Jesus’ Perfect Hope

Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25; Mark 13:1-8
November 18, 2012
© 2012

 

I.                One of the hazards for we who are preachers is that we have to listen to our own sermons. Every Sunday I want to be sure I have heard from God for myself before I presume to speak to you. However, once in a while I feel that God is shouting to me, “Pay attention, Norm! This one’s for you.” That has been my experience this week. I definitely needed the focus of today’s message that with Jesus as our great heavenly high priest, we need not be alarmed by the uncertainties of the future, but can face them together with confidence.

A.           I’m sure many of you know we made an impromptu trip to Dallas on Monday to help our son deal with a personal emergency. From his first voice-mail message I jumped to what I took as an overwhelmingly disastrous conclusion. When he phoned again a few hours later and actually spoke with Candy, we learned that though serious, his problem was not nearly as severe as I had imagined. I have to admit I wasn’t listening to Jesus at the moment.

B.            Whether you are pleased or disappointed with the results of the election, the immediate political future is loaded with anxiety. Will the politicians care enough about the welfare of the people to find a compromise that avoids the fiscal cliff? David Petraeus’ personal behavior has clouded the already confusing Benghazi crisis. The violence between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza has eclipsed the violence in Syria and threat from Iran in this week’s news. Public anxiety about the future seems to be spiking this week.

C.            In Mark 13:1-8 Jesus’ confrontations with the Jerusalem Temple leadership were behind him and the cross was approaching. Jesus’ disciples seem somewhat oblivious of the magnitude of the events they were experiencing. Jesus’ responses to their mundane curiosity moved them toward a future perspective.

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” ²Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

³When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” ⁵Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. ⁶Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. ⁷When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

II.            Coming from rural Galilee, Jesus’ disciples were awestruck by the grandeur of the Jerusalem Temple. When Jesus pronounced its doom, their curiosity prompted them to ask for insider information. Jesus’ unexpected responses to his disciples remind us that with Jesus as our great heavenly high priest, we need not be alarmed by the uncertainties of the future, but can face them together with confidence.

A.           Monday morning I needed to hear Jesus’ word to his disciples, “Do not be alarmed!” but I missed it until after midnight. Whether we feel like our personal lives are falling apart or the world is falling apart, we have a hard time receiving what we most need to hear from Jesus, “Do not be alarmed!” Jesus was not suggesting that the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple that was to come in 70 AD was insignificant or good. Rather, he called his disciples, and us, to be so anchored in him that we are not taken by surprise by storms but weather them with faith.

B.            The disciples wanted a time line. They wanted a sign so they could have exclusive knowledge which would give them power over the future. But Jesus warned that seeking such knowledge and following those who offer it only leads us astray. Jesus is clear that these disastrous events are not signs that the end has arrived, but will be normal and expected for the world until the end comes. How easily we are led astray by preachers of doom and disaster, by commodity brokers hawking fear of the next crash, by politicians overplaying their power for good and overplaying the threat of their opponents for evil.

C.            Jesus used the fascinating image of birthpangs to describe the future turmoil. Without pushing it too far, I believe Jesus told his disciples and us that beyond the pain is the joy of new life. Don’t despair because the immediate future looks to dark and difficult. God is bringing something new and glorious, and you get to be part of it.

III.       Hebrews 10 continues the exploration of Jesus as our great heavenly high priest. It includes manifestly practical guidance for approaching the future that dovetails with Jesus’ word to his disciples. With Jesus as our great heavenly high priest, we need not be alarmed by the uncertainties of the future, but can face them together with confidence.

A.           Verse 25 connects the exploration of Christ as the high priest taking his own blood into the heavenly Temple with Jesus’ word to his disciples about anxiety for the future and with practical guidance for us today. The writer of Hebrews turns to the practical conclusion of this theological and spiritual treatise on the hinge of seeing “the Day approaching.”

B.            First, because of Jesus’ high priestly work, we can approach “the Day” with confidence, echoing Jesus’ word, “Do not be alarmed!” Verse 19 says that we, too, can enter the heavenly sanctuary and the presence of God by Jesus’ blood which he already brought for our redemption. Verse 22 tells us to approach with full assurance of faith. Heart and body, our whole person, has been washed clean by Jesus our high priest. So, as verse 23 says, we hold fast to our confession of hope, not because we are so spiritually strong or mature, but because Jesus our high priest is faithful to his promise.

C.            Second, we face the future, anticipating “the Day,” not on our own but as a community of faith. Verse 25 tells us not to neglect meeting together. It reminds me of the Woody Allen line, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Facing the kind of future Jesus described is not for the fainthearted. We can’t do it alone. We need each other. Verse 24 tells us to provoke each other to love and good deeds. Facing the uncertainties of the future can be discouraging. Verse 25 tells us to encourage each other.

IV.      In her 1980 book Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Madeline L’Engle wrote, “When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability ... To be alive is to be vulnerable.” As we gather with friends and family for Thanksgiving later this week, we can be especially thankful that we do not have to be vulnerable on our own. With Jesus as our great heavenly high priest, we need not be alarmed by the uncertainties of the future, but can face them together with confidence.

A.           In my interim pastor training we were taught that the interim pastor is to be a stable, non-anxious presence for the congregation through the uncertain time of transition between pastors. On Monday I was anything but stable and non-anxious. Candy and I are personally very thankful that in our three months with you, this congregation has not only accepted us but has supported us on our journey, which has its own twists and turns. Several of you have shared your own struggles with adult children. You have helped us know we are not alone. Many of you have prayed for us, not just for my ministry with you but for the concerns we have for our parents, children and grandchildren. Your encouraging words have protected me from discounting the validity of my ministry with you. Thank you!

B.            In our three months with you we have walked together through funerals, hospitalizations and surgeries, career and family transitions, joys and frustrations. As you build your list of things for which you are thankful, I hope you will include the people of this congregation who have encouraged you at a difficult time, the people who have provoked you to faith and good deeds when you were faltering. My provocation to you this morning is to express your thanks to them personally. Face to face is probably best, but a note (even e-mail) or a phone call is good too.

C.            I got to know Dave and Neta Jackson in a circle of young Christian writers in Chicago. In 1974 they wrote a book on Christian community called Living Together in a World Falling Apart. The writer of Hebrews emphasizes how much we need each other in the community of faith whether we feel like our personal lives or the world around us are falling apart. Sometimes the church may feel like a life raft that is just enough so we can survive. Other times the church may feel like an advance outpost of the Kingdom of God, representing Jesus in hostile territory. Sometimes the Church may feel like a warm family or village that comforts and celebrates together. Sometimes the Church feels like a safe zone where we are free to acknowledge our vulnerabilities. We are the people of Jesus looking to him as the Day is approaching.

Jesus and the Perfect Offering

Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
November 11, 2012
© 2012

 

I.                The pilgrimage I took to Rome in 2004 with Pittsburgh Seminary centered around the spiritual leadership of Benedict and Francis. I believe God showed me that though I was more comfortable with a laid back style like Francis, I needed to grow in being more assertive like Benedict. As valuable as that was, I also experienced uneasy ambivalence in Rome.

A.           During one afternoon’s free time a few of us wandered through Chiesa del Gesù, the home church of the Jesuits in Rome. The altar was an open table with a glass case under it. Inside the glass case were three skulls and an assortment of bones. These were the relics of Jesuit martyrs who had been killed by Protestants.

B.            I was used to the stories of Roman Catholic church authorities martyring Protestants, and seeing the stories portrayed the other way was unsettling. The Vatican Museum has a gallery devoted to the “religious wars.” One large painting shows Dutch Protestant farmers lynching Franciscan monks from the rafters of a barn. The farmers were portrayed as clownish charactures and the monks as devoutly praying while they awaited their fate.

C.            The residence where we stayed was just a few minute walk from St. Peter’s Bascillica where I did some leisurely exploring. The art is magnificent. The biblical and historical symbolism is profound. As a “Temple,” it can both draw to and distract from the glory of God. As much as I appreciated the grandeur St. Peter’s, I couldn’t avoid the realization that its construction was funded in the sixteenth century by the selling of indulgences that prompted Martin Luther to start the Protestant Reformation. Church leaders at the time piled on the guilt to induce people to give so they could build what often poor donors would never see.

II.            In Mark’s Gospel, we are looking at Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple during Holy Week, through the lens of the Epistle to the Hebrews. As our great heavenly high priest in the earthly Temple, Jesus exposes our cover-ups and affirms our vulnerabilities.

A.           Mark 12:37b-44 is the culmination of Jesus’ confrontations with the leadership of the Jerusalem Temple. His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday set the stage for driving the merchants out of the Temple. The Temple leaders challenged his authority to do this. In response, Jesus told the parable of the vineyard tenants who kill the son of the owner, and the Temple leaders knew he told it against them. The Pharisees challenged Jesus on paying taxes, and he silenced them. The Sadducees challenged him on marriage and the resurrection, and he silenced them. Jesus turned the lawyer’s question about the greatest commandment back on him, and after that no one dared ask him any question. So Jesus went on the offensive with a question about Messiah as David’s son. As Jesus embarrassed the Temple leaders …

The large crowd was listening to him with delight.

As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces,³⁹and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! ⁴⁰They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

⁴¹He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. ⁴³Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.⁴⁴For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

B.            Jesus’ warned that the Scribes were using their appearances of piety to cover up that they devour widows’ houses. By strict tradition the Scribes who taught the Law were not supposed to receive a salary, but many of them lived quite well off of the voluntary contributions of their students. The teaching of many Scribes manipulated people with guilt to make contributions that enabled them to live with a level of luxury their students could never know. Jesus accused them, not just of greed and false piety, but of using the appearance of piety to cover up that they were feeding off the misfortune of even poor widows, whom the Law said deserved extra care.

C.            We often hear the story of the widow’s mite told by itself as a stewardship sermon. Mark purposely wrote them together. She was the personification of the widows whose houses were devoured by Scribes. Andy and I were talking about this passage the other day, and he observed – I think correctly – that when Jesus sat opposite the treasury, it was not just on the other side of the room but he sat in opposition to the treasury. Thirteen large metal funnels received money for specific Temple funds. None of which were prescribed in the Law of Moses. In those days all money was metal coins – no paper bills, no checks, no debit cards. So when wealthy people poured in large sums, it made a large noise. The widow’s two small copper coins made at best a faint pink, pink.

III.       To understand why Jesus commended the poor widow for her foolish offering to support the Temple establishment that he had been confronting and opposing, we recognize that as the heavenly great high priest in the earthly Temple, Jesus exposes our cover-ups and affirms our vulnerabilities.

A.           We read in Hebrews that the earthly Tabernacle was intended to be a reflection of the heavenly Temple. We got a feel for that back in August when we listened to Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the first Jerusalem Temple. But Hebrews is clear that even at its best, it is a reflection; it is not the real thing. When we start thinking something we have made to help us worship God is itself the worship of God, we are in great spiritual danger. Jesus was always reminding us not to see the outward appearances but to look for the spiritual realities in the far reaches of the infinite God and in the deep recesses of our hearts. Jesus’ confrontations with the Temple leaders exposed the corruption beneath the appearance of piety.

B.            Hebrews also says that Jesus is both the priest bringing the offering into the heavenly Temple, and he himself is also the offering. We need to be careful not to be so literalistic that we miss the point. Several times Hebrews says that this is a unique, unrepeatable offering. Unlike the sacrifices in the earthly Temple that must be repeated day after day, year after year, Jesus had dealt with sin once for all. No longer can guilt and shame be used to extract offerings. Like the widow who gave all she had to live on, our gifts express the giving of our total selves in joy and gratitude.

C.            Hebrews says that when the great high priest Jesus brought himself as the final offering for sin, he appeared in the presence of God on our behalf. The is that antithesis of hasatan in Job. Jesus is not the prosecuting attorney, Jesus is our defense attorney. Whatever accusation we bring against ourselves or anyone might bring against us, Jesus declares it inadmissible because his unrepeatable sacrifice of himself has dealt with it once for all.

IV.      As the heavenly great high priest in the earthly Temple, Jesus exposes our cover-ups and affirms our vulnerabilities. Jesus does not expose our cover-ups to embarrass or disqualify us, but to liberate us from their tyranny. And he affirms our vulnerabilities because that opens us to receive grace with gratitude.

A.           Most if not all of us find that we are shedding the same cover-ups and facing the same vulnerabilities over and over again. I know I am. That is exactly why Jesus’ sacrifice once for all is so important.

Thomas Keating describes it in his book Intimacy with God (Crossroad, New York, 1995, pp. 88-89)

What is most disconcerting for souls who have been on the journey for 20 or 30 years is that each time we make the transition from one level to the next, we are likely to encounter the same temptations we had before we started the journey, and we think, “I’m not getting anywhere; I’m just the same old stick.” … In actual fact, it is not the same temptation at all. … We are now dealing with it at a more mature level. Hence, we are capable of making a more complete surrender of that attachment or that aversion. If the Spirit asked us in the beginning to make a total surrender of every difficult person or situation, nobody could do it. By leading us gradually (the way human things work), through growth in trust and humility, we are able to make an even deeper surrender of ourselves to God.

B.            The crowd in the Temple listened to Jesus with delight because he openly confronted the ways the Temple leaders oppressed them. While the Temple leaders heard Jesus as a threat, the people heard freedom.

C.            One of my heroes is Hudson Taylor who was a pioneer missionary to China in the 19th century. Much to the consternation of his British counterparts, he adopted the dress and approach of a Confucian teacher and left the British costal colonies to bring the Gospel of Jesus inland to the people of China. He burned out rather quickly and returned to England a broken man. As he recovered his health, he discovered the principle he called the exchanged life. His grandson wrote about it in his book Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret. The writing is quaint, and I’m sure Hudson Taylor would be embarrassed to receive such adulation, but it is powerful. The exchanged life is to give up trying to live the Christian life and allow Jesus to live his life in me by the Holy Spirit. When he recovered, Hudson Taylor returned to China. He worked hard, got tired, but never again burned out. The results and path of his life were now in Jesus’ hands. The great high priest had exposed the futility of performance and affirmed that spiritual greatness arose from acknowledged weakness.

With Jesus in the Perfect Temple

Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34
November 4, 2012
© 2012

 

I.                Maybe you’ve seen the beer commercial that runs during TV sports events. Avid fans go through elaborate rituals in hopes of helping their team score or win. I always chuckle at the group trying to explain to the new guy why they line up their beer bottle labels during a field goal. With great skepticism he goes along. They go wild when their team scores, and the caption on the screen says, “It’s not weird if it works.” Though that one is trivial and humorous, human beings have relied on rituals to manipulate the uncontrollable for millennia.

A.           Terrorist attacks are terrifying precisely because they are unpredictable and uncontrollable. No intelligence and security system is 100% airtight. With modern weather forecasting technology, we knew Hurricane Sandy was coming and its general direction, but precise prediction was impossible, and no amount of preparation could protect from massive destruction. So people who ordinarily don’t pray or even consider God have been praying this week, and even atheists don’t object.

B.            As we saw in Job last month, God is wild, free, dangerous and good. Every culture has religious rituals to manipulate divine forces or at least insulate and protect from them. Job’s friends had all the right words but they were powerless to control or protect.

C.            Rather than relying on ritual, Jesus our high priest welcomes us to a complete love relationship with God.

II.            Through Mark’s Gospel, we have journeyed with Jesus on his final trip to Jerusalem for his appointment with the cross. After his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and driving the merchants out of the Temple, Jesus was in the Temple every day confronting the Temple leadership. As we continue to read from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we will read of Jesus as the great high priest who entered the heavenly Tabernacle to redeem humanity once and for all. By reading these passages from Mark and Hebrews side by side, we will see Jesus taking charge of the Temple as high priest.

A.           Mark 12:28-34 picks up after Jesus amazed the Pharisees with thier challenge about paying taxes. Then he silenced the Sadducees challenge about resurrection and marriage.

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”²⁹Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;³⁰you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’³¹The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

B.            In the account of this same incident in Matthew 22, the scribe who questioned Jesus was an expert in the Law chosen to test him. Yet, in Mark 12:34 Jesus told him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” The scribe was no longer testing Jesus. Jesus was testing the scribe. For the scribe to say that love was more important than the ritual sacrifices put him at odds with the Temple establishment. For this reason Jesus said he was “not far from the Kingdom of God.” What was the step he needed to take? When Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18, he rightly said, love your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, and to love your neighbor. But the scribe backed off with his paraphrase, love him with all the heart, the understanding, the strength, and to love one’s neighbor. To step into the Kingdom of God, the scribe needed to move from affirming impersonal truth to embracing loving his God and loving his neighbors as his personal reality.

C.            For Jesus to quote Deuteronomy 6:4-5 as the first commandment was safe and expected. It is the shema, the great Hebrew confession of faith that all faithful Israelites recited at the beginning of every day. But Leviticus 19:18 is a single line buried in an obscure hodgepodge of minutia. Because of Jesus, we quickly see the parallel: love your God; love your neighbor. But for the Temple establishment focused on ritual, this was shocking. Especially troubling was that their own scribe said it was much more important than sacrifices. Not only that, Jesus made loving your neighbor equivalent with loving your God. He made them one commandment. You can’t have one without the other. Furthermore, Jesus raised the bar uncomfortably high, threateningly personal. Jesus was not being tested, he tested the scribe and all his critics. Talk about “gotcha!” After that no one dared ask him any question. No one wanted to be exposed by their question.

III.       Rather than relying on ritual, Jesus our high priest welcomes us to a comprehensive love relationship with God.

A.           As I have been listening to Jesus in the Temple to prepare these sermons, I am more than a little uncomfortable. Slipping into Temple leadership mode is all too easy. I love the drama and power of ritual. I aspire to quality professionalism. But I dare not use them to protect myself from personal vulnerability or insulate myself from being personally present when people are in pain.

B.            Leo Tolstoy’s story about Martin the Cobbler is often told at Christmas. Martin believed he was promised Christ would visit him on Christmas Eve. All day he watched outside of his shop and helped a number of people: an old woman selling apples and a boy who robbed her, a young woman with a baby, an old soldier who was hungry and lonely. While reading the Gospel before going to bed, he hears sounds in the dark corners of his room, and one by one the people he helped appear briefly and a voice says, “Martin, it is I.” As he reads the words of Jesus in the Gospel, “As you did it to the least of these, you did it to me,” Martin realizes Christ had visited him all day. This is not just a quaint story about helping the needy. It rightly connects loving God and loving our neighbors. To step into the Kingdom of God is about personal relationships: with God, with neighbors.

Off the Ash Heap

Job 42:1-6; Hebrews 7:23-26; Mark 10:46-52
October 28, 2012
© 2012

 

 

 

I.                When I first encountered Job in high school, I was troubled by Job’s final speech. In my 17 year old mind, Job had just won the bet for God against Satan. I thought Job should have been congratulated, not humiliated. Why should Job, whom God acknowledged was righteous and had spoken rightly about God, have to despise himself and repent in dust and ashes?

A.           Several of you have spoken to me about how you’ve been digging into Job this month. Today we come to the most challenging and important part of Job for us to understand. After our first Sunday in Job, Kristyn Reid gave me a poem about Job that she had written last June.

Learning Patience

by Kristyn Reid
© June 5, 2012

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me to know. (Job 42:3)

I like Job.

When things didn’t make sense

he asked God, why.

When catastrophe struck

he didn’t assign blame

but neither did he accept it.

When his so-called-friends begged him to repent

Job claimed his suffering was senseless and unjust.

His numbskull chorus named him a wicked sinner

urged that he admit his blame.

He must have done something hideous.

Then God himself showed up

better late than never.

Job realized God knows the score

has things under control

and both parties learned

a great deal about the other.

B.            In verse 5 Job told what changed him. He had heard about God, but now he was seeing God, and he was never the same. When Job said he despised himself, he was not speaking of self-hatred but of humility in contrast with what he had now seen of the wild, free, dangerous and good God. Like David in Psalm 131, Job acknowledged in verse 3 that he had been occupying himself with things too wonderful, too marvelous for a human to grasp.

C.            Since chapter 2, verse 8 Job had been sitting on the ash heap. How can he now say, I “repent in dust and ashes”? That wasn’t what happened next in the story. In the Epilog Job got off the ash heap, returned to productive prosperity, had 10 more children and lived 140 years. The problem arises from linguistic complexities in Hebrew. Several alternative translations are possible. The one I have become convinced of is, “I have changed my mind about these dust and ashes.” In effect, Job said, “I have seen God. I no longer need an explanation of my suffering. I am going to get off this ash heap and get about living,” which is what the Epilog says he did.

D.           In Job 1:9, hasatan asks God, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” If we understand the Epilog as God rewarding Job for his faithfulness, then hasatan was right. Job is paid handsomely for fearing God. I believe, however, that the point of the Epilog is that when Job saw God and got off the ash heap, he went back to living. The message of the book of Job is that to be encountered by God is to be empowered to go forward with life.

II.            Mark 10:46-52 tells how when Bartimaeus regained his sight he renounced sitting by the roadside to beg but got up and followed Jesus into life. This is the last incident on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem that Mark records before his Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday.

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”⁴⁸Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”⁴⁹Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”⁵⁰So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.⁵¹Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.”⁵²Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

A.           Bartimaeus obviously knew enough about Jesus to call him by the messianic title “Son of David” and to believe he could restore his sight. He had once been able to see, so he may well have asked why he went blind. He grieved his loss of purpose and the humiliation of sitting by the roadside to beg.

B.            Jesus asked Bartimaeus the same question he asked James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” But he got a very different answer, “My Teacher, let me see again.” Bartimaeus was ready to learn from Jesus. Sight was more than convenience; it was the gateway to a life of discipleship. Jesus affirmed Bartimaeus’ sight of faith when granting him physical sight.

C.            Jesus did not say, “Be healed” but “Go!” Jesus sent Bartimaeus out to live. And Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way. The very next thing Mark reports is Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Undoubtedly, Bartimaeus participated. To follow Jesus on the way described those who followed him as his disciples after the resurrection. So though the Gospels don’t mention him again, I imagine Bartimaeus saw Jesus heading to the cross and saw Jesus risen after Easter.

D.           After Bartimaeus saw Jesus he got up from begging and went on to live. Like Job, he knew that to be encountered by God is to be empowered to go forward with life.

III.       Hebrews 7:25 says we all may approach God through Christ who intercedes for us. We cannot get the wild, free, dangerous and good God to do a command performance for us, but Jesus offers us complete access – backstage passes if you will.

A.           Tom Roe was the head usher for the church in which I grew up in California. I don’t know if he ever realized he was one of that congregation’s most influential youth ministers as he trained and coached teenagers to be ushers and along the way imparted great teaching and faith. The Sunday after his wife’s funeral, Tom was at his post like always. Several people told him he deserved some time off. He replied, “You are the people who love me, and I need your love right now. This is the job God has given me and doing it heals me.”

B.            Over 50 years ago, Tom Roe was teaching me that to be encountered by God is to be empowered to go forward with life.

The Red Thread

I have often said that our son David is really the theologian of the family. What follows is the script of the sermon he preached to Milwaukee Mennonite Church, whose members share the preaching. I am posting it with my sermon scripts, not just out of parental pride, but believing it is worth sharing. David is Dean of Students at Frank Lloyd Wright Intermediate School in West Allis, Wisconsin. You will meet David’s wife, Rachel, and their children in the sermon. The pictures are from the day Elizabeth joined their family and currently.

Romans 8
October 21, 2012
© 2012 David Stolpe

 

Good evening.

Tonight we continued our journey into Paul’s letter to the Romans. Honestly I have been amazed and challenged by the different perspectives brought by each of you who have preached in this series. Quite frankly I feel a bit daunted by my task tonight.

First off, I am left with the responsibility to offer something of value to you all, and fear my offering may pale in comparison. I am further daunted by the fact that for some reason I was left to preach on Romans Chapter 8.

The eighth chapter of Romans is probably the most familiar portion of the letter. Some of the most memorable and referenced passages of the entire Bible are contained in this chapter.

…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

If God is for us, who can be against us?  

... in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is just a small sampling of the rich text of Romans 8. It is the triumphant highpoint of the letter. So I find the responsibility I have tonight downright intimidating. I started this week by asking myself, “What do I, David Stolpe, have to bring to the understanding of this passage?”

What I haven’t told you though is that Romans 8 has been pivotal for me throughout my life. In fact, it is possibly the passage in the Bible that I have read and chewed on more than any other. But in no way do I feel this makes me the Romans 8 authority, instead it just raises my anxiety about the words I bring to you tonight. After 20 plus years of frequent visitation to and meditation on Romans 8, do I have anything of value to say? I hope so.

Romans 8 is a major building block in at least three aspects of my faith. The first was formed when I was young and had the passion, angst, and fire of my youth. I was dogmatic, at times even belligerent. As my understanding of more complex theological doctrines formed and I found John Calvin’s Institutes to be shaping my understanding of our relationship with God, Romans 8 was a bastion of support for my beliefs of our complete and utter dependency on God for all salvific hope. At this time, I loved to engage in debate and argument to advance my Calvinism on others. Romans 8 was an arsenal of evidence to support my at times aggressive dogma.

Since this time, the fire and angst of my youth have waned a bit, and Rachel deserves a lot credit for tempering this uglier side of me. Today my desire for coercive arguments to prove Calvinism has all but dried up.

That being said, I still hold to many Calvinist tenets, and find Reformed doctrine something to rejoice and celebrate. I must admit I still get frustrated when I hear people characterize Calvinism as a belief in a harsh, vindictive God choosing to flick some people, but not others, into hell. This is an argument against a perceived understanding of what Calvinism is, held by people who object to, but I believe, fail to understand Calvinism. This is not in anyway how most Calvinists understand what Calvinism is.  To Calvinists, like myself, the immensity of God’s love and grace through Christ’s death on the cross, is so great, that the idea of God being harsh and vindictive is entirely irreconcilable. Romans 8 is a defining passage in this understanding. But Calvinism is not the aspect of my faith I will be focusing on tonight, although, this reasoning may well be evident in my words anyway, as the themes of Reformed, Calvinist theology are intertwined with who I am and how I understand God’s love. 

The second aspect of my faith that Romans 8 was foundational in is my understanding of our responsibility in caring for God’s creation. Before I wound up in the world of education, I did my undergrad in Environmental Studies in Humanities. I was concerned about the degradation of the creation, and am convinced that a great deal of this was the result of a false doctrine that believed God created the world for mankind’s use and resource, instead of for God’s own glory. The dominion statement of Genesis has been used as a privilege rather than a responsibility. The religious right has co-opted dominion as a justification for free market capitalism that has advanced the western economy, fueled through environmental degradation that has afflicted the poor, powerless, and already marginalized. My goal was to challenge the church from within, by being part of defining a green theology that recognized that the earth is here for God’s glory, and our sin has compromised that. Romans 8 was a cornerstone of my studies and writing at this time. Verses 19 though 22 state

¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God .²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

It is we, the children of God, and our sin, our brokenness, that have subjected the creation to frustration. And it is not only us, God’s people, who long for Christ’s redemption. All of creation yearns with labor pains to be liberated from the bondage to which we have subjected it.  But this again is not the aspect of my faith that I come to offer tonight.

The theme of this portion of Paul’s work that has come to most significantly impact my faith is his description of the nature of our relationship to God. Paul compares God to a parent and us to his children. This describes an intimate and deep love between God and God’s people. But Paul goes beyond that, and describes this parental relationship more specifically as an adoption. This additional description is by no means without significance. Why does Paul go beyond the parent relationship metaphor, and extend it to a relationship of adoption?   

In the last 7 or 8 years, this theme of adoption has hit home for me in a much more tangible way because of Elizabeth. And as I dig into Romans 8, I now digest each section in the light of Elizabeth’s life story, our adoption experience, and our relationship with Elizabeth. Our adoption is the single most powerful event that I have experienced in my lifetime. The entire story is packed with sorrow, struggle, triumph and joy. While the beginnings of that story remain obscured from me, these real life elements bring new clarity and understanding to me when I try to grasp the immensity of God’s love. I hope that tonight as I share parts of our adoption story it will help each of you have a new appreciation and understanding for the power and immensity of God’s love for you.

Adoption is a metaphor used by Paul to help us understand something greater than our capacity to fully understand. Paul again uses the metaphor of adoption in Galatians and Ephesians. All metaphors have limitations, and this metaphor is limited by scale. The love we have experienced in our adoption is the grandest thing I can imagine, and yet it remains minute, or bitsy, in comparison to God’s love for us. That being said, I still struggle to comprehend the immensity of the love we have for Elizabeth.  To put a finer point on it, Paul has taken the most powerful experience of love in my life, to help me understand the nature of God’s love which is even greater. As a parent of Sam, our biological child, I would find this amazing by itself, but there are specific events and dynamics of our adoptive relationship with Elizabeth that bring increased understanding to Romans 8 that our relationship with Sam does not. So I will spend the remainder of my time walking through Romans 8 to tell you the story of Elizabeth Stolpe, so that you may share in this joy in the further clarity of the immensity of how much God loves you.

As I imagine it, on December 27, 2006, a poor Chinese couple, who lived in a cramped room, had a baby in the privacy of that room. She was tiny, itsty bitsy, probably barely over 4 pounds, and she had a noticeably disfigured foot. She was weak and frail, and if the parents tried to have someone with some medical training do a health check on their daughter, they would find that this delicate baby had a hole in her heart. Her parents had to wrestle with what to do. With no means to provide care adequate care for a fragile child like this tiny girl, it is likely that she would not have survived the year. To cling to her may have been to cling to death.

Paul tells us in verse 6 that “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.” We have a choice to make. If the priority we choose is to cling to, preserve, and indulge our flesh, we also choose death, but if we choose to sacrifice our flesh, and cling to the spirit we are choosing life.

In desperation this mother and father recognized that if they clung to their daughter, it would likely mean death for her, but if they sacrificed their relationship with her, they might also be saving her life.

Despite their love for their daughter this poor couple made a decision that is incomprehensible to me. They chose to give her up in order that she might live.

The Wuxi newspaper reports that on December 31^st 2006 a 36 year old woman found a little girl in a box in the alley. It says the girl was dressed in cute clothes and a hat, and was left with a bag with some more clothes, a bottle, formula powder, and a paper that stated that she was born on December 27^th.

This decision to give up their daughter is a decision that Rachel and I can barely stand to even think about. It is so incomprehensible and painful for us to think about. Would we have enough love to make that decision? Would we cling to our kids to preserve our relationships and bring death, or would we be strong enough to make this sacrifice of faith in order to allow our children to have life? Fortunately, we don’t live a life that forces us to make that decision, but this is what Elizabeth’s birth parents did for her, knowing that they would lose their daughter forever.

This scandalous act of love was likely a gift of life for Elizabeth, and a certainly a gift of a daughter and sister for our family. In verse 32 Paul states that likewise God did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will God not with him give us everything else? God displayed this same act of scandalous love, giving up the Son as a gift of life for each of us.

Half a world a way, and about year before this helpless little girl was found in that alley, I sat at our kitchen table in tears, terrified that Rachel was going to have a break down that was going to leave her hospitalized or self destructing. I was scared that I was going to lose the woman I fell in love with. We had been trying to have a second child for almost 2 years. The pain of infertility had been building up, and Rachel was in the middle of her second month of using Clomid, a fertility drug that threw her into deep depression and limited her grasp on reality. I told her I wanted her to stop taking it because I was scared about what it was going to do to her. She stood at the counter and desperately cried out that she wanted a second child. We held each other for a while, sobbing, and decided that having a second child did not justify the damage being done to Rachel’s well being by this chemical. We had to find another way.

One morning after having a particularly rough night, we went to our old church pretty tired and emotionally exhausted. Sam went up for the children’s message and in the back and forth of Pastor Mark’s conversation with the kids, Sam announced that he was going to be a big brother. Immediately everyone in the congregation looked at us and smiled congratulatory smiles assuming that Sam knew something we didn’t let the rest of the church know yet. I quickly shook my head no and indicated that it was not the case, as Rachel crumpled into my shoulder in tears. For the next few weeks people would come up to us trying to congratulate us for being pregnant, and time and again we had to face them and tell them that Rachel wasn’t. We wallowed in these unwanted and to frequent reminders that we were not going to have a second child.

Within a few weeks Rachel’s Dad convinced us to pursue adoption as an alternative. It would be another two years before we would take Elizabeth into our arms. During our four years of trying to have a second child, Rachel and I would go through many more ups and downs. As I said before our adoption of Elizabeth is the most powerful experience of love and joy I have had in my life, but I also said that the story was packed with sorrow and struggle. The adoption process took over 2 years and cost about what I was making each year when we started. There are so many hoops to jump through. This four year period of our lives was the darkest we have walked. It is my primary basis for understanding suffering. It was a time of severe longing and yearning. A time of pain and grieving for the loss of someone we never even had. Romans 8 became a place of refuge and hope for me.

 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

This passage provided the promise of assurance, but the adoption process seemed insurmountable, and Rachel and I often lost hope and belief that it ever was going to ever really happen.  But Sam of 3 to 5 years during this period of life would walk every visitor to our house into his bedroom, show them the giant map on his wall and point to China and confidently say that that is where his sister was going to come from. Sam never lost hope. The 2 plus years of adoption seemed endless to Rachel and me, but to this small loving boy, it was not a deterrent. Sam never stopped believing. He had unshakeable faith in a hope in something unseen, his sister, and he waited patiently, setting an example for Rachel and me.

We struggled to display Sam’s hope and faith in what was unseen. Rachel will tell you that she would go through the pains of the birth of our 11 pound 9 ounce Sam ten times again before going through the pains and the inward groans of the adoption process. Simply put there was no comparison. This was a period of great inward groaning and suffering for us. But as Paul pointed out, our present sufferings were nothing in comparison to the glory in our revelation.   

I will never forget the night that Rachel and I walked into the Nanjing Grand hotel, the night before we finally got Elizabeth. We had been in China for a week, and yet Elizabeth still seemed like a concept that was never truly going to happen to our family. As we stepped into the hotel there was a crib set up at the foot of the first bed. When Rachel and I saw the crib we both burst into tears. Sam asked why we crying. We told him that for the first time Elizabeth seemed like a real person and not just a story that we kept telling ourselves. I don’t thing Sam understood, but then he always had faith, hope, and confidence that he was going to be a big brother, lacking the doubt that we had.

Now I know I said I wasn’t going to spend the night talking about Calvinist theology, but in the last half of chapter 8 Paul starts throwing around these words, predestination, called, foreknew, and elect. And this raises the question of predestination. While many Non-Calvinist believers view this concept as portraying God as someone who damns some people to hell and not others, this is by no means how most Calvinists view the concept, certainly not me.

Here again our adoption experience colors my understanding of this text and the concept of predestination. During the children’s sermon I spoke of the Red Thread. This again is a traditional story shared within the community of adopting families, in particular families with children adopted from China. The concept states that the people who are meant to be together are connected to each other with an invisible and unbreakable red thread. This red thread ties us to each other and assures that we will find the people in life that we are supposed to be with no matter what. And when we do, this red thread will bind us together.

It is easy to dismiss this as a nice quaint story with no grounding in reality, and think that families will love their adopted children no matter what, but I think there is more truth to it than that. When we went to China we were part of a group of nine families who were all adopting with the same program. On the day we were united with our children, we quickly connected with our children. As we all rejoiced and cried with this hope fulfilled, we spent the next two weeks together with this group. Within the first day there were dynamics that we all noticed in the children and their new families that made many of comment on how well fit each family seemed to be for each child, and visa versa. When Elizabeth was handed to us she immediately popped the same two fingers in her mouth just as Sam always did. This is just a minor example, but in reality, there seemed to be instant bonds with each adoption, and it became difficult to imagine the children paired with any other family, even in that first day. The chemistry of the bonds that were forming seemed to be natural and logical, and arbitrarily changing them seemed illogical. The personality combinations just would seem to be mismatches if any child was paired with any other family other than the one they were matched with. This is the concept of the red thread.

This concept was further strengthened when our friend Maureen let us know privately that she and Stu were originally paired with Ji Ju. When they opened their envelope, they looked at Ji Ju’s picture and Maureen felt blank. She told Stu, that’s not my baby. They made the tough decision and declined the match. They were then paired with May. Ji Ju was paired with Mike’s family. We grew very close to these two families in our next two weeks. Even within the first day, we thought about what would have happened if the two matches hadn’t been flip-flopped. That just seemed wrong in our imagination.

I believe our adoptive children were tied and bound to us. Maybe not with a red thread, but by God’s will and divine plan. They were predestined to be in our families. This is how I have grown to understand the concept of predestination. It is not God fickly damning people to hell; it is God binding himself to each of us with a red thread, that connects us no matter what. Nothing is going to stop our adoption from happening, nothing is going to keep us from God’s love, not even our own sinfulness and fallenness. God is going to fight relentlessly to welcome us into his arms.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul also writes in Galatians 4:3-7

…when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

God has adopted us, let us rejoice!

God has transformed our lives!

Not just from a slave to a freed person, but from a slave to a child of the family, from slavery to sonship, from a slave to an Heir. On April first, 2008 when we finalized our adoption, we were asked to swear an oath to the government of China and to Elizabeth. The oath stated that Elizabeth was to be considered and treated as if she was our own biological child. An heir to our family’s wealth, no different than a child born to us. We sealed this oath and our promise with a thumb print left in red ink. God has tied and bound himself to us with a red thread. God has not only freed us from slavery, he has taken us into his own family, adopted us, called us his own children. God has made us heirs to the kingdom, considering us no different than God’s own son Christ. God has sealed this oath and promise not with red ink, but with the Red Blood of God’s own son.

Ephesians 1:3-6 says,

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship  through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—  to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.