“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
It’s mid-November, and we’re coming to the close of our liturgical year. It’s been a long year. Our socio-political landscape is marked by tumult and chaos, no matter what voting party you ascribe to. The ups and downs, the wins and losses, the intermingling of hope and despair are exhausting. We’re tossed about on the waves caused by those who tromp about leaving bodies in the wake, those who have more power, more money, more authority, more status than we do; we’re left wondering if we, the ones being represented, actually matter in this battle for who has the most toys (read: money, weapons, prestige, etc.). It’s hard to feel the ground under our feet when truth feels downright elusive; anyone else feel more and more skepticism toward anyone claiming to tell the truth? A diet of chaos and tumult with a big glass of skepticism never nourishes and always depletes. Humans are not meant to run on fumes for so long.
I don’t know about you, but I’m existentially and physically fatigued.
And that’s not even including our own personal lives and the things that have come and gone. Over the course of a year, we gain a lot, that is true. However, over the course of a year, we lose a lot, too. Some of us have lost family members, partners, and friends, acquaintances and colleagues. Whether to the cold hands of death or the firey fingers of derisive and divisive ideologies demanding cult-like adoration and adherence, there are people who were in our lives at the start of the year who are no longer darkening our doorways. Sadness, sorrow, grief, and regret are pretty wretched snacks; none of which actually satisfy our hunger and only leave a really bad, lingering aftertaste.
I don’t know about you, but I think I really need an intervention, a divine intervention, a good-news intervention. I need a light to pierce this darkness threatening to consume me, you, us, God’s beloved. I need to be interrupted and divorced from the dominant narratives of fear and anger. I need to be relocated in something new, something firm, something that is steady when everything else is rocky. I need a divine “normal” when nothing is normal anymore.
Isaiah 65:17-25
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
Isaiah’s words are a warm comfort to the parched soul. Ancient words to a people eager to know God is still their God; a need to know that they’re still seen by their God, that they’re still heard by the God who led them out of captivity in Egypt into the liberation of the reign of God. Through Isaiah, God proclaims that what was will be eclipsed by a new thing God will do in both heaven and on earth; the world will be changed when God shows up.[i]
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
Isaiah declares to the people that God’s joy and delight will be with God’s people. Not only will God take delight and have joy in God’s people, God’s joy and delight will be with and among the people; they, the children of God, will have access to and participate in that divine joy and delight. Weeping and distress will be no more. Isaiah’s comments about death highlight that life will be lived to the fullest, celebrated with joy and delight, with mercy and grace, by faith and love. For the one who dies when it is time to die will be the one who has lived well and has been alive all their days and those days will be many. They will also be the one who die in God’s delight and joy and will be taken further into God’s delight and joy; those who survive will celebrate such a one, for there will be no need to mourn.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord– and their descendants as well.
Isaiahs’ imagery turns to the work of the people when God shows up, and the reign of God takes over. It will no longer be toil; it will be work that’s pleasing not only to God’s eye but to the eye of the one who works. What Isaiah is describing here is a lack of exploitation of the laborer; the fruit of their hands will be the product of their own work, and they will enjoy it.[ii] Children will not be born into systems that steal human dignity, reducing them to things that toil to make others rich and some even richer. Isaiah’s words also point to a satisfaction and satiation. There’s an emphasis on a distribution of satisfaction in the work of their hand and a feeling satiated is hinted at. It’s not about grain silos and treasury vaults to store up for one’s self and keeping it from others. Rather, it’s about everyone receiving what they need all the days of their life, each day blessed by God. And even further, it’s about letting the surplus go to those who lack. All are cared for; none go hungry, thirsty, naked, or unhoused.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent– its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
God’s people wonder if they’re heard, and they are heard; God’s people wonder if they’re seen, and they are seen. God not only sees them and hears them, God’s presence, Isaiah prophecies, will be so close to them that even before they pray their prayers will be answered.[iii] The people of God will be seen and heard intimately and vulnerably because God will be accessible by all who are seeking God.[iv] Isaiah tells the people, “Salvation will come…”[v] God comes for God’s people, the curse from long ago will be undone, the exile of recent will be terminated forever. Prey and predator will lie down together, they will stop hunting and being hunted, anger and fear will depart; the new heavens and the new earth will even be a place of refuge for animal-kind. But not for the serpent who is, according to Isaiah, reduced to eating dust; while the world, humanity and animal kind will feel relief from the burden of the curse in God, the serpent will bear it out as was long ago promised by God,[vi]
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.[vii]
Conclusion
Isaiah tells Israel, “salvation comes,” and it will. Isaiah tells Israel, “God comes,” and God will. Isaiah tells Israel, “help comes,” and it will. Because their God is a God of the people, of the humble people who are at their wits end, hanging from the very bottom of the rope, the ones ready to give up. As Isaiah says elsewhere, “a bruised reed [Abba God] will not break, and a dimly burning wick [Abba God] will not quench; [Abba God] will faithfully bring forth justice.”[viii]
We are not abandoned, forsaken, or alone. We are not ungrounded, destabilized, or uprooted. We are not consumed by grief, sorrow, or despair. We are not ignored, dismissed, or forgotten. Isaiah’s words to Israel become words to us today, where we are and as we are. Beloved, God comes; Beloved, salvation comes; Beloved, help comes. For, behold, Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us will be born to us, to identify with us, to dwell with us, to be God close to us, and he will be the light that pierces the darkness forever.
[i] Benjamin D. Sommer, The Jewish Study Bible Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 913. “This passage recalls the initial prophecies of Deutero-Isaiah in its exuberant tone and literary style, but the nature of the prediction goes beyond those found in chs. 40-48: The world itself will be transformed in the new age that God brings.”
[ii] Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah: A Commentary, The Old Testament Library (Louisville: WJK, 2001), 538. “The imagery of joy and absence of weeping is set in contrast to the sorrow through which the community of faith has come. The planting of vineyards and the enjoying of its fruits is simply the converse of Israel’s experience of exploration and conquest.”
[iii] Sommer, “Isaiah,” 913. “In 51.9-11 and chs 63-64, the people wondered whether God listens to their prayers. God answers this question here: In the future, God will answer prayers before the people even utter them.”
[iv] Childs, Isaiah, 538. “Verse 24 once again repeats the theme of chapter 65 of God’s utter accessibility in his calling and answering those who seek his presence.”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
NMP. “Not my problem.” Have you heard this phrase before? I’ve use it when I need to draw a line between me and the three human beings born from my own body. Sometimes it’s important for them to (safely) experience their own problems; I already passed 8th grade…it’s your turn. It’s also something I’ve had to learn to whisper in my various occupations, drawing necessary lines in the sand so I don’t lose myself to my job in one way or another. From what I’ve heard through therapy and therapy related news, being able to draw that line in the sand between what is yours to bear and what isn’t is healthy and actualized. So, there’s nothing sinister or contentious about NMP, until there is.
As fleshy, meat creatures working with a gray-matter unfit for our place in post-postmodernity with its technological advancement and emphasis on autonomous existence and identity, we tend to confuse what is and isn’t “my problem.” In other words, we often say NMP where MP would work better and MP where a good solid NMP would. What I’m getting at here is biblical, like Genesis 3 levels of biblical: when we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we took on the burden of determining—apart from God—what is good and what is evil and history—both spiritual and temporal—have demonstrated that we’re kind of very bad at determining what is good and what is evil. Looking around, I’m not sure we even know if there is a difference between good and evil. And if this is so, I think we’ve also confused what is and what isn’t our problem.
We need to be reoriented in a serious way. We need to be brought back to the source of the knowledge of good and evil: God. And from there we need to walk carefully while navigating the world around us. Why? What does it have to do with you? Everything…absolutely, positively, everything. The earth is sick, people are being threatened and killed because of their religion or the color of their skin or their sexual orientation and identity in the world, and community (in any form) is circling the drain. Once these things go, we’re dead…in the water. We’ve been commanded and exhorted by God through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to love the land and our neighbors and care for them because they are among us and we’re among them. Yet, we refuse in the name of NMP. However, according to Jeremiah, this isvery much a “you and me” problem.
Jeremiah 29:4-7
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah is speaking to the deported Judeans who are in Babylon.[2] Rather than tell them to refuse to make the best of it, to ignore the things around them because they ain’t your problem, God, through Jeremiah, commands the Judeans to act as if they are home. Home. Exiled yet home.[3] They are to embrace both the fact that they are in this foreign land and are prevented from returning to Jerusalem (home), and embrace the land and the people around them, even the government and the state. Israel would have expected Jeremiah’s exhortation to seek the welfare of the city as an exhortation referring to Jerusalem (home). But it’s not. It’s referring to Babylon, the place that is definitely-not-home but now must-be-home.[4] The Judeans stuck in Babylon for another two generations are to take the issues and problems of Babylon onto themselves because those issues and problems are now their issues and problems. Anachronistically, Jeremiah is asking them to take up their cross and bear it, and that Cross carries the problems of the neighbor and the state. In taking up this “cross” the Judeans will make the issues and problems burdening Babylon and the Babylonians their own; like God, they will identify with the problem, plight, and pain burdening the people.
Why is Jeremiah exhorting the Judeans to bear this “cross”? Because the Judeans are falling prey to false prophets.[5] By exhorting the Judeans to get comfortable, build homes and families, and care for the welfare of the state, Jeremiah was dutifully giving the Judeans hope and encouragement,[6] which was an antidote to the poison the false prophets were offering. While the false prophets were promising easy solutions, quick ends, and creating antagonism between the Judeans and their surroundings, Jeremiah spoke God’s word of comfort and hope into this swirling chaos and tumult: God will come, Judah, so wait peacefully for God.[7] In the meantime… *waves hands around*
You see, for God, thus for Jeremiah, to identify with the burdens and problems of Babylon and its people worked to fortify Judah’s loyalty to God.[8] How So? Because Israel’s mission was to right the wrongs of the world through their faith inspired praxis in the world. How better to do that than to do so when one is in exile. Faith isn’t always focusing one’s eyes on God and refusing to see the problems and issues around you; faith isn’t about letting something burn because it doesn’t involve you because it’s not your land, or your people, or your problem. Faith builds beautiful things wherever it is and you are. And that’s because faith is in you, eager to work itself out in loving deeds everywhere, not just at your preferred home among your preferred people. So, Jeremiah exhorts the Judeans, your call is still valid…even here in Babylon.[9]
Conclusion
Jeremiah graciously reminds us that we’re fellow creatures with other creatures of the earth, especially with our fellow humans; and we are reminded that this link and connection is the very product of God’s love for us and our love for God. So, we must begin to see that the problems of the land, of creation, of those who suffer hunger, thirst, loneliness, isolation, deportation, exile, harm, threat, danger, and death are our problems…even if we don’t feel like we’re home or that we should care because, well, they made their choices so, w/e. So, in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, I want to close with the following Lakota creation myth; I believe it speaks to this exhortation to be and bring the divine love you have received into the world:[10]
There was another world before this one. But the people of that world did not behave themselves. Displeased, the Creating Power set out to make a new world. He sang several songs to bring rain, which poured stronger with each song. As he sang the fourth song, the earth split apart and water gushed up through the many cracks, causing a flood. By the time the rain stopped, all of the people and nearly all of the animals had drowned. Only Kangi the crow survived.
Kangi pleaded with the Creating Power to make him a new place to rest. So the Creating Power decided the time had come to make his new world. From his huge pipe bag, which contained all types of animals and birds, the Creating Power selected four animals known for their ability to remain under water for a long time.
He sent each in turn to retrieve a lump of mud from beneath the floodwaters. First the loon dove deep into the dark waters, but it was unable to reach the bottom. The otter, even with its strong webbed feet, also failed. Next, the beaver used its large flat tail to propel itself deep under the water, but it too brought nothing back. Finally, the Creating Power took the turtle from his pipe bag and urged it to bring back some mud.
Turtle stayed under the water for so long that everyone was sure it had drowned. Then, with a splash, the turtle broke the water’s surface! Mud filled its feet and claws and the cracks between its upper and lower shells. Singing, the Creating Power shaped the mud in his hands and spread it on the water, where it was just big enough for himself and the crow. He then shook two long eagle wing feathers over the mud until earth spread wide and varied, overcoming the waters. Feeling sadness for the dry land, the Creating Power cried tears that became oceans, streams, and lakes. He named the new land Turtle Continent in honor of the turtle who provided the mud from which it was formed.
The Creating Power then took many animals and birds from his great pipe bag and spread them across the Earth. From red, white, black, and yellow earth, he made men and women. The Creating Power gave the people his sacred pipe and told them to live by it. He warned them about the fate of the people who came before them. He promised all would be well if all living things learned to live in harmony. But the world would be destroyed again if they made it bad and ugly.
[2] Marvin A. Sweeney, The Jewish Study Bible Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 983.
[3] Sweeney, “Jeremiah”, 983. “Jeremiah’s letter begins with God’s instructions to accept life in Babylonia and to build lives and families there. The activities enumerated in vv. 5-6 are those of establishing a new home, indicating that for at least two generations Babylonia should be treated as home.”
[4] Sweeney, “Jeremiah”, 983. “The rhetoric of this verse is intended to shock—most people would have expected the words ‘And seek the welfare of the city’ to refer to Jerusalem, not to Babylon.”
[5] Sweeney, “Jeremiah”, 984. “The letter raises the issue of false prophets, a major theme of the preceding chs.”
[6] Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, Jeremiah: with Hebrew text and English Translation, ed. Rev. Dr. A Cohen. Soncino Books of the Bible. 6th Impression (London: Soncino Press, 1970), 188. Jeremiah’s duty is to preach hope and encouragement to the people
[7] Freedman, Jeremiah, 188. “…[Jeremiah] was at the same time realistic, and deemed it his duty to warn the people not to delude themselves into thinking that the exile would come to a speedy end, as some false prophets were assuring them.”
[8] Freedman, Jeremiah, 189. Identifying with the interests of the country and loyal citizenship, “The fact that Jeremiah could urge this doctrine upon the exiles, while at the same time assuring them of their restoration after seventy years, indicates that in his mind no mutually exclusive dual loyalty was involved, but that on the contrary each fortified the other.”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
The word “sin” and “sinners” carries a heavy load. It’s weaponized in a way to force people to be feel shame about their existence as fleshy human creatures. It’s incorrectly used doctrinally and theologically to spiritually abuse people stripping them of their inherent dignity and worth. It’s strapped with the burden of condemning people, pushing them beyond God’s limits and reach until they “reform” their ways because they are too “bad” or (worse) “evil”, that they need to become “good enough” first for God to accept them. And, in the Protestant tradition, “sinner” and “totally depraved” go hand in hand incorrectly making it seem like you are just a total pile of nothing-all-that-nice (to put it g-rated).
For all these reasons, over the past many years progressive churches have jettisoned the word and (even) the idea. I get it. When a concept/word becomes toxic and triggering, it’s best to find another way to speak of the thing or idea the word is signifying. So, to move away from the fundamentalist, American Evangelical notion of “sin” and “sinner,” progressive churches such as our own found different and lighter ways to speak about our human condition and plight—that we are turned in on ourselves. I will be honest with you, I know I am hesitant to use it because of my own experience (spiritually and theologically) with a heavy emphasis on human “depravity” and the resulting condemnation. Both “sin” and “sinner” are such loaded terms; isn’t it just better to avoid them?
The problem is that our entire biblical witness of God’s activity in the world and for God’s beloved, the people, is kind of hinged on these words. I don’t mean that God is wringing God’s knuckles over our sin, sinning and being sinners, while tromping about heaven angry as h-e-doublehockeystics. Rather, what I mean is that the biblical witness tells us—from beginning to end—that in spite of our sin and being sinners God desires to be so close that God will take on our human nature and become one of us to the point that God will die and become deeply identified with us in our human plight and condition of “sin.” Without speaking of sin, which (plainly translated) is the action of missing the mark (no matter how well intended the attempt was, to miss the mark is to go astray, to mishear), then God’s humble advent into our world and lives is not such a great story. To identify as a sinner is to be able to identify as a creature who can’t and doesn’t get it right often and yet finds themselves addressed and accompanied, loved and accepted by God. To identify as a sinner is to posture oneself humbly in the world accepting your creaturely (i.e. non-God, non-divine) status, to confess your dependence on mercy and grace from God and others, and to come empty handed into God’s lap and find yourself receiving absolutely everything without condition or charge and then to love others—by showing them mercy and grace—in the exact same way.
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Paul[2] writes to Timothy,[3]I have gratitude toward Jesus Christ our lord, the one who empowered me, because he regarded me faithful and placed [me] into [his] service, [even though] I was being a blasphemer and persecutor and violent man… (v12-13a). Paul positions himself honestly before Christ and to Timothy.[4] And even though Paul is contending with opposition coming at Timothy, he’s humbly authenticating his call not through big words and deeds but by highlighting his worst.[5] Through a posture of gratitude toward Christ[6] for what Christ has done with and in him,[7],[8] Paul cannot forget where he started: a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a “violent man” or a man with “rude arrogance” or “boastful pride.” In this way, he resists those who come against him with their boasting in themselves and their grand works, positioning themselves as better than everyone else; those who boast in themselves and in their own deeds so to elevate themselves over others are, for Paul, the ones to be wary of. Why? Because they place all the credit at their own feet.[9] What does Paul do? Paul Places all the credit at the pierced feet of his Savior and God.[10]But I was shown mercy, Paul writes, because I acted ignorantlyin disbelief, yet the grace of our lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (vv13b-14). Out the window goes boasting in himself: he acted ignorantly because he didn’t have faith—what he thought was right and true was exposed (by the light of Christ) to be wrong and false—and yet(!) Christ displayed both mercy and grace that abounded exceedingly with the divine gift of faith and love that will define his life and service.[11] His conversion, this pivot point in his life, was all because of Christ’s action toward him in mercy and grace,[12] not because of anything he did, thought, or said.[13] Paul’s presentation of himself is nlike those who boast in themselves and forsake the gospel and Jesus’s mercy and love[14] and are forced to resort to previous forms of godliness that bring condemnation rather than liberation.[15] For Paul, you know who follows Christ when you see where they place the credit for their life, love, and liberation.[16],[17],[18]
To back up his claim and to encourage Timothy to accept what he’s confessing,[19] Paul writes, The saying [is] faithful and worthy of all approval, ‘Christ Jesus came into the cosmos to save sinners/those who miss the mark,’ of whom I, I am chief, but for this very reason I was shown mercy so that Christ Jesus might show in me first the utmost longsuffering —as an example to the ones who are about to believe in him toward eternal [his] life (vv15-16). Paul emphasizes his depravity in a way that would make many of us run to sooth him; but that’s not what Paul intends. He’s not depressed. He’s not expressing false humility. He’s, literally, calling a thing what it is, calling himself who he was and who he is now. In doing this Paul exposes the inner (and outer!) liberation he’s experienced in Christ. And this is to become the paradigm for others because this is, according to Paul, what Christ actually does through the proclamation of the Gospel that is heard in the heart and mind by faith.[20] Through Paul, Jesus Christ has demonstrated his long-suffering patience with us.[21] So, if for Paul then, yes!, absolutely for for each of us.[22] Paul’s honest self-reflection and humility bring us to the same location and posture;[23],[24] considering all that Paul did, can’t we also be a little bit (more?) honest about ourselves? For Paul, thus for us, because of what Christ has done and will do for us, there’s no need to hide behind facades of perfect and awesome or paint over all our actions—even when they are quite bad—with “good” and “right.” We can be wrong and maybe even bad and that’s okay even if it hurts, because God loves us in and through Christ and nothing will get in the way of that. Now to the eternal kingdom, incorruptible, invisible, God only, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (v17).
Conclusion
So, we don’t need to be afraid of our “sin” and being a “sinner.” Here’s two reasons why:
Jesus—literally—came to save sinners, those who are not well, who need help, who do not hit the mark, who trip and fall, who wound others and are wounded by others, who find themselves trapped in deeply problematic systemic issues (being both captive and complicit), those who grumble when it’s time for church or Sunday Education, who drive too fast or too slow, who aren’t perfect at school or think that by being perfect at school they’ll earn all the love, and those who are just truly and wonderfully way too hooman for their own good. Jesus literally came for us sinners, and if we can’t acknowledge that (honestly and personally) then we miss out on all that Christ has to offer (mercy, grace, longsuffering patience) and that means we are stuck in our indifference, death, and captivity. Being a sinner doesn’t mean you aren’t loved by God; according to Paul, to know you are a sinner is to know the love of God deeply and profoundly.
By acknowledging our sin and that we are sinners, we have a story to tell to others of a God who is so loving that even at our worst God so loved us first.[25] We have a story to tell of a God who came to us when we were dead set in our ways of ignorance thinking we were right when we were terribly wrong. We have a story to share that not only positions us alongside our neighbor in humble and equal status, but a significant way to identify with them in their fear, pain, anger, and oppression. And right now, looking around, I see a world that is divided through and through because of the fractured human tendency to need to be right so to be good so to be loved and accepted, who are afraid to be wrong, who are angry at change and chaos. And what the world needs now is not more adamancy that this way is the right way or even ridiculous arguments about who is truly moral and who isn’t. What the world needs now is more people who, like Paul, can stand in the posture of humility and self-awareness and can dare to call a thing what it is even when it comes to themselves, people who can readily say “I don’t know”, those who aren’t afraid to listen to others with whom they disagree, those who can sit in the discomfort of chaos while knowing it’s bad and that God is in it with us, those who find their hope in Christ, those who can speak a substantial word into the swirling hurricane of empty words. Beloved, because of Christ’s work toward and in you, the world needs you in your honesty and humility; never forget that.
[2] I’m using tradition language for the author of this letter so I can just keep it simple for the audience. I am aware of the debates of authorship and dating.
[3] The precious things about both the two letters to Timothy and the one letter to Titus is that these are personal letters to persons and not churches. For all practical purposes, we shouldn’t be reading them, mining them for ways to condemn each other through biased eisegesis and baseless proof texting. We are peeking in on a relationship and as those who are peeking in, we are *not* addressed. Rather, we are the audience witnessing such a dialogue as if we had front row seats to a play. So, as we listen, we see Paul, the great and magnificent Paul, at his most humble. As he encourages Timothy in his service of the gospel, Paul tends to Timothy delicately and kindly, and (mostly) through his own personal narrative about his life and walk with Christ.
[4] Philip Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, TNICNT, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 134. “We discover not only that his gospel is the paradigm of sound teaching, but also that his own experience of coming to faith provides a blueprint for measuring the authenticity of any who would oppose him.”
[5] Towner, Timothy, 134. Verses 12-16 form a tightly knit unit. “Paul blends personal history with salvation history in a way that sets him as an apostle squarely into God’s plan. His calling to be an apostle is authenticated, and his own experience of mercy and salvation become the paradigm for all believers.”
[6] Towner, Timothy, 136. “Gratitude is the dominant and opening note of this testimony…”
[7] Towner, Timothy, 134. “This section corresponds to the thanksgiving sections of other letters The present needs created by opposition to Paul’s authority, message, and mission determine the selfward turn of Paul’s gratitude.”
[8] Towner, Timothy, 138. “…[Paul] is probably much more intent on attributing his calling to Christ than he is of making trustworthiness the condition of appointment.”
[9] Towner, Timothy, 141. “in contrast to Paul, who sinned before coming to faith in Christ, the false teachers are portrayed as believers (or those who profess to believe) who by their sin have rejected their faith…”
[10] Towner, Timothy, 138. “There, as here, the issue is of Paul’s teaching a correct view of things, and the condition of being ‘trustworthy’ (the same ‘faith’ word that occurs here) is linked to the Lord’s mercy…”
[11] Towner, Timothy, 142. “…the phrase defines Christian existence by bringing together the fundamental act of God in Christ that begins the relationship, the ongoing present mystery of union with Christ (in the Spirit), and the sense of new and renewed status that results. In other words, the phrase expresses a dynamic existence that is eschatological, relational, and existential.”
[12] Towner, Timothy, 141. Not only mercy, but grace expands, “‘Grace’ overwhelmed his sin. ‘Grace’…refers to God’s kind intention toward humanity.”
[13] Towner, Timothy, 139. Ethic device “it supplies a contrast between two ways to life with the focus on the Christ-event as the moment of change.”
[14] Towner, Timothy, 142-143. Opponents have departed from faith and love, thus “Paul employs this phrase as n identity tag of authentic believe in the apostolic gospel, and that in doing so he excludes those who reject his gospel and supply another (legalistic and Torah-based) standard of godliness.”
[15] Towner, Timothy, 143. “In Paul’s thinking, the direction taken by the opponents back into Torah and Torah speculation is retrograde. Not only does it nullify ‘faith’ as the basis for salvation and holy living …but also in terms of salvation history it marks a retrograde step.”
[16] Towner, Timothy, 138. “Paul is not arguing that Christ foresaw that in spite of his sin Paul would prove himself faithful; rather, the sense here is of the potency of divine calling to achieve certain results in human lives. As Paul reflects on the process, his argument is that his ministry to this point has demonstrated the effectiveness of Christ’s choice in appointing him apostle to the Gentiles.”
[17] Towner, Timothy, 139. “This personalizing of the eschatological transformation will serve two purposes. It prepares the way for Paul’s presentation of himself as the pattern of salvation….It also links his conversion To God’s plan to reach the Gentiles.”
[18] Towner, Timothy, 141. “Authentic Christian existence bears unmistakable marks…and Paul’s personal experience of grace bears testimony to that reality.”
[19] Towner, Timothy, 143. “Its stable form….however, suggests it is either widely known or will be perfectly understood. Its purpose is to authenticate Paul’s immediate expression of the gospel as apostolic and to be accepted as true. … the expansion ‘that deserves full acceptance’ emphasizes the need for hearers to make an appropriate rational response to embrace and esteem what is said and to act accordingly.”
[20] Towner, Timothy, 151. “…If Christ can reach and enlighten the zealous persecutor, he can reach others who hear the gospel, and this need not exclude Paul’s opponents if they repent.”
[21] Towner, Timothy, 148. “But with an immediate shift of actors, form Paul to Christ, the perspective on the human dilemma shifts under the new christological lens. From this new vantage point Paul’s experience becomes a (salvation-historical) spectacle, a ‘display of the immensity of Christ’s patience.’”
[22] Towner, Timothy, 149. “…the converted Paul was a living illustration of divine patience.”
[23] Towner, Timothy, 149. “The purpose of Christ’s display in Paul was to provide an ‘example [pattern, model] for those who would believe on him [Christ] and receive eternal life.’”
[24] Towner, Timothy, 151. “Thus the apostle is as an example or illustration. His experience of Christ’s immense patience, his conversion, and knowledge of his gospel form the pattern for those to whom his mission reaches.”
[25] Towner, Timothy, 154. “But built into the gospel message, rooted as it is in the OT promise to bring the whole world, is the centrifugal thrust that reaches beyond the church. We today are invited to view the Pauline ‘pattern’ and to replicate it. Our own experiences of conversion and calling contain promises for those around us who do not yet know Christ’s mercy. Yet they will come to know it only if the gospel is communicated meaning fully to them—if we resist our own tendencies to become absorbed in what we already have instead of reaching out with what others need to have.”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
American Evangelicalism and Western Christianity writ large, have done a huge disservice to Christianity broadly speaking. This morning I’m speaking not only as an observer of our socio-religio-political landscape, but as one who came to faith in it. It has been both my experience and observation that much of American Evangelicalism and Western Christianity conceives of the life of the disciple of Christ that is both comfortable, easy, and aligned to traditionalist conceptions promoted within society. The Jesus peddled therein reflects American Evangelicalism and its ideologies rather than the Jesus the gospel and epistle authors took pains to paint for us.
I remember—specifically—that my faith in and obedience to Jesus was going to make my life easier; that I would find myself in states of existential comfort and bliss. I’d be ushered into the spiritual realm, no longer afraid of where I’d end up in death while (intentionally) remaining indifferent (ignorant?) toward the issues of the world because why worry when Jesus is gonna come back and fix it all? Faith was to make me perpetually happy, nice, and too blessed to be stressed. My only two obligations were evangelism and obedience: I was to be a good Christian which meant telling people about Jesus and how great he’d made my life and obeying my authorities in all things which was God’s will. You might be burning in hell (temporally) or heading towards it (spiritually), and that was none of my business really because that was all your choice. My sins were forgiven and that’s all that really mattered, that was the goal of the gospel and of Jesus’s mission in the world. I was just lucky—blessed!!—enough to have decided to find Christ when I did!
But none of this was true. Like a sports car sold to someone suffering the malaise and banality of midlife, I was sold a saccharine Jesus, having little power and agency in the world because he was so conformed to it, embedded (buried?) in the ideas of yesteryear. Becoming Christian was going to solve all my problems; turns out, becoming Christian created more problems than it solved. Here’s why…
Luke 14:25-33
Luke tells us that Jesus addressed the many crowds that were coming together around him (these many crowds were composed of “neutral” people who may become disciples[2]), and he turned and said to them, “If someone comes to me and hates not their father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yet even their own soul, they are not able to be my disciple (v26). Luke’s emphasis here is implied: those following Jesus must know the cost of following.[3] The “cost of discipleship” is not only the burden of the disciples; it’s the burden of any/all someone/s coming to Jesus.[4] There is no way around the reality: to follow Jesus is to also participate in the mission of God in the world as Jesus does; obedience to God by faith and following Jesus necessarily means that they will be confronted with performing intentional acts of disobedience within their private.[5] In other words, it aint easy being Christian.[6] Not even family ties—a vital component of ancient Palestinian life—can get in the way; the follower of Christ must not even let family loyalty hinder them from pursuing God and God’s mission in the world.[7] (This is what the “hate” means in this verse; it is not about having a feeling of ill will or malevolence.) Not even loyalty to one’s own life/livelihood can get in the way of following Christ.[8]
Luke then tells us that Jesus said, Whoever does not carry the cross and comes after me that one is not able to be my disciple (v27). While we may think of this statement through the lens of Good Friday, it isn’t actually about “suffering”; it’s an equivalent thought to hating the family and oneself and broadens the scope of disobedience: it won’t be just private, it will be public and against the established authorities (ecclesiastical and political) who have power to punish you and take your life because of your disobedience.[9] In other words, the whole life of the follower of Christ will be exposed to the potential ramifications of following this man who is God. Everything is up for grabs.
Luke then tells us that Jesus provides a moment of reflection for those listening,[10]For who of you, willing to build a tower, does not (at all) after sitting down estimate the cost whether he has [enough] to complete [it]? So that, lest while he has laid his foundation and is not having power to finish, all those who gaze at it will begin to mock him, saying, `This person began to build and had not the power to finish.’ Or what king, going to come together in war against another king, will not (at all) after sitting down deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand troops to encounter the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? Now if he cannot, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation asking for the terms of peace (vv28-32). The follower of Christ is not headed toward some sort of comfortable and pleasant and easy life; they must think about the cost, likely conflict and confrontation, and what the end will look like.[11] it’s not going to be easy, in fact, it will be hard; and “hard” may be the lightest way to say it. For those who follow Jesus—according to Luke—they will feel the anguish of the decision deep in their bones as their choice begins—at times—to feel unbearable, lonely, and profoundly demanding in terms of forgoing material glory and honor and forsaking the creature comforts of fitting in and following along, including family and friends.[12] According to Luke and Luke’s Jesus, the Christian will be the one who stands out and not because they are so righteous but because they are so hated by the kingdom of humanity. “Authentic discipleship”[13] will force the follower of Christ into a spotlight and will paint a target on their back not because of their obedience to traditionalist conceptions of society and religion but specifically because of their disobedience born from their new life in Christ[14] marked by new ways of being in the world[15] that grate against the status-quo.[16] Participating in God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation will do that; never forget that Good Friday was more than a spiritual event.[17]
Therefore, Luke tells us, that Jesus concluded this discourse with,Therefore, in this way, all of you who do not take leave of all the things that are at hand are not able to be my disciple (v33). This last bit isn’t a new command to sell things but, rather, to loosen one’s grip on all that they have. The disciple of Christ, the follower of the Way, the participant in God’s mission and divine revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world cannot have loyalties placed anywhere else; their only allegiance is to the reign of God, forfeiting their status and position in the kingdom of humanity.[18] For the disciple of Christ, this is not about being intentionally poor, friendless, and rejecting one’s family. Rather, it’s about holding on loose enough that when conformity to the status quo of the kingdom of humanity is demanded—publicly or privately—the disciple of Christ can let go and proceed on the way of the reign of God, to glory of God and the well-being of the neighbor.
Conclusion
The Christian life is hard; this has been the consistent theme of Luke’s presentation of Jesus these many weeks. It’s not easy. It’s not comfortable. It’s not the sure-fire way to be “successful,” popular, or famous. It will not allow you always to be nice to others, always fun to be around, or always good-vibes-only. It will not be the fool proof way toward material blessings in this world or to acquiring favor of the rich and powerful. To follow Christ means to be intractable when it comes to the kingdom of humanity’s tendency toward not only rejecting but violently attacking God’s reign in the world. Christians, according to Luke’s Jesus, cannot side with nation over Christ, cannot side with the status-quo over the laboring of God to bear something new into the world (stress on new, not a retreat to something old), cannot participate in the captivity of our neighbors over fighting for their liberation, cannot become familiar with indifference over feeling the risk and demand of love, and cannot advocate for death over life.
The Christian—the one who follows and is to be as Christ` in the world—is the one who finds themselves at the intersection and epicenter of the temporal and spiritual realms, with a will conformed to God’s will, hands and feet ready to bring God glory by bringing wellbeing to their neighbor, and an eye keen on spotting and a voice ready to call out the violence and destruction of the kingdom of humanity. It’s not about self-righteous, holier-than-thou, clean and pure, self-imposed glory and boasting; it’s about the radical love of God that is the revolutionary love of neighbor. And while I want to comfort you by reminding you that God is with you—for surely God is with you, Beloved—I can’t solely tell you that in good faith and with a good conscience because the Christian walk is hard and I must tell you that. The world would have me sooth you to sleep (back to sleep?), telling you sweet nothings that let you off the hook. But it’s my job to participate in the prophetic calling of God to wake you up. Luke’s Jesus doesn’t want sleepers, but those who can stay awake, call out the discrepancies between what is and could be, and who dare to step disobediently into the void to protect the love, life, and liberation of the neighbor from the aggressive overreach of authority (ecclesial and political). Beloved, this is what it looks like to follow God; consider wisely the cost of such discipleship.
[2] Green, Luke, 564. “Often in the Lukan account, crowds are presented as pools of neutral person from whom Jesus might draw disciples, and this is clearly the case here.”
[3] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 183. “…[Jesus] warns those who would follow him of the cost of discipleship.”
[4] Green, Luke, 565. “‘Disciples’ does not refer narrowly in this instance to a select group of Jesus’ followers but…to all who, following him, identify with his missions. Such persons are characterized, first, by their distancing themselves form the high cultural value placed on the family network, otherwise paramount in the world of Luke.”
[5] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “Discipleship requires radical obedience. Love of family must not stand in the way.”
[6] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “Now he turns to the crowds around him. It is not only Jerusalem and all it represents that should take heed of the danger of disobedience; it is also this entire crowd that travels with him. If Jerusalem must be disabused of the notion that it will be easy to be the people of God, now this crowd of followers is also disabused of the notion that it will be easy to be a disciple of Jesus.”
[7] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “…to ‘hate’ the family does not mean to have evil sentiments for them, but rather to forsake them for the sake of the kingdom. A disciple of Jesus will not use supposed family responsibility to avoid obedience.”
[8] Green, Luke, 565. “…in this context, ‘hate’ is not primarily an affective quality but a disavowal of primary allegiance to one’s kind…Jesus underscores how discipleship relativizes one’s normal and highly valued loyalties to normal family and other social ties.”
[9] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “And this is then paralleled by the saying about carrying the cross. Taken in context, this not just a call to sacrifice, as we often think. The cross is an instrument of legal punishment and torture. So to take up the cross is parallel to ‘hating’ the family. A disciple of Jesus must be ready to carry the burden not only of tensions in the family, but even of civil disobedience to the point of legal punishment.”
[10] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “Pointing to this idea, Jesus uses two brief parables about counting the cost.”
[11] Gonzalez, Luke, 184. “Likewise, one should not become a follower of Jesus without considering the cost, the opposition, and the final outcome.”
[12] Green, Luke, 566. “What outcomes are proposed if resources prove to be deficient? In both cases, the repercussions are tragic—the one resulting in mockery, the other in surrender; hence, a premium is placed on the inadequacy of one’s resources. By extrapolation, then, Jesus insists that such assets as one’s network of kin, so important in Greco-Roman antiquity, are an insufficient foundation for assuring one’s status before God. Dependence on the resources available to a person apart from ‘hating’ family and ‘carrying the cross’ cannot but lead to a tragic outcome. What is required is thoroughgoing fidelity to God’s salvific aim, manifest in one’s identity as a disciple of Jesus.”
[13] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 564. “As Jesus turns to address the crowds traveling with him, he lists allegiance to one’s family network and the shackles that constitute one’s possessions as impediments to authentic discipleship.”
[14] Green, Luke, 565. “As in 9:23, so here Jesus is calling for the reconstruction of one’s identity, not along ancestral lines or on the basis of sone’s social status, but within the new community oriented toward God’s purpose and characterized by faithfulness to the message of Jesus.”
[15] Green, Luke, 567. “This ‘leaving behind’ is cast in the present tense, demarcating this condition not simply as a potential for which disciples must be constantly ready, but as a characteristic feature of the disciples.”
[16] Green, Luke, 564. Luke “…reminds us that the new practices counseled by Jesus in vv 7-14 are not isolated behaviors but, from Luke’s perspective, must flow out of a transformed disposition, reflecting new commitments, attitudes, and allegiances. That is, the conversion that characterizes genuine disciples is itself generative, giving rise to new forms of behavior.”
[17] Green, Luke, 565-566. “…bearing the cross is used as a metaphor of discipleship—indeed, as a requirement for one’s identity as a disciple. Such persons would live as though they were condemned to death by crucifixion, oblivious to the pursuit of noble status, finding no interest in securing one’s future via securing obligations form others or by stockpiling possessions, free to identify with Jesus in his dishonorable suffering.”
[18] Green, Luke, 567. “As is generally the case in Luke, one’s basic commitments are manifest or symbolized in the disposition of ‘all one has.’ Accordingly, the distinctive property of disciples is the abandonment with which they put aside all competing securities in order that they might refashion their lives and identity according to eh norms of the kingdom of God.”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
What, in our lives, brings God glory? I’ll say two things up front: 1. It’s not what you think; and, 2. It’s harder than you think.
Luke 13:10-17
Luke tells us that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath (v10). Luke gives us a location that Jesus hasn’t been in a while—not since chapter 4, when he was teaching on the Sabbath about bringing “good news to the poor” and “release the captives.”[2] Therefore, given this new scene and its corresponding component parts, Luke is providing his audience a reminder about how Jesus spoke of and understood his mission from God: liberation of the people from oppression. (This is our backdrop.) Also, since he’s in the synagogue on the Sabbath, we can safely assume that another conflict will emerge between Jesus and the religious authorities[3] as human tradition and power is confronted by divine love and mercy. [4]
Luke then tells us, And, behold!, [there was] a woman having a spirit of frailty for 18 years—she was bent double and not able to lift toward the uttermost (v11). Another character is introduced: a woman who was bent over so severely she could not stand up straight for 18 years. She is “burdened” by a spirit that is causing her to suffer, she is doubled-over under the weight of its presence, she is oppressed by evil and the demonic and this evil spirit has refused her the vitality and dignity of divinely created human life.[5] She was minding her own business, going about her task, and was not seeking either attention or healing. However, Jesus saw her[6]—God of very God saw her and cared about her. Then, Now,after perceiving her, [he] called and said to her, “Woman, you have been released from your malady,” and he placed his hands on her, and instantly she was restored/straightened again and she as giving glory to/glorifying God (vv12-13). The healing Jesus brings to this humble and burdened woman is one of “release” and restoration: she is not only released from her malady of being doubled-over but also from the spirit causing the burden; she is also returned to community (Jesus calls her to him in the midst of the people).[7] In a word, Jesus rebukes the evil spirit by declaring she is no longer oppressed and follows it up with laying his hands on her. The word of God spoke, the hand of God touched, and she was liberated, loosedfrom/set free from her captivity (ἀπολύω). Jesus’s word and touch bring God glory because God’s praise is found on the lips of the one liberated.
But Jesus isn’t the only one who perceives and calls. Luke tells us that the ruler of the synagogue—being indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath—answered and was saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which to toil; therefore on these days come and be healed and not [on] the day of the Sabbath” (v14). The religious leader isn’t wrong, it is his job to faithfully keep and study the law[8] and he’s referring to scripture here (but not quoting it (Dt. 5:13)).[9] The Sabbath was a divinely instituted law of God, what “ought to be done” was rest and not work. Here Jesus finds himself confronted by the evil Spirit in the woman, and the evil spirit[10] deeply embedded in the atmosphere around him personified by the ruler of the synagogue: law has privilege over the people.[11] This ruler of the synagogue—privileging the law over the person thus participating in the evil embedded in the atmosphere[12] —would’ve added “another umpteen centuries” to this woman’s burden rather than “break” the law to release her. Jesus, however—privileging the person over the law and thus confronting the evil embedded in the atmosphere[13]—liberated and released her even on the Sabbath. Which action caused God to be praised?[14]
Not only is Jesus’s ministry being characterized as one of “release,”[15] the very laws of God, God’s word, God’s son, God’s mission in the world is also being so characterized by “release.”[16] Luke tells us that Jesus, the lord, answered and said [to the ruler of the synagogue and the crowd], “Hypocrite! Do not everyone of you releases their cow or donkey from the manger and after leading it away gives it water? But this woman—being a daughter of Abraham—Satan bound her ten and eight years, was it not necessary [for her] to be loosed from this imprisonment on the day of the Sabbath? (vv15-16). Luke emphasizes Jesus’s authority to challenge the authority of the ruler of the synagogue. Even though the ruler of the synagogue tried to challenge Jesus and reassert his authority,[17] Jesus returns the favor. He also quotes scripture, but highlights the hypocrisy in that, according to the text, not even animals are supposed to work, thus Dt. 5:14 goes ignored.[18] Here Jesus becomes the one who has the authority to both interpret the law and scripture and God’s will and purposes in the world and opts to break the law to liberate a daughter of Abraham.[19] Here the ruler and the crowd are exposed as the ones who do not know God’s will and who do not understand the law and it’s purpose.[20] Here Jesus responds to the ruler’s “ought to be done” with his own “ought to be done”: healing, release, restoration, liberation for all humanity,[21] especially those who are a [children] of Abraham. She not only has some place in the children of Israel, but has a significant place marked by being one of the people of God who has dignity and deserves to receive God’s mercy and liberation[22] and is given a voice to glorify God which is the characteristic of the people of God.[23]
Luke closes with telling us that not only did the woman praise God, but so did the people who witnessed the deed and the subsequent exchange.[24] Luke writes, and all the crowd was rejoicing because of all the glorious things that were happening through him (v17b).
Conclusion
So, again, I’ll ask the question: What, in our lives, brings God glory?
I mentioned earlier that it’s not what you think. By this I mean that it’s not by adhering to some austere and severe way of life, it’s not embedded in some form of self-harm/mutilation (either spiritually or materially), it’s not at the end of a pilgrimage or fast or bible-study/reading, it’s not the pot of gold at the end of being strong and powerful, it’s not in our success no matter how much we give God the credit, it’s not about perfect worship and excellent doctrine, and it’s not even by clinging to the law (either human or divine) and upholding it without fail. Why? Because none of those deeds puts God and our neighbor first, and it, frankly, devalues human life to the point of being unimportant and down-right disposable, only any good by ho it serves some law. In any of these actions, as good and holy as any of them sound, there is no room for God and for our neighbor.
I also mentioned, earlier, that it’s harder than you think. By this I mean that even though it’s not about the deeds mentioned above it doesn’t mean that we bring God glory by just going along with the crowd and adhering to the kingdom of humanity and its rules and structures without question. It’s also not as easy as just choosing to be nice and people pleasing. It’s hard because we must find our identity not only in Christ but also find ourselves empowered by the Holy Spirit to be as Christ in the world and this means, in many ways, participating in the mission of God as Jesus did. Thus, it’s hard because we must be curious; we must be willing to be the fodder for challenge; we must find our voice to ask questions—specifically against the powers that control the narratives and institutions of the kingdom of humanity; we must locate the gumption to call out lies and falsehoods knowing that it might/will cause our social, political, ecclesiastical, occupational, and (even) physical demise. We must allow our faith and love of God and others to determine our posture in the world, and we must do so daily and without foreknowledge. Why is it harder than you think? Because to bring God glory caused Jesus to lose his life.
So, what does bring God glory? Jesus forever sets the answer to the question for us: by making sure people are liberated from oppression (both spiritually and materially). This means, quite frankly, that we participate in the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation, being willing to break the law as necessary to make sure our neighbors—burdened by the evil of the age that weighs them down and prevents them from having fully life—are released from their captivity within the kingdom of humanity. As Christians who have been liberated by Jesus to love God, let us also love our neighbor in and through the love that God has loved us in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and let us bring life where there is death, and sweet divine release and liberation where there is captivity. Love releases and sets free; therefore, beloved, let us love as we have been so loved by God through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
[2] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 520-521. “There, when teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus proclaimed ‘good news to the poor,’ ‘the good news of the kingdom of God’…Recalling that well-established script, we may assume that Luke has chosen at this fresh point of departure in the narrative to remind us of a the central concerns of Jesus’ ministry and, thus, to present Jesus engaged in the characteristic activity by means of which he fulfills his divine mission.”
[3] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 173. “This well-known passage is a further sign of the growing controversy between Jesus and the religious Leaders of his nation.”
[4] Gonzalez, Luke, 173. “For in this text we have not just a miracle of healing, but the convergence of ancient and seemingly invincible powers, all coming to meet that Sabbath day in that synagogue.”
[5] Gonzalez, Luke, 173-174. “The point is that the woman cannot stand up straight, and that is demonic…With that woman there comes into the synagogue what we religious folk often try to forget: the reality of the power of evil, the reality of human suffering.”
[7] Green, Luke, 522-523. “When Jesus sees her, he does not go to her but calls her to him, thus inviting her to join him in front of those gathered and so to join him at the focal point of this scene. Locating this woman of such low status thus is not unrelated to the healing moment, but is directly relevant as a symbolization of her restoration within her community.”
[8] Green, Luke, 523. “The role of the synagogue ruler was to maintain the reading and faithful teaching of the law…”
[9] Green, Luke, 523. “He does not even cite the relevant texts, but grounds his view in what ‘ought to be done’—that is, in the divine will.” The woman can be healed tomorrow.
[10] Gonzalez, Luke, 174. “The confrontation points to the always lurking possibility that very good religious principles may be turned into allies of the powers of evil.”
[11] Gonzalez, Luke, 174. “On the one hand, in that woman’s suffering Satan himself confronts him. On the other, in the entire atmosphere around him, in the very law of Israel, in the leader of the synagogue, the weight of tradition seems to say that there is nothing to be done.”
[12] Gonzalez, Luke, 174. “The leader of the synagogue was defending religious principles derived from the very law of God. Yet in that very defense he was siding with the powers of evil that held the woman bent.”
[13] Green, Luke, 521. “From this ethnomedical perspective, the, this woman’s illness has a physiological expression but is rooted in a cosmological disorder. Because Luke has presented Jesus as the divine agent of salvation in whose ministry the kingdom of God is made present and in whose ministry the domain of Satan is rolled back, Luke’s depiction of this woman’s illness prepares us for a redemptive encounter of startling proportions.”
[14] Gonzalez, Luke, 174. “Jesus faces the bent-over woman, oppressed by the weight of Satan himself. To her oppression of eighteen years the religious leaders would add another of umpteen centuries: It is the Sabbath! It is a day for religious matters! Jesus saw the woman, and he called her, and he spoke to her, and he laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.”
[15] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 518.
[16] Green, Luke, 519. “…Jesus’ encounter with this woman and his ensuing interpretation of her liberation as a necessary manifestation of the divine will, an outworking of the presence of the kingdom, on this day, the Sabbath. That is, the intrusion of the indignant synagogue ruler into Jesus’ encounter with the women bent over (v 14) provides Jesus the opportunity to interpret that healing as a fulfillment of God’s purpose ,and, thus, of Jesus’ mission (vv 15-21).”
[17] Green, Luke, 523. Ruler of the Synagogue addresses the people and not Jesus, “In this way he publicly challenges Jesus’ authority as a teacher and reasserts himself as the authorized interpreter of Scripture.”
[18] Green, Luke, 524. Ruler of Synagogue’s allusion to Deut 5:13 causes Jesus to return to that text “in order to remind this debate partner that the prohibition to work extends not only to human beings but also to oxen and donkeys (Deut 5:14).”
[19] Green, Luke, 520. “…Luke introduces Jesus as ‘Lord,’ then presents him as one with authority to interpret God’s salvific purpose. Directly or indirectly, both synagogue ruler and Jesus appeal to the Scriptures, but Jesus is represented as the divinely sanctioned hermeneut.”
[20] Green, Luke, 524. Setting up a series of parallels with ref. to Deut 5:14, “From this exegesis of the Deuteronomic law and contemporary practices based on it, Jesus is able to expose the ruler of the synagogue and those who think as he does as ‘hypocrites’—that is, as persons who do not understand God’s purpose, who therefore are unable to discern accurately the meaning of the scriptures, and therefore, whose piety is a sham.”
[21] Green, Luke, 524. “On a deeper sense, though, Jesus seems content to engage the argument just as the synagogue ruler had left it, with reference to the devein will. What ‘ought’ to take place, he insists, is this: This woman out to be set free from satanic bondage on the Sabbath.”
[22] Green, Luke, 525. “…Jesus’ God’s covenantal promise and the extension of God’s covenantal mercy to Abraham….She is ‘a daughter of Abraham,’ and appellation that might signal heroic faithfulness in some other literature, but with a profoundly different significance in the Lukan narrative. She is thus presented as one of those persons denoted by others has having no place among the people of God, normally excluded from social intercourse and certainly not highly regarded for their fidelity, and yet raised up by God as children of Abraham in the sene of becoming the recipients of the mercy reserved for Abraham by God.”
[23] Green, Luke, 525-526. “She and other children of Abraham in the Lukan narrative evidence how God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled through the activity of Jesus and how the recipients of liberation through Jesus’ ministry are thus confirmed as Abrahm’s children.”
[24] Green, Luke, 526. “He had attempted to shame Jesus but, in the end, he and those with him who oppose Jesus are shamed as the crowd sides with Jesus This also means that they side with the narrator, attributing to Jesus the status of authoritative teacher and recognizing in the ‘wonderful things he was doing’ the gracious hand of God…”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”
Introduction
The Christian life and walk are hard. We are brought into a new life by faith in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit to be representatives of God in the world to God’s glory and for the well-being of the neighbor. And while we are to strive for peace and concord, often we’re brought into direct conflict with the statutes and ideologies of the kingdom of humanity. We (more than we like) find ourselves in that not-so-blessed spot: between a rock and a hard place. How is this possible when we know that shalom (with God and with our neighbors) and agape (from/to God and for our neighbors) features significantly in Jesus’s mission? Doesn’t Jesus promise to leave us with peace that surpasses all understanding? Isn’t Jesus’s mission about mercy and forgiveness, grace and kindness? How could this Christian life and walk be so hard? The characteristics of mercy, grace, forgiveness, and kindness sound so nice; who wouldn’t want to be met with such active nouns? So, why am I telling you that it’s hard?
I say it because I know that by and through faith in Christ and by the resident power of the Holy Spirit in your heart anchoring you into God and God’s mission in the world each of us has been, is being, and will be asked to take steps into unknown territory that will cause divisions and divides not so that we can feel righteous in ourselves and in our actions, but that others might feel righteous through our—and God’s—solidarity and camaraderie with them.
Luke 12:49-56
Luke invites us into a teaching moment between Jesus and his disciples. What Jesus is teaching his disciples isn’t an easy pill to swallow. Jesus says, I came to throw fire on the earth, and I wish it was otherwise already kindled? Now I have a baptism [with which] to be baptized, and how I am distressed until it might be completed. Do you think that I came here to give peace on the earth? Not at all, I tell you, but rather disunion (vv49-51). In an instant, the disciples are shook.[1] How is it that the long-awaited prince of peace is here to throw fireon the earth? This doesn’t seem to resonate with who Jesus has been and what he’s been saying all this time. (In fact, this doesn’t even to seem to resonate with who Luke thinks Jesus is!) But Jesus’s concern (and thus Luke’s) isn’t about making sure his disciples and the crowd are comfortable; rather, he’s eager to make sure his disciples are aware that following him (while he’s here and, more importantly, after he leaves) will come with trials most of which affecting their present lives.[2] In fact, this is the “even more” that Jesus mentions about the slaves who are informed about what the master wants at the end of v. 48.[3]
What’s interesting is the comment on baptism wedged in between v49 and v51. Taking our cue from context, Jesus’s baptism with which he is to be baptized is going to be a baptism of suffering. In this way, and keeping in mind the fact that Jesus promises that he was meant to bring disunion and division, the disciples, just like their master, Jesus, will also experience a baptism of suffering.[4] (In fact, it’s not only a promised by product of their new life and walk in the world, but evidence of God’s presence in Christ with them and in them by faith. [5]) If by any chance the disciples were thinking that somehow they were not included in the comments about the slaves and master mentioned just before this, they have been rudely awakened; to follow Jesus—now and in the future—is going to be hard even for them and (very likely) even harder because of who they are and what/whom they represent in word and deed.
What types of divisions and disunion are to come? Personal ones. Jesus explains, For from now on there will be five in one household having been divided up, three against two and two against three, they will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law (vv.52-53). Given that these particular relationships were crucial for the livelihoods of the disciples,[6] that Jesus says there will be division and disunion among and within them means that the disciples need to prepare themselves for how hard this Christian life and walk will be. The demand that Jesus is placing on their shoulders going forward[7] is one in which their very lives and walks are going to be different from those of others (including those closest to them), even to the point of causing distress and fracturing within the relationships.[8] Their new lives and walks may even be considered “deviant,”[9] according to those closest to them who disagree with their life and walk. There’s no way for the disciples to follow Jesus and his way of suffering and the way of the kingdom of humanity; relationships will end, opposition will be experienced.[10]
Then Jesus turns to the others around him and the disciples (thus blurring the lines between who is a “disciple” and not[11]), Now Jesus says to the crowd…(v54a); and here we are included in and are directly addressed. Luke tells us that Jesus said, Whenever you might see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘a violent rain comes,’ and it happens in this way. And whenever the south-wind blows, you say, ‘There will be a burning heat,’ and it happens.[12] Hypocrites! You have considered to discern the face of the earth and the heavens, but how have you not considered to discern the current time? (vv54b-56). The crowd is not hypocritical because they say one thing and do another;[13] rather, they are hypocritical because they have the eyes to see what weather is coming but refuse to use those same eyes to perceive[14] what’s currently happening around them at the intersection of the reign of God in Christ and kingdom of humanity. In other words, the crowd (including the disciples and us) are preferring to stay the course of the status-quo—convincing ourselves that it will remain until the end of time because it’s always been this way and, thus, it’s the only right way[15]—rather than embrace and be embraced by the coming new order of God.[16]
Conclusion
There are two things I want to say by way of conclusion:
First, the Christian life and walk are hard. Jesus makes it clear that we’ll experience tumult in our intimate lives as some of our closest relationships fracture in response to the friction created as we live and walk in opposition to the status quo of the kingdom of humanity. We will rub up against anyone who is dead set on privileging greed over giving, violence over acceptance, retribution over mercy, capital over life, land over people, genocide and war over life and peace, indifference over love, captivity for many over liberation for all. The reign of God and the kingdom of humanity have very little in common save the one who has a foot in both, the one who follows Christ in word and deed and by faith working itself out in love.
Second, some of us may take pride in our staunch positions of opposition against what we see to be the downfall of humanity. But we must be careful here to discern whether it’s our pride causing divisions or God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation. You see, we can take Jesus’s words in this passage to affirm where we have cut off family members because of their identity and presentation in the world; where we have walked away from people because of their socio-political ideologies; where we have drawn lines in the sand because of our preferred religious doctrines and dogmas that make us most comfortable; where we refuse to face the demand placed on us to grow and change. In other words, not all disunions and divisions are because of our expressed righteousness that comes with our faith and praxis in following Jesus. Rather, our divisions and disunions may be because of our own sense of self-righteousness and fear.
How do we know the difference? Well, when Jesus acts through us towards others, love is felt, life is given, and liberation happens for our neighbor (and not only for us). It’s these fruits that happen for the well-being of the neighbor that bring God glory and may cause others to cut us out, to walk away from us, to draw their lines in the sand against us, and refuse to grow with us. Beloved, the Christian life and walk is hard. But take courage, the one you follow, Jesus the Christ, this man who is God, walks not only ahead of you, but with you through that pain. Following Christ won’t be easy, but for us Christians, it’s the only way to true love, life, and liberation for us and for our neighbor to the glory of God.
[1] Green, Luke, 510. “Jesus’ question, ‘Do you think I have come to bring peace?’ underscores Jesus’ awareness that the presence of division and judgment will, for many, stand in stark contrast to what might have been expected of the divine intervention.”
[2] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 168. “…theme of eschatological expectation, and how it must impact the life of believers in the present. Eschatological hope is not just a matter for the future. If we really expect the future we claim to await, this should have an impact on the way we live in the present.”
[3] Gonzalez, Luke, 168. “The previous section ends with the announcement that ‘even more will be demanded’ from those slaves who know what the maters wants. Now we are told that things will not be easy.”
[4] Gonzalez, Luke, 168. “Jesus himself will suffer a ‘baptism’ of suffering. And his disciples will suffer also, for opposition will be such that there will be bitter division even within households.”
[5] Green, Luke, 510. Commissioning to judgment “Judgment, from this perspective, is not a uprising consequence of his ministry and is not a contradiction of his mission; rather it is integral to it. He had come as God’s representative to bring divisions, so the dissolution of family bonds (which, in the Lukan narrative, has as its consequence the formation of a new kinship group around Jesus) should be taken as confirmation that he is God’s agent and that he is bringing to fruition the purpose of God.”
[6] Green, Luke, 509. “Within culture wherein kinship ties played so crucial a socio-religious role, a message such as this one might well be suspect…Jesus posits just such divisions not only as a legitimate consequence of his mission but as confirmation that he is carrying out a divine charge.”
[7] Green, Luke, 510. “Jesus’ phrase ‘from now on’ further locates the significance of the division Jesus describes within the interpretive framework of his mission; it is from this statement of his divine charge that division within families will take its meaning.”
[8] Gonzalez, Luke, 168. “Those servants who know what their master wishes will act differently than the rest. This will cause stress and division. It is as if in a parade some begin marching to a different tune. The rest—those who march to the common tune—will accuse them of upsetting the parade, and will seek to suppress or oust them.”
[9] Green, Luke, 509. “At his present discourse, begun in 12:1, has already made clear, a decision to adopt his canons of faithfulness to God would require a deeply rooted and pervasive transformation of how one understand God and how one understand the transformation of the world purposed by this God. This would involve Jesus’ disciples in disposition and forms of behavior that could only be regarded as deviant within their kin groups.”
[10] Green, Luke, 511. “As Luke has continually shown, and as Jesus has endeavored to teach his followers, the realization of God’s purpose will engender opposition from those who serve a contrary aim.”
[11] Green, Luke, 508. “Thus, v 54 does not so much introduce a new audience as (1) provide an explicit reminder of the presence of the large cast of listeners and (2) pinpoint the crowds as persons for whom the material of vv. 54-59 is particularly apt. As we shall see, however, even with regard to this material the distinction between crowds and disciples cannot be drawn precisely.”
[12] Green, Luke, 511. “The climatological phenomena he describes are indigenous to Palestine, where the west wind would bring moisture inland form the Mediterranean… and the south wind would bring the heat from the Negev desert…”
[13] Green, Luke, 511. “Jesus plainly regards the crowds not as deceivers or phonies but as people who ‘do not know.’ His question, then, is not why they say one things and do another, but why they have joined the Pharisees in living lives that are not determined by God. Misdirected in their fundamental understanding of God’s purpose, they are incapable of discerning the authentic meaning of the sins staring them in the face.” (here it’s family division)
[14] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 508. “Just as he did with the crowds in that earlier encounter, so here he argues that the necessary signs are already present, if only people would open their eyes to them.”
[15] Gonzalez, Luke, 168-169. “Hypocritically, although we know what the master wants, we find all sorts of reasons to continue living as if the present order were permanent. We all stand accused and are on our way to trial. We can continue insisting on our innocence, and face the judge and the ensuing penalty, or settle matters with our accuse before the time of trial.”
[16] Gonzalez, Luke, 168. “We know that the future belongs to the reign of God. But, given the potential cost, it is not surprising that we are strongly tempted not to see the signs of the new time that is emerging. To forecast the weather, one look at the clouds and the wind. The same should be possible by looking at the signs of ‘the present time.’ Here is a new order coming! But people refuse to see it, and seek to continue life as if nothing were happening.”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
What’s your purpose?
Isn’t that just the worst question? It’s a question that’s been weaponized in the self-help industry ala 1990s, early 00s, even bleeding into the 2010s. My theological heroine, Dorothee Sölle, shined light on the fact that this question was alive and well in the mid-20th century. Since the dawning of modernity and the birth of the enlightenment, we who live post both find ourselves searching for something rather elusive: purpose. Why am I here?What is my life for? What am I supposed to do, who am I supposed to be, and what existential game do I find myself in the middle of?? These questions plague us, even we who have things like agendas, plans, and clear goals. I can tell you—with a certain amount of confidence—I’m pretty close to centered on what I feel my purpose is in life; I can also tell you there are dark moments, bad days, or just pure fiascos reminding me I might not be, that I haven’t the slightest clue, and even if I am close to being exactly where I want to be, all of that can change in the blink of an eye.
The reason why this is such a deadly question, one that makes people sigh, weep, or roll over and pull bedcovers over their head is that we tie our purpose to our work (action, deed). In the pursuit of ourselves apart from God, we’ve found a new god: work; this new god knows nothing of love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. Concurrently, we’ve fused ourselves to our work hoping to make ourselves irreplaceable and unique, but anyone can do that work, fill that job. Thus, by working so hard to become irreplaceable, we’ve become, sadly, replaceable and puts our purpose on shaky ground. When we wed our purpose to our actions, then it means that only foundation for our purpose is our work, no wonder we begin to panic as we lose ourselves in our retirements (if it doesn’t start early in mid-life). In our pursuit to make ourselves unique and irreplaceable through our work, we’ve made our work (the role, the job, the deed) the irreplaceable and not-interchangeable thing and made ourselves replaceable and interchangeable.[2]
We need to be refocused and reconsider where we, as Christians, get our purpose from. So, today, we get some help from Paul writing to the Colossians.
Colossians 1:15-28
Paul begins (continues?) in a hymn[3] extoling the work of Jesus,
[Christ] is the representative of the unseen God, firstborn over all creation because in him all things, in the heavens and upon the earth, were created, the seen and the unseen, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created by him and in him. And he, he is above all things, and he has established all things in him, and he, he is the head of the body that is the congregation (vv1-18a)…
Paul has (may have?) refurbished a hymn that participated in the Jewish wisdom tradition and used it to communicate to the Colossians who this Jesus is[4] who rescued them from domination of darkness and delivered them into the reign of the Son of the love God (v14). It is here in Christ, for Paul, that the Colossians are to find their identity, their wisdom, and their purpose.[5]
The one whom they follow, listen to through the proclamation of the gospel and in prayer, and are formed into by the power of the Spirit, isn’t just a teacher or some peddler of popular theologies, philosophies, and ideologies. This one, Jesus of Nazareth, is none other than the image/representativeof God who is also the firstborn over all creation. According to Paul, Jesus is God: in both his representing God to humanity and in his being the source[6] and sustainer of creation.[7] For Paul, no one else in all biblical history and story can claim such a position and title,[8] for it is only Christ who is an “exactly similar” revelation of God;[9] to see Jesus is to see God, to encounter Jesus is to encounter God.[10] It is in and through Christ that the essence of the ruling systems of the world find the location of their essence (whether or not they actually reflect the reign of God in the temporal realm);[11] for all things are created in Christ.[12] For Paul, Christ is the source of life and of creation and is also the head of the body. In other words, Christ is the source of life of all things especially of his body who represents him in the world after his ascension and by the power of the Holy Spirit: [13] the congregation that gathers in his name and abides by his reign.[14]
Paul then adds, [Christ] is the beginning, the first born of the dead so that he, he might come [to be] first place in all things. For in [Jesus] all God’s fullness was pleased to dwell[15] and through him all things are reconciled completely in him by means of peace-making through the blood of his cross, through him whether the things upon earth or the things in the heavens (vv18b-20). For Paul, Jesus is the firstborn of creation, the image and form all of creation is given life, and the first one born from the dead in his resurrection on Easter Sunday; this makes Jesus the source of both our earthly existence as it is and the new-creation and new-life we receive by faith in him.[16] It’s this double firstborn status that gives Christ the primacy of place in the lives of all things; but it’s not the only thing for Paul. God’s fullness dwells in Christ, thus Paul not only reinforces the previously mentioned thought that Christ is the perfect image/representation of God but that the new temple is Christ.[17] It is in and through this new temple where sacrifice has been made (for final) and in which the peace of God is made among those who follow this Jesus of Nazareth who is God—no matter what their background: everyone who enters in spiritually by faith and temporally into the gathering is now one family of which Christ is the head (the source).[18]
And then Paul adds,
And you who were once alienated [from God/ from the people of God] and hostile in mind and in evil works, but now [God] reconciled completely by the body of the flesh of him through his death—to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if you remain in the faith having been firmly established and steadfast and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, that which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, I became a servant (vv21-23).
Here is where the Colossians find their firm foundation, the source of their identity, and the underlying groundwork for their purpose: Christ Jesus and the Gospel. For Paul, to be alienated from the people of God and separate from Christ is to wander this world alone, without the tools to navigate the spiritual and temporal realms. According to Paul, humanity is caught under the cosmic powers and domination of darkness; to walk about in the dark is to guarantee one hurts not only others but themselves, too. Christ came to illuminate the darkness (John 1) with the goal to liberate all who are held captive therein. Reconciliation does not happen, for Paul, apart from Christ; reconciliation of those who were alienated is only through Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension and sending of the Spirit.[19] Reconciliation then, according to the hymn at the beginning of the passage, is for all people in all the world…it is not just for those with whom you agree; it is the means by which the world experiences everlasting, divine peace.[20] Not so that all become Christian, per se, but that Christians refuse to participate in actions and deeds, systems and institutions that cause tearing apart rather than pulling together, alienation rather than solidarity, death rather than life. If some of us—Christians—refuse to play the game the kingdom of humanity has thrust upon us, then we participate in being “peacemakers” which is fundamentally a way of representing Christ and allowing faith to work itself out as love. Thus, Christ—his death, resurrection, and ascension—become the foundation not only of the Colossians’ life, but also of their new life, and their new life as reconciled members of the body of Christ eager to be peace-makers in the world among their neighbors; this is what it means to be the body of Christ and part of the family of God.[21] This is the goal of their lives (not just once but every day), this the purpose of their presence (not just once but every day), the Colossians are to be as Christ in the world as Christ was before them, and by being such, they bring God’s love, life, and liberation to their neighbor.
Conclusion
Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians to refocus on the source of their life and identity gives them a new and sustainable purpose purpose while they walk this orbiting rock, waiting to be either called home by Christ or to welcome him in his hoped-for return. The Colossians need not sell themselves—body and soul—to pursuits that will only prove fruitless and trigger an existential crisis. To be focused on Christ, to have Christ and the gospel of God as their focal point repeatedly supplies them with life, identity, and purpose will never fade or go away: daily, they are called to be sharers of God’s love, life, and liberation, being peacemakers like Christ is. And, as all of scripture does, this exhortation from Paul to the Colossians isn’t just between Paul and the Colossians; it’s also an exhortation to us who read all these years later (probably, much to Paul’s surprise!).
When we go about pursuing the world to either affirm or give us our purpose in life, we end up stuck in a vicious and self-destructive pursuit of a reward that our deeds and works will never be able to give us. When we try to define ourselves by the external deeds, we become too closely identified with such things and thus, give ourselves over to the domination of action (even virtuous and altruistic action). We mustn’t start with the world and our actions. Rather, we must start with God and God’s actions toward us in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul is saying to the Colossians. When we start there, with God at the foot of the Cross and in the light of the resurrection, we are grafted into an ancient and long-enduring purpose: to live fully as we are with our neighbor whoever they are, to love both God and our neighbor as we have first been loved, and to set the captives free.
[2] Dorothee Sölle, Christ the Representative: An Essay in Theology after the ‘Death of God,’ trans. David Lewis (London: SCM, 1967), 27. Originally published as, Stellvertretung—Ein Kapitel Theologie nach dem ‘Tode Gottes,’ Kreuz Verlag, 1965. “For whenever the individual imagines that he is unmistakable and unique, society puts him right and instructs him about exchangeability.”
[3] McKnight, Colossians, 133. “Many scholars think Col 1:15-20 reflects or is an early Christian hymn (or confession…”
[4] McKnight, Colossians, 138. “Put differently, this hymn may have origins in the Old Testament, in the Jewish wisdom tradition, as well as in Greco-Roman vocabulary, but Paul—because of Jesus, because of his incarnation and crucifixion and resurrection and exaltation—has swallowed it all up into new expression by means of his own exegesis.”
[5] Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, TNICNT, ed. Joel B Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 132. “The rhetorical strategy of this hymn is to show that the audience and author are allied in a common Christocentric faith, or perhaps more refined, into a christological monotheism. In fact, it is in Christ—the one who lived, who was crucified, who was raised, and who rules, the same one who created and is the goal of creation—that true wisdom is to be found.”
[6] McKnight, Colossians, 150. “The incarnation and this comprehensive superiority are grounded in the Son’s life-giving capacity to create ‘all things.’ Everything that is not the Creator is created, and the Son rules the entire created world as its Creator.”
[7] McKnight, Colossians, 149. “His status is superior because temporally he is before all things, hierarchically he is above all things, and ontologically he sustains all things. This matters for anthropology: if Christ is the Prōtotokos, Adam is not simply the prototype of the Second Adam, but Christ is the prior Eikōn-template used to crate Adam and Eve. Christ may be the Second Adam, but Adam then, is the Second Prōtotokos-Eikōn. One might then say that, in contemplating creation—since all creation is in, through, and unto Christ—we are to encounter a manifestation of nothing less than the Son.”
[8] McKnight, Colossians, 146. “…for the apostle Paul, Jesus was himself the one and only true eikōn in bodily form, leading to the implication that we can understand Adam only trough Jesus, and not Jesus simply as the second instance of the original Adam. This, then, is not so much Adamic Christology, as if Jesus is merely Adam Version 2.0, but instead a Christological anthropology, or a christologically reframed Adam, an anthropology both embodied and ‘storied’ in Israel.”
[9] McKnight, Colossians, 147. “This God-man King or Lord rules and reveals God. That is, in Jesus—the Cruciform One—we see ‘no error, no failure,’ when it comes to an ‘exactly similar’ revelation of who God is. It is right, then, to see in eikon the ‘essence’ of God no manifest.”
[10] McKnight, Colossians, 147. “To call Jesus the eikōn of the invisible God is to say that Jesus is the one who rules over all as the Davidic king…Furthermore, eikon connotes revelation as the physical presence, or the ‘exact representation’ (Heb. 1:3), in concrete, embodied reality of the invisible God.”
[11] McKnight, Colossians, 151. “Perhaps the boldest statement is that Christ is the creator of ‘all things,’ which is spelled out in location (‘things in heaven and on earth’) and essence (‘visible and invisible’), and then the essences are given concrete terms: ‘whether thrones or powers or rules or authorities.’”
[12] McKnight, Colossians, 152. Christ “…is the essential source of life in creation, he is the agent of creation, and he is the telos of creation.”
[13] McKnight, Colossians, 156. “…the ‘head’ in this context is the one who grants and sustains life, while also creating a new kind of unity among the members.”
[14] McKnight, Colossians, 157. “In this context one must also think the term ekklēsia will have evoked a political assembly of citizens; as such, the co-opting of the term by Paul for a Christian kind of politics under King Jesus has overtones of a political alternative.”
[15] McKnight, Colossians, 160. “The son is preeminent because God’s fullness dwells in him. But one might opt instead for a softer relationship and take all of v. 18 as grounded in the Father’s decision to locate all of the fullness in the Son.”
[16] McKnight, Colossians, 158. “…the son is the beginning of new-creation life as the first one raised from the dead, resulting in a preeminent status over all the redeemed.”
[17] McKnight, Colossians, 161. “…as Zion echoes temple and was the mountain where God as pleased to dwell….so now God dwells in the Son. Hence, we have here a Christological revision of temple theology, with echoes of new-creation theology. This divine glory indwells the Son.”
[18] McKnight, Colossians, 162. “The Son’s redemption reconciles all things, which is a peace-making work that brings together Jews and Gentiles into one family of God. The redemption here is less an ecotheology or a sociopolitical theology and more a theological and christological ecclesiology.”
[19] McKnight, Colossians, 163. Katalassō, “The linguistic game this term and its cognates play is that, first, humans are out of sorts with God (enemies…)—including the essence of captivity to the cosmic powers, which is the focus in this hymn—in need of reconciliation; second, the means of that reconciliation is King Jesus, who reconciles by means of his salvation-accomplishing events, most notably the cross and resurrection and exaltation to rule.”
[20] McKnight, Colossians, 164. “The reconciliation of our passage, then, includes the divided peoples of the Roman Empire, and it must be emphasized that that sort of reconciliation I the focus of Pauline ecclesiology in Colossians …and Ephesians…”
[21] McKnight, Colossians, 164-165. “Peace-making” “The term expresses the sense of adoption into, and behaving like, God’s family.”
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]
Introduction
For the past few months, an over-arching feeling has pervaded human life: existential fatigue. It doesn’t matter what you believe and theologically hold to or what you don’t; it doesn’t matter what political or philosophical ideology you are aligned with or not; not even your ethical posture in the world can protect you from the pervasive feeling of existential fatigue. We’re exhausted, from head to toe, in every fiber of our being, we are flat-out, 100% exhausted.
I don’t really have a clear and singular answer as to what is causing our existential fatigue, but I have a feeling it has to do with the ever-present fear and anger. It’s exhausting to hate people. It’s exhausting feeling like you are always under threat. It’s exhausting thinking people are out to get you. It’s exhausting to live distrustful, as if everyone is looking to steal something (material and immaterial) from you. It’s exhausting to be shut down, refusing to see the humanity in those whom our local and preferred media sources classify as *the* problem. It’s exhausting because it’s so easy to be led about by the ear and that’s why we’re so exhausted; we’re being pulled every which way, and we’ve forgotten there’s solid ground under our feet and that we have a voice to say ENOUGH.
We’ve lost our hope and joy; we’re practically strangers with curiosity. We’ve sold these down the river because either they feel extravagant right now because everything is on fire or because we’re chasing the carrot of some future oriented hope where our joy rests on the other side of eliminating the problem/s. Rather than expanding our understanding, we’re retracting; rather than asking questions and wondering, we’re curving and curling in like every full stop we use to end our statements.
But hope and joy are fundamental to our Christian walk and journey and only if they are anchored in Christ and not in things of this world (both false promises and false enemies). This is why Paul writes to the church in Colossae, to keep them focused on what is important—the Gospel—because it’s only in the proclamation of Christ—crucified and raised—where they find the source of their hope and joy, where they can dare to become (yet again) curious.
Colossians 1:1-14
Paul begins with the standard greeting[2] letting the church in Colossae know who he is and who is helping to write this letter, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and brother Timothy to the holy and faithful siblings in Christ in Colossae; grace and peace to you from God our father (vv1-2). While Paul didn’t really know the Christians in Colossae, they would’ve been familiar with him[3],[4] and would’ve felt the weight of his authority (his apostolic calling by Christ) behind the lines.[5],[6],[7] (Paul’s authority isn’t in title but is from God by God’s gift of grace in the calling.) Timothy is known to Paul[8] (bff[9]) but not (necessarily) known to the Colossians, thus, we can assume that Timothy had a hand in writing this letter[10] and that’s why he shows up in the greeting.[11] We can also assume that Paul (and Timothy) were eager to include—via writing—the Colossian Christians into their spiritual[12] family of faith by calling them both the holy and faithful ones, siblings.[13] Of more importance for Paul was the goal of using this address to “realign” the Colossians away from the lures and false premises and promises of the kingdom of humanity[14] and back toward God; in other words, remember whose you are, say Paul and Timothy.
Then Paul (and Timothy) write, We are thankful to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we are lovingly praying concerning you, after hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have toward all the holy ones thru the hope that is stored up/held in reserve for you in the heavens… (vv3-6a). Immediately, Paul and Timothy lay out the coming themes of the letter: faith, hope, love[15],[16] and thankfulness,[17] all of which are dependent on the good newswhich the Colossians heard in the word of truth and that which is present to/in them. In fact, for Paul, hope and the gospel go hand in hand. [18] Hope for Paul, and thus for the Colossians, is about “confidence in God” not in some optimistic outcome.[19] It’s about that which is being held in reserve for the holy, faithful ones by God in heaven rather than saccharine and toxic positivity here on earth.[20] In other words, it’s not about material gain here in the kingdom of humanity (no matter how grand the gain might be); [21] it’s about walking in humility with Christ and with their neighbor (in intentional presence of support and advocacy[22]), growing[23] in character[24],[25] and loving as best they can, as Paul then writes, just as also in all the cosmos it is bearing fruit and growing just as also [in] you, from that day you heard and you recognized the grace of God in truth (v6b).
Paul then credits Epaphras with being the means by whom the Colossians have heard this gospel and (rhetorically) exhorts the Colossians to listen to him,[26]Just as you heard from Epaphras, our beloved, fellow servant, who is faithful on behalf of us, servant of Christ, the one who declared to us your love in the Spirit (vv7-8). Who is Epaphras? A Colossian native and who, considering Colossae’s closeness to Ephesus, (probably) meet Paul in Ephesus.[27] He is the one who let Paul know that there was a burgeoning threat among the Christian Colossians.[28] Paul’s description of Epaphras echoes the themes of love and faith where love is the fruit of the gospel much like hope is its thrust.[29] Here, Paul and Timothy emphasize for this Christian community that their faith in the gospel is the source and foundation of their life in Christ and not dependent on ascribing to renegade philosophies and ideologies and mysticisms of the kingdom of humanity.[30]
It’s on this account Paul returns to the talking about praying for the Colossian Christians, For this reason also, from the day which you heard, we, we do not cease praying and requesting concerning you that you might be made complete in the recognition of the will of [God] in all wisdom and spiritual insight, to live a life worthy of the Lord toward all pleasingness in all work by bearing good fruit and increasing to the recognition of God, in all strength, being made strong according to the strength of the glory of [God] in all constancy and long suffering with grace, being thankful to the Father for the one who makes us sufficient [to be grafted in] of the inheritance of the holy ones in the light (vv9-12). Paul begins by praying for the Colossians to know God’s will that’s not only at work in the cosmos but also in their (individual and corporate) lives.[31] This knowledge is founded in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, savior, died and raised, and the power of the Spirit; it’s their encounter with Christ where the Colossians will grasp the will of God[32] in all wisdom and spiritual insight,[33] and thus come into their own identity formed by what Christ says and not what the world says.[34] In other words, the recognition of the will of God is through being grafted into the vine of God through/by which divine wisdom and insight come spiritually. [35] This is not worldly wisdom; this is the wisdom and insight of the reign of God, and it promises to be in conflict and resist the wisdom and insight of the kingdom of humanity. What will be the fruit of this wisdom and insight from the reign of God? It will create Christians who walk worthily of name, those who bear good fruit and grow in knowing God (thus knowing the neighbor), those who are made strong and resilient, those who respond with constancy and long-suffering in the midst of chaos and tumult, and those who are thankful for Christ and the Spirit. Paul prays that the Colossian Christians become those who can reject the lies and falsehoods, the strawmen and red herrings of the kingdom of humanity, those who can resist the lures and dangling carrots and become the ones who can call out such things for what they are: harbingers of death, division and derision, and existential fatigue.[36]
How does Paul dare to believe such imagery? Because of vv. 13-14, [Christ][37] who ransomed us out from the domination of darkness and exchanged [us] into the reign of the son of the love of [God], in whom we have release/liberation, the pardon of sins. It is not by supra/super-human ability by which the Colossians will resist the lies and falsehoods coming at them and luring them, it’s by their faith in Christ which is the source of both their hope and love: hope that carries them through and love that anchors them on the solid ground of the activity of the divine reign inaugurated in Christ and confirmed by the Holy Spirit.[38] Paul prays for them to become those who know and do.[39]
Conclusion
It’s easy to get wrapped up in all that’s swirling around us. It’s easy to be lured toward simple solutions and easy enemies; it’s the path of least resistance to persecute other people for our problems while refusing to look in the mirror and acknowledge the ways we’ve participated in making these problems our problems to begin with. Being angry is way easier than being patient; blaming is easier than being curious; being indifferent is significantly easier than loving.
And as much as I personally understand how easy this is for human beings who are often dehydrated and burdened with a brain that is better suited for hunter-gatherer epochs, I also know that as Christians we are not off the hook here no matter how easy these things are. We could let this letter to the Colossians be a letter to us; we are being exhorted to remember whose we are and where we live (Christ). We are being reminded that the one in us (the Holy Spirit) is stronger and more capable than any spirit of the age promising quick solutions and quicker comforts. We are being asked to turn our gaze away from our phones, tvs, and loud and emotional pundits more eager for ratings than truth, and look to the one who is the source of love, of grace, of hope. We need to remember that our faith, while not magical nor a solution to the world’s problems, is the firm foundation where we stand and from where we begin to build the solutions ones that value love and not indifference, liberation and not captivity, life and not death.
[2] Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, TNICNT, ed. Joel B Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 76-77. “Paul’s letters were longer than ordinary letters of the ancient world. In addition, Paul’s letters have predictable sections, including salutation or greeting, a thanksgiving, and the main body. We ought to remind ourselves that ‘grace and peace’ in Paul’s salutations are, after all, the apostle’s way of saying ‘hello’ or ‘greetings.’”
[3] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text, TNIGTC, eds., I. Howard Marshall, W. Ward Gasque, Donald A. Hagner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 43-44. “At all events, the Colossian recipients of the letter would have no doubt that the Paul named at the head of the letter as the famous/infamous missionary who had brought the message of a Jewish Messian/Christ so effectively to Gentiles.”
[4] McKnight, Colossians, 77. “Paul did not dictate his letters to his secretary, and he probably did not write them out in one sitting. Timothy, in other words, contributed to this letter in content, which is why his name follows and the ‘and.’”
[5] Dunn, Colossians, 44. Whether he wrote it or signed off on it, “…the authority of the apostle lay behind the letter, and that would be sufficient to ensure that the letter was treasured by the Colossians and/or other of the other churches to which the letter was circulated…subsequently to be included in the earliest collection(s) of Pual’s letters.”
[6] Dunn, Colossians, 44. Paul’s claim to apostleship, “…the claim is that his commission and authorization came directly from Christ Jesus. It is as a representative of and spokesman for Christ Jesus, therefore, that Paul would lay claim to a hearing —not simply as spokesman for some agreed tradition or some church council. And for Paul that meant a commission and authorization equal in weight to that of the earliest and most prominent Christian leadership…In other words, the added phrase is not merely a matter of providing fuller identification, as though the name ‘Paul’ was insufficient. It is also and still more a claim to authority and respect.”
[7] McKnight, Colossians, 79. Paul’s use of “apostle” here: “Paul combines the original sense of the twelve apostles…along with the third sense with a prophetic-calling dimension because Paul has been commissioned by Jesus and is a church-planting Gentile missionary. To be called an apostle in tis sense requires that one was an eyewitness of Jesus…that one had a commission from the Lord to represent and speak for him, and that one had performed miracles. Apostles are ranked at the top of the spiritual gifts by Paul…Most important, Paul’s apostleship is described as grace, a gift from God, a theme developed in Col 1:25-27.”
[8] Dunn, Colossians, 47. “Timothy features more frequently in Paul’s letters than any of Paul’s other associates and is given special prominence in several of the greetings…He also served as Paul’s emissary in several delicate negotiations…”
[9] McKnight, Colossians, 81. “Timothy is Paul’s best friend, closest co-worker and associate, and a man about whom we know plenty, even if he is always in the background. Thus, Timothy’s father was a Gentile but his mother a Jew; he was probably converted to following Christ during Pual’ first missionary journey to Lystra, where Timothy surely saw Paul being stoned. Timothy’s mother was a believer…”
[10] McKnight, Colossians, 77. “The letter to the Colossians was written by both Paul and Timothy, which raises the important topic of how letters were written.”
[11] Dunn, Colossians, 47. Timothy is not considered to be essential to the Colossian community, Thus his mention, “…could reinforce the possibility that in this case, of the two authors named, Timothy had in fact greater responsibility for composing the letter than Paul had, with Pual approving the content, adding his persona signature, and named first out of resect…”
[12] Dunn, Colossians, 49. “Their brotherhood was not one of blood relationship, but rather the spiritual bond of the shared experience of believing in Christ Jesus and knowing that they were accepted by and through him.”
[13] Dunn, Colossians, 49. Brothers/faithful “They wished to stress that these Christians, unknow to them personally, were nevertheless brothers just as much as Timothy himself was…It was precisely the Colossians’ continued commitment as brothers, members of the new family gathered around Christ Jesus, that the writers wanted to encourage and sustain…”
[14] Dunn, Colossians, 50. “The crucial feature of the phrase, however, is, as already indicated, that it enabled Paul to realign the identity of the people of God away from questions of ethnic descent and national custom to integration with this Jesus, who, even as Israel’s Messiah, transcended such definitions and concerns…”
[15] Dunn, Colossians, 57. “What Paul and timothy commend here, therefore, is the way in which the Colossians receive the message about Christ …. And committed themselves in trust to the one so proclaimed, making Christ the focus and determinant of their lives form then on…”
[16] McKnight, Colossians, 91-92. “What they heard about was earliest Christianity’s famous triad of faith, love, and hope, beginning here with salvation history’s focal shift…with ‘faith’ in Christ Jesus.”
[17] Dunn, Colossians, 55. “…the themes and language of the thanksgiving are echoed in the rest of the letter…”
[18] Dunn, Colossians, 60. “That the gospel is summed up here in terms of ‘hope’ ….is a reminder of how closely its original eschatological force still clung to the word.”
[19] Dunn, Colossians, 58. Hope here in NT/Colossians/Paul “…the sense here is characteristically Jewish: hope as expectation of good, confidence in God…As such it is closely related to faith, confident trust in God.”
[20] Dunn, Colossians, 61. “…the claim being made is that the good news of Christ Jesus unveils the reality of human destiny in the sure hope that it holds forth…”
[21] Dunn, Colossians, 61. “The implication maybe that the Colossians should hesitate before making too much of the success of their own evangelism, and this prepares for the warning notes that become prominent from 2:8.”
[22] McKnight, Colossians, 93-94. “Since Paul specifies the object of their love—‘for all god’s people’—we see here an expression of ecclesial-shaped commitment to one another in presence, advocacy, and participation in Christoformity. He does not have in mind a general humanitarian benevolence but instead…a devoted commitment to presence, advocacy, protection, provision, and mutual sanctification with other followers of Jesus.”
[23] McKnight, Colossians, 99-100. “Paul’s point concerns the catholicity of the gospel: what the gospel is doing among others in the empire (here ‘throughout the whole world’), it is doing also among them. And what it is doing is ‘bearing fruit’ and ‘growing,’ to actions that describe how God is at work in the world through the church.”
[24] Dunn, Colossians, 62. “…the closeness of the two verses favors the idea of growth in character, but both ideas may be implied—the success of the gospel in producing so many mature and moral people.”
[25] Dunn, Colossians, 62-63. “Either way the verb denotes the experience…as well as the intellectual apprehension of God’s outreaching generosity…as transforming power…”
[26] McKnight, Colossians, 104. “Paul’s words about Epaphras are far less idealistic than they are rhetorical; by labeling him with these terms, Paul presses his case that the Colossians are to listen to Epaphras as an unauthorized minister of the gospel. From a different angle, these terms describe the ideal minister of the gospel.”
[27] Dunn, Colossians, 63. Epaphra “As a native of Colossae…he presumably first encountered Paul and was converted through his preaching during Paul’s long stay in Ephesus…, some 120 miles distant on the coast and directly accessible by road down the Lycus and Meander valleys…”
[28] Dunn, Colossians, 65. “Presumably it was to Epaphras…that Paul owed knowledge of the threatening circumstances at Colossae, to which the main thrust of the letter is directed…”
[29] Dunn, Colossians, 65. “As hope is the main thrust of the gospel (1:5), so love …is its main fruit…It is described more fully as ‘love in (or by) the Spirit’…”
[30] Dunn, Colossians, 68-69. Of the second half of ch. 1: “…very Jewish character of the language…This emphasis on…the Jewish character of the gospel to which the Colossian Christians were committed is unlikely to be accidental. It suggests that Paul an Timothy thought it desirable to emphasize just this fundamental feature of their common faith. The most obvious reason is that the Colossians were confronted by local Jews who were confident of the superiority of their own religious practice and who denigrated the claims of these Gentiles to share in their own Jewish heritage…”
[31] Dunn, Colossians, 69. v.9 “For a theist who believes that God’s active purpose determines the ordering of the world, lies behind events on earth, and shapes their consequences, one of the most desirable objectives must be to know God’s will. The corollary, spelled out in the following phrases, is that such knowledge gives insight into and therefore reassurance regarding what happens (often unexpected in human perspective) and helps direct human conduct to accord with that will. Such desire to know and do God’s will is naturally very Jewish in character…”
[32] Dunn, Colossians, 69-70. Knowledge used to come thru the law “But for Paul in particular there was now a better and surer way of knowing God’s will and of discerning what really mattered: by the personal transformation that flowed from inward renewal…”
[33] Dunn, Colossians, 70-71. “Here, too, the wisdom in particular is understood as given through the law…but it is equally recognized that such wisdom can come only form above….And particularly to be noted is the recognition that wisdom and understanding come only from the Spirit….”
[34] McKnight, Colossians, 109. “Paul’s prayer is for a kind of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that will lead them into Christ. If the apocalyptic mystics were elitists, the Pauline vision for the church counters each: the truth of the gospel is not esoteric and for elitists, it is based on a relationship with God in Christ and not on passwords, it is for all…and it is all summed in Christ as the truth…”
[35] Dunn, Colossians, 73. v.11 “The sentence runs on with continued emphasis that such fruitful living is wholly dependent on divine enabling. The power of God is a familiar Pauline theme…and prominent in Ephesians…It is also deeply rooted in Jewish thought…”
[36] Dunn, Colossians, 78. “…darkness can be legitimately and authoritatively resisted, as having had its license revoked…Within a unitary kingdom…subjects of the king can reject al other claims to final authority over them….”
[37] Dunn, Colossians, 82. “The one step clearly taken beyond Jewish thinking on forgiveness is the location of forgiveness no longer in the cult, or even simply in directness of prayer to God, but once gain ‘in Christ.’ As particularly in Galatians, it is the possibility of Gentiles being ‘in Christ’ that brings them within the sphere of God’s gracious forgiveness. ‘In Christ’ is the key to all.”
[38] McKnight, Colossians, 113. “The wisdom is Christocentric…and mediated through the Holy Spirit.”
[39] McKnight, Colossians, 114-115. “…sound thinking is to lead to sound living, and while this theory is often claimed, the connection between thought and behavior is not automatic. Many who know do not do, and many who do do not know.”
Psalm 8:1,4-5a. Abba God our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world! When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is humanity that you should be mindful of them?
Introduction
Human beings love things that are familiar and known, predictable. At the root of this love is our nervous systems: they crave comfort and nothing brings it more comfort than what is known and familiar, safe. Knowing (roughly) what the day will bring, allows us to breathe that sigh of relief even if that daily routine is a bit banal. Getting up, coffee, eating breakfast, getting ready, going to work, coming home, making dinner, watching TV, and then going to bed with a good book, is comforting even if it’s also the reason for midlife crises.
Humans love the familiar, the predictable, the known, so much that we will persist in doing things that hinder our thriving, surviving, and living; and we’ll vehemently reject anything new that threatens our security. There’s a quote about this, “The nervous system prefers a familiar hell to an unknown heaven.” We love the familiar so much, we’ll risk relationships to maintain it, we’ll stake our livelihood on it; we’d even choose death to keep safe.
There’s a problem for Christians here. We don’t worship a God who’s “safe,” “easy to figure out”, and completely “knowable and known.” We don’t worship a God who is static and still (characteristics of death); we worship a God who is dynamic and, on the move—a God who is living! In Genesis 1, we encounter God who is actively pulling things apart to reveal God’s dynamic, life-giving, liberating love: the heavens from themselves, the waters from themselves, the land from the waters, and human beings from one to two. In the gospels we see God willing to become human so God can identify with the human plight, to live and die as one of us and then render death to its own death in Jesus. And in Pentecost, we see God, set out to pursue every last beloved in the coming and sealing divine Holy Spirit. To quote Mr. Beaver from CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, “‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver. ‘Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.’”
So, to follow this God through faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit is to go into the unknown, the “unsafe,” the unfamiliar; it is to be sent forward, the path backward forever sealed off. As John records in his gospel,
John 16:12-15
I still have man things to say to you, said Jesus to his disciples, but you all are not able to endure/to carry [them] right now. But as soon as the Spirit of Truth comes, [the Spirit of Truth] will guide/teach you all into all truth… (vv 12-13b). Our gospel passage is part of the “Farewell Discourses” in the gospel of John. Chapter 16 participates in two different aspects of these “Farewell Discourses”: 1. The disciples’ future in relation to the world; and 2. The disciples’ future in relation to God.[1] Our portion of scripture is in the later of the two aspects mentioned: the disciples’ future in the relation to the world. Jesus is, in 16:12-15, preparing his disciples for the future in respect/relation to God.[2] Jesus tells his disciples know that he is not telling them everything; there is more truth to endure and carry. The knee jerk reaction is to think that Jesus is not disclosing all the pain and suffering these disciples of his will have; that’s not it. He’s already addressed what they will face as they proceed into the world with out him. Here he’s talking about the divine self-disclosure of the truth of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The disciples are not ready to hear what this truth of God is that Jesus knows and the Holy Spirit will proclaim to them. It’s not a psychological unreadiness; it’s an earthly unreadiness; because of where they are, who they are, when they are, how they are, these disciples are not ready to endure any more of the truth than that which they have at that moment.[3] The dynamic truth—the gospel of love, life, and liberation—must not be given before they are ready, otherwise it will fall flat or it will flatten those too weak to bear it. In other words, the disciples need to grow (more!) and as they do grow, by the presence of the Spirit and by faith in Christ, the same Spirit will be the vehicle of more divine self-disclosure.[4]
John’s Jesus continues, for [the Spirit of Truth] will not speak from themself, but [the Spirit of Truth] will speak what they will hear, and that which comes [the Spirit of Truth] will announce/bring back to you (v. 13c-e). Jesus puts some qualifiers on this further divine disclosure the disciples are being prepared for. Whatever truth is to be revealed by the Spirit of Truth will not diverge from God’s mission in the world or depart from the essence of Jesus Christ’s witness to God and his participation in the divine mission. There is something to encounter in the darkness of the future sitting just outside of the material bodies of the disciples, something they cannot prepare for now physically, but can mature toward by faith (trust in God). It is the Spirit of Truth who will illuminate the truth cloaked in the darkness of the future once the disciples are there, and it will also be the voice that summons the disciples into that darkness.[5] Faith will step into the darkness knowing the warm, comforting voice of God, trusting that divine voice, and following the call into more divine disclosure.[6]
And, according to John, That one [the Spirit of Truth] will render me glorious, because [the Spirit of Truth] will receive from me and will announce/bring back word to you all. All things whatever the father has, it is mine; on account of this I spoke that what [the Spirit of Truth] receives from me they will bring back word/announce to you (v 14-15). Whatever truth there is to be revealed in the future, it’s source will be God the Creator and God the Reconciler and announced by God the Sustainer. (Here’s why this is our gospel for Trinity Sunday!). The Spirit of Truth is not going to deliver some brand-new revelation or reveal some new mystery that contradicts God’s self-disclosure in Christ.[7] Concurrently, this truth that is to come that they cannot bear now will not be fabricated by the kingdom of humanity; it will be of and from and conform to the core and essence of the reign of God.[8] The Spirit of Truth will make God’s self-disclosure in Christ real for all those who are to believe; the Spirit of Truth will reveal God’s truth to the community of disciples, and this truth will adhere to the essence of the divine mission of love, life, and liberation in the world…wherever and whenever they are.[9] It will not be an old word, or a word that has ceased to illuminate the future or will it be a summons backward. The word of truth that the Spirit of Truth will hear and bring back to the disciples will be lamp unto their feet, a map forward, a guide through unchartered territory, it will be an otherworldly voice summoning them forward into the new.[10] And this word of truth will be at the center of the community’s proclamation and praxis: the community, ushered into this divine truth will bring Jesus, thus God,[11] close to the oppressed and disenfranchised, those who are forced to live at the boarders and in the badlands of society, hidden away, fearing for their lives, just as Christ did all those many years before them.[12]
Conclusion
While there is a historical and concrete audience for John’s gospel, there is, also, not one. This is my favorite thing about the John’s Gospel: as soon as we take up the text, Jesus’s prayers for and exhortations to the disciples become ours. Thus, as the disciples were summoned into the darkness of the future to behold what the Spirit of Truth will receive and bring back to them, so, too, are we. By the power, love, strength of our Triune God, we are summoned into that which we cannot predict, do not know, and cannot understand (at first). It is our faith in Christ, our union with God, and our empowerment by the Holy Spirit that will be our firm foundation as we proceed into that darkness of the future, it will be our comfort, it will be our warmth, it will be our light. We need not fear what comes, because Jesus has told us that by the Spirit of Truth God and Jesus himself will be there to receive us.
We love going backwards because going backwards is safe, and known, and predictable. We love our routines because they, too, are safe, known, and predictable. We like things to stay the same no matter how much that fixed state means our death. But, as mentioned in the beginning, we worship a Triune God of life—manifold, rich, robust, incredible, indelible, irreplaceable life. And in worshiping this God we get no choice but to embrace the darkness of the unknown, the unsafe, and the unpredictable and fall into the warm lap of Abba God, embraced by our brother Jesus, and enfolded in the heavy blanket of the Holy Spirit.
So today, hear the summons to go forward—as scared as you may be, as angry as you may be, as stubborn as you probably are—and embrace the divine truth being disclosed to you and that participates in God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world on behalf of all God’s beloved.
[1] Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, trans. GR Beasley-Murray, Gen Ed, RWN Hoare and JK Riches (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971), TOC. Originally published as, Das Evangelium des Johannes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964, 1966).
[2] Bultmann, John, 573. “The discourse starts again and the first words show that the subject is not, as it was before, the content of the future—the task and destiny of the disciples—but the future as such. The intention behind the prophecy of the continuance of the revelation, contained in vv. 13-15, is to bring about a state of readiness for the future, and v. 12 prepares the way for this.”
[3] Bultmann, John, 573. “Jesus still has much to say, but the disciples are not yet able to bear it. The words should not be understood psychologically; rather they indicate the essential nature of the case. Readiness for the future is not only demanded by that particular hour, but it describes the very existence of the disciple. The believer has not been taken away from the world…he has a future in it, and must withstand whatever it brings and demands.”
[4] Bultmann, John, 573. “What [the believer] has to go through, however, cannot be anticipated in words, which he could not even put together; the believer can only measure the significance and claims of what he has to undergo when he actually meets it. He anticipates the future in faith, not in foreknowledge. And thus the apparent contradiction between v. 12 and 15.15 is comprehensible: Jesus cannot state all that the future will bring, and yet he has said it all, everything, that is, that makes the believer free and ready for it.”
[5] Bultmann, John, 574. “If the Spirit is at work in the word that is proclaimed in the community, then this word gives faith the power to step out into the darkness of the future, because the future is always illumined afresh by the word.”
[6] Bultmann, John, 574. “Faith will see the ‘truth’ in each case, i.e., it will always be certain of the God who is manifest in the word, precisely because it understands the present in the light of this word. The promise is no different from that in 8.31f.”
[7] Bultmann, John, 575. “It is irrelevant from whom the Spirit hears the word, whether from Jesus or from God; for as v. 15a reminds us, they are one and the same. This means that the Spirit’s word is not something new, to be contrasted with what Jesus said, but that the Spirit only states the latter afresh.”
[8] Bultmann, John, 575. “The statement affirms that the word that is at work in the community really is the word of revelation and not human discourse; i.e. it is like the word that Jesus spoke, which did not come from himself.” And, “The Spirit will not bring new illumination, or disclose new mysteries; on the contrary, in the proclamation effected by him, the word that Jesus spoke continues to be efficacious.”
[9] Bultmann, John, 575. “Rather the meaning of this: the future will not be unveiled in a knowledge imparted before it happens, but it will be illuminated again and again by the word that is at work in the community.”
[10] Bultmann, John, 576. “The word of Jesus is not a collection of doctrines that is in need of supplementation, nor is it a developing principle that will only be unfolded in the history of ideas; as the Spirit’s proclamation it always remains the word spoken into the world from beyond.”
[11] Bultmann, John, 576. “…that the Spirit continues the proclamation of the word of Jesus means that it is the word of God, i.e. revelation.”
[12] Bultmann, John, 576. v. 14 “This is an express statement that the Spirit’s word does not displace or surpass the word of Jesus, as if it were something new. Rather it is the word of Jesus that will be alive in the community’s proclamation; the Spirit will ‘call it to mind’ (14.26). and herein is to be found the completion of Jesus’ glorification.”
Psalm 97:11-12 Light has sprung up for the righteous, and joyful gladness for those who are truehearted. Rejoice in Abba God, you righteous, and give thanks to Abba God’s holy Name.
Introduction
Unity. This is a word that’s thrown around a lot, but we never quite grasp it. We’re definitionally caught between polarized ideas like total and complete acceptance and the bare minimum of tolerance, caught in a torturous, cosmic game of monkey in the middle. The issues here are two-fold, respectively: 1. if unity is about total and complete agreement in all things, then when there is disagreement or friction of some sort, the other person/place/entity becomes “toxic”, and 2. If it’s about the bare minimum of putting up with someone, then this will breed animosity rather than unity because tolerance never demands tangible understanding or the need to change oneself (not to mention that the demand for tolerance often creates a situation by which the victim is yoked to her victimizer, the hated with their enemy). If this is all we have to define unity… well, aren’t we up a creek without a paddle.
Yet, Jesus expects the community of believers, his disciples, to live in unity not only with God and Jesus (by the power of the coming Spirit) but also with each other (here and also by the power of the coming Spirit). And the goal of this unity (real, tangible, material unity) will be the means by which the world (out there) will not only know the disciples are followers of Christ by their love, but that Christ is God’s child, sent into the world to love the world and make it thoroughly human.[1] This level of unity is oneness and is more than niceness and politeness and tolerating or agreeing all the time on all things. It’s something otherworldly; it’s the very heart of our triune God.
John 17:20-26
John writes, Now, not on behalf of these only [here with me right now] I pray, but also on behalf of the ones who believe in me through their word, (v. 20). The subject of this prayer by Jesus is “the unity of the community.”[2] The community is both the community of believers existing immediately in that history and all the ones to come who believe through the proclamation of the gospel from these disciples into the world.[3] We—you and me—are addressed in Jesus’s prayer because it extends through time.[4] What’s really fascinating to me is that we are being directly addressed and are now the ones being immediately prayed for so that future people may hear the word of God in the proclamation of Christ and believe. In other words, we are—right now—the gathered community to whom Jesus is currently speaking and is yoking to an unknown group of Christians who will believe because of our witness (in word and deed and by our unity).[5]
Knowing about whom Jesus is praying, we come to the content of the prayer: the “essential unity” of the community, their “oneness.”[6] John’s Jesus says, … so that all [who believe from here on out] may be one just as you, Abba, are in me and I in you (v.21a). According to John, the oneness Jesus is expecting among the community of believers is of the same essence that is the oneness between God the Creator and God the Reconciler (between Abba God and Jesus the child). By doing theological math, if the Creator and the reconciler are one through the mutuality of Love, then the community, too, will be one through love (ἀγάπη). Concurrently, this love between Jesus and Abba God didn’t remain between Jesus and God but contained in it and extended from it the love of the cosmos, according to John (3:16). Thus, the community—formed and informed by the love of God made known in Christ—will be about and participate in this containing and extending the love of God for the cosmos because Jesus’s love of Abba God was also his love for those whom God loves.[7] This love and mutuality is the foundation of the community’s oneness and unity.
Here we get to the essence of the unity: the mutuality of responsibility and dependence. The community’s mutual responsibility and dependence reflects the mutual responsibility and dependence existing between Jesus and God. Jesus does not do Jesus’s own will but what Jesus sees Abba God do, thus to encounter to Jesus is to encounter God which then verifies that God sent Jesus (Jesus is dependent on God and is responsible for representing God to humanity through his words and deeds). This type of mutuality of dependence and responsibility is to be reflected in the community’s representative role in the world so that their unity—which is of the same essence of God and Jesus’s unity[8]—is manifested in such a way that others are brought into an encounter with God through their witness, which witnesses to Christ in their unity, as John writes, so that also they may be in us so that the cosmos may believe that you, you sent me (v.21b). It is through the community’s mutual dependence on and responsibility for the other (in the community and, we could argue, those outside of the community) that will be the thing that emphasizes the divine origin of Jesus.[9]
In other words, the unity of the community will be based on faith, love, and solidarity and not on things like doctrine, dogma, ritual, and traditionalism. The unity of the community is built on and from the unity of God and Jesus and thus is not something that is built with wood and stone, but through blood and water[10]. The community’s unity is a reality of the reign of God[11] and supersedes, transcends, and challenges the unity that is of the kingdom of humanity built on principals reflecting adherence to a specific ideology and a status quo. The unity of the community that is of the reign of God always and forever moves forward and defies and denies the ability to solidify it in a code or a static algorithm. It can happen again and again and again[12] and in new and different ways that always keeps God and God’s beloved in view. This is why the unity of the community becomes the task of the community, so that it can remain participant in the way Christ is proclaimed into the world[13] and brings others into an encounter with God by the event of faith.[14] As John writes, And the glory which you have given me I, I have given to them, so that they may be one just as we [are] one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to an end as one, so that the cosmos may know that you, you sent me and loved them just as you loved me (vv. 22-23).
Thus, the goal and completion of the community is its unity which is its representation of Christ in the world. The glory that is communicated from Abba God to Jesus (and vice-versa) is the same glory communicated from Jesus to the community (and vice-versa) that finds it’s unity in its Christocentric mutual dependence on and responsibility for the other. Glory is brought to God when the community –united by faith in and founded on the love of Christ—gives the world reasons to glorify God through their word (Christ) and their deeds (unity and love).[15] The unity of the community is a result of Christ’s presence with the community; as Christ is present with the community—united by faith and works and speaks in love and deeds—those outside the community not only see but experience the love of God in Christ via the community.[16] This isn’t a social club or a lunch bunch; these are things of the kingdom of humanity mimicking what the disciples of Christ should be. Rather, this community is built on deep identification with each other, an acknowledgement and celebration of difference, and a solidarity that unites stronger than genetic material; this is an “otherworldly” level of community, a divine yoke transcending all human made lines that divide.[17]
Conclusion
Unity isn’t something we manufacture; it’s something that happens through us when we take another person seriously. Our unity as this church isn’t because we all think the same, act the same, or speak the same. Our unity as this community is built on the invisibility of the unconditional, never stopping, always and forever love of God made known to us in the proclamation of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our unity as this community is built on our faith in Christ and our mutual assertion that because of Christ, God is truthful and trustworthy. And it doesn’t stop there. Because of our faith in Christ and our union with God through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are caused to see our neighbor as ourselves and to build deep and mutual dependence on and responsibility for our neighbor, especially those sitting here in the pews alongside us. But this faith and love that is the foundation and essence of this community is not to be contained only within the walls of this community because Jesus’s mission—which is now ours by the power of the Spirit in and among us—was to go into the world bringing God’s mission of the divine revolution of love life and liberation to the beloved. Our love for each other, our union and solidarity together, is the foundation of our task in the world; from this unity and oneness, God’s name will be hallowed and God’s will done on earth as in heaven.
[1] Paul Lehmann, Ethics in a Christian Context, “keeping human life human”
[2] Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, trans. GR Beasley-Murray, Gen Ed, RWN Hoare and JK Riches (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971) 512. Originally published as, Das Evangelium des Johannes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964, 1966).
[3] Bultmann, John, 512. “And at this point (v. 20) we are told explicitly that Jesus’ intercession does not just relate to the historical situation, in which the Evangelist makes him speak it, but is made for all believers, now and in the future.”
[4] Bultmann, John, 512. “…the prayer for the community’s unity consciously embraces its extension through time.”
[7] Bultmann, John, 513. “The unity of his own is to be of the same kind as that between the Father and Son; i.e., therefore, just as the Son’s being is a being of the Father, and vice-versa, so the being of the individual believers must be a being for each other—in the bond of ἀγάπη…”
[8] Bultmann, John, 513. “Such unity has the Father and Son as its basis. Jesus is the Revealer by reason of this unity of Father and Son; and the oneness of the community is to be based on this fact. That means it is not founded on natural or purely historical data, nor can it be manufactured by organization, institutions or dogma; these can at best only bear witness to eh real unity, as on the other they can also give a false impression of unity.”
[9] Bultmann, John, 513. “And just as the Father is encountered in the Son, because the Son is nothing by himself individually, so within the community no one ought to see, or cherish, or criticize the individual character of his fellow believer, but ought to look on him only as a member of the community. It is not personal sympathies, or common aims that constitute the unity, but the word that is alive in them all and that gives the community its foundation; and each member represents the demand and gift of the word over against his fellow believer, in that he is for him.”
[10] Bultmann, John, 514. “…the community is united, in that it no longer belongs to the world but is totally orientated on the revelation event that takes place in Jesus and is an eschatological phenomenon.”
[11] Bultmann, John, 513-514. “Because the authenticity of the proclamation cannot be controlled by institutions or dogmas, and because the faith that answers the word is invisible, it is also true that the authentic unity of the community is invisible—even if it should testify to itself …in the ἀλλήλους ἀγαπᾶν. It is invisible because it is not a worldly phenomenon at all; this the meaning of the second ἵνα-clause, which picks up the first…”
[12] Bultmann, John, 514. “Christendom is not a dimension withing world-history…Rather, this unity takes place again and again in the proclamation of faith.”
[13] Bultmann, John, 514-515. “Vv.22f provide fresh motivation for the prayer for the unity of the community; once again on the part of the world is stated to be its ultimate goal (v.23b), but in addition to that the unity is described as the purpose and fulfilment of Jesus’ work of revelation.”
[14] Bultmann, John, 514. “If there is such an eschatological community in the cosmos, in history, then there is always the possibility of faith for the world. The community is of course always a cause of irritations for the world, and can inflame its anger…But this means that the possibility of deciding for the Revealer is also always given to it, and this was and always will be the means of overcoming the offence….and that is why the prayer for the community is at the same time an intercession for the world, in which…the community has been set its task.”
[15] Bultmann, John, 516. “In fact one can say: that he has given them his δόξα means that after his departure they are to represent him in the world. It means that the ‘history of Jesus will not become an episode in the past, but will remain continually present in the world as the eschatological event in the eschatological community.”
[16] Bultmann, John, 516. “…that he is present in the community as the Revealer, is to find its crowning glory in the oneness of the community…”
[17] Bultmann, John, 517. “Without doubt…the community’s oneness expresses the fact that it is the eschatological community, in which the world is annulled, and in which the differences of human individuality, that are typical of any human association and in fact help to make it up, are simply excluded. This unity stands for the radical other0worldly orientation of the community, that binds all individual believers and every empirical association of faith into a supra-worldly unity, across and beyond all differences of a natural, human kind.”
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