Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
Faith can be hard. Believing the Gospel can be hard. Living in the world with hope can be hard. This world – it’s a tough place. Bad things happen, and from time to time we just feel bad. We get depressed. Lonely. Scared. Frustrated. Overwhelmed. Discouraged. Hopeless. Words like confidence, security and joy – these are the things we want to feel, but let’s be honest, they elude us. Yes, there are good moments. But the anxious moments – they just seem more frequent and because of that faith is hard. It is so easy to lose heart.
In tonight’s Gospel Luke does us a huge favor. He tells us the point of Jesus’ parable before he even tells us what the parable is. “Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and to not lose heart.” Jesus knows that faith is hard. In fact, a few verses before telling this parable this is what Jesus says: “The days are coming when you will long to see the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.” You know that confidence, security and joy that eludes us? They’ll overflow in “the days of the Son of Man” – which is a reference to Jesus’ return when He’ll fully establish the Kingdom of God. God knows we long to see those days! But let’s be honest, right now we don’t see it and because of that faith is hard. According to Luke that’s exactly why Jesus tells tonight’s parable. He wants us to keep praying and to not lose heart.
And so if someone asks you the point of tonight’s sermon you now know what to say; the point is to pray always and to not lose heart. Great, you may wonder, but how do we do that? Well, I’d like to give us three images – not three steps; that’s not how faith words – but three images. I’d like to give us three images that speak to (1) who we are, (2) to who God is, and finally, (3) to what God’s done.
First, we have to know who we are; you and I are widows. Second, we have to know what God’s like; that is, the character of the world’s true judge. Third – and to me this is crucial – we have to know the verdict. To keep praying and not lose heart, we need to see ourselves, we need to see God, and we need to see the verdict.
First, we have to see ourselves as widows. There’s a reason this parable is about a widow and not someone else. In Jesus’ day widows were the weakest and most dependent members of society. You see, in Jesus’ world women that weren’t married had no protection. They were dependent on others to provide for their needs. In other words, widows are the perfect symbol of all that is weak, dependent, and powerless – that is unless someone intervenes and shows them mercy.
Now, you and I – I’m not sure we like this idea that we’re weak, dependent and powerless. Our culture would have us believe it’s better to die than to beg. The moment we begin to sense we’re not in control, we panic. But God – God invites us to love the fact that we’re not in control, to love the fact that we’re beggars. In fact, Paul wrote II Corinthians to respond to charges that he was a powerless and dependent wimp. Apparently, the Corinthians were watching other preachers – preachers that were strong and eloquent and who boasted about how great they were. But Paul – well, he was awkward, and apparently not the best preacher, and so listen to how Paul responds to the criticism. “I too will boast.” In other words, if other preachers are boasting then I’ll boast too. “I will boast … of my weaknesses” he says, “so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. I’m content with weakness, hardship, calamities and persecutions for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Why do confidence, security and joy always seem to elude us? I’ll tell you why. These are gifts God gives to beggars. To pray always and not lose heart we have to see ourselves as widows.
But knowing we’re weak isn’t enough; we have to see the character of our judge. The judge in Jesus’ parable – he’s a horrible person. He’s selfish, corrupt, and doesn’t care at all for the widow. He doesn’t go to church or give money to Salvation Army. He’s a complete caricature of man worthy of the title “your honor.” Jesus’ point? God. Is. Not. Like. That.
A lot of us lose heart because we forget who God is. Now, we’d never say this, but deep down we’re all a little scared that God’s like that judge – removed, distant, and annoyed by widows like us who need God’s justice, and for Jesus justice is about restoration. Justice happens when the needy are clothed and the empty are filled and when sad people are given a reason to smile. The good news of the Christian Gospel is that this is exactly what Jesus came to do – establish justice on this earth. But, it’s a justice we’re still waiting for. We long to see the days of the Son of Man but we don’t yet see it.
There’s this great scene in the Lord of the Rings where Sam discovers that Gandalf is still alive. “I thought you were dead!” He screams. And listen to what Sam asks next. “Is everything sad going to come untrue?” Is everything sad going to come untrue? Jesus has a clear answer to Sam’s question. Yes. God is not like that judge. He cares. He sees. He knows. God is not like that judge. He’s not going to delay a second longer than He has to before He comes to bring justice to this world. The true judge of this world is so kind and so compassionate and so good. We have to see the character of the world’s true judge.
Now, there’s one more piece. To pray always and not lose heart we have to know the verdict. I said earlier there’s a reason this parable is about a widow. There’s also a reason it’s about a judge and just happens to take place in a courtroom. You see in the Bible the courtroom is a metaphor for Judgment Day, and in the Old Testament it’s not really an uplifting metaphor. I mean, just think about tonight’s reading from Jeremiah. “It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors,” he says, “when I took them by the hand to … the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke.” In other words, God takes our hand. Saves us. God makes a covenant with us. But we – we broke it. In the Old Testament – or the old covenant – God’s people are on trial and the verdict is guilty. Judgment – that’s what the courtroom symbolizes in the Old Testament. Now, what’s significant is that Jesus tells this parable the week before he dies, and when he does so, he’s well aware of the trial that awaits him. And so we have to ask, why would Jesus allow himself to be tried if he knew that he would be found guilty?
The answer is that Jesus believed that his death would establish the new covenant that Jeremiah was talking about. There can be no doubt about it, Jesus had Jeremiah’s vision memorized. On the cross that vision became a reality. To quote Jeremiah again, he would “forgive our iniquity and remember our sin no more.” Jesus’ death would establish a new covenant, and it would not be like the old one. The verdict of guilty – it wouldn’t be taken away. But it would be transferred. It would not be heard by the people of God. No, the gavel would come down on the Son of God. Yes, there’d still be a trial. But Jesus himself would stand in as the defendant. He would be questioned. He’d be found guilty. He would be punished. And we – the widow – would get justice. What was lost in Eden would finally be restored.
We have to know the verdict. At the most basic level this parable is about a judge that finds in someone’s favor, which is the very definition of the word justification. Justification happens when a judge finds in someone’s favor at the end of the case. Now, I know we all make mistakes. Day after day we heap up plenty of evidence to suggest that we’re guilty. It is so easy to lose heart and to think that God’s gavel will eventually come down on us. But according to the Gospel, guilty is not our verdict. You see when we come to Jesus the first thing he tells us is that our case was closed at Calvary. Jesus stood in our place. And so if there is a file in heaven labeled “Newton” that has a list of all my sins, it’s covered with dust and has a label that reads case closed. That is the verdict. The new covenant. The reason that everything sad will come untrue. God intervened to show us mercy. And so have faith. Believe the Gospel. Live in this world with hope.
Do you long to see the days of the Son of Man? You will. And so pray always and don’t lose heart.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Healing (the prayer of faith) -- OMEGA
Our series on prayer continues and tonight we come to what is known as “healing prayer.” And of all the different types of prayer we’re discussing this is probably where a lot of us might get uncomfortable, and for good reason. There’s a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds healing prayer. After all, not everyone is healed, and even for those who are, their restored health is relatively short-lived. For example, consider the raising of Lazarus in John chapter 11. Lazarus has been dead for four days and Jesus calls him out of the tomb. “Lazarus, come out!” Jesus says. And Lazarus miraculously comes to life, leaving his tomb – at least for a couple more years because eventually Lazarus gets sick, dies, and he’s put back in that exact same tomb.
And so let me begin laying out a theology of healing prayer by saying this – the Bible tells us that at the end of time God will heal everything that is broken on this earth – the earth we now inhabit. In other words, end-time salvation involves a healing of the physical universe, which obviously includes our bodies. And so when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He wasn’t a disembodied spirit or a heavenly ghost. He was a resurrected person. It was Jesus’ new, resurrected, and healed body that ascended into heaven to be with the Father – not just Jesus’ spirit.
Now, there’s a reason we have to understand this. Far too often we forget that God cares for the body just as much as He does for the soul. We forget that the redemption we have in Christ is complete, that it involves every aspect of who we are – our soul, our mind, our will, our spirit, and of course our body. What this means is that whenever we pray for bodily healing what we’re asking is for God’s future healing to break into our present lives.
Now, what I want us to see is that this in-breaking of God’s future healing is something that should be happening in every single one of us from a spiritual perspective. For example, consider the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. As Christians, these are virtues we should all be growing in. But do you see what’s happening when we grow in love and joy and peace? God’s future – where love, joy, and peace are all normal realities – is breaking into our present lives. And because of that, growing in the fruit of the Spirit is nothing less than the healing of our Spirit. Praying for physical healing, therefore, is the other side of this same coin. In both cases, God’s future healing is breaking into our present lives through the power of His Spirit.
I think the Gospel of John captures this idea pretty well. In the Gospel of John, the word miracle is never used to describe Jesus healing someone. Instead, John uses the word sign to describe physical healing. John wants us to see that physical healing, when it does happen, is a sign. Why? Because a sign’s primary function is to point to something else. In other words, what John is trying to say is that anytime Jesus heals someone it’s a sign – that the purpose of healing is to point people to God’s future Kingdom where the entire creation will be healed. In other words, no one is ever physically healed just for the sake of being physically headed. Remember, Lazarus was healed – but all that did was prolong his death. And so any healing we experience now is always intended to point to that future healing that awaits all of God’s people. Now with that in mind, let’s take a look at what James says about healing prayer.
James 5: 13-16
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
Now, there’s a lot about this passage that interests me. For example, notice James’ question – “are any among you sick? They should call the elders and have them pray.” Did you notice how confidently and quickly James answers his own question? What this tells me is that James flat out assumes that the church he’s writing to has a ministry of healing prayer. James expects healing to be a part of the church’s life; otherwise he would have explained himself a bit more. The tone of the letter makes this clear. It’d be like me saying, “are any among you sick? They should go to the doctor.” I’d be speaking in a tone that assumes doctors can heal sick people, and so if you were to respond, “doctor – why would I go to a doctor?” it’d be an incredibly strange thing to say. Because in our world we all believe that healing happens when doctors go to work. But in James’ world they all believed that healing happened when the church got together and prayed for God to go to work. Healing, in James’ world, was just assumed as something God would do every now and again.
Now, does this imply that healing prayer should replace medicine? Of course not. James tells the elders to anoint the sick with oil. In Jesus’ day oil was used for the soothing of the body and the softening of the wounds. In other words, oil was medicine. And so at the very least, this passage tells us that healing prayer isn’t supposed to replace medicine – it’s supposed to supplement medicine. According to Richard Foster, “There may be times when God asks us to rely upon prayer alone for healing, but this is the exception, not the rule. The refusal to use medical means to promote healing may be a gesture of faith – but more often than not it is a gesture of spiritual pride.” (Prayer, 204) In other words, medical science – like all science – is a gift. And healing prayer doesn’t reject that gift.
Now that being said, what does healing prayer require? I’d like to focus my attention on two things: the prayer of faith and the confession of sin. “The prayer of faith will save the sick,” James says, “and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.” And so let’s look at these.
1. The prayer of faith
James says that the “prayer of faith” will save the sick. What exactly is James saying? Well, I’ll tell you what he’s not saying. James isn’t saying that for someone to be healed they can’t have any doubts, or worse – that if someone isn’t healed its their fault. “They just didn’t have enough faith.” It’s called the prayer of faith; not the prayer of certainty. You may recall, there’s this great scene in the Gospel of Mark where a man asks Jesus to heal his son and Jesus responds, “All things are possible for those who believe.” And the man then says something profound. “Lord I do believe, but help thou my unbelief.” In other words, “I believe – kind of. But, please heal my son anyway.” And Jesus does. And so the prayer of faith isn’t a prayer of certainty. And so what is it?
The prayer of faith is a very specific and direct request. Sometimes we don’t know how to pray for people and so we just “lift them up to God.” “Lord,” we say, “I don’t know what this person needs but you do.” But the prayer of faith that James mentions is different – it presumes to know exactly what’s needed. If the person suffers from migraines, the prayer of faith isn’t “thy will be done.” No, the prayer of faith presumes to know God’s will. We ask for the migraines to be removed.
This is what Richard Foster says about the prayer of faith. “As we come to clearness about what is needed, we invite God’s healing to come. We speak a definite, straightforward declaration of what is to be. We do not weaken our request with ifs, ands, or buts. [Instead] we speak with boldness.” (Prayer, 211) The prayer of faith, then, is a bold request for our Father in heaven to bring His future healing into the present in a very specific way.
2. The confession of sin
Now, you’re probably wondering – what does sin have to do with sickness? And the answer is everything. Now, don’t misunderstand me – I’m not saying that physical illness results from personal sin. That was actually the predominant view in Jesus’ day and Jesus firmly rejected it. But, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection between spiritual sickness – or sin – and physical sickness. Remember, the redemption we have in Christ is total and complete. Our body is not the decaying prison-house of our soul, as Plato argued. Salvation isn’t about escaping the body. Salvation is about God restoring and healing the body. And so our body isn’t a prison-house but a temple – a temple that God wants to restore so that He can fill it with His own life. And so there is a strong connection between the healing of our body and the healing of our spirit.
Now, this is a dangerous point I’m trying to make, and it’s easily misunderstood, and so I’m going to leave the realm of theology and appeal to medicine and social science. Does anyone know what a psychosomatic illness is? Psychosomatic illnesses begin in our minds and our emotions – with anger, fear, stress, and grudges – things like that. In other words, they begin with sin. Psychosomatic illness is what happens when these harmful, spiritual realities overflow into our body. And so perpetual anxiety and fear can become an ulcer. Chronic stress can turn into migraines. Psychosomatic illness – that means it’s all in your mind, right? No, it’s all in your kidney. It just starts in your mind.
Now, medically speaking, what I’m saying isn’t very controversial. And please don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that all sickness – or even most sickness – is fueled by emotional problems, i.e., by sins that need to be dealt with. But I am suggesting that the relationship is much stronger than we think, and I’m proposing that all physical healing needs to be accompanied by spiritual healing. Of course, Jesus taught the exact same thing. More often than not before he’d heal someone physically Jesus would say something like, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Physical healing and spiritual healing go together, and that is why James tells people seeking physical healing to first confess their sins.
This is what the late Ed Friedman – a famous family systems psychologist – observed regarding the connection between our emotional or spiritual health and our physical health. “Whenever I develop [physical] symptoms,” he said, “I know that I’ve been lying to myself.” (Failure of Nerve, 223) Wow. In another book Friedman says this. “New discoveries in medicine have laid the groundwork for understanding the emotional … aspects of physical illness, and have thus diminished the notion that individuals are simply “victims” of disease. It is no metaphysical leap to say that the care of our soul [will] affect the overall health of our body.” (Generation to Generation, 123 & 129) Now, Friedman wasn’t a Christian. He wasn’t using the Book of James to develop an alternate theory of physical healing. Friedman was merely recording what he observed over forty years of professional work – that a correlation sometimes exists between spiritual sickness and physical sickness.
And so before we ask for physical healing we need to do a moral inventory and see sickness as an opportunity to repent, i.e., to renew our relationship with God – to look for areas in our life where we’re not obeying God and to confess that disobedience not only to God but also to someone else. You see the beauty of sickness is that it lays bare the truth of our spiritual condition – namely that we’re weak, vulnerable and dependent creatures who need God for absolutely everything. And when we’re healthy that truth is never something we seem to appreciate. When we’re healthy we feel like we can do anything. We feel great. We’re in control. We’re masters of our destiny. But then we get the flu. Or our back just gives out. And in these moments of utter dependence we are forced to see the truth – the truth that we are feeble creatures in desperate need of the healing that only God can give.
The week I outlined this talk I received an email telling me that a member of All Saints – someone I care about – had cancer. And the immediate response, not on my part but on the part of her small group, was to ask me to put together a healing service. And so on a Thursday night in the middle of August eight of us gathered to pray for her healing. We read the Gospel. We celebrated the Eucharist. We laid hands on this woman and we prayed the prayer of faith. And we were bold. We asked God to take away the cancer. We asked God to give her a radical and powerful experience of His grace and His love. We asked God to bless the doctors and that her treatment would be effective. I have to say, this was an incredibly powerful prayer service because what we all experienced that night was the church being the church – gathering together in the name of our Lord for no other purpose than to cry out for healing. This is the Scripture we read that night.
Revelation 21: 2-5
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’
Let us never forget that all healing on this earth, whether physical or spiritual, is a sign – a pointer – to the great healing that awaits us all, where death and crying and pain will all be a thing of the past. Now, I know that there’s a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds healing prayer, but at the same time in the early church healing was just a given – something James assumed would be happening in the Christian community that he wrote to. The question I leave us with tonight is this –have we stopped assuming that healing should be happening in ours?
And so let me begin laying out a theology of healing prayer by saying this – the Bible tells us that at the end of time God will heal everything that is broken on this earth – the earth we now inhabit. In other words, end-time salvation involves a healing of the physical universe, which obviously includes our bodies. And so when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He wasn’t a disembodied spirit or a heavenly ghost. He was a resurrected person. It was Jesus’ new, resurrected, and healed body that ascended into heaven to be with the Father – not just Jesus’ spirit.
Now, there’s a reason we have to understand this. Far too often we forget that God cares for the body just as much as He does for the soul. We forget that the redemption we have in Christ is complete, that it involves every aspect of who we are – our soul, our mind, our will, our spirit, and of course our body. What this means is that whenever we pray for bodily healing what we’re asking is for God’s future healing to break into our present lives.
Now, what I want us to see is that this in-breaking of God’s future healing is something that should be happening in every single one of us from a spiritual perspective. For example, consider the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. As Christians, these are virtues we should all be growing in. But do you see what’s happening when we grow in love and joy and peace? God’s future – where love, joy, and peace are all normal realities – is breaking into our present lives. And because of that, growing in the fruit of the Spirit is nothing less than the healing of our Spirit. Praying for physical healing, therefore, is the other side of this same coin. In both cases, God’s future healing is breaking into our present lives through the power of His Spirit.
I think the Gospel of John captures this idea pretty well. In the Gospel of John, the word miracle is never used to describe Jesus healing someone. Instead, John uses the word sign to describe physical healing. John wants us to see that physical healing, when it does happen, is a sign. Why? Because a sign’s primary function is to point to something else. In other words, what John is trying to say is that anytime Jesus heals someone it’s a sign – that the purpose of healing is to point people to God’s future Kingdom where the entire creation will be healed. In other words, no one is ever physically healed just for the sake of being physically headed. Remember, Lazarus was healed – but all that did was prolong his death. And so any healing we experience now is always intended to point to that future healing that awaits all of God’s people. Now with that in mind, let’s take a look at what James says about healing prayer.
James 5: 13-16
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
Now, there’s a lot about this passage that interests me. For example, notice James’ question – “are any among you sick? They should call the elders and have them pray.” Did you notice how confidently and quickly James answers his own question? What this tells me is that James flat out assumes that the church he’s writing to has a ministry of healing prayer. James expects healing to be a part of the church’s life; otherwise he would have explained himself a bit more. The tone of the letter makes this clear. It’d be like me saying, “are any among you sick? They should go to the doctor.” I’d be speaking in a tone that assumes doctors can heal sick people, and so if you were to respond, “doctor – why would I go to a doctor?” it’d be an incredibly strange thing to say. Because in our world we all believe that healing happens when doctors go to work. But in James’ world they all believed that healing happened when the church got together and prayed for God to go to work. Healing, in James’ world, was just assumed as something God would do every now and again.
Now, does this imply that healing prayer should replace medicine? Of course not. James tells the elders to anoint the sick with oil. In Jesus’ day oil was used for the soothing of the body and the softening of the wounds. In other words, oil was medicine. And so at the very least, this passage tells us that healing prayer isn’t supposed to replace medicine – it’s supposed to supplement medicine. According to Richard Foster, “There may be times when God asks us to rely upon prayer alone for healing, but this is the exception, not the rule. The refusal to use medical means to promote healing may be a gesture of faith – but more often than not it is a gesture of spiritual pride.” (Prayer, 204) In other words, medical science – like all science – is a gift. And healing prayer doesn’t reject that gift.
Now that being said, what does healing prayer require? I’d like to focus my attention on two things: the prayer of faith and the confession of sin. “The prayer of faith will save the sick,” James says, “and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.” And so let’s look at these.
1. The prayer of faith
James says that the “prayer of faith” will save the sick. What exactly is James saying? Well, I’ll tell you what he’s not saying. James isn’t saying that for someone to be healed they can’t have any doubts, or worse – that if someone isn’t healed its their fault. “They just didn’t have enough faith.” It’s called the prayer of faith; not the prayer of certainty. You may recall, there’s this great scene in the Gospel of Mark where a man asks Jesus to heal his son and Jesus responds, “All things are possible for those who believe.” And the man then says something profound. “Lord I do believe, but help thou my unbelief.” In other words, “I believe – kind of. But, please heal my son anyway.” And Jesus does. And so the prayer of faith isn’t a prayer of certainty. And so what is it?
The prayer of faith is a very specific and direct request. Sometimes we don’t know how to pray for people and so we just “lift them up to God.” “Lord,” we say, “I don’t know what this person needs but you do.” But the prayer of faith that James mentions is different – it presumes to know exactly what’s needed. If the person suffers from migraines, the prayer of faith isn’t “thy will be done.” No, the prayer of faith presumes to know God’s will. We ask for the migraines to be removed.
This is what Richard Foster says about the prayer of faith. “As we come to clearness about what is needed, we invite God’s healing to come. We speak a definite, straightforward declaration of what is to be. We do not weaken our request with ifs, ands, or buts. [Instead] we speak with boldness.” (Prayer, 211) The prayer of faith, then, is a bold request for our Father in heaven to bring His future healing into the present in a very specific way.
2. The confession of sin
Now, you’re probably wondering – what does sin have to do with sickness? And the answer is everything. Now, don’t misunderstand me – I’m not saying that physical illness results from personal sin. That was actually the predominant view in Jesus’ day and Jesus firmly rejected it. But, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection between spiritual sickness – or sin – and physical sickness. Remember, the redemption we have in Christ is total and complete. Our body is not the decaying prison-house of our soul, as Plato argued. Salvation isn’t about escaping the body. Salvation is about God restoring and healing the body. And so our body isn’t a prison-house but a temple – a temple that God wants to restore so that He can fill it with His own life. And so there is a strong connection between the healing of our body and the healing of our spirit.
Now, this is a dangerous point I’m trying to make, and it’s easily misunderstood, and so I’m going to leave the realm of theology and appeal to medicine and social science. Does anyone know what a psychosomatic illness is? Psychosomatic illnesses begin in our minds and our emotions – with anger, fear, stress, and grudges – things like that. In other words, they begin with sin. Psychosomatic illness is what happens when these harmful, spiritual realities overflow into our body. And so perpetual anxiety and fear can become an ulcer. Chronic stress can turn into migraines. Psychosomatic illness – that means it’s all in your mind, right? No, it’s all in your kidney. It just starts in your mind.
Now, medically speaking, what I’m saying isn’t very controversial. And please don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that all sickness – or even most sickness – is fueled by emotional problems, i.e., by sins that need to be dealt with. But I am suggesting that the relationship is much stronger than we think, and I’m proposing that all physical healing needs to be accompanied by spiritual healing. Of course, Jesus taught the exact same thing. More often than not before he’d heal someone physically Jesus would say something like, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Physical healing and spiritual healing go together, and that is why James tells people seeking physical healing to first confess their sins.
This is what the late Ed Friedman – a famous family systems psychologist – observed regarding the connection between our emotional or spiritual health and our physical health. “Whenever I develop [physical] symptoms,” he said, “I know that I’ve been lying to myself.” (Failure of Nerve, 223) Wow. In another book Friedman says this. “New discoveries in medicine have laid the groundwork for understanding the emotional … aspects of physical illness, and have thus diminished the notion that individuals are simply “victims” of disease. It is no metaphysical leap to say that the care of our soul [will] affect the overall health of our body.” (Generation to Generation, 123 & 129) Now, Friedman wasn’t a Christian. He wasn’t using the Book of James to develop an alternate theory of physical healing. Friedman was merely recording what he observed over forty years of professional work – that a correlation sometimes exists between spiritual sickness and physical sickness.
And so before we ask for physical healing we need to do a moral inventory and see sickness as an opportunity to repent, i.e., to renew our relationship with God – to look for areas in our life where we’re not obeying God and to confess that disobedience not only to God but also to someone else. You see the beauty of sickness is that it lays bare the truth of our spiritual condition – namely that we’re weak, vulnerable and dependent creatures who need God for absolutely everything. And when we’re healthy that truth is never something we seem to appreciate. When we’re healthy we feel like we can do anything. We feel great. We’re in control. We’re masters of our destiny. But then we get the flu. Or our back just gives out. And in these moments of utter dependence we are forced to see the truth – the truth that we are feeble creatures in desperate need of the healing that only God can give.
The week I outlined this talk I received an email telling me that a member of All Saints – someone I care about – had cancer. And the immediate response, not on my part but on the part of her small group, was to ask me to put together a healing service. And so on a Thursday night in the middle of August eight of us gathered to pray for her healing. We read the Gospel. We celebrated the Eucharist. We laid hands on this woman and we prayed the prayer of faith. And we were bold. We asked God to take away the cancer. We asked God to give her a radical and powerful experience of His grace and His love. We asked God to bless the doctors and that her treatment would be effective. I have to say, this was an incredibly powerful prayer service because what we all experienced that night was the church being the church – gathering together in the name of our Lord for no other purpose than to cry out for healing. This is the Scripture we read that night.
Revelation 21: 2-5
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’
Let us never forget that all healing on this earth, whether physical or spiritual, is a sign – a pointer – to the great healing that awaits us all, where death and crying and pain will all be a thing of the past. Now, I know that there’s a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds healing prayer, but at the same time in the early church healing was just a given – something James assumed would be happening in the Christian community that he wrote to. The question I leave us with tonight is this –have we stopped assuming that healing should be happening in ours?
Thursday, October 7, 2010
praise (hallowing God’s name) -- OMEGA
I want to begin by acknowledging something that’s true for each and every one of us. We all want to be praised. We want to be known, acknowledged, appreciated, loved and celebrated. It doesn’t matter who we are or from what culture we come, we all want to be praised. For example, think of a child. The most repeated phrase of any child is “look at me! Look at me!” And it doesn’t matter what they’re doing – riding their bike or going down a slide. Kids want to be seen, to be noticed, to be praised. A desire to be praised is just built into our DNA.
Of course, the problem is that we grow up and we let that desire rule us. We all have that friend – everything always seems to be about them; about what they’re doing and what they’ve accomplished and about how awesome they are. And we have a saying for people like that. We say they’re “full of themselves.” Now let me ask you this – is being full of ourselves a good thing? Of course not.
Before CS Lewis became a Christian he was really bothered by the idea that God wanted praise. Like us, Lewis didn’t care much for people who were always seeking compliments and praise. And so Lewis wondered – if God is perfect then why does He insist on being praised? Does God need praise to feel good about Himself? Does He have low self-esteem? That’s what CS Lewis wanted to know. Well, before we answer Lewis’ question let’s look at what Jesus says about praise.
Matthew 6: 5-6, 9
Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Pray then in this way. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Now on the surface this passage seems pretty straightforward but if we’re willing to dig we’ll answer four incredibly important questions about what it means to praise God.
1. What is praise?
2. Why is praising God necessary?
3. Why is praising God primary?
4. How does praise work? In other words, how do we do it?
Once again, Jesus teaches us (1) what praise is, (2) why it’s necessary, (3) why it needs to come first in our prayer life, and finally (4) how we do it.
(1) And so what exactly is praise?
Well Jesus’ definition of praise is captured in the phrase “hallowed be your name.” Jesus says we’re supposed to hallow God’s name. Now, this isn’t a word we use very often. Does anyone know what it means? To hallow something means to treat it as absolutely sacred. In other words, whatever we hallow is our ultimate concern – the most crucial and sacred thing in our life.
And so what does this tell us about praising God? That to praise God means to make Him our ultimate concern. In other words, when we treat our relationship with God as absolutely sacred, praise is just what happens. And so perhaps a better word is adoration. According to Richard Foster, “Adoration is the spontaneous yearning of the heart to worship, honor, magnify, and bless God. In adoration … we ask for nothing but to cherish Him. We seek nothing but His exaltation. We focus on nothing but His goodness.” (Prayer, 81) To praise God is to make Him our ultimate concern.
(2) Why is praising God necessary?
Well, let’s rule out the possibility that God has low self-esteem and needs a little ego boost. The reason praising God is necessary is because we all praise something, we all hallow something. Remember, to hallow something means to treat it as absolutely sacred, it means to make something our ultimate concern. And what we have to understand is this – that’s something we all do. In fact, hallowing is something we have to do. What we hallow gives direction to our life. What we hallow motivates us. We literally cannot live unless we hallow something.
Look at the people Jesus criticizes in tonight’s Bible reading – people who love to stand and pray in public places in order to be seen. What they hallow, Jesus says, is their spiritual reputation. That’s their ultimate concern – being known as a spiritual person. In other words, what they praise is the praise of other people. And according to Jesus, “They have received their reward.”
And so there’s a question we all have to ask ourselves – what do we hallow? Let me share with you a quote from one of my favorite celebrities. “I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, and then I get to another stage and think I'm mediocre and uninteresting, again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that's always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I've become somebody, I still have to prove I'm somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.” Any guesses on who said that? Apparently, you don’t read Vogue. Madonna. Madonna’s ultimate concern is proving she’s special, proving she’s praiseworthy, proving that she’s not just mediocre. “Even though I’ve become somebody,” she says, “I still have to prove I’m somebody.” What Madonna hallows is proving to the world that she matters – that’s where all of her praise is centered.
I think more than anything this quote captures why praising God is necessary. We all praise something. We all make something our ultimate concern. But if it’s the wrong thing we’ll find ourselves in a struggle, a struggle that deep down we know will never end.
Only praising God will end the struggle because one of the first things we see when we learn to praise God is that we don’t have to prove anything to anyone. No, it’s God who proves His love for us – that’s why He alone is praiseworthy. And the good news is that praising God is something we can learn. In fact it’s something we have to learn to flourish as human beings. But, we can’t learn to praise God until we’re honest about what we praise now. And according to Jesus, the key to knowing what we hallow has to do with what Jesus calls being “in secret.” William Temple once remarked, “Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” And so let me ask you this – when there’s nothing you have to do where do your thoughts go? What do you day dream about? Answering that question will tell us a great deal about the thing we most adore. And it can be anything – success, comfort, approval, family. What do we worry about? What do we think about? In the secrecy of our hearts what do we value? Anything can become an ultimate concern. And so what I want us to see is that praise is something we all do really well. Our challenge isn’t to learn how to praise. It’s to learn how to transfer our praise from whatever it’s on now to God.
(3) Why is praising God primary?
It’s incredibly significant that Jesus’ teaching on prayer begins with “hallowed by your name.” In other words, before we confess our sins or ask for daily bread Jesus tells us to begin our prayer by praising God. Why?
Jesus knows that the bulk of our problems are problems of adoration. Adoring the wrong thing throws our life out of balance. After all, what we hallow motivates and fuels our life and because of that what we praise completely controls our view of our self, our view of God and our view of the world. And so when we hallow things more than God our perspective on life gets distorted.
One of my favorite preachers tells the story of a dad who takes his little girl to the candy store. “Sweetie,” he says, “do you see all this candy? Doesn’t it look good? You’d like some of this candy wouldn’t you?” And of course this girl goes crazy – there’s nothing she wants more. But instead of giving her the candy, her dad grabs her by the wrist, drags her out of the store and yells at her, “Forget it. You can’t have any candy! In fact as long as I’m alive I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you never get your hands on this candy – ever!”
Now obviously, this is a cruel Father. But I tell the story because I think it sheds some light on why we have a hard time praising God. I think that deep within us is a fear – a fear that God’s like that dad. I think deep down we’re all scared that God gives us deep desires, that He waves the candy in front of our face and then just snags it away for no reason. I mean have you ever had your heart set on something or prayed for something only to be devastated that you didn’t get it? Have you ever been crushed and left wondering – seriously God, what was the point? Do you know what’s behind that question? A fear that God isn’t good.
Think about how the Bible begins. Adam and Eve are in a garden and God says, “It’s all yours. Eat whatever you want. Just one rule – you need to stay away from the tree of knowledge because that tree’s bad for you.” But then the serpent comes along and he begins spreading lies. “God is holding back. If God really loved you, if God were really good, He’d let you eat that fruit.” And do you know what happened in that moment? Adam and Eve’s praise shifted – what they hallowed shifted – from God to the fruit. And in that moment a great lie entered the human heart – the lie that says because God withholds things from us He cannot be good. And if we believe that lie it’s going to distort our view of God, it’s going to distort our view of our self and it’s going to distort our view of the world. You see, there’s only one thing that can heal the lie. Praise. Making God our ultimate concern. Hallowing His name above all else. Seeing Him in all of His goodness – only praise will heal the lie.
(4) How do we praise?
Well, think about how the Lord’s Prayer begins. “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Question – which one is it? Is God our Father – close, tender, caring, and intimately involved our lives? Or is God in heaven – holy, totally Other and different, a God of justice who rules the world with wisdom and power, who looks at the Sun and sees a marble? Do you see where I’m trying to go with this? We pray this prayer so much we miss the miracle and the paradox of what Jesus is saying – that God is both Holy and powerful and yet at the same time that He wants to be our Father. To the extent that this amazing reality sinks in, praise will be the most natural thing in the world.
But the reality is, praising God is not the most natural thing in the world, which means that praise is something we need to learn. And to learn to praise God we need to name two things that get in our way.
First, inattention keeps us from praising God. Life is hectic. It moves fast and it’s really easy to get caught up in our activities – school and family and friends and church and social obligations. And so learning to praise God requires slowing down and making time to pay attention to God. Or, in order to grow we need to slow. We need to read the Scriptures. We need to spend time in creation. Simply put, we can’t praise something if we can’t see it and so we need to pay attention.
Second, misplaced attention keeps us from praising God. If we’re bent on making something other than God our ultimate concern – our job or status or a certain relationship – we’ll never learn to praise God or anything else for that matter. The irony is that we can only learn to praise or value another person if we’re committed to praising God first. Perhaps you’ve been in a relationship where you felt smothered. And do you know why you felt smothered? Because no human relationship can bear the burden of God-hood. If someone ever makes you their ultimate praise please be careful. It’s not going to end well for either one of you.
And so if you want to learn to praise God this is where I’d start. Make two lists. On the first list, write down God’s attributes that you find appealing. For example, words like loving and merciful and holy and perfect might be on list #1. On the second list, write down what God has done for you. He created you. He gave you a certain amount of intelligence. He’s given you the gift of faith that saves you from sin and death. He’s promised to restore our world. Just make a list. Then, read your two lists to God and say amen. Will this feel clumsy and awkward? No doubt. But do it in secret. And trust me, what seems silly to you will ravish the heart of God. Like Augustine said, “God thirsts to be thirsted after.”
And so let me end by saying this. We all want to be praised. We want to be known, acknowledged, appreciated, loved and celebrated. It doesn’t matter who we are or from what culture we come, we all want to be praised. Just so you know – that’s a good thing. God created us to be praised, celebrated, appreciated and loved. And so just as important as the question “what do we praise” is the question “where are we seeking our praise?” Madonna – she wants if from you. She’s going to work really hard to make sure you don’t think she’s mediocre. Others – they want praise from their peers or their spouse or their parents. But what about us? Where are we seeking our praise?
You see the miracle of the Christian Gospel is that God praises us. We don’t deserve it. We don’t earn it. But God genuinely delights in us because of what Christ has done for us. By living the life we should have lived and dying the death we should have died, Jesus gave us His record and His obedience so that when we put our trust in Him we don’t just have the Father’s acceptance. We have His applause. His praise.
And so if any of you are trying to live a good life in order to get God’s praise do me a favor and stop right now. Instead, ponder the great miracle that in Christ you already have God’s praise. God’s applause.
And so back to our question – why does God want our praise? Because praising God puts an end to the struggle. You see God knows that we only really have two options. We can either be full of ourselves or we can be full of God. Praising God is all about being full of Him and to be full of God is to be full of life.
Of course, the problem is that we grow up and we let that desire rule us. We all have that friend – everything always seems to be about them; about what they’re doing and what they’ve accomplished and about how awesome they are. And we have a saying for people like that. We say they’re “full of themselves.” Now let me ask you this – is being full of ourselves a good thing? Of course not.
Before CS Lewis became a Christian he was really bothered by the idea that God wanted praise. Like us, Lewis didn’t care much for people who were always seeking compliments and praise. And so Lewis wondered – if God is perfect then why does He insist on being praised? Does God need praise to feel good about Himself? Does He have low self-esteem? That’s what CS Lewis wanted to know. Well, before we answer Lewis’ question let’s look at what Jesus says about praise.
Matthew 6: 5-6, 9
Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Pray then in this way. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Now on the surface this passage seems pretty straightforward but if we’re willing to dig we’ll answer four incredibly important questions about what it means to praise God.
1. What is praise?
2. Why is praising God necessary?
3. Why is praising God primary?
4. How does praise work? In other words, how do we do it?
Once again, Jesus teaches us (1) what praise is, (2) why it’s necessary, (3) why it needs to come first in our prayer life, and finally (4) how we do it.
(1) And so what exactly is praise?
Well Jesus’ definition of praise is captured in the phrase “hallowed be your name.” Jesus says we’re supposed to hallow God’s name. Now, this isn’t a word we use very often. Does anyone know what it means? To hallow something means to treat it as absolutely sacred. In other words, whatever we hallow is our ultimate concern – the most crucial and sacred thing in our life.
And so what does this tell us about praising God? That to praise God means to make Him our ultimate concern. In other words, when we treat our relationship with God as absolutely sacred, praise is just what happens. And so perhaps a better word is adoration. According to Richard Foster, “Adoration is the spontaneous yearning of the heart to worship, honor, magnify, and bless God. In adoration … we ask for nothing but to cherish Him. We seek nothing but His exaltation. We focus on nothing but His goodness.” (Prayer, 81) To praise God is to make Him our ultimate concern.
(2) Why is praising God necessary?
Well, let’s rule out the possibility that God has low self-esteem and needs a little ego boost. The reason praising God is necessary is because we all praise something, we all hallow something. Remember, to hallow something means to treat it as absolutely sacred, it means to make something our ultimate concern. And what we have to understand is this – that’s something we all do. In fact, hallowing is something we have to do. What we hallow gives direction to our life. What we hallow motivates us. We literally cannot live unless we hallow something.
Look at the people Jesus criticizes in tonight’s Bible reading – people who love to stand and pray in public places in order to be seen. What they hallow, Jesus says, is their spiritual reputation. That’s their ultimate concern – being known as a spiritual person. In other words, what they praise is the praise of other people. And according to Jesus, “They have received their reward.”
And so there’s a question we all have to ask ourselves – what do we hallow? Let me share with you a quote from one of my favorite celebrities. “I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, and then I get to another stage and think I'm mediocre and uninteresting, again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that's always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I've become somebody, I still have to prove I'm somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.” Any guesses on who said that? Apparently, you don’t read Vogue. Madonna. Madonna’s ultimate concern is proving she’s special, proving she’s praiseworthy, proving that she’s not just mediocre. “Even though I’ve become somebody,” she says, “I still have to prove I’m somebody.” What Madonna hallows is proving to the world that she matters – that’s where all of her praise is centered.
I think more than anything this quote captures why praising God is necessary. We all praise something. We all make something our ultimate concern. But if it’s the wrong thing we’ll find ourselves in a struggle, a struggle that deep down we know will never end.
Only praising God will end the struggle because one of the first things we see when we learn to praise God is that we don’t have to prove anything to anyone. No, it’s God who proves His love for us – that’s why He alone is praiseworthy. And the good news is that praising God is something we can learn. In fact it’s something we have to learn to flourish as human beings. But, we can’t learn to praise God until we’re honest about what we praise now. And according to Jesus, the key to knowing what we hallow has to do with what Jesus calls being “in secret.” William Temple once remarked, “Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” And so let me ask you this – when there’s nothing you have to do where do your thoughts go? What do you day dream about? Answering that question will tell us a great deal about the thing we most adore. And it can be anything – success, comfort, approval, family. What do we worry about? What do we think about? In the secrecy of our hearts what do we value? Anything can become an ultimate concern. And so what I want us to see is that praise is something we all do really well. Our challenge isn’t to learn how to praise. It’s to learn how to transfer our praise from whatever it’s on now to God.
(3) Why is praising God primary?
It’s incredibly significant that Jesus’ teaching on prayer begins with “hallowed by your name.” In other words, before we confess our sins or ask for daily bread Jesus tells us to begin our prayer by praising God. Why?
Jesus knows that the bulk of our problems are problems of adoration. Adoring the wrong thing throws our life out of balance. After all, what we hallow motivates and fuels our life and because of that what we praise completely controls our view of our self, our view of God and our view of the world. And so when we hallow things more than God our perspective on life gets distorted.
One of my favorite preachers tells the story of a dad who takes his little girl to the candy store. “Sweetie,” he says, “do you see all this candy? Doesn’t it look good? You’d like some of this candy wouldn’t you?” And of course this girl goes crazy – there’s nothing she wants more. But instead of giving her the candy, her dad grabs her by the wrist, drags her out of the store and yells at her, “Forget it. You can’t have any candy! In fact as long as I’m alive I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you never get your hands on this candy – ever!”
Now obviously, this is a cruel Father. But I tell the story because I think it sheds some light on why we have a hard time praising God. I think that deep within us is a fear – a fear that God’s like that dad. I think deep down we’re all scared that God gives us deep desires, that He waves the candy in front of our face and then just snags it away for no reason. I mean have you ever had your heart set on something or prayed for something only to be devastated that you didn’t get it? Have you ever been crushed and left wondering – seriously God, what was the point? Do you know what’s behind that question? A fear that God isn’t good.
Think about how the Bible begins. Adam and Eve are in a garden and God says, “It’s all yours. Eat whatever you want. Just one rule – you need to stay away from the tree of knowledge because that tree’s bad for you.” But then the serpent comes along and he begins spreading lies. “God is holding back. If God really loved you, if God were really good, He’d let you eat that fruit.” And do you know what happened in that moment? Adam and Eve’s praise shifted – what they hallowed shifted – from God to the fruit. And in that moment a great lie entered the human heart – the lie that says because God withholds things from us He cannot be good. And if we believe that lie it’s going to distort our view of God, it’s going to distort our view of our self and it’s going to distort our view of the world. You see, there’s only one thing that can heal the lie. Praise. Making God our ultimate concern. Hallowing His name above all else. Seeing Him in all of His goodness – only praise will heal the lie.
(4) How do we praise?
Well, think about how the Lord’s Prayer begins. “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Question – which one is it? Is God our Father – close, tender, caring, and intimately involved our lives? Or is God in heaven – holy, totally Other and different, a God of justice who rules the world with wisdom and power, who looks at the Sun and sees a marble? Do you see where I’m trying to go with this? We pray this prayer so much we miss the miracle and the paradox of what Jesus is saying – that God is both Holy and powerful and yet at the same time that He wants to be our Father. To the extent that this amazing reality sinks in, praise will be the most natural thing in the world.
But the reality is, praising God is not the most natural thing in the world, which means that praise is something we need to learn. And to learn to praise God we need to name two things that get in our way.
First, inattention keeps us from praising God. Life is hectic. It moves fast and it’s really easy to get caught up in our activities – school and family and friends and church and social obligations. And so learning to praise God requires slowing down and making time to pay attention to God. Or, in order to grow we need to slow. We need to read the Scriptures. We need to spend time in creation. Simply put, we can’t praise something if we can’t see it and so we need to pay attention.
Second, misplaced attention keeps us from praising God. If we’re bent on making something other than God our ultimate concern – our job or status or a certain relationship – we’ll never learn to praise God or anything else for that matter. The irony is that we can only learn to praise or value another person if we’re committed to praising God first. Perhaps you’ve been in a relationship where you felt smothered. And do you know why you felt smothered? Because no human relationship can bear the burden of God-hood. If someone ever makes you their ultimate praise please be careful. It’s not going to end well for either one of you.
And so if you want to learn to praise God this is where I’d start. Make two lists. On the first list, write down God’s attributes that you find appealing. For example, words like loving and merciful and holy and perfect might be on list #1. On the second list, write down what God has done for you. He created you. He gave you a certain amount of intelligence. He’s given you the gift of faith that saves you from sin and death. He’s promised to restore our world. Just make a list. Then, read your two lists to God and say amen. Will this feel clumsy and awkward? No doubt. But do it in secret. And trust me, what seems silly to you will ravish the heart of God. Like Augustine said, “God thirsts to be thirsted after.”
And so let me end by saying this. We all want to be praised. We want to be known, acknowledged, appreciated, loved and celebrated. It doesn’t matter who we are or from what culture we come, we all want to be praised. Just so you know – that’s a good thing. God created us to be praised, celebrated, appreciated and loved. And so just as important as the question “what do we praise” is the question “where are we seeking our praise?” Madonna – she wants if from you. She’s going to work really hard to make sure you don’t think she’s mediocre. Others – they want praise from their peers or their spouse or their parents. But what about us? Where are we seeking our praise?
You see the miracle of the Christian Gospel is that God praises us. We don’t deserve it. We don’t earn it. But God genuinely delights in us because of what Christ has done for us. By living the life we should have lived and dying the death we should have died, Jesus gave us His record and His obedience so that when we put our trust in Him we don’t just have the Father’s acceptance. We have His applause. His praise.
And so if any of you are trying to live a good life in order to get God’s praise do me a favor and stop right now. Instead, ponder the great miracle that in Christ you already have God’s praise. God’s applause.
And so back to our question – why does God want our praise? Because praising God puts an end to the struggle. You see God knows that we only really have two options. We can either be full of ourselves or we can be full of God. Praising God is all about being full of Him and to be full of God is to be full of life.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
intercessory prayer (praying for others) -- OMEGA
Not all prayer should be for our selves. To pray only for ourselves – whether it’s confessing our sins or presenting our requests or praising God for what He’s done in our lives – is selfish. Sure, it’s spiritual selfishness. But it’s still selfishness nonetheless.
Last week we said that the primary purpose of prayer isn’t to change things but to change ___ (us). Well, part of what needs to change is our selfish nature and praying for other people will do that. Intercession is a way of loving people and it’s a way to serve people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls intercessory prayer a “purifying bath.” Why? Because in praying for others we slowly scrub away the ingrained self-centeredness that keeps us from being like Jesus. And so tonight I want to ask three questions.
1. What is intercessory prayer?
2. What are the benefits of intercessory prayer?
3. How can we intercede for others?
But first I want to read a passage from Exodus, because it’s going to help us answer those three questions. Intercessory Prayer – what is it? What are the benefits? How do we do it?
Exodus 17: 8-13
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some men for us and go out and fight. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.’ So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people.
On the surface this is a pretty strange story but the implications for intercessory prayer are pretty profound I think. The Israelites are in the wilderness and the Amalekites attack. Well, Moses – he’s the leader and because of that he’s the one that’s got to choose the military strategy, which I think can be summed up like this. “Joshua – you fight and I’ll pray.” You see Moses understood that behind this earthly conflict was a spiritual one and that only by lifting his hands in prayer could the battle be won. And here’s what’s amazing – the Bible is suggesting that Moses had the harder task. After all, Aaron and Hur had to hold his arms up. In other words, Moses’ job was more important than Joshua’s.
Now, when all was said and done who do you think got the credit? Joshua – after all, he was the one leading the charge. People probably started spreading rumors about Moses being a coward. But what the Bible suggests is that the real work was happening behind the scenes – where Moses and Aaron and Hur were interceding on Israel’s behalf. It was their work and not Joshua’s that determined the outcome of the battle.
Now what Moses and Aaron and Hur did for Israel is something all of us are called to do for each other and for our world. Not all of us are going to be on the front lines – visible, celebrated, “public leaders” so to speak. But we are all called to intercessory prayer. Behind every earthly conflict is a spiritual one and God invites each of us to partner with Him in His victory over sin, evil and death. And so with that in mind …
(1) What is intercessory prayer?
The best definition that I’ve ever heard is “longing for what’s best for someone before God” (Keller). Intercessory prayer isn’t about us – our needs, our sins, things we’re thankful for. No, in intercessory prayer we bring before God what we think is best for someone else.
Whenever we intercede for someone we do the work of a priest – we go to God on behalf of someone else. Whenever we intercede we act as a mediator. A go-between. Think of Moses – where does he pray? Moses intercedes from the top of a mountain, which is symbolic for being between heaven and earth. Moses places himself between the people of Israel and God and he raises His staff in prayer. That’s kind of what intercessory prayer is like, only the image is somewhat flawed because in Christ we’re not just standing on a mountain – no we get to walk straight to the throne of God.
And in interceding for someone I find it helpful to know three things –their needs, their flaws, and their strengths. I want to know a person’s needs so that I can ask God to meet them. I want to know a person’s flaws so that I can ask God to remove them – to change unhealthy heart patterns that keep them from becoming the person God wants them to be. And most importantly, I want to know a person’s strengths so that I can thank God for that person. Each one of us is a living, breathing miracle – far too often we forget that. That’s something we need to celebrate before God. But either way, in intercessory prayer we approach God and we “long for what’s best” for someone else.
Now, before moving on there’s something I want us to see. Intercession is something we all do on a human level. For example – let’s say Prescott Jefferson III wants to go to Harvard Law but he’s got a 2.7 GPA and he majored in frat. But lucky for him his dad’s best friend is head of admissions. He talks to his dad, his dad talks to the dean, Prescott goes to Harvard. His dad interceded on his behalf. Or perhaps something a bit more common – you don’t have tickets for next weekend’s game but your best friend’s roommate does. “Will you talk to him for me? I can only pay face value but I really want to go.” The only reason you got to go to the game was because your best friend interceded for you. Now in Christ, each one of us has access to the God of the Universe – a God that’s infinitely rich, a God that calls us his child and essentially says, “Ask me for whatever you want.”
(2) What are the benefits of intercessory prayer?
Ok, you might be thinking – that’s great but isn’t God just going to do what God’s going to do? What are the benefits of intercessory prayer? In other words, why do it? I’ll give us three good reasons. Intercessory prayer changes things, it changes relationships, and finally it changes us.
Intercessory Prayer changes things
What I’m about to tell you is very mysterious – prayer changes things without changing God’s plans. Now wait a second, you’re thinking, it’s got to be one or the other. No it doesn’t. We’re dealing with God and God’s ways are beyond anything we can understand. Prayer doesn’t change God. That’s part of what it means for God to be Sovereign. But, prayer does change things, circumstances, and people.
There’s a famous verse in the Book of James that says, “You have not because you ask not.” Think about that reading from Exodus. When Moses held up his hand in prayer Israel won the battle but when he dropped it – when Moses stopped interceding – the Israelites would lose. The author’s point is pretty clear – it matters whether or not we pray.
You see, whenever we pray for people we bring the mysterious power of God into their lives. Prayer may have psychological benefits but it’s not just a psychological exorcise. A lot of good things don’t happen because God’s people don’t pray. It’s like James says – we have not because we ask not. And so the first benefit of intercessory prayer is this– it changes things, circumstances and people for the better.
Intercessory Prayer changes relationships
There’s no getting around it, I’m a better Christian when I’m praying for the people I’m around. I’m more aware of their needs. After all, I’ve thought about them enough to bring them to God. I’m more aware of their flaws. I’ve been asking God to work on their hearts and so (a) I see it coming (whatever “it” is that bothers me about them) and (b) I want to be part of the solution – not part of the problem. And so I’m a lot more patient and a lot less irritable. And finally I’m more aware of their strengths. I’ve been thanking God for their faith or their humility or whatever gift they have that I know blesses other people. When we pray from someone our concern for them grows, our love for them grows. Why do you think Jesus told us to intercede for our enemies – because Jesus knew that in praying for them we’d eventually come to love them.
And so if there’s someone in your life that you’re angry with right now or if you’re holding a grudge, I’ll be bold – I know that you haven’t been actively interceding for that person. Why? Because when we think deeply about someone’s needs and flaws and strengths and pray for them God softens our heart. Prayer strengthens our relationships.
Intercessory Prayer changes us
Intercessory prayer is behind the scenes, servant ministry. Going back to Exodus, Joshua got credit for winning the battle but it was Moses – the man praying behind the scenes – who secured the victory for Israel. And intercessory prayer is really hard work precisely because it’s by nature behind the scene work. In other words, we’re not going to get any credit for the way our prayers bless the life of someone else. But here’s what we have to see – that’s the essence of holiness. That’s what it means to be like Christ. To long for the good of others is the essence of holiness. Or to put it differently, nothing will make you more like Christ than to long for the Christ-likeness of someone else.
I’ll be honest – meditating on scripture, praying for my own needs, praising God for what He’s done in my life – I find that easy and enjoyable. Why? Because it’s all about me. It’s all about my growth and my peace. And of course that’s good – I should be concerned with my own spiritual walk. But, we’re going to get stuck in the process of our sanctification – which is just a fancy theological word for the process by which God conforms our heart to His – we’ll get stuck in the process of our sanctification until we begin longing and praying for the sanctification of other people. Nothing makes us more like Jesus than longing for others to be like Jesus.
And so to recap – what are the benefits of intercessory prayer? It changes things. It changes relationships. It changes us.
(3) How can we intercede for others?
First, we need to intercede for others by ourselves. A portion of our personal prayer time with God needs to be designated for praying for other people. If we don’t yet have a personal, disciplined prayer time, well that’s something we need to consider. But we need to make a habit of praying for other people. And for reasons already mentioned, intercession is mentally tough work. It requires heavy thinking and because of our limitations we can’t pray for everyone. It can be draining to think about someone else’s needs and flaws and strengths. And so lesson #1 – don’t overdo it. Like Moses eventually our arm gets tired and if we try holding it up too long we’ll pull a spiritual muscle.
But let me give you two methods I find helpful. First, because I read Scripture in the morning I make a list of all the people that come to my mind as I read the Bible and then when I’m done I pray for them. Some people are on my list every day. Some people asked me to pray for them earlier in the week. Some people just pop into my head. Whether it’s a coincidence or the Spirit, I pray for them. Second, I call this the “Google calendar” method. I look at my calendar for the day and I pray for whoever’s on it. This method also works at night praying for the people you spent time with that day.
Second, we need to intercede for others with others. Is Jesus with us when we pray alone? Of course. But He also went out of His way to say, “whenever two or three gather together in my name I’m going to be there, too.” And so in a way that’s kind of mysterious, Jesus is present in a deeper and more powerful way when we pray with other Christians. I’m not saying you have to join a prayer group. But I will challenge you to think about it. And I’ll also tell you that my spiritual life is much richer for being a part of one. This is what Richard Foster says about Christians interceding together:
“It is God’s desire to bring individuals and families into saving faith. It is God’s desire to bring people off of addictions to drugs, sex, money and status. It is God’s desire to deliver people from racism, sexism, nationalism and consumerism. Organized, corporate intercessory prayer is a crucial means for the fulfillment of these yearnings in the heart of God.” (Prayer, 199)
We need to pray for others with others. Moses wasn’t strong enough to hold up that staff by himself. And neither are we.
Now, a final word before we break for small groups. If we begin praying with persistence and passion we’re going to run up against the problem of unanswered prayer. And here’s what I want to say about that. The night I wrote this talk I spent two hours babysitting my nine-month-old goddaughter. Over the course of those two hours she tried to stick her slobbery fingers into an electric socket, eat a knife sitting on the coffee table, and crawl down the stairs by herself. Those were her “prayers” so to speak – the deepest desires of her heart. In not letting her do those things I wasn’t trying to tell her I didn’t love her. I was trying to show her that I did.
And so whether it’s for our self or for someone else, sometimes we pray for things that aren’t granted not because God isn’t good but precisely because He is. We may think our greatest need in life is eat that knife but it’s not. And so let me say this – when we’re faithful in prayer and persistent in prayer and intentional about prayer God always gives us and the people for whom we pray that which is best under the circumstances. And sometimes that means not intervening in people’s lives or allowing them to experience the result of their choices. But remember – God does that not because He isn’t good but precisely because He is.
Not all prayer should be for our selves – that’s spiritual selfishness. Remember our goal is to become more like Jesus and nothing will make us more like Christ than longing for the Christ-likeness of someone else.
Last week we said that the primary purpose of prayer isn’t to change things but to change ___ (us). Well, part of what needs to change is our selfish nature and praying for other people will do that. Intercession is a way of loving people and it’s a way to serve people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls intercessory prayer a “purifying bath.” Why? Because in praying for others we slowly scrub away the ingrained self-centeredness that keeps us from being like Jesus. And so tonight I want to ask three questions.
1. What is intercessory prayer?
2. What are the benefits of intercessory prayer?
3. How can we intercede for others?
But first I want to read a passage from Exodus, because it’s going to help us answer those three questions. Intercessory Prayer – what is it? What are the benefits? How do we do it?
Exodus 17: 8-13
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some men for us and go out and fight. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.’ So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people.
On the surface this is a pretty strange story but the implications for intercessory prayer are pretty profound I think. The Israelites are in the wilderness and the Amalekites attack. Well, Moses – he’s the leader and because of that he’s the one that’s got to choose the military strategy, which I think can be summed up like this. “Joshua – you fight and I’ll pray.” You see Moses understood that behind this earthly conflict was a spiritual one and that only by lifting his hands in prayer could the battle be won. And here’s what’s amazing – the Bible is suggesting that Moses had the harder task. After all, Aaron and Hur had to hold his arms up. In other words, Moses’ job was more important than Joshua’s.
Now, when all was said and done who do you think got the credit? Joshua – after all, he was the one leading the charge. People probably started spreading rumors about Moses being a coward. But what the Bible suggests is that the real work was happening behind the scenes – where Moses and Aaron and Hur were interceding on Israel’s behalf. It was their work and not Joshua’s that determined the outcome of the battle.
Now what Moses and Aaron and Hur did for Israel is something all of us are called to do for each other and for our world. Not all of us are going to be on the front lines – visible, celebrated, “public leaders” so to speak. But we are all called to intercessory prayer. Behind every earthly conflict is a spiritual one and God invites each of us to partner with Him in His victory over sin, evil and death. And so with that in mind …
(1) What is intercessory prayer?
The best definition that I’ve ever heard is “longing for what’s best for someone before God” (Keller). Intercessory prayer isn’t about us – our needs, our sins, things we’re thankful for. No, in intercessory prayer we bring before God what we think is best for someone else.
Whenever we intercede for someone we do the work of a priest – we go to God on behalf of someone else. Whenever we intercede we act as a mediator. A go-between. Think of Moses – where does he pray? Moses intercedes from the top of a mountain, which is symbolic for being between heaven and earth. Moses places himself between the people of Israel and God and he raises His staff in prayer. That’s kind of what intercessory prayer is like, only the image is somewhat flawed because in Christ we’re not just standing on a mountain – no we get to walk straight to the throne of God.
And in interceding for someone I find it helpful to know three things –their needs, their flaws, and their strengths. I want to know a person’s needs so that I can ask God to meet them. I want to know a person’s flaws so that I can ask God to remove them – to change unhealthy heart patterns that keep them from becoming the person God wants them to be. And most importantly, I want to know a person’s strengths so that I can thank God for that person. Each one of us is a living, breathing miracle – far too often we forget that. That’s something we need to celebrate before God. But either way, in intercessory prayer we approach God and we “long for what’s best” for someone else.
Now, before moving on there’s something I want us to see. Intercession is something we all do on a human level. For example – let’s say Prescott Jefferson III wants to go to Harvard Law but he’s got a 2.7 GPA and he majored in frat. But lucky for him his dad’s best friend is head of admissions. He talks to his dad, his dad talks to the dean, Prescott goes to Harvard. His dad interceded on his behalf. Or perhaps something a bit more common – you don’t have tickets for next weekend’s game but your best friend’s roommate does. “Will you talk to him for me? I can only pay face value but I really want to go.” The only reason you got to go to the game was because your best friend interceded for you. Now in Christ, each one of us has access to the God of the Universe – a God that’s infinitely rich, a God that calls us his child and essentially says, “Ask me for whatever you want.”
(2) What are the benefits of intercessory prayer?
Ok, you might be thinking – that’s great but isn’t God just going to do what God’s going to do? What are the benefits of intercessory prayer? In other words, why do it? I’ll give us three good reasons. Intercessory prayer changes things, it changes relationships, and finally it changes us.
Intercessory Prayer changes things
What I’m about to tell you is very mysterious – prayer changes things without changing God’s plans. Now wait a second, you’re thinking, it’s got to be one or the other. No it doesn’t. We’re dealing with God and God’s ways are beyond anything we can understand. Prayer doesn’t change God. That’s part of what it means for God to be Sovereign. But, prayer does change things, circumstances, and people.
There’s a famous verse in the Book of James that says, “You have not because you ask not.” Think about that reading from Exodus. When Moses held up his hand in prayer Israel won the battle but when he dropped it – when Moses stopped interceding – the Israelites would lose. The author’s point is pretty clear – it matters whether or not we pray.
You see, whenever we pray for people we bring the mysterious power of God into their lives. Prayer may have psychological benefits but it’s not just a psychological exorcise. A lot of good things don’t happen because God’s people don’t pray. It’s like James says – we have not because we ask not. And so the first benefit of intercessory prayer is this– it changes things, circumstances and people for the better.
Intercessory Prayer changes relationships
There’s no getting around it, I’m a better Christian when I’m praying for the people I’m around. I’m more aware of their needs. After all, I’ve thought about them enough to bring them to God. I’m more aware of their flaws. I’ve been asking God to work on their hearts and so (a) I see it coming (whatever “it” is that bothers me about them) and (b) I want to be part of the solution – not part of the problem. And so I’m a lot more patient and a lot less irritable. And finally I’m more aware of their strengths. I’ve been thanking God for their faith or their humility or whatever gift they have that I know blesses other people. When we pray from someone our concern for them grows, our love for them grows. Why do you think Jesus told us to intercede for our enemies – because Jesus knew that in praying for them we’d eventually come to love them.
And so if there’s someone in your life that you’re angry with right now or if you’re holding a grudge, I’ll be bold – I know that you haven’t been actively interceding for that person. Why? Because when we think deeply about someone’s needs and flaws and strengths and pray for them God softens our heart. Prayer strengthens our relationships.
Intercessory Prayer changes us
Intercessory prayer is behind the scenes, servant ministry. Going back to Exodus, Joshua got credit for winning the battle but it was Moses – the man praying behind the scenes – who secured the victory for Israel. And intercessory prayer is really hard work precisely because it’s by nature behind the scene work. In other words, we’re not going to get any credit for the way our prayers bless the life of someone else. But here’s what we have to see – that’s the essence of holiness. That’s what it means to be like Christ. To long for the good of others is the essence of holiness. Or to put it differently, nothing will make you more like Christ than to long for the Christ-likeness of someone else.
I’ll be honest – meditating on scripture, praying for my own needs, praising God for what He’s done in my life – I find that easy and enjoyable. Why? Because it’s all about me. It’s all about my growth and my peace. And of course that’s good – I should be concerned with my own spiritual walk. But, we’re going to get stuck in the process of our sanctification – which is just a fancy theological word for the process by which God conforms our heart to His – we’ll get stuck in the process of our sanctification until we begin longing and praying for the sanctification of other people. Nothing makes us more like Jesus than longing for others to be like Jesus.
And so to recap – what are the benefits of intercessory prayer? It changes things. It changes relationships. It changes us.
(3) How can we intercede for others?
First, we need to intercede for others by ourselves. A portion of our personal prayer time with God needs to be designated for praying for other people. If we don’t yet have a personal, disciplined prayer time, well that’s something we need to consider. But we need to make a habit of praying for other people. And for reasons already mentioned, intercession is mentally tough work. It requires heavy thinking and because of our limitations we can’t pray for everyone. It can be draining to think about someone else’s needs and flaws and strengths. And so lesson #1 – don’t overdo it. Like Moses eventually our arm gets tired and if we try holding it up too long we’ll pull a spiritual muscle.
But let me give you two methods I find helpful. First, because I read Scripture in the morning I make a list of all the people that come to my mind as I read the Bible and then when I’m done I pray for them. Some people are on my list every day. Some people asked me to pray for them earlier in the week. Some people just pop into my head. Whether it’s a coincidence or the Spirit, I pray for them. Second, I call this the “Google calendar” method. I look at my calendar for the day and I pray for whoever’s on it. This method also works at night praying for the people you spent time with that day.
Second, we need to intercede for others with others. Is Jesus with us when we pray alone? Of course. But He also went out of His way to say, “whenever two or three gather together in my name I’m going to be there, too.” And so in a way that’s kind of mysterious, Jesus is present in a deeper and more powerful way when we pray with other Christians. I’m not saying you have to join a prayer group. But I will challenge you to think about it. And I’ll also tell you that my spiritual life is much richer for being a part of one. This is what Richard Foster says about Christians interceding together:
“It is God’s desire to bring individuals and families into saving faith. It is God’s desire to bring people off of addictions to drugs, sex, money and status. It is God’s desire to deliver people from racism, sexism, nationalism and consumerism. Organized, corporate intercessory prayer is a crucial means for the fulfillment of these yearnings in the heart of God.” (Prayer, 199)
We need to pray for others with others. Moses wasn’t strong enough to hold up that staff by himself. And neither are we.
Now, a final word before we break for small groups. If we begin praying with persistence and passion we’re going to run up against the problem of unanswered prayer. And here’s what I want to say about that. The night I wrote this talk I spent two hours babysitting my nine-month-old goddaughter. Over the course of those two hours she tried to stick her slobbery fingers into an electric socket, eat a knife sitting on the coffee table, and crawl down the stairs by herself. Those were her “prayers” so to speak – the deepest desires of her heart. In not letting her do those things I wasn’t trying to tell her I didn’t love her. I was trying to show her that I did.
And so whether it’s for our self or for someone else, sometimes we pray for things that aren’t granted not because God isn’t good but precisely because He is. We may think our greatest need in life is eat that knife but it’s not. And so let me say this – when we’re faithful in prayer and persistent in prayer and intentional about prayer God always gives us and the people for whom we pray that which is best under the circumstances. And sometimes that means not intervening in people’s lives or allowing them to experience the result of their choices. But remember – God does that not because He isn’t good but precisely because He is.
Not all prayer should be for our selves – that’s spiritual selfishness. Remember our goal is to become more like Jesus and nothing will make us more like Christ than longing for the Christ-likeness of someone else.
Monday, September 27, 2010
true religion
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’
I’d like to begin today’s sermon by asking you a question: What is our religion? Now, this sounds like a foolish question, right? After all, we sing Christian hymns. We recite Christian creeds. We break bread in the name of Jesus Christ. But if my question surprises you, know that it’s anything but foolish to dare to sincerely name our religion. Allow me to explain. The word religion is derived from the Latin verb ligare – which means to bind or connect. Our religion, simply put, is what we rely on, whatever we trust to make us feel secure. To practice the right religion is to root ourselves in reality. To practice the wrong religion is to chase after something that isn’t even real. And so when I ask “what is our religion?” I’m really asking “what do we rely on? What have we bound or connected our hearts to?”
I spent the summer of 2006 working as a hospital chaplain. I’m forever haunted by the memory of the first patient I ever visited, a 91-year-old woman named Mary. I want to read you an excerpt from the report I was asked to write on my impression of Mary: “She is bitter, alone, and she trusts no one. Mary believes she has been hospitalized so that her family may spend her savings. Mary is intent upon the idea that she is an exploited victim of a greedy family. There is no person on earth that she loves or trusts. Not one.” If these words give you chills, listen to the words of Mary herself. “I hate my family. They mean nothing to me. I am here because they want my money. They want everything I’ve worked for. For themselves. They are dead to me.” Mary was deluded. Her heart was so bound and so connected to her stockpile of wealth that she was unable to cope with reality. Money was what Mary relied on, what she trusted to make her feel secure. Mary practiced the wrong religion.
Today’s story about Lazarus and the rich man was first addressed to the practitioners of a wrong religion. Jesus tells this parable to the Pharisees, who Luke tells us are “lovers of money.” Perhaps you recall how last week’s parable ended: “you cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees’ response to this was to ridicule Jesus. The Pharisees mock Jesus’ words. You can’t serve God and money? Of course you can! You see for the Pharisees, money was the sure sign of God’s favor. People get rich when God is pleased with them, which means that poverty is a punishment –at least that is what they believed. And so when the Pharisees saw someone like Lazarus – starving for food, covered in sores, freezing and alone – they naturally assumed that God’s justice was at work. If Lazarus isn’t a sinner then his parents sure were! You see, the Pharisees sang all the right hymns, they recited all the right creeds, and they went through all the right rituals. But according to Jesus, they didn’t practice the right religion.
And so we have to wonder, what went wrong with the Pharisees? Well, the answer is simple. The Pharisees forgot their story. You see, God chose Israel because they were the smallest, the poorest, and the weakest. God chose Israel because they were slaves. God chose Israel because they longed to satisfy their hunger with the food that fell from Pharaoh’s table – who feasted sumptuously every day while they starved to death. For this reason God chose Israel and brought them to the land of Canaan, where God tells them in Deuteronomy: “open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” In other words, I chose you because you were poor, and so you must love the poor. I chose you because you were needy, so you must love the needy. You see, the Pharisee’s problem was not with how they saw the poor, but with how they saw themselves. Forgetting that God chooses the poor, the Pharisees naturally lost sight of how poor they really were.
Now, the Pharisees don’t have the market cornered on being “lovers of money.” We live in a world that teaches us to rely, or to find security, in things with no power to save us. There is so much pressure to make our life a race in pursuit of something superficial – money just being the most obvious example. Is money bad? No. But to rely on money, to trust in money as the basis of our security – it’s the root of all evil. You see, for the rich, money provides the illusion that we are secure. For the poor, money creates the illusion that we could be secure if we just had more money. And let’s be honest – from time to time all of us are runners in society’s race to seek security outside the promises of God. We can all practice the wrong religion.
And so we have to wonder – when this does happen, what goes wrong with us? The answer is simple. We forget our story. The apostle Paul reminds us in his second letter to the Corinthians, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” In other words, God himself, the Source of all wealth, became poor. God himself, the Source of all life, tasted death. The God of our hymns, the God of our creeds, the God revealed in the bread we break was Himself broken, stripped naked, covered in sores, and starving for food. For us. You see our problem is not with how we see the poor, but with how we see ourselves. Do we honestly believe that we’re any better than the homeless man we’ll pass on our way to class tomorrow? If so, we’re not yet seeing the world through the lens of the cross. If so, we haven’t yet considered how far God had to go to reach us. If so, we do not understand how poor we really are.
The truth is there is not one person among us who can identify with Lazarus, and I thank God for that. There are many Lazarus’ in our world, and God cares deeply about every single one of them. On the other hand, we are not the rich man. No, as this parable comes to an end we have to realize that every single one of us stands in the place of his five brothers. Each of us has to write our own ending to this parable. But unlike the brothers, we have more than Moses and the prophets. Someone in fact has risen from the dead, and that Someone of our hymns, our creeds, and our communion invites us to step into reality, to practice true religion, to bind our hearts and to connect our souls to the Kingdom he came to proclaim.
So once again, what is our religion? Christianity is a religion of the cross. We cannot seek security in the cross of Christ and ignore the crosses of others. We cannot seek security in the God who became poor and ignore the poverty of others. We cannot seek security in Jesus and at the same time ignore Lazarus, for what we do to the least of Jesus’ brothers we do also to him. We practice the right religion when we root ourselves in the reality of the cross.
I’d like to end tonight’s sermon with a story. This story is about greyhounds, the kind that race around the track after that mechanical rabbit. The following is a conversation between a reporter and a successful greyhound that quits racing at the height of his career. Anyway, the conversation goes something like this:
The reporter says to the dog, Uh, you still racing any?
No, no, no, I don’t race anymore.
I bet you miss the glitter and the excitement of the track?
He said, no, not really.
So you got too old?
No, no, I still had some race in me.
So you must have not won enough races?
He said no, I won over a million dollars for my owner.
So, they treated you badly, that’s why you quit?
God no! They treated us like kings, as long as we were racing.
Then what, did you get injured?
He said, no, no.
I said, then what?
I quit.
You quit? Why on earth would you quit at the height of your career?
He said, I quit the day that I found out that what I was chasing was not really a rabbit. That’s when I quit. All that running, running, running, running, running, and that thing I was chasing, it wasn’t even real.
I’d like to begin today’s sermon by asking you a question: What is our religion? Now, this sounds like a foolish question, right? After all, we sing Christian hymns. We recite Christian creeds. We break bread in the name of Jesus Christ. But if my question surprises you, know that it’s anything but foolish to dare to sincerely name our religion. Allow me to explain. The word religion is derived from the Latin verb ligare – which means to bind or connect. Our religion, simply put, is what we rely on, whatever we trust to make us feel secure. To practice the right religion is to root ourselves in reality. To practice the wrong religion is to chase after something that isn’t even real. And so when I ask “what is our religion?” I’m really asking “what do we rely on? What have we bound or connected our hearts to?”
I spent the summer of 2006 working as a hospital chaplain. I’m forever haunted by the memory of the first patient I ever visited, a 91-year-old woman named Mary. I want to read you an excerpt from the report I was asked to write on my impression of Mary: “She is bitter, alone, and she trusts no one. Mary believes she has been hospitalized so that her family may spend her savings. Mary is intent upon the idea that she is an exploited victim of a greedy family. There is no person on earth that she loves or trusts. Not one.” If these words give you chills, listen to the words of Mary herself. “I hate my family. They mean nothing to me. I am here because they want my money. They want everything I’ve worked for. For themselves. They are dead to me.” Mary was deluded. Her heart was so bound and so connected to her stockpile of wealth that she was unable to cope with reality. Money was what Mary relied on, what she trusted to make her feel secure. Mary practiced the wrong religion.
Today’s story about Lazarus and the rich man was first addressed to the practitioners of a wrong religion. Jesus tells this parable to the Pharisees, who Luke tells us are “lovers of money.” Perhaps you recall how last week’s parable ended: “you cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees’ response to this was to ridicule Jesus. The Pharisees mock Jesus’ words. You can’t serve God and money? Of course you can! You see for the Pharisees, money was the sure sign of God’s favor. People get rich when God is pleased with them, which means that poverty is a punishment –at least that is what they believed. And so when the Pharisees saw someone like Lazarus – starving for food, covered in sores, freezing and alone – they naturally assumed that God’s justice was at work. If Lazarus isn’t a sinner then his parents sure were! You see, the Pharisees sang all the right hymns, they recited all the right creeds, and they went through all the right rituals. But according to Jesus, they didn’t practice the right religion.
And so we have to wonder, what went wrong with the Pharisees? Well, the answer is simple. The Pharisees forgot their story. You see, God chose Israel because they were the smallest, the poorest, and the weakest. God chose Israel because they were slaves. God chose Israel because they longed to satisfy their hunger with the food that fell from Pharaoh’s table – who feasted sumptuously every day while they starved to death. For this reason God chose Israel and brought them to the land of Canaan, where God tells them in Deuteronomy: “open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” In other words, I chose you because you were poor, and so you must love the poor. I chose you because you were needy, so you must love the needy. You see, the Pharisee’s problem was not with how they saw the poor, but with how they saw themselves. Forgetting that God chooses the poor, the Pharisees naturally lost sight of how poor they really were.
Now, the Pharisees don’t have the market cornered on being “lovers of money.” We live in a world that teaches us to rely, or to find security, in things with no power to save us. There is so much pressure to make our life a race in pursuit of something superficial – money just being the most obvious example. Is money bad? No. But to rely on money, to trust in money as the basis of our security – it’s the root of all evil. You see, for the rich, money provides the illusion that we are secure. For the poor, money creates the illusion that we could be secure if we just had more money. And let’s be honest – from time to time all of us are runners in society’s race to seek security outside the promises of God. We can all practice the wrong religion.
And so we have to wonder – when this does happen, what goes wrong with us? The answer is simple. We forget our story. The apostle Paul reminds us in his second letter to the Corinthians, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” In other words, God himself, the Source of all wealth, became poor. God himself, the Source of all life, tasted death. The God of our hymns, the God of our creeds, the God revealed in the bread we break was Himself broken, stripped naked, covered in sores, and starving for food. For us. You see our problem is not with how we see the poor, but with how we see ourselves. Do we honestly believe that we’re any better than the homeless man we’ll pass on our way to class tomorrow? If so, we’re not yet seeing the world through the lens of the cross. If so, we haven’t yet considered how far God had to go to reach us. If so, we do not understand how poor we really are.
The truth is there is not one person among us who can identify with Lazarus, and I thank God for that. There are many Lazarus’ in our world, and God cares deeply about every single one of them. On the other hand, we are not the rich man. No, as this parable comes to an end we have to realize that every single one of us stands in the place of his five brothers. Each of us has to write our own ending to this parable. But unlike the brothers, we have more than Moses and the prophets. Someone in fact has risen from the dead, and that Someone of our hymns, our creeds, and our communion invites us to step into reality, to practice true religion, to bind our hearts and to connect our souls to the Kingdom he came to proclaim.
So once again, what is our religion? Christianity is a religion of the cross. We cannot seek security in the cross of Christ and ignore the crosses of others. We cannot seek security in the God who became poor and ignore the poverty of others. We cannot seek security in Jesus and at the same time ignore Lazarus, for what we do to the least of Jesus’ brothers we do also to him. We practice the right religion when we root ourselves in the reality of the cross.
I’d like to end tonight’s sermon with a story. This story is about greyhounds, the kind that race around the track after that mechanical rabbit. The following is a conversation between a reporter and a successful greyhound that quits racing at the height of his career. Anyway, the conversation goes something like this:
The reporter says to the dog, Uh, you still racing any?
No, no, no, I don’t race anymore.
I bet you miss the glitter and the excitement of the track?
He said, no, not really.
So you got too old?
No, no, I still had some race in me.
So you must have not won enough races?
He said no, I won over a million dollars for my owner.
So, they treated you badly, that’s why you quit?
God no! They treated us like kings, as long as we were racing.
Then what, did you get injured?
He said, no, no.
I said, then what?
I quit.
You quit? Why on earth would you quit at the height of your career?
He said, I quit the day that I found out that what I was chasing was not really a rabbit. That’s when I quit. All that running, running, running, running, running, and that thing I was chasing, it wasn’t even real.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Meditation (spiritual brooding) -- OMEGA
I’m fascinated by the miracle of a chicken’s birth. For a young chick to be born and to grow a mother hen has to sit on her eggs for days or even weeks, a process known as brooding. And when you watch this process the mother hen looks lazy. All she does is sit motionless and she seems to accomplish nothing. But in reality, something crucial is happening beneath the surface. The mother hen is incubating new life. Her brooding is actually breeding – the process through which new life emerges. (Packer)
Meditation, or spiritual brooding, is like that, too. It’s a long drawn-out process. It looks like we’re doing nothing. But in reality meditation is the process through which new spiritual life emerges. The spiritual process of brooding – thinking about Scripture, turning it over in our heads, allowing it to transform us from the inside out – is actually breeding. Spiritual brooding is spiritual breeding.
Tonight we’re going to ask three questions.
• Why is mediation, or spiritual brooding, important?
• What exactly is meditation?
• How do we meditate?
Why do it? What is it? How does it work?
(1) Why meditation is important
Well, the primary purpose of prayer isn’t to change other people or circumstances, though prayer certainly does both. In fact, prayer would be psychologically impossible if we thought it didn’t make a difference. But, the primary purpose of prayer isn’t to change things. It’s to change us. According to Richard Foster, “The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of His Son.” In other words, we pray to become more like Jesus, and that means moving past simple prayer. You see God doesn’t just want to be our Provider. He wants to be our Teacher and He wants to be our Friend. God wants us to learn the joy of obedience and that’s why we pray – to be like Jesus. Meditation, or spiritual brooding, is about sitting on the egg of Scripture – about setting our minds on Scripture – so that new spiritual life hatches and we’re changed from the inside out.
In other words we meditate because conversion is at the heart of Christianity. God may fully love us as we are, but God’s love won’t allow us to remain as we are. Why? Because, in the words of Switchfoot, “we were made to live for so much more.” Our God insists that our hearts be changed and yet we have absolutely no power to change them. And so we engage in spiritual brooding. We put ourselves in the presence of the Divine Physician and we ask Him to come do surgery.
Think of it like this. A sailboat won’t move until the wind comes. But at the same time, the wind won’t have any power until the sails are up and able to catch it. To meditate is to put up our spiritual sails so that when God does send the wind – which in the Bible is a metaphor for His Spirit – it will actually propel us forward.
And so becoming like Jesus, growing in Christ-likeness, this is central to Christianity. And it doesn’t matter how hard we try to change – to be kinder and more loving and less selfish – because if we rely on ourselves our hearts will never be touched. Our behavior might improve but we’ll probably become self-righteous and we definitely won’t feel joy. Real change is from the inside out. It happens when the Spirit moves our hearts. And because only God can change hearts, we need to come before Him and brood. We need to sit on the scriptures and allow new life to hatch.
(2) What is mediation?
Well, all great Christian thinkers for the past 2,000 years tell us that meditation is indispensable to growth; that not meditating on God’s Word is like a child needing vegetables but only eating candy. And so what is Christian meditation? I’ll focus on two things. Meditation is (1) biblical and (2) affective.
Mediation is Biblical
First, Christian meditation is biblical, i.e. it’s rooted in Scripture. I say this because mediation is hot these days. It’s in. No pressure, but everyone who’s anyone – anyone who’s cool, they meditate. But, Christian mediation is distinct. It’s not the same as Eastern and New Age forms of mediation, all of which stress emptying our self and our mind to achieve different goals, like inner peace and finding the real you and “becoming fully aware.” Unlike Eastern forms of mediation, Christians don’t want to empty themselves. We’re not trying to peel off all the layers of that onion we call our soul in the hope that we’ll find a great surprise. Biblical mediation is about emptying ourselves of what is false in order to fill ourselves with what is true. Once again, we empty ourselves of what is false to fill ourselves with what is true.
And so whenever we brood, we take our problems and our choices and our fears and our insecurities and we turn them over and over in our minds in the clear light of Scripture, consciously aware that the Divine Physician is doing surgery. To say that mediation is biblical is to say that it’s Christ-centered. Having our hearts conform to the heart of Jesus – that is the goal. We empty our mind of what is false and we fill it with what is true. Why? Because before we can love God with our whole heart, we first have to love Him with our whole mind. In other words, in order to brood we need to use the old noggin.
Meditation is Affective
Second, meditation is affective – that’s affective with an “a.” Of course Christian mediation is also effective. I wouldn’t teach an ineffective form of prayer. But Christian mediation is also affective. The word affective has to do with the affections of our heart – with the things we set our hearts on because we think that they’ll make us whole. And so a good working definition of affections are “root motivations.” Our affections are what drive us. They’re our root motivations. Our affections are the people or the things that our heart most loves. Our affections are what we build our lives on. They’re our foundation.
Now, God designed us to set our affections on Him and to the extent that they are we experience life, peace and joy. But do we always set our affections on God? No. Far too often our affections are set on relationships and prestige and money and status and image and our body and the bodies of other people and on a million other things. In fact, a great definition of sin is “misplaced affections.” To say that meditation is affective is to say that its purpose is to bring our affections into the light. To say that meditation is affective is to say that it deals with the root motivations of our heart. Remember, prayer’s primary purpose is to change us. But if God’s going to change us He has to go to the root. And that’s what I mean when I say that meditation is affective – it goes all the way to the root.
(3) How do we meditate?
I’m going to answer this question by getting personal and telling you about my own prayer life, but first I want to read a passage from Colossians. I think it perfectly sums up what’s been said so far.
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). (Col 3:1-5)
Why do we meditate? Because we’ve been raised with Christ. Yes there is a future resurrection, but at the same time the Gospel says we’ve already been raised, at least metaphorically. In God’s eyes we are perfect. Jesus’ goodness is our goodness and we’ve been raised to where Jesus is – the right hand of God. And so what should we do? Set our mind on the right things – on things that “are above” as Paul says. Biblical things – things about who God is and what God’s done. Why? Because as Paul says, “our life is hidden with Christ in God.” In other words, you’ll never find yourself until you find God because your life is hidden in Him. If we want to find our self we have to set our mind on God. What does that mean? “Putting to death whatever in us that is earthly.” In other words, it means bringing our misguided affections and our self-centered root motivations into the light – that’s what Paul means by fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed. All those things are nothing more than a bunch of misguided affections.
And so how do we meditate – how does God change our misguided affections? We set our minds on things that are above and ask God for new affections. But if we’re going to do that, we have to learn to read the Bible differently. Rather than asking questions of the Bible we have to brood and let the Bible ask questions of us.
For example, in Bible study we may come across Romans 8:1, which reads “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and perhaps we start asking questions. What does it mean that I’m not condemned? And what does it mean to be “in Christ Jesus” for that matter – to have faith in Him? To go to church? And what about people not “in Christ” – are they condemned and if so why? Now, asking tough questions, this is good and holy and valuable work. We’ll never grow without asking questions like this. But, God’s Word is living and active and reading the Bible in a one-sided way, picking it apart, will only take us so far. We have to let the Bible ask us questions. We have to let the Bible pick us apart.
Now, there are a million ways to let the Bible speak to us but I’ll give you my method. I try and spend at least one hour praying each morning. I’ve got about a 75% success rate. And for the majority of that hour I brood on Scripture, and there are certain questions I let God ask me. And so what I’m going to do is give you those three questions, read the passage I meditated on the day I wrote this teaching, and then I’ll tell you my answers.
First, the three questions I let God ask me.
1. How does this passage reveal my lack of affection for Christ or my inordinate affection for something else?
2. What bad emotions govern my life when I fail to live into the Gospel being portrayed?
3. How can I begin to live into the change that God is already bringing about in my heart?
Acts 3: 1-10
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
1. How does this passage reveal my lack of affection for Christ or my inordinate affection for something else?
I could give many examples but I’ll limit myself to one. Peter and John took the time to stop and look intently at this man that God brought before them. More often than not, I don’t. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a beggar, a friend, a student or a stranger. You see like Peter and John I’m always going to the Temple – it’s what I do for a living. But at times I take my work so seriously that I love the work more than the God who called me into it. I love being obedient to my calendar more than I love being obedient to God – a God who is always asking us to stop, to look intently at others, and to share the Gospel with them in word and deed. This is clearly a misplaced affection on my part – being more committed to my schedule, to “going to the Temple,” than to God.
2. What bad emotions govern my life when I fail to live into the Gospel being portrayed?
I miss the miracle. I miss the joy of seeing God’s healing power and settle for a small, self-absorbed life. And because of that I feel contempt for the people I perceive to be beggars. Rather than seeing interruptions as God’s gifts I see them as distractions. And so whenever I’m interrupted and my schedule gets thrown off I get self-righteous and angry and anxious – all of which are sure signs that my “root motivations” are in the wrong place.
3. How can I begin to live into the change that God is already bringing about in my heart?
I felt God asking me to do a few things. First, I made a list of all the “beggars” I overlooked the previous day and I prayed for each of them by name. And in doing so I experienced a strong desire to see each one of them again. Second, I made a list of all the people in the last week that have stopped, looked intently at me, and have gone out of their way to help me. And this list was much longer than the first one. I thanked God for each one of them and was humbled to discover that I’m a lot more like the beggar than I am like Peter and John. Third, I remembered the Gospel – that Jesus could have overlooked me; that He very well could have passed me by, but that He didn’t. And I praised God for saving me and I recommitted my life to Him.
Now, we’ve got to stop but let me end by saying this. Mediation is like brooding. Not a lot seems to happen when a mother hen sits on her eggs. But in reality, something crucial is happening beneath the surface. Her brooding is bringing about new life. Something new and beautiful is about to hatch.
And that’s the best image I can give you for how God changes our hearts. It’s a long, drawn out process. It happens slowly and over time. But if a hen doesn’t brood, her eggs will never hatch. And so remember that the spiritual process of brooding – thinking about Scripture, turning it over in our heads, allowing it transform us from the inside out – is a process of breeding. Does prayer change things? Of course. But the first thing to change is always us.
Meditation, or spiritual brooding, is like that, too. It’s a long drawn-out process. It looks like we’re doing nothing. But in reality meditation is the process through which new spiritual life emerges. The spiritual process of brooding – thinking about Scripture, turning it over in our heads, allowing it to transform us from the inside out – is actually breeding. Spiritual brooding is spiritual breeding.
Tonight we’re going to ask three questions.
• Why is mediation, or spiritual brooding, important?
• What exactly is meditation?
• How do we meditate?
Why do it? What is it? How does it work?
(1) Why meditation is important
Well, the primary purpose of prayer isn’t to change other people or circumstances, though prayer certainly does both. In fact, prayer would be psychologically impossible if we thought it didn’t make a difference. But, the primary purpose of prayer isn’t to change things. It’s to change us. According to Richard Foster, “The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of His Son.” In other words, we pray to become more like Jesus, and that means moving past simple prayer. You see God doesn’t just want to be our Provider. He wants to be our Teacher and He wants to be our Friend. God wants us to learn the joy of obedience and that’s why we pray – to be like Jesus. Meditation, or spiritual brooding, is about sitting on the egg of Scripture – about setting our minds on Scripture – so that new spiritual life hatches and we’re changed from the inside out.
In other words we meditate because conversion is at the heart of Christianity. God may fully love us as we are, but God’s love won’t allow us to remain as we are. Why? Because, in the words of Switchfoot, “we were made to live for so much more.” Our God insists that our hearts be changed and yet we have absolutely no power to change them. And so we engage in spiritual brooding. We put ourselves in the presence of the Divine Physician and we ask Him to come do surgery.
Think of it like this. A sailboat won’t move until the wind comes. But at the same time, the wind won’t have any power until the sails are up and able to catch it. To meditate is to put up our spiritual sails so that when God does send the wind – which in the Bible is a metaphor for His Spirit – it will actually propel us forward.
And so becoming like Jesus, growing in Christ-likeness, this is central to Christianity. And it doesn’t matter how hard we try to change – to be kinder and more loving and less selfish – because if we rely on ourselves our hearts will never be touched. Our behavior might improve but we’ll probably become self-righteous and we definitely won’t feel joy. Real change is from the inside out. It happens when the Spirit moves our hearts. And because only God can change hearts, we need to come before Him and brood. We need to sit on the scriptures and allow new life to hatch.
(2) What is mediation?
Well, all great Christian thinkers for the past 2,000 years tell us that meditation is indispensable to growth; that not meditating on God’s Word is like a child needing vegetables but only eating candy. And so what is Christian meditation? I’ll focus on two things. Meditation is (1) biblical and (2) affective.
Mediation is Biblical
First, Christian meditation is biblical, i.e. it’s rooted in Scripture. I say this because mediation is hot these days. It’s in. No pressure, but everyone who’s anyone – anyone who’s cool, they meditate. But, Christian mediation is distinct. It’s not the same as Eastern and New Age forms of mediation, all of which stress emptying our self and our mind to achieve different goals, like inner peace and finding the real you and “becoming fully aware.” Unlike Eastern forms of mediation, Christians don’t want to empty themselves. We’re not trying to peel off all the layers of that onion we call our soul in the hope that we’ll find a great surprise. Biblical mediation is about emptying ourselves of what is false in order to fill ourselves with what is true. Once again, we empty ourselves of what is false to fill ourselves with what is true.
And so whenever we brood, we take our problems and our choices and our fears and our insecurities and we turn them over and over in our minds in the clear light of Scripture, consciously aware that the Divine Physician is doing surgery. To say that mediation is biblical is to say that it’s Christ-centered. Having our hearts conform to the heart of Jesus – that is the goal. We empty our mind of what is false and we fill it with what is true. Why? Because before we can love God with our whole heart, we first have to love Him with our whole mind. In other words, in order to brood we need to use the old noggin.
Meditation is Affective
Second, meditation is affective – that’s affective with an “a.” Of course Christian mediation is also effective. I wouldn’t teach an ineffective form of prayer. But Christian mediation is also affective. The word affective has to do with the affections of our heart – with the things we set our hearts on because we think that they’ll make us whole. And so a good working definition of affections are “root motivations.” Our affections are what drive us. They’re our root motivations. Our affections are the people or the things that our heart most loves. Our affections are what we build our lives on. They’re our foundation.
Now, God designed us to set our affections on Him and to the extent that they are we experience life, peace and joy. But do we always set our affections on God? No. Far too often our affections are set on relationships and prestige and money and status and image and our body and the bodies of other people and on a million other things. In fact, a great definition of sin is “misplaced affections.” To say that meditation is affective is to say that its purpose is to bring our affections into the light. To say that meditation is affective is to say that it deals with the root motivations of our heart. Remember, prayer’s primary purpose is to change us. But if God’s going to change us He has to go to the root. And that’s what I mean when I say that meditation is affective – it goes all the way to the root.
(3) How do we meditate?
I’m going to answer this question by getting personal and telling you about my own prayer life, but first I want to read a passage from Colossians. I think it perfectly sums up what’s been said so far.
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). (Col 3:1-5)
Why do we meditate? Because we’ve been raised with Christ. Yes there is a future resurrection, but at the same time the Gospel says we’ve already been raised, at least metaphorically. In God’s eyes we are perfect. Jesus’ goodness is our goodness and we’ve been raised to where Jesus is – the right hand of God. And so what should we do? Set our mind on the right things – on things that “are above” as Paul says. Biblical things – things about who God is and what God’s done. Why? Because as Paul says, “our life is hidden with Christ in God.” In other words, you’ll never find yourself until you find God because your life is hidden in Him. If we want to find our self we have to set our mind on God. What does that mean? “Putting to death whatever in us that is earthly.” In other words, it means bringing our misguided affections and our self-centered root motivations into the light – that’s what Paul means by fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed. All those things are nothing more than a bunch of misguided affections.
And so how do we meditate – how does God change our misguided affections? We set our minds on things that are above and ask God for new affections. But if we’re going to do that, we have to learn to read the Bible differently. Rather than asking questions of the Bible we have to brood and let the Bible ask questions of us.
For example, in Bible study we may come across Romans 8:1, which reads “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and perhaps we start asking questions. What does it mean that I’m not condemned? And what does it mean to be “in Christ Jesus” for that matter – to have faith in Him? To go to church? And what about people not “in Christ” – are they condemned and if so why? Now, asking tough questions, this is good and holy and valuable work. We’ll never grow without asking questions like this. But, God’s Word is living and active and reading the Bible in a one-sided way, picking it apart, will only take us so far. We have to let the Bible ask us questions. We have to let the Bible pick us apart.
Now, there are a million ways to let the Bible speak to us but I’ll give you my method. I try and spend at least one hour praying each morning. I’ve got about a 75% success rate. And for the majority of that hour I brood on Scripture, and there are certain questions I let God ask me. And so what I’m going to do is give you those three questions, read the passage I meditated on the day I wrote this teaching, and then I’ll tell you my answers.
First, the three questions I let God ask me.
1. How does this passage reveal my lack of affection for Christ or my inordinate affection for something else?
2. What bad emotions govern my life when I fail to live into the Gospel being portrayed?
3. How can I begin to live into the change that God is already bringing about in my heart?
Acts 3: 1-10
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
1. How does this passage reveal my lack of affection for Christ or my inordinate affection for something else?
I could give many examples but I’ll limit myself to one. Peter and John took the time to stop and look intently at this man that God brought before them. More often than not, I don’t. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a beggar, a friend, a student or a stranger. You see like Peter and John I’m always going to the Temple – it’s what I do for a living. But at times I take my work so seriously that I love the work more than the God who called me into it. I love being obedient to my calendar more than I love being obedient to God – a God who is always asking us to stop, to look intently at others, and to share the Gospel with them in word and deed. This is clearly a misplaced affection on my part – being more committed to my schedule, to “going to the Temple,” than to God.
2. What bad emotions govern my life when I fail to live into the Gospel being portrayed?
I miss the miracle. I miss the joy of seeing God’s healing power and settle for a small, self-absorbed life. And because of that I feel contempt for the people I perceive to be beggars. Rather than seeing interruptions as God’s gifts I see them as distractions. And so whenever I’m interrupted and my schedule gets thrown off I get self-righteous and angry and anxious – all of which are sure signs that my “root motivations” are in the wrong place.
3. How can I begin to live into the change that God is already bringing about in my heart?
I felt God asking me to do a few things. First, I made a list of all the “beggars” I overlooked the previous day and I prayed for each of them by name. And in doing so I experienced a strong desire to see each one of them again. Second, I made a list of all the people in the last week that have stopped, looked intently at me, and have gone out of their way to help me. And this list was much longer than the first one. I thanked God for each one of them and was humbled to discover that I’m a lot more like the beggar than I am like Peter and John. Third, I remembered the Gospel – that Jesus could have overlooked me; that He very well could have passed me by, but that He didn’t. And I praised God for saving me and I recommitted my life to Him.
Now, we’ve got to stop but let me end by saying this. Mediation is like brooding. Not a lot seems to happen when a mother hen sits on her eggs. But in reality, something crucial is happening beneath the surface. Her brooding is bringing about new life. Something new and beautiful is about to hatch.
And that’s the best image I can give you for how God changes our hearts. It’s a long, drawn out process. It happens slowly and over time. But if a hen doesn’t brood, her eggs will never hatch. And so remember that the spiritual process of brooding – thinking about Scripture, turning it over in our heads, allowing it transform us from the inside out – is a process of breeding. Does prayer change things? Of course. But the first thing to change is always us.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
living wisely
Luke 16: 1-13
Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’
In the last few months I’ve become addicted to Monopoly, which is a really cool way to spend your time when you’re 29 years old. Monopoly is a game of acquisition. Accumulation is the name of the game, which ends when one person acquires everything. And I’m serious when I say that Monopoly is addictive – taking someone’s last dollar, watching him quit in utter despair; it’s great. But it’s addictive – it’s so easy to get lost in the game. Yes, the money is paper. The property is cardboard. You are a plastic hat. But when you’re in the game it just feels so real. You lose touch with reality. You convince yourself that everything belongs to you – that your stuff is your stuff and that someone else’s stuff needs to become your stuff. And so you spend. Acquire. Hoard. Trade. You wheel and Deal. Build a Kingdom. Make a name. Round and round the board you go – conquering and counting. It all feels so good – until the game ends because then so does the illusion. And everything goes back in the box.
Now on the surface tonight’s parable from Luke is strange but Jesus’ point is actually pretty straightforward. “In light of my arrival on earth and what I’m here to do,” He says, “think twice about losing yourself in the world’s game of acquisition. The money you hoard – its paper. The property you acquire – compared to the true riches, its cardboard. Your stuff,” He says, “is not your stuff. You’re just managing what belongs to God. And so don’t waste your life going around the board without stopping to think about what’s important. Because sooner or later the game’s going to end and everything goes back in the box.” Now that being said, let’s take a look at this four-part parable.
Part I – “a rich man had a manager.” Jesus’ audience would have known from the beginning that this parable is about God and humanity. God is the rich man. We are the managers. Now, if you need convincing just think about how the Bible begins. God creates a perfect world and puts Adam and Eve in charge as managers. In the words of Psalm 8, “You’ve given humanity dominion over the works of your hands; you’ve put all things under their feet.” In other words, first God creates a perfect world and then He creates us for a purpose – to manage His stuff. To love His stuff. To care for His stuff. To find joy in our work as managers.
Part II – the rich man discovers that the manager isn’t doing that great of a job. Now, I doubt you need convincing that we humanoids haven’t been faithful in managing God’s stuff. We spend. Acquire. Hoard. Trade. We wheel and deal. We make our lives comfortable and think very little at how others are put out. And God knows we conquer – nations conquer nations and people conquer people – physically and psychologically. At some point the human race fell – we got lost in the game. We stopped being managers and went into business for ourselves on the false premise that everything belongs to us – that my stuff is my stuff and that success is about your stuff becoming my stuff. Part II is about the manager’s rebellion against the true owner.
Part III – this is the crisis. The rich man confronts the dishonest manager and demands an account. Now, remember – the rich man in the parable is God. And so we need to see how radical this parable is coming from the mouth of Jesus. “In me,” Jesus says, “through me, God is back and He demands an account. The jig is up. That stuff isn’t your stuff; it’s my stuff – what have you done with it?” In other words, in the person of Jesus Christ God has returned; and He demands an account for how we’ve managed his stuff.
Finally, Part IV – the manager is forced to decide; the rich man’s return demands a decision. And as I read the parable what the manager does in reducing the bill is repent – he changes his ways. Commentators point out that in reducing his master’s bill, the manager is actually cutting the interest that he had charged on something that wasn’t even his, which according to Jewish law was prohibited. “Look,” he says, “I know I gave you a bill for a hundred bags of wheat even though you only borrowed eighty. But – it’d be wrong to take twenty bags for myself. After all, that wheat wasn’t mine – it belongs to my master. I shouldn’t have run up the bill.” And so that is why Jesus praises the dishonest manager. In light of his master’s return he acts wisely – he repents and repairs the damage.
Now, that’s the parable – what’s the lesson? Well, Jesus says two things that demand our attention. First, “the children of this age are a lot more shrewd than the children of light.” In other words, when people in our world cheat or act dishonestly and it becomes clear to them that they’re going to get caught – that their master, whoever that is, is coming and that he demands an account; they’re not just going to sit there. They’ll do something. They’ll apologize or make amends or change their ways. But they’re going to do something. The point Jesus is making is this. “God created you to be managers, you’ve acted dishonestly, and guess what – you’ve been caught. The Master knows everything and in Me, right now, He’s here to confront you. Do something! Wake up! Repent! Start playing the game with integrity!”
Second, Jesus explains that repentance means living faithfully now. “If you haven’t been faithful with dishonest wealth,” he says, “can you really be trusted to handle real wealth?” In other words, “Compared to the true riches of the Kingdom of God what you’ve been asked to manage now is paper and cardboard. And so don’t build a life around paper and cardboard. If you can’t be trusted with the little God’s given you, how can you ever be trusted with an inheritance of your own?” And so notice – eternity isn’t just clouds and harps! We were made to be managers. Each of us will have a huge part to play in the Kingdom of God. We’ll be entrusted with true riches. But, there does seem to be an organic connection between who we are in this life and how fit we are to take our place in the next one. And so as you go out into the world this week, please remember – your stuff isn’t your stuff. It’s Gods. We can’t keep it. One day we’re going to die, the game is going to end, and we will be put in a box.
And so make a decision. Decide for yourselves what it means to be faithful with what God’s entrusted to you – with what you have been given to manage. In a couple of years you’ll be making some money. Do not keep it all for yourselves. God’s bottom line isn’t the same as Wall Street’s. In a similar way, each one of us gets 168 hours a week. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that’s your time. No, time is a gift. It belongs to God. Share some of the time you’ve been given with other people, especially the needy, and share an even bigger chunk of that time with God. Some of you are really intelligent, and because of that really powerful. A strong intellect can be used to build up and encourage, or to intimidate people and make you feel superior. What will we do with the stuff God’s given us? Either way, we’ll have to give an account.
Now, like most parables there’s always a twist. In the context of Luke’s Gospel Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where he’ll die on a cross for the sins of the world. Here’s the irony. We humans weren’t just entrusted with God’s stuff. We were entrusted with God. You see in the person of Jesus Christ God became human; He became vulnerable and allowed himself to be mismanaged by his own image-bearers. Our primary sin is not that we squandered God’s property. Our primary sin is that God became human in Jesus Christ and we squandered God. On the cross He was conquered and counted as nothing. I mean, think about that. We killed God and put Him in a box!
The good news of the Christian Gospel is that box couldn’t hold him. Jesus was raised from the dead, and because of that all things are His. As Paul says in Colossians, “all things have been created through him and for him.” Everything belongs to Jesus. Our money. Our time. Our body. Our intellect. What are we going to do with that stuff? Either way, we’ll have to give an account. We can spend, acquire, hoard, trade, wheel and deal, and make our life about acquiring paper. Or, we can live wisely. We can build our lives around things that matter. We start preparing now for that future promotion and become people capable of handling the true riches.
Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’
In the last few months I’ve become addicted to Monopoly, which is a really cool way to spend your time when you’re 29 years old. Monopoly is a game of acquisition. Accumulation is the name of the game, which ends when one person acquires everything. And I’m serious when I say that Monopoly is addictive – taking someone’s last dollar, watching him quit in utter despair; it’s great. But it’s addictive – it’s so easy to get lost in the game. Yes, the money is paper. The property is cardboard. You are a plastic hat. But when you’re in the game it just feels so real. You lose touch with reality. You convince yourself that everything belongs to you – that your stuff is your stuff and that someone else’s stuff needs to become your stuff. And so you spend. Acquire. Hoard. Trade. You wheel and Deal. Build a Kingdom. Make a name. Round and round the board you go – conquering and counting. It all feels so good – until the game ends because then so does the illusion. And everything goes back in the box.
Now on the surface tonight’s parable from Luke is strange but Jesus’ point is actually pretty straightforward. “In light of my arrival on earth and what I’m here to do,” He says, “think twice about losing yourself in the world’s game of acquisition. The money you hoard – its paper. The property you acquire – compared to the true riches, its cardboard. Your stuff,” He says, “is not your stuff. You’re just managing what belongs to God. And so don’t waste your life going around the board without stopping to think about what’s important. Because sooner or later the game’s going to end and everything goes back in the box.” Now that being said, let’s take a look at this four-part parable.
Part I – “a rich man had a manager.” Jesus’ audience would have known from the beginning that this parable is about God and humanity. God is the rich man. We are the managers. Now, if you need convincing just think about how the Bible begins. God creates a perfect world and puts Adam and Eve in charge as managers. In the words of Psalm 8, “You’ve given humanity dominion over the works of your hands; you’ve put all things under their feet.” In other words, first God creates a perfect world and then He creates us for a purpose – to manage His stuff. To love His stuff. To care for His stuff. To find joy in our work as managers.
Part II – the rich man discovers that the manager isn’t doing that great of a job. Now, I doubt you need convincing that we humanoids haven’t been faithful in managing God’s stuff. We spend. Acquire. Hoard. Trade. We wheel and deal. We make our lives comfortable and think very little at how others are put out. And God knows we conquer – nations conquer nations and people conquer people – physically and psychologically. At some point the human race fell – we got lost in the game. We stopped being managers and went into business for ourselves on the false premise that everything belongs to us – that my stuff is my stuff and that success is about your stuff becoming my stuff. Part II is about the manager’s rebellion against the true owner.
Part III – this is the crisis. The rich man confronts the dishonest manager and demands an account. Now, remember – the rich man in the parable is God. And so we need to see how radical this parable is coming from the mouth of Jesus. “In me,” Jesus says, “through me, God is back and He demands an account. The jig is up. That stuff isn’t your stuff; it’s my stuff – what have you done with it?” In other words, in the person of Jesus Christ God has returned; and He demands an account for how we’ve managed his stuff.
Finally, Part IV – the manager is forced to decide; the rich man’s return demands a decision. And as I read the parable what the manager does in reducing the bill is repent – he changes his ways. Commentators point out that in reducing his master’s bill, the manager is actually cutting the interest that he had charged on something that wasn’t even his, which according to Jewish law was prohibited. “Look,” he says, “I know I gave you a bill for a hundred bags of wheat even though you only borrowed eighty. But – it’d be wrong to take twenty bags for myself. After all, that wheat wasn’t mine – it belongs to my master. I shouldn’t have run up the bill.” And so that is why Jesus praises the dishonest manager. In light of his master’s return he acts wisely – he repents and repairs the damage.
Now, that’s the parable – what’s the lesson? Well, Jesus says two things that demand our attention. First, “the children of this age are a lot more shrewd than the children of light.” In other words, when people in our world cheat or act dishonestly and it becomes clear to them that they’re going to get caught – that their master, whoever that is, is coming and that he demands an account; they’re not just going to sit there. They’ll do something. They’ll apologize or make amends or change their ways. But they’re going to do something. The point Jesus is making is this. “God created you to be managers, you’ve acted dishonestly, and guess what – you’ve been caught. The Master knows everything and in Me, right now, He’s here to confront you. Do something! Wake up! Repent! Start playing the game with integrity!”
Second, Jesus explains that repentance means living faithfully now. “If you haven’t been faithful with dishonest wealth,” he says, “can you really be trusted to handle real wealth?” In other words, “Compared to the true riches of the Kingdom of God what you’ve been asked to manage now is paper and cardboard. And so don’t build a life around paper and cardboard. If you can’t be trusted with the little God’s given you, how can you ever be trusted with an inheritance of your own?” And so notice – eternity isn’t just clouds and harps! We were made to be managers. Each of us will have a huge part to play in the Kingdom of God. We’ll be entrusted with true riches. But, there does seem to be an organic connection between who we are in this life and how fit we are to take our place in the next one. And so as you go out into the world this week, please remember – your stuff isn’t your stuff. It’s Gods. We can’t keep it. One day we’re going to die, the game is going to end, and we will be put in a box.
And so make a decision. Decide for yourselves what it means to be faithful with what God’s entrusted to you – with what you have been given to manage. In a couple of years you’ll be making some money. Do not keep it all for yourselves. God’s bottom line isn’t the same as Wall Street’s. In a similar way, each one of us gets 168 hours a week. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that’s your time. No, time is a gift. It belongs to God. Share some of the time you’ve been given with other people, especially the needy, and share an even bigger chunk of that time with God. Some of you are really intelligent, and because of that really powerful. A strong intellect can be used to build up and encourage, or to intimidate people and make you feel superior. What will we do with the stuff God’s given us? Either way, we’ll have to give an account.
Now, like most parables there’s always a twist. In the context of Luke’s Gospel Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where he’ll die on a cross for the sins of the world. Here’s the irony. We humans weren’t just entrusted with God’s stuff. We were entrusted with God. You see in the person of Jesus Christ God became human; He became vulnerable and allowed himself to be mismanaged by his own image-bearers. Our primary sin is not that we squandered God’s property. Our primary sin is that God became human in Jesus Christ and we squandered God. On the cross He was conquered and counted as nothing. I mean, think about that. We killed God and put Him in a box!
The good news of the Christian Gospel is that box couldn’t hold him. Jesus was raised from the dead, and because of that all things are His. As Paul says in Colossians, “all things have been created through him and for him.” Everything belongs to Jesus. Our money. Our time. Our body. Our intellect. What are we going to do with that stuff? Either way, we’ll have to give an account. We can spend, acquire, hoard, trade, wheel and deal, and make our life about acquiring paper. Or, we can live wisely. We can build our lives around things that matter. We start preparing now for that future promotion and become people capable of handling the true riches.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
