God Saved the World

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

A few weeks ago, this was part of the basis of the sermon in our church. As I was listening, and it may have been because the preacher pointed it out, I noticed that the passage is about God saving the world.

We often hear that and are thankful God has saved us - you or me. We don't often hear it as God saving the world, not individuals. Don't get me wrong, I believe God has by grace given me (and you) eternal life. But I think it's more.

What difference does it make that God has saved the world, not just individuals?

• If God has saved the world, then we're not judging who is saved and who isn't.
• If God has saved the world, then even that person we hate is saved.
• If God has saved the world, then God loves all of us - ALL OF US.
• If God has saved the world, then maybe God has also saved the planet, and we need to get our acts together so that we don't destroy what God has saved.
• If God has saved the world, then when we hurt someone, we are hurting who God loves and has saved.
• God has saved the world because it is God's nature to love. The world is not loved because of what it has done, but because God is who God is.

Thank God that God has saved the world.

 

Born Again

Can you tell my thoughts and writing are lately influenced by Walter Breuggemann's book, A Way other than our Own?  In one of the devotions I read, he used the John 3 passage about Jesus's meeting with Nicodemus to inspire the writing.  He compares the experience of being born again to the characteristics of a baby: innocent, vulnerable, dependent.

I don't know about you, but those aren't words I want to be used to describe me as an adult.  We strive to not be dependent, to not show vulnerability, and to be cynical rather than innocent (or naive). And yet, I think Breuggemann would say that when we think about our relationships with God and with others, our goals are backwards. 

Serving God and serving others in love means stepping out in vulnerability, doesn't it? God wants us to depend on God and to not depend on ourselves. And sometimes cynicism gets in the way of relationship.

Honestly, sometimes I struggle with the phrase "born again" because (in my opinion) it has been corrupted by the conservative church to have a particular meaning or to be a particular gateway. Being born again has come to mean a lightning experience of a particular moment. Your born again experience can be judged against these standards to see if it measures up.  (my cynicism is showing - sorry).

I think being born again means recreation. It means a transformation.  I think it can happen in a moment, but I also think it can happen through time.  I think it also means that God can recreate us every day.  Our journey through sacntification means that we are changed from yesterday, but that we will be different tomorrow.  I know that justification and sanctification aren't the same in Wesley's language, but grace is grace. But of my sanctification means that I am invited to say "yes" to God every day. I am invited to experience "born again" every morning. I can open myself up to vulnerability fresh with the new day; to be naive and to once again depend on God for my daily bread.

May you be born again today.

 

The New Covenant's Sacrifice - Sunday school, 4

Annual Conference Sunday School Lesson, Cont.

Conclusions

In what way does the new covenant initiated by Christ’s sacrifice create a new life in you?

Christ’s sacrifice gains us forgiveness of our past sins – and it opens new life for the future.

Quote from Elizabeth Forney:  this changes everything.  No longer does the community need to keep track of offenses against neighbor and God, nor report to the local priest for intercession or atonement.  Instead Christ becomes both the mediating presence and sacrifice.  Sin is still a reality, but so now is forgiveness.  We no longer belong to a fear-based community.”

Peter Wallace has a three fold statement that I like:

1. First – we are part of the redeemed body of Christ today, and that changes how we worship God.  We now have a deep, spiritual vitality – meaning prayer and meditation, and energetically serving others.  We are in the Holy of Holies – in the presence of God.
2. Christ’s sacrifice was eternally effective.  We are set free from worry that it is impossible for us to relate to God by not measuring up, not being acceptable, not being good enough.  Our relationship with god is no longer an issue – it is an eternal reality.
3. Christ will come again, and we will be engaged in expectant waiting that “is throbbing with Christ-like service” instead of fearful waiting.  We have already been made right with God.

The New Covenant's Sacrifice - Sunday school, 3

Annual Conference Sunday School Lesson, Cont.

Application

How is Christ as a high priest differ from other high priests?  How does the sacrifice differ from the animal sacrifices described in the Hebrew Bible?

• Christ offered himself willingly – the animals life was taken from it; Christ gave his life
• Jesus was the flawless sacrifice – he was human in every way we are, and yet he was without sin
• Jesus was both the high priest and the sacrifice
• This sacrifice is once and for all – it does not need to be repeated
• This sacrifice was one of love.
• William Barclay says Christ’s sacrifice changes a person’s consciences – releases a person from the burden of sin – it frees us and brings us into communion with God.

Take a look at the idea of blood as life.
What is blood?  It is life.  For the Israelites, blood was a precious gift that symbolized the essence of life.  God prohibited the Israelites from consuming blood.  Blood is life – and when our life is over, the blood of Christ continues to bring us life.

Think about Holy places
We’ve talked today about the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.  Christ’s sacrifice brings us into the presence of God and expands the Holy of Holies.

• Tell the story of Alex and the movie.
• Tell the story of the mission in California
• Tell the story of Spring Heights.

Can you tell about a holy place for you? Where are the thin places where you meet God?
What does all of this mean when we look at it in connection with the building we call Church?

Talk about our need for the rituals

1. Why do you think there was a system of sacrifices for the Israelites in the first place?  Did God need them? Or did the Israelites? How hard is it to accept the idea that we are forgiven?  
2. We read in John “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  I believe that.  I believe God sent his son.  But I also believe – although I do not understand it – in the trinity. In sending his son, God came, and became human, and died for us on a cross.  
3. And in a faith that is full of contradictions (human and divine, now and not yet), could it be that the sacrifice of Jesus was not a requirement of God’s to cleanse us, but a requirement we placed on God in order for us to be convinced.  Heb 9:14a (CEB) says, “how much more will the blood of Jesus wash our consciences clean from dead works in order to serve the living God.”
4. What more effective demonstration of love could there be that God suffering and dying for us – does that not convince us that we are loved and forgiven?  Could it be that the crucifixion was necessary in order to convince us of God’s love for us?

Talk about the cost of forgiveness
How easy is it to forgive someone else? I’m not talking about when someone does something that can be explained away.  For example, your friend misses your birthday party because she got stuck in traffic.  Or there is a misunderstanding between two people due to miscommunication – those don’t need forgiveness.

How easy is it to forgive the young boy who bullies your son?  How easy is it to forgive the person who breaks into your car and steals your radio?  How easy is it for a woman to forgive her rapist? How easy it is to forgive someone?

Forgiveness is costly.  It brings tears, anguish, and a broken heart. William Barclay says, “Forgiveness is never a case of saying, ‘It’s all right; it doesn’t matter.’  It is the most costly thing in the world.  Without shedding the heart’s blood, there can be not forgiveness….Where there is forgiveness, someone must be crucified.”  And there are times when we must do it in order to be free – and yet we cannot do it alone.  The fact that we are forgiven opens up for us the relationship with God so that God can give us the power and strength to make the sacrifice ourselves to forgive someone else.

The New Covenant's Sacrifice - Sunday School Lesson, 2

Sunday School Lesson, Cont.

Examination of Scripture

11 But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

A new day has come.  Christ is now the high priest, and the human constructed temple has been replaced by a heavenly sanctuary – “the greater and more perfect meeting tent.”  Christ’s sacrifice was only once and was for all time – unlike that of the former high priests, who had to repeat their visit to the Holy of Holies every year on the Day of Atonement.  It is his own blood that is used in the sacrifice.  The word redemption is lytrosis – it comes from the root word lytron, which means ransom.  It means to set free – to redeem.  I like this quote from the material: “Because of his sacrifice in the more perfect temple, Christ took us from the tent’s Holy place to the Holy of Holies.”   Think back to the Gospel description of the crucifixion of Christ.  In Mark, when Jesus died, what happened in the temple?  In Mark 15:38:  “And the curtain of temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”  Access to God.

15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. 16 Where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 

I work at the Foundation, where we help people with bequest gifts in the will for ministry. This part of the passage is actually a pun – its hard to tell, because we don’t read or understand Greek, but the Greek word for covenant is diatheke – and the same word can be translated as “will.”  When does your “will” become realized?  “With ones’ death, his or her will comes into effect…. Therefore, the new covenant (will) mediated by
Christ could only come into effect at Christ’s death.”

18 Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Just like my box story at the beginning of this lesson, we cannot solve the problem of sin without Christ.  In Christ’s actions, there is forgiveness.  It was Christ’s one-time action –and it brings us into the presence of God.  We couldn’t do it by ourselves – the rituals of the Hebrew bible were not enough. 

The New Covenant's Sacrifice - Sunday School Lesson 1

Last weekend, I taught Sunday school at Annual Conference.  Today's post and the ones that follow are my notes for the lesson, based on Hebrews 9:11-28.

Foundation for Reading the Scripture

The scriptural basis of today’s lesson is Hebrews 9:11-18.  So let’s start with a look at the book of Hebrews.

Format:  I think I always thought that it was an epistle – much like other letters in the New Testament.  My reading in preparation for this lesson contradicts that – Hebrews is sermon or a treatise that was sent as a letter.  It does not begin like a letter with a normal greeting, but it does end like a letter would.  Structurally, it alternates between discourse and application.

Authorship:  There is a tradition that it was written by Paul, but it very much more that likely was not written by Paul.  One of the sources I read said that when the New Testament was compiled, one of the criteria to be included was that the “book” had to have been written by an apostle or at least by someone who had been in direct contact with the apostles.  But the book was well loved, and it was felt that it had to be included.  So they said Paul wrote it.

The text itself doesn’t claim to have been written by Paul – in fact the text is not very Pauline, and Origen said, “Who wrote the Letter to Hebrews only God knows for certain.”

There are a few theories.  Martin Luther thought that Apollos write it. He was a Jew who had been born in Alexandrea.  Another theory said that Barnabas wrote it.  A third theory is from a German scholar.  He thought that maybe Aquila and Priscila wrote it, and that the authorship information vanished later because the main author of Hebrews was a woman.  All interesting theories, but Origen is right – only God knows.

Time it was written:  Most evidence points to the idea that Hebrews was written in the later half of the first century. It is likely that since the destruction of the temple (which happened in 70 CE) that it was before that date. A likely date is 65 CE.

To whom was it written: It was probably written to a church in Rome, perhaps to Jewish Christians who were facing persecution, who were tempted to abandon their faith.  The author is trying to demonstrate to them the superiority of the Christian faith to persuade them not to return to Judaism.

Overarching theme:  The author wants to demonstrate that Christ has offered us access to God.  Through Christ, we are drawn into the presence of God


Background information for the lesson – context

Let’s place today’s passage in context in the book.  The first part of the chapter (verses 1-10) contain a description of the sacrificial rituals of the Hebrew faith.  I think it is important to have a grasp on this in order to understand the part of the scripture on which we’ll focus.  Imagine the tabernacle.  Two tents were part of the larger tent.  The outer tent was the Holy place.  Behind the second curtain was the inner tent – called the Holy of Holies. The priests carried out their sacrificial duties in the outer tent – but once a year, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies with sacrifices for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.  This is where God was – only the high priest could enter into God’s presence, and only once a year.

The Trinity and Salvation

Why was the death of Christ necessary for our salvation?

No, I asked you first.

I don't have an answer, but I do know that there are many theories.  You can google them if you like.  I think Adam Hamilton reviews several of them in one of his books.

I was listening to a podcast "You Made it Weird" by Pete Holmes: he was interviewing Nadia Bolz-Weber.  I liked it, but I wouldn't recommend it if you are bothered by language.  Anyway, one of them was summing up one of the theories like this: God had one son, and he loved him very much. But we are so sinful - you are so sinful - that God had to kill his son in order to forgive our sins.  

That's an exaggeration of a theory, but it does reflect some of the thought around one of the theories of atonement.

Stop for a moment and think of the trinity.  God is Jesus.  Jesus is Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is God.  Jesus was incarnated as a human - but that means that God was incarnate.  God died.  God loved us so much that God died.

When you shine the light of the Trinity on the crucifixion, it changes the understanding of it, I think.

No, I still don't have the answer.  But do think about the question.

Hosanna

Hosanna.

If someone asked you what that word means, what would you say?  I would answer that it is a word of praise - a word of adoration.

When I googled it, the definition was "an expression of adoration, praise, or joy."  

But as I was reading my devotional today from Harnish's study (Easter Earthquake), I read, "That Hebrew word means 'help' or 'save.'" That was confirmed when I googled it again, and found that it literally means "I beg you to save!" 

Isn't it an ah-ha moment that the word of adoration is more than that - that it is a cry for help? So, when we praise God with the word Hosanna, we are also asking for salvation. Perfect word.

The Broad Place

Last week, I wrote about James Harnish's explanation and examination of the word merhab. It means both broad place and salvation.

He talked about how, when he grew up, salvation was defined as the moment at the altar when a person gave his or her life to God while "Just as I am" was being sung.  It was a moment.  A particular time of yes.

I can relate to that, even though that hasn't been part of how salvation has been described to me in my faith development. Even so, especially on my Walk To Emmaus experiences, I have heard people describe that Moment of Decision - the Moment of Salvation.

And I haven't experienced that. My experience has been ongoing, with a variety of steps and decisions to follow Christ.  And I think that is just as valid as the Moment.

Harnish says:

Salvation is an ongoing work of grace through which I am being released from the suffocating smallness of life turned in on itself to live in the spacious greatness of God's boundless life and love.

Right there - that is the connection beween broad places and salvation. Salvation is the experience of broadness in life.  Salvation is the broad place in life.

Merhab

James Harnish, in the Lenten study I'm working through, talks about the word Hebrew word merhab. It means "vast expanse or broad place." Interestingly, it can also mean salvation:

• Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a  broad place. (Psalm 118:5)
• He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18:16)
• and have not delivered me into he hand of th enemy; you have set my feet in a  broad place. (Psalm 31:8)
• He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. (2 Samuel 22:20)

Look at each of those and consider how two definitions, that to me seem vastly different (broad place and salvation) become almost interchangable.

More on this next Monday....

Perspectives: Salvation

"Perhaps one of the most indisious tempations we face is to beliee that salvation is all about us, that the poupose of God's amazing work of grace and death and resurerection of Jeuss is only for indiviudal human souls.In fact, God's svaing purpose encompasses the whole creation, and we are called to particpiate in that salvation."

James Harnish

The Facets of Salvation

Eugene Peterson's book, Psalms: Prayers of the Heart, suggests that we look at Psalm 103 as a poem that expresses the experience of salvation. I read the Psalm and listed what I found as the facets of salvation (from Psalm 103)

The Lord:

• hears our prayers
• forgives our sins
• heals our deiseases
• redeems our lives from the Pit
• grants us steadfast love
• gives us mercy
• satisfies us
• stays with us as long as we live
• renews our youth
• lifts us up like an eagle
• works vidication
• brings justice
• makes himself known
• is gracious
• is slow to anger
• is filled with love
• sometimes does not accuse
• does not keep his anger forever
• does not deal with us according to our sin
• does not repay us for what we have done wrong
• has love that is larger than we can imagine
• separates us from our sin with a distance that we cannot express
• loves us as children
• is compassionate toward us
• remembers how we are made
• remembers that we are from dust
• has love that is eternal, and gives it to us

The Basis of Assertiveness

If you have a chance, read this article from the Church Leadership Newsletter.  Here is a quote:

Notice the wording when the apostle Paul reminds us of the primacy of Christ and the cross. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Cor. 1:18, italics added). If there is a need for a greater assertiveness about the gospel message, there is also a need for a greater humility that comes from knowing we are all being saved.

How do leaders practice greater assertiveness and at the same time greater humility? Do those see to you to be opposites?

Look closely at the scripture.  "...but to us who are being saved."  Being saved.  Not perfect.  Not complete.  Not always right, even when we think our opinions and judgments are biblically based. Our assertiveness regarding this gospel shouldn't be grounded in a belief in the rightness of our opinions.

Instead, our assertiveness should come from the the very knowledge that God is saving us.  God is changing us. God is at work in our lives, and we know the difference that can make.  From the humility of that knowledge, we can offer Christ, with the assertive knowledge of God's presence and love for all of us.

That's grace, and it's what we are called to offer to others.

Rescue

Posted on Facebook:  "Women don't need to be rescued; they just need someone to listen to them."

That started me thinking.  Do women need to be rescued? I have to say I agree, in some ways, with the poster.  Women don't have a larger need to be rescued than anyone else.  We are as capable, skilled and gifted as men.  I am shorter and less physically strong than most men I know, so there are times when it's helpful to have jar opened, a dish brought down from a high shelf, or luggage carried.  That doesn't mean I can't do it on my own, but even so, none of that is rescue.

I think the traditional viewpoint of women needing rescue and men being heroes comes from a few sources.  The "damsel in distress" and the "rescuing hero" model has been seen as romantic.  I wonder in the past if the "type" woman had a need to feel loved, and to be rescued meant that she was worthy of rescue.  For the "type" man, to be the hero made him feel worthy as well - stepping up as a man, into his expected macho role.  But that's not the way life is, and we are not the "type" of yesteryear.  Our worth is not defined by what someone else will do or by how we meet others' expectations.  God has defined our value, and we are of sacred worth.

What does it mean to be rescued?  Merriam-Webster defines rescue as "to free from confinement, danger, or evil (save, deliver).  That's not a state that is unique to women.  We are all in need of rescue.  God, loving us with an unlimited love, has determined our need of rescue and has provided it.

The hero was Jesus, dyeing on a cross, providing rescue for all men and women, who were equally in need of it.  It is an ultimate act of love, and should create in us an overwhelming gratitude.  So, what do we do?  How do we respond?  We become the rescuers.  We shine with the love of Christ, so that all will know their sacred worth and their place in the kingdom of God.

We love like God has loved.   Go rescue somebody today.

Convincing Grace

A pastor friend of mine told me the theme for his latest sermon was this:  God didn't send Jesus to die on a cross as a way to prove to God that God loves us; he did it to prove to us that God loves us.

Think about that for a moment.

There are times when we point to the death of Christ on the cross and consider it to be Christ taking on punishment for our sins in answer to a demand from God that the punishment be given.  Maybe there is a part of the crucifixion that answers this need, but I think there is more.

Who needs convincing that we are loved by God?  We do.  Who has God been following with his previenent grace for AGES?  We are.  Perhaps part of the reason for the crucifixion was to demonstrate to us, in a way that could not be ignored, how much we are loved by our creator.

God died for you.  For me.  How much more convincing do we need?

Healed

In his sermon this morning, Joe said that the word "healed" in this verse (Acts 4:9):  "if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed," has more than one meaning.

It can mean to heal or to save.  It can mean to protect from harm, to rescue, and has the same root word as the word salvation.

Isn't that interesting?

Can you imagine how the words healed and saved are the same?  Doesn't that add some dimension to both of the words?

Salvation

How do you define salvation?  What does it mean?  If someone asked to you to explain it, what would you say?
To be absolutely truthful (although I am always truthful with you), I think people who answer the question, "Salvation is God's gift of eternal life to us" are correct but not thorough.  That answer is too easy and simple.  And when answers in Christianity are easy and simple, then I usually think that there must be more to it.

Christianity, in its best form, is not a 101 level class.  It's complicated, radical and anything but simple.

Tyrone Gordon preached on Saturday an Annual Conference.  As part of his sermon, he talked about salvation.  He said that according to Luke, salvation is more than going to heaven.  It is deliverance.  It is deliverance from whatever binds us -- spiritually, socially or physically.  It is deliverance from all kinds of evil.  Salvation is a restoration to wholeness to live as we were created to live.

I think all of that implies that salvation is not only the gift of eternal life.  It is the gift of life right now, right here.  It is a gift God gives all of us, and it is a gift we can help God give to others.  We can help to free people from whatever is binding them.  For example, when we free someone from loneliness so that they can live out their lives more fully, we are serving God by bringing about the salvation he offers.  When we feed someone, cloth someone, visit someone in the hospital, we are helping God to bring about salvation.

The result is a wholeness of life -- LIVED NOW and lived in the future through eternity.

I really like his explanation because it sounds so Wesleyan -- social justice and holiness.  They are completely intertwined.  We have to offer bread -- bread for the body and bread of faith.