A Great Contrast - Chapel Homily at Austin Grad (9.27.2010)

Amos 4:11-13

As it has been stated in here before, this is a text that we do not like to read. This word of judgment can be, perhaps, frightening; yet, it is often misunderstood. Make no mistake; it is a serious matter. God had passed by numerous times in warning, as we read, but now he would return punish the people for their injustice.

This text, however, not only reveals God’s judgment, but it also shows a stark contrast between the covenant God, Yahweh, and the covenant people, Israel. We see God as the creator (“He who forms the mountains, creates the wind…”). We see the God who guides the day and night and is above all of creation (“…he turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth…”). And, yet, it is revealed that this Creator God steps down to deal patiently and mercifully with his people like a parent guiding a child. As the Psalmist writes, “But with you there is forgiveness…” (Ps 130). Though the people reject God time after time, turning to idols, God remains patient in warning. Earlier in the chapter, the people are reminded of how God sent famine, drought, destruction of crops, disease, and the sword to warn the people of their destructive pattern of life. He beckons them to return to their faithful, covenant God, but they do not. The people remain in their sin. The God who created all things, called the people of Israel his own, and always remained faithful in his covenant stands in great contrast to the faithless, greedy, self-centered people of Israel for they sought only the spotlight for themselves through fame and fortune using the poor and needy as a pedestal upon which to stand. The beginning of chapter 4 speaks against those who oppress the poor and crush the needy. Yet, we witness a God who delivered the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt and now, once again, has heard the cry of the oppressed. He warned his people in the desert against such acts of oppression, but they refused to hear. Now, finally, enough is enough. Judgment is upon the people.

As I considered this text and the contrast that is revealed between God and Israel, I was reminded of the great contrast that, without a doubt, still exists.

Commonly, I see pictures and hear stories of picketers holding signs in front of clinics not speaking the message of truth in love but rather in condemnation and hatred, and then I remember the story of Jesus eating with sinners, responding graciously to a fragile people.

I recently heard the story of Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken atheist who has now been diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer. In an interview, he mentions that there are many people praying for him. Though some pray for his health, both physical and spiritual, there are others praying for his demise, and I hear the words begin to echo, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”

I am reminded of many who still seek the American Dream of fame and fortune, often running the competition into the ground in order to make a name for themselves; then I read Paul speak of a God who stepped down from his throne to become a servant, who came not to crush but to be crushed. And I can’t help but wonder when will enough be enough?

There is, however, another contrast that comes to mind. It is one of great importance. This is the contrast between Israel in the time of Amos and us, the New Israel for, today, Christ has come, and praise be to God who, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, set us free from the bondage of sin and from our destructive pattern of life! As the new covenant people of God, let us not be like the faithless Israel who never learned and never changed. As Paul writes, we have been called out of the old life and into the new, kingdom life, the life that was intended for us from the very beginning. We do have a choice in the matter.

I recall a family in Athens, Texas who, though they could afford a life of great extravagance living in a mansion with many servants, they have chosen a reserved, modest life, using their resources to help others. Instead of choosing to run their business displaying earthly power, they, instead, run it at great risk (by earthly standards) often hiring ex-cons and others who have been turned away by society to give them a useful place. They lower themselves in the interest of others. I am reminded of Jesus calling his disciples who had once, perhaps, been rejected.

I think of a man who had the good life here in America. He had the life many dream of obtaining with an education, a successful business, and great wealth. He was headed for the top; yet, he gave it up to serve an orphanage.

As the people chosen, this is the life we too must choose, one that appears upside-down to the world but is, in actuality, right side up, one that doesn’t strive to make us a god but, rather, reflects the image of God and stands in great contrast to the ways of the surrounding world. We are called to be Christ’s body in the world, carrying the message of the kingdom to the world, displaying sacrificial love, the very image of Christ. We, like Christ who came not to be served but to serve, are to give wholly of ourselves for the betterment of others; yet, so often I find myself not too far beyond Amos, seeking not the kingdom but using whatever means necessary to seek the spotlight. Today, may we, as the people of God in the world, hear the words of Amos. Let us not remain in the life we once lived, like the Israelites, but return to our creator, be transformed by his word, and faithfully seek not our own glory but the glory of the one who was and is and is to come, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Grace to you,
Matt

Between Sundays

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

For Jesus’ disciples, confusion and hopelessness had set in. Surely throughout the trials and crucifixion they wondered why he didn’t bring himself down, and now, he was gone. And from a phrase we’ve heard so often, it was Friday, their darkest moment, but little did they know Sunday was coming. However, Sunday came, and news of Jesus’ resurrection spread, news that ought to bring them back to the times when they walked alongside Jesus as they served together. It was news that should have excited and inspired them to carry on this mission; it should have restored their hope for Jesus had defeated death and conquered evil as promised. He was the true Messiah, but instead, Peter went fishing. Friday was over, Sunday had come, and Peter went fishing. I sometimes wonder today, as Sunday has now come and gone, though the news of Jesus’ resurrection has spread, have we too gone fishing. Do we understand what the resurrection of Christ means for us today?

Scripture tells us that, because of Jesus’ victory over death, we too may share in that victory. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ was raised.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

As the firstfruit, Jesus is the first of all to receive the fully transformed and imperishable resurrection body (spoken of later in 1 Corinthians 15). Through his resurrection, we have been granted the same gift.

Since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

It has been said, “He became like us so that we may become like him.” This is our gift of salvation, our hope. Though Sunday has come and gone, we’re promised a second Sunday, but still, what does this mean for us today?

In this week between the Sundays how should we live? Scripture speaks to this as well; in fact, this was Jesus’ ministry. It wasn’t a teaching about a far away land “somewhere beyond the azure blue” known as heaven. It wasn’t about “doing good” today so that, when Jesus returns to destroy the Earth, he will take us to this place floating in the clouds. N.T. Wright says, “Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world.”

Jesus’ ministry taught others how to live today in the coming kingdom. We see examples of this in his prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” Paul writes to the Philippians that their citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we await our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He also urges them to exercise their citizenship. Gordon Fee writes that they are to “…live out their heavenly citizenship in Philippi in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Our kingdom citizenship has already begun, and today we must participate in the gospel wherever we are and in whatever situation we find ourselves, joining together alongside the early disciples, alongside Paul, and once again alongside Jesus, continuing to bring about God’s will and God’s kingdom on Earth as in heaven. At the cross, the kingdom was ushered in, and we must do our part today through the work of the Spirit to spread this kingdom until Christ returns to fully bring about the kingdom, restoring, renewing, and transforming all of creation to its original intent and purpose.

Jesus’ life and death show us how, and it is through our sharing in his death, humbling ourselves to become slaves, that we do so. As we share in his death, he promises to share with us his resurrection, life.

In his new book, Virtue Reborn, Wright discusses the idea of Christian virtue, what it looks like to live in the kingdom today. He says that, though it is tedious, through much focused study and faithful practice of the tedious, virtue becomes second nature. Though we have turned the world upside down with evil, through Christ’s death and resurrection and now, through his Spirit working in his people, he is turning the world to rights. Over the coming weeks, we will discuss several of these virtues and how we can transform our lives so that we may participate in transforming the world.

Though Peter first went fishing, after witnessing the resurrected Lord, he laid his nets aside and picked up the cross. Let us be a witness to the resurrected Christ today and take up the cross.

Grace to you,
Matt

Seven Stanzas at Easter by John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers, each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

Telephone Poles and Other Poems © 1961 by John Updike
as reprinted at http://www.edow.org/spirituality/updike.html

Grace to you,
Matt

Reach

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

Upon Isaac’s confusion as he is unknowingly being led to be sacrificed, his father, Abraham, faithfully reminds him that Yahweh will provide the sacrificial lamb himself. Nearly 2000 years ago, as he cried, “Father, forgive them…” Yahweh provided the lamb, himself. Yet, here we stand today, and one cannot help but wonder at times, do these words still reach us today? With such evil clearly visible in the world today, greed, hatred, vengeance, terror, war, does the death and resurrection of this one man have the ultimate victory?

Surely, just as these words reached back to cover the sin of James and John as they argued in greed and pride over who would be the greatest and as they forgave Judas of his betrayal and Peter of his recent denials…

Certainly, just as his words immediately reached the crowd as they mocked him in hatred and revenge, as the soldiers pounded in the nails from above like bombs dropped in shock and awe upon innocent lives and thrust the spear into his side like a plane forcefully thrust into the side of a building…

Undoubtedly, the words of Christ, “Father, forgive them,” still reach us today for the sacrificial lamb is not still dead but has risen and lives. Let us remain assured in faith, steadfast in hope, and increasing in love as we stand covered by the blood of the one who was, is, and is to come.

Grace to you,
Matt

*I owe much credit to N.T. Wright for terminology and influence of ideas presented in this post.

The Hook

In today’s society, it is common to find churches that look like the surrounding culture. Rather than offering an alternative culture to the surrounding world, it seems the church is being overcome by the world. Instead of practicing good, wholesome theology, it’s offering a social club in which to simply play games. Fellowship has become playing games with Christians, and evangelism has become playing games with non-Christians. We do live in the entertainment age, though; what better way to draw in the world than by entertaining them, right? I recently heard a fellow Christian say, “We need to have a hook to draw people in, and then we can teach them the right thing.” This is evangelism in the modern church!

When we look at the early church, I find it intriguing that we see no evidence of mass conversion efforts, and there was very little preaching to the masses. Essentially, there was no institutionalized form of evangelism. Worship and the Christian life were certainly not attractive. If this is the case, what were the early Christian evangelism efforts? What caused our movement to grow so rapidly?

This growth ultimately is due to one factor which we will divide into three more detailed categories.

(1) The church was a community that dearly loved and shared with each other. They took up a collection, similar to the one many churches gather even today but for much different purposes. This was not an offering made to be placed into an annual budget or to throw numerous parties. In this offering, the rich of the faith community gave to the poor of the faith community. The collection was intended for the church to provide for each other and others as God had provided for them, to help those who were suffering and in need.

(2) The church was a community that dearly loved others. Jesus taught in Matthew 5 to love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you (which ought to still be greatly significant today as Christianity is still the only religion to do this). Perhaps this is somewhat difficult to understand in the American culture where persecution is less visible than in the first century (or even in places like India today) and blindly following the country into war against the enemy is merely “defense” and considered patriotic. There are numerous stories of Christians in the early church on their way to a torturous execution giving each other a holy kiss and turning to faithfully face their death. They would not take up the sword against their persecutors or enemies, but they instead prayed for peace for those who were killing them, laying down their sword and picking up their cross.

(3) Finally, the church was a community who built loving relationships with their neighbors, those they came in contact with daily. They often prayed for their neighbors, and, when they could, they would help them financially, yet another reason for the collection. Occasionally the spoke of their faith. It was not so much what they said but what they did, how they lived.

It was not large parties, loud music, the smell of gourmet coffee, attractive worship, or an attractive lifestyle that drew in the crowds but simply love. What is done together in our worship assembly does not even matter if we do not love each other. In fact, in Jeremiah we read of God speaking to a people who are engaged in some of the most exciting worship to date but living in hatred and sin. He asks, “Will you continue to come into my house and say, ‘I am delivered,’ only to go on doing such abominations?” And he calls them to change their ways.

Isn’t it fascinating that this was evangelism in the early church, loving as Christ loved daily? The hook we have been searching for is this:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:7-12).

Grace to you,
Matt

Moral Formation in Christian Worship: The Intrusion of the Entertainment Culture

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author writes to a people who have grown tired in the faith. It has been said that they entered packing for a weekend trip and instead they faced a pilgrimage filled with trial, suffering, and temptation. Some thought it easiest to return to their Jewish roots while others were attracted by more exciting, here and now events; they were turning to the newest fads and the “happening” places to be, allowing faith to fall by the wayside, tackled by the gods of the age. One can’t help but wonder if today’s church being greatly influenced and changed by the modern entertainment culture is falling into the same abomination and leaving matters of the faith behind. However, in a society that is growing tired of what seems to be the same old story, is relying upon entertainment as a sort of hook instead of the sustaining nature of Christ, his mission, and his story the best solution, or is this taking the easy way out, the way that only leads to destruction and moral decay?

Thurston Barlow addresses the intrusion of the American entertainment culture on the church and the dangerous effects it is having upon the Christian faith, particularly Christian morality. He calls the American society “…highly individualistic, self-indulgent, therapeutic, relativistic, and secular…” (2) comparing it to what the church is rapidly becoming. Too many individuals in the church today, instead of seeking to faithfully serve and worship YHWH, are searching for way in which they can be served or edified, what has come to be known as “church lite.” Barlow states, “Edification, in a climate severed from any openness to transcendence, can only degenerate into countless distortions” (3).

For a community with the original intent of living in relationship with the Father and with each other, serving, and worshipping the God of both mystery and majesty, it is a serious offense to seek merely a “feel good” injection to boost our self esteem and reassure us in the ways we currently live. Barlow writes that, in worship, “…we are made painfully aware that we have not been who he has called us to be” (5). In the new, entertainment age, with the infiltration of one of the gods of the age, the church is continuing to live out this judgment without regard to any sense of personal and communal responsibility. It must prepare itself to live a moral life against the standards set by the modern society.

It is not that being entertained and enjoying worship is a downfall; rather, if one is bored to tears, the church is still not fulfilling its purpose. However, when entertainment, “Dim the ‘brights’, bring up the blue lights, crank up the wattage, and waft the smell of popcorn into the ‘worship center,’” becomes the central focus and intent of the church instead of worshipping YHWH and preparing ourselves and each other for daily service and moral living in the kingdom, then the church’s worship has sorrowfully been slayed by the gods.

Grace to you,
Matt

N.T. Wright

This is a video of historian and theologian N.T. Wright speaking on women in ministry. I encourage you to watch his other short videos on You Tube and check out the many articles and books on his website, www.ntwrightpage.com.



Grace to you,
Matt