There's a Party Going On

OCMC 2/2/14

Luke 14:15-24

            Today we are continuing this sermon series “Empowered by the Spirit” which is the beginning phrase of our church mission statement.  If you’ve never seen this before, we had the mission statement and the vision for mission statement printed on these bookmarks with contact information and our logo.  Most of you should be familiar with the mission statement by now because it’s printed on the front of your bulletins every week and we’ve been reading it together every week that we’ve been doing this sermon series.  We wanted to do this series of sermons to focus on our mission as a congregation and focus on the different areas of ministry that we have at OCMC.

            Today we are focusing on the ministry of hospitality.  When I originally thought of this topic, the story of Lydia in Acts 16 came to mind.  She was a woman in Philippi who had a business selling purple cloth and she was converted to Christianity by Paul.  After her conversion she offered for Paul and his companions to stay in her house while they were at Philippi.  When she extended the invitation she said to them, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.”  I read that and got to thinking how odd that was.  Usually when we invite someone to stay at our house, we don’t think about if they will consider us good people to stay with.  We usually think, is our house clean and comfortable, and what will we need to do to make it that way so our guest feels welcome and their needs are met.  But Lydia is saying, if they think she’s okay to stay with because they consider her to be a believer, then they can stay at her house.

            Then I remembered another story from Luke chapter 7 where a Roman centurion had a servant who was very sick and he sent the Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to come heal the man. The Jewish elders said to Jesus “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.”  (v. 4).  But as Jesus got close to the man’s house, the man sent another messenger to him saying “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.”  There’s that idea again of, if you consider me good enough, come to my house.  It seems that hospitality in Jesus’ day had some rules attached to it.  With the centurion and with Lydia as well, it can be partly explained by the fact that these were Gentiles interacting with Jews.  The Jewish purity laws would have placed restrictions on Jesus and Paul being able to come into the house of a Gentile.  But it seems that there is also this idea that the host should be worthy of the guest.

            We have the same sort of rules today in certain circumstances.  For example, I’ve never been invited to dinner at the White House.  I’m guessing most of you haven’t either.  And that’s because no one at the White House knows me.  Dinner at the White House with the President is for leaders in the worlds of politics, business, science, the arts and so forth.  It’s for religious leaders like the Pope or Billy Graham.  I’m not in that category yet.  I haven’t done anything to warrant an invitation to dinner at the White House.  This makes sense to us. 

            But if I were in that category and did receive an invitation to the White House, the President certainly would not try to convince me that he was worthy of having me as a guest.  And when we invite people to come over for dinner or to a party or any event we may host, we usually don’t talk about whether we are worthy of having them as our guests.  Hosts don’t usually have to sell themselves as being good people.  Most people consider an invitation to be a gracious gesture and are happy to be thought of.  But in these 2 stories I’ve referred to, the people doing the inviting seem to be having to sell themselves to the invitee.

            Now we come to the passage from Luke 14 that Chantelle read for us.  In this passage a man is having a banquet and he’s already invited people and they have accepted his invitation.   In Jesus’ day, when a person had a big dinner party like this with lots of people invited, they would get confirmation of how many people were planning to attend and then plan for the food.  On the day of the banquet, when the food was ready, they would send out servants to let everyone know it was time to come eat.  When we have dinner parties, we usually tell people what time to come and then plan our food prep so that the food is ready shortly after people arrive but in Jesus’ day they didn’t have the conveniences we have, so they summoned people once the food was ready.

            In this parable that Jesus tells, the servant goes around to let people know it’s time to come, and the invited guests start to give him excuses.  One says he’s bought a field and has to go inspect it.  This is a lame excuse.  No one buys a piece of land without looking at it first and making sure it’s a good property for what you have in mind. 
The second guest says he’s just bought 5 yoke of oxen and needs to go try them out. 
This is another lame excuse.  Oxen were valuable animals in Jesus’ day.  It was no easy thing to pair oxen together for work.  Both of the animals had to have about the same stamina because they would be working together.  You couldn’t have one ox getting tired and trying to lay down while the other was still pulling the plow.  The animals had to like each other.  You couldn’t have 2 oxen fighting each other while trying to get them to plow your field.  They had to be about the same size because they would be yoked together.  No one is going to buy 5 yoke of oxen without first putting them in the field and seeing how they work together.

            The third guest doesn’t even ask to be excused.  He says he’s just gotten married and can’t come.  What he means is he’s too busy with his wife to be disturbed.  In Jesus’ day, this would have been considered a very crude excuse.  The servant comes back and lets his master know that no one is coming.  It has become very plain that, for whatever reason, these invited guests do not consider the host to be worthy of their presence, even though they originally accepted his invitation, and by their excuses and absence, they mean to ruin his banquet.  It’s a real social snub that Jesus is describing.

            So the host is upset and angry and rightfully so. He’s gone to all this trouble and fixed all this food because these people accepted his invitation and now no one’s coming.  These people are insulting him in their refusal to come.  But he does something truly amazing.  He takes his anger and he channels it into extending a broader invitation.  He doesn’t take his anger and channel it into retaliation.  To put it in street terms, he doesn’t worry about the fact he’s been dissed and he doesn’t strike back.  This is grace.  This man has suffered an injustice.  His guests have disrespected him, they have lied to him, they have insulted and embarrassed him.  He gets angry.  But he turns his anger in a positive direction.  He doesn’t strike back and he doesn’t go off and hide.  He doesn’t get depressed and think no one loves him.  Instead he chooses to extend the invitation again, to send his servant out into the streets and alleys and to invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. 

            Hospitality doesn’t give up.  Here we see hospitality partnered with grace and it continues to invite people to come share the banquet rather than giving up or striking out.  Hospitality continues to welcome.  The first guests refused to come so the host went out and got other guests.  Plan A didn’t work so, rather than give up, he went to Plan B.  When our invitation is rejected by one person, we can’t give up.  We go to another person and extend the invitation again.

            When I was working in London, we did a lot of street evangelism.  Our youth engaged in this type of evangelism in 2012 when they went to Berlin.  When you do street evangelism, you have to practice this type of hospitality.  When you approach someone to engage them in conversation about the gospel, and they reject you, you simply move on to the next person.  You don’t chase them down or argue or anything else.  That type of behavior will really turn people off and give them one more reason not to listen.  But if you respect their no and move on, they may hang around longer and may end up talking to someone.  Hospitality takes the rejection and continues to extend grace.

            Another thing I see in this parable is that the host sent his servant out to invite in the lame, the blind, the poor, the crippled.  These were people of a lower social class than the host.  Jesus’ listeners would have been shocked that the host would choose to invite these people.  These are people who couldn’t possibly repay this man’s hospitality and they wouldn’t have been considered worthy of the host.  But hospitality breaks the rules.  The hospitality that Jesus is describing here is one that crosses boundaries.  It doesn’t let itself be limited by social mores.  In the face of injustice, like the insult the host suffered from his first guests, biblical hospitality breaks the rules and continues to reach out in a gracious way.

            So the servant goes out and invites the poor, the blind, the crippled and they come but there is still room for more.  So the host tells him to go out into the countryside and make those people who live outside the town come to the banquet.  So now the man is extending the invitation to strangers.  Jesus’ listeners would have understood him to mean possibly Gentiles are being invited.  These are people who aren’t from our neighborhood.  These are not the people that we are familiar with and see as we go about our business.  Now the man is inviting strangers from the countryside.  But this host wants a full house for his banquet and he’s willing to really stretch the boundaries wide and invite unknown people into his house. 

Hospitality has a long arm.  It reaches out pretty far.  It crosses some pretty solid borders.  There have been times in history when, in the face of great injustice, hospitality reached out pretty far.  In the civil rights movement, there were people who dared to cross some pretty intimidating borders.  Last summer Vandy and I went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History and we saw the Woolworth’s counter where the 4 young African American men sat as they challenged the border of segregation and extended an invitation of inclusion.  Yesterday, google had a doodle honoring Harriet Tubman, a brave woman who crossed the border between North and South many times to bring slaves to a place where they could be free. These are just a couple of examples but there are many times in history where, in the face of great injustice, hospitality has reached out with grace and extended an invitation to something better.

            In our vision for mission statement, we as a congregation have put out an invitation to work together for reconciliation.  I want to read part of this, which was written about 8 years ago.  “Oxford Circle Mennonite Church envisions being a place and a people open to God’s new life.  Having experienced God’s forgiveness of sins, and having committed to imitate Christ’s example, we seek openness to God, each other, and to our larger community through the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  We yearn for increased wholeness – spiritual, physical, environmental and social:  purer hearts, healthier lifestyles, cleaner neighborhoods, and safer streets.  So we commit to bold movements towards reconciliation, because God has made us right with himself through Christ.  We embrace risky opportunities to love our neighbors in order to see the Spirit tear down walls of race, gender, age and class….we sense that there will be increasing hope; new faces and voices; deeper discipleship and communion; more holistically Godly living.  We realize challenges to these efforts, for conflict often accompanies openness to diversity.  However, we trust that honesty and reliance on the Spirit will keep us humble and united, as we listen to God and each other…We believe all this is possible because of God’s grace, which joins us in Jesus Christ, as we together submit ourselves to the Spirit’s wisdom.”

            When we put together this statement, we committed ourselves as a congregation to be a people and a place of hospitality.  Not just hospitality that likes to eat together, although this statement does talk about sharing each other’s ethnic foods, but the type of hospitality that challenges the rules.  The type of hospitality that continues to reach out in the face of injustice.  The type of hospitality that will take the insult and still extend the invitation to come.  This is the type of hospitality that our God practices.  In the face of the great injustice of sin in this world, He offers to invitation to come and be forgiven and reconciled and healed.  Even as Jesus was being crucified he extended the invitation for forgiveness, first to those who were nailing him to the cross, and then to the thief dying beside him.  That’s crossing all kinds of social barriers right there. 

            Ultimately this parable is talking about the great banquet of God. God is the host.  He is the one whose invitation is rejected by those first invited, so he partners his anger with grace and extends the invitation to strangers and to those considered unworthy.  He crosses social and cultural borders because He’s prepared a feast and He wants to see people enjoying it. He’s offering those things that we can’t provide for ourselves.  The poor sick people invited in this parable could never have afforded a feast like they got at this banquet.  God is offering to us what we can’t afford or provide for ourselves.  He’s offering forgiveness of sins, healing of hurts, peace, His presence with us always, His Spirit remaining with us to empower us to live as He wants us to.  He’s offering us life.  Are we going to accept his offer?

What is the invitation that you sense God is extending to you today?  Maybe an invitation to lay down a burden you’ve been carrying, to let Him carry it for you.  Maybe an invitation for forgiveness, to come and be cleansed of whatever it may be that’s on your conscience so you can have peace.  Maybe it’s an invitation to commit to something or someone.  Whatever invitation you sense God is extending to you, understand that he gives this invitation because He loves you.  He knows you might reject it, but he extends it anyway.  He’s reaching across all kinds of barriers to you. 

In a Solitary Place

OCMC 1/26/14

Mark 1:35-39

            Today we are continuing the sermon series called “Empowered by the Spirit”.  In this passage that Lyllian read for us, we see Jesus at the end of a period of intense ministry.  A lot of stuff has happened in Mark chapter 1.  One of the things that makes Mark’s gospel unique is the fast pace of the storytelling.  Mark moves from one event to another using lots of action words and giving the impression that things are moving quickly.  Mark focuses a lot on Jesus’ power in doing miracles and his authoritative teaching that also held power.  Jesus is like a superhero in Mark’s gospel.

            We can see this in chapter one which begins with John the Baptist coming and baptizing people in the wilderness while making it clear that there is another coming who is much greater than John who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Then in verse 9 Jesus appears, coming from Nazareth and being baptized by John.  As Jesus is coming out of the water after being baptized, we have this exciting description of heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Jesus and a voice speaking from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  Wouldn’t that have been something to see?

            Then immediately after that, the Spirit sends Jesus out into the wilderness for 40 days where he is tempted by Satan and where angels attended him.  Mark doesn’t go into any detail about what happened there choosing instead to move quickly on to Jesus beginning his ministry and calling his first disciples.  After Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James and John from their fishing jobs to following him, they go to Capernaum.  That’s a lot of action in about 20 verses.  But when Jesus gets to Capernaum, Mark focuses on the happenings of one Sabbath day and goes into more detail about what Jesus did. 

            First Jesus and the disciples went to the synagogue and Jesus taught there.  The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught with such authority.  There was a man there possessed by an evil spirit who cried out “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” (v. 24).  Jesus orders the spirit to be quiet and come out of the man and it does.  Again the people are all amazed because Jesus is exhibiting such spiritual authority both in his teaching and in his casting out the evil spirit.  So the news spreads quickly over the whole region.

            After they leave the synagogue, Jesus and his disciples go to Simon and Andrew’s home where Simon’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever.  When Jesus finds out she’s sick, he goes to her and heals her.  It’s the Sabbath day so the people aren’t supposed to be doing work.  But when evening comes and the Sabbath is officially over, the people from the town begin bringing all their sick and demon-possessed people to Jesus so he can heal them.  Mark says that the whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed the sick and drove out the demons. 

            I’m tired just reading about it.  I can imagine how Jesus must have felt after the last person was healed and everyone finally left for the night.  He must have been exhausted.  When I go home this afternoon, I will not be good for anything for a few hours.  After spending the morning teaching, preaching and tending to all the details of Sunday morning, I will be wiped out for a while and will most likely take a nap.  Most pastors are the same way.  Sunday is our high energy day, where we put out a lot of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy in a short amount of time and it wipes you out.  Just to give you an idea of how much energy and sweat is expended, I once weighed myself before coming to church on a Sunday when I was scheduled to preach.  After I came home I weighed again and I was 3 pounds lighter.  Bethannie said that must have been how much the Holy Spirit weighed.

            The point is Jesus was very intensely engaged in ministry here and he must have been physically exhausted.  Yet very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and apparently while everyone else was still sleeping, Jesus went off by himself to a solitary place where he prayed.  This isn’t the only incident where Jesus went off to pray after an intense time of ministry.

 In Matthew 14 Jesus received word that John the Baptist had been beheaded and so he withdrew by boat to a solitary place.  But the crowds followed him and, when he landed there was a large crowd already waiting.  It’s like going on vacation and finding out your boss is staying in the room down the hall from you.  Jesus took compassion on the people and healed their sick.  When evening came the disciples wanted him to send the people home because they needed to eat but Jesus ended up miraculously feeding them with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Then Jesus made the disciples get in the boat to go to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.  After sending the disciples and the crowds away, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.  In this story, not only is Jesus expending energy healing, teaching, and performing miracles, he’s also grieving the death of John the Baptist. 

I hope you are getting the picture here that Jesus’ preferred method of self-care is to go off by himself to pray.  It’s not to take a nap, it’s not to chill with friends, it’s not to veg in front of the TV, or eat junk food, or take a walk, or go to a spa, or read a book, or any of the other things that we like to do to recharge our energy.  It’s to go off to a solitary place and talk with the Father.  I think one of the reasons why this was so important was because, alone with the Father was the one place where Jesus could get his needs met.

How many incidents in the Bible can you think of where someone came to Jesus and offered to do something for him?  There are two incidents recorded of women anointing his feet with perfume and a few times where people had a dinner in his honor, but these were mostly in response to what Jesus had already done for these people.  And the only place I can think of where Jesus ever expressed a need was on the cross where he said he was thirsty.  That doesn’t mean it never happened, but it’s not recorded anywhere. 

Jesus was constantly serving others but he had needs as well.  He was fully human just as we are.  But like Mark, we tend to think of Jesus in superhero terms and forget that he got hungry and tired and stressed just like we do.  And it seems that when he was drained, what recharged his energy was to be alone with the Father.  

You know we talk about needing prayer for ourselves, meaning we need other people praying for us about certain things.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  It’s important that people are praying for us.  It’s encouraging to know that others are thinking about us and asking God to help us or to meet a need we have.  But do we think of needing some prayer like Jesus needed prayer?  What we see from this episode in Mark 1 is Jesus needing to do the praying.  He needed to get away and talk things over with the Father.  We don’t talk about needing prayer in that sense.  But that’s exactly what we do need.  There are times when we just need to be alone with the Father, to be in His presence, just experiencing His peace and His strength, listening to His voice and letting Him interact with our spirits for a bit, renewing our strength and giving us direction.  This what we mean when we say “empowered by the Spirit.”  It is in the place of prayer, the place of solitude with God, that He fills us with what we need to fulfill our mission. 

Look at the front of your bulletin where our mission statement is printed and let’s read it together.  “Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we present Christ’s message of hope in the Oxford Circle neighborhood and beyond; by appealing to individuals to be reconciled to God through Christ Jesus, and by living out this peace and wholeness in relationships in our diverse church body and the world.” 

We can’t do this if we aren’t all spending some time in the place of solitude, talking things over with the Father, receiving the energy, direction, power and creativity that He gives.  This is what Jesus is talking about in John 15 when he tells his disciples “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”  A branch that withers is one that no longer is receiving nutrients from the vine.  It dries up and wilts.  How many of you have felt sucked dry before?  The demands of job, family, life, the stress you face have just left you feeling empty and dry.  That’s when we need some prayer, some time alone with the Father, letting Him fill us back up with His life.  We have to remain in Him if we hope to have enough life in us to bear spiritual fruit and that comes from a regular practice of being alone with God in prayer.

Another thing that strikes me in this story of Jesus going off to a solitary place to pray is that, when the disciples find him and want him to go back with them to where they were before, because everyone is asking for him, Jesus says he must go on to other places.  A lot of people would have stayed there in Capernaum.  He already was experiencing success there. The whole town had turned up at his door the night before with the sick and demon possessed.  He could have planted a church right then and there.  But after being alone in prayer, Jesus left and went on to other places.  Being with the Father in prayer gave Jesus the direction he needed and he walked away from a place where he was experiencing success to go on to other places, because that’s what he was there for.  No one could ever accuse Jesus of seeking after worldly success.  If the gospel writers were trying to describe a successful messiah, they never would have told the story of the crucifixion.  Jesus wasn’t about success as we think of success.  He was about faithfulness in doing the Father’s will.  Success would say stay here in Capernaum where they love you and build a ministry here.  But Jesus knows the Father wants him to go on to other places, even places where he will be rejected. 

Success in the kingdom of God doesn’t look like success in the world.  Yet when it comes to prayer, we have a mindset of wanting to be successful.  We think if we don’t pray for a certain length of time, we are not successful.  We think if we pray for something and it doesn’t happen we aren’t successful.  We think if we pray and we don’t “feel” anything, we aren’t successful.  But success has nothing to do with prayer.  Emilie Griffin wrote “You should have it firm in your mind that prayer is neither to impress other people nor to impress God.  It’s not to be taken with a mentality of success.  The goal, in prayer, is to give oneself away.”  And Henri Nouwen wrote “…what is really happening in the house of prayer is not measurable in terms of human success and failure.” 

The prayer that Jesus modeled in the place of solitude is a form of relationship.  It’s about being with God and talking with Him.  It’s about receiving life from Him, being renewed in our own strength.  It’s about submitting to Him, being willing to lay out our own plans and thoughts and dreams and ideas and letting Him sift through them and shape them as He knows best. It’s sharing intimacy with God, being real with Him and learning about Him. God wants to be real with us about who He is.  That’s an incredible thought.  We have the privilege of getting to know personally the God of the universe.  And that happens in the place of solitude in prayer.

As a congregation, we are a body made up of many parts.  Each part of this body is a branch on the vine, in going back to Jesus’ words from John 15.  Each one of us needs to be spending time in the place of solitude, seeking life from the Father, if we as a body are going to be empowered.  This is so important.  Nothing we do at OCMC is done apart from prayer.  To try to live out our mission statement without prayer would be like trying to grow a plant with no roots.  There would be no way to receive life. 

This story of Jesus seeking a place of solitude for prayer comes at the end of a time of intense ministry.  But it also comes at the beginning of a time of intense ministry.  Jesus leaves the place of solitude and meets a man with leprosy and heals him.  This man spreads the news about Jesus so far and wide that Jesus can no longer openly enter a town without being mobbed.   Jesus had to have a rhythm of ministry and prayer, of being with people and being alone with the Father.  It was how he was able to sustain himself and keep going.  We also need that rhythm of doing and being, of living life and receiving life.  We can’t give out to others what we haven’t received ourselves.

Prayer is our lifeline.  We can’t let go of it.  It’s the place where we get to know God, the place where we are known by Him.  It’s the place where our needs can be met, where we can receive life.  We have to make the commitment to regularly spend time in the place of solitude, in prayer, if we truly want to have life.

Already, But Not Yet

Isaiah 7:1-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Matthew 1:18-25

            A couple weeks ago I was with the preschoolers during the sermon time and it had started to snow.  When we went into the preschool room, the kids got so excited because it was snowing outside and they all gathered around the windows and were saying “It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!”  They thought it was already Christmas because it was snowing and we had to tell them, “Not yet!” 

            In some ways it is Christmas already and has been since about Sept. 30^th  when stores had Christmas merchandise out.  Retailers would have us believing its Christmas as soon as school starts back in the fall.  But even though we already have decorations up and snow on the ground and presents under the tree maybe, it’s not yet Christmas.  It’s still Advent time, the time of waiting for what is already a reality, but is not yet here.

            In that sense Advent is a lot like pregnancy.  When a couple is expecting a child, they are already parents, but not yet.  The child exists.  It’s growing in the mother.  Two have already become three and you’re already setting up a nursery, gathering clothes, diapers, and all the supplies that the baby will need.  You’re already in love with the child and making decisions that will benefit the child.  You are in many ways already acting like a parent.  But the child is not yet born. 

            All of the scriptures we’ve read today are stories of already, but not yet.  Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth tells us that Mary and Joseph were pledged to be married but they had not yet come together.  They were making preparations to start married life.  Joseph would have been preparing their house and Mary would have been making the things she needed to set up housekeeping. When all the preparations were completed, Joseph would come to take Mary home and the marriage would be celebrated and consummated. They were already a couple pledged to each other and it would have taken legal action for them to break that pledge, but they were not yet husband and wife.  But before their preparations were complete, Mary was found to be pregnant.  Joseph assumed she had been with someone else because he knew she hadn’t been with him.  But because he was compassionate, he decided to just quietly divorce her.  And then an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to go through with the marriage because Mary was carrying the Son of God, the Messiah.  So Joseph took Mary into his home.  He let everyone believe that he was the biological father of the child and shared with Mary the burden of the social stigma of becoming pregnant before the wedding.  So Joseph and Mary lived together, kept house together, planned for the birth of their first child together, but did not consummate their marriage until after Jesus was born.  They were already a married couple, but not yet.

            In the passages we read from Isaiah 7 and Psalm 80, there are other situations of already, but not yet described.  In Isaiah 7, King Ahaz of Judah has a problem.  Two other kings are plotting together to invade Judah and  Ahaz and his people are afraid.  So the Lord sends Isaiah to the king to give him the message to not be afraid and to keep calm because the Lord has already determined that this invasion plot will not work.  The Lord tells Ahaz to ask him for a sign that God means what he says, but Ahaz refuses to ask.  But the Lord tells him anyway and we have a prophecy of the virgin being with child and giving birth to a son.  When God is speaking to Ahaz, he tells him not to be afraid of these kings who are plotting against him because within 65 years, they won’t be a threat anymore and He says “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”  (v. 9)

            When I read the verse that in 65 years these guys would no longer be a threat, I thought “that’s not really a lot of comfort.”  To God, 65 years is a blip but to a human 65 years is a long time.  I don’t intend to still be alive 65 years from now and that’s probably what Ahaz was thinking when he heard this as well.  But God takes the long view of things.  He knows these nations will not succeed in their threats.  Judah will not be overthrown by these enemies.  God has already determined deliverance and is willing to give a sign to reassure everyone of this.  Deliverance is already, but not yet.

            In Psalm 80, the people of God are crying out to God from a desperate place.  God is angry at them.  He has turned his face from them.  They eat the bread of tears and drink tears by the bowlful.  That sounds like a country western song doesn’t it – drinking tears by the bowlful.  Their enemies mock them but they still cry out to God to save them.  If God will hear and answer their prayer, then everything will be okay.  They cry out to God and ask for restoration because they know God has the ability to restore them.  All they need, God can supply.  He just needs to answer their prayer.  The solution is already there, but they haven’t received it yet.  They pray and cry out to God in expectation that God will hear and will give a good answer.

            The Christmas story, the story of Jesus’ birth, is the story of already, but not yet.  It teaches us that God fulfills His promises.  The people of Israel had waited a long time for God to send the Messiah who had already been promised but had not yet come.  The people prayed for God to fulfill His promises and He heard the prayers of His people.  He remembered His covenants with His people and He fulfilled them.  But God takes the long view.  It took a long time for Jesus to come.  And there are many other promises of God that are already but not yet.  Many prophecies have been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus but not all.  There are still promises and prophecies that are outstanding.  But Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:8-9 “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  In answering our prayers, in fulfilling His promises to us, God takes the long view.  We need to keep this in mind and not get discouraged.

            Jesus has already come, but not yet.  The kingdom of God is among us, within us, around us, but not yet.  There are many miracles that have been done, many prayers answered, many mighty works of God the world has witnessed.  But there is so much still waiting to be fulfilled.  The season of Advent is the time we wait.  We wait for the coming of a child, a Savior, a Deliverer, one who leads us out of darkness into light.  But all our time is Advent time.  We still wait for Jesus to come again.  We wait for the answer to our prayers, for the miracle we need, the healing, the restoration of relationship, the meeting of that financial need.  Whatever it is, we wait for it and we cry out to God for it because it has not yet arrived.

            As we wait, we need to remember that God is seeing with the long view and He’s saying to us, “It is already done, but not yet.  If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”  Mary and Joseph had to stand firm in their faith as they waited for a child to be born that they did not make.  They had to believe in the provision and protection of God as that child was threatened with death and they had to leave the country to protect his life.  They had to believe and stand firm in their faith as he grew and they wondered about what kind of child is this who debates with the teachers in the Temple.  Mary had to stand firm in her faith as Jesus taught, ministered, and did miracles all over the country.  And she had to stand firm in her faith, believing in the God who keeps promises when her son was crucified and placed in a grave.

            God has given each one of us promises just as He gave to Mary and Joseph, to Isaiah and King Ahaz, and to the people of Israel whose prayer we read in Psalm 80.  We can cry out to him in prayer because He has promised to hear and answer us when we call on Him.  He already has answers to our prayers, but we have not yet received them all.  We have to stand firm in our faith in the God who keeps promises, or we will not stand at all.

            When Jesus was born, he wasn’t born blind, deaf, and mentally deficient.  We don’t serve a God who can’t see, hear, or understand our condition and our needs.  No we serve a God who is also our high priest and who, according to Hebrews 4,  has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.  Our God is able to sympathize with us, He gets us.  And we are told that we can approach His throne of grace with confidence, not with fear of rejection.  It is in Him that we receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need – as we go to Him with all our need.  God has already determined to help us, to overthrow every enemy, to heal this world of every injustice.  And because He has determined it, it is already done.  But not yet.  We wait in Advent time until Jesus comes again and all things are made new.

            What is it you are waiting for in this Advent season?  What prayers are you offering that have not yet been answered?  What questions are you asking that haven’t been answered yet?  What breakthrough are you hoping for that hasn’t arrived yet?  The message to us today is wait for it.  Wait in confidence that God is working all things together for our good as He knows it needs to be.  He is acting on our behalf.  He has already determined to hear and answer our prayers or we would not have the scriptures that tell us to come to him with confidence.  We must commit ourselves to continue to wait in prayer for whatever our need is.  As the prophet Isaiah wrote, we are to “strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way, say to those with fearful hearts, ‘be strong, do not fear; your God will come…he will come to save you.’”  It may be years in the future that God’s answer will come.  It may be this afternoon.  No matter how long it takes for the answer to come, will you be faithful to wait and to pray for what is already but not yet?

            I’ll invite the worship team and the prayer team to come forward.  As we close our service, I’m inviting us as a congregation to commit to wait in faithful prayer and faithful living for the things we are hoping for that have not happened yet.  Maybe you are like Ahaz and are facing enemies that are pretty scary.  It can be hard to stand in faith when we see no answer and we are in the grip of fear.  But God is always on time.  He has promised not to leave us or forsake us and He will not give us up to be destroyed.  We have been promised life everlasting.  Maybe you are like the people of Israel who cried out to God in Psalm 80, feeling that God is angry at you or has turned His back on you.  Take courage from their example and cry out to God to turn back to you and to restore you to right relationship.

            Maybe you are like Mary and Joseph, facing things that seem overwhelming but trying to remain faithful.  Continue in that faithfulness and remain strong.  I want to give us the opportunity as a congregation to commit ourselves to stand together and wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled among us, to strengthen our feeble hands, weak knees, and fearful hearts.  The prayer team is here and prepared to anoint you with oil and speak a blessing over you.  As the worship team leads us, I invite you to come forward and receive this anointing and blessing and to once again, offer up to God the burdens and worries you carry, knowing that He hears and has already determined to answer. Commit to wait in faithfulness and in confidence that God will complete His good work in you, in your family, in your neighborhoods, in this congregation, and in our world.  Would you come?

Submission - Let's Go There

Ephesians  5:8-21

            Vandy and I are currently reading a book together called “A Year of Biblical Womanhood” by Rachel Held Evans.  Rachel took a year and examined different aspects of what some American evangelical Christians would describe as being the biblical ideal for women.  She decided to do this because she realized all the mixed messages she was getting about what a Christian woman should be and do.  For example, her church taught that women should not have authority over a man so women should not preach from the pulpit because this was a violation of Paul’s instructions to Timothy in 1 Tim. 2:12.  But her church would consider conservative Mennonite women to be legalistic for covering their heads even though Paul says in I Cor. 11:5 that that should also be practiced in the church.  So Rachel wanted to gain understanding into why some things were emphasized as essential to church practice and others were not.  It’s a very thought provoking book.

            It raises some interesting questions about why there are certain things in the Bible that we don’t follow today and why there are things in the Bible that seem contradictory.  We can see some of this contradiction in Ephesians.  There is this beautiful description of the Church as the Body of Christ, where there is no division because Christ has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility and brought peace between God and humanity and between Jew and Gentile.  There are no insiders and outsiders in the Body of Christ, for “through Christ we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”  So there are no foreigners and aliens but all are fellow citizens and members of God’s household (2:14-20).  In chapter 4 Paul exhorts his readers to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace because there is one Body and one Spirit and we’ve all received one baptism and have one Lord.  Yet in this unity, there is also diversity as God has gifted the members of the Body with different gifts and abilities.  These are given for the good of all that the entire body might grow and mature and reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God and become mature.  (chapter 4).  So he’s teaching that we all have a place in the Body of Christ, we all are necessary to it, we all have gifts that are needed and useful to the Body and we are all growing together, supporting each other, towards maturity in the faith. 

            In the passage we read this morning, Paul is encouraging his listeners to live faithfully as children of the light, doing those things that please the Lord, not having anything to do with those things that are of the dark because they aren’t in the dark anymore.  They are now in the light.  He means don’t practice those things that are contrary to the kingdom of God anymore.  In chapter 4 and into chapter 5 he had listed some of those things such as harboring bitterness, rage and anger, slandering others, fighting with others, stealing, lying, being greedy, impure or immoral.  These are not the things that bring glory and honor to God so make sure such things as these are not a part of your life, is what he is saying. 

            In Eph. 5:15 Paul tells the reader to be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  …Understand what the Lord’s will is…be filled with the Spirit.”  He’s saying we are to devote ourselves daily to seeking the Lord’s will, to be living in the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we are going to avoid the evil around us in the world, we need God’s help.  Only He can truly give us the power to overcome evil, both the evil that exists in our own sin nature and the evil that lurks in the world and would love nothing better than to destroy God’s people. 

            I made a commitment to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ when I was 16 years old.  Since that time I’ve experienced how easy it is to fall prey to evil.  You think you’re doing good and suddenly something sets your temper off.  Or you start questioning someone’s motives and thinking bad about them.  Or you find yourself in a situation of need and you’re tempted to do something about it that you know is against God’s laws.  We are all fallible and it takes staying connected to God’s Spirit and to God’s people to keep on track and continue to grow.  This is what Paul is encouraging the Ephesians to do.  He tells them to speak to each other with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, to encourage each other and instruct each other with scripture.  To worship God and give thanks.  These things help us remember what God has done and is doing.  Thankfulness helps us to keep from falling into despair as we remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness and love.  It’s all good stuff.

            But then in 5:22 Paul tells wives that they are to submit to their husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the body.  Suddenly we are no longer in the context of relationships of equality and mutuality in the Body of Christ, where we are all supporting one another and encouraging one another as we grow together, but are in a context of hierarchy with the wife being told to take a subordinate position to her husband.  As we go on into chapter 6 Paul continues in this vein telling children to obey their parents in the Lord and to honor them and telling slaves to obey their masters with respect, fear and sincerity of heart, just as they would obey Christ.  Here we can see very clear divisions in relationships in contrast to Paul’s earlier writings that we are all members of one household, no longer foreigners and aliens divided from one another, but fellow citizens together, members of one body.  It’s confusing.  It seems like 2 different messages. 

            In the Church today, the confusion continues.  Some churches, like the one Rachel Held Evans grew up in, hold to the view that women submit to men and therefore cannot lead in the church.  Other churches say that this teaching doesn’t apply to women in the church, that it is a teaching for husbands and wives and as long as a husband allows it, a woman can lead in the church.  Others would say leadership in the church is about who God is gifting and calling and that could be a man or a woman and whoever God is gifting and calling should be allowed to lead or teach or whatever.  Paul really doesn’t help us gain any clarity into how this should be applied because in this book and in Colossians, he has these instructions for submission in the household.  Yet in his other writings he affirms women leaders in the church, including mentioning a woman named Junia whom he said was outstanding among the apostles (Rom. 16:7).  And he writes in Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  There doesn’t seem to be any indication of hierarchy of relationships in that verse. 

As far as the teaching about slaves and masters goes, Paul, in his letter to Philemon, actually is advocating for freedom for the slave Onesimus.  He writes “Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love…I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains…I am sending him back to you.  I would have liked to keep him with me…But I did not want to do anything without your consent…Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good – no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.  He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.”  He’s clearly telling Philemon that the relationship of slave/master is no more and now they are brothers in the Lord.

So what are we to make of all this?  Let’s go back to Ephesians 5:21.  Before Paul gets into his instructions about husbands and wives he writes “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  That word submit is a military term meaning to arrange the troops in a military fashion under the command of a leader.  In non-military usage, it meant a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility and carrying a burden.  So Paul is telling the believers at Ephesus to not be stubborn and insist on one’s own way all the time but rather work together, cooperate, assume responsibility for one another and carry each other’s burdens.  In this way, the church will work harmoniously and grow. 

But then he includes something called the household codes.  These were codes of behavior that were followed by households in Roman culture. They gave absolute authority to the male head of the household.  They prescribed how life would be lived in Roman culture by giving men total authority over their wives, children and slaves.  The difference is that Paul, in his instructions, commands the men to love their wives and treat them well, even as they love their own bodies and take care of them. They are not to exasperate their children but train them in the Lord, and they are to treat their slaves well, not threatening them.  The Roman household codes didn’t put any restrictions on men at all, while Paul does put restrictions on them.  But still this doesn’t seem to fit in with what Paul’s been advocating earlier about mutual relationships. 

To be honest, I don’t know why Paul includes this in his letter.  Greater minds than mine argue over Paul’s teachings about submission and can’t come to an agreement, so I don’t feel too bad. The best I can come up with is that he’s telling his Gentile readers who live in Roman culture that, if they are going to follow the Roman household codes, then it has to be transformed by the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That means that men have a responsibility to their wives, children and slaves.  It doesn’t just go one way.  But I don’t think this is the ideal for the Body of Christ.  So I went further back to the creation account to see what God’s original intent was for human relationships.

When we go back to the creation account and read in Genesis 2 where God decides to make woman, we read that God says “It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him.”  There was no suitable helper for Adam to be found among the animals.  So God caused him to fall asleep, took one of his ribs and made a woman from it and brought her to Adam.  When he saw her Adam said “ This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’ for she was taken out of man.’  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”   

Adam needed someone suitable to him, someone who corresponded to him, who literally “went in front of” him or matched him.  And this person was give help or aid or support.  So Adam needed something that Eve provided.  The idea is of two things of equal strength but different abilities that match and make a whole.  Now please don’t misinterpret what I’m saying.  I’m not saying a single person isn’t whole and you need a mate to be whole.  I’m saying in the original male/female relationship the dynamic was to be a team and part of what that particular team needed to do was be fruitful and multiply so, yes, they had to be one male and one female.

But to bring this idea back into the context of relationships within the Body of Christ and into the context of Christian households, I think this idea of relationships being like a team is very valid and fits with the model of the Body of Christ.  In a team, people work together and strengths and weaknesses are balanced out.  The focus isn’t on one person alone.  All work together to reach a common goal.  This is what Paul has been teaching all along in this letter to the Ephesians.  The goal is maturity in Christ and all are exhorted to work together, to use their gifts, to encourage one another, to speak to each other in psalms and hymns, to guard against those things that destroy unity.  The same goal is there in household relationships.  The relationship between spouses should be that of a team with the goal of both growing in maturity in Christ.  It’s not about one being lifted up higher than the other but rather about both respecting and honoring the other and both using their strengths for the good of the household.  In relationships between parents and children the goal is growth and maturity in Christ, not having the last word or putting pressure on our kids to succeed in one area or another.  What difference would it make in our relationships with our children if we were more intentional about talking about the strengths they bring to the family system and their value to the family, then we did talking about their weaknesses or areas where they need to improve? 

What really stands out to me in looking at these household codes in Ephesians is that relationships can’t be about power.  There is one Lord, one Father, one Savior, one Spirit and none of us are that one.  The issue of power has been settled.  We all live under the power and authority of Christ, whether we be male or female, child or adult, master or servant.  So the real issue of submission is to submit first to the authority and Lordship of Christ and then to one another.  Remember submission is defined as a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility and carrying a burden.  We cooperate with one another in our family relationships.  We assume responsibility for one another, looking out for one another, protecting one another.  We carry each other’s burdens, adding our strength where the other is weak.  And we allow others to carry our burdens as well. 

If we want strong families, strong friendships, strong churches, we need to have a good understanding of what it means to be the Body of Christ and how this works in all these areas of relationship.  Last week at the women’s retreat we began a conversation about the strengths of women’s voices, the necessity of having our voices heard in the community of faith, in our homes, in our workplaces.  We talked about why our voices are silent and what it would take to have them heard again.  And we recognized the affirmation we have received from men and women in our lives.  We need to support and encourage each other as we grow together. 

As we conclude this sermon series on the Body of Christ, I think it is important that we commit ourselves to living as the Body.  We need each other, we need the support we gain from one another.  We can’t let ourselves be divided in our congregation or in our homes.  Last week Pastor Leonard preached about standing together and he used the illustration of the Redwood trees, whose root systems are intertwined.  This is what helps to make them strong.  We as believers in Christ have to grow like that.  We have to draw close so that our root systems can intertwine and give us all strength.  This past Wednesday as we prayed together at noon prayer, one of the things I found myself praying for was that those in our congregation who feel like they are on the outside would be drawn in and feel welcomed and a part of this fellowship; that there would be no foreigners or strangers among us.  We are all one people in Jesus Christ and we want to commit ourselves to continue to grow in unity and in strength.

I’ll invite the worship team to come forward now and lead us in our closing worship song.  As we worship, let’s commit ourselves to continue to grow together, to do the hard work of maintaining healthy relationships both in the congregation and in our homes, and to open ourselves up to continue to welcome others into our circles of relationships, and to grow to maturity in Christ.  Let’s pray.

The Body Speaks

The Body Speaks

10/20/13 OCMC

Eph. 4:1-6, 22-32

This sermon began with a demonstration.  I had two people join me and we were tied together at the wrist, one person's left arm tied to my right arm, one person's right arm tied to my left.  Then we tried to work together as one body.

            The bonds that tie us together as believers in Jesus Christ are spiritual bonds, not physical.  We are united in our belief in the One True God, in our faith and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord, and in our baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ.  We follow the leading of one Spirit and we participate in the one Kingdom of God.  But we each have different parts to play.  We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, our own gifts, talents and passions.  And it takes each one of us doing our part under the direction of the One Lord for the Body of Christ to be effective in this world.  We don’t all do the same thing.  Last week Pastor Leonard preached about the different gifts that are part of the Body and he spoke about how, early in his tenure here at OCMC he prayed that God would send him people with different abilities and gifts and God said “You have all you need right here, right now.”  But he didn’t believe it.  You see Pastor Leonard, like the rest of us who were a part of OCMC at that time, wanted to get to the end result of seeing the Body mature and growing and functioning well.  We wanted to see the neighborhood transformed and wonderful things happening right then.  We had the raw ingredients among us but they needed to be put together and cook awhile before we could enjoy the meal.  And I would say, we’ve had a taste of what’s cooking but the meal is still in the oven.

            We are still growing.  People with gifts and abilities are still coming and joining with us.  Vision is still being developed.  We still have a lot of work to do and it does take all of us working together to keep the mission of this congregation going forward.  And Paul’s words to the Ephesians in chapter 4 give us some good instructions on how to go about growing and living and working together.  Beginning in verse 22, we are reminded that, as people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we have entered into a new life.  Our former way of life is described here as being old and worn out.  It’s like a piece of clothing that we’ve worn forever and it’s ragged and dirty and threadbare and needs to be thrown out.  We can’t wear it any more.  We need to put off our old way of life because it’s been corrupted by evil, by desires for what is forbidden by God.  Instead we are to put on the new self which, rather than being corrupted, is actually patterned after God.  We are to be made new in the attitude of our minds.  We are to think differently, to have a change in world view.  We are to see through the eyes of God now, to think as He thinks, to view the world as He views it.  Our new self which is patterned after God or created to be like God, is fresh, unworn, unused.  It is a new self of righteousness and holiness and conforms to the truth that is found in Jesus Christ.

            Paul is using action words in this chapter.  He’s telling us to take specific action, to put off the old and put on the new so that our lives will conform to the pattern of the righteousness and holiness of God.  If our lives don’t look like Jesus, if they aren’t conforming to this pattern, it probably means we still have some old to take off and some new to put on.  I don’t know how many of you watch makeover shows on TV but what Paul is talking about is like a spiritual makeover.  If we think of a show like The Biggest Loser, where people are trying to lose a hundred pounds or more, it can help us understand what he’s talking about.  On the Biggest Loser, people have to stop doing things the old way and do things in a new way.  They have to stop eating the old way and eat in a new healthy way.  They have to stop being inactive and start exercising regularly.  They have to stop believing they can’t change and start believing they can.  Then, over the weeks, as they consistently stop the old and enact the new, change happens in their bodies and they lose weight.  At the end of the season, they look like new people.  The same thing happens to us spiritually as we renew our minds with the truth of God’s word, as we stop following old habits that are corrupted by evil, and as we begin doing those things that originate in righteousness and holiness, as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and rely on His strength and power, we become new creations and we end up looking like Jesus.  It’s hard work, just as it’s hard work to lose weight.  But that’s how it’s done.

            Paul says we are to put off falsehood, deception, lying and instead speak according to the truth.  We are to be free of pretense and deceit in our interactions with others.  If I had said to my helpers this morning that we were going to walk to the left and then I turned to the right, that’s lying and the result is confusion.  They won’t know which way to go and we won’t get anywhere.  That’s how it is in the Body of Christ.  We are bound together and we need to be truthful with each other so as not to cause confusion.  There is a way to speak truth though.

            Paul goes on in verses 26 and 27 to talk about anger and he warns us not to let our anger lead to sin.  We need to stay on the path of uprightness and honor even if we are angry.  We need to seek to resolve things quickly, not letting conflicts or problems go on and on because they will just get worse.  We have a spiritual enemy who will take every opportunity to destroy us.  We should not give him any opportunity to act against us.  The word devil here means slanderer or accuser.  How many times when we are angry are we quick to believe the worst about the person we are angry with?  I know there are times I get angry with Vandy and I’ll find myself thinking all kinds of bad things about him and then I have to get on myself because I’ve given in to the accuser who is trying to destroy my relationship with my spouse.  Maybe you’re thinking, well you have a right to be angry and yes I do.  Paul isn’t telling us we don’t have the right to be angry.  But I don’t have the right to let my anger lead to accusations and slander and a tearing down of the relationship.  That’s the difference.  My anger can’t distort the truth.

            We are to speak truth to one another, truth that is not tainted by slander and accusations that come from the devil.  The truth needs to be spoken in love.  In verse 29, Paul tells us to not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths but only what is helpful for building up and promoting growth in the other, according to their needs.  Truth may be hurtful at times, but it shouldn’t cause the other person harm.  If truth is spoken in love, it won’t seek to harm or do damage to the other person.  Instead it will seek to heal and to promote growth.  Unwholesome talk is anything that is corrupted by evil.  Paul uses the same language he uses in describing the old self.  Don’t talk in ways that are corrupt and lead to death.  We have to think about the words we use sometimes.  And not just the words themselves but how they are being said.  If anger, condescension, judgment and other such negative emotions come through our words, the message is probably not going to communicate love and promote growth and unity.  Instead it can cause hurt and division. 

            So again in verse 30 Paul tells us to get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling or arguing, slander and malice.  These things are not helpful.  They don’t help us grow.  Instead, if left to fester, they will divide and destroy relationships.  The Body of Christ exists in relationship as the members are joined together to the head, who is Christ, and to each other.  We have to get along.  My helpers and I this morning found out how hard it can be to try to do something without any anger or malice in the equation.  How much worse is it when we are dealing with all these negative emotions as well?

            The corruption of the old life must be put away.  We think of this most often in terms of our individual lives.  It’s not good for my own spiritual growth if I hold on to anger or malice or if I’m lying to people.  But it’s also not good for the Body of Christ.  Nothing we do as people is in a vacuum anymore once we become believers in Jesus Christ.  The health of my marriage has an effect on you just as the health of yours has an effect on me.  The health of your prayer life has an effect on me just as the health of mine has an effect on you.  We are joined together in the body of Christ.  If you aren’t growing spiritually, it can cause me problems too.  We don’t think of this though.  We tend to think our spiritual lives are our own business between us and God and don’t affect anyone else around us but that’s not good theology.  Why do you think Paul went to such lengths to give specific instructions for living in this letter?  Because we are bound together and what one does affects the whole.

            When my helpers and I were tied together, every move one of us made affected the others.  So it is in the body of Christ.  The bonds of faith join us together so that the movements of one affect the others.  In chapter 5 Paul goes on to write to the Ephesians that there should not be even a hint of sexual immorality among them.  Our culture tells us that our sex lives are private and what happens between 2 consensual adults has no effect on anyone.  Yet looking at our own society how much are we affected by the sexual mores of others?  We can’t listen to popular music, watch a movie or TV show, see an advertisement without being bombarded with someone’s sexual mores.  It has an effect.  And if sex is so private, why is it on every billboard in America?  And why does pornography even exist if sex is private?  Our culture is lying to us people.  But in the Body of Christ there is to be no deception and no corruption of the old way of life. 

            Neither is there to be greed.  Paul writes in 5:5 “For of this you can be sure:  No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.”  Greed has no place in the Body.  Greed leads to all kinds of problems and it separates people from one another.  In chapter 4 Paul writes about the person who has been stealing and says he must do this no longer but instead is to do something useful with his hands.  Stealing is an unuseful use of one’s hands.  It’s dishonorable and unworthy of anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.  You might say that some people steal because they have no other means of getting what they need.  I’m not saying that isn’t so.  But in the Body of Christ there should be no reason for someone to need to steal.  There should be a generosity of spirit among us that those who have will provide for those who don’t have.  And all who are able to work and do something useful with their hands will do so, so that the needs of the community are met.  Yes, this is an ideal.  I know that. But we have to start moving in that direction and we won’t if we are greedy. 

            When Paul speaks of the person who steals doing something useful with their hands, he is talking about doing something excellent and honorable and distinguished.  To me this communicates work that a person can take pride in and that will reflect positively on the Body of Christ. No matter what type of work we do, whatever we produce should be our best effort.  We shouldn’t have a work ethic that slacks off.  You know I entitled this sermon “The Body Speaks” because Paul writes so much about language here, but he’s gotten into our sex lives, our finances, our work habits.  He’s just all up in our business here.  Because every part of our lives speaks.  It’s not just the words we use or how we say them, it’s all our habits, our lifestyle.  They all speak something to the world about the reality of Jesus Christ.  This is why he tells us to take off the old lifestyle, put away the old world view that is corrupted by evil and put on a new lifestyle, see through a new world view that is patterned after God. When we do that, we will begin to look like, sound like, act like Jesus.   What is it that we are communicating through our lives, as individuals and as a church community?

            In Ephesians 5 beginning in the last part of verse 18 Paul says that we are “to be filled with the Spirit.  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Thanksgiving, praise, joy, these are what we are to be communicating through our words and our actions.  Our lives should reflect the reality that we have been forgiven of our sins, cleansed from everything that is corrupted by evil.  We’ve been reconciled to God, accepted into His household as His own children.  We’ve been made new.  Our lives are moving in a new direction and we are now joined together in the Body of Christ.  We have hope.  We have the promise of eternal life.  We’ve been given the very Spirit of God to dwell within us as our source of life and strength.  Our lives should reflect and communicate this. We are not alone in this walk of faith.  We have the members of the Body of Christ around us, as well as the Holy Spirit within us, and we should be learning from each other, praying for each other, encouraging each other as all of us are in the process of taking off the old and putting on the new.

            I want to invite the worship team up now to lead us in our closing worship.  We can celebrate today because we are bound together in the bonds of faith with one Lord, One God, One Father who loves us and is working out His will in our lives.  And we can dedicate ourselves to continue to put off the old self that is worn out and useless to us, and with the help of the Holy Spirit to put on the new self which is patterned after God.

Soul Food

John 6:47-59

Luke 22:14-34

            When I was in school growing up, everyone bought lunch at school.  We had a cafeteria and the ladies would cook the meals so the food was pretty good.  They cooked just like they were cooking for their families at home.  I remember once in 4^th grade, the cafeteria decided to have international foods week.  So every day we had a different type of food.  So one day we had spaghetti for Italian day and another day we had chicken chow mein for Chinese day.  But one day I didn’t know what to expect because the menu said we were having soul food.  When I was in 4^th grade I didn’t know what soul food was and I was excited because I imagined it would be something very different and I was looking forward to trying it.  I remember taking my tray up to be served on soul food day and there was ham, collard greens, black eyed peas, and corn bread and I thought, “This is Sunday dinner at my Grandma’s house.  We just need some sweet potato pie.”  It was a little disappointing to find out I had been eating soul food my whole life and didn’t know it. 

            Today I want to talk about soul food.  Not the kind that my Grandma would make but the soul food that Jesus speaks about.  In John 6 Jesus makes the declaration that he is the bread from heaven and he gives life to the world.  In verses 55ff he makes this shocking statement that unless a person eats the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks his blood, they will have no life in them but whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life.  Jesus is talking about real soul food, food that feeds the soul of a person and gives real life.  But it sounds really exotic and pretty far out there.  This is one of those Bible statements that is every bit as jarring for us to hear as it would have been for Jesus’ original listeners at the synagogue in Capernaum.

            What is Jesus talking about when he says we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood?  This is zombie movie stuff, not stuff you expect to hear in church.  People were so offended at what Jesus was saying that many of them turned away from following him.  But when Jesus asked his 12 disciples if they were going to turn away from him as well, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”  Yes this is a saying that is hard to understand.  But like the 12, we need to hang in here with Jesus and find out just exactly what he’s talking about.  He has the words of eternal life, He’s the one who can feed our souls.  It’s important that we take the time to understand just what this soul food is.

            The idea of food and drink that feeds the soul, that gives eternal life didn’t start with Jesus.  It was something that goes back into the Old Testament.  In fact at the very beginning of the Bible we see in the Garden of Eden there was the tree of life.  When Adam and Eve sinned, God said that they must not be allowed to eat from the tree of life and live forever.  Their sin needed to be atoned for before they could be allowed to live forever.  The prophets speak of the source of living water which is God Himself.  Jeremiah 2:13 and 17:13 both speak of the people of Israel forsaking God who is the spring of living water.  Isaiah 25:6 speaks of a great banquet that God will prepare for all people, a feast with the best food and wine, an abundance of good things that give life and joy.  And in Isaiah 55 there is the invitation to the hungry and thirsty to come and get life giving drink and food from God, to hear the words of the Lord so that our souls will delight in the richest of food and drink, and that our souls may live. 

            In Luke 22 and in John 6 Jesus is speaking right in line with the teachings of the law and the prophets.  He’s not coming up with some new concept out of the blue but rather he’s expanding it and personifying it.  He’s saying that He Himself is the living water and the bread of life.  This is what was so hard for the people to understand.  You see we tend to think mainly of the physical.  So when I say soul food, some of you are having visions of fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, collard greens and ham, macaroni and cheese.  And that’s how the people of Jesus’ day thought.  At the beginning of John 6, Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding a crowd of 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  Then he left the people and went to Capernaum and the crowds came looking for him there.  When they got there Jesus told them, “You are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”  They wanted more free bread and fish.  They were overlooking the fact that it was a miracle that they had gotten that food in the first place.  In fact they even ask Jesus in verse 30 what miraculous sign he would do to prove to them that he was from God.  He just did one people!  They couldn’t be satisfied because they were only focusing on the physical.  They only wanted physical food, not soul food.

            Now Jesus did meet the physical needs of people.  He healed many people, he raised the dead, he turned water into wine and multiplied food to feed thousands.  But he also consistently offered soul food.  He taught about the kingdom of God and called people to repent and turn to God.  He taught about the things that God requires of people and he corrected the religious leaders when they did things or taught things that kept people from freely coming to worship God.  Jesus knew people need soul food in addition to physical food.  Physical food is only going to satisfy us so long and then we get hungry and we have to eat again.  Physical food will spoil.  It won’t last forever.  It won’t stay fresh forever.  And if it does, we probably shouldn’t be eating it because it’s probably shot full of dangerous chemicals.  Physical food is temporary.

            Soul food, the food that Jesus offers, will satisfy forever.  In John 4 Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well and he tells her that he has living water.  He says “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  To the crowd at Capernaum he says “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  There is a food that doesn’t spoil and that never runs out and it satisfies forever.  It is food for the soul and it is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

            But still what does it mean to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man?  That still sounds ghoulish to us.  So let me try to illustrate this in a way that this congregation ought to be able to relate to very well.  I want to use the analogy of a pregnant woman.  Where does her baby get life from?  From her flesh and her blood.  Yes, the father contributes his DNA and gets the process started but it’s the mother’s flesh, the mother’s body, that protects the unborn baby and allows it to continue to grow and develop.  It’s her blood that provides oxygen and nutrients that allows that baby to live and grow.  If a baby is disconnected from its mother too early, it will die.  For 40 weeks, give or take, the mother nourishes the baby from her own flesh and blood.  Then after the baby is born, she continues to feed it from her own body, nursing it and providing it nutrients so it can continue to live and grow.  This, I think, is the picture Jesus is trying to give us when He says we must get our source of nourishment and life from His flesh and His blood.  In order for our souls to live, we must be connected to Him, receiving life-giving nourishment from Him.  The difference is that we never disconnect from Him, as the baby will eventually disconnect from its mother.  Children eventually learn to eat solid food and feed themselves and grow up to be able to provide their own food and we no longer have to feed them.  But we always need to feed from Jesus.  He is the never ending source of living bread and living water.

            This, I think, is why our practice of communion is so important.  It is a regular way of reminding ourselves that we get living bread and living water from Jesus.  As we take communion, we are re-enacting the Last Supper and remembering the words and actions of Jesus.  Luke records that at the last supper Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples telling them, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  He also took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.” 

I want us to think about that word “covenant” for a minute.  The Greek word that is translated covenant can also be translated as testament meaning legal agreement.  One way we use the word testament is in last will and testament, which is a valid translation of this Greek word.  I believe the primary meaning Jesus is using is to say that His blood seals a new and binding agreement with God, a new covenant based on God’s promises of forgiveness and cleansing from sin for all who call on His name.  But I think we can also gain great insight into the depth of this sacrifice, and what Jesus means by feeding on his flesh and blood, if we consider these words as Jesus’ last will and testament. 

A last will and testament is a legal document that spells out how a person wants to dispose of their possessions after their death.  Jesus had no possessions to pass on to anyone at his death.  He spent the last few years of his life on the road, traveling around teaching about the Kingdom of God and demonstrating it through his miracles.  If he had any personal possessions, they most likely were left with his family.  So at the Last Supper Jesus is handing on to his disciples the only thing he has left to give – his body and his blood.  This is what is going to be sacrificed for our sins.  In the Passover celebration, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and ate it at their Passover meal.  At the original Passover in Egypt, the Israelites had to take the lambs blood and put it on their doorposts so their first born children would not be killed along with the first born of the Egyptians.  They had to eat the flesh of the animal that was sacrificed so they could live.   This again gives us some understanding into what Jesus is talking about.  Just as the Israelites had to feed on the sacrifice that spared their lives, so we have to feed on the sacrifice that spares our souls from eternal separation from God and eternal death. 

The bread and the cup that we have at communion are a representation of the bread and cup that Jesus gave His disciples and proclaimed that this was true food of the new covenant and that we are to partake of these in remembrance of Him.  This is soul food and it’s not comfort food.  Real soul food demands something of us.  It demands that we look at the things in our lives that are not right, the things that separate us from God.  When we look at the bread and the cup of communion and we remember the sacrifice behind it, it should make us uncomfortable.  Even at the Last Supper Luke records that Jesus had to confront the fact that one of his disciples was going to betray him.  Judas was sitting with him at the table, eating this meal with him, planning how he was going to betray Jesus.  And Jesus knew it. The other disciples broke out into an argument about which of them was considered the greatest.  Apparently it was one of their favorite things to argue about.  Jesus had to confront their pride and ambition and remind them that he served them, even washing their feet that very night. 

He had to confront the fact that he and his disciples had a spiritual enemy who wanted to destroy them.  He tells Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” He went on to tell Simon Peter that he would end up denying that he even knew Jesus 3 times that very night.  But even in knowing that Peter was going to deny him, Jesus promised restoration – “when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  Jesus confronted some uncomfortable stuff but in that confrontation, he offered life.

These are the things we are to remember as we prepare to take communion today.  This is soul food.  It is necessary that we listen to and respond to the words of Jesus.  It is necessary that we spend time in His presence in prayer and in service.  It is necessary that we take what He offers us, that we take it into ourselves and make it a part of us, that we may live.  It’s not always comfortable but it does give real life.

            As we prepare ourselves to take communion today, let us take the time to examine our own lives to see what’s there that Jesus needs to confront.  We are told that we should examine ourselves in preparation for taking communion so that we do not take it in an unworthy manner, meaning we confess any known sin in our lives and ask for forgiveness.  When we do, we are forgiven and as we take communion, we can remember not our sins, but Jesus who gave Himself so we could have life.