Fake Gods and the Real Thing (Isaiah 41:8-10; 44:9-17)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

[Begin by reading Isaiah 44:9-17]

          Isaiah tells of the man who cuts down a tree, burns half of it for his fire, to stay warm, cooks over the fire, burning the wood he’s cut down, and carves what’s left into a statue.  Then he bows down and worships what he has made.  He calls it “God;” the absurdity of idols and idol worship.  In ancient times, some people worshiped nature.  Others made statues that they believed were manifestations of their gods.  Their superstitions blinded them from the idiocy of bowing down before something they had conceived.  

Have you read in the book of Exodus, the story of Moses receiving the 10 commandments on stone tablets on the top of Mount Sinai? The people of God were slaves in Egypt when God elevated Moses to the status of prophet.  He performed works of wonder that demonstrated God’s power.  He turned the Nile River to blood.  He brought plagues of locusts and frogs.  He raised his staff and God parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk out of Egypt. 

In the Sinai wilderness, Moses climbed the mountain to receive the commandments.  The people waited at the foot of the mountain.  And they waited. 

Tired of waiting, they decided he wasn’t coming back.  So, they took all their gold, melted it down, formed it into the shape of a cow, and then declared that this god was their savior.  This golden cow which they made themselves became their god.  It sounds nutty.  How could anyone make something and then worship what they made? 

However, just as in Moses’ day and later in Isaiah’ day, we in our day put our faith in something and often it is not God.  A lot us, people of the so-called ‘enlightenment,’ give devotion to things instead of God.  We would say it is different than worshiping a statue, but any worship that is due and is given to something else is idolatry whether one acknowledges it or not. 

The atheist may vehemently deny that he worships anything.  He does.  The Christian may insist she worships God and only God.  Look at her life. 

Better look at your own and I’ll look into me.  What is the object of our loyalty?  To what we devoted?  What determines our values?  What defines us?  By whom or by what do we measure everything else? 

Listen to something I read on the Preaching Today website.

John Lennox, a professor of mathematics at Oxford University, argues that everyone has "faith" in something—even atheists."

Lennox backs up his case by quoting the famous 20th century scientist Albert Einstein who once said, "I cannot imagine a scientist without that profound faith[that the universe is comprehensible to our reason]." The contemporary atheist Richard Dawkins once wrote, "An atheist … is someone who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe …" Notice that the atheist believes there is nothing beyond the natural world because he or she can't actually prove it. The physicist Paul Davies, who is not a Christian, says, "Even the most atheistic scientist accepts as an act of faith the existence of law-like order in nature that is at least in part comprehensible to us." The physicist John Polkinghorne agrees, arguing that the entire study of physics depends on "its faith in the mathematical intelligibility of the universe."[i]

          Everyone has faith in something. 

Only God delivers.  Only God – God as we know Him in Jesus Christ – is worthy of worship.  Only God can make good on god-type promises.  Only God is in all places, available to all people at one time.  But people, including many Christians, trust something or someone other than god.

What are the idols of today? 

Obviously one is money.  Every decision is based on holding onto the money one has, making more of it, or longing for the money someone else has.  We stress about money.  The stress puts a strain on one’s relationships.  It disrupts one’s participation in the work of God, because money, not the call of God, decides how we participate ministry. 

Money is an important tool which should be managed wisely, respected, given away thoughtfully and prayerfully.  Trusting God does not lead one to be reckless with money.  But neither should it be the determining force in our lives.  Money cannot give peace of mind, a sense of purpose, or joy.  Money will not forgive us of our sins, bless our relationships, or give us eternal life.  When we look to money to do things only God can do, and when we construct our lives around the protection of, love of, and striving for money it is an idol as silly as the worship of a golden calf. 

In what or who do we put our faith?

Some American Christians idolize a certain life style – the house with the two-car garage, the big screen TV and the SUV in the driveway; oh the good life.  Our pursuit of it consumes us.  We have no time for God or friends because we’re chasing a dream which is in reality is not the blessing we think it is.    

In some families, a family member is exalted.  However, as awesome as Grandma might be, she is not perfect and she is not holy.  She is a sinner like everyone else and she needs God and it is OK to say that in an appropriate way.  But in some families, it becomes not OK because Grandma, without intending to, has become an idol. 

The quotes from Lennox, Einstein and Polkinghorne show that for many, science is an idol.  Science is a great thing – a way of knowing and seeking knowledge of reality.  Research, experimentation, new discoveries, publication – this can all be done as an offering to God.  Science cannot save – only God saves, through Jesus.  But, like Money, a lifestyle, or pride in one’s family, science can be a way the disciple glorifies the Lord Jesus. 

The promise every idol makes is that we can have life apart from God.  This lie was first told in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent told Eve she would not die.  You shall not die.  You shall be like God.[ii]  We don’t need God to thrive.  That’s the lie.

Even when the lie is couched in different language, the basic promises of power and security always lead back to the idol ( scientific achievement, the security of wealth) claiming to give what in truth only God can give.  When it begins, the idol promises us everything and asks nothing of us.[iii]  Over time, the idol offers less and less to us while asking more and more of us until, when we are enslaved, the idol demands everything from us and gives nothing. 

God asks everything of us, but not deceptively and not conditionally.  Up front God said to Israel, I shall be your God and you shall be my people.  Up front, Jesus says to us, take your cross and follow me.  How Israel responded and how respond does not determine God’s gift.  God gives us life – eternal, abundant life – out of his love for us, as a gift of grace.  God created each of us.  God gives a world in which we can live, thrive, and grow.  To our mistakes including our sins against Him, God gave himself – His Son, Jesus Christ.  He died on the cross for us.  God give mercy and forgiveness regardless of what we do.  Our step of faith is to receive what God has given.

Upon receiving, we find ourselves remade, born again.  As Paul says, we become new creations (2 Cor. 5:17).  And the Holy Spirit within us leads us to give God what God is due, worship, devotion, and loyalty.  Filled with God’s spirit, we become daughters and sons of God. 

So how do we keep our eyes on Him and off the idols?  And how do we help others who aren’t so sure about God and certainly are not conscious of the idols they serve see and follow and find salvation in the one true God? 

A starting point is to change our perception.  Illuminated by the Holy Spirit, we see people as those God loves, those who need him.  We are not annoyed by people.  We have compassion for them.  Along with this, we recognize the temporary nature of worldly power and the eternal reality of God’s power.  In other words, we see God as God really is. 

Isaiah tried to get the Israelites to see.  He wanted them to understand the limitations of human power, whether it was the force of the Babylonian empire or the weight of their poverty.  And he wanted them to feel the fullness of God’s divine authority.  When held up side by side, human power and God’s power, there is no comparison. 

The words Isaiah spoke to the Israelite exiles in Babylon in the 6^th century BC ring true for us today because of Jesus.[iv]  We make ourselves aware of how limited the world we see is.  At the same time we ponder the limitless rule of God.

One of the questions we pondered last week was how we could help our friends who have doubts about God see us, then see past us to Jesus.  How can we be good witnesses?  One way is to see clearly and help others see clearly.  We see what it is an idol that provides no enduring blessing and that in the end leads to death.  Conversely we see what God is about.  God is about saving people from despair and saving them for life. 

Isaiah 41:8-10 and also vs.17-20:

 But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
⁹ you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
    and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
    I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
¹⁰ do not fear, for I am with you,
    do not be afraid, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

¹⁷ When the poor and needy seek water,
    and there is none,
    and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will open rivers on the bare heights,^[b]
    and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
    and the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹ I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
    the plane and the pine together,
²⁰ so that all may see and know,
    all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    the Holy One of Israel has created it.

         

          So that all may see and know; I am at my best when I am conscious of seeing God.  I leave the house in the morning and stop at the grocery story on the way to the office.  In my exchange with the woman at the check-out, I am aware of God’s presence.  I am acutely aware that she is a child of God made in the image of God.  She may be really nice, or she may be impatient and cranky.  Either way, she is God’s.  As I talk with her, God is present and I know it. 

At the office, I have a lot of work to do, but someone comes in with a problem that demands my time.  For a moment, I am annoyed that the work is not getting done.  But, I am aware that this hurting person is a child of God and God has put him and me together in this moment, and God is present.  The annoyance is overshadowed by the purpose of God.  My tasks do not determine the value of this time.  God does. 

I go through the day seeing each encounter, living each moment, under the lordship of God as I know God in Jesus.  God is always present.  I live in this awareness, as I said, when I am at my best.  Other times, I am not at my best.  I am mean, petty, and impatient.  God shows up then too.  God redeems those moments and redeems me in those moments.  Rejecting idolatry, seeing as the prophet sees, and living with constant, conscious awareness of God’s presence, authority, and love leads us into living a public faith. 

Last week we ended by taking up the challenge.  Do we really believe these audacious claims of Isaiah?  How can we encourage someone we know and love who does not believe?  This morning I have suggested a first step in being a witness is seeing.  We see idols and we name them.  We see God and line our lives up according to God’s purposes. 

This coming week, continue to challenge your own faith.  Ask, ‘do I really believe this?  How can my life be a testimony?’  As we do this a second challenge is the challenge to see.   Pray that the Lord will open your eyes.  Read Isaiah 40-55, pray, and then read and pray again, all the way, looking perceptively at the world.  Look around your world, and see the fake gods and notice people orienting their lives by the idols they worship.  As we see fake gods, we look to the Holy Spirit and we look in the Word of God, and we see the real thing.  We see God.  We put our trust in him as we put our focus entirely on Him.  He then shows how we are to go through the day.

AMEN

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[i] The two opening paragraphs are a direct quote from the Preaching Today website - http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2013/july/6072913.html

[ii] A. Crouch (2013), Playing God, IVP Books (Downers Grove, IL), p.66.

[iii] Ibid, p.71.

[iv] In Romans 11, Paul states that gentiles have been “grafted” into the people of God because of Christ (Romans 11:17-23).  

The Resurrection Worldview (John 11:1-53)

Sunday, April 6, 2014 – 5^th Sunday of Lent

John 11

11 ^1-2 A man by the name of Lazarus was sick in the village of Bethany. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. This was the same Mary who later poured perfume on the Lord’s head and wiped his feet with her hair. ³ The sisters sent a message to the Lord and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick.

⁴ When Jesus heard this, he said, “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.”

⁵ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and brother. ⁶ But he stayed where he was for two more days.⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “Now we will go back to Judea.”

⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “the people there want to stone you to death! Why do you want to go back?”

⁹ Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in each day? If you walk during the day, you will have light from the sun, and you won’t stumble. ¹⁰ But if you walk during the night, you will stumble, because you don’t have any light.” ¹¹ Then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.”

¹² They replied, “Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better.” ¹³ Jesus really meant that Lazarus was dead, but they thought he was talking only about sleep.

¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead! ¹⁵ I am glad that I wasn’t there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ Thomas, whose nickname was “Twin,” said to the other disciples, “Come on. Let’s go, so we can die with him.”

¹⁷ When Jesus got to Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.¹⁸ Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many people had come from the city to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² Yet even now I know that God will do anything you ask.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again!”

²⁴ Martha answered, “I know that he will be raised to life on the last day,^[a] when all the dead are raised.”

²⁵ Jesus then said, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶ And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord!” she replied. “I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.”

²⁸ After Martha said this, she went and privately said to her sister Mary, “The Teacher is here, and he wants to see you.” ²⁹ As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went out to Jesus. ³⁰ He was still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet him. ³¹ Many people had come to comfort Mary, and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they followed her.

³² Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset ³⁴ and asked, “Where have you put his body?”

They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”

³⁵ Jesus started crying, ³⁶ and the people said, “See how much he loved Lazarus.”

³⁷ Some of them said, “He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸ Jesus was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. ³⁹ Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.”

⁴⁰ Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹ After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. ⁴² I know that you always answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people here would believe that you sent me.”

⁴³ When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.

Jesus then told the people, “Untie him and let him go.”

            How do you die? 

            Please note, when I say ‘you,’ I am not asking, ‘how does one die?’  This is more pointed.  It is not a general sort of pondering question, how does a person die?  This is an invasion of your personal space.  I have wrestled with it all week because I am not sure how to answer it myself.  I am counted when I say ‘you.’  We sit with a story glaring at us, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus.  This is more than just an amazing miracle story.  The story confronts us and we must answer.  How do I die?  How do you die?

            I grant the absurdity.  Living people by definition have not died.  So how could we talk about how to die?  Every human life comes to an end, but we live like that end is in a far off future, one we’d rather not discuss.  We will all die and we all know that; yet none of accepts it and each of us tries to put it off as long as possible.  We are not interested, thank you, in the question, how do you die? 

If we believe the Bible, we should be.  Paul tells us in Romans 6, ‘the wage of sin is death’ (v.23).  We sin every day.  So we are paid with death every day.  But, what does that even mean?

            In a blog post, Australian pastor, Andrew Prior  writes, “Our things and our doings blind us to new opportunities of being human; indeed, they prevent us from becoming truly human.  They prevent us from finding that already present dimension of reality that the Gospel of John calls ‘eternal life.’”[i]  I think what he means, and I think what Jesus means when he tells Martha that he is the “Resurrection and the life” (v. 25) is that eternal life begins right now, today for those who are in Christ. 

In Christ all sins are forgiven and removed.  In Christ, we do not receive sin’s wage, death, because sin is no longer counted against us.  Those not in Christ carry the weight of sin every day.  In little ways, they die every day.  Our things and our doings, the possessions and activities that dominate the life of middle class people, blind us. 

            We like stuff.  We like thrills.  We build our lives on possessions we acquire, materials and things of which there is a limited number.  Competition is inherent.  New cars, expensive TV’s, fancy phones, designer clothes – exploitation is involved in creating these things and only a few people of the billions on earth end up having them.  Dating back to the industrial revolution, our society has 100 years creating and striving to own more and better possessions.  We have exported our ethos all over the world.  Consumerism has become our dominant cultural value.  Christianity gets fit in around our consumption.  Christianity is defined by middle class Americans rather than middle class American being shaped by Christianity.

            Consumerism leads to all manners of sin – exploitation, jealousy, envy, greed, theft, hoarding of goods, violence (both to attain goods and to hold on to them and avoid sharing them); these sins kill us every day, even we who are Christians.  We would never admit it, but we are the experts who ought to know how to die because we die daily.  “You can’t take it with you,” but secretly, we try. 

            Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died (v.21). Jesus’ response, I am the resurrection, is intended to get her to see everything differently in light of who he is.  He wants her to think about life and death in a new way.  Because she knows him her understanding of mortality can change.  And John wants us to read his gospel and in reading know Jesus and in knowing think about life and death in a whole new way. 

             

            Nothing is particularly evil about a phone or a trip to the movies or a new TV.  You can serve God through the use of the phone.  I can establish a relationship with someone and eventually share Christ with him.  Maybe he won’t go to church, but he’ll go to the movies.  We can host video parties where we watch the big game on our giant flat screen and in that context form relationships in which we give witness to the gospel.  These things can be used to glorify God.  But for the last century the culture around us has evolved into a worldview.  In this worldview, joy and happiness come with new things and thrilling activities.  This worldview is now entrenched.  We are part of it. 

            I see many Christians getting their energy and joy and excitement in purchases, in salary increases, in new gadgets, big or small.  They don’t realize how much better Jesus is because they can’t see him.  How they live in the now, by the worldview of consuming/owning/hoarding materials (the best of all goods and services), shapes how they think about life, death, and eternity. 

It should be the exact opposite.  The reality of eternal life with Jesus, as a son or daughter of God, should be what defines how we live now.  But we can’t really see that eternal life with God.  As Prior says, “Our things and our doings blind us to new opportunities of being human.”  The new humanity he refers to is the redeemed humanity, the humanity that has discovered Jesus and been made new.  This is the humanity of 1 Corinthians 15, people with bodies that are incorruptible, that cannot become sick or die.  This is the humanity of Genesis 1-2 that God created as “very good.”  We cannot imagine it.

             

            How did Jesus say it?  “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶ And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die” (v.25b-26).  One commentator writes that life in Jesus is life of another order, a new order.  The great blessing is not that Jesus raised Lazarus.  Lazarus would die again.  In fact in the very next chapter, the religious leaders plot the death of Lazarus as part of their plan to stop Jesus. He’s just been raised and he’s on an officially sanctioned hit list (12:10). 

The great blessing of this story is what Lazarus’ raising means: it is a sign of Jesus as the resurrection and the life.  He is the life.  Does Martha believe it?  Do we?  If we say yes, then what does it mean for how we live and how we view death?  From the point of view of the Gospel of John, everlasting life in Jesus is the same on both sides of the grave – now and after we are resurrected.  When we live in Christ we begin eternity now.[ii] 

This all comes down to worldview.  Do we see Jesus?  Or are we seeing as the world in which we have grown up has conditioned us to see?  If we keep the worldview that has been imposed on us, a world view of materialistic consumerism, one in which joy comes from acquisition, then we are driven to buy and own.  We have to train ourselves to share and be generous because we’re conditioned to greed, hoarding, envy, coveting, and eventually violence, direct or indirect.  These sin-soaked mentalities bring death.  That’s one worldview.

Another comes when by God’s grace we are freed from the destructive worldview we’ve always known.  By the Holy Spirit we are changed and we take on a resurrection worldview.  It comes as we see Jesus, fix our view on Him, and live with the Spirit in us.

Martha lived many centuries before the industrial revolution, so her worldview was different than ours, but for different reasons it was just as stuck in death as ours is.    Jesus told her to roll away the stone.  “But Lord,” Martha said, “you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell” (v.39).  She had a death mentality.  She had just professed faith that Jesus is the Messiah to his face.  That was not enough to help her think differently.  She believed in death and lived toward just as we do.  Avoid it while living toward it.

Jesus rejects the smell of death literally and in the sense that death whether it comes from the sins of a materialistic worldview or another sin-filled worldview stinks.  The rot of death reeks and Christ won’t have it.  Death is the opposite of what God has in store for us.  In Jesus, God is with us.  He is Immanuel – ‘God with us.’ Thus, when we are seeing Jesus and with Jesus and his Holy Spirit, we get the opposite of death. 

The resurrection view is not only for Lazarus that special day in 30AD.  He did not get a bonus by being lucky enough to live in the days of Jesus walking the earth in the Incarnation.  That miracle of Jesus raising him was a sign of a new way of seeing and living – the way of Jesus.  Similarly, today, there are indicators of the resurrection worldview.  Think of coming alongside of and helping “the poor, the sick, the lonely, the depressed, the slaves, the refugees, the hungry, the homeless, the abused, … the despairing, [the orphan and widow, and the confused];” working on behalf of the ‘least of these’ … is a sign of the presence of Jesus today. When we bring healing and love, community and family, truth and hope, we are playing a vital part in the mission of Jesus and his church.  Jesus brought hope in the first century; he continues in the 21^st as he works through the deeds of his church to rescue people from the stink of corruption and death.[iii]  Our work of loving anyone and everyone and doing is proactively and sacrificially is a sign that our vision is colored by the Eternal Kingdom.  Our now is built by our sense of eternity.  When we see Him and see as he sees and work for healing and truth, motivated by Jesus-love, we are living eternity now.  It is then that we have the resurrection worldview. 

            How do you die?  The best answer is ‘I don’t know how I die because I am living forever with Jesus.  My body will die and then be raised.  I am already living eternally.  I cannot say how I die because I have a resurrection worldview.’  That’s the best answer.  We can give that answer with Jesus’ help.  From now until Easter, ask Him to push all distractions to the background and help you see as He sees.

            AMEN

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[i].http://onemansweb.org/don-t-cave-in-to-the-death-people-john-11-lent-5.html

[ii] G. Sloyan (1988). Interpretation: A Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: John.  John Knox Press, Atlanta, p.150-151.

[iii] N.T. Wright (2008).  Surprised by Hope.  HarperOne, New York, p, 191-192.

God Can Be Trusted

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Advent 1

            Think back to September 11, 2001, and the previous decade.  In this 10-20 year period, the perceived threat to American safety has been terrorist attacks.  When I was growing up, we worried about threats from Communist Soviet Union.  But, if you were born after 1980, you really have never known life under the specter of communism.  You have lived in a time where the American fear is fear of an attack by a radical terrorist group – usually a Muslim group.  This fear has made it hard for Christ-followers to love our Muslim neighbors.  Jesus said the greatest command is to love God and neighbor.  We have trouble loving our Muslim neighbors; we struggle in even knowing how to relate to them at all.

            Watch TV or listen to the radio or go on the internet or go to your mailbox.  Or read a magazine.  All year we are bombarded with advertisements for cars, cell phones, clothing, and numerous other products.  That’s yearlong.  The advertising explodes around Christmas.  It seems the American way is to buy stuff, and often on credit.  We have trouble with delayed gratification.   We don’t know how to be happy without stuff.  We struggle with saving our money and thinking of our money as a tool for advancing God’s kingdom.  Ironically, after the purchases, many of which are very expensive, we forget about what we bought.  The importance of the item was much higher when we did not have it.  Now, in our possession, it certainly does not seem to be worth as much as we spent.

            Recall this past election.  We have a two-party system that demands that we support one candidate blindly and demonize the other.  Americans seem incapable of saying, “I agree with Bill Republican on these issues and disagree on these others.  I am with Sandy Democrat here, but not on this other issue.”  Our two-party system has demolished critical thinking when it comes to voting.  We cannot conceive of a third party gaining traction.  We refuse to listen to one another in political conversations.  We struggle with creativity.  We do not make space for new ideas in the political realm.

            I love our country, but we have some problems.  Of these, I have identified three that I think are uniquely American and in the readings from the prophets for this season of Advent, we have a word from God that speaks directly to these problems and to us as God’s people. 

            Walter Brueggeman says “The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us” (The Prophetic Imagination, 1970, p.13).  Put more simply, it is the prophet’s job to show how God’s way is different than the world’s way.  It is the prophet’s job to use whatever means necessary to direct God’s people away from the path of the world and to the path of God. 

            The phrase “the world” refers to many places.  It is a different set of problems depending on where in the world you live.  If we dealt with the scriptures from the prophets during the Christmas season and we were in China, we would have one set of issues to talk about.  If we were in Greece, a place of tremendous economic struggle, the conversation would be different than in Syria, a nation racked by war.  We will deal with what we face daily in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Christmas 2012.

            We struggle with loving our neighbors; especially, our Muslim neighbors.

We struggle with greed.  We don’t know how to live without excessive luxuries and we don’t know how to find satisfaction without buying stuff.

We struggle with an utter lack of creativity in our politics.  This leads to a divided nation with a self-serving government that does not serve the people even though we are in many ways the greatest democracy.  Our democracy is in danger of replacing our greatness with destructive conflict.

The prophets we read in the Bible have something to say to each struggle.

Slides 1

            With an eye on Christmas, rejoicing in the birth of Jesus, God in the flesh, and anticipating his coming at the end of time, we look to the prophets of the Old Testament.  Jeremiah lived in the 6^th century BC.  Jeremiah’s thought was inspired by God to such an extent that his writings contained layers of meaning.  He spoke truth to the Kings of Judah.  At the same time his words anticipated the coming of Jesus even if Jeremiah didn’t know that was how fulfillment would come. 

Jeremiah’s speech, appropriate in the 6^th century BC and in the life of Jesus in the 1^st century AD, still speaks because his words are word of God. Even though Jesus lived, died, rose again, and ascended to be bodily with God, he is still here, still speaking.  When we read the prophets in the light of Christmas, and our reading is Holy Spirit-inspired, then the Spirit-filled church is the incarnation of God in the world.  The church which reads scripture and walks with the Holy Spirit is the presence of God, pointing the way to God’s activity today.  Here and now!

Slides 2-3

            In Advent we will read the prophets prayerfully.  We will see God at work among us.  We look back at ancient words to learn what God is doing right now.

Advent 1, December 2 – Jeremiah 33:14-16, “God Fulfills His Promises”

Advent 2, December 9 – Malachi 3:1-4, “God Comes in Glory and Judgment”

Advent 3, December 16 – Zephaniah 3:14-20, “God Wins”

Advent 4, December 23 – Micah 5:2-5a, “God Provides”

Christmas Eve, December 24, – Luke 2:11, “God Saves”

            In Jeremiah’s day, the problems were syncretistic religion.  The priests and kings of Judah thought they could be God’s people, but worship other gods, false gods in order to curry favor with powerful neighboring nations and empires.  It would be as if, knowing Jesus is God, we denied his divinity in writings published by our church so that we could have credibility in certain academic circles.  We would be denying what we know to be true and claiming as truth what we know is false.  We’d be doing God a disservice just so we could be found acceptable in the eyes of humans and human institutions. 

The king of Judah, a descendant of King David, practiced idolatry for political reasons.  Jeremiah called him on it.  The king and his priests, trusted in political alliances instead of trusting in God.  Jeremiah called them on it.  In fact, Jeremiah was past the point of warning.  These sins had persisted for generations.  Jeremiah did not say, “You better stop, or else?”  The “or else” was at hand.  Judah would cease to be a nation and fall into exile.  It was inevitable.  Nothing could stop it.

However, the story of Jeremiah is not just one of a man announcing doom.  That was a job of the prophets.  But Jeremiah also was given a message of hope.  The story of Judah and of Israel would not end with the Jews being lost in history.  In fact, hope for all peoples would come from the Jews. 

Jeremiah, speaking God’s words, said, “The days are surely coming when I will fulfill the promise I made. … At that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall extend justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days, Judah will be saved. … And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘the Lord is our righteousness.’”

Three times, righteousness – a righteous branch … he shall extend righteousness in the land … the Lord is our righteousness.  What does this mean?  How does this show God working in our world here and now? 

Righteousness is a very churchy, preachy-sounding word.  In terms of morals, it indicates the right thing to do.  Our American slant on this involves hard work, honesty, and fairness.  Everyone should have a chance and when given the chance, we work hard.  We do things the right way. 

This ethic of hard work and honesty is a part of Biblical righteousness.  So too is how we relate.  We want to be in relationships of peace and harmony and cooperation with family – parents, spouses, siblings.  We want good relationships with friends in church, people in our neighborhoods, and people we meet in business and the marketplace. 

Finally, in addition to morals and relationships, righteousness involves our standards.  How do we determine if we are doing things the way we should, living the way we should?  What is the standard by which we evaluate ourselves?  In righteousness, as Jeremiah means the term, we measure ourselves by the word of God.  For Christ followers, his life and teaching, especially in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, is our standard.  Morals and work ethic, relationship, and self-evaluation based on Biblical teaching – this is our understanding of righteousness or God’s way. 

Jeremiah promises that one will come who brings this righteousness.  Christians believe that one is Jesus – the baby born in Bethlehem.  He is God in flesh and when we put our trust in him, receive complete forgiveness from him, and give our lives to Him, we become his church.  In our gathering in His name us the word is read, God is worshiped, and people are empowered by the Holy Spirit that begins the work and presence of God in the world today. 

In greed, in conflict, and in politically-motivated division, righteousness is not possible.  Conflict is not going away.  Fear of terrorism replaced fear of communism; if somehow terrorism was eliminated, some other fear would rise up.  Greed is not going away.  Our system of capitalism provides an expression of greed, but we know greed has threatened humanity’s safety and peace long before capitalism became a prominent economic possibility.  And political division is not going away.  In my own assessment of American culture, political division appears to be more damaging than ever. 

It is at this depressing point that we remember the prophet’s task.  Jeremiah and Micah and the rest speak today to evoke an alternative reality – a different way than the way of the world around us.  We Christ followers participate in our culture, but the American way in its damaged form is not our way.  Our way is God’s way.  Jeremiah assured us God’s way, the way of righteousness, will be present in the world and will be available.

He didn’t know it, but the perfect enactment of his promise was seen in Jesus.  Jesus demonstrated the perfect balance of honesty and compassion; of work and Sabbath rest.  Jesus showed unfiltered, unconditional love.  His relationships were pure.  Jesus brought people together instead of dividing. 

He did all these things; He is also doing these things when his church spreads his love in the world.  When we are filled by the word and the Spirit, we refuse to objectify our Muslim neighbors or any others. Instead, we love them.  Whether they ever turn to Jesus or not, we love sacrificially and generously.  Jesus is at work when his church does his bidding in the world.

We reject greed and materialism knowing that lasting joy does not come from buying stuff but from living in the love of God.  Sure, we participate in the tradition of gift-giving.  But even in that, we find creative ways of turning the holidays so that they are opportunities for love and generosity instead of reasons to be greedy and self-indulgent. 

Finally we shout a firm “No!” to politics of division.  We refuse to self-identify as ‘republican,’ or ‘democrat.’  We are identified by our relationship with Jesus.  We will not allow the damning, soul-crushing methods of our two-party system to entice us into entering the fray.  Some of us may have vote Democrat and always will.  Others vote Republican.  But, because Jesus is acting in us, we refuse to speak evil of the other party and we honestly pray for their well-being.

God is in the world when we show radical neighbor love, work for peace, and rely on God for our happiness instead of the acquisition of stuff. In this incarnational reality, the world sees Jesus active today, and knows that God indeed, as Jeremiah said, will full all his promises.  His justice will prevail.  Righteousness is possible because God has come. 

This is the prophetic word.  God can be trusted.

AMEN 

The Unsafe God

A New Word

I have just begun Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. I am only 10 pages into the book. So I don’t know how profound what I am about to share is in relation to Dostoevsky’s story. But, as to my own thoughts and conclusions in my reading of the book of Job, it is poignant.

The first character Dostoevsky introduces is a young impoverished man named Raskolnikov. From the outset, Raskolnikov’s inner monologue is tortured. He makes the observation that I think strikes the climactic theological note in Job 42. Raskolnikov muses, “… I wonder what men are most afraid of … Any new departure, and especially a new word – that is what they fear most.”

The italics are the author’s, not mine. In America, we seem obsessed with the newest and latest. One of the features of ESPN the Magazine is “Next.” The editors try to identify the next generations of great athletes, the next Michael Jordan or the next Tiger Woods. American ethos would generally reject Raskolnikov’s assessment that we fear paradigm shifts more than we fear anything else.

However, Americans’ obsession with the new and the fad is itself a paradigm. The new word is not the actual answer to the question “what’s next?” The new word is heard when our culture moves on to a different question. We wake up one morning and realize that over the past 3 decades we have stopped asking “what’s next?” That is when we will have been through a paradigm shift, and we absolutely are terrified of it.

The real American Idol (and here I refer to ‘idol’ in the Biblical sense, something that is worshipped in place of God) is liberty. In our cultural ethos, liberty or freedom is valued over everything else. We are addicted to the notion that we are free to ask “what’s next?” We are scared to death that if we stop asking that question, we won’t be completely free. And we contently live under the deception that we are completely free.

When the book of Job became a scroll that was a part of the canon, the holy writings of the people of Israel, the prevailing theological framework rested on the idea of retribution. Sinners are punished. Righteous people are rewarded. People were generally more interested in living within that belief system than actually dealing with the reality of a relationship with God that could not be predicted.

Job discovered that while there is some merit to that theological framework, God would not conform to it. The rules (sinners-punished, righteous men rewarded) revealed truth about God some of the time; maybe even much of the time. But, the man Job discovered that some of the time, righteous people suffered. Some of the time, flagrant violators of God’s laws prospered. Much of the time, the truth was gray, not nearly as black and white as the rules seemed to indicate.

The redactors (editors) lived in a day when God’s chosen people were coming out of the disillusioning Babylonian exile. Their return to the Promised Land happened in waves and with the blessing of the pagan Persian king. There was no Moses parting the Euphrates River. Nehemiah was a slave. He was a slave with a very high position in the King’s court, but indentured nonetheless. He did not boldly thrust plagues upon the land in confrontations akin to those of Moses and Pharaoh. He meekly sought the favor of King Artaxerxes. It is as if the rebuilding of Jerusalem was as much as result of Artaxerxes magnanimity as God’s sovereign will.

Sages and priestly editors living in this world had trouble because their Exodus, Red-Sea parting theology didn’t exactly fit. God wasn’t working through signs and wonders. God was working in the heart of a gentile king. How would those who interpreted the word and the world help the people of God process the situation theologically?

The story of Job suddenly had a relevance it had not previously enjoyed. If Job took place in the days of Abraham and was told as a fireside story for 2 millennia, why had it not become a part of Israel’s scripture? Why was it just a story passed on by bards? Job called into question assumptions about God and the world. Job dared to say the world is unpredictable and we can’t just rely on the rules. We actually have to seek out God!

The people did not want to seek out God. They wanted to rest secure in the rules they knew about God. To actually be in relationship with God was terrifying. Noah discovered this. So too did Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Likewise Samuel, David, and Solomon. To be sure all of these also discover the wonder of a relationship with God. But as incomparably awesome as it is to be close to God and to talk to God and hear from God, we are reminded by Beaver (in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) God isn’t safe. God is good, but not safe.

In the whirlwind, Job draws close to the unsafe God. Job speaks to and hears from the unsafe God. Seeing that and seeing the way the book of Job dump ice water on the theological presumptions of 5^th century BC Israel, we affirm Dostoevsky’s poor Petersburg Student. Yes, Raskolnikov, this new word is what we fear most.

But if we can move past this fear, we can move to that place where Moses takes off his shoes. We move to that place where young Samuel hears the midnight cry and it isn’t Eli. We move to that place where Solomon has enough presence of mind to ask God for wisdom of all things. We move to Elijah’s silence and Job’s whirlwind and Daniel’s lion’s den. We move to that place where we stop reading descriptions of God and we start giving personal eyewitness testimony. We stop discussing ideas about God and we talk directly too Him.

When we enter relationship with God we’ve moved through the ultimate paradigm shift. Once we go there, nothing the world offers is satisfying; nor is it all that unsettling. How could it be? How could anything in this world shake the faith of one who has spent time in the courts of Heaven? To walk in the quiet of the morning talking with the unsafe God is the greatest height to which a man or woman can ascend.