The Story Of God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction to the End of the Story
Introduction to the End of the Story
Movies, shows, books that begin at the end. 24 hrs earlier…6 months earler.
Today, our story begins at the end
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. 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.”
How did we get there?
The story begins at least 4100 years before.
Eden is where the story beings...where we come from.
We are created, made in the image of God;
God’s partners in the work of creation.
We are made to be God’s friends.
God is a God of hospitality, creating a place where all of life can flourish. God can be trusted.
We don’t live there now. It’s not like it was in the beginning. Life is hard; we are exiles in a foreign land. It’s important to tell and remember the story of why.
Two things in creation that weren’t good:
for the human to be alone
eating from that tree.
Created for community. This is central to our identity: to be human, to be made in God’s image means to not be alone.
Male and female together partners with God who said their relationship is good.
In the garden - you may eat...except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You will die.
If our freedom to enjoy God’s generosity is to be meaningful, we have to have the possibility of disobeying God.
The serpent taps into the deepest anxiety as humans: the fear that no matter how good it may be, it’s not enough.
Someone else has it better
That someone is better than me
Not only do I not have enough, I am not enough/less than
Catastrophe
Catastrophe
They exercised the freedom God gave them and disobeyed the one thing God said no to
called disobedience. Sin.
Grasp for power that was God’s alone.
Rejected their identity (God image) and vocation (caring for the continuing work of creation).
Now: threatened vulnerability; cover up, self-protect, loss of trust.
Self-protection...loss of trust
Went into hiding
Sin is social - always impacts the entire universe.
Community with God and each other is shattered.
Became only concerned for themselves, not the rest of creation.
God pursued when they hid in gracious invitation to once more be vulnerable - to speak the truth about their sin - an invitation to be found.
Played the blame game.
Sent away.
Life in exile away from the goodness of the garden.
Life filled with conflict, pain, fear, distorted desire.
It is life - not as God intended but it is life and not death. God insists on life for us.
God extends grace, covering their shame with animal skins and for the first time blood is shed to cover human sin.
In saying yes to the serpent’s temptation, they said no to what they were created to be.
Instead of saying it is good, God saw that was now terrible.
So God undid the work of creation - Noah and immediately began the process of re-creation: I will never again curse the ground or destroy every living thing for the evil intentions of the human heart.
The flood didn’t solve the problem of us so again, God began a new way to save us from ourselves and repair the cosmos that had been broken by our disobedience.
He blessed Noah and family repeating the command: be fruitful and multiply.
Noah’s descendants doubted the goodness of God and..
Instead of living in harmony with creation, creation now lived in fear of us as we extended the violence we did to each other to the rest of creation.
Out of their anxiety that they were less than, they stayed in one place trying to make a name for themselves rather than fill the earth as God said. God still scattered them.
A pivotal moment in the story of God:
The Lord came to the 75 yr old Abram in Haram: Go from everything you know, your sources of security: your country, relatives, your father’s house to a land I will show you. I will give you a new land, family, source of blessing. I will make you a great nation and you will be a blessing.
God has a mission.
God will not leave the creation alone to suffer the consequences of disobedience but calls Abram through whom the story of re-creation will continue.
THE THEME: WE ARE A SENT PEOPLE.
Tower builders try to achieve God’s promises on their own disobeying God’s call to go. God’s strategy to continue re-creation rested in the hands and feet of Abram.
He, his wife and nephew packed up and left for Canaan.
One problem: God promised a big family/nation. Sarah couldn’t have children.
Abram did what we’ve already seen: out of desire for self-preservation and willingness to harm others out of fear, he offered his beautiful wife whom an Egyptian would kill for by pretending she was his sister. Out of fear, he put her in harm’s way.
Then he and Sarai decided it was taking too long so Abram and their servant Hagar had Ishmael to help things along. Not God’s plan.
When we try to help God out, we make things worse.
God did what he had promised and Isaac was born to Abram and Sarah and soon after, called Abram to give up his future - sacrifice Isaac.
This time, Abram does not act out of fear but trusts the Lord to provide for the thing he is asked to do. Trust is the antidote to fear.
The story continues through Isaac and his son Jacob of God renewing his covenant with each of them giving the same promises with something new: God’s presence with them.
Things were going pretty well until the Pharaohs of Egypt where they were living during a famine saw them as a threat and made them slaves.
Enter Moses their deliverer.
It’s known as The Exodus. Began with what is now celebrated as the feast of the Passover. God defended his people against the Egyptians, punished them. The Pharoah relented and Moses led them out.
God heard their cries
Left a life of slavery, oppression journey into a new life of freedom; a home and land promised to them.
God kept his agreement with the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - including the promise of his presence.
This part of the story gets repeated in different ways and other times.
God not only wanted to get God’s people out of Egypt, God also wanted to get the Egypt out of them: it’s stories, rooted in fear, greed, power, idolatry and its ideology.
God’s intention remains the same: to liberate us from the things than keep us in bondage; to lead us out of what keeps us distant from God and each other, into our own exiles.
This part of the story doesn’t start well. The people forgot all God did for them complaining about their food. Still, God honored his covenant.
Enter the 10 commandments to shape human identity to reflect God’s character and make special provision for the most vulnerable of society.
It’s called the law and it is a covenant that creates the community of the people of God telling us how to live together.
Rather than keep people out, it creates a boundary for maintaining our identity as God’s people.
God’s law is grace to live life as God intended and to protect the vulnerable.
It is love and it forms God’s people as they live faithfully to it, calling others into the same relationship with the creator God fulfilling their mission to be a blessing to all people of the earth.
It’s a covenant they would break over and over again.
They came out of Egypt but hadn’t left Egypt behind.
It cost a generation their promised land.
Moses’ words to the new generation about to enter Canaan, their new home:
live like God intends.
Love God with all your heart, soul might. Teach this to your children.
Be strong and courageous as you enter the land.
God: Do what I’ve said
Don’t be afraid - I am with you wherever you go (Cf the temple)
If not, you will be weakened, you will be vulnerable to your enemies and be taken from the land.
God’s mission is to mend a broken universe and bless the world through his people as they lived their lives faithfully to the agreement in the land God promised. They are to be a witness to the nations around them who God is and welcome others into relationship with the Lord.
If they do not make the inhabitants of Canaan leave, Canaan soon gets into them.
It didn’t happen and Canaan got into them - their children did not know the Lord and broke covenant with God.
Israel forgot what God did for them, stopped telling the story, forgot their identity and abandoned God for the gods of the Canaanites.
This was evil.
And God would send a nation to overtake them, they would cry out to God, God would deliver them, they would abandon him again, a nation would overtake them and the cycle would begin again.
Give us a king - that will solve everything.
Samuel warned them it would be a mistake - God has been their king - but they wanted one anyway to be like the other nations.
Plan B: God let them have it and he would reign through the king.
Saul was the first. When faced with his big challenge, in fear, he became impatient, performed the offering that only a priest could make.
Lesson learned: to obey is better than sacrifice.
Next was David. Wanted to build a new temple for God to dwell among his people.
When did I ever say I wanted that? Temples stay put. I led through the wilderness by cloud and fire.
The tent (tabernacle) was portable.
What is lost when we can no longer pull up stakes and move where God leads us?
Do we shape a building only to discover it begins to shape us?
To David: You will not build a temple for me but I will build a dynasty for you that will last forever through your descendent.
Solomon - did what God did not want - rebuilt the temple as part of a building works centralizing his political and religious authority. Sacrifice was more important to him.
God’s warning: If you or your sons turn away from following me (obedience) I will remove Israel from this land, this house, and destroy the temple (sacrifice).
Solomon ignored the warning, abandoned the covenant losing sight of what God’s people are called to be.
God’s people split into 2 nations with kings who took the people deeper into the practices of the nations around them.
Israel’s King Josiah was the final hope. While restoring the temple, workers found the book of the law - lost for decades.
When he read it he was horrified at how far Israel had strayed.
Revival happened but it didn’t last past one generation. Prophet after prophet tried to woo God’s people back to him.
Jeremiah - the final prophet God sent. His message:
This is our great arrogance: we acted against every commandment then dared to seek God’s blessing in the temple. Yet he wouldn’t abandon us. God gave us the chance to return - to practice justice, to care for the vulnerable, to give up worship of anything but him.
We didn’t listen.
We seemed to think as long as we had God’s presence in the temple it didn’t matter how we lived.
And we paid a steep price.
God’s grace - He will be faithful to his covenant even when we are not.
Ezekiel - I will put my spirit within you (not the temple) and cause you to walk in my commandments and you will be faithful to keep the covenant. You’ll have the land back and be my people and I your God.
Isaiah - Israel would become a light to the nations so that God’s salvation would reach the ends of the earth.
The whole of creation would be healed, the creation would return from exile and the wilderness made into the garden again.
It would take another Moses, another Solomon, another son of David who wouldn’t break the law as Solomon did, who would not collect wealth for himself, who will not build up military strength, who will not oppress the poor.
A child called prince of peace, wonderful counselor, mighty god, eternal father, prince of peace who will establish God’s kingdom held up with justice and righteousness for ever.
John announced his arrival and anointed him King just as Samuel had anointed David.
When Jesus came out of the water, God showed his pleasure - a dove the bird the poor offered as their sacrifice. Jesus wasn’t only being anointed king, he was being set apart for sacrifice.
In his wilderness temptations we see echoes of Israels years of wandering in the wilderness.
Where Israel failed to be obedient, Jesus was faithful.
He declared and demonstrated the gospel of the kingdom of God, healed disease, delivered the demon possessed. He called 12 to be his students to follow and learn from him, teaching not just with words but with the things he did.
He was a friend of sinners.
Jesus acted out the judgment on the temple and those who put their trust in it, knowing he was walking the path that would lead to his death.
The old protected ways were no longer good enough. This new wine burst the wineskin of all the oppressive add ons to the law of love that was given to liberate people.
Jesus came to fulfill the law (love) and free it from its unloving add ons.
Jesus wasn’t the messiah people were expecting.
He took the sacred name of God - I Am. And the religious leaders weren’t pleased.
It wasn’t easy for the disciples either. Leaving home and family, accepting help from supporters - mostly women. It was humbling.
Not attractive for the rich and powerful.
He taught with authority to let the law of love shape their common life.
His message was a replay of the exodus: freedom from bondage - disease, marginalization, exclusion, sin to be restored to God and community.
To be what humanity was always intended to be.
To live life as God intends.
The pathway to this life of love is paved with suffering and death on a cross.
As his followers would come to realize, it’s a love that is worth not just dying for, but living for.
The religious leaders didn’t like the attention and welcome Jesus received. His popularity made them angry and they launched a plan to get rid of him and put their ordered world and power back to normal.
When they tried to trap him, he pointed out their hypocrisy.
Then he did it - upsetting the tables in the temple, Jesus introduced God’s coming judgment on its corrupt system.
The house of God of Israel who cares for the orphan, widow, stranger was contributing to the devastation of the lives God is most concerned about.
They admired it, dedicated themselves to it. The message is clear: the time is coming when it will all come down.
When? Not before his followers would be arrested, hauled into court and some even killed.
Jesus: Hang in there to the end - you won’t be sorry.
A new covenant is coming not made with the blood of animals like on Mt. Sinai after the first group of people were set free.
This one will free people from the grip and power of sin - all that is broken, evil and disobedient to God in the world - and death. It’s a new exodus offered for all of humanity and made not with weapons but with the blood of one - Jesus.
Betrayal started the process of 4 trials. To the religious court he again identified himself: I am who I am. God. Blasphemy.
Next up: Pilate who knew Rome has no interest in these accusations, was told Jesus was a threat to the Roman order. Not guilty.
Bowing to political pressure, he sent Jesus to Herod. Let him deal with this.
Back to Pilate but not before beating Jesus.
Pilate wanted to let this innocent man go. The religious leaders weren’t having it. So he let the crowd stirred into a frenzy by a successful misinformation campaign cooked up by the religious elite decide.
And they did. They chose for him to release a murderer in honor of the Sabbath and kill Jesus in his place.
Pilate asked the priests if he should crucify their king to which they replied, “We have no king but Caesar.”
And Jesus was crucified.
What about this kingdom Jesus taught and lived? Where did it go?
Jesus’ death on the cross drew together the heart cry of all humanity, of the experience of exile, of living outside of eden.
The kingdom he taught and lived would not bring political freedom or be established through violence. It would grow up in the midst of the other kingdoms of the world like a mustard seed grows into a tree.
And like a grain of wheat that falls into the soil and dies only to bear much fruit.
The mystery of the cross is that in dying, Jesus brings life.
He brings the new exodus - deliverance fro the power of sin and death and from the separation from God that all humanity has experienced since our exile from Eden.
We groan with creation from the pain of this separation and the injustice that exists in our world. We see in Jesus God’s response because Jesus has given God a face.
And when he died, the veil that hid the holy of holies - where the people believed God dwelled, was torn in two.
Jesus is the presence of God in the midst of God’s people; with those who were never allowed to enter the place of worship - the sick, deformed, foreigner. With him, they have a path to come home to the Father and join him in growing his kingdom.
This is the kingdom and its power is love.
It’s not the end of the story.
He became alive again. Resurrection.
The first act of a new creation that will be forever.
Death is no more.
The Kingdom has come. God’s will on earth is for all creation to be made whole again.
It has begun on earth as it is in heaven.
This is the good news talked about ever since.
The church - the body of Christ has replaced the temple and God’s spirit is his presence among us.
When the spirit was given, we were given a language that all would hear this story as it is taken to the ends of the earth by those who trust and follow him.
The first believers told the story wherever they went attempting to live life the way God intended and gave in the law - as what we now call church. People who shouldn’t be friends. Who live the kingdom way.
They chose to live this way because they knew that the reward of eternity called them to faithful living today.
It’s not always been pretty, successful, or without suffering or even death but it’s not supposed to be.
Yet, this is the taste of God’s kingdom gave rise to the anticipation of the promise of the rest of the kingdom to come where all of creation will be made new - restored to its original state never again cursed and humanity returned for exile.
It’s described like this:
The Last Chapter
The Last Chapter
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. 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.”
I See
I See
Heaven Come to Earth
Heaven Come to Earth
A wedding - imagery of God restoring his complete rule and reign.
Nothing exists that can resist or oppose God’s loving rule
I Hear
I Hear
Voice - his presence.
God Lives With Us
God Lives With Us
The end of separation between earth and heaven - all evil has been destroyed.
Peoples will see his face
Overflow of grace that includes people from every nation and language in a new community.
The Original Will Be Gone
The Original Will Be Gone
Finally, all the old has gone
Death
Sadness
Tears
Pain
and all the new has come!
This is the story of God that claims our lives.
A story of life in the new creation and the one who persisted in bringing it despite our best efforts to reject it.
The story of partnering now with God to heal and restore shalom to all that is broken in God’s world as we patiently wait for heaven to fully come to earth.
What story will we choose to live by?