Is this News Good? (Luke 4:14-30)

It’s the Sabbath day, Saturday.  We’re among the faithful of Nazareth, so we’re in the synagogue.  Where else would we be on the Sabbath? 

            But today, the crowd is overflowing.  Where have all these people been?  I haven’t seen that guy in worship in years.  I see him at the market all the time, but not here.  What’s he doing here?  Why today?  What’s everyone doing here?

            The Carpenter’s son has returned.  There is talk that he can do miracles.  A prophet from Nazareth?  That’s what they say.  He was baptized in the Jordan by the crazy man, John, the Baptizer.  Now he’s back and you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about him in Capernaum.  

            Why do all those wonderful things there when he’s from here, Nazareth?  If Jesus is our prophet, why didn’t he come here first?  It is just as well.  He’s here today and we get to see the wonders and hear the wisdom. 

           

            This is the scene Luke sets.  Your experience of Jesus depends on your circumstances.  The reality of your life dictates whether or not you think Jesus brings is good news.

            He was called rabbi, so the leaders of the Nazareth synagogue invited him to speak.  They wanted to see what the fuss was all about.  They wanted to know why people were making a big deal of the carpenter’s son. 

Or, they could sense that Jesus truly possessed insight from God and these synagogue leaders wanted to bless the congregation by having a sermon from a charismatic speaker.

            In worship that day, both were present.  Gawkers and spectacle-seekers sat right alongside true worshipers and God-seekers.  Church has always been an amalgamation of people of genuine faith, people who are confused, and people who are there because someone else forced them to come.  There are always people in church who don’t know why they themselves are there.  There are judgmental people who can’t see their own flaws.  And there are broken people who cannot see their own beauty. 

It is that way here, now.  Some want to be here.  Some are not sure why we’re here.  Or, we’re here because we know that we need this.  We know how much we need God and we hope to meet Him here.  We have all of it.  Every church does.  And the experience of hearing Jesus – uplifting or troubling – depended and still depends on the situation of the worshiper. 

Let’s start with the poorest people who were in the synagogue.  The people with no money; the people with disabilities; the people of minority cultures who had no rights and rarely received justice; the people on the receiving end of the bullies’ taunts and slaps; the powerless; we begin with how they might hear Jesus.  They were certainly there.

Beginning in verse 17, “[Jesus] stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the 0ppressed go free,¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” 

            He quotes Isaiah where good news is promised to the poor.  Release offered to captives and freedom to the oppressed.  And, he mentions recovery of sight for the blind.  Everyone in that crowd would have been aware of Isaiah.  This was a popular scripture with immediate application. 

            Blindness was a common ailment.  We’re going to receive sight?  Remember, we are imagining who would find Jesus’ words to be good news.  The blind.  And the oppressed.  Most Nazareth Jews felt oppressed by Rome and by the poverty that was their life.  This was uplifting.  Furthermore, when is all this good news going to come about?  Today!  Today – with the arrival of Jesus – the scripture is fulfilled.

            Essentially, Jesus is announcing Jubilee.  This concept, Jubilee, comes from another scripture everyone would recognize, Leviticus 25.  “The fiftieth year you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.  It shall be a jubilee for you; you shall return, every one of you to property and to your family” (v.10).  All debt is forgiven.  If someone previously had to sell family land to get out of a financial pinch, in the Jubilee year the holder of the land restores it to the family that originally owned.  If someone sold himself into slavery to cover his debts, in the Jubilee year, the person who owns him frees him.

            For some people Jubilee means losing a slave or losing the advantage of being the only landowner in a community of poor tenant farmers.  If Jesus’ words in fact come to pass those who are in a superior social position because of their wealth lose their edge.  The neighbor they looked down upon is now at their level, looking them in the eye. 

            Jesus says, with his arrival, Jubilee has come.  What did the slave owners think when they heard this?  What about the debtholders?  Were there any curious Roman soldiers or officials in the crowd, just there to check out the Jewish worship practices?  Did they enjoy Jesus’ reading of Isaiah’s line about freedom from oppressors?

            Luke tells us everyone was amazed by Jesus’ preaching.  That would have been the perfect time to do the mic drop.  Jesus exits stage left to sound of deafening applause.   But, he didn’t do that.  Jesus kept preaching.  The amazement quickly turned into something else.  He could see it in their eyes.  They heard he had worked miracles.  The synagogue was packed because they wanted to see one! 

            “No prophet is accepted in his hometown” he told them (4:24).  Then Jesus regaled the congregation with more stories they would know all too well, stories of the great prophets, Elijah and Elisha.  In both cases, the men of God rendered God’s miraculous provision to people other than Jews. 

All those amazed people in the Nazareth synagogue put it all together. 

He’s known as a miracle worker and he’s from here.  He’s ours, but we stand condemned because we don’t welcome the poor.  We don’t love and help the blind.  We may be oppressed, but we step on the backs of those who have it worse than us.  He holds himself up like Elijah and Elisha.  The great prophets.  And he judges us.  He’ll help others and he’ll criticize us. 

“When they heard this,” Luke writes in verse 28, “All in the synagogue were filled with rage.”  A mob action happens next as they drag Jesus to a cliff intent on throwing him to his death.

            I don’t think there were any slaves or blind people or debtors in the lynch mob.  All those at the bottom, those who live in the gutter, heard Jesus promise them that his arrival meant rescue from their pitiable condition.  No, this crowd that is seeing red and breathing murder are those who got upset when Jesus said he came to heal and liberate and release.  Not only did they not need what Jesus offered, but they did not like it that Jesus would welcome and care for the lowest in their community.

You see how our circumstance colors how we hear Jesus?  Is his coming good news for us?  Are we happy when he pronounces Jubilee for those who suffer under the crushing load of debt?  What would economic justice cost us?  That depends.

If you are among the poor, the blind, the oppressed whom Jesus is here to save, then economic justice costs you your pain.  If you are among the wealthy in the world, and this includes the American middle class, so most people here, then Jesus’ announcement of Jubilee costs you – us – our prestige.  We give up our advantage. 

We’ve been talking about the way Jesus’ arrival surprised people.  Maybe the surprise to us is that Jesus didn’t come for us.  At least, he didn’t come for those who see themselves as “the have’s.” 

We don’t discover Jesus – as one here to save us – until we understand that we are as weak and as pitiable as the homeless man who has not changed clothes in months because he can’t.  We are as powerless as the undocumented immigrant who came here as a child and feels adrift in danger all time.  We are as helpless as the Syrian who has not eaten in days and is unable to move from the building he is in because he’s complete boxed in by ISIS and Syrian government forces. 

The most accomplished professional, the department chair, the lead surgeon stand before God as naked, exposed, and impotent as these examples I’ve shared.  Common sense would say that’s completely ridiculous.  It is absurd to juxtapose the leaders among us with society’s dregs.  But Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, the blind, the captive, and the oppressed.  We cannot understand or receive the blessing of God’s salvation until we understand ourselves as poor, blind, captive, and oppressed. 

Presuming we want the blessing of God, how do we do this?  First, we see sin for what it is – that which utterly destroys our souls.  In our popular culture, sin is something that elicits giggles.  Sin sell.  Movies with the highest box office sales are the ones rated ‘R’ for violence, sex, strong language, and nudity.  In our culture, sin is celebrated and purity is mocked.  We have to see sin for what it is – a killer.  We acknowledge sin, admit we cannot escape, and turn to Jesus as our only hope for rescue.  In sin, we are at the bottom until Jesus lifts us out.

Second, we stand with those people society would say are on the ladder’s lowest rungs.  A moment ago, I used the word “dregs.”  From where God is standing, there are no dregs.  The refugee, the illegal alien, the mentally ill, the poorest of the poor – these are all lost sheep.  They are beautiful people made in the image of God.  Jesus leaves the 99 healthy ones sitting comfortably in the sanctuary of HillSong Church.  He leaves us to go out and announce his Isaiah-fulfilling, freedom-proclaiming, belly-filling, life-giving news to the homeless and the downtrodden.  He came for them. 

If we want to receive what Jesus gives and experience it as good news, we admit our sin, and we sit arm-in-arm with them.  No wonder people in Synagogue crowd wanted to throw him off a cliff.  They came for miracles and got slapped by God’s truth.

In Luke 4, God’s truth slaps us with his truth this morning.  And the truth is there is greater joy in love and in sharing love than there is in prestige and wealth.  Do we have the faith to believe that is true?

What do we do now?  That’s up to you.  You can clench your teeth in anger.  You can bow before the cross and open your heart to the Holy Spirit.  You can start thinking right now about who you will love this week.  What disadvantaged person will you stand with this week?

We have heard Jesus’ words.  Each of us can decide who we are and then decide if this is good news.

AMEN

God Expects Justice

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Isaiah 45:8 (CEV)

⁸ Tell the heavens to send down justice
    like showers of rain.
Prepare the earth for my saving power
to sprout and produce justice
    that I, the Lord, create.^[a]

Isaiah 45:8 (NRSV)

⁸ Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and let the skies rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation may spring up,^[a]
    and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also;
    I the Lord have created it.

          God created the world, the universe, you, me.  A few atheists have sold a lot of books rejecting the existence of God.  By far most scientists, even those who aren’t at all religious would not claim science does away with God or the idea of creation.  That’s not territory covered by scientific research.  Church goers agree that God created everything.  We may debate the mechanisms by which God created, but we can agree God is the creator.

          Anyone who studies the Bible knows God creates intentionally.  God had a vision in Eden.  The culmination of God’s work came in creating one in his image, the human, the woman and the man. 

          God creates.  God creates with a plan.  God sees humans as His greatest creation and the center of his plan.  We know God as Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one.  The trinity exists in relationship as God is relational.  Human to God, human to creation (nature), human to human, and human to society; we live as God intended when we construct our lives around relationships.  We do our everyday work with relationships in mind.  When we live in humility, peace, and most importantly in love, then things are the way God wants them to be. 

          Look around the world.  Are things the way God wants them to be?  In some cases, yes.  Overall, no.  So what does God do?

According to Isaiah in the exile, God makes it rain. 

“Tell the heavens to send down justice like showers of rain.”

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness.”

Prolific writer and preeminent scholar Walter Breuggemann cites Isaiah 40-55 as the foundational word of God that comes out of the exile.[i]  Any people utterly defeated in battle on their homeland and then dragged to slavery 1000’s of miles away would be overwhelmed and disoriented.  In 586 BC Israel was. 

Israel had, prior to the fall at the hands of Babylon, been guilty of systemic idolatry and systemic injustice.  The wealthy few prospered while the most vulnerable of society suffered.  The prophet Amos and the earlier chapters of Isaiah both take up this point. God’s response to his own people’s generational, systemic disregard of his way was to allow Babylon to rise in power and crush Israel.  The prophet interpreted Israel’s pain as coming not from Babylonian cruelty, but from God’s punishing hand.  Babylon was God’s instrument.

The exiles perceived themselves to be defeated and by extension, their God, the God Abraham had been defeated by Babylon’s gods.  No, Isaiah said.  All the horrors are a result of turning from God.  And, now, the punishment is over.  As bad as things look, God is bringing a new day.

This is Isaiah of the exile.  This is the word from the exile on which all other words from that time stand.  Isaiah comes onto a scene of depression, despair and rage, and into that he speaks hope that transforms and praise that recognizes who God is.

          Brueggemann calls Isaiah’s prophetic poetry ‘invitational.’[ii]  Isaiah calls Israel to a new hope, a hope for a new reality.  The Holy Spirit animates Isaiah’s message as we read it.  In Isaiah we are invited to be washed in the rain God sends.  But what is it exactly that falls on us when we are the rain God sends?

          In two English versions of Isaiah 45:8, we see a word in the original language translated in two different ways, once as ‘righteousness’ and once as ‘justice.’  Which is it?  Is this a matter of one translation being correct and the other wrong?

          Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says this Hebrew word, ‘tsedeq’ means righteousness.  However, The New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance in a more expanded definition says the word can mean ‘righteousness’ or ‘rightness,’ and it belongs to a family of meanings that includes ‘fairly,’ ‘just cause,’ ‘justice,’ and ‘vindication’ in addition to the definitions already noted. 

          Just as the best way to construct our reality is in terms of relationships – to others, to God, to creation, to human society – the best way to take in these Hebrew words and concepts is in how they relate to other concepts and in how they are lived out.  It is not a matter of a precise definition so much as in the idea lived out relationally in the world as God created it and intends it to be.

          I offer a few other Hebrew terms.  First ‘mishpat.’  This term is used three times in Isaiah 42 and is translated ‘justice.’ One commentator describes is as God’s absolute divine right, true religion as lived out in everyday life.[iii]  Next, ‘Hesed,’ which is God’s loving kindness.  Throughout the Old Testament, God is known by ‘hesed.’  It is this loving kindness that drives God to rescue his people from exile even though their sins of inequality and ill-treatment of the poor, widow and orphan are what got them in trouble in the first place.  And finally, ‘shalom.’  This can mean peace but a fuller meaning is life in which all is in harmony and all is well.  This is life that prospers. 

‘Tsedeq,’ ‘mishpat,’ ‘hesed,’ and ‘shalom;’ in the way these terms play off each other in describing God and God’s expectations for human life, we see justice, mercy, love, peace, and hope. 

Please note, whatever this means for our activity, justice does not come because we work for it.  We should.  We should be advocates for justice.  But it originates with God.  God brings justice.  In Isaiah’ terms, God rains justice down.  Also note, in Isaiah’s day, God did this through human agency, not by way of miracles.  The agent of God’s justice was the Persian emperor, Cyrus.  He led the defeat of Babylon and he freed the exiles to return home.

Some Israelite did not appreciate that God would accomplish God’s purposes with a gentile pagan.  God responded, “Woe to you who strive with your maker, earthen vessels with the potter.  … I made the earth and created humankind upon it; I stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.  I have aroused Cyrus in righteousness and I will make all his paths straight” (45:9, 12-13).  How awful!  Will God do this by way of some Persian who doesn’t even pray?

Today, are we ever opposed to works of justice because we don’t like the people at the microphone?  I don’t know how you feel about Al Sharpton.  As the story of unarmed Michael Brown being shot by Officer Wilson unfolded, the dominant theme was the horrific trend of African Americans being killed by police instead of protected by those commissioned to protect and serve.  Add to that the alarming reality that African Americans are far more likely to be arrested for crimes where whites are likely to get off with no prison time for the same crime.  We have injustice – systemic injustice. 

But, I hear many Christians I talk to say they don’t like Al Sharpton.  I don’t know why he’s the voice at the microphone.  I am not hear to defend or criticize him.  But when a white guy gets community service for a crime and a black guy gets 6 months to a year for the same crime and it happens all the time, that’s injustice.  When there is a trend of unarmed young black males getting shot by white policeme, we have a problem.  When one of those killed is the same age as my 12-year-old white son and he was shot doing the kinds of things my boys does, I get scared.  I have a black son who will be 12 soon.  We who follow the God that insists upon human beings living in peaceful and loving relationships with each other cannot bicker about our distaste for the voice at the microphone. 

This is not about Al Sharpton or Bill O’Reilly or whomever.  Nor is it about recent tension in the United States.  That is one of our current signs of rampant worldwide injustice.  Racial inequality is an example but not the only one.  And it is not even about injustice.  This is about God.  God demands justice as a norm among the people He created. 

In describing the concept of justice in the Old Testament, Brueggemann says that it recognizes that “the well-being of the community requires that social goods and power to some extent be given up by those who have too much for the sake of those who have not enough.”[iv]  The very first Christians did this in sharing resources so everyone in the church could flourish (Acts 2:44-45). 

A core New Testament value is generosity.  The book Philemon takes this to an extreme where the Apostle Paul subverts an accepted first century practice, slavery.  He tells the slaveholder, Philemon, ‘Your man, Onesimus, is no longer your man.  He is God’s.  He was a slave, but now, you, he, and I are all in one family, brothers in Christ.’  Paul did not condemn slavery as an institution in and of itself.  He envisioned something grander.  In Paul’s view everything in life is re-imagined in light of Christ.  When we are in Christ, racism, slavery, poverty – these are all unthinkable.  The God who rains down justice and righteousness, peace and harmony has no place for suffering and hunger and inequality.

So, if we say justice is from God, not a result our works, then where is it and what are we to do?  Where was God when Michael Brown was shot, when Eric Garner strangled?  I read this that the richest 10% of the world’s population owns 87% of the world’s wealth.  Maybe that doesn’t bother you.  When I think of the Old Testament concept of distributive justice and when I think of the core value of generosity in the New Testament and when I hear Jesus saying that when we share with the poorest of these his children we are sharing with him, I am deeply troubled by this reality.  A few people are ridiculously rich and seemingly without concern for the billions who struggle with malnutrition, lack of educational opportunities, and inadequate housing.  Where is God?  Where is the God who rains down justice?

And if justice comes from God, what do we do? 

First remember that our understanding of ideas like justice is in terms of relationship.  We are connected to the orphans in Ethiopia, to the immigrants lacking documentation who are expelled from America, to Michael Brown’s mother.  In God’s view, human beings are connected to one another in relationship.  So, our first action is to see how one person’s pain is an injury to God’s creation. 

Second, as we read Isaiah, and imagine his words of hope as words for us, we remember that God is present in the world today in Spirit – the Holy, and in body – the body of Christ which is the church.  So, yes, justice is a work of God, and God does His work through the people who make up his church.  Our prayer life has to be one that moves from silence before to the action of love and compassion given to women and men. 

This becomes specific when a disciple’s life is full of relationships of compassion that are based in volunteer efforts.  We don’t just sponsor an orphan in Ethiopia.  We write letters.  We send pictures.  We pray for the child by name.  As much as we can we enter the child’s life relationally.  We don’t just volunteer to help build a ramp on someone’s home who cannot afford to hire contractors.  When we go, we talk to that person.  We hear her story.  We are blessed by sitting with her.  We don’t just enter protest movements, walk in marches, or sign petitions.  We befriend people whose lives are different than ours.  We enter their stories and take them into ours. 

We think about injustice relationally, and this includes the complete elimination of “us” and “them” language.

We follow God from prayer to action.  In this our action is always based on relationship more than project completion.

Third, we think of justice with an eye toward human flourishing.  A few years ago, the youth group was in Atlanta helping underprivileged inner city kids improve their reading.  Our partnership with the CBF missionaries there helped a multiple levels but one persistent theme is that if these kids master literacy and comprehension, they will be able to succeed in school.  If they succeed in school, they might be able to get good jobs that enable them to shed the label “underprivileged.”  Instead of surviving, these kids, today called “poor,” having learned love and developed academic skill may be able to thrive professionally and relationally.  The justice and compassion works that fill our lives and connect us to people are carried out with an eye toward human flourishing. 

 We won’t bring justice to world, not even as the body of Christ doing the work of God.  When Jesus was present, the world did not change.  But those around him did.  The world continued to sink in sin, but he was present, offering a new hope, just as Isaiah offered a new hope.  Now, we lived between the resurrection and the final day when God will set everything right.  Now, we are the voice that points the world to God.  We who believe in the resurrection God and the glorified future he promises are “unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present.”

Justice will always be a dominant theme in the prophet’s words and a defining characteristic of the church.

AMEN

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[i] Brueggemann (1978), The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress Press (Philadelphia), p.70.

[ii] Brueggemann (1997), Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville), p. 46

[iii] K. Keil (1890) in Commontary on the Old Testament in 10 Volumes, translated by James Martin (reprinted 1973), William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids), p.175.

[iv] Brueggemann (1997), Theology of the Old Testament, Fortress Press (Minneapolis), p.737.

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[i] Brueggemann (1978), The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress Press (Philadelphia), p.70.

[ii] Brueggemann (1997), Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville), p. 46

[iii] K. Keil (1890) in Commontary on the Old Testament in 10 Volumes, translated by James Martin (reprinted 1973), William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids), p.175.

[iv] Brueggemann (1997), Theology of the Old Testament, Fortress Press (Minneapolis), p.737.

To Live a Public Faith

January 4, 2015

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
    and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
    and weighed the mountains in scales
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
    or as his counselor has instructed him?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
    and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    and are accounted as dust on the scales;
    see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not provide fuel enough,
    nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him;
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

          The Lord measured the earth’s waters in the hollow of his hand?  Weighed the mountains on a scale?  Can anyone reasonably-minded person believe such claims?

          But wait, someone says.  This is poetry, not to be read literally.  Of course, of course.  The speaker here, the prophet referred to as Second Isaiah, is an artist and words are his colors.  Still, his poetry points to what he claims as reality – the reality of an able, powerful, interested God.  He says ‘all nations are as nothing’ before him.

          All nations seem to be more than ‘nothing.’  He spoke and wrote in Babylon, a nation so big and powerful it enslaved entire peoples, the people of Judah being just one to fall under the Babylonian might.  How can he say Babylon is nothing before God? It sounds nice but does not appear rooted in reality.  How many American men and women have died in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan?  They are all much smaller countries than America, but I bet the families of the fallen soldiers would not consider these small countries nothing, countries some might refer to as ‘backwater.’

          The claims about God made by the prophets and especially in Isaiah 40-66 are so audacious, they sound unbelievable.  There is a lack of physical evidence.  We cannot scientifically research whether or not God can measure the depths of the ocean in the hollow of His hand.  How would we go about verifying that sort of thing?  The church today – the group of people who claim to represent this God – often appears no more righteous or helpful than other human institutions.  We’re supposed to be a holy body, but we are so infested by sin, we do not serve as evidence to God’s sovereignty. 

          Other religions make grandiose claims about God just as we do.  This scripture we rely upon, Isaiah 40, is something we inherited from our Jewish cousins.  They do not believe Jesus is the Messiah.  We cannot believe the scriptures that come from them could ever be fulfilled unless Jesus is the Messiah and Savior.  Muslims, the third relative in monotheistic faith also tell many of the Old Testament stories revered by Jews and Christians, and Muslims also talk about Jesus.  But for them, he cannot be the Son of God, and for them the stories of scripture only make sense when understood in the interpretation of the prophet Muhammad whom we do not recognize as a prophet.

          How can believe what we read in Isaiah 40?  How can we claim that God is the source of all wisdom, justice, and knowledge?  How dare we assert that this is true not just for us, but is universally true and defines the way the world really is?  But we do dare to make such claims.  We would not be a church of Jesus’ disciples if we didn’t.

          Isaiah 40 says the Lord sits above the circle of the earth (v. 21), not as a distant observes, but as a God who sustains everything.  The world would not spin were it not for God’s constant, active, involvement.  Do we believe it?  Of course!  We are all sitting in church.  It is Sunday morning.  Here, with great enthusiasm, we shout, yes, we believe!

          What about the rest of the time?  Away from church, in the normal places of our lives, do we believe this stuff about God that we find in the Bible and our songs and our tradition?  Do we believe in a way that is seen in the choices we make every day in life?  Do we make decisions based on our rock-solid assurance that God is real, is pay attention and is truly in charge?  Does this belief we claim reveal itself in how we manage our lives?  Does our faith determine how we see the world?  Does our “Yes, we believe” define us to the core?

         

          In 2015, we as a church body will explore what it looks like to live a public faith.  We live our Christianity out in the open.  None of us will be a secret, under cover disciple.  By this I do not mean we announce every time walk in a room, “Alert, alert, Christ-follower on board.”  I do not mean we constantly wear “Jesus saves” t-shirts.  I do not mean we throw away our CD’s and replace them with recordings of hymns.  If you enjoy hymns, great.  If you want to listen to Bruno Mars or Taylor Swift, do so.  I wear shirts that might described as ‘witness wear,’ or ‘spirit wear.’  I also wear shirts that have message about my favorite sports teams.  And sometimes I have conversations with people away from church and I am not trying to convince them of Christianity.  I am trying to convince them the Lions will win a playoff game. 

          When I say we are to spend significant time exploring what it looks like to live a public faith, I mean we will attempt to live in our Christianity so that it defines us.  Through prayer, through conversation with fellow believers and with nonbelievers, through reading and study, through worship and missions, and in numerous other ways, we are going to examine and try to live out a Christianity that is essential to who we are.  You could not be you apart from who you are in Christ.  I could not be who I am apart from Him. 

          We will live for this in 2015 and additionally, and this is a natural development of living a public faith, we will explore how to live in such a way that our lives are pointers.  People see us and come to us and realize that our lives are pointing them to Jesus.  They discover through us – through our witness – that in Jesus there is comfort, forgiveness, joy, healing, abundant life, and eternal life.  A public faith is a life that bears witness to God as we know God in Jesus.

          One source among many that will be a helpful guide is Yale Divinity School theologian Miroslav Volf.  He offers several thoughts on how a public faith interacts with the broader culture.  Another way of saying this is how we live in the world – a world disinterested in the Christian testimony about God.  Here are four of his observations[i]:

1.    Christian Faith that is Public Faith is prophetic.  It seeks to mend the world by being active in every arena of public life.  Arts, business, production, science, education, government – Christians participate in all arenas seeking to mend the world which is most certainly broken.

2.    Christian Faith that is Public Faith brings grace and is marked by the way we give grace.

3.    A Christian living a public faith cares for others and works for their flourishing.

4.    A concern for human flourishing is what brings the Christian into the public conversation.  Our mission is to announce that Jesus Christ is Lord, that with him comes the eternal Kingdom of God, and that salvation for all is found in him.  What propels us into public debates is our commitment to human flourishing – humans living as God intended, as God’s image-bearers. 

Volf’s writings would serve as a guide as will other theologians and Christian writers and thinkers.  Our primary source for our living as witnesses to Jesus is the Holy Spirit.  First and foremost we are guided by the Spirit. 

We encounter the Spirit is within the Christian community, the church and the traditions of the church.  The Spirit is present in all places and speaks at God’s initiative.  We cannot predict when or where the Spirit will shout, when the Spirit will whisper, or where the Spirit will remain silent.  We seek, we listen, and live in acknowledgement that we are Spirit-dependent people.

We are connected people.  Not a one of us is a solitary Christian.  We live in relationship with one another.

The third essential primary source besides Spirit and Church is the Bible.  A lot of evangelicals put the Bible at the top of the list.  The great man of the reformation, Martin Luther, declared we are informed by sola scriptura – scripture alone.  Of course his own followers were not informed by scripture alone.  They met God in the Bible as Luther taught the Bible.  Evangelicals today, who furiously declare that their authority is the Bible and only the Bible, read the Bible through an interpretive lens.  They read as they have received from Augustine, Martin Luther, John, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and many others. 

In our quest to live as Jesus’ disciples publically, as witnesses, our primary sources are the Spirit, the church community (including tradition), and the Word (the Bible).  These three primary sources of guidance and truth are interconnected.  We understand each by way of the others. 

In January 2015, our focus at HillSong will be on Second Isaiah.  Some readers of the book of Isaiah believe one man named Isaiah wrote every chapter, 1-66.  Other readers look at the difference in themes and in life situations, and they believe the prophet named Isaiah is responsible for chapters 1-39, written before the exile.  Then an anonymous writes chapters 40-55 during the exile.  Then after the exile a third author, sometimes called 3^rd Isaiah, writes chapters 56-66.  The Word of God does not change whether you think one man is responsible for the entire book Isaiah, or you are open to the possibility that there is a first, second, and third Isaiah. 

Either way, what we find in this incredible witness, is a person who follows God and lives his faith publically.  He makes incredible claims about God.  We are going to spend this month looking at those claims, deciding whether or not we can believe them, and whether or not we are willing to live our lives in complete worship and surrender to the God who is the subject of those claims. 

So, we see where we are headed.  In 2015, we are going to as individuals and as a body of believers strive to contribute to human flourishing as we announce the kingdom of God and salvation in Jesus in the everyday places of our lives.  We will do this by living a public faith. 

To set the challenge, we hear a bit more from Second Isaiah 40. 

²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
    calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
    mighty in power,
    not one is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
    and strengthens the powerless.
³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
    and the young will fall exhausted;
³¹ but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
    they shall walk and not faint.

          This week, read this chapter over and over.  In the depths of the soul ask, do I believe it? Ask, can I look into my own life and say, yes, right there, that’s where the belief I speak actually defines who I am?

          Also this week, acknowledge if you have doubts.  If you’re not sure if you believe it or not, go there, and name your doubts. 

          If you know someone who doubts the reality of God or the ability of God or the goodness of God, think about that person this week.  Pray for him or her and consider how your public faith can point him or her to Jesus. 

          Ask …

-         Do I believe it?

-         What are some signs from my life that show I believe it?

-         Do I have doubts

-         Do I know someone who has doubts?

-         How can I bear witness to the one I know who doubts?

I pray for all us that this week we begin in new ways to understand how to live our faith in the world. 

AMEN

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[i] Volf (2011).  A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good Brazos Press (Grand Rapids, MI), p.xv-xvi.