A Pastor's Mind during Holy Week

                I don’t know why I cannot sleep.  More and more lately, I have found myself awake at times when I ought to be sleeping, like now, 11:25PM.  Last night, from 2-4AM, it was fitful, odd dreams, waking every 20-30 minutes.  I have consumed a lot of coffee lately, but at other times in life, I have drunk just as much and without the sleep problems.  Am I (at 44) getting older and processing caffeine differently?  My 70-year-old father drinks coffee like water and it seems to have no effect on him.  I don’t get it.  I don’t know if it is the coffee.  I don’t know what it is.

          I know I am having real anticipation regarding Easter.  I have spent the last year reading a lot of the writing of N.T. Wright, and in the process, I have re-read many passages of scripture.  I think Wright is right (I had to!).  Christianity is not about ‘going to Heaven when we die.’  It is about declaring Jesus is Lord and living in the Kingdom of God as made possible by Jesus’ coming.  I don’t know if Wright would say it exactly that way.  I do think though that his writings clearly determine the pivotal event to be Jesus’ bodily resurrection.  For Wright, and he believes for the Apostle Paul, the resurrection has to be a bodily resuscitation, one fully dead then fully alive in a risen body that cannot die again.  And the resurrection of Jesus changes everything. 

          We live differently because the future (we followers of Jesus being resurrected) breaks into the now.  Jesus has been raised so we can live as raised people and we must, even though our resurrection is a future event.  I have been thinking a lot about this, trying to preach it, and I don’t understand it.

          I do know this, though.  All this pondering of resurrection, Jesus’, and because of his my own, leads me to long for it.  It also colors my mind in the days leading to Easter.  For me Easter is more of a New Year’s celebration than January 1.

          The dictionary reference website defines the word ‘new’ in many ways including the following: “unfamiliar or strange;” “occurring afresh;” “other than the former or old.”  If these descriptions were tacked onto the word life, they would describe resurrected life.  It is not like the old and it is quite strange.  I fully believe in resurrection, something I was not there to see and have not yet understood.  Increasingly, I understand my own life in terms of resurrection.  And Easter is a time for me to rethink about what it means to live resurrected even though my own future life is just that, in the future.

          It’s almost like experimenting, almost.  I recall being engaged.  My fiancé and I ate meals together.  We cuddled on the couch together.  There was hand holding and kissing.  We did not go beyond that until our wedding night, but beside being in love and thoroughly enjoying every second together, we were practicing our future lives together.  We were anticipating our lives together.  Being engaged was almost like being married, almost.

          Yet, it was nothing like being married.  After the wedding, when the evening ended, I did not return to my apartment.  We went to bed together.  After the wedding, I did not wonder what life with her would be like.  I discovered it.  And what a time of discovery it has been and continues to be.

          I imagine that step from anticipating life together to living it serves as small hint of anticipating life in the resurrection and then living into it.  Of course my metaphor may be woefully off.  I can’t know until I die and am then raised.  But I am so convinced that it will go that way and that I and all who follow Jesus will be resurrected, that as I know think toward Easter, I am full of excitement. 

          The excitement is not for all the worship services.  At our church, there are three worships times we do not normally have and I am eager for each.  I think they will be special and I am giving my own effort to be at my best for each.  Anticipating these extra times, times when the people of the church seek an extra special worship experience, probably is one reason I am struggling to sleep.  But it cannot be the only reason because this is my 17^th holy week as a senior pastor.  It is always an adrenalin time for me, but one I have been through before.

          The anticipation is maybe a minor cause for my insomnia, but only a minor cause.  The excitement of resurrection, I think, is a bigger matter for me.  What will it be like?  I don’t know.  Yet, I think it is the biggest news we have and I want to tell it.  As a pastor, I preach weekly, so I have the opportunity to tell it.  How do you tell something you think is more important than anything else and yet you don’t understand it?  How do you do that?

          I don’t know. 

          It is 11:50PM.  My kids will be up for school in about 6 hours.  I am going to go and try to sleep.  Maybe God will give me Easter dreams.  

Can you Hear the Hosannas

Do We Hear the ‘Hosanna’s’? (Matthew 21:1-17)

Sunday, April 13, 2014 – Palm Sunday

            Shane Claiborne is a writer, activist, speaker, and prophet who lives in an intentional community called the Simple Way in a Philadelphia neighborhood populated by addicts and dealers.  Children often go unsupervised.  There is violence.  Claiborne writes that whenever a fight breaks out near his house, he runs outside with torches.  He stands down the street from the rumble juggling the torches like clown.  He writes, “Perhaps kids will lose interest in the noise of a good fight and move toward the other end of the block to watch the circus.  I truly believe,” Claiborne says, “we can overcome the darkness of this world by shining something brighter and more beautiful.”[i]

            Fights are so common where he lives that he has a ready-made response, a beautiful response.  Give them something fun and whimsical to see instead of violence.  Provide a happy alternative to the corruption. 

            I may not ever see two people beating each other with fists and sticks and knives on the street where I live, but the world is soaked in sin and sin always leads to violence and death.  Cain always ends up killing Abel.  Sometimes the pathway to violence is indirect.  We don’t see the bloodshed but, the wage of sin is death, Romans 6:23.  And sin is everywhere.

            Claiborne’s attempt to divert attention away from the street fight by providing a circus shows in a playful way the serious alternative to a cycle of death that Jesus offered in the temple.  Jesus declared there is another way, a way that’s different and better than the way of violence and death.

Every year on the Sunday before Easter, Palm Sunday, we see Jesus praised on his ride into Jerusalem.  We watch him explode in righteous fury, driving animals out of the temple.  Matthew’s version of these events describes four definite actions of Jesus.  He rides into town as a king, passes judgment on the temple as a prophet, heals in a way that only God can, and receives worship, as only God should. 

In the Old Testament, the book of 2^nd Kings, chapter 9, Jehu is anointed by a prophet of God to be Israel’s next king.  Jehu and his men must get rid of the wicked King Ahab.  As he announces to his friends what God has said and what they must do, they hastily spread their cloaks before him, blow a trumpet, and shout “Jehu” is king (9:13). 

The crowd in Matthew 21 remembers the cloaks laid before Jehu as they reenact the impromptu coronation, laying their cloaks before Jesus.  The people hope he is will be the king of Israel.  UCC minister Nancy Rockwell suggests more than simply declaring the reign of Jesus, this is revolutionary.  It is an affront to King Herod the puppet monarch who answers to Rome. 

More significantly, it is a blatant rejection of the Roman Emperor.  Rockwell cites a book called The Last Week by Borg and Crossan[ii] that proposes that there was another procession the same day Jesus rode into Jerusalem.  While he came into town to cries of “Hosanna,” while riding an animal of peace, a donkey, Roman Governor Pilate processed into another part of town with a legion of soldiers on horses for the sole purpose of making a show of Roman force.  This was to discourage any potential rebellion.  Pilate had no idea how mistaken he was.  Even as he flexed the muscle of empire, the disciples acted out the kingship of Jesus.

Besides king, Jesus played the role of prophet.  The whole temple incident of turning over tables was a declaration of judgment.  In the Old Testament, the prophets do odd things to get their message across.  Jeremiah had a jar of rotting undergarments that symbolized the way pride had ruined Judah (Jer. 13:9).  Hosea had to marry a prostitute to illustrate how God would continuously take the nation back in spite of her infidelities.  These are just a few of many examples of how prophets sometimes used bizarre behavior to communicate the word of God.

Jesus did not cleanse the temple as this incident is sometimes described.  Something that’s be cleaned can be used again.  He rendered judgment.  The temple would no longer be the heart of God’s activity with people.  It was a den of thieves.  That phrase means that robbers – the religious establishment in Jesus eyes – felt like no harm would come to them in God’s temple.  They could get rich through dishonest means there in the house of prayer where people met God.  They felt their hold on the system made them safe.  They did not fear God.  Jesus’s violent acts, turning over tables, driving out animals, signaled the judgment that would be rendered when he died on the cross.

He came in as a king.  He spoke as a prophet.  And he received worship.  The people cried, “Hosanna,” a phrase from Psalm 118, verse 25, and it literally means, “Save us now, O Lord.”  We say this say to God when we are desperate.  Pinched between corrupt priests, Pharisees who laid a heavy load of legalism, the evil of Herod, and the oppression of Rome, the people were powerless.  They had nowhere to turn, so they turned to Jesus.  They invoked royal Psalms and words reserved for God alone and lifted those words upon Jesus’ arrival.

And Jesus accepted it all.  In this passage, our Palm Sunday reading, Jesus acted out what he truly was – prophet, king, and God.  The highest roles for ancient Israelites were prophet, priest and king.  Jesus was prophet and king, and the book of Hebrews over and over confirms what Matthew says implicitly – he was the supreme priest.  A priest is to stand between a human, marked by the profanity of sin, and the most Holy God.  Jesus was both fully human and fully God, so he was uniquely qualified to bring Heaven to Earth.  As we see in Revelation, Heaven and earth are joined in Christ as intimately as a bride and groom (Rev. 21).

What does this look like, in practical terms?  The Gospel of Matthew describes what Jesus did in the temple to show him to be who we believe him to be – Lord, Savior, King, God.  To get a sense of this, we need to do two things – remember, and look around and listen.

First, remember.  Specifically, we turn back in Matthew’s gospel to earlier in the story, chapter 11.  Jesus’ cousin John, called John the Baptist, was a prophet.  He called the nation of Israel to repentance.  He baptized people to show that they were cleansed of their sins.  He baptized Jesus. 

John preached without a filter.  So when Herod married his brother’s wife, John condemned the marriage.  Herod, the king of the Jews received his power from the Roman governor.  At any time, Pilate could oust Herod and have him killed.  Compared to other Jews, Herod was powerful and wealthy, but he was a puppet on the end of a Roman string.  Thus he was paranoid.

The fury and directness of John’s preaching infuriated the impotent monarch, so he had John imprisoned.  And John wasted away in Herod’s prison many months.  His energy waned.  He could not preach.  He did know what happened with Jesus after the baptism.  He had done his part in God’s plan, but in prison, he fell into depression.  So, his disciples, who were allowed to visit, came and he sent them to Jesus. 

There question to Jesus from John was, “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?”

Jesus responded, “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (11:3-5).  The blind receive their sight.  The lame are made able to walk.

These things would happen when the Messiah came.  These things were happening.  Jesus must be who John thought he was.  Now it is Palm Sunday.  A lot happened in Matthew’s gospel between that conversation with Jesus and John’s disciples, and the ride into Jerusalem that ended with disruption of temple money-changing tables.  But Matthew wants us, the readers to remember.  How can we know Jesus is from God?  The blind receive their sight.  The lame are made able to walk.  The dead are raised.

Matthew tells about Jesus riding in as a king, judging as a prophet, and receiving worship as God.  Then, in verse 14 it says, “The blind and lame came to him at the temple and he cured them.”  God is acting in history, changing everything, and the gatekeepers, the temple leaders do not like it at all. 

Matthew writes that they became angry.  After the excitement of the procession and the turning over of tables, and after the healing miracles, a confrontation between Jesus and the priests ensued.  There may have been 1000 adults in the temple area and they would be fascinated by an open confrontation between the high priest and the Galilean carpenter.  They would do what you or I would do if two people in public began arguing.  They would stop to gawk. 

Someone forgot to tell the children in the temple’s out court that the party had ended.  They kids kept singing the song – the song for Jesus.  “Hosanna to the son of David.”  Save us now, O Lord.  And he was doing exactly that. 

But the chief priests did not want to be saved.  Remember, den of thieves, the place where the criminals feel safe?  The temple leaders, like Herod, were under the heel of Rome, but they enjoyed status.  They may have been enslaved by Rome, but they were the rich slaves.  They did not need Jesus disrupting things, taking away their privileged position, bringing punishment on them.  They had no faith that he was of God and could bring freedom and new life. 

They saw the miracles and did not rejoice.  They heard the singing and did not join in.  “Do you hear what these [children] are saying?” The chief priests demanded (Mt. 21:16).  Yes, said, Jesus.  He quoted Psalm 8 to show that the children and anyone else who sang praise songs to him were the ones with understanding and the ones receiving the blessing God had sent. 

We’re trying to see and understand who Jesus is – Lord, Savior, God, King.  So we remember.  We know it is the Messiah of God when the blind receive their sight.  The lame are made able to walk.  The dead are raised.  Matthew tells of the healings in the temple that day.  The final act would come a week later when Jesus left the grave behind.

I mentioned that we needed to do two things to understand Jesus.  First, we needed to remember and we have looked back to John the Baptist and we have remembered.  This Thursday, we will wash feet and take communion and we will remember.  This Friday, we will tell the story of the cross and remember.  Next Sunday, we will see the sun rise and joyously, victoriously remember.

The second thing we need to do is look around and listen.  We see and hear Jesus when we hear the children singing “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  The Hosanna cry comes from people who need to be saved.  Who needs to be saved?  Children in households where they are neglected and abused; they need Jesus.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  Who needs to be saved?  Addicts – alcoholics, gambling addicts, porn addicts; you name it.  Addiction cannot be overcome without God’s help.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  Who needs to be saved?  People locked in poverty, trapped with no hope of escape.  They go to bed each night not knowing if they will eat the next day; not knowing where they will sleep the next night.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  Who needs to be saved?  People in the path of war need to be saved; Syrians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Afghans.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.” 

Of course it is obvious that people in these situations need help.  It appears unrelated to the events of Palm Sunday.  Palm Sunday is supposed to take us into Holy Week and Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday when we celebrate Jesus’ death for our sins and resurrection victory over death.  This is supposed to be spiritual and triumphant.  Why bring all these political and social justice matters into the conversation?  Domestic violence, addiction, hunger and poverty, war – how do these thorny issues worm their way into a nice Palm Sunday celebration?

On that day, Jesus declared the end of a religious institution – temple worship.  In the new way, the way of Jesus, People would come to him in order to come to God.  On that day, Jesus upended hierarchical systems.  In the new way, the way of Jesus, religious leaders are servants who walk with people instead of lording over them.  On that day, Jesus healed diseases like blindness because he loves people and abhors our suffering and also because his healing was and is a sign of who he is – Lord, Savior, God, and king. 

All of this is political.  All of this is justice and compassion, especially for the most down and out around us.  We hear the children’s song, the “Hosanna!” when we go to where the hurting people are.

We also hear it when we listen to brokenness in our own hearts and realize how desperately we need Jesus.  Until we hear the children singing for us, we will not really see Jesus. 

“Do you hear what these [children] are saying?”  The chief priests asked it indignantly.  We need to ask it innocently and humbly.  Do we hear the children?  Are we seeking Jesus, singing “Hosanna!” begging him to save us?  He gives us a choice.  We gather with the bloodthirsty crowd and watch the street fight and by watching and encouraging the combatants we are as guilty of the violence as they are. 

Or, we can take the Jesus alternative, the one where blind people are healed, the broken mended, and the lame made able to walk.  We can pray, “Hosanna!  Lord save us.”  We can pray it because God hears it and will answer and has answered in Jesus, his come, his death, and his resurrection.  His is the way of life and beckons us to it.

AMEN

---

[i] S. Claiborne (2006).  The Irresistible Revolution, Zondervan, Grand Rapid, p.285.

[ii] http://biteintheapple.com/ride-on-ride-on/

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.

A Pastor's Response to World Vision's Decision on Same Sex Marriage

Walk to the Light (John 9:1-41; 10:7-10, 19-21)

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Sunday, March 30, 2014

4^th Sunday of Lent

            John 9:1-10:21

9 As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who had been blind since birth. ² Jesus' disciples asked, “Teacher, why was this man born blind? Was it because he or his parents sinned?”

³ “No, it wasn’t!” Jesus answered. “But because of his blindness, you will see God work a miracle for him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do what the one who sent me wants me to do. When night comes, no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light for the world.”

⁶ After Jesus said this, he spit on the ground. He made some mud and smeared it on the man’s eyes.⁷ Then he said, “Go and wash off the mud in Siloam Pool.” The man went and washed in Siloam, which means “One Who Is Sent.” When he had washed off the mud, he could see.

⁸ The man’s neighbors and the people who had seen him begging wondered if he really could be the same man. ⁹ Some of them said he was the same beggar, while others said he only looked like him. But he told them, “I am that man.”

¹⁰ “Then how can you see?” they asked.

¹¹ He answered, “Someone named Jesus made some mud and smeared it on my eyes. He told me to go and wash it off in Siloam Pool. When I did, I could see.”

¹² “Where is he now?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

The Pharisees Try To Find Out What Happened

^13-14 The day when Jesus made the mud and healed the man was a Sabbath. So the people took the man to the Pharisees. ¹⁵ They asked him how he was able to see, and he answered, “Jesus made some mud and smeared it on my eyes. Then after I washed it off, I could see.”

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus doesn’t come from God. If he did, he would not break the law of the Sabbath.”

Others asked, “How could someone who is a sinner work such a miracle?”^[a]

Since the Pharisees could not agree among themselves, ¹⁷ they asked the man, “What do you say about this one who healed your eyes?”

“He is a prophet!” the man told them.

¹⁸ But the Jewish leaders would not believe that the man had once been blind. They sent for his parents ¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this the son that you said was born blind? How can he now see?”

²⁰ The man’s parents answered, “We are certain that he is our son, and we know that he was born blind. ²¹ But we don’t know how he got his sight or who gave it to him. Ask him! He is old enough to speak for himself.”

^22-23 The man’s parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. The leaders had already agreed that no one was to have anything to do with anyone who said Jesus was the Messiah.

²⁴ The leaders called the man back and said, “Swear by God to tell the truth! We know that Jesus is a sinner.”

²⁵ The man replied, “I don’t know if he is a sinner or not. All I know is that I used to be blind, but now I can see!”

²⁶ “What did he do to you?” the Jewish leaders asked. “How did he heal your eyes?”

²⁷ The man answered, “I have already told you once, and you refused to listen. Why do you want me to tell you again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

²⁸ The leaders insulted the man and said, “You are his follower! We are followers of Moses. ²⁹ We are sure that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where Jesus comes from.”

³⁰ “How strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from.³¹ We know that God listens only to people who love and obey him. God doesn’t listen to sinners.³² And this is the first time in history that anyone has ever given sight to someone born blind.³³ Jesus could not do anything unless he came from God.”

³⁴ The leaders told the man, “You have been a sinner since the day you were born! Do you think you can teach us anything?” Then they said, “You can never come back into any of our meeting places!”

³⁵ When Jesus heard what had happened, he went and found the man. Then Jesus asked, “Do you have faith in the Son of Man?”

³⁶ He replied, “Sir, if you will tell me who he is, I will put my faith in him.”

³⁷ “You have already seen him,” Jesus answered, “and right now he is talking with you.”

³⁸ The man said, “Lord, I put my faith in you!” Then he worshiped Jesus.

³⁹ Jesus told him, “I came to judge the people of this world. I am here to give sight to the blind and to make blind everyone who can see.”

⁴⁰ When the Pharisees heard Jesus say this, they asked, “Are we blind?”

⁴¹ Jesus answered, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty. But now that you claim to see, you will keep on being guilty.”

A Story about Sheep

10 Jesus said:

⁷ Jesus said:

I tell you for certain that I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ Everyone who came before me was a thief or a robber, and the sheep did not listen to any of them. ⁹ I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture.

¹⁰ A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest. 

¹⁹ The people took sides because of what Jesus had told them. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon in him! He is crazy! Why listen to him?”

²¹ But others said, “How could anyone with a demon in him say these things? No one like that could give sight to a blind person!”

            The Pharisees who confront Jesus are people thoroughly committed to God’s ways; however, their zeal for the law blinds them to the work of God among them.   They know how they think God is supposed to act.  When Jesus does not act that way, it does not matter that he healed a blind man.  In their understanding, blindness is a sign of punishment from God.  Only God can undo that punishment.  And God would not do so on a Sabbath day.  The sinner has been blind his entire life.  He can wait one more day for healing.

            Because blindness is a sign of sin and the Sabbath is for rest, not work, not even the work of healing, they miss the sign from God, the healing.  Some Pharisees do get a glimpse.  Like Nicodemus in chapter 3, there were Pharisees who saw Jesus in action and they knew he was from Gog.  Full understanding would not come until after the resurrection, but they were open.  Others, stubbornly stuck in their traditions, could not allow themselves to see.  Jesus called them blind.

            Where is the church in America blind today?  Where are we guilty of missing God’s healing because we are blinded by rules we have determined to be essential? 

Think of the issue of our time, same-sex marriage.  The conversation on homosexuality in Evangelical circles generates so much smoke and noise that followers of Jesus do not see where God is at work.  Failing to see, we fail to join in God’s work.

            World Vision is an international Christian organization that does child sponsorship.  They partner affluent Americans with extremely poor children, people who live on less than $.99 a day.  In sponsorship, someone signs up to pay $35 each month to sponsor a child.  Also the sponsor writes letters to the child and prays for the child.

            The funds make sure the child gets at least one meal each day, a uniform, supplies, and school fees paid.  In some places, sponsorship funds also contribute to clean water projects.  Without these things, someone goes hungry, drinks infested water which leads to disease, lacks basic education and is thus unemployable, and lacks healthcare.  Sponsorship saves lives, prolongs life, and increases the quality of life.  World Vision is an evangelical organization that shares eternal life by sharing the gospel in all their programs.

            World Vision recently announced same-sex couples in committed, monogamous marriages relationships would be allowed to be employed.  World Vision did not endorse same-sex relationships.  World Vision said that whether one is pro-homosexuality or anti-homosexuality is a decision to be made in concert with the leadership in the local church.  Some churches feel one way about the issue, others feel another.  World Vision works with Christians of many stripes.  World Vision’s mission is to carry the gospel to the poorest of the poor through witnessing and through sponsorship programs.  They work with churches that affirm homosexuality as a lifestyle choice and with churches that condemn it.

            Because of World Vision’s decision to employ people in same sex marriages, sponsors opposed to homosexuality have ended their partnership with World Vision declaring them are a non-Christian organization.   These sponsors know that $35/month is saving life, prolonging life, and enhancing the quality of life.  They know that children all over the world hear the gospel through World Vision. Their $35/month helps make that possible.  They know World Vision is not preaching a gospel of homosexuality.  World Vision preaches and teaches the same message of salvation from Jesus preached in evangelical churches.  The former sponsors know that.  But their opposition to same sex marriage is so vehement, they assume World Vision does not represent God.

            These ending their sponsorship and taking away money they’ve given to kids who desperately need it – these are the Pharisees who refused to believe God would heal on the Sabbath.  Enslaved by their own ideas, they missed seeing Jesus.  You’re blind, he told them.  People who cut off sponsorship to stand on principle are equally blind. 

In Ethiopia, I washed a girl’s feet, a girl from a Muslim family.  Then, she washed mine with the most tender care you can imagine.  I’ve never felt so loved quite like that.  Why?  God brought us together through sponsorship.  She and I have seen God.  People are missing this because they cannot imagine God working outside their rules.

            For the record, I believe the Bible teaches that God is glorified in sexual relationships that are between a husband and wife.  Any other sexual relationship is outside of God’s vision for humanity.  Marriage or celibacy as a single person: this is God’s plan for human sexuality.  Anything beyond is sin. 

            Other Christians see it differently.  Can a practicing homosexual be Christian?  Anyone who declares Jesus is Lord and worships him is a Christian.  No one is a perfect disciple; certainly not me.  As a pastor, I would not perform a same-sex union.  As a friend, I would attend one. 

            Jesus came to show the light – to free us from sin.  Restoring sight to a blind man was a sign that pointed to Jesus’ life work.  He frees us from sin’s grasp.  He gives us abundant life in which we are sons and daughters of God. 

            Look around the world.  Where the blind receive sight, the hungry are fed, children go to school, and the sick get medicine; in all these works, God is at work, we join Him.

            The debates over homosexuality matter, but that conversation is secondary.  The main things is announcing that Jesus is Lord and his coming is a sign of the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom.  Announcing the gospel supersedes secondary.  Conversations on that topic should be done in love great patience and grace on all sides, and without driving us to nullify each other’s Christianity. 

            Jesus is the Light of the world and his light is shining in the world today.  We are healed of our blindness when we walk to the light. 

            The last I heard, World Vision was going to reverse their decision and now not hire same-sex couples.  It made me sad to think that Pharisees complaining about broken rules trumped the work of caring for orphans and extremely poor children.  They are unable to rejoice when a blind man receives his sight. 

            Jesus said, a thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.   If you heard me to endorse homosexuality as a Biblically acceptable life style, you have not been listening.  What I have done is present a story in which Jesus puts the full, abundant life – the life freed from sin’s clutches – as his top priority.  And in that story, some believers choose the rules over the abundant life.

            How do we respond?  Do we strive with everything in us to walk with Jesus and help people have abundant life.  Or we do stand in the corner, wringing our hands, griping because someone’s Christianity doesn’t fit our standards.  I want to be where Jesus is – where healing is happening.   I want to walk to the light and walk in the light.  I pray that we all want that.

AMEN