Day 1490 – We Are Our Stories

Adapted from a sermon shared with First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN, January 8, 2017. This is a longer post because I took time to build a basic picture of some key stories behind Isaiah's declaration.

Isaiah 63:7-9

John 1:1-18

Please read the Isaiah passage.  I can distill the message of this passage to its three points:  

(1) God is merciful and steadfastly loves us as his people/children, 

(2) God embraces us as our savior; and 

(3) God is/was with us and sustains us in spite of ourselves. 

If I do it that way, it would leave you cold unless you knew the stories of the Lord’s gracious and praiseworthy deeds that stirred in the mind of Isaiah.  

Many people aren’t as bible-literate these days and it is highly likely a significant number of people who read this post do not know the stories that form the basis of Isaiah’s declaration. Isaiah remembered the old stories because they define the Hebrew people, - the Hebrew people are their stories. In the sense that Paul says, we are brought into the covenant with God through Jesus, that is, we are grafted to the tree of Israel, they are our stories.

Among those stories are the time God honored the righteousness and faith of Abraham, when Jacob fled from his enraged twin brother Esau and made camp for the night by a stream. He wrestled through the night with a man who was God in disguise getting the better and not letting him go without a blessing. He got the blessing but God lamed him in his hip and changed his name to Israel, “the man who struggled with God.”  Israel named the place Peniel – the face of God.

Isaiah remembered the story of Joseph being rejected and abandoned by his brothers only to become the advisor to the Pharaoh and saving Egypt from famine so that the Hebrews became a great nation within Egypt; and the later story when new Pharaoh forgot these deeds and enslaved Israel. Then God told Moses to tell the Pharaoh to “let my people go!” and then led them from captivity into the wilderness, constantly struggling right up to possessing the Promised Land with a stiff-necked people who continued their struggle with the God who does not break promises.

Isaiah remembers the story of the people in the Promised Land who could not follow the Law of their Divine King and demanded of the judge Samuel that he anoint a human king.  He recalls the first three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon whose death precipitated the division of the twelve tribes of Israel into the ten northern tribes of Israel and two southern tribes of Judah.

Isaiah and the other prophets saw and recorded the stories of the misdeeds of kings and the wealthy Israelites that distorted or ignored the Law and built fortunes by disregarding or abusing of the poor and aliens living among Israel and Judah. (Much like today.) Prophets foretold the destruction and scattering of Israel’s ten tribes across the Mediterranean Sea and deserts of the Middle East so that today there is no trace of them except their story.  They foretold the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple as Judah fell to Babylon and the Jews were taken into captivity.

Do the Hebrews remember the story of Jeremiah telling the Judeans to go willingly into Babylonian captivity and take wives and husbands there becoming part of their culture? Or, remember how Isaiah told the Judeans a remnant will return to Jerusalem and join all people who choose to embrace God and worship in the Temple of the Lord; and the sad story of what happened when that remnant returned to the Promised Land? Nehemiah persecuted all Judeans who wished to worship their God in the Temple that he rebuilt unless they abandoned theforeign wives or husbands that Isaiah told them to marry, and their children.

Then the story of the Hebrews went silent until the time of the subjugation of Palestine by Rome when John’s magnificent Prologue (1:1-18) comes to us. It announces the reconciliation of God and humanity founded on the very essence of God’s eternal compassion for humanity.

I am not sure a human has the power to write the story contained in the words of the Prologue that I read on Christmas Eve, or that it came from a human mind at all. It is a sweeping story of the love of God for His creation and a masterful summary of the wonderful deeds of the Lord that as Isaiah described. The Prologue is not just a story. It is the capstone story of God's relationship to humanity.

It contains an intentional parallel to the creation story of Genesis that reveals the full power, significance and relationship of Jesus and God. John tells us this the man Jesus is the form of God who reveals to us who God is. Hear it as an ancient hymn – see Philippians 2:5-16 for another similar, very old hymn.

The Prologue reveals its message in the last three verses, 16 – 18, that I paraphrase this way, "No human has seen or knows God and no human except Jesus who is the incarnate Revelation of God to us, can reveal God's glory. Jesus revealed God through the grace and truth we have received as the gift of eternal life. Even though the man Moses looked upon the face of God, he could only reveal to the Israelites the Law given by God.

The Prologue has four major sections. I encourage you to read the Prologue in its entirety and then read my paraphrase below that attempts to clarify its story. It is a powerful story.

Part 1.  1:1-2   para: Jesus was present as the (Word) revelation of God eternally, before all things began.

Part 2.  1:3-5 para: Jesus is the irresistible light shining into the darkness that preceded creation that brought all life into being.  èthe  revelation of God

Then a pause to clarify John the Baptist is not Jesus. 1:6-9  para:  A man named John testified to the truth of this of life and announced it is coming into the world as revelation of God to everyone. - Oh by the way, John the Baptist prepared the way, but is not Jesus.

Part 3. 1:10-12  para:  Jesus lived in the world as the revelation of God, and was unknown or denied by many even among his own people, but to those who believed he gave grace to be God’s own children.

Then a pause to clarify this new birth as a child of God. 13 para:  that is, those who become God’s children do not become so by human means but by the will of God.

Part 4. 1:14  para:  Jesus lived among us fully as a man yet also as the revelation of God that the children of God see and share the full glory of a compassionate God who loves us as if we were a father’s only son.

Another pause to remind Jesus was not John. 15 para: This man John testified that Jesus is the Revelation who existed before all things came into being.

Part 4 continues: 1:16-18  para:  No human has seen or knows God and no human except Jesus, the incarnate Revelation of God, can reveal God’s glory. Even the man Moses who looked upon the face of God could only reveal to the Israelites the Law given by God. Jesus is the grace and truth of God, he has brought that grace and truth of God to the world. We have received this through him. (As grand hymn: “how about that!”)

Is the Prologue the last story? Do the stories of God’s gracious deeds end with the crucifixion?  The magazine, “The Christian Century” began at the opening of the 20^th century with the optimism and conviction every story had been told and that the era of fulfillment of the Kingdom of God is at hand.  All the work of science and religion would culminate in the world-wide spread of the knowledge of Christianity.  But, within forty years WWI swept the world, the world economy collapsed, WWII brought us German death camps for Jews, the advent of atomic weapons and the Cold War between the forces of Russia, China and the West. In the closing decades of that century we observed first-hand the decline of the Church as a force of God’s purpose in the world. Many wonder, has Christianity died, or at best, is it stuck in the mud of Modernity?  Rather that doubt God is acting in the world we ought to ask how is God acting in the world? Where are the stories of God’s present glorious deeds and praiseworthy acts?

We cannot deny this fact that Isaiah drives home: We are our stories. Our stories reveal God’s present glorious deeds and praiseworthy acts, the story of 21^st Century Christians - unless we think Christianity is dead and give up.

I think the Spirit has left many places. To a tragic degree the organized Church has become a body more concerned with its own stability and wealth rather than its call by God to be a sail boat in the world testifying to God's glory in the world and seeking people everywhere who feel the spirit and call to work for the glory of God, as John describes in the Prologue.

The Gospels have two ideas about the end times (eschatology) and the Kingdom of God. One thread waits for the kingdom of God that will come when Jesus returns. This is the apocalyptic version of Christianity called a future eschatology. This can be dangerous if it seduces us to think we must work very hard to change the world to build the Kingdom of God. It is seductive because it encourages us, even subconsciously, to embrace the mindset that we know the mind of God and can act on His behalf because God is not. We can convince ourselves that we have a better idea than God for what God plans to do. This is a heresy or false teaching some call functional atheism. However, it is a healthy motivation to work for the Kingdom of God for those who favor the other idea. (Functional atheism is not always a conscious intention but a subconscious thinking that we alone have the power to change the world for God. It does not respect either conservative or fundamental theology or liberal theology.)

The other idea says the Kingdom of God is already here.  The kingdom of God is at hand. This is called the realized eschatology.  John’s Prologue proclaims this message very directly, the very existence of Jesus as a man in the world revealed to humanity who God is and through Jesus we see finally the face of God and his kingdom. That revelation marks the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth. We know who God is through Jesus. I embrace this way of thinking. Don't need no ticket just get on board…

Don’t get me wrong. Evil in the world still struggles against the Light and the time after our end will be one of greater joy; however, our path to eternal salvation was sealed when Jesus Christ entered the world. But the revelation of God through Jesus tells us how to live well day-to-day in the kingdom of God. Believing the Kingdom of God is at hand does not mean “look for a comfortable chair to sit and wait for our end.” Rather as James says; our faith fuels our obligation to act as Christians using our own hands to spread that glory of God that the Prologue describes.  

Christianity is not dead in Spring City.  First Presbyterian Church is alive and filled with the Spirit, but we are not in a rose garden.  We are called to the hard but joyful work to glorify God, but how to do it?

Jesus said God is the God of the living. Our own stories of living faithful lives speak of the gracious deeds of the Lord. Our every story that glorifies God testifies to a gracious deed.

How do we write our story? First, we need to acknowledge our stories are about the failures and successes of those who came before us. They give context to living to glorify God. Their stories do not tell the world what they did or how they did it, they tell the world why they did it. Today, we must tell our story the only way we can, by living it to reveal to the world why we are Christians. Second, we do not tell our story, we live it. Our actions are our story, our children will write it down and retell it again and again.

I would like to challenge all of us to let our lives become the stuff of story tellers about the words and deeds glorifying God that are so powerful that they are remembered and told by our fellow-Christians, our children. Get out and live the Christian life. You will make new stories of deeds we have yet imagine about the Spirit within this congregation that inspires gracious and praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. Amen.

Day 1478 - "We Do Not Turn the Other Cheek"

In case you have been sleeping, last week the  United Nations Security Council passed a resolution  rebuffing Israel's continuing annexation of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This caused a dogmatic response from Prime Minister Netanyahu that forms the title of this post. The object of dissent is something called  the “two-state” solution.

 A little perspective helps appreciate the circumstance. In 1948 at the end of the first modern Arab-Israel war, the United Nations passed a resolution (194) establishing the principles for settlement of the conflict. (For all modern history, Palestinians lived in and owned property in Palestine.) The settlement requires returning Palestinian refugees to their homes at the earliest possible practical date and for the responsible government authorities under the principles of international law to pay any Palestinians who chose not to return for their land or the value of the property or damage to any refugee who returned and found their property damaged. (Of course none of the Arab states or communist bloc states who all recognized Israel as a state supported the resolution, and Israel was not yet a UN member.)

The subsequent Arab-Israeli conflicts have moved the borders significantly from their position in 1948 complicating a resolution even further.  A third source of conflict is that both Israel, Palestine and much of the Christian world reveres Jerusalem as a holy city.

As President Jimmy Carter has described repeatedly, the fundamental danger to the stability of Israel is the lack of a fair and equitable solution to this problem of ownership of land and representation of its citizens. Stripping away all the superfluous debate, there are only two feasible options for peace-loving people,

(1)  Israel forms a representative (democratic) government over all the land of Palestine including all Palestinian people living in the land,

(2)   The land of Palestine and Israel is partitioned into two independent states either according to the 1948 resolution, or boundaries agreed upon by Israel and Palestine.

Of course, there is a third option, that either or both Palestine and Israel seek to form a theocratic government(s) per force with sufficient violence to accomplish the ends of unilateral government.

It is patently obvious to anyone who evaluates the situation with an unbiased eye that the two-state solution is the only viable alternative for Israel, Palestine and peace. Why?

A one-state solution would incorporate Arabs into Israeli citizenship leading ultimately to them attaining majority control of elections.  This is unacceptable to Israel. Establishing, or attempting to establish a theocratic government(s) will lead only to increasing conflict and war.

A two-state solution allows Palestine and Israel to maintain sovereignty over its land, with perhaps Jerusalem established as a holy city cared for by all.  Rationally, this is the only viable alternative. Though one must admit it is foolhardy not to recognize that such an agreement requires mutual consent on boundaries and willingness to be a good neighbor to each party as the Law demands of all observant Jews and Muslims. It also requires religious tolerance on the part of both parties, something that has not been evident.

Nevertheless, the only possible path to peace is the two-state solution. Yet every settlement Israeli’s build on Palestinian territory is a strike against getting to that solution. The path Mr. Netanyahu follows leads to war with ominous global consequences.

It is fundamental to understand the primary motivation of the Jewish settlers, numbering in the 100,000’s who are building homes in Palestine. It is an extreme religious, if not apocalyptic, conservatism that sees all Palestine as part of the greater state of Israel. Yet this conservatism, rooted in historic Pharisee religious tradition, flies in the face of the teachings of the prophet Isaiah and of the commandments of the Law to which they claim allegiance. It also flies in the face of history since 586 BCE.

In the United States, many of the most ardent defenders of the status quo whereby Israel unilaterally seizes Palestinian land for settlements are Christian evangelical fundamentalists. Some even seek to inflame the fires of conflict by moving our embassy to Jerusalem as an act of spite to the Arabs and solidarity to the conservative Israelis.

This may be a good time for Christians to begin reading and embracing what they believe of the teachings of Jesus. We owe recognition of Israel as God’s chosen people but we are not in control of history, of our place in the Kingdom of God, nor do we have the mind or authority of God to know what plan he has for them and us.

Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel captured the essence of the conflict and magnified the theological divide between Christianity and parochial Judaism. He said, “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” he said. “This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu has placed this issue in its fundamental theological context. It is not pretty to embrace power and judgment over grace, but it makes the starkest division of grace as represented by the exposition of the Law by Jesus and that of conservative Pharisee thought. Regardless of how well we practice our Christianity, Mr. Netanyahu has placed our duty to it directly in our face. Christians do not seek revenge for perceived wrongs, violence and theft as balm for injured pride, or seek to impose by fiat their own theological perspective on the world.

I do not see any good argument against the United States abstaining on this vote, but perhaps I do see a theological imperative to have voted “yes” on it. Unless Israel can step up to the plate and offer the hand of friendship to the aliens living in its land, unless it can say, “you are my neighbor and therefore my brother,” there can be no progress on the issue but only conflict. Furthermore, given the almost 70 years of hostility between Israel and the Arab states, it is not clear how long one will need to extend one’s hand or how many miles of walking in another’s shoes are required to find peace. 

All we can do is remind Mr. Netanyahu that once his people were slaves in Egypt and the Lord heard their cry.