Being Christian: Jesus Calls, We Follow - “Love Is Certain”

• John 3:1-17 - read this passage online here »

When I pick the individual titles for a message series, I usually do so several weeks in advance. The overall theme for our journey through Lent and into Easter this year is “Being Christian: Jesus Calls, We Follow.” But when I looked again at this week’s title of “Love Is Certain,” I wondered if I should change it. The vicious way some leaders in some nations have recently treated their citizens, their people might wonder about the certainty of love – and so might we. The way Planet Earth has treated various areas of the world recently, such as Japan and that country’s inhabitants, they might also wonder about the certainty of love or even if they are loved – and so might we. But I decided to keep the title because I believe it is a true statement. Despite the worst evil that human beings may experience at the hands of other human beings, despite the most calamitous conditions we may experience in nature and despite the most difficult personal circumstances we may experience here and now, I still believe that love is certain.

If you have been following the disastrous situation in Japan, there are more than a few glimpses of love to be seen. There is the story of the “Fukushima 50” who are risking their lives to prevent a severe meltdown of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. While there are more than 50 personnel involved, they all know the possible deadly dangers to which their lives are exposed with the massively high radiation levels in the plant. And there are stories such as the following that I received this week in an email from a Japanese friend. The story’s author is a non-Japanese teacher of English as a second language in Sendai, which was hit the hardest by the earthquake and the resulting tsunami. Here is part of what she wrote:

“Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

“During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes.... If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

“It's utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes....

[There are] other unexpected touches of beauty [such as] the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains around Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help.

When I read this email, I asked myself, Are these not glimpses of love – of people acting with compassion toward others? Are these not hints that we really do consider one another valuable enough and worth enough to give our lives for or, at least, act with the utmost compassion and care toward each other?

How much does love cost? Or another way to put the question might be: What is the value of a human life? A writer for the New York Times wrote an article in the February 16, 2011, issue and talked about the fact that the United States government has been grappling with this particular question: what is the value of a human life? Or to be more precise, there are government agencies trying to find what is called “the statistical value of life.” The answer will influence how much American society (especially businesses) should spend to prevent a single death. In 2004, the United States government's Office of Management and Budget told agencies they should pick a number between $1 million and $10 million, although it also warned that any figure under $5 million would be too low. So, as of last month, the following agencies have offered their price tags on the worth of one human life:

• The Environmental Protection Agency set the value of a life at $9.1 million.
• The Food and Drug Administration declared that a life is worth $7.9 million (up from $5 million in 2008).
• The Transportation Department has determined that one life is worth $6 million.
• [Binyamin Appelbaum, “As U.S. Agencies Put More Value on Human Life, Businesses Fret,” The New York Times, 2-16-11]

I have not discovered whether there are any Canadian agencies attempting a similar determination.

I wonder what God thinks about these human calculations? Does God put a dollar value on our heads? Or how does God express that value? Rather than dollars and numbers, might our value to God be expressed in God’s love for us – and for all in this world? For those of us who grew up in the church, I hunch that one verse we all probably memorized was John 3:16. If this verse is new to you, it is one of the most significant passages of the Bible. Millions of followers of Jesus have loved John 3:16 for 2,000 years because it sets out the limitless dimensions of how God values – of how God loves -- the entire human world:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [John 3:16, New King James]

Look at the cross behind me and let us ponder the breadth and the length of the love of God, and the depth and the height of the love of God.

“For God so loved the world … ” Hear the intensity and see the breadth of God’s love in these words.

God’s invitation of love is broad – as wide and expansive as God’s very nature. When we follow Jesus from place to place in the Gospels and listen to him, we will hear him say he came not to save a few good people but he came to seek those who are lost – the whole world of humanity, the very ones God loves. Even at our best, we all are marred by sin. One definition of sin is the human bent to fall short of God’s glory – or God’s standard of goodness. This coming up short needs to happen only once in our lives for us to be marred or broken. And if we are honest, we know there have been many times when we have come up short of God’s standard of goodness. But God loves us – marred and broken though we are because God’s very nature is love.

God is love. And by looking at the character of God in Jesus, we discover the nature of God’s love for the world. Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers have their origin in the will and action of God’s love. God loved and God specifically acted at a point in time -- God gave his only Son to the world for the world.

The intensity of the love of God, the agony of God’s love, is expressed in that little word “so” – “God so loved the world.” “So” means “how much.” The Message Bible says, “This is how much God loved the world: he gave his son, his one and only son.”

We are in Week 2 of Lent when we, as followers of Jesus, journey with him toward the inevitability of his suffering and death on the cross of Good Friday. And it was the intense love of God in Jesus that compelled Jesus to give his life for us so that we could experience God’s gracious forgiveness and accept his loving invitation to give our lives to him.

The breadth of God’s love embraces the whole world. On the night Jesus was arrested, just before he left the house for the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed that the world would know God loved them. And the world – that includes the entire human race -- is no small place.

“For God so loved the world ... that he gave his son, his one and only son.”

This speaks of the dimension of length (or the extent) of God’s love – the length God was willing to go to forgive us because of his incredible love for the human race.

There are also other Scriptures in the New Testament that speak strongly about the dimensions of God’s love. Listen to the writer of Ephesians:

“I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. Yes, may you come to know his love -- although it can never be fully known -- and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.” [Ephesians 3:17-19, Good News Translation]

In many languages, to speak about Christ’s love being broad and long and high and deep is awkward since love cannot be conceived as having spatial dimensions. So this figure of speech could well be translated: “So that you will be fully able to understand how very, very great is Christ’s love for you” or “You cannot even imagine how great Christ’s love is!” or so you will grasp “how much Christ truly loves you.” [Newman, B. M., & Nida, E. A. (1993). A Handbook on the Gospel of John. Helps for translators; UBS handbook series (89). New York: United Bible Societies.] My friends, the extent of God’s love seen in Jesus Christ for you and for me is beyond our comprehension and imagination. But I say, God’s love is certain!

God’s love also runs deep. God’s love has depth. John 3:16 says, “that whosever believes in him [in Jesus] should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life.” That statement is bold, is it not? When Jesus talked with Martha about the very real physical death of her dearly beloved brother, Lazarus, whom Jesus also deeply loved, he said to her with similar boldness:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” [John 11:25–26, TNIV]

That is Jesus’ question to us too: Do you believe this? You see, Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. They were like family to him. He would sometimes take time away from his disciples and the crowds and spend weekends with them. They were his friends. Even so, he still asked Martha, “Do you believe I am the resurrection and the life?” God’s love possesses enormous depth because that love includes anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus as the resurrection and the life. And Jesus said these people will never spiritually die but will live with him forever.

God’s love has the cosmic dimensions of breadth and length and depth. The love of God also possesses height -- “everlasting or eternal life.” Everlasting life, as the Scripture teaches, has a beginning but no ending. Eternal life includes all the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love for all his followers now but also real life that continues with God after our short lives on this Earth are over. And this is the great hope of the human heart!

Oswald Chambers, in his book The Highest Good, wrote:

“To realize the dimensions of the love of God, its breadth, and length, and depth, and height, will serve to drive home to us the reality of God’s love, and the result of our belief in that love will be that no question will ever profoundly vex our minds, no sorrow overwhelm our spirits, because our heart is at rest in God, just as the heart of our Lord was at rest in His Father. This does not mean that our faith will not be tested; if it is faith, it must be tested.” [Chambers, O. The Highest Good. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996.]

Paul the Apostle said something similar and expressed the extravagance of God’s love in his letter to the Romans 8:31-39. Here is what he said from The Message Bible:

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? [Doesn’t this include Jesus’ journey of suffering toward the cross for us? Doesn’t it also mean he rose from the dead to defeat the stranglehold of sin and death in human lives? Paul continues:] And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us -- who was raised to life for us! -- is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. [We could say “praying for us!”] Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture … None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. [Now, that is some statement of faith!] I’m absolutely convinced that nothing -- nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable -- absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master [or Lord] has embraced us.”

I believe with Paul: God’s love is certain!

So, my friends, I dare to conclude with a prayer for you – the same prayer the Apostle Paul prayed for those he worked with and loved. From The Message Bible:  

“I ask [God] to strengthen you by his Spirit -- not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength -- that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask [God] that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”

My friends, may this be so for you and for me.
Rev. Chris Miller,

Lent 2, March 20, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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Being Christian: Jesus Calls, We Follow - “Clarifying Questions”

• Matthew 4:1-11 - read this passage online here »
• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 - read this passage online here »

While I haven’t read Jewish journalist and author A. J. Jacobs’ funny yet serious book The Year of Living Biblically, I am reading Christian pastor Ed Dobson’s book The Year of Living Like Jesus [Zondervan, 2009]. Jacobs wrote the Foreword to Dobson’s book and observed: “Ed was inspired by my book ... (a fact that makes me commit the sin of pride).”

Jacobs is a secular Jew. But he wanted to see what it was like to live like a biblical Israelite. Dobson is a Christian who took up Jacobs’ challenge but applied it to the life and teachings of Jesus. In his book, Dobson told a story of visiting some bars in Florida. Because Dobson knew Jesus was accused of being a glutton and drunkard (or wine-imbiber) by the religious leaders of his day, this Baptist minister decided to visit places where people usually drink -- hence, the bars. In one particular bar, he had a conversation with a short Jamaican bartender with a slightly greying small moustache, a contagious laugh and who wore a Hawaiian shirt [The Year of Living Like Jesus, p. 164].

Normally clean-shaven, Dobson was trying to live like Jesus as fully as he could for a year so he let his beard grow as Jesus probably did. The bartender liked the beard and asked him why he was growing it. Dobson responded: “I made a commitment on January first to spend the whole year trying to live like Jesus. So the beard is part of the gig.”

After some conversation, the Jamaican bartender said: “Dude, that’s unbelievable. So what are you learning?” Here is Dobson’s dialogue with the bartender:

Ed: “I’m learning that trying to follow Jesus is a full-time job. I’m learning how difficult it is to actually follow his teachings.”

Bartender: “So what’s so hard about it?”

Ed: “That’s a great question. How about loving your enemies? How about caring for the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame? How about clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, and giving water to the thirsty?”

Bartender: “Right on.”

I have heard more than one person make a similar confession: that trying to follow Jesus is difficult. Living as Jesus did and following his teachings is far from easy. Pastor Ed Dobson didn’t think it was easy either. But that is our calling – our mission -- is it not? Our congregation decided to express our mission this way: “To bring to life the teachings of Jesus Christ.” How do we do that – bring to life Jesus’ teachings? Bring to whose life – your life? my life? the life of our community? our city? our country? our world? Does not the meaning of our mission embrace all of these?

Our underlying theme for Lent and Easter this year is stated simply: “Being a Christian means Jesus calls and we follow.” This may sound simple but it comes with personal struggle. Following Jesus calls for faith and trust in him even in the greatest of difficult circumstances. For instance, Ed Dobson has been living with the debilitating disease of ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease – since January 2001 when he was diagnosed. While writing his book about The Year of Living Like Jesus, which was published in 2009, his body continued to deteriorate. So whatever our personal concerns or whatever our circumstances as a church, the meaning of being a Christian does not change. It will always mean Jesus calls and we follow. That is the foundation upon which I am building these messages through Lent and Easter.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, two significant events occurred in his life. First, he was baptized in the Jordan River. That was vital for the rest of Jesus’ ministry because he knew – at that moment – the acceptance, the approval and the confirmation of God the Father on his life and ministry. The Message Bible puts Matthew 3:16-17 this way:

“The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit -- it looked like a dove -- descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: ‘This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.’”

For Jesus, he heard God’s call and so he followed.

The second event happened immediately after his baptism: “Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.”

There are at least two significant questions underlying Jesus’ time in the wilderness with the tempter. Both questions require a response from Jesus. Since we claim to be followers of Jesus, they are our questions too. And they require a response from us as well.

The first question: What is Jesus’ sense of God? Theologian Dale Bruner [The Christbook Commentary on Matthew, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 133] calls Jesus’ sense of God being “the ruling passion perceptible in all three of Jesus’ answers to the Tempter.”

• Jesus’ first answer: “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but [they] need every word that God speaks.’”
• Jesus’ second answer: “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
• And Jesus’ third answer: “The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

In all three answers, God is uppermost in Jesus’ mind. In two of the answers, Jesus also included a word translated as “only” and “alone”: “Human beings cannot live on bread alone” and “The Scripture says … serve only [God].” What does Jesus want us to understand here? That in all the circumstances and concerns of our lives and despite how the circumstances and concerns of our lives appear to us, God is not to be excluded from our thinking and living, or from our service and worship.

Consider Jesus’ first temptation. He has just completed a long fast without food. He is hungry and tired. He hears the appealing words of the tempter: “Since you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.” Of course, he is God’s Son. He knows it. Jesus could have changed the stones into bread. He had the power to do this or else it would not have been a real temptation to him. But what was Jesus’ temptation? I believe Jesus remembered the voice he heard not long before from God his Father who called him “chosen” and “beloved” and a “delight.” He remembered his baptism. But that was then and this is now. Surely, as God’s chosen One, he could serve himself, especially since he was so hungry. He had the memory of his baptism. But sometimes memory can play tricks on us. Sometimes faith can fade into the background when we are weary or hungry or under stress. And, after all, Jesus was deeply human. But God was Jesus’ passion. To turn the stones into bread would have revealed a lack of trust that God would provide for him. Remember, Matthew records that, after the tempter finally left Jesus, angels came and helped him.

What does this temptation mean for us? In Genesis 3, Eve got into a discussion with the tempter and lost. Let me suggest that you and I will lose every time if we try to question and discuss and rationalize temptations that come into our minds. Has God said this? God surely would not have said that – whatever “that” is.” In Adam and Eve’s case, God commanded them not to eat the fruit from one particular tree because, if they ignored what God said and did eat from that tree, they would experience evil for the first time and begin to die spiritually. But the tempter lied to them and convinced them God was trying to keep something from them. The tempter convinced them God didn’t really mean what he said and had other reasons for not wanting them to eat. Unfortunately, they gave in to these lies. And isn’t that a similar kind of conversation that goes on in our minds when we are tempted to think or do something that is not quite right – that is, in fact, wrong?

Jesus attempted no such discussion. Instead, he answered the tempter with the words of Scripture. Jesus knew his Bible. He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 in this instance as well as Deuteronomy 6:16 and 13. Jesus understood what God was doing in the events and stories of the Old Testament Scripture. In Deuteronomy 8, the nation of Israel was being tested. And through this testing, God was demonstrating to Israel that the people could depend on and trust God. Listen to what Jesus knew about being tested and trusting God from Deuteronomy 8:2-3:

“Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (NRSV)

Jesus’ sense of trusting God meant trusting what God says -- that human beings are meant to live by every word that comes from God!

The second question underlying Jesus’ time with the tempter in the wilderness: Whose word will Jesus honour? As followers of Jesus, that is our question too: Whose word will we honour? Jesus not only honoured God, he also honoured God’s word. In all three temptations, Jesus gained the upper hand over the tempter by knowing and using the Scripture. And Jesus used the same common resource – the same Scripture -- that is accessible to all of us! To receive direction and help and strength from God, he did not use a private line that is unavailable to you and me. Jesus believed the Hebrew Scripture gives us God’s Word. The apostles believed that as well. And, of course, as followers of Jesus, we also have the record of Jesus and his early disciples in the New Testament Scripture. This adds even more to our knowledge of God’s amazing love for all humanity and gives us even more reason to continue to listen to and trust God.

But I am troubled, quite frankly, by certain trends today. What troubles me is the diminished value many in the church place on the Scripture. For many, it is as if God no longer uses the Scripture that Jesus himself used. So let me finish this morning with a story about how the record of Jesus in the Scripture changed the life of one man whose name is Nard Pugyao. Nard writes:

In March of 1956 (when I was about 6), a tall, pale, white man stumbled into my home village ... in the northern jungles of the Philippine island of Luzon. The man didn't speak our language, so our elders asked him the best they knew how, “Why are you here?”

“I've come to learn your language,” he [helped them understand]. “I'd like to write it down and then give you God's Word in your language.”

“Who is your God?” the elders asked.

“He's the God of Heaven and earth,” the man answered. “He's the Creator of the universe. He created you, too.”

“Is he powerful?” the elders probed. “More powerful than the spirits that have controlled our lives from the beginning of time? Is he more powerful than our ancestors, the head-hunters?”

“Yes, he's more powerful.”

Hopeful, we started teaching this man [whose name is Dick Roe] our language. Maybe his God could free us from the spirits.

When I was about 13, Dick had to return to the United States to raise support for his ministry. But before he went back, he translated the Gospel of Mark and gave me a copy. While he was gone, I started reading the Bible for the first time, beginning with the Easter story and continuing through Chapter 16. Sitting on top of a rock, I read the Gospel of Mark in my heart language. It felt like I was actually there, seeing the characters.

But the further I read, the more distressed I felt. A mob of people came to get Jesus out of the Garden of Gethsemane. What did he do wrong? I read as fast as I could. They accused him of all kinds of false things. They mocked him, spat on him, beat him, and took him before Pilate. Then the scourge and the crown of thorns. It was excruciating to read that they forced him to carry a wooden cross and then nailed him to it.

Deep in my heart, a hatred of God swelled. I shook my fist and shouted: “I hate you, God, for being so powerless! Why should I believe in a powerless God like you?” With all my strength I threw the Gospel of Mark down to the rocks and started walking home. I couldn't understand why God wouldn't protect his own Son. Our head-hunters defended us to the death. Because of them, no one could touch us. I wanted a god like that -- someone who would protect me from the spirits that demanded we sacrifice our cows, chickens, pigs, and dogs. This God didn't even save his own Son.

Suddenly, God reached down into my heart. “Nard, don't you understand?” I heard him say. “That's how much I love you. I gave my Son on your behalf.” For the first time, I understood grace. I understood how much God loved me.

“God, if you love me that much,” I prayed, “I want to give you my life, my heart. It's all yours.” I went back and picked up my Gospel, brushed it off, and sat back on that rock to see what happened next. It was an incredible moment as I read that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Nobody in [my town], nobody from among [my] people, had ever risen from the grave. The resurrection story changed my life. [Nard Pugyao, "Penetrating Power," Decision (July-August 2006), p. 18; ©2006 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, used by permission, all rights reserved. Preaching Today Illustrations]

May the words of Scripture change your life too. May the Risen Jesus bring you hope and strength and deep joy too. My friends, may this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller,

Lent 1, March 13, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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The Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive Us Our Failures as We, too, Forgive Those Who Failed Us”

• Matthew 6:12, 14-15 - read this passage online here »
• Matthew 18:21-35 - read this passage online here »

Forgiveness is one of those uncomfortable topics. It ranges from the routine and mundane to the very, very difficult. On one end of the spectrum: “I forgot your birthday. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” If a husband says that to his wife, I hope she forgives him! Although her extending forgiveness to her husband may become more difficult if he is forgetful year after year. Was that seven times or seventy-times-seven? It depends on your age I guess.

At the other end of the spectrum are the seemingly unforgivable acts. How do you forgive someone who has abused you terribly -- physically or sexually or emotionally? What if you were called upon to forgive someone who murdered your child? What if the person who killed your child was also someone you loved? Each of us can no doubt name particular acts that are seemingly unforgivable for us.

While forgiveness may be uncomfortable, it is at the heart of the Christian life. Forgiveness is not incidental or optional – certainly not to God, nor should it be to us as followers of God in Jesus Christ. Immediately after inviting us to pray for our daily bread – our necessary physical sustenance -- Jesus also invited us to pray: “Our Father ... forgive us our failures as we too forgave those who failed us.”

Obviously, Jesus believes that his followers asking the Father to forgive their – our -- failures is vital. Jesus also connected God’s forgiveness of us to our responsibility to forgive those who fail us because being able to forgive is so vital for our spiritual health and for the health of our relationships with others, especially with those who are followers of Jesus. But I know many Christians have deep hurts and numerous questions about forgiving hurts and wrongs that look so unforgivable. I have several books that offer honest help to those who have great difficulty with forgiveness -- like Forgiving the Unforgivable and Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve. These writers do not gloss over real evil. You might find them helpful and are welcome to borrow them from me.

What I want to do this morning is open up some of the background to this significant petition in The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus also told many stories or parables as part of his teaching process about many subjects – including forgiveness. So we will consider Jesus’ parable of the forgiving king and the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 as well. That story has much to say about God forgiving us and our subsequent responsibility -- as those who have been forgiven – toward others.

But, first, Jesus invited his followers to pray “Our Father ... forgive us our failures as we, too, forgave those who failed us.” It intrigues me that we in the United Church tend to use the word “trespasses” when we pray The Lord’s Prayer. Elda Scott tells me the Presbyterians ask God to forgive their “debts.” It must be their Scottish heritage! Other churches ask God to forgive their “sins.” All three words – debts, trespasses and sins – have their place in the Scripture. In Luke’s version (11:4) of The Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to forgive our sins. In Matthew’s version (6:12), we ask God to forgive our debts. Theologian Dale Bruner helps us see how sins and debts are connected. He writes:

“In rabbinic thought every sin created a deposit of debt before God, the accumulation of which formed a separating wall between the person and God. On the other hand, every righteous deed contributed to the believer’s accumulation of assets before God and so created a kind of bridge to God. Sins were demerits that separated, righteous deeds merits that connected. The corporate name for these separating demerits was ‘debts.’ Jesus takes this well-known word and the set of ideas connected with it and tells us that we can ask the Father to wipe out our [accumulated] debts!” [Matthew: A Commentary, Vol. 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12, Revised and Expanded, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 308]

When we ask God to forgive our debts, we are asking God to wipe out what is separating us from God. A debt is a failure to pay. When Jesus used this word, he would have spoken in Aramaic – his language. And the Aramaic word for “debt” would have included a stronger sense of moral failure than the written word for “debt” in Greek. So I like the word “failure” here because it encompasses both debts and our sins. We are asking God to forgive our failures. And as Martin Luther wrote, “We are in the land of debts; we are up to our ears in sin.”

In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus adds a postscript to The Lord’s Prayer:

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” [ESV]

What intrigues me here is that Jesus adds an immediate comment to the petition about forgiveness. He doesn’t add any such comments at this point regarding asking for daily bread or asking to be kept from hard testing or kept safe from the Evil One. And in these verses immediately after the prayer, Jesus uses the word “trespasses,” which is more like “mistakes” as opposed to failures or sins or debts. But notice, Jesus is emphasizing his followers’ responsibility – that is, our responsibility -- to forgive those who have trespassed against us.

When you pray The Lord’s Prayer and ask God to forgive your failures – or “wrongs,” as the Good News Bible puts it --do you believe you have failed God or wronged God? Jesus assumes all of us have. When you ask God to forgive your failures – your sins, your debts -- do you think your debt to God is a large or a small debt? When you find yourself failing again and again in some area, do you hope God forgives you seven times or seventy-times-seven? Peter asked Jesus a similar question in Matthew 18, except Peter posed the question to Jesus a little differently:

“Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?”

Jesus answered: “No, not seven times, but seventy-times-seven! Here’s why. The kingdom of heaven – or God’s rule – is like the following story.

When Jesus said “seventy-times-seven,” he was really saying that our forgiveness of another person is meant to be unlimited. But is that really possible for us humans? Are there no limits? Dale Bruner asks:

“Doesn’t even God’s forgiveness have limits? Isn’t that one meaning of the Last Judgment? … Yes, but wherever there is human repentance there will always be – constantly and forever – divine forgiveness. This is the heart of Jesus’ gospel. So forgiveness must be the heart of the disciples’ ethic.” [Matthew: A Commentary, Vol. 2: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28, Revised and Expanded, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 235]

I wonder if unlimited forgiveness is one of the things Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 5:48 for us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. I like the way The Message Bible amplifies that statement of Jesus:

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You are kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

I think it is worth our while to hear the parable again from the Good News Bible:

“Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants’ accounts. 24He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.”

The actual words are “ten thousand talents.” A couple of observations about this number. Jesus deliberately used a fantastic amount that was meant to stagger the imagination. At that time, 2,000 years ago, people did not count higher than ten thousand. And the talent was the largest currency in existence. One talent was worth more than 15 years’ wages for an ordinary labourer of the day. So what would ten thousand talents amount to in our currency? How high do we want to count? Somewhere in the economic stratosphere – billions upon billions? Zillions of dollars sounds reasonable. In his story, Jesus used the highest sum imaginable for the servant’s debt to the king, to be contrasted with the paltry amount of debt in verse 28 of a few dollars. Jesus was making a point!

25”The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt. 26The servant fell on his knees before the king. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay you everything!’”

An impossible request to believe! How could he even begin to pay the interest on his debt of zillions of dollars even within his whole lifetime?

27”The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.”

Now I call that being forgiven! The king wiped out his servant’s whole debt! That is grace! The servant did not have to pay anything to the king. Jesus was making two points here. We are in deep debt to God because of our sin. And we do not have the means to pay the debt.

28 “Then the man went out and met one of his fellow-servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said. 29His fellow-servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ 30But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt.”

It is fair for us to ask what forgiveness meant to that servant. Is it possible for one human to treat another this way? Is it even possible for Christians who have experienced God’s amazing grace and generous forgiveness to be unforgiving to others? Unfortunately, Jesus’ parable is making exactly that point. And we all know that is true. It is much easier for any one of us to ask God for forgiveness and expect God to forgive us but then to turn around and take offense and nurse grudges and hold on to our hurts from others and fail to forgive them.

31”When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. 32So he called the servant in. ‘You worthless slave!’ he said. ‘I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. 33You should have had mercy on your fellow-servant, just as I had mercy on you.’ 34The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount.” 35And Jesus concluded, ‘That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother [or sister] from your heart.’”

There is an underlying theme in this parable. It is this: to those who have received God’s full forgiveness, the same generous forgiveness must be given to others. There are two sides to this theme. On the one side is God’s free forgiveness of sins provided by God in Jesus Christ for us on the cross. As the Scripture records in 1 Peter 2:24:

“Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed.”

On the other side is the gratitude of those who have received God’s forgiveness who then turn around and offer forgiveness to those who have failed or wronged them.

Let me conclude with a story from the life of Miroslav Volf. Volf is a theology professor at Yale Divinity School. He is also the director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. In his book Free of Charge: Grace and Forgiveness in a Culture Stripped of Grace [Zondervan, 2005], he shares a personal story about the power of forgiveness and grace.

I was one[year old] then, and my five-year-old brother, Daniel, had slipped through the large gate in the courtyard where we had an apartment [in Croatia]. He went to the nearby small military base --just two blocks away -- to play with “his” soldiers. On earlier walks through the neighbourhood, he had found some friends there -- soldiers in training, bored and in need of diversion, even if it came from an energetic five-year-old.

On that fateful day in 1957, one of them put him on a horse-drawn bread wagon. As they were passing through the gate on a bumpy cobblestone road, Daniel leaned sideways and his head got stuck between the post and the wagon. The horses kept going. He died on the way to hospital -- a son lost to parents who adored him and an older brother that I would never know.

Aunt Milica should have watched him. But she didn't. She let him slip out, she didn't look for him, and he was killed. But my parents never told me that she was partly responsible. They forgave her….

The pain of that terrible loss still lingers on, but bitterness and resentment against those responsible are gone. It was healed at the foot of the cross as my mother gazed on the Son who was killed and reflected about the God who forgave. Aunt Milica was forgiven, and there was no more talk of her guilt, not even talk of her having been guilty. As far as I was concerned, she was innocent.

My friends, let us learn from Jesus, who forgave those who plotted his death and crucified him. We dare not insist on withholding the gift of forgiveness from one another. As N. T. Wright put it, we dare not refuse to give someone else “the kiss of life they may desperately need” [Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 2, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2002, p.39]. We will find our spiritual and emotional healing and the ability to forgive at the foot of the Cross as we ponder the amazing grace and love of God who forgives our sins. So let us forgive one another from the bottom of our hearts.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller,
February 27, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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The Lord’s Prayer: “Give Us This Day Our Bread”

• Matthew 6:11 - read this passage online here »
• Luke 12:22-31 - read this passage online here »
• Exodus 16:12-30 - read this passage online here »

Over recent weeks, we have been looking at The Lord’s Prayer. People, in all times and in all places, have always wanted to pray. Jesus’ followers are no exception. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells his followers to remember that, when they pray to God, they are praying to their heavenly Father who loves them and knows already what they need. So with a God like this loving them, Jesus told them to pray very simply. Like this:

“Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed be your name. 

Your kingdom come, 

your will be done, 

on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread, 

and forgive us our debts, 

as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil. [English Standard Version]

We usually end the prayer with “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Some have asked me why we add these final words when they are not in either Matthew’s Gospel or Luke’s Gospel. Though these words are not in the earliest or best manuscripts and so do not appear in more recent translations, there are times when tradition serves the church well. These words were added later by the church as a doxology of praise to God. But theologian Dale Bruner has this interesting observation [Matthew: A Commentary, Vol. 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 305]:

“The fact that the Lord’s Prayer ends so raggedly – with the devil! – is probably an invitation to close the prayer with one’s own free petitions.... The rough ending is an open ending.”

I like that! I think that’s also why our Roman Catholic friends wait for the priest to add his words at the end rather than everyone saying “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” 

The prayer Jesus gives us is short and simple. In its marvellous simplicity is contained all that is necessary for us as his followers to pray. When we read the prayer in Luke 11, we hear Jesus telling his disciples, “When you pray, say this.” So our praying regularly and together The Lord’s Prayer basically word for word is a good thing. It fills our minds and hearts with words from the heart of Jesus when he taught his followers – including us! – to pray to his Father and our Father. On the other hand, when we read the prayer in Matthew 6, we hear Jesus telling his disciples “Pray like this.” In other words, here is the essence of how to pray to God. 

Each time we pray like this, we should remember God is our Father, whose name is to be honoured above all others and whose kingdom and will is for the whole of this Earth as well as for heaven. There is no other kingdom or will or name to be sought. God’s righteousness and God’s kingdom are to come first in our lives, in the lives of all Jesus’ followers and, ultimately, in the lives of all humanity. For two weeks in a row, we have sung the Scripture from Matthew 6:33 -- “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness” -- for that reason. As we fill our minds and souls with the essence of Jesus’ mind and soul and continue to grow in our understanding of what he taught, we can alter the words we use. The phrases of The Lord’s Prayer then become a kind of handrail, Dale Bruner suggests, along which we form our own words and responses to God. One of the places on the handrail is “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Almost every week, Marg and I walk up one aisle and down another in our local grocery store filling the cart with food items for the week to come. I imagine that’s a weekly or bi-weekly ritual for many of you as well. Then we line up with others at the checkout and pay for our food. Some people no longer regularly leave their home to buy their daily food; they go to the dining room in their residence for their meals. But they still pay for this service, of course! On the other hand, because of the circumstances of their lives, others have difficulty getting enough food for themselves and their families. So they receive government assistance. They may also go to a local food bank for groceries or to a local church such as ours and hope for a food voucher to help them get through the day and, perhaps, the next day. Or they might sit down to a meal once a day that is provided by an Out of the Cold group. 

Physical sustenance is a necessary part of our living. Jesus understands we need daily bread in order to live – we need enough food every day! So Jesus tells us to pray to his Father, who is also our Father, about our daily necessities, which reminds us who the ultimate Provider is of all the good gifts we have. The sense here of daily provisions is what housekeepers in Jesus’ time would understand as they made their daily lists of what the household needed to sustain itself and then purchased the food at the daily market. [Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Matthew 6:11). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.] When Jesus taught this prayer, he emphasized that God is vitally interested in our daily lives, beginning with the food necessary for our physical bodies each and every day. So to pray about physical, social and personal needs is not a selfish attitude. Jesus actually commands his followers to pray this way.  

However, for those of us who have healthy bank accounts, I suggest it is difficult, more often than not, to think God has very much to do with our daily food. We are the ones with the cash or credit and we use them easily. Maybe that’s why the writer of Proverbs prayed this way [30:7-9 GNT]: 

“I ask you, God, to let me have two things before I die: keep me from lying, and let me be neither rich nor poor. So give me only as much food as I need. If I have more, I might say that I do not need you. But if I am poor, I might steal and bring disgrace on my God.” 

Perhaps that is why Jesus said it is hard for rich people to enter heaven. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, he said [Matthew 19:23-24]! It is too easy to forget about God when things are going too well or too easily for us.

Perhaps that’s also why Jesus instructed his followers to pray first to God: “Our Father in heaven, honoured be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, right here on Earth as in heaven.” Then when Jesus continued to pray “Give us our daily bread,” the clear connection is that the ultimate source for our daily bread is God – not someone or something else. In whatever form or from whomever the gifts of daily sustenance may come, all ultimately comes from God’s creation, God’s love and God’s gracious concern for all his creatures – human and otherwise. In other words, we need to leave room for God to help us in our lives when we think about even the basic of necessities of life.   

When we leave room for God in our lives, we are opening up the possibility for a relationship of trust with God. When we are not afraid to ask someone for something, we are implying there is a relationship of trust between us. For instance, I was more than happy when my children asked me for something they really needed. As their father, I wanted nothing more than to help. So when Jesus tells us to ask God to provide the bread we need for today, we are saying to God: We trust you, God our Father, to provide for us today. 

When we trust God in this way, we learn more and more about being grateful to God. There have been only a few times in my life when I have been close to being hungry -- especially when I was at college and living away from home. But I am one of those in this blessed western society who has never really gone hungry. So when I say The Lord’s Prayer each week and think deeply about this particular petition – “Give us this day our bread” -- I find myself being grateful for the food and sustenance I have this day and thank God again for it. 

Our problem, sometimes, is that we worry about a tomorrow that has yet to come. And may not come in the way we worry about! To worry about tomorrow is a draining experience. It distracts our focus from God and drains us of trust in the God whose very nature is love. In Luke 12:22-31, Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear and not to be afraid because our Father knows we need these things. Instead, we need to be concerned, first, with God’s kingdom and, if we are, Jesus says God will provide what we need somehow. Jesus is not saying it is wrong to think about tomorrow or to plan for tomorrow or to make provision for tomorrow; he is saying not to worry about tomorrow. To worry is to lack trust – and, often, gratitude too. But when we leave room for God in our lives, we will discover we can both trust God for our daily sustenance and remember to be grateful for all the good gifts in our kitchen cupboards.  

When we do trust God, we will find ourselves saying thanks to God again and again for our blessings. But as we say thanks, we may well feel more than a little guilty for being able to enjoy food in abundance while so many in the world “walk in hunger,” as we prayed in the Opening Prayer. (Did you notice how close that prayer is to a familiar grace people often use before a meal?) So at the moment we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” should not our next sentence be “We are sorry we so often think only about our own need for bread” and then “Show us how to share our bread with the world”? William Barclay wrote: “No Christian can be content to have too much while others have too little.”

When we trust God in our own lives, we will not allow God’s other intended recipients of daily bread stay hungry. As one writer suggests, should we not shout, “Woe, woe to the persons or institutions or economic systems that keep people hungry” [Arthur Paul Boers, Lord, Teach Us to Pray]? Is not this prayer for God to give us our daily bread also a prayer for justice for others too -- a lively concern that there be enough bread for all people all over the world?

It is good our denomination receives and sets aside money from its mission and service fund for the relief of world hunger. It is good to encourage our governments to take seriously worldwide concerns for those who are hungry and give even more in matching grants to relief and development projects through CIDA. But what does the answer to “Show us how to share our bread” look like on a personal level? Maybe we can learn about that in unexpected places.

While working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel reported on the struggles of an impoverished, inner-city family during the weeks leading up to Christmas [The Case for Christmas, Zondervan, 2005]. A devout atheist at the time, Strobel was mildly surprised by the family's attitude despite their circumstances. Here is part of his report:

The Delgados -- 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny -- had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were now living in a tiny, two-room apartment on the West Side. As I walked in, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls—only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually devoid of possessions.

In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.

But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced he had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.

Strobel completed his article. But he could not get the Delgados and their unflinching belief in God's providence out of his thoughts. So on Christmas Eve, he decided to pay the family a visit. He discovered that readers of his article had responded to the family's need in overwhelming fashion, filling the small apartment with donations of new furniture, appliances, rugs, a large Christmas tree, many wrapped presents, bags of food, warm winter clothing and even a generous amount of money. (We have heard of similar responses by the citizens here in Toronto from time to time to families in need.) But it wasn't the generous gifts that shocked Strobel. It was the family's response to those gifts. In his words:

As surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: “Our neighbours are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do.”

That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me. “This is wonderful; this is very good,” she said, gesturing toward the largess. “We did nothing to deserve this -- it's a gift from God. But,” she added, “It is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus’ birth.”

To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything -- more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus -- because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters.

When we leave room for God in our lives like the Delgados did, despite having only a handful of rice at the time, we discover Jesus, the Bread of Life – Jesus who leads us into God’s kingdom. When Jesus was in the wilderness and tempted by the Evil One, his response to the first temptation was: 

“The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’” [Matthew 4:4, GNT]

When people later asked Jesus to show them a miracle similar to the one their ancestors experienced in the desert when God gave them bread – manna -- from heaven to eat [John 6:30-35 and Exodus 16:12ff], Jesus answered this way:

“‘The bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

‘Sir,’ they asked him, ‘give us this bread always.’

‘I am the bread of life,’ Jesus told them. ‘Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.’”

I believe a second meaning behind this prayer for daily bread in The Lord’s Prayer is for a spiritually starving world to be given the Bread of Life – that is, the Word of God. Besides needing bread to eat, people also need bread for their souls. They need the gospel, the good news about Jesus – who is the Bread of Life – through whom human beings really live, both now and forever!

Let us trust God for our daily necessary physical needs when we pray “Give us this day our bread.” And let us be thankful too. Let us also pray for open and generous hearts to share that bread with a hungry world. And let us ask for Jesus, the Bread of Life, when we pray. Jesus came to this world for everyone. He is the Bread of Life people all over this world are hungering for -- whether they know it or not. 

My friends, may this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller

February  13, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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The Lord’s Prayer: “God’s Kingdom Come”

• Matthew 6:10 - read this passage online here »
• John 18:28-38 - read this passage online here »

In recent weeks, Bob Dylan’s classic song “The Times, They Are a-Changing” can be illustrated from what is currently being heard and seen in the news.

Come senators, congressmen,
[add presidents and rulers and kings]
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is raging
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changing

The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fading
And the first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a-changing

First in Tunisia and now most prominently in Egypt. And it appears these changes may only be the beginning. These are truly “kingdom shaking” times. Will the shake-ups be minor or major? What new rule or kingdom will emerge in their places?

Jesus knew what it meant to shake up kingdoms. Did you hear the Call to Worship?

Jesus said: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here.”
Earth-leaders say: “We have our own kingdoms.”
Jesus said: “Change your life and believe the Good News.”
Many say: “Let’s get free of God.”
Jesus said: “Listen to me carefully.”

The Call to Worship is adapted from Mark 1 and Psalm 2 – a psalm of leaders and people plotting rebellion against God. But in the end the rebellion is doomed. The psalmist warns the kings and rulers that they are in grave danger. So he urges them to embrace God in adoration and to celebrate God in trembling awe.

Almost every week, along with millions of other Jesus followers in this world and in various ways, you and I pray together The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed [or honoured] be your name; your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is heaven.” Let me tell you, this prayer Jesus taught is a kingdom-shaking prayer of massive proportions. Have you ever felt its tremors?

When Jesus tells his followers to pray “God’s kingdom come,” he is saying various things to them. One, our lives will be shaken to the core. The way Jesus calls us to live in love in our community with others, the way we are called to relate with deep care to the Earth and the way Jesus calls us to relate intimately with God – our lives will never be the same. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ call to forgive others who have seriously wronged us (even to love our enemies), his call to be peacemakers, his call to consider ourselves blessed when people lie about us because we are his followers and his call to us to live with God as our most significant relationship – this kind of living can only happen for us when this prayer becomes deeply embedded in our souls: “God’s kingdom come.” I believe Matthew placed The Lord’s Prayer in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount to show how Jesus’ prayer provides the support necessary to live out what Jesus taught. In a previous message, I said: “If there is no prayer to a loving and compassionate Father at the centre of our lives, Jesus’ teachings are like a dry code of lifeless ethics.”

When we sincerely pray that we want “God’s kingdom to come,” we are identifying with a kingdom that “does not belong to this world.” That’s what Jesus told Pilate, the governor of Judea. Jesus said: “My kingdom does not consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over.... But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king” [John 18:36, The Message Bible]. What does Jesus mean that his kingdom is not of this world? Two of Jesus’ stories illustrate one aspect of his kingdom, Jesus said:

“God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a large tree, and birds build nests in it.”

Jesus also said: “God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread -- and waits while the dough rises.” [Matthew 13:31-33]

Here’s a contemporary story with a similar meaning. I think Jesus would have liked the program Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. This was a popular 1990s television series about an early frontier doctor and her devotion to medicine, her patients, her family and her friends. In one episode [Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman (CBS Television, 1994), episode written by Toni Graphia], Dr. Quinn's best friend, Dorothy, has breast cancer. She doesn't know how bad it is and is worried she may not have long to live. As Dorothy walks sombrely among the townspeople who are enjoying a picnic in a large clearing, Dr. Quinn’s 10-year-old son, Brian, runs up to her.

“Hey, Miss Dorothy, look what I found! Acorns! Sully says if I plant one, it'll grow to be as big as that oak.”

“None of us will live to see it get that big, Brian,” says Miss Dorothy. “That oak is a hundred years old.”

“Oh,” Brian replies. Dejected, he puts the acorns in his pocket and walks back to his family. He tells his mother, Dr. Quinn: “Miss Dorothy says there's no use in planting it. She says none of us will get to see it grow that big.”

Dr. Quinn takes an acorn from him and says: “Brian, you must plant it because, by next year, it will have grown up to your knees. The year after that, it will be taller than you. When it's time to go courting, you can take your young lady for a picnic under it. Then, when you have children, they can build a tree house in it. And some day you can tell your grandchildren about how you planted it. When that tree gets to be a hundred, it doesn't matter that you're not here to see it.” Dr. Quinn places the acorn back in Brian’s hand and says: “All that matters is today. Today, you hold a hundred years in your hand.”

Brian looks at the acorn thoughtfully, then asks Sully to help him find a place to plant it.

Brian could look forward to a lot of birds that would nest in his tree!

Jesus’ kingdom can work within and change other kingdoms on the Earth, like a small acorn seed planted in the ground breaks up the hard soil around it into workable earth, so good things such as kindness, compassion, peace, hope and love can sprout and grow. Where Jesus’ kingdom is worked into the kingdoms of this world through his people like salt, as Jesus said in another story, they can preserve what is good in society and provide zesty flavour to life. Jesus’ true kingdom is anything but bland! Jesus’ kingdom is also like rays of light coming together to penetrate the darkness and cause both the good and the bad to be seen for what they truly are.

When Jesus tells us to pray for God’s kingdom to come, what else does he mean? Certainly he means that God – not someone else or something else -- is clearly the centre and the Creator of this new reality. And as the Creator, God also is the One who cares for his kingdom. When Jesus began his public ministry, his first words were: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” [Mark 1:15]. Those listening to Jesus then would have thought of three things when they heard the word “kingdom.” First, they were looking for a king whom they knew would also be the Messiah – that’s significant. Second, they would also be thinking of the kingdom as land (a sacred place or sacred space). And, third, they would be thinking of themselves as participants together with the king in this kingdom. Then along came Jesus who declared that the kingdom they were looking for throughout their long history had finally arrived and was now here – in him! What is significant for us to understand is that the arrival of Jesus into our human community brought the kingdom of God into fresh focus. Jesus upgraded the meaning of the kingdom of God not only for his original hearers but also for us. Here is Eugene Peterson’s expression of what Jesus meant:

“This kingdom you have been hearing about now for these many centuries is here. Listen to me carefully. Watch me attentively. Join me believingly. I am here to do kingdom work, and I want you to join me in the work. I want you to work alongside me.” [Eugene H. Peterson, Tell It Slant: a conversation on the language of Jesus in his stories and prayers, Eerdmans, 2008, p. 174]

If we were to look up all the references to the “kingdom” in the New Testament -- about 150 or so depending on the version -- we would discover the following three major themes. First, God’s kingdom refers to a redemptive community or society of people. It does not signify merely any kind of social community. God’s kingdom is wherever God’s people offer themselves as participants in the world where God rules in love and brings salvation. And God’s people, Jesus says, are those who “seek first – above all else – God’s kingdom and God’s right way to live” [Matthew 6:33]. Second, those who desire to participate in God’s redemptive kingdom community must enter by repentance, faith and obedience to Jesus. This is the essence of Jesus’ words in Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel -- the good news.” The entrance to God’s kingdom is primarily by way of personal commitment to Jesus Christ whose death on the cross brought salvation to us. Third, the connection between God’s kingdom and Jesus is so close that the clear implication is “there is no such thing as kingdom apart from relationship with Jesus” [Scot McKnight, www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/ 2010/11/15/secularizing-kingdom/#more-10545]. This is another way of seeing that Jesus’ work among us is God’s kingdom work. And that he wants us to join him in what he is doing in this world.

There is one more major theme about God’s kingdom that I should mention because Jesus often spoke about it -- about the end of this age or the end of history as we know it and the coming of the new earth and the new heavens. Theologian and Gospel of Matthew scholar Dale Bruner said it this way [The Christbook Commentary on Matthew, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 300]:

“The most sophisticated biblical scholarship on the one hand and the most simple … faith on the other combine in believing that when Jesus teaches his church to pray ‘Your kingdom come,’ he is teaching her to pray for the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, for the end of this history and for the beginning of the new, and thus (as far as we know now) for Jesus’ own Second Coming. Here we are praying not merely for changes in history but for a complete end to this history and for the beginning of the new history of the world of God.”

When Jesus was on the cross, two thieves were also crucified, one on either side of him. One of them recognized that Jesus was innocent and should not have been there. The thief knew he deserved his punishment, but he also seemed to know enough about Jesus to ask: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” [Luke 23:42].

In Fuller Seminary’s Theology, News, and Notes [Dale Bruner, “Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?” October 1999, p. 3], Rev. David Peterson told about a time when he was preparing his sermon.

His little daughter came into the room and asked, “Daddy, can we play?”

He answered: “I'm awfully sorry, Sweetheart, but I'm right in the middle of preparing this sermon. In about an hour I can play.”

She said, “OK. When you're finished, Daddy, I am going to give you a great big hug.”

“Thank you very much,” he said.

David Peterson said his daughter went to the door. “Then she did a U-turn and came back and gave me a chiropractic, bone-breaking hug.” He said to her, “Darling, you said you were going to give me a hug after I finished.”

She answered, “Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to!”

My friends, part of the fullness of our faith and the love of God is the great hope of Jesus’ Second Coming when he will truly reign. When there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more tears, no more mourning and no more death. That’s part of the promise of the new resurrected life with God. You can read this for yourself in the second-last chapter of the last book of the Bible – Revelation 21:4.

Through all we experience with Jesus because of his First Coming, we have so much more to look forward to in his great cosmic Second Coming.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
February 6, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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The Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Will Be Done”

• Matthew 6:7-15 - read this passage online here »
• Psalm 119:1-8 - read this passage online here »

There are a variety of reasons why people do not want to be followers of Jesus. There are also various reasons why people leave the Christian faith. Here is one reason. Drew Dyck is a Canadian born author whose most recent book is titled Generation Ex-Christian. It is about younger Christians leaving the faith. He tells about one interview with a young man who left to join the Wicca religion. Dyck wrote:

“Morninghawk Apollo (who renamed himself as is common in Wiccan practice) discussed his rejection of Christianity with candour. ‘Ultimately why I left is that the Christian God demands that you submit to his will. In Wicca, it's just the other way around. Your will is paramount. We believe in gods and goddesses, but the deities we choose to serve are based on our wills.’” [Drew Dyck, “The Leavers,” Christianity Today (November, 2010), p. 43; excerpted from Generation Ex-Christian, Moody, 2010]

C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, wrote:

“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'”

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1), Jesus told them to pray: “Our Father in heaven, may your holy name be honoured; may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Or, with the words we have known for so many years and often use, “Thy will be done.”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, understood the personal significance of praying “Thy will be done” at the beginning of Jesus’ life. And Jesus knew the personal significance of these words when he prayed them at the end of his life on Earth.

Before Jesus was born, young Mary had a conversation with the angel Gabriel who told her she would “become pregnant and give birth to a son,” whom she would name Jesus. Mary was understandably perplexed because she was not involved sexually with anyone, not even with Joseph to whom she was engaged. Gabriel told her not to be afraid and added: “[Jesus] will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33, NRSV).

I like how Eugene Peterson describes the interaction between Gabriel and Mary in his book Tell It Slant [Eerdmans, 2008; p. 178]:

“Angel or no angel, Gabriel obviously doesn’t know the facts of life. Mary fills him in, telling him that she is a virgin. But Mary doesn’t know the facts of the kingdom. Gabriel fills her in: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you….” As sure as she is of the ‘facts of life,’ Mary doesn’t insist. She opens herself to Gabriel’s King and kingdom announcement and prays, in effect, Thy will be done: ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord ... let it be to me according to your word’ (Luke 1:38, RSV).

Mary had the choice –as we all have the choice – to go along with God’s will or not. Mary could have refused to allow the Holy Spirit to be involved in her life in this way because of the potential for ridicule and real trouble. Then God would have found someone else. But she did not refuse. “Let it be to me, according to your word,” she said. And the will of God was done in Mary’s life.

Thirty-three years later, as Jesus wrestled with God in the Garden of Gethsemane in the certain knowledge he was about to suffer a horrible death, Jesus prayed: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42, NRSV). And the will of God was done in Jesus’ life. Jesus gave up his life on the cross and, three days later, he became the resurrected Lord of the Kingdom. Jesus’ life – from beginning to end on this Earth and beyond this life – is framed with the intent “Thy will be done!”

When Jesus teaches us to pray, he wants us to start with “thy” and not with “us.” Did you notice, we are not even mentioned in the first petitions to the Father? Except, Jesus does want us to know his Father is also our heavenly Father. That is radical and remarkable because you and I -- through Jesus -- are connected to God when we pray. We are in this Christian life together with Jesus as we pray to “Our Father.”

Jesus starts the prayer with the pronoun thy or your: May your name be honoured, may your kingdom come, may your will be done. When we pray this way, we are deeply involving ourselves in wanting God’s ways of working done on this Earth – by honouring God’s holy name, by intentionally calling for God’s kingdom to come and by desiring God’s will for the entire Earth to be done as it is in heaven.

But, then, halfway through his prayer, Jesus changes the pronoun to us. When we pray “Our Father in heaven, may your name be honoured, may your kingdom come and may your will be done,” our prayer involves us deeply with God’s purposes: “Your will be done.” But then we continue to pray: “Give us today the food we need. Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. Do not bring us to hard testing but keep us safe from the Evil One.” Our prayer now involves God deeply with us -- in life-changing ways in all the details of our lives. (But these details are for later messages.)

The movement in the Lord’s Prayer from your will – being all about God’s will -- to being all about our needs is another way of expressing our intimate and personal connection with Jesus’ Father who is also our Father. As I noted last week, Jesus is teaching us to be real and honest and open with God. Let me remind you how The Message Bible in Matthew 6:7-9 introduces Jesus’ teaching on how to pray:

“The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven … ”

What Jesus wants us to realize is that our connection with God is not a prayer formula or a prayer technique. Our connection with God is meant to be a relationship with God the Father who knows better than we do what we need and who loves us. Therefore, we pray with a sense of person-to-person intimacy, love and joy.

So what is the will of God? If we take the context of where Jesus is telling his disciples how to pray, it is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, which encompasses Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7. So when we listen to Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, we can hear the will – the intention -- of God.

Here are only a few things Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount that reveal God’s intention for us:

• There are the Beatitudes. Jesus says those who are poor in spirit and those who are merciful to others will be blessed. Those who mourn will be comforted. Those who work for peace will be called God’s children. And those who are persecuted for doing what God requires will find the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
• Jesus says God’s intention is that his people be like life-enhancing salt giving extra flavour to society and preserving what is good in society and in the culture. God intends the witness of his people to be like goodness-enhancing light so that others will see the good things God’s people do and give praise to God.
• Jesus says God’s intention is that we have deep respect for all people and even love for our enemies.
• Jesus tells us to stock-pile treasures that last in heaven rather than the fleeting treasures here on Earth for “our heart will always be where our riches are.”
• Jesus calls us to be concerned, above everything else, with the Kingdom of God and with what God requires of us and not to be obsessed about where our food and clothes will come from.
• Jesus constantly reminds us to trust God. He also says that those who listen to what he says and put what he says into practice are wise because this is like building a house on solid rock that can withstand the storms of life. Not to trust him and put what he says into practice is like building our lives on sand. When the storms of life come, we are guaranteed to fall apart.      

When I was a young Christian – both young in years and in my faith – a significant question for me was: What is the will of God for me personally? What does God want me to do with my life? Is there a particular vocation God wanted me to pursue? What would help me discern the answer to that question as well as to other questions as I grew in my relationship with God? Presbyterian minister and writer Frederick Buechner has helped me frame a profoundly personal sense of the will – the intent -- of God for us. Buechner wrote:

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.”

“The place God calls you to”: Is that not the will of God? Think of what this statement might mean for Jesus and for us. When Jesus teaches us how to pray, do we not sense in our spirits that Jesus’ “deep gladness” is to hallow or honour the holy name of his Father? To pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom? To do the will of his Father? When Jesus teaches us how to pray, do we not also sense “the world’s deep hunger” is that their daily needs be met – needs of body, mind, emotions and spirit? Is not the world’s deep hunger also to know their sins are forgiven -- and to be able to forgive those who have wronged them? Is the world’s deep hunger not also to know that God “will not allow [them] to be tested beyond [their] power to remain firm…. [And] at the time [they] are put to the test, [God] will give [them] the strength to endure it, and so provide [them] with a way out.” (You will find that last statement in 1 Corinthians 10:13.)

When Jesus teaches us – his followers -- to pray, do we not recognize Jesus is the primary connection between our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger? When we pray “Thy will be done,” Jesus is the One – through the Holy Spirit -- who causes us to acknowledge that the Father’s purposes will be done in whatever way God chooses to accomplish them. And so we pray that God, in his wisdom and love, will let us work with him to do his will. Someone has said: “I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help him. I ended up asking him to do his work through me.”

God’s will is down-to-earth yet planned in heaven. Jesus prayed that God’s will be done “on Earth as it is heaven.” When we pray thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven, we are saying God is not only in heaven but also at work here on Earth where we are – where we live and work and play and laugh and cry and love and hurt. When we pray “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven,” we are acknowledging, as Eugene Peterson expresses it [Tell It Slant, Eerdmans, 2008; p. 180]:

“God is at work in creation, in salvation, in blessing – on Earth. He is at work in our homes and workplaces, in our governments and schools, in our prisons and churches, in ships at sea and automobiles on highways, among the hungry and poor, among the newborn and the dying. Make your own list. Insert your own names. And then pray them.”

Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and theologian who lived in the first half of the 18th century. I thought his brief prayer was appropriate for our Prayer of Approach:

“Father in heaven, now draw our hearts to you that our hearts may be where our treasures ought to be, that our minds and thoughts may look to your kingdom, whose citizens we are.”

Kierkegaard also wrote about human nature and how complex we human beings really are. But Kierkegaard was a disciple of Jesus and knew the difference between being merely an admirer and being a follower or disciple of Jesus. He wrote:

“If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, you know that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite -- to hate, jealousy, and revenge. Christ, however, never asked for admirers, worshipers, or adherents. He consistently spoke of ‘followers and ‘disciples.’”

May each of us consider not merely admiring Jesus but following him intentionally. May each of us also consider not my will but thy will be done. May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
January 23, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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