The Big 10: Right Religion
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction:
Introduction:
Context of 10 Commandment:
Living within Grace
“And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
“And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Show Graph of the Heidelberg Catechism
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Part I: Can you break this commandment?
Can you break this commandment?
Yes and no
Douma: “Baal, Asherah, Chemosh, Molech, Mammon, Zeus, Neptune, Woden, and Thor do not exist. But man’s yearning for prosperity, passionate love, power… existed and still exist.”
According to : YES!
According to : NO!
Baal, Asherah, Chemosh, Molech, Mammon, Zeus, Neptune, Woden, and Thor do not exist. But man’s yearning for prosperity, passionate love, power… existed and still exist.”
vss. 6, 8
The idols themselves are now considered ancient near eastern mythology, but what they represented remains contemporary southeastern idolatry.
You shall Not
Human Desire gods: prosperity, passionate love, power…
You shall have no other gods before [my face]
Nothing should get between us and God.
shows us how unsustainable and unreasonable it is to put other things between us and God…
Part II: Vs. 9-11: Idol Creation: An Enterprise of Emptiness
Part II:
Vs. 9-11
That seed remains which can in no wise be uprooted: that there is some sort of divinity; but this seed is so corrupted that by itself it produces only the worst fruits. From this, my present contention is brought out with greater certainty, that a sense of divinity is by nature engraven on human hearts. (1.4.4)”
Vs. 9-11
Idol Creation: An Enterprise of Emptiness
Tohu:
Actual idol creators are tohu
Tohu, vabohu= Formless and void
Formless and void
Formless creators can’t form something formful.
As flesh and blood, as human and not God, we can’t create religion.
The formless can’t give form to the divine! That’s opposite!
Profitable
They invest is treasurers which are worthless [not profitable]
They invest is treasurers which are worthless [not profitable]
Defenders of idols= blind, ignorant of their shame
Theme: Formless and depreciating
There’s nothing to gain or profitable!
Idol creation doesn’t add to life.
What is it that you idolize?
Urgency to connect to people stuck in other religions
Idol creators are nothing
“As experience shows, God has sown a seed of religion in all men…. (1.4.2) That seed remains which can in no wise be uprooted: that there is some sort of divinity; but this seed is so corrupted that by itself it produces only the worst fruits. From this, my present contention is brought out with greater certainty, that a sense of divinity is by nature engraven on human hearts. (1.4.4)”
So if this is true, it means that idol creation is an enterprize that is more common than we think!
“As experience shows, God has sown a seed of religion in all men…. (1.4.2) That seed remains which can in no wise be uprooted: that there is some sort of divinity; but this seed is so corrupted that by itself it produces only the worst fruits. From this, my present contention is brought out with greater certainty, that a sense of divinity is by nature engraven on human hearts. (1.4.4)”
Formless and depreciating are two words that remind me of my experience visiting the Ganges River in the world famous city of Varanasi, India.
Journal:
This was perhaps the most interesting day of my life. The Ganges experience in Varanasi is in many incomprehensible, full of strange practices, cult rituals, ceremonial washings, cremation ceremonies, filth, colours, and smells. It was the most bazaar thing, and saddest thing, and darkest thing I’ve ever experienced.
So there we are, getting off the bus surrounded by thousands of people on a narrow street making their trip to bathe in the Ganges River. Beggars line the streets, one after another after another... There is a hopelessness to their begging that is so different than beggars in Canada. There is a hopelessness in their eyes, an awareness that this begging activity is something they’ll be doing for the rest of their life… It’s all aimless and empty. Why? Because there is a religious spirituality to their begging… That’s what they do, that’s what they are. They will beg until they die. Arms continue to stretch, but their hands grasp air and emptiness.
[As we get to the River] A man looks my way and waves. Dips and waves. He is so proud to show off his god- the River Ganges- to me. He’s immersing himself with holy water... Before we got to the river, I assumed there would be a sense of shame for those who wash based on me watching them and taking pictures of them. The opposite is true. He’s looking at me and my ignorance: “You ignorant, stupid Westerner. I wave and smile because I am one with god, where you sit on a boat on top of her...
A mother dips her child into the water. A man looks my way and waves. Dips and waves. He is so proud to show off his god- the River Ganges- to me. He’s immersing himself with holy water. The Bible tells me that baptism is a dying and rising with Christ because of what Christ did for us. He believes the opposite. It is he himself who immerses himself into better karma (the opposite of grace). He cleanses himself in order to appease the god. Good karma, good works. Please the gods, deny yourself. Before we got to the river, I assumed there would be a sense of shame for those who wash based on me watching them and taking pictures of them. The opposite is true. He’s looking at me and my ignorance: “You ignorant, stupid Westerner. I wave and smile because I am one with god, where you sit on a boat on top of her.
On our little boat trip on the Ganges, we travel up river, then back down river. What held this whole experience together are factories of death: crematories. They burn bodies all day long. They burn the dead bodies to the point that it’s shrivelled but still recognizable. The fire stops, and loved ones carry it to the foot of the Ganges. They step down ladders and place this body that can no longer float deep down into the Ganges. The Ganges. The god that will preserve a corps, but cannot give life… Death and destruction. Hopelessness and darkness. It’s a spiritual descent. For all those thousands of bodies under that surface of green, there is a feeling of nothingness. Like that scene in Schindler’s List, the one where Jews are stripped of their clothing and sent to their ‘showers’, the Ganges boasts a similar destructive influence on the human psyche. It degrades, pushes down, descends the soul to a place of destruction.
Idol creation is a formless and depreciating activity, and I got to witness that first hand.
Why? Why is formless and depreciating? Well, the following verses explains more specifically why.
Vs. 12: The Bankrupt Blacksmith
Vivid scene. Working the coals, hammering the steal
Vivid scene. Working the coals, hammering the steal
Forms and Forges
All to prove: Creator gets tired!
Makes it with his strong arm, but only for so long
Forges and forms.
Dependent on water and grows faint.
What we create doesn’t last, and will ultimately sap us of energy.
Makes it with his strong arm, but only for so long…
Takes a break
The investment into the divine actually takes away energy
Concept of Grace:
List of Idols:
The search to form your own sense of meaning will sap you. You will become a bankrupt blacksmith… It won’t give you the sense of meaning you are looking for!
Prosperity
Passionate Love
Power
Love power… existed and still exist.”
The search to form your own sense of meaning will sap you. You will become a bankrupt blacksmith… It won’t give you the sense of meaning you are looking for!
Sets Christianity Apart:
God is God alone, and because he is God and God alone, He gives us the power and strength to figure out who He is. He is the Fountain, the Source, the Infusion… All in all, God is the Author of Our Faith, He is the sustainer of our Faith, He is the motivator Serving Others.
As C.S. Lewis once pointed out at an international gathering of different religions, Lewis had the courage to stand up and suggest that grace- unmerited favor- was what made Christianity distinct as a religion. No other religion teaches grace.
India
God created and rested! Not because he’s tired, but to enjoy his creation!
He created you and has offered purpose and meaning for you.
Vs. 13: The Conflicted Carpenter
Vs. 13: The Conflicted Carpenter
Another Vivid scene:
Measures, marks and makes!
Another Vivid scene:
Sketches out the structure
Sketches out the structure
Roughs it out
Details with chisel
Shapes it into a human!
Human form with all its glory (like ‘David’)
hands twice as large as regular human
Creates a human structure (see )
: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Statue of David
The temptation to be like God remains stuck within the psyche of humanity, because without God’s intervention, that temptation leads us to shift the temptation from ‘You will be LIKE God’ to I will BE God.’
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
That process is foolish, and Isaiah describes how this is foolish.
Pastor who preached, “There is a God, and I am not him.”
And if we’re not God then we can’t tap into the divine without his intervention. We need HIM to create us, and not he other way around!
Story of Death of a Guru by Rabi Maharaj
Father took on an oath of silence and never spoke a word to Rabi.
8 year vow and died in that trance. Became famous and mantal fell upon Rabi as the son of a god.
“How I loved religious ceremonies —especially private ones in our own home or those of others, where friends and relatives would crowd in. There I would be the center of attention, admired by all. I loved to move through the audience, sprinkling holy water on worshipers or marking foreheads with the sacred white sandalwood paste. I also loved how the worshipers, after the ceremony, bowed low before me to leave their offerings at my feet.”
“You are like a god, you are like a god. You are a god. You are a god. You are god.”
Confusing the creator with creation is how we can often reconcile the desire to be like god… We may not look in the mirror and say, “I am god,” but it’s not hard to imagine how we design our lives around our own desires. And when we do that, again, it’s a formless and depreciating exercise.
Age.
Death.
Verse. 15: BUT, where did he get it?
Cultivated then Cut
He planted it.
He’s using it for fuel
Kindles and Crowns
Kindles and Crowns
He sees the same wood right there burning!
Cuts and Acquires
A man
But then bows down in prayer and asks for saving.
Unreasonable to worship something you’ve helped create!
Don’t you see that this doesn’t make any sense!
Kindles and Crowns
This problem seemed more obvious when the religion has an idol, but it seems more complicated when the idols aren’t physical.
What are the things we cultivate, cut, kindle and crown?
Washington Post: “We surveyed hundreds of millions of tweets to see what people most craved this year.”
“I wish...”
“I want...”
Crowns
Vss. 18-20: Stop and Think
No one stops to think!
What are you putting before God?
No one stops to think!
“Such a person feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say...”
“Such a person feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say...”
“Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
:
NIV: In view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
SPIRITUAL= LOGICAL
Young’s: I call upon you, therefore, brethren, through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a sacrifice—living, sanctified, acceptable to God—your intelligent service.
King beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Contemporary English: Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God.
NET: --which is your reasonable service.
In view of God’s deliverance for us in Jesus...
In view of God’s mercy, not of the Exodus of the Old Testament, but the Exodus from sin and death, it just makes logical sense to live entirely for him! To not put anything in his face any longer.
All of body experience! It just makes logical sense! If God is god and I am not and nothing else is, then I need to stop putting things in front of God and I need to help others see how they are doing that.
End with Missional aspect of this Command:
End with Missional aspect of this Command:
How do you talk about the topic of right religions without coming across as offensive?
How do you talk about the topic of right religions without coming across as offensive?
How do you talk about the topic of right religions without coming across as offensive?
Like, we want to be respectful. We have a number of things we can agree on. Most religions believe is some sort of ethic like Golden Rule- do unto others as you would have been done to you.
We’re right and you’re wrong...
Before we spot the problem in others, make sure you deal with your own log in your own eyes. Work on your own right religion first! Deal with your own idols first!
Christianity: Scripture is exclusive about God being the only god the same way 1+1 has the exclusive answer to 2. We can say that 2 is being rude, and it doesn’t include 3 or 4 or 1 billion.
But that exclusivity doesn’t mean Christians oughts to be known as prideful, or an ‘I’m right you’re wrong’ mentality.