"So Send I You"

John 21:17-22 Acts 8:26-40

March 29, 2009

          I know I'm jumping the gun on Easter by a couple weeks by relating an account of the doings on Easter night - so if I'm ruining the ending of the story for anyone I humbly apologize.  But I want to think about mission as a bridge stone of passionate Christian discipleship this morning, so I just have to do it!

          Mission puts us in action outside the walls.  We become actors in God's great story - God's appeal to be reconciled through Jesus Christ.  Fellowship joins believers to embrace God.  Mission joins believers with a world that has yet to embrace God. Mission keeps us from being ingrown.

          The word mission comes from the Latin missio meaning "to send."  That's what brings John 21 to our attention two weeks early.  "As the Father has sent me so I am sending you."  Jesus gives us a reason for being with that statement!  Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."  We are being sent by the power of the Holy Spirit on a peace mission.

          We see that in Philip.  Let's begin with a review of Philip's life. He was quite a guy!  When Jesus was starting out he was one of the first men attracted to him.  He was also man who responded to his skeptical brother Nathaniel by saying, "Come and see!"  That's a pretty good response to skeptics!  Philip was quick to invite people to come along.

          In John 12, Greeks came to Philip asking to see Jesus.  Philip was easy to approach.  It probably had something to do with being Greek himself, but I think there was more to it than that. 

          Philip wasn't afraid to ask questions when he didn't know the answer.  He asked Jesus to show the Father to the puzzled group of disciples.  So Jesus explained more.  Philip was one of the seven chosen who were "full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom" to superintend meal arrangements in the early church (Acts 6:1-5).

          When Christians were scattered from Jerusalem, Philip ended up in Samaria.  People saw his miraculous power and listened to him proclaim the Kingdom of God.  As a result those thought outside the family of God were baptized.

          Then Philip went to a rendezvous with the Ethiopian.  The Spirit moved him to go along with the chariot where the eunuch was reading Isaiah.  Philip didn't say he would explain the meaning of the passage.  He asked if the Ethiopian understood it.  By asking a question he received an invitation to explain how the Scriptures were being fulfilled.  Once again, Philip baptized someone who asked to receive Christ.

          Philip is a great role model of what it means to practice mission.  He listens.  He invites.  He asks questions.  He learns more.  He is gifted, directed, and empowered by the Spirit!  Note as well that his life involved prayer, worship, a life in God's word, and fellowship.  This provides a solid base for reaching out.

          That's good for Philip, but what about you and me?  Opportunities for developing a life of mission are all around us.  That's why we exist as a church!  God calls us together to serve those around us in the name of Jesus Christ.  This involves showing mercy.  This involves advocacy for the weak.  This involves (as we have seen) inviting people to "come and see" Jesus. 

          When Jesus was in the Nazareth synagogue, Luke tells us that Jesus took the scroll from the prophet Isaiah (chapter 61), read it, and said the prophecy was fulfilled.  What did Jesus read?

 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18,19

          There's lots of mercy in those words.  I find the advocate's ringing voice as well.  And that "year of the Lord's favor" refers a day of release from debt -- the Jubilee!  The debt of sin was cancelled at the cross and the ongoing power of the cross shows as we practice the grace of forgiving with each other.  We will cover much more on this in August.

          But how do we find opportunities to serve?

          Opportunities for mission exist all around us.  Let us exercise our powers of observation by looking at a masterpiece by Alfred Stevens entitled "What is called vagrancy."  Surely many today can relate with this woman's distress.  Observe with your mind and heart.  May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see.  

          Do you see need?  That's always an opportunity for mission.  A mother holds her baby looking both sad and resigned.  Her son clings to her skirt expressing the pain without the learned restraint of his mother.  What about the guards?  One seems to be shooing away the woman with the bonnet.  Another looks away while the other casts a wary glance.  Are they not dealing with sorrow and shame too?  What is their need?  And the man to the right - what do you see in him?  Has it all passed him by without his being able to help?  Is he saying, "But what could I do?"

          Where do you see mercy in this painting?  The woman in the red bonnet has a coin purse in her hand.  She's being confronted by the guard.  Should she mind her own business?  What would a few coins mean anyway?  What is she doing?

          Where is Jesus in this painting?  Where are you in this painting?

          I see mercy in the woman.  I also see advocacy.  She does not stand by in the face of the world's power.  She does something and that has a message!  The very painting is an act of advocacy and truth!

          By the standards of Jesus and the Kingdom of God, who are the pathetic ones in this painting?  Certainly we see the mother, but what about those guards?  What about that bystander?

          Suppose this painting was about spiritual poverty (it probably already is).  What does the woman in the red bonnet offer?  What role do the guards play?  Don't they enforce the current order (if we could call it that)?  Might they even be some religious leaders who want things neat, consistent, and clean - like the ones who killed Jesus?  What does the bystander ponder?

          As they enter prison how would this impoverished woman respond to words about Jesus' love if the woman in the red bonnet spoke?  What if it came from one of the guards? - Or the bystander?

          If the painting were set in Middlebury today, what would it look like? 

          Where would we be in the picture?  Where would you be?

          The opportunities to be merciful, to stand for what's right in God's eyes, and to invite people to Jesus are all around us. 

          Jesus said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you."

"Living With the Bible"

Matthew 5: 17-22 2 Timothy 3:14-17

March 9, 2009

          I'd like to return to Rembrandt's painting The Inspiration of St. Matthew from the Louvre.  The artist captures an important truth.  Matthew strokes his beard as the angel/Spirit whispers in his ear.  He ponders what he hears with pen poised over the paper.  The biblical writer's personality isn't obliterated by some trance.  This is not automatic writing.  The biblical truth will come through the personalities of God's Spirit and the inspired writer.  That's what Paul is telling Timothy when he says that all scripture is inspired by God.

          I'll take liberty with Rembrandt to suggest another valid way to understand this painting.  Imagine that man in the painting is not Matthew but an ordinary Christian - a seeker of God's truth.  His pen is poised to underline or take notes about what he finds in the Bible.  And still, the Spirit whispers truth from the page into the man's heart.  He, like the writer, ponders as he received God's word.  The Spirit of God makes the Bible what it is.

          DEVELOPING A LIFE WITH THE BIBLE IS A BRIDGESTONE OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.  Rembrandt painted this over fifteen hundred years after the last book in scripture was written.  It wasn't a musty old book after a millennium and a half.  Is it musty now?  Why bother with the Bible in our technological day?  We pursue the Bible's message because God breathes in it and through it.

          Paul reminds Timothy that the Bible makes him "wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ."  The Bible tells us the only story that will matter when time is done.  God created us and we went off, but God pursued us, and came perfectly in Jesus, God's Son.  Trusting Jesus will put us right with our Creator and that will be our salvation.  The Bible tells us about Jesus and his significance.

          The Bible has enough clear teaching to tell us how God sees right and wrong.  The scripture acts like a gyroscope, keeping us on the course of living in the joy of the Lord; if we will pay attention.  At points the Bible raises as many questions as it answers.  It keeps us seeking, but we can be sure the paths we follow will be true.

          The Bible acts like a map and a compass.  It tells us where we have been and where we are.  It shows us where we will go if we stay on the same course we are following.  Like a compass, it gives us a reliable fix on our position in spite of the noise and confusion around us.  The compass and map will show the true course even if we're being tossed all over the place.

          Paul gets at this when he gives this memorable explication of the Scripture's purpose.  This is worth knowing by heart!

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

            That's why we put so much stock in the book; God uses it to form us!  The Bible equips Christians; rebukes us, corrects us and trains us so we can be competent agents of God's goodness. 

          As I read Paul's words something else comes clear. 

          The Bible is meant to be read with other people.  Paul reminds Timothy of his godly mother and grandmother.  They opened the Scriptures to him from his infancy.  We cannot overstate the importance of the Bible being a part of our home life. What's better for us; the world of television or the counsel of Scriptures?  How much attention do we pay to each?  When we spend some time reading and discussing what we read, it's a conversation - with each other and with God's Spirit.

          I'll be honest with you.  The Bible is a big book and it can get confusing.  If we strike out on our own to explore what it offers, we'll have a tall task.  But we can get to know our way around the Scriptures.  We can learn how to harvest its fruit.  We do that best when we sit down with other seekers, read, and discuss. 

          There are many ways to do this.  We're doing it right now; we've read the Bible and I'm trying to bring out the meaning and suggest ways to make it practical.  So worship is one context where we can live with the Bible.  There are many others.

          Many of you read some devotional literature privately.  Even as you do that, you have a relationship with the person who chose the passage and gives the short explanation.  But, like a sermon, you might not be able to ask questions, seek and explanation, or challenge the writer.

          Having a friend or a small group of people with whom you can explore the Scriptures is a great idea.  There's more time for give and take, question and answer, when you are with a friend.  Someone may be more experienced in reading the Bible.  They can show you the ropes.  If you're the experienced one, remember how much a new look at the Bible can bless and challenge you.  That's what new comers bring to a living Bible study.

          The important thing is this; God designed the Bible to be shared and pondered.

          In all of this, do not keep the Bible at arm's length!  This is a clear and present danger for more experienced believers.  We've read passages so often we finish the sentences before we read them.  The Spirit may want to show us something new but we fool ourselves into thinking there's no more to be found.  We become analysts of the Bible - keeping it at arms length from our hearts.

          That's what Jesus is getting at with his challenge in Matthew 5.  His application of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures would cause some to say he was overturning the Bible.  Jesus challenged many accepted interpretations of scripture.  The scribes and Pharisees were challenged to rethink some of their analysis and application.

          Yet Jesus didn't come to overturn the Bible.  Every detail, he said, has meaning and validity.  The words of scripture find their fullness in him!  That's an audacious claim; but that's the one Jesus makes.

          It's not a matter, Jesus says, of having the correct view of what the Bible says and means.  What matters is that the word of God captures your heart and that you begin to live it from the heart.  Of course this is the very thing that will cause us to recognize our need for God's forgiveness and restoring work.  The Lord takes us to our inner motives.  Hatred is the same as murder.  Murder is the manifestation of deadly rot in the hearts of humanity. 

          The Bible pierces our evasions and good fronts.  God peers into our hearts and shows us what's there if we are brave enough to let God show it.  That can change us.  People in Jesus' day saw the heart as the center of the inner person; intellect, emotion, and will.

          The Holy Writings will speak to your mind and move your emotions.  This Bible can change the way you live if you take time with it.  Do not keep it at arm's length.  Don't sell the Scriptures short.  Jesus waits to meet your there - and he can save your life; over and over again!

          Let's come together sisters and brothers, and be changed by the God who breathes from the Word.  Let us long to be "wise unto salvation!"   Let us experience what that means together.

TAKING IT HOME: LIVING WITH THE BIBLE

LEARN IT BY HEART!

            2 Timothy 3:16-17 is an important statement of the Bible’s purpose in
God’s plan for us.  Please take some time to ponder this statement.  Speak it over quietly to yourself at least four times.  Savor the passage until it’s in your memory – and then ponder it every day for a week.

 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

·        Describe a person who is “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Do you know anyone like this?

·        Which of the four "useful" things is easiest for you to receive?  Which is most difficult?

·        How have you experienced these four things in your reading of the Bible?

PUTTING THE BIBLE TO GOOD USE

          What do you do when you don’t understand something you read in the Bible?  What can you do?

·        Find a “Bible buddy:” someone more experienced to ask for explanations or guidance.  Maybe you can do some reading together!

·         Own a Bible Dictionary to look up strange terms or words.

·         Own a one volume Bible Commentary for simple and basic explanations of every passage of scripture.