Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 94

Weak Before God; Strong Before Men

Ps. 71:1-6 “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.”

There’s often a significant misunderstanding in the world about what it means to be childlike and vulnerable and needy before God. For many, this kind of weakness is the very reason they will not turn to God at all. They see mushy masses of people without backbones, without vision, without ambition, and there is nothing attractive about Christianity to them. This is mostly pride and arrogance, a refusal to submit their lives to Jesus. But there is a hint of truth in it because in fact many people mistake this kind of neediness in the presence of God as a way of life.

But this is not the way David lived. This is the way David prayed. And he prayed this way so that he might live boldly, courageously, in God’s strength. The great irony is that when we are weak before the world it is because we have not been weak before God. But when we humble ourselves before God, confessing our weakness and need, He sends us out to face the giants of the world in His strength. When you continually turn to Him, when you continually take refuge in Him, you find that His praise is continually on your lips because He hears and answers, because He goes before you as your rock and fortress: to forgive your enemies, to love your spouse, to train your children, to reach out to your neighbors with the love of Christ.

The Threat of Grace

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: Jer. 1:1-10, 1 Cor. 13:1-13, Lk. 4:21-30

Introduction

Epiphany is the season that celebrates God’s glory bursting out into this world through Jesus. This began at His birth, but it went public at His baptism, in His miracles, and through His preaching and teaching the Scriptures. In many ways, we can hear all of this like the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, and we marvel at these gracious words (Lk. 4:22). And yet, for some there’s already a hint of nervousness, and for others it’s about to break out in a furious shock. And this is because we are so easily tempted to try to domesticate the grace of God.

Jeremiah & Moses

Jeremiah reminds us of Moses in some ways. He ministered for around forty years in Judah (Jer. 1:2-3: Josiah 18 yrs, Jehoiakim 11 yrs, and Zedekiah 11 yrs). Moses also protested the call of God like Jeremiah protested his calling (Jer. 1:6). Moses had grown up in Pharaoh’s court and faced the shame of (apparently) turning on those he had grown up with (also making him suspect to Israel). Jeremiah was the son of a priest and grew up closely connected to the ministry of the temple in Jerusalem and faced the shame of announcing its destruction (Jer. 1:1). Like Moses, Jeremiah’s ministry was to proclaim the destruction of an old world and the beginning of a new one. But for Moses, deliverance was leading the people out of captivity in Egypt into the freedom of Canaan. For Jeremiah, the mission was to lead the people out of Canaan into captivity in Babylon. This mission is hinted at in Yahweh’s opening commission: “I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Whereas Moses oversaw the construction of the tabernacle, Jeremiah is called to oversee Israel through the destruction of the temple. Jeremiah is commissioned to lead faithful Israel to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and to settle in Babylon for 70 years (Jer. 25-29). And Jeremiah barely escapes being put to death for this (Jer. 26).

Jeremiah & Jesus

It’s actually a very similar message that Jesus brings to His hometown of Nazareth. While they are initially impressed with Him, and perhaps rather proud of their hometown boy, it’s His talk of the gentiles that completely scandalizes them (Lk. 4:22-29). Like Moses and Jeremiah, Jesus is the culmination of God’s resolute purpose to display the glory of His grace. And we are all too much like Egypt and Israel and the Jews of the first century. We like grace at the beginning, but we don’t want it to go all the way down. Like the foolish Galatians, we want to pretend that you begin by faith but then you finish by works or that we begin by the Spirit but we are perfected by the flesh (Gal. 3:1-3). We want the Isaiah prophesy to apply to us and to our friends and perhaps some outsiders (for our promotional literature), but what if God in His sovereign grace passed over lots of us for the people we most despise and hate? Jesus says this very thing to His hometown: there were many widows in Israel during that great famine, but Elijah went to one in the idol-worshiping land of Sidon (Lk. 4:25-26). And there were many lepers in the days of Elisha, and they weren’t healed – only Naaman the military leader of the ISIS in their day was healed (Lk. 4:27). And the Jews want to put Jesus to death (Lk. 4:29).

Jeremiah & Paul

We are so accustomed to hearing Paul’s famous description of love that it’s easy not to actually hear it. In context, Paul is talking about how grace works in the life of the Church, in the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12). On the one hand, the Christian Church is this international, inter-generational, multi-ethnic people. Corinth is already the beginning of what Jesus announced in Nazareth. And what a mess it was! On the one hand, this is why the Jews (and the Judaizers after them) didn’t want to do it. It’s safer and cleaner not to invite recovering idol worshippers, homosexuals, pedophiles, drug addicts, and scammers into the Church (cf. 1 Cor. 6:9). When you do that, you have to teach them how to repent, and that’s a messy business. But as soon as they all start repenting and walking in grace, Paul knows it’s as easy as dropping your hat for that exact same grace to start being domesticated. That starts inside the Church when we begin to draw new lines about who’s in and who’s out, who’s really important and who isn’t (1 Cor. 12:21). It’s messy to keep needing grace, but when we start riding the breaks, we are trying to control God’s grace. God gives gifts, but Paul says that without love, your gifts are worthless (1 Cor. 13:1-3). It’s true that God gives gifts to His people, but He gives those gifts for the good others, as expressions of His grace.

Conclusions

Grace reaches out and reaches in, and it is grace precisely because it is undeserved and unprepared for favor (Rom. 5:6-10). But when God reaches in, our sin has to be broken down. On the large scale, this often means whole kingdoms have to be plucked up and broken down, destroyed and overthrown, before they can be built and planted (Jer. 1:10). The gospel is this message to us, to our neighbors, and to the whole world. And this is a terrifying message. We, like Jeremiah, immediately feel our immaturity, our ignorance, our weakness. But God says: “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth.’… Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord” (Jer. 1:7-8).

Where is God calling you to let grace reach out or reach in? Do you have private, personal hurt or sin that eats at you? Do you resist the Spirit by limiting where He can go in your life? Or have you let grace in to your life and now you wonder if you can survive? Are you tempted to go back? Sometimes grace means standing still and waiting on the Lord. Are you tempted to despair at the state of our country? God has sent us to this place, at this time. Do not be afraid; I am with you, declares the Lord.

Jesus came and announced that the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, the healing of God was for all the nations, for all of you, for all of us – and unlike Jeremiah, Jesus was executed for this treason so that it might be accomplished. This is the light that has come into the world.

The Glory of God’s Word

Third Sunday after Epiphany: Neh. 8:1-12

Introduction

Bible reading has always been a hard topic. It has always been a topic that tends to guilt and sorrow. This is because we know that we are sinners, and the perfect law of liberty is a mirror that shows us who we really are (Js. 1:22-25). This is also because we have a sense that we never do enough, that we never measure up. This is why the story of Nehemiah and Ezra reading the law to Israel is for all of God’s people, every generation.

Seriously Solemn

The whole scene has a ring of solemnity to it. The leaders have gathered all the people together and asked Ezra to bring out the book of the law (Neh. 8:1). And there is a great deal of elaboration, setting the scene: all the men and women and any one else who could understand are assembled (Neh. 8:2). They have assembled on the first day of the seventh month, which turns out to be the day of the feast of Trumpets (Neh. 8:2, Lev. 23:24). Ezra reads the law facing the people, and the entire assembly apparently lasted for several hours of the morning (Neh. 8:3). All the people listen carefully, and there were thirteen men standing up with Ezra as he read, six on his right, seven on his left (Neh. 8:4). Ezra stood on a high wooden platform and opened the book for everyone to see (Neh. 8:5). And as he opened it, all the people stood up (Neh. 8:5). At some point before or after or perhaps even during the reading, Ezra proclaimed a blessing on the Lord God, and the people answered by saying, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands, and bowing down their faces in worship to the ground (Neh. 8:6). Another thirteen men who were Levites helped the people to understand the reading while they remained on the ground (Neh. 8:7). The reading was done so that they people could understand it, and this may mean that it was explained verse by verse or paragraph by paragraph, but the point is that it was read and explained so that the people understood what it meant (Neh. 8:8). The narrative underlines the formality, the liturgy, the solemnity. There is a sense in which this is absolutely true and right, but there is also a sense in which they (and we) can get this all wrong.

Why God Talks

It’s true that Scripture is God’s Word. And this does mean that it is holy and true and authoritative. We should honor it, love it, and treat it respectfully. But our first impulse when we think of the Bible, Bible reading, and Bible study should not be dread, guilt, sorrow, despair. Another way to get at this is to ask the question: Why does God talk? And even more specifically: Why does God talk to us? When the people heard the Scriptures read and understood them, they mourned and cried (Neh. 8:9). Sometimes we cry when we feel conviction: when we are convicted of sin, or when we’re convicted of unbelief, lack of faith in God’s care. But Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites tell the people not to cry (Neh. 8:10-11). This is not because conviction is wrong, but because something even bigger is going on. Conviction is good, but Nehemiah says that when you hear the Bible read and explained, it is not because God is out to correct you. It is not because God knows that you’ve missed the last two weeks of Bible reading. When God speaks to His people, the first and most fundamental reason is because He’s happy. And therefore, when He speaks the appropriate response of faith is joy. This is why Nehemiah scolds the people and tells them to wipe their eyes and be quiet and start feasting. It is a holy day. It is a day of God’s Word and God’s presence, but that is not a sad thing for God’s people. That’s a happy thing, a joyful thing. “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). In context, where did that joy come from? It’s certainly not the people. They don’t have joy. They are sad and sorrowful because they haven’t read the law in a very long time. But Nehemiah corrects them and insists that hearing God’s Word is the sound of His joy.

Conclusions

God’s Word is a Trumpet: It’s no accident that this episode takes place on the first day of the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets. This feast was a memorial of the time when God spoke to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai (Ex. 19:13-19, 20:18). As in the days of Nehemiah, the people of Israel were afraid when God spoke, and Moses commanded them not to fear (Ex. 19:16, 20:18). One of the curiosities of this Nehemiah text is that if you keep reading, the people immediately begin to celebrate the Feast of Booths, but there is no mention of the Day of Atonement which was supposed to be the tenth day of the seventh month, right before Booths (Lev. 23:26-32). I’m not sure what that means, but at least in terms of the narrative, this day of Trumpets seems to stand in for it. Think of the Father in the parable who doesn’t even give the lost son an opportunity to confess his sins and just buries him in a giant bear hug and calls for the party to begin. That’s your Father when you open His Word, playing His trumpet with joy over you.

God’s Word is Food: When Ezekiel began his ministry, God commanded him to eat a scroll. And when he did it tasted like honey (Ez. 3:1-3). Likewise, David says that God’s word is sweeter than honey and drippings from the honeycomb (Ps. 19:10, 119:103). Remember what Jesus told the devil when He was tempted to turn a stone into bread: Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Dt. 8:3, Mt. 4:4). God’s word is food. On the one hand, this is why we don’t eat because every meal is a feast: we eat because we’re hungry. And on the other, we often need to train our taste buds and plan to eat well.

God’s Word is Food to Be Shared: Joy is delight shared. In fact, something amazing and wonderful is a much lower ceiling of delight than when it is shared. This is why when we find something good, we instinctively want to tell someone, share it with someone. This is part of the amazing grace of God in Jesus, and His delight in us and all He has made. He made it, and He still thinks it’s loaded with goodness. And He sent His Son into the world, His Word made Flesh, to dwell among us to share His delight with us. Evangelism is really this aim, this mission, to share the goodness of God so that our joy will be complete (1 Jn. 1:1-4). This is why reading and discussing the Bible together is so crucial. This is what we do every Sunday in worship, but it’s part of what we were made for.

The point isn’t to feel bad about how spotty your Bible reading is. The point is to throw a party because our God speaks. And He speaks because He’s happy. And therefore, you need to go home and rejoice.

What the Angels Are Trying to Figure Out

One of the common objections to the Christian faith is the supernatural. People object to claims that miraculous events have happened, which are not immediately repeatable. At the center of this objection is not having Jesus right here, walking around proving Himself. If Jesus really rose from the dead, why doesn’t he remain here on earth, showing himself to everyone, so that everyone will believe?

First off, we should point out that the very nature of a miracle or the supernatural is non-repeatable. Or at least, it cannot be summoned at our beck and call. Otherwise it isn’t miraculous or supernatural. It’s just natural. If we accept the testimony of most men from most cultures we have to believe that sometimes miracles do occur. If you refuse to believe in miracles, you must refuse to believe the testimony of most human beings throughout the history of the world. But if we believe that sometimes the unexpected happens, sometimes the ordinary laws of nature are suspended, then we must reckon with the question of why or how this is possible.

The Apostle Peter gives two reasons why many have chosen to believe the claims of the Bible and in particular, the story of Jesus of Nazareth. First, he says that even though most Christians have not seen Jesus, they have a deep, abiding joy and are filled with glory, which is the beginning of the salvation they have obtained (1 Pet. 1:8-9). While this could be construed as pure mysticism, Peter continues and connects that salvation with the careful inquiry and diligent study of the Jewish prophets (1 Pet. 1:10-11).

Mysticism is not a careful study. It’s a random, irrational belief in vague, spiritual realities. But this is where the Christian faith parts ways with mysticism. While the Christian faith is thoroughly supernatural, and as Peter explicitly points out, is driven by the work of the Holy Spirit, it is nevertheless the sort of religion that values careful searching and diligent research.

Christianity has the audacity to posit a way of life that holds these two realities together, the natural and the supernatural, history and faith. These are not opposed anymore than our reason and emotions are enemies. And perhaps this is at least part of why Christians are so full of joy and glory. Because they are constantly invited to be fully human, to embrace all that God has created, without having to choose between one or the other. Because Jesus has embraced all that it means to be human, suffered for our sins, and risen from the dead, He has redeemed it all. And I suspect that’s a big part of what the angels always longed to look into (1 Pet. 1:11-12).

Jesus On Time

Second Sunday After Epiphany: Jn. 2:1-11

Introduction

The season of Epiphany is all about coming to understand who Jesus is. John’s gospel specifically says that Jesus is the glory of God the Father and then proceeds to explain what that means through a series of signs, written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and have life in His name (cf. Jn. 20:31). This first sign is the “beginning of signs,” and it focuses on the connection between time and joy. Think about the phrases we say and hear: “time is money,” “waste of time,” “timing is everything,” “wrong place at the wrong time,” “a good time,” or “once upon a time.” These may just be short hand expressions for how things appear, but our view of time has an enormous effect on what we believe and how we act and live. This story presents us with the difference between time as despair and time as joy.

Do Whatever He Tells You

This episode is tantalizingly sparse. This is the “third day” apparently after Jesus met Nathanael, who incidentally was from Cana (Jn. 1:47-51, cf. Jn. 21:2, so perhaps the wedding was for a friend or relative of his). This “third day” is also the sixth or seventh day mentioned by John in his gospel (Jn. 1:1, 29, 35, 43, 2:1). John says that Mary was there, and that Jesus and His disciples were also invited (Jn. 2:1-2). John makes very little to do about the fact that the wine ran out, but most commentators agree that this really was something of a community crisis. Weddings were not merely family events, but community and civic events, often lasting many days. This would be perhaps something like the county fair losing electricity or the grocery stores all running out of basic staples the week of Christmas or Thanksgiving. In contrast to many other miracles, no one’s health or life is in danger. This is a significant community disappointment. Mary’s statement to Jesus is intriguingly understated, “they have no wine” (Jn. 2:3), and we are left wondering many things. What does Mary think Jesus can or will do? Perhaps there have been other moments like when Jesus disappeared for three days as a twelve year old boy (Lk. 2:41-51). But apparently Mary knows that Jesus cares. Likewise, the answer of Jesus seems almost completely off topic. “Why does this concern us? My hour is not yet come” (Jn. 2:4). In John’s gospel, the “hour” for Jesus often refers to His passion and death (cf. Jn. 7:30, 8:20, 12:23-27, 16:21-32), but it also refers to the “hour” when certain, significant events come to pass (Jn. 4:21-23, 4:52-53, 5:25-28, 16:2-4). At the very least, Jesus is saying it’s not time for him to do anything. And yet Mary’s response is an intriguing, “Do what whatever he tells you” (Jn. 2:5).

The Good Wine

The miracle itself is also simple and understated. Given the sparse nature of this narrative, the detail given for the jars and their filling is startling. This is the center of the story: six stone water jars for purification (Jn. 2:6). The stone water jars would have been fairly large, holding 20-30 gallons a piece, with a total of 120-180 gallons between all six jars (24-36 five gallon Culligan jugs). Filling those jars would have taken some time, and John says they filled the jars to the brim (Jn. 2:7). Given all the emphasis on time in this story, it’s hard to miss the moment when Jesus finally says, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast” (Jn. 2:8). Now it is time. Now is the hour. The words of the master of the feast are also loaded with meaning. First, notice that he indicates whose job it is to provide the wine for the wedding feast: the bridegroom (Jn. 2:9-10). Jesus has clearly played the role of bridegroom at the wedding feast. Second, the master of the feast underlines the timing of the bridegroom: “you have kept the good wine until now” (Jn. 2:10). Lastly, notice the subtle parenthetical comment of John: the master of the feast didn’t know where the wine had come from, but the servants who drew the water knew (Jn. 2:10). John says this the beginning of the signs of Jesus that manifest His glory, and it was on the basis of this first one that His disciples believed in Him (Jn. 2:11).

Timing & the Gospel

Broadly speaking, people believe that time is either cyclical or linear. But apart from a loving, sovereign God, time is either endlessly repetitive or it is endlessly chaotic. But in either case, there is little to hope for. In those cultures influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism, karma tends to dominate popular imagination. There may be some rearranging of the furniture, but everything ultimately repeats and balances out. What goes around comes around. Or if time is linear but is the end result of time and chance and matter, driven by the blind determination of natural selection, life is a crapshoot. And incidentally, this is why constant change and reinvention come to be seen as positive goods. Anything can become anything, and that’s the only way of survival. But this is ultimately still a worldview of despair.

When you hear Mary say, “they have no wine,” think about all of the disappointments of life, all the temptations to despair: “I have no husband,” “We have no children,” “My children are disobedient,” “My wife left me,” “I hate my job,” “My parents despise me,” or “I’m lonely.” We fear that this is just the way the world is. And perhaps the greatest fear beneath it all is that we’re running out of time, that we’re wasting our lives (or maybe it’s already too late). It’s no accident that the first miracle of Jesus is a wedding, perhaps one of the most universal expressions of joy in time, the culmination of waiting, longing, loving breaking out into beauty and glory. Jesus chose to demonstrate His glory here at this point where it seems natural selection and karma have struck again. And Jesus meets us there and doesn’t deny the significance of time. He doesn’t say it’s an illusion. He says “not yet,” and then He says, “Now.”

Christian Life & Timing

Part of the point of this first sign is seen in the jars of water for purification. Remember in the old covenant everything had to be constantly washed, cleansed, purified from ceremonial uncleanness. Part of the point of all the washing was to remind people that sin has a way of messing with everything, infecting everything. Deep down, everyone knows that it’s not just a karma problem or a random chance thing, but no matter how hard you try, you keep messing up. We have a sin problem. It’s no accident that Jesus turns that water into fine wine. Jesus came to cleanse us from all unrighteousness by His blood. The cup of wine we share is the blood of the new covenant shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. This cup is wedding wine, and He gives it to you knowing everything about you.

Lastly, notice all the ways that Jesus is making wine in your life. Are you raising young children? Are you single? Are your children leaving home? First, remember the faith of Mary: Tell Jesus when you run out. And then remember Mary and the servants. Mary knew to tell Jesus, and when He says it’s not the right time, Mary nods and (perhaps with a twinkle in her eyes), tells the servants: Do whatever He says. And they do. This is like Elisha telling Naaman to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times (2 Kgs. 5:10). It is not our job to understand. It’s not our job to create joy, to fix everything, to come up with the wine. It’s our job to tell Him about the need and then do what He says up to the brim. He may often say it isn’t time yet, but do not doubt His care. His now will not be too late. He is able to work all things according to His good pleasure. He redeems all things. He makes everything beautiful in His time.

Good News for 2016

[Note: sermon audio is here]

Second Sunday in Christmas 2015

Jer. 31:7-14, Eph. 1:3-14, Jn. 1:1-18

Introduction

As we embark as a congregation on this new calendar year, I want us to begin where Christians must always begin with the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. If this diamond has many sides to its glory (and it does), I want to focus particularly on the side that proclaims salvation as preservation. Christmas is not merely the announcement that salvation is now possible. It is also the announcement that by the same power that made the Word flesh, all who believe in Him are truly born again.

The Mystery of Sin

Before we get to the good news, we really do need to review the bad news. In the beginning, God created all things good, and He created people, a man and a woman, as His image bearers (Gen. 1:26-31). They enjoyed perfect harmony and fellowship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. God told Adam that every tree was food for them and only one tree was off limits (Gen. 2:16-17). And He told Adam that if he ate from that tree, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). In the face of this clear command, Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate the fruit (Gen. 3:6). And when they did, they began to experience death. They felt guilt and shame. They felt naked and exposed (Gen. 3:7). As a result of their sin, God explained that they would begin to experience separation and brokenness and pain in their relationships with God and one another and the world (Gen. 3:14-18). And eventually, their physical bodies would die and return to the dust (Gen. 3:19). Thus, the Bible describes this first sin of Adam, as a covenantal sin, which has disoriented the whole human race. In Adam, all have died, all have chosen sin, all have fallen short of the glory of God and participated in the disfiguring of this world (Rom. 3:10-23, 5:12-14). And the wages of this sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Sin is separation from God, and every sin is a choice to go further away from the life-giving presence of God. This is why sin is described as wandering in a foreign land (Jer. 31:8). It’s a state of being lost and blind and lame (physically and spiritually) (Jer. 31:8). It’s confusion and pain and shame and hunger, and being powerless to change (Jer. 31:11). It’s a sickness you can’t recover from. It’s a sap you can’t get off your hands. It’s a contamination you can’t purify.

The Good Shepherd

This is why Jeremiah’s prophecy and promised salvation in Christ cannot merely be a new start, a fresh start. It cannot merely be a reversion to Adam’s original state. This is for at least two reasons. First, that wouldn’t match the joy promised (Jer. 31:12-13). A do-over would be gracious, but there’s no guarantee that we’d do any better. Return to an Adamic state would be cause for some rejoicing but also a lot of trepidation. But second, it doesn’t match what is actually promised. God promised that the seed of the woman would deliver a mortal blow to the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). It is not merely a do-over if our chief enemy is dead. Related is the fact that the kind of salvation promised includes “consolation” and preservation: “I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel… For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him… their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more” (Jer. 31:9, 11). Likewise, Paul describes this salvation as adoption and guarantee: “He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ… In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will… In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it…” (Eph. 1:4-5, 11, 13-14). Or hear John: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12-13). And the point is that all those who know Jesus have seen God’s glory, and to be grasped by that Fatherly love is to be embraced by a love that cannot be broken (Jn. 1:14, 18).

Receive Him & Believe in Him

This is the age-old gospel, and it is still new every day, every year because it still makes old sinners into new men. So as we begin this new year together, take a moment and clear your heart and mind of all the other things. Jesus the Good Shepherd has come for you in your darkness, in your sin, in your shame, and because He is the Good Shepherd He laid His life down for you, gladly and freely (Jn. 10:11ff). And then three days later, He took it back up, triumphing over all the darkness and guaranteeing eternal life for all who believe. He did not suffer and die to guarantee you a chance at eternal life. He did not die to offer you the possibility of eternal life (if only you don’t screw it up). His blood was the ransom payment that satisfied every debt you owed from now to your last dying breath. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7). He didn’t just sprinkle this grace lightly; He lavished it upon us. He died and rose again and poured out His Spirit to seal this eternal life to you (Eph. 1:13). This is why nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35-39). This is why the ransomed of the Lord sing at the top of their lungs and rejoice in the dance (Jer. 31:12-13).

If this good news is like the Hallelujah chorus, like coming home for Christmas, like your dreams come true, then let your heart received it again and believe it again for the coming year, for the unknowns, for the hardships – you shall not stumble because God has become your Father (Jer. 31:9). He who began a good work in you will complete it (Phil. 1:6). But if this is a strange song that doesn’t quite make sense, that seems a little too gratingly optimistic, or you’re having a hard time paying attention and don’t see what all the fuss is about, you are still lost in the land of the north, still in the dark, still enslaved by hands too strong for you (Jer. 31:8, 11). But it isn’t too late. Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts: receive Him, believe in His name. God can turn your desert into a well-watered garden and you will never languish again. Let your Maker console you. Let Him lead you back home.

Clothed With Love

First Sunday in Christmas 2015:

1 Sam. 2:18-20, 26, Col. 3:12-17, Lk. 2:41-52

Introduction

When Jesus was born, He was wrapped in swaddling cloths. These indicate that even though He was God, He was an ordinary baby, and that He was cared for and loved. The lessons today are all about clothing, family, and calling. Christmas is the announcement that God’s word has become flesh and come to dwell with us and in us so that His peace might rule in our hearts and we might be clothed with His grace.

Other Fathers

Remember that Samuel was adopted by God when he was dedicated by his parents to the service of the tabernacle under the care of Eli (1 Sam. 1:21-28). Samuel performed his ministry clothed with a linen ephod, the uniform of a priest (1 Sam. 2:18). His biological mother and father visited him at least once a year and brought him a robe, at the annual sacrifice (probably Passover) (1 Sam. 2:18). As Samuel grew up in wisdom and stature (1 Sam. 2:26), he had to learn to distinguish between the voice of Eli and God (1 Sam. 3:1-10). Luke echoes the description of Samuel in his description of Jesus (Lk. 2:52), and it comes in a similar context of multiple parental voices. Like Samuel’s family, Mary and Joseph were accustomed to go up to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover every year (Lk. 2:41). Only this time, when they had departed a day’s journey, Jesus was missing (Lk. 2:43-45). They finally found him in the temple, sitting with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions (Lk. 2:46). While everyone was astonished at Jesus, His mother was more astonished at His apparent disregard for His parents (Lk. 2:48). But Jesus asked them why they didn’t know that He would be in His Father’s house (Lk. 2:49). This is a gracious insistence that God is His Father, and the temple is His true home. Like Samuel, Jesus has begun hearing the voice of God and knows that He has a priestly/levitical future. He is called to ministry in the temple (like Samuel). Jesus does return with Mary and Joseph in obedience to them, but the implication is that His growth in wisdom and favor is a growing understanding of His relationship to God and His family and others (Lk. 2:52). Samuel and Jesus both learn that while they have earthly fathers in various senses, God is their Father preeminently. And for Jesus, this is not merely by adoption.

As God’s Chosen Ones

At Christmas, in the incarnation, God clothed Himself in human flesh in order that we might be clothed in His divine life. In other words, God has come to call all people to be sons in His house, to be adopted into His family. This is what the priestly/levitical ministry always pointed toward. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col. 3:9). Paul speaks of Christians as people who have put off one uniform and put on another. In Col. 3:12, Paul says “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience… Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…” Paul says that Christians are those chosen by God as His “holy and beloved” ones to wear this uniform, to be His family, to be His sons.

Let Him Rule

These lists of virtues are deceptively easy to skim without letting them cut you the way they should. It’s easy to think that you have compassion because you feel bad for the pictures of poor people. It’s easy to think you are kind and patient because you don’t blow up at your wife at church. But do you have compassion for your wife when she is tired or stressed? Do you bear with your boss and forgive your father, as the Lord has forgiven you? Do you clothe yourself with love? Do you put it on and wear it all day long every day? It was comparatively easy and simplistic in the older covenants to put a priestly uniform on and carry out the prescribed duties. Our priestly duties require far more vigilance and diligence. How do you wear love constantly? How can you never lose your patience? How can you always forgive like you have been forgiven? Paul anticipates our questions with the answer: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts (Col. 3:15). This is wonderful in at least two ways. First, while we are commanded to clothe ourselves with compassion and kindness, this command comes in the third person, which implies that someone else is the primary actor and our job is to let it happen, to not resist. The only way Christians can stay clothed with the love of Christ is to have His peace ruling in their hearts. But the implication is that we are tempted to resist it; we don’t want to let it. Why? Because it would mean being compassionate to people when we don’t feel like. It would mean being patient when we don’t want to. It would mean forgiving those who hurt us the most. But this leads to the second wonderful thing: His peace is pursuing us. It’s not that we must get the peace of Christ. The command is that we must let His peace rule in our hearts. His peace is not far off and difficult to find. It’s already here ready to rule. He was born, died, and rose again. Let Him rule.

Let Him Speak

Letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts can still seem a bit abstract. How do you do that? The next three commands are practical steps in letting His peace rule in your hearts. First, be thankful. Literally, be eucharists. Be thankful ones; be thanksgivers. Second, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, abundantly. And you do that by teaching and counseling one another in all wisdom and singing Psalms to God. How can you let the peace of Christ rule? How can you clothe yourself with compassion and kindness? By letting the word of Christ live inside you like a decadent Christmas dinner, like gifts stacked high. How do you do that? By reading it. By writing it. By singing it. By sharing it. The word for “admonish” is literally the word to counsel. What should you say when your friend needs counsel? Load them with Scripture. Read the Bible to them and with them. Sing psalms. That is the wisdom you need and they need. Scripture is your gold and silver and priceless wisdom. And when you let the Word of Christ live inside you like that, you are letting the peace of Christ rule in your heart. When you let Christ speak, you are letting Him rule. Do not be distracted by the various voices. Learn to say with young Samuel: Speak Lord, for your servant is listening. Stay close to your Father’s house.

Committed as Christmas

Evolution is a singular commitment to non-commitment. In fact, it is the enshrinement to the highest humanistic place — which is to say science, the creed of non-commitment as inherently virtuous. Of course virtue and goodness tend to be taken in transcendent, moral categories, but in a purely materialistic, evolutionary universe, goodness is just whatever happens next. But in order for things to ‘happen next’ they must change, adapt, grow feathers or mammary glands, and that requires species not to commit to the last generation’s way of doing business. That backward looking monkey-see-monkey-do stuff gets in the way of progress and opposable thumbs.

This is why marriage, to take one example, is not merely an old fashion custom, it is positively anti-progress. Commitment can only be as permanent as our feelings and instincts and hormones because you never know when evolution will open up new vistas, new avenues, new opportunities. It might be a threesome. It might be transexual surgery. It might be a one night stand. But this kind of kinky is what makes the future bright and happy because let’s face it, it’s been the careless kinky of billions of atoms and chemicals over billions of years that got us this far. Right? Promiscuity is progress. Non-commitment is the only way forward. Let the chaos flow. In fact, the more chaos the better because when you’re dealing with blind chance, the more combinations the better the odds. Remember, evolution just glibly maintains that something like 95% of all species and attempted adaptations have been discarded by nature’s bloody tooth and claw. So you got to throw the dice as early and as often as possible. The more sex the better. The more combinations the better. The more changes the better. More change. Less stability. And since the fossil record contradicts gradual transitions over long periods of times, maybe we can whip nature into a frenzy that will punctuate the equilibrium and create that intense, unstable environment required for new species and new adaptations to suddenly appear without any warning.

Of course few (if any) will consistently think all of these thoughts from right to left in a single sitting. But it’s impossible to avoid the gravity of this logic when you embrace the Darwinian gospel. And people (even many creationist Christians) hitch their lives to this ideological hurricane unwittingly when they settle for cheap and easy divorce, when they break their membership vows, when they shack up without wedding vows, when they are not loyal to friends and family, when their commitments are broken and the brokenness is justified in the name of love. But this is precisely what it is not. Love is commitment. Love is loyalty. Love changes not. Love is constant. Love is the Eternal binding Himself permanently to the finite. Love is an oath, a vow, a promise as strong as death. Love endures pain, suffering, wrongs, injustice. Love loses all for the sake of the loved. Love doesn’t give up. Love doesn’t lose hope. Love endures. This is the gospel of Christmas, the good news of God’s love made flesh in Jesus.

We are fragile creatures. Human beings are fragile, fallible, and we fail. But it is one thing to believe in love, to believe in the goodness of commitment, the goodness of loyalty, the goodness of aiming to be constant, and it is another thing entirely to enshrine disloyalty. It is another thing entirely to lift up a devoted cheer to the goddess of treason. The goodness of God’s love in Christ is not some kind of day old humanistic vomit. This is no promise of human goodness. No, the good news is that the changeless God has bound Himself to us. He has reached down and grasped us with an unbreakable love. He has committed Himself to us. That’s our hope and peace. And Christians are those who despite themselves have decided to run hard after that love. Our hearts are unstable and constantly resist commitment, but He was born in Bethlehem and He holds us fast.

How To Not Miss Jesus (At Christmas)

Fourth Sunday in Advent: Mic. 5:2-5a, Heb. 10:5-10, Mt 2:1-12

Introduction

How could the chief priests and scribes know that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem and still reject Jesus? How could Herod so dramatically misunderstand the mission of Jesus? We commonly describe the answer as sin and pride, but what is it more specifically that allows people to know Scripture that well and miss God standing right in front of them (e.g. Jn. 5:39)?

Micah’s Prophecy

Notice that Micah’s prophecy is not exactly explicit. Bethlehem is clearly named as one of the small clans of Judah (Mic. 5:2). But it has some historical significance, being the home of Boaz and David (Ruth, 1 Sam. 16:1). So it might be understood as a poetic way of describing the Davidic royal line. The prophecy then addresses a woman in labor (Mic. 5:3), but who exactly is in labor? Other prophecies describe Israel as a nation in labor (e.g. Is. 13:8), and Micah has already described Israel going into exile like a woman in labor (Mic. 4:10). It sounds like Micah is continuing that image in exile as though the birth is the return to land (Mic. 5:3). The description of a shepherd who stands and feeds the flock is a rich Hebrew image for kings – again think of David in particular (cf. Ps. 23, 80). The prophecy continues by picturing this great Davidic shepherd conquering Assyria and Babylon (Mic. 5:5-6). What all of this underlines is the fact that when the wise men from the east showed up in Jerusalem, it is pretty astounding that the Jews understood this to be a prophecy of the birth of the “king of the Jews” (Mt. 2:4-8). They had studied this carefully. Why didn’t the Jews go with the wise men immediately? Or even if they only found out later, why wasn’t it a clincher? We sometimes think that if we had lived then we would have recognized Jesus, but it’s clearly not that simple.

Glory Barriers

Jesus says that the Jews didn’t recognize Him because they did not have the love of God within them (Jn. 5:42). He explains that this is tied to glory: they received glory from one another and did not seek the glory that comes from God (Jn. 5:44). This can seem sort of esoteric, but it actually isn’t much different than the way things work today. Everyone lives by a story that tries to make sense of the world and our experiences. We call this a “worldview,” a mental/spiritual framework that consciously and unconsciously helps us interpret what’s happening around us. And worldviews are stories of glory. For the Jews, a big part of their story was the intense persecution they had faced in the centuries just prior to the arrival of Jesus. Not only had they been conquered and driven into exile, but even after they returned to the land, they were repeatedly harassed and oppressed by the nations around them. Under Antiochus Epiphanes in the mid-2nd century B.C. it became law that “all should give up their particular customs” (1 Macc. 1:42). This meant that the Jews were commanded to sacrifice to the Greek gods, profane the Sabbath and feasts, eat unclean food, cease circumcision, and openly profane the holy covenant. Copies of the Torah were confiscated and torn to pieces and burned, and mothers who had their sons circumcised were put to death with their infants hung from their necks (1 Macc. 1:56-61). It was under these circumstances that a man named Mattathias and his five sons revolted. His son Judas became known as “Maccabeus” from the Hebrew word for “hammer” for his military exploits that culminated in the retaking and rededication of the temple celebrated in the feast of Hanukkah (1 Macc. 4:36-59). Nietzsche said that the “Jews are the most remarkable people in the history of the world for when they were confronted with the question, to be or not to be, they chose, with perfectly unearthly deliberation, to be at any price…” (The Anti-Christ, 24). While Nietzsche had a great deal of disdain for the Jewish religion, he had a great deal of admiration for any people who found their identities in their courage to survive, in their will to power. And this dichotomy between the strong and the weak that Nietzsche sees running through human history relates back to the glory theme. Every worldview is a story of glory; it explains where glory comes from and how to get it. What Nietzsche noticed and history bears out is that most people tend to derive their glory from their endurance of hardships, their overcoming of obstacles, their strength in weakness. What was the glory of the Jews? It was their courage and endurance and tenacity as a nation. This is the “glory” they gave to one another. And Jesus says that’s why they couldn’t recognize Him. He didn’t honor their heritage, their identifying marks of their courage and glory.

From Days of Eternity

In the early church, Micah’s prophecy became one of the rallying calls for people like Athanasius who noticed that the prophecy of Jesus said that his “coming forth is from of old and from ancient days” (Mic. 5:2). Literally, that last phrase is “from days of eternity.” So the fathers pointed to this passage as an explicit defense that Jesus did not begin to exist when He was born in Bethlehem, but rather He had existed from of old and from eternity as God. This doctrine of the incarnation, that the eternal Son of God took flesh and became a true man, highlights God’s great humility and love. God humbled himself and became a man like us (Phil. 2:7), and He took a body in order to offer that body as the perfect sacrifice for sin, once for all (Heb. 10:10). But this also highlights the folly of Herod and the Jews. What arrogance it was for Herod to think He understood the way the world works. What arrogance for the Jews to think they were the guardians of God’s glory. The One whose “coming forth is from of old and from ancient days” is born of Mary. He is born to shepherd His flock (Mic. 5:4), and He can shepherd His flock however He sees fit.

Conclusions

What are the most defining things in your life? What is your glory? Frequently it can be some experience that has tested you, pushed you beyond what seems reasonable, and somehow you have pulled through. But be careful. Even people who “believe in God” can unconsciously embrace a worldview that has a very narrow view of how God’s glory works. If the Jews could miss Jesus, we are not immune. This is why the most defining thing for a Christian is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This is one of the ways the gospel creates freedom and unity. In Jesus, all of our identifying marks are reoriented and this unites us to one another. May you not merely think about Jesus this Christmas. May you know Him as your glory.

Catholicity & Excellence

Over the years, one of the virtues we have sought to cultivate at Trinity is a deep and rich catholicity. And we have wanted to express that geographically, denominationally, as well as historically. The Church, the Body of Christ, is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic as the creed says. So with that One Church, we confess the ancient faith of the fathers, summarized in the ecumenical creeds. We worship with many of the same words and songs and prayers that countless saints have prayed and sung before. We partake the same holy meal, sharing the body and blood of Jesus with thanksgiving week after week. We proclaim the one baptism for the remission of sins, and we proclaim Christ crucified and risen for the justification of all who believe. This spirit stretches into our ministries and prayers for the good work the Lord is doing in many other associations and denominations here in Moscow and throughout the world. We regularly pray for the churches in our city. We regularly receive updates from missionaries and ministries around the world. And we pray week after week for the persecuted church.

All of this is good and wonderful. And at the same time, if we are not careful it could create an optical illusion, and given our day and age, it has perhaps an even greater likelihood of miscommunication. And that has to do with the biblical command to pursue excellence and holiness and perfection. This is not some deep or esoteric mystery. It’s right there on the surface of the calling to follow Jesus: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). Paul prays that the Philippians may abound more and more in love, with knowledge and discernment, “so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…” (Phil. 1:10). God “disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness” (Heb. 12:10). “Strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him…” (Eph. 1:2-4).

What is abundantly clear is that salvation is not merely an internal change of the heart. It is not merely the washing away of our sins. Though it is wonderfully all of that and more. But it is also the beginning of walking with God that actually shares in His holiness and excellence and perfection. Justification is the imputation, the reckoning of all of God’s holiness and excellence and perfection to us in an instant by faith. But sanctification is the impartation, the actual giving and working out of that grace in real time and history in your life. This is what Paul means when he says that we are saved by grace through faith, “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). But then Paul immediately continues, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We are saved by grace through faith, completely by God’s miraculous gift. But that gift itself is the kind of good work that contains within it the desire and love and power to strive for goodness and excellence. This good work really is still all of grace because it is God working in you, and therefore, He is the one who will complete the whole project (Phil. 1:6). But it’s the kind of good work that God is doing in you that you are called to participate in: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).

So this is what we mean then by excellence and perfection and holiness. We are talking about receiving the gift of grace through faith and responding to it. We are not trying to get God to receive us. We are not trying to get other people to like us or receive us. God is the one who is giving His love and His acceptance to us. And we merely receive that and respond to that. And His free grace and love and acceptance is like one of those 3D picture books that opens up and pictures and characters and scenes emerge from the pages. Only God’s grace is real and live, and when you receive His grace, you open a book that really and truly begins to live in your life.

Now here’s the whole point. One of the temptations of catholicity and expressing our unity with other brothers and sisters is to downplay the need for growth, and excellence and holiness. There is a ditch called denominational pride and schism and sectarianism. And to the extent that you cannot cheerful pray for and work together with other Christians of all stripes, then you really must repent of your pride and sectarian spirit. But you must not mistake repenting of that with some kind of spiritual relativism. Holiness really is to become more like Jesus. Perfection really is to become like your heavenly Father. And it is not necessarily pride to say that a local congregation is cultivating the kind of immaturity that creates foolish disciples. It is not sectarian to say that rock band worship is a disgrace to the honor of Jesus Christ. It is not anti-catholic to point out that the messages are little more than a hot tub religion allowing you to feel a warm spiritual sensation without actually repenting of your major sins.

So as we strive for catholicity, unity, and peace with all men, we must also strive for holiness without which no one will see God. And this means striving for excellence in music, depth in teaching, biblical literacy, thoughtful cultural engagement, joyful and dignified worship, business smarts, faithful and exuberant children, healthy marriages, hospitable homes, love and mercy for the orphans and widows and strangers, and a growing legacy of exporting and duplicating all of it successfully over generations. These things are not automatic, but they are found in the promises of God. It is not hubris to work for and pray for these things. It is faith because only God can accomplish them. It is actually hubris and pride not to strive for them, not to aim for them, because then you are saying that you know better than God. But Jesus told us to disciple the nations, and that means teaching them everything that Jesus said. But if we do this, if we actually attempt this by the grace of God, we will have to make many decisions to do some things and not others, to embrace some doctrines and reject others, to sing these songs and not others, and when we do so, we must do it because we are striving for excellence, for holiness, for perfection. But there are some who think that is mean-spirited and divisive and only causes arguments and pride. But we don’t really have a choice. We must follow Jesus, and we must become more and more like Him.

Paul expresses this spirit well at the end of Philippians: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own… Let those of us who are mature think this way… Only let us hold true to what we have attained” (Phil. 3:12-16). There really is such a thing as Christian maturity, and therefore there really is such a thing as Christian immaturity. There really is such a thing as Christian holiness, and some really are further down that path than others. And wisdom is justified by her children, and you don’t get a better grade by lowering the bar. It’s all grace. It’s all free grace. But this grace is the kind of rocket fuel that won’t let you coast.