Examining Our Hearts

One of the the things I mentioned in the sermon yesterday is how hard it is to examine the depths of our own hearts. We are afraid of what we will find there; that if we are honest about our real brokenness and sin, we will despair.

It reminded me of a passage from Bob Munger, in his classic sermon 'My Heart, Christ's Home'. In it he writes:

There is just one more matter that I might share with you. One day I found Him waiting for me at the door. An arresting look was in His eye. As I entered, He said to me, "There is a peculiar odor in the house. There is something dead around here. It's upstairs. I think it is in the hall closet." As soon as He said this, I knew what He was talking about. Yes, there was a small closet up there on the landing, just a few feet square, and in that closet, behind lock and key, I had one or two little personal things that I did not want anyone to know about and certainly I did not want Christ to see them. I knew they were dead and rotting things left over from the old life. And yet I loved them, and I wanted them so for myself that I was afraid to admit they were there. Reluctantly, I went up with Him, and as we mounted the stairs the odor became stronger and stronger. He pointed at the door. "It's in there! Some dead thing!"
I was angry. That's the only way I can put it. I had given Him access to the library, the dining room, the living room, the workroom, the playroom, and now He was asking me about a little two-by-four closet. I said to myself, "This is too much. I am not going to give Him the key."
"Well," He said, reading my thoughts, "if you think I'm going to stay up here on the second floor with this odor, you are mistaken. I will take my bed out on the back porch. I'm certainly not going to put up with that." Then I saw Him start down the stairs.

When you have come to know and love Christ, the worst thing that can happen is to sense His fellowship retreating from you. I had to surrender. "I'll give You the key," I said sadly, "but You'll have to open the closet and clean it out. I haven't the strength to do it."

"I know," He said. "I know you haven't. Just give me the key. Just authorize me to take care of that closet and I will." So with trembling fingers I passed the key to Him. He took it from my hand, walked over to the door, opened it, entered it, took out all the putrefying stuff that was rotting there, and threw it away. Then He cleaned the closet and painted it, fixed it up, doing it all in a moment's time. Oh, what victory and release to have that dead thing out of my life!

We also talked about hell last night. I know this is a topic about which there is much confusion. It's been in the news recently because of some recent books and controversy. Here is the best article I have read on the issue: Tim Keller on the Importance of Hell.

The Difficult Path

After hearing Larry's sermon on Sunday, and reflecting on Mark 8:34 all last week, the question that keeps bouncing in my head is this: Is following Jesus difficult or easy?

Throughout the history the church has swung between a 'difficult' vision of discipleship and an 'easy' one. In the early church, martyrdom meant that following Christ was clearly a difficult life choice. But as Christianity became accepted and eventually enshrined as the state religion after Emperor Constantine, many found following Christ to be convenient. In reaction to this, the ascetic movement arose and the Desert Fathers and Mothers voluntarily gave up everything to find Christ in the difficult desert - as a rebuke to comfortable religion in the mainstream. Ever since then, the church has swung between crushing obligation, and what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called 'cheap grace'.

Jesus teaches the true difficulty of following him. It is not a difficulty of trying harder, working harder or being better. It is the difficulty of following him and trusting in his words. Peter followed Jesus every step, until the moment of the cross. And then he abandoned Jesus. We may like much of what Jesus has to say, but the real test comes when what Jesus calls us to feels offensive to us. That's the moment of denying ourselves and taking up our cross.

That's going to mean different things for different people. For some of us it will mean turning the other cheek when we would rather fight. For some of us it will mean entering into a difficult conversation when we would rather run away. For some of us it will mean praying rather than working, For some of us, it will mean working for others when we would rather be indulging ourselves.

The crucial issue is trust. Do we trust Jesus more than we trust ourselves? It means dying to complete understanding and taking up the burden of not know everything - living by trust. It means dying to my judgment of others and taking up the burden of forgiveness. It means dying to my identity and taking up the burden of the church community. It means dying to my comfort and taking up the needs of the city/world. It means dying to my freedom and taking up obedience It means dying to my intellectual pride and taking up the shaming burden of Jesus' name. It means dying to my moral pride and taking up the shaming burden of Jesus' grace.

That's what I am wrestling with today.

Instead of Worry: Rest

Sabbath as Natural Order of All Creatures: We Are Dependent!
Leviticus 25:1-17 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

We are compelled to rest because we are creatures.

We live in permanent impermanence.

“When we breathe, we do stop inhaling because have taken in all the oxygen we will ever need, but because we have all the oxygen we need for this breath.” Wayne Mueller

(There is judgment against those who ‘add field to field’ (Isa 5:8)

Instead of Worry: Rest

Interesting lecture on taking time off… incidentally, taking a Sabbath year!

http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

Common Ground: MADE

Week 1: Common Ground: MADE (Sermon on May 1)

Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Notes on the text
Verse 5 is often translated ‘you have made him a little lower than heavenly beings’. A better translation would be ‘you have made him a little lower than God’.
See Genesis 1:25-31 as a source for this psalm. It speaks of our identity under God, but over all creation.
See Hebrews 2:5-9 – Jesus is seen as the perfect fulfillment of the human under God and over creation.

A helpful image or opening question:

• What divides people in Oakland? What unites us?
• In your experienced, are churches/religion helpful or harmful to that unity?
• Read C.S. Lewis quote below – do agree with the final statement in that quote?

Questions:

• What does this text say about God?
• What does this text say about people?
• If we deeply believed these things, what would change about us, about our city?
• Who can we share this text with?
• How can our neighborhood group live out what we learn from this discussion?

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Common Ground

At Oakland City Church we regularly repeat our mission statement – ‘people who don’t belong together gathered around Jesus for the sake of people who don’t belong.’ We’re passionate about a few things – Jesus, and building a community of people who don’t belong together. These things are deeply connected – it’s only when we gather around Jesus that we can build a new community. In essence, the core idea of our church is that trust in Jesus and his grace forms the foundation of a new community. More than that, the grace of Jesus is the only true foundation for community that lasts.

We hold on to this vision of community for two reasons. Firstly – it’s what the God commands. The message of the New Testament is clear on this (although often ignored). The book of Acts, the history of the early church, the driving controversy is not whether Jesus is Lord, or whether he was fully man, fully God, or anything theological. The central question was ‘who gets to belong?’ In Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, the underlying crisis is the separation of Jews and Gentiles.

Secondly, this vision for community is what Oakland needs. In a city like Oakland, the divisions of humanity seem all too clear. Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in the United States. However, as many have noted, diversity is not the same as integration. The diversity we each experience in our everyday lives is lacking in most church worship services. Instead of embracing our city’s identity as an expression of God’s desire to bring all things together, our churches have too often settled for separation. While there is some call and occasion for ethnic-specific church missions, our desire should ultimately be to see ethnic barriers overcome. Instead of calling people out of diverse neighborhoods, friendships and workplaces into homogeneous places of worship, we should be planting churches that reflect these diverse realities. Our faith community should help us to be better at cross-cultural relationships in the places where we live.

However, many would argue that religion, specifically Christianity, seems to divide us further. Segregation. Christian vs. non-Christian, religious vs. irreligious, protestant vs. catholic, liberal vs. conservative. We don’t want to be naïve. Unity and community must be founded on truth. C.S. Lewis in ‘The Great Divorce’ his meditation on heaven and hell, writes this:

"We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good. I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.”

We can’t simply form common ground by ignoring our differences, ignoring truth or building upon our good intentions. Human efforts to force community are either oppressive (See the tower of Babel in Genesis 11) or shallow.

The pressing question for our world and our city is whether there is a possibility of true, deep and lasting common ground. This sermon series will answer that question thoroughly through the lens of the gospel. Our only possible common ground is the grace found in Jesus. Only in the good news do we find sufficient humility and confidence to build a future together. This sermon series will show us that the great doctrines of the faith are practical building blocks for a common life together. Far from being points of contention, if we embrace the great truths of Scripture, we will find the power, reason and joy of life together.

Understanding the gospel

• keeps us from falling into self-righteous, exclusive legalism (an ‘us vs. them’ attitude)
• calls us to obedience and sacrificial love, rather than mere tolerance
• helps us to hold on to what matters to God and let go of traditions that only matter to us. The gospel makes us more adaptive to others
• gives us the only identity strong enough to challenge the worldly culture of materialism, despair and anxiety.

The gospel is not simply a propositional statement about Jesus dying for our sins. It can be summarized as Christ crucified, but in that summary we find that the gospel is the full story of God and His sacrificial love for His world.

What does the gospel say about us as humans?

1. All are made in the image of God

No matter whether we are great or small in the eyes of the world, we are all made in the imago dei, the divine image. We can never look down on others as less than us. This vision of human life is incredibly important. Is the basis for which we can find dignity and humility in all situations. Moreover, the image of God is the image of the Trinity – the divine fellowship of God from before the ages. We are made in and for life together.

2. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There is no basis for pride in the fallen human condition. All of us are sinners – which is bad news, obviously, but like any accurate diagnosis, the only basis for hearing good news. Sin is not simply ‘out there’ in the community, or ‘over there’ in other communities. Sin is always most definitively ‘in here’ in our hearts. So, we are not surprised at sin in others, and we do not despair at it in ourselves. We are tempted to make much of sins that are not ours, and make little of the sins that we struggle with. So conservatives highlight sexual sins, laziness and family brokenness. Liberals highlight sins of injustice, lack of compassion to the stranger and environmental irresponsibility. Culturally we can see that some sins are more tolerated in some groups than others. The good news of the doctrine of sin is that we do not need to be divided by who has the worst sins. We are all sinners in need of grace.

3. We are all loved by God – whether we receive that love or not

On the cross Jesus is lifted up to show the world the glory, judgment and love of God. God has continually communicated his love to us, if only we would hear it. The whole purpose of Jesus’ first coming was to come for salvation and hope, rather than judgment. Even if people do not receive the love of God, we must be clear on the fact that God is pursuing his creation with great love.

4. We are all continually dependent on God – whether we know it or not.

God did not simply create the world, but sustains it in every moment. We are never imagine ourselves far from God or not relying on him. For religious people, this means that we should always be acknowledging that we depend on God, not He on our efforts. For irreligious people, this means that we should be The most helpful and true prayer that we can pray at any moment is ‘thank you’. Gratitude should be a great unifying feature of our church.

5. We are all looking to the same future – submission to the gracious rule of Christ.

There is a some debate right now about whether all people will eventually be reconciled to God’s love. Scripture is clear that it will be possible to resist the rule of Christ. However, we can always say with confidence that all things will be reconciled to Christ, either in grateful submission or in grudging acknowledgement. Our hope is in the truth that whether we trust him or not, all things will be unified back to God in Christ.

Joy, Death, Grace

Straight after church on Sunday, we heard about the death of Osama bin Laden. We say around someone's iphone like old-timers around the wireless listening to the president's speech.

As Christians, how should we respond to an act like this? Should we celebrate death? Should we chide those who celebrate it? What does it mean to love our enemies, but pursue justice in this world. I take the SEALs at their word when they say that bin Laden resisted and was killed. So, how do we respond to the death of enemy?

Personally speaking, I feel uncomfortable with overt expressions of triumphalism. But I am prepared to admit that this is part of my personality. I need to check myself and not be judgmental of others when the initial response to the death of an enemy is joy. The instinct comes from the true human condition - designed by God - to love life and despise evil. It’s a little robotic to turn on a dime with those emotions. The psalms are filled with expressions of gleeful vengeful feelings, followed by confession, contrition and more questioning. So it seems that God’s Word is comfortable with momentary expressions of exultant triumph over enemies. The God of the OT is not a dispassionate Greek monad, but an exultant warrior who loves to see good triumph. Emphasis here on the word ‘loves’… He is passionate about it. God does not seem to be an emotional policeman in Scripture – so I tend to think that we should all cut each other slack in our initial emotional responses.

It’s okay to hate evil. And sadly, most evil resides in people. So, I think sometimes our hearts get mixed up. We need to make allowance for that – otherwise hate for evil might dissipate. It’s too easy to be rational and noble in the face of problems that don’t really affect us.

Also, I think there is a humility in communal suffering and communal joy as well. In an affluent country like ours, we don’t really know what it means to have shared misfortune or enemies. 9/11 was one of the few communal moments of shared suffering in this country. Usually suffering happens to others in a red state or a blue state, or at least ‘over there’ so I don’t viscerally feel the pain. But 9/11 seems to have been shared deeply by every American. In our increasingly divided, independent nation, such moments of shared emotion shouldn't be dismissed. Part of the joy in ‘We Got Him’ is getting to say ‘we’ with conviction. Sure, that might lead to tribalism, but let’s not trade love for my neighbor who I do see, with a vague love for ‘humankind’.

It’s a silly comparison, but I think the irrational glee at the royal wedding is a good point of comparison. If you REALLY think through all the implications, a monarchy is a bad idea. But something within us stirs when a prince and princess get married. Let’s not check our brains at the door, but let’s not check our deep emotions either – at least not straight away. (By the way, this statement does not apply to our government or the military…. They should definitely check their emotions at the door when making policy…)

BUT… we can’t stay there. As I read the Scriptures, I think the problem begins to arise when we start to apply definitive meaning to these emotions – meaning about the world or meaning about ourselves. When it comes to our gleaning a meaning for the state of our nation, Joshua 5:13-15 helps me here and Lincoln’s 2^nd inaugural helps me here as well.

When it comes to personal reflection, gloating over an enemy or scolding those who celebrate is hardly the long term strategy. If we don't turn to ourselves, then whatever good might come of this is lost. The best example I can think of in Scripture is when Jesus responds to the question about the Tower collapsing and killing people or the victims of Pontius Pilate… ‘ do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” All of this should be an invitation to self-reflection.

So, emotional response shouldn’t be shot down immediately. In fact, there is great truth in it. Building worldview or self-view on that emotional response… not so great. The power of the emotional response can help propel us to more profound thinking about the true horror of evil and the deep need we all have for grace in light of judgment. This is my understanding of loving our enemies – treating them as human beings – both sinners under judgment, and sinners in need of grace. Just like me.

The best story I can think of is what my co-pastor Larry Austin said a while back. We were talking about the killing of an African American youth by a transit cop. The cop claimed it was an accident and got off pretty lightly. There was a great outcry. I asked Larry, who is black, what he thought of the outcome of the trial? Didn’t the cop get off too lightly, I asked. I think I asked the question because I wanted to show that I ‘got’ the injustice of the situation – to show my bona fides as a white man who gets injustice.

His response floored me. He said- ‘Well, he got off lightly. But by the grace of God, I got off lightly too. I didn’t get what I deserved.’ That’s a response born of grace. He took the pain of that situation and used it to deepen his understanding of God’s grace to him.