This is my sermon from Sunday, 3 November 2013; preached at New Hope Anglican Church, in Oakville, CT

All Saints Sunday                               Rev 7:9-17; Mt 5:1-12

“Letting the Light Shine Through”

I. Windows “Washed In the Blood of the Lamb”

Many of you are probably familiar with the story of a Sunday School class of elementary aged students that was discussing the idea of the saints the Sunday before All Saints Day.  The teacher asked, “Who is a saint?”  One kid said, “A really, really good person.”  Another said, “Someone who prays a lot.”  A third said, “Someone who never gets angry.”  One little boy sat and thought for a bit.  He remembered the big stained glass windows in the church building.  His parents had pointed out that one was about St Paul, and another about St Mary, and another St Peter.  Thinking about those windows, and the sun streaming through the colors of the stained glass gave him an answer: “Saints are the people the light shines through!” he exclaimed.

And that is really the best answer.  Saints are not amazingly good, prayerful, or peaceable people – saints are people through whom shines the light of Christ.  This past Friday was All Saints Day, a day on which we remember the many saints who have been and who still are serving the Lord in their daily lives and occupations.

We tend to think of saints in the same way that the kids in that Sunday School class did: saint are especially good, or extraordinarily prayerful, or exceptionally self-controlled.  However, when Paul wrote to the churches scattered around the Mediterranean during the first thirty or so years after Christ died, he addressed them to “the saints in Corinth” or the saints who are Ephesus,” or wherever it was he was writing.  From the letters, it is clear that many of the believers were in serious error of belief, or action, or both – but Paul did not write to “the saints and other believers in Corinth;” he simply wrote “to the saints who are in…”  From the New Testament usage, the word “saint” is not a special category of Christian, but rather that a saint is anyone who believes in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord.  The original, literal meaning of the word “saint” is “one set apart for God.”  The word “saint” does not describe a person’s moral condition; it describes their spiritual status: they belong to God.

A moment or so ago, I said that saints are the ones that the light shines through.  If these two things are true, how are they related to each other?  The answer lies in the spiritual realities that accompany faith in Christ.  Being a Christian is not simply intellectual assent to the essential teachings of the Christian Church – it is a dynamic connection with God in which he is at work in us.  Having been set apart for God through our reliance upon his mercy in Jesus Christ, he is at work within us, and his presence shines through us.  It is a lifelong process, and it is never fully completed in this lifetime – but through the power of the Holy Spirit, the light of Christ shines through ever more strongly.

II. The Foundation of Our Transformation

In the reading from Rev 7, we hear of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”  When John is asked who these people are, his response is, more or less, “I don’t know, but I am sure that you do.”  John’s angelic escort tells him, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

These are the saints of God, coming out of all times and all nations, and all languages.  They have come, the angel says, “out of the great tribulation.”  One popular view of the tribulation is that it is a seven-year period of intense persecution just before Christ returns to establish his kingdom, but that is not the only way to understand the tribulation, especially since the number seven is often used symbolically to refer to completeness.  I believe that the tribulation is the entire time period between the ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven and his physical return to establish his kingdom in its fullness.  This vast multitude gathered before the throne and worshiping are all the saints – all those who have entrusted themselves to the Lord Jesus, from the first disciples up to whenever the Lord returns – be that this afternoon or ten thousand years from now.

This vast multitude are the saints.  They vary in nationality, ethnicity, language, and culture; they vary in personalities, skills, talents, and interests; they vary in spiritual gifts, in status as lay or ordained, in the nature and timing of their conversion to Christ, and in their roles within the local congregation.  But there is one thing – one essential thing – that they all have in common: as verse 14b says, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  Whatever variable things there may be among the saints, that one thing is essential.  If you are a believer, you have admitted that you are dirty and need to be cleansed, and you have trusted not yourself or your own efforts, but the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross as atonement for our sins.  As the Apostle John said in his first letter, in 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  The blood of Jesus makes us clean: we are forgiven.  And it is not a conditional forgiveness, as if the Lord were saying, “I’m wiping the slate clean and giving you a second chance, so be careful from now on.”  No, it is complete forgiveness for all our sins.  As Paul says in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”  We have access to God the Father, through the blood of his Son.  We have been reconciled to God, he has forgiven us completely, and his has sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, so that we will be changed.  Romans 8:29 has been overshadowed by the verse that precedes it, but Romans 8:29 is an even more powerful verse: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”  God intends to restore in us the fullness of the image of God, an image that was marred by our rebellion against God.  We are promised in verse 28 that “All things work together for good,” – and that good is that we will be like Christ.

Our spiritual foundation is that one thing: the blood of Christ.  It has been shed as an atoning sacrifice on our behalf, and it cleanses us from sin.  We are acceptable to God, for he declares innocent.  Indeed, he declares us as fully righteous.  On the cross, he took our sins upon himself.  In his resurrection, he gives to us who trust him the righteousness that is his from his fully obedient life.  We are not only “not guilty,” we are fully accepted as having completely obeyed the Law.  In Romans 5:17, Paul speaks of those who trust Christ as being “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness.”  We need have no fear in coming to God in prayer; he sees us as he sees his Son.  We have Jesus’ righteousness.

As Christians, as saints, this is our spiritual position: we are forgiven and we have credited to us the very righteousness of Christ.  We stand with that noble and vast crowd, those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.  Through this truth, and through the reality that the Holy Spirit has made his dwelling in us, we have the light within us that can shine out to a dark and troubled world.

III. Analyzing the Need

We have also read from the first verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.”  In this reading, we hear the Beatitudes, in which Jesus says that those who exhibit the qualities he lists will be blessed and joyful.  “Blessed are the merciful” does not make sense to many people; it is, after all, a “dog eat dog world” and we need to defend ourselves, or even attack first lest we be overwhelmed.  The Beatitudes sound lovely, especially in King James English, when you are in the stillness of a worship service – but they can certainly be dim and distant on a Tuesday morning when you are fighting traffic on the way to an important meeting.

Nevertheless, the Beatitudes are what Jesus taught as being the truth of life: it is blessed to be poor, to mourn, or to seek righteousness as if your life depended on it.  It is even blessed to be threatened with death because you have allied yourself to Jesus.

Let me read those seven key traits again, verses 3-9: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

If these things are blessed, then these are what we should seek – although I will hasten to say that seeking persecution is wrong.  However, if you seek the things listed in verses 2-9, you will be persecuted.  The world (those who ignore God) does not like godly people, so seeking persecution is not needed. But seeking will be needed to grow in having poverty of spirit, an attitude of mercy, a willingness to let go of your own agenda, or a desire to be at peace with others.  These things go against the grain of how the world works.

When a person who is set apart for God is mature, these are the qualities that will be part of their life.  When a person has these qualities, light shines through them.  Indeed, light begins to shine long as these qualities are being developed in a Christian’s life.

If that is true, then how do we manifest these qualities?  The classic American way of going about such a process is to ask, “Where do I want to be?  Where am I now?  How can I take steps to move from here to there?”  As those questions are dealt with, a plan is formed – steps to take to move from where I am now to where I want to be.  Anytime you go through a supermarket check-out line, you are going to see this idea on the covers of the magazines: “Thirty Days to a New You!”  “Five Easy Steps to Family Harmony.”  You have all seen things like this – and perhaps have bought a magazine with some hope of making progress in some area of your life.  Almost everyone wants to get better in some way.

There is one problem with this approach with regard to spiritual growth: it doesn't work.  It’s not a bad idea, and it might be part of what enables us to grow spiritually – but it is impossible to do the job all by itself.  We human beings are complex creatures.  We are intellectual, social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual beings, and anything that seeks to make a life change through only one of those aspects of being human will prove to be insufficient.

We are intellectual beings, and we need to understand a problem and be able to devise a logical plan.  We are social beings, and we need encouragement from others when things are difficult, or someone to be glad with us when we are glad.  We are psychological beings, and we need to know something about ourselves.  One of the most helpful books I have read is called Telling Yourself the Truth.  We all tell ourselves lies about life:  One possible lie is “If this person rejects me, I am worthless.”  We tell ourselves lies that block the reality that one person cannot give you worth.  It may be deeply painful to have someone important to you reject you – but that is not a measure of your worth.  Your worth comes from God who created you and who loved you even as a sinner.

It is important to deal with the intellectual, social, emotional, and psychological aspects of our lives.  As I said, we are complex creatures, and there is no simple answer to any of the challenges we face.  We need to work through these areas as we grow.  The most important aspect of our nature, however, is that we are spiritual beings – and we need to use spiritual means in order to grow spiritually.  Those other elements are important, but they are not sufficient in themselves.  We need not just a plan, not just a reality check about our emotions and patterns of thinking – we need spiritual help.

Pastor J. D. Greer writes: “Think of [our relationship with Christ] like a balloon. There are two ways to keep a balloon afloat. If you fill a balloon with your breath, the only way to keep it in the air is to continually smack it upward. That’s how [mere] religion keeps you motivated: it repeatedly ‘hits’ you. ‘Stop doing this!’ ‘Get busy with that!’  This is my life as a pastor.  People come on Sunday so I can ‘smack’ them about something.  ‘Be more generous!’ And they do that for a week.  ‘Go do missions!’  And they sign up for a trip.  Every week I smack them back into spiritual orbit.  No wonder people don’t like being around me.

But there's another way to keep a balloon afloat.  Fill it with helium.  Then it floats on its own, no smacking required.  Seeing the size and beauty of God is like the helium that keeps us soaring spiritually.”

Guilt is indeed a powerful motivator, which is why it is easy for pastors to start using it.  But guilt is like a whip cracking in your ear – it motivates by fear.  We can easily become driven by fear of finding that God’s patience with us has run out.  But the reality is that his grace truly is gracious – he offers us unmerited favor.

There is a story told about a mother who came to Napoleon on behalf of her son, who was about to be executed. The mother asked the ruler to issue a pardon, but Napoleon pointed out that it was the man’s second offense and justice demanded death.  “I don’t ask for justice,” the woman replied. “I plead for mercy.”

The emperor objected, “But your son doesn't deserve mercy.”

“Sir,” the mother replied, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask.”  Her son was pardoned.

God offers us mercy in abundance.  As C. S. Lewis once observed, “The Christian does not think that God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us.”  The Beatitudes tell is where God wants us to be, but it is a misunderstanding of how God works in us to think that he tells us where he wants us to go and says, “All right, now it’s up to you.”

In order to grow into the characteristics expressed in the Beatitudes, we read them carefully, confess to God we are not there, and pray that he would empower us to grow into them. Indeed, given that there are so many areas in which we need to grow, the sane prayer is to ask God, “Where do you want me to start?  Show me the next thing to do, so that I can make progress.”

Last August, my son did a full Ironman competition – 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running.  He did not, of course, just show up on August 18^th and cover these 140.6 miles of strenuous activity without having done anything else.  Rather, he began over a year beforehand, running a bit one day, biking another, swimming another, as he conditioned his body for endurance and strengthened it to be able to run, ride, or swim more effectively.  He started small and kept at it, increasing his activity a little at a time.  With this kind of thoughtful preparation he was able to complete the competition in 12 ½ hours.  It was far from easy, but because he approached the day gradually and thoughtfully, he was able to finish well.

Read the Beatitudes and ask God, “Where should I start?”  The Lord might tell you to take the area where you are weakest – or perhaps the area where you are currently the strongest, so that you can grow more there and that area can serve as something of an anchor for growth in other areas.  Because we are intellectual, social, emotional, and psychological beings as well, it can be helpful to use such things as personality analyzers or spiritual gift inventories.  The spiritual dimension is foundational and essential, but it is not alone.  If we ignore the spiritual dimension, we will be frustrated, for our problems all have a spiritual aspect that must be dealt with.  But if we let other aspects go in order to be “spiritual” we ignore tools that God has given us.

IV. Letting Our Light Shine

There are three things that I believe are essential in this process of spiritual growth.  One is regular study of the Bible.  When we read the Bible regularly and thoughtfully, allowing it to search our hearts, we know God better and we know ourselves better.  A second thing is prayer, which is a conversation with the living God who hears us – and who will speak to us. He will not use audible words, but he will bring Scripture to mind, or remind us of something a friend told us, or give us an insight into a situation that helps us to see the spiritual dimension that is going on there.

The third thing is a little harder to describe because it is not as objective as Bible study or as orderly as prayer – and that is keeping an eye out for God and his work as you go about your day: looking for answers to prayer, being aware of your heart, paying attention to the people around you to see their needs or their strengths, being aware of divine coincidences, and so on.

If you can build such foundational activities into your walk with God, you will make progress as one through whom the light shines.  As you take the Beatitudes or the list of the fruit of the Spirit as a way to look for an area to grow these basic disciplines will help you to grow.  You will be deepening your relationship to the Lord, and as you do his light will shine through you more and more.

I do think we need to look at our lives and see areas where we need to change in order for the light to shine more fully through us.  But when we look at them, we cannot get bogged down in those things.  We must also keep our eyes on God, remembering the cross where our sins were taken from us, remembering the resurrection, where Jesus rose in victory over sin and death, and rejoicing in God’s love for you and delight in you.  As we see the challenges we face in the light of God’s mercy, power, and love, we can be confident that God is at work in us.  When we pray, think, and plan, God is at work in those processes – and he is also at work in ways we do not see, which is wonderful news – he knows even better than us what is needed and how best to move us along.

Friday was All Saints Day, and today we are gathered as a body of saints in Oakville, Connecticut.  None of us is likely to show up on the calendar of saints that has come about as we seek godly examples of what it means to trust and obey the Lord – but we who trust in the Lord Jesus are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  That is what matters forever – that God has recorded us as his own holy ones, set apart for him.

His love will shine upon us – and as we rejoice in that love, his light will shine through us.  To the Lord who gives us light and life be glory now and forevermore, Amen.

This is the sermon I preached at the Anglican Church of the Redeemer in Norwood on Sunday, July 28th.

28^th July 2013; Pentecost X                Col. 2:6-15

“Growing in Grace by Grace”

I. All is Grace

I recently completed a two-year course to become a spiritual director.  It was a very interesting and helpful course.  I had to read various spiritual classics, such as Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God, learn some new spiritual disciplines, and both give spiritual direction and have a spiritual director myself.  It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it and I was able to grow a lot in it.

One of the things that deeply impressed me as I read works both new and old and as I engaged in spiritual direction was the utter graciousness of God’s grace.  Grace, of course, is a core idea of the Christian faith, and we are familiar with such Bible passages as Ephesian 2:8, 9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  All the authors I read, ancient and modern, spoke of how growth in Christ is a matter of God’s grace at work within us.  St Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun from about 1600, said time and again, “All is grace.”  She and her contemporary, St John of the Cross, both said that while we may engage in prayer, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines, God is the one who gives us the desire to do so, and he is the one who empowers us to meet him and to know him more fully.

It is hard to explain what spiritual direction is to someone who has not engaged in it, but I will try to do so in a few sentences.  To be a spiritual director is to help someone see more clearly what is going on in their own heart as they think of the Lord and to become more aware of his presence – and of things in their thoughts, attitudes, and values that either help one be aware of God’s presence or hinder that awareness.  A spiritual director also helps a person to see the presence of God in the events of their lives.

As I learned about spiritual direction, from reading, from engaging in some new spiritual disciplines, and from being under a spiritual director myself, my breath was taken away by the reality that life with God is indeed all of grace: he pours out his love on us lavishly and freely.  There is nothing we can do to make God’s love come to us or to earn any form of blessing we might seek.  This is true whether we are just beginning our walk with the Lord Jesus or if we have had decades of walking with the Lord seeking to enjoy and serve him.

I speak of this reality because it is at the heart of the passage we read from Colossians, chapter 2.  The key verses in this passage are verses 6 and 7, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”  Paul’s point is that just as the Christians of Colossae received Christ by grace so they need to continue to grow by grace.  All is of grace.

II. Paul Warns the Colossian Christians

The first two verses of our reading from Colossians say “as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”  The next verse of the passage is a warning: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

By “philosophy,” Paul is not referring the academic field of philosophy, which is the study of ways of understanding how life and the universe have meaning.  In New Testament times, “philosophy” could also refer to something smaller than that, such as the teachings of some group, a person’s point of view, or even a set of magical practices.  What Paul is warning the Colossian Christians about is a view that says our life with God depends on something we do, just because we do it.  Our reading stopped with verse 15, but verses 16 and 18 tell us of the specific “philosophy” Paul is warning them against.  These two verses say, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath…  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.”

Many religions of that day had systems of practices – special days, dietary restrictions or requirements, appeals to angelic beings, a focus on special spiritual experiences such as visions, and so on.  There were a great variety of practices and focuses, but the major idea behind nearly all of them was that, if you performed the proper ceremonies, or had the right experiences, or followed a special calendar of feasts and fasts, then the deity was indebted to you, and you would receive a reward of some kind.  There were branches of Judaism that taught these kinds of things, and of course there were many groups among the Gentiles that did as well.  The variety of spiritual teachings and groups would make us dizzy now, and they were probably just as bewildering then to someone exploring the new faith that had arrived, Christianity.

While there are a great variety of religious practices now, I want to mention three basic attitudes that I have found to be common, even among professing Christians.  Each of these is a variation on the idea that there are certain things a Christian is supposed to do – or not do – and that when we do the right things and avoid the wrong things, God is pleased with us, and blessings come.

The most stark example of this attitude is represented by the experience of a man named Kevin Miller.  He says:

When I was five-years-old, I first fully understood the message of these words: “He sees you when you're sleeping, He knows if you're awake, He knows if you've been bad or good, So be good for goodness' sake!”

Until that moment, I had lived in this childhood bliss, in which Christmas was the best day of the year. I had always believed that the gifts at Christmastime were there because Christmas always came with gifts. You could count on them. But now I painfully understood that if I wanted any gifts at Christmas, I had to be good. It was all riding on me. There was this all-seeing, all-knowing Santa, and if there was going to be any gifts, I had better shape up.  But then I thought, How good is "good"? Can a person be "pretty good"? Does Santa understand that I have a twin brother, so I have more reasons to be provoked than other kids?  It was all so worrisome to me.

I grew up a little more and went on to elementary school. In the fourth grade, when I was 9, I continued to learn that all the good stuff in life depends on my effort. We had a reading program called SRA. Here's how it worked: There was a giant box of color-coded cards on the side of the classroom. You went and got one of the cards in the front of the box, read what was on it, and then answered questions about what you'd read. If you got most of the answers right, you moved up to the next highest color—red, yellow, blue, and if you were good enough and worked hard enough, you reached exotic colors, like magenta.  Moving up in SRA was all we cared about, because if you were still on one of the lower-level colors—red or yellow—you were a loser. Everybody's goal was to move up—to work really hard and reach the ultimate pinnacle of fourth-grade glory: aquamarine. But if you wanted the glory, you had to hustle.

I do not know how many people I have met who tell me, “I want to go to heaven when I die, so I am doing the best I can.  If I am good enough, then God will love me, and he will take me to heaven.”  That, of course, leaves you with the questions that five-year-old Kevin was asking, “How good is ‘good enough?’  Does God understand my special circumstances?” and so on.  There have been more than a few people who have simply given up on God, thinking, “I’ll never make it, so why even try.”

A second variation recognizes the reality of grace.  This idea is what you might call, “The God of the Second Chance.”  This view says that God forgives us by his grace because Jesus death atoned for our sins, so we begin over again with a clean slate.  Now that we have a fresh start, the rest is up to us – we must be careful to do what God wants us to do, and to avoid those things he has called sinful.

There was a time in church history when many people delayed their baptism as long as possible, because it was held that all sins committed before baptism would be forgiven, but any sins after baptism had to be confessed and some form of penance done for each of them.  The ideal was to be baptized on your deathbed, so you would have very little time and very little opportunity to commit any sins.  But that plan was always a gamble: if you were killed by an accident or in battle but were not baptized, your certain destination was hell, and nobody wanted that.

Baptism on one’s deathbed is not the ideal any longer, but it makes sense if you take the view that Christ’s death delivers me from all sin before I became a believer so that now I have a second chance.  Most of the time when I encounter something like this idea, it is more like God will give us a second chance, then a third, then a fourth – but one never knows when his patience will run out and no more chances will be given.  And that is a pretty scary way of living with God, when you think about it.

There is a third “philosophy” that recognizes that the death of Christ on the cross was sufficient for all our sins, past, present, and future.  In Colossians 2:13-14, we read, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  God forgives our sins completely.  This third view is convinced of God’s mercy for sin, but is also convinced that growing as a Christian is up to the individual.

The more we do, and the more we try, the better we will be.  A person whose “philosophy” is of this type will say, “The more Christian things I do, the more Christian I will become.”  And so such a person gets into Bible studies, prayer meetings, service projects, church committees, and the like.  Growth comes by effort and by activity.  Differing denominations may have differing clusters of activities that are supposed to be the Christian thing to do, but the purpose is the same: do these, avoid those, and become a better Christian.

III. It’s ALL Grace

Here are the opening verses of our passage again: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

We received Christ by faith, a faith which is itself a gift of God’s grace, and we continue – Paul uses the term “walk,” which meant “to have a pattern of life” – in the same way, by faith, depending upon the Lord and his mercy.  Paul uses two metaphorical words to describe how we grow in verse 7: “rooted” and “built up.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8 tell us of the person who is rooted in God: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Brennan Manning, a former Roman Catholic monk and author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, has a story of how he took the name Brennan.  While growing up, his best friend was Ray. The two of them did everything together: bought a car together as teenagers, double-dated together, went to school together and so forth. They even enlisted in the Army together, went to boot camp together and fought on the frontlines together. One night while sitting in a foxhole, Brennan was reminiscing about the old days in Brooklyn while Ray listened and ate a chocolate bar. Suddenly a live grenade came into the foxhole. Ray looked at Brennan, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar and threw himself on the live grenade. It exploded, killing Ray, but Brennan’s life was spared.  When Brennan became a priest he was instructed to take on the name of a saint. He thought of his friend, Ray Brennan. So he took on the name “Brennan.”  His entire life after that night in the foxhole was colored by the recognition that his best friend had willingly laid down his life for him.  Every decision was made in light of the fact that the only reason he had an opportunity to make a decision was because his friend had died for him.

And Ray Brennan’s deed gave him a deeper understanding of the death of Christ – who did not die for those who loved him already, as Ray died for his friend, but who died, as Romans 8:5 tells us, “while we were still sinners.”  Christ died for us while we were his enemies, opposed to God’s rule over us.  And so, our lives are to be rooted in Christ, depending on him moment by moment, trusting that we are given life and growth through his mercy and power.

Paul also uses the phrase “built up” to describe our Christian lives.  “Rooted” is an agricultural term and “built up” is an architectural one, so Paul is guilty of the grammatical sin of mixing his metaphors – but his point is that we are to increase in our faith and to show that increase in how we live.

I am preaching from our passage in Colossians, but we also read Luke’s account of the giving of the Lord’s Prayer.  That prayer also illustrates the reality that all of life depends on grace.  In the Lord’s Prayer, we do not ask for many things – we ask for basic things – God’s Kingdom, daily bread, forgiveness, protection from the power of temptation.  If we need God’s participation these things, we need him for everything, not just extraordinary things that are beyond our power to influence.  All is of grace in our lives.  All is of grace.

IV. We Act in Grace

When I spoke of my training to become a spiritual director, I talked of learning a number of spiritual disciplines and deepening ones I was already doing.  If all is of grace, then why would I take the time and effort to practice these spiritual disciplines?  If all is of grace, then why pray, read the Bible, attend worship, share our faith, offer help to others, and so on?  Should we not simply wait for God to work in us?

In Phil. 2:12-13, we read, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

There are two ways of engaging in Christian activities.  One is the way I spoke of a few minutes ago: “The more Christian things I do, the more Christian I will become.”  The activity itself produces the change in this way of looking at spiritual activities.  We are rewarded by God because we do what pleases him.  The other way is to say, “God has offered me this path as a way to know him better.  As I engage in this, he will meet me, we will enjoy each other – and he will change me.”

The Celtic Christians used to speak of certain places being “thin places.”  A “thin place” was where the boundary between the physical and the spiritual was not very great; one could experience the reality of God at such a “thin place.”  Spiritual disciplines are a kind of “thin place” right in the midst of our daily activities.  When you engage in prayer, you are opening your heart to God’s presence.  When you study God’s Word, you are opening your mind and heart to God’s way of thinking.  When you share your faith with someone, you are opening your ears and heart to be aware of that person and his or her needs, so that you can speak God’s hope to those needs.  When you serve in a soup kitchen, you are opening your heart to the image of God present in every person, however obscured that image may be by the circumstances of that person’s life.

We neither earn nor deserve anything by engaging in the various spiritual disciplines that are available to us.  We cannot command God, “Now you must love me more, now you must help me.”  But as we engage in activities and disciplines, we see more clearly the presence of the Lord and more aware of his activity in us – and of his activity through us.  We change, not because God is rewarding us, but because we are drinking deeply of the waters of grace as we become more aware of his love for us, his presence in our lives, and his workings the world around us.  The more we see God, the more we are aware of the reality that our lives are all of grace.  And that awareness, through the power of the Holy Spirit, cannot help but change us and enable us to grow in grace.

The final phrase in the two verses from Colossians I have been focusing on is “abounding in thanksgiving.”  The more we are aware that all is of grace, the more thankful to God – and to others – we become.  Everything is a gift to us, and we can rejoice in it because our loving Father has graced us with it.

With that in mind, I would like to conclude with the General Thanksgiving from Morning Prayer: “Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen”

Easter Day, 16^th April 2006                                                               Mark 16:1-8

“Holy Terror”

I.  Totally Unexpected

“They went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mk. 16:8)  The first thing that Easter brought into the world was terror and amazement.  We have gathered today in joy and delight.  We are celebrating something wonderful, and we have taken time, thought, and effort to prepare our celebration.  But Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome were not overjoyed that first Easter.  They were scared out of their wits.

Let’s ponder for a minute why they might be frightened.  Think about the week they had just experienced: first, there was the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, hailed as the Messiah.  Everyone was jubilant, for God was doing something wonderful.  Then there was a week filled with teaching and with Jesus debating the various factions of Jewish leaders.  Then came the feast of the Passover, when the Jews remembered their dramatic rescue from slavery in Egypt.  If God were going to rescue Judea from the Romans, Passover was the perfect time to start the rescue.  Jesus ate the Passover with his twelve disciples, and the women and other followers of Jesus waited expectantly.

Imagine their shock and horror when Friday came and instead of God beginning the rescue from the Romans, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and put on trial.  They watched the dreadful procession to Calvary and the brutal crucifixion of their beloved Lord.  When Jesus died, they watched him taken from the cross and carried to a tomb nearby.  They saw the large stone rolled in place to seal the tomb.  Then night fell, and it was the Sabbath.  They could do nothing on the Sabbath, but when night fell again on Saturday, they rushed to the merchants to buy spices and oils to anoint Jesus’ body.  This was the one last thing that they can do to show their love and devotion.  By the time they bought the needed supplies, it was too dark to go outside the city to the tomb, so the women waited anxiously.  As the skies begin to lighten, they hurried out to the tomb.

They had already had the shock of Jesus’ arrest and execution.  They knew that Jesus had brought the dead back to life, for they had seen or heard about Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and most dramatically, the raising of Lazarus.  But who can bring Jesus back to life?  Evil and death have defeated him.  The women knew, from all too bitter experience, that the dead stay dead.

But when they arrived at the tomb, they found it empty, and a strange young man robed in white spoke to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”  (Mk. 16:6)

These women have been on an emotional roller coaster all week, along with the rest of Jesus’ followers.  Their expectations have been overwhelmed several times.  They wanted to give Jesus one last act of devotion, and now they cannot even do that.  The empty tomb is too great for them to comprehend.  It is no wonder that they are terrified. 

II.  The Heavenly Message: Resurrection

The women are terrified at that moment and they flee from the tomb.  We know from the other gospels that they do not remain terrified and that they eventually reported what they had seen and heard.  Otherwise, Mark would not have known what to write about the events of that first Easter morning.  The women reported the words of the “young man robed in white,” who was an angel, bringing a message from God.  When we look at what the angel said, we see that he brought two important pieces of information.

The first information was the news that Jesus was raised from the dead: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”  The angel directed their attention to the niche in the wall of the tomb where the body of Jesus had been placed.  It was empty.  John reports that the grave clothes in which Jesus had been wrapped were there, empty.  If grave robbers had taken Jesus’ body, they would have taken it still wrapped.  The empty niche and the empty grave clothes pointed to a living Jesus who no longer needed grave clothes.

The angel said, “He has been raised.  He is not here.”  Who raised Jesus?  Of course, we know the answer to that question: God did.  There is another question about Jesus’ resurrection that we seldom ask: Why did God raise Jesus from the dead?  After all, Jesus had come and taught the most wonderful wisdom any great teacher has ever given the human race.  We have the Beatitudes and the summary of the Law.  We have the Lord’s Prayer.  We have the wonderful stories of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.  Perhaps if Jesus had lived longer, we would have more great teachings, but what we have has certainly inspired and guided millions of people for two thousand years.  We have his teachings on life and wisdom; what more do we need?

That is true enough.  But remember who Jesus was.  A few months ago, we celebrated Christmas, the birth of Jesus.  There were angels with messages then as well: “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  (Luke 2:10,11)  At his birth, Jesus was announced as a King and a Savior, not as simply a teacher.

Then on Palm Sunday, Jesus was hailed as a King.  Last week, we read about the crowds shouting “Hosanna!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!”  (Mark 11:9,10)  Jesus accepted these praises offered to a divinely appointed Messiah.  In fact, we know that he went out of his way to enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey, so that the prophecy of Zech. 9:9b would be fulfilled, “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey…”

But then the king was executed.  The Jewish high priest accused him of blasphemy.  He was accused as a rebel against Caesar before the Roman court, and even though Pilate did not believe that Jesus was a leader of insurrection, he still allowed Jesus to be executed as the ringleader of a rebellion.  And when Jesus was executed, he was hung on a cross.  In Dt. 21:23, the Lord says, “Anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.”  Jesus was hung on a tree, accursed by God.

So, on the one hand we have the angelic announcements that came at Jesus’ birth and we have Jesus accepting, even claiming, the crowd’s acclamation of Jesus as the promised Messiah.  On the other hand, we have his execution as a blasphemer and rebel and we have his accursed death on the cross.  Which are we to believe?  If Jesus had remained dead, it would mean that God the Father had repudiated the ministry of Jesus.  It would be as if God had said, “I’m sorry, Jesus.  I had such high hopes for you, but you did not make it.  Your teachings were beautiful, but mistaken.  Your life was a failure.”

But the angel at the tomb said, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”  (Mk. 16:6)  God did not reject the ministry of Jesus.  Raising Jesus from the dead shows that God accepted and affirmed the ministry of Jesus.  All that Jesus taught was true.  Even his accursed death had a purpose.

III.  The Heavenly Message: Grace

The angel’s message at the tomb included more than the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead.  He went on to say, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”  (Mk. 16:7)  I want to focus on the little phrase, “and Peter.”  Why would Peter be singled out for special mention?

It is because Peter had denied Jesus three times.  Before Jesus was arrested, Peter swore that, even if no one else were loyal, he would stand by Jesus no matter what.  After Jesus was arrested, Peter had the courage to follow the arresting party back to the High Priest’s house.  He wanted to stand up for Jesus somehow.  But when a servant girl asked, “Aren’t you one of his followers?” Peter denied even knowing Jesus.  In fact, Peter swore with ferocious oaths that he had nothing to do with Jesus.  When the rooster crowed, Peter remembered that Jesus had foretold that he would deny him, in spite of Peter’s promise to remain loyal. Peter’s grief was overwhelming and he dissolved into tears.  He had failed Jesus totally.  He was filled with grief and guilt.  How could Jesus now have anything to do with him?  Jesus had told his disciples over and over to be loyal.  Peter had sworn to stand up for Jesus against his greatest enemies – and when a little serving girl asked if he was a follower of Jesus, he collapsed.  He was not worthy to be called a disciple.

So when the angel said, “tell his disciples and Peter,” he was saying that Peter was indeed a disciple.  He had failed Jesus, but he was forgiven.  John 21 has the account where Jesus gives Peter face-to-face restoration as a disciple, but the words of the angel at the tomb tell Peter that he is still numbered among the disciples.

The words of the angel are words of grace.  Did Peter deserve to be forgiven?  No.  He had openly sworn loyalty to Jesus and then openly denied him.  One thing that Jesus had taught is found in Lk. 12:8,9, “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”  Peter stood condemned by Jesus’ own teaching.  He knew what Jesus had said and he knew what he had done.  He was without hope.  But then the angel said, “Tell the disciples and Peter,” so that Peter would know that Jesus still loved him and accepted him.  Peter was forgiven and restored.

IV.  Affirmation and Grace to Us

The women had expectations when they went to the tomb that morning.  They expected to find Jesus’ body in the tomb.  They had seen him die; they had seen him buried.  And they knew that dead people stay dead.  They were astonished, and then terrified, when they saw that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb.  The words of the angel only served to deepen their astonishment and terror.  They did not know what was happening; all that they knew was that their world had been turned upside-down.

We have a lot of expectations as well.  I think that one of the most common expectations that we have is that God’s acceptance is performance-based.  That is, if we do what God wants, he will be pleased with us, accept us, and care for us.  That expectation can be turned upside-down if we are going along, being decent a decent person, and then something distressing happens.  What happened to God’s care?  Or, on the other side of things, what happens if we make a huge mistake?  Suppose we recognize after the fact that we have denied God or disobeyed him – not in a little way, but in a huge and horrifying way, like Peter?

Those are huge questions.  I will say one thing about, “What happened to God’s care?”  That is, you have to look at things from the perspective of eternity, not simply the 80 or so years we have on this planet.  God is up to something far bigger than making life comfortable for us.  God does promise to care for those who trust in him – but listen to this, from Mt. 6:31-33, “Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  It is easy to hear the care promised in this verse, and harder to hear, “strive first for the kingdom of God.”

When we recall that phrase, “strive first for the kingdom,” we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of that second question: what happens when we fail God?  Are we hopeless?  Any honest person knows that he or she does not put God’s kingdom first all day every day.

When God the Father raised the Lord Jesus to life that first Easter day, he ratified the ministry of Jesus.  By raising Jesus, the Father was saying, “All that Jesus taught and did was correct.  Depend on it!”  One of the things Jesus taught is Mk. 10:45, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  God the Son served humanity by offering himself as a ransom payment for the sins we have committed.  The Apostle Paul later put it this way, in Col 1:13, “God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

When Jesus sent word of Peter’s forgiveness, he was not telling Peter, “It doesn’t matter.”  He was saying, “Yes, Peter, that was awful – but I have taken care of it.”  In the cross, our disobedience to God has been taken care of.  We are forgiven.

When the women were at the tomb that first Easter morning, they were terrified.  Their beloved Jesus had died and then his body was missing.  But as they pondered the message of the angel, they came to realize two things.  Over the centuries, we have recognized even more.  The message the angel spoke tells us first of all that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Since only God can raise the dead, we therefore know that God approved of what Jesus had done and taught.   Therefore, one excellent response to Easter is to read, study, and live the teachings of Jesus.  What Jesus taught us is not simply inspiring words or good advice; it is a description of what is real and true.  When you buy a new appliance, you read the owner’s manual so that you can operate it properly.  So, read the manual for life that God has given us.

But as you read the Bible, you will discover that you have failed God, as Peter did.  The words of the angel at the tomb tell us that God raised Jesus from the dead, and therefore, God affirms Jesus in his entire ministry – as teacher, as healer, as Savior.  When we go to Jesus and his Word for instruction and guidance, we discover that failure is not final.  Jesus is not a dead teacher; he is a living Savior.  There is nothing he will not forgive, if you come to him.  As the angel said, “Tell the disciples and Peter…”

We are too used to Easter to be scared by it, as the women at the tomb that first Easter were frightened out of their wits.  But be careful with Easter – if you take it seriously, it will turn your life upside-down.

To the Lord who gave his life for us and who rose to give us life be glory now and evermore.  AMEN.

Good Friday Ec. Service, John 19:28 6th April 2012

“I Thirst”

I. THE HUMAN NEED OF JESUS

Years ago, when I lived in Virginia, I had a friend in college who had grown up on a farm. I used to visit him from time to time at the farm, and his father often asked us to help with farm work. One sunny Saturday in June we helped with haying. John’s dad drove the baling machine, and John and I were on a flat-bed trailer to catch the bales of hay and stack them. It was heavy work on a hot day. After a few hours in the June sun, we took a break – and I drank over half a gallon of iced tea. I needed liquid badly after all that hot, dry work.

In John 19:28, Jesus says, “I am thirsty.” Of all the things Jesus says on the cross, this is one of the most understandable and most human. After all, he had been in the hot Judean sun for hours. He had had to do the hard work of carrying his cross from Jerusalem to Golgotha outside the walls of the city. Who wouldn’t be thirsty after that work and that sun?

And of course, we cannot forget that before he began his journey to Golgotha, he had been brutally beaten by the Roman soldiers. The whips used for such beatings had pieces of bone and metal tied into the cords of the whip, so that every blow would tear into the skin. It was not uncommon for the cuts from a beating to be so deep that the victim’s bones could be seen. By the time Jesus arrived at the site of his execution, he had lost much blood – fluids that his body needed to replace. The cry, “I am thirsty” is very understandable. No person could go through what Jesus had experienced without being in desperate need of water. Psalm 22 has many verses that speak to the crucifixion. In verse 15, the psalm says, “my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.” This verse, like so much of the psalm, was fulfilled during Jesus’ time on the cross.

Jesus’ words, “I am thirsty,” point to the very real humanity of Jesus. Many of his other words from the cross are more than we would expect from a mortal, but “I am thirsty” we can certainly understand. In his first three “words,” Jesus asks God to forgive those who nailed him to the cross, promises the believing thief that he will enjoy forgiveness, and commends his mother into the care of his best friend. These are extraordinary statements. If I were being executed, I doubt that I would be thinking very much about the needs and concerns of other people. Then when Jesus cries out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” we can understand his horror at the loss of God's presence and fellowship. Then comes his very human statement of “I thirst.” The next two, and final words, are, however are hard to grasp at first. When Jesus says, “It is finished,” we wonder “What is finished?” And when he says, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” we wonder how he can entrust himself to someone who had just forsaken him. The seventh word puzzles us greatly.

II. THE CREATOR IS THIRSTY!

Of the seven last words, two make very clear sense to us: his cry when abandoned by the Father and his thirst as he hung in the hot sun. And yet even this cry of thirst is amazing. After all, the one who was thirsty was no ordinary man. In John 1:3, we hear this about Jesus: “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” The man who hung on the cross was the one who had created the world.

The man who cried out, “I am thirsty, “was the one who had made the oceans, who had formed the rivers, who arranged that the rain would fall and the dew form morning by morning. Water was his invention – and yet he was thirsty. He could have caused the rain to fall into his mouth, or commanded a spring to gush water out of that hilltop – but he did not.

The creator of water was thirsty. He was thirsty because he had chosen to enter the world he had created on a rescue mission. All had not gone well on his creation. The pinnacle of all his works, the human race, had turned its back on him and had declared independence. Misery and alienation had entered human experience. God the Son had come to earth, becoming a human being. He aim was to live the life human beings were meant to live, in perfect fellowship and perfect obedience to the Father. His final obedience was to offer his life as the Lamb of God, a perfect sacrifice to atone for humanity’s rebellion. He would be alienated from God, bearing the punishment we deserve, so that we could be reconciled to God and enjoy the fellowship that the obedience of Jesus deserved.

When Jesus had come to earth as God the Son in human flesh, he had accepted the limitations of being human. He did work miracles, to be sure, but every miracle was to benefit others, not himself. So as he hung on the cross, he brought no rain to relieve his thirst. He suffered the full agony any of us would have suffered. The creator of the world cried out in thirst, and left his needs in the hands of those who had nailed him to the cross.

III. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO … THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

Jesus had another thirst. He had had it all his life. In Matt. 5:6, Jesus speaks of this thirst, saying, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Jesus longed to do God's will. He hungered and thirsted for righteousness perfectly – and he was satisfied, as he carried out the will of God. In John 4:34, Jesus says, “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” And Jesus did the will of God, even to offering his life as a sacrifice for our sins. He would have loved to have turned aside from the cross. We heard him cry out in prayer, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He did not want the physical pain of the cross, nor the spiritual pain that he knew would come as he bore God’s wrath on sin. Yet in spite of that desire to avoid both physical and spiritual pain, he also said, “Let not my will but yours be done.”

Jesus thirsted for righteousness, and his life was righteous. He was tempted to disobey God, but his thirst for righteousness was greater than his desire to please himself. He remained obedient. Even as he struggled with the Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane, his thirst for righteousness was greater than his desire for life.

IV. THE THIRSTY ONE OFFERS LIVING WATER

John 4 is another place in the Bible where Jesus speaks of his thirst. In John 4:6, 7, we read, “Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” Again, the full humanity of Jesus is on view. It is a hot day and Jesus has walked a great deal that day. He is thirsty and needs water.

But he also offers water. John 4:10, 13, 14 says, “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’”

Jesus offered the Samaritan woman spiritual water, water that would never dry up, water that would refresh her and sustain her in all circumstances. He freely offers this spiritual water to all who thirst for God. And the reason he can offer this living water is that he was willing to be thirsty himself. He was willing to come to earth as a human being, subject to the pains of this life, and even to temptation. Even more, he was willing to be whipped, to bleed, to carry a cross, to be nailed to that cross, and to be exposed to the intense sun of Judea, so that every fiber of his body cried out for water. His physical suffering was devastating. It would overwhelm any of us. It was not as bad as the spiritual suffering he endured when the Father turned away from him as he took the sin of humanity upon himself – but the physical suffering was a mirror of the abandonment we all deserve because of our sinfulness. He took what we should experience, so that he could offer us forgiveness and fellowship with God. Because he was thirsty, both for water and for righteousness, he can offer us living water.

When I spent that long-ago Saturday tossing hay bales, a good drink of iced tea restored the water I needed. Jesus had no such relief – only a sip of vinegary wine at best. But he had the satisfaction of redeeming humanity from the power of sin and death. With his thirst, with his suffering, he opened the path to heaven to all who believe. He thirsted for righteousness, and, having done all that was right, he offered his righteousness to anyone who believes and accepts it. To do the will of God was refreshing to his thirsty soul. And because he was thirsting for righteousness, we can be restored to God and have that well of the water of eternal life springing up in our hearts, bringing us life now and evermore.

To him who thirsted for water that we might never be thirsty again be glory now and evermore. AMEN.

What Makes Heaven Heavenly?

One of the memories from my childhood that comes to mind at times is watching a Hallmark Hall of Fame production of The Green Pastures. That would have been in the late 1950’s, when I was 10 or 11. The Green Pastures was a play telling about creation and other biblical stories. The narrator of these stories was a Black pastor, speaking to Sunday School students. What struck me about it was that heaven was portrayed as a gigantic fish fry, with all the fish, hushpuppies, cornbread, greens, and watermelon one could ever want, along with people to talk with, games to play, and a river to fish in, all on fine summer day.
Hearing this perspective got me interested in popular ideas of what heaven is like. Since then, I have kept my eyes and ears open to various pictures of heaven over the years, as seen in short stories, movies, cartoons, TV commercials, and so on. While the picture of a bountiful, everlasting fish fry is only seen in The Green Pastures, what is common in other pictures is the idea of heaven as a place that is very enjoyable and pleasant – a setting and activities that the person for whom the picture is being made would find to be highly desirable.
Somehow, in addition to a picture of a place of beauty and enjoyment there are also usually added robes, halos, and harps, and sometimes wings. Exactly how these things fit into a place of bliss is seldom spelled out, and I have heard comments by those who say that they have no interest in heaven if it means sitting around on clouds playing an instrument they do not want to listen on earth.
I am not sure where these pictures of heaven come from. The Bible of course speaks of heaven and hell. However, Scripture does not give us many details, and I suspect that over the centuries various authors and teachers have put in a variety of details to make the concepts of everlasting joy or misery more understandable. However, it seems that the various pictures of heaven that are common have taken on a life of their own and have become detached from the statements of Scripture. It is important to go back to Scripture to see what it says is at the heart of everlasting joy, for Scripture is not the ideas and dreams of human beings but has come from the heart and mind of God so that we might know what is true about him, about us, and about our relationship to him.
Understanding what makes heaven heavenly is important so that we desire it for the right reasons, and so that we can, if needed, explain to someone else why it would be a noble and blessed goal. It is also important for another reason. In April of 2009, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette had an editorial on the narrowness of conservative Christians that was headline something like “Conservative Christians Condemn Other Faiths to Hell.” The editorial went on to say that it was wrong for conservatives to say that those who did not believe as they did would be cast into outer darkness. The editorialist said that he or she was certain that God was merciful and that anyone who was basically decent would be rewarded with heaven.
That editorial writer was trying to be welcoming and inclusive, but he or she wrote out of ignorance as well as out of concern. There are many faiths, such as Buddhism, that have no belief in any kind of heaven. The idea in many eastern religions is that we are all “drops of water” that really belong to a great “ocean” of spirit, and that over many lifetimes, we learn and so grow closer and closer to reentering that vast ocean – eventually losing our individual identity as we finally merge back into the “ocean.”. The picture given in other faiths is that after death we walk the earth as disembodied spirits. Islam says that those who enter paradise will be rewarded with 70 virgins. (This idea leave me wondering what Muslim women have to look forward to.) Some faiths have no idea of an afterlife. If heaven is open to people of all faiths, then what is heaven like? Who is the being who prepares heaven? What are the criteria for being granted entrance into heaven?
As we look at the Bible to see what it says about heaven, one thing quickly becomes clear: the focus of heaven is God himself. In Isaiah 6, the prophet is lifted in a vision to the throne room of God, where the Lord is worshiped continuously by myriads of angels, calling to one another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (In liturgical congregations, the people join this song at every communion service, in the Sanctus.) In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, John is lifted up into heaven, and he also sees a great throne room, with Jesus Christ seated on the throne. Not only are angels gathered in worship, but so are “the saints,” all of God’s people. They surround the throne and continuously praise the Lord Jesus.
In 2 Cor. 5:8, Paul notes that to be “absent from the body” means that those who believe in Jesus are welcomed into his presence after dying. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When Jesus speaks of paradise in the story of Dives and Lazarus, he pictures the beggar Lazarus as being “in Abraham’s bosom,” which is a picture of fellowship and intimacy. Jesus also pictures the selfish rich man as being in a pit of fire, tormented and miserable. (Jesus, by the way, speaks more often of hell and of the dangers of being condemned to hell than any other biblical figure. He makes it plain that he will be the one who decides each person’s eternal destiny. If we take his teachings seriously, we need to take this aspect seriously as well.)
The concluding chapters of Revelation speak of what comes after the end of the world. Scripture tells us that the entire creation is renewed; there is a “new heavens and a new earth.” When the earth was first created, God formed the Garden of Eden. When the earth is re-created, God brings in a city, the “New Jerusalem.” This signifies the unity of redeemed humanity. The new city is a blessed and beautiful place, filled with life-giving trees and a wonderful river. The city is filled with light – but there is no sun. The light that fills the new city and the new earth is the Light of the world, Jesus himself.
What makes heaven heavenly is the presence of Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This is in contrast to many popular pictures of heaven that amount to a “celestial Disney World.” Heaven is often thought of as a place where there are many enjoyable things to do and where one gets to be with the people one has enjoyed in this life. While I think that this is true as far as it goes, the real delight of heaven is being with God. One of the pictures used in Revelation is of a great wedding feast between Christ and his Bride, the Church. If you have been around newlyweds, you know that they simply want to be in each other’s presence. Great food and interesting activities are nice – but the real essence of their love and joy is being with one another. Thus it will be with Christ and his Bride – there will be joy in being together and enjoying one another ever more fully.
The heart of heaven is that we are with the God who made us and who, when we had fallen away in rebellion, redeemed us at great cost. The heart of heaven is knowing and enjoying the Lord. What distresses me about many of the common ideas about heaven is that it makes God into a gatekeeper of an eternal amusement park. He is somebody who must be gotten past in order to enjoy the delights of paradise. The question then becomes “how do I get my ticket into this place of bliss?” The usual answer is that if one is good enough, one may enter. It is this idea that led the editorialist of the T & G to say that God will allow people of many different faiths into heaven, for anyone who is basically decent and helpful will have earned their ticket into a celestial place of delights. Once past God as the gatekeeper, one needs no longer deal with him, but rather enjoy the everlasting fish fry.
But the Bible says that the heart of heaven and of heaven’s joy is that we are with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are many beautiful and enjoyable things in heaven, but they pale into insignificance beside being with the one who made us and who redeemed us. If what the Bible says is true, then the only people who will enjoy heaven will be those who love and trust the holy Trinity. God does not need to be “gotten past” in some way, for he is not the gatekeeper to heaven – he IS heaven.
That is why it is important to cultivate a relationship with God in this life. We do not enter such a relationship by earning it through good deeds and obedience to his commands, for none of us can be fully obedient or do enough good deeds. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that we must be more righteous than the most righteous people of his day in order to be acceptable to God. That means that none of us can be good enough to merit a relationship with God. In fact, the only person to merit a relationship with God, whose obedience to his heavenly Father was perfect, was Jesus himself. How can we be as holy and obedient as Jesus was? We cannot. We do not have hope in ourselves – but we do have hope in Jesus. The Apostle Paul writing in 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” When we do not rely on our own goodness but on Jesus Christ, we are given the righteousness of Jesus as our own and we become fully acceptable to God. We enter into a relationship of closeness and joy, fully forgiven of our sin and with hearts open to God.
While we will never love God perfectly in this life, we can tune our hearts to enjoy him more fully as we worship, pray, read Scripture, and seek to serve others in his Name and for his sake. As we grow closer to the Lord, we will reveal his presence by developing the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so on) and we will appreciate ever more fully the mercy of God in forgiving us and in giving us life eternal.
The reason we need mercy is that we are sinners, in rebellion against the God who created us. The reason behind our inability to be as good as Jesus is not that we are limited and fallible, but that we seek to take God’s place and call the shots. In his love, God has extended an offer of grace, so that if we repent of our rebellion and return to him in trust, we are forgiven and enter into friendship with God. Those who remain in rebellion will get what they want – freedom from God’s presence. They will also discover that such separation is agonizing. The hellishness of hell is not the flames, but the loss of God, for whom we were created and apart from whom we have nothing.
What about those of other faiths? That is a huge question, and one I cannot deal with properly in this brief article. We do know that God is a God of mercy. We also know that the God of mercy has given us a commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” It is our joy to tell others that they do not have to strive to reach some lofty spiritual goal, but rather can receive the blessings of God through Jesus Christ. God is a God of mercy. In his mercy, he sent Jesus. In his mercy, he sends us to invite people to know his Son.
The Green Pastures portrays heaven as an everlasting fish fry on a delightful summer day. There is some truth to this picture – whatever brings us joy on earth is a taste of the joy of heaven. Will there be harps and halos? I do not know – but there will certainly be music and light in abundance. The pictures we have of heaven may be helpful to some extent, but they are helpful only as far as they point beyond themselves to the real joy of heaven, God himself. In 1 John 4:8, we read, “God is love.” And in John 17:3, Jesus says, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The joy of heaven is the delight of knowing and being known by the one who is Love itself. Heaven is heavenly because God is there. There is no heaven apart from him, for he is all we need.

Copyright May 2011
Charles Sutton

Three Kinds of Faith

Recent polls reported in the magazine Christianity Today shown that 86% of all Americans believe in a God who answers prayer. Over 70% pray regularly, and over 60% say they pray daily. That is a lot of faith! It is good to know that so many people believe that God cares and helps.
But there are actually several types of faith. While any faith in God is better than no faith in God, the type of faith one has will do much to determine one’s sense of peace, love, and hope. There are three basic types of faith; one of them is almost useless, while another is a great source of calm and strength.
The first type of faith is the faith that God exists. This is a necessary form of faith. Without it, no other form of faith can exist. In Hebrews 11:6, we read, “without faith it is impossible to please God, be-cause anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Faith that God exists is foundational. On the other hand, it is far from sufficient. James writes, in James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” God's enemies believe in him; simple acknowledgment of God's existence does not make one any better, or any better off, than the devil. We do not do God a favor by believing in him.
The second kind of faith takes into account the second phrase of the verse from Hebrews, “that he re-wards those who earnestly seek him.” This kind of faith believes that God is a person and that he is interested in individuals. He can be known and he can be prayed to with hope for a response. This faith is far better than simply believing that God exists, for it speaks of God's character as loving and good. It believes that God loves those whom he has made and wants to see good things happen for them.
Such faith can do much to bring a sense of peace and hope. If I am confident that God loves me and wants to help me, I have hope in hard situations. I know that I am not alone. I am sure that there is one who is more powerful than I am who can step into a situation and bring good out of it.
This second type of faith is much better than the first. However, it is not as good as it might be. We know from experience that God does not answer all our prayers exactly as we request. Why not? This faith in a personal, prayer-answering God runs the risk of being what one might call a “begging and bar-gaining faith.” I can ask, “Why would God answer my prayers?” and come up with the answer that the response to my prayers depends upon the strength and sincerity of my own faith, or upon my faithfulness in keeping God's commands, or upon the degree to which I have been able to avoid doing what God forbids, or upon the number and quality of my “good deeds” or acts of piety and devotion, or all of these. This second type of faith can be very “me” centered. It can say that it is faith in God, but if the focus shifts to what I can do to be certain of answered prayer, then the object of one’s faith becomes oneself: what I can do to persuade God. One trusts one’s own abilities and actions, not the Lord.
There is also a second danger in this type of faith. Who decides what to pray for? If I simply review my life and my hopes and dreams, I can come up with a list of things I want and of areas where I can see I need help. Having drawn up my “shopping list,” I can then go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to give me the things I believe I need. But – how good is my own assessment of my needs? In Matthew 7:9-11, Jesus says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” If my aim is to get my prayers answered as I ask them, then I may well be asking for a stone or a snake without knowing it.
The second type of faith is good, for it recognizes the reality of God and that he is personal and loving. It has the danger, however, of being self-centered, where I simply seek my own idea of what is good. That idea may simply come from a worldly viewpoint, seeking no higher good than my own comfort and convenience. It also runs the danger of trying to beg God for answers to prayer, or to bargain with him based on what I can do for him.
The third type of faith is the best. It is also the most terrifying. In Matthew 5:3, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is the first of the Beatitudes, and it is the starting point for blessedness. John Stott writes (in Authentic Christianity, p. 269), “The Church consists of the spiritually poor. The only condition of eligibility is destitution. The rich are sent away empty. We have to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy, that we have no merit to plead, no strings to pull, no power to save ourselves. To such Jesus says ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit; the kingdom of God is theirs.’”
The third type of faith trusts utterly in God. It says, “Lord, not my will but yours.” If I have this third type of faith, I not only trust God to answer my prayers, but my first prayer is, “Lord, you are great, awe-some, holy, and wise. What do you desire me to ask for?” The third type of faith starts with God, not oneself. It recognizes that we are each a fallible, sinful person and that we often do not even know what is best for ourselves.
It is always good to come before the Lord and to ask for those things that we see as needs in our lives and the lives of others. But it is better to look not only at our physical and emotional needs but even more at our spiritual needs. In Romans 8:29, we see God's appointed destiny for everyone who trusts in him: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” God’s aim is that we each of us reflect the character of Christ. Thus, we should open our hearts to the Lord, asking, “Father, where do I need to grow to be more like Jesus?” This kind of question is one reason why a Christian should be reading the Bible, for in Scripture we see both the qualities of Christ, and also the path towards those qualities of his character.
That path lies through the cross. The third type of faith recognizes that we have no basis for begging or bargaining with God. Every good thing we have from God comes through his mercy. We can only say, in the words of the hymn, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” We do not earn or deserve our forgiveness as sinners; it comes because Jesus laid down his life for us. We do not earn or deserve the myriad blessings that come our way; they come from the hand of a Father who knows our needs before we even ask. This third type of faith recognizes the utter graciousness of the grace of God – his mercy comes because he is merciful and because we are in dire need of mercy.
This third type of faith encompasses the other two, for it believes that God exists and that God cares for his creation and invites people into relationship with him. But it goes beyond these two types of faith. Its focus is not on what we can get from God. While this third type of faith mean that we can tell the lord our own perception of our needs, it does not stop at our own perception. Rather, it goes beyond our earthly life to focus on God and on his Kingdom. It asks, “How can I grow to be more like Jesus?” It asks, “Lord, where may I be of most use to your Kingdom?”
The third type of faith is the least self-centered, but the most personally satisfying. By asking our Creator, “Lord, what do I need?” it frees us from the narrowness of our limited vision and places under the care of the wisest, most powerful, most caring of Fathers. By seeking to grow to be more like Christ, we grow toward our own unique way of expressing the character of the Lord Jesus. By seeking first the Kingdom of Christ, the Lord prepares us and enables us to make the contribution to his Kingdom that only we can make. When we trust him utterly, surrendering even our most precious hopes to him, we find that our hopes were too small compared to the delights and privileges he has in mind for us. It is terrifying to put our all on the altar, but satisfying to find that what God intended to give we could not even imagine in our shortsightedness.
Over 86% of the people of our nation believe in a God who answers prayer. This is a wonderfully high percentage. But how many of this 86% have not grown beyond the second type of faith, and look only to help for physical and emotional needs, as they define them themselves, and seek to have those prayers answered by begging or bargaining? What joy there would be if the vast majority of people who believe that God answers prayer simply said to God, “Lord, direct my prayers and my life. I have no hope but you.” There would be joy on earth, and even more joy in heaven. God would rejoice that his people trusted him with all they are and all they have, and we would know his delight.
Where is your faith on the spectrum of believing? Are you stuck in one spot, or are you prepared to grow? To trust the Lord with even the agenda for your prayers will show you the mercy and the power of God in ways you can scarcely imagine. Trust and rejoice!

(Copyright May 2011, Charles Sutton)