Hebrews 1: Forward Movement

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 01/23/2011

3 part series on Hebrews, Chapter 1…

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

⁵For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son;

today I have become your Father”?

Or again,

“I will be his Father,

and he will be my Son”?

⁶And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”

⁷In speaking of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels spirits,

and his servants flames of fire.”

⁸But about the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;

a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

⁹You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

¹⁰He also says,

“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

¹¹They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

¹²You will roll them up like a robe;

like a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

and your years will never end.”

¹³To which of the angels did God ever say,

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet”?

¹⁴Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 1v1-14

The forward movement of God’s activity in the world is an important theme in the book of Hebrews. It’s a movement toward deeper relationship and higher risk. A movement from the more comfortable and less powerful to the life-soaked dangerous and trans-formatively potent. It’s a movement towards more love and more power. It’s a movement from the angels to Jesus.

[Prayer class illustration… Cathy & Jon + Sarah illustration… compassion ministry illustration…]

Some background on the book of Hebrews will help give us some context to begin our exploration of this theme.

Unknown author (Maybe Apollos? Maybe Priscilla?) to an unknown audience. Clues that it is written shortly before Rome destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, during a time the early church would have been facing some serious difficulties. Clearly written to Jewish followers of the way of Jesus, who were under severe pressure to give up their Christian distinctives and return to Judaism. Some of that pressure came because Christianity was an outlawed sect in the Roman empire, and subject to persecution (Hebrews 10 describes them being put in prison and having property confiscated). Some of that pressure came from their fellow Jews who saw faith in Jesus as a threat to their historically Jewish faith, especially with the influx of non-Jewish people into the family of God through the influential ministry of Paul.

The people to whom this letter was written were having to decide whether it was worth it to continue following Jesus, wherever he might take them, or return to the more comfortable life they had known prior to hearing the good news. That’s why there is all this talk about the angels – in traditional Jewish thought at the time, the angels (messengers) were the ones who had given the law to Israel. So it was a choice between embracing the implications of the good news of the Kingdom of God given by Jesus on the one hand, and more traditional faithfulness to God’s old covenant with the Hebrew people established on Mount Sinai with the ten commandments and all the rest.

The particulars of this challenge are foreign to most of us today, what with the religious freedoms we enjoy in the West. But the message of Hebrews lands at home with us nonetheless. Every one of us faces the question of whether or not to find a more comfortable and safe way to live our lives in this world, or whether to press on in following Jesus into the dangerous waters of his Kingdom of God mission.

Maybe for you there are pretty direct parallels with the Hebrews to whom this letter is addressed. Perhaps you grew up in a home and a family that perceives the way you are following Jesus as a threat to their way of life, and so you experience social pressure from them to “come back” to the kind of life they have. Maybe that’s a religious expression that’s more cultural than heart driven, like a civic faith, or some forms of traditional Catholicism, for example… Maybe your family background is Jewish, or Jehovah Witness, or Mormon, or Islam, or Hindu, or Buddhist… Maybe your family was irreligious or agnostic or atheist…

Maybe for you, right now, the parallels are less direct but just as strong. Does being involved with God in this world mean for you living the best, most comfortable life you can without hurting yourself or others? Or does it mean moving forward into whatever terrifying adventures God might be calling you into with his Son Jesus, in the anticipation that he might use you to change the world, whatever the cost? Are you going to stay where you are and be safe, trusting that the chaos won’t intrude? Or are you going to plunge into the chaos with Jesus, trusting that he has the power and authority to bring joyful order to it all with your cooperation?

So the author of Hebrews is painting this picture of a God who is moving forward, and making the argument that all the life God has for us comes from pressing forward with him. The argument that moving backwards is a lesser life, with less power, and in fact is more dangerous than moving forward, because if we stay still, we’re left to engage the enemy alone, but if we join with God, we’ll be right in the thick of his victory march.

What is the forward movement of God? We get a sense from the main thrust of Hebrews 1. The angels to Jesus. The messengers of God’s word to the word of God himself. Flames of fire (nice.) to the radiance of God’s glory (c’mon!).

This is a movement towards deeper, more direct relationship. God speaks out of the heavens, sends signs and burning bushes, sends angels and prophets, puts his law on tablets, and then he comes in person. We aren’t receiving just his communication anymore, we are receiving (or rejecting) him. We aren’t trusting just his commands anymore, we are trusting him. Not just, “obey my commands” but “follow me.” We aren’t loving just his law anymore, we are loving him. He is not just dwelling in a tabernacle or a temple or an ark in our city anymore, he is making his dwelling place in us through the spirit of his son Jesus. It doesn’t get much deeper or more direct than that, does it?

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 17:26

With this movement towards deeper, more direct relationship comes a movement towards higher risk. The first risks were at the level of risking being frustrated at being ignored, misunderstood, or disobeyed. (Dr. Phil level risks: “And how’s that working out for you?”) And then, when he attached his name and reputation to a tribe of people through making a covenant with them, the risks ratcheted up. They might abuse his name and reputation, making it harder for the world to know who he was. Now he was on the hook for defending them and correcting them and cleaning up their messes. (This is why parents get so upset when their kids disregard them…) But in coming among us personally in his son Jesus, the risks skyrocketed. It’s not just a prophet that might be rejected now, it’s God’s own son. It’s not just a prophet that might be sent out of the city, it’s God himself. It’s not just a prophet that might be killed, it’s the beloved only begotten son. The potential for pain and hurt and suffering on God’s part has just gone up exponentially, hasn’t it? And if this attempt to set things right goes wrong, there’s no plan b. Everything is riding on Jesus. And Jesus himself takes it one step further, letting everything he’s done now ride on his church. [John 20: If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."] That’s true risk. Some might even say reckless. As a mentor of mine said in a blog post recently, Risk is not a game by Hasbro. All true risk starts with the risks God takes. He is, after all, the God who built free will into the universe.

Why the movement toward deeper, more direct relationship? Why the movement toward greater risk? Because that is the way that leads to life.

There are two sure roads to death.

One is the road to insulation by isolation. Insulate yourself from others and the life will drain out of you like heat from your fingertips on a cold winter’s day. Your fingers were made for mittens, not gloves. You were made for the kind of insulation that love provides, and you can only know that kind of warmth through vulnerability.

The other is the road to security by playing it safe. Pursue security by playing it safe and you will be like a greyhound chasing a wooden rabbit around a race track. There’s a lot of running and huffing and puffing, but rabbit is not on the menu for dinner. You were made for the kind of security only love can bring, and that kind of security only comes from risking everything on love.

The road to life is the road of vulnerable relationship and betting-the-farm risk on that relationship. Because that’s the way of reckless love. And all true life and power comes from love. And all love comes from God.

Think about loving someone. There is a direct relationship between how deeply and directly you connect with them and how much potential the relationship has to give you life. And there is a similarly direct relationship between the amount of risk you take in the relationship and the transformative power that relationship has in your life. [examples…]

This is the invitation of Hebrews 1 – and indeed the whole letter to the Hebrews: Move forward with God. Risk everything on relationship with Jesus. God risked everything – his only son Jesus included - on relationship with you. Even if what you’re risking is the comfortable life of faith you’ve had so far, there is more in Jesus. There is deeper, more direct, more personal relationship with God available. He has more of himself to show you, to share with you. There is more adventure to be had with him than you’ve had so far. He has more for you to do. And more of his power available for you to do it. It may be scary. You may get hurt along the way. But life lies this way, and this way alone. Power for transformation of yourself and this world lies this way, and this way alone.

God is moving forward in reckless love for the sake of saving his creation. May we say no to the insulation of our comfortable life and the false security of riskless living and join him in that reckless love.

Practical Tips:

1. Do the Funky Franklin. Then set it on fire. Do the Modified Ben Franklin Boredom/Not-Boredom Exercise. Take a piece of paper and write in the middle of the page “Boredom” on the left and “Not Boredom” on the right. Draw a line between them, making two columns. In the left column, above the word boredom, write down the pros of boredom for you. Below the word boredom, write down the cons. Above the word Not-Boredom, write down the pros, and underneath, the cons. [give example…] Compare the cons. Circle the cons you’d rather take a chance on. Consider the pros. Circle the pros you’d rather pursue.

(Note on picture: I reversed the pros and cons on my example on the “Not Boredom” side.)

If you end up circling the non-boredom side twice, tear off the boredom side, crumple it a little, and burn it as way of saying to God, “I’m all in.” Use the non-boredom side as a bookmark for your bible.

2. Make an Anti-Boredom Vow. Make a settled decision to never leave a church because you’re bored. [We have only ourselves to blame for boredom…] Sometimes we complain that we “aren’t being fed.” Jesus said he had food his disciples knew nothing about. His food was to do his Father’s will. It’s not insignificant that Jesus said this after taking a major risk in relationship with a Samaritan woman. Our nourishment comes from taking risks in love. You’ll never be bored doing that. (by the way, I’m sure there are good reasons to leave a church, but I know being bored isn’t one of them. You’ll just go be bored somewhere else if you’re looking for food that’s different than Jesus’ food.)

3. Email Jesus for a week. Start a two-way conversation with Jesus at the start of every day for a week. Jesus, get my attention if there is anything you want me to do for or with you today or anytime down the road. See what happens. See how he moves you forward. See how it feels. Expand it to asking him for his opinion on challenges you’re facing, or decisions you have to make. Jesus, get my attention if there is anything you’d suggest, or a decision you’d recommend for me. Jesus is someone you can have a real relationship with, unlike the angels. (email jesus (at) jessewilsononline (dot) com).

Hebrews 1: The Medium is the Message

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 01/16/2011

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

⁵For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son;

today I have become your Father”?

Or again,

“I will be his Father,

and he will be my Son”?

⁶And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”

⁷In speaking of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels spirits,

and his servants flames of fire.”

⁸But about the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;

a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

⁹You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

¹⁰He also says,

“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

¹¹They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

¹²You will roll them up like a robe;

like a garment they will be changed.

But you remain the same,

and your years will never end.”

¹³To which of the angels did God ever say,

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet”?

¹⁴Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 1v1-14

God wants to communicate with us. This is one of the fundamental witnesses of the scriptures. It is not that God is up there, and we are down here, and he just sets everything in motion and lets it all spin to see what happens. It’s that God is interested in a relationship with us. A relationship with communication at its very center. He wants to communicate to us who he is and how he feels about us and what he desires for us. And he wants us to communicate with him, and to know that he hears us, and is responsive to our communication. Because it is through communication that communion happens. And it is through communication that love is expressed, and it is in communion that love is experienced.

Hebrews reflects on this idea of God’s desire to communicate right from the beginning. “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets in many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…”

Let’s think about some of those many times and many ways. At the beginning, of course, it’s face to face. When all was well between us and God, the scriptures describe God and Adam as walking together and talking, like you and I might today. But when the relationship breaks down, the medium of communication changes. The very word “prophet” indicates something of this new medium. It’s a compound of the Greek words for “above” and “say”. Words from above. Like Noah, hearing about building an ark. Seems to be a voice, not connected to a body. Then a rainbow. Three strangers show up to communicate with Abraham one time. A burning bush for Moses. Stone tablets with the ten commandments on them. Many times, in various ways.

The media God uses to communicate with us are carefully chosen by God. Because the medium is the message. Even moreso sometimes than the message is the message.

That expression, “the medium is the message,” comes from Marshall McLuhan, an obscure literary professor who studied and wrote about media and communication in the 1960s. To understand what’s going on in Hebrews 1, it’s worth trying to understand McLuhan’s idea that the medium is the message.

A medium is just the tool we use to communicate. There are a nearly infinite variety of media. A newspaper or a book would be a medium. Television would be a medium. An mp3 audio recording. Radio. The internet. Spoken words. A letter. A telephone. A billboard. Body language. Text message. Tattoos. And on and on.

The medium is the message says that the medium that is chosen to communicate the message embeds itself in the message, shaping the message itself, influencing how the message is perceived. It says that the medium itself communicates something – something that may reinforce the content of the message, or undermine the content of the message, or even be completely unrelated to the content of the message. [flickering light ad…Shane Hipps story of satellite church…] And that sometimes, the medium through which the message is expressed may be even more powerful than the content of the message.

Some examples would probably be helpful.

For instance, a keep out sign in needlepoint vs. two axe heads with keep and out written in blood… The medium is the message.

For instance, a lengthy email received recently saying how important it was that we talk about an issue personally, but that the sender might not be available until next Wednesday. The content of the message was that this was something important to work out. But the medium suggested that this was something the sender wanted to offload and feel better having done so. The medium is the message.

Or, for instance, your dad told you that it was important to hold women in high respect, but you saw him abuse your mother regularly, and objectify beautiful women by whistling at them and making catcalls whenever you were out and about with him. Or, on the other hand, your dad hardly said a word about how to treat women, but you saw him honor your mom regularly with his words and actions, and the one time you said something disrespectful to your mom was the only time you ever heard him raise his voice to you in your life? The medium is the message.

To further the point of how powerful media is, historically speaking, consider how the predominant media of a culture shapes the culture and the brains of the people in the culture even more powerfully than any particular thing that is said through the predominant media of the day.

When the unamplified and untransmitted human voice was the predominant media, sharing information required that we gather in extended family and tribal groups regularly to share what we knew and remembered and discovered and thought. Memory itself required community, and our brains’ capacity for remembering was shaped by repetition and stories and songs. In an oral culture, you reached adulthood by the time you could understand stories and songs and when you could commit information to verbal memory; so in one’s early teens, one could contribute productively to the community. Older members of the community maintained power and authority because of the amount of information and stories they had committed to memory over the years and could recall and communicate when the tribe needed it. The medium matters.

Then, when the printed word began to become the primary medium for communication (especially in the western world after the invention of the printing press), it was no longer necessary to be in that kind of proximate communion to receive and transmit information. It was possible to communicate independent of an extended family or tribe or village. Information could be stored in a way that was not dependent on the memories of older members of the community. It became less and less important for survival and productivity to live in close-knit community. Our brains began to be good at processing and following ordered and logical arguments. Adulthood was delayed until a young person could become fully literate and access the information required for productivity in a print media dominated world, pushing adulthood to the late teens or early twenties. Those with power and authority tended to be those who were the most literate, the most able to follow and create the logical syllogisms and rational arguments that sprang up in a printing system dependent on the careful arrangement of the 26 symbols of western alphabets. (The impact of the print medium is all around us – prior to the Gutenberg bible, there were just open spaces for worshippers to gather. Shortly after the printing press, churches ordered their seating like the columns in the Bible.) The medium matters.

Today, the dominant media of our culture are technological and image-based. What’s on the surface matters most. Images access the emotional parts of our brains more directly than the printed word, and so how we feel about things matters more than it used to. Our brains are less developed in their capacity for rationality, and more attuned to certain forms of emotionality and empathy. Attention spans for rational argument have reduced dramatically. (some of you have already forgotten what we started talking about: In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…”) Those with the ability to control images are beginning to have the most power and authority in our culture, along with those who are competent with the technology through which most of our information is accessed. There is a fuzziness about parent/child roles and adulthood as children sometimes have better access to information through their comfort with technology and facility with images than their parents. The medium matters.

Remember John 1: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God… No one is better at communication than God. God masterfully chooses the media that he uses to transmit his messages. Because, in a very central way, the medium is the message. When he speaks to Moses out of a burning bush, the words are part of the message, but so is the burning bush itself. Take off your shoes for you are on holy ground is reinforced by the mystery and power and unexpectedness of a bush on fire but not being consumed. It’s something that makes you draw near out of interest and intrigue, but also makes you afraid because of its otherness and danger. When God gives the law to Moses on stone tablets, the medium of carving in stone says these are commandments that are solid, reliable, unchanging, weighty, important, long lasting. The message would have been very different if they were given as handwriting on a beach at low tide, only to be washed away when the waves came in.

The message of Hebrews 1 is a message about the medium that God has finally chosen to use to communicate to us. Every other communication, every other message, every other medium has been building up to this most perfect message in this most perfect medium. Not a disembodied word in our heads. Not a burning bush. Not stone tablets. Not a cloud by day or fire by night. Not a tabernacle in the desert. Not powerful natural phenomena. But his Son. Jesus of Nazareth. The radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being in the divinely incarnated flesh and blood of Mary and Joseph’s son.

(“exact representation” = charakter = the stamp of the emperor on the coin, the most perfect kind of representation available in the ancient world; “of his being” = hypostasis = underlying nature or substance. In other words, not the exact representation of his image, like a coin would be, but the exact representation of God’s true nature)

God wants to communicate to us by coming among us a person who loves us. Who serves us. Who heals us. Who accepts the invitation to our parties. Who is not afraid of our diseases or our sin. Who listens to us. Who allows us to change his diapers and nail him to a cross. Who eats with us and drinks with us. Who is strong enough to stand up to our enemies. Who is vulnerable enough to bear our burdens. Who washes our feet. Who forgives us. Who we can accept and befriend and surrender to, or reject and wound and stand above and kick in the teeth.

God wants to communicate to us by coming among us as a person who gets to know us like he is one of us. Who suffers what we suffer. Who speaks our language and knows our lives. Who feels our fears and is tempted by our temptations. Who experiences our hunger and our thirst and our sorrows.

God communicates to us by coming among us as a person who knows the favor of his Father and is filled and enlivened with the presence of God’s mysterious and holy spirit. Who speaks with tender mercy to the broken and with unquestioned authority to the powers that be. Who defeats every darkness and radiates a light that outshines every lesser truth. Who walks simultaneously in humility and obedience on the one hand, and extraordinary power and creativity on the other. Who dies a sacrificial death and is raised to unprecedented resurrection life.

We may have never heard a single word that Jesus ever said, and yet still, if we have encountered Jesus, we have encountered God’s communication to us. And if we have heard every word that Jesus has said, but not encountered him, then we have missed the essence of what God wants to say to us. The medium is the message. Jesus is the message. His words and actions merely serve to amplify and explain and give commentary to the message that he already is.

Practical tips:

1. Look & Listen for Jesus. Do you want to know God more? Have meaningful communication with him, for example? Get a sense of what he might be saying to you? Or what he might be wanting to you to do? Start by asking him to reveal Jesus to you. Start by asking Jesus to show you more of himself. Find a place you can say it out loud: “Jesus, show yourself to me.” (I know that sounds very mystical. But the truth is, Jesus is alive and well and God desires personal relationship with you that involves communication and his most powerful communication is through this extraordinary person, Jesus. The tricky thing of course, is that Jesus is revealed to us today, since his ascension, through the Holy Spirit, and through his body, the church, and through the scriptures that bear witness to him. But nonetheless, through all of those, he makes himself personally known to us in a way that is God himself making himself known to us. Any communication from God that is not mediated through Jesus is less than communication mediated through him.)

2. Be Yourself. Do you want to be part of helping others to be in communion with God, as you’ve gotten to know him in Jesus? Be yourself. Your life is God’s communication to others about Jesus. You and your brothers and sisters are the medium that Jesus has chosen to reveal himself. You are part of the church, which is Jesus’ body. The commandments are no longer God’s preferred medium. A tract is not God’s preferred medium. A youtube video is not God’s preferred medium. A great sermon is not God’s preferred medium. A website with all the answers is not God’s preferred medium. We are. You, and your brothers and sisters, and me. We are. So be yourself with people. Be the broken person you still are. Be the transformed person you are becoming. Be the person full of new joys and hopes. Be the person with doubts and struggles. Be the person in whom God is alive and healing. Be the person who feels God’s absence at times and suffers setbacks. And let us together be a church coming among those who are suffering and broken and serving them and loving them and eating with them and who are not afraid of their diseases and their sins and who are strong enough to stand up to their enemies and vulnerable enough to bear their burdens and who are living in humility and obedience and who are demonstrating extraordinary power and creativity and who are dying sacrificial deaths and tasting resurrection life, and all the rest. The medium is the message, and Jesus will only be revealed through us as much as we are free to be ourselves with others, flexing our newly formed biceps and basking in a new awareness of our beauty, and not covering over our warts and wounds.

3. Read the gospels minus the red letters. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, skipping over Jesus’ words. Try to hear what God is saying through Jesus even without words.

Lament

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 01/09/2011

Happy new year.

Sometimes that tiding carries with it a hollow ring, or at least the echo of hollowness, does it not?

Suicides... Deaths of friends and loved ones... Injuries and illness… Troubling relationships… Long standing struggles with yet to be determined outcomes... Existential crises... Even good things that cause mourning…

The promise of the gospel, the promise of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, the promise of the good news of the Kingdom of God, of course, is that God enters into even those things to bring life to us, here and now. The promise, of course, is also that those things are passing away, that they will not be our companions forever. The promise is that Jesus, in entering them and taking them on his shoulders, has been given authority over all things and is in the process of setting everything right.

Yet.

Here we are. And here they are. The losses are real. And they are felt deeply and have real emotional and spiritual and mental and even physical effects. What are we to do in the midst of them?

[Summertime experience with Joel Seymour, Lancaster Vineyard…Jesus has something for us in that, but I’m not sure when…now is the time.]

Today we are going to talk about lamenting. The word lament means to grieve or let out a complaint. Lamenting is a way of engaging ourselves with God that has a long and important history in the scriptures. (The first lament recorded is “The lament of the Bow” that David wrote when King Saul and his son Jonathon were killed: “A gazelle lies slain on your heights, Israel. How the mighty have fallen…”) There are more psalms of lament than psalms of praise. There’s a whole book in the bible called Lamentations. Even Jesus laments.

Part of the challenge for us, though, is that our culture doesn’t do lamenting particularly well. Our culture respects people who grin and bear it. Our culture believes in the attractional power of positive thinking. Negative energy is something to be controlled and channeled into productive work. We want people to have a celebration of our lives when we die. This isn’t all bad, not by any measure, but it can come at a cost. And one of the costs is that we don’t come by healthy experiences of lamenting very naturally. [Compare a middle eastern funeral procession with a western one.]

Dr. Terry Wardle’s story of learning to shoot a bow with his Dad. Two rules.

1. Never “dry fire” a bow. Dry firing is shooting without an arrow on the string. Without an arrow, all the energy created from drawing and firing the bow stays in its limbs and weakens the bow, causing micro fractures, eventually causing it to snap. However, when an arrow is on the string, the energy leaves the bow and sends the arrow on its way. The limbs release all the power into the arrow and the limbs return to a state of rest without the slightest damage.

[Kinect Sports Volleyball…]

2. Only shoot at the target set in front of you. Otherwise you might hurt someone, or even yourself.

We’re dry firing all the time, aren’t we? Tough stuff happens, it’s present in our world, our lives, and it takes its toll. We’re like bows with all sorts of energy stored up in them. But we have nothing to transfer that energy to. We get cracks. We feel like we might snap the next time pressure is applied to us. We feel like bows that have been dry fired.

Or maybe we’re loading up arrows and firing them, but we’re shooting at the wrong targets. We’re lashing out, aimlessly, at whatever happens to be on the other end of our sights. At ourselves. Or others. All it does is wound. Nothing life-giving comes from it.

This is where lamenting comes in. A lament is like an arrow we affix to our strings and fire at God. The lament can transfer the energy of this broken world off our bows and let it fly straight and true to the target that has been given us to absorb it, allowing our limbs to return to a state of rest.

What does lamenting look like?

Consider Jesus in the garden on the Mount of Olives.

Step 1: Steal away with God in a safe place.

³⁹Jesus went out as usual (came out and proceeded as was his custom) to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him…He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴²“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Luke 22v39-41

Notice how Jesus has a habit of pushing the pause button in life. He’s got a time and a space to do it. And during one of these pauses, he withdraws even further. The rush of life will get in the way of lamenting, so we’ve got to push the pause button to do it. This perhaps is why it’s difficult for us moderns, what with all our hustle and bustle. But it’s not impossible. And it is way better than the halt that comes to life after dry-firing too often.

And notice how Jesus is in a safe place, a place he feels good. Lamenting happens best when we can find a place we feel safe, secure, at home. Kind of like in our mother’s arms, right? Maybe a place in nature, or in our homes. But also private, secluded, protected so we won’t be interrupted (Jesus disciples nearby). Maybe it happens in a less idyllic real-world place, but we enter some equally real place with God in prayer, through our praying imaginations (even though we may be in a bathroom, for example, or in our car at the top of a parking garage.)

[My first lament after “A River Runs Through It”; to God, but Ronni there with me]

Step 2: Express yourself without censoring anything.

³⁶Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴²He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

⁴³When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Notice how open Jesus is with how troubled he is. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death…My Father, if it’s possible, may this cup be taken from me (which he repeats 3 times – there’s no holding back going on here.)…even his address to his disciples: “Couldn’t you keep watch with me for one hour?” This is a man who has abandoned politeness for the sake of lamenting honestly before God.

Expressing the full extent of the pain (at least, as much as you can identify) is the real payload on the arrow, it’s the arrowhead of the lament. It doesn’t have to be cleaned up. Its better, sometimes, if it’s not. Here’s what I lost. Here’s why it sucks. This is what doesn’t feel fair. This is the future I had imagined, and now it’s gone. This is the past I wished I had, and I never got to have it. This is the present reality I’d been looking forward to, and what I meet now that I’ve arrived just doesn’t measure up, and this is how that makes me feel.

Sure, we feel like we shouldn’t blame people. Sure, we feel like we need to take responsibilities for our own stuff. Sure, we feel like we need to let God know we don’t think the world revolves around us. But still. The Lament has no power if it is not honest. And sometimes, the honest truth is that we feel others are to blame, or that we have been wronged on balance, or that we have gotten the short end of God’s attentions. The power of the lament is to deliver all of that to him, knowing that he can handle it. Sometimes, in flight, the wind removes the things that are false from that arrow, and God returns it to us, ready to be shot clean and afresh.

Step 3: Listen for God’s response.

⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

The cause for the lament was not undone. Jesus would still have to go to suffer. Yes, God will address the sources of our lament. He is not deaf to our concerns. But the point of the lament is not to get God to fix everything we’re upset about it. He may. He may not. He may later. He may already have and we don’t know it yet.

What God did do was send a messenger with strength for Jesus. This is the point of the Lament. Strength from the heavens for the path we are given to walk here on earth. Maybe it comes in a word of truth from the Spirit about the area of loss you are lamenting. Maybe it comes from something a friend says to you. Maybe it comes from a passage of scripture you are directed towards that strengthens you. Maybe it comes from a sense of God’s embrace and presence in the midst of your loss.

[My experience recently…]

The net effect of lamenting is really quite profound.

For Jesus, it meant he was able to be in control on the path he was on instead of being controlled by it.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

Throughout the rest of the story, you get the sense that the only one who is fully in charge of himself is Jesus, even though these incredibly powerful forces are at work around him (the mob, the political and religious leaders, evil itself). In lamenting, he gave all of their power over him to God, and he was set free to be who God made him to be in those moments.

It’s interesting if you read the Psalms of lament as well. So many that contain laments end with a note of praise, of hope. There is something that happens in lamenting that opens the door afresh in our hearts for hope. There is a way we encounter God in lament that gives us new reason to praise, even though nothing has actually happened with regard to the loss we are lamenting.

Practical Tips:

1. For those for whom there’s no really raw losses to lament at the moment: Take the next week to lament 1 thing a day, just to get the hang of it for when you really need it. Maybe start with a run-of-the-mill disappointment. Not getting a promotion. Some personal deficiency that’s always bothered you a little (not being able to sing, being bad at sports, being terrible at math). Try a different place each day until you find a place that works well (someplace in your house, someplace outside, in your car, etc.). Try a different method until you find a method that works well (writing, speaking out loud, praying in your head, calling your own voicemail and imagining your leaving a message for God). Aim for a 60 second lament, but go as long as you feel like it. Be as honest as you can. If you feel like it’s fruitful, try something more significant. Like a relationship that isn’t in good shape. Or a long term personal struggle. Don’t worry about who is to blame or whether or not you think it will ever be fixed. Just lament it as the loss that it currently is.

2. If you’ve got a raw loss (a death, a fresh relationship fracture, a major life disappointment, a new normal ahead that you’re not excited about), get a friend or spouse who can help guard some time and space for you to do a more extended lament with the Lord. Maybe start with Psalm 13, out loud, to get yourself warmed up. And then just go for it. Write it down. Say it out loud. Say it matter of factly. Cry. Or don’t cry. Be angry. Or rational and calm. Doesn’t matter – just be yourself. Then imagine Jesus is next to you, doing his own lamenting alongside of you. Imagine you are both in the garden at the mount of Olives, lamenting together. When you’re done, read Psalm 22 out loud, remembering that that was how Jesus finished his lament on the cross.

3. If your lament is mainly about you and God, spend some time meditating on Lamentations 3:1-33. Try rewriting it in a way that would be true for your experience. Once you have, read it out loud to him.

4. Give your kids space to lament. What they learn to do with you will help them lament to the Lord later.

Advent 2010: Consolation

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 12/12/2010

[Audio link not yet available]

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then 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.

⁸Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹²The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3v1-13

Three things are broken in us and are the source of all the pain in our world.

We are alienated from ourselves. Like Adam, we see our nakedness and are ashamed of it. We look at ourselves and instead of taking joy in what we see, we despise ourselves. We look in the mirror and loathe what we see, everything a flaw, not quite right, not enough to make us happy. We hate our weaknesses, the ones in our bodies and the ones in our hearts and the ones in our heads. We are perpetually confident that no one loves us, because no one could, not if they see us the way we see us. Charles Park, a church planter in New York City, has a friend who is a pharmaceutical rep in Manhattan. His friend says that his company alone has two pharmaceutical reps in single 3 block by 3 block area in the Upper East Side, supporting over 300 psychiatrists. That’s like 33 psychiatrists per block. We are alienated from ourselves, and it hurts. Alienated beyond the capacity of drugs to heal.

We are alienated from ourselves, and we have no one to turn to for help, because we are alienated from one another as well. Like Adam, we look at others around us as objects of blame. “The woman you put here with me – it’s her fault!” Our relationships with those closest to us get irreparably fractured over time, sometimes by an accumulation of small wrongs, or too frequent judgments, or sometimes by horrendously awful betrayals. Sometimes we feel like we’re not safe around anyone, and sometimes no one is safe around us. And strangers – those different or foreign in our eyes – appear to us as threats or competitors or enemies, rather than brothers and sisters. [conversation with my dad about studies done with sanitizing stations nearby…] We are alienated from one another, and it leaves us with such pain, the kind of pain we never get over on our own, no matter how many battles we win.

And finally, and most devastatingly, we are alienated from God, the source of our life and the one who might heal us if we would draw close to him. Like Adam, when we hear God approach, we hide. We feel our shame, and we cast our blame, and even though God is the one who can look at us in our brokenness and still love us, and even though God is the one who knows the depth of our guilt and still has mercy on us, he is the one of whom we are most afraid. When he comes near, we hear him in the garden and we are sure our betrayal and rejection of him will come back to haunt us. So we hide from him and run away to other sources of life, sources that we hope will give us comfort in our shame, sources that will keep us company in our alienation from one another. [Mechanics, chiropractors, & God…]

Death by alienation is such a slow and painful way to die, is it not? We become ruins of who we were created to be, our relationships in disrepair, no longer good for shelter, emptied of warmth. The formerly verdant garden becomes a desert, a wasteland in which everything has been consumed and nothing is growing anymore.

This is shattered shalom. What once was peace, embrace, the true comfort of home, gone like the fading memory of dream, at best now an elusive feeling, a feeling of something missing that we are aware of only by the hole it’s left behind.

This is hell on earth, is it not? We’ve all felt some measure of its heat, have we not?

Oh, if only a light would shine in this darkness! If only there would be a rescuer who would come and pursue us unflaggingly across the barren desert and give us a cup of water to drink! If only a repairer of broken walls could come and make the ruins into a home! If only a gardener would appear who could plant seeds that would take root and run riot over the earth. If only a friend of sinners would come who could reconcile all alienated things to himself, in heaven and on earth and under the earth!

We reflected last week on how we are in the season of advent, the moment before the moment, the time when God invites us to anticipate, to look forward to what is coming so that the life of the future can bleed into our lives today.

Today we’re going to explore the question: “What do we have to look forward to, anyway?” This advent, we look forward to a baby who comes into the world in order to reconcile us with ourselves, with one another, and with God. This baby, as we’ll see, is a new Adam: one who embraces the shame, and takes on the blame, and puts an end to all of the hiding from God.

We’ll begin our exploration with an advent story from Luke chapter 2.

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

Let’s zero in on Simeon, a man “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Waiting here is προσδέχομαι prosdechomai – take up, receive, to look forward to, to welcome. [throw $10.00 paper airplane…]

Simeon is anticipating something. He is looking forward to something promised to him, in a way that brings the joy of the thing coming right into his present circumstances. Circumstances that are not very rosy. He is an old man in a corrupt temple, part of a people in exile and under the oppressive rule of the Roman empire and a brutal, power hungry king. And yet, the Holy Spirit was on him. In his anticipation, his receiving of the future promise, the Spirit of God was present with him in the here and now. A fountain of joy is present to him in his trouble. And not only that, it makes him ready to receive and cooperate with what God is doing at that very moment Jesus arrives before him.

But what exactly had he been anticipating, looking forward to, waiting with expectation for? A rousing victory that would crush the romans and Herod and the corrupt priests? No, nothing that exciting. He was waiting for “the consolation of Israel.” [Not consolation how we usually understand it…] He was waiting for comfort, for healing, for the presence of God that would bring peace. Specifically, Simeon was waiting for what had been promised through the prophet Isaiah.

¹³Shout for joy, you heavens;

rejoice, you earth;

burst into song, you mountains!

For the Lord comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

Is 49:13

³The Lord will surely comfort Zion

and will look with compassion on all her ruins;

he will make her deserts like Eden,

her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Is 51:3

⁹Burst into songs of joy together,

you ruins of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people,

he has redeemed Jerusalem.

Is 52:9

¹³As a mother comforts her child,

so will I comfort you;

and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Is 66:13

Salvation breaks into our brokenness, affliction, and alienation first as consolation, as comfort, as an answer to our distress. Like a mother coming to the rescue of her child. Yes, she will set everything right. Yes, she’ll take care of the source of the trouble. But first, she is there. Present with the child. And in her presence, there is comfort. And there is promise that the rescue begun with her arrival will surely become a full and present reality.

Look at that Isaiah 51 promise again. The description of ruins and desert and wastelands becoming like Eden, the garden of the Lord, full of joy and gladness and thanksgiving and the sound of singing. It’s the promise of a place where there is no shame, no blame, no hiding from God, isn’t it?

And to Simeon, Jesus is the one who makes all these promises a reality. He is the consolation of Israel. What does Jesus have to do with this kind of comfort, of consolation? How is he the one Simeon has been waiting for? How is he the one we’ve all been waiting for?

Jesus is consolation for our alienation. In Jesus, God brings comfort to all three expressions of alienation, healing them and opening the door to reconciliation. Jesus ends the shame, ends the blame, ends the hiding from God.

Jesus is what Paul, in his letter to the Romans, calls the firstborn of a new creation. He is the first human being reconciled fully to himself, fully reconciled to every other human being – even to his enemies, and fully reconciled to God.

Listen to this verse from Romans 8, from the message translation:

In his Son Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.

[For those in the know, you already know what it means for Jesus to set right what shame has set wrong, what it means for him to set right what blame has set wrong, what it means for him to set right what all the hiding from God has set wrong, in many cases because you’ve already experienced a taste of it. But allow me to unpack it a little bit for those who are still exploring what Christianity is all about…]

Jesus arrives as an outcast, poor, born among beasts, with questionable parentage [a Mamzer…]. God himself inhabiting the deepest shames of humanity, without shame. The shame and alienation came to human beings when we aimed to be like gods. The shame is healed and the reconciliation begins when Jesus humbles himself to take on the flesh of his own broken creation.

And look at the reconciling impact Jesus has between people once alienated from each other. The angels announce him as good news of great joy for all the people. He draws all sorts of people into fellowship with one another. The outcast shepherds are drawn into the city of Bethlehem to worship the baby. The Wiseman from the east. Simeon, and Anna, old people blessing this young baby brought to the temple by this young family. And later the tax collectors and prostitutes and fishermen and scholars and rich men and centurions and servants and children. And he never casts a word of blame at any of them. Not even those caught in the midst of their sin. Instead, he offers them forgiveness and sets his face like flint towards the day when he can bear the weight of all of our sins on his shoulders. On the cross, when we all are to blame directly for his suffering, he looks at us and says: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” He owns it all, takes it all on himself.

And where does the power for this reconciliation to himself and to others come from? It comes from the fact that Jesus is human being fully reconciled to God himself. He is conceived by the Holy Spirit. Anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Doesn’t hide from God, but has such a nearness and intimacy with him that he calls him “Father.”

All of this alienation and reconciliation business comes full circle in Jesus’ death and resurrection. In his death on the cross, Jesus experiences with us the full exile from the garden. And then, Jesus breaks back into the garden at his resurrection. He’s literally in a garden, outside his tomb, 1 man, 1 woman. But no blame, no shame, just naming each other and embracing. In his resurrection body, he’s fully at home on the earth and in the heavens. Breathing his holy spirit on his followers, so that they too can be reconciled to themselves, and to one another, and to the Father. Truly, he is the firstborn of a new creation. A creation in which we are all adopted by the Father as his brothers and sisters, a creation in which we do not receive the spirit of fear, but the spirit that cries out, “Abba, Father.”

These things we can look forward to because of the arrival of Jesus. These are all coming in fullness through the Lordship of Jesus, as he brings his kingdom among us, to us, within us, through us. We will be fully reconciled to ourselves. We will be fully reconciled to one another. We will be fully reconciled to God. No shame, no blame, no hiding from the source of life.

This is heaven on earth. This is the consolation of humanity. This is the restoration of shalom. We can be free to anticipate these things. They are not false promises. Their fulfillment has already begun in the birth of Jesus. Their fulfillment has already been secured by his death and in his resurrection. The life present in their fulfillment is available to us through expectant, anticipating faith.

This advent, may we look forward to being at peace with ourselves. May we look forward to experiencing peace with one another. May we look forward to knowing, at the deepest level of our being, Shalom with our heavenly father. It is all surely coming in the fullness of time. Its life and power is available to us even now through the Holy Spirit. May we, like Simeon, welcome it in faith, receive it in anticipation this advent, this season of the moment before the moment.

from Romans 8:

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Practical Tips:

1. Make an Advent Peace list.

2. Receive Jesus.

3. Ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Advent: Anticipation

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 12/06/2010

[audio link not yet available]

[Hammer time…]

Life finds its stride in rhythms and melody.

The beating of our hearts. Breathing in and out. The contraction and relaxation of our muscles. The cadence of our footsteps and the swinging of our arms. Waking, sleeping. Meals and prayers punctuating the day.

It’s no accident the scriptures begin with a poem. What better way to show us the creation of all things then through words ordered by creative rhythm and melody. Vocalized sounds woven into primitive song, the hustle and the flow that creates worlds in our minds, in our bodies, in our hearts.

[Genesis 1v14…]

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Genesis 1v14–19

Rhythms and melody from the beginning, surrounding and penetrating every experience. Night, day. 6 days of work, 1 day of rest. Fortnights and months from the waxing and waning moon. Seasons from the tilt of the earth’s axis and the wheeling path around the sun. Planting and harvesting. Hunting and hibernating. Feasts and festivals, holidays and holy days.

We are in a season now called Advent, which is Latin for “the coming.” If seasons make up the stride of life, Advent is the moment before the footfall. A holy moment. What Rob Bell calls “the moment before the moment.”

Advent is a season of anticipation, of looking forward. It is dark, but the pregnant stillness in air says that light is about to appear on the horizon. The tracks are empty, but an ear pressed against them can feel a vibration that promises the train’s a-coming. The package hasn’t arrived, but the tracking status has changed to “out for delivery.”

Let’s look at an advent story this morning, and hear what the scriptures are teaching us about anticipation, about looking forward to what God is about to do.

Read and comment on Luke 1v5-23…

⁵In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. ⁶Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. ⁷But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both well advanced in years.

⁸Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

¹¹Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

²¹Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²²When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

²³When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Notice - something significant is happening in this passage, but it all feels like prelude, doesn’t it? Such a sense of pause, of presence in the moment, of a pace yet to quicken. Once. Meanwhile. Remained unable to speak. Were waiting and wondering. Returned home. Remained in seclusion. And listen for all the future language: “Will bear…will be a joy…many will rejoice…he will be filled with the Holy Spirit…many will he bring back…he will go on...to make ready a people prepared…you will be silent…which will come true…”

Another way to reflect on it would be to say that the moment before the moment matters. This moment (the moment of these advent prophecies and pregnancies) has a particular kind of life in it because of what is coming next (God himself entering into the world through flesh and blood in Jesus of Nazareth), and the life available in what is coming next is accessible to us because of what happens in this moment (it allows us to see what’s next for what it is, to not miss it, to be prepared to receive it, respond to it). The two moments – the moment before the moment, and the moment itself – are joined together in meaning and power.

We see this in the way kids love hearing stories again and again, filling in the blanks; then when something comes at the right time, even perhaps in a surprising way, it gives delight - delight whose power was born in the moment before the moment. [telling Elle she is a great daughter…]

Many of us know what is arguably the greatest single moment in all of pop music. And that, of course, is Phil Colin’s drum solo three minutes and forty three seconds into “In The Air Tonight.” [play short clip] But would that moment be what it is without the 3:43 that come before it? Would we know what to do when it came without experiencing the moments before the moment? [play the few seconds before and the moment itself…] For those who know the song, would the 3:43 before it be what it is without what we all know is coming? Those 3:43 are what they are because of the anticipation present in them, the drum solo inhabiting them like a baby in the womb, waiting to be born out of them.

Anticipation, looking forward to something, is a way of making the future blessing present now. Through anticipating it, you receive life today from the future that hasn’t yet arrived, but is surely coming. [examples…] This is what the season of Advent is all about.

Look again at Zachariah’s experience with the angel. Gabriel makes him a promise about God’s answer to his prayers. A son is coming to him and Elizabeth. A son who will be a big time player in the coming of the Messiah.

The whole point of prophecy is that those who hear it would begin to anticipate its fulfillment. Because in their anticipation, they are prepared to receive what God is going to do. And because in their anticipation, they receive life today from what God is going to do in the future. (After all, God could just do what he’s going to do without telling anyone right? But we’d be left in the dark, and everything God is doing is precisely so that light would chase away the darkness in which we are dying.) Anticipation is the first thing we do to join with God in his salvation.

But Zachariah’s capacity to anticipate God’s promises, to look forward to their fulfillment, has been destroyed by the work of the enemy in his life, hasn’t it? They were childless. One disappointment after another, and now they are advanced in years. And so he doesn’t receive the promise, doesn’t begin to anticipate its fulfillment. Instead he resists it. “How can I be sure of this? I’m old. My wife’s no spring chicken either.”

It’s the sort of thing that happens to many of us.

When you look forward to something that doesn’t happen, it can sour the anticipated joy you carried into that moment. [Carmel apple/onion prank…]

So sometimes, we protect ourselves from that disappointment by choosing to be skeptical about any good thing promised. We’ll believe it when we see it, we say.

Perhaps there are times when that’s wise [Lions football…].

But no matter how wise it may be, it closes the door to the life intended for us now from God’s good future. [Share my inability to look forward to anything unsecured and the bad fruit of that…the joys un-looked-forward-to would certainly outweigh the disappointments avoided on balance]

Sometimes, not only are we not anticipating the good thing promised, we are actually anticipating the bad thing that we anticipate will take away the good thing promised. [examples…] Which brings the ill effects of future disappointment into our present nows, and which are carried with us into the future, whether or not our disappointments are realized.

The ways in which our capacity to look forward, to anticipate is compromised by any number of things: the disappointments of life, the unreliability of others, misplaced expectations…

[Quote from SI about LeBron James’ first game back in Cleveland after leaving his old team to go play in Miami: The basketball lesson for the day was that ‘tis better to have LeBron James than to have loved and lost him. But this night was never really about basketball. It was about Cleveland….It was about Cavs fan Bart Gruber, who brought his 8-year-old son to the game – not so much to cheer or boo, but because they are Cavs fans. I asked Gruber what he told his son after “The Decision.” “After he cried for two hours,” Gruber said, “I just told him this was life.”]

This may be life in this world. But it is not life in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, joy awaits, not sorrow. Promises are kept. Every disappointment swallowed up in a beauty that takes our breath away and fills our lungs with laughter. Love wins. The King comes home to stay.

Look at children. They can delight in what they think is coming, no matter its likelihood… [examples…]

Why not us? Because we don’t want to look foolish. Jesus says to inherit the kingdom of God, we must become like little children. This, I believe, is part of that kind of faith. Faith that risks looking a fool for the sake of the Kingdom.

Which is why Gabriel shuts Zachariah up. He’s not able to speak until the promise is fulfilled. Which is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

First, who looks like the fool now? See, that’s the truth about not trusting God’s promises; it means we are trusting the enemies promises, and that is true folly.

Second, every time Zachariah can’t speak, he’s reminded of God’s supernatural power, which in turn encourages him to anticipate the promise, doesn’t it?

And finally, every time he can’t speak, he’s reminded that he can’t speak because he used his speech to push back against faithfully anticipating the good thing God was promising him. Which encourages him to look forward to its fulfillment, because it’s when the prophecy is fulfilled that he will get his speech back.

God’s a genius.

Anticipation is an act of faith, faith that opens the door to life from the heavens. This advent, may we take advantage of the moments before the moment. May we open our eyes to look forward to what God has promised us. May we open our hearts to look forward to the arrival of a savior in the midst of our deepest pain. May we embrace the life that finds its stride in the rhythms of looking forward and waiting and receiving, of longing and celebration, of anticipation and fulfillment.

Practical Tips…

1. Look forward like a fool to something inconsequential but potentially joy-filled for you. Go public with it. Make some kind of daily reminder for yourself. When you see the reminder, welcome the joy trying to poke in to your heart from the future.

2. Make an Advent List. In prayer, list the things you are looking forward to God doing in your life and in the world. [The Advent Prayer Hour as a great opportunity…] As you do, anticipate the joy that’s coming in their fulfillment.

3. Repent of foolish foolishness. Resolve to be God’s fool and no one else’s. Turn doubts and fears into prayers. Change your “We’ll see” to “Amen.” (Mary’s “May it be to me according to your word.”) Every prayer contains at least seed of anticipation that God might act, can act, may want to act on our behalf.

Revelation: The Lamb at the Center

[sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 11/28/2010]

[audio link not yet available]

Invitation to open to Revelation, chapter 5.

Part 2 in a 2 part series on the Apocalypse. Apocalypse meaning “to lay bare, to make naked, to reveal, as in the lifting of a veil.” St. John’s Apocalypse is not a book about the end of the world, as many assume, but a book that helps us see reality as it really is, helps us see what’s going on behind the scenes of our everyday, ordinary lives.

[Biggest loser race for the car…Revelation 5 shows us what was really going on there…]

Reiterate key idea from last week:

Apocalyptic language is designed to engage our imaginations, to wake us up to things that have already been revealed, but that are easy to forget as we get numbed to them by ordinary life. Kind of like smelling salts for our souls. Revelation brings us to our senses.

Like a stylized painting, not a Polaroid picture…

For example, 4v4 says: Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

Option A: There are 24 people in heaven with crowns and front row seats to God. This is good information because if you do get to heaven and you meet one of these blokes, you really should ask for an autograph. Plus, it makes God look kind of cool because he’s got these guys falling down before him several times a day, singing songs to him. Or…

Option B: The crowns and thrones and white clothes are all meant to paint a picture of people in whom the image of God has been restored, who are now able to finally take their proper place in the purposes of God in creation. The picture of 24 elders in thrones is meant to reveal to us that when we place God at the center of our lives, his image in us is restored, and every surrendered, faith-filled action becomes an image-bearing action, filled with the restorative authority of the creator of all things.

(So when you serve the needy out of love for the God who says that when you serve the least of our brothers and sisters you are really serving him, or when you love your enemies, or forgive those who wrong you, or give hospitality to the stranger, or mourn with those who mourn, or rejoice with those who rejoice, or give generously out of faith in God’s generosity, or confess your sins to your friend and repent so that their power over your life comes undone, when you pray for the sick, or intercede for the weary, or encourage the broken hearted, or seek justice for the oppressed, or rouse yourself from your bed so that you can join the church in worship and sing glory to the saving one, when you do any of these or countless other faith-filled actions, you are in fact taking your proper place in the universe with the children of God, the princes of the king.)

What seems to be mundane and ordinary actions are, in fact, noble and holy, and humming with the energetic power of the heavens.

For what it’s worth, I’ll take option B.

As we discussed at length last week, the first thing we notice in Revelation 4 and 5 is that we are not the center, that there is another center to the universe, a true center, a throne which is not ours and on which we are not meant to sit. Which of course, gives us great freedom when we apprehend and make our peace with that reality.

But the second thing we notice, the thing which is really meant to arrest our attention in this apocalyptic vision, are the ones who are at the center of everything. The one on the throne, and the lamb.

[play Revelation 4&5 composition, inviting congregation to join their voices to the 5 songs contained in it...]

Revelation 4 & 5 composition

4 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. ³And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. ⁶Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“ ‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.”

The Scroll and the Lamb

5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. ²And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” ³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. ⁴I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. ⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center before the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased for God

members of every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹²In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and praise!”

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power,

for ever and ever!”

¹⁴The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

The entrance of the lamb is the climax of everything. St. John wants us to be awakened to the lamb at the center of it all. Because everything in the universe must one day come to terms with the one at the center, the one who is the gravity drawing all things unto himself. Because everything in the universe is shaped by its center, and what is at the center determines where everything is heading and how everything is going to get there.

Notice how the lamb’s entrance is made dramatic by everything that precedes it. The stage is set with the throne, and the elders, and the creatures, and the sea of glass. Visual splendor. Majestic figures. John has our attention. Then he directs it at a mystery: this scroll.

A sealed scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne. And a loud voice talking about the scroll, asking a question, bringing all of the worshippers’ attention to that one question.

Who? Who? Clearly, it matters who.

This is the question of the hour, the century, the millennium, the ages. Who?

That’s why there is weeping when no one is found.

What’s up with that? Have you ever seen someone weeping when something is lost? We don’t weep when we can’t find our toothbrush, or even our keys. [my experiences…emotions a far cry from tears…] But have you seen a child when they cannot find their special blanket or stuffed animal? The world collapses around them. Or, perhaps closer to the sense of this passage, a mother who can’t find her child? (wept and wept, the grief of the mourner…)

We only weep when we cannot find something of supreme value, something that cannot be replaced. That’s what’s going on here. There is something absent from the throne room of the universe - from the center of everything - that is of supreme value. And the heartrending image of John’s weeping helps us see that, feel that, share in that devastating absence. It brings to mind a woman named Mary, doesn’t it, weeping in a garden one Sunday morning outside of a tomb because she cannot find the one who was buried there, the one who cast 7 demons out of her and saved her life.

What is the importance of someone to open this scroll sealed with 7 seals that would inspire such terrible grief if he could not be found?

It was ancient Roman custom that last wills and testaments be written on a scroll, wrapped in 7 strings, and each string would be sealed with a wax seal to verify and protect its integrity, its contents a mystery locked away and impotent until the authorized executer of the will opened it. This will is no ordinary will, though, is it? It is in the right hand of the one seated on the throne at the center of the universe, the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. What does this Father of all things leave to his children, to his creation? And who will carry out his will, ensure that it is perfectly executed?

In the text, the moment passes by in a heartbeat, but if you’ve ever experienced one of those heartbeats where you thought everything was lost, you know it feels like an eternity, doesn’t it? Time stops. And we are meant to feel that stoppage of time in John’s weeping. He wept. And wept. Because no one was found. Which implies a search was underway, and the results were not promising.

If no one is found, what does that mean? Does that mean there is no true heir to the life and glory of the heavens? Does that mean this Father’s sons have all died before him, or been disowned? Does that mean it all is coming to an end?

And then, “Don’t weep, see!” Something had happened while he was weeping, and his tears were obscuring his vision. Don’t weep. See! See what?

The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.

When the patriarch Jacob (Israel) blessed his sons, this was his blessing to his son, Judah:

⁹You are a lion’s cub, Judah;

you return from the prey, my son.

Like a lion he crouches and lies down,

like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

until he to whom it belongs shall come

and the obedience of the nations be his.

Genesis 49:9-10

The root of David is a reference to the prophecies that the Messiah would come from ancient King David’s lineage. Here, in the throne room, in other words, the Messiah has arrived. The strong one promised in Judah’s blessing who will rule over all the earth. He, the elder says, has triumphed, and is standing in front of you, able to open the scroll and the 7 seals.

Only, when John looks, he doesn’t see a lion, does he? He sees a Lamb. Talk about a double take. Lions were the ultimate symbol of power, and lambs were considered powerless. And this lamb looked as if it had been slain (although, at the same time, it was standing, alive before the throne).

This lion/lamb is Jesus of Nazareth, the one worthy son of the Almighty God. The one who has triumphed over death and now is ready to take the scroll from his Father, the almighty God, and open it up so that he can carry out his Father’s perfect will. And so that the inheritance of the adopted children of God can be generously distributed.

Did you see the recent Robin Hood film with Russell Crowe? In it, the central mystery revolves around a sword the inscription: “Rise, and rise again, until Lambs become lions.” A stirring quote, is it not? Yet, it is exactly the opposite of what has taken place here in Revelation.

John is painting a word picture of a Lion who stooped, and stooped again until he became a lamb. A Lion, the son of the living God, the word of God through whom all things were made, in heaven and on the earth, stooped down to be clothed in human flesh. Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph. And he stooped to live the life of a servant to all. And he stooped again to die as the worst kind of criminal, a sacrificial offering for the redemption of all human kind. And in so doing became the Lamb of God, the lamb who was slain for our transgressions.

At the center of everything is a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.

You and I are shaped by our center… Families are shaped by their center… Crowds are shaped by their center… Nations and kings are shaped by their center… The earth is shaped by its center… The solar system is shaped by its center…The universe is shaped by its center…

At the center of everything is a lamb looking as if it had been slain.

The real power at the center of everything is one who emptied himself of power. So that the love of power would be defeated by the power of love. If we want to be tapped into the power at the center of the universe, that is the kind of power we must be tapped into.

We’ve heard the expression: “You become what you worship.” It is absolutely true. Worship money and you will become cold and hard, like cash. Worship success and you will come out on top, and empty. Worship popularity and you will become nothing but surface and image, weightless and blown by every passing breeze.

But when we worship at the throne, at the true center, we worship the Lamb, looking as if it had been slain. And it is like him that we are becoming as we worship him. Humble, generous, servants of all, living sacrifices.

Because notice, he looks as if he had been slain. He had been, but He is no longer. He is alive now. Brimming with life, life that spills over as his blood had previously done, and makes members of every tribe and language and people and nation into a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth. And triumphant, as the elder first describes him.

This is the way of triumph in the kingdom of God. We follow our savior in dying to ourselves, and resurrection life fills our veins. It is in embracing powerlessness that God’s power is released for new creation, and everything is set right.

Those who have as themselves the center look at those who embrace powerlessness, and they mock. It looks like foolishness. (Worthy is the Lion who takes down his prey to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”) [The Apprentice boardroom…]

But John’s apocalyptic vision reveals that the way of the Lion who becomes a Lamb is the wisdom of God. (Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive…)

And so we, the community of worshippers gathered around the lamb looking as if it had been slain, when we’ve seen the one who is at the center, and we see how he looks, are to say “Amen.” Yes. So be it. Believe. May it be fulfilled. Yes! Whenever we see forgiveness. Amen. Whenever we see generosity. Amen. Whenever we see sacrificial suffering. Amen. Whenever we see someone dying to themselves so that others might live. Whenever we see someone enduring judgment in favor of casting judgment. Whenever we see someone serving under instead of lording over. Amen. Amen. Amen. Wherever we Lions looking like lambs, we say, Yes, that is what the Lion looks like now.

Practical Tips:

1. Look at yourself in the mirror of your most important relationships. What are you starting to look like? More like a lion or more like a lamb? More angry? Or more gentle? More powerful but less loving? Or less powerful but more loving? More defensive and aggressive? Or more willing to lose so others can gain? If you’re brave enough, ask one of those people for their opinion. The answer you come up with may show you what’s at the center of your life. The Lamb who was slain, or something else.

2. Go do something lamb-like this week. If we want Jesus to be worshipped as the Lion that he is, we would do well to reveal him by being lambs.

3. Write a note applauding someone who is imitating the Lamb. Tell them the strength and triumph you observe in their lives. You may think you sound like a lone voice, but your voice will be joined by myriads and myriads, and it will swell up louder than every other voice in their life.

4. Celebrate the Lord’s supper. Regularly. Nothing keeps lions at bay as well.