What Happens After We Die?

I Corinthians 15:35-58; Luke 20:27-40

What happens after we die? This is one of the most basic religious questions.  The Bible says some things about afterlife, but it is usually presented indirectly in the context of stories. The bible does not present a systematic treatment of the subject. It is not a Fodor’s Travel Guide to the Afterlife. The Bible is not like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, for example, which purports to guide the reader through the experiences that the soul has after death, during the interval between death and (in the Buddhist religion) the next rebirth. In the Biblical description of the hereafter, it is not at all clear how much of the Biblical language is to be taken literally and how much symbolically.

Are there real streets of gold? There is a joke about a guy who found a way to take his wealth with him to heaven. He converted all his wealth into gold bullion and somehow found a way to bring it with him to the Pearly Gates. St. Peter looks down at the wheelbarrow full of gold bars and say, “How nice of you to bring pavement!” Obviously the idea of streets of gold is not meant to be taken literally; it is meant to communicate the priceless value of eternal life and perhaps how worthless material wealth is in comparison.

Can we really know what happens after we die? There have been a lot of stories of Near Death Experiences in recent decades. People have been clinically dead for a few minutes and been brought back to life through medical intervention. Some of them have fantastic stories of going through a tunnel and toward a light, meeting a figure of light, and seeing loved ones. Skeptics say these are just hallucinations caused by the brain shutting down. Those who have had these experiences swear they are real.

Eastern religions talk about reincarnation. Roman Catholics talk about Purgatory. Traditionally Protestant Christians have spoken in terms of heaven and hell – mostly heaven. Hell is gradually becoming unpopular. American culture has TV shows and films about ghosts and spirits and a spirit world. I have no personal experience of the afterlife. People have shared with me their Near Death Experiences, but I do not know what to think of them.

Because I have no personal knowledge of the afterlife, I rely on the testimony of Scripture when it comes to what happens after death. I figure Jesus knows more about this subject than I do, and I trust his opinion. I tend to see the Biblical pictures of afterlife as trying to describe a spiritual reality using earthly language. The Apostles Creed uses two phrases to describe the Christian concept of afterlife. These two phrases end the creed, and this sermon today ends this series on the Apostles’ Creed. It says, “I believe in … the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” I will group my remarks this morning under these two categories.

I. First, the resurrection of the body. When most people – and even Christians - think of the afterlife, they do not think of bodily resurrection; they think of the immortality of the soul. But that concept comes from Plato and Greek Philosophy, not Jesus and Christian theology. My theology professor in seminary called it the oyster theory – that we are souls in a body like oysters in a shell. The idea is that at death we leave our earthly shells behind and are transported to a spiritual realm where we will spend eternity. End of story.

That is not the biblical concept of human nature or our eternal destiny. The Bible and Christianity have the strange idea that we are not designed to be permanently disembodied spirits. Our immediate experience after death is a purely spiritual one. Our spiritual essence – our souls if you want to call it that - do return to God, but that is only temporary. Scripture teaches that there is more; there is the resurrection of the body. Somehow in some way there will be a resurrection day.

Christianity has believed this because of the resurrection of Jesus. At Easter time we do not tell the story of how Jesus died on a cross and his soul left his body and appeared to the apostles as a ghost and then went to heaven. That is not the Easter story. The gospel writers make it painstakingly clear that the risen Christ was not a spirit. He was physically real. He could be touched. He could eat. In Luke’s Gospel, the risen Jesus says to the disciples, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

The teaching of scripture is that Jesus physically rose from the dead. And he wasn’t a zombie or a vampire or any of the other supernatural creatures that seem so popular these days in teen books and movies. The scriptures teach that Jesus really rose from the dead. Many people have a hard time with this teaching, and many theologians have tried to reinterpret it to mean something less physical. They will say it was a spiritual vision of Jesus that the apostles had, or that Jesus’ resurrection should be interpreted symbolically or metaphorically. But when you do that you are stepping away from historic Christianity. Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Furthermore it teaches that we will rise from the dead. The Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:

¹² Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁴ And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. ¹⁵ Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. ¹⁶ For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁷ And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. ²⁰ But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

          The next question then becomes what kind of resurrected body we are talking about. That is where our Epistle Reading for today comes in.

“³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” ³⁶ Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. ³⁷ And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh^[a] of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. ⁴⁰ There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. ⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”

I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t help me a whole lot? What the heck is a “spiritual body?” Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Either it is spirit or body; it can’t be both, can it? As I struggle with this teaching, it comes down to a couple of issues for me. I think that the resurrection of the body is meant to communicate two truths. One is that the afterlife is real; the other is that it is personal. When we die we don’t just dissipate and that is the end of us. We don’t just live on in the memories of our loved us, and if we are lucky in the history books. We have a real existence after death.

I believe it will be more real than our present existence. This body of mine will perish. It will be destroyed. But who I really am deep down – deeper than body and deeper than my personality - will not cease. Atheists and humanists will think I am nuts and am deluding myself, that it is just wishful thinking and a denial of the finality of death. Maybe they are right; maybe when I die there will be nothing. If there is nothing after death, then I don’t have to worry about it because I won’t be around to worry about it.

But I think that you and I are more than just temporary physical beings. I believe that there is life after death and that it is real. And it is personal. The concept of the resurrection of the body is meant to communicate that we will have consciousness after death. That we will not just merge into the impersonal energy of the universe. We will not just dissolve into the ocean of Cosmic Spirit. I can’t believe we will be less conscious than we are now, less aware than we are now, less personal than we are now. We will be much more than we are now.

II. This brings me to the second phrase in the creed. “I believe in … the life everlasting.” Normally we call this eternal life. It is not just never-ending existence. I would not want that. There is a push these days to cure death. The February 21, 2011 issue of Time Magazine had a cover story entitled “2045, The Year Man Become Immortal.” The story covers a lot of ground, but part of it is the belief that medicine will cure death within the lifetime of some living today. I would be 95 in 2045 so I probably won’t life to see it, which is alright with me. I don’t want to live forever in this physical body on this earth. I want the life everlasting. I am looking forward to eternal life.

The Christian teaching of eternal life is not unending temporal existence. It is sharing in the very being of God. Eternal is not endless time and space. Scientists tell us that this earth had a beginning and it will have an end, just as the cosmos has a beginning and an end. Eternal life is to share the eternal life of God who has no beginning or end. When God grants us eternal life, he is not just giving us extended existence in time and space. God is inviting us to participate in his eternity beyond time and space.

This is where Jesus comes in. Before Jesus was born, he was the Eternal Word. John starts his gospel saying, “in the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He is speaking of Jesus. Christ was God the Son before he was the Son of God. In Jesus God became flesh. Eternity entered time. The Infinite entered space. The unborn was born and the deathless died. God became a human being to redeem human beings from time and space and death. He sent his Son so that we might not perish but have eternal life.

God identified with man in Jesus Christ. When we identify ourselves with Jesus through faith, then we are caught up into the very life of God. Jesus shares his divine life, which is eternal – with us. That is what eternal life means. We are united with Christ through faith. We are one with Christ and therefore one with God. That is what Jesus prayed would happen on the night before he died. He prayed, “²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will^[e] believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us….” That is eternal life.

We have been offered the amazing gift of eternal life. We can share in Jesus’ divine eternal life. And we don’t have to wait until we die. Eternal life is not some time in the future. Eternal life has nothing to do with time Eternity is here now. The question I asked at the beginning of this message is “What happens after we die? But the more important question is “What happens now?” Time and space are just the fabric of this creation that will pass away. But eternity is now. We can experience eternal life now. I experience it now. I am aware of it. Again, perhaps I am deluded, but I am happy in my delusion. Eternal life is more real to me than time and space. I don’t have to wait for the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of God is within me and in our midst and all around us. The Kingdom of God is here now.

The Holy Spirit is here now dwelling within us, and where the Spirit is, there is God. And where God is, that is where God reigns. Where God is, there is eternal life. That eternal life is apprehended and experienced by faith in Christ. It is identifying with Christ, his death on the Cross and his resurrection from the dead. In our union with Christ we live in him and die with him and rise with him. In him is life.

At the graveside of Lazarus Jesus had a conversation with Lazarus’ sister Martha about resurrection and eternal life. ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” That is faith, and that is life everlasting.

Whatever Became of Sin?

Delivered March 20, 2011

Acts 26:12-18; Colossians 1:9-14

The title of my sermon today comes from the title of a well-known book published back in 1973. It was written by American psychiatrist Karl Menninger and explored the changing attitudes toward the concept of sin in Western culture at that time. That change has continued and has accelerated in the 38 years since that book was written. I recently read an interesting article about The Oxford English Dictionary, which is the acknowledged standard for the English language. It is a huge multivolume work, so they publish smaller editions, one of which is a Children’s Dictionary. The most recent edition of this children’s version eliminates the word “sin.” In fact in the six editions of this dictionary published since the 1970’s, a whole range of words relating to Christianity have been eliminated.  The official explanation by Oxford University Press is this: “We are limited by how big the dictionary can be – little hands must be able to handle it…. We are also much more multicultural. People don’t go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words … would have been in 20 years ago but not now.” Sin is one of those words.

So now we know what has become of sin. It is slowly disappearing from our English language. It is also disappearing from church vocabulary. Many people now consider the use of the word sin to be judgmental. Apparently being judgmental is one of the last behaviors considered to be sin these days. But the Apostles’ Creed uses the word “sin” and lists “the forgiveness of sins” as one of the basics tenets of the Christian faith. What is sin? Why is it a spiritual problem? What does it mean to have forgiveness of sin?

I. What is sin? The concept of sin is badly misunderstood these days, and that is why so many people reject the word. In preparation for this message I studied the Greek words used in the NT for sin. I am not going to try to impress you by spouting the Greek terms, but I want to show there is a range of understanding of sin in the Bible. The dominant concepts of sin in Scripture are not what you might think.

The most common word for sin in the NT means “to fall short” or “to miss the mark.” Like so many Greek words, it is a picture word. It comes from archery. It describes an arrow that misses the target. Specifically it describes an arrow that falls short of the target. This word in different forms is used over 250 times in the NT. The second most common word occurs only 23 times. So you see how dominant this idea is when it comes to understanding sin.

The idea is that we fall short of what God intends for our lives. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) It means that we do not live up to God’s plan for our lives. It is sin of omission rather than sin of commission. The prayer of confession in the Book of Common prayer phrases it this way: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done.” 

There are other words for sin in the New Testament. The second most common word used means "Diminishing what should have been given full measure.” It is a very similar concept to the first. In simple language it mean incomplete, immature, not full. In Ephesians 4 the apostle Paul describes the goal of the Christian life as growing spiritually “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—.” Ephesians 4:13-15) We are meant to grow to be like Christ, and until we do we are incomplete; we are not fully formed, not who we are meant to be.

The third most common word for sin in the NT means to fall down. In fact this is the word used in one of the only two places in the NT where the phrase “forgiveness of sins” is actually used. (Ephesians 1:7) The word picture is that we are walking along the path, and we stumble and fall. This is clearly not an intentional act. You do not purposely fall; it happens accidentally. The fourth most common word for sin means ignorance. People do things because they do not know any better. It is often translated error in the Bible. That is the literal meaning of the word “mistake” – to misunderstand. These the top four words for sin.

The concept of sin most often used often by Jesus is debt. Many of Jesus’ parables dealt with people owing money to someone. This was one of the dominant models that Jesus used to communicate the concept of sin. Forgiveness of sin was seen as forgiveness of a debt, a phrase that we still use today in financial transactions. One of the forms of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples includes the words “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Ironically the least used words in the NT for sin are what most people normally think of as sin – the idea of disobedience, trespassing (literally crossing over a line) or transgression. This is definitely part of what it means to sin in the Bible. We cannot omit this aspect of sin from any discussion of sin. In fact it is the most common concept in the OT, which is dominated by the idea of God’s will as Law. The apostle Paul, a former Pharisee, uses this concept of sin. But it is just one of the many understandings of sin in the NT. And it needs to be put in the context of all the other ways of understanding sin.

So what is sin? How do we wrap our minds around these various understandings of sin and come up with a whole picture? Sin is a mosaic of ideas. It is a word that describes the problem that we humans find ourselves in. Every religion in the world sees human beings as in a predicament. Every religion says that something is out of kilter with the way we related to each other, our environment and to God. Something is wrong with the way things are. Each religion sees that predicament differently and has different solutions. But all agree that things are not the way they ought to be.

Some of the words used by other religions resonate with our biblical concepts. Buddhism, for example says the problems is suffering. What is meant by suffering is not just physical pain but something much deeper. The word they use is dukkha which means a wheel that is off center, so the cart does not ride smoothly. The idea is that something is out of joint, ashew. Taoism says that something is out of balance. Hindus say the problem is ignorance; we don’t know what we really are and were meant to be. This is just like one of the Biblical words of sin. Muslims see the problem as disobedience and rebellion, also like some biblical words. Mankind at different times and in different places has seen the problem from different angles, but all see a problem.

Christians call that problem by the name sin. The apostle Paul makes it clear that sin is not primarily things we do or fail to do. Sin is a spiritual condition. There are sins – which are acts, and there is sin, which the power that is at work in our lives and in the world that produces sins. The word that Jesus uses often to describe the human condition is lost. That is a word picture from the life of a shepherd to describe sheep who have strayed. Jesus describes our condition as like lost sheep or lost coins or a lost sons. The Book of Common Prayer says, “we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep.” 

Sin is a very complex concept with many dimensions. Please don’t get hung up on one aspect of the word. Don’t get hung up on the word itself. Don’t take “sin” out of your dictionary or throw it out of your theology. It’s a good word when we understand the whole concept. In short, sin is that state of “not-rightness” (unrighteousness) that we find ourselves in. It is that condition of wrongness that many people feel. It is that deep sense that something is not the way it ought to be in our lives and in the world. We might not be able to put our finger on it exactly, but we know that it is real. That is sin.

II. How is this problem of sin resolved? The Christian solution is forgiveness. I preached on forgiveness in the summer when I was a guest preacher, but the concept is worth repeating often. The Greek word for forgiveness means literally “to let go.” The picture is that of a clenched fist which is then loosened. Forgiveness is the letting go of sin. It is being loosed from the grip of sin in our lives. The human problem is that we are in the grip of sin. Picture sin as a hand that has hold of us. Forgiveness breaks the grip of sin and sets us free.

The Christian gospel proclaims that humans cannot break the grip of sin by ourselves. This is where Christianity differs from other religions’ understanding of the solution. Christianity says that sin is so powerful that only the all-powerful God can break its grip. We can’t do it. We can’t do it by rituals or good deeds or prayer or meditation or physical discipline or spiritual disciplines. We cannot set ourselves free even if we had a million lives of reincarnation to accomplish it. The Christian gospel is unique in understanding that it is purely the grace of God that accomplishes spiritual liberation.

The NT proclaims that this liberation was accomplished through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Theologians have developed elaborate theories as to how the death and resurrection of Jesus accomplished that task. How they understand the death and resurrection of Jesus depends on how they understand sin. Some see the Cross as the payment of debt. Jesus saw it that way. He shouted from the Cross, “It is finished” which was a financial term which means “Paid in full.” Others see the Cross in terms of Jesus bearing the punishment for our sin, because sin is seen as breaking the law of God. There are many possible understandings of how the Cross addressed sin. It is not so important which model we adopt. What matters is that we understand that the Cross and the empty tomb solved the sin problem.

One of the best understandings of the death and resurrection of Christ is based on the dominant concept of sin, which I described earlier as falling short or missing the mark. If sin is falling short, then the Cross is the bull’s-eye, and Christ did not miss the mark. He did not fall short. He perfectly fulfilled the will of his Heavenly Father, even to the point of being willing to die. As Philippians 2 says, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.”  Jesus did it right. He was perfectly at one with God. His death was the perfect at-one-ment: atonement.

When we identify ourselves with Christ by faith, then we become spiritually one with him. Being united with Christ, we are one with God. Our disjointedness, our alienation, our disfellowship, our disconnectedness – our sinfulness – is healed by his suffering. Christ is the solution to the human condition. Our lives are healed by his death. Our sinfulness – by that I mean our human condition of wrongness – is made right through Jesus death.

People ask: Why does it have to be through Jesus death? Why was it necessary for Christ to suffer and die to accomplish this reconnection with God? Why couldn’t God just snap his fingers and set things right automatically. He could have, of course. He could do it any way he wanted to. After all, he is God. But only the Cross dealt with the seriousness of sin.

This is the genius of the gospel. All other solutions to the sin problem do not take sin seriously enough. That is the deceitfulness of sin. We want to downplay sin and say it is no big deal. It is our way of justifying ourselves and getting ourselves off the hook without really solving the problem. It is like putting a Band-Aid on skin cancer and saying that it is cured. A more invasive and stronger remedy is needed to cure man’s sin. It is not like we made some minor mistakes and God can pat us on the head like a kindly grandfather and say, “Don’t worry about it. It’s  okay.” Some people assume that forgiveness should be easy  – as if the problem of the human sin disease is no big deal and therefore the cure is no big deal. That misunderstands the seriousness of our human condition.

Sin is deadly serious. God had to address it in a way that communicated just how serious it is. The only way to do that is through the suffering and death of his only Son. Only that could communicate the gravity of the human problem and the high price that must be paid to solve that problem. Likewise the resurrection of Jesus communicates the absolute certainty and finality of God’s solution to man’s sin problem. In Christ our sin has been dealt with and our sins forgiven completely. We have been set free from the destructive power of sin through Christ.

We experience this spiritual liberation through faith. I am not talking theoretical theology here. I am not just talking ideas and doctrine. This is an experiential spiritual process that we undergo.  Being a Christian is about experiencing the power of God’s forgiveness. It does something inside of us. It gives inner healing and wholeness. It connects us intimately with God in our deepest self - our souls, our inner spiritual essence. Though faith in Christ we have reconciliation with God – union with God. The rest of our lives are spent in embodying that wholeness in all aspects of our lives and in all our relationships.

Whatever became of sin? It has been dealt with by Jesus Christ on the cross and in his resurrection!

Do We Need Organized Religion?

John 17:20-23; I Corinthians 12:12-27

 The number of people who identify themselves by the phrase "spiritual but not religious" is growing. In 1998, only 9 percent of American adults said they were spiritual but not religious. A 2009 Newsweek poll revealed that 30 percent of Americans refer to themselves as “spiritual, not religious.” According to a survey by Lifeway Research referenced in an October 2010 article in USA Today, 72% of millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) say they're "really more spiritual than religious.” The article says, “If the trends continue, the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships."

The antics of mainstream Christian religion in recent decades have not helped to attract people to the church. The clergy sex abuse scandal of the Roman Catholic Church has tainted all Christianity. The infighting and splitting of mainline Protestant denominations has turned off lots of people. I am a Baptist and we joke that we multiply by division. We can become so narrow minded that we split congregations and form new denominations over the smallest matters.

There is a story about a man who saw a guy on a bridge about to jump. He said, "Don't do it!" The jumper replied, "Life is not worth living! Nobody loves me." The man said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." He said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." "Me, too! What type?" He said, "Baptist." He said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." He said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." He said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Lakes Region." He said, "Me, too!" Northern Conservative Baptist Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." The man frowned and replied, "Die, heretic!" And pushed him off the bridge.

All my pastoral career, I have heard people speak negatively about organized religion. I have a standard response when people tell me – as a customer recently told me in the North Sandwich store – that they don’t believe in organized religion. I say, “Then you will love our church. We are very disorganized.”

Seriously, I sympathize with those who are attracted to spirituality, but turned off by religion. There is a lot about organized religion that I don’t like, and I am a pastor. I am a professional leader of the so-called “institutional church!” But many people today are opting for less traditional forms of spirituality. George Barna, who heads the well-known and respected Barna Group that tracks religious trends, says that he sees the future of Christianity as dominated by small house churches and internet congregations. The traditional church, he says is obsolete.

The question I am asking this morning is “Do we need organized religion?” I am asking this question in the context of two phrases in the Apostles’ Creed that refer to the church: “I believe in … the holy catholic church, the communion of saints.” I have three answers to the question “Do we need organized religion?” No, Maybe, and Yes.

I. First, No. Do we really need organized religion to connect with God? Do we need buildings and paid clergy? This church could save a lot of money if it didn’t have to support two buildings and a salaried pastor! Why have boards and committees, bylaws and rules, creeds and commandments? Why put up with all the squabbles and conflicts that seem to be an inevitable part of church life? A lot of people don’t think they need all this. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God. I can worship God just as well in the woods by myself.” I also have heard that since being back in Sandwich!

I sympathize with the sentiments. I connect with God most powerfully through Nature. That is why I love NH so much. My most meaningful encounters with God have been in private prayer and meditation. My personal inner experience of God is the core of my spirituality. I have a mystical bent; contemplative prayer and meditation are an important part of my spiritual practice. People don’t feel like they need a religious organization to do that. Isn’t this personal spirituality enough? A lot of people feel that it is enough. Many people are perfectly satisfied with individual experience as the totality of their spirituality. No, they do not feel like they need organized religion.

II. The second answer to this question is “Maybe.” Maybe there is more to spirituality than just one’s individual spiritual experience. Maybe we need other people who are also involved in the spiritual quest. There is a need for spiritual community. Every religion on earth has recognized this fact. For Christians spiritual community is called church. For Buddhists it is Sangha. For Hindus it is ashram; for Muslims, mosque; for Jews, synagogue. There is a universal religious need for community. There has been research done on the relationship between religion and health - mental and physical health and longevity. It has been demonstrated that religious people are healthier and live longer. But it doesn’t seem to matter which religion they are, whether they are liberal or conservative.  Recently the essential factor of that religion-health connection has been identified. It is community. People need people. Connecting with people regularly in a meaningful way is good for our emotional and physical health.

Furthermore I would say it is good for our spiritual health. We need other people to keep us accountable to God. We all have blind spots. We tend to justify our own behaviors. We need other people to bring us back to reality. I have a friend who was a psychotherapist; he recently changed careers and is now a life coach. This summer I ran into the son of an old friend at Mocha Rizing; he is also a life coach, and we were comparing our jobs. The concept of “life coach” is a new term, but it is an old profession. It is a spiritual adviser. It is like having a personal trainer for the soul, a therapist of the spirit.

The Apostle Paul tells the Thessalonians to “exhort one another and build each other up.” The Book of Hebrews says, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” The apostle James wrote: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” There is a lot of evidence – scientific and scriptural - that we need each other to grow spiritually. We are designed by God for community. Paul says in our Epistle Lesson “But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.””

This is where the Apostles’ Creed comes in. It reads: “I believe in … the holy catholic church, the communion of saints.” When the Apostles’ Creed uses the phrase catholic church, it refers to the whole church, including all Christians. It has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church, which came long after the Apostles’ Creed was first written. Catholic with a small “c” just means universal, the whole church composed of Christians everywhere.

The church is not essentially an institution; it is community. At heart church is not about religious rituals and rules; it is about connecting to God. Rituals and religion can help us do that, but more important is people. In that study I referred to earlier about health and religion, those who attended church regularly but did not feel connected to other worshippers were no more healthy than the general population. It was those who felt a part of the community of faith that benefited from religion. We need other people. We cannot do it alone. No man is an island, as John Donne wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less…” 

The apostle Paul said the same thing with different language. Paul uses the image of the Body of Christ to communicate this same idea that we are all connected to each other. We are part of the holy catholic church. For the church to be called “holy” doesn’t mean “holier than thou.” It means just the opposite. Holier than thou is hypocrisy, which is exactly what Jesus spoke against. We are imperfect folks who are trying to be better. We are trying to grow closer to God. We are trying to be more spiritually-minded. We are trying to be more godly in our behavior toward others. We are trying to be more loving. Left to ourselves we will not do that. That is why we gather together. We need each other.

I need you. Sure, I can commune with God in the mountains and on the lakes and feel spiritual. I can pray and meditate and think lofty thoughts. But more is needed. That is a very limited type of spirituality. I need you. I need you because I am prone to self-deception; I need you to keep me honest. I need church. Sure churches are imperfect; so are we. Churches are messy places; so are our lives. People get their feelings hurt and treat each other badly. Welcome to my extended family! That is what a spiritual family is. There is no perfect community; there is no perfect church. As the old saying goes, “If you ever find the perfect church don’t join it; you will ruin it.” 

Churches are filled with sinners. And church’s sins are all the more obvious to people because we are trying to be more than sinners. We are trying to transcend our sinfulness. We are asking God to unite us with Him and each other and transform us into the image of Christ. Because we know we are supposed to be more than we are, sometimes Christians hide their sins and play the hypocrite. The Christian community ought to be a place where we can openly acknowledge our sins without fear of judgment. As the apostle James says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” So maybe we do need organized religion.

III. Yes, we do need the church. More than that. The church needs us. The question “Do we need organized religion?” is a self-centered question. It assumes that the church is there to serve us - as if we were the center of the universe. If it doesn’t serve us well, satisfy our needs, and meet our expectations, then we think can discard the church. Do you see how self-centered that is? When we say we don’t need the church we are revealing the fact that we need it more than we can imagine. We need it to get out of our own self-centered universe. To rewrite JFK’s famous inaugural challenge: “Ask not what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for your church.” But that is not a popular thing to say in this narcissistic culture we live in.

By “church” I do not just mean this little band of believers here in Sandwich.  Church is much bigger and broader than that. To use the word “catholic” means we are part of something much bigger than the Federated Church of Sandwich. Through our connections with other churches in our denominations, and through our fellowship with churches of other denominations, we connect to the wider worldwide community of faith. That is also what missions is about. When our sisters and brothers on the other side of the world hurt, we have a responsibility to help because we are one body with them. When one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts. Church is the whole body throughout the world.

The Apostles’ Creed also speaks of  “the communion of saints.” The “communion of saints” refers to the church throughout time. We are connected to the church of two thousand years ago. We are connected to those who are in heaven now. We are one body with them. Death can not break that communion. We are in communion with those who have died through Christ. The spiritual community called church transcends space and time, heaven and earth.

There is a wonderful image in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 11 names all the believers of centuries past. Then Hebrews 12 says: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” This scripture pictures an arena where a race is being run by those on earth. All the saints (“saints” refers to ordinary believers, not religious superstars) are sitting in the bleachers watching. We who are on earth are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses in heaven. That is the communion of saints; that is the church. We are not alone, even when we sometimes feel like it.

Do we need organized religion? Organized religion has lots of problems. I think we could do with far less religion and more spirituality - far less institution and more community. But one thing for sure. We need church. We need community. We need each other to grow in Christ. I need church. The old joke says that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car. But if a car doesn’t visit a garage (meaning an auto shop) regularly for maintenance, it doesn’t stay on the road for very long. The same for the Christian. And it doesn’t hurt if that garage – and that church - is well-organized.

Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories

Acts 2:1-12; Matthew 3:13-17

Delivered March 6, 2011

By the title of this message you may think I am going to be talking about Ghost Hunters, Ghostbusters or Ghost Whisperers. I am not going to be talking about mediums, specters or spooks, as fascinating as those subjects are to many people. I am going to be talking about the Holy Ghost, or as he is more commonly called the Holy Spirit. The question I want to address this morning is: Who .. or what … is the Holy Spirit?

I can’t talk about the Holy Spirit without introducing the concept of the Trinity, because the Holy Spirit is considered the third person of the Trinity. Christians have this strange idea of a triune God – that God is not only one, the way the Old Testament teaches (The Shema of Judaism: “Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”) Christianity teaches that God is also three - three in one. This doctrine is confusing to many and has gotten Christians in big trouble with both Jews and Muslims, both of whom suspect that Christians are really closet polytheists who worship three gods without admitting it. The best way to understand the Biblical concept of the Trinity and the Holy Ghost is to tell stories, hence the title of my message: Ghost Stories - biblical stories that feature the Holy Ghost.

I. The first story is the baptism of Jesus. It is found in all four gospels but I will be using Matthew’s account in 3:13-17. It is always important to put scripture stories in context. Right before this scene of Jesus’ baptism is the story of John the Baptist’s preaching and baptizing in the wilderness. John says in Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Then Jesus appears and goes out into the wilderness to hear John preach and is subsequently baptized by him. Let me read our Gospel Lesson for today. (READ Matthew 3:13-17).

Notice that the next verse 4:1 also talks of the Holy Spirit: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Also notice that the temptations that Jesus faced focusr on Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God. Therefore the Spirit appears in the Gospel in the context of water and fire and Jesus as the Son of God. At the baptism of Jesus there is a vision of the Holy Spirit descending upon him as a dove and an auditory revelation from God the Father pronouncing Jesus as his beloved Son. All three person of the Trinity are present in this story.

This is one example of an event that prompted the doctrine of the Trinity. The earliest Christians knew the one God from their Old Testament roots. But they also experienced God in Jesus. How do you explain that? They explained it with the idea that Jesus was divine – that Christ somehow shared the very nature of God. To put it very bluntly – that Jesus was God. That was a revolutionary statement! They also experienced the Holy Spirit as God. The Holy Spirit was understood not just as the power of God, nor an impersonal force that emanated from God. They experienced the Holy Spirit in a personal way. So they called the Holy Spirit a Person – the third Person of the Trinity. So God was described as three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Don’t ask me to explain the Trinity any more than this. I can’t. It is not that I haven’t studied the theological explanations.  It is just that all theological explanations fall short. My best attempt at describing the Trinity is to say that it is beyond understanding. It is an experiential doctrine and not a theoretical one. It came out of the experience of the early Christians who encountered God as Father, encountered Jesus as God, and then at Pentecost (which we will get into in a moment) experienced God as the Holy Spirit. Similarly the only way for us to comprehend the Trinity is to experience the Trinity – experience God as Father, experience God as Jesus and experience God as Holy Spirit. Without the experience, the Trinity makes no sense. But when we experience God as three in one, then we believe the Trinity.

II. Let me get into the second story about the Holy Ghost. This is the famous account of the earliest Christians being filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It took place fifty days after Easter, ten days after Jesus disappeared from their sight into heaven. The small band of followers of Jesus was gathered in one place. It doesn’t say who exactly – whether just the apostles or all the followers – men and women. Likewise it doesn’t say where, although the two most frequent suggestions are the upper room or the temple courts.

Acts 2:1-4 says: “ When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Soon a crowd gathered, which leads me to believe they were not in a closed upper room but outdoors, likely the temple courts, which would have been the normal place for Jews to be on this Jewish holy day. Also Peter later explains this phenomenon by quoting the prophet Joel: “That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, … ¹⁸ And on My menservants and on My maidservants
      I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” This leads me to think that both men and women were involved. Anyway people from all over the Roman world heard these Christians speaking in their own languages. They say in verse 11, “we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

These early Christians experienced the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That is what I want to focus on in this story. The Holy Spirit is God inspiring men and women. The apostle Peter in his first letter writes: “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The apostle Paul says to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

The Holy Spirit is God inspiring humans to speak the words of God. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us when we surrender our lives to God through faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God dwelling in us. We normally think of God in heaven – “Our Father who art in heaven…” We think of Jesus as God incarnate in human flesh in the first century. We experience the Holy Spirit as God within us here and now.

This way of talking about God is a bit cumbersome because if God is omnipresent – that is everywhere – then he is both inside and outside everyone at all times. Otherwise he would not be omnipresent. There is no place where God is not. Psalm 139 says, “If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there.” So this language of inside and outside, up in heaven and down on earth even lower down in hell is metaphorical at best. We are trying to communicate with spatial language the spiritual reality of experiencing God within, and experiencing the inspiration of God. We recognize that God has inspired some people in history in a special way and we call their writings scripture. But God also inspires us. That is the whole point of the story of Pentecost. On that day Peter got up to explain to the people. He said,

“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. ¹⁵ For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. ¹⁶ But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘ And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
       That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
      Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
      Your young men shall see visions,
      Your old men shall dream dreams.
       ¹⁸ And on My menservants and on My maidservants
      I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
       And they shall prophesy.

Through our union with Jesus by faith we are one with God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

III. This leads me to my third story, which is about how to experience the Holy Spirit. The story is about Nicodemus found in the Gospel of John 3:1-16. There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a member of the ruling Jewish council, a very high ranking and respected religious leader. But there was something missing in his life. So even though most other religious leaders scorned Jesus, he sensed something Godly in Jesus. So he came to Jesus secretly under the cover of night, so as not to be seen. He said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” And Jesus answered  him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” I love how Jesus gets right to the point.

          Nicodemus answered, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  ⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This rebirth that Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus is the key to the spiritual life. It is the key to experiencing the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God. But it is often badly misunderstood. The term “born again” has negative connotations to a lot of people. These days it is equated with one segment of Christinaity - the religious right and a narrow form of Evangelicalism. It has been distorted to simply mean converting to a specific form of Christianity.

For many people it involves no more than saying a printed prayer and buying into a certain cultural and religious worldview. This is not what Jesus is talking about. Being born again is not converting to a religion. Nicodemus had religion, but he was clueless when it came to the spiritual reality of the Holy Spirit that begins with a new birth. ⁹ Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?” I think many religious leaders, many Christian people, conservative and moderate and liberal, are in exactly Nicodemus’ position. Many outwardly confident religious people feel deep down that they are missing something important about the spiritual life. Perhaps what they are missing is the Holy Spirit - missing the birth of the Spirit in their lives, missing walking in the Spirit and living by the Spirit.

Let me tell you my experience. In my experience religion is not enough. A seminary education is not enough. Being ordained as a minister is not enough. Being a professional religious leader is not enough. Being the pastor of a church is not enough. Church is not enough. Christian doctrine is not enough. Even the traditional conversion experience is not enough. Baptism is not enough. Confirmation is not enough. Church membership is not enough.

“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The only thing that is enough is a spiritual awakening that opens one’s eyes to the Kingdom of God. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Do you see the Kingdom of God? I am not talking about believing you go to Heaven when you die. I am talking dying before you die - dying now to this physical reality and being born spiritually to the Kingdom of God. Can you say with the apostle Paul “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” ?

Being born of the Spirit is a spiritual transformation where your old self dies and your eyes are opened to the Kingdom of God. Holy Spirit becomes your new life. You live in the Spirit and walk by the Spirit. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

We Christians talk about God and we talk about Jesus, but how often do we talk of the Spirit. Yet there is no spiritual life without the Spirit, no spiritual sight or insight without the spirit, no spiritual living without the Spirit. May your life and my life may be the story of the God told through our lives, the story of the Spirit lived through our lives.