Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We are a community in Southern California dedicated to raising resilient disciples of Jesus Christ.
Bill Dogterom:Well, good morning. It's good to be with you again this morning and to continue this conversation in Advent. Advent is that season of chosen slowing, chosen waiting, chosen focusing. In the busyness of, our calendar, it says, we're gonna just pause. We're gonna pay attention.
Bill Dogterom:We're gonna sink below the busyness. Sometimes we're like, you know, those water walkers that never break the surface tension of a stream or or or, and we wanna get get beneath that surface. Take kind of the the the pot off boil and let the flavors mix and marinate. Yeah? And and begin because it's really easy with the pace we go through.
Bill Dogterom:Sometimes, you know, we have lived in a a drought stricken land, and the rain just runs off. True. So we wanna we wanna slow down enough for the water to seep in and soak in. So grateful this morning for the creative team at at Garden, the worship leaders, and Ramin already pointed out the beauty and the wonder of this, sculpture. And also, if you haven't taken advantage of it, John alluded to this in the announcements, but that Advent guide, I don't know who wrote that thing, but it is really good.
Bill Dogterom:And take a moment and and and let that start to shape your your soul remembering that Advent is not about Christmas. It's about the second coming. Christmas is the down payment. It's the deposit that says, incarnation is not first about rescue. It's about presence.
Bill Dogterom:It's about God with us to partner with him to redeem the world so that when he comes back, we can present to our bridegroom a a a mission accomplished. That's a that's a heavy order. And and why Advent takes advantage of these kind of four key words and draws our attention to what in the world this is all about. Last week, we looked at hope and discovered that hope is not for changed outcomes. It's not for different circumstances.
Bill Dogterom:It's not for for for preferred shifting in our lives. It's really an awareness that hope has a first name and his name is Jesus. And we place our confidence in him and trust him finally and fully. And today we want to say, well, what happens when that actualizes, when it works its way into the kind of the fabric of our being? And the outcome of hope embraced is shalom, is peace.
Bill Dogterom:Not simply the cessation of conflicts, not just laying down our weapons but keeping them within reach, But, an awareness that we are disintegrated. We are fragmented, not just externally but internally. In fact, the external fragmentation is probably more than anything else a reflection of the internal fragmentation. We need somebody to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. We need somebody to make us whole.
Bill Dogterom:And that's what Shalom means. Shalom is not just a treaty signed. Shalom is an embrace of the former enemy as the brother, the sister that he, she is. And a realization that the table at which we sit is not our table. It's the table of the Lord.
Bill Dogterom:And we find there, sitting across this is the annoying thing, isn't it, about Psalm 23 where he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. I used to think that meant I'm sitting here with my Wagyu steak and my enemies are looking on in longing. But in fact, when you realize, wait, it's not my table, it's the table of the Lord. My enemies are invited to sit at Table 2. And then I discover I've made them my enemies, and they have acted in kind, an echo of the way I've treated them.
Bill Dogterom:The world is much simpler if we know who we're for and who we're against, but simple doesn't mean right. We are invited into an awareness that a lot of the easy ways we talked about this briefly last week from from Genesis three that we have subdivided in the world of those whom we are for and those against whom we are against is simply a shorthand projection of our internal fragmentation. So how do we how do we come back together again? Who is going to make for shalom, not just externally but internally because we can fake the externals for a period of time. But if it doesn't flow from the inside, it's only for a limited period of time.
Bill Dogterom:And so this invitation, of course, has been at the heart of from from at the heart of God since before we even went sideways in Genesis three. This has been what he has been working towards, and we look at this, kind of key passage in Isaiah chapter nine where we are invited into this awareness. It says this, for to us a child is born. To us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, and of the greatness of his government and his peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
Bill Dogterom:The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. This is one of those hundreds of passages in the old testament that have, in retrospect looking back through the lens of the life of Jesus popped out out of the pages of the old testament and been understood to be messianic, to point beyond themselves, to realize Isaiah had somebody in mind when he wrote this in the first case. Right? He he he had he had a a a a an understanding and he uses these titles almost wishfully hoping that this new king that he imagines emerging within his lifetime will be able to carry the weight of the of the longing. But at the same time, as we look back through the lens of the life Jesus, we discover, oh, wait.
Bill Dogterom:This is this is almost all of these prophecies are like Russian dolls. If you're familiar with that image. Right? Where you have this this encased, and and then you start to take it apart. And you realize, oh, there's more to this than meets the eye.
Bill Dogterom:And maybe if you have at the very center this tiny little figure, maybe maybe your grandparents have taken the tiny little figure out and put a candy at the middle of that Russian doll, whatever it is. There is something at the center that is bigger than the one at the outside, that invites you to an awareness beyond what you can see. And that's what is happening here where Isaiah invites us into this image that he has in mind of a of a king who was coming following on the throne of of David, but much greater than David and and so on and so forth. And and I think it's worth pointing out that Isaiah, he is coming off centuries of corruption at the highest levels of leadership. He is coming off centuries of the weaponizing of differences for political gain.
Bill Dogterom:He is coming off financial mismanagement at the levels of leadership. He is coming off all of those dynamics that read like our modern day newspaper, except you probably don't get your news from a paper. But you you know what I'm saying. Right? In other words in other words, the the the found the backdrop in into which he's not he's not keeping his fingers crossed that somebody is gonna fix he's aware that we need something brand new to erupt in the scene that isn't complicit with the forces of empire, that isn't stuck in the ways of doing business that are framed, by this by this disappointment with leaders.
Bill Dogterom:And and and and as long as we we can elect him, we're gonna be disappointed by him or her. And and and the the deep challenge the deep challenge is that Isaiah has not lost hope. And why? Because he knows, we learned last week, hope isn't in a different leader. It's not in a different tax system or a different, way of doing business.
Bill Dogterom:Hope is in God. Otherwise, it's just temporary. It's just it's gonna fade. We're we're we're we're gonna we're gonna lose the plot fairly quickly if it is not finally and fully in God. But, God help us.
Bill Dogterom:We still double down on human solutions. We still put our hopes finally in a change of circumstances. We talked about that last week. And Isaiah is just saying, no. No.
Bill Dogterom:No. No. If the zeal of a human being can accomplish this, it's temporary. It's the zeal of the Lord who accomplishes this outcome. Notice what he's asking this this this, this governmental person, this person to finally do.
Bill Dogterom:He's going to be, he says, a wonderful counselor marked by wisdom. He's gonna be characteristic of mighty God, this spiritual authority. He's going to have this this relational capacity to pull us all together as family, which was ultimately what we are, this this everlasting father, and it is as such that he will be then the prince of peace. Now this is challenging because prince of peace is a title that has been co opted. Caesar Augustus called himself the prince of peace.
Bill Dogterom:It was common language in the first century and throughout the previous, half millennia, really. So Isaiah is using political language to reframe the expectation we have of this this person. Because how did Caesar, for example, use him because he's dead and can't get back at me. How did he accomplish that prince of peace title? By completely slaughtering all of those who were his enemies.
Bill Dogterom:And Isaiah, notice how quickly he comes in behind this and says, this prince of peace for whom we long and wait will not accomplish that title by decimating his enemies. He will do it. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. And and notice what is not compromised in the establishment of shalom. He says, his kingdom will be one of justice and righteousness.
Bill Dogterom:So this peace that he's talking about does not come at the at the at the at the cost of of of of integrity, at the cost of righteousness, at the cost of right living. In fact, it's a justice. This is less about punishment, less about retribution, and more about restoration. Remember, he is writing to a people who have been crushed under the weight of a governmental system that has taxed them almost to the breaking point for the wealth of the leadership and they want to get back. And Isaiah says that's not how justice actually works.
Bill Dogterom:It does work by redistribution. It works by by by by validating the legitimate claims of the people at the bottom. It's a restorative justice that this king comes to bring. It's a righteousness, a right not just relationship but a right living that flows out of that. And how in the world is that going to be accomplished?
Bill Dogterom:How in the world is he going to make that happen? It will only be enabled by the direct working of the Lord. The Lord the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. But I think it's worthwhile even saying that that we not give up hope in the actualization of this prophecy. This has been a challenging season for many people all over the world.
Bill Dogterom:We're vibrating at high frequency of despair and a concern as to whether the wheels are just finally gonna come off on the human experiment. Are we gonna finally blow ourselves up and wonder what in the world happened and find somebody convenient to blame? We have to remember that just like peace, I mean, just like hope, peace also has a first name. Notice how Jesus accomplishes the peace that Isaiah envisions. Look at what the zeal of the Lord actually looks like.
Bill Dogterom:Because if we're not careful, we will assume that the way God works peace is by the annihilation, the decimation of his enemies. And what we will discover is that God is so magnificent, so magnanimous that he opens his arms as wide as they can be opened and lets them be attached to a cross, wide enough to embrace even those who are his enemies if they will turn. If they will turn. Look at what it cost Jesus to be the prince of peace. Here it is in Ephesians chapter, two.
Bill Dogterom:He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups into one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create then in himself a new humanity out of the two thus making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access to the father by one spirit. This takes a little bit of unpacking but it's worth sending sending sending our hearts around, the church at Ephesus Asia Minor, one of the seven churches, to whom Revelation was written, is a church that is as divided as you can possibly imagine among every imaginable way. Socioeconomic, gender, religious belief structures, age, every way that you can find to slice and dice and bifurcate society, they had done it in the church at Ephesus.
Bill Dogterom:And now, all of a sudden, Paul is writing to this church and the community surrounding and says, y'all get along. You gotta figure this out. You gotta figure this out. So Jew, Gentile, no longer relevant. What?
Bill Dogterom:Wait. No. We're right. Yeah. Irrelevant.
Bill Dogterom:Wait. No. No. We're we're we're the chosen people. Yeah.
Bill Dogterom:So are they. Yeah. Wait. No. That's not fair.
Bill Dogterom:Yeah. You're right. You you really want fair? Yeah. How well have you done at being the chosen people?
Bill Dogterom:I mean, let's be clear. You were chosen as ambassadors so that those people who were also chosen will know from your mouths that they too were chosen. And instead, what did you do? You banked your chosenness. You let it gain interest.
Bill Dogterom:And did it produce life in you? No. No. No. It produced death.
Bill Dogterom:You celebrate the law but don't keep it. Yeah. You say, this makes us special. Oh, really? Yeah.
Bill Dogterom:We need some church lady in here. So special. You've triumphed at your specialness and it has not moved you one inch in compassion to the brokenness of the world. And you think you think that's gonna get you a buy at the end of the day? Not so much.
Bill Dogterom:Jesus is not interested in just improving your life. He wants to kill you. You you did get the memo. It's it's BYOC, Bring your own cross. Why does he do that?
Bill Dogterom:Because you cannot get from here to where he wants you to be except through that passageway of the death of every other way that you have of making it happen. There's no other way. There is no other way. So he invites you not simply to take advantage of his embrace on the cross, but to join him on the cross. He invites you to become part of the great conspiracy and there is one, uh-huh, opposed to the other stuff that's floating around in the universe.
Bill Dogterom:The great conspiracy of redemption that God is at work in the world. So you'll notice what he says here. This this this this culture that has been, using differences and they are weaponizing them for advantage. So, Jew, Gentile, slave free, male, female, anybody recognize? We're still weaponizing differences.
Bill Dogterom:We're still using the language of the other as a way of positioning in our ourselves as and we feel superior. We feel so and and all those poor benighted people who are so wrong. You really want fair or do you want mercy? Because if you want fair, you'd mercy is not gonna help you. But if you want mercy, fair becomes irrelevant.
Bill Dogterom:And here's what he says, here's what he says, instead of those weaponized differences that are baked into the system at the DNA level, those issues that have become political, weapons, His solution his solution is to become more broken than we are. To become sin. To hang on a cross, to take into us all of the ways of our brokenness, and to redeem it from the inside out because Jesus knows that our differences externally are nothing more than a a mirror image, a projection of our internal fragmentation. And you know this, the people who are big and the loudest in the room are those that are hoping nobody will notice, the lights are on, but nobody's home. That the fear that drives the bully and the fear that cowers from the bully is the same fear.
Bill Dogterom:Where's the hope? Oh, it is in the embrace of the one who has taken all of that into himself and has made the two groups one in their mutual brokenness and in the embrace of them. Because as it turns out, that disintegration, that fragmentation that has worked itself out in the way that we treat the world can only find solution in him. Jesus doesn't just bring peace. He is peace.
Bill Dogterom:He is our peace, our wholeness. And remember, again, let me just underline, this is not just about the laying down of our weapons. It's not just about, the cessation of conflict. It's not just about, I'm I'm I'm gonna be I'm gonna be Canadian and just be nice. Although, they're getting a bit snarky up there.
Bill Dogterom:I don't know, man. I think the winter's kicking in. But anyway, because that's that's how that's the best we can do. That's the best we can do. I can be mannerly.
Bill Dogterom:And that, by the way, if that's the best you can do, at least be mannerly. Right? But Jesus is not gonna be content with just being mannerly, with just being nice. He wants us to be transformed in such a way that we recognize at the core of our being that person that you have turned into an enemy because of their skin color or who they voted in the last election or their socioeconomic status, that person is actually your brother, your sister. They belong at the table just as much as you do, which is to say, not at all.
Bill Dogterom:The only reason any of us have a seat at the table is because of the mercy of God. And so Jesus invites us to join him in this, to be our peace, to be our shalom. Here we are. Romine led us so beautifully this morning. You held in your hands the symbols of the of the how he is going to do this.
Bill Dogterom:He And and please remember, he's the mighty God. He can crush any and all opposition and has chosen instead to embrace those who are opponents to him who will be embraced. He won't force reconciliation on anyone. He won't. Love doesn't do that.
Bill Dogterom:Nor will it take up the weapons of destruction when love doesn't work. We'll talk about that in a couple of weeks. Love is self fully self justifying. There is nowhere to go after you've chosen love as a solution. So here he invites us into this to create this new humanity to put to death the hostility, to invite us all together to join in him on the cross because if our peacemaking depends on the other getting their act together, we've lost the plot already.
Bill Dogterom:I mean, we had a caretaker one time at the church I served up in Glendora who who who who came in one one one one one Friday afternoon and said, could keep this place clean if it wasn't for all these kids. We had a Christian school, three or 400 people running around making a mess. I could keep this place clean if it wasn't for all these kids. Bro, if it wasn't for all these kids, you wouldn't have a job. If our focus on peacemaking is the other guy finally cluing in, we've missed the point.
Bill Dogterom:We've missed the point. So Jesus invites us to lay down our rightness not because it's not right but because even in its being right it's not relational. If I choose being right over relationship, I'm choosing against what God is doing on the cross. This is hard for us. Hard for us because being right is how we manage our insecurity.
Bill Dogterom:It's how we manage our sense of frail frailty. At least I'm right. Do you wanna, like, test that? Do you think that you're right in all of the ways that actually matter? Do you think when you get into eternity, you'll just walk around saying, oh, yeah.
Bill Dogterom:Been there. Done that. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Bill Dogterom:Oh, yeah. See? Yeah. Of course. Or will you be faced down in the gold?
Bill Dogterom:Catch up. Streets are paved with? Gold. Thank you. Will you be faced down in the gold like everybody else realizing I hadn't a clue?
Bill Dogterom:This is so much more magnificent than I possibly imagined. Annoying as it is, God is more gracious than I imagined. There's people here that I wouldn't have let in. And I'm here and they wouldn't have let me in. They didn't get a vote.
Bill Dogterom:And the one who did said y'all come. Y'all come. So here we are, this peace that is not just a cessation of conflict, but is is making whole, establishing a a a a shalom. It's not just a a detente guaranteed by mutually assured destruction. It's an awareness of the bigger wonder that gathers us up.
Bill Dogterom:Because here's the thing here's the thing that just is the older I get, the more I realize I need my enemies because they're right on stuff that I'm wrong on. That's frustrating. That's really painful to realize that that I only I I don't even have a half of a picture of real I need somebody who can see the backside of my dumb and and and and anybody else? I I need people with whom I disagree vehemently on really important things because they're seeing stuff that I'm not able to see blinded as I am by being right. And Jesus is just inviting us to join him in this in this strength that comes from the embrace both of weakness and of strength.
Bill Dogterom:This wholeness that flows out of it and to recognize the embrace of the enemy as brother, as sister that they are is the goal of all of this. But then Jesus starts to meddle. Because this would be lovely if it were a gift that he brought to me. But now he says, can you join me in being peacemakers? Blessed are Matthew five.
Bill Dogterom:Blessed are the peacemakers. Who were they identified by? What are they identified as? They're the sons and daughters of God. Oh, that's what God is like.
Bill Dogterom:He's a peacemaker. He doesn't post things on Instagram that haven't been verified as true. Even though they affirm my being right. He doesn't repeat gossip. He doesn't divide for the sake of advantage.
Bill Dogterom:Dear Jesus, I I wanna take advantage of peace when it's between me and God but I'm not sure I want to be an ambassador of peace when it involves not saying things about people that I know, even if they're true, much less if I'm not sure that they're true, but I really wish that they were. Dear god, blessed are the peacemakers that don't sow dissension. You can think things and not say them. Who knew? Darren and I were having this conversation earlier this week.
Bill Dogterom:A friend, somebody we really respect posted something on on, Substack, and and Darren wrote a brilliant, brilliant response and and at the end of it, he said, I'm not gonna publish this. I may talk to him privately, but I'm not gonna publish this. I don't need to add fuel to the fire of our differences. I don't need to do that. Can I be invited to join Jesus in peacemaking and so be identified as he was, as the son of God?
Bill Dogterom:Not sowing or promoting division. Because I'm aware, right, that there is someone in the universe who does that. I don't I don't wanna be identified as the son of that being, the adversary. Our view of Jesus is coming sometimes, I think, is that he will finally, at the end of the day, prove us right when in fact what we will discover is that we have all been wrong in ways that we didn't possibly imagine we were wrong. Is it possible that God is bigger than you believe him to be?
Bill Dogterom:So we're invited into this stunning awareness that peace receiving is also peace giving, peace making. It's an invitation to mission as followers and disciples of the prince of peace. We are called to be peacemakers in a world that is vibrating with anxiety, that is over looking over its shoulder at every possible opportunity, that is responding with unprecedented violence against even the minor est of affection of offenses, and we we are solid enough to be able to absorb the differences, the disagreements without retaliation. This doesn't mean that injustice prevails. No, at the end of the day remember, justice will prevail.
Bill Dogterom:That's not my business. My business is to be an ambassador or representative of peace saying, be reconciled to God. Because when you're reconciled to God, you're reconciled to yourself. And when you're reconciled to yourself, you can finally be reconciled to your brother, your sister, whom you have weaponized as a way of dealing with your disintegration internally. So we're invited into this awareness that forgiveness is essential to step into.
Bill Dogterom:Now Jesus knows that we're gonna need some help with this. So he says to us just as he's on his way out, verse 27 of Matthew, John 14, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. Not the way the world gives peace. So don't let your hearts be troubled.
Bill Dogterom:Don't be afraid. Lean in. Peace will never be safe, but that's alright. Peace will never be, easy, but but you'll be secure. You'll be fine.
Bill Dogterom:Don't let your heart be troubled. And this too is missional. Have you ever had somebody who was a person of peace walk into the room? I can remember a situation sitting in an emergency room. A member of my congregation had had a heart attack, and we were there waiting final response.
Bill Dogterom:And the lead pastor that I was associate to, 03:00 in the morning, walks into the room, and you could feel just the temperature go down. He was a person of peace. Can you be that in your spaces? That's the invitation. So here's the prayer at the end.
Bill Dogterom:Last last week, you were so patient with me. We're gonna try it again. Here's this this declaration. Look at it in numbers. I'm gonna ask you to look at it with me and then we're gonna pray it over one another.
Bill Dogterom:Alright? The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. You feel this feel the invitation, not just to be a receiver, but to be an ambassador of this peace.
Bill Dogterom:So what I'm gonna ask you to do, if you would please to stand. If you're in overflow, please stand. If you're at home, maybe find somebody that you can, grip hands with. And here's here's what I'd like you to do. I want you to just take a few minutes to sit with this.
Bill Dogterom:I'd like you to find somebody and look into their eyes. Don't close your eyes. Two or three people and just speak it to one another. I'm gonna ask you if you would please just to repeat it after me, and then, we'll continue on with response. Are you ready?
Bill Dogterom:The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen. Amen.
Intro/Outro:Thank you for listening. For more information, please visit us online at garden.church.