Pastor Rob recommends …
Surprised by Hope:
Rethinking Heave, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
N.T. Wright (2008)
The
subtitle says it all. This is one of the
most helpful books on the resurrection and on what happens when we die on the
market today. It’s readable, biblically sound, and, as the title indicates, a
word about hope.
3rd
Sunday of Lent, March 7, 2021
Theologians get frustrated by the idea of “the Gospel;”
at least, they should! People all over
the world have their own ideas of what the Gospel is. With so many different viewpoints, is it
possible to define it at all? And if it
can’t be defined, does it mean anything?
Theologians are stimulated by the idea of “the Gospel;”
at least, they should be! With the different
ways cultures around the world have lived out the Gospel, the depth and breadth
of the Gospel’s meaning and beauty of the gospel’s expression seems
inexhaustible!
“Time out!” You
tell me. “I’m not a theologian,” you
say. “Why should I worry about the dozen
different gospel definitions that spill out of the pointless musings of one or
two theologians?”
I see your “time-out” and acknowledge it. The work theologians do is important for
Christianity, yet I agree that you don’t have to do a theologian’s job. However, when we claim to be
Christ-followers, we accept all the to share the Gospel. Jesus does not
recognize followers who refuse to bear witness to him. We understand that Jesus
is not interested in believers or admirers.
Jesus seeks out disciples. In
Mark 3:11, Jesus silences demons who express their belief in him. In John 12:23, Jesus ignores the fan-boy
Greeks looking for an autograph and instead insists that his concern is his followers
(v.26), disciples. To follow him, is to
share the Gospel. To share the Gospel,
we have to have some idea of what it is.
So, what is it? Since
the first century, Christian thinkers have debated this question. In 1 Corinthians 1 & 2, the Apostle Paul
provides a foundation. If we stand on
this foundation, we will be able to live within the Gospel, we will be
empowered to share the Gospel, and we will find ourselves freed by the
Gospel.
In his work A Theology of the New Testament, the
late George Eldon Ladd writes, “The Gospel is the proclamation of the
historical fact and the redemptive meaning of the cross, which includes both
present and future blessings.”[i] Note, the gospel is event and meaning. That Jesus died on a Roman cross outside of
Jerusalem is an event in history. Few
historians, Christian or not, question this.
A lot of unfortunate people died on crosses under Roman oppression.
This historical fact matters. We believe Jesus was innocent and was God’s
son, and in his death took on himself the eternal penalty all people deserve
because of their sins. So, the Gospel
says this is a historical happening filled with significance. In fact, Christians hold that the death of
Jesus on the cross and the subsequent resurrection is the most important event
in history. Because of this historical
fact and what it means, we can develop the mindset of disciples.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “I decided to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” In 1 Corinthians Paul teaches on more topics
than in just about any other letter. He
addresses leadership within the church.
He condemns sexual sin while affirming sexual relations between a man
and a woman in the confines of marriage.
He commends singleness and celibacy, but says if you must get married be
sexually active; if you must be sexually active, get married. He gives his most detailed instructions on
how to celebrate the Lord’s supper, and on spiritual gifts in this letter. He delivers his most developed teaching on
the resurrection. It’s all in 1
Corinthians. After chapter 2, he doesn’t
really address atonement – Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. So why does he make this sweeping remark: “I
decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified?” He deals with much more than that.
He can touch on so many topics because he’s standing on
the solid ground, the foundation of the crucified Christ. In chapter 1, verse 23, he makes a point of
saying that for Jewish people the thought that Messiah would die so shamefully,
on a Roman cross, is a stumbling block. The Greek word for stumbling block is skandolon. A crucified Messiah was a scandal for the
first century Jews who had rejected Christ.
For Greeks, who generally rejected any value in the body and instead
esteemed spiritual ideals, the thought of following a man who died was
foolish. And, of course, the Romans saw
those they crucified as weak.
In different ways, Jews, Greeks, and Romans, devalued the
crucifixion of Jesus, but Paul says for everyone – Jews, Greeks, everyone – it
is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
God did not magically make sin disappear. Doing so would ignore the serious offense and
awful consequence of sin. God does not force us to not sin. This would strip us of our free will and we
would no longer be God’s image-bearers.
God decided to love us so deeply, our sins would be paid for with the
death of God’s beloved son, God-in-human-flesh, the sinless one, Jesus.
Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 1:21, salvation comes through
the preaching of the cross to all who believe.
Note how many different actors God includes in the process of salvation. First, there’s Jesus who willingly dies because
he loves everyone. Next, the Holy Spirit
inspires disciples to believe in Jesus and follow him. Third, there’s disciple who preaches the
story and truth of Jesus. It could be
someone preaching to 1000’s in a large auditorium, or someone sharing the
gospel with one other person. Fourth,
the listener receives the story, responds to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, and
puts his or her faith in Christ.
Finally, the Father accepts that expression of faith and adopts that
person as a son or daughter of God.
Just as Jesus’ death on the cross was a moment in
history, so too comes a specific moment when an individual puts his or her
faith in Christ. Sometimes the new
believer is baptized in that moment.
Other times, baptism comes later, as a visual expression new life. We keep in mind that salvation is something
that happens. It is also a process that
takes place over a lifetime.
Oxford theologian Paul Fiddes details the way salvation
is a lifelong, continuous processg for a disciple in his book Past Event and
Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement. First, he explains that divine-human
relationship can be repaired.[ii] Our rebellion has severed our tie to
God. We need the connection re-established. That repair happens in the death of Jesus on
the cross.
Are things in your life broken? Do you stare into a hopeless future convinced
the broken things never get fixed? The
cross is all about repair. The cross is
a sign that the love of God moves us past our brokenness. You can live life in a right relationship
with God. With the Holy Spirit in us, we
can truly love each other.
Second, with the God-human break having been repaired, we
come into human community in a new way.[iii] Made new in Christ, we make up the church
with others who have also been made new in Christ. Thus, salvation effects not just the
individual, but also the community. “I
am made new.” And, “we are made new.”
Third, Fiddes observes that this repaired relationship
and transformed community results from a complete upending of our understanding
of God. Fiddes writes, “If God has made
a crucified man lord of the universe, then all the securities by which we live
and all the achievements by which we justify ourselves and give ourselves
esteem, are shown to be hollow.”[iv]
What makes us feel safe?
The American army? In other
countries, our American power is a threat.
What makes us feel safe? Our
police force? Many people in our
communities feel their lives threatened by that very police force. What makes us feel safe? What achievements make us feel good about
ourselves? Our salvation rests on a
Galilean peasant carpenter who was crucified, the most shameful of death. God has declared that he, not some great
warrior, king, or champion, but the crucified one is Lord and Savior.
Fourth, in Fiddes’ explanation, this salvation that
upends our understanding of real power is, in addition to being an event, also
an on-going reality.[v] The Holy Spirit links our lives to what
happened at Calvary 2000 years ago.
Through the daily transformation the Spirit effects in us, the love God shows
on in the cross flows through us to the people we meet.
Paul could touch on so many topics in 1 Corinthians
because he set his writing up on the foundation of the cross. We stand on that same foundation, live our
salvation, and share the good news with people who have not yet put their trust
in Jesus. We are freed by the
Gospel. Greed, racism, injustice,
oppression, jealousy and so many other sinful ways of being that drive people apart
do not bind us. Freed from these godless
obstacles, we are able to live in love and to give love.
Life will frustrate us.
That’s a given. The Gospel,
though, frees us. Theologians can
delight and struggle in the work of defining the Gospel and our faith is
strengthened by their efforts. For out
part, we look to the cross and realize we are free. We are free to live as children of God.
AMEN
[i] G.
Ladd (1974), A Theology of the New Testament, William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company (Grand Rapids), p.385.
[ii]
P. Fiddes (1989), Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of
Atonement, Westminster/John Knox Press (Louisville), p.4
[iii]
Fiddes, p.13.
[iv]
Fiddes, p.24.
[v]
Fiddes, p.29-30
Jesus tells his disciples,
“you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
end of the earth. … Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Acts 1:8;
Matthew 28:17). Anyone who feels uncomfortable
with the imperative on Christians to share their faith and lead others to
follow Jesus needs to take that discomfort up with him. The call to be witnesses and evangelists,
comes from Jesus, so if we don’t like the idea of trying to influence others by
introducing them to him, we need to take our dislike to him. Don’t complain to the pastor that you think
evangelism is spiritually arrogant or culturally imperialistic. Take it up with the giver of the command,
Jesus.
I took our youth group for a walk on Franklin Street in
Chapel Hill, Sunday afternoon, when the weather was so intoxicatingly pleasant. With social-distancing easing up a bit and
the weather so nice, everyone was out. College
students; town residents; the street was abuzz with life. We were able to catch a glimpse of a bit of
the world Jesus wants us to evangelize.
Refuge (the Hillside young adult small group) has been
following the series “In Pursuit of Jesus,” https://inpursuitofjesus.net/. Pastor Rasool Berry travels the world looking
for signs of the presence of Jesus, and he finds them in New York City, Singapore,
Sweden, and other places. Viewing these videos,
we get more impressions of the world Jesus sends us to, in order to be his
witnesses. I highly recommend you check
this out.
Evangelism is not easy and can feel kind of icky if we conceive
of it as trying to sell strangers something they don’t want to buy. But, if we can learn to see the people we
meet as neighbors, and if we can love them deeply, and if we can think of
evangelism as sharing the most wonderful truth that all people need, then we
can embrace the call. To be Christian is
to be called by Jesus. Will we answer?
Let one of your Lenten practices be prayer for evangelism. Pray that people who don’t know the Lord will
come to know him through the testimony of humble, loving Christ-followers. Ask God to help you see how he wants you to
share your testimony. Ask Him to infuse
your own witness with gentleness, hospitality, and grace. And, spend significant time asking God to
show you the Judea and Samaria to which he is sending you. What will be your evangelistic field? Then, listen to His answer. Then, go.
Go out into the world, to share the good news of life in Christ.
watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJMCSvMKLms&t=11s
Sunday,
February 7, 2021
Who are we? Who will we be? Beloved movie heroes entertain us for 2-3
hours, trying to answer these questions.
Elsa in Frozen; who will she become, now that everyone knows she
has super powers? Luke Skywalker in Star
Wars; will he ever become a Jedi Knight?
If he does, what then? Steve
Rogers in the Avengers; once the skinny weakling takes the super-soldier
serum, what then? What does he
become?
As much as I love these stories, I find your more
interesting because, (1) I can see you and talk to you. You’re real!
And, (2) you don’t have super-soldier serum, you can’t shoot icicles out
of your hands, and you can’t control force.
What you have going for you is the Holy Spirit! I want to hear your story once the Holy
Spirit enters your life.
I want to find out who you are when you are ‘in
Christ.’ I want to find out who the
church will become. The pandemic has
rattled the church’s sense of itself.
Potlucks; bedside hospital visits; raucous laughter shared around the
front hall coffee pot before the worship service; laying hands on someone being
commissioned or ordained; embracing a friend; these things make the church and
we can’t hardly do any of them. Thanks,
COVID-19.
What’s more, our church had just changed our name to
“Hillside.” At the end of 2019. We were
coming out of two years of bumpy transition.
We were in the process of rediscovering our identity before COVID came
along! Does that mean we were ahead of
every other church that had to deal with re-evaluating itself in light of COVID? Or did it mean we were set back a year in the
work we were doing to once again hear and answer God’s call. I think it’s a little of both.
More
and more people are vaccinated each day.
The end is coming and when it does, we’ll have to be ready to understand
our identity so we can be God’s witnesses here, drawing people in our town to
Jesus. But really, we have to begin that
work before the pandemic ends. Right
now, today, we are called to be witnesses who tell what we have seen and
experienced in following Jesus Christ.
I had us begin 2021 in Haggai and now in Zechariah
because these prophets spoke the word of the Lord to the covenant community in
Jerusalem after the exile. Exile had
diminished them, displaced them, and broken them. None of that changed the call. Israel was to be God’s chosen people through
whom the entire world would know and worship and serve the only true God.
Exile had been the means
by which God had punished his people for failing to answer that call and live
his way. When we get to Haggai and
Zechariah, we find that the exile is over.
It’s time to start over, rebuild, and once again turn to the Lord and
then draw the world to the Lord. These
prophets speak God’s word to a rebuilding people.
We are a rebuilding people. The “who” question is an identity
question. Zechariah is not part of the
answer to the “who” question. Zechariah
is a guide. Listening to his truth, it
sinks in. We are the answer to the “who”
question. Who is this story about? It’s about God as God is revealed in a rebuilding
congregation, Hillside Church, emerging from years of transition and seemingly
endless months of social distancing. Who
will we become as God’s people in Chapel Hill?
In this story, we are the “who”.
God’s church. What about the “what” and
the “how”?
Who will Hillside Church
be when we live into the identity God gives us?
“What” is the next question. What
needs to happen for us to be ready to live into our God-given identity as a
people? The prophet Zechariah tells us in chapter 1.
“Return to me,” says the
Lord of hosts in verse 3. Zechariah
warns the people not to repeat the mistakes of their parents, the exile
generation. God invited them to return, but
they continued in their rebellion. Now,
they were gone. God’s word remained. And
so, the invitation is once again given.
“Return to me” (1:3).
Zechariah writes in verse
6 that the people repented. They turned
away from injustice. They turned away from the worship of idols, false
gods. They turned away from sin and
turned to God. In their broken state,
they accepted God’s justice, including the punishment. With exile over, they were ready to return to
God.
After this initial call to
repentance and report that the people answered by repenting, Zechariah shares
the first of his seven “night visions.”
At night, in a grove of myrtle trees, he sees a man astride a horse, and
behind them several horses of different color, typical colors for horses.
These horses act as God’s
emissaries patrolling the earth. The
vision depicts for the prophet what he and we already know. God can see the entire earth. He is all-seeing and all-knowing. The angel reports in Zechariah 1:11 that all
is calm, the earth is at peace.
How can this be so? How we say “all is well” when God’s temple is
a pile of rubble and God’s people live as exiles? Thus, the angel, not the prophet, confronts
God asking accusingly, “How Long, O Lord” will you withhold mercy” (1:12)? We can relate. We know people refuse to wear masks, gather
in close quarters, and ignore good pandemic behavior. We know part of the reason this contagion has
persisted and dogged us as it has is that people don’t do what is necessary to
curb it. Still, like Zechariah’s angel
in chapter 1, we look to heaven, shake our fists, and through our tears bellow
out, “How long will this go on, O Lord?”
Zechariah 1:13 shows God
as an understanding counselor, a patient therapist. It says the “Lord replied with gracious and
comforting words to the angel.” In this
same chapter, God is angry and God is understanding. Both are true because God is perfect love. In
verse 16, God says, “I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion.”
Human suffering breaks
God’s heart, even when we bring the suffering on ourselves. God’s compassion is always for us. As Jesus says in Luke 15, “There is joy in
the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (15:10b). God wants us to be free of the pain sin imposes
and God offers us that freedom. We need
to turn to Him. We turn from the sin,
acknowledge our absolute need, and turn to God.
Thus the “who” – our
identity is defined by the “what”; what we do.
We see understand that we can only live dependent on God. We turn away from putting our faith in people,
things, dreams, and systems. We turn
from that and we turn to God. The “what”
is our need for His grace, for the Spirit’s empowerment, for forgiveness, and
energy to start again.
What about the “how?” Who?
What? How? How do we begin living into the identity God
has given to us?
This part of the story is
God’s work. God says, in Zechariah 1:16,
“I have returned, with compassion.” More
than once in Haggai God says, I will be with you. The Gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus’
promise to his disciples (and to us), “I am with you always to the end of the
age” (28:20). In Revelation, we know
that at the end of the age, Jesus returns, we are resurrected, and we live
forever with him in our resurrection bodies.
The presence of God ties this all together.
Just as Zechariah
prophesied the temple building in Jerusalem, 515BC, we will build Jesus’ church
right here in Chapel Hill. God is with
us, so we can do it. We can encourage
each other, feed the hungry, share good news, love all who come, and grow our
family because God is here, filling us with His empowering spirit.
Furthermore, in Zechariah
1:17, God declares, “My cities shall again overflow with prosperity.” We will flourish as God’s church because we
stand in our need, as a broken people who have been healed by love, a dead people
born again, a repentant people made new.
It’s the story of God and us – us returning to the God who loves
us. That repentance is our act of
acknowledgement and faith. And the story
ends in joy and peace because God is present.
At the communion table, we
take a necessary step in the story. We
come to the table as we are. We don’t put
on a false front, no facades. We don’t hide
behind masks of respectability, false presentations of our best selves. We wear our warts, pimples, scars, wrinkles
and dried tears. This is us. We come name what we have lost. We hold out our mistakes. We have in mind those we have hurt either by
our actions or our failure to act.
On our way to the
communion table, a table welcoming all, we stop at the cross. There we lay down everything – our entire
story. When Zechariah says “return,” this
is the repentance we ought to have in mind.
All are welcome, but we can’t get to the table without a stop at the
cross. We meet Jesus at the cross, and
he guides us to take our seat at the table where we gather with brothers and
sisters, a family, united by God’s love.
Take your place. Bring your story. Open your heart to God. Receive the grace and forgiveness he
gives. And the prosperity. He makes us new. Even as wrong as things seem in the world, he
makes things right.
AMEN
