(This sermon was given by Tom Gordon)
In colonial America during the 1740s, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to the congregation in Ensfield Massachusetts.This particular congregation was holding out against the revival that had been sweeping across the colonies during the First Great Awakening. Edwards was unable to finish the sermon and had to join other local pastors in comforting the congregation, such was the response to his message of hell-fire which figuratively melted this congregation where they sat.
It occurred to me in recent years that Edwards’ sermon, this sermon, and every sermon ever preached in the Christian Community these past two-thousand years has only been possible because God allowed himself to first fall into “the hands of angry sinners.” Hence, the title.
Today I’m going to tell you a story--almost 3,000 years in the making; so buckle up. During the years of Homeric Greece, hundreds of years before Socrates, the Greeks sought after “arete,” or “excellence.” These were the semi-mythical days of Achilles, Paris, and Hector, the Trojan War and the endless fratricide of the Greek world. For them, arete mandated lots of violence, unrestrained sexual expression and self-promotion --all aimed at the glorification of self above others. This was “excellence” to the pre-classical Greeks.
They believed their gods were involved in this same sort of activity and that this was the proper marriage between body and spirit (action and will) though, admittedly the primary emphasis was on the body and its desires. They believed this arete was THE recipe for the most awesome of all possible lives. Of course--it was a recipe for disaster.
Hundreds of years later, as the Peloponesian war between Athens and Sparta went very badly for Athens, Socrates went about the city criticizing its leaders for their mindless prosecution of the war and their equally mindless pursuit of vainglory. Socrates had grown “out of step” with arete. He proclaimed that the “unexamined life was not worth living.” Though executed for his criticisms, Athens had been humbled and was ripe for his message. Socrates effectively instituted a new heroic ideal for Greece-- and a new form of arete--the examined life.
As a side-note, by the time of his death, Socrates had gotten into the habit of expressing contempt for the Greek gods, yet also of referring to both Heaven and God in the singular and as if both were sources of “Good.” Athens, afterall, juts out into the middle of Mediterrannean trade routes and was a center of exchange for both goods and ideas. I have no doubt that Socrates was exposed to both Hebrew and Persian conceptions of God.
A now, humbled Athens, and eventually the entire Greek world embraced this new ideal with its new type of hero. This was a life of the mind (read that as “spirit”) which grew increasingly suspicious of the doings of the body. We may think of this “divorce” of body from spirit as a sort of proto, or pre-gnosticism in which the mind became the path to salvation and the body the path to destruction in the same way that their earlier heroic ideal had led Athens to destruction.
God Prepares the Stage for Jesus
This new ideal was spread across the Mediterrannean as well as both the Near and Middle East by Alexander the Great. Alexander loved Greek culture and spread it from Macedonia to India--art, architecture, language and philosophy--all became part and parcel of the world Jesus was born into.
Into this Greek-saturated, Roman-controlled world Jesus came preaching the good news that “the kingdom of the heavens is available” here and now.This is the True marriage of body and spirit that the world desperately needed then and still needs today.
For Socrates, freedom from the body (his own death) meant discovery of all (Truth) which he had wondered about as a philosopher. For Jesus, by contrast, eternity was in session “now;” Truth was available “now”--while in the body (and of course, forevermore) with Jesus himself as headmaster of a never-ending school of discipleship.
“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Let this passage sink in. Read it again. One more time. Knowledge, Truth and Freedom were of paramount value in the Greek world at that time. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had made sure of this. Jesus comes out swinging and addresses all three: simply, beautifully, authoritatively.
When are we free? When we know the Truth.
When do we know the Truth? When we hold to his Teaching.
What does it mean to hold to his teaching? Do--the--things--he--said--to--do!
How do we “do” things? With our bodies and our spirits.
This is a syllabus for life in the Kingdom. If we fail this course on Knowledge, Freedom and Truth, then we will end up (or remain) ignorant, enslaved, liars. Incidentally...Jesus said all this to “the Jews who had believed him.” They took this last point to mean precisely that they were ignorant, enslaved, liars and decided to kill him--believers did this! We ought not be too quick to think ourselves above violence toward Jesus, toward His message, toward His kingdom. He is after-all the God who gave himself into the hands of angry sinners.
Do you ever take offense at Jesus? He is no respecter of your culture or the empire that created and maintains that culture. Don’t expect it of Him. Don’t impose it on Him.
Reforming the Reformation (Metanoia Might Annoy Ya)
About 500 years ago the Church was subject to a much-needed correction. However, we also lost a deep, rich, tradition of spiritual practice which had been commonplace in both the church and amongst God’s people for centuries prior. Bodily practices in the form of the Spiritual Disciplines, which involved effort (sometimes a great deal of effort) fell largely along the wayside in Protestant practice due to an association with abuses within the Church.
At issue was a single word--Metanoia. The word translates to “repent.” Repentance involves unconditional surrender to God and an exchange of the path one is on, for the path toward God. Unfortunately, the word had been mistranslated over a thousand years earlier as “do penance.” Penance involves a voluntary self-punishment (often involving monetary payment) for wrongs committed.
The abuses that followed essentially amounted to “working off” one’s debt of sin and earning salvation. Anything that could be construed (or misconstrued) as “earning one’s salvation” became highly suspect and essentially abandoned. The spiritual disciplines were largely jettisoned from Protestant practice and one of the practical ramifications has been hints of gnosticism sneaking back in through an open window. Once again, the body was viewed as suspect and the mind/spirit viewed in stark contrast to that. There was no hope to be found in what could be done with/through the body.
It became commonplace to view salvation as simply agreeing to belief in a set of propositions about God. But remember, “even the demons believe (that there is One God)….” James 2:19. Church...We need to move well beyond agreement with demons.
A rough analogy might be a person who agrees that exercise is a good thing, buys a gym membership and watches people exercise every week while she sits and drinks a smoothie. Even out of shape people agree about what’s healthy.
Think back to the definition of metanoia: “Unconditional surrender to God and an exchange of the path one is on, for the path toward God.” What happens on a path? We walk. We engage in life. If your body is carrying around your spirit, it’s going to be really hard not to involve your body in this unconditional surrender. Any lingering doubts about the “goodness”of physical things can be put to rest by reading the first chapter of Genesis where God created ALL of it and pronounced it all “good.” In fact, after Eve’s creation it was “very good.” To claim that the body is “evil” is to tread in heresy territory. We’ve walked too close to this line in the last 500 years like a dog returning to its vomit. We must move from a mere “appreciation for Christ, to an “appropriation” of Christ and, like it or not, your body is coming along for the ride. Heck, it is the ride.
Works of the Flesh vs Spirit
At this point you might be getting nervous and thinking where’s Anthony when we need him? Let’s distinguish between the goodness of God’s physical world and the badness of works of the flesh.
Works of the flesh are those works which are attempted out of your resources alone. Often they are intended to get you noticed, or to create an obligation from God back to you. Works of the Flesh are about “earning.” They essentially say “God, do you see me.”
Example: Say I have a student who desperately wants to please me but does terrible on every assignment in spite of his very strenuous efforts. I notice this and offer to meet with him. I also offer the Tutoring Center, Success Coaching and the Writing Center. He refuses all these resources, continues producing bad academic fruit and will eventually fail the class and submit a scathing review of me on “Rate my Professor” because I did not see and appreciate their effort. This is a rough analogy for “works of the flesh.”
Let’s shed some light on works of the Spirit by way of some further analogy and discussion.
Looking “At” Versus Looking “Along”
C.S. Lewis once wrote of being in his garden shed. The door was closed and a shaft of light pierced through a crack in the door into the darkness of the shed. When he looked “at” the light he saw dust particles floating inside the beam. When he stepped into the shaft and looked “along” the light, the dust particles were no longer visible (even though they were still there) but now he saw a tree outside and the sun burning millions of miles away producing that light. Both experiences were true but both were very different. Each is diminished without the other.
In these last several centuries the sciences have caused a divorce of sorts between looking “at” and “looking along.” Backed by the Academy, modern science gives the authoritative nod to “looking at” as the superior, even the only, way of knowing. This way of knowing had been neglected since the ancient Greeks and the overreaction has proven extreme. This thinking has permeated our culture and has caused a great deal of rot within the Church. Looking “along” has been all but abandoned in Western Civilization, even in the Church.
Another quick example from Lewis just to make sure we’re clear on this point. Imagine two biologists attempting to give an explanation of what it means to be “in love.” One has been in love before, the other has not. Both can look “at” being in love and talk about the chemical and biological processes involved. However, one clearly has an advantage over the other. This is the advantage that we, in the West, have discarded.
The Ancients, by contrast, saw knowledge as thoroughly experiential. They would find it absurd that we award PhD’s in philosophy to people who can speak accurately about the implications of such-and-such school of thought. For them, if you weren’t a Stoic, or an Epicurean, or a Christian then you didn’t know these philosophies; you had, at best, looked “at” them. They would say that to know Christ was to look “along” Christianity; it was to do the things He told us to do. We have to move beyond “appreciation” of Christ to “appropriation” of Christ.
Have you experienced Jesus? More importantly, has Jesus experienced you? These two questions attempt to get at what it means to “know” in the Biblical sense. Think for a moment about a type of prayer we often engage in. “God please be with “so-and-so.” But, we know God is there, yet we (at times) drone out this prayer as if on auto-pilot. Perhaps what we need to pray is not that God would show up (we know He’s there), but that we would show up. Yes, my body is there, but where is my spirit? Perhaps this or that particular prayer concern is an opportunity for Jesus and I to experience each other and to spread the Kingdom.
Magic or Faith?
Perhaps it would be good to point out the difference between magic and faith at this point. Magic is the attempt to manipulate perceived powers to serve particular ends that we deem worthy of pursuit. It involves various actions, incantations of particular words and phrases which, if done correctly, will bring the result that is sought. Faith (in the Christian context) is complete trust in someone. It ultimately trusts that Good will be the result, regardless of the perceived outcome. Which of these two is more likely to require that you be present (not on auto-pilot)?
I recall visiting Ivan the Terrible’s church in Russia. Just down the valley from this ancient building were two stones on opposite sides of the valley. On the left, women came to sit on a stone to receive healing for “female” problems. On the right, men did the same thing for “male” problems. I witnessed serious parishioners coming from prayers at the church building, down to the stones to sit. They were navigating the various perceived sources of power in their lives trying to effect some sort of favorable outcome. Is this Faith?
We know that our bodies are carrying our spirits around. So, how do we show up, both body and spirit?
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1
The spiritual disciplines are based largely on this verse and the verse that immediately follows it. Their aim is to help us to be “present” in a way that we were not before. Offering up our bodies in fasting, solitude, silence, and a multitude of other disciplines is a means of offering up our bodies as “living sacrifices.” It breaks us free of the patterns of the world we see all around us and which we grew up in and which have been normalized by our culture-- our empire.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
The spiritual disciplines are not a means of earning. They are one of the places where God meets and transforms us. They are a part of the “grace” of God by which we become more like him--where we come to know His will. They are a Success Center, Tutoring Center, Gymnasium of the Spirit--resources we dare not ignore.
“When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool….”
Embodied Apologetics (transformed lives) is what the world is starving for today. Why would someone sign up (and pay) for the gym but not exercise? Why would someone use their treadmill only to hang laundry? Think for a moment about the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida. Why on earth would someone NOT want to get well? That’s what Jesus asks him. Perhaps after 38 years, he’s found a pattern of life that suits him. His answer certainly was cagey. Do you want to be well? Is something keeping you from the water?
Anger can be a useful tool for getting your way, perhaps you’d rather not give that up. Asking the same question seven different ways until my child finally caves in and tells me what I want to hear may be an effective pattern of manipulation for me. If my “yes” actually is a “yes,” I may lose advantage over my child or over others. Perhaps I don’t really want to get into that water--especially after ---all ----these ----years.
How do I do the things Jesus told me to do? How do I “let my ‘yes’ be a ‘yes’ and my ‘no’ be a ‘no’”? How do I “do good to those who persecute” me? The spiritual disciplines are one of the places where God meets me for the express purpose of transforming me more perfectly into His image. They are a place where I can ask “God, do I see you”?
Some Quick Examples
I keep an image of one of my daughters on my cell phone. Every time I see it, I’m reminded that other people are precious to their parents in the same way my girls are precious to me. It short-circuits a whole raft of inappropriate thoughts and behaviors that tempt me.
I seek to let my “yes” be a “yes” and my “no” a “no” by asking “real” questions. Amy and I used to ask our girls, for example, “do you want to ask that little girl over to play”? If we didn’t hear the answer we wanted to hear we would rephrase the question over, and over until our poor kid would give up and say what we wanted to hear. We learned that if it isn’t a choice, not to phrase it as a choice; this manipulation just frustrated our girls and made liars of us. This also allowed their “yes” and “no” to be meaningful.
There are, so far as I can gather, an endless number of spiritual disciplines beyond the classics of fasting, praying, solitude and silence. Sharing these with each other could prove to be a deep well of transformation at CLG.
What does God get out of my spiritual transformation? The person I become.
Incidentally, this is also what I get out of my transformation. It’s all good, all ways, for all time and all eternity.