A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Resurrection Day, April 4, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Salutation: Psalm 118:24:
On this day the LORD has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it!
On Good Friday, my wife, Cindy, went with her mother, her aunt and our daughter Lindsey to Three Mile Blue Creek, near Clendenin. Cindy thought she was going to visit relatives, but what she was actually doing was sermon reconnaissance. This became apparent yesterday morning when I was doing her debriefing and realized she had come home with at least two good stories for my sermon today.
Here's the first story. While Cindy was conversing with her relatives, she asked about the graveyard up on the hill behind the home place that belonged to her mother's father, Grandpa Brown. She asked if the people laid to rest there were actually buried in caskets - or were they in pine boxes? Aunt Louise clucked and replied that yes, they were buried in caskets, and some of them even had vaults - except Great Grandma Brown, who always said she didn't want a vault because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get out on the Resurrection Day!
Friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate the fact that the stone vault could not hold Jesus!
On this day the Lord has Acted! Christ arose from the grave - and because of his breaking forth - no vault will hold us on our resurrection day either! Great Grandma Brown has nothing to worry about. On that great day when we are all raised with Christ and seated in the heavenly places, no power on earth or below earth or in the heavens will be able to keep us in the grave. Our bodies will rise in the same way Christ arose. All things will be made new.
And all things are changed even now.
As writer Alex Davis says: "Christ's Resurrection changes everything!...A resurrected Christ creates a new world. This idea cannot be tamed and should not be taken for granted. It is an earth-shaking idea. God raised Jesus from the dead - and he promises to raise you as well!"
The idea of the Resurrection is such good news - such GREAT news - that it cannot be fathomed no matter how many years we celebrate it. It is the BEST news possible, and it ought to cause us to shout, to jump up and down and turn back flips for JOY! Even get up early on Sunday morning to celebrate! - and not just because there's a chocolate bunny in my Easter basket!
You will not surely die! Satan used this line to deceive Adam and Eve, but it has actually come true! We shall live forever in the presence of the Living God, in a world that has been completely reset, recreated, put right, made whole - even better than they were meant to be originally!
Yet we sometimes respond to this news as if we're asleep! We've heard it so many times, it just seems commonplace, dull or boring.
Alex Davis again:
"Inasmuch as we are asleep, let us awake! Inasmuch as our capacities to be charged with childlike delight at God's gospel have atrophied, let them revive! And inasmuch as we are dead in our pride, lusts, fears, and despair -let us rise in Christ! The dawn has come. The new day has begun. Let us greet it as people who behold, with ever-increasing awe, a resurrected God."
(Alex Davis, quoted in Mosaic Holy Bible, pg. 132.)
The ability to respond with Childlike delight. Would to God that we could renew it and keep it going. Like the little girl who told about the resurrection by saying,
"It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance." ...
or like the little boy who had a unique answer for the pastor one Easter Sunday morning...
Seems that as the pastor was preaching the children's sermon, he reached into his bag of props and pulled out an egg. He pointed at the egg and asked the children, "What's in here?""I know, I know!" a little boy exclaimed, -
"pantyhose!"
or the young lady who explained to her Sunday School teacher that...
...Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution."
Ah, to be a child again! To experience delight - and maybe some confusion at the wonder of our faith! - On second thought perhaps we're more childlike in our faith than we think...
The ability to respond with childlike wonder even extends to those who may be overtly questioning God and His purposes.
A couple of weeks back, I told you about a conversation I had with a young lady who raised almost every possible objection to the Gospel in the course of a one-hour discussion. During that discussion, I spoke with her on the intellectual level about some of the classic arguments for the faith, and she seemed intrigued if not convinced.
The next time I talked with her, she had become rather desperate. She hadn't slept for three days. Her mind was racing and she was seriously worried that she might jump off a bridge just to stop her suffering. I was really concerned about her and offered to pray for her.
"Well, it couldn't hurt, I guess," she replied.
So I explained that I would use oil to make the sign of the cross on her forehead and that this would be similar to the Passover, when the children of Israel took the blood of the lamb and put it on their doors and windows, so that the angel of death would passover them and spare the life of their first born. By praying for her, we would ask the Lord to see the oil on her head and cause Death to passover her too.
So we prayed - very simply - and waited a bit, not knowing what to expect, but just knowing that everything else had been tried and she was still suicidal and couldn't rest. So after the prayer, she sat there for a moment and then she exclaimed, "Wow, I feel like I just took a Xanax!"
"Is that good or bad?" I asked cautiously.
"That's good!" she said. "I feel peaceful - calm - just relaxed. That's so cool!"
I had to agree with her. That was very cool. And I have to say it was the first time I had ever heard anyone describe the effects of prayer as feeling like they had just taken a Xanax!
This is how childlike delight sounds. It's enthusiastic - and simple. It inspires good humor and faith in those who observe it. I know it did for me. After that prayer and response to it, my sense of childlike delight in the Lord was renewed for the rest of the day! And she herself seemed to walk out of the office on a cloud.
The third time I saw this young lady, she was actually open to hearing more about God and the Gospel and she reported that while she had not been to church since she was 7, she had made arrangements to be in church with her aunt this Sunday!
The Resurrection of Christ made this possible on two levels. Number 1), Christ's power to heal and to comfort got this young lady's attention -
and number 2), He himself was drawing her in to worship Him on this Resurrection Day. And He did this through one of his followers.
Here's another wonderful thing that has happened as a result of the Resurrection: Now that Christ has begun to reign as King, he has Deputized us, his followers, as agents of his Kingdom. We now have been given authority to act as His emissaries. His authority enables us to re-enact the Passover - to make the sign of the cross over the 'house' (person) we wish him to spare, and to see his glory and power revealed as he passes over and preserves that life.
Because Christ, the Sacrifice Lamb took the punishment that rightly should have fallen upon us - and because he rose in power from the dead, the Father has given Him all Authority in heaven and on earth, and he, in turn, has given us his Authority to do what he did, described by Peter in Acts 10:38:
"He (Jesus) went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil..."
Peter goes on to say, "And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day...(vv.39, 40).
Therefore, since he has been raised, and "He is Lord of all", the right response is for the disciples to "preach good news of peace through Jesus Christ" (v. 36).
And so it is for us. The right response to the Resurrection is threefold:
To be Joyful
To be full of childlike delight, and
To Preach and Heal in Jesus' Name, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If we live this out, we get to see all kinds of wonderful things happen, and we can say, like the young lady, "That's so cool!"
Now I'll tell you the second story Cindy came home with on Friday.
Cindy's cousin Steve and his wife, Gail, also live "up Three Mile". In April of 2009, we learned that Gail had been diagnosed with Stage 3 cervical cancer - with some suspicious spots on her liver. At the time, the doctors thought it was curable and she underwent radiation and chemo for 6 weeks. This was a very grueling process and it caused her to lose her strength.
At the end of this round of treatment the plan was to do internal radiation, but after scans were done, it was discovered that the spots on her liver had shrunk - indicating that they were malignant. And now there appeared no hope. the doctors didn't want to do any further treatment and advised her to think in terms of months, not years.
Gail says she was heartbroken as she thought about leaving her husband and her children. She still got up and went to her job as a mail carrier each day, bu all she could do was go to work, come home and collapse on the couch - then get up and do it all again the next day. One Friday as she was delivering mail, she felt burdened and stopped her truck right in the middle of the road, and told the Lord she just wasn't ready to go.
In the quiet of that moment, she heard the Lord speak to her very plainly, "I know how you feel." She sensed His Presence very strongly and was amazed as He went on to tell her that he was born to die for her and to carry her sins. Right then, she felt as if her broken heart was cured. - but even so, she knew she was still deathly ill.
Sunday morning she woke up very burdened to have her church pray for her. But because they were starting Revival and had a guest choir and evangelist there, the time wasn't right. Sunday evening service came, and the same thing happened - but this time, she just had to have prayer, so after the preaching and singing were over, she asked her pastor and others to anoint her and pray for her healing.
As they prayed over Gail, she felt a wave sweep over her, starting at the top of her head and moving through the rest of her body, bringing with it a great sense of relief. She KNEW she had been touched!
Within a few days, her strength returned and she was back to full strength, working a full day and then coming home and doing housework as well. Three weeks later, when her regular scans were done, the lesions on her liver were 'just sitting there'. Her blood work was perfect and no cervical tumors were visible.
The doctor was surprised - but Gail wasn't. She didn't tell him what had happened until afterward - just so she could see his surprised reaction.
Now Gail and her husband, Steve, travel the state, reporting to the churches who were praying for her about all the Lord has done for them. She had had visions ministering with her husband, but had no idea how it would come about. Little did she think it would take a deadly illness to bring about such a ministry!
And she finds herself talking to people at the Pharmacy, the grocery, on her mail route - everywhere - about what the Lord has done for her. It's the natural response to his great work in her life!
.... How's that for Cool?!
And it's all because Jesus was Resurrected!
On this day the LORD has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it!
I'd like for us to respond to all this good news by saying Charles Wesley's hymn Christ, the Lord is Risen Today as a litany. Each line of the poem is followed by the exclamation "Alleluia"! Since we haven't been able to say it for the past 6 weeks, let's do it up right. I'll say a line, and you respond with 'Alleluia!"
1. Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!
2. Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!
3. But the pains that he endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation have procured, Alleluia!
Now above the sky He's King, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!
4. Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
praise eternal as his love, Alleluia!
praise him, all ye heavenly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!
Finally, let's put our hands out together and join in the All Saints cheer,
"Yay, God!"
AMEN!
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Sunday, March 07, 2010
God's Resume
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on March 7, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV , and based on Luke 13:1-9, 1 Cor. 10:1-13 and Psalm 103
Imagine for a moment that the United States of America had been invaded and overtaken by another Empire nation - such as China. Imagine that there was a Chinese governor over the Tri-State region and that there were Chinese soldiers everywhere looking over your shoulder, always ready to take advantage of you, to steal things from you - and even imprison you if you got out of line.
If you can imagine this, you can know a little of what it must have been like for the people of Israel to be ruled by the Romans. As Americans, we wouldn't want another nation to rule over us. There would probably be those among us who would mount insurrections. Charismatic leaders would rise up and try to lead movements against the oppressor - only to be cut own in their prime by ruthless local governors.
This is the kind of thing that happened with some regularity in the Jewish nation under the Romans. The story of the Maccabees is just such a story. And the illustration Jesus uses in Luke 13 is another. It's a story about a group of rebels who rose up and were ruthlessly killed, apparently as they worshiped in the Temple.
These rebels not only resented the occupying Roman force, they knew the Scriptures, which promised that one day God would raise up Messiah, and he would come to overthrow the oppressor and usher in a time of peace and prosperity. This was a promise they had from God - and the habitual thought pattern of the entire nation was to look for the ONE whom God had chosen to lead this uprising. As a result, there were many 'messianic' movements afoot at the time of Christ.
The thing they had in common was a desire to bring deliverance from Rome - in the power of their own strength! They wanted a Savior - but they wanted it on their own terms, in their own image.
The Hebrews at the time of Christ were just like the Hebrews in the time of the Exodus. No sooner had Moses gone up to Mt. Sinai - and stayed gone for 40 days - than the people rebelled and left the God who had revealed himself to Moses as 'I am that I am'.As Moses was on the mountain getting the Law, his people were down on the plain making an idol in the form of a Golden Calf, and engaging in gluttony, drunkenness and sexual immorality - arranging their lives on their own terms!
When God didn't act quickly enough for them, they took matters into their own hands and did whatever they wanted. And the result was disastrous.Paul reminds us that, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play' ... and that "twenty-three thousand fell in a single day." (I Cor. 10:8)
Uprising and rebellion were part and parcel of the Hebrew national experience. Unfortunately, the rebellion was against God, even though Israel had miraculous outpourings of God's power and presence! Even though they had the sacraments if you will - Baptism as they passed through the Red Sea, and Communion as they ate the manna and drank water from the Rock (Paul identifies this as the Rock of Christ) that Moses had struck for them. Even with the overt demonstrations of God's power, and his ongoing, daily provision of manna - it still wasn't enough to keep the people faithful.
And lest we think that we as Christians are immune from such behavior, Paul warns us: 'We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer'.(1 Cor. 10:9,10). He is referring to two other episodes in the life of the Hebrew people:
The fiery serpent story is in Numbers chapter 21. During the conquest of Canaan, the people 'became impatient' and complained that they had no food or water and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, killing many.
The grumbling he refers to happened in Numbers 16, where Korah and his followers led the people to grumble and complain against Moses. The result was that the very earth opened up and swallowed the 250 rebel leaders.And then the next day 14,700 people died from plague because they had displeased the Lord through their grumbling about the 250 rebels dying!
It's sobering to think that even though we as Christians have been forgiven, that it's still possible to displease God. According to Paul, there are four key ways to displease Him - all drawn from the life experience of Israel and their various rebellions:
How to Displease God
1) Idolatry
2) Immorality
3) Testing God
4) Grumbling
Idolatry looks pretty simple on its face - worshiping an idol of our own making. We might want to pass over this one thinking that we're off the hook because we don't worship Golden Calves, but it's easy to fall into various kinds of idolatry.
What about worshiping an 'American Idol'? Hollywood seems to be very good at producing idols meant for mass consumption. Is that idolatry?Or if you don't actually idolize a pop star, what about idolizing another person? What about looking to someone else as your source of comfort, strength or inspiration in such a way that they become a sort of quasi-god in our lives?What about worshiping technology - or efficiency - or Education - or trees and mountains?Anything that we put in the place of God becomes an idol to us. And all of it displeases God.
Immorality can become an idol to people as well, because if you don't worship the living God, one option is to worship yourself and your own sexuality. The good gift of sex is elevated out of its proper place and asked to do something it was not intended to do - become the most important thing in our lives. The result is to cheapen and denigrate the gift.Our culture - our world - is rife with this kind of idolatry.
Testing God is a bit more 'subtle'. It only involves complaining that God is not doing things as we would like - and then insisting that we get what we want instead of what God provides for us. This one gets personal because I know from my own experience that I'm not that fond of Reality. There are a lot of things in life that I would rather be different. We could call this the 'Burger King' temptation - "Have it your way." Speak up for what you want. Complain to the management. Demand you rights! Sounds pretty American, doesn't it?
Grumbling is associated with another word, "murmuring". Both words have a sort of onomatopoeia quality - they sound like the thing they represent:grumblegrumblegrumble, murmurmurmurmur. This is a kind of malignant complaining that incites other people to rebellion. Not high-minded rebelling against an oppressive regime so much as rebellion by self-willed or self-impressed people against leaders they don't like.Again, Korah is the example - one who led others to revolt against God's chosen leaders. This displeases God because it destroys community and leads to infighting.
By contrast, Jesus and Psalm 103 tell us:
How to Please God
1) Repent
2) Bear Fruit
3) Keep God's Covenant
4) Bless the Lord.
Within the context of our Gospel reading, repentance meant something for Israel as a nation. If you remember back to the Galileans who died by the hand of Pilate and then realize that 'the fig tree' is often used as a symbol of the nation of Israel - what you get is the idea that God's people had become rebellious, self-willed, hard and unfruitful. They were demanding that the national destiny be ushered in by their own plans, in their own time.
Jesus was warning his people here that unless they allowed themselves to have their hardness broken up - to allow the nurturing rain of God's spirit to water their roots and and the fertilizer of God's word to fortify them, causing them to bear the fruit of righteousness - that they would be cut down!Unless Israel repented of its demand for national deliverance and accepted God's true Messiah, Yeshua, they would perish! Israel needed to repent of their self-will - and we do too! Repentance is prerequisite for pleasing God.
Bearing fruit means believing in the One God sent to redeem the world and allowing Him to redeem us, to change us, and to work through us. For Israel, that would have meant not only repentance, but accepting Christ as Savior and Lord.
For Christians, who have accepted Christ's Lordship, this also means allowing ourselves to be directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit so that we bear fruit. Paul lists the fruits of the spirit in Galatians chapter five: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
If these fruits are evident in our lives, it means that we have been, and are being saved. If we don't bear fruit, it's a sign that the Life of God does not flow through us - and that we may be in danger of death - either creeping deadness through lack of spiritual interest, actual physical death through the impact of sin in our lives, or metaphorical death, through the loss of career or position due to wrong actions.
For an example of this you don't have to look much farther than the news. Last week, Governor Patterson of New York, and two of the state's Congressmen, Charlie Rangel and Eric Massa, were all in the news because of ethical problems. They are being forced to either resign their positions or forgo running for another term. They are being cut down because their fruit is rotten. They didn't learn anything from the slew of Republicans that got into similar trouble a number of years ago, and so they are repeating the same mistake - with the same result.
Keeping God's covenant, of course, is the antidote to bearing rotten fruit.Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee, says the Psalmist (119). And Paul tells us that if we "walk by the Spirit, and [we] will not gratify the desires of the flesh' and so will please God. Walking with the Lord daily, pleases Him.
Finally, the thing that really pleases God is our worship. Psalm 103 exhorts us to 'Bless the Lord' and to 'forget not all his benefits." It kind of sounds like a Resume with bullet points. So, I've taken the Psalmist's words and rearranged them into a sort of modern business style resume, with the idea that Remembering God's Resume is a way of Pleasing Him. So here it is:
Resume 103
The Lord
Address:Throne in heaven, Dominion over all (v.19).
Career Goal:
To execute righteousness and judgment for the oppressed (v.6).
Character:The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. (v.8)Management Experience:Hosts of angels and ministering spirits do his will (vv.20,21).
Value Added:
*He forgives all your sins
*Heals all your infirmities (v.3)
*He redeems your life from the grave
*Crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness (v.4)
*He satisfies you with good things,
*Renews your youth like an eagle's (v.5)
References:
He made his ways known to Moses and his works to the children of Israel.(v.7).
We are to bless the Lord - to speak good things about Him. Give it a try right now. Using 'God's Resume' as an example, take some time to Bless the Lord, just as it says in Psalm 103.
It'll make you feel better - an I'm sure it will please God. AMEN.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Temptation: Preparing for God's Best
Luke 4:1-13(14a)
What is the BEST that God has for you - and me?
To be happy?
To be wealthy?
To be Trouble-Free?
To fulfill yourself?
How about this:
To know God,
to Worship Him in Spirit and Truth,
to find our deepest humanity in Him,
To reflect His image,
And to participate with him in the work of redeeming the world.
Sounds pretty good, right? So, how do we do this?
Sign up for a class?
Read some books,
Write a term paper?
Maybe go on a retreat? ...
How about - all the above - but add these to the personal work of transformation that God wants to do in us, a work of the heart, not only the head, - a work that can only be accomplished by teaching life lessons - some of which involve Temptation.
Now usually we see Temptation as something to be avoided and feared. Jesus even taught us to pray: 'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'...
Temptation is in fact a solicitation by the Evil One to get us to do wrong.
So we - not incorrectly -see Temptation as something bad.
However, in our Gospel lesson today we see Jesus practicing a different attitude towards his own temptation. Let's look at the text from Luke 4:
Verse 1and 2: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil...
Jesus had just been baptized - and the Holy Spirit had descended upon Him like a dove. He was full of God, full of the Holy Spirit. And a voice came out of heaven saying, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”( Luke 3:22). He was affirmed by God the Father audibly and his standing with God could not have been better.
And yet, the very next thing that happens is that Jesus is led by the very same Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days!
Like my daughter Leslie might say, "What's the 'dealio'?!"
Well, the dealio seems to be that God had a mission for Jesus to accomplish.
Remember John 3:16? God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."
That mission pitted him against the devil's plans for the human race - to kill us and to pull us down to hell where he could torment us forever.
In order to be prepared for this Mission, Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity, being trained in the righteous habits of Jewish life. Of course, this life revolved around the Law of God - the Torah, which includes the Law proper , the prophets, the wisdom literature - and especially the Psalms, which Jesus would have prayed daily. This training would have allowed Jesus to be able to say with the Psalmist, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee" (Psalm 119:11). Daily immersion in God's Word would have produced not only head knowledge, but a heart appreciation and Love for God the Father, and for the Spirit.
(One does have to wonder if Jesus - being the Logos, the Word of God himself would have had to memorized Scripture like the rest of us, or perhaps just knew it inwardly from the beginning...)
Intimate knowledge of God's Word would have led Jesus to see that God intends Life and Blessing for us - and that the Law of God is just that - a Great Blessing for God's people, leading to Life.
He most emphatically would not have seen the Law as a series of Rules to be observed legalistically. He shows us this later on as he castigates the Pharisees for setting themselves up as arbiters of just such a legalistic approach to Jewish life.
No, Jesus loved the Law and knew it led to God's Best for humanity - Life and Blessing.
Armed with this intimate knowledge of God and trust in Him, he allows himself to be led out into the desert to fast and to be tempted by Satan.
Of course, the Lenten fast is an imitation of this Jesus Fast in the wilderness.
And just as Jesus was tempted by the devil, so we too can expect to be assaulted by old Cloven Hoof. But we need to understand what Jesus understood about Temptation: that it does not come to us because God hates us or is trying to trip us up so he doesn't have to give out too many tickets to Heaven, but rather -that God allows Temptation comes to us through Satan, so that, like Jesus, we may be purified and prepared for our own mission up ahead: participating with God in redeeming the world.
So why Temptation? Why not just an elaborate video game where you just play it over and over until you master the levels - and where if you die, your character just comes back to life digitally?
I think it has to do with the exalted place of Human Beings in God's Scheme.
You see, most of the time, we humans are so intent on avoiding pain and creating comfort for ourselves that we fail to comprehend the privilege that God has bestowed upon us: to be co-heirs of the Grace of Life, co-regents with him - and better yet - Friends of God!
This is a very high calling! It's one so exalted and full of import, that we would much rather avoid it most of the time, and settle for something in life that would put us just slightly above the family dog - happy, well-fed, free from hard choices, and blissfully unconcerned about 'The Meaning of Life".
Temptation comes to ask the question,"Do you want to be LIKE GOD - or to you want to settle for something smaller?
If you want be LIKE GOD, it's not going to be easy. We as humans have a lot of baggage to overcome. In Psalm 51, David says, 'Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.(v.5)
Being born into sin means that we 'miss the mark' by default. It's our natural setting - what we do without training or thought.
Righteousness, however, takes preparation and training - as well as constant practice to keep up the skill. And there are always new lessons to learn!
That's why we God allows Temptation - to purify us, to train us - and to prepare us for God's Best: Participation in the Divine Nature and Mission.
Now, that does not mean that we are to seek out temptation. No need to go to the dog track and hang out to see if you can resist the temptation to gamble - or worse. Nor is there any reason to think that God is the author of our sufferings when we are tempted and fail. NO - James 1:13-15:
13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Our own inner rottenness sets us up to be tempted. This is what theologians call 'concupiscence" - an intense desire, longing, lust or passion. The word itself comes from the Latin, combing the prefix 'con' or 'with', plus 'cupid' or 'sexual desire', along with 'essere', or essence - a state of being.
Concupiscence is the translation from the Greek epithumia, which simply means a strong desire.
If you want to know what Concupiscence looks like in real life, just think about Tiger Woods. Here's a guy who already has a beautiful wife and two kids, more money than he knows what to do with, and Talent on Loan From God! The guy has it all. But apparently, he just couldn't keep from wanting more - which in this case has led to him having less; less of a marriage and family, less money, and less reputation in the world. It's crazy!
But that's the nature of Sin - choosing to pursue a strong desire, long, lust or passion, even though it doesn't make a bit of sense. In a word, Sin is the choosing Second-Best.
This brings us back to the nature of Temptation - which is an opportunity to choose between God's best or Satan's second-best. If we choose God's way, we are strengthened by the struggle and better prepared for what lies up ahead. Choose Satan's way, and we find ourselves falling into a pit of death and destruction.
Two Biblical Examples.
To illustrate the real-life outworking of this choosing, let's compare and contrast Sampson and Ruth.
Sampson was a spoiled brat, the product of an elderly couple who knew their son was going to be great shakes in Israel. As he grew up, he must have gotten everything he wanted because when it came time to choose a wife, he said to his parents:“I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” (Judges 14:2).
Go get her - just like that - even though she's a Philistine!
Verse 3: But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
I want her - now go get her for me! Pretty cheeky!
Now the passage does say that God was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines - but the results of Sampson's concupiscence were that he ended up having to kill 30 men and his wife was given to another. And all this even before he meet up with Delilah! I think we know the rest of that story well enough to realize that Sampson's lust led to his death.
Again, even though God used his failure to strike Israel's enemies, who can know what God might have done through Sampson had he lived out his Nazrite vows, and chosen God's best for his life?
Contrast him with Ruth, a Moabite woman who had married an Israelite, but was widowed early in life. Because of her love for her mother in law, Naomi, Ruth utters the famous lines, often repeated at weddings:
“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16).
Out of loyalty, Ruth leaves her own country to return to Israel with Naomi. When they get there, Naomi coaches Ruth about how to present herself to Boaz, their 'kinsman-redeemer', so that they may be married. In effect, Naomi tells Ruth, "Go get him!" -which she does. The result of Ruth's obedience and loyalty is that she marries Boaz, father of Jesse, father of David, father of ...Jesus Christ!
Ruth could have legitimately stayed in Moab and sought a husband from her own people. That's what her sister in law did - and it was alright. But look at this for a moment as a Temptation - the temptation to choose between what appears to be right in the eyes of men and what the Lord must have been calling her to do. Because Ruth was faithful and met the temptation head-on she was prepared for inclusion into the people of Israel and of becoming a great grandmother to Jesus himself!
Meeting temptation successfully prepares us for God's Best - something exceedingly better than anything we can ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20).
Jesus mets his temptation successfully and he was prepared for his ministry - his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God the Father - a pretty good reward for faithfulness!
He resists the temptation to fulfill his own bodily hunger, and instead trusts God for his daily bread.
He resists the temptation to grab worldly power and instead becomes King of Kings and Lord of Lords
And he resists the temptation to test God, and instead puts the Evil One to flight, just as James says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
Jesus met each of these temptations successfully, and as a result, 'returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee' (Lk.4:4) to begin his ministry. And we are the benefactors - for ever and ever and unto the 'ages of ages' as the Orthodox would say.
Let's go back now and highlight the circular pattern Jesus went through:
Full of the Holy Spirit,
He was Led by the Spirit
He was tempted by an Evil Spirit, and
He returned full of the power of the Holy Spirit. (Lk. 4:14)
Thus Christ's Temptation was a prelude to ministering in the power of the Spirit. If we are steadfast, our temptations too can become prelude to greater fruitfulness and more powerful ministry.
What to Expect
The old saying goes, Fore warned is fore-armed. What can we expect in the midst of Temptation? Subjectively we can expect to feel:
1) Consternation: Questioning What is happening to me? Why?
2) Feeling alone and isolated.
3) Desperate, wondering if you will ever get out of this? Will it last forever?
But along with the subjective fears and trepidations, we can also expect to be comforted and blessed.
1Cor, 10:13: says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."
You're not alone. Others have gone through similar things. God is your way of escape. Run into Him, and you can endure through the temptation, not just run away.
James 1:2-4:
Count it all joy, my brothers,when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.' Verses12-14 of the same chapter: "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."
The Crown of Life comes to those who remain steadfast - just like Jesus did!
We can expect to be driven to the Word for comfort, strength, and for 'ammunition'.
Eph. 6: 10-18. (Notice the emphasis on God's Word and the power of the Spirit):
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Meeting temptation successfully requires us to be armored up and full of prayer.
Because of our increased devotion to prayer during trial and temptation, we can also expect to see remarkable answers to our prayer, sometimes even humorously.
Story: A number of years ago, a single friend told me about her struggle with a relationship she was having. She was very strongly attracted to this gentleman, but inwardly she had some reservations. She told me that she had been praying about it and the Lord answered her prayer in a funny way.
The man friend came in from out of town and the couple were at my friend's place for the evening. She had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere so she had placed candles all over the place. After a nice dinner, they became engrossed in an inspection of her Simmons Beauty Rest Mattress. Somehow along the way, one or more of the candles was turned over, but they didn't notice because they were otherwise occupied.
All of a sudden, flames began to shoot up from dust ruffle and they suddenly realized the merits of a water bed! Well, the smoke detector went off and they jumped up in shock. My friend grabbed a small fire extinguisher and her friend grabbed a nearby bottle of water - and they went to work dousing the flames. In a matter of moments the fire was out, but the bed was a sodden, smoldering mess - and the evening literally went up in smoke. - And that was the end of that relationship. Prayer answered!
It was an absurd way to learn the lesson, but my friend was built up in her faith and she become 'battle-hardened' - ready to take on the next temptation.
By meeting temptation successfully, we can expect to be prepared for:
Increased effectiveness in ministry, and
Further battles - they get harder - but the miracles are greater!
One of the reasons for this is that Satan typically 'overplays' his hand. At some point, the adversary uses too much power, reveals too much, so that one who is spiritually sensitive can see what is going on. The enemy drops the fancy disguise and lashes out in rage, startling us into an awareness of the evil we are confronting. The flames leap up and everything becomes clear!
But thanks be to God, the most wonderful thing we can expect is to have the Presence of God with us. Jesus said in Mt. 28:20, ..." behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is our 'Ace in the Hole' during temptation - knowing that God is with us and will never forsake us.
Friends, Temptation does not come from God, it's not God's first choice for us. Temptation is a solicitation from our Enemy to choose second best and so use our God-given freedom for our own harm. But God, in his wisdom, knows how to turn even the temptation to evil into a good thing for our benefit.
Jesus showed us the way to resist Temptation successfully. It has all to do with being full of God's Word and Spirit. If we imitate Jesus in these two things, and call out to Him for help in the midst of our struggle, He will help us, and use the temptation to make us stronger for His kingdom.
May God grant us grace to appropriate the gifts he has given us in order to successfully meet and overcome every temptation. In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
What is the BEST that God has for you - and me?
To be happy?
To be wealthy?
To be Trouble-Free?
To fulfill yourself?
How about this:
To know God,
to Worship Him in Spirit and Truth,
to find our deepest humanity in Him,
To reflect His image,
And to participate with him in the work of redeeming the world.
Sounds pretty good, right? So, how do we do this?
Sign up for a class?
Read some books,
Write a term paper?
Maybe go on a retreat? ...
How about - all the above - but add these to the personal work of transformation that God wants to do in us, a work of the heart, not only the head, - a work that can only be accomplished by teaching life lessons - some of which involve Temptation.
Now usually we see Temptation as something to be avoided and feared. Jesus even taught us to pray: 'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'...
Temptation is in fact a solicitation by the Evil One to get us to do wrong.
So we - not incorrectly -see Temptation as something bad.
However, in our Gospel lesson today we see Jesus practicing a different attitude towards his own temptation. Let's look at the text from Luke 4:
Verse 1and 2: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil...
Jesus had just been baptized - and the Holy Spirit had descended upon Him like a dove. He was full of God, full of the Holy Spirit. And a voice came out of heaven saying, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”( Luke 3:22). He was affirmed by God the Father audibly and his standing with God could not have been better.
And yet, the very next thing that happens is that Jesus is led by the very same Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days!
Like my daughter Leslie might say, "What's the 'dealio'?!"
Well, the dealio seems to be that God had a mission for Jesus to accomplish.
Remember John 3:16? God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."
That mission pitted him against the devil's plans for the human race - to kill us and to pull us down to hell where he could torment us forever.
In order to be prepared for this Mission, Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity, being trained in the righteous habits of Jewish life. Of course, this life revolved around the Law of God - the Torah, which includes the Law proper , the prophets, the wisdom literature - and especially the Psalms, which Jesus would have prayed daily. This training would have allowed Jesus to be able to say with the Psalmist, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee" (Psalm 119:11). Daily immersion in God's Word would have produced not only head knowledge, but a heart appreciation and Love for God the Father, and for the Spirit.
(One does have to wonder if Jesus - being the Logos, the Word of God himself would have had to memorized Scripture like the rest of us, or perhaps just knew it inwardly from the beginning...)
Intimate knowledge of God's Word would have led Jesus to see that God intends Life and Blessing for us - and that the Law of God is just that - a Great Blessing for God's people, leading to Life.
He most emphatically would not have seen the Law as a series of Rules to be observed legalistically. He shows us this later on as he castigates the Pharisees for setting themselves up as arbiters of just such a legalistic approach to Jewish life.
No, Jesus loved the Law and knew it led to God's Best for humanity - Life and Blessing.
Armed with this intimate knowledge of God and trust in Him, he allows himself to be led out into the desert to fast and to be tempted by Satan.
Of course, the Lenten fast is an imitation of this Jesus Fast in the wilderness.
And just as Jesus was tempted by the devil, so we too can expect to be assaulted by old Cloven Hoof. But we need to understand what Jesus understood about Temptation: that it does not come to us because God hates us or is trying to trip us up so he doesn't have to give out too many tickets to Heaven, but rather -that God allows Temptation comes to us through Satan, so that, like Jesus, we may be purified and prepared for our own mission up ahead: participating with God in redeeming the world.
So why Temptation? Why not just an elaborate video game where you just play it over and over until you master the levels - and where if you die, your character just comes back to life digitally?
I think it has to do with the exalted place of Human Beings in God's Scheme.
You see, most of the time, we humans are so intent on avoiding pain and creating comfort for ourselves that we fail to comprehend the privilege that God has bestowed upon us: to be co-heirs of the Grace of Life, co-regents with him - and better yet - Friends of God!
This is a very high calling! It's one so exalted and full of import, that we would much rather avoid it most of the time, and settle for something in life that would put us just slightly above the family dog - happy, well-fed, free from hard choices, and blissfully unconcerned about 'The Meaning of Life".
Temptation comes to ask the question,"Do you want to be LIKE GOD - or to you want to settle for something smaller?
If you want be LIKE GOD, it's not going to be easy. We as humans have a lot of baggage to overcome. In Psalm 51, David says, 'Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.(v.5)
Being born into sin means that we 'miss the mark' by default. It's our natural setting - what we do without training or thought.
Righteousness, however, takes preparation and training - as well as constant practice to keep up the skill. And there are always new lessons to learn!
That's why we God allows Temptation - to purify us, to train us - and to prepare us for God's Best: Participation in the Divine Nature and Mission.
Now, that does not mean that we are to seek out temptation. No need to go to the dog track and hang out to see if you can resist the temptation to gamble - or worse. Nor is there any reason to think that God is the author of our sufferings when we are tempted and fail. NO - James 1:13-15:
13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Our own inner rottenness sets us up to be tempted. This is what theologians call 'concupiscence" - an intense desire, longing, lust or passion. The word itself comes from the Latin, combing the prefix 'con' or 'with', plus 'cupid' or 'sexual desire', along with 'essere', or essence - a state of being.
Concupiscence is the translation from the Greek epithumia, which simply means a strong desire.
If you want to know what Concupiscence looks like in real life, just think about Tiger Woods. Here's a guy who already has a beautiful wife and two kids, more money than he knows what to do with, and Talent on Loan From God! The guy has it all. But apparently, he just couldn't keep from wanting more - which in this case has led to him having less; less of a marriage and family, less money, and less reputation in the world. It's crazy!
But that's the nature of Sin - choosing to pursue a strong desire, long, lust or passion, even though it doesn't make a bit of sense. In a word, Sin is the choosing Second-Best.
This brings us back to the nature of Temptation - which is an opportunity to choose between God's best or Satan's second-best. If we choose God's way, we are strengthened by the struggle and better prepared for what lies up ahead. Choose Satan's way, and we find ourselves falling into a pit of death and destruction.
Two Biblical Examples.
To illustrate the real-life outworking of this choosing, let's compare and contrast Sampson and Ruth.
Sampson was a spoiled brat, the product of an elderly couple who knew their son was going to be great shakes in Israel. As he grew up, he must have gotten everything he wanted because when it came time to choose a wife, he said to his parents:“I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” (Judges 14:2).
Go get her - just like that - even though she's a Philistine!
Verse 3: But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
I want her - now go get her for me! Pretty cheeky!
Now the passage does say that God was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines - but the results of Sampson's concupiscence were that he ended up having to kill 30 men and his wife was given to another. And all this even before he meet up with Delilah! I think we know the rest of that story well enough to realize that Sampson's lust led to his death.
Again, even though God used his failure to strike Israel's enemies, who can know what God might have done through Sampson had he lived out his Nazrite vows, and chosen God's best for his life?
Contrast him with Ruth, a Moabite woman who had married an Israelite, but was widowed early in life. Because of her love for her mother in law, Naomi, Ruth utters the famous lines, often repeated at weddings:
“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16).
Out of loyalty, Ruth leaves her own country to return to Israel with Naomi. When they get there, Naomi coaches Ruth about how to present herself to Boaz, their 'kinsman-redeemer', so that they may be married. In effect, Naomi tells Ruth, "Go get him!" -which she does. The result of Ruth's obedience and loyalty is that she marries Boaz, father of Jesse, father of David, father of ...Jesus Christ!
Ruth could have legitimately stayed in Moab and sought a husband from her own people. That's what her sister in law did - and it was alright. But look at this for a moment as a Temptation - the temptation to choose between what appears to be right in the eyes of men and what the Lord must have been calling her to do. Because Ruth was faithful and met the temptation head-on she was prepared for inclusion into the people of Israel and of becoming a great grandmother to Jesus himself!
Meeting temptation successfully prepares us for God's Best - something exceedingly better than anything we can ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20).
Jesus mets his temptation successfully and he was prepared for his ministry - his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God the Father - a pretty good reward for faithfulness!
He resists the temptation to fulfill his own bodily hunger, and instead trusts God for his daily bread.
He resists the temptation to grab worldly power and instead becomes King of Kings and Lord of Lords
And he resists the temptation to test God, and instead puts the Evil One to flight, just as James says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
Jesus met each of these temptations successfully, and as a result, 'returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee' (Lk.4:4) to begin his ministry. And we are the benefactors - for ever and ever and unto the 'ages of ages' as the Orthodox would say.
Let's go back now and highlight the circular pattern Jesus went through:
Full of the Holy Spirit,
He was Led by the Spirit
He was tempted by an Evil Spirit, and
He returned full of the power of the Holy Spirit. (Lk. 4:14)
Thus Christ's Temptation was a prelude to ministering in the power of the Spirit. If we are steadfast, our temptations too can become prelude to greater fruitfulness and more powerful ministry.
What to Expect
The old saying goes, Fore warned is fore-armed. What can we expect in the midst of Temptation? Subjectively we can expect to feel:
1) Consternation: Questioning What is happening to me? Why?
2) Feeling alone and isolated.
3) Desperate, wondering if you will ever get out of this? Will it last forever?
But along with the subjective fears and trepidations, we can also expect to be comforted and blessed.
1Cor, 10:13: says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."
You're not alone. Others have gone through similar things. God is your way of escape. Run into Him, and you can endure through the temptation, not just run away.
James 1:2-4:
Count it all joy, my brothers,when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.' Verses12-14 of the same chapter: "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."
The Crown of Life comes to those who remain steadfast - just like Jesus did!
We can expect to be driven to the Word for comfort, strength, and for 'ammunition'.
Eph. 6: 10-18. (Notice the emphasis on God's Word and the power of the Spirit):
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Meeting temptation successfully requires us to be armored up and full of prayer.
Because of our increased devotion to prayer during trial and temptation, we can also expect to see remarkable answers to our prayer, sometimes even humorously.
Story: A number of years ago, a single friend told me about her struggle with a relationship she was having. She was very strongly attracted to this gentleman, but inwardly she had some reservations. She told me that she had been praying about it and the Lord answered her prayer in a funny way.
The man friend came in from out of town and the couple were at my friend's place for the evening. She had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere so she had placed candles all over the place. After a nice dinner, they became engrossed in an inspection of her Simmons Beauty Rest Mattress. Somehow along the way, one or more of the candles was turned over, but they didn't notice because they were otherwise occupied.
All of a sudden, flames began to shoot up from dust ruffle and they suddenly realized the merits of a water bed! Well, the smoke detector went off and they jumped up in shock. My friend grabbed a small fire extinguisher and her friend grabbed a nearby bottle of water - and they went to work dousing the flames. In a matter of moments the fire was out, but the bed was a sodden, smoldering mess - and the evening literally went up in smoke. - And that was the end of that relationship. Prayer answered!
It was an absurd way to learn the lesson, but my friend was built up in her faith and she become 'battle-hardened' - ready to take on the next temptation.
By meeting temptation successfully, we can expect to be prepared for:
Increased effectiveness in ministry, and
Further battles - they get harder - but the miracles are greater!
One of the reasons for this is that Satan typically 'overplays' his hand. At some point, the adversary uses too much power, reveals too much, so that one who is spiritually sensitive can see what is going on. The enemy drops the fancy disguise and lashes out in rage, startling us into an awareness of the evil we are confronting. The flames leap up and everything becomes clear!
But thanks be to God, the most wonderful thing we can expect is to have the Presence of God with us. Jesus said in Mt. 28:20, ..." behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is our 'Ace in the Hole' during temptation - knowing that God is with us and will never forsake us.
Friends, Temptation does not come from God, it's not God's first choice for us. Temptation is a solicitation from our Enemy to choose second best and so use our God-given freedom for our own harm. But God, in his wisdom, knows how to turn even the temptation to evil into a good thing for our benefit.
Jesus showed us the way to resist Temptation successfully. It has all to do with being full of God's Word and Spirit. If we imitate Jesus in these two things, and call out to Him for help in the midst of our struggle, He will help us, and use the temptation to make us stronger for His kingdom.
May God grant us grace to appropriate the gifts he has given us in order to successfully meet and overcome every temptation. In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Transfiguration: Heaven and Earth Meet.
A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on February 14, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Ex. 34: 29-35,I cor 12;27-13:13and Luke 9:28-36.
On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history by becoming the first man to orbit the earth. A couple of days after his return to earth, someone asked him about God and space. He is quoted as saying, "I looked and looked but I didn't see God."
...To which a wag in Moscow replied, " If you could not see him on earth, how could you see him in space?"
If Yuri Gagarin had read our passages today, he would have realized that you have to go up on a mountain to see God...
Moses went up Mt. Sinai 7,497 feet, and Jesus most likely went up Mount Hermon, which rises 9,166 feet above the plain of Galilee. That's pretty high... Maybe Gagarin was right to look for God in space...
Most of us would immediately agree with the Moscow wag, that Gagarin made the fundamental mistake of looking for God - a spirit- in a physical place - 'up there' in space.
We've read the Sermon on the Mount, where it says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:7). We know from this that seeing God is something spiritual - a faculty of the True Imagination, if you will. One should not look for a spirit in a physical place. It just won't work.
But in spite of our spiritual knowledge and insight, we as Christians often go on to make a similar mistake in our day to day lives. We live as if there were no connection between what we see around us and the God we say we believe in. We become defacto Deists, who believe that God is 'up in heaven' and we are 'down' here - and never the twain shall meet. God must have just wound up the universe in the beginning, like the proverbial watchmaker, and let the whole thing run on its own, completely divorced from our current reality. How else can we explain why things on earth are so rotten and broken? Why else does God not come 'down' and put things right?
Following this line of reasoning causes us to think about the purpose of Jesus' life and death as providing us a way of escape from this crummy ol' world. We see Christ's ministry as opening a way for us to 'go to heaven' when we die - to give us eternal respite from the cares of this world and to help us retire to a beatific garden-like setting 'in the sweet by and by'.
A lot of people, Christians included, look at this brochure-like vision of heaven and think to themselves, 'That sounds really boring.' I can't imagine just hangin' out on a cloud for eternity playing a harp and chillin' out - even if it's a very beautiful place. There's got to be something more.
They're right - because: God did not send Jesus to die for us so that we could go to Heaven when we die!
What the Transfiguration of Jesus and the shining face of Moses tell us is that God and Heaven aren't 'up there', far away, in outer space, or on the other side of the grave, but are close by, 'very present' as the Psalmist (46) would say, and that God's dimension, what we call 'heaven' is a whole lot more interesting and present than we think.
In Luke chapter 9, verse 27, Jesus tells his disciples, "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
Peter and James and John are the ones Jesus was talking about. These were the guys who, in the very next verse, go with Jesus up the mountain and see The Kingdom of God arrive as Jesus was transfigured! This is another way of saying they went into God's dimension - Heaven - and saw Jesus for what he really was - God incarnate.
They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, representatives of the Law and the Prophets - men who themselves had had unusual home-going experiences. The disciples, of course, misinterpreted the event and wanted to create a theme park on the spot. They didn't realize they were seeing what hundreds of generations had longed to see - the revelation of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. They had no idea that they were watching the beginning of the fulfillment of God's purpose on the earth - 'the renewal of the entire cosmos, of heaven and earth together', as NT. Wright says (Simply Christian. pg. 85.)
Foreshadowing
Now the story of Moses and the Exodus is a foreshadowing of God's ultimate purpose. God leads the people of Israel out of Egypt, the land of bondage - and towards the promised land of Canaan - a land flowing with milk and honey - a place where things are as they should be - where life on earth is restored to a semblance of the original balance God intended.
The Exodus of Israel anticipates the exodus of Jesus. During his conversation with Moses and Elijah, Jesus talks with them about his 'departure'. The Greek word for this is - surprise - 'Exodus'. As Jesus departs this earthly life through death he will lead the human race out of the bondage of sin and into the New Life of the Kingdom of God. And just as Moses' face shone after receiving the Old Covenant from God, Jesus shone as this New Covenant was being discussed.
And as he did so, he illustrated that Heaven is not far from us, not up there, but near, just on the other side of this visible reality. He showed us that the division between God's dimension - Heaven - and ours is thin, that it can be breached rather easily, at will, by God. Heaven overlaps and interlocks with Earth.
Some Caveats
Now this doesn't indicate some sort of pantheistic conception of reality - that EVERYTHING is God or that God is IN everything. But it does indicate that any idea of God being far off or heaven being somewhere you go after you die is simply mistaken and inadequate. The Truth is far more interesting and amazing. The truth is that "in Jesus of Nazareth, heaven and earth have come together once for all." ( Wright, pg. 94).
Not only that but "The whole point of Jesus' work was to bring heaven to earth and join them together forever, to bring God's future into the present and make it stick there." (SC :g. 102)
And here we're talking about the future consummation of all things. Because even though we are asserting that heaven and earth have been joined together in Christ, we also assert that 'Christ will come again' and that he will finally set up his Kingdom on Earth - a new earth, heaven on earth - the place where God and man will dwell together in such a way that we no longer need the Sun by day or the moon by night, but God himself will be our light. (Rev. 21:23) In Jesus's own person, The Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God lie down together, ushering in the Peaceable Kingdom. (Is. 65:25).
Until that time of final consummation, we live in between the times and God calls us to be people who live at the intersection of time and eternity.
I've told the story before about when I was in college at Marshall, taking a philosophy class. We were systematically studying all the major world philosophies and religions. Each system of ideas was accompanied in the text book by a little diagram illustrating the interaction of the Temporal things and the Eternal things. Systems based on materialist thinking were all 'temporal' and no eternal, while religions such as Buddhism or its older cousin Hinduism were all eternal, the temporal things being mere illusions.
Finally when we got to Christianity, the diagram in the book included a cross, bridging the temporal and eternal. The professor explained it by saying that in the cross of Christ, you have a place where time and eternity meet.
Suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head. I could see that all the other world religions and philosophies were imbalanced on one side or the other, but in Christianity, both come together in perfect balance. The Cross was the only way to bridge the gap - for heaven and earth to come together in some sort of dynamic interaction. This provided me the unlikely intellectual basis for becoming a Christian ( I'm pretty sure I'm the only student that ever came to faith through Dr. Slaate's class...)
And this is why I'm excited about what we're discussing today. I'm excited because the coming together of Heaven and Earth in Christ helps me make sense out of Life: Who I am and what I should do.
Who am I? Who are we as people?
We are God's creatures, created in His image for a loving relationship with Him. But we are fallen; the Image of God within us has been marred by Sin. Even so, every person still bears that indelible imprint of the Divine - and God has taken it upon himself to redeem that image by sending His Son Jesus Christ to hang on the Cross between heaven and earth in order to reconcile us to God once for all. Having been redeemed, God has placed His Spirit within us Christians to transfigure us into the Image of Christ, just as surely as Christ was revealed to be God's only begotten son on the Mount of Transfiguration.
One of the lyrics from the Battle Hymn of the Republic says in part,
"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that ________(transfigures) you and me...."
From 'glory to glory', we are being transformed (transfigured)into the image of Christ through the active work of God's Holy Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17,18, NASB). But unlike Moses who had to put a veil over his face to shield the Israelites from God's reflected Glory, we who turn to Christ have the veil [of unbelief] removed from our faces and are able to behold the glory of the Lord. (vv. 12-18).
The Holy Spirit of God brings heaven and earth together within us so that we now become outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace - and the means of God's grace for others. That is to say, sacramental vessels of God's love to the people of the world.
Here's where our Mission comes in. Because Heaven and Earth have been joined together within us, God has given us the privilege of participating with Him in redeeming this world.
Granted, it's a challenge to see the world as a target of God's redeeming work. Just look at the near daily tragedies around us: Earthquakes in Haiti, Murders on our streets, drug and alcohol addictions everywhere. It's tempting to see the world in Deistic terms - God up in a remote heaven and us down here struggling just to survive.
But this is where we need to look with the eyes of faith and see God at work in the world, joining heaven and earth.
Where do we see this happen?
In other Christians
In our Worship- at the Communion table and the reading of the Word
In our Discipleship and Service
Since this is Valentine's Day, I've got to tell you that the first time I realized that heaven had come down to earth was the day I met Cindy. - and when she kissed me for the first time, I KNEW I was getting a foretaste of heaven on earth!
Although this is corny, it is still true that we glimpse the Divine in other people, especially Christians, and especially our spouses. Marital love was invented so that we could understand what God's love for us is like. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:30-32 that, "we are members of his [Christ's] body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."
As wonderful as romantic love is, it is temporary and will eventually be replaced by the fulfillment of total union with God in the Resurrected state. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:30: "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Married love is a glimpse, a foretaste of heaven on earth.
Our Worship
This foretaste is also seen during our Worship, in which we eat the bread of heaven and drink from wine of the Marriage feast of the Lamb, joining together with all the saints who have ever lived, anticipating that great Day in the future.
Heaven touches us as we read and listen to God's Word - the Logos, Jesus Christ. The eternal Word, the Old and New Covenant speaks to us now if we will but listen. And as we listen to the Covenant proclaimed, God renews us and causes that Word to grow up within us, changing our mind and hearts into conformity with His will.
Greensboro
When we were in Greensboro for Winter Conference, we got to see a very dramatic example of this in two ways. On Wednesday evening the conference began with a grand Eucharist, complete with a vast congregation, scores of vested clergy, exuberant praise music, a colorful procession. Archbishop Kolini preached and Moses Tay of Singapore celebrated. It was really a high point of Anglican worship in all its grandeur.
But on Sunday morning, about 150 of us who were stranded by the snow, gathered in a small theater there at the hotel and we experienced another wonderful expression of Anglican worship: stripped down, bare, Bp. Sandy Greene was the celebrant, in collar, but also dressed in street clothes, with only a stole for vestment, a bare table with a cup and a plate for the communion, One guitar player - with no amplification, no programs, no song lyrics and NO Worship Booklets!
Bishop Doc Loomis preached a simple, but moving sermon, while Archbishops Kolini and Tay sat on either side of the theater, and world-renowned theologian J.I. Packer listened from his seat near the back, giants of the faith listening unobtrusively, just like the rest of us - who were joining together in a style of worship that had formed us into a family, despite our very different backgrounds from all over the world. Contemplating this sight moved me profoundly. I felt that I was experiencing a little bit of heaven on earth.
We also see heaven meet earth as we follow Christ.
Jesus told his disciples that were some standing before him who would not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Lk. 9:27) But this was just after he told them that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Lk. 9:23,24)
To be a disciple of Jesus and to see the Kingdom of God is also to be a person who is willing to suffer for the Gospel. Seeing Heaven on Earth doesn't come cheaply.
Finally, we see heaven and earth come together in our service for Him.
N.T. Wright says, 'If Jesus has been raised, that means that God's new world, God's kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. (Simply Christian, pg. 115.) Our job is to be the hands and feet of Christ - the manifest presence of God to our world.
We are to learn to participate with God in the task of reclaiming this fallen world through the power of God's Spirit, - who is Himself the down-payment or foretaste (Grk Arrabon) of our inheritance - and to set to right things that are wrong. We are to be the instruments by which God transfigures the world.
The Good News is that Jesus Christ is Lord, " that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up , and that we are to help make it happen." (Wright, pg. 124)
As God's church, we are now the new Temple, the living stone built together (1 Pet. 2:5), the place where heaven and earth meet. When Paul says that we are 'the body of Christ and individually members of it',(1 Cor 12;27), this indicates that we are to participate in God's plan. We are to be his hands and feet in implementing His plan. Our mission is to live in the intersection between heaven and earth - the thin place that the Celts were so enamored of.
Hope House is such a thin place - a place that was subjected to the futility of sin and death, but is now being reclaimed for the Kingdom, a place where Heaven and earth will meet in the Tabernacle we have helped God create. It is an anticipation, a foretaste, Arrabon, of a world set right - a proclamation of the love and power of God acting in the world here and now.
And, of course, not only Hope House, but everything we do in the power of God's Spirit to advance the Kingdom is just such an Arrabon.
As often as we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, 'Thy Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven...
Our task is to be God's hands and feet, helping this prayer to become a reality. May God, in His infinite mercy, assist us to see the new Kingdom reality of heaven on earth with the eyes of our hearts, and join Him in the work of bringing in His kingdom here and now. AMEN.
On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history by becoming the first man to orbit the earth. A couple of days after his return to earth, someone asked him about God and space. He is quoted as saying, "I looked and looked but I didn't see God."
...To which a wag in Moscow replied, " If you could not see him on earth, how could you see him in space?"
If Yuri Gagarin had read our passages today, he would have realized that you have to go up on a mountain to see God...
Moses went up Mt. Sinai 7,497 feet, and Jesus most likely went up Mount Hermon, which rises 9,166 feet above the plain of Galilee. That's pretty high... Maybe Gagarin was right to look for God in space...
Most of us would immediately agree with the Moscow wag, that Gagarin made the fundamental mistake of looking for God - a spirit- in a physical place - 'up there' in space.
We've read the Sermon on the Mount, where it says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:7). We know from this that seeing God is something spiritual - a faculty of the True Imagination, if you will. One should not look for a spirit in a physical place. It just won't work.
But in spite of our spiritual knowledge and insight, we as Christians often go on to make a similar mistake in our day to day lives. We live as if there were no connection between what we see around us and the God we say we believe in. We become defacto Deists, who believe that God is 'up in heaven' and we are 'down' here - and never the twain shall meet. God must have just wound up the universe in the beginning, like the proverbial watchmaker, and let the whole thing run on its own, completely divorced from our current reality. How else can we explain why things on earth are so rotten and broken? Why else does God not come 'down' and put things right?
Following this line of reasoning causes us to think about the purpose of Jesus' life and death as providing us a way of escape from this crummy ol' world. We see Christ's ministry as opening a way for us to 'go to heaven' when we die - to give us eternal respite from the cares of this world and to help us retire to a beatific garden-like setting 'in the sweet by and by'.
A lot of people, Christians included, look at this brochure-like vision of heaven and think to themselves, 'That sounds really boring.' I can't imagine just hangin' out on a cloud for eternity playing a harp and chillin' out - even if it's a very beautiful place. There's got to be something more.
They're right - because: God did not send Jesus to die for us so that we could go to Heaven when we die!
What the Transfiguration of Jesus and the shining face of Moses tell us is that God and Heaven aren't 'up there', far away, in outer space, or on the other side of the grave, but are close by, 'very present' as the Psalmist (46) would say, and that God's dimension, what we call 'heaven' is a whole lot more interesting and present than we think.
In Luke chapter 9, verse 27, Jesus tells his disciples, "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
Peter and James and John are the ones Jesus was talking about. These were the guys who, in the very next verse, go with Jesus up the mountain and see The Kingdom of God arrive as Jesus was transfigured! This is another way of saying they went into God's dimension - Heaven - and saw Jesus for what he really was - God incarnate.
They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, representatives of the Law and the Prophets - men who themselves had had unusual home-going experiences. The disciples, of course, misinterpreted the event and wanted to create a theme park on the spot. They didn't realize they were seeing what hundreds of generations had longed to see - the revelation of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. They had no idea that they were watching the beginning of the fulfillment of God's purpose on the earth - 'the renewal of the entire cosmos, of heaven and earth together', as NT. Wright says (Simply Christian. pg. 85.)
Foreshadowing
Now the story of Moses and the Exodus is a foreshadowing of God's ultimate purpose. God leads the people of Israel out of Egypt, the land of bondage - and towards the promised land of Canaan - a land flowing with milk and honey - a place where things are as they should be - where life on earth is restored to a semblance of the original balance God intended.
The Exodus of Israel anticipates the exodus of Jesus. During his conversation with Moses and Elijah, Jesus talks with them about his 'departure'. The Greek word for this is - surprise - 'Exodus'. As Jesus departs this earthly life through death he will lead the human race out of the bondage of sin and into the New Life of the Kingdom of God. And just as Moses' face shone after receiving the Old Covenant from God, Jesus shone as this New Covenant was being discussed.
And as he did so, he illustrated that Heaven is not far from us, not up there, but near, just on the other side of this visible reality. He showed us that the division between God's dimension - Heaven - and ours is thin, that it can be breached rather easily, at will, by God. Heaven overlaps and interlocks with Earth.
Some Caveats
Now this doesn't indicate some sort of pantheistic conception of reality - that EVERYTHING is God or that God is IN everything. But it does indicate that any idea of God being far off or heaven being somewhere you go after you die is simply mistaken and inadequate. The Truth is far more interesting and amazing. The truth is that "in Jesus of Nazareth, heaven and earth have come together once for all." ( Wright, pg. 94).
Not only that but "The whole point of Jesus' work was to bring heaven to earth and join them together forever, to bring God's future into the present and make it stick there." (SC :g. 102)
And here we're talking about the future consummation of all things. Because even though we are asserting that heaven and earth have been joined together in Christ, we also assert that 'Christ will come again' and that he will finally set up his Kingdom on Earth - a new earth, heaven on earth - the place where God and man will dwell together in such a way that we no longer need the Sun by day or the moon by night, but God himself will be our light. (Rev. 21:23) In Jesus's own person, The Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God lie down together, ushering in the Peaceable Kingdom. (Is. 65:25).
Until that time of final consummation, we live in between the times and God calls us to be people who live at the intersection of time and eternity.
I've told the story before about when I was in college at Marshall, taking a philosophy class. We were systematically studying all the major world philosophies and religions. Each system of ideas was accompanied in the text book by a little diagram illustrating the interaction of the Temporal things and the Eternal things. Systems based on materialist thinking were all 'temporal' and no eternal, while religions such as Buddhism or its older cousin Hinduism were all eternal, the temporal things being mere illusions.
Finally when we got to Christianity, the diagram in the book included a cross, bridging the temporal and eternal. The professor explained it by saying that in the cross of Christ, you have a place where time and eternity meet.
Suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head. I could see that all the other world religions and philosophies were imbalanced on one side or the other, but in Christianity, both come together in perfect balance. The Cross was the only way to bridge the gap - for heaven and earth to come together in some sort of dynamic interaction. This provided me the unlikely intellectual basis for becoming a Christian ( I'm pretty sure I'm the only student that ever came to faith through Dr. Slaate's class...)
And this is why I'm excited about what we're discussing today. I'm excited because the coming together of Heaven and Earth in Christ helps me make sense out of Life: Who I am and what I should do.
Who am I? Who are we as people?
We are God's creatures, created in His image for a loving relationship with Him. But we are fallen; the Image of God within us has been marred by Sin. Even so, every person still bears that indelible imprint of the Divine - and God has taken it upon himself to redeem that image by sending His Son Jesus Christ to hang on the Cross between heaven and earth in order to reconcile us to God once for all. Having been redeemed, God has placed His Spirit within us Christians to transfigure us into the Image of Christ, just as surely as Christ was revealed to be God's only begotten son on the Mount of Transfiguration.
One of the lyrics from the Battle Hymn of the Republic says in part,
"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that ________(transfigures) you and me...."
From 'glory to glory', we are being transformed (transfigured)into the image of Christ through the active work of God's Holy Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17,18, NASB). But unlike Moses who had to put a veil over his face to shield the Israelites from God's reflected Glory, we who turn to Christ have the veil [of unbelief] removed from our faces and are able to behold the glory of the Lord. (vv. 12-18).
The Holy Spirit of God brings heaven and earth together within us so that we now become outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace - and the means of God's grace for others. That is to say, sacramental vessels of God's love to the people of the world.
Here's where our Mission comes in. Because Heaven and Earth have been joined together within us, God has given us the privilege of participating with Him in redeeming this world.
Granted, it's a challenge to see the world as a target of God's redeeming work. Just look at the near daily tragedies around us: Earthquakes in Haiti, Murders on our streets, drug and alcohol addictions everywhere. It's tempting to see the world in Deistic terms - God up in a remote heaven and us down here struggling just to survive.
But this is where we need to look with the eyes of faith and see God at work in the world, joining heaven and earth.
Where do we see this happen?
In other Christians
In our Worship- at the Communion table and the reading of the Word
In our Discipleship and Service
Since this is Valentine's Day, I've got to tell you that the first time I realized that heaven had come down to earth was the day I met Cindy. - and when she kissed me for the first time, I KNEW I was getting a foretaste of heaven on earth!
Although this is corny, it is still true that we glimpse the Divine in other people, especially Christians, and especially our spouses. Marital love was invented so that we could understand what God's love for us is like. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:30-32 that, "we are members of his [Christ's] body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."
As wonderful as romantic love is, it is temporary and will eventually be replaced by the fulfillment of total union with God in the Resurrected state. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:30: "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Married love is a glimpse, a foretaste of heaven on earth.
Our Worship
This foretaste is also seen during our Worship, in which we eat the bread of heaven and drink from wine of the Marriage feast of the Lamb, joining together with all the saints who have ever lived, anticipating that great Day in the future.
Heaven touches us as we read and listen to God's Word - the Logos, Jesus Christ. The eternal Word, the Old and New Covenant speaks to us now if we will but listen. And as we listen to the Covenant proclaimed, God renews us and causes that Word to grow up within us, changing our mind and hearts into conformity with His will.
Greensboro
When we were in Greensboro for Winter Conference, we got to see a very dramatic example of this in two ways. On Wednesday evening the conference began with a grand Eucharist, complete with a vast congregation, scores of vested clergy, exuberant praise music, a colorful procession. Archbishop Kolini preached and Moses Tay of Singapore celebrated. It was really a high point of Anglican worship in all its grandeur.
But on Sunday morning, about 150 of us who were stranded by the snow, gathered in a small theater there at the hotel and we experienced another wonderful expression of Anglican worship: stripped down, bare, Bp. Sandy Greene was the celebrant, in collar, but also dressed in street clothes, with only a stole for vestment, a bare table with a cup and a plate for the communion, One guitar player - with no amplification, no programs, no song lyrics and NO Worship Booklets!
Bishop Doc Loomis preached a simple, but moving sermon, while Archbishops Kolini and Tay sat on either side of the theater, and world-renowned theologian J.I. Packer listened from his seat near the back, giants of the faith listening unobtrusively, just like the rest of us - who were joining together in a style of worship that had formed us into a family, despite our very different backgrounds from all over the world. Contemplating this sight moved me profoundly. I felt that I was experiencing a little bit of heaven on earth.
We also see heaven meet earth as we follow Christ.
Jesus told his disciples that were some standing before him who would not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Lk. 9:27) But this was just after he told them that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Lk. 9:23,24)
To be a disciple of Jesus and to see the Kingdom of God is also to be a person who is willing to suffer for the Gospel. Seeing Heaven on Earth doesn't come cheaply.
Finally, we see heaven and earth come together in our service for Him.
N.T. Wright says, 'If Jesus has been raised, that means that God's new world, God's kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. (Simply Christian, pg. 115.) Our job is to be the hands and feet of Christ - the manifest presence of God to our world.
We are to learn to participate with God in the task of reclaiming this fallen world through the power of God's Spirit, - who is Himself the down-payment or foretaste (Grk Arrabon) of our inheritance - and to set to right things that are wrong. We are to be the instruments by which God transfigures the world.
The Good News is that Jesus Christ is Lord, " that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up , and that we are to help make it happen." (Wright, pg. 124)
As God's church, we are now the new Temple, the living stone built together (1 Pet. 2:5), the place where heaven and earth meet. When Paul says that we are 'the body of Christ and individually members of it',(1 Cor 12;27), this indicates that we are to participate in God's plan. We are to be his hands and feet in implementing His plan. Our mission is to live in the intersection between heaven and earth - the thin place that the Celts were so enamored of.
Hope House is such a thin place - a place that was subjected to the futility of sin and death, but is now being reclaimed for the Kingdom, a place where Heaven and earth will meet in the Tabernacle we have helped God create. It is an anticipation, a foretaste, Arrabon, of a world set right - a proclamation of the love and power of God acting in the world here and now.
And, of course, not only Hope House, but everything we do in the power of God's Spirit to advance the Kingdom is just such an Arrabon.
As often as we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, 'Thy Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven...
Our task is to be God's hands and feet, helping this prayer to become a reality. May God, in His infinite mercy, assist us to see the new Kingdom reality of heaven on earth with the eyes of our hearts, and join Him in the work of bringing in His kingdom here and now. AMEN.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
God Uses People to Tell His Story
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on January 10, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on Acts 10: 34-38 and Luke 3:15-22.
Phone Search
Last Christmas, my son-in-law, Eric, bought my daughter, Leslie, an I-Pod Touch. She really liked it and showed me some of the things it could do: Of course, it played MP3s, but it also had the capacity to get the Internet via WiFi. It had a button you could push and get your email instantly at any Hot Spot. And - it had a scheduler!
When Leslie showed me how you set the time by moving little dials on the screen, my eyes glazed over, I went into a sort of trance, and I said robotically, "I want that"...
I had been looking at the I-Phone, but just really couldn't quite justify paying an additional $30.00 for the Internet access each month. But with the I-Touch, I could get most of the functionality of the phone and not have the extra fee. I had a little phoIN that I liked pretty well, and between the two gadgets, I figured I could do everything I needed to do electronically.
So I bought an I-Touch, and was really happy with it.
Then I lost my phone.
I still couldn't justify the extra Internet expense, but I really needed a phone, so I bought a cheap phone - and hated it. The buttons were too small. It didn't sound good. The menus were hard to navigate - and it was not pleasant in general. So I went back to looking at the I-phone again.
I analyzed my family plan bill - and I realized that my daughter Leslie was using very few voice minutes, - but a huge number of texts - so it made sense to decrease the basic plan minutes, cut the bill - and voila - I could suddenly justify the I-Phone!
So this Christmas, I got one - and I told my friend Lisa about it. She was looking at upgrading hers too. Her whole family was going to get Blackberrys, but she just wasn't sure she liked the Blackberry. So when I told her I liked my I-phone, she went to the ATT store and checked it out.
Lo and behold, when she saw the Calculator - she was mesmerized! Her eyes glazed over and she went into a sort of trance, and said robotically, "I want that." ... And so she bought one.
Eric told Leslie, and Leslie told me and I told Lisa...
And all of us have been insufferable ever since. Our close friends and family members have had it up to their eyeballs with our gushing about our phones. (Have I showed you pictures of my grandchildren?)
Well, there's a parallel in this story to our reading from Acts today. And the main point to remember is that "God Uses People to tell His story." Two sub-points also under gird this main point:
"God empowers us through Baptism" and
"God leads us by the Holy Spirit."
Let's go to our text from Acts for some background.
Background
Acts Chapter 10 tells the story of Cornelius, a Roman soldier, who lead the 'Italian Cohort" in Joppa - right on the Mediterranean coast. A cohort usually consisted of 600 men, but sometimes there were as many as 1000 in a cohort. The leader of a cohort was paid about 5 times as much as an average soldier - so this was a very responsible position which was well compensated.
As a cohort leader, Cornelius commanded respect. But he was also a devout man who gave alms generously and who prayed daily with his family. He was not only personally good, but he also influenced others around him to be good and devout.
So, one day, Cornelius was praying, and an angel appeared to him and told him that his prayers had been answered and that he should send some men to go find this guy Simon, who would then come and tell Cornelius what he needed to know about God. Cornelius obeyed the angel and sent hia men off to find Peter, who was having visions of unclean animals and resisting God's directive to 'take, kill and eat."
Right after the vision, Peter heard a knock at the door. It was the men from Cornelius. They introduce themselves by saying, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” (Acts 10:22)
Simon goes along with the men. And when he gets to Cornelius' house, he tells him how unlawful it is for a Jewish person to hang out with Gentiles, and then asks him, in effect, 'What do you want?"
Clueless in Joppa
You gotta love Peter. He'd been with Jesus for 3 years. He had seen innumerable miracles, witnessed the death and resurrection of Christ, received the Great Commission to go make disciples of all nations - - - and he asks Cornelius "What do you want?" After all that he's seen, he's still clueless. Cornelius has to prompt him as to why he was there.
But Peter finally gets it. He realizes that there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, and shares the bare - bones Gospel account with Cornelius. And not only with Cornelius but Scripture tells us that he had assembled his 'close friends and family' to hear Peter's message.
God told Peter the Gospel message. God also told Cornelius to send for Peter to tell him the message. And Cornelius told his close friends and family to come hear the message. ... Sounds a little like a cell phone plan: "Friends and Family"...has a sort of ring to it don't you think?
Not Angels, Angles!
Now God could have chosen to use Angels to share the message. After all, the very word means "Messenger". Angels have a lot going for them as message bearers. They look cool, they're very articulate, and they have cool super-powers that enable them to go anywhere at the speed of light, pass through walls and strike people dead if need be. If it would have been me, I'd have used Angels, for sure.
But God chooses to use People to spread the Gospel message - people like Peter - good old clueless Peter. Peter, who wasn't very smart, wasn't very well educated, didn't speak very well, and could be counted on to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. You can't get much less qualified than Peter - except for two main qualities: Peter was available - and he loved God.
God uses available, passionate people to spread the Word. With apologies to Pope Gregory the VI th, he uses ANGLES not ANGELS... Anglicans not Angels - to touch people. This is what we call The Great Commission: "Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Mt. 28:18.
This is a command. It's not limited by our qualifications, education, sex or ethnicity. Jesus just tells us to go out and DO IT. And that's what Peter did - he obeyed the summons and shared the Gospel with Cornelius out of obedience.
Now to be sure, Cornelius and his family were an easy audience. They were primed and ready for the message, unlike people today. Let's consider the profile of Cornelius as a God Fearing Seeker and then contrast him with the profile of what I'll call the "De-churched spiritual Seeker."
Cornelius a God-Fearing Seeker
Acts 10 describes Cornelius as a:
-'Devout man who feared God with all his household',
-One who 'gave alms generously to the people'
-And 'prayed continually to God'
He was was what was known as a 'semi-proselyte' - someone who observed the spirituality of Judaism and may have even gone to synagogue, but who had not been circumcised or officially joined the faith. He was well-respected in the Jewish Community because of his upright character and lifestyle.
Barna on Gen Xers
Now contrast the unchurched who have never really attended much or the 'De-Churched' who have left church for some reason. According to a 2006 George Barna poll, among baby busters- or Gen Xers - people in their thirties:
-Only 3 out of 10 believe in absolute truth.
-50% say ethics and morals are based on 'what is right for the person'
-They're twice as likely as baby boomers to view a sexually explicit movie
-Two and a half times more likely to have sex outside of marriage,
-Three times more likely to have viewed pornography online.
"The morality of the under-forties set mirrors a society where divorce, crime, single-parent households, and suicide are much more prevalent than thirty years ago when the Boomers grew up." (pg. 71,72 in "Quitting Church" by Julia Duin).
This group is not nearly as interested in the traditional questions about capital-T Truth, or so called 'evidential apologetics' as their parents.
Todd Hunter, former head of the Vineyard Association of Churches, leader of the Alpha Course and newly ordained AMIA Bishop, was interviewed for the August 2009 edition of Christianity today about his approach to reaching non-churched people. He was asked about the role of evidential apologetics. Here's what he said:
"I don't hear people asking, "How do I know Jesus rose from the dead?" anymore. But I do hear young people outside the church asking, "Is the church a force for good or a force for evil?" The New Atheism is questioning the essential goodness of the church."
Remember, this is among people who likely grew up in church and then dropped out.
Why People don't go to Church
When Lifeway Christian Resources polled 469 'formerly churched adults in 2006 about why they had left church, the most common reason for not attending was:
Busy Schedules - followed by:
Disenchantment with the pastor or the church.
Unlike Peter, who had a receptive audience for the Gospel message, you and I face an increasingly hostile audience as we go out representing the church.
Peter's audience was interested in being rightly related to the one true God.
People today prefer to create their own God.
Peter's audience felt the need to be Good.
People today often prefer to feel good than do good.
Peter's audience was willing to listen and learn.
People today often resent the notion that you have something to say.
It's a tough environment out there. And yet, people are also very desperate for spiritual answers in their lives. They are looking for Truth, they just don't seek it the same way previous generations did. This is where we, as Gospel Messengers need some help - the same help that Peter had: Baptismal empowerment from God, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' Baptism as our Model
Today, we celebrate Jesus' baptism. John was puzzled when Jesus came to him to be baptized but Jesus said that it was necessary for him to be baptized in order to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). I think that one reason for Jesus' Baptism was that it demonstrated the type of relationship that believers would have with God, through Christ.
John was baptizing for the repentance of sins, and while Jesus had no Sin to be cleansed, yet when he came up out of the waters of Baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice came from heaven saying, "You are my Son, with Beloved; with you I am well-pleased" (Luke.3:22).
Going down into the waters of Baptism cleanses us from sin, but it also establishes a family relationship where none existed before. Through Baptism, God accepts us into his family and confers upon us his fatherly favor. The Holy Spirit also formally takes up residence within us, sealing us in God, while empowering us for living and serving. This is why a Bishop anoints the newly baptized, 'marking them as 'Christ's forever'.
Those who have been through this process as adults know how powerful it can be. For those who were baptized as infants, the church has always sought to teach them the Faith and then ask them to 'confirm their faith' - to make it their own - usually around the age of 13.
The bishop's confirming prayer over us reiterates the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and asks for empowerment and anointing to help us fulfill our role in God's kingdom. Thus, our Baptism empowers us for ministry, just as Jesus was empowered through his own Baptism.
The Leading of the Holy Spirit
Finally, the Holy Spirit Leads us, just as he lead Peter. Most likely the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life will be much more subtle than what Peter and Cornelius experienced. Your angel may whisper to you instead of giving you a dramatic dream or open vision. Therefore, it's important to pay attention and to listen for that 'still small voice', which often comes as a hunch or a prompting or a 'coincidence' ("Godincidence", as my friend David Green used to say).
As an example of a Godincidence, on Thursday evening, I came home early because of the snow. Instead of arriving home around 9pm , I got home about 4:30, and Cindy asked me if I wanted to go to the store with her. I felt prompted to go, even though the market was only two blocks away and Cindy was only going to get a few items. When we got back to the house and parked the car, our neighbor across the street called out to me, "Would you come up here on the porch?"
I was somewhat wary, but I went up anyway, and my elderly neighbor with a bad hip explained to me that a young man had come to his door, forced his way into the house and became more and more belligerent as he drank a bottle of nasty rot-gut Rum. The neighbor had tried to call the police, but each time, the young man prevented him.
Finally, just before we pulled up in our car, the man had passed out on the floor, and the neighbor was able to get away from him. When he called me up on the porch, it was to ask me to call the police - which I was more than happy to do with my dandy new phone! But just after we called the cops and reported the situation, the drunk guy comes stumbling out of the house in his sock feet and just a T- shirt - no coat. I think he realized that I was interfering with his terrorizing of my neighbor and he started rambling on about shooting me if I got in his way.
Fortunately he was too drunk to even put on his shoes, much less shoot anybody - and before too long, he decided he was done with us and trundled off through the snow in his sock feet off to his apartment, just behind my neighbor's house!
In a little while the police showed up and took the young man off to jail and all was well. But what might have happened if I had not listened to the urge to go the store with my wife? What a trifling decision - yet it could have been the difference between life and death!
Friends it's important to listen to your hunches - no matter how seemingly insignificant. It might be the voice of the Holy Spirit leading you to help someone get saved or be safe!
Conclusion
So - God uses people to share His Gospel Message - You and me. God empowers us for ministry through our Baptism, and He leads us by the Holy Spirit... This is how God helps us to fulfill the Great Commission.
The Divine Encounter
Also, starting tonight, we will be participating in a 21-day "Divine Encounter" along with a number of other churches from our area. The purpose of this time is to help us to grow in intimacy with our God and to help us to learn to listen to that still small voice better. There will be a kickoff service this evening beginning at 6pm at Jefferson Avenue Church of God, midweek services at Christ Temple on three successive Wednesday evenings, beginning this coming Wednesday, and Friday morning prayer services at the First Congregational Church in Ceredo, starting at 7am in the morning.
I have a prayer guide booklet for each family, and I encourage you to use this next three weeks as a sort of mini-Lent, cleansing yourself and being attentive to the leading of God's Spirit - especially in regards to what he would have you do individually to spread His message.
May God use us, His people, empower us and lead us by his powerful right hand - with or without cell phones...
Amen.
Phone Search
Last Christmas, my son-in-law, Eric, bought my daughter, Leslie, an I-Pod Touch. She really liked it and showed me some of the things it could do: Of course, it played MP3s, but it also had the capacity to get the Internet via WiFi. It had a button you could push and get your email instantly at any Hot Spot. And - it had a scheduler!
When Leslie showed me how you set the time by moving little dials on the screen, my eyes glazed over, I went into a sort of trance, and I said robotically, "I want that"...
I had been looking at the I-Phone, but just really couldn't quite justify paying an additional $30.00 for the Internet access each month. But with the I-Touch, I could get most of the functionality of the phone and not have the extra fee. I had a little phoIN that I liked pretty well, and between the two gadgets, I figured I could do everything I needed to do electronically.
So I bought an I-Touch, and was really happy with it.
Then I lost my phone.
I still couldn't justify the extra Internet expense, but I really needed a phone, so I bought a cheap phone - and hated it. The buttons were too small. It didn't sound good. The menus were hard to navigate - and it was not pleasant in general. So I went back to looking at the I-phone again.
I analyzed my family plan bill - and I realized that my daughter Leslie was using very few voice minutes, - but a huge number of texts - so it made sense to decrease the basic plan minutes, cut the bill - and voila - I could suddenly justify the I-Phone!
So this Christmas, I got one - and I told my friend Lisa about it. She was looking at upgrading hers too. Her whole family was going to get Blackberrys, but she just wasn't sure she liked the Blackberry. So when I told her I liked my I-phone, she went to the ATT store and checked it out.
Lo and behold, when she saw the Calculator - she was mesmerized! Her eyes glazed over and she went into a sort of trance, and said robotically, "I want that." ... And so she bought one.
Eric told Leslie, and Leslie told me and I told Lisa...
And all of us have been insufferable ever since. Our close friends and family members have had it up to their eyeballs with our gushing about our phones. (Have I showed you pictures of my grandchildren?)
Well, there's a parallel in this story to our reading from Acts today. And the main point to remember is that "God Uses People to tell His story." Two sub-points also under gird this main point:
"God empowers us through Baptism" and
"God leads us by the Holy Spirit."
Let's go to our text from Acts for some background.
Background
Acts Chapter 10 tells the story of Cornelius, a Roman soldier, who lead the 'Italian Cohort" in Joppa - right on the Mediterranean coast. A cohort usually consisted of 600 men, but sometimes there were as many as 1000 in a cohort. The leader of a cohort was paid about 5 times as much as an average soldier - so this was a very responsible position which was well compensated.
As a cohort leader, Cornelius commanded respect. But he was also a devout man who gave alms generously and who prayed daily with his family. He was not only personally good, but he also influenced others around him to be good and devout.
So, one day, Cornelius was praying, and an angel appeared to him and told him that his prayers had been answered and that he should send some men to go find this guy Simon, who would then come and tell Cornelius what he needed to know about God. Cornelius obeyed the angel and sent hia men off to find Peter, who was having visions of unclean animals and resisting God's directive to 'take, kill and eat."
Right after the vision, Peter heard a knock at the door. It was the men from Cornelius. They introduce themselves by saying, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” (Acts 10:22)
Simon goes along with the men. And when he gets to Cornelius' house, he tells him how unlawful it is for a Jewish person to hang out with Gentiles, and then asks him, in effect, 'What do you want?"
Clueless in Joppa
You gotta love Peter. He'd been with Jesus for 3 years. He had seen innumerable miracles, witnessed the death and resurrection of Christ, received the Great Commission to go make disciples of all nations - - - and he asks Cornelius "What do you want?" After all that he's seen, he's still clueless. Cornelius has to prompt him as to why he was there.
But Peter finally gets it. He realizes that there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, and shares the bare - bones Gospel account with Cornelius. And not only with Cornelius but Scripture tells us that he had assembled his 'close friends and family' to hear Peter's message.
God told Peter the Gospel message. God also told Cornelius to send for Peter to tell him the message. And Cornelius told his close friends and family to come hear the message. ... Sounds a little like a cell phone plan: "Friends and Family"...has a sort of ring to it don't you think?
Not Angels, Angles!
Now God could have chosen to use Angels to share the message. After all, the very word means "Messenger". Angels have a lot going for them as message bearers. They look cool, they're very articulate, and they have cool super-powers that enable them to go anywhere at the speed of light, pass through walls and strike people dead if need be. If it would have been me, I'd have used Angels, for sure.
But God chooses to use People to spread the Gospel message - people like Peter - good old clueless Peter. Peter, who wasn't very smart, wasn't very well educated, didn't speak very well, and could be counted on to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. You can't get much less qualified than Peter - except for two main qualities: Peter was available - and he loved God.
God uses available, passionate people to spread the Word. With apologies to Pope Gregory the VI th, he uses ANGLES not ANGELS... Anglicans not Angels - to touch people. This is what we call The Great Commission: "Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Mt. 28:18.
This is a command. It's not limited by our qualifications, education, sex or ethnicity. Jesus just tells us to go out and DO IT. And that's what Peter did - he obeyed the summons and shared the Gospel with Cornelius out of obedience.
Now to be sure, Cornelius and his family were an easy audience. They were primed and ready for the message, unlike people today. Let's consider the profile of Cornelius as a God Fearing Seeker and then contrast him with the profile of what I'll call the "De-churched spiritual Seeker."
Cornelius a God-Fearing Seeker
Acts 10 describes Cornelius as a:
-'Devout man who feared God with all his household',
-One who 'gave alms generously to the people'
-And 'prayed continually to God'
He was was what was known as a 'semi-proselyte' - someone who observed the spirituality of Judaism and may have even gone to synagogue, but who had not been circumcised or officially joined the faith. He was well-respected in the Jewish Community because of his upright character and lifestyle.
Barna on Gen Xers
Now contrast the unchurched who have never really attended much or the 'De-Churched' who have left church for some reason. According to a 2006 George Barna poll, among baby busters- or Gen Xers - people in their thirties:
-Only 3 out of 10 believe in absolute truth.
-50% say ethics and morals are based on 'what is right for the person'
-They're twice as likely as baby boomers to view a sexually explicit movie
-Two and a half times more likely to have sex outside of marriage,
-Three times more likely to have viewed pornography online.
"The morality of the under-forties set mirrors a society where divorce, crime, single-parent households, and suicide are much more prevalent than thirty years ago when the Boomers grew up." (pg. 71,72 in "Quitting Church" by Julia Duin).
This group is not nearly as interested in the traditional questions about capital-T Truth, or so called 'evidential apologetics' as their parents.
Todd Hunter, former head of the Vineyard Association of Churches, leader of the Alpha Course and newly ordained AMIA Bishop, was interviewed for the August 2009 edition of Christianity today about his approach to reaching non-churched people. He was asked about the role of evidential apologetics. Here's what he said:
"I don't hear people asking, "How do I know Jesus rose from the dead?" anymore. But I do hear young people outside the church asking, "Is the church a force for good or a force for evil?" The New Atheism is questioning the essential goodness of the church."
Remember, this is among people who likely grew up in church and then dropped out.
Why People don't go to Church
When Lifeway Christian Resources polled 469 'formerly churched adults in 2006 about why they had left church, the most common reason for not attending was:
Busy Schedules - followed by:
Disenchantment with the pastor or the church.
Unlike Peter, who had a receptive audience for the Gospel message, you and I face an increasingly hostile audience as we go out representing the church.
Peter's audience was interested in being rightly related to the one true God.
People today prefer to create their own God.
Peter's audience felt the need to be Good.
People today often prefer to feel good than do good.
Peter's audience was willing to listen and learn.
People today often resent the notion that you have something to say.
It's a tough environment out there. And yet, people are also very desperate for spiritual answers in their lives. They are looking for Truth, they just don't seek it the same way previous generations did. This is where we, as Gospel Messengers need some help - the same help that Peter had: Baptismal empowerment from God, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' Baptism as our Model
Today, we celebrate Jesus' baptism. John was puzzled when Jesus came to him to be baptized but Jesus said that it was necessary for him to be baptized in order to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). I think that one reason for Jesus' Baptism was that it demonstrated the type of relationship that believers would have with God, through Christ.
John was baptizing for the repentance of sins, and while Jesus had no Sin to be cleansed, yet when he came up out of the waters of Baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice came from heaven saying, "You are my Son, with Beloved; with you I am well-pleased" (Luke.3:22).
Going down into the waters of Baptism cleanses us from sin, but it also establishes a family relationship where none existed before. Through Baptism, God accepts us into his family and confers upon us his fatherly favor. The Holy Spirit also formally takes up residence within us, sealing us in God, while empowering us for living and serving. This is why a Bishop anoints the newly baptized, 'marking them as 'Christ's forever'.
Those who have been through this process as adults know how powerful it can be. For those who were baptized as infants, the church has always sought to teach them the Faith and then ask them to 'confirm their faith' - to make it their own - usually around the age of 13.
The bishop's confirming prayer over us reiterates the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and asks for empowerment and anointing to help us fulfill our role in God's kingdom. Thus, our Baptism empowers us for ministry, just as Jesus was empowered through his own Baptism.
The Leading of the Holy Spirit
Finally, the Holy Spirit Leads us, just as he lead Peter. Most likely the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life will be much more subtle than what Peter and Cornelius experienced. Your angel may whisper to you instead of giving you a dramatic dream or open vision. Therefore, it's important to pay attention and to listen for that 'still small voice', which often comes as a hunch or a prompting or a 'coincidence' ("Godincidence", as my friend David Green used to say).
As an example of a Godincidence, on Thursday evening, I came home early because of the snow. Instead of arriving home around 9pm , I got home about 4:30, and Cindy asked me if I wanted to go to the store with her. I felt prompted to go, even though the market was only two blocks away and Cindy was only going to get a few items. When we got back to the house and parked the car, our neighbor across the street called out to me, "Would you come up here on the porch?"
I was somewhat wary, but I went up anyway, and my elderly neighbor with a bad hip explained to me that a young man had come to his door, forced his way into the house and became more and more belligerent as he drank a bottle of nasty rot-gut Rum. The neighbor had tried to call the police, but each time, the young man prevented him.
Finally, just before we pulled up in our car, the man had passed out on the floor, and the neighbor was able to get away from him. When he called me up on the porch, it was to ask me to call the police - which I was more than happy to do with my dandy new phone! But just after we called the cops and reported the situation, the drunk guy comes stumbling out of the house in his sock feet and just a T- shirt - no coat. I think he realized that I was interfering with his terrorizing of my neighbor and he started rambling on about shooting me if I got in his way.
Fortunately he was too drunk to even put on his shoes, much less shoot anybody - and before too long, he decided he was done with us and trundled off through the snow in his sock feet off to his apartment, just behind my neighbor's house!
In a little while the police showed up and took the young man off to jail and all was well. But what might have happened if I had not listened to the urge to go the store with my wife? What a trifling decision - yet it could have been the difference between life and death!
Friends it's important to listen to your hunches - no matter how seemingly insignificant. It might be the voice of the Holy Spirit leading you to help someone get saved or be safe!
Conclusion
So - God uses people to share His Gospel Message - You and me. God empowers us for ministry through our Baptism, and He leads us by the Holy Spirit... This is how God helps us to fulfill the Great Commission.
The Divine Encounter
Also, starting tonight, we will be participating in a 21-day "Divine Encounter" along with a number of other churches from our area. The purpose of this time is to help us to grow in intimacy with our God and to help us to learn to listen to that still small voice better. There will be a kickoff service this evening beginning at 6pm at Jefferson Avenue Church of God, midweek services at Christ Temple on three successive Wednesday evenings, beginning this coming Wednesday, and Friday morning prayer services at the First Congregational Church in Ceredo, starting at 7am in the morning.
I have a prayer guide booklet for each family, and I encourage you to use this next three weeks as a sort of mini-Lent, cleansing yourself and being attentive to the leading of God's Spirit - especially in regards to what he would have you do individually to spread His message.
May God use us, His people, empower us and lead us by his powerful right hand - with or without cell phones...
Amen.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Leap for Joy
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 2009 (December 20) at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Luke 1:39-56.
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.50 And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.51 He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;52 he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;53 he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.54 He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,55 as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (ESV)
This past week I've been contemplating a number of disparate readings, events, music and film: The Gospel, The Copenhagen Summit, The Health Care machinations, The Christmas music of Sting, a current movie, and Mother Teresa's reflections on her Life for the Poor.
I've noticed a huge contrast in approach to the world's problems. Like the ill-fated builders of the tower of Babel, the nations of the world have met in Copenhagen to try to fix the global climate and Congress has been trying to hammer out a scheme to fix the ailing health care system. Their attempts to address the world's problems are desperate, filled with duplicity and greed, and blatant in their intention to micro-manage people's lives. There is anger and frustration with those who don't want to go along with the Grand Plan.
Everywhere, people observe what Stings sings about in his song, 'Lullaby for an Anxious Child":
"The world is broken now,
All in sorrow
Wise men hang their heads."
Sorrow, brokenness and despair are the natural conditions of the world. Joy is not its default setting.
But reading the Good News this week from Luke, we find this very thing: Joy!
In Chapter 1, vv39-41, after the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary that she was to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and bear a child called Jesus, we learn that she "arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb." In verse 44, Elizabeth explains that when the sound of Mary's greeting came to her ears, the baby in her womb leaped - for joy.
Unlike the world, the Christian default setting is indeed Joy.
The baby leaped for joy in Elizabeth's womb. (Remember, the baby was John the Baptist, the very same scary prophet that called the pharisees a brood of vipers.) John leaped for Joy when he sensed the presence of Jesus within Mary.
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (vv. 41, 42) She too was filled with Joy.
And then Mary gets into the act and sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...(v.47)
You see, Joy comes to us when we recognize and acknowledge the Presence of Jesus in our midst. And Advent is all about preparing for and acknowledging this wonderful Presence.
The pop singer Sting is a self-proclaimed agnostic, but he sings this wonderful traditional lullaby called "Balulalow":
"O my dear heart, young Jesu sweet,
Prepare thy credle in my spreit (sic)
And I shall rock thee in my heart
and never more from thee depart.
But I shall praise thee evermore
With sangis sweet unto thy glore
The knees of my heart shall I bow,
And sing that rich Balulalow."
Joy and Praise come in when we welcome Christ and bend the knees of our hearts to Him.
So, let me ask you some questions: Today, does your spirit rejoice and leap over Jesus? Do you know Him personally? Do you recognize Him in others? And does the joy of knowing Jesus in your heart cause you to serve him by serving others with Joy? I hope so, for the Leap of Joy is what makes life worthwhile and meaningful.
In the book of her collected sayings, 'My Life for the Poor," Mother Teresa describes the inner joy of Knowing Jesus:
"To me Jesus is my God.
Jesus is my Spouse.
Jesus is my Life.
Jesus is my only Love.
Jesus is my All in all.
Jesus is my Everything."
"A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love," she says (pg. 40). "Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love."
The love of Jesus is what causes our hearts to leap with joy.
So let's ask the question again, "Has your heart ever leaped with joy in recognizing Jesus?"
It's possible that you may not have had a dramatic conversion experience where you went from night to day, despair to joy in a moment. Maybe the joy of Jesus grew within you gradually as your parents raised you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
But maybe somewhere along the way, you have had other experiences of Joy which looked or felt like something else - namely a call to service.
When I drove past 1410 Charleston Avenue one August morning in 2006 and was arrested by that For Sale sign in the yard, it didn't really feel like Joy. Actually, it was profoundly troubling. My heart leaped in recognition, but it was more like and instant understanding that something had changed within me in a moment - that I was being called to something I could not fathom at the time. This too is Joy - but it's a call to give out the Joy we have been given.
When Cindy and I sat down with Tina Ward and Jasmine and watched little Kion throw a football like he was born to it - something leaped within my heart. I had a vision of him playing college football - it must have been God, because I saw him playing for WVU - and I'm a four-generation Marshall man! I saw a whole life of potential in a two year old and longed for that potential to be realized, not snuffed out like his uncle Donte's was, when he died in the driveway at 1410 Charleston Ave.
Maybe you felt it too when you picked an item from the Angel Tree. Is this not the recognition of Jesus? Yes, I believe it is. And the joy we give out has an impact upon the world. Mother Teresa again:
"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls." (MLFP, Pg. 40).
The joy we receive from God through Christ propels us out "into the world to love and serve Him" by ministering to the lost, the broken and lonely one soul at a time.
Unlike the kingdoms of this world, which scheme on a global level, trying to change the masses, we Christians are called to love our neighbors as individuals, one at a time, often in obscurity and seeming insignificance.
For some reason, God actually seems to enjoy obscurity. Mary, lived in an obscure town in an obscure country. She said yes to bearing one child - and her child was born in still more obscure stable. He lived an obscure life. But this Child named Jesus went on to change the world!
Last night, Cindy and I went to see the movie "The Blind Side" a true story about a wealthy white Christian family that adopts a young black man and helps him go on to become a football hero. There's a moment in the film, where Leanne, the mother, comes face to face with the knowledge that Michael has never had his own bed in all his almost 18 years of life. Leanne is profoundly affected by this stark fact and has to go into the other room and sit down. I believe it is at that moment that her heart leaped - and she realized that she would have to really 'prepare a credle in her heart' for Michael and so welcome him -as if he were Christ in distressing disguise, as Mother Teresa puts it.
One family welcomed one young man into their hearts. Did they change the world?
In another scene from the Blind Side, we hear Leanne's voice talking and see the newspaper clippings about all the young men she had read about in the newspaper who had had wonderful athletic talent and potential, but whose lives were cut short by gang and drug related violence. At the end of the sequence, she comments that she had taken in one such young man - and he didn't die. Instead he reached his potential - and is going on to affect many lives himself. Can there be any doubt that Leanne and her family changed the course of history?
'What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean. but if we don't do it, the ocean would be one drop less", says Teresa. When we serve as if we are 'doing it to Jesus' we profoundly change the world. We can even win souls.
"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls", says Mother Teresa.
She goes on to tell how an atheist came to the Home for the Dying in Calcutta and watched a sister care for a dying man covered with maggots.
"The [atheist] stood there, watching the sister and then he returned and said, "I came here godless. I came here full of hatred. I am going full of God. I have seen god's love in action. I have seen that through those hands of that sister, through her face, through her tenderness, so full of love for that man. Now I believe." (Pg. 42). The atheist's heart leaped for joy when he saw Jesus in action.
As did the heart of a Hindu man who came to the Home for the Dying and said, "Your religion must be true. Christ must be true if he helps you to do what you're doing."
Joyful service is a silent apologetic for the Gospel. It helps people encounter Jesus.
But as always, it's easier to hear inspiring service than to practice it. It's easier to love a million people in Africa than it is to love one cranky neighbor next door. The challenge is always to start where you are right here and now. That's why in our Advent meditations we have emphasized listening to what God may be leading us to do in our own neighborhoods and circles of acquaintance.
During our Wednesday evening devotions, we have heard a number of inspiring testimonies about how God has directed some of us into service opportunities such as adopting a Muslim child, having lunch with a group of friends and praying for an agnostic at work. I believe that, even now, He is leading us to reach out to the un-churched, the spiritually confused, the lonely and the poor - right around us.
As I have announced previously, to give us more time to discern and follow his leading, we will suspend our 8th Day Life Groups between Christmas and Lent. As we do this, who knows how our hearts will leap in response to Jesus?!
I urge you to open yourselves to recognize the presence of Christ in our midst - personified in one another, in the reading and hearing of the Logos, in the bread and wine, and in the face of the poor around us, whether they be financially or emotionally poor. Let the Holy Spirit cause your heart to leap, and then rejoice that the Mighty One will do great things in you, just as he did for Mary.
I'd like to have us close now by saying responsively a sort of litany adapted from My Life for the Poor, entitled This is Jesus to Me:
Jesus is:
The Word - to be spoken
The Truth - to be told.
The Way - to be walked.
The Light - to be lit.
The Life - to be lived.
The Love-to be loved.
The Joy- to be shared
The Sacrifice- to be offered.
The Peace- to be given.
The Bread of life-to be eaten
The Hungry - to be fed.
The Thirsty - to b satiated.
The Naked - to be clothed.
The Homeless - to be taken in.
The Sick - to be healed.
The Lonely - to be loved.
The unwanted-to be wanted.
The Leper-to wash his wounds.
The Beggar-to give him a smile.
The Drunkard - to listen to him.
The Mental-to protect him.
The Little One - to embrace him.
The Blind-to lead him.
The Dumb- to speak for him.
The Crippled - to walk with him.
The Drug Addict-to befriend him.
The Prostitute - to remove from danger and befriend her.
The Prisoner - to be visited.
The Old - to be served.
May God give us the grace of His Holy Spirit to receive Jesus and allow our spirits to Leap with Joy. AMEN.
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.50 And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.51 He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;52 he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;53 he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.54 He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,55 as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (ESV)
This past week I've been contemplating a number of disparate readings, events, music and film: The Gospel, The Copenhagen Summit, The Health Care machinations, The Christmas music of Sting, a current movie, and Mother Teresa's reflections on her Life for the Poor.
I've noticed a huge contrast in approach to the world's problems. Like the ill-fated builders of the tower of Babel, the nations of the world have met in Copenhagen to try to fix the global climate and Congress has been trying to hammer out a scheme to fix the ailing health care system. Their attempts to address the world's problems are desperate, filled with duplicity and greed, and blatant in their intention to micro-manage people's lives. There is anger and frustration with those who don't want to go along with the Grand Plan.
Everywhere, people observe what Stings sings about in his song, 'Lullaby for an Anxious Child":
"The world is broken now,
All in sorrow
Wise men hang their heads."
Sorrow, brokenness and despair are the natural conditions of the world. Joy is not its default setting.
But reading the Good News this week from Luke, we find this very thing: Joy!
In Chapter 1, vv39-41, after the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary that she was to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and bear a child called Jesus, we learn that she "arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb." In verse 44, Elizabeth explains that when the sound of Mary's greeting came to her ears, the baby in her womb leaped - for joy.
Unlike the world, the Christian default setting is indeed Joy.
The baby leaped for joy in Elizabeth's womb. (Remember, the baby was John the Baptist, the very same scary prophet that called the pharisees a brood of vipers.) John leaped for Joy when he sensed the presence of Jesus within Mary.
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (vv. 41, 42) She too was filled with Joy.
And then Mary gets into the act and sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...(v.47)
You see, Joy comes to us when we recognize and acknowledge the Presence of Jesus in our midst. And Advent is all about preparing for and acknowledging this wonderful Presence.
The pop singer Sting is a self-proclaimed agnostic, but he sings this wonderful traditional lullaby called "Balulalow":
"O my dear heart, young Jesu sweet,
Prepare thy credle in my spreit (sic)
And I shall rock thee in my heart
and never more from thee depart.
But I shall praise thee evermore
With sangis sweet unto thy glore
The knees of my heart shall I bow,
And sing that rich Balulalow."
Joy and Praise come in when we welcome Christ and bend the knees of our hearts to Him.
So, let me ask you some questions: Today, does your spirit rejoice and leap over Jesus? Do you know Him personally? Do you recognize Him in others? And does the joy of knowing Jesus in your heart cause you to serve him by serving others with Joy? I hope so, for the Leap of Joy is what makes life worthwhile and meaningful.
In the book of her collected sayings, 'My Life for the Poor," Mother Teresa describes the inner joy of Knowing Jesus:
"To me Jesus is my God.
Jesus is my Spouse.
Jesus is my Life.
Jesus is my only Love.
Jesus is my All in all.
Jesus is my Everything."
"A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love," she says (pg. 40). "Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love."
The love of Jesus is what causes our hearts to leap with joy.
So let's ask the question again, "Has your heart ever leaped with joy in recognizing Jesus?"
It's possible that you may not have had a dramatic conversion experience where you went from night to day, despair to joy in a moment. Maybe the joy of Jesus grew within you gradually as your parents raised you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
But maybe somewhere along the way, you have had other experiences of Joy which looked or felt like something else - namely a call to service.
When I drove past 1410 Charleston Avenue one August morning in 2006 and was arrested by that For Sale sign in the yard, it didn't really feel like Joy. Actually, it was profoundly troubling. My heart leaped in recognition, but it was more like and instant understanding that something had changed within me in a moment - that I was being called to something I could not fathom at the time. This too is Joy - but it's a call to give out the Joy we have been given.
When Cindy and I sat down with Tina Ward and Jasmine and watched little Kion throw a football like he was born to it - something leaped within my heart. I had a vision of him playing college football - it must have been God, because I saw him playing for WVU - and I'm a four-generation Marshall man! I saw a whole life of potential in a two year old and longed for that potential to be realized, not snuffed out like his uncle Donte's was, when he died in the driveway at 1410 Charleston Ave.
Maybe you felt it too when you picked an item from the Angel Tree. Is this not the recognition of Jesus? Yes, I believe it is. And the joy we give out has an impact upon the world. Mother Teresa again:
"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls." (MLFP, Pg. 40).
The joy we receive from God through Christ propels us out "into the world to love and serve Him" by ministering to the lost, the broken and lonely one soul at a time.
Unlike the kingdoms of this world, which scheme on a global level, trying to change the masses, we Christians are called to love our neighbors as individuals, one at a time, often in obscurity and seeming insignificance.
For some reason, God actually seems to enjoy obscurity. Mary, lived in an obscure town in an obscure country. She said yes to bearing one child - and her child was born in still more obscure stable. He lived an obscure life. But this Child named Jesus went on to change the world!
Last night, Cindy and I went to see the movie "The Blind Side" a true story about a wealthy white Christian family that adopts a young black man and helps him go on to become a football hero. There's a moment in the film, where Leanne, the mother, comes face to face with the knowledge that Michael has never had his own bed in all his almost 18 years of life. Leanne is profoundly affected by this stark fact and has to go into the other room and sit down. I believe it is at that moment that her heart leaped - and she realized that she would have to really 'prepare a credle in her heart' for Michael and so welcome him -as if he were Christ in distressing disguise, as Mother Teresa puts it.
One family welcomed one young man into their hearts. Did they change the world?
In another scene from the Blind Side, we hear Leanne's voice talking and see the newspaper clippings about all the young men she had read about in the newspaper who had had wonderful athletic talent and potential, but whose lives were cut short by gang and drug related violence. At the end of the sequence, she comments that she had taken in one such young man - and he didn't die. Instead he reached his potential - and is going on to affect many lives himself. Can there be any doubt that Leanne and her family changed the course of history?
'What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean. but if we don't do it, the ocean would be one drop less", says Teresa. When we serve as if we are 'doing it to Jesus' we profoundly change the world. We can even win souls.
"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls", says Mother Teresa.
She goes on to tell how an atheist came to the Home for the Dying in Calcutta and watched a sister care for a dying man covered with maggots.
"The [atheist] stood there, watching the sister and then he returned and said, "I came here godless. I came here full of hatred. I am going full of God. I have seen god's love in action. I have seen that through those hands of that sister, through her face, through her tenderness, so full of love for that man. Now I believe." (Pg. 42). The atheist's heart leaped for joy when he saw Jesus in action.
As did the heart of a Hindu man who came to the Home for the Dying and said, "Your religion must be true. Christ must be true if he helps you to do what you're doing."
Joyful service is a silent apologetic for the Gospel. It helps people encounter Jesus.
But as always, it's easier to hear inspiring service than to practice it. It's easier to love a million people in Africa than it is to love one cranky neighbor next door. The challenge is always to start where you are right here and now. That's why in our Advent meditations we have emphasized listening to what God may be leading us to do in our own neighborhoods and circles of acquaintance.
During our Wednesday evening devotions, we have heard a number of inspiring testimonies about how God has directed some of us into service opportunities such as adopting a Muslim child, having lunch with a group of friends and praying for an agnostic at work. I believe that, even now, He is leading us to reach out to the un-churched, the spiritually confused, the lonely and the poor - right around us.
As I have announced previously, to give us more time to discern and follow his leading, we will suspend our 8th Day Life Groups between Christmas and Lent. As we do this, who knows how our hearts will leap in response to Jesus?!
I urge you to open yourselves to recognize the presence of Christ in our midst - personified in one another, in the reading and hearing of the Logos, in the bread and wine, and in the face of the poor around us, whether they be financially or emotionally poor. Let the Holy Spirit cause your heart to leap, and then rejoice that the Mighty One will do great things in you, just as he did for Mary.
I'd like to have us close now by saying responsively a sort of litany adapted from My Life for the Poor, entitled This is Jesus to Me:
Jesus is:
The Word - to be spoken
The Truth - to be told.
The Way - to be walked.
The Light - to be lit.
The Life - to be lived.
The Love-to be loved.
The Joy- to be shared
The Sacrifice- to be offered.
The Peace- to be given.
The Bread of life-to be eaten
The Hungry - to be fed.
The Thirsty - to b satiated.
The Naked - to be clothed.
The Homeless - to be taken in.
The Sick - to be healed.
The Lonely - to be loved.
The unwanted-to be wanted.
The Leper-to wash his wounds.
The Beggar-to give him a smile.
The Drunkard - to listen to him.
The Mental-to protect him.
The Little One - to embrace him.
The Blind-to lead him.
The Dumb- to speak for him.
The Crippled - to walk with him.
The Drug Addict-to befriend him.
The Prostitute - to remove from danger and befriend her.
The Prisoner - to be visited.
The Old - to be served.
May God give us the grace of His Holy Spirit to receive Jesus and allow our spirits to Leap with Joy. AMEN.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sting on Christmas
This past week, I've been listening with great interest to music by an artist that I have been aware of, but consciously avoided - Sting!
After hearing a snippet of him singing Gabriel's Message, I bought the album (at Starbuck's!) and started listening in earnest. I soon realized that I purchased not only some very different Christmas music - but a full postmodern commentary on Christmas itself. Here are some selected comments from the liner notes of 'If on a Winter's Night':
"Since the first millennium the festival of Christmas has become the central and defining event of the winter season: the story of Christ's birth contains many magical elements, prefigured by ancient prophecy: the god king born among animals in a stable, the mysterious star in the East, the three Wise Men, King Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents, Mary and Joseph and the conundrum of the Virgin Birth. I appreciate the beauty of these stories and how they have inspired musicians and poets for many centuries . It was my desire to treat those themes with reverence and respect, and despite my personal agnosticism, the sacred symbolism of the Church's art still exerts a powerful influenced over me."
"Implicit in the story of the birth of Christ is the knowledge of his death and his subsequent Resurrection. This is what connects it to the secular songs about the cycle of the seasons. We are reminded that there is light and life at the center of the darkness that is Winter - or conversely, that , no matter how comfortable we feel in the cradle, there is darkness and danger all around us."
"The magical quality of the Christian story is not diminished by the knowledge that much of the myth of Christmas seems to have been superimposed upon an ancient matrix. ...For me it was important to draw parallels between the Christian story and the older traditions of the winter solstice. ...These myths and stories are our common cultural heritage, and as such need to be kept alive through reinterpretation within the contest of contemporary thinking, even if that thinking is essentially agnostic. ...all of us need our myths to live by.. "
These comments are very instructive to those of us who want to understand how thoughtful non-Christians view Christmas - and the Christian faith itself. Christianity is seen to be mythic in the same way the older pagan stories of the WinterSolstice are mythic. There is an appreciation for the 'beauty' and power of the stories, but an attitude of personal agnosticism. And there is some genuine insight into the mystery of Christ's Incarnation, Death and Resurrection. Finally, Sting acknowleges the power of the Chrisitan story over him. I imagine that it would quite stimulating to sit down and have a chat with him about The Faith. But it seems to me it would be very difficult to move him from his thoughtful Agnosticism to personal faith - indeed only God can do this, I know.
We need to pray that God Himself would open the eyes of the heart so that people like Sting can understand the true power and beauty of the Christian story - not just as story, but as reality!
After hearing a snippet of him singing Gabriel's Message, I bought the album (at Starbuck's!) and started listening in earnest. I soon realized that I purchased not only some very different Christmas music - but a full postmodern commentary on Christmas itself. Here are some selected comments from the liner notes of 'If on a Winter's Night':
"Since the first millennium the festival of Christmas has become the central and defining event of the winter season: the story of Christ's birth contains many magical elements, prefigured by ancient prophecy: the god king born among animals in a stable, the mysterious star in the East, the three Wise Men, King Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents, Mary and Joseph and the conundrum of the Virgin Birth. I appreciate the beauty of these stories and how they have inspired musicians and poets for many centuries . It was my desire to treat those themes with reverence and respect, and despite my personal agnosticism, the sacred symbolism of the Church's art still exerts a powerful influenced over me."
"Implicit in the story of the birth of Christ is the knowledge of his death and his subsequent Resurrection. This is what connects it to the secular songs about the cycle of the seasons. We are reminded that there is light and life at the center of the darkness that is Winter - or conversely, that , no matter how comfortable we feel in the cradle, there is darkness and danger all around us."
"The magical quality of the Christian story is not diminished by the knowledge that much of the myth of Christmas seems to have been superimposed upon an ancient matrix. ...For me it was important to draw parallels between the Christian story and the older traditions of the winter solstice. ...These myths and stories are our common cultural heritage, and as such need to be kept alive through reinterpretation within the contest of contemporary thinking, even if that thinking is essentially agnostic. ...all of us need our myths to live by.. "
These comments are very instructive to those of us who want to understand how thoughtful non-Christians view Christmas - and the Christian faith itself. Christianity is seen to be mythic in the same way the older pagan stories of the WinterSolstice are mythic. There is an appreciation for the 'beauty' and power of the stories, but an attitude of personal agnosticism. And there is some genuine insight into the mystery of Christ's Incarnation, Death and Resurrection. Finally, Sting acknowleges the power of the Chrisitan story over him. I imagine that it would quite stimulating to sit down and have a chat with him about The Faith. But it seems to me it would be very difficult to move him from his thoughtful Agnosticism to personal faith - indeed only God can do this, I know.
We need to pray that God Himself would open the eyes of the heart so that people like Sting can understand the true power and beauty of the Christian story - not just as story, but as reality!
Sunday, December 06, 2009
What Repentance is FOR
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on December 6, 2009 (II Advent) at teh Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Collect: Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:
Baruch 5:1-9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name,
"Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."
Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:‘Prepare the way of the Lord, [1]make his paths straight.5 Every valley shall be filled,and every mountain and hill shall be made low,and the crooked shall become straight,and the rough places shall become level ways,6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Something to Sing About
When I was young, my parents would often take us to a performance of the Messiah at Christmas time. One famous pair of arias from that work is: Comfort, ye my people/Every Valley Shall be exalted. - based on Isaiah 40:4. It's for a tenor voice, and there's this wonderful way that Handel treats the melody.
When he gets to the world 'exalted', the tenor sings exal-al-al etc. The song itself imitates the nature of what the Lord will do. The valleys will be exalted, every mountain and hill made low, the cro - oked straight and the rough places plain.
There's also a dramatic part in Comfort ye my people". The music pauses and the tenor sings: "The voice of one crying in the wil-derness, Prepare ye the way of the Lo-rd. make straight in the desert, a high-way. For our G-od! (Bum-Bum.)
As Christians, we've learned to associate the 'one crying in the wilderness' with John the Baptist. He was crying in the wilderness - and the people were going out to him to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. His was a ministry of calling people to repentance - of asking people to make their hearts straight before God.
John is not a real warm-fuzzy kind of guy. It's true he did wear wild animal pelts for clothing, but his demeanor was not exactly meek and mild. It was more like,
"COME OUT HERE YOU MISERABLE SINNERS! CONFESS YOUR SINS! FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME! - RIGHT NOW!
Maybe the closest thing that many of us can relate this to would be going to the principle's office to be rebuked for some infraction. I remember one time when I was in junior high school, acting up in class and being sent down to Mr. Maturen's office. (He was actually the Vice-Principle). It wasn't a real pleasant experience.
I think John the Baptist was his cousin.
He was kind of a hatchet-faced sort of man. He didn't smile very much, and you wondered whether or not his face wasn't permanently cast into a frown. When you went to Mr. Maturen's office, you knew you were going to be "called on the carpet" - 'dressed down' - 'taken down a notch'. Yelled at!
Believe me, when I went to his office, I was not rejoicing that I was going to get the book thrown at me. Being happy or joyful was the farthest thing from my mind at that time. And believe me, too, that I wasn't so much interested in confessing and repenting of my sins, as I was finding a way out of the trouble!
By way of contrast, Cindy tells about one of her sisters, who seemed to have a penchant for being bad at times. When the tension would get too great, she would almost beg to be whipped. She just wanted to hurry up and get it over and clear the air, so things could get back to normal. (Both Cindy and I were amazed by that behavior.)
Cindy's sister probably had a better understanding of repentance than either Cindy or I: Confess the crime, take the whuppin', cut the tension and get back on the right track! She knew there was something on the other side of repentance - in her case 'normalcy'. But thinking about it as Christians, we know God wants something infinitely better for us: JOY! And that's what we are going to talk about today: Joy - because that's what repentance is For.
Baruch, Jeremiah and Isaiah
Now let's go back and look at our texts. There's an interesting similarity between our reading from Baruch and the quotation from Isaiah found in our Gospel reading: Baruch says, "For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground"...
Sounds pretty similar to the text from the Messiah aria from Isaiah 40:1 quoted in Luke: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked straight, the rough places plain..." ( KJV) Some writers think that Baruch's writing depends upon the book of Isaiah for its content - and judging from the two sentences we just quoted, they're probably right.
At any rate, Baruch was Jeremiah's scribe. He was the one who actually wrote down the prophecies. The book that bears his name is from the Old Testament Apocrypha. Scholars call it a 'deutero-canonical' book. That means 'second-string' - not quite up to snuff, not accepted by everyone. Although his book has some beautiful and powerful passages, and we read it out in church, yet it is not included in the canon of scripture. In this case, it's likely because Baruch was the scribe, not the prophet himself and so his work lacked prophetic authority.
Regarding the circumstances of Baruch's writing - he was with Jeremiah from before the siege of Jerusalem, when the prophet tried to warn the people of what was coming: wrath, destruction of the city, and exile to Babylon.
Sadly, the people ignored the warning and disaster came upon them. The city was destroyed and the best of the people were exiled to Babylon. After the destruction, Jeremiah continued to live in Palestine for a time, and then went to Egypt, where he probably stayed until he died. Baruch was likely taken to Babylon and lived their until he died.
His words that we read today are addressed to the Jewish people in the midst of their bitter captivity. They are words of hope, words of promise to a beaten- down people, words that indicate that the tide is about to turn in their favor.
"Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;"
Take off something and put on something. Take off sorrow and mourning and put on joy. This sounds similar to Isaiah 61:3: "To grant those who mourn... a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning..."
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting (NASB). Joy and Gladness; these are the results of Repentance. These are the things that the Lord wants us to have in abundance.
In our readings today, we can also see several other marvelous things He wants for us:
Beauty
Glory
The Robe of Righteousness
Splendor
Peace
Godly Glory
Joy
Mercy
Righteousness
Laughter
Grace
Peace
Purity
Blamelessness
The Fruit of Righteousness
Quite a list, eh?! These things add up to more than just mere happiness. They indicate something deeper than pleasure when something goes right at work, satisfaction when you've had a fun day, or excitement when Marshall or WVU wins a game. These characteristics are indicative of being reconciled with God - something that only comes about through repentance.
Now the most dramatic story of repentance I can think of in the Gospels is the story of the Prodigal son. When this young man got to the lowest point of his life, He came to his senses and went back to his Father and said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”
As we know from hearing the story many times, the father " felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. He told his servants to bring the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, so they could celebrate (Lk. 15:11-32). The son came into his father's joy after he had repented.
In the story of Job, a righteous man loses everything. He longs to plead his case before God, but when God shows up and starts asking Job questions, such as: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell me, if you have understanding" (Job 38:4), Job can only respond by saying:
..."I have uttered what I did not understand,things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
I had heard of you [God] by the hearing of the ear,but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself,and repent in dust and ashes.”Job 42: 2-6).
It's the Hebrew equivalent of saying, "Well, shut my mouth!"
Most of us can relate to this. I see it all the time in my counseling practice - especially as people deal with sexual abuse in their backgrounds. They suffer, and God doesn't respond to their suffering the way the think He should. They withdraw from God, and seek solace in material things, promiscuous relationships or drug and alcohol abuse. And then, during healing prayer, when we invite Christ to come into a picture of the abuse, invariably they say, "I see him now....He was there all along, I just couldn't see it."
How often we do this. We jump to conclusions about things we don't understand and we get all bollixed up and stuck. This is a clue to repent - to be like Job and say, "Shut my mouth!" - To give up trying to make it come out the way I think it should - to acknowledge that God is God and I'm not. To repent of our Pride and Self-Sufficiency.
We need to get to a place where we can be like the psalmist who said,
"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:1,2)
This is what it sounds like to be repentant: calm and quiet, unstuck, In that quiet place of listening all of a sudden you can realize that God is in charge after all.
The psalmist admonishes us:
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:3)
In other words, Repent of the Sin of Frank Sinatra! Stop doing it your way! Put your trust in the Lord. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight. Prov. 3:5)
The Bible promises us that when we repent, when we turn around and walk the other way, that he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We might have to take a whuppin like Cindy's sister did, or get dressed down, like I did in Mr. Maturen's office, but the goal is not to weigh us down and discourage us, but to lift us up, to turn us around and get us going in the right direction, to to lead us with joy, in the light of [God's] glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him, to exalt every valley, bring down every mountain, straighten the crooked, smooth out every rough place and to 'restore to us the joy of our salvation" (Ps. 51).
Jane's Story
Last week, we received an amazing phone call from a woman we have known for many years. Let's call her Jane. We met Jane and her husband 'John' through church during our days at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Jane had grown up in a very rigid environment and struggled with being rigid and obsessive herself. John too was rather compulsive and driven, having been raised in poverty. Money and security were very important to both of them, but it was also obvious they had a heart for ministry.
Despite their strugles, they really were kind and gracious people and we hit it off with them as a couple. We spent a lot of time with them when we lived close and after we both moved away, we've have been as involved with them as you can be when you live hundreds of miles apart from each other.
Up until about ten years ago, John always worked in the business world and he had well-paying corporate type jobs. But we always knew his heart was in ministry. He finally became sick and tired of the work that he was doing and launched into full-time ministry - much to Jane's consternation. She just couldn't see how they could support their family and make it financially with him in this very insecure ministry.
Sure enough, finances became very tight, and they didn't make it very well financially. Jane's world began to crumble and she began to lose hope that things would ever be different. When we talked to her she sounded flat emotionally and she began to develop some real severe emotional problems. Her husband questioned whether she was actually a Christian, and we wondered ourselves.
Some time in the last six months, Jane reached a breaking point. Everything within her just came to a screeching halt. In her desperation, she finally broke down and called out to God. She told Cindy that her prayer went something like this:
Jane's Prayer:
"God, I'm not even sure you're out there, but if you are, will you reveal yourself to me, even if it means tearing down everything I have ever believed about you? "
She said that after she prayed that prayer, she was emotionally spent and numb. As she sat there, exhausted, she began to have a dawning realization that she wasn't alone. Over the coming days and weeks, God began to show her, in many small ways, that he really was there with her and for her. She began to understanding that He is actually taking care of her.
He also impressed upon her this profound truth: "Ultimately, all anger is anger at God."
This allowed her to repent of her anger at God and become like that weaned child on its mother's lap. So, even in her pain she began to have joy. Even though her marriage was teetering on the brink of failure, God began to minister hope to her and give her a will to go on. He began to lead her to books that taught her about His true nature. He gave her a close friend that she could confide in - an Anam Chara - who listened well and kept her confidence. Her walls began to come down, and now, by God's grace she is starting to sound like a faithful Christian for the first time in her almost six decades of life!
And it's all because she was willing to repent, to say to God, "Shut my mouth! - and teach me about You!
God is answering her prayer - because He wants her to experience JOY! He is helping her to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain, to enlarge her heart so that she has a place for Jesus, a place where the God of the Universe can love and nurture her as one of His own dear children. This is what repentance is all about - what its' FOR - in a word, JOY!
Friends, this same God is calling out to you. Today, if your hear His voice speaking to you, I urge you, like the Psalmist, not to harden your heart as the people of Israel did (Ps 95), but to repent - so that you may know JOY!
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
Collect: Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:
Baruch 5:1-9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name,
"Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."
Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:‘Prepare the way of the Lord, [1]make his paths straight.5 Every valley shall be filled,and every mountain and hill shall be made low,and the crooked shall become straight,and the rough places shall become level ways,6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Something to Sing About
When I was young, my parents would often take us to a performance of the Messiah at Christmas time. One famous pair of arias from that work is: Comfort, ye my people/Every Valley Shall be exalted. - based on Isaiah 40:4. It's for a tenor voice, and there's this wonderful way that Handel treats the melody.
When he gets to the world 'exalted', the tenor sings exal-al-al etc. The song itself imitates the nature of what the Lord will do. The valleys will be exalted, every mountain and hill made low, the cro - oked straight and the rough places plain.
There's also a dramatic part in Comfort ye my people". The music pauses and the tenor sings: "The voice of one crying in the wil-derness, Prepare ye the way of the Lo-rd. make straight in the desert, a high-way. For our G-od! (Bum-Bum.)
As Christians, we've learned to associate the 'one crying in the wilderness' with John the Baptist. He was crying in the wilderness - and the people were going out to him to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. His was a ministry of calling people to repentance - of asking people to make their hearts straight before God.
John is not a real warm-fuzzy kind of guy. It's true he did wear wild animal pelts for clothing, but his demeanor was not exactly meek and mild. It was more like,
"COME OUT HERE YOU MISERABLE SINNERS! CONFESS YOUR SINS! FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME! - RIGHT NOW!
Maybe the closest thing that many of us can relate this to would be going to the principle's office to be rebuked for some infraction. I remember one time when I was in junior high school, acting up in class and being sent down to Mr. Maturen's office. (He was actually the Vice-Principle). It wasn't a real pleasant experience.
I think John the Baptist was his cousin.
He was kind of a hatchet-faced sort of man. He didn't smile very much, and you wondered whether or not his face wasn't permanently cast into a frown. When you went to Mr. Maturen's office, you knew you were going to be "called on the carpet" - 'dressed down' - 'taken down a notch'. Yelled at!
Believe me, when I went to his office, I was not rejoicing that I was going to get the book thrown at me. Being happy or joyful was the farthest thing from my mind at that time. And believe me, too, that I wasn't so much interested in confessing and repenting of my sins, as I was finding a way out of the trouble!
By way of contrast, Cindy tells about one of her sisters, who seemed to have a penchant for being bad at times. When the tension would get too great, she would almost beg to be whipped. She just wanted to hurry up and get it over and clear the air, so things could get back to normal. (Both Cindy and I were amazed by that behavior.)
Cindy's sister probably had a better understanding of repentance than either Cindy or I: Confess the crime, take the whuppin', cut the tension and get back on the right track! She knew there was something on the other side of repentance - in her case 'normalcy'. But thinking about it as Christians, we know God wants something infinitely better for us: JOY! And that's what we are going to talk about today: Joy - because that's what repentance is For.
Baruch, Jeremiah and Isaiah
Now let's go back and look at our texts. There's an interesting similarity between our reading from Baruch and the quotation from Isaiah found in our Gospel reading: Baruch says, "For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground"...
Sounds pretty similar to the text from the Messiah aria from Isaiah 40:1 quoted in Luke: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked straight, the rough places plain..." ( KJV) Some writers think that Baruch's writing depends upon the book of Isaiah for its content - and judging from the two sentences we just quoted, they're probably right.
At any rate, Baruch was Jeremiah's scribe. He was the one who actually wrote down the prophecies. The book that bears his name is from the Old Testament Apocrypha. Scholars call it a 'deutero-canonical' book. That means 'second-string' - not quite up to snuff, not accepted by everyone. Although his book has some beautiful and powerful passages, and we read it out in church, yet it is not included in the canon of scripture. In this case, it's likely because Baruch was the scribe, not the prophet himself and so his work lacked prophetic authority.
Regarding the circumstances of Baruch's writing - he was with Jeremiah from before the siege of Jerusalem, when the prophet tried to warn the people of what was coming: wrath, destruction of the city, and exile to Babylon.
Sadly, the people ignored the warning and disaster came upon them. The city was destroyed and the best of the people were exiled to Babylon. After the destruction, Jeremiah continued to live in Palestine for a time, and then went to Egypt, where he probably stayed until he died. Baruch was likely taken to Babylon and lived their until he died.
His words that we read today are addressed to the Jewish people in the midst of their bitter captivity. They are words of hope, words of promise to a beaten- down people, words that indicate that the tide is about to turn in their favor.
"Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;"
Take off something and put on something. Take off sorrow and mourning and put on joy. This sounds similar to Isaiah 61:3: "To grant those who mourn... a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning..."
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting (NASB). Joy and Gladness; these are the results of Repentance. These are the things that the Lord wants us to have in abundance.
In our readings today, we can also see several other marvelous things He wants for us:
Beauty
Glory
The Robe of Righteousness
Splendor
Peace
Godly Glory
Joy
Mercy
Righteousness
Laughter
Grace
Peace
Purity
Blamelessness
The Fruit of Righteousness
Quite a list, eh?! These things add up to more than just mere happiness. They indicate something deeper than pleasure when something goes right at work, satisfaction when you've had a fun day, or excitement when Marshall or WVU wins a game. These characteristics are indicative of being reconciled with God - something that only comes about through repentance.
Now the most dramatic story of repentance I can think of in the Gospels is the story of the Prodigal son. When this young man got to the lowest point of his life, He came to his senses and went back to his Father and said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”
As we know from hearing the story many times, the father " felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. He told his servants to bring the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, so they could celebrate (Lk. 15:11-32). The son came into his father's joy after he had repented.
In the story of Job, a righteous man loses everything. He longs to plead his case before God, but when God shows up and starts asking Job questions, such as: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell me, if you have understanding" (Job 38:4), Job can only respond by saying:
..."I have uttered what I did not understand,things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
I had heard of you [God] by the hearing of the ear,but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself,and repent in dust and ashes.”Job 42: 2-6).
It's the Hebrew equivalent of saying, "Well, shut my mouth!"
Most of us can relate to this. I see it all the time in my counseling practice - especially as people deal with sexual abuse in their backgrounds. They suffer, and God doesn't respond to their suffering the way the think He should. They withdraw from God, and seek solace in material things, promiscuous relationships or drug and alcohol abuse. And then, during healing prayer, when we invite Christ to come into a picture of the abuse, invariably they say, "I see him now....He was there all along, I just couldn't see it."
How often we do this. We jump to conclusions about things we don't understand and we get all bollixed up and stuck. This is a clue to repent - to be like Job and say, "Shut my mouth!" - To give up trying to make it come out the way I think it should - to acknowledge that God is God and I'm not. To repent of our Pride and Self-Sufficiency.
We need to get to a place where we can be like the psalmist who said,
"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:1,2)
This is what it sounds like to be repentant: calm and quiet, unstuck, In that quiet place of listening all of a sudden you can realize that God is in charge after all.
The psalmist admonishes us:
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:3)
In other words, Repent of the Sin of Frank Sinatra! Stop doing it your way! Put your trust in the Lord. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight. Prov. 3:5)
The Bible promises us that when we repent, when we turn around and walk the other way, that he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We might have to take a whuppin like Cindy's sister did, or get dressed down, like I did in Mr. Maturen's office, but the goal is not to weigh us down and discourage us, but to lift us up, to turn us around and get us going in the right direction, to to lead us with joy, in the light of [God's] glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him, to exalt every valley, bring down every mountain, straighten the crooked, smooth out every rough place and to 'restore to us the joy of our salvation" (Ps. 51).
Jane's Story
Last week, we received an amazing phone call from a woman we have known for many years. Let's call her Jane. We met Jane and her husband 'John' through church during our days at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Jane had grown up in a very rigid environment and struggled with being rigid and obsessive herself. John too was rather compulsive and driven, having been raised in poverty. Money and security were very important to both of them, but it was also obvious they had a heart for ministry.
Despite their strugles, they really were kind and gracious people and we hit it off with them as a couple. We spent a lot of time with them when we lived close and after we both moved away, we've have been as involved with them as you can be when you live hundreds of miles apart from each other.
Up until about ten years ago, John always worked in the business world and he had well-paying corporate type jobs. But we always knew his heart was in ministry. He finally became sick and tired of the work that he was doing and launched into full-time ministry - much to Jane's consternation. She just couldn't see how they could support their family and make it financially with him in this very insecure ministry.
Sure enough, finances became very tight, and they didn't make it very well financially. Jane's world began to crumble and she began to lose hope that things would ever be different. When we talked to her she sounded flat emotionally and she began to develop some real severe emotional problems. Her husband questioned whether she was actually a Christian, and we wondered ourselves.
Some time in the last six months, Jane reached a breaking point. Everything within her just came to a screeching halt. In her desperation, she finally broke down and called out to God. She told Cindy that her prayer went something like this:
Jane's Prayer:
"God, I'm not even sure you're out there, but if you are, will you reveal yourself to me, even if it means tearing down everything I have ever believed about you? "
She said that after she prayed that prayer, she was emotionally spent and numb. As she sat there, exhausted, she began to have a dawning realization that she wasn't alone. Over the coming days and weeks, God began to show her, in many small ways, that he really was there with her and for her. She began to understanding that He is actually taking care of her.
He also impressed upon her this profound truth: "Ultimately, all anger is anger at God."
This allowed her to repent of her anger at God and become like that weaned child on its mother's lap. So, even in her pain she began to have joy. Even though her marriage was teetering on the brink of failure, God began to minister hope to her and give her a will to go on. He began to lead her to books that taught her about His true nature. He gave her a close friend that she could confide in - an Anam Chara - who listened well and kept her confidence. Her walls began to come down, and now, by God's grace she is starting to sound like a faithful Christian for the first time in her almost six decades of life!
And it's all because she was willing to repent, to say to God, "Shut my mouth! - and teach me about You!
God is answering her prayer - because He wants her to experience JOY! He is helping her to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain, to enlarge her heart so that she has a place for Jesus, a place where the God of the Universe can love and nurture her as one of His own dear children. This is what repentance is all about - what its' FOR - in a word, JOY!
Friends, this same God is calling out to you. Today, if your hear His voice speaking to you, I urge you, like the Psalmist, not to harden your heart as the people of Israel did (Ps 95), but to repent - so that you may know JOY!
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)