I'm Changing My Diet

Peter says the following in 1 Peter 2:1-3:

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Peter's telling the church to stop consuming spiritual foods that malnourish us.  In my message on this passage, I highlighted the fact that our life before Christ is driven by the conviction that this life is all we've got.  This in turn forces us to prioritize two things:

Survival – the need to extend our lifespans using any means necessary;

Success – the need to acquire for ourselves everything we can using any means necessary.

Peter identifies spiritual “foods” that serve these two priorities:

Malice –advancing our ends by hurting others.

Deceit – distorting the truth for selfish purposes.

Hypocrisy – falsely representing ourselves as better than we really are.

Envy – wanting to possess what someone else has.

Slander – making others look bad to make ourselves feel good.

When we resort to these, we may in fact extend our lifespans; we may even derive maximal enjoyment, prosperity and security for our 70 plus years of life.  But our lives will become self-fulfilling prophecies – there will be nothing left for us when our days on earth come to an end.

Jesus Christ offers his disciples a source of life that cannot be extinguished – the Spirit of God.  Peter reminds the church that they have received this life source, too.  The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in them.  This being the case, says Peter, don’t malnourish it.  Don’t consume spiritual junk food.  Feed on “the living Word of God” (1:23), and live.  

What are you worried about?

Passage: Matthew 6:19-34

This week I’m preparing a sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9 (as part of a series on the letters of Peter entitled “Holy”.  Find out more here).  Peter’s focus in this passage is “an inheritance that won’t spoil or fade”.  My preparation has brought to mind Jesus’ two-part exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount.  In this passage Jesus both reminds us of the fleeting nature of life in this world, and invites us to trust in a God who knows our needs and loves us immensely.  Above all, our faith directs our focus not to the worries of making today the best it can be, but preparing for an eternity that’s better than the best we can imagine.  Francis Chan, one of my favorites, puts it way better than I ever could.  Take five minutes to listen to what he has to say.

Why Pray?

Passage: James 5:13-20

In this passage, James says some things about prayer that, I’m sure, will spark contentious debate until the end of time.  At first glance James seems to issue a simple exhortation to pray.  “Pray when you are in trouble; pray when you’re happy; pray when you’re sick…”  As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray continually…”  It’s what James says next, however, that inevitably raises difficult questions:

…the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. 

James mentions that prayer will save the one who is sick.  Is James talking about physical healing, or ultimate soul-salvation?  Christians who conclude the former have applied “healing prayer” in the assumption that, issued with the proper attitude and fervency, prayer will sustain the life of the afflicted.  When the affliction is not lifted, the conclusion has to be that the faith or persistence of those praying was inadequate.  This in turn leads many of us to conclude that James is talking primarily about salvation and the promise of resurrection through Jesus Christ.  This is certainly a safer conclusion that explains why those for whom we pray still get sick and die.  But then James goes on to say,

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The apostle unapologetically argues that the prayers of the faithful have a real-life impact on imminent realities.  To understand this we have to appreciate what James and his fellow apostles have seen and heard.  James, the brother of Jesus who became a follower of Jesus, witnessed water being changed into wine; crowds being fed; sick people being healed; the dead being raised.  This in response to the words of the Savior and the prayers of his disciples.  Were these miracles invasions of earth by heaven limited to the time in which Jesus walked the earth? 

In Early Christian Letters for Everyone, NT Wright argues otherwise.  Wright points out that Jesus’ life and ministry marks the advent of an ongoing invasion of earth by heaven – an era in which “the Kingdom of Heaven is not far off.”  When the reality of Heaven breaks into our current reality, miraculous and unexpected things happen.  Because we live in a world corrupted by sin, we’ve been conditioned to think of weakness, sickness and death as normal.  In fact, these are deviations from the way it’s meant to be.  The sign of the Kingdom of Heaven is restoration – the restoration of bodies, spirits, and relationships.  Wright goes on to argue that when we live in Christ, we live at the intersection of Heaven and Earth.  This is an intersection at which all things are possible.  The invitation to prayer is an invitation to appeal to a God who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.  A God whose priority for us and our world is restoration, new life, and reconciliation.  When we pray for these, we do two things: First, we trust God’s timing and methods in answering our prayers; second, we trust his ability to fulfill his promises.  Our prayer, in turn, serves the purpose not of persuading God to do what we want, but of realigning our wills so that we begin to want – for ourselves and our world – what God wants.  

James and the Poor

Text: James 1:19-27

A couple of weeks ago I preached on this passage.  If you want, you can listen here.  Throughout his letter James repeatedly addresses matters of wealth and poverty.  He warns those who enjoy affluence or success in this world.  And he persistently exhorts Christians to humble themselves, befriend the marginalized, and care for the poor.  At the end of his first chapter, James goes so far as to say that the only kind of religion God is interested in is tending to the needs of the vulnerable.  His message is difficult to receive.  It's even harder to live.  One of my favorite contemporary Christian writers published a recent blog post that does this topic far more justice than I'm able to do.  I strongly encourage you to read it.  You can find it here.

The Superorganism

Passage: James 4:1-12

So far this has been an exceptional summer in a number of ways.  One is the heat.  And related to the heat, at least in my neighborhood, has been the proliferation of ants.  Every morning there’s a new ant mound somewhere in our yard or along our sidewalk.  Any scrap of food or discarded popsicle stick is, within minutes, alive with a seething mass of shiny brown bodies.  Only the diligent placement of ant baits and the use of various folk deterrents (some more effective than others) has stemmed the potential tide of insects just waiting to pour into our house. 

This morning my oldest daughter and I were watching ants forage and build in our driveway.  I said, “Ants are what some scientists call ‘superorganisms.’”  I went on to explain that ants (as well as many other insects, and some animals of other classes) live their lives in intense community.  So much so that each individual ant operates less like a single creature and more like one part of an enormous creature.  Each ant has its own specific job to do within its colony.  Individual ants who search for food or defend their colonies often do so at the cost of their own lives.  Each one exists for the whole.  And as a whole they can do amazing things.  They consume detritus and carry away trash inordinately larger than their bodies.  They tunnel the earth, pile up mountains of dirt, and undermine sidewalks and buildings.  They change the landscape. 

The authors of the New Testament repeatedly talk about the church as a kind of superorganism.  In several letters the Apostle Paul describes the church as a body consisting of many parts – each member of the church plays a role that serves the whole.  With each others' support, Christians can not only thrive in their faith, but they can change the landscape.  In his exceedingly practical book, James confronts behaviors that undermine the collaborative power of the church.  He challenges Christians to stop fighting, coveting, and slandering.  He identifies pride and self-centeredness as poison that destroys community.  Ultimately, says James, God cannot bless Christians who oppose the fellowship and unity of the church:

You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

In our super-individualist society, we are called to be a superorganism.  To commit ourselves to the well-being and submit ourselves to the will of the Body of Christ.  At times this feels like death.  In fact it’s the opposite.  We weren’t made to live in isolation.  God in his mercy reconnects us to a community that supports us, challenges us, and keeps us alive.  And it’s only as members of this greater body that we realize our capacity to change the landscape.  

Expect Something Amazing

Passage: James 1:2-8
James comes across as harsh.  No sooner has he gotten the obligatory apostolic greeting out of the way than he launches into this little gem:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

This is the New Testament equivalent of your dad saying, “Stop complaining – those splinters are building character” or, “When I was twelve I already had seniority down at the plant.”  James is all about sucking it up and getting down to the hard work of being a Christian.  

But behind his gruff utility is an invitation to a better life.  A life not of practical necessity but of wonder.  The wonder of belonging to a God who is real.  A God who shows up. 

A few verses later James says,

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Do you hear what he’s saying?  Not, “Stop complaining about not having enough wisdom and go get some.”  But, “Ask God, and believe that he will answer.”  Expect something amazing.

James, like all the apostles, is the ambassador of a true and living God.  A God who took on flesh and took on the forces of evil.  A God who turned water into wine and summoned miraculous catches of fish and raised the dead.  If you were going to ask this God for something as simple as wisdom, or your next meal, or the restoration of a broken heart, why would you doubt that he could deliver?  “When you ask, you must believe and not doubt…”  Not because God only rewards those who believe really hard.  But because when you pray you’re connecting with a God who is able to do more than you could ask or imagine.  Give God his due.  When you appeal to him, expect something amazing.   

Tipping the Scale Toward Redemption

This week I read through C.S. Lewis’ sermon TheWeight of Glory.  As with the bulk of Lewis’ work, it’s a masterpiece that bears reading in its entirety.  But one his final paragraphs cuts me to the heart:

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

After reading this I thought about all the people I’ve hated.  The bullies I’ve refused to forgive.  The marginally-abled drivers who cut me off on the expressway.  The slow people in line in front of me in the checkout.  Colleagues I’ve considered obtuse or annoying.  I thought about the people to whom I attribute the brokenness of the world.  Politicians whose greed or ignorance perpetuates injustice.  Terrorists or the agents of corrupt governments who murder kids.  Human traffickers.  Bigots.  Cheats. 

All of us are destined for eternity.  Each of us is a work in progress.  And each of us has been given the tremendous weight of responsibility to steer that eternal work.  Each of us has the potential to contribute to a trajectory of either redemption or reprobation.  Which will it be?

Last summer I heard a presentation from a guy who spent part of a year living in Uganda.  While there, his work brought him into contact with the officials of several different governments.  Some of these were either complicit with known human rights violations, or had connections to active warlords.  Evildoers.  One of these individuals told him, on one occasion, “Once you start killing people, it’s hard to stop.”  So he thought, “The best thing is to keep them from starting.”  He started a non-profit that mentors boys and young men.  Instills in them the ethics of honesty; compassion; peacemaking.  Reaches and redirects human beings who could, under the wrong influences, become the “nightmare creatures” Lewis talks about.   

When we see the depravity of our fellow image-bearers, our instinct is to condemn.  Lewis issues this caution.  It could be our act or attitude of condemnation that tips the scales of that person’s heart.  How much better to err and act on the side of hope – hope that in every person there lies the potential for redemption that the Savior sees in us.

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, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  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 people’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. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)