This is the good Reverend Robert Arbogast's (pastor of Olentangy Christian Reformed Church) sermon from January 24, 2010. I sat captivated as I listened. I realize that listening and reading are two different things. But may you be blessed as you read this word from one of God's wise and humble servants. I post it with permission. To read more of his sermons go to: http://www.ohiocrc.org/sermons
Isaiah 11:1-9
Pity the people of Israel. Once again, there was trouble. Assyria threatened, and destruction loomed. But the LORD’s prophet delivered these hope-filled words.
A branch will sprout from Jesse’s stump, a shoot from his roots will bear fruit. The spirit of the LORDwill rest on him — a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of purpose and strength, a spirit of knowledge and reverence for the LORD. And he will savor reverence for the LORD. He will not govern by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear. He will govern the needy with justice and make fair decisions for earth’s poor. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and kill the wicked with the breath of his lips. Justice and faithfulness will wrap him with strength. The wolf will live with the young ram, the leopard will lie down with the young goat. And a little child will lead the bull-calf and the young lion and the fatling together. The cow and the bear will share pasture, their young will lie down together. And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near the cobra’s hole, the weaned child will reach its hand into the snake’s den. They will do no harm or injury anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Faith begins by acknowledging the mess we’re in. A whole collection of words can be gathered together, each of them partially describing that mess. Words like brokenness, alienation, and misery; evil, corruption, and enmity; ruin, despair, and depravity. Perhaps the best word, though, for the mess we’re in is exile. We’re away from home, far away. Not by choice, but by unavoidable necessity. Now, we’ve done our best to settle in where we are. We’ve managed to get comfortable with life and all its ups and downs. If not comfortable, then at least accustomed to it all. But there’s another place, and we know it. Somewhere else. Somewhere we would rather be. Somewhere we’re meant to be. But we’re not there now. In fact, we don’t remember ever being there. And we don’t belong there either, not any more. We’re in exile. We’re in a refugee camp. We’re in Guantanamo. More than anything, we want to go home. Faith is about how we go home.
The way home is Jesus Christ. He is the way. Now, it’s not easy to go home. Palestinian exiles have been living in camps for decades. For many, life in the camps is the only life they’ve ever known. There’s never been much hope of a home-going. Arguments and battles and protests and negotiations and resolutions have accomplished nothing. Except perhaps to reveal how impossible the problem is to solve.
It’s not easy to go home. And so, when Cyrus ended Judah’s exile and said, “Go home!” only a few went. The journey was difficult, the prospects uncertain. The exiles who did return found no milk and honey waiting for them, only hard work and a doubtful future, with the home they had returned to in ruins. No, it’s not easy to go home. We can’t get ourselves back to the garden. Never mind the journey, the garden itself isn’t there anymore. Left untended for so long, it has become a tangled mess of weeds. It’s not easy to go home. For us it seems impossible. To go home, the entire human exile needs to be undone. Nations need to find better ways to live and work together. Human institutions and organizations need to put the common good first. Agreements made need to become agreements kept.
But what hope to we have for any of that? What hope do we have, when the Supreme Court can’t tell a corporation or a union from a person? And when it confuses free speech with artificially-amplified speech? You can speak all you want. But if I buy a 1.21 Giga Watt sound system to amplify my voice, no one will hear a word you say. And that’s what we get when the court declares that money is speech. I can’t imagine that opening the floodgates wide for even more money to pour into our politics . . . . Does no one believe Scripture any more, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil? And we all love money far too much. Individuals, corporations, unions, political parties, all of us. And if somehow we did manage to keep our own love for money in check, then there’s the love that money has for us. Money loves to own us. And it will own us. And it will seek to ruin us. Or don’t we believe Scripture anymore? As if our politics, and our feeble attempts to build a better world through politics — as if our politics weren’t messed up enough, what will this injection of even more money do? And it’s not just politics. It’s any way and every way we imagine that we’ll build a better world, that we’ll end our eternal exile and make our way home at last. No, we don’t have a way to do that. The way is Jesus Christ.
The problem, the roots beneath our human exile, is the “powers and principalities.” Those are mysterious-sounding Bible words for sin, for our own corrupt nature, and for the devil and evil spiritual forces — realities against which we are nearly powerless.
But Jesus has disarmed those powers. He has faced them and faced them down. He has pursued them all the way into the darkness, into the darkness of death. And he has emerged in life, victorious. Through this victory, Jesus is undoing, and will completely undo, brokenness, alienation, and misery; evil, corruption, and enmity; ruin, despair, and depravity. In a word, Jesus ends our exile. As Paul puts it, through Jesus God is ending our primary exile, namely our exile from God himself, and when this exile is ended, every other exile ends along with it. Through Jesus, God is reconciling everything to himself, and all things that are truly reconciled to God are reconciled to one another. That is the end of exile.
This is the vision of Isaiah the prophet, and it’s huge. The prophet’s vision is a vision of divine intervention. The God of the prophet is not the deist’s god: remote, unconcerned, unaffected by creation’s plight. No, the God of the prophet acts on the world’s stage. In this case, God will send his Spirit to David’s house, the royal house, send his Spirit upon the one who rises from the ruins of Jesse’s lineage. It will be a spirit to restore all that human sin and exile have lost. A spirit of wisdom and understanding, to discern what is right and good. A spirit of purpose and strength, to meld proper intention with the ability to carry it out. A spirit of knowledge and reverence for the LORD, to ground everything in the fundamental human relationship with God. One like this, this sort of leader, arises only due to the action of God. It’s certainly not the outcome of a military coup or a revolution or even a democratic election. Only the action of God. So the prophet’s vision is a vision of divine intervention. At the same time, it’s also a vision of justice. Even when we human beings agree on the goal, we never agree on a just and fair and effective way to achieve it. But this leader, anointed by a spirit from God, will not be distracted by what comes first to his senses, by the loudest, most effectively-amplified voice or by the most striking visuals. No. Nothing will turn this leader aside from justice and fair-dealing and integrity. A leader uncorrupted by the process . . . Imagine that! It’s a vision of justice.
The prophet’s vision is also a vision of reconciliation. The entire creation will be reconciled: wolf and leopard and lion and lamb and little child. “Nature, red in tooth and claw” (Tennyson), with all its rending and tearing of flesh, will give way to an unimaginable peace and harmony. Unimaginable because we only know wolves and leopards and lions through their teeth. But the dream is of complete reconciliation between all creatures. Even between human beings and the rest of creation, with which we too often find ourselves at odds. But that will all be in the past. Because, finally, the prophet’s vision is of an entire world rightly related to God. “The earth will be filled with knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” As the waters cover the sea. Cover the sea? The waters are the sea. The waters are no veneer over top of the sea. They are the sea, totally, down to the depths. And so “the earth will be filled with knowledge of the LORD” not as a veneer, a thin skin on top. But all the way through, God will be known. Known not only with the mind, but also with the heart and with the spirit.
And not known as in merely recognized or acknowledged. But experienced and loved. This knowledge is intimacy, intimacy with God as wide and as deep as the earth. As I said, the prophet’s vision is huge. So, in a broken world, where every structure of power and influence is twisted . . . Do I need to say this again? Every person, every family, every people, every nation, every business, every school, every art, every prison, every farm, every factory, every neighborhood, every army, every political party, every church, every emergency relief agency is corrupt, a blend of both good and evil in varying degree.
Faith begins by recognizing this. Then faith moves on. Faith is about how we go home, about how we return from exile. Not so much return to the place we belong, as return to the One to whom we belong, return to God. Which is to say, faith is about Jesus Christ. He is the world’s true hope, for justice and fair-dealing, for reconciliation and peace. We’re waiting for him to complete what he has begun. Meanwhile — this is important — we, too, have the Spirit. And so we do what we can in this world to anticipate what’s coming, to give life here now the shape of things to come. And while we’re busy with that, we use our free speech to declare his praise.
Feb 7, 2010
Feb 6, 2010
Who is Wise?
These are the beautiful and insightful words of Eugene Peterson in his book, Where Your Treasure Is: Psalms That Summon You From Self to Community ~ p. 125
The opposite of foolish in Scripture is wise. Wise refers to skill in living. It does not mean, primarily, the person who knows the right answers to things, but one who has developed the right responses (relationships) to persons, to God. The wise understand how the world works; know about patience and love, listening and grace, adoration and beauty; know that other people are awesome creatures to be respected and befriended, especially the ones that I cannot get anything out of; know that the earth is a marvelously intricate gift to be cared for and enjoyed; know that God is an ever-present center, a never-diminishing reality, an all-encompassing love; and know that there is no living being that does not reach out gladly and responsively to him and the nation/kingdom/community in which he has placed us.
The wise know that there is only one cure for a fool. Prayer that is as passionate for the salvation of others as it is for myself: "O that deliverance for Israel would come out of Zion!" Prayer that is convinced that there is no wellness until everyone is restored to a place of blessing: "When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people." And prayer that sees the community as a place not of acquisition, but of celebration: "Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad" (Psalm 14:7).
The opposite of foolish in Scripture is wise. Wise refers to skill in living. It does not mean, primarily, the person who knows the right answers to things, but one who has developed the right responses (relationships) to persons, to God. The wise understand how the world works; know about patience and love, listening and grace, adoration and beauty; know that other people are awesome creatures to be respected and befriended, especially the ones that I cannot get anything out of; know that the earth is a marvelously intricate gift to be cared for and enjoyed; know that God is an ever-present center, a never-diminishing reality, an all-encompassing love; and know that there is no living being that does not reach out gladly and responsively to him and the nation/kingdom/community in which he has placed us.
The wise know that there is only one cure for a fool. Prayer that is as passionate for the salvation of others as it is for myself: "O that deliverance for Israel would come out of Zion!" Prayer that is convinced that there is no wellness until everyone is restored to a place of blessing: "When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people." And prayer that sees the community as a place not of acquisition, but of celebration: "Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad" (Psalm 14:7).
Feb 5, 2010
Are We Surprised by Violence? - Reposting from 2008
"How blessed are those who make peace, because it is they who will be called God's children!
Matthew 5:9
Daily I wince at the evil and violence swirling around me. Innocent children abused, sexually trafficked -- never having the chance at innocence. Right now, an untold number of children men and women are being abused or murdered. I don't know how God can look upon all the the abuse and violence that is happening all over the world at this very moment and every moment of time. Yet there is a real distance between me and the violence. What I mean is, I would never committ such heinous crimes, would I?
We shake our heads at the violence that we see. We turn off the news or refuse to read the papers (or internet) because we just can't take it anymore. However, the violence that occurs in the world is just a larger scale or magnification of what happens in our souls and homes.
Large scale violence and murder begins in the soul of individuals. It is rooted in bitterness, hatred and indifference. We see this in families. Spouses no longer care about each other or family. They kill each other with their words. Families are fractured. Students slander each other in school. Elders and deacons and the so-called righteous don't even think twice about slandering a fellow brother or sister. In fact, the internet is full of believers who have published slander against other believers. It's all there on the internet for the world to see.
And we wonder why there is so much violence? It's in the family of God. It's in our souls. We shouldn't shake our heads at the violence swirling about us without being horrified at the violence in our own souls. Do we wish an end to violence? Then we must overcome evil with good by overcoming the violence and seeds of violence buried in our souls. Only then will we be called the children of God, not hypocrites.
Only when there is peace in our own souls can we be happy (blessed) peacemakers.
Matthew 5:9
Daily I wince at the evil and violence swirling around me. Innocent children abused, sexually trafficked -- never having the chance at innocence. Right now, an untold number of children men and women are being abused or murdered. I don't know how God can look upon all the the abuse and violence that is happening all over the world at this very moment and every moment of time. Yet there is a real distance between me and the violence. What I mean is, I would never committ such heinous crimes, would I?
We shake our heads at the violence that we see. We turn off the news or refuse to read the papers (or internet) because we just can't take it anymore. However, the violence that occurs in the world is just a larger scale or magnification of what happens in our souls and homes.
Large scale violence and murder begins in the soul of individuals. It is rooted in bitterness, hatred and indifference. We see this in families. Spouses no longer care about each other or family. They kill each other with their words. Families are fractured. Students slander each other in school. Elders and deacons and the so-called righteous don't even think twice about slandering a fellow brother or sister. In fact, the internet is full of believers who have published slander against other believers. It's all there on the internet for the world to see.
And we wonder why there is so much violence? It's in the family of God. It's in our souls. We shouldn't shake our heads at the violence swirling about us without being horrified at the violence in our own souls. Do we wish an end to violence? Then we must overcome evil with good by overcoming the violence and seeds of violence buried in our souls. Only then will we be called the children of God, not hypocrites.
Only when there is peace in our own souls can we be happy (blessed) peacemakers.
Feb 4, 2010
Nouwen On The Grateful Life
"True spiritual gratitude embraces all of our past, the good as well as the bad events, the joyful as well as the sorrowful moments. From the place where we stand, everything that took place brought us to this place, and we want to remember all of it as part of God's guidance. That does not mean that all that happened in the past was good, but it does mean that even the bad didn't happen outside the loving presence of God. Jesus' own suffering was brought upon him by the forces of darkness. Still he speaks of his suffering and death as his way to glory. It is very hard to keep bringing all of our past under the light of gratitude. There are so many things about which we feel guilt and shame, so many things we simply wish had never happened. But each time we have the courage to look at "the all of it" and to look at it as God looks at it, our guilt becomes happy guilt and our shame a happy shame because they have brought us to a deeper recognition of God's mercy, a stronger conviction of God's guidance, and a more radical commitment to a life in God's service."
~ From Here and Now pp. 108-109
~ From Here and Now pp. 108-109
Self-Promotion
I have a post on Her.meneutic's blog related to what I wrote yesterday.
Click here to read: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/
Thank you.
Click here to read: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/
Thank you.
Feb 3, 2010
I Will Not Share My Glory
I thought I would post something I wrote several years ago. I may have posted a while ago...but I thought it was worthwhile and that it'll be a nice addendum to a blog post I have elsewhere.
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that come from wisdom." James 3:13
The humble are indeed the most wise. Why? Because they have a proper understanding of both God and themselves. Their fear of God compels them to spread his fame rather than their own. Often they are overlooked because they do not call attention to themselves.
Are we seeking celebrity status in the Christian culture or are we content to be inconspicuously placed mirrors reflecting his glory? Who do others see when we minister? More of us or more of Jesus? Are we unknowningly redirecting the glory he deserves to ourselves? We must not let our charisma or natural talent blur his reflection in our lives. Instead, we demonstrate our wisdom when we curb our tendency toward self-promotion so that in all aspects of our lives he has preeminence.
Let us examine ourselves to determine the motives behind our actions. Is there any hint of applause-seeking in the good deeds done in the sight of others? Do we, like Annanias and Sapphira, desire that others validate our righteousness (Acts 5:1-10). Do we desire that we, our ministries, or churches, become the next Christian superstars? Let's be honest. We must confess that such accolade-seeking is rampant in the Christian culture.
All of us have lacked, and some of us still lack the humilty that comes from wisdom. God demands that we be honest, that we have "truth in the inner most parts" (Psalm 51:6). If we primarily seek celebrity, unbelievers will sense this and put no more stock in God than we do. Even they can figure out if we are using God as a means to elevate our selves. Often believers are the ones more easily hood-winked.
We must remember that the Lord is a jealous God who refuses to share his glory with anyone else, including his children (Isaiah 48:11).
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that come from wisdom." James 3:13
The humble are indeed the most wise. Why? Because they have a proper understanding of both God and themselves. Their fear of God compels them to spread his fame rather than their own. Often they are overlooked because they do not call attention to themselves.
Are we seeking celebrity status in the Christian culture or are we content to be inconspicuously placed mirrors reflecting his glory? Who do others see when we minister? More of us or more of Jesus? Are we unknowningly redirecting the glory he deserves to ourselves? We must not let our charisma or natural talent blur his reflection in our lives. Instead, we demonstrate our wisdom when we curb our tendency toward self-promotion so that in all aspects of our lives he has preeminence.
Let us examine ourselves to determine the motives behind our actions. Is there any hint of applause-seeking in the good deeds done in the sight of others? Do we, like Annanias and Sapphira, desire that others validate our righteousness (Acts 5:1-10). Do we desire that we, our ministries, or churches, become the next Christian superstars? Let's be honest. We must confess that such accolade-seeking is rampant in the Christian culture.
All of us have lacked, and some of us still lack the humilty that comes from wisdom. God demands that we be honest, that we have "truth in the inner most parts" (Psalm 51:6). If we primarily seek celebrity, unbelievers will sense this and put no more stock in God than we do. Even they can figure out if we are using God as a means to elevate our selves. Often believers are the ones more easily hood-winked.
We must remember that the Lord is a jealous God who refuses to share his glory with anyone else, including his children (Isaiah 48:11).
Feb 2, 2010
How Do We Respond When Forced To Trust? How Do We Respond To Other's Bad News?
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42
One of the things that wrankles me and that I desperately do not want to be guilty of is offering a trite Christian platitude when someone is suffering or when someone has received bad news. I don't want to be like Job's friends, although I am sure I have been guilty of that.
Today I learned of another friend who lost his job. His wife is one of my best friends. I tried to offer a word of hope through e-mail, but I know the rug has been pulled out from under them and they are flying through the air uncertain of when and how they will land and scared that they might be injured in the process. Is offering a word of hope trite and inconsiderate? Not necessarily. It depends what is said, how it is said, and when it is said.
I've been poor by American standards most of my life. I know what it is like not to have food, not to have heat, and receive nothing for Christmas. Believe me, I know even then I was rich compared to most of the world. But it seemed like the continual crises my family endured were crises of not having money.
And so most of my life, I've been on my knees crying out to God for financial provision. And boy has he pulled some doozies of provision. I mean whoppers. Does that mean that I always had Christmas gifts and was never cold in the dead of winter? No. But God financially provided through others and once even through my own mistake with the IRS, a mistake that was to me and Shawn's advantage, a mistake that the IRS caught on our taxes. I guess we overpaid (I had filled out the form). The fact that someone at the IRS did their job and refunded us the money a few days before we had to move, when we were sweating bullets and trying to trust God and figure out how we were going to pay for gas to drive up to New York, wondering how we were going to have groceries for the first few weeks since I didn't have a job and Shawn's university stipend wouldn't kick in for a month, was amazing. It was God. He provided the money we needed to move to New York after we had put down all our money for a deposit and our first month's rent. And I could go on. Really, I could recount his wonderous provisions, the list continues to grow.
I'd like to say to my friend, God is going to show you he is trustworthy through this. I am not sure that now is the time though. Because is that really what she wants to hear? It's only in looking back that I recount God's faithfulness. It was hard for me to trust in the midst of difficulties. Sometimes I did better than others. But God was definitely faithful.
Honestly, how often do we want to learn such lessons of trust? We'd rather that God left our spouses with us, that our children didn't die, that we didn't lose the job, that our child did not rebel, that our family member was not mentally ill. Of course! Jesus sweat tears of blood and asked the Father to remove the cup of the cross from him. But in the end, he bowed to the Father's will. And I don't think God allows these things merely to teach us lessons. We have a supernatural enemy. And suffeirng and difficulty are part of the fall, the problem of evil, painful and seemingly illogical.
No God doesn't allow evil and suffering just to teach us a lesson. I am not sure why he does. His ways are inexplicable. But somehow, he can use our tragedy and pain to form us. He forms us in the wilderness.
One of the things that wrankles me and that I desperately do not want to be guilty of is offering a trite Christian platitude when someone is suffering or when someone has received bad news. I don't want to be like Job's friends, although I am sure I have been guilty of that.
Today I learned of another friend who lost his job. His wife is one of my best friends. I tried to offer a word of hope through e-mail, but I know the rug has been pulled out from under them and they are flying through the air uncertain of when and how they will land and scared that they might be injured in the process. Is offering a word of hope trite and inconsiderate? Not necessarily. It depends what is said, how it is said, and when it is said.
I've been poor by American standards most of my life. I know what it is like not to have food, not to have heat, and receive nothing for Christmas. Believe me, I know even then I was rich compared to most of the world. But it seemed like the continual crises my family endured were crises of not having money.
And so most of my life, I've been on my knees crying out to God for financial provision. And boy has he pulled some doozies of provision. I mean whoppers. Does that mean that I always had Christmas gifts and was never cold in the dead of winter? No. But God financially provided through others and once even through my own mistake with the IRS, a mistake that was to me and Shawn's advantage, a mistake that the IRS caught on our taxes. I guess we overpaid (I had filled out the form). The fact that someone at the IRS did their job and refunded us the money a few days before we had to move, when we were sweating bullets and trying to trust God and figure out how we were going to pay for gas to drive up to New York, wondering how we were going to have groceries for the first few weeks since I didn't have a job and Shawn's university stipend wouldn't kick in for a month, was amazing. It was God. He provided the money we needed to move to New York after we had put down all our money for a deposit and our first month's rent. And I could go on. Really, I could recount his wonderous provisions, the list continues to grow.
I'd like to say to my friend, God is going to show you he is trustworthy through this. I am not sure that now is the time though. Because is that really what she wants to hear? It's only in looking back that I recount God's faithfulness. It was hard for me to trust in the midst of difficulties. Sometimes I did better than others. But God was definitely faithful.
Honestly, how often do we want to learn such lessons of trust? We'd rather that God left our spouses with us, that our children didn't die, that we didn't lose the job, that our child did not rebel, that our family member was not mentally ill. Of course! Jesus sweat tears of blood and asked the Father to remove the cup of the cross from him. But in the end, he bowed to the Father's will. And I don't think God allows these things merely to teach us lessons. We have a supernatural enemy. And suffeirng and difficulty are part of the fall, the problem of evil, painful and seemingly illogical.
No God doesn't allow evil and suffering just to teach us a lesson. I am not sure why he does. His ways are inexplicable. But somehow, he can use our tragedy and pain to form us. He forms us in the wilderness.
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