Shouting the Gospel

In his book Ordinary Radicals, Shane Claibourne makes this challenging statement.  “If you ask most people what Christians believe they can tell you.  Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that Jesus rose from the dead.”  But if you ask the average person how Christians live they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life.  Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus along the way.  …..”

In Advent we are challenge to think about the coming Kingdom of God..

And about Kingdom living…..

What does that look like?  How would we be if we embraced….another way of life?

What would it look like if we were to, as Shane Claibourne puts it, “shout the Gospel with our lives?

In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, in his finally instructions in chapter five, we get some idea of what Kingdom living should look like.  This is not a negative snapshot -- or a dark one, or a rigid one.  Not at all.  In fact the life portrayed here is wondrous!  Amazing!  But definitely not easy.

1.  The first suggestion about what it looks like to participate in another way of doing life is this.  “Over come evil with good, do good to one another and to all.  In Romans Paul would say similar thing when he said, “don’t overcome evil with evil but overcome evil with good.”  And then he hammered the point home with graphic illustrations of what he was talking about.  “…IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS UPON HIS HEAD."  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is so alien to the way we often think!

     We want to get even

     We want to make the bad people pay

     We want to aggressively keep ourselves safe

So we respond to hate with hate, brutality with brutality.

But we are commanded to overcome evil with good.  Why?  Because unlike responding to evil with evil, hatred with hatred, overcoming evil with good actually works

A young American was once riding a train in the Suburbs of Tokyo.  At first the car was mostly empty, holding just a smattering of women and children, and a few old folks.  Then suddenly, at one stop, the door opened and a man staggered in bellowing violent curses. He wore dirty clothes and was big and very drunk.  Screaming he swung at a young mother holding a baby, knocking them to the floor.  As the man stood in the middle of the car looking for his next victim, the young man stood up. He was young, in good shape, and had been in aikido training for three years.  He figured he could grapple and throw this obnoxious man.  He was determined to protect the innocent, even if it meant meeting violence with violence

Then, as the man staggered toward him, roaring threats, a voice suddenly shouted “Hey!”  And there stood a tiny little man, easily in his 70’s.  “Come here” he said to the big man, “let’s talk!”  “Why should I talk with you?”  “Whatcha been drinking” asked the old man.  “I’ve been drinking sake!”  “Ah, sake”, said the old man.  “That is wonderful.  I love sake too. Every night my wife and I, she is 76 you  know, warm up a bottle of sake, take it out the garden, sit on an old bench, and watch the sun go down… We like to see how our persimmon tree is doing.  My grandfather planted it.”  “Yeah” said the big man, “I lover persimmons too.”  “And I bet you have a wonderful wife?”  “No,” said the big man..’my wife died.  I have no wife, I have no home, I have no job, I am so ashamed of myself.”  Tears rolled down his check.  “My my” said the old man.  “That is so sad, sit down and tell me about it.”  

A short time later as the young man left the car he looked back and saw the drunk man lying on a seat, his head in the old man’s lap.  The old man was softly stroking the man’s matted hair. 

That was love in action.  That was a time when someone overcame evil with good.

The second thing we are asked to do in this passage is rejoice always.  Again, not an easy thing to do. 

We often don’t feel like rejoicing.  Indeed, quite the opposite.  We feel like being angry, and bitter.  We feel like wallowing in the negative.  And there is a lot of negative to wallow in… but we are told to rejoice… be joyful

How can we do this?  We can do this because the source of our comes out of the assurances we hear from Isaiah. God offers us salvation that is tangible and real. Isaiah tells us that through God’s messenger God offers good news (hope) to the oppressed. God binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted, proclaims liberty to the captive (those held in slavery), release to the prisoners, restoration in the year of jubilee, justice or vindication, and comfort for those who mourn.”

 In these acts, we see God’s shalom or peace created. These are real, tangible things that touch us in this life not some wish for the life to come.  We can be joyful because of our God. Because of who God is, and what God does, and how God loves us.  We are challenged to remember where our joy really comes from.  Because sometimes we forget.  And we think other things, such as wealth, or jobs, or other people can be the sources of our joy. 

But we are called to remember where we can really find the joy we seek.  To focus on that source of joy, and not all the others, that disappoint. 

The third mark of “another way of living” is chronic prayer. Pray all the time !  Paul suggests.

I can’t say I’m good at this, but there it is.  Always stay connected to God.  Never let too much time pass without checking in.

Being in relationship with God is kind of like having a friend, a long ways away, someone you care about and love….What do you do?  You work at staying connected.  You email, you text… you check in.  You share your day - You share your joy and your pain…..and even across the miles the relationship flourishes….

Paul suggests that kingdom living involves that kind of intentional connection with God. Remembering God, all the time.  Having God on the edge of our consciousness at all time.  Slipping into thoughts of God.  Sending thoughts toward God.  Sending love toward God, all the time.  The way we do toward that person who is our beloved.

Give thanks in all circumstances is the third suggestion.  Are you kidding God?

Be thankful for budget cuts?

Be thankful for a struggling economy

Yes, be thankful in the in midst….

There is a Contemporary Christian song called Beauty for Ashes sung by Crystal Lewis based on this Scripture. Some of the words are, “He gives beauty for ashes, Strength for fear, Gladness for mourning, Peace for despair. When sorrow seems to surround you, when suffering hangs heavy o’er your head, Know that tomorrow brings, Wholeness and healing, God knows your need, just believe what He said. He gives beauty for ashes, Strength for fear, Gladness for mourning, Peace for despair.

We place our faith in God who cares for us, who is not indifferent to our suffering, but who is compassionate.  And because we have this kind of God there are reasons, even in “the midst”

Even in times of fear and mourning, despair, there are things to give thanks for

Above all the love of God, and Grace

As I thought about this passage I thought about my father’s illness… My dad was a workaholic, yes it must be hereditary.  But in his illness he had to slow down

He learn to sit, and talk, and listen, and share

And he had people come by….

And say… Dr. Paul… I want to tell you how much you mean to me

He might never have known….how much people cared.  He might have missed out on so many gifts.  So in the midst, he could give thanks.  There were things for which he wasn’t thankful for.  But there things he could find, always things he could find, for which to give thanks.

Give thanks in all circumstances

He learned to give thanks for the gifts that were coming his way….

So now we come to the bottom line of the passage.   Don’t quench the Spirit

I think of it this way.  As we think about Advent living, we can ask ourselves four questions, each day.

First, what “positive, good thing” can I do this day, to respond to the evil I see around me?

Second, what can I do to nurture joy?  How can I focus on God and God’s love and power in such a way as to find hope and joy, in the midst?  In what situation do I need to look for joy?

Third, how can I “connect” with God.  In what way can I seek to nurture contact with God?

And finally, what is a gift God has given me this day, for which I can say thanks?

This is how we let the presence, the reality of God burn in our lives and our hearts

This is how we participate in the Kingdom

This is how we participate in another way of doing life