A Hometown called Heaven

 May 22 2022

Philippians 1:8-30

I have been a country boy all my life which now that you know that, probably helps explain why I am the way I am. Our home seems to be part of the neighboring housing allotment but in reality we live on the back corner of the farm. I guess you could say we are pretending to be suburban when we are in fact really pretty rural after all. Now, my children are all grown and have their own homes. Elizabeth lives in Dover and Sarah and Matt share a home they bought in New Phila. I am very proud that they have been able to purchase their own homes but what concerns me the most is that they don’t really have any frame of reference for living in town. There are a lot of things that Jennifer and I do where we live that just might not be appropriate where our kids live. We can let our grass grow until it looks like a pasture field but in town they may not care for that. We have a clothesline in our backyard but these aren’t always a welcome sight within city limits. Our place can sometimes be described as organized chaos but when you have neighbors close by such a thing might not be a great idea. The bottom line is that there are different standards that are followed depending on where you live and as a Dad, I need to keep reminding my kids of that.

I was thinking about how where we live makes a difference on what we do because in the letter Paul wrote to the church at Philippi from his prison cell in Rome, this same idea is found throughout his letter. Paul, of course, is not saying that the people of Philippi should act different because of living there instead of, say, Rome. No, where Paul is saying that they should consider that they now live is in the hometown of heaven.. Most of us all have a place that we consider to be our hometown, the place even if we move we always want to return to because that is where our heart is. This is what I believe Paul has in mind as he pens this letter to the little church at Philippi. this is very much what has happened with the coming of Jesus. The town square of this hometown called heaven is where the highway of heaven intersects with common roads of earth. Jesus is this way that has come and crossed our path and now where this has happened we have a new place where we find our heart longs to be. There, where others have turned onto the narrow way of Jesus and found themselves in this little piece of heaven flourishing here on earth, this Paul tells us, this is where we are to call home, where we are citizens of this most heavenly of places on earth. This strangely enough is how Paul speaks of the church in his letter to Philippi.

This understanding of the church being our hometown of heaven here on earth that Paul writes about is only found here in the letter to the Philippians. Elsewhere, Paul writes of the church as being a body, such as in the twelfth chapter of Romans, the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians and the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Sometimes, Paul describes the church as being the new Temple as he does in the second chapter of the book of Ephesians and he even writes of the church being a field in which he labors to bring about a harvest as he does in the third chapter of First Corinthians. But here in this letter to the church at Philippi, Paul uses this idea of the church being a city, a hometown of heaven, you might say, which is very unusual. What is also very unusual about this letter is that it is one of the most joy filled letters that Paul has ever written. What makes this fact even more unusual is that the joy found in this letter is found in the midst of Paul writing about the suffering that he endures in prison and the suffering that he expects the church of Philippi to shoulder as well. The question then that lurks in the background of this letter is just what is the connection between having heaven as our hometown and our ability to endure suffering with joy?

Another important aspect of this letter to the church of Philippi is that it dispels the myth that Christianity is about an private relationship with Jesus. Yes, our relationship with Jesus is personal, but it is not private, something we do all on our own. No, our relationship with Jesus always happens together, with other followers of Jesus. None of us go it alone. This is what Paul reminds his readers when he begins his letter saying that he thanked God in all of his remembrance of them, always in every prayer of his because they filled his prayer with joy because of their partnership with Paul in the gospel from the very first day they had met. The Greek word for partnership, “koininia”, is a word that means much more than being just partners as if Paul and this church were in business together. No, koininia conveys meanings of fellowship, communion and intimacy.We hear these meanings in what is written in the first chapter of the first letter of John where John writes, “…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you too may have fellowship, koininia, with us, and indeed our fellowship, koininia, is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” When we speak of fellowship, we mean much more than a time of coffee and cookies with some chit-chat. No, what the Bible is referring to is this intimate, intermingling of lives as is found between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This is the life of God which has been from all eternity, this is what the death and resurrection of Jesus has opened up to us and this is the life which the Holy Spirit has pulled us into so that this communion is not only between us and God but this intimacy and love is to be between all who are drawn into this life of God. This is what Paul speaks of when he tells his readers that they are all united with him in the sharing of the grace of God. This grace is Jesus Christ and what he has done on our behalf, he is the very center of our unity.

It is out of this understanding of deep fellowship that Paul prays for this church of Philippi. Paul wants this church to not become satisfied with where they are at, never acting as if they had somehow arrived. Paul understood that the Holy Spirit is working continually to bring about the future perfection of God’s creation that will someday be a reality at the end of days. This is the perfection that he is bringing about within the church today. This is what Paul understood and he aligns his prayer with this work of the Holy Spirit. Paul first, prays that the love of the church of Philippi will abound, overflow, pour out in amazing abundance. This is what one would expect when one knows that our fellowship is in the life of God so therefore the very love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Then, Paul continues that they also increase in knowledge and all discernment. This discernment is the ability to perceive the right ethical understanding. We get a fuller idea of what Paul is getting at from the sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews where we are told that those who are mature spiritually have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. The importance of being able to make the distinction between good and evil is as we find in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, that in the end all that is evil will be destroyed so that only the good will remain. So, Paul desires that his church know what is good, what is it that will remain because in this way they will be able to approve of the things which are essential, the things that matter, so that in the bright light of the day of Christ’s return, it will be apparent that they are filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through our fellowship with Jesus.

So, much like Paul’s other letter’s, he sets the tone of the whole letter right at the very beginning. His desire is that his church be known as the most loving place in town, a place where love spills out and runs down and is gushing forth like water from a fire hydrant. Yet, he also wants his church to be able to make right choices, to know what is good and what is evil and keep on choosing the good because in the end, when the light of Christ ends our night and we stand there in the full brightness of that glorious day, what will be clear is that we have made right choices, that we have a righteous life which results from our fellowship with Christ. Now, this seems pretty straightforward, but where we run into trouble is when trouble runs into us, where we are called to suffer on account of our faith. Think about what is described in the book of Hebrews, the tenth chapter, where we read about those who followed Jesus, how they endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction. These were people who joyfully accepted the plundering of their property. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for us in this situation to decide what is good and what is evil? It is easy to believe that in situations like these that we would harbor a lot of hatred and resentment in our hearts, desiring revenge or retaliation on those who would harm us in such a way, but then could we really say that such actions are good or righteous? Could we really say that such feelings and actions are the result of our fellowship with Jesus who himself endured such reproach and affliction, yet was willing to accept the very sentence of death all for us. You see, when we stop and consider what we may be called on to endure for our faith it becomes much more clear as to why Paul prays for this church at Philippi to be able to choose between the evil and the good, so that in their lives that which will be worthy of eternal glory is what they will pursue.

What we are left with, then, is how can we be people who choose the good, whether we find ourselves living on the sunny side of the street or whether we find ourselves under extreme duress?When we say that we are participants in grace this automatically eliminates thoughts that we are going to be able to choose the good no matter what just by gritting our teeth and mustering up all the strength that we might possess. No, it is obvious that God is going to have to be there along side of us to get us through whatever we are facing. This is what Paul tells us is his answer as we hear in the nineteenth verse of this first chapter of Philippians. There we hear Paul ask the devoted disciples of the church of Philippi that he desired that they pray for him, asking that the Spirit of Jesus Christ might help Paul use his situation for, in his words, his deliverance. Now, when we have been thinking about making right and righteous choices, choosing the good over evil, then when Paul asks for deliverance it is not hard to hear that phrase from what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into hard testing but deliver us from evil”. Paul is asking the church to pray that the Holy Spirit, will, not just help but rather richly supply, lavishly pouring out upon Paul all that is needed for him to display the goodness of God in his life. What is surprising is that Paul, of all people, would have to ask others to pray for the Holy Spirit to be abundantly  present in his life, because I mean, he is Paul, after all.  Perhaps though, what Paul also needed is to know that there were those with whom he was in close fellowship with him pleading on his behalf for in them the very pleading of the Holy Spirit, whose groans are too deep for words, can be heard in the voices of friends.

What the Holy Spirit brought into Paul’s life, what he needed most at the time of his greatest suffering was an overwhelming experience of the faithfulness of heaven. Paul, like us, needed to know that the faithfulness of God which had ahold of him was what anchored his life, not his meager attempt at faith as if he had the stamina to relentlessly hold on to God. Paul, earlier in this first chapter, spoke of how there were two groups of people who preached Christ. The first group did so from envy and rivalry. The second group though preached Christ from a desire to please God, from a heart of love. This desire to please God is to preach Christ from a stance of faith, of trusting that what God has in store for us in the future is worth more than anything this world has to offer. This was the way Paul understood his life. This is why when he pondered his death he was truly torn between remaining here to continue in his fruitful labor or to go on home. For Paul, to die is gain because the most valuable possession is to be possessed by heaven, to be fully at home there, to know and experience the faithfulness and security there. The reason that Paul knew that the best is yet to come is that he had tasted that future right here in the present. This is what Paul always said about the Holy Spirit, that his presence is the sampler platter of the heavenly banquet. You know if a small portion is mouth-watering then the all-you-can-eat buffet is just going to be out of this world.

You see, when you understand Paul’s mindset, then you begin to know what Paul means when he tells the church at Philippi that they were to have one aim, to let their manner of life be worthy of the gospel. Here we must stop and just say that the translators have really missed the point in this sentence. It is easy to understand why because what Paul has written here is somewhat confusing unless you see this sentence in light of his whole argument. The phrase, “let your manner of life be” is  how the translators describe the Greek word politeuomai, which is derived from another Greek word, polis. Polis is the Greek word for city and we still hear this in names like Indianapolis, which literally means city of Indians or Annapolis, which means Anne’s city, named after Princess Anne.  So, what Paul is saying here is that his readers have to do one thing and that is to remember that they are citizens of a city, that their hometown is heaven here on earth, and to live faithful to this fact. What Paul is implying by stating it like he does is that here in this little church in Philippi, this is in fact a city of heaven, an eternal outpost, a hometown where our hearts are at home with Christ. The question that only they could answer is just what was it worth for them to live in this place, where they could perceive and experience the very love and goodness of heaven? What was it worth to them that on no account of their own, they were now able to have the God who created the entire universe and themselves, to have this God, close by to them, walking alongside them, speaking for them, bringing them into the realm of his truth? This is the good news, the kingdom of God had come on earth as it is in heaven and they got to experience this through the God they knew as the Spirit of Jesus Christ.What exactly then is having this experience, this assurance, this joy found in the presence of the God who rejoices over us, just what is this worth? This is what Paul is asking his readers because when they understood the value of their experience with the God who loved them then this is what should determine how their actions, every time they made a decision. If being a citizen of this heavenly city is worth everything to them, then they should defend this life with their life.  You can hear the defensive pose Paul is staying should be their posture, standing firm in the Spirit, side by side because of the faithfulness of this kingdom. When the faithfulness of heaven has so gripped them, and unified them into one unstoppable force this is how they can face what ever tries to frighten them. This is how the city is kept safe from the marauding armies of fear, anxiety and worry which threaten to tear it apart. In this way, by allowing heaven to so overwhelm and take ahold of our life, this is how we can suffer for Christ. When we realize the greatness and richness of heaven, what is here on earth pales in comparison. When we know heaven as our hometown then it becomes, oh, so much easier to make decisions for good and not evil. This is what Paul knew all so well, it was how he endured his suffering here on earth because his life was held secure in heaven. We have to ask ourselves then, just what is it worth to us to be able to have a foretaste of heaven here to day? What is it worth to be able because of Christ to walk with God, the Holy Spirit, to be filled with his love, to be held fast to his heart? Just what is this worth to you? Once you know that answer then go and live knowing within your heart that where your hometown is, is heaven. Amen

Jesus and Judging Others

 May 15 2022

Acts 17:16-34

Most of us, at one time or another, have met people who for a lack of a better way of putting it, seem to have life all figured out. You have to give them credit, they at least have given life some thought; some people haven’t even done that. But it is one thing to think you at last have life figured out and quite another then to feel it is somehow your duty to let others know just what life is supposed to be about which seems to be the problem with those who think about life to such a degree. I mean when you are a person who has spent the better part of your life just thinking on life this should mean that you are at least worthy of judging how others live life, wouldn’t you think? Well, that’s the way it seems at least. I remember encountering such judgmental critical people. It was during a period of time after I had quit farming and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I decided to take some college courses at our local Kent campus. The one class I was in that semester was taught by a really great teacher, Dr. Roman, who, even though he obviously was a man of great learning, did not flaunt it. He instead worked hard at getting his students to think which I appreciated. Well, during the semester he announced that there was a special project which if any one was interested they could pursue and get recognition for their work. It was called a Colloquium, where basically all that meant was that one could write a research paper on a subject of interest to them and Kent would make a big deal out of it. Dr. Roman encouraged me to enter it and so I wrote a paper with the unwieldy title, “Understanding Modern Society through the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas”. What I didn’t realize is that we would have to present our papers before the rest of the academia nuts that taught at the college. I don’t remember the specifics of their questions but I do remember their judgmental attitude and I thought to myself that this was not nearly as much fun as I had thought it was going to be.

Maybe this is the same way Paul must have felt when he struck up a conversation with people who thought they had life all figured out. You get the gist of the attitude they held about him when they were overheard saying, “What does this babbler wish to say?” The word, “babbler” here actually means seed-picker which meant that they viewed Paul as one who had picked up bits and pieces of information like a bird had pecked up pieces of birdseed. Paul, they thought, didn’t really have any original thought in his head, did he? All Paul had was just some bits of information that he had found and heard elsewhere, or so they thought. It is easy to feel the condescension, the judgmental attitude floating in the air like a thick cloud. Yet, all was not lost because some at least were intrigued that Paul just might have something new to say. You see, it gets tiring hashing and rehashing what life is all about especially when you have narrowed the field to what you know what life is all about. It was that what Paul spoke about, this is what was strange for these philosophers to hear and they just had to know more about what Paul was driving at.

The new thing, of course, that Paul spoke about was the resurrection. Paul told them about Jesus, a Jewish man from Galilee, who had been crucified and was most assuredly dead, yet three days later he was most assuredly alive. Imagine how shocking such a story must have been to these men who thought they had life all figured out. The most certain thing in the world is that people die and they stay dead; end of story. One could say that their whole understanding of life began with the premise that one is going to be dead. Their’s was the original YOLO (You Only Live Once) understanding of life. The world was obviously built on some foundation of reason so if one lived in a reasonable manner then that is the best that one could hope for. Even so, what they did not have an answer for is that which was unreasonable, the terrible injustices that were done against people. If the world was so reasonable just what reason could one give for the way some people were treated? It must never be forgotten is that the way a segment of men had the time to sit around all day and think about life is that they had enslaved whole nations to take care of the necessities of everyday life.

Life then was then knowing that all that we can perceive is all that there is. To them, the universe is one great unity that all fits together even if we don’t exactly know how. The gods that the pagans believed in were part of the same universe as the people were, each god ruled over some part of the whole universe.  In this way, they could have some assurance that life would go on just as it always had because they all lived within this closed system where people were born, they lived and they died. Welcome, to the circle of life! And everything was going along great right up until this guy Paul came along and started muttering about somebody not staying dead as they were supposed to. You see, these philosophers could be pretentious and judgmental toward others because they were the ones who had life all figured out but what would happen if by some chance, they didn’t really know as much as they thought? What if death was not just the way things were but was instead an enemy which had infected a very good world, an enemy which at last had been defeated?

This is what must have been going through the minds of these great thinkers as Paul began to speak. Paul began by what seems to be a compliment, telling them that he could perceive that they were very religious. Now, what Paul really thought is that they were a people who were extremely idolatrous but here he seems to tone it down a bit. Yet, even so, what he means here by stating that they were religious is that they were a people who had a great fear of the gods. You see, what the gods represented to them were the forces that were beyond their control, those things which frightened them, and gave then a knowing ache in the pit of their stomach. Just as the things that frighten people are many, so too were the gods that were on display in the city of Athens. As Paul observed all of these objects that the people of Athens worshipped he was surprised that he came across an altar which simply had inscribed upon it,”To an unknown god”. Now, there is a lot of speculation about just what this meant but the most plausible explanation is that being that there were so many gods and therefore so many altars, what most likely happened is that over time the altars eventually fell into disrepair so that the name of the god who was to be worshipped there had faded away. Since, no one could remember just which god was supposed to be worshipped there and not wanting to offend said god, they just thought it best to say that this altar was to an unknown god. Paul, though, when he saw this, knew that this was an opportunity for him because he would tell these people of Athens about the one true God who was as yet unknown to them.

It is hard for us to fully comprehend how unusual what Paul spoke of was to these people who thought that what you see is what you get as far as the universe is concerned. No, Paul goes on to tell them, outside and beyond this universe is a God, the only God who existed before the universe itself, the God who made the world and everything in it. Right here, with news of a God who created the very universe in which the people of Athens lived, the very foundations of those who had life all figured out began to crack. This was a God above and beyond the gods that the people feared; in fact, he is the one who created the very forces that their gods came to represent. This God created everything and this meant that he did so because he desired that there be a universe here instead of mere nothingness. To people who were caught up in the idea that the world was reasonable here they hear of a God who had a reason for the universe being here. This God was not like their gods who needed temples in which to live and needed people to serve him because he is the God who gives all humanity life and breath, everything necessary for our existence. So, life is not just some mere force which we have for a time being then which is snuffed out at death but it is rather a gift given to us by this God who created us. Thus it would be reasonable to assume that if life is a gift given to us by God then we who receive this gift ought to, at the very least, be people who respond with gratitude for that which we have been given. 

Paul continues with his startling speech by stating that all of the nations of the earth, all the various people that Rome and Greece before her had conquered, all of these people had their beginning in one man, Adam. We must hold on to the implications that this origin story has for us as we go further into the story that Paul is telling us but for now we can know that it is this God who sets the course of history and it is this God who marks the borders of the dwelling places of all humanity. God sets people within time and space for one purpose that they should seek after God. Why would they seek after God? They seek after God because they realize that they lived in a world which was created, created by a God and therefore if this God created this world with them in it, then he was a God who desired for them to be here. And since they were created and thus given life then they must be grateful for the life they have been given, but who then is the one who deserves their offering of thankfulness? This is where the search for God begins. Paul goes on to say that God has always hoped that the people he created might feel their way toward him and find him. The gratitude we feel toward the God who created us is to flourish and become a love of God to desire the one who desired that we be here with him, and so result in a relationship with the living God. 

Paul diverts from what has been up to this point a genuine retelling of the ancient Jewish story. He takes an excerpt from a Greek poem by the poet Epimenides, which states “In him we live and move and have our being”, and he says here, even though the poet may not have even been aware of it, here is spoken a truth about the one true living God. It is God in whom we find life, in him we do move and he knows who we were truly created to be. And from another writer, Aratus, Paul plucks a line from one of his poems which states, “For we are indeed his offspring”, and Paul says, don’t you see, this is the very truth about the God who created you and gave you life. We are God’s offspring and if this is the truth about who we are then we have to change our minds about how we think about divine beings. No more can we hold fast to the idea that something that begins in the imagination of a person’s minds and is then formed and shaped out of gold or silver can ever be something that would be worthy of our attention. No, Paul moving towards his dramatic end continues, now is the time to be done with such foolishness. Now, the times of pleading ignorance about God are over. Now, God insists that people repent. The word, “repent”, here literally means to think differently now that they have heard the message Paul is presenting before them. Their thoughts about the world they live in had to be drastically changed now that they had heard of a God who exists beyond our universe, indeed the God who existed before everything else, the very God who spoke it into being and gave all who inhabit this universe the gift of life. The reason that Paul insists that now, the very present moment, this is the time when all past thinking must be done away with, is that this same God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man he has appointed. So, now, we move from our relationship with the God who has created us to our relationship with each other which seems logical because if we know that God has created us out of a desire for us to exist then it would seem only right that every person exists because of God’s desire that they are alive. Just as God has given us each of us life he has done so for every person on the planet. So, no longer can we in any shape or thought believe that we are in any way better than anyone else but we must concede that we cannot hold fast to some idea that we can separate ourselves from the rest of humanity. As Jesus himself taught, all of the writings about God and his relationship with his people come down to this, “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.’ This is a definition of righteousness that all people can understand. This is the standard of righteousness by which we will all be judged. This is the very righteousness of Jesus for as Paul goes on to tell us this is the very reason that he has been raised from the dead. Even though Paul does not here speak of how Jesus died, it is implied that Jesus even unto death exhibited this very righteousness, doing to others, offering them forgiveness as he hung upon a cross gasping for air, because this is what he had desired that others would have done to him. There upon the cross the Judge of us all took upon himself the judgment we all deserve, being judged in our place, to give us not what we deserve but instead to give us what all of us desire which is mercy. Jesus was raised from the dead, justified in his claims as being the very Son of God, worthy to rule and judge all of us because he is the one whose way is the way of mercy, the giving to the other not what they deserve but rather to give them what they desire. Thus as God desired for each person to exist and have life so too we must be people who desire that others exist and live, for this is the way of mercy.

Now what may not be apparent by listening to Paul’s speech to the people of Athens is that, I believe he has taken the judgmental attitude of his listeners to task in a very subtle way. You see, it is the risen and righteous Jesus who is the one who is our judge therefore before the face of Jesus our judge, none of us have a leg to stand on to judge one another. As Paul teaches us in the fourteenth chapter of Romans, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own Lord that he stands or falls and he will be upheld because the Lord is able to make him stand”.  And further, Paul continues, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die we die to the Lord. So that, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. So, then each of us must give an account of himself to God.Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer…” You see, those who judge others will find themselves under the judgment of God because they are living not by the way of mercy which they themselves desire so therefore they are unrighteous. When people judge others they simply are treating others in a manner which they themselves would not want to be treated. This means then, there is no need for any follower of Jesus to pass judgment on another person. This is what we see in the life of Paul. Never once does he take these obviously idolatrous people to task, never once does he state what the outcome of such behavior will be. No, what Paul does instead of judging them is to instead tell them of a God who desired them to exist, a God who graciously gave them life, a God who took the judgment they deserved upon himself so that they might know that the way of life is the way of mercy. Paul spoke to them of Jesus, the one raised from the dead who is his Lord and their Lord, the one we will all have to stand before some day. There the righteousness of everyone of us will be judged by whether we believe in Jesus, in his way of life, the way of mercy, and not judgment. As Paul has told us, God in his mercy has given us this time to change the way we think, to judge for ourselves whether life is about mercy or judgment. May we judge wisely. Amen.

Entering into the Epic of Jesus

 May 8 2022

Acts 16:6-34

Have you ever thought about what the difference is between your common, run-of-the mill, movie or story and what might be called an epic movie or story?I would hate to sit down and figure out just how many hours I have spent either reading novels or watching shows but what I can say is that there are only a few of all of these that I would call being an epic. I think that the original three Star Wars movies were as epic as it gets. I remember vividly how my brother came home from college all hyped up about this new sci-fi movie and wondering just why he was so excited about it when he didn’t usually get excited about much of anything. So, I went and saw it for myself and I understood that there was something about this movie which was just different and what I didn’t know then was that this movie was an epic movie. The mini-series, Lonesome Dove, is also one that I would call an epic movie. I get choked up watching it every time I revisit it. Now, what got me thinking about epic movies is that recently I was reading about a theologian, Colin Gunton, which no, this was not an epic read, but what he did do was to show how the images we have of what Jesus has done for us upon the cross and through his resurrection relate to the same qualities found in epic movies. Needless to say, I was intrigued. You see, the way that the work that Jesus has done for us upon the cross has been spoken of is through three main ways: victory, justice and sacrifice.When you hear these themes it isn’t hard to understand how these are epic ideals. We love stories about victory, about good triumphing over evil. We enjoy stories where justice prevails, the ones where the bullies get brought down, where the little, and the common are found to be on equal footing with the great. There is something universal about the tug on our hearts where people are called on to give up something of themselves in order to further the greater good. Gunton saw how these ideals which are demonstrated in the Lord of the Rings saga, another great epic, were much like the images of what Jesus has done for us upon the cross. Yet, what becomes evident when we hold up these images of Jesus against the ideals found in many epic stories is that Jesus has redeemed even these. Unlike many epic stories, the victory of Jesus was achieved without violence; the justice of Jesus was found outside of the law; and, the sacrifice of Jesus was done not as a hero but as a humble servant. What we might conclude is that the story of Jesus is more epic than any other epic story.

This epic story of Jesus, though, did not end there upon the cross for, as they say, the saga continues because Jesus is resurrected. Jesus is alive, how’s that for a plot twist, and now, he is directing the continuing epic story in the lives who follow him. You see, Jesus calls each of us to carry our cross so that just as when he carried his cross we say that there is victory, there is justice displayed, there most of all is the perfect sacrifice, so too when we carry our cross these also should be what people see. At least this is what we see in the life of Saul, who was later known as Paul. As we read through the book of Acts it soon becomes clear that what is written here is more than a historical account of the early church. No, here is most definitely an epic story. This is what we find in our scripture for today from the sixteenth chapter of Acts that we read this morning. Luke tells of how when he, Paul and the others were going to the place of prayer, they were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination. She was being used by her owners to rake in the big bucks as she foretold the future for the fearful and the frightened. Now her plight changed drastically when she began to follow Paul around, the spirit within her shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation! I’m sure at first Paul was happy for the free advertising for his traveling revival but its understandable that after several days of being followed by a girl shouting the same thing over and over that it would get pretty annoying. So, Paul said to the spirit within the girl, “I command you to come out.” This is victory! The victory that Jesus won at the cross was a victory over Satan and all evil and Paul knew that he was called to live out that victory. The spirit within the girl knew that it had to be obedient to Christ for he had cast judgment upon Satan at the cross and there Satan had been cast down. So, yes, Jesus is victorious, and as we live out the story he directs, we experience that victory. Yet that was not the only victory in our story because as we come to find out, when the owners of the slave girl find out that the spirit within the girl was gone, they knew that the money was gone as well. So, the owners of this slave girl sought revenge upon Paul and Silas and they grabbed them and dragged them by the scruff of their neck to stand before the authorities. The owners concocted a story about Paul and Silas disturbing the city, stating that they were advocating customs that were unlawful for they as Roman citizens to participate in. The authorities bought their story and decided that, for their crime, Paul and Silas were to be beaten with rods and after that they were to be thrown into the jail. By now, you are probably wondering just where exactly is the victory in all this? Well, the victory is that Paul and Silas were willing to accept the injustice that was being done to them and instead of retaliating or seeking revenge against the owners of the slave girl or the authorities, they instead were willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. Whether it is clear to us or not, this is victory. The victory of the cross is to take upon ourselves the wrongs done to us by others not allowing Satan to have a foothold in our lives. In this way they were able to demonstrate that the power by which they endured this hardship was the very power of the resurrection, the power of his victory over death. As Paul was to write in the fourth chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, he was always being given over to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his mortal flesh. This is victory. Yet this was not the last image of victory that we have in our story because we are told that night, around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. This is victory. Here in the dark and putrid cell, bound by chains, Paul and Silas did not succumb to the bleakness of their circumstances but instead they remained confident that the Holy Spirit was with them, praying with them, lifting their voices to the throne room of God. As we hear again from the fourth chapter of Second Corinthians, Paul knew that he was afflicted but not crushed; he knew that he was perplexed but he was not driven to despair; yes, he was persecuted, but God had not forsaken him; he had been struck down but he was not destroyed.This is victory, the victory of Christ living in Paul.

So, yes, our epic story most assuredly has an element of victory but it also holds out the hope of justice. Justice is where everyone is held to the same standard of righteousness. This means that justice depends on everyone being equal in the eyes of God. This is why Paul was adamant to teach us in the third chapter of Romans that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is why in the first chapter of the gospel of John that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world because the whole world was held in the power of sin. And this is why in the third chapter of John’s gospel that God gave his only Son, that whoever, this means anyone, believes they will not perish but have eternal life. This is justice beyond the Law because it is a righteousness that is not earned but it is a righteousness that is given, a gift ready for whosoever might receive and believe in what Jesus has done for them. This is why Paul could say in the third chapter of Galatians that now we are all sons and daughters of God by faith for as many of you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is now neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ. We don’t have to wonder just where Paul might have come up with such a description of equality because in our story from Acts, this is exactly what we see. We first see Lydia, who we must presume is Jewish because she has come to the place of prayer on the Sabbath. The implication is that there are not ten Jewish males otherwise instead of meeting at the riverside they would have gone to the synagogue. Yet, here is Lydia, a women who is a worshipper of God. We are told that God opened her heart so that she was receptive to what God had to say. What may be surprising is that Paul was speaking at all because Jewish men back then just did not strike up conversations with just anybody. But here was Paul, speaking right to the heart of Lydia; this is justice. So, in Lydia we have woman and a Jewish person. Then there was the slave-girl. Where Lydia was a free person under Roman law, this slave girl was not but even so Paul did not look down upon her. Then their was the jailer.He would have been considered a Gentile, a man who was a Roman citizen. The jailer and his family were equal in the eyes of God, just as equal as Lydia the Jewish woman and just as equal as the slave-girl. This is justice. Yet there is more to this element of justice in our story for when Paul and Silas had their prayer meeting interrupted by an earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison they did not even try and escape. How surprised the jailer must have been as he shone the light upon the prison doors and finding them open. In terror, he drew his sword to kill himself because he knew that he had to guard over his prisoners with his very life. And then he heard Paul shouting, that they were all there, there was no reason to harm himself. Here, even though God had made a way to be free, Paul instead placed the life of the jailer above his own. This is justice. Paul obviously did more than the Law called for and he did so because Christ had given his life for Paul. So, this justice given to us by Christ is a justice which goes even beyond equality to see that the one in need is the most important one. It is a righteousness built upon doing to the very least of these. The power of such justice is that it shook the jailer to his core, much like the earthquake had shaken the prison off its foundations. He fell before Paul and Silas and asked them, “What do I have to do to be saved?” Here we must pause for a moment and consider the jailers request. The jailer knew that Paul and Silas had been placed into his custody because of this Jesus whom they believed in. The jailer saw the wounds the rods had inflicted upon the backs of Paul and Silas. Yet, here he is at midnight, in the dim light of his oil lamp wanting to know how he could be like Paul and Silas. Perhaps he, as a jailer, had witnessed the justice of this world and he knew how the law could be bent and twisted so that the result could be hardly known as being justice at all. And then he experienced something very different from Paul and Silas. Their God was powerful. He was a God who could shake the earth and open prison doors but the real power was the power that held Paul and Silas there when freedom would have been so easy to obtain. This was real justice. This was a justice that did not focus upon themselves but instead focused on what was best for the one who needed their help the most. It is a justice which did, oh, so much more than the law allowed. This is what gives this justice such an epic quality.

So, our story so far has shown elements of victory and it has demonstrated a justice which has brought a jailer and his family to believe in Jesus. But there is still more to our epic story as we also must consider the element of sacrifice as well. So, what do we mean by sacrifice? Well, the first thought is that sacrifice is about a gift freely given as in the third chapter of John’s gospel where we read that God so loved that he gave his only Son. The giving of the Son was a sacrifice given out of love by our Heavenly Father. The second thought about sacrifice is worship, the worthiness of another to receive the gift another has for them. The Father was worthy of all that Jesus is so Jesus freely gave himself to do the will of his Heavenly Father. So, knowing this then we have to ask just where do we see this element in our story in the sixteenth chapter of Acts. First, we see this element of sacrifice in the willingness of Paul and his friends to only go where God opened the door. They gave up all of their thoughts about the right places to go, to fulfill their desire to go to Asia because that just seemed like the logical next step, or to go into the territory of Bithnyia because, why not, surely they too needed to hear the gospel. Yet, in both cases God answered their requests with a flat out, “No”. Paul and company had to sacrifice their thoughts, their hopes, to follow the lead of God and they did so because God was worthy of their obedience. This meant that this sacrifice was not some heroic gesture but rather an act of a humble servant who only wanted to know that they had been a good and faithful servant for their master. We see sacrifice in the life of Lydia who upon being baptized, opened her home to Paul and his friends making a place for them to worship and teach in the absence of a synagogue. We see sacrifice as the jailer who once never gave a second thought to the welfare of Paul and Silas is found there after midnight seeing that their wounds were washed and cleansed. The jailer sacrificed his pride and his attitude so that he at last could see the needs of Paul and Silas. He gave them care and attention because he had heard their story of a God who had given his very Son all because he has found the jailer worthy of such a gift. Upon hearing this good news, the jailer knew that if such a gift was given for him then such a gift was given for everyone. This meant that everyone is a treasure to God worth a great price therefore every person was worthy of his service to them. This is sacrifice.

So, throughout this story of Paul that we find in the book of Acts, what we find is elements of victory, justice and sacrifice worthy of any epic tale. The importance of knowing this about the story of Paul and his friends, is that just as people are drawn to epic stories and movies today, people have always been drawn to stories where there is certain victory, where justice prevails, where sacrifice is honored. The difference though is that here in Acts, the people that we hear about not only listen to an epic tale they instead are drawn into the story and become part of the epic drama that Jesus is speaking into being through the Holy Spirit. As Paul found out when he first met Jesus, the plan of God is to draw everything in heaven and on earth into one great unified whole in the life of Jesus Christ. What we find in the book of Acts is Jesus doing exactly this. Jesus, there at the throne of the Father is speaking forth an epic story of redemption, a story brought down to us on earth through the Holy Spirit. This is a story of victory for there on the cross the evil ruler of this world has been judged and he has been cast out. This is a story of justice because the righteous judge has taken upon himself our judgment so that righteousness might be a gift for all who will believe. This is a story of sacrifice for there upon the cross the Father redeemed us not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of Christ all because this is what we are worth to him. You see, this victory, this justice, this sacrifice, of Jesus captures our attention just as epic tales always do. Yet, there is more to this story of Jesus because what we find is that when we are drawn to Jesus through this good story what happens is that we become people called to live out this good story for ourselves. We are, you might say, given a chance at an epic life. We are called to live out the victory of Jesus; Satan is defeated, we must act like it. Jesus is the image of righteousness; he is what justice looks like, loving us out of our need not out of our worthiness. This is the way we must act out of love toward others. Jesus gave his very life because he treasured us. We must act sacrificially toward others, giving what they need because God found them worthy of the greatest gift. This is the epic life Jesus calls us to act out in our everyday ordinary lives. This is a life so great that it is worth even suffering on account of because it is the very life of Christ living in us. Amen.

One Moment with Jesus

 May 1 2022

Acts 9:1-19

One of the most difficult things about being a Christian is that when you follow Jesus for a long time, like fifty-six years in my case, is that the relationship can become rather commonplace. You know, you kind of have everything pretty well figured out about God and Jesus and where you’re at in the church and it goes without saying that there is a real danger in that. I mean, God should never be one that we can say that we completely understand everything there is to know about him. As much as most of us don’t like surprises, we should still be open to the fact that God in his wondrous mystery should every now and again surprise us just so that we don’t get complacent in our relationship. Even though what we do every Sunday during our time of worship remains fairly consistent, the one we worship, the one called Jesus, should be one that we are always learning about, discovering the sheer wonder of who he is, never stopping in our amazement of his love and grace.

Paul, we must never forget, was a man who thought he had God all figured out. I mean listen to his testimony found in the third chapter of the book of Philippians, where he states that he was circumcised on the eighth day, he was of the people of Israel, he was from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a scholar of the law, a Pharisee, one who was as pure and holy as one could get. He was zealous for God, hunting down and persecuting those who claimed to follow the one who told his disciples that he was the long awaited Messiah. As far as he could tell he was a righteous man who could stand before God, blameless, perfectly innocent. That was, until he met Jesus. One moment with Jesus undid his house of cards that he so diligently had been building. When we consider our own lives we know just how hard it is to make even little changes so we have to wonder, just what is it about Jesus that moved Paul to say about his life, that he was willing to lose it all because all of it was nothing more than mere crap, his words not mine. What is it about Jesus that caused Paul to know that if he gave up everything that it was worth it because in throwing everything else away he would be gaining Jesus? What should give us pause is that Paul’s decision to chuck it all just so that he could have Jesus, this all occurred in one moment, one small moment with Jesus. You see, with the resurrection, Jesus now can come suddenly into any life, your life, my life, and we, like Paul can have our moment with Jesus, our day of the Lord. If Paul, who thought he was as good as one man can be, was so amazingly undone in that moment then just what does that say for the rest of us?

Paul’s one moment with Jesus came about because of an encounter with one who had already encountered the living Christ, a man named Stephen. Stephen was an early follower of Jesus, the one they called the Way. He was a man known to be full of grace and power who did great signs and wonders among the people of Jerusalem. How uncomfortable those in authority must have been with their dry, dull, lives focused only on adhering to the Law as best they could. Even as they tried to discount Stephen, they simply were no match for him as he was a man of wisdom and the very Spirit of God. All those who opposed Stephen could do was to stir up the crowds, and set up those who gave false testimony about Stephen stating that he spoke against the Temple and thus against the Law. What Stephen had said though, was that the one he followed, this one called Jesus, he had said “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up”, just as it is recorded in the second chapter of the gospel of John. What the authorities could not abide by is that with the coming of Jesus everything had changed, the old was passing away, the new had indeed, come.

Stephen was dragged before the high priest and there Stephen gave the sermon of a lifetime, not holding back about the reluctance of his people to have faith in the very God who had rescued them from slavery and had delivered them into a land of plenty. Stephen told his audience that they were like their forefathers, people who were stiff-necked, uncircumcised in their hearts and ears, people who always resisted the Holy Spirit. They were the ones who had persecuted the prophets, the prophets who foretold of the coming of the Righteous one, the very one they had betrayed and murdered upon a cross.

Now, we have to wonder just why Stephen seems to be deliberately picking a fight, but what he is doing is the very thing that we heard Jesus commission his disciples to do in the twentieth chapter of John. There the risen Christ came suddenly in the midst of his disciples and breathed on them the Holy Spirit. Filled with the very presence of God, they became the first fruits of the new creation. Jesus told them that as the Father had sent him, so he was sending them, his disciples, out into the world. They had received the Holy Spirit and through his power they were to offer the forgiveness that Jesus had secured for them upon the cross through the shedding of his blood and they were also to let people know when sin had seized their life to such a degree that through their disbelief in Jesus they remained separate from the free grace that Jesus had for them. Thus the disciples worked with the Holy Spirit in convincing those in the world of their sin, sin as being unbelief in Jesus. The presence of the Holy Spirit indicated that Jesus was indeed the Righteous one who had ascended to the Father, so there could be no question as to whether he should be believed. Jesus was vindicated by the justification of his Heavenly Father so his word has to be obeyed. And Jesus, upon the cross, was the Judge who was judged in our place taking upon himself the judgment that we deserved. Now, since we no longer have to fear the final judgment for our sin we find that our deeply held fear has been cast out by the perfect love of God for us. In the place of fear, we find that God has created faith in our hearts so that we can believe in Jesus. Thus Jesus is the one that we must believe and the one we can believe because of what he has done for us, this is what the Holy Spirit convinces us is true.

So, when Stephen gets in the face of those who opposed him, we must understand that he is working with the Holy Spirit to convince these stiff-necked people of their sin, that their sin had seized a hold of them so that the forgiveness that Jesus had won for them remained an impossibility. This becomes evident as the crowd rushes upon Stephen and drags him out of the city to stone him. In the seventh chapter of the book of Acts, we read of how Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Here we can hear echoes of what is written in the sixteenth chapter of John that the Holy Spirit will convince the world of righteousness because Jesus has ascended to the Father. Here, Stephen sees exactly this, a vision of the righteousness of Jesus. Then as the stones began to pound against his body, Stephen called out, “Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.” And then falling to his knees, Stephen cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against him.” Here, again, we hear echoes from the sixteenth chapter of John that the Holy Spirit will convince the world of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Stephen is not controlled by fear instead he has complete confidence in Jesus. In his last gasp, he can offer forgiveness to those whose hatred consumed them. Stephen worked with the Holy Spirit to convince those around him that Jesus was the righteous one and that Jesus had cast out the ruler of this world so that he could trust God even unto death. Yet, even so we have to wonder, was the Holy Spirit working in the life of Stephen able to convince anyone in that crowd that Jesus indeed should be believed? Then we are told that the crowd laid their garments at the feet of a man named Saul, a man who approved of the execution of Stephen.

You see, what we as followers of Jesus are called to do is to work with the Holy Spirit, to prepare those around us for their moment with Jesus. This must not be forgotten as we at last come to the story of Saul on his way to Damascus. We are told that as Saul approached the city of Damascus, that a light from heaven flashed around him. Saul, at once, fell on his knees, because he, being a scholar of the ancient manuscripts, understood that this was the Almighty God, appearing suddenly before him. There, trembling in fear, Paul then heard a voice. This was a voice he did not know, a voice nonetheless that had a question for him, a voice which asked him just why it was that he, Saul, had been persecuting him? Imagine how very confusing all of this must have been for Saul, how he must have thought of all the countless followers of the Way that he had hunted down, pondering just how any of them could be the one who now towered over him. The voice replied to Saul that the one speaking to him was none other than Jesus, he was the one Saul had been persecuting. Then this Jesus told Saul that he was to go into the city and there he would be told what to do. 

Here, we must pause, because in this very brief moment, there is so very much to unpack. The bright light from heaven should bring to mind what is written in the letter of James, in the first chapter, where he tells us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…” So, here, in this light blazing on the road to Damascus, we see the very presence of the Father in heaven. Then a voice is heard, asking just why it is that Saul is persecuting him. The voice we soon discover is Jesus so what we have to assume is that Jesus is united in some way, with those who have placed their faith in him. When Saul threw stones at Stephen he was in some way throwing those same stones at Jesus. Now, Saul must have known that the only place in scriptures where such a unity was heard was in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. There Daniel records his vision where he saw one like a son of man, a human figure, who came before the throne of the Ancient of Days, the eternal God. This human figure was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and languages shall serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” Then further in this vision of Daniel we read that the powers of this world will make war over the saints and prevail over them but at last the Ancient of Days will come and judgment will be given in favor of the saints of the Most High and these saints will possess the kingdom. Further in this vision we also read that the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.” So, what is implied is that the kingdom given to the human figure who stands before the Ancient of Days will also be the kingdom of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom will be their kingdom. Saul must have, in some way, understood that this vision of Daniel was playing out before him because he answers the voice speaking to him as, “Lord”. This is the title most often given to God, in Hebrew the word being, “Adonai”.

The vision in Daniel makes it clear that those who receive the kingdom which will never cease are those who have been judged and found worthy to share in the dominion and rule of this kingdom. So, Saul, as one who had zealously opposed these same saints, had to know that he was in his moment with Jesus, standing before his judge. This Jesus had found the ones that Saul had persecuted worthy of being in unity with him so Saul also had to know that the judgment he deserved was that of being worthy to be cast out of the kingdom. Yet, instead of terrifying judgment from on high what Saul heard was marching orders. He was to go; he was to do, amazed because this Jesus that he had not trusted to be the Messiah was standing before him trusting him to obey. We are told that Saul immediately arose but found that he had been struck blind, a physical representation of his inward spiritual condition. Saul, for all of his thoughts of how blameless he had to be, how righteous he was according to the Law, was a man who nonetheless was a man who was seized by the power of sin, a man who refused to  come into the light, the new era of love that was being brought forth by Jesus. What is amazing is that once again, Jesus involves his church in Saul’s recovery of his sight. Saul is led by those with him into the city of Damascus and he is invited in to the home of Judas. There Saul enters into a time of prayer, and probably much meditation of his one moment with Jesus. As Saul is praying he has another vision, this time of a man named Ananias who would come and lay his hands upon Saul so that Saul at last could see again. Now, Ananias is rightfully a little afraid about going to be in the company of a man who has been bringing terror into the hearts of believers like himself. But God tells Ananias that he must go because this Saul was a chosen instrument of God who was going to carry the name of Jesus before the nations, before their kings and before the children of Israel. And then Jesus added that he was going to show Saul just how much he was going to have to suffer on account of the name of Jesus. 

Again, we must pause and stop and consider all that we have heard. What is tying this moment Saul has had with Jesus together is the theme of unity. The bright light, the God, the Father in heaven is united with Jesus. Jesus is in some way, united with those who believe him. Jesus is Lord, the true Messiah, because he has risen from the dead. He is justified in his claims that he made while alive that he was the Messiah and not only that he was true in stating that he was one with his Father in heaven. And finally, we learn that Saul is being commissioned to take the name of Jesus out to the nations implying that Jesus was not just Lord over Israel, not just the anointed one, the rightful king from the house of David but he was instead Lord over all creation. This Jesus through his life, his death and his resurrection had accomplished an act where Jews and Gentiles, God and humanity, all of it, was being wondrously united. It is not hard to figure out just how Saul, who later went by the name of Paul, could later write in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians that God had made “known the mystery of his will set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” There, in his one moment with Jesus, Saul understood that Jesus is our “peace, who has made the nations and the people of Israel, one people. It is Jesus who has broken down the wall of hostility, abolishing the very law of commandments that Saul was so arrogant about, so that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, making peace, reconciling all people to God in one body through the cross…” This is the gospel message Saul heard so loud and clear that day when he had his one moment with Jesus. In his realization that Jesus had done everything necessary to unite everything in heaven and on earth together and knowing that he had worked so hard at creating division, Saul knew intensely the weight of his sin. Yet, here again came the voice of Jesus, heard in the words of Ananias, words which spoke of how he was to be united with God through being filled with the Holy Spirit. The very same Spirit which bound together, the Father and Jesus, the Son, was now binding Saul together with God. And then, we are told Saul was baptized, united publicly with all those others who had been united in Christ. Now, the church could state that Saul had been forgiven his sin no longer had a grip on his life. Now, he had a new mission, a new purpose which flowed out of a new life, a life where he at last understood the exceeding worth of knowing Jesus. If Saul were with us today, he would no doubt ask us, do we know Jesus like he knows Jesus? Have we had our one moment with Jesus? Amen!