Nathan Myers Sermon Archives

2011-12-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 4th, 2011 Vineyard Central Church Norwood, OH

Goal: Proclaim the authority and full love of God. Affirm human capacity to live faithfully and beautifully in humility under God’s authority.

Main passages: Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-13

I think the best place to begin today is with Isaiah 40, to do the best we can to walk into the world of the author, to observe, listen, and consider what we may encounter.

As obvious as it must sound, the first thing we notice is that this is Isaiah 40.

If we sat down and read the Book of Isaiah from beginning to end in one sitting, we’d notice there is a distinct difference in tone between chapters 1-39, and chapter 40 on. The first 39 chapters give a strong message of Israel’s unfaithfulness, unwillingness to follow the way of God. The prophet reminds them multiple times that this has not gone unnoticed by God. He uses the voice of God to say piercing things,

“I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.”

The first 39 chapters read as a testament of the prophet using every literary device, every means of persuasion possible in an attempt to bring Israel to their collective knees, to consider their way of life, to repent, and to live differently. Along the way, a very clear portrait of God emerges that is uncomfortable and necessary for Israel to hear; and uncomfortable and necessary for us to hear today along with them.

God is not aloof, is not ignorant of what is going on. God has been patient for a very long time, hoping (desperately so), that the people he redeemed would turn back. But eventually, because God loves them, because God has called them to be a light to the nations, his anger boils over and he shatters their society, drives them into exile at great loss of life, loss of dignity, great cost. God does this, and he does this because he loves them.

So this is the immediate context we hear Isaiah 40 in today. And because the tone is so different and the way the narrator talks about God’s judgment in the past tense, longing for restoration, most biblical scholars believe Isaiah 40-55 were written about a hundred years later than the first 39 chapters. This was a common practice in the Jewish community, to continue the tradition of a prophet, to write in their name, and the community affirmed the words over time as valid and truthful.

And so, Isaiah 40 gives a message of hope, “Comfort, comfort my people…speak tenderly to Jerusalem, that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid.”

The prophet uses strong language here to give his hearers hope. “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

This is Hebrew apocalyptic language. It’s used time and time again in the Scriptures, “the heavenly bodies will be shaken, the sun darkened, the moon turned to blood,” one passage says. “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth,” another passage says. “The wolf will live with the lamb,” says another. The writers don’t actually mean that God hates mountains and valleys and wants everything level, don’t actually mean that the sun will cease to exist, or the moon drip with blood. And they don’t mean that wolves are going to suddenly cuddle with cute little soft lambs.

All of those passages are the Hebrew way of saying, “God’s going to do something big again. God is going to make things right. The powerful will recognize their relationship with the weak, and they will live in community again. God will make things right.”

All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field…the grass withers, the flower fades. (but the word of our God will stand forever)

These words remind the hearers of their mortality, and are aware of how quickly we forget the restoration of God and return to our old ways that we find more comfortable. So remember that you are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow, the prophet reminds us, and our faithfulness, while beautiful and full of sweet aroma like the flowers of the field, is not the center of reality. The strength of human effort is downplayed. But the intent is NOT to empty the possibility of human faithfulness, to diminish the impact of serving God. No, the intent is to exalt God, to give glory to the eternal God, which draws us to fall to our knees, adore Him, and confess over and over again, “God, you know better than we do how we were created to live. We are confused, our minds and hearts are darkened, twisted by selfishness and rebellion.”

With this established, the writer can shift back again to comfort, “Bring good news,” he says. Say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him…he tends his flock like a shepherd: he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those who have young.” God has been wrathful and condemning in his great love, and God will be gentle and compassionate in his restoration.

That is a significant lesson that the Israelite people needed to hear, and we need to hear in our day as well. It is a reminder of the full love of God, which includes the full spectrum from the most gentle, affirming touch all the way to ripping entire societies apart in their unfaithfulness; death, pain, and the displacement of millions of people.

Our second lectionary passage of the day brings this lesson into full focus. So if you would turn to Psalm 85 with me.

I want to say two things here about the lectionary with this being one of the readings for the day. First, I love the sense of unity felt in the use of the lectionary, knowing that millions of brothers and sisters are reading the same passages and praying together with the same themes. I love that as the Earth turns and we all experience Sunday over a 24 hour period, we are reading, praying, and thinking together on similar themes. This is a great gift. But I feel extremely frustrated at times with the lectionary because those who set it up have a knack for seeking out comforting passages and omitting, avoiding sharper passages. Sometimes it’s hard to read their intent, and other times, like today with Psalm 85, it is SO OBVIOUS.

(Make a quick skim read of the Psalm and take a guess at what the Lectionary folks omitted)

When manipulating the passages so obviously like this, one has to ask, what is their purpose? I had seen this pattern before in the Lectionary and wondered when it was brought together; who shaped the passages for reading? I wasn’t surprised to find after a bit of research that the Revised Common Lectionary was brought together in 1994. That date is telling. I also wasn't surprised to find that the RCL was an ecumenical effort (Catholic and a variety of Protestant communions), and one of the markers of ecumenical works tends to be an appeal to the lowest common denominator that everyone can agree on.

Maybe more important, though, is the wider issue of belief. One of the most distinct beliefs across our society that’s been in vogue for at least the last 75 years or so is that if God loves you, he would never do anything that brings you pain, would never hurt you. And if that was the Biblical message, that would be well and good. But it’s not. The Biblical message is that God loves us deeply, relentlessly, desperately, and that God will stop at nothing to bring about his kingdom.

It also seems to me that the most comfortable people of the world are the ones who love to read the Jeremiah 29:11s of the Scriptures over and over again. Yet those in the world without power, being crushed, used by wealthy empires to maintain their way of life; it is those people who cling to passages on God’s judgment on sin. Why? Because those passages give them an outlet for their pain, gives them questions they can ask they didn't know they had, channel their frustration to show them how to pray so they don’t become embittered and hopeless.

We need this reminder most here in Advent. Because the people on the eve of Jesus’ birth were NOT comfortable. They were occupied by the most powerful military in the world, taxed into the ground, with the system of taxation carried out by wealthy Hebrew persons grinding their fellow citizens into the ground. The people of Israel were groaning, suffering, longing, and Jesus’ mother Mary (one of those marginalized people) didn’t offer words of consolation to comfortable people:

“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

just as he promised our ancestors.”

Luke 1:51-55

So, I want to emphasize how desperately we need to hear the part in Psalm 85 that the Lectionary-shapers omitted. It is a voice of pleading, of weeping, of desperate humility, of throwing oneself at the feet of God, of looking unseemly, not-together.

“Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

How does the psalmist, speaking for Israel, plan to respond to God? “I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants- but let them not turn to folly.” Another way to say that last sentence is “God promises peace to his people- his faithful servants if they do not turn to folly.” Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him.

And when his people fear him, value him, cherish his authority and voice above all other voices, obey and act on that voice, and do it together; wonderful things result.

And then comes this beautiful image, “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The LORD will indeed give what is good.”

There's a conversation that often comes to mind for me when thinking of the tensions described above. It involves one of my heroes, Clarence Jordan, co-founder of Koinonia Farm in Georgia, in conversation with his brother, Robert. Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to legally represent Koinonia Farm. Robert responded to Clarence’s request:

“Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lost my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”

“We might lose everything too, Bob.” Clarence said.

“But it’s different for you,” Robert responded.

“Why is it different?” Clarence said. “I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me about the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes. What did you say?’

“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”

“Could that point by any chance be- the cross?”

“That’s right. I follow him to the cross, but not ON the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”

“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple. You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer not a disciple.”

“Well, now,” Robert said defensively, “if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t HAVE a church would we?”

“The question,” Clarence said, “is, Do you have a church?”

So, like Clarence and Robert, we are presented with a couple options in our life. Do we choose a genteel Christianity that says all the right things, that goes out of our way to read comforting passages that avoid responsibility and reinforce our way of life, that stops short of a willingness to give of ourselves with all of who we are, or a Christianity that follows Jesus and obeys him, willing to be stretched, and willing to be broken, willing to care enough about the brokenness of the world that we are driven to prayer.

This world is very, very sick; but so full of potential for healing and joy. May we turn our gaze off ourselves and towards our Creator. May we have the courage to come to terms with and embrace the full spectrum of God’s love. May we be shaped by this love to pour our lives out in service to God, to play a role in the healing of God’s world.

2011-07-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Sermon July 3, 2011 “What and Who we are For”

Scriptures: Matthew 6:9-13

So here we are today. It is Sunday. We are gathered here out of respect for our Creator, desiring that what we experience today will give honor to God and have an effect on us. My specific hope today is that each of us present here together acknowledges that we are not a finished product, acknowledge that we each have much to learn, that we have not “arrived” as followers of Jesus. The apostle Paul is proclaims clearly to the church in Rome, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

The word Paul used here is deeply important. He said, be “transformed,” which is a very different thing than “be affected” or “be influenced by.” I was reminded by a wise leader over a year ago that we being “transformed” is a very messy process. It means being changed from one thing into another completely different thing. Who here are Calvin and Hobbes fans? There was a collection of Calvin and Hobbes comics called “Scientific Progress goes Boink,” and the focus of those comics was an “invention” of Calvin. It was a cardboard box that he made into a “transmogrifier.” You could enter into the box, have someone set the box to what you wanted to change into, then you would come out of the box as that thing. It was a fundamental change that took place there. And this is precisely what Paul is talking about. What that means, practically, is the willingness at any point to blow the whole project up, to strip our lives down to nothing, in order to build on a more firm foundation again. This is one of the most essential truths of Christianity.

Becoming a Christian is not an add-on thing where we get to keep who we are, what we desire, how we spend our time, how we handle relationships, and then add a little Jesus in where he fits. Following Jesus is a full-time, whole life transformation process that never ends; and it starts with confessing that Jesus knows better than we do what we are created for, and we fall down at his feet, and we say, “I am confused. Guide me, lead me. I want to be healthy, I want to be good again.” And we cling to him. We pledge our central allegiance to him and to God’s kingdom first and primary.

I say all of this because we are on the eve of a High American holiday that takes place tomorrow, Independence Day. And wherever we may end up in our perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and the nation, High American holidays give an opportunity to slow down and to reflect on these themes of allegiance, commitment, and awareness of who we are.

You see, we don’t have the luxury like other American citizens of the specific kind of patriotism that tomorrow often brings. There’s a certain simplicity to always going with the crowd and obediently following what others do, but becoming Christian means entering into a more complex relationship with our society. Around days like tomorrow, words like patriotism, allegiance, commitment, and freedom often come up. And these are words that happen to be deeply essential for Christians too. In a number of ways, however, an assumption is made by many that there is no conflict between allegiance to Jesus and allegiance to America. My hope this morning is to spend some time stepping back and reflecting on our relationship to our society as Christians.

And an excellent place to start is with the words of John Kline, as close to a superstar as we allow fellow Brethren to get. This is how Kline described patriotism:

“My highest conception of patriotism is found in the man who loves the Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Out of these affections spring the subordinate love for one’s country; love truly virtuous for one’s companion and children, relatives and friends; and in its most comprehensive sense takes in the whole human family. Were this love universal, the word patriotism, in its specific sense, meaning such a love for one’s country as makes its possessors ready and willing to take up arms in its defense, might be appropriately expunged from every national vocabulary.”

So, according to John Kline, the highest form of patriotism is found in loving the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourself. With this commitment being properly first, out of these affections springs what Kline calls the “subordinate love for one’s country.” So Kline identifies love of country as subordinate to love for God and our neighbor, but subordinate certainly does not mean unimportant, does it? It just means what it means. Less important, less central. And Kline very specifically talks about what love of God and neighbor looks like, saying that this love in its most comprehensive sense “takes in the whole human family.” John takes the teaching of Jesus very seriously that love of neighbor means a deep sacrificial love and care that has no borders, knows no bounds.

So this is the stated ideal in John Kline’s perspective of the relationship of a Christian to our society and world. If we left it there, however, we could fit Kline maybe very nicely and easily into our worldview without any trouble or discomfort. We could make John Kline into our own image.

But there was a larger context to this quote: John Kline’s life, and if we knew his life well, we would be less likely to make Kline into our own image. You see, if we were to sum up John Kline’s life and relationship with society with two words, we might say; uncomfortable, and complicated.

Kline’s story began in Broadway, VA and was shaped profoundly by Linville Creek Church there, where he lived a life of radical love and discipleship; when you consider the lives of folks who emerged as leaders from there (M.R. Zigler and others), the place was a seedbed in the 19th and early 20th centuries for leaders with a faithful commitment to Jesus that impacted our society.

When the North and South entered into the Civil War, Kline worked to get permission from each side to cross military lines. He did not allow the fighting to prevent him from his work. During his multiple horseback rides across Virginia he participated as moderator in the Brethren's Annual Meetings to discuss life and faith during the War. He continued to move between the North and South during the Civil War, each time putting more and more of a threat to his own life. On May 29, 1864 at his last annual meeting in Hagerstown, Indiana he spoke, "Possibly you may never see my face or hear my voice again. I am now on my way back to Virginia., not knowing the things that shall befall me there. It may be that bonds and afflictions abide me. But I feel that I have done nothing worthy of bonds or of death; and none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God."

There in Virginia, Kline was assassinated by a Confederate hit squad several miles from his home. What can we learn from Kline’s example of this relationship between the central love of God and love of neighbor and the subordinate love for one’s country?

John Kline gave his life and paid the ultimate sacrifice because he believed in a love that was big enough to include both the Union AND the Confederacy; the huge political topic of his day. John was set free to love in this way because the Lord he followed and the kingdom he was a part of had a deeper grip on him than being accepted by society. On the major issues of his day, like other Brethren, John was often vilified. The Brethren took a stand as early as 1797 to call slavery a sin, and John led the movement against slavery in the 18^th century. For this they were considered liberal. They refused to pick up arms against Union or Confederacy, and for that they were considered liberal and a most dangerous breed of folk who could not be trusted. In their views on marriage and sexuality, they were considered deeply conservative. In their commitment to simplicity in dress and way of life, they were considered deeply conservative. They didn’t fit the categories of their day; precisely because they had so deeply gazed upon, reflected upon, shared about the ministry of Jesus, who was vilified in his own society by those at the political extremes. Jesus’ commitment to his Father and the kingdom of God earned him all kinds of labels from those he made uncomfortable; eventually earning the label enemy of the people and false Messiah, for which he was executed.

Kline lived a costly, Jesus-centered kind of love not as a lukewarm fence-sitter kind of guy, mushy moderate kind of guy. Instead, he chose a “third way” of living with conflict–not fleeing or separating his faith from the realities of his world, and not picking up arms, but courageously choosing to wade into the pain with God’s vulnerable love. John’s life was beautiful, real, and truthful, and it looked a lot like Jesus.

Just a week ago last Sunday, a Mennonite pastor named Mark Schloneger in a town 20 minutes east of where I great up in Virginia provided an important moment of clarity about what it means to know who and what we are for as Christians. Mark wrote an opinion editorial that was picked up by CNN. Mark is a graduate of Goshen College, a Mennonite college in Indiana some of you may be familiar with. In June, Goshen made national news when its Board of Directors decided the “Star-Spangled Banner” would not be played before athletic events. Schloneger wrote,

“As could be expected, the decision was met with confusion and contempt. Wasn’t this just another example of our traditional values being trampled by the unrelenting march of political correctness? What sort of ingrates object to our nation’s anthem, anyway? Fluffy-headed campus philosophers? Lazy latte-sipping liberals?”

See the liberal/conservative thing coming up again? Fox News in particular railed against Goshen as unpatriotic liberals. Yet the media failed to account for the fact that Goshen College only the year before had decided to play the Anthem after 116 years of not playing it. There was a massive outcry of alumni, supporters, and students, many of whom felt like playing the anthem compromised the college’s Christian values.

Mark led his readers into a short history of the Anabaptist movement, which the Church of the Brethren identifies with, and how a deeply conservative religious commitment can lead to you being called politically liberal and an enemy of the state.

“A living faith in Jesus means faithfully living the way of Jesus. Jesus called his disciples to love their enemies and he loved his enemies all the way to the cross and beyond. Following Jesus and the martyrs before us, we testify with our lives that freedom is not a right that is granted or defended with rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air. True freedom is given by God, and it is indeed not free. It comes with a cost, and it looks like a cross.

It’s a strange tribe to which I belong, and sometimes it’s hard to be strange. We struggle to be inclusive in our welcome yet passionate in our identity. Our desire for acceptance, for approval, is strong, and we don’t always live up to the convictions that we set before us.

We must repent of that, for the world cannot know of its brokenness and hopelessness without a people who show a holistic way of life. The world cannot know that there is an alternative to violence and war without a people of peace making peace. The world cannot know that the weak and the vulnerable are cared for by God without a people practicing an economy centered on sharing and mutual aid.

The world cannot know the unsurpassable worth of human life without a people who consistently work to protect it - in the fetus, in the convict, in the immigrant, in the soldier, and in the enemy.

These convictions do not reflect ingratitude or hatred for our country. Rather, they reflect a deep love for the church and a passionate desire for the church to be the church… I love my country, but I sing my loyalty and pledge my allegiance to Jesus alone.”

Mark’s column, as of last night’s count, got 4,327 comments, and he was interviewed by CNN on Friday morning. Many of the commenters and the CNN anchor tried to shove Mark into a corner, but he consistently reminded the anchor that he wasn’t speaking as a American liberal or conservative, but as a Christian.

So wherever we may come out in our perspective of the relationship of the church and our society, John Kline and Mark Schloneger both appeal to us, as followers of Jesus our King, to define our lives by who and what we are for. We are for the way of Jesus and we are for the kingdom of God. May we have the courage to stand up and be counted as passionate and faithful people in this cause.

2011-06-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't always stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon)

“Humble yourselves, Discipline yourselves, Be steadfast."

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

The first awareness we carry coming off this passage is that Peter is writing to a group of people who are suffering. How they are suffering we cannot know specifically. Whenever authors in the New Testament referred to suffering, we’ve often thought about persecutions carried out by the Roman Empire. At and around the 60’s A.D. a giant fire swept through Rome and the emperor Nero scapegoated the early Christian community, doing some awful things to folks associated with the name of Jesus primarily in and around Rome. But this letter of Peter is addressed to Christians in Asia Minor which is about the area we today call Turkey, far enough away from Rome that Nero’s influence wouldn’t have been as strong. And in this area if we tried to imagine what Peter meant by “fiery ordeal,” or “sufferings” we could imagine maybe two main specific things.

First, that the Christian community called Jesus Lord, which was a serious issue for Roman citizens since only Caesar was to be referred to as Lord. So, if Jesus was Lord, that meant Caesar wasn’t; which meant Christian allegiance belonged to someone other than Caesar, which made them subversive and dangerous to the social order. A society needs to run like clockwork, and in order to do that, everyone must know who the authority is and obey. Different authorities and different Lords aren’t tolerated. Not so coincidentally, this was the same charge directed against the early Anabaptist community in the 16^th century. Declaring Jesus as Lord was all well and good for a supposedly Christian society as long as Jesus had your soul, but the king and the nation had your life, energy, and allegiance. So the early Christian community and the Anabaptists both had important choices to make: submit and obey Jesus and his Way, or submit and obey Caesar or the Prince and his Way.

A second specific factor would have been at play if we think of “ordeal” or “suffering.” Shame and ridicule. The average Roman citizen, upon hearing of the life, ministry, and death of Jesus would have pitied the Christian community, if not outright mocked them, accusing them of wasting their time. Why? The one they claimed was Lord and Messiah had been crucified; which was the lowest, most vile form of execution the Romans carried out. In this respect, Jesus was no different than the thousands of other scum the Romans crucified; those who boasted big, promised big, but were exposed as pretenders at the hands of the most powerful empire in history.

The Roman senator Marcus Tullius Cicero, a pagan, wrote, "Let even the name 'cross' be kept away not only from the bodies of the citizens of Rome but also from their thought, sight and hearing... It is a grave offense even to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to flog him, almost the act of parricide to put him to death: What shall I then call crucifying him? Language worthy of such an enormity -- It is impossible to find!"

I’ve got a couple pictures of an impression found on the wall etched in by a Roman citizen regarding Christians and how he thought about them. The picture is now known as “Alexamenos worships his God,” which is drawn from the crude Greek inscription underneath the pictoral etching. The etching itself shows a person standing beside a cross with his hand upraised to signify worship. On the cross, the representation of Jesus is a man with a donkey’s head. The offense is clear. You’re worshiping a failure, a man worthy of nothing more than pity. And if you devote your life to this worship, what a waste!

Without any further understanding of Jesus, we might agree. The guy failed. He claimed to be leading a movement, but he was crushed. End of story. Unknowingly though, one may not have known they were playing right into the hands of the Christian community. At the core of the message of the early Christians was this simple statement: Jesus taught and exemplified a very unique message of loving and serving others no matter how they treat us. He taught and exemplified that we are to humble ourselves before God and in vulnerability trust God alone to know how to live. And we are to be willing to give our lives to the point of death and beyond, to absorb even the most shameful, undeserved treatment. Why? Because God loves the world, because God desires all his creation to live healthy, joyful, meaningful lives.

This is enough reason to love and serve Jesus. But even more, the same God raised Jesus from the dead, proving he is more powerful than powerful people and death. So we have no reason to fear what even the most powerful empire in the world can do to us or the most well-placed bullet because we get to bear witness to a powerful love. It is this awareness, this belief that has led followers of Jesus into the darkest, most violent places on Earth to proclaim and live the transformative message of Jesus and the way of life he redeems us to. Or, it has led followers of Jesus into parts of our society that aren’t necessarily desirable, has led us to desire healing and hope in places of brokenness.

Believing this message should, I emphasize should lead Christians to look at their society around them, searching for places and relationships of brokenness that we can then move towards, engage with; instead of separating ourselves from, insulating ourselves from brokenness. Unfortunately, the pattern of response to brokenness in Cincinnati, like many cities, is people abandoning, leaving behind, running away from darkness because we don’t like to feel uncomfortable, insecure, stretched, or frustrated. People move into an ever-increasing ring of suburbs to find a place of security, leaving behind communities falling apart. We then build beltways and interstates that keep us from having to see and engage those communities on a daily basis, and they slide into our subconscious; only coming up when we are forced to detour through them.

Precious few churches choose to obey the courageous call of Jesus to seek out places of brokenness and put down roots there. This community of Cincinnati Church of the Brethren and our community Vineyard Central have attempted to be faithful to the call of God in this way. But it has been rough going, for us and for you.

For one thing, we’ve found that we don’t have the tools to be able to handle pain and brokenness very well, because we’ve been shaped by a gospel of pain avoidance. Several weeks ago, I heard a story from a man named Scott Dewey that connects with this truth. Scott is a follower of Jesus, and Scott caught a vision to move to the slums of Bangkok, Thailand with his wife. There are any number of preventable diseases there in the slums that primarily result from unclean drinking water. Scott wanted to solve those problems, and bring hope to the slums. So they said, “Here I am Lord, send me” and they went. Three years later Scott rolled over in bed one morning and said to his wife, “Melanie, I can’t do this any more. There’s too much pain here.” After three years, they hadn’t solved the unclean water problem and Scott had been crushed by the pain and darkness of life in the ghetto. Scott, however, chose to reflect on his thinking instead of just abandoning the place, and he came to one crucial awareness.

They had entered that neighborhood to do ministry for people there. They had come with a gospel they believed provided hope. And Scott realized as he thought about the pain and darkness crushing him that the people who had lived in that ghetto all their lives had a greater capacity to deal the with the pain and still find little cracks of hope than he did. Scott found out that the gospel and the community he came from was one that was not familiar with pain, did not seek out pain, struggle, and brokenness and therefore he didn’t have the resources to deal with the pain there in Bangkok. What Scott learned was that the people he had come to minister to were in fact ministering to him in how to live with pain and suffering. What Scott learned through them was a fresh understanding of the gospel that does not bring hope through avoiding pain but through embracing it and finding God in the midst of it.

So, in a powerful way, Scott found out through experience the word here in 1 Peter 5, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.” Scott was led to understand in a deeper way his responsibility as a disciple of the one who “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…humbling himself by being obedient to death.”

Something died in Scott then. He was able to work again to put to death his own pride, his own Messiah complex. He also needed to put to death what he believed to be the gospel, so he could embrace a gospel much more profoundly Biblical, one which required much more of himself; a gospel centered on imitating the example of the Jesus he followed, one oriented toward pain and discomfort rather than a commitment to avoid it. Scott, in a very real way, experienced the salvation of God there in Bangkok, and it has served him well in his life. I experienced him as a profoundly humble, transparent man familiar with suffering; refined through suffering.

Discipline Yourselves, Be Steadfast

I suspect a number of you may feel the same way Scott did there in Bangkok. It was a cool idea, in the words of Jeremiah, to “Seek the peace of the city.” You left the relative comfort of Blue Ash to try to put down roots here in Walnut Hills.

“We work to engage with the city and its people, embracing and celebrating the diversity that fills our world. Our engagement sparks conversations about disparate income and educational opportunities, violence, race relations, and gentrification. As we face these tough issues, we strive to follow Christ’s example and look to God’s wisdom for answers. On this journey, we are guided by the belief that Jesus was serious about living a life of love, service, peace, justice, and simplicity.”

That is a beautiful statement, one you need to cling to in times of frustration in ministry.

You’ve come face to face with problems that Sunday mornings won’t fix. You’re learning to mentor and care for families and children dealing with chronic homelessness, inadequate nutrition, etc.

And you have opposition to your work. There are any number of ways evil, chaos, distrust, and hatred are at work here that require people of courage to absorb, or even be crushed, by the pain. But maybe your biggest enemy is the gospel of pain avoidance. Our wider culture is not encouraging us to seek out pain. The deep irony here, though, is that the Christian community surrounding us often functions like the Romans who thought the early Christian community was wasting its time. We have allowed our culture to shape us more than our Lord Jesus.

Have you, like Scott, in your own unique way, rolled over in bed thinking, “I don’t have the ability to handle this any more”?

I want to encourage you, like Peter did for the early church in Asia Minor, to

humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you…God…after you have suffered a little while…will make you strong, firm, and steadfast. So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Or, in the words of Alexander Mack we are about to sing, “Count well the cost, Christ Jesus says, when you lay the foundation. Are you resolved, though all seem lost, to risk your reputation, your self, your wealth, for Christ the Lord, as you now give your solemn word?” Let us say “Yes” together with our lives.

Benediction: May you abandon the gospel of pain avoidance and embrace the life of following Jesus which brings fun times and brings hard times, but always in all things brings joy. So, humble yourselves, discipline yourselves, and be steadfast in what God will teach you here in Walnut Hills. What you have chosen is good and worthy and right; worth giving your life to. Go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

2011-06-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't always stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon).

"Psalm 23, Wendell Berry, and a sense of place," or
"The Lord is our Shepherd. Following our Shepherd in this Place."
Preached at Cincinnati Church of the Brethren
May 15, 2011

Turn with me to Psalm 23

I don’t know about you, but I have the tendency to take for granted the things or people I am around the most. This is a common human temptation. I don’t want to project my personal shortcomings onto you, but I’ll just settle for saying I suspect you struggle with the same tendency. We can quickly lose the intentionality we carried in the beginning of our relationship with these things or people; the meaning becomes dull because we think we know everything about that thing or person. In the Christian community, Psalm 23 is one of the things we are around the most. We often haul it out around funerals, around sicknesses we think have turned toward inevitable death. We see the Psalm as a psalm of comfort; we think we know everything there is to know about it, and as a result, when we hear it, we have a tendency to switch into autopilot, the meaning becomes dull and flat.

I would like to suggest this morning that Psalm 23 has not reached the fullest extent of its meaning with what we have given it, that it has the capacity to be used beyond funerals, and even that it can be a passage that leads a community like Cincinnati Church of the Brethren or my community Vineyard Central to certain practices, to a certain way of life that has a long-lasting impact on us and on the places (Walnut Hills and Norwood) we find ourselves in.

(Read Psalm 23 using collective terms we, us, our)

The LORD is our shepherd, we lack nothing.

At different times in our life, it is important to emphasize different aspects of our humanity. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we have been created by God with dignity and supreme worth; that our lives are given great meaning simply by existing as a child of God. The temptation of that aspect of who we are, though, is that we can begin to think we (and those closest to us) are the most important aspect of God’s creation; that somehow God cares more about our stuff than he does about others. We may not confess this openly, but we believe it to be true. This applies to churches too. In times like this, it’s a great practice to go to Psalm 23 and say, “We are like sheep. We are idiots, we too often follow the crowd blindly, and we don’t know what is best for us.” To confess “The Lord is our shepherd,” is to confess a deep human need to be led by someone who knows better than us how to live. To confess “The Lord is our shepherd” is to quit playing God and to let God have complete authority over us.”

The LORD is our shepherd, we lack nothing.

He makes us lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside quiet waters, he refreshes our soul.

I didn’t take the time to look at the original Hebrew here, but I love the phrase “he makes us lie down in green pastures.” It’s as though lying down in green pastures isn’t normal for us, and we need God to rip us out of our lives and “make us lie down in green pastures and lead us beside quiet waters” so we will finally slow down. What is David talking about here? What do “green pastures” and “quiet waters” stand for?

As we engage in these practices, God refreshes our soul.

He guides us along the right paths for his name’s sake.

This is, again, a confession that God knows the right path, and it’s our responsibility to abandon our own path where we’re in control to be shepherded on God’s.

Even though we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil, for you are with us; your rod and your staff, they comfort us.

This is a confession of God’s power that is even stronger than death. We confess that we trust God’s path and even the darkest valley God takes us through without fear of consequence, because our life is held in God’s hands.

You prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. You anoint our heads with oil, our cup overflows.

In the presence of our enemies. This life of being led by God is not one where we seek to insulate ourselves, separate ourselves from those we do not trust, from those who may do us harm, from those who hate us; it is one where we are led into the presence of our enemies, and God cares for us there in abundance, “our cup overflows.”

Surely your goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

When we confess the Lord as our shepherd, when we embrace the places and practices of “green pasture,” when we walk on God’s paths, not ones determined by ourselves, when we walk through the darkest valleys and choose to live life in the presence of our enemies, not apart from them; all of this adds up to a life marked by God’s goodness and love; and we are reminded that God is far stronger than the power of death and will hold us forever.

This is the general contour of Psalm 23. There is a certain changing of the tides quality to it; we need the green pasture, we need to be in the presence of our enemies, we need to walk on God’s path which sometimes will be easier, sometimes will lead us to frightening places, but always, always, always is good. Now I want to apply the general shape of the Psalm to our specific lives together in our specific place. And this term “place” is deeply significant beyond the chairs you are sitting in and the spot I am standing on.

Increasingly, Americans…are not from anywhere. And so they have in this “homeland”…no home place that they are strongly moved to know or love or use well or protect. (Berry, A Citizen’s Response, 6)

For many years, my walks have taken me down an old fencerow in a wooded hollow on what was once my grandfather’s farm. A battered galvanized bucket is hanging on a fence post near the head of the hollow, and I never go by it without stopping to look inside. For what is going on in that bucket is the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of: it is making earth. The old bucket has hung there through many autumns, and leaves have fallen around it and some have fallen into it. Rain and snow have fallen into it, and the fallen leaves have held the moisture and so have rotted. Nuts have fallen into it, or been carried into it by squirrels; mice and squirrels have eaten the meat of the nuts and left the shells; they and other animals have left their droppings; insects have flown into the bucket and died and decayed; birds have scratched in it and left their droppings and perhaps a feather or two. This slow work of growth and death, gravity and decay, which is the chief work of the world, has by now produced in the bottom of the bucket several inches of black soil…the old bucket started out a far better one than you can buy now. I think it has been hanging on that post for something like fifty years. However small a landmark the old bucket is, it is not trivial. It is one of the signs by which I know my country and myself. And to me it is irresistibly suggestive in the way it collects leaves and other woodland sheddings as they fall through time. It collects stories, too, as they fall through time. It is irresistibly metaphorical. It is doing in a passive way what a human community must do actively and thoughtfully. A human community, too, must collect leaves and stories, and turn them to account. It must build soil, and build that memory of itself- in lore and story and song- that will be its culture. (Berry, TWOLC, pgs 153-55)

Before we reflect on the meaning of this story, I want to back up and ask, how does Wendell Berry notice this bucket? What practices in his life lead him first to see this bucket, second to a “deeper seeing” of this bucket, then third to reflect on the meaning of the bucket to life?

The bucket is doing in a passive way what a human community must do actively and thoughtfully. A human community, too, must collect leaves and stories, and turn them to account. It must build soil, and build that memory of itself- in lore and story and song- that will be its culture.

When a community loses its memory, its members no longer know one another. How can they know one another if they have forgotten or have never learned one another’s stories? If they do not know one another’s stories, how can they know whether or not to trust one another? People who do not trust one another do not help one another, and moreover they fear one another.” (Berry, “The Work of Local Culture” WAPF? 157)

What Berry is suggesting, and what I desire to suggest this morning, is that the most important quality of humanity is building memory of our place through learning and knowing one another’s stories, trusting one another, and moving beyond fear to invest in one another. Since Jesus prayed centrally, “God, may your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and Cincinnati Church of the Brethren’s place on earth that you have chosen is Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, with Wendell Berry ringing in our ears, beyond all the sexy ideas about mission and growth; maybe the most important, most essential quality of your work as a congregation is actively and thoughtfully learning the stories of the people here in Walnut Hills, gaining the trust of the people of Walnut Hills, and seeking to follow the Lord as Shepherd for this place. It’s letting our mission be determined by our place, and committing to a place for an extended period of time, intentionally being present in a way that deeply listens, invests, and prays for God’s will to be done in our place.

Our church family VC in Norwood is struggling through this very issue too. We have a sexy phrase that we’ve created and put up on our website: “Practicing resurrection in West Norwood and encouraging it everywhere.”

Now, if we want to move beyond the sexy phrase and listen to the wisdom of Berry, practicing resurrection IN WEST NORWOOD means establishing west Norwood as the focus of our ministry. We have said West Norwood will be our place. In order for this to have a practical reality, we must spend a significant amount of time in West Norwood. This does not necessarily mean we have to live there, but it does mean we need to deeply invest there. A number of us, because we want a more natural flow to this commitment, have moved into the neighborhood; in theory, because living IN WEST NORWOOD means we will more easily practice resurrection there. But we find a significant barrier comes up whether we move in or not: we don’t know the people here, we may not share the same desires as the people here, we don’t know the story of the community, the story of the people, we lack the connection needed. We don’t know the place where we are.

For those who don’t live in our place, that means they often settle for commuting in when events take place and leaving afterwards. For those who do live in our place, that means we often settle for establishing a subculture with practices, habits, desires, and relationships centered around our subculture with which we are more comfortable. So, whether the barrier is expressed by the distance we live away or by still seeing our next door neighbor as “over there,” both barriers are very real.

Wendell reminded us just a couple minutes ago “If we do not know one another’s stories, how can we know whether or not to trust one another? People who do not trust one another do not help one another, and moreover they fear one another.”

As the Psalmist said, “You make me lie down in green pastures, you lead me by still waters…you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Speaking personally, God is pulling me kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone, all dramatic, saying, “But God, I. will. die. over there. I am uncomfortable over there. I don’t know the people over there.” And God responds saying, “What do you mean, over there? This is your place. And yeah, worst comes to worst, you do die. What do you have to fear about that?”

Knowing this uncomfortable truth, I now feel less satisfied with what was comfortable for me before. I identify with the Psalmist saying elsewhere, “You hem me in, behind and before.” The pathway of God can feel suffocating, like God is the clingy girlfriend I once had who never gave me space for myself, and I want to say, “LET ME BREATHE, LET ME BREATHE!” I’m complaining, but I know that because God knows better than I do what I was created for, because I am a sheep and God is the shepherd, what feels suffocating today will, I trust, feel like freedom at some point.

So, I have asked myself over and over again, “If West Norwood is our place, what practices, what habits do we need to help us notice others, to know other’s stories, and eventually, through time and practice, they begin to know and trust us? And isn’t this the most important aspect of our church’s mission?”

Your website says, “In 2008, we moved from a comfortable suburban location to our current urban location, seeking the peace of the city. We work to engage with the city and its people, embracing and celebrating the diversity that fills our world.” So, I ask you in conclusion, “If Walnut Hills is your place, what practices, what habits do you need to help you notice others, to know other’s stories, and eventually, through time and practice, they begin to know and trust you?” This is not just a rhetorical question. I’m interested in hearing your ideas of how you might intentionally, in a time-intensive way, own your neighborhood as your place.

(Walks, Front porches, Gardens)

An uncomfortable thing that I need to share with you this morning is a conclusion I and others are coming to in Vineyard Central. Our church family has been in West Norwood now for fifteen years, but that fifteen years has not been marked by intentional actions to connect with our neighborhood. As a result, in some ways we are needing to "start over again," to reassess and recommit to the sense of place and community Berry speaks of here. You've only been in Walnut Hills three years now. I encourage you to more thoughtfully consider this and act on it so you don't have to painfully confess it like we do just a couple neighborhoods over.

Closing prayer:

God, you guide us along the right paths for your name’s sake. Even though we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil, for you are with us…surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life together, and we will dwell safely in your arms no matter what may happen to us. Give us courage, give us patience, do not leave us to our selfish desires but hem us in behind and before, yank us kicking and screaming if need be to the place you desire us to be, as our Shepherd leads us, for we need your tender care, we are yours, you do befriend us, lead us to befriend our neighbors, be the guardian of our way, Lord. Amen.

2008-09-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Difference between Disciples and Admirers Week 3:

Cross bridge from last week into further thoughts here:

Two options of passivity or violence

Two glimpses of Jesus in Gospel of Matthew (from last week) being confronted by this two way kind of thinking…deeper look at these encounters shows Jesus pursuing a third way; one that rejected both passively doing what you can and hoping for the best and the violent revolution option.

Jesus essentially said, “We won’t raise a ruckus just to raise a ruckus, but when we are told to do something or obey someone that is unjust, we simply say to them, “No, I’m sorry, but no. There is a higher law, a better law, than the one you are trying to make me obey, and I simply can’t obey your law.” And we obey the higher law of God rather than the lower law of human beings.

Now, of course this will lead to persons thinking we’re lawbreakers, treasonous, or cowardly (depending on the case), but the thought of not being accepted shouldn’t scare us since Jesus told his disciples this kind of thing would happen.

And not only did Jesus tell his disciples to expect this kind of thing, he faced that struggle himself. Arrested by the temple guard, sent before Herod, then Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor); conspired against by Jewish leaders, executed by the Romans.

“Dragged before kings and governors (in immediate sense (own people; Sanhedrin) and in long-term sense (Romans, Pontius Pilate, Agrippa, Felix)
- Again I raise the question…if Jesus’ teachings only refer to personal relationships, and the way we interact with governments is by obeying what they command us to do, then why in the world would citizens of the Empire, kings, and governors see the disciples of Jesus as a threat to things as they are?

The answer is clear: Jesus wasn’t just concerned with personal relationships.

Persons disagreeing with this interpretation may then ask if we're familiar with the following Scriptural passages: Romans 12, 1 Peter 2

Romans 13:1-7
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authorities is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

The Apostle Paul was the author of this section of Scripture. We have been taught, most of us in this room, that these Scriptures mean you do what you’re told, because the government is God’s instrument, and you are to obey.

We can test whether this interpretation is wise almost immediately by asking about Paul’s life:

Acts 21 (Jews agitate against Paul, he is arrested by the Romans, “news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.”, commander summoned priests and all Sanhedrin to assemble, men conspire to kill Paul, chief priests and elders collude with them, Paul is taken in chains to Caesarea, to Governor Felix, two years Paul spent in chains as Felix kept him until he died, and Festus took over as governor, King Herod Agrippa, the Roman puppet king (a close friend of the Roman Caesar) comes to interview Paul, finds no fault in him, yet keeps him in chains…Paul’s Scriptural story comes to an end in Rome as he waits in chains to testify to Caesar, but the early church proclaimed that Paul was executed in Rome by Emperor Nero after the great fire)

The record stands that Paul did not blindly obey the governing authorities, nor did he start a violent revolution against them. He simply testified to them about the truth, not worrying about what would happen to him. During this time, people saw how dangerous his teaching was for the governing authorities, because people would see that the human authorities weren’t the final say, so Paul was conspired against, beaten, stoned, flogged, and eventually executed by Emperor Nero.

If his message was about personal relationships only, if his message was that we blindly obey governing authorities, he would not have been seen as a threat.

1 Peter 2:13-17
Submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of the foolish. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

In killing Jesus, the Jewish authorities thought they had destroyed his silly movement, yet Peter and John in the book of Acts 4 were brought before the Sanhedrin and were commanded “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” If the gospel was only about personal relationships, if submitting to the authorities meant blindly obeying them, then Peter and John would have obeyed this command. Did they?

Acts 5, Peter and the other apostles are arrested. The Sanhedrin commands them, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."
Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!”

Wait a second, Peter, I thought you said earlier “submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every human authority”? And now you say, “we must obey God rather than men”? These sound contradictory.

Peter was executed in the same terrible period by Emperor Nero, crucified upside-down.

If the message of Peter was that the gospel is only a personal one, that the way we interact with governing authorities is to obey them in everything, why is it that his life stands as a testament against that interpretation?

The lives of Peter and Paul display to us that third way of Jesus; we don’t passively do our jobs, put food on the table, take care of our families, and obey the governing authorities as if they’re the ones in charge. But we also don’t pick up arms against them in violent revolution. It is clear that in following this path, Peter and Paul were considered traitors, dangerous to the governing authorities, and so they were executed.

And this displays the fundamental difference between disciples of Jesus and admirers of Jesus. Admirers of Jesus will be impressed by his miracles, will be impressed by some of his teachings, but admirers of Jesus will see the danger that comes with fully obeying Jesus, so they will find some way to weasel out of doing they were commanded to do.

In our case, there are many Christians who have completely ignored certain sections of Jesus’ teachings, then made Jesus look less challenging to their way of life by saying he was only concerned about personal relationships. They have taught us this way of reading Jesus, and they’ve used passages like Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 to make Christians do things that are a direct denial of Jesus’ commands. They are admirers, not disciples, and they have deceived us.

Disciples of Jesus obey Jesus no matter what the cost is. Disciples of Jesus see that Jesus rejected the two options persons demanded he choose between. When they demand that we obey them, when they demand that we swear our allegiance to them, our response is this.

“No, I’m sorry, but no.”

Discipleship has a cost. This is hard teaching, but we can’t highlight the easy parts and neglect the hard parts and claim to be a disciple. If Jesus is our LORD and Savior, then nothing and no one else is.

Now, if you’re STILL not sold on this interpretation of the Scriptures, I’d like to offer a present-day example for you of Christians applying this sort of third-way thinking (whether they’re consciously aware of it or not), and it has to do with the issue of abortion.

Why not obey Roe vs. Wade on abortion? It is the government’s official stance on abortion. If the stance toward government is one of complete obedience, why do Christians, by and large, work to have this governmental position overturned?

Because we believe that there is a higher truth and a higher good than the position of our government presently on this issue. And if we can take lessons from Jesus on how to work for change, we will refuse to stand by and passively obey the government when something is unjust, yet we will also refuse to pick up arms and enforce our position (persons who have bombed abortion clinics in the past)…we pursue the third way, the Jesus way, where when persons suggest abortion is simply a choice, we tell them, “No, I’m sorry, but no.” There is a human life inside your body that deserves respect and commitment from you.

We work together with persons with a common commitment in this area to serve expectant mothers, to give them choices beyond what seems like the easy way out, which is abortion. We work to understand some of the reasons behind why persons have abortions, and we seek to minister to those reasons. We work for God’s justice, whether the law of the land recognizes that justice or not.

Example of Jerry Falwell and the Houses for young expectant mothers

We refuse to be passive, but we refuse to seek violence to make our goal become a reality. And in fact, some choose to disobey the government by peaceful demonstrations at abortion clinics, at political rallies, in town centers, that show other persons in society that we are not silent and we will not blindly obey an unjust law…and Christians are doing this in our society.

So a whole lot of the Christian conversation and action surrounding abortion is showing a healthy perspective on how Christians interact with the law of the land. But the issue of abortion is not the only issue of God’s justice in the world, and we need to apply some of what Christians have learned in civil disobedience regarding abortion to other issues in the world of great injustice. And there are many of those issues.

And as we consider what those issues are, and the issues come into our awareness, and as we consider action with those issues, then we let the example of Jesus guide us as we work for justice.

We will not stand by and be passive and just do our jobs and hope for the best when injustice exists. But we as disciples of Jesus also will not take up arms and believe that violence will solve an issue of injustice.

We will speak truth to power and let our integrity and our courage rule the day; and in speaking up and acting for God’s justice, it very well may be that we will suffer (emotionally and physically), and it very well may be that we will be persecuted, and it very well may be that our commitment to seek that justice may upset members of our family, husbands, wives, parents, children, and our families and friends may disown us, and it very well may be that we may lose our lives…but Christians more than other folks should know that our individual life is not as important as being faithful to God’s work in the world.

King “the universe is bent towards the cause of justice,”

People will hate us, but if they hate us, let’s make sure they hate us for a good reason. If they are frustrated by us, that usually means we’re doing our job well.

2008-09-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon).

Sermon from September 7th, 2008

"The Difference between Disciples and Admirers Week 2"

Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. (own people) On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. (others) But when they arrest you (not if, when), do not worry about what to say or how to say it.

Continue with two ways discussion: passivism and violent agitation

- Persons have used this distinction for thousands of years now as they dealt with life and governments in power over them, saying, "We must either be passive and do our job, try to make ends meet, provide for our families, or we must take up arms in violent revolution." This belief in only two options hasn't ALWAYS been the case, but it has OFTEN been the case in human thinking.

People continued this distinction in considering Jesus as well. He HAD to be one or the other. There's no option other than the two. So which one is he? So they read the gospels and could see very early on that Jesus taught a way of peace, right? So that MUST mean that he wanted everyone to be passive, because he HAD to be either violent or passive. "But being passive means that people will run all over you and never be confronted with their injustice," people would think. "And that doesn't make sense," they thought. So in an underhanded, weaselly way, persons tried to find a way to justify disobeying Jesus, and came up with the conclusion, "Jesus was focused only on personal relationships." You hear that a lot from folks. And if we look into Jesus’ teaching, we can find some sections where that seems to be true; where if someone asks for your cloak, you give them your tunic, or “do not commit adultery,” “do not resist an evil person,” all of these seem to be focused on personal relationships. So Jesus was only talking about personal relationships…

- But Jesus also told his disciples “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” That might sound like a personal relationship thing, but we must keep in mind Jesus was speaking to a people occupied by the Roman Empire, where soldiers of the Empire could demand that the Jews carry their pack for a mile. In essence, here, Jesus is saying, “They think they have power over you because of their position. You show them their power is basically meaningless to you and go two miles to show your freedom.” This would have been shocking to the Roman soldiers if the Jewish people did this, and went above personal relationships to how they interact with the pagan Roman Empire.

- Jesus also told his disciples “Do not swear an oath at all.” And in a Roman Empire where the citizens of the empire swore their obedience to the government and the good of the Empire above other commitments, this would have led to terrible consequences. When his followers came before judges and governors and refused to swear an oath, they would be seen as treasonous, and likely lose their lives. This teaching also goes beyond personal relationships.

There’s two big episodes in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus gets to show the people that he doesn’t fit either of their categories of who the Messiah was, and what he came to accomplish.

In Matthew 17:24 ff, Peter is approached by the collectors of the temple tax. Officials of the Jewish puppet king Herod, trying to pay for the cost of the temple that he had built. They ask Peter, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” Essentially, they’re saying, “Doesn’t Jesus recognize the proper order of society?”

Why would these persons ask Peter this if everyone knew that Jesus was just talking about personal relationships? Of course Jesus would have paid the temple tax, like other obedient people. These officials are thinking, “If common persons don’t pay this tax, then order will fall apart in our society, if they don’t blindly obey us, then our rule is threatened.

Peter answers them, then Jesus challenges him with a mysterious question; “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes- from their own children or from others?” Peter answers, “From others,” and Jesus responds, “Then the children are exempt.” And then he shows his greater power here by saying, essentially, “But these people want their due. Listen, go to the lake, throw out your line, catch a fish, the first fish will have a four drachma coin. Give it to them.” While they are giving them what they’re asking for, Jesus shows the disciples the greater power they are responsible to. Not the officials, but God alone.

Essentially, Jesus is saying here, “Don’t raise a ruckus just to raise a ruckus with the people who govern you. But know where your allegiance lies.” You may not be convinced with my interpretation of this passage, but I’d like to show you how it sketches out some boundaries for the disciples and Jesus colors in the middle later.

Turn with me to Matthew 22, verse 15. Here we have a classic confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. When we think of the Pharisees, we typically think “self-righteous,” and that was true to a point; maybe that’s the personal relationship side of the Pharisees. But, as we’ve talked about in the recent past here, the Pharisees identified very deeply with the Zealots in their society. They were working behind the scenes to undercut the Roman rule through violent acts of terrorism.

So they come to Jesus here and hope to trap him in his words. Now notice in verse 16 that they sent their disciples to him along with who? (the Herodians) If you remember what we’ve explored here in Matthew in the past, who were the Herodians and what did they care about? (Jewish ruling party, get their name from King Herod, who only had the power that the Romans gave him. If they didn’t like him, they would have killed him and put another King in his place. So Herod went out of his way to show the Romans that he would obey them. Those who followed him then were the ones who said, “We can swear an oath before the Romans to survive, but it doesn’t mean anything because we don’t mean it in our hearts.”

The Herodians were anxious about revolutionaries because then they couldn’t continue to be rich and profit off their own people, and the Pharisees loved the Zealots, the violent revolutionaries, because they hated Roman rule. Do you see the pickle they’re trying to get Jesus in? It’s a Catch-22. Jesus are you passive or are you a revolutionary?

And they ask, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity and you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. (buttering him up, but it’s also a sign of respect; Jesus doesn’t bow down for people who claim to be important. He treats everyone the same) “Tell us then,” they say, “what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

Jesus, knowing their evil intent, spoke. But before we look at what he said, let’s consider the situation here. Knowing that the Herodians went out of their way to show the Romans that they weren’t a threat, knowing that they were the rich in the society and they didn’t want to lose their wealth, what would be their answer to this question? (Yes) If Jesus said “No,” then they would see him as a revolutionary, a threat to their wealth and power, and they would need to eliminate him.

Knowing that the Pharisees went out of their way to listen to and collude with the Zealots, knowing that they were agitating for revolution, what would be their answer to this question? (No) If Jesus said “Yes,” then they would see him as a Roman sympathizer, a threat to their desire for violent revolution, and they would need to eliminate him. So if Jesus answers either “Yes” or “No,” people will shove him into a certain category; he’s passive and needs to be killed, or he’s a threat to our wealth and needs to be killed.

Jesus’ response is classic. He said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

In essence, Jesus is saying, “So Caesar’s powerful enough to have some metal with his name on it, huh? Give him back what is he thinks is his. But Caesar doesn’t own our loyalty. That belongs to God alone.”

Now, I want you to understand the importance of what Jesus is saying here. By telling the people to give Caesar what is his, he is disagreeing with the Zealots that they should never ever ever cooperate with the Romans. Don’t create a riot just for the sake of a riot, Jesus is saying.

But at the same time, Jesus is rejecting Caesar’s claim to be King because only the LORD can occupy that place. To the Romans, Jesus would have been considered a threat to their rule, because their rule was based on blind allegiance.

What I’m saying is that Jesus was being presented with two different options, the violent revolution or being passive, and he rejected both of them. The entirety of Jesus’ ministry was about showing a third way, a different way, for God’s people to live.

This third way is one that rejected violent revolution but refused to give their loyalty to the Romans.

Nero At time of early church. The Roman emperor was believed by citizens to be the Son of God, sent to earth to bring peace and prosperity. Had two terms he wanted to be referred to by. These are both Greek words, the language of the empire, and the first is “kurios.” (LORD) This is the central term Nero wanted to be referred to as, and the way you showed your allegiance to the Roman Empire was confessing Nero as LORD.

The second term is “soter.” Anyone want to take a wild guess at what that means? (SAVIOR)

The Roman emperor was referred to by the masses as “our LORD and SAVIOR.” Ever heard those words before? Caesar gives test of loyalty by officials saying, “Caesar is LORD and SAVIOR. Bow down and acknowledge me as LORD and SAVIOR.” And if you didn’t bow down, guess what happened to you? (CRUCIFIED)

Now, we may not have been aware of this before, but, knowing that Caesar demanded that the people call him "LORD and SAVIOR," it now brings to our attention today how deeply subversive and dangerous it was for the early Christians to call Jesus "LORD and SAVIOR." What that means, essentially, is if Jesus is LORD and SAVIOR, then Caesar is not. Or, if Caesar is LORD and SAVIOR, then Jesus is not. I would encourage you to skim through the New Testament this week, keeping your eyes open for the terms "LORD" or "Savior." Each time these words were uttered, they were deeply dangerous for the author or speaker in an empire that didn't tolerate persons who refused to blindly obey.

(this was the end of our time together, and as you might guess...it doesn't wrap up neat and tidy. That's true, for two reasons. First, we ran out of time and I didn't want to keep people too long (we were ten minutes over even ending here). This was the major reason. But second, life isn't a present with a tidy bow making things all clean and easy; and this teaching of Jesus certainly isn't a neat little package. It demands that we go further than easy answers, and it calls for courageous persons willing to do the hard work of thinking and acting in ways very contrary to the persons around them. This will result in tensions within friendships, people ending friendships with them, talking behind their backs, maybe even disowning them, physically hurting them, or even killing them. Heck, I know of persons who have turned their back on me because of a difference in what we believe, but that shouldn't stop the pursuit of truth).

2008-04-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 30th, 2008 1st Sunday of Easter Season

Sermon Title: "Practicing Resurrection Week 2"

First point: I hope last week in the sermon time you did not hear me underselling the resurrection of Jesus as an actual historical event. It was not my intention to do that. It WAS, however, my intention to say that because of the God we serve, people being resurrected from the dead, and even, in the case of Elijah and Enoch, people not dying at all are not foreign to us.

If anything, as Christians, when we are asked if we believe Jesus actually rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, it shouldn’t be something we need to convince ourselves about. Instead, for us, it might sound like, “Well, yes, of course Jesus rose from the dead. God has done this kind of thing time and again in history. He created everything, and he showed not even death can stand in the way of his purposes. So of course Jesus conquered death. That’s who our God is!” Why can we say this with confidence?

The history of Israel is our history, the ancestors of Israel are our ancestors, to make it more personal, the founding fathers and mothers of Israel are our founding fathers and mothers. (what was true in Genesis 1 and 2 about God’s power was true in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry and remains true to this day, which is how our brother Howard Simpson right here witnessed a woman rising from the dead in Manassas, Virginia just a couple years ago)

Our God is who our God is, and that means he has complete power to do what he wants, whether people or organizations want to stand in his way, which they ultimately can’t, and whether certain powers try to stand in the way, like fear and hatred and death, and they ultimately can’t.

The deeper point I wanted to make was that the way Jesus lived, what he taught, how he faced and treated people conspiring to murder him, his willingness to die rather than to start a violent revolution as everyone around him expected the Messiah to do, and his resurrection, were all ultimately examples for us of how we are to live.

And Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ conquering of death, was meant to make a forceful point to his people that death is not the end, that we don’t have to be afraid of anything, that we can freely follow God in the middle of any situation, whether it be the Shenandoah Valley or and extremely violent SC LA or Ethiopia, where my sister in Christ Selamawit, a fellow student from the seminary, has scars on her body from being beaten for following Christ.

Jesus was and is truth and light, God made flesh, the complete revelation of God to his creation, and when we consider that Jesus is the fullness of truth, that the earthly ministry of Jesus picked up in the story of what God had already been doing with his people for thousands of years and held them to God highest standard of truth.

God had met them where they were at in the midst of a culture that worshiped a multitude of gods, had shown them time and again through signs and wonders who He was, had given them a mission to follow and boundaries to observe so that they would be different from others around them, and Jesus entered onto the scene in the fullness of time to lead his people into a deeper understanding of faithfulness and truth.

And sometimes that truth seemed like common sense, and sometimes it sounded like sheer idiocy, and sometimes it directly contradicted what the Israelites had already know to be true before. And even after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples still

He set us free to work for God’s justice

What works against doubt?
(Doubting Thomas) Proof (See my hands and my side, stop doubting and believe)

We human beings get so locked into what we think is good in this life and we try to force God to work in our categories.
- Problem with that kind of thinking is the God is God and we are not, and when we step into the place where we are defining what our lives look like, where we are telling God he doesn’t really know the truth, the scene shifts for us all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve decided to ignore their Creator’s purpose and did what felt right to them.
- Now, we as Christians often talk about pagans in this way, that they are confused and walking in darkness
- But we can find ourselves in the same predicament either if we are completely ignorant about God’s expectations for our lives, or we know how clearly God has spoken in Jesus and we choose to justify our actions away

But Jesus was and is truth, Jesus was and is the light, Jesus was God made flesh, the complete revelation of God’s truth, and expected us to obey.

Emphasis on self-sacrifice this Sunday to underscore the high accountability we live under to practice God’s resurrection, to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus, to maintain hope for the world when the world doesn’t know what hope is.

How do we prove to the world that Christianity is more than us nodding our heads and saying we believe that this guy Jesus existed 2,000 years ago and he died on the cross for our sins and rose again as conqueror over death?

Karen Ward “Most postmoderns don’t hate Jesus, in fact, the opinion that Jesus is an admirable teacher remains consistently high. What obscures things, then, for postmoderns, is that Christians so consistently stand for things Jesus didn’t stand for, and often so deeply identify with what they are against that they end up hating both the sinner and the sin.”

Integrating what we consider “spiritual” with what we consider “physical” or “routine” to make it all “spiritual”

Mountaintop Removal

I have made a friend in seminary named Robert just a couple months ago. He’s a new student at Eastern Mennonite, and Robert’s an interesting looking dude. He’s got tattoos all over his arms, a nice scruffy mountain man beard, and wears suspenders with jeans from time to time.

Robert lives in northwest North Carolina, but spends most of his weekends and breaks traveling up and down the eastern part of the United States as an intern for a group called Christians for the Mountains. Now, if you heard Robert talk about the things he’s passionate about and his home church communities, you would NOT hear harebrained, crazy ideas coming out of his mouth, he almost sounds like a passionate Baptist pastor when he gets fired up. He’s a Biblically-rooted, solid young man.

And what Robert gets fired up about is something taking place in the mountains of NC, VA, and WV called mountaintop removal, which was something I knew literally nothing about three months ago. Robert has completely changed that for me.

Most of us in this room have known about coal mining as a practice. In fact, Mary Fint’s husband and Livonia’s dad Don worked in a shaft mine in West Va for a little while. Well, shaft mining isn’t the safest job in the world for the common workers, not by a long-shot, and it’s that way for multiple reasons that we won’t get into today.

Mountaintop removal / valley fill coal mining (MTR) has been called strip mining on steroids. One author says the process should be more accurately named: mountain range removal.

1. Forests are clear-cut. Wildlife habitat is destroyed and vegetation loss often leads to floods and landslides. Next, explosives up to 100 times as strong as ones that tore open the Oklahoma City Federal building blast up to 800 feet off mountaintops. Explosions can cause damage to home foundations and wells. “Fly rock,” more aptly named fly boulder, can rain off mountains, endangering resident’s lives and homes.

2. Huge Shovels dig into the soil and trucks haul it away or push it into adjacent valleys.

3. A dragline digs into the rock to expose the coal. These machines can weigh up to 8 million pounds with a base as big as a gymnasium and as tall as a 20-story building. These machines allow coal companies to hire fewer workers. A small crew can tear apart a mountain in less than a year, working night and day.

4. Giant machines then scoop out the layers of coal, dumping millions of tons of “overburden” – the former mountaintops – into the narrow adjacent valleys, thereby creating valley fills. Coal companies have forever buried over 1,200 miles of biologically crucial Appalachian headwaters streams. Coal companies are supposed to reclaim land, but all too often mine sites are left stripped and bare. Even where attempts to replant vegetation have been made, the mountain is never again returned to its healthy state.

5. Community Impacts: Coal washing often results in thousands of gallons of contaminated water that looks like black sludge and contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals. The sludge, or slurry, is often contained behind earthen dams in huge sludge ponds. While the solid waste becomes valley fills, liquid waste is stored in massive, dangerous coal slurry impoundments, often built in the headwaters of a watershed. The slurry is a witch’s brew of water used to wash the coal for market, carcinogenic chemicals used in the washing process and coal fines (small particles) laden with all the compounds found in coal, including toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury. Frequent blackwater spills from these impoundments choke the life out of streams. One “spill” of 306 million gallons that sent sludge up to fifteen feet thick into resident’s yards and fouled 75 miles of waterways in 2000, has been called the southeast’s worst environmental disaster. The coal company, Massey Energy, based in Richmond, called it “an act of God.”
An Eastern Kentucky University study found that children in Letcher County, Ky., suffer from an alarmingly high rate of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and shortness of breath -- symptoms of something called blue baby syndrome -- that can all be traced back to sedimentation and dissolved minerals that have drained from mine sites into nearby streams. Long-term effects may include liver, kidney, and spleen failure, bone damage, and cancers of the digestive tract.

Larry Gibson's family has lived on Kayford Mountain for 200 years. Forty seams of coal lie beneath his 50 acres. Gibson could be a millionaire many times over, but because he refuses to sell, he has been shot at and run off his own road. One of his dogs was shot and another hanged. A month after my visit, someone sabotaged his solar panels. In 2000, Gibson walked out onto his porch one day to find two men dressed in camouflage, approaching with gas cans. They backed away and drove off, but not before they set fire to an empty cabin that belongs to one of Gibson's cousins. Gibson knows he isn't safe. "This land is worth $450 million," he told me, "so what kind of chances do I have?"

This situation is compounded by federal officials who often appear more loyal to corporations than to citizens. Consider the case of Jack Spadaro, a whistle-blower who was forced out of his job at the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration precisely because he tried to do his job -- protecting the public from mining disasters. when a 300-million-gallon slurry pond collapsed in Martin County, Ky., in 2000, causing one of the worst environmental disasters this side of the Mississippi, Spadaro was again named to the investigating team. What he found was that Massey had known for 10 years that the pond was going to break. Spadaro wanted to charge Massey with criminal negligence. There was only one problem. Elaine Chao, Spadaro's boss at the Department of Labor, is also Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's wife; and it is McConnell, more than anyone else in the Senate, who advocates that corporations are persons that, as such, can contribute as much money as they want to electoral campaigns. It turns out that Massey had donated $100,000 to a campaign committee headed by McConnell. Not surprisingly, Spadaro got nowhere with his charges. Instead, someone changed the lock on his office door and he was placed on administrative leave.

(My friend Robert’s story)

Allen Johnson interview:
“We believe that God made this planet, that God loves the earth, God loves creation, God loves humanity, and that even though God gives us freedom to spin our destiny, God doesn't want it to be trashed. God can open hearts and change people's minds and attitudes. There's an element of hope, I guess.

We point to Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And everything in it." We say, this is God's property. He's saying, you can use it, and it will feed you and take care of your needs. But I'd like you to take care of it, because I have a covenant with future generations. I made these plants and animals, and they have their space too. You can carve out a space for yourself, but leave some room for the others.

Sending: Isaiah 58:1-10

2008-04-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday (the beginning of the season of Easter)

Sermon Title: "Practicing Resurrection"

Resurrection

Joy! What does this mean? So maybe we were right all along? That this is the big sign that tells us the Messiah will be here forever, that Israel will be restored?

Jesus to Mary: Don’t cling to me, for I have yet to return to my Father

Road to Emmaus: Disciples, “We had thought he would be the one to restore Israel”

The disciples in Acts 1: We know about all that stuff before, but IS THIS THE TIME you will restore the kingdom to Israel?

In our Good Friday worship gathering, I spent time trying to wade into the reasons why that fateful day when Jesus was executed like a common criminal, like so many thousand other Roman prisoners, how that day could be considered good, and I offered one perspective on that: that Good Friday was and is Good because it reveals that God’s purposes are bigger than the purposes we often settle for.

That Israel had gotten locked into a certain way of seeing the way things should and would go, and God knew that, and God needed to break them out of that.

That God had built into the foundation of his people very early on that they were to be a light of His salvation to the very ends of the Earth, not just sit on their blessings like a hen on her eggs; because sooner or later those little chicks hatch and their muscles never develop, and they wither away and die if they do not eventually leave the nest.

God said to Israel, “It is NOT ENOUGH for you to be my servant…I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." This is what the LORD says—who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

The deepest meaning of the resurrection is not just that Jesus rose from that dead, as absurd as it sounds for me to say that. The prophet Elijah raised a young boy from the dead, Lazarus was raised from the dead, the apostle Paul raised a man from the dead who had fallen out of a window because he fell asleep while Paul was speaking, Peter raised a young girl from the dead. The deepest meaning of Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t reside in the reality that he didn’t die, because there are even two other persons who flat-out never died, Enoch and Elijah, with Elijah being taken up and away from Elisha in a chariot of fire.

No, the deepest meaning of the resurrection is not just in our remembering the event 2,000 years ago. The deepest meaning of the resurrection is that Jesus’ victory over death is to set an example for us; that it is to be a foretaste, a whetting of our appetites, for the promise that death is not the end for us all.
As the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15,

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

If you are a human being in this room today, you know that there is one thing that you and I will all face one day, whether that day is today or five or ten or eighty years in the future, and that is DEATH. Every single one of us will die, and we know this, so we obsess over ways to avoid death, to prolong life, to protect our desire to have a long life, we KILL others so that we can live more comfortably and live longer.

And yet the resurrection of Jesus tells us, forcefully, that if we are his people, We. Don’t. Have. To. Fear. Death, that death is not the end, that one day we will be resurrected together to enjoy God in the blazing light of his glory, that he will wipe every tear from our eyes, that there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. But this promise is not for everyone. In our culture, we tend to think after we all die, somehow we all sprout wings and float up to heaven where we play harps and hang out with our loved ones all day. But hear the word of the Lord through Paul.

Philippians 3:7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

For Paul, this resurrection wasn’t guaranteed, but it wasn’t as if he was wringing his hands, wondering if he had done enough, he wasn’t obsessing over whether his feet were getting hot from the fires of hell licking at his soles, no, Paul knew that he had been saved from slavery to selfishness, slavery to lies, slavery to what he thought was true before and saved to slavery to Jesus, slavery to a lifestyle marked by obedience, a lifestyle of radical love and radical forgiveness, a lifestyle of seeking each day to…

But outside of all these things, Paul made something incredibly clear in his teaching; the resurrection of the dead will not take place for everyone, and that includes a good number of those who are confident, that know that they know that they have been “saved.”

The fact remains that some of us in this room today, myself included, will likely be massively surprised on judgment day when we stand before the throne confident that we have been “saved,” only to hear the words “Away from me, I never knew you.”

You see, Paul knew what God has always known and expected; this faithfulness bit is meant to flow from the core of who we are, to affect all that we think about, all that we act on, it affects where we work and how we handle ourselves when we work, it affects our relationships and who we spend time around, it drives us to give our money and energy and time for the poor, the broken, and our enemies, it messes with us, it frustrates us, it pushes us to shine brighter, to love deeper, to never be satisfied…and to be so committed that we don’t even see how much our lives are blessing the lives of others, healing relationships, turning around communities, restoring hope where before there was darkness…

And the most incredible thing about this is that along the way, if we pursue this kind of love, this kind of single-mindedness, we won’t spend time considering whether we’re “gonna get to heaven” or whether we’ve “done enough to avoid hell.” We won’t be naïve enough to believe any preacher or person that tells us that our lifestyle is irrelevant, that the only important thing is that we pray for forgiveness, and we’re going to heaven is a LIE, a LIE from the pit of hell.

God placed a spark inside of all of us when we were created to desire him, to be fulfilled and satisfied in obeying him, and to know that nothing else matters outside of this commitment. But so much obscures, muddies the waters, tells us something different, and we need to cling to the truth that we have been created for this, that we must desire this…because this path will bring suffering, it will bring persecution, it will bring persons labeling us as self-righteous, as a holy-roller, as unpatriotic, as certifiably insane.

But what they say and do doesn’t matter, because Jesus conquered death, scoffed at it, so that we might scoff at it, so that we would be released from fearing it. It is this kind of hope hundreds of millions of Christians have lived with; have known they have been set free to practice, to live out the resurrection in their daily lives.
Bishop Desmond Tutu, from 1985, in the midst of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. He said,

If it weren't for faith, I would have given up long ago. I am certain lots of us would have been hate-filled and bitter…. In the middle of our faith is the death and resurrection. Nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday—but then Easter happened, and forever we have become prisoners of hope.

Apartheid says that we are created for separation; the Scriptures say ‘Rubbish.’ We are created for unity, for fellowship, for communion. Apartheid says that people are fundamentally irreconcilable; the Scriptures know nothing of this. It is denying what we might call the central work of Christ: attaining reconciliation. God was concerned with reconciling the world to (God’s) self.

Apartheid goes on to inflict an unnecessary and unjust suffering and misery on God's children just because they are black. Therefore, we are calling on Christians to say that they oppose this not for political reasons, not even for economic reasons, not even for the fact that they are worried that human beings are made to suffer—but because the people supporting this are behaving in an un-Christian way.

We are not saying it in any self-righteous kind of way. We are saying we are trying to be as true to the imperatives of the gospel as we can. And almost always it will expose you to suffering, to ridicule, and to worse.

If after the horrible event of Good Friday, when even the physical nature seemed to mourn, and darkness covered the earth—if after that you see the glorious resurrection, what can ever be worse than that moment?

And what can ever again make you doubt that if God be for us, who can be against us? If that has happened, what can ever again separate us from the love of God? What chance does the South African government stand? There is just no hope for them. And they really ought to listen to us when we say, ‘We are asking you to join the winning side.’ When we say we are on the winning side, it isn't that God is on our side because we are good; it is because (God) is that kind of God. (“Prisoner of Hope. An interview with Desmond Tutu” by the editors of Sojourners. Sojourners Magazine, February 1985.)

Bishop Tutu demonstrated what it means to be joyful though you have considered all the facts. He and others like him refused to take up the sword but instead practiced resurrection in dismantling apartheid. It enabled him to overcome his fear even when confronted with enormous evil.

May we seek this lifestyle joyfully. We are not alone, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, our brothers and sisters over thousands of years who have walked this path, we are surrounded by our brothers and sisters around the globe serving Christ in the midst of intense suffering and pain.

For Christ is risen! This mysterious God who has remained faithful through our neglect, idolatry, and apathy has defeated death forever, and who can believe it's really true? Stacked against our faith is the reality of countless injustices in our communities and nations, horrifying examples of the ways we use the force of evil to destroy and degrade one another. They persist despite Christ's example, his life among us, and his death and resurrection. But Christ is risen, alleluia! The assurance of life's triumph over death is the only weapon we need for our constant struggle for justice in the world.

Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again!

What does it mean for us to not just say we believe in the resurrection that took place 2,000 years ago, but to truly practice resurrection today in our world?

2008-03-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

Good Friday Message: Why is this Friday, of all days, called Good?

We are gathered here tonight primarily as descendents, inheritors of a promise. We are members of a historical people, with our ancestors extending back thousands of years, generation after generation. And it is through the story of these people that we find our roots, our foundation tonight.

We are not a people who define our faith in God only by what God has done or not done in our lifetimes. We are a people who look back into the past and find that the God who created us has been actively working and sustaining and shaping his creation long before any of us in this room breathed our first breath and will be actively working and sustaining and shaping his creation long after we have gone.

We are not the center of this story. The world and the gospel are not centered on us. The center of the story is the God who created us, and this God has good news for all of his creation. He has not left us alone, we are not the ones in charge, and the greatest thing we can do as people, whether we run a Fortune 500 business or dig ditches for a living, is to follow freely and completely in the footsteps of Jesus.

We live in a broken world, a world that is very dark, but this world is not hopeless, the darkness has not won, and our God has given us the opportunity to seek the light and truth that comes from being a part of this historical people, our founding fathers and mothers are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ruth, Job, Nehemiah, Malachi, Bartholomew, James, Mary Magdalene, and our LORD Jesus.

And if we are God’s people, we long for the healing of this world, for justice, for truth. And it is this sort of longing that we find in the people of Israel around 40 A.D. For the greater part of 500 years, they have been under the thumb of the pagan Greek and then Roman Empires. They’ve been occupied, exploited, stomped on, murdered, persecuted, and all of this because God has judged them for their unfaithfulness. They LONG for redemption, LONG for one to set them free.

And at the beginning of the Passover here around 40 AD, expectation has been building. Supposedly a man from Nazareth has arisen who teaches with authority, who heals miraculously, and who is attracting a large following. Could this be the Messiah? This man is a polarizing figure; the Romans have heard and become uneasy, the temple authorities see their power challenged. And on this day, a crowd gathers outside Jerusalem that quickly swells into great numbers, children dance and scream out joy, and adults lay down their cloaks. It is this man! Jesus! He has come to Jerusalem! Could this be the Messiah? The crowd shouts, HOSANNA! Praise to the Son of David! The King is coming! The King is coming! The revolution is beginning! Israel will be restored!

This is a time of celebration, of expectation. “The time of suffering has come to an end!” most people would have thought, but the disciples, if they paid any attention to the teachings of Jesus, during this loud gathering may have had something tickling in the back of their mind during the triumphal procession, faint memories of Jesus saying to them time and time and time again, “my children, I will be with you only a little longer,” and “I am going away and will be coming back to you," and “the Son of Man will be arrested, crucified, raised up.” They may carry these memories buried way back in their heads, but the memories aren’t faint because of time and things getting fuzzy, they’re faint because what Jesus has been teaching doesn’t line up with what the disciples want to hear, what the disciples have thought was the truth about the Messiah.

The faint sense of discomfort the disciples may have felt during this triumphant experience may have intensified when a disciple, caught up in the excitement of the moment, may have looked at Jesus as the crowds were yelling Hosanna!, only to find that Jesus didn’t look triumphal, didn’t look kingly, didn’t look like a revolutionary general, but was instead WEEPING!

Now what in the world did the disciple think was happening?:

“What is Jesus weeping for?" he may have said, "Joy? Excitement? Is he overwhelmed by the people’s praise? Is he anticipating sitting on the throne with Israel restored?"

(He or she may have been tempted to see it that way, and in fact several disciples would have looked at those tears and seen (JOY!), while others would have looked at Jesus and been disturbed by what they saw, that those tears didn’t fit the occasion, didn’t seem normal for what was taking place. And if they got close enough to Jesus, they would have heard him say, “Jerusalem, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

Either way, the truth of the matter is that most persons celebrating on that day, laying down their cloaks and waving their palms, expected Jesus (as the Messiah in the way they thought the Messiah would be) to launch his revolution to overthrow the Romans and the corrupt temple authorities, that this procession into the city would throw fear into the hearts of those in power and Jesus would start making things happen.

So the anticipation was building rapidly, and Jesus, instead of taking away that anticipation, fed the hysteria by promptly going to the temple (the center of the Israelite life, mind you) and turning over tables, fashioning a whip and driving the animals out, and lacing into the traders and sellers.

The temple authorities grow angry when they hear and see the children shouting Hosanna and praises to this Jesus, and Jesus calls them on the carpet, saying, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the pros titutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the pros titutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” And he tells parable after parable to those gathered around mocking the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, exposing their self-righteousness and hypocrisy. This is NOT the Jesus meek and mild of our childhood Sunday School classes that bleeds over into our adult belief system too.

See, what is happening is that the scene is building to a climax, the crowd is becoming unruly, the authorities’ authority is being ignored, the system isn’t working cleanly, and the Roman authorities are certainly uneasy, as Passover is the time of year when the Jews are unsettled and ripe for revolution.

The scene continues to build toward revolution when, after Judas leaves to betray him, Jesus tells the disciples, “Find a sword. If you have only one, find two. Get ready.” So the disciples report back; “We have a couple.” The revolution is beginning, the war is coming. And so the scene shifts, several hours later, Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. We can almost smell the evil in the air as Satan is feeding the pride and anger of the Jewish authorities, feeding Jesus’ disciples’ confusion about what is happening, and Jesus feels it, and he prays and prays and prays until his sweat turns into blood with the extreme amount of stress he is under.

Jesus returns to his disciples, and informs them, “Arise. My time has come.” Again, the disciples may have read this as the time that Jesus would be revealed as the Messiah, the warrior-king, like King David.

When Judas betrays Jesus, the disciples cry out, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” (they obviously didn't wait for an answer) It seems Peter had one of the swords the disciples had brought along, and Peter did what seemed natural, he struck out against the servant of the High Priest, protecting Jesus, inciting violence.

And it is here, at the height of the climax, when all seems to point towards Jesus living into the destiny that everyone had planned out for him, when the disciples are using the sword that Jesus told them to get, that everything gets turned completely upside-down for them.

Jesus cries out, “Peter! Put your sword back in its place! Those who live by the sword will die by the sword, do you think I cannot call on my Father and he will send down twelve legions of angels under my command? And you think you can solve this with a sword.” And the disciples find that all this sword business has simply been an extended object lesson over several hours from the master teacher that the sword solves nothing. They’re even more confused when Jesus goes to the servant of the high priest who suffered violence from Peter and re-attaches and heals his ear on the spot; the enemy who has come to abduct him!

And then the situation reaches an ironic conclusion when Jesus says, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?” (when a rebellion was exactly what they expected the Messiah to lead)

And then Jesus, a man powerful enough to wave his fingers and knock the whole crowd to the ground, allows himself to be arrested, unjustly accused, scourged and beaten, and is crucified like the thousands of others the Romans had executed by crucifixion. To the disciples, he has failed, to the Roman soldier and the temple authorities, he has been exposed as an imposter, a faker. Good riddance.

Which brings us back to the question: Why and how is Good Friday good?

I suggest an important part of the answer is that it reveals God’s purposes for his creation are much higher than what we often settle for.

This is shown very clearly in the Bible when we read through the story, starting near the beginning, when in Genesis 12 God approached a young Middle Eastern man named Abram and gave him a promise; “I’m going to bless you. But not so you can sit high and mighty and laugh at others that don’t have it. No, I’m blessing you in order for you to be a blessing to others."

After this, God spoke to Abram's descendents, saying in Isaiah 49,

"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant…I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." This is what the LORD says—who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

Israel was told they had been blessed, not because they were anything special, and in fact, they were told straight out in Deuteronomy 7, “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you.”

Yet Israel, instead of hearing and living into this expectation allowed themselves to fall into the temptation to obsess over what God was doing for them, rather than focusing on the reality that they had been blessed to humbly witness to the world the truth about us all. They got selfish, like we do, they got complacent and lazy, like we do. They expected the Messiah to come running a sword through all the evil pagans because Israel clearly was holy.

And so, it wasn’t a surprise, then, that when their Messiah, Jesus arrived, they didn’t recognize him. Instead of being the completion of what they had waited for, had longed for, he became a stumbling block to them.

And in case we thought the Israelites were the only ones who could take their attention off the world and pay attention to themselves, the Roman Empire occupying them at this time was obsessed with keeping and extending what they had, and since then, the French have been obsessed with the French, the Germans with the Germans, the English with the English, and the United States with the United States; each of us in our little corner of the globe, like a pre-school playroom seeing who can have the most toys at the expense of the others.

But history has displayed time and time and time and time again that nations and people with power have obsessed over this power and done whatever necessary to keep that power and influence and all have gone bankrupt in their fear, only to have another power rise to take their place.

It’s a vicious cycle, a wheel that keeps turning and turning, with one group rising up, fragmenting and falling, and another rising to take their place. And every time a nation is about to lose their position as King of the Mountain, they turn the world into a bloodbath because of their fear. This is the world and the desires the Israelites had that we all share; unless there is something that calls us out of it.

If that’s the cycle and it’s shredding the world, how do we break it? How do we solve it?

By obeying the God whose purposes are higher than ours often are. The God who said;
" If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

This same God said, “Do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

This same God spoke through Peter to say, “Do not live the rest of this earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 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. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

God’s solution was to send his son to display a pure example of his purposes, to shape a number of disciples to listen to, watch, and follow his example, and all this so that these disciples would eventually be from many nations, races, languages, cultures, and understanding; all witnessing to the world of God’s purposes, all learning each day a little more about how to stand in awe of their Creator and serve him in joy and with life.

On Good Friday, we see the pinnacle of God’s great love, when on the cross, God scoffed at the power of the Romans and corrupt Israelite expectations, and in the resurrection laughed in their faces, saying “You cannot possibly stand in the way of my purposes!”

Good Friday is good because God has not left us alone in our rebellion, in our selfishness, in our fears, in our petty violence and racism. Good Friday is good because this powerful God who could say “I’m starting over,” and in an instant this entire vast universe we exist in would cease to exist, this God, instead of destroying us all, humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, and became obedient to death, knowing how weak and confused and closed-minded we are, knowing that we needed an example.

But the fact remains that for every other person in this story other than Jesus, the way things panned out was deeply confusing, even after the resurrection. Before, they thought they knew what was true, what would happen. Jesus, however, showed them the purposes of God were higher and bigger than they imagined.

Tonight is Good Friday, it is not yet Easter, and we must sit here and be honest with ourselves that often, when we hear Jesus speak, when God lays out his expectations for us, often we say, “No, God...no...nope...that doesn’t sound like a good life.” Soren Kierkegaard said, “Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging ourselves to act accordingly. 'My God,' we will say, 'if I do that, my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?'” We all have said that in some form or another.

So here on Good Friday, we will sit in that place of honesty, we will confess to God that we have rebelled, and we will promise to seek the life he expects. We will not run to Easter ahead of time, will not forget that that Friday was so dark because we were so deeply in rebellion. We will embrace the darkness, the confusion, and we. will. wait. for Easter.

2008-02-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

Feb 10 Fasting and Lent and Wilderness and all that Jazz

(Psalm 103:8-19)

Why Lent? (Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism; they believed it to be a commandment from the apostles). So before there was a “Catholic” church or Lutherans or Presbyterians or Brethren or Methodists or Pentecostals, there was the early followers of Jesus, and this was a commitment they made.

Significant of “40” (Think back to the Old Testament. Noah and company in the Ark watched rain fall for 40 days and forty nights. Moses was up on Sinai receiving the 10 commandments for 40 days. The Israelites wandered around the desert for 40 years. So why all these forties? Probably because it is forty weeks that a woman carries her developing baby before a new life can come forth from the womb. All these “forties” are a necessary and not-so-comfortable prelude for something new.

Rooted in the wilderness experience

Wilderness experience rooted in purifying us and simplifying life for the goal of us learning how to trust in God alone

It’s no coincidence that the word “wilderness includes the word ‘wild’”

BBT: Once, when I attended a workshop on teaching religion, a presenter talked about how he took his students on wilderness trips to give them a taste of life nearer the edge. Whether they went hiking or whitewater rafting, the point was to step outside their comfort zones long enough to encounter the untamed holiness of the wild.

“Excuse me,” a member of the audience said, “but are there predators in those places who are above you on the food chain?”

“Well, of course not,” the presenter said. “I wouldn’t put students in danger like that.”

“I wouldn’t either,” the man in the audience said, “but don’t lull them into thinking that they have experienced true wilderness. It’s only wilderness if there’s something other there that can eat you.”

Lent, like the Christian life as a whole, is a journey that requires commitment. This journey is not an adventure for tourists who want little snapshots or soundbites of spiritual insight, as if we can be a Christian without it involving the investment of all that we are, our time and energy. Lent is a yearly commitment, an anticipation and purification time as we prepare for the second pinnacle of the Christian year, which is Easter.

If we decide to honor the worship season of Lent, we should expect to face two important realities. First, we will be led to remember the life of Christ including his ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection. And second, we will be led to face ourselves.

In Lent we are encouraged to care for those things that ultimately matter and to leave behind those things which stand in the way of our full participation in the life of God and the life around us. It involves a separation from the securities and attachments of our life for the sake of discovering a little more of the truth about ourselves and the truth of who God is. As we remember with honesty the way things are- who Christ is and who we are- we will learn to sit still. This is the invitation of Lent- to move through the wilderness of self-deception into the truth of Christ.

Movement into the wilderness
Throughout biblical and church history the people of God are frequently found living in the wilderness. The wilderness is the geographic setting of the Exodus and Jesus’ temptation.

But the term wilderness has also been used to show the reality of the human heart. What does the term desert bring to mind in you when you think of it? “Desert” expresses the barrenness, dryness, and harsh conditions, and maybe the confusion or wildness often felt within us.

Many people have purposefully entered the wilderness in history in order to submit themselves to physical as well as spiritual conditions that expose who they really are. On the other hand, some of us through being abused by others or facing the grief of losing a loved one or facing physical shortcomings find ourselves in spiritual wilderness against our wills.

The effects are the same: the wilderness exposes and lays bare. In it we are tempted and suffer as Jesus was tempted and suffered. Being in the desert, whether we chose to go there or not, is that by it God is able to reveal the true condition of the human heart.

As the first step of Christ’s ministry began in the wilderness, we are called each year through Lent to return to that uncomfortable place. In our willingness to give something up for a time that has brought us security or comfort, we let the Spirit lead us into the wilderness, to bring us face to face with the reality of our temptation and our vulnerability to sin.

The wilderness is a dangerous place. If we’re honest about the evil which lies hidden within ourselves, there is always the risk of trivializing our guilt on one hand or falling into a destructive despair on the other. If we’re completely focused on our sin and fail to keep before us the character of this God we serve in Psalm 103, we will progress no further than despair or depression. On the other hand, if we think God’s grace will allow us to claim his forgiveness without honestly facing the depth of our rebellion and repenting, then, as 1 John 1:8 says, “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

To know Christ is to know the God who is full of mercy and forgiveness, but in order to know this God of mercy and forgiveness, we must have a deep and constant awareness of our need for mercy and forgiveness in the first place.

When Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert, he is tempted to act outside of the bounds of his relationship to his Father. In the first temptation he is tempted to exercise power for himself rather than to trust himself to the care of his Father. In the second temptation, Jesus is persuaded to use God for his own purposes (the God who is the cosmic vending machine) rather than to serve him. And in the third and last temptation, Jesus is tempted to put himself in the place of God- to commit idolatry, the deepest sin as defined by the Old Testament, the sin that Adam and Eve committed.

In each temptation is the desire to live self-sufficiently; to rely on himself for getting power, pleasure, and position. And each time, when Jesus responds, he roots himself in the experience of the nation of Israel during the Exodus, where they were tested to see if they would trust God fully as their Lord and Provider. (Deut 8, Deut 6, Deut 6) The victory of Jesus’ response came through his faithfulness in relationship with the Father.

Each temptation was an attack on this relationship, and each response of Jesus honored this relationship. Sin, therefore, is a rejection of our relatedness to God and the rest of his creation. We live either obediently in that relationship, or we become alienated from God and from others in the darkness of our own disobedience and selfishness.

If we believe the Bible to be true, and we have eyes to see the disobedience in our society, we will see it all over the place…but that begs a question, If it’s all over the place, how are we (as people, in general, everywhere) not in tune with how broken we really are?

Reality: We medicate ourselves

Now this may be just me speaking out of my own experience here, but I can’t help but think that somehow we are deeply afraid as a culture. I think we are afraid of ourselves, we are afraid of honest relationships with others because we are afraid of ourselves.

I find it incredibly hard when I sit down in my car to not flip the radio on or put a CD in to listen to all the time. I find it incredibly hard when I sit down to do school work on a computer not to go to the Internet to a bunch of my favorite websites, only to look up later and find I’ve spent several hours looking at these things, many of which are relatively unimportant in the long haul.

And I have found when I do sit down by myself for longer than five minutes to pay attention to who I am and to pray, as I focus on letting my mind that’s constantly running on spin cycle slow down, I am confronted with myself. And that confrontation is not always pretty and clean. If I’m honest, I am probably more of a mystery to myself than I am to other people. I often don’t understand why I do the things I do or think the things I think or act the way I act, and when I continue to do those things even when I think I don’t want to, then things get real dicey.

And when I spend time thinking about who I really am and what I really want, I quickly get uncomfortable, because I realize how deeply my selfishness lies within me and how deeply my rebellion against God lies within me. Because I love Jesus, I hate that part within me, but it’s not going away very quickly, so I have to learn to live with that discomfort.

So a lot of the time, to stay away from the reality of who I am, I keep the radio running or the computer on or I stay around people to talk to, and I do all of these things up until the very last second before I fall into bed so I don’t have to pay attention to what’s going on inside me, and I can do this for weeks at a time if I let myself.

I think this discomfort plays out in relationships as well. Persons in dating relationships, married couples, and groups of friends go out of our way to keep ourselves occupied when we’re around one another, we have to “do something”; we can’t just BE with each other. This is the temptation, because if we let this rule our lives, we end up renting movies or watching shows that literally waste our time or end up twisting our desires for the sake of doing something.

Families come home and whip up some food to eat after a day of work, and we’re tempted to flip on the TV as we eat so we can “have something to do” and maybe possibly if we’re focused on the TV, we’re much less likely to have conversations that might bring us to have to face who we are.

We can do this kind of thing for years spending time around friends or family or a husband or a wife; even sleep in the same bed and not ever really know the person…often because we’re uncomfortable with who we are.

William Blake’s simple etching “I Want,” illustrates the point that sin involves us as individuals doing what we want, but is more fundamentally the rejection of identity in relationship. The ladder shows a person climbing away from others. But what it most directly at stake are the relationships affected by this individual’s act. What we see in Blake’s etching is how movements away from our neighbor and toward our own desires “I want! I want!” neglect the impact of our actions on the world around us.

This is why fasting is a part of honoring the Easter holy day. When we recognize that we medicate ourselves with TV, radio, reading, video games, food, or a variety of other things, choosing to give up this thing that is masking who we are and how broken we are brings us face to face with who we are; it brings us into the wilderness where we get honest with ourselves and get honest with God.

(watch Clint Kemp Spiritual Journey Video)

2008-02-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Feb 3 2008 "The Lord's Prayer, a call to discipleship part II:

It is not right to settle for the notion that a person’s life is divided into the time they spend on their work and the time they spend in serving God. They must be able to serve God in their work, and the work itself must be accepted and respected as the medium of divine creation…Every maker and worker is called to serve God in their profession or trade- not outside it. (Dorothy Sayers)

Tony Campolo tells a story from his life sometimes to illustrate a little of what the church is called to. He was in another time zone at a conference and couldn’t sleep after midnight, so he got up and wandered down to a doughnut shop where, it turned out, local hookers also came at the end of a night of turning tricks. There, he overheard a conversation between two of them. One, named Agnes, said, “You know what? Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m gonna be thirty-nine.” Her friend snapped back, “So whaddaya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake and sing happy birthday to you?” The first woman replied, “Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I’m just sayin’ it’s my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have my own birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?”

When they left, Tony got an idea. He asked the shop owner if Agnes came in every night, and when the shop owner said yes, Tony invited him into a surprise birthday party conspiracy. The shop owner’s wife even got involved. Together they arranged for a cake, candles, and party decorations for Agnes, who was, to Tony, a complete stranger. The next night when she came in, they shouted, “Surprise!”- and Agnew couldn’t believe her eyes. The doughnut shop customers sang, and she began to cry so hard she could barely blow out the candles. When the time came to cut the cake, she asked if they’d mind if she didn’t cut it, if she could bring it home- just to keep it for a while and savor the moment. So she left, carrying her cake like a treasure.

Tony led the guests in a prayer for Agnes, and afterwards the shop owner told Tony he didn’t realize Tony was a preacher. He asked what kind of church Tony came from, and Tony said, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.” The shop owner couldn’t believe him, “No, you don’t. There ain’t no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. Yep, I’d join a church like that.”

Summarize last week, build bridge into this week

9 "This, then, is how you should pray:  
" 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread. (Ubuntu)

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Once again, forgive US OUR debts

Every day, Christ’s followers must be aware of and deeply lament our guilt. And when I say deeply lament, I’m not saying, “Lord, thank you for today. Please forgive my sins. Amen.”, I’m talking about a deep, central, desperate desire to put the darkness of our former thoughts and actions and speech behind us, but in practice our lives are often covered with all kinds of unbelief, lack of prayer, lack of self-discipline, self-indulgence, envy, hatred, and pride.

Basically, the stack of things that confront us as Christians can seem like a mountain we’ll never get over, and so we could be tempted to think that we won’t ever make it up and over that mountain and as a result, we should just settle for the idea that we won’t and that the most we can hope for is to pray for forgiveness. I mentioned that that is a temptation because that sort of mindset is not Godly, but lazy and slothful.

On top of that, I think I can honestly say that I know more about my rebelliousness today than I did five years ago, when I didn’t have the slightest hint of an idea how deeply destructive my mind, my thoughts, and my actions were to the world around me.

And now I see, in some way, the mountain of who I am that stands apart from the purposes of God in a much clearer way now than five years ago, and in some ways every day that mountain can seem more massive. Part of the reason it seems more massive is because I was lying to myself before in always looking at others and establishing how “good” I was relative to them; using Osama bin Laden or Charles Manson or even Ted Haggard as examples. When I got honest, I got blown away. My mountain was MASSIVE. So what do I do about that? What do you do about that? What do we do about that?

We throw ourselves down at the feet of God, sobbing and angry and sad and broken by the depth of our desire to work against his purposes, begging for forgiveness. And it is only when we begin to care about the life God dreams for us to live that we find how deeply rebellious we are. (It is ALLLLLLLLL of this deep reality that is wrapped up in ONE phrase, “Forgive us our debts”) No wonder that we must pray often for God’s forgiveness.

But if you and I are to get up on our feet and face the mountain of our rebellion and destructiveness, we have to have a motivation that is higher than, more lofty than our sins.

Philippians 3:7-11
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The incredible thing about this longing to know Christ is the reality that the more we know about Him, the more we realize how deep and how wide and how incredible He is. We realize how hard it is to follow him, but how gracious Jesus is to forgive us when, as we do the very best we can, we fail along the way, wounding ourselves and others. So we are called to be discontented with where we’re at, disgusted with where we’re at, longing to know Christ more, to seek God’s purposes more, to be filled with the zeal to know God.
So if we think about mountains differently, the Christian who is filled with holy discontentment and holy zeal for more of Christ is like a mountain climber who struggles and strains to reach the top of a mountain peak only to be able to see from that vantage point new and more glorious mountain peaks yet to climb.

Where did Paul's holy discontent come from? It came from the way he looked at himself and the way he looked at Christ. It came from the God-given humility which helped Paul to understand, along with us, the deep debt we owe God as persons who are a part of a race, an inheritance of those in God’s world who have chosen our own way, our own path, lived in opposition to the purposes and dreams of God

But as incredible as this reality is, this life commitment is, the funny thing about God is that He doesn’t let us get off with being satisfied just with this incredible commitment.

Jesus says “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,”

This includes a whole load of possibilities if we consider it (debtors to us might be those who have wounded us on a face-to-face relational level (persons who have wounded us by something they have said or something they have done), but also those are literally our debtors (they owe us cash money) or, in the most foundational sense, are in a position where they owe us for their very lives.

This plays out in personal relationships, but it also plays out in global relationships. If we allow ourselves to think globally (as we should), we will find fairly quickly that a majority of the world’s wealth is concentrated in what we know as North America and Europe. After a bit more searching, we will find that the most highly advanced areas of industry and technology are these same areas of the world. And it is these places in the world that import mass amounts of raw products to make products that are then exported to be sold around the world.

If we continue to look globally, we’ll find fairly quickly that there are sections of the world that are very poor in relation to the very wealthy sections of the world. And it’s no coincidence that these areas for hundreds of years, some of them up until a decade or so ago, were “owned” by the most wealthy nations of the world as “colonies,” where these “colonies” produced raw products to be sent back to the motherland, where the motherland made different, more complex products, which were then exported back to these other lands for a larger price. These colonies were intentionally kept from developing industrially so that the mother country could have reliable raw products.

In the last few years, many of these colonies became independent, some in bloody revolutions much like the United States in the late 18th century. And these societies now want to be a part of the global economy, so they’ve had to start where they were already at. Now, if you’re exporting raw products to more industrially advanced countries, who then export their products back to you for a larger price, you’ve got a problem on your hands. Why do you think that is? (trade deficit) These societies recognize that this situation can’t keep on the way it is because they have people with mouths to feed, and so they desperately want to industrially advance, and in order to do so, they need to borrow money; LOTS of MONEY. This is where some groups of the wealthiest nations called the World Bank and IMF step in to lend money to these countries. Since then, through the mix of governmental corruption, economic struggle, and these countries trying to do in fifty years what the United States and Europe did in 200 years, we have the situation today that for every $1 the West gives in aid to developing countries, $9 comes back in debt service. So it’s no surprise that through all of these realities, the consequence is extreme poverty.

While most wealthy countries would have no problem with this situation because they’re raking in plenty of cash off the backs of the poor, we as Christians cannot look on this situation and say everything is fine. So what can be done about this situation?

Mershu Debebe. he is a single, 26 year old, male from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He loves country music, especially Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton and he loves to play the keyboard. He is living today because some missionaries decided 25 years ago to make a difference in a broken world. they ran an orphanage for children in addis. this orphanage was different from normal orphanages in a sense that…Mershu’s parents remained his parents. his parents didn’t have any income to raise another child. the orphanage took in Mershu, educated him,fed him,gave him a place to sleep,taught him how to do wood work,and taught him about the love of Christ. when he was 12, and could work for his own money, he went back to live with his mother.

A missionary organization Innovative Missions has started a micro-business loan program there in Ethiopia. They took $5000.00 dollars & split that 5 ways amongst people who had drive & ambition when it came to getting a business started. Mershu was one of those candidates. He was given $500.00 at first to start his wood-working business. This allowed him to rent a building, saw, and other equipment. since he has been running his own business he has paid back the first $500.00, and now employs 3 people. He specializes in anything that uses wood: doors, cabinets, tables, chairs. i asked him what the most difficult thing he made was, and he said “chairs, because of the detail required to make them…but those are also the most that i am proud of.”

Mershu also taught wood-working at his church to students that wanted to learn the trade. When the church closed the program he took his students & made them employees of his business. He did this to continue their training, and also to pour into their lives in a spiritual sense. Mershu was once the recipient of grace from someone who had a vision to make a difference in this broken world. He now has that vision of making a difference, and he is doing it on a daily basis.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen

14 For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

If we ever needed another reminder in a prayer that is completely communal that Christians are not redeemed to hang out by themselves, it’s here in verses 14 and 15. Jesus is clear that forgiveness is not simply individual; if it’s only what God can do for me, it’s not real forgiveness. Real forgiveness is about understanding that my existence is intertwined (inextricably!) with others.

Remember Ubuntu; a word with incredibly RICH meaning that impacts the way we think about a LOT of things; everything ranging from possession of material things to personal relationships to global relationships.

2008-02-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

Jan 27 2008 "The Lord's Prayer, a call to discipleship"

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. What does this mean? It means that prayer is not an obvious or natural activity. (we talked about the temptation to use prayer to try to get things from God last Sunday, as if He’s a giant cosmic vending machine; we are tempted to use prayer to manipulate others (give example), we use prayer to change the reality around us to make it look like we want it to look like).

One could say (I think accurately) that human beings engage in a form of prayer naturally. The things we value, we long for, the things that bring us happiness; we’re willing to do whatever necessary to get those things; even go through a significant amount of short-term pain for the long-term benefit of having the thing that we most desire.

And the reality is that in our materially dominated society, we often long for material things. Let’s say I want to become a CEO of a company. If I really want that position, I must be willing to do what is necessary, including working so hard and long that my relationships will likely suffer around me, I must have an ambition that seeks to dominate those who would stand in my way, I must have a focused attitude, etc etc. And you could say that my consistent “prayer” each day is that I would take on more traits of a “successful” persons in order to become a CEO. I order my life and change what is necessary to fit what I want to achieve.

The same would apply if I want to be sure that I’m sure that I’m sure that I will be financially secure in retirement until the day that I die. To achieve that goal, I will be willing to work overtime, or two or even three jobs, and spend less, and focus on achieving more and more cash that I can save, so I can achieve the goal of absolute financial security at some point in the future. I order my life and change what is necessary to fit what I want to achieve.

Genuine prayer, though, is God-centered and humbles ourselves and our wills to say “Change us to reflect what you want and to reflect who you are” before prayer makes the move to ask for God to act on our behalf. Because of this, it should never be about self-display, whether before God, ourselves, or other people. The way we pray shows our growing or diminishing character and maturity. It is the opposite of self-display. When we pray, we are literally wanting to be swallowed up in what God is doing in the world.

And so Jesus says in verse 9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven,  
Reminder: Our Father, not My Father. The call of Jesus does not create a bunch of individual Christians, it takes fragmented people and binds them together into a community.

hallowed be your name,

We talked about this last Sunday, but it’s good to review. When we talk about keeping God’s name holy, we’re not centrally talking about whether we say “God” or “Jesus” when we hit our thumb with a hammer (though that does say something about our respect for God).

God’s “name” means “the fullness of who God is,” God’s character, God’s desires, God’s dreams, God’s expectations. Everything God cares about is wrapped up in His name. God chose a people in Israel to display the glory of his name, and today works most directly through his church, expecting us to show the world the strength and honor and beauty of his name. And God is jealous for the purity of his name. (Matthew 7)

To hallow God’s name is at the heart of what it means to be called to holiness. To hallow God’s name is to lead lives that glorify God

10 your kingdom come,  

In Jesus, a disruption of what people thought was “normal life” broke in on earth, a disruption we call the kingdom of God that continues to expand, even in the midst of deep brokenness. We have seen Satan crushed and the powers of this world, sin, and death broken. And yet, the citizens of the kingdom are still walking through suffering and strife. And our prayer is that God’s kingdom would grow among us and spill out into the world.
Jesus teaches us to pray for an end to the kingdoms of this world who rule by sin, by fear, and by death.

your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I think it’s safe to say that a massive part of the problem with the way things are in this world today is because instead of seeking God’s will for the way things should be, we allow our wills to dominate. Our will, the will of the world, is what nailed Jesus to the cross. He came to teach and exemplify what life as humanity was meant to be, and that life seemed so outrageous that we eliminated him.

But by praying that God’s will be done, and doing our best to lay our wills down, we’re taking a big step toward “reversing the curse,” if you will. (Remember what God said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28: blessings follow faithfulness, curses follow willful disobedience)

The problem is that the evil will is still alive in us, it still seeks to cut us off from fellowship with Him, and that is why we must pray that the will of God will prevail more and more in our hearts every day and break down our defiance and fear. God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will is the primary object of Christian prayer. It’s a constant commitment to conversion, asking God, “What would you teach me today about how life is meant to be? I bow before you in humility, listening to what you might say.”

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Again, the prayer here is not Give me today my daily bread, but Give US today OUR daily bread.

This section of the prayer should cause a situation from the history of Israel to pop up in our heads (story of the manna in the desert). We do not ask for enough bread for us to freeze it and eat it when we see fit, but are called to be satisfied with what God gives us every day.

Concept of Umbuntu:
Ubuntu is a word from the Bantu language of South Africa and refers to the interconnectedness and interdependence of all people, great or small. Literally it means "humanity towards others," or "I am because we are," or "A person 'becomes human' through other persons," or also, "A person is a person because of other persons." It talks about how we as people are inexorably intertwined with the rest of humanity, and that the well being of the entirity of mankind reflects on our personal humanity. Tutu puts it this way:

…It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole. They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The quality of ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanise them.

And also: You know when ubuntu is there, and it is obvious when it is absent. It has to do with what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life.

This is especially relevant for all of us sitting in the room today.

There are massive numbers of people starving to death in the world from lack of food while our culture gets fatter and fatter at a ridiculous pace as we stuff our faces with food. While other cultures are dying to eat, we’re eating so much we’re killing ourselves. People who study such things (we should be sickened by this trend)

4% overweight 1982 | 16% overweight 1994 28% overweight 2001 33% in 2005

Without being transformed by Jesus to look at the world in a completely different way, being transformed to live in community with one another here at Middle River, we are tempted to hoard our possessions, to store up resources for ourselves, to find safety and security in what we can provide for ourselves, and let the community have the scraps we might have left over, whether it be money or time.

We might think living in this way makes sense, and it seems so tough to imagine that it could be different, that we truly could depend on one another, that we would be willing to sacrifice some creature comfort for the sake of a brother or sister having their needs met, that we would sacrifice some of our financial security so others could financially survive, that we would sacrifice our time so others could know they are cared for. But this is exactly what Jesus was talking about. We pray for our daily bread (nothing more, nothing less), and we make steps to live in such a way that we don’t hide from each other or pretend that if we’re in comfort and our brother is not that things are ok.

We are called to invest in deep relationship with one another because in pursuing that goal we tell the world that this is part of God’s original intention for his creation.

Story of Austin Gutwein: Kid in Phoenix, an eighth grader who loves the game of basketball.

One day when he was in fifth grade, this kid, Austin Gutwein, heard Saddleback Valley Community Church pastor Rick Warren preach on Genesis 12, where God tells Abram that he has been “blessed not to keep it to himself, but to be a blessing.” After this sermon, Austin and his father decided to sponsor a child through World Vision. After watching the video that World Vision sends to sponsors that shows the way of life in the society of the child they sponsor, Austin decided he wanted to do something more.

“I heard a few people talk about this growing problem of HIV/AIDS,” Austin said. “It just seemed so distant from me, but at the same time, I realized that these kids aren’t any different from me. They’re just kids who are suffering, and I wanted to do something to help.”

So he got together with a World Vision employee and decided that on World AIDS day 2004, he would shoot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 children who would be orphaned by AIDS in one school day. People sponsored him, sort of like with jogathons and walkathons. The first year he raised 3,000 dollars. Austin started planning for the 2005 event a month after his first event, and one day he announced to his dad that his new goal was to get 1,000 kids to join him in what he now called “Hoops of Hope” – 1,000 kids shooting 1,000 free throws to help thousands of kids orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

“My reaction was ‘okay, that’s a God-size goal,’” his dad shared. “To be honest, I was shocked that people would give almost $3,000 for a kid shooting baskets the year before. I guess [1,000 kids] was a shock, too, but I saw God just blow us away the first year, and you know, why not? Why not see what God can do?” He got 1,000 kids to join, and they raised 30,000 that went directly to AIDS orphans.

As a seventh grader last year, Austin decided he wanted to build a school in Zambia, and they raised over a hundred thousand dollars and built that school. On Dec 1st of this year, this eighth grader took his jump shot and raised almost a 150000 dollars and built a medical clinic in Zambia.

Listen to what his father said; “Kids have a bigger heart than adults – period,” Dan said. “That’s what I found in Austin, and that’s what Austin’s finding in all these other kids, too. If you give them an opportunity, they’re jumping at a chance to help.”

You know, while getting older holds the potential for us to get wiser and more mature (I said potential, mind you), it also can make us cynical about dreaming that things can be different in our world. We see giant issues like “poverty” and “AIDS” and “hunger” and think that things will never change; it’s just flat out scary to see how huge the problems are. And if cynicism is the approach we take, things never will change. But if we give ourselves room to dream, bite off what we can chew, and act with hope and faithfulness in our world, things can change. And that sort of relationship level, small change, is the only lasting change this world has ever seen.

Austin said: “We might not be able to stop the world from coming to an end or anything, but we can turn the tide against AIDS, and that’s what I want to do.” I can imagine that Jesus looks at Austin and says, “You get it! You’re taking your passion, your heart, your dream, and you’re using it to bless others.”

God’s asking people to wonder, “Wouldn’t this world look better if we all had enough to eat? Wouldn’t this world be a little more special if we all had enough bread?”

“The categories of optimism and pessimism don't exist for me...I am a prisoner of hope. I am going to die full of hope."
Cornell West

2008-02-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

Aug 5 2007 "Unsavory Family Trees Spell the End, Right?"

Anyone ever had the question; why the heck do we have four stories of Jesus right after one another that say mostly the same thing, but sometimes contradict one another? The meaning of the gospels: written to specific communities first with different emphases…Gospel of Matthew was written to a primarily Jewish audience, and as we progress through the gospel, we’ll have a chance to see why Matthew wrote this way. The Gospel of Luke and Book of Acts were written by the same author to a primarily Gentile crowd. The Gospel of Mark was the first one written, and you can tell through a couple things; the two most important being that the gospel focused on two big things; the complexity and confusing nature of Jesus’ teaching and the inability of the disciples to understand that he was going to die.

Either way, I mentioned this because the gospel writers, because they had different intents with their stories or different audiences at first, emphasized some parts of Jesus’ life and de-emphasized other parts to illustrate their point. That’s why if you take a glance at the geneology of Matthew 1 and the geneology of Luke 3, there are differences between the two. That doesn’t mean the authors were liars, but genealogies were written to establish one’s family lines and prove their standing as one of God’s chosen people, so some generations are left out while others are highlighted to prove a point.

That’s what makes Matthew’s gospel so unique, because either he was a completely clueless idiot or carefully chose his genealogy to prove a shocking point. When I was at Brethren Woods Camp two weeks ago, we spent some time in the book of Ruth, and I emphasized how the story of Ruth might have been handled by the first hearers of the story. Because people weren’t walking around at this time with manuscripts in their hands of complete books of the Bible or multiple translations like we have today, quite often persons would hear stories for the first time from rabbis that would travel around from town to town teaching, and folks from the area would gather in the town center and listen to the rabbi share a story. And I’ll tell you this, the first few times some folks heard the book of Ruth, at certain points either you’d hear a bunch of folks muttering under their breath (give me some muttering), or some rustling and whispering to neighbors, or you might have an outright riot of angry Israelites on your hands. There’s a reason why Jesus accused his own people of persecuting and shedding the blood of their own prophets; because they did. They didn’t like to hear stories that turned what they thought was true about reality upside-down; and we often don’t either. Now, the story of Ruth is for another time and another day, but this genealogy would have gotten much of the same reaction that stories like Ruth got back in the day

(read story, have youth hold up signs)

Matthew writes to make us disciples of this man, Jesus, which means that we must be transformed if we are to live in obedience to this new way of doing things revealed by Jesus. The life of Jesus turned what we consider to be “normal” or “common sense” upside down, or, to put it positively, we only know what “normal” is because of his life.

Therefore, the gospels are not information where we have the option what we will take or leave. It’s not like Coldstone Creamery or Kline’s Dairy Bar where we have options in front of us, and we can decide to pick what we want. Matthew desires that we would have our understanding of the world fully transformed as the result of our reading of his gospel.

And so we recognize that this gospel exists to call attention to the fact that we are called to be disciples of Jesus. Matthew wrote knowing that many of his readers knew, as he knew, that Jesus had been killed and raised from the dead. The problem was that such knowledge did those persons little to no good unless they were trained to see reality in the way that Jesus did and live the way Jesus lived. Matthew understood that most of us will be tempted to be a member of the crowds shown in the gospel. They often impressed by Jesus’ teachings and his miracles, but when push came to shove, they called for his crucifixion. The story is a complex one with many characters, plots, defeats, and victories.

And in the first seventeen verses of his gospel, Matthew manages to tell us a great deal about the background story necessary to understand the story of Jesus. And if we miss some details along the way, we don’t need to fret because Matthew is intentionally repetitive throughout the story so his readers get the point.

The author of the gospel of Matthew, along with all those who have been a part of the people of God over the last several thousand years, want us to recognize that a Biblical perspective of reality reveals to us that the world is storied. What that means is that the people of ancient Israel and members of the church over the last 2,000 years are expected by God to assume that there is no more truthful way to understand human existence than through the story found in scripture. Creation is the first movement in the story, then human disobedience, the loss of relationship with God, the persistent human desire following to BE GOD, and God’s response of calling Abraham, the nation of Israel, kingship, sin, exile, and redemption. For Matthew, Jesus is the “summing up” of the history of Israel so that Jew and Gentile alike can now live as God’s people.

Why is Jesus identified as “the son of David, the son of Abraham?” Traditionally speaking, genealogies began at the person described first and worked backwards, but here Matthew starts with David and Abraham (which is even chronologically out of wack). Jesus is identified as the son of David, son of Abraham, because his meaning is deeply rooted in the history of Israel. Matthew reminds us time and again that “this happened to Jesus” or Jesus did or said this or that so that the scriptures could be fulfilled. “Matthew is not just running around the Bible looking for random Old Testament passages that Jesus might somehow fulfill; rather he is thinking about the shape of Israel’s story and linking Jesus’ life with key passages that root him in the story of Israel.

It is interesting to ask why Matthew names Jesus as the son of David first and the son of Abraham second. The answer may simply be that that’s just the way he wrote it, but no words or ordering of words in Scripture is without significance. David was what? And one of the most famous events in the life of Abraham happened after his one and only son had been born to Him…Matthew knows in telling of Jesus he is telling the story of one who is a king, yet a king to be sacrificed.

So smack dab at the beginning of his gospel Matthew introduces us to the central question that weaves its way all the way through the story he will tell: How can it be that the one long expected, the Messiah, the one Israel believes will free it from being under the thumb of pagan nations, will not triumph as kings do with their armies? To be trained as a disciple is to learn why this Jesus, the son of David, the one true king, must suffer crucifixion. Matthew’s gospel is meant to train us, his readers, just as Jesus had to train his disciples, to recognize that the salvation carried out on the cross is the Father’s refusal to save us according to the world’s understanding of salvation, which is that salvation depends on having more power than my enemies.

The crucial turning point in Matthew’s gospel is Peter’s confession at Caeserea Philippi. Jesus comes up to Peter and asks, “Who do you say I am?” Peter rightly confesses he is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Yet Peter rebukes Jesus when he goes on to show the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to “be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Matt 16:13-23). Peter cannot imagine that the one to save Israel, the successor to David, should die. Jesus’ prediction of his resurrection does not, however, prevent Peter from rebuking Jesus, for Peter is unable to hear anything other than what he takes to be a prediction of failure. Peter, as well as the other disciples, is not yet prepared to comprehend how God will save not only Israel, but all of God’s creation through a crucifixion.

The crucifixion of Jesus esplains his identification as the son of Abraham. Abraham was told by God to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, the very embodiment of God’s promise to make Abraham the father of a nation. We must confess the story of sacrificing Isaac is terribly offensive to us. Yet it seems that if we are to read Jesus’ struggle in Gethsemane rightly, as well as his trial and crucifixion, a sacrifice must be made so that we might be free from the sacrificial systems that dominate our lives. God restrained Abraham, providing a ram in place of Isaac; but He did not spare his only Son’s becoming for us the sacrifice that frees us from us trying to grasp salvation for ourselves on our own terms.

This human being, Jesus, the Son of God, is a king who puts an end to all the sacrifices the leaders of this world demand to give their rule legitimacy and power. Christ’s sacrifice is the one true sacrifice calling into question all sacrifices asked on behalf of lesser causes or lesser gods. That is why the rulers of this world who spend their lives trying to prove to others that their interests are most important that their citizens should give their lives for them, will finally tremble before the throne of God. One day they will have to answer for why their kingship was obsessed with power and influence and protecting their own interests while Jesus’ kingship was entirely different.

Next week we will see political power exposed in Herod’s response to the news of the birth of one identified by wise men as the “King of the Jews” when Herod does not hesitate to murder in order to secure his power.

The gospel of Matthew places a focus on the whole life of Jesus. That Jesus’ teachings and life have been separated from what some understand to be salvation reflects the accommodation of Christians to the world. As we looked at last week, Jesus does not save by dying so that by praying the “Sinner’s Prayer” a bunch of individuals can go to heaven when they die. (If that’s all that the gospel is, you’ll find that those people watch the same movies, listen to the same music, spend their time and money and have relationships that display little to no difference than their friends around them who aren’t “going to heaven when they die”) He came, lived, die, was resurrected, and sent the Holy Spirit to make us participants in a new community with a different way of living and dying and the name of that community is church.

The genealogy that Matthew provides from Abraham to Jesus is but a commentary on the extraordinary claim that with Jesus we have a new beginning. The genealogy is separated into three series, the first two consisting of fourteen generations and the last of thirteen generations. The last group has only thirteen generations because the church that Jesus calls into existence of Jews and Gentiles is meant to be the fourteenth generation.

The first series of fourteen generations is meant to tell the story of Israel’s triumph as a nation, because it ends with King David, who clearly represents for Mathew the climax of Israel’s history. David, the mighty king, the lover of justice, ruled Israel in fulfillment of the law given to Moses. But the next series of fourteen generations climaxes with the Babylonian captivity, which haunts Israel’s life all the way up to those who listened to or read Matthew’s gospel.

And the last genealogical series is about the restoration of Israel through the birth of Jesus. Now, the scandalous thing, the crazy thing about Matthew’s genealogy is that it not only includes a passel of unfaithful and downright evil kings, but it also includes four women; Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba wife of Uriah the Hittite. That Matthew names these women is unusual because the genealogies of Israel are lists that are male only. So their mention is significant. Some suggest they represent women engaged in sexually doubtful activity (And three of them do). But more likely is Matthew wielding a double-edged sword here by first mentioning women and second that all four of these women were either pagans or married to a pagan and they were grafted into Israel by God. So he means to show from the very beginning that Gentiles were meant to be a part of God’s people.

These women and the genealogy at large represent the undeniable reality that God’s promise to Israel has spread to the Gentiles and that God is not afraid of wading knee-deep into the messiness of our lives. In fact, if we run down and grasp an overview of the folks mentioned in this section, we quickly find that they are anything but an admirable group of folk.

Jacob won his position in this lineup by lying and cheating his blind father; Tamar was a pagan Canaanite woman who masqueraded as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law so she could have a kid; David was a ruthless and highly successful bandit who hung out with the Philistines before he was king, Rehoboam lost most of David’s gains through arrogance and greed; Ahaz continued his father’s ways as a sadistic mass murderer, Jehoram killed all his brothers when he got the kingship so they wouldn’t conspire against him, Ruth was a pagan woman from Moab, and Rahab was a prostitute who allowed two spies of Israel to “stay with her” while they were in Jericho. Not the most clean lineup of folks you could think of.

Matthew’s genealogy is a stark reminder that God’s plan is not always accomplished through clean-as-a-whistle people, but through disreputable people as well. And it really sets the table for the fact that Jesus did not belong to or spend all his time in the nice clean world of the people with money and prestige and reputations to protect but rather came from a family of imperfect people who did the best they could to follow God, with a generous sprinkling of murderers, cheats, cowards, adulterers, prostitutes, pagans and liars in the mix. And so he wasn’t afraid to get down and messy with the issues of folks’ lives he ministered to. Nobody was too messy for him to spend time with, to love, and to transform. And all of us are those folks deep down, even if we seem clean and together to those around us. He didn’t float down on a cloud in gleaming white clothes and refuse to touch us nasty people, but instead rode on a donkey, grasped the hands and arms of people whose limbs were rotting and falling off, wept when his friends died, and was angry at those who used religion to chain folks down. He belonged to us and came to help us, was murdered because of that commitment, and through his resurrection gave us hope for the future through our circumstances.

And so Matthew’s gospel begins in a surprising way for his hearers and the readers.

2008-01-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

Amy Caracofe's Memorial Service

There is an ancient story that I have heard of. It is a story so old that it predates written language, and for the first few thousand years was told from father to son and mother to daughter and traveling teacher to towns. It is older than America, older than Europe, and the most ancient civilizations archaeologists know of. It is a story of beginnings, and a story of a longing that is shared across all peoples of the earth.

At one point in this story of beginnings, a Creator, who after taking what was formless and void and breathing life into it so that stars and moons and plants and animals bloom into life, moves then to make human beings, and he forms them from the dust of the ground and breathes life into them as he had with all that he had created before.

He places these human beings in a beautiful Garden in the midst of this creation for them to take care of, gives them the gift of naming the animals he has created, calls them into trusting relationship with one another, and at the end of each day, they walk together, Creator to created, in the Garden in the cool of the evening. The story is at this point is one of completion and utter satisfaction; the man and woman who he calls Adam and Eve are at peace with themselves, they have a trusting relationship with one another, they are at peace with the rest of God’s creation, and they enjoy wholeness in relationship with their Creator. We are told that the man and woman were naked, and they had no shame. This not only points to their physical reality, but all the way to the core of who they were. They had nothing to hide to from their Creator or one another. And it is in this healthy relationship that their Creator gave them one thing, ONE THING! that they were not to do.

We may be familiar with this story, where these persons, after being tempted by a crafty serpent to make the unthinkable, selfish decision to break that boundary, then find that something has shattered within them. Before they even see their Creator again, they become ashamed of their nakedness before one another and place coverings over themselves, they become afraid and try to hide from their Creator, and are ultimately cast out from this place of perfection and wholeness to a life of labor and hardship because of the decision that they have made. If you have a chance to read this story, you can find as it progresses beyond the Garden, that relationships degenerate into deep selfishness, mistrust and hatred between people groups, it is a story of a loss of innocence.

This is the basic backbone of the story of beginnings, but the intent of my telling the story is to suggest that it tells us a couple simple things about all of us. First, we are all created beings, and it explains why every one of us in this room experience a longing for wholeness in relationship.

And because we are created beings, we are called to recognize that the Creator knows better than we do what is good for us and what destroys us. And so, when Adam and Eve enjoyed this lifegiving relationship with their Creator, recognizing both the boundary He had set around what was good and the beauty of the life inside that boundary He had provided for them, they were complete beings. It is when Adam and Eve made the selfish decision to break the boundary God had provided for them and deny that He knew what was best for them that something fundamentally broke.

This story of beginnings has depth and meaning for us because we know we live in a world where something is fundamentally broken. It is a world where persons selfishly do what feels good and right to them rather than asking what is best for all of what surrounds us. And it is in this world that a huge majority of books written, music sung, and movies made relate to this story of beginnings by being about this longing for relationship; a hungering to feel complete. This hunger crosses cultural, ethnic, racial, and geographical barriers; it is a global desire for wholeness.

How does this relate to Amy Lin Caracofe’s life? On the most fundamental level, Amy was no different than anyone else in this room or in the world. She was created by God and deeply loved by God, and she was created to live in such a way that she brought a smile to God’s face in her daily life. But, like the rest of us, Amy struggled with knowing the difference between the life that God created her to long for and the desire to shape for herself what life should be about.

And like the rest of us, Amy didn’t walk in this life alone. One of the great lies of our society today is the belief that we are individuals who can live and act and shop and drive around completely free from the influence of others. It is a terribly naïve belief.

Every single one of us in this room is influenced by a variety of things, all telling us their own story of what they think life is all about. The music we listen to; the movies we watch; the advertisers peddling their products to us; the state we live in; the region, like the mountains or plains or the valleys we live in; whether we live in the North or the South; whether we live in the city, suburbs, or country; what high school we go to; what neighborhood we live in; who we hang out with at school, whether its rednecks or preps or jocks or emo kids or scenesters orpeople that don’t fit in any group; the people we interact with on Facebook, Myspace, Instant Messenger, or text message; our extended family and friends, our parents, and even our enemies.

All of these groups influence our lives, and here’s the kicker; they’re going to do it whether they are aware they are shaping our lives or not. Some of these groups shape our lives by ignoring us or treating us like dirt. Those groups are the ones that destroy our sense of self-worth and knowledge that we are loved and cared for. Some of these groups play off of the hungering we have for relationship and manipulate our emotions to get us to give them what they want. These are the groups who use us for their benefit and dump us in the ditch when we’re of no more use to them. Some of these groups shape our lives by simply doing what they want, leaving a legacy of selfishness.

Other groups display a deep caring for us, and restore in us the reality that we are deeply loved as God’s creation. Others live selflessly for the good of others, leaving a legacy of truth and beauty in their wake. Every life lived and thought that takes place in our brain and action that is carried out, like a stone dropped in a pond, has a ripple effect out into the rest of the world, and none of us has any idea where each ripple finally stops.

This is the world that you and me and Amy have lived in. And each of us in this place today has no idea how deeply we shaped Amy to live in the way she lived and make decisions in the way she did.

What makes the picture even more complex is the reality that we as human beings are imperfect, broken people who make mistakes along the way that have an impact on our lives and the lives of those around us. And as much as we’d like to blame God or question God or say that this catastrophe was God’s plan for Amy’s life to be ripped out of this world so violently, we need to tell the truth about this event.

Amy’s life came to an end on Thursday morning because of a couple of poor choices that any of us in this room can make and have made. Amy was driving over 70 miles an hour on a twisty county road when the lip of her tire probably fell off the shoulder, and in trying to come back onto the road, Amy overcorrected and sent her car careening the other direction so abruptly that she hit the tree on the left side of the road all the way over on the passenger side of the car.

And as much as Carrie Underwood would like us to believe in the first half of her famous song that Jesus will take over the steering wheel in the middle of an accident, 99.9% of the time God will not do so. Amy’s life came to an end on Thursday because of her mistakes. Knowing that I might come off as self-righteous in saying this, I want to re-emphasize that the mistakes Amy made are mistakes any of us could make.

I have struggled, and continue to struggle, with the desire to feel the rush of driving faster than I should. I have struggled, and continue to struggle, with driving on certain roads so often that I let down my guard and don’t pay the best of attention. I have run off the road and overcorrected before regaining control multiple times. And most of us in this room have done the same! This is neither the time nor the place for any of us to give a moral lesson on the hazards of speeding on a twisty road.

But it’s true that our decisions have consequences, and Amy’s did. In a way that has sent shock waves of grief through this entire community. But for us to suggest that this is God’s plan or that God did this either

a) makes God out to be a monster who directs cars into trees and

b) doesn’t take into account the human reality of this accident.

Let’s not blame God for a human mistake.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us in shock, in sadness, feeling a variety of emotions, needing to support one another and Angie and Doug and their family in this great loss. But it also gives us the opportunity to step back from our lives and take account of who we are, to remind ourselves that we aren’t immortal, and, I’d suggest most importantly, to consider the impact our lives are having on the lives of others.

I believe with all my heart that the story of beginnings is true, that each of us is born with a spark of God in us, a hungering for whole relationship with the one who has made us. And as I’ve had a chance to think back over the last few days on my interactions with Amy, I can say without a doubt that she was somehow in touch with that spark within her. I’m not God, so I couldn’t see through all the exterior layers of what Amy wanted me to see to look right into her heart, but several instances popped out to me.

I’ve been told that Amy went down to a Vacation Bible School when she was 14, and at some point she was moved enough to make a commitment to follow Jesus. She may not have known what she was getting into, or what this commitment fully meant, but Amy tapped into that longing in her heart that day and said yes.

Amy would also, from time to time over the last couple of years, come to our youth group that met in a home of a family from our church. I noticed that Amy played a certain role in our group when she came; she was the popular one, and she tried to often seemed disinterested in what we were talking about together. However, I’ve found through experience in working with teenagers that you have to look beyond their body language that is often negative and instead look at their eyes. One’s eyes often display one’s true emotions, and I remember that Amy’s eyes would light up with interest at certain places in conversations we had as a youth group.

Two years ago, Amy came to Baltimore on a trip to a youth event called Acquire the Fire; her friend Jamie came along with us. Over the course of our trip from Fort Defiance to Baltimore, I noticed a small change in Amy. With our group, Amy didn’t seem as focused on being the person she felt she had to be at school. We had a great time up there together, but what I remember most distinctly now is the couple of times that I remember sitting beside her during when I saw tears well up and glisten in her eyes during the singing.

I mention these things because I’ve been around long enough to know that even though evangelists or some Christians trump up conversions to following Jesus as “I have SEEN the light” experiences and everything changed completely and immediately for all time, much more often persons experience God’s love in a much more incremental way. It comes from a series of events; something a parent says, the way they’re treated in a crisis situation, whether they have a relationship with someone where they can be truly and deeply honest about their joys AND their struggles and doubts. What I’m saying is that the environment surrounding a person makes it much more or less likely that they’ll be able to put a finger on the longings inside them and say, “God has put this longing inside me, and I intend to pursue it.”

I grew up in a relatively healthy home situation; my parents provided well for my physical needs, but the entire time from sixth grade through college was a crisis experience for me. In middle school, I was extremely short, wore glasses, didn’t have fashionable clothing, kids called me a nerd, pushed me around in the hallways, and generally treated me like a piece of dirt unless they wanted to cheat off me on tests. Each time I was pushed around or called a name or ignored, it only fed the desire within me to BE somebody that others LIKED and WANTED TO BE WITH. In the summer between 10th and 11th grade, I shot up in height and generally started to be noticed a little more as I had modest success in the sports I played. And as persons noticed me more, that desire that had burned within me to BE ACCEPTED poured out of me with a vengeance. I wanted SO BADLY to be ACCEPTED that I was willing to do almost anything. But as much as I became someone entirely different at Fort, I still had to deal with the reality that everyone remembered me as the short little nerdy choirboy named Nathan.

College presented an entirely new opportunity for me to completely remake who I was to perfectly fit what others might like, and as soon as I got there, I hopped to that task. I was a class officer, played rugby, abused alcohol, was well-liked, and became SOMEBODY in the eyes of others. I did what I wanted. I should’ve been happy with that life, if that’s all there is. All along the way, though, on the outer circle of my friends I knew young men and women who seemed more at peace with themselves, who through the character of their lives as well as their words were showing me how empty and false I had become. I didn’t know who I was, and my actions were hurting me and hurting those around me. As I look back on my life now, I can safely say that for six years, the ripple effect off my life was more destructive to others than it was healing.

I had a nagging sense of pain I carried within me in those years, and from time to time it would come to the surface when a song or a movie would catch me with my guard down and open up a crack in the armor of who I had become. I would feel the wall break down inside of me between who I was and who God had created me to be long enough for tears to well up in my eyes and a silent cry come out of my heart. I couldn’t put words to it; now I can. But it was that same look and tears that I saw in Amy’s eyes in Baltimore, and that same silent cry I would see in her eyes at youth group.

And that is why I mentioned the power each of us in this room holds to shape the lives of one another. I ask you to think, right now and after you leave this place, how did you shape the life of Amy? And how are you shaping the lives of others around you? Did you help Amy to live into the purpose God placed in her heart at birth? Did you help her feed that spark inside of her, be the person she was created to be, or did you stifle it and cause her to try to be someone she wasn’t?

None of us has the luxury now to step back from our relationship with Amy, take account of our influence, and continue in relationship with her. Still, my desire here today is not to hammer each one of us with guilt over what we could’ve should’ve would’ve done in Amy’s life, but that each one of us would recognize the great influence we all have on those around us by the substance of our life. Lives hang in the balance in this room, and depend on whether you and I long to return to the beginning and walk with our Creator in the cool of the day, listening to his dreams for our life and to be in relationship with one another in such a way that we don’t have to be afraid or hide from others.

The second half of Carrie Underwood’s song is an incredibly simple and beautiful commitment the mother makes after her car stops spinning on the ice;

She bowed her head to pray, She said I'm sorry for the way I've been living my life. I know I've got to change, so from now on tonight. Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands. Cause I can't do this on my own. I'm letting go, so give me one more chance to save me from this road I'm on.

2007-06-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

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).

2007-06-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-04-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2007 Building a Bridge from Easter to daily reality of practical discipleship, linking back up with our journey through the entire letter to the Romans

Source Scriptures: Romans 13:8-14, Romans 2:5-8, Woman caught in adultery

Transition from last Sunday (full definition of love expressed by Jesus that includes both deep compassion and high accountability along with the range of options in the middle) to today (we are to imitate him)

Why does Jesus do this? Is he some sort of idiot, a hothead with a serious problem of losing his temper? Or is this sort of approach deeply important to his message of the kingdom? What if the message of Jesus was so deeply profound, so transformative, that the standard way of doing things wouldn’t work, or was terribly inadequate to address how deeply broken humanity was?

“Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature”

In the deeply philosophical and incisive words of Nike Corporation, "Just do it." Shed your old life, embrace the new. The old life kills, the new life brings depth of meaning and beauty and truth. Shed the old, embrace the new. I could say that. I could turn this message into a synthesis of Joel Osteen and Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, quoting a Proverb, then lecturing you on the values of temperance, stability, and orderliness. I could do that. But I've grown tired of that self-help approach to the Christian life. Stop doing A and B, start doing C and D, and make sure your heart is right, and be optimistic. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, I could live into the example of the old Methodist preachers, of which my great-grandfather was one (though he was very different from some of the typicals), the ones where you made sure not to sit in the first two pews because of the flying spittle from their mouths and the extreme percussion sound that came from the Bible and fit slamming into the pulpit.

There must be a third way. Is there a third way? Or a fourth way? Or a spectrum of possibilities between the two poles of spittle and a faith reduced to the fringes of our lives? I think so, otherwise we're doomed, and the church is nothing more than an ideal, the Christian life nothing more than a pipe dream; like my sister's cherry chapstick that smelled so good and full of potential, yet tasted so disappointing when I was five.

Thankfully, I believe with every ounce of my being that the Way of Jesus offers much more than that, but requires every ounce of my heart to radically depend on God whether I find myself stuck in the web of sin in my own life, or am confronted with the sin of another human being who has fallen short of the glory of God.

Open with Atteberry's story from 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do

"It was the call no preacher wants to get.

An active member of our church phoned to tell me that her husband, also an active member, was having an affair with a coworker. She'd known only for a couple of hours, so she was still processing the information. As she spoke, her voice held a constant tremor, and she stopped to weep several times. After promising the church's help and support, I prayed with her and then asked where her husband was at that moment. She told me he was driving to work so I asked for his cell phone number. After jotting it down, I told her goodbye and dialed it. When he realized it was me, his voice became abnormally cheerful.

"Hey Mark, what's going on?"

"Have you got a minute to talk?"

"I'm about ten minutes from work. What's up?"

"I just spoke to your wife," I said. "She told me some really disappointing news.

Silence.

"You know what I'm talking about, don't you," I asked.

"We've been having a few problems."

"She told me you're having an affair. Is that true?"

There was another hesitation. Finally, he said, "Yes. I can't believe she told you."

"She was having trouble processing the information. She needed to talk to someone."

"When she and I talked about it earlier this afternoon, we agree we'd work it out ourselves. It's no one else's business."

"Listen, we need to talk," I said, "When can we get together?"

He hesitated, "I'm not sure. I don't know what my schedule is."

It was a lie. He knew exactly what his schedule was.

"We really need to talk," I said again.

"I'm going to have to get back with you after I check my schedule."

It was obvious that he wasn't going to agree to a meeting, so I pressed on to another topic- one that I never dreamed I'd have to address with him.

"I'm sorry," I said, "but I'm going to have to ask you to step down from your ministry until we can work through this situation and get it corrected."

He'd been on one of our key ministry teams for several years. He honestly seemed stunned. "Why?"

"Why? I'd think the reason would be obvious."

"Because I'm a sinner?" he asked, with more than a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "Aren't you a sinner, Mark? Isn't everyone in the church a sinner? What are you singling me out? Why don't you make everybody step down from their ministries, too? Why don't you step down yourself?

I couldn't believe what I was hearing

"You can't be serious," I said.

"I'm dead serious," he countered. "What gives you the right to judge me?"

"Look," I said, trying to remain calm. "I'm not going to argue with you about this. You'll be relieved of your duties until you repent and get you life and your marriage back together."

"So you're kicking me out of the church?"

I sighed. "Come one. You know better than that."

But he said he didn't know better than that at all. Then, just before he hung up, he said one more thing, "I don't think I even want to go to a church that kicks people when they're down. I'm having a few problems is all, and you're treating me like I'm some kind of axe murderer. Let me tell you what…you can go ahead and get someone to replace me permanently because I won't be back." And though he hadn't done so hot with his marriage vows, that was a promise he kept.

When I replay that conversation in my mind, the words I hear most vividly are, "What gives you the right to judge me?" Cutting words today for anyone who encounters sin, because of the way it threatens to rip the rug right out from underneath any attempt to address and move beyond battles with sin.

What do you think were some significant obstacles this pastor faced in dealing with this man?

Bring fundamental posture into conversation

In the struggle of life, we will fail along the way…and maybe the most telling thing isn't how often we succeed, but how we react when we fail, or when we come into contact with others' failures.

(fundamental posture takes into account our weakness without justifying our actions that fall short of the expectations of God.

Humility and Repentance vs. Stubbornness and Unrepentance

Romans 2:5-8

Woman caught in adultery "Go and sin no more"

- only effective first because of Jesus' great compassion and willingness to stand up on the woman's behalf, and second because he sent her off into a community that placed a high premium on fidelity in marriage (though reading what the Hillel community of rabbis thoughts were on marriage doesn't elevate that much)

- community should hold her accountable (though her situation was one where the community was more legalistic than grace-filled)

Deal with complexity of failure and sin

Everyone's strengths and weaknesses are different, so how I respond to someone else's weakness will define whether both I and they ever reveal that weakness again (tremendous responsibility I carry in this situation not to pour salt on what is already an open wound, but to bring grace and forgiveness to bear along with accountability)

Reality that on some level, there are institutionalized ways of being in our churches (gossip, anger, passive aggressiveness, unforgiveness, exaltation of self in relation to others, legalism, pride) that are just as fragmenting and just as morally reprehensible to God as those secret, explosive sins of pornography, homosexuality, and adultery. Bring something to bear on those confronted with sinful situation

Close with John Piper's story and admonition from Don't Waste Your Life

"For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone's amazement he came and took my father's hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face—and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears—"I've wasted it! I've wasted it!"

This was the story that gripped me more than all the stories of young people who died in car wrecks before they were converted— the story of an old man weeping that he had wasted his life. In those early years God awakened in me a fear and a passion not to waste my life. The thought of coming to my old age and saying through tears, "I've wasted it! I've wasted it!" was a fearful and horrible thought to me.The message was clear. You get one pass at life. That's all. Only one. And the lasting measure of that life is Jesus Christ."

I think the author here in Romans gives a hint as to a fulfilling life: in the imitation of Christ, be willing to step out of your comfort zone for the sake of embracing the life God intends for you and everyone around you. The end is near, don't waste the one shot you've got at this life to shine for Christ.

Dual meaning here:

1) Personal meaning

2) Relational meaning

2007-04-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2007 Easter Sunday

Source Scriptures: Luke 2:25-38, Ephesians 6

I’ve come with some questions today as we worship that are deeply relevant for my life and may be for yours: What was the meaning of Jesus’ life? Did Jesus come to die and that is it? To do something we couldn’t do, to make us clean, to forgive us, and that’s it? Nothing more to the story? Why is Easter hope-filled? Simply because Jesus rose from the dead?

Or did Jesus come to represent something more than these things? Something richer and deeper and more transformative and dynamic and beautiful than that? What did Jesus come for? And is there a way for us to consider the possibility of a deeper more practical, more life-changing meaning than him dying to forgive sinners while simultaneously agreeing that the cross is the climax of Jesus’ faithfulness and mission and meaning, and that the resurrection is the capstone that cements the reality that death has no ultimate hold on us?

I think so, and I think that reality is embedded in the very beginning of Jesus’ life, when as a baby, by custom as firstborn son, he is brought to be dedicated at the temple (Quote Zechariah in Luke 2:25-38) (bright words in 29-32, foreboding in 34-35)

As the story of Jesus unfolds, as his message grows clearer and brighter, the scene around him turns tense and dark, twisted, ugly, and filled with hatred and conspiracy. Jesus’ enemies are out to get him, and he isn’t being careful. Instead, through parables and direct conversations, he taunts and teases them, inviting them to retaliate.

Take, for example the events of what we call Palm Sunday, five days before Jesus’ crucifixion: the triumphal entry into Jerusalem when a crowd treats Jesus as a king and the religious leaders tell him to stop but he refuses, or the “cleansing of the temple” when Jesus disrupts the way the temple has come to operate, or him telling religious leaders that little children understand more than they do. He seems to be intent on goading his enemies from disgust to fury, from fury to conspiring, from conspiring to outright violence.

Now, this may be a strange way to go about talking about this issue, but I think that among all of Jesus ministry of preaching and teaching and signs and wonders, one of the most important, as well as one of the strangest aspects, was his confrontation with evil powers. I believe Jesus’ demonic confrontations give us a window into what his message was all about.

There’s a significant amount of skepticism these days when it comes to talking about demons, because many folks have lived and died without a direct confrontation with the demonic; but that does NOT mean they have not encountered the demonic realm. There are different ways the system of evil works, and quite often it does not look like a scene from the Exorcist with a little girl with her head on a swivel, or crabwalking backwards down the stairs while talking in a deep gravelly bass voice. In the most extremely personal cases, this can be true, but the reality of the demonic can look a whole lot different than that as well; I’d like to suggest that evil is directly at work in any alternative kingdoms or groups or systems that would claim to be higher than or take the place of God. This is intensely relevant for us today. And Jesus understood that in order for that evil to be exposed, it must be drawn out of the shadows where it hides in secret.

On the level of direct and obvious demonic confrontations, this drawing into the light happens again and again. (Boy thrown into convulsions, struck deaf, foaming at mouth, spirit throws into fire or water to kill him Mark 9, Man lives in tombs, cutting himself with stones with superhuman strength, Jesus casts out multiple demons from man (soon sits clothed and in right mind), thousands come with various afflictions (Jesus draws into the light whatever oppressive, disease-causing, paralyzing forces that hide within them so they can be freed). This liberation and restoration are part of Jesus’ message of the kingdom. That’s part of the story: the kingdom liberates and heals individuals from oppressive spiritual powers, but that’s not the whole story

The apostle Paul tells us directly in Ephesians 6, “For our battle is not against flesh and blood (against people), but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” What do you think Paul means when he talks about these rulers and authorities and power and forces of evil?

Just to give an simple example of what these realities might look like, in the world of sports, there are some folks who are extremely dedicated Washington Redskin fans, but there are equally dedicated Dallas Cowboy fans as well as committed Philadelphia Eagles fan, and let’s not forget about the Giants fans. Now, there are varying levels of commitment amongst fans, but in all of those camps, there are some who live and die by their teams, and if anyone DARES to wear the opposing colors in their stadium or the sports bar where they’re watching the game, their blood pressure rises, their faces turn red, their palms get sweaty, and their fists ball up. These folks have what you might call “team spirit” that is very real and controlling in their lives; something that at its extreme can take healthy competition and make it turn downright nasty and evil.

Taking that example a little further, the same sort of thing exists in business. Just a few years ago, the head honchos at Enron Corporation knew their business was in trouble, partially because they’d messed with the books and lifted some cash for themselves from retirement accounts, and partially because of the market. And because the executives knew this, they made sure the regular workers couldn’t sell off their stock options (many had their life savings and pensions wrapped up in these areas), and they froze their employee’s stocks so they couldn’t sell. Meanwhile, the executives sold off all their stock and made a KILLING, and when the company stocks fell to virtually nothing, they unfroze the assets of their employees and said they could sell them. Well, by then the stocks were worthless and folks were destitute, while these executives made off tremendously well. This is evil, unjust. But we shouldn’t think that just because Enron was exposed in this that this is the only example of a company treating their workers and everyone else like dirt to line the pockets of the big boys. I could tick off on more than my two hands the companies in recent years that have been exposed on some level in this sort of evil. We could call that spirit “corporate evil,” the kind of twisting of capitalism that’s all about profit-making at any expense.

All throughout human history, this sort of phenomenon crops up, a kind of groupthink that “takes over,” “possesses” a group, drives them. Nazism, terrorism, nationalism, are patriotism are some examples of forces that if they drive human beings to evil acts, if they fragment and destroy the world, are a demonic force or power or authority in the way Paul is talking about here.

And Jesus dealt with both the personal demons and the system demons in the same way: directly. And just as he confronted the spirit causing the boy to foam at the mouth and be thrown onto a fire, Jesus drew out, exposed, named, and rejected the evil on a larger scale: evil hiding beneath robes and crowns, hiding in temples and palaces, carried out in policies and laws and traditions, seeming to “possess” groups to move in evil ways. This reality of evil can possess, sicken, and drive insane whole nations, religions, political movements, jobs in societies, families, and communities, just like the personal demons can possess individuals

There are two invisible but clearly real forces in specific that Jesus exposes. First, Jesus confronts the Roman Empire as a source and focal point of evil. Ironically, when we read the story of Jesus, we are struck not by the power of the Roman Empire but instead by its weakness. This comes to a climax when Jesus stands before Pilate, who is anything but a frighteningly powerful governor. He’s manipulated by crowds, pressured by his wife, conflicted and paralyzed, fearful of making decisions. Jesus stands before him flogged, mocked, bleeding, and bound, and Pilate, frustrated, says to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus quietly answers him, “You would have not power over me if it were not given to you from above.” You’re not the one who controls my destiny. In the face of the simple authority of Jesus, the power and authority of Rome seems pathetic and hollow. In another account, Pilate almost literally cries out in desperation to Jesus, “What is truth?!” Pilate’s life is empty and he knows it; his prestige, power, and wealth are bring him no true satisfaction.

Second, Jesus confronts the equally dark spirit of the religiously elite. It one thing to show the evil of the apparently powerful, it is another to show the evil of the apparently righteous. And Jesus confronts them as well. He violates their taboos, honors their enemies, tells the truth to them, not caring about their anger. Their fury and rage boils beneath the folds of their robes. They shout “Crucify him!” and even more scandalous, the chief priests declare, “We have no king but Caesar!” Faced with the kingdom of God, they choose Caesar. These religious leaders (like so many today) pretended to be about faithfulness to God and to Israel, but they show their true desires; to continue holding power, to keep their little religious money-making business going, and because Jesus threatens their domain, they conspire to bring an end to his life.

And so, what seems to be the end of the story comes: the religious and political powers get together for an final solution; the religious authorities whip up the mob and the Romans execute Jesus as seditious, an enemy of the Empire. He will be nailed to a Roman cross-a visible symbol of the power of Rome, the instrument of torture and execution that brings an end to those who dare to stand up to Rome.

And so they crush him and his movement. And it appears Jesus has failed. But it is here that we find the message of the kingdom of God blow everything wide open. In his entire life and most completely in his willingness to die for his message, Jesus clearly shows that a new force, a new spirit is in the world- not the demonic, but the Spirit of God. Just as fallen humanity is twisted by the forces of evil, this new Spirit is entering people and transforming them into a healthy, creative, God-honoring, and new kind of community- the kingdom of God. This kingdom is a counterforce, a countermovement, a counterkingdom that will confront all corrupt human and spiritual powers and show them for who and what they really are. But the new kingdom goes about its business in a radically different way than its counterparts.

When its message of love, peace, justice, and truth meets the principalities and powers of government and twisted religion armed with spears and swords and crosses, they unleash their hate, terror, and force to crush what threatens their authority. It seems to be hopeless to go up against this system. But what is the alternative?

Could the kingdom of God come with bigger weapons, stronger force? Or would that, as the apostle Paul says, corrupt the kingdom of God so it would not be “of God” at all but just another twisted earthly power?

What if the only way for the kingdom of God to come as a kingdom “not of this world” is through weakness and vulnerability, sacrifice and love? What if it confronts the powers of this world, exposes their twistedness, and allows itself to be crushed by them in order for them to see and understand the darkness of their hearts so that they long for the light and the truth?

Maybe it is at this moment that we get a glimpse into one of the deepest mysteries of the kingdom of God. Maybe it shows us how Jesus could stare down those who opposed him, who hated him, conspired against him, and murdered him, knowing that they had no power over him, and that death was nothing to him. The agony of dying hurt, but death was no end, and he showed it, God stuck it right in the faces of Rome and the enemies of Jesus when on the morning of what we call Easter, a violent earthquake took place, an angel of the LORD came down from heaven with clothes that shone like lightning, causing the guards to shake and become like dead men, and rolled the stone away, and Jesus AROSE FROM THAT PLACE ALIVE. ALIVE!!!! And so Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection showed us as human beings powerfully that we need not fear death as his people, only reverently stand before God in awe and serve and love him and others with radical faithfulness, confronting evil in all of its forms (sometimes within us) and redeeming the world.

You see, the death and resurrection of Jesus shows us the most beautiful and tremendous sign of all, that the hope of humanity lies in what seems to be an impossible truth: the only way the kingdom of God can be strong in a truly powerful way is through a scandalous weakness and vulnerability, the only way it can live is by dying, the only way it can succeed is by failing in the world’s eyes. Looking back on Jesus’ life, Paul said that the Cross was the weakness and foolishness of God. But that weakness and foolishness were more powerful than all the wisdom and power of evil with all of its wealth and prestige and power. Somehow, the defeat of Jesus on that Roman cross- the moment when God seemed weak and foolish and powerless- was how God exposed and judged the evil of empire and twisted religion and every human being, so that humanity could be forgiven and reconciled to open relationship with God.

You know, Jesus wasn’t just out to give a message of how to get to heaven when you die. Jesus didn’t just come to hang on a cross and forgive our sins. He came to transform EVERY ELEMENT of human society through a radical commitment to God and his neighbors and enemies, preaching and living into a message about the transformation and salvation of the earth and ALL that is in it by winning people over to a different way of seeing, living, and thinking. One of my favorite authors wrote a book here recently called the The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything (a catchy book title that’ll sell well because it kicks up people’s interest), but in the back of the book, the author wrote “I wanted the title to be The Secret Message of Jesus: His Surprising and Largely Untried Plan for a Political, Social, Religious, Artistic, Economic, Intellectual, and Spiritual Revolution.” The editors thought it was awkward and not catchy, so the other title won out, but that doesn’t take away from his point. Jesus came, died, and arose not so we could sit on our hands and wait for the sweet by and by, but rather to transform EVERYTHING, and he taught that to us in the Lord’s Prayer, which says, “God, may your kingdom come, and your will be done” Where? (On earth, as it is in heaven). May we never settle for less than this reality.

Here's the video we watched this Sunday, an excerpt from a sermon preached by a certain S.M. Lockridge called "That's my King"

2007-04-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2007 Palm Sunday

Source Scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9, Luke 12:4,11,12, Luke 18:31-34, Luke 19 and Jesus weeping, Luke 20 (Parable of Tenants)

I was listening to a radio station on my ITunes program not too long ago called Groove Salad, self-described as a “chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves” and they played a nifty song that integrated some tunes that facilitated the mind wandering all over the place and inserted some John F. Kennedy quotes in the mix as well; two of those stuck out to me;

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” And

“We choose to go to the moon and to do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. There’s a sense that anything is possible.”

Now, I’m not old enough by almost two decades to have experienced or remembered JFK’s life, but in some sense I’ve gotten a chance to experience him and the restless decades of the 1960s and 70s vicariously through my grandmother and my mom.

In some sense, JFK wasn’t around long enough or at least was idealized enough before his assassination that they didn’t know he was a rampant womanizer whose ideals often didn’t line up with reality,but it seemed he carried some significant convictions and a fresh, invigorating outlook on life and power that caused enough to people to get on board with his agenda that he became the youngest president ever. This is a tremendous accomplishment in itself (people’s comments about Obama “lacking experience), not to mention that he was a nominally Catholic president elected from a nominally Protestant country that carried a deep sense of suspicion of Catholicism from the very founding of the initial thirteen colonies in the New World that became America.

But JFK’s youthful energy and fresh approach not only gained him a good number of allies in his life but a solid number of enemies, including the powerful enemy of J. Edgar Hoover, the power-mongering head of the FBI at the time, a guy you didn’t want to have against you because of his reputation of destroying whomever got in his path. Without delving too deeply into conspiracy theories, investigations into JFK’s assassination in 1963 a significant number of persons working in very covert and subversive ways to undermine his presidency before they eventually shot him.

Now, if you know me at all, you’re probably thinking, “Why in the world is Nate talking about JFK in the context of looking at this Isaiah passage?” That might be one question of yours, and another deeper question might be, “Why in the world is Nate, a follower of Jesus, even daring to link the leader of a secular modern nation-state with a faithful prophet seeking faithfulness in exiled Israel?” Now I’m not going to take the comparison too far here, but it seems to be a fairly consistent reality in history that the structure of society, the desire for comfort of citizens of that society, and a general dislike of the idea of change, all contribute to a desire to keep the things the same, don’t upset the apple cart, so to speak, to choose safety and low-risk decisions over idealism, risky ideas, and radical change. I think it’s safe to say that most governments don’t mind their people thinking, as long as they don’t turn that thinking into radical action in a way that turns the system on its head. John F. Kennedy was certainly idealistic, willing to take big risks, and generally positive about the impact of some of the social upheaval of the 1960s, and it seems that this commitment of his was enough of a threat to the some powerful enough people in American society that they decided to swing the balance of power back in their favor, assassinating Kennedy.

This sort of thing wasn’t unheard of in the 1960s and 70’s, certainly, as the murders of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King stained the landscape of America. It seems to be a general rule that prophetic voices are often seen as a threat period, especially for those who happen to hold the power at the time. This sort of struggle is a timeless one, and one intensely relevant to our Scripture here today.

(Read Isaiah 50:4-9)

Historical Arc of Isaiah:

Isaiah chs 1-39 written around 730 b.c. (All begin with an attack on arrogance and an appeal for justice and end in a hymn or prophecy of salvation, and are addressed to the people of Jerusalem. Chs. 40-55, however, are often known as the Babylonian chapters. They are distinctive in the book historically and in their style, and are for that reason called “Second Isaiah.” Written to the exile community in Babylon (rise of King of Cyrus of the Medes and Persians is described (45:1-3)) as well as the fall of Babylon (ch 47) and the return of the exiles to Jerusalem in a new Exodus (48:20-21 thru 52:11-12) The concept of healing and victory through the suffering of ‘the servant of the LORD’ marks out this section as unique in biblical prophecy. Chs 56-66 are mainly concerned with the return of the exiles to Jerusalem and the building of a new society there. (historical arc finishes here at late 400s b.c.)

- 250 year historical arc, then, here

The historical background places this episode around 522 b.c. where Darius the Mede has taken control of Babylon, and sent a group of Israelites back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The book of Ezra speaks of Zerubbabel as the Jewish leader at this time in Jerusalem. This is important because Haggai 2:23 shows the Haggai saw Zerubbabel as continuing the line of the preexilic Davidic dynasty, which, it was believed, God had promised would last forever. The picture of the Davidic king as God’s signet ring echoes what was said of Jehoiachin earlier (Jeremiah 22:24)

Zerubbabel. The name, meaning ‘offspring of Babylon,’ of a descendent of David who returned from the Babylonian exile (Ezra 2:2) to become governor of the Persian province of Judah under Darius I (522 b.c.) He was a grandson of Jehoiachin, the exiled king of Judah. Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest were responsible for the completion of the building of the Temple. Hopes for the restoration of the nation were probably attached to him because of his ancestry. Haggai 2:23 calls him the ‘servant of Yahweh’ and the one he has ‘chosen.’ Zerubbabel appears in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3:27.

40-55 written by an unknown prophet to encourage the despairing Israelite exiles in Babylon as well as the first waves of them to return to the city of Jerusalem, a shell of its former self and a place of relative desolation. Isaiah 50:4-9 is also known as the third “Servant Song” in a series of four in Second Isaiah that emphasize the role that “God’s servant” is to play in conveying God’s word and righteousness and expectations to the world; this third song in some relevant ways prefigures the strong imagery that is conveyed in the fourth servant song we find in Isaiah 52 to 53 that we are so familiar with, which suggests that the servant will be despised by those around him and will deeply suffer for his commitment to the LORD.

On some level as we look at this passage, it seemed that in his pursuit of faithfulness, the prophet was stuck in a sort of Catch-22; the people hated that they were still functionally in exile and desired to be independent from foreign rule, but the cold, hard reality of the exile weighed heavily in their awareness. The situation is made even more complex because, if historical scholars are correct, this prophet’s ministry took place on the bridge between the older generation of Israelites who remembered the exile and the younger generation that found themselves relatively comfortable, well-off, and living in a fertile, cultured economy, only for some to be forced to return back to the land of their fathers. So, whether one was older, clinging to what was considered a utopian dream of a return to the Promised Land, or younger and more “pragmatic”, recognizing the business opportunities available in Babylon that wouldn’t exist in the Israelite land that was a shadow of its former self, the idea of a return to the top of the heap in relation to other nations around seemed like a pipe dream.

And so, if one was a prophet at this time, you would have know this was going to be a hard sell to the people, both old and young. And that turned out to be an understatement. Even though the prophet speaks here right after chapter 50 where the LORD makes the claim that he has the power to deliver Israel from their unfaithfulness, then here gives “the word that sustains the weary” from the LORD, and later in chapter 51 announces to the people the good news, GREAT NEWS that the LORD’s righteousness draws near speedily and salvation is on the way, he faces intense opposition from the people; undergoing beatings on his back, his beard being ripped out from his face, and mockers spitting on him.

Yet in the midst of this persecution, the author places unfailing trust in the LORD as sovereign over the limited ability of the enemies of the LORD to carry out their schemes, saying, “It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me, who is he that will condemn me?” and in verse 8, “Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!” It is almost as though the author is daring his opponents to challenge him.

Standing alone and with his face set like flint, he willingly accepts angry abuse. The Servant suffers because he has taken a stand for the LORD, for what is right. It is not inconceivable that because of the still-standing memory of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and dismantling of the monarchy and state, there were many inhabitants of the region who embraced Babylonian religion because they believed the Babylonian Gods were stronger than the God of Israel. In their conversion to the Babylonian Gods, it seems likely that the Servant of this passage, ironically, faced the strongest opposition from his own people who had cast aside their historic faith.

So who is this leader, this Servant, anyways? At this time, there were only several prominent leaders: Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, Haggai, and Zechariah. In Isaiah chs 49 to 54, twice the single leader speaks, with our Scripture today being one of them, and once the person is described as having been brutally killed in chapters 52 and 53. The leader is clearly one who must face confrontation with oppressive authorities and endure them patiently as Zerubbabel does in Ezra chapters 4 and 5. The building of the temple only took 5 years to complete once the people really started to work hard on it, but ominously, following Zerubbabel’s initial work in Jerusalem with Joshua to start rebuilding the temple, he disappears from the scene strangely abruptly. If we run with this possibility, Zerubbabel’s documented refusal to knuckle under to the pressures of those who wanted to slow the work on the temple resulted in his being threatened and then executed as the opponents looked to assert their power and back up their threats.

If this is true, Isaiah 50 in its historical context illustrates the suffering of Zerubbabel that comes before his death in 53, and provides a compelling picture for us of the effect of radical faithfulness and a willingness to go to the point of death in commitment to the LORD.

There are several significant parallels going on in this passage, then, with connections to the past and to the future. The challenge of persecution of the prophets by their own Israelite countrymen was not a new phenomenon (this challenge had some history and would continue into the future), and the language of the Servant “setting his face like flint” in faithfulness to the LORD provides powerful foreshadowing of the ministry of Jesus when we are told in Luke 9:51 that, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem,” and the remainder of Luke’s Gospel focused on Jesus approaching Jerusalem knowing very well what would happen to him there at the end of his journey

He claims to be the Messiah, the one faithful Israelites expect will restore them back to the top of the heap, but instead of acting like a king, consolidating power, and initiating violent revolution like they expected, he reminds them he has come to serve, and they should too. He is supposed to ride the momentum of the support of the crowds to enter triumphantly into Jerusalem on a war horse, not a donkey. He is supposed to rise to the throne as the next king in the line of David, but he says instead:

“We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” The disciples did not understand any of this. (Luke 18:31-34)

"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more…"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” (Luke 12:4, 11, 12) I don’t know about you, but being brought before authorities and killed doesn’t sound like the sweet deal the disciples thought they were getting into in the beginning.

(Israel thought he was coming to destroy all the pagan nations, when because of their unbelief, ISRAEL was the one destroyed by God)

Luke 20 Parable of the Tenants (he will come and kill those tenants and give vineyard to others)

Climax: As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." (Luke 19)

That is a significant reminder to us today; we don’t like change, we don’t like someone telling us what to do, and we want Jesus to be who we want him to be…and because of that, we often accept and live into the easy things he said and rationalize away his harder teachings and expectations for us.

But the Servant and Jesus had one significant thing in common; they understood that transformation and true power of change could only come through a radical commitment to God and loving others enough that you tell the truth even if you face brutal consequences. And that is a powerful message today

2007-04-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

March 25, 2007 Sermon 2 of 2 in mini-series on suffering. Focus on "active suffering" as different than passive suffering everyone is subject to. What does "active suffering " mean in separating Christians from the rest of the world? What effect does it have? Is it "worth it"? Do I have a choice, really, to decide whether it is "worth it" or not? Engage paradoxical reality that Jesus (and by extension, Christians) are conveyors of light and truth, and though they bring the message of freedom through faithfulness, the world often responds in violent and destructive ways.

Source Scriptures: Psalm 27, John 3:16-21, John 15:9-19,

Comments on tying up some loose ends from last Sunday and what “Reign over Me” made me consider: the depth of loss, the wound carried from traumatic experiences…

Psalms often represent movement from lament to confidence (we often think this happens right away…have we ever stopped to consider this movement might take a lifetime? Consider exiles and desperation over a period of 70 years of living in Babylon (unfaithful looked at economic opportunity, faithful lamented the end of something beautiful)

Psalm 27 confidence, lament and cry out (breathing out violence against him), back to confidence (wait for the LORD…not finding salvation in himself)

Psalms enter into depth of human experience where faith and doubt collide (weave in Abby's experience or see if she's willing to share her story of this collision and the messiness of walking through that intersection?)

Themes of darkness and light, love of God

John 3:16-21

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.^[b] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."^[c]

John 15:17-19

“This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Caecilius:

“(The Christians) are a gang…of discredited and proscribed desperadoes who band themselves against the gods. Fellows who gather together illiterates from the dregs of the populace and credulous women with the instability natural to their sex, and so organize a rabble of profane conspirators, leagued together by meetings at night and ritual fasts and unnatural (meals)…a secret tribe that shuns the light, silent in the open, but talkative in hid corners…Root and branch it must be exterminated and accursed. They (the Christians) recognize one another by secret signs and marks; they fall in love almost before they are acquainted; everywhere they introduce a kind of religion of lust, a promiscuous “brotherhood and sisterhood” by which ordinary fornication, under the cover of a hallowed name, is converted to incest.”

Members of a “secret” and “silent” movement (they were-of necessity because of persecution)…it was this secrecy that led Caecilius to misunderstand what the Christians were doing behind closed doors

“band themselves against the gods.” (The movement opposed the accepted public religion that served the ends of the Roman Empire)

“gather together illiterates from the dregs” of society, engage in “unnatural meals,” “fall in love almost before they are acquainted” call each other brother and sister (socially scandalous as wealthy to eat meals with poverty-stricken (disgusting to think of), give women identity as humans rather than property, religious clubs were supposed to be exclusive to only to those like you, but each and every one is not identified by their status in society, but are equally brothers and sisters)

It wasn’t that Christians were irrelevant, their way of meeting and scandalous view of equality among all was dangerous to the proper operation of society, and so Caecilius paid them the compliment of suggesting they be “exterminated and accursed.”

Faced sporadic and intense persecution at the hands of the state for this activity, and until 312 A.D. when the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, Christians could not speak in public about their faith unless they wanted to die; in fact, the only ones who spoke in public were those at their execution. No seeker-sensitive worship, because non-believers were barred from the Christian community in worship. And even if you showed yourself to be truly and intensely interested in committing your life to Christ, if you were not baptized yet, you had to leave at a certain point in the worship gathering before members shared Communion together. Any growth that took place happened because people were so radically shaped by their commitment to Jesus and his church that their character and integrity shone out in society and their lives and relationships with others were so attractive that people asked questions.

And the church did grow…how much, do you think (using 3,000 as a base number post-Pentecost), in light of the fact that most historians now agree that at the time of the legalization of Christianity, 10% of the Roman Empire were followers of Jesus, and in order to reach this number, in the previous three centuries the church statistically grew at an average of 40% per decade?

3,000 30 or so A.D.

5,880 50 A.D.

31,626 100 A.D.

170,095 150 A.D.

914,811 200 A.D.

4,920,070 250 A.D.

25,061,316 300 A.D.

35,085,843 310 A.D.

Just after 200 A.D. Tertullian, one of the early church leaders, said, "We [Christians] multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed" (Apologeticus, 50). And 200 years later St. Jerome said, "The Church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it" (Letter 82).

Maybe this is easy for us to look at, because it seems like a load of numbers, but consider this reality. You know someone who is almost certainly a Christian in your neighborhood, and their lifestyle and behavior just shows something fundamentally DIFFERENT to you, something beautiful, something meaningful that exposes the emptiness in your life. But you know if you walk down this road, you will more than likely face intense persecution and maybe death. What would you do?

On a theoretical level, all that growth sounds nice. The church was exploding in growth. But practically speaking, how was this happening? I would suggest this was happening because their conversion had a radical impact on three major areas of life: their beliefs, their behaviors, and who and what they belonged to.

Belief: One of the most central things that drove people to pursue Christ was the belief that because Christ had conquered death, they did not need to fear death because they would be with him on the last day.

They also centrally believed that a life centered on God was much more fulfilling than a life centered on themselves or those most like them.

And it wasn’t just intellectual belief alone that sustained them. (there was divine power…people possessing gifts of healing were encouraged to use those gifts, and people noticeably got better, often came into direct confrontations with the demonic)

Behaviors: Christians displayed transforming lives (not perfect, but growing)

How? Before Christians were baptized, they often went through a year of instruction about what it meant to commit to Christ, and if they thought they couldn’t go through with it at any point, they were asked to leave. Also, they recognized upon baptism that they were members of a church that was bigger than the Roman Empire (visited prisoners, fed poor, freedom to women, served all regardless of nationality)

Recognized that most people decide to follow Christ because the lifestyle Christians exhibit is attractive to them.

Belonging:

Candidates for baptism recognized that joining the church changed everything. They would no longer live by the values of the dominant society, or find their basic identity anywhere other than the church (even over against families and friends)

And, centrally,

What was this commitment to Christ founded on practically?

Christians live in their own countries, but only as resident aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. (Epistle to Diognetus early 2^nd century)

The biggest political statement then, and what should be the biggest political statement now, is this: Jesus is Lord. Not just Lord of my life, Lord of everything and everyone. But as a Christian, I have consciously said knelt before Jesus and acknowledged him as Lord. Remember the song we often sing here at church? “One day every tongue will confess you are God, one day every knee will bow.” (Not because they want to, but because they will have to on the day of judgment). “Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose you now.” We willingly place our trust in the God who loves us and tells us what life was meant to be about.

By 390, the Roman Empire saw Christianity as so much of a threat to its rule that the Emperor at the time, Theodosius, made Christianity the official religion, and overnight everyone became Christian. Along with that came strong pressures for those in society who were not Christian to become Christian not because they truly desired God, but because the empire offered imperial benefits for church leaders (including not having to serve in public duties), your career in the government advanced much more quickly if you were a member, and you were a respectable member of society only if you attended church. It became impossible as a pagan to get a job, only “Christians” could be in government, and in 529, the Emperor made conversion compulsory, and all infants were baptized into the church. (Muslims, Goths, Brits, Egyptians, etc “converted” at swordpoint)

Movement from persecution (and freedom in discipleship) to legalization (and state-enforced conversions or severe social penalties if not Christian)

Movement to Reformation (Luther, Calvin, etc)

- salvation does not come through being a citizen of a state, but through faith in Christ

- but still baptized babies, poverty-stricken members of Western Europe in Thirty Years’ War could on any given day be Protestant or Catholic depending on which the prince of their territory was)

- Anabaptists chose to return to early church roots and roots of radical belief, belonging to the kingdom of God first, and behavior that shows one’s commitment as completely as possible (in addition to intense persecution, 1,200 killed between blah and blah (show Martyr’s Mirror)

Back to secular state (and freedom in discipleship that has real costs as well as real joys)

- America founded under the same idea that everyone is Christian and simply needs to be “awakened” to do it better

- Socially speaking: those who were “respectable” attended church, etc etc…ensured social status…moving away from that now

- What are “costs” we will face for standing up for Christ in society today? Everything from tension in relationships (accountability) to possible death

People attracted to Christ by early church because in the midst of persecution, they loved God and others with joy

John 15: 9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

(paradox: darkness so dark they can’t see the light even when it’s right in front of them…nevertheless, we shine the light, even if they try to extinguish it…and in the shining we find joy)

Song Lord of the Dance shows Jesus’ willingness to dance and love and serve even in the midst of intense suffering

Compare cost of discipleship with toll of nondiscipleship (dallas Willard)

None of us would pick suffering, but I’ll tell you this; if the choice is suffering or comfort made possible because of unfaithfulness, as a follower of Jesus called to quake in the presence of God’s holiness, I’ll take suffering (though this suggestion on my part, as suggested by Miroslav Volf, “stinks of the suburbs”)

2007-04-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

March 18, 2007 Part of 1 of 2 sermons in a mini-series investigating a Biblical perspective on suffering. Intent: All suffering is not the same. Some, what I call "passive suffering" is the suffering of disease, death, etc that all members of the world are subject to (whether Christian or non-Christian). This is generally a negative reality, though God can break in and bring healing from this reality. Other suffering, what I call "active suffering," is the conscious choice Christians make to think and speak and act in certain ways that cause them to be persecuted and even killed for their commitments. This is a positive reality, because we are freed to stand up against injustice and unfaith through the resurrection of Jesus, which proved that nothing humans can do to us (including death!) can destroy us. Our lives, however long or short by human estimation, echo in eternity, and God is concerned centrally about faithfulness, not life longevity.

Source Scriptures: Psalm of lament (Psalm 77:1-9)

Tend to think of suffering as wholly negative, right? Most of the world, when the word suffering is brought up, gets a tremendously negative vibe from that word. It conjures up all sorts of feelings within folks.

But as followers of Jesus, knowing that Jesus said to us “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (like last Sunday’s talk), do you agree with me that God’s Word is truth, whether it’s easy or hard for us to hear?

- the world sees suffering as a static reality

- a Biblical worldview shows us something different

Exploration of suffering (2 main categories)

- normal, passive kind of suffering (non-discipleship related suffering)

o this is the general suffering that all of humanity exists under and is subject to: diseases, natural disasters, losing jobs, untimely deaths (military deaths in Valley, extend out to Iraqi citizens and families and social system paralyzed by fear and loss)

- active, discipleship-centered suffering

o pick up cross daily and follow me

o anyone who loses his life for my sake will gain it

o all men will hate you because of me, but stand firm

o we will focus on discipleship-related suffering next week, but this week I want to deal with the first category

And you know, when it comes to the passive reality of suffering, the suffering that everyone in this world is subject to, we often have a tendency to take things we don’t understand and oversimplify them into “acts of God” into the concrete and unchanging will of an often cruel God who either doesn’t seem to care much about us or is powerless to do anything about it, causes disasters sometimes for seemingly no good reason, and demands that we against all odds should believe something good can come from the act or situation

- I don’t think it’s as simple as that, though many would suggest it is.

Ex. Bluffton baseball team wreck (explain wreck)

James Grandey, the baseball coach at Bluffton University in Ohio, was injured along with 28 players in the March 2 crash on Interstate 75 in Atlanta. Five players, and the bus driver and his wife, were killed.

Grandey, who suffered multiple broken facial bones, said that God brings only situations that people can handle.

"I wonder why I survived ... I don't know, God has a reason," said Grandey, 29, dark bruises under his eyes and his jaw still partially wired shut. "There's a reason for those that didn't survive as well. We'll never know that answer until we ourselves pass away."

Diseases (black plague wiped out half the population of Europe in the Middle Ages); was that an act of God? (majority of people overtaxed to the point where they lived in disgusting slums, raw sewage in the streets, rats running around…rich richer and poor poorer one of the causes)

AIDS epidemic destroying the population of Africa and infecting America(is this an act of God?): in some tribes, it’s considered a good thing for a mature man to have sex with young teenage women no matter their age…so they rape teenagers and infect them with the virus…these young women are dying…is this an act of God?) Scores upon scores of people in America are having sex with any number of people, and because of a fear of getting tested, are spreading the AIDS virus without knowing.

Casualties of the war in Iraq, both those who lose their lives and those who lose limbs or suffer mental illness for the rest of their lives (Families and friends here in Augusta County of Daniel Bubb, Jason Redifer, and Daniel Morris have had these young men ripped out of their lives…is this an act of God? The will of God? Families and friends in the Iraqi society not only suffered from men in the Iraqi military killed in the American invasion, but countless civilians in the attacks were maimed and killed by bombs and missiles…was this the will of God, an act of God?)

We could even talk about Hurricanes in these terms. Hurricanes naturally form in the lower Atlantic at a certain time during the year, and sometimes have proved to be deadly: Hurricanes Camille, Hugo, Andrew, and most recently Katrina have been devastating, especially Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane that left a destructive path across the Gulf Coast. Weather-related catastrophe is something we often chalk up to acts of God, but is it only that, or something more? (Int. Comm. on Climate Change released a report that the pollution we as humans pump into the atmosphere at ridiculous rates, with China and the United States being worst offenders, has undeniably, without-a-doubt been a factor in global warming, the greenhouse gases like CO2 and others trapped in the atmosphere forming a layer preventing the natural escape of heat from the earth…this has warmed the Gulf of Mexico in recent years, and the warming has the power to transform a relatively destructive Category 4 hurricane into a devastating Category 5 on the level of Katrina…and all that before we even talk about the devastating poverty in New Orleans that prevented people from escaping the city because they didn’t have transportation and trapped them there afterwards.

Global starvation and poverty exist solely because the richest 20% of the world own and consume 80% of the world’s goods, with the United States again being the biggest offender. Here in America we’re getting fatter because we can’t control our consumption while 30,000 children a day starve to death in Africa.

John Wimber story (known worldwide for his emphasis on healing prayer)

"In January of 1983 I, along with two of my friends, went to England to pray for a close friend, David Watson. David had just been informed by his doctors that he had cancer of the liver. They gave him about one year to live. Earlier on the phone I had told him that I was praying for his healing. In fact, my congregation was praying for him. I prayed for his healing with a combination of desperation (for he was my dear friend) and confidence (because in the past I had seen some people healed of the same condition).

When I and some of my friends arrived in London our first concern was to express love and care toward David. Because we had flown all night, we decided to go directly to the hospital, greet David, an tell him that we would pray for his healing the following day after we rested up. But that morning did not go as planned.

After getting to the hospital, we chatted about the events that had led up to his hospitalization and I began explaining our plan to come back the next day. I noticed that David was quite anxious about his condition, so in my heart I asked God to make us vehicles of his love and peace. As we spoke, we sensed the presence of God in the room; I felt the sensations that I have come to associate with the Holy Spirit’s presence a beautiful calmness that dispels fear and unbelief. I suggested the we should go ahead and pray. We prayed quietly. Through prayer and worship our attitudes were transformed from fear and anxiety to trust and peace. Then we prayed for David’s healing, and we all received insights into David’s spiritual condition that we did not know before.

The Holy Spirit revealed these insights to us, and they helped us greatly in knowing how to pray for David. That morning we prayed for over a half an hour, fully aware of God’s presence and peace. David experienced the sensations and presence of the Holy Spirit that I have observed before in the bodies of those who were eventually healed of cancer. He felt heat and tingling, which he described as “energy” coming into his body. I told David that these healing signs might indicate that, in the future, the cancer would die. I said neither that I thought he was healed nor that his future healing was assured. (What do you think happened?)

In December of 1983 David was brought to my home in California for an eight-day visit. During this period healing teams from the Anaheim Vineyard Church prayed for David almost round the clock. We prayed for him for hours at a time. But fluids continued to collect in his body; I knew he was dying. I could hardly look at him, I loved him so much. David said that, whether his health improved or not, his trust in God would not be shaken. Then I walked over and put my arms around him, and, for the first time since he knew he was sick, he cried. “John,” he then said, “if I die, promise me you will not stop preaching the gospel and praying for the sick.” I assured him that I would continue.

David was not healed. He died in February 1985. Perhaps no one, with the exception of David’s wife and children, is any more disappointed than I that David was not healed. I do not know why he was not healed- I lost one of my closest friends- but I have continued to pray for the sick and always will. Unfortunately John died not long ago, but after that point, he saw some incredible healings."

All this is to say that suffering on a passive human level that everyone experiences, Christians and non-Christians included is not respecter of wealth, status, position, gender, ethnicity, or anything else. And much of the suffering this world experiences is either directly or indirectly related to human sinfulness, corruption, greed, and pride. Some things, like David Watson not receiving healing, remain a mystery to us. We don’t know why some are healed and some aren’t, though we know intentional prayer for those others often makes a definable, sometimes miraculous difference. We don’t understand everything, but as Christians we CAN control what we can control, we CAN look deeper beyond a surface level understanding of suffering to get at the roots of the problem.

What do you think is the answer (or a series of possible answers) to this problem?

Foundation of the solution lies in the rest of Psalm 77:10-20

Three basic approaches followers of Jesus can offer to the world through the reality of life, that though we will live them out imperfectly, will mean the world to people:

1) Compassion and a deep commitment to all of humanity (horizontal piece of loving neighbor)

a. Many people around us are in great need, and simply need someone who pays attention to them, a word of support, a forgiving embrace, a firm hand, a tender smile, or even a stumblig confession that we wish we could do more…all of this in the name of Jesus.

b. Did you know that it’s been proven that someone can keep their sanity and stay alive even in the midst of severe illness or trauma as long as there is at least one person who is waiting for them? But when “nothing and nobody” is there with skin on to share the experience with them, the chances of survival greatly reduce…thousands of people commit suicide or simply give up really living because there is no one waiting for them. There is no reason to live if there is nobody to live for. So what can we do in response to this reality?

c. It doesn’t take much. Need for deep relationships, yes, but one eye movement, one handshake, one conversation can change a life and only takes a second and a little awareness to come about.)

d. No one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with their whole person into the painful situation, without taking the risk of becoming hurt, wounded, or even destroyed in the process. The beginning and the end of Christian leadership is to give our lives for others. Real discipleship means a witness that starts with the willingness to cry with those who cry, laugh with those who laugh, and to make one’s own painful and joyful experiences available as sources of clarification and understanding.

e. How can we minister to those facing cancer and other life threatening diseases if we are not willing to hear some hard questions from those facing the disease that may stretch and test our faith? (Mary and her trust in God) Who can listen to a story of loneliness or depression without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in their own heart and even losing peace of mind? In short: “Who can take away suffering without entering it?”

2) A deep-rooted faith in the value and meaning of life, even when the days look darkest

a. Following Christ is a dead-end street when nothing new is expected, when everything sounds familiar, and when life has regressed to the level of the routine (nothing more, nothing less than the routine)

b. For those with a deep-rooted faith in the value and meaning of life, every experience holds the potential for something beautiful, every event brings a new message (maybe in the midst of the darkness)…it is this approach to life that gives eyes to see the flower breaking through the cracks in the street, and understanding to see the possibility of new life under the cover of death and destruction. (Who will bring good news and healing to the people of our inner cities and to families broken by violence?)

3) A grounded hope which always looks for tomorrow, even beyond the reality of death

a. Hope makes it possible to look beyond our wishes and desires and offers a vision beyond human suffering and even death… without this hope we will never be able to see value and meaning in life through struggles and successes in our lives…especially since human life often seems to be more struggle than success.

b. Leadership therefore is not called Christian because it is permeated with optimism against the odds of life, but because it is grounded in the historic Christ-event which is understood as a definitive breach in the deterministic chain of human trial and error, and as a dramatic affirmation that there is light on the other side of darkness.

Christian leadership, then, is only accomplished through service…the willingness to enter into a situation, with all the human vulnerabilities a man has to share with fellow man. Indeed, the paradox of Christian living is that the way out is the way in, that only be entering into communion with human suffering can relief be found…every Christian is constantly invited to overcome his neighbor’s fear by entering into it with him, and to find in the fellowship of suffering the way to freedom.

2007-04-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

March 11, 2007

The Intent of Biblical Study: Living into the call to Singular, Complete Loyalty to the LORD alone

Source Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6:4-25, Psalm 22

Bible study is easier for some people than for others. Some of us are naturally more inclined toward the study of books, especially books written two thousand years ago. Also, some of us were raised in homes in which the Bible was read and used often, while others were raised in homes where the Bible was unknown. We all come from different places here today, and God understands that better than any of us can know; but that doesn't leave us directionless, because we've gathered here today because we're at least slightly interested in what God might have to say to us, and at least slightly interested in wanting to follow Him, and that's a good starting point here for us today.

Some questions you might carry in your mind as we move forward today might be: Why should I study God's word? Is it truly important for my life, because if it isn't, then I won't do it...some of us sitting here today I'm sure have decided on some level that it isn't, so you don't study anymore.

Observing Sabbath: Israel called to rechoose identity, depends in part on thinking differently, it also requires visible practices and concrete disciplines that can be regularly undertaken and seen publicly by the young of the community and by non-Israelites

- not "do as I say, not as I do" but lead by example

- lived faith is a form of nurture, perhaps the most telling form of nurture

- obedience is way to teach obedience

- faith is a way of evoking questions on the part of children (lived faith will evoke

such wonder in an observant child)

- specifically with non-Israelites, draw connection between that and "how beautiful are

the feet of those who bring good news")

- further illustrates that we're bringing freeing, good news (best); so the intent

of our lives is not to feel like a pile of poo and help others come to that

reality, but instead to give good news (words + action)

It's ok to pursue a theoretical and intellectual understanding of reality, but it is necessary at some point to pursue some sort of habits and practices (disciplines) that undergird the identity, mission, and vision of the people of God.

Always fixed on children (coming generation): 6:4 is followed by series of imperatives, "recite, bind, fix, write" (The core claim of the LORD is to be everywhere available to Israel,audible and visible

- Moses proposes saturation education so that a child's imaginative horizon is

completely pervaded by signs and reminders of this imperative.

We build in reminders during the day of who we are, and we need to consistently be aware of the question: did my day look any different than my friends who aren't followers of Jesus? If not, then you and I have to ask some serious questions about our identity, and what we can do to recover that identity as the people of God

Why do we pray before meals? Before bedtime? In worship? (Acknowledging the gift as well as the giver)

In the later ministry of Jesus, much informed by the traditions of Deuteronomy, the costly summons to discipleship is of the same demanding absolute quality (Mark 8:34-35, 10:21, 38-30)

Individual lives and the common life of the community are healthy when they are about one loyalty (Kierkegaard “purity of heart is to will one thing”)

- singular response to the jealous God is not simply an archaic witness to a cosmic crankiness, but it is a judgment about what is possible in human life and on what basis

The demand of singular loyalty is an expectation never fully attained

- perfect obedience is never attained

- the full Christian liturgical tradition is marked at the same time with high expectation as well as the readiness of this God to forgive and invite again to loyalty (in Deut 6, the jealous God becomes the merciful God)

Joyous task of singular loyalty

History of the Christian Church is strewn with examples of those who occupy and monopolize singular loyalty in ways that have produced judgment and violence on others; the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch-hunts, and a variety of excommunications

Command to exclusive loyalty to the LORD is fraught with temptations to both despair and pride.

Ours is an economy of abundance that lives by an ideology of satiation. The seemingly limitless capacity of the consumer economy- supported by a market that keeps growing, kept in place by a military establishment without parallel in the history of the world- leads to a common, thoughtless assumption that it has always been this way and will always be this way- “world without end.”…A part of the problem is that satiated amnesia is slow even to notice the warning. Characteristically, the ones addressed in amnesia are slow to discern that it is they who are being addressed. (WB 91)

Psalm 22 as model for move from individual despair when things aren’t going right to God’s greater covenantal loyalty

- so we have to make the move from our own individual concerns to the greater reality that God is faithful and has been in the past

Remembering takes place only by constant, intentional verbal reiteration (7-9, 20-25) plus the parents’ vigorous obedience (1-2). The teaching community is in a life-or-death struggle for the heart, commitment, and imagination of the younger generation (keep that in mind, parents and adults in this church community…that you are pursuing Christ for the sake not only of yourself, but those who are watching you in your life…your life continues to tell a story)

- talk about these things when you lay down, when you rise, when you…

The child asks about what the Lord your God has commanded you. (distancing)

The parent, in response, seeks to overcome the distance by using the inclusive pronoun “us” (the attempt by parents to transform their uninvolved children from “distemporaries” to “contemporaries” i.e. true-life sharers, is an issue of supreme and recurrent significance in the Bible.

Dangerous influences:

Host of postmodern cultural realities and forces that work against intergenerational embrace of a remembered past that may energize a present-tense obligation. It is certain that many of the young in the community of faith are distemporaries who scarcely have the categories available through which to become contemporaries. Both the lived practices and the intentional verbalizations of the parental generation are thin and in general lack conviction.

Thus, the community is at risk when the younger generation is alienated. The text does not, however, settle for despair, but proposes the intentional reassertion of the memory as a source for a radically different future.

A culture that is inattentive to its memories trades its tradition and culture to remember something else

- in Deuteronomy, the “something else” was the “Canaanite religion” in its many forms

- in Western culture at the beginning of the 21^st century, the likelihood is that the “something else is an ideology of consumerism (and entitlement) rooted in anxiety and expressed as greed susceptible to brutality (fear).

So we need a deep sense of urgency (not on the scale of ATF’s campaign designed to get us off our tushes, but a deep lived reality that we have a high calling both to the generations before, generations after, and centrally to the LORD to live faithfully)

The LORD has had a special emotional passion for Israel out of which He has made particular commitments to Israel that He has made to no other people

2007-04-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

February 25, 2007 Hebrews 13

Anyone here familiar with the cartoon Peanuts?

Do any of you remember the cartoons where Lucy sits at her five-cent psychology booth?

Well, in one of those comic strips, good ol’ Charlie Brown stops by for advice about life.

“Life is like a deck chair, Charlie,” Lucy says. “On the cruise ship of life, some people place their deck chair at the rear of the ship so they can see where they’ve been. Others place their deck chair at the front of the ship so they can see where they’re going.”

And after saying that, the good doctor Lucy looks at her puzzled client Charlie and asks, “Which way is your deck chair facing?” Without hesitating, Charlie replies glumly, “I can’t even get my deck chair unfolded.”

Christian leader Mike Yaconelli commented once that “Everywhere I look on the cruise ship of Christianity, I see crews of instructors, teachers, experts, and gurus eager to explain God’s plan for the placement of MY deck chair, but I still can’t even unfold it. No wonder, when I peruse the titles in a Christian bookstore, I feel like I am the only klutz in the kingdom of God, a spiritual nincompoop lost in a shipful of brilliant biblical thinkers, an ungodly midget in a world of spiritual giants When I compare my life with the experts’, I feel sloppy, unkempt, and messy in the midst of saints…and I’m a MINISTER.”

Many of those who attend our church have always wanted to go to church, wanted to get to know God better, longer for a better relationship with Jesus, but more often than not, at church they were made to feel as if the “mess” of their lives disqualified them from the possibility of an authentic spiritual life.

Unfortunately, in many religious circles, there exists an unwritten rule. Pretend. Act like God is in control when you don’t believe he is. Give the impression everything is okay in your life when it’s not. Pretend you believe when you doubt; hide your imperfections; maintain the image of a perfect marriage with healthy and well-adjusted children when your family is like every other dysfunctional family. And whatever you do, don’t admit that you sin.

Pretending is efficient, uncomplicated, and quick. To illustrate that point, imagine you’re at Food Lion in Verona, you see someone you haven’t talked to in two months… What’s the first thing that’s going to come out of their mouth? (“How are you doing?”) What’s the stock answer you and I almost always give to those who ask? (Fine) And all that’s well and good, but what about the days where you’re not fine? What about the days where you’d really LIKE to answer, “Not very well, I struggle with depression, and February is usually a lower time for me, things’ve been a little rough at work, I’m struggling a bit trying to make ends meet, and I’m tired all the time because I never get a chance to relax.” But we don’t say that…why is that, do you think?

We all are a mess. Repeat that with me (We all are a mess). None of us is who we appear to be. We all have secrets. We all have issues. We all struggle from time to time. We are not perfect, nor will we ever be. And yet, we all have tremendous potential. And we CAN see legitimate, real change take place in our lives. As I read through the small group study from the past week, the last sentence on the first page stuck out to me, because it deals with both the struggle AND the possibility. Todd Wendorff wrote in our small group study book:

"Although I struggle to stay consistent, I have found that my time with the Lord IS PRODUCING the change of character and perspective I long for in my life."

Followers of Jesus tell the truth about their lives, and followers of Jesus also admit their unfinishedness. Unfinished means incomplete, imperfect, in progress, in process, under construction. Spiritual describes someone who is incomplete, imperfectly living their life for God. When we seek God, Jesus begins to take shape in our lives. He begins a good work in us, he starts changing us, but the finishing process is a more-than-a-lifetime process. The work of God in our lives will never be finished until we meet Jesus face to face. And so the author of the Hebrews wrote, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

True spirituality isn’t about being finished and perfect; true spirituality is about trusting God IN our unfinishedness. But EVEN IN our unfinishedness, we do not lack in hope

(pursue God with all that we are in the midst of our brokenness)

“I seek to accept the limits of my humanity. I will never be able to do all that needs to be done. I cannot meet the needs of every person. I cannot be in peak performance at all times. Some things will be left undone. My concern should be not my human weakness, but rather to avoid a spirit of laziness, indifference, negligence, or procrastination. God will take up the slack of my weakness, but I must develop the discipline of faithfulness and diligence.” (John Drescher)

If we take a second to try to glimpse into Jesus’ private life, we just might grab some impression of a the commitment Jesus made in his life to pursue intimacy with God, along with the struggle to be consistent in that practice. (This isn’t the whole picture, but a short little batch of Scriptures at the beginning of the gospel of Mark should hint at what I’m speaking of (Read 1:35-37) First, he chose a time and place where he was least likely to be disturbed (usually in the morning, and in a secluded place). Second, he did not permit even those closest to him to disturb his time in prayer (this didn’t always hold true). And third, time after time in spite of those first two commitments, Jesus’ devotional life was always threatened and intruded on by the needs around him, but in spite of that he did not quit that habit of seeking God early and daily.”

If you could imagine with me this commitment in Jesus’ life as two movements: one, in seeking a solitary place, Jesus withdrew from the world, and the other, in his ministry of healing and teaching, a deep involvement in the world.

Maybe a way to illustrate these two movements of Jesus we see throughout the gospels would be to present two different models of the Christian life.

One of these we could call the “Pilgrim’s Progress” model of the Christian life.

Bunyan begins Pilgrim’s Progress by talking of a time where he lay down and fell asleep, and began to dream, and in this dream He saw a poor, ragged man named Christian standing off by himself in the fields, a heavy burden on his back, a Bible in his hand. As he opens to read from time to time, he wept and trembled and cried out, “What can I do?! What can I do to be saved!?” He is convinced that the City of Destruction where he lives is about to be burned with fire from heaven for its sins and corruption, and he LONGS for a place that he can flee.

And one day while Christian is walking along and crying out in spiritual torment, he groans loudly, for he felt as if a cloud were on his soul, and he burst out again, saying, “Who will save me?” He gave wild looks this way and that, as if he would rush off; yet he stood still, because he did not know which way to go. At last, a man named Evangelist came up to him and said, “Why do you weep?” Christian responded, “Sir, I see by this book in my hand that I will die, and then God will judge me. I fear death.”

Evangelist asked: “Why do you fear death, since this life is a terrible struggle already?”

Christian responded again, “I fear that I am doomed, and that this load on my back will make me sink down, till at last I give up.”

"If this is your situation,” said Evangelist, “why do you stand still?”

And Christian said, “I do not know where to go.” (tell of the ensuing journey…leaves wife and children and friends) This is the desire to be apart from the world because of its corruption, and so Christian flees away.

Another impulse we might find ourselves subject to we could call the “Jonah” model of the Christian life. Jonah had to enter the city, with all its sin and corruption.

Have you ever felt like as a Christian you needed to flee the world and its corruption? Have you ever felt like as a Christian you needed to enter the world, where folks are lost and dying, to love them and minister to them? Now, you may or may not have felt both of these impulses, but I am convinced we need to walk a balance between the two in order to be faithful followers of Jesus. We NEED to know that we are called out, separate from the world as Christians, in order for us to understand our calling. This is one of the primary motivating influences for daily devotions. We start the day by remembering who we are. But after being called out and pursuing a deepening relationship with God, our commitment to love our neighbor should lead to increasing involvement in the world, not running from it.”

Time alone with God sharpens the focus of our priorities and opens us to receive God’s presence and power. The intimacy of our lives with Christ is the measure of our spiritual power for God. “Be still and know,” says the Scripture- and there is a knowledge of God and God’s work which only comes in communion with God. What I speak of is not just a technique or dry religious duty. It must be honest, authentic pursuit of God. But even with a knowledge of this commitment we have to grow in Christ, we keep in mind that from now until the day we die, we will be unfinished, flawed human beings…spending much more time searching for answers than finding them. So until that point, we “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,” and we pursue him with all that we are, we struggle to stay consistent in that pursuit, and in the process we find life.