Here I Stand

Galatians 1:1-12        Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the members of God’s family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Kings 18:20-39        So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.

Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered, “Well spoken!” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water. At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”

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At the roundtable this week we started talking about how our thoughts and opinions and beliefs are so often influenced by others.   We use the word “sway” – as in “he has come under the sway of terrorists, or politicians” to suggest that perhaps someone or something has power over us to form our beliefs and affect our actions.  And when I say us, I don’t actually mean us.  Some people allow others to sway their thoughts and beliefs – right? 

We are much more likely to see this effect in others than we are to see it in ourselves.  After all, we are much more rational and objective when we are observers of others.  And besides, none of us likes to think that we, ourselves, are susceptible to this kind of sway – but why not?  We are just as human as anyone else.

The subject came up because we noticed in both passages – Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the wonderful story about the showdown on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal – there seems to be a case of a whole community of people being swayed.

In the context of Paul’s letter, it would seem that the church in Galatia had been influenced by a new teacher on the scene – one who was apparently teaching a different gospel than what Paul had shared with them.  At the risk of oversimplifying, this alternative gospel preached that justification (that is, forgiveness of one’s sins) comes not just from faith in Jesus Christ but also requires good works.  That might not sound like a big deal – after all, the church preaches the importance of good works 52 weeks a year.  But, in fact, it is the issue that formed the crux of the Protestant Reformation, back in the 16^th century when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door.  Right at the heart of it was the concept of Sola Fide:  our justification is by faith alone.  Christ’s work on the cross has accomplished something that our own works could never do.

We wondered, at the roundtable, why the people of Galatia would have bought into this new teaching and tossed aside what they had been given by Paul.  Perhaps this new teacher had more charisma than Paul.

Very likely so.  Paul doesn’t appear to be such a charming fellow, based on what we can put together from the writings.  He is intense, driven, zealous, often irritable.  But probably not charming. 

Maybe this new guy who came into Galatia after Paul left was charming.  Maybe he was tall, handsome, funny.  Maybe he could look into your eyes when he talked to you and convince you that you were the only one in the world who mattered to him at that moment.  Maybe.

Or, on the other hand, maybe he preyed on their fears and insecurities.  That often works quite well when you’re trying to sway somebody. 

The point is this:  can one be swayed to believe something other than the truth simply by force of personality? 

To put it bluntly, there are times when the truth is less desirable than something else.  We might rather hear a flattering lie than an unflattering truth.  We might prefer to hear something that assuages our fears rather than to hear that we should let go of our fears.  We might prefer to hear someone who gives us permission to be angry and hateful rather than someone who encourages us to be generous of spirit.  It’s always less work to appeal to the baser nature of human beings than to call upon our better angels. 

That is what made the life of a prophet so hard.  When God sent prophets to speak truth to kings and queens, it was rare for the prophet to receive a warm welcome.  Elijah certainly did not.  He had the misfortune of living during the reign of one of the all-time worst kings of Israel – Ahab, and Ahab’s wife Jezebel.  Jezebel was not an Israelite; she came from Sidon, a place where the gods of Canaan were worshiped. Jezebel brought her gods with her, and Ahab found it more convenient to transfer his loyalties to the foreign gods and turn his back on Yahweh.  And, unsurprisingly, the people of Israel found it to be more – should we say – advantageous to turn their loyalties to the gods of their king and queen. 

Elijah really felt like one small man up against the multitude.  Reading his story, you get the impression that he would love to have a friend, a comrade, at his side.  But he doesn’t.  It’s just him … and God, and the angels.  Truly a mismatch of power if ever there was one.

The power of God against the Baals of the world?  The truth against the self-serving idols we prop up for our convenience?  The Lord of hosts, who cannot be reduced to an image, a location, a simple function; a God whose presence is everywhere and whose power is over all – against a man-made figurehead. 

We see in this story of Elijah that there is no match. The pathetic prophets of Baal work themselves into a lather, they cut themselves and offer their own blood to the sacrifice – and yet there is no voice, no answer from Baal, the god of the storm.  Then Elijah steps up to the altar of the Lord and offers his prayer:

O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.  Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant.  Answer me, Lord, that these people may know that you can change their hearts.

It doesn’t require his blood.  It doesn’t need any overwrought gesticulations and articulations.  It takes only submission and obedience to the one who is Lord of all.  Elijah might stand alone.  But in his solitary stance he has the heavenly host at his side.  Paul might stand alone.  But in his solitary stance he has the full power of the gospel and the glory of Almighty God at his side.

Martin Luther, five centuries ago, stood alone before the powers of his day – a church that had grown corrupt by power, who was once again leading people into beliefs that distorted the gospel, hid the truth.  Luther, like Paul and so many of the saints before him, stood alone on the side of the gospel.  And as he stood before a council which commanded him to recant his beliefs, to submit to their authority, he refused.  His conscience would not allow him to do so.  He said, “Here I stand.  I can do no other.”

We will all have opportunities to take a stand in our lives – for the sake of truth, for the sake of the gospel.  The choice you make at those moments is informed by the way you live your faith each and every day.  It is a hard thing to stand alone.  But when you stand on the side of truth against the idols of the age, whatever they may be – Baal, money, comfort, safety, popularity, or others – you do not stand alone.

Stand for truth and you stand with the power of God.

Letter to a Resurrected People, Chapter 5: I Will Never Leave You Alone

Acts 2:1-21      When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

John 14:8-17, 25-27  Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

”I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

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I once worked with a man who was a pastor from the Pentecostal tradition – Dean was his name – and we talked about speaking in tongues.  It is, of course, a usual part of the Pentecostal worship experience.  Some of you may have attended worship services in Pentecostal churches and seen this for yourselves.  Some of the folks at the roundtable this past week shared their experiences.  None of us had ever spoken in tongues ourselves – and none of us really felt that we understand the gift of tongues – but it is common enough that we had some familiarity with it.

Pastor Dean and I had some conversations about the whole phenomenon.  He knew something about Presbyterians and was not surprised that the gift of tongues was foreign to me.  But he said, even though he knows who we are, he doesn’t doubt for a second that God could cause an outbreak of tongues even in a Presbyterian church.  I said, Of course.  Having a strong view of God’s omnipotence, as any good Presbyterian does, I don’t doubt it either.  I’m sure God can do anything God chooses to do.  Although – knowing as many Presbyterians as I do – I believe it would be one of God’s greater miracles. 

This past week I came across an article that suggested to me I have suffered from some misunderstandings about the gift of tongues.  The article described tongues as a kind of prayer that is free of language, allowing a person to let go of control and let the Spirit work.  It seems to be a kind of personal spiritual practice that people do in public.

But on the day of Pentecost something of a different nature was happening.  While it was an inbreaking of the same Spirit, it resulted in a different manifestation of the Spirit’s power.

This was the Spirit that Jesus had promised them, before his arrest weeks earlier. His disciples were feeling as insecure as we often feel, wanting some assurance, some sign, that they could follow. So Jesus told them that the Father would give them an Advocate, a Spirit of truth, to be with them forever, to teach them everything they needed to know.  This Spirit, Jesus assured them, will be with you and in you.

And on that day of Pentecost, when the Spirit arrived like a rush of violent wind, it hovered over them and inhabited them and gave them power to do what they formerly could not do.  Somehow, they were able to communicate with all the various and diverse people who were gathered in Jerusalem for the festival.  By the power of the Spirit, they were connected with people who were different from them.  This is the miracle of Pentecost.

The gift Jesus promise to his disciples that evening in the upper room is for us too.  The message Jesus left with the disciples is for us too:  that he will not leave us alone.  He remains with us by the presence of the Holy Spirit – whose power connects us with other people, all sorts of people.  He will never leave us alone – because we have him with us still and we have the company of one another, all of us made one by the reconciling life of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Let me share some words from the last chapter of the letter from our Apostle today, some words about the Spirit that will not leave us alone.

As Jesus promised his friends 2000 years ago, I remind you today:  He will not leave you alone.  The Holy Spirit is a gift from God that brings you comfort, courage, wisdom, and truth.  The Spirit brings you many things, but one thing I especially want you to remember today is that the Spirit brings you community. 

The Spirit broke into the small gathering of disciples on Pentecost and gave them the ability to reach beyond their comfortable limits to speak to the diverse multicultural gathering outside their walls. The same Spirit enables you to knit together community where there was none before.  When you came to this church you found new family, amongst people who had been strangers before.  This was the work of the Spirit!  But know that the Spirit does not rest.  The Spirit continues to break barriers, forge bonds, enlarge circles of community. 

Like many others, your denomination has spent too many years paralyzed by divisive political issues.  Some congregations have thrown themselves into the fight, while others have preferred to stick their heads in the sand.  It hardly matters which approach you took.  Neither could heal conflict nor bring reconciliation.  Both took too much energy and limited your ability to be effective evangelists in the world.  The church has nearly forgotten how to pay attention to, and care about, some of the most important things it was meant to be and do. 

Perhaps it is time to do something different: to listen for the Spirit, who enables us to speak and hear one another across divisions of culture, language, politics, generation, and anything else that divides us.  The Spirit will give you confidence to speak truth in love, to listen compassionately, and to practice patience with one and all. 

The Apostle has spoken.

Now it is your turn.  You have listened for several weeks to the words from the Apostle to a resurrected people.  What do you have to say in return?  Let the Spirit who is among us and in us work through us to say what we need to say in answer to all we have heard. 

Gather in small groups where you are and together write your letter from the church to the Apostle of Jesus Christ.  This is not the time to generate a list of ideas of things we can or should do.  This is merely to speak your heart to the Apostle – voice the hopes, the needs, the concerns and questions of a resurrected people – the church of Jesus Christ.

Letter to a Resurrected People, Chapter 4: We're In It Together

Acts 16:16-34              One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

John 17:20-26            ”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

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There is probably no better example of the idea of two being made one than marriage.  The very word, marry, means two coming together as one.  In fact, when I worked in restaurants I learned a new use of the word: at the end of the day we would “marry the condiments.”  Take those two half-empty bottles of catsup, pour the remains of one into the other, wipe up the mess you made on the label, and there you go – two are made one. 

Kim and I had the joy of being at our daughter’s wedding last Sunday and witnessing the ritual of two being made one.  As Kira and Shane made their solemn vows to each other and exchanged rings, they were transformed from two independent individuals to one unit – a family. 

The two become one, and that extends to their respective families as well.  Now our two families are connected.  At the wedding reception, Shane’s young nephew got out on the dance floor with my son Henry.  And when the song ended he shook Henry’s hand and introduced himself.  He said, “You’re my uncle-in-law.”  The two families are made one.

 A wedding is a perfect example of the image presented in this passage from John – an image of what was once separate becoming united as one. “That they may all be one, as you and I are one,” Jesus says in his prayer to the Father.  “Let the love with which you have loved me be also in them.” 

These are beautiful words … beautiful sentiments.  They fill us with good feelings, and then we go home.  To actually live these words is something on a different level.  We know life isn’t lived in perfect harmony, like the old Coke commercial song.

The scene we read from Acts today gets right to the nub of it.  The Apostles Paul and Silas are followed by a slave girl with a spirit of divination.  Some may call it a gift; others would call it a curse.  Whatever it is, she seems to have the ability to tell the future, and her owners have made a happy profit from it.  For reasons that are not made entirely clear, Paul becomes annoyed.  Perhaps it is because she is like a droning mosquito following him around.  Perhaps it is because she is drawing too much attention to him.  Perhaps, and quite likely, I think, he is annoyed at the exploitation of this girl and the fact that the culture seems to wholeheartedly accept it. Whatever it is, he is annoyed enough to turn around and cast the spirit right out of the girl.  It would seem that this is a good thing for the girl, but a bad thing for her owners who have just lost a reliable source of income.  They are predictably angry, and they charge Paul and Silas with disturbing the peace.  The local authorities concur and have them thrown in jail. 

The girl who was oppressed by a demon and by her fellow human beings has now been freed, but the men who set her free are now imprisoned.  They broke the rules.  Such are the ways of the world.  There is, you might think, a finite amount of power and freedom to go around; if I gain some then someone else must lose some.  This may be the way of the world – but it is not the way of the gospel.  The Spirit of God brings an earthquake that breaks down the walls that imprison Paul and Silas.  Chains are broken; locks are opened.  But Paul and Silas do not try to escape – they simply wait in their former cell for the jailer to reach them.  That night, those who had been separated were made one in Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ resists the ways of the world that create division.  The power of the gospel gives us freedom to break down barriers, to work together for the well-being of all.  And it takes faithful effort on the part of all Jesus’ disciples.  What does it look like for us to make this faithful effort?  What does it take in our world to show the oneness we have in Christ?  What might the Apostles of Christ say about this to us, the church in Huber Heights, to help us be the church that we were meant to be?

Perhaps we can imagine such a message.  Hear these words from the fourth chapter of our letter to a resurrected people.

Chapter 4:

“Love one another as I have loved you.”  These are the words Jesus said to us.  Living this love requires making some changes in our lives, including pulling down some barriers that separate us from others.  We would prefer to remain separate from those who seem to make our lives difficult.  We say things like, “life is too short to spend it with people I don’t like.” 

There is a phrase I have been hearing a lot among church folks:  like-minded people.  There is this peculiar notion that it is our right to associate only with those we want to associate with.  There is the idea that it is a good thing for churches to be made up of people who have the same opinions about everything, and that anyone who disagrees should go find another church where there might be other folks who think the same way. 

The church has developed this habit of splintering into smaller and smaller groups of people with whom we feel comfortable.  To say about a church, “I feel comfortable there,” has become an entirely acceptable excuse for joining a congregation.  It is not often that I hear someone say, “I am a member of this church because I feel challenged there – challenged to grow.” 

Of course, it is not only the church that exhibits this characteristic.  You are living in an increasingly polarized culture, and nothing exemplifies it more than your politics.  There are dedicated news stations for those who identify as conservative or liberal, and they do not report the same news.  Rather than growing in understanding toward one another, the goal seems to be simply reinforcing your respective pre-existing beliefs. 

I have a great concern for you and the culture in which you live, that you grow increasingly estranged from one another.  As your interests grow farther apart and your views of the world grow farther apart, your ability to care for one another will diminish.

Yet I remain hopeful that the gospel of Jesus Christ is more powerful than any walls we might build separating us one from another.  I am hopeful that the love of God is working in you, and the Spirit will stir you to confess your own culpability in the challenges we are facing.  We must resist the temptation to lay blame for all problems at the feet of someone else and search our own souls for the ways we have caused misunderstanding and alienation.  We must be willing to say, “I was wrong and I am sorry” or, “This is hard for me, and I need your patience.”

The love of God in Christ Jesus brings us together, uniting us as one, as Jesus and the Father are one with the Holy Spirit.  Truly I say to you, what affects you affects me; what hurts you hurts me; what blesses you blesses me.  We are in this together.  That is our challenge and that is also our strength.

As we take this message with us today, and throughout this week, let us ask ourselves what are the particular challenges we face.  How are we separated from others in our neighborhood – what are the walls that separate us from the people who live in our neighborhood, right around our church property?  How well do we know our neighbors – and if we do know them, do we love them?  What separates us from one another even within our congregation?  Do we allow barriers to grow between us, hiding behind them to avoid having to talk about the hard things? 

As we take this message with us today and into this week, let us carry the knowledge in our heads and our hearts that the gospel frees us from the things that separate us; that the love we know through Christ Jesus has the power to break down barriers and build up peace in even the toughest places.  God loves us enough to do that.  In the name of the one who is love.