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OF SIN, JUSTICE, AND JUDGMENT - from Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2015

5/27/2015

On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Twelve - the birthday of the church so to speak. The Holy Spirit should be seen as the key ingredient in the transformational work of ministry carried forward by Jesus' faithful disciples. It is a stunning confrontation with what the world offers, transforming the worldly with the power of the sacred.

This is seen clearly in the always appealing vision of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The prophet is set amid a valley floor covered in scattered dry bones. God asks: "Mortal, can these bones live?" The wise, humble, and faithful prophet admits, "O Sovereign Lord, only you know."

The prophet is commanded, "Prophesy!" i.e. command in the power and name of your God! Like the voice of God which alone caused creation in Genesis, the prophet's voice prophesies to the bones. They come together from scattered places to be re-formed. Then tendons, muscles, and flesh appear as they are made new and whole once again. But they do not live; there is no breath, no Spirit, no life.

The prophet is commanded again, "Prophesy!" The Spirit comes and life is given to the once scattered, dry, and lifeless bones. The world presented the dry bones as hopeless, as refuse on the trash heap, specters of death. God transforms what the world has declared as fact and true, bringing life out of death, turning trash into treasure. The key ingredient in the work of God was the summoning of the Holy Spirit by the one who was faithful and would prophesy in the name of the Lord God.

In John 16, Jesus is preparing for his imminent arrest, his ultimate departure from his disciples. He has prayed for them and now instructs them about the need for his departure so that the Holy Spirit can come, empowering their ministry in his name. Jesus cites three things which the Holy Spirit will reveal, confounding the worldly. The world has defined sin, justice, and judgment. Through the Holy Spirit, the world's definitions will be exposed as fraudulent. Jesus will redefine sin, justice, and judgment, and the Holy Spirit will show these things in truth, transforming what the world affirmed as good, true, and just.

It isn't a simple text , so you'll have to read the sermon text below to see how this works out.

SORRY, there is no sermon video this week. The camera shut off inexplicably one second after turning it on. Ugh.

The sermon text and the Fairfielder answers are downloadable below.

05-24-15-of_sin-justice-judgment.pdf
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05-24-15-ff-answers.pdf
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UNITY IN A BROKEN WORLD - from Sunday, May 17, 2015

5/18/2015

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Salvation is commonly seen as a individual matter. Our Baptist friends may anxiously ask if you've been saved, for example. Even Presbyterians with their Calvinist-Reformed doctrine of election frame the question on a personal basis. However, if we scratch the surface, we discover that the individualistic dimension is far less important, and may even be somewhat irrelevant, when seen through the Lord's eyes.

Certainly our culture informs our individualistic perspective. Today, the aspect of community and shared anything seems quaint to some, and even a dire threat to the American way by extreme others. In biblical times, communities and relationships defined identities. Jesus came along busting through those boundaries, seeking to unite a broken and divided people of the world into the family of God.

Acts 1, following Jesus' ascension, leaves the disciples waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. With no Jesus and no Holy Spirit, what to do? Peter takes the lead, knowing that the Twelve have been reduced to the Eleven. It was an admission that they were incomplete, broken and lacking. They set about restoring their leadership number to Twelve.

Peter sets out the qualification; a person (okay, male) who was with Jesus and his ministry from beginning to end. What mattered was not the personal resume, skills, values, education, resources, or the like, but whether the person had shared the journey and the experience with the group.

In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples prior to his arrest. He notes that they are not of the world, but of the word, the promise of new life. He prays for the unity of this people as the seeds of the kingdom. They are to be witnesses to the new people of God, not only themselves but all others, too. Note how much individual salvation matters here; not at all. Rather, it is about bringing together the whole people of creation and seeing them as the family of God.

There's a whole lot more about this, so check out the sermon video below, and note the downloads available below the video panel.

05-17-15-ff-answers.pdf
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05-17-15-unity_in_a_broken_world.pdf
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LOVE AND JOY AMONG FRIENDS - from Sunday, May 10, 2015

5/11/2015

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The critical importance of relationships in the social fabric can help us appreciate the special relationship Jesus describes in John 15 when he calls the disciples "friends" (NIV, NRSV), not servants or slaves to their Lord. What kind of friendship is this? It isn't the casual friendship with which most of us are familiar. It definitely isn't the superficial Facebook "friend." Jesus also says: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (vs. 13). This is a different order of friendship, a whole other level of relationship to Jesus and to others.

Recalling Robert Putnam's work, published in 2000 in Bowling Alone, the state of society then indicated that fewer people were in meaningful relationships with each other. [There is a website for Bowling Alone and some of Putnam's research - click here.] For instance, from the title, Putnam found that more people were bowling in 2000, but they weren't bowling in leagues. That was 15 years ago, and no one expects things have gotten better. In fact, the phenomena might explain how we've become so divided and unable to talk about basic social issues among people with differing opinions.

Unpacking John 15 takes us full circle back to the branches on the vine bearing fruit, the fruit of sacrificial agape love. We find words coupled in odd pairs; friend and sacrifice, sacrifice and joy. They are jarringly juxtaposed, reminding us of the transformed nature of our relationships when following Jesus' instructions. That's the conclusion of the passage, too: This is my command: Love each other.

Such transformation in relationships gets fully exposed in Acts 10. Peter is preaching to a mixed gathering of Jews and Gentiles. While preaching, the Holy Spirit anoints the Gentiles as well as the Jews. This defied the assumption of the earliest disciples who believed that Jews alone belonged in the new promise of God in Jesus, not Gentiles. Peter found the evidence unimpeachable and felt compelled to baptize the Gentiles, even though there was no precedent. The sacrificial agape love relationship included sacrificing accepted standards and beliefs, and breaking apart the closed circle with transforming love.

The R.A.C.E.S. study group among black and white church folks that started last Sunday, May 3, came away stressing the importance of good relationships based on respect, mutuality, understanding, and trust. Without such genuine and meaningful relationships, nothing can move forward. [The next RACES group session will be Thursday, May 21 from 6pm-8pm, hosted at Fairfield Pres - click the SPECIAL tab above for the flyer about RACES.]

Check out the full sermon video below, and note the downloads available below the video panel.

05-10-15-ff-answers.pdf
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05-10-15-love_and_joy_among_friends.pdf
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Is There Room on the Vine? - from Sunday, May 3, 2015

5/4/2015

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You may be familiar with the imagery of the vine and the branches in Jesus' monologue in John 15. But who is rightly attached to the vine? Jesus doesn't say. The expectation is made very clear that the branches are to bear fruit.

Working through the vine and branches text, we understand that God is the Gardener, tending the vineyard. Associations of the fruit with the wine of the last supper, and of the Gardener with the Garden of Eden are likely intentional. The Gardener does pruning, ensuring the production of fruit. What exactly is the pruning all about? What is being pruned? It seems the good, fruit-producing branches are subject to pruning so that they will be even more fruitful (vs. 2). The branches thrown into the fire (vss. 5-6) are those that have not remained with Jesus, on the vine, having withered, failing to produce fruit. What does that mean?

In the other reading, we encounter Philip's chapter in Acts, chapter 8. Philip meets up with an Ethiopian eunuch who is returning to his homeland after worshiping in Jerusalem. That he is not identified as a Jew is unsurprising. Eunuchs are an abomination in Judaism, purposefully disfigured and prevented from procreation. His role as chief financial officer to Ethiopian Queen Candace doesn't matter.

In the preceding passage, Philip had evangelized among the Samaritans, another detested group of folks according to the Judaism of the day. Now he has an encounter with the only kind of individual who may be regarded as more loathsome than a Samaritan! And he baptizes him at the first opportunity! It seems like anybody can be a branch on the vine!

In today's church, some folks have major problems with homosexuals and their roles and permissions to be among God's people. Frankly, it doesn't bother me that homosexuals, or Ethiopian eunuchs for that matter, are given access and welcomed into the family of God as full participants in the body of Christ. However, I do have an issue with some other folks. To find out who those might be, I'll direct you to the sermon video below, or the downloads below the video panel.