Day 204 - I'm Not Like You (A reflection on Romans 14 for Children 7/7/13)

Paul was a preacher and he did not like it when his congregations started accusing each other of doing bad things. He asked his congregation, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?”  Paul knows that the although his congregations work in the world like Jesus did when he was a living man, the world and the congregation is made up many kinds of people:  ones who eat differently, pray differently, celebrate differently, sing differently and live differently from one another but still earnestly love and worship God.  But those differences should never cause us to judge of one another.  

It reminds me of a story about a girl called Liz who had a friend named Evelyn, and they were really different. Evelyn would wear a blue dress to school and Liz would say “I’m Not like you, I like pink dresses and she would smile. Eveyln would show up after school for the softball team wearing Nike shoes. Her friend would say I’m Not like you I wear Aditas shoes, and then she would smile. They would go to church and when they said the Lord’s Prayer Evelyn would say “forgive us a trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Her friend Liz would lean over and whisper, “I’m Not like you, I say it right, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” and then she would look at Evelyn and smile. When they sang the hymns Evelyn always sang in a soft voice but Liz always sang loudly. After the hymn, Liz would lean over and say “I’m Not like you, I sing so people can hear me!, and then she would smile at Evelyn.

 All this made Evelyn feel pretty bad like she was some kind of outcast and was doing the wrong things. But as she walked out of church that day, she had an idea and turned to Liz and said, I should change your name to “I’m Not Like You” but  I won’t because every time you tell me I’m not like you about whatever I am doing or saying or wearing, I realize you are right! I’m not you at all, but what I am is your friend who goes to the same school, plays on the same ball team, goes to the same church and prays to the same God. So even though we are very, very different people, we are pretty much alike, and then Evelyn smiled at her friend Liz and gave her a hug.

From that day on, her friend never again said “I’m not like you because…..” Liz realized she was thankful and blessed that Evelyn was different than her. It made her appreciate that there are all kind of people in the world that do things differently than she does and just because they are different is no reason to criticize them because their differences are what make them absolutely perfect friends for each other since they both worked together, especially at church !

That is why Paul says we better not judge others. They may be helping us be better Christians because we learn to love each other even though we are different. 

Day 209 - Grace and Peace

The sermon of July 7, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN

Readings:  Isaiah 7:1-17, 23-25; Romans 1:1-7

When we mention Paul, and the fact he was a Jew, we often think only that he preached the fact that we are saved by the work of faith against the idea that salvation comes from following the Law.  This is a very important part of Paul’s message to us but Paul’s understanding if the Gospel goes much, much deeper.

When we pick up our Bible and open to the New Testament, the first epistle of Paul we encounter is his letter to the Romans, and therefore it is natural we may think this was the first letter he wrote and maybe the first congregation he formed. But Romans was one of the last letters he wrote late in his life and to a church he had never visited much less participated in its formation. 

That Paul was a Jew, that he wrote to a church in Rome that he had yet to visit, and did it late in his ministry is our blessing. Paul went to great lengths to carefully describe his understanding of Christianity forged over twenty or so years of experience to layout his perspective before he met these Christians for the first time. This is why the Letter to the Romans deserves to be read carefully, it reveals Paul’s understanding of the essence of Christian life. 

As a Jew, Paul had a personal world-view characterized by his existence in a greater history of humanity and God; not as his individuality. Today, we live in a culture totally preoccupied with being, what were are going to make of our self, what novel we are going to write, what lasting impact on the world we are going to leave.

For a Jew, history defines the relationship between God as Lord the Creator and the created, both Jew and gentile. The history of the Creator and created defines reality and that means the only way to survive is by the grace of the Creator. Such a view says we have no control over our destiny because God controls our history. Our desire to be free of the limits of God’s history is the source our rebellion and defines sin. To a great extent that is modern individuality.

Paul understands history as more than the past; it is the unity of the past, present and future (parousia). The Letter to the Romans explains a history that contains the historical future or consummation to the relationship of God, the Lord of Creation, and all the created people.  Since the Christ event is part of the history, it means something new happened the nature of the historical relationship between Creator and created, the gentile is now inside that history.

These first seven verses give us a beautiful synopsis of this Christian belief. Paul makes these six points:

I am called to be an Apostle who is a slave to Jesus Christ. (v1)

I am set apart (excommunicated, called) for the Gospel. (v12)

The Scriptures foretold Jesus the Messiah (who) descended from David as a human (and) through the power of his resurrection, God declared Jesus Son of God with the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus Christ is our Lord. (v2-4)

He is the source of grace and calls us to be his ministers obedient to faith. (v5)

His grace is for everyone including the gentiles. (v6)

Everyone who reads this letter (hears this proclamation) is called to belong to Jesus Christ and to be saints sharing His grace and peace. (v7)

Verse 1. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…”

The history of the Creator and created defines us. It means the only way to survive is by the grace of the Creator. In God’s history, the Creator chose to set apart the Jewish people for its special relationship to God. This relationship also defines our history as being set apart from God. (The Greek word for set apart can mean called, excommunicated or removed.) I wonder if Paul chose the word for this ambiguity?

How does Paul see Christ in this unfolding history?  Paul understood that the relationship of Jesus to history was like the relationship of Adam to history. Sin entered history through Adam. When sin entered mankind, it entered all mankind making us all sinners.  We are disobedient from birth.

Christ entered our unfolding history as the new Adam. Righteousness and reconciliation entered history through Jesus. Jesus healed the corruption of sin and established a new covenant of promise for all people. This new covenant stands beside the covenant of hope God made with Abraham and the Hebrews and points to the historical future of our relationship to God.

Verse 2-3: … he promised (the Gospel) beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, … the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh.

The Isaiah reading emphasizes  a critical part of that history.  Isaiah says the impending Assyrian captivity is the beginning of the unfolding of God’s action to redeem not only the Jew but all his people. As a Jew, Paul was painfully aware of God’s action - that the temple of these once noble chosen people was destroyed and the people reduced to the status of slaves of Assyria, then Babylon, then Alexander and finally Rome. Only after these things passed will the child Immanuel, God is with us, come and eat curds and honey and know how to refuse the evil and choose the good. Paul understood Jesus in this historical context, that is, Jesus answers the answer, “What will God do in the history of both the chosen people and all people to honor the covenant with Abraham as father of all nations?” 

Verse 4: (He was) declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord… 

The man Jesus, this God is with us who knows evil and chooses the good is resurrected from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Creator defeats death, the sole enemy of the created, and that power declares he is Lord of all. This is the Lord we serve. These verses 2-4 are the theme of the entire letter.

Verse 5.  (W)e have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, our Lord.

Paul has said he was set apart as an Apostle in a new covenant of promise, now he tells us this new covenant sealed by our Lord has set us all apart as Apostles. You may be thinking ahead now, because if we are set apart as Apostles what is our duty? It is to be a slave of Christ and share God’s grace with the world. Paul has captured the entire essence of Christian life and we are only at the fifth verse of his letter!

Verse 6. “This includ(es) yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”

Lest we forget or misunderstand, Paul repeats himself.  If you are called by Christ, you are set apart as an Apostle. For a sinner, this is a “good news-bad news” message. The good news is obvious, by grace we are saved, but the bad news is we are set apart, as if we have a TV camera following us everywhere, broadcasting our every move, or like we are a city of a hill.

Verse 7. To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The verse is clearly addressed to the Romans but it is addressed also to “all who are called to be saints.” That means us, friends. Paul closes his salutation with these words, Grace to you and peace from God – two powerful words.

If you were a Greek Jew that the Roman congregation was, “Grace” and “Peace” would strike you as significant. Grace is the Greek word that sounds very similar to the Greek word for “greetings.”  “Peace” is the Greek word for the Hebrew word, shalom. As you may remember, “Peace be with you” is a Hebrew greeting that goes back to Gideon when the Lord said, “Peace be with you, you shall not die.” and Gideon built an altar to God and named it, “ The Lord is Peace.”

With these two words, one Greek, one Hebrew, Paul signifies the history of Judaism and Christianity are bound together as a single unfolding relationship between God and all humankind.

Reading these scriptures and their commentaries, led me to think about the way Paul captures the essence of Christian life. We find our strength in the humility of being a slave to Christ. We who are set apart in the world as distinctively Christian carry the obligation to proclaim the Lord ship of Jesus. We are guided by the scriptures. Those scriptures reveal our history of the created to the Creator. We are led to share the grace of God we have with the world.

This letter on history also led me to think about First Presbyterian Church in Soddy Daisy in a different way. I decided to define First Presbyterian Church not just as this congregation of people sitting with me, but to do it Paul’s way to define it by its unfolding history as God’s creation that has a past, present and future.

You do have a grand history and relationship to God that spans 185 years. You are distinctively Christian. You are the first non-Indian church organized in Hamilton County, by a thoroughly Scottish Presbyterian, one of whose descendants became editor of the Atlanta Constitution and a strong supporter of civil rights for African-Americans.  You have produced a moderator of the General Assembly and seminary professor.

As best that I can determine you have sent at least 18 young people into the ministry in the first 150 years, have elected persons to almost every political office of Hamilton County, and as I learned on July 4^th, there is at least one more young woman entering seminary this year.

As we look at that unfolding history today, we still see God’s grace at work in the tireless work of our members with the children of the community, both with our meal and program Wednesday evenings and vacation bible school beginning today. The youth of our church are important for several reasons.  Every child raised in a Christian environment is a seed waiting to be cast on fertile ground as an adult whether it is in Soddy Daisy or Timbuktu.  Every child raised in our church is a fulfillment of our baptismal vows. Every child raised in our church is part of the history of our relationship to the Creator.

I see God’s grace in those who are committed to Bible study Sunday mornings at Church School, in home devotion and in worship. I see it in your commitment to maintaining your historical presence in the community through the Gospel Sing and Yard Sale.  I see it not just in the support by Presbyterian women but also in all the women and men of the church who seek effective ministry to our community. I see it in the selfless commitment of the members of our music program. I see you as the history of all these things.

History is a valuable lesson. God’s history with his people shows that God is in control. But, what about the part of our history called the future? God is the one who is calling us to a Christian vocation. I almost titled this sermon “The Church that Could,” because the logical question is “Where are we going?” Are we satisfied? Can we do more? Do we need a bigger choir, a youth leader, new directions for growth and/or movement, new ministries in the community?  We can do anything the Holy Spirit empowers us to do but we can do nothing more.  To do that, we need to listen carefully for the call.

The way to begin is to understand our history, its past, its present and its future. Our time in the history of First Presbyterian Church is now, our task is to ensure we keep the foundation strong for the next 185 years. As Paul said to all you saints, Grace to you and Peace from God.  AMEN

Day 202 - Stumbling Blocks and Unsettled Minds (Self-restricted liberty)

A sermon delivered at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy-Daisy, TN June 30, 2013
texts: Mark 7:1-7,14-23; Romans 14:1 - 15:6

My professors that taught preaching would likely take me to task for selecting such large expanses of scripture for a sermon. The problem of course is as you shrink down the text you approach a method of "proof texting," that I oppose.  Sometimes to fully appreciate what point  is being make requires a bit of context. This is one of those texts. 

This passage in Romans is a very challenging to preach but it neatly dovetails to our scripture from last week in Acts on Christian conversion and Jewish dietary laws (Day 195). Here, Paul “takes no prisoners” with his argument.  He gives little comfort to Christians who think we are free to do something as long as we think is right, or to Christians who want to fall back on the more universal absolutes of the Law and not do anything a scripture forbids. Paul states we have some difficult and uncomfortable obligations to responsible “Christian liberty.” I encourage you to read the texts again this week and think about where you stand.

We have to appreciate the two things in the life of the congregation that Paul values most: He completely believed that every Christian should invite others to assess one’s conduct as the measure of one's devotion to Jesus Christ. He invited his congregations to do so and expects us to extend the same invitation to others. Second, the congregation is the primary force for proclaiming the Word into the world. Paul knows that anything that works against the peace and purity of the congregation is a sin. The congregation is the face of Christ in the world and strife within it (or denomination at large) is an act of self-condemnation.

He uses the conflict over the role of the Law in Jewish Christian life to make a far more expansive point about Christian liberty that he says is really the freedom  to limit liberty in order to be a slave to Christ.  Ending dietary restrictions and choosing what day to worship (should it be Sabbath or Sunday) profoundly troubled many Jewish Christians because the Law is part of both religious and ethnic identity.  A penitent Jew(ish Christian) must choose between the Christian liberty that frees them from the Jewish tradition of Law, or following the Law and Christianity.

Paul uses the word “strong” for those Jewish Christians who can comfortably disregard the Law and “weak” for those who were spiritually troubled not to follow it.  It is an understandable distinction but it does a disservice to our modern ear. Respectively, we might more appropriately call the two perspectives “liberal” and “conservative” not in a political sense but in the true sense of the words. A liberal view takes into account favors the immediate circumstance in deciding on the proper thing to do, for example eating with gentile Christians. Not only that, you will find we seldom can put ourself 100% in one camp or the other. Not even Jesus  did that. Jesus demonstrated a liberal view when he said it was proper to heal a person on the Sabbath. He demonstrated a conservative view that favors tradition when He said, “Do not think I have not come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matt. 5:17-26) Keep this passage in mind because this is basically what Paul is saying and he never had the Gospel of Mark to read!

Like Jesus, Paul actually honors both positions but he adds important caveats. He says wherever you stand on Christian liberty and responsible behavior, the Law may offer spiritual comfort but it is not a path to salvation. At the same time, if you exercise of liberty and cause someone to stumble, you bring condemnation on yourself.

Paul goes right to the heart of the matter from an individual and congregational viewpoint. This issue is not the food we eat or day we worship. It is the basic question of freedom, “How do we know what is good and bad, or responsible and irresponsible behavior?”

Paul’s answer may dissatisfy you. He says, “It depends.” Paul knows scripture guides us to discern the difference between responsible and irresponsible behavior. It does not give us a set of rigid rules for behavior, it gives us only rigid rules for determining good behavior.  Paul says irresponsible behavior is not violating a set of rules or Laws but is any behavior that separates us from God. In other words, as Jesus said in Mark (and Matthew), nothing in itself is good or bad. What is bad comes from the heart. Paul tells the congregation that each person must decide responsible behavior according to the standard, “Does it separate me from God or not?” This is the individual viewpoint.

Paul does not make it easy but at least he gives us a roadmap to decision. On one hand he says if I have confidence in my faith regardless of the Law I am Ok to violate the Law. However even though I know the law is not a path to salvation, if the Law is so tightly ingrained in my psyche that I suffer spiritual anguish by not following it, I should let it guide it  my daily living. If I do not, the anguish of my heart feeling it is wrong condemns me. 

From the congregational viewpoint Paul identifies three Christian obligations of liberty:

1.    To be responsible to self.

2.   To be responsible to the wider non-believing public (who observe and decide the merit of our belief based on our behavior.)

3.   To be responsible to the congregation.

What he says about “good intentions” in Romans 14:14-17 is difficult teaching. One’s good intentions are irrelevant. Only the actual effect of our action on others is important. Personal motivation cannot justify an action that leads some one astray.  (Have you ever said, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!”)

The reason goes to the effect of the action. If we cause anguish or strife among our members by our behavior or disagreement, we present ourselves and congregation as hypocrites to the non-believing world.  Paul’s measure of good behavior, the ethical test if you will, is whether or not our action promotes the presence of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The whole argument rests on Romans 14:15, the word “love.” John wrote “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” Paul believes this love points seriously to the passage in Isaiah about the suffering servant (Is. 53:4 - 11), to Christ who put on the cloak of weakness and servitude out of love for us to reveal his power over death on the cross. Paul said nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35-37):

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 For Paul, the only test is whether we are acting as a slave for Christ giving the same love to our brothers and sisters to honor his love for us. The test of right or wrong is only, ”Is our Christian liberty self-restrained for our brother and sister’s sake, or not?,” echoing the most basic teaching of Jesus (Compare Romans14:1-17 with the Mark reading).

Paul says freedom is limited. We are always obligated as Christians to work for peace by not just avoiding antagonism and factionalism with our cohorts, and not just being quiet when we disagree with our cohorts, but by actively building up the congregation through fostering our interdependence regardless of opinion. We hear, respect and honor our fellow’s faith and liberty regardless of our own. The best example is the Jerusalem conference that listened to Paul while disagreeing.

This is where a nasty little word “relativism” appears. Paul has spent the better part of two chapters in his letter to the Romans to make the point that imposing absolute rules is dangerous in human relationships. We must understand we must have self-restricted liberty – we are condemned if we do anything to cause a fellow believer or visitor to stumble and fall (vv20-21).

Saying responsible behavior is relative absolutely is not saying anything is permissible if it seems OK relative to the personal circumstance. That would be too easy. Paul’s relativism is even harder to swallow. He is saying anything is permissible if it uplifts the spirit of the congregation and the public who watch us.

Our liberty is restricted by others; whether we are “strong” or “weak.” On one hand, Paul instructs the strong: A devout person strong in Spirit can ignore the Law because they know the Law is not a path to righteousness; but this independence is nothing but  self-indulgence and condemnation if it leads them to think they have independence from God or if it damages someone not as strong.  Then Paul speaks to the weak, “If you have doubts about whether something is responsible behavior, you are not acting in faith if you do it, but nevertheless respect those faithful who do.”  In other words, let what your heart that tells you what is good rule your liberty but remember other Christians.

Finally Paul’s reveals the greater burden always rests on the strong. The “weak” (conservative) are always in more danger because they may feel communal pressure or expectation to behave in a manner not of their own choice (engage in a behavior that they feel it is harmful, e.g. meat, wine, etc.). In such case the strong (liberal) are condemned because they have made the weak(conservative) stumble. The one who claims strength is obligated to limit their liberty in order not to impose a stumbling block on the weak.  Paul does not favor the conservative or liberal viewpoint (though he lets us know his view), for example, eating non-kosher meat or worshipping on Sunday. What he approves for both is they must accept that there are consequences of sin not to accommodate and identify with the other fellow.

For Paul, liberty is not the right to do any thing you please, it is having openness to (not necessarily acceptance of) a diversity of opinions/options. For the strong, liberty and faith are always tied together in the interests of the “weak   We are obligated not to force one’s liberty on others but to use our liberty to discerning God’s will and safeguard that liberty.  A Christian must always remember how easy it is to harm someone by unintended communal pressure/imposition that commits  them to a behavior not by choice. To do so encumbers condemnation.

Romans 15:1-6 summarizes everything Paul says in Chapter 14 into the two great principles that guide Christian liberty:

1.    Always love one’s neighbor ( for example, see Romans 14:15)

2.   Always act to benefit the congregation (for example see Romans 14:19-21)

The good and benefit of the community always constrains Christian liberty. How can we put this into some common circumstances?  We have all hear the expression “love the sinner, but hate the sin.” This is exactly what Paul is talking about not doing. This statement implies we are the strong and are imposing our strength (and judgment) on someone we identify as weaker.  Such judgment asserts we are independent of God.

The core of Christian strength is its weakness: that Christ died in weakness at the hands of man in order to exercise his power over death for humanity’s resurrection. Thus Paul says, strive to live as Christ lived. Always ask yourself, “Am I renewing hope and sustaining the faith of the world by my action?”

If sin is present it lies in our heart and can only be judged by God.  On the other hand, salvation rests in a person’s faith and God’s freely given grace. That grace is independent of sin and offered because of sin. All God’s people have the liberty to embrace that grace regardless of the struggles in their heart. Christ does not want tacit tolerance of our differences, but mutual acceptance expressed in common worship. How else shall we glorify God?