Leaving and Following

Today (1-18), we started our journey with Abraham by considering his call (12.1-9).  It's a call to which all of us can relate.  

Like Abraham, we're called to be a blessing.  God has a mission, therefore, there is a church.  God has a mission to heal the world that he loves, so he calls together communities to be witnesses.  (I need to be careful with that sentence: I don't mean everyone is called to evangelize, but we're called to reflect the character of God, together).   This is what God is frequently up to--he's calling people together to be witnesses, to be a blessing.  It's our call as well.  

But to get there, God will frequently call us to leave the familiar.  God will call us to leave what we find so comfortable so that we can embrace the new.  It's a critical step that should not even need much comment.  However, this is where many struggle.  Isn't this where New Year's resolutions fail?  People make a commitment, forgetting that every commitment requires a renunciation.  If you want to read 100 books this year, you'll have to unplug the TV.  So it is for our spiritual lives.  God calls us to follow him and join him in a new adventure.  But to do that, we often--not always--are called to leave the familiar.  We must leave the sin that so easily entangles.  Or perhaps we're being called to a ministry, and we must leave the TV shows we really enjoy--moving away from the trite toward a treasure.  

Now please hear me:  I'm not trying to paint dramatic pictures of leaving the Tri-Valley area.  I'm envisioning a renunciation of a self focussed solely on comfort (or on some other idol) for a self centered on God and His will.   I'm also envisioning several tiny renunciations that keep us from getting stuck in a habit or a way of thinking which keeps us from loving others.  In short, most of us will not have to go anywhere in order to leave.  

The next part of the formula is that we're called to journey with God.  Abraham is not given a map or timeline--just a call to go with God, and God will show him the land.  It's truly a journey.

The same is true for us.  We're not called to follow some rules but to follow our savior.  It will be different for all of us.  But still we follow together.  Each person must decide whether or not he or she will respond and follow Jesus.  You won't know what it looks like.  It's a journey, but a journey well worth it.  

I pray God will continue to show the way you should go.  

Peace.

Holiness

Here are some loosely connected thoughts related to holiness, the theme of last Sunday's message:

First, holiness is both positive and negative.  As God calls us to holiness, he calls us to leave all that detracts from treating ourselves with respect and treating others with the reverence they deserve as children of God.  Examples would include the following:  pornography, lust, hatred, greed.  This is the negative aspects of holiness, we're called and empowered by God to say no to things that hurt us and others. The positive aspect of holiness is then living out of our new relationship with God through Christ in love.  Holiness is a fulfilling of the great commandment to love God and love others. 

  

Second, you can’t be holy alone.  Perhaps that statement needs to be audited.  But for now, I want to stay true to it.  Holiness is relational through and through.  Augustine believed that charity is the quintessential virtue for the Christian; and he also taught that holiness, defined by charity, leads us to others.  John Wesley believed there could be no holiness but social holiness.  Both of these men were standing on the foundation of scripture in making these statements.  When Isaiah talks about holiness he resorts to the themes of justice and mercy, as does the other prophets in the OT.  Paul speaks of love and hospitality in Romans 12-15.  Then read 1 Peter.  Peter calls the church to holiness but continues to define holiness relationally.  Holiness is personal (we all must appropriate, personally, what God has done in Christ), but holiness is not private (we can’t be holy on our own).  In short, we’re called to be holy together.  

Third, and related to everything else I've said, holiness makes us better at communal life.  Sin separates us from God, from ourselves, and from others.  That was the point of the illustration with the cardboard cutouts.  Sin keeps us from our true selves by making it very difficult to fellowship with others.  But as we grow closer to God, and as he speaks to us about our sin, we also draw closer to others.  This is the trajectory of the Law, the Prophets, Jesus, and Paul.    

Finally, holiness is a gift.  I can’t emphasize this enough.  Holiness is not something we obtain in our own strength.  We have been made alive in Christ.  In Christ we are made holy.  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, speaking to knuckleheads no less: “But you were washed, you were sanctified (made holy), you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (6.11).  Paul believes they already have the foundation of sanctification (holiness).   Yet this does not mean we stay as we are.  Instead, we must appropriate all that God has done for us.  We must become who we are.  John Wesley believed we must strive with God’s strength to pursue a holiness of heart and life, to respond to the gift that has been given to us.  Such is our call.  

Peace!

Death: The Final Enemy

Last Sunday (Dec. 20), we looked at Isaiah 25.  Isaiah acknowledges that death casts a long shadow over our lives.  In the words of Paul, "death is the final enemy" (1 Cor. 15).  

Unfortunately, we know this to be true.  Death wreaks havoc in our lives.  It does not care about to-do lists or unspoken words or even age.  It ruins everything we touch.  All we have is destined toward this unspeakable end.  

Yet there's more:  fear of death leads to so many other problems like lust and anger.  Sensing that life can't be held on to, many try to get the most of out of it, often by embracing perverse forms of sensuality--greed, lust or gluttony.  Without hope for true fulfillment, they make a god of their desires, looking for one fix after another, always thirsty never satisfied.  Fear of death easily leads to anger as well.   If we're gripped by fear, then anger is right around the corner.  Afraid of losing what we can't keep anyway, we are easily angered by anyone who represents a threat to our well-being.  

But there is good news.  The good news is that God has swallowed death.  Isaiah longed for it (Isaiah 25), believing that one day there will be a banquet not tainted with death and decay.  Paul proclaimed that this vision is coming true (1 Cor. 15).  Though death is still at work, we believe it is doomed to destruction.  Christ is the firstfruits of God's new creation; he is the start of a new kingdom that is without end.  

So we don't have to live in fear or anger or lust.  We can trust in the father's great love, a love that is greater than death.  We can live with joy and hope and peace, knowing that the Kingdom to come will give us what we really need and what we really want.  

Peace!  

The Gospel: God's Reign

What is the gospel?  I believe this question is critical, and what I answer here is provisional not final; but I’m hopeful it will point us in the right direction.  

If we take the ministry of Jesus seriously, the gospel (the good news) is the reign of God.  When Jesus started his ministry he began with a simple sermon: “The Kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1.14).  Both Matthew and Luke confirm this is what Jesus preached and lived—the good news of God’s kingdom.  To grasp the importance of this message, we need to understand that Israel longed for the time when God would become king, when his will and reign would start to break into history, when God would reclaim his creation and drive away all that diminishes life.  Jesus came and said, in essence, that which has been longed for is starting to happen right now in my ministry--this is that.  God’s world is beginning to replace this tired, old world in the ministry of Jesus. 

This truly is good news.  You can see how comprehensive and our holistic the gospel is.  It’s not merely about trying to get souls into heaven, but rather trying to get heaven into souls, right now.  Think about Jesus’ ministry:  it was the embodiment of God becoming king, and it included the whole person—physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and psychological.  Jesus healed people.  He eliminated the shame and guilt that keeps us from others and from God.  He drove out evil.   He challenged oppressive systems.  He formed a new community called to reflect the Triune God through reconciliation and non-retaliation.  It was truly a holistic gospel.

In other words, you don’t have to be an evangelist to be a witness. You can witness whenever you rescue a child in need.  You witness whenever you embrace the marginalized.  You witness whenever you feed the homeless or when you teach (and show) someone that God embraces them as they are.  This is the kingdom.

Recently we went to India.  The question was asked, Did you go to convert people?  The answer might be shocking to some of you.  No!  We did not go to convert anyone; conversion is God’s work.  Nor did we go to build the kingdom; that’s God’s responsibility.   And we did not go to change the world; changing the world is what God is already up to in Christ.  We went to India to give a glimpse (partial, of course) of what God’s reign is like.  And in God’s reign there is no outcast.  In God’s reign there is no disparity.  We went as witnesses.  You see, the church does not build the kingdom; it merely points to the kingdom.  This is our job.  It’s that simple, and of course, complex and challenging, and invigorating.  Peace!   

God's Help Our Response

Well, I'm not feeling particularly good about this morning's sermon.  I'm not sure why.  It might just be a feeling.  In fact, I feel (there's that dangerous word again) that whenever I explore that theme there's something wrong with what I'm saying or how I'm saying it.  

For now, I believe what I'm trying to communicate, but perhaps falling short, is that we're called to work with God so that we might learn to love as he wants us to love.  We can't change ourselves.  We need God's help.  The logic works like this:  God has worked and is at work and will work, therefore, we can work--and we should work!  We should work with the God who is working toward our own transformation.  Translation:  We have to be in the business of placing ourselves in environments where God can do his best transforming work.  

But here comes the hard part--how to talk about the practices that place us in an environment of God's transforming love?  Here's where I struggle.  I believe we should embrace certain means of grace--avenues that open us to God's love.  However, I don't want to impose those on anyone as "have-to's."  They should be "want-to's."  In other words, being called by God to participate in his kingdom, we then submit to a variety of means of grace.  And we need to learn to stay put, to practice stability in those things that really make a difference.  

What are the means of grace?  Here's a rough idea . . . as God calls you, of course:

Christians should pray.  Start with offering yourself to God everyday, perhaps.  Or find sometime to think about your day and begin to ask God how he might want you to live.  Open the bible to a Psalm and just let the words of the Psalmist guide your prayers.  These are just suggestions to get started.  

Christians ought to give themselves over to substance.   Devotional reading.  Scripture reading.  Thinking.  Good conversation.  These things are so important.  

Fellowship/Church.  It's what the good doctor orders.  Furthermore, we need to learn to stay put in those practices.  

Giving.  Giving transforms us.  Give it a try. 

 

Disciplines of denial.  There are moments when we need to go without something so that we might focus on the things of God.  Fasting from food.  Fasting from TV for a while, to spend more time thinking and praying.  

Again, these aren't "have-t0's," but "want-to's."   

What say you, the church?  

Peace!

Acedia and the Noonday Demon

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Perhaps we could also state the road to hell is paved with a slow descent into apathy, continually choosing the path of least resistance.  

The early monks were very concerned with this problem.  They sometimes referred to it as acedia or the noonday demon.  Both are related.  The noonday demon (I'm not picturing a literal demon here) comes and tries to knock us off course when the journey seems long.  The noonday demon makes us think that perhaps it isn't worth it:  the struggle, the toil, trying to love, trying to pray--it's all a waste of time.  

If we indulge those thoughts we might end up in a state of lethargy; we become infected with acedia.  We become apathetic creatures no longer capable of hope or of anger.  We become reluctant lovers.  Pain and suffer no longer move us.  Not even God and his great love is capable of motivating the slothful.  The status quo becomes our watchword and song.  No commitment is worthy of our lives other than the commitment to be committed to nothing so that we can keep our options open.  Many jealously guard the freedom to be committed to absolutely nothing; they don't want anyone to disturb their comfort.  A chaotic life without meaning or purpose is often the result; for without organizing our lives around something solid we let everyone else tell us how to live.  

To get out of this mess, we must continually respond to the Christ who is knocking on the door of our hearts (Revelation 3).  As he continued to pursue the lukewarm Laodiceans, so he continues to pursue us.  If only--if only!-- we will open the door of our hearts through prayer, study, and fellowship.  

Peace.

  

The Freedom of Forgiveness

We continue this series on learning how to live in and out of God’s love.  I liked what Paul said yesterday, “live in love.”  This is our call.  And to do that, we have to embrace this radical concept of forgiveness.  The alternative is too costly:  bitterness and anger will eat away at our hearts and steal our joy.

After all it’s undeniable, Christians are called to live out their salvation.  As we have been saved, so shall we live--forgiven, we are called to forgive (Ephesians 5.1-2, Matthew 6.14-15, 18.21-35). 

Yet, what is forgiveness?  How does it apply to the many situations we face?  In an attempt to answer those questions and to provide food for thought, it might be helpful to make a list of what forgiveness is and what it is not.   So here we go . . . 

1)   Forgiveness is not necessarily forgetting; but it’s no longer letting the past define the present.

2)   Forgiveness should not be taught or lived in such a way to invite more abuse.  Forgiveness can involve consequences. 

3)   Forgiveness does not mean we live with the belief that there is no evil or that evil no longer matters.  We can still call certain acts unjust and wrong. 

4)   Forgiveness does not always produce reconciliation.  After all, it takes two to tango. 

5)   Forgiveness is more than an act.  Instead, forgiveness is a new way of looking at the world because now we live in the realm of grace.

6)   Forgiveness on our part has nothing to do with that person being pardoned by God--for that to happen there must be repentance.

What should we add or subtract?  What are your thoughts?