Asking the Right Question as the Starting Point for Sanctification

In John Wesley's theology, the life of discipleship begins at the moment of justification: when we accept the salvation that was effected by Christ and choose to live according to the example of Christ.  Through this decision, we experience rebirth and spend the rest of our lives trying to imitate Christ.  This is what Wesley called sanctification.  Wesley optimistically believed that through the intercession of God's grace, we could become a perfect mirror of how God was revealed in Christ.

The road to perfectly mirroring Christ begins with asking the right question about the task that lies before us.  The wrong question is, how we avoid punishment here and in the hereafter.  If this is our central motivation in seeking to live according to the example of Christ, then we have not been truly reborn and if the path we follow has our own survival as its endpoint, we are on the wrong path.  Christ's motivation was not to avoid punishment.  In fact, he intentionally journeyed to Jerusalem where he knew that death awaited.  So if we run away from Jerusalem we are traveling in the exact opposite direction that Christ traveled.

The right question is, how can we serve others and live our lives for others? How can we treat others as they want to be treated? How can we manifest love, kindness, equality, compassion, honesty, and grace? If we are asking this question, we are truly reborn and are seeking to live according to the example of Christ because we are mirroring the mentality of the One who intentionally traveled to Jerusalem to redeem the world.

The Observance of Lent

Today is the First Sunday of the Season of Lent, which marks the 40 day period prior to Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday.  Consequently, it is a time to remember what the Season of Lent means in our belief and practice.

Lent has largely been relegated to a renewal of our New Year's resolutions, which typically involve some form of dieting and exercise, practices that studies indicate are typically abandoned by January 3 or so.  Sacrificing something is incidental.  What Lent is really about is centering and focusing upon what the Jesus Story means and what it means for us to imitate Christ.  Christ began his ministry through a forty day period in the desert, which reflects the forty day season of Lent.  Lent reminds us that we are called to imitate Christ; as Christ's ministry was about seeking the salvation of the world, we are called to renew our commitment to living according to his example by seeking to discern how God is calling us to do the same in our own little corners of the world.

Without living according to the example of Christ, we cannot experience resurrection and renewal.  Without Lent, we cannot truly grasp the significance and meaning of the empty tomb.

Paul's Radical Position About Faith and Love

In the Thirteenth Chapter of Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul goes into an extended discussion of the primacy of love.  In the concluding verse of the passage, Paul indicates that love is even greater than faith.

This is a widely misunderstood text because of the way that we define these two terms.  Today, the term "faith" is associated in evangelical Protestant Christianity as a belief without evidence that is obtained through emotional experiences (i.e. we have an emotional experience where we simply "know" that the abstract theological principles that we have been told about Jesus are true).  The term "love" is borrowed by the Church from our society's use of the term, which largely corresponds to the Greek term "eros"; it is associated with sappy, syrupy emotion.  It is no coincidence that much of the genre of contemporary Christian music is largely drawn from contemporary pop music, where the object of one's adoration is changed from an individual to God.

Faith in a biblical context means commitment and adherence to an object (i.e. God) and our willingness for our belief and practice to correspondence to what we associate with that object.  Love, as used in Paul's message to the Corinthians as well as in other locations in the New Testament, is the Greek word "Agape," which was distinguished from both "Eros" and "Philia".  Agape, speaking broadly, is reflective of the love that was demonstrated for us by God in Christ.  It is a devotion to, a willingness to sacrifice for, and an ultimate commitment to, all people, including those who we deem distinctly unlovable.

Going back to Paul's message with our contemporary understandings of faith and love replaced by how the early Church understood these terms results in a rather shocking message that should make us shift in our church pews: our devotion to, willingness to sacrifice for, and show ultimate commitment to all people, including (particularly) those who are distinctly unlovable, is more important than our commitment to those theological abstract principles that we associate with God as God was revealed in Jesus.

If the Church, and the larger world, practiced Paul's message of the primacy of Agape, it is difficult to comprehend how much this would transform our world.  If there is nothing on earth as important as love of those we deem unlovable, the Church and our societal institutions would come to a (fortunate) crashing halt.  What they would be replaced with is too wondrous to even imagine.

The Good Work that God Seeks to Accomplish in Us

In Luke's Gospel, John the Baptist uses the metaphor of a threshing floor to describe what God seeks to accomplish in our souls.

The metaphor of a threshing floor would have been very familiar with John's listeners.  The threshing floor was the place where harvested wheat was placed; the harvested wheat contained grain, which was useful and edible, and chaff, which was useless and inedible.  The purpose of the threshing floor was to provide a place where the grain and the chaff were divided, leaving only that which was edible and useful.  The chaff is then burned and destroyed.

God enters into human life bringing grace, so that what is useless in us can be removed, leaving only that which nourishes ourselves, and others.  God seeks to burn away what is useless in us, so that we are purified and made whole, bringing about our own redemption so that we can then be God's instruments to bring about the redemption of the world.

God's agenda in the world has always been, and will always, be, our salvation and redemption, not our destruction.  The only thing that God seeks to destroy is that which is impure within us, so that we might be a new creation in Christ.

Living As If We Believe In the Incarnation

Paul's epistle to the Church at Colossae contains some important advice about what it means to be the Church.  This is particularly found in Colossians 3.12-17, which is the most well known text within the epistle.

Paul indicates that being the Church is all about cultivating the spiritual disciplines of forgiveness and accountability.  The community is called to hold one another accountable to living their lives according to the example of Christ, but to also forgive one another when they fail to do so, keeping such persons in the community rather than removing them.

Paul's advice makes perfect sense when we consider the high bar that has been set for us through the life and teachings of Jesus.  We are called, as Paul reminds us, to live as Christ lived: to clothe ourselves with love, mercy, and compassion, to have peace within ourselves and to promote peace within the Church and the larger community.

The life that we are called to live, on a broader level, was manifest in God's incarnation in Jesus.  By entering into human life to redeem us, God manifested forgiveness, compassion, love, and mercy.  The very act of incarnation that is celebrated during the Christmas season reveals the nature of the God who was revealed in Jesus, that we are called to emulate.

The Nature of Biblical Prophecy

Biblical prophecy in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is often characterized by vivid images of physical events, often containing violence and destruction.  It is the tendency of the contemporary Church to interpret these images in a literal manner.

In Luke's gospel, the writer interprets the arrival of John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that God would one day fill up valleys, make rough places smooth, and level mountains and hills.  The perception that John the Baptist fulfilled Isaiah's vision reveals a lot about how we should interpret biblical prophecy.  Most importantly, the physical events that Isaiah described were not fulfilled in a literal manner.  God did not literally fill up valleys and level mountains.  Instead, these physical events were metaphors for what God sought to accomplish through John the Baptist; to prepare people's hearts and minds for the arrival of Jesus.  The valleys and mountains were the impediments in people's souls and minds that needed to be removed through repentance so that God's Word might be revealed.

Let's consider this understanding of biblical prophecy when we interpret biblical texts that we believe speak of the future.  God's agenda remains the same.  God's intention is not to bring about violence and destruction, but to bring about salvation and redemption.  There is already enough violence and destruction in the world.  This is not God's plan or a reflection of God's intention for the world.  God's intention for the world was revealed in Jesus, who arrived to effect reconciliation between God and human beings.

The Odd Paradoxical Situation of Kings

I spoke months ago about the image of the circle in describing all ancient and modern systems of political and social organization.  The one with the greatest authority is in the center of the figurative circle, those who the one at the center gives authority to constitute the circle itself, and the overwhelming majority of those in the system are outside the circle; they are the excluded and marginalized.  In ancient Israel, the King was the one at the center, surrounded by the religious and political authorities (on the circle itself); with virtually everyone else on the outside; children, women, the outcasts, the unclean, non-Israelite males.

This system creates and perpetuates anxiety, suffering, and persecution, with those on the circle neurotic about maintaining their place on the circle, and excluding and marginalizing those on the outside.  Those on the outside were punished for being on the outside of the circle.

You would assume that the one person in the system who was free of anxiety, suffering, and marginalization was the one at the center of the circle; the King.  Today is Christ the King Sunday in the liturgical year, when the image of Christ as King is explored.  This provides an opportunity to reveal the odd paradoxical situation of Kings in the ancient world, as well as their modern equivalents (e.g. CEO's in the corporate world, leaders of sovereign nations, etc...).  The irony is that the one at the center of the circle was actually the one most marginalized, vulnerable, and excluded.  In fact, modern anthropology would suggest that the origin of Kings has its roots not in the process of the most powerful male seizing power, but in the primordial need to sacrifice and scapegoat; that is, that the practice and system of monarchy actually arose out of those who were marginalized to provide a scapegoat--a figure for the community to sacrifice to alleviate tensions that arise within the community.

Jesus said that the one who is greatest in the Kingdom of God would be the one most willing to sacrifice for others.  It is often said that the cross is the last place where you would expect to find a King.  In reality, the ancient world know that this was the first place where you would expect to find a King; being sacrificed for the Kingdom.  The image of Jesus as King refers not to power and glory in the world's eyes, but to a willingness to sacrifice.  When we sing that our cross will be exchanged for a crown, it will not be a gold crown of glory in the world's eyes, but a crown reflecting our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others as one who has lived under the Lordship of Christ. 

The Widow's Mite and the Need for Self-Awareness

In Mark's gospel, Jesus is very critical of the religious institutions and systems of his day.  He was particularly critical of the scribes.  The "scribes", from the Greek grammateis, were those who were the most knowledgeable of the Hebrew scriptures, and who the Jewish community turned to when they had questions about the meaning and significance of the law.  When there was a complicated question of the interpretation of the law, the scribes were consulted.  The scribes also acted in a quasi adjudicatory capacity to resolve disputes in the Jewish community that arose out of differing interpretation of the law.

Jesus criticized the scribes for their opulent lifestyles, their arrogance, and their self-righteousness.  Specifically, Jesus says that the scribes "devour widow's houses." A few verses later, Jesus and the disciples see a widow placing two copper coins in the temple treasury, which is all the wealth that she had.  Jesus then remarks that, comparatively speaking, the widow has given more than those who given significant sums.

Ironically, the story of the widow's mite is used most commonly on Stewardship Sunday in American churches.  The story is read to mean that we are called to give a huge proportion of our wealth, in the same way as the widow; in other words, the widow is held up as a model of giving that we are called to emulate.

Such a reading of the story ignores two important things: (1) Jesus just spent several verses talking about the corruption of the scribes, and thereby the Jewish religious establishment; (2) Jesus makes no statement suggesting that the widow was wise, righteous, or should be emulated.

The widow is not a paragon of virtue that we are being called to emulate.  She is actually very tragic figure; the tiny amount of money that she had to give is going to be given to the temple, and thereby, to the scribes.  This story is not even about the widow or about giving.  Its about self-awareness, or the scribes' lack of it.  And the terrible horrific tragedy that results by the lack of it.

All of us who seek to live under the Lordship of Christ can do enormous good in this world.  We can also, without awareness of our sin and narcissism, do terrible things, like create and maintains systems that result in widow's giving what little they have to subsidize the scribes' "flowing robes." Jesus' message is awareness, awareness, awareness.

A God of Radical Inclusion

In ancient Israel, if you were physically impaired, it was believed that this was due to either your own sin or the sin of your parents or even ancestors.  The impact of a significant physical impairment in the ancient world was not only the impact on your ability to work and engage in other day to day activities, but exclusion from the community itself.  If it was believed that God was punishing you or your family, through your impairment, then it was considered righteous to participate in God's punishment and exclusion.

By healing the sick and the blind, Jesus, as the one in whom God was revealed, rendered this entire way of perceiving the impaired.  If Jesus revealed God's will, and if God was punishing the impaired, then the impaired would not have been healed because it would have removed a divinely brought punishment.  On a more broader level, Jesus was destroying the very underlying understanding of God's nature.  Rather than being a God of exclusion, God was one of radical inclusion.  God's will was to bring those outside the community into the community.

The God who is reflected in the Church should be a God whose business is always to seek inclusion rather than exclusion.  This is not to suggest that God does not demand holiness and righteousness; only that God's desire is to create a mechanism for the unholy and unrighteous to become holy and righteous through participation in the Body of Christ, the Church.  And that means that we, as part of the Church universal, should be about the business of including, reflecting the nature of the God who seeks nothing but inclusion.

Becoming Like Little Children

Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we will never enter the Kingdom of God

As always, our reading of the text is clouded by our own perception of children, which was very different than the perception of children in the ancient Middle East.  Children were regarded, even until very recent times in Western culture, in a very negative light.  They were, at best, seen as a burden, since they couldn't yet produce anything (i.e. they would work in the fields, but required more food than what their own labor produced).  At worst, they were regarded as sinful and depraved.

Today, when we hear that we must become like "little children," we assume that this means we must become pure, trusting, and joyful, since these are the qualities that we ourselves associate with children.  This association would have been incomprehensible to an ancient audience.

With the ancient perception of children in mind, the meaning of the text is revealed.  In order to be part of God's Kingdom, living under the Lordship of Christ, we must recognize that God chooses to allow us to be part of His Kingdom not through our own merit or through what we ourselves "produce," but solely due to God's infinite grace.  If we think that God is choosing to enter into relationship with us because we meet some standard of righteousness, we miss the very heart of what God's Kingdom is about, and we will never truly see it, and thereby never enter it

Having Salt Within Ourselves

Jesus tells his listeners in Mark's gospel that they must have salt within themselves in order to live in peace with themselves and with each other.

Salt is used today primarily to season food.  In ancient times is was used primarily in religious ritual.  In Jewish tradition, salt was used most prominently in rituals that emphasized Israel's covenant relationship with God; salt was added to the ritual bread on the Sabbath to season it.  Consequently, salt became associated with the need for Israel to celebrate and cultivate a deep relationship with their creator and covenant God in order to live peacefully with themselves and with each other.

There is enormous violence today.  We are abusive to ourselves, failing to forgive ourselves and punishing ourselves for our perceived failings.  We are abusive to each other, which is often nothing more than a projection of our own self hatred.  The nations of the world are abusive to each other.  All this abuse and violence has its heart in the lack of peace within ourselves.  If there is peace within ourselves, then our relationships will be peaceful, and the world is filled with those who are at peace within themselves, there will be peace on earth.

The key to peace is to have salt within ourselves.  In our hearts, to cultivate a deep relationship with God and to enter into covenant with Him as he was revealed in Christ, living under the Lordship of Christ and following his example. 

Why Jesus Went to Jerusalem

Jesus and Peter have an argument in Mark's gospel when Jesus tells Peter that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be executed.  Peter tells Jesus not to go.  Jesus rebukes Peter and emphasizes the necessity of his sacrifice in Jerusalem.

Jesus and Peter's dispute, boiled down to its essence, is really a dispute about the relative valuation that they place on life in this world.  Many of those in Jewish culture in Jesus' day did not believe in an afterlife.  If someone held to this belief, this would naturally lead to a relative high valuation of life in this world (i.e. if this life is all that there is, then this life has enormous value and significance).  Similarly, if one believed in the eternity of the soul and that this life was, in contrast, only a fraction of an instant in that eternity, then the way that we perceive the value of this life radically changes.

Today, materialism is fast becoming the prevailing worldview in Western culture; the belief that this physical universe is all that there is, and that we are, literally, our bodies, and that consequently, when our bodies die, that is it.  Materialism, like other ideologies, has a way of finding its way into the belief system of the Church without the Church realizing that it is finding its way in.  For example, we always seem more preoccupied with the state of our physical bodies in Church than our souls; I literally cannot remember the last time that anyone sought prayer for anything besides a physical illness.  In many expressions of Christianity, there is a preoccupation with the accumulation of wealth; even going so far as to suggest that God wants us all to be wealthy.

As always, our example is Jesus.  Seeing through God's eyes, Jesus knew that this life is an instant in our soul's eternity.  Consequently, all that matters in this life is to do what will nurture our souls.  We are eternal spiritual beings having a brief temporary experience in a human vessel.  Our lives should reflect this.

Cultivating the Discipline of Wisdom

Paul, speaking to the Church at Ephesus, told the community that in order to be authentic followers of Christ, they needed to cultivate the discipline of wisdom.  This, Paul explains in his letters, is because the world's wisdom is actually foolishness, but will appear as wisdom.  Similarly, God's wisdom, which is greater than human wisdom, will appear as foolishness to the world.

The cultivation of God's wisdom and the recognition that human wisdom is actually foolishness, is needed because we remain part of the world, and the world's wisdom seems self evident to us.  In ancient Ephesus, this would have been reflected in the Temple of Artemis, considered one of the seven wonders of the world.  The Temple was within sight wherever you stood in Ephesus, just like the wisdom of the Greeks was so imbedded in everyday thought that it was second nature.

To put it very mildly, the importance of cultivating wisdom in the contemporary American Church has been largely forgotten.  The notion that God's wisdom is foolishness to the world is often considered a license in the Christian community to abandon the need to cultivate wisdom.  The opposite is the case: our wisdom must exceed and transcend the wisdom of the world.  This is the whole point of being the Church: gathering for collective worship, prayer, bible study, and good works.  Through being the Church, we see God's wisdom and the foolishness of the world's wisdom.

Israel in the Desert and the Nature of God's Grace

When Israel escaped slavery in Egypt, they traveled through the desert to the land God had promised to Abraham's ancestors.  Along the way, they were concerned about how to sustain themselves during the journey.

God responds to Israel's request by providing manna (bread) and quail for Israel's sustenance during their desert journey.  The biblical writer indicates that Israel literally found bread and quail on the ground when they awoke in the morning.

We normally assume that what is being described is a supernatural event that violates natural law, thereby revealing that it was God's grace towards Israel that brought manna and quail to Israel in the desert.  However, this reading is not supported by what has been experienced by those who have traveled in the same desert for thousands of years.

In the desert of the Sinai peninsula, there is a plant called the Tamarisk plant that emits a crystalline substance that falls to the ground.  It's texture is bread-like and it is edible.  It has been consumed by desert travelers through Sinai for thousands of years.  It is still a source of food today.  Additionally, those who travel through the Sinai peninsula typically find a large number of quail on the ground, exhausted from trying to fly across the desert.  The quail can be easily gathered up and consumed.

The information above is usually used to support the proposition that what the Israelites experienced was not actually God at work, but simply a "natural event" that has been experienced by travelers for thousands of years.  This reading misinterprets the nature of God's grace and God's activity in the world.  God's free and unmerited gifts in this world are given to everyone, just like all travelers through the desert were given these gifts of food to sustain them.  What made Israel God's covenant community was not that they received different gifts than those who were not part of the covenant community, but because they knew where the manna and quail really originated; through the gracious gifts of the God who is the creator of all people.

As the new Israel, the Church, we are not given special treatment, in the sense of being protected from harm or being given wealth or affluence.  We experience loss, suffering, and death, along with joy and love and beauty.  What makes us God's covenant community is our awareness of the source of all things, and a call to proclaim to the world that which is the source of all good things; the God who is the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all things.

Why God Creates Covenant Communities

In the letter from Paul to the Church at Ephesus, Paul addresses the biggest controversy facing the infant first century Church: whether you had to follow "the Law" in order to be a follower of Jesus.  The controversy was usually framed around the issue of whether male converts to Christianity, if Gentile, had to be circumcised.  However, the real crux of the issue was whether Gentile Christians were bound by all the commandments found in the Pentateuch; the first five books of the Bible that formed the basis of Jewish belief and practice.

Paul's short answer was no, which created conflict with most of the earliest leaders of the Church; particularly Peter, who took the opposing view.  Paul's rationale is instructive not only for the ancient community, but for us as well.  For Paul, in Christ, God has created a New Israel; a new covenant community, and what makes the new community "new" is not only an awareness of what God has accomplished in Jesus, but an entirely new covenant; we are no longer parties to the old covenant and are thereby not bound by its terms, including, but not limited to, circumcision.

Paul's answer is also instructive about what why God creates covenant communities.  Both the old and new covenants were designed to make those bound by it holy.  The entire purpose of the law was not to create arbitrary rules, like circumcision, but to create a system of practices that would make Israel holy.  Particularly, to reinforce God's sovereignty over Israel and Israel's submission before God.  The same is true of the new covenant community; the Church.  The Church gets bogged down in the details, when all that really matters is living under the Lordship of Christ; being a holy people who live under God's sovereignty.

Driving God Out of the Village

There is a story in Mark's gospel where Jesus enters his hometown, Nazareth, and the residents reject him.  The Nazarenes simply couldn't believe that the one in whom God was revealed had been in their presence all along; Jesus had grown up with them, his family was still there, including his mother, brothers, and sisters.  Nazareth was also conscious of its insignificance in Israel, not to mention the larger world; Nazareth was little more than a speck on the map; a village of thatched huts and no more than 100-150 residents.

There is a powerful metaphor here that is enormous good news: God is already here in our midst and always has been.  This is God's default position: we don't have to do things to draw God in: God is already here and always has been.

But the bad news is that we also have the free will that enables us to reject God's call and symbolically remove God from the village.  And like Nazareth, there have been systems that have rejected God's call, whether they are nations, families, churches, or communities.  You can easily recognize them, because they are filled with anger, hatred, discord, and abuse.

But even in those places that have rejected God's call, God is still trying to get back in, through showering grace on those who have rejected Him.  Even as God is being thrown out, God's only desire is to reconcile with those who have rejected Him and to get back in the village so that God can continue the work of redemption.  No matter how far a system has abandoned God and is trapped in a cycle of violence and hatred, it is never too late for that system to repent so that God can transform that system and the system can return to what it was meant to be: God's Kingdom of love and light.

The Day of Salvation is Here Already

Paul's advice to the Corinthians in his letters is very good advice for the contemporary American Church as well.  Paul actual wrote at least three letters to the Church at Corinth.  Two have been included in the New Testament.  A third was not canonized and there were probably more.

Paul's advice to the Corinthians is helpful to us because our cultural context is a lot like Corinth.  Christianity was a new religion so most Corinthians were very unfamiliar with it.  The community grew as Paul went about his work, but Christians were competing for attention with other religions; there were also many people in Corinth that didn't practice any religion and didn't see any reason to.

Many of the religions that Christianity competed with promised their adherents relief in the future and in the present from the sufferings that we often experience in this world.  In fact, their sermons would often recite a long list of things that adherents would be protected from.  In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul satirizes this sermon technique by quoting a long list of sufferings himself.  However, rather than stating that the point of Christianity was to keep Christians from experiencing these sufferings now or in the future, Paul made the bold claim that by participating in the suffering of others, as Christ did, we experience salvation here and now. 

The Day of Salvation, that was preached in Judaism as a future event of liberation from bondage to Rome, and that was preached by the religions that Christianity competed with in Corinth as a present and future event where the god of their religion would protect him, is presented by Paul has occurring in the immediate moment when we accept Christ as Lord.  The sufferings don't go away; instead, we obtain victory over them by realizing that in literally entering the sufferings of others, we find salvation for our souls.  By seeking the needs of others, entering into their sufferings, being present with them, we save them and bring salvation to ourselves.

How Satan Casts Out Satan

Jesus poses a riddle to his listeners in the Gospel of Mark: "How Can Satan Cast Out Satan?" The answer to the riddle is that it happens all the time.  In fact, it is one of the fundamental characteristics of human culture.

Satan is translated as the "Diabolos," or the "deceiver." The deceiver, as the name implies, is all about the business of deception.  The Satan's long con in the Church is to convince us that we are doing God's will when we are actually acting in the exact opposite way that God wants.

When wrongdoing or evil is recognized in a community, whether it is within the nation state, the Church, or the family, our propensity is to cast out the evil persons or element and to exclude it.  By doing so, we are acting contrary to the will of God, who entered into the human community with no thought other than our redemption and reconciliation with us.  When God sees evil or wrongdoing in the human community, God seeks to enter into that which is evil and transform it so that it might become good.  Consequently, by casting out that which is evil, the very act of casting out is contrary to God's will.  It is Satan casting out Satan.

The purpose of the Church is not only to be God's conduit to reveal Christ to the world but to retain the practice of casting out those who are not part of the Body of Christ; that is to simply change the subject matter of what is being cast out.  The purpose of the Church is to recognize that in Christ, God changed the way communities are to respond to wrongdoing in their midst; not seeking its exclusion and banishment, but its redemption.

Changing the Game that Religion Plays

Stories in the gospels were remembered, recorded, and eventually reduced to writing because they represented something important for the community.  Often the stories became representative of something greater than the story itself.

In the Second Chapter of Acts, the disciples begin speaking in many languages, and the visitors to Jerusalem, gathered from throughout the known world, begin hearing the disciples, although Galilean, speaking to them in their own language.  Herein lay a fundamental premise of what the Church understood about itself and its nature, and how it distinguished itself from what came before it.

In the ancient world, religion was literally about the practice of exclusion.  That is, the community created rituals, practices, and beliefs to distinguish itself from what was outside the community.  The rituals and practices themselves allowed the community to define itself.  Whenever there was someone or an element within the community that acted contrary to the rules and practices of the community, the community excluded and cast out the person or element that violated the community's practice.

The Second Chapter of Acts evoked the earlier story of Babel, when the peoples of the earth were symbolically scattered; they began speaking different languages.  In the Second Chapter of Acts, the opposite occurs; the people of the earth are drawn together.  The God who was thought to be the one who scatters is revealed to be instead the God who gathers together.

God's vision, the new salvation history, was not to simply create a new chosen people with a new set of beliefs and practices centered in Christ, but instead to change the very understanding of religiosity as the business of casting out and exclusion.  In Christ, God became the one who was excluded to change our perception of the excluded.  Now, the role of the community is not to cast out those who have violated the terms and practices of the community, but to always seek to gather, as God's will is always the redemption of the fallen and lost.  The Church is called to be the community whose every motivation is to gather together so that the entire world might find redemption.

Singing a New Song to the Lord

The Psalmist encourages us to sing a new song to the Lord.  There is a lot that we can learn about discipleship and about God solely through this single phrase in Psalm 98

The metaphor of the believer as songwriter itself is instructive.  The metaphor could be tax accountant and the believer could be encouraged to create for the Lord a new tax shelter.  Songwriting is fun, joyful, and exciting.  It requires enormous creativity and insight.  God wants our discipleship to be like this.

And God wants us to sing a new song, rather than sing the songs that we have sung before.  God loves new expressions of discipleship; new ways of being God's people.  God wants the Church to be a living, organic thing filled filled with excitement and wonder

To put it mildly, the Church often acts exactly the opposite of the image of discipleship that is suggested by the Psalmist.  We make discipleship about as exciting as the creation of a new tax shelter.  Rather than celebrate new ways of being God's people, we stick to the old.  We are terrified of change and want things to stay the same.

Being Easter People means that we understand the nature of the God in whom we believe and have our Being, and then model ourselves after this God.  God is a God of endless creativity; a God whose nature is unchanging, but God's unchanging nature is to incessantly create something new.

Becoming Unblemished Lambs For God

The covenant between God and Israel that is codified primarily in Leviticus and Deuteronomy consists of both ethical commands and ritual sacrifice.  The most important sacrifice was the sacrifice of a lamb for the purpose of atonement, or restoring relationship between God and Israel.  When the relationship between Israel and God was broken, it was Israel that was the breaching party.  Consequently, restoring relationship was really about God offering Israel redemption. 

God commands Israel in the Hebrew Bible to only sacrifice animals without blemish, and this is true of the lambs that were sacrificed.  In fact, particular lambs were cultivated with particular care in the hope that they would be suitable for sacrifice.  The task of the shepherd was to ensure that lambs were raised so that they could become the instrument of reconciliation between God and Israel.

As the Lamb of God, Jesus acted as the instrument of God's reconciliation of the whole world.  Similarly, we are described as the sheep of Jesus' sheepfold.  Consequently, God pours His grace upon us so that we can become God's instruments of facilitating the reconciliation and redemption of the world.  God's intent for us is not that we would be protected from harm, but that we would be God's agent in the redemption of the world.  Through the Church, we seek God's sanctifying grace so that we might become unblemished lambs suitable to be God's agents in the world.

God Turns the Sacrificial System Upside Down

In the ancient world, religious practice centered on ritual sacrifice.  The central purpose of the sacrificial system was to effect reconciliation between the believer and the god in whom they believed when the believer had engaged in some act or omission that violated the relationship between them.  In this system, the believer is the active participant and the god the passive participant; the believer is presenting their offering to god in the hope that god would accept their offering and thereby reconcile with the believer.

In the resurrection of Christ, God turned the sacrificial system upside down.  The image of Jesus as the Lamb of God was deeply evocative for the disciples and other earliest followers of Jesus: lambs without blemish were sacrificed to bring about reconciliation between God and Israel when Israel had violated their covenant relationship with God.  But now it is God who offers up a sacrifice, Jesus, to the world, to bring about the redemption of the world and the reconciliation of the world with God.  In Jesus, God does what God ultimately did not demand of Abraham in the story of Abraham and his son Isaac.

Before we have the capacity to know God, or even speak God's name, God has already begun a good work in us in the hope that we will turn to God and enter into relationship with Him.  And when we sin, God remains willing to forgive and let the reconciliation effected in Christ be manifest in His relationship with us.

The Behavior of the Crowd During Holy Week

Today begins Holy Week, which culminates in the celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Holy Week takes up a significant portion of all four canonized gospels.  This is particularly true of the Gospel of Mark, which has been described as the period of Holy Week with an extended introduction.

There are a number of characters that play a role during Holy Week.  There are the obvious major characters of Jesus, the disciples, Pilate, the Roman military, and the Jewish religious establishment.  But one of the most interesting characters in the story is what can be called the "crowd." The crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowd that is given the choice between executing Jesus and Barabbas, and the crowd that witnesses the crucifixion.

It is very likely that the "crowd" in all three of these scenes is composed of many of the same persons.  The population of Jerusalem swelled during Passover, but the city was still small by modern standards, both in terms of physical size of the city itself, and the size of the population.

The "crowd" has a personality, just like the other characters in the story.  Most importantly, the crowd is easily swayed by popular opinion and the powers that be.  The crowd welcomed Jesus into the city, probably because of the rumors that they had heard that Jesus was the Messiah, which led them to perceive him as someone who would initiate a military coup.  That same crowd gathers to watch Jesus overturn the tables of the money changes.  The crowd then follows along as the trial and crucifixion of Jesus are brought about by the Roman government and Jewish religious establishment.

There are two lessons that we learn from this character in the story.  The first is the danger of automatically conforming to the behavior of the majority.  This story reveals that the crowd lacks wisdom, discernment, and courage.  Second, as those who are called to live according to the example of Christ, we must not be swayed by what the "crowd" thinks of us.  If we are faithful to God's call, we may be called to act in a way that is contrary to the crowd.  We must accept the fact that the crowd will not like us very much.  All that matters is following God's will.

The Reward for Belief

The gospel reading in this week's lectionary contains the most well known biblical verse in Protestant Christianity: John 3.16.  This provides an opportunity to carefully examine the way that this text is presently read, and whether this reading is correct.

As interpreted in contemporary Protestant Christianity, the text means that if we think that a set of abstract principles about Jesus are true, we will not be punished in the afterlife, but will instead go to heaven.

This reading of John 3.16 can be challenged by considering the significance of three words in the verse: "believe", "everlasting life," and "world." Let's start with "believe." In its Greek context, the word does not mean that we think that a set of principles is true.  Instead, the word is indicative of following and trusting.  "Believing" in Christ means that we will recognize him as Lord and live our lives according to his example, living a life of sacrifice, mercy, and compassion.

The word "everlasting life" does not refer to something that is found in the future, but something that is already present.  The word has strong correlations to the Jewish notion of time as divided between two ages; the present age of darkness, and the age to come, when the Reign of God would be revealed. 

The word "world," from the Greek kosmos, is best translated as "domination system." It does not refer to the planet, or even the people who inhabit the planet, but the system by which human culture operates, exemplified in Jesus' time by Rome.  Human culture is based upon violence, destruction, and hatred.

When we put these understandings of "believe," "eternal life," and "world" together, we arrive at a very different reading of John 3.16.  God loves the world, despite the world's darkness.  And into the darkness of the world, God sent His Son, who exemplified sacrificial love for the world, despite its darkness.  And if we recognize Jesus as Lord and follow in his steps, living lives of sacrificial love for the world despite its darkness, we will experience God's age right here and now.  We will recognize that God's presence is already here, in us and in the world.  And in each other.  And we will recognize that if we live as God's people, we will remain in God's presence and live in God's reign now and forever.

Carrying God's Light Forward

Today is Transfiguration Sunday in the liturgical year, which ends the season of Epiphany.  Transfiguration Sunday focuses upon the gospel story where the disciples see a vision of Jesus upon a mountain, with Elijah on one side and Moses on the other.

It is normally thought that the vision means that Jesus is being compared to Moses and Elijah.  Seen in the light of the gospels and the New Testament as a whole, Jesus is actually being contrasted with them, or more particularly, what Elijah and Moses had come to represent.  Elijah, for Israel during Jesus' day, was representative of Israelite triumphalism and a desire for vengeance; the notion that being God's chosen people mean that Israel was superior to Rome and that God would bring vengeance upon Israel's enemies.  Moses, for Israel, was the one who brought the law, which, in Jesus' day, had become associated with the rote following of rules and regulations.

By being both compared and contrasted with Elijah and Moses, Jesus reveals the nature of the Church, as the new Israel, and the nature of the light that the Church is called to reflect.  The Church, as the new Israel, is not a community of arrogance which seeks vengeance upon our enemies.  We seek reconciliation with our enemies.  And we are not called to be a community that proof texts; where the law becomes our God.  The law of God is written upon our hearts and minds and we are guided by the directives of God's Spirit.

The season of Epiphany celebrates God's light that has come into the world in Jesus.  The story of the transfiguration reveals the nature of the light that we are called to reflect as the new Israel, the Church

Lessons from Corinth

The Epistle lesson this week is a text from Paul's first letter to the Church in Corinth, addressing a controversy facing the infant Christian community.

Ancient Corinth, like other cities in the Roman world, had become very diverse culturally, and all the cultures that arrived at Corinth brought their local religions.  Virtually all ancient religions centered in perpetual ritual sacrifice.  There were sacrifices for everything, to mark occasions, to seek intercession, to ask for forgiveness.  And most of these sacrifices involved food.  Once the sacrifice was over, the food was sold in the market, marked down.

Here was the issue facing the Church in Corinth: was it proper to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols? Did this constitute idolatry? Paul's advised the Corinthian Church that it was not improper, because the gods of other religions were not real, so the sacrifices were actually not being made to anything, and it was thereby not improper.  However, Paul also advised the more mature Corinthian Christians not to eat the food that had been sacrificed to idols, because it might cause the new members of the community to become confused: in virtually all ancient religions, it was believed that you could practice more than one religion.  Therefore, Paul reasoned, if the new members of the community that were still being acclimated to what discipleship was all about saw the mature members of the community eating food sacrificed to idols, this might confuse them and lead them to believe that the mature members of the community practiced other religions.

The lesson for the contemporary Church doesn't lie in Paul's answer to the theological question itself.  The worship of other gods and food sacrifices vanished thousands of years ago.  The lesson lies in the fact that Paul says that there is something more important than disciples having the right answer: the impact on the Church as a community.  What is implicit in Paul's response to Corinth is that the collective holiness and spiritual growth of the community matters more than individual disciples in Corinth knowing the right answer.

The Church today has largely become relegated to a place where individuals go to get right answers to questions and then go back into their individual lives throughout the week to apply the right answer.  Paul says that the Church is a community, rather than a collection of individual believes.  And as a community, what is best for the community trumps the welfare of the individual.  This is necessary for the Church to fulfill the great commission; for those already within the community to become holy, and for those outside the Church to be brought within.

The Meaning of True Holiness

A passage from the Book of Jonah is the Hebrew Bible lesson in this week's lectionary.  This is one of the books of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible that tells the story of God calling Jonah to prophesy to Nineveh.  Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, located on the bank of the Tigris River.  The Assyrian Empire was greatly feared by the nations that it conquered.  Unlike other empires that sought to maintain good will with its subject peoples, the Assyrians didn't hesitate to burn any bridges.  The Assyrians epitomized evil in the eyes of Israel.

It is very surprising, given who the Assyrians were, that they immediately repent.  The Assyrians because the very unlikely heroes of the Book of Jonah.  Jonah, similarly, becomes the unlikely villain.  Rather than given thanks that the Assyrians have repented, Jonah is angry when God chooses not to punish the Assyrians.  Earlier in the book, Jonah also rejects God's call, and only responds to God's call with great reluctance.

The Book of Jonah is traditionally recited on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.  It is the day when Israel collectively seeks atonement and forgiveness.  In reciting the story of Jonah, Israel sees itself through the perspective of Jonah rather than Assyria.  True repentance begins with acknowledging our need for repentance.  Jonah is portrayed in the story as an unholy mess who is mysteriously called by God to a great and monumental task.  The same was true of Israel.  Israel was an unholy mess, just like the rest of the world.  Israel was a chosen people not because of its righteousness, but because God had mysteriously chosen to enter into covenant relationship with Israel.

Like Jonah, we are an unholy mess.  God has chosen to enter into relationship with us not because we became righteous enough, but because we are an unholy mess.  The Christian Church in American often displays an arrogance and a self congratulatory attitude towards itself, and a judgmental attitude towards the rest of the world.  We need to perpetually repent and turn to God for forgiveness.  In order to do so, we must be cognizant of ourselves as an unholy mess.  Ironically, when we acknowledge our unholiness, we can most effectively seek to be holy. 

The Discipline of Letting Go of Control

Its funny when we tell someone that we think they have "control issues." Its a bit like accusing someone of breathing oxygen or inhabiting the planet Earth.  We all have control issues.  It is something that is intrinsic to being human.

Choosing to take upon ourselves the mantle of discipleship means that we will discipline ourselves to work on our control issues.  Choosing to follow Jesus requires being baptized by water and the Spirit.  The word Spirit in its Greek context was closely linked to the word for "wind." Think about discipleship like this: we are required to give up the need to use a rudder, and instead simply head out onto the seas and allow ourselves to be taken where the wind takes us.  God has a specific plan for us that might fly directly in the face of the plan that we have for ourselves.  Being a disciple is not about having a better ship to get where we are going.  Its all about getting rid of the rudder.

A subtle but very significant trend in Christianity today is that the Church has begun to frame discipleship into a mechanism to bring about our fulfillment; in marriage, our vocation, our finances, etc.  Expensive seminars and books are offered about how God can make us financially successful, to have a stronger marriage, and to be fulfilled.  This is not the right approach.  God is not our agent to give us what we want.  God calls us to give up the things that we want so that God can transform us and lead us to those places where we can most effectively bring about God's purposes.  Very likely, these are places where we would choose not to go.

Acknowledging our Adoption

Paul says in the fourth chapter of in his letter to the Galatians that Christ freed us from the law and revealed that we are all the adopted children of God.  The "law" referred to the Mosaic code; the lengthy regulations and rules that were required for proper Jewish belief and practice.

The meaning of Paul's statement about the law and adoption is best understood by understanding freedom from the law in the context of a statement that Paul makes in Galatians 3.13.  Here, Paul says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, and references a text in Deuteronomy: cursed is everyone that hangs from a tree.

In Jesus' day, Israel perceived the law as a mechanism to gain God's favor; to be adopted by God and considered God's people.  Paul says that the law itself was not a curse--the problem was not the Mosaic code but Israel's perception of it and why they followed it.  In fact, Paul perceived the early Christian community as having Jewish and Gentile Christians side by side; Gentile Christians having freedom not to practice the requirements of the law and Jewish Christians having freedom to continue to practice it.

Being hung from a tree rendered someone defiled under the Mosaic law.  By being crucified on a tree, Paul argues, God freed Israel from its perception that the law was needed in order to be God's children.  Israel could never again say that the law was required to be accepted by God, because God in Jesus Himself would thereby be considered unclean.

Israel had gotten things backwards.  God did not bring the Mosaic law to Israel to create hoops for Israel to jump through in order to be adopted as God's children.  Before the law came into being, God chose Israel has His covenant people.  The law was a mechanism for Israel to be reminded of its adoption and to live in accordance with its status as God's covenant people.

We often get things backwards in the Protestant tradition as well.  We think that in order to be adopted as God's children, we too have to jump through hoops.  Too often in the Protestant tradition there is an implied theological understanding that in order to become God's people, we are required to have an emotional experience where we suddenly believe a set of abstract principles about Jesus, and then profess our belief in this set of abstract principles.  At this point, we are then adopted as God's children.

The entire human race is already adopted as God's children.  When we accept Christ as Lord, we do not become God's children.  Instead, we come to understand, acknowledge, and profess that we were always God's children.  We then begin to learn to live our lives as if we believe that we are adopted as God's children.

The Necessity of Baptism by Fire

At the beginning of Mark's gospel, John the Baptist says that the one who will come after him, Jesus, will baptize with fire.

The word baptize in its Greek context means "to submerge." John is telling us that if we choose to live according to the example of Christ, we will be "submerged" in fire.

We typically associate fire today with destruction, but in Jesus' day, fire was primarily associated with healing, restoration, and purification.  In the era before modern medicine, fire was used to heal wounds.  Fire was used to purify materials.  Fire was commonly used in connection with religious rituals to signify renewal and restoration.

God's agenda is not to destroy us, because God has important work for us to accomplish.  God needs our hearts and minds to be purified and healed of all our impurities so that we can be the people that God needs us to be to accomplish God's purposes: the redemption and transformation of the world.  To accomplish God's purposes, God cannot take use us as we are: God must take us out of the world and purify us so that we can then be in the world to fulfill the Great Commission.

God's mechanism for transformation is the Church, the community that seeks to live according to the example of Christ.  The Church exists as the conduit through which disciples are made; where our impurities and imperfections are removed so that we can be empowered to go back into the world to transform the world.

The Church too often seeks to accommodate human culture and to give us the things that human culture tells us are important.  If the Church is being faithful to its purpose, it will transform us so that we can see that our preoccupation with the concerns of human culture; of materials possessions and success, is a manifestation of our impurity.  If we are baptized by fire, we will see ourselves in Pauline terms as in the world but not of the world because we will see the world for what it is as we will also see God's plan for what it needs to be.

The Immeasurable Riches of the Church

When writing his letter to the Church at Ephesus, Paul tells the community that they share in the immeasurable riches and glory of God, both in the present, and in the future.  The Ephesians, like other people in the Mediterranean world, had a very distinct idea of what "glory and riches" were: material possessions, important titles, the acquisition of land, etc.  The Ephesians knew that they did not have "glory and riches" now, so they would have been perplexed at Paul's statement.

Paul explains to the Ephesians that the "immeasurable riches and glory" of God are not like Rome multiplied by 1000, but instead, that through becoming holy and taking upon themselves the mind of Christ, the Ephesians would come to understand the meaning of "immeasurable riches and glory" differently than Rome.  They would understand that what Rome considered to be riches and glory didn't mean anything, and that it would all fall away.  The immeasurable riches and glory of God are intangible: simplicity, compassion, honesty, honor, frugality, etc.

As always, we look to Christ as our model.  God, in Christ, could have had the immeasurable riches and glory of Rome times 1000, but chose to live a simply life as an itinerant preacher.  If God is unchangeable and eternal, then it simply doesn't make any sense that God would literally have immeasurable riches and glory according to the world's understandings in the world to come if God did not have them when God was revealed here on earth.  Any images of God and of Jesus demonstrating immeasurable glory and riches in Rome's image must be understood as Paul intended: as ironic metaphor.

By living holy lives we find immeasurable riches and glory beyond anything that Rome could comprehend.  As the Church, we can experience this now, and in the world to come.

Holiness as One Big Party

We are at the end of the Season after Pentecost.  Christ the King Sunday comes next, followed by the start of another liturgical year with Advent on November 30.  It is fitting that we end this season of the year when we explore what it means to live under the Lordship of Christ with the parable of the wedding banquet

Jesus uses a metaphor of a wedding banquet to give us a vision about what it means to live eternally under the Lordship of Christ.  This parable is usually understood to refer only to the end times, but as is the case in most such texts that are generally given a narrow apocalyptic reading, they are meant to convey a broader message about what it means to live as God's people in this world, in the next, and in the final consummation of things.

The choice of a wedding banquet as metaphor is striking.  A wedding banquet, in the ancient near east, was an occasion of crazy boisterous fun.  It was an "Animal House" style party, togas and Louie Louie and all.  It was the opposite of a metaphor that would describe the contemporary church's understanding of sanctification and holiness.  We tend to think of holiness as denying what will truly make us joyful in order to avoid punishment in the future.  I think a visit to the dentist for a root canal would be an appropriate metaphor today, no offense to those in the dental profession.

But here is the twist: what the world thinks will bring us joy and crazy fun (i.e. Animal House), is the exact opposite of what actually does.  In fact, it does nothing more than give us a headache when we wake up in the morning.  The "wisdom" of the world is nothing but foolishness to God.  What truly brings us joy and fulfillment in this world is the exact opposite of what we think it does.  What brings us joy and fulfillment is true holiness.

The greatest news on this Sunday of the liturgical year when we read Matthew's account of Jesus giving us this remarkable metaphor of living under the Lordship of Christ is that it reveals that the God of all eternity, who created and sustains all things, wants our lives now and in the world to come to be filled with absolute crazy fun.  Crazy fun that never ends.

Moving from Justification to Sanctification

The Gospel of Matthew contains an image of God's judgment.  Those who are judged righteous, symbolized by sheep, are characterized as having engaged in acts of mercy; clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and visiting the prisoner.  Those who are deemed unrighteous, symbolized by goats, are deemed unrighteous because they have not done these things.

This text is typically interpreted in a moralistic manner and as a code of ethics (i.e. a list of things that disciples should do).  I think this type of reading misses the point of the story.  In the story, the righteous and the unrighteous are being judged without having had access to this story that tells them what to do and what not to do.  They have not been told this story and put on notice of what is expected of them because they are characters in the story.

This story is not giving us a code of ethics.  Rather, the acts that distinguish the righteous from the unrighteous are given as examples of the things that the righteous will naturally do, and the unrighteous will naturally not do.  In the ancient near east, sheep were considered to have a good nature, and goats were considered to have an evil nature.  Those with a good nature naturally do things consistent with their nature, and those with an evil nature naturally do things consistent with their nature.

In the Wesleyan tradition, the good news is that we believe in the principle of sanctifying grace: we see conversion as a gradual process that begins with the moment of justification; when we choose to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and live a life imitating him.  Justification begins a lifelong process of trying to change our nature.  When our nature is changed, it will be our natural proclivity to engage in the type of acts that are described in this story: we don't have to be given an exhaustive list of things to do; we don't have to be told how often to do them.  We just do them naturally because it is our nature to do them.

God's Gift of Free Will

Matthew's gospel contains a parable where a landowner leases a vineyard to tenants.  This was a common practice in the ancient world.  The tenants would produce product for the owner, and the owner would periodically send agents to collect his profit.  The tenants would be given a small amount of the profit in return for their labor.

In the parable, the landowner's tenants kill the agent who is sent to collect the profits and keep the profits for themselves.  This was highly unusual, but not unheard of in the ancient world.  The landowner would obviously respond by replacing the tenants, and the tenants would obviously flee after their criminal actions.  If the tenants were caught, they would be put to death.

What is shocking about the parable is that the landowner continues to do business with the tenants, even though the tenants continue to murder the agents that are sent by the landowner.

God is the landowner and human beings are the tenants.  We have been given free will, and we have done terrible things to ourselves, each other, and to God's creation.  We often do the most damage while we think that we are acting in God's name.  Despite this, God continues to be in relationship with us. 

The message of the parable is for us to truly face ourselves and who we are.  The parable was directed to the religious authorities of Jesus' day.  Like the religious people of our own culture and of other cultures, it can be more difficult for us to see the damage that we do.  We have the capacity to be holy, but to be the people that God wants us to be, we must always acknowledge the damage that we continue to do as the tenant's of the landowner's vineyard.

Placing God in the Parable of the Day Laborers

The Gospel of Matthew contains a parable where the Kingdom of God is compared to a wealthy landowner who hires day laborers to work in his vineyard.  Some of the workers are hired first thing in the morning, some later in the day, and some late in the afternoon.  The landowner pays the same wage to all the workers, which upsets those who have been working all day.  The landowner points out that the daily wage was agreed upon at the end of the day, and that none of the day laborers have any reason to complain.

Sermons on this parable normally identify the landowner with God, and the workers with those who are disciples.  The typical reading of the parable is that disciples who spend their lives serving God will receive the same prize as those who do not make a profession of faith until late in life.

The parable can also be read as autobiographical, with God, in Jesus as one of the day laborers, particularly those who are chosen at the end of the day.  It is extremely likely that Jesus, his father Joseph, and Jesus' brothers would have spent their days as day laborers.  We typically understand that Jesus was a carpenter.  Scholarship suggests that the word normally translated as "carpenter" is better translated to a modern audience as "builder." Builders were those who spent days laboring on building projects for the wealthy.  It is also very likely that Jesus and his family did this work in the town of Sepphoris, a Hellenized city located within walking distance of Nazareth.

Jesus says that the meaning of the parable is that in the Kingdom of God, the last shall be first and the first shall be last.  God, in Jesus, became the servant of all people.  God was revealed as a day laborer who would not have been given a second look by the rich and sophisticated population of Sepphoris, to show the world that the Spirit of God resides in all people.  Living in the Kingdom of God means that we will see God in ourselves, and in all people.

What We Want and What We Need

What we want is almost always the opposite of what we need.  This is true when it comes to just about everything.  The foods that we want; that taste good and bring us comfort are not the foods that we need for our bodies to be healthy.  When we want a new television and we don't have the cash, we want to make the purchase immediately on a credit card rather than save up the money first.  At the workplace, when we have something that we don't want to do, we put it at the bottom of our to do list for the day.

This is also true when it comes to our discipleship.  What we want is an image of God whose primary concern is our comfort, happiness, and material wealth.  And we want a Church that reflects this; a community that helps us be comfortable, happy, and materially successful.  And we see the goal of the Church as facilitating our eternal happiness; telling us what to do to be comfortable and to avoid punishment in the afterlife.

Paul says that this is the opposite of authentic discipleship.  Discipleship; following after the example of Christ and reflecting Christ in our belief and practice, means that we live as the servant of all people and that we place others' needs above our own needs. 

This is reflected in Paul's letter to the Philippians, where Paul quotes an early Christian hymn that appears to have been a predominant profession of faith in the early Church.  The confession states that we are to seek the mind of Christ, who was formed in the image of God, but intentionally chose to live as the servant of all people.  God's only thought in Christ was the redemption of the world.  Our only thought should be service to others.  Just like everything else in life, what is best for our souls is the exact opposite of what we immediately want.

The Demands of Agape Love

Paul took conventional Jewish religiosity and stripped it down to what he considered its fundamentals.  Many of the earliest disciples were Jews who continued to practice the ancient traditions that are defined in the Hebrew Bible, such as dietary restrictions and purity laws.  Paul said that these things don't matter.  The sole requirement of the follower of Jesus is to love one another.

On the surface, this sounds trite.  This is only due to our culture's watered down trivialization of the term "love." In Paul's Greek language, there were several terms that fell within the meaning of the English word "love." These included philia, eros, and agape.  Philia is what we think of today as devotion and adherence to those who are like us.  Agape is the most challenging form of love, and it is the term that Paul uses when he says that we are called to love one another.

Agape can be considered love of the stranger, the alien, and even the enemy.  Agape means devotion and concern for those who are strangers to us.  Paul looked around him and saw hatred, anger, and violence, all stemming from humanity's unwillingness to practice agape love.

The basis for our ethos as followers of Jesus should always be concern and devotion for the stranger, because in doing so, we are emulating God, who sought our salvation when we were strangers to God and lost in sin.

Changing our Perception of Death

The ancient Middle East was terrified of death.  Death was often represented in the ancient Middle East through unstable waters, like floods.  Most Middle Eastern cultures had stories of great floods that resulted in death and destruction.  Middle Eastern cultures developed rituals to placate the gods and powers that they thought were responsible for death.  Mythologies arose that attempted to explain the nature and significance of what lay beyond this world.

Our culture is terrified of death too.  We respond in different ways than in the ancient world, but we remain terrified of death.  We try to deny the aging process with medical procedures.  We romanticize youth and health.

In the Christian tradition, through the resurrection of Christ, we know the truth about death that the world does not know.  We know that death is not a monster to be fought or to be feared, because it has no power over us.  Death, in the sense of being perceived as an end and termination of existence, is an illusion.  What we perceive as death is simply a transition from one form of existence to another.  We are eternal beings whose existence does not end.  It just changes.

The early Christian community saw this changed perception of death revealed in symbolic form in the story of Jesus calming the storm when the disciples were trapped in a boat.  As ancient people, there was nothing so terrifying as unstable water.  Jesus revealed to the disciples that God controls the waters, and symbolically, death.  We are God's people now living under God's dominion, and when we pass from this world, we will remain God's people living under God's dominion.  We don't have anything to fear.

God's Hidden Creative Power

One of the most fundamental characteristics of the parables is that they are set in a specifically non religious context.  Another characteristic is that the content of the parables seem ordinary and mundane (e.g. a sower sowing seed, a women in search of a lost coin, and a women baking bread). 

This weeks' gospel lesson contains a recitation of a number of very short parables.  Most of them consist of only one verse of text.  One of the parables describes the Kingdom of God as analogous to a women baking bread.  It is hard to imagine a context that is less obviously religious and more mundane.  Women in ancient Israel were, literally and figuratively invisible.  They were prohibited from appearing in public in most contexts and were excluded from virtually all positions of power and authority.  They literally had no voice.  The women baking the bread would have been hidden and unseen.

Despite the fact that no one would have actually seen the women baking the bread and would not have given her a second thought, the women is creating enough food to feed an entire village (i.e. three measures of flour).  Additionally, the very act of leavening is something that takes place through a hidden agent.  A small amount of leavening dough was added to the flour to make it rise and the leavening dough was literally hidden in the flour.  To the casual observer, the agent that created the bread that fed the village would have been invisible.

God is the creator of all things.  And God is hidden from our eyes.  God is the creative power behind all things, even the creative power behind the things that cannot say God's name, and the creative power behind the creative endeavors of human beings who either refuse to acknowledge God or who do not know God.  God slowly and imperceptibly brings life to the world.

Removing Our Self Imposed Yokes

A yoke was a wooden crosspiece that was placed around the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that the animals were pulling.  Yokes were also used on human beings who were enslaved or imprisoned to prevent escape and for public humiliation.

Last week in the epistle lesson from Paul's letter to the Romans, Paul said that we have two choices: we can either be slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin.  There are, simply, no other choices, and any perception of true autonomy or freedom is an illusion.  This week in Matthew's gospel, Jesus echoes Paul's position in the letter to Romans by stating that God's yoke is easy and his burden is light. 

The idea of an "easy and light" yoke cuts against the very notion of having a yoke.  But consistent with Paul's understanding of our choice of being slaves to sin or righteousness, what is implicit in Jesus' statement is that we similarly have a choice to be bound by two yokes: the yokes that we self impose upon ourselves, or the yoke of holiness.

We impose enormous burdens upon ourselves, consciously and unconsciously.  And the foundation of the yoke that we place on ourselves is grounded in our mistaken understanding of what we are.  We are God's children, and are already beings of infinite worth and value.  Forgetting this central assertion of our faith, or not knowing it in the first place, leads to insecurity and the notion that we are fundamentally unworthy and need to achieve something or do something in order to be worthy.  Our perception in our unworthiness then leads us to fear, anger, and self loathing, which adds more weight to the yoke.  Before we know it, we are burdened with an enormous weight that prevents us from living a life of joy and peace.

Jesus says that the solution is to take upon ourselves the yoke of holiness and obedience to God.  The foundation of this yoke is the understanding that we are already the children of God and are persons of infinite worth.  This then leads us to live our lives consistent with this understanding, and to treat others as people of infinite worth, which spreads peace and joy throughout the world.

What the Trinity Reveals about Human Nature

Today is Trinity Sunday in the liturgical year, the day when the nature and significance of the Trinity is recognized and celebrated

The Trinity reveals much about human beings, and unfortunately, it doesn't paint a very positive picture.  The trinity is the Church's theological acknowledgement and affirmation that God is revealed as creator, redeemer, and sustainer, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of the same nature and substance.  That means that whatever Jesus did and said was reflective of the nature of God, because as the redeemer, Jesus and God are One.

If that is true, then let's review how God, in Jesus was perceived and treated by others.  The Romans thought he was a troublemaker and a political dissident.  We know this because he was crucified.  Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution that was reserved for one crime and one crime alone; political sedition.  Jesus would not have been crucified unless he was perceived as someone who was challenging the authority of the Roman state.

The Jewish religious establishment, closely tied with Rome, though that Jesus was irreligious and a blasphemer.  He associated with tax collectors and "sinners".  He did not follow all the Jewish religious rules and practices, such as healing on the Sabbath.  He did not acknowledge the supremacy of Jews over the Samaritans.  Jesus may have been crucified by the Romans, but there was a very close nexus between the Roman culture and its local representative, Pilate, and the Jewish High Priest and religious establishment.  The Romans and Jews both didn't think much of Jesus.

Jesus was rejected and cast out of his hometown, Nazareth.  We are told in Mark's Gospel that even his own brothers and sisters rejected him.  Jesus attracted large crowds due to his miracles and exorcisms, but the same was true of others in the ancient near east who performed similar acts.  There was actually an informally recognized vocation of "wonder workers" who traveled the countryside doing these things. The same crowds quickly turned against him in Jerusalem.

Let's think about what this means: God was uniquely revealed in Jesus.  God is perfectly good and without sin.  In God there is no darkness at all.  And yet God, in Jesus, was identified and treated as a political dissident and trouble maker, irreligious and a blasphemer, was cast out of his own hometown, and even rejected by his brothers and sisters.

I have no doubt that the way that God was treated in the ancient near east is no different than the way that God would have been treated if God was revealed in any time and place.  There is no greater manifestation of human sin than that.  And there is no greater indication about how much we need redemption and salvation.  The Trinity reveals much more than the nature of God.  It reveals the darkness within ourselves and our need for God's grace.

Celebrating the Ascension

Last Thursday was the Celebration of the Ascension in the liturgical year, which is the 40th day after Easter when the Ascension of Christ is acknowledged.

The Ascension used to be read in a way that localized Jesus and God above the earth.  The ancient and medieval Church believed that heaven was literally located in a dome above the earth, and that the story recorded in the gospels of Jesus being "taken up" meant that Jesus was returning to an actual physical location above the earth.

The significance of the Ascension is much deeper and significant than that.  What the story reveals is God's omnipresence and Christ's omnipresence--that the power of God as revealed in Christ cannot be limited to the earth, nor can it be limited in heaven.  Through modern technology, we have explored the skies, and there is no dome of heaven where the medieval Church thought it was.  Rather than seeing this as a challenge to our theology, we should recognize it as an affirmation of God's omnipotence and omnipresence.  God's presence cannot be limited or localized, and God remains revealed on earth as God was revealed on earth in Christ.

Our role as disciples is not to perceive the earth as a place where God is not present, with our goal being to escape to where God is fully present, but rather, to see that God is here with us now, and that we can, through God's power, make God's Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Being the Sheep of God's Pasture

One of the most well known visual depictions of Jesus is the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  Sermons on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd typically associate the sheep (followers of Jesus) with ignorance and helplessness, who need the protection of the Shepherd.  This association of sheep with ignorance is consistent with the way that human beings are metaphorically linked to sheep in contemporary political discourse.

This characterization of followers of Jesus being ignorant and helpless fundamentally misconstrues what it means to be a follower of Jesus, as does understanding the purpose of discipleship as seeking protection from harm.

Jesus is, after all, the Lamb of God, whose sacrifice effected the reconciliation and redemption of the world.  Sheep in ancient Israel were used in religious ritual as instruments of reconciliation between believers and God, and between persons who were estranged.  Similarly, followers of Jesus are cultivated by Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, so that we can become God's instruments of reconciliation.  We are sent, through God's Spirit, out into the world to bring about reconciliation and to proclaim redemption.

Our Encounters with the Risen Christ

Luke's gospel contains a post resurrection story that is not found in any of the other three canonical gospels, which describes two disciples who encounter Jesus on the road.

What most sermons on this text focus on is the fact that the disciples do not recognize Jesus as they walk along the road with him.  It is only at the end of the story, when they invite Jesus to break bread with them, that they recognize him for an instant, after which he disappears.

What I find most remarkable about the story is not that the disciples do not recognize Jesus, but that Jesus does not announce Himself or tell the disciples who he is.  It is the disciples who are given the task of recognizing Jesus.

I think this story was remembered and past down in the early community and included in Luke's gospel because it is paradigmatic of the experience of the early Church.  The earliest Christians expected Jesus to return within their lifetime with great demonstrations of power and glory and inaugurate a new age.  The fact that this did not happen perplexed the early Church.  The early Church was also perplexed that they did not encounter Jesus in a way that was obvious and self evident.  Like the disciples in the story in Luke's gospel, the early Church learned that Christ did not appear to the community in a way that was easily recognizable.  Despite this, the Church also knew that the risen Christ was truly present with them. 

It is the task of the Church to be able to discern the presence of the risen Christ.  Christ is truly present in our lives, but does not announce His presence.  Instead, we must learn to see him.  This is a spiritual discipline that must be practiced and nurtured. 

The Reason Why Thomas Doubted

In one of the most well known post resurrection stories in the gospels, Jesus appears to the disciples when Thomas, one of the twelve, is absent.  Upon returning, Thomas doubts the disciples' claim that Jesus appeared to the disciples, leading to the phrase "doubting Thomas"

We typically assume that what Thomas doubted was the fact that someone could rise from the dead.  This is most likely an incorrect assumption.  In ancient times, most cultures believed that people could rise from the dead.  Thomas himself had witnessed Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

What Thomas doubted was how Jesus could have been raised after suffering death on the cross.  That is, if God truly was revealed in Jesus, it didn't seem to make sense why Jesus would not have revealed his power and glory at the cross, when all of Jerusalem could have witnessed it.  Instead, Jesus' resurrection was witnessed by very few while the crucifixion was a public event.

The fact that the power of God was revealed in the cross is a holy mystery.  The Church is called to live in this mystery and celebrate this mystery.  What appeared to the world to be powerlessness was actually the glory of the God of eternity, who lives only to serve and to die for our salvation and redemption.

What Holy Week Reveals About Human Nature

During the season of Lent, I have emphasized that in order to truly understand the wonder of God's redemptive work revealed in Jesus and the resurrection, we first have to understand and face ourselves, our nature, and our sin, both individual and collective.

Holy Week begins with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and ends with the empty tomb and the resurrection.  From the beginning of Holy Week until the end, the nature of human culture is painfully evident.  The crowds that welcome Jesus at the beginning of the week are manipulated by the powers that be and turn against Jesus by the end of the week.  The encounter with the money changers reveals how the worship of God had become an instrument for greed and monetary gain.  Peter's denial of Jesus reveals our cowardice.  Judas' betrayal.  The crucifixion.  The list of acts and omissions during Holy Week that reveal our darkness and sin goes on and on.

We must understand who we truly are in order to understand who God truly is.  God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness has no limits.  We know this because despite what human nature is, revealed before Holy Week, evident during Holy Week, and revealed in every generation, God is preoccupied with nothing but our redemption and salvation.

The Task of the Church

The task of the Church is the redemption of the world and the salvation of the lost.  The more lost an individual is, the more attention the Church should give to that individual.  And the greatest sin of the Church is the exclusion of those who we deem to be unholy, because it prevents the Church from fulfilling its mission of the redemption of the lost. 

Today many Christian voices speak primarily about exclusion and judgment of those who they deem to be lost in sin.  The only message to those who are deemed to be lost is to confirm that they are lost and fallen.  Part of the task of the Church is to define holiness and right behavior.  But rather than condemning those who are deemed to be lost, the Church should be about the business of seeking the redemption and salvation of the lost by emphasizing that redemption and salvation is available in Jesus.

Think of the Church like a hospital.  The greatest attention in a hospital is given to those who require the most medical assistance.  The medical professionals with the highest level of skill are assigned to the care of the patients who need it most.  By analogy, the Church has become a place that excludes those who need the Church most by simply telling them that they are lost and fallen without balancing that message with the real message of the gospels, which is the message of redemption and salvation.

The Nature of God's Community

God had a plan from the beginning for the redemption and transformation of the world.  The plan is ekklesia.  Ekklesia typically is translated as "Church", but has a much broader and deeper meaning than the way the word "Church" is used in common parlance today (i.e. participation in collective worship).  The word "ekklesia" implies being "drawn out" and "set apart".  God's plan for redemption was first evident in his relationship with Abraham, who was set apart to form a covenant with God and initiate a new community, Israel.  God's plan for redemption was evident in Jesus, who called his followers to be "drawn out" from the world to be holy and set apart.

God's plan of ekklesia is made necessary because the world is fallen and lost in sin.  Ekklesia exists to be in the world to be an alternative to the world's fallenness, for the transformation and redemption of the world.  God's hope is that the ekklesia would reveal God's plan for the world, drawing the world into Ekklesia, making the world the place that God wants it to be.

What underlies God's plan is God's love for the world.  This is why God entered into covenant with Abraham.  This is why God was revealed in Jesus.  God seeks the redemption and restoration of the world because God loves the world.  Ekklesia is called to be in the world to reveal God's love for the world and to show the world what it can be.

What Should Energize and Not Energize the Church

The Sermon on the Mount plays a central role in Matthew's gospel.  Matthew conceptualizes Jesus as the new Moses who has brought into being a new covenant community, the Church, in place of the old covenant between God and Israel.  The Sermon on the Mount mirrors God's revelation to Moses of the law and Moses' communication of the law to Israel.  In the same way that the law delivered by Moses to Israel defined God's covenant relationship with Israel, the Sermon on the Mount defines the new law that governs the Church, dictating how the Church should handle its business internally and externally in its dealings with the world.

The content of the Sermon on Mount has been challenging for Christian communities.  The ethical commands seem extreme and seem to cut directly against society's notions of common sense.  This is particularly true of Jesus' commands with regard to our adversaries.  Jesus says that rather than doing what seems logical and natural to us (i.e. to love our neighbor and hate our enemy), we are called to love our enemies.

 As a way of understanding Jesus' command to love our enemy, Jesus tells us at the end of the section of the Sermon on the Mount where this command is found that the Church is called to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect.  We are called to love our enemies because that is what God does.  When the world was in darkness and we were enemies to God, God died for us.  God, in Jesus, even forgave the Romans who put him up on the cross and in his dying moments, petitioned for their deliverance.

What energizes God is reconciliation, service, and love for everyone, including those who are enemies to God.  We are called to do the same.  Too often the Church mirrors society in the sense of being excited and energized by hating our enemies.  If we are to be God's people, we must never be energized by hatred.  Hatred should exhaust us and make us miserable.  We should be energized and excited by what makes God energized and excited.

The Revelation of a Mystery

Our culture does not like mystery.  We want to have everything figured out, analyzed, and quantified.  If something can't be figured out, analyzed, and quantified, then it must not be real. 

This works well when it comes to airplanes, vacuum cleaners, and global temperatures, but not when it comes to God.  We will never be able to figure out, analyze, and quantify God in the same way that we can categorize the natural world.  God is, and always will be, mysterious to us.  The tragic mistake that is made both in and out of the Church is that if God cannot be figured out with the same methodology that we use to figure out the natural world, that God must not be real.  Those who do not believe in God state as their justification that they cannot see or perceive God in the way that we see or perceive natural objects.  Some Christian voices try to prove God's existence by literal interpretation of biblical stories and then attempt to align those stories with the findings of paleontologists, geologists, and biologists.

Paul said that in Christ, God revealed a holy mystery that was hidden from the foundation of the world.  Notice that Paul did not say that Christ took away the mysterious nature of God or made God comprehensible.  Rather, Christ revealed the nature of God as mysterious to us.  As the Church, this is where we theologically live and stay.  We know that God has been revealed in Jesus, that God has redeemed us in Jesus, and that the world remains lost in darkness despite the light of God that lives inside the hearts of every person in this world.  This is a holy mystery.

The True Business of the Church

Religious institutions spend a lot of time arguing and quarreling internally and externally.  We argue among the people in our own religion about what belief and practice is right and wrong, true and false.  We argue with other religions and perspectives, trying to convince others that we are right and they are wrong.  We spend so much time doing this that this very process of arguing and quarreling has become identified with the task of religion itself.

Christians have quarreled and argued with each other since the very beginning.  Paul addresses this problem in his first epistle to the Corinthians.  Paul says that quarreling and arguing over belief and practice impedes the Church's true business and agenda, which is to seek after the mind and purpose of Christ, and to live according to the example of Christ.

There were quarrels and arguments in Jesus' own culture.  Jesus did not enter into these quarrels and take sides.  Jesus instead simply proclaimed to everyone that the Kingdom of God had come near to them and that God sought their redemption and reconciliation.  If we are to live our lives after the example of Christ, we will spend our time spreading God's light.  This is what will make the world into the place that God wants it to be.

Missing the Point about Baptism

This Sunday is Baptism of the Lord Sunday in the liturgical year.  It naturally leads to reflection about the nature and significance of baptism.  In the Christian tradition, discussion about baptism is normally framed in terms of understanding who can be baptized and how they can be baptized.  That is, there is significant disagreement about whether baptism requires immersion or can be accomplished by sprinkling or pouring.  There is also disagreement about whether infant baptism should be practiced, which is the practice of my own Wesleyan tradition as well as many other traditions (e.g. Roman Catholicism, most orthodox traditions, Anglican traditions), or restricted to adult believers

I realized this last week as I thought about baptism that these very questions miss the real point about the nature of baptism.  Baptism should be all about celebration.  It celebrates the fact that God seeks to enter into relationship with us and seeks our redemption and transformation, and that this good work began in us before we had the opportunity to respond.  Baptism is not something that should be practiced out of obligation.  By analogy, when the weather begins to get warm, people will start to gather at Centennial Park in Nashville with their blankets and picnic baskets to enjoy the sun and the warm weather.  They are not told or instructed that this is required to be a citizen of Davidson County, Tennessee.  It is not an obligation or regulation that is being followed out of necessity or obligation.  It is something that happens naturally out of our celebration of the renewal of life.

Baptism should be the same.  Jesus was baptized in the Jordan to celebrate that God had entered into the world to bring reconciliation and redemption.

Herod and Figuring out What Drives Us

In Matthew's account of the infancy of Jesus, when Herod finds out from the three wise men that a king has been born that will rule Isreal, he orders that all the children under the age of two be killed, out of fear that the new king will grow up and take over from Herod.

What Herod does is not only monstrous, but stupid.  Fast forward twenty years.  With the average life expectancy in the ancient middle east at around 25 years or so, the years when an adult male would be available to work in the fields and serve in the army would be few and fleeting.  Consequently, Herod's genocide would have drastic consequences for Herod in the future, particularly in the reduction of males able to create products to be taxed and to strengthen Herod's armies.  Herod's genocide actual makes it more likely in the long run that his fears of losing power will come true.

There is in each and every one of us an underlying nature that causes us to do what we do.  It is the engine that drives us.  What drove Herod is the engine of fear.  We are all afraid, but when fear becomes the engine that drives us, we turn into dumb monsters like Herod and can commit terrible things.

We are all afraid.  But through God's grace, our underlying nature can be transformed.  The engine that drives us can be the engine of joy and service to others.  Our underlying nature can be holy.  As always, our example is Jesus, who as the Son of the King of Kings, was driven only to bring about the redemption and reconciliation of the world.

Pruning Trees and God's Plan for Us

When I was growing up, my parents built a home on a two acre piece of land in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Part of the lot was heavily wooded, with lots of beautiful trees.  For the first few years, there was a lot of work to be done with the cultivation of the trees.  Many of the trees were dying because their own branches and vines were inhibiting the trees' growth.  I was taught how to prune the trees.  I learned that pruning trees was all about figuring out the parts of the tree that were killing the tree, and removing those parts.

Every day after school, I picked up an axe and went to work.  To the casual observer who didn't know what was going on, it would have appeared that my agenda was to destroy the tree.  I was, after all, holding an axe, and hacking away at the tree.

What I was doing was the opposite of destroying the tree.  I was giving new life to the tree.  I was saving the tree.  In order to save the tree, I had to remove the parts of the tree that were destroying it.

John the Baptist uses the imagery of pruning to describe the nature of repentance.  God's agenda in us and in our world is not to destroy us and bring destruction to the world.  That is, unfortunately, often our own agenda for ourselves.  God's agenda is to bring us new life and to bring about a new creation.  In order for us to become a new creation, there are parts of our behavior and our nature that have to die.  We must allow God to enter into our souls and into our world so that we can find new life.