Renovation

Goodness

    Look at this thing I am holding up in your imagination. It is green. What do you see?

   Now, tell me if I see the same thing.

   We will never know.

   When I see green, I may see something entirely different from what you see.

    Look at this thing I am holding up in your imagination. Not only is it green but it is good.

   What do you see?

   Ok, enough imagination stimulation and now down to the "sermon." Rest your eyes with your mind.

   We will talk today of goodness; good things, good people, good actions, good stuff.

   Jesus Christ does good stuff. Christians believe He is the embodiement of good stuff. All He does is good. He feeds the hungry, heals the sick and generally hangs around with people "good people" do not care about in real life. He is the Ultimate Good Guy.

   What makes Jesus Good?

   Well, Jesus swims against the stream. He acts like no one ever acts before Him, so the writer of the Hebrews letter calls Jesus the "express image of God." The Hebrew writer will later laud Jesus as a Son above the angels (1:5), who is made (as a human) "a little lower than the angels" (2:7), possessor of a forever kind of throne (1:8), made perfect as a Savior by His own obedience unto death (5:7,8).

   So, this Perfected Savior, Obedient Son, Lover of God, Leaver of Heaven, Worthy of Adoration but Scornful of a Throne, is good because He acts like no one else. He swims against the current of human history, wherein Man and Devil try to promote themselves above God, so throwing all of Creation into conflict.

   With God in Christ, the way out of Creation's Conflict is creative conflict. Jesus goes to war with the system. He will not accept the license of the religous elite, claiming allegiance to the God of Heaven. He eschews the Prelate's promogeniture, explaining no earthly power commands Him.

   Jesus swims against the current with a power. He is above all, yet deigns to live with all. He is the same in the poorhouse as the royal chamber. Wherever He is, Jesus uses His power of good to do good for good.

   Jesus is good, powerful guy.

   Jesus is a good, purposeful guy. There is a reason for what Jesus does.

   The good Jesus does is religious in nature. He is not a sentimentalist, a social crusader. His good is of a religious nature.

   Religion gets bad press in our Post-Modern Age. This is a religious day but, face it, things ain't like they used to be.

   I return to the religious nature of the acts of the Christ because that is where He is under attack today, from within and without the Covenant Community.

   In the movie "The DaVinci Code" Tom Hanks's character, speaking as though in a documentary, flatly monotone, "Jesus was a good man and an instrumental teacher. That is all the empirical evidence proves."

   Christopher Hitchens in his book "God is Not Great," decries any attempt to make Jesus divine. Religion is superstition for Mr. Hitchens and Jesus probably did not even exist, he writes.

   I could continue.

   These are a couple of examples of the attack on the religious purpose of Jesus from outside the Covenant Community. The attack on the religious nature of the Christ from within the Covenant Community are no less frequent and more troubling.

   Understand, Christianity is not a way of life. The Lordship of Christ generation is right to insist on the practice of Christian living as a sign of salvation but they go too far when they insist it is on the primary sign of Christ's Lordship over us.

   Christ Himself and the organizers of the Early Church stress Holy Spirit empowerment, remorse for sin leading to repentance and anticipation of the parousia as primary signs of salvation and all of those acts are spiritual, so religious.

   Power for witness is the theme of Acts 1:8, some of the last words spoken by our Lord to any earthly gathering. He precedes this command with His great commitment of Matthew 28:20 to be ever and always with the baptizing witnesses who make disciples.

   Remorse resultant in repentance is the theme of Acts 2:38,39, and this action is purely spiritual, so religious in character and then in form.

   The parousia or return of Jesus Christ to the earth is the theme of I Thessalonians 4:13-18 and is linked inextricably to "comfort," itself entertwined with "edification," (5:11). Both are the result of personal, conscious trust placed in the Living Christ, intent on His Return, a religious act if there ever will be one.

   Remember my opening question, "Do you see green the way I see it?"

   Now, do you see good the way I see it?

   I see generations of persons flopping around trying to be good without God. Oprah and Dr. Phil are the result.

   God is good. Man aspires to goodness. For Man to be good, Man needs God.

Avoid God If You Can

   My mother introduced me to God. He was a very simple, uneducated Guy, who taught you to love your mother, go to church meetings and avoid alchohol, tobacco and swearing. I am 54, never had a drink, smoked a cigar a couple of times with Bobby Smith and swear only when in the presence of other preachers.

   My friend, Jim, introduced me to God. He was a very masculine, powerful Guy, who taught you to stand up and be counted. He exerted great effort to remain physically fit and finish first. I did not like Him much at first, since I tend toward air conditioning, but exertion has felt good as I have gotten older.

   My preacher, James, my preacher, Paul, my preacher, Millard, my professor, James, my professor, Wallace and Bryce and Nat, introduced me to God. For James, my preacher, God was mad at just about everyone but mostly the Liberals, though James forgot to be angry when he got through in the pulpit and mostly loved everyone. I found out from the others God was not really much mad at all, just tired of people being tired of people.

   My wife, Joan, introduced me to God. He was never willing to let me run down to the church to avoid family. He had me coach basketball, show up for all the concerts, face every crisis and take responsibility. I did not know if He was right about this for a long while, what with me taking time away from "service" and all but the kids turned out pretty good; certainly better than me.

   My churches introduced me to God. He was an inhumane employer, a bit of a miser, a constant critic, a creature in great need. He was innocence not quite lost, stubborn to a fault but constantly fascinating. I tried to leave Him a couple of times but He kept calling me back to Him.

   My soul introduced me to God. He was shorter than I thought. His voice was higher in frequency and so sometimes irritating to hear. He tended to speak in low decibels, requiring concentration and often shut out by louder sounds. I frequently lost touch with Him in prosperity, only to return to Him in crisis. Go figure.

   Jesus introduced me to God. Jesus really seems to know a lot about God. If Anyone ever had a reason to avoid God, it was Jesus. Almost from the minute Jesus got here, there was a love-hate relationship between us and Him. Some foreigners and poor people came to see Jesus but the big guy on the throne tried to kill His whole family and then ran them out of town.

   I look at the whole Jesus introduction to God and get a mixed message. Jesus lives lower than an animal most of His life, never gets a wife or accumulates a fortune or even lives inside much. The whole Crucifixion thing is pretty awful but the night before, when Jesus asks for a different cup, He can't even get that from God. He just has to give in and drink up the whole thing.

   I advise people to avoid God if they can. I haven't been able to get away from Him/Her no matter what I do. Everywhere I turn, people and inner workings and Jesus keep pulling me along, often against my wishes. If I have a shiny soul it is because of Him/Her, her, them, her, him and all the names I've tossed in here, along with a million others; Jeremy, Jennifer, Jonathan, Jordan, Faith, Logann, Grant, Leon and on and on and on....

Instantaneous Salvation

    "And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn..." Luke 2:6-7.

   Instantaneous salvation.

   OK, it took the whole Old Testament, angelic visitations, nine months and a donkey ride for a pregnant woman. I guess there was a process.

   "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him but as many as received Him, to those He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name..." John 1:10-11.

    Instantaneous salvation.

   See above comment on process.

   John Wesley formed a Holy Club, prayed diligently, went to the New World as a missionary, failed at just about everything and "felt his heart strangely warm" one day listening to some fellow read part of Luther's commentary on Galatians at Aldersgate. At least I think it was Wesley, Luther, Galatians and Aldersgate.

  I really don't care so much about anything but the "heart strangely warm part." Why didn't his heart get strangely warmed while he was doing all that work for God?

   Instantaneous salvation.

   An "Aha!" moment?

    Niebuhr wrote, "Perhaps it is foolish to be too sensitive about the inevitable secularizations of religious values. Let us be thankful that there is no quarterly meeting in our denomination and no need of giving a district superintendent a bunch of statistics to prove that our ministry is successful" (Reinhold Niebuhr: Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. New York:Meridian Books, 1957, p. 53).

   Niebuhr was not a baptist.

   He also died somewhere before evangelism went to strip mining.

   Granted, I like my way of telling over anyone else's not telling.

   I just wonder when they actually get their heart's strangely warmed. Is it when they pray the prayer with me? Or does that actually keep the "sinner" from grace? Does he have to walk with Jesus for a three years, go hungry, get angry and still misunderstand, before he finally says, "Oh, I see. Ok. Got it." ?

   I also get that we live in a nonconformist age when church going is casually accepted alongside cocooning and more people than ever fit into the club of those who "would not come to Big, Bad Baptist." I just wonder why Big, Bad Baptist does not go to them and what it is about Big Bad Baptist that makes people more comfortable at a bar.

   Instantaneous salvation.

   We live in an age of untamed cynics, don't we? If a cynic is a moral separatist, a caustic, perhaps pessimistic person, isn't that every media outlet? When we talk about eternal life in this age of untamed cynics, don't we get laughed off Mars Hill? When we mention hope, don't people reach for their wallet, to hold on to it?

   Preacher, do you keep a journal? What do you tell it? Do you say things in there you will never show the light of day? What changed, from first day to this, about your youthful presuppostions about God and ministry? Everything? Something? Nothing?

   Instantaneous salvation.

   The heart strangely warm after all that work. The woman who stumbles into AA for the fifth time and finds salvation this time. The abused child who finally puts the blame on someone other than himself. The soul clutched back as though from the fire itself, smelling of brimstone.

   He came. Process not complete but continuing.

   He lived. He died. He rose. He ascended.

   He intercedes.

   The whole thing goes on and on. I suppose he who wins a soul is wise.

   He just may not be wise enough to know when it's won.