How Does It Work?
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Reading
Series I, Cycle A
There is a very nice book for children that is titled, The Way Things Work. It uses cartoons and diagrams and simple explanations to help young children understand the operation of such things as a magnet, a light bulb, a water faucet, and even a car engine and a computer. These are things that children see working every day. They even have to work with some of them. It is important for them to understand how these things work so that they will understand how to work with them.1
We need to know how the Christian faith works, too. We know that the Christian faith can make a difference in our lives, but how does it do that? How does it work? At first the answer to that question seems obvious. If you just follow the rules and live according to the wisdom of the Christian faith, it will change your life. That seems obvious. But that is not the right answer. There is wisdom and there are rules in the Christian religion and they have important roles to play, but they are not what changes our lives, at least not alone. The thing that really makes the difference in a Christian's life is a relationship, an ongoing relationship with the living God.
In the Corinthian church in Paul's day, there were Jewish Christians who wanted to keep following the Jewish traditions and obeying the Jewish religious laws. And there were Greek Christians who valued the Greek philosophies that are still influential today. There were also some who believed that there was a kind of secret wisdom that some people had that made them superior to everyone else.
I suppose that in every age and in every culture there have been traditional wisdoms that people have valued. Until well into the twentieth century, the teachings of Confucius were cherished as the traditional wisdom of China. An educated man was one who had passed advanced examinations on the teachings of Confucius. Anyone who hoped to advance in any profession or in civil service had to pass those examinations, even if he was applying for a job as an engineer. They valued that traditional wisdom.
And new eras can produce their own wisdoms. During the '60s, people like Alan Watt and Carlos Castinada and Baba Ram Dos undertook to produce a wisdom for the counter--culture. It scared the bejeebers out of parents whose children were young people during that era. People seem to like to have some kind of "wisdom" to follow.
But Paul said that wasn't what was important. Now understand, Paul was not an advocate of "dumbing down." Some have said that there is a tendency in our culture today to muddle everything down to the very lowest possible level of intellectual and cultural activity so that no one will expect too much of us. That is not what Paul was suggesting. He was simply saying that learning the wisdom of a culture or of a religion is not what makes the difference in our lives - and a "wisdom" that makes some people feel superior to others is counter--productive.
Now, as a matter of fact, there is a kind of wisdom that is spoken of in the Bible. It is a major theme in some parts of the Old Testament like Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job. And it has a role to play in the New Testament faith, as Paul said. But it is different from the wisdom that is written in old books or taught by teachers of philosophy. It is the living wisdom that is at work in the mind of God, the wisdom according to which God created the heavens and the earth, the wisdom that God made known to us in Jesus Christ in whom "the Word became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14). We get in touch with that wisdom by learning to live in a relationship with God. Oh, yes, we have a book. And the book has laws and proverbs and lots of other things in it. The book is the collection of the witnesses of the faithful to what they had learned by experience in relationship with God. It is the purpose of the book to lead us into our own relationship with God.
Paul speaks of living according to the Spirit. He speaks of proclamation with demonstrations of the Spirit and of power and of being taught by the Spirit interpreting spiritual things to people who are spiritual. Paul means something very specific by that. He is not talking about just being religious in a general sort of way. He is talking about reaching out, through that spiritual capacity that is present in each of us to enable us to relate to that which is beyond us. That is what really makes the difference. That is how the Christian faith works. It works by enabling us to live life day by day in an active relationship with the living God. That relationship can reshape our lives.
How does that work? It does not work by giving us some special straight phone line to God so that we can get the right answers to all of our questions and then tell everyone we are infallible because we have been talking with God. It comes, rather, from living in humble openness to that reality who is great beyond our understanding and in willingness to obey when we think we understand the will of God for us.
That can be done through prayer and worship and the study of the Bible. These spiritual disciplines really come to life when you realize that you are having a conversation with someone who really is there.
It can also work itself out in our daily interactions with life. Once we have learned from the Bible what sorts of things God does, we can watch to see when any such things are happening in our lives. When we see those things being done again, we can know that it is God who is doing them and respond in a way that will allow God's saving work to be done in us and through us. The Old Testament writers believed that God worked through happenings in the history of the people of Israel, like the escape from Egypt and the invasion of the Babylonian armies. If God can work in events like that, he can work through things that happen in our everyday lives, too. If we learn to live through our daily interactions with life as interactions with the living God, then our lives will become spiritual adventures and our interactions with God can make a big difference in our lives. Let's talk a little bit now about just how that can work.
Living a spiritual life adds a new dimension to every experience of life. It is like being married. It is a realization that you are not alone. There is someone else who is there with you in life, caring about what you do and about what happens to you, wanting what is good for you. There is someone there whom you don't want to hurt or disappoint, someone whose expectations you want to live up to. There is someone there with whom you can talk, someone who will help. That realization alone can make a big difference in your life. If you are married, you know what a difference it can make for there to be someone there with you and for you. Knowing that God is there can make a similar difference.
Perhaps the biggest difference living in relationship with God can make is that you will know someone loves you. That makes a big difference.
A group of Christian men went into a prison to conduct a retreat for the inmates. It was part of a program called KAIROS. At the end of the retreat, one of the men told what it had meant to him. He said, in all of his life, he had never felt that anyone had loved him. His father left the family when he was only five years old and he felt that somehow he must have been to blame. He kept wanting and needing his mother's love - but he never got it. He said he thought there must be something he had to do to win love and he kept trying to do everything he knew to do to win love from someone, but he never felt love, not at any time in his life. Eventually he dropped into cynicism. He didn't believe in God and he didn't believe that anyone loved him. He didn't talk about what he had done that got him put him in prison, but it must have been related to that. After the men had spent three days with him, sharing their friendship and their faith, he said he finally knew that there is a God and that God loves him. He said that would make a big difference in his life.
Knowing we are loved makes a big difference in all of our lives. Life at its best, the fullness of life that God wants for us, is the life of love, and loving has to start with knowing that we are loved. Paul said that the experience of knowing that we are loved is a pivotal part of the life of the Spirit. In Romans (8:14--17) and in Galatians (4:6--7) he speaks of the Spirit of God witnessing with our spirits and enabling us to call God "Abba," Father, and knowing that we have been adopted as children of God. Once we know that God loves us, we can experience God's love coming through to us in all sorts of real--life experiences, from the love that is shared in our families to the gift of a new sunrise. And knowing that we are loved can make all of the difference in the world.
Eventually the Holy Spirit will lead us out, in the strength of our new enablement, into loving involvement with others and with the world as a whole. The Bible will help us see that God cares deeply about things like injustice and human suffering. When the nightly news - or an encounter with someone who is in need - brings us face to face with injustice and suffering, we will find ourselves caring about those things, too. We will find ourselves wanting to do something about them. We will find our little self--centered lives being turned inside out in commitment to the greater purpose of God for the whole creation. And that commitment will lead us into the experience of needing to grow in many ways we had never expected and being driven back to God to seek help for our becoming. That can make lots of differences in our lives.
Can you see now the shape of the unique wisdom that leads us into relationship with the living God? Lots of devout people want to take the Bible or some other written source book as the embodiment of wisdom and to let obedience to the Bible shape their lives. It is better to take the Bible as our guide on a journey in relationship with God. I cannot emphasize enough that this doesn't mean we can forget about the Bible or disregard anything it says. Paul had a problem with people thinking they could forget about the teachings of the Bible since they were living under grace. He kept saying, "No, no, no, we are talking about the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, not about forgetting them." The Bible introduces us to God and tells us about God so that we can recognize God at work in our lives. And the Bible teaches us how we ought to respond to God when we encounter God in our lives. And the Bible helps us to know when we have wandered off of the track following some whim of our own or some influence that comes from the wrong source. But the thing that reshapes our lives is not a set of written rules. It is a relationship with someone who is alive and at work in fresh, creative ways in our lives and in our world. That makes a great difference in the quality of our lives. Instead of just obeying rules received from the past, we move into the future, eager to discover where our relationship with God will lead us - and that may be a unique experience for each of us.
Duke Ellington was one of the greatest composers and conductors of jazz music in recent history. It is said of him that he would often seek out creative musicians who he thought had something fresh to offer and recruit them into his band - even though some of them would be a little hard to work with. Then he would compose music that would give them opportunities to make their unique contributions. Most composers wrote their music, then sought skilled musicians who could follow orders to play it. But Duke Ellington brought his creative musicians into the process of composition and together with them brought exciting new music into being.
The wisdom of God is like that. God, whom we know because of things that have happened in the past, is still at work creating a new future. And God is eager to involve us in that creative process if we will learn how to reach out spiritually and to be engaged by the Spirit of the living God. Getting involved in that process will make a big difference in our lives - and it will enable us to help God make a big difference in the world. That is how it works. That is how the Christian faith makes a difference.
There is an Alcoholics Anonymous group that has a very significant way of ending a meeting. They spend their meetings talking about the twelve--step program, which is really an application of the life--changing dynamics of the Christian faith to their particular problem. Speakers take turns telling how the program has worked for them to encourage others to give it a chance to work in their lives. Then they close their meeting by joining hands, praying the Lord's Prayer in unison, and then shouting all together, "Keep a--coming back. It works if you work it." We need to know that is true of the Christian faith as a whole. It works if you work it.
____________
1. David Macaulay, The Way Things Work (Boston: Houghton--Mifflin, 1988).
We need to know how the Christian faith works, too. We know that the Christian faith can make a difference in our lives, but how does it do that? How does it work? At first the answer to that question seems obvious. If you just follow the rules and live according to the wisdom of the Christian faith, it will change your life. That seems obvious. But that is not the right answer. There is wisdom and there are rules in the Christian religion and they have important roles to play, but they are not what changes our lives, at least not alone. The thing that really makes the difference in a Christian's life is a relationship, an ongoing relationship with the living God.
In the Corinthian church in Paul's day, there were Jewish Christians who wanted to keep following the Jewish traditions and obeying the Jewish religious laws. And there were Greek Christians who valued the Greek philosophies that are still influential today. There were also some who believed that there was a kind of secret wisdom that some people had that made them superior to everyone else.
I suppose that in every age and in every culture there have been traditional wisdoms that people have valued. Until well into the twentieth century, the teachings of Confucius were cherished as the traditional wisdom of China. An educated man was one who had passed advanced examinations on the teachings of Confucius. Anyone who hoped to advance in any profession or in civil service had to pass those examinations, even if he was applying for a job as an engineer. They valued that traditional wisdom.
And new eras can produce their own wisdoms. During the '60s, people like Alan Watt and Carlos Castinada and Baba Ram Dos undertook to produce a wisdom for the counter--culture. It scared the bejeebers out of parents whose children were young people during that era. People seem to like to have some kind of "wisdom" to follow.
But Paul said that wasn't what was important. Now understand, Paul was not an advocate of "dumbing down." Some have said that there is a tendency in our culture today to muddle everything down to the very lowest possible level of intellectual and cultural activity so that no one will expect too much of us. That is not what Paul was suggesting. He was simply saying that learning the wisdom of a culture or of a religion is not what makes the difference in our lives - and a "wisdom" that makes some people feel superior to others is counter--productive.
Now, as a matter of fact, there is a kind of wisdom that is spoken of in the Bible. It is a major theme in some parts of the Old Testament like Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job. And it has a role to play in the New Testament faith, as Paul said. But it is different from the wisdom that is written in old books or taught by teachers of philosophy. It is the living wisdom that is at work in the mind of God, the wisdom according to which God created the heavens and the earth, the wisdom that God made known to us in Jesus Christ in whom "the Word became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14). We get in touch with that wisdom by learning to live in a relationship with God. Oh, yes, we have a book. And the book has laws and proverbs and lots of other things in it. The book is the collection of the witnesses of the faithful to what they had learned by experience in relationship with God. It is the purpose of the book to lead us into our own relationship with God.
Paul speaks of living according to the Spirit. He speaks of proclamation with demonstrations of the Spirit and of power and of being taught by the Spirit interpreting spiritual things to people who are spiritual. Paul means something very specific by that. He is not talking about just being religious in a general sort of way. He is talking about reaching out, through that spiritual capacity that is present in each of us to enable us to relate to that which is beyond us. That is what really makes the difference. That is how the Christian faith works. It works by enabling us to live life day by day in an active relationship with the living God. That relationship can reshape our lives.
How does that work? It does not work by giving us some special straight phone line to God so that we can get the right answers to all of our questions and then tell everyone we are infallible because we have been talking with God. It comes, rather, from living in humble openness to that reality who is great beyond our understanding and in willingness to obey when we think we understand the will of God for us.
That can be done through prayer and worship and the study of the Bible. These spiritual disciplines really come to life when you realize that you are having a conversation with someone who really is there.
It can also work itself out in our daily interactions with life. Once we have learned from the Bible what sorts of things God does, we can watch to see when any such things are happening in our lives. When we see those things being done again, we can know that it is God who is doing them and respond in a way that will allow God's saving work to be done in us and through us. The Old Testament writers believed that God worked through happenings in the history of the people of Israel, like the escape from Egypt and the invasion of the Babylonian armies. If God can work in events like that, he can work through things that happen in our everyday lives, too. If we learn to live through our daily interactions with life as interactions with the living God, then our lives will become spiritual adventures and our interactions with God can make a big difference in our lives. Let's talk a little bit now about just how that can work.
Living a spiritual life adds a new dimension to every experience of life. It is like being married. It is a realization that you are not alone. There is someone else who is there with you in life, caring about what you do and about what happens to you, wanting what is good for you. There is someone there whom you don't want to hurt or disappoint, someone whose expectations you want to live up to. There is someone there with whom you can talk, someone who will help. That realization alone can make a big difference in your life. If you are married, you know what a difference it can make for there to be someone there with you and for you. Knowing that God is there can make a similar difference.
Perhaps the biggest difference living in relationship with God can make is that you will know someone loves you. That makes a big difference.
A group of Christian men went into a prison to conduct a retreat for the inmates. It was part of a program called KAIROS. At the end of the retreat, one of the men told what it had meant to him. He said, in all of his life, he had never felt that anyone had loved him. His father left the family when he was only five years old and he felt that somehow he must have been to blame. He kept wanting and needing his mother's love - but he never got it. He said he thought there must be something he had to do to win love and he kept trying to do everything he knew to do to win love from someone, but he never felt love, not at any time in his life. Eventually he dropped into cynicism. He didn't believe in God and he didn't believe that anyone loved him. He didn't talk about what he had done that got him put him in prison, but it must have been related to that. After the men had spent three days with him, sharing their friendship and their faith, he said he finally knew that there is a God and that God loves him. He said that would make a big difference in his life.
Knowing we are loved makes a big difference in all of our lives. Life at its best, the fullness of life that God wants for us, is the life of love, and loving has to start with knowing that we are loved. Paul said that the experience of knowing that we are loved is a pivotal part of the life of the Spirit. In Romans (8:14--17) and in Galatians (4:6--7) he speaks of the Spirit of God witnessing with our spirits and enabling us to call God "Abba," Father, and knowing that we have been adopted as children of God. Once we know that God loves us, we can experience God's love coming through to us in all sorts of real--life experiences, from the love that is shared in our families to the gift of a new sunrise. And knowing that we are loved can make all of the difference in the world.
Eventually the Holy Spirit will lead us out, in the strength of our new enablement, into loving involvement with others and with the world as a whole. The Bible will help us see that God cares deeply about things like injustice and human suffering. When the nightly news - or an encounter with someone who is in need - brings us face to face with injustice and suffering, we will find ourselves caring about those things, too. We will find ourselves wanting to do something about them. We will find our little self--centered lives being turned inside out in commitment to the greater purpose of God for the whole creation. And that commitment will lead us into the experience of needing to grow in many ways we had never expected and being driven back to God to seek help for our becoming. That can make lots of differences in our lives.
Can you see now the shape of the unique wisdom that leads us into relationship with the living God? Lots of devout people want to take the Bible or some other written source book as the embodiment of wisdom and to let obedience to the Bible shape their lives. It is better to take the Bible as our guide on a journey in relationship with God. I cannot emphasize enough that this doesn't mean we can forget about the Bible or disregard anything it says. Paul had a problem with people thinking they could forget about the teachings of the Bible since they were living under grace. He kept saying, "No, no, no, we are talking about the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, not about forgetting them." The Bible introduces us to God and tells us about God so that we can recognize God at work in our lives. And the Bible teaches us how we ought to respond to God when we encounter God in our lives. And the Bible helps us to know when we have wandered off of the track following some whim of our own or some influence that comes from the wrong source. But the thing that reshapes our lives is not a set of written rules. It is a relationship with someone who is alive and at work in fresh, creative ways in our lives and in our world. That makes a great difference in the quality of our lives. Instead of just obeying rules received from the past, we move into the future, eager to discover where our relationship with God will lead us - and that may be a unique experience for each of us.
Duke Ellington was one of the greatest composers and conductors of jazz music in recent history. It is said of him that he would often seek out creative musicians who he thought had something fresh to offer and recruit them into his band - even though some of them would be a little hard to work with. Then he would compose music that would give them opportunities to make their unique contributions. Most composers wrote their music, then sought skilled musicians who could follow orders to play it. But Duke Ellington brought his creative musicians into the process of composition and together with them brought exciting new music into being.
The wisdom of God is like that. God, whom we know because of things that have happened in the past, is still at work creating a new future. And God is eager to involve us in that creative process if we will learn how to reach out spiritually and to be engaged by the Spirit of the living God. Getting involved in that process will make a big difference in our lives - and it will enable us to help God make a big difference in the world. That is how it works. That is how the Christian faith makes a difference.
There is an Alcoholics Anonymous group that has a very significant way of ending a meeting. They spend their meetings talking about the twelve--step program, which is really an application of the life--changing dynamics of the Christian faith to their particular problem. Speakers take turns telling how the program has worked for them to encourage others to give it a chance to work in their lives. Then they close their meeting by joining hands, praying the Lord's Prayer in unison, and then shouting all together, "Keep a--coming back. It works if you work it." We need to know that is true of the Christian faith as a whole. It works if you work it.
____________
1. David Macaulay, The Way Things Work (Boston: Houghton--Mifflin, 1988).
