Resurrection Life

Reading the Bible: Day 87: Acts 22 - Romans 4 (August 31)

Well we are getting close to completing the challenge of reading our entire Bible this summer!  Some of you have already finished, I hear so way to go!

Today I am going to focus just a bit on the Book of Romans.  The entire book is dedicated to Paul's theology of the Righteousness of God over and against the unrighteousness of man.  In the letter he exhorts the church in Rome to preach the Gospel rightly divided between law and gospel.  It is this little hook, law and gospel, that launched the reformation and continues to inspire churches in their evangelistic endeavors to this day.

We live lives under the law.  Follow the rules and you will not get in trouble.  When we mistakenly bring this line of thinking into what Christ did for us we miss the point of the death and resurrection completely.  It is because we cannot follow the law, for instance the Ten Commandments, that God sent his son to fulfil the law on our behalf.  This now frees us to live new lives in him.  And so we go about our lives ministering to the needs of others and proclaiming that good news not because we have to but because we can.

So the first four chapters of Romans center on God's righteous judgement.  We are not the judge, God is.  And God has already judged mankind and found us to be lost and hopeless.  The birth of Jesus Christ, that we celebrate on Christmas, is actually a judgement day for us!  Could we make our way back to being right with God on our own?  God determined the answer to be, "no".  And so he sent his only begotten Son to get us back.

And so our righteousness is not counted to us by the number of rules we follow but by another important reformation phrase, "faith alone".  To those who believe in Christ comes the justification of the sinner... you and me.

Reading the Bible: The Home Stretch! Day 86 Acts 12-21 (August 25)

The Acts 16 story of Paul and Silas in prison is a powerful image, for me, of the life lived in Christ.  Remember that they landed in prison for healing a demon-possessed girl.  They were not imprisoned, it seems, for the healing itself but because they took away the means of making a living for the girl's parents.  For this the two men were thrown in prison.

Two things to take away from this: note that throughout the entire book of Acts, as the early church was being planted, we see the profit motive bumping up against the motive of the Gospel.  My bible finds comparisons with Simon the magician, Elymas and Demetrius the silversmith!  It does seem that pure capitalism and the Gospel are incompatible.  I am not advocating pure socialism, either, however what does a system look like where the wealthy put their hope not in wealth but in something else entirely?  Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19.  Feel free to comment on this comment as well, I'm curious to know what others think.  Truly, in the name of healing that girl, Paul and Silas actually stole from her parents... so how do those two things exist in the same world (healing and profit?)

Secondly, look at how Paul and Silas reacted to their imprisonment: by praying and singing hymns to God.  It is vitally important that we continue to teach our young people to know their story by heart so that in times of trouble they have a deep spiritual well from which to draw the water of life.  So many young people are suffering at the hands of our amoral world because they do not know enough the love God has for them.  They do not have a liturgy to draw upon.  They have not been read the Psalms.  They have not memorized the Lord's Prayer or the Creed.  How can we be surprised that they are showing the signs not just of physical but of spiritual illness?

 

Reading the Bible: Day 78: Matthew 28 - Mark 8 (August 17)

Ahh, tradition.  The Pharisees had a bit of a problem.   Jesus and his disciples were walking around not washing their hands before they ate.  They weren't following the rules.  If Jesus and his disciples were supposedly such holy men, why this dismissal of the most basic of rules regarding clean and unclean hands?

Jesus responded by calling them, "hypocrites".  You see, they followed the rules with their hands but not their heart. 

If we put the Ten Commandments on the walls of our courtrooms we would have a better country (folks who say this appear to miss the irony that this is a Christian version of sharia law).

If prayer were allowed in school, bad things wouldn't happen there.  (A friend posted something to this effect on her facebook page today)

"You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." - Jesus N. Christ

Outword piety and appearance of holiness is, in fact, the lowest common denominator of a life in Christ.  It is the transformed heart that Jesus came to get for the kingdom.  So, yes, post the ten commandments in the courtroom, but also post the Sermon on the Mount... you know, the part where Jesus presses the ten commandments and makes them EVEN HARDER.  You know, like, when you stab someone in the back you are murdering them?  How are our Christian politicians doing in this regard?

Did you know that prayer is actually allowed in schools?  Yes it is, ask any kid who didn't study the night before a big test what they are doing right before they pick up a pencil.  It is the organized prayer that all too often ends up being, again, outward displays of piety with no corresponding change of heart or life towards helping the outsider, the least, the lost, the lowly.  I'm quite ok with not making prayer another piece of bling that a "cool kid" wears to school.  

What if that kids mom and dad taught them how to pray "without ceasing" so that the fires of faith fanned on the home hearth transferred through their child to their friends as they became, then, the "aroma of Christ" to all those to whom they came in contact each day?

Traditions do not save us like some kind of magical talismen or chant.

Jesus Christ saved us.  Let's get back to that good news rather than doing our best to establish the coolest, hippest, savviest tradition and then banking on that to get us into the kingdom... 

Reading the Bible: Day 69: Ezekiel 45 - Daniel 5 (August 8)

The Book of Daniel is the story of God's lordship over all creation, including kings and empires.  Throughout the book we will see God setting up and then removing kings as He pleases.

The story of Daniel and his friends being taken into captivity has much to speak to our Church today.  Daniel, you will have read, refused to defile himself while in Babylonian captivity.  Their efforts to assimilate Daniel and his friends into their own culture and mores was met with resistance.  And this resistance was respected by the king.

Would that the Church would learn to be this resistance as well.  I'm not talking about resisting the culture of rap music or dressing like you don't care about your reputation, no.  In fact, I think the Church has been going along with our culture by playing the prim church lady shaking our proverbial finger at "kids these days" when the real decay in our communal life goes much more deeper than swear words and short skirts.

The church has gone along with our culture and allowed itself to be assimilated into world that has used it and thrown it away for political and financial gain.  The church has turned a blind eye to the needs of the poor and for advocating for the least and the lost and the lowly in order to keep its invitation to the country club elite.  We can discuss the poor over wine and pray over the lost on Sunday mornings but we dare not turn that discussion or those prayers into action or we risk being expelled from the hoi polloi.  

And so we see the church used and abused in our political process.  God, evidently, can tell politicians to run for office but then He better keep quiet when it comes time to legislate.

No, we would do our memory of Daniel well to say, "Thanks, but no thanks" to being a cultural institution.  A Christian's presence in the room should make people uncomfortable, not comfortable.

Over to the Other Side: A Sermon for 8 Pentecost 2011 Matthew 14: 22-33

8 Pentecost 2011

August 7

 

Over to the Other Side

Matthew 14: 22-33

 

Pastor Chris Enstad

 

Brothers and sisters, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

The story of Jesus and Peter walking on water has been told over and over again.  Most often it is told as a morality tale is it not?  

 

So, if you have faith, just get out of the boat and then keep your eyes on Jesus and he will take care of everything, just like with Peter.

 

And we are then given stories about people of great faith who accomplished something bigger than themselves and wouldn’t it be great if we could all do that as well?

 

But you know me by now and I’m not going to let these familiar stories get past us without taking a closer look at just what was going on.

 

Because Jesus came to the disciples walking on water, by then they had been up most of the night fighting a storm and then thought they saw a ghost, literally in the Greek the word is phantasm, and they were afraid.  But Jesus said, Take Heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

 

And Peter, before getting out of the boat which is lifted up as how faithful he was, actually challenged Jesus.  Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

 

And Jesus did.  “Come,” he said.

 

And Peter got out of the boat and began walking towards Jesus, but soon he saw the wind and he became afraid and he began to sink and he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  And Jesus immediately reached out to him and grabbed his hand saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  And then they got in the boat and the wind ceased and the disciples worshipped him saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

 

It is an inherent weakness in our makeup as human beings that we, more often than not, stumble into the mistaken belief that we can save ourselves.  Peter’s act, then, is truly given a high regard, look, just get yourself out of the boat and using the power of your own will you can keep your eyes on Christ and you will be saved!

 

But when we hear the text read aloud as though we haven’t heard it before or we forget all of the things other people tell us that the story is about we see that in reality relying on our own efforts doesn’t lead us to victory or salvation, no, when we rely on our own efforts we quickly succumb to the winds of life, we find ourselves in fear, we find ourselves over our heads.

 

Who of us has not found ourselves in that position, out of options, nowhere to turn, backed into a corner.  It is in those times that we finally confess the reality of our situation.  We, finally, yell out, “Lord, save me!”

 

And then what is left for us to do but to turn, then, and worship Jesus, the Son of God.

 

That is, interestingly, the only time in the Gospel of Matthew that the disciples call Jesus the Son of God.  

 

Jesus truly is the Lord of all creation.  His walking on the water shows the disciples and us that he is the master of what God has created.  Indeed when the disciples cry out in fear at what they fear is a phantasm, a ghost, Jesus answers then not, “It is I” as our Bible translates it.  No, the Greek reads “ego aimi” I AM.  These are the same words God used to identify himself in the Old Testament.  Take heart, Jesus says, I AM, do not be afraid.

 

Matthew is then elevating Jesus higher and higher is he not?  Last week we saw, in the miracle of the feeding of the 10,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish that Jesus was more than another Moses, Moses who prayed to God for his people in the wilderness and was given food for one day, while Jesus prayed and received food for 10,000 with 12 baskets left over to boot!

 

And this miracle of walking on the water coming immediately after the feeding of the crowds when Jesus identifies himself as, “I AM” and the disciples then confirming that by worshipping him and calling him the Son of God.

 

But the hinge, the crux, the reason for this story appearing in this Gospel lies not in Peter getting out of the boat, or in Christ getting into the boat, although these are very important in and of themselves, but, for me, the heart of this story lies in the very beginning.  Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side.

 

Whenever Jesus and the disciples moved to the other side it means that they are moving from their people to the Gentiles.  They are moving from the people they know and to the unclean, the unlawful, the unsaved.

 

That, my friends, is our true calling today, I have pointed out how much I love the old church design that makes our sanctuary look like an upside down boat.  For we truly are in a boat and Jesus is here with us.  Yes, it may get tossed and turned from time to time, and the winds of life may threaten to overwhelm it, but it is here, in this boat that we are reminded that Jesus is Lord over all creation.  He is in the boat, we should be here too, but that boat is not made to stand still or to stay only in safe harbors of our own choosing, we, too are being sent to the other side.  We, too, are being sent to bring the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to the least, the lost, the lowly.  We, too, are being called to go ahead of Christ to those we might consider unclean or who do not necessarily hang out with the best crowds or who have not made the best life choices.

 

Brothers and sisters, let us take this great ship, this church called Elim, out into the sea and over to the other side.

 

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Thanks be to God.

 

 

 

Bible in 96: Day 62: Jeremiah 28-37 (August 1)

Ahh the New Covenant with Israel, this prophecy of Jeremiah is a reminder, for me, that in God we are all given a chance for a new start, a clean beginning, a new relationship.  The difference between this covenant and the last one is that rather than being written down on paper or stone, this time it would be written in our hearts.  What does a life lived in this new covenant look like?  How does the new covenant affect how we treat the Law (The Ten Commandments for instance)?

Reading the Bible in 96 Days: Day 58: Isaiah 52-64 (July 28)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is known as the Fourth Servant Song.  Christians believe it is the fourth prophecy foretelling Jesus Christ that Isaiah preached.  In these words we see the Word that would come in the form of the opposite of Israel's expectations:

"His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind-...he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."

Every time I read Isaiah and find myself in the middle of one of the Servant Songs they give me goosebumps.  For in taking on the sin of the world, Jesus Christ, indeed, became sin, he bore our griefs and sorrows.  Our savior became nothing, and, in doing so, became everything.

Watching the Footpaths

When I began college my alma mater had just put up a new academic building.  When being given a tour the guide noted that the sidewalks would not be put in until the following year.  When asked why this was so he responded, "Because they want to wait and see where the footpaths appear because that will show how people are getting to and from the building."

That insight is helpful for the Church as well, is it not?  There are always people coming and going from church life.  How do you keep an eye on how people are entering or exiting your church life?  

Also, it is interesting that rather than force a behavior on people (i.e. putting sidewalks in and forcing people to travel in perhaps awkward ways) it is better to build what you're called to build and then look at how people get in and out of it before making any further improvements or additions.

 

Reading the Bible in 96 Days: Day 56: Isaiah 31-41 (July 26)

The most poignent of the chapters for today is the last one, Chapter 41.  In it we hear of God's promises to his people that he is with them and to not be afraid.  The picture that God paints of his justice is a beautiful one... for the thirsty not just a cup of cool water, no, but God promises to open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.  God's mercy is not doled out in little bits in pieces, just enough to get us through the day, but is extravagantly and abunduntly poured out on creation, including you and me.

 

Reading the Bible in 96 Days: Day 53: Song of Solomon 2 - 5 (July 23)

This "love poem" is a part of the Bible.  That might be answered with a, "Duh."  But let me repeat myself, the Song of Solomon, a love poem, is a part of the Bible.

You know, the Bible... God's Word?  What many say is the "inerrant" Word of God.

Well, I have always been in the God's Word is the truth but stay away from the whole inerrancy debate because it is full of slippery slopes.  I always caution my parishioners to be careful that we not worship THE BIBLE instead of worshipping the Christ we find WITHIN its pages.

That being said, here is the love poem, in the Bible.  And we're not just talking about love... we are talking about love.  This is not the agape love of Christ for his brothers and sisters, this is the love best characterizerd by the word eros.  This is passionate love, this is the love of a bride for her bridegroom, these are the words of two lovers... this is also the Word of God about the love he has for his creation.

When Revelation talks about Christ and creation being joined like bride and bridegroom... what kind of love do you think that reflects?  Yes God's love for us is much more than a philosophical head nod towards us, God loves us... alot.  May our love for him be even a tenth as strong!