God's Beautiful, Broken Drama - Luke 1:5-26

Josh Broward
November 28, 2010
KNU International English Church


Do you ever feel confused about life and God?
Do you ever wish God would show himself more clearly?
Do you ever wonder if God cares about you and your life?
Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions?  Wake up.  Go to work.  Go home.  Sleep.  Wake up.  Go to work.  And on and on and on.
Do you wonder if your life has any larger meaning?  Is there something in life that is bigger than us?   Is there a larger plot that gives meaning to our little dramas and comedies?
Do you ever feel like nothing is ever going to change?
Do you struggle to obey God or to maintain active faith in God? 
Do you ever feel like God and the Bible are so far from our natural world that it’s difficult to see the connection, or at least difficult to live in a connected way?
Do you ever feel disappointed with the way your life has turned out?
Do you ever feel like you’re too human, too sinful, too broken for God to really use you in a significant way?  Do you ever feel like real Christianity is for those other people who are holier or smarter or have easier jobs?
Do you ever feel that church is boring or irrelevant or maybe even corrupt?
Do you ever feel that it’s hard to connect with what’s going on here when we gather on Sundays?  Maybe there are just too many happy people for you.  Maybe you don’t believe everyone is actually this happy, and that puts you off.  Maybe the style of music or sermon or whatever is not what you want. 
Do you ever wonder if you’ll ever find a church that feels right for you? 
Do you ever wonder if you even want to be part of a church at all?

    If you ever feel like any of this, then today’s story is for you.  During the Advent Season, we’ll be reading through Luke chapter 1.  We’ll start in verse 5.  Let’s read Luke  1:5-26.

    All of Luke chapter 1 is about God’s action as the director of the Salvation Story.  God is busily working to prepare the stage for his personal arrival as Jesus.  Luke is extremely concerned to show that God is not starting a new story with Jesus.  Rather, the Jesus story is the continuation of the same salvation story that Israel has been telling for a thousand years.  The first two chapters of Luke are like an “echo chamber” of the Jewish faith.1  If you listen closely to our Old Testament readings during Advent and Christmas, you’ll hear their words and themes repeated again and again in Luke. 
    But Luke also wants the people to know that the Jesus story connects with the end of God’s story as well.  The prophet Daniel got some strange visions about the end time, and Gabriel showed up to tell Daniel about the Messiah and some of the things that would happen at the end (Daniel 8-9).   And Gabriel virtually quotes some of the prophecies from Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet.  Malachi said before the end, God would send a prophet like Elijah to prepare the people for the Lord and to turn the hearts of fathers to their children (Malachi 3-4).  Luke is saying that the Jesus story connects with Israel’s past and future.  The Jesus story is the hinge of history, moving the old salvation story forward to the beautiful conclusion that God has always planned.

    But within this story, the characters and cast are not always cooperative.  We humans do not always listen to our Director (God).  In fact, the great drama of this story is how God tries to work with a rebellious cast to bring healing to the world. 
    The beautiful truth of the gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.  God never gives up on people.  No matter how broken we are ... no matter how sinful we humans get ... no matter how messed up our institutions are ... God is unshakably committed to humanity, and God will work with humans to save humanity no matter the cost.  God loves us too deeply to quit.  God loves us too deeply to abandon us.  God loves us too deeply to leave us out of his salvation story.
   
    Maybe it would be helpful for us to take a look at some of the characters in this one scene of God’s salvation story.  We’ve already talked about Gabriel and how he connects the story to both the past and the future.
    The other obvious characters are Zechariah and Elizabeth.  These two were ultra religious.  Luke says they were “blameless according to all the commandments and regulations,” and there were a LOT of commandments and regulations!  They did everything right.  To top it off, they were both descendants of Aaron, the first high priest.  This would be something like being a grandchild of Billy Graham or Martin Luther. 
    But they were old, and they were barren.  No kids.  No matter how much they tried, now matter how much they prayed, they couldn’t have children.  In our cultures, not having kids is kind of sad (or maybe very sad), but in ancient Israel it was considered a curse.  People thought that barrenness was a sign of God’s displeasure, a punishment for some secret sins.  Elizabeth would be shamed in the market place.  People would wonder what was wrong with Zechariah, and if he should even be allowed to continue as a priest.  They endured a lot of shame and disgrace for this. 
    But they were stubbornly faithful.  Zechariah continued serving his people and his God as a priest.  They kept praying, with or without kids, with or without the approval of their peers.  They kept being faithful, walking a blameless walk.
    Then, God interrupts their story with a major plot change - at least a change from their expectations.  Not only has God hear their prayers for a child, God now promises them a son.  And not just any son.  God promises a son who will grow into a prophet like Elijah.  Their son will prepare people for the Messiah and all of the beautiful healing the Messiah will bring. 
    Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story of pain and unfulfilled longing is now wrapped into the larger story of Israel’s pain and longing.  God’s saving action in the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth is part of God’s saving action in the larger story of God’s saving action for Israel.
    But even still, Zechariah doubts.  Even in the face of an angel, who just about made Zechariah pee his pants, Zechariah still doubts, “But how can I be sure this will happen?  I’m an old man, and my wife is also getting up there.” 
    Have you ever wished God would just send you a sign?  Maybe you thought, “Oh, if only I could see an angel or see God face to face, then all of my doubts would be taken away, and I could fully believe God’s promises.”  Have you ever felt like that?  I sure have. 
    But it doesn’t seem to work.  Israel had all kinds of awesome signs from God: the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the thunder and lightening at Mount Sinai.  (See Exodus.)  But as soon as Moses was gone for a few weeks, they built a golden idol and started worshiping it instead of God. 
    Zechariah is standing there looking at an angel.  And I don’t mean the kind of angels we had here last week, with the little pin on feathery wings.  I mean some kind of blinding, blazing, glorious, soaked in power and light, ANGEL!  And still Zechariah says, “OK, Mr. Fancy Pants, all bright and shiny, how can I be sure about this?  We are pretty old.”
    Gabriel seems a little ticked off and gives Zechariah a case of holy laryngitis as his “sign.”  But here’s the real beauty of this story.  God doesn’t give up on Zechariah just because Zechariah had doubts.  God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.

    The next character in this story is actually an institution.  It’s the Temple.  This “character” is the building of the Temple, the institution of the Temple, the traditions of the Temple, and all of the people who work in the Temple. 
    The Temple was the spiritual, religious, social, and political center of Israel.  Everything extremely important happened in the Temple.  The Temple was the central focus of God’s presence in the world.  In the Temple, the people of Israel brought God daily sacrifices and incense offerings every morning and evening.  Nearly every major rite and event in the life of an Israelite was celebrated with some kind of activity in the Temple.  Luke tells us that the Temple is a beautiful and holy place.
    However, Luke also tells us that the Temple is also deeply flawed and corrupt.  Later, Jesus will enter the Temple in anger because the Temple leaders have bartered their spiritual leadership for financial gain.  The whole system of sacrifice and offering had become corrupt and abusive.  The leaders were making money by cheating the worshipers.  Jesus shouts out that the Temple has strayed from its true purpose.
    Yet, even so, Jesus still cares enough about the Temple to purge it.  Jesus still comes to the Temple every day that he is in Jerusalem to pray and to teach the people.  And in our story, the Temple, with all of its flaws and problems, is still the location for the beginning of God’s fresh activity in our world.  This is the beautiful message of the Gospel again.  God doesn’t give up on the Temple.  God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.

    The next major character in this story is the whole nation of Israel.  Gabriel connects Zechariah’s story to the whole story of Israel.  Zechariah’s son John will turn many Israelite’s hearts to the Lord, and he will live as a prophet, preparing the way for God to come with all his saving power. 
    The very name “Israel” means “one who wrestles with God.”  Throughout Israel’s history they argued and complained and wrestled with God.  Israel and God had this love/hate, on-again-off-again relationship.  Israel was a great ball of contradictions.  They were a mixture of stubborn faithfulness and stubborn faithlessness.  They were divided and fractured, arguing among themselves.  They longed for God’s Messiah to come, but they couldn’t agree on how to get ready for the Messiah or what the Messiah would actually do when he came.
    Yet, here’s the great beauty of this story.  God didn’t give up on Israel.  Despite all of their failings and stumbling and stuttering, God continued to work for Israel and through Israel.  The wonder of the Gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.

    So let’s connect this story back to our lives.  Let’s think about a few more characters, some of the characters here in this room today.
    The Church of Jesus Christ is a lot like Israel and a lot like the Temple.  We in the church are broken and wounded and sinful, and so the institution of the Church is necessarily broken and wounded and sinful.  Through out the history of the Christian Church, we have seen beautiful successes and unselfish sacrifice for others and horrible failures, injustices, and apathy. 
    The simple truth is that the Church is one of the largest stumbling blocks for faith in Jesus.  A guy named Dan Kimbal wrote a very successful book called, They Like Jesus but not the Church.  It’s all about how people in their 20’s and 30’s today are entranced with Jesus but repelled by the Church. 
    As an institution, the Church is really struggling in the developed world.  Young people are leaving the Church in record numbers.  One of the great problems for our age is that the old forms of the Church are not connecting well with newer generations.  We can see the problem happening, but we aren’t sure what changes we need to make or even if we want to make those changes. 
    In terms of our local church, KNU International English Church, we are right in the midst of all of this.  Some people get frustrated and leave our church because we’re too progressive.  Other people get frustrated and leave our church because we’re not progressive enough. 
    As a pastor, sometimes I get frustrated with our church.  The truth is that I’m a perfectionist, so our imperfections really drive me crazy.  But the truth is also that my dreams for our community are often pretty unrealistic.  My dreams are sooooo big, and our progress is real but soooo slow.   As a church, we are a great mixture of faith and doubt, beautiful love and ugly apathy, unselfish sacrifice and self-centeredness.  We are everything good and bad all mixed together. 
    But here is the beauty of this story.  We are exactly the kind of people that God loves to work with.  Yes, it’s true that we are broken and sinful and imperfect, but these are exactly the kind of people God uses most.  The great beauty of the Gospel is that: God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.  So if you are frustrated with our church, keep in mind that God might be a little frustrated too.  But ... But! ... God isn’t giving up on us.  God is continuing to work in and through us, for our healing and for the healing of the world around us.  If you’re frustrated, then I encourage you to act like God and don’t give up.  Stick with us.  Work with us and within us so that we can become together the kind of people God really wants us to be.

    The final set of characters we need to talk about is us - you and me - as individuals.  Let me be really honest with you.  I already told you I am a perfectionist.  I have high expectations for myself and for others.  In fact, I have unreasonably high expectations, impossibly high expectations, especially for myself.  There is no way in the world I could meet my own expectations for myself as a pastor, as a husband, as a father, and as a friend.  I would have to have a 1,000 hour work week and another 1,000 hours to play and to relax with my family.  The great irony of being a perfectionist is that perfectionism is itself an imperfection. 
    The net result here is that I often live with a constant sense of disappointment in myself.  I feel like I can never measure up.  I can never do enough.  I can never say enough well enough.  I can never be enough to satisfy my own relentless longings for love and justice and grace and beauty and -- well perfection.  So, often, I often have to battle a deep underlying sadness and disappointment with myself. 
    Passages like this one today help me, and they can help us.  The great beauty of the Gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.  I don’t have to be perfect.  You don’t have to be perfect. 
    We are broken and messed up.  We sin and make mistakes.  We believe and doubt.  We love and betray.  We care, and we ignore.  We trust grace and doubt grace.  But even so grace remains.  Even with all of our brokenness and wounds and failures, God still has grace for us, and God can still use us to share that grace with others.  The great beauty of the Gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.
   
    This season, during Advent, we want you to develop a feeling of anticipation.  God is working in our world.  God is working in our church.  God is working in our lives.  God is still working in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.  Expect it.  Anticipate it.  Pray for it.  Demand it.  Look for it.
    Today, at the greeting table, there are these little purple ribbons.  Pick one up and tie it on your key chain or cell phone or something you will use every day.  Your life may feel really dark right now, but home comes in the morning, and morning is coming.  As we progress through Advent, we’ll see the colors change like the morning sky as the sun slowly rises.  At the beginning, there is just a hint of purple amid the blackness.  But that purple slowly changes to blue and pink and finally blazing white and gold.  If all you can see now is that hint of purple hold on to that.  Take hope because of that purple.  If all you can see is the brokenness and pain, just remember the great truth of the gospel: God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us. 
    Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  And Christ is coming again.  And this happens in us, through us, and around us every day.  Keep your head up, and pray for eyes to see what God is doing.
   

Dangerous Safety - Luke 21:5-36

Josh Broward
November 14, 2010

    You have all heard the story of “The Tortoise and the Hare,” but have you heard the sequel - “The Tortoise and the Bees”?  After winning the dramatic, ever-so-slow victory over the Hare, the Tortoise decided that it was time to lay her eggs.  Yes, the Tortoise was a girl.  But don’t blame old Aesop for that mistake; it’s very hard to tell with turtles! 
    So the Tortoise made the slow journey back to her ancestral breeding ground.  She found the same sandy field where she was born and the same tree where she had been laying her eggs for many years.  It was perfect.  There was plenty of water.  There was plenty of soft green plants nearby.  It was not too sunny but not too cold.  It was perfect -except for one thing.  This year, there was a beehive in the tree. 
    The bees were not happy about the arrival of the Tortoise.  They buzzed about her head and told her to scram.  She quietly said, “You can sting me, but you can’t kill me.  This is my home, and I must produce life.”  She quietly went about her work, moving the sand and preparing her nest.  The bees began to sting her.  They stung her head, her legs, her tail.  They lost their stingers in her shell.  She continued preparing her nest.  “You can sting me, but you can’t kill me.  This is my home, and I must produce life.” 
    Slowly, slowly, slowly, the Tortoise prepared her nest.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, she laid her eggs.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, the tiny tortoise babies developed inside their eggs.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, the attacks from the bees began to wane as more and more bees lost their stingers in her shell.  No matter what the bees buzzed as they stung her, no matter how much it hurt when they stung, she always quietly replied: “You can sting me, but you can’t kill me.  This is my home, and I must produce life.”
    Finally, after many long months of waiting and patience and endurance, her eggs began to move.  The baby tortoises began to poke through their shells and emerge into the fresh clean air.  When all of the babies were out and free, the momma Tortoise prepared her babies for the annual journey to the watering place.  As they were about to leave the nest, she said, “Never mind the bees.  They can sting you, but they can’t kill you.  This is our home, and we must produce life.”

    This world is full of bees.  Bees of all kinds buzz about us and try to distract us from our calling.  Sometimes they attack and sting.  Other times they just do one flyby after another, trying to get us off course, trying to cause us to lose focus and to lose faith.  In our passage today, Jesus calls us to be like the Tortoise: quietly faithful and unafraid.
    Let’s read Luke 21:5-36.

    Passages like this are always hard for us modern or post-modern people.  These stories about the end of time are difficult for us for several reasons.
    First, we are unfamiliar with the background perspective of this kind of literature.  This comes from a rather special kind of theology called apocalypse.  Apocalyptic literature was primarily written by suffering people who were looking to God as their only hope.  Their world situation was so bad that the only way out was a total divine shake-up.  However, most of us aren’t so desperate.  Most of us feel pretty good about our situation in life.  It may not be perfect, but it’s good enough.
    Second, we have lived with far too many people saying, “I am the Messiah” or “The time has come.”  I remember our pastor talking about 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 (a famous book in which Edgar Whisenant “guaranteed” that Jesus would come again in 1988).  I remember sitting around church potlucks or family gatherings year after year, with people debating and discussing the various “signs of the times” and whether they revealed that Jesus would return within the next few years.  A few years ago, when I preached on the book of Revelation, I was a little surprised to learn that these kind of Second Coming predictions have been proclaimed in every generation for the past 2000 years. 
    When people start talking about Jesus’ second coming, many of us kind of shut down.  Our eyes glaze over.  Our minds go numb.  Maybe we’ve heard it all before.  Maybe we don’t want to be disappointed again.  Maybe we just don’t believe it works like that anymore. 
    But perhaps the biggest reason why an apocalyptic passage like this is so difficult for us is that ... we ... are ... not ... patient.  We live in the now culture.  We speak fast.  We eat fast.  We text fast.  We drive fast.  We read fast.  We pray fast.  We live fast.  We want everything to be fast.  We want everything our way right away.  We ... are ... not ... patient.
    And patience is what this text is all about.  Patience is tough.  But this isn’t really the kind of patience we normally think of.  This isn’t the patience of not getting angry because we’re waiting in line.  This isn’t the patience of calmly answering the 1000 questions of your 5 year old.  This is more like the patience of cutting down a tree with a butter knife.  This is more like the patience of digging a swimming pool with a spoon.  This is an active patience. 
    Listen again to Jesus’ pattern in this text: Bad stuff is going to happen ... but be patiently faithful. 
When you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic.
You will be dragged into synagogs and prisons ... but this will be your opportunity to tell them about me, so don’t worry.
Your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends will betray you.  They will even kill some of you.  Everyone will hate you.  But not a hair of your head will perish!  By standing firm, you will win your souls. 
Jerusalem will be surrounded and defeated.  The sky and the sea will be in chaos.  People will be terrified.  But then, everyone will see me coming on the clouds.  So when life falls apart, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!
When you see all of these bad things happening, you can know the Kingdom of God is near.
Be careful.  Don’t let your hearts be dulled by the parties and worries of this life.  Stay alert.  Pray that you will stay strong and be able to stand.

    In other words, Jesus seems to be saying: “Lots of bad stuff is going to happen in this life, but be patiently faithful.  The bad stuff can sting you, but it can’t kill you.  Continue with the plan.  Keep living as my representatives in this world.  Keep loving.  Keep giving.  Keep serving.  Keep believing in me and my way.”

    But how?  How can we be patient when everything seems to be falling apart?  How can we be faithful when everyone else seems to be going the other way?  In a success oriented culture, how can we endure danger and ridicule and the potential of outward failure?
    I think the real key here comes in the strange combination of two ideas.  Look again at verses 16-17, “Even those closest to you - your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends - will betray you.  They will even kill some of you.  And everyone will hate you because of my followers.” 
    OK, great!  Is anyone ready to become a Christian today?  Sign up here and get ready for your execution.  At least Jesus is honest.  He knew that trouble was coming.  He knew it would be hard.  He knew that most of his closest followers would die violent deaths because of their faithfulness to him. 
    Following Jesus is not easy.  Sometimes it’s really, really hard.  Sometimes it takes every ounce of courage and strength that we have.  Sometimes it takes more courage and strength than we have, and only some extra help from the Holy Spirit can get us through.  Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking being a Christian will solve all your problems.  It will solve some problems, but it will also make new problems.  Even your family will sometimes be against you.  That’s just how it works. 
    This is the first part of the key:  “There will be lots of problems, and they’ll even kill some of you.”

    Here’s the second part of the key: “But not a hair of your head will perish!  By standing firm, you will win your souls” (21:18-19).  There is a safety that is beyond danger. 
    During World War I, an English poet named Rupert Brooke explained this beautifully in his faith-filled poem titled “Safety”:
        Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest
        He who has found our hid security,
        Assured in the dark tides of the world at rest,
        And heard our word, 'Who is so safe as we?'
        We have found safety with all things undying,
        The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth,
        The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,
        And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth.
        We have built a house that is not for Time's throwing.
        We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever.
        War knows no power. Safe shall be my going,
        Secretly armed against all death's endeavour;
        Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall;
        And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.

    For us, as Christians, we have a hidden security.  We have house that this world cannot destroy.  We have gained a peace that surpasses both understanding and pain.  Even war cannot stop us.  For Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  And Christ is coming again.  “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). 
    But there are other stings.  There are other bees.  Other temptations and worries and siren calls haunt our world. 
Success is a nasty beast that buzzes about our souls calling for our loyalty and total sacrifice.  Work harder.  Work longer.  Pray less.  Sleep less.  Worship less.  Serve less.  Love less.  Work, work, work.  Success is everything.
Escapism buzzes gently and persistently, “Come away.  Come away with me.  Leave that work.  Leave those problems.  Leave those people.  Come away and be numb with me.” 
However, fear is perhaps the most frequent and most dangerous bee in our world.  We are afraid.  We live with fear as our constant companion.  We are afraid of failure.  We are afraid of rejection.  We are afraid that we will not be good enough.  We are afraid that our kids will not measure up.  We are afraid of falling behind.  We are afraid of not being cool.  We are afraid of not having enough money.  We are afraid of losing control. 

    Jesus says again and again, “Don’t panic.  Don’t worry.  Don’t be afraid.”  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.  Jesus said, “I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.
    Here is the Gospel.  God has given us an unshakable security in Jesus Christ.  Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, our sins can be forgiven, and we can participate in his resurrection life.  Christ’s resurrection life in us gives us immunity to death and to all the other bees. 
Where O Death is your victory?  Where O Death is your sting? 
Where, O Success, is your victory?  You will fade away like the grass in the fields.  If I do not bow down to you, you cannot kill me.  You cannot really hurt me.
Where, O Pleasure, is your power?  Christ has made a new life well up inside us like an eternal spring.  We can participate in the healing of the world.  What can you offer to compare with that?
Where, O Fear, is your threat?  “Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed , nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-30).

    The things of this world which buzz in our ears and sting our hands - they are passing troubles, fading worries.  Because of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and return, we can stick to the plan.  Like the Tortoise and her nest, the progress may be slow, painfully slow.  Sometimes, we might not even be able to see the progress.  But stick to the plan.  Hold on to Christ.  Be patient.  Never mind the bees.  They can sting us, but they can’t kill us.  God’s Kingdom is our home, and we must produce life.  Stick to the plan.  Hold on to Christ.  Love faithfully.  Give faithfully.  Serve faithfully.  Pray faithfully.  Celebrate faithfully.  Live faithfully.  Hold on to Christ.

    Oscar Romero was a great Latin American reformer.  As an archbishop in the Catholic church, he worked tirelessly for justice, democracy, and peace in El Salvador.  Listen to how he explains the slow march of faithfulness:
    It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.  The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.  We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work  Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom lies always beyond us.
    No statement says all that could be said.  No prayer fully expresses our faith.  No confession brings perfection.  No pastoral visit brings wholeness.  No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.  No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
    This is what we are about: we plant seeds that one day will grow.  We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.  We lay foundations that need further development.  We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
    We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.  This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.  It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.  We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.  We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.  We are prophets of a future not our own.
    On March 23, 1980, Oscar Romero asked El Salvador’s soldiers to stop obeying the government’s orders for repression and violence against the innocent.  The next day, he was celebrating Mass at a hospital chapel.  While he was holding up the cup, representing Christ’s blood, he was shot and killed.  He fell over the altar, and his blood mixed with the wine from the cup.

    This is the difficult calling of all who follow Christ - to allow our blood to be mixed with his.  We stand with the Christ who has died - enduring any suffering necessary - knowing that they can sting us but they can’t kill us.  We stand with the Christ who is rise - enjoying his resurrection life, and knowing that we will be raised with him in the end.  We stand with the Christ who is coming again - working toward his coming, producing life, with grace and love and patience. 


    Christ has died.  Christ is risen, and Christ is coming again.  Therefore, stand firm.  Be alert.  Do not let your hearts be dulled by the parties and worries of this life.  Pray that God will make you strong so that you can stand firm until the end.

Bigger than our Boxes - Luke 20:27-40

Josh Broward
November 7, 2010


Let’s start today with a little riddle. I need some audience participation here. (I raided McDonald’s trash in my sermon preparation this week.) I’ve asked ______ to help us out. Here’s the deal. You have to get this balloon into this box. Today, we are in a very practical sense the Body of Christ. ______ will work as the hands, but you are all the collective brain. You give him some ideas. Tell him what to do.
...

OK, let’s review the suggestions.
We could push and push to try to make it fit, but it will probably pop if we push too hard.
We could pop the balloon and put the little pieces inside, but then we no longer have a real balloon.
We could let some of the air out to make it smaller, but then, we’ve lost something of the balloon’s full potential.
There’s one more option.
We could reshape and expand the box. If we take off some of the tape and tear it apart at one seem, the triangle unfolds. Then, we can see that this box has much more potential than we thought. There was hidden capacity here. If we keep unfolding and reshaping, then it becomes a rectangle that is plenty big enough for the balloon.1
Thanks ______.

God is always bigger than our boxes. Jesus is always bigger than we think he is. The Truth is always bigger than our mental constructs.
I hate to break this to you, but you’re wrong. You’re all wrong. Don’t feel too bad about that. I’m wrong, too. We’re all wrong about something. Unless you’re perfect, you’re wrong. We’re wrong about God. We’re wrong about the Bible. We’re wrong about Jesus. We’re wrong about the Gospel. We’re wrong about life. We’re not wrong about everything, but we’re wrong about some things. Something we believe about God and life and the Gospel is wrong. It has to be - because we’re not perfect. Our minds are too small and too limited to fully understand the infinite God and the eternal Life he offers.

When we are faced with a God who is too big for our boxes, we have three basic options.
We can pop the balloon. We can reject God. We can say, “There is no way that this God or any god can fit into my thought box. I’ll tell you what I can understand. There is no God.” Then, we put the shell of a god in our box.
We can also try to shrink the balloon. This is probably the most common. We can’t figure out how to fit the huge, loving, judging, infinite, far-away, very close God into our thought box, so we shrink him down to something less, something smaller, something easier. Instead of experiencing God in all God’s amazing fullness, we try to relate to a deflated, partial view of God.
The last option is to change our box. If we are going to keep experiencing God throughout our lives, we will always have to change our box. God is always bigger than we think he is. We might have to expand our God-box a hundred times, but it will never get big enough. God will always challenge us to new understandings of who he is and what his Life is like. The good news here is that our capacity for God is much larger than we thought. We may feel like the small triangle box, but God knows that we are really the larger rectangle - and then something else after that.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was always challenging people to enlarge their thought boxes - about God, about the Messiah, about the people of God. One of Jesus’ fundamental teaching methods was helping people think in bigger and deeper ways about God and life. Our passage today is part of a series of expand-your-box events.
It starts at the end of chapter 19. Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes to the Temple and does his famous angry scene. He goes around kicking out the merchants saying, “You’ve turned this house of prayer into a hideout for robbers!” The Temple leaders can’t fit that into their thought boxes, so they decide to pop the balloon. They make plans to kill Jesus.
At the beginning of chapter 20, the same group comes to Jesus and asks where he got the authority to come in and disrupt everything. Jesus basically says, “My authority comes from the same place as John the Baptist.” Now, the leaders are stuck. The people considered John a great prophet, so if the leaders say John didn’t get his authority from God, the people will reject the Temple leaders. Jesus basically says, “John didn’t fit into your box, and neither do I.”
Next, Jesus tells a little story about tenant farmers who reject their landlord. Jesus’ point is: “You may think I’m not good enough or not the right kind of Messiah. You’ve got to change your thought box, or you will cause your own ruin.”
Next, the leaders try to trick Jesus. They ask, “Should we pay taxes to those Roman oppressors or not?” If Jesus says NO, then the Romans will kill him. If Jesus says YES, then they can call Jesus a blasphemer and a traitor. The Roman coins were all stamped with Caesar’s face and some kind of claims to Caesar’s divinity. Jesus says, “Let Caesar have his money, but give God your hearts and lives.” He raised the discussion to a higher level: “You’ve got to change how your thinking about this folks.”
Our passage about resurrection is next: Luke 20:27-40.

Here’s the deal about the Sadducees. They were the rich dudes. They controlled the Temple, and they controlled most of the money. They didn’t believe in anything they couldn’t see. They thought the physical world is all there is - no angels, no demons, no afterlife. When you die, you’re gone. The end. Their big concern on a practical level was to maintain the status quo - with them on top.
So they come to Jesus with a riddle to show how ridiculous this idea of resurrection is. Their riddle is built on an Old Testament rule meant to care for widows and to maintain family lineage. If a widow died with no sons, the husband’s brother was supposed to marry her and produce a son on behalf of the dead brother, to carry on his name. So in their riddle, one unlucky woman ends up going through seven different husbands. (And I’m thinking maybe the husbands were the unlucky ones here!) The Sadducees say, “When they all get to heaven - if there is a heaven - who’s husband will she be? She obviously can’t belong to all of them.” This was supposed to be unsolvable, leading the Sadducees to say, “If you can’t figure it out, then there must not be a heaven.” Or in other words, “If it doesn’t fit in the box, it’s not true.”
Jesus says, “Expand your box. You’re idea about heaven is too small. The life of the resurrection is completely different. People don’t marry and produce heirs. Children of the resurrection, reborn into God’s Life, are immortal. Change your box. Oh, yes, and by the way, you can be sure there is a resurrection. Moses proved it.”
A group of the scribes (experts of religious law) chimed in, “Well, said Teacher.” They were probably from the rival group, the Pharisees, who were always arguing for the Resurrection, so they were thinking, “Yeah, way to go Jesus! You nailed them! We’re right!”
Jesus comes right back at the scribes with a question about the Messiah. He quotes Psalm 110, which David wrote. Everyone agreed that David was talking about the Messiah here. Jesus says, “We call the Messiah the Son of David, so how can David call the Messiah his ‘Lord’?” And the scribes said, “Uhhh ... hmmm ... aggh.” Jesus was saying, “You’ve got to expand your box about the Messiah.”

So if we put all of these episodes together, what do we get? Jesus says:
Expand your thinking about how God gives authority in this world.
Expand your thinking about me, or your limited thinking will ruin you.
Change your thinking about Rome and taxes and God and life.
Expand your thinking about the resurrection. Life then is different from life now.
Expand your thinking about the Messiah. This stuff is bigger than you thought it was.
Again and again and again, Jesus is saying to his disciples, to religious leaders, to the irreligious people, to the rich, to the poor, to those who believed in him, to those who rejected him, “You’ve got to change how you think about me. I’m bigger than you think I am. God is bigger than you think he is. Life is bigger than you think it is. God’s Kingdom and the Gospel are bigger than your thought box.”

Let’s think a little about how all of this went down for the disciples, who fully believed in Jesus. They were giving their whole lives to follow Jesus, but Jesus kept expanding their thought boxes. Let’s just talk about the three biggest events of Christianity. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again.
When Jesus started telling the disciples that he was going to die, they didn’t get it. Peter takes Jesus aside for a little reminder about fundamental Messiah theology: “The Messiah doesn’t die. The Messiah doesn’t lose. The Messiah wins! God sends his Messiah to make everything right, right?!” Jesus says, “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s. You’ve got to expand your box.” (Matthew 16:21-23)
The Christ has died. That was a real mind-bender for the disciples. They thought they had been all wrong about Jesus: “I guess he wasn’t the Messiah (the Christ) after all.”
But then came Christ is risen. But even this was hard to understand. When the women saw angels at Jesus’ empty tomb, “the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it” (24:1-11). Peter saw the empty tomb and went home, “wondering what had happened” (24:12). Later, Jesus appeared directly to the apostles. He was standing their right in front of them, and they thought they were seeing a ghost. He showed them hands and feed where the nails had been. He ate some fish (to show that he had a real body). “Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder.” Next, there is a beautiful line: “Then, he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Jesus worked within their minds to expand their thought boxes to be big enough for a crucified and risen Christ (24:35-47).
But their thought boxes still weren’t big enough. After the resurrection, the apostles kept asking Jesus, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and to restore our kingdom?” In other words, “Is it time to kick out the Romans and take over the world now?” But Jesus says, “No, it doesn’t work like that. Here’s the deal. God is going to give you power, and you’re going to go represent me all over the world.” Then ... he left. God raised Jesus up into the sky, and he was gone. The disciples just stood there staring at the sky in shock: “Didn’t see that coming!” Some angels appeared and said, “Get over it. Change your thinking. Jesus is gone, but he’s coming again.” (Acts 1:6-11)
The real shocker for the disciples was that Jesus was going to complete his mission through them. God would give them the Holy Spirit and send the church into the world to complete the Messiah’s mission of total transformation through love. When we’ve gone everywhere and loved everyone, Jesus will come back.
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again. The disciples had to change their thinking at every step.

And what about us? Jesus doesn’t fit into our boxes either. Whatever you think about Jesus, you’re wrong - at least in part. Our understanding is imperfect. The path of discipleship is a path of learning and change. Living disciples are always giving up an old, incomplete view of God and life for a newer more complete view. We are always repenting of our too-small box for God. Truth confronts us and forces us to make a choice. Either we change our paradigms [our thought boxes] and accept the Truth, or we stay as we are and reject the Truth.

Consider how Jesus might be challenging some of your thought boxes.
Maybe your box is defined by human suffering. Maybe you look at everything that’s wrong with the world and wonder how a loving God could create this mess. Maybe a loving God can’t fit your box drawn with crayon by a starving child. Consider the possibility that God may be bigger than you think. Consider the possibility that your box needs to be reshaped.
Maybe hell is a real problem for you. Maybe you just can’t reconcile the Bible’s teaching about hell with a God who loves every human being. I understand that difficulty. However, consider the possibility that your box needs to be reshaped. Maybe hell isn’t what you thought it was. Maybe God is somehow bigger and deeper than you currently understand.
Or you might struggle with mystery. You like predictability and order. You like schedules and plans. A God who moves in mysterious ways and disrupts our comfortable social order - well - that kind of God is uncomfortable, and if you’re honest, you’d rather not have that kind of God. Maybe a mysterious God wants to expand your box in mysterious and unpredictable ways. Maybe God is calling you to become more comfortable with not knowing exactly what is going on.
We all struggle with a box defined by success. Our box says that our value as human beings depends on our grades, our incomes, and our achievements. Our box says we should sacrifice everything for success or else become failures. Is it possible that God’s box for success is different than ours? Don’t you think we could miss out on God’s plan for our success because our idea of success is too small?
We also struggle with a thought box defined by pleasure. If it feels good, it must be good. If it feels bad, it must be bad. Somehow we have lost a theology of sacrifice and endurance and patience. Consider the possibility that your life has become far too centered on you. Consider the possibility that God is more concerned with your goodness than your happiness. Consider the possibility that your current definition of pleasure might be far too small. Consider the possibility that there is a joy that is deeper and fuller and more amazing than you currently imagine possible and that it is available through the path of faithfulness.
Is it possible that our box is too small because it is defined by the teaching of our pastors and leaders? They are imperfect, too, remember. Is it possible that even our understandings of God and the gospel and life need to change?

Here is the Good News. Jesus loves us just as we are. Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and to give us new life. But in this new life, Jesus loves us too much to leave us as we are. Jesus always calls us forward into greater love, greater understanding, greater faithfulness, and greater freedom in his new, bigger box.