Are You a Native?

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Are you a native? That seems to be an issue among some people in New Hampshire – whether we are homegrown Granite Staters or imports from somewhere else. Are you a New Hampshire native? How many people here born in New Hampshire? Let’s have a show of hands. I confess I am not a NH native. My ancestors were among the first permanent settlers in NH; they were on the very first boat of settlers who landed at Dover Point in 1623 and mostly remained in that southeastern part of NH for 300 years. But that doesn’t help me with my NH credentials because I had the misfortune of being born in Massachusetts. My grandfather married a woman from Nova Scotia – my grandmother - and then moved to the Massachusetts Northshore. That is how I was born a flatlander! Now that you know that I am an immigrant to NH, let’s get to the real important issue. How many of you are Sandwich natives … born in Sandwich? The rest of us are immigrants then.

Immigration is a hot button issue these days in Washington. There is a lot of talk about protecting our borders, illegal immigrants and illegal aliens, and how to give them a path to citizenship. Today I am not going to talk about that type of immigration. I will leave that to the politicians and the talk shows. I am going to talk about citizenship in heaven. Our epistle reading for today says in verse 20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The scriptures tell us in several places that in a spiritual sense we are not natives of this country or even this earth. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the author gives a list of some of the great saints of the Old Testament, and then concludes:

“13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

This is the topic we are going to be looking at this morning. I hope it will give us a new perspective on our place in this life.

First, I want to talk about our dual citizenship.  We have an earthly citizenship and a heavenly citizenship. At my father-in-laws funeral earlier this month I met some relatives I had never known before. One was my father-in-law’s brother who is a 91 year old retired United Methodist minister. Early in his ministry he was a missionary in Burma. His oldest daughter, who I also got to meet, was born in Burma. That means she has dual citizenship. I read an article recently about tour companies that charge high fees to bring Chinese families to visit the US on what is called baby tours. Mothers who are eight or nine months pregnant fly to California and stay in “maternity hotels” or “maternity mansions” just long enough to have their babies here. Then after the birth they fly back to China. They do this so that their children will have dual citizenship; they are both American and Chinese citizens. They want this so their children can easily attend US colleges and also to get around the China’s one child policy. There is a loophole in Chinese law that says that children born in the US to Chinese parents do not count for population control purposes. In this way Chinese families can have more than one child.

As Christians we have dual citizenship. If we were born in the US or immigrated to America and became naturalized American citizens, then we are citizens of this land. As citizens we have obligations to this country. We pay taxes to this country. Hopefully we vote in this country. Hopefully we love this country. I certainly do. Many will serve this country in the military and risk their lives and even give their lives for this country. This is a noble thing.

We could also say in that we as human beings are natives of this earth. Our ancestors were not aliens from another planet, regardless of what Scientology says. We came from the earth. The Genesis creation story says that our bodies were made from the earth, and will return to the earth at our death. We are walking, breathing clumps of earth. So in a sense we are truly natives of this earth.

But the Scriptures also say that as Christians we are also citizens of heaven. As that passage in Hebrews says, we confess that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. the old hymn says,

This world is not my home I'm just a passing through

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

          In a Christian’s life there is a sense of dual loyalties. Jesus said that we are in this world but not of this world.  Jesus said of his followers: “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” The Philippians, whom the apostle was writing to in our epistle reading, knew what this felt like. And it is instructive to remind ourselves of the historical context of this letter.  Paul wrote this letter to the church at Philippi from prison in Rome. The city of Philippi was a Roman colony. Although Philippi was located in Greece in the region of Macedonia, it did not have a Greek way of life. The residents of Philippi lived as if they were in Rome, even though Philippi was located in Macedonia. The Philippians lived in Macedonia but they considered their homeland to be Rome. The majority of the inhabitants there held Roman citizenship. Because they held this citizenship, they enjoyed various special privileges. Paul himself held Roman citizenship, which he was proud of and which he would use to his advantage when dealing with the authorities. So when the Philippians heard the words, "Our citizenship is in heaven" the disciples of Philippi knew exactly what he was talking about.

          Do we know what he is talking about? I hope we do as Christians. I think that we should love our heavenly country as much as our earthly one. There have been in the news recently stories of people who have given up their citizenship, apparently to save money on taxes. Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co-founder of Facebook gave up his American citizenship and is living in Singapore. The singer Tina Turner is renouncing her U.S. citizenship in order to become a citizen of Switzerland. Gérard Depardieu, the famous French actor, renounced his French citizenship because of France’s high taxes and has been granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin. These folks obviously love their money more than their country.

I want us to contemplate for a moment our love of country - love of our heavenly country. It is wonderful to love America. I love this country, and I love to sing patriotic songs proclaiming love for our nation. Some people are uncomfortable with singing nationalistic hymns in church, that it is somehow a violation of the separation of church and state. The chairman of deacons in my last church didn’t like it, but I enjoy it. But what I don’t like is that many people who enthusiastically sing American anthems do not have the same feelings for our heavenly country. I would go even further than that. Many people seem to have more loyalty to a particular political party than to their heavenly country. Many people are more knowledgeable about, read more about, talk more about, watch news more about, the political and social issues of the day than the spiritual issues of eternity.  I think that many people’s hearts are much more in love with earthly countries than heavenly country.

          Let’s take about serving our country as an example. We have many thousands who serve in our all-volunteer United States military. They go through difficult training, endure harsh physical conditions, risk their lives, and risk serious injury in places like Afghanistan for their country. I respect them greatly. They do not get paid what they should get paid, in my opinion. I think the wounded veterans don’t get all the care they should – especially when it comes to mental and emotional wounds like PTSD. I have the most tremendous respect and honor for everyone who serves in the military, as you know. That is why I pray for them every Sunday in worship. My point is that I just wish there was just as much dedication, bravery and loyalty among Americans to Christ. I wish that just as many young men and women willing to risk their lives to serve the cause of Christ. I think about the example of Mormon missionaries, 18 year-olds who serve two years at their own expense somewhere in the world under Spartan conditions. From the time they are children they save up their money, not to buy a car or go to college, but to serve for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That is admirable. Why is there not a similar dedication and sacrifice in Protestant churches? Mainline churches struggle even to have this age group as part of their congregations, much less to serve sacrificially as missionaries.

Let’s just not talk about young people. How about people of all age? How about us? I am not saying this to make anyone feel guilty. I am saying this to get us thinking about sacrificial love for God. How does our love for God compare to our love for country? Jesus taught that the most important thing in life is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus loved God with all his heart, and he loved us so much that he gave his life. How do we measure up to this standard? This is something to ponder during Lent.

Another aspect of being a citizen of heaven is to remember that we represent our country. The apostle Paul calls us ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador for the United States represents the United States in other lands to other people. In fact our embassies in our countries are considered American territory. The way that ambassador speaks and acts and treats people reflects upon the character of America. In a lesser sense that is true of all Americans. That is why when a preacher in Florida burns a Quran it has ripple effects across the globe in Muslim lands. They consider that the behavior of that one American Christian preacher reflects America and American Christians, even though we insist that it doesn’t. That is how Americans can do great damage to the reputation of Christianity and America. The same is true of that hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas which is notorious for their for picketing holding slanderous signs at just about any event – especially funerals, military funerals and most recently the funerals of the children who died in Newtown, Connecticut. They give a bad name to Baptists, and I have to explain that they do not represent me or any Baptists that I know.  As Christians, you and I represent Christ.

We represent our spiritual country here in this our earthly country. A devotion that Paula Kuehn gave at a deacon’s meeting recently on this subject reminded me of an experience in my own life. One time in the church I served in Pennsylvania, a mother and child were coming through the greeting line, shaking my hand after worship. The mother asked her son if he knew who I was. He shook his head in the affirmative. Yes, he knew who I was. His mother asked him “Who?” He replied, “God.” I represented God to that little boy. Tell me that is not a heavy responsibility! I have never forgotten that, and I will never forget it. I am not God, but I realize that as a pastor that I represent God, and not just to four-year olds. I represent this church to those outside this church. I represent Christianity to those of other religions or no religion. In Pennsylvania I was a regular guest on a radio show called “Religious Roundtable” in which I had on-air discussions with leaders of other religions. After September 2001 I had a series on on air discussions and debates with a Muslim imam from Pittsburgh. I was very conscious during those shows that I represented Christianity to all those people listening. All of us as Christians all the time represent Christ to others. We might not want that responsibility, but it is our responsibility nonetheless. People will judge the church by our behavior – by my behavior and your behavior. We are ambassadors for God and his kingdom. We are ambassadors for our heavenly country to this our earthly country.

Another point is that we are to live by the standards of our heavenly country. A lot of Americans live by a lowest common denominator morality of our country. By that I mean that if it is legal in the United States of America, then we assume it is alright for a Christian to do. That is not true. We are to live by a higher standard of morality than the culture around us. That is what Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is all about. Over and over he says, ‘You have heard that it was said… but I say unto you.” Jesus will quote a law, but then say we are to surpass the law. For example he says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” We are to surpass the common standard of morality of our society because we are citizens of a higher country with higher values. We represent our Heavenly Father. Therefore it doesn’t matter what laws Congress passes; what matters is God’s law. It doesn’t matter what our society says is permissible. What matters is what is permissible in God’s eyes. 

Finally we have to give an account to the Ruler of our Heavenly Country. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” I know that people don’t like the idea of judgment these days. We like judgment when it comes to earthly things. Americans can be very judgmental when it comes to punishing criminals with mandatory sentences. We can be very judgmental with it comes to our politics or social causes. But when it comes to religion, people pull out the trump card ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged!” And that is true. We are not judges of anyone. But there is a Judge of everyone. Scripture says that is the Lord Jesus Christ. In many parables Jesus talks about the Son of Man coming at the end of history to judge the nations. Christians identify that Son of Man as Jesus himself. We are not to judge, but Christ will. We are accountable to him. During our earthly sojourns we are accountable to other people in our jobs and our families and other social obligations. But ultimately we are accountable to God as the Head of the Kingdom of God for the way we live our earthly lives. That is because we are ultimately citizens of heaven and are accountable to heaven’s King. Therefore we are to live in such a way that brings honor to our Lord and our God. May each of us here live in such an honorable manner as faithful citizens of God’s kingdom.  

The Devil Didn’t Make Me Do It

Luke 4:1-13

Oscar Wilde wrote: “I can resist anything except temptation.” Mae West said, “I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.” On this first Sunday of Lent we look at temptation – specifically the story of the temptation of Jesus. We all know temptation. We each have our area of expertise in the arena of temptation. My wife and I have read several books in Alexander McCall Smith’s “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency” series. In one book Mma (pronounced "Mar" - with a slight emphasis on the m) Ramotswe, the lady detective in Botswana who is the main character of the books, says to a friend, “We are all tempted, Mma. We are all tempted when it comes to cake.' That is true,' said Mma Potokwane sadly. 'There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.” (Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.) I would disagree slightly. I think cookies are the biggest temptation, especially chocolate chip cookies. And ice cream, especially chocolate chip ice cream. Lent is a season when many people try to address some of their particular temptations. Traditionally people “give up” something for Lent. It is for some a second attempt at failed New Year’s resolutions. I never got into the habit of New year’s resolutions or giving up something for Lent, but I think Lent is a good time to examine our lives over this forty day period, and look at those areas in which we repeatedly fall short in our spiritual lives. It is a good time for  spiritual reassessment of our lives.

It is important to remember when dealing with the topic of temptation to remember that temptation itself is not sin. It is the waiting room for sin. It is that period when we can choose whether or not to go through the door of sin. Christianity understands Jesus as the one person who ever lived who was without sin, and yet here we see him tempted repeatedly. So clearly temptation itself is not sin. Three times in this one passage and the story says that Jesus was tempted, and even when it was over it was not the end of the matter. The last verse says, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” So the devil was not finished with him yet.

In fact even though the scriptures only record these temptations, elsewhere in Hebrews 4:15 it says that Jesus “was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.” That is a remarkable statement! He was tempted in every way we are? Yes! Why? It is said that was so we know can that we have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus knows what we go through. Hebrews 2:18 says it is also so that we know that he is better able to help us, “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” This makes the story of the temptation of Jesus much more important for us personally. It is not just an account of something that happened to someone else 2000 years ago. It has relevancy for us today. Jesus’ example of how he dealt with temptation can help us, and the Spirit of the living Christ is able to help us when we are tempted. There are three temptations in this story. They will be the three points of my message.

I. The first is physical temptation. Verses 1-4 “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” Jesus was a human being with a physical body and physical weaknesses and physical appetites. It is interesting to note that the story starts off by telling us that Jesus was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and “led by the Holy Spirit.” He was as spiritual as one could get! And yet he was physically tempted.

His physical temptation was food – something as basic and simple as bread. It was a temptation for him at this time because he was fasting – one of the twelve practices that we are looking at in our Thursday noon sessions on the spiritual disciplines. At the beginning of this message I joked about being tempted by chocolate chip cookies, but I was only half joking. Overeating is a problem for many people. When people give up something for Lent, often it is food. The major New Year’s resolutions have to do with eating and exercise. We all have read the statistics about obesity in America, and it is getting worse. It is said that this present generation of children will be the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. And it is because of the obesity epidemic in our country.

In addressing physical temptations we need to think beyond food. For some people sex is a temptation, and it has ruined many marriages. Addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs are physical addictions. Smokers, drinkers and addicts know that it is extremely difficult to give up these things. The physical temptation to use again is very strong. When it comes to obesity – especially the type that threatens one’s health and life – is a problem as serious as any addition to a substance. Most – if not all of us – in some way know the power of physical appetites that we have a very difficult time resisting, even though we know we need to for our own good. I personally lost a lot of weight last year when I was having health problems, but since those problems have been resolved I have been gradually gaining the weight back, even though I don’t want to and it would be healthier for me if I did not.

Jesus was tempted in every way. I don’t picture Jesus as obese; very few people were overweight back in that time and place. But he was tempted to eat when he wanted to continue his fast. So he knew physical temptation. How did Jesus address it? The story says that when the devil tempted him with bread – actually tempted him as the Son of God to miraculously turn stones into bread, but the important point is the hunger not the doing of a miracle – Jesus responded by saying, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” If you were following along in your own Bibles or the pew bibles, perhaps your translation did not have the final words “but by every word of God.” Some manuscripts and most English translations leave out those words. But the words are in Matthew’s gospel in all translations “but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” - so that is not an issue. They are certainly part of the story. It means that we can overcome physical temptation by spiritual means – specifically by the words of God.  Scripture is called the Word of God, and Jesus illustrates his point by repeatedly quoting scripture in this passage. But we have to be clear that we are not talking about magic words. The Bible is not an incantation or a spell or magic words. Jesus is talking about God speaking through scripture but also through the Holy Spirit in and through our soul.

Temptation is when we get this idea in our heads to do something. It is that voice in our heads leading us down a path we should not go. The apostle James, the brother of Jesus, says, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” So it is clear that we are tempted by our own desires. We cannot say, “The devil made me do it.” We have to take full responsibility for our own actions. And the way to overcome temptation is to listen to the voice of God. There is a Native American story that illustrates this. An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy."It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Are we feeding the spirit or the flesh? Are you feeding your spirit on the Word of God or only the body with its needs. Are you feeding the physical or the spiritual aspect of your life? That which you feed will win.

II. The second temptation is worldly power. Verses 5-8 “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ This is a great temptation in our world. It has to do with domestic politics. It has to do with international relations. It has to do with military might. It has to do with economics. It also has to do with fame and celebrity. It is 90% of what we read about in the daily newspaper and hear in the daily news broadcasts. Our world and our society has given in completely to this temptation.

Personally I see this as part of the ongoing political battle between the Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, in our country. I think that both parties have been seduced by this temptation of power. Oh, they have disguised it in righteous terminology so that they have themselves convinced that they are really doing it for patriotic or altruistic reasons for the greater good and for the good of the nation. But when I look at the political landscape of our nation, I see sin all the way around. That is why I don’t get involved in politics and I don’t belong to either political party. That does not make me any more righteous than anyone else. I have my own sins, and I am no better than anyone. But my distance from two-party politics has the advantage of seeing more clearly how it consumes people’s lives like an addiction. People get crazy over this. And it is destroying the social fabric of our society in my opinion.

What is the solution? Jesus answered Satan’s temptation to make him king of the world with these words: “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” The solution is loyalty to God above all other loyalties - above all political ideologies or parties or philosophies or social agendas. I know that some people claim to do this as part of their political or social agenda. They are convinced God is on their side. In fact if people are religious as well as political they really believe God is on their side.

This is nothing new. Nations and armies have always believed God was on their side against their enemies. The German army in WWI had helmets inscribed with the words “Gott mit uns” - God with us. During the Second World War Wehrmacht soldiers wore this slogan on their belt buckles. But it is not just German soldiers of past wars. It is American soldiers of today’s wars. In 2010 ABC News discovered and reported that the sights on rifles used by the US Military in Iraq and Afghanistan had Bible references inscribed on them by the manufacturer. Coded references to New Testament Bible passages, in the same type font and size as the model numbers, were inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the U.S. military by the Michigan company Trijicon.  One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is a reference to Second Corinthians 4:6, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Other references include verses from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world." John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Those are wonderful bible verses, but they don’t belong on guns of our military.  This revelation has been used against us in Muslim extremist propaganda saying as proof that Americans are fighting a religious Christian crusade against all Islam.

My point is that when we cannot claim God is on our side in politics or war or in economics or social causes. Human nature is such that it is much more likely that we are using God and religion for our own worldly purposes. Our desire to enforce our will on others and our vision of what is right on the country or the world is very dangerous. Jesus was tempted to do this! Who would have been a better ruler of the world than Jesus? Who would be more justified to force his will on others than the Son of God? Yet Jesus refused to do it, because he saw it as a dangerous temptation. How much more of a dangerous temptation is it for us?

III. The third temptation is self-preservation. Verses 9-12 “Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

We have an instinct for survival as human beings. To preserve our lives at all costs. And we transfer that instinct to God, believing that God will - or ought to - protect us from all harm. There is the temptation to believe that, if we believe in him and serve him, then God will protect us no matter what. When God doesn’t seem to do that - when bad things happen to God’s people - that is when people lose their faith. As a pastor I have heard this voiced many times. When tragedy strikes people will no longer believe or worship a God that would allow this to happen. It doesn’t matter if it is a world even like the Jewish holocaust or a personal tragedy like the death of a child. When evil or suffering or death or tragedy strikes, it destroys the faith of many people. We believe that if God is Father then he will protect his children like any earthly father would. And when allows evil to befall his children, some people decide to have nothing more to do with such a God. It is a very serious temptation, and Jesus was tempted in this way just as we are.

We are taught through thus story that just because Jesus was the Son of God did not mean that God’s angels were going to protect him from stubbing his toe, or protect him from injury or death if he jumped off the wall of the temple. That is not the way God works. In fact the gospels tell us that Jesus, the Son of God was terribly tortured and brutally executed by the religious and political and military authorities in Jerusalem. God did not intervene to protect him or save him. Even when Jesus prayed for delivery in the Garden of Gethsemane, God did not fix things. When Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” God did not intervene and stop the suffering, the injustice or the death. 

It is the same in our lives. Do not be surprised when bad things happen to good people, when bad things happen to God’s people, when bad things happen to you. They will happen. Resist the temptation to blame God or forsake God or to give up your faith in God. Jesus was tempted to do that. That is what Gethsemane was about. Gethsemane was “opportune time” that our passage refers to. Verse 13 says, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” The passion of Jesus was that opportune time, starting with Gethsemane and continuing through the trial and crucifixion. Jesus resisted the temptation to expect God to make everything better for him. Jesus endured the suffering and death as God’s will. He is our example in this. We will die, and the chances are we will suffer as we die. Remember when that happens that God has not forsaken us during such a time. In fact God is with us more powerfully then than any other time. Just as he was powerfully with Jesus on the Cross. In fact we confess that the Cross is the supreme example of God’s active presence and work in the world. And the proof of that is the resurrection.

Temptation is part of the human condition. We will never be free of it in this life. It is how we respond to temptation that matters. I encourage you to respond in faith and trust in God and God alone. 

Veiled Glory

Delivered February 10, 2013

Exodus 34:29-35  •  2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

This is Transfiguration Sunday on the Christian calendar. In the gospel lesson Jesus went up on a mountain in Galilee with three of his apostles, and he was transfigured before their eyes. The story says that he began to pray. “And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” He shone with the glory of God. But I am not going to preach on that story. I am going to preach on the OT text for today, which talks about Moses on Mount Sinai also shining with the glory of God, and also about the Epistle Lesson which interprets that text.

In the story in the Book of Exodus, Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the Law of God – the Torah. He returned from the mountain with two tablets of the covenant that was being made between God and the Hebrew people. When he came down from meeting with God on the mountain, the story says that his face was shining with the glory of God. The shining face of Moses scared the willies out of the Israelites. So much so that Moses had to put a veil over his face so that they would not have to see the glory of God shining from his face. That is the story we are going to look at this morning, and I want to connect this to our lives.

1. First, what is this glory that shone from Moses’ face and was so powerful that it had to be veiled? It was the presence of God. The idea in the OT story is that Moses had spent so much time in the direct presence of God on Mount Sinai that the glory of God rubbed off on him. If I put something close to my woodstove for any length of time, then it will get hot. If a person spends very much time in the presence of God, he/she gets hot with the fiery glory of God. It is like the glory of God is contagious; it rubs off on people who spend time with God.

In Hebrew the glory of God is called the shekinah. It is normally depicted as a shining light representing the spiritual presence of God. In the OT it is seen as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It came upon the tabernacle in the wilderness and later upon the temple in Jerusalem. These images of light, cloud or fire are ways of communicating the idea of the presence of God. The Hebrews believed in an imageless God, like Christians do. God is invisible. God is Spirit and cannot be depicted as an image of any type. Any type of image is considered to be an idol, which was forbidden in the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain here. A commandment that the Hebrews were already breaking by building and erecting a golden calf to worship even while Moses was getting the commandments.

The Hebrews had a worship problem. All the other nations around them had statues of their gods and goddesses that they could worship. But one cannot make an image of an imageless God!  How do you depict the presence of One who is invisible? It is done with light – light shining in a place or in a person. We often see this pictured in Christian art and icons as a golden halo surrounding the head of a person. This is attempting to communicate the presence of the invisible holy God in and through a person. The same glory shines forth from angels in the Bible and in the burning bush, which called Moses to his ministry to free the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. Moses’ face shone with the glory of the presence of God. And Jesus shone with the same glory in his transfiguration on the mountain, only more so because Jesus was not just a prophet like Moses, but was the Son of God.

This same glory is present around us here, if we have eyes to see. The well-known Psalm 19 says:

The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

² Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

³ There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

⁴ Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

All of creation declares the glory of God if we just have ears to hear. The earth and the heavens shine with God’s glory, if we have the eyes to see. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in her famous poem, “Earth’s crammed with heaven; and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes.  The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” The glory of God is the presence of the holy invisible God.

            2. But people don’t see it or don’t see it very clearly. To use the words of our text, there is a veil hiding the glory of God from human eyes. What is this veil that keeps people from seeing the glory of God? Our OT and NT passages answer this question.

This is the veil of fear. The story of Moses in Exodus makes it clear that the Hebrews were afraid to see the glory of God shining from Moses’ face. They refused to come near him or talk with him until he put a veil over his face to hide the glory of God. Fear keeps people from seeing the glory of God. What is it that people are afraid of? We are afraid of being undone. I love the passage in Isaiah 6 where the prophet has a vision of the holy God on his throne. His reaction is this. He says, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” When we come into the presence of God, we are undone. We fall apart spiritually. The Bible repeatedly says that God is a consuming fire and no one can stand in the presence of God.

We are tiny fragile little selves – egos, personalities, which we have formed over decades of living. We are little bubbles of self-consciousness filled with self-importance and self-deception.  God makes us in his image at birth and then we get ahold of it. We plaster over God’s image with a façade constructed according to our own thoughts, fashioned according to our own likes and dislikes. We don’t know ourselves. We have no idea who we really are. We don’t know who we are in God, so we have pieced together an alternate identity – an understanding of ourselves based on what our parents told us about us while we were growing up and what our society tells us and what we have decided we are. These egos of ours are castles in the air.

It is no wonder that so many people have so many emotional and mental problems and that depression is so widespread and that mental illness is such a problem. And that people erupt in violence. It is a terribly difficult job to keep this charade of our self-identities going – this image that we present to the world and try to convince ourselves of. Some people have public personas that are huge lies. We hear of celebrities who live a lie. The most recent being cyclist Lance Armstrong, who whole career was a lie. Then there was the story of the Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, who got wrapped up in some elaborate hoax about a dead girlfriend.  I have no idea what is real and what is not in that story, and I don’t want to know. There are so many other stories like this. My point is that our lives apart from who we are in God are elaborate fictions.

When we meet God, this mental and emotional fabrication falls way. We are undone. The veil is thrown back and we see ourselves as we really are. And it scares us and we want to pull that veil back down again between us and God to protect ourselves from the truth of who God really is and who we really are. In the presence of God we are revealed as nothing but temporary clumps of earth formed and kept alive for a few decades for one purpose – to be the image of God, to reflect the glory of God. Our purpose is to glorify God. And when we see that we have not done that – that we waste our lives on trivial pursuits that have no eternal value, then we are afraid.

 We are afraid that we are not who we thought we are. We are afraid of losing ourselves in God. That we will no longer be ourselves if we stay in the presence of God. And that fear is justified. In the presence of God we cease to be anything substantial at all.  The apostle James writes “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” In the presence of the eternal absolute God, we are nothing, and it scares the heck out of us. And so we quickly pull that veil back down between us and God, so we can carry on our lives the way we want them to be.

Another way of looking at this veil that hides the glory of God is that it is a veil of ignorance. That apostle Paul speaks about this in our Epistle Lesson. “Moses, [who] put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.”  Paul is saying that when people read the Word of God, they do not understand it. There is a veil over their minds and hearts.

One of humanity’s root problems is ignorance of God, even when we read the Bible’s description of God. That is what Paul means when he says, “But their minds were blinded.” In other words popular theology is messed up. Our mental pictures of God are wrong. That is why atheism is making a comeback. They are right in much of what they say. The humanly fabricated God that many people believe in does not exist. We have rejected God and remade God in our own image. We don’t have to make a statue to be an idol worshipper. We worship mental images of God and call them God. Scriptures say who God really is, but we don’t get it. We read what we want to read and hear what we want to hear.

Let me give you an example. Sometimes I will preach a sermon and someone going out the door - or perhaps sometime later - will mention how much something I said meant to them. They will repeat what I said in the sermon. But I didn’t say any such thing! I said one thing, and they heard another. We hear what we want to hear. We read in the Scriptures what we want to read, not necessarily what is written there. That is what Paul is saying people were doing with the OT. “For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament.” They were reading through a veil, and it is hard to make out words correctly through a veil. It is hard to make out God’s Word through veiled hearts and minds.

3. How is this veil to be removed? Again the apostle tells us. Verse 16 - “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” We have to do exactly what we are afraid to do and do not want to do – turn to the Lord. The hymn says: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” When we turn to the Lord we turn away from ourselves. We lose ourselves in Christ. As Paul says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me.” Jesus says, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Exactly what we feared the most will happen when we turn to Christ. We will lose ourselves. We will cease to be and Christ will be all in all. But in losing ourselves, we discover who we really are - mortal creatures made in the image of the immortal God. We are nothing in ourselves, and yet in Christ we become everything. Our earthly lives are finished, and our eternal lives have just begun.

By “turning to the Lord” I am taking about much more than believing some doctrines about Christ or going through some ritual about Christ or having some religious experience about Christ. I have nothing against those, but I am talking about something more. I am speaking of spiritually, mentally – with heart and soul turning away from our lives and turning  it all over to Christ. My father-in-law, whom we just buried last Saturday had a favorite term: In Christ. No matter what you said, he would add the words “In Christ.” I love you … in Christ. Goodbye … in Christ. In the final years of his life this became his constant refrain. The last words of any conversation you had with him were always “in Christ.” That is the way our lives should be – everything said and done in Christ.

4. This brings me to my final point which is living the unveiled life. Paul writes: “16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  One of my two year old grandson Jonah’s favorite songs is “This little light of mine. I’m goin let it shine.” That describes the Christian life. We are to let the glory light of God shine in and through us.

Paul says that this is liberty. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” This is freedom from the drudgery and slavery of life outside of Christ. People think that being religious means to give up one’s freedom. And the truth is that religion can be bondage. But true spirituality in Christ is freedom. Free to live life guided by the Spirit of the living God. Without Christ we are in bondage to our thoughts and emotions and bodily sensations. In Christ we still have all those thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations, but they are a sideshow to the main drama which is Christ living in and through our lives.

These verses say that living the unveiled life means that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.” These are amazing words when one reads carefully what it says. We are beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. A mirror reflects back our image to ourselves. When the veil of fear and ignorance is lifted, we look in the mirror and see not ourselves but the glory of the Lord! There have been a number of movies made where a person will magically switch bodies with someone else, or go back in time to be their younger self in their younger body. After the transformation they look in the mirror and no longer see themselves staring back. They see someone else or their younger self. Paul says that when the veil is taken away we look in the mirror and see the glory of God! What an amazing idea! Our distorted image of ourselves is replaced with God’s glory.  The image of God in which we were made is now able to be seen! We become mirrors in which God is reflected. When we are cleansed of sin by Christ, the mirror is clean, the veil is removed.

Then Paul says, “18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The more we turn to the Lord and behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, the more we are transformed into this image. We become less and less ourselves and more and more Christ. Our man-made, self-made image fades away, and is replaced by Christ. The image is transformed from glory to glory, meaning with ever-increasing glory. And it is the Spirit of the Lord that does this! May this be a reality in our lives. May we see ourselves as we were created to be – the image of God. And may people look at us and see the image of Jesus Christ unveiled.

Body Image

Delivered January 27, 2013

I Corinthians 12:12-31

Our newest grandchild was born January 7. As the first baby of the year in Sandwich, that means her photo will be at the front of the town annual report next year. I am always amazed by the birth of a child and holding a tiny infant with her delicate hands and feet. The words of Psalm 139 (NIV) comes to mind: “You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” The human body is an amazing. The apostle Paul uses the human body as a metaphor for the church. On this Sunday of our church annual meeting, I thought it appropriate to preach on this powerful image of the church as the Body of Christ. As I pondered this well-known passage of scripture, a number of elements impressed me.

1. The first is UNITY. That is the apostle’s main point. He stresses the oneness of the body and the church. He starts off the passage: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” He proclaims the oneness of Christ, and the Spirit, and therefore of the church as the body of Christ. Oneness is where he starts thinking about the church are our relationship to it.  It tends not to be where we start. We usually start asserting our individuality and therefore our separateness. American churches are more accurately described as a collection of individuals rather than one body. Our society is dominated by the exercise of individualism, and therefore that is the way we tend to see our connection to the church.

The first century biblical mindset – both Jewish and Christian – was first of all one of corporate identity. A good example of this is a verse a couple of chapters later in this book in I Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” Paul sees us as in Adam and in Christ. The ancient NT writers saw all human beings as one in Adam. Our nature and destiny is tied to this primordial and archetypal human. We are all part of one human race. We are all connected. Physically we are connected biologically and genetically. We have our ancestors’ DNA. And we are all connected spiritually simply by being born in this human condition. Some people struggle with the concept of original sin. It is simply the corporate dimension of sin. It means that we are all in this together. Sin affects and infects us all.

Paul says that we are likewise all connected in Christ. Elsewhere he describes Christ as the second Adam. He says in that same chapter 15:45 “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” We are connected to Adam physically; we are born like Adam, sin like Adam and die like Adam. We are connected to Christ spiritually by faith. And therefore share his death and eternal life. We are crucified with Christ and we are raised with Christ. This all has to do with oneness. There is a oneness in human experience and in Christian spiritual experience. I believe that this is more than just a literary metaphor that the apostle is employing to make a point. The body metaphor points to a oneness in our experience. When we experience oneness in Christ, it changes the way we see ourselves, the church and the world.

We are one with all other humans, regardless of where they live or even when they live, regardless of their ethnicity or political governance, or religion or economic status. We are one with the seven billion people on the face of this globe, and the billions who have come before us and the billions who will come after us. As believers in Jesus Christ we are also one in Christ with all who choose Christ. We have no choice about being one with humanity. We do have a choice about being one with Christ. The church is to be a model and example of this unity. As I said, there is an experiential aspect of this. Maybe this is where my contemplative mystical bent comes in, but this is more than a metaphor for me. My intuition – which I understand to be one of the faculties of the human spirit – tells me that I am much more than an individual. In fact my individuality feels insignificant to the point of feeling irrelevant and even nonexistent when compared to the unity of the human race and unity in Christ. This little blip in time and space called Marshall Davis comes into existence and goes out of existence. But who we really are in Christ will not die when our bodies dies. This is eternal life apprehended by faith in Christ and experienced in the Holy Spirit. I could go on and on talking about this, but I have more points to make about this passage.

2. The second point the apostle makes is the MANY. He says in verse 14 “For in fact the body is not one member but many.” Then he goes on to talk about the diversity in the many different members of the body. The one and the many are the two balancing points of this passage of scripture. It is true that we are all one, but it is also true that we are many different parts of this one. One human race but seven billion different parts, each one unique and precious in God’s sight. One universal Church composed of millions of different individuals who call Jesus Lord. I don’t feel like I need to spend so much time on this point, because we know this sense of individuality. I will pick up some aspects of this later under other points.

3. The third point is the connection between the one and the many. I will call this the sense of BELONGING. He says in verse 15-16 “If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?” He goes on in verse 20-21 “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.”  There is a need to belong.

Loneliness is one of the problems of our American society. This is becoming more acute as one person households increase in American society – both for older persons and younger persons. Consequently many people feel isolated and separated from others. Everyone needs a place where they feel like they belong. Family is one place where people get this sense of belonging. It is our primary biological and social link to the human race. Family is very important in life. And yet we jeopardize it all the time. I tell people repeatedly when I am giving advice and counsel not to mess up family relations. People always regret it. Do everything you can maintain good family relations. Bite your tongue. Shut your mouth. Keep your opinions to yourself. Forgive those who offend you. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Do everything you possibly can to keep your family intact – to keep marriage together, and keep a close connection with your kids and your parents and grandkids. Those are the ones who will be there for you when you really need them. The same with friends. Maintain and nurture friendships.

That is what the church is about – spiritual family and friendships. Church is spiritual community. It has an added dimension different than any other relationships because we are connected in the Holy Spirit through Christ. God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are what we have in common with each other here in this church. It might be the only thing we have in common. We are very different people. We might be on different sides of political or social issues. We might have no other common interests besides Christ. We might never be friends with the people around us here if we were put in any other social setting. But we belong to each other because we belong to Christ. There is an immediate spiritual connection with someone who worships and serves the same Savior. We can travel the world to foreign countries, but when we go into a church anywhere in the world we feel that connection. The worship style may be different and the language different, but there is a sense in which we still belong to each other. Years ago I and my son Ernie had the opportunity to visit friends in Istanbul Turkey. My friend was the pianist at the English-speaking church there. They were without a pastor and they asked we to preach. It was an amazing experience to preach in a foreign Muslim country. I felt an instant spiritual connection to those people in that church because we were one in Christ. We belonged to each other.

The church is a spiritual family. We are the family of God. When the church operates well it rivals the closeness of the social family – biological, adopted, by marriage or the extended family. When church really works the way it is supposed to work, we feel we really belong. The problem is that in America it doesn’t often work well. Churches are more likely treated by people as temporary arrangements, easily parted from for all sorts of reasons. But at its best churches are where we experience a deep sense of belonging.

4. The next point that the apostle makes is USEFULNESS. The apostle Paul develops the idea that every part of the human body has a particular purpose, and they all work together. So it is in the church. We all have a function. It is up to each of us to identify and fulfill that function. It is not just about being on boards and committees. Some people thrive in that type of structured organizational setting and some people don’t. That is alright. There is a place for that. Even the apostle Paul at the end of our passage lists certain offices and ministries of that first century church. Verse 27-28 “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.” But these might not be your gifts and your place is not as an officer or board member. In that case it is important that you find out what it is your place of usefulness. That is mostly up to you. You can’t wait for someone to tell you what your place is or wait to be asked to do something. That might never happen. You might be asked to do the wrong thing, in which case you should say, “No.” You are the one who knows what your interests, passions and abilities are. Use them. If you need my help, let me know what your gifts are and I will connect you to where you can be useful. The best work of the church is not that done by boards and committees and reported in minutes or reports. It is done as the natural function of being a member of the body of Christ.

The important thing is that every person feels useful. No one here is a fifth wheel or a spare wheel. I recently inspected the spare tire in my van. It is as flat as it can possibly be! That is because it is a year 2000 Chrysler and I have never used it! That is what happens to us. We go flat if unused. No one is unneeded in church. There are no spectators in church. I know that goes against the entertainment model that has become so dominant in American churches. Going to church is like going to a concert or a lecture for many people. But the truth is you aren’t the audience here. God is the audience. We are here to serve him in worship and in ministry beyond this hour. We are the Body of Christ, the Spirit of the living Christ is in us. The Holy Spirit desires to glorify God in and through us. Christ desires to live his life and do his ministry on earth now through us. Again, this is not just a metaphor. I really believe and experience Christ in me and in expressing himself in ministry to this broken world. It is up to us to be the hands and feet and voice and arms of Christ. No one is going to make us do this or perhaps even ask us to do this. God asks us to do it, and that makes it our responsibility to respond by using our talents and spiritual gifts and natural abilities and interests and passions to the glory of God.

5. Another aspect mentioned in this passage is HONOR. I could also use the word respect. He says verse 22-24, “those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it.” I think that humility comes in somewhere here also. People can be judgmental and opinionated. We are all arrogant in our own way. I certainly am. When I am thinking most clearly about myself I am most aware of how prideful and arrogant and judgmental I am. I don’t know how anyone puts up with me. I can barely put up with me! So I try to compensate by intentionally being respectful. I try to treat everyone with honor and respect. People they deserve at least that much. If God loves them and Christ died for them, then they deserve by honor and respect. Everyone deserves to be treated well. Church is one place where this has to happen. We need to treat everyone as if they were Christ – because spiritually they are in Christ and part of the Body of Christ. Those we disagree with strongly, even those who don’t like us and who do things and say things we don’t like,  need to be treated with respect and honor.

6. The last aspect he mentions in the body of Christ is COMPASSION. Verse 25 “that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” The word compassion literally means “to suffer with.” That is what we are called to do as members of the body of Christ. The metaphor of the human body is helpful here in this analogy. If we stub our toe, we don’t look dispassionately at the toe and remark, “See how that toe is turning red and blue and swelling up and bleeding. I wonder if something is wrong with it, and whether I should do something.” No, if we stub our toe, we jump around and yell and do what we can to alleviate the pain. We suffer with our toe. The same if we hit our finger with a hammer or have a toothache or a migraine headache. When one part of our body hurts, we hurt as a whole person. So it is in a church. It should be a natural response for us to pay attention to and minister to the parts of the body that hurts. That is not just my job as pastor; it is way too big for one person to do. That is the business model of the church. That you pay me to do what you don’t want to do, don’t have the time to do, or the emotional energy to do. The Biblical spiritual model is that it is the whole body’s job to care for each part of the body. Conversely when one part rejoices, all rejoices. I see our sharing and prayer time in the worship service as part of this compassion in action. When you hear someone share something that resonates with your soul, then that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you to follow up on that. Don’t wait for a program or board or me as pastor to do what the Holy Spirit is asking you to do. God calls us all to be ministers, each in our own way.

We are the Body of Christ. This is a powerful spiritual reality and experience. May we live as one body and each of us individually members of it.