Denominations: What Happened & What Now?

There are almost 7,000 languages currently spoken on earth.

  We started with one.  Then came the tower of Babel - when God confused our languages and sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together.

There are some 33,800 different Christian denominations around the world.

  We started with one.  Then came a host of historical events, which sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together.

What happened?  I feel like Rodney King, after the Los Angeles race riots, “People, I just want to say, can we all just get along?  Can we all just get along?”

  Apparently not.  No, we can’t just all get along.  

Today, we’re talking about denominations (교단) - all 33,800 of them, and we’re going to do this with a few different basic questions.

• What happened?  
• Why?  
• What now?  

What Happened?  The History.

 1. The Early Breaks -  The first major breaks within the Church - kind of like denominations - happened in the 5th century.  Both splits were about one issue: How is Jesus both divine and human?   In 431 the Assyrian Church of the East, centered in ancient Iraq, split away because they insisted on the separation and clear distinction of Jesus’ divine and human natures.  20 years later, the Oriental Orthodox Church, split away for the exact opposite reason.   

Interestingly, in 1984, the Pope and the Syriac Patriarch issued a joint statement about these divisions: “The confusions and schisms that ... arose only because of differences in terminology and culture and in the various formulae ... express the same matter.  Accordingly, we find today no real basis for the sad divisions and schisms that ... arose between us ...”

  

 2. The Great Schism - If the Church is the Body of Christ, the first break-aways were kind of like, losing a finger or a few toes.  But the Great Schism of 1054, was almost like being sawed in half.  After the Roman Empire split into eastern and western empires (around 500 AD), the Church began to separate along the same east/west lines.  The The languages, cultures, worship styles, and theological perspectives grew further and further apart.  

Finally, all of this came to a crisis of conflict in 1054, when the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople both claimed authority over every church everywhere.  There were real theological disagreements - for example the use of icons, whether priests can be married, and worship practices.  But the basic question was, Who’s the boss?  They couldn’t agree, so they split, and each pope was boss of half a Church.

 3. The Reformation - About 500 years later, the Church in the West had grown into a rich and corrupt political machine.  People complained, and if they complained too loudly, they were killed.  Finally, in the early 1500’s, a German monk, named Martin Luther, objected publicly to some of the most offensive corruptions and worst theological mistakes of the Roman Catholic church.  He was condemned and sentenced to death, but, for the first time in history, he was protected from the power of the Church by a German prince.  

There were good theological issues at stake here - especially how people are saved, the relationship of the Bible and tradition, and how much authority the Pope has.  However, there were also deep political issues here.  Many of the local leaders wanted to escape from the taxes and authority of the Emperor and the Pope.  

So in short, theological and political issues combined to create separate church groups - Anglicans around England, Lutherans in northern Europe, and Calvinists around Switzerland.  Most other places in Europe stayed Roman Catholic.

 4. America - Up to this point, the church was mostly divided geographically, with one type of church dominating each area.  However, when people from all over Europe began to settle in North America, they established their own sorts of local churches.  Suddenly, in the same city, there might be a Lutheran church, an Anglican church, a Methodist church, a Baptist church, and a Catholic church.  In this sense, America is the birthplace of denominations - as we understand them today.  (Thanks America!)

 5. Splintering Schisms -  Once people realized that there are lots of different ways to do church, they also realized that they weren’t stuck with their own system.  All kinds of disagreements led to new denominations: whether people could donate money to reserve the best seats in a church building, whether slavery was OK, whether people should speak in tongues, and whether there’s something more than just being saved.  The divisions continue even today as new denominations are formed around the world.  

But through all of this splintering, one thing has remained constant.  With a few exceptions, all of these groups remained Christian.  All of these dozens, then hundreds, now thousands of denominations - all of them are Christian.  All of them remain committed to Jesus Christ as the Savior of the universe.  All of them believe the same Christian creeds - like the Apostles’ Creed we said today.  Even if they don’t read the creeds or even know what they are, they still believe them, and they are still Christian.

However, all of this division and breaking away, has done something similar to the division of languages at the Tower of Babel.  We have developed our own traditions and cultures - our own flavors of church.  And this isn’t all bad.  I’m American, but I really appreciate a good dish of Indian curry, or Korean bibimbap, or Brazilian barbecue, or Mexican enchiladas.  In a similar way, I appreciate the deep and sturdy words of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, a black Black Baptist preach-along where the congregation is talking almost as much as the preacher, a Pentecostal praise time where people are dancing around the room with total freedom of worship, and chanting the Psalms with Catholic monks when I go on retreat.  I’m all for the unity of the body of Christ, but I also love this diversity that denominations have accidentally given us.  

Why?  Beyond the history, what’s the underlying cause of our division?

Listen to this passage from Paul, and see if it says anything to you about denominations and church divisions.

 Galatians 5

 ¹³ For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. ¹⁴ For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  ¹⁵ But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out!  Beware of destroying one another. ...

 ¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

 ²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

 ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

In short, one reason for denominations is sin.  We are sinful human beings, and even our church leaders are sinful and fallible.  We find it hard to work together.  Despite all our desires to be like Christ, we are still often proud and arrogant and selfish.  “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: ... hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy ... and other sins like these” (5:19-21).  When it comes to Christian unity, we are our own worst enemies.

You might say, “But Josh, there were good reasons for these splits.  At least most of them were because of good theological reasons or because of real corruption and real problems in the church.  They were trying to keep the church pure.”  I understand what you’re saying, but Christian history gives us a different answer.  

Consider just one example from the 4th and 5th century - the Donatists.  The Donatists had to deal with a difficult issue.  At that time, in Northern Africa, there was off-and-on heavy persecution of Christians.  Some Christians refused to give in to persecution, and many were killed.  Other Christians thought this was foolish.  When the persecution got heavy, they would lie and say, “Sure, sure, we reject Christ, whatever.”  Some of the priests even handed over the local copies of the Bible - which was a big deal in the age before the printing press.  Then, after the persecution was over, all of these Christians and priests wanted back into the Church.

The majority Church accepted their repentance and welcomed the traitors back as members and priests.  But the Donatists said that this wouldn’t work. They said the Church was corrupt and no longer the real Church.  In response, they pulled away and formed their own Church that would be pure and without corruption.  

That is bold, and they had very good intentions.  However, the Church throughout history has said that despite their very good intentions, the Donatists were very wrong.  They were actually declared heretics - not because of any major theological problems - but primarily because of their separation from the Church.

Listen to what Augustine said to the Donatists in 402 AD.  Augustine referred to Jesus’ parable about weeds and wheat in Matthew 13, which we read earlier. 

Your imagination that you are separating yourselves, before the time of the harvest, from the [weeds] which are mixed with the wheat, proves that you are only tares. For if you were wheat, you would bear with the [weeds], and not separate yourselves from that which is growing in Christ's field...  What grounds have you for believing that the [weeds] have increased and filled the world, and that the wheat has decreased...? You claim to be Christians, and you disclaim the authority of Christ.  He said, “Let both grow together till the harvest” ...  Awake to the interest of your salvation!  Love peace, and return to unity! ...  If you hate those who do evil, shake yourselves free from the crime of schism.

Before the Donatists were the Novatianists and the Montanists in the 3rd century.  They all formed separate schism groups because they thought the church was becoming too worldly and impure.  They were all declared heretics, not so much because of their theology but because of their stance of separation from the larger Church.  Even Tertullian, one of the best Trinitarian theologians of all time, was declared a heretic because of his connection with Montanism and its schism from the Church on moral grounds.

The witness of Christian history is that it is better and more Christian to disagree and stay together than to break apart.  The witness of Christian history is that when we start thinking that we’re right and almost everyone else is wrong, then we are dangerously close to heresy.  The witness of the Bible and Christian history is a strong request to stay together and work out our differences.

What now?

Alas, we can’t change the fact of denominations now.  We have denominations - 38,000 of them.  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put Humpty back together again.

While we lament this brokenness of the Body of Christ, we can still appreciate the blessings that have come from this diversity.  We can sample and blend all the different flavors of church.  

We can also look for opportunities to work together on both macro and micro levels.  Here are two examples.  The Church of the Nazarene used to have an internal company making building loans to churches, but they recently sold it to a lending company with the Wesleyan Church and signed a cooperation agreement to work together in the future.  On a micro level, Galilee Methodist Church is joining us in sponsoring Cheonan Migrant Shelter, and we look forward to inviting other churches into this partnership to serve migrants in our community.

But on a fundamental level, we as the Church need to relearn some basic Christian virtues.  To deal with the amazing diversity of the Church universal and the church local, we need three fundamental virtues.

Kindness.  Kindness seems to be a lost art these days.  Sure there are big issues for us to discuss.  Our world is changing, and not every change is good.  But through it all, Christ calls us to simple kindness.  Through it all, Christ calls us to listen well, to give each other grace, and to make sure we always speak with respect.  

Listen to how Paul explains Christian kindness in Ephesians 4:  

³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. ³² Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Humility.  We always need to remember that we may be wrong.  And even if we’re not  completely wrong, we still might not be completely right.  Brian Postelwait, one of my friends from seminary, often said, “There is no holiness without humility.”

Listen to how James explains Christian humility in chapter 3 of his letter.

¹³ If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom...  ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. ¹⁸ And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

 Patience.  When we have conflict, the temptation is always to run away.  Individuals find another church - or quit going to any church.  Churches form another denomination.  But that is neither the only option, nor the best option.  These days I’ve seen two beautiful examples of Christians who are staying in their denominations and trying to reform them from within - with kindness and humility.  

Emergent Christians are concerned about how to help the Church of Jesus Christ adapt faithfully to postmodernism.  However, most of them decided to stay in the denominations where they are and to work for faithful progress right there in their own traditions.

On the other hand, some Christians have felt that we are making too many changes and that we are losing our footing in the Bible.  Christians scholars in many big denominations (like Methodists and Presbyterians) have joined the Confessing Movement.  Rather than leaving and starting a new denomination or nondenominational church, they are working to steer their denomination back to faithfulness to the Bible and full-hearted love of God and people.  

If you are dissatisfied with your denomination or with this local church or with the Church Universal, you are not alone.  I am too, and most people here today want things to change too.  But breaking away or walking out won’t solve anything.  Commit yourself to the change process.  Work with us from within to help us be transformed to be more faithful as the Church of Jesus Christ.

Listen to how Paul explains Christian stability in Romans 15:

 ⁵ May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. ⁶ Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  ⁷ Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.

Denominations happened.  They basically started 1,600 years ago, and in the past 200 years, the division of the Church has gone into overdrive.  Sometimes the divisions include real theological or moral issues, but usually the underlying causes are cultural misunderstanding, pride, and selfishness.  As we enter the 21st century, we can allow this trend to continue, splintering the church even more.  In 50 years, we may have 50,000 new denominations.  

Or we can say enough is enough.  We aren’t going to allow our disagreements to divide us anymore.  We choose to follow Christ’s path of humility and love.  We choose to find our unity amid our diversity.  We choose to put our faith in the Gospel rather than our dogma.  We choose to put our faith in God rather than our leaders.  We choose kindness and humility and stability.  What do you choose?

First and Last (Revelation 1:17-18)

[This is a children's sermon for Galilee Methodist Church Promise Land next Sunday.  They are going to be partnering with us on Cheonan Migrant Shelter, so I said yes when they asked me to preach for their kids' program. They assigned this text.]

Revelation 1:17-18 ... Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the living one.  I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”

    Do I look fat?  Maybe not now, but when I was a kid, I was fat.  Some of the mean kids in my school sang a song about me when they passed me in the hall.  Have you ever heard the Batman song?  They changed it for me: “Fatman, na-na-na-na-na, Fat-man!” 
For some strange reason, I decided to be on the track team.  One week I heard that our team didn’t have enough guys to run the 800 meter race.  (That’s 2 times all the way around the big track at Cheonan Stadium.)  I volunteered.  My coach looked at me ... looked at my stomach ... and said, “800 meters?  Have you even run that far before?” 
I said, “Sure, sometimes I go jogging with my dad.”  I didn’t know that jogging with my 50 year old father is completely different from racing around a track with a bunch of fast, skinny kids. 
When I was stretching out for the race, the other guys on my team were giving me advice.  One of them said, “The thing about the half-mile is you have to go kind of slow around the track for the first time.  Then, the second time, you just run as fast as you can.  You feel like your heart is going to explode.  You feel like you’re going to die, but you just keep going as fast as you can.”  That should have been my first clue something was wrong.
We lined up for the race, and I was proud to be wearing my school’s red shirt.  There were 20 skinny kids - and me.  I waved to a few cute girls.  Then, the starting gun sounded, “BAM!”, and we started running.  I stayed with the group for about the first 200 meters, and I thought, “Man, this is easy.  I can do this.” 
As the first lap finished, I was definitely drifting toward the back of the pack, but I thought, “Hey, that’s no problem.  I knew I wasn’t going to win this thing.  I’m still doing all right.” 
On the second lap, all of the other runners started running as hard as they could.  But I just kept jogging, just hoping I could finish. 
As I rounded the last turn, I felt like a big gorilla had climbed onto my back.  I started slowing down and breathing heavier.  (Wheezing sounds.)  About that time, I felt like just slowing to a walk and drifting into the field where kids from different schools were walking around.  “No one would ever know,” I told myself.  I was afraid of being teased.  I was afraid of what the coaches would say.  I was afraid of what those cute girls would say.  I was afraid I would hear the mean kids singing, “Fatman, nanananana, Fatman!” 
Instead, I heard a strange sound.  I heard screaming, “Whooooooooo!”  Then, I heard something even stranger: “Whooooooooo! Josh!”  Then, I saw my Dad’s face. He was standing at the finish line.  He was screaming and clapping his hands like a wild man, like I had just won a gold medal in the Olympics.  “Whooooooo! Josh!  Whooooooooo!  Josh!”  When I finally crossed the finish line, my Dad said, “Josh, I’m so proud of you.” 
“Why?!” [wheezing sounds]  “I was dead last!”
My dad’s face was shining with pride, “Because you didn’t stop.  It would have been so easy to stop, to just give up, but you didn’t.  You finished, and I’m so proud of you!”

God loves us like that!  Nothing – not even failure, not even coming in dead last, not falling flat on our faces in a dance recital, not getting an F on a test, not getting fired from our job, not being teased by our classmates – nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love that we see in Jesus.
Jesus is the First and the Last.  Jesus is the Beginning and the End.  Jesus has come in last.  He was killed on the cross.  He died like a criminal.  You can’t really get more last place than that.  But God raised him from the dead.  Now, he is first - at God’s right hand, the Living One, who is alive forever and ever. 
Don’t give up.  Don’t be afraid.  Jesus is the First and the Last.  No matter what, God loves us.  Jesus is the Beginning and the End.  From the beginning of your life to the end of your life, God loves you.  God always has loved you, and God always will love you - no matter what - forever and ever.  Hold onto Jesus.  He loves you, and he is the First and the Last.

Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the living one.  I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”

Shaped by the Trinity

It’s time to think. This week we’re starting a six week series on tough theology topics. This is not easy business. We’ve chosen some of the most complex and most difficult theological issues of our era. Each week, we’ll give you a handout as a guide to further research. I encourage you to take this home and look up some of these articles and deepen your understanding. So buckle up. It’s time to think about some of the deepest stuff in Christianity.

Today is Trinity Sunday, so we starting our series with the heart of Christian theology - the Trinity. To help us get started on the right foot, I want us to read one of the most important Biblical texts on the Trinity:
Matthew 28:16-20.
 16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!
 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
 Thomas Oden says that all Christian theology is basically an extended commentary on our baptisms. We are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then we spend the rest of our lives trying to understand and to live what that means.1
To be honest, I have kind of a love-hate relationship with the theological concept of the Trinity. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Trinity - God. And on one hand, I love thinking about all of this deep stuff. I love thinking about the inner workings of the Trinity, how the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Spirit, and how there are diversity and hospitality in the heart of God. But, on the other hand, sometimes, I have a hard time with the doctrine of the Trinity. I wish we had something easier. I wish it was easier to explain God and to understand God. As someone, whose job includes a lot of explaining God, something easier than the Trinity would be ... easier.
 For example, I remember studying a 900 year old symbol of the Trinity. This symbol expresses two fundamental truths about the Trinity. First, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct, separate, not the same persons. Second, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the same God, one, united, the same essence. Now, on one hand, I say, “Oh, OK, that makes makes sense.” But on the other hand, I kind of feel more confused the longer I look at this. How does this all work? Is ... Is not ... Is ... Is not. I feel like I should be picking petals from a flower. He love’s me. He’s God. He’s not the Spirit. He’s God. ... Aaahhhh.

Sometimes, I want to just give up trying to understand. Sometimes, I just want to say, “Look here’s God. God loves you. Let’s just talk about that, OK?”
But I find some encouragement to keep thinking and keep digging into theology from what might seem like a strange place - science. Lots of subjects are hard. Our world is a complex, multifaceted place. We are little bitty beings trying to understand a vast universe. It makes sense that our little bitty brains will have a hard time with this great big world - not to mention the God who made the world.
 Here’s a great example - light. Have you ever thought about what light is? This week, I went to www.howstuffworks.com and did a little research on light. “Light is at once both obvious and mysterious. ... You might think scientists know all the answers, but light continues to surprise them.”
 Ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians -with great names like Pythagoras, Epicurus, Euclid, and Ptolemy - were the first to create theories of light. (What do you think Sarah? Any winners? Wouldn’t it be great to have a little Ptolemy running around?) They recognized pretty easily that light travels in a straight line, like a ray. Arab scholars developed these ideas using glass to make lenses and mirrors to work with light.
In 1690, a Dutch astronomer named Christiaan Huygens published the undulatory theory saying that light functions as a wave. However, that hung around as an unproven and disputed theory for a hundred years until an experiment by Thomas Young, an English doctor, who did physics on the side. Young, and other scientists after him, discovered that while light does function as a ray, it is actually a very special kind of wave - a type of electromagnetic wave. The wave theory really helped the scientists understand light. They figured out that color and strength of light depends on its wavelength and frequency.
 But good old Albert Einstein just couldn’t leave well enough alone. He resurrected an old theory by Isaac Newton that light is actually a particle. The basic idea is that light carries energy somehow. That’s how we get sunburns or can collect solar power. That energy must be traveling in or on something. Einstein said, those are the particles of light.
 So if you put all of this together, you have light as a collection of electrically charged particles that move in a wave formation in a what is basically a straight line like a ray. Got it? Not really? Kind of?
That’s OK. Here’s the basic point. Light has been around, a long, long time - since, Day 1, when God said, “Let there be light.” And yet, we’re still trying to understand exactly what it is. The best scientists in the world can only say, “Well, it’s kind of like this ... and this ... and this.” Now, just think about that for a minute.
[9*] If we have slowly, over time come to understand light - as ray, and wave, and particle, then that can also help us a little as we try to understand God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How can light be both wave and particle? We don’t really know. We can’t fully explain it. But it is. We see that it is, so we try to explain it. How can God be both Three and One, One-In-Three? We don’t really know. We can’t fully explain God. But we see that God is Three-in-One. The Bible doesn’t really leave us with any other options. The Bible teaches God as Father, Son, and Spirit - one God. That’s just how God is, so we try to explain it.

Next, let’s look at a brief history of the doctrine of the Trinity. Some people mistakenly say that the doctrine of Trinity is not in the Bible. Some even say that the doctrine of the Trinity was an invention of corrupt church leaders in the 4th century to maintain religious and political control as the church gained power with the Roman Emperor Constantine. However, both of these critiques are historically inaccurate - untrue. The Doctrine of the Trinity has passed through four basic stages: Founding the Paradigm, Disrupting the Paradigm, Reworking the Paradigm, and finally Working with the New Paradigm. (A paradigm is a basic way of thinking about something.)


 First: Founding the Paradigm. The first basic task for the Old Testament was to convince God’s people that there is only one true God. In the ancient world, lots of people worshiped lots of gods. Even if you only worshiped one god, you still believed that there are other gods out there. It’s just that your god is the best - or at the very least yours.
The first step for Israel seemed to be simply believing that Yahweh was the best God out there. This is largely seen in God freeing Israel from Egypt with the 10 plagues which were like a cosmic battle with Egypt’s gods.
Then, the rest of the Old Testament is working toward establishing the belief that Yahweh (the Hebrew name for God) is not just the best God. He’s the Only God. All of the other so-called-gods are just fakes, phonies, idols, statues. Yahweh is the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the Giver and Taker of life, the One True God. The classic statement of Israel’s faith is in Deuteronomy 6:4 “Here, O Israel, the LORD our God is one Lord.”
 However, even within this first stage, the Bible often talks of God with a mysterious plurality. Even in that verse, the classic statement of God’s oneness, the word for “God” is plural, so that it reads literally: “The LORD our Gods is one Lord.” And listen to the creation story.
 Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day" and the darkness "night."
   And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
 ...
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image.  In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
 God said, “Let us make humans in our image.” When God appeared to Abraham in Genesis, God appeared to him as three men (Genesis 18). This was the inspiration for Andre Rublev’s famous icon of the Trinity. At several places in the Old Testament there is a mysterious plurality. Sometimes, the subjects and verbs seem intentionally mismatched - as if God is saying, “We is God.”
So even within the Old Testament, we have the foundation of the paradigm for the doctrine of the Trinity. First and most importantly, there is only one God. God is absolutely one. The world is not composed of competing teams of gods who are doing battle in our midst. There is one God - one and only one. However, when Israel struggled to speak of this God, or when God spoke to Israel, sometimes, unexplainably the singular God seemed to have a mysterious plurality of being.

 Enter Jesus for Stage 2: Disrupting the Paradigm. Jesus came to the most monotheistic people on the face of the earth. Israel believed in one God, only one God. And yet, amazingly, mysteriously, when the people of Israel met Jesus, they met God. Jesus did things only God could do. Jesus said things only God could say. And people who had been trained from infancy to worship only the One True God - these fiercely monotheistic people, fell down at Jesus’ feet and said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
 Then, the situation got even more complex and more beautiful with Pentecost. Peter gives a summary of the action: “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, as you see and hear today” (Acts 2:32-33). So the Father raised Jesus from the dead and lifted him to the highest heaven, and the Father gave Jesus the Spirit to give to the disciples. And all of this is an experience of God.
This was amazingly disruptive for a monotheistic people. They believed in only one God, so what were they supposed to do with this Father, Son, and Spirit business?
As far as the doctrine of the Trinity goes, most of the New Testament does two things. First, it serves as a witness of how the disciples experienced God as Father, Son, and Spirit. Second, it proclaims that all people everywhere can have this same amazing experience. The New Testament tells the story of the Trinity’s action and preaches that it can be repeated. For the most part, the New Testament doesn’t try to answer all the detailed theological questions. They were too busy trying to keep up with God’s amazing activity. They were just like, “Woah, Jesus did this, and then the Spirit did that, and this is awesome. You’ve got to get in on this. God can change your life too!”

 Stage 3 was Reworking the Paradigm. If God is one, then what’s up with the Father, Son, and Spirit? If God is one, then how can Jesus be God? Was Jesus actually a human who became God or was Jesus God from the beginning? Eventually the questions had to be answered. And sometimes, they were answered in the wrong ways. As the church began to give answers as to how all of this Father-Son-Spirit stuff works, they realized that some answers are better than others. And some answers are downright dangerous for the life of the church. Some people started saying that Jesus was not actually God - just very much like God. Other people said that Jesus was not a real human - just human in appearance.
However, it’s important for us to note that throughout that 400 years, the overwhelming witness and worship of the church was to one God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The question was not if Jesus is God or if the Holy Spirit is God, but how. How can there be one God who is Father, Son, and Spirit?3
It took almost 400 years to sort out all the questions. The most definitive statement we now have on the doctrine of the Trinity is the Nicene Creed, which we read earlier today. This was established in a series of councils throughout the 4th century.
We believe in one God, 
the Father, the Almighty, 
Maker of heaven and earth ...
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, 
the only Son of God, 
eternally begotten of the Father, 
God from God, Light from Light
true God from true God...
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, 
who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 
With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and glorified. ...

This simple statement, able to be printed on a single page, is the collection of 400 years of reflection and study and arguments and ponderings and prayers. This is the most compact and most thorough statement of who God is - the Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. All orthodox Christians everywhere agree on this.

Stage 4: Working with the Paradigm. Now that the paradigm is set, we don’t have to “reinvent the wheel.” We don’t have to start all over - every time we try to understand God. God is One, yet God is One-in-Three and Three-in-One. Now part of our job is to keep thinking and keep explaining and keep drawing. But our most important job is to keep experiencing the Trinity - to keep being transformed by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

We can understand all history and theology through the lens of the Trinity.

• The Father is the source of all being, the Creator, the First Lover, the Root of all Love, the Almighty. Out of his love, the Father created goodness in our world and good humans in our world. But we humans walked away from the Father’s love and entered a path of self-destruction.
• The pivot point of history is God entering our world in human flesh. Jesus, God’s eternal Son, became the fully human son of Mary. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, fallen humanity was reclaimed, reunited with the Father. Our sins were forgiven. Our course for collective self-destruction was changed. Jesus speaks new life into our broken world.
• Now the Spirit, works to complete God’s restoration project. The Spirit helps us to respond to the Father’s great love poured out in Jesus. The Spirit works in us to reshape us into the goodness of the Father and the Son. The Spirit empowers us to have fellowship with God’s people, to live as witnesses of God’s love, and to participate in the healing of God’s world.

In shorthand, the Father made us; the Son saves us; the Spirit sanctifies us - One God. The Father loves us; the Son frees us; the Spirit guides us - One God. The Father created; the Son redeems the fallen creation; the Spirit recreates - One God.
These categories are not perfectly separate. Jesus also loves, and the Spirit also creates, and on and on. However, this is pushing us into the great mystery of the Trinity again.

If you feel overwhelmed, don’t freak out. It’s important for us talk about this. It’s important for us to try to understand and to grow in understanding. But we don’t have to fully understand.
We still don’t understand everything about light. Is it a ray, or a wave, or a particle, or all three? I guess it’s all three, but I don’t really understand it. But I can still sit outside and enjoy the sun on my skin. I can see that my skin turns red after a day in the sun. I still know how to turn on a light. I can still use a fiber-optic cable for internet. Do I understand everything about the sun or electricity or fiber-optics? No way. Can they enrich my life? Absolutely. Do I see that they are true? Absolutely.
You don’t have to understand everything about God to experience God. Listen to Paul’s closing words to the church in Corinth:
2 Corinthians 13
11 Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet each other with Christian love. 13 All of God’s people here send you their greetings.
 14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Come to the one true God. Submit yourself to the Maker of the Universe. Let the Father love you. Let the Son save you. Let the Spirit sanctify you, restore you, and lead you all the days of your life. You may not understand how it all works, but it works, and it can work in you. If you feel lost, get lost in the Trinity. Let the Father, Son, and Spirit transform your life and wrap you into the mission of healing our world. You will never regret it.

Pentecost - Fire, Wind, Water

Today is Pentecost Sunday. In Korean it is SoungNyoung GangNim Jeol - the commemoration of the Holy Spiritʼs coming. Today, we are going to take some time and talk about some of the symbols of the Holy Spirit which were active on Pentecost Sunday. With each symbol, weʼll read some of the most important texts for that image of God.


First is fire. Fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  [We lit a fire in a barbecue pit.  Unfortunately, the wind was against us, so I had to move the pit way off to the side to keep the smoke out of people's eyes.  Ah, the plans of mice and men.]

Malachi 3
1 “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
 2 “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.

Matthew 3
1 In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, 2 “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”... 5 People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. 6 And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. ...
 11[John said] “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

Acts 1
 4 Once when [Jesus] was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Godʼs Spirit is a fire that purifies. Godʼs Spirit is a fire that burns our trash.  Godʼs Spirit is a fire that cleans us inside and out. Godʼs Spirit is a fire that removes our sin and corruption and impurity.

Pray for the baptism of fire. Pray for the Holy Spirit. Submit yourself to God and allow him to purify your soul.


Second is wind or breath. In Hebrew, wind, breath, and spirit can all be the same word - ruach. Wind or breath are signs of the Holy Spirit. [We turned on a fan with ribbons streaming out to symbolize wind.]

Genesis 2
7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

Psalm 104
24 O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!  In wisdom you have made them all.
      The earth is full of your creatures. ...
 29 But if you turn away from them, they panic.
      When you take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust.
 30 When you give them your breath, life is created,  and you renew the face of the earth. ...
 33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.  I will praise my God to my last breath!

John 3
 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

John 20
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit."


The Spirit of God is the breath of life. We cannot live without Godʼs Spirit. We breathe in and breathe out the Spirit of God, the breath of life. We breathe in grace and breathe out praise.

And yet there is more. The Spirit of God is the breath of new life. God puts new life, the life of the Spirit, in us through the Spirit. We are “born again.” We receive Jesusʼ peace and are sent to live like Jesus through the Holy Spirit - the breath of Christ.

And yet, there is still more. The Spirit of God is like the wind. We cannot control it or contain it. We cannot predict it or plan it. The Spirit blows wherever it wants, and we canʼt explain just exactly how the Spirit works. But we can feel the effects of the Spirit. We can feel the wind on our face. We can breathe in the breath of new life. We can feel the winds of change and new life blowing through our world. Today, we see and celebrate how Godʼs Spirit has made people new.

Breathe in the breath of life. Pray for the ancient Spirit of change. Ask God to give you new life through his Holy Spirit. Let God inspire you. Inspire - like the word respiration - Inspire means to in-breathe. Let God breath in you. Let God so inspire you that your daily, moment by moment breaths are soaked with God.


Last is water. Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  [I poured a picture of water into a basin here.]

Isaiah 44
 2 The Lord who made you and helps you says:
  Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.
 3 For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields.
   And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.
 4 They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.

John 7
37 Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” 39 (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)

Titus 3
3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 4 But—When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.

The Spirit of God is life-giving water for our dry souls. The Spirit of God is a fountain of living water that springs up inside us when we put our trust in Jesus. The Spirit of God is a river of mercy that washes away our sins and fills us with new life through Jesus.

Come to the water. Soak in the Spirit. Open your heart to the river of God. Let God swish a big bucket of water into your heart and clean all the floors and corners and dark places. Let your roots grow down deep into the love of God so that the Spirit fills you with the life of God.

The Holy Spirit is fire, wind, and water. Listen to the story of Pentecost.

Acts 2:
1 On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. ...
 14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully ... what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:
 17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and
daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
 18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike ...’
 22 “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. 23 But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. 24 But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. ...
 32 “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. 33 Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today...
 37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit...
 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

Pentecost - fire, wind, water - Godʼs Spirit coming and changing people, Godʼs
Spirit coming and changing a community. Let it happen again. Let it happen today.

Sing, “Spirit of the Living God” !


Like the first disciples, we are meeting together in one place, and like them, we
are going to spend some time in prayer. Wherever you are just bow your head, and
pray together with me.

First, letʼs remember our sins. Quietly, there in your seat, remember your sins
and confess them to God.

.........


Second, remember Jesus who died for our sins. He died on the cross so that we
can live and be free. As you pray, voice your trust in Jesus. Tell Jesus thank you. Pray
for more faith to put your trust in Jesus more.



.........

Third, remember the Holy Spirit. The cross was not enough. Pentecost had to
come. The Holy Spirit had to come. Pray for the Holy Spirit. Pray for Godʼs fire and
wind and water. Ask God to purify you in the fire. Ask God to fill you with the breath of
his Spirit. Ask God to wash you clean and to be the source of your life. Pray for the
Spirit.

.........


Last, pray for power. Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in
Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Pray
for the power to be Godʼs witness, to share Godʼs grace. Pray that your life will be so
soaked with Godʼs Spirit that people will get hungry for grace just being around you.

.........

Sing, “Spirit of the Living God” !

[After this, we invited people to come to the front to experience each of the symbols - to stand in front of the fan and feel the wind on their faces, to touch the water, to hold their hand over the coals - and to be anointed with oil and receive prayer.  There was a long line at the anointing station as somewhere around 50 people waited for prayer.  We'll have to have more pray-ers next time!]

Giving Up our Snakes - Numbers 21

This week, I'm preaching at the monthly pastors' meeting for the Nazarene pastors in Cheonan.  Here's my sermon.

4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea[a] to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”


6 So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. 7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.


8 Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

 

[I want to say this first part in Korean.]

I have lived in Korea for seven years, so I guess I’m about 7% Korean. I am sorry that I cannot preach in Korean yet.  I am studying Korean, but I still have a long way to go.  I hope that I will not need a translator in a few years.  However, for today, I can only say about 7% in Korean.

             Next, I want to thank you for welcoming me as one of your own.  I know that our church is the first English speaking Nazarene church in Korea, and I know that it is sometimes difficult to include me in your discussions and groups.  So I want to thank you – especially those who have gone out of their way to include me and to make sure I understand what is happening.  In many ways, this monthly zone pastors meeting is one of the most important ways I am learning about the Korean church.  So thank you for the opportunity to be involved here.

             Now, I guess I better stop chatting and start preaching.

The snake in the desert is a story of powerful and creative ministry.  It was both Spirit-led and practical.  The snake in the desert led to spiritual revival and physical healing. 

             Moses was so connected with God’s Spirit that he was able to hear God’s plan to cure the people and to show God’s amazing power.  Moses made a bronze snake, and anyone who even looked at it was healed.  The people could now continue their journey to the Promised Land knowing that God’s grace is stronger than their sins and that God’s power is stronger than their problems.

             We would all love to have this kind of ministry.  Problems solved.  Sins forgiven.  Bodies healed.  Miracles accomplished.  We would all love to do that in our churches.

             It would be great if the story stopped here.  We could all go home and think about having amazing, miraculous ministries.  But the story doesn’t stop here. 

Later, in 2 Kings 18, we see that this story of incredible, successful ministry became dark and idolatrous.  When King Hezekiah began his religious reforms in Israel, he tore down the holy pagan worship sites on the hills; he smashed the sacred stones; he tore down the Asherah poles.  And … “He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.” (2 Kings 18:4)

             Note what is happening here.  The people no longer live in the wilderness.  Snakes are not attacking them.  They have a king, and they live in cities and houses.  But the snake on the pole was so successful that people worshiped the snake on the pole after the snakes are gone.  The snake on the pole was so successful at demonstrating God’s power that people believed it was a god.  This wonderful tool of ministry became an idol.  People worshiped the method long after the context had changed.

             The same thing can happen to us.  Sometimes, some ministries or some methods work miracles.  People are saved.  Bodies are healed.  Communities are transformed.  Revivals happen.  And we all want to be like that.  We all want to have that kind of ministry. 

             So we copy the snake.  We focus on the methods.  We want amazing revivals to sweep through Korea again, so we try to replicate the same actions and the same conditions that brought revivals in the past.  The external culture changes and moves on.  But the church culture is forever reaching into the past, trying to resurrect the old results with the old methods.  Our methods have become our snakes on the pole.

             This happens in every culture. Whenever there is success, snakes will follow.  Whenever there is success, methods become objects of worship.  As humans, it seems like we fall into that trap every time. 

But, as pastors and leaders, our job is like Hezekiah.  We stand back from our ministry and ask, “What is really leading people to God and healing our world?  And what is just an old snake that is distracting us from God?” 

Then, we destroy the snakes.  That is hard and painful work, but it must be done.  Some people will resist.  Some will say that we are abandoning our history.  Some will say that we are unfaithful or heretics.  But snakes must not rule us.  We do not worship methods.  We worship God.

As I said, I’m only about 7% Korean.  I don’t feel like I have the authority or the wisdom to point out snakes that may be in the Korean church.  However, I would like to suggest some beginning topics that are relevant in many cultures.  There are a few changes that the church around the world needs to make in this generation.  We need to change our focus in three ways.

First, we need to move our focus from the church to the mission.  As pastors, we are people of the church, and we spend most of our time thinking about the church.  How is the church doing?  How are our people, our programs, our buildings?  And most importantly, how are our attendance and giving?  Many times our focus is on how we can get more people involved in more programs within the church.

But the church is not the point.  The mission is the point.  The point is God’s love transforming individuals and communities.  The church is a vehicle for the mission.  We need to stop asking: “How can we get more people into the church?”  Instead, we need to ask: “How we can get more people into the mission?  How can we get the church more deeply into our community? 

Second, in a similar way, we need to move from preaching evangelism to service evangelism.  We can talk and talk and talk and talk, but it doesn’t matter if no one is listening.  This week I saw a church holding a worship service in the park near my house.  They had a two guitars and drums and lots of worship leaders and a nice sign and nice clothes … and no audience.  No one was listening.  No one cared.  We can work really hard and preach really hard, but it doesn’t matter if no one is listening.

But if we help people with the real needs in their lives, they will start asking us questions: “Why do you care?  Why are you helping us?”  Then, we have people who are ready to listen to the gospel.  “We care because God loves us and you.  God changed us, and God can change you.”

Third, we need to move from success to faithfulness.  Success is also an idol.  Success is an idol in the world – money, power, honor, high test scores.  Success is an idol in the church – buildings, attendance, power, honor. 

One key sign that people have made success an idol is neglect of the Sabbath.  Six days for work; one day for rest.  It’s in the Ten Commandments.  But when the hunger for success pushes us to work seven days a week or to make our kids study seven days a week, we care more about success than faithfulness.  We care more about power than God. 

As pastors, we need to change our church culture that says it’s OK for workers and students to neglect God for the sake of success.  As pastors, we need to lead the way and take a day of rest every week.  (The beautiful irony is that rest will also make us more successful.)

There are the snakes in every culture.  Where are the snakes in Korea?  Where are the snakes in your church?  To be honest, I’m not sure exactly.  However, I believe we will find them and remove them as we adjust our focus.

From church to mission. 

From preaching evangelism to service evangelism. 

From success to faithfulness. 

From methods of ministry to the God who enables the ministry.

Blind Love - 1 Corinthians 13

    Just before she died in 1964, Flannery O’Connor wrote a brilliant short story called, “Revelation.”  O’Connor seemed to like symbolic names.  The lead character Mrs. Turpin - bringing to mind Turpentine, that cleaning chemical which is poisonous and stinky, and the other key character is an “ugly girl” named Mary Grace, who doesn’t like Mrs. Turpin and keeps giving her mean looking stares.  In an ironic way Mary Grace represents the disruptive grace of God. 

The Doctor’s waiting room, which was very small, was almost full when the Turpins entered and Mrs. Turpin, who was very large, made it look even smaller by her presence.  She stood looming at the head of the magazine table set in the center of it, a living demonstration that the room was inadequate and ridiculous.  Her little bright black eyes took in all the patients as she sized up the seating situation.  There was one vacant chair and a place on the sofa occupied by a blond child in a dirty blue romper who should have been told to move over and make room for the lady.  He was five or six, but Mrs. Turpin saw at once that no one was going to tell him to move over.  He was slumped down in the seat ... his nose ran unchecked. ... if that child belonged to me, he would have some manners and move over-there's plenty of room there for you and him too. ...
Next to her was a fat girl of eighteen or nineteen, scowling into a thick blue book which Mrs. Turpin saw was entitled Human Development. The girl raised her head and directed her scowl at Mrs. Turpin as if she did not like her looks. She appeared annoyed that anyone should speak while she tried to read. The poor girl's face was blue with acne and Mrs. Turpin thought how pitiful it was to have a face like that at that age. She gave the girl a friendly smile, but the girl only scowled the harder. Mrs. Turpin herself was fat, but she had always had good skin, and, though she was forty-seven years old, there was not a wrinkle in her face - except around her eyes from laughing too much.
Next to the ugly girl was the child, still in exactly the same position, and next to him was a thin leathery old woman in a cotton print dress. She and Claud had three sacks of chicken feed in their pump house that was in the same print. She had seen from the first that the child belonged with the old woman. She could tell by the way they sat- kind of vacant and white-trashy, as if they would sit there until Doomsday if nobody called and told them to get up. And at right angles but next to the well-dressed pleasant lady was a lank-faced woman who was certainly the child's mother. She had on a yellow sweatshirt and wine-colored slacks, both gritty-looking, and the rims of her lips were stained with snuff. Her dirty yellow hair was tied behind with a little piece of red paper ribbon. Worse than [black folk] any day, Mrs. Turpin thought.
The gospel hymn playing [on the radio] was "When I looked up and He looked down," and Mrs. Turpin, who knew it, supplied the last line mentally, "And wona these days I know I'll we-eara crown.  ...
Sometimes Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people. On the bottom of the heap were most colored people, not the kind she would have been if she had been one, but most of them; then next to them -- not above, just away from -- were the white-trash; then above them were the home-owners, and above them the home-and-land owners, to which she and Claud belonged.  Above she and Claud were people with a lot of money and much bigger houses and much more land. But here the complexity of it would begin to bear in on her, for some of the people with a lot of money were common and ought to be below she and Claud and some of the people who had good blood had lost their money and had to rent and then there some colored people who owned their homes and land as well. ...

-- Mrs. Turpin began a conversation with the pleasant looking lady. --

“If you want to make it farming now, you have to have a little of everything. We got a couple of acres of cotton and a few hogs and chickens and just enough white-face [cows] that Claud can look after them himself.”
"One thang I don't want," the white-trash woman said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Hogs. Nasty stinking things, a-gruntin and a-rootin all over the place."
Mrs. Turpin gave her the merest edge of her attention. "Our hogs are not dirty, and they don't stink," she said. "They're cleaner than some children I've seen. Their feet never touch the ground. We have a pig-parlor - that's where you raise them on concrete," she explained to the pleasant lady, "and Claud scoots them down with the hose every afternoon and washes off the floor." Cleaner by far than that child right there, she thought. Poor nasty little thing. ...
The woman turned her face away from Mrs. Turpin. "I know I wouldn't scoot down no hog with no hose," she said to the wall.
You wouldn't have no hog to scoot down, Mrs. Turpin said to herself.  ...
There was nothing you could tell her about [white-trash] people like them that she didn't know already. And it was not just that they didn't have anything. Because if you gave them everything, in two weeks it would all be broken or filthy or they would have chopped it up for [firewood]. She knew all this from her own experience. Help them you must, but help them you couldn't.
All at once the ugly girl turned her lips inside out again. Her eyes were fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin. This time there was no mistaking that there was something urgent behind them. ...
"If it's one thing I am," Mrs. Turpin said with feeling, "It's grateful. When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, 'Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is!' It could have been different!" For one thing, somebody else could have got Claud. At the thought of this, she was flooded with gratitude and a terrible pang of joy ran through her. "Oh thank you, Jesus, Jesus, thank you!" she cried aloud.
The book struck her directly, over her left eye. It struck almost at the same instant that she realized [Mary Grace] was about to hurl it. Before she could utter a sound, the raw face came crashing across the table toward her, howling. The girl's fingers sank like clamps the soft flesh of her neck.  ...
Mrs. Turpin's head cleared and her power of motion returned. She leaned forward until she was looking directly into the fierce brilliant eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that the girl did know her, know her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition. "What you got to say to me?" she asked hoarsely and held her breath, waiting, as for a revelation.
The girl raised her head. Her gaze locked with Mrs. Turpin's. "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog," she whispered. Her voice was low but clear. Her eyes burned for a moment as if she saw with pleasure that her message had struck its target.

-- Later in the day, after all the drama was over, Mrs. Turpin, lay down in her own bed to rest, and she started talking to God.  She knew that somehow Mary Grace had given her a message from God. ---

The ... image of a razor-backed hog with warts on its face and horns coming out behind its ears snorted into her head. She moaned, a low quiet moan.
"I am not," she said tearfully, "a wart hog. From hell." But the denial had no force. The girl's eyes and her words, even the tone of her voice, low but clear, directed only to her, brooked no repudiation. She had been singled out for the message ...  The message had been given to Ruby Turpin, a respectable, hardworking, church-going woman. ...
"What do you send me a message like that for?" she said in a low fierce voice, barely above a whisper but with the force of a shout in its concentrated fury. "How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?" ...
"Why me?" she rumbled. "It's no trash around here, black or white, that I haven't given to.  And break my back to the bone every day working.  And do for the church.” ...
"How am I a hog?" she demanded. "Exactly how am I like them? ...  There was plenty of trash there. It didn't have to be me.” ...
A final surge of fury shook her and she roared, "Who do you think you are?"
The color of everything, field and crimson sky, burned for a moment with a transparent intensity. The question carried over the pasture and across the highway and the cotton field and returned to her clearly, like an answer from beyond the wood.  ["Who do you think you are?"]
She opened her mouth but no sound came out of it. ...
A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw ...  a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were tumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black [folk] in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They, alone were [singing] on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces even their virtues were being burned away.  [To read the full text of "Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor, click here.]

1 Corinthians 13
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

    Once upon a time, there were a group of cooks who never ate.  They met together to cook.  They made the most incredible dishes - adding just the right spices and holding the pan over the heat just so.  But each week after they finished cooking their masterpieces, they tossed them into the trash bins and returned home.  They missed the point.

    Once upon a time, there was a Manchester United fan club.  They all had the Man-U shirts and hats.  They knew all of the players’ names and statistics.  They had autographed balls and photos. Their fan club met every week, but they never talked about soccer, and they never watched any Manchester games - ever.  They missed the point.

    Once upon a time, there was an artists’ guild that didn’t do art.  Artists from around the city met together to talk about the art of art.  They discussed brush strokes and the tools for chiseling marble.  They had heated debates about the best kind of paper to use when painting with water colors.  However, the curious thing was that none of these artists ever did any art.  They missed the point.

    Once upon a time, there was a book club that met every week even though nobody ever read the books.  They would talk about this and that and have a cup of coffee, while the books sat on the coffee table unopened - with fresh, uncracked spines.  They missed the point.
   
    Once upon a time, there was a church that talked about God’s love.  They sang about God’s love.  They preached about God’s love and had careful theological definitions about the extent of God’s love.  But they were impatient and rude.  They were selfish and difficult to work with.  They were overly critical and liked to exclude others.  They were great at talking about love, but not so good about actually loving.  They missed the point.

    What is the point?  Fundamentally, what is the point of church?  Jesus answers that question for us pretty clearly. 


Matthew 22
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”


    The point of the church is simple - love.  This is the first and most important part of our church’s vision: Being renewed by God’s love to love God, ourselves, and others.  That is why we are here.  The point ... is ... love.

    In the 1945 movie The Enchanted Cottage, a former pilot rents a home in the countryside.  One arm is useless and his face is deeply scarred from burns when his plan crashed.  He hires a shy, homely maid to look after the house.  At first, they endure each other’s company because of their mutual need.  Then, they begin to open up and share their true selves.  Slowly, they fall in love.  And slowly, mysteriously, the begin to change.  His scars begin to fade.  She becomes more attractive.  Their clothes become more stylish, and they develop a walk of confidence and poise. 
    To other people who do not share their love, they are still they same old, scarred and homely people.  But to each other, and to their blind neighbor next door, they are transformed.  Seen through the eyes of blind love, and growing in the light of love, they have become deeply beautiful people.  Love has transformed them.

    Let me suggest three venues for us to pursue the transforming power of love.

    First, within the church.  Most of us came here from another church.  We have our own sets of tastes and personal preferences.  Maybe you want more hymns or harder-edged music.  Maybe you want more discussion or more traditional theology.  Maybe you keep thinking of the churches you left behind.  Maybe, God has a message for us in the old Crosby, Stills and Nash song, “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, then love the one you’re with.”  If your church isn’t what you want it to be ... then love it until both you and your church are transformed by God’s love.

    Second, within your home.  Maybe your spouse works too much.  Maybe your kids are disrespectful.  Maybe your mother-in-law gives you headaches.  Maybe your husband or your wife is not a Christian.  Maybe you and your neighbor just can’t get along.  If your family or home aren’t what you want them to be ... Love them until it both you and your family are transformed.  Love them until both you and your neighbors are transformed by God’s love. 

    Finally, within yourself.  Maybe you feel like you just don’t measure up.  No matter what you do there’s always a nagging sense that you’re not good enough.  Maybe you have an addiction that you are ashamed of.  Maybe you’ve beaten it; maybe it’s beating you.  Maybe it’s on days like today, when the discussion is about love, when you love yourself the least because you see how unloving you are most of the time.  If you are not who you want to be ... let God love you and love God the best that you can until you are transformed by God’s love. 

    The beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God loves us no matter what.  No person and no problem are beyond God’s healing love.  Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and to fill us with his love.  God raised Jesus from the dead, and he can raise us with new life and new love through his Holy Spirit.  Let God love you and be transformed by his love. 

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths, its flow
May richer, fuller be.