Falling out of Love

Last week, Peter began our series on Old Testament foundations with a sermon on Creation. And as God, in his infinite wisdom, displayed his power as he put the universe together, we see from Genesis 1 that he repeatedly stands back from His creation, and says “it is good.” If anyone here has ever been part of a big successful project, you know this feeling: you see the pieces coming together and deep inside you have this wonderful feeling: “it is good”. If anyone has ever written a piece of music or painted a picture, you complete a phrase or a corner and deep inside you have this wonderful feeling: "it is good". Six days, six times: light - “it is good”; suns and planets - “it is good”; vegetation - “it is good”; animals - “it is good”; all good,  And then, toward the end of the creation account, God has made Adam and Eve, and he says “it is very good” -- after all, that’s the reaction you have when you get to the end of a big successful project, or a composition or a painting -- And as Peter described so powerfully last week, human beings are what God had in mind from the very beginning.

Scientists have just starting to understand this more fully. Here’s a book (Nature’s Destiny) discussing the fact that the more we look at the characteristics of nature, the more it looks like humanity was somehow designed into it from the start. Here are two quick quotes:

“It is as if from the very moment of creation the biochemistry of life was already preordained in the atom-building process, as if Nature were biased to this end from the beginning.” And “[we see in the] details science’s relentless progress toward an unexpected conclusion -- that the universe was intentionally designed for human beings”(!)

And God said, “it was very good”. Then, having accomplished the most extraordinary engineering feat of all time, he rested. But “hold on”, you might say -- something must have gone terribly wrong. When we look at the world as it is today, “very good” isn’t usually the description that comes to mind. In 2003, a popular song described the world in these words:

Whatever happened to the values of humanity

Whatever happened to the fairness and equality

Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity

Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity

If you listen to the news, you realize that the world is no longer “very good” or even “good”. Something is broken. Something needs fixing.

Now this one is w-a-y too big for me, but this is related to how I spend my day job: I fix things. I’m an engineer. Please don’t judge me for it; that’s how I’ve been trained. And the first thing that an engineer does when introduced to a problem is to try to understand it down to the ground. As Albert Einstein wrote: “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask.”

So let’s carefully consider the problems in our world this morning. And let’s not immediately assume (in our season of federal elections) that those problems are due to some government policy or that they can be solved by some other government policy. Instead, let’s get to the heart of the issue. Let’s understand the essence of the problem. How do we understand the source of injustice in the world, the source of inequality and the source of instability? To address this very important question, we need to go back to the very beginning -- to the first three chapters of Genesis and to the Garden of Eden.

At this point, no one could blame you for inwardly saying “oh boy” -- and perhaps even cringing a bit. After all, our society makes it very uncomfortable for anyone who takes Adam and Eve seriously. “You don’t really believe in Adam and Eve, do you?” they will ask. “Well, why not?” I might reply. In response, I often hear this most curious of claims: “Don’t you know that science has proven that Adam and Eve never existed?” As someone trained in the sciences, I figure I must have missed the publication of that experiment. So I ask “Oh really? How did it do that?” And the answer that I get is typically (often with a bunch of hand-waving), “You know... evolution.” Well, I do know evolution, but it simply cannot possibly do any such thing as “prove that Adam and Eve never existed.

The closest thing to “scientific evidence” against Adam and Eve is related to what was once called “Mitochondrial Eve”. It is an interesting story. You see, in each cell of your body, there are bits of DNA. Some of your DNA exists in your cells’ nuclei, and we call it your genome. But you also have bits of DNA in your cells’ mitochondria, which we believe are entirely derived from your mother. In 1987, a paper was published claiming that this mitochondrial DNA could be a kind of “molecular clock”.

The idea is simple: and it is like a crime scene investigation. If you saw a spray of shot on the wall of a building, and you wanted to know how far away the shotgun was when it was fired, what would you do? Well, you’d need to first measure the shot dispersion, and then you’d need to know the dispersion mechanism -- what kind of shell, what kind of gun -- that kind of thing. If you knew the dispersion and the rate of dispersion, you could estimate the distance between the gun and the wall when it fired.

And the “molecular clock” idea is just that. If we measure the dispersion of mitochondrial DNA around the world, and if we knew how fast it disperses, then we could estimate (roughly) how long ago we all shared a common ancestor. So that’s what they did. They measured the dispersion in mitochondrial DNA from 145 people around the world. But the other part of the equation is tricky. How do we know how fast such DNA changes? Well, in 1987, they didn’t, so they used the best guesses from that time. Their results were published far and wide - appearing on the cover of Time and Newsweek. According to those best guesses, that early female ancestor of all humans lived roughly 200,000 years ago -- hardly in keeping with the Genesis account.

But the story doesn’t end there -- just the coverage in the popular press. You see, in 1998, a number of scientists came up with a clever way to actually measure the how quickly mitochondrial DNA changes (they measured the differences over a family of people with a known family tree!) But guess what: they found that the mitochondrial DNA dispersion rate was roughly twenty times faster than the best guesses of 1987. And that means that within the error bars, the early female ancestor of all humans lived around the time that the Bible says that Eve lived. The estimate according to their measurements would have her living about six thousand years ago.

Now please understand that this is no “proof” of anything. There have been hundreds of papers published on the topic since then, many of which have tried to counter this result. It is, however, something to keep in mind if anyone ever tries to deceive you about what science has to say about Adam and Eve. And it is also a good example of just how science journalism works: you see, if a published scientific estimate challenges the Bible, it will be published with trumpets and fanfare. If a published scientific estimate agrees with the Bible, you’ll never hear of it in the news -- you’ll have to go to the scientific journals (the journal Science v.279 - by Ann Gibbons - for this one) to find it.

You see, the real reason that folks will give you a hard time for paying attention to Adam and Eve -- the reason for the mockery and the ridicule -- is not that they have examined the story and found it untrue. Instead, they are scared of the story -- it is too true. At its heart, it pulls back the curtains and reveals the truth about the human condition. You see, to learn about the important aspects of human nature, it won’t help us to study the genome. If won’t help us to study the behavior of monkeys or fish or gorillas. It won’t help us to scan the brain. Since the time it was written down, one of the very best ways to understand human nature has been to read the story of Adam and Eve.

So this morning, let’s learn a bit about humanity from this remarkable story. Let’s start by considering what the text tells us about how things were before the “fall”. This is good for two reasons. First, as an engineer, one of the most important means to understand a problem is to appreciate how things were supposed to work. Second, once we appreciate that the story is worth paying attention to -- once the text demonstrates a deep understanding of human nature -- then we will be more willing to let it teach us the more difficult lesson.

Genesis chapter 1: the first thing we discover from the text of Genesis is that humankind has been created in the image of God.

So God created mankind in his own image,

   in the image of God he created them;

   male and female he created them.

While we might not be able to appreciate all the implications of being made in God’s image, we understand clearly that whatever else it might mean, it certainly means that we are not just another animal. And, of course, the evidence is strongly in favor of this conclusion. We simply need to look around us. Skyscrapers, symphonies, space shuttles, sneakers, skateboards, submarines -- there are no hints that any of the animals care about any of these things. We are not just any other animal, and you should be really, really skeptical of anyone who wants to tell you otherwise.

But that’s not all, in Genesis chapter two, the next thing that we learn about the human condition is that it was Adam’s job to be the gardener in Eden (verse 15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.). And this happened even before sin entered the picture -- when things were still “very good”. We sometimes forget that. You see, work can really and truly be a blessing rather than a curse. In the Old Testament, the Bible says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” In the New Testament, we read, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” Following this advice might not be enough to make you happy, but ignoring this advice might just be a guarantee that you won’t be happy! And once again, the text is in sync with our experience here: I hope each person here has had moments of fulfilment in good work.

The third lesson we encounter from Genesis chapter two is that we have been made for community (verses 18-24). God recognizes that it was not good for man to be alone, and he made a suitable partner for him. Friendship is a gift from God. Relationship is a gift from God. Communication using language is also a gift from God -- to enable those relationships.

So far, so good:

1. we aren’t just animals (obvious from looking around),
2. we’re designed to work (hopefully, we’ve all derived fulfilment from working hard, so that’s confirmed, too), and
3. we’re designed for community and friendship. (no controversy there!)

These three critical aspects of the human condition are called out explicitly in the book of Genesis. In contrast, scientific journals have nothing to say about any of them. So if you think that fulfilment in work and friendship and communication are important to your lives, then you must agree that the story of Adam and Eve is worthy of our attention.

And just in time, too, because when we turn the page to chapter three, we encounter the challenging part of the story. Here, in the first temptation, we discover that we are really, really easy to deceive. We don’t like to hear this truth. We want to pretend that we are wise, and logical, and perceptive and strong. But we aren’t. Someone comes along and tells us a pretty little lie, and we cave in so fast, it’s pathetic. And in this truth, we discover that the source of injustice and the source of inequality and the source of instability is not an external one -- it is not something that we can legislate away -- the problem is inside us.

And so (you know the story) Satan, speaking through a serpent, approaches Eve, and begins -- as he always does -- by trying to undermine her confidence in God’s word: “Did God really say that?” he asks. That should be such a red flag! It is so sad that we so often don’t seem to recognize this question for what it is. As night follows day, this devious question is followed by the temptation to sin. And in this case, this temptation is nothing less than the most primal of all temptations: “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

There it is: Enlightenment & Morality. Becoming like God; knowing good and evil. No surprise that the devil makes his temptation seem so lovely - seem so attractive - seem so desirable. Enlightenment & Morality. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? But built into this so attractive of proposals is a subtle and fatal poison: you see, once we set God’s words aside, we don’t actually know good and evil. Once we disobey God’s instructions, we don’t really know good and evil. Instead, we just convince ourselves that we now know good and evil. And that’s a trap that it is impossible to escape from on our own.

The fact is that this isn’t just a story going back thousands of years. This isn’t just a sin implicating Adam and Eve. No! The genius of this story is that it so accurately describes the state of every man, woman and child on the planet. We actually think that we know better than God when it comes to right and wrong. We set ourselves up as the final judge and arbiter of morality and truth. And the consequences are disastrous!

Before the “fall” -- before Adam’s sin -- it was obvious that the Good was an objective Truth. That is, Good exists above whoever was observing it, and It has priority over any observer. After the “fall”, we instead hear people saying such nonsense as “that may be good for you, but it is not good for me” -- as if the subject (that is, the person doing the observing) has priority over the good, rather than the other way around.  

But let's go back to our text, and take a look at the consequences there. Once again, there are three. Once again, they are called out explicitly in Genesis; and once again they resonate with our experience.

What is the first one? Adam and Eve, having disobeyed God, were ashamed, and hid from Him. (chapter 3:8 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves... and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.) And this is also what we find in the world: everyone naturally wants God to keep out of their business. After all, for those (all of us, now) who pretend to be able to decide what is good and evil, the Judge of all things - the One who truly decides what is actually Good and actually Evil - cramps our style, and makes us really uncomfortable.

Second: whenever anything goes wrong, or feels wrong, it is always someone else’s fault. Adam blamed Eve (3:12). Eve blames the serpent (3:13). And so it goes down through history. But this is simply another echo of the “fall”. After all, if I get to define what’s good and what’s evil, it is only a baby step further to redefine everything that I do as “good” and everything that inconveniences me as “evil”.

Third: both relationships and work are now full of challenges. (v. 16-19) When every man and woman imagines that he or she is the ultimate standard from which good and evil can be judged, what happens when two or more people get together? Unless there is agreement on every detail, there is bound to be conflict -- exactly as we find throughout the world.

The “fall” damages the image of God in every one of us. As we impose our own personal vision of good and evil on our work, we are no longer able to find pure enjoyment and fulfilment in it. Instead, we complain about the conditions or the compensation, and compare ourselves with others. And when we impose our own personal vision of good and evil on our relationships, we are no longer able to find the community we need in them. Instead, we blame the other person for any problems, and pretend that our feelings have priority over the truth.

And so we have seen this morning, the opening chapters of Genesis demonstrate a profound understanding of the human condition. We are by no means just another animal, we’re made for community and to find fulfilment in what we’ve been designed to accomplish. But we’re broken. Each of us, rather than acknowledge God’s right to determine what is good and what is evil, each of us sets ourselves up in that place, pretending to have that right on our own, and in so doing, we break faith with our Creator. We are being unfaithful to the one who deserves our complete allegiance. Our constant desire and habit of judging everything around us is by no means an expression of a pure heart. Instead, whenever we judge those around us, we reveal the consequences of the fall in all of its shame, and taken to their logical conclusion, they result in the complete and catastrophic breakdown of relationships and of society.

In this state of rebellion, we are entirely unable to recover on our own. We continually deceive ourselves as to our ability to judge anything and everything. It is only by the grace of God that we are preserved, giving us the opportunity to finally accept His remedy, His solution to the human condition. Next week, Andy will have the opportunity to describe God’s wise and reasonable plan for our salvation. But as you can well imagine, at least part of the solution to a problem that begins with our breaking faith with God is to come to the place where that faith is renewed.

Not only is that the story of scripture, both Old Testament and the New, but it should also be the story of our lives: when we acknowledge the mess we’ve made of it, and ask God to have mercy on us, throughout the scripture He demonstrated compassion, providing atonement and reconciliation for his failing children. I’m sure that you, like me, will be looking forward to Andy’s sermon next week.

Reasonable Worship

Have you ever been to court? I went to court once. It wasn’t fun. I don’t recommend the experience. But as so many good stories do, this story started at camp, not Frontier Lodge, but a camp named Bayside outside of Halifax. Unfortunately, it began with a small tragedy: one of the young campers had fallen out of her bunk and broken her arm. Some counsellors were assigned to drive her into town and take her to the hospital. But since the only available cars were counsellor-cars, we thought it wise to send along a second car ... just in case the first one broke down. And, sure enough: one of the cars didn’t quite make it to the hospital -- but it was the second car -- the one that I was driving. It was a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle, and the throttle cable had broken. As you likely remember, older Volkswagens had their engines in the rear, and the cable was a long one connecting the gas pedal at the front to the throttle in the rear. It broke when we were only a half-block from the gas-station on the outside of Halifax. My co-pilot, Chris, wondered if we should try to push the car, but I had a better idea: with those old Volkswagens, with the rear hood up, you could sit across the rear bumper, slip your arm under a big steel brace, and govern the throttle with your finger. I convinced Chris that we could make it to the gas station that way. And so we did. But the gas station attendant was not at all pleased to see us, and was quite vocal about his displeasure, so we looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to drive the further roughly eight blocks to the hospital. Well, we didn’t make it. We were close - we could see where the first car was parked. But our progress was impeded by the convergence of six police cars on our position. Halifax clearly was having a light crime day... Anyway, the patrolman found an obscure infraction to give me since it was much less expensive than, say, not wearing a seatbelt. But my friends felt (with some justification) that the ticket should be contested, and they agreed to support me in court. What were we thinking? Anyway, we went. And when it was our turn, the judge might as well have been speaking Swahili -- and yet she was clearly quite insistent upon receiving an answer. But... I didn’t speak Swahili. If only I could determine what she found to be an acceptable answer. I think I answered “no”, and her gavel came down hard as she loudly pronounced… a date. October 20, I believe it was. “Next!” someone bellowed, and we walked away, entirely bewildered. And we walked into an office-looking room and sheepishly asked for an explanation. The clerk there was very kind, and she explained that October 20 would be the date of my hearing. Oh dear -- I was going to be in Ontario starting in September, and returning for a court date was going to be many times more costly than the original ticket. The clerk recommended that I simply pay the fee, and explained the procedure to me. I have no idea what we would have done without that clerk. But in case you ever wondered, this is one of the things that lawyers (or legal clerks) are good for. It was too bad that camp counsellors couldn’t afford lawyers. I was clearly way over my head in that court. The judge was absolute ruler there, and I didn't understand what was going on. But that kind clerk explained things in words I could understand, and gave me sound legal advice -- for free. Well that’s exactly what Paul is doing for us in our text this morning (Romans 11:33-12:2). Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Here, Paul is inviting us to take a peek into the courtroom (perhaps even the throne-room) of God -- the righteous judge, who will judge the world with justice, who is able to save and to destroy, who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart and will reveal even our most closely-guarded secrets -- to get a glimpse of His Majesty, and to humble ourselves before his power and wisdom. Paul cites two Old Testament passages here, and they share a common theme: simply stated -- God is God and I am not. When a Pharisee like Paul made such a citation, he would expect at least some familiarity with the full text that he is referencing. In Isaiah 40, we read: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. Similarly, in Job, a passage that Peter drew our attention to two weeks ago, we find that the “most righteous man on Earth” -- that is, Job himself -- responds with these words: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…. I [now] despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Yes: humility is appropriate in the throne-room of the Almighty. By making reference to these two Old Testament passages, Paul is simply setting the stage! And it is a little like my experience in the courtroom: I could not possibly fathom what I was being told by the judge. My bad, of course. Hundreds of years of legal proceedings meant that her way of doing things and the words that she chose were right and good, and if I couldn’t follow, that was my problem. But we are in the same situation with God, only more so. He is God, and we are not. And we, by virtue of our very existence, find ourselves in his domain, under his rules, and subject to his decisions. We might not like it -- but that doesn’t change a thing. So how do we respond? What is the sensible response? What is the most reasonable course of action under our circumstances? When I found myself in that courtroom there was a kindly legal clerk, who made the most sensible legal recommendation under my circumstances. In exactly the same way, Paul is helping us -- and he gives us sound legal advice for navigating the rules in force in the domain of Almighty God.(Chapter 12:1): He begins: I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God,
And that word translated “beseech” is elsewhere translated “urge” or “counsel” or “beg”, and it literally means “advocate” -- really: it is a legal term recommending the sensible course of action. “I advocate therefore” he says -- and that word “therefore” simply points to what has come before -- to the fact that God’s judgments are unsearchable and his ways inscrutable! And from him and through him and to him are all things. In an environment that is completely beyond our control or understanding, we would do well to pay close attention to that recommendation. But notice the beautiful addition to the stage that has already been set: Paul adds God’s great mercies to the already referenced majesty and perfection of God. If God’s only attributes were his holiness and justice, surely we would be crushed under the weight of it. On the other hand, if God’s only attributes were his love and mercy, there would no need to do anything at all. But put them together, and how do we respond? What is the recommendation? I appeal to you therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. That word translated “reasonable” -- in Greek, it is “logikos” from which we get our word “logical”, of course. (some modern translations actually translate the word “logikos” as “spiritual”, which is a little strange, but it would take too long to explain -- for now, let’s allow that “logikos” should be translated “logically”). So Paul is simply saying “in view of the circumstances that you find yourselves in (on the one hand the greatness of God, and on the other hand, His great mercy) let me tell you what is your most sensible course of action: to present your bodies as living sacrifices. This is “reasonable worship”. This is “logical worship”. Paul is saying that if we really knew how the universe runs, if we really understood how everything works together, if we had any idea of how great and awesome and loving and kind Almighty God is, then we would not even so much as hesitate: we would immediately put our lives on the line for him. And note that Paul doesn’t say that it is appropriate to sacrifice our goods, or to sacrifice our money, or to sacrifice our time. When we sacrifice our bodies, we are explicitly offering them to go places and do things that we just wouldn’t do otherwise. “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”. I wonder what kind of impact it would have on our community if every member of Bethel were to wake up every morning with this sacrificial attitude. Please also note that the scriptural understanding of sacrifice is somewhat different from our modern understanding. The idea of "sacrifice" in the Bible is closer to the idea of "sacrifice" in the game of chess. In chess, if you lose a piece and it results in a better position, that's called a "sacrifice". On the other hand, if you lose a piece and it result in a worse position, that's called a... "mistake". After all, Abraham presented Isaac to God on the altar of sacrifice, but God provided a substitute, and gave Isaac back to his father. Similarly, the landmark sacrifice in the history of Israel was the passover lamb. And while the lamb itself was sacrificed, the family was told to eat it in its entirety -- to make a feast and a celebration of it, and to share that feast with their neighbors. Finally, the noteworthy sacrifice of Jesus is the path to victory. Jesus scorned the cross and its shame for the joy set before him. So when Paul advocates that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, it by no means contradicts the abundant life that Jesus gives us. And while Paul is at it, he reminds us of the rules for sacrifices in the Old Testament -- it was considered a grave sin to bring a second-rate or defective animal to the Temple for sacrifices -- so we need to work toward a sacrifice of our bodies that is holy, and wholly acceptable to God. But how, you might ask, can we possibly achieve that? Paul gives us a good answer to this good question in the following verse. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." As we consider the presenting of our bodies as a living sacrifice, Paul gives us its parameters. First we see the conflict: the world is continually seeking to make you operate according to its rules. Don’t buy in. The world is continually expecting you to dance to its tune. Don’t play along. The world is continually attempting to influence you according to its values. Don’t give in to its coercion. Instead, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Or, in other words, change the way that you think. Of course, that’s another way to say “repent”, isn’t it. Because, after all, repentance should be like breathing to a Christian. As Rosaria Butterfield writes: “Repentance is not just a conversion exercise. It is the posture of the Christian. . . . Repentance is the threshold to God.” Don’t imagine repentance is just something that you do to become a Christian. On the contrary. If it were, the word “repent” would not appear seven times in the messages to the seven churches in Revelation. If it were, Paul would not tell us in Colossians 2:6 to continue in Christ just as we have received him. Instead, we received Christ with the attitude of repentance, and it is the same attitude of repentance that is required to keep our minds renewed in him. To illustrate the principle of mind-renewal, here's a little puzzle...[on power-point] suppose you have a birthday cake and a really long knife. If you make one full cut through the cake, you end up with two pieces, of course. But what if you make two full cuts through the cake? Well, if the two cuts don't cross, you get three pieces, and if the two cuts do cross, then you get four. But what about three cuts? (This is where it gets interesting). Of course, three parallel-ish cuts will yield four pieces. If only two of the three cuts cross each other, you get five pieces. If one cut crosses both of two non-crossing cuts (or if three cuts all meet in the middle), you get six pieces. If all three cuts cross the other two, you get seven pieces. But what about eight or nine? Any idea how you can get eight pieces. Let me show you: you need to cut across the third dimension -- cutting each of the four pieces in half vertically. Now, I'll confess: I constructed this problem in such a way as to make it really difficult to get the right answer -- I really wasn’t being fair. I showed you the birthday cake from the top -- so that there was no hint that I was even allowing you to think about that third dimension. But this is exactly what the world does all the time. Whenever there is any issue that is a challenge to the church, the world - that is, far too much of our news and our entertainment and our education -- "frames" those issues in such a way that the answer that they want to reach is the only answer that seems available. To mix metaphors, the world wants you to look at everything through its “special” set of glasses. The teachers of the law did the same thing to Jesus in the gospels. In a crowd of hot-blooded patriotic Jewish men, they craftily came to Jesus hoping to trap him: Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marvelled. And they left him and went away. Do you see Jesus’ remarkable wisdom here? The Pharisees see no way out for him. As far as they are concerned it is a yes or no question - that's how they "framed" it. If he says "yes (that is, we should pay tax to Caesar)", they know that he will lose the respect of the crowd. But if he says "no (that is, we should not pay tax to Caesar)", then they can turn him over to the authorities. But Jesus doesn't fall for it. Instead, he sees beyond their frame. He isn't limited by their frame. God's perspective is always bigger - his ways are higher than our ways - oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and give to God the things that are God's. One of the wisest and cleverest answers to any question in history. And if we want to renew our minds, if we want to be transformed, there is no better advice that I could give you than "pay attention to Jesus". And the amazing dynamic of it is this: the more you fix your eyes on Jesus, the more your life will be transformed, and the more your mind is renewed, the more you will want to pay attention to Jesus. You see, Jesus doesn't just have witty comebacks for those wanting to trap him. He also breaks free from the frame when he wants to help people. Do you remember the woman at the well? One of her great concerns was that her people, the Samaritans, had taught her that the right place to worship God was on Mount Gerazim. But she knew that the Jews taught that the right place to worship God was at Jerusalem. As far as she was concerned, there was no way out of this conflict, and she brings the question before Jesus: (she says)
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

But Jesus isn't constrained by her inability to see beyond those two mountains -- listen to his response: Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father... true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him..." When we can break free of the thought-constraining frame of the world -- the one they construct to distract us from the truth, when we allow our minds to be renewed so that our thinking is transformed, then we will see our Lord and Saviour for who he is - with all of the depths of his riches and wisdom. That is what it was able to do for that Samaritan woman. Her next words to Jesus are now focused on the real issue: (she says)

“I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” And Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” And it is this same dynamic that represents our “logical worship”. It is only by fixing our eyes on Jesus that we can continue to transform our minds. In this way, we will be able to stand against that most effective tactic of the enemy -- to constrain our thinking -- usually by deceptive means. Such deception takes its toll in churches throughout the world. Some Christians are tempted to proclaim a message of rules and regulations. Sure, it might provide great guidance for exactly how to live, but this is no gospel at all; it is legislation, and it is really just legalism in disguise. Other Christians -are tempted to proclaim a message of acceptance.. Sure, it might contain the truth that God loves us exactly as we are, but this is no gospel at all; it is affirmation, and it is really just license in disguise. As far as the world is concerned, there is no third option. The world cannot see beyond the interval between legislation and affirmation. But God opens up that new dimension -- and provides salvation by way of... transformation. For we did not receive an affirmative gospel; And we did not receive a legislative gospel; Rather, we received a transformative gospel. This is the transformation that we receive in Jesus -- this is the new creation that marks those who are found in Christ. Because there is no salvation in affirmation. And there is no salvation in legislation. There is only salvation in transformation. I’ve already quoted Dr. Butterfield, but I’d like to do it again. She writes: “The internal mission of the Bible is to transform the nature of humanity.” As we escape from the confines of the world’s thinking, as our minds are transformed by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, then we can truly bring our bodies to God as an act of true worship. And then and only then will we be able to understand the good, acceptable perfect will of God in our lives. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe - Hebrews 12:28-29

Resurrection of the Body & Life Everlasting

Here we are at the end of a series of sermons on the Apostle’s Creed. Three months ago, we were considering “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” And today, I have the privilege of closing it off. This morning, we will be looking at “The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Wow. What a promise! What a blessing. John’s vision of that promise is worthy of a reminder:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold! I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:3-5

What a glorious hope! ...but now that I’ve already given away the punchline, I’m going to ask us to slow way down so we can appreciate this final episode of the Apostle’s Creed better. And to do so, I’d like to encourage us to change our way of thinking just a bit. After all, there are so many influences in our lives trying to get us off track and to divert us from the truth of the gospel. So before we get deeply into “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting”, I’d like to warn you of two such influences in all of our lives that would, if they could, have us misunderstand this important teaching.

The first of these is the curious situation that we find ourselves in in the early stages of the twenty-first century. And I’d like to give some credit to Norm for bringing my attention to this very peculiar aspect of our society. It would seem that our society is all about “protection”. And this transition toward being all about “protection” has happened in quite a short space of historical time. When my parents were growing up, there were no safety ropes or fences on the mountains that they climbed. Now - those same mountains are considerably sanitized - with protection for any loss of footing. When my parents were growing up, there was no “social safety net” either - if you got sick or you lost your job, it was up to you to get better and find a new one. Today, we have all kinds of social programs in place for our protection. If you get sick, the government looks after your medical bills. If you lose your job, the government will look after (at least some of) your income (at least for a while).

Now, of course I’m not devaluing those protective measures -- they make our societies considerably more civilized. But it is useful to keep in mind just how recent they are in history, and how much they can affect the way we look at the world. You see, we’ve grown so accustomed to being protected from anything and everything that we start to assume that “there must be something in place to protect me from…[whatever!]”, and in this artificial little protected bubble we are tempted to take that assumption to its logical conclusion -- that “there must be something in place to protect me from... death!”

But if that’s our attitude (and it is too easy to pick up some of this attitude in our culture), then we really won’t appreciate what it means for God to offer us “the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting”. Because this is not an entitlement. We don’t deserve a resurrection. We don’t earn life everlasting. In fact, when the Bible talks about what we have coming to us, the situation is quite different. “The wages of sin is death.” we are told, “But the gift of God is eternal life.” It is a gift from God. And if we aren’t responding to it as a gift, then we need to understand it better.

Our society’s continued expectation of “protection” puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding the gift of eternal life - but that isn’t the only disadvantage that we bring to understanding the ending of the Apostle’s Creed.

You see, the Apostle’s Creed doesn’t just summarize the gospel message. It tells a story. And of course that’s how it should be: after all, the Bible is full of stories, and the gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) understood that the gospel is best presented as a story. But that isn’t the source of our disadvantage. There is no problem in the fact that the Apostle’s Creed is a story. From our earliest ages, we’ve been exposed to stories, and we love stories.

At Awana, every year we try to tap some of you to come out and speak to the children. Most of you know how it goes and come prepared, but every so often someone will ask me “what works for 8-12-yr-olds?” -- and my answer is always the same: tell a story. Human beings love stories. Human beings have always loved stories. But the conventions of storytelling have changed a lot over the last three thousand years or so… and that is the source of our disadvantage.

You see, the first stories that children are exposed to in the twenty-first century usually end with “...and they lived happily ever after”. And if we hear that phrase enough, it leads us to believe that “living happily ever after” is the goal -- the purpose of life. But it isn’t. And we regularly watch television, which, according to formula, is all about the protagonist achieving some goal within 22 minutes. That goal is almost always achieved or revealed at the end of the episode, once again reinforcing the idea that what comes later is always more important. But it isn’t. In fact, the modern model of storytelling (or “narrative arc”) is all pointing toward the end -- as in the illustration.

You see, we are not just conditioned to think that we will be protected from anything inconvenient or troublesome; we are also conditioned to think that every story is all gearing up to what comes at the end. Unfortunately, being brought up that way makes us imagine that the end of the Apostle’s Creed is really the whole focus and purpose and climax and goal of it, too. But it isn’t.

The way that stories are told in the Bible is very different. And it is instructive to consider that difference as we reach the conclusion of the Apostle’s Creed. In 1863, Freytag published his “pyramid” model based on ancient storytelling. Here we see it illustrated -- very different from our modern story structure. But if we look at the stories the Old Testament, whether Abraham, or Jacob, or Joseph, or David we can detect this kind of mirror-image structure in them. Think about how much of the story of David occurs after he becomes king. Think about how much of the story of Joseph occurs after he becomes second-in-command under Pharaoh.

But why am I telling you this? What’s the point of a little literary theory on a Sunday morning? Well, thinking that the end of a story is the most important part might match our modern sensibilities, but is simply not appropriate when it comes to God’s stories. And it is simply not appropriate when it comes to the Apostle’s Creed.

For example, this is not the way to imagine the Apostle’s Creed. (power-point: one layer on top of the next)

Rather, we should think of it more like this.

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: [inside 2]

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: [inside 2]

5. He descended into hell: The third day he rose again from the dead: [inside 2]

6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: [inside 2]

7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead: [inside 2]

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost: [emanating from 2]

9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints: [emanating from 2]

10. The forgiveness of sins: [emanating from 2]

11. The resurrection of the body: And the life everlasting. Amen. [emanating from 2]

As the Bible says in Ephesians 4, after he ascended, he gave gifts to his people. And these yellow triangles [emanations] are those gifts, aren’t they?

You see, if the first picture were true, we could be tempted to think that it was all about us - that history is just one elaborate plan to achieve our eternal salvation. It really isn’t. Instead, the story is HIS story (that’s what "his-tory" is, after all), and the focus needs to be on HIM. But this isn’t just a potential problem with “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”. In fact, it is a potential problem with any one of the wonderful consequences of a life committed to following Jesus.

The strong hope of eternal life is not the only sure consequence of a life committed to following Jesus. Once we make that commitment, we can also expect to have our lives changed in significant and positive ways. A commitment to Christ will make you more aligned with reality: it will help you toward “right thinking” (or “good theology”). A commitment to Christ will make you more in tune with his values: it will help you toward “right behavior” (or “good morality”). A commitment to Christ will make you more aligned with his heart toward others: it will help you toward “right relationships”.

Indeed, so many sermons have been preached encouraging God’s children to improve on their thinking or on their behavior or on their relationships. Of course these are good and appropriate things to consider. All of these good gifts, like eternal life, come from God and need to be celebrated and nurtured. But I’d like to suggest this morning that it is a mistake to focus on them to the neglect of their true source. If we “lose connection with our head” (as it says in Colossians) -- if we disconnect these gifts from their ultimate source, it will be a disaster… if not for us, for our children.

You see, our children are really quite perceptive. If being right is more important to our Christian experience than our relationship with God, then it doesn’t take long before “looking right” takes the place of “being right” occasionally -- and our children will pick up on that right away. And if being good is more important to our Christian experience than our relationship with God, then it doesn’t take long before “looking good” takes the place of “being good” occasionally -- and they’ll be sure to pick up on that, too.

After a very short period of that kind of thing, what do you get? Well, If you ask people on the street, they will tell you that “Oh that church on the corner? They teach the same thing as every other religion: they just want us all to be good.” Ouch. That is not what the Bible teaches. And I hope that that is not what we teach. But how does that happen? How do people get such a distorted impression of our message? Well, it happens when we focus on the effect at the expense of the cause. It happens when we, as a church, forget the source of right thinking, the source of right behavior, the source of right relationships, and start to focus on that thinking, or on that behavior or on those relationships without their crucial grounding. If a church “loses connection with [its] head” -- then like a chicken that has lost its head, it can only keep going for so long.

So as we finally (finally!) consider “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” -- let’s keep firmly in mind that the Bible tells us that “[Jesus is the] source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Hebrews 5:9) and Jesus own words confirm: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Not only that, but the Bible tells us that “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5) You see, not only is Jesus the source of the gift of eternal life, Jesus also provides the path to eternal life. And he doesn’t just tell us about that path, expecting us to go it alone. No. He blazes the trail for us himself. Going to the cross, scorning its shame, his sacrificial death breaks the power of sin and death forever. And his resurrection from the dead proves it. And it also proves that this resurrection is also available to each and every one of us.

But “resurrection of the body” and “life everlasting” are really two very different things, aren’t they? You see, when the Bible talks about resurrection, it can have two meanings -- but “eternal life” can only mean one thing. As far as the resurrection goes, first, there is a “general resurrection”. Jesus tells us that “a time is coming when all [!] who are in their graves will hear [my] voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28, 29) Both the good and the bad are described as “rising”.

And it is interesting, of course, to appreciate that Jesus teaches that who is considered good and who is considered bad will almost certainly involve some surprises. As Jesus says elsewhere: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:22,23)

When Jesus tells his followers that performing miracles and exercising the power to drive out demons and speaking for God (yes: that’s me talking to me) aren’t in themselves grounds for entrance into his kingdom, he wants us to pay close attention to his entrance criteria -- if “I never knew you” is grounds to be kept out of the kingdom, the only grounds for entrance would certainly be knowing him: after all, he is the King of that resurrection kingdom, and only he gets to decide who gets to celebrate with him.

The ability to perform miracles, the ability to secure loving relationships or to establish sound doctrine, or the ability to be kind and generous -- all these are gifts from God. Gifts to be cherished and protected, for sure… but let’s listen carefully to Paul’s attitude on the topic -- this is what he writes in Philippians: “...whatever I considered of value I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11)

And when we come to the topic of the resurrection from the dead, this should be our attitude, too. Because when the Bible talks about the resurrection, it sometimes refers to a “general” resurrection, sure (with that judgment to follow) -- but more often (as in the passage we just read), it refers to a “special” resurrection: a resurrection following in the footsteps of Jesus. But notice, once again, that Paul recognizes that a critical and necessary step to experience this resurrection of the dead is to “become like [Jesus] in his death”.

These last three weeks, I’ve come to appreciate what is in store for us at the resurrection in a new and special way. You see, I’ve had a terrible cough and fever that just never seemed to go away. The cough got so bad that one day I actually needed to hold my head when I coughed. It was rattling my brain, and my back and my throat were sore from all the coughing. I’m really very glad to have been able to recover enough to be here this morning. Being sick, though, was a powerful reminder of just how perishable our old bodies are. And for anyone who can’t quite relate yet, be warned - it’s just a matter of time. But the perishable contains a promise in it. As we read:

The body that is sown [that is, the one that will eventually be planted in the ground in burial] is perishable, [but] it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, [but] it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, [but] it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, [but] it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)

That old body breaking down, losing its hair, losing the color in the rest of its hair, losing its eyesight, losing its hearing, losing far too many other things to catalog in the time we have, it is going to be replaced. “Behold, I am making everything new!” Hallelujah! No more shame. We will be raised to glory. No more weakness. We will be raised in power.

But reflecting on the promise of the imperishable isn’t the only reminder I had from being sick. You see, whenever I wasn’t coughing, whenever I could take a deep breath, I always felt “what a blessing it is to be alive!” I was exhausted because the coughing kept me awake. I usually rest with a heart-rate of sixty, but my heartrate was only going down to eighty after lying awake for an hour. I was shivering with aches because of the fever. But “oh my! what a blessing it is to be alive!” And if it is a blessing to be alive when one’s body feels like it is falling apart, just imagine the blessing of not just an eternal, but an eternally abundant life. After all, Jesus promises both eternal life and abundant life to those who follow him.

So when the Bible talks about everlasting life, there is no worry about being bored. When the Bible talks about eternal life, there is no risk of it becoming tedious. God is more than capable of providing abundant enjoyment to go along with life’s abundant duration.

But that brings us to the special meaning that the Bible reserves whenever it mentions eternal or everlasting life: that is, it is ever only for God’s chosen children. This fact might offend some people. But this eternal life is available to them, too. If anyone feels that being excluded is unjust, they need only to follow Jesus themselves.

You see, eternal life doesn’t rest on some argument for the immorality of the human soul. All those come from Greek philosophers, not the gospel. Our souls got started at some point. That start was a gift from God, and if we rebel against God’s gracious plan, He has every right, and more than enough power to take it away if he so chooses.

But God promises eternal life to those who take the time to get to know his Son. When we, as a church, the body of Christ, stay connected to our head, Christ himself -- then we will be healthy. Then we will know all the gifts - good theology, good morality, good relationships, and life everlasting.

But that connection isn’t always an easy business: we must be prepared to participate in His suffering -- to take up our cross daily -- and then, and only then, will we also participate in his resurrection, a resurrection to share life and glory with Jesus forever. Hallelujah!