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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2:So in the first week, we talked about the first point. We are completely fascinated with this complex and beautiful collection of texts we call the Bible but we worship Jesus. And one of my favorite ideas from that sermon was this wider definition of the word of God, like less literal and more expansive. Like in scripture, the word of God isn't a dusty burgundy or navy book on a shelf. It is a living story in the shape of narrative and laws and poetry and prophecy.
Speaker 2:It changes and adapts as people change and adapt. And in the second week, we took that further. The scriptures lead us to the realization that Jesus is the only exact representation of the divine and that God has always looked like Jesus even when we didn't see that clearly. And honestly, this one kicks my butt because I know I'm not alone when I get clouded by what other people tell me about Jesus. There is this reality to following Jesus where I feel like I'm regularly pressure washing toxic ideas out of my imagination of God.
Speaker 2:And maybe you do that too. And today, we're gonna take it even further. We're working on the third point in the At Common series, the angry, violent God stuff. But before we dive in, let's still ourselves a little bit and pray. Loving God, source of all that is good in life, and the one who never looks away from what is hard.
Speaker 2:We settle into this space as individuals and as a community. What a comfort it is to not be alone, to not make sense of life's mysteries and tragedies all by ourselves. And so for those holding something heavy today, care for a loved one, struggle with mental health or addiction, and just the everyday exhaustion from being human. Won't you surround us completely and remind us of our strength? Out of the sum 17,000 breaths we'll take today, we just focus on the next few.
Speaker 2:These bodies are where we meet you, incarnate one. So may the beauty of the spirit be upon us establishing the work of our hands. Amen. So today, we are going to talk about what we abandon and what we embrace. And it's the third point in the at comments section at the front of your journals.
Speaker 2:And we'll talk about our shady past, decluttering all there is to embrace, and Jesus, friend. The third statement on the first page of your journals begins with the words because of that. So we need to remember what the that is. The previous statement is the affirmation that the scriptures lead us to Jesus as the representation of the divine. So because of that, we have abandoned the idea of an angry violent God in order to fully embrace the good news brought forward by Jesus.
Speaker 2:A big question I have at the start is this. How did we get here? Like, how did we even end up with a view of an angry, violent God in the first place? And honestly, we come by it naturally. But before we talk about the violence in scripture and the violence in history, I wanna say that I am glad that we don't take an exacto knife to the violent parts of our bibles.
Speaker 2:To which you might think, what? Why are you glad about that, Bobby? Well, if we deny the violent stories in the scriptures, we deny our own place in the story. And I think we need to take that seriously, just how much the bible reflects us. And there is a case to be made to stare straight at the parts of scripture that are violent and brutal.
Speaker 2:Doing so welcomes us completely. The very worst parts of us do not make God cower. God can and will work patiently with all of it. So we live with text that contains violence just like our own hearts and our histories. Think of the story of a family running for their lives from a city set on fire for their sin, or these holy plagues that destroy land and firstborn babies, a hero king who sexually harasses another man's wife and then murders the man to cover his misdeeds.
Speaker 2:And those three stories aren't even the worst of scripture's cruelty. There's more sexual violence. There are tens of thousands murdered. There is divine justification for so much of it. And because we are who we are, we drag God along with us.
Speaker 2:But even as ideas about God change, and they really truly do over time, scripture's writers don't edit out the shameful parts. And it is freeing to not deny who you've been, but to put it out in the open and to insist on something better going forward. So that's scripture, But is the history of Christianity an ever dawning state of peace, love, and harmony? No. It is not.
Speaker 2:We have been quite terrible, frankly. Of course, Christianity begins with murder, so there's that. Then there's martyrdom and persecution in the earliest centuries. There's the wars against northern clans and the crusades in Europe that lasted eight, yes, eight centuries. There's a Protestant Reformation, important for us folks who mostly aren't Catholic, and the Protestant Reformation was a hot mess of corruption and violence and blood shed, and we can keep going.
Speaker 2:There's the complicated relationship between mission and colonialism. There's the clash between experiential spirituality and rationalism. There's slavery, the suppression of women and leadership, and more wars and more death and more hard questions about God and the universe. Now all of that can seem a little depressing, but I have never read the history of Christianity as strictly depressing. Tracing how we change our theology, tracing how we change our action in light of what we learn about the world has always provided me with empowering permission to welcome what is new and to work for something better and to imagine a world more beautiful and more whole.
Speaker 2:There is a pattern to our shady, shady past. People resist an unjust status quo. They agitate, and they force change. Backlash follows. It always follows.
Speaker 2:Why are we surprised by different sides justify their positions, sometimes violently, and everyone pulls God onto their side. And then finally, we arrive somewhere new, and there's someone on the margins waving to get our attention. It's Jesus. It's the apostles. It's martyrs and mothers and reformers and activists and artists.
Speaker 2:They show up to remind us that, yeah, we get a little lost along the way. But guess what? In all that clumsy, violent, horrific change, God does not smite us. God does not squash us. God does not scream at us to hurry up and get it right.
Speaker 2:Our violence does not make God violent. We don't need help for that. We do, however, need help decluttering violence in our lives and in our communities. So let's look at Paul's work with Romans as a framework to address what is wrong in the world and for help abandoning our violence. So Romans one verse 18 is this wrath of God passage.
Speaker 2:Paul has just written to the Romans that God's righteousness is revealed. And the Greek word for righteousness is and it accounts for God's justice. The way God keeps promises, the synergy between who God is and how God acts. And Paul says this, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. And we've spoken about this text at Commons before and looked at how God's wrath is not directed at people who hurt or even those who cause the pain.
Speaker 2:It is directed at the harm itself. The wrath of God is directed at the wickedness of people, at the injustice that undoes God's good creation. So if there is wrath in the divine, it is wholly compassionate, torn up by what tears us up. So when we keep reading Romans, Paul shifts the source of wrath from God to us. And this is where it gets interesting.
Speaker 2:Paul makes an ethical argument saying again and again, when the people traded in God's heavenly glory for things that die and fall into the earth, well, God gave them over to that. One verse 24. And when the people traded in passions that empower for passion that takes power, well, God gave them over to that. One twenty six. And when the people thought that they could do better without mystery or divinity or awe, well, God gave them over to that too, One twenty eight.
Speaker 2:And one scholar says that Paul adapts the idea of wrath, taking it out of God's hands and turns it into an impersonal force that just is. It's wrath with a capital w. We could call it consequences or comeuppance. Wrath is the name for what can go horribly wrong by our hand. Now, if we slide over to Romans five verse nine, we'll see how hard it is for us to accept that wrath is not exactly God's.
Speaker 2:It's a force that catches up to our stubbornness, our greed, our petty views of power. Romans five nine says that the blood of Christ aka the nonviolence of the cross will save us from wrath, but our English translations add God back into the equation. Here's the verse. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? And translators turned the article the for the wrath into who and called it God.
Speaker 2:But the word for God is not there in Paul's writing. In the Greek, the verse simply says that Jesus' blood saves us from wrath. Jesus emptied himself in the face of our violence and that is what God is like. Jesus is not saving us from God. Jesus is showing us God.
Speaker 2:God is all turn the other cheek and pray for those who hurt you and give your cloak away. Then we find all kinds of ways to blame God for what is wrong. And honestly, that's kinda fine. God seems to handle it. It's fine until it isn't.
Speaker 2:And we need to take some of that wrath back because you just can't love a God who has it out for you and who doesn't look with compassion on all that God has made. I get it though. Sometimes it feels like the bible gets in the way rather than shows us the way. But I promise you, when you do the work in community to look for God and you preference love in your reading of scripture, you will find a way to declutter the violence on the page and the mess of the world and the hardness of your own heart. It is the work, hear me, it is the work of a lifetime to reach for the fullness of redemption with the freedom implicit in the love of God.
Speaker 2:And so we locate our hermeneutic, our work of interpretation in love. And this feels personal to me. Years ago, I was involved in a ministry that was a little bit crushing. And at the time, I was also a divinity student in seminary. And I was learning theology and piecing together church history and reconsidering my relationship with culture.
Speaker 2:But the people I worked with insisted that God had, you know, special rules for me. And I better not step out of line. So I had one foot in this expanding world, but I had another foot in a world that was contracting. And I remember thinking, why? Would I love this God of contraction who, pardon me for making this connection, seems abusive by denying who I am and how I think and insisting that I most of the time just shut up.
Speaker 2:Like, why would I love a God like that? Who is honestly no better than a bad boyfriend? And it turns out, I didn't have to. I could leave that ministry, I did, And I could embrace a theology that welcomed my full humanity. And I could insist on love at the center of the gospel.
Speaker 2:Father Richard Rohr says that love is constantly creating future possibilities for the good of all concerned. I love that. It doesn't take away everything that's wrong but it allows for and seeks after what could be so much better and brighter and whole. So we turn to first John, this tiny little work of live, laugh, love. Well, love anyway.
Speaker 2:First John four verse 16 to 18 and I'm gonna read it slowly. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment.
Speaker 2:In this world, we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. And the one who fears is not made perfect in love. The people connected to first John are trying to figure out how to live a Christ centered life seventy years after the resurrection.
Speaker 2:And their concern is twofold. What do we believe? And how does that shape how we live? And looking back through first John, the writer says, you are abandoning so much. You are abandoning darkness and denial of sin and hatred for your siblings, lies that take people away from community.
Speaker 2:You are abandoning the destructive forces at work in the world, the greed that halts you from giving. And then the writer says, you are also embracing so much. You're embracing light and confession and a bigger idea of family and the truth you already know and the security in being God's children and love that looks like action and honesty. I love the clarity of first John as if at its essence it's just not that complicated. And wouldn't it be like Jesus to make a pathway to God, like, lit up with invitation and simplicity?
Speaker 2:You find the love of God in Jesus. The crucified and resurrected one. Now it strikes me that the early community which rose up around Jesus could have gone in another direction. It could have been one of vengeance, one of constant and debilitating fear, one that slumped and honestly just faded away. But over and over again, the leaders, the writers, the community builders, they speak against all of that.
Speaker 2:On the other side of a murdered teacher and martyrs killed by an empire, the people who loved Jesus formed ragtag communities that centered on love. 46 times in first John, the word love beats like a drum. It is the heartbeat of the Jesus community. And so it is our right and it is our duty to abandon the idea of an angry, violent God in order to fully embrace the good news brought forward by Jesus. And that means we embrace like arms wrapped so tightly around all that there is to embrace.
Speaker 2:And I speak pastorally here. Embrace the patience of God in your own transformation. What's the hurry? And embrace the insistence that you don't have to keep fighting after you've taken a blow to the face, and maybe I mean that metaphorically. Put your hands to the work of healing.
Speaker 2:And embrace the confidence, the confidence of love that puts boundaries up when they're needed, but also knows when to let them fall. Embrace letting go and getting back up and trying again. Embrace seasons. Embrace aging. Embrace the constancy of grace.
Speaker 2:Embrace the way old wisdom still speaks. Embrace the new song in the hearts of our youth. I am such a proponent for this work of abandoning and embracing when it comes to our ideas about God. I love that for us as a community and I love that for you personally. If you know me, there are plenty of words for God I don't like.
Speaker 2:To use the language of scripture, they have been stumbling blocks for me. Like, there's just enough in my personal story that makes me trip and slows me down when it comes to certain metaphors we use to speak about infinite mystery. So do you want the list? Do you want my bad metaphors for God list? Too bad.
Speaker 2:Too bad, suckers. That list gets me into some trouble. The point is, I have one and you can have one too. If language about Jesus is not good news for you or the people that you love or those who suffer, set it aside. You have my permission and you don't even need it.
Speaker 2:Get imaginative. Go searching for a language that brings you life. And think about your creativity as a gift from God. So today, at least, I want you to think about the good news put forward in Jesus if you think of Jesus as your friend. Not a monarch on high, not a lord over the land, but just your friend.
Speaker 2:The theologian Sally McFagg says the metaphor for God as friend can do such good work for us. It is less gendered if you need that. It is less paternal. And in her words, it expresses certain dimensions of a mature relationship with God, meaning differences help it thrive. And when there is suffering, Jesus, our friend, identifies with the pain on the most profound level.
Speaker 2:In my life, friendship has been the greatest source of healing. Hands down. How much more the friendship of God in Jesus? Jesus the friend, sitting around tables, letting conversations run late into the night. Jesus the friend, eating with societies marginalized.
Speaker 2:Not the power brokers, but I do believe they will find him when they're ready. And Jesus the friend showing up at your front door, ringing the bell just to see you and say hi. It is good news to be the friend, not the enemy of God. Let us pray. Christ, our friend.
Speaker 2:We confess centuries of our history where we have wandered so far away from your love. We confess the ways we drag your holiness into our horror. And we confess our anger that fails to propel us toward love and justice. For the work of abandoning ideas that take us into shady, shady places. For the work of embracing all there is to life, the good and the hard parts, won't you remind us that we are not alone?
Speaker 2:Draw us into community and spark in us the confidence of your love. So spirit of the living God, present with us now, enter the places of our shame and our insecurity, and won't you heal us of all that harms us? Amen.