Right Relationship With God and With Others

The following text is the raw, unedited transcript from a sermon given on March 3rd, 2024 at Christ Our Home in Olympia, WA. You can also listen to the audio. Better yet, subscribe to the podcast! 😄

We are in this season of Lent, which I had the privilege of speaking on Ash Wednesday down at Iona. I compared it to '80s movie montages, where Rocky's getting ready for the big fight. It's this season of preparation. There's something coming. So when you're getting ready for something, there's this season of denial, of self-discipline, of examination, of building up that which is strong and getting rid of that which is weak. And that's, for my twisted brain, the picture that makes sense to me. It's Luke Skywalker with a training to be a Jedi. It's that process. And a part of that for us as followers of Jesus has to do with dealing with the law. And if you've heard We talked about this before. I don't like the word law. It's an inappropriate word, but it's colored in an unfortunate way. Another way to talk about God's law would be the path. More specifically, you could imagine it as guardrails along the path. It's these boundaries that keep us on the path instead of falling off the path and off the cliff or into the water or whatever the danger might be, but they keep us in line.

They're for our benefit. They're for our good. I don't know about anybody else, but somehow, growing up church-wise and just listening to pastors over the years, it seems like we've subconsciously been given this idea that the law is bad. Stay away from the law. You can't fulfill it, so don't even try. The law just points out, just walk in God's grace and his goodness. There's this unfair coloring of what the law is. In all of our readings today, and even in the collect, which is beautiful, the law is a good thing. The law, really, on the one hand, the law condemns us justly. At the same time, the law provides for our consecration. How's that for alliteration? Condemnation and consecration. It provides for both. The law, Jesus didn't come to do, he says, to do away with the law. He came to fulfill, to complete the law. Jesus on the cross is the embodiment of God's ritual sacrifice, of all the stuff we see in Leviticus and those fun Old Testament books. He did that to fulfill those things. So how can they be bad? How can they be wrong? But the reason we have all of that is because of sin.

So let's take a minute and talk about sin, since we're in this season of reflection and preparing for Easter and the resurrection. What does sin do? Sin diminishes who and what we are. When you look at Adam and Eve in the garden, they were created and they had a particular state or status. And when they sinned, it reduced what they sinned, it reduced what they were from being fully formed images of God to something that now needed to be covered, could not be seen for what they used to be, but now have to be covered and now have to go and provide for themselves while still relying on God. And they now had to, by the sweat of your brow, you'll work the land and make bread. So sin diminishes what we are. Sin also changes us into something we should not be. Both in our nature, but have you ever done something that was sin? I'm not talking about murder. Maybe you have, I don't know, and you're out on good behavior, whatever. But done something, told a lie, taken something that didn't belong to you, whatever that is, and been immediately convicted like, That's not what I am.

I don't like this thing that I've become. It changes what we are. And ultimately, it breaks relationship. It breaks relationship with God, first and foremost. That's what sin did in the garden, is it separated humankind and God. So it breaks that relationship. Sin also breaks relationship with others, with us. It breaks relationships vertically. It breaks relationships horizontally between one another. If I lie about something to your face, that then separates us to some degree. So sin separates. And as I was chewing on it while I couldn't sleep last night, you could argue that it breaks our relationship with ourselves. We suddenly, we can have this view of ourselves where we don't even want to be around us, where you might want to call it low self-esteem, whatever you want to call it. It breaks our own internal monolog about who we are as God's creation, about who we are as, Man, I'm just a jerk of a spouse, or I'm a jerk of a son, or I'm a parent. It breaks that internal stuff of who we are, that relationship that's in ourselves. When you talk about the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy spirit, he's one, but he's also three in relationship.

And we, as his image bears, have a similar pattern in us, that we have a relationship in ourselves. It's that voice, those voices who condemn us or maybe make us more proud than we ought to be, and those are the flesh and all that. Sin does a lot of bad stuff. Sin diminishes who we are. I hear you laughing. It changes us into something we're not, and it breaks relationship with God, others, and ourselves. That's what we're dealing with. That's what we take this time of lent to particularly focus on, these weaknesses. Not only these weaknesses, but the consequences of these weaknesses, what it's done to our relationship with God, what it's done to our relationship with others. We could go around the room and probably share about past broken relationships or maybe even present broken relationships with people who we maybe should be really close to, but we're not. To put it simply, that's what sin does. It's much more street level than we tend to think it's this church concept. It's all of the above is really what it is. The law, God gave us his law, his boundaries for this path, to prevent us from doing those things and to remedy in case we do.

To prevent us, to hopefully stop us from doing those things, but to also, when we do them, to fix those things. Ultimately, those are all fixed in Jesus. But you know what sin does? Sin does this. If I tell you not to think of the color blue, what do you instantly do? I'm going to... Blue. Or if I tell you to do something, maybe it's, I'm not going to do that. Sin has this instant, I'm in charge. I will decide. You don't get to tell me. That's literally what sin does. Sin is I decide. The law gives us these boundaries to prevent and to fix those things when they happen. Like I just said, Jesus undoes it all. Jesus When you are in him and he is in you, sin diminishes us, Jesus elevates us. Jesus lifts us up. Come unto me all who labor, and I will give you rest. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Sin diminishes, Jesus raises us up. Jesus restores us. He restores our relationship with the Father. He can restore our relationships in our own heads and hearts. He restores our relationships.

He at least provides a way for us to be like, You know what? I messed that up, and I'm going to try to restore my relationship with that person. It might not be mutual, but when you go from a time of, I hate that person. They did me serious wrong, and I am never going to forgive them, and I hope they stubborn their toe or something worse. Jesus, hopefully, after a time of work, changes that in us. He wants us to restore. He puts in us the ability to want, even, to restore those relationships. And then hopefully, they get fixed. So lent is this season to reflect, maybe even discover or have brought to our attention something new to us that, Oh, I didn't even... Man, I didn't even think about that or consider that or who knows. But it's time to ponder those things. And another fun alliteration, I'll take credit for this one. To walk those things through the cross and through the cave. Cross of the cave. Death and resurrection. That's what it means to be through Christ, that stuff in us, in ourselves, to die with him on the cross and to be raised up with him on the cross.

From the grave, from the cave. I don't know how it works. I just know that it does. That's part of the mystery of following Jesus. We get this impression that the law is bad, but really, the law is very, very good.

I want to highlight some of the bits from the reading today.

I really liked the little couplets at the beginning of Psalm 19. I don't know. They popped out today, recently this week while I was preparing. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. For something to be perfect, it means it's not lacking anything, nor is there anything extra. It is what it needs to be, and God's law is perfect, and when we consume it, it revives our soul. It gives us what we're missing and maybe even takes away what should not be there in its perfection. The testimony of the Lord is sure, it's strong, it's firm, making wise the simple. So somebody who might ordinarily be perceived received as not altogether or all there or who knows? Suddenly, when they have God's word in them and the law, they become wise. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Do you see the cause and effect as his word is taken in and consumed? I mean, it's compared to honey. I think we did this at the church we pastored. We came to a passage like this, and I had bought a bunch of those little honey sticks from the store, and we handed them out.

And as we got to this passage, I was like, Okay, crack it open and taste the honey. What do you experience? That's what God's word is supposed to do in us. I think we even bought like, Honey Scratch and Snip stickers so you could put them in your Bible when you didn't have an actual honey to consume. But it's to go in and to do something, not just to agree with and understand and hold an esteem. It's something where we participate in and something that transforms us from the inside out. Man, I'm not going to, but I could spend all day talking about the Romans reading. Paul pretty much just pours his heart out. Like, the stuff I don't want to do, that's what I do, and the stuff that I do, I don't want to do. Sucks to be me, or biblically speaking, or wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death. And this is where that through comes from. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, through the cross, through the resurrection. If anyone's in Christ, Paul says in 2 Corinthians. They are a new creation.

I don't care. I'm talking over you, train. Old things have passed away. He's affirming your message. Behold, all things have been made new. That's what I thought. That's the through Christ. That's the mystery. I don't know how it works, but it does, and it takes time, and it takes practice, and it takes submission and surrender. And most importantly, it takes one another. It's relationship. I think we lose sight of that. It's what I said at the beginning is that the law doesn't just restore relationship between us and God. It also builds relationship between one another. And where I am weak and you are strong, you get to help me and vice versa. Where I have some strength, I get to come alongside and help you. But the law is not bad. It's the first thing that the first... Just read the whole Book of Romans when you get home and call me. But in our reading, it's, So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good. It's not bad. It's not something to be avoided. In fact, if you ever get inspired to study the first five books of the Bible, I think you'll find some amazing things about God's heart and mind towards creation, towards you, towards people.

Some really beautiful stuff. You'll also realize that God takes things seriously. God ain't playing. It's not out of harshness or anger. It's all out of love. But it's a good thing. And in our gospel reading today, what is Jesus doing? And what does this have to do with the law? When you amalgamate the different recordings of this event, you learn that where Jesus does this in the temple, the temple had different sections to it. And the part that he does this is called the Court of the Gentiles. God wanted non-Jews to come. That was the whole point. The Jews were supposed to be a light to the world, to draw people to God. There was a part of the temple that was one of the more outside parts. The Gentiles could come and be in the presence of God, be at the temple. However, the people there had occupied that space. They took over, essentially, the court of the Gentiles to do something that on paper sounds good. They were there. Every so often you had to come to Jerusalem and bring your sacrifices. Well, sometimes it's difficult to bring the lamb or whatever it is you're supposed to bring from however far away you live.

So they provided ones that you could buy. Or maybe even if you did bring one, some of them were not so honest and you had to have your sacrifice examined and they'd be like, Oh, we found a little blemish on the lamb. It's got one black hair Sorry, it's supposed to be spotless. It's supposed to be completely white. So you can't use. But you can buy one of ours for a low price. So not only had they taken over this space that was where the non Jew could come and at least approach God, of which there were many people who would do that, they had turned it into a market. That's what Jesus says. When you've turned it into a house of trade, you've turned it into Wynco. Wynco Where you just come and buy and sell a trade market. That's not what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be to come. And why would you even go to the temple? Because the law said so. It comes back to the law. It comes back to the path. It comes back to God's way of showing us our need for him and then showing us how to fix it, which is through Jesus.

So as we are in this season of lent, as we're in this season of self-reflection, don't forget to reflect outwardly toward God, but also to others, to relationship. When Al read earlier, the bit about You shall not covit, that's all about relationship. That's all about seeing somebody else and wanting their stuff. All of those, pretty much all those laws, not all of them, there's a chunk that's about God, and there's a chunk that's about people. But what is the second greatest commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself. Love Lord your God, love your heart, mind, strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. God, people. The law restores all of that. As we come to celebrate, I don't know, what relationship does God bring to your mind that might need restoration? Or what internal What garbage are you listening to that in our litany, we talked about the devil and stomping under, and he's messing with us. It's bad news. What needs to be fixed? And going back to the call it for today, Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants, and purify our disordered affections. It means we have stuff in our heads and our hearts that, well, the law said, You shall have no other God before me.

The priorities are out of whack. That's a disordered affection. Fix these things that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus. What does one have to do with the other? If our priorities are out of whack, if our eyes are on one thing when they should be on Jesus, well, when they get in whack, out of whack, in whack, knick-knack, pattywhack, I'm sorry, when they get corrected, we then see Jesus face to face. We then experience his presence, and that is what drives us and motivates us, and the Holy spirit fills us to go out and share that with other people. It's all connected. It's all good.