Sermon Notes 7/8: When God is All You Have, God is All You Need

I have to admit that I had a difficult time putting together this message today. If you have been with us from the beginning of this little series on Romans that we started a few weeks ago, you know that the author of the letter the Apostle Paul has been making a case for what is probably the defining verse of Romans: “the Righteous shall live by faith.” That sounds like a kind of a hopeful start but right after he wrote that Paul launched into a long section considering man's sinfulness and God's wrath. You should probably know that when Paul wrote this letter it was just a letter. It wasn't divided into chapters and verses. It probably didn't even have any punctuation, which is one of the reasons why Biblical scholars have a difficult time figuring out exactly what Paul was trying to communicate. But most of what we know of as Chapter 1 deals with the universal sinfulness of man and God's response to man's rebellion: his wrath as manifested in his turning away from humans and leaving them to their own devices. You may remember that when Jesus cried out from the cross “My God why have you forsaken me” he was experiencing the wrath of God to atone for our sinfulness.

Then in Chapter 2 we saw how Paul turned his attention to the community of Jewish Christians. There was a question in the early church about the relationship of Christianity to the Jewish faith. Christianity arose out of Judaism and was seen by its original adherents, particularly in Israel, as the fulfillment of the hopes of the Jewish people. In the beginning everyone in the original church, all Jews, was surprised that God seemed to have made the salvation brought on by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus freely available to Gentiles. Even though there is scriptural evidence that it was through the Jewish people that the salvation of the whole world would come, by the time Jesus lived the Jewish people had defined themselves as completely separate from and superior to everyone. Judaism was defined ethnically, by blood lines, but also by the practices of the Jews that set them apart from everyone else. These practices came to be represented by the ritual of circumcision and strict adherence to the ceremonial calendar and food laws.

The Jewish people had what they thought were good reason for setting themselves apart from everyone else. Every Jew was acutely aware that they had received the law from God through Moses, that the law included covenant obligations that they had failed to fulfill. In the minds of these people God had commanded them not to mix with the people of the Promised Land. The reason for this was because God wanted the Israelites to demonstrate his characteristics by adhering to the law given on Mt. Sinai, and that meant rejecting all other practices of all other ethnic groups. But the Jews had ended up mixing right in with the rest of the people. Instead of being shining lights drawing people to God, you couldn't tell the difference between the Hebrews and the pagans. God sent Prophets to warn them, but the people ignored them. Some of them they even killed. In the end, God punished the Israelites for not keeping their part of the bargain. First, the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. Then, a few years later, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and dragged what was left of the Jewish nation into exile.

When they were able to return to Israel the remnants of the Jewish nation started to take the law very seriously. It was then that a group of people called Pharisees came on the scene. The Pharisees recognized that the cause of their exile had been the Israelites ignoring the law, so they were very meticulous about considering what it might mean to really keep the law, in order to prevent another failure. So, the Pharisees were actually thought of as good guys in Israel. They were the ones good people looked up to, because of the seriousness with which they took the law.

And, at least in the beginning, their hearts were in the right place. They were trying to avoid the errors of their ancestors. But as time passed the Pharisees lost their focus. They made obeying the details of the law more important than obeying for the reason for the law. The reason for the law was, as we have said over and over, to demonstrate God's loving character; to set people free in God's love. The details of the law were burdensome and difficult. This is why in the gospel stories Jesus is so critical of the Pharisees. He never chastises them for their piety; only for their hypocrisy. Because while they claimed to uphold the law, they missed the point of it. In the end Jesus pointed out the heart of their error when he told them “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Mt. 22:37-40).

So going back to the question of the beginnings of the Christian faith, many Jewish Christians believed that Christianity was in fact Judaism, and that Christians were Jews, and many people believed in order to be a Christian you had to adopt all of the Jewish customs, and that meant circumcision, the ceremonial calendar, and the food laws. Many of them, like Paul, were Pharisees, or at least admired the Pharisees, and as such put a lot of store in the necessity of their religious observances. Paul was very much opposed to this. He didn't say that following the Jewish customs was wrong; he just said that they were not necessary. That was the decision of the Church Leaders as we read about in Acts 15, but there were still a lot of Jewish Christians who continued to insist that the only way to really be a Christian was to adopt the Jewish customs.

There is some evidence of this controversy in the Roman church. I think this is why Paul addresses the gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians separately, kind of demonstrating their place in the new Christian church. His argument essentially runs that even though the two groups came from separate backgrounds: pagan and Jewish, they were both confronted by the same dilemma, the reality of sin. But in some ways it was worse for the Jewish Christians because they were taught from birth that they were God's chosen people. The fact that they did, more or less, abide by the traditions, gave them a sense they already had it made. If you feel you are doing all right, why would you need to surrender to Jesus?

I think the best illustration of this attitude in the gospels comes from Luke 18:9-14:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 NIV)

So the text we will read today in Romans is Paul's attempt to get those who may have believed like the Pharisee in the story that they were no different from the tax collector. Let's read it.

What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.

3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:

“So that you may be proved right when you speak

and prevail when you judge.”

5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

11 there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

12 All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

13 “Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 ruin and misery mark their ways,

17 and the way of peace they do not know.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:1-20 NIV)

Well, maybe you can see why I had such a hard time with this text. At first glance it's hard to see how you can pull a positive message out of this. And the last thing I want to do is to be the kind of preacher who stands up here trying to make you feel bad about all of your sins. That would not be in keeping, in my mind, with the idea that the gospel is “good news.” This passage by Paul doesn't sound like very good news.

Paul begins the passage with a question. He’s been addressing the Jewish Christians and chipping away at their sense of superiority. This section of the letter is like a dialog between Paul and an imaginary third party. After Paul pointed out that the Jews were the same as the Gentiles in God’s plan of salvation in the previous section, the imaginary debater asks, “Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew?” Paul’s answer is yes and no.

This section starts out with Paul’s yes. What is the advantage of being a Jew? It is that the plan of salvation for the whole world comes out of the Jewish nation. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed through him. I think a good analogy for this idea would be to think in terms of the Fourth of July holiday we just celebrated. What were we celebrating? We were celebrating American independence from Britain, but at the same time we were celebrating the historical reality of ideas of liberty and democracy that inspired the world and still inspire the world today. If we love the liberty that came out of the American Revolution, we have to celebrate America. Paul’s argument is similar: if we love the salvation we have freely received from God through Jesus, we must love the Jewish nation, because the plan of salvation originated there.

But Paul doesn’t give the Jewish Christians a lot of room for pride or celebration, because he points out that the Jewish people had been unfaithful to their covenant obligation to bring salvation to the world. Paul is being kind when he implies that just “some” had been unfaithful. In the next section we see that he really means “all” had been unfaithful.

At this point Paul sets aside a rather silly point brought up by his imaginary partner: if unfaithfulness serves to highlight God’s faithfulness, and that benefits God, doesn’t that mean that their sin has a positive outcome? If so, why should God punish the sinner? This silly question really requires a rather complex answer, even though straight up, Paul declares the answer is “no.”

The first thing we must consider, something we don’t want to lose sight of, is that God’s punishment, his wrath as we discussed a few weeks ago, doesn’t consist of God acting in a way to harm the sinner. He doesn’t throw rocks at them or make them sick or “send them to hell.” Rather, God allows them to sin. He does allow his children to choose hell, but everything we know about him demonstrates that he does this reluctantly; that he grieves when he loses one of his beloved children, just as we grieve when one of our children struggles. And just like us, God does everything he can to try to help. We can see with the cross that, just like us, God will go to ridiculous extremes and suffer enormous agony to try to save his children. But at some point the rebellion is such that God simply allows the child to choose their own destiny, just as we sometimes must with our children. And then he must watch with sorrow as the child destroys himself. But God is not in the business of sending people to hell. He is in the business of rescuing people from hell.

The second thing to consider here is that even though God detests sin, he can still use it to accomplish a greater good. So, for example, we can recall in the story of Joseph that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt out of jealousy. Yet years later, when there was famine in the land, Joseph’s family could find rescue in Egypt because of the fact that Joseph had found favor with the Pharaoh. When Joseph’s brothers many years later feared their brother’s vengeance, Joseph was able to say to them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen. 50:20 NIV) In the same way we know that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was a sin, but that Jesus had to be betrayed so that he could accomplish his greater mission of salvation. In both cases God was able to turn sin into a greater good. But that doesn’t excuse the sin. God can redeem the sin and turn it to good purpose, but the sin must still be punished.

Because of what we know about sin and salvation, we know that the ultimate penalty for our sin is not paid by us, but by Jesus on the cross. And when we see it in this light, we see that asking if our sins are actually good because they highlight God’s ability to turn them to good is like us pounding nails into Jesus’ hands and feet on the cross and explaining to him that we’re actually doing a good thing for him. You can see why Paul thinks this argument is so ridiculous.

So in this first part of today’s passage we see Paul acknowledge that there is advantage in being Jewish in that salvation comes from the Jews, but that the Jews have never been able to live up to their obligations as the purveyors of God’s salvation to the world. And as we go into the next section we will see that this applies not just to the Jewish nation as a whole but to each individual. So in this case when Paul says that there is advantage in being Jewish, it would be like someone today saying there is advantage in being American because the ideas of liberty and freedom originated in America, but if we as Americans do not practice and allow liberty and freedom then the advantage is moot. That’s why Paul begins the next section with his no answer, “What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all!” (Ro. 3:9 NIV).

The next section of the reading is what’s called a “catena.” It is from the Latin word for “chain,” and it is a collection of verses strung together in a chain to make a point. When we look at verses 10-18 we see Paul quote a number of different passages, mostly from the Psalms but one from Isaiah, the point of which collectively is to demonstrate to Jewish Christians from the Jewish scriptures that they have no cause for boasting. Going back to the story I read from Luke earlier, this would be Paul talking to the Pharisee, who is so sure of his standing with God because of his strict religious observances, and who is looking down on the tax collector, and pointing out that the very thing he relies on for his justification condemns him. The Jews point to being the receivers of the law as their ticket to God, but Paul shows them that because they don’t keep it the law condemns them. In verse 20 Paul goes so far as to say that rather than being saved by the law, the lack of ability to follow the law only highlights their sin.

By the time we get to verse 20, we have to agree that Paul has made his case that all mankind stands condemned by God. And that’s where I found myself discouraged when I was preparing this message because I kept asking myself, where’s the “good news?” I prayed earnestly about it, and praise God I found it. And here it is, Paul at his most profound, and most baffling. He writes to the Corinthian church:

[I]n order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10 NIV)

I could do a whole sermon on this passage from 2 Corinthians but let me just brush over it lightly here. Paul suffered from some kind of affliction; we don’t know what it was. Some people believe that he suffered from some kind of eye trouble; others suggest other forms of physical and emotional illness. I personally believe that Paul didn’t reveal the details about his weakness because he wanted to make a universal point: that we are all weak; all at God’s mercy. If Paul had said, “I asked God to remove my eye trouble and he didn’t,” some of us would say, “Well I don’t have eye trouble so this doesn’t apply to me.” But while we may not have whatever affliction Paul had, we all have some affliction, and one in particular: slavery to sin. That’s the point that Paul makes so devastatingly clear in today’s scripture.

What Paul is pointing out here is that it is the nature of people that until they experience broken-ness, they won’t reach out for God. God always stands ready to embrace us, to lift us up and shower his affection on us. But like rebellious children we spurn this help until we are faced with the limitations of our humanity. I think we have all experienced this at some point and to some extent. Did you ever when you were a kid set out to prove how mature and independent you were only to find yourself in trouble and calling on your parents?

Or how about when we hear of someone close to us dying? We might be going about our business consumed by the details of life and then be faced with the fact of our mortality. And at that point, all of the things we thought were so important, or little plans and designs, suddenly don’t seem so significant, and we get a brief glimpse of life from the point of view of eternity.

This is what is necessary to recognize our need for God’s grace, that fact of our brokenness. We have to be convinced that we are powerless ourselves before we will surrender to God’s power.

In my office above my desk I have a print of this painting that I purchased when I visited Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia a number of years ago. You may or may not know but I will tell you that it was at the home of Wilmer Mclean in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, where Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant, effectively bringing the Civil War to an end. The reason why this picture is so significant to me is because as a historian I know the story behind it. I know that on the night before many of Lee’s officers urged him to surrender to Grant but that he resisted, placing his hopes in one last ditch cavalry charge to try to break out of the trap Grant had set. When the Confederate cavalry charged over the hill they were met by what seemed an endless sea of blue, and the realized the plan was hopeless.

It was at that point that Lee sent word to General Grant that he was ready to surrender. He was completely broken, completely without resource. He put on his last good uniform because he thought he would be taken prisoner and told his staff "There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths." Isn’t that the way we give up our will? Isn’t that the way we surrender to God? And yet, without that surrender, there can be no salvation. And that is the point that Paul is making up to this point in his letter to the Romans. “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Ro. 3:10 NIV)

That’s the bad news. But it’s also the “good news” because of the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, and when we surrender to him we gain his righteousness. That surrender, as we see demonstrated in the painting, might be the most terrible and difficult thing to do, but it is the right thing to do. And it leads to real peace and freedom. And that is actually pretty good news, I think you’ll agree.

There is one last thing I want to bring up in regard to this passage that has to do with the way we relate to our brothers and sisters. Going back to our original illustration of the Pharisee and the tax collector, one of the traps that religious people can fall into is the misplaced notion that because we think we live closer to God’s will for us, because we do the right religious things, that we are somehow better than our fellows who are not religious, and we might even stand in judgment of them, just like the Pharisee in the parable. Well, we don’t want to be Pharisees ourselves and say, “Thank God I’m not like this Pharisee!” Because the lesson we can take away from this section of Paul’s letter to the Romans is that we are the Pharisee, and that we are also the tax collector. We are all wounded; broken in every way.

That wounded-ness can and must also be turned to God’s advantage. It is so because the recognition of our own weakness and sin ought to help us to see our brothers and sisters in the same way Jesus sees us. We ought not to look down on our brothers and sisters unless we are reaching down to help them up. The writer of Hebrews tells us about Jesus, “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (He. 4:15 NIV). Jesus does not condemn us; he knows our struggles and gave himself up to free us from them. We do sin, and we cannot give ourselves perfectly as Jesus did, but we can look upon our brothers and sisters with compassion as Jesus does, knowing that we are as broken as they are without Jesus.

Let us then look upon our weakness as the key to freedom from sin, both for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters. Let our lives truly demonstrate to the world that when God is all we have, God is all we need. Amen.

When God is All You Have, God is All You Need

Do you remember the story from Luke's gospel account of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple and how Jesus told the crowds that it was the tax collector who left the temple justified? We have probably been conditioned to think about the Pharisee as the bad guy in this story. But in Jesus' day, this story would have been shocking to "good folks" because the Pharisees were thought of favorably by most people. This story that Jesus told would have stood their ideas about themselves and the way to be righteous on their heads.

In this week's scripture we are going to be considering a passage from Paul's letter to the Romans that essentially gives the same message to the Jewish Christians in Rome that Jesus made to his listeners in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  Join us this Sunday July 8, 2012 at 11:00AM at the Rock Presbyterian Church 6910-B Miramar Rd., San Diego, CA 92121 as we ask ourselves some hard questions about which we are in the story. The answer might surprise you.

Don't forget we will have corporate prayer at 1015 in the second floor chapel where we can pray for our personal concerns and the needs of our congregation. All are welcome.

We are now on Facebook! Check out our new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SDRockPresbyterianChurch.There are some pictures from last weeks outing at Mission Bay Park.

Sermon Notes 7/1: You Will Be Free Indeed

This morning we’re going to take another little detour from our study of Romans so that we can take time to pause and consider the upcoming holiday we will be celebrating on Wednesday, July 4, when we commemorate America’s Independence from Britain. The first thing most people think about and look forward to when we think about the 4^th of July is that it is a day when we can take time off from work and enjoy our beautiful summer weather. Added to this are a number of special activities like fireworks and picnics and patriotic parades; the whole point of it is to celebrate freedom. This freedom means different things to us than it did to those who signed the Declaration of Independence, and it means different things to each of us personally than it does to others of our fellow citizens.

The political crisis that led to the Declaration of Independence was rooted in economics. The British Parliament had enacted financial policies that benefited England but at the same time caused financial harm to Americans. As a history professor I am astonished to know that most college freshmen don’t know that one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution was “Taxation without representation is tyranny!” signifying the economic basis for American discontent. It was only later in the Revolutionary War that the meaning of the struggle came to be signified by what we today think of as liberty. For the original revolutionaries liberty meant the right to hold on to your property, by the end of the revolution it had come to mean personal freedoms like the right to participate in government, the right to dissent without fear of reprisal, the right to worship God freely without government interference, and all of the freedoms specified in the Bill of Rights that we take for granted today, but that we will be celebrating on Wednesday.

When the Constitution was created a few years after the end of the American Revolution the founders of the nation sought to establish a form of government that would institutionalize the freedoms won in the revolution, which at the time were thought of as incredibly radical. And I don’t think that there’s any doubt that their work inspired a movement toward personal freedom from political oppression that still resonates today, as we can see most recently in places like Syria and Libya. But at the same time the founders perpetuated the institution of slavery that marred the ideals of liberty they were trying to enact, and accommodated a system of brutality that would only end after the devastating bloodshed of the Civil War, and which unfortunately also still resonates today.

Now I don’t want to use this opportunity to disparage the founders of the country for accommodating slavery. Slavery was a reality then that it is not today. It had both economic and cultural roots and the idea of ending slavery was thought to be much more radical then than the idea of keeping it. It was largely due to the efforts of Christian abolitionists, first in England and then in the United States, that slavery came to be regarded as evil. If you are interested in this history I can recommend to you a fairly recent movie “Amazing Grace” about English politician William Wilberforce and the end of slavery in the British Empire.

At any rate even though our nation was founded on the loftiest principles of freedom and liberty, it was marred from its birth by the stain of slavery. In the first few decades of the nation’s existence this issue came to dominate national political life. The passions of both the advocates of the perpetuation of slavery on the one hand and abolitionists on the other drove the country inevitably toward armed conflict and eventually resulted in the Civil War.

One incident in the 1830s involved a man named Elijah P. Lovejoy. Lovejoy was a Presbyterian minister in Alton, Illinois and a prominent abolitionist. He operated a press and spoke out forcefully for the abolition of slavery. On November 7, 1837, Lovejoy was brutally murdered by a mob of pro-slavery advocates seeking to destroy his press and silence him. As a result, another minister, Prof. Laurens P. Hickok, rallied the people of the region against the murderers and stated in a meeting he had organized, "The crisis has come. The question now before the American citizens is no longer alone, 'Can the slaves be made free?' but, 'Are we free?” “Are we free?” Hickok recognized the paradox of America, a nation founded on the principles of liberty that tolerated and even supported the institution of slavery, and realized that as long as this injustice prevailed no one in America could really claim to be free.

Now I wanted to bring all of this up not because I thought it would be a good idea on this Sunday morning to give a lecture on US history but because I want to call attention to the fact that I think we still live a paradox in terms of our understanding of freedom, both on a national and a personal level. As Americans we all believe, instinctively, I think, that we are free and that we are blessed with freedom, and there is a lot of truth in that belief. Americans enjoy greater freedoms than almost anywhere else on earth. But at the same time I think some of what we think of as freedom is an illusion. It leaves us to wonder what it really means to be free.

The people of Jesus’ time were a lot like us in this respect. The Jews thought of themselves as exceptional, chosen by God for his special blessing. I don’t think you have to look very hard to find this attitude among Americans today, especially at this time of the year. There are many who claim and truly believe that God has chosen America as his special nation, to be the beacon of light to the rest of the world. In our way of thinking that light is what we call freedom or liberty. Some people are especially arrogant about this, and if you have paid any attention at all to the ongoing political debate about immigration this arrogance can at times be ugly and racist.

The Jews of Jesus time were just like that. They felt themselves to be so superior to anyone who wasn’t Jewish, the Gentiles, that they thought eating with them or even being touched by them would make them dirty. They were so thoroughly intolerant of foreigners that when they went on a journey outside the Jewish homeland they would make a point of shaking Gentile dust off their feet when they returned.

In the incident we are going to look at today Jesus confronts this attitude on the part of the Jews. He makes a statement about himself to Jewish believers, which were essentially all believers at the time, that turns out to be offensive to them. Let’s hear it:

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ³⁸ I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” (John 8:31-38 ESV)

What’s going on here? Jesus tells his listeners how to obtain freedom. From our point of view that might sound pretty good but his audience was offended. They thought they were already free. You can imagine the general indignation of the crowd. “What do you mean we will be free? We are the children of Abraham! We have never been slaves to anyone!” I think it would be a lot like somebody busting into a Fourth of July celebration and announcing to the crowd of patriotic Americans that they need to learn about freedom. As good Americans we might say, “Who are you to talk to us about freedom?”

Here is the wrong idea that the Jews had. They believed they were free because God had made covenants with their ancestors Abraham and Moses. God had given Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Moses the covenant of the Law. A covenant is a deal. Generally it is thought of as exchanging something for something. In the case of the covenant of circumcision, the deal was that Abraham and all of his descendants were to be circumcised as a sign that they were the inheritors of God’s promise to lead them to the Promised Land and to bless all nations through them. In the case of the covenant of the Law, the deal was that if the Hebrews followed the Law God give them prosperity in the Promised Land and again would bless all nations through them.

The Jews of Jesus’ time were very aware of their inherited chosen-ness, but they seemed to have forgotten the bigger picture. God did not choose Abraham and his descendants just for the heck of it. They were chosen to be light. We read about it in Deuteronomy chapter 7 where God tells the Hebrews in the desert that he chose them only because he loved them, and in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 6, where he tells the Israelites, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Is. 49:6 ESV) In other words, the blessing of Israel was intended to be both a blessing and a calling. But while God had intended the choosing of Israel to be a blessing that would extend to all people, the Jews of Jesus’ time had turned it into a mark of exclusion and arrogance, accompanied by a false sense of superiority.

When Jesus confronts them with this reality, they are indignant. Can you blame them? Do we not feel indignant when our cherished values are criticized? Are we likely to take a close look at ourselves to see if the criticism is true, or to react angrily? This is what we see happening in this exchange between Jesus and the Jews.

Let’s look a little closer. How does this little confrontation start? Jesus tells those who believe in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” You may have noticed that when I read this this morning and I put it on the PowerPoint I used the English Standard translation rather than the NIV that we usually use.

Let me remark briefly about Bible translations. There are literally dozens of English translations of the Bible and there is no “right” one. Translations range on a spectrum between what is called formal and functional. The formal translations provide a translation that is closer to the original language, in this case Greek, and are sometimes referred to as literal translations, while the functional translations try to render the original meaning of the text in language that is easier to understand for modern readers. The English Standard Version is closer to the formal or more literal end of the spectrum; the New Living Translation would be an example of one that is more easily understandable. The NIV or New International Version that we usually use is in the middle; I think that’s why we use it. I generally will prefer to use the NIV translation and if that’s what you have that’s fine, but in this case I thought the ESV translation came closer to the meaning of the text. The NIV has Jesus saying “If you hold to my teaching…” rather than “if you abide in my word.”

The actual Greek verb in this case doesn’t really translate exactly either as hold to or abide but is better translated “remain” or “continue to exist.” In another place in the New Testament the same verb is used to refer to people remaining in a place until something else happens. This may seem to be a subtle and unimportant difference but it really is important because the NIV suggests that knowing the truth has to do with believing in Jesus’ teachings and the ESV places the emphasis more on living in Jesus’ “word.” Jesus’ word is his teachings but actually encompasses more than just doctrine, Jesus’s teaching also included the way he walked in the world. In the beginning of John’s gospel account we learn that Jesus himself is the word who was from the beginning and through whom all things were created. (John 1:1-5)

The ESV “abide” is closer to the intended meaning, I think, because Jesus wasn’t presenting a philosophical program. Instead he was offering life. I think we sometimes confuse what it means to be followers of Jesus by thinking it means intellectual assent to certain philosophical propositions, like maybe reciting the Apostles’ Creed, when in fact it means, as the author of this gospel John will later write in one of his letters, “walking in the light.” (1 John 1:7) How do you walk in the light? Jesus himself says that he is the light, so walking in the light means surrendering our lives to Jesus and letting him live his life through us. So then Jesus is telling his listeners here that if they walk in the light they will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

Well, free from what? Jesus’ listeners didn’t think they needed to be freed. They thought they were already free. Even though they were under the yoke of Roman oppression, they were pretty much free to go about their business and to practice their religion as long as they kept the peace and paid their taxes. But Jesus was talking about a different kind of slavery, and he tells us explicitly in verse 34 “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” I think here we would have seen another point of contention between Jesus and his listeners because Jews of that time believed that if the meticulously kept the Law they were free from sin. And if they did sin they could make sacrifices at the temple to atone for their sins. So they would not have thought of themselves as slaves to sin.

So what does Jesus mean here? Jesus is looking at the bigger picture, the one we have been considering in our study of Romans, and that is that because of the fall, because of the sin of Adam and Eve, the world is corrupted; we all sin, and we are all slaves to sin. No one is exempt. So when Jesus talks about freedom he doesn’t mean political freedom or even religious freedom. Instead he means freedom from everything that keeps us from an intimate love relationship with the Father. He means freedom to live and love in a complete way without the stain of sin, guilt, and corruption. And he says that the way to obtain that freedom is to “abide in his word,” to “walk in the light.”

Jesus uses an example from the social life of that era. In those days it was common for wealthier families to employ household slaves. Because of our history when we think of slaves we usually think in terms of the brutality of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Southern plantation slavery but the institution of slavery was very different in the ancient world. It wasn’t better it was just different. Desperate poor people would often attach themselves to households in order to receive food and lodging, and it was quite common for slaves to be able to earn or buy their freedom. But the point Jesus is making here is that a slave was not a full member of the household. Slaves’ rights were restricted, and there was no possibility of a slave ever inheriting either wealth or privilege.

So when Jesus says, “if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” in the larger context of this story his listeners would have understood that he was saying he was the one who inherited the promise from the head of the household and that meant that he held the power to truly set the slaves free. He was offering himself as the way to true freedom from everything that separates us from an intimate love relationship with the Father. This is the central fact of the gospel. In their blindness, Jesus’ listeners thought they were doing just fine. In regards to this, there is an interesting quote I like from C.S. Lewis,

When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping.

The tragedy here is that standing in the presence of their creator and savior Jesus’ audience didn’t even realize they needed saving. How are we doing?

Well we started off this morning talking about the Fourth of July and the paradox of America’s commitment to freedom while tolerating slavery. If you asked Americans before the Civil War, North or South, what America stood for, I’m pretty sure that the most common answer then would have been “liberty,” just like today. Americans then were sure they were free because of the promises of freedom arising as a result of the Revolution. And yet tens of thousands of human beings were held against their will in cruel bondage, and everyone knew this. A few people, mostly Christian abolitionists who were looked upon as radicals and trouble makers, recognized the paradox and sought to bring America’s life into alignment with its principles.

We found a Biblical precedent for this when we heard a story about Jesus telling his Jewish listeners how to be free when they thought they already were free. They were sure they were free because they thought of themselves as the inheritors of God’s promises to Abraham and Moses. But a major theme of Jesus’ life on earth was to show those people who thought they were accepted by God because they were religious that religion wasn’t enough; that they could only be accepted by “walking in the light,” and that he himself was that light.

So what about us? As Prof. Hickok asked the Americans of his time, “Are we free?” Or are we deceived like pre-Civil War Americans or the Jewish people of Jesus’ time into thinking that because we inherit the promise of liberty made by our ancestors we are automatically free?

But let us consider. Do we allow ourselves to be captivated by the temptations of this world? Do we fall for wrong ideas about love and possessions and power? Are we more concerned about what people think of us than what God thinks of us? Do we think mostly about our own comfort and gain and our own interests while we know people within our reach who are worse off that we are who could use our help? Do we fail to recognize Jesus in our brothers and sisters – in those who are close to us and in those who are less fortunate among us? In those who annoy us and scare us and may even mean us harm? Do we turn our attention away from the unrighteousness and injustice that surrounds us and pretend it doesn’t exist? If we can admit to any of these or a thousand other things that we do to grieve the Spirit, can we claim to be free?

When Jesus told his listeners in this story to abide in his word, I don’t think he was trying to start a new religion. Jesus was a Jew and steeped in the Jewish worldview and he knew better than anyone what it truly meant to be God’s chosen one. Abiding in God’s word – walking in God’s light -- meant living out the covenant obligations of the chosen people. We Christians have inherited the blessing of being among God’s chosen but we have also inherited the covenant obligations. Let me just tell you right now that the covenant obligations of the people of God can be summarized in three words: righteousness, justice, and love. That was true in the time of Abraham and Moses, in the time of Jesus, and it is also true for God’s people now.

Jesus is the embodiment of this truth. Jesus fulfilled the covenant obligations the people of God before and since have been unable to accomplish. And thus he regained freedom from sin for all who are in him. Because of his work, the answer is yes, we can be free indeed. It is not a political freedom to do as we please; it is the freedom to be liberated from the bondage of sin so that we can abide in the light, allowing his light to shine through us, and restoring the creation by building his kingdom.

As we go out into the world this week to celebrate America’s independence, let us enjoy the picnics and the fireworks and all of the other fun activities and give thanks for all of the freedoms we have been blessed with. Let us really appreciate how fortunate we are to inherit the promises of liberty, both political freedom and freedom from slavery to sin. But let us also recall that the liberties we enjoy represent not just a blessing but a calling. We are not free just to be free, so that we can be self-absorbed consumers, but we are called to be light, to be active coworkers with God in building his Kingdom on earth. As Christians we are called to reflect in our own lives and work to establish in the world Jesus’ Kingdom of righteousness, justice, and love. And when that has finally been accomplished, when, as the prophet Amos says, we “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24 ESV), which the Bible promises will happen, we will be able to sing along with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Thank God Almighty we are free at last!”

You Will Be Free Indeed (John 8:31-38)

The Fourth of July is a day we set aside to celebrate our national freedom. We truly have much to be grateful for when it comes to personal liberties. But I wonder if when we celebrate our freedoms we are also mindful of our responsibilities as free citizens. In the story we are going to look at this week in John's gospel account we will see how Jesus confronted the Jews of his time with the same question. They celebrated their freedom as God's chosen people, but had become blind to their responsibilities. Join us this Sunday July 1, 2012 at 11:00AM at the Rock Presbyterian Church 6910-B Miramar Rd., San Diego, CA 92121 as we consider how Jesus reminds them, and us, of what it means to be "free indeed."

Don't forget we will have corporate prayer at 1015 in the second floor chapel where we can pray for our personal concerns and the needs of our congregation. All are welcome.

We are now on Facebook! Check out our new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SDRockPresbyterianChurch.There are some pictures from last weeks outing at Mission Bay Park.

This Sunday at Mission Bay Park: Religion vs. Love

I think one of the things that makes it hard to be a professing Christian is that we hear so often of people who claimed to be Christians who do things that really bring dishonor to Christ. We hear about it in the news, and we see it in the people around us. There is a misunderstanding among Christians and non-Christians alike that being a follower of Jesus is about saying I'm a Christian and going through religious motions (like going to Church, and being *good*). In the gospels when Jesus confronts the religious leaders of his time it is always to expose this fallacy. Justification before God comes from the heart, not from religious observances, and is reflected in our relations with others.

The Apostle Paul found this same attitude among Jewish Christians in the Church at Rome he wrote to in his letter to the Romans. Jewish Christians were convinced that because of their strict religious observances they had an automatic "in" with God. But in this weeks reading Paul has different ideas. Join us this Sunday as we explore the place of religious observances in our walk with Jesus.

We will be meeting at Mission Bay Park this Sunday at 11:00 AM. We will have a devotional liturgy and a group discussion about this week's reading in Romans 2:16-29. After that there will be a delicious barbecue and games and fellowship. Bring a chair and outdoor attire and bring your Bible if you remember. Please email me for directions.

Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Romans 1:18-32 “Why Have You Forsaken Me?”

The world is broken. You may have heard the phrase “we live in a fallen world.” Sometimes when we hear this it is in the context of trying to explain why things don’t work out the way we would like them to, or to try to explain some kind of evil that we hear about that is hard to understand, and sometimes I think we even use it to explain away why we may have failed morally or ethically.

But this brokenness is real. We can see it if we look at the news. I personally try not to pay too much attention to the news because it really can be discouraging. And even so, not a day goes by when my soul is not assaulted with reports of some kind of horrific crime or injustice. Wars, violence, cruelty, hunger, poverty, disease, perversion…. The list goes on and on. As a Christian how can the knowledge of these things not break your heart? Some people would argue that the media only reports the unusual, and that there is a lot of good that happens that goes unnoticed because it is normal. I believe that this is absolutely true. But at the same time we have to acknowledge that those awful things we read and hear about are real. If God is a loving God, how can he allow such things to happen?

As we return to considering Paul’s letter to the Romans today we see that he begins his exposition of the Christian faith by considering just this problem. Understanding the Christian faith starts with the problem of sin. Let’s listen.

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32 NIV)

Yikes! This doesn’t sound very happy. This seems to be a pretty negative outlook on things. All this talk of sin and perversion and wrath and death. I thought this was supposed to be about “good news.” Just hang in there with me as we go through some of this difficult stuff, and I think by the time we get to the end we’ll have a glimpse of the good news.

The first thing Paul tells us here is that God has already given everyone all of the information they need to understand what they must do in order to live a moral life in right relationship with him. This doesn’t mean just to Christians but to everyone. Paul tells us that God has clearly shown the world “his eternal power and divine nature.” I think in one sense you can say that God reveals himself through the beauty and the majesty and the awesome power of nature and you would not be wrong in this. I think this is one of the reasons that primitive cultures almost always develop some kind of nature worship. It is curious I think that no culture ever developed an atheistic and non-spiritual view of the world before the advent of the Western scientific worldview.

But there is more to God’s revelation of his nature than the warmth of the sunshine or the fury of the storm. It is that in every human being everywhere there is an innate sense of what is right and what is wrong. In different cultures we may see some slight differentiation in the details, but in the generality, and astonishingly so, there is a broad agreement on what is right and what is wrong. I found this argument about what is called the “Law of Nature” in C.S. Lewis’ classic book Mere Christianity:

There have been differences between … moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own… [What would] a totally different morality … mean[?] Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him.

You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to—whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or everyone. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.

But the most remarkable thing is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining "It's not fair" before you can say Jack Robinson. … [I]f there is no such thing as Right and Wrong … what is the difference between a fair [promise] and an unfair one? Have they not let the cat out of the bag and shown that, whatever they say, they really know the Law of Nature just like anyone else?[1]

So this is what Paul is leading us to when he writes that God has made himself known to all humanity. In theological terms this is called the General Revelation. The General Revelation is God’s revelation of himself to all of creation. It essentially equips all people with enough knowledge so that they know how they ought to act in their relations with God, nature, and each other. People know what they ought to do. But this knowledge does not equip people with the ability to do it. So, in a sense, the General Revelation only gives people enough rope to hang themselves with.

Now before you go off thinking how unfair that is, we have to think about where this first became a problem. And that was in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve. You guys all remember that story and I’m not going to go through the whole thing today but I want to point out that it is not about snakes and apples, and certainly not about fig leaves, it is about failing to recognize the sovereignty of God. It is about Adam and Eve failing to trust that God had already given them everything they needed to live in perfect relationship with himself, nature, and each other. Instead of being content with what they had, they gave in to a longing to have more. They became convinced that the forbidden fruit would give them more than God was giving them. By breaking God’s commandment and eating the fruit they put the created thing – the fruit – ahead of God’s provision – ahead of God himself.

In biblical terms we can think of the General Revelation as God placing Adam and Eve in the Garden with everything they needed and a direct relationship with him. God created the universe in shalom, an unbroken relationship of peace and well-being. God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed in every respect, but Adam and Eve wanted more, and they tried to get it by eating the fruit that God had forbidden. The sin wasn’t about eating apples, it was about denying that God is God and instead thinking they could get something from the fruit, that God had created, that they could not get from God. That’s why Paul writes:

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:21-23)

It started with thinking that they could get more from the forbidden fruit than they could from God, and it went on from there to become full blown idol worship.

Ok, idol worship. Paul lived in a culture where worshipping idols was the norm. Idol worship was rampant in the pagan world, going back as far as we can remember. It was so common that God made it his number one concern to turn his people, the Israelites, away from the worship of idols. It is the first of the Ten Commandments. The great failure of the Israelites, the sin that led to their conquest and exile, was failure to end idol worship.

In the Greco-Roman world the worship of idols was very sophisticated and complex. There were idols for almost every human desire. Gods of war, peace, justice, fertility, abundance, wantonness, even “just in case” gods that covered anything that might have been overlooked by worshipping the other gods. (Acts 17:22-23) All of these gods were worshipped by revering statues of various forms. These are the idols Paul is referring to in today’s reading. All of these things amount to exchanging “the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”

And so we might say “yes but we don’t worship idols like that anymore.” And that’s pretty much a true statement. It isn’t all that common to find people who will prostrate themselves before a tiki god, although it does still happen. We find in some cultures right here in our midst the practice of bowing before idols or offering food to idols, etc. But we really have to consider idolatry in a more general sense to see how this applies to us.

An idol is anything we put our trust in other than God. Adam and Eve’s idol was the forbidden fruit. The ancient Israelites’ idols were Golden Calves and Asherah Poles and Ba’als and things like that. The Greeks’ and Romans’ idols were elaborate shrines and statues. Very few or none of us would think of worshipping things like this today.

But I think if we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that we too are idolaters. Even though we don’t bow down to statues, we do put our trust in other things ahead of God. We put our trust in money, in positions, in possessions, and in ideas. We all like to think of ourselves as having faith, but how much faith do we really have in God?

How many of us would give up a prosperous life in a sophisticated place to go into an unknown land based on only a vague promise? That’s what Abraham did. How many of us would give up a powerful position at court and risk a horrible death to remain true to God? That’s what Daniel did. How many of us would give up a successful business to follow an itinerant counter-cultural preacher? That’s what Peter and the other apostles did.

How many of us when we think about that kind of faith, the faith that is willing to give up everything for Jesus, the scary faith we talked about a couple weeks ago that puts trust in a story that doesn’t make sense, when we hear about that faith we also hear that other voice that says, “That’s just crazy. You can’t do that. You’ll never make any money as a musician, or an artist, or whatever. You can’t go off and be a missionary. How will you make a living? How will you support your family? Or, you can’t risk your standing to witness to Jesus. Everyone will turn their back on you. You’ll be left all alone while everyone else is having fun.” And when we follow that voice, and I think we all do, aren’t we putting “common sense” ahead of trust in God? Aren’t we making “common sense” our idol?

So this is why what Paul is writing to the Romans applies to us. We are in the same boat as these pagans Paul is writing about in these verses. Really I think the point of all this is that this is the inevitable result of the fall that was brought about as the consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve. You might say that it is unfair that we are being punished for the sin of these people who lived so long ago, but in reality we are being punished for our own sins. When we consider the rest of today’s reading we see Paul describing the depravity of life without God. He gives us lists of sins (as he does in other letters), like sexual sins and

every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity… envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice…. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. (Romans 1:29-31 NIV)

I don’t want to depress you but I guarantee you that if you picked up today’s newspaper you would easily be able to find reports about every one of these things and probably many times over. Paul tells us this is the result of putting our trust in other things ahead of trust in God. It is the result of the sin of Adam and Eve.

Now I know some of you are thinking, “Well that just doesn’t fit me. I’m not that bad. In fact, I’m pretty good. I read the Bible and I pray and I’m honest and I obey my mother and father etc.” And trust me I know that we all do our best and we’re not as depraved as we could be, as the people Paul describes here are. But the point is that no matter how hard we try we’re still going to fall short of God’s mark. We’re still going to do things we know we shouldn’t. We’re still going to screw things up. We’re still going to fail. And, I think, we all have to admit that we are going to put other things ahead of God. Let me give you a way you can figure this out on your own.

We know we are all called to love. Jesus tells us that the way we can be identified with him is by love and he commands us to love in John Chapter 13 ^“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV) What does that look like? You’re probably familiar with 1 Corinthians 13 that is the so-called “love chapter.” Let’s look at how love is described there:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13:4-8 NIV)

Now let’s replace that word love with our own names: Keith is patient, Keith is kind, does not envy, does not boast… well, most of the time. I’m pretty good with not dishonoring others, have to pray not to be self-seeking. I do in fact find myself angry at times, especially on the freeway…. Here’s where it gets hard, Keith always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, never fails. I hate to say it my brothers and sisters but I have failed this test. How did you do?

Paul’s point here is that because of the brokenness of the world we will all fail the test.

Here’s the part we don’t want to hear, but we have to hear it or there will be no hope for us. How does Paul begin this part of the letter? He writes “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people…” (Romans 1:18 NIV) The wrath of God. The wrath of God is what Adam and Eve received as the consequence of their disobedience. The wrath of God is what all of creation experienced as a result of that fall. The wrath of God is what we all deserve as a consequence of our own idolatry. What does that wrath look like?

We are conditioned to think of wrath in human terms. We think of it as unrestrained anger and violence. Sometimes we think of the biblical stories like Sodom and Gomorrah where we see God raining down fire and brimstone from heaven. And we sometimes wonder I think how a God of love can give himself over to wrath like that. But Paul is giving the Romans and us a very different picture of wrath. Let’s look at verse 24, “Therefore God gave them over.…” Verse 26, “Because of this, God gave them over.…” Verse 28, “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over....” What does this mean “God gave them over?”

What it really means is that the sin is the punishment. God doesn’t have to throw rocks at us to punish us; the very fact that we turn or backs on him and put our trust in other things that have to fail us is already punishment. And God’s wrath is that he allows it. Another one of the quotes I like from C.S. Lewis goes like this:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.

God’s wrath against sinful humanity is that he allows what we have chosen. He allows us to turn our backs on him and pursue our own foolish plans. When Adam and Eve sinned they broke the love relationship between humans and God, God’s wrath was that he allowed it. Whenever humans choose something ahead of God and they break the love relationship between man and God, God’s wrath is that he allows it. The death of this love relationship is the death that Paul refers to in verse 32, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death.” It is not a physical death, it is the death of being disconnected from God, the source of life, by our own choice. And it is in this state that all of us find ourselves in.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Hold on a minute there pastor I thought you said this eangelion of yours was supposed to be good news. This doesn’t sound like very good news. You build up our hopes by telling us about Christ’s victory over sin, corruption, and death, and now you just got through sending us all to hell. What gives?” Well I don’t blame you for that. There doesn’t seem to be very much good news in today’s scripture. And if this was the end of it you would this would be very bad news. But it isn’t. The good news is there. God is not in the business of sending people to Hell. God is in the business of rescuing people from Hell. Let me show it to you.

Do you guys remember the story of Jesus’ crucifixion? There was a part where he cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46 NIV) You probably know that he was calling to mind Psalm 22, which predicts the suffering of the Messiah, and thus he was identifying his work on the cross with the work of the Messiah. But what was that cry about? It had to be more than a Bible lesson. What was the agony Jesus was feeling on the cross that he cried aloud to the Father about? It was that the Father had turned his back on him. He had “given him over,” not for his sins, but for ours.

Jesus death on the cross was the death that Paul writes about in verse 32. It was the death that is the consequence of putting other things ahead of God. It was not just or even primarily a physical death; it was the death of Jesus’ love relationship with the Father, which was like the love relationship between God and Adam and Eve in the Garden. It was the death that ended the shalom Jesus had experienced in relationship with the Trinity throughout eternity. It was that most agonizing death that is the consequence of sin. And the “good news” is that Jesus suffered that penalty not for his own sin but for ours. He did it for the sins of all humanity, and for all of our personal sins. He died for all of the sins we have ever committed, and for all of the sins we ever will commit. The price has been paid in full, once and for all, by Jesus on the cross.

Think of it like this. You are in the execution chamber and you are about to be put to death for crimes that you committed. You’re there because of your own actions and you know it. You deserve what you’re about to get, and you know it. Then suddenly out of the blue someone shows up and takes off your restraints and opens the door and tells you you’re off the hook, that the price has been paid. You’re free! And you walk out of the execution chamber a free person. Imagine the elation you would feel. That, my friends, would be good news. And that is the good news. Jesus paid it all.

Let us pray.

[A] Dear heavenly father we adore you for your greatness and goodness. We stand in awe of your great mercy and love that caused you to send your own son to suffer for our sins.

[C] We freely admit and confess that we do not deserve your mercy. We freely admit and confess that we have broken our covenant with you, that we have put our trust in other things ahead of trust in you, that we have failed to live up to your commandment to love, that we have failed to see you in our brothers and sisters.

[T] We thank you for your amazing grace. We thank you for the gift of your son Jesus. We thank you for the beauty and bounty of the earth. We thank you for the love relationships we are able to enjoy. We thank you for our freedom to come together and worship you without fear. We thank you that we can speak your name in public without fear and that you give us the opportunity to share in Jesus’ mission of restoring the earth.

[S] We pray that you will send your Holy Spirit to fill this congregation with your shalom. We pray that we will be filled with your Spirit to accomplish the tasks you have set before us in shining your love to our brothers and sisters, especially to those who do not yet know you. We pray that you would meet each person here today at the place of their greatest need. We pray for those who may be suffering from physical sickness, from anxieties about work and school and finances, from broken relationships, that you would touch us all and fill us with the assurance that you are in the midst of all of our trials and that we can accomplish all things through you. We pray for those we love who are far from us and who we miss that you might return them safely to us. We pray for our broken world that you would send your angels to cover the earth with your peace. We pray that you will bring about and end to war and violence and disease and poverty and that you would use us as your instruments to accomplish your purposes. We pray that you will send Jesus to us quickly. And we pray all of these things in the name of your beloved son and our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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[1] Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity: A Revised and Enlarged Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books The Case For Christianity, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. Revised & Enlarged ed. New York: Macmillan Pub Co, 1952.

Taken – Blessed – Broken – Given (Luke 9:10-17)

Does anybody here know about or remember a TV show from the 1960s called “The Addams Family?” It was a sitcom about a suburban family that lived a normal suburban lifestyle except that they lived in a creepy mansion that looked like a haunted house and each member of the family was supposed to be one of the kinds of monsters that were common in monster movies of that era. It was really a spoof on that genre of movies. Actually I was never a big fan of this program but when I was preparing this sermon I remembered one of the characters whose name was “Thing.” I found this picture on Google that shows what Thing looked like. Thing was just a hand in a box. In different episodes of the show Thing could be seen doing things like adjusting the radio or the TV set or tapping people on the shoulder, but obviously there was this limitation that because it was just a hand in a box the things that it could do were limited to whatever it could reach. And so except for its gag effect, it was essentially useless.

This week I want to focus on a passage in Luke that shows the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand. I am going to relate the passage to the Lord’s Supper we just celebrated. You might wonder what feeding the five thousand has to do with communion. You may wonder even more what it has to do with Thing. But before I’m done here today I think you will see its relevance.

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, ¹¹ but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

¹² Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

¹³ He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” ¹⁴ (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. ¹⁶ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. ¹⁷ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9:10-17 NIV)

The passage we are looking at this morning begins with the apostles returning and reporting what they had done. Earlier in the chapter we are told Jesus had given the Twelve “power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2 NIV) When they came back he took them away to a remote place to rest, but the crowds followed them and so instead of being able to have their little retreat Jesus spent his time ministering to the people who came to him: teaching and healing.

At the end of the day the apostles urged Jesus to send the people away so that they could get something to eat, and Jesus challenged them by telling them “You give them something to eat.” Those of you who were here last week hopefully remember me talking about what faith is and how difficult faith can be, because it requires that we trust in something that our rational minds tell us is impossible. I think all of us have trouble with faith, but we shouldn’t be discouraged about it because the gospels tell us that those people who lived with Jesus and watched his miracles also had trouble believing, just like we see in this story. Luke records the incident in a more elegant way but you can just imagine the apostles’ reaction. “What? Are you kidding? We don’t have enough food to feed five thousand people! And we don’t have enough money to buy that much food either!” You can imagine that the apostles must have though Jesus was crazy.

But Jesus tells them to take what they have, have faith, and perform a miracle. I want us to notice here that Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples to give to the people. There is a lot more to this story than Jesus performing a miracle. Jesus is revealing the pattern for his and our ministry in the world.

Let’s look a little bit further ahead in Luke and look at where he writes about the Last Supper. There he writes about Jesus, “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19 NIV) Here we see Jesus taking the bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it. And this becomes the model for the Lord’s Supper that has been celebrated at Jesus commandment throughout the history of the Church and which we just celebrated. I’m going to take up a theme introduced by Henri Nouwen in his book Life of the Beloved and consider what it means to be taken, blessed, broken, and given.

At the Last Supper Jesus says “This is my body….” What can this mean? We can think about this in a number of ways but we can consider in at least one way by looking at Jesus’ life and ministry in the gospel story. Jesus himself was taken by God, blessed, broken, and given. So Jesus is comparing himself to the bread that gives life to the people.

Let’s look a little closer at this. To take something is to choose something. Something that is taken is something that is chosen. In the gospel story we know that Jesus is called the Christ or the Messiah. That means the “Chosen One.” There are literally dozens of places in the Old Testament where God promises through his prophets to send a Chosen One to restore God’s Kingdom of righteousness and justice on the earth. Here is one where we see a direct reference in the New Testament. Earlier in Luke’s gospel, where he records the beginning of Jesus ministry, he tells this story:

¹⁶ [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the  oppressed free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21 NIV)

In this scripture at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he identifies himself as the promised Messiah – the anointed or Chosen One predicted in scripture – by proclaiming that he is the one promised by the prophet Isaiah. He also reveals here the nature of his mission, beginning with “to proclaim the good news to the poor…” Jesus was chosen.

When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan we see his anointing by the Holy Spirit and the blessing of the Father. Luke writes, “²¹ When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:21-22 NIV) Jesus was blessed.

In the gospel according to Matthew we read about the brokenness Jesus had to experience in order to bring us healing, “Why have you forsaken me?” Jesus cries out from the cross, quoting Psalm 22, and signifying the most desolate state that any human can experience: being abandoned by God. This broken relationship with God is the death that is the consequence of sin. But Jesus didn’t sin. Instead, he experienced this brokenness for us, so that we do not have to pay the price of our own rebellion. Jesus was broken.

Finally we see the consequence of the gospel story in the end of Matthew where Jesus tells his disciples “^{19 ‘}go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (Mt. 28:19-20 NIV) Jesus gives himself to the world through those of us who are in him to restore the creation and establish the Kingdom of God’s eternal peace. Jesus was given to the world.

Taken – blessed – broken – given.

When we practice the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper like we did today we are reenacting the life of Jesus so that we can remember who we are in Christ. We do it because Christ commanded it. He tells his disciples “do this in remembrance of me.” (Lk. 22:19 NIV) One of the things we believe as Presbyterians about the Lord’s Supper is that it is an actual encounter with Christ. We meet Christ in and are blessed by partaking of the sacrament. There isn’t anything magical about the ritual or the words or the elements – the bread and the wine. Instead it is a remembrance of a condition that already exists – that we are in fact blessed by Jesus and he is with us right now.

When we partake of the sacrament we acknowledge the reality that because of our identification with Jesus’ death on the cross we are united with him in his glorified life. Being united with Christ means being united with his earthly life, death, resurrection, and ongoing mission. That is why Jesus tells his disciples “go and make disciples of all nations.” And that means that we too are chosen, blessed, broken, and given.

When we think about the idea of being chosen we tend to look at things the way the world looks at things. Certainly when we think about Jesus as the Chosen One we are thinking in exclusive terms. Jesus was the Chosen One; by his very nature no one else could do what he did to bring about the restoration of the broken relationship. We all too are chosen by the Father. But we must not think about our chosen-ness in the same way we think of Jesus being chosen as savior, or even the way we choose as human beings.

In economics there is a concept called “opportunity costs.” Opportunity costs essentially represent all of the things we must give up in order to make a choice. Today when you chose to come to church, at the same time you gave up the opportunity to do a whole universe of other things. Because you are here, you cannot be physically anywhere else right now. You can’t be at the beach, or shopping, or watching TV. By choosing to come to church you automatically rejected literally thousands of other things.

We think that is what it is like to be chosen, too. If we choose one person to be president, we reject everyone else. If one team is chosen by their performance to be the champions, every other team is rejected. So we think that if anyone else is chosen for anything and we are not, we are rejected. This feeling leads to isolation and competition, envy and loneliness.

But God does not choose the way we do. When God chooses to love you with the love of a parent for an only child, which he does do, he does not reject anyone else. Because God is so great, he can love each of us with that great exclusive love. And when we realize how blessed we are in his love, we too can begin to see the chosen-ness in our brothers and sisters. As we are more and more conformed to the likeness of Christ, we begin to see others as he sees us, and we lose our sense of isolation and loneliness. Instead of seeing others with envy, as people we have to compete with for attention and blessing, we begin to see them as like us, chosen and loved by the Father. And so we are drawn to them in love rather than separated from them by rivalry.

Each of us is also broken. The life of the Christian is the process of moving away from the life of sin and temptation more and more toward identification in Christ. We have already discussed how being a member of the church means being a member of the body of Christ. Being a member of the church is not like being a member of a club or a political party, it is like being a member of a body. It is like the relationship of the hand and the body. The hand cannot live by itself. Even if it could, it would have no purpose. And the body, although it can live without the hand, is crippled without it. The hand needs the body, and the body needs the hand. We need the church, and the church needs us. This is what it looks like to be separated from the body.

Sometimes the process of realizing we are broken looks really dramatic. Sometimes it’s like being diagnosed with an incurable disease, or getting into serious legal or financial trouble, or losing a job, or having one of these things happen to someone we love. We suddenly find ourselves in very scary place where we feel our only hope is in divine intervention. So we turn to God. At the end of our own resources, we are left with nothing to rely on but God’s mercy, so we choose Him where before we might not have. It’s not without reason that there is the saying there are no atheists in foxholes.

But sometimes the process of realizing we are broken doesn’t look so dramatic. Sometimes it’s just the slow but steady progress toward living a more Spirit-filled life. Sometimes it doesn’t seem extreme at all. But in either case it actually is a profound experience because we are giving up our own lives of apart-ness in order to be grafted into the life of Christ. Paul writes of it in his letter to the Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20 NIV) Becoming a member of the body I think might be something like a surgery that re-attaches a severed limb. Sometimes it’s done with anesthesia and sometimes not but the pain is always there. Life without Christ is loneliness. Live in Christ is wholeness. Because we all have to make that painful journey from isolation to communion, we all share the experience of broken-ness that Jesus lived on the cross.

Rather than being a curse, in Jesus this broken-ness becomes a blessing. Without Jesus’ suffering we could not be free. And, like Jesus, we are called to share our broken-ness with our fellows in order to bring about healing. Notice in the miracle Jesus performed of feeding the five thousand he called his disciples to be his coworkers. Whatever miracle happened when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes occurred by some supernatural power that only Jesus possessed. But Jesus was gracious enough to allow his followers to participate in the miracle by distributing the food to the people. So in this case it wasn’t just the food that was given, it was the disciples. Jesus chose his disciples, blessed them, broke them of their pride and wrong ideas, and gave them to the people.

And we too, if we are his disciples, are also chosen, blessed, broken, and given. Every time we participate in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we remember that each one of us is chosen by God as his beloved daughter or son. We remember that we are loved in a way that a parent loves an only child. We remember that we are blessed or found approved by God through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We remember that we are broken because we have to share in Jesus’ suffering on the cross. We have to give up our natural identity in order to be grafted into the body. We find the joy of life in communion with the whole church, the whole Body of Christ.

But let us always remember that the body doesn’t exist just to exist. We are all called to use our gifts to build up the Body of Christ; to make it whole and healthy. But that whole and healthy body exists to do the work of Christ in the world. The church is Christ in the world. So let us let this celebration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper serve to remind us that we, like the bread, like the disciples in the story, like Jesus, are chosen, blessed, and broken to be given to the world. And let us allow ourselves to be given in the same way Jesus was given: to live lives that reflect his righteousness and justice and mercy and compassion and concern for our brothers and sisters. To live lives that reflect the self-sacrificing love of Jesus in our homes, at work, at school, and in our communities; to every one we meet. Let us do this this week, and every week.

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, you are a great God. Your mercy and love are beyond our comprehension. We confess that we have failed to reflect your nature in the things that we do. We have failed to recognize you in our brothers and sisters, and we have relied on human means and resources rather than casting all of our cares upon you. We thank you that in your great mercy you have sent your son Jesus to make us friends with you again, so that when you see us you do not see our failures but his righteousness. We thank you for the sacrifice you made to restore us to your friendship. We thank you for the freedom to come together to worship you without fear. We thank you for the beauty of the earth that we so often take for granted. We thank you that you allow us to be members of your family. We pray that you will send your Spirit to fill us with your peace. We pray for those of us gathered here today who may be suffering from fear and anxiety for ourselves or our loved ones, who may be suffering from financial stress, or who may be suffering from some form of sickness or dis-ease. We pray that you will assure us in the knowledge that we are not alone, that you meet us at the point of our greatest weakness and need. We pray that you will give us eyes to see the world with the same compassion and love you see it with. We pray that we may be instruments of your peace in the world. We pray that you will send your angels to cover the earth with your peace. We pray that Jesus will come quickly. We pray that we will remember by our participation in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper that we, like the bread, like Jesus, are chosen, blessed, broken, and given to the world. And we pray all of these things in the name of your son Jesus. Amen.