How Jesus sets us free – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 4

One of my favorite Bible verses is Galatians 2:20.  Open a Bible and read Galatians 2:17-21, and take note especially of verse 20.

See what Paul says in verse 20?  The amazing truth is that by faith Christ Jesus can live in us!!!  That’s a million times better than trying to keep the law!  God in us.  The power of God works in us, changing us, making us more like Jesus.  That’s how to make things right.  Best yet, it all stems from God’s love for us, Paul says. 

Compare the work of God to the work of the Law.  The Law is a pathetic, weak shadow that can teach us about sin, but it cannot make us right.  But Jesus alive and at work in us?  Amazing! Life changing and transformative.

Furthermore, Paul says that if we could made righteous by keeping the Law, then Jesus’ died for nothing.  Paul’s point is very clear: Jesus didn’t die for nothing because we cannot be made righteous by attempting to do good works and keep the Law.  Jesus’s death and resurrection is everything.  

That powerful truth is why Paul is so upset with the false Christians.  They were trying to get the Galatian Christians to start keeping the law again.  Especially to get circumcised. 

Look at what Paul says next in Galatians chapter 3 verses 1-5. These verses are so intense!  But for good reason.  The Gospel is at stake!  To Paul, what Jesus has made possible through his death and resurrection is so obviously better and so clearly the truth, that Paul cannot believe what he is hearing.  Why would the Galatians go crawling back into the dark, dank life of living under the Law? 

Also in this section, he mentions a word for the first time.  Spirit.  Paul is saying, “Galatians, you know that placing your faith in Jesus is the truth because of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.”  There’s evidence that this is true.  The work of the Spirit shows us that Jesus is the true way to be made right. 

Paul continues.  He really wants to drive home his point.  He wants to prove that he is not just making this up, but that it is God’s truth.  In chapter 3, verses 6-25, which Paul makes numerous points about the truth of Jesus.  Take a look at verse 14.  There Paul says that one of the main reasons for being made right through faith in Jesus is so that we can receive the promise of the Spirit.  For Paul, the presence of the Spirit in our lives is exceedingly important. 

You can’t have the Spirit in your life if you don’t turn away from trying to keep the Law and turn towards placing your faith in Jesus.  Notice the image Paul uses in verses 23-24.  Prison.  Trying to the keep the Law is like being stuck in prison.  But faith frees us.  We are free from the law of sin and death. 

Paul has come full circle from what he mentioned in chapter 2 verse 4, when he talked about the false Christians who were spying on their freedom.  Those false Christians were teaching that non-Jewish Christians needed to get circumcised, thus they could show they are following the law. 

Paul says, “No way. Jesus came to set us free from the law.”  Do you see why Paul would confront Peter?  Peter was giving in to the circumcision group.  Paul is saying, “Peter, if you start requiring people to follow the Law, Jesus’ death and resurrection is meaningless.”

But Jesus did die and rise again, and that means we are free from the prison that is the Law. If we are set free from the Law, does that mean we can live however we want?

Paul will address that question, as we’ll see in the next post.

Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash

How to be made right – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 3

I told a story in the preview post about how I was not right. I made the stupid decision to smack my head against a beam. Maybe you’ve done very dumb or very bad things as well. My guess is that just about all of have at one time or another. Do you need to be made right? The truth is that we all need to be made right. And the good news is that we can be made right! Keep reading to learn how.

In the previous post, we learned that Paul in Galatians 2 brings up circumcision. To our contemporary ears, that might sound odd. Why is Paul talking about something so private in a letter to churches? Notice that Paul says in verse 5 that he and Titus did not give in to the false Christians, so that the truth of the Gospel might remain with them.  That is a key point.  The truth of the Gospel is opposed to slavery.  The truth of the Gospel is in line with freedom. 

So far, this might sound confusing.  But stay with me.  What have we heard thus far?  That Paul is very upset, so he tells a story about Titus refusing to get circumcised, about false Christian spies, freedom in Jesus, and the true Gospel. How do all these seemingly unrelated details fit together?  Paul doesn’t yet tell us.  Instead he continues his story.  In Galatians 2:6-10, he explains that while Peter was the apostle to the Jews, Paul was the apostle to the non-Jews, called Gentiles. 

Then in verses 11-14, Paul tells us about a surprising confrontation he has with Peter!  Before I read these verses, we need to know something about Peter and Paul’s differing reputations and status in the church.  Peter is the #1 guy, the top leader in the church.  Paul is the up and comer.  He’s the new kid with the sketchy background.  In that culture, the clear power dynamic is that Peter is vastly superior to Paul.  Given that power dynamic, it is possible that people in Galatia would be listening to the letter thinking, “Oh we know what’s coming next.  Peter is about to put Paul in his place.”  Look what happens.  Read Galatians 2:11-14, and you’ll get a surprise. 

Paul puts Peter in his place!  Paul says, “Peter, what are you doing?  You’re giving in to the false gospel of the false Christians.”  Paul wants the readers of the letter to know beyond the shadow of the doubt that just because the top leader of the church, and some other high-level people like Barnabas, were led astray by the false Christians, it was wrong!  Peter was wrong.  Barnabas was wrong. 

Think about this.  Paul is publicly calling out Peter, the top leader of the church.  This word would get around to the churches, as the letter was passed around and read and reread from house church to house church.  We’re still reading it today, for goodness sake!  That’s how important this teaching is for Paul, he is willing to publicly talk about his boss in a negative light.

So what did Peter do that was so bad?  Paul says that he used to eat with Gentiles, the non-Jewish Christians, but when some people from the circumcision group showed up, Peter was afraid of them and changed his tune.  There’s that word “circumcision” again.  Now we learn there was a circumcision group?  What in the world is that? 

It might sound super odd, but if you are Jewish, it makes sense.  The Jewish Law, given by God to the people of Israel thousands of years before, required that Jews circumcise their baby boys on the eighth day of their little lives as a sign that those boys are part of the covenant with God.  We read about this in the story of Abraham in Genesis and in the story of Moses in Exodus.  If an uncircumcised adults wanted to become Jewish, they would be circumcised too, as a sign of their covenant relationship to God. To be Jewish, you had to be circumcised.

But Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles, the non-Jews.  Like many of the people in the churches in Galatia, they weren’t Jewish, so they didn’t grow up with this religious ritual of circumcision.  That became a huge issue for the Christians who did have a Jewish background, and it leads to the major question Paul addresses in this letter: Do Christians need to follow the stipulations of the Old Testament Law?  If you answer “Yes,” then those adult Galatian men will need to be circumcised.  If you answer “No,” then you are saying that Christians have freedom from the Law, which, to the Jews, sounds super disrespectful to God. 

The circumcision group answered “Yes.”  Paul clearly answered “No.”  Peter started out answering “No,” but then changed his tune when the circumcision group were around.  What is the right answer?  That’s what Paul gets to next in verses 15-16, some of the most important verses in the letter. Read those verses, and I think you’ll see what I mean.

In these verses, Paul uses two more very important words, “faith” and “justify.”  He says it is not the law, but faith in Jesus that justifies us.  Let’s examine these two words.

What is faith?  The people who started my church in 1968 though it was so important they put it in our name, Faith Church.  And for good reason. Faith is that important.  But faith is not just believing ideas about something.  That is only part of it.  We ask a person, “Do you believe in God?” and they might respond, “Yes, I believe God exists.” Or they might even go so far as to say, “I believe Jesus is God and that he was born, lived, died and rose again.”  Those are important ideas to believe. 

But that is only part of faith.  You cannot be a Christian by looking at a doctrinal questionnaire and checking all the right boxes.  You also need the second half of faith.  You need the part of faith that shows that it is real faith.  You know what I’m talking about?  The actions.  Your life choices show what you really believe.  That’s what Paul is talking about when he talks about faith.  We need both parts of faith.

Paul also writes that no one is justified by observing the law.  Instead we need to put our faith in Jesus.  It is faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection that justifies us.  What is justification?  The word Paul uses means “to be made right.”  That’s why this same word is sometimes translated “righteousness.” Another word that helps me understand it better is “rectification.”  When you rectify a wrong, you make it right.  Paul is saying that before God, human attempts to keep the Law can never make a person right.  Jesus can though. 

And that brings us to one of my favorite verses, which we’ll discuss in the next post.

Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

Grace, circumcision, and spies in church? – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 2

The church in the former Soviet Union had to be careful because the government sent spies into the church. In Communist China the same thing happens. Believe it or not, the early church faced a similar threat. What would you do if there were spies in your church?

In the previous post, we jumped ahead in Galatians 1, verses 13-17, reading the story of Paul’s amazing conversion to be an apostle for Jesus. He traveled around the Roman Empire talking about the good news of Jesus. In the region of Galatia, many people decided to believe in and follow the way of Jesus, and Paul grouped them in churches. But in a short period of time, things changed.

Look at Galatians, chapter 1, verses 6-9, where Paul gets right to the point. 

This is very emotional writing, isn’t it?  He is astonished.  He accuses them of deserting the Gospel.  He accuses other people of confusing them, of perverting the Gospel, and he says that those other people, if they are truly preaching another false gospel, they should be eternally condemned.  And then he repeats himself: “let them be eternally condemned!”  Paul is fired up!  Yes, you just read the Apostle Paul say, “Go to hell.”

What is this other gospel?  How are people perverting the Gospel? 

Paul doesn’t explain just yet.  He has not described the true Gospel, and he has not described the false Gospel.  Glance back at verse 6, because there he gives us a clue, the word “grace.”  He says that they were called by the grace of Christ, and now Paul is astonished that they are turning to something different.  So whatever the true Gospel is, it is in line with God’s grace.  And whatever the false gospel is, it out of line with God’s grace. 

Keep that in mind.  This is a very important point.  The concept of God’s grace is central to the true Gospel.  Grace is defined as “showing kindness to someone, with the implication of graciousness on the part of the one showing such kindness”[1] 

Grace gives us the image of a situation where you have treated someone poorly, and they turn to you. You are fully expecting a negative response, like anger or at least frustration from them, but as you are preparing for the worst, they are kind to you. 

We also heard Paul mention grace in one of the verses about his miraculous conversion (verse 15).  God called Paul by his grace.  When God revealed himself to Paul the persecutor, God had every right to punish Paul, but instead God show him kindness.  That’s grace.  The story of the good news in Jesus is that God is gracious to humans.

We didn’t read Galatians chapter 1, verses 10-12. In those verses Paul says that the Gospel is something he received from Jesus.  That led Paul to tell his story, which we already read, so jump ahead to where we left off, chapter 1, verse 18. Read through chapter 2, verse 2.  There Paul describes how he gradually became a missionary and leader in the church. 

Then in chapter 2, verses 3-4, he gets to the point of why he is telling his story.  Paul mentions that his ministry associate Titus was not compelled to get circumcised.  Woah.  To our modern ears, that is a very strange thing for Paul to mention.  Circumcision is so private, right?  How often have you had a conversation with your friends about whether they are circumcised?  Mostly it comes up only when a new baby is born. 

But in a church letter?  Remember that these churches were all house churches.  There were no buildings.  Also remember that ancient letter writing was super rare.  When a letter arrived, it was a big deal. Everyone in the church family would gather in the house to hear the letter read out loud.  It would be kind of like how we have a congregational meeting.  We gather to hear people represent our ministry teams, giving reports about what God did in the past year.  Imagine if one of the ministry team representatives started talking about how one of the guys on their team wasn’t circumcised.  Weird, right?  But that’s because we live in a totally different time and culture.  It does make me if it would have been at least a little bit awkward in their culture too. Maybe.

But believe it or not, Paul is doing some bible and theology teaching here when he talks about circumcision, and it has everything to do with what has him so concerned that he wrote this letter.  Look at verses 4-5, and he explains it a bit more. 

Woah…this just turned into a spy novel.  “Infiltrating our ranks,” Paul says.  What is he talking about?  He calls these infiltrators, “false brothers”.  That means they were people who claimed to be Christians, but Paul declares them to be false.  Just because a person calls themselves a Christian doesn’t mean they are a true Christian.  Why does he call them false?

Paul says they are false because they actually wanted to enslave Christians.  Paul is not talking about slavery like you and I think of the institution of slavery in our nation’s history.  Paul is using slavery figuratively, the opposite of what he calls the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus.  What freedom do we have in Christ?  And what does this have to do with circumcision?

In the next post, Paul will get to some answers!

Photo by Sergiu Nista on Unsplash

[1] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 748.

God wants you to be a rule-breaker? – Galatians 1:1-5:15, Part 1

Are you a rule-follower or a law-breaker?

Sometimes following the rules is difficult. Take a look at this video, and you’ll see what I mean:

Would it surprise you to hear me say that you God wants you to be rule-breakers? In fact, you need to be a rule-breaker to enter the Kingdom of God. How so? Keep reading, and during this week’s five-part blog series, we’ll find out.

Our next blog series is on the Fruit of the Spirit.  It seemed the natural next step after Ezekiel’s vision of the river flowing from the temple, creating flourishing and fruit-bearing trees, which we learned this past week here.

The Fruit of the Spirit is in found in the New Testament book of Galatians chapter 5:22-23, and it is a list of qualities, actions and choices that will flow from our lives when we are walking in step with the Spirit.  During the Fruit of the Spirit series we spend one week per topic: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control.  

But the list of the Fruit of the Spirit is found in just two verses that are part a larger discussion about the kind of life we will live when we are walking in step with the Spirit.  We read about walking in step with the Spirit in the surrounding verses, Galatians 5:16-26.  It’s important that we understand how the Fruit of the Spirit fits in that larger discussion of walking in step with the Spirit, so I planned on having an introductory week of posts to talk about that context.  I was going to start that week of posts today, but now I’m not.

I am delaying that one month because we have a variety of special weeks coming up.  Next week we have another current events series of post.  The week after that, Clint Watkins will be with us to talk about lament.  Then the next week is Palm Sunday and of course the following week is Easter Sunday. 

In other words, if we had the first Fruit of the Spirit blog series this week, then it would be another five weeks until we had the next one.  So instead, this week we’re going to have a kind of intro to the intro.  Maybe you could call it a prequel to learn what Galatians is all about, and how that leads to why the author of Galatians talks about the Fruit of the Spirit.  Let’s dive in.  Turn to Galatians 1, verse 1.  

Verse 1 begins: “Paul, an apostle.”  Ancient letter writers did not start with “Dear John.”  We are used to starting letters or emails by addressing the person we’re writing to.  Not so in the ancient world.  2000 years ago in the Greco-Roman era, people started letters by declaring their own name, the name of the person doing the writing.  In this case, Paul.  But who was Paul? 

Jump ahead to Galatians 1 verse 13.  He shares his story.  Read verses 13-17.  What Paul is saying is that he used to be a Jewish religious leader in Jerusalem.  He was all-in, a member of the Pharisees, which were the people Jesus often tussled with.

A few years after Jesus returned to heaven, and as his new church was growing, Paul was right there on the front lines leading the Pharisees’ battle against the Christians who the Pharisees believed were a cult to be destroyed.  But God intervened and saved Paul.  From that point forward, with the same vigorous energy that Paul once used to persecute Christians, he now passionately tried to convince people to become Christians. 

As Paul’s story in Acts continues, we read that his ministry was primarily to non-Jews in the Roman Empire.  Paul was a missionary, traveling thousands of miles over land and sea, starting churches wherever he went.  That’s why he calls himself an apostle.  An apostle is an entrepreneur, venturing into new areas and starting new ministry.  Paul was also a letter-writer, using that technology to stay in touch with and disciple the people in the churches.  Usually, he wrote letters when he got wind of a problem in a church. 

That is exactly what led to the letter called Galatians.  Look at verse 2, and you see that this letter is to the churches in Galatia.  So not just one church, Paul was writing many churches.  And those churches were not in a city.  Galatia was a region. 

Why was he writing to the churches in Galatia?  Well, that is the big question we’re trying to answer this week.  To answer that, first we need to answer, “When did he write this letter?”  It is very likely that Galatians was one of the earliest New Testament writings.  That means this church is young.  Maybe 5 years old.  They were also very young in their faith. 

If we started a new church in Lancaster, most likely the launch group would be people who have deep roots in the faith.  Not these Galatian Christians.  Many of them had a thorough Roman or Greek religious background.  They didn’t grow up believing in and following Jesus.  There were likely some Jews in the churches who had at least a Jewish background.  But as we will see, that too, became an issue. 

Paul is writing because he heard something about these new Christians that really concerned him.  Previously on one of his missionary journeys, Paul went to Galatia and taught about who Jesus was, about Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, and how Jesus was the way, the truth and the life.  We call that the story of the Gospel, the story of good news about Jesus.  When Paul preached the gospel in the region of Galatian, people turned to Jesus, believed in him, and gave their lives to follow him. 

But in a short period of time, things changed.

Check back to the next post, and we’ll learn about that.

Photo by niu niu on Unsplash

The time my co-worker said, “What’s wrong with you? You’re not right.” – Galatians 1-5, Preview

As a line of blood trickled down my face, my co-worker looked at me, shaking his head saying, “What is wrong with you? You are not right!”

But let me back up and tell you what led to that.

My first job after graduating from college in 1996 was as a youth care worker at Barnes Hall, the former Lancaster County Juvenile Detention Center. I worked the 3pm-11pm shift, and one evening, some of us staff were watching kids in the large day room. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but whatever it was, it gave me the idea to jump up and hit my head lightly against the drywall covering a beam across the ceiling of the room.

If you’re reading this thinking, “Joel, that is really odd,” you’re right. I was young, about 22 or 23 years old at the time, and showing off. In the moment, I didn’t think it would amount to much. It seemed to me that I should be able to leap up and graze my forehead against the drywall, hopefully impress my co-workers, and land on my feet, no big deal. In my mind, I was thinking about soccer. I had played soccer from middle school through college, and that motion of jumping and heading a soccer ball was very familiar to me. Surely I could do the same thing to the drywall jutting out above me, ever so slightly touching it. Right?

Some of my co-workers didn’t think I would do it, so I wasn’t about to back down. I jumped up a couple times to gauge my height and distance, making sure that, yes, I could actually get that high. Then I took a deep breathe, and I went for it. I leapt, cocked my head back, like you do when heading a soccer ball, and then slammed my head forward against the drywall. I’ve done that same motion many times in soccer practice or in a game. But this time was different. I was going for a light touch, but in my bravado, and perhaps some muscle memory, I ended up hitting the drywall hard.

It all happened in an instant, and I landed on my feet. I was a bit disoriented from the impact, so I shook my head, seeing stars. My co-workers standing around me wide-eyed. Some gasped, some laughed, and I think just about all of them were at least somewhat stunned. They knew I hit the drywall hard.

Then the blood started running down my face.

I didn’t hit the flat front of the drywall. I hit the corner, and the impact sliced open my forehead. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it was enough to cause bleeding. About that time that one of them said to me, “What is wrong with you? You are not right!” He wasn’t being unkind. I think he was mostly surprised, and truthful. What I did was very bizarre, unwise behavior.

Have you ever had someone say to you, “What is wrong with you? You are not right!”??? They might say this to you with a smile on their face and twinkle in their eye, because you did something crazy. Or they might say this to you with eye wide open, and eyebrows raised, because you did something stupid. But they might say it to you with a scowl and a harsh tone because you did something very wrong.

The reality is that is could be said of all of us at one time or another. From God’s perspective, humans are not right. But the wonderful news is we can be made right.

I’m starting a new blog series on the Fruit of the Spirit, and it begins next week with a prequel of sorts, that will help us understand how we can be made right. We’ll be learning about Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and Paul’s impassioned concern that the Galatian Christians understand this important principle: how to be made right. Paul is fired up, but for good reason. The fate of all humanity is at stake. Skim through Galatians chapters 1-5, and I think you’ll see what I mean. Then join me next week as we begin to talk about it further!

Photo by Constantin Shimonenko on Unsplash

God’s heart for human flourishing (or Why God cares about social justice) – Ezekiel 45-48, Part 5

Years ago, I learned a song when I was a teenager in youth group, and I found it very catchy and fun, but I had no idea what it meant. “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me, makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, opens prison doors, sets the captives free. I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me. Spring up, O well, within my soul, Spring up, O well, and make me whole. Spring up, O well, and give to me, that life, abundantly.” Now I know what the song means, because of Ezekiel.

We have been studying Ezekiel 45-48, which is the continuation of the vision God gave Ezekiel starting in chapter 40. In the previous posts this week, we learned about God’s heart for worship in chapters 45 and 46. Now in chapter 47 the vision changes dramatically.   In Ezekiel 47:1-12 we read a fascinating description of a river that flows from the temple, and the river makes everything flourishing, even the Dead Sea.  Notice verse 12 and the unfailing, life-giving, healing nature of the trees that grow on the banks of the river.  It’s a new Garden of Eden.  This is a powerful depiction of what God’s heart desires for his people.  God wants humanity to flourish.  This is not just a vision of heaven.  Of course people will flourish in heaven.  But notice how physical and earthy this vision is.  God desires flourishing now. 

That is what Jesus was getting at when he taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  On earth…as it is in heaven.  That means we follow God’s heart when we look for ways humans are not flourishing, and we seek to bring them into the flourishing life that God desires.  That means both inviting them to enter into a relationship with God, as well as helping them become free from injustice, and helping to eradicate injustice in our community and world. 

Where are the physical, emotional, spiritual needs in your church family and community?  God’s desire is that all of the people with these needs will flourish. That is why we preach the Gospel in word and deed, justice as Jesus himself did.  That is what the river of life symbolizes. 

Remember the song I learned in youth group? That song is talking about the flourishing life that God desires for his people, like a river that brings life-giving water to the land so farmer can produce delicious food. 

Notice that Ezekiel isn’t simply looking at the river, the life source.  Ezekiel was in the river.  And it is rising!  First the water level is at his ankles.  Then it rises to his knees, and then to his waist.  He is in the river, not watching from the sidelines.  Finally, it got so deep he started to swim.

Ezekiel was participating in the river of life.  Notice all the trees are fed by the river.  They grow, they are drinking from the river.  It was a river flowing from the sanctuary of God.  This is a reminder of us to jump in the river, and not watch from the sidelines.  In God’s river of life is where God’s goodness and power is for flourishing.

Next, there is the long section from Ezekiel 47:13-48:29, and in that section, we see again God’s heart for human flourishing.  This section is a detailed description of the borders of the land.  God is essentially drawing a map of the entire land.  What can we learn about God’s heart in this?  God desires equality of inheritance.  See verse 47:14, we he mentions equality specifically, but the entire description is one of fair portions.  Everyone gets part of the inheritance.  All are cared for.  Even those who are not part of the family are cared for!  God desires aliens to be considered as native-born Israelites!  (47:22-23)  Clearly God’s heart is open and reaching out to those on the margins.  God’s heart is for all to have a home, for all to be included. This is not a political statement about immigration policy. This is God’s heart.

Finally, we arrive at the end.  In Ezekiel 48:30-35, the vision describes the gates of the city, concluding with the all-important name of the city: “The Lord is there.”  As we have seen from chapter 1, time and time and time again, God’s heart has been for his people to know that he is God.  Remember that phrase, the most repeated and most important phrase of the book of Ezekiel? “Then they will know that I am the Lord.”  God wants to be known, to be in close relationship with you.  God wants to make his home with you.  Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  The name of God’s new city is “God is there.”  God is present with his people. 

Think about that.  God wants to be so close to you.  If you learn anything about the book of Ezekiel, learn this one thing: God’s heart aches to be in a loving relationship with you.  Step into the water with God.  Maybe it is first your toes, maybe just a new start.  Maybe you wade in further to your ankles, then to your knees.  Continue to go deeper with him, to experience flourishing so that you can produce fruit.  Which is why our next sermon series is going to be a study of the Fruit of the Spirit.

What step do you need to take?

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3 pitfalls of Evangelical Christian worship – Ezekiel 45-48, Part 4

In this week’s study of Ezekiel 45-48, we have been following a map to God’s heart. We now study chapter 46 which includes more detail about Israel’s sacrificial system.  What do we learn in chapter 46 about God’s heart?

The sacrificial system teaches us that God desires worship that is gathered, consistent, and orderly.  In my Christian heritage, the evangelical Bible tradition, we don’t have many issues with orderly worship.  But I think we need to be careful about orderly worship in at least two ways.

First, we need to be careful of being so orderly that our worship becomes empty.  I am a fan of liturgy and ritual.  I do not believe that highly liturgical churches, or highly ritualized churches are doing something that is inherently wrong.  But we low liturgy and low ritual churches can look down on high liturgy churches as if they are automatically practicing dead or empty religion.  In fact, years ago when Faith Church made a change from quarterly communion to monthly communion, some people expressed concern that it would ruin the meaning and importance of communion because we would be taking communion so frequently that we would take it for granted.  That is an important concern.   But the same thing could be said for singing songs every week.  For singing four songs every week.  For having a sermon every week.  Anything we do repetitiously and consistently is in danger of becoming boring and empty. 

But that danger is not so much connected to the repetition as it is connected to our hearts.  Worship starts in our hearts.  Worship flows from a heart that wants to express thanks to God, from a heart that wants to proclaim the truth that God is real and that God is awesome, from a heart that wants to hear from the Holy Spirit.  A heart in the right place, in other words, can say the Lord’s Prayer every week and mean it.  A heart in the right place can take communion every week and find it to be extremely important.  Our evangelical forefather, John Wesley, for example, saw the deep meaning of communion with Jesus, and said, “Give it to me every day!” 

The antidote to empty worship is heart aflame for Jesus.  A heart desiring and seeking more connection in an ongoing relationship with Jesus.

The next aspect of orderly worship we need to be careful of is idolizing it.  We can actually worship our worship.  We can worship an element of worship.  Over the years, I’ve heard many sentiments that are either straight up idol worship, or scarily close to it.  People suggesting that one kind of music is preferable in worship than another.  People saying that one order of worship is preferable to another.  People saying that one kind of sermon is preferable to another.  People saying that the kind of room and the kind of furnishings in the worship space are preferable to another.  People saying that one kind of clothing should be worn by worshipers. 

We have all kinds of preferences, but we cross a line into idol worship when we start glorifying our preferences, as if our preferences honor God more than others’ preferences.  In none of those categories I just mentioned (style of music, order of worship, sermon, room, furnishings, clothing), does God tell us in the Bible that there is one right way.  Instead, all of those categories, and there are more, are based on personal preference that is almost always connected to what a person grew up with, first came to faith in Jesus with, or has become accustomed to. 

I am not saying that those preferences are wrong.  What I am saying is that we can idolize or legalize them, and that is wrong. To counteract this, we from the evangelical word tradition need to make sure that we come to worship gatherings in a humble, teachable heart, asking God’s Spirit to be at work.  We come to worship saying, “Lord, I do not have worship figured out.  Yes, there are some methods for worship that I really enjoy, but I don’t want to become so focused on those methods that I don’t hear from you.  So I welcome new worship experiments and experiences.  Teach me, Lord, how to worship you.  Holy Spirit, speak to me.” 

I am excited that our Arts Team is forming.  We seek to do just that, to experiment with art in the life and ministry of our congregation. 

Next, in chapter 46, we read that worship is gathered and consistent.  It is not inconsistent.  What I am not talking about is the person who consistently participates in gathered worship once per year, every year.  They are consistent alright, but that’s not the consistency of gathering for worship that God’s heart shows us in this passage.  Instead, we view gathered worship at vital, important to our discipleship.  The act of being together strengthens us as a body.  

Recently a Christian writer who is also an Anglican priest wrote an opinion article making the case that the pandemic had gotten to the point where it is safe for most churches to stop their online services and meet in person.  She made several excellent theologically sound points.  The response to her article was fast and strong.  She received tons of mail.  Some people supported her, some strongly disagreed.  What about people with physical impairments, for example?  There are potentially numerous good reasons why a church should still offer online worship. 

At Faith Church we will continue to have an online option. We have no interest in competing with other highly produced online worship experiences.  But we do believe that it is important to at least have an option.  If you are sick or on vacation, you can still participate in online worship.  We do not believe that online worship is the same as in-person worship.  But that doesn’t mean we look down on online worship as bad.  In-person worship as having distinct advantages. I believe we can hold that tension without any negativity or judgement.

If a person is good health and physically able to be in person, we should make it our goal to have a highly consistent practice of in-person worship.  If we evaluate our lives and we are inconsistent in in-person worship, what can we change to become more consistent?  It is not about the building, it is not about the worship service, it is about the act of gathering with the rest of the church family to encourage one another, to build one another up in the faith, to motivate one another to serve God.

Photo by Eliecer Gallegos on Unsplash  

God’s heart for worship: participation and…atonement? – Ezekiel 45-48, Part 3

As we continue seeking for descriptions of God’s heart in Ezekiel 45-48, we notice that the next section, Ezekiel chapter 45, verses 13-25 is a retelling of the Jewish sacrificial system. What would that show us about God’s heart? That God wants us to sacrifice animals at a temple?  No.  Remember that famous saying of God, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  God was concerned about the heart motivation in the sacrifice.

From that perspective of heart motivation, there are a few more aspects of the sacrificial system that we can learn from. 

First, all participate.  Yes, the priests had their role.  But so did the people.  Everyone participated, bringing the gift, seeking to honor God.  We could carry that over to the New Testament church and say, “That means the pastor does all the work of ministry, and the people participate by paying offerings.” 

Except that the New Testament teaching doesn’t work like that.  In the New Testament, we learn the theology of the body of Christ.  We are all priests. Each one has a role to play, a gift to use in the life and ministry of the church.  There are also important tasks that Jesus and the New Testament writers taught that all of us should participate in.  We are all called to make disciples.  We are all called to serve in the church family.  All of us should be able to look at our lives and have an answer for “Who are you discipling?” and “How are you serving?”  If you’re not able to answer those questions, I would love to talk with you about that.

Furthermore, when we gather for worship services, each one of us should see ourselves as participants.  The set-up of most church worship spaces can very easily lead us to believe that the ones seated in the rows of pews are the attenders, the observers, while the ones up front are the participants.  I know it is that way at the theater, but it is not that way in a church family.  All participate.  All give, all sing, all pray, all encourage.  When you gather for worship, see yourself as a participant. 

That said, my guess is that your church, like mine, would love more participants in more roles.  People could play the drums, guitars and other instruments.  We would love more singers.  People to serve on the sound board and projection systems.  We would love more people to serve in the nursery and welcome team.  And not because we just want to fill roles.  We participate in these ministries because we want our worship gatherings to be places where the Holy Spirit is at work.  Serving has the additional benefit of helping you feel more connected, more part of the church family, building relationships as you grow together.

Another aspect of God’s heart we see in the sacrificial system is the idea that the sacrifices were for atonement for sin, and in that idea of atonement, we see perhaps the greatest way that God’s heart desires us to be participants in worship. 

Think about sacrifices in worship for a moment. If you read through the passage, you’ll read descriptions of how people are to bring animals and other offerings to be sacrificed. It could seem random. But the sacrifices were not random, they had a purpose.  What purpose?  Why could God possibly want people to bring animals, kill them, and cook them over a fire?  Is this an ancient ox roast?

God didn’t ask people to make sacrifices because he was hungry and needed food.  Though the sacrifices did produce food for the priests and their families to eat. No, God had a much deeper, symbolic reason for the sacrifices.  That deeper meaning is depicted in the word atonement.  In chapter 45, verses 15, 17, and 20, God says that the sacrifices are for atonement.  What does atonement mean? 

The meaning of atonement is a very visual.  You can act it out, just by covering your face.  Symbolically, atonement refers to the idea that something is being covered.  When Israel would sacrifice to God, that sacrifice was a covering for sin.  When sin is atoned for, the person or nation is no longer going to be punished for their sin.  Instead, they are forgiven.  There we see God’s heart. He is a forgiving God. 

God’s forgiveness is most clearly shown in Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection.  We need to be forgiven because we did something wrong.  That wrong is called sin, which is any thought, word or act that goes against God’s heart. 

We all do sin, and the seriousness of sin is that it separates us from God.  But praise God, just as he made a way for his people to be forgiven of their sin, he has forgiven us in Jesus. 

Do you see what this means?  We can have a restored relationship with God. We can be participants!  If you don’t know about the status of your relationship with God, or if you feel a distance or brokenness between you and God, God’s heart is to be in close relationship with you.  He has made atonement possible for you and him to have a restored relationship! 

Please comment below if you’d like to talk further!

Photo by Edward Cisneros on Unsplash

God’s heart to stop oppression – Ezekiel 45-48, Part 2

This week as we study Ezekiel 45-48, we are following these chapters as a map to God’s heart. In Ezekiel 45, verses 8-12, we see God’s heart very clearly in another way.  Notice verse 8 where we read God say that the princes must not oppress the people.  Who were the princes?  God is referring to the kings and leaders of the land.  For many, many years before the exile, the kings oppressed the people.  How were the princes oppressing people?  It was a variety of ways.  Forced labor.  Stealing land.  Heavy taxation.  Idol worship. 

God says all oppression must cease.  The prince is to be satisfied with his allotment of land.  He will lead the people well, if he does not oppress the people to try to get more and more land, wealth and possessions. 

In this teaching, God shows his heart that his people, no matter their role and position in life, trust in him rather than in money.  This is what Jesus taught when he said, “You cannot serve both God and Money.”  Instead, our heart attitude avoids greed and the desire for things by living with sacrificial generosity that trusts in Jesus, and seeks gratitude and contentment in him.

When he is satisfied with what he has, the prince will be an example to the people in at least two ways: (1) that he trusts in God and (2) he knows that God is Israel’s true king.  Look at verse 9.  Whose people are they?  God’s people.  The king doesn’t own the people.  They are God’s people, and the king should see himself as God’s steward.  

We also see God’s heart as opposed to oppression in general.  When you hear that word “oppression” don’t think in terms of “this heat and humidity is so oppressive.”  Instead, the word “oppressive” here has tones of violence, of cheating people to get one over on them.  God’s way must never include oppression.  That means we, God’s people, should never oppress or exploit others.

There should be no violence.  Instead the kings should do what is just and right. 

God illustrates this in verses 10-12 by talking about accurate scales.  Don’t cheat.  Remember the story of Jesus’ interaction with the tax collector Zacchaeus in Luke 19?  Zacchaeus was wealthy because he had cheated people out of money.  We don’t know quite how it happened, but when Zacchaeus encountered Jesus, he turned from his oppressive ways and pledged to make things right.  We should be people who practice economic justice.

What can you do to follow God’s heart to stop oppression?

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

How not to be holy – Ezekiel 45-48, Part 1

There’s a spot on the Conestoga River near my home where a tree leans way out over the river.  Someone attached wooden steps on the tree, so you can climb out on the trunk, over the river.  They also attached a rope to the tree.  One end of the rope is tied to the tree, and the other end is a plank you can sit on.  It’s a rope swing.  What you do is climb way out onto the tree, holding the rope.  You then sit on the plank, putting tension on the rope, and jump! 

Last summer, my daughter and I rode our bikes to the rope swing.  She went first, and after stalling and stalling, she said, “Dad, you go first!”  So I, being the big adult dad said, “Sure.”  I took off my socks and shoes, slowly climbed up the tree trunk, as my daughter was filming on her phone.  It looked a lot higher when I was up on the tree that it did from the bank of the river.  I took a deep breath, wondering if the rope would hold me. 

Maybe you know the feeling.  Is this going to work?  Or is this going to be a disaster?  Can I trust the rope?  Or will I get hurt?  In our next and final section of Ezekiel, I wonder if Ezekiel felt something like that.  I suppose there are times when most, if not all, of us feel that when it comes to our relationship with God.  Can we trust him?  Is his way really the best way?  Let’s find out.

Last week in Ezekiel chapters 40-44, God transported Ezekiel in a vision to a high mountain in Israel, and just below him was a city.  There he met a man whose appearance was that of bronze.  The man held ancient tools for measurement.  The man brought Ezekiel into the city, to a new temple complex, where the man started measuring the temple, giving Ezekiel blueprints.  Then suddenly the glory of God showed up and filled the temple, and God talked with Ezekiel.  Through this vision, God communicated his desire for holiness in his people, and his desire to be present with his people.  We talked about how in the New Testament, Jesus and Paul taught that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and God lives in us, so we pursue holiness as well. 

Now in Ezekiel chapters 45-48, Ezekiel’s amazing vision continues, as does the work of the bronze man who measures things.  Instead of making blueprints for the temple, now God zooms out and gives Ezekiel a map for the restoration of the boundaries of the nation of Israel, preparing for the day when the people will return from exile and resettle the land.  In addition to describing the borders of the land, Ezekiel chapters 45-48 are also a kind of adaptation of the Old Testament book of Leviticus, the book of the Law in which God originally gave instructions for how to worship him. 

Sprinkled throughout the many measurements and descriptions of the law, we find God sharing his heart.  First of all, Ezekiel chapter 45, verses 1-7 are measurements for allotment of lands to be dedicated to the Lord, land for the Levites and priests, land for all the people and finally land for the prince.  Do we see any evidence of God’s heart in this division of the land?  I believe so. 

Notice that God’s portion of the land is to be sacred and holy, and in that we see that God is holy.  We’ve talked about that in the past few weeks, the idea that holiness is “to be set apart.”  God is utterly different or other than anything he created.  Likewise, he calls us to be holy, to be set apart from the world around us.  But what does that mean?  Sometimes we can understand what something means first by removing the possibilities of what it doesn’t mean.  Let me explain.

Being holy, being “set apart” does not mean that we should become the Ephrata Cloisters.  If you’ve never heard of the Cloisters, let me explain because that place gives me the creeps.  The Cloisters were a Lancaster County sect in the 1800s who believed that they needed to be set apart from the world.  They looked at the concept of holiness and verses like 1 John 2:15-17 and thought, we need to be physically, totally separate from the world.  What does 1 John 2:15-17 say? 

“Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.”

Throughout Christian history there have been Christians who have attempted to live these words in a very literal way.  The Cloisters took it to an extreme.  Even more so than our Amish neighbors.  When I toured the Cloister a couple years ago, I had an eerie feeling come over me, as I learned how this group of people lived.  It was like walking through the compound of a cult that wanted to be as separate as possible from everyone else. 

That is not what God means when he says that he wants his people to be holy.  We know that because we sure don’t want God to be holy like that, do we?  Imagine if God’s holiness meant that he was so different, so “other” that we could have absolutely no connection, no relationship with him.  You can see how God might want to separate himself from us because of how awful we can be.  But that is not what God’s holiness means.  God is intimately connected with us, deeply involved in our lives, and as we have seen in the last few chapters of Ezekiel, he wants to make his home with us. 

Further Jesus taught in John 17:15, in his final prayer with the disciples before he was arrested, “My prayer is not that you would take them out of the world, Father, but that you protect them from the evil one.”  Holiness is not that we are to remove ourselves from the world, but that we are to be different in the middle of the world.  We are to love God, not the world, John wrote.   

So our pursuit of holiness does not mean that we should separate ourselves from the world.  The human pursuit of holiness also does not mean that we will become gods.  It is not possible for humans to become gods.  But our human pursuit of holiness means that we will become more like Jesus, especially as we walk in step with the Holy Spirit, and he changes us so that his fruit of the Spirit is produced and flowing from our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control.  If we want to be more like Jesus, we should be people who pursue holiness, so that our heart attitude and actions pursue the things that Jesus did.

Photo by Paul Gilmore on Unsplash