Tag: sermons

Even Greater Things Than Jesus Did??

B 3Jesus says to his disciples in John, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He [or she] will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Of course our first reaction is to ask, “Greater than Jesus? How is that even possible?”

One possible meaning: Because I am going to the Father–because I am going to die and rise again–sin and death will be defeated and you will have even more power than you do now.

The Kingdom would be even more fully ushered in at the end of John. Is this what Jesus means?

This, at least, is what D.A. Carson suggests:

In short, the works that the disciples perform after the resurrection are greater than those done by Jesus before his death insofar as the former belong to an age of clarity and power introduced by Jesus’ sacrifice and exaltation. Both Jesus’ words and his deeds were somewhat veiled during the days of his flesh; even his closest followers, as the foregoing verses make clear, grasped only part of what he was saying. But Jesus is about to return to his Father, he is about to be glorified, and in the wake of his glorification his followers will know and make known all that Jesus is and does, and their every deed and word will belong to the new eschatological age that will then have dawned.

I think it could also be helpful to understand Jesus’ statement in light of the signs he has performed.

Jesus says the above in John 14, shortly after the conclusion of the “Book of Signs” portion of John–the first 12 chapters containing his “7 Signs.” John 13-21, then, constitute what scholars call the “Book of Glory.”

A sign, after all, is that which (while good in itself) points away from itself and to a greater, deeper, fuller reality. So if Jesus is referring to “greater things than these signs,” that is not so hard to grasp if we consider that signs always point to something greater anyway. One could read Jesus’ statement as a sort of tautology, where the “greater things” mean that somehow the deeper reality Jesus’ signs point to is more fully unearthed through the ministry of the disciples.

In other words, Jesus says to Philip, these signs are just a foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven, and you and all the disciples after you are going to work and work and work together to keep bringing the Kingdom in.

When puzzling over John, I can think of no better place to turn than to Raymond E. Brown, to whom I give the last word. Note especially the final sentence of this paragraph.

 

Ray Brown on John 14.12

“There is No Rejoicing Without Wine”: Jesus’ First Miracle

One preacher says, “Weddings are accidents waiting to happen. Something almost always goes wrong at a service of holy matrimony.”

That doesn’t match my experience with weddings, but there is something quite wrong at the wedding in Cana, in Galilee (John 2:1-11): they’ve run out of wine.

So maybe there’s no better place for Jesus to show up, his first week of public ministry, than at a well-attended, days-long wedding.

Jesus turns water into wine—“the first of his miraculous signs,” John says.

 

The Seven Signs of Jesus in John

 

Jesus performed more than just seven signs, but John uses seven signs, or miracles, to organize the first part of his Gospel.

1. Jesus changes water into wine (John 2:1-11)
2. Jesus heals the official’s son (John 4:46-54)
3. Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda 
(John 5:1-9)
4. Jesus feeds the 5,000 (John 6:1-13)
5. Jesus walks on water (John 6:16-21)
6. Jesus heals the man born blind (John 9:1-12)
7. Jesus raises Lazarus (John 11:1-44)

(via The New Testament in Antiquity, by Burge, Cohick, and Green)

What is a sign?

A translator’s handbook, intended especially for those who are taking to Bible into new languages for the first time, talks about it this way:

[A] “sign” is a means of revealing a greater reality to which the “sign” itself merely points. The Gospel of John speaks of seven “signs” of Jesus, and these are “signs,” not necessarily because they are miracles, but because they point to a truth beyond themselves, to a truth regarding God’s salvation.

Signs are good, even powerful, in and of themselves, but they point to a “greater reality.”

A sign is deeper than itself.

The signs of Jesus, in particular, are meant to tell us something about Jesus. The “signs” and wonders Jesus performs are witnesses to his glory. They’re each a vignette, a window into Christ’s revealing himself to anyone who would receive him.

 

Sign #1: Water Into Wine

 

Jesus, his mother, and his disciples have all gotten invitations to this wedding. It’s Jesus’ first week of public ministry, as John tells it, and it’s a huge event. It would not be unexpected for just about the whole town of Cana to be there. The local shops and businesses probably all put a “Closed for wedding” sign on their doors. Will be back in seven days. It was likely a week-long event.

But, even if not all weddings are “accidents waiting to happen,” this one was. The guests drank the wine down to the last drop.

It would be pointless (but fun) to speculate as to whether or not this was poor planning on the family’s part, or too much drinking on the guests’ part.

Either way, this family is about to go down in history as “the ones who ran out of wine at their wedding.” You sort of hope for them, at this point, that they don’t have any other kids to marry off, ‘cause no one’s coming.

Verse 3 says, “When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

One early theologian said, “Perhaps his mother, as mothers do, incited him to perform a miracle, wishing that the greatness of her son would be revealed—and thinking that the lack of wine offered the right occasion for the miracle.”

The (1984) NIV gives us the reply: “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

There is a sense in which Jesus isn’t ready to fully reveal all his glory. But he whips into action. It’s a good way of honoring his mother.

Because… not only is the reputation of the family at stake, but the festive spirit of the wedding is in jeopardy. The Talmud, a text of Rabbinic Judaism from a couple centuries after this, bluntly says, “There is no rejoicing [without] wine.”

Jesus is on it. He performs the miracle, in kind of a subtle and smooth way. Maybe this is because his “time had not yet come,” as he said to mother Mary.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

Just to be clear, we are talking about anywhere between 120 and 180 gallons of wine.

This doesn’t mean that a bunch of wedding guests are going to get toasted. If you think of a whole town of people celebrating for a week, a lot of wine is needed.

Here’s the town today that might have been 1st-century Cana:

 

Maybe Cana
Source: Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide

 

Imagine the effect of 180 gallons of wine!

This picture is probably 30 gallons or a little more:

 

Some Wine

 

So if my calculations are correct, here’s a visual on how much wine Jesus made:

 

More Wine

 

The result of this sign, besides a happy wedding, is in John 2:11:

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee.

He thus revealed his glory,
and his disciples put their faith in him.

Or, in another translation, “There Jesus showed how wonderful he was.”

It was looking back and thinking of moments like this that John could write in his Prologue, in chapter 1: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” We have seen how wonderful Jesus is.

 

What Does the Sign Show?

 

N.T. Wright says, “The whole point of the ‘signs’ is that they are moments when heaven and earth intersect with each other.”

From these signs of Jesus, we on earth learn more about ultimate, heavenly realities: who Jesus really is, what sorts of things God is capable of, what kind of intervention is possible in the problems of the world today.

Especially with this first sign, when Jesus is fresh on the scene, we get a portrait of who our Savior is.

 

—Jesus likes to have fun—

“Eat, drink, and be merry” is not just a mindset that the Bible shoots down. Jesus wants us to eat, drink, and be merry—so long as we’re not neglecting important things.

Jesus upset the religious elite of his day by all the feasting he and his disciples did. In Luke some angry leaders say to him,

John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink. Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. (Luke 5:33-35)

As long as you’ve got me, Jesus says, party on.

And did you catch this nice touch from John: these jars, where the chemical miracle happened, were ones “used… for ceremonial washing.” There’s nothing wrong with religious ritual, per se—I quite like it myself. But these jars for ritual cleansing—Jesus turned them into party favors. That’s kind of like co-opting the baptismal font for a punch bowl.

This family made good choice in inviting Jesus to the wedding. Maybe he already had a reputation as a fun guy—someone you wanted to celebrate with.

 

—Jesus is generous—

This sign also shows Jesus to be generous. Under his command, the servants “filled [the jars with water] to the brim.” There’s no skimping with Jesus.

Next chapter Jesus will say, “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.”

God does not withhold his good gifts and his love from us. He wants us coming to him with open hands, even empty cups, so he can fill us with good things.

Also, just a geographical note here: we know the stories of Jesus, so we take it for granted, but Cana was 70 miles north of Jerusalem. This is pretty far outside the city of the religious power brokers.

But being a religious insider or expert, so to speak, has never been a requirement for receiving Christ’s love.

Jesus does not withhold his presence from the ones who have never known power, wealth, or the comfort of living in the mainstream of society. Jesus is generous.

 

—Jesus is accommodating—

Jesus is accommodating. He says his “time has not yet come,” but then he does the miracle. He seems to be flexible on timing. You’ll see in other places in John where Jesus says “his time has not yet come.”

We know the frustration of when God’s timetable or timing in the world does not match ours. But God is not impassable. God is not unaffected by our needs and desperation.

If God has a massive planner on his desk, with dates and times and places, it’s written in pencil. God can change the future. God can even accommodate our requests when he maybe otherwise wasn’t planning to. Jesus is accommodating.

 

How Shall We Respond?

 

Having seen this intersection of the heavenly and earthly, having caught a glimpse of a God who changes reality, a Jesus who is fun, and generous, and accommodating… how shall we respond?

John models a response for us in verse 11: “He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”

We can eat, drink, be merry, trusting that our God is a God of celebration… assured that he’s generous… and confident that he’s flexible to respond in real time to our needs and intercessions.

Look at Mary’s response in verse 5 to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.”

I think we can safely assume, 30 years in, that she’s onto the whole divinity thing. She doesn’t know what he’s going to do or how, but she expects something, when she comes to him with a need: “They have no more wine.” Her words to the servants model an admirable submission to the Son of God: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Do the good you know to do. Act in love, in the ways that you see it within your reach to do. “Do whatever he tells you.”

John, by showing Mary and the disciples’ response to Jesus’ first sign, calls us, too, to submission and faith and trust in Christ.

I think another response this passage can call forth from us is just… relief.

Jesus isn’t boring or a killjoy. He liked to celebrate, to enjoy parties and good wine and food with others.

Jesus says of his mission, “I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus wants disciples to live life to the fullest, and one implication of this is that we enjoy the good things on earth.

We read in the Psalms:

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

Jesus wants us to enjoy the abundance of his creation. He is not stingy. He’s not inflexible.

This passage can offer us relief because it reminds us that prayers regarding needs do affect God. We can invite him into broken and unresolved places in our life.

 

An Even Greater Wedding Feast

 

The wedding at Cana, in fact, serves as a foreshadowing of a great heavenly banquet, where Jesus is the groom. And he invites everyone, not just in one whole town, but across many nations. It’s not just a weeklong wedding celebration, but an eternal one, with Jesus as host.

The prophets saw this day and were relieved. Amos rejoiced, “New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.” Joel saw a day when “the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk.” (And that milk—it accounts for those who don’t drink wine… so God’s got everyone covered.)

We, like Mary and the disciples, have seen the glory of Jesus. Witnesses to this and many other signs of Jesus, may we put our trust in him. May we hope in him. May we present our needs and lacks to him, asking for his help. May we place our confidence in him. And may we give ourselves over to him, and keep our hands open for the good things he has to give us.

Thanksgiving Opens Our Souls

Andrew Murray School of Prayer

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a short but potent piece from Andrew Murray (1828-1917), found in his With Christ in the School of Prayer:

Let us, with thanksgiving that we have been heard, with thanksgiving for what we have received and taken and now hold as ours, continue steadfast in believing prayer that the blessing, which has already been given us, and which we hold in faith, may break through and fill our whole being. It is in such believing thanksgiving and prayer, that our soul opens up for the Spirit to take entire and undisturbed possession.

The Mourning Woman Who Taught the Priest How to *Really* Pray, or, The Power of (Even Silent) Prayer After Terrorist Attacks

There was once a couple who was not able to have children together. The woman felt alone and mourned regularly. Her husband loved her deeply.

It was her habit to go into a local sanctuary that had open prayer times during the day. Another woman in town, if you can believe it, would tease and provoke her over her not being able to bear children. So she wept bitterly and would go long periods of time without eating.

One day her husband said to her, “Why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad?”

She could not respond, except to go back to that sanctuary and pray.

* * * * * * *

One day the priest was there, close to where she was praying.

The woman was utterly distressed and prayed to God, weeping openly as she prayed.

She made a promise of sorts: “O Almighty God, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give me a child… I will devote him entirely to you.”

As she prayed the priest started watching her mouth. He noticed that she prayed silently. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear any sound come out of her mouth. He thought maybe she was drunk.

* * * * * * *

So the priest, a man named Eli, said to her, “Hannah, How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.”

She responded:

No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.

Eli responded, as with a change of heart, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”

* * * * * * *

Prayer, as it turns out, is not a silent, impotent act.

Even those prayers we can’t fully voice—where our lips are barely moving—reach God.

The prayer of one of God’s beloved is powerful and effective, as Jesus’ brother James tells us.

So keep praying. Keep your lips moving, even if no sound is coming out.

Keep praying though you are in despair. Keep praying when you feel helpless and hopeless and powerless. Keep praying when evil seems to have the upper hand.

Keep praying in times of drought, in times of death and destruction, in times of violence and terror, and in times of fear and confusion and sadness.

Through our prayers and the prayers of others, we are healed. Our words uttered to God plant us in the soil of his love, and we are saved. The prayers of God’s children are powerful and effective.

Jesus’ and James’s “Spring of Water”

Spring Water

 

I’ve been preaching through the amazing book of James this fall. As I am able, I hope to post more of the sermons. In the meantime, here is something that occurred to me after I’d preached a particular passage.

To the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus says:

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

A spring of water… that wells up into eternal life. This led me to think of something James, brother of Jesus (probably), says:

Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. (James 3:11-12)

James never quotes it, but much of his letter is a fleshing out of Jesus’ saying, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

It seems James could have that in mind here: it is out of the overflow of the spring of water of eternal life–given to us by Jesus himself–that we use our words to bless others.

Wisdom: Inside-Out, Outside-In

Dwight

 

Dwite Schrute once said, “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think: would an idiot do that? And if they would, I do not do that thing.”

Dunder Mifflin’s Assistant to the Regional Manager, Dwight, picks up on a long tradition of “Stupid is as stupid does.”

This points up to the larger truth that…

…we live our lives from the inside out.

“WHO IS WISE AND UNDERSTANDING AMONG YOU?”, James will ask a diaspora group of Christians in James 3.

After a dire passage on how no one can tame the tongue, we might expect James to talk about how no one can really exercise wisdom in this world. But he comes back now to a theme he started in the first chapter, which is that wisdom comes from above, from God, and is available to all who ask.

 

Two Ways

 

It seems like God’s people are always coming up to forks in the road. You can go this way, or you can that way. There are two ways.

Wisdom, the skill and cleverness with which we live, is like that, too. There are two kinds of wisdom, James says. One from above and one from below. A different kind of fruit that each kind of wisdom produces.

Jewish Christians would have been used to this kind of language. Listen to how the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah contrast what the people of God can be.

Isaiah 27:6:

The time is coming when Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and grow branches.
The produce will fill the surface of the world.

versus Jeremiah 2:21:

I planted you in the land
like a special vine of the very best stock.
Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes?

What you fill your heart and your head with, and how you live out who you are, has visible effects–“fruit.” Any character trait in you has accompanying actions. If you find that you struggle with being critical of others, you’ll also hear snide remarks coming out of your mouth. If you experience compassion for others often welling up in your heart, chances are good you’ll act on it and spend time giving and serving others.

What’s inside you will find its way out of you.

 

One Kind of Wisdom: Ungodly

 

James says there are two kinds of wisdom. Or, only one is really properly called wisdom. The other is in scare quotes–so-called wisdom.

This passage weaves a tale of two wisdoms… James describes godly wisdom: where it comes from, what it’s like, and what it results in. He talks about ungodly wisdom: where it comes from, what it is like, and what it results in.

First, there is the so-called “wisdom” of the world. The wisdom he calls “earthly, unspiritual,” even “demonic.”

 

Where does it come from?

NOT from heaven.

In other words, the ungodly man or woman has not asked God for wisdom, and is going it alone. That person has not sought to receive the good gift of wisdom from the “Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

It’s actually worse than just coming “not from heaven.” Note James’s progression in verse 15: “Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” You sort of descend the depths word-by-word in that passage.

 

What is it like?

James says in verse 14, “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.” There’s nothing to be proud of if you cherish “bitter envy” and “selfish ambition.” And if that does describe you, don’t deny it, James says. You’ll be better off admitting it and seeking God’s help before what’s inside you spills out onto others in a damaging way.

James talked about bitter water earlier in the chapter with regard to speech. Now he’s warning against a bitter spirit.

 

What are its results?

Envy and ambition, for James, lead to “disorder and every evil practice.”

As I was sketching and outlining this passage this week, with bitter envy and selfish ambition, you could end up with situations like this one…

 

Stick Figures

 

…where one stick figure knocks the other one down to the ground in a fit of disorderly rage.

I learned this week (source) about an art technique called pentimento. I am not a gifted drawer, that masterpiece above notwithstanding, so I can’t claim first-hand knowledge with this.

But pentimento is when the original base color on a canvas bleeds through. So if an artist started with a base of one color and then decided to switch that color and keep the same canvas, when that first color shows through, it’s called pentimento. What’s *really* there at bottom bleeds through whatever else is covering it.

It’s not that you can’t change the canvas. But sometimes, depending on your first color, you just can’t do anything to hide it in that same canvas. You can’t cover it up.

What’s underneath finds its way to the surface. What’s several layers inside, makes its way to the top.

That’s how James sees wisdom working. If you’re always envying others and trying to make a name for yourself, that’s going to bleed through. It leads to disorder and actually doing bad stuff.

 

The Other Kind of (Real) Wisdom: Godly

 

Then, James turns to real wisdom, the kind that God gives.

 

Where does true wisdom come from?

James says it’s “from heaven,” or from God. James has said this already earlier in the letter.

When he asks, “WHO IS WISE AND UNDERSTANDING AMONG YOU?”, it’s a rhetorical question, but there is an actual best answer to this question, I think, which I only came to when my eldest son was kind enough to write it down for me in my sermon notes. I had just left the question hanging there: Who is wise and understanding among you? Next to that, with a picture of a cross, he wrote, God! God is among us, is he not? And there simply is no one wiser and more understanding than God:

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33)

Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite (Psalms 147:5)

With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. (Job 12:13)

This God, the Lord of infinite understanding, the God of unsearchable judgments and unfathomable ways, this God is the source of all wisdom. He freely gives of himself, of his wisdom and understanding and ability to make good judgments–he gives this to us when we ask.

And that ask, remember from James 1, is not, “If it doesn’t trouble you too much, God,” and not, “I’ve been asking around, so I figured I’d try you, too,” kind of ask. It’s a wholehearted, intense, yearning-filled, urgent request, “God, would you please grant me wisdom?!”

 

C.S. Lewis Quote

 

C.S. Lewis says, “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self–all your wishes and precautions–to Christ.”

In doing so, we come to God empty-handed, ready to receive the gifts he will give. One of those is wisdom… sound judgment… better understanding… the ability to make sense of and move forward in a world that is at times just downright perplexing.

 

What is wisdom like?

James almost sneaks this one in. Look at verse 13: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Humility. True wisdom is humble. You don’t know wise people by their own claims… you know wise people by the smart and strategic and wise things they do… in humility.

 

What are its results?

The results of wisdom are many. Here they all are in verse 17: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Pure seems like a funny word here. When many people hear the word “purity,” the mind goes to “sexual purity.” But James is using the word to refer to an undivided spirit. A heart that is fully trained on God. This is the antithesis to the double-minded person in James 1 who asks God for wisdom, doubting all the while that God even cares enough to give it. The wisdom that God gives is pure–it’s undivided in its loyalties. It’s focused in its motives.

And then–after humility and purity–there are seven more traits of wisdom James lists: “peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Each of these words is worthy of our measured consideration. In fact, you might take some time this week to read through this passage again, but spend a good minute or two prayerfully meditating on each of these words or phrases: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

 

Inside-Out, Outside-In

 

Faith produces deeds, and wisdom bears fruit. The God-centered life is lived inside-out. What’s inside you will find its way out of you.

What’s in our hearts and minds flows out into our actions… just as is true with Okilly Dokilly, the world’s only Ned Flanders-themed metal band.

 

Okilly Dokilly

 

If you’re really into Ned Flanders, that’s going to manifest itself. They call themselves the world’s only “Nedal” band. At their shows, they’ve got a Simpsons-looking, giant inflatable donut they throw out into the crowd.

What’s inside you ought to and usually will find its way out of you in full expression.

But if our lives are lived inside out, change can only come from the outside in.

What’s inside you will find its way out of you… but perhaps the only way to change what’s inside of you is to look outside of you… to look up, to God, the source of all goodness, peace, and wisdom.

The recently deceased preacher Fred Craddock describes a trip to the eastern Kentucky mountains, where he taught classes in a poor community there. One woman, as a token of her thanks, gave him a poem:

There is the hint of quiet rain coming soon,
Not much, enough to soothe the greening needs
Of outstretched leafy arms and hidden moss,
Shy and quietly waiting for the damp.

There is the hint of quiet moments coming soon,
Not much, enough to soothe the thirsting needs
Of outstretched, anxious hearts and hidden selves,
Private and silently waiting for the peace.

Louise Davis (unpublished poem)

The poet describes the “outstretched leafy arms and hidden moss” that are “quietly waiting for the damp.”

So, too, we, with our “outstretched, anxious hearts and hidden selves” are “silently waiting for the peace” of God.

James is not the first biblical writer, you might have guessed, to connect wisdom and peace-making.

He closes out the chapter: “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” The ones who do what their Father does… working (as God does) to bring peace into the world. Just a little bit more here… just a touch more there. Just a small bit of resolution over here.

That kind of work–the work of making peace, of showing mercy, of bearing good fruit, of exercising wisdom–that kind of good work can only happen when our arms are outstretched… when our eyes fixed heavenward, looking to the Giver of Peace and Wisdom to fill us with good gifts.

We long for these gifts that will enter into our hearts, transform us, and make their way out into the world.

4 Ways to Practice Sabbath Keeping

This Sunday I preached about Sabbath-keeping as a way of life. The below is the concluding, application-based portion of the message.

 

Keep Calm It's Sabbath Day

 

Let’s get specific for a minute, and talk about how a Sabbath way of life can make its way onto our calendars.

 

For an hour

 

You could think small, to begin with: one hour. Right, God didn’t say, “Remember a Sabbath hour and keep it holy,” but I think observing a Sabbath hour is very much in line with God’s intentions for our God-centered rest.

I’ve alluded a couple of times from the pulpit to my inordinate love for personal productivity literature and related apps. There’s a classic book called Getting Things Done by David Allen. His basic goal is to get his readers and clients to a point where they are not using their brains to keep track of commitments—get everything out of your head and into a trusted system you know you’ll keep coming back to. The end result of implementing such a system is that in any given moment, you know that you are doing what you should be doing. What you are saying yes to is what you should be saying yes to, and what you are saying no to is out of mind.

This may seem simplistic, but if you don’t have a dedicated hour like this each day or at least every other day, the alternative is that every hour available to you is an hour where you could be doing something… anything… 100 hundred different things. A Sabbath lifestyle, on the other hand, includes setting apart chunks of time where we put all work aside and rest. And we don’t feel guilty about it, because we are doing it deliberately, as a way to train our attentions on God.

 

A Daylong Sabbath

 

Another way that we can put Sabbath-ing into our schedules is through a weekly Sabbath day. Sunday is a good candidate here. It didn’t take the early church very long to move from the observance of Saturday as Sabbath to Sunday as Sabbath. One big reason for this was that Sunday was the day of resurrection, so it became the day the church gathered weekly for worship. To make their Sabbath about both leisure and Lordship, it shifted to Sunday.

Which day we take a Sabbath is less important than that we have one every week. And times when we can least afford to take a Sabbath are the times we most need to. So put it into your day planner or phone or wherever you keep your schedule—make it a daylong appointment: “Sabbath.” And if one of your primary vocations is parenting or caretaking, and those sweet loved ones of yours won’t let you observe a “day off,” talk to one of your church leaders and we’ll help you get childcare lined up!

 

Get Away

 

You could go even bigger with Sabbath-keeping: a day or half day every month where you go on retreat… not just taking a day off, but actually physically going somewhere else—to the beach, for a daylong hike in the woods, for an overnight camping trip.

 

Techno Sabbath

 

Finally—one more suggestion for a specific way to practice keeping a holy, God-focused Sabbath: one of our former church attenders shared with me his regular practice of a techno Sabbath. No, it’s not a day devoted to Electronic Dance Music (though that’s not a bad idea), but it’s a Sabbath from technology. I’d heard of these and always thought about taking one, but there was something about a conversation with him that made me feel like I finally had permission to unplug, to disconnect.

Of course, you can turn all your devices off for a short period of time—an hour, for the morning, during dinner and after it. But I’ve found a full 24-hour break each week from technology is both embarrassingly difficult and surprisingly life-giving. It serves the same purpose as fasting. Rather than reaching for a device that has a potentially life-changing notification on it, I try to offer those energies instead to God.

At first, there are feelings of withdrawal—no access to notifications that increase the rush of adrenaline and excitement when someone replies to that email you were so eager about, or when someone hearts your Instagram photo or retweets your witty observation about humanity. All that stuff just goes on… without you. At least for a day.

You could even try to have your techno Sabbath coincide with your weekly Sabbath.

 

Establish Your School Year Practices Now

 

As we begin a new school year, we have the opportunity to establish and re-establish practices of faithful living. Take some time this week, if you haven’t already, and think about what Sabbath-keeping this fall is going to look like for you. If you have other people with whom your schedule is interdependent, involve them in the conversation—sit down with your calendar and actually write in your Sabbath-keeping practices, so that they don’t get forgotten, or scheduled on top of.

I pray that God would give us the strength to be deliberate about making Sabbath observances central to how we go through our hours, days, and weeks. As we do so, may we find that prayer of Isaiah fulfilled: “O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on you; for in returning and rest we shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be our strength.”

Is 2 Samuel 7 About Jesus?

I know–taken from the vantage point of Christian interpretation, it might seem a dumb question. So bear with me. Here is 2 Samuel 7:11b-16:

“Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.

This could all so easily be about Jesus, until you get to: “When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.”

Even if you want to say God somehow punished Jesus on the cross (uhh…), Christians don’t (generally) believe Jesus committed any iniquity.

So that part, at least, has to be about David’s literal next-of-kin descendant, Solomon.

Verses 15 and 16 go on:

But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

There are at least Messianic undertones to this whole passage, though. Surely God had more than just Solomon in mind when he spoke these words. He is, after all, promising a throne to David forever. Two other things:

1. The lectionary reading stops after v. 14a (!), so you don’t get the stuff about punishment. Is this to intentionally make it read more like it’s about Jesus?

2. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 17 also omits the iniquity part… does this mean the Chronicler was taking it to be a Messianic promise (only), too?

What say you, O readers? I’m still mulling this one over.

How Can the Ark of the LORD Ever Come to Me?

 

I. “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”

 

David, now King over all Israel in 2 Samuel 6, asks a poignant question, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” (6:9) “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”

The ark of the covenant was the adorned chest in the tabernacle that symbolized the presence of God. It went with and settled among God’s people wherever they wandered. It contained the two tablets with the 10 commandments, a jar of manna—representing God’s provision in the wilderness, and Aaron’s rod—a sign of the authority and sovereignty of God to make for himself a people of his own.

There’s a weightiness in David’s question: “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” There’s a sincerity to it, a desire in David’s heart to truly commune with God. But there’s also fear and frustration. The verse before says, “Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah…” (6:8).

 

II. A God of David’s Own Choosing?

 

We’re still in the part of 2 Samuel that narrates David’s rise to power, and his initial establishment of his kingdom. Most outlines of 2 Samuel have this chapter in the “successes” part of the David story. His moral failings and infidelity–to God and others–really start with the Bathsheba account.

There’s some truth to that. But already here, while David is still setting up shop as King, the complexity of his spiritual life begins to emerge. Sometimes he is inspiringly faithful, sometimes he’s not-so-faithful. No wonder so many have so deeply resonated with this historical character.

 

A. Faithful David

 

Let’s trace a portion of this narrative account to look at both David’s faithfulness to God, as well as ways in which he was already “prone to wander, prone to leave the God [he loved]”… just like we are. Let’s look first at the faithfulness of David.

1. David Practiced God’s Presence (5:10)

First, we saw last week that the key to David’s ability to lead, even before he was King, was his practice of the presence of God. 2 Samuel 5:10 says, “And he became more and more powerful, because the LORD God Almighty was with him.” David was rooted and grounded in the presence of God. Out of the assurance that God was with him, David led faithfully.

2. David Attributed His Success to God (5:12, 20)

Second, David attributed his success to God. 2 Samuel 5:12 says, “And David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.” David knew that “every good and perfect gift comes from above,” as the New Testament says. And in verse 20, David says it is the LORD who has defeated his enemies.

He did not take credit for his own military success, or leadership effectiveness. He knew that it was God’s doing.

3. David “Inquired of the LORD” (5:19, 23)

A third way we see David’s faithfulness so far is in 2 Sam 5:19, 23. Both of these verses, before David makes a major decision, have the phrase, “[S]o David inquired of the LORD.” “[S]o David inquired of the LORD.”

Having sought the presence of God, having affirmed that his success was from God, he continued to regularly inquire of the LORD. And it doesn’t stretch the imagination too much to assume there are even other decisions and situations not described here where David inquired of the LORD some more.

4. David Got Rid of Philistine Idols (5:21)

Here is another sign of David’s obedience to God: chapter 5, verse 21 says, “The Philistines abandoned their idols there, and David and his men carried them off.” We have trouble with some of the militarism of the Old Testament, but perhaps it helps, at least a little, to realize that this was as much as anything, a sort of war of gods… a contest as to which god is really able to save a people.

Some of God’s people get in trouble in other passages for defeating an enemy, but then failing to destroy their idols. David does right here, and carries them off… completely removes them from the scene to physically show—there is no God but Yahweh. God is the best god out of all the gods, or, so-called gods. David removed the idols that others set up against the LORD God Almighty.

5. David Did What God Commanded (5:25)

And then, check out verse 25 of chapter 5: “So David did as the LORD commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.” Again—we struggle with this “struck down” language, especially when we consider the value of every human life. But the Philistines are cast here as an oppressive people who want nothing more than to destroy a chosen people, worshiping gods who cannot save and who bring not life but death. David “did as the LORD commanded him” and went up against even Israel’s terrifying oppressors.

6. Praises Wholeheartedly; Leads Others in Same (6:5)

Finally, coming to our reading today, chapter 6, we see a portrait of a David as Spirit-filled worship leader. 2 Samuel 6:5 reads, ”David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums [a kind of hand-held shaker] and cymbals.”

Israel celebrates the defeat of their oppressors, and especially rejoices in the presence of God, moving alongside them, symbolized by the ark of the covenant. They went all out in praising God.

 

B. Not-So-Faithful David

 

But a picture of a not-so-faithful David also starts to come into view in chapters 5 and 6.

1. David “Took” More Women (5:13)

2 Samuel 5:13 says, “After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.”

Deuteronomy had already said rulers were not to multiply wives for themselves. And we know that David would eventually kill a man to cover up his adultery with the man’s wife, later on. This would lead to severe consequences for him and his family, and would prove a major breach of his relationship with God. One of David’s moral flaws is already visible.

2. David Did Not (Always) “Inquire of the LORD” (6:1)

Second, and you can see this in your outline, too: David did not always inquire of the LORD. You remember that in 2 Samuel 5:19 and 23, it said, “so David inquired of the LORD.”

As this new chapter, chapter 6 begins, the attentive listener or reader may notice that that little formula (“so David inquired of the LORD”) is not here. Like in those two instances, here David was gathering people for a major task—this time the moving of the ark. This time, however, he does not inquire of the LORD, at least as far as we can tell.

3. David Put the Ark on A New Cart (6:3-4)

A third instance of David’s being not-so-faithful comes in chapter 6, verses 3 and 4. Look at those verses:

They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it.

What could be better than a sweet new ride for the sacred ark of the covenant? Well… a better question is: did the ark of God, the ark of the covenant need a new cart? No. It didn’t.

It had been in the house of Abinadab, after it had zapped some other irreverent Philistines who didn’t take it seriously. David didn’t inquire of the LORD before bringing the ark to Jerusalem, but moving the ark to Jerusalem itself seems to be okay. He’s bringing it to the city from which he will rule, as if to show that it is really God who is king.

However…the ark had rings and places for horizontal-running poles that were to be used to carry it. David, for whatever reason, is ignoring that instruction.

Had it been carried by its poles and not balanced on a cart, Uzzah probably wouldn’t have needed to reach for it, because it would have been more stable and likely wouldn’t have fallen in the first place.        (HT: this commentary)

Not only that, but Uzzah does not appear to have been a Levite. He was not from the clan that God had commanded to be the ones to oversee the ark. So he was the wrong guy, carrying the ark the wrong way, and then he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe his intentions were good, but so holy is this ark, says God, which symbolizes my presence, that you are not supposed to even touch it. Uzzah’s demise all begins with David’s carelessness in overseeing the transportation of the ark in the first place. David and company were not taking God totally seriously.

As king, as spiritual leader of Israel, David is in an ultimate sense responsible for this whole debacle.

4. Wants the Ark (Presence) Only for its Blessing? (6:10-11)

This event leads to the fourth and probably the biggest way in which we see David as a deeply flawed hero. Look at verses 10 and 11:

He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.

David now does not want anything to do with the ark, because he is afraid, but also because he is angry at God. He’s angry that Uzzah is struck down, but I wonder, too, if he’s angry that he got called out for trying to control God. One commentator says, “The ark would become central to Israel’s worship, but David needed to learn that it was not his to control.” He’s learned this lesson, but he’s learned it the hard way, so he sends the ark away.

Once it blesses the house to which it was banished, David wants it back after all!

 

III. A Fundamental Choice: 
Welcoming God’s Presence on God’s Own Terms

 

David, I think, realizes the folly of his ways. Now he dances in a priest’s robe, worshiping God with all his might. And verse 13 tells us that just six steps in to their Take 2 of moving the ark, they offer sacrifices to God. Now David seems to realize the utter care with which he must transport the sacred ark of the covenant, that symbol of God’s history and presence with Israel… a sign of God’s love and provision, but also his holiness that no human could ever attain to.

As I sit with this text and work with it and try to let it work on me, I keep hearing David’s haunting question in chapter 6, verse 9: “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”

And I ask, “How can the presence of the LORD ever come to me?”

The answer, or at least the answer that this passage gives, is: on its own terms.  God comes to us as God comes to us, not how we wish God would come to us. God comes to us when God comes to us, now when we wish God would come to us. God comes to us, fully under his own control, not in manifestations that we can control or completely delineate, or fully understand. God will not be confined by the parameters we seek to impose.

Like David, we have a fundamental choice to make—it’s a choice which arrives many times a day, actually: will we welcome God’s presence on God’s own terms? Can the ark of the LORD, the presence of God, ever come to us? Will we welcome God’s presence when it appears as a challenge, as a rebuke, as a perplexing state of affairs over which God is somehow supposed to be superintending? Or, will we receive God when he shows mercy to the ones we wish would suffer the fate of Uzzah?

Tim Keller, a Gordon-Conwell grad and pastor in New York, says, “If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.”

It is precisely David’s initial comfort with accepting God on David’s terms that will lead to even more trouble. And who of us cannot point to a time when we had God wrong, or realized that—either intentionally or not—we were worshiping an idealized version of ourselves? Or following just a God of our own understanding or, worse, a God of our own choosing?

Yet even after David fouls this up, chapter 7, which we’ll read next week—is one of the most beautiful and important scenes in all of Scripture. God reiterates his covenant with David and promises him a throne that will last forever–being fulfilled at last in the Kingship of Jesus.

While it is gravely important that we seek through the power of the Holy Spirit to be faithful to God—while that is a most serious undertaking, we do not, we have not, we cannot, and we will not consistently get it right. We connect so well with David not because of his military exploits or womanizing or deceitful and murderous impulse (did I miss anything?), but we connect with him because we see in him a heart like ours… a heart which at its core may be very much trained on God, but is so “prone to wander,” prone to walk off, “prone to leave the God [we] love” that we sometimes wonder if we will ever be able to find our way back to him.

Good thing being at peace with God does not depend on our choosing God always, but on God’s having chosen us. Our salvation, the letter to Titus proclaims, is “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of [God our Savior’s] mercy.”

So even when we spend more time on the not-so-faithful side of the spectrum, it is not our actions or consistency in faithfulness that actually redeems us. It is God who chooses, God who saves, and God who has mercy. On that basis we are called his own dearly-loved children, just as God would promise to be like a father to David and his family for all time.

“How can the presence [of God] ever come to us?” Only on God’s own terms, terms which include holiness and a call to lifelong obedience… and terms which also include great mercy and never-ending love, and a relentless drive to continue to pursue us. God will yet make his home among us as sovereign LORD and King.

May God give us strength, courage, faithfulness, and the openness we need to welcome God’s own presence exactly as it comes to us.

 

 

The above is adapted from the sermon I preached today at church.