Good Out of Bad

Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23, 28:10-17

“Good Out of Bad”

24 September 2017 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel

Anyone who has a sibling can probably tell numerous stories revolving around sibling rivalry and the competition between siblings not just for parental attention, but for space, making sure one doesn’t get the better deal, equality in rules and justice, the list can go on and on.

I know that my brother and I also experienced this sibling rivalry, especially in our younger years. We would tell you tales of perceived injustices, of course those tales would be colored by our perspectives with our parents holding the version of the story that is probably closer to the actual account of events. This is because they were observers and are able to recall events with a sort of detachment.

In some ways, the story of Jacob and Esau is about sibling rivalry. The younger brother ends up with the blessing from his father, even if obtained through trickery and deceit. The relationship between these two twins was fractured for a long time, so much so that Jacob had to leave his homeland and set out for somewhere far away from Esau and any retribution that may arise from the stolen blessing.

While this episode shows outright trickery, Esau had already promised to give Jacob his birthright all for some bread and lentil stew to satisfy hunger after a hunt. Esau probably thought nothing of that episode in their lives, but Jacob and Rebekah, their mother, didn’t forget.

In our lives, sometimes we hear people make predictions about what is going to happen in the world or in someone’s life. These things frequently happen in church where someone will declare full of authority that a certain person is destined to succeed in a certain career. Perhaps it’s a family that is convinced a child will marry a close friend’s child. It could be an innocuous comment such as “that girl right there, she’s going places and will make the world a better place.” Comments that aren’t said quietly and in hushed tones, but proclaimed and repeated for everyone to hear.

            The stars of our story today were the recipients of such a comment. Before they were born, it was predicted that the elder would serve the younger. Esau was born first, Jacob second. Back then society was set up such that Esau would receive the overwhelming share of any inheritance and the blessing of the father because he was the firstborn son. Jacob would forever be expected to live in Esau’s shadow.

Perhaps Jacob was worried that Esau wouldn’t live up to his promise. Rebekah definitely seemed worried that her favorite son, the one who was foretold to be the ruler wouldn’t get to fulfill his destiny. For whatever reason, the birthright, or inheritance, wasn’t enough for Jacob and Rebekah, they also needed the blessing to ensure that Jacob was the one set above Esau. So, they devised a plan for Jacob to steal Esau’s identity and get the blessing from Isaac, who was on his death bed. And it worked. So much so that Jacob’s name later becomes Israel, the founding father of Israel.

The fact that Jacob’s deception worked is a difficult thing to accept for us and our expectation that the good guys are the ones that always win. We want those who swindle and take advantage of others to pay a price for those acts. Yet, it seems here that Jacob got everything he was expecting.

So, what is the point of this story? That’s a great question and I think there are many ways to look at what Jacob’s story is trying to tell us.

First, there is the idea that the suggestions and expectations of others do have significant weight. If Rebekah had never received the word that the younger twin would be the one who received everything, I doubt she would have been involved in this conspiracy. In fact, there probably would never have been any deceit to try and steal the birthright and blessing. And if there had been, Rebekah and Isaac would have put a quick end to that because there was no expectation to upend society’s expectations and tradition.

The words we use around people matter. Especially when those with real or perceived authority are encouraging or discouraging someone from taking a certain action. If a number of people who I respect and admire are separately telling me that I’m destined to do great things then I’m more likely to look for ways to do great things. A seed of hope and desire is planted and I know that others believe in me so I am more inclined to seek ways that help me live into those words.

Some would call this a self-fulfilling prophecy and to an extent that is correct. However, there’s more to it than someone hearing encouraging words and acting upon those. There also has to be an inner desire towards that goal. Years ago, when people told me I should look into becoming a pastor and a Navy chaplain because they had discerned I’d be really good at it, if I hadn’t already had a glimmer of that thought nothing would have come from those conversations. I’d walk away glowing because people thought well of my gifts, but I would have never explored that path.

The power of suggestion is strong and can do great things. Because of that fact we need to be careful with suggestions we us around others. Before suggesting a certain path, it would be in our best interest to discern how the recipient of that suggestion views the situation as well as possible second and third order effects. Because encouraging a certain outcome can affect bystanders in a negative way, just ask Esau. We have to encourage people to do things, but in a way that is healthy to themselves and the larger community.

Now we come to a lesson from Jacob’s story that not all of us will agree with, nor may even want to hear. God can use anyone for God’s purposes in life. That’s a heartwarming sentiment when the person that is being used for God’s purposes is one of the good guys who brings God’s glory through upright and pure means and intentions. But it’s a bit more difficult to understand when the one who literally becomes Israel got there through deceit and trickery, even if he was foretold to become a leader over his family.

For us to speak of an all-powerful God we also have to believe that God can use anyone and anything for God’s purposes. This means that God can turn something we see as wrong and sinful into a beautiful part of creation. That doesn’t necessarily redeem the act or the person, nor does it take away judgement on God’s part. However, it does allow God to continue to create beauty from chaos.

While Jacob’s methods of obtaining his blessing and the beginning of his road to becoming Israel grate at my inner sense of justice, I’m grateful that God chose to use his follies and mistakes for good. Like most of us in the world, I’m a broken and imperfect person seeking to bring some rays of light into the darkness of the world. The fact that God turned deceit and trickery into something that changed the world for good, gives me hope in my darkest moments that even I am destined for good.

In fact, all of us are destined for good. This story, like most of the stories we read in the Bible, are ways of God making proclamations of our future directly to each of us. Through Scripture God is telling us that we have a role to play in making the world better, that we are the ones that will bless the world. God has blessed us through telling us we are destined for great things. We need to listen to those words and trust they are true. Then we can look at the world through a different lens, a lens that sees places needing our skills where we can convert chaos to hope.

We need to use our friends and families to help ensure we aren’t resorting to methods such as Jacob used to accomplish the great things for which we are destined. However, we have repeatedly been told that we are here for a reason, to move ourselves and the world towards the fulfillment of our potential. So, let us go from here seeking way sot help ourselves and those around us find and reach their fulfillment, helping God in the effort to transform the chaos of creation into the very good beauty for which it was intended.

You can listen to sermons from St. Andrew's Military Chapel here.

Relational Creation

Genesis 1:1-2:4

“Relational Creation”

17 September 2017 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel

Anyone in here willing to admit they are a perfectionist? Maybe just to having perfectionist tendencies? I know I can admit to having some areas of my life where I seek perfection and can beat myself up over not meeting unrealistic expectations.

Most of us work in jobs where there isn’t much grace in reaching standards of perfection. We hear phrases such as “no fail mission” or “zero defect mentality.” To make matters confusing on what is expected, the same people who seek perfection are many times the same people advocating that we look for the 80% solution.

As I have gotten older, spent more time in Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club, and even with some serious study of Scripture, I’ve come to the realization that perfectionism isn’t our purpose in life. In fact, I’m pretty sure not even God set out to create a perfect world.   

Before you get out the pitchforks or start thinking your pastor is the biggest heretic in Singapore, let’s turn towards Scripture and take a look at what God created, how and why creation is the way it is, and how the beginning of the story makes sense.

Two weeks ago we took a look at the end of the story in Revelation 21 and 22. During that discussion, I reminded everyone to not forget those chapters of the Bible when understanding and telling our story of faith. I also mentioned that we often forget the first two chapters of the Bible when we look to understand life, the universe, and everything.

The last two chapters of Revelation show us our teleos, or our completion, purpose, culmination, what we are made to be in the universe. It’s a glorious vision where all of creation is redeemed and made good as God intended. Revelation isn’t an end, rather it shows our destiny, what we are meant to become, of what we are meant to be a part. It shows what the world looks like when the Gospel is fulfilled. Everything is made new, remade and resurrected according to God’s plan. It assumes that God has been involved in all of creation from the beginning and that all of humanity is invited to participate and flourish in that creation.

So now we look at the beginning of the story, that moment where God decided to include humanity into a cosmic drama that we will never fully understand. It’s too big for us to grasp all of the detail and nuance, but through revelation, or revealing parts of the plan, throughout the centuries we get glimpses of our role in creation and what the fulfillment will look like.

These first two chapters of Genesis attempt to describe from whence we, and everything around us, came. And here’s the crazy thing, creation was never stated to be perfect.

Sometimes we get sucked into the trap of thinking everything was idyllic back at the beginning when God spoke and the universe followed God’s command. God says, “Let there be” and it was. We make an assumption that a perfect being would only create perfection. The Bible only describes one perfect human and he doesn’t show up for a long, long time. Go back and read what God says at the end of each creative act. God says, “and it was good.” Except for humans, we get the label of very good.

Notice that God never says we were created perfect. What’s also interesting is that in the beginning God never eliminated or destroyed chaos, God moved chaos to the side and created beauty from chaos. This lets us know that chaos is part of creation. Perhaps that’s why there will always be the eternal question of why do bad things happen? Chaos is there in the background occasionally seeping into the very good creation that we see every day.

So, creation isn’t perfect. Reading this passage we see that it has never been perfect. And maybe that’s the point.

If everything began in a state of perfection, with all of creation in our teleos or final place of culmination, what would we do every day, what would be the purpose of life?

Because this passage is so familiar to many, when we read or hear it for the thousandth time, we don’t slow down enough to catch some little nuances that can answer big questions.

In verse 26 God says, “Let US make humankind in OUR image, according to OUR likeness.” As we read the faith story throughout Scripture we come to learn that humans weren’t the first beings created by God. There are angels and others among the heavenly host. But what I find striking about this verse is that God was part of a community where relationships are vital and sought to create a place that depended on relationships. Not just between one or two beings, but a complex web of relationships that are all equally vital to our flourishing.

What if when God said to make humans in our image, God wasn’t referring to a physical image but a spiritual image? An image of relationship and community.

From an early age, every one of us craves relationship with something. Deep in our minds we know that the only way to flourish in this world is with others. This plays out in many ways throughout our lives. At first it’s through the touch and cuddling of infants. Without meaningful touch in the first few years of our lives we will develop severe emotional wounds that can take decades to heal.

As we grow we develop relationships outside our family unit. Sometimes we develop a strong and loving relationship with pets and other creatures. We find friends with whom we bond over some of the strangest reasons. I have a friendship from college that grew out of a snowball fight. Some of us may be called to a lifelong relationship with a spouse. Regardless of the nature of those relationships, each one is an image of God, God working in and through us in the world.

We also need to remember that we are created for a healthy relationship with all of creation. When God gave us dominion over creation it wasn’t to dominate creation but rather to cultivate and develop a healthy relationship with all of creation. Because we are beings with critical thinking skills and creativity, we should use those basic skills to find ways to care for every part of creation so those things in the world that can’t take care of their selves are looked after and allowed the same opportunity to flourish as ourselves. Caring for the whole of creation is an important part of our living into our innate relational nature.

Now, I recognize that not all relationships last and that losing a relationship is painful. But, that just furthers the point. Because we are meant for relationship, we experience a very sharp, distinct, and sometimes lasting pain when a deep relationship is lost. In a way, that leads us back to the lack of perfection in creation. If creation were perfect and without chaos, every relationship would self-sustain with no conflict in the world. We’d never understand the importance of each other. We’d never have an impetus to grow and improve ourselves and the world around us. 

            Now we see how the beginning of the story connects with the end of the story that we read a few weeks ago. We were brought into this world seeking healthy relationships with each other and all of creation. The world wasn’t created perfect and idyllic, for chaos was never eliminated and is still present in our daily lives. It doesn’t take much research to confirm its presence.

            We aren’t here to seek perfection, but that shouldn’t keep us from working to better the world and the lives of those who live with us. As we read Scripture, we’ll see glimpses of what the Kingdom looks like, God’s purpose for all of us here on earth. We can’t achieve that on our own, we need each other, working together relationally to move in that direction. Reading the end of the story, we know it is a vision of healthy relationships that know no boundaries, no barriers, no pretense, just joy at the recognition that we are all blessed to be working together to take care of each other and all of creation.

            Relationship is in our DNA, in fact we were created to seek and nurture relationships in our lives and throughout the world. The Larger Catechism, or a series of questions and answers to help people learn the faith, begins with the question, “What is the chief and highest end of man?” The answer is, “Man’s chief and highest end of man is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” The only way we can fully enjoy God is through relationships with God and all of creation, all of those the bear the image of God in the world.

So as we go forth from here let us look for ways to not just improve the relationships we already have, but to find and cultivate relationships in unexpected places. The more effort and focus we place into this task will move us closer to the purpose for which we were created. Then we will fully enjoy God and fulfill our chief end, our purpose in life.

You can listen to sermons from St. Andrew's Military Chapel here.

Everlasting Hope

Revelation 21:1-6, 22:1-5

“Everlasting Hope”

03 September 2017 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel

If one turns on the 24-hour cable news channels from the US, they could easily come to lose faith in humanity and the direction the world is headed. One could find some passages in Scripture that would bolster that thought process, especially in some of the passages that we’ve looked at throughout John’s Revelation.

Realizing something isn’t right in the world today is a good sign. It means that we know there is more to this life that what we see. Deep inside us we know that good will win over evil. The dark side of the force may have its moments, but it isn’t the final answer. Despite what Darth Vader may say and think, our destiny isn’t in using our power for evil and letting the hate flow. There is something more out there because there is something more inside each of us.

Just look at the children we have the pleasure of interacting with each Sunday here in this space. Sure, they can get loud, messy, overly inquisitive, slightly fidgety, and occasionally disruptive to our service. But look beyond that and what do you see in the eyes of children? Hope. Hope and a keen sense of right and wrong and that the good people win in the end. There’s a reason fairy tales follow a certain formula. That formula is based on the instinctive hope of every human that good beats evil.

In the light of what we see in the world, we need hope. Just look at some of the headlines over the last two weeks. Hurricane Harvey in Houston, TX. Racial Violence in Charlottesville, VA. North Korea firing a missile directly over Japan. It can get overwhelming and depressing making many wonder if the world is past the point of no return and truly hopeless. And the way in which some Christians read and interpret Scripture can feed that feeling.

There is a tendency in America, and many other Western countries, to ignore the impact of Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and 22. I mean, it’s only four chapters of the Bible, it won’t make much of a difference in how we interpret the overall story of the Bible, right? Well, let’s take a look at what the Bible is without those four chapters.

If we start at Genesis 3 and end at Revelation 20, our story begins with the fall of Adam and Eve and ends with the dreaded lake of fire. We sin, continuously from the beginning, and no matter what happens we have a good chance of landing in the lake of fire. Read this way, what point is life? What good is there because we’re all sinful and not worthy of God’s love and grace? Where is the hope? I don’t want to be a part of that movement or belief system. Do you?

Genesis one and two clearly state that creation was created with care, love, and purpose. It’s important that these chapters begin the story. We are told from whence we came and that we were wonderfully made in and with love as part of a plan with no expectation of anything in return. More importantly, we are told that all of creation is created good with humanity deemed very good. We all want to be a part of stories with beginnings such as this.

On the back end, here in Revelation, we learn that all will again be redeemed and made good. This passage is amazing because it shows us not the end, but rather the teleos or culmination of things. Revelation shows us our destiny, what we are meant to become, of what we are meant to be a part.

John describes how Rome, socialism, ISIS, capitalism, the US, and any other human institution will never be supreme. God, and only God, is supreme. And that is the Gospel, that is great news.

Here in Revelation the Gospel is fulfilled. We, as a part of creation, reach our destiny, our own teleos, our fulfillment. We return to where we belong, where we were made to live. This is why God tells John, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” God was the beginning and invited us into a plan and God will be there with us at the end. Everything is made new, remade and resurrected according to God’s plan.

Now I’ll gladly be a part of that story. Write me into that script. You won’t even have to pay me to play a role in that cosmic drama. I was created with a purpose, deemed very good by said creator, and might get to see a day when the temporary empires of the world that inevitably turn against numbers of people are no more in favor of a place where all are welcomed and treated equally.

Heaven isn’t a replacement of earth. It’s the fulfillment of earth and all those who inhabit this beautiful world. Nowhere in this passage does it describe earth as being destroyed. The defeat of evil doesn’t bring about the annihilation of earth. It brings God to make all things new. We are made anew with the destruction of death.

In this new world, God’s presence returns similar to what Israel experienced during the Exodus. Rather than a cloud of fire, God’s presence is an ever-present light to the world. Unlike the unequal commerce present in any human form of government or empire, the essentials of life are freely given to all as a gift. We again see the tree of life providing not just food for all, but healing for every nation. Death and mourning are no more and for those of us who have ever felt the sting of death, that is welcome news.

There are gates around this city, but they aren’t there to keep people out or turn them away for the gates don’t lock. Without any enemies, there is no reason for lockable gates. All are invited into the kingdom. It’s everything good in the earth, earth and us at our full potential and purpose.

It’s hard to imagine something like this, so perhaps it’s best to let C.S. Lewis shed some light on this concept of heaven being the culmination, not the replacement, of creation. Near the end of his book The Last Battle heaven is described this way:

“Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow of a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.

“It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia, as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it, if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time there were somehow different—deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there, you will know what I mean.”

That is what we all long for. It’s the story we all want to participate in. It’s our purpose in life. We are called to do what we can to bring about glimpses of this place in the current earth, our own old Narnia. We are called to help the world realize there is more than this and that we belong to something beyond description. Let us work to point out the glimpse of God’s Kingdom here on earth to anyone who will listen.

Back to Lewis, “It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed and then cried:

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”

You can listen to sermons from St. Andrew's Military Chapel here.