Necessarily Complicated

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 1:1-2:4a.

Every year we clergy are called on to preach on one of the hardest to explain doctrines in Christianity: the Trinity. Not only is it difficult to understand, a lot of people, including some Christians, don't see it as necessary. Worse, they see it as a needlessly complicated idea. God is one being but three persons. Why? What good is the Trinity?

Let's tackle the first question. Why do we have the doctrine of the Trinity? You don't find it in the Old Testament, do you? Well, in our reading from Genesis, it says that in addition to God, the Spirit of God is involved in creation. I must disagree with the NRSV's translation that says “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” Yes, the Hebrew word for “spirit” can also mean “wind” or “breath,” depending on context. But I don't know where they got the verb “swept.” The Hebrew word usually means “hover” or “brood,” as in Deuteronomy 32:11 where it is used of an eagle hovering over its young in the nest. The most it means in terms of movement is “flutter” or “tremble,” as Jeremiah describes his bones doing under the weight of the Lord's words. (Jeremiah 23:9) We tend to associate brooding or fluttering with a bird. So the image we get is that of the Spirit of God hovering over creation like a mother bird brooding over her young who are about to hatch. And later at Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit appears as a dove.

The phrases Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord and Holy Spirit appear about 40 times in the Old Testament. These names usually designate the power or presence of God in folks' lives. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon prophets, enabling them to speak God's word. The Spirit of the Lord came upon the judges who led the Israelites before the time of the monarchy. The Spirit of God comes upon Saul, Israel's first king, and upon David, its second king. And as we saw last week, the apostles were empowered to preach the gospel to a diverse audience at Pentecost by the Spirit. We also saw that every Christian receives the Spirit, who gives us gifts to serve Christ and build up his body on earth.

But couldn't this just be two ways of simply referring to God? Well, if you apply it to a human being, you'll see there is a difference. George Lucas literally created Star Wars. He wrote and directed the first film. And you could say the spirit of George Lucas imbued the next two Star Wars films, even though others wrote the scripts, based on his overarching story, and still others directed the second and third films in the original trilogy. So in the second instance you aren't actually talking about Lucas. You are talking about some essence of his creative vision that was still active in what he started. You are talking about Lucas in two different senses. And the Bible speaks as if God and an aspect of God called his Spirit were somehow both distinct and yet intimately connected.

So people saw God in his creation and its order. And they experienced God's Spirit through the abilities and gifts he gave them. And there is another instance where an aspect of God can be seen as a person. In Proverbs 8, God's wisdom speaks as if it were a distinct person. “From eternity I was appointed, from the beginning, from before the world existed. When there were no deep oceans I was born, when there were no springs overflowing with water; before the mountains were set in place—before the hills—I was born, before he made the earth and its fields, or the beginning of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he marked out the horizon over the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep grew strong, when he gave the sea his decree that the waters should not pass over his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him as a master craftsman, and I was his delight day by day...” (Proverbs 8:23-30) So the Wisdom of God is also treated as both an aspect of God and yet as a distinct divine person.

This helped the disciples when they encountered in Jesus someone who was more than a mere prophet. Elijah and Elisha performed 24 miracles between the two of them. The gospels tell us of 37 miracles that Jesus performed. Elijah and Elisha healed a handful of people. Jesus healed multitudes. Elijah resurrected one person, and Elisha two. Jesus resurrected three people that we know of. Plus he walked on water. And fed groups of 5000 and 4000. Still, as the Messiah, Jesus could be seen as a super-prophet. Until he rose to life again after being crucified and buried. So when Jesus said that he and God the Father were one and that anyone who had seen him had seen the Father, his resurrection validated that. Would God resurrect a liar who falsely claimed to be divine?

The idea of the Wisdom of God being spoken of as a person in scripture helped the disciples understand how Jesus could be God. And in fact Paul calls Jesus Christ “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24) Jesus is the power and wisdom of God personified.

So the disciples experienced God as the creator of everything. They experienced God as an intelligent power within them who spoke through them and directed them and gave them power to minister to others. And in Jesus they experienced in human form the God who has mastery over nature, demons, diseases and death. So they knew that the Father was God. They knew that the Son was God. They knew that the Spirit was God. And yet they knew there was one God. The Trinity was not an effort to explain how this could be. It was a way of preserving the paradox of who God is.

But what good does it do us? It helps us think about the different ways that we relate to God. Most people see God as transcendent, as far above us in power and wisdom. A lot of people see God as immanent, working in the world and in humanity. But we can also see God in Jesus, who while divine, has lived and died as one of us but who has been raised to life again and who shares that life, his eternal life, with us. So we can think of the Father as God Above us, the Son as God Beside us, and the Spirit as God Within Us.

Or we can express it this way: the Father is our creator, the one who made us in his image. Jesus is our redeemer, the one who is the very image of God and who saves us from the damage we have done to ourselves, each other, and our relationship with God. The Spirit is our sanctifier, the one who restores the image of God in us.

Or we can use the metaphor Dorothy L. Sayers came up with in her book The Mind of the Maker. She compared the persons of the Trinity to the different aspects of the process of creation. All creative work starts with an idea. Then that idea has to be given a form, as, say, a poem, a book, a work of art or a movie. Finally that idea has to be properly communicated in a way that reaches others. Ideally, you have a good idea, that is perfectly realized in some tangible form and which communicates with people and resonates with them. We can think of the Father as the original idea of God as just and merciful, loving and forgiving, the Son as the incarnation of that idea into the medium of a human being, and the Spirit as the communication of that idea to others.

The Trinity helps us understand the fact that we see in God's creation both diversity and unity. All living things have DNA yet that code can manifest itself in different forms of life. We share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees, 94% of our DNA with dogs, 90% with cats, 80% with cows, 60% with fruit flies and, weirdly, 60% with bananas. We are made of a lot of the same stuff and yet are different. While human beings come in different shapes and shades, all can receive O negative blood, regardless of whether they are O positive, A positive or negative, B positive or negative, or AB positive or negative. We are not alien to each other. There is a shared humanity that underlies our surface differences. This reflects God, in whom there are both distinctions and a shared nature.

And to me, the Trinity makes sense of what we learn in 1 John 4:8, namely, that God is love. It doesn't merely say that God is loving; it says God is love. But true love is not a narcissistic love of oneself but love for another person. For God to be love, there must be more than one person in the Godhead. Therefore, God is the Father loving the Son, who is in turn loving the Father, in the unity of the Spirit of that love. It's a bit like how an intentional group of humans manifests a group personality. Unlike human love, however, the persons of the Triune God are so totally united in love that they act as one.

Which means the image of God in which we are made is love. And we see a hint of that in the 2^nd chapter of Genesis when God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) In other words, we are social creatures. And later it says, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) We are most like God when we act together in love, as a couple, as a family, as a community, or in the coming new creation, as the whole of humanity.

Though the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, it is the church's word for the love relationship that lives at the heart of the universe, that gave birth to creation, that shapes who we are, that fulfills all our desires and that invites us into that eternal love. It makes no sense to reject it because we don't understand it. We don't understand how the 3 pounds of meat in our skull gives us consciousness. And yet we use that consciousness to create poems, stories, art and inventions and interact with other consciousnesses. And we can interact with God even if we do not understand how, on the divine level of existence, three persons can be one being. But rest assured that if we do respond to God, we have an eternity to dive deeper in the paradox of the love who made the stars, the worlds and us.

The Right Spirit

The scriptures referred to are Acts 2:1-21 and 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13.

I am old enough to remember Beatlemania. It wasn't just that people were saying, “Hey! These British guys write and sing well.” Nor was it simply that some young people got obsessed with their music. No, teenagers, especially girls, screamed and grabbed at them and sometimes fainted. The film A Hard Day's Night, which starred the Beatles, captures it perfectly. We see this today in how people regard Taylor Swift or other celebrities. Folks approach people with extraordinary talents with awe and a fervent devotion.

Author Jason Pargen says we treat celebrities as if they were magical or holy. He points to a study which showed that if people were told that a celebrity had worn a particular garment, they were willing to pay enormous amounts of money to own it. But if they were told that it had been laundered after the celebrity had worn it, people were not interested in the item. It was as if the magic had been washed away. This reminds me of how people wanted to touch Jesus or a part of his garment as he walked through a town. Later, during the Middle Ages, among churches and monasteries there arose a passion for collecting relics, things touched by a saint or even a piece of the saint's body. And in 1987, one celebrity tried to buy the remains of another earlier celebrity. Michael Jackson made formal bids to buy the skeleton of Joseph Merrick, the “Elephant Man.” Even celebrities treat celebrities as if they were magical or saints.

One problem is that saints don't get biographies so much as hagiographies, stories of their miracles and holy living. But that's impossible if you try to do that with a celebrity. The movie Michael does not touch on the later accusations made about the singer and children. Similarly the recent movie Elvis does not really touch on his penchant for underage girls (Priscilla was 14 when they started dating) or the depths of his drug addiction. The sole villain in that movie is his manager, Col. Tom Parker, who, to be fair, was a real huckster. But we all know deep down that celebrities are human beings who have flaws, often moral ones, which are exacerbated by their wealth and power. That explains the common arc of a celebrity's story, in which first fans and the media build them up and then, upon discovering they have feet of clay, tear them down.

The problem is that talent and moral integrity are two different things. As we see in the news almost daily, just because you are a good actor or singer or writer or politician, it does not follow that you are also a good person. And if you are not a good person, eventually that will damage your talent and your life and the lives of those around you.

What does this have to do with Pentecost? Pentecost is about the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon his people. And in the early church a lot of folks became more obsessed with the gifts of the Spirit than with his making them better people. That's the reason Paul was addressing the gifts of the Spirit in his first letter to the Corinthians. It seems that everyone in that church wanted the flashier, more impressive gifts. It's like they were chasing the admiration and celebrity of having these gifts, but missing the reason the Spirit gave them and the way they were intended to be used.

So first Paul points out that “No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Spirit.” This is essential because these gifts are not about exalting the person exercising them but about using them to serve Jesus our Lord. As Jesus said of the Spirit, “He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.” (John 16:14) These gifts ultimately come from Jesus and we are to use them for his purposes. That is what the word “holy” means: something set apart for God's purposes. I don't drink my tea or Powerade from the communion chalice. It is set apart for God's purposes, not my own. The gifts of the Spirit are not for our personal uses or glory. Our attitude should not be, “Hey, look what I can do!” But “Hey! Look what God is doing!”

So Paul emphasizes that while there are varieties of gifts, services and activities, they all come from the same Spirit who is both Lord and God. And then he says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” In other words, the Spirit's gifts are for building up the body of Christ and for helping the individual members be a part of what God is doing in the world. It's like a team. Individual members have different skills but they are to bring them together to accomplish their common purpose.

Notice how many names there are in the credits of modern films? That's because you need more than just actors and a camera to make a good movie. You need writers and lighting people and makeup artists and people who make the costumes and people who make the props and people who find the locations and people who wrangle the animals and people who provide the food for everyone and people who record the sound and people who add the sound effects and the gazillion people who do all the visual effects and the people who edit it all together into a coherent movie and the people who raise the money to make the film and a director who oversees it all. They all bring their special talents to the project of making a good film.

But sometimes you will hear about backstage drama. The stars are late or drunk or high or just difficult to work with. Or the director is a tyrant. Or there are artistic or creative differences between the cinematographer and the director or the director and the studio. Some films never get made for these reasons. Some get made but they are not as good as they should be. We have 2 versions of the Justice League film, one by the original director and one by the guy brought in to fix it. If you ask me, neither version is great.

That happens when the people making the film don't have the same vision of what they are making or are not doing it in the proper spirit. The same is true of the church. If people have a different vision of what the church is or who the Spirit is that the church should manifest and reflect, you get a bad version of the church.

Paul uses the metaphor of a body. It is made up of different parts which look different and have different functions but they all belong to the same body and serve the health and vital activities of the body. We are all individual parts of the body of Christ, each with our own gifts. And just like in a human body, you don't want all the parts to be the same but you do want them to work together. Unity does not require uniformity.

There are disorders in which the parts of a human body do not act together. A gene that shouldn't be turned on or off can cause disease. A mutant cell can develop into cancer. An autoimmune disease can turn the immune system against parts of the body. But when the parts of the body work together for the good of the whole, the result is health.

How do we keep the body of Christ healthy? Paul's discussion of spiritual gifts in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians leads right into his glorious peon to love in chapter 13. He prefaces it by saying that, while not everyone has the same gifts, “I will show you a still more excellent way.”

First he says that none of these spiritual gifts means anything if a person does not have love. This love is patient and kind. It is not envious, nor does it brag, nor is the person who has it full of himself. It is not rude or self-serving or easily angered or resentful. It is not happy with injustice but rejoices in the truth. According to the Phillips translation, “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8)

Of course, Paul is not talking about ordinary human love. He is talking about divine love. But where can we find such love? As he says in Romans 5:5, “...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” As Christians, baptized into the body of Christ, we have access to the Spirit who pours out God's love. But we must be careful not to quench the Spirit, refusing to let him work in us. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) One major problem that we see in the church is that people are quenching the Spirit and consequently the love that he pours into our hearts.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul contrasts the qualities that the Spirit produces with the things that unredeemed human nature, which he calls the flesh, produces. “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21) I'm sure you can think of a number of famous people who make a regular practice of such things but nevertheless call themselves Christians.

Paul continues, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Because there is no punctuation in the Greek you could translate this as “...the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” In other words, these are all qualities of the love the Spirit gives us. Certainly they are qualities a loving person should regularly exhibit. They are, as we say today, prosocial. If members of the body of Christ speak and act in these ways, it promotes the health of the church and shows the world what a spiritually healthy community is like.

In Acts 2 we observe the fruit of the Spirit in action. It says, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44-45) Consequently, we are told later, “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:34-35) This was the Spirit of God at work, activating those who had the gift of giving to do so generously, taking care of those in need. (Romans 12:8)

There's a lot of talk of the antichrist these days. The term is only used in 1 and 2 John, and it is not confined to one person. We read, “...you have heard that the antichrist is coming; even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us but they did not really belong to us.” (1 John 2:18-19) Notice not only are there many antichrists but they come out of the church. They are former church members displaying “the spirit of antichrist.” Belief-wise, they deny that Jesus is the incarnate Christ, sent from the Father. (1 John 2:22, 4:3; 2 John 7) Behavior-wise, they do not show the love that the Spirit pours into the hearts of Christians. 1 John says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18) 

But how is this evidence that the person is not a Christian? We read, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) If the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into the hearts of those who are in Christ, those lacking such love do not know the God who is love and who is revealed in Jesus. After all, what is radical about Christianity is Jesus' command to love everyone, even our enemies, and to demonstrate that love by what we do. Over and over, we are told to love one another, not only by Jesus but throughout the New Testament. (John 13:34-35. John 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 4:9; 1 John 3:11, 4:7,11; 2 John 1:5; 1 Peter 1:22) If someone is not at least growing in love for others, how can they say that they are a Christian? Or as it says in 1 John, “If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:19-20)

Paul and Peter called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11), because the Spirit filled Jesus (Luke 4:1, 14) and he enables us to follow Jesus. And the evidence of this is love of God and love of all those created in his image. As Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) People are not stupid. They know that talk is cheap. We must love not only with our lips but with our lives, using our gifts, not to aggrandize ourselves, but for the good of all. That's how everyone will know that we really have the Spirit of Christ within us, and not the spirit of antichrist. 

Is This the End?

The scriptures referred to are Acts 1:6-14 and 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11.

One of the questions that has come up a lot recently is “Are we living in the last days?” In other words, is it the end of the world? Have we seen the rise of the Antichrist? Is Jesus about to return? And I get it. While I am not convinced of the relatively recent idea of the rapture, nor the stuff that Tim La Haye has put into the fictional Left Behind series of books, and while I am fascinated but not persuaded by those wonderfully detailed End Times charts where dispensationalists have cleverly slotted in the various prophecies from all over the Bible into one graphic timeline, I have to admit that there are times where things are so bad I think, “Maybe they are right about this.”

But then I reflect on what it must have felt like during other periods of history. Obviously when the book of Revelation was written it felt like the end of the world for Christians being persecuted. During each of the persecutions we listed in last Sunday's sermon, it would seem like “this is the end and surely Jesus is coming very soon.” And how about the period that started with 536 AD, considered by some historians the worst year ever to be alive because a massive volcanic eruption plunged Europe, the Middle East and even parts of Asia into darkness, causing a temperature drop, crop failures, starvation and paving the way for the plague of Justinian when 10,000 people were dying daily in Constantinople and 1/3 to ½ of the population of the Byzantine Empire were wiped out? Or the Black Death which killed an estimated 25 to 50 million people in just 7 years? More recently, what if you were living in Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War? I could see feeling that Hitler was the Antichrist and that this, the deadliest war ever, killing between 70 and 85 million people, was Armageddon.

And in a sense people experiencing those disasters were right. It was the end of the world—for them. And even for the survivors it was the end of the world as they knew it. But it strikes me that if what the Bible says about such catastrophes only applies to the actual end of the world, it would be of no use to anyone in history except the last generation of humans. Yet the advice that Jesus gives is relevant to any time when things seem to be going very wrong, even if it is not the final chapter of this earth's story. In Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, Jesus gives us some very useful principles to keep in mind during times of disaster and despair.

First of all he says, “But as for that day or hour no one knows it—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son—only the Father.” (Mark 13:32) So even Jesus, during his earthly life, did not know the date or time of the end. This makes me wonder about all those so-called prophets who keep predicting specific days for the end of the world. Do they seriously think they know more than Jesus? Yet Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All of these things are the beginning of birth pains.” (Matthew 24:6-8) Anyone who's had kids knows how long the whole process of birth can take. So we need not get anxious any time one of these preachers predicts the end of the world. Plus all of them have been wrong. Just think of all the ends of the world you have personally lived through.

So Jesus also warns us that “...false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24) Wikipedia has an entire page listing people who claimed to be the messiah and another of people who said they were Jesus. I have met a few of the less well-known ones in my work as a psychiatric nurse and as a jail chaplain. Jesus says that when he returns it will be obvious to everyone. (Matthew 24:30) In the meantime, accept no substitute saviors.

So what should we do in what look like terminally bad times? Jesus said, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other servants their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom the master finds at work when he comes.” (Matthew 24:45-46) In other words, we must care of each other's needs, knowing that what we do even for those the world considers the least important, we do to Jesus. (Matthew 25:31-46) And what else did Jesus command us to do? Love God with all we are and all we have and love our neighbor as we do ourselves. (Mark 12:28-31) That includes loving even our enemies. (Matthew 5:44-45) He also told us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) In other words, we are to do the things that we should already be doing as Christians every day.

Our passage from 1 Peter has some other things we should do especially when facing a “fiery ordeal.” First he says, “Humble yourselves...” Humility is not, as popularly conceived, thinking less of yourself. It is having a realistic appraisal of your strengths and your weaknesses. What are the gifts and talents you have been given? What are the skills you have acquired and developed? It is not arrogant to know you are good at certain things. It is arrogant to think you are good at everything, or that you know more than the experts, or that you don't need anyone else's help or advice. It is arrogant to act as if you don't have flaws or weaknesses. So being humble is knowing what you are good at and what you suck at and asking others for help when you need it. When you are facing a hard time, you need to be realistic about your ability to deal with such things, or else that experience can break you. One of the functions that we have as members of the body of Christ is to help one another. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)

Next we are told, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” Anxiety is largely about dealing with uncertainty. Not knowing what will happen next is hard on us. It's what makes people follow someone who is arrogant and says he knows it all and is the only one who can fix everything. But we are not to do that. As the psalmist says, “Do not trust in princes, or in human beings, who cannot deliver! Their life's breath departs, they return to the ground; on that day their plans die.” (Psalm 146:3-4)

There are good human leaders and bad ones, but even the best are flawed. Which is why we put our trust in the God who is love revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus knows what it's like to be human. He dealt with a family who did not believe him, a friend who betrayed him, and others who abandoned him. When he faced a painful ordeal that he knew would end in death, we are told that he “became anguished and distressed. Then he said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death...'” (Matthew 26:37-38) We can go to Jesus because he understands what we are going through. As it says in Hebrews, “For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way just as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

So when things get so bad you can't think straight, go to Jesus and say, “Lord, I cannot function this way. Take these anxieties off of me, so I can do what I need to. Give me that peace which passes all understanding, which can only come from you. Give me what I need this day to deal with this problem. And give me a sense of your presence. I know you are with me and in me and will never leave or forsake me. I know this in my head; let me feel it in my heart.” Again, you can cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.

Next we are told, “Discipline yourself.” Actually the Greek word here literally means “be sober.” In this context it means to be sober-minded, to be sensible, free from illusions or intoxicating passions. It means keeping your wits about you, having self-control and making clear judgments. Don't be irrational or let yourself get carried away. Casting our anxieties on Jesus helps us clear our minds so we can be calm and alert.

Because when you are not thinking clearly, when your emotions overwhelm your ability to make good decisions, that's when your adversary can trick you and trip you up. That's when evil in the form of giving in to temptation can devour you or cause you to let yourself be eaten up by worries and despair.

So we are told to resist or withstand the evil one. We are to stand firm rooted in our faith in God. We are to remember that we are not alone. We have brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world who are also suffering. We need to support each other in prayer and in any actions we can take.

What I particularly love about today's passage is how it ends. “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen and establish you.”

God will restore you. The Greek word means to perfectly mend, to prepare, to equip and to make complete. At present we feel that we are lacking, that we are not quite who we should be, that we are not complete. God will fix that. God will restore us to the people we were meant to be, the people he created us to be. He will support you. He will strengthen you. He will establish you. In other words, he will ground you. He will give you a firm foundation on which to stand.

I have on my desk at the jail a coaster that is patterned after the slogan “Keep calm and carry on,” which was developed in Britain during the time that Nazis were bombing their cities. My coaster says, “Keep calm and trust God.” And that's a good summary of how we should face the ordeals and uncertainties of this time or any time when everything seems to be falling apart. Don't panic. Don't fall for fake messiahs and false prophets. Don't put your trust in princes. Don't give in to temptation or to despair. Let Jesus take your anxieties so you can think clearly and do what Jesus told us to do: love others, not just with our words but with our actions. Proclaim the good news. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Stand in solidarity with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember this is very likely not the end of the world.

But even if it is the end of the world as you know it, it is not the end of your story. Know that, as our passage says, “the Spirit of God is resting on you.” He is with you and will never leave or forsake you. So whatever is awaiting you, he will accompany you. And when at last this chapter of your life in this world is over, it will just be the beginning of the real story of your life in Christ, in which all things will be made new, including you, and you will find completeness in his kingdom and in his everlasting arms.

Persecution Complex

The scriptures referred to are 1 Peter 3:13-22.

There is something certain Christians in America do that really bothers me. They act as if they are persecuted by society at large. And that's an insult to our fellow Christians who live in countries where they really are persecuted, like North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iran. In Eritrea, Christians have been arrested and detained for lengthy periods, sometimes in shipping containers. In Pakistan, strict blasphemy laws are used to imprison and execute Christians. In China, Christians can be arrested and detained for meeting in unauthorized gatherings or for not hewing to the state-sanctioned ideology. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to convert from Islam to another faith, resulting in detention and deportation. From 2014 to 2017, ISIS militants were literally crucifying Christians. While in this country we cry persecution if someone asks us to make a gay wedding cake or says, “Happy holidays.”

The first Christians really were persecuted. Last week we read about Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The book of Acts also reports the execution of James, the brother of John, as well as the many imprisonments of Peter and Paul. In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gives us a brutal list of how he has suffered for the faith, which includes being given 39 lashes on 5 occasions, being beaten with a rod 3 times and being stoned once. (2 Corinthians 11:24-25) That stoning ended with him being left for dead. (Acts 14:19-20) Now none of these were empire-wide persecutions. There were local persecutions, sometimes by government officials and sometimes by mobs.

Though the emperor Claudius expelled all Christians and Jews from the city of Rome around 49 AD, the first official persecution of Christians alone took place under Nero. In 64 AD a great fire burned 10 of Rome's 14 districts, about 2/3s of the city. Citizens were suspicious because the fire spared Nero's property, as well as that of a friend. And while half the population of Rome were left homeless, the emperor went and built on the ruins a huge personal residence called the Domus Aurea or Golden House. Because of the rumors that Nero started the fire, he chose to make scapegoats of the Christians. Some were torn apart by dogs for the entertainment of spectators, some were crucified and some were set on fire to illuminate Nero's gardens. According to tradition, Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside down.

Our next documented persecution happened about 110 AD. Pliny the Younger, the governor of Bithynia and Pontus, wrote to the emperor Trajan for advice on what to do with Christians. He said he had been trying suspected Christians on the basis of anonymous accusations. He gave the accused 3 opportunities to renounce the Christian faith, pray to the Roman gods instead, offer wine and incense to the images of Trajan and the gods and finally curse Christ. If they didn't recant, they were executed. He also had 2 female slaves who were deacons tortured for information.

Pliny saw the Christians as just another fraternity or club which Trajan had banned as centers of discontent. Yet Pliny does give us some insight into Christian practice. He says they meet on a certain day before dawn and sing hymns to Christ as to a god. They bind themselves with an oath not to commit crimes like fraud, theft or adultery. Then they share a meal of “ordinary and innocent food.” Nevertheless, he sees Christianity as a “depraved, excessive superstition” which is spreading not only in the cities but in rural villages. Trajan basically approved of Pliny's measures but said that Pliny should not seek out Christians to try and that he should not consider anonymous accusations.

Still this was a local matter. It wasn't until around 250 AD that the emperor Decius began an empire-wide persecution of Christians. He issued an edict that all inhabitants of the empire were required to make sacrifices to the Roman gods and get a certificate saying that they complied. Anyone who refused to do so by a specified date risked being tortured and executed. Bishops and church members were targeted. The bishop of Rome at the time, Pope Fabian, was one of those who refused to comply and was killed. The persecution lasted 18 months, until Decius died in battle.

The last great persecution of Christians by a Roman emperor took place under Diocletian in 303 AD. Originally Diocetian simply wanted to forbid Christians from entering the government bureaucracy and the military. His co-emperor Galerius argued for extermination. Diocletian gave in and then ordered that all copies of Christian scriptures be burned, their places of worship be destroyed and their assemblies be forbidden. He had the tongue removed from a deacon in his court and another Christian in his palace was scourged, had salt and vinegar poured into his wounds and then was boiled alive. This persecution lasted 10 years until his successor Constantine became emperor and Christianity was declared legal.

So no matter how bad someone thinks Christians have it in this country, things are not that terrible. We still have the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress not only from establishing any religion as the official one but also forbids preventing people from practicing their own religions. In fact, what we really seem to be seeing is Christians getting ostracized by other so-called Christians, usually over their political views. David French, a constitutional lawyer, professor, columnist, and veteran, who is by no means a liberal, has nevertheless left his Presbyterian church due to intense personal attacks and hostility by his congregation for his stand against Christian Nationalism. He is not the only Evangelical Christian to find himself effectively excommunicated by other Evangelicals, not for theological heresy, but for insufficient loyalty to certain political policies and politicians. Fortunately, there are churches that do not act this way. Yet, even on the left, there are issues which must not be questioned. Both sides have sacred cows that cannot be sacrificed for any reason.

So how should we deal with this state of affairs, where being a Christian is not yet a capital offense but not being a specific type of Christian can cause you problems?

Today's passage from 1 Peter is very instructive. While addressed to the Christians in Bithynia and Pontus, this letter was written before they were governed by Pliny the Younger. Yet the social cost of being a Christian was high enough that the letter is addressed to “God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout” the region. (1 Peter 1:1) This letter may have been modeled on similar ones sent to the Diaspora of Jews in the empire. Like Paul's letter to the Romans, it calls for Christians to submit to the authorities. (1 Peter 2:13-14; cf. Romans 13:1-7) So obviously these letters were written before Peter and Paul were martyred by Nero. At this point in time Christians were considered just another branch of Judaism, much like the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. To see how things looked after Christianity was recognized as a separate religion and it became dangerous to be a Christian, read the book of Revelation.

So 1 Peter tells us that we need not be worried about being harmed if we do what is good. Yet it acknowledges that it is possible to suffer for doing what is right. After all, that is what happened to Jesus. And Jesus is our model for how to behave.

So first we are told “Do not fear what they fear.” What does that mean? What do people who harm others for doing what is right fear? They fear exposure of the wrongs they have done. They fear other people taking the side of those who do right. And they might fear being seen as bullies for picking on those who do no harm. The ancient historian Tacitus, who saw Christianity as a source of abominations, nevertheless thought that what Nero did to Christians engendered a feeling of compassion for them, because it was done, as he said, not for the public good, but to satisfy one man's cruelty.

Next we are told “do not be intimidated, but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” If we believe that Jesus is the Lord of all and trust in him, we need not back down in fear. As it says in 1 John, “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) And as it says in Psalm 118, “The Lord is on my side, I am not afraid! What can people do to me?” (Psalm 118:6) Well, they can kill you. Yet the apostles, most of whom were martyred, did not let that risk stop them. They knew Jesus had conquered death. As Paul wrote from prison, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) In other words, living meant serving Jesus and dying meant Paul would be with him. If you do not fear death, you can do anything.

Then we read, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.” The Greek word for “defense” is apologia from which we get the term “apologetics.” This is the discipline of defending the faith. Unfortunately some Christians have taken it to mean things like trying to argue that Genesis 1 is a scientific account of the origin of the universe. But besides the fact that Genesis precedes anything resembling science by centuries, that isn't the purpose of the Bible. It isn't offering answers about how the universe works; it's about why we are here, why we have inherent worth and why we should trust God. The purpose of the scriptures is to help us get closer to God.

I prefer the kind of apologetics practiced by C.S. Lewis. During the Second World War, when Nazism showed what happens when folks completely disregard Jesus' teachings or twist them into a grotesque parody of Christian values, he wrote Mere Christianity. Sticking to the basics, he showed that Christianity makes sense. In fact it makes more sense than other ways of viewing the world.

I agree with Lewis that in defending the faith it behooves us to stick to the essentials, most of which are laid out in today's passage. The essentials are all about Jesus: who he is, what he has done for us, what he is doing in us and what our response should be.

Who is he? Our passage says clearly that Jesus Christ is the Lord, who is at God's right hand and that all angels, authorities and powers are subject to him.

What has he done for us? Though he is the Lord, he “suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” He died to save us from the mess we have made of ourselves and the world. But he is not merely another martyr for a cause. He didn't stay dead. The “resurrection of Jesus Christ” shows his triumph over death and validates that what he taught is true.

What is he doing in us? 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 2 says that Christians “have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ...” In other words, the Spirit is making us holy and setting us apart for God's purposes. The Spirit is making us more Christlike, more like Jesus, who is the perfect image of God, the image into which we were created. We have marred that image to the extent that it can be hard to see God in us. The Spirit, who dwells in the believer, is in the process of remedying that. God is remaking us to who he created us to be, just as he will one day create a new heaven and a new earth for his new creations in Christ, where he will dwell with us and wipe away our tears. Right now we are in the midst of that process of becoming like Jesus. It's rather like rehab or the physical therapy I had to do to learn to walk again. We are learning to walk with Jesus.

How should we respond? As it says in our passage, “Maintain a good conscience so that, when you are maligned, those who oppose you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.” This reminds me of how people leading non-violent protests, like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, showed how unreasonable and cruel their opponents were and how they essentially shamed the government into changing its policies. In the second chapter of this letter, it says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12, NIV) Doing the right thing and showing mercy will do a better job of bringing people to Jesus than being loud and obnoxious. Remember we are told to defend our hope “with gentleness and respect.” As this letter says just before our reading, “Finally, all of you, be harmonious, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate, and be humble. Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 2:8-9) In other words, if you do face opposition or even persecution, be like Jesus. In fact in everything, be like Jesus. That's the whole point of being a Christian.

Who is God?

The scriptures referred to are Acts 7:55-60 and John 14:1-14.

There are more than 31,000 verses in the Bible. And in the liturgical churches we read from a lectionary, a selection of 4 passages to be read on each Sunday of the year. It takes 3 years to go through them all. And while the Sunday readings do not include every passage in the Bible, they do include all of the essential and important ones. And yet some weeks I look at the readings, and I find nothing in them that I haven't already preached on many times in the quarter of a century that I have been doing this.

Then there are Sundays like this one. I have several juicy passages I can preach on but there are too many themes in them to make into one coherent sermon. This is especially true of our passage from John's gospel. This is Jesus' last chance to talk to his disciples before he is arrested. If you include his final prayer, his speech covers 5 chapters! It's like he is trying to remind them of everything he can think of that they will need to get through the next few horrible days of his conviction, crucifixion, burial and an awful Sabbath in which they must think of what they did and didn't do to him, and their hopes will seem as dead as their leader.

But while there are several verses on which I could preach an entire sermon, there is a theme that runs through this section of what could be thought of as Jesus' farewell address. It is this: that, as Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Later, in chapter 17, Jesus, in praying for his followers, asks “that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me.” (John 17:22-23) That is why at the beginning of today's gospel reading Jesus says, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” Because, as he says later, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus is not merely a prophet. He is not merely a godly person. He is God in human form. He is God living a human life and dying a human death. You want to know what God is really like? Look at Jesus.

You may have, like I did as a child, thought of God as Someone who is remote from human life and who is usually unhappy with us. Especially in the Old Testament, God seems to be angry a lot. Human beings are always doing the wrong things and God is always upset over this state of affairs. Then there are things like the flood, the fire and brimstone that destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the exiles of both Israel and Judah. Bad things happen to people as a consequence of their choices and actions. But sometimes good people like Job also suffer. The Bible does not shy away from the fact that life is not always pleasant. And a lot of people come away from these disturbing stories with the idea that God is not a pleasant person. In fact, surveys find that how people feel about God is a more important factor in whether they believe in God or not than any rational or scientific arguments for or against God's existence. As C.S. Lewis said of his time as an atheist, he did not believe that God existed and he was very angry with God about that. It is rare to find an atheist who has anything good to say about God.

Part of that is because so many Christians have emphasized passages about judgment more than other aspects of what God does. Yet by my personal count, the word “good” appears 720 times in the Bible while “evil” appears 613 times. The word “love” in all its forms appears 518 times, whereas “hate” only appears 184 times. “Mercy” appears 360 times, “forgive” 223 times and “healing” 139 times. The Bible is more about goodness than evil, but just like rubberneckers at a traffic accident, we are more interested in the bad stuff. For instance, if you watch the news or listen to politicians you would think that crime is on the rise. In fact it has been dropping steadily for decades. But stories of people doing horrible things are the subject of more movies, TV shows, books and podcasts than stories of people helping others. And that same morbid fascination with what frightens and angers us applies to how a lot of people look at God and the Bible.

Yes, God does not like it when we do bad things. No loving parent does. If your son hits your daughter, you do not remain neutral. If he does not show remorse, he gets punished. In fact, I found myself more sympathetic to God in parts of the Old Testament after I had kids. You love your kids but there are times when you do not like what they are doing. God is trying to raise a people who will reflect his goodness to the world but, as it says in Isaiah, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourself clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:15-17) Later in Isaiah God explains why he does not respond to their religious fasts: “On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You can not fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.” (Isaiah 58:3-4) God is not being unreasonable. You can't do bad things to others and expect the God who made them to ignore that and do good things for you.

Still a lot of people think God is more interested in folks attending church, saying prayers, doing religious rituals and wearing or displaying symbols of their faith than in what they do in everyday life. But that's not true. There's a reason why Jesus, when asked for the greatest commandment, which is loving God, threw in a second, which is loving others. If you truly love God, you will love those he created in his image.

The Old Testament is about God trying to get his people to understand that they need to clearly reflect what kind of God he is to the other nations. They keep failing. But he doesn't give up. He will still bless the whole world through his people. In the New Testament we see God enter the world through his Anointed, which is the meaning of Christ or Messiah. Jesus shows God's people how to live according to the laws of love. He prioritizes people's needs over pious scruples. So he heals the sick on the Sabbath. He touches lepers and bleeding women and dead bodies without worrying about the fact that it renders him ritually unclean. He lets his hungry disciples pick and eat grain on the Sabbath, though that is a technical violation of the prohibition against work. He teaches women, though that was a scandalous thing to do in his day. In the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus wrote, “The words of the Torah should be burned rather than entrusted to women.” And a lot of rabbis agreed with him that a woman's wisdom was confined to her domestic chores. But not Jesus. As Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) In Jesus we are all equal.

And if Jesus is God the Son, the perfect image of who God is, then, as he tells Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Again if you want to know what God is really like, then look at Jesus. Furthermore he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” What does he mean by that?

First of all, Jesus is not only God, he is the way to God. You don't need a magical object or rituals or words to reach God. You don't need to pray to a particular saint or go on a pilgrimage to a specific shrine or holy place. You can go directly to Jesus. As Paul writes, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and humans, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God's purpose at his appointed time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6) When you go to Jesus, you are not dealing with God's representative or a lesser being; you are dealing with God himself.

Secondly, Jesus is the truth about God. People have a lot of ideas about God. He's a cosmic killjoy, or a hanging judge, or a sadist who enjoys throwing people into hell, or a passive watcher of our antics, or the indifferent creator who made the world rather like a watchmaker might make a watch, wind it up and leave to let it run by itself until it runs down. But in Jesus we see the truth about God. Yes, he is just and does not condone sin. But he is also loving, merciful and forgiving. As he says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17) Jesus is on a rescue mission. He did not come to wipe out the bad guys like the good guys do in our pop culture. He is here to turn the bad guys into good guys.

And that includes all of us. As Paul wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Why did he say that? Because he is that same Saul at whose feet people laid their cloaks before stoning the deacon Stephen. And in the sentence that follows our reading in Acts, we are told, “And Saul agreed completely with killing him.” (Acts 8:1) Two verses after that it says, “But Saul was trying to destroy the church. Entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:3) In the next chapter, we read, “Meanwhile, Saul, still breathing out threats to murder the Lord's disciples, went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1-2) It was on that trip to kill more Christians that the risen Jesus appears to Saul and commissions him to spread the gospel and not stamp it out. Saul changes his name to Paul, which means “small,” and he does what Jesus says, often ending up in prison himself and finally dying for his faith. It is because of his murderous rampage before his conversion that Paul says that he is the worst of sinners. And because Jesus transformed him from a warrior to a witness of the good news, Paul realizes that it is God's grace, his undeserved and unreserved goodness to us, that saves us. Paul saw that the truth about God is found in Jesus, namely, that “He is the image of the invisible God...” and that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son.” (Colossians 1:15, 19)

Thirdly, Jesus is the life God gives. As the living Word of God, he was in the beginning when God created life. (John 1:1-2) In the 1^st chapter of John's gospel we are told, “All things were created by him and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:3-4) Yet when he came to earth as one of us, what did we do? As Peter says, “You killed the Originator of life...” (Acts 3:15) We are the ones who are bloodthirsty, who want to eliminate those who upset the status quo, not God. But Peter reminds us that God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is still the source of life. But now it is his life, eternal life, that he gives to all who come to him, trusting in his goodness and in his word. And when we come to God through Jesus, it is forever. He will never leave or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) Even death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39)

Jesus is the way to God, the truth about God and the life of God. Which means that when we are in him and he is in us, we are the body of Christ on earth. And so Jesus says, “the one who trusts in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these...” How is that possible? Because there are many of us. Christians live all over the earth, in every nation, even those where it is dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. Christians have built schools and hospitals. They have brought knowledge and healing to every corner of the world. They have made peace between peoples. They run food pantries and homeless shelters. They have stood up for the oppressed. They hid Jews during the Holocaust. They helped people escape slavery through the Underground Railroad. They advocated for the end of slavery. As the body of Christ on earth, they have taken up Jesus' mission which he stated in the words of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

And to help us do that Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son.” He will give us whatever we need to fulfill his mission to spread the good news of the God who is love, not only with our lips but with our lives. Notice that Jesus does not say he will give us whatever we desire but what we ask in his name so that God will be glorified. The chief thing that Jesus did to glorify God was to lay down his life for us. (John 17:1) We glorify him by bearing much fruit. (John 15:8) And that fruit is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) We glorify God by being like Jesus. And we can only be like him by having his Spirit in us and doing the things Jesus would do: help, not harm; teach truth, not lies; feed the hungry, not cut them off; visit the prisoners, not write them off; heal the sick, not neglect them; welcome the stranger, not imprison him; save lives, not take them; make peace, not war.

If people have gotten the wrong ideas about God, it's because we have been displaying a distorted image of him. We need to look at Jesus and adjust the image of God in our minds so that it reflects him. And then we need to use our lives to reflect that image to others, so that they will turn to Jesus and find him to be the way, the truth and the life.

Job Description of a Shepherd

The scriptures referred to are Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25 and John 10:1-10.

In 43 BC the ancient Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro wrote “dog does not eat dog.” So when did that sentiment get reversed into “It's a dog eat dog world”? Apparently in 1735 when a newspaper commented on a case of a lawyer getting thrown into prison for robbing a fellow lawyer. The Grub-Street Journal remarked, “What! Dog eat dog!” Within a few decades, the phrase was used to describe ruthless business practices. And it has come to mean the merciless competition we see in many aspects of society. “Dog eat dog” is a popular way of describing a world that seems devoid of compassion.

Ironically, the world in which the Roman scholar observed the fact that dogs do not cannibalize each other was a world in short supply of compassion and mercy, at least towards those who were not well-off, like the poor, the enslaved, and the disabled. It was a world that celebrated the fortunate and victorious. It was a world which historian Robert Garfield describes as being without a social conscience.

It is into this cruel world that the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ was introduced. And we see in our passage from the book of Acts that the community of followers of Jesus looked quite different from the empire it was part of. Now, to be sure, Jewish values were also different from those of the Romans. God has always been especially concerned with the poor, the disabled, the resident alien, the widow and the fatherless. They are mentioned literally hundreds of times in the Bible. The prophets pointed to the injustices inflicted on the unfortunate as the reason for God's judgment on his people. Synagogues had a position for folks who would collect money weekly to distribute to the poor in the congregation. These may very well have been the forerunners of Christian deacons, which, according to Acts 6, were originally ordained to make sure the widows in the church were treated fairly in the daily distribution of food.

Today we read that “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44-45) Small wonder that they had “the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (v.47)

So one of the earliest Christian practices, right up there with “devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers,” was helping one another, especially those who were in need. Showing compassion for others was not a weird side-effect but an essential expression of following Jesus, the God who is Divine Love Incarnate. It is disturbing, therefore, that today there are churches who think that helping the poor, the sick, the imprisoned or the foreigner are not core concerns for the Christian nation that they proclaim we are. Yet this passage comes right after Pentecost, the birthday of the church. It is not a late or aberrant development in the history of Christianity. It is a feature, not a bug, of following Jesus.

This is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The other readings explicitly mention God and Jesus as our shepherd. Why was this passage from Acts included? Because shepherd is not merely a title but a job with specific functions, which are spelled out in our psalm and our gospel reading. And as Christians, we are supposed to be in the process of becoming Christlike. So let's look at the things a good shepherd does.

In Psalm 23, we are told right off the bat that because the Lord is our shepherd, we do not want for anything. He supplies our needs. By the way, in English the word “lord” comes from an Old English word meaning “loaf-ward” or “bread-keeper.” And “lady” came from the word for “loaf-kneader” or “bread-maker.” It is interesting that when the Bible was translated into English, they decided to translate kurios, the Greek word for “master,” as “lord,” the person who guards and gives people their bread. Perhaps they did so because the Lord God provides for his people. As stewards of his gifts, so should we. (1 Peter 4:10)

The next verses show how the “Lord makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.” Sheep eat green grass and need water that is not rushing and will not sweep them downstream. A spring or pond is best. In other words, God gives us rest, food and water. Again, as his disciples, we follow his example in providing these things. (Isaiah 58:7)

We are told “You restore my soul, O Lord...” The Hebrew word translated “soul” here, nephesh, also means “life” or “self.” God restores our life and restores us to ourselves. So this is about spiritual and psychological refreshment. God keeps us sane and restores us to the people he created us to be. As recipients of his grace, we convey that refreshment and restoration to others. (Proverbs 11:25)

Next we are told that the Lord guides us “along right pathways for your name's sake.” Sheep can get lost. I saw a video of one who had been lost and living on a mountain for years. When he was finally caught and brought back, his wool had grown so much he was buried under the stuff and could hardly see. After being sheared, he looked a lot happier and healthier, not to mention lighter. It would have been better for him had he followed his shepherd along the right path to good pasture and then back home where he could be properly cared for. He wouldn't have been living blind and burdened. As we follow Jesus, we should also guide the lost to the right pathways. (Psalm 51:12-13)

Then we read, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are with me.” In a valley you are hemmed in on both sides and there is usually one way in and one way out. It can be scary because your options for escape from danger are limited. In addition, late in the day a valley is largely in shadows and so predators might be stalking you under cover of darkness. So the presence of the shepherd is reassuring. And we need to remind people of God's reassuring presence.

“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” The rod was a club, worn in the shepherd's belt. The staff was for walking as well as guiding and controlling the sheep, which is why it is pictured as having a curve or crook at one end. You could use it to pull a sheep out of a crevice. But it could also be used as a weapon. These things are comforting because they remind us that the shepherd protects the flock. We must remember that we are here to protect people from predators; we are not to protect predators from consequences. (Isaiah 1:17)

Obviously predators are attracted to prey and will follow them or hang around places where they are likely to be when feeding. Nevertheless, the protective shepherd is able to prepare a table, so to speak, in the presence of the flocks' enemies. They can eat safely, knowing that the shepherd is keeping watch over them.

Now at this point in the psalm a second metaphor is being brought in. It uses language that seems to describe a banquet being held to broker a peace. Treaties and covenants were often concluded with a shared meal, which is part of the meaning of the Eucharist or Communion. In the Ancient Near East, when you eat with someone it indicates that you are at peace with them. You are no longer enemies but friends. The worst thing you could do is harm someone who gave you hospitality. The most egregious example of this is Judas, who was sitting in the place of honor at the last supper and accepted a sop of bread from Jesus, only to leave and betray him to his enemies. (John 13:24-30) We too must not betray Jesus but act as peacemakers, turning enemies into friends. (Matthew 5:9)

“You anoint my head with oil...” This was done for a guest at a meal. (Luke 7:46) But oil was also used in dressing wounds (Luke 10:34), something a shepherd would do for his sheep. Every night, when bringing them back to the fold, he would act as the gate, stopping each sheep with his staff and examining them for cuts and scratches and giving them first aid. This is probably what Jesus means when he says that he is the gate. (John 10:9) As Jesus healed others, we are to help heal people who are wounded. (James 5:16)

“My cup is running over.” The Lord is a generous host. He will not let his guests and friends go thirsty. Jesus literally did this at the wedding at Cana, though he was not the host. (John 2:1-10) We are also to be generous and not close-fisted. (Deuteronomy 15:7-8)

The psalm concludes with the knowledge that God's goodness and mercy will also never run out and the psalmist wishes to never leave God's temple.

Contrast this picture of the good shepherd with the warnings Jesus makes about those who are not legitimate shepherds but thieves and bandits. They come to steal, kill and destroy. And sadly, we have seen those who have presented themselves as shepherds of God's people, only to use it as an opportunity to enrich themselves personally. We have seen them destroy the credibility of the church through their actions. In some cases, like Jim Jones and David Koresh, they have killed and caused the deaths of those they were supposedly shepherding. Destroying your flock is not part of the job.

Just because someone appears to be a shepherd it doesn't mean he or she really is. As Jesus said, “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-16) In other words, what they actually produce gives them away. Are they supplying the needs of their people? Are they providing the opportunity for rest, refreshment and restoration? Do they provide protection and peace? Do they take care of those who need help regaining their health? Or is their goodness and mercy limited instead? Would you want to live with them forever?

Raising sheep was so widespread in the Ancient Near East that kings loved to liken themselves to shepherds. It was a symbol of how they were not merely strong but also offered tender care to their people. These days it seems like some leaders are only interested in looking strong, as if that was the only requirement for leadership. Other essential qualities like wisdom and compassion are seen as weak. But when you think of Jesus, do you immediately think of might or of compassion? He did not fight his enemies. He let them look as if they were winning. To save his sheep, he was willing to lay down his life. That's what defined him as the good shepherd. (John 10:14-15) He was willing to go that far to save us from our own distorted and messed up ways of living. That's why the cross is the symbol of Christianity. Jesus loves us enough to die for us. His self-sacrificial love is what sets him apart from other leaders and other gods.

And, if as his disciples we are to be Christlike, then we must also, like him, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow in his footsteps. (Luke 9:23) As it says in 1 John, “This is how we have come to know what love is: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for each other.” (1 John 3:16) But is that the first thing you think of when you hear the word Christians? What do you suppose is the first thing that comes to mind when the world thinks of the church? Self-sacrifice? Compassion? Helping the destitute, the despairing, the disabled and the despised, no matter what the cost is to us?

If not, why not? And what should we do about that? 

Gods and Kings

The idea that the king is a god was pretty much universal in the ancient world. Monarchs were seen either as deities, descendants of the gods, or as their divinely appointed representatives. The first Mesopotamian ruler to declare himself to be divine was Naram-Sin of Akkad. Ruling sometime in the 23^rd century BC, he referred to himself as the husband/warrior of the goddess Ishtar. Even before that, Egyptian pharaohs were seen as incarnations of either Horus, the war and sky god, or Re, the sun god. Mayan kings were supposedly possessed by gods. Kings were also regarded as sacred in Polynesia, Africa and, until the end of World War 2, even Japan.

In Jesus' day, the Roman emperor wasn't considered a god until he died. That changed with Caligula. Yet even before him, people worshiped the genius or divine spirit that accompanied the emperor from his birth to his death. The Jews refused to do this, of course, and Rome, realizing that monotheism was essential to Judaism, got them to agree to pray to Yahweh for the emperor. But elsewhere, the emperor was treated as a god for all practical purposes. The Senate could not oppose him and the Roman Republic was no more. The emperor had absolute power over everyone's lives.

That was the main reason why Christians were persecuted. By declaring Jesus Christ to be Lord of all and King of kings, Christianity was saying that neither the emperor, or any earthly ruler, had ultimate power. There was Someone over them to whom even they ought to swear allegiance. So beginning with Nero, it became dangerous to proclaim that Jesus was the unique Son of God. Because it meant he had the last word on what was right and what was wrong, regardless of what any earthly authority said was legal.

Ancient Israel, however, did not always have a king. When the tribes were attacked, God called a person, male or female, to be their leader. (Judges 4:4-6) These were called judges. But eventually the people approach the aging Samuel, then the current judge, and say, “Appoint over us a king to lead us, just like all the other nations.” (1 Samuel 8:5) Samuel is upset and prays to God. The Lord says to him, “Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected but it is me that they have rejected as their king. Just as they have done from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and have served other gods. This is what they are also doing to you. So now do as they say. But seriously warn them and make them aware of the policies of the king who will rule over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7-9) And Samuel warns them that by giving one human being such power he will conscript their sons into his army, make their daughters work for him, and take their best fields, vineyards, servants and animals for himself and for his administrators.

God had anticipated that the people would want a king before they even entered the land of Canaan. In Deuteronomy 17, God sets some limits over how a king should act. He should not accumulate horses for himself. He must not marry many wives or acquire a lot of gold and silver. He must write down God's law, keep it with him and study it all his life. And finally he should not “exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or to the left...” (Deuteronomy 17:16-20)

That kind of king is not a god but a godly person, knowing and obeying what God requires from us all. Like not having any gods other than the Lord, not creating any images to be worshiped, not misusing God's name, setting apart the Sabbath as a holy day, honoring one's parents, not committing murder, not committing adultery, not stealing, not giving false testimony against others, and not desiring what someone else has. A ruler who breaks these 10 commandments is not a godly person. When David committed both adultery and murder, God told him through Nathan the prophet that it would bring disaster upon him and his household. (2 Samuel 12:9-10) Again the king is not a law unto himself but must follow God's law, even in his personal life.

After Christianity had become a legal religion, the problem for all the subsequent kings and emperors was that now they had to admit that there was in fact an authority higher than them. So they tried to tame Christianity. They made it the only legal religion so they could restore it to the role that religions had before Jesus: to bless the status quo. They made the church an arm of the state. Some rulers, like King James 1, claimed the divine right of kings, which meant their authority came directly from God, and thus they could not be held accountable to any earthly authority, like, say, Parliament or some other elected body of mere men. Or those clergy who preached against them.

Such rulers leaned into the part of Romans 13 that says, “Let every person be subject to the authorities over him. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore the one resisting the authority has resisted the arrangement of God; those resisting will now bring upon themselves judgment.” (Romans 13:1-2) But rulers ignore the verse that follows, which says, “for he is God's servant for your good.” (Romans 13:4) If they don't do that with their authority, they aren't fulfilling their purpose. Didn't God, in spelling out how kings should behave, warn the people that such a powerful person is likely to do things that are not good for them? Aren't there numerous examples of kings of Israel and Judah who did what was evil in God's sight? And didn't God's prophets point that out, even at the risk to their own lives?

What God arranged was not a person but a position of leadership. Order is preferable to chaos. But if the person in a position of leadership is not good or wise, if what he or she is doing is evil, like Queen Jezebel of Israel who killed God's prophets (1 Kings 18:4) or King Manasseh of Judah who worshiped other gods and killed innocent people, God will not support them. (2 Kings 21:1-16) King Herod Agrippa had James the brother of John executed and Peter imprisoned. When he accepted the people's praise for having the voice of a god and did not give glory to the Lord, he was struck down by a deadly illness. (Acts 12:1-4, 21-23) When the Sanhedrin, the council that had the authority over the Jews in Jerusalem, gave the apostles strict orders not to teach in Jesus' name, Peter and the Twelve replied, “We must obey God rather than people.” (Acts 5:27-29) Having authority isn't a blank check or permission to do what you will, no matter how evil. After all, we rightfully see those who disobeyed Hitler, the legally appointed chancellor of Germany, as heroes. Christians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth spoke out prophetically against the Nazis, who were the official party of the government.

In the countries where Christianity has come to be accepted, few political leaders have dared to declare themselves to be God. However, cult leaders have. And Jesus knew this would happen. He said, “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24) And, of course, it is especially dangerous if a political leader is also the leader of a cult, and accepts the title of Messiah or God. Paul foresees one whom he calls the “man of lawlessness” who will set himself up as God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) He could have been speaking about an emperor such as Nero. But as someone said, while history may not exactly repeat itself, it rhymes. The possibility of such a politician is always there.

Because there are always arrogant people, people who think they are smarter, better and more competent than anyone else. And when the arrogant are given power, the people under them suffer. As Psalm 10 says, “The wicked arrogantly chase the oppressed; the oppressed are trapped by the schemes the wicked have dreamed up. Yes, the wicked man boasts because he gets what he wants; the one who robs others curses and rejects the Lord. The wicked man is so arrogant he always thinks, 'God won't hold me accountable; he doesn't care.' He is secure at all times. He has no regard for your commands; he disdains all his enemies. He says to himself, 'I will never be upended, because I experience no calamity.' His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; his tongue injures and destroys.” (Psalm 10:2-7) Such people have always existed. And somehow they have always managed to get other people to grant them power.

Unfortunately, when leaders declare themselves to be god, it's not because they desire to be like God in terms of character but in terms of power. They want to be obeyed like God but they do not want to obey him. And they certainly do not want to emulate the only person in the Bible who is held up as the ideal king: Jesus, God Incarnate.

Jesus refused earthly and political power at his temptation in the wilderness. He did not claim it when he was arrested, when asked if he was a king by Pilate, or when the jeering crowds told him they would believe he was the king of Israel if he came down from the cross. (Matthew 4:8-10; 26:51-54; 27:42; John 18:36) Instead he said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) And he did serve others. He healed them. He fed them. He showed them God's love and forgiveness, not just in what he said but in what he did.

Jesus did not use the power God gave him to make his own life better but to make the lives of others better. And overwhelmingly they were the poor and the despised and the excluded; the people powerful folks call losers. Jesus didn't just project an image of caring and healing; he actually touched the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the dead. And he said that if we really want to serve him as our King, we need to give the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and the immigrant what they need. Because whatever we do to those whom the world counts as the least important, we do to him. If you want to see Jesus, don't look to the powerful but the powerless and to those who serve them like Jesus did. (Matthew 25:31-46)

All those ancient kings and emperors who declared themselves to be gods are dead. No one worships those psychopaths and narcissists any longer. Their power died with them. But Jesus lives and his power is still active in the world. Unlike those false god-kings, he did not leave a legacy of cold and dead monuments, doomed to crumble over time or be demolished. His legacy is the people who still trust him and follow him, who obey the commandments to love God with all they are and all they have, and to love their neighbors as they do themselves and even love their enemies. That legacy will live on until Jesus returns and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever.