All Day, Every Day Week 4: Submit

Our Worship Gathering for Sunday January 24 was cancelled due to Snowstorm Jonas and the 30+ inches that we received.  I have posted the sermon that I would have given along with the questions that we would have discussed in our gathering.  

Much of what we have been talking about these past 3 weeks in our series entitled All Day, every day: exploring the book of James has led us to this point.  Much of the themes of the book, and our discussions culminate in James 4.  Without what James is talking about in chapter 4, all the discussion before in chapters 1-3 aren’t even possible.  

Three weeks ago we began this series by looking at James 1 and talking about Trials and Temptations.  We will definitely be revisiting that discussion a bit today.  Without what we’ll be talking about today, the trials and temptations have the potential to derail us, knock us down and out for good.  

Two weeks ago we talked about the relationship between faith and works.  We talked about the idea that while faith alone saves us we should have a faith that isn’t alone.  In fact, I believe if our faith is alone (without works) do we even really have faith.  James in chapter 4 will get us to the true root of the balance of faith and works.  

Last week we talked about that tricky and often hard to control piece of flesh that sits in our mouths- the tongue.  We talked about how often we speak words of death, to ourselves and to othersAnd we talked about even though no human being can truly tame and control the tongue, we are to give the reigns and the steering mechanism of our tongues to him.  But without James 4 and what he unpacks in it, our control over the tongue won’t work.  

So what is in James 4 that is so important.  Why does the entire book seem to hinge on this chapter.  What’s in it that will help us and direct us and enable us to live out everything that we have just talked about over the last 3 weeks?  Let’s crack it open and see what is in James 4 and why it is foundational to live all day, every day under the rule and reign of Jesus the King.  

James 4:1-10 says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?  But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

James is trying to get to the heart of the matter, our hearts and what lies within them which then comes out whether in word (as we talked about last week) or in deed (what James is starting with here in chapter 4).  Jesus himself in Matthew 15 says, “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”  The early Jewish Christians that James is writing to (and really all followers of Jesus since the beginning) were struggling with an internal battle that raged within them and seeped out of them into their relationships with other followers of Jesus.  James puts this battle this way when he says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.”  Because Scripture is all contextual, there is no double that James was seeing this fighting and quarreling within the early church and is writing to address the early followers of Jesus and sharing with them what the root cause of their division and fighting is.  James is saying that within each person lies desires that are fundamentally against the ways of God, what we call our sinful nature.  These early followers of Jesus (and by nature everyone ever) had desires for material things, as well as things like their own way, people to follow them, etc…  These internal desires then led into conflict with others.  James says that when they don’t get their own way, it led to death.  Now is he saying that the early Christians got so wrapped up in their own desires that it lead to people killing each other literally, or is he alluding to a way that Jesus used the word killing/murder in the Sermon on the Mount?    James is looking back to the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus also used the word murder to express more than actual killing, but also as an inward condition of the heart shown outwardly by anger.  So these early Christians were quarreling, fighting, and “killing each other” because they weren’t getting what they wanted.  

This led even into their relationship with God himself.  There desire to get what they wanted even bled into their prayer lives.  James goes on to say, “You do not have because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”  There are two problems regarding how these early followers of Jesus were dealing with their desires. It was either no prayer or selfish prayer.  The first one was they weren’t even asking God for what they needed.  They did not seek God for their needs.  Ever been there?  I know that I have many times, trying to figure it out on my own.  And used prayer as the last resort and not the first option.  James reminds each of us of the great power of prayer and why we may live unnecessarily as a spiritual pauper, simply because we don’t not pray or do not ask when we pray.  

The second problem in relation to their desires and their prayers were the fact that if they ended up praying, their prayers were all about themselves, their desires, their needs and their wants.  They asked with wrong motives so they could spend what they got on themselves.  The word spend is the same verb used to describe the wasteful spending of the Prodigal Son.  The prayers of these followers of Jesus were self-centered and self-indulgent.  Ever been there?  Take a step back and look at the content of your prayers…are they all about you, your needs, your desires?  I know that I have been there before.  

The root of the problem that James then turns his attention to is the fact that we all have a divided heart.  James uses the evocative word adultery to describe this idea of a divided heart and divided loyalty.  He says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?”  Obviously James isn’t referring to actual adultery.  He is referring to the idea of spiritual adultery where Jesus is our groom and the church is the bride, and the bride is playing the field, so to speak.  Running around behind his back with the world.  Being friends with the world means being enemies with God- spiritual adultery.  But what does James mean when he says friendship with the world?   The world is the way the world behaves, the pattern of life, the underlying implicit story, the things people want, expect, long for and dream about that leads them to ask, think and behave.  So probably a better word or what James is getting at is the world system, the world system that is aligned against the ways of God.  To be a friend of the world system puts you in enmity with God.  To be a friend of God means that you tame the desires that are waging war inside of you for the things that you can’t get, the desires that push you to fight and even “kill” and make war.  

But how in the world do we live all day, every day under the rule and reign of King Jesus?  How do we follow Him and thrive in the midst of trials and temptations?  How do we live out the balance of faith and good deeds?  How do we live out our faith in the world?  How do we get control over our tongue?  And how do we become friends of God and not enemies?  James draws it all together in verses 7-10 and gives us some tangible ways that we are to live under the rule and reign of King Jesus and apply all that we have talked about and everything that James has written up to this point.  He says in verses 7-10, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” 

The first thing that we need to do to be friends with God and live out the Kingdom is to submit to God.  Put our lives under his rule and reign.  We should submit to God because he created us, because his rule is good for us, and it is the only way to have true peace.  But what does it look like to submit to God and his rule and reign in your life?  It obviously looks like what we have talked about the last 3 weeks.  But it also looks like the things that James spells out.  It means resisting the devil.  To resist the devil means to stand against.  If we are friends with God, and if we submit to God we will by nature then stand against and resist the devil.  Submitting to God doesn’t just mean resisting the devil.  Submitting to God means running away from the devil but running towards or drawing near to God.  There is an invitation and a promise.  That when we draw near to Him, through spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, and worship, his promise is that he will draw near to us.  

Submitting to God also means being repentant for your sins.  The times when you run after other lovers, when you commit spiritual adultery, making sure to turn around, repent of those times, and run after God a fresh.  And it’s means approaching life, our relationships, and our faith in humility unlike how the recipients of this letter were acting at the beginning of chapter 4 with arrogance and pride and seeking their own benefit.  

NT Wright in his commentary The Early Christian Letters for Everyonesays this about verses 8-10 and submitting to God, “Verses 8-10 (drawing near to God, cleansing hands and hearts, mourning and humility) seem to me like an agenda for at least 6 months of spiritual direction or perhaps for an extended silent retreat.”

If we are serious about living all day, every day for King Jesus and for his Kingdom, if we want to live faithfully during trials and temptations, if we want to show our faith by our deeds, and if we want to tame the tongue, than let’s take James’ words to heart and Submit to the Lordship of Jesus in your life.  Submit to God.  Resist the devil.  Draw near to God.  Mourn and Repent of your spiritual adultery.  And live humble lives in how you engage with each other.  

But what does it mean on the ground in the every day to submit to God and draw near to Him.  How do you submit to God and what spiritual disciplines have you used that help you draw near to Him?  How does this Scripture help you live under the rule and reign of God?  And what might God be saying to you about living and submitting to his rule in your life?  Let’s talk about those things together. 

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and or message?

2.  What does it mean in the every day, on-the-ground reality to submit to God and draw near to Him?  How do you submit to God and what spiritual disciplines do you use to help you draw near to God?

3.  How does this Scripture help you live under the rule and reign of King Jesus?  

4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

All Day, Every Day Week 3: Taming the Tongue

Today we are halfway through our 6 week series entitled All Day, every day: exploring the book of James.  Today we tackle James 3:1-12 which no doubt will be an uncomfortable experience for all of us, because this is an area that we all struggle with in our lives, how we tame the tongue.  

But before we begin looking at our text this morning, let’s take a quick look back and see where we’ve been.  Two weeks ago we looked at James 1:2-18 and spent our morning talking about Trials and Temptations and how in the midst of trying times we can draw near to God, and how we can trust Him to bring us through.  Last week we looked at James 2:14-28 and we talked about the relationship between faith and works and we can to the conclusion that while it is faith alone that saves, a truly saving faith is not alone.  That faith and works go hand and in hand and if you have a faith you will live it through being a blessing.  

So now we look together at James 3:1-12, and really a direct connection to last week.  One way that faith works itself out in action is related to this little thing that sits in our mouth and has so much potential to either bring life or bring death.  

James 3:1-12 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.  We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.  Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,  but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.  Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

So let’s unpack this text a little bit and see what it has to say to us regarding what it looks like to live all day, every day following Jesus and living for his kingdom.  

One of the first thing that James does in this text is to level the playing field.  He makes it crystal clear that every single person (save one) who has ever and will ever walk the face of this earth stumbles.  He says, “We all stumble in many ways.”  The ancient Greek world that is translated stumble does not imply a fatal fall, but something that trips us up and hinders our spiritual progress.  And probably one of the things that trips each one of us the most is the tongue.  We stumble in word about ourselves through pride, boasting, ego, etc….  We stumble in word about others through slander, criticism, gossip, put downs, etc…Think about all the times that your words have gotten you in trouble.  Words that have come out of your mouth that cut, hurt, and brought death to people.  We all stumble with our use of our tongue.

James then says, “Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”  If you want to measure your own spiritual maturity or figure out someone else’s spiritual maturity just look at the tongue.  What we say can indicate what we are.  And any pretense of being devout that doesn’t result in a serious working over of our speech habits is a sham.  James is really saying that if you get control of your tongue, which is probably the hardest thing to reign in, than your whole body will follow.  

James then makes two metaphors for the tongue.  He equates the small thing inside our mouth with a small bit in a mouth of a horse, and a rudder on the back of a ship.  He says this, “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.”  The bit in a mouth of a horse is placed into the mouth of a horse and connected to the reigns.  When the rider pulls on the reigns, it in turn puts pressure on the bit in the horse’s mouth and the rider than can control where the horse is to go.  The rudder is very much the same thing in a ship.  It is a small piece connected to the back of the ship and is used for directing where the ship is to go.  Just as the horse bit determines where the horse goes, and just as the rudder determines where the ship goes, the tongue can determine the way a person is going.   Jesus pointed out that what comes out of the mouth is a sing of what is really there, deep in the heart.  If someone turns out to be pouring out curses- cursing other humans who are also made in the image of God- then one must at least question whether their heart has been properly cleansed, rinsed by God’s powerful Spirit.  These metaphors got me thinking.  If a rider on the horse has control over the horse through the reigns which is attached to the bit in the mouth.  And if the captain has control of the rudder by means of some kind of steering mechanism.  Then who holds the reigns and the steering mechanism to your tongue? 

The next metaphor that James uses for the tongue is the metaphor of fire.  He says, “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”  Pretty graphic imagery of what kind of damage our tongues can actually do.  Think about the small spark that a match or cigarette can do if not extinguished.  It can literally burn down acres and acres of forest.  The same can be said for our tongue.  A small word can burn down an entire life.  What others say to us and what we say to others can last a lifetime, for good or evil.  The casual sarcastic or critical remark can inflict a lasting injury on another person.  Our small tongue has some much potential to bring so much life, beauty and hope but it also has so much potential to bring death, despair, and evil.  And that horrible little rhyme that we all know from childhood, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me.” is so far off.  In fact words have the power to do more damage than any sticks and stones.  Long after your bones are healed from being broken by the sticks and stones, the pain, the wounds, the fire that has consumed you from words spoken to you in anger, hate, judgment, condemnation, or even in “jest” have the potential to still be around. 

James then lays out the struggle of bridging the tongue under control.  He says, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,  but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”  James is saying that humanity has been able to tame all kinds of animals.  To domesticate the horse, the dog, the cat, and others.  Humanity has been able to bring these animals under control.  But we haven’t been able to tame or control the tongue.  James says in verse 8 that “no human being can tame the tongue.”  But while none of us can totally tame our tongues, and it will still make us stumble from time to time, there is hope for our tongues.  The tongue can be brought under the power and control of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit should be the one holding the reigns of our tongue and steering our tongues to speak words of life and blessing and hope, not of death, cruising, and hopelessness.  The gospel is the means to have the strength to live this calling out.  To have our tongues, our words and most of all, what lies at the root of our tongues and words, our heart, (because out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks) come under the rule and reign of King Jesus and his Kingdom.  

What James is really getting at within this passage is that those of us who call ourselves Followers of Jesus, should be following Jesus All Day, every day and following him through and through.  And that we are consistent in our lives, whether in our use of words and our tongues, or in our actions.  He gets at this idea of constantly following Jesus in the way we use our words when he says, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.  Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”  As followers of Jesus we are called to praise God with our tongues, and then speak words of life to people who are created in the image of God.  The Apostle John puts this idea this way, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”    If we claim to love God and worship Him with our life which includes our words, but yet we use our tongues to slander, gossip against, criticize, we must wonder just how much we actually love God, because loving God is intrinsically linked with love of neighbor.  And one way to show our love for God is to show love for your neighbor. And one amazing way to show our love for neighbor is in our words.  

One way that we as Christ followers can show our faith (like we talked about last week) is through the words that we speak.  We have the awesome opportunity to live out the call of Abraham found in Genesis 12:1-3: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you.  I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  To use our words to live out this calling to be a blessing.  

Let me end with a homework assignment and a few questions.  I bet you are thinking homework assignment?  Either I haven’t had a homework assignment in a very long time, or you are thinking I just got my semester syllabus and I got so much to do already.  Don’t worry this homework assignment won’t be very hard.  I want each of us to use our words this week to bless three people.  The first person that I want you to use your words to bless is another follower of Jesus.  It could be someone from Veritas or another follower of Jesus that you know.  The second person that I want you to use your words to bless is someone who is not currently a follower of Jesus.  And the third can be anyone of your choosing.  And next week our table conversation before the message will be to report back the stories of what transpired because of the words of blessing that you used.  

So are you speaking life into people?  Words of hope, encouragement, joy, peace, and good news?  Or are you using your tongue to bring death, discouragement, bad news, and conflict?  My prayer is that we would give the reigns and the steering mechanism of our tongue over to Jesus and He would be able to use our tongues to speak words of life.  

So let’s dialogue about what it looks like to live out what James is calling us to.  Let’s share stories of ways we have experienced either having words of life spoken to us, or speak words of life.  Let’s share stories of ways and times in which we have experienced having words of death spoken to us or when we have spoken words of death.  And let’s talk about ways that we can give the reigns and steering mechanism of our tongue over to Jesus and use our words and tongue for the Kingdom. 

1.  Share a story in which you either had words of life spoken to you or you spoke words of life to someone else.  Share a story in which you either had words of death spoken to you or you spoke words of death to someone else.

2.  What thoughts, insights, questions, comments, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

3.  What things or ways can you give Jesus the control over your tongue?  How can you use your words for Jesus and his Kingdom?

4.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

All Day, every day Week 2: Faith and Works

As I mentioned last week during the first sermon in our series entitled “All Day, every day: exploring the book of James, that a famous theologian and pastor, during the reformation, quipped that the book of James was an “epistle of straw”.  This theologian and pastor goes by the name of Martin Luther.  Now Luther, like all of us, was a person of his time, for better or worse.  And his quip, which is definitely not accurate, was due to how the book of James was being used.  The book of James was, at the time, being used to promote the idea that salvation could be bought and purchased by our good works.  But is that actually what the book of James teaches?  Can you work your way into a right relationship with God?  Can you do enough good deeds that will earn your salvation?  I believe part of reason that Martin Luther quipped about the book of James begin an “epistle of straw” is because others in his day were using the text that we will look at today to promote something that isn’t actually in the text, but also setting up what might seem like a contradiction between Paul’s teaching of salvation through faith alone and what James is writing in the text that we will be looking at today, which is James 2:14-26.

James 2:14-26 says this, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?  Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that his faith and his actions were working together,  and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.  In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”  

So do these verses in James contradict Paul’s statement in Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith(—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Let’s unpack this text in James further to see if there is indeed a contraction in the Scriptures.  

The first thing we see in James 2 is this question, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save them?”  To answer this question lets go back to who the audience is in the book of James.  We shared last week that the main audience for this work, or the people that James was writing to, were Jewish Christians who had come to believe that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.  This knowing the audience of the book of James is super important not only in the entire book of James, but especially in these verses that we are looking at.  James is making it pretty clear that it is impossible that someone would have a genuine saving faith that isn’t accompanied by works.  His audience of Jewish Christians discovered the glory of salvation by faith.  They knew the exhilaration of freedom from a works-based righteousness.  But instead of swinging to the middle, they swung all the way to the other side and other extreme by thinking that works didn’t matter at all.  If we truly believe something we will follow through and act upon it.  All too often today when we say the word faith or the word believe we limit it to a western understanding instead of a hebraic understanding.  A western understanding of the words faith or believe tends to be limited only to the mind and knowing.  The Hebraic is more holistic which means faith and belief transcend the knowing and the mind and into all areas of life. Not that it meant that it naturally happened that faith bled naturally into lives.  James was very concerned about a problem which was already arising in the early church and which is with us to this day- and it is addressed as “people who do the word not people who merely hear the word.”  

We all (Western, Hebraic, Eastern) struggle with taking faith and moving it from a cerebral context to an enfleshed lived out reality.  But true belief, true faith alone saves, but the faith that saves isn’t alone.  True belief and true faith will be accompanied by our getting our hands dirty for the kingdom.  True faith and true belief won’t be just limited to the head.  It will of course include the head, but will work it’s way to the heart and out from the heart to the hands and feet.  Orthodoxy (right belief) needs to lead to orthopraxy (right action) or I believe it isn’t orthodoxy.  

The question then that James asks, if faith isn’t accompanied by action it isn’t even saving faith, leads to this illustration.  James puts it this way, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”  There obviously is no point in saying to someone without clothes or food to be “warm and well fed”.  Words won’t do anything to help.  the world must be translated into action.  One of the actions/works that James expects from followers of Jesus to be doing is caring for the poor.  You know the saying, “It’s the thought that counts”?  Obviously, it isn’t the thought that counts, or even the words that come out of the mouth.  It is the action that is attached to the faith that makes the difference.  Without a radical change of life, that type of faith is then worthless or even dead, and will not rescue someone from sin and death.  If we fail in the most simplest of good works, towards a brother or sister in need, demonstrates that we don’t have a living faith and that type of faith can’t save us.  Because it is dead.  

Faith is dead, James says, unless it its connected with action.  He says “Show me your faith without deeds.”  Obviously he is saying that this is not even a possibility to do so.  Because to James, to show your faith, means to live in such a way that the faith becomes tangible in the real world.  It becomes an embodied faith.  And so you in the end are showing your faith.  We show our faith by our deeds he then goes on to say.  

Now this is again where we see clearly who he is audience is.  In verse 19 we read, “You believe that there is one God.  Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”  James goes back to the Shema from the Old Testament, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”  James is saying that saying that God is one doesn’t get you very far if the faith in the one God doesn’t make a difference in and through your life.  Even the demons know that God is one, and it doesn’t do them any good at all.  They have knowledge and belief that God is one, but it isn’t saving knowledge, saving belief or saving faith.  Clearly what James means here by faith is not what Paul and others developed as a full, Jesus-shaped meaning, it is a throwback to the ancient Jewish meaning- the confession that God is one.  But this doesn’t mean that Paul and James are in conflict about what faith is.  James is saying that faith needs to be translated into Jesus-shaped action, if it is to make any significant difference and it is at this point that the two come together where we find Paul, in his finest letter about faith and works offering this statement, “what matters is faith working through love.”  (Galatians 5:6)

To connect with his audience, and to again show them the fact that faith works its way out of the believer and into the world, James uses two famous characters from the Old Testament.  Both of those individuals would have been known widely by these Jewish Christians, and especially one of them would be held in seriously high regard while the other, who would seemingly not fit, ended up in the lineage of the Messiah himself.  

The first Old Testament character that James brings to his audience’s attention is Abraham.  He says, “Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that his faith and his actions were working together,  and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.”  James is alluding to 2 key passages that show that even Father Abraham not only believed and had faith, but that his faith led him into putting his faith into action.  The first allusion that James is making is to Genesis 15 where Abraham believes God’s promise to give him an enormous family.  Genesis 15:5-6 says, “He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[ be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”  The second allusion to Genesis is from Genesis 22 which is the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac up on Mount Moriah.  Abraham faced a stern test and commanded to sacrifice Isaac, his son by Sarah, the one through whom the promises of Genesis 15 were to be fulfilled.  Obviously Genesis 22 is a troubling and dark story but Abraham “passes the test” The faith he had at the beginning in Genesis 15 was translated into action in Genesis 22.  He believed what God had promised and he was prepared to put that faith into action.  That is what counted with Abraham and that is what counts with us.  

The second Old Testament character that James alludes to is the pagan prostitute Rahab, who appears in so many ways an unlikely candidate for the Hall of Faith and an example of faith that we should follow.  She lived in Jericho and she protected 2 spies from Israel from being found and captured.  She hid them on the roof while some soldiers from Jericho were looking for them, and she told the soldiers that they had already went through the gate of the town.  (You can read more of her story in Joshua 2).  She translated her belief, that Israel’s God was the one true God (Joshua 2:11-“the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”), into action- even though it was extremely risky and could have been life-threatening to her if she would have been found out.  

In closing, I want you to notice something regarding the last verse in this chapter.  James 2:24 says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”  James corresponds faith with the body and works with the spirit.  So often if we would rewrite it we would correspond the body with deeds and faith with the Spirit but James does it the other way around.  He is saying that the two (faith and works) are both vitally important, and one needs the other to live.  And so do we.  We need faith and we need to show our faith by being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.  We need a faith that matters, a faith that justifies, and a faith that saves…..and that kind of saving, redeeming, and reconciling faith is the kind of faith that lives out the calling of Genesis 12:1-3 (God’s calling upon his people to be a blessing) and Matthew 25 (the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats)

So let’s unpack together what it really looks like to live out this type of saving faith.  And let’s really ask each other the hard question that this passage and the entire book of James is really asking each of us, “Is our faith the real thing?”  Are we living out our faith all day, every day?

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions etc... do you have regarding the relationship between faith and works?

2.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

All Day, Every Day Week 1: The Two T's

Today we enter into a 6 week series entitled All Day, every day in which we will be exploring the 5 chapters of the New Testament book of James.  And then on the 31st of January is our 5th Sunday Day of Service where we will partner and work with Lincoln Middle School.  

A famous Theologian and Pastor once quipped about the book of James, that it was an “epistle of straw” but he was merely reacting to how the church was using the book to defend the idea that salvation could be “purchased” by our good works. But what does the book of James actually teach and how does it apply to our lives today? The book of James is one of the most practical books in all of the entirety of Scripture. It has a down-to-earth feel to it and shows us what it really means to follow Jesus and to live out his Kingdom here on earth. 

So today we are going to look at James 1:2-18 as well as give an overarching understanding about the book of James and a little context regarding the book.  

The book of James is believed to have either been written in the early 60’s but there is indication that it was written before the 60’s due to it’s distinctively Jewish nature,  a simple church order, no reference to controversy over Gentile circumcision, and the Greek term synagoge is used to designate the meeting or meeting place of the church.  So if the early dating is correct, James is the earliest of all the New Testament writings- with the possible exception of Galatians.  

The book of James is believed to have been written by James, the half brother of Jesus.  There are 4 other James in the New Testament (the apostle James, and the other two James who didn’t have the statue nor the influence that the writer of this book had).  While we don’t know for 100% certainty that the writer of this book, James is the 1/2 brother of Jesus, he is however the most likely candidate for authorship.  He was a strong central leader in the Jerusalem church over the first 30 years of Christianity.  He was martyred in 62 AD.  

The book that bears the name of James was written to encourage Christians across the world (the world at that known time) which he sees as the new version of the “12 dispersed tribes of Israel” to face up to the challenges of the faith.  It was probably written to primarily Jewish Christiansbecause at the time of writing (before 60 AD) the church was probably primarily still a Jewish movement within Judaism.  Also we listen to this book of James because so much of this text echoes the teachings of Jesus.  In fact, there are over 15 allusions to the Sermon on the Mount in the book of James.  

So with some history, context and background out of the way, let’s turn to James 1:2-18 and see what we might learn about following Jesus in the midst of the Two T’s.  

James 1:2-18 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature( and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.  For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”

The first T that we are faced with in James chapter one is the T of trials.  James considered trials for Christians to be inevitable.  In fact, the moment you decide to follow Jesus is the moment to expect trials to begin.  If someone tells you that deciding to follow Jesus is easy, and will make your life better in this world, run away as fast as you can.  Because following Jesus is not easy and you should expect trials to come as a result of deciding to follow Jesus.  There are many kinds of trials from actual persecution (which for the most part we in the American Church currently have undergone at all), to fierce and nasty temptations, to physical sickness to bereavement to family or financial troubles.  These trials, whatever form they may take, will according to James, will seek to test our faith.  And in the midst of those trials, James actually tells us to consider it all joy.  What?  To be joyful in the midst of pain, struggle, heartache, loss, and trials?  This seems upside down and backwards and very very hard to live out.  

Now to consider it pure joy when we go through trials is not about being happy, or having a state of happiness.  Joy is much much deeper than happiness.  In fact, happiness is usually defined, a lot of the times, by external stimuli but joy is rooted deep in our souls.  Deep in God.  Rick Warren defines joy this way,  “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”  When we confuse joy with happiness we get into a lot of problems, especially when trials come.  This call that James is sharing with Christians is not easy to live out.  It isn’t easy to face a trial with joy. 

But what is the end result of approaching trials with joy?  It is perseverance.  And when we persevere through trails, we end up mature in our faith,  not lacking anything.  This perseverance is not a passive waiting and just getting through the trail, no it is an active endurance, seeking to grow, develop and mature to become more and more like Jesus- in whose image we are all created.  Faith and maturity is tested through trials and is not produced by trials.  Trials have a way of showing us how much faith we do or don’t have as well as showing others what our faith is like.  And trials have the possibility to see where we are lacking and how we can grow in our maturity in the Lord.  

Is it possible to become mature in Christ without trials of any kind?  I would imagine, but I don’t know one person in all the world who hasn’t, in someway, faced trials of some kind.  Trials can test us to see what we do- whether we turn to God or run away from God.  

Let’s turn to the other T- that being Temptation.  James is very very clear in the matter of temptation.  That God is NOT the author of the temptation.  That temptation is from within.  James puts it this way about the author and location of temptation, 

“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”  He locates the temptation within us and our own evil desires.  This verse from James reminds me of a quote from Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”  None of us start with pure intentions.  While God is not the author of temptation, he does allow us to go through it.  

Notice the difference from the trials which produce perseverance and eventually to maturity to the temptations that we face, and how when we give in to temptation that leads to maturity as well, just the maturity that leads to death.  James says that when we face trials and persevere through them we will receive the crown of life.  But on the other hand when we give into temptation we receive the opposite, maturity which leads, not to life, but to death.  

What should we do though in the midst of trials and temptations?  The answer to how we mature through trails and temptation is found in verse 5 which says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God,( who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  Turn to God.  We endure trials and temptations by drawing near to God and seeking his wisdom and asking him for strength, endurance and trust in the midst of them.  We can also fight off temptation by turning to God and his word in the midst of our temptation.  Look at 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”  Many times that way out is in communion an relationship with Him.  Look at what Jesus did when he was in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.  How did he endure under the temptation from the evil one?  He used the Scriptures as means of holding up under the weight of the temptation, “It is written…”  And if Jesus, who is our model of what it means to live out the Kingdom of God in this world, needed to use Scripture as a means of standing up to temptation, and gaining victory over it, how much more should we turn to the Scriptures (and even knowing it by heart)?  

Trials and temptations have the ability to do one of two things…they will either drive us to our knees in prayer, relationship and in communion with God or they will drive us away from God.  It is really our choice of what the end result of the temptation or trials that we face.  We can choose to let the temptation and trials drive us towards God or drive us away from God.  

In closing, we need to know something that James makes crystal clear.  A lot of the times when we face trials and temptations of any kind the way we look at God can change.  We say things like, How can a good God allow bad things to happen or If God was actually good this wouldn’t have happened.  But James makes it crystal clear that God is good, even in the midst of the trials and temptations that we will face as followers of Jesus.  James puts it this way, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

So before we turn to our discussion time, I want to let you know that if you are struggling right now and you are living in the midst of trials, know that God is there, that God is good, and that he will meet us in our time of trials and temptations.  

So let’s unpack together how we can mature in our journey with Jesus in the midst of trials and temptations.  Let’s see how we can help each other towards maturity when we are facing temptations and trials.  And let’s see what God might be saying to each one of us and what we should do about it? 

1.  What thoughts, questions, comments, insights, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2.  What are some ways that you and I can mature in your walk with God and connect with him during Trials and Temptations?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

SENT Week 4: The Coming Christ

So we stand on the precipice of ending of the Advent Season.  We are at Week 4 of Advent.  Where we have been standing on our tippy toes the last three weeks, we stretch ourselves even a little more on our toes.  We stand a little more on edge (in a positive way) waiting for the coming of the Christ Child.  The one who was sent to redeem us and the entirety of creation.  The one who was sent to show us what the Kingdom of God looked like by the way he lived his life.  The one who embodied the Kingdom of God.  

Over the last 3 weeks we have been looking at what it has meant for God to be sent in the form of a man.  Three weeks ago we covered The Coming Lord and focused on, what is traditionally done during the first Sunday of Advent, that of the second coming of Jesus, the second advent if you will.  When he comes back to set this world completely to right.  

Two weeks ago as we celebrated the second week of Advent we talked about the Coming Deliverer.  That Jesus in his first advent came to deliver his people (of Israel) but also everyone else in the world (from then till now and for all eternity) to true freedom, and not just from the bondage to foreign oppressors, like the Roman Empire.  

Last week for the 3rd Sunday of Advent we talked about the Coming Messenger and we focused on Isaiah 61:1-4 and Jesus fulfilling this call in his mission and ministry.  And for those who would follow after him out all is to renew, rebuild and restore.  

Today, as I mentioned, we have almost arrived at the culmination of the Advent season, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, where we celebrate in fullness the coming of the Christ child.  But since we don’t have a Christmas Eve gathering (something we might want to talk about sometime in the future to see if there would be interest in such a thing), today is the culmination for our community.  The day to look at the first advent of Jesus- as the baby in the manger over 2,000 years ago.  But to do that we will start in a most unusual place and then end up in the text that we hear most at this time of year.  

So let’s go to a text that I am sure all of us have memorized, and can recite to each other…Zechariah 2:10-13 and then in a bit we’ll end up in Luke 2:1-20.  

But before we jump into Zechariah 2, we need to do a little unpacking of the book to give us some context for what we’ll read together.  Zechariah the prophet (who also happened to be from a priestly family) and his ministry took place in the post exilic period- a time of Jewish restoration after being in Babylonian captivity.  A time to come back to their homeland and begin to rebuild their lives, their community, their capital city, and their temple- all of which had been destroyed in one way or another during the Babylonian captivity.  It was a time of crying out for God to come and intervene and help them restore and rebuild the ruins of their lives and their beloved communities.  Zechariah’s ministry and the book that bears his name was written then to encourage and motivate the people of God (the Israelites) to rebuild, especially the temple, after the exile.  This time in the life of Israel was especially a time of crying out and longing for the much needed Messiah to come.  In fact, this book is so filled with Messianic prophecies pointing to both the first and second advent, that only the Psalms and Isaiah in the Old Testament, have more messianic prophecies.  

So with that little bit of history and context out of the way let’s turn to Zechariah 2:10-13 and see what it might have to say and how it points us to the first advent of Jesus.  

Zechariah 2:10-13 says, “Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord. “Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.  The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.  Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

So the first thing we see is this repetition that takes place in verses 10 and 11 with the words “live among you.”  Or in other translations they use the words “dwell with you”.  These statements, at the time, no doubt brought the hearers mind to God coming to dwell in their temple, and their desire to put the temple back together because that is what it symbolized for them, God’s presence with his people.  And in some way, I suppose that is right.  But there are two deeper fulfillments of these words about God dwelling with HIs people.  This book written around 520 BC encompasses both the First Advent and the Second Advent of Jesus- The Messiah.  

We see this concept of God dwelling with his people through the Messiah when we read in Isaiah that he shall be called Immanuel which means God with us.  This is the ultimate fulfillment of Zechariah’s writings…Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.  God taking on flesh and blood, and making his dwelling among us or as the Message says Jesus taking on flesh and blood and moving into the neighborhood.  John 1:14 points back and connects to Zechariah 2…and the fact that God has come to make his dwelling among humanity- in the past through the temple, in the past through the coming of Jesus, in the present through the Holy Spirit residing in the community of believers- the church and in our future when he comes to set this world to right again. 

There is reason for Zechariah’s hearers to rejoice, shout and be glad, because God will make his dwelling among humanity.  There is reason that God’s people should rejoice and be glad because God will make his dwelling among humanity in a unique and powerful way….in a way that his hearers thought they understood- in the temple yes, but also in the hoped for Messiah- that they hoped would come, restore Israel to it’s rightful place.  A place of power, authority and might- and not one in which they were rebuilding their ruined cities- and not one of being in their own land living under the thumb of a foreign empire- like during the 1st Century.  But as I mentioned last week- the people of God- the one’s who were waiting for the Messiah to come, knew the prophecies about him, and were the one’s longing for his coming- could not even begin to comprehend what the Messiah would actually look like when his feet hit our soil.  They didn’t recognize him when he came- because he didn't come in the way they expected.  I mean, if we are honest, we wouldn’t probably have caught on either….That is one huge reason that I believe in the truth of this narrative- because there is no way that I would have written something like this- I would have written the narrative more in line with the prevailing Kingdom thought- a Messiah coming in power, might, authority- riding in on a huge white war horse, a man of privilege, a man of wealth, and a warrior King here to free his people from the Tyranny of the Empire by using fighting fire with fire- empire force with empire force.  But we know that isn’t what happened.  What is the story?  What kind of Messiah did they actually get?    

Here is where we hear the familiar words of Luke 2:1-20 and possibly we hear half these words in the voice of Linus in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

Luke 2:1-20…”In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to their own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,  and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.”

So they get a Messiah born to a poor, refugee family in the underbelly of the empire, and the underbelly of society.  He didn’t come in power, as conquering King although he was King….which of course is the beginning of the confrontation between the Kings of this world, and the true King of King and Lord of Lords.  Because the baby lying in the manger is the true King of the world.  He’s born in a manger and not in some fancy royal palace.  He’s laid in an animal trough not in a cradle made out of precious metals and of an ornate design.  He had angels trumpeting his arrival and not a royal court in this world.  And who came to proclaim his birth to others?  Shepherds whose word wasn’t even recognized in a court of law.  If you only had shepherds to testify for you in a court of law, you were pretty much out of luck.  The King of Kings and Lord of Lords didn’t come in the way that God’s people were hoping, expecting, or even dreaming.  But he came as promised, in Zechariah 2, to living among his creation.  

But here is the story nonetheless. The King of the World, The Christ, the Messiah, God himself comes into our world.  Takes on flesh and blood and dwells with all humanity.  He moves into our neighborhood.  He becomes human.  The God of the universe dwells in a tiny baby’s body.  The divine taking up residence with us….Immanuel God with us.  

But what does it mean to you and I here 2,000 years later that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?  How does this affect our everyday existence?  What difference does it make in our lives?  That is one of the questions that we’ll ask.  And we’ll also talk about what it says to us about the way and how Jesus was born and what this might say to us about our world, what God cares about and what we, as followers of Jesus, should care about.  So let’s now talk about applying this 2,000 year old story to our lives in 2015 (almost 2016)

1.  What does it mean to you that Jesus took on flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood?  What difference does it make in our lives and in our everyday existence?

2.  What does it say to us about the way that Jesus was born?  What might it say to us about our world, what God cares about and what we as followers of Jesus should care about?

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?. 

SENT Week 3: The Coming Messenger

Today we enter into the third week of Advent.  Over the last two weeks we have been exploring our Advent theme of SENT.  We have talked about Jesus being SENT as the coming Lord.  During that first week we looked at the second coming of Jesus, and how he will come back to set this world right again.  That the waiting that Isaiah and the people experienced waiting for the messiah to come and “rend the heavens and come down” is also the waiting that we are in the midst of for Jesus to once again “rend the heavens and come down” and renew, recreation, and redeem not only our lives, but the entire creation that is all around us.  

Last week Matt did a great job of leading us in our second week of SENT talking about the coming Deliverer.   That in the midst of the struggle, strife, and brokenness that we experience (individually, communally, and in the world) that Jesus appeared to deliver his people out of bondage and into hope, peace, joy and love (the traditional advent themes).  That he came to rescue, and redeem.  

Today we are three weeks into the Christian season called Advent.  A time of waiting..a time that a friend of mine says is when “Christians stand on their tippy toes”  A time that we wait for the Christ child to come.  A time that we wait for Jesus, the word made flesh, to incarnate the Kingdom of God in the here and now, and also the not yet.  A time of waiting and watching and hoping for the Kingdom of God to come in its fullness.  

During this advent season it seems like it is even harder to wait for the world to be the way that it should be.  For shalom to break into our world, our world which seems like it is full of violence, hatred, evil, and sin.  It seems like everywhere we look today brokenness abounds.  We hear of more and more violence or violent language in the name of religion..whether that religion be Islam or Christianity.  We hear about the thousands and thousands of people displaced from their homes each day becoming refugees and the largest humanitarian crisis that our world has probably ever faced.  And we hear about hatred, fear, anger, and judgment coming from leaders- whether those leaders are politicians, businessmen, president’s of colleges (even Christian colleges) and even Pastors.  It seems like now more than ever we need the Kingdom of God to break into our world.  We need Jesus to break into our world and we also need those of us who follow Jesus and His Kingdom to work towards justice and shalom, the way things should be.   

Let’s look at our Scriptures today and see what they might have to say to us about waiting, Advent, Jesus and the breaking in of His Kingdom into our world right now.  

Turn with me to Isaiah 61:1-4 which says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy

instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a plantingof the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated;

they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

This passage from Isaiah is known as a Messianic passage.  That it looks forward to the coming of the Messiah who would fulfill everything that Isaiah was writing about in this passage.  The Messiah which means anointed one, was expected to come and proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for captives, and release from darkness for prisoners.  We see this passage predicting the mission and ministry of Jesus 700 years before he walked on the face of this planet.  In fact we see Jesus, when talking about his mission- his platform so to speak- reading these very words from the scroll of Isaiah in Luke 4:16-22- and then saying “Today these words have been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Obviously Jesus is claiming that he is the one.  He is the Messiah that the People of God, the Israelites had been waiting for ever since before Isaiah wrote these words.  Ever since the People of God longed and hoped for and prayed for a deliverer, a Messiah to come.  But the interesting thing about all of this, is that after all the years of waiting for the Messiah to come, when he does come, they don’t recognize him.  And in fact after He basically claims that He is the Messiah, they want to throw him off a cliff.  He isn’t recognized as the Messiah, because he wasn’t doing what the People of God thought that the Messiah should do, or at least do it in the way they would have liked.  They were hoping for a Warrior Messiah- one who would ride in a strong war horse with a sword in hand, vengeance in his eyes, and a pension to make the Romans pay.  And then Jesus shows up not being what they hoped for, and they don’t recognize the Messiah at all.  In fact, I am beginning to wonder if we would recognize Jesus if he showed up here today in the good Ole USA.  Sometimes when I hear things in the news said by Christians, I definitely say…no we wouldn’t recognize him.  

So Isaiah writes these messianic words of what it would be like when the Messiah would come.  So the question that I have is what does it look like when the Kingdom of God shows up and breaks out around us?  Let’s look at the text.

Verse 1 answers this question about the in breaking of the Kingdom this way, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners”  When the Kingdom breaks in it looks like the broken are healed, the mourning find comfort, the prisoner is set free, and the captives leave their chains.  What does it look like when the Kingdom breaks into our reality?  It looks exactly like Jesus and his mission and ministry.   Jesus- the Messiah came to heal the damage that sin has brought into our world.  Sin impoverishes but Jesus the anointed one brings good news to the poor.  Sin breaks hearts but Jesus the Messiah heals the brokenhearted.  Sin makes us captives but Jesus the anointed one proclaims liberty and freedom.  Sin brings grief but Jesus the Messiah brings comfort.  

God didn’t just send another prophet, He SENT his Son, the Kingdom right before our very eyes.  The Kingdom is here and now and not yet because of Jesus.  The Kingdom breaks into our world because of Jesus.  He is the one that proclaims good news to the poor, binds up the brokenhearted, proclaims freedom for captives, and release from darkness those bound in chains.  He is the one that the Kingdom is advanced through.  We are receivers of his Kingdom mission and ministry.  

But that doesn’t mean that we just receive it and we then wait around until either we die or he comes back.  No.  We, who have received the Kingdom in our lives have a job to do as well.  What is it?  Look at verse 4 and notice the transition in the words that are used.  “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”  The ones in verse 1 who have experience the mission and ministry of Jesus the Messiah are now the ones in verse 4 who are seeking to live out the Kingdom in this world.  They are the ones who are rebuilding and restoring, because they have been rebuilt and restored and redeemed.  God loves to restore ruins and he wants to use us to restore and rebuild that which is broken and ruined..whether the ruins are people, or cities or problems like homelessness, hunger, the refugee crisis, etc…He is the true anointed one, the Messiah, but then he anoints us (anoint means to be filled with) to be about the work of His Kingdom.  He anoints us to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and release from darkness.  That was his calling and this is also our calling.  

So Isaiah 61 does a great job of giving us a picture of what it looks like when the Kingdom of God touches down on earth…it obviously and first and foremost looks like Jesus and his mission and ministry.  But what else does it look like besides that?  To answer that let’s take a quick glance at the Magnificant found in Luke 1:46b-55 (which Laura read at the beginning of our time together).  Luke 1:46b-55 is Mary’s prayer and her prayer goes like this, “And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.  From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him,

from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

Based on Mary’s prayer what does it look like when the Kingdom touches down on earth?  First, it looks like worship.  Mary says it herself, “My soul glorifies the Lord.”  If we want to be about the things that we mentioned before found in Isaiah 61, it must start from a heart of worship, because of what the Lord has done for us.  We should glorify and honor God because he has preached good news to us.  We should glorify and honor God because he has bound up our broken heart.  We should glorify and honor God because he has freed us from captivity.  We should glorify and honor God because he has released us from darkness.  We should be like the wise men who came with their gifts and laid them at the feet of the King.   

Secondly, when the Kingdom of God touches down on earth it looks like a reversal of fortune.  Look at verses 51-53, “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty”.  Notice the reversals of fortune.  The proud are scattered.  The rulers are brought down and the humble are lifted up.  The hungry are filled with good things while the rich are sent away empty.  The coming of God’s Kingdom will bring changes that affect every aspect of life.  This prayer is about mercy, hope , fulfillment, reversal, revolution, victory over evil, and of God coming to the rescue at last.  

So I close this part of the message with a thought/scripture and some questions for us to discuss in our discussion time.  

First, John 20:21 puts it this way, As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.  Jesus, the Messiah was sent to our world to embody the Kingdom of God.  He is sending us to do likewise.  

Secondly here are some questions that we can talk about together.  What part of the Kingdom coming to earth in the form of Jesus mission and ministry do you need most in your life at this time (see Isaiah 61)?  How can your life and our life together as a community embody and enact the good news of the Kingdom in this world?  And lastly what is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it and what is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

1.  What thoughts, insights, questions, comments, etc.. do you have regarding the Scriptures and/or the message?

2.  What part of the Kingdom coming to earth in the form of Jesus mission and ministry do you need most in your life at this time (see Isaiah 61)? 

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

SENT: Week 2: The Coming Deliverer

This morning, we continue “Sent”, our Advent series. Last week - the first week of the series, we talked about The Coming Lord - of Jesus rending the heavens, coming to earth. This week, our focus is on Jesus as The Coming Deliverer. Please open your Bible, or find in your Bible app, Isaiah 40:1-11. It says this:

1 “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

I love that last part, which shows that God, Israel’s Deliverer & our Redeemer, is a mighty ruler, but also as a tender shepherd. The part in verses 3 & 4, where it says, “make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain” reminds me of the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Does anyone else remember that? Waylon Jennings sang, “Straightnin' the curves/Flattenin’ the hills/Someday the mountain might get 'em/But the law never will”. But really, what does it mean to make straight a highway for God, to lift up valleys, make the mountains & hills low, & to level out the rough ground? These words were written in a time in which the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, & the people of Israel had been exiled by the Babylonians, in which a huge portion of them were broken from their families’ ties to what was their Promised Land & relocated in Mesopotamia. One meaning of these phrases would seem to refer to the literal physical return of the people of Israel & Judah, led by Jehovah Himself. This would have been especially meaningful to the original hearers - a nation that had experienced God as Deliverer, with Moses as His agent. They were yet again in need of a Deliverer, in a very tangible way. Babylon was eventually overthrown by Cyrus the Great of Persia, &, according to the record of the Cyrus Cylinder - a Persian historical artifact - the Persian commander took the city of Babylon “without any battle”; the soldiers “strolled along, their weapons stowed away”.

At least one hundred-forty years before Cyrus conquered Babylon, he was prophesied of in Isaiah 44:24-28:

24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; 25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness; 26 Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ to the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ and I will raise up her waste places; 27 Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’; 28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,”

And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ended the captivity, & even provided for the Israelites to rebuild the temple.

In fact, Ezra 1:1-4 describes that part of the prophecy coming to fruition:

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: “All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3 Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4 And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.”

Lest you think that Isaiah only spoke of how Israel would be delivered from Babylon, consider Malachi. He prophesied after the building of the Second Temple, after the reign of Cyrus had ended. In Malachi 3:1, we read:

3 “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

This would certainly run contrary to the interpretation of Cyrus as the “Messiah”, even though God, as Deliverer, used Cyrus in a real way by freeing God’s people from Babylon. Malachi suggests that there is another Deliverer to come, to offer a freedom greater than Israel had experienced before. The book of Isaiah contains many prophecies that also point to New Testament times.

Please turn over to Mark 1:1-8. Here, Mark leads off his account of the ministry of Jesus like this:

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.” [That is a reference to Malachi 3:1] 3 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’” [That is a reference to Isaiah 40:3]

4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5 Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. 8 I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John the Baptist is among my favorite characters in the New Testament. He is spoken of in the Gospel of Luke, where we learn about the angel Gabriel telling that Zechariah & Elizabeth (who was barren & past child-bearing age) would miraculously have a child, how he leaped in the womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visited. And the next we hear of John, he’s some sort of a Bear Grylls/prophet Elijah mix (Elijah is depicted in 2 Kings 1 in a similar wardrobe, too). John was a descendant of Moses’ brother Aaron, & was also an eccentric dude living out in the sticks. He was humble, but no delicate, withering flower. Let’s take a look at a few artists’ renderings of John the Baptist. (Show slides)

 When Jesus went to see John the Baptist, when they were both adults, “they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” 28 These things were done in Bethabara [or Bethany] beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

So what does this mean to us, 2,000 years later? There are a number of lessons we can draw here.

1. John the Baptist was in a place of much prominence, but he made certain it wasn’t about him. John lowered Himself & lifted up Jesus, & that made it possible for him to carry out his mission.
2. God has a plan, all of the time. God knew the dilemma that the Israelites were in, & He spoke through His prophets to show that He was in control & had a plan. In times of trouble, we cry out to God for answers, & we may feel aimless. But we can trust that God will give wisdom to those who ask for it, & joy when we can trust Him with results.
3. Endurance is made possible by hope. God may feel distant at times, but He wants us to know that we can trust Him, & He makes Himself known through Scripture, through other people, & through His still-small voice to our hearts.The Israelites could cling to God’s words through Isaiah; we can cling to Jesus’ words & those of the New Testament writers about Jesus’ work to bring the Kingdom of God, now & for eternity. And this hope isn’t only for us. We are to be vessels of Jesus’ love & grace to others, showing & telling them about the deliverance from sin & death that Jesus offers.

I will sum up my message with a few closing items. First, Hebrews 12:1-2:

12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

In the song “Our Deliverer”, Third Day sang that:

Every burden one day will be lifted

Every broken heart will be redeemed

The Lord Almighty is coming to our rescue

Salvation’s waiting for all who will believe

And in the song “O Holy Night”, we are reminded:

    Truly He taught us to love one another

    His law is love, & His Gospel is peace

    Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother

    And in His Name, all oppression shall cease

“Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come for thee, O Israel.” And He come again. This is all good news for certain, & we can hope in the truth of that.

I’ll end my message with a song, a version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, mixed with some words by the 15th century Christian Julian of Norwich. (Play “I Heard the Bells [All Will Be Well]”)

Now, let’s discuss this together.

1.  What thoughts, comments, questions, encouragement, or pushback would you offer about     these Scriptures & this topic?

2.  What is God saying to you that you should do about this? What is God saying to you that we as the Veritas community can do about this?

SENT: Week 1- The Coming Lord

Thousands of years ago a prophet of Israel spoke these words on behalf of the people of God.  They have reverberated through the annals of history.  They sum up the people of God’s cry in the midst of pain, brokenness, sin, and the feeling that God is distant and aloof from the world.  In Isaiah 64:1 we read, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down”  Isaiah prays that God would see the pain and brokenness of his people and come down.  Come down and begin to set things right.  

Have you ever prayed that prayer?  Lord, rend the heavens and come down.  Maybe you didn’t say it in those exact words.  Maybe they sounded like, “God would you come down and make it right?  God where are you in the midst of all the brokenness, pain, sin and violence in our world?  Are you even there?  Do you even care that this world seems like it is falling apart?”   When we look around and see all the destruction that is happening currently.  When we see ISIS, and Boko Haramcausing so much pain, devastation, and violence.  The police shootings, the protests, and the violence and racism at home.  When we see people not having enough to provide for their families.  When we see all the things that seem to be wrong in our world.  We all end up praying that prayer.  God just come down and make it right.  God why is there so much suffering in the world.  God do something.  And we wait.  We wait for God to act.  We may stand on the other side of history that Isaiah and the people of God in the Old Testament.  When their cry was for God to actually break into history and begin to set things right.  Their cry was answered 700 years later in the person, work and ministry of Jesus.   And while we stand on the other side of history after the coming of Jesus, we still find the cry of Isaiah on our tongues.  We still cry, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”  We still wait for God to come and make things right.  To put the world right, the way that it should be.  

Today we begin the season in the Christian church known as Advent.  Advent is derived from the latin word adventus and means coming.  In the church we focus on three different comings.  1.  the birth of Jesus2.  the incarnation.  3.  the second coming of Jesus.  And it is the start of the Christian year.  A writer by the name of Joan Chittister writes: “The liturgical year does not begin at the heart of the Christian enterprise. It does not immediately plunge us into the chaos of the crucifixion or the giddy confusion of the resurrection. Instead, the year opens with Advent, the season which teaches us to wait for what is beyond the obvious. It trains us to see what is behind the apparent. Advent makes us look for God in all those places we have until now ignored.”   And so as we enter Advent today we wait.  We wait the coming of Jesus to set this world to right.  To fully redeem everything.  To bring Shalom (the way things should be) into it’s fullness, that which started when he came the first time.  We wait for his second coming and the recreation of the world.  

Let’s tun to Isaiah 64 and read Isaiah’s prayer on behalf of the remnant that had returned to Jerusalem after the exile.  Their hopes and dreams of how things will be when the returned to Jerusalem wasn’t playing out how they hoped.  Things weren’t perfect or the way they thought they should be.  And so the remanent prayers a prayer of Lament.  

Isaiah 64:1-9 says, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens( and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!  For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.”  

As I mentioned this is a prayer of lament from the people of Israel the remanent returning from exile.  And this is also our prayer in the midst of Advent in the real world where things aren’t going well.  Where the world isn’t perfect and we are disillusioned.  This is the prayer of a pain brought on by the consequence of people’s sins, experienced most deeply as anger and alienation from God.  Their appeal is for God’s intervention- to heal the alienation and to halt the damage of their sins.  

So the prayer of lament begins with the people praying that God would come down.  To come down and engage in the brokenness of the world.  The people of God remembered the stories of God engaging with with their forefathers and mothers.  They recalled the stories of God trembling the mountain (Exodus 19:17-18…Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.  Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.)  They remembered the stories of God delivering the people from the hand of Egypt.  They recalled the amazing stories told to them from their parents.  And they wondered why God wasn’t showing up in that way again.  Why wasn’t God doing amazing things on behalf of his people again?  And so they cried out and waited.  

In verse 4 we read, “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”  The remanent recall how God revealed himself in days past to those who waited for him.  They recall that God was truly God because of His actions on their behalf.  That no other god was able to hold a candle to Yahweh.  They recalled Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  (1 Kings 18).  They recalled how Yahweh had just delivered them out of exile.  But when they got back, it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.  It was perfectly how they had imagined it.  And so they cried out and waited.  

This cry and waiting would last 700 years and they couldn’t have imagined how God would choose to reveal himself…in the coming of Jesus.  He shows us himself.  Do you want to know what God is like?  Look at Jesus. Do you want to know how God acts in the world?  Look at Jesus.  In sending Jesus, God reveals himself like never before.  Acts in a way that has never been done.  He reveals himself through the person of Jesus, His son.   

This is what we celebrate in Advent.  The first coming of Jesus…that we look back to.  And the second coming of Jesus…that we look forward to.  Jesus came to begin the process of recreating the world as it should be.  The work begun with his life, death, and resurrection, which continues throughout time and will culminate in his second coming, when this world will be as it should be.  The world as it was in the begin will be the way it is again.  The cries of the people of God for God to show up was answered in Jesus ultimately.  And our cries for God to show up will be answered in Jesus.  

And so they cried out and waited for God to show up.  But in the midst of the waiting they began to wonder a few things.  Why wasn’t God showing up in the way that they expected?  Did he even hear their cry and their longing for his engagement in the world?  Was it something that they did or weren’t doing that was causing God not to show up like he did before? If they did right wouldn’t God show up?  Maybe they were sinning against God and that was the reason He wasn’t showing up.  In verses 5-9 we read their thoughts. “You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.”  They equate their brokenness and sin to a menstruation cloth.  A garment used and considered defiled.  And because of the people’s sins, God seemed to be hiding himself from the people.  The failure to seek God is attributed to God’s hiding, seeking is futile because God has left the guilty to the consequences of their sin.  And the beg and plead even more, even though they say that God can’t be found.  They beg and plead for God’s hand, his presence and his deliverance.  The cried out and waited.  And, as I mentioned before, they waited 700 years to find the fulfillment of their cries and their longing.  Why we need Advent.  Why we celebrate Advent.  Why we look to Jesus.  Because of our sinful state.  Our brokenness not only on an individual level, but on a corporate and systematic level.  Our cries for deliverance is not just a cry for God to set things right in the world, but also a cry to set things right in ourselves.  We cry out for God to heal the violence, pain, death, and destruction that is going on around us.  But he didn’t just come to heal and restore and redeem the world from it’s sin, he also came to heal and restore and redeem us.  He came to put everything to right, individually, corporately and systematically.  In Jesus, we see that God is set on answering this prayer through restoration and healing. He comes down and He reveals himself, all for the purpose of restoring us and our relationship with Him. This is Advent. Our hearts are weighed down with gratitude. Out of our history of brokenness, Jesus crafts a future of restoration. 

And so we see the people of God in the Old Testament crying out for God to rend the heavens and come down.  To show up and put things to right.  And 700 years later Jesus shows up (why we celebrate Advent) and through his life, death, and resurrection, he redeems, restores, re-creates, and rescues all of creation, which includes us.  But we still wait, we still long, and we still see the effects of sin all around us and inside us.  We still cry out as the people of God for God to come down and set it right once and for all.  And in Mark 13 see Jesus talking about that time when the Son of Man will come back and set the world back the way things should be.  I’d encourage you to go and read that this week on your own.  When Shalom will come in its fullness.  And so we cry out and we wait.  We wait in this advent season for Jesus, his second coming, and for the world and for ourselves to be completely re-created.  

But what do we do in the meantime?  Do we just sit around for Jesus to come back?  What does it mean to “wait” during this advent time?  Where have we seen God show up and begin the process of redemption and recreation?  And how does God want to use you and us to bring about restoration for the people in our lives? How will you and I actively pursue that over this Advent season?  Let’s talk about those things together.  

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2.  How might God be calling each of us (individually and corporately) to wait during this Advent season?  

3.  When and where have you seen God show up and begin the process of redemption and recreation?  

4.  How does God want to use you (and us together) to bring about restoration for the people in our lives and in the world around us?  How will you and I actively pursue that over this Advent season?

Divine Commodity Week 9: Teaching the World to Sing

So today we come to the conclusion of our Divine Commodity series.  In this series we have been exploring the person of Vincent Van Gogh, his art, consumerism, the church and following Jesus.  We have explored spiritual practices that we can begin to practice which confronts consumerism, and liberates our imaginations to live as Christ’s people in a consumer culture which is directly opposed to the values of the Kingdom of God.  

Over the last nine weeks we have explore spiritual practices like imagination, silence, identity rooted in Jesus and not our performance, communion with God, Christ centered relationships, taking up your cross, unity and last week we looked at the Biblical and missional call to hospitality.  Today we wrap it all up looking at God’s call to be on his mission in the world, to be about the advancement of his Kingdom, where heaven touches down on earth, where Shalom is breaking forth, but with a twist that confronts each and every one of us in our consumer driven culture.  Before we get to our text for the morning, his call to be on his mission, and the twist, let’s explore a little bit about our painting and a little bit more about Van Gogh.  

First, a quote from Van Gogh that I believe will set the stage for further discussion of our topic.  “Christ labored 30 years in a humble carpenter’s shop to fulfill God’s will.  And God’s will that in imitation of Christ, men should live and walk humbly on earth.  No reaching for the sky, but bowing to humble things, learning from the Gospel’s to be meek and humble of heart.”  So often in our consumer driven world we believe that bigger is better, faster is better than slower, and that popularity not only equals success but it also equates with legitimacy.  Continual growth and expending impact are how we’ve come to define success.  

But let’s take a look at Van Gogh’s painting The Sower, obviously based on a parable of Jesus.  Van Gogh painted 30 canvases of sowers throughout his career.  Simple peasants walking in a field scattering seed.  The sower represented, for Van Gogh 3 of his passions converging into one scene, his regard for nature, his respect for peasants, and his love for the Bible.  The Parable of the Sower made a deep impression on Van Gogh.  Not only was The Sower inspired by the Bible it was also inspired by another painter named Millet.  But in Millet’s painting which is a 40 inch piece, the sower dominates the field of vision, he is almost all that you can see.  But in Van Gogh’s painting the Sower neither fills the canvas nor dominates the composition.  No the main thing that draws your attention is the citron-yellow sun.  We have seen over and over and over again Van Gogh’s use of yellow (and his use of the son) to represent God, to represent the presence of the divine.  So Van Gogh, in a very real way, is taking the focus off the sower, the humble servant in the field, and putting the focus squarely on God himself.  It is Christ who dominates the field of vision in Van Gogh’s piece and not the humble servant out to spread the seeds in the field.

Now let’s turn to two of Jesus parables that talk about seeds and the sower and let’s see what they might have to say to us in our 21st century consumer-driven culture and see what spiritual practice that these parables may give us to apply to our life and give us imagination for the future.  

First let’s look at what is called the Parable of the Growing Seed found in Mark 4:26-29.  Mark 4:26-29 says, “He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like.  A man scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.  All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.  As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”  In this parable Jesus is trying to give his listeners, and us, a picture or a metaphor for what life in the Kingdom of God is really all about, the Kingdom where he rules and reigns and we submit ourselves, our lives, our community to him and his ways and not our own desires, whims, and wishes.        In this parable the man (the farmer or sower if you will) has two responsibilities.  The first responsibility is to go out and scatter the seed on the ground.  If the farmer doesn’t scatter seed, you can bet 100% that there will be no harvest at all.  The farmer needed to do his part to put the seed in the ground.  The second responsibility is at the very end of the growing process, called harvesting.  The farmer sees that the crop is ready and when it is, he puts a sickle to it and collects it.  

The one huge thing that the farmer is not responsible for is the growth of his seeds.  He has no control over whether the seeds will never grow, grow a little bit, or create a huge harvest.  Yes he can make sure conditions are right.  He can till the ground, plan the seed, help water the seed but in the end he can’t make the seed actually grow.  That is not his responsibility.  In fact, it even says that he doesn’t even know how it grows, it just does.  

It reminds me of a children’s story in the book series Frog and Toad: The Garden.  A summary of the story is that Toad is impressed with the garden Frog has grown and wishes he had one too, so Frog gives him a bag of flower seeds. Once Toad plants the seeds, he shouts at them to start growing, prompting Frog to come up and tell him the seeds are afraid to grow at the moment. Even though Frog tells Toad to leave the seeds alone and let the sun and rain do their work to help the seeds grow, Toad tries every other way (reading a story, singing songs, reading poetry, and playing music), all to no avail. Exhausted, Toad falls asleep one night, and the next morning, Frog wakes up Toad to show him that the seeds are starting to grow. Toad is glad he'll soon have a garden as good as Frog's because what he did was hard work.  He did what he was responsible for..planting the seed.  And then he tried to take responsibility for the growth of the seed, the speed of the growth, and the results, when they were out of his hands the minute the seed left his hands.  

This parable also reminds me about another Scripture later in the New Testament, found in 1 Corinthians 3:6 which says, “I planted the seed,  Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”  Paul is saying that a follower of Jesus’ responsibility is to plant the seed, even water it, but we aren’t the one that makes it grow.  God is ultimately the only one that makes it grow.  God is the one responsible for the results.  Just like Van Gogh’s painting- God is the primary agent of growth.  We aren’t responsible for what happens when the “seed” leaves our hands.  And this isn’t a very appreciated thought in a results oriented culture like our own.  We want to do something big.  We want to see big results.  We want fast results.  And when we don’t see big, fast results we throw in the towel.  We get discouraged, feel like a failure and want to quit…or am I only speaking to myself here?  But let me say this again in a slightly different way…we are NOT responsible for the results, we are only responsible for being faithful to what God calls us to.  

Many years ago during seminary I had one counseling class.  I don’t remember too much about the class to be honest with you.  But I do remember an exercise that the professor gave us each and every week. We had to memorize a statement each week and internalize it.  One of those statements that I memorized is “Success is being faithful to God.”  So there it is.  No more, no less.  Being faithful to what God calls you to is and should be enough. 

Another parable that Jesus tells regarding seeds is found in Matthew 13:3-9 which says, “Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.”  Now Jesus explains this parable to his disciples, so we know that the seed is the message of the Kingdom of God.  Notice something about the farmer.  Notice how we scatters the seed.  This method of distributing the seed is called broadcasting.  Broadcasting is a method that involves scattering seed by hand (in Bible times) or mechanically over a relatively large area.  This is in contrast to the precision method which seeds are placed at precise places and at precise intervals.  Obviously this farmer in the parable is not concerned about precision.  He is trying to get the seeds out there and to see what sticks so to speak.  He wasn’t concerned with the results.  He was playing his part, his role in the growth of the seeds, which was to get them out of his bag and into the ground.  And he was doing that liberally.  

The results he got was that only 1 in 4 seeds actually grew and became a harvest.  Only a 25% success rate.  If that were a business statistic it wouldn’t be a good statistic.  In our Kingdom conversation this morning, it also might mean that for every 4 people that you seek to share the Kingdom of God with only 1 will actually take the seed and let it grow within them.  But that again is only thinking about results.  Of which we aren’t responsible for.  So my call for all of us is to put the burden upon Jesus.  Give it to him.  It is not yours to carry.  Give it up and give it to Jesus.  It is his to hold and to carry, not ours.  Live in the freedom of casting the seed of the Kingdom liberally and trust God to handle the results.  

This parable obviously appears to have been in Van Gogh imagination while painting his sower.  In his painting we see the field, which has a rocky path in it as well as birds to snatch the seed away.  And in the background, closest to the sun (which I am sure is not accident in the painting) is a field of mature grain ready to be harvested.  But look at the sower.  He is undeterred as he sows even though variety of outcomes are possible.  He strides confidently forward- his task is to cast the seed whatever the result.  And isn’t that our task as well to cast the seed of the Kingdom of God by the practices that we have been talking about all along and throughout this series?  To sow the seed of the Kingdom of God through practices such as imagination, though silence, through a Christ-centered identity, through prayer, through Christ-centered relationships, through suffering, through unity, through the Biblical and missional call of hospitality and through allowing God to be God by leaving the results of our sowing his Kingdom seed to him and just faithful casting the Kingdom seed.  

I finish with a quote from one of my favorite authors and a few questions that will drive our discussion.

First the quote from Dallas Willard, “The humble are dependent upon God, not on themselves.  They humble themselves “under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6)….They abandon outcomes entirely to him.  They “cast all their anxieties upon him, because he cares for them” (v. 7)….We do the very best we know, we work hard, and even self-sacrificially.  But we do not carry the load…In our love of Jesus and his Father, we truly have abandoned our life to him.”  

And for the questions….

What if Jesus, Paul, and Van Gogh are actually right?  What if the outcome of our labor is beyond our control?  What if we are not the primary agents behind growth or its absence?  What if we stopped judging ourselves and others based on outcomes which rightly belong to God, and rediscover the humility of the sower- the one who rises day and night, casts the seed upon the ground and marvels as it grows?

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc… do you have  regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2.  Where and to whom may God be calling you to sow the seed of the Kingdom of God and giving the results up to Him?  

3.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

4.  What one practice, that we looked at during our Divine Commodity series, do you need to develop in your own life?  How can we as Veritas help?

Divine Commodity Week 8- Around the Table

Vincent Van Gogh once said these words, “Let us not forget…that our life is a pilgrim’s progress, and that we are strangers on the earth, but that we have a God and Father who preserves strangers and that we are all brothers.”  I believe this statement no doubt either influenced or came because of one of his earliest and one of his most favorite paintings, the painting that we spent time looking at early, The Potato Eaters.  

As we take another look at this painting together I want to point out a few things, things that we have mentioned and some other thoughts around this work of art.  In this pairing we see a peasant family gathered around a table together.  The hands who had picked the potatoes no doubt are now the hands that are reaching for one to eat.  You can see the quiet desperation in their bodies, hands, and faces.  You can see the dirty, depressing scenario that is being played out.  But something else I believe that you can see is a sense of hope.  Maybe it is the presence of the yellow light above them.  Maybe Van Gogh is again using the color yellow to symbolize, much like he did in Starry Night, the presence of God.  Something else that I believe points us in the direction of God’s presence around that table, is when you look at the Potatoes they actually look almost more like bread.  And if you look closely at the man in the back, he is passing a cup to the room to his left (our right).  It is almost like Van Gogh is subtly making reference to the act of communion around this table.  Making reference to the presence of Christ in the bread and the wine, and his presence with the poor and needy.  Kathleen Powers Erickson in her book “At Eternity’s Gate” said this about Van Gogh’s work, “Whether an elderly man sitting by a fire, or peasants digging, sowing, and harvesting in the fields, or a simple frugal meal, van Gogh’s depictions of peasants are often imbued with a numinous quality, a sense of the divine presence.”  And Christ is present around this table that we see on the screen. 

But Christ is present not just around that table, but many tables when we engage in the biblical and missional act of hospitality.  Christ doesn’t just show up in the bread and wine during a communion experience, but he also shows up when we invite neighbors, friends, and strangers into relationship with us.  And sometimes when we do this, like Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”  This morning we’ll be looking at a story where a man lived out the Biblical and missional call to show hospitality to strangers and realized he was actually entertaining God himself.  

Let’s turn to Genesis 18:1-16 which says,  “The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.” “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.” Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.  He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said. Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.  Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.  So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’  Is anything too hard for the Lord?  I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

So what does this old old story have to say to us today in a 21st century western context about what it means to live out this biblical and missional call to be a people of hospitality?  What does it look like in our day and age of suburban sprawl, consumerism, broken community, underdeveloped relational ties, and the age of, what one author calls, “Bowling Alone” (which is a book about the collapse and revival of American Community)?  And just what does hospitality mean anyway?  Let’s turn to some of these questions. 

The first thing we need to do when we talk about hospitality is to actually define what hospitality actually is.  Hospitality is defined as love for strangers.  Hospitality is a way of welcoming people.  The Benedictine monks have various rules for their community, call it a Rule of Life if you will.  Rule #53 says All guest who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say “I was a stranger and you welcomed me in.”  Hospitality and welcome can be a healing balm in people’s lives.  I find it interesting that the word Hospitality and Hospital share the same root. It is like there is an innate link between being welcomed and being healed.  If you have ever truly been shown hospitality, you know what I’m talking about.   

Secondly, we need to look at the context of the story to see hospitality in action, from an ancient Near Eastern culture.  The one thing about Eastern cultures, is that hostility doesn’t even need to be taught at all.  It is innate in the cultures of the east.  If you have ever been to places that would be considered Eastern (like Iraq, Palestine, etc..) or have friends here from those contexts, you’ll know that they run circles around Western culture people when it comes to living out this value of hospitality.  

How does Near Eastern Hospitality work in this story?  Let’s look.  In verse 2 we read, “Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.”  Two things stick out to me.  Abraham hurries out of his tent to meet them and then he bows low to the ground.  In Bedouin hospitality when you encounter a person or visitor who is of equal social rank as you, you normally rise from your seated position to receive them.  But Abraham actually runs out to meet them.  You would only do that if the person or visitor was from a superior social status to yours.  So here Abraham, even though he is a very wealthy man (had servants, had many flocks, etc..) runs out to meet them and then he bows low to the ground.  Again taking the form of a lower social ranking than the 3 men.  In Verse 3 we read, “He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,[ do not pass your servant by.”  He addressed the visitors as Lord and he also acted as if he would be a favor to him that they would let him serve them.  What we again see here in relation to hospitality and Abraham is that Abraham rightly sees his role as a servant.  He isn’t one to be served, but actually in this story takes on the nature of a servant.  Kind of sounds like someone else that I know.

After convincing the men (one of which is the Lord) the stay for a while, he calls for water to be brought so that they could wash their feet and be refreshed.  In a nomadic culture feet get really hot and dirty, and a bowl of water to clean and refresh your feet is an amazing treat, no doubt.  

So after bring the bowl for their feet, Abraham calls for his servant to prepare a lavish meal for the 3 visitors.  In verse 6 we see Abraham calling Sarah to have her make some bread.  He says,  “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”  And in verse 7 we see him picking a choice calf and having a servant prepare it.  “Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.”  And finally in verse 8 he brings out, along with prepared calf some curds and milk.  “He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them”  If you want to be really really good at biblical and missional hospitality, food is an absolute necessity.  Nothing, I believe, can build community better than food and drink.  And I believe Jesus also understood and knew this.  Why do you think so many of the stories about the life and ministry of Jesus happen around a table?  In fact food and the table are so central to the Kingdom way of life, that Alan Hirsch says, “Sharing meals together on a regular basis is one of the most sacred practices we can engage in as believers.  Missional hospitality is a tremendous opportunity to extend the Kingdom of God.  We can literally eat our way into the Kingdom of God.  If every Christian household regularly invited a stranger or a poor person into their home for a meal once a week, we would literally change the world by eating.”  

Lastly, while while the three visitors were eating Abraham stood by under a tree.  Verse 8 tells it this way, “While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.”  You might ask why Abraham didn’t just sit down, begin eating with them and asking them a million questions.  Again Abraham is taking on the role of a servant.  Have you ever seen movies or TV shows where the butler or the maid is standing by waiting for any need that might arise?  This is exactly what Abraham is doing.  He remained standing seeing and tending to the needs of the visitors.  In the whole encounter with the three visitors (one of the visitors again is the Lord.  A theophany of Jesus in the Old Testament.)  

And so this story also reminds me of a story Jesus tells of the sheep and the goats.  The sheep are the ones who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners and the sick.  The goats are the ones who don’t feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and visit the prisoners and the sick.  And the sheep are celebrated because when they did those things to the least of those, they did it to Jesus/God.  And the goats aren’t celebrated because when they didn’t do those things to the least of those, they didn’t do it to Jesus/God.  And so here Abraham is giving food to weary travelers, one being the Lord.  And in a very real way living out a parable that would be told many years later.  When he lived out the Biblical and Missional call to hospitality, God was literally in the midst.  And when we live out the biblical and missional call to hospitality God will be in the midst as well.  

We have been talking about practices that challenge our consumer mentality and that extend the Kingdom’s value.  But what and how does hospitality challenge our consumer tendencies?  Probably the biggest thing, derived from this story, that will help us extend the Kingdom and fight our consumer driven tendencies is to see ourselves the way that Abraham did, as a servant.  And when we take up the position of a servant, we also become like Jesus who said, I came not to be served but to serve.  And when we take our eyes off of ourselves and onto others, and extend biblical hospitality, it counteracts the selfishness in our own lives and the give to me, I want what I want when I want it, and what about me attitudes that we all struggle with.  

So let’s break into groups of 3-5 and unpack the story even further.  Let’s share stories of when we have been extended hospitality and when we have extended hospitality.  Let’s talk about how over the course of the next week we can live out the biblical and missional call to hospitality, and live out the calling to be a servant.  And let’s see what God might be saying to us and what we will and should do about it.  

1.  Share a story when you have either been extended hospitality or have extended hospitality.  

2.  What thoughts, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

3.  How might you live out the Biblical and Missional call to hospitality this week?

4.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Divine Commodity Week 7

So let me give you some background and unpacking of the piece of art by Van Gogh that we just looked at called “The Yellow House”.  Like many artist Vincent Van Gogh felt misunderstood.  It seemed like every community that he entered (church, fine arts academy, etc..) eventually found his passion intolerable (or maybe his mental illness contributed to that as well).  Vincent longed for a community where his passions could be expressed and encouraged (don’t we honestly all long for that as well?)  From 1886-1888 he experienced some of what he longed for, in relation to community and freedom to pursue his passion for art, while living in Paris with his brother Theo van Gogh.  Theo was one of the few members of his family who encouraged him and helped foster Vincent’s artistic endeavors.  During his time in Paris Vincent began to formulate the idea of starting a studio, a place where fringe artists might live and paint together.  With the help, encouragement and financial support from his brother Theo, he moved to the town of Arles in Southern France, and rented a vacant house on the square….the Yellow House in the painting.  It was a 4 room house with no gas for cooking, the bathroom was next door and it was in poor condition.  But for Vincent it was a base for his dream of the “Studio of the South.”  His dream, he felt, was becoming a reality.  A dream to start a studio with live artists, who he would call, in religious terms, “Apostles of Art”.  

His house, the bright yellow house, on the square of Arles,  was to him a symbol of unity, community and mission.  His brother than paid an artist by the name of Gauguin a stipend to relocate to Arles and help Vincent start this refuge for many.  This refuge for many as he called it was also to be a place of healing for progressive artists who suffered from alienation and the stigma of being unconventional.  But as Gauguin and Vincent began to prepare the house and begin working towards the dream, they couldn’t seem to ever get along.  They were like oil and water.  And so two months after Gauguin moved in, the two artists were at a cafe and begin to argue.  Gauguin went to stay at a hotel refusing to return to the Yellow House and Vincent returned to the house, picked up the blade and put it to his ear.  Van Gogh’s dream of living in community with other artists, and being a refuge for many ended.  

The idea of community always appears more beautiful than the reality.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his more famous work Life Together says this about community, and more specifically Christian community,  “Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.”  The gift of Christian community is a resource and a spiritual practice that can help liberate us as we live as Christ’s people in the midst of the consumer culture in which we live which is directly opposed to the values of the Kingdom of God.  But what does true community look like and how can community help liberate us from consumerism? Let’s look at a prayer that Jesus prayed 2,000 years ago, when he prayed for us and see what it might have to say to us about community, consumerism, and what the purpose of community is.  

John 17:20-23 says, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

So right off the bat we see Jesus, in the garden, about to face the excruciating pain of the cross, the humiliation of the cross, the shame of the cross, as well as taking the sins of the world upon his shoulders.  And what is he doing?  Praying.  Is he praying mostly for himself, for God, for others?  He does pray for himself but not to help him get through the next few hours.  No, it is so that his life, death and his resurrection would glorify his Heavenly Father. Then he prays for his disciples.  And lastly, believe it or not, he prays for each and everyone of us, who are seeking to follow Him.  He is on the eve of his judgment.  The eve of his flogging.  The eve of him being stripped naked, beaten, and hung on the cross and his death…and he is praying for you, and me.  Do you feel the weight of that?  Do you understand the love that must beat in the heart of Jesus for each and everyone of us that he would take the time, at his hour of need, when he would be totally deserted by his disciples, to pray for us.  What was his prayer?  That we may be one as he and his Father are one.

This idea that we may be one as the Father and the Son are one is about unity.  And unity (community) is based on, not artificial things like ages, interest, social-economic status, etc..  As followers of Jesus our unity (community) needs to be based on and must mirror nothing less than the unity between Father & Son.  Just as God the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, we are to live into that unity.  Henri Nouwen put it this way, “Community is grounded in God, who calls us together and not in the attractiveness of people to each other.”  Our unity and our community come about because and as a result of his prayer for us.  

But all too often we are confused about this prayer in two different ways.  First we misunderstand what Jesus is getting at in this prayer that we would be one as he and his Father are one.  When we hear the word unity we think this is great, and we tend to think about sitting around a fire, holding hands, and singing Kumbaya.  We think it will conflict free because we will all just get along and we will be uniform.  But unity is not uniformity.  His prayer is not that they all may be uniform in belief, theology, values, look, political affiliation, socio-economic status, race, etc..  In fact, truly unity is not uniformity but unity in the midst of differences.  My dream, especially for this Christian community, is and has always been that our community would be one, based around Jesus, and that we would be able to hold differing beliefs around lots of issues, but still stay in relationship with each other.   My dream has always been with this community that we could have dialogue on Sundays and at other times around theological and social issues, even strong disagreement but still stay in relationship with each other.  I want to see a community made up of those who are conservative theologically, those who are middle of the road theologically, and those who are more progressive theologically.  I want to see a community made of up Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents.  I want to see a community that have different takes on social issues of our time.  I want to see a community that is able to disagree with each other, in love of course, but buck the trend that so many Christians over the years have fallen into, that as soon as we disagree with each other about something, we split and tend to start new communities or even new denominations.  

Look, here it is.  This community is not perfect.  We will disagree.  We will have conflict.  We will not all believe the same thing about every issue.  But we don’t have to, to be community and to be unified.  In fact, I truly believe it is better when we don’t all agree.  True Biblical community and unity, is when we can love each other despite our conflicts, disagreements and differences.  The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 put it this way, There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  The early church was the only place in all society where male and females where together in public, with children in the midst.  It was the only place slave and free interacted in a Kingdom way.  It was the only place where Jew and Gentile were in relationship with one another.  The Gospel broke down (and breaks down) all walls that we put up between ourselves.  Republican/Democrat, Conservative/Liberal, American/Iraqi, Rich/Poor, White/Black, etc..  That doesn’t mean they alway got it right but that is the ideal that we should all long for.  The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and as sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father.  That is what true unity, true community is.  That is Jesus’ answer to prayer.  

But true unity and true Biblical community isn’t just about inward relationships with other followers of Jesus.  Unity and community isn’t just about loving each other and staying in relationships in the midst of differences.  There is an outward and missional part to Jesus prayer for his church to be unified.  Look at verse 21 which says, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” and also verse 23, “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me.”  When we live out Kingdom community and unity, it isn’t just about us four and no more.  When we love each other the way Jesus wants, the world sees Jesus.  When we love despite differences, and refuse to pull away from each other, the world truly sees that Jesus is in our midst.  What does John 13:35 say?  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  When we are united under the King and are living out the Kingdom in the world, the world sees this amazing group of people who, for all intended purposes, shouldn’t be together.  Shouldn’t be able to get along.  Shouldn’t be able to anything be in relationship.  When the world sees a group of people who shouldn’t be together, loving each other in the midst of differences, there can only be one answer.  Jesus.  But what this means is that we need to put aside our consumer tendencies and actually commit to a community.  We are fickle people when it comes to community.  When things are going well, we are eager to jump into the community and join the fun.  But when community requires sacrifice, perseverance, and hard work, which is what community is really, we often bail.  But this is a value of consumerism and the individual and not a value of the King, the Kingdom and true community.  The result however of our unity and community is that people will see and know that this kind of human community can only come from the hand of God.  And when they see a community that truly loves each other in the midst of disagreement, conflict, etc.. it is highly attractive.  And people want to be in a community where they can be themselves, and be truly loved.  They want to be a part of a refuge for many.  

Van Gogh wanted to create a refuge for many but it didn’t happen.  Van Gogh and Gauguin weren’t unified despite their differences.  And so the the vision behind the Yellow House never came to fruition.  Jesus prayer for us is that we would be a refuge for many, both ourselves and all people.  He prayed for it during his last day on earth.  And he is calling us to put flesh to his prayers.  To put his prayer into action by loving each other, serving each other, and living out the 59 one anthers in the Bible.  And living in such unity and community that others will see Jesus living in and through us.  

So let’s unpack what it would look like if we actually lived out the prayer of Jesus in our world today and in our community.  What stands in the way of this prayer from becoming a reality?  What steps can we take as individuals and as a community to actually live out Jesus’ prayer?  And what is God saying to you and what should you do about it?  And what is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions etc.. do you have regarding the text and/or the message?

2.  What stands in the way of this prayer actually being answered?  What things divide us?  

3.   What steps/things can we do as individuals and as a community to actually live out Jesus’ prayer?

4What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Divine Commodity Week 5: Wind in a Bottle

In 1885 Vincent Van Gogh went to Antwerp to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts there.  Being gifted he had no problem with the classwork.  He did however find the academic institute stifling, probably not to different than how we came to view the institutional church.  The academic setting to him was too sterile, too programmed, too removed from the beauty of life.  

During those days students at the Academy of Fine Arts, and other art schools, would paint skeletons as a way of learning proper form and anatomy.  No doubt the skeletons to Van Gogh represented the lifeless, academy and the institutional form of art.  So Van Gogh to add life and spontaneity into the academy and into his painting, he added a burning cigarette into the mouth of the skeleton.  As you can guess this prank was not particularly appreciated by his professors.  He spent only a year at the academy before he could no longer stand the sterility of the academy.  He left to pursue art among the living.  He said, “I prefer painting people’s eyes to cathedrals, for there is something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn and imposing the latter may be- a human soul, be it that of a poor beggar or of a street walker, is more interesting to me.”    Van Gogh was full of life, spirit, and vigor, but through the influence of institutions like the Academy of Fine Arts and the Dutch Reformed church, he lost that life, that spirit, and that vigor.  

The Pharisee’s of Jesus day were very much like the professors in the academy who thrived, not on life and spirit, but on theological precision, rules, and following everything to the letter.  Ambiguity, metaphors, and mystery weren’t helpful in the least, and at the most they were the enemy of following God.  They treated God like a gum ball machine, or even like a slot machine.  They had God down to a mathematical formula, which looked like Sacrifice A + Recite Prayer B + Abstain from C = Divine Blessings D.  But is that what following God is really all about?  Pointing our coins (our prayer, tithe, going to church, worship, etc.) into the slot and turning the dial and getting our gum ball of blessing.  But God is no gum ball machine and we our boxes that we try to place him in can never hold him.  About the time that we think we got him corner and captured and will do and act the way we hope and expect him to act, he wiggles free and escapes.  

Jesus had a conversation one night with a Pharisee who, at the time of the conversation, thought he had God figured out.  He had his math lined up and figured out.  He spent his life putting God in his box, and on a faithful night God broke the box apart, and challenged his math equation, and his life was really never the same.  

Turn to John 3:1-8 to see this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus.  “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.   Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

And so that fateful night Jesus gets a visitor named Nicodemus, who according to this text was not only a Pharisee but was also a member of the Jewish ruling council otherwise known as the Sanhedrin.  The Sanhedrin was a group of 23 judges ruling in every city throughout Jerusalem.  Nicodemus because he lived in Jerusalem would have been part of the Great Sanhedrin, a group of 71 members who were like our Supreme Court.  So Nicodemus was not only a Pharisee of Pharisees but he was also a man of considerable wisdom, knowledge and power.  He followed God and also the rules, practices, and laws of the Jewish system.  But something drew him that night to meet with Jesus.  To look beyond his answers.  To look beyond his mathematical equations and his box.  To find God in Jesus.  

Jesus speaks to Nicodemus in two metaphors.  The first one that we find is the metaphor of birth.  Of course, Nicodemus being the literal-minded pharisee, completely misses the point.  He thinks Jesus is talking literally climbing back into your mothers’ womb to be born a second time, which of course, is not only gross to think about, but also completely impossible, which is of course is Nicodemus response.  Jesus then tells him that it isn’t about physical birth but about spiritual rebirth.  That to truly live out the Kingdom of God, that people need to be remade, renewed, and have a new way of being and living.  But Nicodemus doesn’t understand where Jesus is heading.  

So Jesus then shares the second metaphor.  Jesus being a master teacher and one who no doubt took the environment around him to teach spiritual principles, probably used what was happening around him at the time.  Maybe and quite possibly the night that Nicodemus met with Jesus was a very windy night.  So Jesus uses the wind to being to talk about a spiritual reality, that of the Spirit.  In fact, the Greek and Hebrew word wind also means breath and spirit.  Jesus tells this deeply religious, deeply committed man that, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”   What Jesus is telling Nicodemus that you can’t control, dictate, or direct the Spirit of God.  Your religious precision.  Your mathematical equations.  Your do this and God will bless you.  All those things have a huge flaw…they leave out the mystery that is God.  That the Spirit of God can’t be put in our box, and pulled out when we want to show him off to our friends, or use him to fit our schedules.  God is unpredictable and uncontrollable.  Instead of trying to control him and put him under our thumb, or treat him like a genie in a bottle, we need to humbly submit to Him and be carried along, like a kite in the wind.  

What God wants from us is relationship.  In fact relationship between God and His people is at the heart of the Old Testament and the New Testament rather than the construction of religious systems of control.  Sometimes the people of God create religious systems in order to actually shield themselves from actual relationship with God.  Highly institutional Consumer Christianity tries to construct programs to capture God’s power and produce predetermined outcomes, rather than surrender to the mysterious movement of God’s grace, which is like fire or the wind, which is beyond our control.  We can control the God that our systems make up, we can’t control the God of Gods, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.  It’s like the dialogue that takes place between Lucy and Mr. Beaver in the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

This is not to say that structures, and systems are inherently wrong.  Anytime people get together there are structures and systems at work.  We have systems and structures here at Veritas.  But hopefully these systems and structures are subservient to the Spirit.  If they aren’t, then we become like the Pharisees not even recognizing when God has left the building, so to speak.  We create more systems.  We build bigger buildings.  We turn the volume up on the rock band that we use to lead worship.  We turn the fog machines on.  (not that these things are necessarily wrong in themselves) Never realizing that we are seeking to fill the institution with the Spirit, when it is people that the Spirit fills.  And then we are caught propping up the system and the institution which is like the skeleton into which Van Gogh placed the burring cigarette.  

But what do people look like and act like when they are filled with the Spirit and try to live their lives in tune with the Spirit?  What does a community of Jesus followers/church look like when they tune their corporate existence to the melody of the Spirit?  What happens when we dismantle our boxes where we have held God captive?  (if that were really even possible?)  What happens when we set aside our mathematical equations, our approaching God like a gum ball machine or a slot machine or even Santa Claus?  What happens when we, as a community, set aside our formulas for success, our predetermined outcomes, and our own plans, and instead seek God’s face, God’s definition of success, his outcomes and his plans?  I think we have a beautiful picture of what that looks like in Acts 2:42-47 which says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching( and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.   Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,  praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  As I mentioned before the driving force for God beyond his love, is his desire for relationships….both horizontal with people, and vertical with Him.  This picture of the early church bears this out.  The spirit moved in the lives of the believers, and they grew in their relationship with Him and with each other and with the world.  The Holy Spirit led them upward in relationship with Him, inward into the community of followers of Jesus, and led them outward into the community to be a blessing to those who didn’t know Jesus.  And the result of the Holy Spirit’s leading, guiding, and directing?  A massive amount of people came into relationship with Jesus and his Church.  

The Spirit guides us into relationships with Himself, His Church, and His world.  He doesn’t guide us into a relationship with an institution. He doesn’t guide us into a relationship with a skeleton.  No, he guides us into a relationship with a real, moving, active, and fully alive God.  And he wants us to follow His lead by being a real, moving, active, fully alive, led by the Spirit community of people seeking the face of Jesus together.  Seeking God, seeking each other, seeking the world.  

Van Gogh, tied of painting the dead skeletons, in the dead environment of the Academy of Fine Arts, left to paint the living.  One of his favorite subjects during that time was Augustine Roulin, a thirty seven year old mother of three.  His paintings of Augustine along with other faces he painted were in contrast to the paintings he painted in the Academy.  Van Gogh realized and recognized the people were the vessels of God’s Spirit and that love is something transmitted along the medium of relationships.  Van Gogh experienced the world of institutional art as a skeleton.  It had the form and structure of a human being but didn’t have the flesh, breath and life that would make someone alive.  Van Gogh experienced the world of institutional Christianity as a skeleton.  It had the form and structure of church and connecting people to Jesus but not the flesh, breath and life of the Spirit.  He experienced life and breath and the Spirit of God in the relationships of those whose faces he painted. His art was transformed when it moved beyond the academy and was integrated with life and relationships.  We are transformed by the Spirit when we move beyond our formulaic approaches to God, our mathematical equations,  our trying to get God in a box.  We are transformed by the Spirit when we also engage upward in our relationship with Jesus, inward with relationships with other followers of Jesus, and outward in our relationships with the world.  

Let’s talk about the boxes that we have put God in, the mathematical equations that we have tried to deduce, and how God has squirmed out of those boxes.  Let’s talk about where the Spirit has shown up outward, inward and upward.  And let’s talk about what God might be calling us to and what we should do about it? 

1.  What thoughts, insights, questions, comments, etc… do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2.  What boxes have you ever put God in?  What mathematical equations have you tried to run God through?  How has God defied the equation and squirm out of your box?

 3.   Where have you seen the Spirit in your Upward relationship, your Inward relationships, and your Outward relationships?  

 4.   What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it? 

Divine Commodity Week 4

Today we continue our series The Divine Commodity, looking at the life and art of Van Gogh, along with consumerism, the church and following Jesus.  Through this series we are hoping and praying that we’ll provide tools and spiritual practices that can help liberate us and our imaginations as Christ’s people in a consumer culture opposed to the values of the Kingdom of God.  

Over the last 3 weeks of our series we have talked about the spiritual practices of imagination, silence, and identity as a child of God.  Today our sermon is entitled “At Eternity’s Gate’ which is also the title of the painting that we looked at by Van Gogh a little earlier.  

Van Gogh said this about what inspired him to paint this painting, “This is far from theology, simply the fact that the poorest little wood-cutter or peasant on the hearth or miner can have moments of emotions and inspiration which give him the feeling of an eternal home for which he is near.”    And while Van Gogh gave up on the institutional church, and had a difficult time even finding God in the walls of the institutional church, he upheld his belief in God and in one’s ability to commune with Him.  He said this about prayer and communing with God, “I think there is no better place for meditation then by a rustic hearth and an old cradle with a baby in it, with a window overlooking a delicate green cornfield and the waving of the elder bushes.”  Van Gogh no doubt took time to commune with God.  But let’s look at another person in Scripture who took time to climb the mountain and have a mountaintop experience and see how that affected him.  

Let’s turn to Exodus 34:29-35 which says,  “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant) because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.  But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.  But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,  they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.”

So before the verses that we just read we see Moses on the mountaintop communing with God.  God delivers the Ten Commandments to Moses and then Moses begins to go down the mountain to engage the people with how they should follow God.  But as he descended the mountain, his face actually showed the fact that he had met with the Lord.  He face radiated from his encounter with the Lord.  But Moses with experience with God on the mountaintop is widely misunderstood in a number of ways.  

First, the Hebrew word for radiant or shone brightly literally means shot forth beams, it is also related to the Hebrew word for horns. That is why the Latin Vulgate, mistranslated the verb as ‘having horns” and so many medieval works of art have Moses having a pair of horns on his head.  Take for instance the sculpture of Moses by Michelangelo (show the picture)

Secondly, we notice a difference between this narrative, and where Paul mentions this narrative in the New Testament.  In verse 30 we read, “When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.”  And so here we see that Moses veiled his radiant face because the people were afraid to come near him.  But in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 3:13 we read, “we are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.”  His radiance was fading and so he veiled his face.  His mountaintop experience was genuine, glorious and full of God’s presence- but it did not bring lasting transformation.  

Notice the ending of the verses we just read, “But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,  they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.”  No doubt that close communion with God physically affected Moses.  Every time he came from communing with God his face shone brightly, and he had to veil his face.  No doubt Moses experienced glorious, transforming communion with God on Mt. Sinai.  But the glory faded.  Whatever glory and transformation that Moses experienced in God’s presence was temporary.  And he couldn’t live on the mountain, he had to come down from the mountain and live his life with his people, lead them and govern them.  But his regularly communion with God no doubt influenced how he lived when he was off the mountain.  And that is why, I believe, he frequently met with the Lord, to be in relationship with God, to give him wisdom as he lead God’s people, and he knew that he needed close communion with the Lord.  The mountaintop experience, while great, wasn’t enough to cut it for Moses, and it really shouldn’t cut it for us.  

Notice something else about Moses and this narrative.  At the beginning of the verses that we are looking at we read these words, “When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai”  And at the end of the text we read these words, “But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.”  Moses didn’t need to go back up onto Mount Sinai to commune with God.  He did go into the tent of the meeting to meet with God.  I am sure he could have wanted to go back up on the mountain.  I’m sure he could have had this reverence for the mountain and his experience there.  I’m sure he could have dreamed about the day that he could go back up on the mountain to meet with God.  But he didn’t have to go back on the mountain to meet with God.  He carved out space and time right where he was to communion and meet with God one on one and face to face.  He took what he experienced on the mountain, a deep experience of communion with God, and put it into practice down in the valley.  He didn’t live on the mountain, and his spiritually didn’t live on the mountain.  We don’t live on the mountain and our spirituality shouldn’t either.  

Have you ever had one of those mountaintop experiences where you knew that you had met with God?  Maybe it was on a retreat, maybe it was at a Christian event of some type, maybe it was on a mission trip, maybe it was getting away by yourself for a few days to listen to God, and maybe it was literally on a mountaintop.  How long did the spiritual high last?  Till you got home?  A week?  Longer?  We don’t live on the mountain and mountaintop experiences don’t last.  They can be important and can help us grow in our spiritual journey.  But we can’t expect to live there and we can’t expect that our spiritual life should be defined by them.  What has been happening because of the influence of our consumer culture (and our consumer christian culture) is that we have begun to believe that transformation is attained through external experiences.  What happens when we believe that transformation is attained through external experiences and through their consumption?  We make experience junkies in the world, but in the christian and church culture we create worship junkies.  Worship junkies who go from worship experience to worship experience looking for the next high.  And when the high begins to fade we go to another event.  Or if the church that we are going to doesn’t “do it” for us anymore, doesn’t give us that spiritual high that we want to consume, we go looking for a church that will give us that high again.  

It is like when you hear people say something like, “I just wasn’t fed this morning in worship.”  It’s almost like people see church like a gas station for their souls and the pastor as the gas station attendant.  Dan Kimball in his book “Emerging Worship” says this about a worship service and a gas station, “The weekend worship service has become the time in the week when we go to a church building much like a car goes to an automobile service station.  Most people view the weekend worship service as a place where we go to get service done to us by “getting our tanks filled up” at the service station.  It’s a place where someone will give a sermon and serve us with our weekly sustenance.  In automobile terms, you could say it is our weekly fill-up.  We come to our service station to have a song leader serve us by leaning us in signing songs.  All so we can feel good when we emotionally connect through mass singing and feel secure that we did “worship.”  So if we keep up the analogy, we come to the gas station/church, get filled up, and then drive around all week long, until next week when we are running on fumes, so we again pull into the gas station and get filled up.  If we don’t make it through the whole week, we either do a small group thing to top us off, or we blame the gas station or gas station attendant for not filling us up enough.  Never realizing that we are to take the role of gas station attendant and fill our own tanks, through spiritual disciplines like prayer, Scripture reading, meditation, etc…

And so what we as a people, unlike Moses, are missing in our consumer society which has definitely infiltrated the church, is a vibrant, self-generating relationship with Christ.  When we expect transformation to occur through external experiences we are opting for an inferior model of spiritual transformation.  Moses had a sustainable communion with God when he was on the mountain, but more importantly, when he came down from the mountain.  All too often we are settling for a temporary filling, a transient dose of glory to carry us along.  Instead of doing the hard work of communing with God one one one, face to face.  We long to go back up the mountain and get the experience, feeling, emotion, and high of meeting with God but he wants to meet us in the valley where we live, work, do life, and rest.   

At Eternity’s Gate was created twice, eight years apart.  The first creation was a charcoal sketch of the old man in prayer.  In the black and white version of At Eternity’s Gate Vincent differentiated the mans’s clothing in shades of gray.  Eight years later his revisited this drawing and proceeded to use oil paints.  We aren’t sure why he chose to do this piece twice.  But something that we do know is that the second time around he chose to use the exact same color of the man’s shirt, pants and even socks- the color blue.  He used this color to symbolize the infinite- remember the sky in Starry Night?  And so we see in At Eternity’s Gate, the peasant old man, by himself seeking to connect and enter into the presence of the infinite one by the simple act of prayer.

What about each one of us? Do we need to climb the mountain to commune with God?  Are we worship junkies jumping from one experience to the next to get that spiritual high?  Are we consuming the experiences for the emotion, feelings, and experience we get?  Or are we able, like the old peasant, to sit alone by the hearth, in solitude and silence, praying and being in communion with God, while not having to climb the mountain?

Let’s unpack times that we have had mountaintop experiences, how long they’ve lasted.  Let’s talk about ways that we need to sit, like the peasant At Eternity’s Gate. Let’s talk about how Veritas might help us as individuals and as a community, learn how to commune with God, so that we don’t have to hop from mountaintop to mountaintop but that we can live, move, breathe, and deepen as followers of Jesus in the valleys where we live.  

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2.  Share a mountaintop experience story.  How long did the mountaintop experience feeling last?  

3.  What spiritual disciplines help you commune with God?  What can Veritas do to help us commune with God as individuals and as a community?

4.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Divine Commodity Week 3: Branding of the Heart

Let me start this message off by giving us a short pop quiz.  College students are thinking…a pop quiz, another one?  And those who aren’t college students are like, I haven’t taken a pop quiz in x amount of years, you can fill that blank in.  

Don’t worry it is probably one of the easiest pop quizzes that you will ever take in your whole life.  Ready.  Good.

(Show 5 brand logos- Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Apple, Guinness)

Now that was easy.  It is easy to identify these corporate logos.  But let’s go one step further.  Let’s revisit these logos and I want you to share with me what these logos are saying, how do they make you feel, what emotions do they bring up in you, or what meaning do you derive from them?

According to Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, “Branding is everything.”  And while he didn’t say it, I would imagine that we could also everything can be branded.  But what is branding?  Brand is a manufactured idea that infiltrates the imagination and is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer.  It is what we did with the second part of the pop quiz.  Brands are really about identity.  And in the 21st century we derive meaning and value based not on what is inside, but by what brands we consume.  Consumerism has created a culture that values style over substance, image over reality, and perception over performance.  Jean Baudrillard, a French sociologist and philosopher said, “Consumption is a system of meaning.”  

So if consumption is a system of meaning, giving us identity by the brands we consume, and meaning by what we buy, than shopping malls would be the new church.  And then Douglas Atkin’s would be right, “Brands are the new religion”.  And consumerism is a religion as well, giving us meaning, identity, and purpose.  

But what about Christians whose identity should be wrapped up in God’s image, are we any different?  Researchers were unable to differentiate between self-confessed believers and non relative in behavior and values except in one instance- what they buy.  The religious consumer industry is a 7 billion dollar a year enterprise.  So Christians, for the most part, are constructing and expressing identity not based on biblical worldview, or on what God says about us, as children of God, but through consumption of“Christ-branded products.”  Christ branded products are becoming the identifying marker then of a Christian- what a Christian wears, reads, listens to, gets inked on their bodies, or puts on the back bumper of their car.  

But before we go any further down this road, let’s go into the past and see what things brought people identity and what the markers were for the people of God.  

In the Old Testament, the identity of God’s people, was circumcision.  Circumcision was the external marker of spiritual identity and was identifying forming.  But another way to say it today, it would be like saying that circumcision was the brand of the people of God.  It was what set the people of God (at least the males of the people of God) apart from the rest of culture and the world.  To be uncircumcised was seen as rejection of their cultural identity as the jewish people.  In fact, in the Old Testament, when God gave the command to Abraham, for the males to “cut of the flesh of his foreskin”, those who didn’t were to be “cut off” from his people.  In fact the world “uncircumcised” became synonymous with “unclean and heathen”.  It was the people of God’s brand- an external marker of their spiritual identity.  A symbol which would pull together people and build feelings of national and religious pride.  

But is that what really is supposed to define or be the brand of God’s people today?  Are we supposed to define our identity on what we consume or what we do to our bodies?  Let’s look at a few Scriptures to see what is really suppose to be our brand, if you will.  What is supposed to give us identity and meaning as the body of Christ in this world.  

Romans 2:25-29 says, “Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.   So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?  The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the[ written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit,( not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.”  What Paul is getting at here is the connection between outward conformity and inner heart.  The outward conformity to the people of God, the Israelites, was circumcision.  But Jesus came not for outward conformity, but inner heart which would then change how you live.  What Paul is also radically redefining is the concept of who is a true jew, who is truly the circumcised and who is the truly uncircumcised.  To Paul, being a Jew is not about outward conformity to the law or to a physical marking or to an ethnic background.  No a true Jew is one who is one internally, who has a heart to follow God and live for Him.   Who has a heart that is branded (circumcised) towards God and His Kingdom.  

External branding or circumcision, if you will, doesn’t mean squat.  It is meaningless if there isn’t something behind and inside of that, an internal spiritual reality.  So what he is getting at, is the fact that true circumcision isn’t outward and physical.  No true circumcision is inward and spiritual- and not just for men.  (not that it doesn’t lead to physical and outward acts of justice, mercy, compassion, and love)

Let’s rewrite part of Romans 2 to reflect wording for today, and the connection of branding and consumerism.  We might rewrite it this way, “For no one is a Christian who is merely one outwardly, nor is branding outward and physical.  But a Christian is one inwardly, and branding is a matter of the heart.”  So if Paul was addressing us today he would say something like that.  It would say that if you want to wear a cross around your neck, that is fine.  If you want to have a cross tattooed on your body, that is okay.  If you want to wear a Christian-inspired T-Shirt, that is up to you.  If you want to display your faith by putting a fish on your bumper, than go right ahead, but make sure your driving reflects your faith (speeding, cutting people off, extending the one finger wave, etc..) But don’t expect that to give you identity, or meaning or identification as a follower of Jesus.  Because following Jesus is about the heart first and foremost.  That it is about love and relationship not just outward conformity to a bunch of rules and regulations.  

So when it all comes down to it, being circumcised or being uncircumcised outwardly doesn’t mean that much to God.  Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:19 puts it this way, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts.”  And for Paul’s hearers this would have raised some serious objections from his Jewish listeners.  As I said before they put their spiritual identity and national identity on this brand of circumcision and now here Paul is saying that it doesn’t matter.  That what really matters is where your heart is.  Is your heart open and receptive to a relationship with God?  Are you following him with your heart or are you like the Pharisee’s who tried to follow every rule and regulation but their hearts were far from Him.  Or put in another way, their bodies were circumcised but their hearts weren’t.  They were all about the externals.  The washing of the hands.  The washing of the cups/bowls.  The 613 Old Testament rules and regulations that they were supposed to follow.  Paul was again trying to tell them that outward conformity to a bunch of rules and regulations was misplaced.  To assign a spiritual significance to an external mark, missed the mark.  And really wasn’t what God wanted.  He wanted their hearts, not just people following external laws.  He wanted a relationship not just someone checking off a bunch of boxes on a to-do list to be “right with God”.  

So what about us?  What are those things that we think gives us identity, that mark us as follower of Jesus, that when it really comes down to, are external and physical?  Are we seeking to be branded as a follower of Jesus because of where we shop, what we wear, what is tattooed on our bodies, or even what breath mint we stick in our mouths when we have bad breath (Testamints anyone)?  What are those rules and regulations that we think are essential to following Jesus but focus purely on the external without looking to the root of it all…the heart?  How often do we get caught up in the externals, even the externals that are good, and forget that when the heart changes, the externals will change.  The church focuses, in my opinion, on behavior modification, and not on heart change.  On the externals and not the internal.  On the circumcision of the body, if you will, and not the more important, circumcision of the heart.  

Let me close with two things.  There are outside markers that will give us identity and show who we live for.  It isn’t what we wear, where we shop, etc..  It is what we put on according to Colossians 3:12.  “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves( with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  Instead of putting on Tommy Hellfighter shirts, Jesus is my Homeboy underwear, or a cross tattoo to mark us and identify us, we need to be identified as a people who are known by our love (John 13:35)  We need to be a people known to be marked by compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Do we as the people of God in this world today live this out?  Is that our brand?  When people see the brand or logo of Christians do they automatically think about those things in John 13:35 and Colossians 3:12?  And if not than we need to focus on having a circumcised heart that will change our heart and will change what we are known for.  

Lastly, I want to return to the painting by Van Gogh, the Good Samaritan painting.  How I wish that this could be our brand in the church.  How I wish Van Gogh would have experienced John 13:35 and Colossians 3:12.  Instead after moving to the tiny Belgian village of Petit-Wasmes to start a ministry to the impoverished miners of that region, of living in humble housing, giving away his clothes and furniture, and money, and becoming “a friend of the poor like Jesus was”, he was deemed as overly zealous, bordering on the scandalous, and his lack of concern for his external appearance unbecoming of a clergyman.  The church concluded that his lack of “certain qualities may render the exercise of an evangelist’s principle function wholly impossible.”  So they withdrew their support after 6 months.  Maybe that is why Van Gogh painted the Good Samaritan because he desperately wanted the church to be branded this way, and not in the way that he (and honestly so many others in our own day and age) experienced.

So may we be a community known by our love and a community that puts on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  

So let’s talk about what it looks like today.  Let’s talk about branding and the church.  Let’s talk about what our modern day equivalent might be of the identifying marker of circumcision.  Let’s talk about how we can be more about the heart than the external rules and regulations.  And let’s talk about how we develop a community that looks like Jesus together.

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, etc.. do you have about the Scriptures and/or the message?

 2.   What is the modern day equivalent of circumcision?  An identifying external marker that we have as the people of God

3.   How can we be a community known by John 13:35 and Col. 3:12?

4.  What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?  What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Divine Commodity Week 2: Canvas of Silence

Last week we spent time looking at probably the most famous painting that Van Gogh ever painted, Starry Night.    But few know the things that converged together in his life that led him to put paint to canvas.  

First, one of Van Gogh’s favorite painters was a man by the name of Jean-Francois Millet. Twenty years before Starry Night, Millet painted his own “Starry Night”.  And one of Van Gogh’s favorite book was a biography of Millet.  Van Gogh had a longing for the infinite and a longing to experience that in nature.  He was known to go hiking in the hills, walking on beaches, and even went out into the middle of a field during a thunderstorm to experience the power of God’s nature.  

Secondly, on May 8, 1889 Van Gogh accompanied by a local Pastor took the train from Arles to Saint Remy and admitted himself into an asylum.  At night in the asylum Van Gogh could look out his window and see the Alpilles Mountains, the cypress trees, and the stars in the sky.  

These two things, his desire for the infinite and his condition, came together in Starry Night.  His desire for peace and stillness internally and externally.  To experience the quiet within his own head, while being wracked by his disease.  To also experience the still small voice of God externally in the creation that was all around him.  In fact he said, “When all sounds cease, God’s voice is heard under the stars.”  

Now if we look at the painting that riffed off of Starry Night that we looked at earlier, Starry Night, Urban Sprawl, we see a radically different piece where the sky and the sprawl don’t touch at all.  The yellow and blue of the sky that is in movement (like in Starry Night)- signifying divine love and presence- doesn’t come down to the village.  And the light that is emulating from the village comes from the commercial enterprises.  The McDonalds, the Arby’s Big Boy, etc… drown out the light of the divine movement in the sky.  In fact, notice the church building.  The light that is coming out of the church building is not the same type of light of the sacred yellow light of the stars.  No it is the same type of light as the consumer businesses- the restaurants, the franchise stores, etc…In this painting the church doesn’t challenge, differ from, or isn’t set apart from the rest of the consumer light and noise that is all around it, it actually adds to it.  The Church in Starry Night, Urban sprawl reflects the values of the earth, not the values of the heavens.  The Church in Starry Night, Urban sprawl is a business.  They reach out by marketing.  They worship through entertainment.  And God is another commodity just like the commodities that are all around the church.  The din of consumption and the noise of business, production, and busyness (the pale yellow light) crowds out the full rich yellow of the sky.  How often does this happen in our world?  Where the din of consumerism, busyness, and business (even in the church) crowd out the still small voice of God so that we can’t even recognize the voice of God because of the noise that is all around us- even in the church.  

Silence is a rare commodity in our world.  But someone once said that silence is the beginning of all worship, and the spiritual life must find it’s origin in silence.  They both agree with our Scripture from today which is found in Psalm 46:10.

Psalm 46:10 says, He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;( I will be exalted( among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  

The Psalmist here in chapter 46, according to scholars, is writing a celebration piece about the security of Jerusalem as the city of God.  The song points to God’s victorious reign over all the earth.  Over the nature itself.  Over the powers that would set themselves over and above God himself.  It also is about God’s power in the midst of our struggles.  In the midst of nature.  God’s power to bring about shalom.  And at the end of the Psalm, after we hear about God’s power over all.  About God’s hand of protection.  About God being a refuge and ever present help in times of trouble.  After we hear about how he ends wars.  How he sets everything to right.  What is left after hearing about all of these things?  What is the proper response for one who has seen all these things come to pass?  A proper response to God’s power, might, deliverance, and his peace?  A proper response to all that the Psalmist has seen and experienced is nothing but silence.

Have you ever stood in the mountains where there were no human lights around and looked up at the stars?  I went outside the other night to take the dog out and looked up.  Now there were human light arounds but still the amount of stars littered in the sky still took my breath away.  Have you ever stood on the beach with the water rolling under your toes and looked out at the expanse of the ocean?  Have you ever had an experience when you just came face to face with God and his transcendence and you were speechless?  This is what the Psalmist is getting at here.  He experienced the transcendence, the magnitude, the immensity, and the majesty of God himself, and the only proper and real response was one of complete and utter silence.  Skye Jethani in the book from which this series came from says it this way, “When our imaginations are jolted into contemplating our true insignificance, either by a star-filled sky or some other encounter with the transcendent, our response is always the same- silence.”

In the midst of the storms of life and in the silence is where we find out that God is really God.  When the Psalmist slowed down, got silent, that is when he truly knew God.  It is almost saying in this Psalm that to truly know God we must be still/silent.  I’m not saying it’s not possible to experience God at a loud rock concert.  I’m not saying it’s not possible to experience the voice of God in the midst of city streets.  i’m not saying that God doesn’t speak through the noise of music, movies, etc.  I have heard the voice of God (not audibly) in all of those places.  What I am saying is that I believe we can hear the still small voice of God better when we get quiet before God, block out the outside noise, try to block out the inside noise (which is harder to block out than the outside noise), get alone with God, and listen for his voice.  

Look at Jesus, the son of God, who had a direct connection with the Father.  That he said, “I and the Father are one.”  Even he needed to get alone, remove himself from the demands put upon him so that he could hear from his heavenly Father, and slow down and rest in Him.  We find this Luke 5:16 which says, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”  One of the struggles that we all face with the idea of being still and silent before God is when we say we are too busy.  But if Jesus, who is the Savior of the world, had time to get away, to slow down, to quiet himself before his heavenly Father, how much more should we take the time and do that.  

Besides our busyness, what stands in the way of us being still before God and knowing Him?  Probably another thing has to do with the idea of quieting our souls.  It is one thing to quiet our surroundings but quite another to quiet our souls and the thoughts that run through our own heads.  Even if we get alone in solitude, it is inner solitude that can often elude us.  Henri Nouwen said, “One of the main problems is that in this chatty society, silence has become a fearful thing.  For more people silence creates itchiness and nervousness.”  And because of that itchiness and nervousness we tend to a voice silence at all costs.  We turn the radio on to drown out the silence in our heads.  The voice that tells us that we aren’t good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, have enough money, have the right car, have the right house, have the right job, etc…  Jethani puts it this way, “In our consumer culture silence is the unholy vacuum that must be filled.”  And it isn’t hard to fill that vacuum with noise.  Noise from external sources and also from internal ones.  Noise in the form of sounds, words, images, thoughts, and the noise from voices telling us that to be somebody we need to be a better consumer.  And we can buy our way to happiness, fulfillment, and a better life.  Consumerism is actually just never ending noise.

If we want to hear the still small voice of God like Elijah heard in 1 Kings 19, then we must get silent and still before God.  If we want to know Him, like the Psalmist says, then we must get away and quell the outside and inside noise in order to hear the words of love, truth, grace, forgiveness and mercy that will come.  If we want to rid ourselves of the voice that tells us that we will never measure up, we can’t be good enough, and that to measure up and be good enough we just need to purchase the right things, or even buy into the right belief system where God becomes a commodity himself, we need to slow down, be still, and know God.  Not for what we can get out of him, but just to be in his presence and in relationship with Him.  

Jethani puts it this way, and I’ll close with this thoughts, and few more of my own.  “Our imaginations can throw off the shackles of consumerism if we start to feel the infinite once again.  This requires taking our gaze off the consumable manifestations of God so prevalent today- the music, T-Shirts, jewelry, and yes even books that reduce and confine our perception of the Divine- and replacing them with the silent contemplation of what God himself has created.  In a culture that insists on making God small, we can counteract this trend by focusing our imaginations on what is big.”

Here are some thoughts regarding our perceptions of God, the outer noise that is around us, and the inner noise in our heads.  What if we turn off the radio for a few minutes while driving?  Do we always need the music on?  What if we took a walk in the rain or thunderstorm?  What if we took a trip to the beach, not to go swimming but just to gaze at the ocean?  What if our group would get together some night just to sit outside and gaze at the stars in silence together?  What might we learn about God from that experience that maybe no Bible Study could teach or show us?  What if instead of all this talking in church, we actually took some more time to be still and silent together, and let God speak to us.  

We’ll spend some time in discussion now, but at the end of our time we’ll spend some more time together in silence.  Just listen for the voice of God.  To slow down together, quiet our outside world and our inner world, and be still and know that He is God. 

1.  What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc. do you have regarding  the Scripture and/or the message?  

2.  When, before today, was the last time you spent time in silence?  Do you sometimes avoid silence because you’re afraid of what God might actually have to say to you?

3.   What are some things in your daily life you could change to eliminate  some of the noise?

4.   Spend a few more minutes in silence with Him.  Don’t force anything. Just pray and listen.