New Time Same Call

God Remembers

Habakkuk 3:2; Luke 4:16ff.

It is an interesting time to be a Presbyterian. I think that will be my mantra for the remainder of the year. The Church is changing. Some folks are excited about the change, while others are, frankly, frightened by the change. The rules by which we live, approach other people, and use to set standards for leading a worthy life are shifting. Some, like my children, in their 20s, see nothing to this trend—it happens; they are already miles down the road within this world as it is, while some of us, hanging far back, are completely uncertain about what any of it means. So, life is interesting…

As we look for a way to manage all of these changes, I am drawn to the prophet Habakkuk. This fairly unfamiliar voice preached about the same time as Jeremiah, but his theme was far different—he has no idea what God is up to; the world seems off kilter—good people suffer, bad people rise to power; there seems to be general confusion about what any of it means, and he really does wonder if God has forgotten everything God promised to be and to do. He might well have preached last week! But even as he launches into his general anxious wondering, he assures himself that he may not see everything that is there—God will remember—the history of God’s mighty works prove it—again and again, God intervenes, interrupts, and intercedes for us. 

Even in the most interesting of times.

But there is something we have to keep in mind. To discover what that is, we turn to the story of Jesus. 

Jesus appeared and met general confusion about who he was. The religious community had a terrible time in particular discerning who he was. He arrives, appears to fulfill many of the prophetic indicators of being the Messiah, but in so many other ways completely confounds those promises. Listen to his first sermon—he fulfills the wondrous promise of Jubilee (cf. Lev. 25, Is. 61:1-5); yet, he immediately turns the tables on the congregation to explain why they do not see it, experience it, or grasp what is happening, leading to an uproar that nearly sees him tossed over a cliff by people who raised him! 

There is a point to the confusion, though—it is an intentional act of God. God chooses to confound conventional wisdom built on assumption and presumption because that conventional wisdom has replaced a real and actual relationship to God. 

I think we could say the same thing as we look at our Presbyterian church at the moment. Things really are shifting. Things are shifting that confound what had always been conventional for us born and bred within the church. There seems to be something afoot that undermines the institution as it is. Last week, I mentioned lots of new and fascinating ways to be the Church in the 21st Century—none of which look like us here this morning. This week, we made the national news as our denomination entered a new way of encountering the very real modern world, allowing for pastors and churches in certain places and times to perform same-sex marriages. 

Could it be that God is confounding us on purpose?

Of course, Point 1 is to see God in any of this at all. That eludes some of us. This all seems a human thing, an acquiescence to a culture gone wandering. Yet, as a faith community, we cannot remove God from the moment. We confess in our gathering that God is here—that means now, that means in what is happening, and that means we have to try and find God. God is here. 

Now—how is God here? I believe—and I mean this sincerely—I believe that God is challenging us to shift how we practice our faith from a practice of moralism (faith defined as obedience to preset rules that we can mark off as done) to a praxis of grace, mercy, and love, something that inevitably leads to ambiguity. However, I also firmly believe the Bible shows the way—

Matthew

Matthew’s model is a God-centered fellowship whose main objective is creating relationships to God through obedience to God’s dictums of love. Ergo, in the Sermon on the Mount, the basic laws of Moses are transcended to put the love behind them in primary focus. The point is to connect human beings by helping them to see one another as God sees them. The Church will provide an architecture for human interaction that values self-emptying presence with other human beings in compassionate care. You will behave, but with the end being full communion with one another. 

PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR EVERYDAY LIVING THAT IS CHRIST EMBODIED.

Mark

Mark’s model is simple—the congregation as witness. The church of Jesus will use all its energy, resources, and effort to bring Christ into full view. It’s primary task is proclamation. It will speak through teaching, preaching, and compassionate care. In all of those activities, it will point away from itself to Jesus—he is why we speak; he forms what we speak; and he leads how we act on what we speak. 

TO GET THE WORD OUT IN ANY WAY ANYONE FEELS CALLED TO DO SO.

Luke

Luke’s model is inclusion. The Church will be the place where all are welcome, i.e., ALL. In Luke’s understanding, Jesus’ entire ministry was on finding the lost, bringing them into God’s fold, and empowering them to go and do likewise. Noting that Luke’s Gospel includes a model of the Church in Acts, we see how Jesus is taken on by the fellowship of his name. It will speak any language necessary to communicate God’s love. It will willingly and readily sacrifice self (…they had all things in common, and everyone had enough…) on every level to offer Christ to the world, even if that means the ultimate sacrifice (e.g., St. Stephen). Welcome will define all interactions the world—Ethiopians, eunuchs, women, prisoners, Athenians, jailers, etc.—it will work until EVERYONE is inside. 

TO WELCOME ANYONE WHO WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR.

John

John’s model is communion through understanding—understanding who God is, who Jesus is, and who we are in relation to both. John’s Jesus has little or no patience with the institution of the Church. It has become hidebound in itself—it’s rules, it’s theology, it’s presence, completely losing sight of God. It misses the essential presence of God—for God so loved the world… As a result, the Church no longer serves its primary function

—feed my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs. The Church is the place where all become one through the acceptance of Jesus as God’s instrument of communion. 

TO KNOW GOD SO WELL WE CAN KNOW ONE ANOTHER.

As we look at these examples, we find God remembers all that God promised, from creation forward. Accept this as good news. There is a firm foundation from which to live.