Transforming Mercy

 August 27 2023

Romans 12:1-2

         As a pastor I try and keep an open mind when it comes to other denominations so that I at least can say that I have tried to understand where other churches are coming from. That being said, I am totally baffled by the church that I have seen who gather on the town squares with their signs, yelling at all who might pass them by that we had better get right with God or burn in hell. Now, I am all for people getting saved but is this the best way to go about getting people to place their faith in Jesus? And I just wonder, where did they get this idea that what Jesus calls us to do is to carry signs and yell at people? I wonder if they have some different Bible than the one I read, because my Bible tells me that Jesus teaches us in the thirteenth chapter of John that the way people will know us as his disciples is if we love one another. Does marching around yelling at people that if they don’t turn they’ll burn, is this the loving actions Jesus spoke about? Like I said, I am willing to try and understand but what this church is doing is baffling! I mean, what does this group do when they come to the book of  Romans where we hear Paul tell us at the end of the eleventh chapter, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.” Somehow, this church with their signs spelling out doom and gloom has missed the point that God always leads with mercy not judgment. As James writes in the second chapter of his letter, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” So, if this is true, why make it sound as if judgment is the last word when we are told that mercy will be victorious over judgment?

         Just so we didn’t miss the point, Paul, when coming to the time to wrap up his letter, concludes with the mercy of God. Its as if Paul is saying that if he had to leave his audience with one summarizing thought it would be, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.” Paul understood that the mercy of God is the very power that transforms the disobedient into those who are at last able to do what God wills. This transformation just cannot occur from ones fear of judgment because fear is rooted in death, and how can death bring about new life, only the resurrection can do that.

         Now, you might be wondering , just why have we skipped the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters. The reason is that in these chapters, Paul is speaking to the tragedy that was his people, the people of Israel. They were the very ones chosen by God to be his people, the ones who had been given God’s law, the ones who God had not abandoned in the exile. Yet in spite of the faithfulness of God, God’s own people did not respond with faith. It was the people of Israel, not the people of the nations, who refused to accept that Jesus, is the Son of God even though he has been raised from the dead. So here in these three chapters, Paul takes a deep dive into the history of his people and if we start into these three chapters then when we get to the twelfth chapter there is a good chance that we will not remember all of the subtle references that Paul makes to what he had said in the earlier chapters of this letter. I find that it just helps to make sense of Paul’s conclusion to his letter, in chapter twelve, if we read it as the ending which comes after the eighth chapter.

         It becomes apparent that Paul is summarizing his letter up in this twelfth chapter when we read the first sentence, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” This idea of sacrifice is a major theme of the eighth chapter of Romans. We hear this in the sixth verse, where Paul says that to set our minds on the Spirit is life and peace. This is the exact wording found in the second chapter of Malachi, where the prophet says that God’s covenant with his priests was one of life and peace. So Paul appears to be alluding to those in the Spirit as being priests like those found in the Temple. Further in this chapter, Paul states that if by the Spirit we hand over to death the deeds of the body, we will live. This is very close to what Paul is speaking of when he says that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices. Paul, also in this eighth chapter, speaks of us being the first fruits of the Spirit in the twenty-third verse. This first fruits was an offering given to God which spoke of one’s faith in God to produce a harvest. And at the end of the eighth chapter, Paul quotes from the forty-fourth Psalm, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” To Paul this Psalm spoke of our conforming ourselves to the image of the Son, Jesus Christ. The eighth chapter began with Paul stating that God had sent his Son in the likeness of human flesh and as a sin offering. Here Paul echoes what is written in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, “All we as sheep have gone astray; every one has gone astray in his way; and the Lord gave him up for our sins. And he, because of his affliction, opens not his mouth: he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth”. So, as we follow the way of the cross, we too follow Christ in offering ourselves to the Father.

         You see, when chapter eight is fresh in our minds it is easy to see that the sacrifice that leads to life is when we offer up the deeds of our body. This is a call for us to cease using all of our time and effort chasing down what we are going to eat, what we are going to drink or what we are going to wear. This is our life when we  allow fear, anxiety and worry to live in us. These are the ways that only lead to death, so it is imperative that we cease allowing them to come to life in us. We need to sacrifice these desires of our body so that we, instead, seek first the kingdom of God.

         Well not only does Paul reference the eighth chapter in his conclusion of his letter here in the twelfth chapter, he also references what he wrote of in the sixth chapter. When Paul tells us that we are to, “ present our bodies”, he uses the same words found in the sixth chapter, where he implores us to present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. This presenting is when we stand ready to serve, either God or sin. Paul adds that we can either be slaves to sin or we can be slaves to God. What Paul is saying here in the twelfth chapter that when we see such a decision, whether to be a slave to sin or to be a slave to God, in light of the mercy of God, the only logical choice is to be a servant of God; any other choice just does not make sense. In our language, choosing to serve God is just a no-brainer. Though this phrase, “spiritual worship” is often translated this way, the actual wording is, “logical service”. This service to God is understood as us being priests unto God. As priests, the sacrifice we offer up on the altar is the deeds of our body, so that the ways of the flesh might die and we might live, loving God with all that we are.

         You see, the world, that which Paul tells us that we should not conform our lives to, is the realm where fear, anxiety and worry call the shots. Jesus, in his teachings on the Sermon on the Mount spoke about this life in the world. In Matthew 5:46, Jesus asks the question, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you get? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” Here, where Jesus speaks of the Gentiles, he is referring to the people of the nations, in essence, the people of the world. What Jesus is getting at is that the people of the world want to love only those that they are sure will give them some love in return. The people of the world want to love just kinfolk because they are the ones who you know will be there for you, the ones that you know you can call on.  This love of the world then, is tied to this idea of the necessity of doing for others in order that they, in return, will someday do something for you. And, of course, this mentality shows up in the way the world interacts with God as Jesus describes in the sixth chapter of Matthew, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” The people of the world are desperately trying to figure out just what do they need to say or do in order for God to be their means of fulfilling their desires. In this mindset, all one wants to do is the bare minimum that is needed for God to act on their behalf. So, it is obvious, that such an arrangement means that one will never give themselves fully to God.

         Well, this never being certain of just what it takes to move God to be the means to our happy ends, results in the people of the world, the ones that Jesus calls the “Gentiles, to become anxious, concerned about the necessities of life. At the end of the sixth chapter, Jesus tells us, “…do not be anxious, saying, “what shall we eat?, or ‘What shall we drink?”, or ‘What shall we wear?”. For the Gentiles seek after all of these things.” So the ways of the world are the ways of loving others in the hope that when we need them these we love will be there to show us a little love in return. In this same mindset, the people of the world are searching for the right words, the right incantation, that will move God to show some love in return. Without any certainty of whether they are saying the right words or doing the right actions, the people of the world are left to their own devices to frantically search for what is needed to live just one more day. And Paul emphatically warns us to not be conformed to such a life.

         What transforms this life that the people of the world are caught up in is the mercy of God. It is taking to heart what Jesus also says at the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew, that our Heavenly Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. The mercy of God is God’s choice to take those consigned to disobedience and set them free from the consequences of that disobedience, for only one reason and that is that he loves us. This act of mercy is not determined by us saying the right words, uttering the right confession of faith or a us making a grand promise to do good from here on out. No, God offered us mercy before we ever realized that we even needed it or wanted it. God offers us his mercy solely because he desires a life with us, a life beyond the death that we so deserve. The reason for this is simply that God treasures us, this is why God is moved to be merciful to us. And if we know ourselves as the ones whom God treasures then it just makes sense that our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we even ask him. We are the ones who are under the constant attention of the God who desires a life with us. It is this love of God that we experience in his act of mercy that is to move us to trust our Heavenly Father. We must be certain that he will keep us safe until at last we are securely home with him. You see, when we have a new mind, a new way of thinking about God, that he is a God who treasures us, this transforms us into those who love God for who he is, the one who created us and the one who treasures us because we are his.

         You see, only as we know who are God is, only as we are certain of his mercy and his love for us, can we then figure out just what is the will of God. It seems that Paul, in speaking about the will of God, is echoing the words found in the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus taught us that we are to pray for our heavenly Father’s kingdom to come, that his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This ties in with what Jesus teaches us at the end of the sixth chapter of Matthew, “Your Heavenly Father knows that you need something to eat and drink, as well as something to wear, but seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”When our minds at last know our Heavenly Father as the very one who treasures us, the one who desires the very best for us, then we are set free from our anxiety and worry which control the actions of our body. Now we can be about seeking after his kingdom, this doing of his will, this bringing of the goodness of God, doing only those things which please him, here on earth because this is the end result God desires.

         When we begin to understand what Paul speaks about here in these first few verses of the twelfth chapter of Romans, then it becomes clear as to why Paul uses so many images, such as priests and sacrifices, that relate to the Temple. In Paul’s day, the Temple was thought of as being where heaven and earth touch and come together as one. But the Temple of Jerusalem belonged to the old covenant which ended with the death of Jesus upon the cross where his blood was shed upon the mercy seat. Through this mercy of God, heaven has come upon earth, the Holy Spirit reaching out from heaven into the lives of those who live under the mercy of God. So, as priests, as the new Temple that has Jesus as its cornerstone, we are where heaven comes upon the earth. What heaven pours in and through our life to touch those here on earth, is the holy love of God. We can test whether or not we are loving with the holy love of God only because we know of this love, only because we have known this love in the mercy of God. This holy love we show to others is done in the  knowledge that all people are those who are treasured by God, people whom God desires to demonstrate his mercy to them. Heaven touches earth then, when we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, love others as our Heavenly Father has first loved us. Heaven touches earth when we speak to others of our Heavenly Father’s love and care for them, and that through this love they too can be set free from the slavery of fear, anxiety and worry. Heaven touches earth when we invite others to join us in doing the very purpose God created us for, being the very ones who serve God by being the conduit through which heaven touches earth. So, let us be transformed by a new mind, a new way of considering life and love in this world so that through us, our world at last shall be transformed into a world that is good, acceptable and perfect. To the glory of God. Amen!

         

         

 

 

Working For Good

 August 20 2023

Romans 8:28-39

         The whole social media phenomenon is just so hard to figure out. I mean, which platform is a person supposed to spend endless hours being obsessed with? I have just stuck with Facebook mostly as a way to keep contact with people that I know. I also use Facebook as a means to see just what is happening in the world. If I see news releases I might look over them if they sound interesting. This past week I began to notice that Russell Moore, the former leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, was making the media rounds. It seems that he has written a new book, entitled, “Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America”. Well, being a pastor in an evangelical denomination and one that knows all about altar calls, I was rather intrigued by what he had to say. It turns out that quite a lot of people wondered what he had to say after he explained just why he felt that evangelical Christianity was in trouble. Moore, said that, “It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak.’And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis.” So needless to say such a quote caught the attention of those on social media.

Not so long ago, I  preached a message series from the Sermon on the Mount, including the teaching of Jesus on turning the other cheek, so I could relate to what was said here. Yes, what Jesus teaches is far more radical than people can imagine, there is no argument there. Yet the bottom line is that this whole, ‘turning the other cheek”, business is part of the very core teachings on how we, his disciples, are to live. As I pondered on this resistance to these core teachings, I kept coming back to this notion that these teachings of Jesus are considered to be too weak, that they no longer work anymore. This made me wonder just what is this work that needs done, a work that the teachings of Jesus, apparently, are no longer able to get done . I wondered if folks who believe and say such things know exactly just what is the work that we who follow Jesus are to be doing. Perhaps the real issue is that most of the followers of Jesus just no longer know just what is this work that Jesus calls us to do. 

         In this letter to the Romans, we have already been told by Paul about some of the work that we are to be doing, this bearing of fruit. Paul teaches us in the seventh chapter of Romans, that once we have been raised to new life in our baptism, joining Christ in his resurrection, we are then supposed to get on being people who bear fruit for God. This bearing fruit, if you think about it, is about life, growing  and overflowing. This abundant life is exactly what Paul is writing about in the eighth chapter of this letter to the church at Rome. Upon hearing that there were those in this little church who were judging and condemning their fellow members, Paul knew that these were people still enamored with the ways of death because when you condemn someone you seek to control them through the power of death. Perhaps the people doing this condemning thought the ways of life, the ways of the Spirit, appeared to be too weak to bring about order. Yet, it is the Spirit who is the power of the resurrection, the one who has defeated death because he is the very living presence of the holy love of God. This holy love of God, this is the power that consumes our fear, our anxiety and our worry so that death no longer controls us. This holy love of God, this is the power that breaks down the barrier of hostilities that stand between people so that they can come together in prayer. This holy love of God, this is the power which moves us to go to the suffering, to go and bring the holy love of God to bear upon their situation. This is the victory of the holy love of God that brings life where once only death reigned. And be very certain, there is nothing weak about the holy love of God yet it is a power which is the power of life and peace, never death. 

         You see, the only weakness that is to be found is the weakness in us, those who long for life to come and swallow up death, those who long for the victory of God’s holy love over the power of death, his glory, to cover the whole earth. Our weakness is knowing just how to pray for a world that is held in a death grip. Yet it is here in our weakness that the Spirit, the living  power of God’s holy love, reaches in, groaning with us, interceding for us. You see, when we know that this time of prayer that Paul records here in the scriptures that precede the verses that we just read, then we can also know that we need a better way to read this 28^th verse then we normally find in most translations. A more appropriate way to read this verse is found in the Revised Standard Version where we find, “We know that in all things, God works with those who love God, who are called according to his purpose”. You see, it is not all things that are working; that is rather non-sensical if you think about it. No, it is God who is working and perhaps this idea of God being at work seemed so strange that it caused problems in translating this verse from the original Greek. Yet, listen to how Jesus speaks of his relationship with his Heavenly Father, as found in the fifth chapter of John,“My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.”  And further in that same chapter of John, Jesus tells us, “…I say to you the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing.” As those who are united with Christ in his resurrection, we too are to watch for where our Father is working. Our Heavenly Father will show us what he is doing and he invites us to come and join him there in his work. And just what is this work that our Heavenly Father is doing? Jesus tells us in the fifth chapter of John that, “…the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” The Father is at work raising the dead, giving them life and we are to join him in this work. This then is the work the church is to be about, searching for those in whom their Heavenly Father is drawing to his side, loving them, bringing about in them, resurrection faith so that they too might obtain his grace, the Father’s welcome into his life of love. This is God’s working in all things to bring about the triumph of good over evil. This working with God is how we let, “ our light shine before others, so they might see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.” You see, the God who cannot be seen is made visible in the good works that we are doing together with him. In this way, these good works are like a light shining on a dark night.

         When God finished creating the world, he stated that all of it was good and the creation of humanity, was very good. So, with us, God is working at bringing all things back to where they can truly be said to be good. When we know this to be the work that we are to be doing then can we say that the practices of Jesus are too weak as to get this work done? Absolutely not! Listen to what Paul says at the end of the twelfth chapter of Romans, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought as to what is honorable in the sight of all.” And further Paul says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine”, says the Lord. To the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty give him a drink…do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” To love our enemies is not at all weakness but is rather the sign of ultimate strength for this is the strength of the one who overcame our evil by doing good for us upon the cross. 

So, God is overcoming the evil of our world through his good work and he invites us to join him so that God can say at last, that what he has created is good. Where in the beginning those who bore the image and likeness of God were Adam and Eve, now those who bear the image of God are those who have been conformed to the image of the Son. The image of the Son is an image of one who is willing to work with their Heavenly Father in working all things for good. As Paul writes, “Those that God predestined, he also called, and those he called he also justified and those he justified, he also glorified.” This means that God knew all along that the love with which he loved the Son would one day be opened up and shared with those who heard his voice calling them into life. Our Heavenly Father knew that the place where these he loved would live is in a creation, redeemed. This is the destination chosen for us by God even before the foundation of the world. God knew that in this redeemed creation all things will at last be good and we will live there in the power of the resurrection, the power of life over death, the victory that Paul calls the glory of God. This is what Christ understood and when this becomes our understanding then we can say that we are indeed formed to the image of Christ.

You see, no matter what some may believe, this way of being conformed to Christ is not weakness but instead, power. When we join God in his work then we can ask with Paul, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Can you imagine any more powerful position to hold than the one where we know that God is for us? Not only can we be certain that God is with us when we work with him but we also have the certainty that all things are in his hands because as Paul teaches us, “If our Heavenly Father did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not graciously give us all things?” The cross is our assurance that God is able to take all things, and give them to us so we might use these for his good. So if we are certain of the power of God and that all things are subject to him, then, we must wonder why would we ever want to dabble in the power of death. This is what Paul is getting at here in the thirty-third verse, when he asks, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” Our Father’s work is the raising of the dead so only he knows who he will raise to new life, those who are righteous in his eyes. So if a person judges others and condemns them they are, in effect, placing themselves on par with God, an act of arrogance that will have to be answered for.

The most wonderful promise though is that when we work with God what we discover is that his love is always with us, and there is nothing that can ever separate us from this love. This is an amazing promise Paul holds forth for us. I think he wants us to know, without a doubt, that there are no limits to where the love of God might be found. So, there is no room for any belief that there might be someone who is beyond the reach of the power found in the love of Christ.There is no tribulation, no distress, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no danger, no sword, no instrument of the power of death that is so fearful that the love of God can not defeat it. As Paul writes, “No, in  all of these terrifying situations we are super conquerors, we can experience victory of life over death, through Jesus Christ who loves us.” And what a love that Jesus has for us! This is a love that death nor life, nor angels and rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, not height nor depth, absolutely nothing in all of creation that can keep Christ Jesus our Lord from reaching us with the love of God. What a beautiful comfort.Yet this is also a challenge for us because now we know that if we have a source of love which can be ours in any situation and that there is nothing in this world which can stop this love from reaching us, then we have no excuse for refusing to love someone. So, it seems as if Paul turns to this church at Rome and he asks, “If the love of Christ is ever present with us then can we really justify our judging and condemning of one another? Absolutely not! No, the love of Christ poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit empowers us to join our Heavenly Father in his work of bringing his good to life all over the world. This working with God to bring good into this world, this work of raising the dead to life so that all things one day may be said to be, “Good”, this is the work to which God has called us to do. So, our response to those who say that the ways of Jesus, ways such as the turning of the other cheek, ways that appear too weak and will no longer work for the times that we live in, is that this is just a sign that such a person has lost their faith, faith in the resurrection. We must believe that God is able to give life to the dead and then, we must be willing to take this faith and go and join God in his work of raising the dead. When we watch as people are raised to new life, transformed by the power and love of God, this is when we will have no doubt, that one day, God shall declare that all things are, “Good”! We can then rest assured that the ways of God are powerful enough even for times like ours! Amen!

 

A Life of Glory

  

August 13 2023

Romans 8:12-27

         One of the many attitudes that have changed since I was a kid, is the way we look at being in debt. I can still remember when MasterCard was a new idea and you had a little machine that you placed the card in and you ran it over carbon paper whenever you purchased something. Suddenly a person could rack up lots of debt for items that a person used to save money to purchase. Well, however you feel about the way debt is looked at today, the fact of the matter is that every single one of us is born in debt. The amount that we owe on this debt is so great that it is impossible for any of us to pay back what we owe. Have you ever thought about that? What I am speaking about is what Paul is addressing here in this middle section of the eighth chapter of Romans, that we all begin as debtors, people who owe God a life which brings him glory yet this is a life that we are simply unable to make happen because fear holds us captive so that all we can do is to sin against God. This is what Paul is reminding his readers when he reminds them that they are debtors, and it is not this body that we owe anything, no, it is God that we owe everything. If these members of the first Church of Rome believe that relying on the ways of the flesh is really worth one’s lifetime then those who believe so will in the end receive nothing but death. The one who ask God for the forgiveness of their debt and know that it is God who has erased this debt from his records, these are the ones who will receive life. So, knowing that it is the Spirit, that he is the one that we are indebted for our very lives, we are left wondering, just what kind of life has the Spirit given to us?

 The clue as to what defines this life of the Spirit is found where Paul writes that it is this living presence of the holy love of God, the Holy Spirit, he is the one who can put to death the deeds of the flesh.  When Paul says here that the Spirit puts to death the deeds of the body, the image this is to bring to mind is that of the sacrifices that the priests of the Temple would lay upon the altar to be consumed by fire. In the first verses of this eighth chapter, Paul teaches us that those whose mind is set on the Spirit are priests like those in the Temple, offering up the offering of their life, to be those who bring forth life and peace wherever they go. Well, here in our scripture for today, Paul is again using priestly language telling us that we are to offer up the works of our flesh like a sacrifice upon the altar. The Holy Spirit, the holy fire of heavenly love, consumes our hearts so that no longer is there any place in our hearts for fear, anxiety and worry. So this life that we have been given by the Spirit is one where the living presence of the holy love of God offers up the works of our flesh so that our lives will be ready to bring glory to God.

Paul goes on to say that those who are led by the Spirit, by this living presence of the love of God, these we are told are the sons of God. Now, it seems to be rather abrupt to go from offering up the works of the flesh to speak about us being the very sons of God but it is John, in his first letter, who helps us make sense of how these two seemingly different topics actually go very much together. In the fourth chapter, the seventh verse of John’s first letter, we read, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” So being born again is more than merely just saying a prayer. Being born again is for us to love with the same radical holy love which the Spirit has filled our hearts with, the holy love which casts out all of our fear. When the Holy Spirit comes like fire and consumes our fear,  the life the Spirit leaves us with is a life filled only with the living presence of the holy love of God.  This is why Paul tells us that when we allow the Spirit to lead us we are the very sons of God. Now, this use of the word, “son”, is used instead of the more common, “child”, because in Paul’s day a son was one who stood in line to receive the Father’s inheritance. So, for those who love with the holy love of God these are the ones God invites to share his life of holy love for all eternity. 

         So, as Paul continues, he teaches us that it is this living presence of the holy love of God, this is how one can know just who is a member of the family of God. Paul teaches us that it is through this living presence of God’s holy love which has taken hold of us, this is why we cry out Abba, Father. Now, what is interesting is that here Paul uses two different words for the word, “Father”. The first is “Abba”, the Jewish word for Father, and the second which is in the original Greek, “Pater”. Can you comprehend what the living presence of God’s holy love has accomplished? This love of the Spirit has taken two very different groups of people, those who are Jewish and those who are of the nations, and this love has broken down the hostilities that had been between them and he has brought them to kneel before God in prayer. So, even though the cultural markers still remained, nonetheless, there is now unity and peace. The prayer that is being prayed is the prayer of Jesus, the “Our Father”, or as the Jewish believers would say, “Our Abba”, and the Greek speaking believers would say, “Our Pater”. This prayer, also known as the Lord’s Prayer begins with the petition, “Our Father, hallowed, or holy be your name”. Paul perhaps has this petition in mind because what is being asked for is that the name of our Heavenly Father be understood as being holy. What we know about the holiness of God, what sets him a part from the commonness of this world is his love, that God is the one who loves the just and the unjust, and it is God who loves the evil as well as the good. We as his sons, those who will receive an inheritance from our Heavenly Father, we are the ones who are to witness to the world that what sets our God apart from this world is his holy love.

          We who know that we are indebted to God for our very lives, we are the ones who must love with the holy love of God so that those in the world might know that there is a God in this world and he is a God who, in his holy love, treasures every life. This is why Paul makes perfectly clear that our eternity hinges on our willingness to suffer just as Christ suffered with us. You see, what Christ proved to us is that to love others with the holy love of God means that suffering should be expected. This holy love will not always be returned with love, sometimes all that can be expected is injustice and evil, yet nonetheless, the love of God must be shown to all people. Yet only by loving others with the holy love of God are we able to witness to the power and victory of this holy love over the power of death. Suffering is merely the powers of death that have their way in the lives of people. So when we bring the holy love of God to another life suffering at the hands of the power of death this is when we will have a front seat to watch as another life is transformed by the God who treasures them. This victory of God’s holy love over the powers of death is called glory. Those who enter into eternal glory are those who are forever certain of the victory of the holy love of God over the power of death. This is the very basis of our resurrection faith.

         As Paul ponders on the glory, this victory of God’s holy love over the powers of death, it is easy to see that just the thought of the coming glory overwhelms his thoughts. Paul ponders on the wonder of creation, how it waits, searching the horizon, longing to catch a glimpse of yet another soul who has experienced the victory of love over death. Creation knows that with every life transformed, it draws closer to being set free from its bondage to decay.  To understand what Paul is getting at here we must first realize that, as we are told in the twenty-fifth verse of the third chapter of Romans, that because of the righteousness of God, he has passed over the former sins until the coming of Jesus. This meant that because sin was rampant over all of creation, the very purpose for creation was put on hold. This is what Paul meant when he says that creation was “subject to futility”. Now that the children of God are being born, at last creation can once again fulfill its purpose, as we hear of it in the second chapter of the prophet Habakkuk, “…for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” This worldwide presence of glory happens as the children of God take into their hands God’s creation and offer this creation back to God as actions of holy love which are victorious over the powers of death. This glorious hope that God is bringing about is why we are told that creation is groaning and suffering because it longs to be fully set free from the power of death, this bondage to decay. Not only is creation groaning, but the Spirit is groaning and those who are led by the Spirit, they too, we are told, join in this hearts cry for life to come forth out of death. Paul, at the beginning of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, helps us understand what this groaning is when he writes, that he groans because he yearns for all that is subject to death to be at last swallowed up by life. This groaning then is a hearts cry for life’s victory over death. Much like Jesus groaned when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, so too we groan. Our hearts, united with God and his creation, long for a life of holy love to come and swallow up death forever. One day we will at last have physical bodies whose very breath and life is the Holy Spirit, his love effortlessly moving us in ways that bring honor and glory to God with no thoughts whatsoever about fear, anxiety or worry. This is what we are to desire, to long for, to thirst and hunger for this righteousness to come here on earth just as it is in heaven. This longing, this groaning that rises as a sigh from our hearts, this is what is to focus our minds upon the ways of the Spirit. It is this grand vision of glory washing over all of creation like the waters of the sea, this is what prevents those who follow Jesus from getting distracted with all that may divide us. Instead, our hearts in concert with the very heart of God are to long for that glorious day to come, to ache with the sighs of a longing heart until at last all of creation will be permeated with the glory of God.

         You see, the reason that this church had troubles that Paul had to address is that they no longer had a heart which longed to be swallowed up in life, the life of the living presence of the holy love of God, the very life lived in the Spirit of God. This being swallowed up in life, this is our hope, this is what we are waiting eagerly to experience, at least we should be, for this is our salvation. Yes, we cannot see such a world right now, but this is exactly why it is our hope, something beyond our sight which must be known by faith. This faith that we have, that one day the knowledge of the glory of God will cover all of God’s creation like the waters cover the sea, this can only be ours through prayer. Paul, at last, comes back to that time of prayer that he hinted at earlier, where he spoke of this church saying, “Abba, Pater”. As Paul knows of the people of this church at Rome, they come to this time of prayer as weak people, people for whom this victorious life of holy love seems so impossible. But as they pray, they find that the Holy Spirit finds them right where they are at, and he reaches into their life from beyond where they are at. In that moment, the holy love of God pours out from heaven into their hearts as the heart of God cries out, with a longing that words simply cannot express. There in that moment, this is when we encounter the God who searches hearts. It seems that here Paul is quoting from the forty-fourth Psalm, where in the twentieth verse, the writer of the Psalm asks, “If we have forgotten the name of our God or if we have spread out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search these things out? For he knows the secrets of our heart.” God searches our hearts to see if we remember his name, his unchanging character, that he is a God of faithful, steadfast love. In our weakness, we do forget, we forget it is this holy love of God which should be guiding our thoughts and actions. But praise be to the Spirit, the living presence of the holy love of God, who reaches in to our lives and there, in the Spirit, our hearts are filled with holy love, and we are transformed into saints, holy people, because of God’s holy love. Through the Spirit we become people who are no longer weak, but fully able to be people marked by the holy love of God. So, it is in our times of prayer, when we encounter the Spirit, this is when our faith in the victory of God’s love is restored. We rise from our prayer in the certainty of the power of a life filled to overflowing of the holy love of God. So, we must keep on praying, and we must continue to invite the Spirit to be with us, to fill us with his love. This is a life which remembers that we are debtors, those who were once people who had fallen short of the glory of God but now, through the Spirit, we are filled with the holy love of God. As we go out into the world, loving on the suffering of this world with the holy love of God we will witness the power of this love over death. In that moment let us shout, “Victory, praise be to God!”, for we have indeed, at last, become people of his glory! Amen!

 

A Priestly Mind

 August 6 2023

Romans 8:1-11

         To say that these times are anxious times, might be an understatement. Yet if truth be told, every age has always had its reason to be anxious and worried. When we find ourselves overwhelmed by what seems to be the shaking of our foundations we rightly begin to wonder, does God have anything to say about our concerns and our fears or are we merely to face life with a stiff upper lip. No, God most assuredly is aware of our anxieties and worries yet his answer as to how we are to face such times may not be exactly the solution that we hope for. It also may surprise us that God’s answer as to how we are to be set free from all that eats away at us is to be found right here in the first few verses of the eighth chapter of the book of Romans.

To help us get a better grasp of what is happening here in this letter that Paul has written to the Church at Rome we need to remember what we have been taught since we began our study in the fifth chapter of this letter. We might recall that what justifies us is our resurrection faith, this belief that our God can indeed give life to the dead and he is the one who can call into existence those things which do not exist. This is the faith that justifies our claim of being righteous, the faith that backs up our claim that we have peace with God. It is resurrection faith which opens the way for us to be welcomed into the very love which God the Father has always loved the Son, this place called grace.  Jesus welcomes us home and he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the one who pours the very love of God into our hearts. This is the beginning of this journey that Paul is leading us on. As we follow Paul we discover that God stands with us, this is how he shows his love for us. For God to be able to stand with us he had to forgive us through what Jesus did for us on the cross. God forgave us when we were weak in our faith, those who dishonored him, sinners, his very enemies. The take away for all of us is that if we wish to remain standing with God then we too have to forgive others and be reconciled with them. This is the only way for us to remain standing with God.  

Paul then gave us a little history lesson beginning with the sin of Adam up through the time when God gave Israel the Law. What was discovered was that the Law made sin all the more powerful. Yet what was also discovered is that God, in his love, remained faithful to Israel when they were obedient to do what the Law called them to do and, surprisingly, God, in his love, remained faithful to Israel when their sin became so great that he was justified in his exiling Israel off to Babylon. The reason why God never abandoned Israel when they sinned against him is that the love of God is holy. This holy love is the love of the God who treasures us simply because this is what God chooses to do. So, when we come up out of the waters of our baptism, we are to live as those who have been set free from the slavery of sin. In our freedom we are free to choose just who it is that we shall serve, sin or God. Since we know that our God is a God who treasures us, the God whose love for us never waivers, since this is true of God then it makes sense that we would treasure God. God becomes for us our treasure who is in heaven. When we treasure God then we treasure the words that God speaks to us, obedient to do what God is calling us to do. And as Jesus teaches us in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where our treasure is this is where our heart is. 

Last week, Paul was teaching us that our goal for us who now live on resurrection ground is that we are to bear fruit for God now that we are dead to the Law. As we discovered last week, this bearing fruit is when we allow our life to be given to God as our love offering to him. Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than the one who lays down his life for his friends. This is what Jesus has done for us and this is how we too are to love, with the willingness to give our very life, if necessary, out of our love for God. 

Now if you look back over what we have learned so far, what we find is that Paul has called us to treasure who is in heaven, our Heavenly Father. And since we make our Heavenly Father our treasure then we know that he is held dear in our hearts. And when our lives our offered up to God as a love offering this is when we bear fruit for God. Compare this to what Jesus called the Great Commandment from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, “Hear O, Israel: The Lord our God is one. You shall love the Lord you God with all of your heart, with all of your life and with all of your resources. You see, when you treasure God then this is when God is loved dearly from ones heart. And when one offers their life as an act of love to God this is when one can say that they love God with their very life. So, at last, we come to our might, all of the resources that God has so graciously given to us. These resources are to no longer be our treasures on earth, but instead we are to ask just how is God to be loved through all that he has given to us? Now, it is probably pretty difficult for us to see how what Paul is saying here, how this has anything at all to do with how we are to love God with our resources especially when this chapter begins,“ There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” Quite often we simply hear this as the good news that for those who are in Christ Jesus never have to fear being found condemned by God. This might be the way you too may have understood what Paul is saying here and this is very much true, but, what if, Paul is saying to his audience that therefore there should be no condemning of one another among those who are found in Christ Jesus? It becomes clearer that this is what Paul is telling us when we see that what he is writing here is a continuance of what he was writing in the seventh chapter concerning our bearing fruit for God. After Paul warns his audience that at one time they were bearing nothing more than fruit for death but now, released from the Law, having died to that which held them captive, now they were to serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. This is where Paul picks up this thread at the beginning of the eighth chapter. He continues by stating that now, because they are released from the Law, having died to that which held them captive, there is to be no passing of a sentence of judgment upon someone who belongs to Christ Jesus. We shouldn’t be doing such things because, as Paul explains, it is the law of the Spirit of life, this is what has set us free from the law of sin and death. So, it is the Spirit, this is who has set us free from this focus on death, on the judging and condemning others to death, because this is not what we are about, because we have been give the Spirit of life. God has done what the law could never do; God gave us life. Where our flesh had no power to fulfill the Law and we therefore were as good as dead, God came along and gave us life.  It was Jesus who came in the likeness of sinful flesh to take his life and give himself as a love offering all so that he could pass judgment upon the sin which kept our flesh from bringing glory to God. This means that if we are to be living people who can bring forth the righteousness God demands, then we must be people who rely upon the power of the one that Paul calls the Spirit of life.   

As Paul continues in this eighth chapter, it becomes obvious that we must figure out just what Paul means by, “life in the flesh”, and, “life in the Spirit”. It is Jesus who teaches us about this difference at the end of the sixth chapter of Matthew, stating, “Therefore, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on?”. You see these are the questions of a life focused solely upon the concerns of what Paul calls our, “flesh”. The focus of such a life is doing whatever we need to do to just live as long as humanly possible. Such a life with a mindset fueled by fear, loss, anxiety and worry, this is a life that is no life at all. It is a life where death has won because it is death which is really calling the shots.

         Yet all is not lost because Paul also speaks about life in the Holy Spirit. Instead of life in the flesh where all one can think about is death, when our minds are set on the Spirit, this is when we have life and peace. This phrase, “…life and peace”, seems to be an echo of a verse Paul knew from the second chapter of the prophet of Malachi where God, speaking of the Leviticus priests, said, “My covenant with him was one of life and peace and I gave it to them. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.” A life where the mind is set on the Spirit, then, is one that thinks of themselves as being priests to God. When the Spirit dwells in us, his holy love overwhelming us, then our greatest concern becomes life, a life given for all as an act of peace. As a priest who seeks life, we are to be people who are focused on offering and sacrifice, the giving of ones life so that others might live because this is the Jesus way. Instead of being driven by the fear of death, those who are priests fear only God. They are in awe of the name of God, amazed by his faithful, steadfast love which when enfleshed by our life became a life willing to offer itself for us. In the light of such a mighty act of God all other fears fall away and in their place is found our faith.

         Now, here is the very big difference between these two very different ways of life, the one where the mind is set on the flesh or the life where the mind is set on the Spirit, and that is that the mind set on the flesh can not please God. The reason for this is that the flesh is weak, it simply has no power to live a life that is ordered by the ways of God. Yet all is not lost because God promises us that blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. The blessing of living life under the reign of God begins with the admission that we are people who just do not have what it takes to be the righteous people that we should be. We need to come to the point where we know that we are people deserving of death yet it is there, in our sorrow at the state of our future, this is where God finds us, and he gives himself to us so that we might have life. This is the law of the Spirit, the very ways of God, this giving of life where life is needed, this is what sets us free from the law of sin and death. And God wonders, do we desire to be his kinds of people, people who caught up in the Spirit of God, caught up in following the ways of God, ready to offer all that we have and all that we are, to be those priests who bring life to those who so desperately are seeking life?  Those who live in the Spirit, those who seek to live by the ways of God, these are the ones called by Jesus, here at the end of the sixth chapter of Matthew, those who seek first the kingdom. If we are willing to make living this kingdom life our top priority then this is when Jesus goes on to promise us that our Heavenly Father will most assuredly watch over us, meeting all of of our needs. You see, when we live with our minds on the Spirit, experiencing life and peace as priests of God, we are living lives which point to the great truths about God. One of these truths is found in the sixth chapter of Luke, where Jesus orders us to give, give and it will be given to us in good measure. Jesus gives us this image of how God gives back to us saying that he will give us until eight have to take his abundance and, press it down, shake it together, and just let it run over to spill unto your lap. Because the truth is the measure you use, this is the measure God will use to give back to you.” The evidence of the truth of this promise of Jesus is ours to find out whenever our minds are set upon the Spirit. When we know ourselves as priests, when we know that we are those who are to be offerers of the offering of ourselves, giving our lively hood to those who need life, this is when we will see for ourselves that you just can’t out give our God. And you know what happens when you get on, giving to others what God has given to you and finding that God really does keeps on giving, this is when the worry and anxiety that you used to have, just doesn’t cross your mind anymore. Could we even go so far as to say that if we do have anxieties and worries that this is really our warning that we have stopped looking for the kingdom,  that we have stopped looking for those in need of the life that you and I can share with them. So, not only does setting our mind on the Spirit focus us on trying to out give God but, by the Spirit, we have also loved others as we would want to be loved. Through the Spirit, then, we have come to love God with all of our heart when we treasure the one who treasures us; through the Spirit we have offered up our very lives to God as an act of the greatest love of all; and, now, we, as priests to God, we take into our hands all of the bounty God has given to us and we give it to others as actions of life and peace. So, yes, it is the Spirit of God, this is who has caused the righteousness of God to be found in us. Our bodies may be dead because of sin but we can say that the Spirit is life because of the righteousness that is now found in us. You see, Paul began this eighth chapter stating that now there should no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul is saying that the ways of death, threatening others with a judgment of death, these are not the ways of Jesus because the ways of Jesus are not focused on death but are instead focused on life. Our minds are to be set on the ways of life because the ways of life are the very ways of the Holy Spirit. So, let us be done with the ways of death, the ways that drive us mad with worry and anxiety and instead, let us set our minds on the Spirit, so that we, as priests to God, can be said to be bringing life and peace wherever we go. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we who have found life in Christ were known as being those who bring life and peace wherever in the world we might go? So, remember this, we are priests to God, we are the ones  who offer the offering of ourselves, fully certain that we can never out give God who has given us life!. Amen!

 

Bearing Fruit

 July 30 2023

Romans 7

         The best part of this time of year is not the excessive heat and the suffocating humidity but it is rather the fact that there is less than a month to go until football is back. For me, and a lot of guys like me, the longest period of time is the months between the beginning of February and the end of August. But we have made it once again and it is hard to say just why football is so enjoyable but it might be that scoring in football is pretty straight forward. You have four tries to move the ball ten yards and if you’re successful in moving the ball down the field you can score either with a touchdown, six points and an extra point if you have a decent kicker, or a field goal that will get you three points. And while scoring in football is pretty straight forward the ways a team can move the ball or keep the ball from moving is what makes the game interesting.

         So, yea, its easy for us to figure out how points are scored in any game out there, to know just what is the goal we are aiming for, but when it comes to the church it is sometimes difficult to honestly say just when do we score the points, to know just when is it that we have crossed the goal line. So, I was fascinated by Paul in this seventh chapter of his letter to the church at Rome that here in among his writing about the Law, he pauses to remind his audience just what is the point of it all, which is that they were to be people who are to bear fruit. Paul appears to be covering a little of what he has previously said because in the fourth verse of this seventh chapter, Paul writes, “Likewise, my brothers and sisters, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead…”. This is much of what Paul has already said about what happens in our baptism, that because we belong to Jesus Christ when we were plunged beneath the water we joined him in his death so that upon rising up from the water we too are raised with Christ from the dead. This is wonderful news for all of us yet even so, there was something further that is expected from us when we have died to our past to take hold of this new future that is ours when we belong to Jesus and that is that we are to bear fruit for God. This is the goal that we as the church, those of us who make up the team of God, this bearing fruit is what we are to be busy doing. As Paul tells us, when we were in the flesh, before we belonged to Christ, before we were buried beneath the waters, “…living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work to bear fruit for death.” So for Paul we are all going to bear some type of fruit with this life we have been given, either we will bear fruit for God or we will bear fruit for death. The question all of us have to answer is this:, just which team to you want to be a part of, the team that is all about bearing fruit for God or do you want to be part of the team which is bearing fruit for death?  

         Well, it probably goes without saying that we would rather be part of the body of Christ whose goal is to bear fruit for God than to just waste our lives bearing fruit for death. For most of us though, when told that we are to bear fruit for God we are hard pressed to say just what it means to bear fruit for God or what actually is involved in order for us to bear fruit for God. Paul speaks about bearing fruit for God in the first chapter of his letter to the church at Colossae where he instructs his readers that he is praying for them so that they,“…may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God in all spiritual wisdom and being of a like mind with God so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the hands-on experience of God.” This bearing fruit for God happens rather organically, beginning with being filled with knowing the will of God, becoming aware of the ways of God and how to be of one mind with him. Out of a heart and a mind that longs to know God comes a life that walks in a manner worthy of God, a life ready to join God in his good works. This is what Jesus is teaching us when he tells us in Matthew 5:16, that we are to, “…let our light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” As we bring forth good works a dark world suddenly is lit up as when the dawn breaks across the morning sky and our Heavenly Father is praised and glorified. There is only one other place in the gospels that speaks of the Father being glorified and this is found in the eighth verse of the fifteenth chapter of John where Jesus tells us , “ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Jesus goes on to explain that this bearing of fruit comes from abiding or resting in the love of Jesus. Jesus goes on to say that when we keep his commandments that this is when we will be resting in his love. And here is what Jesus calls us to do, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend.” A greater love has come, a light has dawned, good works are being done which reflect the goodness of God and the Father is glorified; all of this is bearing fruit for God.

         This greater love, this is a love that compels one to take their life and give this life for the good of others, the very essence of good works.This is why we must hear Jesus again speak to us of bearing fruit, from the twenty-fourth verse of the twelfth chapter of John where Jesus tells us, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” You see, only as we know with utmost certainty that we have indeed been raised with Christ, only as our faith is resurrection faith can we be those who willingly offer up our life in an act of greatest love. Only as we have been united with Christ in a death like his and know that we have been united in a resurrection like his can we now fully offer ourselves in love to God, bearing fruit in the hope of resurrection expectation. 

This way of offering the total sum of our life as an act of greater love is so very different than life under the law. The law that God gave to his people, while being, as Paul tells us, “…holy, righteous, and good…”,could only bring forth the fruit of death because it focused all those who were under the Law on their own ability to keep the Law. To keep the Law was a never ending struggle as even Peter, in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Acts, said that the Law was a yoke that he nor his ancestors were able to bear. Life under the Law focused ones attention on how very frail and vulnerable they were. As Paul writes here in the seventh chapter of Romans, ‘For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.” And a little further in his letter, Paul writes, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” This awareness of how weak our flesh really is leads to fear, fear of judgment and condemnation. Yet all is not lost for these, all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery, these are the very ones Christ came to deliver. And the way that Christ delivers us from a life time of fear is through his love. In the first letter that John wrote, in the fourth chapter, we are told that, “…there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” Here, at the depth of our despair, Jesus finds us, and he loves us with the greatest love of all, laying down his life, taking upon himself our failure and our shame there upon the cross. For those who know no good thing dwells in them, Jesus calls to them to come to him and abide. Come and abide, come and rest in his love until his love becomes our love. As Jesus loved us with the greatest love of all, laying down his life for us, so now he calls us to make his perfect love to be the life that pulsates within us. Filled with his love, Christ calls us to join him in his death, and rise with him in resurrection life. With resurrection faith, the faith that believes in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things which do not exist, we are at last able to be like a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and bears much fruit for God. 

         You see, what Paul is addressing here is what one is to do once they have been baptized. Some who were formally Jewish in this church at Rome thought that once a person has been baptized the next step is to become Law abiding members, those who obeyed the entirety of the Law. Paul, though, wanted them to understand that to expect someone to become followers of the Law would be nothing more than having them become those who were at the beck and call of sin.  No, what is supposed to follow our baptism is that we might learn to live as those who have been raised from the dead. As those who no longer who are bound by fear we at last are able to be those who offer up our lives just as Christ offered up his life for us. Resting in Christ, allowing his greater love to become our love, we will bear much fruit for God, fruit that springs forth from the love within us. Those who wanted to return to the Law would become fearful people, judgmental and condemning of others who could not make the grade. But we are those who know that Jesus Christ has done all that he has done for us all so we might bear fruit for God. This means that we know that we can only reach this goal through the love of God that has searched for us and welcomed us home. It is this perfect love of Jesus which takes and perfects us to the glory of God. So, we can say, yes, this is who we are,  people who know that our goal as team Jesus is to bear fruit for God. This means that we stand ready to lay down our lives, ready to be planted as a seed, ready give ourselves as a love offering to God, for we know that this is the only worthy response to give to the one who gave himself as a love offering for each one of us.  Amen!