Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship, April 23, 2011
The light shone in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
But that's not the way it looked at the time. Jesus, the light of the world, spent three and half years giving people hope and healing and wisdom. He was the light of the world. No question about it. Then came that final, dreadful weekend. Jesus was arrested run through a series of sham trials and him crucified. They buried him in a tomb carved in stone, the opening of the tomb closed with a huge rolling stone.
The end. Light extinguished. Hope and healing and wisdom dead.
As he was dying, Jesus shouted to heaven, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It was not a glorious, triumphant end.
Then came Sunday morning. Mary and other women went to the tomb to grieve their dead master only to find an empty grave and to hear a message from angels, "he is not here. He is risen."
We claim this story for ourselves. We are in Christ. His story is our story. His failure is our failure. His abandonment and death are ours . His triumphant resurrection is also ours.
Like Jesus we have experienced abandonment. We have tasted death and the threat of disease or disaster of our own personal lives or the lives of people we love. And today we celebrate promise of God that like Jesus we too will experience triumphant resurrection.
There are three lessons I would like to draw from the story.
First, we do not end up in darkness by making mistakes. Sometimes, we arrive there by being faithful.
Certainly, we are capable of making mistakes, costly mistakes, mistakes with long, miserable consequences. But making mistakes is not the only way to end up in a dark place. Jesus was faithful. He did exactly what God asked. And his mission led straight into darkness. His obedience was the immediate cause of the situation that forced from him the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
There will be dark times. Times when every bit of light is snuffed out. There may be nights as dark as the blackness of a cave half a mile in from the entrance. If you find yourself in one of those dark places do not berate and scold yourself.
When your friends end up in a dark place, resist the temptation to presume they could have avoided the darkness if only they had been smarter or more disciplined or holier. Sometimes the cause of our difficulties is faithfulness to the divine path.
Second: our greatest calling in the face of darkness is to keep one another company. The great successes of the friends of Jesus, the noble deeds and their interaction with their master were the instances when they kept him company. The special acts of goodness among the people surrounding Jesus that are remembered by the church are those instances when they kept him company. Mary anointing his feet with tears and perfume. Simon of Cyrene who, even against his will, marched beside Jesus to Golgotha carrying his cross. The thief on the cross who moved from merely being in the neighborhood to genuinely keeping company with Jesus as they died. John and Jesus mother standing at the foot of the cross.
We remember and celebrate these acts of faithfulness.
The failures remembered by the church are the failure of Jesus' closest friends to keep him company. Judas, of course, sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, an act of deliberate, premeditated treachery. The other 11 spontaneously failed. Jesus asked his disciples to keep them company and prayer. They fell asleep. The mob came to arrest Jesus. The disciples started to fight then ran for their lives. (Despite their earlier protestations but they would die rather than abandon him.)
We do not fault the disciples for failing to save Jesus. Saving him was not possible. We do fault them for abandoning him.
We cannot save our friends from disease, from tragedy, from injustice. These things will happen in this world. We can keep them company. We can avoid joining the world and condemning them scolding them.
The third and greatest lesson is that the greatest failure, the greatest catastrophe, the greatest evil is not beyond the creative reworking of God. God is working in all things to bring good.
Jesus, the holy man, was crucified. The innocent one was condemned. The Savior was killed. What did God do with this disaster? He accomplished the salvation of the world, the forgiveness of sins, the ransom of sinners.
Did God put Pilate up to condemning Jesus? No, I don't think so. When you read the story, Pilate's condemnation of Jesus comes across as the natural, expected behavior of someone with his personality in those circumstances. Did God put Caiaphas up to condemning Jesus? I don't think so. Again, when you read the story what Caiaphas did sounds like what you would expect him to do given what we know about his personality and the circumstances he found himself in. Caiaphas was doing his job as he understood it. Caiaphas and the Jewish leadership, together with Pilate and the Roman military, pursued what seemed to them the best course of action to preserve the status quo. In the process they killed the Lord of glory.
Still, out of the tragedy created by their stupidity and selfishness, God accomplish the salvation of the world. So we live with confidence that beyond the tragedies that engulf us, beyond the hardships that batter our lives, beyond the miscarriages of justice that twist and crush us, God is active. God will make our tragedies in some way steppingstones toward glory. When we were the people we love our engulfed in darkness we can remember where we are in the story. This is not the end. It is one twist in a plot that moves inexorably to a glorious climax.
Christ is risen. The tomb, the final irrevocable disaster, is reversed, is nullified.
In Christ you, too, are risen. Your losses, your tragedies, your disasters are reversed. They will be nullified.
This is the light that shines from the empty tomb. This is the glory that beams from the open grave.
Alleluia.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The Greg Mortenson Debacle
(I cross posted this at Mr Adventist with additional comments about how this applies to our view of the work of pastors.)
The Greg Mortenson debacle is a vivid example of the dangers of itinerant stardom, especially spiritual stardom. It is so easy for both the hero and the hero's devotees to be seduced by the heroes stories and charisma.
This is a danger for traveling evangelists, revival speakers, and spiritual stars.
The traveling preacher is constantly applauded for his or her special gifts, which are real. The traveling preacher is typically not confronted with the reality of his or her weaknesses, which are also real. Both the preacher and the admirers are seduced into thinking the extraordinary gifts on display in public are the fruit of an extraordinary character. both preacher and audience become blind to the weaknesses and failings in the preacher's private life.
Extraordinary gifts of preaching and storytelling have no essential connection to character.
The more a preacher travels, the more he or she is admired, the greater the risk for self deception.
Pastors who stay long in their congregations have a slight advantage over itinerant preachers. Their people are more likely to know them as whole persons rather than as performers. This personal knowledge tends to counterbalance a preacher's natural high regard for his own opinions.
The Greg Mortenson debacle is a vivid example of the dangers of itinerant stardom, especially spiritual stardom. It is so easy for both the hero and the hero's devotees to be seduced by the heroes stories and charisma.
This is a danger for traveling evangelists, revival speakers, and spiritual stars.
The traveling preacher is constantly applauded for his or her special gifts, which are real. The traveling preacher is typically not confronted with the reality of his or her weaknesses, which are also real. Both the preacher and the admirers are seduced into thinking the extraordinary gifts on display in public are the fruit of an extraordinary character. both preacher and audience become blind to the weaknesses and failings in the preacher's private life.
Extraordinary gifts of preaching and storytelling have no essential connection to character.
The more a preacher travels, the more he or she is admired, the greater the risk for self deception.
Pastors who stay long in their congregations have a slight advantage over itinerant preachers. Their people are more likely to know them as whole persons rather than as performers. This personal knowledge tends to counterbalance a preacher's natural high regard for his own opinions.
Monday, April 11, 2011
People Are Not as Bad as Some Preachers Say
I cross-posted this at my blog for preachers: http://www.MrAdventist.blogspot.com.
This past Sabbath I listened to a nice, pleasant preacher declare that people are miserable, self-destructive sinners. An almost direct quote: "No man has ever sat down, thought about sinning and said, 'That's stupid. I won't do it.'"
But of course, lot's of men have considered doing something evil then decided not to do it precisely because it was not only evil but it was also stupid.
People are capable of great evil.
People are also capable of great good.
If the second statement is false, the first one is also false. If people are incapable of doing good, if they are so utterly enslaved to evil that they cannot do good, then they are not responsible for doing evil. After all the same theology that teaches that people are unable to do good also teaches that this defect is something we were born with, not something we choose.
I think the common practice of Christian preachers to declaim the words of Romans 3 as the absolute literal truth while dismissing the words of Matthew 5-7 as hermeneutical hyperbole is both a distortion of the Bible and a tragic disservice to their Master and their audience.
This past Sabbath I listened to a nice, pleasant preacher declare that people are miserable, self-destructive sinners. An almost direct quote: "No man has ever sat down, thought about sinning and said, 'That's stupid. I won't do it.'"
But of course, lot's of men have considered doing something evil then decided not to do it precisely because it was not only evil but it was also stupid.
People are capable of great evil.
People are also capable of great good.
If the second statement is false, the first one is also false. If people are incapable of doing good, if they are so utterly enslaved to evil that they cannot do good, then they are not responsible for doing evil. After all the same theology that teaches that people are unable to do good also teaches that this defect is something we were born with, not something we choose.
I think the common practice of Christian preachers to declaim the words of Romans 3 as the absolute literal truth while dismissing the words of Matthew 5-7 as hermeneutical hyperbole is both a distortion of the Bible and a tragic disservice to their Master and their audience.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Streaming North Hill Sermons
We have begun streaming our services from North Hill Adventist Fellowship. Find it on the church web site during church time, about 11:15a to 12:30 pacific time.
Church web site: http://www.northhilladventistfellowship.org.
We welcome comments and questions via text during the sermon. Send them to 253-350-1211.
They will be edited and projected on the screen at the end of the service and I will respond to them at that time.
Since we are just getting started we are particularly interested in critical feedback on the production side of things. Does it look and sound okay? Is the technology working? Any suggestions for improvement? These kinds of comments will not be addressed publicly in the service, of course, but they are valuable to us.
You can also send comments to my email: jtmclarty (at) gmail.com
Thanks.
Church web site: http://www.northhilladventistfellowship.org.
We welcome comments and questions via text during the sermon. Send them to 253-350-1211.
They will be edited and projected on the screen at the end of the service and I will respond to them at that time.
Since we are just getting started we are particularly interested in critical feedback on the production side of things. Does it look and sound okay? Is the technology working? Any suggestions for improvement? These kinds of comments will not be addressed publicly in the service, of course, but they are valuable to us.
You can also send comments to my email: jtmclarty (at) gmail.com
Thanks.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Keeping Jesus' Promise for Him
Sermon for North Hill, April 2, 2011
Live presentation streamed at http://www.northhilladventistfellowship.org
from about 11:15a to 12:15p.
Twenty-one years ago I sat in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Akron, Ohio, holding my tiny, misshapen son while he died. He had a chromosomal defect that was incompatible with life. For hours he had been living at the center of a dizzying network of wires and tubes. Now, all of the wires and tubes were disconnected. He lay in my hands slowly losing his hold on life. I watched his chest rise and fall with his breathing. I could see his pulse through his skin. There was nothing I could do to change his chromosomes. There was nothing I could do to improve his future. So I did the best I could. I held him. I loved him. I kept him company while he died.
A doctor and a nurse sat with me. Their medical skills were useless. There was no technology, no therapy, no medicine that could change Douglas' future. The doctor and nurse could not change his chromosomes. They could not work around his defects. They could offer me no hope. There were no words that could improve the situation. So they did what they could. They kept me company. And the three of us, wordless and helpless, kept Douglas company while he died.
My favorite stories in the Gospels are the stories where everything turns out okay. People possessed by demons are set free. People who are paralyzed go leaping and dancing about. People who had been blind see the faces of their friends. People who were deaf carry on conversations with the people they love. Those are the stories I like. But for those who have eyes to see, these pictures of dramatic intervention and change are surrounded by a larger story, a story that teaches us how to live in the real world. In the world with earthquakes and volcanoes, cancer and diabetes, depression and suicide.
What can the story of Jesus teach us about how to live in this world? In a world where miracles are rare, where good people die and the earth shifts disastrously? What guidance does Jesus' offer for this world, the actual world of hospitals and Prozac, plane crashes and budget crises? What does the story of Jesus teach us about living in this world?
Matthew begins his story of Jesus with a genealogy. Matthew carefully structures this genealogy to highlight the people among Jesus' ancestors whose lives could easily be featured as cover stories for The Enquirer. This genealogy is Matthew's way of emphasizing Jesus' connection with the raw, messy, complicated realities of regular human life.
By birth Jesus was part of a regular dysfunctional family. A family whose history included incest, murder, idolatry. Jesus did not minister from some remote place of tranquil purity. He was one of us. He spent the first 30 years of his life as an apparently ordinary Palestinian carpenter's son.
Then at age 30 Jesus begins his ministry. His first step in that direction was to get baptized. Baptism was a dramatic statement of his connection with down-to-earth, real human life. Not only was he born into an ordinary, dysfunctional family, at the very beginning of his ministry, he publicly declared his full, voluntary acceptance of his membership in that family.
For the next three and half years Jesus threw himself into a whirlwind of ministry. He healed blind people, gave hearing to deaf people, resurrected the dead, set people free from demonic possession. He preached to and taught crowds of thousands.
His life was chock full of miracles and good drama. One of my favorite pictures is of him standing at the door of a house on a Saturday night facing a street jammed wall to wall with people wanting to be healed. He stayed there, working miracle after miracle until there wasn't a sick person left in the village.
Then came the grand climax of his life. Or so it seemed at the time. On a Sunday he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey welcomed by crowds of thousands who acclaimed him king. Five days later he was on his face begging God to excuse him from his assignment. There was no response from heaven. After a while in prayer he got up and went to talk with his disciples, hoping for some encouragement, needing some company. They are asleep. He begged them to stay awake and pray with him.
God said no to his prayer. The disciples said no to his request.
He was utterly alone.
I wonder if this was in his mind when he gave his disciples his final words before leaving Earth to return to heaven, "behold, I will be with you always even to the end of the world." They had let him down when he asked for companionship in the most intense struggle of his life. He promised them he would not let them down. Not that he would rescue them from every problem. But he would be there with them in every difficulty.
By all his miracles of healing Jesus demonstrated what he wants for people. He wants them to be pain free, torment free. He wants them to use their legs to run, their eyes to appreciate beauty, their ears to hear conversation and enjoy music. He does not want them to suffer hunger. He does not want them to live under the scowl of God. He wants them to know God's smile, to live with confidence and glad hearts. Jesus promises that someday all of that will be reality. But what about now? What does Jesus have to offer now?
This promise: I will be with you always.
And our mission as Christians is to fulfill this promise of Jesus with our bodies. Let us make sure that we keep each other company… Always.
This week one of our members had surgery for cancer. The statistics on this cancer are very poor. It's scary. There are others here in our congregation who are living far to close to the ogre of cancer. What can we do?
Naturally, the first thing we think of are the stories of healing. We want a miracle. We want the cancer to go away. Hope for miracles and prayers for healing are entirely appropriate for the children of God. And, for those who are mature, for those who take seriously their commitment to follow Jesus, there is something more. This something more is expressed in Jesus' words: "I am with you always."
We cannot make pain disappear in this world. We cannot reverse all diseases. But we can make sure people do not suffer alone. With our bodies we can bring Jesus close to those who suffer.
When bad things happen, some Christians go crazy blaming God. I have read multiple statements from Christians in all kinds of denominations including Seventh-day Adventists arguing that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were the handiwork of God. It was a message sent from God to wake us up.
This kind of talk is nonsense or worse. It is false. God is not so clumsy that he sends earthquakes that destroy 10,000 or a hundred thousand people in some far-off place vainly hoping we will get the message and repent. When God has a message he sends a prophet.
Most of the stories in the Gospels are stories of healing, stories of success. Dead people rise to life. Paralyzed people dance. Deaf people hear. But there are a couple of instances where Jesus specifically addresses the issue of people in trouble who are not delivered. In Luke 13 Jesus was asked about some people who were killed when a building collapsed on them. Jesus did not resurrect these people. What he did do was defend their reputations. He emphatically declared that those people did not die because they had defective characters. Jesus also defended God's reputation. God did not make the building collapse.
Matthew 11 recounts a conversation between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist. John the Baptist had been put in prison by King Herod. Being in his prison was a dangerous business. He was a notoriously murderous tyrant. John had been for some time and Jesus had done nothing to get him out. Finally John the Baptist sent some of his disciples ask Jesus what was up. "Are you really the one we were waiting for? Are you really the Messiah?"
Early in his ministry, Jesus had announced that part of his mission was to set the captives free. John the Baptist couldn't help but wonder, "Hey, what about me? What about springing me from prison?”
It didn't happen. Jesus did not release John the Baptist from prison. John the Baptist was executed.
But notice the one thing Jesus did do for John the Baptist. He defended his character. When John's disciples were there with Jesus, Jesus spoke to the crowd about John the Baptist. "There has never been any human being greater than John the Baptist."
John the Baptist was not in prison because he had failed. John the Baptist was not in prison because there had been something wrong with his ministry. John the Baptist had not made a mistake. In fact, John the Baptist was in prison precisely because he was a great man, because he was a good man.
So in these two instances of unrelieved suffering, what does Jesus do? He defends the reputation of those who suffered.
In the one other picture where we see Jesus deliberately allowing suffering to happen, we see Jesus weeping. It's the famous story of Lazarus. Jesus was alerted that Lazarus was sick, but he did nothing about it. He showed up at Lazarus' house only after Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus went with the sisters out to the grave. And there he demonstrated his identity, his empathy with the sisters by weeping. And I don't mean to suggest that Jesus was weeping for the purpose of making a statement. These were not the tears of an actor. Jesus was weeping because he felt the pain of the sisters and was himself deeply wounded by their pain. Jesus' tears were powerful evidence of his connection with the women.
Lazarus' story does not end there, of course. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But first he entered deeply into the pain of those who loved and lost Lazarus.
So what should we do in the face of human suffering? First, resist the impulse to blame someone. Sure, if someone has been smoking three packs a day for 40 years and they get emphysema, the cause-and-effect relationship is pretty clear. But what good does it do to talk about it? Will it reverse the 40 years?The time to talk about cause-and-effect is before people get sick not after. And most of the time the cause of our illnesses is not nearly so obvious and direct. Even when it is there is little to be gained from us talking about it.
Our first call in responding to trouble in the life of our friends is to defend their reputations. We don't imagine that God is punishing them.
Second, we defend God's reputation. We don't imagine that God is sending us a message by giving them cancer. Or allowing them to have an automobile accident. Or allowing them to suffer depression. We don't blame God for trouble.
Third, we do something for Jesus. We go and keep them company. By keeping company with those who suffer, we are keeping company with Jesus. We're doing what the disciples failed to do for Jesus that last night before he died. We keep Jesus company by keeping company with those who suffer.
In that neonatal unit 21 years ago the doctor and nurse nurse who sat with me while Douglas died were helpless as medical professionals. But in their role as human beings – by keeping me company through suffering that they could not change – they were acting truly in the role of Jesus. With their bodies they were living out the promise of Jesus, I am with you always.
I am sure that God would rather heal disease than keep us company through it. He would rather cure our grief than keep us company in it. But for whatever reason, disease and death, disaster and catastrophe have not vanished from the world. For now, they are an essential part of the human experience. So what does the story of Jesus teach us to to do, given this reality? Certainly to do what we can to heal, to cure, to prevent disaster. But there are decided limits to our capability in these efforts.
What can we do most most constantly? What can all of us do? Keep one another company. Defend one another's reputations. We can step into one another's lives in the dark times, with our physical presence carrying the spiritual presence of Jesus, making real with our bodies the promise of Jesus, "I am with you always, even to the end of the world."
Live presentation streamed at http://www.northhilladventistfellowship.org
from about 11:15a to 12:15p.
Twenty-one years ago I sat in the neonatal unit of a hospital in Akron, Ohio, holding my tiny, misshapen son while he died. He had a chromosomal defect that was incompatible with life. For hours he had been living at the center of a dizzying network of wires and tubes. Now, all of the wires and tubes were disconnected. He lay in my hands slowly losing his hold on life. I watched his chest rise and fall with his breathing. I could see his pulse through his skin. There was nothing I could do to change his chromosomes. There was nothing I could do to improve his future. So I did the best I could. I held him. I loved him. I kept him company while he died.
A doctor and a nurse sat with me. Their medical skills were useless. There was no technology, no therapy, no medicine that could change Douglas' future. The doctor and nurse could not change his chromosomes. They could not work around his defects. They could offer me no hope. There were no words that could improve the situation. So they did what they could. They kept me company. And the three of us, wordless and helpless, kept Douglas company while he died.
My favorite stories in the Gospels are the stories where everything turns out okay. People possessed by demons are set free. People who are paralyzed go leaping and dancing about. People who had been blind see the faces of their friends. People who were deaf carry on conversations with the people they love. Those are the stories I like. But for those who have eyes to see, these pictures of dramatic intervention and change are surrounded by a larger story, a story that teaches us how to live in the real world. In the world with earthquakes and volcanoes, cancer and diabetes, depression and suicide.
What can the story of Jesus teach us about how to live in this world? In a world where miracles are rare, where good people die and the earth shifts disastrously? What guidance does Jesus' offer for this world, the actual world of hospitals and Prozac, plane crashes and budget crises? What does the story of Jesus teach us about living in this world?
Matthew begins his story of Jesus with a genealogy. Matthew carefully structures this genealogy to highlight the people among Jesus' ancestors whose lives could easily be featured as cover stories for The Enquirer. This genealogy is Matthew's way of emphasizing Jesus' connection with the raw, messy, complicated realities of regular human life.
By birth Jesus was part of a regular dysfunctional family. A family whose history included incest, murder, idolatry. Jesus did not minister from some remote place of tranquil purity. He was one of us. He spent the first 30 years of his life as an apparently ordinary Palestinian carpenter's son.
Then at age 30 Jesus begins his ministry. His first step in that direction was to get baptized. Baptism was a dramatic statement of his connection with down-to-earth, real human life. Not only was he born into an ordinary, dysfunctional family, at the very beginning of his ministry, he publicly declared his full, voluntary acceptance of his membership in that family.
For the next three and half years Jesus threw himself into a whirlwind of ministry. He healed blind people, gave hearing to deaf people, resurrected the dead, set people free from demonic possession. He preached to and taught crowds of thousands.
His life was chock full of miracles and good drama. One of my favorite pictures is of him standing at the door of a house on a Saturday night facing a street jammed wall to wall with people wanting to be healed. He stayed there, working miracle after miracle until there wasn't a sick person left in the village.
Then came the grand climax of his life. Or so it seemed at the time. On a Sunday he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey welcomed by crowds of thousands who acclaimed him king. Five days later he was on his face begging God to excuse him from his assignment. There was no response from heaven. After a while in prayer he got up and went to talk with his disciples, hoping for some encouragement, needing some company. They are asleep. He begged them to stay awake and pray with him.
God said no to his prayer. The disciples said no to his request.
He was utterly alone.
I wonder if this was in his mind when he gave his disciples his final words before leaving Earth to return to heaven, "behold, I will be with you always even to the end of the world." They had let him down when he asked for companionship in the most intense struggle of his life. He promised them he would not let them down. Not that he would rescue them from every problem. But he would be there with them in every difficulty.
By all his miracles of healing Jesus demonstrated what he wants for people. He wants them to be pain free, torment free. He wants them to use their legs to run, their eyes to appreciate beauty, their ears to hear conversation and enjoy music. He does not want them to suffer hunger. He does not want them to live under the scowl of God. He wants them to know God's smile, to live with confidence and glad hearts. Jesus promises that someday all of that will be reality. But what about now? What does Jesus have to offer now?
This promise: I will be with you always.
And our mission as Christians is to fulfill this promise of Jesus with our bodies. Let us make sure that we keep each other company… Always.
This week one of our members had surgery for cancer. The statistics on this cancer are very poor. It's scary. There are others here in our congregation who are living far to close to the ogre of cancer. What can we do?
Naturally, the first thing we think of are the stories of healing. We want a miracle. We want the cancer to go away. Hope for miracles and prayers for healing are entirely appropriate for the children of God. And, for those who are mature, for those who take seriously their commitment to follow Jesus, there is something more. This something more is expressed in Jesus' words: "I am with you always."
We cannot make pain disappear in this world. We cannot reverse all diseases. But we can make sure people do not suffer alone. With our bodies we can bring Jesus close to those who suffer.
When bad things happen, some Christians go crazy blaming God. I have read multiple statements from Christians in all kinds of denominations including Seventh-day Adventists arguing that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were the handiwork of God. It was a message sent from God to wake us up.
This kind of talk is nonsense or worse. It is false. God is not so clumsy that he sends earthquakes that destroy 10,000 or a hundred thousand people in some far-off place vainly hoping we will get the message and repent. When God has a message he sends a prophet.
Most of the stories in the Gospels are stories of healing, stories of success. Dead people rise to life. Paralyzed people dance. Deaf people hear. But there are a couple of instances where Jesus specifically addresses the issue of people in trouble who are not delivered. In Luke 13 Jesus was asked about some people who were killed when a building collapsed on them. Jesus did not resurrect these people. What he did do was defend their reputations. He emphatically declared that those people did not die because they had defective characters. Jesus also defended God's reputation. God did not make the building collapse.
Matthew 11 recounts a conversation between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist. John the Baptist had been put in prison by King Herod. Being in his prison was a dangerous business. He was a notoriously murderous tyrant. John had been for some time and Jesus had done nothing to get him out. Finally John the Baptist sent some of his disciples ask Jesus what was up. "Are you really the one we were waiting for? Are you really the Messiah?"
Early in his ministry, Jesus had announced that part of his mission was to set the captives free. John the Baptist couldn't help but wonder, "Hey, what about me? What about springing me from prison?”
It didn't happen. Jesus did not release John the Baptist from prison. John the Baptist was executed.
But notice the one thing Jesus did do for John the Baptist. He defended his character. When John's disciples were there with Jesus, Jesus spoke to the crowd about John the Baptist. "There has never been any human being greater than John the Baptist."
John the Baptist was not in prison because he had failed. John the Baptist was not in prison because there had been something wrong with his ministry. John the Baptist had not made a mistake. In fact, John the Baptist was in prison precisely because he was a great man, because he was a good man.
So in these two instances of unrelieved suffering, what does Jesus do? He defends the reputation of those who suffered.
In the one other picture where we see Jesus deliberately allowing suffering to happen, we see Jesus weeping. It's the famous story of Lazarus. Jesus was alerted that Lazarus was sick, but he did nothing about it. He showed up at Lazarus' house only after Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus went with the sisters out to the grave. And there he demonstrated his identity, his empathy with the sisters by weeping. And I don't mean to suggest that Jesus was weeping for the purpose of making a statement. These were not the tears of an actor. Jesus was weeping because he felt the pain of the sisters and was himself deeply wounded by their pain. Jesus' tears were powerful evidence of his connection with the women.
Lazarus' story does not end there, of course. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But first he entered deeply into the pain of those who loved and lost Lazarus.
So what should we do in the face of human suffering? First, resist the impulse to blame someone. Sure, if someone has been smoking three packs a day for 40 years and they get emphysema, the cause-and-effect relationship is pretty clear. But what good does it do to talk about it? Will it reverse the 40 years?The time to talk about cause-and-effect is before people get sick not after. And most of the time the cause of our illnesses is not nearly so obvious and direct. Even when it is there is little to be gained from us talking about it.
Our first call in responding to trouble in the life of our friends is to defend their reputations. We don't imagine that God is punishing them.
Second, we defend God's reputation. We don't imagine that God is sending us a message by giving them cancer. Or allowing them to have an automobile accident. Or allowing them to suffer depression. We don't blame God for trouble.
Third, we do something for Jesus. We go and keep them company. By keeping company with those who suffer, we are keeping company with Jesus. We're doing what the disciples failed to do for Jesus that last night before he died. We keep Jesus company by keeping company with those who suffer.
In that neonatal unit 21 years ago the doctor and nurse nurse who sat with me while Douglas died were helpless as medical professionals. But in their role as human beings – by keeping me company through suffering that they could not change – they were acting truly in the role of Jesus. With their bodies they were living out the promise of Jesus, I am with you always.
I am sure that God would rather heal disease than keep us company through it. He would rather cure our grief than keep us company in it. But for whatever reason, disease and death, disaster and catastrophe have not vanished from the world. For now, they are an essential part of the human experience. So what does the story of Jesus teach us to to do, given this reality? Certainly to do what we can to heal, to cure, to prevent disaster. But there are decided limits to our capability in these efforts.
What can we do most most constantly? What can all of us do? Keep one another company. Defend one another's reputations. We can step into one another's lives in the dark times, with our physical presence carrying the spiritual presence of Jesus, making real with our bodies the promise of Jesus, "I am with you always, even to the end of the world."
Formulas in Spiritual Life
Musings prompted by Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Dallas.
John 3:16 can be used as a tool to help novices connect with God. It can also be used as a dogma that obscures or distorts the truth about God. It is our responsibility to use it as a helpful tool not as a deadly dogma.
* * *
Sometimes I hear Christians say that the key to receiving healing and salvation is faith. They say this because of stories they have read in the Gospels. Sometimes when people came to Jesus asking for miraculous help, he answered, "May it happen according to your faith."
Reading these stories, it's natural to assume there is a simple formula for getting what you want through prayer: ask for what you want, believe you will get it and voila! You have it.
The problem with this formula is that Jesus' own example in other stories and some of his explicit statements contradict it. Once, Jesus interrupted a funeral procession outside the village of Nain and resurrected a young man who was being carried to the cemetery. In this instance, Jesus' intervention had nothing to do with the faith of the young man (He was dead!) or the faith of his grieving mother the faith of the pallbearers. The young man was resurrected (i. e. saved) simply because Jesus decided to do it. This is a vivid example of God's ability to act in the absence of explicit faith.
An entire group of illustrations that applies directly to spiritual life are the stories about Jesus' interaction with people possessed by demons. In every instance the demoniac never asks for help. In fact, taken at face value, the language of the demoniacs expresses rejection of the mission and person of Jesus. Still, every time Jesus encounters a person possessed by demons he sets them free. Jesus saves them in spite of what they say not because they have voiced any measure of faith.
What about the other side of the equation? Does it happen that a person with great faith fails to receive what they ask for? Jesus announced publicly that no human was greater than John the Baptist. Still, John the Baptist was executed (not rescued). In Matthew 10 Jesus said that his disciples would be killed. This would happen not as a consequence of defective faith but as a consequence of the purity of their faith. The final and greatest example of faith-filled prayer that did not produce the desired result is Jesus' own experience in the garden of Gethsemane. Three times he asked to be delivered from the impending crucifixion. God said no.
Some Christians argue that Jesus is not our example. He suffered so we don't need to suffer. However the apostle Paul explicitly talks about carrying forward in his own body the suffering of Christ. He understood this as essential to what it meant to be a Christian. Paul did not suggest that our suffering was some kind of payment for moral debt. Rather as people who are “in Christ” suffering is to be expected since our great leader also suffered.
If we accept at face value Jesus' teachings about the value and power of faith, we ought also to accept at face value his teachings regarding the limitations of faith. Faith has its place, but we do not create our own reality by our faith. We do not compel God by our faith. Faith prompts us to ask for what we want, and faith leads us finally to accept what we receive. Faith is not confidence that God will do what we say. Faith is confidence that what God does is best.
There is no formula we can use to bend the world or God to our will.
The value of formulas is providing guidance for novices. This applies to formulas for prayer, formulas for Bible study, formulas for how to be saved. The formulas can be enormously helpful for someone who is trying to figure out how to get started in their spiritual life. Formulas have proven their usefulness in teaching people. Often they work as a trellis, providing a sturdy framework for the upward growth of the vine of faith. But let's be careful not to confuse a useful tool with universal principles.
The value of a tool depends on the skill and experience of the user. And every tool can be misused. Let's use the tools of spiritual formulas wisely. For people needing structure in their lives let's offer the classic formulas of Christian spirituality. For people trying to make sense of God never offer a picture of small it will fit inside the tidy box of a formula.
To be very explicit about one of the most famous formulas in Christianity: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. John 3:16 and Romans 10:10 assure us that if we believe we will receive salvation. The focus in both of these passages is inner confidence that the unique work of God in the person of Jesus was something that applies directly to me. Jesus completely erased my moral debt and opened to me the privilege of eternal happy life with God.
This formula, believe and be saved, has brought confidence and hope and assurance to millions of people. It is a wonderful formula. However, this formula says nothing about God's capacity to save people who do not have an explicit faith. No matter how powerful this formula is as a guide for spiritual life it is worthless as a description of God's capacity for saving.
I have known people in their 20s and 30s whose mental handicaps prevented them from escaping diapers or developing language ability. They could certainly never affirm with their mouths any belief or disbelief in God or anything else. God is not prevented from saving them by the formula of Romans 10 which says the key to salvation is believing in one's heart and affirming with one's mouth faith in Christ.
I am saying as strongly and emphatically as I can, God can save people who lack an explicit, conscious, measurable faith. Going further, God can save people who lack even an implicit, unconscious, imaginable faith. The doctrine of salvation by faith should be understood as a formula to help people give shape to their spiritual life. It is worthless, even worse than worthless, as a box which God cannot crawl out of.
The great hope of the world is not the simple formula, believe and be saved. The great hope of the world is the good news that God is a savior. In the Bible God is sometimes pictured as a judge and as a king. But the title, Savior, stands above both of these more formal roles. God's primary objective is king is not the vanquishing of enemies but the saving of his subjects. God's primary objective as judge is not the condemnation of the wicked but the deliverance of the oppressed.
I suppose if someone insisted on writing a formula that was more than an aid for spiritual life, a formula that came close to describing God himself, then perhaps this will do: Jesus saves.
John 3:16 can be used as a tool to help novices connect with God. It can also be used as a dogma that obscures or distorts the truth about God. It is our responsibility to use it as a helpful tool not as a deadly dogma.
* * *
Sometimes I hear Christians say that the key to receiving healing and salvation is faith. They say this because of stories they have read in the Gospels. Sometimes when people came to Jesus asking for miraculous help, he answered, "May it happen according to your faith."
Reading these stories, it's natural to assume there is a simple formula for getting what you want through prayer: ask for what you want, believe you will get it and voila! You have it.
The problem with this formula is that Jesus' own example in other stories and some of his explicit statements contradict it. Once, Jesus interrupted a funeral procession outside the village of Nain and resurrected a young man who was being carried to the cemetery. In this instance, Jesus' intervention had nothing to do with the faith of the young man (He was dead!) or the faith of his grieving mother the faith of the pallbearers. The young man was resurrected (i. e. saved) simply because Jesus decided to do it. This is a vivid example of God's ability to act in the absence of explicit faith.
An entire group of illustrations that applies directly to spiritual life are the stories about Jesus' interaction with people possessed by demons. In every instance the demoniac never asks for help. In fact, taken at face value, the language of the demoniacs expresses rejection of the mission and person of Jesus. Still, every time Jesus encounters a person possessed by demons he sets them free. Jesus saves them in spite of what they say not because they have voiced any measure of faith.
What about the other side of the equation? Does it happen that a person with great faith fails to receive what they ask for? Jesus announced publicly that no human was greater than John the Baptist. Still, John the Baptist was executed (not rescued). In Matthew 10 Jesus said that his disciples would be killed. This would happen not as a consequence of defective faith but as a consequence of the purity of their faith. The final and greatest example of faith-filled prayer that did not produce the desired result is Jesus' own experience in the garden of Gethsemane. Three times he asked to be delivered from the impending crucifixion. God said no.
Some Christians argue that Jesus is not our example. He suffered so we don't need to suffer. However the apostle Paul explicitly talks about carrying forward in his own body the suffering of Christ. He understood this as essential to what it meant to be a Christian. Paul did not suggest that our suffering was some kind of payment for moral debt. Rather as people who are “in Christ” suffering is to be expected since our great leader also suffered.
If we accept at face value Jesus' teachings about the value and power of faith, we ought also to accept at face value his teachings regarding the limitations of faith. Faith has its place, but we do not create our own reality by our faith. We do not compel God by our faith. Faith prompts us to ask for what we want, and faith leads us finally to accept what we receive. Faith is not confidence that God will do what we say. Faith is confidence that what God does is best.
There is no formula we can use to bend the world or God to our will.
The value of formulas is providing guidance for novices. This applies to formulas for prayer, formulas for Bible study, formulas for how to be saved. The formulas can be enormously helpful for someone who is trying to figure out how to get started in their spiritual life. Formulas have proven their usefulness in teaching people. Often they work as a trellis, providing a sturdy framework for the upward growth of the vine of faith. But let's be careful not to confuse a useful tool with universal principles.
The value of a tool depends on the skill and experience of the user. And every tool can be misused. Let's use the tools of spiritual formulas wisely. For people needing structure in their lives let's offer the classic formulas of Christian spirituality. For people trying to make sense of God never offer a picture of small it will fit inside the tidy box of a formula.
To be very explicit about one of the most famous formulas in Christianity: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. John 3:16 and Romans 10:10 assure us that if we believe we will receive salvation. The focus in both of these passages is inner confidence that the unique work of God in the person of Jesus was something that applies directly to me. Jesus completely erased my moral debt and opened to me the privilege of eternal happy life with God.
This formula, believe and be saved, has brought confidence and hope and assurance to millions of people. It is a wonderful formula. However, this formula says nothing about God's capacity to save people who do not have an explicit faith. No matter how powerful this formula is as a guide for spiritual life it is worthless as a description of God's capacity for saving.
I have known people in their 20s and 30s whose mental handicaps prevented them from escaping diapers or developing language ability. They could certainly never affirm with their mouths any belief or disbelief in God or anything else. God is not prevented from saving them by the formula of Romans 10 which says the key to salvation is believing in one's heart and affirming with one's mouth faith in Christ.
I am saying as strongly and emphatically as I can, God can save people who lack an explicit, conscious, measurable faith. Going further, God can save people who lack even an implicit, unconscious, imaginable faith. The doctrine of salvation by faith should be understood as a formula to help people give shape to their spiritual life. It is worthless, even worse than worthless, as a box which God cannot crawl out of.
The great hope of the world is not the simple formula, believe and be saved. The great hope of the world is the good news that God is a savior. In the Bible God is sometimes pictured as a judge and as a king. But the title, Savior, stands above both of these more formal roles. God's primary objective is king is not the vanquishing of enemies but the saving of his subjects. God's primary objective as judge is not the condemnation of the wicked but the deliverance of the oppressed.
I suppose if someone insisted on writing a formula that was more than an aid for spiritual life, a formula that came close to describing God himself, then perhaps this will do: Jesus saves.
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