Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happinness
Notes
Transcript
Independence Day
Independence Day
Today is the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day. This is the day we celebrate America. Our forefathers stood up to what they saw as tyranny, unfairness, taxation without representation, government overreach, and they said “no more!”
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
… it goes on...
whenever any form of government becomes destructive to those ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.
Boom goes the cannon! Cue the fireworks!
The Hamilton movie is out on Disney+, I can’t wait to see it! The beginning of the glorious American experiment.
We are a people all about rights and privileges, and there is much about that that is noble and beautiful and good. Defending the rights and freedom of others: beautiful and noble and good.
Insisting on my own rights, my own freedom, even my own importance. That can be something very different. That is dangerous territory for us… we have a “Jesus problem.”
What did Jesus do with his rights and his privileges? Endowed by His Creator? He is the Creator? He humbled himself, becoming a servant.
Here we have pride in being an American. We can be proud of that. Of the ideals we aspire to, even if we don’t yet attain them. The freedom carved out, fought for.
Here we have the cross, in some ways the absolute antipathy of “standing up for one’s rights.” The cross is the willing sacrifice of all rights, all privilege, all freedom.
How do we navigate those two?
Okay. That’s uncomfortable. Feels un-American. Let’s turn to the Bible, that will make us feel better.
Paul’s Heading to Jerusalem
Paul’s Heading to Jerusalem
Paul fixes his eyes towards Jerusalem, “compelled by the Holy Spirit.” He doesn’t know the details, but… the Holy Spirit “testifies in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await.
It’s going to be bad. He’s going anyway. Because that is where the Holy Spirit is leading him.
Now Paul seems to have had a quick visit to Jerusalem, but remember the last time he went to Jerusalem for a while, it was for the Jerusalem Council. Some of the Jewish Christians were raising a big fuss, saying these Gentile converts to Christianity had to come through the proselyte process, be circumcised, follow all the laws of Moses: basically become Jews in order to qualify for Jesus.
Paul goes to bat for the Gentiles, if the Holy Spirit has already come upon them, you can’t say they aren’t worthy, you can’t say they aren’t saved, God has already declared them saved and worthy. Boom. Mic drop.
And the church leaders, the “Jerusalem Council” agreed. They asked, as an act of love towards Jewish brothers and sisters, that Gentile Christians at least abstain:
that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
These aren’t the three worst sins or categories of sin, this is a missional principle, aimed at not purposefully offending Jewish Christians.
But understand… this issue didn’t go away. The “Jerusalem Council” didn’t declare the controversy over and everyone went home and were friends… anymore than the Emancipation Proclamation happened and everyone went “we’re not racist anymore...” That’s now how any of this works.
This controversy continued, the division within the church kept cropping up. There were theological differences, doctrinal differences, cultural differences, matters of preference and practice.
Paul is not blind to this at all. He has faced that tension in his churches, he writes to that effect to church after church. Warning against the pieces of the “circumcision party” that want to make salvation conditional on works or law or Moses or anything else. But Paul’s mission field has been primarily Gentile for the last decade, the weight of his experience out in the field has been primarily Gentile...
Now he is coming back to Jerusalem, where the church is likely 99% Jewish. And he is coming back during Pentecost, when the people have gathered from all around to the temple for the Feast of Weeks. Shauvot.
Paul was hurrying to get there by this day, for this feast. Eager to see friends and family, perhaps. Church family, certainly. Maybe worried, heart breaking knowing something bad is to come, but absolutely determined to give it all.
When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.
Hugs and high-fives. Paul’s back in town.
On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
There’s James, the brother of Jesus. He’s become the leader of the church in Jerusalem since Peter left on the mission field, ultimately towards Rome. I do wish we had the story of Peter and his travels! There’s the other elders, some of the apostles likely among them. Lots of folks there who knew Jesus face-to-face...
and Paul shares what God has done, he testifies, especially focused on what God has done among the Gentiles. Recall that this has been and is a point of ongoing tension in the church.
And the church is excited and thrilled, but also worried about this tension in the church.
And when they heard it, they glorified God. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law,
and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.
What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.
Praise God! That’s the correct response.
Then this concern: some of our brothers and sisters in Christ, Jewish Christians, they have heard some things. Partial truth. Does Paul tell Gentiles to “forsake Moses”. No. Does he tell them “not to circumcise...” Maybe? But he certainly doesn’t tell them that they have to circumcise and walk according to Jewish customs.
Does he tell Jews who are among the Gentiles that??? Absolutely not, no hint of it. Neither in Acts so far nor in his letters, though he is clear about what is and is not “matters for salvation.”
The phrase “they have been told” or “informed” implies some false teaching here.
So they are wrong. Misinformed. And I want to correct that, especially if someone is wrong about what I think or what I say, or how I teach other people! My spirit rises up: I didn’t do that! I am innocent!
So they have this idea. A “well-meaning” proposal. A way that Paul can prove his orthodoxy as a Jew.
Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow;
take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.
Purify yourself… as if you had anything to repent of. Purification and separation to be “worthy” of going into the temple. “But, James, remember when your brother died for my sins?” Purify yourself.
and… pay the fee, the temple tax, for these others too. A pious act of charity. Shaving the hair a critical aspect of the ritual. Total cleansing.
It would not shock me at all to read next that Paul refused this unnecessary acts of ritual cleansing. “I am cleansed by the blood of Jesus alone!” He could shout. “I will not respond to these baseless and false accusations!” “Pious acts of charity??? I’ll give you pious acts of charity!”
And it’s risky. Paul is enemy number one, recognizable in a crowd. He has been driven out of every city around and now Jews from all those cities are in town.
He is #1 on the Most Wanted list and James and the church elders are asking him to go to the FBI company picnic!
Even though they know and they agree theologically with Paul. They reiterate the decision of the Jerusalem Council:
But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
What does Paul do? Does he stand his ground, defend his honor and his practice? We could understand that: a teaching opportunity, a doctrinal imperative. Maybe a less risky alternative? Wisdom in the face of unnecessary danger?
Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.
He does it. As ridiculous as it is. As unnecessary as it is. As risky as it is.
Is it risky? Ummm… yes. You know how you know for sure something is risky? When it goes horribly wrong. And that’s what happens:
Over the course of this seven day ritual cleansing, Paul is recognized in the temple, Jews from Asia where he has been ministering the last several years. They accuse him of profaning the law, the temple, bringing Greeks into the temple (which is not true, fake news!). But they stir up the mob, drag him out of the temple, start beating him with the aim of killing him. Paul’s life is only saved because the Roman tribune comes with soldiers and arrests him. The soldiers have to carry him away, the mob was so violent.
As an act of love, Paul takes a bath.
Paul does this. As unnecessary as it is, as risky as it is, though I imagine he would rather defend his honor, his ministry, his belief, his teaching, his self… he humbles himself. An act of love to his brothers and sisters in Christ who are wrong, misinformed, mistaken, doesn’t matter.
If this will help them, I’ll do it.
They were wrong about Paul. They needed to be corrected. Informed. Retaught.
James’ plan is all about humoring them. Assuaging them, helping them feel better. Go along to get along. And Paul is in!
We don’t have to imagine his thinking, his heart here. He writes to the Corinthians. He says “Am I not free?” Free in Christ, free to eat and drink, to marry, to work for a living, free to be paid for ministry.
In Christ he is free to do all of these. But Paul makes a choice here, to sacrifice his freedom, his rights, his privilege, his defense, in the hope that it might remove a stumbling block to the name of Christ.
He says it this way, first of his Christian brothers and sisters. If what he eats, for example...
Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
He continues to uphold both the radical freedom we have in Christ… and his eagerness to lay down that freedom, that privilege, those right as an act of love to his Christian brothers and sisters, as an opportunity to minister to those who don’t yet believe:
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
All things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
Where is that radical surrender? My rights, my privileges, my style, my culture, my doctrinal commitments.
Here’s a strategy: if we surround ourselves with people just like us then we don’t have to do that! We can dodge the struggle! We can avoid the tension… because navigating radical and important differences like these isn’t easy!
I love meat, I don’t want to not eat meat because it offends my brother. So I can surround myself with meat-eaters so it never comes up! Dang-it, I married a vegetarian. Whoops! But, no joke, I took her out to a steakhouse on our fifth date to make sure my meat eating wouldn’t offend her.
I was looking out for my future meat-eating options. My rights, my privilege. Not so great.
But instead, from the start, God calls his people to reach out and minister to all nations, all tongues, all tribes, he draws together these churches filled with diversity of background, of culture, of ways of thinking and acting… and he uses that to form the body of Christ: Diverse in fruits and gifting, united in One Christ, One Spirit, One Body under One God.
Now, this could sound absolutely awful. Do I have a moral imperative then to be so inoffensive that I never hurt anyone? No. Paul offends people all the time. Those Jews from Asia are offended by him… but that’s for the best reason: the name of Christ.
He’s very offensive to church members he writes to. He is called to teach and preach to those people, offending them is part of it. Offending you is part of what I’m called to do, by the way. I should offend your flesh, your sinful nature, your selfish heart and your weirdly shaped head. Okay, maybe not that last part.
I am sure Paul offends people unknowingly all the time. He ate meat, he even ate meat sacrificed to idols, it was when he knew he was with people who would be offended by this or that that he abstained. It wasn’t being so inoffensive that it was impossible to offend anyone, even that would be offensive to some. It’s impossible!
But as far as he could, as far as it was up to him, he was willing to sacrifice every perk, every right, every privilege, every freedom that by any means he might save some.
What Are Your Rights? Take a Bath.
What Are Your Rights? Take a Bath.
List all of your rights and privileges. All the things you deserve.
List all of your cultural preferences. All the things you like. You prefer.
List all your habits, your ways of acting and being.
Everything on that list goes under “optional”. Ready to be willingly sacrificed if, by all means, you might save some.
What stumbling blocks are there:
In my way of thinking, speaking, acting...
In my habits and preferences...
In my culture, in my assumptions,
What are the preferences I can surrender for the sake of the gospel?
What are the cultural habits and practices I can surrender for the sake of the gospel?
Here’s a tough one: What about doctrinal differences.
I can hold to, believe strongly, you better believe Paul isn’t changing his doctrinal position on the necessity of temple ritual cleansing, not a bit! Is it necessary? No! But he chooses that this is not the time or the place to teach and correct: not his church, not his students… this is a time to love and submit.
But is this a doctrinal issue? I think you can argue that it is. Paul is proving his Jewish orthodoxy by ritual cleansing. That’s doctrine.
What are the preferences, culture, habits, ways of speaking and being, that could offend the brother or sister I am called to love, or the human I am preaching gospel to.
If it doesn’t sound a lot like “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”… you might be looking at a bath.
Here’s a hint: if it doesn’t start and end with “Jesus”, you better be prepared to take a bath.
We have a whole lot of these in our church. Not to say that the way we worship, fellowship, edify one another is wrong… But all of it is optional.
The sacred-ness is not in the way we “do church”.
The sacred-ness is in Jesus… and that he has made us the church. The “who” is sacred, not the “how”.
Is there something I do that would turn people away from Jesus and his gospel? Stop it!
Is there something I could do that would speak love to my fellow Christians, or be inviting to those who don’t know Jesus? Do it!
How can I lay down my rights, my privilege, my preference, take up my cross and follow Jesus. How can I become all things to all men so that by all means I might save some?
Let’s be that radical for Jesus, church. Let’s be that sacrificial. Let’s take a bath.