Called to New Creation

One of my heroes of the Christian faith is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was hanged in a Nazi concentration camp for his small role in a plot to assassinate Hitler.  Bonhoeffer had been teaching theology in the United States.  He did not have to go back to Germany.  He was free and clear.  But his faithfulness to Christ compelled him to return home, face the dangers, and try to do his part to help his countrymen.  He was courageous and faithful and because of that, he died. 

          What was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “call” from God?  Was he called to be a theologian?  Was he called to be a martyr?  When I read a biography about Bonhoeffer, I was amazed to learn that one of his earliest jobs was as a youth minister in a German-speaking church in Spain.  I thought, “I can relate to that.  I’ve been a youth minister!  In a small way, I can feel connected to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”  What a thrill for me.

          What was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s call from God?  He was called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  It is the same call God has for you and for me.  For Bonhoeffer, the call dictated how he would approach dating, which he put off for a long time.  By the time he was engaged to marry Maria von Wedemeyer, it was too late.  He was arrested before they could marry.  It’s sad, but it was a part of the testament of his life, a life lived following Jesus.

          His call led him to serve as youth pastor at that church in Spain.  His call led him to study theology and teach in New York.  His call led him, while in New York, to worship at a black Baptist church in Harlem and teach youth Sunday school there.  His call led him to go back to Germany.  And while he was in prison, prior to his execution, his call led him to stay even when he could have escaped.  He stayed in prison as an act of solidarity with others who were not getting out. 

          We have spent three weeks examining what it is to live as a person called by God.  Each one of us is called.  I occupy the role of pastor, I am called to that role, but I am no more called than anyone else here.  My calling is different than yours, but yours is just as much a call from God. 

My primary call is the same as Bonhoeffer’s and yours.  His call, my call and yours all stem from the heart of God who beckons all people to come to Him in faith and repentance.  We turn from sin and run into the outstretched, waiting arms of our loving father.  Jesus the Son bore our sins on the cross.  We are saved from death and saved to life as followers of Jesus.  In the disciple life, we live the life God saved us to live. 

          As called people, we live in fellowship – at the communion table and at the common table. We share life together.  A second way we live as called people is in the living of the Gospel story.  The story of our lives and the story of God are brought together in Christ, and we spend our lives telling the story of the Gospel.  A third we way we answer God and live as called people is forgiveness.  We live as forgiven people which means we receive forgiveness and we give it.  Today we receive as a fourth aspect of our calling.  We are called to be a part of a renewed humanity.

          Passages from 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 paint the picture. 

          In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “So it is with the resurrection of the dead,” and he describes the contrast from the body we have now – bodies that are dying, and the body we will have when we join Jesus in resurrection.  Resurrection is a part of new creation – God’s plan to reclaim His original creation, which was good. God will reclaim the world and the universe, through the cross cleanse us of sin and defeat death, and all will be as God intended in the beginning.

          Right now we still live under the shadow of the Fall, Adam and Eve’s original sin.  Right now we live with sin in the world and with the shadow of death cast over us.  We are all dying but God calls us to something else.  To answer and to live as called people, we live as those who will live eternally.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrected body is imperishable, raised in glory, and raised in power.  It is a spiritual body.  This does not mean it is immaterial.  In Heaven, we are not shades and we are not beams of light.  We have bodies, but as 1 Corinthians 15 says, we bear the image of the man of Heaven.

          The Spiritual Body cannot be harmed nor can it be killed.  Our resurrection into these spiritual bodies is made possible by the death of the Son on the cross and is the work of God the Spirit.  As we turn to faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit goes to work in us, transforming us.  The transformation is complete at the resurrection at the end time on Judgment Day.

          We see signs of this transformation in how we live here and now.  In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul writes, “From now on … we regard no one from a human point of view. … If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”  We are still in the world where pain is present and the effects of sin and death continue to plague mankind.  However, we see this world from God’s perspective and we begin to invite people we meet to move from the story of sin and death into the story of eternal life. 

          How do we live with this eternal perspective when we are surrounded by cancer and depression, drunk driving fatalities and the complete breakdown of marriages and families?  How do we, with a straight face, claim to see the world from God’s heavenly vantage point when stories of terrorism and refugee crises abound?  How can we talk about abundant life and eternal life in our world of death?  There’s an orphan crisis in numerous countries.  Abortion – the death of defenseless babies – is accepted as a normal practice.  Decency is mocked and political vitriol seems to lead to more success than truth telling. 

          I asked the discipleship groups of our church to discuss this question.  If you could eliminate any one thing from human experience – arthritis, heartache, taxes, diabetes – anything, what would you choose?  What would you remove from the human condition so with this thing gone, life would then be richer, more fulfilled, and happier?  What would you choose to get rid of?

          When God created the world, the human condition was “good” from God’s perspective.  This means to be human was to be healthy, to live forever, and to be in right relationship with God and with other humans.  The renewed creation, the resurrected existence in the eternal kingdom is the experience of living in healthy bodies that never die and it is the experience of being in right relationship with God and with people.  James K.A. Smith says the call to new creation is “a call to be human, to take up the vocation of being fully and authentically human, and to be a community of God’s people who image God to the world.”[i]

          When we read 2 Corinthians and talk about us becoming new creations, this is what is meant: healthy bodies that live forever in right relationships; relationships of love.  We live to thrive and to create, just as our God created us.  We live to make something of the world – something good, something useful, something beautiful, something delicious, something melodic, something joyful, something life-producing. 

          Of course, this call can only be answered as the Holy Spirit of God works through us.  Today is Pentecost, the birth of the church when the Holy Spirit filled the original Christ followers seven weeks after the resurrection of Jesus.  When the Holy Spirit came, they were able miraculously speak each other’s languages.  They were able to understand as Peter preached in Aramaic.  And 3000 became Christians in one day.

          Today, the Holy Spirit continues filling the hearts of Jesus’ followers and speaking through the church, which is the body of Christ.  What is the Spirit saying and doing that leads us to answer and help other people answer the call to New Creation?

          We cannot cure all cancer, AIDS, heart disease, and other ailments that attack the body, not with a snap of the fingers or a simple prayer.  So what can the church do?  We pray fervently and unceasingly.  We support doctors and researchers and recognize that the work that they do is God’s ordained work and in answering God’s call, some Christ-followers go into medicine or research or nursing or pharmacy or public service as their life’s calling.  Those of us who do not go into these fields support and celebrate our brothers and sisters who do.  In this we way, we live into the New Creation.

Moreover, as the church, we come around our brothers and sisters who are troubled with sickness and disability.  As a community, we recognize that every member struggles with something, either emotional, physical, mental, financial, or some other struggle.  We wrap the arms of the body of Christ around every member in love so that while we won’t approximate the heavenly bodies described in 1 Corinthians 15, we will create space for all people to have joy, love, acceptance, and family.  We work for all to thrive.

How else do we answer the call to New Creation?  We won’t solve all the problems of evil and injustice, not with the snap of a finger or a simple prayer.  So, we pray fervently and unceasingly.  We see inequality and name it.  We insist that Black lives matter, we understand why, and we renounce systemic injustice as we create spaces for all people to thrive and have a voice.  We see tragedy, we open our doors and our hearts, and we creates spaces for immigrants, refugees, and homeless people to belong and be loved.  We see people Jesus loves before we declare nationality.  We recognize we are all children of God for whom Jesus died on the cross.  We, God’s evangelical church, proclaimers of the Gospel, are the loudest, most powerful voices that call for justice and brotherhood among people of different races.

How else do we answer the call to New Creation?  We won’t answer all the questions of identity and disagreement, not with the snap of a finger or a simple prayer.  So, we pray fervently and unceasingly and we go out of our way to pray for people whose perspective is different than our own.  This is how Paul’s vision in the two passages from Corinthians is lived out in our lives.  We welcome people – even people who disagree with us about what’s acceptable in terms of marriage and sexual orientation.  In the world’s fallen state, people of genuine good will have opposing opinions.  Opposing opinions does not mean we draw battle lines. As it is with disease and sickness and as it is with matters of justice and equality, we approach the question of identity and gender and orientation in love as we create a safe space where disagreements can be hashed out while maintaining the dignity of all in the conversation.  Creating safe space and living compassionately is how we answer the call to renewed humanity . 

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer played the different roles of his life – youth minister, theologian, German Sunday school teacher of black youth in Harlem, conspirator against Hitler – in every role, he was Spirit-driven.  However well I do in my roles – pastor, husband, dad, friend – I am Spirit-driven.  I mess up badly sometimes, but the Spirit has led me to these roles and when I perform in them, I am answer God’s call.  In the roles in your life, including getting out of bed to come to worship this morning, you have the opportunity to answer God’s call. 

When we all do that – answer the call, and cooperate with one another to create a space in our church community that empowers all present to explore God’s call on their lives and to answer that call, then we as a body are living into the resurrection reality.  Together, in worship, in faith, determined to maintain compassion, extend welcome, and share God’s grace-filled love, we lean in to God’s New Creation.

[i] Desiring the Kingdom, p.162-163.

If We Forgive (Matthew 6:14-15)

Sunday, May 8, 2016

          Two weeks ago, I suggested that we are all called to sit at God’s table.  One might hear that and imagine a heavenly banquet, and that would not be wrong, but, this is more than simply the hope that we will be with God after death.  This is a call from God now.  God beckons us to live as Kingdom people, and this means we make hospitality a normal way of life.  We invite other people into our lives.  A question I invited the church to ponder is how does participating in communion with other Christians link us to one another?

          Last week’s message was each one of us is called to live in God’s story.  We think of our own lives as stories to be told.  We immerse ourselves in God’s story so that the story of our lives cannot be told apart from the story of the salvation we have in Jesus.  Thus we are challenged to name specific things that assure us that we are part of God’s story.  As we look at the world around us and at our lives and relationships, what reminds us that we are part of God’s story?

          Both of these things – fellowship and hospitality, and life lived as integrated story; my story and God’s intertwined – both of these run into the same problem.  We are called to fellowship and we are called to story, but we are sinners.  We mess up, we disobey God, we ignore God, we say discouraging things to each other, we lie and cheat, we fail to give love when God puts people in need of love in our lives, we hoard resources instead of sharing, we curse instead blessing; in a millions ways we are, all of us, sinners.  This means we commit sins daily.

          How can serial rejecters of God’s word and God’s way answer the call to fellowship and the call to enter God’s story?  We destroy fellowship and dump filth on the story.  How, in our sin, do we ever do God any good?  ­­­­­

          We’re in the midst of a 5-part series on call and this week’s may well present the biggest hurdle for many of us to overcome.  We are called to forgive.  We are each sinners, which means each one of us lives among sinners.  Ask my wife or children. They could give you a detailed list of the ways I fumble things.  They could catalogue hurtful words that have spilt out of my mouth.  They could offer extensive testimony to my temper, my forgetfulness, my laziness.  And they wouldn’t be exaggerating, nor would their accounts be intentionally mean-spirited. It would be honest. 

I could give a similar account of each of them.  The people in your life, who know you best, could do the same with you.  Sin wrecks life and one cruel truth is we sin most against those we love the most.  Indeed, how could we, demolishers of all that is good, answer the call to fellowship and the call to tell and walk in the story of God?  James K.A. Smith writes, “The church … is a witness to the renewal of creation.  … But given the brokenness of our relationships, the abuses and violence and competition that fragment our communion, the body [the church] must be reknit together through practices of reconciliation and forgiveness.  A kingdom-shaped community cannot be satisfied with private, isolated individuals only reconciled “vertically” to God, for the manifest witness of such reconciliation will be love of neighbor.”[i]

Jesus connects forgiveness between a person and God and forgiveness between people in Matthew 6.  In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches the Lord’s Prayer; in the middle of this prayer, we find forgiveness.  “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (6:12).  The first instance, God forgiving me, does not stand apart from the second, me forgiving the jerk who hurt me.  He can’t be “the jerk.”  There’s no doubt he hurt me.  He’s guilty. He bullied, or lied, or cursed, or stole from me.  His sin is reality and I am injured.  But, the call of God on me is forgiveness. 

In the verses that come immediately after the Lord ’s Prayer, Jesus paints a crystal clear picture.   “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespass” (6:14-15).

Many Bible commentators, especially evangelicals who want to read the Bible as scholars and as Jesus’ disciples, struggle mightily with these verses.  It sure does sound like God’s forgiveness is contingent.  We read Romans and other passages in Paul’s letters and build our faith a theology of God’s unconditional grace and love.  We are saved because of what God did, not because of what we do.  A major aspect of our salvation is that God, in His mercy, forgives our sins.  But, here in Matthew, straight from Jesus’ mouth, forgiveness sounds conditional.  We are forgiven if we forgive.  If not, well, that’s a sadder story.

Some of the experts I read try to find ways to get us off the hook.  We can be forgiven even if we fail to forgive.  I appreciate their efforts to be thorough in reading this passage as scholars and skilled interpreters.  But I think trying to give us “an out” from the hard work of forgiveness misses Jesus’ point entirely.  We are called to give and receive forgiveness.  Rather doing hermeneutical gymnastics for the sake of making the scripture say what we want it to say instead of what it actually says, as faithful Bible readers we do well to respond to what it actually says. 

If we forgive each other, our heavenly father will also forgive us.  If we refuse forgiveness, we are not living as forgiven people.  We are called to live as forgiven people.  In a moment, I will demonstrate from scripture the fact that God’s forgiveness is unconditional.  God’s grace pours out of God’s heart and floods our lives.  But when that happens, will we dive into the living water?  Will we receive the forgiveness we are given?  As much as I can describe how sinful we are there is more important to realize and hold tightly.  We are completely forgiven, and we are called to live as forgiven people.  When we see ourselves as God sees us and in Christ, we realize God does not see the stains of our sins.  God sees us and sees the purity of Jesus.  We’ve got to see ourselves in that way.  Yes, you are a sinner.  In in Christ, you are new creation, a child of God who bears His image and whose sins have been washed away.

One of Jesus’ most brilliant parables illustrates this forgiveness into which we are called to live.  This is from Matthew 18.

²¹ Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church^[g] sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven^[h] times.

²³ “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴ When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents^[i] was brought to him; ²⁵ and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii;^[j] and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. ³² Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵ So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister^[k] from your heart.”

Why didn’t the slave forgive his fellow slave?  He had not received the grace given to him.  Ten thousand talents is more money than a slave would earn in a 100 life times.  How he came to fall into such a debt is another story, but his reaction was not to claim a mistake had been made.  He did not say, “O My King, how could I ever have fallen behind so much money?”  Imagine a minimum wage earner owing $25 million dollars.  How many centuries of work at minimum wage would be needed to pay it off?  And yet the slave says, “Have patience and I will pay every thing?”  Asking for more time.  More time?  For that debt?  Forgiveness never enter the slave’s mind, even when he receives it.

He grasps his fellow slave by the throat and that guy says the same he said.  “Have patience.”  The guy asks for time.  The difference is the size of the debt.  His fellow slave owed a few days’ worth of wages.  It could be paid off in a week.  But he won’t give even that week because he is locked in debt-payment thinking, not grace-forgiveness thinking.

When Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you,” I think he’s talk about the entire picture of living in forgiveness.  Live in a mindset where we accept ourselves as forgiven people and extend that grace others.

We know God gives forgiveness and grace as His pleasure and regardless of our actions.  Jesus died on the cross while we were still in our sin.  He died for us whether we ever confessed or not.  After the resurrection, Jesus received Peter on the beach.  This is in John 21.  Peter had denied knowing Jesus, and now Jesus was forgiving Peter and restoring him.  The forgiveness extended to Peter was not contingent on whether or not Peter had forgiven his neighbor.  The forgiveness of God is unconditional.  However, it is not complete if we don’t receive it.  God extends that forgiveness, but if continue, like the man in the parable to operate in a debt-payment view of the world, we’re not walking in grace.

Please not, I am not declaring that failure to receive forgiveness is a determining factor who is and is not saved.  God determines who is saved and I don’t try to make a lists of the saved and the damned.  God has not given me either of those lists nor has God told me I should try to speculate about either of them. 

What I am presenting this morning is what I believe to be a call of God on all disciples of Jesus.  Every one of us is called to live in forgiveness – both giving it and receiving it. 

Where this becomes especially hard is in relation to someone who has hurt you deeply.  The question our small groups will discuss around this is what changes occur in you when you forgive someone?  That is not a simple question (a) because it takes a lot of spiritual energy and Christ-like love to give forgiveness and (b) because giving forgiveness doesn’t instantly erase the pain of the sin committed against you.  So, don’t run out, say “I forgive the one who wounded me,” and then expect instant healing and blessing.  It’s not easy or instant.

However, do explore this.  Who hurt you?  How bad was it?  Can you, in turning to God with some trusted Christian friends alongside praying with you and for you, find in yourself to forgive?  I believe the Holy Spirit will help.  As hard as it is, forgive and then look inside to see the way the Spirit is at work in you.  Note how different life looks when you walk in grace and live in forgiveness instead in a debt-payment mindset.  And, ask that same group of friends to help you see yourself as forgiven and beloved because that is God sees you.

That’s what the cross means.  God loves, forgives us, and receives as His own. Believe it.  When you look in the mirror, see one who is loved by God.

AMEN

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[i] James K. A. Smith (2009) Desiring the Kingdom p.201.

Dive In

I stand on the dock at my Aunt’s place at the lake.  The sun warms my skin.  When I think of August, I think of this place.  I run toward the end of the dock and dive off.  For a moment, I am superman, flying.  And then … splash.  The entire world changes.  I am an arrow, piercing the water.  The world sounds very odd, distorted under water.  I can’t really hear, not sounds I trust, just water shooting past my ears.  And I can’t see well, not even if my eyes are open.  The lake is dark, and everything is a blur.  I can’t see or hear clearly, but I feel.  I feel my body shooting down into the black, cold depths.  Down, down … but my body also feels the way back up to the surface. At some point, unconsciously, I reorient so I am now climbing in the water, not falling.  I head up, toward the light.  I break through the surface into the air, which I gratefully, breathe in deeply.
Is your life a story?  Are you conscious of the story?  Or, are you just going through life.  You had dreams, or maybe you didn’t.  There was a job that you wanted as a career and maybe you’re in it!  Or it did not work out, and so now, you’re thankful to be in a job, but it is just that; a job.  You don’t see a plot line as you imagine your own life.  You don’t even do that – imagine your own life.  You just live it.  If you want a story, you’ll go to the movies or watch TV or read The Hunger Games or Harry Potter.  Maybe you love life.  Maybe you are maddeningly frustrated by it.  Maybe you live from one adrenalin rush to another.  Maybe your life has slowed to a point that there is not much adrenalin anymore and you’re kind of thankful for the slower, predictable pace.  But however you might describe your life – and you’d only do that if someone asked – it’s not a story, not  the way a story or not in the sense of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or Downton Abbey.
I am not addressing everyone.  Many of you here are quite aware of the story of your lives and you have been kind enough to share bits of your story with me over cups of coffee.  When you do that, share your story, you have invited me onto your sacred ground.  I remember to take off my shoes.  I am grateful to hear of your life.  But, if you when asked, “What is the story of your life,” insist on shrugging your shoulders as you say, “there’s nothing remarkable about me,” well, I vehemently disagree.
I believe each one of us is living a story that is worth being shared.  I also believe you and me and all people are called to a larger story.  And when we answer this call and dive into that larger story, our own individual stories are enhanced and enlarged and we go places we never could have imagined.
Of course the story we are each called to inhabit is the story of God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  As the trinity shows, God is inherently relational, and relationships are never seen in propositions.  Some people think that scripture is nothing more than propositions and rules.  Some Bible readers look to the word for guidelines and that is not all bad.  The Bible does offer foundational teachings upon which we can base our thought and build our worldview.
Jesus is Lord.
God is love.
God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life and everyone who lives and believes in him shall never truly die.
In Christ we are new creations.
Whatever we do for the least and the poorest around, we do for Christ.

These and many other pithy statements from scripture do well to encapsulate our faith.  However, we miss much if we simply grab a hold of these or other favorite Bible promises or commands.  If all we get from the Bible are a few rules, a few memorable quotes, and aphorisms that fit on coffee mugs, we’re not getting into the Bible at all.  Worse, a lot of misunderstanding of scripture comes when Christians build their ideas upon snippets from the Bible that have been divorced from the story of the Bible.
Why is it important to say Jesus is Lord?  When 1st century Christians said this, it was in a context in which the Roman Empire ruled and by law one was required to say, ‘Caesar is Lord.’  For Christians to say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and to put this in their holy book was rebellion against the powers that be.  There can only be one Lord.  Christians and Romans both clearly understood this.  And Christians declared the one Lord was most certainly not Caesar.  Some Christ-followers died horrible deaths for insisting that Jesus is Lord.
I am not sure 21st century American Christians understand the cost of our faith.  In our culture, ‘Lord,’ is a meaningless title.  We don’t use the word in every day life, so it lacks power when we hear it in church.  It is a word that lives in church and stays at church to be revisited each Sunday, but completely lacking influence in the places where we spend most of our lives.  This does not mean there are not powers that ‘lord’ over us demanding our complete loyalty while giving us no blessings.  Possessions, work & career, toxic relationships, addictions – these become idles, ‘lords’ that rule our lives and takes us away from the best life, the life in which we die to self and live as disciples of the Lord Jesus.  This contrast of lords – forces in our world v. the force of the Lord Jesus - is completely missed if we think the Bible is a book full of rules and Christianity is a vehicle that ensures us of heaven when we die.
When Christianity is a Sunday-only, life-after-death-only classification, it shrinks.  When Christianity is the story of God saving the world from sin and saving human beings to be His image bearers and when we see ourselves in the center of that story it expands exponentially to the point that we are completely swallowed in it so that there is no possible sense of reality apart from reality with God; and, we would never consider life apart from God.
Thus, I believe we are called into a story – the story.  How each one of us walks in the story is unique to each individual.  But we are all called to plunge into God’s story.
The Bible helps us do this, so we are called to plunge into the scriptures, to live in the story both as we live our lives.  But that may seem odd.  Live in the Bible story? But, it is 2016, not 40 AD.  I am in America, not Jerusalem.  I speak English, not Koine Greek.  We have a president elected by voters, not an emperor another nation has declared supreme.  How in the world do I live by the Bible story?
My friend Kevin, a pastor, likens Christians as we embody the Bible story in our own lives to characters in a popular movie series, Harry Potter.  
At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the great wizard Dumbledore wills a book of ancient runes to Harry’s friend Hermione, just before they and their companion Ron are to go on a difficult journey. At first the trio is unsure of why they’ve received this book, which turns out to be a collection of old fairy tales. How could this dusty book of children’s stories, written in a dead language, possibly help them on their treacherous journey? They come to find, however, that one of those fairy tales is actually true, and that their own journey is a part of that story. That ancient story does not give them instructions for everything they will face on their particular journey, but it does provide a picture of what they are looking for, and it turns out that is help enough.
            Scripture, too, is an ancient story that is in fact our story, and while it is not a blue print or a rule book for every situation in which Christians might find themselves, its pages record pictures that teach us what to look for on our pilgrimage and what to hope for along the way. These pictures are rarely clear at first, and if they seem to be so, it’s probably a sign that we need to look again and ask others what they see, too. But over time, when we sit together and the Spirit aides our reading, these ancient, true stories open up into what 20th century theologian Karl Barth called a “strange new world.” The Spirit gives those words texture and color and all of the sudden we find ourselves somehow inside of them instead of gazing at them. And when we look up from the page this strange new world is imprinted on our eyes, as though we had just looked into a bright light, but instead of being blinded we now see our own world through the overlay of the Bible’s strange new one. It is in those Spirit-filled moments that the history, literature, ethics, and religion recorded in the Bible are transfigured into Scripture, the Spirit’s testimony of the eternal Word of God who lays claim to our whole lives every time we hear it.

When we plunge into the deep waters of the Spirit and answer the call to live in the story by living fully submitted to God’s way as we know God through Jesus, worship and prayer become normative, defining practices for us.  Evangelism becomes natural because Christ colors our every thought, so no matter what words we speak, no matter the topic, what we say will be related to faith in Jesus.  Mission and works of compassion whether a donation to the Helping Hands offering, participation in church life, going on trips, or doing works locally become core parts of our lives.
We see the life immersed in Christ and in God’s story described in Colossians 3.
“12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord[f] has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ[g] dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.[h] 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I found out what it is like to dive into God’s story at my aunt’s dock at the lake.  Our family was on our annual trip there, and I dropped my wedding ring into the lake.  My wife me and a look and I put on the diving mask and swam down into the depth under the dock.
Have I mentioned that it is dark under there?  My goal was to swim around a bit so I later on I could say, “Well, I tried.”  But, I discovered something.  Being fully submerged and wearing that mask changes your perspective.  It is dark and murky and quiet – so quiet.  But after a minute, under dock, which is about 7 to 8 feet deep, your eyes adjust.  You can’t move around the way you can on land.  You’re in water, not air.   You have to swim, not walk.  You have to hold your breath – again, no air.  Diving in requires a complete adjustment to the world according to the new environment.
In that quiet world which was new to me even though it lay underneath a dock I stood upon for years, I realized how much full immersion changes everything.  And I found my ring!
The difference when we answer God’s call and dive into the story of God through worship prayer, through Bible reading and absorbing the Bible story into our minds and hearts, through works of compassion and evangelism – the difference is the light of God.  Deep under the water, light is dimmed, sound muffled, and senses dulled.  Immersed in God’s light we truly see.  We see the world by the light of God and so we see it as it really is.  Everything changes.  When we dive into God’s story, everything is new.  We see ourselves as we really are – new creations in Christ.
Our lives are stories and God writes new chapters each day.  Don’t view Christian faith as a set rules that gets us to Heaven when we die.  See it as the story of us and God.  And dive in.
AMEN

The Messiah in the Old Testament - Balaam, Moses

The Messiah in the Old Testament –Balaam, Moses (in Deuteronomy)

            I began this year by examining a book called The Messiah in the Old Testament by Walter Kaiser, of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  He went through OT texts to show how the Messiah, Jesus, had been a part of God’s plan from the beginning.  In reviewing Kaiser’s book, so far I have looked at his ideas about early Messianic anticipation in Genesis 3:15 (Adam, Eve and the Serpent), in Genesis 9 (Noah),  in the promise God made to Abraham that through him God would bless all the peoples of the earth (Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18); and, in Genesis 48:10, which Kaiser believes it meant to mean that the one from Judah will govern until the Messiah comes at which point the Messiah (Jesus) will rule the world.

            You can check my blog from January and February to read my posts reviewing Kaiser’s assessment of these passages (http://honesttalkwithgod.blogspot.com/).   I did not get to blog about the book in March or April, but am back to it now.

            Kaiser cites Balaam’s’ prophecy “the man whose eye is clear … who hears the words of God … who sees the vision of the Almighty” (Numbers 24:15-19).  Kaiser takes those vanquished kingdoms mentioned in the latter stanzas of v.17 to be representative of kingdoms throughout history who have opposed God’s plans.  He says, “The picture painted by Balaam of … the man who would rise out of Israel” is a picture of the coming Messiah.  He will literally clean house of all opposition to his rule and reign.”[i]

            In Deuteronomy, Kaiser cites 18:15, 18, which forecasts the prophetic role of the prophet.  Jesus was seen to supremely fill the roles of prophet, priest, and king.  It is common to call him king of kings.  We would be equally right in calling Him prophets of prophets.  And the book of Hebrews refers to him as the supreme High Priest. 

            By the time Jesus burst upon the scene, many in Israel were watching for a prophet who would surpass all previous prophets in greatness and knowledge of God.  So when he calmed storms at sea and fed multitudes and drove out demons, those around him were sure he was the expected one.  Kaiser points to John 6:14 where the crowds said, “Surely this is the prophet who is to come into the world.”  Also Kaiser observes that Peter surely saw Jesus this way as he quoted Deuteronomy 18 in his second temple message (Acts 3:11-26).  Stephen made the same connection in his preaching (Acts 7:37).[ii] 

            The Messiah, Jesus, was and is the ruler who surpasses all and is the prophet supreme.  In the next installment, we’ll see how Kaiser assesses passages from the book of Job in relation to the Messiah and to Jesus.

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[i] Kaiser, p.57.

[ii] Kaiser, p.60.

Called to God's Table

          In angst-ridden poetry, thinkers, whose ponderings pour out beautiful verse or angry verse, express their questions, their frustration, and their confusion.  In those questions see this: see a person desperately seeking God.  Even if his language is raw and strewn with bitter, atheistic sentiment, deep down he – the critic, the skeptic - needs what only God can give, and he or she, the poet knows she needs it.

God smiles and invites that person.  “Come, drink.  Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” Thirsty for truth?  Come.  Thirsty for hope.  Come.  Are you literally thirsty because you live where clean water is hard to come by?  Come.  Come to the living waters of God.  Everyone who thirsts, come.

          I saw a man crawling along the sidewalk.  He has some kind of degenerative condition either in his legs or in his back.  His body is contorted in a shape that doesn’t appear human as he uses his hands to drag himself, useless legs and all, up the street.  He’s extremely poor in a country that is, for 95% of the people, extremely poor – Ethiopia.  So for him there is no treatment, no surgery, no physical therapy, no wheelchair.  His condition begins as a pain in the back or legs and then gets worse and worse until his legs no longer work and he has to continue on by dragging himself through the dirt, using his hands as his feet.  He’s poor.

          To him, God says, Come!  Come buy wine and milk.  Come, and without money, eat your fill.  Delight yourself in God’s rich food. 

          Through his prophet Isaiah, God reminds the world that He is a God who calls and invites.  Noah was called to be part of the story when God started over.  Abraham was called to a place he did not know.  Moses was called to face the enemy and lead God’s people to salvation.  Jonah was called to lead the enemy to salvation.  And in Isaiah 55, God calls the thirsty to drink God’s living water and the hungry and starving to feast at God’s table. 

          God calls us – each one of us.

          When I was a college student, I remember receiving invitations from theological seminaries.  We were invited to attend weekend programs with titles like, "Come Explore your Call."

Or, "A Weekend of Discernment."

Or, "What Plans does God have for your Life?"

Nearly every seminary had a program where they recruited college juniors and seniors who studied in religion departments or participated in campus ministries.  The recruitment was based around the question Are you being called into vocational ministry?

          Now, some 25 years later, I have to ask, is it only "vocational ministers" who are called by God?  Is it that someone decides to be a lawyer or a teacher or an accountant, but is called to be a pastor?

          I think all who turn to Jesus are called by God.  I believe God even calls people who have not put their faith in Him.  In Luke 15, it says he seeks the lost.  God goes out of His way to draw those far from Him into His embrace.  Maybe in terms of one’s profession, people wait tables or hammer nails to pay the bills not because God called them into food service or construction.  I am under no illusion that everyone is working in a job to which God called him or her. Sometimes we do jobs because we need to work.  That was my story when I was high school substitute teacher many years ago.

However, all Christians whether pastors, waiters, truck drivers, nurses, or college professors are called by God.  Furthermore, table-waiting or trash collecting can indeed be a call for a season of life even if not for a life time.  Every person who is part of the body of Christ is called by God.  In most jobs, we have the opportunity to live as called persons who give witness to the love of God and the life we have in Jesus’ name.

          At HillSong, we are going to spend five weeks in a church-wide emphasis exploring God’s call on us.  Specifically, we will consider what it means to live our lives as part of a bigger story.  We will look at the story of God and how God calls us to be part of it.  What do our lives look like when we live daily with a sense that God is summoning us?  Who are we as a people and as individuals when we live in God’s calling? 

Each of our small groups will be given thought-provoking questions to include in their prayers times as they engage with what we do on Sundays. 

I described the man I saw in Ethiopia, the one crawling along with a back and legs bent in ways I have never seen.  Can any two people be less alike than me, a healthy, educated, middle class American, and this Ethiopian man who lives in a completely broken body – mangled because no medical care is available to him? We literally and figuratively are worlds apart.  And yet, he and I share this.  The water we both need for life and the food that makes us both rich beyond the dreams of the wealthiest people on earth cannot be earned or acquired but only received from God as a gracious gift.  In Isaiah 55, God declares that He wants to give that gift.  He wants to give both me and that man and also you the living water and the sumptuous food set on Heaven’s table; moreover, he calls us to that table!

God does not silently sit at the crossroads and hand out blessings to whomever happens to stop.  God proactively reaches out and invites.  We are summoned to God’s table.  In fact, in Jesus Christ, the eternal God, steps out of Heaven and into our time-bound world as he takes on himself all the pain of the fall and of sin and death. Jesus coming in the flesh is how God hand delivers the invitation to each of us. 

Two ways we live in our calling and enact the gift of God are the Lord’s Supper and communal meals.  Of the Lord’s Supper, also called the Eucharist, James K.A. Smith says, “it is a normative picture of the justice of the kingdom of God.”[i]  The broken Ethiopian man and you and I and Donald Trump[ii] and any other person we can envision all have an invitation and we each have equal standing.  We each come to God’s table unworthy.  We are not invited because we deserve to be there.  We’re invited because we don’t deserve it.  Jesus died for us while were yet sinners.  The broken bread evokes the reality of his broken body.  The dark juice is his spilt blood – shed for us.  The justice of the kingdom; here, all come because of God’s grace.

Smith also says the Supper constitutes us as an eschatological people.  With that fancy theological verbiage he means we are directional – living toward the end and then toward resurrection.  In the resurrection, the broken man will not be broken.  I will not be a rich American in the present sense, where I am wealthier than most people in the world.  In Christ we are all called to inherit the riches of God.  Participating in the Supper reminds me of where we are going and it reminds me to work for justice while we are on the way there.  In the case of the man I saw on the street, I did not work specifically to empower him other than through my prayer.  But I was in Ethiopia as a part of a HillSong trip to join in an effort to help other people who are materially poor, but relationally filled with abundance. 

At the table the justice of the kingdom sets us all – the crippled man, Trump, the people we visited, you, me – as equals and we all, in Christ, look forward to eternity at God’s table where Isaiah 55 is no longer a prophetic anticipation, but an eternal, literal reality.  We go from working for justice to living in perfect justice in God’s physical presence.  We go from praying for that time when we can eat and drink without cost or limitation to eating and drinking without cost, enough for everyone.  We are called to God’s table and we enact that call by taking communion in worship with other believers.

Another way we enact and anticipate the call of God is by sharing table fellowship; eating together.  After worship today, we’ll have lunch together.  We’ll eat food prepared by us and provided by us.  We each bring something to share.  Is it clear that this is much more than a biological act?  All animals take in food and their bodies convert that food into energy needed for life.  When we sit together, we eat food that has been carefully, lovingly prepared. We sit with old friends and new friends.  We laugh, reminisce, retell old stories and hear other stories for the first time. 

In all this we enact, or “live toward,” the community in which we will spend eternity.  We could reduce the significance of it all by saying, “Well, it was a nice potluck at church this past Sunday.”  That would be a true statement, but also an incomplete one.  The “nice potluck” is a gathering of the people of God in joy.  We don’t come just because it’s the best choice among many options for how to spend a Sunday afternoon.  We come and eat together and join our hearts to each other because we are called to this.

The enactment is also anticipation.  We are called people – called to have lunch together but also called to spend eternity together.  When our bodies and our souls feel things we would describe as “contentment” or “happiness” or “satisfaction,” those words are the best we can do in communicating what is happening.  But those descriptors fall short in portraying the feelings we’ll have when we sit at God’s table in the resurrection.  What we do today in taking communion and then in sharing a meal together whets our appetite for the table God has set for us. 

Smith calls the Lord’s Supper a meal “to go” because it is but a “foretaste of the feast in the Kingdom.”[iii] As persons called to God’s table we spend our lives moving toward God and bringing others with along the way.  Three spiritual practices of answering the call to God’s table are (1) participation in communion with the church, (2) participation in community meals like today’s potluck in a community of brothers and sisters in Christ, and (3) the offer of hospitality to one another and to strangers outside of the worshipping context. 

Two of these spirituals practices can be done within the next hour – the Lord’s Supper and a meal enjoyed together.  The third, hospitality, is one I pray each of us will explore in the week to come.  Hospitality can take countless forms.  Experiment with it.  Discover how you will extend hospitality to another person.  I think you’re called to this. We all are.

And the words of the call come from God through the prophet Isaiah. 

“Everyone who thirsts, come.  You that have no money, come, buy, and eat.”

“Listen carefully and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.”

AMEN

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[i] J.K.A. Smith (2009), Desiring the Kingdom, Baker Academic (Grand Rapids), p. 201.

[ii]This reference specifically to Donald Trump comes as he is most likely to be the Republican nominee for president in the 2016 race.  His polarizing campaign has been viewed by progressives as dangerous as with great bombast he continuously says xenophobic, racist things.  The Republican establishment has gone to great lengths to defeat him, yet he continues to win primaries.  At this point, just mentioning his name in a sermon, especially suggesting that he would sit at a communion table, is enough to raise hackles in the crowd.

[iii] Smith, p.200.

What The Resurrection Means for our Pain (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Sunday, April 3, 2016

            What color of suffering do you know well?  Endless shades of pain visit human beings: disease and treatments that mock us with hope only to have hope dashed when a relapse comes; loss – loss of a loved one, loss of a relationship, loss of job and with it loss of identity; that which shall not be named – mental illness; anxiety of various types.  Pain comes from every angle.  Anxiety by itself takes on numerous forms – relational.  I struggled with that one for years.  There’s theological anxiety: what if what we do every Sunday is all for nothing, there is no God, and this life is all there is?  And social anxiety, which branches off in countless directions.

            What a horrible opening paragraph to the sermon one week after Easter.  Just last Sunday, we stood joyfully blinded by light emanating from the empty tomb.  We can still see it from here, still feel its warmth.  And I stand reciting verse after verse of depression. 

            First Peter 1:6 says Christians rejoice even as we suffer various trials.  This letter was read in churches that worshiped about 60 years after the resurrection.  These were second generation Christians, most of whom had not met Jesus in person or even any of his original followers.  They came to faith as we do, by the witness of those who came before them.  However, unlike us, in the late first century, to be part of a Christian church was to be part of an extremely small and often persecuted minority.  Where the passage describes the “various trials,” that word ‘various’ literally means in Greek ‘multi-colored.’

            That’s the crossroad where today’s church meets the Christians of the first century.  That’s the intersection of struggle and faith.  While our trials differ from theirs, like them our struggles are multi-colored.  Some of the trials we go through come from our own mistakes.  We find ourselves knee-deep in messes of our own making.  Some can be explained.  A person is in a wheel-chair because another person drank too much beer and then drove a car.  Some suffering cannot be explained.  God, why does one 55-year-old run several marathons a year while another 55-year-old comes down with cancer?  And God doesn’t answer the “why” question.  Some suffering is unfairly stigmatized.  We show great compassion for the one with cancer while we judge the one with depression.   Neither did anything to be afflicted.  It is not the depressed person’s fault he is depressed but from Christians he hears, “Get over it.” 

And by the way, even if someone suffers and it is his own fault, as followers of Jesus, the giver of unlimited grace, aren’t we to be givers of grace and compassion?  It is why Christians visit prisons and love prisoners.  We are called, in Christ, to even love people who in some way are responsible for the difficulties in their lives.  We are not supposed to rub people’s noses in the messes they make.  We are called to love all and especially to heap love upon those in pain. 

Eventually, pain visits each one of us.  What do we do with this word from 1^st Peter that says followers of Jesus rejoice in our trials?

How do we rejoice in times of trial?

Easter is not that far in the rear view mirror.  It is just last Sunday.  See the tomb?  It is empty because Jesus who was dead is alive, resurrected.  Feel the life pouring forth from Easter?  First Peter says God has “given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1:6).  The resurrection doesn’t stay fixed as something we sing about at the beginning of spring only to stay there, forgotten by midsummer, and then re-visited next year again at the first of spring.  The resurrection is a means by which God gives us new birth.

In new birth, we have undergone a change and there’s no going back to who we were before we put our trust in Him.  In new birth, we have a new outlook.  Yes, we still face challenges and trials.  Some among us go through significant suffering.  All have times of difficulty.  Yet we know that on the other side of our deaths, eternal life awaits.  The darkness of our rainy days is pierced by the vibrant rays of eternal joy that is ours in Christ. 

Also in new birth, our sins are forgiven and paid for.  So we can relate to one another as individuals free from death’s grip.  In the resurrection of Jesus God adopts us as His own sons and daughters and reserves for us the inheritance promised to children of the king.  We are, in Christ, a family.  This doesn’t instantly make our present struggles go away.  But it does mean that when we face numerous shades of pain, we do not face these trials alone. The resurrection doesn’t stay put in the week of late March and early April.  The resurrection is God’s way of creating.  God creates hope.  God creates a family.

The resurrection also opens the door to personal knowledge of God.  We are invited into real relationship with the creator of the universe.  First Peter says that we of the New Birth are “being protected by the power of God” (1:5).  This might sound odd when we openly acknowledge that Christians have hard days and seasons in dark valleys like everyone else.  What does this scripture mean when it says we are being protected?

We’ve named a few things.  In Christ, we have eternal hope.   Even though we live through some painful some days, life after death comes next.  In Christ, we have a community. Even in bad times, we have people around us to make the bad more bearable.  And when 1^st Peter as well other passages says, we are “being protected,” it means God is with us now. 

The Holy Spirit is mentioned in 1^st Peter 1 in verse 2, again in verse 11, and in verse 12.  The Spirit makes the church holy (v.2) – both the church corporate and individuals within the church.  We are set apart to God.  The Spirit lives within us, helping us know how to pray, giving us courage and strength to stand up in spite of the onslaught of various attacks (v.11).  And, the Spirit brings into our hearts news from Heaven (v.12). 

Of course this is not news like that reported by The New York Times or CNN or WRAL.  What we get by the Spirit from Heaven is revealed news – deeper understanding of God.  It puts our difficulties in proper perspective, helps us see the blessings in our lives, and expands our capacity to love others.  Hold onto these promises:  we have eternal hope, we are in a family, and God is with us.

What makes it possible for us to keep our eyes on the resurrection so that we are comforted and emboldened in dealing the world around us?  I find hope in a basic practice that when done consistently creates in us a mindset that we will see God no matter how tough today or any day is.  In this practice we stay fixated on God and who we are as people of the resurrection in Christ.

I am talking about daily and weekly rituals of worship.  Verse 6 says we rejoice even when we suffer.  I am certain that the rejoicing talked about here, which was done in the early church, was not an emotional response.

Yes! I just lost my job because my pagan neighbor found out I refuse to offer sacrifices to this city’s local deity.  Fist pump!  Oh year, my wife and I were kicked out of the synagogue because they don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah and we do.  We just lost the community of friends we’ve had our entire lives.  Sweet!  My son just got his head knocked in by a centurion who found out he follows Jesus and will not bow to images of Caesar.  Hallelujah.

I don’t think that’s what was meant by rejoicing.  The early Christians wept and mourned; they had grief, fear, and doubt.  “Rejoice” is a spiritual discipline.  We are Easter people.  Even when we know our Christian brothers in Syria are being targeted by terrorists, we rejoice because of who Jesus is, because our sins are forgiven, and because of what Easter means. 

He is risen!  Syrian Christians hurt, but terrorists cannot wipe them out.  We worship weekly to remember our victory and rejoicing is part of our worship because we are Easter people.

He is risen.  My depression cannot get the best of me because I sing the songs of resurrection even when I am down; and, when I am so down I cannot sing, my brothers and sisters in Christ around me sing for me and I am reminded of the family of which I am a part.

He is risen.  Alcoholism, death, angst – none of it can claim us.  We are already claimed by the one who defeated death.  We are his.  Our weekly and monthly rhythms of worship remind us, keep us in step, open us to new revelations from God, and help us regularly reset our lives. 

I have just experienced a loss that leaves me feeling like a failure, utterly crushed and adrift.  Rejoice!  Hallelujah!  Amen! 

The rejoicing done in corporate and individual worship is not a show of false happiness.  My loss leaves me feeling broken.  But I trust more in the God of Easter than I trust in my feelings.  It feels like I am broken, but the tomb is empty; there is more to the story and more to my story.

So, we come back every week.  We look one another in the eye.  We embrace.  We weep at the cross on Good Friday, soar in the light on Easter Sunday, and the rest of the time immerse ourselves in the word and in the worship.  We trust it.  We rejoice because of who God is and God is who He is no matter what is going on. 

In doing this, we discover as we look back at the Hells we’ve endured that blessing was there all along.  Sometimes we don’t realize salvation is happening while we are being saved but only upon looking back at it. Oh, that’s where Jesus was!

“Although you have not seen him,” First Peter says, “you love him; and even though you do not see him now,  you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1:8-9).  In daily, weekly practices of worship, we don’t see Him, yet, actually, we do see the Lord.  In the church, in the songs, in the Spirit, we do see Jesus.  We live in the potential where any moment may be the moment when God breaks through.  And we know He is with us in every moment.  So every experience of life is lived in the light of the empty tomb.

He is with us, always.  Our God is with us.

Every day, we are people of the resurrection filled with a hope that never fails.

AMEN