Chuck Sigars
Sometimes when I hear somebody teaching or preaching or giving a message I think I have no idea what this person is talking about. This just makes no sense at all. I came across something recently and thought wow, I just have to show this to my friends. This is in a commentary and I quote J. Preston Eby who gives a clear pronouncement of this truth from his essay “Is Man a Free Moral Agent”. Now if you really want to appear smart just put an initial in front of your name. I assure you will become smart by just doing that alone. This is some long discourse and partway through it he says…and I quote “The first Adam is said to be the first man and the last Adam is declared to be the second man. The second Adam is also the last Adam and he is also the last man. Now if the first Adam is the first man it necessarily would follow that there were no man on Earth before him for he was the first. Then if the last Adam is the second man and there were no men on Earth between the first Adam and the last Adam for the last Adam is the second man there can be no man between first man and the second man. If there were even one man between the first man and the second man obviously the second man could not be the second man. He would be the third man or the 100th man or the 5 billionth man. And since the second man is also the last man there can not have been any man since him for if others have followed him he could not have been the last man. So then the first man was the first and the second man was the second man and the second man is the last man.” J. Preston Eby gives a clear pronouncement of this truth. How many of you have heard somebody talking religious talk and you thought I have no idea what you are saying? You seem very convinced of it and seem to be ok with its clarity and simplicity but I am in a fog of rhetoric and I cant even find my way out of it. So. Why do we gather? What is the point? I want to explain a way of seeing the world and as we explore this way I want you to be thinking, is this present in our world today?
Exodus 25…God was giving instructions on the temple…
8 "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
So early in the story God says make me a house. A holy place. A Temple. A sanctuary and I will dwell in the midst of it. Exodus 28 gives specific instructions on this temple. Very specific instructions.
Exodus 28:29 "Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place
So within the Temple there will be places that are even holier than other places.
Exodus 29:6 “Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred diadem to the turban.”
I am getting somewhere here just bare with me.
Exodus 29:31 “Take the ram for the ordination and cook the meat in a sacred place.”
So there is a sacred emblem, sacred garments, sacred under garments, sacred places.
Exodus 29:33 “They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no one else may eat them, because they are sacred.”
So there is also sacred offerings and sacred foods too.
Exodus 30:25 “Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.”
Sacred oils now. The word sacred is the Hebrew word Kodesh. It means holy, set apart, consecrated. It’s different. It is distinguished from the other. There are these holy things, and then there are those things.
Remember Leviticus 10:10 since I know all my readers have these memorized anyway, if not shame on you. It is an explanation of why there are all of these sacred things. Sacred offering, oils, places, garments, emblems.
Verse 10 “You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean.”
What you have is a differentiation of a physical space. You have the common and then build a temple so a space other than regular space is a realm other than which you actually live. Then you have a place within that temple which distinguishes itself as sacred set apart from the everyday ordinary. This place will be holy. Actually within it is a gradiance of holy. There is holy, then a more holy place, then the holy of holiest place. Now this realm is to be distinguished from the realm. Unclean, clean. Common, sacred. This realm is for everybody, then there is a place where a select few who will wear sacred garments, have a sacred emblem, perform a sacred task, will use sacred oil in the sacred place to offer sacred gifts and offerings on the sacred day. Follow me? 2 realms.
As a little side note here, the word profanity comes from the word profane. We think profanity is just used to give movies certain ratings. The word profanity literally means in its ancient roots to cross the threshold. To profane something is to take something sacred and cross the threshold and treat it common and as an everyday and ordinary thing. Taking words which are considered crude and to use them in an ordinary everyday fashion is profane…hence, profanity. Nevertheless, in Leviticus, there is a world view that sees 2 realms. In the ancient world they saw things this way. In the ancient world they saw things this way. In the ancient world they saw things this way. In the ancient world they saw things this way. Understand? In the ancient world they saw things this way. Just making a point.
So what does Jesus do to this reality in which things are treated in sort of this special sacred and holy parted space? Special occupations, tasks, work, callings and then you know…the rest of us. Certain places where you could only say certain things because it’s in that holy place but since we are over here, all sorts of other things are ok due to not being in that space making it ok and different. Does Jesus uphold and affirm this understanding of reality or does he see it in a slightly different way?
Matthew 12:1 1At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath(sacred day uhoh). His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."
BTW, the job of religion is to keep this split view of the world in tact. That’s what religion does. And then it has its rules and its codes for keeping this view of reality preserved.
So you have the Pharisees who are freaking out saying you can’t you can’t. What are you doing?
3He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.
I just want to interject here. Keep in mind that the Pharisees are experts in the law.
5Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.
He sure schooled them.
Now remember Jewish consciousness was deeply shaped by this realm and then the center of reality was the temple. That is where God is. An entire system grew up around the notion that there are common ordinary places but then you go to Jerusalem, the temple area, you are essentially in the center of where God is in the world. That is how we order reality. The center is there. Jesus says, “One greater than the temple is here.” Jesus of course is speaking of himself and says that whatever He is doing there is something happening that is greater than the temple.
In John 2:18 Jesus pushes them to the edge. The temple is the most sacred, most holy place where they believe God dwelled with them in some sort of supernatural way. To use that kind of language would be speaking about the holiest of holiest of holiest places people could imagine in this world view. Jesus uses language that is extremely volatile and loaded. Verse 18 “Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
It took years for the disciples to understand what He means by this but they got it eventually, after He died of course.
22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
The light clicked on for John several years later and then he was able to write about it. Ohhhhhhh, now we get it. There is this view. Again some things are common, ordinary…blood, paycheck, sexuality, just the stuff that’s like life. Then there is this other realm. Holy, sacred, you watch your conduct. You only say certain things. If somebody told that joke in this realm you would just look at them and go hmmmm…I don’t approve. But in the other realm you would be like, “Dude! What was that joke again cause that is hillllareeeeus. Tell me, tell me, tell me.”
So He in someway associates Himself with the temple and system and its death with His own death. Keep in mind that temple was in fact destroyed 40 years after his resurrection.
Matthew 27- Matthew gives a small detail surrounding Jesus’ death. In a split view of reality there is a gradiance of holiness. So there is the outside place of the temple, then the priest, then there is the high priest. There is the holy place then there is the most holy place. So within sacred space there is a level of ascending hierarchy. In the temple there is a veil or curtain because God is somewhere at the center of this centered way of thinking of reality. If God is somewhere in there then there needs to be levels and this curtain in which only the high priest could go behind in the holy of holies only once per year.
Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
Now Matthew is a good Jewish writer and the audience would have been very familiar with the arrangement or the temple. There is this temple that essentially guards people from entering into the holiest of all places and that temple, that veil, the curtain was torn in two.
Later Biblical writers said that is because we can now have a direct relationship with God. People can go in. Which raises another point. If people can go in then God can come out. People now with Jesus have all sorts of new access to God through Christ’s death and resurrection. Again, God can now come out.
What does this mean now? Earlier Christians picked up on the idea that you yourselves are God’s Temple. This was a monumental shift in the way people viewed reality. It is how it was. There was the sacred, then the common. There is the clean, there is the unclean. There is the holy and then there is the everyday sort of thing. With Jesus, the whole thing comes crashing down in some sort of new reality in which the holy is somehow now to be found in the common. The sacred is somehow to be understood within the everyday. There is what you can see, and there are all sorts of depth. This has significant implications of what it means to be a Christian. In light of this, notice in Matthew 25 some of the things that Jesus says. He tells a story of sorts. It’s a parable of warning about when the Son of Man comes with all the Angels with Him and He sits on His glorious throne. He speaks of His judging and ordering of the world. He speaks of 2 different kinds of people. Sheep and goats. He places Himself as a sort of king. Matthew 25:37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Now what is He saying here? It is easy to be around people who are gentle and generous and honest and truthful and kind and creative and loving and say “I saw Jesus in them!” Perhaps you have felt this before. When I am around Karen it is like you can just see the living Christ in her. I mean that. She is the kindest, most gentle person I have ever met. It is obvious so has a certain peace about her. That is simple to see. Jesus says in this story His followers will be the kinds of people who can find Christ in the least of these. Karen, due to this essence is not the least of these. She doesn't fall into that catergory. So His followers will be the kinds of people who are more and more and more able through their interaction with the other, the least of these (He uses the example of the prisoner, which means you are actually identifying with the prisoner, the naked the sick, the thirsty) they will be more in tuned with the Christ who is present in that interaction. It won’t just be another bothersome thirsty person. They will see this person in their need as an opportunity to engage with the living Christ who will be present in that engagement. Click? Karen, that is for you. Click? It is easy to see people who are really Jesus like and say, there He is. He says His followers will be the kinds of people who will be increasingly in every day ordinary relationships specifically in their interactions with the least of these have an acute sense and alertness of the sacred holy nature of that interaction and they will act accordingly. So that means your boss, your ex-husband, your racist/pre-conceived notions in thugs, your interactions with the disease infested drug addicted homeless, and your mother-in-law too.
I am going to get touchy for some here so be forewarned.
The point of a sermon or message is to make us more aware of the Christ in the common. A teaching in a religious system, church or denomination can affirm some things are common and some things are sacred and if you would like to enter into our sacred club here are the rules. It either affirms a split world view OR it is alerting us to the Christ present in the least of these everyday common interactions. Particularly with those who we would be the quickest to dismiss. A sermon is about awakening us to the Christ in the common. If it does not and it further exacerbates a split view of the universe then it isn’t Christian no matter how many Bible versus it quotes. One step further. There is a medium in our culture. A technological medium that is designed to lower your IQ. It is called political talk radio. Now what happens in this medium is people from the extreme edges of both perspectives create caricatures of the other side and then with only one microphone turned on shred the caricature of the other side. And then people call in and say nice job. Click? If you are a Christian and I am not talking about particular specifics on policies, I am talking about broad sweeping generalization about people you have never actually interacted with one on one and you are growing in your heightened awareness of your Christ in the common then it will be harder and harder for you to speak of those stupid people over there. Because sweeping labels of people and generalizations is going the opposite way than finding the Christ in the common. What you will discover as you grow in your awareness of Jesus’ view of the reality that every person is an image bearer. Every person is a sacred precious creation of God. Every person is valued and loved in an eternal infinite sort of way by the maker of the universe. You will find it harder and harder to stick with the same old boring static categories of them and them, and us and them and right and left because what will happen is you will be having encounters with the least of these which by the way includes your enemies and you will walk away thinking there was something Jesusy about that experience and all I know is it was very real. Jesus wants to heighten our awareness. At a very practical level when we gather together for some sort of worship function as a church because what we have discovered as Christians is that on a regular basis it is very helpful to be reminded of the Christ in the common. What personally is my job? One of my jobs is to heighten our awareness of the Christ in the common. True of people and it is also true of places.
Genesis 28, this is one of my favorite passages. I so relate to it. Jacob is all over the place. He is a bit of a head case early on and makes some progress like the rest of us. Notice verse 12 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. I just want to point out here that it says the angels are ascending and descending, so does that mean there home is here among us? That was something Rabbis who had nothing to do would sit around and debate.
13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth.”
So this is some sort of massive epic dream. I don’t have dreams like this. Mine are more like I was walking in the grocery store and ran into my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Moore doing a handstand in the cereal section because we all got 100% on our spelling test. How many of you have those dreams where it makes no sense whatsoever? You write it down and the next day you are like I am one messed up dude.
15Behold,I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." 17And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
To me this is deep. To me this is what it means to grow as a disciple. To follow God. It means that you constantly find yourself waking up going, “Wow, God has been in this place the whole time and I missed it…until now.” When someone asks me what my definition of faith is I respond "It is waking up to a God who has been here the whole time." I just needed the shades pulled back a little bit. Do you know what I am talking about? We have our lives. We have the things that we do. We have the things that are very easy to see as common and then we leave our common life and go talk about other “sacred” things, and then we go back to our everyday sort of being. Think of the things we do…everyday you and I…it is groceries and gas and mowing the lawn, sitting in construction traffic and paying the insurance bill, the electric bill, downlpoading illegal music, painting the walls and surfing the web and vacuuming the carpets and washing the dishes and sitting in construction traffic and laundry and celebrating the new Maggiano’s in the Rim, and taking out the trash and recycling and sitting in more construction traffic and walking outside and saying damn another 100 degree day and jumping off the bridge into the Guadalupe and going to the dentist and another test back from the doctor and haircuts and Chucky Cheese and paying your taxes and going to work and sitting in construction traffic and coming home after sitting in construction traffic and filling out papers for license renewals and sitting on hold with Sprint and sweeping the floor and feeding the dog and then setting one day per week aside as a day of rest going to a church service and sitting in construction traffic on the way home from the building where the church meets. Ugh. No. We have a life that is very easy to develop the common stuff we do and then we gather together and talk about…God…that stuff. Jacob wakes up and says, “Surely God was in this place the whole time. I just wasn’t aware of it.” Do we gather so that somebody can spout off for awhile from the stage so we can say, “Yea, I think she did a great job? Not as good as last week but I enjoyed it.” Is that the point? Or do we gather in order to listen with the assumption and expectation and hope that in some way the shades will be pulled back just a little bit? I will hear something, I will see something, something that is said that will resonate with me in such a way that I will wake up in some small way. Perhaps you are going through a very difficult time and it’s a sort of storm and perhaps you hear something and you became aware that God has been in this storm the whole time and you never saw it that way until now. Do we gather in order to find God? There is this place where you can go and find God? Or is the point of a church service to gather together in order to listen and in order to learn how to find God everywhere else? This of course can change everything.
A split view of reality in which you have the common and the sacred actually disempowers because what it says is that certain places where the action is, the center is here, and certain people who are closer to the action, the Priests, the Pastors, The Rabbis, The Ministers, they are the ones who have access to the stuff. What you find with Jesus is that the center is everywhere. Remember if you were a good Jew in the 1st century you would not ask where is the temple? You would know. It’s there in Jerusalem and you would be able to face it and pray. And so for you, the action, the divine wasn’t there with you, it was in Jerusalem. South, North, East or West of where you were…17 miles away in Jerusalem up the mountain…but not…here with me. The center was there. How does Jesus view the world? Oh no not like that. The center when the temple comes down is now everywhere. So for a Christian to have this view that I have a job and it makes me want to vomit on myself, and there are these people and they make me want to vomit on myself, and this boss and he makes me want to vomit on myself. It is just a cubicle farm and it makes me want to vomit on myself. But then there is this place where I can go and there are all of these shiny happy Christians and there it is totally awesome. What is that? That is a view that the center is here, and then there is just my kind of life over here. What you find again and again and again in the scriptures with Jesus it’s oh no no no…the center has moved. There is no longer a center. The center is everywhere. This will change everything as it starts to kick in. Hopefully by now you will deconstruct some religious experiences you have had and actually thought wow God was always there.
Which brings me to my next question. Why is it when we have missionaries and are about to send them off to a foreign country we have these cards and pictures with contacts and how to support them and yet we don’t do this for people starting a new job at USAA or teaching or at the working at the gas station or in real estate about to make their first sale? Why don’t we come up and say, Mona here, she is starting her first year in the classroom and is serving 5 miles from here and we are going to commission her. Why do we only do it when it is this special sort of holy sacred stuff? What does that do actually? It disempowers. I am just kind of common everyday normal stuff and apparently there are others who do more. It is just exacerbating the same old world view that Jesus came to say One greater than the temple is here. We should start those support cards like we do for missionaries for our Christmas cards this year and be like "Jeremiah Nichols serving in San Antonio with Oak Hills" and send it to all of your friends. That would be awesome! They would wonder what you are doing now and you could say it is what you have always been doing, I just decided to be honest about it. That would be hilarious! We could get that globe picture in the background with a thumb tack pinned on NW San Antonio. I would laugh my face off…Anyways...so look for God everywhere.
Look at this picture. It is a young man in a hat, playing an old violin in the Washington DC metro station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played 6 Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2000 people went through the station most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing, slowed his pace, stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. After 4 minutes the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw some money into the hat and without stopping continued to walk. After 6 minutes a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him then looked at his watch and decided to walk again. After 10 minutes a 3 year old stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again but the mothers pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent without exception forced their children to move on quickly. After 45 minutes the musician played continuously and only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at a normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. After one hour he finished playing and silence took without nobody noticing. Nobody applauded, there was nothing nor any recognition. Nobody knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one the greatest musician in the world and lauded as a child prodigy around the world. He played one the most intricate pieces every written and with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. 2 days before Josh performed and sold out a theatre in Boston with seats that averaged over $100 per ticket. Why do we gather? Why do we listen to teachings? Why do we have lifegroups and house churches? Why do we take part in this thing called the Christian faith? I do because I believe there are Joshua Bells on every corner and our job is simply to be listening so that we don’t miss the music.
Make sure you watch this video!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw
