This sermon preached at WindWorks Adventist Fellowship in Lacey, WA, February 26, 2011.
A group rents our church on Wednesday evenings. Someone in the group called to report a problem.
When someone in their group got out of his car back behind the trash inclosure he heard noises coming from some boxes. When he investigated, he discovered four boxes of cats. They had moved the boxes onto the porch out of the rain, but now what?
He didn't know how many cats there were. There were at least eight. Some kittens. Some adults.
I didn't know whether to laugh or groan. I knew what was going to happen next. My wife was going to ask who was on the phone. What did they want? When I explained the situation to her, she was going to ride to the rescue.
I told Randy, we'd take care of the situation and hung up the phone.
Sure enough, Karin asked, “Who was that?” Then, “What did he want?”
We recruited our daughter, Bonnie, who lives with us and has a pickup truck with a canopy, and is as soft-hearted toward animals as her mother. Then we headed off to the church with several animal crates in the back of the truck.
It was a sorry sight on the front porch of the church. Three cardboard boxes, soggy from rain, and one cat carrier. I pulled on gloves and began extracting the cats from the boxes and handing them off to Karin and Bonnie who transferred them to the crates in the back of the truck.
12 cats total. 2 adults, 9 kittens, 1 adolescent. All of them were emaciated. One kitten was dead.
In my humble opinion, the most logical thing to do would have been to keep them over night, then deliver them to the Pierce County Animal Shelter as soon as it opened in the morning. Of course, we did not do the logical thing.
We took them home. Set them up in a warm, dry space with food. Next day, the women took them to the vet to have them checked. They bought medicine and began the slow process of nursing all eleven remaining cats back to health.
Then, when they were fully recovered, when they were happy, healthy, cute and scampering around, Karin and Bonnie found homes for them—quality homes that met the women's high standards.
Those cats had no claim on us. They were not born at our place. They did not belong to friends of ours. They were not physically attractive, at least not when we first pulled them out of their soggy cardboard prisons.
Getting involved with these critters was guaranteed take a lot of time and money. Vet care and medicine are not cheap. These cats were going to be inconvenient. In addition to feeding them several times a day, we had to put ointment in their eyes twice a day.
There is only one word for what happened to these cats: grace.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes,
“For by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8
Once when the Apostle Peter was making a speech to entire leadership of the early Christian church, he declared,
“We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are saved, just as the Gentiles are.” Acts 15:11
Paul and Peter both begin their letters with this prayer: “Grace and peace to you from God and Jesus Christ. The Apostle John also blesses his readers with the prayer, “Grace and peace to you.”
Grace: what is it?
Grace is what happens when any animal manages to hook up with my wife or my daughter. Grace is warm, dry shelter and food for cats dying of starvation in cold, wet cardboard boxes.
Grace is a new life, a pampered life for a huge dog that has been thrown out of three homes already.
Grace is my daughter Bonnie buying two horses from an auction where they were headed to the dog food factory.
When it comes to people, grace is a label for God's affectionate regard for us. It is the flow of forgiveness that dissolves our guilt. It is the bright future God promises to people whose actions have set them up for a catastrophic end. Grace is God's activity to make us—all of us, in fact, all people—part of his family, part of his community for all eternity.
Let me be clear: I'm not merely defining a word. I'm painting a portrait of a person. I'm detailing some heavenly legal procedure, I'm picturing a heavenly lover.
If I asked you to tell me the first thought that runs through your mind when I say, “Mt. Rainier,” my guess is that many of you would respond with descriptions of the grand views you have of the massive stratovolcano east of here. Some of you might talk about climbing the mountain. Others might call up pictures on your Droid or your iPhone and show us pictures of wild in the meadows around Paradise. Or pictures of Nerada Falls or mountain goats. A few might even have pictures of a long slog up to Camp Muir.
If someone asked about the etymology of the word Rainier we would probably roll our eyes. We don't know who Colonel Rainier was and we don't much care. We don't give much attention to old debates over whether the mountain should be called Rainier or Tacoma. For most of us, “Mt. Rainier” is not merely a word. Rather it is the massive and magnificent reality that towers 14,000 feet high over western Washington.
When it comes to defining grace, it's somewhat the same. We could go back and analyze the linguistic history of the word in various Greek dialects. But I'll leave that to others. I'm inviting you to explore with me the grand, almost fantastical, reality the word brings to mind.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might be rich.” 2 Cor. 8:9
For by grace you are saved . . . Ephesians 2:8
What is this thing called grace?
Amazingly there is a story in the Bible about an old cat that got dumped on a porch. Well, sort of.
John 5.
Jesus was out walking on a Sabbath afternoon. He went by a place called the Pool of Bethesda. According to legend, an angel occasionally stirred the waters of the pool. When this happened, the first person into the water would be healed of whatever disease he had. Because of this belief, sick people with all kinds of incurable miseries congregated around the pool.
Years before Jesus' time, a rich philanthropist had paid for the construction of five porches around the pool to provide some shade from the desert sun.
Jesus walked through all this misery and singled out a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. We don't know how many of those 38 years he had spent hanging out there beside the pool. But he had probably been there a long time.
Jesus walked up to him and asked, “Do you want to get well?”
The man protested, “Sir, I have no one to help me. When the angel stirs the water, I try to get myself into the water, but before I can make it someone else always gets there before me. I'm doing the best I can to get well, but I just can't do it.”
In response, Jesus said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!”
The man did what Jesus said. This guy who hadn't walked in 38 years, rolled over onto his stomach, pushed himself to his knees, then stood up!
Excitedly, he rolled up his mat, stuck it under his arm and rushed out onto the street. My guess is he was wondering if it was a dream. Was he really walking? Was it going to last? He was so astonished he didn't even think to ask the guy who healed him what his name was.
Out in the street, people challenged him, “Hey bud, what are you doing? Don't you realize it's Sabbath? How come you're carrying your bed?”
Ordinarily, as a Jew he would have never even thought of carrying a sleeping mat down the street on Sabbath, but here he was. When the people challenged him, he answered, “The man who healed me, told me to pick up my mat and carry it. So I am.”
“Who healed you?” they demanded.
“I don't know,” he said. John, the writer, says the man had no idea who healed him.
This story is a perfect illustration of grace. Grace is what we call God's habit of stepping into people's lives to bring them help and healing. God does this without making any demands or insisting on pre- conditions. God just shows up and blesses us. Does good things for us.
The man in this story did not go looking for Jesus. Jesus came and found him. The man did not ask for healing. In fact, he had no idea that healing was even an option. Jesus brought up the idea of healing. And notice: when Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed, Jesus did not wait for the man to declare his faith or to confidently articulate his goal. The man's response was pretty anemic. “I don't have anyone to put me in the water. So I guess I'll just hang here and keep waiting. Forever.”
Jesus answered, “Get up and get out of here.” So the man did.
And here is the kicker. The man was a scoundrel. How do we know? Some days later, Jesus found the man again. (Notice the pattern here, Jesus finds the man, the man does not find Jesus.) What did Jesus say to the man? “Stop sinning or something worse is going to happen to you.”
If I tell someone, “Quit acting like a jerk!” the clear implication is that they are, in fact, acting like a jerk. When Jesus tells this guy, “Quit sinning,” it's obvious the guy was misbehaving. Jesus has poured grace into his life. Jesus has healed him, liberated him from the prison of the porches. What does the man do with the new life that Jesus has graciously given? Apparently he invested his blessings in sin.
Receiving a windfall does not necessarily change us. Most people who win the lottery, within a few years are bankrupt. Why? Because they do with the new money what they did with the old. They spend it.
But grace is not merely a windfall. It is the outpouring of the affection of God. Grace comes with the heart of God attached. Jesus did not withhold grace from this man because he did not deserve it.
There was one string attached to Jesus' gift: the string of hope. Jesus hoped the guy would take the new life he was given and do something good with it. Jesus was hoping that healing the man's paralysis would open up a future of health, and happiness and holiness.
When Jesus told the man, “Quit sinning or something worse may happen to you,” Jesus was revealing his hope, his anticipation. It's a hope that Jesus (and God the Father) cannot turn off. All grace comes with hope.
Those cats in soggy cardboard boxes on the church's porch . . . They were hopeless. Helpless, Miserable. Desperate. There was nothing they could do to save themselves. Without intervention they would have all died.
Then Karin and Bonnie arrived and changed everything. That's grace.
All of the cats were infested with fleas. On the adult cats, the women applied chemical flea control. But the kittens were too young, so the women had to wash each kitten and pull off the fleas by hand. Some of the kittens they washed three times.
All of the cats were sick. They had eye infections and upper respiratory infections. So twice a day, we had to pick up each squirming kitten and apply ointment in its eyes. We had to use a syringe and squirt antibiotics down each throat twice a day. The women did it freely. That's grace.
And there was a string attached. Maybe I should say, there was a steel cable attached. And that was Karin's and Bonnie's fierce hope these cats would improve, that they would gain weight, would rally against the malnutrition, would beat back the infections in their eyes and lungs. Karin and Bonnie wanted these kittens to thrive.
God's grace is not a commodity that he dumps on the world. God's grace is the outpouring of his heart toward us. It is full of his hope, his expectation that we will thrive, that we will invest his forgiveness and help in new habits, leaving behind unproductive and harmful patterns of life.
Jesus was thrilled to see Jake walking around Jerusalem. But he wasn't satisfied to leave it at that. When Jesus observed Jake wasting his new life in foolishness, he sought him out and challenged him: “Quit sinning or something worse is going to happen to you!”
Being paralyzed is not a picnic, being sick is not a trivial matter. But there are worse things. There is a darkness worse than sickness, worse than poverty, worse than getting fired. I am not making light of those difficulties, but something worse could happen to us. And we set up that worse thing by rejecting God's wisdom for our lives.
The cats we rescued did respond to grace. It was touch and go for a few days for some of the littlest kittens, but they all rallied. They turned into comical bundles of life, full of energy and playfulness. Eventually they moved on to good homes.
One of the last kittens to be placed was picked up at six o'clock on Christmas morning by a dad carrying out a carefully constructed plan for surprising his six-year old girl. The kitten who had been an unsupportable burden for whoever dumped the boxes had been transformed into a heart-warming gift by the power of grace.
This is God's intention for us as well. Others may see us as worthless, as too much trouble to bother with, as more trouble than we are worth. God comes and says to us, “You are precious. You are a treasure. I want you to live. Not merely survive, but live.”
God will give us what we need.
Have you screwed up big time? Damaged other people? God offers forgiveness.
Have you been damaged by others? Traumatized by parents, spouses, siblings, teachers, preachers, bullies, strangers? God offers justice, the promise of a final judgment in which nothing will be hidden.
Have you been undervalued? Have others convinced you that you are nobody special, that the world would be better if you used less oxygen? God declares emphatically that he loves you, treasures you. God loves you so much, he would rather die than live without you.
God offers grace.
Have you already surrendered yourself to the gracious affection of God? God offers you grace, too—grace to be passed along to other cats who need it.
Of course, grace comes with strings attached, the steel string of divine hope and expectation. Jesus wants you to live, to thrive. He wants you to be happy, healthy, holy. He wants to make you his gift to someone. There is someone, somewhere—at your place of work, in your neighborhood, at your school—there is someone God needs to touch. And he is hoping you will be the one to pass his touch along.
So I join the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John in praying for you: Grace and peace. The warm affection of heaven. God likes you. He has great plans for you.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Paul's Seven Essentials
This sermon was preached at North Hill Adventist Fellowship on February 19, 2011. This is a very rough sketch of the sermon done a week after preaching it. For the full sermon, check out the audio. See the link to the right.
Here in the Northwest the Mountaineers Club is famous for its advocacy of the out of doors. They want you to get outside, especially to get up into the mountains. However, with all their enthusiasm, they don't encourage people to “just go.” Just as loudly as they urge people to get outside, they also urge people to take with them the “Ten Essentials.” Extra clothes for protection against changes in weather. Water. Food. Compass. Map. Fire starter. Knife. Light and batteries. First aid kit. Sunglasses and sunscreen (and insect repellent, space blanket, whistle, GPS, duct tape, etc.).
If you talk to those of us who spend a lot of time in the Cascades, you will hear a lot of enthusiasm. It is a beautiful, wonderful world up there. However, we are aware there is an enemy up there. It's called weather. And because of the enemy. We carry our Ten Essentials. When we are hiking, when we see weather closing in or darkness, we don't panic because we know our Ten Essentials will enable us to handle the enemy.
In the Book of Ephesians, Paul recognizes there is an enemy in the world. He then outlines seven essentials we can equip ourselves with. If we equip ourselves with these seven essentials, we don't have to worry about the enemy. Paul assures that if we arm ourselves with these seven essentials, if there is a crisis, we will survive and when it is all over we will still be standing.
The Belt of Truth
For Paul, the most important element of truth is the incredible news about what God has accomplished through the saving mission of Jesus. The center of truth, the most important elements of truth are good news. If your spiritual life is characterized by a fascination with the dark and dangerous, you need to change your focus. Don't spend your time studying the devil or his friends.
In politics, beware of giving too much attention to people who specialize in bad news.
Of course, there is a place for appropriate awareness of dangers and perils. But that place should not have highest prominence in our thinking or conversation.
Another implication of “truth” as a necessity: my feelings, my perceptions, even my convictions are not the same thing as reality. My feelings, perceptions and convictions need to be open to the correction that comes from the Bible, other believers, science, and history. My own experience and study are never sufficient to place me beyond the need to be corrected and shaped through respectful listening to others.
Breastplate of Righteousness
Paul uses the word righteous in two senses. The most prominent in his writing is acceptance with God or approval by God. I am righteous when God looks at me and declares me okay, approved, innocent. This links with the message of forgiveness and my union with Jesus. The second meaning of the word refers to doing right, to character. A righteous person, in this sense, is one who does right.
Healthy spiritual life is inseparable from both meanings. We are approved by God because Jesus died for our sins and God acts with reference to his own love quite apart from our performance. Those who are engaged with God will be learning to act more and more like their heavenly Father. Their characters will change.
Sandals of the gospel of peace
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
We live in the full assurance that God is seeking reconciliation. God's goal is to eliminate his enemies by making them friends. And we are called to join him in this ministry of reconciliation.
Shield of faith.
If we have faith, Paul assures us, we can quench ALL the darts of the enemy. No worries. No fretting about whether we will be able to stand through some future trouble—whether that trouble is a theoretical period of temptation and persecution at the end of time or the very real experience of old age dementia, divorce, alienation from children, or losing our job. Faith in God makes all these threats less than terrifying. They are not pleasant. They are not trivial. But we can withstand them.
Helmet of Salvation.
God has your head. If the devil trips you or throws you off your bike or snow board, if someone drops a wrench while working above you on the job site God has your head. No worries.
Sword. The word of God
Paul uses “the word of God” in some places as a synonym for “my gospel.” (See 2 Tim. 2:8.) Other times he uses the phrase to mean the Old Testament. Other times it refers to God's personal communication through conscience or even visions and dreams. God speaks into our lives and through our lives. As we cultivate openness to God's communication to us and through us, we will be effective agents of the kingdom of heaven.
So pick up your essentials and get out there. Don't be intimidated by the enemy. There is a saying here in the Northwest: there is no bad weather, just inappropriate gear. With the right clothing you can safely go adventuring in any kind of weather. And you don't have to worry about being surprised by changes.
Those who think they can guard themselves by studying the tactics of the enemy are likely to be unpleasantly surprised. About the time you figure out what his tactics are, he'll change. Far better to equip yourselves with the seven essentials. Then you are secure no matter what.
I sometimes poke a little fun at my friends who constantly talk about the ten essentials. But I've had my cavalier attitude rudely challenged a couple of times. Once, I ended up walking for hours in pitch blackness following a leash I could not see that was attached to a dog I could not see who was “hopefully) following a trail I could not see. I had nothing with me besides the dog. No extra clothes, no fire starter, no light, no food. I had to make it out before I stopped. It was scary.
Another time, I was hiking with a young friend. The weather changed. We ended up navigating by compass cross-country for about five hours, unable to see any landmarks. Shortly before dark, we called our respective families to let them know we would not make it home that night. We were going to drop off the ridge into the valley where there would be no cell phone reception but where we would be out of the wind and where there was wood for a fire.
We weren't worried. We figured we'd probably be uncomfortable, but we would survive because we were carrying our Ten Essentials.
Paul wants us to face crises with similar confidence. And we can.
Here in the Northwest the Mountaineers Club is famous for its advocacy of the out of doors. They want you to get outside, especially to get up into the mountains. However, with all their enthusiasm, they don't encourage people to “just go.” Just as loudly as they urge people to get outside, they also urge people to take with them the “Ten Essentials.” Extra clothes for protection against changes in weather. Water. Food. Compass. Map. Fire starter. Knife. Light and batteries. First aid kit. Sunglasses and sunscreen (and insect repellent, space blanket, whistle, GPS, duct tape, etc.).
If you talk to those of us who spend a lot of time in the Cascades, you will hear a lot of enthusiasm. It is a beautiful, wonderful world up there. However, we are aware there is an enemy up there. It's called weather. And because of the enemy. We carry our Ten Essentials. When we are hiking, when we see weather closing in or darkness, we don't panic because we know our Ten Essentials will enable us to handle the enemy.
In the Book of Ephesians, Paul recognizes there is an enemy in the world. He then outlines seven essentials we can equip ourselves with. If we equip ourselves with these seven essentials, we don't have to worry about the enemy. Paul assures that if we arm ourselves with these seven essentials, if there is a crisis, we will survive and when it is all over we will still be standing.
The Belt of Truth
For Paul, the most important element of truth is the incredible news about what God has accomplished through the saving mission of Jesus. The center of truth, the most important elements of truth are good news. If your spiritual life is characterized by a fascination with the dark and dangerous, you need to change your focus. Don't spend your time studying the devil or his friends.
In politics, beware of giving too much attention to people who specialize in bad news.
Of course, there is a place for appropriate awareness of dangers and perils. But that place should not have highest prominence in our thinking or conversation.
Another implication of “truth” as a necessity: my feelings, my perceptions, even my convictions are not the same thing as reality. My feelings, perceptions and convictions need to be open to the correction that comes from the Bible, other believers, science, and history. My own experience and study are never sufficient to place me beyond the need to be corrected and shaped through respectful listening to others.
Breastplate of Righteousness
Paul uses the word righteous in two senses. The most prominent in his writing is acceptance with God or approval by God. I am righteous when God looks at me and declares me okay, approved, innocent. This links with the message of forgiveness and my union with Jesus. The second meaning of the word refers to doing right, to character. A righteous person, in this sense, is one who does right.
Healthy spiritual life is inseparable from both meanings. We are approved by God because Jesus died for our sins and God acts with reference to his own love quite apart from our performance. Those who are engaged with God will be learning to act more and more like their heavenly Father. Their characters will change.
Sandals of the gospel of peace
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
We live in the full assurance that God is seeking reconciliation. God's goal is to eliminate his enemies by making them friends. And we are called to join him in this ministry of reconciliation.
Shield of faith.
If we have faith, Paul assures us, we can quench ALL the darts of the enemy. No worries. No fretting about whether we will be able to stand through some future trouble—whether that trouble is a theoretical period of temptation and persecution at the end of time or the very real experience of old age dementia, divorce, alienation from children, or losing our job. Faith in God makes all these threats less than terrifying. They are not pleasant. They are not trivial. But we can withstand them.
Helmet of Salvation.
God has your head. If the devil trips you or throws you off your bike or snow board, if someone drops a wrench while working above you on the job site God has your head. No worries.
Sword. The word of God
Paul uses “the word of God” in some places as a synonym for “my gospel.” (See 2 Tim. 2:8.) Other times he uses the phrase to mean the Old Testament. Other times it refers to God's personal communication through conscience or even visions and dreams. God speaks into our lives and through our lives. As we cultivate openness to God's communication to us and through us, we will be effective agents of the kingdom of heaven.
So pick up your essentials and get out there. Don't be intimidated by the enemy. There is a saying here in the Northwest: there is no bad weather, just inappropriate gear. With the right clothing you can safely go adventuring in any kind of weather. And you don't have to worry about being surprised by changes.
Those who think they can guard themselves by studying the tactics of the enemy are likely to be unpleasantly surprised. About the time you figure out what his tactics are, he'll change. Far better to equip yourselves with the seven essentials. Then you are secure no matter what.
I sometimes poke a little fun at my friends who constantly talk about the ten essentials. But I've had my cavalier attitude rudely challenged a couple of times. Once, I ended up walking for hours in pitch blackness following a leash I could not see that was attached to a dog I could not see who was “hopefully) following a trail I could not see. I had nothing with me besides the dog. No extra clothes, no fire starter, no light, no food. I had to make it out before I stopped. It was scary.
Another time, I was hiking with a young friend. The weather changed. We ended up navigating by compass cross-country for about five hours, unable to see any landmarks. Shortly before dark, we called our respective families to let them know we would not make it home that night. We were going to drop off the ridge into the valley where there would be no cell phone reception but where we would be out of the wind and where there was wood for a fire.
We weren't worried. We figured we'd probably be uncomfortable, but we would survive because we were carrying our Ten Essentials.
Paul wants us to face crises with similar confidence. And we can.
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Gospel's Bottom Line, a Valentine sermon
The bottom line in the Book of Ephesians is not theological in the classic sense of the word. Where does the mighty work God accomplished in Christ take us? What is the grand conclusion of Paul's gospel? Just this:
Chapter 5
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--
30 for we are members of his body.
31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
32 This is a profound mystery--
but I am talking about Christ and the church.
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,
and the wife must respect her husband.
Chapter Six
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 "Honor your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise-- 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children;
instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way.
Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
The punch line of Paul's preaching was a call to behavior conducive to harmonious domestic and civic relationships.
Frequently over the last 2000 years Christian theologians have gotten engrossed in Paul's theological/theoretical verbiage. There have fierce debates, even riots, over the precisely correct interpretation of Paul's words about predestination, the divine nature of Christ, the nature of the human will, the activity of the Spirit. There are ministries based on people's interpretations of Paul's cryptic language about authorities, rulers and spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. In Adventist circles people have lost their jobs because of “wrong” views of Paul's ideas about justification and sanctification.
It's all interesting stuff to a lot of people, but it seems to me to miss the point. All this stuff is preamble. It is not the punch line. It is not the bottom line. It is not the conclusion. And far too often people's obsession with this theoretical stuff blinds them to the truly significant elements of spiritual life. Those elements have to do supremely with harmonious relationships.
This interpretation of Paul is set up by the first two chapters of Genesis.
In Chapter One, Moses pictures creation as a week-long process that climaxes in the Sabbath—a day when nothing happens—that is nothing that can be written about. It is a honeymoon Sabbath and appropriately occurs behind a veil of privacy.
In Chapter Two, Moses pictures creation as a process of ordering the world around a man. Man is created first, then the plants—which need his care to thrive. Then the animals which need man's naming to achieve their full dignity. Then comes the climax. There is a grand reversal. Instead of man supplying the caretaking, he becomes aware of his own insuperable need—for companionship, for love. And God creates Eve and Moses explicitly ends the story with an affirmation of marriage.
The goal of creation is a community. Intimacy. Communion. Relationship. Family.
The purpose of the gospel, the goal of Jesus' mission on earth was to restore the divine vision of harmonious community. Working for wholeness in our relationships, helping others achieve happiness and peace in their relationships is the highest, most noble endeavor we can engage in.
With this as a background, I want to outline several principles that help facilitate happy, healthy relationships.
(Note: It's Valentines Day weekend and we have reached the section in Ephesians that deals with the relationships between husbands and wives. So this is a sermon about marriage. But as far as I can tell these principles are every bit as relevant in all kinds of friendships as they are in marriage.)
Principle One: God's purpose in creation was social connection, especially the intimacy of family. So our number one purpose as creatures is social connection. If we are married, our highest obligation is the cultivation of intimacy and harmony with our spouse.
Principle Two: Changing someone else is extremely difficult and highly unlikely. So, if I'm wise, most of my efforts to enhance the sweetness of my marriage or my friendships will focus on my contribution to the relationship. (Aiming to change someone else is usually evidence of my own lack of love.)
Principle Three: Love hopes for response, but love does not wait for a guarantee of a return on investment before taking action. Love risks rejection. God loves quite apart from our worthiness and even our response. Still he hopes for response. Jesus died SO THAT people would live forever.
Principle Four: The best thing I can do for happiness in relationships is to learn what warms their heart and then do it! Don't do for others what would make you happy. This means that often we can't do “what comes naturally” because our natural impulses are guided by our desires instead of the desires of the other. One example of this is the stereotypical differences between men and women which may not be universal and invariable, but they are real.
Principle Five: Obeying the rules—no adultery, harsh speech, disrespect, violence, neglect—is conducive to a good relationship. Breaking the rules can ruin your relationship.
Principle Six: Rules will ruin your relationships if you use them as a yardstick for measuring the performance of others.
Does my wife do enough submitting? If I'm asking the question, my heart, of course, is going to answer no, no matter what an objective observer would say. Does my husband demonstrate enough love and affection? Not if I'm asking the question. And since I'm asking the question in the light of a “divine rule,” it is a no-brainer to conclude that my spouse's “failure” is a moral fault.
When people complain about being neglected by the church, they are measuring the church by some yardstick. And often they are right. The church has failed. So where does the exercise of measuring the church leave them? Abandoned and alone.
It is often possible for the person who has been neglected to take action to enrich the relationship. They can request a visit. They can make a phone call. They can themselves seek out other church members who are even more isolated than they are. If they engage in these activities, they will experience increased sweetness and light. But as long as they hold up the yardstick and measure the quality of care they are receiving they will always see some shortcoming.
Finally coming to Paul's words about wives submitting and husbands loving. If we treat this passage as analogous to the Ten Commandments—as high moral principles independent of time and circumstance--we will end up with abuse. Domineering husbands (and other men) will tyrannize their wives (and usually their children as well) and cite the Bible to justify their wretched behavior. Even in homes where the men are not tyrants, women who are convinced it is their moral duty to submit will experience wrenching conflict between their religion and their mind. They will know, on occasion, that their husband is wrong, that he is proceeding in a direction that will harm him, their family and maybe others, but their religion compels them to cooperate in and condone behavior they know is ill-advised. God never wanted to put women in this kind of straight jacket.
If a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, sacrificing himself for her, and there are NO limits, no ifs, ands or buts, then there will be rare occasions where this kind of love will cause a husband to fail to protect the family from a crazy or evil wife. There are times when love is not enough (at least love in any but the coldest, toughest, tough-love sense.)
These words of Paul are not commandments. They are the words of a man who was not married, who on another occasion argued that women should keep silent in church. We routinely treat some of Paul's words as less than authoritative. We do best with these words to treat them as advice on seducing your spouse. If you want to do something to enrich your marriage consider whether submitting might do it. You've probably already tried yelling, nagging and manipulating. You'd like a sweeter, happier marriage. Try submitting. See if it awakens a response in your man that warms your own heart. (Of course, perhaps Paul and for sure Paul's fundamentalist devotees would be offended that we would merely "consider" his words and not necessarily obey them.)
If you want to improve your marriage, try loving, showing affection, consideration, thoughtfulness (or some other synonym for love). You've probably already tried a variety of other, ineffective ways of relating.
It is worse than pointless to try to enrich your marriage by telling the other person to submit or to love or to be sweeter or to be more thoughtful. You can't change the other person. Look for ways to connect with the person you are actually married to instead of dreaming about the person you could/should have married.
So try loving and submitting. Be careful not to demand that someone else love or submit.
Rather than imagining that Paul in the two words--submit and love--has given us a comprehensive and inflexible rule for marriage, we ought to recognize this section for what it is--an illustration of the meaning of Paul's theology. God has been gracious to us. We ought to be gracious to one another. God has done "whatever it took" to save us and is actively seeking our hearts. So we should do whatever it takes to save our marriages and friendships and actively seek to put sweetness and joy into the lives of people close to us.
Rather than slavishly obsessing on the words "submit" and "love" we ought to creatively pursue every avenue of building intimacy and harmony.
Fathers, don't exasperate your children. Don't be jerks. Don't promise and break your promises. If you lose your temper, apologize. If you lose it often, get help.
Bosses, treat your employees with respect. Employees, give your boss the kind of service you'd give if Jesus was the boss.
To all who consider themselves knowledgeable regarding Christian theology: Don't waste your breath spouting your theology unless your wife, your kids, your friends testify to the sweetness you add to their lives.
Chapter 5
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--
30 for we are members of his body.
31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
32 This is a profound mystery--
but I am talking about Christ and the church.
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,
and the wife must respect her husband.
Chapter Six
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 "Honor your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise-- 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children;
instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way.
Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
The punch line of Paul's preaching was a call to behavior conducive to harmonious domestic and civic relationships.
Frequently over the last 2000 years Christian theologians have gotten engrossed in Paul's theological/theoretical verbiage. There have fierce debates, even riots, over the precisely correct interpretation of Paul's words about predestination, the divine nature of Christ, the nature of the human will, the activity of the Spirit. There are ministries based on people's interpretations of Paul's cryptic language about authorities, rulers and spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. In Adventist circles people have lost their jobs because of “wrong” views of Paul's ideas about justification and sanctification.
It's all interesting stuff to a lot of people, but it seems to me to miss the point. All this stuff is preamble. It is not the punch line. It is not the bottom line. It is not the conclusion. And far too often people's obsession with this theoretical stuff blinds them to the truly significant elements of spiritual life. Those elements have to do supremely with harmonious relationships.
This interpretation of Paul is set up by the first two chapters of Genesis.
In Chapter One, Moses pictures creation as a week-long process that climaxes in the Sabbath—a day when nothing happens—that is nothing that can be written about. It is a honeymoon Sabbath and appropriately occurs behind a veil of privacy.
In Chapter Two, Moses pictures creation as a process of ordering the world around a man. Man is created first, then the plants—which need his care to thrive. Then the animals which need man's naming to achieve their full dignity. Then comes the climax. There is a grand reversal. Instead of man supplying the caretaking, he becomes aware of his own insuperable need—for companionship, for love. And God creates Eve and Moses explicitly ends the story with an affirmation of marriage.
The goal of creation is a community. Intimacy. Communion. Relationship. Family.
The purpose of the gospel, the goal of Jesus' mission on earth was to restore the divine vision of harmonious community. Working for wholeness in our relationships, helping others achieve happiness and peace in their relationships is the highest, most noble endeavor we can engage in.
With this as a background, I want to outline several principles that help facilitate happy, healthy relationships.
(Note: It's Valentines Day weekend and we have reached the section in Ephesians that deals with the relationships between husbands and wives. So this is a sermon about marriage. But as far as I can tell these principles are every bit as relevant in all kinds of friendships as they are in marriage.)
Principle One: God's purpose in creation was social connection, especially the intimacy of family. So our number one purpose as creatures is social connection. If we are married, our highest obligation is the cultivation of intimacy and harmony with our spouse.
Principle Two: Changing someone else is extremely difficult and highly unlikely. So, if I'm wise, most of my efforts to enhance the sweetness of my marriage or my friendships will focus on my contribution to the relationship. (Aiming to change someone else is usually evidence of my own lack of love.)
Principle Three: Love hopes for response, but love does not wait for a guarantee of a return on investment before taking action. Love risks rejection. God loves quite apart from our worthiness and even our response. Still he hopes for response. Jesus died SO THAT people would live forever.
Principle Four: The best thing I can do for happiness in relationships is to learn what warms their heart and then do it! Don't do for others what would make you happy. This means that often we can't do “what comes naturally” because our natural impulses are guided by our desires instead of the desires of the other. One example of this is the stereotypical differences between men and women which may not be universal and invariable, but they are real.
Principle Five: Obeying the rules—no adultery, harsh speech, disrespect, violence, neglect—is conducive to a good relationship. Breaking the rules can ruin your relationship.
Principle Six: Rules will ruin your relationships if you use them as a yardstick for measuring the performance of others.
Does my wife do enough submitting? If I'm asking the question, my heart, of course, is going to answer no, no matter what an objective observer would say. Does my husband demonstrate enough love and affection? Not if I'm asking the question. And since I'm asking the question in the light of a “divine rule,” it is a no-brainer to conclude that my spouse's “failure” is a moral fault.
When people complain about being neglected by the church, they are measuring the church by some yardstick. And often they are right. The church has failed. So where does the exercise of measuring the church leave them? Abandoned and alone.
It is often possible for the person who has been neglected to take action to enrich the relationship. They can request a visit. They can make a phone call. They can themselves seek out other church members who are even more isolated than they are. If they engage in these activities, they will experience increased sweetness and light. But as long as they hold up the yardstick and measure the quality of care they are receiving they will always see some shortcoming.
Finally coming to Paul's words about wives submitting and husbands loving. If we treat this passage as analogous to the Ten Commandments—as high moral principles independent of time and circumstance--we will end up with abuse. Domineering husbands (and other men) will tyrannize their wives (and usually their children as well) and cite the Bible to justify their wretched behavior. Even in homes where the men are not tyrants, women who are convinced it is their moral duty to submit will experience wrenching conflict between their religion and their mind. They will know, on occasion, that their husband is wrong, that he is proceeding in a direction that will harm him, their family and maybe others, but their religion compels them to cooperate in and condone behavior they know is ill-advised. God never wanted to put women in this kind of straight jacket.
If a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, sacrificing himself for her, and there are NO limits, no ifs, ands or buts, then there will be rare occasions where this kind of love will cause a husband to fail to protect the family from a crazy or evil wife. There are times when love is not enough (at least love in any but the coldest, toughest, tough-love sense.)
These words of Paul are not commandments. They are the words of a man who was not married, who on another occasion argued that women should keep silent in church. We routinely treat some of Paul's words as less than authoritative. We do best with these words to treat them as advice on seducing your spouse. If you want to do something to enrich your marriage consider whether submitting might do it. You've probably already tried yelling, nagging and manipulating. You'd like a sweeter, happier marriage. Try submitting. See if it awakens a response in your man that warms your own heart. (Of course, perhaps Paul and for sure Paul's fundamentalist devotees would be offended that we would merely "consider" his words and not necessarily obey them.)
If you want to improve your marriage, try loving, showing affection, consideration, thoughtfulness (or some other synonym for love). You've probably already tried a variety of other, ineffective ways of relating.
It is worse than pointless to try to enrich your marriage by telling the other person to submit or to love or to be sweeter or to be more thoughtful. You can't change the other person. Look for ways to connect with the person you are actually married to instead of dreaming about the person you could/should have married.
So try loving and submitting. Be careful not to demand that someone else love or submit.
Rather than imagining that Paul in the two words--submit and love--has given us a comprehensive and inflexible rule for marriage, we ought to recognize this section for what it is--an illustration of the meaning of Paul's theology. God has been gracious to us. We ought to be gracious to one another. God has done "whatever it took" to save us and is actively seeking our hearts. So we should do whatever it takes to save our marriages and friendships and actively seek to put sweetness and joy into the lives of people close to us.
Rather than slavishly obsessing on the words "submit" and "love" we ought to creatively pursue every avenue of building intimacy and harmony.
Fathers, don't exasperate your children. Don't be jerks. Don't promise and break your promises. If you lose your temper, apologize. If you lose it often, get help.
Bosses, treat your employees with respect. Employees, give your boss the kind of service you'd give if Jesus was the boss.
To all who consider themselves knowledgeable regarding Christian theology: Don't waste your breath spouting your theology unless your wife, your kids, your friends testify to the sweetness you add to their lives.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Making Peace
Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship
Sabbath, February 5, 2011
Third in a series based on the book of Ephesians
Seven times in Ephesians, Paul refers to a mystery—to a profound secret that had been hidden for ages but was brought to light in the life and teachings of Jesus.
What was this mystery, this secret, this truth that was so valuable Paul put his life at risk to preach it?
This divine dream provides a stark contrast to the images from Egypt we have been watching this week. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people marching in the streets demanding an end to the autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak.
Late in the week as it became clear that Mubarak's rule was finished, I heard more and more expression of concern about what will happen next. Will the Muslim Brotherhood emerge as the new theocratic tyrant in Egypt. Will the collapse of the Mubarak government mean war with Israel. Will the nation devolve into chaos?
One of the factors driving the protests has been the economic hardship experienced by millions of Egyptians. No matter what form the government takes, there can be no quick fix of the economy. So the question arises: Will the nation fall into endlessly competing factions? Is there any person, any political party, any ideology that can pull the people together for the long, hard, uncertain journey toward a more prosperous future?
Without some measure of unity and common purpose, Egypt will not be better off than it has been under Mubarak.
Paul writes that God's purpose is “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together.”
Given God's power that should be relatively easy to accomplish.
President Tito created unity in Yugoslavia. Serbians, Bosnians, Croatians, and Albanians all cooperated together . . . as long as Tito managed with his iron fist. But as soon as the iron fist was removed, as soon as the secret police were no longer a terrifying threat, the nation fell into competing factions, civil war and disaster.
It was the same in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Sunnis, Shias, Christians worked together, suffered together. Once Saddam was gone along with his dreaded secret police sectarianism has ripped the country apart.
God could, in theory, impose unity on the world. He could threaten: step out of line and I'll blast you. Apparently, God is not interested in that kind of imposed order. God's goal is the order of willing harmony. The order that arises from mutual respect, love and holiness.
God in Christ, demonstrated that his relationship with humanity was as important to him as life itself. He allowed himself to be killed rather throw his strength and weight around.
Paul writes that God intends to bring everything together “under one head, even Christ.” God pursues unity with a complete willingness to yield himself to every possibly legitimate demand. God's goal is not winning an argument or winning a war. God's great desire is not vanquishing enemies, but winning hearts. He aims to destroy not enemies, but enmity.
Through the death of Jesus, God demonstrated he was more radically committed to harmony and love than he was to his own individual pleasure.
God is so committed “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together.” he was prepared to die in pursuit of that ideal.
God would rather die than live without us. God was willing to die to accomplish peace.
Paul repeats this theme several times in the book of Ephesians.
In chapter two, he writes,
Paul is writing about Jews and Gentiles.
In Paul's world the separation between Jews and Gentiles was sharper and more emphatic than our divisions between Democrats and Republicans, Catholics and Adventists, Liberals and Conservatives, rich and poor, Mexicans and Tea Party members.
The division between Jew and Gentile was sharped than the division between Shiites and Sunnis.
It was at least as pronounced as the division between Muslims and Christians, between atheists and Christians. Paul looked at the deepest division conceivable in his world—Gentile/Jew--and said God's plan was to bring them together, to make them into one body.
God's dream for our world is to create harmony in place of conflict. To create peace between Jews and Arabs, between Muslims and Christians, between North Koreans and South Koreans, between Crips and Bloods, between men and women, between rich and poor.
God wants to bring together under the headship of Christ everything, every person, every group in heaven and earth. God dreams of a cosmos at peace.
In chapter three Paul makes this point again:
First, it means I'm included. You are included.
The strong, beautiful, smart people are included. You are part of God's family. You are citizens. You have not just a Green card. You have a passport and birth certificate.
The weak, ugly and dumb are included. You, too, are part of God's family. Citizens with a passport and birth certificate in your drawer at home.
The health nuts, the marathoners, mountain climbers, swimmers, bicyclists are members of God's group.
The addicts, alcoholics, anorexics, obese, and people with disabilities.
Those who are happily married with healthy, beautiful children.
Those who are single or are childless. Those whose children are in jail. People who are divorced or trapped in apparently unbreakable cycles of conflict. Homosexuals.
God's dream includes all of us.
If you step out of the family, God will be disappointed. God's dream will be incomplete.
If we push someone out of the family, God will be disappointed. God is working to create a single, harmonious family.
This is the great mystery, the secret God wants us to share with each other and with the world.
Since our Father in heaven is working to create a harmonious, single family out of all the families of earth, since God is working to create unity between Gentile and Jew, then as God's beloved children, we ought to give ourselves to the work of reconciliation.
Our first and highest objective will be to build community, to include people, to bridge divisions, to seek reconciliation.
We will not participate in the political demonization that is so common in our present society. (And has been for most of American history. A hundred years ago politicians were not more civil. Two hundred years ago, there were fist fights in the Senate and duals between opposing politicians.)
God would not be happier if the people I disagree with politically and religiously simply disappeared.
As children of God, we will work for peace. That means we will look for the common ground between opposing viewpoints. We will try to hear the truth in opinions we disagree with. We won't quit arguing. We won't pretend to agree. But our disagreements will be voiced with respect.
We will work for the preservation and restoration of relationships. American Christians vigorously denounce people in other cultures who practice polygamy. We fail to see that our so-called serial monogamy is a radical rejection of God's principle of seeking reconciliation.
With co-workers, friends, classmates our goal in situations of conflict will be winning hearts. That will matter more than winning arguments.
It seems to me this last point is one of the greatest challenges for us and is our greatest call: In our relationships with others, the highest goal is not winning arguments, but winning hearts, not justice but mercy, not truth but love.
Love cannot thrive apart from truth. Good relationships sometimes require us to speak unpleasant truths. Authentic relationships sometimes require us to have arguments. Healthy relationships cannot exist apart from justice. BUT justice, truth, and getting the other person to agree with our point of view must not be our highest objective. Rather love, mercy and surrender will be our highest goals and we will see truth, justice and argument as tools to be used wisely and judiciously in pursuit of those higher goals.
God would rather die than live without you.
He invites you to participate with him in this radical commitment to reconciliation.
Sabbath, February 5, 2011
Third in a series based on the book of Ephesians
Seven times in Ephesians, Paul refers to a mystery—to a profound secret that had been hidden for ages but was brought to light in the life and teachings of Jesus.
What was this mystery, this secret, this truth that was so valuable Paul put his life at risk to preach it?
Chapter 1The heart of our message for the world is this: God intends to create harmony where there is discord, community where there is conflict, agreement where there is argument. God's dream is a congenial, peaceable, happy world.
9 God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--
to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
This divine dream provides a stark contrast to the images from Egypt we have been watching this week. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people marching in the streets demanding an end to the autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak.
Late in the week as it became clear that Mubarak's rule was finished, I heard more and more expression of concern about what will happen next. Will the Muslim Brotherhood emerge as the new theocratic tyrant in Egypt. Will the collapse of the Mubarak government mean war with Israel. Will the nation devolve into chaos?
One of the factors driving the protests has been the economic hardship experienced by millions of Egyptians. No matter what form the government takes, there can be no quick fix of the economy. So the question arises: Will the nation fall into endlessly competing factions? Is there any person, any political party, any ideology that can pull the people together for the long, hard, uncertain journey toward a more prosperous future?
Without some measure of unity and common purpose, Egypt will not be better off than it has been under Mubarak.
Paul writes that God's purpose is “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together.”
Given God's power that should be relatively easy to accomplish.
President Tito created unity in Yugoslavia. Serbians, Bosnians, Croatians, and Albanians all cooperated together . . . as long as Tito managed with his iron fist. But as soon as the iron fist was removed, as soon as the secret police were no longer a terrifying threat, the nation fell into competing factions, civil war and disaster.
It was the same in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Sunnis, Shias, Christians worked together, suffered together. Once Saddam was gone along with his dreaded secret police sectarianism has ripped the country apart.
God could, in theory, impose unity on the world. He could threaten: step out of line and I'll blast you. Apparently, God is not interested in that kind of imposed order. God's goal is the order of willing harmony. The order that arises from mutual respect, love and holiness.
God in Christ, demonstrated that his relationship with humanity was as important to him as life itself. He allowed himself to be killed rather throw his strength and weight around.
Paul writes that God intends to bring everything together “under one head, even Christ.” God pursues unity with a complete willingness to yield himself to every possibly legitimate demand. God's goal is not winning an argument or winning a war. God's great desire is not vanquishing enemies, but winning hearts. He aims to destroy not enemies, but enmity.
Through the death of Jesus, God demonstrated he was more radically committed to harmony and love than he was to his own individual pleasure.
God is so committed “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together.” he was prepared to die in pursuit of that ideal.
God would rather die than live without us. God was willing to die to accomplish peace.
Paul repeats this theme several times in the book of Ephesians.
In chapter two, he writes,
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.Who are the separated groups Paul is referring to in this passage? Who are “the far away ones” and “the ones who are near”? Who are “the foreigners” and “the citizens,” “the natural born children” and “the new members” of the family?
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier,
the dividing wall of hostility,
15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens,
but fellow citizens with God's people and
members of God's household,
Paul is writing about Jews and Gentiles.
In Paul's world the separation between Jews and Gentiles was sharper and more emphatic than our divisions between Democrats and Republicans, Catholics and Adventists, Liberals and Conservatives, rich and poor, Mexicans and Tea Party members.
The division between Jew and Gentile was sharped than the division between Shiites and Sunnis.
It was at least as pronounced as the division between Muslims and Christians, between atheists and Christians. Paul looked at the deepest division conceivable in his world—Gentile/Jew--and said God's plan was to bring them together, to make them into one body.
God's dream for our world is to create harmony in place of conflict. To create peace between Jews and Arabs, between Muslims and Christians, between North Koreans and South Koreans, between Crips and Bloods, between men and women, between rich and poor.
God wants to bring together under the headship of Christ everything, every person, every group in heaven and earth. God dreams of a cosmos at peace.
In chapter three Paul makes this point again:
3:6 the mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,So what does this mean? How does it apply in our lives?
members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
First, it means I'm included. You are included.
The strong, beautiful, smart people are included. You are part of God's family. You are citizens. You have not just a Green card. You have a passport and birth certificate.
The weak, ugly and dumb are included. You, too, are part of God's family. Citizens with a passport and birth certificate in your drawer at home.
The health nuts, the marathoners, mountain climbers, swimmers, bicyclists are members of God's group.
The addicts, alcoholics, anorexics, obese, and people with disabilities.
Those who are happily married with healthy, beautiful children.
Those who are single or are childless. Those whose children are in jail. People who are divorced or trapped in apparently unbreakable cycles of conflict. Homosexuals.
God's dream includes all of us.
If you step out of the family, God will be disappointed. God's dream will be incomplete.
If we push someone out of the family, God will be disappointed. God is working to create a single, harmonious family.
This is the great mystery, the secret God wants us to share with each other and with the world.
Since our Father in heaven is working to create a harmonious, single family out of all the families of earth, since God is working to create unity between Gentile and Jew, then as God's beloved children, we ought to give ourselves to the work of reconciliation.
Our first and highest objective will be to build community, to include people, to bridge divisions, to seek reconciliation.
We will not participate in the political demonization that is so common in our present society. (And has been for most of American history. A hundred years ago politicians were not more civil. Two hundred years ago, there were fist fights in the Senate and duals between opposing politicians.)
God would not be happier if the people I disagree with politically and religiously simply disappeared.
As children of God, we will work for peace. That means we will look for the common ground between opposing viewpoints. We will try to hear the truth in opinions we disagree with. We won't quit arguing. We won't pretend to agree. But our disagreements will be voiced with respect.
We will work for the preservation and restoration of relationships. American Christians vigorously denounce people in other cultures who practice polygamy. We fail to see that our so-called serial monogamy is a radical rejection of God's principle of seeking reconciliation.
With co-workers, friends, classmates our goal in situations of conflict will be winning hearts. That will matter more than winning arguments.
It seems to me this last point is one of the greatest challenges for us and is our greatest call: In our relationships with others, the highest goal is not winning arguments, but winning hearts, not justice but mercy, not truth but love.
Love cannot thrive apart from truth. Good relationships sometimes require us to speak unpleasant truths. Authentic relationships sometimes require us to have arguments. Healthy relationships cannot exist apart from justice. BUT justice, truth, and getting the other person to agree with our point of view must not be our highest objective. Rather love, mercy and surrender will be our highest goals and we will see truth, justice and argument as tools to be used wisely and judiciously in pursuit of those higher goals.
God would rather die than live without you.
He invites you to participate with him in this radical commitment to reconciliation.
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