Shelter in the Storm Part 2

A Shelter in the StormReexamining the Mission of the Church Comfortably Numb The Victory of the Cross And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Col.2:13-15 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Eph.3:10 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. (Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Mt.25:34) For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Col. 1:12-17 We must embrace the gospel; not of evacuation, but restoration Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven In the new city (city of God)every type of diminished and dehumanized behavior has been excluded and healing is available to the nations But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Rev.21:27 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Rev.22:5 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Rev.22:2 How do we live between the past victory of the cross and the return of the King-- the future full realization of the new heaven and earth? Three times Isaiah uses the “shelter from the storm” metaphor as He prophesies the coming of the Messianic age. Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain. Isa. 4:5-6 You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. Isa.25:4 See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, Isa. 32:1-2 Jesus had borrowed this metaphor from Isaiah and understood that he and his followers were ushering in the long awaited kingdom of God and they were building what Isaiah described as a shelter from the storm. A shelter in the storm is a beautiful metaphor of what the church is to be between the launch and realization of the kingdom of God. In the conclusion of his sermon on the mount, Jesus teaches us that if we will live his teaching, we will build a house upon the rock-solid foundation that will stand when the rains fall, the winds blow, and the floods rise. If the church is to be a shelter in the storm, we need to be living the Beatitudes to be a blessing to a world desperately needing shelter Jesus also said the house not built on obedience to His words would fall….a prophecy with historic fulfillment. Jesus was pronouncing judgment on a corrupt temple, which, though it clung to a form of godliness, had departed from the ethics of mercy and justice-ethics which belonged inherently to the kingdom of God and were intended to define covenantal identity. Jesus has repeatedly warned that if Israel continued in their violent ways of envisioning the kingdom of God in nationalistic terms and coming through violent revolution, the results would be catastrophic. Luke 19:41-44;21:20-24; 23:27-31 An eightfold declaration of the nature of the kingdom of God and who it is who will be most blessed with its arrival. The Blessings… For the poor in spirit For those who mourn On those who are meek For the ones who hunger for justice On those who extend mercy to others The ones having pure hearts Those who seek to make peace On those, who because of their alignment with the kingdom of God, are persecuted The Beatitudes are subversive to the established order—they are the subversive values of the kingdom of God. The inauguration of the kingdom of God brings a radical change to the accepted order of how the world has always been run. The beatitudes announce that change. “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” Mt.20:16 “If we are not shocked by the Beatitudes, it’s only because we have tamed them with a patronizing sentimentality– and being sentimental about Jesus is the religious way of ignoring Jesus.” Brian Zahnd Jesus sermon on the mount is not instructions on how to be religious or how to be Jewish or Christian; they are instructions on how to be human. Jesus is revealing to the human race the narrow way that leads to life (as a human made in the image of God), not heaven “Salvation—an entirely new way of being human.” Maximus the Confessor # 1 Blessed are the impoverished In Jesus' time “blessed” was a common way of describing someone who is wealthy. So it is today. “Standing around Jesus as he speaks are people with no spiritual qualifications or abilities at all. You would never call on them when “spiritual work” is to be done.” Dallas Willard Blessed are those who don’t have it together….the majority of the “have nots.” Jesus meets us at our point of poverty, not our place of strength. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” II Cor.12:9 The truth is , those who “got it together” will find it difficult to enter the kingdom. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. Luke 1:53 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” Mk.10:23 The Beatitudes are the announcement of who will be most blessed by its arrival. It was not the poor and marginalized that had Jesus crucified, but Caiaphas, Pilot, and Herod (those who had the most to lose with the coming of the kingdom of God.) # 2 Blessed are those who mourn and grieve for they shall create space to encounter comfort from another. “Sorrow is a necessary consequence of loving others and being fully engaged with humanity. If our plan is to go through life minimizing pain and avoiding as much sorrow as possible, we will do so as shallow people, and Jesus has nothing to announce to us in the second beatitude-he simply leaves us in our prosaic self contentment.” Brian Zahnd “American Christianity is almost addicted to happiness and as a result has introduced many pathologies (abnormalities) into our spiritualities.” Dr. Richard Beck “It is through the work of grief that we carve into our souls and create space to be filled with comfort from one another…. In refusing to attend to the work of grief, our soul becomes a vast, bleak, featureless wasteland—a kind of barren salt flat where nothing grows. In such a state the soul can never know true comfort and joy, it can only be anesthetized with entertainment. It is in the work of grief that space and depth are created—space and depth that can be filled with something other than an entertainment-induced coma of self-contentment…. “After all, our nation was founded partly on the idea that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right. How can we mourn? Why should we? No doubt we have taken the right to pursue happiness quite seriously; some would say we are running ourselves to exhaustion in the pursuit of it! So when it comes to sorrow and grief, America has long cultivated a culture of denial.” Brian Zahnd Comfortably Numb Pink Floyd Hello? Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me Is there anyone at home? Come on now I hear you're feeling down Well I can ease your pain Get you on your feet again Relax I'll need some information first Just the basic facts Can you show me where it hurts? There is no pain you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horizon You are only coming through in waves Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying When I was a child I had a fever My hands felt just like two balloons Now I've got that feeling once again I can't explain you would not understand This is not how I am I have become comfortably numb Okay Just a little pinprick There'll be no more, ah But you may feel a little sick Can you stand up? I do believe it's working, good… Those who have become comfortably numb through shallow contentment have been unable to see there is so much to see in this world to grieve over He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isa.53:3 “The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but…in the development of the soul. From that point of view our torturers have been punished most horribly of all: they are turning into swine, they are departing downward from humanity.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Gulag Archipelago Part IV, The Soul and Barbed Wire “The question is, can we create churches that understand mourning is not a sign of weakness, but a spiritual work to be attended to—a spiritual work that Jesus says leads to the blessedness of comfort from outside ourselves.” Brian Zahnd How? Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. II Cor.1:3-5 mourn with those who mourn. Rom.12:15 “ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Blessed are the quiet and content, the humble and unassuming, the gentle and trusting who are not grasping and clutching, for God will personally guarantee their share when heaven and earth become one. The world’s view: “Blessed are the meek, for even if he comes in last, he’ll be called a nice guy, receive a certificate of participation, and be named ‘Miss Congeniality.” Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Psalm 37:1-7 “Meek” (prays in Greek) used only three times in the gospels Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Mt.11:29 ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble (meek), and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ Mt.21:5 Contrast with Pilate Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. Zech.9:9-10 Imagine if you were Roman soldiers listening to Jesus Sermon on the Mount. What would they think of his “meek” message? What do you think of it? “The earth is seized by the aggressive and violent, but it is inherited by the meek and gentle. Inheritance is a family word, a relationship word, a grace word. Seizing is the way of Satan. Inheriting is the way of God.” Zahnd