China

The pastor is talking about his trip to China and how things are for Christians there. Mao persecuted Christians because Christianity was seen as an outside influence and threat to communism (ironically also an outside influence). Things are once again getting bad. 

China has billboards dissing Christianity. If churches want a cross, they must also have photos of Mao and current president flanking cross. Students bound for college must sing a document denouncing Christianity. Christianity is not the only persecuted religion. 

Things are tightening up around the world. The groundwork for control is being laid. Governments now have tremendous surveillance capabilities. China has drones that sound like birds. 

Today’s sermon is based on Luke 15:11-32 -  The Parable of the Prodigal Son. The prodigal has become an archetype for our culture. Prodigal comes from the same root as prodigious - it denotes generosity - in that sense the father was prodigal with his love. 

The eldest son is groomed to take the place of the father. In business, he might say, "I and the father are one." Interesting to view Jesus’s words in this light. 

Jesus’s parables are designed to provoke you. If you read it and think it’s a charming story, then you haven’t understood it properly. 

The younger son is more than rebellious - he is a fool. Starving in the pig sty, he got a clue. Going home is a big risk. His father was within his rights to kill him outright. His father’s acceptance was totally against what the audience would have expected. The father pays the price for reconciliation. He shames himself and pays the price. 

God loves us the same way He loves Jesus and Jesus wants us to know that. 

When the elder son refuses to take part in the celebration, he shames his father. When the father goes out to remonstrate with him, he doesn’t use the normal honorific title for his father. He is not in the image of the father, he is in the image of himself, he is self righteous. Self righteousness is always steeped in the Law. When you use scripture to justify yourself and condemn others, then you are being self righteous. 

To understand a parable, understand:

1. The theme

2. The main character 

3. The audience 

The Pharisees were the audience for this parable. He didn’t finish the parable for them or foe us. We are called to embrace the unembraceable. 

Further Up, Further In (Diving Deeper)

Catch the C. S. Lewis reference? We have a guest speaker, Gini Downing, and she said God often speaks to us in odd ways. 

“Rest is a weapon” is a quote from The Bourne Identity. Taking care of ourselves is part of our Christian walk - it is not selfishness. 

In our hurry up world, it pays to remember that God is interested in the depth of our faith, so do not focus only on fast forward movement. That reminds me of the seed that fell on shallow rocky soil and grew rapidly but died due to lack of deep roots. 

Our spirituality is a journey, not a destination. The steps on the journey are not a to do list - they comprise a become list. 

Where is God? Too often we banish God to the back room of our souls. Why doesn’t he break out? Because even this stupidity is part of our journey. We want to run our lives, but God will not be contained. Ties back to Narnia again, God is not a tame God. 

The faith journey isn’t linear, it’s layered.  Epiphanies come in many forms. Sometimes they come as a question. Why do we suffer? “It is necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” Jesus said this tenderly to Julian of Norwich in a vision. 

You are exactly where you are supposed to be. You are exactly where God will meet you. What role does sin play in this? I’m puzzled. 

We all live into our purpose. We live into a larger purpose. Dive deeper and the forward motion in our spiritual journey will take care of itself. 

The Way of Weakness

Power is a necessary evil. The Church speaks from weakness to power. The Church is at its strongest when it walks the way of weakness. 

In 2006, a man named Charlie went to an Amish school and killed many children and then himself. The Amish chose to forgive him and took dinner to his widow. She worships with the Amish today. 

Early Christians helped plague victims and changed the way Romans viewed them. The Civil Rights Movement and Desmond Tutu walked the way of weakness and changed the world. 

Biblical religion is grounded in weakness, not in paltry human power. 

If we experience God’s Love, we give it to others, God’s Love is not something we can selfishly hold and keep to ourselves. 

Worship God and do not be distracted by your troubles. The present may suck, but our future is guaranteed. In the middle of your difficulty, let go and let God, don’t be anxious. The peace of God will guard your heart. 

When Paul writes in Philippians about how God meets your needs, he’s not writing about worldly wealth. 

The parts of Christian history most cringeworthy is when the Church rested on worldly power. 

The Church grows best when it walks the way of weakness. 

When the Church has some power, it tends to want more. It is seduced by power. The Church becomes idolatrous and worships worldly power. We have to stop playing the harlot and putting our trust in any social institution, politician, or party. 

We change the world, we repair creation, by walking the way of weakness. 

The church as it is in America today is dying. It’s up to us what will take its place. Yes 

What is Maturity?

The life of Jesus in the past profoundly affects our view of our future and we live our present in light of that future. 

We are living in the middle of our salvation. 

In the present Christians mourn the evil of the world (blessed are those who mourn) and we seek to bring the Kingdom more fully here in love and meekness (blessed are the meek and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness). 

We live in light of that future. The Kingdom will be fully realized here in that future. Our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3.17-21). 

Jesus will return and finish the task of salvation. There is no such thing as the "end times" set in the future. Biblically, we have been living in the end times since the resurrection of Christ. 

Jesus is ruling and reigning today. We are called to advance the Kingdom, not look for blessings in this life. Middle-class success is not the goal of the Christian life. Obedience is more than being "good" and not breaking the rules. 

If you live into this future, then you will encounter resistance - internal, external, and spiritual. If we live into the age to come, then we will encounter resistance from the age that is. 

Living into this future purifies us and takes the superfluous out of our lives. 

Christian life is living a life of trust. We are called away from certainty and into trust and that’s painful. 

What is Righteousness?

Just as children today are having a hard time becoming adults, Christians are having a hard time becoming mature disciples. 

The sermon is based on Philippians 2.19-3.16. 

Righteousness is covenant loyalty - it is keeping your word, honoring our promises. 

Every culture has words that have big meanings. Freedom - freedom from and freedom to - is such a word for Americans. In ancient Israel, righteousness was just such a word. Because these words have large and nuanced meanings, societal tensions arise over what exactly these words mean. 

Righteousness was a wonderful thing - it meant peace and it meant God was with you. But, the tension arises because we live in an unrighteous world and God’s righteousness can be obscured by that. Paul taught that Jesus IS the righteousness of God made manifest and this was the beginning of a new covenant. 

Today we have a profound lack of motivation. We find it hard to live lives of faith. Faith is trusting in the promises of God. Faith does not mean pretending to believe things we really think aren’t true. Faith means accepting the righteousness of Christ has been given to us and living into the presence of God in our lives. Faith impacts every area of our lives. 

Paul rejects the righteousness of the Law for the righteousness of Christ. Our futures are changed by what Christ did. Let go of trying to attain righteousness by our own behavior. 

It’s harder for us to see clearly into our future with Christ than it was for early Christians. 

What is Salvation?

The pastor’s grandmother was frugal because of her experiences during the Great Depression. She was surrendered to an orphanage because her parents couldn’t afford her and then adopted to be a servant. The past can affect us profoundly and change our expectation of the future. 

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus changes our expectation of the future. 

Our inheritance is the righteous rule of God. We can rejoice in this no matter our current troubles (1 Peter 1.5-9).

The Celebration of the Eucharist spans past, present, and future. 

Paul would not recognize the evangelical Christian idea of accepting Jesus and being saved at a specific moment in time. Philippians 2.12-13 show salvation as a process - something we work out. Salvation is life and the way life is lived. It transforms us and our life in the present reflects that. 

What is an Adult?

We live in a world of empirical truth; but, a life of faith is important. 

In traditional cultures, we find ourselves moving toward others. Adulthood comes when we enter into adult community. In modern societies, we have an unsituated self, finding ourselves and adulthood by separating from others. Both ways have drawbacks. The first brings shame if we don’t measure up and arrogance if we do. The second generates loneliness and insecurity. If we can’t deliver the identity we craft for ourselves, what have we got left? 

There is a third way. To truly be an adult we need a horizontal relationship with God, living in God’s Love, and vertically, sharing that love with others. Our adult identity is being in Christ. 

The Love of God is a living, vibrant thing that flows through your life. 

Christ emptied Himself of significance, taking the role of a slave, even unto death. This is important, because so much of our identity lies in feeling our significance. We should set aside our worries about our significance and live a life of service to others. 

Salvation isn’t to be lived just as something for our own benefit. It is meant to be shared - to be lived out for others. This reminds me of Beth Moore’s podcast exhorting is to sow our seed (spiritual nourishment) rather than just eating our seed. 

Our faith increases as we share it. Our own experience of the Love of God grows when we share that Love. 

The more space you make for the Love of God to flow through your life, the greater your experience of that Love will be.