Have you given up on trying to heal the world?

Maybe we’ve given up because we’ve been let down or we’ve just grown old enough to recognize our way of doing things is not going to get the job done.

What if you were to learn that we are being invited into a conspiracy that will radically reshape the universe?

The Gospel Jesus preached.
For many of us, this description of a conspiracy to restore our broken world is nothing like “the Gospel” that we learned in Sunday school. To answer the question, “what is the gospel” the best place to begin is with the gospel Jesus preached.

“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17 (ESV)

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)

“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” – Luke 4:43 (ESV)

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)

Euangelion: Good News

“Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God… (Mark 1:14)

“The birthday of the God (Caesar Augustus) was the beginning for the world of the glad tidings [good news] that have come through men through him.”

A euangelion in the ancient world was a royal announcement about a king and a kingdom.

The time is Fulfilled.

The Old Testament, its prophesies and predictions, are about to come to pass.

“The Bible’s central story is about individual persons whose crisis is their sin and its consequences, and the resolution is the atoning work of Christ that both ends the consequences of their sin and offers them a new life and hope for the kingdom.” – Scot McKnight

The Kingdom of God.

1: the range of God’s effective will.
2: life as God intended
3: Jesus' definition“Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” – Matthew 6:10

The Kingdom pervades all parts of life and is utterly unlike the kingdoms of the world.

The Kingdom of God is good news because the King is worthy of our trust. 

“For Jesus and his contemporaries the kingdom of God—was in the first instance concerned not with salvation of human souls in “heaven” after death but with real-world changes, the exercise of God’s wise justice and benevolent rule through God-ordained human leadership.”– Matthew Bates.

"We are built to live in the kingdom of God. It is our natural habitat." – Dallas Willard.

“[when] we pray the Lord’s Prayer asking for God’s kingdom to come, we’re praying for the end of the United States of America. We look forward to the day when all people will be united in the one nation, under God, in God, by God, and with God.”– Joseph Lear

At Hand
God’s conspiracy to take back his world from Satan, sin, and death has begun in the person of Jesus. His method for overthrowing the powers is not military force or political coercion– it is suffering love.

 Inaugurated eschatology or the already/not yet. We can experience God’s Kingdom now, and we anticipate a future where the entire world will experience it. 

“I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” –God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” –Revelation 21:1,3–4.

The Gospel of the Kingdom.

"The good news is that the one true God has now taken charge of the world, in and through Jesus and his death and resurrection. The ancient hopes have indeed been fulfilled, but in a way nobody imagined. God’s plan to put the world right has finally been launched. The ancient sickness that had crippled the whole world, and humans with it, has been cured at last, so that new life can rise up in its place. Life has come to life and is pouring out like a mighty river into the world, in the form of a new power, the power of love. The good news was, and is, that all this has happened in and through Jesus; that one day it will happen, completely and utterly, to all creation; and that we humans, every single one of us, whoever we are, can be caught up in that transformation here and now. This is the Christian Gospel. Do not allow yourself to be fobbed off with anything else.” – NT Wright, Simply Good News

Reclaiming a Vision of the Kingdom.

“The message of Jesus Christ, in sum, is this: Salvation is not in your hands…He is doing for himself great things that we cannot even imagine. Therefore be bold, be unafraid, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. We have a great gospel. There is nothing else like it in heaven or on earth.” –Flemming Rutledge.

Repent and Believe.

We will only discover how to follow the way of suffering love if we heed Jesus’ instructions to “repent and believe”. (v.15)

Repentance, as is used by Jesus, is an invitation to ‘rethink everything.”

Belief in Christ is an act of allegiance that leads us to do things strange to this culture for the sake of the Kingdom.

Repentance is to rethink what is possible and belief is to risk for what could be.

As the Church of the West, we are far more familiar with the God of the mountaintop than the God of the wilderness. When suffering crashes into our lives we often wonder where God is, and Lent is an annual practice that teaches us to find His presence in our wilderness.

Eugene Peterson calls spiritual disciplines, like abstinence and fasting, “voluntary disaster”.

We live by phrases like, “the heart wants what the heart wants.”

The result is that we find ourselves in a wilderness of competing desires.

In the language of the New Testament, this is the tug-of-war between your flesh & spirit.

In Freudian thought, this is called the pleasure principle.

pleasure principle

1. is decision-making that works toward immediate gratification and avoidance of pain, in order to satisfy biological or psychological needs.

It is to do whatever feels good at the moment.

In the language of New Testament the pleasure principle, this move toward instant gratification, is called “the flesh.”

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh –Ephesians 2:1–3.

Fasting is the practice of going without food and drink(excluding water) for a period of time.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” –Genesis 3:1–6.

The fall of humanity is deeply connected to food; or more accurately, our inability to resist instant gratification.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God –Galatians 5:19–21.

The Genesis narrative demonstrates that we have the propensity to abandon God’s best, in favor of a quick fix– instant gratification

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” – Matthew 4:1–4.

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Matthew 6:16–18 (ESV)

Jesus assumes his disciples will fast because it helps us fight the flesh and feed on the Spirit.

31b “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” –John 4:31–34.

“[Fasting] is body talk—not the body simply talking for the spirit, for the mind, or for the soul in some symbolic way, but for the person, the whole person, to express herself or himself completely. Fasting is one way you and I bring our entire selves into complete expression. The Bible, because it advocates clearly that the person—heart, soul, mind, spirit, body—is embodied as a unity, assumes that fasting as body talk is inevitable.”– Scot McKnight

“Fasting helps us to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain the Kingdom of God.” – Andrew Murray

But Jesus also assumes we will mess it up.

In the midst of Lent; we commit ourselves to fasting as we journey with Jesus toward the cross.

“Sometimes, the call is made to fasting, and sometimes to a feast.” – St. Athanasius

So, how do I practice fasting?*

1. Pick a day and try it

2. I suggest fasting (going without food and drink) twice a week for twelve or twenty-four hours.

3. I would also suggest working your way up to longer fasts.

4. This may not be drastically different than your normal busy life. The goal is to be intentional with it.

*If you’ve ever suffered from an eating disorder or live with a diagnosed medical condition, you should consult a doctor, therapist, or pastor prior to fasting. Fasting is a helpful practice given to us by Christ, but notice that fasting is not intended to harm the body. Rather, it is designed to bring the body and soul into alignment.

If you’ve suffered from an eating disorder it is our belief that you can experience healing. With time, community, and Spirit’s help– healing is possible.

How do we pray in seasons of wilderness or suffering?

First, we learn that Jesus suffered.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. –Isaiah 53:5

Second, we learn Jesus routinely responded to suffering with prayer.

Jesus prayed amidst grief

“10 [King Herod] sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter…12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. 13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.”
- Matthew 14:10-13

Jesus prayed amidst exhaustion

“But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” - John 5:15-16,

“And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.” - Matthew 14:23

“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” - Mark 6:31

Jesus prayed amidst anxiety

39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” - Luke 22:39-45

“And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives.” - Luke 22:39

In Jesus’ greatest moment of suffering, he prays because he has practiced it.

Suffering can draw us away from God but it can also draw us closer to him.

Two things to practice during lent:

1. Abstinence

2. The Lord’s prayer

“In the end, darkness is not explained; it is defeated. Night is not justified or solved; it is endured until light overcomes it and it is no more. In the meantime, we do not stop asking our questions of God. He allows us to ask them when we need to because he loves us. And we bring our perplexity into the prayers and practices of the church so that they can shape and direct our own questions. Through its prayers, practices, and gathered worship, the church tells us over and over again, “This is what God is like. This is his name. This is how you know he loves you.” - Tish Harrison Ward, Prayer in the Night

As the people of God, tell time differently.

Whether we are aware or not, our calendars shape us.

As the Church, our calendars are patterned after the life of Jesus.

In each season, we are guided to reflect on a different moment in the life of Jesus. This is a guide that year over year shapes our identity, our practices, and our story.

Advent & Epiphany – God with us.

Lent – God prepares us.

Easter – God for us.

Pentecost – God in us.

Ordinary Time – God through us.

Lent is a season of preparation; dedication to repentance, abstinence, and fasting in order to prepare one’s heart for the celebration of Easter.

Lent is a season of preparation in the wilderness.

The Wilderness in Genesis

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”–Genesis 1:1-2

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. –Genesis 2:5–6.

cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
–Genesis 3:17-19

Genesis 3 closes with humanity leaving the Garden and returning to the wasteland of their own making.

The Wilderness in Exodus

16…‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” –Exodus 7:16.

And in their idolatry and stubbornness, they live as nomads in the wilderness for forty years.

The Wilderness in 1 Kings 19

“Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And [Elijah] arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.”

And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper [or a thin silence]. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”–1 Kings 19:7–13.

There Elijah confesses his distrust of God; he repents of his mischaracterization of the God of Israel. God meets him in the wilderness, but that's only after Elijah abandons his post and gives ups.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the biographers of Jesus, each tell the story of our Messiah’s experience in the wilderness of Judea.

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan [river] and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil.” – Luke 4:1-2

And that ancient serpent makes an appearance again; tempting Jesus to turn rocks into bread, to give in to ambition, and to take power for himself.

Jesus patterned His life off the story of scripture and the love of his Heavenly Father.

In response, may we pattern our lives after the one who overcomes the wilderness.

And Lent is an annual practice that stips back distractions and teaches us to find His presence in our wilderness.

The main theme of Lent is repentance.

“return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.–Joel 2:12-13 (ESV)

Fasting is the practice of going without food and drink(excluding water) for a period of time.

Abstinence is the practice of creating margin in our daily schedule for the purpose of reorienting our lives towards Christ.

Corporately we will practice this on Ash Wednesday and every Sunday with 15 minutes of preservice prayer.

“To lead us not into temptation and deliver us from the evil one”– is to request that God might rescue us from the darkness within ourselves and outside ourselves.

“Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil” – Eugene Peterson

The shockingly simple observation of this prayer is that we live in a warzone– a conflict our souls testify to.

“In Rwanda, I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him.”–Roméo Dallaire

The Biblical Cosmology

The scriptures propose that all the evil we encounter in our world is either a direct initiative or a painful ripple of the disorder introduced by the Evil One in the garden.

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.” –Luke 4:1–2.

The temptation Jesus faced was subtle in nature.

“Nobody believed he was real. . . . That was his power. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”—Keyser Söze

The subtle touch of the Evil one.

For as much as we like to think of ourselves as rational and independent beings, we are all shaped by powers small as microscopic biochemicals and as large as inherited notions of gender roles and stereotypes.

Contending with the Darkness

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”– Jude 3

“Fight the good fight of the faith.” –1 Timothy 6:12.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” –1 Peter 5:8–9.

We pray and act.

Let’s abandon the false dichotomy between prayer and action. We can be a community of prayer, gospel, and justice. Prayer and action–held together.

“The Christian story dares us to believe that the work of prayer is not so far away from the gift of sewers, that hands lifted in prayer and the scientific commendation of hand-washing flow from a shared source. Our work of prayer participates in and propels our public work of restoration.” – Tish Harrison Warren

“By giving us this prayer, then, Jesus invites us to walk ahead into the darkness and discover that it, too, belongs to God. –Tom Wright

In Praying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One” we are reminded that we are in the midst of a conflict but a conflict that has already been decided.

Learning to contend in prayer–

1. Learn to pray with your body.

2. Learn to pray with your emotions.

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”― Karl Barth

Authenticity

The true irony of our current cultural moment: we crave authenticity but lack the foundation to admit that anything we do, think, or feel is really wrong.

In this environment, where many of us are craving authenticity, and honesty in our own lives, the lives around us, and even in the church, the practice of confession can be both refreshing and uncomfortable as most truly authentic things are.

1. This prayer becomes both a prayer we recite and a guideline or pattern for our prayers. It is where we go when we wonder, Jesus how do we pray?

2. The Lord’s prayer also reveals that prayer is both communion and collaboration with God. Oftentimes we view prayer as simply communication with God. But it is so much more than that. This prayer reveals that we commune with God the father. We take time to simply remember he is a father and then we collaborate with him. And thus, as Alex explained last week, we are not merely passive stage props in a prewritten cosmic drama. We are creative partners with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that occurs on the stage of history.

3. And finally, this prayer reminds us that the essential foundation of Christian prayer is that God is love and he likes us.

On Sin

First and foremost, before we jump into confession, I want to briefly define sin as the two concepts are so connected and often misunderstood.

God’s desire for us, as his creation, has always been a life of beauty, justice, and love. It’s important to understand that what God deems as sin is not bad because it is forbidden– it is forbidden because it is bad- it sits in opposition to his foundational desires for us. Lead-based paint isn’t bad because someone passed a law; someone passed a law because lead-based paint is bad for you.

“[Sin] is an unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness.” – Saint Ignatius

• Psalm 51

• Daniel 9

• Mark 1

• Luke 19

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” – Luke 18:9-14

If sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone, then we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and therefore, God does not need our confession, we do.

Sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22: 37-40

Quite simply sin is not just what we have done- even though there is plenty of that to go around. It is also what we have left undone.

So sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone.

We are all sinners in need of forgiveness.

“We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.” – CS Lewis

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

God does not need our confession, we do.

1. Confession is NOT a magical incarnation that controls God or forces his mercy to flow.

   “[E]veryone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It does not say they shall be saved if they confess 5 times a day- if they discover the magic formula. But all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord.” – Acts 2:21

2. Our admission of sin does not diminish God’s grace as repeatedly outlined in the scriptures

   “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

3. Our prayers do not add to the redemption accomplished on the cross

4. Our prayers never add to God’s knowledge which is already complete.

If sin is not simply what we have done but also what we have left undone, then we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and therefore, God does not need our confession, we do.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Confession is an invitation to approach the forgiveness of ourselves and others like that of the running father. In our sin, we are all one of the brothers, but in our forgiveness we have the love and give the love of an embarrassing, dotting, unabandoned, father with open arms.

So what do we do? How do we practice confession? We begin with the pattern Jesus has outlined for us in the Lord’s prayer:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. We confess. We take several moments to reflect on the actions of that day or the previous day and ask God to bring to moments where we were unlike him. Then recite the confession prayer just as we prepare to do so now.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me[a] anything in my name, I will do it.” – John 14:12-14

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” –John 15:7

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” –John 15:16

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” – John 16:23-24

Why is it that Jesus says ask for anything in my name and you will receive it but I don’t always receive it? This tension sits at the very core of why many of us do not pray for what we need.

If God disappointed me once, will he not disappoint me again?

If God didn’t answer my prayers before, why ask?

If God’s ways are higher than my ways, what is the point in praying for what I need? Does he even care?

I think many of us have simply stopped petitioning for our daily bread as Jesus instructs in the Lord’s prayer. But as we will see today, petitioning is still a worthwhile task.

This prayer becomes both a prayer we recite and a guideline or pattern for our prayers. It is where we go when we wonder, Jesus how do we pray?

The Lord’s prayer also reveals that prayer is both communion and collaboration with God. Oftentimes we view prayer as simply communication with God. But it is so much more than that. This prayer reveals that we commune with God the father. We take time to simply remember he is a father and then we collaborate with him. And thus, as Alex explained last week, we are not merely passive stage props in a prewritten cosmic drama. We are creative partners with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that occurs on the stage of history.

And finally, this prayer reminds us that the essential foundation of Christian prayer is that God is love and he likes us.

PETITIONING FOR THE KINGDOM
This prayer is not the only place in which we see bread or food as a central component of Jesus’ life.

“His parties weren’t simply a matter of cracking open another bottle for the sake of it; the prayer to the Father for daily bread was part of his wider and deeper agenda.” – N.T. Wright

At the very heart of this demonstration-turned-teaching sits a foundational biblical symbol of the kingdom that can be traced all the way back to the Old Testament, to the Israelite people.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, my cup overflows.” – Psalm 23:5

“On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines.

And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud over all people; he will swallow up death forever.

He will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth.” – Isaiah 25:6-8

“Give us each day our daily bread” reminds us of a kingdom in which every day we will have daily bread and plenty of it.

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33

Part of our petition for personal needs is Jesus to come and make this world right. May the party, may the feast continue.

PETITIONING FOR OURSELVES
However, the verse “give us each day our daily bread” is not just about petitions for God’s soon and coming kingdom, it is also about the right now.

How wonderful it is that God does not look down on our needs, that he doesn’t sit up in the clouds on a throne and sneer at our pathetic, needy bodies. He cares.

Issue 1: We are too proud and independent.
Issue 2: We worry in God’s direction.
Issue 3: We neglect to turn outward.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
And yet, I still think there is hope for us. Jesus obviously thought there was and gave us a tool to help. So when we struggle with a petition, first let’s start with Jesus’ pattern:

Let’s begin with contemplative prayer.

Then begin interceding for those around you.

Petition for your daily bread.

In his Gospel, Luke gives special attention is to Jesus’ prayer habits– here are a few examples.

“great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” –Luke 5:16

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles” –Luke 6:12–13.

“28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.” –Luke 9:28–29.

When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
or we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
– Luke 11:2–4.

“Your Kingdom come” is a practice known as intercessory prayer.

Intercession is to pray for someone else.

"If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer: Intercession is a way of loving others. Intercessory prayer is a selfless prayer, even self-giving prayer. In the ongoing work of the Kingdom of God, nothing is more important than intercessory prayer” – Richard Foster

In praying “your kingdom come” we pray not just for ourselves, but for our whole world.

God’s original intention was that we would be his collaborators, free and intelligent beings, partnered with Him in ruling the world.

“… God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”–Genesis 1:26(ESV).

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” – Genesis 2:15–17 (NIV)

From the beginning, we’ve been intercessors, the in-betweeners, the mediators between heaven and earth. Given the freedom and authority to care for creation on God’s behalf.

Where freedom exists, evil is always a decision away.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” –Genesis 3:6 (ESV)

But despite it all, God never gave up on his vision of free collaborators; and so in the most surprising of decisions He comes to Earth in the form of a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus.

In Jesus, that identity that was corrupted in our rebellion is restored.

We are not pawns in a cosmic story, destined to play a part, we are invited to help God direct the world.

“We are not merely passive set pieces in a prearranged cosmic drama but we are active participants with God in the writing, directing, design, and action that unfolds. Prayer therefore is much more than asking God for this or that outcome. It is drawing into communion with him and there taking up our privileged role as his people. In prayer, we are invited to join him in directing the course of the world.” – Skye Jethani

Prayer is not a charade, where God does what he is planning, and pretends we were of some help.

“God’s response to our prayers is not a charade. He does not pretend that he is answering our prayer when he is only doing what he was going to do anyway. Our requests really do make a difference in what God does or does not do. The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best…of course this is not the biblical idea of prayer, nor is it the idea of people for whom prayer is a vital part of life.” – Dallas Willard

When we pray things that were not going to happen, happen.

“When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged, rather, in an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory centre of power that radiates the power of the universe. History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.” – Walter Wink

We have been given a profound invitation to help set the world to rights through our prayerful intercession.

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”― Karl Barth

“The only way to learn how to pray is to pray.” – Teresa of Avila

A study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization in 2021, found that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, prayer Google searches “rose on all continents, at all levels of income, inequality, and insecurity, and for all types of religion, except Buddhism.”

The researchers concluded that the global rise in religiosity or spirituality happened because “people pray to cope with adversity.”

“Our culture is increasingly abandoning anything that resembles orthodox Christianity in favor of a generic or sentimental kind of spirituality. This has caused many, including those within the church, to embrace a distorted vision of prayer. They seem to think that prayer is little more than a form of self-therapy but with a spiritual facade. In some places it’s seen as a self-improvement practice that any health-obsessed person should do, like working out or eating quinoa.” – Skye Jethani

Christian prayer should be concerned with relationship not results. To whom we pray is more important than how we pray.

LUKE 11

This prayer for Jesus followers has become both a pattern and a script for those in the Christian tradition. It is a guideline for prayer AND simultaneously, a prayer we regularly recite. It is the place in scripture we go to when we ourselves wonder, “Jesus, how do we pray?”

This is why for the next several weeks leading up to lent, we will be unpacking each line of the Lord’s prayer in a teaching series entitled “Teach Us to Pray.” Each week we will focus on a different aspect of prayer as reflected in the Lord’s prayer.

Week 1: Communion

Week 2: Contending

Week 3: Petition

Week 4: Confession

Week 5: Mission

GOD AS FATHER

Jesus begins the Lord’s prayer reminding us that our communion with God as father is the foundation for all of prayer- it is the starting place- it’s everything. The who of prayer is God our Father.

The opening line of this prayer, “Our Father in heaven” would have been shocking even scandalous to the ears of Jesus’ 1st-century audience for a few reasons:

As aforementioned, God was never referred to in an intimate way but always in a formal and reverent one.

Prayers in the 1st century for both Jews and non-Jews were generally formulaic in approach using words to compel a reluctant God to act.

Our Father in heaven, these four words changed the way we relate to God and thus the entire nature of prayer. In defining the who, Jesus changes the why, when, where, what, and how of prayer.

BREAD FOR A NEIGHBOR

“And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Luke 11:5-8

“Ancient Israel was an honor-based culture and highly communal. A person’s reputation was of paramount importance, and their reputation was inexorably linked to their extended family and community. Failing to provide bread to an unexpected visitor, which is the core problem in Jesus’ story, would not only bring shame upon an individual but also upon the entire village.” – Skye Jethani

The point is remarkable simply: God does not answer prayers because of our reputation but because of his.

In one simple story, Jesus takes the focus of prayer off of our own righteousness or even our dedication to God. And he places the focus of prayer on God’s desire to retain his reputation as a good loving father who gives his sons and daughters what they ask regardless of the quality of the asker.

God answers prayers not because of our reputation but because of his reputation. And he is known as a good father.To whom we pray is more important than how we pray.

GIVER OF GOOD GIFTS

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”’ –Luke 11:11-13

As mentioned beforehand, the betrayal of God as a good and loving father was a scandalous idea for Jesus’ first-century context. God was rarely referred to in an intimate way. He was almost always referred to formally and reverently.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” –Genesis 3:1

Interestingly enough, in Genesis 2, God is referred to over and over again as Yahweh Elohim or Lord God. But when the serpent comes onto the scene in Genesis 3:1, twisting God’s words and creating half-truths, he refers to God by only using the word Elohim. Scholars call this keeping the abstract but dropping the personal. It would be like calling someone by their title and not their name.

RESTORATION OF FATHER
According to theologian N.T. Wright, there are nearly half a million words in the Hebrew Bible yet God is only portrayed as father 15 times.

But then we turn to the New Testament. Gone are the days of reserve or distance. There is a new tone, a new familiarity, a new narrative. Jesus calls God father 65 times by the time you finish the gospel of Luke and over 170 times by the time you reach the end of John.

It is only in proximity to the Father God of love that we “grasp how wide and long and high and deep” God’s love is for us

We must stop thinking of prayer as simply communicating with God and start communing with God.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
We do this through a practice commonly known as contemplative prayer.

Contemplative prayer, as defined in the Handbook of Spiritual Disciplines, is a way of being with God without wordiness relying on God to initiate communion and communication.

“Let your heart rate decrease. Know that you’re already bathed in the Father’s love, and ask simply for what you need, in the assurance that the One to whom you’re speaking is already cupping His ear in your direction.”– Wesley Hill

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” – Matthew 6:7-8

1. Troubled about status and position

   “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” – John 1:11.

2. Seeking

   “For by gold the power of a king is signified, by frankincense the honor of God, by myrrh the burial of the body; and accordingly they offer Him gold as King, frankincense as God, myrrh as Man.” – John Chrysostom

3. Another Way

   “Frodo: 'It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill Gollum when he had the chance.'

   Gandalf: 'Pity? It's a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.' Frodo: 'I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.'

   Gandalf: 'So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

   Spiritual Practice

   1. It's ok to be troubled/ask questions. Let those moments change you toward a better relationship with Jesus and others

   2. Seek community and seek Jesus. Ask someone to hang out this coming week. Start a book club with this community. Start engaging with people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus and invite them into the community.

   3. Maybe it's time to go another way. You've been in sin, you have been putting yourself before others. Turn and ask Jesus to help you on this hard journey toward the one who saves.

Advent

1. Advent consists of the four Sundays preceding Christmas Day in which the Church anticipates the future arrival of Christ by remembering His first arrival.

2. Although it may seem counter to the festivities of Christmas, it is important to practice waiting.

3. And in our waiting we focus on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love along with the rest of the global church

In First John, the Author summarizes his time with Jesus, his long career as an apostle, and a lifetime of reading the scriptures with three words.

“God is love.” – 1 John 4:8, 16

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” –Exodus 34:6.

“I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.” –Psalm 108:3–4.

“...God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. –1 John 4:8-9.

We miss that this is a season that shows off the love of God, in part because we often confuse love with sentimentality.

But sentimentality is not love – it is a counterfeit.

Sentimentality is to experience the internal emotions of love– but to do nothing with it.

The four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each tell of God’s Christmas love from a different angle.

Emphasizing the Love of God, not with sanitized cliches or impersonal definitions; but through dysfunctional family trees, gritty action, strange stories, and dirty glory.

The Gospel of Matthew and the God of love in a dysfunctional family tree.
The first book of the new testament, written by Matthew for Jewish people, starts by thoroughly arguing that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

He argues that the Creator has entered the family tree.

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers…” – Matthew 1:1–2.

Like a house built brick by brick, the story of God’s love is told name by name through Jesus’ family tree.

And the family Jesus came from tells us everything about the Family he came for.

The love of God shows up in dysfunctional family trees intent on redemption and writing a new story.

The Gospel of Mark; The God of Love in gritty action.
Mark’s nativity jumps straight into the action with Jesus being baptized, being tempted in the wilderness, and kicking off his ministry with an announcement;

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”–Mark 1:14

God’s love for humanity is broadcast through Jesus’ every movement as he touches the sick, hurting, and vulnerable. It is Jesus’ willingness to reach out and touch that God’s love is made palpable.

Mark does not begin with our king in a crib, but he tells of our God’s loving action– moving towards our deepest brokenness and his healing touch.

The Gospel of Luke: The God of Love in unlikely places.
A young engaged-to-be-married woman pregnant. She bears the weight of assumptions, disapproving looks, whispers, and small-town gossip.

A working-class family, a feeding trough for a crib, minimum-wage shepherds, foreign seekers, and political refugees.

In the most unlikely of places begins a complete reversal, an inverting of everything, the dawning of an upside-down kingdom.

The God of Love displays his affection through the strangest stories with the most unlikely characters.

“And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly.… God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Gospel of John: The God of Love in dirty glory.

“14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” –John 1:14

“The Word Became Flesh”; this is the hinge by which all of John’s Gospel turns.

John speaks of Jesus as “the Word [that] was with God, and the Word [that] was God” (John 1:1). In Jesus, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” says the Apostle Paul (Col 1:19).

What does it mean that the God of Heaven became flesh? That he took up residence amongst us? That he dared to be seen, touched, carried, held, struck, hated?

The love of God is not pristine white garments pressed for Christmas day, it is in a dirt-caked robe of a middle eastern carpenter.

Our God became flesh and dwelt with us, in dirty glory.

Advent

1. Advent consists of the four Sundays preceding Christmas Day in which the Church anticipates the future arrival of Christ by remembering His first arrival.

2. Although it may seem counter to the festivities of Christmas, it is important to practice waiting.

3. And in our waiting we focus on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love along with the rest of the global church

Tension is a part of our lives and is often present whether we recognize it or not. And tension is a key part of the season we now find ourselves in: Advent. For while we are celebrating, we are also waiting. We are waiting for Christ to come again.

And tension is not absent from the world that we are a part of. Right now, there is a large tension after the midterm elections, as if politics was tension-filled enough. Every week, especially during the holidays, we are bombarded with advertisements drawing us to consume, to obtain more. There is a tension of asking ourselves what to buy, how ethical it is, do I really need this?

“When Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit and conceived the Son of God, her body became the inner court of the Holy of Holies (the place where God’s presence dwelled in the Temple). Never before had a woman entered this sacred space, but in the incarnation, the Holy of Holies came into her space.” – Cheryl Bridges Johns

Mary’s joy in her song is found in three things: her Reflection of the Past, the Work of God in the Present, and the Promises of the Future.

Reflection of the Past:

God’s people, the Israelites, have endured through a tried and troubled history. In the midst of this, God has never left them or forsaken them. Joy is found through God’s unyielding faithfulness.

Our joy can be found through remembering the past. Paul tells us that through our faith we have been grafted into the family tree of God that the Israelites were a part of. In a beautiful way, God gives us a family history, a history that extends back to the beginning of the world. The tension filled, faithfulness-filled, and joy-filled history of Israel is also our history. We can look to our relatives in the faith and their examples and find joy even in the midst of our tension-filled world.

God’s Work in the Present:

“Joseph: I made you this pie.
Mary: Did you steal it?
Joseph: Nope! Made it from scratch.
Mary: We don't have an oven!
Joseph: God helped!
Mary: Silence….
Joseph: You see how weird that sounds right?”
–Dr. Kevin Young

When joy is hard to come by in our current predicament, we, like Mary, can find joy through the lives of others and be sustained by it. For Mary, it was God’s work in the life of her cousin Elizabeth. She was going to have a son in her old age!

When we enter this sanctuary without joy, the lives of others can often sustain us until we are ready and able to find our own.

Promises of the Future:

For Mary’s future, Christ would be the things that Israel had hoped him to be. He would be the perfect king, the perfect priest, and the perfect prophet.

As we wait, we wait for Christ’s return. And we know with his track record that we can find joy and hope in His promises and his plan.

It is a future we may not fully understand at this moment. I doubt that Mary knew God’s full plan the moment she sang this song or gave birth to Christ. However, in the midst of the mystery, in the midst of not knowing, she expressed joy for the future; a future that we can look forward to, just as Mary did.

Practice

This is why Mary can be such a model for us, the Church, that her Son established. This is why her song can be something that we look to for a reminder of joy in the midst of tension-filled times.

Let’s end with this. As we look at the OT, we find the book of Psalms. Did you know that 71 percent of those are laments? But we also find a solitary line that the author writes to remind the reader that this state will not last.

That the faithful God of Israel, of Adbraham, of Mary, and of us, the Body of Christ, will continue to be faithful and will not abandon us in our downtrodden state. The Psalm is David’s way of finding joy in the past. Present, and future, even in the midst of tension. Let’s all join him in this practice as we listen to his words.

“You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”

–Psalm 56:8-13

Advent

1. Advent consists of the four Sundays preceding Christmas Day in which the Church anticipates the future arrival of Christ by remembering His first arrival.

2. Although it may seem counter to the festivities of Christmas, it is important to practice waiting.

3. And in our waiting we focus on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love along with the rest of the global church

10 ‘Don’t be afraid,’ the angel said to them. ‘Look: I’ve got good news for you, news which will make everybody very happy. 11 Today a savior has been born for you—the Messiah, the Lord!—in David’s town. 12 This will be the sign for you: you’ll find the baby wrapped up, and lying in a feeding-trough.’

13 Suddenly, with the angel, there was a crowd of the heavenly armies. They were praising God, saying, 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace upon earth among those in his favor.’ –Luke 2:10-14

“If you try to point out something to a dog, the dog will often look at your finger instead of at the object you’re trying to point to. This is frustrating, but it illustrates a natural mistake we all make from time to time. It’s the mistake many people make when reading the Christmas story.” -N.T. Wright

Our familiarity with the word peace or the idea of peace on earth, has kept us from understanding the real message of Advent.

God’s peace comes from costly obedience.

God’s peace is disruptive.

“When we feel peace in this world, it is probably because we are drifting with the cultural moment.” - Pastor Jon Tyson

“The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” -C.S. Lewis

God’s peace is antifragile.

“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” -Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Sooner or later if we follow Christ we have to risk everything in order to gain everything. We have to gamble on the invisible and risk all that we see and taste and feel. But we know the risk is worth it because there is nothing more insecure than this transient world.” -Thomas Merton

God’s peace is miraculously ordinary.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33

The question remains, do we want this real peace? And if so, are we willing to open ourselves up to it, up to Jesus?

Advent

1. Advent consists of the four Sundays preceding Christmas Day in which the Church anticipates the future arrival of Christ by remembering His first arrival.

2. Although it may seem counter to the festivities of Christmas, it is important to practice waiting.

3. And in our waiting we focus on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love along with the rest of the global church

Patience sets a good example for others, aids in decision-making, increases success, and even helps you see waiting as a positive thing - Sarah Landrum, Forbes

Poems must be approached slowly, paying attention to detail and imagery to capture the author’s full intent.

“Hope commits us to actions that connect with God’s promises. What we call hoping is often only wishing. We want things we think are impossible, but we have better sense than to spend any money or commit our lives to them. Biblical hope, though, is an act—like buying a field in Anathoth. Hope acts on the conviction that God will complete the work that he has begun even when the appearances, especially when the appearances, oppose it.” ― Eugene H. Peterson

Hope is holding the tension of doubt, trust, and faith all together.

Hope is not the outcome but the waiting.

“Christian hope is a BOLD choice to wait for God to bring about a future that is as surprising as a crucified man rising from the dead” - Bible Project

Hope is found not just at the end of the positive outcomes or even in the outcomes I envision.

Hope is in the Jesus I find in the valley waiting with me, and in the curious unexpected outcomes.

Hope is in the Jesus I have holding my weary soul in the waiting and on the other side, win or lose, no matter my perception of the outcome.

Advent is a time when we get to remember what we are waiting on. We remember why we have hope and who our hope is in.

What has increased/decreased my hope in Jesus today?

What promises am I waiting on Jesus to answer right now?

Summary of the Apostles’ Creed.

1. The Apostle’s Creed is a summary of the Christian faith that depicts the full story of scripture. The Apostle’s Creed contains one of the most concise summaries of the Christian faith in straightforward scriptural language. It follows the narrative arch of scripture from creation to incarnation, crucifixion to resurrection, and Pentecost to life everlasting.

2. The Apostle’s Creed reminds us that our story and church are rooted in an ancient faith. There is no singular author by which this creed can be traced, rather it is the work of the Western Catholic Church. Though, it seems to have grown out of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. Its origin is as a baptismal confession, those that are laying down their life to join Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4) confess this as their new reality and guiding story.

3. The Apostle’s Creed is not simply a routine repetition of doctrine but rather our pledge of allegiance to one God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a routine repetition of doctrine. It is a liturgical poem meant to move our heart as a pledge of allegiance to the triune God revealed in the person of Christ.

Our confession today is;

”I believe in the Resurrection of the Body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”

Often, that phrase is mistaken for –

“I believe I will go to heaven when I die.”

These do not mean the same thing.

The Gnostic Heresy.

Gnos·ti·cism /ˈnästəˌsizəm/

1. is an ancient philosophy that claims the material world is evil and the “spiritual” is good.

When asked what Christianity is about, many would say something about good deeds, going to heaven when you die, and leaving behind the material world. This story is more gnostic than Christian.

Ultimately it misses that God is not interested in taking us to heaven– but bringing heaven to earth.

The Christian story is that the Creator God has demonstrated in Jesus’ resurrection what he intends to do for the whole world.

Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians

Paul’s outline of Jesus’ Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)

• Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

• He was buried.

• He was raised on the third day.

• He appeared to many witnesses.

Paul goes on to describe the implications of Jesus’ resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12-52)

1. our resurrection

2. the transformation of our bodies

3. our life in the everlasting kingdom.

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Corinthians 15:12-22

Our inheritance from the first humans, Adam and Eve, is sin and death. But in our new inheritance in Christ is resurrection.

Easter morning is not a one-time occurrence but a preview of our own resurrection.

On that day we will be transformed.
Not into disembodied spirits, but into a new form of physicality.

Depending on your translation you may read in verse 44; “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” or in verse 50 “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” These don’t quite do justice to what Paul is conveying.

He is not drawing a distinction between physical forms and nonphysical forms; or flesh and spirit. Rather, he is drawing a distinction between our first form and our second form.

The way we should understand this is that when the human body is glorified– transformed and freed from some of its previous limitations.

“Why will we be given new bodies? According to the early Christians, the purpose of this new body will be to rule wisely over God’s new world. Forget those images about lounging around playing harps. There will be work to do and we shall relish doing it. All the skills and talents which we have put to God’s service in this present life—and perhaps, too, the interests and likings we gave up because they conflicted with our vocation—will be enhanced and ennobled and given back to us to be exercised to his glory” – NT Wright, Surprised by Hope

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. – 1 Corinthians 15:24–25.

And The End will Come.
Not the destruction of the world, but the end of the present order. It is God uniting heaven and earth.

When we read “heaven” in the scriptures we should think of “God’s presence”, not a spiritual location.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”– Revelation 11:15.

This is to say Jesus is the King of the world, and we’re just waiting for him to make his move.

Our future is an everlasting kingdom, and in it, we will be freed from the touch of death.

“There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death!”– 1 Corinthians 15:21-26 (Message Paraphrase)

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” — 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Christ has gone first overcoming death, then at the right time, we, his followers will be brought back to life.

As with Christ, so with us.

Spiritual Practice: To Imagine Our Promised Future.

J.R.R. Tolkien has an essay, called “On Fairy-Stories;” and in it, he suggests that there are longings in every human that only fantasy, fairy tales, or science fiction can really speak to. We have this curiosity and fascination with cheating death, escaping time, and friendship with other living things.

Tolkien, the Lord of the Rings author, the world-builder, and Christian believed we long for the infinite because we were not created to die, but to experience life everlasting.

"We are built to live in the kingdom of God. It is our natural habitat." – Dallas Willard

As we head into Advent, the whole season is about cultivating a longing for the arrival of our King.

It is to wait with anticipation and expectation about the new world He is bringing.

My suggestion this week is to imagine the future we’re promised in Christ.

Summary of the Apostles’ Creed.

1. The Apostle’s Creed is a summary of the Christian faith that depicts the full story of scripture. The Apostle’s Creed contains one of the most concise summaries of the Christian faith in straightforward scriptural language. It follows the narrative arch of scripture from creation to incarnation, crucifixion to resurrection, and Pentecost to life everlasting.

2. The Apostle’s Creed reminds us that our story and church are rooted in an ancient faith. There is no singular author by which this creed can be traced, rather it is the work of the Western Catholic Church. Though, it seems to have grown out of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. Its origin is as a baptismal confession, those that are laying down their life to join Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4) confess this as their new reality and guiding story.

3. The Apostle’s Creed is not simply a routine repetition of doctrine but rather our pledge of allegiance to one God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a routine repetition of doctrine. It is a liturgical poem meant to move our heart as a pledge of allegiance to the triune God revealed in the person of Christ.

“[Sin is] rejection or ignoring God in the world he created, rebelling against him by living without reference to him, not being or doing what he requires in his law- resulting in our death and the disintegration of all creation.” – New Gospel Catechism

“Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.” – Luke 22:54-55

In Isolation Sin Attacks

Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” – Luke 22:56-60

The Weight of Sin

“And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”And he went out and wept bitterly.” —Luke 22:54-62

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” – Colossians 3:12-13

Forgiveness and breakfast

“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” –John 21:15-19

“We believe that we stand not by our own achievements but by the achievements of Jesus death and resurrection. We believe that the spiritually strong and the spiritually weak are both sustained by the same forgiving grace.” –Ben Myers

Spiritual Practice

1. Is there someone in your life that you need to forgive? What is keeping you from forgiving?

2. Is there someone who you need to ask for forgiveness? What is keeping you from confessing?

3. How is your unforgiveness or lack of confession in your life affecting your relationship with others and with God?

Summary of the Apostles’ Creed.

1. The Apostle’s Creed is a summary of the Christian faith that depicts the full story of scripture. The Apostle’s Creed contains one of the most concise summaries of the Christian faith in straightforward scriptural language. It follows the narrative arch of scripture from creation to incarnation, crucifixion to resurrection, and Pentecost to life everlasting.

2. The Apostle’s Creed reminds us that our story and church are rooted in an ancient faith. There is no singular author by which this creed can be traced, rather it is the work of the Western Catholic Church. Though, it seems to have grown out of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. Its origin is as a baptismal confession, those that are laying down their life to join Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4) confess this as their new reality and guiding story.

3. The Apostle’s Creed is not simply a routine repetition of doctrine but rather our pledge of allegiance to one God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a routine repetition of doctrine. It is a liturgical poem meant to move our heart as a pledge of allegiance to the triune God revealed in the person of Christ.

THE GOOD LIFE IN OUR CULTURE

In our culture, the good life can be based on individualism and the next new thing.

In our culture, the good life is all about ourselves, and the next new thing:

THE GLOBAL CHURCH & THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

The Global Church includes “the holy ones”, “the saints”, the people who live in community with God and each other. This community regularly shares gifts with each other. These gifts include encouraging each other’s faith, offering each other excessive grace, serving one other and loving each other.

“The lives of the Saints are the hermeneutical key to Scripture.” – Stanley Hauerwas

EPHESIANS

Ephesians was not written so much to address problems in a particular church; more so, it was written to explain some of the great themes and doctrines of Christianity.

While previous letters from Paul focus more on God’s work in us as individual followers of Jesus, Ephesians focuses on the communion of Saints.

Some believe that this letter was not simply written to be heard and kept in one church in Ephesus, but to be heard in Ephesus and distributed to many different churches in different cities… the global church.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD LIFE

ONE: Disconnect & Rebellion

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” – Ephesians 2:1

In this sense, “dead” implies the disconnect between us and God while “trespasses” implies our intended or unintended rebellion towards God

“Sin is an unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness.” –Saint Ignatius

TWO: Disobedience

“in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” –Ephesians 2:2-3

THE GOOD LIFE

ONE: Connected & Loved

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” – Ephesians 2:4-7

The Not-So-Good Life leaves us disconnected from the greatest love there is, at odds with ourselves and others, and consumed with ourselves.

The Good Life leaves us connected to the greatest love, that of Jesus. A love that was available in our rebellion. A love that looks past our past, allows us to be deeply connected to Jesus in the present, and promises us immense grace in the future

TWO: Obedience

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 4:8

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

ONE: MICROCHURCH

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” – Ephesians 2:19-22

Microchurch is the full expression of Christ’s church in smaller, everyday environments like a living room, coffee shop, or kitchen table. Microchurches are the primary way we reveal the Kingdom of Jesus, together, in Kansas City.

“When I do surround myself with people, I make sure that I’m able to contribute to them. And in fact, that’s the best part… is when I am there, I am really there. And I go way out of my way to show the people that I love, that I care about them, that I understand them, and that I will do what I can to support them.”

While the burdens of this life can tend to tear us down, the good life of community can build us up by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Good Life is discovered, learned, and lived with:

1. FELLOWSHIP at Midtown Church.

2. JOINING a Microchurch

3. And building the Good Life TOGETHER

Summary of the Apostles’ Creed.

1. The Apostle’s Creed is a summary of the Christian faith that depicts the full story of scripture. The Apostle’s Creed contains one of the most concise summaries of the Christian faith in straightforward scriptural language. It follows the narrative arch of scripture from creation to incarnation, crucifixion to resurrection, and Pentecost to life everlasting.

2. The Apostle’s Creed reminds us that our story and church are rooted in an ancient faith. There is no singular author by which this creed can be traced, rather it is the work of the Western Catholic Church. Though, it seems to have grown out of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. Its origin is as a baptismal confession, those that are laying down their life to join Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4) confess this as their new reality and guiding story.

3. The Apostle’s Creed is not simply a routine repetition of doctrine but rather our pledge of allegiance to one God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a routine repetition of doctrine. It is a liturgical poem meant to move our heart as a pledge of allegiance to the triune God revealed in the person of Christ.

HOLY SPIRIT IN CULTURE

For many, the Holy Spirit has not been acknowledged or even worse, has been used as a weapon. And for those who do not belong to the Christian community, the spirit has become a thing of good vibes, a feeling.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that research has shown that US adults have very little understanding of the Spirit. In a study conducted by LifeWay Research in 2018, a majority of US adults, 59%, say that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being.

The Holy Spirit in the story of scripture:

1. Creation

2. The Old Testament

3. Jesus

4. The Early Church

5. Us

CREATION

“20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” –Genesis 2:20-22

OLD TESTAMENT

Fast forward in the story to Exodus 40 where we see God’s presence no longer in us, but as a dense, visible cloud by day and a fire by night that led the Israeliteis out of Egypt.

In 1 Kings 8, the tabernacle has become a more permanent home called the temple. And as we see throughout the rest of the Old Testament, the temple is good but it is incomplete. It is good because God's presence is with God’s people.

JESUS

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

The word became flesh is the person of God becoming the living, breathing, physical being of Jesus.

The Greek word for dwelt means Jesus in the flesh pitched his tabernacle or lived in his tent among us.

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” – John 20:21-23

We learn that upon resurrection Jesus says the spirit that I was given, that has been in me, is now given to you. As I have been a living, breathing tabernacle, you are now a living breathing tabernacle.

THE EARLY CHURCH

In Acts, the early church, the disciples begin to do the very things that Jesus had been doing.

The disciples are freed from prison

Paralytics are healed

Paul heals a man who falls out of a window while he is preaching

Daily they feed people

And they also suffer just as Christ suffered.

“16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”– 1 Corinthians 3:16

US

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”– 1 Corinthians 6:19

Once again, the Spirit of God is tabernacled within us just as it was in creation.

In creation, the Holy Spirit is seen through Adam and Even as God affirms their bodies as a dwelling place for God’s spirit- living temples.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is seen through Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple as he comes to live in the heart of a city with God’s people.

In Jesus, the Holy Spirit is seen through Jesus as it comes to live in Jesus. And through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection every barrier between God and us is broken.

In the Church, the Holy Spirit is seen through the gathering of God’s people. God’s spirit binds us every time we are together and we know he is here in our midst.

In us, the Holy Spirit takes up residence. He dwells in us as our bodies become temples. It is intimate and it is offered to anyone who accepts Jesus’ offer of grace. We are filled with God’s spirit exactly as Jesus was.

God’s Presence

“God’s goal was never to get us into his presence. It was to get his presence into us.” – Tyler Staton

“7 The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. 8 To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. 9 To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. 10 To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. 11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides.” – 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

“It is the lived conviction that everything, absolutely everything in the scriptures is livable, not just true, but livable… This is the supernatural core, the lived resurrection and Holy Spirit core of the Christian life.” – Euguene Peterson

Summary of the Apostles’ Creed.

1. The Apostle’s Creed is a summary of the Christian faith that depicts the full story of scripture. The Apostle’s Creed contains one of the most concise summaries of the Christian faith in straightforward scriptural language. It follows the narrative arch of scripture from creation to incarnation, crucifixion to resurrection, and Pentecost to life everlasting.

2. The Apostle’s Creed reminds us that our story and church are rooted in an ancient faith. There is no singular author by which this creed can be traced, rather it is the work of the Western Catholic Church. Though, it seems to have grown out of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. Its origin is as a baptismal confession, those that are laying down their life to join Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4) confess this as their new reality and guiding story.

3. The Apostle’s Creed is not simply a routine repetition of doctrine but rather our pledge of allegiance to one God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a routine repetition of doctrine. It is a liturgical poem meant to move our heart as a pledge of allegiance to the triune God revealed in the person of Christ.

American Christians have a unique obsession with the end times.

From doomsday predictions to rapture anxiety, the Return of Christ is a doctrine obscured by exaggeration, anxiety, and speculation. One influence on America’s end-time obsession is a theological scheme called Dispensationalism.

Developed in the early 1800’s dispensationalism broadly divides biblical history into seven ages or “dispensations”.

1. Judaism is treated as the secret to ancient and hidden knowledge. While, our faith, our story, and our Christ have their roots in ancient Judaism– it is not the key to deciphering the mysteries of the universe.

2. Dispensationalism reads the biblical prophecy as predictive of our future. One of Dispensationalism’s core tenets is a historical-grammatical interpretation of everything in scripture. Everything from OT prophecies to the apostle’s metaphors are turned into items to watch for.

3. A theology of Escape in an event called “the rapture”. Theology of the rapture comes from one verse in the new testament, 1 Thessolians 4:16-17. Nowhere else in scripture is this idea of a flight away from the world. This theology of Escape is not found in the teaching of Jesus, Paul, or any other New Testament writer. Rather, the New Testament describes God’s plan to restore His world and that plan culminates in Christ’s return.

Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.

“The Day of the Lord” or the Day of YHWH

1. The day when God (YHWH) would defeat all of Israel’s enemies.

Παρουσία | parousia

1. presence

2. coming

Ἔσχατος | eschaton

1. The last thing, finality

2. The final event of the divine plan

All three terms refer broadly to the idea that God is guiding all of history toward His ends. Where his good creation will be liberated and healed from corruption, decay, and abuse it has endured.

It is the world to come, and the world we long for – the Kingdom of our Good God.

“The New Testaments' language about the future is a signpost pointing into the mist.” – NT Wright, Surprised by Hope

And while we do not know the timeframe– we may cultivate hope for the future knowing three things–

1. One day–Jesus will be personally present with us on Earth

2. Death will be reversed

3. All of Creation will be judged by our King.

Jesus will be personally Present with his people.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” – Revelation 21:3–5.

The parousia literally means presence. We await the day in which our King will be present, dwelling with us– He will be our God, and we will be his people.

Death will be reversed.
Resurrection is always bodily. It always involves flesh and bone restored from the decay of death.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” –Romans 8:11.

The Kingdom of God, your future and mine, is flesh and bone– not disembodied spirits.

The Apostle John seems to believe that all people, believers and unbelievers, will be resurrected. of Jesus’ teaching.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” – John 5:25–29.

At the coming of Christ, death will be reversed.

Everyone throughout human history will be resurrected and subject to the judgment of Christ.

Throughout the biblical narrative, the coming Judgement of Jesus is depicted as good news

“4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! 5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD! 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! 8 Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together 9 before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” –Psalm 98:4–9.

Creation itself, the rivers that have been filled with pollutants, the forests that have been decimated, the plains that have been littered– aches for one to set things right.

In the writings of John love and Judgement are not depicted as separate acts but as one.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” –John 3:16–21.

Our life of apprenticeship to Jesus is a life of training to become the kind of person who will deeply enjoy and fit right in his Kingdom.

When Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, it always came with visual aids– It came with him saving people from sickness and death.

He offered people an up-close presentation of what he was promising in the future.

We have moved from a majority Christian culture to a post-Christian culture.

For the first two centuries of our nation’s history, the Christian faith was the assumed default for most people. But over the last two decades, the west has shifted from a majority Christian culture to a post-Christian culture; And our city is no exception to that.

As our team prepared to begin ministry in Kansas City, we did our best to research the spiritual, religious, and cultural environment we were stepping into. And we made three observations about the relationship between Christianity and our city–

1. The population has very little understanding of the person of Jesus.

Many in the community might say “I believe in a God of Love”, but that God of love is totally disconnected from the Incarnation of Jesus.

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)

Jesus’ message was that God rule is here and now, it is everything we’ve ever longed for– rethink everything and commit to learning its ways!

2. The synchronism of Christianity and nationalism.

This is the belief that America is uniquely blessed by God and particular values must be upheld in our culture with influence and power. The emphasis of this religion is not following the way of Jesus, but securing power at all costs.

3. The population of our city and our neighborhood is continuing to grow in its distrust of religious institutions.

Our neighborhood’s thoughts on religious institutions are complicated and painful. At a national level, we continue to see the fall of prominent Christian leaders. Locally, many bare wounds received at the hands of Churches in our city. And while we can say that we were wounded by Christians, and not by Christ–learning to trust a Christian community takes time and healing– and many are never able.

Faithful Christians have moved from the majority to the minority; from the center to the fringe; from well-thought-of to the weird.

This idea of cultural displacement or exile cuts through the entirety of scripture; an theme that can offer us guidance as we navigate life as a minority.

In 587 BC Israelites were taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire.

Home, family, temple, culture, and language– everything familiar left behind as they arrived in Babylon. The Israelites found themselves in a strange land disconnected from everything they held dear.

One day, two messengers arrive from Jerusalem with a letter from the prophet Jeremiah.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare[shalom] of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare[shalom] you will find your welfare [shalom].” – Jeremiah 29:4-7

Shalom is wholeness. It is this idea of a vibrant and healthy community that is driven forward with a divine purpose toward human flourishing. It is a society living in the goodness of God, where all are taken care of.

God is working to reveal himself in the everyday and ordinary elements of life on planet earth.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you” –Jeremiah 29:11–14.

The promise of Jeremiah is not that everything you do will be blessed; but that what God is bringing about in His promised future is better than anything we can imagine.

Whatever cultural displacement we feel; whatever exile we experience; whatever isolation and alienation may come–if we search the raw materials of life we will find God in our midst.