Trusting God

Just before his final prayer for the disciples

Jesus as the time in the upper room was coming to a close

Jesus says a very startling thing

Jesus says he has conquered the world

I would hazard a guess that for the disciples,

Who had just gotten a plethora of bad news…. It didn’t look like Jesus had conquered anything.

Jesus being betrayed?  Jesus being captured?  Jesus being killed?  In what world does that look like a win?

I would guess that for us… thousands of years later

That statement might also seem a bit delusional

If Jesus lived today some mental health profession would probably say to him…

 Really, tell me more about this…. And…. We have medications for that!

It doesn’t look much like Jesus, and his way of love, has won does it?

Think about the headlines

AMERICAN SOLDIER GOES BESERK AND KILLS 16 CIVILIANS

ONE PERSON KILLED IN TEXAS COURTHOUSE SHOOTING

FOUR INJURED IN OHIO STABBING ATTACK

EVERY SEVEN SECONDS SOMEHWERE IN THE WORLD A CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 5 DIES OF HUNGER

22 CHILDREN DIE IN A BUS CRASH IN SWITZERLAND

OREGON INFANT DIES OF NEGLECT IN FOSTER CARE…..

I could go on and on, but I don’t have to, do I?  All we have to do is look at our own lives!

At the things in our own lives that seem so difficult.  Illness, divorce, failure, mistakes…

The world is a place full of problems.  Hate, violence, greed, illness, death.

Does it look like Christ has conquered the world?

As I thought about this passage it was tempting to talk about the issue of the existence of evil

You know, why do bad things happen to good people.

And of course I do have my opinions on the matter, or should I say my beliefs…

And I think there are good reasons God has chosen to limit his use of power in this world

Thus allowing the presence of all this ugliness…

But I would like to go a slightly different direction

I would like to take a look at the disciple’s reaction to the events that unfolded,

The arrest, the cross….

And at their essential disregard, perhaps disbelief, in what Jesus had said.

By their behavior, the disciples certainly did not look like they believed Jesus had conquered anything

Because when everything got difficult….. they ran…

They scattered

And no one, especially Jesus, was surprised.  In fact he had told them it would be that way.

“You will be scattered, you will leave me alone”.  In other words, “You are going to get the heck out of Dodge, and you are going to abandon me to my fate.”

We too struggle when faced with stuff we don't understand...

We respond in lot of ways...

Some people get overwhelmed and  just go into hiding

I can’t handle this.  I don’t want to hear the news…..

Hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil…….”lalalalalalalalal, I can’t hear you!!!!”

Some people get tired and worried,

And kind of forget that it isn’t all about them.  They essentially forget, because things look so crazy, that God is with them, and for them… that God is still in them.  Still available, still working  And so they get trapped into looking at things from the perspective of their own resources….  Bad idea.  Defeating.

I was lamenting the other day that I was tired and didn’t know if I had anything to say…..

A friend of mine said…. “you know, you need to remember God is with you.  And he will give you the words, he does cool things like that!!”

But I think the big problem, the thing that creates the most trouble -- when we look around and decide that it doesn’t look like God is control  --  as if God has not conquered -- is that we respond with one primary emotion…  FEAR

At least this is my opinion… perhaps it is just me

I know that all too often,  when things seem uncontrolled, and it seems like the bad guys are winning, And its all falling apart,  I respond with fear, sometimes combined with fear’s close relative, anger.

When we are afraid

And when attempt to make it right on our own ,

And our attempts, are fear based, the results are often not pretty. 

Rob Bell in his book “Velvet Elvis”  tells of a letter he got from the president of a seminary who was raising money to help him raise money to “train leaders who will defend Christianity”.  The letter talked about the need for the defense of the ‘true faith’  What bothered Bell was the fact that the letter was so defensive.  The man spent a lot of time talking about how right he was.  And about how wrong everyone else was.

We have to rescue Christianity! We have to defend Jesus!  Lots of voices are screaming that these days…..But Really?  God can’t take care of himself?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be advocates of our faith.  That we shouldn’t proclaim God, and God’s works.  But do we think that by our efforts we are going to conquer the world?  It’s been tried.  Christians have tried to save the world through their own power many times. Crusades. Inquisition.  Prohibition. Hasn’t worked

When we start to believe that we have to do it for God, we generally make a mess of things.  We end up getting all wrapped up in doctrines, and moral stances, and rules.  And when we are doing all that out of fear.  Then we are in an “us and them” mode….And we are judgmental… and harsh

And it gets ugly, It gets mean

People get crushed, defeated, guilted, shamed

I’m sorry, rules and doctrines never saved anyone.  Christ’s love is what rescues people

I’m sorry, using guilt and shame is not how Jesus does things

Forcing people to “be Christian”  through punishment, through law, through coercion  -- that is not the Jesus way

How does Jesus do it?  Well, we can look at how Jesus responded to his key guy, to Peter

After he failed, and ran.  The story of Peter, and his trifold denial is pretty amazing

Talk about abandoning Jesus.  Oh yeah, Peter hung around after the arrest

But we can hardly say he stayed with Jesus.

Instead given three chances to affirm Jesus, to stand up for him, he denied him

And then he ran.  Back to Galilee, back to his fishing boat….

But later, after the resurrection, two important things happened.

First, Jesus gave Peter a second chance.  He allowed Peter to affirm him, three times

One time for each time Peter had looked at the reality of the world, and said

“God is not in control…. I’d better run..”

“Peter” Jesus asked, “do you love me”  And three times Peter got the chance to say “yes”  -  And he did

And then Jesus told him, “feed my sheep”

He basically made it clear to Peter that he would work through him, and through his work, begin the work of living out the victory of the cross…

And that the work looked like….. feeding his sheep.

It did not look like rules, and spiritual warfare, and defensiveness, and judgment, and guilt…

It looked like nurture

Like love.

I think when Jesus said he has conquered the world

He did mean at some time this would truly be evident.

He did mean that at some point the kingdom would come… and the rule of God would be total

And totally obvious… that the time would come when the vision of Isaiah would be true

“War no more”

But I think that he also meant that the kingdom is coming

And that we as his people are the ones who are going to pull the kingdom into this world

And, that this is going to happen because he has conquered us…

Us individually

Because he has conquered our hearts….through love and sacrifice

And because he has conquered our hearts

He has enabled us to live life a different way -- A better way

And as we live life, powered by love, powered by the spirit, we make the victory of Christ

Ever more real

Ever clearer

So there is a better way to respond to what is going on around us that beating people over the head with rules and morality and guilt.  Then using fear based responses.

Being generous is a better way

·         Forgiving people and not carrying around bitterness is a better way

·         Having compassion is a better way

·         Pursuing peace is a better way

·         Listening to the wisdom of others is a better way

·         Fighting injustice is a better way

·         Helping and protecting the vulnerable is a better way

And we can do that through the Christ who is in us …

Eph 4:14-16  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

We do not have to live in fear

For Christ has conquered the world…

The work is done on the cross

That work is emerging in the hearts

And ultimately in the lives of those who love him….

So we are asked to have the faith, that in spite of what things are going on around us, in spite of how things look, to have the faith that Love Wins

This is how God wins

he wins us..

he loves us

forgives us

restores us

and makes us new....

and it is as we are new.... that we change the world

and begin the process of overcoming evil with good