God's Hopeful Future (Isaiah 9:1-7): Practicing Righteousness

I believe that Christmas holds the promise of a better world. It sparks my imagination to wonder what a world reigned by peace, justice and righteousness would look like. In the Nativity scene, I see a rare moment where there are no boundaries between people, and no boundaries between people and the life-changing presence of God. It's pretty darn cool, if you ask me.

So, let's let the imagination fly. What would my world look like governed by righteousness? What would I look like governed by righteousness?

I think my anxiety would be lower, because my trust in God would be higher. Abraham's righteousness was in his trust of God's promises, so it stands to reason that righteousness would show up in faith.

Because my anxiety would be lower, I would be more open and welcoming to the people around me. My marriage would improve because I could honestly and thoughtfully communicate. My friends would feel valued by me in every conversation. My church would know my love for them. Strangers would feel like family, because I wouldn't fear anyone.

Because I would be more hospitable, I would naturally get more passionate for those on the margins, for those who do not experience hospitality by general society. In other words, I would be active in justice. My life would be community-oriented because my perspective would be like God's.

What would your life look like if governed by righteousness?

God's Hopeful Future (Isaiah 9:1-7): Practicing Justice

"Let justice, therefore, be in your heart, that justice which comes by faith, for this alone finds glory with God." - Bernard of Clairvaux, Christmas Day Sermon, circa 1140 AD.

"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - MLK

"Justice is what love looks like in public." - Cornel West

When I think of justice, I think of heroes that can be seen in movies and read about in books or comics. Now I was never really a comic book collector, preferring James Bond to Batman, but the iconic images of good fighting evil stick in my mind. In James Bond, Agent 007 is always in a struggle for justice; and justice always looks the same- the bad guy is defeated and James Bond walks away. See enough James Bond movies, 23 to be precise, and you get the impression that justice equals punishment against bad people. And so when God is described in the Bible as just, it only makes sense that we applies God's justice to punishment. But is that the Biblical perspective on justice?

I think God's justice goes farther than simple crime and punishment. I think God's justice goes to setting up a new way of being in the world. God's justice, as Cornel would say, is what love looks like in public. So justice happens when people are taken care of, when people are protected from harm. Certainly, punishing those who would dare to harm others is part of government's role in promoting justice, but that's not where it ends. Justice is far more about what we are creating than what we are destroying.

So how do we practice the kingdom of justice in our world today? When you look at your community and say, "I am responsible for doing my part to make this the best community it can be," you are taking an important step. Food pantries, HelpLink, Habitat and other programs are all about creating and fostering this kind of community. Helping a neighbor get transportation because they struggle driving in the winter is a way to promote justice. Checking in on someone who is lonely is a way to promote justice. Watching a neighbor's children so they can get to the job interview is promoting justice. Justice is doable, it just means taking our love and going public. May justice, as Bernard would say, be in our hearts this week.

God's Hopeful Future (Isaiah 9:1-7): A New Kind of Peace

The first picture we get of Imperial Peace (my term from Sunday morning) is in 1 Samuel 11. Nahash, an Ammonite King, lays siege to an Israelite city called Jabesh. Now in those days, Israel was not united and would often encounter these sieges. Nahash offers piece to the people of Jabesh. They may have peace, as long as they gouge their own right eyes out and shame themselves before everyone. But, if they did this, they would have the protection of the Ammonites. Saul, the new king, unites his people by destroying Nahash.

In every day and age, there is a power that promises peace for a dreaded cost. Today, I believe, that empire is our own consumerism. It promises peace and meaning, if we ignore the slave labor used to make our products or the relationships (including families) that get wrecked by the endless pursuit of more stuff.

In Hebrews 2, we find that there is a similar power behind all of these forces- the fear of death. And it is that power that Jesus came to confront. And so we will look, for the remainder of the week, at peace, righteousness and justice, the three aspects of Christ's counter-kingdom.

Peace is a word thrown around a lot. And I think most people are for peace, generally, unless there is some profit behind war. But in our lives, we yearn for peace, at least that's what I hear as I talk to people about our current season. Yet I think we chase after a lesser form of peace.

Sometimes we define peace as being conflict-free. This works as a definition, but conflict is a natural and necessary part of relationships. To not have conflict is to not have relationships. And nobody wants that.

I think what we truly yearn for is peace that is deeper than being conflict-free. I think true peace, shalom, wholeness, is handling conflict in a different and better way. Forgiveness, we find in the Bible, is the pathway to peace.

Christmastime is a season where family and friends get together, and often there is some underlying conflict between family members. Allow this to be a season of reconciliation and forgiveness. Dare to forgive someone near you. May you experience the peace of Christ this week and always.

God's Hopeful Future (Isaiah 9:1-7): A Series Gone Horribly Awry

Sometimes, a sermon series grows a life of its own and gets beyond my control. Most of the time, I believe this to be the work of the Spirit. Sometimes, it is human failure of focus that God uses despite my best efforts. Advent is usually (I note the irony that I have only been a pastor for three Advents) a controlled burn for me toward Christmas Eve. My series is set, and I hold back until a Christ-drenched lightpalooza on Christmas Eve. Even weirder is that this series was set since July or August of this summer. It started innocently enough, with the claim that Jesus is the exact representation of God's being (Hebrews 1:3). But somewhere in the intervening weeks, something went... weird.

I can cast the blame a few directions. Much of what I said in this series was inspired by a life-clarifying book called "Simply Jesus" by NT Wright. His work on locating Jesus in a culture and context (both then and now) is insanely good and I found myself amening (if that can be a verb) 99% of the book. I can blame the Saturday Morning Men's Bible study, since our meticulous study of Luke has cast a light on Jesus' care for the marginalized and excluded. What is good news for us on the outside looking in? I can blame the work I have done with HelpLink in recent months, for reinforcing the point above and forcing me outside my comfort zone to wonder how the Kingdom of God interacts with the kingdoms of our planet (and it does... more than many Christians give credit. I have seen the Spirit at work in government agencies, non-profits and churches alike. While we as the Church are signposts of the Kingdom, God's activity is too big to limit to only us).

And so, what happened Sunday morning, is that I said exactly what I didn't think I would say on the Sunday before Christmas - there is something wrong with the way things are. The fear of death has empowered empires from Rome to modern consumerism to crush the soul of the world. And with the birth of a child, these empires react and rage. And yet, in the birth of this child, the empires are brought to their knees by a Kingdom of heaven. And now that Kingdom is unleashed, shaping a new kind of world organized by peace, justice and righteousness. I realized that Jesus never waged war on the Romans or any other empire because it isn't about the government or the powerful people. It's about the forces that are at work within every human being to either be life-giving or life-denying. The Bible is full of stories of God's people being life-denying and "the outsiders" becoming life-giving. I don't understand it all.

So here I sat at home, realizing that the series wrapped up and went horribly awry. I have my blame in order, I have my conclusion, but I do not sit at ease.

Welcome to Advent. This is the season that God took the script and made it go horribly awry. Confusing expectations, re-shaping our understanding of the Biblical story and generally making a mess, Jesus enters the world. Christmas may be about comfort and joy, but Advent is about waiting, wondering and being not-at-ease. It is a time to confront our (oft-too-small) images of God and watch them get transformed and blown up a little. If the reward at the end of the journey is a day to celebrate our union with Christ, I pay the price gladly. May your script go horribly awry as we prepare for Christmas joy.

God is Self-Giving (Hebrews 2): A New Kind of Joy

The weeks leading up to and following Christmas are all about joy, right? If we were to believe the rampant commercialization of Christmas, we would believe that this season is all about joy- mostly the joy of spending money and receiving gifts, then returning those gifts for what you really want. Even McDonald's has started marketing their premium coffee beverages as "My Comfort and Joy" (stealing from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," my favorite Christmas carol).

This would a recent development in Christianity, if indeed the shift to "a season of joy" is Christian (it probably isn't). Most of our history, this season has emphasized the "not yet" part of God's plan. That is, this is a time to recognize that God's plan is not completely finished yet. While Jesus did say "It is finished" on the cross, there is another "It is finished" to come (Revelation 21:6). Advent, or the season before Christmas, is when we recognize this fact. And anyone who is looking at an empty chair this season already knows that longing. Many of us, however, eat and spend our way into oblivion, trying not to think about such things.

Jesus embodied a couple things. One is the joy of the Lord- "For the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus also embodied suffering and longing (Hebrews 2:14-18). For a long time, we have separated those things. Joy and suffering do not stand by one another in popular understanding. Yet in Jesus, there was a certain level of joy that existed in the midst of suffering.

Sometime, sit down and read the parables. Many of them are quite bizarre, and I think Jesus winks a little during them. Parables often poke fun at the powerful and lift up crazy situations. These parables often tell profound truths with a little humor attached to them. I also notice that people in helping professions can have the best sense of humor. Sit down and talk with a funeral director sometime. Great people with tremendous joy, despite being surrounded by suffering. For some of us, joy seems like an optional extra. For people who stand with others in times of suffering, joy is a survival trait. That kind of joy, I believe, can only come from God (after all, joy is one of the many fruits of the Spirit). And as it comes from the Spirit, I believe it comes in unexpected times when we stretch our faith and capacity. So as we creep (or rush) closer to Christmas, I would encourage you to stretch out a little and find the unexpected joy of Jesus. Here's to joy!

God is Self-Giving (Hebrews 2): Trojan Horse

One of the most famous stories in all of mythology is the story of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks are invading Troy but are unable to get past the walls around the city. And so they hide within a large horse statue and present the horse as a retreat present, a kind of prize from the loser to the winner. But when the Trojans go to sleep, the Greeks slip out and destroy the city. It's a famous story that has spawned parodies and battle strategies across the world. And yet, the whole plan seemed so fragile. What would happen if the Trojans rejected the gift and burned the large wooden horse? The entire thing would be ruined.

The New Testament uses a fair amount of battle images. I don't see my life as a battle, nor do I consider myself a spiritual warrior. I don't think the New Testament is primarily a war manual, but a creation manual. However, I do believe that there is a purpose to the scattering of battle images in the New Testament. Jesus, in particular, wages a particular war in His earthly life. Who is the enemy? Hebrews 2:15-16 tells us that it is against the devil, who holds the power of death. Truly, the battle is an anti-death one.

Becoming human would seem like a poor way to wage this battle. Much like hiding in a wooden horse might make you a bit vulnerable, so also becoming a human being would seem like an unnecessary vulnerability. After all, God doesn't die. People do all the time. So why would Jesus become a human and enter the arena at a disadvantage?

As best as I can tell from Hebrews 2, Jesus is far more concerned about helping people than being comfortable. Jesus volunteered for suffering and temptation so that He would stand next to people suffering and tempted.

In the season of giving, I take from this the Philippians 2 attitude of Jesus. May we all be shaped not only by Jesus' vulnerability in coming to face death on death's terms, but also may we model Jesus' vulnerability in giving of ourselves this season.

God is Self-Giving (Hebrews 2): One old guy you should definitely know

The Church has existed for 2000 years, twice that if you trace our heritage to Abraham. And that history is peppered with sinners and saints who have amazing (and horrifying) things in the name of Jesus. Some of them are worth knowing. Athanasius is one of those guys. Frankly, we celebrate Christmas because of him. Christmas was not a holiday recognized right away by the Church. In fact, it took a few hundred years to be recognized. Easter, by contrast, was celebrated almost immediately (in the context of Passover celebrations and as a part of regular worship). Today, we couldn't imagine a church year without Christmas. When our country was founded, several Christian churches banned the celebration of Christmas. And people talk about a war on Christmas now! But that's a topic for another day, let's focus on Athanasius a little bit.

Athanasius wrote a book called "On the Incarnation of the Word." It's a good read, although it struggles from issues of translation (like any translated book would). In it, Athanasius takes us on a deeper understanding of our salvation from the Christmas story. The Incarnation, God taking on human skin and bones, is a necessary part of the salvation story- not only because this makes Jesus a better sacrifice, but because God loves creation and entering creation was necessary to save it.

"He became what we are that he might make us what he is."
Athanasius

What do you think? Why was it important for Jesus to be fully human and fully divine?

God Never Gives Up (Hosea 11): The Dramatic Story

The Exodus is a dramatic story. It involves an oppressive empire, a small group of people standing up against that power, some dramatic miracles and eventually freedom. The story of the Exodus is the story of a people, a hero, a villain, and ultimate purpose. It is the kind of story that Star Wars and Lord of the Rings pattern themselves after. The Exodus story itself is told within a pattern that stretches to our earliest storytelling forms (the hero's journey). The drama and power of the Exodus story is why the 10 Commandments are played every year on TV, and why we care if the film gets the story right.

When Matthew 2 quotes Hosea 11, I believe Matthew is trying to show us that Jesus fits squarely into a dramatic story of Exodus, temptation, wilderness and inheritance. Allow me to draw out those comparisons once more.

Israel's Exodus:
Context of suffering (slavery and mass murder)
Mighty miracles (plagues)
Pass through the waters (Red Sea)
Encounter with God (Mt. Sinai)
Enter wilderness (temptation)
Failure to succeed against temptation
Get to edge of inheritance (Jordan River)
Exodus Generation (including Moses) not allowed to enter the inheritance

Jesus' Exodus
Context of suffering (Roman occupation and mass murder- King Herod)
Mighty miracles (Star, Angels, Virgin Birth, etc.)
Pass through the waters (Baptism)
Encounter with God (at the Baptism)
Enter wilderness (temptation)
Success against temptation
Gets to edge of the inheritance (Gethsemane and the cross)
Passes through the waters (a symbol for death- Romans 6:4) again
Enters the inheritance and becomes heir of all things (Hebrews 1)

While there are several parallels between the Exodus of Jesus and the life of the Church, I will not necessarily draw them here. I don't because, realistically, we do not have our own Exodus. We are united to Christ. In passing through the waters of baptism, we are united with Christ in faith because of Jesus and His work. When we pass through temptation and fail, we are not disbarred from the inheritance of Christ, because we are in Christ. While the comparisons of the two Exodus' may look nifty and may seem academic, this is the foundation of grace.

"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." - Romans 8:1

Hosea 11 (God Never Gives Up): Whose Plans?

Hosea 11:7 "Even if they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them."

Israel was a unique place in the world because it had the Temple. At the Temple, heaven and earth were brought together in one place. The structure of the Temple was a journey through the moments of creation as well as deeper into the mystery of God. At the end of the Temple, there was only darkness and God (much like things were at the beginning). Jerusalem was the center of the world, which explains why even modern maps have Jerusalem at the middle. The Temple was a truly unique place.

Sadly, having the Temple within their boundaries gave Israel an unfounded sense of control over God. As long as they had the Temple, they felt like they could do anything and received God's blessing. Hosea, along with several prophets, denied this false belief.

Sometimes, we as Christians get the same impression; that is, that God exists for us rather than us for God. A journey of discernment sometimes gets replaced with a magical sense that God is just going to bless our plans.

The prophet still speaks to us today. May we always be mindful of how God is at work and follow God in God's plans, rather than have God rubber-stamp our plans.

God Never Gives Up (Hosea 11): Running from the Good

Hosea 11:1 begins with a beautiful statement of God's parental love toward humanity.

And it is directly followed up with a heart-wrenching declaration of humanity's flight from God's love.

"But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.
They sacrificed to the Ba'als
and they burned incense to images" (Hebrews 11:2)

For a little perspective- Ba'al is not just the name of another god, it's also an ancient word for "husband" (yes, heavily patriarchal, but run with me on this). If you were to change the names around, this could be the plot of a romantic comedy. "Hopeless romantic Billy loves Ursala, but she loves Randy, the bad boy down the street." Except this is hardly a comedy. This story gets more and more tragic.

The Ba'als do not make good boyfriends. Ba'alist worship encouraged self-mutilation (see 1 Kings 18) and sex trafficking (Ba'alist worship involved heavy prostitution and often that was forced onto slaves). Whereas God is the one who lifts the yoke and leads with kindness (Hosea 11:3-4), Ba'al is a merciless god who leads with coercion and violence. So... what is so tempting about Ba'al? Why keep running back?

According to Thomas Hobbes, life is "nasty, brutish and short." We become conditioned, even traumatized, by the harshness of the world, and eventually we allow it to define us. And Ba'al offers a single narrative to explain it all, "you're not doing enough." You don't visit the temple enough, you don't give enough, you don't inflict enough pain on yourself. If you would only put a heavier yoke of suffering on, you would experience blessing.

God frees from the yoke and leads us with cords of kindness into a great mystery. In this mystery, joy can even break forth in harsh times and can bring us peace. If you find yourself running back into the arms of a cruel master this morning, this word is for you:

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Jesus is the Perfect Picture of God: The Kingdom is Now

"After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." - Hebrews 1:3

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" - Jesus, Matthew 28:18

Check out this story here from NPR. In it, Julio Diaz gets mugged. Instead of handing over his money and calling the police, he invites his would-be mugger to lunch. He spends time with this guy and hears his story. In this story, there are two kingdoms at work.

One is the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2)- a satanic system strips a young man of resources and dignity. And so he acts out of despair in that system and puts himself in jeopardy to get a little money. There's nothing the prince of the air likes more than despair and isolation. When people feel alone and desperate, the short term gain often takes precedence over the long-term reality.

Then there's the Kingdom of Heaven. A moment of clarity, a moment of recognizing that while this young man has been traumatized by the prince of the air, he is not the prince of the air. He's a human being. And so Julio invites his mugger to dinner and talks to him. And, in that moment of clarity, the Kingdom breaks in to both people's lives. The mugger gives up his knife, the tool of the prince of the air. Who knows what will come of this story? All I know is that the King is on the throne, and the King is at work.

I think it's horrible that stories like this even have to exist. I think it's tragic that systems are in place that perpetuate poverty and minimize hope. I think it's tragic that human brokenness, within systemic brokenness, live out of despair rather than hope. But I think that we have given the prince of the air too much credit. I think we have allowed ourselves to think that the prince of the air has complete control until Jesus returns. Alas, this is not true. The King is on the throne. And the King is higher than the prince. While the prince of the air has power, the King has more. I think what we witness today in a world seemingly bent on destruction is not that the prince of the air is winning. And we assume that people who make poor choices active agents of the kingdom of the air, and we are the kingdom of Heaven out to crush our human opponents.

I want us to consider another perspective. I want us to remember that our struggle is not against flesh, it is against powers and principalities, or systems (Ephesians 6:12). Our struggle goes deeper than "good guys" versus "bad guys." And, it's our struggle. The King is on the throne and has appointed servants to carry out the King's work. That's us. We shouldn't be asking why someone would be so "bad" as to mug somebody. We should be asking why the Church isn't caring for a teenage boy on the streets of New York City. This is our work, this is what grace prepares us for (Ephesians 2:8-10). So when these stories arise, I get reflective and ask "How am I, Christ's ambassador of reconciliation, working to make stories of compassion the norm until stories of poverty don't exist anymore?" Tough calls, to be sure, but worthwhile ones.

Jesus is the Perfect Picture of God: Prophets, Jesus and You

"In the past, God spoke to us by the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken to us through the Son" (my paraphrase of Hebrews 1:1).

The Old Testament Scriptures were divided into three sections. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law was Genesis-Deuteronomy and the Writings were Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. Everything else fit under the prophets. Even books like Judges and Ruth were considered prophetic books by many Orthodox Jews. Still are, in fact. So when the book of Hebrews speaks of the prophets, the author is hinting at far more than the scary books in the back of the Old Testament.

But God, according to this verse, speaks through the Son (Jesus) now. So what is to be said of the prophets. Many different movements are trying to resurrect the idea of the prophet. Charismatic groups speak of prophecy as an active spiritual gift, telling about the future or a truth no one else could know. Social justice Christians speak of prophets as people who actively work against the status quo. Liberation theologians take that one step further and say that prophets are the ones who challenge any system, including the Church, that keeps people in oppression. And to some extent, all of those groups are right.

But if we read Hebrews 1:1 carefully, the prophets seem to be of the past, what Hebrews calls "obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13). Can that be right? Should we abandon the prophetic voice today?

Yes and no. On the one hand, we can get rid of the notion that prophets have to always be right in every circumstance. While a person claiming to speak prophetically against the systems that oppress (I lean more toward the social justice Christian voice) should be careful to speak the truth, one who occasionally messes up need not be stoned (Deuteronomy 13:5). However, we (the Church) are still called to have a prophetic voice. But that voice comes from Jesus, it comes from testifying about Jesus and about what Christ's Kingdom entails (Revelation 19:10). Any place where the Kingdom shares a border with the powers and principalities or systems of a destructive world is a place for prophecy. To speak Christ's love into hate is prophecy. To embody freedom for the captive (Luke 4), feed the hungry and care for the powerless (James) is prophecy. And that is not a call for a few people. A few people will be extreme- they will be gifted for the prophet's work. But anyone who testifies to Jesus is a prophet. And that is the calling of the Church. May we all be led to use our prophetic voice in Christ today and this week.