Rehashed Sermon, good thoughts and I wanted to pass them along

Jeremiah 31:15

Matthew 2:18

Genesis 29:30, 35:16

Rachel cries because love does not last.

All the good things in life fade: family, friends, places we love. They all fade and cease and there is nothing good or glamorous about it. We hate and we should hate it. Death is not natural, because the end of life and love is not natural. It is common, but we can’t accept it as natural, because something deep within us hates it and we know we should. This is why Rachel cries. The end of a life, the end of a nation, the untimely deaths we see all around us.

We see Rachel cry three times throughout the Bible.

First in Genesis 35, she cries at her death. Remember she was Jacob’s favorite wife and pregnant with her second child. The family had just recently relocated to his homeland for a better life. And in such an abrupt and untimely manner, it reads, she had great difficulty with her pregnancy and died. A son born and a love lost.

How do you make sense of something like that, other than by crying?

She cries again in Jeremiah 35:15. This time it is the loss of a nation. The capital was destroyed; homes and buildings were crushed all in the name of empire. Everyone lost a loved one or lived to see them stripped and humiliated. How do you make sense of this, other than by crying?

The third time we see her cry is in Matthew 2:18. At this point, a king decides to kill babies to hang on to his power. He sees that the next king has been born and he kills all of them within an age bracket and within a town. What sense does that make? What, a life born only to die? She cries and she refuses to be comforted.

Rachel is full of sorrow and we see that Rachel’s tears are our tears as well. Life ends and love dies. The places we remember crumble. Something inside of us fights this, but why if death is only a part of life?

One of the very few comforts I know is that someone hates death more than me and you. God himself hates it. In John 11, Lazarus dies. Jesus wept bitterly for his friend. He hates death. He hates the loss of love, because love should continue forever. There is nothing sweet in this. We find that Rachel’s tears are not only our tears, but God’s as well.

Because God cries for this, he also has something to say about it. He doesn’t stand back with his arms crossed, nonchalantly looking away from the pain of it all. He is not passive like that.

Here is what God says while Rachel cries in Jeremiah 35, [Dry your eyes and cry no more], they will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD.

Death is an enemy to all of us because he takes and refuses to be satisfied. He is an unnatural enemy one that we cannot defeat. But Jesus in his work died for us. He was sent away to the enemy’s land and defeated him by dying on our behalf. What love for us. And his death gives us life. His death takes away love lost because there is a hope that it can continue. There is hope that life continues in a land that will never fade or die. The hope of our hearts is true, it is not just a sentimental wish, but love can continue forever. And Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection not only makes this possible, but also give us evidence of the truth.

Jesus doesn’t just say I found the way to this everlasting life, but instead he says, I am the resurrection (John 11:25). 1 Peter 1 reads, “In his great mercy…[God provided] a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance [beautiful land] that can never perish, spoil, or fade – kept in heaven for you.”

Why do things happen as they do, I cannot say? Sometimes all we can do is cry. We can’t make light of or just try to forget the pain. Instead we cry. Rachel cries for hope, Jesus weeps over death, and we join them in the sadness, waiting for the day that all will be revealed and the beautiful land in which we hope will all be brought about by our Lord and Savior Jesus.

Biblicism

I read this blog about Counterfeit Gospels and it spurred on these thoughts. It is a short read and will help with the following.

I think I am able to comment on this because I am personally well acquainted with intellectual pride and such. So this comes about myself as much as anyone else.


Intellectualism/Biblicism

In the other blog, they define Biblicism as “I know my Bible inside and out, but I do not let it master me. I have reduced the gospel to a mastery of biblical content and theology, so I am intolerant and critical of those with lesser knowledge.” This is a bad thing and might lead to a bad end of your faith or of a church that centers on it.

And we see that this is a pride that not only happens with studying the Bible, but with any intellectual pursuit. It is a temptation for all of us, but I think especially those in seminary. So what does Biblicism look like and how can you move away from it.


There are several results of Biblicism in the life of a Christian, these might sound familiar to you as they did to me:

1. Us vs. Them - the us is everyone who agrees with you, the them is usually everyone else (even other Christians). You look down on other Christians because they do not REALLY study the Bible like you do.
   
   
2. Negative spirit - no one has it all down like you do
   
   
3. Dead End - Studying the Bible is your end not your means. The problem is that the Bible is meant to be a path to God (prayer and meditation are other spiritual disciplines for knowing God). The Bible is not the Ultimate, Jesus is the Ultimate. One must keep him in mind when you study or you are wasting your time.
   
   
4. God is distant - you know about him, but you do not experience him. He is someone to learn about, like George Washington. And like George, you never get to know him personally.
   
   
5. No Grace - there is no grace in Biblicism. You are earning your salvation by being smart enough. That is your work and it is just as legalistic as those who tried to combine keeping the law with grace in Galatians.
   

What to do about it: Pray. Here is an example. Also start letting the cross and grace permeate your life. Do not base your life on how much Bible you know. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Rely on the cross and rely on grace.

Prayer:
Lord, you were and are the most knowledgeable and intelligent being ever. You are the one who gave us our minds and our comprehension. By you Wisdom you created the earth and everything in it. You created the designs of nature, the intricacies of cells. You knew about strands of DNA before we could ever fathom such a thing. You also placed the stars in the skies and the planets in their orbit. And you care for your creation. When the birds calls out for food, they call to you and you provide. You are truly the God over all.


There is such a temptation Father to become proud when one becomes learned. But I know I must continually look to Jesus. He knew everything there is to know in the universe. But when he came down, he lived as a poor, homeless carpenter. He was certainly humbled. He spoke and many times no one listened. His family even thought he was crazy. Knowing all this I cannot hang on to my pride. In fact it is your word that teaches me that you oppose the proud and those who think themselves to be wise, but shine upon the humble.

With all this in mind, I reflect on your call to know you more. I know one path to know you is through your Word. What a gift you gave us with it. But this is not the end, because your word points to something outside itself. Therefore, knowing your word is not the end but the path. And the path is to know you more. I do want to know your word more, but not for the sake of becoming smarter than someone else. Instead I want to reflect on it more to know your character, to understand how you worked in the past, and then hopefully have the wisdom to understand how you are working in the present and will work in the future.

But Father when I learn, I want to always keep in mind that your word does not point to itself, but to you. It is to connect to you.

Father, may you also give me grace when I interact with others who likewise look to you for grace through your Son. I know just because we disagree that does not mean we are enemies. There is some basic level of family in the Greater Church. I do not want to throw that away because I think I know more about the Bible. I know that would hurt the kingdom and hurt you Lord Jesus. One part of the body calling another part trash. That is no way to follow you. I know Lord that reflecting on your work on the cross will keep us humble. I know reflecting on the grace you offer will keep us from becoming proud.

Lord, may you keep us humble, may you keep us in grace. We are not saved by works (good or bad) but by grace through faith.

Thank you Father for your Son and what he has done for us. Amen.

Choice pt. 2

Then why do I feel this
if it is right
three miles a day
why do we fight

If it is natural
and it is what it is
then why do we hate it
and cry it amiss

One says he thus spoke
Zarathustra
to the man on the tightrope
Fulfillment in job
and you are alright

And Mr. Russell says
it will all pass away
your neighbors, your kids,
it will all decay
Accept it. That's life
That's death

But I hate it,
I don't want it.
Why must it be?

Many see the God
who drives us form the tree
with sword, with fire,
closing Paradise shut.

But see he drives us again
He moved through the one
and calls us to redemption

He says hate it,
and hate it well.
It is unnatural

Come home
Find fulfillment in me
I have prepared a place for you
under this shaded tree.

Choice

How do you look at death?  Here are a few options:

"I have long known that the devil would trip me. Now he will drag me to hell. Would you prevent him?"

'"By my honor, friend," answered Zarathustra, "all that of which you speak does not exist: there is no devil and no hell. Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further."

The man looked up suspiciously. "If you speak the truth," he said, "I lose nothing when I lose my life. I am not much more than a beast that has been taught to dance by blows and a few meager morsels."

"By no means," said Zarathustra. "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands."

When Zarathustra had said this, the dying man answered no more; but he moved his hand as if he sought Zarathustra's hand in thanks. (Thus Spake 20)

Translation: There is no heaven or hell. In the end there is no judgment. There is honor in life when you live honorably. Don't shed tears over the end.



Here is another option:

"[With death] no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined for extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins." (Bertrand Russell)

Translation: Again shed no tear or drop of sweat over death. There is nothing to fear because there is nothing. Accept be a man about it, but keep living for now.



Here is another option:

Death frightens us all. It is an unknown abyss. There might be a judge at the ground floor, a doorman, or nothing at all. In any case it scares us. We can try to laugh it off, like Woody Allen (It's not that I am afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens), but the fear remains.

Something inside of us longs, even demands for life and love to last. If this is it, love is a tease. And the only way we can ever know one way or another is if someone stood outside the all of humanity's house of life and death and told us what it was like outside.

Jesus tasted life and death. He entered the house, experienced life and death, and now stands outside, the conquering one. He frees us from the fear of death by offering a life that continues. He can only do this because he died the death we should have died. But now there is no fear, life and love can continue like we long for them to.

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (Hebrews 2)

You can probably guess which one I choose.