Grace

God’s grace never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday, in Luke 7.36-50, we witnessed Jesus’ grace being extended to two different people. First, Jesus is extending grace to Simon, the Pharisee, by eating at his house. We need to remember that in first-century Palestine one did not eat with just anyone. Eating was a way of extending friendship and intimacy to another person. Jesus not only ate with sinners but also with Pharisees, as this text indicates. Second, there is the uninvited guest, a woman, a notorious sinner in town. She’s desperate. She breaks down upon seeing Jesus. Not being prepared for this, she dries off his feet with her hair, anoints his feet with perfume, and then proceeds to kiss them. Jesus forgives her and sends her in peace. Simon doesn’t get it. It’s offensive to him. Jesus reminds him that the one who is forgiven little loves little. We should interpret that verse with some irony. Jesus isn’t telling Simon to go out and sin so he can appreciate god’s forgiveness. Rather Jesus is saying that Simon doesn’t really see his need. He’s full of himself. More than likely, he suffers from pride of virtue. He doesn’t see how sinful his condemnation and judgmental spirit is. So in this text there is that typical divine reversal so characteristic of Luke’s gospel: The poor are filled; the rich are sent away empty. Both receive grace. Only one sees the need and therefore appropriates the healing grace of Christ. It might be true of us. Perhaps the only thing we lack is the one thing necessary to freedom, acknowledging that we can’t stand in God’s presence on our own merits; we need a Savior. Peace!

Wallflowers

I’m writing in the midst our VBS, so my thoughts might be scattered and my grammar worse than normal. Your grace will be greatly appreciated.

Yesterday, we looked at Luke 7.31-35. Jesus compares the religious leaders, who “rejected God’s purposes for themselves” (vs. 30), to children who are in the marketplace calling to one another: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not cry.” More than likely, this expression was used by children to taunt those who refused to participate in the games being played. In other words, Jesus believed these religious leaders were like wallflowers; they refused to dance to the music of God’s kingdom. Like all wallflowers they had their excuses: John the Baptist, he’s too strict; Jesus, he’s too liberal (vs. 33-34). They could not make room in their life for the newness of the Kingdom. The Kingdom embodied in Jesus didn’t (couldn’t fit?) into their understanding of reality.

What does this say to us? Or perhaps a better question is, in what ways might we end up as wallflowers, refusing to join in the movement of God’s grace and truth revealed in Jesus? I see three temptations in our world. First is the I’m-not-going-to-commit-to-anything temptation. Many people in our post-modern world refuse to commit to anything; they don’t want to take anything too seriously. They fail to recognize that not being committed is a commitment, a commitment to the belief that one should not commit to anything. Thus, they don’t want to stand anywhere. They refuse to commit because they don’t want to submit to any one thing, so they stand on the perimeter, refusing to dance. Second is the Christianity-must-be-relevant-to-my-life temptation. Christianity must fit into what I want to accomplish. Many seem to be saying, I have my dreams and goals, now show me what can Christianity do for me. I believe otherwise. I’m not half as concerned with making Christianity relevant to the modern the world as I’m with trying to form a people who will be relevant to God’s kingdom. But many who want Christianity to be relevant to their perceived needs might refuse to dance unless it fits into what they want to accomplish. It’s as if we’re asking God to repent and embrace what we want to do, which is contrary to the message of Jesus—“The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1.15). Third, in a consumeristic world, many believe Christianity needs to meet my needs. Some come to church and Christianity with a list of demands: Make it a good show, give me a thrilling sermon, make me happy. Then if it doesn’t meet their expectations, they check out, they become wallflowers refusing to dance to the music of God’s kingdom. In all of these ways, and in many more, we can end up refusing to let the music of the kingdom transform us. Something to think about. Peace.

The Compassionate Christ

Yesterday we looked at a very brief scene in Luke’s gospel—the raising of the widow’s dead son (Luke 7.11-17). In that story there is a collision of processions. One procession is trying to leave the city of Nain to bury the boy; the other procession, lead by Jesus, is trying to enter the city. In this collision—and perhaps chaos—Jesus sees the widow in all of her need. NIV (New International Version) says, “his heart went out to her.” But in Greek (the original language of the New Testament) it’s one word, splachnizomai. The word depicts a gut-wrenching compassion (cf. Acts 1.18; Matthew 9.36). Jesus hurt for this woman, so he acted. He raised the boy from the dead and gave the boy back to the widow. Her lot in life improved because she encountered Christ in all of his compassion.

Great story! But what does it mean for us today. I did not know for sure what direction to take the text. I wrestled with it for quite some time. On the one hand, I could talk about physical healing, which I believe in. Yet, any talk of physical healing opens up a host of complicated questions. I also believe that there is a more urgent healing—a healing of that which separates us from God and keeps us from living out the dream he dreams for our lives.

This is the direction I took yesterday, in part, because of some of the reading I’m doing right now on Eastern Orthodox Theology, suggesting that the goal in life is union with God and everything that happens to us—good or bad—is to be viewed as something directing us to this goal. I then suggested we need to be healed from any sin that remains in our life. Is there a more urgent healing than that? I can’t think of any. So we need to confess, own up, and let God’s grace begin to transform us. Christ in all of his compassion doesn't condemn us, he convicts us and empowers us to move forward in his strength.

I also suggested that we need to be healed from any emotional baggage that keeps us from loving God and practicing neighborly care—the type of emotional stuff that keeps us in bondage, not the normal everyday anxiety, fear, and sadness that characterizes our life this side of heaven. Sometimes, not always, we experience immobilizing emotional baggage because we are pursuing all the wrong stuff; we’re idolaters, in other words. I don’t mean that to be a blanket statement; it isn’t. It might not fit for you, but it certainly fits for me occasionally. My suggestion if you’re overwhelmed with emotional baggage: get some counseling, and at the time, consider whether or not the emotional baggage is there because your love is disordered (you’re loving all the wrong things). Again, that's not a cure-all, but it's true some of the time. Again, Christ in all of his compassion wants to guide us with his yoke which is easier than any other yoke we might be currently wearing.

Anyway, you get the point. We should submit ourselves to this Jesus in whom there is nothing but love and compassion, knowing that he wants to heal us so that we can love God and love others as we have been called to do. Peace!

The Marriage of Heaven and Earth--John 14.12

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also . . .” proclaims Jesus (John 14.12, NASB). As I said yesterday these words are startling; they should arrest our attention. Why? Because this not the way most people think about faith. Many people talk about faith as if it’s only some sort of private and personal commitment. Many assume faith is relegated exclusively to the soul or spirit but has little to do with our public life. Many of our metaphors we employ in the church suggest that the only way to experience salvation is to be rescued from this world and have our spirits whisked away to some sort of spiritual existence far from anything we currently know. This language unintentionally drives wedges between faith and works, behavior and belief, soul and body, spirit and matter. Naturally, in such a worldview as this, many conclude faith is just a private, spiritual commitment that guarantees some sort of existence for the afterlife.

Jesus thinks differently as this verse suggests. He’s apart of a great tradition, a very worldly religious perspective that reaches back into the Old Testament. Think about it: in the Exodus, God liberates people to be a new nation that embraces the politics of liberation; they are to embrace--as I read it through the life of Jesus--a politics of compassion and justice. In the same vein the prophets teach us that this is the way to interpret the Law. The prophets call the people of God to embrace a compassionate justice and a righteousness defined by neighborly care. Jesus is part of this great tradition. He talks about God’s coming kingdom, a kingdom that is breaking into history. (If you’re struggling with the word Kingdom, think dream. God has a dream to reclaim all of creation with his light and love. The dream starts with Abraham and ends with a new heaven and new earth so beautifully depicted in Revelation). So he calls us to repent, which does not necessarily mean go to an altar, feel real bad, and receive forgiveness so that you can go about your own business. Repent means to turn around; change your mind in light of this new reality—God’s coming kingdom. This is Jesus’ approach to faith. That’s why he can say without apology or without explanation, the one who believes in me will keep doing what I have been doing. He can say that because he doesn’t want to drive wedges between faith and works, between belief and behavior, between heaven and earth. They can’t be separated. To believe is to embrace a new way of living. To have faith is follow the Christ. Salvation is not an escape from this world but a call to participate in the dream that God is dreaming for this world. As N.T. Wright is fond of pointing out, Christianity doesn’t envision a divorce between heaven and earth but a marriage between the two. Christ-followers participate in this marriage now, giving witness to what God wants to accomplish. In other words, we are now a part of the great story of redemption: God has loved the world through Israel’s messiah—Jesus; Jesus has now ascended to the father, where he intercedes for us; the Spirit is now empowering us to live and love like Jesus. Peace!

Pentecost Sunday

Hello everyone. I hope you were inspired and challenged yesterday. I know I was. The thought might have been new for many of you. Nonetheless, it is an important one to grasp. I stated yesterday, to the best of my ability, that Pentecost Sunday is part of a much larger story—the story of a missionary God. He is a fountain of sending love. This belief reveals some of the more fundamental aspects of our faith. Why is there creation? Why Israel? Why Jesus? Why the church? Because God wants to share his light and love. God has a centrifugal force (a movement away from center) as well as a centripetal force (movement toward center). Through his Spirit, God is reaching out and drawing all of creation back into his liberating light and love. God through the ascended Christ sends his Spirit . . . to send (form and empower) the church to witness to God’s grace and truth. I like the way David Bosch states it in his classic book, Transforming Mission: “In the new image mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. ‘It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church’ (Moltmann 1977:64). Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love” (391, emphasis mine). I would encourage you to read that one more time, slowly. You see, the church doesn’t create a mission per se; its reason to be is mission. To be a church is to be sent out into God's creation. Likewise, to be a Spirit-filled disciple is to be sent. We're a part of God's dream to bring healing and restoration to the world.

But what does this mean? Does this mean we’re all called to be evangelists? Does this mean we have fight for our rights or for our country? Does this mean we have to start knocking on doors? Does this mean we need to leave for another country in order to be a missionary? No, it doesn't mean any of those things. It's deeper and more dynamic than anything those questions represent. We are to be witnesses to God’s salvation in Christ (Acts 1.8), not just do some witnessing whenever we feel the desire to prove something. And for Luke, salvation is multifaceted. Quoting Bosch again: “One could say that, for Luke, salvation actually has six dimensions: economic, social, political, physical, psychological, and spiritual” (117). To witness to such a dynamic salvation will require the entire community moving outward toward the world, responding to the Spirit’s direction and empowering presence, loving the world with words and deeds. In other words, we need to be shaped and fashioned by God’s movement of love so that we can actually embody the good news. What a great adventure! No doubt, we’re not up the task on our own. We need the empowering presence of the Christ. And so maybe we need to wait like the early disciples (cf. Luke 24.36-53), seeking God's transforming grace so that our hearts will be stretched and enlarged to make room for the new life in Christ. Peace!

Empowered to Obey

I hope yesterday’s sermon was a challenging one. Speaking from John 14.15-23, I stated that we are called to obey the empowering presence of the resurrected and ascended Christ. The challenge is simple: Jesus speaks as if obedience to his commands is a possibility. John Wesley would agree. He states, in so many words, that we sin not because we have to but because we do not take advantage of the transforming grace of God. This is a revolutionary thought. Many Christians function from the belief that we will always sin, that is, we will always live in disobedience to Christ. But many of us agreed yesterday that sin (disobedience) is forgivable but not excusable, especially in light of what God has done for us in Christ (cf. Romans 6, 7, 8; 1 John 3, 4). In other words, Christ can really transform us so that we actually want to obey him. This does not mean we’ll get it right; our witness to Christ will fall short of his perfect life. We will make mistakes and misjudgments. Our unique personalities and perspectives will get in the way of fully representing Christ’s love. We will always be frail humans, which means we will be tired, gloomy, grumpy, hungry, and sad on occasion (which is not sin per se). Furthermore, our journeys will consist of failures and setbacks, ups and downs. We won’t live flawlessly. We will be tempted, and we might even glance longer than we should at a particular sin. But all of this does not mean that we have to oppose the purposes of God for our lives. Christ can do great things in us and through us. So instead of embracing a gospel of sin-management (Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven), we must assume that God can really transform us (Christians are not only forgiven but empowered to believe and love). What a challenge! What an opportunity: to live and believe that what God commands he also wills to accomplish in our life. Through the empowering presence of Christ—the Holy Spirit, God is working for our transformation. The only question remaining: Will we work with him? Peace.

Question: Is this expecting too much or too little? If the bar is set too high, we will end up being fakes, too low, and we'll set ourselves up for failure. Any thoughts?

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Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. I’m always conflicted on what to do or say on this day. For starters, it isn’t a Christian holiday. Not that it’s wrong to honor our mothers and our fathers, it’s just that Mother’s Day isn’t something that everyone can celebrate, unlike other Christian holidays (Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, etc.) which speaks to every human and his/her most pressing need. What do you mean? Well, for many, Mother’s Day is a painful day—some don’t have fond memories, others weren’t able to have children for some reason or another, still others might feel guilty for how they actually mothered their children. So yesterday I talked briefly about some of the more motherly aspects of God. In scripture God is described as having maternal instincts, which should not surprise us since both men and women have been created in the image of God (Genesis 1.27). For example, the Hebrew word for compassion/mercy in Isaiah 63.7 is the same word used for womb in Isaiah 46.3 and 49.14. What a remarkable reference: God’s compassion is womb-like; it's safe, warm, and something the mother treasures. Also we are reminded in Isaiah 66.13 that as a mother comforts her child, so God will comfort Israel. Similarly, God’s faithful love is compared to that of a mother’s for her child: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49.15-16). After all, it’s God who has conceived and given birth to Israel in the first place (Numbers 11.12). The point to all of this is simple: God is not only like a father, but he is also like a mother. I’m not suggesting that we call God a mother; scripture never goes that far. Nonetheless, when wrestling with what God is like, motherly images are extremely helpful. So I hope that for all those who are reminded of what they don’t have on Mother’s Day, we (the church) can point them to God and to a community (a new family) that gives them the comfort they need. Peace.

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