It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times

The New Year provides a time to reflect and project. We reflect on the past and project what we hope for the future. Last week, Lee led us in looking at who we will be in the coming year by reflecting on the “wise men from the East”. We are engaged in a lifelong calling to become who God wants us to be. We are engaged in a lifelong quest to worship God fully. We are engaged in a lifelong effort to find faith – faith in God, a faith that we find most fully in the pain and suffering of life. [Lee posed these three questions: Who are you going to be? How is God present in your life? Where do you find faith as you travel in paths unknown?]

We read two passages this morning, one from Isaiah and one from Matthew. These were taken from the lectionary, and I have included the lectionary reading from Acts 10 as well, as we also look towards the future and ask who God wants us to be. We begin by considering the biblical texts, and then we ask what they have to say to us as we also reflect on our lives and project what we wish for the coming year.

Isaiah 42

These verses comprise one of Isaiah’s “servant songs”, referring both to Israel, who was to be God’s Servant in their world and to the coming Messiah, who would also be God’s Servant.

In this Servant Song, Isaiah tells us that:

·         God’s Servant brings justice with gentleness and peace.

·         The Creator will not rest until the Creation is filled with righteousness (another word for justice), freedom, and Shalom. [Isaiah does not use the word, but he clearly has this concept in mind.]

·         God resists all human efforts to take God’s place.

We see, then, that hope for the future comes through God’s Servant – both through Israel as God’s People and through the Messiah. In today’s context, our hope for the future rests in Jesus the Messiah and in the Body of Christ, the Church.

Acts 10

We did not read this passage earlier. Verses 34 to 43 come in the context of Peter’s vision, showing him that he can eat freely of any food – “Don’t call unclean what God has made clean.” Cornelius was a Roman centurion, who prayed regularly to God. He also had a vision, in which God told him to send for Peter. He did so, and Peter came and spoke to the people in his house.

Peter said, reflecting on his dream of clean and unclean animals:

·         Clearly God wants all people as God’s own – there are no favourites in God’s Realm.

·         God’s call rests on the death and resurrection of Jesus [you/we killed him; God raised him from the dead].

·         Jesus has sent us out to preach “forgiveness of sins”.

This term “forgiveness of sins” reminds us that God’s desire is for all people to live in the peace and harmony and justice that Isaiah had described, but humankind has rebelled against her Creator. God wants peace and justice, therefore God sent God’s Son into the world, but we rejected him. As John’s Gospel puts it: “He came to his own, but his own did not accept him.”

We are in the season of Epiphany, the light shining on our celebration of Christmas. We sing the Christmas Hymns, rejoicing at the birth of the Baby Jesus – it is indeed the best of times. In this time of joy, we listen to the news. There is conflict building in the Middle East. In the country of my youth, Zimbabwe, the shelves are bare and the electric and water power off. Australia is burning, without hope of relief. The problems all around us tell us that today may be the worst of times. The problems we face all come from humankind’s rebellion against God. We want to be in control of everything around us, and our efforts to take God’s place separate us from God.

When Jesus was born, the wise men brought myrrh (among other gifts), reminding us that Jesus was born in order to die for us. We [all humanity] killed him, and God raised him from Death. God heals the rebellion of our world, and God sends us out to preach this healing, “the forgiveness of sins”.

Matthew 3

We come to the gospel reading from Matthew 3, which describes the baptism of Jesus. Some weeks ago, Lee preached on this passage, pointing out that the baptism points us to God’s sovereignty, God’s rule in this world.

These verses answer the question that John himself asks:

·         Why? “To fulfill all righteousness.” This note of righteousness connects to the passage from Isaiah, in which the Servant brings justice/righteousness and peace.

What happened when John listened to Jesus? God appeared and approved. This event celebrates and seals the appearance of God in the world in the person of Jesus. Jesus is Lord!

Synthesis

At the beginning of a new year (and, according to some, the beginning of a new decade), we face a time full of trouble and reasons for despair. What about hope? Where does hope come from? What can make our future full of peace and justice?

·      In Isaiah, hope comes through God’s Servant – through God’s People and through the Messiah.

·      In Acts, hope and salvation really are for everyone, through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

·      In Matthew, hope begins with listening to Jesus.

We face a choice. Will we seize the New Year and force everyone to do what we want? Or will we submit to the presence and person of Jesus and receive the justice and peace that come through embracing his death and resurrection?

Synthesis Expanded

As I reflected on this basic idea, bringing the texts together, my thoughts took a direction I didn’t expect, stimulated by current events in the Middle East. I don’t quite know how to develop what I am going to say now, but I hope we can work at that together in the Going Deeper time. Here’s the thought. The USA government killed an Iranian military leader on January 3. The Iranian government responded with grief and outrage, culminating in a series of rocket attacks last Tuesday. On Wednesday, a rocket fired by Iran may have been the cause of the crash of the Ukrainian flight 752, killing 176 people, including 63 Canadians.

I have no interest in discussing the rights or wrongs of American or Iranian or Iraqi actions this morning. I mention this series of events because of how clearly they illustrate the normal way that human beings act. We want control of our lives, and we are willing to use any level of force to exercise control. Although both the American and the Iranian governments say they do not want war, no one related to this conflict considers the act of becoming a servant as part of the path to peace and justice in the Middle East.

Governments use lethal force, but we are not so different in our own ways when it comes to life in Steinbach, politically or individually. We normally use power to get what we want. This use of power is not bad; in fact, without it, nothing good can happen. For example, when I take my car to the garage, my willingness to pay for the repair is a form of power. Without my payment, the garage would go out of business, so I have leverage to get the service I need. Similarly, the mechanic identifies the repair that is needed. The mechanic’s expertise gives the garage leverage to compel me to pay to get my car back.

This is an ordinary use of power, the sort of thing that we do all the time. It is good and it is necessary. The problems begin when one of the parties involved in the exchange feels cheated. If I begin to mistrust my mechanic, I may think that I am being overcharged. I may use words like “cheated”. As I spread the word that my mechanic cheated me, I exercise the power of the consumer to hurt the business.

We could go through similar scenarios in the political realm and in the educational realm; in fact, in every area of life, we use power to get what we want. In this context, we hear Isaiah’s language of the “Suffering Servant”. A servant is defined by the lack of power. We hear also Peter’s language in Acts 10, in which he tells us that the opportunity to become one of these powerless servants is available to everyone. Finally, the gospel reading portrays Jesus taking the step of baptism, signifying his complete submission to the will of God.

We are servants. We cannot avoid the exercise of power, but we use power as servants, as people who are not in control of what will happen. As illustrated in the killing of the Iranian general, the human desire is to be in full control. We want to take control of the process and impose our will on others. We find it really hard to give up control and wait for orders from someone else. I know I am this way. I have taken personality tests that remind me of my deep resistance to authority – if someone tells me I must do something, I respond almost automatically with “No!”

What Do We Do?

You may wonder if I am making too much of the fact that Isaiah refers to the “servant of the Lord”. Is this just a title, rather than a description of who we are to be? In the passage from Acts 10, Peter clearly goes against his own understanding of who belongs in God’s kingdom. He obeys the voice in his dream, because he obeys God as king. In the baptismal passage, Jesus also demonstrates obedience for the sake of all his followers.

Two other passages from Paul’s letters state this way of living clearly and directly. In Ephesians 5: 21, Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He illustrates this mutual submission by considering the way that wives submit to their husbands, the way that husbands love their wives, the way that parents discipline their children, the way that children obey their parents, the way that bosses rule their workers, and the way that workers serve their bosses. In all these situations, filled with power dynamics, Paul counsels mutual submission.

In Philippians 2, Paul says, “Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” The last line suggests a simple and practical way forward; it is also difficult. “Don’t look out for your own interests, but look out for the interests of others.”

Earlier, I used the example of taking my car to the garage. This principle means that the garage owners and mechanics place my interests as the car owner above their own interests in the garage. Similarly, as the customer, I place the interests of the business above my own. I suspect that many of us say “Yes!” the first and grimace at the second. How do we do that? Come to the Going Deeper time to find out! I’m counting on the combined wisdom of the group, because I don’t think I can answer the question fully.

Conclusion

This is a new year. It may be “the best of times”; it may be “the worst of times”. Our future is not in our own hands. The choice we have is whether or not to live intentionally as servants of God and servants of each other. We may find that the same events are both the worst and the best, and God gives us joy and strength to live well when our circumstances are hardest.

The peace and righteousness/justice that our passages describe are a further theme, and I believe that the kind of commitment I am describing leads to greater Shalom in our world. I might suggest that the best path to such a world, filled with justice and peace, is the path of the servant. That would take another sermon, and for this morning I invite you to join me in living a life of service to God and service to each other, submitting to each other and looking out for each other, as together we serve God, in whose hands all our days rest. Amen.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

12 January 2020 

Texts

Isaiah 42: 1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. ² He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; ³ a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. ⁴ He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

⁵ Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: ⁶ I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, ⁷  to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

⁸ I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. ⁹ See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Acts 10: 34-43

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Matthew 3: 13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Going Deeper Questions:

1. How does a real servant act?

2. How can we act as real servants in our church community?

3. How can we act as real servants in our community and world?

4. Mennonites don’t like to exercise power (at least, we don’t like to admit that we are using power), but the use of power is simply a reality in daily life. How can we use power appropriately as followers of Jesus?

A Case Study in Conflict

We know that the church of Corinth was a conflicted church. Paul starts his letter to them with a frank statement of their conflict. Here is what he says:

¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹ My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: one of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

They were divided into factions that fought bitterly with each other, so that news of their conflicts spread all the way to Paul where he was staying in Ephesus. He had founded the Corinthian church in the first place, and now he heard that they were divided against each other. He names the divisions by the people each faction claimed to follow, but he blames all of the factions equally – even those who said they were following Christ!

Clearly, division and schism are – at least in Paul’s mind – the great denial of Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul is ready enough to talk about issues. In 1 Corinthians, he deals clearly with sexuality and marriage (chapters 5-7), Christian liberty concerning issues of the Law (chapters 8-10), and the way that Christians practice their worship, including use of spiritual gifts (chapters 12 to 14). But dealing with issues in Christian life does not justify division and schism.

We see this truth clearly in chapters 12 and 13, which deal with worship issues, and also apply the basic insight that unity in love is greater than our need to be right in the issues we argue about. Let’s look together at chapters 12 and 13.

1 Corinthians 12

Paul is discussing order in worship in general, and here he brings that conversation to the use of spiritual gifts within worship. The Corinthians evidently were fascinated with the way that some people were able to channel spirits and exercise powerful gifts – possibly a holdover from the spiritual cults they had known before their conversion. [Clearly, they were not Mennonites! We tend to look at such people with suspicion.] Paul discusses the use of tongues in chapter 14, but here he sets up the discussion by looking at the underlying unity we have as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Paul uses this unity to answer the question they seem to have had: “How do we know when someone’s spiritual gifts are really evidence of the presence of God?” He says, “I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

If someone tries to set Jesus aside, they know that person does not belong to God. If someone exalts Jesus as Lord, they know that person belongs to God. This is the point that I have made before – that the core of the gospel is to embrace the affirmation, “Jesus is Lord.” Our faith begins with Jesus. Our faith is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, we cannot be part of the Christian Church.

This principle applies not only in discussions about spiritual gifts, but it also applies in all of our conversations – from marriage matters to how to use our offerings. [These two are the matters Paul discusses before this section on spiritual gifts.]

You notice that the text states that all of this takes place through the work of the Holy Spirit. Different churches describe the work of the Holy Spirit in different ways. Here is how The Confession of Faith in Mennonite Perspective puts it:

The Holy Spirit calls people to repentance, convicts them of sin, and leads into the way of righteousness all those who open themselves to the working of the Spirit. Scripture urges us to yield to the Spirit, and not to resist or quench the Spirit. By water and the Spirit, we are born anew into the family of God. The Spirit dwells in each child of God, bringing us into relationship with God. Through the indwelling of the Spirit, we are made heirs together with Christ, if we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. The Spirit teaches us, reminds us of Jesus’ word, guides us into all truth, and empowers us to speak the word of God with boldness. The Holy Spirit enables our life in Christian community, comforts us in suffering, is present with us in time of persecution, intercedes for us in our weakness, guarantees the redemption of our bodies, and assures the future redemption of creation.

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in our lives. We come to faith through the work of the Spirit. We learn and grow as followers of Jesus through the Spirit. We learn how to live with each other through the Spirit. We learn to love one another through the Spirit. We learn how to work together as sisters and brothers in the church through the Spirit.

Therefore, Paul refers to the work of the Holy Spirit making us one body in Christ. The church is a living organism in which we all play a part – as the Holy Spirit lives in us and gives each one what the whole body needs. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” Note the succession of titles: … the same Spirit; … the same Lord; … the same God. The presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the very presence of God as God. Our unity, then, is the unity of the Spirit, which shows itself in the differences of the gifts given to us to serve the whole body.

Paul continues, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”

Different gifts – One Spirit. Diversity and difference are visible in the unity of the Spirit. Paul lists a series of gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, naming the spirits, and tongues. Each of these takes a variety of forms within the church, and in the Corinthian Church they had become a source of conflict and division. Let me do some guessing, going beyond what the text tells us, but I hope consistent with the text.

• Some have a message of knowledge – They talk about the words Jesus spoke and the miracles Jesus did. They know. They call themselves “the party of Christ”.
• Some have a message of wisdom – They talk about the way that the first church dug deeply into the words and actions of Jesus. They have learned wisdom. They call themselves “the party of James”.
• Some have great faith – They are able to trust God in all kinds of situations. They call themselves “the part of Peter”.
• Some perform healings, just as Jesus did. They also are “the party of Jesus”. Those who do miracles are the same.
• There are some prophets, who speak words that God has given them. They call themselves “the party of Paul”.
• Scattered among the parties are some who speak in tongues and some who interpret tongues.

 They all have one basic problem. They are using the gifts that God’s Spirit gives to the church in order to support their own little faction, dividing the church. Paul rebukes them. He says, “These gifts were given to you to unite the church, not to divide it. You are one body, with One Spirit and One Lord!”

The Place of Love (How Love Works)

The basic point in 1 Corinthians 12 is clear: Differences and disagreements in the church are normal. They are not a problem. The fact that we have different gifts and abilities and ideas and understandings is not itself a problem – if these differences are a part of our larger unity. We are the body of Christ, and we differ from each other as the different parts of the body differ. But there remains a basic question. How do we experience the unity of the Spirit? How do we become “one body”, the body of Christ? The answer of course is through the greatest gift of all.

I have often heard 1 Corinthians 13 read at weddings. That is good, although Paul did not write it for weddings. He wrote this chapter for you and me when we are in conflict in the church. Using the passage at a wedding is good. I hope that this kind of love characterizes our marriage relationships! I encourage applying the passage to family life, but Paul is talking about the church. We are the family of God, and the Spirit gives one special gift to all of us: God’s love. Consider the qualities of love that we find in the “love chapter”. Love:

•          Is patient and kind.
•          Does not envy or boast.
•          Is not proud and honours others.
•          Does not seek its own benefit.
•          Does not get angry easily or remember past wrongs.
•          Rejoices in what is true [that is, it avoids what is not true].
•          Protects and trust the other.
•          Hopes for God’s best and perseveres when loving is not easy.
•          Never gives up.

It is a remarkable list! It is also an impossible list. I can honour others just fine, provided that I’m getting lots of honour too. I’m not proud, unless I start to feel as though people don’t care about me. I don’t envy others, at least if someone is envying me. I protect others provided they are also protecting me. I can keep my temper, so long as no one provokes me. I don’t remember past wrongs, but then I don’t remember lots of things from the past.

In short, I can do most of these as long as life is going well and I feel good about myself. That doesn’t take the Holy Spirit! A reasonably nice person will get a lot of these right on a good day. The problem comes when we find ourselves in conflict with other people, especially when the people we are supposed to love are the people we are in conflict with. How do I trust the other and hope for God’s best in their lives when we belong to two different factions?

That’s when love becomes the greatest gift that the Holy Spirit gives us. I can persevere and never give up in love only if the Holy Spirit is at work in my life. I can seek the benefit of those I disagree with only if the Holy Spirit is leading me. I can forget [really forget] the wrongs someone does to me only if the Holy Spirit clears my mind for me. [My mental computer has trouble clearing the trash folder properly!]

Humanly speaking, we require complete agreement in order to be in the unity of the Spirit, but that is not what Paul describes. Paul describes a unity based on love, which applies when we agree and when we disagree. My church of origin – the Brethren in Christ – has sometimes loved well and sometimes not. Our church historian, Morris Sider, tells a story that shows us at our best [Stories and Scenes from a Brethren in Christ Heritage].

Jacob Ginder had been Bishop of the Manheim District in Pennsylvania for many years. In his retirement and during the years of significant change in the church, he had retained his strongly conservative views on church doctrine and practice. Henry asked his father to accompany to the General Conference held at Manhattan, Kansas in 1951. Jacob declined, saying that the conference would be discussing making significant changes in church practice, and he would be distressed by what he heard. But Henry, by promising to drive to Kansas, persuaded his father to go with him. One the way home, Henry asked Jacob, “How did you like the conference?” Jacob replied, “Oh, I didn’t like what I heard, but I trust the brethren.”

The BICs, like the Mennonites have their faults, but they and we are learning and re-learning the lesson of love – to trust each other even when we disagree. Such love and trust really are possible only through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives individually and corporately. As we meet together this morning, we confess our lack of love, and we ask God for the fullness of God’s Spirit, and we worship and adore the Lord who gave his life for us on the cross. The real focus of our worship is always God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God, who alone makes us one and enables us to live together as one body with all of our unique gifts. Amen!

Steinbach Mennonite Church

10 February 2019

Texts

1 Corinthians 12: 1-14, 27-31

Concerning spiritual gifts

12 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to dumb idols. ³ Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Unity and diversity in the body

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

1 Corinthians 12: 31b – 13:13

Love is indispensable

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Law of Christ

We live in a world that has forgotten how to disagree without being disagreeable. We draw lines in the sand and dare people to cross them. We make the issue of the day the hill on which we are willing to die. The situation has become bad enough that I can only describe it in clichés. You may have heard the way that Rick Warren has stated it:

Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.

“You must fear or hate them.” This is the way that people in our world think. We live in so much turmoil with our society changing and heaving beneath our feet, with the result that any disagreement is profoundly threatening. But we are the people of God, whose lives and future belong to God. Do we need to live in such fear? Is there another way? I think there is. Over the next several weeks we want to explore the related ideas of agreement and acceptance, looking for a way to disagree with each other while still accepting each other.

Our Texts

I begin with a few comments on our texts this morning, and then move from the texts to the issue I have raised.

Deuteronomy 6: We have heard the great creed of Judaism many times – the “Shema Yisrael”: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” The creed is then expressed as a command to love: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

This creed and command stood at the heart of the Jews’ identity, so much so that when Jesus was asked to summarize the Law (Matthew 22), he combined Deuteronomy with Leviticus and said:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

This combination was well known in Rabbinic circles and expressed well the centre of the Mosaic Law.

In the passage in John 15, Jesus is speaking to his disciples after the Last Supper. The extended passage begins in John 13, and the next action in the drama is Jesus’ arrest. The chapter works out what Jesus means when he says, “I am the vine, and you [the disciples] are the branches.” In doing so, he gives the disciples a command, which Paul later calls “the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2):

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: love each other.

“My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.” This passage spells out Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. After he washes the disciples’ feet, he says to them: “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

What makes this a new command? At one level, it simply restates the great creed from Deuteronomy 6, but Jesus adds a critical piece: “Love … as I have loved you.” Then he says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” To love with Christ’s love. To love sacrificially, willing to lose everything in order to care for those one loves. This is the new command, the law of Christ.

A Digression to Go Deeper

We began with a quote from Rick Warren. You may also know another famous quote, often attributed to Saint Augustine: “In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity.” One internet source tells us that the quote actually “comes from an otherwise undistinguished German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century, Rupertus Meldenius.” Whoever said it, I suggest that this quote gives us a way to understand the passages we have just read and to live against the current of our culture.

In Essentials, Unity. We are united on that which is basic, that which is essential. But what are “the essentials”? What stands at the centre of our faith? This is a more difficult question than it seems. I ask it this way each year in my Worldview and Culture course at Providence: “What is the core of the Christian faith?” We discuss the question, and I have heard many answers. We work at bringing the essential core down to its simplest form. I won’t tell you about all the bits and pieces that we cover; I will simply give you my own conclusion, which comes in two parts.

The Content of Faith. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul begins: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance”, so we can expect that what follows is essential:

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

If we listen to Paul, the central essential affirmation of our faith is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that Jesus died for us, and that he rose from the dead for us, and that he has appeared to those for whom he died and rose. If we listen to the sermons reported in the book of Acts – clearly summaries rather than full text – the apostles preached Christ, and especially the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is “essential”. On this, there can be no disunity, for Christ alone is the foundation of our lives, and there can be no other (1 Corinthians 3:11).

A Digression. Although we don't pursue the thought here, it is worth recognizing that we are describing the importance of conversion (or the new birth, or commitment to Christ, or whatever you want to call it). All that follows – "ethics", "vitally important nonessentials", and so on – are fruit. They grow when we are grounded in Christ. Without the root of conversion, they cannot grow.

The Ethic of Faith. Jesus made it clear in the verses we read from John 15 that this basic affirmation also results in a particular way of living: “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.” This also is essential. We live for and in Christ and for and in each other.

This essential truth is absolutely different from the friendship that characterizes our society. Think of our favourite TV, such as “Survivor”. One makes friendships in order to survive. As soon as a friendship no longer helps me survive, one lets it go and forms a new friendship. The goal is to survive, and winning means that other people do not survive. The whole project makes relationships purely transactional, good only as long as they benefit me.

It reminds me of the way that we sometimes approach church. We ask, “What does this church do for me?” That is a transactional question. The right question is, “Do people here love God and love each other? Is the love of Christ present here?” This approach makes relationships a covenant within which we live, a covenant based on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

In Non-Essentials, Liberty. So we agree to be in unity that our relationships with each other are based on our relationship with Christ, through Christ’s death and resurrection. What does it mean to say that the rest of our faith consists of “non-essentials”? Many of us will struggle with this thought. It sounds like saying that everything else is unimportant. Can we really say that our commitment to peace and non-violence is non-essential and unimportant? If we make our commitment to peace essential, then we declare ourselves out of fellowship with the rest of the Christian Church, who do not make this affirmation.

You see, of course, that non-essential does not mean unimportant. Many non-essentials can be vitally important – so important that our faith requires them. But, however important they are, they are not the means of and basis for our salvation. We can be in fellowship with others who are in Christ, who also disagree with us on some vitally important implication of Christian faith. What does it mean, then, when we say, “In non-essentials, liberty”? What does “liberty” mean? Understanding this point is basic to discovering how to disagree in love.

Sometimes, we say: “I suppose we will have to agree to disagree.” This sounds good, but conceals a real problem. We may actually mean, “I don’t want to argue with you, but we will never speak of this matter again.” Afterwards, we not only don’t speak about the matter again, we don’t speak nearly as much with the person again. In fact, if we decide to avoid important issues with our friends, we may make those relationships shallow and less important.

We may mean something else – that our conversations do not need to lead to agreement in order to continue. For example, if I am a friend of someone who demonstrates their commitment to peace through a “just war position”, then we can discuss our disagreement without requiring agreement at the end. When I was a pastor in Pennsylvania 35 years ago, a young couple came to our church. The husband was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard. When he discovered we were a “Peace Church”, he asked me, “Do I have to leave the National Guard to come to your church?” I replied, “No. All you have to do is commit yourself to listen to what we believe, and I promise to be willing to listen to what you believe?” In the BIC, we call this “being open to more light” – recognizing that what we believe and do is vitally important, but remaining in fellowship and refusing to break fellowship as we discuss the important, but not fundamental, issue.

In All Things Charity. Charity, of course, means “love”. The love of God; the love Christ has for us; the love we give back to God and to each other; agape love; love that is willing to die if necessary for our brother and sister. It is only such love that makes us able to live with disagreement and continue accepting and loving each other. It is only such love that creates the space within which we can discern truth. This is a covenant love, which is not dissolved when someone moves from one congregation to another. This is covenant love, which builds up the other. This is covenant love, which comes to us only as a gift of the Spirit. As Paul puts it, “Now remain faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.” This love is itself the fundamental foundation, the essential core of Christian faith. Without this love, I wonder if we can even call ourselves Christian. With this love, we can face anything that comes to us in this life, in the hope that God gives us for an eternity lived in God’s presence, whose essence is perfect love.

Conclusion

Wendy Peterson taught at Providence, as well as in Metis and First Nations settings. She died last year, and we lost a loved and wise mother in our community. Some years ago, she described a practice at a gathering of First Nations, in which the youth were upset with their elders for the lack of progress they had made in some issues closely affecting the youth. As they spoke, the elders stood up and walked around behind the young people. As the youth continued to speak, the elders stood behind them. The gathering understood what the elders were saying as they stood there silently. Something like this: “As you criticize what we have done, we want you to know that we have your backs. You can speak strongly, and you can speak safely, because we support you whatever you have to say.”

That is accepting while disagreeing. There was no commitment to agree, but there was a commitment to listen and to hear. There was a commitment to support each other whatever happened. There is much more to say as we work this idea out, but this is my challenge to you as we begin – to love and accept the other, even when we disagree; to love and hold in the unity of our common commitment to Christ, even while disagreeing on how to live out that commitment.

13 January 2019

Steinbach Mennonite Church

Deuteronomy 6: 4-9

John 15: 9-17 and 13: 34-35

The First Church of Antioch/Jerusalem (Almost) Blows Up

Introduction

I am continuing the comparison of Palmer Becker’s summary of an Anabaptist identity with the first church in the book of Acts. Last Sunday we noted the connection of “Jesus is the centre of our faith” with the summary of the church begun at Pentecost (Acts 2). Today we examine a controversy that threatened to blow up the First Church of Jerusalem, and which decisively changed the shape of that church—the Council of Jerusalem, called to consider the question: Must Gentile believers in Jesus the Messiah be circumcised and keep the whole Law of Moses? They decided No! We take their decision for granted, given that we are part of the Gentile Church coming from that decision; but it was not nearly so straightforward and clear at the time.

Acts 15 illustrates the second and third of Becker’s summary statements: “Community is the centre of our life, and reconciliation is the centre of our work.” Given that Acts 15 has to do with who is in the church, we can see how it deals with Becker’s comment on community, but we will actually examine reconciliation more deeply. We begin with the background to this passage, and then examine the decision more closely.

The Issue of Circumcision

The first church in Acts 2 was a Jewish church. Although it was highly multicultural, it consisted of “Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2: 5). It remained a Jewish church throughout the first eight chapters of Acts, with a minor movement to Samaria. We can see from Acts 11: 19-21 both how thoroughly Jewish the church was and how it broke out of those confining walls:

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

As long as the church was Jewish, all followers of Jesus continued to observe the Jewish Law. Jesus himself had said that he came to fulfill the law, not to get rid of it. But when Gentiles started joining the fellowship, they had a problem.

The first major movement of Gentiles came in chapter 10, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius, sent by the Holy Spirit, and baptized a houseful of new Gentile believers, who had received the same gift of the Holy Spirit that fell on the first disciples at Pentecost. The evangelizing of Acts 11 added to this beginning, and soon there were many Gentile believers, especially in Antioch, about 300 miles in straight flight north of Jerusalem. (F.F. Bruce suggests that Antioch was the home of Luke, the author of Luke-Acts.)

When the Gentile church began in Antioch, the Jerusalem Church sent Barnabas to instruct them (Acts 11: 22). Barnabas enlisted Saul, and they discipled these new believers. One immediate result was that the Antioch Church helped the Jerusalem Church to survive a bad famine (Acts 11: 27-30). Barnabas and Saul took the gift to Jerusalem, and returned to Antioch at the end of chapter 12, taking with them Barnabas’ cousin, John Mark. (The rest of Chapter 12 tells about Peter’s imprisonment and about the death of James, the son of Zebedee.)

In chapter 13 one can sense trouble brewing. The Antioch Church was a Gentile church, and they sent Barnabas and Saul on a missionary journey to modern Turkey. They went first to Cyprus (which was Barnabas’ home), then to a number of cities in Turkey (closer to Paul’s home in Tarsus). They started by preaching in the synagogue, with good responses from the community, but the Jewish leaders opposed them and began to “heap abuse” on them. In 13: 46f Paul and Barnabas responded that they would now turn to the Gentiles, which marks the beginning of Paul’s Gentile ministry. (Note the significant shift in naming; until chapter 13 Acts refers to Barnabas and Saul; from this chapter on Acts refers to Paul and Barnabas, suggesting that Paul takes the lead, using his Roman—and therefore Gentile—name.) Chapter 14 continues their ministry in Turkey, leading to more conversions and the growth of the Gentile Church. So the stage is set for Acts 15.

The Text

Verses 1-4: If the Jewish church had so far not insisted on circumcision, that now changed. Some Pharisees from the Jerusalem Church insisted that the new Gentile believers should be circumcised; Paul and Barnabas stood against them. The Antioch Church gathered together and decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to work out a solution with the elders of the church there. This does not mean that the Jerusalem Church had authority over the Antioch Church, but indicates that the two groups in the church (Jewish-background believers and Gentile-background believers) recognized that this issue was central to the shape of the gospel, and therefore to the shape of the new church. You notice that they were welcomed in Jerusalem. The two groups began their conversation hoping to find a resolution, not expecting to disagree.

Verses 5-11: These verses present the basic debate.

1. The circumcisers made their case: Everyone who follows Jesus must also keep the whole Law of Moses, including circumcision. Clearly this position means that new Gentile believers have a lot more to do than just follow Jesus. From verse 5 we can see that the ones most likely to insist on keeping the whole law—including circumcision—were Pharisees who had accepted the gospel. They might have expected Paul the Pharisee to agree with them, but he did not.

2. The apostles and elders debated their case. We sometimes call this “the Jerusalem Council”, but this was a smaller leadership group who spoke for the whole church. (This fact does not mean that an elder-led church is biblical and other forms or not; this form reflected Jewish culture, drawn directly from the synagogue.)

3. There was a long conversation, in which we can assume that most people had a chance to speak.

4. Peter then makes his case against circumcision for Gentiles. The circumcisers may have thought that Peter would be on their side, after all, as Paul tells in Galatians (2: 11ff), when the circumcisers first came to Antioch, Peter listened to them and stopped eating with Gentiles until they would be circumcised. But Paul rebuked Peter at that time, and Peter appears to have been convinced. He says two things:

1) God showed me in the house of Cornelius that God loves all people; God does not play favourites between Jews and Gentiles.

2) The law is actually a yoke (a burden of discipline) that neither Gentiles nor Jews can bear. Rather, it is God’s grace given in Jesus that saves us, just as God saves Gentiles.

Verses 12-21: Peter’s words shifted the mood of the meeting. Now Paul and Barnabas started telling what happened in their recent trip through Asia Minor (Turkey), in which God’s Spirit was as evident has the Spirit had been at Pentecost. When they were done, James, who appears to take the leadership in the Jerusalem Church, gives the verdict. This James was the brother of Jesus, and probably the author of the book of James in the NT.

He said:

1) God spoke through Simon (Peter) to call Cornelius.

2) The prophets had said this would happen (quoting from Amos 9: 11-12). 3)

3) We must listen to what God is doing today: Gentiles do not need to keep the Law (so they do not need to be circumcised), but we do ask them to honour Jewish food laws to make the transition easier for Jewish-background believers. (Compare Paul in Romans 14 and 15 on food offered to idols.)

So the resolution to the issue was to focus on their common centre: “We are saved the same way that they are—through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The resolution included advice not to take advantage of the decision to put the losing side on the defensive. Circumcision was a once-a-lifetime ritual, but food laws were lived with every day. Rather than making the Jewish-background believers uncomfortable on a daily basis, every time they saw Gentile-background believers eating food, they looked for common ground to help people live together.

More About The Issue

It is hard for us from this distance in time to see how contentious an issue this matter of circumcision was. Listen to the way Paul talks about the issue in Galatians, which was written just before the council met in Jerusalem and dealt with these issues from Paul’s perspective. (If you want to know what Paul said in the Antioch and Jerusalem meetings, Galatians gives a pretty good idea!)

Galatians 3: 1-3,

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

Again, Galatians 5: 2-6,

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

And finally, Galatians 5: 11-12,

Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Clearly Paul saw the centre of the gospel, faith in Jesus Christ, as at stake in the debate.

Meanwhile the circumcisers were themselves making a strong case that any Gentile men who were not circumcised were betraying the Law of Moses and betraying Jesus at the same time. The issue was one that had the potential to destroy the first church, both the First Church of Jerusalem and the First Church of Antioch.

In this incendiary situation, the apostles and elders found a way forward by reconciling the two groups together into one body. This reconciliation was revolutionary, and serves as an example for us to follow in our lives today. If Paul argues eloquently against circumcision in the book of Galatians, he speaks with even greater passion of the great work of reconciliation that the church actually embraced. Hear his description of this reconciliation in Ephesians 2: 11-22,

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Wow! This is the heart of who we are. “Reconciliation is the centre of our work.

For Us Today

I wonder what example to choose to illustrate such reconciliation at work today. Often our conflicts are over criminal actions, so we observe the way that the Amish forgave the killer in the Nickel Mines shooting. One can find stories in the news of individual acts of forgiving acts as terrible as a murder. Perhaps the most moving for me have been reports in the NY Times from April 6, 2014, about survivors of the Genocide in Rwanda. The article tells stories from the work of the NGOs seeking to bring perpetrators and victims together for confession and reconciliation.

Here is one such brief story:

NDAHIMANA: “The day I thought of asking pardon, I felt unburdened and relieved. I had lost my humanity because of the crime I committed, but now I am like any human being.”

MUNGANYINKA: “After I was chased from my village and Dominique and others looted it, I became homeless and insane. Later, when he asked my pardon, I said: ‘I have nothing to feed my children. Are you going to help raise my children? Are you going to build a house for them?’ The next week, Dominique came with some survivors and former prisoners who perpetrated genocide. There were more than 50 of them, and they built my family a house. Ever since then, I have started to feel better. I was like a dry stick; now I feel peaceful in my heart, and I share this peace with my neighbors.”

None of their stories suggest that reconciliation is easy. It must be worked at one step at a time. In the early church the conflict did not end with the Jerusalem Council; it had to be worked at one step at a time for many years.

Our conflicts are not nearly as serious as the criminal acts I have mentioned, but the scars they leave are deep, separating people from each other. The first church came close to a full-scale explosion, and avoided it by drawing on their deeper common centre, their life in Christ.

They made peace by laying their differences out on the table, and then re-centring on Christ. That work of re-centring became the work of reconciliation. We do the same today—from seeking peace with God to seeking peace between the nations of the world. Reconciliation is our work. Reconciliation is our ministry and our message, given to us by God, in a world on the verge of exploding. To be fully Anabaptist is to embrace this work of reconciliation in every area of our lives in every way possible with everyone around us.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

21 May 2017 

Text, Acts 15: 1-21

The Council at Jerusalem

15 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. ³ The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” ⁶ The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷ After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹² The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. ¹³ When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. ¹⁴ Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.¹⁵ The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: ¹⁶ “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,  that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’—¹⁸ things known from long ago.

¹⁹ “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰ Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. ²¹ For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”