We All Need Some Protection

I spend too much time on Facebook – at least that’s what Lois tells me. One of the things that becomes increasingly clear is that people today are frightened and that in our fear we tend to lash out at anyone we think might make our problems worse.

Governments have taken extreme measures in response to the pandemic sweeping the globe, and at least some of us lash out at the government. Others lash out at those who protest the actions taken by local and federal authorities. One person says that the authority figure is a bad person – greatly to be feared, and another replies that the protestor is a bad person – greatly to be feared.

Underlying the protests and the anger are fears that we all share. Will our lives ever be the same again? Will our economies survive? Will our children and our grandchildren have a good world to live in? These fears are rational, and we take them seriously. Real problems exist. The anger and accusations, however, are often irrational, and we need to set them aside. The trouble is, we still need to deal with the real dangers that lie beneath our fears. This task gives our context for reading our passages this morning. Hear them again with me.

John 10

There are at least three contexts for us to keep in mind as we listen to the text from John 10: The original context in which Jesus spoke; the context within which John wrote; and our own context as we read today.

The original context. Often, when we speak to someone, we have more than one audience in mind. The primary audience here are the Pharisees; the disciples are the secondary audience. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are false shepherds – thieves and robbers. He is also reassuring his disciples that he is the way to life for them and for all who come to him.

The people of Jesus’ time lived in a society full of uncertainty and anxiety. There were political parties who promised to save people: the Sadducees and the Zealots were two such parties – the former advocated complete compliance with the political authorities, and the latter advocated complete rebellion. Jesus says, “You’re both wrong. Your efforts lead to destruction: ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.’” There were also spiritual parties who claimed that they could save the people: the Pharisees and the Essenes were two such parties – the former emphasized Torah Law with their guidance, while the latter took holiness even further and insisted on even greater ritual purity. Jesus rejects their efforts as well.

To the Pharisees, Jesus said that he was the gate through which any such party would enter, if they really meant to help the people of Israel – the sheep of God’s sheepfold. To the disciples, Jesus said that safety and security were found only in him, not in any other religious or political group or program.

The larger text in John 10 includes these words (v. 17f): “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” A basic point in Jesus’ words is this prediction of his own death, which is the true way of salvation for the world.

The Writer’s Context. John wrote these words many years later. My own guess is that he wrote the gospel near the end of his life, perhaps 50 years or so after the events. I believe that John, the writer, is the same John who was Jesus’ disciple – “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” You might call this book “the gospel of love” – but I get ahead of myself. He had thought about these events all his life. He had told the stories many times, and the details were clear in his mind. John lived in Ephesus and probably wrote his gospel down in that city, on the coast of modern Turkey, within the Roman Empire of his day. The island of Patmos was not far away in the Aegean Sea.

Just as there had been when Jesus walked this earth, there were significant dangers facing the early church as John wrote his gospel. Some years before (in the mid-60s), Nero had struck out against Christians, leading to the executions of the apostles Peter and Paul. As John was writing, a new Emperor controlled people’s lives, the Emperor Domitian. This is the same period in which the book of Revelation was written, and we can see behind the gospel record the same awareness of those who would indeed seek to “steal and kill and destroy” the church.

In this context of persecution, many parties promised salvation. Some advocated collaborating with Rome, even if it meant going against faith in Christ. Others wanted to fight against Rome. Some offered new religious answers, saying that they alone knew the special spiritual meanings of the teachings of Jesus. Some said that Jesus was not really the Son of God and that they could tell you what God really wanted everyone to do.

To all of them, John says clearly: Jesus is the gate by which a true shepherd comes in. Indeed, Jesus is the true Shepherd. If your answer to the problems of life does not go through Jesus, the Son of God, you are an impostor, and we should not listen to you. Jesus is the Messiah, the Chosen One of God; all other “saviours” are impostors.

Our Context Today. As I said at the beginning, we also face real dangers today – political, economic, and spiritual. Although many of us have lived relatively safe lives, this year, our world has been turned upside down by the corona virus, and many now experience trouble much like the days when Jesus walked in Palestine and the days when John taught as an old man in Ephesus. Such times bring out the usual constellation of people and movements who think they can save us. We have economic saviours and political saviours. We have religious saviours and psychological saviours. I’m not interested in analysing them this morning: We don’t need to argue politics or psychology as part of the sermon. I am interested, however, in one characteristic they all share: They tell us that they and they alone can save us.

John reminds them and us of Jesus: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” Whatever our political views and whatever our economic plans, salvation and real life comes only through Jesus. We’ll explore what that means after we consider the Old Testament reading.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is perhaps the best beloved passage in all Scripture. In the old Mennonite Hymnal, the psalm appears four times in the space of five hymns in four different arrangements!

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want for anything. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³ he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

One notes that the psalmist lacks nothing even in the darkest valley, even when surrounded by enemies. This is a Psalm for troubled times. It has one clear theme: That “the Lord”, the Ruler of the Universe, is on our side. The Psalm never suggests eliminating the problems or the surrounding enemies. This is not a good text for the prosperity gospel! “Goodness and love” follow the faithful every day – not just when times are good, but also when times are hard; not just when the sun shines, but also when storms gather and threaten to sweep us away.

In this Psalm, we hear a foretaste of Jesus’ words promising safety and peace to his disciples. Safety and peace are found only in belonging to the Lord, who is the true shepherd. The figure of the shepherd is often identified with the king in the Old Testament; here “my shepherd” is God, the true king of Israel. There is no substitute for faith in God.

Synthesis

We return now to the question I hinted at a bit ago: What does it mean to come to trust in God alone (as Psalm 23 calls us to do)? What does it mean to rely on Jesus as the true Shepherd (as John 10 calls us to do)? It is not enough to say, “I believe in Jesus.” That is a necessary first step, but it must be acted on and lived out in concrete terms. What then does it mean?

A Tangent: We could talk about how we find protection and safety – what it means to “rest in God’s presence” and be in the sheepfold. “Be still and know that I am God” is a basic step in knowing God’s love and peace. I am asking, “Once we do that, what do we become? How do we act?” Not, how do we find peace, but how do we live when we have received peace from the true Shepherd?

John, the writer of the gospel and the disciple of Jesus, was clear about what he thought this means. In John 13, he recalls Jesus’ words: “Love each other as I have loved you. This is how people will know that you are my disciples.” In John 17, he recalls the way Jesus prayed for unity in the garden, preceding his crucifixion. In 1 John 2, he writes, “⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.”

John’s letters are full of exhortations to love. Among many other verses, I refer to just one more set of verses, in 1 John 4:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

It is clear that at least so far as John is concerned, we show our faith in God by living lives of love – love for God and love for all people around us, love “for the household of faith” and also for every person in the world.

So What?

I began the sermon with memories of Facebook conversations about the Corona Virus. As I reflect on the fear all around us, I am reminded that Jesus promises protection; and we all need protection. I am reminded that Jesus promises safety to those who come in through the gate, that is through him; and we all need safety. Jesus tells us that no one else can offer safety and life. These are available only in and through Jesus.

Many Christians would agree with me that far, but I am pushing the point further. Responding to people in love means that I do not attack them. I do not suggest that my “enemies” are bad people who want to destroy me. I treat them always with respect and concern for their good. This is harder than it sounds. In times of distress, people often attack others indiscriminately.

Families know this truth. When a parent refuses a child’s request for something that would be bad for the child, the child may respond with an angry “I hate you!” Yet the parent knows that the outburst represents frustration rather than rejection. A good parent responds with love, not with an attack in return. The point is that when someone attacks us, we respond in love – even as parents do to their children and as Jesus has done for us.

Jesus wants us to embody love and care for the people around us. In the political arena, danger leads us to divide and attack. Jesus says, “Love each other as I have loved you.” In the business arena, danger and the threat of failure leads us to fight for our lives. Jesus says, “Love each other as I have loved you.” In all of our relationships, danger leads us to be suspicious of each other; Jesus says, “Love each other as I have loved you.”

Conclusion

You will have to work out for yourselves what this means in practical terms. The sort of thing I remember is how I felt in one of my job interviews as a pastor. I felt as though the board interviewing me treated me unfairly, and I told my bishop about it. He reminded me that the community makes these decisions and we can trust them to do what is right under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. He was right. Several of the board members who interviewed me are personal friends, and I know that they were seeking to do what was best for the church. I’m reminded of the old BIC Bishop who went to a particularly contentious conference. Afterwards, his son asked him what he thought of the decisions made there. He replied, “I don’t like what they did, but I trust the Brethren.” That is the response of love. When we to the true Shepherd, we follow his desires in our lives, and we live in faith and love for all people around us.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

3 May 2020

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, ³ he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

John 10: 1-10

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

·         Focus statement: Everyone needs help, but where we get it from and what we use it for is what matters most.

·         Thought provoking question: Where do you turn for help with the current pandemic, and what do you do with the help you receive?

·         Going Deeper Questions:

1) What are some of the sources of help you see people around us turning to in crisis?

2) What are the beneficial and negative effects of the help we receive?

3) How can we respond to fear and anxiety in life-giving ways, so that we grow stronger, not weaker?

Long-Lasting Forever Love

This is the first Sunday of our series: “You asked for it.” A number of different people have submitted suggestions, and Lee and I have chosen four of them to speak on over the next four Sundays. Some of them may also find their way into future sermons. I can add that if you have other ideas or questions, our doors and ears are always open.

The first of our series is an effort to answer the question, “What should we do when we lose our first love?” The paper submitted to us read: “Losing our first love, Revelation 2:1-4. After a significant commendation (v. 1-3) comes a significant criticism (v. 4). What is the first love? How is it lost? What does coming back look like?” I have reworded this question into the focus statement you have seen: “God calls God’s people to love: to love God and to love each other. We sometimes forget to love.”

I wonder what most of us think when we read this accusation: “You have lost your first love.” I remember a few years ago at Providence we made this a theme of our chapel services. The chapel coordinator and her husband had been working in Asia as missionaries from the church in Korea, and they took several years at Providence to train for further overseas ministry. She said to us, “I feel as though we have lost our first love.” Her concern was that we needed revival; we needed to recover our first love.

I don’t know if the person who wrote this suggestion for our series had the same idea in mind, but they may have. In order to get at the question, we will look at the Scripture passages we read earlier in the service and then come back to our question: How can we regain our first love?

Deuteronomy 6: 4-9

These words stand at the heart of the Jewish identity: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” It is said that an observant Jew wishes to die with these words on his/her lips, remembering their first love and central love.

It places two basic thoughts at the centre of Jewish faith – and of Christian faith. The first is the unity of God: “The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” As Christians, we understand this unity as a trinity of three persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternal relationship. A basic aspect of this three-in-one unity is that God is love. Love requires both one who loves and one who is loved. God as a unity has no one to love, until God creates all that is as an object of God’s love. God as a trinity exercises love within the Godhead from all eternity: Each person of the Godhead loving the other.

The second thought picks up on this eternal love flowing between Father and Son and Spirit. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.” Jesus uses this verse in his own summary of the law, to which he adds a verse from Leviticus: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love for God and love for the other stand at the centre of our Christian identity. John suggests that love for God naturally expresses itself as love for the other. Hear 1 John 4:

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

The point is clear. When we talk about our love for God – “our first love” – we are talking about the way that we live our Christian lives as a whole. The question about our first love deals with the heart of our Christian experience and of the life of our church as a whole.

Revelation 2: 1-7

The book of Revelation was written near the end of the First Century. I am following John Yeatts in the Believers’ Church Bible Commentary Series. Yeatts notes that the time in which Revelation was written to the seven churches of Asia (Ephesus – Smyrna – Pergamum – Thyatira – Sardis – Philadelphia – Laodicea) was a combination of persecution for Christians in particular and prosperity and peace for the Roman Empire as a whole. This setting is remarkably like the setting of the church in contemporary Europe and North America. We have a generally prosperous and peaceful society, but we have been pushed to the sidelines. We are not persecuted actively in the way that First Century Christians were, but we have a sense of unease that tempts us to ally ourselves more closely with our society than with God.

The speaker is Jesus (Rev 1: 16-20), and the description in the first verse makes clear who this Jesus is. He “holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” That is, he is the one who controls the universe [the seven stars remind us of the gods who rule the cosmos] and the church [the seven lampstands]. In the surrounding society, Caesar was hailed as Emperor and also called “the Son of God.” When the Romans held public ceremonies, they included a sacrifice on an altar, repeating the words, “Caesar is Lord.” John makes it clear that only one can claim to be Lord and Saviour, and that one is Jesus.

In this situation, Jesus commends the Ephesians for their good deeds, their perseverance, and their faithfulness to sound teaching. He also condemns them for “forsaking their first love” – not just that they had lost it, but that they had forsaken it. Apparently, they have another love that is now first in their affections. He concludes with a final commendation for avoiding the sin of the Nicolaitans [evidently a group within the larger church, who were following “other gods”].

Synthesis

The centre of the Law, then, calls us to worship and love God above anything else in life. God made us. God rules our world. God gives us the opportunity to be God’s co-workers in this life. Anything less than living with God at the centre of our lives is “leaving our first love”. Obedience to God’s ways is good. Teaching and believing “the gospel” is good. Even more important than these things, however, is loving God above all else.

With these thoughts in mind, what does it mean to “lose our first love”? The commentators suggest such possibilities as losing the first enthusiasm people have when they first choose to follow God. I remember the sensation of being a new Christian. I felt like I would never lose my temper at someone again (I was 12 years old), because I knew Jesus loved me and I knew that I loved Jesus. Of course, that enthusiasm faded. It usually does. Does that mean I have lost my first love? I don’t think so.

Remember that the churches of Asia lived in a context in which society elevated Caesar as divine and despised Christians as atheists (because Christians said that Caesar was not God). The great temptation that the Ephesians faced was to buy into the peace of Rome [Pax Romana] – that is, to worship Rome instead of worshipping God. This danger is referred to throughout the book of Revelation, most dramatically in the picture of Revelation 13 of the mark of the Beast. Christians had to choose between the mark of God or the mark of Rome. Would they choose to belong to the Family of God or to the Empire of Rome (Rev 13:17 and 14:1)?

I suggest that the basic problem Jesus names in the life of the Ephesians is a problem of allegiance. The problem is not that they were unenthusiastic. Those of us over 50 would be in trouble if we had to manufacture the enthusiasm of a 20-year old to prove our love for God. Rather than a lack of enthusiasm, Jesus names a lack of clarity in their allegiance.

What Does “First Love” Look Like?

Often, our deepest allegiance will provoke great enthusiasm within us. When we sing “606”, I feel a deep emotion accompanying our declaration of God’s praise. When I celebrated my father’s final birthday with him just before he died, I declared my love for him and felt deep emotion accompanying my declaration of love. These things often go together. Yet we must be careful: People can show great enthusiasm and not actually commit themselves to anything.

I think of a scene from College Football in the United States. My older sister and her husband had season tickets to Penn State games for many years. The stadium is usually filled with more than 100,000 fans. One of their best-known cheers is simple: One half of the stadium shouts, “We Are…” and the other half shouts back, “… Penn State!” My sister and brother in law took their pastor to one game. He was in awe! And quite jealous. He expressed a desire that their congregation could worship with such enthusiasm!

Certainly, American football (like hockey in Canada) can be a kind of religion, but I doubt that everyone in the stadium is really declaring their undying allegiance to Penn State. The fact is that in a crowd anyone can show enthusiasm and remain only lightly committed to the goal the crowd applauds.

Total allegiance is deeper and more vital. Let me tell you a story. Jesse Engle was head of the first missionary party who went for the Brethren in Christ to Zimbabwe. He was born in 1838 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At 41 years old, he followed the call of the church to move to Kansas with a large group of BIC farm families. He acted as a bishop and leader in the church there. Then, in 1897, he agreed to lead the missionary group to Zimbabwe. They left for Africa in 1898, when he was 60 years old. He died there after less than two years, living in rigorous pioneering conditions.

Here is how Engle described his call to go to Africa:

[I expect to return after a few years, if I do not die there.] The matter, however, is entirely with the Lord; my coming to Africa was no half-concluded step, but enough of clearness in the call to move me forward with an unconditional surrender even unto death; so now I have nothing to choose or dictate. The Lord will doubtless consummate all things well.

One of his co-workers (Frances Davidson) described his death in the following words:

I … found Brother Engle speaking the Zulu language rapidly, seemingly unconscious of our presence. … All night we watched … far from his children, far from the comforts of civilization, with none of his family or relatives, save his devoted wife, by his side. As it became evident that the end was near, that heroic mother, who had been such a worthy companion in all his labors, stooped over and imprinted on his face a kiss for each of their seven sons in far-away America. At 5 P.M., April 3, he breathed his last.

Missionaries are not unique, the only ones who can show total allegiance to God. They are simply witnesses sent by God across cultural boundaries. We are all witnesses to God’s work through Jesus, and all of us are to live with Jesus as our Lord; all of us give our full allegiance to God in Christ. Jesus is our first love. Jesus alone is our Lord.

An Application

There were three questions at the beginning: What is the first love? How is it lost? What does coming back look like?

·         What is our first love? Jesus. Total allegiance to Jesus. Not the feelings that go with such allegiance, nor the enthusiasm with which we worship, but the full commitment of our hearts and lives to Jesus.

·         How is it lost? A good question! One way is by acting as though we have a different allegiance. We can pursue what this means in the Going Deeper class.

·         What does coming back (repentance) look like? I sometimes think that repentance looks like going down to the altar and praying through with many tears. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it looks like a simple re-affirmation of my first allegiance.

A simple re-affirmation: Every morning I pray the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You know the prayer. You could summarise it by repeating those first lines in this abbreviated form: “Your name. Your reign. Your will.” I started praying the Lord’s Prayer daily when I was in spiritual crisis. It changed my life. Daily repetition of my own primary allegiance reminds me of my failures to live up to that love and spurs me on to live up to that love. As we close the sermon this morning, I invite you to pray the Lord’s Prayer with me. “Our Father, Who art in Heaven, …”

Texts:

Deuteronomy 6: 4-9

⁴ Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates.

Revelation 2: 1-7

2 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favour: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Questions

·         Do you ever feel as though your life as a follower of Jesus is hollow? Do you ever wish that you could recapture the confidence of an earlier stage of faith?

·         I offered a definition of love. How would you define “first love” or “our love for God”?

·         How can you (we) tell that you (we) still love God? How can you grow in your love for God?

·         What does it look like in actual practice to love God deeply?

Steinbach Mennonite Church

6 October 2019

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