The Church and Forgiveness (Margaret Scott's Sermon from 9/11/2011)

The church and forgiveness

September 11, 2011

Matthew 18:21-35

Margaret Scott

3 weeks ago we saw Peter being named as the Rock, the building block of the church; 2 weeks ago he was called Satan, the stumbling block.  Today, he’s catching on, he’s getting this Jesus-mind kin-dom alternative that Jesus is offering.

After hearing what we heard last week, about how the kin-dom, the community of Jesus, is supposed to deal with conflict and power, perhaps Peter wants to show how he’s coming along…

The Pharisees taught that the upper limit of forgiveness was three times.  Peter offers an upper limit of 7.   Pretty bold and generous; he knows Jesus is expansive, so he’s pretty safe with this, right?  Absurd by rabbinic standards of the day, but a holy number, and surely Jesus would like it.

But Jesus says, nice try Peter.  But there’s room for much more.  And he proceeds to give an even more absurd number, 77, or some translations say 70x7=490—both absurd exaggerations.    It’s as if Jesus is saying, if you have to count, and keep track, it’s not forgiveness…you need to forgive beyond your ability to keep track.

Now this is an ongoing conversation from last week about life in the kin-dom community—the holy space we’re invited into and invited to co-create.  And Jesus tells a story about this community as a kingdom, where the king settles accounts. How on earth does this translate to our present day kin-dom community?  The monarchy is a foreign concept to almost all of us, and this story would be absurd even in those days.  What king would ever behave in this way?   And we’re not used to thinking about judgment and settling accounts  as part of the Jesus community.  We don’t even like the word, judgment.

Yet it happens all the time in the Jesus life.  God holds us accountable every day, and as we heard last week we hold each other accountable.

Today may be just such a day for US to be held accountable.  What humungous offence have we suffered that God calls us to forgive? Or What small debt of hurt are we holding on to and will not forgive?  

Not rocket science.

This text asks at least 5 very disturbing questions:   how many times do I forgive?

And if God’s meant to be like the king in the story, does God sell  us off when we can’t pay back something?

And if so, can God be talked out of it just by our making some flimsy promise to do better?

And if it’s about forgiving 77 times, or 490 times, how come the king fogave once then the at the next slip-up condemned the guy?

And seriously, God will hand us over to be tortured?

So it’s hardly an allegory.  It’s a parable, and not about God but about the absurd nature of the kin-dom,

         where we are building blocks sometimes and stumbling blocks other times,

        where we fall and get up and fall and get up,

        but  where the community lives differently, absurdly differently, from the prevailing culture

            where we live and develop a space John talked of last week, a space for life not death, a space of revolution, not violence, a space where there is no coercion, retaliation or threat.

Sure, we can get tied up in those troubling questions, but they’re really distractions to help us avoid the really tough question, the one I’m left with, especially today, 10 years after the horror of September 11, 2001:

Can I, can we, forgive those who sin against us?

Forgive us our sins as we forgive others, we pray every week; some of us several times a week, some of us daily.   Seriously?  Do we want God to forgive us the way we forgive others?  Do we really pray the LP or do we just spout it.

 Or do we maybe pray to learn to forgive others the way God forgives us?

Impossible as it may seem, and absurd as it is, it can be done.

And impossible as it may seem, and absurd as it is, it can ONLY be done by our heartfelt understanding of how much WE’ve been loved and forgiven by God.  And that takes some soul searching – most of us don’t think we’ve been particularly bad and so don’t really need mega absurd doses of such forgiveness.   We need to spend some time on our own self-righteousness until we can understand what incredible love has been poured out on us through Jesus, forgiveness in action that ended, apparently, with a crucifixion.

And impossible as it may seem, and absurd as it is,  it can only be done by practice.  The more we practice the more forgiving we will become.   There are some things so awful that we can’t just decide to forgive the person who does them to us once and be done with it.  We have to decide to forgive them over and over – every time you see that person or a memory button is pushed -- until it finally begins to stick.

What happened 10 years ago shaped us—how we respond continues to mold us into who we are becoming….but we must ensure it doesn’t define us as revengeful warriors masked as pseudo Christians.

Christians, Jesus followers, can and do have many perspectives and approaches to war, violence and conflict.  But what we can’t afford to erode in our philosophical and theological diversity is the primacy of love forgiveness and grace.   Internally it is the redemption of Christ on the cross, and baptism, that set us apart as God’s people.  But externally it’s the manner of love we live day-to-day which is meant to set us apart for all the world to see. (Rick’s blog)

Impossible as it may seem, absurd as it is, it can be done.  It must be done, and the Church must model it for the world. We love and offer forgiveness even when we feel unable because God loves and forgives through us.

If not through me, then who?

If not now, then when?

How can anyone know the forgiving love of God unless I, you, we, give it to them?

WE know that loving, forgiving God because someone showed it to us…showed us that

Goodness IS stronger than evil;

love IS stronger than hate;

light IS stronger than darkness;

life IS stronger than death;

victory is ours through God who loves us.

As we move forward from this day, will we remain stuck in old ways of evil, hate, darkness, death?   If so, the enemy has won.  Or will we go forward with new determination, new commitment to developing a space, a community,  a nation, and a world, where we live our personal lives, church lives, political lives, and economic lives based on the Jesus way….by wesleys 3 simple rules, for example:

Do good, do no harm, stay in love with God

Or by Micah’s:

Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. 

And above all, this special day, let us commit to practice forgiveness.

Will it be easy? No.  Is it abusrd? Yes, Is it possible?  Yes, God helping us.  Amen.

Remembering Sept 11 2001

This is a sermon I preached at a prayer service held on September 14, 2001:

September 14, 2001

Sad. Scared. Hurt. A way of living and being from before Tuesday may well have come to an end. That may make us mourn and it may make us angry. The devil had a big day on Tuesday. Broke a lot of bodies and broke a lot of hearts. Shattered a lot of dreams along with the buildings and airplanes.  And since then people have been asking, “Why?” There have been tears, and more – wailing and mourning and cursing.

Many of us have been glued to television, radio, internet.  Our conversation has been filled with questions, sorrow, guesses, speculation, rumor, and bewilderment.  We’ve called loved ones to make sure they were all right and more really just to connect in a difficult time.  We want to know that we were not alone.

The Devil had a big day on Tuesday. Really got our attention. 

You see it was more than just some 19 people on airplanes that did this.  More than another 30 some people involved in ground support.  More than just an international terrorist network, more than just a nation that provides sanctuary for bombers and destroyers – it was a system and a mindset – or maybe a heartset – that worked once again to bring destruction into God’s world.

It’s the system and the heartset that gives in to the call for retaliation and getting even or more than even with the person that has hurt us. But St. Paul tells us that we are to “put on the whole armor of God so that we may stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

The devil loves stirring people up against each other and then sits back and watches the destruction.  The devil loves to feed grudges and animosities to bring that self-propelling spiral of attack, revenge, attack, attack, revenge, and revenge.  Each side understands itself to be wronged and needing to bring the score to even.  The devil loves stirring up impatience, and frustration, and desires for what is not ours that will breed conflict or bring temptation.

And in the dust and confusion and smoke and lies, the truth that our enemy is not flesh and blood, but that our enemy is a whole system and a practice of retaliation, becomes impossible to make out with human eyes alone.  It is the eyes of faith that can begin to make out the real force behind the chaos and destruction.

All I can tell you tonight is that Jesus Christ came into this world to put an end to that system.  That’s the summary of the only word of hope that I am authorized to preach. He did not do that by raising an army, by declaring war, by developing sophisticated weapons.  And God did not surrender to the devil in Jesus Christ.  Something very different happened.

In the gospel lesson this evening we read Jesus’ understanding of how he and his followers would stand up to the devil.  Jesus says that the hour of his glorification was about to come.  By that he meant that his crucifixion was about to come upon him.  He understood that unless he became that grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died, his life and mission could not bear fruit.

Jesus says: Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world is driven out.  That ruler that Jesus refers to is the Devil.  Driven out because the Devil’s system of hate and lies is exposed as it crucifies the innocent Christ.  This is an act too horrible, too unjust, and too overwhelming to withstand scrutiny.  The devil is unmasked because in the crucifixion (and the killing of innocents in the name of some higher cause) is revealed to be the evil that it is.

The devil thought he was having a big day when he went up against Jesus.  But in that suffering and death of Jesus Christ upon the cross we came to understand that God does not stand back from the evil and suffering in this world.  God is willing to enter into our suffering, to endure it even to death on a cross, and to transform it into an episode of love and grace, forgiveness and reconciliation.

So that Good Friday turned out not to be the Devil’s big day, but God’s big day. The devil overreached himself and gave God the opportunity for Easter, the day of resurrection, the crashing down of the very gates of hell, and the opening day of eternal life.

This is a service of remembrance.  We want to remember those who have died, injured, mourn, rescue workers, eyewitnesses, missing.

But this might be the hard thing to remember: Can we remember Jesus through all those who have become the grains of wheat buried in the rubble of Tuesday’s tragic events?  Can they be signs reminding us that the crucifixion is not over yet?  Can they be signs that compassion and love needs to grow and bloom all over this world, so that the devil’s system and schemes finally come to an end?

If these who have been hurt have been the grains of wheat, the seeds buried in the rubble, what has been the fruit?  Think with me of all the ways the ruler has been driven out.  Can’t you discern a burst of sensitivity? People outdoing one another in love? Acts of great heroism and small kindness? An increase in tenderness? A greater desire for connection?   A yearning on the part of so many to be of help?  A need to make a difference for good?  A great realization that we depend on God?  More people have prayed more this week around here than I’ve seen in quite a while.

As Christians that is the insight/testimony/faith/story that we have to offer.  We know a God who was willing to come to earth to suffer and die to bring reconciliation and peace between us and God, and also between us and us. 

Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth [when I am lifted up on the cross] I will draw all people to myself.  Jesus goes on to say that he is the light.  “Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness you do not know where you are going. While you have the light,” Jesus tells us, “believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

The devil thinks he had a big day on Tuesday.  But the question for us is what we do to keep the devil from having a big day tomorrow.

Another way to ask that question is “Are we willing to walk in the light?”

Are we willing to live in compassion and integrity?  Are we willing to devote ourselves to outdo one another in love?  Are we willing to stay connected with God and with each other?  Are we willing to speak up for our Muslim neighbors who are having a hard time right now because of threats and actual violence?  Are we willing to recognize with St. Paul that our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places? 

And not just in the heavenly places – also in our hearts and our lives.  There is no place for self-righteousness as we walk in the light of Christ’s love. Are we willing to forgive others even as God forgives us?  Are we willing to live lives that are light to the world?

May our resolve to live and walk in the light of Christ not be shaken by terrorist explosions or by the tempting calls of the Devil to join in the legions of hate and vengeance.

Let us pray for those who suffer and mourn.  Let us pray for all the leaders of the world that as they carry out their responsibilities that they will do so with wisdom, full deliberation and with hearts of compassion for the innocent of other lands.

And finally, let us not be afraid.  We can walk into the future without fear because Christ goes before us and Christ walks beside us.  Be not afraid.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Church Conflict & Church Power

Church Conflict and Church Power

September 4, 2011

[Mat 18:15] "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.

[Mat 18:16] But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

[Mat 18:17] If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

[Mat 18:18] Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

[Mat 18:19] Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

[Mat 18:20] For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

There are those Christians who are nostalgic for the day when it seemed that the church was in charge of America. In charge of society and set the standards for behavior.

There are those Christians who are nostalgic for the day when it seemed that the church could more or less impose its morality and sense of propriety on the rest of the culture.

I’m not sure there was ever such a day and I’m not sure that the standards and proprieties were particularly Christian. (I’d be happy to have a conversation about that sometime.) But regardless of whether they were or were not Christian, the more important thing to notice is that Jesus did not set up the church to impose a new way of life 

Over the last couple of weeks we have talked about the kind of messiah Jesus is. Jesus is not the kind of messiah who is to come to threaten, coerce, or impose the Kingdom of God. Instead Jesus comes and opens up a space. 

The space of the empty tomb that tells all who will hear the good news that the violence of threat, intimidation, coercion, and death has come to an end. Jesus is inviting all who will follow to live within the space of life and love that he  -- through his followers – is creating in this world.  

It is into  that space we are invited to live out  the call to justice, compassion, forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation. We'll hear more about that next week as we move further on in this chapter. 

Last week Pastor Margaret mentioned some larger stories about courage and justice to which followers of Jesus have been called. Ways in which the grace-filled power of God has entered the world.  Over the last weeks we have been hearing Matthew's Gospel making the large-scale basic affirmation that Jesus is the messiah/king/anointed one who has come to institute a revolutionary way of life, contrasting with the Roman Empire way. A way of life that is revolutionary without being violent. Jesus is one with divine power, but not to be used as an aid to a military uprising against Rome, but to model a different kind of kingdom, a different way of living. 

 The disciples are to be instructed by Jesus' words and example to begin a revolutionary movement that replaces threats, coercion, and violence with invitation, love, and grace. 

That revolutionary movement is to become the church - the followers of Jesus who will agree to set about living the kind of life he modeled.

 In our Gospel Lesson today, Jesus lays out a very specific set of instructions about how members of that community are to act when one member is wronged or believes they have been wrong by another member of that community. We will see that among the followers of Jesus, they are to live without coercion, retaliation, and threat.

What is to happen if we are wronged by one of our sisters or brothers.

There are four very specific steps that the wronged party is directed to take. Let’s remember that this is about what happens within a community/family/ongoing committed trust relationship. That is important assumption. Not a relationship that is anonymous or casual.

Not about irritations. Shake them off.

If someone offends you

1. Go to the offender and tell her or him that you feel wronged. If they apologize, you have regained the relationship. Healed. On the other hand, if she does not recognize her offense and take appropriate steps, then
2. You are to take one or two other trusted, related people to you and the other party and again make your case. If they recognize their offense and take appropriate steps, then you have regained the relationship. If not, then
3. You are to bring that person to the church to the whole group of trusted, related persons and again make your case. If that does not bring restoration, then
4. That person is to be regarded as an outsider, excluded from the relationship of trust.

Assumption is that there is to be openness and trust and a listening spirit among all the parties. Not about railroading the supposed offender. It is based on a desire to heal the injured relationship and offers opportunities for cooler heads and calmer hearts to engage the people with a dispute and help them to come to a way forward that is mutually agreeable and leads to a deeper, more committed relationship of trust.

These are relatively clear directions to restore injured relationships. The problem is that these steps are often ignored, even in the church.

What happens instead?

Ben offends Tom. Tom punches Ben out. Judy offends Arlene. Arlene “accidently” spills coffee on Judy’s computer.

Or maybe Tom or Arlene just brood on it and take it out on their spouse or their kids or the cat.

Or maybe their responses are more subtle.

Judy offends Arlene. Does Arlene go to Judy? No. Arlene goes to Ann-Marie and complains about Judy. Arlene and Ann-Marie have a good time talking about how nasty Judy is.

Ben offends Tom. Does Tom talk to Ben about it? Not usually. He tells his friends Bill and Jim. Then Bill looks for more evidence about what a skunk Ben is. Jim remembers that he didn’t like the tone of voice Ben used with him during a disagreement last month.

Of course, the relationships between Arlene and Ann-Marie becomes stronger after this. Tom and Bill and Jim are better buddies in their agreement about Ben’s bad behavior.

But the relationships between Ben and Tom and Judy and Arlene and their friends suffer. If Ben and Judy get wind of it, they may seek their own allies and we have a fight over some other issue just waiting to happen.

What are some of the reasons that it is difficult to follow these four steps?

Why is step 1 difficult?

Why is it difficult to go to the offender and tell her or him that you feel wronged.

• Uncomfortable directly challenging another person.
• We are not sure what their reaction will be. We anticipate they may become defensive, angry, bring up things about us.
• Require that we admit that we were hurt. That could be seen as a sign of weakness or perhaps even pettiness on our part.
• If we surfaced the issue we could find out that we are wrong! So much nicer to think that we are right.
• So it’s easier to talk to our friends and those we think are our supporters.
• We might be wrong! We might have misunderstood!

But notice that what we are doing when we don’t take time or have the courage to directly talk to someone who has offended us. What we are in effect doing is that we are moving right to step 4: We make that person an outsider – we cut or diminish the relationship. As I said before, sometimes we do it by allying with another person who we make a special insider with us and our allies..

What are the difficulties of steps 2, 3, and 4? Step one comes first. Very unusual to get to 1. 2,3, and 4 would actually be a rare situation if we would seem much easier for many of us if we could get manage step 1.

So Jesus is very clear about these four steps.

Step two, engaging trusted friends can help clarify and calm.

Step three, tell it to the church. Again, not to accuse or punish, but to help and correct.

• One of the ancient commentators points out that it would be a less caring response to leave the offender alone.
• The goal is to bring the straying person back into community. Back into a right life. Or to correct our understanding of the situation if we are mistaken that someone has wronged us.
• The goal is reconciliation.
• Jesus knows that sometimes this is impossible. There are instances when someone may not be willing to accept that they have done wrong and no community can endure if there are substantial differences about how they will relate together and if people will not accept responsibility for their offenses.
• What we mean by a community is in large part a shared view of important matters of how people will live together, and a willingness to own up to our own responsibility. Not to avoid our responsibility or shift responsibility to others.

Step four: exclusion. No longer a trusted person and we cannot pretend that there is trust. But notice that even here:  Jesus says that they should be treated as a Gentile or a Tax Collector. What does that mean?  It means that the community continue to try and reach out and hope for an eventual change of heart.

Jesus came to offer us an alternative set of procedures. Procedures for restoring relationships. Reconciliation.

Jesus invited his followers to begin a way of being in the world that would be inviting to others and would contrast with the ways of imposition, power, threat, and retaliation that are the usual ways of the world.

Church Power is not about being able to dominate and impose. Church power is about living into the way of Jesus. We are called to embody a way of living among ourselves that testifies to Jesus’ teachings and the way he lived. We are called to with Christ create the space that forgiveness and grace can fill.

Paradoxically, it is in our conflicts, times when we hurt each other, times when we feel that we have let one another down that the power of Christ’s way has the clearest opportunity to shine through. Space is created for Christ’s way of peace.

And as truth-telling, understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation emerge in real life situations, the power of God is revealed in the world.

The power of God is not in imposing order or rules, but in the ways in which we create room to open ourselves up to each other in grace – even and especially in the midst of conflict.

The second half of today’s passage says:

[Mat 18:18] Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

[Mat 18:19] Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

[Mat 18:20] For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

Again we see the theme about the interlocking/interpenetrating dimension of heaven and earth in which we are living. Heaven is in our midst. God’s will is not opposed to ours, but God is longing for us to agree and work together to bring forth the love and peace God has implanted in creation from the beginning. We sometimes try to crowd it out with our own plans, our own ego, our own needs to be right.

The search for gracious agreement/reconciliation is a clear sign of God’s power. As we pray and sing and work laugh and cry together we create the space for God’s Spirit to take hold.

As we forgive and receive forgiveness we create space for the life of Christ to flourish in our midst.

Notice too, however, this takes place within the bonds of trust, commitment, integrity, and by being a community that disciplines itself to work together toward mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation with integrity, this power also extends outward as in invitation to a different way of life in which all the world can participate.

These instructions and promises of Jesus are meant for real life. Here and now so that the Kingdom of Heaven, the dream of God, the reality of God’s presence and power takes hold around us.

It takes practice. There are clear instructions. Four steps when we have been hurt by someone. They are not always going to be easy.

Pray earnestly for the power to take these steps when you have been wronged. If you think you can’t do it on your own, ask for help.

Seek a way to move toward reconciliation. On the other side, if someone takes the initiative and tells you that you have wronged them, take that seriously. Engage and work through. Seek to understand without defensiveness. Seek reconciliation from your side.

Integrity and compassion, honesty and mercy, trust and cooperation are needed on all sides. This is the life to which Christ calls us.

But the secret is that as we do so the Kingdom of Heaven is taking shape around us. Let’s encourage each other in this direction. Help each other find the courage to be direct and the patience and humility to listen and learn together.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Love Wins: Chapter 8 "The End Is Here"

Rob Bell recalls how as a boy he invited Jesus into his heart. He reflects on how important that moment was and is in his life. He also observes that there are many ways to deconstruct that experience and cynically discount its meaning. Bell affirms that God meets us in such experiences and we are not to discount them. We are to embrace them. Each of those moments are necessary for us to arrive where we are and become part of the invitation to trust and believe that we are loved and are being made new.

Bell warns us against the cynicism and skepticism that undermines our trust. He assures us that the love we fear that is too good to be true is actually "good enough to be true." Jesus is inviting us to be drawn into the love which "takes over every square inch of our lives." But this love requires a death, a humbling, a leaving behind of the old mind. It requires an opening up and loosening our hold in order to expand, find, hear, see, and enjoy (p. 196).

There are strong images of judgment in the Bible and Bell mentions a few of them. Bell's claim is that these are warnings that the choices we make, the paths we take, have consequences and opportunities offered once are not generally on offer again. Jesus is reminding us in the parables of judgment that our decisions are to be taken seriously. Jesus is urging us in each and every moment to live like the end is already here.

Yet Bell concludes that in the end love wins because God is love and Jesus has come and does come to bring that love to life.

Love Wins Chapter 7: The Good News is Better Than That

This chapter can be summarized briefly. Using Jesus' parable of the prodigal son as his key text, Rob Bell sets forth his conclusion about heaven and hell. Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story. The Gospel, on the other hand confronts our version of our story about ourselves with God's version of that story. That story begins with God's love for us. Living out of that story frees us to live fully - now and forever.

The elder son in the parable gets into trouble when his wayward brother returns because he has imagined himself as superior to the younger brother and thus more deserving. When the father rejoices by throwing a party for the younger son, the resentment of the older son takes hold and keeps him from celebrating. His father attempts to retell his story but the older son refuses to trust that version. He is in a kind of hell inasmuch as he is at the party without being at the party. That is hell. He refuses to join in. Bell also makes the point that the kind of resentment shown by the older brother is the same kind of attitude that many Christians take when they are quick to say that others are going to hell.

On the other hand, the younger son is in danger of believing a condemning story about himself that will exclude him from his father's house as anything but a slave. However, his father retells him his story so that he can hear a tale of "welcome home," and he can then  fully enter into the celebration.

Bell also spends time reflecting on the image of God that is depicted in this parable and how it contrasts with the punitive image of God that many put forward. The good news of the Gospel is better than that!

I found that this chapter brings together many of the themes Bell has treated earlier in the book and I appreciate the way that he brings these home to the story about the woman who hands him the piece of paper each week. Powerful stuff!

Love Wins: Chapter 6 There Are Rocks Everywhere

In this chapter Rob Bell takes on the "Do I need to be a Christian to
be saved?" question in a very broad way. I find his approach very
helpful. Note that he makes two claims that may seem to be at odds:
(1) Jesus is the savior of everyone. And (2) You don't have to believe
in Jesus to be saved. I agree with him that there is nothing
contradictory in this. As Bell explains via the story about Moses and
the rock, there are rocks everywhere and Christ is the rock.

He begins the chapter with a couple of accounts of strange God-
experiences that he has heard of. Bell's approach throughout the
chapter - if not the book - is to begin by assuming that moments of
grace like these (and which may occur in a variety of traditions) have
a divine origin. We live in a safe universe, Bell asserts, and God is
creeping in all over the place. Jesus is many places without anybody
using his name.  This notion of the "Cosmic Christ" (also explored by
Matthew Fox in a variety of ways) is a grand understanding of a Christ
bigger than Jesus.

Bell moves from this grand understanding of Christ and a universe that
is filled with divine love, to press those who might be uncomfortable
with Jesus-as-divine. He challenges those who reject Jesus as divine
by inviting them to be more open to the mysteries the world might
contain: "If you find yourself checking out at this point, finding it
hard to swallow the Jesus-as-divine part, remember that these are
ultimately issues that ask what kind of universe we believe we're
living in . Is it closed or open? Is it limited to what we can
conceive of and understand, or are there realities beyond the human
mind? Are we the ultimate arbiter of what can, and cannot, exist?" (p.
147) [There's a typo in my copy of the book; it says orbiter, instead
of arbiter.]

What follows from his (and St. Paul's) understanding of the Cosmic
Christ is that Jesus is bigger than any one religion. Also bigger than
any one nation, culture, theology, or political party. Rob Bell points
out the dangers of over familiarity with Jesus. We can domesticate
Christ into our particular sphere and miss how he challenges every
system. We can sing so many songs about Jesus that we miss Jesus as
the "stunning, dangerous, compelling, subversive, dynamic reality that
he is." (p. 152).

On a personal note, I remember being sixteen years old in 1968 and
reading the Good News translation of the Gospels for the first time
and being utterly amazed by Jesus. He had never engaged me so deeply
before.  I only knew a relatively tame Jesus.

Rob Bell - almost daringly - takes what appears to be the most
exclusive verse of the Bible from John 14, "I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" and offers
another reading that turns it into the kind of exclusive statement
that is "on the other side" of  inclusivity. He summarizes an
exclusive position that says that whoever does not believe in Jesus is
not saved. Then Bell summarizes an inclusive position that says there
is one mountain but many paths. Bell's position is that Jesus is the
way but the all-embracing saving love of the Christ will certainly
include all sorts of people from different traditions (p. 155).

Bell emphasizes that he is not saying that Jesus does not matter any
more. He is not saying that it doesn't matter what one believes. His
positive statement is this: What Jesus does is declare that he, and he
alone, is saving everybody. And then he leaves the door way, way open.
Creating all sorts of possibilities." Jesus is more than a "token of
tribal membership." Jesus is the very life source. The church is "to
name, honor, and orient themselves around this mystery. A church is a
community of people who enact specific rituals and create specific
experiences to keep this word alive in their own hearts, a gathering
of believers who help provide language and symbols and experiences for
this mystery." The church is naming the mystery present ALREADY in all
the world.

Bell concludes the chapter with three points:
        1. People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways.
        2. None of have cornered the market on Jesus. Jesus will continually
defy, destroy, and disregard biases and categories.
        3. Heaven is full of surprises so we ought to be reluctant about
making decisive judgments about peoples' eternal destinies.

Rob Bell - Love Wins: Chapter 5 Dying to Live

Rob Bell begins with his noticing that when Eminem returned from a long withdrawal from his performance career he returned wearing a cross. This leads Bell to wonder with us about what the cross means.

He offers several alternatives:

• Sacrifice
• Reconciliation

• The guilty set free

• Redemption

• Victory

Bell suggests that all of these metaphors are apt ones for the time in which the New Testament authors wrote. They all point to the meaning of the crucifixion using different contemporary images. None of these particular images is sufficient to capture all of the cross's meaning. "The point, then, isn't to narrow it to one particular metaphor, image, explanation, or mechanism. To elevate one over the others, to insist that there's a 'correct' or 'right' one, is to miss the brilliant, creative work these first Christians were doing when they used these images and metaphors. They were reading their world, looking for ways to communicate this epic event in ways their listeners could grasp." (p. 129)

A variety of metaphors are needed, in part, because the cosmic impact of Jesus is so enormous. Jesus is where life is, according to Bell. On p. 129 he says:  The point then, as it is now, is Jesus. The divine in flesh and blood. He's where the life is." 

I very much appreciate Bell's expansion of what is technically called the "theory of atonement."  In my view, evangelical Christians have been way to attached to the sacrifice image.

Bell moves from the crucifixion to the resurrection. He sees the pattern of crucifixion leading to resurrection as woven into the fabric of the universe.

He has a helpful outline of John's Gospel as seven signs (seven days of creation) leading to an eighth sign, which is the recreation of the cosmos in the resurrection of Jesus. Bell seeks to expand our sense of the scope of the Jesus story from the individual soul to the entire cosmos. I find this refreshing.

Summing up this chapter, I cite a paragraph on page 136:

Jesus talks about death and rebirth constantly, his and ours. He calls us to let go, turn away, renounce, confess, repent, and leave behind the old ways. He talks of the life that will come from his own death, and he promises that life will flow to us in thousands of small ways as we die to our egos, our pride, our need to be right, our self-sufficiency, our rebellion, and our stubborn insistence that we deserve to get our way. When we cling with white knuckles to our sins and our hostility, we're like a tree that won't let its leaves go. There can't be a spring if we're stuck in the fall. 

Love Wins: Chapter Four "Does God Get What God Wants?"

 Rob Bell begins with the paradox of a God who is loving and powerful but not powerful enough to save billions of people from eternal conscious torment.  The proposed exit from this paradox is to advance another paradox that love requires freedom. People cannot be commanded to freely love God.  God doesn't get what God wants because some will not "turn and believe." 

Yet Bell wants to push this thought further. He reminds us that we are not static beings. We are dynamic. We change.  Perhaps we do not have simply one lifetime to change. Perhaps we have eternity. On page 105 Bell wonders whether we can imagine people who choose evil in such a dedicated and persistent way that the image of God in them is extinguished and they cease to exist as persons.  Bell goes on to cite Martin Luther who did not doubt that God is able to  have arranged it so that people would be able to turn to God after death.

Billions of people wanting to be restored  but being forever damned does not bring glory to God. Bell asks (p. 109) "Which is stronger and more powerful, the hardness of the human heart of God's unrelenting, infinite, expansive love? Thousands through the years have answered that question with the resounding response, 'God's love, of course.'"  Bell reminds us several times in this chapter that over the centuries various Christian writers have answered the questions about eternal damnation in a variety of ways.

Bell makes an important claim on page 110: Some stories are better than others. A story about God inflicting unrelenting punishment on people because they did not manage to do or say some particular thing in their brief lives is not a very good story.  Conversely Bell says, "Everybody enjoying God's good world together with no disgrace or shame, justice being served and all the wrongs being made right is a better story." Even if one disagrees with the truth of that latter story, it is proper and Christian to long for it to be true."

Bell moves on to consider the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Although there is much violent and outlandish imagery in the opening chapters of this book, the ending vision is a picture of a future in which the nations are healed and there is peace on earth and no more tears. There is no place in this vision for murder or destruction or cruelty. Those who would continue those activities are not allowed in. God says, "Not here you won't!"

Bell returns to the paradox on page 113: "Love demands freedom. It always has, and it always will. We are free to resist, reject, and rebel against God's ways for us. We can have all the hell we want." That is one of the reasons why the gates of the new city that comes into being are always open: we are free to enter and we are free to leave.

"Will everyone be saved," Bell asks. The answer is not an answer: "Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need to resolve them or answer them because we can't, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires."

God may or may not get what God wants, according to this chapter, but we get what we want.

Love Wins: Chapter Three "Hell"

In Chapter 3, Rob Bell moves on to consider Hell. He begins by clearing the ground. Again, he goes back to the Bible and recounts all the references to hell, taking the notion from all the meanings that have been built up in countless conversations and teachings. What does the Bible tell us about hell? There isn't much there. There is no real Old Testament equivalent. Sheol comes the closest, but that is simply a shadowy place of the dead.  When we move to the New Testament, we find all but one reference to hell comes from Jesus. The word that is translated as hell refers to a literal garbage dump which had a perennial fire, just outside of Jerusalem.  Two other words are sometimes translated as Hell. One appears on 2 Peter and the other is Hades, which is  a Greek term  used as the translation of the Old Testament  word Sheol. What we are to take from this is that there is not a lot of clear, consistent, Biblical understanding of hell for us to deal with.

Is hell an outdated concept? Bell turns from the Bible to the contemporary world. He recalls situations of hell on earth, concluding that hell is not metaphorical, it is real. Sin and hell are extreme words for extreme situations.

Bell returns to Scripture to dig into the story of the rich man and Lazarus in order to begin reconstructing what the Bible is teaching about hell.  He connects this story to our knowledge of social relationships and the attitudes of our hearts.  He reminds us of how this story would sound to Jesus' original listeners. What kind of warning would they have taken from it? What kind of warning should we take from it?   Here are a few key sentences from page 79: "What we see in Jesus's story about the rich man and Lazarus is an affirmation that there are all kinds of hell, because there are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next." he goes on to say, "There are individual hells, and communal, society-wide hells, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.  There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously."

Bell points out that Jesus preaching - about hell and almost everything else - was directed toward those who considered themselves on the inside. He was warning them that their hard hearts were putting them at risk. Jesus ws pointing out that what was important was being the kind of people who were all about showing the world what God's love looks like in real life.

The final point I will lift up from this chapter is that Bell argues that punishment as described in the Bible is temporary and redemptive. It is not "cast off forever." It is punished with the intention of restoration.  Bell wants to keep the word hell: "We need a word that refers to the big, wide, terrible evil that comes from the secrets hidden deep within our hearts all the way to the massive, society-wide collapse and chaos that comes when we fail to live in God's world God's way."

Love Wins Chapter Two: Here is the New There

In rereading this chapter I've discovered that I liked it much more in the rereading than I did the first time through the book. Perhaps I was not quite in sync with Rob Bell's style then.

Bell begins with a commentary on a painting that hung in his grandmother's house.  He raises questions about the theology implied in the picture. He notices that the message of the picture is about people who are crossing a fiery canyon safely on a cross. They are leaving one place and are headed to another. The implication is that salvation is all about getting from this world to heaven someplace else. Those of you who heard my sermon from May 22 will connect his point with the slide I showed about the relative importance of getting to heaven in some construals of what "church" is for. [Image is from Brian McLaren.]

In this notion heaven is somewhere else.

Then he moves on to the question that is raised about heaven, viz. Who will be there and who won't be there? I found the contrast between the two women on page 25 quite striking. The two are at the same church service and one has tears of joy in expectation that she will be reunited with her family who have died. The other with tears of grief that her family - presumably "unsaved" - will have no reunion with her. The pastor explains to the latter woman that that will not bother her in heaven because she will be having so much fun. That is, of course, troubling to the woman who grieves.

Bell moves on to focus on the rich man in Matthew 19 who asks Jesus what good thing he must do to get eternal life. Bell notes that for many Christians this is the central question. Jesus does not answer in any way like contemporary "evangelical" Christians do.  As Bell explicates the passage, Jesus tells him to do exactly what he needs to do in order to be a person fit for heaven.

Mixed in with this explication of what the man must do is a fair amount of explanation about the Greek word aion, or in English age.  Without going into the detailed analysis, suffice it to say here that Bell reminds us that in Jesus' tradition, the prophets spoke mainly of a coming age in which God's way would be fulfilled on earth. This time was the age to come. This would be a time of justice and peace. Jesus' teaching, like the prophets' teaching was about how to be the kind of persons who would be at home in this coming time of justice and peace. It is an earthy environment of justice and peace.

Bell moves on to the idea of judgment. I believe this is a central dimension of the book. To speak loosely for a moment: I think that there are many Christians who are tied to the notion of an otherworldly heaven and hell because they believe that if we give up on those, we have necessarily given up on there being a judgment. Bell takes pains to reject that connection. Bell believes in judgment and suggests that we all do. When bad and cruel things happen we want God to be angry and to judge and rule some things out. Of course, at the same time, we realize that we are also involved in injustice and wrongdoing. We want mercy. The prophets also speak of that: Justice and mercy will hold hands, embrace, and kiss.

Bell spends time going over what heaven means in the Bible, and how the kingdom of heaven relates to the kingdom of God. This should be a review for those of you who have been paying attention in church at FUMC.

A key couple of sentences: "How we think about heaven, then, directly affects how we understand what we do with our days and energies now, in this age. Jesus teaches us how to live now in such a way that what we create, who we give our efforts to, and how we spend our time will all endure in the new world." (pp. 44-5) Bell says, "God has not abandoned human history and is actively at work within it, taking it somewhere." "…[W]orking for clean-water access for all is participating now in the life of the age to come." "That's what happens when the future is dragged into the present."  I take this last quote to mean that the divinely ordered age to come has an eruption into the presence in the form of compassion or peace or reconciliation.

Bell asserts that our eschatology (belief about the divine future or end) shapes our ethics. If we believe that we are destined to simply evacuate the planet, why do anything about this world?

As Bell reviews the stories of Jesus, we see the unexpected outcomes of who find divine favor. Those who presume on it, lose it. Those who receive it are surprised.  The question is: Are you busy NOW being the kind of person who will fit in in an environment of love and justice and are you busy now preparing the world in that direction?

The last few pages of the book are about time and another meaning of the Greek word aion. He concludes the chapter with an expansive understanding of heaven, which may seem paradoxical without working through the fairly compelling Scriptural account that he gives: "There is heaven now, somewhere else. There's heaven here, sometime else. And there's Jesus's invitation to heaven here and now, in this moment, in this place."

Love Wins, Chapter One: What About the Flat Tire?

In this chapter, Rob Bell seeks to do two things. The first thing he tries to do is to clarify the "traditional" doctrine and examine the consequences if the doctrine were true. He articulates the consequences in such a way that makes each possible way of understanding the doctrine seem unacceptable.  If we believe that some few people will live forever in happiness in heaven and all the others will spend forever in anguish, what kind of God is it that arranges such a system? If this is true, how can we make sure that we are in the first group and not the second? Does it depend on how persuasive a pastor we had growing up? Or now?  What is the age of accountability? What if someone never heard the Gospel? What if we heard the Gospel from someone who was vicious and cruel?  Bell reminds us that there are quite a variety of ways in which Jesus might be presented, not all of them are true or reflect God. Some Jesuses should be rejected, Bell claims.

Bell recounts having heard a woman talk about the funeral of her daughter's a friend, a high school student killed in a car accident. Her daughter was asked by a Christian whether the boy was a Christian. She told him that he told people he was an atheist. The Christian replied, "So there's no hope, then."  Bell goes on to ask, "No hope? So is that the Christian message? " 

Bell suggests a variety of criteria for getting into heaven, but readily finds that they lead to patently unacceptable conclusions. He examines the proposal that to get to heaven one needs to have a "personal relationship with God through Jesus." He points out that this wording does not occur in the Bible nor in the whole history of the Christian faith until about a hundred years ago.  He goes on to have an interesting but brief discussion about whether believing or accepting is an act. If believing/accepting is an act, how can salvation be grace?

Second, Rob Bell refers us to a number of passages in the Bible that helps the reader to see that the "traditional" doctrine does not fully engage much of what the Bible teaches. It relies on a selective reading.  Bell takes us to Luke 7 where a Roman centurion has greater faith than Jesus has seen in all of Israel; Jesus promises eternal life to a thief in Luke 23. In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again; in Luke 20 Jesus speaks of those considered worthy to take part in the age to come.  These various stories do not give us a consistent picture of salvation. He goes on to effectively multiply examples of a variety of things that people do that seem to lead to salvation. There does not seem to be a consistent biblical path. Demons believe, but are they saved? (See Matthew 8, Luke 4, Mark 1, James 2 and many other places.)

The chapter closes with Rob Bell saying that Love Wins is a book of responses to the questions he raises in this chapter. I believe that the purpose of this chapter is to try to get us to look more carefully about salvation, heaven, and hell. It is designed to make us uncomfortable with easy answers and invite us to a more comprehensive look at the Bible and what it has to say about God's saving love.

Here is a video link to Rob Bell delivering the opening paragraph of the book and some other introductory thoughts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODUvw2McL8g .  

Some questions to think about:

1. What question in this chapter really made you think?
2. What passage in this chapter surprised or confused you?
3. Did anything Rob Bell said in this chapter bother you?

[To join a conversation on this book go to http://groups.google.com/group/lovewinsdiscusstion.]

Love Wins: Preface

In his preface to Love Wins, Rob Bell makes three points to set the stage for the rest of the book.

First, Bell tells us that the central truth of the Gospel is the good news of God's love for the world and every single one of us in it. He goes on to say that he and others are concerned that the Jesus story has been hijacked to make a very different  point and it is time for the centrality of God's love for the world in Jesus Christ to be reclaimed. In particular, the hijackers are saying that a central truth of the Christian faith is that only a "select few" Christians will live forever in heaven and everyone else will spend eternity in hell. Bell says this is a toxic message that undermines the spread of Jesus' real message.

Second, Bell tells us that he has written Love Wins in order to grapple with the big and  important topics of salvation, judgment, heaven and hell. Jesus invites us into the heart of these questions. Open and honest inquiry into these and other theological questions are holy activities. Although some religious communities  frown on expressing doubts or questions, Bell counters that the Bible is full of controversy not only among believers, but between believers and God!

Third, Bell does believe this book represents a radical new teaching.  He intends to draw a new set of readers into an ancient and ongoing discussion.  He writes, "If this book, then does nothing more than introduce you to the ancient, ongoing discussion surrounding the resurrected Jesus in all its vibrant, diverse, messy, multivoiced complexity - well, I'd be thrilled."

As will become clearer as we move further into the book, Rob Bell comes out of an evangelical/fundamentalist background.  He and some others have been noticing that an increasing number of evangelicals are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a narrow Christian faith as they live into the post-modern world of religious pluralism and cultural diversity. Rob Bell wants to communicate with evangelicals and nonbelievers who need to hear the message of Jesus in a new way. One of the troubling dimensions of traditional evangelical theology is the set of doctrines around eternal life that Bell addresses in this book.

I agree with Rob Bell that the traditional evangelical doctrine of hell is not only implausible to a great many people, it endorses a view of God that makes God a monster, not a God of love.  If this is the God of Christianity, they rightly give up on Christianity. The "traditional" doctrine of hell is an obstacle to evangelism.  Of course, this might seem to be a somewhat paradoxical claim, in that a fair number of evangelists use the threat of hell to try to coax people into accepting Jesus.  Bell and others understand that this is a profoundly misguided strategy.

I also agree with Rob Bell that the discussion of these issues is necessary and good. Our honest conversation helps us to reach deeper understanding - not only an understanding of the positions of others, but also of our own convictions and faith. Perhaps you saw the old bumper sticker: "God said it. I believe it. That settles it." That is not the relationship between God and God's people portrayed in the Bible. There is much give and take. Controversy is common.

In this post I have referred to the "traditional" doctrine. I use quotes because I agree with Bell that there are a variety of understandings of these matters that have been advanced by faithful, prayerful Christians down through the centuries. The breadth of diversity  in the Church can be startling.  Bell is another faithful and creative voice that I believe is worth paying careful attention to.

Questions to think about:

1. When has your heart rate risen or your stomach churned when you have heard someone hijack the good news?
2. Do you prefer to have theological questions settled and certain, or up for grabs?
3. What are some important principles you might offer for how to conduct conversations about significant questions about God?

[To join a conversation on this book go to http://groups.google.com/group/lovewinsdiscusstion.]

Rob Bell - Love Wins

I have started a discussion group at http://groups.google.com/group/lovewinsdiscusstion about Love Wins by Rob Bell. I will be posting my weekly contributions about the book here. If you would like to join the discussion use the link to join.

Preaching that Jesus is the only way

A pastor colleague wondered on Facebook, “If you're not preaching that Jesus is the only way, then what in the world are you preaching?” I take this to be a rhetorical question with the implication that one ought to preach that Jesus is the only way.

I’ve been giving this a great deal of thought since he wrote it. I asked him what he means by “preaching” and what he means by “Jesus is the only way.” By “preaching” he means “proclaiming”. By “Jesus is the only way” he means that “Jesus is the only way to the Father” and so forth.

I’ve been wondering whether anything that is true is simply by virtue of its truth something to be proclaimed. I’ve come to think that it is not. The following are examples of statements that may be true, but are the sort of statements that should generally NOT be proclaimed: “I’m sorry.” “I need you to know that you hurt me.” “You’re mistaken about that.” “You’re confused about that.” “What you did was wrong.” It seems to me that generally these are statements that ought to be spoken tenderly, vulnerably, and with respect. The context of these statements requires a different tone of utterance than proclamation. If they are proclaimed, they are unlikely to lead to a truly honest conversation.

I can affirm that “Jesus is the only way.” (Though not in all the ways that my colleague affirms, but those may be small disagreements). At the same time I recognize that making that statement has as its implication some of the statements I cited above as ones that ought not generally to be “proclaimed.” Since those are some of the implications, I resist preaching that Jesus is the only way.

I am aware that Jesus sometimes spoke sharply to his adversaries. As far as I remember, these situations were ones in which the adversaries were in the habit of proclaiming judgment on the weak and vulnerable and outsiders. Jesus’ proclamation in the Gospel of John that he is the only way are made, not in public contexts of argument, but in the context of the most intimate conversation he has with his disciples (John 14:6).

I think that Jesus’ preaching by his word and deed of the will to powerlessness is a more fundamental proclamation. To the extent that Christians live out THAT proclamation instead of adopting an arrogant and triumphalist tone, the more paradoxically compelling will be our witness.

More on Jesus As The Way

Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life. What does this mean?

The early Christians were known as "the people of the way." This referred to their peculiar way of life. They practiced forgiveness and non-retaliation. They had also been instructed by Jesus to eliminate rivalry in their relationships with one another. Their only rivalry was to be rivals in their practice of love for, and servanthood to, one another.

This way of living together leads to truth. For in such a way of life, there is no attempt to manipulate the conversation. Neither is there manipulation of relationships within the community out of pride or defensiveness that obscures reality. Communities living such a life together liberate their members for life.

When rivalry or injury emerges, Jesus' way is forgiveness and reconciliation. These are two of the practical dimensions of the command that Jesus gives his followers to love one another.

Following this way is following Jesus. Following Jesus leads to the Father. Only this non-rivalrous, forgiving way of life leads to the Father.

Moreover this community lives this way not only within itself, but seeks to extend this way of life in its members' relations with neighbors. This way of life – in itself – is its proclamation. This way of life – in itself – is the invitation to others to participate in the kingdom that Jesus proclaims in his life, death, and resurrection.

In this sense, I affirm that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but by him. For as the Apostle John proclaims, “God is love.” There is no WAY to love. LOVE is the way.

Celebrity Sinners

We non-celebrities are prone to project our personal anxieties, insecurities, and judgments onto public figures. We are also apt to project our hopes, dreams, and aspirations onto public figures who delight us. In an age of mass media when entertainers and politicians intrude upon our psyches in powerful ways, the urges in this direction are nearly irresistible. Public figures are enormously present in our private lives.

Consequently the death of a celebrity like Michael Jackson or the discovery of infidelity on the part of a politician like Sen. Ensign or Gov. Sanford draw us into a puzzling blend of public and private discourse. The boundaries between public and private worlds become fuzzy.

The spiritual danger here is that given the public roles of the persons we feel they are fair game for judgment so that we maintain the public standards of appropriate behavior. At the same time, given the way in which they have entered our private worlds, they become objects of gossip that is emotionally engaging in a way that allows us to feel morally superior.

My guess is that there is little chance that in an age of mass media that the public/private boundary will return. In the midst of these ambiguities let us reflect on the sins of celebrities not only with the public judgment that may be appropriate, but also with the knowledge that each of us has our own questionable corners and vulnerabilities to temptation. A helpful prayer I have found in Phyllis Tickle’s adaptations of The Offices of Daily Prayer:

God of justice, God of mercy, bless all those who are surprised with pain this day from suffering caused by their own weakness or that of others. Let what we suffer teach us to be merciful; let our sins teach us to forgive. This I ask through the intercession of Jesus and all who died forgiving those who oppressed them. Amen.

Betting on Cowardice

In a nearly unanimous vote the US Senate bet that their constituents were cowards. They decided that Americans would not be brave enough to accept Guantanamo detainees to be held in US prisons. The Senate concluded that rather than uphold American values of justice and ideals of due process, their constituents would prefer to continue to operate Guantanamo and undermine our international credibility. I hope they bet wrong, but I'm not so sure.