Good News for the Persecuted

Good News for the Persecuted

OCMC 6/15/14

Acts 16:16-34; Matthew 5:10

            First of all I would like to wish all the fathers and grandfathers with us today a very Happy Fathers Day!  May God bless you and continue to give you wisdom and grace as you father your children and grandchildren.         

Today we are ending our sermon series on the beatitudes.  Pastor Leonard said we’ve saved the best for last!  I don’t know, I’ve not been too enthused about this persecution beatitude. In fact last month Pastor Leonard was talking about the beatitude he was working on and was saying it wasn’t very exciting or inspiring and he asked “Can you think of worse beatitude than this one?” and I was like “Hello?  Persecution?”   It’s not like “blessed are the peacemakers” or “blessed are the merciful” or “blessed are the pure in heart.”  The other beatitudes highlight some admirable quality and we’d like to have these qualities.  But I don’t really think of persecution as being an admirable quality to have.  It tends to be something we’d like to avoid if possible. To be persecuted means to be harassed or mistreated.  It sounds painful and unpleasant.  It involves people being evil to one another and that’s something we as Christians are supposed to be working against.  So when I first started working on this sermon, it was hard to get into it.  Actually I’ve been working on it for about 3 weeks and that’s unusual for me.  It usually doesn’t take that long for one to come together.

 I finally realized the problem I was having was the word “persecuted”.  It was taking over the whole beatitude for me and it was hard for me to see what else was there.  It was persecuting me!  So I took it out of the verse.  I just decided to ignore it for a little bit and look for what else might be there and that’s when I was able to focus on the word “righteousness”.  This word refers to God’s saving acts but it also indicates a relationship.  Through God’s saving acts we who trust in Christ are brought into a new relationship with God.  We have a new status as righteous.  It means we’ve been placed into a “right” relationship with God.  We receive this as a gift from God but it places responsibilities on us.  In this new status, God has some claim on our conduct.  We are to live as righteous people.  It’s like if I were to come into your home as a guest, you would have some claim on my conduct.  If you wanted me to take my shoes off at the door, I would need to do that because it’s your house and I’m your guest.  When God brings us into this new relationship of “righteous” He brings us into His household.  Paul writes in Eph. 2:19 that we are “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”  So He has a say over how we live as members of His household. 

So now we can go back and add in “persecution” and we see that Jesus is saying “blessed are those who are persecuted because they are in right relationship with God and are living according to the standards of conduct for the members of God’s household.”  The reason for the persecution is because we are doing the right thing.  Peter writes “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil (3:17)…If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.  However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” (4:15-16).  So the beatitude started to sound a little better to me as I unpacked that word “righteous”.  Being in right relationship with God, and living as members of His household are supposed to live, may invite some persecution from those who are not members of God’s household and don’t live as God wants us to live.  It’s a fact of life as a Christian.  Not everyone is going to like us or like what we stand for and how we live.  And they will let us know.  Jesus is telling us this right at the beginning of his sermon. 

But then I got hung up on the word “blessed.”  No matter how I tried, I couldn’t see blessing in being persecuted, even if the persecution is because of being in right relationship with God and living as He wants members of His household to live.  So I decided to consult a Bible commentary and see what someone else thought about this.  In NT Wright’s commentary on Matthew he translates the word “blessed” as “wonderful news” or “good news.”  Jesus is announcing good news here at the beginning of his sermon. “Good news to you who are poor in spirit.  Yours is the kingdom of heaven.  Good news to you who mourn.  You will be comforted.  Good news to you who are meek.  You will inherit the earth.  Good news to you who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  You will be filled.  Good news to you who are merciful.  You will be shown mercy. Good news to you who are pure in heart.  You will see God.  Good news to you who are peacemakers.  You will be called children of God.  Good news to you who are persecuted because you are in right relationship with God and are living as members of His household.  Yours is the kingdom of heaven.”  Good News!  This announcement of Good News begins and ends with the declaration “that the kingdom of heaven is ours.” 

This fits in so well with what Jesus makes clear to everyone is his purpose.  In Luke chapter 4 Jesus stands up in the synagogue of his hometown at the beginning of his ministry and declares “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach or announce or proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Now in Matthew 5 we read a further announcement of good news that the kingdom of heaven is ours.  Matthew and Luke are making it very clear that Jesus is the Messiah – God’s anointed one – who has come to announce that the Kingdom of God is now here on earth as it is in heaven.  And Jesus is not only announcing this, he’s also instituting the rule of God’s kingdom as he goes around forgiving sins, healing the sick, delivering those oppressed by evil, casting out demons, and preaching and teaching how to live as members of God’s household.  He’s advancing the kingdom of God or the rule of God as He does this and He commissions those who are his disciples to do the same.

But as we all know, when a new rule is instituted, when a new regime takes over, the old regime will fight back.  Just this week in Iraq, Sunni militants took over the city of Mosul and that country is on the brink of civil war as Shiite’s organize to fight against them.   Just over a week ago, the world was remembering D-Day, when allied forces invaded France to take back the territory in Europe that Hitler had invaded and placed under Nazi rule.  When one power seeks to assert itself against another power, there is a fight coming.  This is why Jesus announces about persecution.  As the kingdom of heaven advances, those who advance it can expect to meet opposition and persecution.

Paul and Silas experienced this in the story we heard from Acts 16.  Paul and Silas are in Philippi and they’ve met with a few people there who had a habit of gathering near the river to pray together.  There wasn’t a synagogue at Philippi, most likely because there weren’t enough devout Jewish men in that area to form one. But there were several women who gathered regularly and Paul and Silas met them and talked with them about Jesus and they became believers.  So in verse 16 Paul and Silas are on their way to meet these new believers at the place of prayer and this slave girl who was a fortune teller starts following them around yelling that they are servants of the Most High God and are telling people the way to be saved.  So we read that as Christians in 2014 and think, “what’s wrong with that?”  But to the people of Philippi listening to this slave girl, they have no idea that the Most High God is Jesus and that the way to be saved is through faith that he is the Messiah who died for their sins and rose again and this salvation involves living as members of God’s household.  They think she’s talking about Zeus or Jupiter and salvation is wealth, health and power.  She’s distorting the message that Paul and Silas have to bring to this town. 

So here we see Paul and Silas coming up against the spiritual powers of darkness that have been ruling in this girl’s life and in this town.  Through this slave girl, these spiritual powers are trying to distort the announcement of the good news that the kingdom of God has come.  This girl followed them around for many days, yelling like a town crier until finally Paul got so upset that he confronted the spirit in her and commanded it in the name of Jesus to come out of her.  And it did because the Kingdom of God has come and now there is a new authority in place that has to be obeyed.  The spiritual powers of darkness that had ruled for so long were no longer in power and the demon now had to obey the authority of Jesus Christ.

Well, once the demon left the girl she lost her powers of fortune telling and her owners were upset because they had made a lot of money off her.  Luke writes that “they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.”  So now the kingdom of God is coming up against the earthly authorities of government.  We see this so many times in Acts where the Kingdom of God comes against the Empire of Rome.  Paul and Silas are severely flogged and thrown into prison.  That’s persecution.  They are suffering because they are doing the things that members of God’s household do.  They are proclaiming good news and advancing the rule of God by doing the very things that Jesus himself did in confronting the powers of darkness and casting them out. 

Now even in the prison, they pray and worship God and the other prisoners are listening to them.  Even now they are proclaiming good news.  And God intervenes by bringing an earthquake that shakes the foundation of the prison, the doors fly open and everyone’s chains come loose.  This is a pretty big announcement of freedom for the prisoners.  Everyone’s chains are broken, not just Paul and Silas’.  The theme of last week’s Pentecost service was “there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain.”  We see that truth demonstrated here in this story as everyone’s chain is broken.  The kingdom of God is for everyone and there is no opposing power that can stand against the power of God.  Every chain is broken and every power is brought into submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

When the jailor comes and sees that all the doors are open he’s about to kill himself because he thinks all the prisoners have escaped.  But Paul stops him by saying they are all there.  Why would prisoners who are suffering under the empire of Rome, choose to stay when their chains have been broken?  Most likely because they recognized that in this place a new authority has broken in.  This is another part of the good news.  The kingdom of God has come to us right where we are.  We don’t have to go somewhere new to experience the kingdom of God.  We don’t have to move to Jerusalem to live in the kingdom of God.  We don’t have to get our lives straightened out first before we can experience the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God came into the prison and the kingdom of God comes to us wherever we are and breaks all the chains in that place and brings freedom. 

The jailor at some level recognizes that there is a new authority, a new kingdom ruling here because he prostrates himself before Paul and Silas and then asks, “What must I do to be saved?”  He’s the jailor but he’s asking the prisoners what he needs to do.  NT Wright translates the jailor’s question as “Gentlemen, will you please tell me how I can get out of this mess?”  And they answer him “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”  The jailor recognizes that under the old kingdom – the empire of Rome - things are about as messed up as they can be.  His prison is in a shambles and all the prisoners are loose.  He’s in a heap of trouble.  But there’s a new kingdom and he can enter that kingdom and be saved – him and his whole household.  How does the jailer do this?  How do we get out of the shambles that our lives may be?  How do we get out of the mess of broken relationships, bad decisions, financial difficulties, regrets, shame, whatever mess it is we find ourselves in?  We believe in the Lord Jesus.  We recognize and acknowledge his authority as Lord over all.  We enter the kingdom of God and live under His rule as members of His household. 

This doesn’t mean everything will be great, that’s God is going to instantly make right everything that’s been wrong.  All we have to do is look around us to see that’s not true.  But God will fill us with His Spirit, create in us a new heart, transform us from the inside out so that we have a new motivation for living as God wants us to live.  This is what it means to be born again, because we are born into the kingdom of God.  This is the good news.  The kingdom of heaven is ours.  The jailor found out the truth of this as he and his household believe, are baptized and are changed. 

In this beatitude Jesus is declaring the good news that the kingdom of heaven is ours.  We can live in this kingdom with full rights and privileges as God places us in right relationships with Himself through His own gracious acts of salvation.  We can live as members of God’s own household, fulfilling those responsibilities, with God Himself giving us the ability to do this as He fills us with His own Spirit.  There will be persecution as the kingdom of God advances against the kingdoms of darkness.  But there is no power that can stand against the kingdom of God.  It breaks into every place, breaks every chain, overcomes every form of opposition.  God is advancing His kingdom through us, He is working through us.  We are his hands and feet, his eyes and mouth as we work against the powers of darkness and do the things Jesus did in our own network of relationships, our own families, our communities, and around the world. 

The story of Paul and Silas in prison is the story of God at work expanding His kingdom.  God is not just looking out for his boys Paul and Silas.  He’s working to bring freedom to the slave girl, bound by an evil spirit and used by her owners for their own selfish gain.  He’s working to bring freedom to the jailor and his whole household and perhaps to many of the other prisoners as well.  He’s working to bring light into the spiritual darkness of Philippi.  At the end of the story God’s rule now extends over many more lives and will continue expanding as these believers now carry out the commission from Jesus to make disciples.  This is the good news – the kingdom of heaven is ours.

I’ll invite the worship team to come up now as we transition to a time of prayer.  Maybe you are like me and have a hard time with this persecution idea.  Maybe you don’t like to think of the conflict and hard work and change that will need to happen if the kingdom of God is going to advance in your own life.  But to quote Dr. Phil, how is it working for you outside the kingdom of God?  Have you found yourself yet asking the question the jailor asked “How can I get out of this mess?”  Whatever mess we find ourselves in, whatever enemies we find ourselves facing, the good news is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The answer is to face the fight because it is a fight between darkness and light.  We have to make the decision that we will face the discomfort and pain of confronting the powers of darkness as we live under the rule and reign of Jesus in the kingdom of God.

Last week Chantelle spoke to us about peacemaking and reminded us that it wasn’t comfortable.  It’s hard work and it creates its own conflicts.  None of what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 5 is sweet and peaceful and comfortable because he’s talking about the kingdom of God advancing against the kingdom of darkness and that creates conflict.   Jesus says in Mt. 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it.”  There’s work involved in living in the kingdom of God.  Are we ready to commit to the work that needs to be done in our own lives, our own families, our own communities and to face the conflict and pain that will be involved as the kingdom of God advances?  As the worship team leads us in our closing song, if you are ready to see the kingdom of God advance in whatever situation you may be facing, then in this time of prayer and worship, make that commitment to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Ask for the power of God to come into your own life in a fresh way so that you can make your stand against the kingdom of darkness.  If you’d like prayer, myself and others from the prayer team can be available here to pray with you as we worship.

Jesus Let Lazarus Die!

Ezekiel 37:1-6; John 11:17-26

         This past week I officiated at a funeral for the father of a friend of mine.  When we got to the grave I read from this same passage in John 11.  I always read this at the graveside when I officiate a funeral because it is such a striking contrast.  Here we are burying someone who was loved, who lived a vibrant life, and now they are dead with their family around them grieving, and yet we are also confessing faith in Jesus who says he is the resurrection and the life.  We are putting a body into the ground with the hope that one day it will be raised back to life.  It makes no sense. 

            Here in this passage from John 11, not only is Lazarus dead, but we find out he needn’t have died.  If Jesus had come when the sisters sent for him, if he hadn’t waited 2 more days before leaving for Judea, Lazarus may have lived.  Jesus could have healed him.  Jesus let Lazarus, his friend whom he loved, die.  Now I want to give proper credit.  I didn’t think of this sermon title.  Pastor Leonard told me his friend Pastor Ernie Flores of 2^nd Baptist Church in Germantown had this as the title of his sermon last week and when I heard it I thought “Wow.  I have to use this.”  Because this also doesn’t make sense.  When Jesus got word that Lazarus was sick he waited 2 days before leaving to go back to Judea, knowing that Lazarus was going to die.  When he finally does decide to leave, he tells his disciples that Lazarus has died and that he’s glad for their sakes that he wasn’t there so that they may believe.  “Believe what?” is my question when I read this.  We all believe Jesus could have healed Lazarus and that’s why Mary and Martha sent for him in the first place.  Jesus was their hope.  But now that Lazarus is dead, what hope is there?

            Now turning to the Ezekiel passage that Jacob read for us, we see another hopeless situation.  There’s a valley full of dry bones just laying out all over the ground.  The Lord asks Ezekiel if these bones can live?  And he wisely answers “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”  It would seem to be impossible that all these bones could come back together and live.  They are old bones and very dry.  There’s no life left in them.  The flesh and blood is gone.  Scientists have been able to take old bones and extract DNA from them and study it.  They’ve been able to extract DNA that is thousands of years old, but it has to be under the right conditions.  There are some bones that are too degraded to get any usable DNA.  But even if they can get DNA, they can’t make the bones come back to life. These bones in Ezekiel were degraded, dried out bones. You couldn’t even get DNA from them.  It’s hopeless to think that life can come into them again. 

            So here we have these 2 hopeless situations, one in Ezekiel and one in John, and yet in both we are questioned as to whether we believe there can be life again.  Can these bones live?  Do you believe this?  It doesn’t make sense.

            Another thing these 2 hopeless situations have in common is that God let them both happen.  The valley of the dry bones is a vision of the state of the people of Israel.  At the time of Ezekiel, the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, who had been a nation, were in exile.  Ezekiel was with the exiles in Babylon.  There was no nation of Israel anymore.  The nation that had existed under the reign of King David was done. After the reign of David’s son Solomon, it had been split into two nations – Judah and Israel, and both of these had been overthrown by enemies and the people taken away to foreign lands.  And God had let it happen. 

            You see God and the people of Israel had established a covenant, a binding legal agreement, that the people would worship Yahweh only and would live by His laws as His chosen people.  Yahweh would be their God, protecting them, providing for them, giving them peace, and they would be the people who would show the world what it meant to live in relationship with and to worship the one true God.  If they broke the covenant, if they worshiped other gods and refused to live under God’s laws, His protection would be withdrawn and their enemies would overcome them.  The people of Israel did not remain faithful to the covenant and so God withdrew His protection and let them go into exile.  He didn’t step in to prevent their destruction. 

            In this case, we can understand a little better why God let the people go into exile.  They were reaping the consequences of their sin.  God had warned them and now it had happened.  With Lazarus, we don’t understand.  Why didn’t Jesus just go to Lazarus when the sisters first sent for him?  Why didn’t he just speak a healing word?  He could have just spoken from where he was and Lazarus would have been healed.   Why didn’t God do something? 

            Last week I preached on the passage from John 9 where a man born blind is healed by Jesus.  In that passage, when the disciples see the blind man they ask Jesus “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “No one sinned.  But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”  Sometimes it’s obvious that bad things happen to us because of our sin.  We reap what we sow.  We run the red light, we get mailed the ticket, right?  But other times bad things just happen through no fault of our own.  That’s what happened with the man born blind and that’s what happened with Lazarus.  And this is when we question God.  Why didn’t you keep me from having this tragedy happen, from losing my job, from losing someone I love, whatever it may be.  God why?

            It’s normal to ask the why question and there’s nothing wrong with asking it, but sometimes it’s better to ask “For what purpose did this happen?”  Jesus said regarding the man born blind that the work of God would be displayed in his life.  Jesus reframed the situation.  He didn’t focus on assigning blame for the tragedy but rather focused on what God was up to in the situation.  The works of God were going to be displayed in this man’s life.  The same is true for the situation in Ezekiel and in John 11.  God reframes both situations to display His work.  Yes, Jesus let Lazarus die and God let Israel be destroyed and taken away into exile.  He could do that because He has the power to restore life.

            In Ezekiel, God shows the prophet that He has the ability to bring life even to old bones that are dried out and degraded.  His word is spoken over those hopeless bones and they come back together, tendons and muscle grow on them and skin covers them and they are bodies once again.  Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind to blow over them, which is a call for God’s Spirit to breathe on them, and when that happens they come back to life and stand up on their feet, not just bodies, but a vast army.  This is a picture of vitality and power and strength.  These old dried out bones are now a healthy, living, strong, vast army.  And God says to Ezekiel that these bones are the whole house of Israel.  The people of Israel think their situation is hopeless.  They are like bodies in the grave.  But God says he’s going to open their graves and bring them up from them and bring them back to the land of Israel and not only that but He will put His Spirit in them and they will live and know that He is the Lord, He has spoken and He has done what He promised.  The works of God are going to be displayed in His people.

            The same is true of Lazarus.  Jesus tells Martha, “Your brother will rise again.”  She thought he was talking about the resurrection at the end of time but Jesus was talking about that very day.  The works of God were going to be displayed right there at Lazarus’ grave. And this is the part of the story that we love.  Jesus commands in a loud voice for Lazarus to come out of the grave and he walks out with the grave clothes still wrapped around him, alive and well.  Jesus let Lazarus die, so that it could be seen that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and those who die in Him will live again.  This is good stuff!

            But as I was thinking about this passage this week, I wonder how Lazarus felt about being allowed to die.  Did that thought even cross his mind or was he too overwhelmed by the fact that he was dead for 4 days and then was alive again?  As a 21^st century American, I’m not so sure I would want Jesus to let me die just so he could show everyone that he has the power to raise the dead.  If Jesus were to come in here and ask for a volunteer to demonstrate resurrection on, would anyone here raise their hand?  And here we get to the real problem we have with this whole thought that Jesus let Lazarus die.  Our lives are our own and we don’t want anyone messing around with them.  It’s fine if Jesus wants to bless us and prosper us and protect us.  But we don’t want him to let things in our lives die.  We want life, not death.  We want the blessing, not the suffering.  But we can’t have resurrection without death.

            God said in Ezekiel that when His word was fulfilled and the dry bones lived again, then they would know that He is the Lord.  The Lord is the one we submit to.  He’s the one who has the final say over our lives.  The Lord is the one we bow down to and acknowledge as being greater than we are.  So if we are confessing that Jesus is our Lord, then we are saying that He has the final word in our lives and we don’t.  So as a 21^st century American, that might go against everything my culture says, but it doesn’t change the truth.  Jesus is either my Lord or he’s not.  If he is my Lord, then he can let me die in order to raise me again.  My life is his to do with as He pleases. 

            We confess that truth here at Oxford Circle.  We sing the song “Where you go, I'll go, where you stay, I'll stay, When you move, I'll move, I will follow you.  Who you love, I'll love, How you serve, I'll serve, If this life I lose, I will follow you.” (Chris Tomlin)  But when it comes down to specific situations in our lives, do we believe that?  Do we live that out?  What if we have a dream that we are following and Jesus wants to let that dream die?  Are we willing to go along with that and let that dream die so that Jesus can raise something new to life?  What about a relationship we may be in?  What if Jesus wants that relationship to die?  Will we submit to Him as Lord and suffer that death?  This is the hard stuff of the Christian life.  Do we trust Jesus with our lives, with all the pieces of our lives, when He may want to let things die? 

            We may be willing to let things die that are not good.  We all want to die to sin.  If there’s sin that we struggle with and want to be free of we’re happy if Jesus wants to put that to death because it’s a bad thing and we would be happy to be delivered from that struggle.  But Lazarus was a friend of Jesus’.  He was a good thing in Jesus’ life.  What if the thing that needs to die is something good?  Before Vandy and I moved to Philadelphia, we lived in Virginia, about 2 hours from where our parents live.  Vandy was working in a church there as associate pastor for youth and could have stayed in that position.  They would have been happy to have him stay there and would have paid him a good salary.  I was working as administrative secretary in a Christian school there and my boss was happy to have me stay as well.  We lived in a nice little townhouse and could have built a nice life for ourselves in suburbia, closer to our families.  But we knew we had to let that life die because God had called us to Philadelphia.  That life was good in many ways.  But it wasn’t what God was calling us to.  It had to die.

            The thing is God is calling us to a relationship with Himself that demands everything we have.  We cannot keep part of our life separate from the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Our complete surrender to His will has to happen.  But the relationship we are being called to is not drudgery as God’s slave.  God is calling us to enter into the relationship that already exists among the Trinity, a relationship of perfect love and unity.  In John 17 Jesus prays that those who believe in Him might be brought to complete unity and might be with Him to see His glory.  We are invited to become the children of God, to be in intimate relationship with the one God who created and sustains all things.  We are being invited into a relationship with the God who has the power to raise the dead.  And we are allowed to call this God Father because the relationship He wants is for us to be His children with all the rights and privileges that go along with that.  I’ll take that.

To what extent has God gone to make this possible?  He became human and lived within time and space.  He confined himself as we are confined.  He lived as humans lived 2000 years ago, without running water, electricity, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, modern medicine, cell phones, or internet.  You’d think God would pick a more convenient time period to live in.  But in the fullness of time Jesus came and lived and died and rose again to never die.  I can know that this God is trustworthy and will fulfill His promises to me to give me life because this God has already gone through death and been raised to life Himself.  There is no other who has done this. 

Not only did God let Israel go into exile, not only did He let his friend Lazarus die, He let His own Son die.  And Jesus didn’t die of sickness in his own bed, or die of old age with loved ones around him.  He was publicly executed with people around him mocking him and abusing him.  But then Jesus was resurrected and because He lives, we also can live.  This God we can trust, even when He wants to let things in our lives die.

When we accept God’s invitation to be in covenant relationship with Him as His people, His children, He gives us His Spirit to live within us.  He gives us the power to live as His children.  In Romans chapter 8 Paul writes “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit…If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you….for if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.”

If we live in this relationship with God, God’s own Spirit, the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, is in us to help us let go and put to death those things that are of the sinful nature.  And he will give us the power and strength to let things die, even good things, that God wants to let die in our lives.  God Himself is with us and will not leave us to do this on our own.  The question left for us is what needs to die?  What things in our lives need to die?  What false ideas about God are we holding on to that need to die?  What harmful habits do we indulge in that need to die?  What relationships are we involved in that need to die?  What lies about ourselves or others do we believe that need to die?  What dreams are we chasing that need to die? 

Another question is what are we holding on to that’s already dead and needs to go in the grave?  What dead things are in our lives that are sucking life out of us?  It might be a habit, a mindset, a relationship.  It might be anger, bitterness, unforgiveness or grief that we are holding on to and it’s a dead thing spreading death in our lives.  We need to put those things in the grave.  If there’s something in our lives that needs to die or is already dead and needs to go in the grave, today is the day to make that happen.

          As the worship team comes up and we transition to a time of prayer, let’s take this message seriously today.  God wants to let some things die in our lives.  We can trust him through this process because He also has the power to bring new life.  I’m not saying He’s going to give you a new and improved resurrected version of whatever you may release to Him.  I’m saying He’s going to give you life in exchange for death.  As the worship team plays, I want us to take the time to pray and listen to what God might say to us about what He wants us to let go of and let die.  And then give those things to Him. 

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?