The Kingdom in the Center

A content person is someone who desires what they already have. But what about when you lose what you have?

Today’s Christianity has been bifurcated. This is a time of great political and religious divide. Conservative vs. progressive means that both sides lose the values of the other. Conservative church larger but shrinking fast. It’s getting older and smaller. 

Progressive much smaller. Growing in influence but not size. 

Both seen by young people as irrelevant. Conservatives aren’t offering something to live for and progressives aren’t offering something to die for. We have lost sight of Jesus and his message. 

Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God here and now. 

As citizens of the Kingdom we live in the now but not yet. 

We need both personal piety and the drive to take the Kingdom to the world. 

Widows and orphans were not seen as deserving recipients of charity in Jesus’ day. They were seen as less than human. 

The Kingdom in the Center

Every Fall, the church has a series to help you evaluate how you are doing as a disciple. 

Are you leading a quality life? How do you know if you are leading a life of value?

Picture a Venn diagram with the circles that intersect. 

These circles stand for:

Contentment - A quality life is content. 

Purpose - A quality life has meaning. 

Relationships - A quality life has good relationships. 

Contentment offers release from fear because you are content in all situations. Paul wrote about that:

Philippians 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 

The one who is faithful will receive more. This is not the prosperity gospel. God is talking about spiritual rather than material riches. 

Why do relationships break? We become hardened. We stop caring. We break it off with God; God does not become hardened to us. God is faithful. 

In the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13.3-23) the thorns of wealth, the worries of this life, choke the faith of those in the West. Contentment inoculates us against this. 

Identity and the Cross

"Hello, and welcome to air conditioning," was the pastor's introduction. Welcome to Southern California in the days of global warming. 

Don't invest your day in ambition, greed, selfishness, and guilt. Invest your day in other people. Don't lust after treasure that rusts, invest in true things of the heart. 

The pastor just returned from China. Chinese people tend to be more concrete thinkers - hard for our abstract loving pastor. 

Christians in China are mostly in rural areas. Rural areas almost Third World in feel. Still persecuted, but not as bad. Right to assembly, not right to believe is what is attacked, although government censorship is a big problem. Government trying to push underground Christians in allowed, censored church. They are trying to combine Christianity and Confucianism. Possibly hoping to form state religion because communism doesn't have hearts of people. 

Now to the sermon. There is a long term downturn in violence in the world. Most terrorist-related deaths were in 70s and 80s. Lots of good things happening in world today; but, people always tend to feel the opposite. 

Our culture is built on a divide that is really a conflict. Can be fruitful but can work to divide nation. 

We could say let's forget our differences in view of a greater thing; but, that's not the answer. We need to love each other and learn from our differences. Both sides have a compelling story. 

The key issue for unity is identity. Who are you? Is your first response political, career, family, etc.? Our key identity should be in Jesus. 

Quarrels at the congregation at Corinth were called "warring" by Paul. Our current political divides are nothing new. They were fighting over focus, perspective, ethnicity, and race - just like today. In other words, they were fighting over identity. 

If we are to get past current conflicts, our identity must be grounded in our baptism. 

Learn how to see the humanity in the Bible. 

Learn how to see the humanity in one another. Do not demand change in others. Put on the identity of Christ and make space for one another. 

Three in One: One at a Time - The Holy Spirit

Aly read my post about the Holy Ghost and the Smoky Mountains. The Vineyard Movement is connected with the Pentecostal Movement. This understanding of the communication between God and us as individuals through the Holy Spirit echoes back to the beginning of Christianity. 

The Holy Spirit unites us as a People. We are the Church, bound together and enlivened by the Breath of God. 

The Holy Spirit gives us the power to die to ourselves and live out God's Love. 

Three in One: One at a Time - The Father

Unfortunately my notes were erased when I tried to publish. 

Three in One: One at a Time - The Son

When approaching the Trinity, remember these three things:

1. Jesus was unexpected. 

2. Jesus is God made near. 

3. Jesus is subversive. 

In paintings, the hand gestures of Jesus mean something. An open hand means peace. Holding two fingers up is more complex - the two fingers represent the dual nature on Jesus - human and divine. The lower three fingers represent the Trinity. 

Jesus is what God has to say and is what the Holy Spirit has never stopped talking about. 

Greek philosophy views the divine as distant. Jesus is not only God with us; but, in Jesus, God is one of us. The Joan Osborne song comes to mind ;)

Jesus lived a life of empathy, not pity. If you want to challenge yourself as an empathetic person, then travel. Travel changes who you are. 

Jesus understood grief. Always remember the humanity of Jesus. He laughed, he loved, he suffered, and he died. 

The Holy Spirit and the Bible

This concludes the Timebound and Timeless series on the Bible. Gordon Fee is a Pentecostal and one of today's top biblical scholars. 

Fee wrote that God gave us His word in a way that locked in ambiguity. 

We need to understand the timebound nature of the Bible in order to understand its timeless truth. 

If the Bible is bound by culture and time, then how can we say it is trustworthy? Because the Holy Spirit is bound in its creation. The Holy Spirit inspired the authors. The Holy Spirit brought the Bible to fruition through a historical process. The Holy Spirit speaks to us today through the Bible. 

2 Peter is either the last, or one of the last, books written in the Bible. It is written "in the tradition of Peter" but not by Peter. It was written after the deaths of Peter and Paul. The author mentions Paul's writing in such a way that we know the Church already considered his writings as inspired scriptures. 

Paul's struggles in real life model how we should let the Spirit move in our life, connect with us, and work through us. 

A "divine drop" is when scripture - such as the Koran and Book of Mormon - come to and through only one person. The Bible is not like that. Its construction took centuries. 

Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible and The Lost World of Scripture are good references. 

Faith is not simply believing the unknowable. Faith is an act of will. Faith is leading a meaningful life. 

The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Bible. We can hear the Holy Spirit through Bible study. 

The Inductive Method

The Bible is awesome and true. In its pages we learn about God and may also encounter God. The Bible is not magic - we should not use scriptures like a magic spell. The Bible is not perfect - its primary function is not to present an accurate history or scientific revelation. 

In this series, we have focused on the human element of the Bible; but, the Holy Spirit's role is of primary importance. While God's voice is a voice in the Bible, there are other voices as well. 

The pastor likes to read and put into his own words the scriptures he has read. You can also use inductive reasoning - you look at a passage and ask yourself a series of questions about it. 

Today we read Philemon and use inductive reasoning as a group exercise. That said, I will end these notes here. 

The New Testament

Jesus came to fulfill the promises God made. He's the fulfillment of the grand story of the Old Testament. The message of Jesus was grounded in this story. 

The New Testament was slowly put together after it became clear that Jesus was not returning soon. Took about 400 years to come together. 

It is not perfect in every detail. A lot of archeological detective work has helped figure out what was in the original documents, but everything is not settled. 

Mark is first Gospel and very straightforward story. Matthew, written for Jews, casts Jesus as the new Moses. Luke and Acts is the story of the Spirit. John sets out to show that Jesus is God. The Gospels are Scene One of the New Testament. 

Jesus fulfills both God's part and humanity's part of the Covenant. 

Scene Two is the rest of the New Testament - the story of the Church, the community of Christ, a community of the Spirit. There isn't an end to the story - the Story isn't over and YOU are in it. 

The Spirit leads us into the promises of God. The Spirit leads the Body of Christ. 

The equivalent of the widow and orphan today is the mentally ill homeless person. 

The Bible's Big Story

Appreciating the timebound nature of the Bible enables us to understand the timeless nature of the Bible. 

Begin with Jesus. Look at God (and the Bible) through the lens of Jesus. 

We always have the opportunity to meet God when we're reading. 

The primary theme of Jesus' life, ministry, and message is the Kingdom of God. It is also the major theme of the Bible. 

What is the Kingdom of God? It's not Heaven. It's not the Church. Colonialism was motivated by greed by justified by the view that the Church was the Kingom. 

In Eden the Tree of Life speaks to God's gift of Life. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil speaks to God's right alone to judge. Jews believe that if Adam and Eve had obeyed, they would have eventually been ready to eat of this tree too. 

When we give up our knowledge of God, we become less than we're meant to be. 

The Kingdom of God is God's righteous rule over Creation. 

The bookends of the Bible - The beginning of Genesis and the end of Revelation - show the Kingdom of God on Earth. 

We no longer live in the Kingdom of Darkness, under the authority of Sin - we now live in freedom under the authority of Christ. 

Our Father means that we are adopted in the Kingdom. Hallowed be thy name means may my life bring honor to your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done is a prayer that God's will might be done in your life. 

Reflect on Matthew 13:10-17. 

The Challenge of the Bible

Christians tend to fall into two groups. The larger is those who don't read the Bible and the smaller is those who read the Bible inaccurately. 

The pastor recommends The Jewish Approach to God by Rabbi Neil Gillman. (It's written for Christians and I though Matt might like it.)

We know many things through science; but, science cannot show us God. 

For Paul, the Fall was turning away from true communication with God. Jesus taught knowledge of God the most important thing. But we cannot find God - God finds us. 

Jesus is God finding us. The Bible makes Jesus known. 

The first challenge the Bible presents is that it's the way we meet God. 

The second challenge the Bible presents is how to read it. 

The Bible is not an easy path to God. You have to set aside time - Bible study is not an easy fix. The meaningful things in life take time. 

The first principle of Bible reading is that we understand God by looking at Jesus. The entire Bible is about Jesus. We don't look at the violence in the Old Testament as insight into God - we start and end with Jesus - the Alpha and Omega. 

The second principle of Bible reading is that we need to know as much about what it meant to the original audience as we know about what it means to us. 

The third principle of Bible reading is that we always have the possibility of encountering God when we read it. 

The fourth principle of the Bible is that we need a plan to follow. 

Read a short passage. Put it into your own words. Journal about it. 

1 Corinthians 13 

As the pastor read this and then shared what he wrote in his own words, he said even an 100% commitment to social justice is nothing without love. This reminds me of the song, Easy to Be Hard from Hair. 

Writing prayers out is really helpful. 

If you choose to live by love, then you live into a life where you are known and completely know. 

Knowledge of the timeless grows out of understanding the timebound. 

Assignment:

Read Galatians in NIV and the Message. 

Put into your own words. 

What the Bible Is and What the Bible Isn't

"Do you read the Bible?" How? When? What? The Bible is vitally important for Christians. If we aren't engaging this book in a real way, what does that say about us?

We took a test. Although I only missed one, I discovered I know the Old Testament far more than the New Testament. Guess I know where to start reading. 

The Bible is God's written word. It is not God's direct dictation. 

Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. - Romans 10.4

The word telos, translated culmination, means destiny. The verse basically means that following the law in faith leads to Christ. 

There was a lot of human interaction in action that led to the Old Testament. We are closer to originals with the New Testament; but, none agree entirely. The Bible also came together over a long period of time. 

Humans have had a big hand in putting the Bible together. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is important here. The Holy Spirit moves through the people of God. The community is important. 

The Bible is time bound and timeless. We need to be able to divide the timeless from the time bound. I wonder if culture bound and cultural universal would be another way to look at it. 

The Bible is the story of God's work to establish the Kingdom. Knowledge of God is progressive - deepening as the pages turn. The Old Testament ends with unanswered questions. 

The Bible is very special and unique because the Holy Spirit worked within the Community to create it. 

As an introduction to inductive Bible study, read Luke 15.1-7, write it out in your own words, and answer:

Who is speaking?

Who is the audience?

What's the story? 

What's the point of the story?

A Theology of Salvation for Christians

We have a guest speaker, Dr. David Moore, pastor of two churches and author of Making America Great Again - Fairy Tale? Horror Story? Dream Come True? A Challenge to the Christian Community. Dr. Moore is an African American who grew up in a predominantly white church. Even today, his Oxnard congregation is a lot "browner" than his Santa Barbara congregation. 

The sermon starts with a sharing of scriptures about the last days with a bit of exegesis. How can people believe what is clearly false? How can they embrace a powerful delusion? 

Dr. Moore talked about how changing his diet was a challenge. Likewise, just as junk food can be addictive, believing certain things can be addictive and ultimately fatal. 

One of Dr. Moore's closest friends is a rabbi. They disagree on many issues, but their love surmounts their disagreements. The rabbi's congregation has visited Dr. Moore's church for two services. 

When a person carries their scars gracefully, it makes them trustworthy. 

No one's story should be wiped away. Everyone's story is important. 

The early Christians were non-violent resistors. Even in the midst of resistance, non-violence brings healing. The message of non-violent resistance to the empire appealed to non-Jews who were poor, oppressed, and had their back against the wall. 

Bayard Rustin, person who organized the 1963 March on Washington and many Freedom Rides was gay. He said, "When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him."

When a religion loses its ability to protest, it loses its ability to stand for the dignity of life. 

Dr. Moore went to Standing Rock. Santa Barbara stands in solidarity with Standing Rock. He told the city council that you cannot protest a system you profit from. 

Protest is dignity. The struggle is real. We told each other that in greeting because society was telling them the struggle was all in their head. 

Richard Allen was born a slave in 1760. He became a Methodist and an apostle of freedom. He purchased freedom for him and his brother and became a minister in Philadelphia. He had a mixed congregation and when whites insisted blacks sit in the back, he and his brother walked out with the black congregation. This was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. The black church has existed in part in opposition to the white church. 

His book's title went from Bad Religion to God's not an Asshole to the current title. Three people told him about Nehemiah 8 as a word of prophecy and that encouraged him to write the book. 

The book is his olive branch, his way of reaching out. It is his way of saying we do not want to give into exclusion. The role of the Church is to shepherd people and counsel people. The Council of Bishops for the AME Church stands in opposition to the policies of Donald Trump and sent out a statement shortly after Trump's inauguration. When Dr. Moore read this, he wanted to join the AME denomination; but, you can't always just leave. He stayed with his current denomination and vowed to stay there until they kick him out. Like Pope Francis, he wants to stay and be an agent for change. 

He doesn't believe it's the end of the world, but he does think it's the end of the world as we know it. This is not a reason to fear, it is an opportunity. 

Protest is dignity. Do not reduce it to petulance. 

Too often the Church legitimated the system it is supposed to challenge. 

We have to be a part of the world of those who are different from us. If we are part of their world, then we will never be against them. 

Peacemaking Together

We are called to be a missionary people. We are called to answer spiritual questions. People are asking different questions today. Peacemaking helps us answer contemporary questions. Peacemaking helps us be a people that are true, real, and beautiful. 

The church is the most overpromised and underdelivered product today. 

Christianity is not about what we do, it's about what we are. 

Expansive faith means that although the Bible is truth, it's not the only truth. Be open to science and art and philosophy. When we are open we build bridges to others. The Church is not a fortress we hide inside. We are called to go into the world - not to be the world but to go into the world - to connect, to love, to bring peace, to bring Christ into the world. 

The Hebrew word shalom means more that the absence of war. It is harmony, it is bringing love, light, and compassion to others. 

See people as people - do not see them as their mistakes, their sins, or their labels. 

Peacemakers are seen by the world as the children of God. How does the world see me?

The three tools of peacemaking are faith (mine is a broken hammer and some bent nails), love, and community. 

Love doesn't work as the only tool in your box. Richard Rohr says love is not love until you don't expect something back. Love is dynamic. 

You can't go backwards in life. The only way to deal with fear is to go forward into it and through it. 

Burdens should be shared. That makes them meaningful. 

What is God giving us to do as a community so that we can sow peace into the world? The mission starts with our commitment to this community. 

Spiritual Questions

One problem with sharing the faith is that evangelical Christians are answering questions no one is asking. But the Gospel is both a confrontation and an accommodation. We need to listen to the questions people are asking and see how the Gospel answers those questions. 

We need to balance confrontation and accommodation. We also need to make sure that are answers aren't seen as meaningless because they don't touch on the questions people ask. 

Every generation has different questions. Baby Boomers and those older grew up in a world where institutions were viewed as good. They live to work - career is tantamount. They underparented their children because schools did so much. They tend to be idealists and think problems should be solved. They experienced great social upheaval and they were last American generation to experience a great Christian revival (the Jesus Movement). They viewed truth as objective - there is the Truth. 

Key spiritual question: What is true?

These people are losing power in society. No longer largest cohort. 

Generation X is pessimistic rather than optimistic. These are the underparented. They do not view institutions as good. They work to live rather than live to work. They look to friends for identity - not society. First generation to experience postmodernism. They do not believe in objective truth. More comfortable with questions than answers. 

Key Question: What is real?

Millennials grew up in child-centered homes. Science and technology shaped them. They are not actually lazy. They are pragmatic and want to change the world for the better. 

Key Question: What is good?

Willing to partner with anyone, regardless of belief system, to reach their goals. 

Today's children, born after 2003, greatly influenced by the democratization of art. 

Key Question: What is beautiful?

What does the Gospel say to these questions? We need to think differently. We need to be peacemakers, carrying forward the incarceration of Christ into the world. We will measure our success, our spiritual authenticity, by how much good we bring to others. 

Three activities of peacemaking:

1. Refuse to objectify others. It is not a black-and-white world. Receive and love people regardless. Bring Christ to everyone. If we can't do this, our mission is dead in the water. 

2. Seek reconciliation. We need to be a mediating influence. What can I do to bring Christ into this place. 

3. Bring the Kingdom where it is not. If you see hungry people, violence, environmental damage, etc. - these are not of the Kingdom. 

How can we bring beauty to the world?

Art

The sermon is based on Matthew 25:14-30. We are invited to put ourselves into the story. It is the Parable of the Talents. 

Talents were worth a lot. Even one talent pretty much equals an average lifetime of earning. Looked at this way, the servant with one talent spent his lifetime of work avoiding any productive use of his talent. One translation has the master displaying disgust for the "play it safe guy who won't go out on a limb."

Not using my talents for God equals an absence of joy. We express love by using our gifts for God. 

The word talent in its present meaning came from this parable. That is way cool. 

Talent means "the natural endowments of a person." When we don't use our talents "we forfeit our own good."

God doesn't ask for more than what we are capable of doing or being. 

In the "divorce" between Catholics and Protestants, Protestants got the Bible and Catholics got everything else. We cannot lose the art - the beauty that saves the world. 

God is the Great Creator and our creativity is our imaging of God. Art is spirituality. 

Art is the expression or application of human skill and creativity. 

To create is to bring into being. 

Acting intuitively is acting on truth without conscious reasoning (instinctive). 

We are gifted with stories. We have a sacred duty to clothe the world in stories. 

Why don't we create? Fear. Creating and sharing what we create makes us vulnerable. 

Come what may, I will create today. 

Prayer is a right brain activity. It is creative. It allows God's creativity to be expressed through us. Contemplate where you allowed God's creativity to flow today and where you blocked that flow. 

"What we play is life." Louis Armstrong

Michelangelo believed every stone held a figure captive and he sent these prisoners free. When we create we set free the beauty in the world. 

We put ourselves into our art and into our story. 

The Wordless Art of Storytelling

How do you tell a story without words?Of course, given the title of the sermon, I immediately thought of dance, silent movies, charades, the movement of story. Photography and visual art sprang to mind as well; and, of course, illustration. Children's books show us how to tell a story without words.
We provide story as a subtext of life. We storify everything. Storification is what humans do - I think it is a reflection of the idea that we are made in God's image. Other species love, some better than us, but what are their stories? Do they also storify life?
Biblical stories have been extensively illustrated. That was how illiterate laity learned about God in the Middle Ages; hence, the centrality of Christian art. We largely lost that in the Reformation with the rise of sola scriptura. But, with the loss of art, we lost part of what made Christianity the "beautiful religion" to the early Russian tribes who chose to convert to Christianity because of its beauty.
Words, of course, have beauty too (I am a writer, after all); but I am with Alice in Alice's in Wonderland, who saw little use of a story without illustrations.
None of this has anything to do with the sermon - I am off on a tangent. But it's worth chasing this particular white rabbit, even if it doesn't have a pocket watch, in part because it meshes so well with the story I wrote for Tuesday.
Jesus was a god who told stories; but, Jesus also illustrated God without and beyond words.
Perhaps storifying our life becomes art when we live with intention and awareness.
"A poet is a person who takes words and does something with them, makes something personal and original out of them."
A person who tells stories with intention illustrates the nature of God.
"We are all illustrating a story, whether we know it or not." Our actions illustrate the words we use to tell the story of our life.

Living Life from the Inside Out

The pastor just returned from Estonia. When he travels, a conversation eventually come up about shrinking and aging churches and feeling disenfranchised within the culture. 

Evangelical Christianity rests on three pillars:

1. The Bible is God's revelation.

2. We are separated from God by sin. 

3. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the key event in the Bible. 

Evangelicals has grown and been enormously successful in the past century. They moved into the gap left by shrinking mainline churches. 

But now, something has changed. Unfortunately, Evangelicals created a bubble to live in that separated them from the larger society. This bubble was built on blessing and certainty. 

In viewing the Bible as immediately talking to us about our current situation, we misuse scripture. 

This bubble is collapsing today. It is no longer answering the questions people ask. It causes us to think about things differently and we become insular. 

The world rests on four pillars:

1. A new way of being human. One aspect of this is facing life and death on our own terms. The world views people differently and we need to understand that. Evolution and a scientific view of humanity permeates nearly all our attitudes. When we talk about being blessed as God's children, it doesn't resonate. 

2. A new way of understanding truth. Ancient wisdom has little place in a society where truth rests on scientific data. Even so, people are still interested in spiritual truth; but, they want truth that can be measured and demonstrated. If our bubble is based on the idea of God as someone who wants to make us happy, then we miss the mark. C. S. Lewis wrote about this. 

3. The morality of self-fulfillment. This is different from selfishness. It is the idea that we are meant to be the person we are meant to be and develop our talents. It is more than simply trying to avoid sin and be a good citizen. Think Parable of the Talents - the world convicts us for burying our talents. 

4. The collapse of the center and the sacred/secular compromise. We lost a sense of order and tradition in our lives when we separated the spiritual from the secular. 

We are in the third Great Awakening as a society, but it's not Christian. We need to come out of our bubble so that we can meet others and dialogue with them. We need to move beyond blessing and certainty and embrace mystery and mission. 

I get the image of a small child on the first day of school. 

The greatest crimes in life are committed by the certain. 

We need to live a provocative faith. Real faith is looking at the mystery, asking questions, and being open to change. In a world of certainty, faith is mental - in a world of mystery, faith is active. We can't cling to our certainty and avoid God's mystery. We cannot try so hard to keep God small because God cannot be put in a box or on a bumper sticker. 

Mission is living into that mystery. Study the history of Christianity, do not shy away from ancient wisdom and the experiences of those who are not like us. 

There are three priorities and values as a community are engage, transform, and respond. We need to live an expansive faith. 

Your spiritual life can only grow as large as your emotional life and Christian practices of prayer (many ancient) help with that. Spiritual directors can also be beneficial. 

We also need to be peacemakers. Do not objectify others, seek reconciliation (your neighborhood is your parish), and bring the Kingdom where it is not (do not be so focused on bringing people to church, let helping them where they are be your witness). 

The Power of the Resurrection

The Gospel is a very, very big story. The story is so big we cannot fully grasp it. It is like a diamond and our cultural perspective provides the tilt and angle by which we view the diamond. We cannot see all the facets at once; but, a good idea is to shift and reshift our tilt. This series of sermons was to try to shift our tilt to that of first century Christians. 

If Jesus died a bloodless death, would we still be saved? Yes, the point is the resurrection, as Paul said, if Christ has not been raised, then our belief is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:17). 

Sin is the problem with things. It is the force of death and destruction and entropy. The Resurrection is the solution. God solves the problem of sin relationally. The Covenant is not a condemnation, but rather an assurance of salvation. God as Christ fulfills both sides of the Covenant. 

How do you know this story is true? Yes, there's logical arguments and archeological evidence, but there's something else too. It's a knowing - or unknowing - it is the Holy Spirit in us. It is the experience of the Spirit - funny that, just what I was thinking about during the music. Whether nuerotheological or genetic or both or neither, I am wired to experience God in me and in the Cosmos. No matter how atheistic my arguments, that Presence is always there. 

Evidence of the Spirit is Life and Peace. It's a new mindset. 

Evidence of the Spirit is Assurance. What about my habitual fear, worry, and anxiety? I would like to let go of those burdens. 

Romans usually adopted adults to carry on a family name. In the ceremony, old records were burned and you became a new person legally. This is what Paul and his original readers thought about when they thought about adoption. 

Evidence of the Spirit is an ongoing connection with the Spirit. It is that feeling of compassion and love that overwhelms us. Paul may have been writing about tongues in Romans 8:24-27. 

Evidence of the Spirit is the Love of God. We cannot be separated from this Love (Romans 8:31-39). God wants all of us - no matter what we have done or what has been done to us - to experience that Love. 

This is the present day experience of the Resurrection. We too often settle for far less. Why? The overwhelming nature of this Love can be terrifying perhaps. Fear of losing ourselves? Are we misers afraid to spend our money (which is only an illusion) for something Real?

The Solution

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. Holy Week is a reminder, acknowledgement, and celebration of all that Jesus has done for us. 

Last week's sermon covered the problem of sin. This week's sermon covers the solution and how Jesus is the solution. 

Even though we are a culture that bases knowledge on science, we want to know what ancient wisdom has to say. But we cannot understand ancient truth in the same way we parse data. We have to take it on its own terms or we miss the point. 

Sin is more than our mistakes. Sin is a corrosive element in the world. Sin blocks us from the blessings and beauty of the world. Sin is like rust. It cannot be solved through rules or violence. It can only be solved through new life. Christ brought that new life. 

Christianity has various views on what the death of Jesus means. One view is that Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice and Jesus bore God's wrath for us. This is a very popular Protestant view today; but, it wasn't the view of early (biblical times) Christians. The primitive Church said Jesus overcame death and sin. 

The early Church (pre-Constantine) was persecuted and viewed worldly power and evil. Jesus overcame Satan through His death and resurrection. 

The next view was put forth by St. Anselm. The power of rulers came from God. Humans failed to live up to their purpose. We dishonor God this way. Jesus restored that honor. 

All these views are both right and wrong. It is a mystery. We cannot conceive of the whole of it. 

We need to go back to the beginning and revisit this issue. Culture in biblical times was relational and built on covenants. Marriage, friendship, business deals, and governance were all based on covenants. 

Covenants had three things in common:

1. They were binding. 

2. They depended on loyalty or faithfulness. 

3. Good relational partners were righteous. 

God's solution to sin is based on a covenant. In Abraham's initial covenant with God, God guaranteed both sides, all Abraham had to do was believe. The Law came later. It created culture and let them know what God was like. God's covenant in the Old Testament failed -- it was broken again and again. The sacrifices in the Old Testament were not about God's anger. They were also not the focus of worship. They were a way of restoring a broken relationship. 

Harkening back to Abraham, the broken covenant was a problem for God because God promised to see the covenant fulfilled. Enter Jesus Christ - a gift of God's righteousness to us. Jesus (i.e. God) healed the relationship we broke. Through Jesus God made certain the covenant succeeded, just as Abraham was promised. God fulfilled both sides of the covenant. 

Jesus is the righteousness of God AND our righteousness to God. God's love is not passive - its aggressive and demonstrative. It is so much bigger than the worries that consume us. It overcomes the corrosiveness of sin in the world. 

This brings us to the Orthodox view, Jesus came to heal the sickness of sin and bring us, healed and whole, to God. 

Baptism

This sermon is not part of a series. Baptism is a topic we are familiar with but many of us don't really understand it.  The Bible did not come into its present form until the fourth century. Its current form was decided upon then and what was deemed inspired grew out of Church tradition.  In Jesus' day there were many ways to be a Jew. In the early days of Christianity, there were many ways to be a Christian. Diversity was greater then than now. God makes room for diversity. No human has it all figured out. If we look at the Bible as a way to separate the in group from the out group - as primarily rules and doctrines - then we miss the story. The Truth is a Story.  New findings in archeology are teaching us a lot about the first century. We understand more what the words in the New Testament mean.  We need a deeper understanding of baptism. Baptism is a story. Ancient people thought of the ocean as deep and dark and terrifying - rather like we think of space. It was also viewed as the dwelling place of demons. The deep in Genesis reflects the terrible darkness of the waters. Isaiah 27:1 also speaks of sea monsters and demonic realities. God will slay Leviathan and only God can save us when we go into the waters.  God used water as a judgment in the story of Noah. The story of Jonah adds salvation to the judgment of going beneath the waves. The point is not what kind of fish swallowed Jonah or how Jonah survived.  Going into the water is serious. The Exodus is like a baptism. God brought the people through the waters of the Red Sea into salvation. The Egyptians, who drowned, were judged by the water. The Jews became a different people on the other shore - their identity is bound up in the Passover and the Exodus.  Claudius kicked Jews out of Rome and Gentiles (formerly "second class" members of the Church) took over. Nero let Jews come back and Paul's Letter to the Romans addresses in part the resulting conflict. What rules your life - sin or grace?  When we are baptized we are the Israelites going into the Red Sea, we are Jonah going into the belly of the fish, we are Jesus descending into Hell. When we rise from the water, we are new, we are changed, we rise into Life. What changes, as viewed in first century thought, is our identity. The old self dies, a new self is born.  Faith is not knowing the rules and doctrines. Faith is living into the Life of Christ. 

On Suffering

The play Freud's Last Session highlights the fact that ideas have consequences. Everybody suffers and all worldviews address suffering. Christians must be very careful about their thoughts on suffering. How Christians understand suffering is often a focus of criticism from non Christians.  This sermon centers on Lewis' book The Problem of Pain. The dilemma of the Christian faith is why does suffering exist if God is all powerful and all good. Lewis addressed this with the free will defense. Honoring free will makes suffering possible.  God can do all things possible but this doesn't mean God can do nonsense. God cannot both give us free will and make certain the we always choose rightly. We cannot be both free and a puppet.  Free will is necessary for life itself. Free will is foundation of good as well as evil.  Some social scientists argue that free will is an illusion. But although there are many influences, we still, at the core, have the freedom to choose.  Lewis said that if God is Love, then God is more than mere kindness. God is not a senile grandparent that just wants us to enjoy ourselves. Being happy isn't the apex of good. God wants to perfect us. God wants us to be all we can be and sometimes suffering is a part of that.  Like a good parent, God seeks our maturity. Romans 8:28-29 reaffirms that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him." This includes suffering.  Lewis said suffering has two roots: 1. How the universe is made.  2. Abuse of free will.  Societal sin is real. We can at times unwittingly contribute to the suffering of others.  Lewis believed both in the Fall and evolution. We are not what God intended us to be. We evolved to the point where we can reflect the image of God. The reflection of this is a movement away from acting on for material and natural ends. Self consciousness moves us to the spiritual. But even trees are altruistic -- we are not so separate from Nature as we used to assume.  We are all cut of the same cloth. We are all part of the same sky. And all Creation pulses with the Holiness of God.  Our free will works to the good when we turn toward God and are no longer trapped in self absorption.  Christ reconciled Creation to God. The cross is not the focus of God's anger but the expression of God's love.  In Colossians 1:21-23, Paul affirms that the Gospel is preached to all Creation. 

On Love

Freud and Lewis both wrote extensively on love. Their ideas were rooted in their worldview. Worldviews typically fall into one of two categories - materialistic or supernatural. Freud embraced materialism, Lewis the supernatural. Whichever worldview you hold, be consistent. Consistency will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your worldview.  Both Freud and Lewis are influential today.  Freud took a materialistic view of love. It was all sexual, but divided into two categories: genital love and aim-inhibited love. Aim-inhibited love is any type of love not leading to coitus and reproduction. Freud had difficulty understanding sacrificial love.  Lewis had no problem with sacrificial love. His ideas pick up where Freud leaves off. Lewis said there were two types of love - gift love and need love. Sacrificial love is gift love.  Storge is the natural affection we feel for the good things of life. Philia is friendship. Eros is passionate love. Sex without eros is all about the self. With eros, the focus is on the Beloved. Agape is Divine Love. Sacrificial love is agape. Agape transforms our experience of the first three kinds of love. 

One Another - Part 2

We all have a worldview, our take on reality, that helps us navigate life. Unfortunately, few of us examine our worldview and that is dangerous.  Freud and Lewis had similar lives that led to very different destinations. Over the next four weeks we will explore their worldviews and our own.  Freud saw the conscious and subconscious as continually in conflict. Lewis was more optimistic.  Freud was a materialist and an atheist. The spiritual was a delusion. No unseen reality. Belief in it is mere wish fulfillment. We create a father god in our image to fulfill our wishes. Freud not all that influential today but this argument stands - along with the new atheist view that people of faith have not evolved past the need for the "god delusion."  Materialism is a demanding worldview. The are many unanswered questions and no ultimate hope. We are always on the brink of disaster. We all die.  The presence of evil and suffering was the other reason Freud was an atheist. We will cover that in future weeks.  C. S. Lewis converted from materialism to Christianity. He commented on the shakiness of atheism. An optimist, Lewis grappled with the problem of good. Art, beauty and the appreciation of beauty point to a higher reality.  The spiritual worldview is also demanding. We have free will and that means we are responsible for our life. The Love of God is also demanding. God ultimately demands all of us. We cannot be miserly with God.  Many Christians don't hold either worldview. Materialism scares us but spirituality is too demanding, so they settle on a wish granting grandfather god who just wants us to be happy. This type of belief was criticized by both Freud and Lewis. 

One Another - Part 1

Peacemakers refuse to objectify people, seeks reconciliation, and bring the Kingdom of God where it is not. Refusing to objectify others - making them the Other - makes room for the other two qualities of peacemaking.  Unintentional objectification can also occur. During a crisis, a person can become an object of pity or an object of our fears. Symptoms of this are over identification and over functioning. In both cases we cease to truly be with the person.  We need to express compassion and concern in a way that ennobles others. We are not meant to go through life alone. We need people around us to witness our pain and be with us. We need to stand together.  People in crisis aren't someone to be fixed. They are someone to be with. There is nothing more holy than when our hearts are wrapped around what God's heart is wrapped around. We are to be known by the love we have for one another (John 13:34-35). 

From Judas to Jesus

The Church needs to reclaim her prophetic role. It is not a political role nor are we to be arbiters of right and wrong or judges of others. We are to be peacemakers, people of love, a true community. We need to see other people as people. We are to be a people of peace.  The difficulties in our life could be God stepping in for a greater purpose.  Why did Jesus call Judas? Did Judas ever find peace with God? We want a scapegoat and Judas is that scapegoat. But we should realize that there is a Judas in all of us. What we hate in others is what we hate in ourselves. We need to stop projecting and realize this (Matthew 7:3-5).  Jesus is the true scapegoat -- Jesus bears our sin and darkness.  At the core of betrayal is a failed love. The only thing that can fix it is a more powerful love. We need the restoration of God's Love in our lives. 

I-it, I-you, I-Thou

Today's sermon is based on the fourth chapter of John.  We have a tendency to always ask, "What's in it for me?" Even as peacemakers, we ask that question. It's human nature. In social science there is the law of reciprocity that informs relationships. Even our relationship with God, although when you think about it, that's absurd.  The three relationships are based on the writings of Martin Buber. In an I-it relationship, we view the other person as an object. It can be self-defense to objectify the other. We don't have the capacity to love everyone deeply as a person. It is also used in hate. We cannot view an enemy as anything but an object. We take away their voice. These relationships are very dangerous. It's a lonely place because we close ourselves off from true relationships.  An I-you relationship views others as people. I-you relationships open space for dialogue. In politics we are becoming ever more I-it and it will end in violence. It is up to the Church to change this. How? The first thing we do is listen. Give the voice back to the other. Next, we have to apply leverage to the power dynamic. When power is involved, listening is not enough. If you are the person with power, then you must use that power to open a space for others to talk. If you are the underpowered person, then you must find a way to turn the other cheek. Jesus's saying about this was not about meekly allowing people to beat you. Turning the other cheek forced the person to hit you like they would hit an equal. In other words, try to force those in power to see you as a person.  The third relationship is I-Thou. In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, the relationship between the woman and Jesus starts as I-it, but Jesus invites her - invites us - to an I-Thou relationship. This is a full relationship that is built on Love.  In a way, the threat inherent in relationships seems to escalate from I-it to I-Thou in that we are more vulnerable in each step. But hatred and violence are the fruits of I-it and true Love that of I-Thou. 

The Peacemaker's Tool Kit - Part 3

The third tool of peacemaking is community. Peacemaking refers to the way we treat everyone - inside and outside of our community. No othering allowed. I think when we avoid othering we expand our community, opening it up, including others. Yesterday, I read a FOX article on Twitter about the burning of a mosque in Texas and one woman kept tweeting, "Not my neighbor!" That slams the door to the church community and Christians huddle behind locked doors, allowing no one to enter. 

Back to the sermon, the first story is how Christians helped during a great plague at their own risk. Although many Christians died, they saved many. They didn't flee out, they fled in. I think it was Mr. Rogers said helpers are the people who run toward danger. The heart of compassion is courage. 

Sociologist of religion Rodney Stark (I read, used, agreed, and disagreed with his work) said it was the Christian community that made this sort of thing possible. Pagan religions of the time were more individualistic. The Church began to explode in numbers after this event. I remember a quote from the time remarking on the love Christians showed to one another. 

Jesus's first move after baptism was to call disciples and thus start the community of believers. 

Israel is created as a people of promise. God and Israel make promises to one another - the covenant that Israel breaks through idolatry - but, after Babylon, the Jews no longer commit idolatry. But they made the mistake of placing all the blame on foreigners. Jesus pointed out the God loves foreigners too and the people in Galilee wanted to stone him. It wasn't Jesus proclaiming prophecy had been fulfilled in Him that upset everyone, it was Jesus's inclusiveness that provokes ire. We want to other, we want to shut our door to the stranger, we want to be safe. But, Aslan isn't safe, he's good. 

Christ created Christian community by turning the idea of home and community inside out, throwing open the doors and letting others in. 

The Holy Spirit lives in the Church. The Holy Spirit lives in us. It is a communal thing rather than an individual thing. When we come together, something special happens. 

The local church - living within a community - working things out, worshipping together - allows the Holy Spirit to work in us. The next step is to take that spirit and go out into the world. True Christian witness is the opposite of othering. Love others as Christ loves us, welcome others as Christ welcomes us, and always remember that love trumps fear. 

The Peacemaker's Tool Kit - Part 2

This week's sermon is based on Matthew 3:13-17, which is about the baptism of Jesus, but it starts with a lovely scripture (a new favorite of mine):

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins." I Peter 2:8

Galatians 5:6b reinforces this by stating that the only thing that matters "is faith expressing itself through love."

This week's tool is love. Love overwhelms wrong and love overwhelms difficulty. 

In Trevor Noah's Born a Crime he talks about what it means to always be the other. The podcast we talked about Wednesday talked about being othered. 

We live within a frame of reference, our culture is our bubble, and we other those outside it. The only solution is love. We are made in the image of God and God is Love. 

God made a covenant with Israel. A covenant is a relational agreement. We have a covenant with God. John the Baptist is the last "Old Testament" prophet and the baptism is the passing of the baton, the making of a new covenant. 

In the verse that says "heaven was opened" Mark's work literally means "heaven was torn open" and this implies it can never be closed to us again. Jesus opened God's presence to us. 

What do you think God is really like? I think the cosmos is too large for our conception of God. But Love bridges that gap between infinity and our ability to understand. 

We love because God first loved us, we love because we were made in the image of Love. But we do not have a monopoly on love. True Nature is "red in tooth and claw" (Tennyson), but that is not all Nature is. 

Learn to live in the flow -- receiving God's love and letting it flow through us to the world. 

"The regular cultivation of one's soul prepares one to love unconditionally and automatically."

The Spirit of God is here. The Spirit of Love is here. God wants to connect with you. 

The Peacemaker's Tool Kit - Part 1

What is a meaningful life? Peacemaking is the framework for a meaningful life. Peacemakers ask, "Where I spend my time and talent to do good?" 

There is a peacemaker's toolkit and faith is the tool we will talk about today. Atheists view faith as a cop-out and we cannot let this stand. Faith is not a denial of evidence. Neither is faith based on proven evidence - that's not how Paul described it. We need to challenge these definitions. 

Hebrews 11 is all about faith. Hebrews 11:6 talks about the centrality of faith. Bad news for me :(

Faith is knowledge plus belief plus lifestyle. When we live into what we believe, we live by faith. 

We can have either a closed mindset (fixed) or a growth mindset. Fixed limits and growth inspires. Fixed are defined by failures - growth learns from and builds on failures. Fixed blames others - growth takes responsibility. Good news for me - I'm definitely on growth mindset side.

You can adopt a growth mindset and your mind will change. Viewing challenges as opportunities gives you energy. 

The kind of faith the Bible calls us to encourages a growth mindset. 

Steps to a growth mindset:

1. Learn to hear your fixed mindset voice. 

2. Recognize that you have a choice. 

3. Talk back with a growth mindset. (Prayer is, for the pastor, the most beneficial tool for this.)

4. Take the growth mindset action. 

Baby boomers picked up a fixed mindset from punishment. Today's generation has picked it up by not being allowed to fail. 

What is a Peacemaker?

Today's sermon basically covers the mission statement of Ventura Vineyard. The scriptures referenced are Matthew 5:9 and James 3:18. 

Christianity in the United States is shrinking and one reason is that people, especially young people, are leaving. 

Ventura Vineyard's mission statement is, "Living life from the inside out." Mastering your inner world is important and Jesus is the master teacher. As we encounter God on the inside, we become better witnesses on the outside. 

Ventura Vineyard's vision statement is, "Provoking faith in those who have it and those who don't."

Ventura Vineyard's values are:

1. Engage - "We must engage God, ourselves, our community, and our world." Expansive faith sees science as a tool to teach us about God and Creation. Don't hide away from those who think differently. Seek true dialogue. 

2. Transform - We need to transform from the inside out and be a transformative presence in the world. 

3. Respond - We respond to God's initiative in the world to expand God's Kingdom. We have to be the presence of God in the world. We respond to God's initiative in the world as peacemakers. 

Peacemakers do not objectify people. Engage real people in real relationships. No stereotypes. Work to look past stereotypes and get to know people. 

Peacemakers work to reconcile people. 

Peacemakers bring the Kingdom of God where it is not. We need to include everyone in our definition of community, reaching out to those others reject. Go out to where the people are. Look to Jesus as an example. 

Listen rather than preach. True dialogue builds bridges. Work to reconcile. Check out Jeffrey Brown (inner city Baptist minister) on TED Talks. The Boston Miracle, following these rules in his community, led to a 79% reduction in violent crime. 

You changing will change the world around you. We can do something meaningful together. Let us be peacemakers. 

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Today's sermon is based on Ezekiel 16:1-63, Matthew 5:9, and James 3:18. It is subtitled, "The Inner Logic of God's Wrath."

The sermon explored the relationship between the wrath of God and the brokenness and sinfulness of people. Romans 7:14-20 points out that sin lives in us and we end up doing what we don't want to do. It goes against the idea of free will but is well in line with the social sciences. 

Evangelical Christianity, in trying to make things simple, can make the mistake of narrowing God's Truth, turning it into a caricature. God is not simple. 

God's wrath is actually redemptive. Our understanding of God's wrath, as illustrated in the Bible, grows in nuance over time. The view in Joshua is violent and primitive. Ezekiel's view is far more sophisticated. 

In Ezekiel 16, Israel is portrayed as an abandoned newborn found and adopted by God. Israel grows into a woman of great beauty and becomes God's bride and a queen. But Israel is an unfaithful wife, who trusts in her beauty, prostituting herself through adultery and sacrificing her children. The language is relational. 

People disregard this relationship through idolatry. Idolatry doesn't mean any non-Jewish or non-Christian religion, it is a betrayal, a willful turning away to what is Good. 

Trusting in the things that hold our society together - wealth, youth, power, individualism, etc. - is engaging in idolatry. 

The people who know God are most usually the focus of God's wrath. It was gradual in Ezekiel and began with a restriction of territory. We should likewise look for areas in our life where we are restricted. If we look for this, areas where repentance is needed, it becomes redemptive. 

The view of our relationship with God goes from the purely collective to the individual over the centuries. But we shouldn't forget the value of the collective. 

God's wrath is basically allowing us to bear the consequences of our actions. God's grace and God's wrath are two sides of the same thing, helping us to grow, heal, and mature. 

Just as the Buddha said that the things of this world are unsatisfactory and fail you in the end, part of experiencing the consequences of our actions is enabling us to experience the failure of our idols. 

God's wrath also at times goes outside the Church when it comes to those who disregard the poor. Being over fed and unconcerned is bad because, as the Catholic Church said, God has a special preference for the poor. 

God's wrath is redemptive and its aim is to lead us to become the person we are meant to be.