The Road to Redemption – Worship 3

    The story of God's people Israel is one of transition. They begin as a nomadic people wandering from place to place trying to graze their sheep and live in peace (circa 1500 BCE). This nomadic life gives way to a more settled existence after their liberation and migration from Egypt (circa 1200 BCE). The next transition in their lives, which took place under King David (circa 1000 BCE) begins to center around a few cities and larger settlements. When David conquers Jerusalem and proclaims it as his city and the capital of the nation the still rather agrarian populace begin to gain a greater sense of nationality rather than tribal identity; though as the story of Israel unfolds, the tribal identity will still win out after the death of David's son Solomon.

    What might you ask does this short history have to do with worship? The answer is that even as the nation was becoming more settled and centralized, there was a push to centralize worship as well. The sacrificial system which we discussed last week, consisting of Sabbath, weekly sacrifices and annual festivals was led by the priests in local villages and at cultic sites around the countryside. There was no centralized religious structure that regulated all aspects of this worship. The result of this was two-fold.

First there was a great deal of religious independence which allowed for a mixing of religious customs and traditions. Thus the Israelites would often worship the gods of their neighbors along with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This religious syncretism meant that some of the worship in which the people engaged (cult prostitution and child sacrifice) was the exact opposite of the worship and manner of life desired by YHWH.

Second, because there was no centralized worship it meant that the central government in Jerusalem could exert less control over the people in the outlying areas. As with any government, David and his offspring desired to control the people in such a way as to enhance their own claim to kingship. Under David we witness the first efforts to consolidate worship in Jerusalem. David does this by bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The Ark was a cultic symbol which had been the focus of worship by the Israelite people during their nomadic journeys. It was the symbol of God's presence with the people as they left Egypt. By bringing this religious relic into the city, David began to focus religious power and thus worship within the sphere of his own power.

This consolidation of worship and religious authority continued under David's son Solomon as Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem. The purpose of the Temple was twofold. First, as we have been discussing, it was to consolidate religious observances (mainly sacrifices) in one place in order that the nation had to look toward Jerusalem for its religious center. This meant that there began to be a drive to destroy all of the outlying shrines at which sacrifices had been given. These included places such as Bethel which was an ancient Israelite shrine. Second it was intended to regulate the sacrificial system so that there was consistency in religious practice. One thing that we need to remember is that during this time there were no local gatherings for worship as we think of worship (synagogue or church).

It was during this period that the Psalms began to be used in Temple worship. Levites would recite particular Psalms during offerings, festivals and at the beginning of each new month. In addition there were ritual prayers which were offered. The best known was the Shema, which began, "Hear O Israel the Lord, the Lord is our God; the Lord is One." This prayer is still in use today. Finally there were blessings which the priests would bestow upon the people as they arrived and as they left the Temple. In essence the Temple allowed for the creation of a semi-official liturgy which was to be used by God's people.

As we shall see next week, this centralization of worship was resisted and ultimately defeated by the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians.

The Road to Redemption: Spiritual Disciplines – Worship 1

    Last week we examined the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control) which emerges in our lives the more we align our lives with Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. The concept of spiritual disciplines is that they are practices which help us align ourselves with Jesus. Spiritual disciplines also assist us in aligning our hearts with God such that our daily decisions become more and more Christ-like.

    The idea of spiritual practices is an ancient one and bridges the gap between Judaism and the church. Many of these disciplines are also part of other religions and their practices. Over the next several months we will be examining these practices from both the Biblical historical and modern practices points of view. We begin with the most important spiritual discipline…worship.

    The most basic definition of worship (from Wikipedia) is that it is an act of religious devotion toward a deity. Devotion would be the act of an individual or a community physically, mentally, and emotionally orienting themselves toward a deity and performing actions which imply that the deity is worthy of their commitment of time, energy and resources. It would also imply that the deity will bless and protect the people who worship them. The religions present at the time of the emergence of the people of Israel followed this pattern of worship. Individuals, tribes or nations would have a god or gods whom they worshipped and to whom they looked for support and protection

    The first mention of worship in the Old Testament comes in the Abraham story in Genesis. God appears to Abraham and asks him to pack up the family and go on a journey. Chances are that Abraham came from an area which was replete with gods and goddess (the Fertile Crescent). By choosing to follow this one God Abraham was orienting himself toward God and performing actions which implied that this deity was worth following. The first act of worship which might seem familiar to us occurs in Genesis 12:7 when Abraham builds an altar for the worship of the God who had called him to this journey and had made him a promise that the land would be his.

    The understanding of worship takes a great leap in Genesis 14:17-20 in which we meet the mysterious Melchizedek, King of Salem (modern Jerusalem). Abraham has just been victorious in battle and upon returning to the area around Salem encounters Melchizedek who is not only a king but a priest of the God Most High (el Elyon). This phrase for God Most High is used more than 20 times in the Psalms to refer to the God of Israel. Whether that is the exact intent of this Genesis passage is unclear, but the New Testament Book of Hebrews takes up this idea and expands on it by declaring that Melchizedek was indeed a priest of the one and only God. In this episode Melchizedek brings forth bread and wine and blesses Abraham in the name of the Most High God who is the maker of heaven and earth. Abraham then gives to the king a tenth (a tithe) of all that Abraham had taken in battle. This tithe is intended as an act of worshipful appreciation to the Most High God. This is followed by Abraham declaring that he has sworn to this Most High God that he would not take anything that God had not given him (spoils of battle) because God alone has made Abraham rich.

    What we also discover however in the Genesis narratives is that Abraham's family was not monotheistic; that they worshipped other gods. We can see this clearly in Genesis 31:25-35 when Rachael steals the household gods of her father Laban and takes them with her when she and Jacob flee Laban's house. We can assume that Rachael believed these gods were worthy of her devotion because she was willing to risk life and limb to steal them.

    In these early narratives while we see worship emerging, the acts of worship have only a basic ritual: create an altar, give gifts and allegiance to God (or still at this time gods). Worship has not yet been formalized. We will watch its continuing emergence next week.

    

The Road to Redemption – Worship 6

    Our historical examination of Jewish worship has finally led us to the time of Jesus and the early church. The worship milieu in which they found themselves was diverse and contentious. There were those for whom Temple worship with all of its sacrificial offerings was the primary mode of worship. For others who lived far from Jerusalem, the local synagogue had become the center of worship. For still others worship was about daily faithfulness to God (meaning keeping all of the rules and regulations of the Torah) with only a nod to the Temple or the synagogue. In other words there was no consensus as to what right worship looked like. We can see this in the Jesus' stories contained within the New Testament where we witness Jesus teaching in the Temple, in synagogues and out in the country side, where he offers visions of right living and right worship (the Sermon on the Mount is one such example).

    This struggle over the right way to worship will continue within the early Christian church. In the Book of Acts we read that, following Jesus' resurrection and ascension, the disciples worshiped in the Temple, in synagogues (especially Paul on all of his travels) and in homes. This makes sense because at the outset of the church, the followers of Jesus understood themselves as messianic Jews; Jews who had found the messiah. This meant that they ought to continue with the traditions in which they had been brought up; Temple, synagogue and Law. They saw nothing wrong with this. In fact their worship in homes followed very closely the worship patterns of the synagogue.

Though we do not have any worship bulletins left over from a First Century synagogue service we know that there were certain acts of worship which were only allowed to take place within the a Jewish community which had ten males present (which is the requirement for a synagogue). The first act of worship was saying the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) which is the declaration that there is only one God. This was to be repeated twice daily; a practice which was part of the Temple ritual. The second was saying the Tefillah prayer which contained 18 separate sections and was to be prayed three times a day. This prayer also had its roots in Temple worship. Next came the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) which was used by priests in the Temple. Next was the reading of the Torah. Some scholars have speculated that it was this part of the service that was the central foundation of the synagogue. We can see this in Luke 4:16 ff where Jesus reads and comments on scripture. Finally there was the saying of the Kaddish which was a prayer asking God to establish God's kingdom on earth. This prayer formed the basis for the Lord's Prayer. In addition many synagogues chanted Psalms 145-150 as part of worship. If we were to summarize synagogue worship, it would be pray, chant, read and expound on scripture, and pray again.

We can see these same practices in descriptions of early church worship both in the book of Acts and in the writings of the early church fathers. In Acts 2:42, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Here we have the two main aspects of synagogue worship, prayer and teaching, combined with sharing a meal. The breaking of bread was the one truly Christ-centered addition made to early Christian worship. At first this was called the agape meal/love feast; a meal sacrificially shared by all (I Corinthians 11:17-22). Over time however the agape meal/love feast morphed into the Eucharist (Lord's Supper) which was centered around the actions of Jesus and the disciples in the upper room (I Corinthians 11:23-26). In terms of music in worship Paul reminds his fellow believers that they were to speak, "to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:19a)

As you can see, the basic elements of modern Christian worship were in place almost two-thousand years ago. The differences that exist today between various denominations concern the focus and intent of worship rather than its basic components.

The Road to Redemption – Worship 5

    We left our story of the worship life of Israel with the people of the southern kingdom Judah going into exile around 582 BCE. As was mentioned, the Temple which had been the heart of their worshipping life had been utterly destroyed. We can hear the echoes of the despair this destruction caused when we read Psalm 137:1, 5-6.

By the rivers of Babylon—
    there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

The questions for the exiles were numerous; why would God have allowed this to happen? If we performed the ritual sacrifices appropriately why would God allow the Babylonians to conquer us? How then can we worship without the sacrifices? How can we be forgiven without the appropriate services and ceremonies which had been part of our religious life for almost 500 years?

    Answers to the why questions were given by the prophets; the people had failed to live according the Law of Moses (meaning to love God and neighbor). They had gone after other gods and had abused the poor and the stranger. This realization offered the people in exile a way in which to answer the how questions and worship without the Temple and its sacrificial system; worship was to be as much about right living as it was about sacrifices. The Israelites in Babylon began to move their focus away from sacrifices and toward the practices of piety contained within the Law of Moses (Torah). While the exile only lasted about 30 or so years (the first return came in 549 BCE), many Jews settled in Babylon and developed a set of practices which would insure that they were living their faith in a way that pleased God. Though the book of Daniel was written more than 300 years later, the stories it contains give us a glimpse of this changing religious landscape in which prayer and pietistic living became the hallmarks of worship.

    The Israelites began returning home around 549 and came back in at least three major waves. The second and third waves focused on rebuilding the Temple (thus "the second Temple") and the city of Jerusalem. By their focus on rebuilding the Temple it is apparent that the people of Israel still yearned for its sacrificial system. Even with a shift towards prayer and piety thirty years had not allowed enough time to change their fundamental understanding of how worship was to work. The second temple was completed in 516 BCE. Even though it was a shadow of its former self, it allowed for the sacrificial system to resume. Along with the reinstitution of the sacrificial system however, the people in Judea understood that they had to institute a much stricter adherence to the Torah. If indeed the destruction of the nation had come about because of a lack of daily faithfulness then it was incumbent upon God's people to insure that their day to day lives reflected their faith. Thus, many of the practices developed in exile became part of their worship lives in a restored nation.

    The two most significant long-term changes which occurred during this restoration period were the rise of the rabbis, or teachers, and the development of synagogues. If it was truly important for people to live their faith as daily worship then they would need someone to teach that faith and a place to practice it. The rabbis took on the teaching task and synagogues became places in which to learn about and practice piety. While the rise of the rabbis and synagogues was a rather late development in this period (much closer to the time of Jesus than the time of the return from exile) its roots can be found in the returning exiles desire to live worshipfully in daily life. This development of the rabbi/synagogue forms the basis for the worship life of the early church…which we will begin to explore next week.

    

The Road to Redemption – Worship 4

    Two weeks ago we looked at the changing nature of Israelite worship. We noted that it was moving from being a locally based faith (worship in various places with a wide variety of leaders) to a more centrally based worship in Jerusalem. This was occurring around 1000 BCE as King David was consolidating both political and religious power. This centralization of worship became even more pronounced when Solomon, David's son and heir, constructed the First Temple. Depending on whether one is reading the books of Kings or Chronicles, this building project was a vision given directly to Solomon (I Kings 5) or to David who passed it on to his son (I Chronicles 17). Regardless of who first got the orders the Temple was built and the sacrificial regulations of the Torah were fully instituted. Unfortunately for Israel, Solomon, as he grew older, began to incorporate the idols of other cultures into the Temple. He did this in order to ameliorate his many foreign wives (married for political purposes) and their desires to worship their gods.

The focus of worship at the Temple for all Israelites lasted only a single generation. Following Solomon's death (931 BCE) the nation was divided between north (Israel) and south (Judah). While the southern kingdom continued to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, the northern kingdom knew that in order to maintain its independence it needed worship locations of its own. Thus the new northern king, Jeroboam, had two golden calves made (sound familiar) and placed one at Bethel and one at Dan (I Kings 12). In addition he constructed Temples for worship, appointed priests and set a new calendar for offering sacrifices. Over time worship in both Judah and Israel vacillated between faithful and unfaithful practices. Some kings (Josiah and Hezekiah) made efforts to purify worship while others (too many to name) worshipped the gods and goddesses of their neighbors. In addition both worshipping communities came to see the offering of sacrifices not as a way to be in relationship with God, but as magic. In other words if the people gave their sacrifices it meant that God would automatically give them everything they wanted.

During this period there arose prophets who were tasked with maintaining right worship of YHWY, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who had self-revealed to Moses. The Bible contains their stories and for many, their proclamations. The prophets came from a variety of occupations; some were priests and while at least one was a shepherd. For many of them, all we know about them is their names. Most prophets worked in only one of the two kingdoms. Their task was to remind the leaders about what faithfulness in worship meant; meaning not merely giving the correct sacrifices but living according to the Law of Moses. This is a point that needs to be made clear. Worship for Israel was never simply about sacrifices and singing Psalms. Worship was a complete life orientation. Worship was what one did on a day by day basis. Appropriate worship meant that one loved God and neighbor. Appropriate worship meant that one tried one's best to obey all of the Law.

Centralized worship began to vanish in the northern kingdom when it was conquered by Assyria in 720 BCE. Most of the Israelite population was carried off and vanished from history. The area was settled by peoples brought in by the Assyrian government. What is interesting however is that remnants of worship of YHWH survived and would ultimately influence religious development in that area. Centralized worship in the southern kingdom initially came to an end when Judah was conquered by Babylon in 582 BCE. This conquest brought about the destruction of the Temple and the deportation of the leaders of the nation. The destruction of the Temple forced the people of God to begin to ask how they could still be a worshipping community with a sacrificial system. The results of this struggle would ultimately serve the nation well when the second Temple is destroyed by the Romans. But more about that next week.

The Road to Redemption - Worship 2

    Last week we looked at early Israelite worship. It appeared to be rather basic: create an altar and then give gifts and allegiance to God. This type of worship and the rituals that accompanied it connected the Israelites with most of the people around them. The story of the golden calf makes this clear. In Exodus 32 the people have been waiting for Moses to come down from Mt. Sinai and his meeting with the god who had led them out of Egypt. When Moses does not return as expected the people decide that they need a new god. The people melt down their gold, make a calf-god and create and altar before which to worship it. This was the process; adopt/create a god, build an altar then worship.

    What happens next however would change (or at least try to change) Israelite worship forever. As the story goes, God saw what was happening in the Israelite camp and sent Moses back with the Law, meaning the Ten Commandments plus lots of other rules and regulations. After a rather unpleasant confrontation Moses gets down to the business of organizing the religious life of the people of Israel. This reorganization begins with a renewal of the covenant between God and the people of Israel; a covenant in which each side makes vows of singular allegiance. The God of the Exodus would be the only God for the Israelite people to worship and the Israelite people would be God's chosen community. This covenant is unique among all ancient people; that a people would worship one god and one god only.

    The worship of the people of Israel then unfolds in two main ways. The first is the institution of a series of festivals which focus on the work and gifts of God. First and foremost is the Sabbath. The Sabbath (the seventh day) is to be a day consecrated to rest in order to remember God as creator (Genesis 2:3) and as redeemer (Deut. 5:12-15). While there were no specific rituals associated with the Sabbath (such as singing or praying) the intent was to acknowledge the covenant relationship between God and God's people. Resting then was worship. Three other annual feasts were also part of the worship cycle. These were Passover (remembering God's liberating actions which freed the people from bondage), the Feast of Weeks (to celebrate God's gift of a good harvest) and the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (which celebrated the end of the agricultural year as well as offered a reminder of God's provision in the wilderness). Each of these celebrations had particular rituals associated with them.

    The second way in which the worship of the people of God unfolds is in the sacrificial system which is laid out in the Law. The Israelite sacrificial system included daily and monthly offerings. The sacrifices were divided between blood sacrifices (the sacrifices of animals) and bloodless offerings (which consist of grain or oil). The blood sacrifices can be further divided between burnt offerings (the animal is completely burned up), guilt offerings (in which the animal was cooked with some left for the priests) and peace offerings (in which some of the animal is burned up and the rest shared under ritually clean conditions). The grain offerings were partially burned on the altar as well, with the remainder going to the priests. Any animal brought to be slaughtered and burned was supposed to be perfect. The grain and the oil brought were to be from the First Fruits of production. This perfection was intended to insure that the Israelite people were giving to God the best of what they had because God had given God's best (freedom and food) to them.

    What I want to clarify at this point is that the Israelite sacrificial system, unlike virtually all other ancient sacrificial systems, was neither intended to be magical (trying to make God bring the rain, etc.) nor intended to appease God's anger. Israelite worship was a grateful response to what God had already done and would continue to do because of God's covenant promises. The system was, along with the festivals, a way of orienting God's people to God's life-giving covenant.

    

The Road to Redemption – Easter

    For Christians, Easter is "the" Holy Day. While Christmas has become the most celebrated of Christian holy days, it is not as significant as Easter. I say this because the resurrection of Jesus (the basis of Easter) has been central to the church from her inception. The resurrection forms the basis for Paul's letters, the Gospels and most other New Testament books. The birth of Jesus on the other hand occupies only minimal space in two of the Gospels. As many commentators have pointed out, you could "do" Christian theology without the birth narratives but you could not do it without the resurrection.

    The resurrection has always been a bit unexpected. The resurrection was an unexpected event for the disciples. Regardless of the fact that, at least according to the Gospels, Jesus spoke of his dying and rising, the disciples could not follow this line of thought. They could not follow it because it made no sense. Resurrection, while a staple of First Century Judaic thought, was something that would happen at the end of time. In other words, when God's final kingdom broke into the world, then all of humanity would be raised from the dead; the resurrection would happen.

    When Jesus was tried and crucified the disciples assumed that he had failed. They questioned their involvement with him and returned to their former lives. While they were changed by Jesus' teachings it is apparent that they gave up hope of God's kingdom breaking into the world. This becomes very clear in that even when the women tell the disciples that Jesus is raised, the disciples refuse to believe them. It is only after their own encounters with Jesus that they too believe that Jesus has been raised. The resurrection then and not Jesus' teachings formed the initial core of the Christian faith.

    It is assumed that the earliest Jewish Christians, while making the resurrection the center of their weekly worship, also initiated an annual resurrection remembrance in conjunction with Passover. While we do not have any definitive descriptions of such an event it is not long before Easter appears as its own Holy Day. The actual celebration of a specific holy day is not mentioned until the mid-second century. There is an Easter homily by Melito of Sardis (d.180 CE) which implies that the celebration of Easter was an established tradition.

    The celebration of Easter as a holy day was initially rejected by many of the Reformed churches (including Presbyterians). It was rejected first because every Sunday was the weekly celebration of the resurrection. It was rejected secondarily because it had taken on many pagan concepts which, in the minds of the Reformers, skewed the true meaning of the resurrection. Finally they rejected it because the celebration was not specifically mentioned in the New Testament. In fact Dr. Samuel Miller writing in 1835 from his post as professor at Princeton Seminary stated categorically that "Presbyterians do not observe Holy Days." However, this proclamation proved to be relatively short lived.

    Over the course of the next fifty years members of Presbyterian churches loved the celebrations of Christmas and Easter so much that they often sneaked off to other churches in order to celebrate those Holy Days. This movement was followed in 1855 by the publication of Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies, by Charles Baird. In this work Baird rediscovered the liturgies of Calvin and other Reformers. He even noted that Calvin had, on occasion, celebrated Christmas. In 1885 A Presbyterian Prayer Book for Public Worship, by Comegys was published. While not completely embracing the church year (including Christmas and Easter) it moved the church in that direction. Finally in 1906 the Presbyterian Church officially endorsed (on a voluntary basis) the reintroduction of Easter as part and parcel of our worshipping life with the publication of its first official Book of Common Worship.

    The gift of our Easter celebration today is that we are tied together with believers around the world and across more than 2,000 years in remembering the unexpected resurrection of Jesus and the life that brings.

    

The Road to Redemption: Spiritual Disciplines – Worship 1

    Last week we examined the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control) which emerges in our lives the more we align our lives with Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. The concept of spiritual disciplines is that they are practices which help us with this alignment process. Spiritual disciplines also assist us in aligning our hearts with God such that our daily decisions become more and more Christ-like.

    The idea of spiritual practices is an ancient one and bridges the gap between Judaism and the church. Many of these disciplines are also part of other religions and their practices. Over the next several months we will be examining these practices from both the Biblical historical and modern practices points of view. We begin with the most important spiritual discipline…worship.

    The most basic definition of worship (from Wikipedia) is that it is an act of religious devotion toward a deity. Devotion would be the act of an individual or a community physically, mentally, and emotionally orienting themselves toward a deity and performing actions which imply that the deity is worthy of their commitment of time, energy and resources. It would also imply that the deity will bless and protect the people who worship them. The religions present at the time of the emergence of the people of Israel followed this pattern of worship. Individuals, tribes or nations would have a god or gods whom they worshipped and to whom they looked for support and protection

    The first mention of worship in the Old Testament comes in the Abraham story in Genesis. God appears to Abraham and asks him to pack up the family and go on a journey. Chances are that Abraham came from an area which was replete with gods and goddess (the Fertile Crescent). By choosing to follow this one God Abraham was orienting himself toward God and performing actions which implied that this deity was worth following. The first act of worship which might seem familiar to us occurs in Genesis 12:7 when Abraham builds an altar for the worship of the God who had called him to this journey and had made him a promise that the land would be his.

    The understanding of worship takes a great leap in Genesis 14:17-20 in which we meet the mysterious Melchizedek, King of Salem (modern Jerusalem). Abraham has just been victorious in battle and upon returning to the area around Salem encounters Melchizedek who is not only a king but a priest of the God Most High (el Elyon). This phrase for God Most High is used more than 20 times in the Psalms to refer to the God of Israel. Whether that is the exact intent of this Genesis passage is unclear, but the New Testament Book of Hebrews takes up this idea and expands on it by declaring that Melchizedek was indeed a priest of the one and only God. In this episode Melchizedek brings forth bread and wine and blesses Abraham in the name of the Most High God who is the maker of heaven and earth. Abraham then gives to the king a tenth (a tithe) of all that Abraham had taken in battle. This tithe is intended as an act of worshipful appreciation to the Most High God. This is followed by Abraham declaring that he has sworn to this Most High God that he would not take anything that God had not given him (spoils of battle) because God alone has made Abraham rich.

    What we also discover however in the Genesis narratives is that Abraham's family was not monotheistic; that they worshipped other gods. We can see this clearly in Genesis 31:25-35 when Rachael steals the household gods of her father Laban and takes them with her when she and Jacob flee Laban's house. We can assume that Rachael believed these gods were worthy of her devotion because she was willing to risk life and limb to steal them.

    In these early narratives while we see worship emerging, the acts of worship have only a basic ritual: create an altar, give gifts and allegiance to God (or still at this time gods). Worship has not yet been formalized. We will watch its continuing emergence next week.

    

The Road to Redemption – Fruit of the Spirit

    Over the past several weeks we have been looking at Spiritual gifts; those gifts which God gives in order to empower us to carry out the tasks that are necessary for the church to truly be the body of Christ. We discovered that every person has at least one spiritual gift and that no one has them all. While this may seem a bit unfair that some people have more gifts than others we need to remember two things. First, all gifts are given for the glory of God and the good of the church…not the gain of the individual. Second, where the Holy Spirit is at work people are changed and the fruit of the Spirit is produced in everyone who believes.

    The Apostle Paul in his letter to the churches in Galatia (an area in what we now call Turkey) offers a contrast between living by the "flesh" and by the "spirit." Living by the flesh refers to the human tendency to take our human attributes (sexuality, emotions, etc.) and use them in destructive ways. Living by the Spirit means allowing God to help us take those same attributes and use them in appropriate and life giving ways. By allowing the Spirit control, Paul argues, positive outcomes will be produced; or as he calls them, the fruit of the Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:22-25)

    Note that Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit and not the fruits. What he is telling us is that unlike the gifts of the Spirit which are variously distributed, the fruit of the Spirit comes as a complete package. In other words if we allow the Spirit to play an active role in our lives then the fruit, in all of its manifestations will be evident in our thoughts, words and deeds. Let's take a look then at the manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit.

    Love – love is the only fruit of the Spirit which is also a gift of the Spirit. Love as referred to here is "agape" love; meaning sacrificial or servant love which causes us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

    Joy – joy is different from happiness. We live in a world which places much emphasis on happiness…but happiness is fleeting. It is based on what we have at the moment. It can come and go. Joy is constant. It is that sense of knowing that we are always loved and cherished by God; that we matter.

    Peace – the Greek term here corresponds to the Hebrew word Shalom which means a sense of both inner and outer peace; that even when the world seems to be falling apart around us we do not have to fear because we know that in life and death we belong to God in Christ.

    Forbearance – this term is often translated as patience. I believe that forbearance works better because the term means a willingness to stand fast in the face of difficult times. In a sense this is an active effort rather than a passive waiting and being patient.

    Kindness – when we allow the Spirit to work it softens our hearts such that we can see and respond to the needs of others. We set aside any judgments and offer our assistance.

    Goodness - this is a quality of being morally upright in all actions and decisions; that when an easier but less honorable course is offered, goodness requires us to choose the more difficult way.

    Faithfulness – another way to understand this term is "commitment." Faithfulness allows us to commit ourselves over the long term to following Jesus and living a life of faith.

    Gentleness – this is similar to the meekness Jesus describes in the Beatitudes; meaning possessing the strength to maintain an even tempered, unpretentious and caring spirit.

    Self-control – this is the ability to regulate one's behavior in a Christ-like way the face of those persons and events that might otherwise cause us to lose control.

        

The Road to Redemption – Spiritual Gifts 5

    For those of you who have read the past several articles about the gifts of the Spirit it would seem that we have come to the end of the discussion. We looked at the reasons for gifts of the Spirit; equipping Jesus' followers with the abilities necessary to insuring that the church can indeed become the living expression of Christ. We looked at the fact that equipping by the Spirit was not new to the New Testament but that God had equipped individuals (prophets, priests and other leaders) throughout the Old Testament. We looked at the three major listings of Spiritual gifts in the letters of Paul and examined each gift individually. So what else is there to do? The answer is that there is one gift which is often overlooked because it is listed separately from the rest; the Spiritual gift of love.

    In his first letter to the church at Corinth Paul offers a list of Spiritual gifts. . "4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." (I Corinthians 12:4-11) Most people believe that the Apostle's discussion of gifts ends here, but it does not.

    Paul, as any good writer would do, saves the best gift for last. The issue within the church at Corinth was that the church members were arguing about whose gifts were best and which gifts matter the most. For some speaking in tongues was the most important gift while others argued that being an apostle was the most important gift and…well you get the point. Paul attempts to address this at the end of the spiritual gifts discussion when he states that not only are people differently gifted but that there is in fact only one gift that is greater than all the others; the gift of love. He writes, "But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…." (I Corinthians 12:31-13:1) The Apostle continues with an entire chapter about the importance of love.

This discussion lets the Corinthians know that even the most amazing gifts including speaking in tongues, prophecy, discernment and even martyrdom are absolutely nothing if love is not evident. He continues by telling them that all of the amazing gifts which people want to claim as the greatest will eventually vanish. In the return of Jesus and the establishment of the Kingdom of God they will not even be necessary. The only ones that will remain are faith, hope and love…with the greatest being love.

This discussion also informs the Corinthians about the nature of the Spiritual gift of love. " ⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (I Corinthians 13:4-7) In other words the greatest Spiritual Gift is the one which the Corinthians need the most but seek the least. In a congregation divided by class, wealth, partisanship and gift pride Paul reminds them that unless they possess and use the gift of love all of their other gifts will be useless; those gifts will not help the Corinthians become the Jesus' centered community God is calling them to be.

While this chapter (I Corinthians 13) is often read at weddings because of its focus on love, it is really meant for the church. It is meant for the church as a powerful reminder that the church is a living spiritual organism in which all parts/gifts are necessary and of equal importance and that it is ultimately and only bound together by one gift: love.

The Road to Redemption – Spiritual Gifts 4

    Last week we examined the first half of the list of Spiritual gifts. As a reminder here is the listing of the passages that contain references to spiritual gifts and the list of gifts; Romans 12:6ff, I Corinthians 12:4ff and Ephesians 4:11. The gifts are prophecy (in all three lists), ministry, teaching (in two lists), exhortation, giving, leading, compassion, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, tongues, apostles, evangelists and pastors. As we discovered, the first half of the list (ending with knowledge) contains the gifts with which most of us are familiar and are used in the everyday life of the church. Most of us would have no problem with acknowledging that those gifts are still operative. It is much of the second half of the list which troubles us. When we begin to talk about gifts such as miracles and healing we might feel a bit uncomfortable. If that is the case we are not alone.

    The Reformed Tradition (Presbyterians, Reformed churches, and some Baptists) of which we are a part declared that many of the gifts on the second half of our list were no longer operative. While those gifts may have been active during the early days of the church (in the book of Acts) they ceased with the death of the last of the original disciples. My own personal opinion is that all the gifts are still operative, though perhaps not as common. So on to the gifts.

    Faith – this gift does not refer simply to the faith that all individuals have in God and Jesus. This is the kind of faith that is unwavering in the face of every test and trial. This is the kind of faith upon which others can depend and draw strength from.

    Healing – this is the first of what seem to us to be extraordinary gifts. Healing refers to the ability to be a channel for God's power in such a way that others are physically and emotionally healed. This does not refer to the work of physicians or therapists, but to supernatural healing.

    Miracles – though we are familiar with the miracles of Jesus (feeding five-thousand, etc.) we are hesitant to believe those miracles can still happen today. In the church in Africa however, miracles and healing are an integral part of the Christian experience. In fact many African Christians wonder how the church can be the church without miracles being an active gift…so in some ways context matters.

    Discernment – this gift refers to the ability to see through the "masks" with which individuals clothe their words and actions in order to sense if there is good or evil behind them. Discernment gives the church the ability to ascertain its true motives for what it does.

    Tongues – this gift refers to the ability to be carried away in the Spirit and speak in unknown languages. For some denominations (Pentecostals) this gift is essential but for others it has proved divisive. The Apostle Paul while approving of this gift warns that unless the speaking can be translated into a meaningful message it is not to take place.

    Apostles – when most of us read this word we are immediately drawn back to the early church and the original Apostles. What we discover in the scriptures however is that Apostle is one who is sent out with a message (the Good News) to establish and oversee churches as their primary teacher. The Roman church sees bishops as those who wear the mantle of Apostle.

    Evangelists – what is interesting about this gift is that the modern church has tried to make everyone responsible for evangelism. Each person is supposed to be able to "bring others to Jesus." Yet Paul makes it clear that this is a special gift like all others. In other words there are some people (say Billy Graham) who have the ability to transmit the Good News in ways that engender faith.

    Pastors – the root of this term is shepherd. A pastor is not necessarily a preacher but someone who cares for and guides a particular church.

    In summary, while no one person has all of the gifts, each of us has at least one gift. The challenge for us is to discover and use the gift/s we have been given.

    

The Road to Redemption – Spiritual Gifts 3

    This is the third week of our examination of Spiritual gifts. We have already discovered through stories in both the Old and New Testaments that the Spirit has been empowering human beings (prophets, priests, kings and just plain old folks) for thousands of years to accomplish the tasks which God set before them. In the New Testament the focus of these gifts is that they make it possible for the church to truly be the body of Christ in the world. In this article we will take a closer look at the individual spiritual gifts in order to see more clearly how God empowers us for mission and ministry.

    The following list is compiled from the three main passages referring to spiritual gifts: Romans 12:6ff, I Corinthians 12:4ff and Ephesians 4:11. The gifts are prophecy (in all three lists), ministry, teaching (in two lists), exhortation, giving, leading, compassion, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, tongues, apostles, evangelists and pastors.

    Prophecy – this is the only gift listed in all three passages. While many of us immediately think of prophecy as the ability to predict the future, this is not the case here. A prophet is one who can speak forth God's will for a community. Martin Luther King was a prophet in this sense. He could measure the times and clearly see God's will for that moment.

    Ministry – this gift has also been defined as serving. Rather than seeing ministry as a professional task this gifts focuses on ministering to others. Anyone who works with SOS, deacons or helps people in any other way is exercising this gift.

    Teaching – this gift has been at the center of modern Judaism and Christianity. We believe that faith seeks understanding and that our lives are to be conducted according to a particular set of Christ-like principles…thus teaching is needed. This gift is demonstrated by anyone who teaches in small groups, Bible studies or Sunday school…or at home in parent-child relationships.

    Exhortation – have you ever known someone who can enter a room and encourage everyone? If you have then you have known someone with the gift of exhortation. This is also known as the gift of encouragement.

    Giving – while all believers are called to share what they possess (time, talent and treasure) there are some who give over and above what is expected; and they do so not out of obligation but out of love for God. If you give each time a special appeal is made to the church then you too have this gift.

    Leading – every church needs leaders. These are the men and women who can sense where God desires the congregation to go and then can guide the congregation in that direction. This is one of the gifts required for eldership.

    Compassion – the church is not called to be a center of dispassionate study. It is intended to be a community of caring. Those with the gift of compassion can listen and then share the pain, hurt and joy of those with whom they interact.

    Wisdom – there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is that gift which allows someone to see through heated discussion and unlimited facts and sense what God would have a community to do.

    Knowledge – this is the gift which allows someone to see deeply into the truths of Christian faith and doctrine; and then transmit those truths to others with in written or oral form. It is a critical gift for those who are seminary teachers.

    I will break the list here because we are about to move into what are considered the more "spectacular gifts." I encourage you to look at your own life and see if you can sense which gifts you have been given and then ask yourselves how you can leverage those gifts even more in order to build up the community.

    

The Road to Redemption - Spiritual Gifts 2

    Part 1 of our discussion on Spiritual gifts focused on the fact that the people God chose to accomplish God's mission in this world were never prequalified or pre-trained for the task. God chose individuals (who often seemed unsuited to the work) gifted them and then gave them on-the-job training in order to accomplish the tasks to which they were set. We see this especially in the lives of individuals such as Amos and David (shepherds who became a prophet and a king) in the Old Testament and the Apostles (fishermen, tax-collectors, etc. who became church leaders and evangelists) in the New Testament.

    The task to which all of these people were set was not only to be faithful to God but to help build a community and Kingdom in which individuals could love God and neighbor. This task is also the task that has been given to the church; past, present and future. As surely as Amos and the Apostle Paul were called to serve God, each and every one of us is called to serve as well. Every person who professes faith in Jesus Christ is called to be part of the great mission of loving God and neighbor and working for the reconciliation of the world. None of us are exempt.

    We are made capable of accomplishing this task because God gifts us with the abilities necessary to the mission set before us. This is the point that the Apostle makes in several of this letters. In his letters to Rome, Corinth and Ephesus he lays out the spiritual gifts with which Christ followers are equipped. In Romans 12:6-8 he writes, "⁶We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;⁸the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness." ." In Ephesians 4:11 Paul keeps it brief by telling his readers that "The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers..."

    In I Corinthians 12:4-11 the Apostle puts it this way. "4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses."

    There are several things that I hope we will notice about these passages. First Paul reminds his readers that everyone receives at least one spiritual gift. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit…" (I Corinthians 12:7) What this means is that all of us are gifted. There is no follower of Jesus Christ who does not have some spiritual specialty that they can offer to the collective body of believers. Second, the purpose of these gifts is the building up of the church so it can accomplish its mission. So often in life, both inside and outside of the church, we see our giftedness only as it applies to our success. Spiritual gifts are intended for the body of Christ and for the world. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (I Corinthians 12:7) Third, these gifts are given by the Holy Spirit. In other words we cannot go shopping for them at the Spiritual Gifts Hut. "All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." (I Corinthians 12:11) Finally no gifts are better than other gifts because all are needed to make the church complete. Paul writes, "On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…" (I Corinthians 12:22) While we may envy the spiritual gifts of others we are to trust that the Spirit has given us just the right gifts, for the time and place in which we live in order that we might be Kingdom of God builders.

    

The Road to Redemption – Spiritual Gifts 1

    Do you hire someone who is already qualified for the job or do you hire someone that you can train to do the job which needs to be done? That is a quandary that often confronts companies and organizations. On the one hand it is good to hire someone who already has the knowledge and the skills to accomplish the task at hand. In this way all it takes is getting someone up to speed on the particular environment in which they will be working. This saves time and hopefully, money. On the other hand it may be good to hire someone who may not have the appropriate skill set, yet has the ability to develop the skills necessary for the task. In this way a company can insure that the new employee is doing things "the company way" and will not bring with them bad habits learned at a previous job. In addition this method allows for individuals to move from one part of a company to another and advance their careers and knowledge base along the way.

    God, it would appear, has selected option two, when it comes to choosing those who are to be about serving God. We can see this throughout the scriptures. Let's begin with the great task with which God entrusts humanity; the restoration of creation. As we have seen over the past year or so in these articles, God's great desire is to have this wonderful creation become a place where human beings love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength while also loving their neighbors as themselves. Rather than God simply snapping God's fingers (so to speak) and instantly transforming the world, God has chosen to work through people in order to accomplish this task. We might suppose that God could have written a job description, asked for applicants and waited for qualified people to apply. God does not follow this course of action. Instead God chooses people whom God believes have the attributes necessary for the task and then gives them on the job training.

    We can see this in all of the great figures of the Old Testament. Abram is just this rather well- to-do guy living in the Fertile Crescent. He has a wife, servants, livestock and all of the trappings of success (except offspring). God calls to Abram and invites him on a journey with only a promise that God will give him some land, some children and will use him to bless all the families of the earth. There is no job description about what exactly Abram is to do, other than allow God to direct him across the great expanse of land to a not yet specified destination. Next we have Moses. Moses is a Hebrew shepherd raised by Egyptians who is also a murderer and a fugitive from justice.. Nonetheless God calls him to a singular task…go back to Egypt and set God's people free. Needless to say there is nothing in Moses resume that would qualify him for such a task. In fact Moses spends a couple of chapters telling God why he is not qualified for the job…the major one being that he, Moses, is a very poor speaker. None of this matters to God and so God equips Moses with a spokesperson (Aaron), a magical staff and a mission. Moses will learn along the way.

    This lack of preparation continues with individuals such as the judges (Sampson, etc.), the Kings and the prophets. None of these individuals went to school and obtained degrees in being Godly people. They were however all trained by God along the way. God insured that they had the necessary life experiences and spiritual interventions to accomplish the tasks that God set before them. This concept that God equips those whom God chooses sets the stage for understanding the Spiritual gifts of the New Testament. As we will discover next week the gifts of the Spirit are God's way of training and equipping those of us in the present to play our part in the recreation of God's world.

    

The Road to Redemption: How Are We Saved – Part 8

    This week we take our last look at salvation. We know that salvation is central to scripture, that it is a promise of new life now and eternal life in God's coming Kingdom, and that our Reformed (Presbyterian) tradition professes that salvation is an act of God to which we are to respond through faith by loving God and neighbor. The penultimate question that generations of people have asked, and with which we will deal in this article is, who does or does not get saved?

    We will begin with a historic laundry list from a variety of Christian traditions as to who gets saved. The list includes those who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior; those who take the sacraments from a particular tradition; those who do good works; those who profess faith in Jesus and then regularly confess their sins; those who are baptized by immersion; those who are baptized by immersion in the right church; those who serve the poor; those who hold to appropriate doctrine; those who belong to the right church; those who are chosen by God; and finally everyone.

    There is also a laundry list of those who will not get saved. This list includes non-Christians; people who commit particular sins (usually sexual in nature…though this can include murder); Roman Catholics; Protestants; Mormons; those not baptized by immersion; those who have not had a "personal" experience of Jesus; the wealthy; the poor; people of color; those who have not had the second baptism of the Holy Spirit; and those who do not belong to the right church or denomination.

    While these two lists are cursory and not nuanced they remind us that scripture never refers to one, and only one, way in which people are saved since most of the ways on the lists have at least a minimal connection to at least one scripture verse. What these lists also show us however is the often exclusivist attitude toward salvation which declares that salvation is only intended for a small group rather than for a large group of people with the small group being composed of people "we" like.

    There are several problems with both of these lists. First they attempt to boil down a relationship (God in relationship with humanity) to a simplistic formula (Jesus + something = salvation) or (Jesus – something = damnation). This does a great injustice to the scriptures which refuse to place salvation in a neatly wrapped package. Second they restrict the freedom of God to save whomever God desires to save. This issue is of particular concern to those of us in the Reformed (Presbyterian) tradition because we believe that God can and will do what God desires, regardless of our actions. Third Jesus and Paul are both very clear that as human beings we cannot know who will be saved. In fact we are warned not to even attempt such a judgment. Finally these lists fail to take into account the images of heaven and the Kingdom of God as being expansive in nature. In the Book of Revelation those who are saved are so great in number that they cannot be counted. Those condemned, on the other hand, can fit into a very small lake.

    As we draw to a close in our discussion about salvation I want to offer three scriptures. First Paul reminds us that God desires that all persons be saved. "This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (I Timothy 2:3-4) Second, John 3:16 states, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Finally Peter writes, "By God's great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…" (I Peter 1:3-4)

    So who will be saved? In the end only God knows. The bottom line though is that we know and are known by a loving and faithful God; a loving God who is at work in our lives and in the world reshaping hearts and minds and a God who is faithful to God's promises that we will never be lost or abandoned. This is cause for great confidence and joy.

    

The Road to Redemption – How Are We “Saved”? Part 7

    This week we take our next to last look at salvation. We know that salvation is central to scripture, that it is a promise of new life now and eternal life in God's coming Kingdom, and that our Reformed (Presbyterian) tradition professes that salvation is an act of God to which we are to respond through faith by loving God and neighbor. The question before us is can human beings ultimately reject the work of God in their lives and thus reject the salvation which God offers?

    The answer to this question is going to center on our understanding of the balance between human freedom and divine power. As we have discussed over the past few weeks there has been an ongoing debate (for almost the last 2,000 years) between those who claim that humans have absolute freedom and those who claim that God holds all power. If we believe that humans have absolute freedom then humans can either accept or reject God. If we believe that God has all power then persons can only do what God moves them to do. Our tradition has believed far more in the power of God than in human freedom. The high water mark of this view occurred in 1618-1619 at the Synod of Dort in the Netherlands. The Synod affirmed the belief that God's grace was irresistible. In other words, if God wanted someone to be saved, then God would save them. The individual had no choice in the matter. It was all the work of God.

     Over the last hundred years many in the Reformed (Presbyterian) tradition have offered alternatives to Dort by arguing that God and humanity are connected by an I-Thou relationship and not a maker-object relationship. The concept of I-Thou was given shape, interestingly enough, by a Jewish philosopher/theologian and not by a Christian theologian. Martin Buber published his Ich and Du (I and Thou) in 1923. The premise of the book was that we experience God not as an object but as a relational other. Thus, God experiences us in the same way. This relational understanding of our interaction with God meant that we were not objects that could or would be manipulated by God. Emil Brunner in his Dogmatics (published 1946-1960) was one of the Christian theologians who explored this idea.

    Brunner wrote, "God wills a creature which is not…a mere object of His will…He desires from us an active and spontaneous response…He who creates through the Word, who as Spirit creates in freedom, wills to have a 'reflex' which is … a free spiritual act, a correspondence to His speaking. Only thus can His love really impart itself as love. For love can only impart itself where it is received in love. Hence the heart of the creaturely existence of man is freedom, selfhood, to be an 'I', a person. Only an 'I' can answer a 'Thou', only a Self which is self-determining can freely answer God. An automaton does not respond; "

    Brunner is reinforcing the idea that while God changes our hearts (making it possible for us to love God and neighbor) and influences us through love, God will never force our hearts to believe or to follow. What God is looking for is a response to God's infinite love and self-giving in Jesus Christ. God desires a true relationship in which each party is free to love and respond. This being the case then it would appear possible for someone to reject the work of God in their lives. Someone could harden their heart and be so stubborn that they would rather choose a way of death rather than life; of aloneness rather than relationship.

My personal question however, is why would someone want to? When approached by infinite love and forgiveness why would anyone ultimately reject the relationship? My hope is that on this week following Christmas we will each reflect on the amazing love of God that God became one of us in order that we might find salvation; that God sent God's only son into the world to give his life for us that we might find life now and forever.

Next Week: The Road to Redemption: How Are We Saved – Part 8

The Road to Redemption – How Are We “Saved”? Part 6

    Once again we look at salvation. We know that it is central to scripture, that it is a promise of new life now and eternal life in God's coming Kingdom, and that there are different ways that scripture implies that salvation can be gained or lost (grace/faith vs. Law/works or election/chosen vs. choice/free will). Today we will examine a modern Reformed (Presbyterian) understanding of salvation.

    First, Reformed theology always begins with the problem that human beings are self-centered. The cry of our hearts is the cry of a two year old, "mine!" We are at the center of our universes and therefore we are unable to fully love God and neighbor (which is the purpose for which we were created by God). This is the condition from which we need to be saved.

Second, Reformed theology argues that we do not have the freedom to reorient our hearts and minds as we like. While Calvin and others argued that this lack of freedom was based on Original Sin, I want to cast this as the outcome of self-centeredness. In other words why would I want to trade serving only myself for serving and sacrificing for others? If our hearts are turned in upon themselves what could possibly convince us to change? This belief reminds us that we cannot save ourselves.

Third, Reformed theology believes that God reorients our hearts. God accomplishes this reorientation by applying the work of Christ on the cross to our lives. The writer of Hebrews states that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice in order that our consciences might be purified "from dead works that we might serve the Lord." (Hebrews 9:14) This belief affirms that God in Christ is at work saving us.

Fourth, this reorienting work is a free gift of God that is sometimes referred to as Prevenient Grace; meaning God's grace is reorienting our hearts long before we are aware of it. Scripture makes it clear that none of us can be good enough to earn this reorienting work. Every time we baptize a child we are reaffirming this Prevenient Grace by declaring that God is already at work in the lives of our children. This assertion assures us that God's gift of salvation comes to us as a free gift.

Fifth, this reorienting work of God allows us to begin choosing to profess faith in Christ and to love God and neighbor in ways that were not before possible. The Apostle Paul mentions this in Romans 6:18 when he reminds his readers that they have been "set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness (meaning the ability to choose to do the Christ-like thing)." We become capable of making choices which enhance rather than diminish life. Even though we are not capable of always doing the right thing (Paul writes about this in Romans 7:13-20) we are capable of living ever more loving and faithful lives. Salvation then is something we experience here and now which calls us to live more and more Christ-like lives.

Sixth, as we go through life with our reoriented hearts we can do so knowing that God will never forsake us, even when we fall short of the goal of fully loving God and neighbor. In Romans chapter 8, we read, "If God is for us, who can be against us…for I am sure that nothing else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." This is the great affirmation that it is God's power, and God's power alone, which assures us that the salvation into which we are living now will become the salvation that carries us into eternity.

Our Reformed tradition affirms, as I believe does scripture, that it is always God who is seeking and saving. Nowhere in the Biblical story are there people who just up and choose to believe in God, or who find salvation without God initiating the relationship. God loves us. God calls us. God woos us. God saves us. In the end this affirmation is for our comfort and hope.

The next article will be our next to last look at salvation. The question we will address is whether or not we as humans can choose not to be saved.

The Road to Redemption – How Are We “Saved”? Part 5

    Over the past four weeks we have looked at the concept of salvation from a number of angles. We know that it is central to scripture, that it is a promise of eternal life in God's coming Kingdom, and that there are different ways that scripture implies that salvation can be gained or lost (grace/faith vs. Law/works or election/chosen vs. choice/free will). Today we will look at how the church has dealt with these seemingly contradictory messages in the Bible.

    Across the centuries there have been two great debates about the issue of how one gains or loses salvation. The first occurred in the early 400s (CE). The debate was between Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa and Pelagius, a British Monk who lived and wrote from Rome. Augustine was among the early proponents of Original Sin. First mentions by Irenaeus (2^nd century) Original Sin was the idea that in Adam's fall sin arrived in the world and was passed down from generation to generation. This passing on of Original Sin was often seen as the result of sexual relations which Augustine declared to be sinful in and of themselves. The outcome of sin then was that "the will" in every human being (meaning the ability to choose the Godly thing) was corrupted (sinful) and thus humans were bound for damnation. The only way that human beings could be saved was by God freely choosing to make the liberating work of Christ on the cross real in their lives (called imputation of righteousness). Thus Augustine argues that salvation is the result of our being chosen or elected by God for salvation.

    Pelagius on the other hand argued that Original Sin did not exist and that human beings were free to choose between sin/death and obedience/salvation. In so doing Pelagius was following in the footsteps of many of the early church Fathers. Early theologians such as Justin Martyr (100-165 CE), Irenaeus (2^nd century), Clement of Alexandria (150-215 CE) and Tertullian (160-225 CE) all were very clear that human beings had the ability to make free choices. Their argument was that if human beings did not have free choice then they could not be held responsible for their actions, and thus there would be no condemnation for sin. The sin of Adam was not passed down but was merely a bad example. They also argued that if Original Sin was real then infants who died before they could be baptized (baptism was seen as cleansing from original sin) could not be saved, which was the view of Augustine and his followers. Thus salvation for Pelagius is a free choice which every human being can make.

    The second great debate about these issues took place during the Reformation around the turn of the 17^th century. On the one hand there were Calvinists who believed that all human beings are sinful and that only by being chosen for salvation through the unmerited favor of God could someone enter the Kingdom. One way in which they described their view was T.U.L.I.P. This referred to Total depravity (humans cannot save themselves); Unconditional Election (God freely chooses us); Limited atonement (Jesus work on the cross only applies to those chosen by God); Irresistible grace (if God wants someone saved God will save them); and Perseverance of the saints (once God has ahold of you God will never let you go). Thus salvation was based on election and grace, not free choice and works.

    On the opposite side of the fence were those who followed Jacobus Arminius. Arminius and his followers argued that election by God was based not on God's choice but on the free choice of every human being; Christ's work on the cross was only applied to those who asked for it through faith; that grace is resistible; and that people can wander away from God and be lost. Thus salvation was based on a free choice and could be lost if someone chose not to believe or to be obedient to God.

In today's world Presbyterian and Reformed congregations favor the Augustine/Calvinist view while Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalist and some Unitarian/Universalists favor the Pelagiun/Arminian view. Next week we will look at a modern Reformed (Presbyterian) take on salvation.

The Road to Redemption – How Are People “Saved” Part 4

    Last week we examined the first of two spectra upon which fall the answers to the question of "How are people saved?" The first spectrum was grace/faith vs. Law/works. In other words are we either saved by grace through faith or are we saved by our works, often meaning obedience to God's laws. The second spectrum which we will examine today is the election/chosen vs. choice/free will spectrum.

We will begin with election/chosen. Within the Biblical story there is always a sense of God choosing people; choosing people for God's purposes as well as choosing people for salvation. We see this in the stories of individuals; Abram (chosen to be blessed and to bless the world); David (chosen not only to be king for a day, but as the father of an eternal lineage of kings); and the prophets (chosen to bring God's word to the people). None of these people applied for their jobs, God called and chose them. We see this being chosen in terms of the whole people of Israel as well. Through the covenant with Abram, God made it clear that the Israelites were a people chosen/elected for a task (to bless the world). Since God's covenant was irrevocable Israel knew that God would always save her. Thus within Judaism there was a strong sense that their salvation was based on having been chosen by God.

    This same theme echoes throughout Paul's New Testament Letters as regards Christians. The greatest example of this sense of salvation through being chosen comes to us in Romans 8:28-30. "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified." What Paul appears to be telling his readers is that salvation is a gift from God that comes to those whom God has chosen/elected. Salvation is therefore all about being chosen.

    We turn now to choice/free will. Within the Biblical context there are numerous stories about people making their own choices (free will) as regards their relationship with God. The Adam and Eve story (Genesis 3) allows us to view the first two humans making a conscious decision to disobey God. "…Eve took some of the fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband and he ate." Their decision forced them from the safe confines of the garden and the eternal life it offered, to a life to drudgery and death. A positive example of choosing occurs at the end of the book of Joshua. Joshua is the account of the conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelites once they emerge from the wilderness. The quote I am offering comes from the last chapter of the book (24:15). The speaker is Joshua, the dying leader of the Israelites. Now that the land has been conquered, the people of Israel have to decide if they will be obedient to God. "If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." The impression we are given is that the people are free to choose salvation by choosing God, or to choose death by following other gods.

    In the New Testament we see choices being made by numerous individuals. Judas chooses to betray Jesus). We see Peter choosing to deny Jesus. We see Pharisees choosing not to believe in Jesus. We see Nicodemus, Zacchaeus and the disciples choose to follow Jesus. Even Paul in the book of Romans (1:21) write as if people chose not to believe in God. "…for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking." The Book of James (1:13-15) goes so far as to say that we tempt ourselves (thus intentionally choosing death over salvation). "Let no one say when they are tempted,
"I am tempted by God."…but each person is lured and enticed by his own desire…which brings forth death." Again it appears that we can choose salvation or death.

The Road to Redemption – How Are People “Saved” Part 3

    We have finally arrived at the "how" of salvation after having first noted that "salvation" is at the heart of the Biblical story and secondly that "salvation" references God's action of giving human beings life eternal as part of God's coming earthly kingdom. The question with which both Judaism and Christianity have wrestled with then is how does one obtain this salvation? There are two spectra along which answers fall: Law/works vs. grace/faith; and election/being chosen vs. choosing/free will. We will look at the first spectrum today.

    We begin with Law/works. Within the Old Testament there is the sense that salvation is offered only when the people do what God wants them to do. The idea is that the covenant is an if-then proposition. If you will do what I tell you to do, God says, then I will be your God and you will be my people. Though God never abandons the people of Israel as a whole, there are many individuals within the community who are lost along the way. Two examples are those post-Exodus people who died in the wilderness because they refused to enter the Promised Land and those who were killed in the Babylonian conquest because they refused to listen to the prophets. This view reaches its fullest expression in the time of Christ as the Pharisees argued that the coming Kingdom of God was reserved for the righteous; meaning those who perfectly kept the Law(s) of Moses.

    While the Apostle Paul seems to reject works as a means to salvation, he hedges his bets a bit in his letter to the Galatians (5:21b) when, after offering a list of sins, he writes, "I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." These words suggest that while we may not have to perform certain works in order to be saved, there are some actions that might prevent us from receiving that same salvation. James and Revelations are two biblical books which focus on the connection between works and salvation. In James (2:14ff) we read "What does it profit, my brothers and sisters, if a person says they have faith but have not works? Faith cannot save him. So faith by itself, if it has no works is dead." At the end of the book of Revelation (20:12) it is stated that "And the dead were judged by what was written in the books; by what they had done." Thus salvation appears to be tied to works.

We now examine grace/faith. While most of us might not associate the Old Testament with grace, there are numerous examples of grace at work. God does not kill Adam and Eve for violating the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead God saves them by making them clothing so that they would not be naked. When Cain slays Able, God does not kill Cain in return, instead placing a mark upon Cain in order to save him. When King David violates at least half of the commandments during his affair with Bathsheba, God does not kill him but instead forgives him. Each of these instances offers us a glimpse of God offering salvation based on grace rather than works.

In the New Testament we witness Jesus offering salvation through grace to sinners and tax-collectors, to the woman caught in adultery and to Peter after Peter had denied Jesus three times following Jesus' arrest. The Apostle Paul builds his theology around grace rather than works. In his letter to the church in Ephesus (2:8) Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast." This thought is made even clearer in his letter to the Galatians (3:10,13), "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written 'Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them…Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law." In other words no one can keep the law perfectly so no one can be saved by the Law/works. Thus the only basis for salvation is grace of God received through faith.

    In the next article we will look at the other spectrum; that of election/being chosen vs. choosing/free will.

The Road to Redemption – How Are People “Saved” Part 2

    We return again to the issue of salvation. As was noted in the last article salvation is one of the center pieces of the scriptures. In both the Old and New Testaments the language of salvation is an integral portion of the narrative story as well as the theology of the letters of the Apostles. Needless to say then we ought to examine what we believe the final outcome of this salvation process to be.

    Last week I wrote, "The most frequent use of "saved" in the American religious tradition was and is that people are saved from hell and to heaven. " With that in mind let's begin with a short tour of hell. Hell was a concept that developed over a long period of time. The Old Testament begins with no sense of after-life at all. Dead was dead and thus salvation always had to do with saving one's life in the here and now. Slowly as a belief in life-after death began to take hold of Jewish thought, Sheol began to be the place of the dead. Depending on which source you read, Sheol was either the place for all of the dead (good and evil alike) or merely the final home of those who were evil. At this point punishment was not part of the plan. The final vision of hell as we know it took shape in and around the time of Christ. We can see this view in Jesus' parable of the rich man and the beggar (Luke 16:19-31) in which the rich man is suffering in hell and thirsting for water because he failed to help others as the Torah demanded. Thus the Bible has no consistent view of hell.

    We now turn to heaven. Once again we need to realize that the scriptures do not offer us a consistent view of heaven, just as they do not offer us one of hell. In the Old Testament "the heavens" are the home of God, the angels and God's heavenly court. There is no sense that human beings ever end up there. There are a couple of exceptions (Enoch and Elijah) but other than these two holy men all people die and are buried with their ancestors. Under the influence of Persian thought as gained during the exilic period (588 BCE - 538BCE), Judaism developed new concepts of heaven and hell. Heaven became a place in which the souls of the righteous dead temporarily resided until the resurrection of the dead at the great judgment of God. Though this view was not shared by all of Judaism (the Sadducees did not believe in an after-life) it was popular during the time of Jesus. The Book of Revelation offers us a glimpse of this belief in that those who died in Christ are seen as living in heaven, in the very presence of God (6:9-11). Again though, the Bible has no consistent view of heaven.

    What we do have in the New Testament however is a clear view that our final destination is not hell or heaven, but here; the earth. The Book of Revelation, along with other parts of scripture, tells us that God's plan is to redeem not only our souls, but our bodies. In other words, in the end all persons are resurrected (given new physical bodies) in order to stand before God and be judged according to what they have done (Rev. 20:12). Human beings are resurrected with bodies which do not die and are guided internally by God's spirit (I Cor. 15:35-44). In these new bodies people live on a renewed earth which is intimately linked with new heaven (Rev. 21:1-4). And what about hell? The Book of Revelation (20:14-15) makes clear that in the end even hell is destroyed by being thrown into the "Lake of Fire." The only persons who end up in the Lake of Fire are those whose names are not "written in the Lamb's Book of Life" and those who reject God's new heaven and earth (More about that next week).

    Salvation then becomes not about leaving earth and being beamed up to heaven, but about being resurrected and renewed at the end of this age, in order to live with God into the new age of God's Kingdom. Salvation is about physical life, death and new eternal physical life. The bottom line for God is that life is good and thus God wants to restore every human being to the fullness of life for which God originally intended them. Heaven is the interim location of our post death existence as we await the resurrection of our bodies and the new life which that resurrection brings.