Making It Real
Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 20 July 2002 19:00
Illustration of Satan and spiritual warfare:
The Canadian Mounties must be highly trained in counterfeit dollar bills. Apparently, for many years there's been a huge racket in the US of counterfeiting and taking them into Canada, where they would exchange counterfeit US currency for real Canadian money, and then they would bring it back into the US and exchange the Canadian money for real American dollars. So it became important for Canadian Mounties to recognize counterfeit dollar bills, and here is how they did that. They were never shown counterfeit bills. They were shown thousands of real US dollars. If you become familiar enough with the real thing, you will recognize the counterfeit when you see it.
I want to talk about the real thing- real faith. I want to begin with mostly information- and then by the end I hope we'll have a little inspiration mixed in.
What kind of religion is Christianity? That's where we want to start. I'm hoping those of you who are asking this question will get some answers, a bird's eye view of the Christian faith. For those of you who are already walking, you get something today you can take to work tomorrow and share these points- you can have a little revival right there in the office.
We live in a world that is increasingly pluralistic. In the supposedly Christian nation of the US, did you know Buddhism is growing faster than Presbyterianism? And in some parts of our country, Islam is the fastest growing religion overall. So those among us who preach tolerance are right to do so. If we are going to practice unity in such an increasingly diverse melting pot, we have to learn to get along with one another. For those of us who claim to follow Christ and His teachings, that does not mean that we have to forget or compromise what we believe. It is even more imperative that we understand and can explain what we believe, but without defensiveness and with a spirit of grace.
So what kind of religion is Christianity? It is an astounding testimony to the Truth and the universal applicability of our faith that we can delve into Jeremiah, written in the 7th Century BC, and find brilliant, practical insight into this question. Jeremiah was speaking into very different circumstances. His belief system was never challenged by humanism, scientific method- his world believed in demons and unseen powers controlling all that they did. Mass communication was unknown in Jeremiah's day. News traveled over decades rather than moments. He knew nothing of our pluralism; yet he speaks with surprising relevance to our condition. Jeremiah tells us three things about our condition today: Jeremiah Chapter 7.
1. Christianity is a religion of right actions. Those who follow Jesus practice a religion that shows itself in right actions. Jer. 7: 2-8
Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: "Hear the Word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord!' If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other Gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever. But look- you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless."
This is called the Temple Sermon, and was probably delivered during the early reign of King Jehoiakim in 609 BC. The essential message is in verse 3: Reform your ways and actions and I will let you live in this place. What we get from that: right actions result in God's blessing. This isn't because God is trying to get us to jump through a bunch of cosmic hoops, but because there are universal spiritual laws built into the fabric of the time-space continuum, and if they are violated, then there are spiritual consequences. My Star Trek theory is: at some point along the way, the universe was five, not four, dimensions: L, W, H, Time, and Spirit. Somewhere along the way we got cut off from the spiritual dimension, so we can no longer see that all of our actions have spiritual consequences. In our marriage, in our finances, in our connectedness- our actions have consequences and we don't see them.
Right actions result in God's blessings. Then Jeremiah contrasts it: right actions as opposed to empty superstition (empty religion as Pete said.) (Ed relates a string of common superstitions). Imagine adding another list of superstitions: if you hang out in church, you'll be protected. Hail Mary? Now I lay me down to sleep. The Bible never tells us that you can say a bunch of words and claim a few things and then everything will be okay. The Bible tells us that what you say with your mouth must be matched in your heart and with your actions- otherwise, its empty religion, superstition. Of course the Temple was special, a place for God's Spirit to dwell- but it had turned into empty incantations.
Chapter 26 of Jeremiah relates how unhappy the people were with Jeremiah. They were operating out of empty religion. God calls us to "do justice." The Hebrew here gives emphasis to REALLY change your ways, to act justly, to not follow other Gods. My reason for bringing out this point of HEART change is not to make us feel guilty- it is rather to arrest our comfort. If you get too comfortable, it's hard to make it real. The list of just actions in Jeremiah begs the question: how do we do those things? Can a follower of Jesus make 80-100 thousand dollars a year and spend 90% on themselves? Is that legitimate for a follower of Jesus? Can a follower of Jesus buy stock in a company that supports ungodly causes? Can he live in lifestyle that segregates him from others economically? Like Ashburn? Can a follower of Jesus suppress people worldwide in order to maintain our standard of living? The purpose here is not to make us feel guilty for the indulgences in our life- it is to make sure we examine our indulgences and make sure they have purpose and meaning.
"The unexamined life is not worth living". Many of you remarked on the power of this sermon a few weeks ago, the second sermon in this series in Jeremiah on the CALL of Jeremiah. It was powerful for me as well. Have we answered God's call? God probably doesn't want to plant a comfortable church in Northern VA- He wants to shake NVA- change the CULTURE. It's not going to happen unless we are asking these kinds of questions of one another.
Before Diane and I came to NoVa, we pastored in the inner city of Boston. The inner city has a sense of desperation- and a lot of hopelessness. This area has hope- but an incredible complacency. I suspect that if God really had His way with us, some of us would move away from here, some of us would make sacrifices, and those left behind would support them.
2. Those who practice Christianity will nurture a religion that practices a real relationship with God. Jer. 7:9-11
Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, 'We are safe'- safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! Declares the Lord.
God wants intimacy with us- a foretaste of heaven is our right sexual relationship here on earth. It's a little embarassing how much God wants to know us. These people were not looking for this- just some insurance, an escape clause. But Christianity is a REAL relationship, not just a set of rituals to safeguard ourselves.
We've talked about doing spiritual disciplines that get us connected to God: struggle through having a prayer life, wading through the Bible and seeing what He has to say to me, I believe in journaling, fasting in order to focus on God. We use the Lenten Season in house to fast from television. We all do these not for punching the clock- but to nurture a real relationship with God. We look, pray, read, watch, wait.
3. Christianity is essentially a set of historical facts that you must accept or reject.
There was a man who claimed to be God. People ultimately put him death, and He and his followers claimed that was done on our behalf. Three days later instead of stinking He walked out of the grave alive. Historical fact- its either true or its not. This makes Christianity unique among all other religion. It is about God moving in human history. Those who follow Jesus practice a religion based on real history.
A lot of times we don't like it because it's a mess. We can't just 'get the rules.'
Jeremiah 7: 12-15:
Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. I will thrust you from my Presence, just as I did to all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.
All this time I have been talking about Christianity. You may be saying, "Wait a minute. Jeremiah wasn't a Christian." Followers of Christ believe the life of Jesus is the centerpiece of history. Those who came before Jesus exercised their faith by looking forward. The Messiah was expected. Those who came after look back to Jesus. In this way, Jeremiah's story is our story. The first settlers in Virginia and Massachusetts are now a part of American history. Why? It wasn't America yet. But it was our story. Jeremiah didn't know the name of who he was looking forward to, but it is all part of the same story.
In this passage Jeremiah said "remember Shiloh." This town where the 10 commandments were once kept had become an empty place. It was destroyed by the Philistines in 1050 BC. He references history- because God is involved in our history. That's what we believe.
Illustration: A pastor was mountain climbing with a member of his congregation. There is ice and snow. They are not tied together yet, but got in trouble before they anticipated. The experienced mountain climber realized the pastor was in trouble. The climber slowly made his way to the pastor, who was standing on ice. he said, "We can do this but you must follow my instructions. Take your boot, dig it into the ice as hard as you can, swing away from the mountain and I will grab you. Follow my instructions carefully- if you try to cling to the mountain, and everything in you will want to do that, you'll slide down 1000 feet. So swing out on 3. 1-2-3. The man felt frozen in time- but he trusted his expert friend's ability, and he knew him and knew he could trust him.
This illustrates how Jesus is an expert on life- and we know Him. That's why we follow.
For some of us, the way forward is too difficult. We just go back down the mountain and quit. For others, we distract ourselves. We cling to the mountain, but we try not to notice we are clinging to a mountain by distracting ourselves. Others swing out on the advice of Jesus- and we swing to safety, and everything is great now. So we decide to go to the mountain store ad by ALL the equipment we can, so we are never that out of control again.
Christianity keeps us real and dependent. Tomorrow wake up and nurture your relationship with God. When you hear from Him, share it with your family and friends. If your reading in Jeremiah and have no idea what God is saying, call your brothers in Christ anyway and ask for help. Can we really go through our days without priming the pump- without asking for our mountain climbing friend to help us over the difficult patches on the mountain?
Let's do that tomorrow. Let's make it real.