Preached at South Salem Friends Church
May 28, 2017
I previously posted a sermon about the Biblical teaching
that Jesus took the Law to the cross. It was nailed there with him, and it was
not resurrected. We live in grace. Paul taught that the Law was a schoolmaster
to bring us to Jesus, and that once we trust Jesus’s character and work on our
behalf, we are set free to live in and by the Spirit, focusing our energies on
what James calls “the law of liberty,” the necessity of living out love to God
and to our neighbors. But this doesn’t mean that life is easier. In fact, we
lose the comfort of a network of rules that we can obey in order to remain
safe, and life becomes more of an adventure, more listening and obeying in each
moment.
The Born Again
Life
In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Unless you are born
again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” Being born again means being born
“of the Spirit.” And then Jesus adds, “The wind blows where it wills, and you
cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. The Spirit is like the wind;
it breathes or blows where the Spirit wills; you cannot tell where the person
who is born of the Spirit comes from or where that person is going.” These are
unsettling words; notice that Jesus spoke them to a person already believing in
God and interested in God’s kingdom. Jesus calls Nicodemus, and us, to a life
of uncertainty about what comes next, of moment to moment listening and
obeying, based on our trust in the work and character of Jesus Christ.
When the messenger of God came to Mary and promised her she
would give birth to the chosen one, the Messiah, she stepped into a world of
trust. And a world of trouble. Simeon prophesied to Mary over the infant Jesus:
“This child will cause tumult—falling and rising again—in Israel and many will
speak against him, revealing their inner selves. And a sword will pierce your
own heart.” This last is usually understood to refer to her grief over Jesus’s
death, but we are told that God’s word is a sword that reveals our innermost
selves, and remember that Mary was put in her place by Jesus at least once (“who
is my mother? Who is my brother or sister? Whoever hears and obeys God”), and
that she and the rest of her family thought Jesus might be crazy. Even Mary’s
inner self found it hard to trust that this man and the way he ministered and
the death he endured were the salvation promised to Israel and to the world. He
wasn’t what she expected. Moved by God’s Spirit, he said and did things that
worried her, that caused her pain as a mother and as a human being.
And Jesus is not comforting to the rest of us. He says, “Whoever
openly agrees with me and publicly aligns with me, I will openly agree with and
align myself with before my Father. Whoever openly contradicts me and refuses
what I offer, I will contradict and refuse before my Father. Do not get the
idea that I bring peace on earth, if peace is the absence of conflict, the ever-present
tranquility and harmony. I did not come to send peace on earth but a sword that
divides family members from each other, making them enemies to each other. All
who love family more than they love me are not worthy of me, are not comparable
to me; all who refuse to take up their cross and follow me are not worthy of
me. All who work to find their lives will lose them, and all who throw their
lives away for my sake will find them.” (Matthew 10:32-39)
“I did not come
to bring peace but a sword.”
I think we can put these passages together and understand
some of what causes divisions in denominations, in congregations, in families,
even when all are Christians who want to do what’s right. God does not promise
that the Spirit will move all believers at the same pace and at the same time.
So when some are moved differently or faster than others, conflict results.
We can see this repeatedly in the book of Acts,
particularly around the new understanding of the kingdom of God that Peter and
Paul brought back to the church in Jerusalem, all of whom were Jewish. Were
Gentiles to be a part of the universal church? Would they need to become Jews
as well? How was this going to work out?
Complicating the problem was the fact that while Jews
thought of Gentiles as dogs and idolaters, Gentiles also thought of Jews as
less than nothing. Gentiles were winners with rich mythologies, after all, and
Jews were a conquered people whose one god had failed to protect them. Two
superiority complexes.
Only Jesus brought them together, and the brew was always
ready to explode. Thus all of Paul’s letters to Gentile churches that rail
against Jewish Christians teaching the necessity of circumcision. Thus Paul’s
advice to Gentile Christians to be gentle with Jewish Christians around the
eating of meat offered in idol temples. (In this day, we Gentile Christians can hardly
understand the repulsion, the nausea Jews would have felt about eating these
idol sacrifices.) Thus Peter’s witness to the Spirit falling on the Gentile
Cornelius and his household as a sign of their inclusion in the kingdom of God.
And thus Paul’s rebuke of Peter for being two-faced, behaving with freedom
around the Gentile Christians but acting like an observant Jew around Jewish
Christians. It just is not easy.
The history of Christianity is filled with conflict. Creeds
are written to contain change. Some prophets follow the Spirit and then confuse
their own spirit with God’s. Some renewal movements are thrown out and become a
force for spreading the Gospel in new worlds or among new peoples. Some groups
are so offended by others’ views that they go to war with actual swords or guns
or bombs in order to enforce their vision of God’s will.
Jesus’s own words about bringing a sword are intensified by
his comment that “I came to light a fire on earth, and how I wish it were
already kindled.” And John the Baptist foretold that one would come who would
baptize with the Spirit and with fire.
So what Jesus accomplished by his death and resurrection
was not only our salvation, but the release of the Holy Spirit of God onto the
world. This Spirit, the Spirit who breathed God’s word into prophets and poets,
is a sword that divides joint from marrow, as the book of Hebrews says, and
lays bare our innermost selves, but also divides families and congregations and
denominations, and lays bare how much or little we actually love each other,
lays bare how much or little we trust the character and work of Jesus in each
of us and in all of us. So conflict ought not to surprise us.
Nonetheless, I think we ought to be disappointed in
ourselves when we allow differences of understanding about how the Spirit is
leading to cause us to take up swords against each other, whether literal or
metaphorical. Remember that Jesus also said that whoever lives by the sword
will die by the sword, and he told his followers at the moment of his
approaching arrest and death to put away their swords. We need to approach each
other in our differences without weapons or armor.
Persisting in
Community
Jesus told us that we would know people by their fruit—by
their words and deeds, both of which come out of their inner selves. Paul contrasted
humans’ natural fruit with that which God’s
Spirit brings forth in people. For church conflicts, the most pertinent
contrast is between hatred, strife, wrangling, indignation, wrath, factions,
divisiveness, hardened opinions—all of which arise out of natural human fear of
change, fear of God’s judgment, fear of loss, and the resulting self-protectiveness—and
love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
self-control—all of which arise out of God’s grace that draws us to trust in
Jesus’s work and character.
So how can we live together in the Spirit when we are not
led by the Spirit at the same pace or at the same time?
Paul spends some time on this around the issue of eating
meat offered to idols. Remember first that the Council of Jerusalem had issued
guidelines for all Christians everywhere, one of which was, “abstain from meats
offered to idols” (Acts 15:29). Apparently, this was not taken by Gentile
Christians as an absolute prohibition, because we find Paul addressing it as a
source of division in Corinth (1 Cor. 8 and 10).
Paul says that all things are lawful for him. This reminds
us that Paul has repeatedly taught that the law does not apply to those
redeemed by Jesus. He also adds that just because he can doesn’t mean he will.
He must decide if an action is helpful, if it is profitable to his main calling of spreading
the Good News. He asks himself not only if he wants to do something, but is
that action good for those around him as well. This is right in line with the
fruit of God’s Spirit.
So there are two issues to think about. What does my own
conscience tell me I am free to do? And will my action harm the person or
persons I am with?
My Freedom vs.
Another’s Conscience
In 1 Cor. 8, Paul says: “The overarching principle is this:
We make nothing of idols, because we have one God, the Father, and one Lord
Jesus Christ; we belong to and live in our Father and our Lord.
“However, not everyone understands this fully, and thus
their consciences worry them about meat offered to idols, whereas we who
understand this know that eating meat earns neither approval or disapproval
from God. So we are free to eat all meat.
“Nevertheless, suppose someone sees us enjoy this liberty
by sitting down to eat meat in an idol’s temple. That someone’s conscience forbids
them this freedom, but because they respect or admire us, they go ahead and
join in the meal. Then they suffer from having ignored their own consciences,
and perhaps this will lead to their destruction. We can’t have that happen.
“So be careful how you use your freedom. Do not use it to
harm a weaker fellow believer who doesn’t yet understand how we are free. This
is like hurting a child, and it hurts Jesus. Better to give up eating meat than
let my freedom come between someone and their efforts to obey, even when those
efforts are based on a lack of understanding. “
There is a difference between a person who goes against
conscience to copy the one who is enjoying the freedom of living in God’s
Spirit and the person who imposes his or her conscience on those who are
enjoying the freedom of living in God’s Spirit. It is a question of the use of
power. I am not bound by your conscience, nor are you bound by mine, and in
God’s Spirit, we are gentle with each other and take care to help each other
obey God.
In 1 Cor. 10, Paul says first, “Just buy meat, don’t ask
where it’s from. The whole earth belongs to God.
“Second, if you’re invited to someone’s house, don’t ask
where the meat is from. Just eat what is set before you with thankfulness.
“But if the host advises you that it was offered to idols,
this reveals something about the host, that the host is afraid it is not
acceptable for you to eat it. In that case, don’t eat it so that you will set
the host’s mind at ease. Again, remember that the whole earth belongs to God.
“In this you are deferring to another’s conscience. But why
should your liberty be infringed on by another’s conscience? Why should your
enjoying of grace by eating freely and thankfully be judged as evil?
Ultimately, when you eat and drink, and in all you do,
bring glory to God.”
Enhancing God’s
Reputation
So our concern is “How can we enhance God’s reputation in
order to draw people to relationship with God?”
Paul says, “Make a smooth road for the Jews, who avoid idol
meat, and for the Gentiles, who eat it without scruple, and for the gathered
congregation as well as the far-flung universal church,” just as Paul works
hard to accommodate himself to all others rather than seeking to please himself
or do what is good for himself. He does this so that others may be rescued and
healed, saved from danger and destruction.
The long game here is what is ultimately good for others
who are presently in danger and are being destroyed. This is why Paul rails
against the Judaizing legalists—legalism itself is a danger because it destroys
the relationship of trust. Paul wants them not to turn their back on the free
gift of God. Paul obviously did not work too hard to please those who promoted
the Law from within the church. Nor did he go out of his way to make their
lives miserable. He used good judgment and followed the leading of the Spirit.
(Aside about the limits of conscience: It is possible for
human beings to have a diseased conscience, one which plagues us with guilt and
shame for many things in a day. We live in fear of judgment and cannot enjoy
the freedom Jesus died to bring us. Even in the example from Paul, the
conscience that forbids eating meat offered to idols is a sign of weakness, not
strength.
We can look at the facts of our lives when our conscience
torments us. John tells us in 1 John 3:18-23, “Let us not talk about love, but
let us live out love in our actions and in our efforts for others’ well-being.
This lived-out love assures us that we are acting out of truth, confident that
God sees us. If our hearts accuse and condemn us, God is greater than our
hearts and knows everything. Though our hearts accuse us, our confidence is in
God, and whatever we ask, God gives because we do what God tells us to, those
things that we know please God.” It takes courage to live into God’s freedom.)
So how do we move through these tangled times, times when
it seems our enemies are those we love, members of our own faith community,
perhaps even members of our own household.
1) Keep our eyes on the long game—bringing those heading
for destruction to understand the work and character of Jesus in which they can
trust.
2) Be unsurprised by conflict: a religion characterized by
obedience to a living Spirit of God that moves where the Spirit wills, not
where we expect, will unavoidably lead to disagreement.
3) Be tender toward those who have not yet understood the
grace of God and the freedom to live out love; don’t put them in positions
where they feel they must disobey their consciences.
4) Be careful not to impose your own conscience, which may
accuse out of weak faith rather than strong, on someone who is trying to obey
the Spirit and live out love.
5) For evidence of belonging to and living in God, evidence
that can stand against the accusations of an overactive and fearful conscience,
look to your motives and actions in order to live out love yourself.
And don’t be afraid. God is greater than we are, and when
we miss the mark, God promises to forgive and clean us up to try again. Look to the example of Jesus, who gave
himself in life and death to rescue those who are perishing.
