Who Is The Real Enemy?

We live in a really difficult period in human history and it is more the merely easy to get into a “bunker mentality” about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Paraphrasing that comment Paul makes, “the devils is throwing darts our way.” (Eph. 6:16) as he walks around “as a roaring lion seeking to devour us” as Peter notes. (1 Peter 5:8)

I’m good with all of that and have no struggle when it comes to admitting that there are evil forces at work in the world. My guess is that we probably overdo the “spiritual warfare” language in some contexts, but to pretend that our battle isn’t a spiritual one is to ignore the obvious and to contradict Scripture.

On Wednesday of this week, the Point community had an outdoor, self-directed observance of Ash Wednesday. It was held in the courtyard of the Lanier Academic Center. The courtyard is in the center of this massive building, surrounded on all four sides by brick walls and windows.  It is landscaped beautifully and the weather was perfect. Among other things, my conviction that “outside” is a great place to get serious with God was confirmed.

I stayed the entire hour the service was available because students working with me were responsible for the service and I wanted to honor their good work. While in the courtyard, I kept thinking about the importance of “inward thinking.” That courtyard is “inside the place” where so much that happens at Point happens. 

Maybe it was the focus of Ash Wednesday, but I kept thinking “if we don’t get the insides right, we can never get the outside right.” And that brings me back to the issue of “spiritual warfare.” So often when I hear that term, people are talking about forces on the outside that are opposed to the people of God. I don’t doubt that there are such forces nor do I doubt that they seem pretty powerful these days.

But it is hard to have taught Bible and theology for forty-two years at Point and not let what you have learned sneak into to your deepest places of thinking.

If you read the story of what I call “the earliest, early Christians” in the first scene of Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, (1:1-6:7) you will read a story of stunning advances made by a group that began with twelve guys hiding in a room in Jerusalem, seemingly afraid that what happed to Jesus could also happen to them. Outside forces have them hiding.  But the Holy Spirit came, and next thing you know Luke is using numbers like 2000 in one place and 3000 more in another (mostly likely counting only men) to describe the growth of the church.

It is a story of God’s intended purposes for His creation on the way to restoration and renewal. They are selling property and giving it to the apostles. Luke even notes a couple of times that there were no needy people among them!

And . . . there were some “fire-like darts” from the outside being thrown their way. There are stories of Jewish opposition that least to the arrest of Peter and John. Talk of the resurrection of Jesus is considered heresy and must be stopped, and just a general sense of “our culture doesn’t want us here.” But the church keeps growing!

Finally – in Acts 5, we read the first story of internal problems. A couple named Ananias and Sapphira, believers, scheme to get the same sort of recognition that Barnabas had. They end up lying to the Holy Spirit and God. They end up dead.

And not long after that, instead of telling a story of “no needy people,” Luke tells a story of widows who are complaining about being neglected in the daily distribution.

Never again will Luke describe the church like he did prior to this story and you want find those sorts of stories in the epistles of the New Testament either. 

I would argue that the church has never quite been the same.

And guess what – the problem was internal not external.

Back to Ash Wednesday. I couldn’t help but think that the first place I should look when it comes to examining my witness for Christ is internal. What are my spiritual disciplines that sustain my faith? What daily things to I do that make me a stronger believer? And, most uncomfortable, are there some internal “Ananias and Sapphira” like behaviors that need to stop?

But beyond that, for all of us as believers living in what seems like a hostile world, what do our insides look like? The churches and ministries that we are part of, what do the insides look like? Is the real struggle actually from the outside – or should we go to our own “courtyard moments” and think internally for a bit? Where are the “Ananias and Sapphira” issues in my church? My ministry? My family? My . . .?

Don’t misread me – I know that there are serious external battles to be fought, and with God’s help, won! But . . . I am pretty confident that the way to win spiritual battles starts on the inside for people and for ministries.  

Jesus and The Bible Can Be So Pesky

Early this morning I listened to a very good sermon by William Willimon. It was titled "Confronting Racism, A Sermon" and was preached at Broadmore United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He was preaching there and leading an all-day workshop in connection with his newest book, Who Lynched Willie Earl? If you haven't read that book - I highly recommend it to you!

As he is prone to always do, Willimon said some challenging things in his sermon. I think my favorite two sentences were:   

Everybody here was an undocumented immigrant until Jesus Christ. Everybody here got naturalized by what He did on the cross. 

As the only Gentile writer of Scripture, Luke probably knows better than his Bible-writing colleagues how it feels to be an outsider. It's not like the early church described in Acts instantly figured out how broad the welcoming mat to the Kingdom of God actually was. So it isn't too surprising that it is Luke who quotes Jesus as saying, "And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."  (Luke 11:29, 30. ESV)

Those words are at the end of the story sometimes called "the narrow door" where Jesus makes it clear that the long-term "insiders" are risking being cast out as long-term "outsiders" from the north, south, east, and west are welcomed.

That's a pesky little story for us privileged insiders!

And speaking of pesky, Paul could have gone forever without saying "Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." (Romans 15:7, ESV) That is said right in the middle of Romans 14 and 15 - two rather challenging chapters when it comes to living out the gospel on a daily basis.

The text for Willimon's sermon was the end of 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul talks about being a "new creature in Christ" and accepting "the ministry of reconciliation" on behalf of Christ. But as he was preaching - appropriately on this text - I kept thinking of the two texts I've mentioned above. Put those three texts together and one might be subject to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit as Jesus describes it in John 16:8-10.

Unfortunately both the political left and the political right have so politicized their theological ideas that it is all but impossible to have an authentic kingdom-like conversation about important issues in our culture. But those of us who truly want to be "kingdom people doing kingdom things" have to find a way to have such authentic conversations within our culture.

No doubt people reading this will view, for example, the issue of immigration differently. I'm fine with acknowledging that the government of any country has some role to play in deciding who can come in and who can't - but that is hardly the issue for me as a follower of Jesus. Hand that over the "Caesar."

The problem is that when our conversations about immigration become so coarse and intense that it sounds as though we see ourselves as so much better than others (we're "first") or that we actually hate them - then that Jesus story from Luke 11 is more than merely pesky. Do I really want my conversation about a political issue to become the reason a lost person continues to reject the Jesus story?

I'm grateful to live in a country where I can urge the government to be just, merciful, and treat people with human dignity. What I'm nervous about is that it is so easy to let the government try to do what Christ has called me - as a kingdom person doing kingdom things - to do - or, even more seriously, to allow my allegiance to the government to somehow be more important than my confession that Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord. Early Christians were martyred over that very issue.

God has been in the "exodus business" at least sense He sent Abram and Sarai on their boundary- crossing journey somewhere around 2000 BCE. That "north, south, east, and west" line from Jesus seems to suggest He still is in the exodus business.

Perhaps we really do need to sit down and start having some authentic conversations about things like racism, immigration, sexism, and a host of other issues, lest "the privileged first become the stunned last."

Everybody here was an undocumented immigrant until Jesus Christ. Everybody here got naturalized by what He did on the cross. 

Give me a Clean Heart

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Thy presence,

And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation,

And sustain me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways,

And sinners will be converted to Thee. 

(Psalm 51:10-13, NASB)

Next week begins the season of Lent – Ash Wednesday is next week - 14 February, Valentine’s Day on the civic calendar.  While many of us may come from traditions of faith where we aren’t accustomed to paying lots of attention to the Christian Calendar, hopefully we do come from a place in life that has taught us of our need for God’s grace.

These words from Psalm 51 were first spoken by King David, after his “Lent-like meeting” with the prophet Nathan. To spend these 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday in pursuit of a “clean heart” and a “steadfast spirit within us” would not be a bad exercise in spiritual discipline. The potential is that we might encounter the presence of God in these 40 days in new and refreshing ways because we are so focused on Him. That would not be a bad result of such discipline.

All of us perhaps would be blessed by a sense of being restored to “the joy of Thy salvation” and sustained by God to have a “willing spirit.” Not to be trite – but there is a sense that suggests if King David – a man after God’s own heart despite his failures – could be blessed by such gifts, then surely we can.

At the end of Peter’s second sermon in Acts (3:12-26) the apostle describes our potential with God when we “repent and return” with rather glorious vocabulary. Our sins are wiped away and “times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Peter then reminds those listening to him that we await “the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times.”

When David seeks out God in order to be restored to the joy of his salvation, it may very well be that he is anticipating what you and I experience in coming to Christ. “Seasons of refreshing” in which we anticipate God’s “complete restoration.”

May I encourage you during this season of Lent – or if you don’t like that term, simply in these days leading up to Easter – to join with me in seeking to discover anew “the seasons of refreshing” that are to characterize our life in Christ. May we discover with new power and new opportunities for influence, the “joy of our salvation.”