A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 13, 2008 at St. Mary's Medical Center Convent Chapel, based on Nehemiah 9:6-15
Fill in the musical blank as I sing:
My dog’s bigger than (your dog).
My Dog’s bigger than (your’s).
My dog’s bigger ‘cause he eats (Kennel Ration).
My dog’s bigger than (your’s).
Remember that from the 60’s? Let’s be a little impertinent and turn this around and ask:
How Big is your God? …
Is your God the One who made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their angelic hosts, the earth and all that is on it? Does your God preserve the sea and all that is in it? Does the host of Heaven bow down and worship your God?
Does your God make Covenants with people and does He keep them forever? Does he perform signs and wonders for His covenant people and lead them through deep waters - set pillars of cloud and fire to guide them through the desert, and then give them food from heaven to eat?
Is your God Gracious and Merciful, slow to anger and abounding in Steadfast Love, keeping faith with his people even when they lose faith and turn to worship other Gods? …
Is He?
Does He lead you beside still waters and restore your soul? Is He with you even in the shadow of Death?
Does He prepare a table before you in the Presence of your enemies? Does he anoint your head with oil and make your cup overflow?
Could you identify the sound of your God’s voice?
If someone was trying to imitate your God and disguised their voice to sound like His, could you tell the difference? Do you trust that voice enough to follow it wherever it leads you?
And would you willingly give up something precious for your God if that thing or person was leading you away from your God?
Would you?
If not, your God is too small and you need a bigger one to follow.
The Big God of Scripture
You need the One found in the pages of Nehemiah and Psalm 23 and John 10 and Acts 7 – a God who is Big enough and powerful enough to command the universe, but One who is loving enough to care for you and to desire a close personal relationship with you.
You need a God that you are willing to die for but One that you are willing to Live for as well - A God that speaks to you personally and a God that demands your allegiance because he made you – a God that is High and Lifted up – but one who stoops to help you in your weakness.
Friends, do you have a God like this?
Discovering the True God of the Bible
In our lesson from Nehemiah today, we pick up the story mid – way through - after Nehemiah had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and reconstructed the walls around the city despite the opposition of the surrounding peoples. A census had been taken of all the returned exiles and on a great day of dedication, the people had stood from early morning to until mid-day as the Book of the Law of Moses was read out in their hearing. They wept when they heard the law, and then they celebrated a Holy Day with feasting.
They constructed booths out of branches and lived in them for seven days while they were listening to the word and its explanation. And on the eighth day they confessed their sins before God and worshipped Him.
The Levite priests (be thankful you didn’t have to read their names today) told the people to Stand up and bless the Lord because His name is exalted above all blessing and praise. He’s a big God and He deserves all the praise we can muster before him.
The people praised God and recounted his actions in history towards them – and they confessed their sins very specifically – for a long time, a quarter of a day.
And then they made a written covenant with this God and sealed their names upon it. They solemnly swore to observe the Law he had given to Moses, to not allow intermarriage with the people of the surrounding areas, to observe the Sabbath and the year of Jubilee, and to bring the firstfruits of their labor to the Lord for the maintenance of the temple worship, saying “We will not neglect the house of our God.” (Neh 10:39).
Because Jerusalem’s walls had been torn down, it wasn’t safe to live there for many years, so after the new wall was completed the peoplecast lots and chose 10 % of the population to live there, while the rest of the people lived in smaller outlying towns. They dedicated the wall they had built and began daily temple worship, offering ‘great sacrifices’ with great joy – all because they were serving a great God.
Nehemiah’s Reforms
And then Nehemiah sets about cleaning house. He separates out from Israel all of foreign descent. No Ammonites or Moabites welcome –because their people did not help the Israelites and hired Balaam to curse them.
But then Nehemiah goes back to Babylon for several years. When he returns, he finds things have fallen apart. He discovers that the corrupt priest Eliashib had created a nice little crib for his homey Tobia in the temple – and he throws them both out on their ears and cleanses the place, returning it to its sacred storehouse function.
He discovers that the Levites had not been given their portion and they had had to go out and work in the fields instead of worshipping God. Nehemiah restores the tithe and the people bring in their first fruits to the Lord.
The observance of the Sabbath had gone by the boards, and he restores it – by force.
And then comes the coup de grace: Nehemiah learns that the Jews had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab and that half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, not Hebrew. Listen to how he handles this situation:
“And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God” …that they would not intermarry with the surrounding peoples! (Wow!)
The last thing he does is to chase off the son-in-law of Sanballat, who had caused so much trouble to the people.
And Nehemiah closes his book by asking God to remember him for God because he had cleansed everything foreign.
Now, is your God as big as Nehemiah’s?
For the sake of your God, are you willing to cleanse out of your life anything that displeases God? Are you willing to attempt big huge projects on behalf of your God because you love Him and the Law he has set before you? Are you willing to bring him the first and the best of all you have to offer?
And are you willing to stand up for righteousness and confront God’s people when they stray? ( Can you imagine Nehemiah at General Conference 2003?...!)
Are you? If you are, it’s because you have caught a vision for a God that is High and Lifted up, worthy of honor, much to be feared and obeyed as the absolute, sovereign Creator.
The Rest of the Story….
But this is only half the story about our God. The rest of it (as Paul Harvey says) is that God is a God of love, who desires an intimate relationship with you, the sheep of his hand.
Our Big View of God must include his power and righteousness. Without this we are impoverished as people. But our big view also has to include fact that Jesus died on the cross for us and has wiped away our certificate of debt before God the righteous judge.
This same God has sent His Holy Spirit to live inside of us and to have intimate fellowship with us. When Jesus said, in Rev. 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me”, he wasn’t talking to non -believers, He was talking to the lukewarm church at Laodicea, trying to reprove and discipline them so that they could enter in to this close, loving relationship with God and eventually share the very throne of God with Him!
God, our God, Loves you and wants to spend time with you! This is the most amazing thing in the Universe! Surely there can be no higher privilege than to Hobnob with the Most High!
So let me challenge and encourage you to do some things:
1) Repent of your obtuseness in the Face of a Holy and Awesome God. He is your maker and he deserves the very best you have to offer, even if you don’t understand Him or what He’s doing in your life.
2) Love Him and spend time with him every day! This Mighty God of ours also cares about each hair on your head. He has an infinite amount of time for you – and for me too. No problem is too small for Him. “Cast your burden upon the Lord – for he will sustain you…” (Ps. 55:22).
3) Don’t fall prey to Benjamin Franklin’s quip that “God helps those who help themselves.” It’s cute, but it ain’t right. God emphatically helps those who call upon Him for wisdom and then do what He tells them to do. This is the opposite of self-sufficiency.
4) Give Him yourself – it’s the best and only thing you really have to Give Him.
I’d like to close with this prayer of dedication that we usually pray during our Celtic Eucharist
Prayer of Dedication
Each thing I have received,
from YOU it came.
Each thing for which I hope,
from YOUR love it will come.
Each thing I enjoy,
it is of YOUR Bounty.
So I am giving YOU offering with my
whole thought.
I am giving YOU Love with my
whole heart.
I am giving YOU affection with my
whole devotion.
And I am giving You my soul,
O God of all Gods.
AMEN.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
PEFT for the World
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 6, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
A couple of years ago on a weekend trip to visit my parents, I had a sudden epiphany about my mother’s Mission in Life. For several weeks previous to our visit, Mom and Dad had been having trouble with a raccoon which had been raiding their trash and garden. The night before we arrived at their home, my father had trapped this huge raccoon in a ‘Have a Heart” cage, intending to drive it far out into the country and drop it off in a new home.
About an hour before Dad and I were to make our little trip into the country, my mother announced that she was taking some cat food out to the raccoon, allowing as it was probably hungry! At that very moment I realized that despite whatever other roles she had played in life: wife, mother, teacher, church member, etc, her REAL Mission in life was “To feed living things”. It mattered not what species – neighborhood dog, stray cat, foraging deer – even fat raccoons – they all fell under my mother’s Divine Mandate to feed living things. At that moment it also became clear to me why she had majored in Home Economics and why I was 20 years old before I realized that breakfast is not necessarily a four-course meal! It was all beause of my mother Mission in Life to feed living things!
Thesis:
Today I would like to suggest to you that Jesus has a similar mission in our lives: To make himself known to us and the world in the breaking of bread.
We could perhaps restate this by saying that Our Worship, Fellowship and Outreach as Christians is based around Companionship – being those who break bread together.
Scriptures:
In our Gospel lesson from Luke 24:13-35, we find Jesus walking with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, talking with them about the recent events, “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” V. 16. After extensive discussion about the Christ being prophecied in Scripture, they all sit down to a meal. And “when he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” vv. 30,31
Here we can see what has been called the Four-Fold Eucharistic action. Jesus:
Took Bread
Blessed it
Broke it
Gave it to them.
Each Sunday we re-enact this pattern in our Worship. If my mom were here today, she’d be very happy, because it’s all about feeding living things!
Basis for Fellowship
In Acts 2:42, 46, we see a similar pattern for something we could call Eucharistic Fellowship: V42 And they devoted themselves to:
the apostles' teaching and
the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and
the prayers.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…
So the people were going to church and eating together, receiving their food with thanksgiving, or “Eucharistically” .
I’ve taken the liberty of categorizing the four basic actions in these two passages into an acronym: PEFT. Both in their worship and their fellowship the early Christians did these four actions;
P ray
E at
F ellowship
T each
At the center of it all was eating – either eating the body and blood of Jesus, or having a so-called ‘Agape’ or fellowship meal.
Basis for Evangelism.
The result was Evangelism. The message about Jesus was spread abroad:
“…Then they told [the others]what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Lk. 24: 35.
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” ACTS 2:47
I grant you that it’s too simple to say that the church grew because people worshipped and ate together. There’s also this amazing testimony from Acts:
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. …47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
Signs and Wonders and community living also had a huge impact on the spread of the Gospel early on.
But as a local church, if we think about our strategy for reaching out to others, what could be simpler than a four fold plan:
Pray
Eat
Fellowship
Teach
Application:
In other words, invite people to come and eat with you. Go to lunch with them, invite them to your homes for dinner or to your small groups.
Get to know people through the fellowship you have with them over a meal.
Offer to pray for them – for their healing, for their businesses, for their family lives, for their salvation.
Then Teach. Teach through studying the Bible together. Teach what you’ve learned through your life experience: older ones mentor younger ones. Teach new believers how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Help them to know how to order their lives in a way that would be pleasing to God and profitable for them.
In light of all this, I’m thinking about a popular slogan: ‘The Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.
I’m also thinking that maybe my Mom is on to something. Maybe the Gospel is really all about Feeding Living Things.
Based on today’s lessons, I think that might be the case. So I say, “Pass the bread and Eat up!” Let’s Pray:
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A couple of years ago on a weekend trip to visit my parents, I had a sudden epiphany about my mother’s Mission in Life. For several weeks previous to our visit, Mom and Dad had been having trouble with a raccoon which had been raiding their trash and garden. The night before we arrived at their home, my father had trapped this huge raccoon in a ‘Have a Heart” cage, intending to drive it far out into the country and drop it off in a new home.
About an hour before Dad and I were to make our little trip into the country, my mother announced that she was taking some cat food out to the raccoon, allowing as it was probably hungry! At that very moment I realized that despite whatever other roles she had played in life: wife, mother, teacher, church member, etc, her REAL Mission in life was “To feed living things”. It mattered not what species – neighborhood dog, stray cat, foraging deer – even fat raccoons – they all fell under my mother’s Divine Mandate to feed living things. At that moment it also became clear to me why she had majored in Home Economics and why I was 20 years old before I realized that breakfast is not necessarily a four-course meal! It was all beause of my mother Mission in Life to feed living things!
Thesis:
Today I would like to suggest to you that Jesus has a similar mission in our lives: To make himself known to us and the world in the breaking of bread.
We could perhaps restate this by saying that Our Worship, Fellowship and Outreach as Christians is based around Companionship – being those who break bread together.
Scriptures:
In our Gospel lesson from Luke 24:13-35, we find Jesus walking with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, talking with them about the recent events, “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” V. 16. After extensive discussion about the Christ being prophecied in Scripture, they all sit down to a meal. And “when he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” vv. 30,31
Here we can see what has been called the Four-Fold Eucharistic action. Jesus:
Took Bread
Blessed it
Broke it
Gave it to them.
Each Sunday we re-enact this pattern in our Worship. If my mom were here today, she’d be very happy, because it’s all about feeding living things!
Basis for Fellowship
In Acts 2:42, 46, we see a similar pattern for something we could call Eucharistic Fellowship: V42 And they devoted themselves to:
the apostles' teaching and
the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and
the prayers.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…
So the people were going to church and eating together, receiving their food with thanksgiving, or “Eucharistically” .
I’ve taken the liberty of categorizing the four basic actions in these two passages into an acronym: PEFT. Both in their worship and their fellowship the early Christians did these four actions;
P ray
E at
F ellowship
T each
At the center of it all was eating – either eating the body and blood of Jesus, or having a so-called ‘Agape’ or fellowship meal.
Basis for Evangelism.
The result was Evangelism. The message about Jesus was spread abroad:
“…Then they told [the others]what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Lk. 24: 35.
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” ACTS 2:47
I grant you that it’s too simple to say that the church grew because people worshipped and ate together. There’s also this amazing testimony from Acts:
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. …47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
Signs and Wonders and community living also had a huge impact on the spread of the Gospel early on.
But as a local church, if we think about our strategy for reaching out to others, what could be simpler than a four fold plan:
Pray
Eat
Fellowship
Teach
Application:
In other words, invite people to come and eat with you. Go to lunch with them, invite them to your homes for dinner or to your small groups.
Get to know people through the fellowship you have with them over a meal.
Offer to pray for them – for their healing, for their businesses, for their family lives, for their salvation.
Then Teach. Teach through studying the Bible together. Teach what you’ve learned through your life experience: older ones mentor younger ones. Teach new believers how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Help them to know how to order their lives in a way that would be pleasing to God and profitable for them.
In light of all this, I’m thinking about a popular slogan: ‘The Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.
I’m also thinking that maybe my Mom is on to something. Maybe the Gospel is really all about Feeding Living Things.
Based on today’s lessons, I think that might be the case. So I say, “Pass the bread and Eat up!” Let’s Pray:
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Why Are You Here?
A Sermon Given to All Saints Anglican Church on Easter 2008 @ the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Why are you here today? …. Is it because Easter is a cultural Holiday and you feel that you are expected to go to church before eating a meal with your family and having an Easter egg hunt with your kids? Is it because Christmas and Easter are two religious holidays that you can’t avoid – and so you must make an effort to attend so that God isn’t perturbed with you?
Or …. Do you come in order to recognize that the event we celebrate today actually happened and has changed Human existence more than any other religion or philosophy in the World?
I would suggest that for most, if not all, of us, it is the latter. We’re here because we have come to recognize that Jesus arose from the grave and this singular fact has changed our lives forever.
Jesus rose from the Dead. The grave is empty! This fact was noticed by the Roman soldiers who were charged with guarding the tomb against Jesus’ followers who were thought to be plotting to steal the body for their own purposes.
The Disciples noticed that the grave was empty and thought it was significant enough to turn the world upside down as they spread the News.
You and I have noticed that Jesus is not dead – and it has changed every area of our lives: how we think about ourselves, how we treat others, how we spend our money, and how we spend our Sunday mornings.
When we say that Jesus arose, this also entails several other things logically; namely, that Jesus actually existed! You might think this is a silly point to bring up – but there are those who have tried to say that Jesus never existed as a real historical person. There are those who say that he didn’t actually die on the cross, but swooned and was later revived, going on to get married and have a family with Mary Magdalene. People say all kinds of things about Jesus other than what the Bible says – because they don’t like the central focus of Jesus’ mission – to shed his blood on your behalf and mine.
You see, people don’t like to be told they have inherited the original guilt and stain from Adam and Eve, and that the natural condition of humans is to be alienated from God – even as ‘innocent’ children. We don’t like to hear that what we really deserve is death like the thieves on the cross, not peace and prosperity.
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. (Rom. 3.23). That doesn’t mean that you have a good heart and just lack a few things to be perfect. No, that means that there is an infinite gap between your human goodness and the absolute perfection of God – a gap that is unbridgeable by human effort.
Our problem as humans is not that we are unenlightened, that we just need better self-esteem, or that we just need to clean up our act somewhat before God can accept us fully. The problem is that the Sin we inherit by being human fatally separates us from God.
It’s like on your computer when you se a message that says: “A Fatal error occurred and your computer must shut down”. Sin has shut down the human race and humans have no religious I.T. techs to get them started again via natural means. It’s not in our original software!
The only thing that will bridge the gap between us and God is Blood Sacrifice. This is what separated Able’s sacrifice from Cain’s. This is whey God set up the elaborate rituals for animal sacrifice in the Jewish Temple. This is what Jesus came to offer God on our behalf. And this is what the world objects to.
This past week I got a news letter from Lynn and Karen McAdams, who were dear friends of ours at Trinity and have served as missionaries in Germany for the last 25 years. Writing about the future of the church in Germany, Lynn quotes TV pastor Jurgen Fliege, who asserts,
“The church should offer a more positive picture of Jesus and not be continually talking about suffering and death…Jesus was a master of happiness. If the church keeps repeating that ‘Jesus died for me and my sins,’ that’s lie a dark cloud which hangs over people … Instead, we should learn from statements like ‘plants can teach us something.’ This is not esoteric, but a lesson from creation, as tress and plants are ‘the oldest siblings of mankind.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m convinced that some of my teachers in school were actually plant life -- But you see, this statement tells us what the world wants: A religion that helps them to feel good about themselves and to realize that you’d be much happier if you just thought about your leafy siblings – and stopped thinking about Sin, Death, and Blood all the time. It’s just as CS Lewis said, “Christianity is not the kind of religion you would make up on your own…” It’s too bloody, too messy, and too difficult to believe. Easier to believe that “Plants are your friends”…
But friends I am here today to tell you that the only reason we are here today is to affirm and celebrate the uncomfortable facts of the Gospel: Jesus was a real Human being who was also real God at the same time. He came down from Heaven to live a perfect life and to teach us about God – but more importantly to die for us and to open the way to Heaven for us.
Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. His blood is the only way to God. There is none other, and no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved. You can make up your own religion and sell it on TV all you want – but without the blood sacrifice you will not satisfy the necessary condition to bridge the gap between yourself and God.
It was because Jesus offered his own blood on Friday that we celebrate the empty tomb on Sunday. It’s the Blood of Jesus that we celebrate and re-present to God every Sunday in Thanksgiving. It’s the Blood of Jesus that Cleanses, not just covers Sin. And it’s the blood of Jesus that separates Christianity from all other religions.
If you’re here today because you have placed your faith and confidence in the blood of Jesus – I welcome you as a brother or sister in Christ. If you have never trusted the blood of Jesus to cleans you from sin and present you spotless before God, I challenge and invite you to do so before you leave this place today.
Make your time here today eternally meaningful by turning away from your own feeble attempts to be good, and trust in the shed blood of Christ. Come now and give yourself to Him. Now is the Time. Amen.
Why are you here today? …. Is it because Easter is a cultural Holiday and you feel that you are expected to go to church before eating a meal with your family and having an Easter egg hunt with your kids? Is it because Christmas and Easter are two religious holidays that you can’t avoid – and so you must make an effort to attend so that God isn’t perturbed with you?
Or …. Do you come in order to recognize that the event we celebrate today actually happened and has changed Human existence more than any other religion or philosophy in the World?
I would suggest that for most, if not all, of us, it is the latter. We’re here because we have come to recognize that Jesus arose from the grave and this singular fact has changed our lives forever.
Jesus rose from the Dead. The grave is empty! This fact was noticed by the Roman soldiers who were charged with guarding the tomb against Jesus’ followers who were thought to be plotting to steal the body for their own purposes.
The Disciples noticed that the grave was empty and thought it was significant enough to turn the world upside down as they spread the News.
You and I have noticed that Jesus is not dead – and it has changed every area of our lives: how we think about ourselves, how we treat others, how we spend our money, and how we spend our Sunday mornings.
When we say that Jesus arose, this also entails several other things logically; namely, that Jesus actually existed! You might think this is a silly point to bring up – but there are those who have tried to say that Jesus never existed as a real historical person. There are those who say that he didn’t actually die on the cross, but swooned and was later revived, going on to get married and have a family with Mary Magdalene. People say all kinds of things about Jesus other than what the Bible says – because they don’t like the central focus of Jesus’ mission – to shed his blood on your behalf and mine.
You see, people don’t like to be told they have inherited the original guilt and stain from Adam and Eve, and that the natural condition of humans is to be alienated from God – even as ‘innocent’ children. We don’t like to hear that what we really deserve is death like the thieves on the cross, not peace and prosperity.
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. (Rom. 3.23). That doesn’t mean that you have a good heart and just lack a few things to be perfect. No, that means that there is an infinite gap between your human goodness and the absolute perfection of God – a gap that is unbridgeable by human effort.
Our problem as humans is not that we are unenlightened, that we just need better self-esteem, or that we just need to clean up our act somewhat before God can accept us fully. The problem is that the Sin we inherit by being human fatally separates us from God.
It’s like on your computer when you se a message that says: “A Fatal error occurred and your computer must shut down”. Sin has shut down the human race and humans have no religious I.T. techs to get them started again via natural means. It’s not in our original software!
The only thing that will bridge the gap between us and God is Blood Sacrifice. This is what separated Able’s sacrifice from Cain’s. This is whey God set up the elaborate rituals for animal sacrifice in the Jewish Temple. This is what Jesus came to offer God on our behalf. And this is what the world objects to.
This past week I got a news letter from Lynn and Karen McAdams, who were dear friends of ours at Trinity and have served as missionaries in Germany for the last 25 years. Writing about the future of the church in Germany, Lynn quotes TV pastor Jurgen Fliege, who asserts,
“The church should offer a more positive picture of Jesus and not be continually talking about suffering and death…Jesus was a master of happiness. If the church keeps repeating that ‘Jesus died for me and my sins,’ that’s lie a dark cloud which hangs over people … Instead, we should learn from statements like ‘plants can teach us something.’ This is not esoteric, but a lesson from creation, as tress and plants are ‘the oldest siblings of mankind.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m convinced that some of my teachers in school were actually plant life -- But you see, this statement tells us what the world wants: A religion that helps them to feel good about themselves and to realize that you’d be much happier if you just thought about your leafy siblings – and stopped thinking about Sin, Death, and Blood all the time. It’s just as CS Lewis said, “Christianity is not the kind of religion you would make up on your own…” It’s too bloody, too messy, and too difficult to believe. Easier to believe that “Plants are your friends”…
But friends I am here today to tell you that the only reason we are here today is to affirm and celebrate the uncomfortable facts of the Gospel: Jesus was a real Human being who was also real God at the same time. He came down from Heaven to live a perfect life and to teach us about God – but more importantly to die for us and to open the way to Heaven for us.
Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. His blood is the only way to God. There is none other, and no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved. You can make up your own religion and sell it on TV all you want – but without the blood sacrifice you will not satisfy the necessary condition to bridge the gap between yourself and God.
It was because Jesus offered his own blood on Friday that we celebrate the empty tomb on Sunday. It’s the Blood of Jesus that we celebrate and re-present to God every Sunday in Thanksgiving. It’s the Blood of Jesus that Cleanses, not just covers Sin. And it’s the blood of Jesus that separates Christianity from all other religions.
If you’re here today because you have placed your faith and confidence in the blood of Jesus – I welcome you as a brother or sister in Christ. If you have never trusted the blood of Jesus to cleans you from sin and present you spotless before God, I challenge and invite you to do so before you leave this place today.
Make your time here today eternally meaningful by turning away from your own feeble attempts to be good, and trust in the shed blood of Christ. Come now and give yourself to Him. Now is the Time. Amen.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on March 2, 2008 based on
John 9:1-38
Intro:
Today as we consider our Gospel lesson, we are going to learn something crucial about the nature of suffering in our lives and also about what I will call the LBR’s of salvation.
Listen, Believe, Receive.
First, a word about suffering and a Misconception about Illness:
We read that “[Jesus] saw a man blind from birth.” His disciples asked Jesus a question that reflects a fundamental misconception about the nature of Illness: (v2) “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answers the misconception saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
The misconception is that Illness is caused by someone’s specific sin. Under this misunderstanding, illness logically is a punishment upon individuals. This in turn leads to a conundrum about the Nature of God: How could a good and loving God ‘inflict’ suffering upon people He is supposed to love – especially innocent children who are hardly culpable for their actions? This is so confusing to the modern mind that people often reject the Bible altogether and say there is no way to reconcile the problem.
One example of this is a religion professor from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Bart Ehrman. Dr. Ehrman is a prolific author. Some of his titles include:
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
The Gospel of Judas
Peter, Paul, & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings
Dr. Ehrman’s most recent book is:
God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer
Here is an author who has come to the conclusion that there really is no answer to the problem of human suffering. I don’t have time here to go into an explanation and rebuttal of Dr. Ehrman’s book, but there are several important points to be made here:
One: The Fall of man caused the entrance of sin and suffering into the world. The doctrine of Original Sin tells us that the guilt and stain of Adam and Eve comes to each one of us as the result of inheritance, completely apart from any works we have done. We are all born into a world that is radically marred by Sin. Every area of our lives is marred by Sin. Illnesses are not the direct punishment or result of someone sinning. Rather, we live in a world corrupted by Sin, where genes mutate and often cause people problems.
Although some illnesses, such as Cirrhosis of the Liver, are usually (not always) the result of specific sinful behavior such as alcoholism, sometimes we suffer because of the sinful behavior of someone else – such as when a loved one dies at the hands of a drunk driver.
Two, God does not Smite us for our sins because we have passed out from under the Wrath of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. He bore our sins and suffered the chastening for our well-being (Is. 53). Therefore, the Christian does not ask,”Who committed what sin?” Or, “ Why is God Smiting me thusly?” There is no need for this kind of punishment.
God’s Purposes
(Third) Instead, we understand that there are numerous causes for various ailments. Some of these causes involve the purposes of God, which only He can know. And so Jesus’ answer to the disciples is that the man was born this way to demonstrate God’s Glory. Keep in mind that this is a specific story about a specific man. This particular man was born to demonstrate how Jesus heals him. Not every blind person is born blind in order to demonstrate the Glory of God this same way.
Everyman
Nevertheless, we can learn something Universal about ourselves from this man’s plight: The Blind Man is US! We are all born spiritually blind, and every one of us needs to receive our spiritual sight. This particular man’s story demonstrates the glory of God because it highlights the difference between the man’s true faith and the spiritual pride of the Pharisees; between true sight and spiritual blindness; between begging for Truth and being spiritually blind guides of the blind; between the true light that comes into the world and the darkness put onto people by the arrogance of the priestly class.
A Word about the Uniqueness of Jesus’ Healings
This particular healing was accomplished with ‘means’. Jesus used mud to effect the healing. Every healing Jesus did was unique. So, by extension, we can assume that every person gets well in his or her own unique way. Medicines and medical care are often a crucial part of a healing regimen. But no less an authority than the CDC estimates that as much as 85% of illness has its roots in emotional or psychosocial problems!
I am happy to believe that Jesus saliva contains healing power and the mud may have been medicinal in some cosmic way, but it’s also easy to see that the mud was an instrument to help the man to activate his faith.
But what will the neighbors say?
Jesus asked the man to do something rather ‘silly’ or potentially embarrassing: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means ‘Sent’ or piped in from another water source). We often are worried about how we will appear to others if we obey the simple commands of Jesus. Our rationalism or pseudo –sophistication inhibits us from being too childlike or simplistic in our believing. As a result, we sometimes miss great blessing.
John tells us that the man ‘went and washed and came back seeing.’
He had to do something to receive his healing. Real faith is not simply passive: “God do something to me”, but active: “God I participate with you in receiving faith” This does not mean that my works affect righteousness. Only God’s grace can produce righteousness. But God is interested in us acting upon our faith, and this story illustrates how one man did just that. (Incidentally, it also provides us with the quintessential Christian Toast: “Here’s mud in your eye!...)
So this is a story about hearing (Listening to) God’s word, Believing it and acting upon our belief. The result is that we Receive Salvation (From the Latin word ‘Salve’: whole).
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”
Witnessing
Receiving Salvation transforms us and causes people to notice. This gives us an opportunity to share our story – otherwise knows as Witnessing. A witness tells what he has seen or experienced, no more, no less. Sometimes, we get all upset about what kinds of theological justification we can offer to others, as if we have to be real apologetics experts in order to witness effectively. But in reality, all we have to do is tell what Jesus did for us. We are like the formerly blind man, a beggar telling others how we got our sight. “… One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
Unfortunately for the Pharisees this is not enough. They demand a theological explanation from a man who had no education at all. Born blind, he never learned to read. He never went to seminary. He couldn’t give the fancy theological answer. Yet they demand such an answer from both the man and his parents.
The Pharisees also demand that Jesus fit into their theological mold: You can heal, just not on the Sabbath. They show their arrogance by saying, “We know that this man is a sinner. He doesn’t observe our traditions (small ‘t’ tradition). But God never said you couldn’t heal anybody on the Sabbath. This was an application of the law developed by the Pharisees – people who took the Scriptures seriously and tried to apply it to every area of their lives. Their application did not fulfill the Law of Love, because it would have left a man in his suffering just to abide by a man-made convention.
Relentlessly they press the hapless man for his statement about Jesus. Finally, under duress, he declares: “He is a prophet.”
The Failure to Listen
If you want to know whether God has a sense of humor, right here is all the evidence you need. Here we see an exquisite biting irony:
The Jews continue to pressure the man to explain how Jesus healed him, and he finally tells them pointedly, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
They get puffed up in their pride, their lineage: We are disciples of Moses – we don’t know where this man came from. Hrmmph!
Now the zinger: “Here is an amazing thing you do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes!” This is an open rebuke to their unbelief and obtuseness. The man goes on, “31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
In their indignation the Jews demand, Are you trying to teach us?!...” They drove the man out into ‘outer darkness’ while they themselves stayed stuck in their spiritual blindness.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
This passage culminates in a simple demonstration of how to believe. Jesus asks a simple question, and makes a clear claim to Deity. The man accepts it and ‘gets saved’ and then worships Jesus.
So we have the LBR’s of Salvation: Listen, Believe, Receive , ,
The blind man first had to Listen to Jesus. He couldn’t see him, so all he had to go on was his voice. Unlike the Pharisees he listened to the Voice of God .
Then he believed. He first believed enough to Jesus put the mud in his eyes, and then he fulfilled the second part of listening, he obeyed and went and washed in the pool of Siloam.
As a result he received his healing – and more than that, his salvation.
This uneducated man, born to give Glory to God, personified the right response to Jesus. He contrasts with the learned Pharisees, who didn’t listen, who were blind and as a result could not receive either Jesus or the fruits of His work: Healing and Salvation.
They missed it because reality did not conform to their expectation.
They were a little bit like economists, who observe something happen in reality and fight about whether it could happen in theory.
The Message for Today
The message for us today is clear. First of all, we don’t understand our lives. We don’t know why good things happen, much less bad. We don’t have to be intimidated by Pharisees like Bart Ehrman, who write books demanding that the Bible explain suffering. It’s enough to say that things happen in our lives for reasons – many reasons and we will never be able to understand them all.
Then, we need to know that God specializes in redeeming bad situations. The Son of Man came into the world to seek and save that which was lost, to bring light into darkness and to make alive those who were spiritually dead.
The right way to respond to Jesus is through simple faith. “Yes, Lord, I believe.” Don’t try to make God fit into your theory about how He should work. Just let Him be God. Simply receive his work in your life. Remember, the old canard about God helping those who help themselves’ is not in the Bible. The truth is that just as Jesus healed this helpless blind man, God helps those who cannot help themselves. So come to the end of your own wisdom. Stop trying to figure things out. Listen to the Simple Word of God and Believe it. If you do this you will receive your sight, and you will be able to sing, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see”. AMEN.
John 9:1-38
Intro:
Today as we consider our Gospel lesson, we are going to learn something crucial about the nature of suffering in our lives and also about what I will call the LBR’s of salvation.
Listen, Believe, Receive.
First, a word about suffering and a Misconception about Illness:
We read that “[Jesus] saw a man blind from birth.” His disciples asked Jesus a question that reflects a fundamental misconception about the nature of Illness: (v2) “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answers the misconception saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
The misconception is that Illness is caused by someone’s specific sin. Under this misunderstanding, illness logically is a punishment upon individuals. This in turn leads to a conundrum about the Nature of God: How could a good and loving God ‘inflict’ suffering upon people He is supposed to love – especially innocent children who are hardly culpable for their actions? This is so confusing to the modern mind that people often reject the Bible altogether and say there is no way to reconcile the problem.
One example of this is a religion professor from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Bart Ehrman. Dr. Ehrman is a prolific author. Some of his titles include:
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
The Gospel of Judas
Peter, Paul, & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings
Dr. Ehrman’s most recent book is:
God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer
Here is an author who has come to the conclusion that there really is no answer to the problem of human suffering. I don’t have time here to go into an explanation and rebuttal of Dr. Ehrman’s book, but there are several important points to be made here:
One: The Fall of man caused the entrance of sin and suffering into the world. The doctrine of Original Sin tells us that the guilt and stain of Adam and Eve comes to each one of us as the result of inheritance, completely apart from any works we have done. We are all born into a world that is radically marred by Sin. Every area of our lives is marred by Sin. Illnesses are not the direct punishment or result of someone sinning. Rather, we live in a world corrupted by Sin, where genes mutate and often cause people problems.
Although some illnesses, such as Cirrhosis of the Liver, are usually (not always) the result of specific sinful behavior such as alcoholism, sometimes we suffer because of the sinful behavior of someone else – such as when a loved one dies at the hands of a drunk driver.
Two, God does not Smite us for our sins because we have passed out from under the Wrath of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. He bore our sins and suffered the chastening for our well-being (Is. 53). Therefore, the Christian does not ask,”Who committed what sin?” Or, “ Why is God Smiting me thusly?” There is no need for this kind of punishment.
God’s Purposes
(Third) Instead, we understand that there are numerous causes for various ailments. Some of these causes involve the purposes of God, which only He can know. And so Jesus’ answer to the disciples is that the man was born this way to demonstrate God’s Glory. Keep in mind that this is a specific story about a specific man. This particular man was born to demonstrate how Jesus heals him. Not every blind person is born blind in order to demonstrate the Glory of God this same way.
Everyman
Nevertheless, we can learn something Universal about ourselves from this man’s plight: The Blind Man is US! We are all born spiritually blind, and every one of us needs to receive our spiritual sight. This particular man’s story demonstrates the glory of God because it highlights the difference between the man’s true faith and the spiritual pride of the Pharisees; between true sight and spiritual blindness; between begging for Truth and being spiritually blind guides of the blind; between the true light that comes into the world and the darkness put onto people by the arrogance of the priestly class.
A Word about the Uniqueness of Jesus’ Healings
This particular healing was accomplished with ‘means’. Jesus used mud to effect the healing. Every healing Jesus did was unique. So, by extension, we can assume that every person gets well in his or her own unique way. Medicines and medical care are often a crucial part of a healing regimen. But no less an authority than the CDC estimates that as much as 85% of illness has its roots in emotional or psychosocial problems!
I am happy to believe that Jesus saliva contains healing power and the mud may have been medicinal in some cosmic way, but it’s also easy to see that the mud was an instrument to help the man to activate his faith.
But what will the neighbors say?
Jesus asked the man to do something rather ‘silly’ or potentially embarrassing: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means ‘Sent’ or piped in from another water source). We often are worried about how we will appear to others if we obey the simple commands of Jesus. Our rationalism or pseudo –sophistication inhibits us from being too childlike or simplistic in our believing. As a result, we sometimes miss great blessing.
John tells us that the man ‘went and washed and came back seeing.’
He had to do something to receive his healing. Real faith is not simply passive: “God do something to me”, but active: “God I participate with you in receiving faith” This does not mean that my works affect righteousness. Only God’s grace can produce righteousness. But God is interested in us acting upon our faith, and this story illustrates how one man did just that. (Incidentally, it also provides us with the quintessential Christian Toast: “Here’s mud in your eye!...)
So this is a story about hearing (Listening to) God’s word, Believing it and acting upon our belief. The result is that we Receive Salvation (From the Latin word ‘Salve’: whole).
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”
Witnessing
Receiving Salvation transforms us and causes people to notice. This gives us an opportunity to share our story – otherwise knows as Witnessing. A witness tells what he has seen or experienced, no more, no less. Sometimes, we get all upset about what kinds of theological justification we can offer to others, as if we have to be real apologetics experts in order to witness effectively. But in reality, all we have to do is tell what Jesus did for us. We are like the formerly blind man, a beggar telling others how we got our sight. “… One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
Unfortunately for the Pharisees this is not enough. They demand a theological explanation from a man who had no education at all. Born blind, he never learned to read. He never went to seminary. He couldn’t give the fancy theological answer. Yet they demand such an answer from both the man and his parents.
The Pharisees also demand that Jesus fit into their theological mold: You can heal, just not on the Sabbath. They show their arrogance by saying, “We know that this man is a sinner. He doesn’t observe our traditions (small ‘t’ tradition). But God never said you couldn’t heal anybody on the Sabbath. This was an application of the law developed by the Pharisees – people who took the Scriptures seriously and tried to apply it to every area of their lives. Their application did not fulfill the Law of Love, because it would have left a man in his suffering just to abide by a man-made convention.
Relentlessly they press the hapless man for his statement about Jesus. Finally, under duress, he declares: “He is a prophet.”
The Failure to Listen
If you want to know whether God has a sense of humor, right here is all the evidence you need. Here we see an exquisite biting irony:
The Jews continue to pressure the man to explain how Jesus healed him, and he finally tells them pointedly, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
They get puffed up in their pride, their lineage: We are disciples of Moses – we don’t know where this man came from. Hrmmph!
Now the zinger: “Here is an amazing thing you do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes!” This is an open rebuke to their unbelief and obtuseness. The man goes on, “31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
In their indignation the Jews demand, Are you trying to teach us?!...” They drove the man out into ‘outer darkness’ while they themselves stayed stuck in their spiritual blindness.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
This passage culminates in a simple demonstration of how to believe. Jesus asks a simple question, and makes a clear claim to Deity. The man accepts it and ‘gets saved’ and then worships Jesus.
So we have the LBR’s of Salvation: Listen, Believe, Receive , ,
The blind man first had to Listen to Jesus. He couldn’t see him, so all he had to go on was his voice. Unlike the Pharisees he listened to the Voice of God .
Then he believed. He first believed enough to Jesus put the mud in his eyes, and then he fulfilled the second part of listening, he obeyed and went and washed in the pool of Siloam.
As a result he received his healing – and more than that, his salvation.
This uneducated man, born to give Glory to God, personified the right response to Jesus. He contrasts with the learned Pharisees, who didn’t listen, who were blind and as a result could not receive either Jesus or the fruits of His work: Healing and Salvation.
They missed it because reality did not conform to their expectation.
They were a little bit like economists, who observe something happen in reality and fight about whether it could happen in theory.
The Message for Today
The message for us today is clear. First of all, we don’t understand our lives. We don’t know why good things happen, much less bad. We don’t have to be intimidated by Pharisees like Bart Ehrman, who write books demanding that the Bible explain suffering. It’s enough to say that things happen in our lives for reasons – many reasons and we will never be able to understand them all.
Then, we need to know that God specializes in redeeming bad situations. The Son of Man came into the world to seek and save that which was lost, to bring light into darkness and to make alive those who were spiritually dead.
The right way to respond to Jesus is through simple faith. “Yes, Lord, I believe.” Don’t try to make God fit into your theory about how He should work. Just let Him be God. Simply receive his work in your life. Remember, the old canard about God helping those who help themselves’ is not in the Bible. The truth is that just as Jesus healed this helpless blind man, God helps those who cannot help themselves. So come to the end of your own wisdom. Stop trying to figure things out. Listen to the Simple Word of God and Believe it. If you do this you will receive your sight, and you will be able to sing, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see”. AMEN.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
On Resisting Temptation
A Sermon deliverd to All Saints Anglican Church on February 10, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV , based on Matthew 4:1-11.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Having observed Ash Wednesday in our small groups, I’m sure we have discussed what types of abstinence or spiritual disciplines we will observe for these forty days.
One of the things we notice right off the bat when we begin to practice a new intention is that no sooner do we start than we begin to fail. We are like Oscar Wilde, who glibly remarks in one of his plays, “I can resist anything but temptation”. (Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I)
In today’s reading from Matthew, we see Jesus confronting temptation and successfully resisting it. Since he is our great Exemplar, we want to be like him. Therefore it behooves us to notice what Jesus did in response to temptation from the Adversary.
Fasting and Temptation
We must first note that immediately after his Baptism by John, “… Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness… [specifically] to be tempted by the devil (Mt.4:1). This was the way God wanted Jesus to begin his ministry – to be tempted by his enemy right off the bat. Fasting quiets the mind and the soul, making us more open to God and heightening our spiritual awareness. It gets God’s attention, because it lets Him know we are serious about our intention.
Fasting also leaves us physically vulnerable. In a famous example of understatement, Matthew tells us that “…after fasting forty days and forty nights, he (Jesus) was hungry. (4:2). Jesus was spiritually in tune with God but physically hungry. The Devil knew that He was going to be a formidable enemy , so he was quick to try to undermine Jesus’ ministry with several temptations.
As we begin to consider this in terms of our own lives, I think we need to ask ourselves some pointed questions.
Three Pointed Questions
Do we even believe in the Devil? – That he is real and personal, that he hates us and has a terrible plan for our lives?
Do we believe that the Devil tempts us to sin?
Do we even believe in Sin and its real effects upon our spiritual life?
The Devil, our Tempter
Author CS Lewis tells us that:
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” (Screwtape Letters).
Most of us don’t have the latter problem so much. Instead we wrestle with actually disbelieving their existence.
But to quote Hal Lindsey, “Satan is alive and well on planet earth”. He is a real personage. Lucifer, God’s worship leader, arrogantly thought he could take over God’s throne and rebelled against Him.
War ensued and God tossed Lucifer – now Satan, the Adversary, out of heaven, along with a third of the angels – all of whom now serve Satan as underdevils. Satan and his minions are real and they “prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (I Pet. 5:8).
We need therefore, to “Be sober-minded and … watchful…, mindful that the Enemy of our soul does indeed try to tempt us.
For an interesting and entertaining study of the temptation tactics Satan and his ‘lowerarchy” employ read CS Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters.” It will enlighten you as to how subtle our enemy really is.
Sin
In 1973, Psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book called “Whatever Became of Sin?” He caused great consternation in many circles by asking whether we had become so psychologically oriented that the notion of sin had become passé. But I’m here today to tell you that sin
is real and separates us from God. Sin is any action or thought that goes against God’s will for us. It’s not just our actions – though these are extremely important, but our thoughts as well – just as Jesus told us when he said that even to look upon a woman lustfully was sin (Matthew 5:28).
Sin is birthed in our hearts and then comes to life when we give attention and energy to the desire of our hearts. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” says Jesus (Matthew 15:19).
Sin grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and Separates us from God:
“…your iniquities have made a separationbetween you and your God,and your sins have hidden his face from youso that he does not hear” (Is 59:2)
The Good News is that because we have been saved and adopted as God’s children, this separation is not eternal leading to damnation, rather it a temporary disruption of our relationship with God, that can be healed after we repent of our sin. Nevertheless, unconfessed sin in the life of a Christian can lead to very grave consequences, even death. (I John 5:16) “Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15).
So….Sin is real, and it has real impact in our lives. Satan is real and He really does tempt you to sin so that you will be at odds with God.
The Nature of Temptation
Let’s now think a little bit about the Nature of Temptation. James tells us that no one is tempted by God, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (1:14)
Desire is what tempts me. And what do I desire? I want what I want when I want it! - Whatever makes me happy, whatever I think I want, whether that be an object, an experience or a relationship – or to put it crudely: ‘Money Sex and Power” (see the book by the same name by Richard Foster).
Really, what we are talking about is Idolatry, that is: asking a thing or a person to do something for you that only God can do. This Idolatry has within it the seeds of self-sufficiency. I want to fulfill my perceived needs and wants my way – just like Frank Sinatra. I don’t’ care what God says, I want what I want when I want it! Temptation appeals to our basic desire to be self-sufficient and thus is a type of Pride.
The Blessing of Resistance
Now over against this basic desire to do things my way, God promises us something very good for doing things His way:
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:15).
Successfully resisting Satan and his temptations brings us the Crown of Life – that is life in fellowship with God – Divine Favor plus human happiness, all that a human being could reasonably want.
So with all that in mind as prologue, let’s consider how we imitate Jesus in his resistance of temptation.
How to resist temptation like Jesus:
Fast, Pray, and Apply the Word
Fasting increases spiritual awareness – and as we observe with Christ, also opens us up to the attack of the enemy.
Praying to God shows my dependence upon God. I’m not doing thing in my own power, but in His.
Applying the Word correctly give us the ammunition we need to resist the Devil when he comes after us. ‘Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee” says Ps. 119:11. Satan twists the Word to His own purposes; he is a subtle and deceitful enemy and not to be trifled with.
There is much more to say about how to resist the enemy, but rather than give a long list of tips, I’d like to tell you the story of a Successful Resistance.
A Successful Resistance
Recently, one of my clients loaned me a book called “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.” It is the true story of a Tutsi woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza and how she lived through the bloody genocide of 1994 in which nearly a million Tutsi – and Hutu Rwandans died. During the three-month killing spree her entire family, save one brother, was brutally murdered. She and seven other women survived by huddling together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s home while machete-wielding killers hunted for them.
During the endless hours of isolation and terror in her hiding place, Imaculee faced temptation in a way that few of us ever will. A Roman Catholic Christian from childhood, she prayed the rosary 12-13 hours per day for comfort, but she was constantly reminded that the Lord’s prayer calls us to ‘forgive those who trespass against us’. She treid not to think about those who killed her family because she knew she couldn’t forgive them.
One time, when the killers were literally inches from discovering her, she could hear people outside laughing and chanting demonically, “Kill the Tutsis big and small ….kill them one and kill them all. Kill them!”
She heard an ugly whispering in her head: “Why are you calling on God? Don’t you have as much hatred in your heart as the killers do? Aren’t you as guilty of hatred as they are? You’ve wished them dead; in fact, you wished that you could kill them yourself! You even prayed that God would make them suffer and make them burn in hell.”
The insidious voice continued, “Don’t call on God, Immacuee. He knows that you’re a liar. You lie every time you pray to Him to say that you love Him. Didn’t God create us all in His image? How can you love God but hate so many of His creations?”
“It’s no use…don’t call on God. Who do you think sent the killers here for your? HE did! Nothing can save you. God doesn’t save liars.”
Can you feel how wicked and manipulative this is? Just like Satan taunted Jesus and misquoted Scripture, so too he used biblical reasoning against Immaculee to taunt and demoralize her.
The killers did eventually leave, and she made an attempt to forgive them, but deep inside she believed they deserved to die. She pleaded with the Lord, “Please open my heart, Lord, and show me how to forgive. I’m not strong enough to squash my hatred – they’ve wronged us all so much…my hatred is so heavy that it could crush me. Touch my heart, Lord, and show me how to forgive”
She struggled with this for days on end, barely eating or drinking anything. Finally the struggle climaxed when she heard the wails of an infant. It’s mother had been killed and the child was left to die in the street. Immaculee listened to the cries weaken and then stop suddenly followed by the ominous snarling of dogs. She called out to God: “How can I forgive people who would do such a thing to an infant?”
At that moment she says, “I hear His answer as clearly as if we’d been sitting in the same room chatting: You are all my children…and the baby is with Me now. “ In God’s eyes, the killers were part of His family, deserving of love and forgiveness. I knew that I couldn’t ask God to love me if I were unwilling to love His children.” She did pray for the killers and God did touch her heart. "For the first time," she says, "I pitied the killers. I asked God to forgive their sins and turn their souls toward His beautiful light. That night I prayed with a clear conscience and a clean heart. For the first time since I entered the bathroom, I slept in peace" (adapted from pages 91-94).
Folks, I don’t know about you, but to me this is about as tough as it gets! Notice how she overcomes. She struggles honestly with her feelings. She talks to God. Sometimes she avoids talking about her true feelings. She wrestles with God. She prays and fasts. Finally, after days of agony culminating in an unspeakable atrocity, she is quiet, and the Lord speaks clear words of truth and freedom to her.
Imaculee Ilibagiza submitted herself to God. She resisted the devil. She drew near to God in prayer; she persevered under trial with fasting. The devil fled from her when she applied God’s Word.
And God gave her the grace to forgive her enemies, securing for her the Crown of Life.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I pray that you and I never have to go through what Imaculee endured. But rest assured, if we do have something terrible to face in the future, God will be with us. Jesus promised that He would never leave us or forsake us (Heb.13:5-6). He promised that if we keep our minds stayed upon Him, he would give us perfect peace (Is. 26:3) and that He would guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6,7).
As you face temptations, hold fast to the Lord, pray without ceasing and apply His Word to your situation. As you resist the enemy in this way, you will succeed and you know the blessing of overcoming.
May God help us all. AMEN.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Having observed Ash Wednesday in our small groups, I’m sure we have discussed what types of abstinence or spiritual disciplines we will observe for these forty days.
One of the things we notice right off the bat when we begin to practice a new intention is that no sooner do we start than we begin to fail. We are like Oscar Wilde, who glibly remarks in one of his plays, “I can resist anything but temptation”. (Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I)
In today’s reading from Matthew, we see Jesus confronting temptation and successfully resisting it. Since he is our great Exemplar, we want to be like him. Therefore it behooves us to notice what Jesus did in response to temptation from the Adversary.
Fasting and Temptation
We must first note that immediately after his Baptism by John, “… Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness… [specifically] to be tempted by the devil (Mt.4:1). This was the way God wanted Jesus to begin his ministry – to be tempted by his enemy right off the bat. Fasting quiets the mind and the soul, making us more open to God and heightening our spiritual awareness. It gets God’s attention, because it lets Him know we are serious about our intention.
Fasting also leaves us physically vulnerable. In a famous example of understatement, Matthew tells us that “…after fasting forty days and forty nights, he (Jesus) was hungry. (4:2). Jesus was spiritually in tune with God but physically hungry. The Devil knew that He was going to be a formidable enemy , so he was quick to try to undermine Jesus’ ministry with several temptations.
As we begin to consider this in terms of our own lives, I think we need to ask ourselves some pointed questions.
Three Pointed Questions
Do we even believe in the Devil? – That he is real and personal, that he hates us and has a terrible plan for our lives?
Do we believe that the Devil tempts us to sin?
Do we even believe in Sin and its real effects upon our spiritual life?
The Devil, our Tempter
Author CS Lewis tells us that:
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” (Screwtape Letters).
Most of us don’t have the latter problem so much. Instead we wrestle with actually disbelieving their existence.
But to quote Hal Lindsey, “Satan is alive and well on planet earth”. He is a real personage. Lucifer, God’s worship leader, arrogantly thought he could take over God’s throne and rebelled against Him.
War ensued and God tossed Lucifer – now Satan, the Adversary, out of heaven, along with a third of the angels – all of whom now serve Satan as underdevils. Satan and his minions are real and they “prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (I Pet. 5:8).
We need therefore, to “Be sober-minded and … watchful…, mindful that the Enemy of our soul does indeed try to tempt us.
For an interesting and entertaining study of the temptation tactics Satan and his ‘lowerarchy” employ read CS Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters.” It will enlighten you as to how subtle our enemy really is.
Sin
In 1973, Psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book called “Whatever Became of Sin?” He caused great consternation in many circles by asking whether we had become so psychologically oriented that the notion of sin had become passé. But I’m here today to tell you that sin
is real and separates us from God. Sin is any action or thought that goes against God’s will for us. It’s not just our actions – though these are extremely important, but our thoughts as well – just as Jesus told us when he said that even to look upon a woman lustfully was sin (Matthew 5:28).
Sin is birthed in our hearts and then comes to life when we give attention and energy to the desire of our hearts. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” says Jesus (Matthew 15:19).
Sin grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and Separates us from God:
“…your iniquities have made a separationbetween you and your God,and your sins have hidden his face from youso that he does not hear” (Is 59:2)
The Good News is that because we have been saved and adopted as God’s children, this separation is not eternal leading to damnation, rather it a temporary disruption of our relationship with God, that can be healed after we repent of our sin. Nevertheless, unconfessed sin in the life of a Christian can lead to very grave consequences, even death. (I John 5:16) “Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15).
So….Sin is real, and it has real impact in our lives. Satan is real and He really does tempt you to sin so that you will be at odds with God.
The Nature of Temptation
Let’s now think a little bit about the Nature of Temptation. James tells us that no one is tempted by God, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (1:14)
Desire is what tempts me. And what do I desire? I want what I want when I want it! - Whatever makes me happy, whatever I think I want, whether that be an object, an experience or a relationship – or to put it crudely: ‘Money Sex and Power” (see the book by the same name by Richard Foster).
Really, what we are talking about is Idolatry, that is: asking a thing or a person to do something for you that only God can do. This Idolatry has within it the seeds of self-sufficiency. I want to fulfill my perceived needs and wants my way – just like Frank Sinatra. I don’t’ care what God says, I want what I want when I want it! Temptation appeals to our basic desire to be self-sufficient and thus is a type of Pride.
The Blessing of Resistance
Now over against this basic desire to do things my way, God promises us something very good for doing things His way:
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (James 1:15).
Successfully resisting Satan and his temptations brings us the Crown of Life – that is life in fellowship with God – Divine Favor plus human happiness, all that a human being could reasonably want.
So with all that in mind as prologue, let’s consider how we imitate Jesus in his resistance of temptation.
How to resist temptation like Jesus:
Fast, Pray, and Apply the Word
Fasting increases spiritual awareness – and as we observe with Christ, also opens us up to the attack of the enemy.
Praying to God shows my dependence upon God. I’m not doing thing in my own power, but in His.
Applying the Word correctly give us the ammunition we need to resist the Devil when he comes after us. ‘Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee” says Ps. 119:11. Satan twists the Word to His own purposes; he is a subtle and deceitful enemy and not to be trifled with.
There is much more to say about how to resist the enemy, but rather than give a long list of tips, I’d like to tell you the story of a Successful Resistance.
A Successful Resistance
Recently, one of my clients loaned me a book called “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.” It is the true story of a Tutsi woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza and how she lived through the bloody genocide of 1994 in which nearly a million Tutsi – and Hutu Rwandans died. During the three-month killing spree her entire family, save one brother, was brutally murdered. She and seven other women survived by huddling together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s home while machete-wielding killers hunted for them.
During the endless hours of isolation and terror in her hiding place, Imaculee faced temptation in a way that few of us ever will. A Roman Catholic Christian from childhood, she prayed the rosary 12-13 hours per day for comfort, but she was constantly reminded that the Lord’s prayer calls us to ‘forgive those who trespass against us’. She treid not to think about those who killed her family because she knew she couldn’t forgive them.
One time, when the killers were literally inches from discovering her, she could hear people outside laughing and chanting demonically, “Kill the Tutsis big and small ….kill them one and kill them all. Kill them!”
She heard an ugly whispering in her head: “Why are you calling on God? Don’t you have as much hatred in your heart as the killers do? Aren’t you as guilty of hatred as they are? You’ve wished them dead; in fact, you wished that you could kill them yourself! You even prayed that God would make them suffer and make them burn in hell.”
The insidious voice continued, “Don’t call on God, Immacuee. He knows that you’re a liar. You lie every time you pray to Him to say that you love Him. Didn’t God create us all in His image? How can you love God but hate so many of His creations?”
“It’s no use…don’t call on God. Who do you think sent the killers here for your? HE did! Nothing can save you. God doesn’t save liars.”
Can you feel how wicked and manipulative this is? Just like Satan taunted Jesus and misquoted Scripture, so too he used biblical reasoning against Immaculee to taunt and demoralize her.
The killers did eventually leave, and she made an attempt to forgive them, but deep inside she believed they deserved to die. She pleaded with the Lord, “Please open my heart, Lord, and show me how to forgive. I’m not strong enough to squash my hatred – they’ve wronged us all so much…my hatred is so heavy that it could crush me. Touch my heart, Lord, and show me how to forgive”
She struggled with this for days on end, barely eating or drinking anything. Finally the struggle climaxed when she heard the wails of an infant. It’s mother had been killed and the child was left to die in the street. Immaculee listened to the cries weaken and then stop suddenly followed by the ominous snarling of dogs. She called out to God: “How can I forgive people who would do such a thing to an infant?”
At that moment she says, “I hear His answer as clearly as if we’d been sitting in the same room chatting: You are all my children…and the baby is with Me now. “ In God’s eyes, the killers were part of His family, deserving of love and forgiveness. I knew that I couldn’t ask God to love me if I were unwilling to love His children.” She did pray for the killers and God did touch her heart. "For the first time," she says, "I pitied the killers. I asked God to forgive their sins and turn their souls toward His beautiful light. That night I prayed with a clear conscience and a clean heart. For the first time since I entered the bathroom, I slept in peace" (adapted from pages 91-94).
Folks, I don’t know about you, but to me this is about as tough as it gets! Notice how she overcomes. She struggles honestly with her feelings. She talks to God. Sometimes she avoids talking about her true feelings. She wrestles with God. She prays and fasts. Finally, after days of agony culminating in an unspeakable atrocity, she is quiet, and the Lord speaks clear words of truth and freedom to her.
Imaculee Ilibagiza submitted herself to God. She resisted the devil. She drew near to God in prayer; she persevered under trial with fasting. The devil fled from her when she applied God’s Word.
And God gave her the grace to forgive her enemies, securing for her the Crown of Life.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I pray that you and I never have to go through what Imaculee endured. But rest assured, if we do have something terrible to face in the future, God will be with us. Jesus promised that He would never leave us or forsake us (Heb.13:5-6). He promised that if we keep our minds stayed upon Him, he would give us perfect peace (Is. 26:3) and that He would guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6,7).
As you face temptations, hold fast to the Lord, pray without ceasing and apply His Word to your situation. As you resist the enemy in this way, you will succeed and you know the blessing of overcoming.
May God help us all. AMEN.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
God’s Promise to the Righteous and the Wicked
God’s Promise to the Righteous and the Wicked 020308
Psalm 37 (Beatitudes Mt. 5)
.
Thesis: God Promises to dwell with His people, to bless them and to judge the wicked.
I. Background: The Promise in Leviticus 26:3-13
Imagine that you and your family are Hebrews. You have just left Egypt, the land where your people have been slaves for 400 years, and you have come to camp in the desert near Sinai. It’s been an amazing journey. You have seen God smite the Egyptians with plagues, you’ve gone through the Red Sea and watched the Egyptian army be swallowed up - and now God has told you to go into a Promised Land where he will bless your people. Through Moses, here is what He says:
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. … 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. … 11 I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves… (Leviticus 26:3-13)
Sounds pretty good, right?! God is going to give you a special place to live and He is actually going to live with you there: “I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you…
All you have to do is obey what he tells you and you’ve got it made! God Himself will walk among you, there will be plenty to eat, there will be no enemies – they will all be cut off and God will make you fruitful and multiply you. Just like in the Garden of Eden! How amazing is that!
If you know anything at all about the rest of the history of the Hebrew people, you’ll recognize that events did not play out exactly as outlined in Leviticus. Israel has almost always been at war or upheaval. The promise of peace has been mostly fleeting – mostly because of Israel’s disobedience. But our message today is one of hope because despite Israel’s disobedience, we are going to see that God will indeed fulfill every one of these promises to both the righteous – and the wicked.
II. The Promise reiterated in Ps. 37
Fast forward now to the time of King David. David, as you know, was a warrior. But he was also a passionate worshipper. He loved to write Psalms, and the one we read today, 37, is a poem written to encourage, instruct and edify the Hebrew people. David’s aim in this Psalm is to artfully expand upon God’s word in Leviticus and to contrast the ways of the Righteous and the Wicked.
He starts out with a special exhortation to the righteous:
37:1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;be not envious of wrongdoers!2 For they will soon fade like the grassand wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;trust in him, and he will act.6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. (37:1-9).
In these nine verses we read two references to dwelling in and inheriting the land, (v 3, 9). David is reminding the people of the promise God made to the nation of Israel that if they would be faithful, he would establish them in the Promised Land. Their obedience would secure for them the blessings of peace because their enemies would be cut off – and God would walk amongst them personally.
Indeed, many of these promises came true during David’s lifetime. He united the kingdom and ushered in a time of peace, but the sword did not depart from his household his entire life. The people had to wait for Solomon to take the throne to experience the zenith of their peace and prosperity. Yet even in their triumph, there were some key things missing:
Although God did dwell among the people in his temple, he did not walk among them face to face nor did he rule them directly. Many years prior to Solomon, the people had decided they wanted to be like the other nations and have a king. Just as at Sinai when the people became afraid of God and asked Moses to speak to God for them, so too, they wanted a King to be an intermediary. The actual face to face presence and rule of God was too scary to handle directly.
So David’s Psalm is both an exhortation to the people and a reiteration of the hope that one day the Kingdom of God would come to earth just as it is in Heaven ( hmmm, sounds familiar…).
III. God Promises to deal with the Wicked
One of the key things about heaven on earth is that the Wicked get what’s coming to them. Unlike the Righteous, who are described as ‘blameless’ (vv.18, 37), “blessed” (vv.22,26) and “upright” , the wicked are: ‘evildoers’ (vv1,9),’wrongdoers (v1), ‘enemies of God’ (v 20), ‘cursed by Him” (v22), ‘ruthless’ (v35) and ‘transgressors” (v.38).
The Wicked “plot against righteous and gnash their teeth (v12). They ‘draw their sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and the needy and to slay the upright (v14). They borrow and do not pay back (v 21). They watch to put the righteous to death (v32). They carry out evil devices and prosper in their way’ (v7).
Sounds like one of my college roommates ---I’m not kidding!
But seriously, these descriptions really do have a contemporary feel. We all know wicked people who seem to prosper, who seem to get away with murder while we, who seek to be good Christians, suffer without justice. There is a temptation to envy the wicked and to be jealous of what seems so easy for them.
But let’s look at God’s attitude towards them: The Lord laughs at the wicked (v. 13). The wicked are cursed by God (v. 22). They are insubstantial – here today and gone tomorrow (v.3), their glory is passing like the grass of the field (v.20).
The movie American Gangster told the story of Frank Lucas, a black drug kingpin from New York. For a period of time, he seemed untouchable. He got fabulously wealthy and literally got away with murder. But he was being tracked down by Richie Roberts and his team of federal drug agents, who eventually got the goods on Frank. He went to jail for 15 years after turning State’s evidence, and the last scene of the movie shows him emerging from the prison utterly alone and penniless.
He was an example of what happens to the Wicked: They fade like grass and wither (v 3). They shall be cut off (v 9). A sword will enter their own heart, and their bows and their arms will be broken (vv. 15,16). The Wicked will perish, they will vanish and they will be utterly cut off (vv. 20, 22). Even their children will be cut off (v.28) and they will pass away with out leaving a trace (v 36).
Cut off, cut off, cut off. In the Jewish world of David’s day, where belonging is everything, being cut off would have been the worst thing that could happen to someone. David is reassuring the people: The wicked are going to ‘get theirs’.
Here again, however, the rub is that it doesn’t always seem to happen on our timetable or even on this earth. It can get downright tedious watching the wicked prosper. It would be really nice if God would Zap a few of them occasionally and we could see Justice being done with our own eyes.
So David gives a whole host of other reassurances to the Righteous – those who follow and obey God:
God will act on your behalf; He will bring forth your righteousness and justice (vv5,6). The righteous will indeed inherit the land and delight in abundant peace (vv9, 11). The Lord will uphold the Righteous (v16). His heritage will remain. (v 18). He will not be put to shame, but will have abundance in famine (v19). Again - he will inherit the land (v22). God will uphold the righteous, he will not let them fall. He will not forsake them and their children will become a blessing. (v26). On and on it goes. Blessings heaped upon blessings. Time doesn’t allow us to list every one minutely, but I think you can see the pattern.
Let’s reiterate here that the promise of Obedience was to inherit the land of Palestine and to live there unmolested in abundance. Let’s also reiterate that in the very best of times for the Jewish people, these promises were only partially fulfilled. They were told to ‘wait upon the Lord (v 7,34). Little did they realize that what they were waiting for was the Coming of the Lord Jesus.
IV. The Promise Modified in the Beatitudes
When Jesus came to earth, God did indeed dwell bodily with human beings. They did see him face to face – but it wasn’t exactly in the context of universal peace. Surely there was never a more strife-ridden place than Palestine at the time of Christ!
In the Beatitudes, Jesus modifies the Promise: the Kingdom of God will not be the triumphal Heaven-on-Earth reign that the Jewish people expected. Rather, in this Kingdom, the poor in spirit, the persecuted and those who mourn are blessed. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. The merciful will receive mercy, the pure in heart shall see God, the peacemakers will be called the sons of God – and the meek shall inherit the earth.
Shades of Psalm 37:11! …the meek shall inherit the land …
So here is Jesus, talking about inheriting the land. But what land does he mean? Palestine? Ashland? Hurricane or Huntington?
How about all and none of the above? For the Beatitudes clearly indicate that the Kingdom is not of this world but of the Spirit.
V. The Promise Fulfilled: God dwells in and with His people.
Ever since Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the first believers at Pentecost, the people don’t dwell in a promised land – rather, God dwells in the people! You and I have the Holy Spirit living inside us. We don’t need a piece of geography to experience the Kingdom of God; we have it inside us!
So the Promise is fulfilled: Wherever we go, the Kingdom of God goes along in us. Although as believers we do not inherit a specific piece of real estate, the plan for the righteous is always the same: for God to dwell with us and bless us – wherever we live - and to judge the Wicked.
So when do the Wicked get theirs? The answer is that we have to wait for the summing up of all things in the great battle of Armegeddon and the eventual recreation of the heavens and the earth.
In his second letter, (3:7) Peter tells us that the present heavens and earth …are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. It may seem as if this is a long way off and that God may be unjust in holding off so long, but “The Lord is not slow about his promise…but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance (v 9). I, for one, am glad that he postpones His judgment. If He hadn’t I would have been toast long ago!
But never fear, “ The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (II Pet. 3:10). The wicked get burned to a crisp after God has given them plenty of time to repent. And then comes the ultimate fulfillment of all we have been talking about today.
“…according to His Promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (II Pet. 3:12).
Our destiny as Christians is to live in a new Heaven/Earth in which every one of the promises God spoke in Leviticus will literally come to pass! In fact, the original project that God began at Eden find its perfect fulfillment in this New City of God. It’s coming – just as Andre Crouch sings about it: Soon and Very Soon we are going to see the Lord …
VI. Our behavior in light of the Promise
If then, we are looking for the coming of the Day of the Lord and “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought we to be? (v.11,12).
Peter urges us to be “diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (v 14), to ‘be on guard, lest we be carried away by the error of unprincipled men (v17) and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v 18). He might just as well have said:
(Psalm 37:1) Fret not yourself because of evildoers…3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;4 Delight yourself in the Lord,…5 Commit your way to the Lord…7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself…9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Amen.
Psalm 37 (Beatitudes Mt. 5)
.
Thesis: God Promises to dwell with His people, to bless them and to judge the wicked.
I. Background: The Promise in Leviticus 26:3-13
Imagine that you and your family are Hebrews. You have just left Egypt, the land where your people have been slaves for 400 years, and you have come to camp in the desert near Sinai. It’s been an amazing journey. You have seen God smite the Egyptians with plagues, you’ve gone through the Red Sea and watched the Egyptian army be swallowed up - and now God has told you to go into a Promised Land where he will bless your people. Through Moses, here is what He says:
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. … 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. … 11 I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves… (Leviticus 26:3-13)
Sounds pretty good, right?! God is going to give you a special place to live and He is actually going to live with you there: “I will make my dwelling among you… 12 And I will walk among you…
All you have to do is obey what he tells you and you’ve got it made! God Himself will walk among you, there will be plenty to eat, there will be no enemies – they will all be cut off and God will make you fruitful and multiply you. Just like in the Garden of Eden! How amazing is that!
If you know anything at all about the rest of the history of the Hebrew people, you’ll recognize that events did not play out exactly as outlined in Leviticus. Israel has almost always been at war or upheaval. The promise of peace has been mostly fleeting – mostly because of Israel’s disobedience. But our message today is one of hope because despite Israel’s disobedience, we are going to see that God will indeed fulfill every one of these promises to both the righteous – and the wicked.
II. The Promise reiterated in Ps. 37
Fast forward now to the time of King David. David, as you know, was a warrior. But he was also a passionate worshipper. He loved to write Psalms, and the one we read today, 37, is a poem written to encourage, instruct and edify the Hebrew people. David’s aim in this Psalm is to artfully expand upon God’s word in Leviticus and to contrast the ways of the Righteous and the Wicked.
He starts out with a special exhortation to the righteous:
37:1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;be not envious of wrongdoers!2 For they will soon fade like the grassand wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;trust in him, and he will act.6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. (37:1-9).
In these nine verses we read two references to dwelling in and inheriting the land, (v 3, 9). David is reminding the people of the promise God made to the nation of Israel that if they would be faithful, he would establish them in the Promised Land. Their obedience would secure for them the blessings of peace because their enemies would be cut off – and God would walk amongst them personally.
Indeed, many of these promises came true during David’s lifetime. He united the kingdom and ushered in a time of peace, but the sword did not depart from his household his entire life. The people had to wait for Solomon to take the throne to experience the zenith of their peace and prosperity. Yet even in their triumph, there were some key things missing:
Although God did dwell among the people in his temple, he did not walk among them face to face nor did he rule them directly. Many years prior to Solomon, the people had decided they wanted to be like the other nations and have a king. Just as at Sinai when the people became afraid of God and asked Moses to speak to God for them, so too, they wanted a King to be an intermediary. The actual face to face presence and rule of God was too scary to handle directly.
So David’s Psalm is both an exhortation to the people and a reiteration of the hope that one day the Kingdom of God would come to earth just as it is in Heaven ( hmmm, sounds familiar…).
III. God Promises to deal with the Wicked
One of the key things about heaven on earth is that the Wicked get what’s coming to them. Unlike the Righteous, who are described as ‘blameless’ (vv.18, 37), “blessed” (vv.22,26) and “upright” , the wicked are: ‘evildoers’ (vv1,9),’wrongdoers (v1), ‘enemies of God’ (v 20), ‘cursed by Him” (v22), ‘ruthless’ (v35) and ‘transgressors” (v.38).
The Wicked “plot against righteous and gnash their teeth (v12). They ‘draw their sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and the needy and to slay the upright (v14). They borrow and do not pay back (v 21). They watch to put the righteous to death (v32). They carry out evil devices and prosper in their way’ (v7).
Sounds like one of my college roommates ---I’m not kidding!
But seriously, these descriptions really do have a contemporary feel. We all know wicked people who seem to prosper, who seem to get away with murder while we, who seek to be good Christians, suffer without justice. There is a temptation to envy the wicked and to be jealous of what seems so easy for them.
But let’s look at God’s attitude towards them: The Lord laughs at the wicked (v. 13). The wicked are cursed by God (v. 22). They are insubstantial – here today and gone tomorrow (v.3), their glory is passing like the grass of the field (v.20).
The movie American Gangster told the story of Frank Lucas, a black drug kingpin from New York. For a period of time, he seemed untouchable. He got fabulously wealthy and literally got away with murder. But he was being tracked down by Richie Roberts and his team of federal drug agents, who eventually got the goods on Frank. He went to jail for 15 years after turning State’s evidence, and the last scene of the movie shows him emerging from the prison utterly alone and penniless.
He was an example of what happens to the Wicked: They fade like grass and wither (v 3). They shall be cut off (v 9). A sword will enter their own heart, and their bows and their arms will be broken (vv. 15,16). The Wicked will perish, they will vanish and they will be utterly cut off (vv. 20, 22). Even their children will be cut off (v.28) and they will pass away with out leaving a trace (v 36).
Cut off, cut off, cut off. In the Jewish world of David’s day, where belonging is everything, being cut off would have been the worst thing that could happen to someone. David is reassuring the people: The wicked are going to ‘get theirs’.
Here again, however, the rub is that it doesn’t always seem to happen on our timetable or even on this earth. It can get downright tedious watching the wicked prosper. It would be really nice if God would Zap a few of them occasionally and we could see Justice being done with our own eyes.
So David gives a whole host of other reassurances to the Righteous – those who follow and obey God:
God will act on your behalf; He will bring forth your righteousness and justice (vv5,6). The righteous will indeed inherit the land and delight in abundant peace (vv9, 11). The Lord will uphold the Righteous (v16). His heritage will remain. (v 18). He will not be put to shame, but will have abundance in famine (v19). Again - he will inherit the land (v22). God will uphold the righteous, he will not let them fall. He will not forsake them and their children will become a blessing. (v26). On and on it goes. Blessings heaped upon blessings. Time doesn’t allow us to list every one minutely, but I think you can see the pattern.
Let’s reiterate here that the promise of Obedience was to inherit the land of Palestine and to live there unmolested in abundance. Let’s also reiterate that in the very best of times for the Jewish people, these promises were only partially fulfilled. They were told to ‘wait upon the Lord (v 7,34). Little did they realize that what they were waiting for was the Coming of the Lord Jesus.
IV. The Promise Modified in the Beatitudes
When Jesus came to earth, God did indeed dwell bodily with human beings. They did see him face to face – but it wasn’t exactly in the context of universal peace. Surely there was never a more strife-ridden place than Palestine at the time of Christ!
In the Beatitudes, Jesus modifies the Promise: the Kingdom of God will not be the triumphal Heaven-on-Earth reign that the Jewish people expected. Rather, in this Kingdom, the poor in spirit, the persecuted and those who mourn are blessed. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. The merciful will receive mercy, the pure in heart shall see God, the peacemakers will be called the sons of God – and the meek shall inherit the earth.
Shades of Psalm 37:11! …the meek shall inherit the land …
So here is Jesus, talking about inheriting the land. But what land does he mean? Palestine? Ashland? Hurricane or Huntington?
How about all and none of the above? For the Beatitudes clearly indicate that the Kingdom is not of this world but of the Spirit.
V. The Promise Fulfilled: God dwells in and with His people.
Ever since Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the first believers at Pentecost, the people don’t dwell in a promised land – rather, God dwells in the people! You and I have the Holy Spirit living inside us. We don’t need a piece of geography to experience the Kingdom of God; we have it inside us!
So the Promise is fulfilled: Wherever we go, the Kingdom of God goes along in us. Although as believers we do not inherit a specific piece of real estate, the plan for the righteous is always the same: for God to dwell with us and bless us – wherever we live - and to judge the Wicked.
So when do the Wicked get theirs? The answer is that we have to wait for the summing up of all things in the great battle of Armegeddon and the eventual recreation of the heavens and the earth.
In his second letter, (3:7) Peter tells us that the present heavens and earth …are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. It may seem as if this is a long way off and that God may be unjust in holding off so long, but “The Lord is not slow about his promise…but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance (v 9). I, for one, am glad that he postpones His judgment. If He hadn’t I would have been toast long ago!
But never fear, “ The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (II Pet. 3:10). The wicked get burned to a crisp after God has given them plenty of time to repent. And then comes the ultimate fulfillment of all we have been talking about today.
“…according to His Promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (II Pet. 3:12).
Our destiny as Christians is to live in a new Heaven/Earth in which every one of the promises God spoke in Leviticus will literally come to pass! In fact, the original project that God began at Eden find its perfect fulfillment in this New City of God. It’s coming – just as Andre Crouch sings about it: Soon and Very Soon we are going to see the Lord …
VI. Our behavior in light of the Promise
If then, we are looking for the coming of the Day of the Lord and “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought we to be? (v.11,12).
Peter urges us to be “diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (v 14), to ‘be on guard, lest we be carried away by the error of unprincipled men (v17) and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v 18). He might just as well have said:
(Psalm 37:1) Fret not yourself because of evildoers…3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;4 Delight yourself in the Lord,…5 Commit your way to the Lord…7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!Fret not yourself…9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Amen.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Christ the Healer
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on January 13, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Hosptial , Huntington, WV, based on
Acts 10:34-38
Imagine for a moment that you are a member of a large church and that an epidemic of illness in your town. You have attended 40 funerals in as many days, and virtually everyone you know is sick unto death – adults, little kids, teens – everybody.
Your faith in God has been severely tested and you feel as though you’re just about ready to give up on faith altogether.
In anguish of heart, you pray for God to show you some sign or message that will help you make sense out of all the suffering. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity, Acts 10:38 comes to mind with great clarity: …”how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him…”
In this moment of clarity, God reveals to you the nature of Satan as the Defiler and Christ as the Healer. Your tears are wiped away and you feel strengthened and encouraged to tell the world about your revelation, firm in the knowledge that the message of Acts 10:38 is relevant for today because Jesus is just the same today as he was back in the time of Acts.
If you were successful in imagining this scenario, you can imagine what it was like for John Alexander Dowie, who experienced just such a thing in 1874 in a suburb of Sydney Australia, during a catastrophic epidemic of illness. Immediately after having had this moment of clarity, Dowie received an urgent summons to pray for a young girl that was dying. He relates the experience this way:
“With just a feeling as a shepherd has who hears that his sheep are being torn from the fold by a cruel wolf, I rushed from my house, ran hatless down the street, and entered the room of the dying [girl]. There she lay groaning, grinding her clenched teeth in the agony of the conflict with the destroyer, the white froth, mingled with her blood, oozing from her pain-distorted mouth. I looked at her and then my anger burned. “Oh,” I thought, “for some sharp sword of heavenly temper keen to slay this cruel foe who is strangling that lovely maiden like an invisible serpent, tightening his deadly coils for a final victory.”
From our vantage point in 2008, it would be easy to look back and say that the later invention of sulpha drugs and antibiotics would certainly have been such a sharp sword, and that in our day, we have largely eradicated such suffering. But that would be overconfident , for all we have to do is think of the health problems that challenge us today and realize that while we have made huge strides in eliminating some diseases, such as smallpox – there are still a host of diseases that are vexing to medical science and that the fundamental issues relating to sickness and faith remain the same.
Picking up our story again, Dowie tells how “the doctor, a good Christian man, was quietly walking up and down the room quietly sharing the mother’s grief. Presently, he stood at my side and said, “Sir, are not God’s ways mysterious?”
“Instantly, “recalls Dowie, “the sword was flashed in my hand – the Spirit’s sword, the Word of God. “God’s way!” I said, pointing to the scene of conflict, “how dare you, Dr. K-, call that God’s way of bringing His children home from earth to Heaven? No, sir, that is the devil’s work, and it is time we called on Him Who came to ‘destroy the work of the devil’ to slay that deadly foul destroyer, and to save the child. Can you pray, Doctor, can you pray the prayer of faith that saves the sick?” At once, offended at my words, my friend was changed and saying, “You are too much excited sir, ‘tis best to say ‘God’s will be done,’ [and] he left the room.
Excited! The word was quite inadequate for I was almost frenzied with Divinely imparted anger and hatred of that foul destroyer, Disease, which was doing Satan’s will. “It is not so,” I exclaimed, ‘no will of God sends such cruelty, and I shall never say “God’s will be done’ to Satan’s works, which God’s own Son came to destroy, and this is one of them.” Oh, how the Word of God was burning in my heart: “Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” And was not God with me? And was not Jesus there and all His promises true? I felt that it was even so, and turning to the mother I inquired, “Why did you send for me?” To which she answered, “Do pray, oh pray for her that God may raise her up.” So we prayed. What did I say? It may be that I cannot recall the words without mistake…I cried:
“Our Father, help! And Holy Spirit teach me how to pray. Plead Thou for us, oh, Jesus, Savior, Healer, Friend, our Advocate with God the Father. Hear and heal, Eternal One! From all disease and death deliver this sweet child of Thine. I rest upon the Word. We claim the promise now. The Word is true, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.’ Then heal her now. The Word is true, “I am the Lord, I change not.’ Unchanging God, then prove Thyself the healer now. The Word is true, ‘These signs shall follow them that believe in My Name, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’ And I believe, and I lay hands in Jesus’ Name on her, and claim this promise now. The word is true, ‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick.’ Trusting in Thee alone, I cry, oh, save her now, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!”
Instantly, reports Dowie, the child relaxed into a deep sleep and the fever broke. She survived and became the breakthrough case that stopped the epidemic in Dowie’s congregation; not another person in his church died after this.
Our Jaded View
Today, our view of healing evangelists is jaded by our experience of high profile ethical and financial lapses by these same individuals. TV distorts our picture of the healing ministry, and our inherent Western rationalism fights against belief in divine healing. We dismiss the possibility of spiritual healing as mere enthusiasm, wish fulfillment or possibly some sort of trickery.
Compassion and the Theological Basis of Healing Ministry
Yet notice in our story, that the basis for Dowie’s healing prayer is deep, gut wrenching anguish over the suffering of his people and the realization that it is not God that inflicts disease upon us but that illness is a tragic result of Sin having entered the world through the defilement of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve.
The theological basis for the prayer of faith is that the world as we see it now is not the world that God originally created. Everything in our world changed dramatically when Sin defiled the first couple. Think of it as the introduction of the first genetic mutation if you will - Mutation that radically altered everything within us and around us.
It is against this background that we look to our Savior Christ as our Healer sent by God to deliver us from the ravages of Sin and sickness. From our texts today, let us consider together some of the rationale and basis for God healing us in Christ.
First, from Isaiah 42: 5, we see God as our Creator:
“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it…” The Lord is the One who gives us life to begin with; He is our architect and manufacturer. His original design is not for us to live in misery, but to walk with Him in harmony.
As Creator, he calls His people into a righteous Covenant with Him.
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people…”
Over and over again, we see God making covenants – with Abraham first, and then subsequently reiterating this covenant with Jacob and Moses and Joshua – and finally through Jesus. God wants to be our God and he wants us to walk with him as His beloved people.
This covenant is to be the basis for blessing the whole world:
“I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (vv. 6,7). Immediately we can hear the words of the song of Simeon: ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people, Israel.”…
The covenant with Israel is to be the basis for the healing of the world, and this healing is to be mediated by God’s chosen servant, Messiah: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”…
Healing here is couched as an issue of justice: God’s chosen servant will come to set things right in the world. (v. 1). He will not rest in his mission until he establishes justice in all the earth (v. 4). Isaiah declares that this is a new thing God is doing in the earth (v.9). ‘before they spring forth I tell you of them”, he says.
Again, Isaiah is speaking of Christ and his God-anointed ministry to us. Jumping ahead to Matthew’s narrative of Christ’s baptism then, we can easily connect the dots and see that this is the new thing Isaiah is talking about.
John’s immersion of Jesus was not for the taking away of sin, but to recognize that Jesus is the Chosen Servant prophecied by Isaiah, and to anoint Jesus for his work. Jesus tells John that he goes down into the water in order to fulfill all righteousness. He is being commissioned into His ministry.
When Jesus comes up out of the water, the Sprit of God descends upon him, and the voice of God affirms, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am will pleased.” In other words, This is the guy Isaiah was talking about. Listen up! This is it!
Again, there is the Old Testament affirmation from Psalm 2: Thou art my Son, Today have I begotten Thee. (V. 7). God ‘births his Son into his ministry, acknowledging and commissioning Him for the Work of Healing the World.
In his sermon #100 on the mystery of the Lord’s Baptism, St. Maximus of Turin expounds thusly:
“The Gospel tells us that the Lord came to the Jordan to be baptized and to be consecrated by heavenly signs. This day too, we may rightly call his birthday, for while on Christmas he was physically born among people, today he is reborn in sacramental mystery. “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” His mother offered him to the wise men to adore; his Father offers him to all the world.”
Christ’s baptism also paves the way for us to follow him into our own Baptism. ‘Christ is baptized first so that Christians may follow his example with confidence’, says Maximus. Not only that, but the very water of baptism is ‘sanctified and purified by him. …For when the water spread over him, all water is cleansed for our baptism, and the source is purified so that it may be a fountain of grace for coming peoples.” (Quoted in Benedictine Daily Prayer, pg 105).
Christ’s healing ministry begins when he is baptized and his first ‘patient’ is the water itself! Jesus purifies the water, so that the water of our baptism may heal us of our sin sickness!
Jesus our Prototype
Now just as Jesus is our divine prototype in Baptism, so too is He in His anointing by the Holy Spirit. Just as The Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus, so too he comes upon us in our salvation and Baptism. This is the reason why people are anointed after being baptized. They are ‘Chrismated” or sealed in the Spirit, to indicate that the Holy Spirit now lives in them and rests upon them.
Returning to Acts 10:38: “ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth… with the Holy Spirit and with power…
God empowered Jesus by anointing Him with the Holy Spirit so that he could go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil. This was to bring about justice in the world by releasing people from the curse and stain of Sin, from the defilement of Satan, and to bring about a progressive restoration of all that was lost in the Fall. As we sing in “Joy to the World,” “ He comes to make His blessings known, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the Curse is found. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan the Defiler.
Now keep in mind that this reading from Acts is part of the Sermon that Peter delivered after the Gentile Cornelius and all his family got saved. This sermon announces the spreading of the Gospel to all Gentile peoples. A little later in the text we learn that the Holy Spirit falls upon Cornelius, his family and all who heard the word proclaimed. They are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in tongues and then they are baptized in water, just as Jesus was. Same water, same Holy Spirit. Same Jesus. Same God the Father. It’s all the same today, just as it was back then.
This then, is the basis for our contemporary practice of the healing ministry. We follow Jesus in baptism, we get the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we become his witnesses, being commissioned to spread the Gospel to all people, to open the eyes of the blind, to heal the sick and to bring justice to the earth by the systematic destruction of Satan’s defilements.
In the next few weeks and months, we are going to learn much more about this ministry of healing, but I really want you to receive from this message that we as Christians are not wild-eyed fanatics, or greasy charlatans when we pray for the healing of the sick. No, we are God’s children, following the ministry of His Son, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil.
After you take communion, come for healing prayer as well. It’s God’s gift to you, just like Salvation, just like the Body and Blood of Jesus. We don’t disparage the healing art of medicine one little bit by saying all this, but Jesus came to set the captives free. Healing is the “Children’s bread. It’s yours by birthright, so come and get it!...Amen?
AMEN.
Acts 10:34-38
Imagine for a moment that you are a member of a large church and that an epidemic of illness in your town. You have attended 40 funerals in as many days, and virtually everyone you know is sick unto death – adults, little kids, teens – everybody.
Your faith in God has been severely tested and you feel as though you’re just about ready to give up on faith altogether.
In anguish of heart, you pray for God to show you some sign or message that will help you make sense out of all the suffering. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity, Acts 10:38 comes to mind with great clarity: …”how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him…”
In this moment of clarity, God reveals to you the nature of Satan as the Defiler and Christ as the Healer. Your tears are wiped away and you feel strengthened and encouraged to tell the world about your revelation, firm in the knowledge that the message of Acts 10:38 is relevant for today because Jesus is just the same today as he was back in the time of Acts.
If you were successful in imagining this scenario, you can imagine what it was like for John Alexander Dowie, who experienced just such a thing in 1874 in a suburb of Sydney Australia, during a catastrophic epidemic of illness. Immediately after having had this moment of clarity, Dowie received an urgent summons to pray for a young girl that was dying. He relates the experience this way:
“With just a feeling as a shepherd has who hears that his sheep are being torn from the fold by a cruel wolf, I rushed from my house, ran hatless down the street, and entered the room of the dying [girl]. There she lay groaning, grinding her clenched teeth in the agony of the conflict with the destroyer, the white froth, mingled with her blood, oozing from her pain-distorted mouth. I looked at her and then my anger burned. “Oh,” I thought, “for some sharp sword of heavenly temper keen to slay this cruel foe who is strangling that lovely maiden like an invisible serpent, tightening his deadly coils for a final victory.”
From our vantage point in 2008, it would be easy to look back and say that the later invention of sulpha drugs and antibiotics would certainly have been such a sharp sword, and that in our day, we have largely eradicated such suffering. But that would be overconfident , for all we have to do is think of the health problems that challenge us today and realize that while we have made huge strides in eliminating some diseases, such as smallpox – there are still a host of diseases that are vexing to medical science and that the fundamental issues relating to sickness and faith remain the same.
Picking up our story again, Dowie tells how “the doctor, a good Christian man, was quietly walking up and down the room quietly sharing the mother’s grief. Presently, he stood at my side and said, “Sir, are not God’s ways mysterious?”
“Instantly, “recalls Dowie, “the sword was flashed in my hand – the Spirit’s sword, the Word of God. “God’s way!” I said, pointing to the scene of conflict, “how dare you, Dr. K-, call that God’s way of bringing His children home from earth to Heaven? No, sir, that is the devil’s work, and it is time we called on Him Who came to ‘destroy the work of the devil’ to slay that deadly foul destroyer, and to save the child. Can you pray, Doctor, can you pray the prayer of faith that saves the sick?” At once, offended at my words, my friend was changed and saying, “You are too much excited sir, ‘tis best to say ‘God’s will be done,’ [and] he left the room.
Excited! The word was quite inadequate for I was almost frenzied with Divinely imparted anger and hatred of that foul destroyer, Disease, which was doing Satan’s will. “It is not so,” I exclaimed, ‘no will of God sends such cruelty, and I shall never say “God’s will be done’ to Satan’s works, which God’s own Son came to destroy, and this is one of them.” Oh, how the Word of God was burning in my heart: “Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” And was not God with me? And was not Jesus there and all His promises true? I felt that it was even so, and turning to the mother I inquired, “Why did you send for me?” To which she answered, “Do pray, oh pray for her that God may raise her up.” So we prayed. What did I say? It may be that I cannot recall the words without mistake…I cried:
“Our Father, help! And Holy Spirit teach me how to pray. Plead Thou for us, oh, Jesus, Savior, Healer, Friend, our Advocate with God the Father. Hear and heal, Eternal One! From all disease and death deliver this sweet child of Thine. I rest upon the Word. We claim the promise now. The Word is true, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.’ Then heal her now. The Word is true, “I am the Lord, I change not.’ Unchanging God, then prove Thyself the healer now. The Word is true, ‘These signs shall follow them that believe in My Name, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’ And I believe, and I lay hands in Jesus’ Name on her, and claim this promise now. The word is true, ‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick.’ Trusting in Thee alone, I cry, oh, save her now, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!”
Instantly, reports Dowie, the child relaxed into a deep sleep and the fever broke. She survived and became the breakthrough case that stopped the epidemic in Dowie’s congregation; not another person in his church died after this.
Our Jaded View
Today, our view of healing evangelists is jaded by our experience of high profile ethical and financial lapses by these same individuals. TV distorts our picture of the healing ministry, and our inherent Western rationalism fights against belief in divine healing. We dismiss the possibility of spiritual healing as mere enthusiasm, wish fulfillment or possibly some sort of trickery.
Compassion and the Theological Basis of Healing Ministry
Yet notice in our story, that the basis for Dowie’s healing prayer is deep, gut wrenching anguish over the suffering of his people and the realization that it is not God that inflicts disease upon us but that illness is a tragic result of Sin having entered the world through the defilement of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve.
The theological basis for the prayer of faith is that the world as we see it now is not the world that God originally created. Everything in our world changed dramatically when Sin defiled the first couple. Think of it as the introduction of the first genetic mutation if you will - Mutation that radically altered everything within us and around us.
It is against this background that we look to our Savior Christ as our Healer sent by God to deliver us from the ravages of Sin and sickness. From our texts today, let us consider together some of the rationale and basis for God healing us in Christ.
First, from Isaiah 42: 5, we see God as our Creator:
“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it…” The Lord is the One who gives us life to begin with; He is our architect and manufacturer. His original design is not for us to live in misery, but to walk with Him in harmony.
As Creator, he calls His people into a righteous Covenant with Him.
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people…”
Over and over again, we see God making covenants – with Abraham first, and then subsequently reiterating this covenant with Jacob and Moses and Joshua – and finally through Jesus. God wants to be our God and he wants us to walk with him as His beloved people.
This covenant is to be the basis for blessing the whole world:
“I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (vv. 6,7). Immediately we can hear the words of the song of Simeon: ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people, Israel.”…
The covenant with Israel is to be the basis for the healing of the world, and this healing is to be mediated by God’s chosen servant, Messiah: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”…
Healing here is couched as an issue of justice: God’s chosen servant will come to set things right in the world. (v. 1). He will not rest in his mission until he establishes justice in all the earth (v. 4). Isaiah declares that this is a new thing God is doing in the earth (v.9). ‘before they spring forth I tell you of them”, he says.
Again, Isaiah is speaking of Christ and his God-anointed ministry to us. Jumping ahead to Matthew’s narrative of Christ’s baptism then, we can easily connect the dots and see that this is the new thing Isaiah is talking about.
John’s immersion of Jesus was not for the taking away of sin, but to recognize that Jesus is the Chosen Servant prophecied by Isaiah, and to anoint Jesus for his work. Jesus tells John that he goes down into the water in order to fulfill all righteousness. He is being commissioned into His ministry.
When Jesus comes up out of the water, the Sprit of God descends upon him, and the voice of God affirms, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am will pleased.” In other words, This is the guy Isaiah was talking about. Listen up! This is it!
Again, there is the Old Testament affirmation from Psalm 2: Thou art my Son, Today have I begotten Thee. (V. 7). God ‘births his Son into his ministry, acknowledging and commissioning Him for the Work of Healing the World.
In his sermon #100 on the mystery of the Lord’s Baptism, St. Maximus of Turin expounds thusly:
“The Gospel tells us that the Lord came to the Jordan to be baptized and to be consecrated by heavenly signs. This day too, we may rightly call his birthday, for while on Christmas he was physically born among people, today he is reborn in sacramental mystery. “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” His mother offered him to the wise men to adore; his Father offers him to all the world.”
Christ’s baptism also paves the way for us to follow him into our own Baptism. ‘Christ is baptized first so that Christians may follow his example with confidence’, says Maximus. Not only that, but the very water of baptism is ‘sanctified and purified by him. …For when the water spread over him, all water is cleansed for our baptism, and the source is purified so that it may be a fountain of grace for coming peoples.” (Quoted in Benedictine Daily Prayer, pg 105).
Christ’s healing ministry begins when he is baptized and his first ‘patient’ is the water itself! Jesus purifies the water, so that the water of our baptism may heal us of our sin sickness!
Jesus our Prototype
Now just as Jesus is our divine prototype in Baptism, so too is He in His anointing by the Holy Spirit. Just as The Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus, so too he comes upon us in our salvation and Baptism. This is the reason why people are anointed after being baptized. They are ‘Chrismated” or sealed in the Spirit, to indicate that the Holy Spirit now lives in them and rests upon them.
Returning to Acts 10:38: “ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth… with the Holy Spirit and with power…
God empowered Jesus by anointing Him with the Holy Spirit so that he could go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil. This was to bring about justice in the world by releasing people from the curse and stain of Sin, from the defilement of Satan, and to bring about a progressive restoration of all that was lost in the Fall. As we sing in “Joy to the World,” “ He comes to make His blessings known, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the Curse is found. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan the Defiler.
Now keep in mind that this reading from Acts is part of the Sermon that Peter delivered after the Gentile Cornelius and all his family got saved. This sermon announces the spreading of the Gospel to all Gentile peoples. A little later in the text we learn that the Holy Spirit falls upon Cornelius, his family and all who heard the word proclaimed. They are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in tongues and then they are baptized in water, just as Jesus was. Same water, same Holy Spirit. Same Jesus. Same God the Father. It’s all the same today, just as it was back then.
This then, is the basis for our contemporary practice of the healing ministry. We follow Jesus in baptism, we get the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we become his witnesses, being commissioned to spread the Gospel to all people, to open the eyes of the blind, to heal the sick and to bring justice to the earth by the systematic destruction of Satan’s defilements.
In the next few weeks and months, we are going to learn much more about this ministry of healing, but I really want you to receive from this message that we as Christians are not wild-eyed fanatics, or greasy charlatans when we pray for the healing of the sick. No, we are God’s children, following the ministry of His Son, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the Devil.
After you take communion, come for healing prayer as well. It’s God’s gift to you, just like Salvation, just like the Body and Blood of Jesus. We don’t disparage the healing art of medicine one little bit by saying all this, but Jesus came to set the captives free. Healing is the “Children’s bread. It’s yours by birthright, so come and get it!...Amen?
AMEN.
How the Wise seek Him
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church at the Chapel of St. Mary's Hospital, Huntington WV. Based on Matthew 2: 1-12
Epiphany Sunday 2008
Today we celebrate the visit of the magi to Jesus. These men are almost entirely mysterious to us today. They make their first appearance after the birth of Christ, pay him a quick visit and then disappear from the narrative as quickly as they showed up. They are of course exotic, and they make for wonderfully colorful figures in the crèche’s and nativity scenes that are so ubiquitous this time of year. But they are also figures who represent to us something very important about the nature of faith and it’s interaction with knowledge. Namely, that human wisdom can be used by God to discover His plans, but it takes an active faith to meet the God we learn about.
Let’s look at some of the ways the Wise men were indeed wise, and how they used their wisdom to find the Lord:
Now we know that the Magi came from the east. They were apparently students of the stars; astrologers and philosophers in the best sense. Probably schooled in the mystery religions, they knew that when a new star arose, that it was a portent, a sign of something that God was doing. They were wise in the cosmic ways of God – they knew he works through heavenly signs.
But they were wise in another way: they knew that it would not be sufficient to merely see the star and realize that God was up to something. No, they understood that once they discerned something, they had to act on it. They had to take the information they had discerned and combine it with faithful action – they had to go worship this newborn king.
Now notice that these magi were not about diplomatic networking with local kings. If that was their goal, they could have stopped at Herod’s house, hobnobbed with him, given him some rich gifts and then be on their way with no trouble. Instead, they stopped at Herod’s place just long enough to ask him where they could find the newborn King of the Jews – again, so that they might worship him. Their simple request created consternation with Herod and with the whole of Jerusalem as well! Not exactly something diplomatic to do!
I believe that God intended this visit to shake up Herod and Jerusalem and to give them a prophetic notice that it was time to do as the wise men were doing – to bring their prideful self-will into faithful obedience, and to follow the Magi in worshipping Jesus the King. Curiously, Herod does show a certain perverse kind of faith. He seems to trust the prophetic Word enough to inquire where the Christ was to be born. He also seems to implicitly recognize that the wise men had discerned something that was potentially BIG. But instead of combining his knowledge with faithful action, he schemes and lies in order to gain information so that he can protect his own skin and kingdom!
If the Magi are paradigms of Good Men, Herod is the epitome of the bad, faithless man. Even without knowing much about the man himself, we sense from the text that he is up to no good. He’s a snake in the grass. But the wise men are wise enough not to call him out on his intentions. Rather, they nod and go their way, intent on seeking Jesus – perhaps even believing that Herod was sincere in his desire to worship the child.
And God graciously leads them. Many modern day astronomers have undertaken to explain the nature of the new star that led the Magi. Once, when I was about 13, I remember going to our high school library one evening in Advent with my parents and listening to a lecture about something called a ‘heliacal rise”. I don’t have a clue about this now, but I remember thinking that this guy is trying very hard to explain something that is inherently mysterious.
As I read this text, it almost seems as if the miracle of the star may have been a sort of Command Performance – a special star that God caused to appear to the wise men in order to lead them to Jesus- whether or not anyone else saw it.
Again, however, let’s point out that if others did see this star, they did not combine their knowledge with faithful action as the Magi did or they too would have shown up from many points on the compass, rejoicing as the Magi did, at the appearance of the star and following it to Jesus.
In verse 11 of our text, we see the climax of their search. The wise men came into the house where Jesus was with Mary, and they fell down and worshiped him. They gave him the symbolic gifts fit for a king - gifts that also foreshadowed the burial and entombment of this king – and they worshipped him. In others words, they gave him the praise and ascribed to him the worth He was due. In modern parlance, they ‘came to Jesus” , they responded to the altar call, they laid their all on the altar and they Got SAVED! Their knowledge had led them to take faithful action and they were rewarded by finding the King they sought. And because this King was not to reign on earth, but to have a heavenly kingdom, the wise men then departed to go home.
And here is where we see that the Magi were not only wise in all the ways we have discussed so far, but they were also smart enough to recognize a warning from God that came to them in a dream. Having been warned they obeyed the warning and went home by another way. Imagine how the story might have ended had they discounted the dream and gone back to Herod! Their obedience saved them and Jesus as well.
So out of this exotic and colorful story let’s derive some lessons for ourselves today:
1) Look for what God is doing in your world today.
At our Vestry retreat yesterday, Rev. Ron Crum stressed this point by urging us to find out what is our present reality. Not WWJD – What would Jesus do? But WIJD – What is Jesus Doing? For us as All Saints Anglican Church, Jesus has clearly led us to band together and stand for the Historical Faith Once Delivered. He is clearly encouraging us in our worship by gifting us with the use of this beautiful Chapel - that we didn’t have to build or maintain! It’s been done and is being done for us! We are free to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings which affirms one of our core values as a worshipping body - the Beauty of Liturgical Sacramental Worship. God is helping us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
2) Use your intellect to discern God’s purposes. As Anglicans, we value the right use of reason and preserving the orthodox faith we have received – that which we call the Tradition with a Capitol T. We can use our minds to help us pursue what seems to be good to us and to the Holy Spirit (ACTS 15). Jim Akers presented to us some of his research about CANA and the Anglican Mission in the Americas. We learned some new things that might affect our decision-making, and it was very helpful.
3) Combine belief with faithful action. Go and seek Jesus, and worship Him. I commend you all for doing just that as you have left places that may not have been worshipping Christ, in order to follow an “uncertain star” (ASAC) that leads to faithful worship of our God. Our next faithful action as a body will be to apply to actually apply to either CANA and or AMiA.
4) Beware of Herod! Watch out for those who feign belief in order to destroy you and your faith. (Enough Said!)
5) Worship God with the Best you can muster. Bring him your precious gifts of God Frankincense and Myrhh, fit for a King. Ascribe to the Lord the Honor due His name. If the wise men thought it was important enough for them, it’s important enough for us too! I wear a signet ring with the letters DOM, a traditional Benedictine slogan. The letters stand for Deo Optimo Maximo – To God the Highest and the Best. This is the attitude with which I wish to serve God. I hope you do too.
6) Pay attention to warnings. God may be trying to get your attention! Over and over again in the first chapters of the Gospels, we read of angels coming to deliver messages to Mary, to Joseph, to the Shepherds, and to the wise men. Some times these messages come through open visions, and sometimes and more ominously they come through dreams. God loves you enough to warn you when you’re about to get into trouble. Pay attention and Herod won’t kill you; pay attention to your dreams – God may be leading you to something wonderful!
I’d like to close by reiterating the collect for the day as our closing prayer: O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Epiphany Sunday 2008
Today we celebrate the visit of the magi to Jesus. These men are almost entirely mysterious to us today. They make their first appearance after the birth of Christ, pay him a quick visit and then disappear from the narrative as quickly as they showed up. They are of course exotic, and they make for wonderfully colorful figures in the crèche’s and nativity scenes that are so ubiquitous this time of year. But they are also figures who represent to us something very important about the nature of faith and it’s interaction with knowledge. Namely, that human wisdom can be used by God to discover His plans, but it takes an active faith to meet the God we learn about.
Let’s look at some of the ways the Wise men were indeed wise, and how they used their wisdom to find the Lord:
Now we know that the Magi came from the east. They were apparently students of the stars; astrologers and philosophers in the best sense. Probably schooled in the mystery religions, they knew that when a new star arose, that it was a portent, a sign of something that God was doing. They were wise in the cosmic ways of God – they knew he works through heavenly signs.
But they were wise in another way: they knew that it would not be sufficient to merely see the star and realize that God was up to something. No, they understood that once they discerned something, they had to act on it. They had to take the information they had discerned and combine it with faithful action – they had to go worship this newborn king.
Now notice that these magi were not about diplomatic networking with local kings. If that was their goal, they could have stopped at Herod’s house, hobnobbed with him, given him some rich gifts and then be on their way with no trouble. Instead, they stopped at Herod’s place just long enough to ask him where they could find the newborn King of the Jews – again, so that they might worship him. Their simple request created consternation with Herod and with the whole of Jerusalem as well! Not exactly something diplomatic to do!
I believe that God intended this visit to shake up Herod and Jerusalem and to give them a prophetic notice that it was time to do as the wise men were doing – to bring their prideful self-will into faithful obedience, and to follow the Magi in worshipping Jesus the King. Curiously, Herod does show a certain perverse kind of faith. He seems to trust the prophetic Word enough to inquire where the Christ was to be born. He also seems to implicitly recognize that the wise men had discerned something that was potentially BIG. But instead of combining his knowledge with faithful action, he schemes and lies in order to gain information so that he can protect his own skin and kingdom!
If the Magi are paradigms of Good Men, Herod is the epitome of the bad, faithless man. Even without knowing much about the man himself, we sense from the text that he is up to no good. He’s a snake in the grass. But the wise men are wise enough not to call him out on his intentions. Rather, they nod and go their way, intent on seeking Jesus – perhaps even believing that Herod was sincere in his desire to worship the child.
And God graciously leads them. Many modern day astronomers have undertaken to explain the nature of the new star that led the Magi. Once, when I was about 13, I remember going to our high school library one evening in Advent with my parents and listening to a lecture about something called a ‘heliacal rise”. I don’t have a clue about this now, but I remember thinking that this guy is trying very hard to explain something that is inherently mysterious.
As I read this text, it almost seems as if the miracle of the star may have been a sort of Command Performance – a special star that God caused to appear to the wise men in order to lead them to Jesus- whether or not anyone else saw it.
Again, however, let’s point out that if others did see this star, they did not combine their knowledge with faithful action as the Magi did or they too would have shown up from many points on the compass, rejoicing as the Magi did, at the appearance of the star and following it to Jesus.
In verse 11 of our text, we see the climax of their search. The wise men came into the house where Jesus was with Mary, and they fell down and worshiped him. They gave him the symbolic gifts fit for a king - gifts that also foreshadowed the burial and entombment of this king – and they worshipped him. In others words, they gave him the praise and ascribed to him the worth He was due. In modern parlance, they ‘came to Jesus” , they responded to the altar call, they laid their all on the altar and they Got SAVED! Their knowledge had led them to take faithful action and they were rewarded by finding the King they sought. And because this King was not to reign on earth, but to have a heavenly kingdom, the wise men then departed to go home.
And here is where we see that the Magi were not only wise in all the ways we have discussed so far, but they were also smart enough to recognize a warning from God that came to them in a dream. Having been warned they obeyed the warning and went home by another way. Imagine how the story might have ended had they discounted the dream and gone back to Herod! Their obedience saved them and Jesus as well.
So out of this exotic and colorful story let’s derive some lessons for ourselves today:
1) Look for what God is doing in your world today.
At our Vestry retreat yesterday, Rev. Ron Crum stressed this point by urging us to find out what is our present reality. Not WWJD – What would Jesus do? But WIJD – What is Jesus Doing? For us as All Saints Anglican Church, Jesus has clearly led us to band together and stand for the Historical Faith Once Delivered. He is clearly encouraging us in our worship by gifting us with the use of this beautiful Chapel - that we didn’t have to build or maintain! It’s been done and is being done for us! We are free to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings which affirms one of our core values as a worshipping body - the Beauty of Liturgical Sacramental Worship. God is helping us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
2) Use your intellect to discern God’s purposes. As Anglicans, we value the right use of reason and preserving the orthodox faith we have received – that which we call the Tradition with a Capitol T. We can use our minds to help us pursue what seems to be good to us and to the Holy Spirit (ACTS 15). Jim Akers presented to us some of his research about CANA and the Anglican Mission in the Americas. We learned some new things that might affect our decision-making, and it was very helpful.
3) Combine belief with faithful action. Go and seek Jesus, and worship Him. I commend you all for doing just that as you have left places that may not have been worshipping Christ, in order to follow an “uncertain star” (ASAC) that leads to faithful worship of our God. Our next faithful action as a body will be to apply to actually apply to either CANA and or AMiA.
4) Beware of Herod! Watch out for those who feign belief in order to destroy you and your faith. (Enough Said!)
5) Worship God with the Best you can muster. Bring him your precious gifts of God Frankincense and Myrhh, fit for a King. Ascribe to the Lord the Honor due His name. If the wise men thought it was important enough for them, it’s important enough for us too! I wear a signet ring with the letters DOM, a traditional Benedictine slogan. The letters stand for Deo Optimo Maximo – To God the Highest and the Best. This is the attitude with which I wish to serve God. I hope you do too.
6) Pay attention to warnings. God may be trying to get your attention! Over and over again in the first chapters of the Gospels, we read of angels coming to deliver messages to Mary, to Joseph, to the Shepherds, and to the wise men. Some times these messages come through open visions, and sometimes and more ominously they come through dreams. God loves you enough to warn you when you’re about to get into trouble. Pay attention and Herod won’t kill you; pay attention to your dreams – God may be leading you to something wonderful!
I’d like to close by reiterating the collect for the day as our closing prayer: O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Dear Mom
This letter was read to All Saints Anglican Church on December 23, 2007.
It purports to be written by a Greek believer living in Palestine around the year AD 60 or so...
Dear Mom,
I hope you don’t mind me being so familiar. There are so many now who love you and call you “Mother”, that it only seems natural for me to do the same…
I was talking with Matthew the other day - and we were reminiscing about the Gospel he wrote about Yeshua: how he walked among us, died on the cross and rose from the grave to save us from our sins. It still amazes me to think that he grew up in our midst and we never had a clue that he would go on to become Messiah.
But then I thought that you must surely have known all along and that it must have been terribly difficult for you to keep that knowledge to yourself – especially when people were accusing you of being unfaithful to Joseph, your betrothed. I understand from Matthew that Joseph considered divorcing you early on, but thought better of it when he realized what would happen to you as a single mother. In fact, someone even told me that you came very close to being stoned by your own townspeople one time…It makes me shudder to think about it.
If it hadn’t been for Gabriel coming to tell Joseph that your son had been conceived of the Holy Spirit and that he would become the Savior of his people…who knows where we would be now! I sure would have liked to see Joseph’s face when the angel told him that the child’s name would be Yeshua, the one foretold by the prophet Isaiah!
I also keep going back to what it must have been like for you when Gabriel told you that you would bear this child. They say that you just accepted it. “Be it done to me according to your word”, I think is what you said. Amazing! Weren’t you scared? Didn’t you want to run away? You, just a teen-age girl, and here you were going to have a child that would be the Savior! I think I would have asked the angel to find someone else.
You must have been quite a courageous young woman! In fact, I KNOW you were, because I read the words of the song you sang when you went to visit Elizabeth. I got them from that Gentile physician, Luke, who came to listen to you tell your story that one time. He has written up his Gospel too, including some things that Matthew left out.
Your “Magnificat” reminds me a lot of the song Hannah sang when she gave birth to Samuel. Were you thinking about that when you sang to Elizabeth? I bet you were…
It seems like you thought that Yeshua would be king when he grew up – that he would bring down Herod and Caesar and reign over all. That was pretty subversive stuff! Did you ever talk to anyone else about these thoughts? And if you did, did you look over your shoulder to see if there was a Roman soldier around? You could have gone to prison for treason!
At any rate, I was just writing to tell you how much I love you and appreciate what you did for us all. I know I don’t say it enough, that I take you for granted some times. But we’re coming up on the day we celebrate Yeshua’s birth (isn’t it great that people can remember Him instead of getting wild and crazy at the Saturnalia?!) and I thought I should put down in words what I feel about you – that I should be one of the generations to rise up and call you Blessed, just like you said in your song. For you truly were blessed to carry our Lord in your body and to be the very first Christian – even though I know it was very painful for you to have to watch him suffer at the hands of the Jews and the Romans. (I guess Simeon was right when he said that a sword would pierce your soul.)
I know too that it must have been confusing to have heard such wonderful prophecies about Yeshua being the cause of the fall and rise of many in Israel and that he would be a King like David before him – only to see His ministry taken up with the poor, the outcast, and even the enemies of our people. I don’t blame you and your other children for thinking he was crazy and trying to stop Him from embarrassing the family at Capernaum. “Jesus’ as the Greeks call him was certainly a surprise to us all!
But what a blessing it must have been to be among the firs to see him risen from the Dead – and to be there with the others in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came down! They say it sounded like a mighty rushing wind and that tongues of fire appeared above each one there! Did you speak in another language that day? And if so, did you know what language it was? But I digress…
This letter dear mother, is to honor you and to give you thanks for your faithfulness to our God. Because of you, all of us have begun to live through your son Jesus and we are truly grateful. We want you to know that we’ll be thinking about you during all the festivities coming up in the next few days and that your memory is very precious to us.
Please think about us too - and when you see your Son, could you put in a good word for us? Thanks.
With all my love, I am
Your son,
Andreas
It purports to be written by a Greek believer living in Palestine around the year AD 60 or so...
Dear Mom,
I hope you don’t mind me being so familiar. There are so many now who love you and call you “Mother”, that it only seems natural for me to do the same…
I was talking with Matthew the other day - and we were reminiscing about the Gospel he wrote about Yeshua: how he walked among us, died on the cross and rose from the grave to save us from our sins. It still amazes me to think that he grew up in our midst and we never had a clue that he would go on to become Messiah.
But then I thought that you must surely have known all along and that it must have been terribly difficult for you to keep that knowledge to yourself – especially when people were accusing you of being unfaithful to Joseph, your betrothed. I understand from Matthew that Joseph considered divorcing you early on, but thought better of it when he realized what would happen to you as a single mother. In fact, someone even told me that you came very close to being stoned by your own townspeople one time…It makes me shudder to think about it.
If it hadn’t been for Gabriel coming to tell Joseph that your son had been conceived of the Holy Spirit and that he would become the Savior of his people…who knows where we would be now! I sure would have liked to see Joseph’s face when the angel told him that the child’s name would be Yeshua, the one foretold by the prophet Isaiah!
I also keep going back to what it must have been like for you when Gabriel told you that you would bear this child. They say that you just accepted it. “Be it done to me according to your word”, I think is what you said. Amazing! Weren’t you scared? Didn’t you want to run away? You, just a teen-age girl, and here you were going to have a child that would be the Savior! I think I would have asked the angel to find someone else.
You must have been quite a courageous young woman! In fact, I KNOW you were, because I read the words of the song you sang when you went to visit Elizabeth. I got them from that Gentile physician, Luke, who came to listen to you tell your story that one time. He has written up his Gospel too, including some things that Matthew left out.
Your “Magnificat” reminds me a lot of the song Hannah sang when she gave birth to Samuel. Were you thinking about that when you sang to Elizabeth? I bet you were…
It seems like you thought that Yeshua would be king when he grew up – that he would bring down Herod and Caesar and reign over all. That was pretty subversive stuff! Did you ever talk to anyone else about these thoughts? And if you did, did you look over your shoulder to see if there was a Roman soldier around? You could have gone to prison for treason!
At any rate, I was just writing to tell you how much I love you and appreciate what you did for us all. I know I don’t say it enough, that I take you for granted some times. But we’re coming up on the day we celebrate Yeshua’s birth (isn’t it great that people can remember Him instead of getting wild and crazy at the Saturnalia?!) and I thought I should put down in words what I feel about you – that I should be one of the generations to rise up and call you Blessed, just like you said in your song. For you truly were blessed to carry our Lord in your body and to be the very first Christian – even though I know it was very painful for you to have to watch him suffer at the hands of the Jews and the Romans. (I guess Simeon was right when he said that a sword would pierce your soul.)
I know too that it must have been confusing to have heard such wonderful prophecies about Yeshua being the cause of the fall and rise of many in Israel and that he would be a King like David before him – only to see His ministry taken up with the poor, the outcast, and even the enemies of our people. I don’t blame you and your other children for thinking he was crazy and trying to stop Him from embarrassing the family at Capernaum. “Jesus’ as the Greeks call him was certainly a surprise to us all!
But what a blessing it must have been to be among the firs to see him risen from the Dead – and to be there with the others in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came down! They say it sounded like a mighty rushing wind and that tongues of fire appeared above each one there! Did you speak in another language that day? And if so, did you know what language it was? But I digress…
This letter dear mother, is to honor you and to give you thanks for your faithfulness to our God. Because of you, all of us have begun to live through your son Jesus and we are truly grateful. We want you to know that we’ll be thinking about you during all the festivities coming up in the next few days and that your memory is very precious to us.
Please think about us too - and when you see your Son, could you put in a good word for us? Thanks.
With all my love, I am
Your son,
Andreas
Waiting
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on 3rd Advent, 2007
Hampton Inn, Barboursville, WV
Last week, Father Mark reminded us that 400 years elapsed between the Prophet Malachi and John the Baptist. The OT prophets spoke words of encouragement to the nation of Israel but the nation had to wait until the ‘fullness of time’ came and Jesus came to fulfill those prophecies.
I imagine they struggled with waiting. I know I do. Waiting is difficult.
We want things quickly. We hate to wait. It’s a little like this ketchup bottle – the ketchup came out too slowly in the old glass bottles, so we invented a squeeze bottle so we could forcefully squeeze out the thick sauce. Then that wasn’t good enough. We invented the upside down bottle where we could have the ketchup come out right away! We hate to wait so much that we would rather endure water board torture than to sit still and wait.
I think I’ve said this before, but if I wanted to really torture you, I’d say, “I’m going out for a while, wait for me until I return.”…After about 90 minutes you’d all start getting restless, and want to leave. Waiting is hard for human beings, especially when things aren’t going the way we expected them to go.
Even John the Baptist, the “greatest man ever born of woman” had doubts. When John observed Jesus in action John wasn’t sure this is exactly what he had in mind. His life was on the line and he wanted to know if he was sticking his neck out for the right person. So when John sent his followers to Jesus, asking for reassurance, Jesus directed John back to the prophet Isaiah by saying,
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Being an Old Testament prophet himself, John should have recognized that Jesus was quoting Isaiah (35:5,6):
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,and the ears of the deaf unstopped;6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.For waters break forth in the wilderness,and streams in the desert;
Jesus had also used similar words to announce his ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,because the Lord has anointed meto bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim liberty to the captives,and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,and the day of vengeance of our God;to comfort all who mourn…Isaiah 61:1-2.
John should have understood that Jesus was announcing that the time of waiting had come to an end. The people of Israel were now to recognize that their promised King had come to them and that He was ushering in His Kingdom.
The only problem was that Jesus didn’t look anything like a King or act like one. Because he didn’t ride in on a white horse and dramatically defeat the Roman oppressor, most people didn’t accept Him as King.
True, they found his miracles interesting – especially the part about getting free bread, but all the Suffering Servant stuff just didn’t really get it. Jesus didn’t look or act the part of a conquering King because he was inaugurating a different kind of Kingdom – one that could only be recognized by the lowly and humble of heart.
WE face the SAME Challenge.
As Christians, we face the same challenge as the Jews faced. Jesus promised that He would return to us, but it has been 2,000 years and he still hasn’t come back. The apostle James urged the believers even back in the first century to be patient:
James 5:7-10:
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
We need to have a keen sense that the Lord is returning and may return any day. The prayer “Marana Tha” expresses this: “Come quickly Lord Jesus”. But by the same token we must realize that Jesus has tarried now for some 2, 000 years. When the Lord says quickly, he means us to understand that “one day is as a thousand years”… On His calendar, it’s only been a couple of days since He left!
So we must be patient. But what to do while we are waiting?
Occupy until I Come (Luke 19:13)
We are to ‘occupy’ – to engage in our Father’s business:
To bring the Good News to the poor – to evangelize.
To open the eyes of the blind, both spiritually and physically.
Bind up the brokenhearted – to minister to those who grieve and are hurting from various life circumstances.
As Henri Nouwen puts it, we are to:
“Be alert, be alert, so that you will be able to recognize your Lord in your husband, your wife, your parents, your children, your friends, your teachers, but also in all that you read in the daily papers. The Lord is coming, always coming. Be alert to recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord” (H. Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal).
Our waiting is not simple passive inactivity, but an active anticipation, a participation in bringing the Kingdom of God to our world right now.
We pray, we reach out to heal wounds and to bring people to the saving knowledge of Christ all in obedience to his will. We do this gladly and hopefully, but at the same time we know that our efforts can only be partial until Jesus returns and sets up His righteous rule here on earth.
An Illustration from the Great Anglican Confusion
Anglicans have had to wait for many years – some would say as many as forty years- while the liberal experiment within The Episcopal Church worked itself out. Certainly when Gene Robinson was consecrated bishop in 2003, we saw the experiment reach its apex and have had to wait patiently for the Anglican world to realign so as to reflect the reality that there are now two Anglican communions in the world. Things seem to have moved as slowly as thick ketchup in a glass bottle for the last four years. But now it appears that events are rapidly coming to a climax in which all our waiting will find fruition.
Our own Archbishop Mark had been trying for several years to make a connection with the the ACN and Common Cause. The main holdup seemed to be what to do with the Bishops. Mark finally came to the conclusion that the only way to find acceptance with CANA was to renounce his Bishop’s staff and apply to CANA as a priest serving his own parish.
This past week, he called me and told me that this had finally happened. He has formally been accepted into the Nigerian church as a priest and is relating to David Anderson (Atlanta) as his bishop. He is urging us to make application to CANA as individual parishes and clergy, and it seems now that the way is primed for us to also be accepted into this new expression of orthodox Anglicanism.
We have had to wait patiently and to suffer uncertainty. But now I believe that we must recognize the time of our visitation. Just as Israel was challenged to accept the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in their time, I believe that the Lord is coming to us in the guise of CANA.
Our time of waiting and longing for godly, courageous, orthodox leadership is coming to an end. We are about to step over the threshold into a new reality – the reality of being a full fledged member of an exciting ‘Latter Day” movement of God’s Spirit on the Earth.
This does not mean that we our way will be easy or without controversy. In fact, I am confident that we are heading into a time when our membership in CANA will be attacked by those who think they represent the ‘real’ expression of Anglicanism in America. If you haven’t already lost friends over being part of All Saints Anglican Church, I’m sure you will in the future.
But you are also about to be amazed by the new friends God brings our way. And the new thing He will do will surpass exceedingly all that we could have thought or imagined.
Friends, let us welcome the changes that will occur within the next 8-12 weeks. It is Jesus Coming to us here and now.
Let us also recognize that Jesus will come to us again bodily – in the clouds with great Glory in order to set up His kingdom here on earth.
Until he comes again personally, let us resolve to spend ourselves and suffer as need be for His kingdom. I am confident that we will be rewarded richly both here and in the hereafter.
Marana Tha! AMEN
Hampton Inn, Barboursville, WV
Last week, Father Mark reminded us that 400 years elapsed between the Prophet Malachi and John the Baptist. The OT prophets spoke words of encouragement to the nation of Israel but the nation had to wait until the ‘fullness of time’ came and Jesus came to fulfill those prophecies.
I imagine they struggled with waiting. I know I do. Waiting is difficult.
We want things quickly. We hate to wait. It’s a little like this ketchup bottle – the ketchup came out too slowly in the old glass bottles, so we invented a squeeze bottle so we could forcefully squeeze out the thick sauce. Then that wasn’t good enough. We invented the upside down bottle where we could have the ketchup come out right away! We hate to wait so much that we would rather endure water board torture than to sit still and wait.
I think I’ve said this before, but if I wanted to really torture you, I’d say, “I’m going out for a while, wait for me until I return.”…After about 90 minutes you’d all start getting restless, and want to leave. Waiting is hard for human beings, especially when things aren’t going the way we expected them to go.
Even John the Baptist, the “greatest man ever born of woman” had doubts. When John observed Jesus in action John wasn’t sure this is exactly what he had in mind. His life was on the line and he wanted to know if he was sticking his neck out for the right person. So when John sent his followers to Jesus, asking for reassurance, Jesus directed John back to the prophet Isaiah by saying,
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Being an Old Testament prophet himself, John should have recognized that Jesus was quoting Isaiah (35:5,6):
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,and the ears of the deaf unstopped;6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.For waters break forth in the wilderness,and streams in the desert;
Jesus had also used similar words to announce his ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,because the Lord has anointed meto bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim liberty to the captives,and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,and the day of vengeance of our God;to comfort all who mourn…Isaiah 61:1-2.
John should have understood that Jesus was announcing that the time of waiting had come to an end. The people of Israel were now to recognize that their promised King had come to them and that He was ushering in His Kingdom.
The only problem was that Jesus didn’t look anything like a King or act like one. Because he didn’t ride in on a white horse and dramatically defeat the Roman oppressor, most people didn’t accept Him as King.
True, they found his miracles interesting – especially the part about getting free bread, but all the Suffering Servant stuff just didn’t really get it. Jesus didn’t look or act the part of a conquering King because he was inaugurating a different kind of Kingdom – one that could only be recognized by the lowly and humble of heart.
WE face the SAME Challenge.
As Christians, we face the same challenge as the Jews faced. Jesus promised that He would return to us, but it has been 2,000 years and he still hasn’t come back. The apostle James urged the believers even back in the first century to be patient:
James 5:7-10:
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
We need to have a keen sense that the Lord is returning and may return any day. The prayer “Marana Tha” expresses this: “Come quickly Lord Jesus”. But by the same token we must realize that Jesus has tarried now for some 2, 000 years. When the Lord says quickly, he means us to understand that “one day is as a thousand years”… On His calendar, it’s only been a couple of days since He left!
So we must be patient. But what to do while we are waiting?
Occupy until I Come (Luke 19:13)
We are to ‘occupy’ – to engage in our Father’s business:
To bring the Good News to the poor – to evangelize.
To open the eyes of the blind, both spiritually and physically.
Bind up the brokenhearted – to minister to those who grieve and are hurting from various life circumstances.
As Henri Nouwen puts it, we are to:
“Be alert, be alert, so that you will be able to recognize your Lord in your husband, your wife, your parents, your children, your friends, your teachers, but also in all that you read in the daily papers. The Lord is coming, always coming. Be alert to recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord” (H. Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal).
Our waiting is not simple passive inactivity, but an active anticipation, a participation in bringing the Kingdom of God to our world right now.
We pray, we reach out to heal wounds and to bring people to the saving knowledge of Christ all in obedience to his will. We do this gladly and hopefully, but at the same time we know that our efforts can only be partial until Jesus returns and sets up His righteous rule here on earth.
An Illustration from the Great Anglican Confusion
Anglicans have had to wait for many years – some would say as many as forty years- while the liberal experiment within The Episcopal Church worked itself out. Certainly when Gene Robinson was consecrated bishop in 2003, we saw the experiment reach its apex and have had to wait patiently for the Anglican world to realign so as to reflect the reality that there are now two Anglican communions in the world. Things seem to have moved as slowly as thick ketchup in a glass bottle for the last four years. But now it appears that events are rapidly coming to a climax in which all our waiting will find fruition.
Our own Archbishop Mark had been trying for several years to make a connection with the the ACN and Common Cause. The main holdup seemed to be what to do with the Bishops. Mark finally came to the conclusion that the only way to find acceptance with CANA was to renounce his Bishop’s staff and apply to CANA as a priest serving his own parish.
This past week, he called me and told me that this had finally happened. He has formally been accepted into the Nigerian church as a priest and is relating to David Anderson (Atlanta) as his bishop. He is urging us to make application to CANA as individual parishes and clergy, and it seems now that the way is primed for us to also be accepted into this new expression of orthodox Anglicanism.
We have had to wait patiently and to suffer uncertainty. But now I believe that we must recognize the time of our visitation. Just as Israel was challenged to accept the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in their time, I believe that the Lord is coming to us in the guise of CANA.
Our time of waiting and longing for godly, courageous, orthodox leadership is coming to an end. We are about to step over the threshold into a new reality – the reality of being a full fledged member of an exciting ‘Latter Day” movement of God’s Spirit on the Earth.
This does not mean that we our way will be easy or without controversy. In fact, I am confident that we are heading into a time when our membership in CANA will be attacked by those who think they represent the ‘real’ expression of Anglicanism in America. If you haven’t already lost friends over being part of All Saints Anglican Church, I’m sure you will in the future.
But you are also about to be amazed by the new friends God brings our way. And the new thing He will do will surpass exceedingly all that we could have thought or imagined.
Friends, let us welcome the changes that will occur within the next 8-12 weeks. It is Jesus Coming to us here and now.
Let us also recognize that Jesus will come to us again bodily – in the clouds with great Glory in order to set up His kingdom here on earth.
Until he comes again personally, let us resolve to spend ourselves and suffer as need be for His kingdom. I am confident that we will be rewarded richly both here and in the hereafter.
Marana Tha! AMEN
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