difference does it make to your church; how you think, treat, and interact with one another? (do you treat one another in the church like folks do in job environments and out in society, or are you committed to a different way of being?)

Father talking to son at breakfast about needing to make a decision about whether he was going to do his very best in school, and said to his son,

“Son, this decision is not just a choice, it is a commitment. Do you know what that means?”

“I think so, Dad,” said the son. “It means sticking with something no matter what.”

The dad pointed to the young man’s breakfast plate. “It is the difference,” he said, “between ham and eggs. The chicken is involved. The pig is committed.”

Recognizing the difference between “involvement” (faith at fringes, so these questions don’t matter) and “commitment” (faith at center, so these questions matter deeply).

Sermon May 13, 2007 "Leaving a Legacy"

Soetgen van den Houte was about forty years of age when she was arrested, tried, and convicted for her Anabaptist faith in 1560. She was the mother of three children- David, Betgen, and Tanneken- and a widow whose husband had been martyred for his faith in 1551. She wrote a letter from a prison cell in Ghent, a testament of faith written for her children. Her testimony speaks with the intensity of a mother facing certain death for refusing to recant her most cherished beliefs, yet desiring to continue to care for her beloved children soon to be left with no earthly parents.

‘My dear children,’ she wrote, ‘since it pleases the Lord to take me out of this world, I will leave you with a memorial…I should like to write a jewel into your heart, if it were possible, which is the word of truth, in which I want to instruct you a little for the best with the Word of the Lord.’

What advice did she have for her children, to carry them through a dangerous world?

‘In the first place, I admonished you, my most beloved, always to allow yourself to be instructed by those who fear the Lord; then you will please God, and as long as you obey good guidance and instruction, and fear the Lord, he will be your Father and will not leave you orphans. For David said, ‘Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.’ Psalm 25:12 He also said, ‘But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ Ps 33:18,19; 34:7,9; 111:10 Your father confessed the truth concerning baptism and the incarnation, of Christ, in all that he was able to comprehend, and he valiantly testified to righteousness, giving his life for it, pointing out to you for an example, the same way which the prophets, the apostles and Christ Himself went. He had to go before through the conflict with much tribulation and suffering, and leave his children behind for Christ's sake; hence do likewise, for there is no other way.”

“Fear the Lord and be instructed by those who also fear the Lord, and you will not longer be orphans.” Both the fact that Soetgen has voluntarily put herself in a position to be arrested and executed as the only parent left and Soetgen’s confident advice to her children might be a bit surprising to us. It doesn’t sound quite right. But the theme of her letter;‘fearing the Lord,’ runs consistently through Anabaptist testimonies and writings, and points to a fundamental Biblical teaching.

God, the almighty creator of heaven, earth, and of all things on the earth, is a living God who promises salvation to those who repent, return to him and continue to obey him. He also has promised judgment and condemnation for those who persist in unbelief and self-willed disobedience. Humanity, following Adam and Eve, has chosen and continues to choose to disobey. But God in Christ has reconciled humanity and promised salvation to those who believe and continue to obey.

The ‘fear of God’ is the biblical door that stands at the beginning of the path back to God because it describes the necessary attitude and frame of mind needed to get reality back into proper focus.

What is the modern understanding of the word “fear”? What pops up in your head?

Fearing the Lord, Biblically understood, means recognizing God’s sovereign power and one’s own relatively piddly place in the greater scheme of things. It arises from an awareness of the actual human condition of sin and powerlessness, and expresses dependence on God’s grace and mercy. (admiration, astonishment, esteem, regard, respect, reverence, shock, terror, veneration, wonder, wonderment, worship)

(Biblically speaking, we are “like grass” “a vapor”; we are not the center of reality, yet God deeply loves us and our action in response to that love has the potential for a tremendous impact );

And so this witness of the mother, Soetgen to her kids is rooted in a reality that most of the world is in denial of, and her example is an important one;

What in the world could drive her to the point that she would do the “socially irresponsible” move of leaving her children orphaned by their actions? (trust that God is the center of reality, and so she is free to be fully faithful no matter what; and a church family that literally will raise her children when she is gone)

Now I’m not holding up this example of Soetgen because I think it’s a good thing for a parent to die and leave their children orphaned, because I think most of us in this room would want to both be faithful to God AND play a significant role in raising our children, but for Soetgen, this choice she made that ended in her death was a no-brainer.

(Danger of conversion; talk of ordination “within the hour” of a pastor’s “bearing the cross”?)

Life as gift, not right (Bluffton article):

Deuteronomy 4:9-14 “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children." You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ^[a] Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (written on hearts). Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Saturation Education)

The parent and the community of God’s people have the most direct impact through time spent and example of teaching the children of Israel what it meant to be a person, what they were created for, and the good life of faithfulness that God had called them to. You see, if you ground yourself in thinking and talking about God’s expectations when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up, and when you pass your gates and doorframes, you’ve got a pretty comprehensive system of education going on. We’re not talking about an hour or two on a Sunday here in a specific place. So instead of seeing one place and one time as sacred during the week, this approach makes the kitchen table, baseball games, phone conversations, driving, your bed, and the TV room sacred places.

Forceful message that God is concerned about ALL of our lives; that it is CRUCIAL for us to represent this new way of being as consistently as possible for the world to see what they’ve been created for.

So that should raise some questions for us today; for our mothers and fathers actively raising children, for our mentors here today who are not in the grind of child-rearing but still have an important role to play in educating members of their families and setting an example for others in our church family. “What is education for?” “What sort of knowledge would good education give?” “What are our goals in teaching children?”

These are relevant questions today because the role of the parent in modern society is rapidly changing. Without getting deep into the multiple reasons why this is so; several important things come into play here. Parents are working more hours in a day and over the course of a week than they ever have. While they are working, the state has their children in a school system where they are learning particular things, and quite often the kid gets home before the parents can, and so must stay at a babysitter’s or in front of a television. The parent gets home and they are often so tired and stressed out from trying to make ends meet for the family that they can’t offer much of themselves to their children; including deeper questions about what their kids have been exposed to in school, in relationships, and in life in general, and so they allow their kid to plop in front of a TV for hours on end or listen to their IPOD, and in doing so, allow the television, public school system, and music industry speak most consistently and loudly into their kids’ lives without considering that these places might have a different goal in mind for their childs’ lives than they do.

Social scientists have looked at this reality and said this; while parents in societies in the past were the primary educators of their children, that educating role in modern society has been passed off on the state (through the education system) and through various aspects of society (like television, movies, etc), which has effectively reduced the role of parents to simply providing for the emotional needs of their kids; keeping them happy.

We rarely consider these questions; especially the question of the goals of the education of our children. Every day, kids go to school, learn reading and mathematics, do some physical exercise, chat with friends, and go home. When we think “education” in America, we think “school.” and hardly anyone questions it. It is not, however, like that in other parts of the world.

Some nomadic peoples oppose education in the form of sending their children to town where they go to school and learn reading and mathematics. They oppose such form of education as being meaningless. Worse, they fear that sending their children to town exposes them to different cultures and that those cultures will destroy their traditional way of life. Their idea of good education is to pass on the herding skills and the traditional way of life. They regard this as “better” than sending them to school for meaningless lessons in reading and mathematics, together with the exposure to different cultures. (This is the sheltering way of education we talked about a couple weeks ago) Build in sensitivity to those like J. Chase and Mom working in public education)

On the other side of the equation, education has been used to impose specific beliefs on children. In Japan during the Second World War, children were given very lopsided knowledge and philosophy for the purpose of supporting the nation. Similar characteristics were evident in Nazi-era education. Such educational systems were very effective, but the tragic result is known to all. What was harmful in these situations was that the children were not the purpose of education but were used to achieve a specific purpose.

The question of education is one that John Chase and Rowena and Debbie Curry deal with on a daily basis, but it is one we should all engage in if we seek to learn and teach others.

The intent of education, Biblically understood, is not a way of controlling people for specific purposes. Rather, it should encourage children and adults’ natural inquisitiveness (doubts, questions, and passions) and equip them to face life with certain tools at their disposal.

How can we educate effectively, then, given the reality of what faces us?

(Find places to be with child in structured environments where you can speak into their lives (team sports, clubs like Boy and Girl Scouts, family nights, etc) More?

Importance of the role of parents in early education. The formation of a child’s characteristics starts at the point of birth, the role of parents as educators in the formative years is deeply important, and it is the role of the church to link up with parents to work together to educate children to face the world.

Importance of the home; it is intended to be the crucible that equips the child and the adult to face the world with integrity and intelligence;

In a race between education about truth and meaning and reality and disaster.

Psalm 34:1-15

Sermon May 5 2007 "The Weak, the Strong, Commitment to Community part 2"

Continuity from last week: A religion based on externals is easy to cast aside, and that is what I did for a period of time. When I moved out to taste the broader world for myself, I rejected the legalistic environment of my childhood. They talked about Grace but lived by Law; they spoke of love but showed signs of hate. I see now that the Deep South fundamentalism of my childhood represented far more than a place of worship or a spiritual community. It was a controlled environment, a subculture. I now recognize that a harsh church, full of fierce condemnation and empty of humility and any sense of mystery stunted my faith for many years. In short, the rules, regulations, and absolutes of the institution of Christianity kept me from seeking a relationship with God. I have spent the rest of my life climbing back toward faith and toward church.

In the section of the letter to the Roman house church we saw last week, we saw that Paul wasn’t as concerned about what people were taking stands on, whether eating or the day of worship, he doesn’t rip into either party, he instead addresses most directly each member’s attitude towards others in the church.

So obviously the guy’s gotten a letter or two from different factions in the church about two BIG ISSUES for the people: eating and drinking and what day you worship. We have to make sure when spend time to consider our attitudes toward our brothers and sisters to remember that Paul DOES take a position on these issues here, and those positions are what we’re going to talk about today. Clearly for Paul, what one eats and drinks does matter, and matters deeply.

1 Corinthians 8:4, 7-13 (Food sacrificed to idols is nothing, but caring for brother is)

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and there is no God but one…but not everyone knows this. Some people are so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled….be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in a idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again.

1 Corinthians 10:25-11:1

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising issues of conscience. But if anyone says to you, “this has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake- the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why I am denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God…for I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

1 Peter 4:3
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

Twin themes of temptation of absolutes and this thing called the gospel God is doing is bigger than you

Temptation of absolutes first:

(well, can't go to the drunkenness extreme, so we'd better occupy the abstinence extreme)

Well, cant do A, so we'd better choose B

Luke 7:31-34

"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
" 'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.'

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."”

(Chart of ridiculousness)

The word “therefore” in 14:13 shows that Paul is building on the argument just completed as he calls the community to let go of one attitude and adopt another. “Let us therefore no longer judge one another, but rather decide (literally:judge) never to put an obstacle or stumbling block in the way of another.” And it is here that Paul states his own position,

“I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; instead, it is unclean for the person who considers it unclean.” (14:14)

Paul’s injunctions (Stop destroying the one for whom Christ died by what you eat (14:15) and Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God (14:20)) and 1 Corinthians 8:8-13) once more function to relativize the importance of the religious behaviors that are dividing the community by contrasting them with the work of God in Christ. (reconciling, not dividing)

Paul rarely speaks of the kingdom of God. When he does, it is sometimes in connection with a list of vices to make the point that those who do such things will not enter the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:21).

Now we deal with the second theme here: this thing called the gospel is bigger than you!

It is significant, therefore, that he mentions the kingdom here with the opposite effect: the kingdom of God is not about food and drink; it consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (14:17).

In the interests of peace and mutual upbuilding of the community, Paul will not allow the “strong” and their slogan “everything is clean” (14:20) to dominate even though he agrees with them- if by eating and drinking wine or doing anything else they cause another member of the community to stumble and fall.

With respect to observing days or not, Paul had said earlier, “Let each one be fully convinced in their own minds” (14:5). The same thing applies to food; those who are clear about their convictions about what God wants and follow them are blessed, since they have no reason to condemn themselves for their actions.

But those who are unsure and eat or drink what they think may be wrong to eat or drink are condemned because their actions do not stem from faithful obedience to God but from sin (14:23).

The vision of community Paul shows in his letters to the small house churches of early Christianity is accomplished in large measure through the building of deep spiritual friendships with people who will involve themselves with one another in the long process of spiritual formation. In spiritual formation, the inner life of Jesus, over time, becomes visible in my life. It’s who I am, what I do, and how I live my life.

I need friends- and so do you- who hear the call from God expressed in Hebrews: “Consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…let us encourage one another.” These friends are eager to experience Christ’s life released in others. So they intentionally- moving with purpose, seek to inspire and rise up a passion for Christ within us. They invest in our lives for the purpose of seeing the glory of God revealed in their lives and ours.

There are many qualities that characterize a friend. What are some friendship qualities that are important to you?

All of us have experienced friendships lost. The pain we feel is enormous when someone we thought we could count on just walks away from us. They take the path of least resistance when situations become difficult. Maybe you’ve not only experienced this happening to you, but have also done it to someone else. (Work with this a bit?)

In the book of Job, as Job faces terrible circumstances; losing all of his family and possessions…everything that he has depended on from before…and his friends come to him, and all they can say is, “Job, you’ve obviously done something wrong to have something like this happen to you. What are your hidden sins, friend?”, he cries out

“A despairing friend should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams.”[1]

Friendship requires the ability to see a friend at his or her worst and look beyond all that is ugly to what could be. It’s standing with someone in the darkest of nights and allowing the light of Christ to pierce that darkness.

There are times when it’s hard, really hard, to be my friend. I’m sometimes self-absorbed and demanding. I am sometimes petty, and in conversations drive people away. I often experience some degree of fear at the extremely painful experiences of others and withdraw into my life. Yet a spiritual friend will hang in there and not give up; will enter into a situation that has no easy answer and will be there anyways. I long both to have a friend like that, and to be a friend like that. Sometimes I am.

The path of friendship isn’t always a smooth, gentle walk. It’s often messy. Friendships can also be filled with annoyances. Therefore our responses need to be intentional. That process begins with a willingness to just show up. I don’t know all that will be required of me, but I’m willing to enter even the uncertainty. Friendship must be allowed to develop as life unfolds. It takes time, enough time for hope and patience to become real.[2]

There’s no such thing as a self-made Christian, and there’s no such thing as a self-maintained Christian.

---

[1] Job 6:14-15

[2] Kallam, Jim. Risking Church. 77-78.

Sermon April 29, 2007: The Weak, the Strong, and a Commitment to Community

As I grew up in Georgia, church defined my life. I faithfully attended services every Sunday morning and evening and also on Wednesday nights, not to mention Vacation Bible School, youth group activities, “revivals,” mission conferences, and any other occasions when the doors might open. The church told me how to believe, who to trust or distrust, and how to behave.

During high school our church met in a concrete-block building on the grounds of a former pony farm. Several of the former stable buildings were still standing, littered with hay, and one Sunday morning the largest of those buildings burst into flames. Fire trucks noisily arrived, the deacons dashed about moving lumber and uncoiling hoses, and all of us church members stood and watches as orange flames climbed the sky and heat baked our faces. Then we solemnly filed back into the sanctuary, covered with the scent of burnt straw and charred timbers, and listened to our pastor deliver an impromptu sermon on the fires of Hell which, he assured us, were seven times hotter than what we had just witnessed.

That image lived long in my mind because this was a “hellfire and brimstone” church. We saw ourselves as a huddled minority in a world full of danger. Any slight misstep might lead us away from safety toward the raging fires of Hell. Like the walls of a castle, church offered protection against the scary world outside. I remember the satisfying feeling that came from belonging to a persecuted minority.

My church frowned on such activities as roller-skating (too much dancing), bowling (some alleys serve liquor), going to movies, and reading the Sunday newspaper. The church erected this thick wall of external rules to protect us from the sinful world outside, and in a way it succeeded. Today I could do any of those activities with an clean conscience, but I am also aware that the terrible strictness of fundamentalism kept me from deeper trouble.

The point of people engaging in strict legalism is to pull in the boundaries of rebellion; for example, sometimes we might sneak off to a bowling alley, but we would never think of touching liquor or drugs. Sometimes, though, that completely backfires on the people, and those under lock and key bust out and completely reject all the boundaries of their prior community because it was so unhealthy.

When I read Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, I see that a spirit of barely controlled chaos reigned. The letters show who made up the congregation: Jewish merchants, gypsies, Greeks, prostitutes, drunkards, folks in the grip of greed, slanderers, pagan worshipers. Paul battled church splits, had to remind them that incest was a disgusting practice, and fought to keep the Lord’s Supper from turning into a free-for-all. Corinth makes my church seem boring.

Most scholars believe 1 Corinthians predates almost every other book in the New Testament. The first few chapters show the apostle struggling with a basic question: “Just what is this thing called a church?” (On some things Paul was very restrictive, and on other things Paul said, “Why are you arguing over these non-essential things?”)

And here in Romans 14:1-12, Paul presents ANOTHER view of boundaries and community!

Paul in this case seems to be making the problem worse not better. Here you have groups in the church disagreeing over what days are sacred and what do on those days, and disagreeing over what foods should and should not be eaten. And their feelings are strong about this, and they are starting to say things and do things relationally that are destructive to true fellowship (despising, judging, not accepting), and Paul comes along and instead of saying, “Lighten up, these things are minor and don’t merit strong convictions,” he says, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” That looks to me at first like trying to put out a fire with a bucket of gasoline: “OK all you squabblers over less important issues, let’s all get a firm conviction! No wafflers here. No fence-sitters. Everybody come to the conversation with a passionate, clear conviction!”

You see, in this section of Scripture, Paul isn’t as concerned about what people are taking stands on, whether eating or the day of worship, he doesn’t rip into either party…

Paul’s approach here INSTEAD is to imagine a partner in conversation who represents specific groups or people who take certain positions in the church, and addresses most directly each member’s attitude towards others in the church. As I read this passage, a passage from 1 Corinthians 13 rang in my head;

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” You see, Paul’s not saying speaking in tongues or prophesying or understanding or great faith or giving to the poor is wrong, he’s saying if you don’t love the folks around you, you’re nothing. What does NOTHING include?

You see, Paul’s approach allows the Roman Christians to listen nondefensively, and it calls them to abandon their own tendencies to judge or despise one another by reflecting on their common destination: the judgment seat of God. (talk about the experience cutting to the bone, but if we love and love our neighbors, the judgment seat will be an opportunity to face God and say, God, I’d given it my shot)

Paul’s argument in this section is very God-centered, like he is in Romans 9-11. This suggests that some of the cultural tensions that have arisen because of Jewish priority and Gentile numerical superiority may be at work here. It is significant that Paul never actually identifies the “strong” or the “weak,” except to say in 14:2 that the “weak” person eats only vegetables. It seems that maybe the “strong” group has written to describe the situation. If that is the case, Paul identifies himself with the group’s position on matter of food and observance of days in 15:1 when he says “we who are strong,” but not with their stance toward those whom they consider “weak.”

Maybe Paul shares the assumption that the “strong” are Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians, such as Paul, Prisca, and Aquila, who no longer observe dietary laws or keep the Sabbath. In this view, the “weak” are Jewish Christians who still consider themselves bound to keep these regulations as well as Gentiles who have converted who thought they needed to set down a hard-and-fast day of worship.

Again, Paul does not focus on the sources or causes of differing perspectives, such as ethnic divisions, or vegetables, or treating all days alike or treating or some as distinctive. He focuses, instead, on the attitudes towards others who have made different decisions about these issues.

14:3 Those who eat must not despise those who refrain, and those who refrain must not judge those who eat; for God has welcomed them.

Paul’s rhetorical question in 14:4- Who are you to judge the household servants of another? builds on his earlier argument at 12:1-2 that in baptism believers have become the possession of their Lord and demonstrate that lordship in their embodied actions

Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.”

(Why do you judge your brother (or sister)?)

Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? form an inclusio with 14:4

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?

(Deal with two layers of judgment here

1) Held accountable for judgment of sin (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)

2) Cannot judge by taking the place of God to end the life of another (or taking advantage of another’s weakness to declare them not worthy of the community of God’s people)

The next step in Paul’s argument is to reduce the importance of these particular decisions about central aspects of Christian life by insisting that all of Christian life is lives in the presence of God, and that everything Christians do is done under the aspect of eternity.

We do not live for ourselves, nor do we die for ourselves.

If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord;

Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

For to this purpose Christ died and lived again;

That he might be Lord over both the living and the dead. (7-9)

Vivid image here: the entire community standing before the judgment seat of God and with the powerful word of the Judge spoken to the community through the words of Scripture:

As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess God. (14:11)

The community is dramatically called to account for their present judging and despising behavior by the very Lord in whose honor they are doing the activities that divide them! Paul only has to underline the point: “so then, each of us will have to render an account to God.” (14:12)

(judgment will make our knees shake irregardless because of the holiness of God, but how that judgment plays out will be radically different depending on how our lives are lived and what we care most about)

A religion based on externals is easy to cast aside, and that is what I did for a period of time. When I moved out to taste the broader world for myself, I rejected the legalistic environment of my childhood. They talked about Grace but lived by Law; they spoke of love but showed signs of hate. I see now that the Deep South fundamentalism of my childhood represented far more than a place of worship or a spiritual community. It was a controlled environment, a subculture. I now recognize that a harsh church, full of fierce condemnation and empty of humility and any sense of mystery stunted my faith for many years. In short, the rules, regulations, and absolutes of the institution of Christianity kept me from seeking a relationship with God. I have spent the rest of my life climbing back toward faith and toward church.

In returning to the church, I found I had a knee-jerk reaction against anything that seemed hypocritical until one day the question occurred to me, “What would the church look like if every member were just like me?” (dangerous question for some vain folks)

Humbled from this question, I realized that God is the ultimate judge of hypocrisy in the church, and so I began to relax and grow more forgiving of others. After all, who has a perfect spouse, or perfect parents or children? We do not give up on the institution of family because of its imperfections- why give up on the church?

This is a big old ship, Bill. Sometimes it seems she sails on smooth waters, and it seems like nothing can slow her down. Other times she creaks, she rocks, she rolls, and at times she makes you want to throw up. But she gets where she’s going. Always has, always will, till the end of time. With or without you.

Ancient story from India:

Four royal sons were questioning what specialty they should master. They said to one another, “Let us search the earth and learn a special science.” So they decided, and after they had agreed on a place where they would meet again, the four brothers started off, each in a different direction. Time went by, and the brothers met again at the appointed meeting place, and they asked one another what they had learned.

“I have mastered a science,” said the first, “which makes it possible for me, if I have nothing but a piece of bone of some creature, to create the flesh that goes with it.”

“I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.”

The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have the flesh, the skin, and the hair.”

“And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete with limbs.

And so the four brothers went into the jungle to find a piece of bone so that they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion’s, but they did not know that and picked up the bone. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life. Shaking its heavy mane, the ferocious beast arose with its menacing mouth, sharp teeth, and merciless claws and jumped on its creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.

A story illustrating that we humans often are confident that we are in control of the world and create as we wish...but a lack of understanding of the big picture means we often get lost in the mix of life and, without that big-picture understanding, cause ourselves and others to suffer

Look at words of Cho

• You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.

• Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave?
Do you know what it feels like to have throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive?
Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon on a cross? And left to bleed to death for your amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?

“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,” Cho says. “But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”

Cho’s family and cultural reactions

The Chos spoke for the first time yesterday, releasing a statement to the Associated Press through an attorney, saying they feel "hopeless, helpless and lost" and "are so deeply sorry for the devastation" caused by the gunman. Naming all 32 victims, the statement said: “We pray for their families and loved ones who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured and for those whose lives are changed forever because of what they witnessed and experienced.”

"We are humbled by this darkness," wrote Cho's sister, Sun Kyung Cho, 25. "This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person. . . . My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence."

Cho's isolation as a youth may have been exacerbated by the strains of the Korean immigrant life, sociologists said. Parents, working one or two jobs to provide for their families, often have little time to spend with their children, let alone have meaningful talks with them.( The father worked long hours pressing pants at a dry cleaner in Manassas.) Cultural stigmas make it difficult to deal with the mental illness or emotional stress of a child.

"Korean immigrants would feel shame," said Sang Lee, director of the Asian American Program at Princeton Theological Seminary. "There would be some reluctance and some hesitancy in admitting [a mental illness] and openly seeing a doctor."

"Here is this person at Virginia Tech who may have been an adult academically, but emotionally and socially, he's clearly a child who's been stunted," said Kim, who is also a licensed mental health professional. "He didn't know how to deal with people. He lived in pure isolation."

Was this act evil?

- Declare that this murder was a great evil, and that God's just wrath is greatly kindled by the destruction of human life created in his image.

- Express that Cho rebelled against the revealed will of God and did not love God or trust him or find in God his refuge and strength and treasure, but scorned his ways and his Person.

Who is responsible?

- (liberals say it’s lax gun control and want to knee-jerk respond by passing more gun-control legislation, NRA responds by suggesting incident happened because there weren’t enough guns, and if the students were packing heat, they would’ve neutralized the situation and minimized casualties, some want to completely blame the environment Cho grew up in (national, ethnic, misunderstanding of disease, school, loner status), some want to blame his family, some say the environment doesn’t matter at all and that he’s responsible for his actions and no one else is, some say Cho was evil, some say he was confused, some say he was mentally disturbed, some say he was a person like the rest of us who acted out of being in the grip of evil)

What is it in us that is fundamentally different than Cho?

- And if we are to say clearly and conclusively that Cho chose a course of action that was deeply destructive to others, and we are all humans just like him, we carry the same potential for destruction that Cho carries out. This is reality, and it should humble us. Temptation is temptation, and we are all susceptible to giving into it. So we should acknowledge what seems to be the natural rebellion in our own hearts, and turn from it, and turn to and cling to God.

- Results of a sick society and a sick individual within that system, and that system exists in a sick world

- Sin is a disease that has us all in its grasp, some of us deeper than one another

Tell story of Nazism, Stalin’s purges, brutal mistreatment of Native Americans

Burundi story

story from Bujunbura, Burundi…twin sister country of Rwanda in East Africa, with a group of fifty-five leaders from Burundi, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, and they're grappling with this because Christianity has swept through these countries, in some of them large majorities of the population are Christians, yet in Rwanda, for example, one of the highest church attendance rates in the world, they had this horrible genocide in 1994, so, they're saying, "We got a message that told us how to get to heaven, but it didn't really tell us how to get along with each other…tell us how to live on earth very well,

Tell story of Rwanda and Uganda (Nelson and Wilson)

- could not sell fish because the water flowing into Lake Victoria was so badly poisoned with dead bodies

Biblical grounding: 1 Timothy 1:12-19

How do we face this problem and seek a solution? (with honesty and realistic outlook on our present state)?

Finish Burundi story

We got a message that told us how to get to heaven, but it didn't really tell us how to get along with each other…tell us how to live on earth very well, so that's what we're talking about, and I'm there talking about the gospel of the kingdom.

At the end of the day, everyone got up and left and we were going to have dinner together, and this one lady was left with her down on the table in front of her…she looked like she had passed out or was sick or something, so I went over with someone who could translate and we asked her, "Are you ok?" Her name is Ajustine, and she said, "I'm ok", she had tears coming down her face, and she said, "but I don't know if everyone in the room understood." I said, "what do you mean?" and she said "I think I understand the gospel of the kingdom, but I'm not sure if everyone else did, but if the gospel of the kingdom is true, everything will change…and that sentence has haunted me since. And that's what repent means, repent means change your way of thinking about everything."

Conversion really should have at least two meanings for us, then, as followers of Jesus. No follower of Jesus can prevent themselves from looking at the world honestly and saying conclusively that it is sick and fragmented and dying. In the same way, no follower of Jesus can avoid facing their own human condition, since in the midst of their struggle for a new world they will find they are fighting their own fear and twisted ambitions and selfishness and rebellion.

We are called to cut loose from our selfish needs for a safe and protected existence and face the fear of the miserable condition of ourselves and our world; conversion and repentance is all about changing the way we see everything.

Jesus is the man in whom it has become clear that both the social and the personal aspect of conversion cannot be separated in our search for truth and wholeness. His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as two beams of the cross.

Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology (or link up with the Zealots already there), but Himself and a way of life that exposed the twistedness of all involved. He was also deeply spiritual, and did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked those of his time to the point of being executed as a rebel. In this sense he remains the way to liberation and freedom.

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” —Alexander Solzhenitsyn (background story?)

(In February 1945, while serving in East Prussia he was arrested for criticising Joseph Stalin in private correspondence with a friend and sentenced to an eight-year term in a labour camp, to be followed by permanent internal exile.

The first part of Solzhenitsyn's sentence was served in several different work camps; the "middle phase", as he later referred to it, was spent in a sharashka, special scientific research facilities run by Ministry of State Security: these formed the experiences distilled in The First Circle, published in the West in 1968. In 1950, he was sent to a "Special Camp" for political prisoners. During his imprisonment at the camp in the town of Ekibastuz in Kazakhstan, he worked as a miner, bricklayer, and foundryman. His experiences at Ekibastuz formed the basis for the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. )

Remember that even those who trust in Christ may be cut down like these 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech, but that does not mean they have been abandoned by God or not loved by God even in those agonizing hours of suffering. God's love conquers even through calamity.

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Hold out the promise that God will sustain and help those who cast themselves on him for mercy and trust in his grace. He will strengthen you for the impossible days ahead in spite of all darkness.