Who Do YOU Say That I AM?

September 16, 2012

Pentecost XVI

Fr. Philip Eberhart

 

 

And who do YOU say that I AM?

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Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 116:1-8
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

There is a verse in the Bible, the book of Proverbs, where Solomon wrote, “Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue.”  This morning I want to look into the truth of that statement in the light of our readings.

The “tongue” in our bible is a powerful force and a lot of ink is given to comment on its power and its force in our lives.  Just in the psalms and proverbs are nearly 70 references and in the NT another 50, most notably 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul is laying down the rules for those who “speak in a tongue” in church and James 3, our reading for this morning.  Almost half of the references in the NT are accounted for in these two chapters about two very different applications of the power of what we speak.

To set the stage I want to simply make reference to a single quote of Isaiah 45:23 that appears twice in the NT:

Rom 14:11  For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD."

And Phil 2:10 actually 9-11

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Every tongue will confess – Every tongue will give praise!

What is the big deal about the tongue? 

Well James captures it I think in the two illustrations he uses in this reading this morning.

The BIT and the RUDDER. 

The tongues, he explains, is a small member in the overall scheme of things in the body, but it “boasts of great things.”  The bit and the rudder are small parts of the grand scheme but they enable a control far beyond their relative size.  Likewise the tongue, enables – it enkindles a flame, as James puts it, that sets the very world on fire.

Have you seen the news this week?  A world on fire, set by the tongue?!!  A video was the match, but the wind is driven by the tongues of thousands around the world, and flames are everywhere on our nightly news.  I’m not making a judgment here on who is right or wrong but just drawing attention to the power of our speaking.

James really pulls no punches here as he talks about the vile evil that is found in the power of our speech – listen:

   A fire

            The very world of iniquity

                        Defiles the entire body

                                    Sets on fire the course of our life

                                                Is itself set on fire by hell!

 

No one can tame the tongue

            It is restless evil

                        Full of deadly poison

                                    With it we both bless and curse

                                                We praise God and curse men!

Are you listening?

We must allow the Holy Spirit to change – to transform the power of our tongue!  To transform what is described above into something that He can use for the good of the Kingdom…  is that possible?

 

HOW? 

Step One:  Confession

 

It begins in our hearts, with the turning from slavery to self, to the acknowledgment of God and of His Christ, Jesus, as Lord!  Those verses from Isaiah are not an idle threat,

that God made one day – they are a promise to be fulfilled across all the earth – EVERY

How many is that?

 

EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS!

This is where it begins as our hearts turn to Jesus.  Paul reminds us in Romans 10:10

Actually lets read from verse 8

            But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

What does it mean to CONFESS?

If you take the word that Paul uses, that is translated “confess” – it means to “say the same thing as another, ie. To agree with.”  Paul actually uses a compound Greek word that literally means “SAME WORD.”

 

To confess is to speak the same word as Jesus;  To agree with Him – to come into obedience to Him. 

We confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord!”  The most simple and the first Creed of the Church!  And the first creed of every believer must be those same words.

 

THE GREAT CONFESSION

 

Now let’s turn to Jesus question and Peter’s answer in the Gospel reading this morning.

"Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah.

Confession is to say WITH JESUS, what He has said about Himself.  That is what happened here with Peter.  He said with Jesus, what Jesus was saying about Himself.

Confession is the first step, but there are more steps!  Confession is a sacramental reality.

Do you remember last week’s sermon or the definition of a sacrament from you catechism?  A Sacrament is an “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”  Confession is an outward and “audible” sign of our inward and spiritual faith in Jesus!  Paul says we are to confess with our mouths, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead.  Isaiah says that every tongue will confess AND ????   Every knee will bow!

Our confession leads us to greater and greater action, both inward in our heart and outward as we bow in worship of Jesus as Lord and Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and God in the flesh, who has come to dwell among us!

In this action we come to know by our experience what Jesus has said about himself and about the Father, “I and the Father are ONE.” 

But there is more!!

 

Jesus goes on to explain the mission and ministry of the Son of Man to his disciples, and in almost the same breath, Peter denies all this, and he rebukes Jesus, for not doing it their way!!  Of course the disciples had something completely different than a Cross in mind for Jesus!  And again, almost in the same breath, Jesus, rebukes Peter with strong words,

“Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

How easy it is for us to get our vision off the ways and means of Jesus alone, and to begin adding in our own!!  So Jesus began to teach his own three point sermon, to the disciples and to all that were standing around him at that moment:

A.  Deny Themselves

B.  Take up their cross

C.  Follow Me.

 

Jesus here, challenges his disciples and those who were following him as Messiah – one of their own making, their own imagination and their own expectations –

In the synoptic Gospels, Matt, Mark and Luke, where these are paralleled, this story is the first mention by Jesus of His Cross to the disciples. 

Imagine, you think that you are following a great Rabbi, perhaps even, you let yourself believe for a moment, as Peter did, that he might be the Messiah, the Christ…

And then he asks you, WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

Well? 

Well, we think you may be the one who we have been waiting for… but…

Peter said it though…  YOU ARE THE MESSIAH – THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.

And Jesus did not correct him!  In fact Jesus blessed him and told him that such insight was not from him, but from the Father.

Then Jesus goes on to paint the full picture of who He is… and what He has come to do and how he has come to do it …

And Peter says, NO!  NOT THAT.

 

Have you ever?

You do know that the words NO and LORD don’t – can’t – go in the same sentence!

They are an oxymoron – words that don’t fit together

Let me end with just the quote from Mark 8:35

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Step One:   Confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord!”

Step Two:  Believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead 

Step Three:  Bow your knee in worship to Jesus, who is God and Lord of your life

 

Step Four:   Give your life to Him to do with as He chooses – you have His permission                        to “lose it.”     Lose it for HIM and for His Kingdom.

Amen!

 

May we pray…

 

Please repeat phrase by phrase:

 

Almighty and eternal God,

            So draw my heart to you

                        So guide my mind

                                    So fill my imagination

                                                So control my will

 

That I may be wholly Yours,

            Utterly dedicated to You

                        And then use me, I pray You,

                                    As You will

                                                And always for Your glory

                                                            And for the welfare of Your people.

 

Through the Name of Jesus Christ,

            My savior and My Lord.

 

Amen.

                        (Book of Common Prayer, P. 832:  A Prayer of Self-Dedication)

Astounded Beyond Measure at Jesus

September 9, 2012

Pentecost XV
Fr. Philip Eberhart

 

THEY WERE ASTOUNDED BEYOND MEASURE: HE DOES ALL THINGS WELL!
 

Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm 146
James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17
Mark 7:24-37

 

Have you ever looked at someone and said, “Man, would that person make a great Christian!” Because of their position or their gifts in the world, we have a tendency to “size people up” – in effect, to pre-judge them – as to their capabilities for the Kingdom of God!  Likewise the obverse is true, we see someone who is down on their luck and we “judge” that they are somehow unworthy of the Gospel of Jesus.

 This was the state of things in the early church as well, because its “human” nature; not the good kind of nature, by the way.  It’s the old nature and system of thinking that moves us to “size people up” – to classify them according to dress, or car, or talents, jobs or skills.

 Jesus, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.  His story of the sower of the seed shows us just how liberally the sower did his work.  Seed fell on all kinds of soil!  As a farmer, or the son of a farmer, I know that you only put seed in the soil that has been properly prepared for it, not in rocky, thorny or shallow soil, but in soil that has been turned and weeded and has had the rocks taken out!  And you never sow seed on hard pack or concrete – its all the same.  But the sower in Jesus parable pays no never mind to the types of soil, he just scatters the Word liberally.

And so we see Jesus in our reading this morning healing those with faith, both the gentile woman and the deaf man who could not speak.  Both of those people were people who were “under judgement” by the regular religious establishment. The one because of her station in life and the other because of his particular disease.

 In the first case of the Gentile woman, Jesus is hesitant to heal.  Why?  Because He was mindful of his mission from the Father, to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel.  To “give the children’s bread to the dogs” isn’t a remark about the woman, but about his mission and focus on Israel.  BUT… what turns his head?  FAITH – Faith that will not take NO for an answer.  And the argument that she mounts  accepts his mission as legitimate and her position as “outside” of it – but still clings to an unwavering faith in His love and power.  And her faith wins!  Is Jesus won over?  Did he change his mind.  I think not – what changed was his perception of her, not as one on the outside, but because of her faith, as one on the inside.

As we see in Paul’s writings in Romans, the scope of the Gospel extends to all those who “by faith” have come to God, and this is a case-in-point illustration from the very ministry and works of Jesus!

 

BY FAITH

 I want to look at the next section and then examine the issue of faith in these readings for a few moments.

In the man who was deaf, we don’t see any indication of his faith, but of those who brought him to Jesus.  Jesus didn’t question the man about his faith.  He simply took him into a private place – put his fingers in his ears, spat and touched his tongue and said a word that even deaf people can hear, because the word is very easily “lip read” – Eph-pha-tha, which is the word of command, “Be opened!” And it was so!  That simple!   Whose faith?  Not his faith, but their faith.  Those who brought him to Jesus.

Now let’s turn to James for a few minutes – the last paragraph of our reading:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

These words almost got the book of James thrown out of the canon!  Paul’s contention in Ephesians 2: 8ff is “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one can boast.”

For centuries these passages have been taken as being in opposition to one another, but I want to contend that they are saying exactly the same thing!  The point that Paul is making is not a point of relative importance, but of priority and order.  The key word here is the word “result” – in the Greek it is the simple preposition that denotes origins – “EK” =  out of, from, by, away from (a primary preposition denoting origin [the point whence action or motion proceeds]).  In other words, Paul says that faith is not “out of” works – that works cannot have the priority, faith does.  In fact, if you take James alongside Paul, what you have is this:

“by grace you have been saved through faith;…not as a result of works, so that no one can boast.” [but] what good is it if you say you have faith, but do not have works? Can [that kind of] faith save you? [NO!] Faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead!”

Friends, its not a question of faith OR works, it is a question of which comes first!

It is always faith AND works, in every situation, - even the thief on the cross, did the “work” of repenting publicly and asking Jesus to remember Him in glory.  Our faith, our belief is internal – a matter of the heart – but it cannot simply remain there!  James later says that even the demons “believe” and tremble!  Our belief must take action – the matter of the heart must become the heart of the MATTER!  Its just sacramental theology.

What do we say about the sacraments?  That they are “outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace!

So our work for the Lord is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace that Paul calls “faith.”  Remember, he said “by grace, you have been saved through faith; and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God…”

In the sentence structure of Paul’s greek sentence in Ephesians, the words “not as a result of works” actually modify and refer back to the words “you have been saved.”

In other words, “you have been saved, not as a result of works, but through faith, and even that [faith] is a gift of God!”

 

WHAT WORKS?

 So let’s turn back to James for a moment and ask the question, “What works?”

 "If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”

Once again James is the ever practical pastor!  In the Jerusalem community this was a matter of community identity and common practice, but elsewhere in the “diaspora” – away from the central community in Jerusalem, it had become less a matter of community life.  The dispersed Jewish community had taken on more of the form of the world – “every man for himself.”

Let me remind you of the norm in Jerusalem – from our target passage for our life together:  Acts 2:42-47:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

 Let’s look at the “works” that followed their faith in Acts 2:

Continual devotion to

            Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer

 Wonders and signs performed

      (did you note the lists in our readings from Isaiah and our psalm for today?) 

            The eyes of the blind shall see

            The ears of the deaf unstopped
            Lame shall leap like a deer
            Tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
            Gives justice to those who are oppressed
            And food to those who hunger.
            Sets the prisoners free
            (again) opens the eyes of the blind
            Lifts up those who are bowed down
            Loves the righteous
            Cares for the stranger
            Sustains the orphan and widow!

 Back to ACTS:

Living together with all things held in common, selling property & possessions

Sharing them with all, according to need

Daily fellowship in the temple and from house to house

Eating together

Praising God & enjoying His favor!

And what was the result:

             “The Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved!”

 

What are the “works” that God is calling you to, you who believe and who say with the psalmist:

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!  Whose hope is in the Lord their God; who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; who keeps his promise for ever;

If that is your confession, your “boast”, as it should be, then what are you DOING

about it?

What is the issue – what is coming forth “out of” your faith?  If someone says, “show me your faith” what will they see?  Can people see our faith, without the work that comes from it?  NO.  In the very next verse, after our reading stops, James goes on to say, “… I will show you my faith by my works.”

Faith and work are two sides of the same coin, my friends.  To see the complete image of salvation we must look at both sides.  Faith first and then the work which comes from it.

We’ve talked about the list already – the list of needs is long and the opportunities for ministry come to us every day.  The question is one of willingness and of availability and of obedience.

“Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Shall we pray…

O Lord Jesus Christ, you became poor for our sake, so that we might be made rich through your poverty: Guide and sanctify, we pray, all those whom you call to follow you.  Uphold us with a willing spirit, help us to see your hand at work and to be available to you every moment of every day and obedient to your voice when you speak to us, that by our prayers and works of service we may enrich your Church, and by our life and worship we may glorify your Name before the world; for you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit
that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

No Shadow of Turning: James and US

September 2, 2012

Fr. Philip Eberhart
Pentecost XIV
 

No Shadow of Turning

 

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm 15
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The next five weeks, the Sunday’s of September we will be working our way in the readings through the book of James. And the themes that we discover here are the themes that God is very much speaking to our church and to our nation in these days!

So, to set the stage I want to take a few minutes to explore the person and the setting of the letter as we begin.

James, the writer of this book, scholars agree, was the head of the church at Jerusalem and the brother of our Lord, Jesus.  The book was written, most likely, within a decade of Pentecost, sometime around 40 AD or shortly afterward. There is no mention of the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15, which would have gotten some ink if it had already happened. The Council happened in 48-49 AD.

James writes as a chief pastor, but to a specific group of people, as he is the pastor of the Jerusalem church, the letter is to the Jews who have been dispersed.  In the first verse of the first chapter:  “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.”  In his writing, James is a man of action, not words.  Though the book takes the form of a collection of proverbs, in the form of the ancient wisdom literature of Israel, it is, nearly half the time, in the imperative mood.  There is an urgency in James that is strongly persuasive – a bent towards action, not words.  He is commanding the troops at home and abroad, as the church has been born in and dispersed by the persecution that came after Pentecost (see Acts, chapter 3-8).  James has been in Jerusalem under Peter and under James and John’s leadership.  He has seen the conversion of Saul, but there is likely no Gentile Church in his mind yet.  So he writes to the Jewish Christians of the dispersion – house churches scattered by persecution or by the Diaspora itself, who have been away from Jerusalem for some time and are hearing of this “through the grapevine” as those from Jerusalem are visiting the synagogues of the dispersed Jewish community and “gossiping the Gospel.”

So James, called “the Just”, by historians, to distinguish him from James, the Apostle and brother of John, is concerned with moving his hearers to action.  His theme is living out the faith, “being a doer of the word, not a hearer only!”  He is very concerned, as we will see, about self-deception and its poison in the life of the believer and in the church.  James is crystal clear about the role of faith and the necessity of acting on that faith.  He is crystal clear about the relationship of the poor and the rich in the church and their mutual need for one another! He is clear about the power of the tongue and the effects of dissention in the church.  James is a
“wisdom” writer in the Jewish tradition.  His tone is urgent and energetic and it stings us at times with its scolding satire.

Some of these things we will see, as we dive into our readings for today.

This morning we hear a specific theme that runs throughout our readings, not just in the book of James:

From the command of Moses:

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you.

 

From David, the Psalmist:

LORD, who may dwell in your tabernacle? *
who may abide upon your holy hill?

2

Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, *
who speaks the truth from his heart.

 

From Jesus, quoting Isaiah:

Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

'This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.'

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

And from James, the Just, the pastor of Jerusalem:

Reading from the JB Phillips translation:

^19-20 In view of what he has made us then, dear brothers, let every man be quick to listen but slow to use his tongue, and slow to lose his temper.

… humbly accept the message that God has sown in your hearts, and which can save your souls. Don’t I beg you, only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves.

²⁷ Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

The message is clear from many perspectives:  We are our own greatest problem!  We have seen the enemy, and he is US!  The call to obedience – the command of obedience, is clear from the earliest writings of Moses to the wisdom that we see here from James.  Jesus captures the problem in the words of Isaiah:

   “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”

From earliest times the people of God have been given the clear imperative of obedience.  Obedience to God’s law, to His Word, both written and spoken to the nation of Israel and through the N.T. to the people of God, is the single most consistent theme of Holy Scripture.  Jesus likened it to choosing which kind of foundation you were to build your house on!  Rock or Sand?  Storms will come, Jesus said, - and the foundation you have built on will make all the difference!

Friends, I’ve talked many times about the necessity of obedience as the third leg of our REZ stool – Willingness, Availability & Obedience.  But it seems that we get to the point of hearing, of perhaps understanding what God wants, and then we stop short.  We stop short of implementation – of execution.  When it comes to walking in God’s ways, we seem to want to have our cake and eat it too! 

We live in a land of blessing from on high – I don’t think many will argue that point – and yet we have disavowed God a role in the public square, just as we have minimized His role in our private lives as well.  I’m struck by a sense of urgency, having just come through ½ of  the political convention season last week, and anticipating the second ½ this next week.  What is so urgent is that we seem to think that politics can save our country.  NOT!

What will save our country is what will save its people, one by one, -- obedience to the God of the Universe and His son, Jesus Christ!!  The same urgency that James displays in his writing – the same imperatives, are imperative for US – individually and corporately today!  No matter what side of the aisle you fall on, it is more needful that we fall on our knees – on our faces – before the Living God.  We must return to Him, as individuals, as churches, as states and as a nation!

Just imagine some of James’ imperatives being spoken to you and to the whole of the United States of America:

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

 

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God

¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change

 

¹⁹ Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

 

…be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (leading yourselves astray!)

the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Do you think that these ring true for you?   For us at REZ?  How about for us as a nation?

Then I suggest that we pray, friends;  that we pray for ourselves along these lines; that we pray for our state and nation along these lines, especially in this run up to the next election in November.

Friends it is time.  The urgency that James expresses is our urgency.  The imperatives he commands must be our imperatives:

 

·         Be joyful in the testing of your faith – it makes you steadfast!

·         Where you lack wisdom, ask God! (not if!)

·         Every good gift you enjoy is from Him!

·         Be a quick hearer, a slow speaker and slower to get angry.

·         Do the Word.  Don’t lead yourself astray by listening only!

·         Persevere in the Perfect Law of Liberty, being a doer who acts, and                  you will be blessed by God in your doing.

 

These are the imperatives of our day, because we are on the brink.  The urgency of James must be our urgency.  God is calling us personally and as a nation to return to Him! 

From another piece of wisdom literature that we are familiar with:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean NOT on your own understanding!

In ALL your ways, ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, and He will direct (make straight) your paths!”

Let us pray:

Almighty God, You have given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech You that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Your favor and glad to do Your will.  Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Your Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to Your law, we may show forth Your praise among the nations of the earth.  In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in You to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth. Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and women from different cultures and with differing talents may find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what You would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in Your light we may see light, and in Your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of Your Spirit lift us, we pray, to Your presence, where we may be still and know that You are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

America's Four Images of God

August 19, 2012

Pentecost XII
Fr. Philip Eberhart
Audio Here
_____________________________________________

When I was in seminary in the early 1980’s it was in vogue to teach that a preacher should preach with the bible in one hand and the “Times” in the other, or whatever local version of the New York Times was at hand, in our case the Denver Post.  I didn’t take that advice because I saw many a preacher lean more heavily on the Times than on the bible and I determined that I was not going to be one of those guys.

But every once in a while a circumstance comes along that causes the populace to reflect on God and God’s relative position and importance in our lives.  That happened a few weeks ago in Aurora.  Last Sunday’s Denver Post contained an article entitled, “Aurora shooting inspires various perspectives on God and belief”, by the Post’s Electa Draper. (click title to see original article).

As I read through the article, I saw some of the “witnesses” of God’s power and presence in the midst of the horror in that theater.  We’ve all heard the story of Petra Anderson and her miraculous “defect” that allowed a piece of buckshot to pass through her head without touching her brain!  There are other “miracle” stories, and as many questions out there in our culture about the stories that are not miracles!!

The two questions that come up whenever there is a tragedy in life or a storm on the coast, or an earthquake or flood:  Is there a God and where is He?

Suffering is a reality in our world – a very harsh and unrelenting reality.  We laugh at the insurance commercial that features the guy who calls himself MAYHEM, but its no laughing matter that ‘Mayhem’ exists, and sometimes insurance can’t fix it.

FOUR VIEWS (link to USA Today article)

The Denver Post article was about some of the stories out there about God’s prevention or intervention at the shooting in Aurora.  But the article took its cues from research done a couple years ago by a couple sociologists from Baylor Univ and their work entitled, America’s Four Gods. (Link to 4 Gods Website)

Baylor Univ sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader’s research shows that 9 of 10 in America believe in God’s existence in some form, though the agreement pretty much stops there and divides into four or five distinct camps.  According to the research we fall into camps that are divided along two intersecting lines.

A vertical line between Distance (theologians call this Transcendence) and Engagement (what theology refers to as Immanence.)

A horizontal line between Judgement (God’s Holiness) and Benevolence (God’s Love).

So we have a construct that looks something like a cross. This construct creates 4 distinct quadrants based on how you score on questions regarding your view of God.

Is God critical… severe…. Punishing …. Wrathful… Angered by human sin … angered by MY sin?

Is God ever-present … concerned with the well-being of the world … concerned with my personal well-being … directly involved in world affairs … directly involved in my affairs?

The questions score your views of God’s engagement with and demeanor toward our human plight on earth and your life in particular.  It then finds four quadrants or views that prevail in America.

1.  The Authoritative God:  28% of Americans believe in a God that is engaged in history and that metes our punishment to nations and peoples who do not follow him.  To quote:

“They divide the world by good and evil and appeal to people who are worried, concerned or scared.  They respond to a powerful God guiding this country, and if we don’t explicitly talk about (that) God, then we have the wrong God or no God at all.”

2.  The Benevolent God, by contrast, is held to be true by 22% of Americans.  Again quoting from Froese:

            “Their God is a force for good who cares for all people, weeps at all conflicts                            

               and will comfort all.”  This God is engaged in our world and loves and supports                   

               us in caring for others.

3.  The Critical God, held by 21% of Americans, is a judgmental God, who sees and keeps score, and will settle the score and balance the scales in the next life. 

4.  The Distant God, held by nearly one in four (24%) Americans, is one who “booted up the universe, but leaves us pretty much on our own.  This distant God gives us more responsibility for the state of our world and our lives.  A Rabbi from Boulder was quoted

“There’s no one that can fix things if I mess them up.  God’s not telling me what I should do.”  Her new book is entitled, God Envy: A Rabbi’s Confession [A Book for People who Don’t believe God can intervene in their lives and why Judaism is still important].

The four views of God span the denominational and spiritual spectrum of American life and often inform us even more than our denominational affiliation on matters of morality, views of science, money, evil, war and natural disasters.

Our view of God will inform where we look for answers and what answers are available to us in times of crisis, both personally and globally.  And these views of God are real in our culture, you can check them out at the Starbucks you get coffee at.  Also a popular and unifying thread, according to the researchers is that “Americans of every stripe overwhelmingly believe that all good people go to heaven, that many faiths contain truth and that religious diversity is good for the nation.”

 So what do we “church folk” do with this kind of information, this kind of research? It’s about us!  It’s about our national views of God. (click here to take the test!) It’s enlightening and troubling at the same time.  But most of all I find that it tends toward a narrowing and division of our view of God based on what we expect and experience of God through our own lives and in the experience of others around us.

Is there a more comprehensive view of God that is available?  Where do we find it?

Now I’m back to the reason why I don’t preach from the newspaper very often!

A Biblical Worldview and God Image

 Interestingly, our scriptures this morning from the Lections point us to some wisdom here in our dilemma:

 From our Psalm:

“Fear the LORD, you that are his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.”

“Come, children, and listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.”

 From Paul:

“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.  So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

From John:

“My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.  Those who “eat and drink” abide in me, and I in them.

 The portrait we have of God from our American research is a bit like the story of the four blind men who were asked to describe an elephant.  One touched the leg and described it as a tree-like animal.  One touched the truck and described it as a large snake like animal. One touched the tail and disagreed, saying it was a small and sinewy snake. While the fourth touched the side of the elephant and described it as a wall.

None of us has the complete picture, but all of us bring a piece of understanding.

All of us have our experience of God and judgements about other’s experience or claims, but we are left with incomplete pictures, like a puzzle with some of the pieces missing!

There is only one place that gives us a complete picture of God and who He is and the way that He relates to us.  And we cannot know Him or experience Him apart from a relationship with this Word.

Last week we quoted from the beginning of John’s gospel and I want to go there again today:

”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

 Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians that Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God.”  And that “in Him (Jesus) all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily!”

 Where should we look to see God?

Look at Jesus Christ.

In Him we see the balance of these four “natures” that the Baylor researchers have identified.  Transcendence and Immanence;  Holiness and Unfailing Love.

 The great wonder of the revelation of Jesus is that we see Him not at the outer reaches of these axes, but at the very center of the target!  He is the full embodiment, en-flesh-ment of all that God is, and to “see God” we simply need to look at Jesus!!

To see God’s transcendence, we look at Jesus’ place with the Father before the worlds began and Jesus place in creation, “through him all things were made that were made!”

And “In Him, all things hold together.”

To see God’s immanence, we only need to look at Phil 2 and the self-emptying of Jesus in obedience to his Father, coming to earth as a servant, slave, and sacrifice for salvation.

To see God’s judgement, we only need to look at the cross, and hear the cry of Jesus, “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabathani!”   My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? And we hear from his lips, “Father, forgive them, for they know now what they do!” and with his final breath, “IT IS FINISHED!”

To see God’s love, we simply ask, “How much do you love me, LORD?” and we look to Jesus, hanging on the cross, and say, “THIS MUCH!”

Friends, the truth of our God is not found in the extremes ends of an “either/or” proposition, either God is judgmental or God is benevolent, either God is close at hand or God is distant.  Even our experiences of one another will lead us to those kinds of conclusions about a person differently at different times and in different circumstances.

 But our God reveals Himself to us in the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ.  The cross itself is the best way to picture what has happened here.

 The cross bar is the place where Jesus’ hands were nailed.  He embraces us, engages us, and transforms us, as He takes our place in the place of judgment for our sin.  And with His hands he offers us a New Life.  “Old things have gone, New things have come!”

And he asks us to extend our hands, “ as His Ambassadors of reconciliation!”

We offer the same offer that Jesus offers:  The great exchange!!  “He who knew no sin became sin for us (for you), so that we (you) can become righteousness in Him.”

John said it this way, “to as many as received Him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

At the end of the day … at the end of our life, its not going to matter how bad, or even how good we were in this life!  At the end it a matter of Who you know.  The only way into the company of Heaven is through the Door called Jesus Christ.  At some point we have got to stop speculating about who God is, and look at Jesus and answer the question that he asked of his disciples…

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

May we pray.

Dear Jesus, we look to you for our wisdom.  We look to you for our knowledge of God.  We look to you for our “image” of God and to see what God is like.  In you, Lord, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily!  We acknowledge you, Jesus, as Lord of lords and as King of Kings … and we acknowledge you as our King … as MY KING.

Come this day, by your Spirit, into our hearts and minds, and reveal yourself in your fullness to us.  As we eat and drink at your Table, open our eyes to see and our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to believe and experience you in your fullness.  Come Holy Spirit.  Come!

In Jesus Name and for the Sake of His Kingdom,

Amen.

The "I AM's" of Jesus

August 12, 2012

Pentecost XI

Fr. Philip Eberhart

The “I AM’s” of Jesus

As I began to read through our gospel passage this morning I was struck by Jesus saying, “I AM.”  As you know, these were the words that, in Hebrew, form what is called the Tetragrammaton, or the 4-letter, nearly unpronounceable name of God given to Moses at the encounter with God’s presence at the burning bush.  Y – H – W – H  from which we get the anglicized version:  Yahweh or Jehovah, that we are more familiar with.

Just a bit of history around this word:

As it was revealed to Moses the Name of God was considered to be holy, so holy that, when written in the Old Testament in the original form (YHWH) the scribe, would stop his work, go wash ritually, come back, write the Name, and go wash ritually again, before continuing to write.  Something similar to a Dr. preparing for surgery!  This was serious business.

Of course these words are normal parts of speech.  A personal pronoun, I, and a verb of being, AM. 

I AM.

When I began to process this sermon, I did a search in the Gospels for those two words and came up with hundreds of instances of their use, of course.  Then it occurred to me that adding the definite article “THE” would separate out the specific instances that I was looking for in the gospels.  What I found was very interesting.

The “I AM’s” of Jesus occur exclusively in the Gospel of John.  Save one very important one:  The Synoptic Gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke all record Jesus response to the question of the High Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, at his trial:

Mark 14: 61-62;  Luke 22:70; and Matthew 26:63-64

All record Jesus answering a direct question by the High Priest:

"I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

 In all three accounts, Jesus answers in the affirmative, in Mark and Luke with the actual words “I AM” and in Matthew with “YOU SAID IT!”  and He followed the admission with a further statement:

 “I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

In the Gospel of John, John’s concern with placing Jesus in his Spiritual place in the cosmos is evident from the very outset where we read, in John’s prologue:

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

 John wants from the outset to make it clear to his readers that we are not talking about an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, every day Jewish Rabbi.  We are talking in completely different categories here.

 He goes on to make it even more explicit in his first chapter:  vss. 9-12

 “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” (ESV)

 Here we begin to see John’s use of metaphor for the what of Jesus mission in the world.

 And that is the point of John’s usage of the “I AM’s” throughout his gospel account.

 And those actually begin with the one in our reading this morning:

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE…

            I AM THE BREAD THAT CAME DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN.
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE…
            I AM THE LIVING BREAD THAT CAME DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN;

And then the punch line:  In vs. 51

 “… if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

 Jesus is here likening Himself to the Manna from heaven that Moses gave the children of Israel in the wilderness after the Exodus.  Jesus makes very explicit connections between himself and this “bread from heaven.”

And then at the last, He connects the bread with his own sacrifice, and hearkens back to the whole sacrificial system of ancient Israel.  Jesus is saying, very clearly to his Jewish hearers that His body, given on the cross and celebrated in remembrance, on this Table, is the BREAD OF LIFE, given by God for the life of the world.

We call the Eucharist a “means of grace.”  Indeed!  “Anyone who eats of this bread, will live forever!”   Hallelujah!!

Let’s press on to the other I AM’s of Jesus in John’s gospel:

 Just two chapters later in Jn 8:   “I AM the Light of the world:  He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life!”

He repeats this again in Jn 9, then in Jn 10, we are all familiar with the great passage:

I AM THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP… (He elaborates)

            I AM THE DOOR;  IF ANYONE ENTERS THROUGH ME, HE WILL BE
            SAVED, AND WILL GO IN AND OUT AND FIND PASTURE.

 I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD … WHO LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP

           I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD, AND I KNOW MY OWN AND MY OWN KNOW ME;

Jesus, takes on the metaphor of the Shepherd, in John 10, just as God has had that role through Israel’s history, the Great Shepherd of Israel.  We hearken back to the very familiar Psalm 23:

 Psa 23:1 The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psa 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

 Here we find a Psalm of ultimate comfort, one we use often at funerals or in times of difficulty.  It reveals the role of the Shepherd of Israel.  Also from Psalm 95:7

 Psa 95:7  “For he [is] our God; and we [are] the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. “

Jesus taps into an historical reference to God the Father with his Jewish hearers.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

 And again, in the very next chapter, Jesus claims the Name and Nature of God:

 Jn 11:25

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE;  HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, WILL LIVE EVEN IF HE DIES,

 A clear reference to the power of God the Father to give and sustain life, Jesus here is claiming the Power of God as His own power.  Of course, one can claim such power easily, but in the setting of Jn 11, Jesus is talking to Mary, the sister of the dead Lazarus.

From her he immediately turns and makes his words a reality in their hearing that day:

 LAZARUS, COME FORTH!!!

And in his final discourse, after supper with his disciples in the Upper Room, Jesus tells Philip and the others,

I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE;  NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME.

These words of Jesus are the capstone of the I AM sayings!  Jesus sets himself apart here in stark contrast to the world, and to the many ways, the many truths that we run after.  There is one source of truth and life from God the Father, and Jesus is the Way.  As Paul was later to preach

 “There is no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved!”

Just let me say, that if you entertain any of the popular notions of today’s pluralistic, multi-cultural religious elite, that there are “many ways to God” or that there is no one way that is “THE WAY” then this statement of Jesus must act as a STOP sign for us, before turning down that path.

And finally, Jesus final two I AM’s

 I AM THE TRUE VINE;

            I AM THE VINE, YOU ARE THE BRANCHES;  HE WHO ABIDES IN ME
            AND I IN HIM, HE BEARS MUCH FRUIT, FOR APART FROM ME YOU
            CAN DO NOTHING!!!

 Speaks for itself, eh?

And the final I am, from Matt 28:

            I AM WITH YOU, EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE!

AMEN AND AMEN