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21Mar/114

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.

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27Jul/100

Week 31 Day 2 – A Picture of the Suffering Servant

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

In the second half of his book, Isaiah is describing what will happen after God’s judgement on Judah is finished and He begins to restore His people. Isaiah paints a picture of the coming King that will establish His kingdom to rule over the whole world. When you think about a king setting up a kingdom for world domination, what kind of characteristics do you think would need to be present in that king?

Now read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and list the character qualities and actions this “servant” takes.

This servant of the Lord is a shock to our expectations. What kind of a king would allow himself to be led like a lamb to the slaughter and die for the sins of his people? We know a King like that. Isaiah was predicting the coming of the Messiah, the annointed one of God, who would be the Servant of God and the King of the people. Jesus is that Messiah.

Spend some time thanking God for sending Jesus to fulfill this prophecy of Isaiah’s and to pay for our sins.

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23Jul/100

The Servant Songs of Isaiah

OK, roll up the sleeves of your mind, because this section really is going to dig deeper. The study of Isaiah is a rich and rewarding one, but it is not as easy as it may seem. For Christians, especially Christians who have been raised in the church, we are very familiar with certain passages that get read at Christmas and Easter every year. Perhaps we aren’t aware that these sayings come from Isaiah, but we are familiar with phrases like,

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, andwill call him Immanuel,”

and

“For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.”

If we are going to be good students of the Bible we must not be too quick to apply these directly to Jesus. Scripture must always be read in the context in which it was written. Isaiah was a preacher, proclaiming a message to the people of Jerusalem during the final days of Hezekiah and into the beginning of the wicked reign of King Manasseh. Isaiah saw the wickedness of Manasseh and knew that the end was near for Jerusalem and the Temple. The Babylonians were going to come in and destroy the city (the prophet Jeremiah was the witness to this event), tear down the Temple, and carry the people off to be in exile for 70 years. This broke Isaiah’s heart. After chapter 40 of his book, Isaiah began looking past the 70 years of exile and towards the hope of a restored Jerusalem and a people that were reunited with a proper relationship with Yahweh. When we read Isaiah, and when we read about the Kingdom of God, we must first read it in the very literal, temporal sense of the restoration of the physical city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple that took place under the leadership of Zurubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

With this in mind, we can now turn our attention to an extremely important, yet incredibly enigmatic, central character that recurrs in Isaiah’s teaching. This is the Servant of the Lord. Who is the servant? Is it Isaiah? Is it Cyrus, king of Persia, who would be the instrument for setting the people free? Is it Zurubbabel, Ezra, or Nehemiah? Or is it a future king that would reestablish the kingdom and make up for all the wickedness of the kings that Isaiah had witnessed? Regardless of who it was, this Servant was also considered to be a Messiah (which simply means, “Annointed One.” Remember, all the kings were annointed at their coronation and thus were, technically, messiahs).

The purpose for this article is twofold. First, it is to expose you to the fact that not everyone is quick to attribute the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah to Jesus of Nazareth. Second, it is to demonstrate just where the connection to Jesus as the Servant from Isaiah comes from.

This will be done in three parts. First, the Servant Songs themselves. Second, a commentary that gives a very different read on Isaiah 53 (just to show you the thought process), and third, the biblical connections to Jesus.

The Servant Songs

Isaiah 42:1-9

Isaiah 49:1-7

Isaiah 50:4-9

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Isaiah 61:1-3

A Different Perspective

53:1-11a, The Many Acknowledge the Servant Has Borne Their Sin.

In thanksgiving psalms, the person rescued speaks of his vindication to the many, but here the many speak while the servant is silent, thus illustrating v. 7 (cf. Ps. 39:2, 9). They can hardly believe their rescue came from one so lowly (Isa. 53:1-3). Servants in the Bible were often of lowly origin: Moses, Gideon, and Jeremiah all reminded God of their lack of talent; even David in the estimate of his family was totally unsuitable as a candidate for kingship (1 Sam. 16:1-13).

In Isa. 53:4-6, the speakers declare the servant has borne their sins. Here we must attempt to answer two difficult questions: who are the speakers, and how does the servant bear others’ sins? The speaker seems to be exiled Israel, not the nations. In Second Isaiah the nations are spectators at the reemergence of Israel. They are part of important scenes as chorus, not protagonist. Israel, therefore, is “the many” whose sin the servant bears.

How does the servant bear the sins of Israel? One must avoid reading nt ideas into the Isaian text (Mark 10:45; 14:24; and parallels use similar language to interpret the death of Jesus) or denying vicarious suffering in the ot simply because it is not found anywhere else. A good starting point is the observation that most Hebrew words for sin can mean both the act and the state resulting from the act. “To bear the sin” therefore means to bear the consequences of sin. The people of the Exile, for example, had to bear the consequences of the sins of their pre-exilic ancestors, “Our fathers sinned and are no more [they are not living so as to suffer the consequences of their act], and we bear their sins” (Lam. 5:7).

How could the servant bear the sin of his contemporaries, “the many”? A partial answer is given by 50:4-11, in which the disciple accepted the sufferings of the Exile as sent by God; he offered his back to the smiters, his cheek to those who plucked his beard. Most of the exiles did not regard the Exile the way the servant did, to judge from the preaching of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They fled from it, either attempting to return prematurely or giving up all hope of return and settling in. They did not bear the consequences of their sin. True expiation could come about only through obedient submission in the period of punishment and obedient return in the period of restoration. But so long as Israel, in the person of the servant, acted obediently, the nation continued to exist. In 53:4-6, the many finally come to this awareness.

Verses 7-9 speak of an unjust trial ending in a disgraceful death. Actual death seems unlikely; the servant’s rehabilitation in vv. 11b-12 would have to be a heavenly judgment scene. Rather, a “death experience” is described, like the psalmic “going down to the pit” (e.g., Pss. 28:1; 30:3; 88:4; 143:7). The servant’s entire life, from birth (Isa. 53:2) to death, was one of suffering and rejection.

In the last stanza of the speakers’ statement, 53:10-11a (unfortunately the text is damaged), the many see that the servant’s suffering was part of God’s plan. There is a hint in v. 10d, explicit in vv. 11b-12, that his reward is to possess the land; in Deuteronomy “to lengthen the days” is a phrase describing life in the promised land.

53:11b-12, The Servant’s Reward.

The servant’s self-conscious acceptance of the pain of exile as the deserved punishment from God, his “bearing of the sin” of Israel and his leading it in the exodus-conquest, wins him the great prize—possession of the land. To be in God’s land, Zion, makes one righteous, pleasing to God. Isa. 8:16-9:7, which speaks of possessing the land after the darkness of defeat, provides important clues to the meaning of the verses. Verse 11a should read, with lxx, “he shall see the light,” a reference to the dawning light in 9:2. Isa. 9:3 likens the joy of possessing the land to the joy of warriors dividing spoil (v. 12ab).

Due to the servant’s exemplary bearing of the guilt of all Israel, the whole people is now free to enjoy the great gift—the land. The servant’s suffering is accepted as valid, while the many—and the nations—look on in amazement.¹

How we came to see Jesus as Isaiah’s Servant

The reason Christians so readily identify Jesus as the Servant in Isaiah is because Jesus and the Apostles did. Isaiah is the most quoted OT prophet in the NT writings. When Jesus stood up in the synagogue, at the beginning of his ministry, in Luke 4, he read from the Servant Song in Isaiah 61 and claimed that he was fulfilling that prophecy in their presence.

The important thing to remember is that Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah was a radical departure from the contemporary interpretation of the text by the rabbis of his day. The Jews were expecting the Messiah to be a mighty warrior who would suffer through battle and bear the iniquities of the nation through the bloodbath of overthrowing the oppressive armies that were still plaguing their holy city.

Below is a chart that demonstrates how the Apostles interpreted Isaiah after the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. After Jesus completed his ministry and the Holy Spirit had been poured out in a dynamic way on ALL the people, not just the leaders, they were able to look back at Isaiah and the other prophets and see clearly what the intention was in their writings.

The Suffering Servant
Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant.
The Prophecy	The Fulfillment
He will be exalted (52:13)	Philippians 2:9
He will be disfigured by suffering (52:14; 53:2)	Mark 15:17, 19
He will be widely rejected (53:1, 3)	John 12:37, 38
He will bear our sins and sorrows (53:4)	Romans 4:25; 1 Peter 2:24, 25
He will make a blood atonement (53:5)	Romans 3:25
He will be our substitute (53:6, 8 )	2 Corinthians 5:21
He will voluntarily accept our guilt and punishment (53:7)	John 10:11
He will be buried in a rich man’s tomb (53:9)	John 19:38-42
He will justify many from their sin (53:10, 11)	Romans 5:15-19
He will die with transgressors (53:12)	Mark 15:27, 28; Luke 22:37

(Footnotes)

¹Mays, J. L., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. 1996, c1988. Harper’s Bible commentary . Harper & Row: San Francisco

²New Geneva study Bible. 1997, c1995 (electronic ed.) . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

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20Jan/100

Week 3 Day 3 – What’s in a Name?

Exodus 5:22-6:8

In order to grasp the depth of this passage it is important to define some terms. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God revealed Himself as El-Shaddai. Read this definition of that Hebrew word. I am printing the actual Strong’s Enhanced Dictionary listing so that we do not run the risk of reading too much into the meaning of the word.

7703 [shadad /shaw·dad/] 58 occurrences; AV translates as “spoil” 30 times, “spoiler” 11 times, “waste” eight times, “destroy” twice, “robbers” twice, and translated miscellaneously five times. 1 to deal violently with, despoil, devastate, ruin, destroy, spoil. 1a1 to violently destroy, devastate, despoil, assail. 1a2 devastator, despoiler 1b to be utterly ruined. 1c 1c1 to assault. 1c2 to devastate. 1d to be devastated. 1e to violently destroy. 1f to be devastated.1

7706 [Shadday /shad·dah·ee/] 48 occurrences; AV translates as “Almighty” 48 times. 1 almighty, most powerful. 1a Shaddai, the Almighty (of God).2

El means God. When you put El in front of Shaddai, you get the name of God; El-Shaddai. In other words, God presented himself to Abraham as “God, the mighty, powerful destroyer.” Take a few minutes and meditate on that definition. How do you feel about God in light of His name, El-Shaddai?

Now look at the definition for the word LORD.

I. is given Ex 3:12–15 as the name of the God who revealed Himself to Moses at Horeb, and is explained thus: I shall be with thee (v 12), which is then implied in I shall be the one who will be it v 14a (i.e. with thee v 12) and then compressed into v 14b (i.e. with thee v 12), which then is given in the nominal form He who will be it v 15 (i.e. with thee v 12). Other interpretations are: I am he who I am, i.e. it is no concern of yours; I am, (this is my name), inasmuch as I am; I am who I am, he who is essentially unnameable, inexplicable.3

Yahweh (translated LORD in the NIV) means, the God who is and the God who will be with you. Another way to say it is “the God who is present.”

This was a radical concept to the ancient mind. In the ancient world the concept of God was that of a fierce being who lived on top of a mountain somewhere and was in charge of making the crops grow and would hurl thunder bolts at mortals that displeased him. God was “up there” and “out there.”

At this point we must stop and discuss a fundamental point about the nature of God. God always meets us where we are and then takes us to the place we need to be, in the right timing. I believe that God presented Himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai because that was the default understanding of God that Abraham was raised with back in Ur. In order for Abraham to recognize God as God, God had to use a name that Abraham could grasp. Then God took Abraham one step further into truth; God -- the “destroyer” -- made a loving promise to bless Abraham’s descendents. That was a radical shift in man’s idea of God. All the other gods of the world couldn’t care less about mortals. The Baals, as they were called, were wrapped up in their own agenda of fornicating with the goddesses and fighting with the underworld. Humans were insignificant “accidents” that were nothing more than pawns in the cosmos. Now, with Abraham, El-Shaddai broke the mold and gave value to the mortal. And yet, he was still “out there” and something to be feared.

In Moses’ encounter we see a new step towards a deeper understanding and a further revelation of the true nature of God. The God who is “out there” now refers to Himself as Yaweh. In so doing He said to Moses, “Moses, I am not just out there or up on some high mountain. I am what I am. I am the giver and sustainer of life. I am present with you. Not only am I with you, I am for you. I am welcoming you to come into my presence and have a relationship with me. I will be your ‘present God’ and you will be my people.” With this pronouncement the old theological paradigm was shattered. God told Moses that He was there for Him, walking with Him, guiding and protecting Him. God was now “in here”.

Meditate on that definition of the ‘present God” for a moment.

So, what’s the point? All of us must pass through these levels of understanding that the people of Israel had to pass. Unfortunately, for various reasons, many of us are stuck in an El-Shaddai perspective of God. God is nothing but a big and powerful destroyer; a force to be feared; a perfection that can never be achieved. He is so far away that we cannot know Him, so He might as well not exist as far as my everyday life is concerned. The truly sad reality is that many of us learned this perception of God through “Christian” religious institutions.

One of the fundamental mile markers on the journey of Spiritual formation that we must pass is to join with Moses and meet the God who is present. Yahweh is the God who made you, who loves you, who wants your best, and who desires to guide and protect you like a loving Father and a caring Shepherd. Just say those words over in your mind...”God is with me” “God is for me, not against me.”
As we study the entire Bible we will see that this “progressive revelation” of the God who is “out there” to the God who is “in here” will culminate in the person of Jesus. Jesus referred to Himself as “I AM.” In other words, Jesus said that His name was Yahweh. In the person of Jesus Christ, the God who is “out there” (El-Shaddai) revealed Himself as Immanuel, God with us, Yahweh, the God who is “in here.”

Where are you today? Is God still “out there”, a cold and meaningless, somewhat scary notion? Or, is God “in here” through the person of Jesus Christ, giving meaning and purpose to your life?

Remember that God is with you today.

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