Some Thoughts About The Asbury Awakening

I’ve waded through a lot of hot takes, knee-jerk reactions, profound reflections, critiques, praises, and personal testimonies the past two weeks concerning the events in Asbury. First, I am going to give a biased overview of what’s happening (‘happened’) at Asbury. That’s my cards on the table. I think a good thing – not a perfect thing - happened, and I’m feeling a little protective of it. Second, I want to offer some thoughts on how good things can go bad if we aren’t careful.

It began after a chapel message in an expositional series on Romans.  The speaker thought his message from Romans 12 had completely flopped. I listened to the message.[1] It was an excellent challenge about the importance of humbly serving and loving other people as Jesus would have us love them. It started like this:

“I hope you guys forget me but anything from the Holy Spirit and God’s Word would find fertile ground in your hearts and produce fruit. Romans 12. That’s the star, okay? God’s Word and Jesus and the Holy Spirit moving in our midst, that’s what we’re hoping for.”

After he challenged them to love others with the love of Jesus, he noted that doing this sounds impossible, and it is – unless we have Jesus. He reminded the students that our ability to love others well will come from the love Jesus has shown to us flowing out of us; in my words, we can only pay forward what God has given to us through Jesus. He gave them a particular challenge: if you are having trouble loving others well, you need to pray that you understand and experience the love of Jesus. That’s the only way it will work.

I’ve heard some criticism of this sermon for not preaching “the whole gospel.”  Listen. It was one of three-times-a-week chapels at a Christian college in an expositional series on Romans. This sermon had a particular focus on a particular morning. It was great. Speaking as a pastor who preaches a lot, if someone would take one isolated sermon and judge me or our church based on that one sermon, I would find it grossly unfair. It’s like judging the plot or message of a book based on one chapter. Sermons (and chapels at Christian colleges) occur in a much broader context. Speakers don’t cover everything every time. Everybody relax.

The next unexpected spark in what would become a fire was a public confession/repentance from a student shortly after that message as about a dozen students lingered in the chapel. I don't know what this student confessed, but if it built from the message, it was inspired by a conviction to love others well. One student reported that, in the following days, she observed students who couldn’t stand each other praying together and reconciling.[2] That tracks with the focus of the sermon.

It quickly swelled as a grass roots movement characterized by repentance and personal renewal/refreshing. Remember: the focus was on the importance of understanding and experiencing the love of Jesus – which is what many are reporting to have felt strongly. To criticize this moment for not necessarily going beyond that seems to me to be unfair. There is biblical precedent for what they are describing.

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19-20).

Meanwhile, there was a lot of Scripture reading interspersed, a sermon every night, clear calls to repentance,[3] and people making first-time decisions to follow Jesus.  

What’s happening seems to have tapped into particular longings. I will quote one Asbury student whose voice stands in for many of the interviews I have read:

“It's been a really hard couple of years, and not just for me but for a lot of my friends, and I just felt like the Lord was releasing me from a lot of bitterness and anger that I've had just about all kinds of stuff, even some of it towards God and so I would say for me personally, the biggest word I can use is that it's been a very, very healing experience for me."[4]

A theology professor at Asbury’s seminary noted, 

“The mix of hope and joy and peace is indescribably strong and indeed almost palpable—a vivid and incredibly powerful sense of shalom. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is undeniably powerful but also so gentle… 

Sometimes God does what Jonathan Edwards called “surprising work” and what John Wesley referred to as “extraordinary” ministry. I firmly believe that much of what is important and vital in the Christian life happens in the everyday moments—in the daily disciplines and liturgies…in the in-the-moment decisions to pursue righteousness, in acts of sacrificial love of neighbor, in prayers breathed in quiet desperation. 

I know that these “extraordinary” acts of God are no replacement for the “ordinary” ministry of the Holy Spirit through Word and sacrament. Likewise, the “surprising” works of God are not a substitute for the long road of discipleship. If that were the case…we would be dependent on this experience—rather than the Holy Spirit who graciously gives the experience—to sustain us. 

But I also believe that we should be willing to recognize and celebrate these astounding encounters with the Holy Spirit. Our Lord promises that those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” will be filled. He promised that he would send “another Comforter” - and indeed that it would be better for him to go away and send his Spirit. And anyone who has spent time in Hughes Auditorium over the past few days can testify that this promised Comforter is present and powerful.”[5]

I’ve read some dismissive remarks: “It’s just personal refreshment.” Oh, do you mean that the Holy Spirit – the Comforter – is comforting (as the Spirit always does?) Sometimes the Good Shepherd leads us beside still waters and restores our souls. People are experiencing God’s loving grace of in seasons of desperation. God forbid we dismiss the work of the Holy Spirit in comforting and refreshing people. 

The leadership of the college has been rejecting celebrity involvement. There are no faces you would know on the stage.[6] The student involvement is organic, and from all accounts, humble. There is no one person who is the face of this – nobody (that I have seen) has reported going there to see or hear Person X. The leaders are actively stopping people who start to “hijack the meeting.”[7] Lawon Stone, a professor at the seminary, said in an interview,

“Word comes that on Wednesday a group will be in town trying to preach and hold meetings that, to say the least, do not embody the humility, peacefulness, and focus on Jesus that has characterized recent days. The institutions have made it clear they are not welcome, but they assert their "right" to come and speak. 

 I would like to suggest we give them the Deuteronomy 13:1-4 treatment: IGNORE THEM. To a false prophet, to be ignored is almost worse than death. Don't engage them, don't be uncivil to them. Just ignore them…Let's beware of any voices that direct us to anything other than Jesus.”[8]

The leadership of the college has kept good structure so that things are done “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). They have an ABC structure to testimonies: All glory to God alone; Brief, and Current. When the chapel staff opened up the microphone for testimonies, they started vetting them first… “Saturday and Sunday, we were asked all day long, ‘Can I give a word? “Well, tell us your word first.”[9] They protected what was happening from other potential derailments as well.[10] From an article in Christianity Today about how the leadership at the college was working hard to steward this gift God had given to them:

The shofars didn’t start until Saturday. With them came the would-be prophets seeking to take center stage at the Asbury University chapel where students had been praying and praising God since Wednesday morning; the would-be leaders who wanted to claim the revival for their ministries, their agendas, and celebrity; and the would-be disrupters, coming to break up whatever was happening at the small Christian school in Kentucky with heckling, harangues, and worse…

When someone started blowing on a shofar…the chapel staff didn’t have a protocol for that exact situation, but they knew what to do. They asked the person to recognize the way God had showed up in the chapel and be faithful to the sweet, humble, peaceful spirit of the outpouring.

They did the same thing…when someone started praying loudly and aggressively. And again when someone started attempting an exorcism—not arguing about demonology or citing university rules, but invoking the authority of the outpouring itself.

“We want to be true to how the Holy Spirit showed up with our students,” said Baldwin, the vice president of student life. “We experienced joy. We experienced love. We experienced peace. There was lots of singing and testimonies. Those became our signposts. This is how, in front of our eyes, we are seeing the Holy Spirit come upon our students, and we want to honor that.”

 They have also worked to turn internal renewal into action: if God does a work in you, it’s going to translate into how you live. This is important (and I will come back to this). Lawson Stone, a professor Old Testament at the seminary, said that they are shifting from a “come” mode to a “sending” mode.

“It's winding down the public services on the campuses…but… the focus needs to shift to resuming lives of fruitful service and…heading out across the country with the gospel. We can't stay on the mountain indefinitely. Some will try to put up tents for Moses and Elijah, but the leadership in town has felt strongly that the time has come to get to work, get back to work, albeit on a new level.”[11]

When the main campus got full, the college leadership restricted access to primarily their own students, and then those under 25. Meanwhile, other churches in the area opened up their auditoriums, which I like. Now the broader church community is involved. This is good, as people need to be connected with local church communities. If this results in Wilmore, Kentucky suddenly being full of people inspired by the love of Jesus, all of those churches will be needed to accommodate attendees. 

Asbury is seeking to return to a normal college routine in terms of classes, etc. though there are still venues in the college and the town that are open for people to use. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that students weren’t bailing on classes. Professors report they were responsible in the midst of all of this. The student paper is already writing articles about “When The Dust Settles.”[12] They recognize they’ve been given a gift to steward, and they want to do it well as they move forward.

* * * * *

So far, this all seems good to me in the Big Picture.[13] If you shine a spotlight on some moments or some individuals, you can certainly find things that will make you uncomfortable at best or upsetting at worst. That’s inevitable, but – to go back to my puzzle analogy from a couple weeks ago - I don’t want to form an opinion of the Big Picture because a couple pieces of the puzzle are troubling. If those pieces begin to characterize what’s happening, that’s different. As far as I can tell, that’s not happening.[14]

If I have concerns, they have nothing to do with the impact this is having on those who are there or the manner in which it has unfolded. It has more to do with how good things can go wrong. I offer the following as a protection - guiderails, if you will, to put up so that which began well can continue well.

LET’S USE LABELS CAUTIOUSLY (What is actually happening?)

Asbury’s website is comfortable with people calling it what they want, such as “revival, renewal, awakening, outpouring.”[15] Maybe this is semantics, but I’m not sure I would use the word “revival” just yet. Right now, it seems more like a refreshing or renewal - which is still a really good thing J

The reason I make this distinction is this: when we see what we usually call revival in the Bible, it involves more than saying words of repentance - which has been happening, and is a good start, to be sure! But biblical repentance always results in a radically changed lifestyle. The biblical image is that of someone going in one direction, then turning and going in another direction. The reality of repentance is confirmed by ‘fruit,’ and that takes some time to see. The President of Asbury has noted this as well.

The desire is to “mainstream” renewal into the very fabric of our lives so that we are transformed right where we live, and work and study. We all love mountaintop experiences, but we also know that it must be lived out in all the normal rhythms of life…We have to live into this desperation for God to do what we cannot do. We have to live into transformed relationships. We have to live into new patterns of life and worship.  

We will know that revival has truly come to us when we are truly changed to live more like him at work, at study, at worship, and at witness…we should let God move us to a permanent place of transformation before God and the eyes of the watching world. In that sense, we are seeking to take what is clearly an abnormal move of God and ask how this can become normalized in a deep way. 

Someday, we will look back on these days and thank God that he visited us in ways we will talk about for years to come. But, what we are doggedly seeking is not lasting memories, but transformed lives long after the lights go out in Hughes auditorium… 

In short, it is not about “this place” or “that place” whether Wilmore or any other city. It is about Christ himself. None of us “owns” this awakening. But all of us must own in our own lives His work and his gracious beckoning to that deeper place.”[16]

 It sure looks like this awakening is landing with potentially life-changing impact in people, but there’s a reason I use the world ‘potentially.’  What is going to change in people?

• Will they now be radically generous when they were previously stingy? Luke reports the first two outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Acts were followed by concern for the needy (2:44-45; 4:32-35).

• Will the slanderous gossip now use their words to affirm and build people instead of tear them down?

• Will the person with unhinged anger become known for gentleness?

• Will the person who despised and hated others become known for loving them, praying for their good, and treating them with dignity?

• Will the person who used other people for their pleasure now learn to honor and protect them?

• Will the liar become known for truth, the arrogant for humility, the divider for peace-making?

• Will we see an increase in the fruit that comes from the work of the Holy Spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? (Galatians 5:22-23)

 These are not changes we see in a moment; these are habits over time that establish who we are. Craig Keener wrote,

“During the First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards noted visions and “manifestations” such as falling to the ground and weeping. He also noted that, while some manifestations were human responses to the work of God’s Spirit, some were imitations or worse. The long-term fruit of the revival, he pointed out, is about how we live.”[17]

Or, as one pastor put it, “How do you tell if it is really a work of God? It’s not how high you jump, it’s how straight you walk when you land.”[18]

 I can’t tell you how many emotionally moving experiences I had in the context of church life. I look back on all of them fondly, because I loved what felt like sweet moments in the presence of Jesus. But I also have to acknowledge that they typically changed me for a week or two. I was refreshed, but I wasn’t “revivaled”. Feeling the nearness and conviction of God in a moment is very different from taking hold of the kind of radical repentance that leads to the kind of worship that goes beyond the songs I was singing.

 The preacher whose sermon sparked it all preached 6 days ago. His challenge?

“What are you going to do when this is over?This moment is not a shrine to cling to, but a catalyst into an endless pilgrimage and formation of your heart.”[19]

My hope and prayer is that this is, indeed, what we see on the other side of what is happening in Asbury. So far, there is good reason to believe we will. The reports say that both students and faculty are focused on how turn this experience into action. But…maybe let’s wait before we assume something that has yet to be seen, while praying for its fruition.

LET’S REMEMBER THAT GOD IS OMNIPRESENT

I read this in an article from someone who visited from another Christian college:

“Well everybody at [said Christian college] right now, including all the executive vice presidents, are all crying out for revival - they're having extra prayer services over there right now. They want the presence of the Lord on campus so we're just so thankful that they sent us here to get whatever we can to bring back.”

I don't see in the Bible that we are told to go somewhere and bring something back.[20]  When the Samaritan woman asked Jesus about the right place to worship, Jesus said – and I paraphrase - “It’s not about places.” God is here, now, working in deep and profound ways. In moment of outpouring like we see in Asbury, people become more aware of God’s presence, but that says something about our awareness, not God’s presence.

What are we to bring back? Is it not simply the message of the gospel? And do we not already have that? If God moves you to go somewhere to experience what’s happening, by all means go. But you don’t need to bring ‘it’ back. Just bring yourself back, renewed in holiness, righteousness, and obedience, bringing with you a deeper love for God and others, to the place where God is already present and working.

LET’S REMEMBER THAT GOD IS PERSONAL

This is not the fault of Asbury at all, but I wonder if we are going to have to fight the tendency to assume that any work of God is going to look like what is happening in Asbury. I think it could be easy to look around us and wonder, “What’s wrong with us that God isn‘t working in the same way here?”

I have been in church all my life, and I have seen and experienced different times of refreshing/awakening/revival: concerts, speakers, small groups, Bible study, sitting around a campfire. A college or church or school could replicate everything Asbury is doing outwardly and have very different outcomes because what it looks like is not a template for all of us to try to replicate. It was an unexpected (though not unanticipated) moment for that people, that place, and that time.[21]

Might others experience something similar? Absolutely. They have and they will throughout history. But we don’t have to go get what’s there and assume revival happens when that experience is replicated.

I’ve seen this danger when we talk about who’s a ‘good’ worshiper when the music is playing. Is it the person raising their hands or the person sitting quietly? The exuberant or the quiet? The loud singer or the one who doesn’t sing? God forbid we make judgments about the quality of a person’s musical worship experience or the status of their heart just because they look different than us when we are singing. One student at Asbury wrote:

“Across campus, there is already a toxic stigma of “revival shaming.” I’ve heard things such as, “How many hours have you been here? I’ve been here all day. I am sooo exhausted. I even skipped class.” What do you notice in these comments? Jesus is usually not mentioned. We must be careful with self-centered responses based on who is “showing up for Jesus” and who is not.”[22]

Now, let’s expand that. Is there a way a revival must look? Other than long-term fruit, I don’t think so. We have seen just in U.S. history how different revivals or moves of God have looked in different places and generations. Our churches and schools are not Asbury. We shouldn’t assume we are not being or have not been revived if we don’t replicate what is happening there.

God is currently present and doing powerful, life-changing work around the world and in our church. How do I know this? Because I see the fruit in your life.

When we surrender our lives to the Lordship of Christ, God ‘vives’ us through Jesus. We who were dead in our sins were brought back to life. God is constantly ‘reviving’ us, working in us through His Word, His Spirit, and His people to restore what’s broken, heal what’s wounded, and bring us back to life when we choose sin and its wages. It's not always obvious, but God is always at work making us the kind of trees that bear good fruit. As one participant at Asbury noted,

“Hughes Auditorium feels like a holy place at the moment. But in Scripture, God’s people are his temple. Whatever other places might be special to us in some respects, we are his most sacred place, and we don’t have to be near campus to welcome and honor God’s presence.”[23]

Now, if we believe that either we individually or our church corporately is badly in need of refreshing and revival, then let’s by all means pray for it. (I hope we have continually been doing that anyway!) And when we have seasons in which the power and presence of God moves us in unusually profound ways, it might look like what I or you expect – and it might not. Either will be okay if God is behind it and in the midst of it.

Suzanne Nicholson, a Professor of New Testament at Asbury University, wrote about her experience there in “When Streams Of  Living Water Become A Flood: Revival At Asbury University.”[24] After talking about her experience on campus, she offered a couple analogies for what was happening, with this being her favorite. 

My favorite image…arises from Psalm 1:3: those who delight in the law of the Lord “are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” Believers who regularly commune with the Lord through prayer, Bible study, corporate worship, receiving the Eucharist, and other means of grace are the trees planted by streams of water, receiving their nourishment. 

But occasionally we need flood waters to spur new growth—not the destructive floods that wipe away homes, but rather the essential spring flooding of the Nile that brought much-needed water and nutrients to agricultural lands in the ancient world….The Holy Spirit has graciously sent gentle flood waters to revive us, reshape us, and empower us for the work ahead…We are drinking deeply from this refreshing gift.

She closes – and I will too - with a hopeful challenge:

The challenge will occur, however, after the flood waters recede. We must not forget that we are still streams planted by living water. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, even if we experience God in different ways on different days. We cannot forsake the normal means of grace in search of floodwaters alone. 

It will be important in the days ahead for local faith communities to disciple those who have found new life as a result of this outpouring. We will need to teach Scripture in depth and provide small-group support and accountability in order to help people make sense of what they have experienced and challenge them toward deeper relationships with Jesus. 

This flood we are experiencing today is meant to revive us for a purpose— to share the joy and the love of God with those living in a dark world. As this revival has been occurring, we have simultaneously watched tens of thousands of dead being pulled from the rubble after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. We have witnessed several more mass shootings, including one on the campus of Michigan State University. 

We continue to see famine and poverty, addiction and despair, racism and sexism, abuse and ailments across the world and in our homes. We need this refreshing of the Spirit more than ever as a testimony that God has not abandoned this dark world. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). This is the hope for a world gone wrong. 

Our experience of this hope empowers us to go and preach the good news to the dying and the destitute, not only through our words, but also through our actions. God calls us to perfect love of both God and neighbor. If we keep this refreshing Spirit to ourselves, then we have missed the point. God has given us shalom—wholeness and healing and flourishing—so that we can bring the love of God to others. 

If we proclaim the love of Jesus but do not demonstrate God’s love by helping the poor and destitute, then we are nothing but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1). God forbid that we turn these songs of praise into nothing more than a noisy interruption.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “The Chapel Service that Launched the Asbury Revival 2023.” Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGvvGbgUmMU

[2] https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/february/asbury-revival-outpouring-protect-work-admin-volunteers.html

[3] https://www.foxnews.com/media/asbury-university-student-emotional-story-regaining-christian-faith-revival-god

[4] https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2023/february/line-stretches-half-a-mile-as-the-fruit-of-revival-is-on-display-at-asbury-a-very-very-healing-experience

[5]“ Asbury Professor: We’re Witnessing a ‘Surprising Work of God.’” https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/february-web-only/asbury-revival-1970-2023-methodist-christian-holy-spirit.html

[6] “There were also Christian leaders who went quietly, just to pray and participate without trying to take the stage. Kari Jobe, the contemporary Christian music singer who won a Dove Award …went to Asbury and went down to the altar. Several students prayed for her, according to Asbury staff, without appearing to know who she was. A leader of the Vineyard Church came and went without announcing anything on social media.” https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/february/asbury-revival-outpouring-protect-work-admin-volunteers.html

[7] https://billelliff.org/blogs/news/reflections-from-asbury-part-2

[8] https://wellversedworld.org/asbury-revival-2023

[9] “‘No Celebrities Except Jesus’: How Asbury Protected the Revival.” https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/february/asbury-revival-outpouring-protect-work-admin-volunteers.html

[10] https://billelliff.org/blogs/news/reflections-from-asbury-part-2

[11] https://wellversedworld.org/asbury-revival-2023

[12] When The Dust Settles.” Anna Lowe. http://www.theasburycollegian.com/2023/02/when-the-dust-settles/

[13] Check out “Ordinary and Extraordinary: A Day at the Asbury Awakening.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/asbury-awakening/

[14] I’m not sure where to note this, so I will note it here. I have read rather harsh criticism along the lines of, “No way a real revival is happening at Asbury. It’s too conservative/liberal in its theology.” Okay, you think Asbury needs revival, then. And now you don’t think it can have it because…it needs it so much? Do people have to not need revival before they get it? Sigh. Also, here is their statement of faith. https://www.asbury.edu/about/spiritual-vitality/

[15] https://www.asbury.edu/outpouring/

[16] Quoted in “The Asbury Revival Then And Now.” https://thecitizen.com/2023/02/19/the-asbury-revival-then-and-now/

[17] “What Is Revival – And Is It Happening At Asbury?” By Craig Keener.

[18] “All eyes focus on (another?) Asbury revival.” https://www.kentuckytoday.com/baptist_life/all-eyes-focus-on-another-asbury-revival/article_6994621a-a9b0-11ed-9cf7-67c841f9b6a3.html

[19] Asbury preaching Monday 2/20. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC6d-G3hQ6E&t=346s

[20] SIDE NOTE: Before technology and easy transportation, people didn’t hear within 24 hours about what God was doing somewhere else. There was no live stream or Instagram posts. People couldn’t do a day trip from 100 miles away. If they came from another country, they had to take a boat, not a plane. The local revival stayed local for a while. When revivals happened for years, others would go see what was going on, but even then the cost was high enough that it weeded out what I heard a podcast host describe as “revival tourists,” the ones taking selfies at a revival.

[21] From Madison Pierce, as student at Asbury Theological Seminary: “I find it interesting that God would mark this outpouring with: A tangible sense of peace for a generation with unprecedented anxiety. A restorative sense of belonging for a generation amidst an epidemic of loneliness. An authentic hope for a generation marked by depression. A leadership emphasizing protective humility in relationship with power for a generation deeply hurt by the abuse of religious power. A focus on participatory adoration for an age of digital distraction.  It feels as if God is personally meeting young adults in ways meaningful to them. My generation was formed differently then previous generations, and so the traits of this revival are different then revivals of old. The new outpouring is not the signs and wonders nor zealous intercession nor spontaneous tongues nor charismatic physicalities nor the visceral travail. It is marked by a tangible feeling of holistic peace, a restorative sense of belonging, a non-anxious presence through felt safety, repentance driven by experienced kindness, humble stewardship of power, and holiness through treasuring adoration.”

[22] “When The Dust Settles.” http://www.theasburycollegian.com/2023/02/when-the-dust-settles/

[23] “What Is Revival – And Is It Happening At Asbury?” By Craig Keener.

[24] https://firebrandmag.com/articles/when-streams-of-living-water-become-a-flood-revival-at-asbury-university

Harmony #26: Building On The Rock (Matthew 7:13-29; Luke 6:43-49)

“Enter through this narrow gate [doing unto others as you would have done unto you, thus fulfilling the Law and the Prophets], because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction/waste, and there are many who enter through it.[1] But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to the life[2] [of blessedness described at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount],[3] and there are few who find it.[4]

“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing[5] but inwardly are voracious wolves.[6]  You will recognize them by their fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?[7] In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 

 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. The good person out of the good treasury of his heart[8] produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit. 

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you (bear good fruit)? [9] Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?’[10]  Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you/approved of you. Go away from me, you law breakers!’ “

“Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice is  like a wise man building his house, who dug down deep, and laid the foundation on bedrock.[11] The rain fell, the winds beat against that house, a flood came and the river burst against it but could not shake it. It did not collapse because it had been founded on rock and had been well built.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand without a foundation. The rain fell, the flood came and the winds beat against that house. When the river burst against that house it collapsed immediately and was utterly destroyed!”[12]

Let’s summarize:

• There’s a particular and hard path of the blessed life described in the Beatitudes. (vv.13-14)

• If you are on that path, you will bear the good fruit of righteous obedience.[13] (vv.15-20)

• It is the fruit that comes from a lifestyle of obedience, not displays of power, that reveal who is walking this path. (vv.21-23).

• The person who “hears” and “does” is building the house of their life on a firm foundation, and will be able to stand strong amidst the storms of life. (vv.24-27)

I want to talk today about obedience. It shows up over and over in Jesus’ summary of the Sermon on the Mount that we read today.

• Enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow, hard path.

• Bear the good fruit that follows from living righteously.

• Do the will of the Father.

• Hear Jesus’ teaching and put them into practice.

 Let’s start with this observation: When we reject obedience, we will tend to avoid the one who rightly demands obedience from us. When we embrace obedience, we can relax in and even embrace their presence.

• As children, we eat the stolen candy in our room and hide the wrappers – or so I’ve heard.

• If I were to ever drive over the speed limit, I would want a back road so I can avoid being seen.

• If we cut corners at work, it’s not in front of our employer.

• If we don’t have a license, we are probably not going to hunt close to the DNR.

 All of these have to do with avoiding someone because there were rules or laws we broke. There were agreed upon expectations that we each knew about, and we failed to live in a way that honored them, and we knew it. The easiest thing to do was hide.

On the other hand, if we are good in those situations, no problem. We have nothing to hide, so we don’t. We are at peace in the presence of the one who has authority in our lives.

When Sheila and I got married, we entered a covenant in which we pledged our lives to each other. We now owe each other an allegiance we did not have before. There are now ‘rules of engagement.’ So, what are the “rules” of godly covenant? 

• Self-sacrificial love

• Mutual respect

• Shared responsibilities

• Repentance and forgiveness

• Purity and faithfulness

When we ‘break the rules,’ it will effect our communion with each other. We will hide or avoid in a variety of ways.

• We could be physically or emotionally distant (If I’m not there, or if I stay busy, I can avoid talking face-to-face about my lack of respect or responsibility.)

• We could lie (“I was just, uh, playing games on my computer!”)

• We could shift the blame. (“If you weren’t so….”)

• We could lash out and hide behind resentment and anger.

When we break the rules, we will tend to avoid or hide from the one to whom we owe it. When we embrace the rules, we can relax in and even embrace their presence.

Second observation: when we devalue what we rightly owe others, we will devalue them as well. But when we value what we owe others, we offer value to them as well. 

All was well with Adam and Eve and God  - they communed; they walked and talked. They were in what the Bible calls shalom: peace between God and themselves. That peace was transparent, honest, and free – what the Bible describes as “naked and unashamed,” a term that covers their physical reality as well as the relational dynamic. Then, when their obedience crumbled, their community crumbled between God and themselves.[14] They hid from God; they covered themselves up so they could hide more of themselves from God. When God asked, “Where are you?” it was another way of asking, “Do you know what have you done?”

As already noted, when we choose disobedience, we usually choose a longing for distance as well, because we hate accountability, repentance and humility. Our natural tendency will be to demonstrate why the story of Adam and Eve is the story of us all: we will cover up, we will hide, we will put up barriers between ourselves and God as well as others. But there’s more.

• If we resent what God rightly demands from us as covenantal partners, we will resent God.

• If we resent His path, we will resent the One who made the path.

• When we devalue what we rightly owe God, we will devalue God as well.

If we demand freedom from our covenant with God and the expectations on our life that accompany it, we must know what the relational fallout will be. God is faithful when we are faithless (2 Timothy 2:13), but we will respond a certain way toward God if we are living in disobedience we have chosen.

We will try to hide; we will pull away; we will not want to be too much in His presence lest the light of His holiness reveal those secret, sinful places we are keeping to ourselves (Luke 8:17). We will not go to God ‘naked and unashamed’ emotionally and spiritually when we know we are in an active state of rebellion. As time  goes on, we will increasingly resent the one from whom we are hiding.

Many of us go through times of life where we think, “I just don’t feel near to God. I don’t sense His presence.” There can be many reasons for this, and I can’t go into all of them this morning. But since our focus this morning is obedience, it’s worth noting that at times the solution is to identify where we have strayed (or sprinted) off the path, and begin with repentance.

You may have heard the verse, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. “ (James 4:8)  Here’s the context in James 4: 1– 8. James says: 

• you crave what you do not have, so you murder, sue and fight…

• you continually focus on self-indulgence…

• you align with the world system and declare war against God.  

 His conclusion:

Submit yourselves to the one true God and fight against the devil and his schemes... Draw near God, and He will draw near to you. Wash your hands; you have dirtied them in sin. Cleanse your heart, because your mind is split down the middle, your love for God on one side and selfish pursuits on the other.

 God doesn’t move. “God will come close to you” isn’t meant to be read as a literal description of God’s location. It has to do with communing (to go back to Adam and Eve). When God says, “Where are you?” and we answer, “Right here,” we will realize how close he was all along.

We restore broken communion with God through repentance; we enter into and build communion through obedience, which is the highest form of worship.

“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.”  - A.W. Tozer 

“A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.” Charles Grandison Finney

“If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship.”  - Richard Foster 

“Worship has been misunderstood as something that arises from a feeling which ‘comes upon you,’ but it is vital that we understand that it is rooted in a conscious act of the will, to serve and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Graham Kendrick

 Over and over, the Bible stresses that God is pleased with our obedience as an ultimate display of worship and love.

• John 15:14  “You are my friends – if you do what I command you.”

• Luke 11:28   “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

• Romans 12:1  “I plead with you to give your bodies… as a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Kay Arthur puts it bluntly:  

“If you do not plan to live the Christian life totally committed to knowing your God and to walking in obedience to Him, then don't begin, for this is what Christianity is all about. It is a change of citizenship, a change of governments, a change of allegiance. If you have no intention of letting Christ rule your life, then forget Christianity; it is not for you.”

Love and obedience are inseperable. If we love Jesus, we will want to obey Him, because following the path of life increasingly forms us into His image.[15] When we obey God, we show our love to Him, demonstrating how serious we are about wanting to be like Him.[16]

“When obedience to God contradicts what I believe will bring me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love him.” Elisabeth Elliot

We must obey God – we must walk the narrow path - if we want to deeply worship and genuinely display our love for God. That in itself is sufficient reason to do it. But God has designed obedience with a natural benefit: it will open up a path to communing with God in a way that nothing else does.

Isaiah 48:17–19   “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.” 

James 1:22–25   “But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says….But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”

 I think the blessing to which James refers is Isaiah’s peace and righteousness, which is peace with God though the death of Jesus, and the goodness of living in this “right standing” with God. Then, no more hiding. No more avoiding the One who has laid claim to our lives.

So, when we commit to obedience, we will commune openly and freely with the one to whom we have given it.  But there’s more. When we commit to obedience, it will point us toward the goodness of the one to whom we are obedient. Following a coach’s instruction reveals a coach’s good plan. ‘Buying in’ to the coach’s system is often the same as ‘buying in’ to the coach. Following the directions and creating a tasty dish – especially when I am skeptical about the combination of ingredients - points me toward the creative wonder of a good chef.

There is something about the process of obedience that points us to the one who gave the commands. Walking in the path of Jesus helps us to appreciate the person of Jesus. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8). I want to finish with what I read when we participated in Communion this morning. [17]

The bread is intended for us to live on; that is the symbolism. Thus when we gather and take the bread of the Lord's Table, break it and pass it among ourselves, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus is our life: He is the One by whom we live. As Paul says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live… I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). 

This is what the bread symbolizes — that he is to be our power by which we obey the demands of God, the Word of God, to love one another, to forgive one another, to be tender and merciful, kind and courteous to one another, to not return evil for evil but to pray for those who persecute us and mistrust us and misuse us. His life in us enables us to be what God asks us to be. We live by means of Christ. 

The cup symbolizes his blood which he said is the blood of the New Covenant, the new arrangement for living that God has made, by which the old life is ended. This is then end of the old life in which we were dependent upon ourselves, and lived for ourselves, and wanted only to be the center of attention is over.  

The cup means we are no longer to live for ourselves. We do not have final rights to our life, and the price is the blood of Jesus. Therefore, when we take that cup and drink it, we are publicly proclaiming that we agree with that sentence of death upon our old life, and believe that the Christian life is a continual experience of life coming out of death.

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[1] The words in the original are very emphatic: Enter in (to the kingdom of heaven) through THIS strait gate, i.e. of doing to every one as you would he should do unto you; for this alone seems to be the strait gate which our Lord alludes to.” (Adam Clarke)

[2] “If we choose forgiveness, we will avoid the destruction bitterness brings. If we exercise…mercy, we avoid the destruction that being judgmental brings... If we exercise the Golden Rule, we bring life  to all those we touch.”(Matthew 7:13-14 Meaning.”) https://thebiblesays.com/commentary/matt/matt-7/matthew-713-14/

[3] “A remarkable parallel to this passage occurs in the Tablet of Cebes, a contemporary with Socrates. "Seest thou not, then, a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much crowded, but very few travel it? This is the way which leadeth into true culture." (Vincent’s Word Studies)

[4] “The Jews talk of the gate of repentance, the gate of prayers, and the gate of tears.” (Adam Clarke)

[5] “A garment which reached to the feet, and was made of the wool of sheep. The garment Achan saw and stole, Rab says, was , a garment called "melotes": which is the Greek word the author of Hebrews uses for sheep skins, persecuted saints wandered about in (Hebrews 11:37)… the Talmud referred to… "a talith", or "garment of pure wool"; and Jarchi (s) says, that "it was the way of deceivers, and profane men, to cover themselves, "with their talith", or long garment, "as if they were righteous men", that persons might receive their lies.'' (Gill’s Exposition)

[6] Warnings against false prophets are necessarily based on the conviction that not all prophets are true, that truth can be violated, and that the Gospel's enemies usually conceal their hostility and try to pass themselves off as fellow believers… the flow of the Sermon on the Mount as well as its OT background suggest that they do not acknowledge or teach the narrow way to life subject to persecution (vv.13-14; cf. Jer 8:11; Eze 13). (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[7] From a distance the little black berries on the buckthorn could be mistaken for grapes, and the flowers on certain thistles might deceive one into thinking figs were growing.

[8] “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Remember that from earlier in the same Sermon on the Mount?

[9] “Jesus subordinates the gifts of the Spirit to the fruit of the Spirit (compare 1 Cor 13) and submission to Jesus' lordship (1 Cor 12:1-3). Jesus' words about fruit thus refer to repentant works (Mt 7:21; 3:8, 10).” (IVP New Testament Commentary)

[10] This is not the fruit of righteousness. Lifestyle is.

[11] “The sand ringing the seashore on the Sea of Galilee was hard on the surface during the hot summer months. But a wise builder would dig down sometimes ten feet below the surface sand to the bedrock below, and there establish the foundation for his house. When the winter rains came, overflowing the banks of the Jordan River flowing into the sea, houses built on bedrock would be able to withstand the floods. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament)

[12] Elisha, the son of Abuja, said, "The man who studies much in the law, and maintains good works, is like to a man who built a house, laying stones at the foundation, and building brick upon them; and, though many waters come against it, they cannot move it from its place. But the man who studies much in the law, and does not maintain good words, is like to a man who, in building his house, put brick at the foundation, and laid stones upon them, so that even gentle waters shall overthrow that house."  (quoted by Adam Clarke)

[13] “The one who does the will of my Father…”

[14] “If you do not obey him, you will not know him… let me die insisting upon it, for my Lord insists upon it.”  - George McDonald

[15] Romans 8:29-30; 2 Corinthians 3:13-18

[16] “Without the gospel, we may obey the law, but we will learn to hate it. We will use it, but we will not truly love it. Only if we obey the law because we are saved, rather than to be saved, will we do so ‘for God’ (Galatians 2:19). Once we understand salvation-by-promise, we do not obey God any longer for our sake, by using the law-salvation-system to get things from God. Rather, we now obey God for His sake, using the law’s content to please and delight our Father.”  - Tim Keller

[17] Ray Stedman, https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/1-corinthians/the-lords-supper

Harmony #25: Righteous and Unrighteous Judgment (Matthew 7:1-6; Luke 6:37-42)

“Do not judge [as if you knew who is wheat and who is chaff] and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. For by the standard you judge you will be judged. Give [forgiveness and hospitality from your heart], and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap.

What happens if a blind man leads a blind man? Won’t both of them fall into a pit? [You know the saying]: you can’t turn out better than your teacher; when you’re fully taught, you will resemble your teacher.[1] [Don’t be a blind teacher.]Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself don’t see the beam in your own?

You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” [2] [But…not everybody is ready for that kind of corrective teaching.] Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample [your attempts to help] under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Jesus clearly said in this passage (and others), "Do not judge." But He also said, "Stop judging by appearance, but instead judge correctly." (John 7:24)  In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul tells the believers in Corinth that it’s actually their job to judge other believers (as opposed to judging those outside the church). In the section we just read, right after Jesus tells us not to judge, we are told to discern who those are who are might tear and trample us.

So there must be two kinds of judging: one that is wrong to do, and one that is right. I think the difference is this (these are my definitions; I’m sure there’s room for improvement):

·      Unrighteous Judgment: Arrogant and hypocritical attack that functions as an authoritative judgment on one’s identity, character and potential, done for the purpose of condemnation rather than restoration.

·      Righteous judgment (discernment): Humble intervention motivated by a loving desire to see the other person stop sinful and destructive behavior, grow in maturity and holiness, and be restored in reputation and community fellowship.

UNRIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT

Is self-prejudiced.  Note the advice in Romans 14:1-5:

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.  The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”

We must not judge people’s progress. We cannot read the heart; we cannot truly know why people act as they do.  We also shouldn’t compare them to ourselves. We can easily be inclined to think, “I’ve got this figured out. If they could just be like me. Wait – in fact, they should be like me if they want to be truly spiritual!”

Is unmerciful. 

"God has told you what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

"Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you"(Ephesians 4:32).

Unrighteous judgment is not exercised for the good of the other. It’s done for condemnation rather than restoration. Having someone walk away humiliated, ashamed and broken is a feature, not a bug. This kind of judgment finds satisfaction in making sure someone knows their place, which is going to be lower than you.

Is Uninformed. Sometimes a situation is too confusing to make a sound judgment without a lot of work. The writer of Proverbs gives us good advice:

“The person who tells one side of a story seems right, until someone else comes and asks questions.” (Proverbs 18:17)

For the past two summers, I have done teaching for an organization downstate that works with high school and college-age students. Two years ago they asked me to talk about COVID. Oh, boy. In one of my sessions, I offered this for discussion:

Person A has worn a mask all the time, social distanced, and sanitized because they did not want to get the coronavirus or spread it to others. Person B has been taking Vitamin D, some herbs, and essential oils, and they have been working on building their immune system naturally because they do not want to get the coronavirus or spread it to others. Do you think that:

1. A is living in fear.

2. B is living in fear.

3. A and B are both living in fear.

4. Neither A nor B are living in fear.

5. Maybe I shouldn’t rush to judgment.

Person A gets the vaccine because they do not want to get the coronavirus. They think that possible side effects from COVID-19 are worse than potential side effects from the vaccine, and they will take their chances. Person B does not get the vaccine because they think it will make them sick, create long term side-effects, or even kill them.

1. A is living in fear.

2. B is living in fear.

3. A and B are both living in fear.

4. Neither A nor B are living in fear.

5. Maybe I shouldn’t rush to judgment.

The answer is, of course #5. There could be lots of reasons people make decisions, and jumping to conclusions about what does or even should motivate people never ends well.

Lacks humility. Unrighteous judgment has a sort of, "This is the final answer" feeling. There is no room for, “I could be wrong, and I might need to reevaluate my perspective or opinion.”[3]When you lack humility concerning your perspective, that usually means a narrative has been created about what has happened and what the people involved were not only doing, but thinking and feeling. And when there is no humility, nothing will change the story you have in your head, fair or unfair.[4]

Judges the heart/motivations

In 2021 what’s being called ‘The Great Sort’ began.[5] When I do a puzzle, I sort through the pieces first and separate them by sameness. It was like that but with people and churches. What was once a local church box of followers of Jesus began to separate into piles. Those who study this movement usually cite three key reasons: COVID responses, the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter organization and movement, and the election of 2020. Here’s where we talk about judging the heart/motivations.

• During COVID, it was so easy for those who felt it was responsible and loving to follow the guidelines and recommendations to see those who didn’t as unloving, proud or rebellious. And how can you be in fellowship with them? For those who viewed the guidelines or restrictions as unnecessary, unhealthy or oppressive, it was so easy to see the others as fearful sheeple. And how can you be in fellowship with them?

• In response to the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was so easy for those joining their voices to support those causes to see those who didn’t do the same as harboring at least some degree of racism. And how can you be in fellowship with them? For those whose had concerns about the official BLM organization or felt like political correctness was distorting the issue, it was so easy to see the others as woke Marxist stooges. And how can you be in fellowship with them?

• And then there was an election. And how can you be in fellowship with them, when they voted the way they did? Their hearts must be hard if not wicked; they clearly have lost all common sense. There can be no plausible reason short of them being moral idiots. And how can I be in fellowship with moral idiots?

Judging hearts and motivations of those within the church kills the unity and the witness of the church. When I do puzzles, all those pieces come back together to create the picture the puzzle maker intended. It turns out all that diversity in the same box was not only a good thing, but a necessary thing. May God do the same in His church.

Is hypocritical. Jesus noted this in the Sermon on the Mount, but here’s Paul in Romans 2:1-3:

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?”

The point is not that Christians should never identify sin or call out injustice until they are perfect. The point is that massive self-analysis needs to be part of the process, particularly in the area one wants to address in someone else.

It’s like riding in a car with someone who bolsters your prayer life when they are driving, only to have them criticize a small mistake in your driving and give you advice on how to better help people feel safe. It’s so absurd. It’s like me challenging someone’s fashion choices or hairstyle. “I’m not sure that’s the right outfit for you.” Really?

But when the stakes get higher, it’s not as amusing. Jesus’ main point here has to do with hypocrisy in believers.

Something I am currently grieving is how the broader American church is perceived to be ignoring the beams in our eyes while calling out the specks in the eyes of the world. Poll after poll and conversation after conversation reveal variations on the same theme: Christians in the United States are viewed as hypocritical judges.

• They hear the church call out the culture for not loving well (which is a fair assessment of the culture), and then see Christians adapt an “us vs. them” mentality and treat “them” with contempt and fear, creating demonic monsters where they should be seeing broken image bearers of God who need God’s people to represent the hope and redemption of Christ.

• They hear us judge the culture for forsaking truth (and rightly so – it has), then see us spread ridiculously false and at times slanderous rumors when they paint a picture of a person, organization or party that we don’t like.

• They see us judge the culture for coarseness, incivility and dishonesty (which is a well-deserved critique) while we follow and applaud people who are coarse, uncivil, and dishonest.

Notice in every example I gave, it wasn’t the claims that were the problem. They all offered something valid. It was the judgments and the hypocrisy that accompanied them.

RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT[6]

"Reproves, rebukes, and exhorts..." (2 Timothy 4:1-2). This is done to "turn a sinner from the error of his ways"(James 5:19-20). Galatians 6:1 notes: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.” In order to recognize that someone is caught in sin, we are exercising discernment based on the standard for righteous actions as outline in the Bible. To go back to my definition, this is when we use humble intervention motivated by a loving desire to see the other person stop sinful and destructive behavior, grow in maturity and holiness, and be restored in reputation and community.

Practices humility. Speaking of humble interventions, righteous judgment requires us to be aware that that our perspective may not be as closely aligned with reality as we think it is. And while this is subtle (and challenging to our ego), it is very important as it might change how we relate to a situation. Have you ever gone into a situation with a head of steam only to realize you entirely misunderstood? Yeah….

We don’t know everything. When it’s not a glaringly clear situation, we must consider that there are circumstances and context that to which we are not privy, and we might be about to render a thundering righteous judgment that’s going to leave us really embarrassed when all the details come out.[7] It’s a long and painful fall off that high horse we so excitedly saddled.

Protects victims. We are to "mark those who cause dissensions and stumbling" (Romans 16:17-18). I suspect the primary reason is to protect those impacted by sin. Note that it is a judgment of visible actions, of fruit we can see, by which the Bible says people will be known.[8] There are times when we must intercede for victims. The Bible is full of this admonition.

“Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 82:4)

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” (Isaiah 1:17)

That doesn’t require us to weigh in on the motivations or the hearts of the people who do the things from which people need deliverance. It’s looking at how someone’s actions are landing in the world, then looking through the lenses of scripture to discern if it’s good or bad. The prophet Micah told God’s people that one thing God required of them was to do justice. This requires identifying what is just and what is not, and responding appropriately.

We do this with our children all the time: “Stop taking your brother’s snacks. Stop hitting him. Stop everything you are doing right now.” We can judge the action and do justice without judging the entirety of the child.  That principle does not go away just because people get older.

Settles arguments. Paul said a mediator should be appointed to "decide between his brethren" and settle a dispute (1Corinthians 6:1-5). Someone’s going to have a make a call. Sometimes, two parties can’t both be right. This is, once again, not a judgment on thoughts and intents of the heart, which only God knows fully and what His Word does in us.[9] This is about observable situations where God has given his image bearers the ability to discern truth from a lie.

Strengthens community. What I remember from the moments when friends exercised righteous judgment in my life is that I KNEW THEY LOVED ME. I knew they were for me. They wanted Anthony (and the people around him) to flourish. I knew they were not my enemy (and sometimes they used those exact words). I knew they came from a place of humility and love. It helped me mature, and it surely blessed those around me who have to put up with me.

WASTED RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT: Protecting Holy Things From Desecration

As odd as it sounds, Jesus’ comment about swine and dogs provides a caution: it’s not always wise to help others remove the speck from their eye. It’s a caution found elsewhere in Scripture.

“Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” (Proverbs 9:8)

“Don’t answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” (Proverbs 26:4-5)

Paul once said to an audience, "Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18:1-6)

When we put the beam/speck imagery together with the pearls/swine imagery, we see Jesus’ teaching in its entirety more clearly:

• Giving humble, gentle correction (righteous judgment) to someone in the church is like giving a valuable gift.

• First, check yourself to see what you need to deal with in order to approach them with integrity.

• Second, discern if someone will embrace what you offer or trample it, tearing you up in the process.

• If the former, offer it. If the latter, don’t. [10]

There are times when we don’t waste something of great value upon someone who is not willing to recognize that value. Sometimes, the wisest thing we can do is let a fool flounder in their foolishness until, like the Prodigal Son, they come to their senses.[11]

I imagine the disciples feeling overwhelmed at this point. “Okay, so, don’t judge unrighteously, but do judge righteously, but then not every time, and honestly I don’t think I'll ever not be hypocritical or a little prejudice, and I have no idea who the swine are.”

But Jesus isn’t done. The righteousness, sincerity, humility, and love to which the Sermon on the Mount calls us is beyond our abilities, but remember: when God calls us, he equips us. Jesus assures his followers that he provides the means for making the impossible possible.[12]

 “Ask [for the character to do this] and it will be given to you; seek [wisdom and discernment] and you will find; knock [at the Father’s house] and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

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[1] The parable speaks of being blind to one’s own faults while judging others (compare Rom. 2:19–21).(Believer’s Bible Commentary)

[2] Romans 2:19-21  “If you stand convinced that you are chosen to be a guide to the blind, a light to those who live in darkness,  a teacher of foolish wanderers and children, and have in the law what is essentially the form of knowledge and truth— then tell me, why don’t you practice what you preach? If you are going to sermonize against stealing, then stop stealing.”

[3] Great point from Amber Campion. http://www.ambercampion.com/blogpost/judging-vs-discerning

[4] Why might we fall into the trap of unrighteous judgment? I found a list somewhere and I can’t remember where. So, just know this is not original with me.

§  Low self-esteem | If you are terrible, I feel better about myself.

§  Deflection | Your sin is “worse” than mine. Whew.

§  Peer pressure | My tribe judges like this, so to fit in….

§  Bitterness | I got called out on this issue, so you are going down too!

§  Pride| As I see it from my pedestal…

[5] https://outreachmagazine.com/features/leadership/68856-3-trends-shaping-the-post-pandemic-church.html

[6] I got the basis for this list from Ron Graham at simplybible.com. I have modified it for my purposes.

[7] Another great point from Amber Campion.  http://www.ambercampion.com/blogpost/judging-vs-discerning.

[8] See Matthew 7:15-20 as an example of how this works.

[9] Hebrews 4:12

[10] I built on the insights found in “Matthew 7:6 Meaning.” This is not the only place that talks about it, of course, but it’s a good, clear explanation. https://thebiblesays.com/commentary/matt/matt-7/matthew-76/

[11] Luke 15:17

[12] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

Harmony #24: Choosing A Master (Matthew 6:19–34; Luke 12:22-34)

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body.[1] If your eyes are healthy (generous? sincere?), your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy (stingy?), your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness![2] 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.[3]

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the nations run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Luke 12:32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 

34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness[4], and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Heads up: I want to unsettle us this morning like Jesus unsettled his original audience. What he is offering here is an extended look at the connection between money, worry, and trust. Let me explain some of the imagery first, then we are going to try to let the weight and importance of what he said get into our souls.

THE EYE IMAGERY

The Jewish community used “good eye” to describe people who were morally sound, and often associated it with generosity:

'He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor' (Proverbs 22:9).

Sirach, a Jewish book of ethical teachings written about 200 years before Jesus was born, declares: 

Evil is the man with a grudging eye; he averts his face and disregards people. A greedy man's eye is not satisfied with a portion, and mean injustice withers the soul. A stingy man's eye begrudges bread, and it is lacking at his table.  (Sir 14:8–10)

The book of Tobit (which is included in the Catholic and Orthodox Bible), written a little before Sirach, notes this:

Give alms from your possessions to all who live uprightly, and do not let your eye begrudge the gift when you make it.. If you have many possessions, make your gift from them in proportion; if few, do not be afraid to give according to the little you have. So you will be laying up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity. For charity delivers from death and keeps you from entering the darkness; and for all who practice it charity is an excellent offering in the presence of the Most High. (Tobit 4:7–11)

Jesus is using imagery his audience understood. If the eye is healthy, it shows that someone is sincere, generous and helpful. When the eye turns bad, the person is stingy and envious, even to the point of wishing that the wealth of others be destroyed.[5]

After that image, Jesus describes those two contrasting kinds of people as serving two masters. In the final paragraph we read, note that all the sources of worry could be solved financially (food, water, clothes).

All this leads me to believe our Sermon on the Mount portion today is specifically about trusting God over our money and with our money. Though the application can be expanded, I want to keep our focus narrow this morning on how wealth competes with Jesus for our loyalty and trust.

Jesus is putting it on the line.. Either money will matter the most and you will let it order your life, or God will matter the most and you will let God order your life. You will live for one or the other. You will fix your eye on one or the other. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. This isn’t the only time Jesus made this connection.

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”  

20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.” 21 And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. 

23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed[6] at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:17-25)

The issue is not that the man has money. Plenty of other people with whom Jesus interacted had money, and he didn’t call them on it. He’s calling out something in the ruler that was deeply attached to his money.

·      Was he wealthy because he wasn’t generous?

·      Did he find his security in his money?

·      Was it a point of pride?

·      Was he building trust in himself rather than in God?

The text doesn’t say. We just know that he was seriously committed to following God, but he had a huge blind spot that was keeping him from following God like he thought he was. Lest we think he was an outlier, the disciples immediate response is telling:

And they were exceedingly astonished (“dumbfounded to the point of emotionally ‘shutting down’), saying among themselves, "Then who is able to be saved?" (Mark 10:26)

It hit a nerve. Prosperity was often linked to God’s blessing in the Jewish community; now Jesus is warning that, if you aren’t careful,  prosperity might be the very thing that hinders you from fully following God. Jesus told a parable that riffs on a similar theme.

“Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 

19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21)

Jesus is not forbidding successful farming. He is calling out the pride that comes with arrogant self-reliance and the lack of generosity in the farmer’s heart. And as he points out in the end, what does it matter if you gain the world and lose your soul? [7]

Here’s where I note that Jesus never said that wealth itself is inherently evil, or that financial planning reveals a lack of trust. Money, wealth, and possessions have purposes in Scripture. The Bible: 

·      requires people to provide for relatives if they are capable (1Timothy 5:8)

·      commends work and provision for the future (Proverbs 6:6-8),

·      encourages us to enjoy the good things that God has given us (1 Timothy 4:3-4; 6:17)[8]

·      cautions not to hoard riches in the last days (James 5:2-3), which suggests it is a good thing to have accumulated resources to share.

·      Commands generosity to those who are in need, and that generosity comes from resources.[9]

Wealth is a tremendous gift if used properly, and a terrible master if not. Paul combines the upside and downside of wealth in his letter to Timothy:

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17–19)

You know I like Adam Clarke’s commentary. Here’s an example of why that is so:

“A heart designed for God and eternity is terribly degraded by being fixed on those things which are subject to corruption. "But may we not lay up treasure innocently?" Yes. First, if you can do it without setting your heart on it, which is almost impossible; second, if there be neither widows nor orphans, destitute nor distressed persons in the place where you live. 

"But there is a portion which belongs to my children; shall I distribute that among the poor?" If it belongs to your children, it is not yours, and therefore you have no right to dispose of it.  

"But I have a certain sum in stock, shall I take that and divide it among the poor?" By no means; for, by doing so, you would put it out of your power to do good after the present division: keep your principal, and devote, if you possibly can spare it, the product to the poor; and thus you shall have the continual ability to do good. In the mean time take care not to shut up your bowels of compassion against a brother in distress; if you do, the love of God cannot dwell in you.” (Adam Clarke)

I suspect God’s work of freeing us from the tyranny of the love of money – and freeing us from all the worries associated with it - is deeply intertwined with practicing generosity.  I want to bring this together by looking at what Paul wrote the church in Corinth about generosity.

2 Corinthians 8:1-9

 “Now, my brothers, we must tell you about the grace that God had given to the Macedonian churches. Somehow, in most difficult circumstances, their joy and the fact of being down to their last penny themselves produced a magnificent concern for other people. I can guarantee that they were willing to give to the limit of their means, yes and beyond their means, without the slightest urging from me or anyone else…     

 Now this had made us ask Titus… to complete his task by arranging for you too to share in this grace of generosity. Already you excel in every good quality—you have faith, you can express that faith in words; you have knowledge, enthusiasm and your love for us. Could you not add this grace to your virtues?  

     I don’t want you to read this as an order. It is only my suggestion, prompted by what I have seen in others of eagerness to help, and here is a way to prove the reality of your love. Do you remember the generous grace of Jesus Christ, the Lord of us all? He was rich beyond our telling, yet he generously became poor for your sakes so that his poverty might make you rich." (2 Corinthians 8:1-9)

The Corinthian church had going for it: faith, knowledge, diligent obedience, and agape love. Awesome! But there is a virtue missing from this list: generosity.  A couple things stand out in this portion of Paul’s letter.

The Macedonians gave as much as they were able  - and beyond.

The Macedonians could have said, "Don't talk to us about the problems in Jerusalem. We’ve got our own problems." Paul says that their lack of resources became a motivation for giving. They determined what they could comfortably contribute - and then went beyond this figure.  Basil (329-379), bishop of Caesarea, preached a blunt sermon on Jesus’s parable of the Rich Fool. In it he said,

“The bread that you hold back belongs to the hungry. The coat that you guard in a chest belongs to the naked. The shoes that you have left wasting away belong to the shoeless. The silver that you have buried in the ground belongs to the needy. In these and other ways you have wronged all those you were able to provide for.”[10]

1500 years later, Charles Spurgeon (1800s) received an invitation to preach at his rural church as a fundraiser to pay off some church debt. The man who contacted him told Spurgeon that he could use one of the man’s three homes (he had one in the country, the town, and by the sea). Spurgeon wrote back, "Sell one of the places and pay the debt yourself."

When we realize that others are in need, and we have the resources to alleviate that need, the Bible states that we should generously and joyfully do so. It is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives.

Of course, it will cost something. David wrote in Psalms, “I will not give God sacrifices that cost me nothing.” The story is told of a man who was giving money for a good cause, and he said to a friend, “I think I can give $100 and not feel it.”  His friend said, “Why not give $200 and feel it?”

It’s a daunting challenge, but one that God uses for our good.

2. They gave entirely on their own, by a free choice.

They were not pressured into giving. Paul did not use guilt to motivate them.  It was gratitude in response to the grace of God. The actual amount is not mentioned. That’s because it wasn’t about the amount; it was about the heart. They didn’t even wait until they had a lot to give God; they gave from what they had. God is good with that approach.

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”  (Mark 12:41-44) 

God cares about motives more than amount. God does not want you to be generous out of fear or because you are concerned about what people will think. You can’t buy favor with God, and you shouldn’t try to buy favor with others. These Macedonians gave because their hearts were moved by the generous grace of God through Jesus, and wanted to pass it on in a practical way.

Did you know that Paul never commands Christians to tithe? It is not a New Testament teaching. The tithe functioned much like a tax on the Jewish people (as much as 20% tithe some years, and perhaps higher). There is no tax on the New Testament.

This does not mean our money is ours. The opposite is true. God is no longer laying claim to 10%; He is laying claim to all of it. We are stewards of what we have, not owners. 10% is too simple. It allows us to pay our tax to God and then do whatever we want with the rest. When we do that, we miss the point.

The question is no longer, “How much do I get to keep after I give God his tax?”  The question is, “How much am I able to give back into the service of the Kingdom of God?”

10% let’s us off the hook. There is no need to analyze the thoughts and intents of our heart, to see if money is an idol, to be honest about if we are greedy or if we have placed our trust in material things rather than God.

10% lets us avoid how we think about money in our souls.  Jesus constantly moved The Law inside. It’s not just, “Do you kill people or cheat on your spouse?”  It’s, “What do you desire in your heart? What do you want to have happen? What are you really thinking?” We are to give generously and voluntarily as we understand and are moved by the grace and generosity of God.

Here’s my challenge this week: re-examine your relationship with money in light of God’s Word. Examine your heart. This isn’t about whether you are rich or poor; it’s not about amounts; it’s not about how you are doing compared to your neighbor.

It’s about whether our money is a tool we use for God’s purposes or a master that controls us. It’s about checking where our trust, our hope, our assurance is grounded.

Then, consider what God’s call is in your life to commit to generosity. I’m not going to tell you what that is, because I don’t know your situation or how God will lead you. You get to wrestle with God about what responsible stewardship looks like as you balance responsibilities at home and responsibilities in the church and community.

But one thing I know, because the Bible makes it clear: there are treasures of the Kingdom waiting for those who can let go of the love of treasures on earth.

 _____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “The good eye looks to God as its “master” (v. 24) and fills the person with the “light” of God’s will. The bad eye looks to “treasures on earth” (v. 19) and admits only the “darkness” of greed and self-interest. The person’s whole life will be determined by the kind of “light” the “eye” lets in.” (Reformation Study Bible)

[2] “The eye (similar to the “heart” in Jewish literature) is a lamp that reveals the quality of a person’s inner life. A healthy eye (clear vision) suggests loyal devotion to God. A bad eye (impaired vision) suggests moral corruption.” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[3] Materialism may be God’s greatest rival competing for the allegiance of human hearts, not the least because constantly striving to secure one’s life via possessions produces anxiety. (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[4] By definition includes sharing one’s surplus with fellow Christians who lack the basic necessities of life or the ability to acquire them. When God’s people worldwide do this, “all these things” (food, drink, clothing) will be given to them as well. This is not a promise that faithful believers will never starve to death, but there need never be any poor among them (Deut 15:4)” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[5] A contextualised reading of Matthew 6:22–23: 'Your eye is the lamp of your body.' Francois P. Viljoen. School for Biblical Science and Ancient Languages, North-West University, South Africa

http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222009000100023

[6] “Dumbfounded to the point of emotionally ‘shutting down.’” (HELPS Word Studies)

[7] His warning in Matthew 16:26?

[8] Expositors Bible Commentary

[9] See “Bible Verses About Generosity,” biblestudytools.com

[10] I found this anecdote in John Dickson’s Bullies And Saints.

Harmony #23: The Reward of Righteousness (Matthew 6; Luke 11)

In Matthew 6, Jesus addressed three common Jewish practices of devotion to God: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. In each one, Jesus said of people who do things for show, “They have their reward.” Then he noted that for those who do them as genuine acts of devotion, “Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”

Last week we noted that righteousness is not for show. It’s not a vehicle to impress others or to make our name great. We are called to live out our righteousness as a sincere and humble response to God’s grace. 

This week, let’s talk about how does doing these things “in secret” brings about a reward. I think that happens on two levels.

• The practice of righteousness has its own reward. God has designed in such a way that when we go through life as God intends, we flourish in ways we didn’t expect.

• The presence of God is a reward, as captured in the Lord’s prayer, the pinnacle of the Sermon On The Mount.  

 #1. The Practice Of Righteous Has Its Own Reward

GENEROSITY. When we sincerely practice generosity and compassion, it changes us.

• victory over the power of money and covetousness, possessions #commercialism #rat race

• victory over addiction to comfort (trusting money over God).

• growing prayer life when generosity requires faith for provision

• increasing love for the those toward whom we give our treasure, because "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).

PRAYER. The discipline of prayer reorients us.

• our hearts will change as we fellowship with God #transformed #likenessofJesus Conversation + time = change that comes from experiential  knowledge.

• we gain a Kingdom focus, a break from the world’s priorities

• we find refuge, comfort and peace by giving God our burdens

• we become more aware of our need for God and more likely to recognize what He is doing #Hisstrengthperfectedinweakness

• our love for others grows as we pray for even our enemies

FASTING/SELF-DENIAL. I believe fasting can involve more than food, though food is certainly included. Bible first, then a Bible commentary. 

“Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58)

“Fasting also is not merely abstinence from food, but consists of self-denial in all areas of life in order to escape the control of the passions. On the eve of Great Lent, we sing, “Let us abstain from passions as we abstain from food.” St. John Chrysostom writes, “What good is it if we abstain from eating birds and fish, but bite and devour our brothers?”  (Orthodox Study Bible)

When a believer practices Spirit-led self-denial, practical strength over the appetites of the sinful flesh grows; after all, the formative power of habits are a thing designed by God. Fasting, or other forms of self-denial, allow us to more fully experience the abundant life God offers to us.[1]

________________________________

#2 The Presence Of God Is A Reward

Jesus offered what we call The Lord’s Prayer[2] to his disciples as sort of a model. What Jesus offered was not was not new ground. Adam Clark (among many others) notes that every line of this prayer was already being prayed in common Jewish eulogies, such as this one:

"Our Father who art in heaven, be gracious unto us! O Lord our God, hallowed be thy name, and let the remembrance of Thee be glorified in heaven above, and in the earth here below! Let thy kingdom reign over us now, and for ever! The holy men of old said, remit and forgive unto all men whatsoever they have done against me! And lead us not into the hands of temptation, but deliver us from the evil thing! For thine is the kingdom, and thou shalt reign in glory for ever and for evermore."[3] 

While Matthew simply records the prayer, Luke records that the disciples made a common request from disciple to rabbi: “Teach us to pray.” Considering how Jesus compiles known prayers into a concise version (like when he was asked to summarize the law and the prophets), I think Jesus may have been affirming to his disciples that they already knew how to pray.

Remember last week how praying, fasting and giving were not the problem but it was the heart with which they were practiced? Jesus had just told them not to pray for show, not to try impress God with wordy, impressive prayers to get Gods attention. Just pray. You don’t need something new that will get God’s attention better. Just pray. Simple prayers can be profound and meaningful too.

Our Father, Who Is In Heaven…[4]

“Our Father” starts us off with good theology. God is not a deistic God, aloof and uncaring. God is not a pantheistic God that is just part of nature. God is not the Force. God is person who is a relational, immediate, and accessible God. The word for Father is a very relational and personal word, used only in a relationship of safety, trust, and love.[5] There is reward in remembering God is personal.

“Our Father” reminds us that he’s our father. Not mine; ours. We cannot forget when we pray this that we are raised from spiritual death into new life in a family, a Christian community. In this, we are recognizing that while God is for us, He is for all of us. I cannot be content to simply think of God in terms of “me and God.” It must be “us and God.” The Bible has no view of “loner” Christians disconnected from a local church. If we are going to pray the language of “us”, we must live the life of “us.” There is reward in remembering we are part of a community.

Hallowed be Thy Name

“Hallowed be thy name” is a plea, not a statement of fact. It’s saying, “Please, make your name  - character, nature and reputation -  revered or held holy.” It’s asking for God to start the process in a world full of people – including the one praying – who take Jesus too casually. It’s asking that God’s character and nature be recognized as great by all who dismiss, insult or ignore it. This should humble us, because that includes us.[6]

It’s a plea of both humility and hope. “Help me not to take the reality of who you are lightly or casually. Help me to appreciate the majesty of God. I want the entirety of my life to reflect the great weight and value I give to you; with your help, all I think, say and do will offer an accurate representation of you.”  There is reward in remembering the greatness of the God we serve.

May Your Kingdom Come And Your Will be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven.

This is another phrase of hope and humility. Whenever we pray for justice, mercy, hope, love, truth, and holiness, we are praying with hope that these heavenly realities will actually manifest here and let us see in part now what we will see fully in the life to come.

It’s humbling in that we are asking God to reign in our lives in ways He does not now in our emotions, desires, thoughts and commitments. We want His desire to be our desires; His will to be our will; His loves to be our loves; His holiness to be ours. It’s also a reminder that, at the end of the day, we want God’s will to be done, not ours.

It’s also challenging. What if I am the thing God uses in answer to someone else’s prayer?

• When the poor pray for finances, will I be willing to help?

• When the lonely pray for a friend, am I available?

• When the desperate pray for help, am I ready?

 This part of the prayer reminds us that others are praying this too. If we are excited to see God’s will for us accomplished through others, buckle up. It’s not possible for us to see all that God sees, so in many situations our best prayer is one where we show hope and trust, prayer in which we surrender our desire to the will of a God who has faultless wisdom, live and power.[7]

There is reward in remembering to align our heart, soul, mind and strength with the values, priorities and practices of the kingdom of God.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread…[8]

The word used is only found in the Bible in all of ancient literature, and it is used only twice, so there is some uncertainty about how to translate it correctly. Luke seems to focus on present, practical provision, while Matthew seems to ask for the spiritual bread we will share at the banquet in God’s coming kingdom.

The main idea is this: trusting God to provide what we need to sustain us in every way now and into eternity.[9] We can take for granted that we can take care of ourselves. If that fails, our family, church or government will provide. This part of the prayer a reminder that everything happens under the sovereignty of God; all our blessings find their source in him. For that reason, we thank God ultimately for supplying for our needs.

It’s a constant reminder that life is saturated with the presence and work of God, and even in our greatest accomplishments or in the most generous deeds of others it is God who sustains and provides.

There is a future hope here as well. We are trusting that God will sustain us into and through eternity, which will require the true “bread of life,” Jesus Christ.

There is reward in remembering that our creator is our sustainer in the way that matters most both now and through eternity.

Forgive Our Sinful Debts As We Have Forgiven Those Who Have Sinned Against Us.

Here is the first acknowledgment: We have all sinned against God, broken His law and harmed others, and we are in desperate need of forgiveness of an unpayable debt we owe. This is a plea for God, in His mercy, to cover the cost of our sins. There is reward in remembering that God so loved the world… 

The second acknowledgment is that we must forgive those who sin against us. This is much tougher than praying that God forgives us of our sins. We must forgive those who have sinned against us: our spouse, our parents, cruel people at work or school. This list includes users and abusers, manipulators and liars. We all have sinned; we all are in desperate needs of God’s forgiveness. We want God to forgive us; as representatives bearing His name – if we are to ‘hallow’ his name -  we must offer forgiveness as well.

This portion of the prayer is what Augustine called “a terrible petition.” If we pray these words this while harboring unforgiveness, we are actually asking God not to forgive us. We would be saying, “I haven’t forgiven my friend/spouse/neighbor yet, so please don’t forgive me.” 

Forgiveness is a crucial spiritual marker that says something about the sincerity of our ongoing surrender and discipleship. There is, of course, a HUGE difference between moments of unforgiveness and a settled position of habitual and intentional unforgiveness. We must be committed to being deliberately and habitually forgiving.[10] There is reward in experiencing the freedom of forgiving and living in a community committed to forgiveness.

Lead Us Not into Trials (“trouble sent by God and serving to test or prove one's faith, holiness, character”), And Deliver Us From The Temptations (“an enticement to sin, arising from outward circumstances, within, or from Satan”) Of The Evil One.[11]

Sometimes God leads us into trials, because we are a proud and rebellious people for whom God in his love will send trials to refine and mature us if that’s necessary. Here, we pray for spiritual maturity in any other way, but just by praying it we acknowledge that our hard hearts sometimes need to be broken. Please, dear God, if at all possible, let this cup pass from me. Jesus prayed it; we can too.

But if a trial is what it takes to transform us into the image of Christ – if we must drink that cup -  keep us from giving into the temptation from the Evil One[12] that would turn those trials for our good into sins to our harm. It is so easy for a maturing test to push us away from God instead of toward God. Deliver us, Lord, from the Evil One, who would turn what you plan to use to bring us spiritual life into something that brings spiritual death.

But there is the hopeful reminder in this request: we know that God is a Deliverer. The Old Testament shows us that, time after time, God faithfully guides his people through trials and delivers his people from the snares of sin and power of temptation.[13]  There is reward in the purifying refinement of the fire.

For Yours Is The Kingdom, And The Power, And The Glory Forever, Amen.

N.T. Wright says,

“If the church isn't prepared to subvert the kingdoms of the world with the kingdom of God, the only honest thing would be to give up praying this prayer altogether, especially its final doxology.”

After focusing on our needs, our troubles, our frailty, we return to the glory of God. All kingdoms answer to God. All power comes from God. All glory belongs to God.  In a world where empires rise and fall, and power corrupts, and glory is tarnished and fleeting, it’s a reminder that God is uncorrupted, lasting, powerful and good, and true glory is found only in him.

* * * * * * * * * *

How should we pray?

Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day the bread of life both now and for eternity. Forgive our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Lead us not into times of testing, and deliver us from the temptations of the Evil One. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.

_________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Though I added some modificatons, the lists and the quote at the end are from Nate Holdridge, How Is A Relationship With God Rewarding? (Matthew 6:1-18).  https://www.nateholdridge.com/blog/how-is-a-relationship-with-god-rewarding-matthew-6-1-18

[2] To connect the Lord’s Prayer with the three practices of righteousness Jesus mentioned, praying reminds us that God’s name and Kingdom is to made great, not us and ours; generosity is God’s preparatory program for trusting him for provision; fasting is God’s preparatory program for times of testing.

[3] “In his book Jesus and the Judaism of His Time, University of Toronto scholar Irving Zeitlin cites line-by-line parallels between the Lord's Prayer and the Jewish mourner's prayer, the Kaddish ("May (God) establish His kingdom during our lifetime and during the lifetime of Israel"), the Eighteen Benedictions ("Forgive us our Father, for we have sinned" is the sixth blessing), Talmudic prayer ("Lead me not into sin or iniquity or temptation or contempt," goes one) and other Hebrew scriptures in which we find "Give us this day our daily bread." (“The Radical Truth Behind The Lord’s Prayer,” https://www.thestar.com/life/2008/02/23/the_radical_truth_behind_the_lords_prayer.html

[4] Galatians 4:6, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father!’ ” Romans 8:15, 16: “You received the spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

[5] “Patḗr ("father") refers to a begetter, originator, progenitor – one in ‘intimate connection and relationship.’” (HELPS Word Studies)

[6] I pulled some ideas about the radical nature of the Lord’s Prayer from this excellent article: “The Lord’s Prayer Advert Has Been Banned For Being Offensive - Which It Is.” http://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/the_lords_prayer_advert_has_been_banned_for_being_offensive_which_it_is\

[7] Even Jesus prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22)

[8] “In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer the verb “give” in Greek is a present imperative, which means something like “keep on giving.”   Also the verb “day” is a Greek expression that means “each day.”  So this part of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke’s version says literally, “Keep on giving us each day our daily bread.” But Matthew’s Greek reads differently. In Matthew’s version the verb give is an aorist imperative, which in Greek is a one-time decisive action, which we might translate “Give us once and for all.”  Also, Matthew’s version uses a different word for “day.”  It’s not a phrase that means “each day,” but a word that means “this day, today, right now.”  So Matthew’s version, translated literally says, “Give us once and for all today here and now the bread of tomorrow.”   In Matthew, Jesus reminds us to pray for the bread of tomorrow, the bread we will share at the banquet in God’s coming kingdom.  Pray for that bread to come into our lives and world today. I think the Bible gives us two versions of the Lord’s Prayer because Jesus wants us to practice praying both.” (From a sermon called “Tomorrow’s Bread Today,” http://spcdesmoines.org/spcsermons/2019/9/3/tomorrows-bread-today

[9] Tim Keller suggests that it’s also a prayer for justice. If one does not have bread, particularly in Jesus’ day, it wasn’t because of a lack of resources. There was either oppression from the Romans or disdain from the Jews, whom the Law required to take care of the poor. It’s a plea for justice to be done to yourself; it’s a prayer for society.

[10] If we claim to love God and hate our brother, we are liars (1 John 4:20).

[11] Both these words use the same root word; translations will differ on the usage at times. http://biblehub.com/greek/3986.htm.  In this case, the commentaries I have been reading are noting that “lead us not into temptation” is better understood as “lead us not into trials”; the second part of the phrase focuses on temptation.

[12] Luke 4:13; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8

[13] Every weekday morning in synagogues around the world, Jewish People open their siddurs (prayer books) and read a prayer like this: “May it be Your will, HaShem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that you rescue me today and every day from brazen men and brazenness, from an evil man, an evil companion, an evil neighbor, an evil mishap, the destructive spiritual impediment [‘Satan’], a harsh trial and a harsh opponent, whether he is a member of the covenant or whether he is not a member of the covenant.” (From “Discover The Very Jewish Lord’s Prayer,” https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/lords-prayer-jewish-prayer/)

Harmony #22: Righteousness And Reward (Matthew 6; Luke 6, 11)

If you are a Bible nerd like me, or you think the art of good literature is really cool, you may enjoy seeing where we are at in the Sermon on the Mount. If you think of the sermon like a mountain (like the literal one Jesus ascended and descended at the beginning and end of the sermon), we are at the high point this week.

To add another layer of nerdiness/coolness to how this sermon is constructed, check out this pattern.[1] After starting with the Beatititudes, the rest of the sermon is unpacking them in reverse order.

We are at Matthew 6 today, which is unpacking, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Jesus is expanding on what it means to have righteousness that exceeds the Scribes and Pharisees.

Quick reminder: because of Jesus, the debt of our sin has been paid and we are placed in right relationship with God. This righteousness is a gift, freely by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus. The $10 King James word is that righteousness was ‘imputed’ to us by Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

In today’s passage, “doing” or “practicing righteousness”[2] has to do with participating in religious practices that are the outworking of the righteousness given to us. Think of how a doctor “practices medicine.” Doctors don’t practice medicine to become doctors; it’s what they do because they are doctors. That’s what this passage is talking about: in particular, what righteous people do in response to Jesus making them righteous. 

Jesus addresses three common Jewish practices of devotion to God: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. Don’t think of this as the only three things. It’s just three examples. You will see a pattern emerge. In each one, Jesus will say of people who do things for show, “They have their reward.” Then he will talk about how, for those who do them out of the spotlight, “Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”

 (Matthew 6:1-18; Luke 6,11)

“Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not sound a trumpet before you,[3] as the hypocrites[4] do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners[5] so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles,[6] because they think that by their many words they will be heard. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.[7]

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (14For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.[8]

 “When you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”

I want to come back to the verse that started this section:

 “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.” 

Let’s talk about righteousness, and then reward. It’s going to take two weeks J

RIGHTEOUSNESS

Jesus assumed his disciples would do the things he talked about here, but he wasn’t asking the disciples to outdo the Pharisees or even give, pray or fast more than they were. Jesus was asking them to make God the only audience that mattered. Righteousness is not for show.  It’s not a contest to be won or a platform to build our brand and be noticed. It’s not a vehicle to impress others or to make our name great. We are called to live out our righteousness as a sincere and humble response to God’s grace.  This isn’t the only time Jesus talked about the danger of turning the practice of righteousness into a practice of arrogant hypocrisy. 

“Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness….you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.” (Luke 11:39; 43) 

As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers.” (Mark 12: 38-40)

In other words, they were not people of integrity. Their inside and their outside were not integrated into a unified whole. They pretended to be something on that outside that was sharply at odds with what was on the inside because they loved the attention. They displayed what appeared to be righteousness merely to be seen by people.

Practicing righteousness is not for show or applause or to get the best seats at the best places. It’s not intended to give us bragging rights about how amazing we are. It’s the way in which we live in humble response to the righteousness we have been given through Jesus.

I looked up all the times the Apostle Paul talked about bragging or boasting (and it’s a lot). Most of the time, he’s boasting about others. The one time he points out that, in a boasting contest on worldly terms, he would win it, he says, “But I boast in my weakness.” Why? Because God’s strength becomes clear as God works through that which is weak and broken.[9]

In addition, Jesus’ first audience would have heard this teaching through another layer: the warning of their prophets about hypocrisy in the camp of God’s people. The prophets talked about this A LOT. I want to give you a couple snippets just so we understand that simply mentioning that a religious person was acting as a hypocrite carried a lot of weight.

The Prophet Amos

“The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals. 7 They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way… At their religious festivals, they lounge in clothing their debtors put up as security. In the house of God,they drink wine bought with unjust fines.’ (Amos 2)

“Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel. Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.
Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days. 5 Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving. Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere! This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do.” (Amos 4)

“I hate all your show and pretense - the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.” (Amos 5)

“Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample down the needy!5 You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales. 6 And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor. Then you enslave poor people for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.” (Amos 8)

The Prophet Isaiah (Chapter 1)

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations -I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. 4 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! 6 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

God has some opinions about what is acceptable in His house and in His people. Blatant hypocrisy is not okay. Keeping up a façade of righteous practice (prayer, offerings, meeting in the temple/church) over a self-corrupted and baldly chosen moral desolation - God has some opinions about that.

If you are like me, I find hypocrisy really annoying:

• The outspoken environmentalist whose carbon footprint is a big is a small town’s.

• The free speech advocate who tries to shut other people down.

• The fitness guru who says he’s built like a brick outhouse because he’s all natural – and you find out he’s loaded on steroids.

• Leaders in the church who lead a double life of abuse and corruption. 

• People of God who claim to love God and others and then build a reputation of name-calling and meanness, a bit like the disciples who asked Jesus if he would call down fire on a city instead of asking if they could go tell them about Jesus.

• I’ve worked with youth most of my life. One of the most heartbreaking stories I hear is, “I’m done with Christianity. I saw my parents show up and look good on a Sunday – everybody admired them and told us how lucky we were - but the rest of the week was a nightmare. If that’s the kind of people who fill up a church, I’m not interested.”

Remember I noted that the Sermon on the Mount was unsettling? I assume there was a lot of soul-searching going on in that first audience – and maybe this one. “Is that me? That’s not me…. Is that me? I’ll bet it’s Bob, but it’s not me. Is it? My hands aren’t full of blood. Is that an image for hurting people in lots of different ways?”

“I hate all your show and pretense - the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.” (Amos 5)

I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week. Have I turned anything in my faith into a show about me?

• When I pray at the end of my sermon, am I more interested in if you think of me as a great prayer than I am in if God sees my prayer as a sincere act of communion with Him?

• When I sing or play during musical worship, is my physical response ‘virtue signaling to others or is it my response to God?

• When I’m part of small groups, do I show up the way I do or say the things I do to impress others or to faithfully present as I serve God?

• In conversation, do I choose words that make me sound more spiritual than I am? (Like saying I’ve been praying about something when all I’ve been doing is thinking about it).

• Do I misrepresent myself here? Am I the same Anthony here that I am at home and at the gym and coaching basketball or do I put on the kind of show I think a pastor needs to put on?

I guess I want us all to let those same kinds of questions simmer in us this week.

* * * * *

Here’s where I want to anticipate a question you may have - because I have the same question. This is going to be the point that brings the sermon to its conclusion.

“Does this mean that ‘going through the motions’ of practicing righteousness when I’m not feeling it puts me in this category of people that the prophets railed against? Or if I’m struggling during the week to turn my heart and mind toward Jesus, does this mean I shouldn’t bother showing up on Sunday because God’s disgusted with me?”

There is a world of difference between a principled commitment to “going through the motions” and a hypocritical deception of “going through the motions.”

Let’s say Sheila and I are angry and frustrated at each other, or we are in a season in our marriage where we feel distant and disengaged. Should I still treat her with all the loving actions I do when it feels like we are on a second honeymoon? Absolutely. I should care for her with my words, action and attitude. I should help with family responsibilities like I normally do. I should go out of my way to love and serve her.

Does that make me a hypocrite? I don't think so. It would make me a husband who knows how to honor my commitments. It would mean I have a principled commitment to displaying my covenant love, and so I do these things in spite of how either one of us feels. Am I going through the motions? Sure, but they are valuable motions motivated by a commitment to do the right thing. Meanwhile, Sheila and I shouldn’t be pretending everything is okay. It’s not. We can simultaneously not be okay and still be faithfully committed to honoring each other as we work toward being okay again.

That’s entirely different than if I start an affair and keep going through the motions at home. Now, my actions when I am with my wife say, “I am honoring our covenant with my actions,” while I am most definitely not. That’s a hypocritical deception of going through the motions. Jesus didn’t say,

“If you are struggling with questions or doubt, don’t be singing and praying until you get it all figured out.”

“If you don’t feel like giving to the needy, don’t help anybody in need until you feel like it.”

“If God feels distant and disconnected, don’t bother coming to church until you feel tight with God again.”

“That practice of self-discipline (fasting), it’s worthless if you don’t feel like it. Indulge until you feel like practicing restraint.”

That’s not what Jesus was saying. Hypocrisy and show is very different from a principled commitment to do the next right thing no matter how we feel. This is about being humble and honest about who and where we are in our relationship with God and others, and remembering why we committed do what we do in the first place. How do I know this? This parable.

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 chest 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)

 Note that the problem with the Pharisee was not that he fasted and tithed. It was his arrogance. The tax collector brought no show, no pretense. He was honest. “He would not even look up to heaven” as he stood at a distance. The most important thing he brought was himself - in humility and transparency.

David wrote Psalm 51 after he took Bathsheba and killed her husband to cover up his sin. He notes in that Psalm of repentance that right then, God wasn’t interested in David sacrificing something on an altar in a formal, public display of righteousness. God was interested in David bringing the same thing the tax collector brought.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.

Most of us can figure out the game of impressing people by taking good things – bible memory, prayer, singing, sacrifice for and service of others – and making them a show about us. If you want to bring a show, you’ll get the reward you want: people’s attention. It will chip away at your soul and your sanity and create a church that loves show.

What does God want? First and foremost, He wants you. When you go to God or come to church, you don’t need to impress anybody. We don’t form churches to build public platforms for popularity. It’s all about Jesus – seeing who He really is, surrendering our lives to His glorious work of saving us and making us new, then living in and living out the righteousness He has so graciously given us, and at such great cost. And in living like this there is great reward.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. That’s the reward we will consider more fully next week.

______________________________________________________________________________

[1] I could not figure out how and who to cite for this source, as I found it on a Prezi online.

[2] 1 John 2:29. “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.”

[3] “Some learned men have thought that the word shopher, a trumpet, refers to the hole in the public alms chest, into which the money was dropped which was allotted for the service of the poor. Such holes, because they were wide at one end and grew gradually narrow towards the other, were actually termed שופרות shopheroth, trumpets, by the rabbins… An ostentatious man, who wished to attract the notice of those around him, would throw in his money with some force into these trumpet-resembling holes, and thus he might be said שופר σαλπιζειν, to sound the trumpet.”  (Adam Clarke) 

[4] This word referred to Greek actors who wore different masks in the same play to present themselves as different people.

[5] “The Jewish phylacterical prayers were long, and the canonical hours obliged them to repeat these prayers wherever they happened to be; and the Pharisees… contrived to be overtaken in the streets by the canonical hour, that they might be seen by the people, and applauded for their great and conscientious piety.” (Adam Clarke)

[6] Pagans repeated the names of their gods or the same words over and over without thinking (1 Kings 18:26; Acts 19:34). (ESV Global Study Bible)

[7] “Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that THERE is his Father, his country, and inheritance.” (Adam Clarke)

[8] The very learned Mr. Gregory has shown that our Lord collected this prayer out of the Jewish Euchologies, and gives us the whole form as follows: -"Our Father who art in heaven, be gracious unto us! O Lord our God, hallowed be thy name, and let the remembrance of Thee be glorified in heaven above, and in the earth here below! Let thy kingdom reign over us now, and for ever! The holy men of old said, remit and forgive unto all men whatsoever they have done against me! And lead us not into the hands of temptation, but deliver us from the evil thing! For thine is the kingdom, and thou shalt reign in glory for ever and for evermore." Gregory's Works, 4to. 1671, p. 162. (Adam Clarke)

[9] https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Paul~s-Boasting

Advent: Joy

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 

10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:8-12)

 “I bring you good news of great joy for all people”: not some, not a select few, not just the best and the brightest or just the worst and the dullest. All people. It’s a remarkably sweeping claim, and it’s our focus on this 4th Sunday of Advent.

Where Do We Get Joy?

When the children of Israelite faced exile and captivity, Isaiah wrote of a time when God would raise a new prophet like Moses who would deliver his people out of whatever Egypt they were facing. On that day,

“the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 51:11).

It wasn’t that they had not ever experienced joy (more on that in a moment). It had just been temporary and fleeting in their experience. The Israelites waited for hundreds of years for the Messiah who would bring everlasting joy. This messiah arrived in the person of Jesus, who brought everlasting joy to both Jews and Gentiles (1 John 2:2) – read, “all people” like the angels said J  

But this wasn’t going to be never-ending temporal pleasure. It was something much deeper and greater. This Messiah came to set us free from the bondage of sin, death, and judgment; brought peace between us and God (2 Corinthians 5:21); and demonstrated the fullness of his grace to the world. That sacrifice, ‘once’ and ‘for all’, was going to last forever.

So where do we get joy? This is where the classic Sunday school answer works really well: Jesus J I just want to note before we move on to defining joy how often the Bible uses language of joy or rejoicing when someone is reconciled to God through Jesus, or when one enters into life in the Kingdom of God.

”We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (Romans 5:11) 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9)

 “In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forervermore.”  (Psalm 16:11) 

“You have put joy in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.  I will lie down in peace, and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:6-8) 

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.  (Matthew 13:44) 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. – Galatians 5:22

 What is biblical joy?

I have often been inclined to separate joy from happiness, but the Bible doesn’t make such a clean distinction. When the Bible talks about joy, it uses a broad range of words or expressions to describe it. In the Old Testament, that’s gladness, mirth, brightness, rejoicing, leaping, and dancing. It can be a response to something good now (Esther 8:15-17) or a reference to something good in the future that helps us endure the present (Hebrews 12:2).

If you're a human being, regardless of your spiritual state, God has extended what we call “common grace”[2] such that all people experience good things that come from God for the world. Jesus noted that everyone gets the blessing of rain and sun (Matthew 5:45). David wrote that, “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Psalm 145:9) And then there are very specific verses about joy.

• When Paul and Silas were confused with Zeus and Hermes, they took the opportunity to tell the crowds about the true God: “ In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” (Acts 14)

• David wrote, “You have put more joy in my heart than when grain and wine abound.” (Psalm 4:7)

This “fading joy”[3] is rooted in God's common grace to all people. These blessings include talents, family, possessions, health, the beauty of a sunrise, a cozy evening around a fire pit, game night with people you love, the satisfaction of a job well done. This is a lovely form of joy experienced by all people; but it is a fading and temporary joy.[4] Talents fade; possessions break; health leaves; relationships fall apart or people die. It’s lovely while it lasts, but it doesn’t last. 

Then there is the kind of joy from God that transcends all the momentarily good things and lasts into eternity. As I was reading how others tried to define joy this week, I found lots a different ways Christians tried to wrap their minds around it.

• Joy is the fruit of a right relation with God.

• Joy is confidence in God, nurtured by the Holy Spirit.[5]  

• Joy comes from confidence in being a daughter or son of God, who loves us tenderly and will never abandon us.[6] 

• Joy is how we feel in a life going well and being lived well. 

• Joy comes from delighting in that which delights God.[7]

• Joy comes from loving the right things in the right way.[8]

 I think they all probably work to some degree. One thing I know: true biblical joy is grounded on something permanent and transcendent. Its foundation will not be a “fading joy,” though those can be built on top of that foundation.

Here is where word studies are helpful. The Greek word chara (joy) is closely related to charis, which means “grace” or “a gift.” Charles Spurgeon said,

“Believers’…joy comes not from what they have, but from what they are, not from where they are, but from whose they are, not from what they enjoy, but from that which was suffered for them by their Lord.”

Chara (joy) is the normal response to charis (grace). So what if we define biblical joy this way:joy is living with confidence and delight in God’s grace. When that happens, we are all those things mentioned earlier:

• in right relation with God (because of Jesus).

• nurtured by the Holy Spirit.

• living well (in light of eternity). 

• delighting in that which delights God.

• loving the right things in the right way.

When Do We Rejoice? 

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul speaks about the Christian's duty to “rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, Rejoice” (4:4). This leaves no room for not rejoicing. We don’t do it occasionally or when we feel like it. It’s an ongoing, steady outlook on life.

This can’t be about being dishonestly positive about our circumstances. Paul wrote this epistle from prison, and he notes he may well be martyred, “poured out as a sacrifice” (2:17). Yet even then, he insists this is a time to rejoice. It’s so counterintuitive and countercultural. This would be the time I would be inclined to be very complainy.

• I can barely drive through town without finding yet another reason to think people are stupid and the world is ridiculous.

• My internet lags and I’m instantly annoyed.

• I spent months recovering basic strength after my heart  attack, and years more adjusting to the new me, and just not being happy about a lot of it.

• I spent years grieving my father, and I still miss him.

• I hate the way even the people of God have been split apart by politics and culture wars. 

• My friends in Ukraine are fighting for their lives.

 Rejoice? Really?

Yes, but note how Paul very carefully phrases this: rejoice “in the Lord.” Elsewhere, Paul notes of the readers of his letter to Thessalonica that “you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6)

The Lord always gives me a reason to rejoice.  I am glad God is who God is. I rejoice in the person and work of Jesus. The Spirit of God at work in me reminds me of and focuses me on the goodness of God. This is why Paul says we can be “full of sorrow and yet rejoicing” in “all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 6:10; 2 Corinthians 7:4.)

James has another reason to find joy: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4) In this case, the joy is not the trials, but what God will bring about on the other side: maturity.

Peter notes this future aspect too, but points toward eternity: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”  (1 Peter 4:13) We see this idea of future joy in Jesus himself, who “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame…” (Hebrews 12:2)

There is a “near” and a “far” aspect of joy, what some have called the “now and not yet.” We do experience forms of joy in this life – happiness, gladness, pleasure, an overwhelming appreciation for the goodness of God and His creation. There are likely seasons where you experience a lot, and seasons where you experience it only a little.

Joy “now” is the one minute trailer for the 3 hour marquee movie that you have been waiting to see. The trailer itself is a ton of fun; if you are like me, you will applaud after the really good ones until your wife makes you stop. And if I like the trailer that much, you can imagine what I will think about the movie.

Joy “now” is the signpost, a billboard on the road to glory, like the old Burma shave signs. Lewis wrote in Surprised By Joy of the role of fading joy ‘now’ as signposts or pointers beckoning us toward the eternal joy ‘not yet’:  “It [fading joy now] is valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer…He who first sees [the pointer] cries, ‘Look!’ The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. ‘We would be at Jerusalem’.”

True joy is a mashup of the near and the far,[9] and all that we experience now is a signpost for what is to come. It is because of the joy set before us that we  Christians learn to respond to the ‘near’ in light of the ‘far’.  

The ‘far,’ the ‘not yet,’ is the joy that awaits us in the life to come, fully in the presence of a God who loves us in a heaven and earth remade in its uncorrupted fullness. That is the vision that sustains us when the “now” is sketchy. These are the “far” things that are always “near.”

During the Christmas season of Advent, we celebrate the “now”, the world changed because of the Incarnation, the ‘unveiling’ of Emmanuel, Christ with us, the hope of glory. We also joyfully expect the “not yet,” the day when we will experience the fullness of His joy either because we go to be with God or God returns for His children. David Mathis notes:

“The incomplete joy in Jesus we have now — with its roller-coaster ups and downs, its twists and turns, its frustrating enigmas and pleasant surprises — is not separate from the fullness of joy that is coming. Today’s seeds and stalks are organically related to the coming flowers and fruit.”[10]

Joy to the world; the Lord has come. Joy to the world; He will come again. Let us receive the King, the Messiah, into our hearts and homes.

__________________________________________________________________________

[1] Here is a huge list of bible verses about joy. You will see “blessed, happy, rejoice, joy” – depending on your translation, different English words capture the same idea. https://god.net/god/bible-topics/blessings-for-those-who-love-god/true-joy-and-happiness-comes-from-god/

[2] Read more at “What Is Common Grace,” by Tim Keller. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53189f41e4b0ee73efed7b5a/t/533ea67ce4b05289c3da94dc/1396614780413/What_Is_Common_Grace.pdf

[3] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/superficial-joy-vs-true-joy

[4] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/superficial-joy-vs-true-joy

[5] https://fcfamily.org/blog/2020/06/23/is-true-joy-possible-3-principles-of-finding-joy-in-chaos

[6] https://www.hprweb.com/2012/06/prayer-as-the-channel-of-celestial-joy/

[7] https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2021/09/what-is-true-joy/

[8] https://www.citieschurch.com/journal/what-is-true-joy

[9] https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2021/09/what-is-true-joy/

[10] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-greatest-joy-is-still-to-come

Love (Advent)

1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows (has first hand acquaintance with[1]) God. 8 Everyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.[2] 9 By this the love of God is revealed within and made visible among us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live a life worthy of His name through him.  

10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.11 Beloved (divinely loves ones), if God so loved us, then we owe[3] love to one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love reaches its final, perfect goal in us.[4] 13 By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.  

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone professes/confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe[5] the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.  

17 By this, love is brought to perfection within us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fearful fleeing[6] in love, but perfect love – love that reaches the end goal - drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears the punishment of the day of judgment has not been perfected in love. 

 19 We love because he loved us first.20 If anyone says “I love God” and yet detests and devalues his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.

* * * * *

During Advent, we talk a God who ‘put on flesh’ (incarnated) and became what John called an atoning sacrifice by taking the penalty for our sins against Him upon himself (John 3:16-17), thus bringing about peace. In many different places, the Bible is clear about why that happened: Jesus loves us (1 John 4:19; Romans 8:35-39; John 3;16, etc).  

This is pretty straightforward, but to understand what it means that God loves us, we have to understand what love is. So let’s talk this morning about how we get past our filters and misunderstandings to better appreciate God’s love for us and better pass on God’s love to others.

First, God’s love is supernaturally sourced. In the New Testament, the word for the love God has for us is the Greek word agape.[7] In the Greek literature we have recovered, there is very little use of this word because it wasn’t a kind of love they valued that highly. In the New Testament, agape is used 320 times. The church took a seldom used Greek word, refined it, and introduced a radical new way of understanding love in light of God’s love for us.[i] 

Agape love… is the most self-sacrificing love that there is.  This type of love is the love that God has for His own children. This type of love is what was displayed on the cross by Jesus Christ.  In John 3:16 it is written that “God so loved (agapao) the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”[8] 

"Agape love is unconcerned with the self and concerned with the greatest good of another. Agape isn’t born just out of emotions, feelings, familiarity, or attraction but from the will and as a choice. Agape requires faithfulness, commitment, and sacrifice without expecting anything in return.” (Alyssa Roat)[9]

Second, we don’t have to earn it. God loves people: not because he needs us; not because we complete him; not because we are worthy, or lovable, or pure, or spiritually impressive; not because we please God or represent Him well. As one pastor noted,

While eros and philia thirst, agape simply overflows. This means – please stay with me here – that God’s love for us, in the end, has absolutely nothing to do with us. In other words, God does not love us because of who we are. Or because of what we do, or can do for God. Or because of what we say, or build, or accomplish, or change, or pray, or give, or profess, or believe… God simply loves us...[10]

When I pray regularly and passionately, God’s love does not fail. When I don’t, God’s love does not fail. When I was chained in sin and when I was freed; when I ignore Him and when I am enamored with Him; when I am depressed or happy, anxious or at peace, self-loathing of self-loving; when I pastor well and when I do it terribly; when I am loved by others and despised by others…

If you ever think, “How can God possibly love me? I’m a disaster,” take heart: God specializes in loving and saving disasters. God has never waited to love people until they were good enough to be loved. He loves people because He is that kind of God. And that gives me great hope indeed.

 Third, God’s love will never be seen perfectly in people. None of us are Jesus. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in surrendered lives, we are being transformed into his image, and we are becoming more and more like Christ. But we won’t nail it until we are in Heaven, so on this side of eternity we will fail to adequately represent what the love of Jesus looks like. We have to be ready for this. We will inevitably distort the genuine nature of godly love, and so will others. I don’t mean to be depressing; I’m just trying to be honest. With God’s help, we will often represent God’s love well, but we will never be perfect.

That doesn’t bring me despair; that actually brings me hope. God’s love is better than even the best love that I have experienced when it comes to human love. God’s love is deeper, more faithful, more present, more life-changing, more holy and pure. Awesome. I love the glimpses I get from others, but I’m never going to mistake them for the fullness of the kind of love God has for me.

That gives me the freedom to see failure in others and not be disillusioned. It gives me the freedom to take people off a pedestal and let them be people instead of wishing they were perfect like God. And it gives me hope that people who do it so badly still bring such tremendous love into the world.  If there is this much good in a fallen Earth, I can’t imagine the goodness in the New Heaven and Earth.

Fourth, God’s love helps us love others well. Christ’s love was focused on us. As we become more like Christ, we will find that our live is focused on others.

·      “This is my command: (agape) each other.” (John 15:17)

·       “Anyone who does not (agape) does not know God, because God is (agape).” (1 John 4:8)

When we have trouble loving God or others well, we often focus on how to love better. That’s a good and necessary focus, but it’s the wrong starting point. We need to first refocus on the one who loves us. We need to experience and understand God’s love.

If a person is not loving, John says, he or she does not know God (1 John 4:8). How will that individual become more loving, then? Can we grow in love by trying to love more? No, our attempts to love will only end in more frustration and less love. The solution, John implies, is to know God better. This is so simple that we miss it all the time: our means for becoming more loving is to know God better. (Marva J. Dawn, Truly the Community: Romans 12) 

The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. (Francis Chan, Crazy Love)

“We are thirsty, thirsty people. We long to know that we have worth, and value, and beauty. We ache to belong, to be included. But we run around our whole lives going after the sorts of love which will never completely satisfy this thirst. But in Christ, in the agape love of God, we find a love, the only love, which can fill us, and satisfy us so that we find ourselves, now overflowing, finally able to also love in a way that no longer seeks to take, but only to give.

Yes, Jesus wants you to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Jesus wants you to love your neighbors as you love yourself. He wants us to love with agape love. But if we try to love others, even God, like this without first realizing that we are already loved like this, all our efforts will only lead to despair. You see, agape love never flows from us. It only flows through us from the one who loves like we, on our own, never could.[11]

Fifth, love is costly. Paul talks about Jesus taking on humanity and “becoming obedient unto death, even a death on the cross” (Philippians 2:8). David said that he would not give God a sacrifice that cost him nothing (1 Chronicles 21:24).

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”  C.S. Lewis

 Love will be costly because it will break our hearts.  It will force us to walk into the hard work of life when all we want to do is wrap ourselves carefully with hobbies and luxuries and silence and entertainment and selfishness. 

• I cannot love my wife without a cost to myself:  conversations about hard things; late nights and long days because of work, or household chores and juggling responsibilities; forgiveness. I can wrap up my heart, or I can be broken for my wife.

• We cannot love our friends without a cost to ourselves.  Sometimes it’s messy (hurtful things said or done).  We can wrap up our hearts and never let them see us, or we can be vulnerable.

• We cannot love our neighbors without a cost to ourselves. If my neighbors are far from Christ, then a lot of things they do, say and love will be far from Christ. Love – real love – will be costly as we get to know and understand, as we listen and love, as we speak truth with love and grace, and we seek to represent Christ and with humility and boldness surrounded by hospitality of head, heart and hands.

• We cannot love the church, the body of Christ, without a cost.  We are not perfect people.  We will have to “bear each other’s burdens,” because we all bring burdens that other people will have to bear.  It is not a question of if.  It is a question of when.  Showing the kind of love to others that God showed to me demands something of my life.  Love is costly.

Jesus at times WEPT.  His heart was wrung out and broken. When we set out to love people with the love Christ showed to us, it will cost us something.  Like Paul said, there will be times we are poured out like an offering (Philippians 2:17).

Sixth, God’s love is transformational. The cost is only part of the story of love, and by itself, sounds hard.  But what love offers – what Christ offers -  in exchange for that cost is transformation. It’s tough to find one verse that encapsulates all the ways. Sharla Fritz compiled a list:[12]

1.    God’s love banishes fear. 1 John 4:18:  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

2.    God’s love gives us strength against Satan’s attacks.  Psalm 59:10,17: “My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies…O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.”

3.    God’s love helps us trust. Psalm 13:5: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”

4.    God’s love leads us to contentment.  Psalm 90:14: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

5.    God’s love draws us to worship. Psalm 5:7: “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.”

6.    God’s love enables us to stay on His path. “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:3).

7.    God’s love gives us the confidence to pray. Psalm 69:13: “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”

8.    God’s love motivates us to obey. Psalm 106:7 tells us the reason for the Israelites’ rebellion: “Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.”

9.    God’s love helps us to love others. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

If I were to summarize what that looks like on a personal level, it’s the exchange of the beauty Jesus brings for the ashes of our lives.

• The disciples – from petty, self-centered cowards to martyrs

• Mary Magdelene – from demon possessed (7!) to eyewitness to the Resurrection

• Paul -  from persecutor to follower

Is there anything else that captures this transformative power of God’s love better than this commentary Paul offered on the church in Corinth:  “All these things you once were…” (1 Corinthians 6:11) he says after listing off the sins that had defined their lives.

And as we are transformed by the love of God, we transform things around us through the love that passes through us.

My marriage looks different when I love my family as Jesus loves me. My friendships change if I love my friends as Jesus loves me. This church changes when God’s love passes through me to you and permeates our relationships. My witness changes when I love everyone with the same kind of love Jesus showed me when I was dead in my sins.

When Jesus came, he offered LOVE, and in this love was the hope of transformation of the world that is also played out in individual lives all the time. It wasn’t some generic “Heal the World” campaign, it was a deeply personal offer to transform you into something new, and keep transforming you until you are perfected in eternity.

MERCY TREE (Lacey Sturm)

On a hill called Calvary, stands an endless Mercy Tree
Every broken weary soul -  find your rest and be made whole.                                       

Stripes of blood that stain its frame shed to wash away our shame
From the scars, pure love released, salvation by the Mercy Tree.

In the sky between two thieves hung the blameless Prince of Peace
Bruised and battered Scarred and scorned, Sacred head pierced by our thorns.               

"It is finished, " was His cry, the perfect lamb was crucified
His sacrifice, our victory - Our Savior chose the Mercy Tree

Hope went dark that violent day, the whole earth quaked at love's display
Three days silent in the ground, this body born for heaven's crown.                                   

 And on that bright and glorious day, when heaven opened up the grave
He's alive and risen indeed - Praise Him for the Mercy Tree!

Death has died, love has won Hallelujah!, Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome; He has risen from the dead!

One day soon, we'll see His face, and every tear, He'll wipe away
No more pain or suffering, oh praise Him for the Mercy Tree

____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] HELPS Word Studies

[2] “From a grammatical standpoint this is not a proposition in which subject and predicate nominative are interchangeable (“God is love” does not equal “love is God”). (NET Bible)

[3] 3784 /opheílō ("owe") refers to being morally obligated (or legally required) to meet an obligation, i.e. to pay off a legitimate debt. [3784 (opheílō) "originally belonged to the legal sphere; it expressed initially one's legal and economic, and then later one's moral, duties and responsibilities to the gods and to men, or to their sacrosanct regulations. . . . opheílō expresses human and ethical responsibility in the NT" (DNTT, 2, 662.663).] – HELPS Word Studies

[4] 5048 teleióō – to consummate, reaching the end-stage, i.e. working through the entire process (stages) to reach the final phase (conclusion).  See 5056 (telos).

[This root (tel-) means "reaching the end (aim)." HELPS Word Studies

[5] “In the Gospel of John the two verbs frequently occur together in the same context, often in the same tense; examples may be found in John 6:69; 8:31-32; 10:38; 14:7-10, and 17:8. They also occur together in one other context in 1 John, 4:1-2. Of these John 6:69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!”, Peter’s confession, is the closest parallel to the usage here: “We have come to believe [πεπιστεύκαμεν] and to know [ἐγνώκαμεν] that you are the holy One of God.” It appears that the author considered both terms to describe a single composite action… describing an act of faith/belief/trust on the part of the individual; knowledge (true knowledge) is an inseparable part of this act of faith.” (NET Bible)

[6] Fear (5401 /phóbos) is commonly used in Scripture – sometimes positively (in relation to God) but more often negatively of withdrawing from the Lord (His will).

[Fundamentally, 5401 /phóbos ("fear") means withdraw (separate from), i.e. flee (remove oneself) and hence to avoid because of dread (fright).] – HELPS Word Studies

[7] The Greeks used a number a words for love:  there is one for erotic love (eros), one for friendship love (philia), one for family affection (storge) and one for self-sacrificial love (agape).

[8] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/05/02/what-is-agape-love-a-bible-study/

[9] https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-does-agape-love-really-mean-in-the-bible.html

[10] http://faithpresby.org/archives/sermons/written/files_4d2a59265361b.pdf

[11] [11] http://faithpresby.org/archives/sermons/written/files_4d2a59265361b.pdf

[12] http://www.sharlafritz.com/2021/08/10-ways-gods-love-changes-you/

Advent: Peace

When we read of the Genesis account of God’s creation of the world, a Hebrew word, shalom, is used to describe the state of peace Adam and Eve were in. The root word means "to be complete" or "to be sound." They were at peace: with God, within, and with others. We often use the phrase, “It’s all good.” Well, it was. It’s a word that implies wholeness, completeness, unbrokenness.[1]

So, it’s a good start for the world. And then they lost it. #sin. Now, to quote Kenny Wayne Shepherd, “everything is broken.” Look what happens in the first few chapters of Genesis after the Fall: sin crouching at our door, inner turmoil, murder, a world in which everything is “evil continuously” (Genesis 6).

And here we are, thousands of years later, and we still feel the ripple effect of this. We live in a broken, sin-ravaged world. We see it in the news: the scandals surrounding World Cup Soccer; the turmoil in Ukraine; the exposure of sin in the church; the trials covering the sins of Hollywood. We see it in our marriages, families, work, friendships, and even church. We see it in the ways in which we deal with depression, anxiety, guilt, shame… The nursery rhyme was right: this world is Humpty Dumpty, and no kings or people will put it back together again.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus, they proclaimed a message of peace:

“Glory to God in the Highest; and on earth, peace to those on whom His favor rests.”  (Luke 2:14)

So what is this favor? And what is this peace?

The shepherds were probably watching a temple flock destined for sacrifice as they watched them from a tower called the Midgal Eder, the 'watchtower of the flock,' a lookout and a place of refuge close to Bethlehem for their flocks in case of attack. Shepherds brought ewes there to give birth. The priests maintained ceremonially clean stalls, and they carefully oversaw the birth of each lamb, many of which would be used in sacrifices.

So in one sense the thought that these shepherds were favored made sense. They were God’s people whose lives were being used to further God’s purposes in the world. But being ‘favored’ had not brought them the peace they were expecting. There was hardly a more obvious reminder than the palace that cast a shadow over their tower.

Herod’s mountain fortress, the Herodian,[2] overlooked the town of Bethlehem. The Herodian was built on top of an artificial mountain that Herod had created specifically for him. According to Josephus, there were originally two hills standing next to each other. Herod paid thousands of workers for years to demolish one of the hills and level off the other. He built his massive palace-fortress into the top of the remaining hill. This seven stories high palace contained a garden, reception hall, Roman baths, countless apartments, an enormous pool, a colonnaded garden, a 600-foot-long terrace. The buildings alone covered forty-five acres. The Herodion’s circular upper palace could be seen for miles and literally overshadowed surrounding villages.

• Herod made his name when he smoked out refugees hiding in cliff side caves, pulled them out with long, hooked poles and dropped them down the sheer cliff.

• Herod once laid siege to Jerusalem. The soldiers raped and slaughtered the women and children, and the Jewish soldiers were tortured and chopped to pieces.

• Hundreds of friends and family members and political rivals were tortured or slaughtered on the slightest of accusations. 

• Herod went to Jericho to die in agony, hated by everyone. Fearing that no one would mourn his death, he commanded his troops to arrest important people from across the land and execute them after he died. If people would not mourn him, at least they would mourn.

 It’s in this context that the angels said they were there to proclaim peace on earth to those on whom God’s favor rests. So what is this favor? Where is the promised peace? 

The Romans were still in control when Jesus died, and for a long while after. In the first century alone there was massive slaughter of the Jewish people during a rebellion put down by the Roman army.

Look at the life of the disciples. When you are run out of towns and sawn in half and crucified upside down, we wouldn't normally think about that as peaceful, and yet Jesus promised them, “Peace I give and leave to you – just not the kind the world gives.” (John 14:27) He follows that up with an encouragement not to be troubled or afraid – which suggests that troubling and fearful things would happen around them.

The angels and Jesus had a view of peace that is different from how we tend to think of it by wordly measures or standards (which just means that it’s how the empires train us to think about peace in distinction to the Kingdom).

Kingdom peace won’t be self-help techniques. I keep seeing the idea in Christian articles that psychological practices will bring the peace God promised. I just don’t see that in Scripture. I have nothing against different things we can do to focus our mind or calm our body – I’m not opposed at all to medication helping us when used properly - but let’s not confuse that kind of calm with the peace that passes understanding, the peace that only the Kingdom can offer.

Kingdom peace won’t be merely circumstantial. The Bible constantly talks about finding peace in the midst of the storm.  David is sent to the battlefield to check on his brothers’ shalom.[3] Jesus tells his followers that they will have trouble in this life, but they will have peace because God loves them.[4] This peace won’t be dependent upon what happens around but within those who have God’s favor. Though peacemakers as salt and light will bring a peacemaking presence into the world, it’s different from having the peace of the presence of Jesus of which the angels sang.

  Kingdom peace won’t necessarily be emotional. It may be, and it is indeed lovely when we feel it strongly. However, neither the biblical testimony nor 2,000 years of the church history has shown that followers of Jesus are guaranteed unrelenting mental and emotional health in the sense of feeling calm and collected all the time. I think biblically it’s possible to be at peace without feeling peaceful. And if that caught your attention….let’s go!

Here is my summary of what I think the Bible is revealing about the kind of shalom the angels announced: Kingdom peace arrives when whose I am clarifies who I am and reveals who you are. 

Let’s start with whose I am.

“God was pleased . . . through [Christ] to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through [Christ’s] blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19–20).  

“ If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) 

“To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13) 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 1:3)

What is the foundation of peace? Reconciliation with God through Christ.[5] Peace begins in us when we are in right relationship with Christ.[6] The biblical analogy is that of being drawn into his family. Thanks to the work of Jesus, we are given the status of righteous children, which we could never earn on our own. This is whose I am. Peace, then is something much deeper and greater than the feeling of being at peace. Being at peace is a state, a status, a standing of righteousness before God and within His family.[7] No matter what happens or how we feel, we stand in a reconciled space. The foundation of my peace never shifts. The peace that Jesus has provided for us with God never leaves me.

* * * * * 

Peace arrives when whose I am clarifies who I am and reveals who you are.

How does knowing whose I am clarify who I am? Well, I now have a primary way of thinking about myself. I am a child of God, adopted into the family of the King, an heir of the spiritual riches of the Kingdom.

The fact that we as human beings are image bearers of God already means we have an inherent value, worth and dignity, but this is something more. This is a reminder that God gave himself in Jesus to save us broken, sinful image bearers, mend our broken peace, and proudly claim us as His own. 

No matter how I feel about myself, it doesn’t change the status I have. To use another biblical analogy, I am a temple in which God dwells. His Spirit lives in me, transforming, empowering, changing. I am not simply the sum total of my successes and failures, as if doing the math of my life = value. Something far greater is at work, and it is a far greater thing than any earthly things that are part of who I am.

There are lots of things that fight for the right to characterize us (another way of thinking about identity). There are the things that make us go, “Ah, so this is who I am.” We may or may not want to be known for them, but they feel so overwhelmingly a part of us that this is what it means to be Anthony (substitute your name here). You might think, “Thank you God for me! This is amazing!” or, “What is happening? Why is this me?” And when we arrive at conclusions about “who I am” in this way, we are in trouble.  

• It becomes easy to excuse our failures; we say, “That’s not who I am!” when everybody around us knows it’s exactly who we are because #experience.

• It becomes easy to magnify our successes; we say, “That’s who I am!” when everybody around us knows that’s not our usual self because #experience

• It becomes easy to identify with our failures; we say, “That’s who I am- a failure!” as if we are failures rather than being a person who sometimes fails.

But when we really grasp whose we are, we realize that none of those things are the starting point of who we are. We start with whose we are. We begin with, “God has claimed me as His own. How does God see me? How would God define me?” And when we are part of the family of God, that answer to who we are is simple: “A loved child of the King, an heir of the Kingdom.”

I think we all struggle, at least at some point in our life, with the question of identity. In our world we usually here these terms associated that with sexual or gender identity, but that’s just one way people work through questions about who they are or try to establish something in or around them which to orient their life.  But it all swirls around the questions of, “What matters in me, what characterizes me, and why do I matter? What is the True North in the compass of m life???” We do it with all kinds of things:

• Money (I am rich/poor, and thus I matter/I am a failure)

• I am a good looking human being (or an ugly one) and I add value to the world (or detract from it)

• People respect and like me (or don’t) so I must be a good person (or bad person).

• Look at my job! Only smart and talented can do this (or I’m dumb, and anybody could do this.)

• I have multiple degrees/ I can fix anything/ I am unusually strong and relentlessly healthy/ I am a great musician/I run a household that should be featured in magazines…

Please hear me. Success in these areas are not bad things, but they are foundations of shifting sand. They are part of you, but they are accessories. They may be wonderful, but they are not the core of who you are.

If you are a human being - rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, smart, dumb, strong, weak, sick, healthy, popular, lonely, depressed, happy - you are an image bearer of God. And if you are a follower of Jesus - rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, smart, dumb, strong, weak, sick, healthy, popular, lonely, depressed, happy - you are at reconciled peace with God because of the person and work of Jesus. You. Are. A. Child. Of. God.  This is whose you are. This is who you are above all else. [8]

* * * * *

Peace arrives when whose I am clarifies who I am and reveals who you are.

When Paul was writing letters to the start-up churches helping them to better understand the true message of the gospel, he wrote to the church in Ephesus, which was having trouble forming a church community with both Jewish and Gentile converts. Here we begin to see an explanation of peace that ripples out from us and into the world: 

“Remember that at that time you (Gentiles) were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace…. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.“ (Ephesians 2:12-17)

The reconciling peace Jesus offers expands the family, reconciling us with those who feel “far away.”[9] God calls out the human barriers (the ‘isms’[10]) that divide us (Ephesians 2:11–22), dissolving the antagonism across those lines and giving us the resources to reconcile with others in unity and love through continual forgiveness and patience (Colossians 3:13–15).

We live in peace with others when we relationally enter into the “ministry of reconciliation” that God began in us (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)[11] And that peace happens when we are committed to paying forward the reconciliation God has given to us through Jesus.

Blessed are the peacemakers; they will be called children of God.[12]This is what it looks like when the favor of God rests on us, and the peace He offers to the earth changes the world for our good and God’s glory.

____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] The Greek word for peace in the New Testament comes from a verb (eiro) which means to join or bind together that which has been broken, divided or separated. It’s where we get the word “serene” (free of storms or disturbance, marked by calm. https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/peace/

[2] Picture from Eitan Ya'aran.

[3] 1 Samuel 17:18

[4] John 16:33 – read the whole chapter for context.

[5] In both the Old and the New Testament, spiritual peace is realized in being rightly related—rightly related to God and rightly related to one another. From the Holman Bible Dictionary. “Peace, Spiritual.” www.studylight.org

[6] God, "Yahweh Shalom" (Judges 6:24 ). The Lord came to sinful humankind, historically first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, desiring to enter into a relationship with them. He established with them a covenant of peace, which was sealed with his presence (see  Num 6:24-26 ). Participants were given perfect peace (shalom shalom [l'vl'v]) so long as they maintained a right relationship with the Lord (see Isa 26:3; 2 Thess 3:16). https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/peace/

[7] “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Ro 14:17-note)

[8] I wonder if this is the “perfect peace” (or shalom-shalom) that brings “quietness and confidence forever” (Isaiah 32:17) to those who steadfastly set their minds on God (Isaiah 26:3). (As noted by Tim Keller in “The Meaning of Shalom In the Bible”)

[9] There is a cultural/societal implication to this, but I don’t have time to talk about it today. “An end to physical violence. Shalom can include the end of hostilities and war (Deuteronomy 20:12; Judges 21:13),” but at least once in the Old Testament it’s peace when at war,[9] so it has to be more than that. “An end to oppressive injustice.  Peacemakers help to establish socially just relationships between individuals and classes. Jeremiah insisted that unless there was an end to oppression, greed, and violence, there can be no shalom, even though false prophets insisted there was (Jeremiah 6:1–9,14; compare Jeremiah 8:11)” Read more in Tim Keller, “The Meaning of Shalom In The Bible.”

[10] Racism, sexism, classism, etc. Differences that people use as an excuse to judge, divide, and oppress.

[11] Shalom experienced is multidimensional, complete well-being — physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; it flows from all of one’s relationships being put right — with God, with(in) oneself, and with others. (Not an exact quote, but from Tim Keller)

[12] Matthew 5:9

Advent Begins In Darkness (Isaiah 9:2-7)

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy ;they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.

4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6  

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.  

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

_______________________________________

“The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

_____________________________

Advent begins in darkness. 

* * * *

Hope is probably the key underlying theme in Advent – advent, after all, points toward the “arrival” of something or someone- in this case, offering hope in the face of evil that assail the world during what Paul calls “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

In this sense, Advent is apocalyptic – a  “revealing” or “unveiling.” Unfortunately, apocalypse has become primarily associated with a terrible end to all things, but that’s not necessarily what the biblical writers meant when they used the word. Revelation, for example, is not an apocalypse simply because of what it says about the unfolding of terrible things in world history. It does unveil that, to be sure, but it’s an apocalypse primarily because of what it reveals or unveils about Jesus. In other words, an apocalypse may unveil terrible things, but it can also unveil wonderful things. In the Bible, apocalyptic literature like Revelation and Daniel does both.

So, Advent is about an apocalyptic time. The prophets in the Old Testament had ‘unveiled’ two things: what kinds of things God’s people did that was bringing judgment on themselves, and what a God of both justice and mercy was going to do about it.

The Israelites were God’s covenanted people; God had promised them that life lived within the framework of the covenant would bring great things. But they had a track record of remarkable disobedience, and they ended up living in exile in Babylonian.

Read Jeremiah’s Lamentations - or any of the Old Testament prophets, really. They unveiled the people’s continuing unfaithfulness to God and their covenant with God. There’s a gap of hundreds of years between the Old and New Testament where the Jewish people believed God was silent.  There seemed to be no hope.

It would have been easy to believe they had been abandoned by God: maybe he just wasn’t powerful enough to defeat the other gods; maybe He didn’t even exist; maybe he was angry beyond the breaking point. A God who existed and who proved himself a God without peers had promised not to abandon them, but despair can drive us to places where how we feel about life becomes confused with what we believe must be true about life.

This must have been a time when their faith was tested in ways that are hard to understand.  Or…maybe we do. It’s not as if followers of Jesus have stopped struggling with feelings of despair, abandonment, disillusionment, or loss of hope. 

But Jewish prophecy wasn’t simply about predicting something and then waiting for the fulfillment. It was often about pattern: showing how God has worked and is working so that the people will know how God will work. There was a constant uncovering of the eyes, constant apocalyptic glimpses of what is to come.[1]

The prophets made clear that their exile, and the silence of God for the centuries between the end of the OT and the beginning of the NT, was the reaping of what they had sown. God had told them what to expect if they broke the covenant to which they agreed. Now, they know He’s serious. And if that were the end of the story, that would be a grim story indeed.

But the prophets also helped them dream of a new world, a new way of life in faithful covenant, a time when a messiah sent by the God who had not abandoned them would rescue them from their unfaithfulness and exile. God was faithful with all His promises, after all, not just the grim ones. He had promised that they were His people and that He would be faithful - that, too, was unveiled.

Isaiah has pleaded, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.” (Isaiah 64:1) And on the cross, there was indeed a rending – not just of the skin of the Savior, but of the curtain in the temple, decorated with stars to represent the heavens, the curtain the separated sinful, unwashed, morally impure humanity from the Holy of Holies.

The Messiah had come. Those who live in great darkness will see a great light. (Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16) The hope of an age to come in which they lived in the light of God’s blessing shone with increasing urgency.

“Advent is a season of being caught between the way things are and the way they will be. Or, perhaps better said, between the way things seem to be and the way things really are. In other words, Advent is a season during which we long for apocalypse. But as the preacher of Hebrews reminds us, “Faith is the reality of what we hope for, and the evidence of what we can’t see.”  Advent is a season of faith. We light candles and trust that, as God has come before, so will God come again. We trust that no matter how dark the night, dawn is coming. We choose to hope. We choose to believe.”[2]

It turns out that the apocalypse is about a hope found in something beyond human history, something that is bigger than our personal or national cycles of optimism and despair. It is found in an incarnate God, one who arrives in the person of Christ (that’s the first advent), and one will return (that’s the second one).[3] During Advent season, we find hope in two arrivals: the one that changed history with a new covenant for His people, and the one that will wrap it up and make all things new.[4]

But we are in the middle of those two arrivals. And in that middle, it’s messy. And between the two bright lights of advent hope there are a lot of things that cast shadows. There are a lot of things that feel like exile, that feel hopeless, that cause us to question God’s goodness, or power, or existence. Advent season reminds us that we are asked to do something important:

“Stand a watch…as the ever-encroaching darkness draws near, and to ultimately give witness to the victory of light over night. And then to stand in its glorious beams and see all things be made new.[5]

Advent is about light emerging from darkness.[6] Advent is about the apocalypse, the unveiling of the truth about the world – which involves an honest look at not only the grim circumstances of a groaning world, but also the truth about the glorious Savior who has come to redeem and save.

“Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” This is as Advent a proclamation as I can imagine. We live in the ‘is’, between the remembrance of Christ’s death and the expectation of his coming again at the end of all things. This means we live in the fact of his risen-ness…We cannot always clearly see Christ, but knowing that Christ is risen means we can stand up and welcome Christ in the crisis. Death no longer has dominion over him. Death has no dominion over us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus—not the past, not the present, not the future. We wait for the end of all these things, but we look for Christ now, risen and gathering us for the end.[7]

We live in the ‘is’, between the remembrance of Christ’s death and the expectation of his coming again at the end of all things. I want to linger here this morning.

I read an article written by a Catholic who was acknowledging the terrible cost of the ‘apocalypse’ in the Catholic Church over the past few years, particularly the scandal of sexual abuse. He was noting the discouragement, disillusionment and anger in Catholics who were leaving the church. There was something about how he summarized it that has lingered with me.

“Some people can only handle as much as they believe they can handle, and it is no easy thing to stand where we are and watch darkness grow where the light is fading. It is unsettling, disorienting. Despite the risk of injury, we want to run, get away from the dark, because we can’t bear to stay within it. 

But that is what Advent is asking us to do: to stay. To stand a watch in the [twilight] as the ever-encroaching darkness draws near, and to ultimately give witness to the victory of light over night. And then to stand in its glorious beams and see all things be made new. 

And so this is what I want to say to my friends who have left, or who are struggling; those who are halfway out the doors, or think they soon will be: My dear sisters and brothers, Hold on! Hold fast, and don’t run at the revelation! Don’t try to run through the fearsome darkness! 

Stay for Advent and stand the watch with me, with your family, with all of us... Be willing, for now, to keep company with Christ, so deeply wounded by his own Bride. Consent, for now, to share in the hard times before us (they will yet get harder, the darkness will grow deeper, still) and help us to hold, to hold fast! 

Because the light is coming; the darkness will never overcome it. Remember that Isra-el means “struggle with God.” We are all little Isra-els right now, wrestling, wrestling within his house and seeking our Jerusalem, our Abode of Peace. Hold on! Hold fast! 

Because an Advent promise has been made to us, and God is ever-faithful, so we may trust in it: Your light will come Jerusalem; the Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty. This is for all of us. It is for you, and for me. It’s for every little Isra-el struggling. Your light will come. Just hold fast.”[8]

 What is going on your life right now? What is your struggle, perhaps even your struggle with God?

Is politics or culture wars overwhelming you? Does every election now feel like an apocalypse in the Hollywood way, an unveiling of the disastrous end of all things? Do it feel like America or the church as we know it is being upended, or that the future will hold only pain? An Advent promise has been made to us; God is faithful, so we may trust in it. Our light which rose as a Savior from the darkness of death and will come again, This is the hope revealed in the Advent that was and is to come.

Did you lose a loved one this year through death, or through abandonment, or through relational distance that feels like a death? Do you wonder if this grief and emptiness will ever end? An Advent promise has been made to us; God is faithful, so we may trust in it. Our light which rose as a Savior from the darkness of death and will come again, This is the hope revealed in the Advent that was and is to come.

Is your mental and emotional health on the line? If studies and private conversation are indication, a lot of us are struggling with depression, loneliness, and anxiety. Especially as winter moves in, things can feel bleak and lifeless. We wonder when we feel alive again. An Advent promise has been made to us; God is faithful, so we may trust in it. Our light which rose as a Savior from the darkness of death and will come again, This is the hope revealed in the Advent that was and is to come.

Is your family in crisis? Maybe a few apocalyptic years have simply unveiled cracks in family foundations that had been easy to cover up. We wonder if what has been broken can possibly be repaired. An Advent promise has been made to us; God is faithful, so we may trust in it. Our light which rose as a Savior from the darkness of death and will come again, This is the hope revealed in the Advent that was and is to come. 

Has being part of church been hard? Have you been frustrated with the way the church is present in the world?  Have you felt like God’s people are unsafe, or unpredictable, or just frustrating? An Advent promise has been made to us; God is faithful, so we may trust in it. Our light which rose as a Savior from the darkness of death and will come again, This is the hope revealed in the Advent that was and is to come.

I want to close with a famous Christmas song written as a result of the Civil War. It captures this in-between time, the reality of waiting in a life that is hard for a hope that is sure.

I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY[9]

I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each dark, accursed mouth, the cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent the hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn the households born of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head ; "There is no peace on earth," I said ; 
"For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead ; nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men!"

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[1] “Advent, the Apocalypse: A Constant Uncovering Of The Eyes.” https://www.patheos.com/blogs/sickpilgrim/2016/12/advent-the-apocalypse-a-constant-uncovering-of-the-eyes/

[2] “Anna And The Apocalypse And Advent.” https://www.reelworldtheology.com/anna-and-the-apocalypse-and-advent/

[3] “Why Apocalypse Is Essential To Advent.” https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/december-web-only/advent-apocalypse-fleming-rutledge-essential-to-this-season.html

[4] “Advent Apocalypse.” https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/3388/advent-apocalypse

[5] “AMIDST OUR APOCALYPSE, ADVENT ASKS US TO STAY.” https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/amidst-our-apocalypse-advent-asks-us-to-stay/5962/

[6] This darkness to light motif is thick in Scripture. We see the glorious beams of light that shine on new things over and over. Creation.: “Let their be light” and there is light that shines in the darkness; It’s in a plague of darkness in Egypt, God shows his freeing power; on a dark and stormy mountain, God reveals his covenant commandments to His people through Moses; Jesus’ birth was at night, in the shadow of the Herod’s palace, yet the light of the star and the Resurrection happens at night, and is revealed in the morning. The disciples are fishing before dawn, and the Resurrected Jesus appears in the morning.

[7] “Advent Apocalypse.” https://www.mnys.org/from-pastors-desk/advent-apocalypse/

[8] “Amidst Our Apocalypse, Advent Asks Us To Stay.” https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/amidst-our-apocalypse-advent-asks-us-to-stay/5962/

[9] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written while nursing his son back to health after a grievous injury in the Civil War.