Revelation 7:9-17

First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck, April 29, 2007

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying,
“Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”

I said to him,
“Sir, you are the one that knows.”

Then he said to me,
“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Several weeks ago I went with the confirmation class on a retreat to Camp Johnsonburg. On our retreat, we were split into small groups. In these groups, we had discussions, asked each other questions, and reflected on our faith together. In one of the small group sessions, we were asked, “What questions do you have for God? What do you want to ask God?” We wrote them down on big sheets of paper and then hung the questions from all the small groups on a wall in our common meeting room.

The theme of the retreat was “go deeper,” and the questions that these 8^th graders expressed showed that they were ready to go deeper. They asked amazing questions. Some of these questions have come up in our confirmation classes at Dutch Neck as well. The questions are so profound that I often feel like the first thing I have to say is, “That’s a really good question.” They are good questions, so it’s the first thing I think to say – “that’s a really good question.” At our last class meeting, one of the confirmands asked a question and I gave this response again – “that’s a really good question.” When I said it, another confirmand piped up, “That’s what they say when they don’t know the answer.” I was caught red-handed.

Many of the questions on the big sheets of paper at the retreat were about heaven. What will we do all day in heaven? Will my dog or cat be in heaven? Will my Muslim friend be in heaven? What does heaven look like? These aren’t questions that only kids have. Many of you adults probably wonder about heaven too, and what it will be like. To you who are wondering about heaven, I say, that’s a really good question!

The truth is, none of us knows exactly what heaven is like. We haven’t been there. We have some ideas, but most of our questions will not be answered until we are actually in heaven.

We heard a reading from the book of Revelation today. Revelation gives us a couple of clues about heaven, but that’s not the book’s main purpose. It tells us who God is for Christians who are suffering today.

In this text, we hear that a huge crowd of people praise God. We hear that God is seated on a throne. We hear blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might ascribed to God. This God is a God who is strong and powerful, strong enough to give care and protection to the crowd gathered in heaven.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Psalm 23 is the Psalm of today, a classic. When Revelation refers to God as a shepherd, it sounds familiar to us because of this Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

This is such a comforting picture. God really cares for us, like a shepherd cares for his sheep. The world can be a scary place, but we are in the care of a loving shepherd God.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

In the ancient near east, kings sometimes referred to themselves as the shepherds of their people. If a king had a strong army, he could be to his people as a shepherd, protecting them from the wolves of other attacking armies. So, a shepherd was a symbol of strength and might and protection. When Jesus taught, he referred to himself as a shepherd. His listeners may have thought, “Okay, like a king. We get it.” But then he said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” This was crazy. In fact, some of his listeners thought he might be possessed by a demon and out of his mind when he said this. This was not what a king was supposed to be like.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Does this describe the God that we have in our minds? Well, we can definitely buy the picture of God as shepherd, caring for us. We can definitely buy the idea that God wipes away tears from our eyes. But a lamb? A cute, fuzzy, helpless lamb? This seems very different from the blessing-and-glory-and-wisdom-and-thanksgiving-and-honor-and-power-and-might kind of God.

But this is the Christian God. This is a God who is both weak and strong, both lamb and shepherd. The lamb is on a royal throne. Just this picture alone captures what our God is about. A baby sheep sitting on the throne of the universe.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

This shepherd who is a lamb is the same Jesus who experiences both Good Friday and Easter, the same Jesus who, by dying, conquered death. This is the same God who says to Paul, “Power is made perfect in weakness.” This is the same God who uses Moses, who can’t even speak well, to lead God’s people out of slavery in Egypt. This God is a shepherd who is a lamb.

God is powerful, but God works through the weak things of the world to show God’s power. Jesus brought salvation, but he brought it by being willing to die. Because he is a weak lamb, our strong shepherd can guide us to springs of the water of life.

One of my favorite writers, Lewis Smedes, says that he would be devastated if God were not a God of weakness. He writes, “Maybe I feel this way about God because I feel very weak and want with all my heart for God to be on my side. And because I see and feel so much weakness in other people, so much pain, so much craziness, so much poorness. God has to be on our side, and he has to make sense as the God who works inside, feels inside, suffers inside, and finally triumphs in and under and through weakness. He has to, I say, because otherwise he isn’t the God of the Bible and he isn’t the God we need.” The shepherd who is a lamb is not a weak God, but a God of weakness.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

It is because the lamb is weak, it is because the lamb was crucified that the lamb now sits on the center of the throne. It is because this shepherd is a lamb that the crowds in heaven shout, “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might!” What a paradox!

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

It is because the shepherd is a lamb that this shepherd can wipe every tear from our eyes. God knows what it is like to be human, and the God who rules over heaven and earth is a God who can sympathize with us in our weakness. God experiences our pain with us and then wipes the tears from our eyes, because the shepherd is a lamb.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

So, what does this have to do with our questions about heaven? We know something of who God is – God is a paradoxical God who is both lamb and shepherd, both weak and strong. If heaven is ruled by a lamb at the center of the throne, then heaven is a place for those who are weak. If heaven is ruled by a lamb at the center of the throne, then heaven is a place for us. We can rest in the arms of our heavenly shepherd now, and we can hope in the assurance that those arms will hold us forever.

The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Luke 2:36-38

PR261 Exploring Women's Traditions in Preaching Not delivered

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna is a minor character in the gospel of Luke. Our text today is only 3 short verses. Jesus, as a character in this story, gets pretty much the whole book. Simeon, whose story is told right before Anna’s, gets 11 verses. It’s not just men who get more verses than Anna, though. Mary gets 32 verses in the first chapter of Luke. So if Anna only gets 3 verses, why is she even here? What is Luke adding to his gospel by telling Anna’s story that he couldn’t have just said in Simeon’s story?

After all, Simeon puts into words what Anna seems unable to express. We hear that Anna “praised God” when she encountered the infant Jesus, but we get to hear what Simeon actually said in praise of God. This song, the Nunc Dimittis in Christian tradition, has survived for centuries of evensong services. From Anna, we have no words – only the fact that she praised God and spoke (something) about Jesus to those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Luke does this with a lot of stories, actually – pairs up a story about a man and a story about a woman. Zechariah gets an announcement about the birth of his son John, and then Mary gets an announcement about the birth of her son Jesus. Mary sings a song, and then Zechariah sings a song. Jesus tells a parable about a man losing a sheep, and then Jesus tells a parable about a woman losing a coin. In the same way, a man, Simeon, greets the baby Jesus with joy and then a woman, Anna, greets the baby Jesus with joy. Perhaps Luke wanted a complete gospel, one that included both halves of humanity. This isn’t just about men responding to Jesus; it’s about women responding to Jesus also.

But still, why Anna? The Zechariah/Mary pair of stories in Luke chapter 1 makes sense, because both Mary and Zechariah have something important to contribute to the story. But Anna? What does she contribute in only 3 verses? She doesn’t even say anything.

Well, let’s read these verses more carefully to see what we can figure out about Anna in these verses. We know that she is a prophet. We know the name of her father, Phanuel, and the name of her tribe, Asher. We know that she was once married, but that her husband died after they had been married for 7 years. We know that she is 84 years old. We know how she spends all of her days and nights: she is in the temple, praying and fasting as a way of worshipping God. That’s a lot of biographical detail for just 3 verses. Most of the space in these verses is taken up by this biography of Anna, and the actual story seems sort of like a footnote at the end.

Because of all this detail in such a short passage, I get the feeling when I read it that Anna was a real person. She wasn’t a generic woman who happened to meet Jesus when he was a baby. She was a real woman who met Jesus and was impacted by the experience.

Maybe Anna is here to show us that Jesus wants to meet real people. We talk a lot about how Jesus is here for the whole world, not just individual people. Jesus saves the whole world, not just individual souls. But I think there’s a difference between saying that Jesus saves the whole world and saying that Jesus saves the whole world generically. Jesus saves the whole world, which includes distinct individuals whom Jesus longs to love and know.

This is part of why we baptize in the Christian church. The baptism doesn’t do something magical for the person’s soul who is being baptized. Their salvation occurred in Jesus 2000 years ago, not in the sprinkling of or immersing in water. But the salvation that occurred in Jesus is not generic. It is specifically for that person who is being baptized. And so when we baptize, we address the baptized by their first name, their individual name. Sometimes we say also to this infant, child, or adult, “For you God created the universe. For you God sent Jesus Christ to be born in Bethlehem. For you he lived. For you he died. For you he rose from the grave.” For you. And for the whole world, certainly, but he did not do it because it sounded like a good way to spend some time. He did it for you.

Jesus was only a baby when he showed up in the midst of Anna’s real life. But even this infant encounter prompted the old woman to praise God. She also spoke about Jesus to those who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Did she know that Jesus was the one who would redeem Jerusalem? Who knows. Maybe she had a suspicion, and she wanted to ask others what they thought. Whatever the case, Jesus showed up in the midst of her life, and she couldn’t help but respond in praise.

As we approach Jesus today, we don’t bring lives that are perfectly ready to approach him. Anna probably wasn’t looking for a little baby to redeem Jerusalem, and we are not always looking for Jesus in the places he shows up in our lives as well. But we approach Jesus nonetheless, not with the lives that we think we should have, but with the lives that we actually do have.

At the beginning of our worship service, we say a prayer of confession. This is not some way of changing ourselves before we can approach God. It is a way of acknowledging who we are, after which God allows us to approach anyway! Jesus is the one who changes us. There is nothing we can do to change ourselves before we encounter him. He encounters us as we are.

If there were 3 verses in the Bible telling your story, what would they say? As Anna’s story did, your story might include your career or job title, the names of people in your family, your “tribe” or ethnicity, your past history of relationships or life circumstances, and even the way that you spend your time day to day. If it took up a few verses, you yourself might even read it and say, “Why is this in here? It’s so short, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with Jesus, does it?” But what if, right after this little biography, there was a story about how Jesus suddenly showed up to you? Right in the middle of your career as an accountant, Jesus showed up? To the daughter of Doug, Jesus showed up? To someone from an Italian-American family, Jesus showed up? To someone who has been divorced and remarried, Jesus showed up? To someone who spends their days watching television in the nursing home, Jesus showed up?

Your life story has everything to do with Jesus, because it is right in the midst of a life like yours that Jesus might just show up. Like Anna, you might not know exactly what it’s all about when it happens. But like Anna, you might just also be prompted to praise the Lord.

Proverbs 31:10-31

PR261 "Exploring Women's Preaching Traditions" Princeton Theological Seminary

April 23, 2007

A capable wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant,
she brings her food from far away.
She rises while it is still night
and provides food for her household
and tasks for her servant-girls.
She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She girds herself with strength,
and makes her arms strong.
She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor,
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid for her household when it snows,
for all her household are clothed in crimson.
She makes herself coverings;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the city gates,
taking his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she supplies the merchant with sashes.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her happy;
her husband too, and he praises her:
‘Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.’
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the city gates.

A is for acrostic. Proverbs 31:10-31 is an acrostic poem, or a poem in which each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We can’t tell this when we read the poem in English, but this way of organizing Hebrew poetry pops up here and there in our Old Testament. Psalm 119 is one of the better known of these acrostic poems.

B is for boy, and the book of Proverbs, including this passage about the capable wife, was probably written for boys. The book gives an education in wisdom and practical living for young men in ancient Israel. For that reason, this passage about the ideal woman in ancient Israel is not meant as a suggested schedule for a day in the life of an actual woman. I told a friend that I was preaching on this passage, and his response was similar to mine when I read Proverbs 31. He said, “That woman, I don’t think she ever sleeps.” Indeed, if Christian women today were to try to be like this ideal woman in every way, we would probably be driven to do some very unchristian things out of sheer exhaustion.

I do believe we have a great deal to learn from this woman. But when we read this passage today, we want to go deeper than what it says to an ancient Israelite boy and see what it has to say to C, the Christian community today. How does it guide us on our way of D discipleship? The answer to this question comes only through a careful reading of this passage in conversation with the community of believers. We seminarians know this word – E is for exegesis.

So, let’s look at this picture of the ideal woman. What are our F first impressions of her? I’ve already said that she leaves G giant shoes to fill. But what, more specifically, does the book of Proverbs take care to point out about her?

Well, for one she has H: a hot sense of fashion. “She seeks wool and flax…all her household are clothed in crimson. She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple…She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchant with sashes.” These clothes are not just the clothes of an Israelite housewife; they are the clothes of royalty. This woman looks great.

But for this passage, that’s not the whole story. As wonderful as her literal clothing is, it’s something else that really defines this woman’s hot sense of fashion. After describing all of these fine royal garments, the writer tells us that “Strength and dignity are her clothing…” Far more beautiful than any royal garments are the strength and dignity which surround this woman like clothing.

A second thing we notice about this woman is that she is I industrious. Her hands are mentioned frequently in this passage. Her hands work, they plant, they spin, they are opened to the poor, they reach out to the needy. We see that in addition to taking care of her own wealthy household, the woman also has an interest in J justice. Her hands are capable of great things.

Besides the hot fashion sense and the industriousness, there’s one more important thing about this woman that I want us to K know. L is for Lord, and the ideal woman fears the Lord. In fact, it is for this reason that she is praised! Charm and beauty are not what this woman is all about. Her power and her value are drawn from a deeper well than that.

It’s interesting to notice that this Lord whom she fears is different from an M man. This is the Lord, the God of Israel, the God of this woman’s ancestors, the God who delivered God’s people out of slavery in Egypt. A man, the woman’s husband, is referred to throughout the passage. We read that the husband is proud of his wife. Hopefully she is proud of him as well, but he is not to be worshipped by her. This woman fears the Lord, and the Lord alone.

After talking about the woman’s industriousness and her strength and dignity, it may seem strange for the text to suddenly jump in with this statement about how she fears the Lord. After all, this is the only time that God shows up in the entire passage, isn’t it? Well, we’re talking about an ideal woman. In an ideal world, the work that gives this woman so much joy would be her God-given vocation. In real-life ancient Israel, I assume there were many women who were not thrilled with their work and who were not able to do what God called them to do. As we read this passage and think about the ideal world, this woman would be performing these tasks not out of compulsion, but as a natural result of her fear of the Lord. In this case, the whole passage, including the strength, the dignity, and the industriousness, would really be about the woman’s fear of God.

N is for now. If someone were to write this passage for the ideal modern American woman instead of the ideal biblical woman, what would it say? In 21^st century America, who is the woman of worth?

O is for oh my, what a contrast! Well, I suppose there are some things that are the same. The woman of worth today is P pretty just as the woman from Proverbs was, but I don’t think that fashion magazines often run articles on how well strength goes with denim, or how dignity is the new black this season. The ideal woman of today is clothed in physical beauty, and strength and dignity often take second place to this outer beauty. This physical beauty is not celebrated for all types of women, either, but is celebrated when it is in the form of a woman who is thin, usually white, and wearing expensive clothing.

Q is for quiet, because when a woman or a girl is so focused on this picture of ideal womanhood, her voice cannot be heard. She is literally seen but not heard. Her strength, her dignity, and her industriousness are of no importance, since her body is the most valuable thing that she has to offer.

This is the world in which we are raising our daughters and the daughters of the church. It’s more than sad – it’s frightening.

Friends, the good news in the middle of this bad news is that R is for redeem. God is redeeming our world and is redeeming us as women and men. For the ideal woman in Proverbs, the world saw her as a possession, a prize to be gained by the husband who was wise. But the Lord, whom she feared, redeemed her. The Lord, whom she feared, saw her as a woman of strength and dignity. The Lord, whom she feared, did not see her work as “only woman’s work” but as strong leadership of her household and a valuable contribution to the society.

For women of today, the world sees us and our sisters and daughters as bodies to be analyzed. Is she thin enough? Pretty enough? Rich enough to wear the right clothes? But the Lord, whom we fear, redeems us. The Lord, whom we fear, sees us as women of strength and dignity. The Lord, whom we fear, calls us beyond the culture’s expectations of us and into the diligent work of which we are truly capable. S is for strength and T is for thanksgiving, and it is in strength that we respond with thanksgiving to the God who has redeemed us.

Our thankful response to God includes helping our daughters and the daughters of our church to U understand the source of their strength and dignity. Their strength lies not in matching up to someone else’s ideal of physical beauty, but their strength lies in a God who loves them. Our thankful response also includes an understanding of our V vocation. Whatever women do, in the workplace and in the home, we can do it not because of what the culture tells us we are allowed to do, but because of our thankful response to a God who loves us. If a woman is a full-time mom, let her do it out of a sense of God-given vocation. If a woman is a professional athlete, let her do it out of a sense of God-given vocation. If a woman runs for president or is a teacher or is an orchestra conductor or is a retired volunteer, let her do it for no other reason than that God has called her to do this thing, and her industrious work in this area is her thankful response to the Lord whom she fears. W is for woman, and a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Romans 8:31 - 39

Second Christian Reformed Church, Fremont, Michigan December 31, 2006

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Brothers and sisters, happy New Year! This is a time of year when we often take stock of where we have been in the past year and look at where we may be a year from now. It is always interesting to me how much can happen in just a year. If we live for 90 or more years, just one year doesn’t seem so big in the grand scheme of things. But think of what can happen in a year. A baby can be conceived and born. A teenager can graduate, move out of the house, and go to college. A couple can become engaged and get married. A couple can also retire, sell their house, and move to Florida in just one year. A couple could even start and finish a bicycle trip across the United States. Think of what has happened to you in 2006. Now think back to New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2005. How many of your life events did you predict would happen?

There is so much that we don’t know about what is going to happen in our lives. Look at the next year ahead of you - 2007. You might get a new job. You might lose an old friend. You might come into a large sum of money. You might get sick. Your congregation might call someone as a pastor. All of this is completely unknown to you right now.

This can be frightening. We try to predict the future to make it less frightening. Some may read their horoscopes or visit a fortune teller. Well, that may be too superstitious for many of us. Still, we try to make the plans for our futures by ourselves. We plan our families, our jobs, our vacations. But try as we might, we have no idea about what the future will be like. It is beyond our control, and it is beyond our knowledge. The world might even end before we see the beginning of another year. There is so much that is uncertain about the future.

In the midst of all of this uncertainty, these words from Romans 8 come to us this morning. These verses, verses 31 through 39, have something to say about our uncertainty. The apostle Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, tells us that there is something that is certain. The only thing that we can be certain about is that the love of God will always be with us. Nothing, Paul writes (and if you have your Bibles open you can turn to verse 39), nothing at all, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He asks a whole series of rhetorical questions, ruling out everything that could possibly separate us from God’s love. Trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels, demons, the present, the future, powers, height, depth, anything else in all creation: everything falls away in the light of this truth that is both amazingly simple and too great to understand: God is for us. You can never be separated from the fact that God is for you.

Now, you may say, there is something that can separate us from God’s love: sin! We’ve seen pictures that illustrate this separation in the tracts that Christians hand out. There’s a picture of us and God, standing on opposite sides of a canyon, a canyon that is formed by our sinfulness. We have been separated from God, and we’ve done it ourselves.

This is true, and we recognize this as Reformed Christians. Sin does separate us from God. But Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, tells us the end of the story here in Romans 8. That gap between us and God has been bridged, and there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love! In fact, the gap has been bridged by God’s love, showing itself in Jesus Christ.

Let’s look more closely at how Paul describes this bridging of the gap. The imagery and the language here are from a courtroom. Verse 33 says, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” To get a better handle on this, imagine something with me. Picture humanity, better yet, picture yourself as part of humanity, guilty of a crime and sitting at the defense table in a courtroom. You are nervous. You’re about to find out what your punishment will be for the crimes you have committed. However, you will not be accused and no sentence will be rendered, because this is not an ordinary courtroom. Three of the positions in an ordinary courtroom are filled by the same person. There’s no one at the prosecutor’s bench, because the prosecutor is the judge! No one is going to bring a charge against you. This is really not an ordinary courtroom, because the judge is actually your defense lawyer. You need not fear the prosecutor or the judge, because God is the only one who is able to fill both of those roles, and God is your defense lawyer. The judge wants you to win the case.

As with all analogies, there are limits to this analogy. Mostly, it’s just hard for us to picture a courtroom like this. But the point is that there is only one who is innocent and powerful enough to condemn us, and that one has chosen to justify us instead. Our sin cannot separate us from God’s love. No matter how bad we are, we are forgiven. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How does God do this? He did not spare his own son. Check out verse 32. When we think of God not sparing his own son at this time of year, we might think of the manger once again. Right now, we look to the Christmas story when we think of the coming of Christ, and appropriately so. But Paul’s readers would have thought of another Bible story – the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham was so obedient that he did what was unthinkable – when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, he actually almost did it. Abraham did not spare even his own son. Now, in Romans 8, we find out that God has done the same kind of thing. God did not even spare his own son for us. If he did that for us, we can tell that this is the kind of God who will not let anything separate us from his love. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This inseparable love through Christ Jesus has been a hidden theme of the book of Romans all along. Let’s zoom out a bit here. We could divide Romans into three large sections. The first section is chapters 1 through 8, where Paul describes the most important parts of the Christian faith and the most unique parts of the Christian faith. It’s a sort of theological summary of everything that Paul believes, like a long version of the Apostle’s Creed. The second section is chapters 9 through 11, where Paul deals with one specific issue: the relationship of God’s promise to Israel to the new promise in Jesus. The third section is chapters 12 through 16, where Paul tells his readers how to act as Christians. This is where he gets specific and practical. Today we’re at the end of the first section. Paul has been talking about God’s love in Christ for eight chapters. The verses that we heard today are the grand finale of all of this talk about God’s love in Christ. I picture verses 31 through 39 as the end of an African American sermon. In this style of preaching, the sermon builds and builds in intensity until the very end. The preacher is speaking loudly and quickly by now, with great passion. The entire congregation is on their feet, waving their arms and shouting Amen! Paul seems to say, “Do you hear me? I’ve been telling you this whole time. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Each idea piles up on top of the last one, until we are overwhelmed by the greatness of this love.

The point of this passage is to comfort us. This comfort does not come from a generic spiritual force. We certainly can feel God’s presence all around us and within us, but this is a comfort that goes even deeper than that. This is a comfort that comes from a very specific God – the God who was the God of Abraham and the God who did not spare his own Son. This God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and this God and none other is the one whose love will never leave us. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love – and not just the love that’s out there, but the love of God – and not just the love of any god, but the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of this God will always be with us.

Sometimes, this unending love is hard for us to believe. We hear it, and it makes sense, but for some reason we keep thinking that something has to depend on us. Maybe you’ve recently made some New Year’s resolutions: you want to read the Bible more frequently, think more holy thoughts, be a better Christian. If New Year’s resolutions are helpful to you, I certainly do not want to discourage you from making them. But whether you make them or not, you need to know that keeping your resolutions is not of eternal importance. If you don’t keep them, you might disappoint yourself, but you will not be separated from God’s love. If you do keep them, God won’t leave you alone, no matter how strong you may be. God has resolved to love us, and no matter what we resolve or what we do, that love is unchanging.

We’ve talked about the unknown future, and about the certainty of God’s love. We’ve talked about our own sin, and about the fact that God’s love doesn’t depend on us – even when we falter, it never stops. But we haven’t talked about the thing in our lives that seems to be the most threatening when it comes to separating us from God’s love. That thing is suffering. When things go wrong in our lives, it can seem like God has abandoned us. It can seem like God doesn’t love us anymore. When an unborn baby is miscarried, where is God’s love? When we are lonely and depressed, where is God’s love? When our business fails and we can’t support our family, where is God’s love? When our bodies don’t work the way they used to, where is God’s love? In times like these, it seems like something has separated us from God’s love – otherwise God would be taking better care of us!

Many of the Psalms in the Bible are called lament Psalms because they are written in times of suffering. The writer cries out to God in pain, feeling like God is far away. Paul knew this, because he quotes from Psalm 44, which is one of these Psalms of lament. “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” There’s not much comfort there.

Not only does Paul know how to quote the Old Testament on suffering, he also knew suffering itself in his own life! He was thrown into prison for preaching the gospel. The book of Romans is a letter, and the people who read this letter also knew suffering. These original readers of the book of Romans were probably living under the reign of Emperor Nero, who was infamous for persecuting and killing Christians. These people knew suffering. When they heard, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” they might have scoffed at first. They could understand Psalm 44, but they couldn’t understand empty optimism.

Empty optimism is not what they got in Romans 8. When he wrote to these Christians, Paul didn’t ignore their suffering. When we read the book of Romans today, we don’t have to ignore the suffering in our world either. Pain is real, and we can’t just brush it away because we’re Christians. Listen to these questions in verse 35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” It is not that this list of difficulties might happen to us, it is that they will happen to us. Paul is not trying to tell us that we can avoid suffering. He is trying to tell us that even when we do face suffering, even in the very midst of it, God still loves us. We may feel that God is far away, but God’s love is still present. It’s not always obvious, but it’s the truth of the gospel: nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We look with hope towards a future in which there will be no suffering, but until then, we cling to this comfort. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s only one comfort, but it’s the greatest comfort that we could ever know. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We’ve heard it before in the Heidelberg Catechism, but it’s worth hearing again: “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” Because we belong to him, we can know that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don’t know very much about what you will face in the year 2007. But I know a few things. I know that you will face things that you never could have predicted. I know that you will face sin – your own sin and the sin of this world and those around you. I know that you will face suffering, as much as we all pray that you will not. And in the midst of all of this, I know that you will face the inseparable love of God. Nothing, brothers and sisters, nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 6:52 - 59

PR202, Princeton Theological Seminary February 23, 2007

Imagined context: First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When I was in college, the entire student body received an e-mail each morning with announcements about what was going on around campus. “Get your tickets for the Friday night men’s basketball game.” “The Environmental Club meets on Wednesday – all are welcome.” “Join the Dance Team.”

Many of the club meetings involved refreshments, and so these announcements usually included a little blurb about the free snacks. Sometimes I got a little annoyed when the free snacks seemed to be the main point of the announcement. The actual meeting would be announced in lower case letters, and then at the end of the announcement, FREE PIZZA!!!!! would be proclaimed in all caps, with five or six exclamation points afterwards. You know, “Please join the social justice club to discuss possible responses to the war in Iraq. FREE PIZZA!!!!!” I was insulted. Did the people who wrote these announcements really think that students didn’t care about anything unless free food were involved? “Oh, Iraq, yeah, I guess that’s important. Did you say free pizza? I’ll be there.”

Now, as much as I was annoyed by these announcements, I must admit that I was also sometimes enticed to attend a meeting by the offer of free pizza. So, I can understand the people who were listening to Jesus in this passage from the Gospel of John. At the beginning of chapter 6, they witnessed Jesus feed 5000 people with only five loaves and two fish. They followed Jesus after that happened, but he knew what was really going on. “Very truly, I tell you,” he said to them, “you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

The people don’t give up, though. “Okay, so Jesus doesn’t want to give us loaves and fish. Well, how about some of that manna that God gave our ancestors? That sounds good.” “No,” Jesus replies, “that’s not what I have in mind.” “Well, what is it?” they want to know. This is when Jesus starts to sound a little crazy. “I want you to eat me.”

No wonder the first thing they say in our text today is, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” That’s not what they wanted. They wanted real food. They wanted him to work wonders, to automatically provide enough food for everyone every day, and to overthrow the Roman occupation of their land in one fell swoop. And now he was telling them to eat him? “Whoever eats me will live because of me.” He keeps pushing this crazy idea, so much so that when he’s done, his own disciples simply say, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” In verse 66, we hear, “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.”

Bread from heaven sounded good. Eternal bread of life sounded okay too. Free food for 5000 people sounded great. But Jesus was not offering any of this. What was he offering?

Sometime I long for a little abracadabra magic in our world as well. At the most recent deacon’s meeting, I learned that several of our area food pantries, including some in our very own West Windsor Township, have been running very low on supplies during the months of January and February. The winter is the time of greatest need for food pantries, because this is when everyone has the highest energy bills to pay. For single, low-income, working parents with kids to feed, there is simply not enough income to last from one paycheck to the next. Food pantries play an essential part in the financial and physical health of these families and individuals.

At Thanksgiving and at Christmas, our church gave generously to the food closet at the West Windsor Senior Center and to the Crisis Ministry in Trenton. This was a beautiful outpouring of love to our neighbors, and I know that it was needed and appreciated. Many other churches did the same thing. However, without the holidays to bring us together in these efforts, it is easy to forget that the winter needs of many people are still high.

My prayers to God have sometimes sounded like this: “God, we already did our part. Aren’t you going to step it up a little bit now? This feeding the hungry thing gets exhausting. We know there’s a need, but bringing canned soup to church month after month does not seem to reflect the amazing glory of your salvation. Didn’t you promise to make all things new? Well, these food pantries would be a good place to start. Feed the hungry, God!”

Jesus said, “The one who eats this bread will live forever.” What was he offering? It wasn’t free pizza. It wasn’t even the physical bread and wine that sit on the table in front of us today, the elements of the Lord’s Supper. What was it? “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” This is something closer than a snack together. This is something closer that, “I like you, can I take you out for dinner sometime?” This is the kind of eating and drinking that allows Jesus’ listeners to actually abide in Jesus and Jesus to abide in them. When we encounter this Jesus, it’s not just bread and wine that we’re swallowing. It’s not just food that will fill us up. We call this Sunday “Communion Sunday” because we’re not just talking about literal eating and drinking; we’re talking about communion with Christ. We have a relationship with Jesus that, just like a balanced diet, gives us life, only the life that Jesus offers is life to an infinite degree.

Jesus calls it true food and true drink, because he has the ability to truly transform us. This transformation happens in your entire life, and we enact it here today at the table as a way of remembering what Jesus has done for us.

I can pray until I lose my voice that God will miraculously fill all the food pantries in Mercer County without any effort on my part. But that’s not what Jesus is offering. This is not a free pizza gospel. This is a gospel that takes hold of you and transforms you from the inside out. When you have eaten the bread of heaven, you can never go spiritually hungry again. Our stomachs are full of the love of Christ, so full that we never run out of our reason to feed the physically hungry. Because Jesus loves us and gave himself for us, we are constantly being transformed and are constantly growing deeper in love with our God and with our neighbors. It’s not just on Communion Sunday. It’s not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s everything we do. It’s every extra can of soup we buy at the grocery store. It’s every box of cereal we carry with us to church. It’s every tube of toothpaste the deacons collect. It’s every box of macaroni and cheese they deliver. And it’s every child’s stomach that is filled because Jesus fed you with life, and God is working miracles through you.

Luke 6:17 - 26

February 11, 2007 First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

This passage from Luke sounds familiar. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” It sounds like a line from the musical Godspell, or more accurately, it sounds like the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew. But as familiar as this passage is to us, it introduces us to an upside-down version of the world that is completely unfamiliar.

Our text for today is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. This passage is not quite as familiar as Matthew’s version, which happens at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. For Luke, the Beatitudes are at the beginning of what is called the Sermon on the Plain, because in verse 17 we hear that Jesus “…came down with them and stood on a level place…” It could be that these were two separate sermons, one on a mount and one on a plain. It could also be that it was just one event, that we don’t know where it happened, and that Matthew and Luke simply had different memories of the event.

For Matthew, the Beatitudes only include words of blessing. Also, Matthew leaves us with ethical instructions – be poor in spirit, be meek, be peacemakers. For Luke, it’s a different story. Luke doesn’t tell us what to do – Luke tells us what Jesus has done. Jesus has healed all of us, and has turned the world upside down.

If we read the five chapters of Luke that came before the Sermon on the Plain, we might have been able to predict this of Luke. This is the same Luke who recorded the song of Mary back in chapter 1. Mary sang about God, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” This song sang of a God who turned the usual order of things upside down.

This is the same Luke who in chapter 4 recorded the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus went to the synagogue and read from the prophecy of Isaiah. It’s no coincidence that he read this passage: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This prophecy tells of a messiah who turns the usual order of things upside down.

True to form, in the Sermon on the Plain Luke writes about a God who turns the usual order of things upside down. The poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated – in the culture of Jesus’ day and in our culture today, these are not the kind of people we want to be. These are people who are anything but “blessed.” The rich, the full, those who laugh, and those with a good reputation – in the culture of Jesus’ day and in our culture today, these are the kind of people we want to be. Why would we say “woe” or “alas” to these kinds of people? According to our culture, they’re the ones who have it all together!

The gospel that Luke proclaims sounds upside down to our ears. But here’s the thing: Jesus tips the world over in order to heal us. Because of the way Luke tells this story, we can tell that the Jesus who turns the world upside-down is the same Jesus who brings us healing. Right before he starts speaking, Jesus is busy healing people. He heals everyone who touches him, in fact. In the same way, Jesus heals all who are touched by him today. Our world is being turned upside down, but it’s being turned upside down by a God who loves us and is doing this turning for our own healing. By turning the world upside down, Jesus is actually turning it around to the way it was meant to be in the first place.

“Blessed are you who are poor, you who are hungry, you who weep now.” Over Christmas, I saw the film “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring Will Smith. In this movie, Smith plays Chris, a single father tries to get back on his feet financially after a failed business venture. He takes an unpaid internship in hopes of getting a highly competitive job. The story is sometimes comical as Chris runs all over San Francisco trying to make ends meet, and sometimes tragic as he and his son sleep in a subway restroom because they have nowhere else to go. This man is one of the poor, hungry, and weeping.

At the end of the film, Chris’ boss calls him into his office to offer him the job that he needs so badly. This moment in the film is poignant because it is so understated. Chris does not leap up for joy or scream out the feelings of relief that he must feel. No, a tear simply rolls down his cheek as he realizes the incredible feeling of finally being able to pay rent so that his son has a place to sleep at night. That final scene gives us a glimpse of the reversal that God proclaims. “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, or weeping, for you will laugh and be filled.” Because we have a God who loves us, some of this dream is fulfilled today. But it is not completely fulfilled – not everyone’s story ends like Chris’ in “The Pursuit of Happyness.” We wait, hope, and pray for the day when all of the hungry will be full and all those who weep will laugh.

“Woe to you who are rich, woe to you who are full now, woe to you who are laughing now.” We who are rich, full, and laughing may find these words frightening, but they are actually words of healing for us! Jesus has turned our world upside down. Where does this leave us? We are left with his healing power. This power gives us our meaning and our salvation. This power gives us our very life. We are not valuable because we are rich. We are not valuable because we are well-fed. We are not valuable because we are happy or because people speak well of us. We are valuable because we are children of God who have been healed by the power of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to say, “I’m okay because I have the biggest house in my subdivision.” You don’t have to say, “I’m okay because I attend the wealthiest seminary in North America.” You don’t have to say, “I’m okay because I was the first one in my class to get the new Nintendo Wii.” The only thing you are left to say, since Jesus has turned the world upside down, is “I’m okay, I’m a person with value and worth, because of the gift God has given me in Jesus.” Let us thank God for the blessings we have, but recognize that our true value as women and men, boys and girls, is not found in what we have but in whose we are.

One approach to Christian theology is called “liberation theology.” This kind of theology was started in Latin America, and it draws on texts like this one in Luke. One of the key phrases in liberation theology is “God’s preferential option for the poor.” It’s kind of like another way of saying “Blessed are the poor.”

Now, some people misunderstand this to mean that God loves poor people but does not love rich people. This is not what liberation theology is saying, and it is also not what our text today is saying. Remember the healing that Jesus did before he began the Sermon on the Plain? Luke tells us, “And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.” Jesus healed all of them. Not just the poor. Not just the rich. All of them. God loves everyone, and the gospel message is for everyone. The Roman Catholic Church came up with a new phrase to describe liberation theology that gets more at the heart of what it’s about. The phrase was “God’s non-exclusive preferential option for the poor.” God hates inequality, but God love all people. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor,” but only after he has offered his healing touch to everyone.

Jesus doesn’t heal us in the way that we expect. Jesus doesn’t heal us in the way that we want. But Jesus heals us in a way that is powerful enough to turn the world upside down and bring healing to everyone.

So where does this leave us today? If we’re poor, do we sit around waiting for our time of healing? If we’re rich, do we quit our jobs or feel paralyzed by some kind of guilt? Or, do we participate in the upside down redemption that God is working in the world? Some members of Dutch Neck went to a seminar on immigration a few weeks ago and learned about a segment of our population who is often poor and hungry. An insert in the bulletin this week tells us about the work that Church World Service is doing to provide tools and blankets for those in need. Another group of Dutch Neck members delivers food to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen on the fourth Wednesday of the month. These are just a few examples. These people felt the blood rush to their heads and saw the floor where the ceiling was supposed to be, but they didn’t run away in fear. They recognized what was happening. God was turning the world upside down. To these participants in God’s redemption, upside down is starting to feel like the way it was all meant to be in the first place.

2 Samuel 6:1 - 15

December 22, 2006 PR201, Princeton Theological Seminary

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. ² David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. ³ They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart ⁴ with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. ⁵ David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. ⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. ⁷ The anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God. ⁸ David was angry because the LORD had burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah; so that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. ⁹ David was afraid of the LORD that day; he said, "How can the ark of the LORD come into my care?" ¹⁰ So David was unwilling to take the ark of the LORD into his care in the city of David; instead David took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. ¹² It was told King David, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; ¹³ and when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. ¹⁴ David danced before the LORD with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. ¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

I sat in front of the computer screen in Luce Library, my eyes beginning to glaze over. I had finished the exegesis paper for this sermon, and was now struggling with a way to approach the sermon itself. As I often do when I am supposed to be writing, I decided to surf the internet instead. Now, my fellow preachers, I don’t ever recommend this as a method of sermon-writing, but I still had the characters of my text in mind, and so I curiously and absent-mindedly typed in www.uzzah.com.

As ridiculous and embarrassing as this was, I was actually fascinated by what I found. www.uzzah.com is the domain of a blog dedicated to educating people about atheism. The author of the blog explains, “The biblical story of Uzzah is just one of the many reasons why I threw out the god of Christianity (and Judaism too) on my long journey towards atheism.” He then goes on to retell the story from 2 Samuel 6. David, a large army, Uzzah, and his brother are transporting the ark to Jerusalem on a cart. Uzzah holds out his hand to innocently steady the ark and is immediately struck down by the Lord and dies.

This is a disturbing story, and an even more disturbing picture of God. As our blogger friend writes, “And this is a god I want to spend eternity with? No thanks.”

I don’t blame him for feeling this way. The God of our text today seems judgmental, striking down someone for the smallest infringement against an obscure law. Even worse, the God of our text today seems capricious. Why would he strike down Uzzah? Wasn’t Uzzah just trying to help? Why not strike down David, or the ox, or anyone but the innocent man who didn’t want the ark to fall?

The main thing that we know about God from 2 Samuel 6 is that we know almost nothing about God. Why would the God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, strike a man down with a proverbial lightning bolt? This is not the God that we expected. But then, when have we ever seen the God that we expected? Friends, how often do you see the God that you expect?

Our story shows us that king David was a shrewd politician. Shortly after he was anointed king, we find him here carrying the ark to Jerusalem himself, showing all his subjects that he was God’s designated king. In this way, the ark was a very useful tool for David in establishing his authority. A useful tool, anyway, until he saw a man struck dead just by touching the thing. Verse nine: “David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?’” Good question, David. I doubt that David’s political motives changed much before the second leg of his journey with the ark, but I do think that the death of Uzzah serves as a startling wake-up call for us readers. We do not own God. We cannot put God in a box and understand all of God’s actions. We can’t use God for our own political ends and think that that is the end of the story. God is bigger than any human mind or any human piety can contain.

We get frustrated sometimes when we can’t decide things for God. We all would like to be little gods ourselves, calling the shots. Or, maybe we like God how God is, as long as we can use God for whatever our purpose might be. “God is on our side.” “God will bless our enterprise.” Or even, “I know that God is calling me to do this.” The God that we expect is useful. The God that we expect will answer our prayers promptly and specifically. The God that we expect will reward us when we do good and punish us when we do evil. But the God that we expect is not the God that we get.

That is not to say that we know nothing at all about God. God has been revealed to us as a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In fact, God often surprises us with this mercy and grace. After David abandoned the ark in fear, he left it at the house of Obed-edom. Verse 11: “The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.” This was the last thing that David had expected. But once again, God defies expectation.

The fact that God defies our expectations is good news, because usually our expectations are dismally low. The mercy of God outlasts our imaginations, and the love of God is more amazing than we could ever know. Our text today calls us to trust. This is not an easy call, by any means, because we don’t fully know what we’re getting ourselves into! We don’t want to trust the God of Uzzah. But if we think of God as only the God of Uzzah, we are once again putting God into a box.

Hear the promise that God makes to David in 2 Samuel 7, now that the ark is in Jerusalem. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”

As we celebrate Christmas in a few days, we may think that we know what to expect. We’ve seen it before. The baby in the manger, “no crying he makes.” The carols and presents and sentimentality. This may even be what we get. But we worship a God who will not be put in a box. God defied the expectations of king David. God defied the expectations of Israel by sending a humble baby from Nazareth instead of a triumphant king. And, however grand our expectations may be, God will defy them too. As we settle down for a quiet holiday, we may actually encounter the living God.

Luke 1:26 - 38

December 5, 2006 SC390 "Word and Act in Christian Worship" Princeton Theological Seminary

Luke 1:26-38 ²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." ²⁹ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³ He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." ³⁴ Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" ³⁵ The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶ And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God." ³⁸ Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Before Gabriel appears to Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth find out that they are expecting a son who will grow up to be John the Baptist. Elizabeth is old – barren – and it seems impossible that she would conceive. But, as Gabriel explains it to Mary, “nothing will be impossible with God.”

That’s just the beginning. Not only will a barren woman conceive, but a virgin will conceive. This sounds impossible. Sure, it’s a nice story to tell to kids before you tell them about the manger scene, but when it comes right down to the truth, the historicity, the down-and-dirty reality, many of us don’t quite buy it. It seems impossible. The angel’s words are shocking in the face of this impossibility. “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

As we know, this impossible virgin conception is just the start of an impossible life. Jesus healed the sick, fed the multitudes, cast out demons, and promised to turn the world upside down. What he did sounds impossible. But once again the angel’s words ring in our ears. “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Finally, his impossible actions catch up with him. Jesus is crucified. And then, impossibility of impossibilities, he is raised from the dead. This man with the impossible beginning conquers death itself. It sounds too good to be true, but “nothing will be impossible with God.”

As we prepare for the coming of Jesus this Advent season, there are impossible things that loom up ahead of us as well. We want to cleanse our hearts and make room for our Lord, but all we can think about is that we only have three weeks to get all those papers and sermons done before Christmas vacation. We want to look with hope towards Christ’s birth, but all we can think about is how empty Christmas with the family is going to seem since a loved one died this past year. We want to guide our field ed congregations, families, or students towards a more meaningful Advent celebration, but when we read in the newspaper about an unarmed man being shot 50 times or more than 400 people dying in a typhoon in the Philippines, it is hard for us to find meaning in much of anything. It all seems impossible.

But if we think it seems impossible, we need the word that Luke offers us today. “Nothing will be impossible with God.” The same Jesus whose impossible conception is announced to Mary is the Jesus who is able to take us in our impossible cynicism and give us true hope that the world will be turned around. The despair that threatens to overtake us will never get the last word, because “nothing will be impossible with God.” This promise is given in the future tense, because as God worked a miracle in the past, so God will continue to work miracles in your life, in my life, and in all of creation until everything is transformed. This is a promise so wild that it seems impossible. But “nothing will be impossible with God.”

Isaiah tells us that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” The light of Christ may seem so bright that it could blind you with its impossibility, but open your eyes! “Nothing will be impossible with God.” To paraphrase Mary, “Here we are, the servants of the Lord; let it be with us according to God’s word.”

2 Corinthians 5:11 - 6:10

Second Christian Reformed Church, Fremont, Michigan; June 18, 2006

This passage from 2 Corinthians does not have only one simple point for us to take away. It is chock full of rich meaning and value. The entire book of 2 Corinthians is a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. When he wrote 1 Corinthians, an earlier letter, Paul had a pretty good relationship with that church, but by the time of 2 Corinthians, we can tell that there have been some disputes. Paul is trying to commend himself to the Corinthian church so that they can accept his gospel message once again. I will read 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:10, but pay special attention to verses 14 – 21.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

The passage that we just read includes three major sections. In the first and third sections, Paul is talking about himself and his ministry, and what it has involved. If I wanted to preach a sermon on Christ-like ministry and what self-giving mission looks like, I would focus on these two sections. They are also good sections for setting up the tone of Paul’s letter, which is why I read them tonight. In the middle section, which includes chapter 5:14 – 21, Paul gives us the theological reasons for his ministry. This is something that applies to Christians in all times and places, and it is this middle section that we will be focusing on this evening.

What would you say if I gave you one sentence to try to describe the essence of Christianity? We Christians talk about what Christ has done for us in a lot of different ways. The central message of Christianity is so simple and yet so profound that we use a lot of language to try to describe it. Our part in our own salvation is simple: we don’t do anything! God’s part in salvation is a little bit more complicated to describe. It’s still a simple act of love, but because God is a mystery to us, we have to try a lot of different ways of describing it.

Let me give you some examples. Sometimes we talk about Christ’s salvation in financial terms: Christ has paid the price of our sins and has bought us eternal life with God. Sometimes we talk about Christ’s salvation in covenantal terms: God made a covenant with us that can never be broken, and in order to keep that covenant, Christ suffered on the cross out of love for us. Even our names for God indicate different ways of thinking of what Christianity is all about. We describe God as a shepherd, a rock, a lion, a lamb, a lover, a king, a high priest. God is a shepherd, gathering us, the lost sheep, to himself. God is our rock, who shelters us from the storm and is a strong foundation on which to stand.

Why does this have to be so complicated? In some ways, Christianity is so simple – God loves us, and we should love each other. But when we talk about exactly what happens when God loves us, it gets a little bit more complicated. We can be grateful that we have a multitude of ways of describing salvation. God can indeed be a shepherd and a rock at the same time. This gives us a richer picture of who God is and what God does for us. It also gives us a number of ways to describe our faith to those around us, and to figure out how to live that faith in our everyday lives.

In 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21, Paul gives us one of the richest ways of describing the central message of Christianity. What is it that we believe? What is it that we’re all about? Paul says this: we are reconciled to God.

If I had only one paragraph to describe the gospel to someone, I would give him or her verses 18 and 19, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” What was God doing in Christ? What is the central message of Christianity? Here’s another way to look at it: God was reconciling the world to himself.

The dictionary says that “reconciliation” is “the reestablishing of cordial relations.” Our healthy, vibrant relationship with God has been broken by sin, and now, in Christ, God has restored us to a good relationship with him.

When I first thought of the word “reconciliation,” I remembered something that happened in the country of South Africa after the end of apartheid. The black and white races in South Africa were separated for years, and whites abused and mistreated blacks for decades. After a new government was installed in 1994, apartheid, or separation, came to an end, and South Africa began a process of healing. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was instrumental in forming what he called the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” The goal of this commission was healing and restoring the broken relationship between the races in South Africa. The amnesty branch of this commission would hear the confessions of many people who had committed human rights violations. People who had committed atrocious sins, even murder, could be forgiven by this commission. If the commission chose to accept their apology, these criminals could be granted amnesty and protection from ever being prosecuted for their crime. All they needed to do was tell the truth, which is why it was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

As a human political move, this commission was radical. How could they let criminals go without any punishment? Why did they even want to restore a healthy relationship with people who had been so cruel? As a reflection of God’s reconciliation, however, this commission makes perfect sense. In fact, the reason I mention this commission is because it reminds me of God’s way of reconciling us to himself. God forgets all of our sins and grants us amnesty from punishment. God’s primary goal is not to punish us, but to restore health to our relationship with him. Brothers and sisters, that is the reason for Jesus Christ. Reconciliation – a restored relationship.

What exactly does God’s reconciliation involve? How does it work? 2 Corinthians tells us about this as well. The first step, believe it or not, is death. This death is a death to self and a death to sin. “One died for all, and therefore all died,” says Paul. In South Africa, this death could be compared to the pain and shame of coming before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and admitting to your crimes. People were required to relive their crimes in front of an entire nation. The criminals who were forgiven had indeed died to their sins in this process.

After death comes new life – the second step in God’s process of reconciling us to himself. When we are born anew, our new self can participate in a restored and reconciled relationship with God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” In South Africa, new life would be found in the improved relationships between blacks and whites that are gradually coming as a result of the confessions and forgiveness of many people in that nation. For anyone, to be declared a “new creation” is a great word of hope. We were created in order to love God. We did not live up to our potential for love, but because of God’s reconciliation, we are a new creation! We can love God once again.

This death and this new life show up all over the place in our lives as Christians. The first place that we find death and rebirth is in baptism. Saying this sounds strange at first. Baptism is about cute babies and white dresses, not death. Baptism and funerals are at opposite ends of life, so how is baptism about death? Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Baptism is about death for the sake of rebirth. The water of baptism symbolizes death as in the waters of a flood or of drowning, but the water also symbolizes life as in the waters of cleansing or the water that we drink.

I had a professor in college who described how baptism by immersion could take place in order to reflect this rich symbolism. “I would push them under the water and hold them there,” he said, “until they felt like they were going to die. Then I would bring them up out of the water and they would feel like their first breath was a breath of new life.” This is exaggerated, of course, but it is true that we as baptized Christians die to sin so that we might live to Christ. The death of Christian reconciliation is not a death of sadness, but a death that can allow for new life. The sacrament of baptism, with its death and new life, simply reflects the fact that our whole life is a process of dying to ourselves and our sinful nature and being brought to new life by Christ and in Christ.

Here’s another way to think about death and rebirth. C. S. Lewis concludes his book, Mere Christianity, with some thoughts on this pattern in our everyday lives. “The principle runs through all life from top to bottom,” he writes. “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life, and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” This description of Lewis’ is none other than reconciliation with God.

Here’s something to consider as we think about new life and rebirth in Christ. I know faithful Christians who call themselves “born again Christians.” This is a fine way to refer to yourself, but it hasn’t always resonated with me. My conversion to Christianity was more of a gradual process of coming to know Christ than an instant change. I think that many people think being “born again” has to mean having a drastic change in your life. I also know faithful Christians who have a bumper sticker that says, “Born okay the first time.” However, we cannot deny that the biblical description of what Christ does for us has something to do with new life, especially in a passage like 2 Corinthians 5.

Here’s another way to think of being “born again.” For many of us, including myself, this new birth is not a sudden, instantaneous event. Rather, it is like the rebirth that happens with the coming of each spring. The winter is a time of cold and death, but in the spring, nature is born again. The ground gradually thaws, plants slowly peek their heads through the soil, and leaves begin to bud again. It is a slow process, but it is still “born again.” Many of us are “born again” in this sense. This is the work of Christ in our lives, reconciling us to God. We were in the winter of isolation from God, but because of the spring and our rebirth, we can be reconciled to a warm summer of restored and reconciled relationship with God.

For a final way of looking at death and rebirth as God’s reconciling us to himself, I would like to take a look at the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day number 33. Here are the questions and the answers that are part of this section. “What is involved in genuine repentance or conversion? Two things: the dying-away of the old self, and the coming-to-life of the new. What is the dying-away of the old self? It is to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it. What is the coming-to-life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.” I would like to read the last of those questions again. “What is the coming-to-life of the new self? It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.”

“A wholehearted joy in God through Christ.” That, friends, is a sign of a healthy, restored relationship. A relationship that has been reconciled. And that is our salvation. When God reconciles us to himself, we die to ourselves and are raised to new life in Christ.

So far, all of Paul’s talk about reconciliation has involved God’s work of reconciliation for us. The final part, however, has to do with our ministry of reconciliation. Listen to verses 20 and 21: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Reconciliation comes from God, and we are the messengers of God who can tell the world of the reconciliation that God offers.

I had a conversation with my friend Lisa the other day. Lisa lived mostly in Christian communities until she attended Central Michigan University. Her first couple of years there were very challenging ones for her as a Christian. When I told her that I was preparing a sermon about 2 Corinthians 5, her eyes lit up. “That chapter was such an encouragement to me during my first year of college,” she said. She had been very nervous at first about sharing her faith with her non-Christian classmates. She worried that she wouldn’t be appealing enough for them to convert, or that she might say something wrong. The reason that this passage was encouraging to her was that it let her know that witnessing was about restoring people to a God who already loved them. She had a message of reconciliation from God – it was not about her and her ability to witness, it was about God’s love! God has already accomplished the act of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. All you have to tell your neighbor is this: God wants a reconciled relationship with you.

I’m glad that we don’t ever have to summarize our faith in just one sentence. It would be impossible to tell of the mysteries of God in only a few words. And in fact, we learn from Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 that reconciliation is about a lifelong process of death and rebirth. It’s never about just one sentence of perfect words. But, if I were forced to pick just one sentence, I might talk about God reconciling us to himself in Christ. I might talk about our death and our new life. Or, I might read 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”