Proclaiming Peace to Far and Near

Ephesians 2:14-22

Advent: He came with Good News of Peace
Isaiah looked with hope for God’s intervention – a child, Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6). The angel at Jesus’ birth echoed his words: to you is born a baby in a trough, Savior, Messiah, Lord.
What is a Prince of Peace? One who imposes peace – Augustus? Paul’s Advent meditation points to Jesus coming to proclaim peace (Isa 52:7) to those far and near (Isa 57:19).
But Jesus is not just the messenger or a conquering power commanding peace. Paul says Jesus himself is our peace. He’s writing to people in societies of intense conflict, with deep societal divisions and fears: Jew-Gentile, Roman-Greek-other ethnic groups, slave- free, male-female. Acts 19 show explosive fears, superstitions, and conflicts in Ephesus.
Paul had seen the how Jesus (as message and active presence) had brought together Jews, Romans, Greeks, the enslaved, the fearful into a new unity. It was who Jesus is – his life, message, cross, resurrection, Spirit – that embodied a new Adam, human being, the Suffering Servant of Isa 53, and that showed God’s purpose to unite everything in him.

A Guide in the Way of Peace

Isaiah 52:7-10, Luke 1:68,70, 76-79

What Would a Prince of Peace Look Like?
In the context of Advent, the vision of a Prince of Peace may seem obvious. But in Jesus’ time, Augustus Caesar was the great prince of Peace, conquering all: peace under Rome.
Jews chafed under his appointed rulers over the land. God, not Herod or Pilate should rule. Where was Isaiah’s promise: “Your God is King”? When would “the coming one” come?
Jesus’ whole story is that coming (Advent): Birth, ministry, passion, resurrection, all of it. People thought they knew what they were looking for – their own holy, good Augustus. After all, who is a more absolute king than God? They were ready to join the revolution. Jesus comes calling followers to “the Kingdom of God.” What else could it mean?

Longing for a Prince of Peace

Isaiah 9:1-7

Longing for Peace in a Fear-filled World
We focused our Retreat on the call to be Fearless. This Advent season we are centering on one of its most basic, comforting, challenging ideas: Peace. The two interact together. We start from Isaiah’s celebration of the birth of a child (Handel’s Messiah, Isa 9:6). In the NT this passage echoes in Luke’s narrative of Jesus’ birth, in Matthew’s description of the start of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is this “Prince of Peace.” But what does it mean?
Isaiah began prophesying in a time of powers pressing in on Judah (Israel, Syria, Assyria). Peace was a dream. A son is born in the Davidic royal family, possibly Hezekiah born to Ahaz. That child is a symbol of hope in a time of disaster. The prophet gives him the long prophetic name: Pele-yoets El-gibor Aviad Shar-shalom. Like the famous prophecy of a virgin conceiving (Isa 7:14; Mt 1:23), these words had an impact in their own time.

“Mercy Upon All”

Romans 11:25-36

From Grief to Celebration – Following the Paths of God
Paul began Rom 9-11 with great grief for his Jewish kin – so many were missing out on what they should have delighted in, what was their own story. He ends celebrating what God is doing in this complicated history that reaches back across scripture and into the lives of the believers in Rome. It is challenging and complex! God made human life complex. It’s often hard even to understand ourselves, our own rebellious wills, our hopes, our loves.
If the problem were simple, we could have a book of do-it-yourself resolutions. It would not have required the incarnation and death of God, the defeat of death, resurrection life.
Paul sees the drama of Jews and Gentiles, played out in his own life and ministry, as a sign of God’s choice of a particular human path leading to his faithfulness and mercy to all people.

Foreigners and Family

Romans 11:5-24

Tensions in a Diverse Community
In building a community, there are basic principles, and also particular problems that arise. The church in Rome likely started after Pentecost (ad 30) as the “visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes” (Acts 2:10) who became believers returned home (25 yrs before Romans, ad 56). Many Roman Jews were from freed slave families, from Pompey’s conquests a century earlier, not citizens. In c. ad 49 emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome because of conflicts over the new faith (Aquila & Priscilla, Acts 18:2). Claudius died ad 54. Jews returned. The church had been non-Jewish (Gentile) and now has returning leaders. How is all this supposed to play out. Some Gentiles said God rejected the Jews and brought in Gentiles.

Paul, the Pharisee who became apostle to Gentiles, wants to deal with the issue. Not just with practical advice but by understanding the whole narrative of Scripture and their place in it. He has worked with many of the returning Jews and is committed to the nations/Gentiles.
The Troublesome Grace that Makes New People

“I Myself Am...” - Identity

Romans 10:18-11:6

Communities of Identities – God’s complex Creatures

We are finite beings, defined, limited. I’m the child of two parents, and theirs ... an ethnic descent, a gender. I’m from a location in place and time. I’m shaped by a family, society, culture, traditions, political possibilities, power structures (race, gender, money, etc.), history. I’m shaped by my own story, choices, relationships, actions, experiences, faith, beliefs, education, hopes, abilities, dreams.... It’s a God-given complexity that makes every person distinct and interesting. A world of fascination and conflict. In communities we interact and shape each other’s identities. Jews & Gentiles faced such conflict in Rome.
Paul is telling the event of Jesus, a very specific person in a limited time, place, history, faith, who sends a shock wave out into the world that can influence every human identity. God is working within human 

Hearing the Good News of Jesus

Romans 10:10-21

Wrestling with God’s Good News
In Rm 9-11 Paul is striving to express the journey of struggle and discovery that has defined his life. All his life he knew that God defined his relation with the world through Israel and Torah all his life. A crucified Messiah did not fit. He fought it. Then Jesus confronted him.
God called him to proclaim a crucified Messiah to Gentiles, to people outside the ancient covenant, to people not even interested in Israel’s God or Messiah. Wrestling began.


Paul is taking us through a highly compressed summary of his journey of scripture study and experience in preaching, seeing inclusive communities breaking down society’s barriers. Even in Rome a community of Jews/Gentiles, Greeks/Romans/barbarians/slaves/women. New words shine in scripture: “Everyone,” “all the earth,” “those not seeking me.”

Remember Your Limp

Genesis 32:6-13, 23-32

Through an examination of Jacob's struggles in the book of Genesis, this sermon encourages Christians to trust the great promises of God over against self-reliance.  Within this context, Jacob's limp offers an example of the ways human vulnerability and God's grace make it possible for each human person to be a place where heaven and earth can meet.  This capacity calls us away from wrestling with earthly circumstances toward God's miraculous provision. 

Jesus – The Aim of God’s Story

Romans 10:1-13

Israel, the Torah, and the Messiah
In Rm 9-11 Paul explores a powerful dynamic of Scripture. God creates us humans to whom he gives life and freedom. He desires our good, but the greatest good is bound to that freedom: moral choice, love, trust, faithfulness, creativity, relationship. We rebel. God promises to open a path to a renewed relationship of love, forgiveness, right standing. He chooses Abraham as the conduit for all the world to deal with human sin and death. 
Then the path has twists and turns as God makes choices, creates a covenant people, gives Torah, promises a Messiah, deals with deep division and rebelliousness, begins radical transformation through exile, empires, oppression ... all the way to a Messiah crucified! 

Stumbling Over Trust in God

Romans 9:19-33

Reading Scripture to Understand God’s Ways

In Rm 9-11 Paul moves from grief to perception and hope to praise through scripture. He develops key points of Rm 1-8: “Righteousness”: both God’s righteousness in faithfully being true to his promises and the way he draws humans into a righteous standing with him through Jesus. “Faith”: both God’s faithfulness embodied in Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and resurrection and our faith/trust in what Jesus has done.

But Paul is painfully aware that many of his fellow Jews do not trust that God was at work in Jesus. Rather Torah/Law is God’s final revelation defining an ethnic people marked by circumcision, purity laws, temple, and Torah. The Messiah must fit and confirm these. 

God’s Unstoppable Mercy

Romans 9:1-18

Paul’s Joy and Grief in Telling about Jesus
Paul in Romans 9-11 takes up the message he celebrated in Rm 1-8 but with a new focus and intensity. The section begins in cries of grief and ends in exclamations of wonder (11:33-36). 
He continues his focus on God’s faithfulness to his promises (God’s righteousness) that leads to salvation for both Jews and non-Jews in God’s people. 
Paul’s grief flows from the repeated experience of proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah of Israel in synagogues in many Greek cities. Some Jews were convinced, but many refused to follow a crucified teacher and make the leap into a community that was not ethnically defined and without clear boundaries of legal practice to separate it from pagan society. 

Fear, Faith, and Love: The Rock – Building a House for Storm and Calm

Matthew 7:24-29

Learning to Build: Hearing and Doing Jesus Words
We've talked about fear, anxiety, and love. Now let's think together about building. Jesus uses the image of two builders as the climax of the Sermon on the Mount. One person hears Jesus' words and does them. Another hears and does not do them. He says it's the difference between a house founded in bedrock and one sitting on sand. The fearsome storms hit both. One stands. The other collapses. "Doing" Jesus' words is the difference! How? Is this Grace?
This "doing" is not "earning;" it is participating: Jesus' words / life become my own real life.
It reflects our unity as embodied creatures (as Jesus came in body) uniting mind and action. Doing also changes the way we hear: Hearing a chef's recipe on TV or really cooking the dish. We come to know and trust God's love in Jesus, abide in it, complete that love -- boldness! It's a process: We hear and do. We listen again; we do more. We abide, grow, share life.

Fear, Faith, and Love: “Perfect?” The Love that Throws Fear Out

1 John 4:7-21

Fearless Love in a Fear-filled World
“Fearless?” We live as vulnerable physical creatures in a dangerous world. Death is part of being human. In our bodies, in our circumstance, we’re often beset by anxieties. We all struggle.
1 John 4:18a (ESV) “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear!” It’s strange to say! In common experience, love and fear/anxiety can be close companions. “Love” often means someone/thing has become deeply important to me. I need it/them. My “love” creates fear that I might lose the beloved. Love is deep emotional vulnerability. I hover, protect, worry!
What does John mean? Many in his day advised keeping distance from emotional ties as the way to life without fear. But he stresses love! Maybe I don’t have “perfect love.” A new fear! John challenges us, but not to perfectionism. He calls us to participation in God’s life/love.

Fear, Faith, and Love: “Don’t Worry!” Looking at Life with Anxiety

Philippians 4:4-7,11-13

Anxiety, Vulnerability and A Secret
Anxiety, worry, fear is a deep problem of human life. What can "Fearless" mean? Anxiety tends to point to uncertainty of many kinds. Often magnified in my own mind. Fear of loss of control or unfettered choice. I create worst case scenarios. Merging into anxiety disorders/phobias.

It's amazing that Paul in prison, uncertain of sentence, can say, "Don't be anxious about anything." Or that Jesus, talking to poor farmers and laborers, says "Don't be anxious about your life."

What can they mean? We all are vulnerable to death, disease, danger -- the human condition! Paul himself is explicit not only on the dangers he faced but also the worries that plagued him. We today are far healthier/wealthier/long-lived than ancients, but still we all worry and all die.

Fear, Faith, and Love: “Don’t You Care?” - Fear in the Storms of Life

Mark 4:35-41

Can I be Fearless in a World full of Fear?
Our retreat theme starts from the word “Fearless.” What can that mean? Fear has myriad forms. We all experience fear. It’s built into us as creatures (Gen 3:10 “I was afraid.”). Fear touches every scale of life from war and terrorism, to pollution and ferocious weather, to injustice and corruption in society, to unemployment and poverty, to broken relationships and loss of one we love, to our children’s future and our own death, to failure in doing something and peer pressure, to flying and germs, to what friends will think if I wear this. Even the best things bring fear.
You are the only expert in your own fears. The experience of fear is a given. Fear is not a sin. But our experiences of fear teach us that it can be awful and disabling. It distorts reality and often produces bad responses to situations. We want to avoid it and will do almost anything to keep fear at bay. Fear often isolates us, makes us strike out, and see others in the worst light.

Cities of Hope: Rome - Center of the World and Beyond

Romans 1:1-17

Paul the Traveler from Jerusalem to Rome and Beyond
Jesus, after his resurrection, sent his disciples gradually out into the world -- Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria -- then "to the end of the earth." That was not just a geographical, but cultural, racial, political, and social transformation. From a conception of God centered ethnically, politically, theologically on the Jerusalem temple, to a realization of God in and for all peoples in all lands.
That was part of the 'conversion' that seized Paul. As a national Messiah, Jesus was impossible. Crucified! But if he was true/raised/alive, then he exploded the ethnic/political/class barriers and entanglements. He showed God creating a bridge of faithful love to all of his alienated creatures.
Paul (with Steven, Philip, Peter, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila and so many others) set out across the world (Roman empire and beyond) with that transforming vision. Luke records the story from Lk 1 to Acts 28, from Jerusalem temple to Rome. Paul's letters let us see inside events into the depth of spiritual power that could break hatred and draw people to God together.

Cities of Hope: Ephesus - New Humanity in a Chaotic World

Ephesians 2:11-22

Adventures in Ephesus, Capital of Asia
With cities like Philippi, Corinth, and Ephesus, we have not only the Acts account of Paul's work but also letters from Paul to believers. Acts was probably written 15-20 yrs after Paul's death. People remembered amazing stories of Ephesus, maybe from Aquila and Priscilla and many others.
An old city (1000 bc), now Rome's provincial capital, famous for the huge temple of Artemis (strange, bound, many 'breasts,' meteorite?, pilgrims). Great city ruins; no ruins of Temple.
Acts 19 starts from A and P house church. Unusual disciples: Apollos, 12 who follow John's baptism. Synagogue conflict. The Hall of Tyrannus for 2 yrs. The message spreads, mission teams sent. Remarkable signs. Jewish traveling exorcists. Disciples who practiced magic. Paul was imprisoned. He wrote Galatians, Philippians, 1Corinthians. His life was in danger (Phi 1:12ff) and he 'fought with beasts' (1Cor 15:32). Paul plans to leave but riots stirred by Demetrius a silversmith. Paul's helpers are held hostage. A huge crowd fills the great theater with uproar. Finally quieted by town clerk.

Cities of Hope: Corinth - Why Can’t God be as Smart as Us?

1 Corinthians 1:10-31

Paul in Corinth -- a Cultural Crossroads
Corinth a "new" Roman colony; destroyed in 146 bc, rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 bc. In ad 50, 94 yrs later, Paul arrives. Strong Jewish community. Jews expelled from Rome by Claudius in ad 48. Paul stays 18 mo. growing a complex community of Jews, god-fearers, pagans, etc. -- dynamic, lives changed, new experiences, under persecution. Paul moves on: Galatia, Ephesus. Paul learns about believers in Corinth, receives a letter of inquiries from them: writes 1 Corinthians in ad 54.
A community transformed by the Gospel and power of the Spirit but living in the social, cultural, political world of Greece and Rome. In 1Cor Paul deals with a variety of serious problems as they try to live into this new reality but are drawn back into old/common/pervasive ways of thinking.
Paul starts from a basic symptom that reveals the problem: conflict, competition, groups around various teachers. Common from both teachers and learners. Natural in complex communities.
So what's the problem? Get along. Competition among groups leads to clearer thinking--advance. Those with Greek education are going to have different perspective than Jews reading the Torah. It's obvious, natural and real. A community that brings together different ethnic groups, cultures, social classes is going to have competing points of view. It's more of a virtue than a problem.
The Dangerous Idea of Unity

Athens: Do Philosophers Need Jesus?

Acts 17:16-34

Paul in Athens – a View on the World

Paul has encountered the diaspora synagogue (Antioch), popular paganism (Lystra), Roman domination (Philippi). Now after Thessalonica and Berea, he comes to Athens, worried for the survival of the infant churches.

Athens, the most famous city in the Greek world, not big or powerful, but very influential, a university city with an unmatched cultural heritage.

Again he starts with the synagogue, where people know Israel’s story, but he also goes to the famous Agora/plaza, with the open-air Stoa/colonnade, that gave Stoic philosophy its name. Where popular philosophies, ‘world-views,’ were taught, debated, shaping shapers of culture.

Here he meets not persecution but puzzlement. He uses ideas people recognize, but puts them together in strange ways, a ‘phrase-dropper.’ He talks about Jesus and Anastasis/Rising.