Posts Moved…
I will no longer be adding blog posts to VibbleSpace. This site is purely a resource tool. Hopefully I will be able to continually add to this theological sketchbook, especially now that I am back in full time ministry and pursuing my PhD.
In an effort to streamline things, all my blog posts will be located at stevethomason.com. I hope you'll join me in conversation there.
Called to Move – a sermon
Lectionary Texts:
Genesis 12:1-4
John 3:1-17
My dog is a spaz. Meet Shasta. He’s my 12 pound ball of fur. He was traumatized as a small puppy. He loved running out of our sliding glass door to the back yard. One day we had the glass door open, but the screen door was closed. You can see it coming can’t you. That poor little guy built up a head of steam, barreled toward the door, and then, BAM! His face smashed into the screen, it bowed, and then sent him flying back into the room.
He’s never been the same. To this day, 5 years later, he still has a door phobia. He also has a floor color phobia. It’s the strangest thing. In our living room we have carpet, the dining room has dark wood, and the kitchen has light wood. To watch Shasta you would think the transitions between those floors were made from lava.
Then, when you combine a doorway with a floor color change, forget about it. He’s a nervous wreck. That little hairball will stand in the door to my studio for 10 minutes, whining and crying before he builds up enough courage to make the big leap and scramble across the floor in a flurry of fur and nails.
Sometimes we are like that, aren’t we? We don’t really like change. Many times the fear of the unknown is stronger than the fear of the known.
The truth is that we often get stuck in habitual patterns. Week after week, year after year, we do the same things, go to the same places, have the same conversations. This can be true in our spiritual lives as well. We go to church, say the words, sing the songs, eat the bread, shake some hands, hum de dum. We’re stuck.
Sometimes, we might think there is more to it. Sometimes we might be inspired to explore something new, but, too often we are pulled back into the familiar. It might be fear that pulls us back, it might be pressure, or it might be plain laziness. For whatever the reason, we’re stuck.
In our lessons today we meet two men who were stuck. We get to listen in on the conversations they have. As we do, we will learn some important lessons on how we can get unstuck and move forward with God.
The first man is a guy named Abram. His story is found in Genesis and the specific conversation we want to look at is in Genesis 12:1-4. Abram lived about 2000 years before Jesus, in the land of the Chaldeans, in the capital city of Haran. The Chaleans were also know as the Babylonians. In the ancient world, to say that Abram live in Haran would be similar to saying, in our world, that Abram lived in Moscow during the height of the cold war. The Chaldeans were a powerful Empire. They worshipped the moon god, named Sin. His symbol was the horned bull and the crescent moon. He was the great bull rider that governed the marking of time and dominated his people.
I try to imagine Abram living in Haran and I wonder what was really going on with him. Here he is, a wealthy man. He lives in the powerful capital city of a major Empire. The gods he grew up worshipping were the kind of gods that loved power, and those who worshipped them were generally driven to build their empires and dominate those around them.
I just wonder if Abram was one of those guys who stepped back and looked at the bustling city, and the politicking of the priests, and the oppression of the enemy, and wheeling and dealing in the busy market place, and wondered about it all. Perhaps he stepped out in the field at night and looked up at the moon. He stared at it and thought, “Are you really my god? Isn’t there more?” Abram is stuck in the Moon God Religion.
Maybe he was one of the few people who was courageous enough to ask the big questions, and even more importantly, he was courageous enough to actually listen for new answers. That’s when God shows up and speaks to him.
Now, let’s role the tape ahead by 2000 years, until we come to our second man. His name is Nicodemus. The world has changed quite a bit since Abram. The world powers have shifted many times. And now, Nicodemus finds himself in a strange situation. He is a wealthy man. He is an influential leader of his people, but his people are under the oppression of the Roman Empire. Nicodemus’ religion tells him that God loves the Jews and hates the Gentiles and that if Israel would just straighten up, then God would oust the Romans and they could seek revenge on their oppressors.
Nicodemus’ people are fighting amongst themselves. They are angry at the Romans. They are angry at themselves. It’s a mess. Nicodemus is stuck in the Jewish Religion.
I just wonder if Nicodemus was like Abram. He was a man who stepped back and watched, and thought, “I feel stuck. Is this really what God intended for us?” He was courageous enough to break protocol and seek a conversation with Jesus.
Now, let’s role the tape ahead again another 2000 years to today. Where are you? Do you sometimes look around at this thing called Christianity, with some people fighting, and some people just going through religious motions, or maybe you just feel flat. As scandalous as this may sound, I think we can get stuck in a Christian Religion.
As we listen to these two conversations, I think we will learn three important lessons about how to get unstuck spiritually and begin to really move forward.
The first thing is to Lift Our Eyes. I think what happens in society is that, over time, we tend to shape an idea of God that is more about our ideas than about the true nature of God and we hunker down into a religious rut. We like to confine God into a creed or a specific confession and God has to come along and shake us up from time to time. We need to lift our eyes and look up to see what God is really like.
In Abram’s case, the moon god and all the pantheon of gods and goddesses were the gods of empire. They were gods who called people to live in fear and to dominate their enemies.
Look what Yahweh says to Abram in Genesis 12. He says, “I want to bless you.” This word to bless is a fascinating word. It literally means to kneel down before. So imagine this. Here is the God who is above all the gods. Yahweh -- the one who placed the moon, and the sun, and the stars in their places -- stoops down to a single man and says, “I kneel down before you. I don’t Lord it over you and demand something from you out of fear and intimidation. I am for you, Abram.”
Now look at Nicodemus. Jesus tells him, “For God so loved the world.” Among Nicodemus’ colleagues, the general belief was that God loved Israel and hated the world. But no, Jesus says that God loves the world – everybody -- even the cruel Romans.
Many times we can get stuck in the idea that God is just like us and only likes people that are like us. We might be tempted to think that God loves Americans and hates other, less democratic countries. Or that God is a republican and couldn’t possibly love liberal democrats. Or, that God is a democrat and couldn’t possibly love narrow-minded republicans. Or whatever.
We must always be reminded that God is the God who blesses; the God who loves the world and all the various forms it takes.
Secondly, if we want to get unstuck, we need to Open Our Ears and hear God’s call.
Look what God said to Abram. There are two key words in his statement: so that. “Abram, I am blessing you so that you can be a blessing to all nations.” Let’s say this phrase together. Blessed to be a blessing. Once more, Blessed to be a blessing. That is the mission of God’s people. Do you remember what the word bless means? We are called to kneel down before all nations. We are called to serve all nations, to be the conduit of God’s grace to all people.
Look what Jesus said to Nicodemus. “For God did not send his son to condemn the world, but to save the world.” The mission of Jesus, and the mission of his followers is to bless the world, to bring the saving way of Jesus to all people through our words and actions. We are called to be like Jesus to the nations, regardless of who they are.
Nicodemus was stuck because he forgot what the original call to Abram was. Jesus didn’t bring a new message to Israel, he was trying to remind them of what the mission has always been. Blessed to be a blessing.
In our world, in our churches, it is very easy to get stuck in a self-centered theology and a self-serving religiosity. It is easy to think, “OK, I’ve been confirmed, I’ve got my ticket to Heaven, I’m comfortable, it’s all good.” But that is not what God calls us to. God has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to others.
That leaves us with the third thing. We need to Move Our Feet.
God said to Abram, “leave your father’s land and go to a place that I will show you.” How would you feel if God told you to move, but didn’t tell you where? It would be scary. It would require a huge amount of trust that God had your best interest in mind.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born again, that he had to reconfigure his hard drive and see everything fresh and new. He had to leave behind the distorted thinking of his inherited worldview and see the world with the fresh eyes of a new born if he was going to be able to see God and hear God’s call on his life.
So here we are. I don’t know where you are today, or where you might be stuck. Maybe you have a hard time believing that God actually loves you, let alone that he loves people who are different than you. Maybe you are like Shasta and you’ve been traumatized by an event in your past that makes it hard to see God fresh and hear this call. Maybe it’s hard to imagine reaching out and blessing those who are different.
One thing I do know is this. God is a God that calls us to move. The universe is a dynamic place. Everything shifts and changes -- even the earth’s crust. So we have a choice every day. We can either hunker down in our own version of God and let the shifting of culture shatter us, or we can lift our eyes and see that God is the God who calls us to move, that the Spirit is like the wind, wild and unpredictable, and we can follow God on a wild and wonderful adventure of faith.
I hope that in this Lenten Journey that we are on together, that it will serve to help you break free of wherever you may be stuck and take another step on the journey with God.
Ash Wednesday Sermon
A few years ago my family visited Yellowstone National Park. One thing that really struck me about the experience was this scene. The forest had been decimated by fire. It was black and barren.
This painting reminds me of a stark reality. Everything burns. Burning is simply the process of something falling apart. It is energy being released as the molecular bonds are broken and what was once a beautiful piece of wood is reduced to a pile of black and grey ash.
Everything falls apart. Cars break down. Paint flakes off. Flowers wilt and turn brittle. Skin wrinkles, hearts fail, flesh decomposes.
Hopes and dreams burn, too. Jobs are lost. Children rebel. Families break apart. Churches split. In the end, it all turns back to ashes.
Everyone has ashes. Everyone has something that has fallen apart in life. And now it lies there – our sins, fears, disappointments, and failures – in a pile of ashes.
What does your pile look like today?
As I look out across this room, I am overwhelmed by what I see. Each of you are marked. This is a special day. Usually you come to this place with your best face on. You come with smiles and laughter, even if you don’t feel like it.
But, not today. Today you come to do something very significant. You have come to be marked with ashes. You display on the outside what you feel like on the inside. Look around for a moment. It is quite remarkable.
We are marked today for a special reason. Today marks the beginning of a journey that we will take together. It is a journey that most of us have traveled before. We know the destination. It is the resurrection. We know the end of the story. It is joy and victory. And yet, we must take this journey each year. For the next 40 days we will journey together…marked by ashes.
As we stand here at the beginning of this journey, displaying these ashes for all to see, I want us to remember first of all that this is a two-fold journey. And that these ashes have a two-fold meaning.
The double journey is this. First it is an inner journey that we must take. We will look deep within and ask the spirit to show us places that need to be cleaned up and healed in our soul.
The word Lent means Spring. I have a confession to make. I don’t like winter. It is cold and dark. Winter has a negative effect on me in many ways, but one way that it impacts is in my garage.
This picture was taken last Wednesday. This is my garage. It is so cold out there during the winter that instead of taking the time to organize things and clean up after myself, like I usually do in the summer, I just throw stuff out there and run back in as fast as I can. Over the course of the cold, dark winter I develop bad habits and my garage looks like this.
When the weather warms up I look forward to cleaning out my garage. I will give my Garage a Spring cleaning – a Lent Cleaning.
So, Lent is a Spring Cleaning of the soul. During this introspection we will hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. We will practice the discipline of fasting and prayer in order to bring our appetites under control, to slow down, and to listen to what God wants to tell us.
But, there is also a second journey. It is the outer journey. It is the journey that takes us outside of ourselves and into the world around us. We will look at those who hunger and thirst in the world.
We will be reminded by the prophet Isaiah that a fast that focuses only on ourselves is, well, a selfish fast. As Isaiah said in our lesson, Isaiah 58:6–7 (NRSV)
6Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
For the next several weeks we will focus on this journey of Hunger and Thirst.
So tonight, I want us to focus on these marks we have on our foreheads. These ashes.
There are two meanings for these ashes. On the one hand they are Ashes of Ruin. They remind us that everything burns.
They remind us of our mortality. When we placed the ashes on your forehead, we spoke the dark and familiar words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It is good for us to remember how frail life is. As much as we hate to admit it, one day each of us will be reduced to dust. Our flesh will fail. Through these ashes we are reminded that life is a gift from God, not to be taken for granted.
The Ashes of Ruin also remind us of the messiness of life. No matter how hard we try, or how much we pretend, we mess up, don’t we? Look around again. Look at the person that you think has it all together. Now look at their forehead. They don’t. They harbor bitterness, or envy, or greed, or pride, or lust, or malice, or fear. Just like you.
On a day like today we come together to be humbled by our sin. Like the prophets of old, we are called to repent. We are called out on the carpet and we admit that life is messy and we are imperfect and we are powerless to make ourselves clean.
That’s why we fast during Lent. Through fasting and prayer we deny ourselves of something good in order to slow down the pace of our lives. Fasting is the process of purposefully bringing ourselves into the wilderness, to join Jesus as he spent 40 days in the desert and then was tempted by Satan. It is a time to let God search our hearts with a microscope to see what needs to be cleaned out.
How will you fast this season? I am going to cut out sweets. That will be hard for me. So each time I feel the urge to grab my daily tootsie roll from Kim DeVries office, or scoop up my Tuesday night bowl of ice cream, I’m going take that urge and turn it into a prayer.
I’m going to pray for many things, like my family. But this season I am going to focus my prayer and fasting on something very specific. I’m going to pray for our students, especially our 8th grade students who are about to make a huge step this year into high school and entering into the Own Your Faith process. I encourage you to focus your prayer and fasting on something specific. Ask God to show you how you should pray.
So, these ashes of Ruin break us down, and call us to prayer and fasting. With soot on our faces we are humbled and reduced to the pile of ashes that we are.
We are humbled, But we are also encouraged. We are encouraged because these ashes have a second meaning. Not only are they the remains of our burnt up lives, they are also Ashes of Rebirth.
I came across a wonderful essay on a blog called Seeds of Shalom, written by Daniel G. Deffenbaugh. He reflects on the ashes and connects them to the creation of Adam. He says…
“Adam is in fact a play on words, for the first man was formed from adamah, the Hebrew word for the good, dark humus into which God sank his knees when breathing the breath of life into the human form beneath him. ‘And the man became a living being … Lent is surely Adam's season, for if the truth be told, his weaknesses, his fears, his very fallible nature, his grubby face, are still very much our own, and they will be until our return to the earth from which we were made…Like Adam being brought forth from the earth, I want to wear on my forehead the ashes of creation. I want to take strange comfort in the fact that from dust I came and to dust I shall return.”
I also learned something else about ashes this week that was pretty cool. I learned how soap is made. Soap is the combination of ash and fat. That’s right. Back in the old days, people would save the ashes from their fires and save the grease drippings from their cooking, and then combine them to make soap.
So, the next time that you go camping, you don’t need to pack dish soap. Just take the ashes from your fire and mix them with the fat from your bacon, and – viola! – you have soap.
Do you know what is on your forehead right now? It is a combination of the ashes from the burnt up palm branches of last year’s Palm Sunday combined with Olive Oil. Oil is fat. Ashes and fat. You have soap on your forehead.
Plus the oil is the same oil that was used when you were baptized, to be the sign of the Holy Spirit in your life. Isn’t that just like God? The black smudge that represents your sin and disgrace is the very same thing that represents the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life.
You see, while Lent is a season of fasting and introspection, it is also a season full of hope and excitement. We don’t have to mope around.
As we take this journey of ashes for the next 40 days, we need to be reminded of Jesus’ words about fasting that we heard in the Gospel reading.
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:16-18
Diane Butler Bass says it like this-
“The journey to Easter is not a mournful denial of our humanity. Rather, Lent embraces our humanity – our deepest fears, our doubts, our mistakes and sins, our grief, and our pain. Lent is also about joy, self-discovery, connecting with others, and doing justice. Lent is not morbid church services. It is about being fully human and knowing God’s presence in the crosshairs of blessing and bane. And it is about waiting, waiting in those crosshairs, for resurrection.”
Let’s come back to the painting. While we were in Yellowstone, I learned something about forest fires. There are certain kinds of trees that need fire in order to reproduce. Their seed pods will only open under extreme heat. So, periodically, by God’s design, lightning will strike a dead tree, it will catch on fire, and a devastating fire will sweep through the forest and leave nothing but ashes in its wake. But then, in the dark soil of ruin, new life begins. A green shoot forces its way up into the sunshine and the forest is reborn.
My prayer for you, for our congregation, and for our world Is that these ashes we bear today will help us to let the fire of God’s Spirit burn away the junk this season. So that the water of God’s spirit and wash us fresh and new as we look forward to the day of resurrection.
Amen.
Thoughts on Prayer
In our culture it is very easy to feel tossed back and forth by the craziness of life. Between homework, practice, a job, friends, church, texting, "drama", parents fighting, friends fighting, nations fighting, people dying, it can get overwhelming sometimes.
How can we slow down and catch our breath?
The answer is through prayer and fasting. At first glance this seems like a lame topic that is only for the super religious freaks. But, I hope that if you listen, you'll find that this topic is really at the core of everything that we do.
I want to ask two questions today. The first question is, "why should I pray?" The second question is "how should I pray?"
Why Should I pray?
• Slow Down
In the story of Elijah we learn a really important lesson about God. God speaks in a still small voice. When we are caught up in the whirlwind of life, we won't hear God. It is only when we take time to slow down that we can even begin to know who God is or what God wants with us.
1 Kings 19:11–13 (NLT)
11 “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
• Find Your Center
This point is related to the last one about slowing down. In the creation story we see that the universe was like a raging ocean. This was ancient imagery for chaos. Kind of like our lives. Look what God is like. God is like a bird that hovers, or flutters over the water, gently, slowly, calming the storm. And then, God speaks, "let there be..." and gently God separates the waters, and the land, and then fills them with life and order and purpose.
Everyone of us longs for the quiet voice of God to bring order to our chaos. To create a fresh sense of purpose in our lives. That is our core, it is the source of creation itself, and when we give in to the chaos we move farther and farther away from God's purpose for our lives. We need to slow down and bring it back home.
Genesis 1:2 (NLT)
2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
• Get Clean
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to look someone in the eye if you have been talking trash about them behind their back, or if you are really mad at them? When you mess up somehow, whether on purpose or by mistake, it clutters up your soul. It adds more noise to the chaos, and makes it almost impossible to connect to people or to God.
One of the most important reasons we pray is to clean the junk from our lives. We all have junk. We all mess up. God is not going to zap you for it. God wants to rescue you from the effects of it and give you the freedom to live life without guilt and shame.
1 John 1:8–10 (NLT)
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Psalm 51:10–12 (NLT)
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
• Partner With God
I have shocking news for you. You are not the center of the universe. I am not the center of the universe. I know, it is a crazy thought.
God is the author and creator of everything. God is the king, it is God's kingdom, and every day we are invited to live in that kingdom and spread the ways of God's love to everyone we meet. Part of the reason we need to pray on a daily basis is to align ourselves with God's Kingdom and remember that we are part of God's plan to bring justice and healing to the world.
Matthew 6:10 (NLT)
10 May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
How Should I pray?
• Update your Status
Prayer is nothing more than talking to God. You text and tweet and update your Facebook status all day long. Why not start by checking in with God first.
I read a great book this week. It said that instead of Practicing our Faith, we should be faithing our practices. In other words, don't add new things to your already busy schedule in order to be more holy. Instead, refocus the things you already do and make them be a connection to God.
When you update your Facebook, remember that God reads it too.
When you ride on the bus, think about how God would treat the people around you.
When you get up in the morning, think about what a gift it is that you can take a breath.
When you sit down to eat, thank God for the way he provides all your needs.
When you take a test, or play a game, or step on stage, ask God for strength.
When you throw out the trash, think about the planet and the waste and pray for wisdom to use less.
When you are tempted to lust after someone, or use someone for your own benefit, or talk trash about someone, pray for that person instead and try to think how God would look at that person.
Everything is prayer, because God is the very air that we breath.
• Morning and Evening
Let's finish this off with a super simple and super practical reminder. In the Small Catechism , Martin Luther suggested three simple prayers for each day. One when you wake up, one when you eat, and one when you go to bed.
Try it this month. See if framing your day in prayer makes a difference.
Morning Prayer
I thank you, my heavenly Father, through jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
Meals
Lord God, heavenly Father, bless us and these Your gifts which we receive from your bountiful goodness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Evening Prayer
I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. for into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
What is Lent Leader’s Guide for Catechism
Catechism leaders,
click the link above to download your group questions.
Going the Second Mile – Matthew 5:38-48
Matthew 5:38-48
Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek, go the second mile.
Seriously, Jesus?
Have you ever struggled with this passage? I know I have over the years. I mean come on Jesus, Pray for those who persecute you? And then there’s the kicker at the end. “oh, yeah. By the way. Be perfect, too.” Like we can ever live up to that standard. Why don’t you just ask me to sprout wings and fly to the moon?
In a world where powerful people abuse helpless people every day. Where bullies push kids around in school. Where boyfriends smack their girlfriends around, just because they’re stronger. Where rich and powerful people bend the rules and skate above the law while hard working, tax paying middle class get penalized for being honest. Where homeless people are arrested or neglected simply because they have no where to go. In a world like this, how could we possibly believe that God would want us to roll over and take the abuse, or allow the abuse to continue?
These are important questions, and if we take the time to handle this passage carefully, we’ll see that Jesus has something to say about it.
First, let me tell you right now, I don’t think Jesus is teaching a doormat theology where we are supposed to let people abuse us and just lay there and take it. I think Jesus is talking to the class system in the passage and giving people a framework for how to be his disciple, to show God’s kind of love, in the middle of an abusive hierarchy of the powerful have’s and the powerless have-nots.
Let’s face it, all societies have a class system. In America we would like to think we don’t, but we do. If you don’t think we have slavery and a class system in our country, let’s take a little survey. How many of you have a mortgage or a car payment or owe money on a credit card? How many of you go to work every day so that you can pay those bills, and if you didn’t pay those bills someone would come after you?
You’re a slave. I’m a slave.
Everyone in this room has three kinds of people in your life. You have the people above you who are more powerful than you. Your boss, your creditor, the bully in the hall. You have people below you who are less powerful than you. Your employee, your little brother, the beggar on the street corner. And you have people outside of your comfort zone who, to be honest, just plain scare you. Those are commonly known as enemies.
In our passage today Jesus teaches us how to love up, love down, and love out.
Loving Up.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
In Moses's Day this law was intended to stop retaliation. Back then the people of Israel had just been freed from slavery in Egypt. They didn’t know how to behave as a society, so they needed lots of laws. Plus, the place they were going, called Canaan, was ruled by a law based on vengeance. “You look at my wife, I burn down your village.” The tribes warred against each other in a type of escalation.
Isn’t that our temptation. When someone hurts you, don’t you want to get them back and make them suffer for it?
The law of Moses told the people, “Whoa, hold on now. That’s not how we do things in God’s kingdom. Let’s just let the punishment fit the crime. An eye for an eye, not your whole family dead for an eye.” In that day it was a good law that focused on justice, not retaliation.
In Jesus’s day things were different. In Jesus’s day the people were suffering under the hand of a mighty oppressor called Rome. The people were clinging to the concept of an eye for an eye and couldn’t wait for the day that they could do to Rome exactly what Rome was doing to them.
That’s when Jesus teaches them how to love up.
How do you love someone who is more powerful than you and pushes you around all the time? Here’s where it gets really interesting. Jesus says three shocking things. He says, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone sues you and takes your coat, give to him your cloak as well. If someone asks you to go a mile, go two.
Don’t these seem a little arbitrary? Actually, they are very specific because they relate to three common ways that powerful people oppressed less powerful people.
I need a volunteer to demonstrate the first one. Ok, stand right here. Let’s say that I am higher than you in society, like I am your master. In Jesus’ day it was socially acceptable to strike a servant, or a lower class person, across the face right out in public. However, you had to do it with the back of your right hand, like this. When my hand comes down on your face, where does it strike you? On the right cheek.
Now, turn the other cheek. If I try to hit you now, I hit you in the nose, and that was bad.
The only way I could strike you on the cheek now is to do it this way, with the palm of my hand. If I did that, I would declare that you are my equal.
Thank you, you can sit down. Give him a hand.
Now, about cloaks. Poor people owned to pieces of clothing, total. They had their out coat and their cloak, which was essentially their underwear. Powerful people, who didn’t need the money, were suing poor people and being so cruel that they would even take the coat off their back. It was an act of injustice to the poor.
So, Jesus says, “hey, if they want to take your coat, give them your cloak as well, and stand there naked in front of the court. Does anyone want to demonstrate this one for us?
In other words, in this radical act you will be exposing the cruelty for the shameful act that it is.
Then, about the second mile. Roman law stated that a Roman soldier had the right to conscript any person to carry their burden for them for any distance up to a mile. This is nothing more than bullying. Soldiers would use their oppressed subjects like pack mules and go from person to person and mile to mile. But, if the soldier forced the person to go more than a mile, then the soldier would be in trouble.
Jesus grins. If the soldier bullies you and forces you to carry his pack, don’t get mad. Don’t plan retaliation, just smile and walk two miles! This exposes the stupidity and cruelty of the law.
Do you see what’s happening here? Jesus is not advocating a doormat theology. He is not telling his disciples to passively sit there and let people bully them and thus perpetuate an oppressive system. Jesus is advocating passive resistance as opposed to vengeful retaliation.
That is how you love up. You don’t hate people who oppress you. The truth is that most people in privileged positions don’t even realize that they are oppressing. They just see it as the way things work. You address the system and peacefully expose it for what it is.
We’ve seen this happen in our own history. The person that comes to my mind is Rosa Parks. A mild mannered woman became tired of the fact that just because her skin was darker she had to sit in the back of the bus. So, one day she just sat in the front. She wasn’t hateful, she wasn’t violent. She simply turned the other cheek.
So, loving up is about loving your oppressor enough to expose the oppressive system and peacefully do something about it.
Now, in v. 42 we turn the tables. Jesus addresses… Loving Down.
Jesus says, “Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
This seems abrupt and a little out of place. But I think Jesus is reminding the people that, no matter how bad you think you have it, there is always someone hurting worse than you.
Now we are looking down. Now the person who was just smacked across the right cheek encounters a person who is even more desperate. At least the servant has food and shelter. The beggar has nothing.
Let’s be honest. Why do we struggle with giving to a beggar? Often times it’s because we feel that the person "below" us somehow deserves their position in life.
Jesus reminds us that it is not our place to judge whether a person deserves to receive or not. By doing so you are elevating yourself above that person in the same way that the person who felt entitled to strike you justified the oppression. Just give to the person simply because that person is a human being in need.
Now let’s look at…Loving Out
Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”
In Moses' law it doesn't actually say "hate your enemy." That is how it had become distorted.
In order to understand why the Jews had come to this place of hating their enemies, we need to look at the very end of the passage. Jesus hits us with this incredible statement, “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
Whoa, doesn’t that seem unrealistic? What Jesus is doing here is going back to Leviticus 19 that we read to begin the service,You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
To be holy was to be set apart. God was calling Israel to be different. He called them to a standard of living that would promote health and wholeness so that they could be a blessing to the world around them.
By the time Jesus came on the scene the idea of holiness had become distorted and the Jews believed that they were an exclusive group, that God loved only them, and thus they had the right to hate everyone else.
Jesus restates it. He says , “You will be perfect.” The word is teilios. It means complete, mature, coming to it’s desired outcome.
In other words, Jesus said, “Grow up!”
He looks at the Jews -- he looks at us – and says, How could you think that God only loves you?
In vv. 44 he said But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
God does not discriminate against people. He loves everyone. God has not called the church to be an exclusive group who thinks they are better than everyone else, that God loves only them, thus giving us the permission to abuse those who are different from us.
As people of God we are called to love everyone, regardless of who they are.
Think about your up, and your down, and your out right now. How are you treating them?
I can’t think of a better example of “grown up love that goes the second mile that Martin Luther King Jr. Listen to what he said,
Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the country, and make it appear that we are not fit, culturally and otherwise, for integration, and we'll still love you. But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."
In God’s Kingdom there is no up, down, or out. We are all human beings in need of God’s love. As followers of Jesus, we are not called to lay over and let oppressive systems keep people in bondage. We are called to extend the love of God to everyone, no matter who they are or what they do. Turn the cheek, go the second mile, give to the beggar, pray for the enemy, and by doing so we will show the world God’s perfect kingdom.
Four Phases of Spiritual Formation
This is a simple diagram that maps the phases of Spiritual Formation articulated by the medieval mystics.
Catechism Bible Quiz
Here is a simple 30-question Bible Knowledge Quiz based on the lectures I've given in Catechism this year. Click the links to download the files.
The Word Became Flesh – John 1:14
This is the text of a message I gave today...
It is the Second Sunday of Christmas and I have been looking for the perfect icon for Christmas.
It is the 9th day of Christmas, so, on the 9th day of Christmas, my true gave to me…wait for it…Chile con Carne!
OK, so that’s not really a familiar icon of Christmas. It is actually more like a joke.
What does chile con carne and Christmas have in common?
Con carne = with meat
In our passage, it says that the Word became flesh. The theological term for that is Incarnation.
In carne = in the flesh or meat
That means Christmas is God con carne.
So, it wasn’t even a really good joke. But, you see the point.
Today we are going to look at the “other” Christmas story.
Luke’s version of Christmas is all about the shepherds and how Jesus came to liberate the poor and the fringe of society.
Matthew’s version of Christmas is all about the Magi and how Jesus was the Messiah and the true King of Israel.
John tells a very different story. John’s Christmas is more theological in nature.
It is found in John 1:1-18.
This morning we are going to focus in on verse 14.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory
Specifically we’ll look at three parts:
Word
Flesh
Lived among us.
Word.
The word word is one of those words that can have many meanings.
When John wrote this he had two kinds of people in mind.
The first was the Hebrew mind.
When a Hebrew person would have read the first part of this chapter..
“in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and all things were created through it,” they would have, most likely, associated this with the concept of Wisdom.
In the Old Testament, wisdom is personified as a woman.
Proverbs tells us that wisdom is like a woman who calls out to the young men and invites them to come to her house where they can learn and grow strong and healthy. As opposed to Folly or foolishness who seduces men into pleasure that ends in destruction.
In Proverbs 8 it says that Wisdom was there when the world was created.
It is as if Wisdom is the cosmic force that drives the universe.
The second person John had in mind was the Graeco/Roman mind.
Ancient Greek philosophy had this idea that there was a cosmic force, a mind, called reason, or Logos, or, in our language, the Word, that governed everything.
The Word was above the Greek and Roman gods and was the true source of all things.
It was out there, in the realm of spiritual perfection.
That’s Word.
When John said, “in the beginning was the Word…” both the Hebrew and the Greek mind would say, “Yes, we understand what you’re talking about.”
Now let’s look at the Flesh.
This is the greek word sarx.
At one level it simply means meat, like saying that we are made of flesh and bones.
At another level it means something deeper than that.
As I did a study of this word through the New Testament, it became apparent that to speak of the “flesh” had a negative connotation.
Look what Paul writes in Galatians 5
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
The flesh is all that is nasty about humanity.
All religions believe that there is something wrong with humanity.
Even systems that don’t believe in depravity or original sin, and believe that humans are essentially good, still acknowledge that something is wrong with this fleshly world we live in.
In the ancient world that John lived in, most people believed that there was a distinct separation between the Word and the Flesh. The Word was perfect. The Flesh was corrupted, some kind of dark shadow of the Word that was lost and broken.
Now here comes the mystery and the scandal of Christmas.
The Word became flesh.
The perfect entered into the imperfect.
The creator became the created.
Why?
Why did God close the gap?
Look what Hebrews 4:15 says,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus took on our weakness so that we would know that God knows what it is like to be us. God met us where we are with all our imperfection.
But, that still begs the questions, “why?”
Our lesson from Ephesians says it well.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us…to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
(Ephesians 1:7-10)
God wanted to break down the false idea that there is a separation between the Word up there and the flesh down here. God created everything and is in everything.
God is at work in the world, continually creating and recreating and redeeming all things.
Now, all that is familiar to us if we have been the church for a while.
I could stop right here and we would all say, “wasn’t that a nice little sermon about the incarnation.”
But, there’s a third piece I want to look at, that might not always be addressed.
John said the Word “lived among us.”
The literal translation of this, and the words the Hebrew reader would have heard, is he “pitched his tent” among us and we saw his glory.
I think this was an intentional choice of words that would have connected the incarnation with another important, foundational story for the Jews.
In the beginning of the story of Israel, when Moses led the slaves out of Egypt, God pitched his tent among the people.
This tent was called the tabernacle.
When the people pitched this tent, two things happened.
- the glory of the lord filled the tent. In the day time it was a pillar of cloud. At night, the cloud would glow with fire.
- the tribes of Israel would encircle the tabernacle. Everyone would pitch their tents and face the glory of God in the center.
Now look at this passage from exodus 40:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.
(Exodus 40:34-48)
Not only did God come to dwell among them and be the center of their camp. God moved and led them to new places.
If we had the time we could trace Israel’s history and see that when Israel really got in trouble is when they became entrenched and static and built a permanent structure for God. They tried to contain God in a static place.
God isn’t like that. God is dynamic, ever moving, ever creating, and ever drawing us to new places as he leads us through the wilderness.
When Jesus came. When the Word became Flesh that first Christmas, John said that he came to his own, but they did not recognize him.
Israel was stuck. Their idea of God had become stagnant.
Jesus came as the new pillar of fire that would be dynamic, shake them up, and most importantly, move them away from their bondage and into a dynamic journey with God.
When Jesus, in the flesh, physically left the world, he breathed his Spirit into the disciples, so that the same dynamic presence could lead and shape the church.
So, on this second Sunday of Christmas, and on this first Sunday of the New Year, we need to ask ourselves three questions:
- Is Jesus in the center of our camp?
Do we take the time each day to align our selves with God’s ways and God’s priorities, or have we turned our tents in a different direction and centered our lives on a different set of priorities, like success, pleasure, our children, whatever.
This is why we talk about the Spiritual Habits. By practicing the disciplines like daily Bible Study and Prayer, giving, serving, regular attendance at worship, what we’re doing is aligning ourselves with God.
At a time when people usually make New Year’s resolutions, this would be a great time to commit to growing in the habits.
Maybe you could do a simple things like taking the Christ in Our Home study that leads you through the Bible Readings of the lectionary each day.
That’s a matter of focus and priorities.
Here’s the second question:
- Are we tuned in enough to know when the cloud moves?
The real reason we need to engage in the disciplines is because God is at work in the world. God is moving and dynamic. He wants to take us to new places.
For many of us that is terrifying. We like things just the way they are. We don’t like change. We like our God to be a religion that is predictable and comfortable.
I’m a huge Chronicles of Narnia fan, and I love the way C.S. Lewis depicts Jesus in the character of Aslan the lion.
In the first book, when the children first hear about Aslan, the beavers are telling them about him.
Little lucy asks Mr. Beaver. “Is he a tame lion?”
Mr. Beaver laughs at her. “of course he’s not a tame lion. But he is good.”
You see, that is the nature of God.
God will not be domesticated by us. God will not live in the boxes we build for him. Yet, God is good and loving, and will meet us where we are and lead us on a journey that we can handle, if we trust him.
The question is, are we asking God, are we expecting God to lead us into new places. Are we willing to risk and go outside our comfort zone?
I don’t know what that looks like for you.
I know, in this past year, we, as a congregation, took a step outside our zone and opened our facility to Family Promise. That was a good step.
Maybe there is a ministry that you have been afraid to try, but you sense God is leading you there.
Maybe there is a person, or a situation, that has been gnawing at you, and you feel God wants you to do something about it.
This year ask God to show you where he wants you to go, what new adventure he wants you to take.
Now, there’s one last question.
- Do we have the courage to follow when it does?
It’s one thing to know that God loves us and has become flesh and pitches his tent with us. That the Holy Spirit is present and real, and God reconciled us.
It’s one thing to see that God is moving and leading you somewhere.
But, nothing changes until you take the step to follow.
In 2011, I pray that we can all be filled with the hope of the incarnation, of the Word Becoming Flesh, and be empowered to follow the cloud into new and wonderful places.
Week 50 Day 5 – The Point of it All
Today marks a wonderful day. Twelve months ago you probably never dreamed you would make it, and yet, here you stand, having read the entire Bible! This is the last day of the Devotional. There could not be a better subject to end on that that found in Revelation 21-22. Today we look at the point of the whole thing.
In order to prepare for reading this passage, it would be helpful to take a few moments and read these passages first.
Read Ezekiel 37:23-28
Ezekiel 47:6-12
Zechariah 2:10-13
John 1:14
Now read Revelation 21:1-22:5
What similarities do you see between this passage and the Old Testament prophecies?
How is the New Jerusalem described? If you could sum it up in one phrase, what is the point of the images used to describe the New Jerusalem?
Food for thought:
Much debate exists about the interpretation of the images found in our passage today. Some people believe that these images should be read literally. They believe that there will actually be a 1500 mile tall city erected over the Mediterranean Sea. Others believe that these images are completely metaphorical and do not pertain at all to any specific, literal place in the future, but represent the pure nature of God Himself at work in His people. Others take a middle ground and admit to the metaphorical nature of the language in this passage, so do not hold to a literal description of a place, but do hold to a metaphorical description of a yet unrealized future state of existence.
There are not enough pages in this devotional to adequately discuss and debate all these differing views. I challenge you to study them on your own. Regardless of your perspective on this passage, there are some incredibly encouraging observations that can be made about the Kingdom of God.
God is in love with His Kingdom like a groom loves his bride.
God’s Kingdom is one where the subjects of the Kingdom interact with the King.
There are no tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain in God’s Kingdom.
There is unity in the Kingdom of God (it’s gates are the tribes of Israel, its foundation is the apostles: Jews and Gentiles living together)
The Kingdom of God is the perfection of God’s presence. (Notice how the measurements are that of a cube. The Holy of Holies in the tabernacle was a cube. This is the representation of the perfection of God. Being in the Kingdom of God is being in the “Holy of Holies”)
There is no war in the Kingdom. (The gates never shut)
The Kingdom of God is pure truth.
The river of Life runs through the center of the city, its inhabitants will live forever.
The Big Finish
Read Genesis 3:21-24. What was the consequence of sin?
Read Revelation 22:1-5. What is freely accessible in the Kingdom of God?
Here is the HOPE that you have. Jesus is the King, the Lion that became the Lamb. He came so that we may have life abundantly and may enter the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is an already, but not yet kind of thing. We have access to the tree of Life right now. In Jesus Christ the fullness of the Kingdom has been realized and is present within us through the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to pine away our time until we die to experience the Kingdom. It is alive within us right now. Yet, we also know that its fullness has not yet been realized. We have only begun to plunge the depths of what it means to be in the Kingdom of God, the presence of the Almighty.
My prayer is that you, having completed the reading of the entire Bible will remember these few, simple truths:
God loves you more than you can ever imagine.
God is in control of all things, at all times, even when things seem desperate.
Through Jesus Christ you have access to the riches of the Kingdom of God.
Your life has been given to you for the purpose of bringing honor and glory to your Heavenly Father.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit you can live a life of meaning and power.
If you will die each day to yourself and be filled with the presence and the glory of God, then you will overflow in love and purpose to the world around you.
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