Ghosts, Zombies, Hell and Jesus - 1 Peter 3:13-22

    Today is survey day.  I have three questions, and I want you to vote your opinion on each of these three questions.  You can vote: yes, no, or I don’t know.
    First question: Do you believe in ghosts?  Do you believe there can be contact between the dead and the living?  I want you to actually raise your hands.  It’s OK.  Nobody’s going to judge you one way or the other. 
    Everybody who believes that there are ghosts and/or contact between the dead and the living, raise your hand. 
    If you don’t believe in ghosts or any contact between the dead and the living, raise your hand.
    If you don’t know, raise your hand.
    OK, let’s go to our Old Testament Lesson: 1 Samuel 28:3-18.
 3 Meanwhile, Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. And Saul had banned from the land of Israel all mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead.
 4 The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of Israel and camped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. 6 He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. 7 Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.”
   His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.”
 8 So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men.
   “I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?”
 9 “Are you trying to get me killed?” the woman demanded. “You know that Saul has outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?”
 10 But Saul took an oath in the name of the Lord and promised, “As surely as the Lord lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this.”
 11 Finally, the woman said, “Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?”
   “Call up Samuel,” Saul replied.
 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, “You’ve deceived me! You are Saul!”
 13 “Don’t be afraid!” the king told her. “What do you see?”
   “I see a god coming up out of the earth,” she said.
 14 “What does he look like?” Saul asked.
   “He is an old man wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul realized it was Samuel, and he fell to the ground before him.
 15 “Why have you disturbed me by calling me back?” Samuel asked Saul.
   “Because I am in deep trouble,” Saul replied. “The Philistines are at war with me, and God has left me and won’t reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do.”
 16 But Samuel replied, “Why ask me, since the Lord has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done just as he said he would. He has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.”18 The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites.

    So if you ask me, “Do you believe in ghosts?”, I have to say, “I guess so.  The Bible seems to believe in ghosts.”   In several places, God condemns mediums - people who consult with the spirits of the dead (Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 20:27 and Deuteronomy 8:9-14).  It seems that it is actually possible to consult the dead, but this practice drives people to trust in the dead spirits rather than to trust in God.
    But at the same time, I would say that the existence of ghosts is not such an important question.  In fact, it’s not even the main point of this story about Saul.  If we look a the wider context here, we see that it fits with God’s main concern about mediums and ghosts.  Saul was trusting in ghosts instead of trusting in God.  The main point is to trust in God and to obey God, no matter what.

    Second question: Do you believe in zombies?  Do you believe in people who are dead becoming undead - returning to life or something like life again? 
    Let’s do a show of hands again.  Everybody who believes in zombies, raise your hand.
    Everybody who doesn’t believe zombies are possible, raise your hand.
    If you don’t know, raise your hand.
    OK, let’s turn to our Gospel Lesson.  This is Matthew chapter 27, and our passage starts with Jesus’ last moments on the cross.
 50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.

    Didn’t know that was in the Bible, did you?  To be honest with you, I really don’t know what this text is trying to say.  I don’t think these are zombies like in the horror films.  On the other hand, it doesn’t sound like these people were completely resurrected - at least not permanently.  If we just focus on dead bodies walking around, that can take us to some very weird places.  What happened?  Were they actually alive?  What were their bodies like?  What would have happened if ...?
    But if we focus on the larger context, this is actually a pretty amazing picture.   Tom Noble, one of my theology professors, explained it like this.  When Jesus - the Author of Life - died, that disrupted the barrier between life and death.  It’s like in the sci-fi movies, when some huge event happens, the picture ripples and gets blurry.  That big event sends out ripples that alter reality.
     In other words, think of throwing a big rock into a puddle.  It makes a splash and knocks some water out of the puddle.  It seems like that’s kind of what happened when Jesus died.  When Jesus - the Rock of Ages - went into the grave, into the place of the dead, it made such a big splash that some of the dead people kind of popped back up on earth - at least for a while.  And then, we Jesus came back up out of the grave, it caused more ripples.  Jesus is that big!  Jesus really died, and Jesus was really raised, and this altered the reality of our world.

    Third question: Do you believe in hell?  Let me be more specific.  Do you believe in a hell of eternal punishment from which there is no escape?  Let’s do the show of hands again.  By now, you might be thinking that I’m trying to trick you.  I promise I’m not.  I’m not going to come looking for you to talk about why you answered what you did.  OK, let’s have it.
    All who believe in an eternal hell with no escape, hands up.
    If you don’t believe in an eternal hell with no escape, hands up.
    If you don’t know, put your hands up.
    OK, now it’s time for our Epistle Lesson: 1 Peter 3:13-22.
13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good?  14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it.  So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats.  15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.  And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.  16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way.  Keep your conscience clear.  Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.  17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!
 18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time.  He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God.  He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
 19 So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood.  21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 22 Now Christ has gone to heaven.  He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.
    Another one of my professors, Roger Hahn, says that “Verse 19 is one of the most difficult verses to interpret in the New Testament.”  Martin Luther, who had an opinion about just about everything said, “A wonderful text this is, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.”  Great. 
    This verse has been the source of all kinds of controversies and it taps into the great debates about heaven and hell.  Verse 19 is short: “So he went and preached to the spirits in prison.”  But it leaves us with all kinds of questions.  When did this happen?  Where did Christ go?  What did he preach?  Who was he talking to?  What is this prison?
    In my research on 1 Peter, I’m using four different commentaries.  Guess how many answers I got on this verse?  Four.
    1. One guy said this verse is actually talking about the “pre-existent Christ” who preached through the mouth of Noah in the time just before the flood.  If so, Peter’s point would be that Christians should also tell people how to be saved, no matter how few people are listening.  We should speak with boldness, with full confidence that God will save us, just as he saved Noah.
    2. Another guy, William Barclay, is wonderful old school expert my pastors loved to quote when I was a kid.  He gave a surprisingly liberal view.  He says, “There is in this passage the solution of one of the most haunting questions raised by the Christian faith - what is to happen to those who lived before Jesus Christ and to those to whom the gospel never came?”  Barclay quotes Justin Martyr, a Christian preacher from the 2nd century, and says Jesus actually went down into Hades or Hell and preached the Good News to people who have already died so that “there is no corner of the universe into which the grace of God has not reached.”
    3. Then, the third guy said basically - Hold on a minute.  That sounds great, but that is probably not what the text actually says.  The word used for “spirit” here almost always refers to non-human beings like angels or demons.  And the word for “preached” usually means to “announce” not to “give the good news.”  If we put all of this together, what we see is that when Jesus died, he went to the spiritual “powers” and “authorities” of darkness and announced their defeat.  They killed him and drug him down to death, but Jesus shouted out, “You can’t keep me dead.  I’m busting out.  I’m defeating death.  We win.  You loose.”
   4. The fourth guy was very democratic about it.  He listed all three of these views and said ... um ... yeah ... they could pretty much all be right.  But then he said that we have to be careful here.  We can get lost in the controversy of the difficult verses.  When we have really hard verses, we need to do two things.  First, “be humble about ... passages that are ‘clearly unclear.’”  Second, we need to make sure we see the passage in its overall context.

    So what is the wider context?  The wider context is a community struggling to be faithful to Jesus in a difficult situation.  This text has some really beautiful passages. 
Peter says, “Who will want to harm you if you are passionate about the good?”  Some people are aficionados of a baseball team, or cars, or cigars, or coffee.  Peter says, “Be an aficionado - a passionate lover - of goodness in all its forms.”  Then, you’ll probably be OK.  But even if you’re not OK, even if you still suffer, don’t worry too much about it. 
    Then, there’s this beautiful line: “Don’t fear their fears.”  Don’t be afraid of the same things as other people.  Don’t let their fears take over your life.  Instead, keep Christ first in your life.
    Next, is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.  “And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.  But do this in a gentle and respectful way.”  Live with such incredible hope that you provoke questions.  Live with such beautiful goodness that people ask why.  Then, have your answer ready, “I live like this because God has changed my life through Jesus Christ.”  And in the living and in the answering, do everything with gentleness and respect.  Don’t disrespect the other person when you talk about Jesus.  Every conversation is holy.  Every conversation is an opportunity to live the gentle character and love of Jesus.
    But even if we do everything right and live exactly like Jesus, we still might get treated exactly like Jesus.  People might “speak against” us, and we might “suffer for doing good.”  According to Peter, that’s not all bad.
    Jesus suffered for us.  Jesus was innocent, but he paid for our crimes.  Jesus walked into suffering to walk us home to God.  Jesus went all the way down to the grave, to the place of the dead, to the place of no return.  Jesus experienced the absolute worst of human life and death.  And God raised him out of it.  He was completely dead, and God returned him to total and absolute life.  He went all the way down, and God brought him all the way up.
    Baptism is a picture of this U-shaped path.  We go down with Jesus into the water - into the grave.  We come up with Jesus into new life.  We die with Christ and we are raised with Christ. 
    And where is Christ now?  “Now Christ has gone to heaven.  He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority” (3:22).  Jesus has gone full-circle.  He has completed the journey.  He was in heaven, at God’s right hand, part of the Trinity.  He left heaven and came to earth.  He was obedient to death, going into the grave, the lowest parts of the earth.  Then, God raised him from the dead to life on earth again.  Then, God raised him up to heaven to rejoin the Father on the throne.  Now, Jesus has conquered sin and death and every spiritual power that has rebelled against God.  All powers bow before his throne and accept his final authority. 

    All the experts say that verses 19 and 20 are extremely difficult.  In fact, these verses are so hard, that we can get lost in trying to figure out what they are supposed to mean.  However, most of the experts also agree that the overall point of the passage is clear.  Peter is saying something very simple and yet very profound.  If you hold on to Jesus no matter what, you’ll be OK.  If we just hold on to Jesus wherever that U-shaped journey takes us - even into suffering and death and hellish circumstances - if we hold on to Jesus and his gentleness, Jesus will push through that suffering and death and hell and pull us out with him into life and finally into heaven. 
    Don’t get lost in the controversy.  Yeah, it’s OK to talk about heaven and hell.  It’s OK to ask questions about ghosts and all the weird stuff in the Bible.  But don’t miss the context of those passages.  And don’t miss the overall point of the Bible. 
    God loves us.  We have all rejected God’s love, but God loved us so much that he suffered and died for us.  God endured hellish pain on the cross to bring us out of our personal hells into his Kingdom of Heaven.  If we respond to this amazing love, God will transform our lives.
    God doesn’t push or force his way.  God’s love is like the gentle beating of the ocean upon our souls.  I love you.  I love you.  I love you.  You can push me away, and still I will love you.  You can say bad things about me, and still I will love you.  You can beat me, and still I will love you.  You can even kill me, and still I will love you.  You cannot get rid of me.  I will always love you.  Forever, I love you.  I love you.  I love you.   God wears us down with his persistent, gentle, suffering love.
    And God calls us to the same persistent, gentle, suffering path.  I will do good no matter what.  I will love Christ no matter what.  I will love you no matter what.  You can push me away, and still I will love you.  You can say bad things about me, and still I will say good things about you.  You can beat me, and still I will be gentle toward you.  You can even kill me, and still I will love Christ and love you.  You cannot really get rid of me because I live in the Spirit of Christ, and we will always love you.  Forever, we love you.  We love you.  We love you.  And this will completely change our world with God’s persistent, gentle, suffering love.

Weaving with Peter - 1 Peter 2:11-25

    Sarah is learning how to knit.  When she found out she was pregnant, she got some yarn and knitting needles and started watching Youtube videos about how to knit.  So far, she’s finished enough to cover the baby’s left leg pretty securely.  Not bad for her first attempt!   But her goal is a beautiful striped blanket that looks something like this.  She still has about five months.

    During Lent, we’re preaching through 1 Peter, and I’ve learned something over the past few weeks.  1 Peter is a difficult book for preaching.  Peter takes these really, really dense theological topics and packs them all together into a few close verses - or even in the same sentence. 
    For example, listen to just one verse from Michael’s text last week: “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people.  You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.  As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).  That’s about five sermons, right there! 
    Peter packs in heavy words and complex theological topics.  Last week, Michael talked about picking out different grains of rice.  This week a better metaphor might be to see the different colors of yarn.  First, Peter puts all his yarn on the table.  He describes each color.  Then, at the end, he weaves it all together.  To help us see the individual colors of this text, we’ll just work our way through the text bit by bit.
  
    The first color in Peter’s cloth here is green - alien green.  And, I like alien because I myself am an alien.  In fact, Sarah is giving birth to an alien.  So aliens are near and dear to my heart.  Now, I don’t mean “alien” - like 외계인, someone from outer space.  I mean “alien” - like 외국인, someone from another place. 
    The old English beginning of our passage is: “Beloved, I warn you as aliens and sojourners ...”  About half of us in this room are legally “aliens” in Korea.  We even have Alien Registration Cards.  Last week, I renewed my visa, and I checked the box, “Extend period of sojourn.”  Even so, a newer translation might be helpful here.
 11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

    In my first four years here, I was bi-vocational.  In addition to pastoring, I also taught English at KNU.  I always had fun with the word “foreigner.”  My students would say, “I want to learn English so I can talk with foreigners, especially when I go to another country.”    I would say something like, “You can talk to foreigners in English in Korea, but if you go to Canada and talk to Canadians, you aren’t talking to foreigners.”  They just gave me that blank confused stare with the head tilted to the side, “Huh?”  “If you - a Korean - go to Canada.  The Canadians aren’t the foreigners.  You are!”  That just blew their minds.  Yes, 한국인 (Koreans) can be 외국인 (foreigners) too. 
    Why?  Because we can all be “temporary residents and foreigners.”   We can live in one nation but have our citizenship somewhere else.  Our family has lived in Korea for almost seven years, but we are still Americans.  We still eat a lot of American food.  We still speak English in our home.  We still maintain many American customs.  Koreans do the same thing when they live abroad.  They usually speak Korean at home, eat kimchi, and celebrate Chuseok.  Foreigners live in one place, but maintain an identity and culture from another place.
    The first thing Peter is saying here is, “Look folks, we don’t belong here.  We are foreigners.  We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and we follow Christ not Caesar.  So live like a Christian.  Live like heaven - even as you live on earth.  Be different - because you are different.  Keep away from soul-destroying stuff, and live with such active goodness that people will see your goodness and believe in God’s goodness.”
    Patricia told me that Sendai Church of the Nazarene in Japan was featured on the radio this week.  Christians from the Sendai church were walking through one of the shelters giving out blankets, food, and water.  Some of the people asked, “Who are you?”  They said, “We are from the Christian church.”  Then, the people said, “Christians do this?!?”  Yes, Christians do this.  And Christians in Korea - here in our church - have given about 1,700,000 (170 만) won to help Christians in Japan do this.  They will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God. 

   The next thread Peter puts on the table is respect. 
 13 For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority—whether the king as head of state, 14 or the officials he has appointed.  For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right.
 15 It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.  16 For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.  17 Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters.  Fear God, and respect the king.  18 You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters with all respect.  Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel.
    Peter does not want anarchists.  That is not living like heaven, and it certainly will not give honor to God.  Peter calls for respect for the government, respect for the king, respect for our bosses, and in fact, respect for everyone.  Every boss ought to want  Christian employees because she knows they will be people of integrity who work hard and show respect.  Every government leader ought to want Christian citizens because he knows they will be people of integrity who will strengthen the community. 
    This is actually happening in China.  A few years ago, I had the opportunity to talk with some missionaries in China.  I asked, “Are you afraid?  Do you ever have problems with the government?  Do people in your area experience persecution?” 
    The answer surprised me.  He said, “No.  In our area, the government has learned that Christians make the community better.  Christian businesses are honest and fair.  Christian people help others.  Many public schools and universities in China are specifically looking for Christian teachers because they have learned that Christians tend to be better employees.”  For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority.

    Inside this passage, there’s another color that’s kind of hiding out.  It’s freedom. 
16 For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.
    In God’s economy, no one is a slave.  In God’s Kingdom, everyone is free.  We are live in this world under all kinds of human authority, but we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, where we are eternally free. 
    Think of Jesus before Pilate and the chief priests.  They are the symbols of human authority - political and religious authority.   And yet Jesus stands before them as a free man.  He does not answer.  He does not fight back.  He does not claim his rights.  Why?  Jesus gives us his answer in the Gospel of John: “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.  ...  But my Kingdom is not of this world.  ... You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from [heaven]” (John 18:36, 19:11). 
    Jesus is listening to a different song.  Jesus is dancing to a different tune.  Jesus is a free man even as he is condemned to die.  Like Paul and Silas who sang praises in the jail cell (Acts 16:22-25) ... like Michael’s brother who has found new life within the prison walls ... we are also free. 
    We are not slaves.  We are fundamentally free beings because Jesus has freed us.  And “if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36).  No one can make us do anything.  Whatever we do, we choose to do.  We submit to authority because we are freely choose to obey God and to respect people.
    But we can also resist.  Because we are free, because we are not slaves, we can resist.  Because of Jesus, the king is not our master.  The president is not our master.  The policeman is not our master.  The boss is not our master.  The teacher is not our master.  Even, the parent is not our slave-master.  Paul says in Ephesians, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1).  We obey all those in authority as long as it is possible to obey people and God. 
    But we are the free-slaves of God, not people.  If the authority becomes crushing, if the authority itself wages war against our souls, if the authority is leading us to sin, if the authority is leading us to live in destructive ways (ways that are destructive for us, for our family, or for others), we can resist.  “No.  No, I will not do that.  No, I will not neglect my family.  No, I will not cheat.  No, I will not abuse others.  No, I will not destroy the environment.  No, I will not work 16 hours a day or seven days a week.  No, I will not make my child do that.  No, no, no.”  Because of Jesus, we are free.  Because of Jesus, we have the power to say no.  Because of Jesus, we are free to do good when everyone else is doing wrong.

    However, don’t be fooled into thinking this will be easy.  The next thread in Peter’s tapestry is suffering.
... not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. 19 For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. 20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong.  But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you.  21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering ...
    We won’t just say, “No,” and everyone else will say, “OK. That’s fine.”  Sometimes, if we say “No,” we may go to prison.  We may have problems at work.  We might lose money.  We may have problems with our families.  They might shout at us or curse us or even hit us.  They might “accuse us of doing wrong” or make “foolish accusations” against us. 
    If any of this happens, we are in good company.  The author of Hebrews tells of the giants of God’s people, people who did great miracles, the heros and heroines that we all want to be like.  Then, he tells the rest of the story:
    But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free.  They     placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.  Some were jeered at, and     their backs were cut open with whips.  Others were chained in prisons.  Some     died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword.      Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed     and mistreated.  They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and     mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:35-38)

    Many “ignorant people” made all sorts of “false accusations” against the first Christians.  Christians were called atheists because they rejected the Roman gods.  Christian worship services were called orgies of incest because Christians held “love feasts” where “brothers and sisters” “greet one another with a holy kiss.”  Christians were accused of sorcery and dark magic because people were healed by their prayers.1    No wonder the government tried to shut them down!  (By the way, the same thing is happening today within the Church.  Christians are attacking Christians because they are using words in new ways.)
  
    What is Peter’s answer?  How should we respond when people say all kinds of bad things about us?  What should we do when people punish us for doing the right thing? 
20 ... endure it patiently ... 21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.  He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
 22 He never sinned,
      
       nor ever deceived anyone.
 
23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted,

      nor threaten revenge when he suffered.

   He left his case in the hands of God,

      who always judges fairly.
 
24 He personally carried our sins 

      in his body on the cross

   so that we can be dead to sin

      and live for what is right.

   By his wounds

      you are healed.

 25 Once you were like sheep

      who wandered away.

   But now you have turned to your Shepherd,

      the Guardian of your souls.

    The last four verses here are written like poetry because they probably are.  This was so important to the early Christians that they made this into a song or a creed to use in their worship services.
    Jesus is the fabric that wraps together all our themes.  Because our home is in Christ, the Guardian of our souls, we are aliens and strangers in this world.  Because we are different, we live different.  Because we submit to God, who always judges fairly, we live with respect for others.  Because of Jesus, we live with the freedom to do what is right no matter the cost.  Because Jesus has suffered for us, we too can patiently endure suffering as we follow Christ.
    The first Christians understood a few things about suffering. 
They understood that suffering is not the worst thing in the world.  It is much worse to be unfaithful.
They understood that Jesus has already suffered before us.  When we suffer, we are brought into Jesus’ suffering.  Somehow, in a great mystery, our suffering wraps us closer into Jesus’ suffering and death. 
They understood that Jesus’ suffering works for our healing.  “By his wounds you are healed.”  “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.”  Because he died for our sin, we can die to our sin.  Because he died, we can live. 
They also understood that suffering drives us into the arms of our suffering Christ.  Suffering breaks our illusions of independence.  Suffering proves our powerlessness.  Suffering breaks the hard shell around our hearts and invites us to bleed with Christ and to be made whole with Christ.  Suffering breaks us and gives Love the chance to heal us. 

    Like Israel in the desert, we will also suffer.  Sometimes, it’s our own fault.  Other times, we suffer for doing good.  In the desert of suffering, we have a choice.  We can get bitter and complain against God.  Or, we can hold on to the cross.  We can let our hearts get broken and bitter, we can let our hearts get broken and loving.  Either way, our hearts will break.  In this world, at some point, our hearts will break.  Jesus is the path forward.  The suffering of the cross is the only fabric that weaves together all the broken strings and pieces of our world.  Only the cross can heal our deepest pain.

The Beggar King - Matthew 25

Read Matthew 25:31-46.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a King who wanted to establish a perfect kingdom of mercy, justice, and love.  He often taught his people how they should live.  He told them they would be blessed and happy if they were humble and merciful.  He told them that if they worked together for a just and peace-filled society, their dreams would be fulfilled.  He taught them to honor God by they way they lived.  He taught them to be kind and generous to everyone, even to those who could not repay them, even to those who were unkind to them.  He told them that the summary rule is to love other people exactly like you love yourself. 
But this King didn’t just teach about love and mercy.  He lived it.  He was widely respected for his compassionate life.  Even though he was King, he seemed always to notice those who were ignored by the others.  He spoke to people with gentleness and respect, even the “worst” people and the poorest people.  He personally bandaged the wounds of people who were sick.  He personally helped poor people find jobs and start working again.  He often gave his coat to someone who was without.  He often shared his food with those who did not have enough, yet he never seemed to run out. 
He told his people that the Kingdom he was establishing was built on these simple principles.  He told them that if they would live this way, like him, the Kingdom he was describing would begin to take shape in their very lives.  He said this perfect, amazing Kingdom would emerge all over the world if only his people would follow his example and live lives of simple, generous love for each other.
His people were very kind to him.  They always treated him with respect and dignity.  They were all glad to have such a wonderful King.  When he spoke to them about the principles of his Kingdom, they all nodded their heads and agreed that this was a good way to live.  Many of them even took sacred vows to live as people of the Kingdom, to live lives of mercy, justice and love. 
However, the King wondered how his people acted when he was not around.  He wondered what they did in the quiet, secret times when they thought no one important was watching.  He wondered if his people were really living as people of his Kingdom.
One day, the King announced that he was leaving on a long trip.  He gathered his people and told them to live according to the Kingdom principles of mercy, justice, and love.  He challenged them to hold each person in high respect and to care for each other with glad and generous hearts.  The people all agreed.
Then, the King left on his trip.  However, he did not go to another land.  The King left the palace and the city alone.  He secretly changed into the clothes of a poor beggar1.  He rolled in the dirt and rocks until he and his clothes were dirty and torn.  Then, he toured his Kingdom dressed as one of the poorest beggars.  He wanted to see for himself how well his people live out the Kingdom principles of mercy, justice, and love.
Some people treated him well and shared their food with him.  Some people gave him water on hot days.  Some people brought him a coat in the winter.  Occasionally, a kind soul would invite the beggar King into his home to get out of the rain.  He also made friends with the other beggars.  They taught him how to search the trash heaps for food, and they shared what little they had with him. 
But some people in his Kingdom treated him poorly.  Many people looked down on his dirty body in disgust when they passed him begging in the streets.  Many, many refused to drop even a coin into his outstretched hands.  Some stood right next to him and pretended not to see him.  Some spat on him.  Some kicked him when he asked for food. 
Eventually, he was even thrown into prison simply for being a beggar.  When he was in prison, even there he refused to reveal his identity.  This beggar King endured the cold, dark, moldy prison simply to understand how his people are treated.  In that prison he caught a cold.  The cold turned into a cough, and the cough turned into a serious sickness. 
This prison was in a basement below the city courthouse in the center of town.  He often stood on a box, leaning against the wall coughing, looking out the small, high window watching the feet of his happy, healthy, wealthy subjects walking by.  How often he longed for one of them to come to him in the prison just to talk with him or to bring him a little medicine!  But for months and months, no one came. 
Then one day, one of his top advisors made a tour of the prison, to make sure that it was being run properly.  This was one of his most trusted aids, and one who had joined him in explaining the principles of the Kingdom to the people.  The beggar King was now very sick, and he stumbled to the bars as the official passed.  Excitement rose within him.  He thought that of all the people in his Kingdom, this good man would be the most likely to have pity on him.  The official barely glanced at the King as he walked past his cell.  The beggar King reached his dirty hand through the bars and grabbed the official’s coat.  “Sir … sir … I am … sick. … I need … help.” 
The official looked at him and paused thinking for a long time, as though he might actually recognize the King.  Then, he shook his head and said, “I guess you should have thought of that possibility before you became a criminal.  I don’t have time for people like you.  The King is away, and I have important business to do.”  And just like that, he left his own King coughing in a jail cell.
Finally, a kind young woman came to the prison carrying food, blankets, and a bag of medicine.  She quietly tended to each prisoner.  When she came to the beggar King’s cell, he could not even walk to the bars to meet her.  She had the jailer unlock the door.  She immediately wrapped him in a blanket.  After a few hours of talking, some hot soup, and some medicine, the beggar King felt his strength returning.  And the young woman had learned that the beggar King had committed no crime except that of being poor.  She pled his case to the judge, and the judge released the beggar King from prison.  The beggar King walked out of the prison leaning on her shoulders, and she nursed him back to health over the next few weeks. 
When the King was healthy enough to walk for long distances again, he returned to his palace.  He took a long hot bath. He shaved and got a haircut and a manicure.  He put on his royal robes and wore cologne for the first time in a year.  Finally, the King put on his glorious crown and walked to his throne.  When he took his throne in all his Kingly glory, no one would have guessed that earlier in the year he had held out dirty hands begging for bread at the city market, or that he had followed the other beggars to search for food in the city trash heap, or least of all, that he had nearly died of sickness and neglect in the city prison.  He looked fully and truly like a King for all the world to see. 

When the King was firmly seated on his throne, he called all of the people from every part of his Kingdom to assemble before him.  When everyone had gathered in the palace, the King walked through the crowd looking each person in the face.  He gently touched each one and sent some to his left and some to his right. 
When the entire crowd had been divided into two groups, the King said to those on his right, “Come!  You are the people blessed by God.  Come and share my Kingdom with me.  I have been preparing it for you, and now it is yours to own and to occupy with me.  You have proven yourselves to be true citizens of my Kingdom.  You have proven that my words are in your heart.  You have proven that your heart is a Kingdom heart.  You have truly lived as people of mercy, justice, and love.  I was hungry, and you fed me.  I was thirsty, and you gave me water.  I was cold, and you gave me a coat.  I was homeless, and you gave me a place to stay.  I was sick, and you cared for me.  I was in prison, and you visited me.”
The good and kind people standing on his right said to the King, “O King, we don’t remember doing any of these things for you.  We don’t remember seeing you hungry or thirsty or sick?  When were you homeless or in need of clothes, much less in prison?  Beg your pardon, sir, but we think you’re mistaken.” 
The King smiled with the joy of a proud parent.  He pulled out his dirty clothes.  He showed them his shoes with holes in them.  He showed them his poor man’s walking stick.  He said, “I was there.  I was the man on the street.  I was the beggar at the park.  I was the one stuck in the rain.  I was the lonely person everyone ignored.  I was the stranger in a strange land.  I was the one in prison.  Whenever you helped someone overlooked or ignored, you helped me.  That was me.  You did it to me!”

Then, the King said to those on his left, “I have taught you how to live, but you have rejected my ways.  I have shown you mercy without end, but you have not shared it.  I have loved you with my whole life, but you have not loved others.  Some of you even took sacred vows to live in the Kingdom Way, but you have not fulfilled your vows.  You have proven by your actions that I am not your King and that you do not trust my Way.  You have rejected me.  By rejecting me, you have brought a curse upon yourselves.  Now, get away from me.  Go on and go into the fire prepared for the devil and his crew.”
Like the righteous ones, they also answered, “But King, we never saw you hungry or thirsty or sick.  We never saw you cold or in prison or lonely.  Sir, surely you know, O King, that if we had seen you our King in need, we would have gladly helped.”
The King looked at them with sadness, compassion, and determination.  He showed them his dirty clothes, his shoes with holes, and his poor walking stick.  “Don’t you get it folks?!  I was out there.  I was the sick man.  I was the lonely woman.  I was the hungry man who dreamed of the food you put in your trash.  I was the thirsty man without good water.  I was the foreigner with no place to call home.  I was the one locked in life with no way out.  That was me!  When you ignored one of those “insignificant nobodies,” you ignored your King.  When you walked past that person who wanted to talk, you walked past me.  That was me.  Was it not enough that you wear the best clothes?  Couldn’t you at least share some with me?  Was it not enough that you eat expensive foods?  Couldn’t you at least share some with me?  Was it not enough that you walk freely on the earth in good health?  Couldn’t you at least visit me when I was sick or in prison?  Hadn’t I given you enough as King for you to share some with me again?  Whatever you failed to do for one of the little nobodies, you refused to do to me your King.”  Then those “goats” were herded out to their punishment.

But the King went with his sheep, his faithful servants, into the greatest feast of all Time celebrating the establishment of a Kingdom built on the very foundations of heaven: mercy, justice, and love. 

    Jesus Christ is our Beggar King.  He left the throne of Heaven to live as a poor man and to die on a cross.  He was raised from the dead, and now he reigns in Heaven as the King Eternal, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion … not only in the present age but also in the age to come” (Ephesians 1:21).  Yet this same Jesus Christ is our Beggar King, and he is all around us asking us to help him.  Our Beggar King is the King Eternal, and he invites us into the Eternal Kingdom to live lives of mercy, justice, and love in service to him wherever he is.

Not Without the Cross - Matthew 17

Read Matthew 17:1-13.

    OK.  Let me set the scene for you. 
For me, it all started one day when my brother Andrew and I were out fishing.  We see this young preacher named Jesus come walking down the shore.  Andrew and I start talking about him.  He’s been making quite a stir, preaching “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near.”  Something about him just makes sense. 
    Well, lo and behold, when he gets close to where we were fishing, he gets our attention and says, “Hey, Peter, Andrew, come follow me.  I’ll make you fishers of men.”  I’m not sure I can explain why, but Andrew and I both knew we had to go with him.  It was like our life was changing right that moment.  We left our boats, the nets, everything and just followed this traveling preacher. 
    Pretty soon, Jesus wasn’t just preaching.  He was healing people.  He was healing people left and right.  He was preaching and healing, healing and preaching.  He was preaching what we later called “the good news of the kingdom,” and people were bringing him all kinds of sick people to get healed (Mt. 4).
Jesus even healed my mother-in-law when he came over to my place for a visit.  She got up and made him cookies (Mt. 8:14-15).
We still weren’t really sure who Jesus was.  He was obviously a gifted preacher and a faith-healer.  No one around here had ever heard teaching that cut to the heart like his, and nobody sure ever saw anyone heal people like he did.  Jesus was obviously blessed by God to do great things.  He had our attention.  We believed in him – well, sort of.
Before too long, our faith was put to the test, and we didn’t do so well.  We were out on the Sea of Galilee together with Jesus.  Out of nowhere, this huge storm comes.  The waves are crashing into the boat.  We’re starting to collect water.  In the midst of all of this, Jesus is sleeping!  Can you believe it?  Sleeping.  Well, I send someone to wake him up, “Tell him to do something, or we’re all going to drown!” 
Jesus gets up and says, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  I’m thinking, “Waves taller than me are crashing over my head into my boat.  Why do you think I’m afraid?!” 
But then he starts talking to the wind and the waves, telling them to quiet down.  Instantly, it was completely calm.  All we could do is ask ourselves, “Whoa, who is this guy?!  Even the wind and the waves obey him?”  (We didn’t understand yet that he made the wind and waves.) (Mt. 8:23-27)
    Jesus kept stretching our belief.  He kept teaching us little by little more of who he is.  One time Jesus fed 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, with only five loaves of bread and two fish (Mt. 14:13-21).  It never occurred to us that Jesus could do something like that.  We knew he could heal people, and he calmed the storm, but this was new.
    Right after that, Jesus sent us out onto the lake in the boat, and he stayed with the crowd.  By night time, we had rowed against the wind a long ways, but the wind and waves were starting to wear us down.  All of the sudden, we see Jesus walking to us on the lake.  I mean, he was walking on the water.  We thought for sure, we were seeing a ghost, and we were scared to death.  Jesus called out to us, “Easy boys.  It’s just me.  Don’t be afraid.”
    Now, I don’t know why I did what I’m about to tell you.  Maybe it was Jesus’ calming the storm earlier, or maybe it was his feeding all those people.  But something just came over me, and I got this big burst of courage.  I hollered out, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you on the water.”  I almost couldn’t believe I said it.  Maybe I just wanted to be with him wherever he was.  Maybe I was trying to have faith. 
    He said, “Come on out,” so I did. 
I can’t believe it, looking back on it, but I actually got out of the boat and walked toward Jesus on the water.  I did pretty well for a few steps, but then I started looking around at the wind and the waves.  I thought, “This stuff almost sank my boat a little while back.  I must be crazy!”  Then, I started sinking.  I knew I was in trouble then.  I cried out, “Jesus, help me!” 
He reached out his hand and caught me.  “You still have little faith,” he said.  When we got into the boat, the wind stopped, and we just started worshipping Jesus.  (Mt. 14:22-33).  We knew he was the Son of God!  But we didn’t really know what that meant yet.
    After a while, Jesus took us on sort of a leadership retreat.  He asked us who people were saying he was.  So we told him all the rumors that were going around.  Then he said, “But what about you?  Who do you say I am?”
    Well, that was getting personal.  We’d been following him for months or maybe years at that point.  But when it came right down to it, it was hard to say exactly who he was.  Well, in another one of those bursts of inspiration and courage, I answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
    I got that one right.  Jesus said, “God sure has blessed you Peter.  You didn’t figure that out yourself.  God showed it to you!  And I’ll tell you something else, my church is going to be so strong and powerful that it’s going to bust open the gates of hell!” (Mt. 16:13-20)
    I was feeling pretty good.  We were with the Messiah – the long awaited Messiah, the righteous King who is going to set everything right, the one who would set Israel free from our long years of oppression.  Now that’s all true, but I was still thinking of it in terms of a military take over, an armed rebellion.  Everybody thought of it like that back then.
    So when Jesus started talking about going to Jerusalem and being kicked around and killed by the religious leaders, I figured we needed to have a talk.  I took him aside and said, “Umm, Jesus, I know you’re the Messiah and all, but, well, that’s what we need to talk about.  You can’t go around saying you’re going to get mistreated by the chief priests and killed.  That kind of stuff doesn’t happen to the MESSIAH.  God would never let that happen to you.  And if you keep talking like this, it’s really going to hurt our approval ratings and recruitment efforts.”
    Jesus didn’t like that too much.  He shouted, “Get away from me, Satan!  You are a dangerous trap to me.” 
Not exactly the reception I was hoping for.  Looking back, I guess my objection hit a little too close to home.  It would be easier to go in with all his power and take over.  That would be a lot easier and a lot more fun than sticking with the plan and going to the cross.  That’s what I wanted.  That’s what all the disciples wanted.  But that’s exactly what Jesus was telling us he wasn’t going to do.
    “You don’t have any idea how God works,” he said.  “Don’t run from suffering; embrace it.  Follow me, and I’ll show you how.  Self-help is no help at all.  Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, to finding true life.  I’m going to the cross.  Are you coming with me?” (Mt. 16:21-28)
    Well, that really confused me.  One minute Jesus says I’m blessed by God because I say he’s the Messiah.  The next minute he says I’m just like Satan for telling him he needs to act like the Messiah.  I had a thousand questions rolling around my head, “Is Jesus really the Messiah?  He has to be, but he can’t be.  How can Israel’s Messiah talk about dying at the hands of the leaders of Israel?  How can the Messiah talk about crosses and loosing one’s life to save it?  This is not Messiah talk.  This is the talk of a martyr, and whatever the Messiah is, he is definitely not a martyr.  But I believe in Jesus; look at all the miracles.  He is at the least a great prophet of God, and when I said he is the Messiah, the Son of God, he did not rebuke me.  He said I was right.  He said the Father in heaven revealed that to me.  He must be the Messiah, right?  But what kind of Messiah is this?”

    He let us think about that one for awhile.  About a week later, he takes James, John, and me up on a high mountain for a prayer retreat. 
    All of the sudden, something wild happens to Jesus.  Light starts coming out of him, just like someone turned a lamp on inside him.  It’s still Jesus, but his face is glowing like the sun at noon, and his clothes are like a flash of lightening.  It hurts to look, but he’s so mesmerizing.  He’s so beautiful.  In the light we see his joy and kindness and love.  His peace emanates out to us.  As we watch his light penetrates our souls.  He is King.  He is incredible.
    Then we saw Moses and Elijah with Jesus.  Don’t ask me how I knew they were Moses and Elijah.  I’d never seen a picture or anything.  It was just them, OK.  Anyway, they were talking with Jesus about how he was going to fulfil God’s plan by dying in Jerusalem (see Luke 9:31).  So here were Moses, the greatest law-giver in the Old Testament, and Elijah, the first of the great prophets, talking to Jesus when he’s all lit up, and they seemed to be all in favor of Jesus’ going to the cross.  It was like the whole Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, spoke through those two guys to say, “Yep, this is the plan God’s been working out all along.  Go on to the cross, Jesus.”  It was sort of like his own private pep talk.
    Well, you know me.  I can’t not talk.  It’s like I have diarrhea of the mouth or something.  Whatever I think just comes right out. “You are the Messiah.  He is the Messiah.  I was right.  I mean, you were right.  Let’s build a monument so we will never forget this moment.  Shoot, let’s build three, one for each of you.”  It was like I could hear myself talking, but I couldn’t make myself stop talking.  Mark and Luke felt the need to apologize for me when they wrote their gospels.  Mark said I really didn’t know what to say, and Luke said I didn’t even know what I was saying.  I guess they were both right.
    Anyhow, God didn’t let me go on for very long.  While I was still talking, I don’t even notice it at first and keep on talking, but then it is all around us.  I can still see James and John and Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, but it is through a dense fog.  But this isn’t just any fog.  It glows.  It’s like floating light.  It is a “bright” cloud.  I remember that the cloud represents God’s presence, and I am in awe.  That’s when I shut up.
    For a second or two, there’s this eerie silence.  Then God speaks!  It was definitely a strong voice, but it wasn’t like I would have expected.  It wasn’t angry or thundering.  It shook through my body but not necessarily because of volume, more because of force.  He wasn’t shouting, but the force of his voice was so strong that I felt it in every part of me.
God says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  I could hear the love in his voice when he was talking about Jesus. He sounded like my dad sounded when I caught that huge fish, “This is my boy. I’m proud of him.”  He is a proud Father.  He’s really happy about Jesus. 
So you already know I was starting to wonder, what with Jesus talking about dying and all.  I thought Jesus might be getting something wrong.  Anyway, God is well pleased with him, so that settles it.  “Listen to him!” God said.  OK, OK.  Like we weren’t going to listen to him after this.  But that last part came with a little more force than the rest.  This is important. 
We heard, and we tried to listen, but it was like it just wasn’t getting through.  We had too many preconceived notions about the Messiah.  Jesus had a lot of static to shout over.  “Listen to him!”  OK, we’ll listen.  We don’t get how it all works, but we’ll follow and we’ll listen. 
When we were coming down the mountain, Jesus swore us to secrecy.  “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen to anyone until after I’m raised from the dead.”  We obeyed, but we didn’t understand.  Now, I see that we were still thinking about Jesus all wrong.  Yes, we knew that he was the Messiah and the Son of God, but we didn’t understand what that meant.  There was no way we could really get it until after the cross. 
Well, even the cross didn’t do it for us.  We all pretty much scattered when Jesus was arrested.  I denied Jesus three times when he needed me most.  We just didn’t get how this could actually be happening to the Messiah. 
Even after the resurrection, we still didn’t get what he was all about.  Not long before he went back to heaven, we asked him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?”  We were still thinking in terms of politics and military and worldly power.  Jesus just said, “Look, leave that stuff up to God.  I’m giving you my Holy Spirit, and he’s going to give you a different kind of power, the power to tell everyone everywhere about me” (Acts 1:6-8).
When the Holy Spirit did come on us in that room at Pentecost, it was like a thousand puzzle pieces came together in one instant.  On that day I shouted out to a great crowd of people from lots of different countries, “So let it be clearly known by everyone in Israel that God has bade this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah!  …  Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  Then, you too will receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:36, 38).
Well, after that, we had a lot of time to keep putting pieces together.  We started to figure out that Jesus had to die.  We started to understand that the Law and the Prophets all explained that the Messiah would suffer like this and be raised from the dead.  We started to figure out that Jesus didn’t come for a political revolution but for a spiritual revolution.  We started to figure out that we couldn’t understand Jesus as Lord until we understood him as the Crucified Lord.
The truth is that all Christians in every time have to wrestle with that issue.  It’s always easier to think of Jesus in conquering terms.  Sure you may not think of Jesus as starting a worldwide political takeover, but there are other ways to misunderstand what it means for Jesus to be the Suffering Messiah.  Sometimes people think of the gospel in other terms of power, convincing people they are wrong, gaining respect in society, building bigger churches, establishing our own little kingdoms, adding trophies to our shelves.  Sometimes people tend to think or act like Jesus came primarily for the rich or for people like us or to help us have a better more pleasurable life.  Sometimes people just sort of go on their merry way with the gospel and forget about the rest of the world. 
Yeah, there are lots of ways to forget about the cross and how the cross shapes our understanding of Jesus.  But there are some other ways to remember the cross, to rediscover Jesus’ journey to the cross, to re-examine our understanding of Jesus in the light of the cross. 
The Season of Lent is one of those ways.  It wasn’t long in the Christian church until Lent developed.  It started out as a way for us to help people prepare for baptism, but pretty soon we realized that we all need to go down the Lenten road.  We all need to walk with Jesus to the cross.  We need this time every year when we surrender all of our preconceived notions about who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian, and walk that long slow road into the depths of human suffering with Jesus. 
We can’t understand Easter until we go with Jesus into the dark places to hear the doubters of the world.  We can’t understand Easter until we hear Jesus talking with Samaritan sex-addict.  We can’t understand Easter until we feel the spit and mud Jesus used to heal the blind man.  We can’t understand Easter until we cry with Jesus at Lazarus’s tomb.  We can’t understand Easter until we let Jesus wash our feet.  We can’t understand Easter until we are arrested with Jesus and feel the punches that he felt and hear the bitter ridicule that he heard.  We can’t understand Easter until we walk with Jesus all the way to the cross on Good Friday.   We cannot understand Easter without Lent.  We cannot understand Jesus without the cross.
Church, Lent begins this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.  Let us go to Jerusalem together with Jesus and die with him there. 

Sharing the God-Life Together (Acts 16)

Read Acts 15:36-16:15.

    100 years ago, deep in the jungles of Africa, there was a small clearing.  In this clearing was a single village made up of a single tribe.  The people lived off the jungle, eating its fruits and animals.  They had some good times, when there was plenty of food and plenty of peace.  They also had bad times when other tribes took their food and killed their men.  But amid this struggle for life, another enemy rose up. 
People began to get sick.  It started with an itchy throat.  Then, came a mild cough.  It ended with deep, horrendous body shaking coughs that lasted through the night, with their bodies shaking wildly in fits of coughing until finally they moved no more.  The whole village was kept awake at night to the sound of people literally coughing up their lungs.  And as the people got sicker, they also got meaner and sadder.  Fathers began to hit their children.  Women began to lash out at people trying to help them.  Throughout the night, between the coughing, were mournful wails or angry shouts at the dark sky. 
    The people began to call this sickness the dark-death.  Soon, nearly everyone in the village had the dark-death, and it seemed to shut the light out of the people who caught the illness.  The dark-death hung like a dark cloud over the village, shutting out the light from the sky.  No one knew where this disease had come from or how it was spread.  They only knew that it was destroying them, and they had no cure.  Many began to lose hope.  Some abandoned the village to take their chances in the jungle.
    But one group, one small group, the prophets, called the people to hope.  The prophets were the people’s connection with the gods and with their past.  The prophets told and retold the community stories.  They told legends of times long ago when a loving God made the world with his hands.  They told stories of times of crisis when this loving God sent help to save the world or to save a village.  The prophets lifted up hope.  They said the old stories were true.  They said that help would come, that the Helping God would come. 
    The people believed.  The people believed the prophets’ stories, and they began to look for the Helping God.  In the early morning, when someone was walking through the village, people would look out the doors of their huts to see if it might be the Helping God.  When they walked the trails of the jungle, as they came to a new turn, they hoped they might see the Helping God walking toward them on his way to help their village.  For a very long time, no one came.  The people waited and watched and hoped, but no one came, and the dark-death continued.
    Then, someone came.  A black man came.  He was dressed in their jungle clothes.  His skin was like their skin.  He spoke their tribal language.  They had never seen him before, but he was clearly one of them.  He had medicine.  He had a cure for the dark-death.  It was a clear liquid, clearer even than water, and he kept it in little bottles in a small kit. 
He asked to see the sickest person in the village first.  He took out a syringe with a long needle and injected some of the clear medicine into the man’s arm.  Then, he went from sick person to sick person injecting them with the medicine.  The medicine worked so fast that the people began to call it the God-Life.  They believed that this man was injecting into the sick people the very life of God. 
The people called him the Healer.  Every time the Healer met with a sick person and injected the God-Life into her, he said these words: “You now have the God-Life in you.  Regain your strength, for you are now a healer, too.  Go and share the God-Life with others who have the dark-death.  They are here in your village, here in your jungle, and far away in other lands.  Wherever there is the dark-death, you must go with the God-Life.”  Then, every time, he opened his back pack and gave the person a medical kit, so that they could also give the God-Life to others. 
Many people in the village refused to accept the God-Life.  It was new.  It was different.  They didn’t believe in the gods, so they didn’t believe in this cure. 
But a good number of people did receive the God-Life.  And life in the village was changed.  The cloud brought by the dark-death began to lift.  Everyone who had received the God-Life began to be healed in body and spirit.  They regained their strength; they regained their joy; they regained their love.  They repaired their relationships which had been broken by the dark-death.  The whole village moving toward joyful, loving life!  The God-Life was working!
Then, those who had received the God-Life got together for a meeting.  They remembered the words the Healer had spoken to each of them: “You are now a healer, too.  Go and share the God-Life with others who have the dark-death.  Wherever there is the dark-death, you must go with the God-Life.”  They had heard reports from nearby villages that the dark-death was also attacking them. They prayed to the Helping God to guide them.  Then, a voice in their hearts seemed to guide them.  The God-Life in them seemed to suggest a plan.  They organized a team to keep giving the God-Life to people in their village, and they sent teams of healers to each of the nearby villages.
When these teams of healers arrived in the nearby villages, they found the dark cloud of sadness and fear that comes from the dark-death.  They prayed to the Helping God to ask for help in reaching this new village.  Then, they began talking to the villagers about the God-Life.  They explained how their lives and their villages had been changed by the God-Life.  Soon, some people in the new villages were ready to receive the God-Life and be rid of the dark-death. 
Every time the healers met with a sick person to inject them with the God-Life, they repeated the words they had heard from the Healer: “You now have the God-Life in you.  Regain your strength, for you are now a Healer, too.  Go and share the God-Life with others who have the dark-death.  They are here in your village, here in your jungle, and far away in other lands.  Wherever there is the dark-death, you must go with the God-Life.”  Then, every time, they opened their backpacks and gave the person a medical kit, so that they could also give the God-Life to others. 
After spending time in each of the nearby villages, giving the God-Life to as many people as would receive it, the healers returned to their home village.  They also brought representatives from each of the villages who had has also received the God-Life.  There, in that central village, they had a little God-Life meeting.  They were talking about what to do next, and they were divided. 
Some remembered the Healer’s words, “Go and share the God-Life with others who have the dark-death.  They are here in your village, here in your jungle, and far away in other lands.  Wherever there is the dark-death, you must go with the God-Life.”  They had heard of places far, far away which also suffered under the curse of the dark-death.  They said, “We have gone to our village and to other places in our jungle.  It is time to go to the far away lands, just as the Healer said.”
Other people wanted to focus their attention on giving the God-Life to their own villages: “There are so many people here who are still suffering with the dark-death.  Why should we go on to others, when people need us here?” 
Still others did not really want to be healers: “Isn’t it enough that we have the God-Life in us?  Why do we have to go around telling everybody about it?  If they want it, they can come to us.” 
Again, they prayed to the Helping God.  They asked for wisdom and for strength.  They asked for unity and for direction.  Again, an inner voice seemed to be their guide.  It was as if the God-Life with which they had been injected was even now showing them the way. 
Here was their plan.  In every village where the God-Life had been given, the people being healed should meet together regularly.  A lead-healer should encourage their healing progress and gather them together to continue sharing the God-Life with the people in that village.  The lead-healer should always remind the people that they are healers, too.  The lead-healer should always make sure each person who received the God-Life has a working medical kit and actually uses it as a healer.  Each of these villages should also try to share the God-Life with other villages farther out, moving in ever-widening circles. 
However, even this was not enough.  Some people who had received the God-Life seemed called and gifted and even chosen by the Helping God for special missions.  These healers were to go out in teams to the far corners of the earth to start new communities of people being healed by the God-Life.  Each new community should be trained in the healing ways of the God-Life and equipped with medical kits.  The plan was to start little centers spreading the healing power of the God-Life all around the world. 
The meeting of the God-Life people ended with the entire community gathering together to pray for the healing teams being sent to far away lands.  They all asked the Helping God to help them, to guide them, to keep them safe, and - most of all - to make them effective in sharing the God-Life.
    The healing teams traveled far and wide, and they worked hard to share the God-Life wherever they went.  But sometimes, it seemed as if their way was blocked.  Sometimes, it seemed as if the Helping God did not want them to go to a certain place or to do a certain thing, at least not yet.  Sometimes they had to change their plans.
Whenever the healing teams didn’t know what to do next, they got together and prayed to the Helping God.  They talked together about the world around them, about what they remembered from the Healer, about their dreams, about their visions, about what the Helping God seemed to be saying now, or about where the God-Life seemed to be leading.  And so through much prayer and talking, they decided together what the Helping God wanted them to do next to continue sharing the God-Life with others.
The great joy for these healing teams, and for all people who shared the God-Life, was in seeing the changes that the God-Life brought to individuals and to villages.  The dark-death seemed to be everywhere, and everywhere people were dying slow, angry, sad, painful deaths – even if they didn’t yet realize they were dying.  But when the healing teams came, some people began to have hope that their lives could be different.  Some people received the God-Life.  Their lives were beautifully changed.  The dark death lost its grip on them.  They began to trade sadness for joy, bitterness for hope, anger for love.  The God-Life in them affected their families and their communities.  Everywhere they went, the cloud of the dark death was lifted a little.  Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, people around them began to have hope that they, too, could be free from the dark-death, and they, too, received and began to share the God-Life. 
Seeing all of this brought a deep and eternal joy to the healing teams.  Their home villages were filled with the same joy and satisfaction when they realized that, through their own work and through the healing teams, they were indeed changing the world by sharing the God-Life. 

However, over time, people began to see problems among the God-Life people.  Some of them still didn’t want to share the God-Life.  They just went back to their own homes and tried to live and make money with their new health from the God-Life.  The results of this problem area were doubly poor.  First, for the people who didn’t want to share the God-Life, the effects of the God-Life began to fade.  Their joy faded; their light faded; their love faded; their health faded.  Slowly, the dark-death began to regain its hold on them.  Also, the people around them who were still stuck in the dark-death looked at the quiet, selfish, fading lives of these people who had once received the God-Life, and they began to disbelieve in the God-Life.  They thought things like, “If the God-Life were so good, she would surely share it with me.  If the God-Life were so good, his life would be different, but really it’s about the same as mine.”  So the non-sharers not only lost the God-Life in themselves, but they also pushed others away from the God-Life. 


Slowly, the God-Life people realized an important truth: The God-Life is the hope of the world, but it must be shared. 



Questions for Reflection:
What is the dark death?  How have you seen the dark death in others?  How have you seen the dark death in you?

Who is the Healer?  How did he come?

What is the God-Life?  How have you seen the God-Life change others?  Has the God-Life changed you?  (How?)

What do you think of what the Healer said when he gave people the God-Life? 

How does your life need to change to share the God-Life more?
How does our church need to change to share the God-Life more?
Are you going to make those changes?

Doing It - Matthew 7:15-28

Read Matthew 7:15-28.

    Every preacher has stories of sermons gone wrong or heard wrong.  I have my share.  “Ooh, didn’t mean it to come out that way” or “I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that” or the occasional sermon that just bombs.  But as far as I know, I’ve only had someone walk out on me once, and that was when I was preaching from today’s text. 
    It’s a hard passage.  Jesus says three really hard things.  1) Some people will be thrown into the fire.  2) Some people who think they deserve heaven will get locked out, and 3) Some people will find their whole lives come crashing down around them.
    Three years ago, on Easter Sunday, I was going to preach from this text, and I introduced myself to a new person during the greeting time.  I reached out my hand to her and she held up the sermon copy and said, “Haven’t you ever read the verse: ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’?!” 
    I said, “Umm ... yes ... actually I preached on that text last week.”
    She had angry tears in her eyes, and she said, “Well that is certainly not reflected in this sermon!” 
    I don’t remember the rest of the conversation, but I do remember that I got out my pen and made some quick edits to the sermon during the song time.  I also remember that this lady was gone before it was time for me to speak.
    Obviously, I’ve thought a lot about this experience this week.  Why didn’t I ask Matt to preach this one?  So in honor of Ms. Walker-outer, I want to make sure we all see the connections between the beginning of chapter 7 “Do not judge others and you will not be judged” and the end of chapter 7 with burning branches, closing doors, and collapsing houses.
   
    However, before we can make that connection, we need to make sure we really understand what Jesus is saying here in the end of his most important sermon.  And what he has to say is a little shocking.  If go down to the basics of all three little stories, they all follow the same basic plot.
    First, people are doing good things and have good expectations.  People are worshiping or prophesying or building a house or even casting out demons and working miracles.  In general, we would say these people are successful.  They are highly religious.  They look good, and they seem to be doing really good things.  These are the people we expect to get God’s approval and blessing.
    But in all three stories, Jesus pounds home one point again and again.  The inside matters more than the outside.  Actions matter more than words.  And simple day to day love matters more than flashy public actions.  Again and again, Jesus says these upstanding religious people will be rejected and destroyed because they did not “do” Jesus’ teaching. 
    In fact, that word “do” is probably the key word for our passage.  Jesus uses the Greek word “do” 11 times in Matthew 7.1  If we translate the Greek very literally, it sounds like this:
Whatever you want others to do to you, then you do that to them  (7:12).
Every good tree does good fruit, and a bad tree does bad fruit (7:17).
A good tree can’t do bad fruit, and a bad tree do good fruit (7:18).
Every tree not doing good fruit is cut off and thrown into the fire (7:19).
Only the one who does the will of my Father ...  will enter the kingdom of heaven (7:21).
Many will say ... Didn’t we ... do many miracles in your name (7:22).
Everyone who hears my teaching and is doing it is like the wise man (7:24).
Everyone who hears my teaching and is not doing it is like the foolish man (7:26). 
    As Jesus concludes the longest and most important sermon we have in the Bible, he has one concern on his mind: “Do it.  Actually do it.  Live this out.  Don’t just listen and walk away.  Don’t just listen and be amazed at me.  Do it.  Doing it is what matters in the end.”
    Jesus gives three specific warnings.  First, he says, “Look out for people who talk good but don’t act good.”  Some people are happy to speak for God but live for God.  It’s the living that really matters, not the talking.  It’s the life not the words.
    Second, he says, “You can say everything right.  You can be completely orthodox.  You can get an A+ in systematic theology.  You can even accomplish amazing results for Jesus and still miss the boat.”  Jesus is talking about very religious, very “Christian” people.  People do lots of stuff in Jesus’ name - sometimes amazing things, sometimes very religious things - but that doesn’t mean that they are actually in Jesus or that Jesus is in them. 
    Third, Jesus tells this story about the two guys who built houses.  Everything looked the same on the outside.  These are two decent guys who are trying to provide a home for their families.  When their houses are finished, they might look exactly the same.  Both seem to be good, strong, well-built houses.  But one of them falls apart because it has a bad foundation. 
    Jesus says that all of life depends on building our lives on Jesus.  Life depends on Jesus, but not in a sappy, pie-in-the-sky, let’s-sing-a-worship-song way.  Life depends on actually DOING what Jesus teaches.  Believing without doing is not believing.  Praising without doing is not praising.  Thanking without doing is not thanking.  Repenting without doing is not repenting.  Trusting without doing is not trusting. 
    Jesus is saying, “If you really think I’m Lord ... If you really believe I am the Messiah, the Christ ... If you really think I’m a great teacher ... If you really think I have authority ... then DO IT.  Do what I’m teaching.  Live like I’m telling you to live.”
    Life depends on Jesus’ life becoming real in our lives.  This is trust.  This is the solid rock that is not shaken in the storm.  We follow Jesus.  We trust Jesus enough to live like Jesus.  That is building our house on the rock.  That and nothing else. 

    Let’s pause for a minute and think about some ways that we often get this wrong.  In my sermon study, these days, I’ve been going back into the traditions that formed the Church of the Nazarene. 
    Phineas Bresee was the first pastor of a Nazarene Church.  He said we Christians often get confused about being a Christian really is. 
We might think giving or serving the poor makes us a real Christian.  But we may give away everything we have and accomplish nothing.
We might think avoiding obvious outward sins makes us a real Christian.  But we may avoid every sin we know and still be dark hypocrites inside.
We might think holy, religious actions like prayers and songs of joyful thanksgiving make us a real Christian.  But it could be “the form without the life ... doing it for show.”
We might think separating ourselves from “sinners” and anything that “hints of sin” makes us a real Christian.  But Bresee reminds us that Jesus “was so kind and tender and loving with sinners that ... he was [called] a friend of ... sinners.”2
    John Wesley, the founder of Methodism added another important warning: “‘What is the foundation of my hope? ... [Is it] my orthodoxy, or right opinions, which, by a gross abuse of words, I have called faith? ...  Alas! what madness is this! Surely this is building on the sand, or, rather, on the froth of the sea!’”3  We can have all the right beliefs and have none of Jesus in our lives. 

    Now think back to the beginning of this sermon.  I promised to explain how this passage fits with the “Do not judge” passage.   I think the connecting point is around two words: outside and inside. 
    A tree might look good on the outside - lots of branches and beautiful green leaves.  But only a tree that is good inside produces good fruit.  I can’t help thinking about John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.  For apart from me you can do nothing.”  The point is to stay so rooted in Jesus that his life flows through our life and becomes real in us.  The point is to live out Jesus’ life in our daily life. 
    Not everyone who calls out “Lord, Lord” and does many good things will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Beware of the forms of religion without the power.  Beware of success without faithfulness.  Beware of the spectacular, big deeds without the little unnoticed acts of service and love.  Beware of having all the outside stuff without the inside stuff.  As Paul said, “The Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). 
    A good looking house is not necessarily good.  A good looking life is not necessarily good.  For real goodness, we’ve got to look inside and dig deep.  We’ve got to go all the way down to the bedrock.   To be a real Christian, a real Christ-follower, we have to look deep inside ourselves and ask, “Why am I really doing this?  Am I actually trusting Jesus in this area of my life?  Am I really living out Jesus’ life in my day to day life?”
    It’s our everyday life that counts.  Jesus is echoing our Old Testament lesson: “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine.  Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.  Teach them to your children.  Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 11:18-20). 
    Build your whole life around Jesus and his way of life.  Don’t leave anything out.  Live Jesus.  Live in Jesus.  Live for Jesus.  Live through Jesus.  Live like Jesus.  Live Jesus in everything you do and are.  This is the strong foundation that will hold up in any storm. 
    Here’s the deal, though.  We can’t judge other people’s lives on this because we can only see the outside.  But Jesus keeps saying what he cares about is inside, below the surface.  Jesus cares about the roots, the motives, the foundations.  We can’t see that deeply into other people’s lives.  There is only One Person who can see that deeply - God.     
    And we’re in luck.  The Season of Lent begins this Wednesday - Ash Wednesday.   During Lent, we open our hearts to God and let him look deeply in and reform us from the inside out. 
    At Greenhouse Worship this week, Tori said that Lent is our annual reminder of our stupidity.  That’s not a bad summary of Lent.  Once a year, for about six weeks, we return to the basics of life and Christianity.  We face up to the fact that we have been stupid - like the foolish builder.  The greek word for foolish here is “moro,” which is where we get our English word “moron.” 
    We spend so much of our time acting like morons.  We know that money won’t make us happy.  We know that we need to sleep more and spend more time with our families.  We know that buying this or that is a waste of money and space and energy.  We know that watching one more movie or TV show is not going to contribute anything positive to our lives.  We know that porn or that sexy movie is going to make it all the harder to keep our own body in the right places.  We know that donut is going to find a permanent home in our midsection.  We know that a little more time in prayer will make a big difference in our life.  We know that serving is more satisfying than playing and giving is better than receiving.  We know that gossip hurts everyone.  We know that grace is worth the personal sacrifice.  We know that Jesus way is the best way.  We know what is good, but we don’t do it.
    Lent is our time to let God’s Spirit take us on a tour of our inward self.  We let God search us and try us and clean out the dark places in our hearts.  Lent is the original camp meeting, the original revival service.  For about 1700 years, Christians around the world have set aside six weeks as a special time to repent of our failure to follow Jesus well and to commit ourselves to following Jesus anew. 
    But sometimes, fasting in Lent can kind of become a game.  We try to find the funnest, or coolest, or most impressive thing to give up for Lent.  I challenge you to be serious about Lent this year.  Let Lent be a serious part of your faith journey.  This year, we’re going to try something different - a rotating fast.  Each week, Tori, our Master Faster, will explain our fasting focus for the week (sleep, food, electronics, money, etc.), and then it’s up to you to decide how exactly you fast for that week. 
    Here’s the point.  We want to use fasting as a spiritual discipline.  Use this time to draw closer to God.    Let your Lenten fasting open up space in your heart and mind to reconsider how you’re living.  As you give something up, pick up something else that’s good.  Don’t just sleep less and work more.  Maybe you’ll pray together with your family.  Maybe you’ll join a small group.  Maybe you’ll wake up early and watch the sunrise or sit in a park.  Use this time to build your life more on Jesus, to build Jesus more into your life.
    Here is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  God loves us all.  But we are morons - fools.  We trust in all kinds of things instead of Jesus.  But God has not given up on us.  God’s Spirit is always working in our hearts to show us how we have gone astray and to bring us back.  Because Jesus died on the cross, our sins and our stupidity can be forgiven and washed away.  We can live a new life.  With God’s Spirit in us, Jesus’ amazing life can become real in us.  We can actually live out Jesus’ love and grace and truth.  This is good news.  Let this good news change you.  Let the God of good news revolutionize your life.  Open yourself during Lent.  For just six weeks, give God some free space in your life and let God refocus you on Jesus.
    “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).