the words and The Word - Jeremy Duncan

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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.

Jeremy Duncan: 00:06

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.

Jeremy Duncan: 00:21

Welcome to commons. My name is Jeremy, and welcome to the launch of season And this is, of course, our 10th year we're beginning together, which honestly is pretty incredible for me just to be here with each of you. You are such a gift to me, to my family, and to our staff team here, so thank you. I think because of our annual journal project, We have just gotten into the habit of talking about each year as a season at commons. That's how we planned the year after all.

Jeremy Duncan: 00:51

However, since we are just starting our 10th season today, that actually means today is our 9th birthday. But that also means that next We get to celebrate a 10th birthday all over again with a big party, so we are gonna celebrate 10 for everything that we can get. It's our birthday year. We'll call it that. Look out.

Jeremy Duncan: 01:08

By the way, my son is almost exactly 1 year older than commons, and so he did indeed celebrate his 10th birthday just a few days ago. Happy birthday, buddy. I love you. But I think these kind of markers are a lot of fun. Just like in real life, they're a chance for us to pause, to look back, and to see how far we've come.

Jeremy Duncan: 01:29

So on his birthday, as we do every year, we measured my son against the wall in our kitchen, and we wrote his Height and age down there on the wall just to see how much he's grown this year. And maybe that's what the launch of a new season is for us at commons each year. Mark on the wall, a milestone to celebrate, another chance to start fresh all over again for another season, and I honestly love that rhythm. Whatever season 9 was for you, IRL, my advice is to hold on to the good, Let go of the bad and learn from it and set some new destination for where you'd like to head next. And that is sort of what the journals are for us each here as a community.

Jeremy Duncan: 02:13

They are an introduction to commons, of course. And this year, we've actually reformatted the content around the comment questions that we hear most frequently from you in community. The journals are also an outline for the next 12 months of our sermons. There's some great conversations I'm looking forward to this year. We're gonna tackle a theology of celebration in the spring.

Jeremy Duncan: 02:36

We're gonna look at the gospel of Mark in 2 parts this fall and then again in the winter, and we're gonna head back to 1st Corinthians to look at a beautiful body in the new year. But more than just content, I think the journals and the whole fall launch season, at least for me, represent even more than a new year does, A fresh start for things. That's what we're here for today, to chart the way ahead, to launch into something new. And to do that, We wanted to set a bit of a frame for our year. What is it?

Jeremy Duncan: 03:10

What ideas hold our community together As we engage all of these different conversations over the course of a year, as we say in the journal, it's not just what we believe, But it's how we believe it together that matters. And one of the really helpful frames for the experience of commons Has been that 1st page of the journal each year. For years now, almost since the very beginning, the 1st page of the journal Has always started this way. At commons, we are completely fascinated with this complex and beautiful collection of texts we call the bible, But we worship Jesus. 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.

Jeremy Duncan: 04:01

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, we believe that Jesus came not to change god's mind about us, But to repair our imagination of god. And so realizing this and coming to understand that god is love, We affirm surprising acceptance and scandalous grace as the way god chooses to heal all things. Our desire is to participate in that renewal by following the way of Jesus, empowered by God's spirit, Trusting that this good news is even better than we can imagine. Welcome. In that frame of how we want to believe together is how we want to launch into this new season together as well.

Jeremy Duncan: 04:52

Today, we're gonna talk about the relationship between Jesus and the bible as followers of the way. Next week, we'll look at how approaching the bible through the lens of Jesus changes what we read there. After that, we'll talk about whether god is angry and what exactly divine anger might be pointed at in the world. We'll talk about the way that Jesus repairs not god's attitude toward us, that's love, but our image or our imagination of who god is. We'll talk about scandalous grace, and then finally, we will wrap up the series by talking about what it means to be empowered by the spirit to participate in Jesus' kingdom mission in the world, but that framing won't contain everything for us.

Jeremy Duncan: 05:36

Lots of conversations Both here from the stage and in the pews will continue to poke outside and push new boundaries for us as they should. But our hope is that as we start this 10th season together full of new challenges and opportunities, most of them we can't even see on the horizon yet. This series of conversations about what it means to be together at commons can serve as a bit of a frame and a window into how we hope to continue becoming this community together. So season 10. Let's pray, and then we'll talk about Jesus and the bible.

Jeremy Duncan: 06:15

God of all that is good in the universe, we meet this fresh fall day as persons who desperately need your grace, Who seek your love and who celebrate your forgiveness, who marvel at the magnitude and the beauty of creation. But we also know that you see into the fragility of that faith, the buckling under to injustice and the adopting of patterns more convenient than compelling. So would you continue to invite us graciously forward into something better Step by step because for that, we are grateful as we enter into this new season. As summer gives way to fall, and students head back to classrooms as workplaces swing into renewed rhythms, As we prepare, as a community, to be led by your spirit into new adventures together, we pray that you would remind us of the delicate beauty of self giving, that we might fill our neighborhoods, our schools, our homes, our workplaces, indeed, Even this space we gather in today, with lives that reflect the love and the grace and the peace of your son, Forgive us when we fall short. Strengthen us when we find ourselves fearful.

Jeremy Duncan: 07:38

Remind us of our essential Identity as beloved in you. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Today, we start our new season, and we do it with a new series called at commons. And, again, the idea here is just to retread some, Frankly, pretty familiar territory in order to provide a bit of a frame for all the conversations that will follow throughout the year.

Jeremy Duncan: 08:07

And the point is not to put a boundary on what will come, but simply to put some of our stakes in the ground that guide our thinking together as commons. Now today, we wanna look at the opening line of our at commons welcome. We are completely fascinated with this complex and beautiful collection of texts that that we call the bible, but we worship Jesus. And I actually wrote about this in my last book. I said in our church community, we often use this phrase, and it's meant to be a little provocative.

Jeremy Duncan: 08:39

I mean, obviously, we worship Jesus. We're a Christian church after Jerall. But the but creates a point of tension or at least a point of distinction between Jesus and the text. Now spoiler, that's not because we actually think there is a distinction or a disconnect. In fact, the more I study and the more I read, the more I find myself Invested in scripture, the more clearly I see them pointing me back to to Jesus.

Jeremy Duncan: 09:05

However, we do recognize a distinction here. Scripture is where we encounter Jesus. Scripture is not. It's never a replacement for Jesus. And so today, we want to talk about why that is and what it means for us as followers of the way.

Jeremy Duncan: 09:24

And for that, we're going to need to talk about all the words and god breathed and logos and wisdom and finally, the capital w. But let's start with this question. What do we mean when we talk about the word of god? See, for most of my Christian In life, the word of God has primarily referred to the bible, that big book that I have a bunch of copies of on my shelf. Oh, it's funny.

Jeremy Duncan: 09:51

My son, he moved from the 1st week of school this week, and I asked about class. And he told me that he got a new book to read, and he seemed pretty excited about this book. And so I inquired, that's great. What book did you get? And he said, and I quote, well, it starts with the word the, but that's all I can remember.

Jeremy Duncan: 10:08

Now I asked, was it the Bible? But it wasn't that one. He also didn't think pastor dad was very funny. I do, but that's fine. Apparently, the book involved a sasquatch and a train, and I don't remember that bible story, so it wasn't that.

Jeremy Duncan: 10:23

We never did get past The those. So if you know that one, let me know. I'll let him know. I'll impress him. I'll be a winner.

Jeremy Duncan: 10:30

Still, the word of god Has often signified this collection of 66 books and letters gathered together and bound into 2 testaments handed to us as the bible, and there's good reason for that. The scriptures themselves talk about the word of god a lot. Psalm 119. Your word, oh lord, is a lamp for my feet, a light unto my path. Or maybe Isaiah 40, the grass withers and the flowers fail, but the word of our god endures forever.

Jeremy Duncan: 11:04

Even Jesus regularly talks about the word of god. He talks in Mark 7 about how we can nullify the word of god By weighing down with heavy burdens we put on each other, he speaks about how blessed we are when we hear the word of god, and then we obey it or We live it. We follow it. So the word of god is in itself a very common idea within the word of god. However, in all those references, you might see a subtle nuance here.

Jeremy Duncan: 11:37

Because they are each of them in our bible, and they all refer to the word of god, and yet all seem to be referring to something other than themselves. When the psalmist writes, Your word, oh lord, is a lamp to my feet. He's not talking about the words that he just wrote down. I mean, that would be a little arrogant. It's a nice poem and all.

Jeremy Duncan: 11:57

I really appreciate it, but now he's talking about something else here. Right? In fact, every single time You come across a reference to the word of god in the bible. You will find that the writer is speaking about some other word other than their words. Take Paul's words in 2nd Timothy, one of most famous lines about god's word anywhere in god's word.

Jeremy Duncan: 12:21

He says all scripture is god breathed. Now what does all scripture mean here? Well, it certainly doesn't mean that this line he just wrote is god The new testament didn't even exist when Paul sat down to write a letter to his boy, Tim. And he certainly never imagined his letter catching on the way that did so that it would eventually be considered scripture itself when he was writing. So Paul is referring to the Hebrew scriptures, Reminding his protege Timothy to study them diligently.

Jeremy Duncan: 12:53

Okay. So there it is. Is that it? That's the answer. The word of god is the old testament in our bible.

Jeremy Duncan: 12:59

We should all give up shellfish and follow the Levitical law from now on. Well, no. Because what you find in scripture is that the idea of the word of god keeps evolving. So the psalmist may have the commands of God, the law, or we call it the Torah in mind. And Jesus Speaks of the law and the prophets and not one word falling away.

Jeremy Duncan: 13:24

Paul says all scripture is god breathed. That means he's adding the Ketuvim or the writings to the law and the prophets. But by the time in the early church In the book of acts, we also start to get references to the story of Jesus now also being called the word of god. So acts 6, the word of god spread. And the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Jeremy Duncan: 13:53

Or acts 8, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of god, they sent Peter and John to go and see them. Or acts 11, the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that even the gentiles had received the word of god. Now all of these can't just be references to the Hebrew scriptures because all of these stories are about people converting to the way of Jesus. And there can't be references to the new testament as we have it because that doesn't exist yet. It's actively being written when these words were written.

Jeremy Duncan: 14:28

Instead, just like we see, all through scripture, this term, the word of god, refers not just to some specific book on the shelf, but to the ongoing unfolding story of god alive in the world around us. From the moment god spoke the universe into existence, to when god handed the law to Moses, to when god communicated through the prophets, To when god came and was born and lived and died and lived again, to when god's spirit animated and moved the good news of Jesus out and into the world through the church. All of it, the entire bible is the story about the word of god. And I think that's why I find myself just endlessly fascinated with this book we call the bible. It's why I've spent most of my adult life studying it academically and vocationally and in large chunks of my personal spare time.

Jeremy Duncan: 15:28

The the very idea that this collection of stories has fascinated humanity for 1000 of years across different eras and civilizations and cultures Compels me to think that there is a store of wisdom here worth mining. In fact, it makes me think that there's life to be found in this book, But that life is found not on the shelf, but in where the story leads us to. And, again, the scriptures are not confused about this. Paul says in Colossians That the image of the invisible god, the divine reality that has existed from before there was anything, that invisible truth is now present in history because, quote, all the fullness of deity lives and breathes in Jesus. Similarly, the writer of Hebrews says that the life of Jesus is, quote, the exact representation of god's character.

Jeremy Duncan: 16:30

The image here is the idea of a coin stamped or pressed into metal. The writer is saying that looking at Jesus shows us exactly what god is like. Never anywhere in scripture do the scriptures came that kind of clarity for themselves. They point uniquely to Jesus that way. So all through scripture, you keep hearing this term, the word of god, pointing at something else, The largest story of god present and unfolding, but now in the light of Jesus and looking back at the love and the selflessness of the cross, the church Start saying things like, actually, I think that was it.

Jeremy Duncan: 17:13

The divine has always been speaking. We can trust that god always will, but now god has said everything god needs to say. The word was with us. And there are so many things to distract us. Right?

Jeremy Duncan: 17:29

Politics and power and even theological tangents about how to interpret obscure commands in the bible. You know, what god thinks about circumstance a or scenario b. And all of that is interesting, fascinating, actually, even good, Assuming we don't get lost in it, but scripture is there to consistently, gently guide us back to the realization that everything god needed to say, is present to us in the way that Jesus lived. Remember that line from second Timothy? All scripture is god breathed.

Jeremy Duncan: 18:07

He goes on to say that all scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So, again, Paul specifically says that scripture is there to point us towards something, but that something is the way of being in the world that is brought to life in Jesus. And even that phrase, go ahead and breathe, that that Paul uses. That's the word in Greek, and it refers to god's breath literally. It's not talking about god dictating scripture, though.

Jeremy Duncan: 18:38

It's talking about god Speaking life, breathing life into us through scripture. God breathed is an image. It's a it's a word picture. It's one that's actually Quite familiar from the scriptures. Remember back in Genesis, god breathes into the dust of the earth, and humanity comes alive.

Jeremy Duncan: 18:56

Or then in Ezekiel, god breathes into the dry bones of Israel, and the nations springs back to life. That's because Theopneustos is an image of the life giving divine breath that animates and sustains us. The story of god in scripture is like the breath in your chest right now, says Paul. But all of this is why the prologue of John is such an important text in Christianity to keep us fascinated by scripture, but centered on the way of Jesus. Because all scripture is god breathed.

Jeremy Duncan: 19:36

All scripture is the story about the word of god, but Jesus Is that final word? In the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word Was god? This is all very clearly a callback to Genesis. Right? In the beginning, god formed the heavens and an earth from the chaos of creation, and god did it with a word.

Jeremy Duncan: 19:59

So in the beginning was the word. He was with god in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Nothing was made without him. Through in him was life, and that life was the light of all humanity.

Jeremy Duncan: 20:13

The light that shines in the darkness and even the darkness of the cross has not, will not, could not ever overcome it. See, John is doing some fascinating things here right at the start. Now later this fall, we're gonna look at the first half of Mark. In the winter, we're gonna come back and look at the second half. So lots of Mark this year.

Jeremy Duncan: 20:33

Get ready. But to be honest here, Mark is one of my favorite gospels. Mark is stripped down and raw. It Cut straight to the chase. You get to see Jesus in the gospel of Mark with almost no commentary to get in the way.

Jeremy Duncan: 20:46

I love it. John, though, John is the other side of the spectrum. Like, John is all commentary. If Mark is story, John is speculation. If Mark is narrative, then John is theology.

Jeremy Duncan: 20:59

And probably one of the best ways to think about this is that Mark is the foundation, And John is what Christianity builds on top of that story. But what we see in John Is that what Christianity builds is this conviction that the whole long story is leading us to the life of Jesus. And the life of Jesus, in turn, then changes everything about how we read the story. See, John does this brilliant thing where he plays with words in his opening here. He says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word was god, and that word word is the word logos in Greek.

Jeremy Duncan: 21:43

Now logos means word, But it also has this rich philosophical subtext. In Greek philosophy, logos went through a number of different eras, but By the time of the new testament, the dominant Neo Platonist framework held that the logos of something, The word of something was more than just a way to name something. It was a way to talk about the essence of something, The very idea of a thing. So for example, stage, like the one that I'm standing on right now. That's not just lumber and steel and a raised platform.

Jeremy Duncan: 22:20

It's a focal point. It's a way to direct our attention to something that is arguably worth paying attention to. And the logos of a stage is not just the structure, it's The performance, that's the stage. So another example. You pull out a canvas and you begin to paint, But the logos of your painting is not just the strokes on the canvas.

Jeremy Duncan: 22:43

It's the image or the idea that you had in your mind when you began to create. Your artistry then is your ability or your inability to express the true logos of your painting through your intent and your paints. The philosophers would say it this way, that the logos was the force that invests the world with shape and form and life, so ideas become real through logos. And John comes along and he says, yeah, I like that. Because when god creates, the scale is Creation itself.

Jeremy Duncan: 23:19

And so he links logos to the beginning. All of it, everything is part of god's intent. But he's doing another thing too here as well because that Parallels another even older philosophical tradition, and that is the wisdom tradition found in the Hebrew scriptures. Listen to Proverbs 8 here. This is the woman named Wisdom who's speaking in this poem.

Jeremy Duncan: 23:50

This is what she says. The lord brought me forth at the first of god's works before god's deeds of old. I was formed long ages ago at the very beginning. Our ears should perk up here. When the world came to be, When there were no watery depths yet, I was given birth, before springs overflowing with water.

Jeremy Duncan: 24:12

Before the mountains were settled, I was there. Before god made the world or the fields or even the dust, there was me. I was there when god set the heavens in place, When god marked out the horizon over the face of the deep. That line, face of the deep, that mention of those watery depths, Those are lifted directly from Genesis when god's spirit hovers over the face of the deep waters of creation. See, in Hebrew thought, wisdom is not just smarts.

Jeremy Duncan: 24:45

Like, it it's not your test scores. Wisdom is Creativity. Wisdom is your ability to make any situation, maybe even your world, what you need it to be. And so when god decides to create, it's wisdom that personifies the divine urge in this poem about the beginning. What John realizes is that both of these are in some sense sides of the same coin.

Jeremy Duncan: 25:16

The wisdom of creativity from the Hebrew tradition, logos As the expression of an idea made real in the world from the Greek tradition. And he sees this great play on words that's available to him, a Pun, if you will, because in Genesis, god speaks creation into form with a word, and in Greek, logos is also just the regular everyday word for word. And so in naming Jesus right off the bat, at the very start of his gospel, in the first line as the capital w word of god, A phrase that's used all through the scriptures, but it's always pointing somewhere else at a larger story. What John is saying here is actually all of it points here. And, yes, that's all of scripture, But it's all wisdom.

Jeremy Duncan: 26:06

It's all creativity. It's all philosophy and history, all prophecy and hope and tradition. All love Points to this moment in history when god occupies the human story To demonstrate what a human life can be at its essence, at its logos, at its most creative. See, John is saying all scripture is god breathed. It is life giving.

Jeremy Duncan: 26:40

It's packed full of wisdom and creativity, but that's because it points us to Jesus. And so it's no longer our words about god gathered up and preserved, written down and bound together, but now it's God's word, alive and breathing and showing us the essence of life and the heart of love, what it looks like to be human. Jesus is everything god needed to say to us about what it means for us to live well. And it's not enough to answer all of our questions. Certainly not enough to fill in all the gaps in our theology.

Jeremy Duncan: 27:28

That's why we're still working things out 2000 years later. But it's enough to look at Jesus and see the divine. It's enough for us to look at Jesus and see how a life full of love for each other Looks, there's enough in Jesus for us to look at his life and follow his steps through the world on our way back to god. In the commons, we are completely fascinated with this complex and beautiful collection of text we call the bible because that's how we encounter Jesus. But we worship Jesus Because his life is the final word of god that guides us.

Jeremy Duncan: 28:14

Let's pray. God of all grace, who offers us untold wisdom to mine, to research, to study, To find in the scriptures to apply to our life. In all of that goodness and grace, might we still always remember where it is leading us To the final word of your son's life in the world, his life he gives away, It's life that you return to him. And in that, might we find ourselves motivated, Strengthened, given courage, moved to live in such a way with our neighbors, with our dollars, With our politics, with everything that we engage in, so that we might, in some small way, contribute to a world renewed, To a kingdom built, to a way in the world that looks like your son. And we trust That is we follow him step by step, misplaced as they are at times, that we will Slowly find our way back to you because you are good, and you are love, and your grace and peace is extended to us.

Jeremy Duncan: 29:35

May that be the foundation of our identity, and may our steps flow from it. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.