Living the Dream
10/08/2006 - Upside Down Living
This has been a tragic week for the Amish community and for all of us who have shared their grief. I was in my car on Monday morning when I first heard the news that hostages were being held in a one room school house in Lancaster County. As the day unfolded our worst fears came true. Ten young girls had been shot, five were dead, along with the killer who then shot himself. And all week long our hearts have gone out to those involved in this horrific tragedy.
This has also been a tough week for the Republican Party in the wake of a sex scandal that caused a congressman from Florida to resign when it was discovered that he had been sending sexually explicit emails to underage male pages. And the news got even worse when it was reported that the Speaker of the House knew about reports of "inappropriate behavior" but did nothing about them.
The immediate response of some Democrats was to use this news for their own political gain. Just like Republicans have done to them in the past. That's nothing new. But as one columnist wrote, "The roots of this crisis go far deeper than partisanship. We know that sin is not the exclusive possession of any political party. The darkness that stalks us is neither Republican nor Democrat. It is part of the human condition."
And once again we are reminded that we live in a damaged, sin cursed world where it seems like no one is safe anywhere, not even in a quiet place called Paradise, Pennsylvania. We live in a world that is so out of whack that it seems like no one can be trusted anywhere, not even elected officials in the halls of Congress who crusade against sexual predators.
Jesus lived in a whacked out world too. Darkness and evil and scandal are nothing new. And just like today it was difficult then to know whom to trust.
When Jesus walked the crowded streets of Jerusalem he was one of no less than sixty Jewish men who claimed to be the Messiah of Israel. The Jewish people had been under foreign occupation for centuries. They had lost their land first to the Assyrians then to the Babylonians then to the Persians then to the Greeks and now to the Romans. They just wanted to be free. And so Messiah complexes were everywhere. And all of them seemed to have a platform to create a better Israel for the first half of the first century.
"Vote for me, I'll set you free!" was their slogan. Free from oppression. Free from abuse. Free from Rome. And with the cacophony of so many voices it was no wonder that people felt confused, cynical, and apathetic. Just like many of us do today.
The competing political parties of Jesus' day just added to the confusion. You had the Zealots who thought the answer was some form of terrorism. They wanted to establish a kingdom by force. "If we had the faith of David," they said, "we could slit a few throats and defeat the Goliath of Rome and be free right now."
You had the Sadducees and the Herodians, who supported the puppet King Herod, and thought that plan was suicide. So their platform was, "Let's just play the game, make the best of the situation, and cooperate with Rome. That's the only safe and sensible way to live."
Then you had the Essenes, a group not unlike the Amish that checked out of society and retreated into the desert. They said, "The only way to please God is to leave the corruption of this world and create our own insulated world." And so they did by living in communes in a place called Qumran.
And then there were the Pharisees. They believed that Messiah would come only after Israel cleaned up its act. So they said, "If there were just more righteous people like us and less sinners like everybody else then God would send Messiah and put an end to Roman rule and bring in his kingdom. Everybody just needs to be good like us."
And of course there was partisanship back then and these groups fought and argued and had competing views on things and left the people scratching their heads wondering, "Who's right? Who can we trust? Who's going to set us free? Will the real Messiah please stand up?"
And against that political backdrop enters a weirdo who wears camel hair and eats fresh locusts and sleeps in the woods and in the desert and anywhere else he can find a rock for a pillow. His name is John the Baptist, the front man for Jesus and he kicks off his campaign by announcing, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Whoa! That's quite a provocative ad campaign for the coming Messiah. And so Jesus arrives. He's baptized by John and when he comes up out of the water the heavens open and the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove and a voice says, "This is my Son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased."
Now that would make voting a whole lot easier, wouldn't it? Just look for the candidate with the dove and listen for the voice from heaven that says, "This is the one I support."
So Jesus begins to proclaim the same message of John, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." That's his platform. Change your way of thinking and get ready for the kingdom because it's coming.
Now let's look at what Jesus does to confirm that. Turn to Matthew 4:23-25 , Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. 25Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Teaching and preaching these people had heard before. But healing? Miracles? Not even John the Baptist could pull that off! Imagine a political candidate today who had the power to crack the code for cancer, or heal an AIDS patient with the touch of a hand, or feed every homeless man, woman, and child on the streets of Philadelphia from a single bag of groceries. That would get your attention. That might even get your vote.
That's what separated Jesus from the herd. He was not only proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand, he was bringing it here and the people loved it. And so large crowds surrounded his motorcade everywhere he went. And in Matthew 5:1 we read, Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them.
This morning we begin a brand new series called Living the Dream: The Sermon on the Mount. It's a series that I believe forms an ideal sequel to our last series called The Dream of God: Bringing Heaven to Earth.
The Dream of God we said was a global series that took us all the way through the Bible from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 1 to the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation 22. The Dream of God helped us to understand that God's dream is to one day bring heaven to this earth so that he can dwell among his people. That day is coming. And every week brings us that much closer. That's God's dream and that's our dream as well. No more scandals. No more shootings. No more hell on earth, just heaven.
But until God's physical kingdom comes down to this physical earth God's presence exists right here and right now among his people. We are the temple of God. We are the body of Christ. We are the dwelling place of God in this world. Right here. Right now.
So what does that look like in our lives? What does it mean to live out the dream of God? That's what this series is about. And I believe that's what Jesus was talking about that day long ago when he climbed the hill and sat down to teach his followers.
Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5, 6 & 7 is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. It's the most concentrated example of the teaching of Jesus anywhere in Scripture. Some have called it Jesus' kingdom manifesto. Many scholars believe that it contains the teachings that Jesus gave his followers over and over again. A similar version is found in Luke 6.
The sermon doesn't explicitly answer the question, "How do I get to heaven when I die?" Instead, it explores other questions like, "What kind of life does God want me to live right here and right now? What does a truly good or righteous life look like?"
You see on the hill that day was a bunch of people who couldn't help but wonder, "If Jesus really is the Messiah then what does it take to get into his kingdom? How good do you have to be? How high is the bar? How many hoops do we have to jump through?"
On the hill were people who didn't feel like they could ever be part of the kingdom of God. They just didn't measure up to the standards of the day. The only bar they knew was the bar set by the Pharisees. And they had it so high that it was out of sight.
The Pharisees defined a good, righteous life strictly by outward behavior. They had bottom lined the Law of Moses into 613 rules, 248 do's and 365 don'ts. "You want to know what it takes to please God?" they said. "Here's the list. Get busy!"
So the people who were coming to Jesus that day wanted to hear about his kingdom, but they didn't have much hope that they could get in. After all, if they couldn't meet the standards of the Pharisee's, how are they going to measure up to the standards of the Messiah?
So Jesus pulls up a rock and sits down as teachers did back then and the people stood on tiptoe eager to hear what he's going to say. A hush falls over the crowd. And the first word they hear is, "Blessed. Happy. Fortunate. Divine favor has fallen on you today."
Look at Matthew 5:3 , "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus opens his mouth and begins his sermon with the "Beatitudes," eight blessings that tell us the kind of people God favors. And what gets our attention right away is that he turns our expectations upside down. Instead of saying, "Blessed are the rich, the happy, the bold, the satisfied, the winners, the clever, the victors, the safe and well-respected," he says just the opposite.
I love how Eugene Peterson renders this passage in his translation called The Message. Listen to this, "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought. "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat. "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care- full,' you find yourselves cared for. "You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family. "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. "Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
And the people in the crowd that day and the people in the crowd this day went, "What? That's backwards. That's not what the world tells us?" And Jesus says, "You're right. My kingdom doesn't operate like the world. It's different. It's radical. It's counterintuitive and will turn your categories upside down."
This week I read about a movie that was made a number of years ago. It was about the first test pilots to break the sound barrier. Up until 1947 no plane had ever flown faster than the speed of sound. In fact, many people didn't think it was even possible. Some thought that planes would disintegrate under the force of such speed. And so in this movie that's what happened to planes that went over 750 miles an hour, they blew up and crashed.
Until finally at the end of the movie one test pilot figured out what to do. It seemed that when the plane broke the speed of sound the controls began to work backwards. And so when the pilot pulled the stick back to bring the nose of the plane up it actually pushed the nose down. And so when this test pilot got his plane up to 750 miles an hour instead of pulling the stick back he pushed it forward and the plane stayed together and broke the sound barrier.
Now Chuck Yeager was actually the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound and insisted that wasn't' the case. But nevertheless the movie illustrates what Jesus is doing in this sermon. He is taking the controls and making them work backwards.
On the hill that day Jesus is beginning to teach us a new way to live. He's taking God's people through the sound barrier to a place they had never been before. And just like a plane breaking the speed of sound it will cause quite a sonic boom. In our world, most people think that good news consists of success, wealth, long life, and victory in battle. But Jesus is offering good news for the humble, the poor, the sad, the peacemakers.
God is acting in and through Jesus to turn the world upside down, to pour out lavish blessings on all those who turn to him and accept this new thing that he's doing. Entrance into his kingdom is not about keeping lists and jumping through hoops and measuring up to the bar set by the Pharisees or some church or anybody else.
Entrance into God's kingdom is about repenting which means rethinking our view of God and our view of ourselves and our view of a lot of other things. It's about believing that Jesus is who he claimed to be and did what he claimed to do. And it's about receiving his Holy Spirit who produces these things in our lives that bring God's blessing.
So when do these promises come true? When do we receive all these blessings from God? When will we be comforted? When will we inherit the earth? When will we be shown mercy? When will we see God? Both now and not yet. God's dream is to bring heaven to this earth in all its fullness. But until that day comes followers of Jesus are to live out kingdom values in the power of the Holy Spirit right here and right now. Humility, meekness, mercy, purity, peacemaking are to be the MO of kingdom citizens, the MO of Valley View Community Church. We are to live in the present in the way that makes sense with God's promised future, because God's future has arrived in the presence of the king.
And when we live like this it gets people's attention. As the story of the shooting in Lancaster unfolded this week we were all amazed to see how quickly that community rallied around each other and around the family of the killer. Not long after the shootings an Amish man went to the home of the gunman's father, held him in his arms as he wept and said, "We will forgive you." The wife of the murderer was one of the few non-Amish people to be invited to the first funeral and she came so that healing could begin right away.
Later on in his sermon on the hill Jesus will say, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." I heard Christ mentioned more on television and on the radio this week than I think I ever have before.
One Amish woman said, "We can tell people about Christ and actually show you in our walk that we forgive, not just say it, but in our walk of life." That's upside down living. That's backwards. That's what it means to bring heaven to this earth in the midst of the hell that happened this week.