Sermon: Dying and Rising

Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church and Brandon United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on June 25, 2017

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Dying and Rising

Audio Version

What then are we to say?  Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin go on living in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  For whoever has died is freed from sin.  But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:1-11 (NRSV)

Dreaming about Providence

And whether mice or men have second tries

Maybe we've been living with our eyes half open

Maybe we're bent and broken

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

From “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot

The Epistle to the Romans, which is probably the most famous of St. Paul's writings, has been an inspiration to Christians ever since it was first read out loud to the congregation in Rome.  This letter has been foundational to the theology of many Christians, especially those of us who call ourselves Protestants.  It was a verse from Romans that unlocked for Martin Luther a greater understanding of God's grace.¹  He read, “For in [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith.'”²  Luther went on to light the fuse for what we call the Reformation.

The movement John Wesley started was somewhat different from those of other reformers, but Luther's breakthrough vis-à-vis Romans did not leave us Methodists unaffected.  On one May evening in 1738, Wesley, who was going through a season of doubt and frustration, reluctantly attended a Bible study on Aldersgate Street in London.  Listening as someone read Luther's commentary on Romans, he experienced God in a way that would change his life forever.  Reflecting on the experience, he wrote in his journal,
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.  I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.³

Paul writes, in his Letter to the Romans, that “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”⁴  The pastor of my home church recently reminded the congregation that, because of what Christ has done, we have been justified, or put back into a right relationship with God, and that the life of the justified is “a mix of peace, hope, suffering, and love.”  We have a peace that only God can give us, a hope that is grounded in what Christ has done for us, endurance in the midst of our suffering, and a love from God that covers even the worst of our transgressions.⁵

According to Paul, Christ gave His life not for good people, but for the ungodly, for people who would be considered Christ's enemies.  In the Gospel of Luke, we read that Jesus prayed on behalf of the people who had just nailed Him to the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”⁶  Paul suggests that Christ gave His life for us in order to reconcile us to God, with whom we had previously been in conflict.  How can we remain hostile toward someone who would make such a great sacrifice on our behalf?  Paul claims that, because Christ was raised back to life, we can be confident not only that we are reconciled to God but that we will also be redeemed.⁷

Paul calls to mind the ancient story from the Book of Genesis that teaches us about the introduction of sin and death into the world.  Manipulated by a serpent, Adam and Eve eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, the one tree in the Garden of Eden from which God had forbidden them to eat.  This transgression, we read, had dire consequences for the future of humanity.  Because of sin, humans were set at odds with nature and with the ground they farmed; men and women were set at odds with each other and with their children; and humans were estranged from God and fated to one day return to the dust from which they came.⁸

Paul suggests that Adam is “a type of the one who was to come,” namely Jesus Christ.  Sin came into the world through Adam, but grace has come into the world through Christ.  Paul goes so far as to say that the effects of Adam's transgression pale in comparison to the effects of Christ's sacrifice.  He writes, “Just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all,” concluding that, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”  The sin that leads to death is overcome by the grace that leads to eternal life.⁹  In the words of the seventeenth century theologian Richard Sibbes, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

Having established that God's grace triumphs over our sin, Paul asks, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?”  Some suggest that, with this rhetorical question, Paul is addressing the concern that proclaiming God's grace basically gives people permission to do whatever they want.¹⁰  Do any of us really need a license to sin when we are all experts in justifying our own actions?  We can do no wrong – in our own eyes, at least – if our definition of sin happens to make exceptions for anything we do.  Paul immediately answers his own question, “By no means!  How can we who died to sin go on living in it?”  Paul is being quite emphatic here.  In the King James Version, Paul's answer is translated, “God forbid.”

The senior pastor at the church I usually attend once overheard a conversation between his young son and one of his son's friends.  In regards to something his son wanted to do, the friend said, “Don't do that!  God wouldn't like that.”  His son then said, “God will forgive me.”  On the one hand, my pastor was glad that his son understood that our God is a forgiving God, but, on the other hand, he could see that there were some important truths his son still needed to learn – truths, I would say, that many of us still need to learn.¹¹

This story highlights what theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace.  In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer defines cheap grace as “the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.”¹²  He writes,
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.¹³
Cheap grace tells us that we are forgiven for our failures, but it makes no other significant difference in our lives.

God loves us and accepts us just as we are, but, because God loves us, God wants better for us.  Christ came to save us not only from the consequences of sin, but also from sin itself.  I am reminded of a story from the Gospel of John.  One day, some Pharisees and religious scholars brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in an adulterous affair, and they asked Him if He thought the woman should be stoned to death as the Law of their religion prescribed.  Jesus knelt down, started writing in the sand, and then gave the crowd permission to stone the woman – with one caveat.  He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”  One by one, they all put down their stones and walked away, leaving the woman alone with Jesus, who had no desire to condemn her.  Jesus did not save her life so that she could jump back into bed with her lover, continue living a destructive life marked by secrecy and shame, and most likely find herself once again surrounded by angry men with rocks.  “Go and sin no more,” He said to her.¹⁴

Christ laid down His life for us.  One does not give his life for the sake of another person so that the other person can waste the rest of his life.  One gives his life for the sake of another person so that the other person can live the rest of his life to the fullest.  A person is not given a second chance so that she can do the same thing she did the first time around.

Bonhoeffer contrasts cheap grace with what he calls costly grace, the grace by which Christ calls us to leave our former lives behind and follow Him.  Reflecting on what he knows about Luther's experience of such grace, he writes,
It was grace, for it was like water on parched ground, comfort in tribulation, freedom from the bondage of a self-chosen way, and forgiveness of all his sins. And it was costly, for, so far from dispensing him from good works, it meant that he must take the call to discipleship more seriously than ever before.¹⁵
Grace is free, but it is not cheap.  To receive what Christ freely offers us, we must receive it with both hands, meaning that we will have to let go of some things.

To help us to see what God's grace means in regards to the way we live our lives, Paul reminds us of our baptism.  He writes,
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism is an entry point, for it is the ritual by which a person is welcomed into the community of faith that is the universal Church.  Baptism has other implications for a person's life.  According to scholar N.T. Wright,
[Paul's] answer is that in becoming a Christian you move from one type of humanity to the other, and you should never think of yourself in the original mode again.  More particularly, in becoming a Christian you die and rise again with the Messiah.¹⁶

Paul continues, “If we have been united with [Christ] in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”  I think that maybe Paul is suggesting that our baptism marks not only our induction into the Church, but also our entry onto the path Christ walked, the path of death and resurrection.  We do not simply benefit from the death and resurrection of Christ: we participate in them.  To experience the new and abundant life to which Christ invites us, we must first die in some way, metaphorically speaking.  Jesus once said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”¹⁷  Similarly, we could say that a caterpillar must first be entombed in the hard shell of its chrysalis before it can begin its life anew as a butterfly.

This pattern of death and resurrection is illustrated quite vividly in C.S. Lewis's strange and fantastical novel The Great Divorce.  In this work, Lewis tells the story of a group of ghosts from Hell who take a bus ride to Heaven.  They are all invited to stay in Heaven, but, surprisingly, many of them, of their own free will, choose to get back on the bus for the return trip to Hell.  Ultimately, those who truly want to stay in Heaven must die to whatever would keep them in Hell, whatever they would make themselves miserable to keep.¹⁸

One of the ghosts who visits Heaven is seen walking around with a small, red lizard perched on his shoulder.  The lizard flicks its tail against the ghost's back like a whip and whispers incessantly into the ghost's ear, refusing to settle down until the ghost agrees to do what it tells him to do.  When the ghost gives in and does what the lizard wants, it shuts up and goes to sleep.  The ghost is not particularly proud of his “passenger”: in fact, he seems to be rather ashamed of it.  This lizard is not merely a pet but rather a physical manifestation of something in his life – something that nags him constantly and seems to have a measure of control over what he does.

At the lizard's insistence, the ghost agrees to go back to the bus to return to Hell.  On the way, he is met by an angel who offers to silence the lizard for him.  The ghost is quite grateful for the offer until he learns that the angel is offering not to merely quiet the lizard, but rather to kill it.  At first, the ghost refuses the angel's help.  The lizard is a source of constant misery for him, but it is a part of him, and he fears that killing the lizard would destroy him as well.  The lizard wakes up and begins to plead for its life, and it even tries to bargain with the ghost.  Having finally had enough, the ghost relents and accepts the angel's help.  With flaming hands, the angel grabs the lizard, wrenches it until its back breaks, and throws the dead lizard to the ground.  The ghost passes out from pain.

Then something remarkable happens.  The ghost begins to transform, becoming bright, solid, and healthy like the residents of Heaven.  At the same time, the dead lizard begins to move again.  It grows and transforms into a beautiful stallion.  The reborn spirit mounts the steed and rides it into the mountains to continue his journey in Heaven.  The man's lust, which was represented by the lizard, died and was resurrected as a holy, God-given desire, which was represented by the stallion.  The corrupted part the man once served was redeemed and transformed into something that would serve him greatly on his journey, but it had to die so that it could be resurrected.¹⁹

Paul teaches us that, through our baptism, we die with Christ and rise with Christ.  He goes on to say that, because we die and rise with Christ, we “also must consider [ourselves] dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  There are parts of us that need to die so that they may be resurrected.  Perhaps this is why Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”²⁰  Nobody takes up a cross without dying on it.

There is more to the saving work of God than justification.  Salvation involves not merely a change in our legal standing before God but a change in our character.²¹  John Wesley spoke of three modes of God's grace at work in salvation.  Prevenient grace is the grace that draws us to God; justifying grace is the grace that forgives us and reconciles us to God; and sanctifying grace is the grace that renews and transforms us.²²

I think that Paul, in his letters, points those of us who have experienced the justifying grace of God toward the process of sanctification.  In another letter, Paul writes,  “Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it.”²³  I do not think that Paul is trying to tell us that sanctification is as simple as changing clothes, for the process of transformation is rarely simple, clean, easy, or quick.  As a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly within its chrysalis, it is broken down and reassembled.  So it can be with the spiritual life.

Sanctification is not something we can accomplish on our own.  According to Wesley, “We are enabled 'by the Spirit' to 'mortify the deeds of the body,' of our evil nature; and as we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God.”²⁴  In yet another letter, Paul writes, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”²⁵  These are the kinds of things the Holy Spirit enables us to put to death.  Paul continues, “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”²⁶  These are the kinds of things the Spirit brings to life within us.

In the words of St. Paul, “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  Christ gave His life to prove God's love for us, so that we may be reconciled to God, but Christ did not give His life for us so that we can remain unchanged.  In His own words, He “came that [we] may have life, and have it abundantly.”²⁷  To experience the abundant life Christ offers us, some things in us must die so that other things may be born in us.  Everything God does for us and in us is an act of grace.  By grace God seeks us out; by grace God accepts us and forgives us; and by grace God transforms us into what we were created to be.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: Theology of Martin Luther
2. Romans 1:17 (NRSV)
3. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.ii.xvi.html
4. Romans 5:8 (NRSV)
5. This is my brief synopsis of the previous week's sermon at Bethel UMC, which was delivered by Pastor Sylvia Watson.
6. Luke 23:33-34 (NRSV)
7. Romans 5:6-11
8. Genesis 3
9. Romans 5:12-21 (NRSV)
10. Joel B. Green, William H. Willimon, et al.  The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV).  2009, Abingdon Press.  p. 1374
11. Jonathan Tompkins.  “I Believe in the Forgiveness of Sins.”  Travelers Rest United Methodist Church podcast, 05/21/17.
12. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The Cost of Discipleship (translated by R.H. Fuller and Irmgard Booth).  ch. 1
13. ibid.
14. John 8:2-11 (NKJV)
15. Bonhoeffer, ch. 1
16. N.T. Wright.  Paul for Everyone, Romans: Part One.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.
17. John 12:24 (NRSV)
18. C.S. Lewis.  The Great Divorce.  ch. 1-9
19. Lewis, ch 11
20. Luke 9:23 (NRSV)
21. The Wesley Study Bible, p. 1374
22. John Wesley.  Sermon 43: “The Scripture Way of Salvation.”
23. Colossians 3:9b-10 (CEB)
24. Wesley, Sermon 43
25. Galatians 5:19-21a (NRSV)
26. Galatians 5:22-23a (NRSV)
27. John 10:10 (NRSV)

The photograph of the chrysalis was taken by Viren Vaz and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.  The photograph of the butterfly was taken by PJC&Co and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  Neither photographer is in any way affiliated with this blog.

Sermon: Above, Beside, and Within (2017)

Delivered at Brandon United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on June 11, 2017, Trinity Sunday

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Above, Beside, and Within

Philip said to [Jesus], “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.  Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.  I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”  Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

John 14:8-26 (NRSV)

We believe in the one true God

We believe in Father, Spirit, Son

We believe that good has won

From “Manifesto” by The City Harmonic

It was not until I started preaching and paying closer attention to the weekly Scripture readings from the Lectionary that I realized how many special days are on the Church calendar.  Like most people, I was familiar with the high holy days of Christmas and Easter, and, coming from a liturgical tradition, I was familiar with the seasons of preparation that precede them, Advent and Lent respectively.  I had been introduced to other special days like Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, and All Saints' Day.  What I did not realize is that there are so many special days commemorating events in the story of Jesus.  On the Sunday after Epiphany, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus; on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, we remember Jesus' Transfiguration; and, on the Sunday before Pentecost, we celebrate Jesus' Ascension into Heaven.

Today is Trinity Sunday, another lesser-known holy day on the Church calendar.  Today we remember that God has been revealed to humanity in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The word trinity is not found anywhere in Scripture; however, we do find hints of a Triune God.  For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, the ministry of Jesus is bookended with references to the three persons of the Trinity.  After Jesus is baptized, the heavens open as He emerges from the water.  The Holy Spirit takes the form of a dove and descends upon Him, and the voice of God the Father is heard, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”¹  After Jesus is resurrected from the dead, the Disciples meet Him in Galilee, and He commissions them to continue the work He started, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...”²

The first recorded use of the word trinity to describe God was by the 3rd-century theologian Tertullian.³  The Church's doctrine of the Trinity was formalized as a creed at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and this creed was revised at the First Council of Constantinople in 381.⁴  The Nicene Creed states, “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.”  The creed states, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”  The creed states, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets”⁵

What makes the doctrine of the Trinity particularly difficult to explain is that fact that it is so easy to say something heretical, in other words, something contrary to the established teachings of the Church.  For example, one might think that, if the Father is God, and if the Son is God, and if the Spirit is God, then perhaps God takes on different forms at different times.  This idea is called modalism, and it is generally regarded as a heresy.  The problem with modalism is that it denies that the Trinity is three distinct persons.⁶  With that in mind, one might think that, if the Father is not the Son, and if the Son is not the Spirit, and if the Spirit is not the Father, then maybe we actually worship three distinct Gods.  This idea is called tritheism, and it too is generally considered a heresy.⁷  The problem with tritheism is that Christianity is a monotheistic religion.  Though we speak of a Triune God, we agree with our Jewish brothers and sisters who proclaim, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”⁸

It seems to me that explaining what the Trinity is not is a lot easier than explaining what the Trinity actually is.  The doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery and a paradox.  God is one, yet, at the same time, God is somehow three.

Perhaps it would be simpler to consider the Triune God's relationship with humanity and the ways that humanity has experienced Triune God.


God Above Us

The doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that God is above us.  The parental title of the first person of the Trinity, the Father, reminds us that God is our divine, loving parent and that we are all children under God's authority.  God is our creator and our provider: God gave us life and every blessing we enjoy in life.  In the words of one beloved hymn, “All I have needed thy hand hath provided.”⁹  God is also our sovereign Lord and the ruler over all creation.

When I say that God is above us, I mean not only that God reigns above us but also that God is above our intellect.  As God says through one prophet, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways...  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”¹⁰  When Job wants to argue with God, God says to him, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me, if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements – surely you know!  Or who stretched the line upon it?”¹¹  The psalmist David reflects on God's complete knowledge of him and on God's continuous presence with him and says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.”  He reflects on how carefully and thoughtfully God knit him together and proclaims, “How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  I try to count them – they are more than the sand.”¹²  Indeed, our knowledge of the divine is but a drop in an ocean.

One of the Ten Commandments forbids the creation of idols or images of gods to worship.¹³  Some would go so far as to say that it also forbids images of the one true God, for such images cannot adequately represent God.  In the Book of Exodus, it could be inferred that the golden calf the Israelites wrongly worshiped in the wilderness was created to represent the God “who brought [them] up out of the land of Egypt.”¹⁴  I wonder the same commandment might also apply to our mental images of God.  If we finite humans cannot fully comprehend an infinite God, then we would do well to hold our own conceptions of God with humility, lest we too be guilty of creating idols in our minds.  The French philosopher Voltaire once observed, “If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.”¹⁵

Ultimately, God is a mystery.  I think that maybe the mystery and otherness of God can be frightening to us.  C.S. Lewis writes that the fear of God is less like the fear of a tiger and more like the fear of a ghost.  If a tiger was in the room, we would be afraid because of what we know about it, but, if a ghost was in the room, we would be afraid because of what we don't know about it.¹⁶  The latter kind of fear is not a totally inappropriate response to God, for we must never let ourselves think that we've figured God out.  On the other hand, I think the conflicting messages we hear about God can be a source of anxiety.  Some people speak only of God's grace, mercy, and love, while others speak primarily of God's anger and judgment, and the two groups often seem to be at odds with each other.  Whom are we to believe?


God Beside Us

In the Gospel of John, we read that, hours before Jesus is arrested, He tells the Disciples that He will soon leave them to return to the Father.  He reassures them that they will someday join Him and that they already know the way to where He is going.  The Disciples still have a lot of questions about the Father and about how to go where Jesus is going.¹⁷  At one point, the disciple Philip bluntly says, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  If there were as many competing messages about God in their day as there are in ours, we cannot blame Philip for making his request.

What if the infinite God decided to describe God's self in a way that we finite humans can understand – or perhaps I should say, in a Word we can understand.  What if God somehow left behind the glory of Heaven and took on the flesh and blood of humanity to walk beside us?¹⁸  What if, in the words of Eugene Peterson, God “moved into the neighborhood” with us?¹⁹  This is essentially what we learn from an ancient Christian hymn found at the beginning of John's Gospel.  We read,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth...  No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.²⁰
The Greek term translated into English as word is logos.²¹  It is this word logos that John uses to describe second person of the Trinity, the Son, who is made known to us in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”  Earlier in the conversation, Jesus said, “If you know me, you will know my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”²²  Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, in other words, God in the flesh.  When we are confused and frightened by the conflicting messages we hear about God, we are invited to look to Jesus to see what God is truly like.  In the words of Brian Zahnd, “God is like Jesus.  God has always been like Jesus.  There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.  We have not always known what God is like - but now we do.”²³

The Church teaches us that Christ is fully God and, at the same time, fully human.  In the Gospels, He is called both Son of God and Son of Man.  In Christ, we see that God is fully capable of empathizing with us, for we know that God has literally walked a mile in our shoes.  In Christ, we know that God has experienced the beauty, the messiness, and even the pain of being human.²⁴  To say that Christ is fully human is to say that He entered fully into the human experience, but it is not to say that He is just like us.  Christ is fully human, but we are not fully human.²⁵  We have been broken by sin, and, as a result, we often do not live as God created us to live.  Christ came to Earth as part of a divine plan to save a broken creation, and I believe that part of His mission was to show us how to be fully human.  Interestingly, in the Common English Bible, wherever Jesus would refer to Himself as the Son of Man in other translations of the Bible, He calls Himself the Human One, reminding us that He is the one who is truly human.


God Within Us

When the Disciples hear that Jesus will soon leave them, they are naturally anxious about carrying on without Him.  Jesus says to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”  If you are familiar with the story of Jesus up to this point, then you know that this is no small order to fill.  Jesus has no intention to leave the Disciples to carry out such works all by themselves.  “I will not leave you orphaned,” He says.

Jesus begins to speak of One whom He will ask the Father to send to the Disciples.  Different translations of the Bible use different words to describe this Presence.  The New Revised Standard Version uses the word advocate; the older King James Version uses the word comforter; and the more recent Common English Bible uses the word companion.  The original Greek word used to describe this Presence is paraclete, which describes someone “called to one's side.”  Alternately, it could mean “counselor,” “intercessor,” or simply “helper.”²⁶  Christ tells the Disciples that this Paraclete will dwell within them.  He is referring, of course, to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus tells the Disciples that the Holy Spirit will remind them of everything He has already taught them and that the Holy Spirit will continue to teach them after He has gone.  Later in the conversation, He will say, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...”²⁷

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that one day, after Jesus has ascended into Heaven, the Disciples are gathered together in their meeting place when they hear the sound of a mighty wind.  Suddenly tongues of fire appear in the room and land upon each of them.  The Disciples run into the street, speaking languages they did not previously know, and a crowd of people from many different nations gathers around them to hear their message.²⁸  That day of Pentecost is sometimes called the “birthday of the Church,” and the same Holy Fire that appeared that day has powered the Church ever since.

St. Paul uses some fascinating metaphors to describe the Church in his letters.  He writes that the Church is the Body of Christ.  Individual followers of Christ work together like parts of a body, of which Christ Himself is the head.²⁹  Perhaps you have heard someone say that we are Christ's “hands and feet.”  Paul also writes that the Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit of God dwells in and among us.³⁰  These metaphors remind us that, as the Church, we are called to carry on the work of Christ and that we can do so through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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There is much I do not understand about the doctrine of the Trinity.  What I can say about this challenging doctrine is that it teaches us that God is ultimately beyond human comprehension but that God is, by no means, distant from humanity.  God reigns above us as Creator, Lord, and Parent in ways we cannot even begin to understand.  God came to walk beside us, experiencing what we experience and showing us how to live.  God dwells within us, guiding us and sustaining us day by day.  Perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity teaches us not only who God is, but also who we are as well.  In the Father, we see that we are not merely creations of God, but beloved children; in the Son, we see what it means to be truly human; and in the Spirit, we see that we are never alone, for God is always with us.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)
3. Wikipedia: Trinity
4. Wikipedia: Nicene Creed
5. Quotes were taken from the Nicene Creed as printed in The United Methodist Hymnal.  no. 880
6. Wikipedia: Sabellianism
7. Wikipedia: Tritheism
8. Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV)
9. From “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas Chisholm
10. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NRSV)
11. Job 38:4-5 (NRSV)
12. Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (NRSV)
13. Exodus 20:4-6
14. Exodus 32:1-5
15. Wikiquote: Voltaire
16. C.S. Lewis.  The Problem of Pain.  ch. 1
17. John 13:33-14:7
18. Philippians 2:5-7
19. John 1:14 (The Message)
20. John 1:1, 14, 18 (NRSV)
21. Blue Letter Bible: logos
22. John 14:7 (NRSV)
23. Brian Zahnd.  “God Is Like Jesus.”  BrianZahnd.com, 08/11/2011.
24. Hebrews 4:15
25. Peter Rollins.  “Salvation for Zombies.”
26. Blue Letter Bible: paraklētos
27. John 16:12-13 (NRSV)
28. Acts 2:1-11
29. 1 Corinthians 13:27-28, Colossians 1:18
30. 1 Corinthians 3:16

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Perspective: Inside-Out Theology

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Inside-Out Theology

Where could I go to get away from your spirit?

Where could I go to escape your presence?

If I went up to heaven, you would be there.

If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!

If I could fly on the wings of dawn,

stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean -

even there your hand would guide me;

even there your strong hand would hold me tight!

Psalm 139:7-10 (CEB)

I can feel You all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

Savoring this heart that's healing

From "All Around Me" by Flyleaf

St. Paul, perhaps the greatest missionary of the early Church, once found himself in the Greek city of Athens.  He saw, throughout the city, many idols, altars, and other objects of worship, and, given his background as a devout Jew who believed that there is only one true God, the sight was a shock to his system.  Somewhere in the city, he noticed an altar dedicated "to an unknown god."  The Athenians, who loved to hear novel teachings, took Paul to a site called Mars Hill, and there he sought to make known to them the God they did not previously know, the God revealed to humanity in Jesus Christ.¹

According to Paul, God is the creator of all things and is sovereign over the entire universe.  This Lord and Creator is not confined to any human-built shrine or temple.  Unlike idols, God is not dependent on humans; instead, it is humans who are dependent on God.  All the peoples of the world have searched for God and have reached for God, but God is not far from anyone.²

Paul described God to the Athenians, saying, "For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'"³

Paul came from a staunchly Jewish background, but he had come believe in a God who transcends culture and even religion.  When he told the Athenians about the God he worshiped, he did not speak solely from his own frame of reference.  Paul saw no need to try to convert people to his own religion.  He did not begin with the basics of the Jewish faith and then move on to various prophecies that point to a Messiah, as we might expect.  Instead, Paul spoke to the Greeks on their own terms, even drawing from their own insights about God.

In Paul's religion, one of the Ten Commandments forbids the creation of any images or representations of God.  Another forbids the misuse of God's name.⁴  The name of God was believed to be so holy that it was rarely spoken, and, to this day, people can only theorize about how the name is properly pronounced.  The very fact that there was in Athens a altar dedicated "to an unknown god" proves that the people there already had inklings of a God who could not be represented with an idol, who could not be named, and who is ultimately beyond their comprehension.

Interestingly, Paul used the words of pagan Greek thinkers to describe God.  The idea that in God "we live and move and have our being" was taken from the poem Cretica by the philosopher Epimenides.⁵  The idea that we humans are the offspring of God was taken from the work Phenomena by the poet Aratus.⁶  These Greek thinkers attributed these concepts of the divine to the Greek deity Zeus.  Though Paul did not believe in a god like Zeus, he could see that the Greeks understood something about the divine.  They understood that the divine is omnipresent and that, as human beings, we are children of the divine.

Note that Paul used these quotations descriptively and not prescriptively.  In other words, he was speaking about what is and not what should be.  Paul did not tell his audience that they ought to live, move, and exist in God, but that they already live, move, and exist in God, even though they might not realize it.  He did not tell them that they should aspire to become like children of God but that they already were children of God.

I think that what St. Paul said about God can be surprising if we are truly take it in.  We have a tendency to locate God: we talk about God as if God is to be found in some places but not in others.  We often look for God in certain things like sacred spaces, holy books, religious institutions, and spiritual leaders.  Some say that God is in all things.  If what Paul said to the Athenians is true, then all such God talk is actually backwards - or maybe a better word would be inside-out.  Perhaps God is not one who can be confined or located.  Perhaps God is not in anything or anyone.  Perhaps, in some way, everyone and everything exists, as Paul says, in God.⁷

So often we think that missionaries like Paul "bring" God to people who do not know God, but Paul knew better than that.  He knew that his purpose in life was not to "bring" God to people but rather to reveal to people the God who was already in their midst - the God in whom they already lived, moved, and existed.

Doug Pagitt writes in his book Flipped,
Most religious structures have a lot to gain by seeing God as being distinct from all of creation.  By characterizing God as the divine entity on the far side of a chasm, the religion can then offer a way to bridge the gap.⁸
Religion does not permit or regulate our access to God, for we are all swimming like fish in a sea of God.  Religion, at its best, brings us to an awareness of this truth and teaches us how best to live in light of this truth.

One thousand years before the time of Paul, the Jewish king and poet David wondered if there was anywhere he could possibly go to get away from God.  He concluded that, no matter where he went, he would always be in the presence of God and would always be in a state of dependence on God.  God is like the air we breathe.  We are always surrounded by it, and our very existence depends on it, but very rarely are we actually aware of it.  May we open our eyes to see that, in the words of Rob Bell, "We live... in a world drenched in God."⁹  May we realize that God is not bound by our understanding of God, for God is greater than anything we could possibly conceive.


Notes:

1. Acts 17:16-23
2. Acts 17:24-27
3. Acts 17:28
4. Exodus 20:4-7
5. Wikipedia: Epimenides
6. Wikipedia: Aratus
7. Doug Pagitt writes at great length about this idea in his book Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God.  2015, Convergent Books.
8. Pagitt, pp. 37-38
9. Rob Bell.  NOOMA Trees | 003.  2002, Zondervan/Flannel.

The painting of St. Paul preaching in Athens was painted by Raphael in 1515.  The photograph of the altar was taken by Wikimedia user Shii and has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.