By
Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.
Flat
Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership,
Sunday
July 26th, 2020 (Growing In Grace)
The
immortal Babe Ruth had remained the home run king of baseball for almost 40
years; since 1935. Then came Hank Aaron,
who was to break the record many had declared ‘unbreakable’.
Babe
Ruth’s record had been tied by Hank and then in 1974, on April 8th,
in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, this young upstart from Alabama came to the
plate. As the pitcher released the ball, Hank moved
the bat to meet it just over the plate. A loud cracking sound could be heard in the
stands and over the airwaves. The ball began to soar like a jet plane on
takeoff, and it landed in the stands.
The
people in the stadium rose to their feet, put their hands together for an
unrehearsed applause. Hank Aaron had
just hit home run number 715, breaking Babe Ruth’s old record of 714.
The
people came to the stadium that day because they wanted to be present when Hank
Aaron broke the record. They came to see
the man. They wanted to see him for
themselves; to be present when history happened.
In
the ancient world, long before there was baseball, we read in Exodus 19 how
Moses brought the people of God ‘out of the camp’ to take their ‘stand
at the foot of the mountain’ to meet and see God (19:17). We read
how Mount Sinai was ‘wrapped in smoke’ because the Lord had descended on
the mountain in a ‘fire’. The
people wanted to see God, and so did Moses also wanted to see God directly, but
God said no! God told Moses; “Set
limits around the mountain and keep it holy” (19:23).
Why
did God say ‘no?’ Even when Moses himself
asked for God to ‘show his glory’ directly, God said, “I will make my
goodness pass before you, ...but you cannot see my face and live (Ex. 33:18ff).”
ABSTAIN...CONTROL
YOUR OWN BODY... (v. 4)
In
the middle of today’s text, we find a big, loud, fat ‘no’ from God. ‘Abstain!...” “Control your body in holiness and honor...
(v. 4). What Paul is talking about is something
our world still gets very mixed up about.
Sexuality. Pornography. Fornication.
Sex-Out Side of Marriage. God says ‘no!”; and who wants to hear a ‘no!’ Who likes to think that anything good can
come out of a ‘no?’ But the Bible is
full of them. Even from the Mountain of
God, the voice of God resounded over and over, “Thou Shalt Not...! Thou shalt not this, Thou shalt not
that! No, No, No!
The
Bible seems to be saying, from beginning to end, that ‘if you want to find your
best life, you have to learn to respect and handle the ‘no’s’. Before you can say ‘yes’ to all the good, and
the best you can have, you have to rightly deal with the ‘no’s’. Life doesn’t come through saying ‘yes’ to
everything. You have to say ‘no’ before
you can say ‘yes’.
Even,
in New Testament times, when Jesus came to preach the ‘good news of the
Kingdom, the first word was ‘repent’ (Mark 1:15). Repent means to turn around, but it is still type
of ‘no’. Before you can say ‘yes’ to the
fulness of life, you still have to learn to say ‘no’ too, in Jesus too. It is out of the ‘no’s’ that God gives us his ‘yes’.
It
was even out of the ‘no’ the world said to Jesus, when his own rejected him, that
God gives his ‘yes’! “He came unto
his own...his own rejected to him...but as many as accepted him, he gave power
to become children of God’ (Jn. 1: 11-12). Even after the ‘no’ the world gave to Jesus, Paul
went on to explain, after we come to understand the ‘no’, it’s always a yes (2 Cor. 1:19). Paul says, ‘the promises of God in
Jesus are always a ‘Yes!’
It
is only through the no, that God’s yes fully comes. And perhaps, outside of the coming of Jesus,
the greatest way God gives us his ‘yes’, is through, yet another, unrepeatable ‘no’. This ‘no’ that becomes God’s ‘yes’, goes all
the way back to Moses and God’s ‘no’ at the mountain. Why did God say ‘no’ to allowing people to
see him on the mountain? Why can’t we
see God and live? The answer is in the
question itself; God wants us to live. This answer is fully unveiled later, after God
more fully ‘reveals’ himself and his presence on earth, once in a tent, and
then later in the temple that Solomon built as God’s ‘house’. Then, finally, in the Bible’s unfolding
story, God finally and most fully reveals himself in the greatest temple of
them all, in the life of Jesus’, God’s
own Son.
But
this story about God’s temple, God’s dwelling place, goes beyond the temple,
and beyond Jesus’ too. For about the
same time that the Roman’s destroyed the second temple (70 AD), similar to how Babylon
had destroyed the first, we see once again where God’s ‘no’ was going all
along, and how it was always a no that was about becoming God’s ‘yes’. This became known just as the New Testament
was coming together. In both Jesus’
words and Paul’s words too, both point to God’s great final ‘yes’ to the
world. If you remember, Jesus is reported
to have said, about himself, “If you destroy this temple, in three days I
will rebuilt it…” (Mark 14: 58; Matt.
27:40; John 2: 19). Jesus was talking
about himself; about his own death and resurrection. But even his own death and resurrection wasn’t
just about Him. We discover what all
this ‘no’ business was about, when we finally turn to the writings of Paul, in
something Paul tells the Corinthians in one of the very first letters.
In
this very first letter we finally understand why God said ‘no’ to allowing
people or Moses to see him directly, and why God allows his ‘temples’ to be
destroyed and also why God allowed his Son to die on the cross. We also see here, exactly why God doesn’t
want us to say ‘yes’ to just anything, and why certain ‘no’s’ have to come first. Here, writing
to the Corinthians, Paul spells is out.
This isn’t long after the Holy Spirit has been released into the world,
that Paul writes: “Do you not know
that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?... ‘God’s
temple is holy, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:16).
Now, we can see why God gave all those ‘no’s;
on the mountain, in the 10 commandments, in the destruction of temples, and
finally through the death of God’s own son, and in the new morality based on
Christ’s love. Every thing God has been
about is revealed in this, as Paul writes again in the same letter: “Do you not know that your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are
not your own? For you were bought with a
price; therefore glorify God in you body” (1 Cor. 6: 19-20).
“THE
WILL OF GOD..”. (v. 3)
In
our text today, which is a letter written even before Corinthians, Paul writes,
“This is the will of God; your sanctification...” (4:3). In the Bible, especially in the Hebrew Old
Testament, it wasn’t just the temple that was ‘sanctified’ or ‘set apart’,
and made ‘holy’; but it was the people themselves. This was the original will, purpose, and
dream of God.
When
you go back to Exodus 19, before we read about the ‘fire’ on the mountain, we hear
God’s original dream, wish, or will being revealed to Moses. We need to read this brief text in its entirety:
“
Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called
to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the Israelites:
4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,
and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep
my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.
Indeed, the whole earth is mine,
6 but YOU SHALL BE FOR ME A PRIESTLY KINGDOM
AND A HOLY NATION. These are the words that you shall speak to the
Israelites." (Exod. 19:3-6 NRS).
When
I was a teenager, we had a tragic event in our community, when a neighbor’s
child was killed by a driver who passed a stopped school bus and hit the
child. The father was a new deacon in
our church, and I went with my Father to the home to be with the Family in
their time of great shock and sadness.
It wasn’t long until our interim pastor came, and I was there when I
heard him say something I never want to hear anyone say. This is what a pastor says, when they have no
theological education or understanding.
He looked at the distraught and broken couple straight in the eyes, and
as if he stuck a knife in their hearts, he said: “Now, I know this is hard, but you now, you
must learn to accept the will of God.”
It would have been much better if that pastor would have stayed home. That family left our church. They went back home. They never returned to our community. And I don’t blame them.
That
pastor should have read the Bible more closely, especially here, where we have
one of the only times Paul tells us exactly, precisely what God’s will is, and
what God’s will means. God’s will is
not about God controlling us, taking our freedom away from us, or taking things
or life away from us, but God’s will is about becoming ‘free’ to be everything
God has created us to be. Jesus said that
he came to give us ‘life’ and to give us life that is ‘full’ and ‘abundant’
(Jn. 10:10).
If
you go to Charlotte Memorial Hospital, you’ll see the symbol of a Tree. It’s a Tree that is one of the oldest symbols
of healing and life. This symbol of healing
life, not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually, lies at the heart
of what Paul means by this big word ‘sanctification’. To ‘sanctify’ something or someone,
means to ‘set them’ or ‘it’ out for a special purpose—for God’s purpose, for God’s
dream, and for God’s mission, which we should call the ‘fullest’ and most ‘abundant’
‘life’.
In
the original plan for human life, spelled out for us in Scripture, God gave his
creation ‘life’. In Genesis, we are told
that God breathed into humanity ‘life’ and that this is not only
physical life, but God gave humans his own ‘image’, so humans could
flourish with good and constructive life (Gen. 1:28, 2:15).
But
we also know, is one of the most important narratives in the world, what
happened after that. God’s dream and
purposes were delayed and deferred because of human rebellion, sin, and disobedience,
which resulted in violence, death, and human alienation from God and from other
humans.
As
a result of this brokenness, humans were no longer freely accessible to the
life-giving God, but had to come back to God’s original plan and dream through forgiveness
and cleansing. From Genesis 12 to the New
Testament, we have a story of how God called his people Israel to be examples
to the world of God’s forgiving, cleansing, and redeeming love. It was out of Israel’s call to be God’s holy
people, that God’s Son, who is also Israel’s Son, became the final and fullest
expression of the way back to God’s original plan. Jesus, came as God’s Messiah, to restore the
image of God in us so we can life our lives to their fullest.
Also,
when you read what Paul has been talking about in this short letter to the
Thessalonians, you’ll find Paul talking about how, through the gospel of Jesus
Christ, God continues to call a people to live ‘in power and in the Holy
Spirit’ (1:5). Paul goes on to describe
this ‘power’ as how he has been ‘pure, upright, and blameless in conduct’
(2:10) toward them, and he then urges them, to ‘live lives worthy of God who
calls (us) into his own kingdom and glory’ (2:12)...For what is our hope
or joy, or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus...? Is it not you? Yes, you are our glory and joy! (2:19-20). And then, just before our own text, Paul
returns his great hope for the Thessalonians, saying, “May the Lord make you
increase and abound in love for one another, just as we abound in love for you...
May he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless...at the
coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints (3:12-14).”
The
major concern of Paul’s letter is not ‘the coming of the Lord’, as some
might think, but his major concern is that God’s people ‘increase and abound
in love for one another’ and that their hearts be ‘strengthened’ in ‘holiness’
when the Lord comes. In Paul’s
language, the word ‘holy’, the word ‘saints’, and the word ‘sanctification’
all comes from one single root idea --- found all the way back to the call of
God’s people, to be made ‘holy’ as God is ‘holy’ (Lev. 11:45). This is God’s will; ‘our’
sanctification. To be ‘sanctified’ does
not mean to be made some kind of ‘super’ ‘perfected’ saint, but it means to be
restored, redeemed to live the kind of life humans are suppose to live. And Christians are called to live this kind
of ‘holy’ separated, different kind of life, not just for our own joy and
fulfillment, but for the sake of the saving and full redemption of the world. As Peter himself said, ‘Conduct yourself honorably,…so they may see
your honorable deeds and also glorify God when he comes as judge (1 Pet. 2:12)
It’s
a tall order, isn’t it? God doesn’t live
in ‘temples’ made with human hands, but God lives in us, who are living ‘temples’---temples
of God’s Holy, indwelling, life-honoring, redeeming Spirit. This is what this big word ‘sanctification’
means; that God lives God’s life and God’s saving redemption through a
people---this is how God’s saving comes into the world. God became ‘God with us in Jesus’ and
now, through Jesus live as ‘living stones’ and examples of life as God intends.
This
is exactly what Peter means, when he adds to Paul’s understanding, going back
to God’s original plan for Israel, saying that to be ‘sanctified by the Holy
Spirit’ is to become obedient to Christ (1 Peter 1:2). “You are a chosen race; a holy nation; God’s
own people,” Peter writes to the church.
Then, in 2 Peter, we have some of the strongest words about
sanctification, as God’s will to be a people who are growing in the grace. Peter
writes: “Like newborn infants, long
for the spiritual milk, so that you may GROW INTO SALVATION (1 Pet.
2:2). The newer translations translate
the Greek correctly, that salvation is not complete in us, unless and until we ‘grow’
into God’s salvation. Being Holy—as God
is holy, and being ‘sanctified’ in the Holy Spirit, is something we are given
to ‘become’ and ‘grow’ into. “This is
God’s will; your sanctification..., which is our ‘growing up’ in the salvation
given to us in Jesus Christ.
NOW,
CONCERNING LOVE...
(v. 9).
Where
all this talk of ‘abstaining’ from misusing our bodies to being ‘sanctified’
and made whole and ‘holy’ in both ‘body’ and ‘soul’ is going is how Paul
concludes, with a brief discussion of what it means to ‘love’. What the person who is obsessed with the ‘flesh’
and possessed by their own ‘passions’ can’t do, is love. Think of a Jeffery Epstein living on an
island, abusing young girls, keeping them captive like animals. Think of a Harvey Weinstein, abusing women
like objects and trying to wiggle out of it, but never have true love in his
own life. We can think of so many ways,
that our world is ‘obsessed’ with talking about ‘sexual freedom’, but has no
clue how to talk about, understand or live in love.
In his closing comments,
Paul speaks of ‘loving’ others, in the most unusual, unexpected way. He doesn’t give us graphic, philosophical
explanations of love, but he concludes very simply, to love each other ‘more
and more’ (v.10) and then, he encourages them finally, ‘to
aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands,
as we directed you, 12 so
that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one. (1
Thess. 4:11-12 NRS).
That’s
certainly, not the normal way people describe love, is it? But it does go right back to how Jesus
described ‘love’; ‘Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and LOVE YOUR
NEIGHBOR AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF. What Paul
is describing, is exactly that, what it means to be a person who truly begins
by rightly loving their own life. What every
psychologist knows is that a predator, and any person who hurts and abuses
others, is a person who, for some reason or other, can’t love themselves.
Recently,
on the news, as the Grammy Awards were approaching, a fairly new pop-star was being interviewed
on the morning news. She was a very
different looking star, with a very different kind of name, Billie Eilish. She has greenish tints to her stringy hair,
that she changes the color too often. You can tell she’s has a different kind of
approach to things. I’ve never heard her
sing, or what she sings, but I did like something she said. In the interview, she revealed that she had suffered
in her life. She had been a ‘cutter’; in
other words, she had been unhappy in life; unhappy to be herself and she would ‘hurt’
herself. She ‘never thought that she’d ever
be happy again.”
I
don’t know the details, but I do know she’s found a more positive direction and
she’s found that to have a life, you must also learn about love, and love begins
with learning how to love yourself. Now,
when she’s on stage, and Billie encounters others in the audience that may have
been hurting themselves, she said, “I tell them, don’t do something to yourself
you can’t take back.” “Please be good
and nice to yourself. Take care of
yourself. “ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/billie-eilish-grammy-nominated-singer-is-source-of-support-for-fans-who-are-struggling/ .
Interestingly,
the Jewish faith grew up in a world filled with primitive people’s cutting and
marking themselves. It was something the
‘priestly’ and ‘sanctified’ people of God were called to remove themselves from
doing (Ex. 21:6). And nothing opens us
up more to ‘self-love’ than living a ‘quiet life’, ‘minding your own affairs’ ‘working
with your own hands’ and seeking to get along with and love others, even ‘outsiders’
(v.12). In the psychological world they
call this, developing self-love and a good sense of self-esteem. It’s exactly this kind of thing that ‘abstaining’
from the wrong kind of passions will help you do; seeking to grow in godliness
will help you develop, and what all kinds of ‘sanctification’ and ‘holiness’ is
about. It’s about becoming the kind of
person who can love, because you know love, because his name in you is,
Jesus. Amen.
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