Where You Were Then/Where You Are Now (Rom. 14: 1-13) 9/11/11

 In our trip through Romans, Paul has covered many subjects and doctrines, but the overriding theme is love, living in peace with everyone as far as it depends on you. If the actions of others go too far, then stand on Christian principle, but don’t retaliate. Leave that in God’s hands. Rather, hold fast to your spiritual ground. Don’t compromise core values and beliefs.

 Over and over, Paul exhorts us to live by the Golden Rule. Romans 12: 10 says: “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”  Romans 12: 21 mandates to “overcome evil with good.”  Paul’s “law of love” consecrates us to Christian life. God loves us and wants us. Peter tells us that God wants none of us to perish and is patient with us.  Paul pleads for us to  “…clothe [ourselves] with the Lord Jesus Christ…” and put aside our sinful nature.

          By this time of the morning ten years ago today, a lot of grim news had hit the United States, particularly in the cities of New York and Washington and for the passengers of United Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pa. Where were you then? Chances are that you remember exactly where you were when you first heard the news. What were your first thoughts?  I was getting ready for work. Cindy had already left. It was odd for me to be home that late into the morning, much less to have the TV on. Early morning programming was going on when it was interrupted by the news anchor, who came on to say that a plane, American Flight 11, had slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. I stopped to watch. Lots of speculation was going on, but what caught my eye and attention was that it was going to be very difficult to get fire control that high.

          In less than an hour, the second plane, United Flight 175, had hit the South Tower. In less than two hours, both towers had collapsed. By the end of the morning, 2,977 innocent lives had been lost. The figure includes 411 emergency workers, of which 341 were  New York City firefighters. It also includes the 40 deaths of those on United Flight 93 and 184 more at the Pentagon and American Flight 77 that hit it.  Although it is certainly a United States tragedy, it took on international proportions as more than 70 countries lost citizens in the attacks.

          After watching the second plane hit the South Tower, I knew it was no accident. I called my wife and then started calling my children. I needed to hear their voices. I remember crying as I watched people jumping from the towers in desperation. I called my sister and my brother. I needed to know where my loved ones were…that they were safe. I had many thoughts over the next hours and days. I was angry and hurt and frustrated and confused. I once worked in New York and had friends there. My wife Cindy had worked for years in the DC area and still had friends there. I remember thinking that it didn’t even matter whether I actually knew anyone involved. It was still personal, almost familial.

In the wake of this great tragedy, I did as the rest of America did. I went to church more. I prayed more and harder. I kept in touch with everyone and pledged money to the relief efforts. For six months after 9/11, Americans went back to church like they had not done for thirty years. Volunteers lined up for military enlistment. The spirit of brotherly love for fellow Americans and for first responders and men and women in uniform hit new peaks.  

United States soil and air space had been violated. In the weeks and months that followed, we all became painfully familiar with the face and agenda of Osama Bin Laden and the Islamic radical faction known as Al-Qaeda. We have to reach all the way back to Pearl Harbor and a World War in 1941 to find this, and even then it was a military operation against a U.S. Naval base on an island territory thousands of miles from our shores.

The War on Terror was launched against a practically faceless enemy. Now, ten years later, Iraq has been invaded by American forces, Afghanistan has been occupied by the same and Osama Bin Laden was finally killed by American forces just three months ago in his compound in Pakistan. The war on Terror has cost America thousands more lives. We are still trying to understand our enemy. Certainly U.S. support of Israel and continued American troop presence in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War contributed to anti-American sentiment among Al-Qaeda, but there is more that we simply do not understand. We do not understand that kind of hate.

Ten years later, what has changed? Al-Qaeda has been seriously undermined and its leader is dead. Billions have been spent on war and national defense. We now live a little more scared than we once did. We now are a little less trusting than we once were. There is more restriction on freedom, more government intervention. In post 9/11, no one is completely untouched.

Where are we now? Our religious pollsters tell us that the surge in church participation lasted about six months. Our spike in volunteering for military service lasted about the same amount of time. What else has changed?  Our world has gotten much smaller. The economy of tiny Greece can have after shocks on the American dollar. The plentiful and cheap workforce of China has taken its toll on American jobs. The internet has linked our world communication capability to nano-seconds and yet the great world religions still clash and wars are still waged in the name of this or that religious view.

When I think of 9/11, I can’t help but think of the many acts of heroism and sacrifice that accompany that black day in our history. I think of the quiet effective leadership of Rudy Guiliani as New York’s mayor. I think of Tom Burnett, who said “don’t worry, we’re gonna do something,” and flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw, who was preparing boiling water to throw at the hijackers, both on United Flight 93, and of the other passengers who rushed the hijackers and took back control of that aircraft. I think of those many first responders who went into the jaws of danger to help others and lost their lives in the bargain, never returning to their homes and families.

The remnants of confusion and fear of 9/11 are still with us today. They may always be with us. The world seemed to change that day. Our once inviolate shores are not so anymore. All the vigilance of all the defense agencies of this country can never completely guarantee that the horror of that day might not be repeated by some random act of calculated evil. That is part of where and who we are today.

But there is more to the story than that. 9/11 reminds us. 9/11 challenges us. For on the day when part of America was lying in the smoldering ashes of terrorism, yet another part was rising from that smoke and debris before the dust had even settled. It was the citizen militia of United Flight 93. It was the first, and second and third, responders of New York State and New Jersey and so many more over weeks and months. It was the Church, mobilized through Presbyterians and Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and yes, Muslims and so many more that gave…and went…and gave more. It was the best of all worlds. It was Christ in action. While men and women signed up in record numbers to enlist in the military and defend their country, so many more gave of their time and money to help the people of New York and Washington pick up the pieces and go on.

If the apostle Paul had been in New York on 9/11, he would have seen his sermon preached with shovels and rakes and hoes and bulldozers. “Do not overcome evil with evil. Overcome evil with good.” “Clothe yourself with Jesus Christ.” In today’s Scripture, Paul says that none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  9/11 showed that to us again and afresh. Bravery, heroism, unselfishness, sacrifice. Those are the celebrated lessons of 9/11. But there are other equally important lessons. 9/11 was about a fringe group, not a religion. It was about the politics of religion rather than its purity. It was about community; not going it alone. It was a day and time we all wanted to say: “I am a New Yorker.”  We all belong to the Lord, says Paul.

Have the lessons of 9/11 survived as much in our hearts as they have on the New York skyline? Let’s hope so. Where are you now? What will you keep in your memory from that dreadful day?  There will always be Bin Ladens. Will we as Christians always be there as well? Don’t judge your neighbor for his differences. Embrace him for his commonality as your fellow man. The peddling of hate and prejudice in the name of religion will never sell in the hearts of Christians. The Church is community in its highest and best definition. None of us lives to himself alone. None of us!          

It's Only Two Chapters (Rom: 8-14) 9/4/11

In Romans, Paul has written about many themes of Christianity, but in every instance he returns to one overriding principle. Paul teaches us that the conduct of believers is draped in love.  Saintliness has nothing to do with success or money or social rank.

Paul speaks of tolerance and love, but he also says to live in peace with everyone as far as it depends on you. When the actions of others go too far, Christians have to stand on principle. This does not give us cause to retaliate, which Paul reminds us to leave in God’s hands. Rather, we must hold fast to our spiritual ground. As Christians, we have core beliefs and values. Tolerance does not include compromising those values. When someone challenges your belief system, show them that your Christianity is a lifestyle and not just an opinion. Paul’s remedy for evil is “Overcome evil with good.” Paul reminds us that we really don’t have to fight evil as much as we have to respond to all things with Christian love.

In the Roman Catholic Church and other western traditions, consummation is the word we use to denote that a newly married couple has made love to one another. Until this act had taken place, at least historically, it was possible to annul the marriage.  In a broader sense, it is a signaling that a watershed event has occurred. It changes things. It is a mark that says this part is over, and now this other part has started. What is Paul talking about here? He says the hour is near, the night is almost over, the day is almost here.

This is a huge statement from Paul and Christians need to claim it like a birthright. The age of evil has begun its demise. Why? Because Jesus has triumphed! Paul is saying that we are in the last days. To understand this is to begin to understand the course of the Bible.

God creates mankind and gives it dominion over the creation. Mankind chooses to be disobedient through Adam, and falls into sin. Throughout the Old Testament, God is revealing himself to mankind through his relationship with the Hebrews. The Old Testament is littered with prophesy of he who is to come, the Messiah, the Savior of the Jews and ultimately of mankind. The New Testament bears witness to the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible could be said to contain only two chapters, and Chapter One is now written. The only other chapter is entitled the Day of the Lord, the day when Jesus comes again and ushers in the end of the age.

The coming of Jesus as a man is the consummation of Chapter One. The plan of redemption is engaged and the march is on. While it has taken two thousand years and may very well take hundreds or thousands more as God wills it, we are nevertheless in the last days. We are in the night, but the light has been promised and it will come again.

Listen to Romans 12: 10 again: “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” What an understatement! Not only does love not do harm, it does so much more! Remember how Paul ended Chapter 12? Overcome evil with good! Love is the engine that pulls that train. Paul talks about it here in the context of debt. He tells us to owe no man money, but exhorts us to go on owing the debt of love to each other every day. Origen was one of the great theologians of the early church. He lived in the 3^rd century, a time referred to as the Patristic period.  Origen had this to say about Paul’s comment: “The debt of love remains with us permanently and never leaves us; this is a debt which we both discharge every day and forever owe.”

If you can keep this overriding principle of social righteousness in your sights and live by it, you will have no trouble with the last six Commandments. These are the commandments having to do with relationships with others. They require  honoring parents, not committing murder or adultery or stealing or testifying wrongly or coveting your neighbor’s life, relationships and possessions. You just can’t break those commandments if you are loving your neighbor. Paul’s “law of love” consecrates us to Christian life. It makes us obedient to God without having to remember a rulebook. It’s so much easier doing than dealing with the don’ts. As A.B. Simpson says, it’s always better to have a principle than a manual. 

In God’s timing, we are barely an eye blink from the end of the age. As we are reminded in 1 Peter 3: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.” There’s a story about a young fellow who had a conversation with God about God’s concept of time. “How long is a thousand years to you?” asked the youngster. God answered, “About like a day to you.”  “Well, how long is a day to you?” asked the youngster. God answered, “About like a thousand years to you, I suppose.” Then the young fellow said “I’m getting pretty confused by all this calculating. When will it start to make sense to me?” And God replied: “In a minute.”

God is outside time. Time is a series of man-made calculations by which mankind attempts to understand the physics that God put in place at creation. Terms like light year and millennium are irrelevant to God. The trinity is self contained in its relationships and space. And yet, God loves us and wants us. Peter tells us that God wants none of us to perish and is patient with us. But both Peter and Paul warn that when the Day of the Lord comes, it will be like a thief in the night. There will be no other time to get ready. Getting ready is for right now.

We know that Paul thought that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and he spoke with a sense of urgency. His later writings, most notably in 2^nd Timothy, show him at the end of his life understanding that he will probably be martyred before Jesus comes again. The old Apostle John’s writing at the end of Revelation sounds much the same. But it makes no difference except to timing.  Both knew that Jesus would come again and usher in his kingdom, and both felt a sense of urgency to prepare believers and the Church for the suddenness of it.

Paul was haunted by the shortness of time and lived his life in a hurry, trying to reach all those that he could to witness the Good News. His urgency was not lost on St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), one of the great theologians of Western Christianity. Augustine is credited, among other things, with framing the concepts of original sin and just war and with expounding on the grace of Christ as indispensable to human freedom. It is said that upon reading verse 14 of this passage, Augustine was converted. As he walked in a garden, distressed and upset, he heard a voice saying “Take and read.” He seized a book of Paul’s writings from a friend and the first passage his eyes beheld said this: “…clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” In his own words, Augustine goes on to say: “With the end of that sentence…all the shades of doubt were scattered.”

Augustine’s discovery that day is no different from what awaits you and me if we will look for it. The Scripture can do us no good if we do not hear it, no good if we do not read it, no good if we do not, as Augustine did, ponder it. It contains revelation. It is the word of God himself. I love what Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the 19^th century English poet and philosopher, once said of the Bible. He said he knew it was inspired because: “It finds me.”

          Think on these things. Do you believe in Chapter One, that our Creator God loved the world so much that he gave his only son to live and die and be resurrected and ascend into heaven all for us; that whoever believes this shall not die but have everlasting life? Do you? If you do, then surely you believe in Chapter Two, that Jesus will come again in glory at the close of the age to judge, to redeem, to establish his kingdom forever? Do you?

If you do, you can live with meaning. You can live as though we are in the last days because whether or not we are as the people of God, we certainly are as the individual believers of God. You can live a beautiful, wholesome life by loving your neighbor as yourself. You can put that sinful nature behind by doing as St. Augustine did. You can clothe yourself with our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s more than conversion. It’s more than baptism. It’s way more than a worship service on Sunday morning. It’s renewal in an everyday all the time kind of way. Your “clothing” just can’t get more in style than that!         

Relationship Rules Inside, Outside, Side By Side (Rom.12: 9-21) 8/28/11

In Romans, Paul has been talking about living in Christ; about entry into God’s family as co-heirs with Christ;  about the Holy Spirit interceding for us; about Providence; that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Paul says confess out loud that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised Him bodily from the dead. That is the Gospel in a nutshell.

       We are called upon to be transformed into new persons that reject the patterns our world has set for us; to seek and develop our spiritual gifts. Our efforts in the church as Christ’s body help complete our transformation. Our act of spiritual worship is our act of becoming Christian.  “Real worship is the offering of everyday life to him.”

Paul mentions seven Spiritual gifts specifically, but his list is only representative of many gifts. They are our charisma, the gifts which we could not have acquired or attained by ourselves. Every body part has a function, usually performed with many other body parts. The church works the same way. Church is ecclesia; the gathering of God’s people. In it are many functions, and it takes the whole body to make it all work. Paul exhorts us to live our Christianity, to discover our spiritual gifts and to be members of the Body of Christ in all that we do, all that we say, all that we are!

In the first half of Romans 12, Paul asks us to present ourselves for worship as living sacrifices. In verses 9-13, he gives ten rules for our relationships with other Christians. Let’s take a look at Paul’s 10 Be’s:

·        Be sincere

·        Be intolerant of evil and cling to the good

·        Be devoted to one another

·        Be honorable to others

·        Be zealous in serving God

·        Be joyful in hope

·        Be patient in affliction

·        Be faithful in prayer

·        Be a sharer with the needy

·        Be hospitable.

Notice that we have just finished discussing spiritual gifts and the concept of one body and many parts, when Paul takes time out to talk about love. If this seems familiar, it is. It is not only the pattern for Romans 12, but also for 1^st Corinthians 12 and 13. The conduct of believers is draped in love. How do you do love? Hate evil for one thing. When you cling to what is good, you have no time to court evil. How do you live love? Be devoted. Honor one another. Serve God zealously so as not to fall back from your commitment. Such zeal will spawn the joyful hope, the patience in affliction and the faithful prayer life that reinforces that “living in love” that our Lord requires.  

The last two Be’s are both about sharing. One is with the needy and speaks to those around us who have unmet needs. The other has to do with sharing also, but probably speaks to strangers and travelers. Sharing and hospitality are part of the root system of Christianity. The Scottish theologian William Barclay calls Christianity the religion of the open hand, the open heart, and the open door.  

In verses 14-16, with one prefatory exception referring to blessing those who persecute us, Paul lays out rules and principles for relationships to neighbors and friends:

·        Bless those who persecute you

·        Be happy with the happy, sad with the sad

·        Live in harmony with one another

·        Get rid of pride and snobbishness

In America, we have little to fear from persecution for our beliefs. It wasn’t always so. The last fifty years has seen wholesale change in our responses to race and gender issues. The fact that Americans enjoy a measure of freedom unlike that of much of the world should make us empathetic with countries like Egypt and Tunisia and Libya whose rebel forces have spent this year overthrowing century old regimes of despots who have no interest whatsoever in personal freedom. In those countries, people are beginning to speak up for the first time in their lives. Just this week, I watched a 42 year old man in Tripoli being interviewed by a reporter. He said that this was the first time in his life that he could use the word “freedom” out loud without fear of reprisal. 

Ever notice that sharing the joy of another is sometimes a little tricky? It’s easy enough to share in sorrow, but not so easy to share in one’s success. Sometimes it comes off looking like envy, or mooching, and yet Paul calls on us to share not only in sorrow, but also in the success of others.

Living in harmony with one another probably speaks to maintaining peace in the church. The church is a melting pot of ideas, of passions and worship styles as we seek collectively to serve our Lord.  The recent actions of our own denomination in passing new ordination standards that appear to open the door to ordination of gays is a case in point. As we go forward, that harmony which Paul speaks to will be challenged as congregations and presbyteries struggle with the application of this new standard.

Finally, in this category dealing with relationships with neighbors and friends, Paul cautions us to get rid of our pride, to lay down our conceit, even to be willing to associate with people and jobs outside our comfort zone.  In the early days of Christianity, it is said that the Church was the only place where master and slave sat side by side. God will not judge us by our standards, but by his. Saintliness has nothing to do with success or money or social rank. Paul rightly points to the Church as the only place where earthly distinctions are of no importance.  

In the last verses (17-21), Paul instructs us on how to handle our relationships with those outside the church:

·        Conduct ourselves fairly for all to see

·        Live in peace with all

·        Keep away from taking revenge

Everything in these exhortations speaks of tolerance. Be fair to all.

Live in peace with all. Let your behavior and your actions be a witness to your beliefs. Be tolerant in the bad acts of others. Leave it for God to deal with such behavior. These are noble and exemplary aspirations, but difficult to put into practice. This very week, I was challenged personally in my application of this principle. As some of you know, I am also a landlord. We had to get rid of some bad tenants. We did, but they certainly made us pay for that action. They left our lovely little rental house in a total shambles. It will be costly to return it to fitness as a rental property. I spent some time cursing the day we ever became landlords and much more. I thought about how much I wanted to let this tenant have a piece of my mind. And then I thought about how Paul commands us here to be tolerant and to leave the vengeance to God. I also thought of how it would look to others if a man charged with witnessing the Gospel can’t follow this advice. I have to get on with my life and pray for these tenants. This is my witness this week. Think of how those outside the church will take note as they watch us in our Christian walk. And they do watch!  

But note this well. Paul says to live in peace with everyone as far as it depends on you. There may be times when the actions of others go so far as to cause Christians to have to stand on principle. This does not give us cause to retaliate, which Paul reminds us to leave in God’s hands, but rather to hold fast to our spiritual ground. There are core beliefs, core values which we know as Christians. Tolerance does not include compromising those values. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says it this way: “Each situation that holds prospect for a witness to the world should be weighed so that the action taken will not bring unfavorable reflection on the Gospel.”

I think this is particularly hard on teens today. Peer pressure is a tough thing to resist, and unfortunately, middle and high school are the laboratories where our character is constantly tested at a time in our lives when we have little experience with which to handle such pressure. It might sound cliché, but it is true nevertheless, that parents and grandparents have to be that cloud of witnesses that surrounds our youth with positive example. Take time to eat the evening meal together. Always pray at meals. Make room for nightly devotions. Keep the reading of scripture as part of your daily regimen. Parents, know where your children are and who they are with. When someone does challenge your belief system, show your children that your Christianity is a lifestyle and not just an opinion.

          I think that what Paul has done here in Chapter 12 of Romans is the same thing that he did in writing to a troubled church in Corinth. He takes time out from espousing doctrine and reminds us very beautifully and practically of love, God’s love and the love we grow in ourselves as we walk down the road of Sanctification. Here, Paul shows us what it looks like to be consecrated as Christians. He paints for us a picture of the person who is engaged in living out that Christianity at home, in the neighborhood, at church with other Christians, and in the workplace as well. This is the inside, the outside and the side by side of the Christian rules of relationships.

          Let me leave you with a story that A.B. Simpson relates in his Bible Commentary. Once upon a time, there was a willow tree growing in a garden. The willow simply would not grow branches on one side. All the efforts of the gardener in pruning and trimming were to no avail. The tree continued to grow, but in a distorted and lopsided condition. Finally, it occurred to the gardener to look beneath what he could see on the surface. He investigated. He dug down with his spade and, wouldn’t you know, he found a little stream on the side where the branches were growing. Then he knew why the tree did so well on one side. It did well on the side where it got attention and nourishment. The gardener, being a wise man and good at his craft, effected a cure. He dug a little channel on the barren side of the tree, allowing the stream to irrigate that side as well. You can imagine the result. It wasn’t long before the barren side of that willow tree responded to the nourishment afforded by the gardener’s care.

          Are our lives so different from that willow tree? Do we not respond to that which gives us attention, those who nourish us? The last verse in today’s lesson is Paul’s remedy for evil: “Overcome evil with good.” Weed out the evil by digging down just a little deeper to let God irrigate that barren side with his stream of light and goodness. Evil will be like the weed that was choked out by good gardening. Paul reminds us that we really don’t have to fight evil as much as we have to respond to all things with Christian love. That will fill our spiritual garden with the perfect mix. Overcome evil with good, inside, outside, side     

OPTIMUS PRIME AND THE ALLSPARK (Rom. 12: 1-8) 8/21/11

In our study of Romans, we have talked about living in Christ, about living a servant life of love in action doing God’s will. We talked about entry into God’s family as co-heirs with Christ Himself!  We talked about the Holy Spirit interceding for us; that the Holy Spirit knows our real needs. We talked about Providence; that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  

We show that love by yielding to His purpose; doing love.  We must get into the will of God. We don’t have the tools to work the puzzles of our lives without help from God through the Holy Spirit. We need to lean into the lion-strength of our heavenly Father.

Paul says confess out loud that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised Him bodily from the dead. That is the Gospel in a nutshell. Do that and you will be saved.  Christ brings the righteousness. He is as close as our hearts reaching out to him and our mouths confessing our belief. He has come to us. He meets us where we are!

Today, we will talk about calls, gifts and ministries. We are called to use our gifts in ministry. All of us have gifts. Some have more than one, but everyone has a gift and everyone is called to ministry. Our own Book of Order says that “members and officers alike serve mutually in the mandate of Christ, who is the chief minister of all” [old G-6-0101]. Our church bulletin acknowledges Jesus Christ as our minister, and indeed he is. Our Book of Order also says that [Christ’s] “ministry is the basis of all ministries.”

Today’s passage has multiple themes. I want to touch briefly on three of them. First, we are called upon to shed the conforming attitudes of the world and to be transformed into new persons that reject the patterns our world has set for us. Secondly, we are to seek and develop our spiritual gifts. Third, we are reminded that no gift is sufficient, no person complete in the body of Christ. It is only through our efforts in the church as the body of Christ that the transformation can be complete and functional.

You have all heard that art imitates life. So it is in the 2007 movie Transformers. Only in the movies can a Peterbilt 379 truck turn into a twenty foot tall robot named Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots (that’s the good guys for those of us who didn’t catch the movie). Or a Chevy Camero into an Autobot called Bumblebee. In the movie, the battle for the fate of earth takes place in Mission City in a quest for the Allspark. Sound familiar? The names are different, but the plot is not so far from the book of Romans…or Revelation.

Okay, I realize that one or two of you might not have seen the movie. As a matter of fact, I didn’t either. But it’s useful to us here because it so clearly illustrates the concept of transforming. Caterpillars metamorphosize into butterflies; tadpoles into frogs. Take this car, for instance (holding up a Transformer Car). It is the evolution of one being into another quite different being, but still constituted in the same elemental makeup as the original. Nothing is added. Nothing is subtracted. And yet, something is very different. In the movie, one might not recognize the changed being. The same might be said of the transformation that Paul describes for us in Romans 12. How many of you know others that, having become strong, practicing Christians, actually seem to look different from their former selves?

In the movie, Optimus Prime, leader of the benevolent Autobots, narrates the collapse of the Transformers’ home world, Cybertron. The Allspark is the key to rebuilding the universe, and both the Autobots and the Deceptikons (the bad guys) want it. Of course, the Deceptikons want to take over the universe, while the Autobots just want to restore it.  In the end, the Autobots Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet and Jazz, led by a pretty normal guy named Sam, prevail. Mission City is restored and all the Autobots can come to the new earth. Shades of Revelation!

Well, there’s nothing really magic about the movie Transformers, but it does illustrate how heroic is this story that we call the Gospel. It is played out on stages and screens all over the world in a myriad of different genres, but each of them tells the same story. Right triumphs over wrong. Good trumps evil.  In the movie, it turns out that the Allspark isn’t the key to civilization after all. It’s the cooperation of all the good guys pulling together. It’s the normal guys, linked together, that make it happen.

Transformation. Paul talks about renewal, specifically of our minds. But just before that, he petitions us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. The Greeks thought of the body as a vessel of the soul. The Hebrews viewed the human being as one unit. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says that Paul “views the body as the vehicle that implements the desires and choices of the redeemed spirit.” So we serve God through the body. It carries out the will of the mind.  Paul uses a very familiar analogy: the altar. God’s people were used to making animal sacrifices. Of course the animals were dead, so here Paul refers to us as living sacrifices.  The further implication is that we must become acceptable and pleasing to God.  Like the animals used for sacrifice, we need to be without blemish. In our present state we are not. We must be born again in order to be an acceptable sacrifice. Our act of spiritual worship is our act of becoming Christian.  

The world in which we live says otherwise. It says take care of yourself. Look after Number 1. Always hold something back. Is this your spiritual act of worship? Does that sound like transformation? I love what William Barclay says about true worship. “Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to him.”

Spiritual Gifts. That sounds nice. Ever feel like your neighbor has the whole list and you don’t have any? You’re in good company. So did Moses and Isaiah and many more of the saints. Paul says in verse 5 that he is talking to every one of us. No one is left out. Paul mentions seven gifts specifically, but this list is only representative. In 1^st Corinthians, 12, Paul recites another list which adds several more gifts. Paul’s list includes prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership and showing mercy. Some spiritual gifts are obvious, like preaching or teaching. Some are less obvious but equally important, like parenting and nurturing and listening. Paul calls these charismata. These are gifts given by God to believers. They may be enhanced by natural gifts, but they are imparted to us specifically to use for God as ministers. They are our charisma, the gifts which we could not have acquired or attained by ourselves. Each of us has that charisma, but it is up to us to discover and apply these gifts. What is your charisma?

Ever tried to walk with one leg? Cross a room with your eyes closed? Tie your shoes with one hand? Try it some time. Every body part has a function, and most of the time the function performed is in conjunction with many other body parts coordinating in the effort. I used to play baseball. You don’t play a lot of baseball unless you can hit. You can’t be much of a hitter without pinpoint coordination of eyes, hands, wrists, hips and feet. Each body part has a function to perform in order to hit a baseball. The church works the same way. Paul says that “in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” 

The church is people, not pews. It is not building, but people building. It is not God’s home, but rather a gathering of God’s people. It is noisy in God’s church. There are babies crying and teenagers fidgeting. There are widows and young mothers. There are young men and their grandfathers. Church is ecclesia; the gathering of God’s people. In that body are many functions, and it takes the whole body to make it all work. What part are you in that body? God knows you are part of it.

Unity in the work and purpose of the church cannot be overemphasized. Just imagine what happens when you break a bone or just have a bad cold. Your body doesn’t work right. Imagine this, too.  Music ministry with no instruments, or no choir. Youth ministry with no camps or programs. Sunday school with no teachers. Imagine a minister who brings the same sermon week after week or ushers that close the doors when the first 50 people have been seated for worship. This lack of diversity or self pride or depletion of all God’s gifts in a congregation will deform and cripple the message we have been charged to deliver. We need each other to do God’s work!

In the movie, trucks and cars transform into robots. They are personified with human attributes like pride and selfishness and greed. They also assume characteristics of honor and courage and persistence. In the world of Transformers, Mission City is saved from the Deceptikons for a nobler purpose. In our world, we look forward to the defeat of the Antichrist and a new Jerusalem at the end of the Age. In the movie, the key to peace lay in the proper use of the Allspark, which we may translate back to Romans as the spark of all, the key to true worship. This is what Paul strives to teach us. He exhorts us to live our Christianity, to discover our spiritual gifts and to be members of the Body of Christ in all that we do, all that we say, all that we are!  

AND ONE CAME BACK (Luke 17: 11-17) 8/14/11

Ever notice in your journey through the Bible that God likes the road less traveled? That the man or woman of the year isn’t likely to get a second look from God when He is casting the next act in the play? Who will father the nations of the world?  How about a 100 year old man through his barren wife? Who will deliver God’s people from Egyptian slavery? A shy, quiet talking 80 year old exile. Who will become the giant-killer and the king who has a heart after God? A ruddy teenage shepherd who is the runt of the litter. Who will save us from sin, from evil, from eternal separation from God? That young Nazarene; you know, Mary’s oldest son. 

So it is with ten lepers in the 17^th chapter of Luke. In a body of outcasts, the lone person to get the message is a Samaritan leper; the most unlikely; the outcast of outcasts. His only qualification for admittance to this group was leprosy. Common misfortune had broken down racial and national barriers, and the Samaritan leper was allowed to run with this Jewish group. Like animals fleeing a flood and standing together on the high ground, these otherwise mortal enemies banded together out of need.

The story of the ten lepers can be found only in Luke’s gospel, and it is layered with themes. It is a story of ostracism. It is a story of the kind of cruelty that arises from fear and ignorance. It is a story of ingratitude. It is a foreshadowing of the message of inclusion of all in God’s kingdom. It is a story of obedience. Above all, it is a story of faith and love. Fittingly, it is told by a doctor, the most likely person to distinguish between relieving symptoms and actual cures; between temporary relief and real wellness.

Since the end of the 9^th chapter of Luke, Jesus has been moving steadily toward Jerusalem, teaching and telling parables along the way. Luke’s introductory phrase reminds us of where Jesus is headed. Jerusalem, and the events which are to take place there, is the destination. What happens there is the ultimate revelation; the story to end all stories. But along the way, Jesus keeps clarifying not only what is to come, but also what our response should be. The exact location of this story is not revealed, but apparently it is a village somewhere along the border between Galilee and Samaria, a place where lepers from both territories share their misery. They stand at a distance, which is both custom and law. They do not try to approach. They cry out, not for healing, but for pity. These are the abandoned; the unforgiven. They live at society’s edge, forbidden to mingle with the healthy. They are the outsiders.

Do you know a leper? Chances are good that you do. Oh, I don’t mean someone with the actual disease. But leprosy had social implications as well. A leper could not mingle with “normal” people. The results of social leprosy are the same as the real disease.  Our society has new words for this condition: weird, geek, punk, nerd. You can name other terms. Today’s social lepers are no different from those in Jesus’ time. They don’t fit. They make you uncomfortable. They’re not popular. They dress wrong, or they smell, or they’re loud, or…you fill in the blank. Sometimes they group together, but more often, they keep to themselves. They are virtually invisible to us, except for the times we are getting out of their way.

For Jesus, of course, no one was invisible. He not only sees them; he calls out to them. He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. This is Jewish custom. For a leper to re-enter society, he or she must be declared healthy by a priest. Luke tells us that as they went, they were cleansed.

Luke’s account of this event is just a highlight reel. There are things we don’t know. Did the one separate from the nine and cross the border to go to a Samaritan priest? If he did, was it a shorter distance than the priest to whom the Jewish lepers went? Did the Jewish lepers have so far to go that they had not yet had time to return? According to Luke, all ten went, but only one came back. If all ten went, did they go out of obedience, out of faith, out of a “what have we got to lose” attitude? Luke doesn’t tell us. It’s fair to assume that initially, all ten had some grain of faith, because all ten were obedient to Jesus’ command and went. We really don’t know the whole story, but we are told what Luke wants us to know.

 Healing is typical of Jesus’ ministry. Faith and healing should bring praise to God, but not here. The failure of the nine to return and give thanks was typical of the response He was increasingly receiving. People came to Him for help and physical healing, not for the deeper needs He came to meet. And sometimes, they kept going without even a thank you. So often, when we have gotten what we want, we never come back.

We are not strangers to this concept. How many times have you gotten help, only to get so busy in your new found success that you forgot to thank the source of your good fortune? Parents: think of how many times you have had to remind your children to say “thank you.”   And how many times you have had a prayer answered, only to get on about your business, never getting around to really thanking God. Our memories can be incredibly short, and so can our loyalties.

Another theme here is that God’s grace extends beyond Judaism.  Jesus repeatedly preached to the Jews. He lectured the Pharisees about their rigid and petty adherence to the letter, rather than the spirit, of Jewish law. He gave many signs and parables to the disciples. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He went further.

Jesus doesn’t care how tall you are, or how rich you are, or how tidy you are, or what side of the tracks you come from. He makes it clear here that the people of God are the people who come to believe in God.  It is not through God that we see Jesus; it is through Jesus that we come to see God. 

   Now, we have talked about several themes that surface in this passage:

·        The ultimate revelation of Jesus’ sacrifice in Jerusalem.

·        Jesus has mercy on social outcasts

·        Obedience and faith come before real healing

·        Faith and healing should bring praise to God

·        God’s grace extends to all believers

But there is another theme here. I think it just might be the reason that Luke included this story in his gospel. To see this theme clearly, let’s look again at Verses 17-19:

          17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

18 Was no one found to return and praise God except this foreigner?”

19 Then he said to him, Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

So we have ten lepers cleansed, but only one made well. Is there a difference? To get the answer, it helps to look at the original Greek words in this passage. In Greek, the word for cleanse is katharizo, which means “to make clean or purify.” The word for well is so-zo, meaning “healed, preserved, saved, made whole.” That is the word used for the 10^th leper. Make clean or make whole? Do you see the difference here? All were made clean, but only one was saved.

          What is Jesus saying to us? Ten seemed to have faith. Ten seemed to be obedient. If anyone was disobedient, wouldn’t it be the 10^th leper? Luke tells us that when he saw he was clean, he came back. Apparently, he never made it to the priest, although that is what Jesus told them all to do. Is it just that the Samaritan is rewarded for saying “thank you?” I don’t think so. If not, then what is Jesus saying to us? 

          Remember the story of Mary and Martha in the 10^th chapter of Luke? Jesus comes to their home in Bethany, and Martha hurries around, making preparations, trying to be the good hostess. Meanwhile, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, intent on listening to everything Jesus has to say. Martha appeals to Jesus to get Mary to help her. Jesus’ answer is that only one thing is needed, and that Mary has chosen what is better.

In these parallel stories in Luke, Martha is like the nine lepers, and Mary is like the 10^th. Martha and the nine lepers mean well. They are dutiful. They are obedient. But Mary and the 10^th leper are something different. They are engaging in loving worship. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus. Can’t you just see her? She sits, not across the room, or in the corner, but at the very feet of Jesus, looking up and hanging on his every word. For Mary, this is no time to think about supper! Martha worries and frets about the details, but only one thing is needed, and Mary knows what it is.

Likewise, in the story of the ten lepers, the nine do what they are told. They are dutiful. They are obedient. But the 10^th leper is a different story. His is a lesson not only of obedience, but of loving, worshipping faith. When he sees what has happened to him, he comes back. He is no longer concerned with the ceremonial pronouncement of a priest. He’s not even concerned with the fact that his very re-entry into society lies in the pronouncement of that priest. He comes back, praising God in a loud voice. And he throws himself at Jesus’ feet. Only one thing is needed, and the 10^th leper knows what it is.

Do you know what it is? Do you know the one thing that is needed? Barbara Brown Taylor, one of the most renowned preachers in America and the author of many books, tells a story of a fellow she encountered when she was serving in a downtown Atlanta parish. The fellow, disheveled and unkempt, came into her church one Monday morning and prayed at the altar all day long. Periodically, he would rise to his feet, extend his arms toward heaven, and offer praise out loud. He came every day that week. When Sunday came, Rev. Taylor had to ask him to move because the Sunday service was about to start. He rose and smiled and told her “That’s okay.” With that he left, never to be seen again. Taylor tells of the impression he made upon her. As she looked out over the congregation of well dressed, tidy individuals and families, all sitting just so in the pews to which they had become accustomed, Taylor’s mind wandered to the strange fellow who spent the week at the foot of the altar where she now stood. Looking out over that sea of ritual obedience, she thought: “But where is this strange fellow who worshipped here all week. He’s the one I’m interested in.” For her, he was Mary, or the 10^th leper, the one who came back. He was the one who stopped what he was doing, who got off the bus, who fell on his knees and just loved back the God who first loved him.

How can you love Him back? We use words like worship and discipleship and stewardship. But what do we mean when we say these words? How do we show that? Stewardship for example. What is stewardship? It’s roughly synonymous with servanthood. I like that word. That word sounds like Jesus. So then, loving Jesus back is about serving him. We serve him not because we have to, but because we love him, and we want to show that love. But Jesus is in heaven. How can we serve him? He isn’t here. Don’t be too sure. Remember Matthew 25? “Inasmuch as ye have served the least of these, my brethren…” You know the rest.

So… how can we love Jesus? Any ideas? What can YOU do?  You can pray for a friend, bake a cake, buy a friend a donut, visit a neighbor, walk someone else’s dog, help someone across the street, stop and talk with that person asking for a handout, and do so many more little acts of love and caring.

There’s nothing wrong with coming to the same place at the same time and sitting in the same pew every week. There’s nothing wrong with putting on your Sunday best to come to worship. There’s nothing wrong with building buildings and having lots of fellowship and singing the old hymss and in general taking comfort from the rituals with which we have grown up. If we didn’t have the Marthas of the world, there would be no church buildings in which to worship. But even Martha had to be reminded by the Master himself that only one thing is needed, and that one thing was what Mary and the 10^th leper have to teach us.

The one thing that is needed is to sit, not in the corner or across the room, but at the very feet of Jesus. The one thing that is needed is to praise God in a loud voice and to throw ourselves at his feet. The one thing that is needed is to come back; to give back the love, not for the church, but through the church, to the God in whom we profess to believe.

Will you be one of the nine, who were cleansed, but not made well, or will you be the one who came back? For what Jesus wants from us is love, for him, and for our brother and sister, be they leper or Samaritan. And what he offers us is what the 10^th leper found that day: not just to be cleansed, but to be made well.

CONFESS & BELIEVE (Rom. 10: 5-13) 8/7/11

The last few weeks, we have been studying Romans. We  have talked about living in Christ, about living a servant life of love in action cultivated and nourished through prayer and obedience doing God’s will. We talked about entry into God’s family as co-heirs with Christ Himself!  

Last week, we talked about the Holy Spirit interceding for us even in our prayers; that the Holy Spirit knows our real needs; that God hears and answers that prayer. We talked about the need for making our prayers conditional, because we cannot see the future and we cannot know what God has in store for us. We talked about Providence; that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God makes it all work out for those who love Him and do His will.  

We show that love by yielding to His purpose. We do love.  We must get into the will of God. We don’t have the tools to work the puzzles of our lives without help from God through the Holy Spirit.

Last, we talked about leaning into the lion-strength of our heavenly Father. that nothing can separate us from God’s love, that it transcends all problems and all perils.

Today, we turn to a little piece of Romans 10 buried in the middle of a three chapter section on the fate of the Jewish nation. Summarizing that section, the Jews tried to get to heaven on the Law.  While many Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah, not all of them did. The first Christians were Jews. As time went by, Paul reached out to the Gentiles, who became the “engrafted branch” on the tree containing God’s chosen people. The stumbling of the Jews, according to Paul, opened the door for inclusion of the Gentiles. Regardless of the rejection of Jesus’ messiahship by many Jews, Paul points out that a remnant will survive and will indeed enter the kingdom of heaven. He reminds us that the choice, the election, is based upon God’s will, not ours; that ultimately salvation always will depend upon who believes in Jesus.

In the sandwich of this segment describing the fate of the Jewish nation come these ten verses. They were a favorite of the evangelist Billy Graham. They use terms like confession and belief and vessels such as mouth and heart. They talk about spreading the word. Let’s read it in reverse, starting with verse 13.

Remember Andrew, the brother of Peter? He was called the Bringer. He brought the future disciple Nathaniel to meet Jesus. He brought the boy who had the five loaves and two fish which fed the five thousand. Andrew makes bringing a calling. Paul makes the same claim for those who witness: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” He outlines the conditions to calling upon Christ and being saved. The context is the opportunity for the Jews to hear the good news, but it rings true for us as well. First, there must be a preacher sent from God (“how can they preach unless they are sent?” 15). Second, the message must be proclaimed (“how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” 14c). Third, the message must be heard (“how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?” 14b). Fourth, the message must be believed (“How can they call on the one they have not believed in?” 14a). These are the elements to bringing the good news: a sending, a proclamation, the hearing of the word and belief of the word.

Look at verses 10-13. Dr. Graham used them to illustrate that one has to make a public confession. Paul says “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” This is the Gospel in a nutshell.  Beneath that confession lies a body of theology as deep as the ocean itself, but still, the Gospel is no more complicated than those two simple statements. Confess out loud that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised Him bodily from the dead. That’s it. Do that and you will be saved.  Christ brings the righteousness. Paul says that Christ is the end of the law, Jesus has enough righteousness for everyone who believes.

Verses 5-9 are a little complicated. They do explain the “end of the law” comment that Paul made. We no longer need technical legalism to build upon, rung by rung, trying to reach heaven. Nor do we have to go to hell to find Jesus. He is here. He is as close as our hearts reaching out to him and our mouths confessing our belief. He has come to us. Think about it. Why else would he have come to earth? Why else would he have lived a human life? Why else would there be a death? And why would there be a need for a resurrection? Because God comes to us! He meets us where we are! And he takes us in his arms and says believe in me and you too will be righteous! That is what Paul wants for the Jews, but it is also what he preaches to his adopted people, the Gentiles.

Let me illustrate the point with a personal story. My father was a fine man; a Christian who taught Sunday school many years. But he had a drinking problem most of his life. There came a time when that changed. His life was different. He never completely quit drinking, but it never was a problem again.  To this day, I am still so proud of him for a simple act of contrition…of admission. “I am an alcoholic,” he said. He never made that admission to me, but he made it in public to an AA group who understood its meaning. Of all the things I have come to admire about my father, that confession ranks very high on my list.

Confessing like my Dad did is very similar to what our Lord requires. He wants acknowledgement from us. Doing that opens the door to real freedom and sheer humanity. Confess that Jesus is your Lord. Believe that God raised him from the dead. These statements give us the basis of the first Christian creed, says William Barclay. This is not only knowing Christ the martyr, but also Christ the victor. says Barclay. Trust that he ascended into heaven and sits on God’s right hand. When you say this, you are saying Jesus not only lived—he lives!

Trust the words of the apostle Paul, who appeals here for us to abandon any marriage to legalism and accept God’s grace. He quotes the prophet Joel: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Whatever differences there may be in people groups, the need for our Savior and the access to salvation sees no color, no geography, no gender, no fences or walls.  It does not matter whether we are Jew or Greek, Presbyterian or Baptist, Republican or Democrat, African, Asian or American…”the same lord is Lord of all” (v.13). Call on His name. Believe that He rose from the dead. And be saved!