Jwquaker's Blog
Sermon
The Fox in the Henhouse
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
March 13, 2022
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Luke 13:31–35 (ESV)
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Last week we considered the temptations that Jesus faced. I hope that we were able to see how similar those temptations are to our own temptations. They are not necessarily a desire or urge to do something wrong, but often temptations are a desire to do the right thing the wrong way. We in our desire to do the right things can sin, we can oppose the will of God, because we are not able to see or are unwilling to see how God is using the process.
The first temptation was to turn a stone into bread. And I mentioned that this was a temptation to withdraw from the community aspect of life. Instead of encouraging others to get involved you take all the power on yourself to fulfill your own needs. This does not sound terrible does it, it sounds like great business sense. But what is more important to God? In the kingdoms of men profit is important. Profit is looking out for yourself or your group first. But in the kingdom of God, mutual profit is what is important. Mutual profit is looking out for something larger. Making sure that all within the community benefits from the transactions.
The second temptation was to being all the kingdoms of the world under the rule of Jesus. This is the ultimate goal of God. That all nations, tribes, and languages will come to praise the one Most High God. But the temptation was to get to take a short cut to that goal. So often we are tempted with the same things. I want a good grade on a test because the goal at that moment is to pass. How do I get that grade? I could spend hours studying, or if I just write the answers down on my arm and wear a long-sleeved shirt, I can just cheat my way to the top. Businesses want to make a larger profit, so they use inferior resources to make their goods. They sacrifice quality and possibly safety for their goal. And we see this in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. We could say that this is a battle between the East and West, but really it is a desire to take a short cut. Instead of developing a deeper relationship, they will use force instead.
The third temptation was to make a spectacle. To attract attention not by substance but by show. I want us to think of this. How often are we manipulated by the show? Every political campaign is a spectacle that manipulates the people into thinking that one person is better than the other. The ads are propaganda filled with half-truths to convince each of us to regard the other candidate as just one step less evil than the devil. Even movies, an industry that is based on entertainment, have increasingly devoted resources to special effects instead of plot development. If you do not believe me, look at the latest trailers for the emerging movies, they are filled with special effects. Half the time the best parts of the movie are in the trailers, and the rest of the movie is often a waste of time. This of course does not happen in Star Wars, because they are all good.
Then we come to the church. How often do we get distracted by the spectacular? There are churches that claim to be so holy that gold dust will fall from the ceilings as people sing praises, and that feathers from angel wings are often seen floating down around you. The fact that scripture never says that angels have wings let alone feathers is suspect, but the spectacle is there. We are drawn in by the exciting, but what about substance? I am not saying that those places do not have substance, but the spectacular feats surrounding them causes me to pause and look deeper.
These temptations always surround us. They bombard us from every direction. Half the time we do not even notice that we are being subjected to their influences, and there are people that have gotten very good at manipulating the use of these very things for their own advancement. We as followers of Christ are called to something greater. We are called to look deeper, and to live differently.
This is something that has been part of religious life from the dawn of history. Today we meet Jesus during a conversation. A group of Pharisees come to Jesus and they carry with them a dire warning. “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
The first thing I want us to see, is that these Pharisees seem to be allies with Jesus and not opponents. Usually when we see the word Pharisee, we quickly assume that they are the bad guys of the story. They are the leaders that are mindlessly trapped in the bondage of religion and fail to see the working of God around them. Many times, we would not be wrong in this assertion, but in this case, these men have respect for Jesus.
I say they have respect, but I also want us to recognize that they have information. They know that the king, or the political ruler over this territory, has a mind to assassinate Jesus. These men and the group they are members of have an insiders’ knowledge of what is going on. This highlights that the larger group of Pharisees are in fact plotting with Herod, but these men are in opposition.
We often regard the religious sect of the Pharisees as this unified monolithic organization that has one overarching perspective to life. But the reality is that they are a human organization and there are different opinions within their organization. With the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls we can develop a deeper understanding of this group of people. First off, their name literally means, to separate, divide, or distinguish. What are they dividing from? The Sadducees, which were largely in charge of the temple traditions. I want us to think of the Pharisees not as this monolithic religious organization, but as the reformers. They are basically the Protestants of the religion of Israel. And their focus was to bring the center of religious identity away from the outward ceremonies performed in the temple, and instead place the center of their religious identity into the home.
They sought to decentralize religion, making it into something that we all could live. It was this group that laid the foundation not only for the rabbinical Judaism we see practiced throughout the world today, but they contributed a great deal to the formation of the Christian church today. Regarding theological understanding the Pharisees and Jesus were very closely related. And yet there were disagreements between Jesus and this group, and if we were to look closely at the various tests the Pharisees challenge Jesus with, we would see that there are differences within the ranks of the Pharisees. Scholars have noted that there are two major schools of thought within the Pharisees. One is the conservative school of Rabbi Shammai, and the second is the more liberal school of Rabbi Hillel. I use the terms liberal and conservative, for a reason because I want us to realize that they are simply words used to scare us. Neither Shammai nor Hillel would be considered liberal today, but Hillel taught that the interpretation of the law was not fixed, but it needed to adapt to the changing conditions of the world. This would mean that the torah are teachings, a moral and ethical guide, instead of divine mandate. To Hillel we were supposed to think and use reason to determine how the law applies in the circumstances of today?
These differences of perspective come up often in the conversations with Jesus, and that is something we see today. Some Pharisees are working with Herod and his plot against Jesus, while others want to preserve this popular teacher.
Jesus tells this group of unsuspected allies, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.’” This is a very interesting statement that is packed full of… well insults. Even today we use the term fox in a derogatory manner. We use this as a way of describing a cunning and deceptive nature. This is true even in the ancient days, but there is another view that may come into play. In some Jewish circles, a fox can also symbolize an individual that is regarded as or considers himself a lion but is in reality a very small threat. This could explain Herod in many ways. He was the son of Herod the Great and had aspired to reunite the territory of his father. Herod wanted to be seen as great, but when he made attempts to show his authority, Rome quickly stepped in and removed him from power. He regarded himself as a lion, but he was nothing more than a small predator that stole chickens from the farmyard.
The insults do not stop there. Some other scholars look at this statement and they see something completely different. The Hebrew word for Saul and fox are homophones. Meaning they are different words that sound the same. Veggie Tales has a wonderful song about homophones if you want to do a quick google search. Jesus might be using a play on words and basically calling Herod Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel that fell from God’s graces. God then chose and anointed David to be the next king and Saul spent the rest of his life focused on how he could somehow get rid of David, only to find every attempt foiled because David had God’s blessing. The will of God will triumph over the will of mankind.
After Jesus insults Herod, he then says something that is also strange. “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course.” The expression today, tomorrow, and the third day is a Hebraic idiom for a short and indefinite period. Jesus is telling this fox and his allies that I have work to do, and I am going to finish the course set before me, and you will not be able to stop it.
Jesus, had to go to the cross. He had to die so that he could conquer death. Often, we think of the fall of humanity as being where sin entered the human existence. But the reality is that when our first parent ate of the tree of knowledge, death entered. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they turned from God’s will, that was sin, but the result of that sin was that they were severed from the source of life, God. Death is separation from life, it is not sin. Sin is the opposition of God’s will, where death is the resulting curse that comes from our sin.
We all face death because we have all sinned, we cannot help but to sin because the connection to life has been severed so we are all making vain attempts using whatever is at our disposal to determine good and evil. The reality is that our knowledge is at best incomplete. And when we act with incomplete knowledge, we will inevitably cause harm in some way. When we cause harm, we participate in the continuation of sin because we are making decision based on our will instead of the will of God. Jesus forgives sin, but death is still our destiny. Only God can change the course of our human destiny. The book of Revelation tells us that Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades. And Peter tells us in his letter that Jesus descended into hell. We can get some pretty skewed theological positions from this, but what it means is that Jesus entered the realm of the dead, he was buried and he took the one thing that the devil can hold over us, death.
Jesus had to die, Jesus had to face death with us and for us. He faced this so that he could reverse the curse. And that is what he is speaking about. I cast out demons, the minions of death, and perform cures, the inflictions of death. He speaks of reversing the damage that this spiritual rebellion instituted. And no plot of man, nor the powers of demonic forces can change that. Just as Saul sought to deprive David of his anointed destiny as king, the fox of Herod will not prevent God’s will to be fulfilled on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Jesus has a divine mandate to reverse the damage caused by spiritual rebellion and sin, but this will occur in a way that is beyond human understanding. Last week I spoke about hypocrisy. How our own hypocrisy can sear or dam the lifegiving flow of blessing because it can cause us to lose sight of the image of God within those around us. We can easily fall into this type of hypocrisy. It is found in the three temptations of Christ and always surrounds us. We all want to profit, but we often do not seek mutual profit. We all want the ultimate goal to come to being, but we often do not want to put in the work of developing the relationships to make that happen. We like the spectacular, but we do not have time to develop the substance to make the spectacular a constant reality. This resembles what Jesus says about prayer. We want but we do not ask, and when we ask, we ask wrongly.
The Pharisees were seeking to make the world around them ready for the messiah. Even today you can hear this being taught by the rabbis, we must make the world ready for messiah, and when he comes all things will be set right again. We often get caught in this same practice. Some of us because of our understanding of Eschatology or the theology of the end, believe that certain things must happen before Christ returns so we eagerly watch and wait, and we make decisions based on what we believe will make that return happen more promptly. We look at the world around us and we nearly praise the debauchery instead of seeking to inspire a different lifestyle. The same could be said about the Pharisees. They had ideas; they had their own theories. And Jesus calls them out on it. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
Jesus here is telling them that they do not understand. They do not understand what God desires. The prophets spoke out against the sins of the Gentiles but they did not only speak out about their sins, but also the sins of Israel. “It is mercy I desire not sacrifice.” Hosea says. The prophets spoke out against the sins of their own people. And the result of their preaching was to be stoned.
Stoning is the prescribed form of execution for those that are apostate and idolatrous. Stoning was the legal means God commanded the people of Israel to deal with those that lived contrary to His will. Yet, it was those that He chose to be his spokesmen, that faced this divinely mandated punishment. We can become so blinded by our own ideology that we would reject the word of God and subject those that speak it to a perversion of justice. God was calling out to his people, yet they rejected God and killed those that were calling them back. What does God want? What does God desire?
The greatest lions among us are simply a fox in the hen house. We think we can change the course of history with our wars and our policies. But where exactly do we stand? Jesus told his followers not to fear the ones that can take life, but the one that can judge the soul. I like everyone reads the news and I wonder if the concept of nuclear war will become a reality, but the lions that I perceive are nothing but foxes, because God is still at work. Are we following the lion or the fox? Are we looking at the people around us as threats to our ideology or are we seeing them as imagers of God in need of mercy?
Jesus looked at the people of his day, people that had the ear of power, and he called them out. They in all their religious posturing were connected to the kingdoms of men instead of the kingdom of God. Fear keeps us in bondage within the kingdoms of men. But perfect love casts out all fear. Our God came to live among us. He was born of a virgin, and he lived a complete life. He taught and ministered within his community and showed us the lifestyle God wants us to live. He stood up to the foxes of men and took on our fear, our shame, and our curse as he was nailed to the cross. He was buried in a tomb and challenged the one thing we all face with fear, death. He ripped the keys out of death’s hand and broke through the vail that separates us from life, as he rose from the grave on the third day, and our God restores our hope.
What does God want? What does God desire? He wants us. He wants us to turn from the foxes that make spectacular claims of power among mankind’s kingdoms, and he wants us to come to him. God so loved the world that he sent his one unique son to us so that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life with him. And this is eternal life that we believe in God, and the one He sent. Putin and Biden can rattle their sabers, the nations of men can make their postures of power, but they are but foxes in the hen house. They too face the same end that we all face. They cannot stop the goal that God has set from the beginning of creation. We are to bear the image of God, we are to make our world into God’s Garden, and dwell with him. Everything apart from that is sin. Will we stone the prophets and follow the foxes, or will we boldly stand with the lion of Judah?
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The Searing Reality of Temptation
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
March 6, 2022
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Luke 4:1–13 (ESV)
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ” 9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11 and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Over the past week I have done a great deal of soul searching. I have struggled with my own core believes in many ways. There is a reason for this. Faith is not easy. Faith is not something we can just jump into and live out. Faith is a struggle because life is a struggle.
I have watched various news reports and questioned my own beliefs. Do I really believe what I say I believe? I have had to face my own doubts, and my own self-deception. We all deceive ourselves. We all live lives of hypocrisy in some manner. We are not perfect.
I must thank a friend for much of this soul searching. Over the past few months, I have engaged in a bible study with this friend, and because of this study I have been required to dig deeper into some areas of my own understanding than I have previously. I want you all to know that when you teach, when you must in some way explain something to someone else you learn more. I have learned more about scripture while preparing for lessons and sermons than I ever did sitting in a pew or even sitting in a classroom learning how to study the Bible. If you want to learn about scripture, I encourage you to find someone or a couple of people to study scripture with. If each of us were to find a friend to study with and actually have to explain our understanding of faith to each other, we would deepen our spiritual lives in a way that we have not experienced it before.
I mention this because we were studying 1 Timothy and in the passage we were studying there was a strange verse that I have never really considered before. 1 Timothy 4:2, “2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,” This to me is a weird verse. Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, what does that mean? This verse speaks of our own self justification and personal hypocrisy. We can justify our actions. We can claim that they are valid and honorable. We can even use those justifications to direct how we interact with the world around us. And these justifications can cause us to lose the ability to see the harm we are causing to others. Hypocrisy is the insincerity of liars. Lack of empathy is where our consciences are seared or more accurately cauterized. Cauterization is the act of burning to seal off the flow. This is something that was used to prevent blood loss, and since I am not a medical doctor, or doctor of any kind, I cannot tell you if it works well or not, all I know is that we used to do it when we dehorned cattle.
The searing of the conscience stops the flow, it prevents or dams up the flow of blessing from one to another. It prevents us from participating in the mutual profit of those around us. It is in essence greed and pride. We sear our consciences because we do not want to think or even consider that I might be participating in something that is causing harm to others. I have had to struggle with this concept all through this past week. I struggle with this because I am attempting to live my life in faith. I can see how I, and the actions that I have promoted contribute to suffering of others. And how do we live with this? We either must repent or we cauterize our conscience so that we are able to continue living without pangs of guilt.
This single verse got my mind and heart working the past few days. I had to come to terms with my own hypocrisy and blatant refusal to acknowledges others. I read the verse and I thought about things like racism, nationalism, war, peace, trade, and the list can go on. Every form of human interaction has the risk of entering some form of insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, because we are human. We, with our desire to be right often will unite with those we see as similar and we will neglect and demonize those we see as different. This is something that we have struggled with for most of our human history.
Is this what God wants? Was this what God desired when he told our first parents to go out into all the earth and subdue it? No. This is the fall. This is humanity in their desire to know good and evil struggling to make the world into their image instead of the image of God.
We are told that Jesus is fully human and fully God by the theologians. This is by nature a concept that we are unable to grasp. We cannot wrap our heads around this concept because it is beyond our comprehension. That does not really matter. What matters is what Jesus is. What Jesus did. And where we are in relation to that. One of the greatest struggles we in the western world have with this whole concept is the verses in today’s reading, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
How can God be tempted? Is this even possible? The answer is not easy because we approach it from our perspective. And our perspectives are filled with our definitions of good and evil; right and wrong. We equate God with our human understanding and when we do that, we can develop a skewed understanding of who God is.
God can be tempted. God has always been tempted. That is what the whole supernatural rebellion is all about. The sons of God, the spiritual beings that were created before our terrestrial plain, were God’s family. They had communion with God, but God wanted a larger family so he created the world and he said to those spiritual beings, “Let us create man in our image.” So, he created humanity as image bearers of God. This role as image bearers is significant. It means that we have a place in God’s family, it means that we are just as significant to God as the angels of heaven. This significance is something that some of the spiritual beings could not handle, so they rebelled against God. This rebellion is temptation, or a test of God’s character. Will God be true to his nature? Can we as members of God’s created family trust him? The spiritual rebellion tested God; the test was to see if God would give greater honor to one over the other. Will God choose humanity or angels? Our entire history is a temptation of God. It is testing God; it is trying to make God move one way or the other. The angels of rebellion looked at God’s desire to live in Eden as God choosing humanity over them. And they hatched out a plan to make that stop. Get the humans to join the rebellion.
God can be tested, God is tested. But God can handle the test. Our problem is will we trust God. This is the humanity side of the temptation narrative. Is it possible for humans to participate in what God had already set in motion?
We are told that Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. I first want us to stop and think about this. We recognize the Holy Spirit as God. In the trinitarian view of God we have God the Father, Son and Spirit. Three distinct personalities that of one essence. The thing to remember is the one essence and not to worry about the three personalities as much, because this will only lead us into human justification and various heresies, because we cannot understand something that is beyond our shared experience. But we have experienced the one essence of God. This verse is telling us that God led God out into the wilderness to face the testing. God met the test head on without reservation.
And for forty days, Jesus was in the wilderness eating nothing. We get many insights from this. The fact that Luke and the other gospel writers use the number forty is significant. It links the experience of Jesus back into the history of Israel. They were tested for forty years in the wilderness. Moses was on the mountain forty days when he was receiving the law, and while he was up there Israel was tested, and they failed that test by building an idol of gold. Forty is a significant touch point that tells us that this is something that is linked to deep ancient roots.
Jesus was led by the Spirt to the wilderness to be tested. During that time, he ate nothing and was hungry. And the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” I want us to consider this test for a moment. Where is the temptation, where is the sin in this? This is the foundation of what we are talking about. When we think of temptation we think of sin, so we must consider what sin really is.
Theologically and religiously, we have a definition to this word. But I do not think we fully grasp what sin really is. According to our own faith and practice we basically label sin as disobedience to the will of God. I think this is a great definition. So often religious organizations define sin as disobeying God’s law. It might not seem like much of a difference but it is. To look at the will instead of the law is speaking of relationship in comparison of legal conformity. When we base our definition of sin on legal conformity sin is something we overcome through discipline and righteousness. But if the definition of sin is based on disobedience to the will of God, that indicates that we are in a conversation a relationship. Legal transactions can be negotiated, but relationships take something completely different.
It is not a sin to eat. It is not a sin to make bread to eat. It is a sin to make bread out of wheat that does not belong to you, or to grow wheat to make bread on land that is not yours. I want to reiterate that it is not a sin to eat bread. So where is the temptation what is the test?
This devil, this adversary or accuser, is testing Jesus. This personified representative of the rebellion is suggesting to Jesus take use the powers he possesses to provide for himself a necessity. It is not a sin to make bread, but it is a sin to disregard God’s will in the process. The will of God was for humanity to go into the world and subdue it and make it the garden of Eden. The temptation here is not just to make bread. It is to disregard the whole process of making bread. How can we encourage the world to come to God, if we are not interacting with the world? Our participation in the economies of mankind can be a witness to our relationship with God.
How do we make bread? First a seed and soil. Then the seed grows, reproduces and is harvested. Then the seeds are taken and ground into flour. This flour is combined with water and mixed into dough. That dough is formed into a loaf and baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. There are many steps involved in making bread, and there are many tools. Making bread even if we make it at home, is a community thing. We must interact with others to make bread. Even if we were to make our own tools, the idea is that there is still a relational aspect to eating involved. We make bread for the family. We trade with others so we have bread for the family. We interact with others. If Jesus were to simply make bread, he is cutting out the humanity of hunger. We do not live on bread alone. We live on the word of God. The word of God is that every single person on the face of this earth is important, and we need you to help provide the most basic things of survival.
To turn a stone into bread, the devil is challenging Jesus, challenging God to undo his own created order of interconnectedness. And that is our temptation as well. When we begin to feel as if we do not need someone else, or even a nation we are denying those people around us the right to bear the image of God in themselves. This is why racism is such a detrimental sin in our society. This is why it is important to recognize where we have denied the expression of the image of God in others. This is why war in every form is wrong. It allows us, it demands us to deny those outside of our group their identity as bearers of God’s image.
God does not need us to make the world into Eden. God could have made the world into Eden all on his own but that was not his will. His will was to have people freely choose to join him in that process. But all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all think we have the answers to all the world’s problems so we build empires and fight wars. This is the crux of the second temptation. “And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’”
This second temptation is connected to the first. If God’s plan was that the entire world be joined in unity under this Edenic garden nation, we have failed immensely. We are told in Deuteronomy that when humanity attempted to make a tower that reached to the heavens God confused the languages and divided the nations among the sons of God, keeping Israel as his allotment. This teaching is strange, but it basically means that God allowed the rebellion to occur so that through one people he could convince everyone to come back into alignment with the plan. Our first parents freely chose to rebel, and we must freely choose to come back to God. When God divided the nations among these rebellious spiritual beings, he was acknowledging that he will not force anyone or thing to conform to his will. Yet his will remains the same. His desire is that all of creation, all people will come to him. And on that glorious day of the Lord, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. But he waits, he waits for that final battle because he does not want a single person to die without an opportunity to come back to him.
This second temptation is a temptation for Jesus to jump ahead. The ultimate goal is that every nation and every tribe will be brought into and under God’s government. The tester says I can make it happen in an instant if you will just worship me. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?
The temptation again is to circumvent the relational aspects of the kingdom. God does not force people to love him. He freely offers all people the grace but we must choose to join him in his mission. William Penn, one of the early Quaker activists wrote this in a letter to Letter to Lord Arlington, while imprisoned in the Tower, “Force may make hypocrites, but it can make no converts.” He also wrote in Some Fruits of Solitude, “A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we do evil, that good may come of it…” Penn and the other early Friends, opposed the use of force, they believed that the only true and honest way to bring about change was to live that change in front of people. The ultimate goal of God is that all people will come to love him. But if God used force of any kind there would not be love. This would deny God of his nature and us of our own. And because God so loved the world, he allows humanity to be human. It is not God that causes the suffering of humanity, but we cause our own suffering. God does not cause children to live in abusive families, we are the ones that abuse. We are the ones that are broken.
It is only when we are able to see a different way of living, that we can stop the cycles of violence that define our societies. For the people of the world to see a different way that requires us to be convinced to live a different way. For people to stop the violence we must show that there is another way. Our mission statement for Willow Creek is: Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. This is actively showing the Kingdom of God. To incorporate this into our lives we must be involved in it with God. And we must be vulnerable and risk. Love inherently involves risk, because we cannot control others, we can only act and hope that they respond. Do unto other what you would like done to you is the golden rule so many of us live by, but have we really considered how risky that is?
The devil has tempted Jesus to fulfill his basic needs, and his ultimate desire, the third temptation occurs at the temple. “Throw yourself off, for it is written that the angels will lift you up so you will not strike your foot.” James the Just is said to have been thrown from the pinnacle of temple as the devil encourages Jesus to do. I mention this because it is a real thing that could happen. And this quote comes from one of the Psalms, that speaks of God being our fortress and protector. But what is the devil really tempting Jesus to do? Again, none of these things in themselves would be considered sinful, it is the intent behind the action. What will get the attention of the world? What can we do to get noticed? I remember growing up that there was always some gimmick that a furniture store would use to get people to come to their store. Once a guy sat on the roof in the middle of the summer and the longer he stayed up there the greater the discount would be. The local news was out on location the entire time, giving updates, because in the middle of nowhere there isn’t much news. The temptation here is to use the spectacular to attract attention instead of the truth. We like the show, we like the victory dance after a touchdown, and every hockey player has developed their own celly after a goal. We like these we want to participate in these actions, we want the show.
Do people come for the show or do they come for the truth? Are people coming for healing or the words of life? Are we here for the blessing or are we hear because we are disciples of God?
The devil is asking Jesus to use something spectacular to bring the people back to God. Jump off the roof and show them that God will not allow you to die. But Jesus said to the pharisees that even if someone rose from the grave they would not believe. The spectacular only works for a while, eventually you either have to become more spectacular or you need to deepen the roots. When we base our lives on the spectacular, we will constantly need something more but what we really need is to be part of something meaningful. We need to have a mission and a purpose.
We have a purpose, we are called like every other human being on the face of this planet to make this world into Eden, the place where God and humanity can live together in complete and total harmony. I do not want us to look at the larger picture. I do not want us to look at the news and point to Russia or the United States and say if only they would stop what they are doing then this would happen. No. That is not the point. God already has a government; he does not need our feeble attempts to replace his supremacy. I want us to look at ourselves. Have we succumbed to the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared? Have we fallen to the temptation that we know more and better than those around us? Or are we honoring that of God in the person sitting next to us. Are we honoring the image of God in the life of the clerk at the store? Are we thanking the servers at the restaurants for bringing us our daily bread? Are we actively participating in the kingdom in how we interact with those around us, or are we contributing to the burning of flesh to stop the flow of life?
If you would like to help support the continued Ministry of Willow Creek Friends Church please consider donating online:
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/nlcsJT87/Willow-Creek-Friends-Church/
To help support the personal ministry of JWQuaker (Jared Warner) online and in the community click to donate.
About the Eighth Day
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 27, 2022
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Luke 9:28–36 (ESV)
28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
Luke 9:37–43 (ESV)
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,
Today, we are again meeting together during a time of confusion and fear. We do not know what our future holds, we do not know what the kingdoms of men will do. We do not know. This confusion, this lack of knowledge, this lack of direction can allow fear to grip our hearts. I want us to recognize that fear in our own hearts. I want us to acknowledge that we are in fact afraid. I want us to realize that at times we will make decisions and act out of fear and how often those actions are contrary to our testimonies as Friends of Christ.
I must admit that I succumb to fear. This week has been a difficult one for me. As I look at the news my heart has been torn. As many of you know I spent time teaching English in the nation of Ukraine. Some of you may also be aware that one of my favorite authors is from Russia. And most of you know that I love my own nation. When I look at the news my emotions are mixed. My heart is pulled in multiple directions. And I can barely think.
Along with all the turmoil the kingdoms of men are causing, I am also aware of the things that are happening in our own lives and even in our churches. We have this intimate desire to fight, to be right, to be in charge, and control the future destiny of our lives. I have engaged in the arguments. I have engaged in the verbal battles of ideas, and I must repent of my own strong headedness. But I do this for one reason, there are people loved by God on all sides.
Today we meet Jesus in the most fascinating scene in all of scripture. This is a mysterious and almost frightening scene. It gives great hope, while at the same time it is just weird to the point scholars just do not know what to make of it. I say this because the words used in much of this passage allude to things and yet they do not. Luke in this passage uses words that he does not often use. Is he speaking of Old Testament fulfillment or is he speaking into eschatological shadows? This passage is shrouded in wonderous mystery.
It begins, “And now about eight days after…” How many of you know the significance of the eighth day? The eighth day is often regarded as the future day of the Lord, the day of new creation. When I was getting my master’s degree from Friends University in Wichita, we had to obtain several very odd books to study from. Many of these books were difficult to find and even the university book story struggled to keep them in stock. But there was one bookstore in town that had them all. The name of that bookstore is Eighth Day Books. I love this store. I try to visit it every time I go back to Wichita, because it is not just a bookstore. Yes, it is, filled with shelves of books. But these books are not what you would find at Barnes and Noble. There are classic books of literature, there are political science, philosophy, and history books. But along with these are books of theology and Christian spirituality. They have works from every corner of Christian thought from the various branches of Eastern Orthodox thought to Quakers. Yes, they have Quaker books. And they have Orthodox Icons. It is like you walk into a sacred library when you go into this place. But I always wondered why it was called Eighth Day Books. This bookstore is owned and operated by a very devout Orthodox Christian, and the reason he called it Eighth Day is because of his deep faith. Many believe that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. We get the rhythm of the sabbath from this creation narrative. But this keeps cycling from one to seven and back to one. Many believe also that this narrative speaks of ages instead of days, and that what we regard as human history is the era of the seventh day, God is at rest. The eight day is when God becomes active once more.
About eight days after, Luke begins. Is this alluding to this theological concept of new creation of God’s return to active participation in the temporal affairs of Earth? We do not know. Some scholars believe that this is why Luke uses the term eight, because usually they would use the word seven instead. While others simply believe that Luke is saying just over a week later. Just over a week from what?
The gospel accounts as most of us know are not the same. This troubles some people. It troubles them because we have perpetuated a flawed understanding of inspiration of scripture. Many believe, like me that God has inspired the writing of Scripture. But if God has inspired it, shouldn’t everything be accurate? This illuminates the flaw in our understanding of inspiration. God did not dictate scripture, he inspired. God used the unique perspectives of devout disciples to reveal himself to the world. The fact that Mark and Luke differ in how things are presented does not mean that scripture is not inspired it simply means that Mark and Luke are two different individuals that were inspired to write different things. In Luke Jesus had just fed the multitude in the region of Bethsaida, this is just north of the sea of Galilee. After the disciples had finished cleaning up after this massive feast and gathered the twelve baskets of leftovers. Jesus asks them a question. “Who do the crowds say that I am?” The disciples answer Elijah, John the Baptist or one of the prophets. And after this starts the conversation, Jesus asks a follow-up question, “Who do you say that I am?”
The scene has similarities throughout the various gospel accounts but the location is not always specified. In Mark, this conversation happens further north than Bethsaida, in Caesarea Philippi. I do not want this to cause questioning, because in Matthew, Mark, and Luke they all have this conversation happening after Jesus fed a multitude around Bethsaida. Luke just does not mention that Jesus and his disciples moved further north. All three mention the feeding, the conversation, and after this conversation Jesus is found on a mountain praying.
The conversation that occurred just prior to today’s passage happened at a particular place that has a long history. A history that reaches to the pages of Genesis. So often we think the reason the world is corrupt is because of the fall in the Garden of Eden when our first parents ate from the tree God commanded them to not eat from, but this is just part of the story. Later in Genesis we find an odd story just prior to the flood narrative about Sons of God lusting after the daughters of men. This story in our bible does not have a great deal of context, but in the ancient cultures surrounding Israel there is a great deal of context. It is the site of divine rebellion and spiritual warfare. Those spiritual beings that rebelled against God and prompted the fall of humanity continued to deceive our ancestors. And some ancient writers believe that these Watchers, or rebellious spiritual beings, came down to Mount Hermon and gave them forbidden knowledge and became intimate with humanity. We know that the story of the flood can be found in the writings of other ancient cultures, but there is another story that can also be found. The story of the gods visiting humanity and producing the great warriors of ancient days. We see glimpses of this the mythology of the Greeks, Babylonians, Persians, as well as in the Hebrew bible. The offspring of this union were the giants, the titan, or the gods of ancient mythology that were thrown into hell after a spiritual battle. And in the region of Caesarea Philippi, around Mount Hermon there is a cave that was believed to be the portal to place these giants were imprisoned. We would call this the gates of hell.
Jesus asks the disciples who do they and who do you say that I am, and Simon confesses, “You are the Christ.” And after this Simon was called Peter, and Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
I mention this because we are not alone in our battles. We are fighting against forces seen and unseen. We are being influenced by powers that may come from human and spiritual places. I am not a charismatic teacher, but I believe scripture. Paul says we do not struggle against flesh and blood only but powers and principalities. There is a war going on that transcends what we see. A war. A war that started over the jealousy of spiritual beings over the creation of humanity and God’s desire to dwell with us in the garden. A battle that still wages because each faction of humanity wants to believe that they are the ones that have God’s divine favor.
After the flood, there was a third rebellion in Genesis, the tower of Babel. From that rebellion God scattered the people of the earth and confused the languages. We are told that he divided the earth among the powers and that he maintained Israel as his allotment. It is through Israel that God chose to reveal the truth. It is through Israel that the word of God is given to humanity.
A week after the conversation about who Jesus is occurs, Jesus withdraws to an isolated place to pray. I cannot fully express the importance of prayer in our spiritual lives. Prayer is where we are given strength. It is through prayer that we are given direction. It is in prayer that we join and commune with God. As Friends prayer is our expression of communion how we express our union and devotion to Christ. It is through the prayer that we join with God in his kingdom, and in prayer that we are guided into ministry. Jesus goes to the isolated place to pray, and he takes his three closest friends with him.
While Jesus is praying, something profound happens. Luke tells us that the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became a dazzling white. The English does not do this justice. We say dazzling but this word in Greek means to flash like lightening. Jesus is praying and before their very eyes, they see power. They see energy. They see the unshrouded divine nature of Jesus, clothed in the pure energy that was the first cause, causing the creation of the world. They saw a glimpse of the Big Bang! I want us to imagine this scene. The images we have seen in art have Jesus in white clothing but this does not do it justice. Jesus was flashing lightening, clothed in the brightness of the sun. The disciples are looking at God.
And something else happens. Two men are seen talking with him as he prays. Moses and Elijah. And they catch waves of the conversation. “Who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” I want us to consider this for a moment. Who are these men? Again, scholars find this to be a mysterious scene. Some will say that it is a foreshadowing of the two witnesses of Revelation, so liken this scene to the eschatological fulfilment yet to come. Yet others see this as being a symbolic representation of God’s revelation to humanity, the law and the prophets speaking to the true word of God which is Christ. I like the later view personally. John tells us, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of will of man, but of God. And the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John in his introduction to his gospel I believe speaks of this encounter. He speaks of light and the word. He speaks of his own people, and the world. He speaks of dwelling among his people and children of God. He speaks of knowing and not knowing. John is speaking of this divine battle between the powers of rebellion and God. Everything goes back to the beginning and the end. Everything revolves around God’s ultimate plan and design.
Peter, James, and John saw Jesus fully and clearly. They saw him speaking to the law and the prophets, they saw him as the fulfillment and the true word of God. They saw the rebellion perpetrated on that mountain and they saw that God was about to reverse all that had happened and restore creation to its rightful place. They see this and they are confused. They are unable to fully understand what is occurring around them. And in this confusion Peter says, “Let’s make three tents.”
We look at this statement as Peter wanting to dwell or stay in this mountain top experience. I have even spoken from this position. We have all had times where we feel extremely close to God and we desire to keep this going. How can we keep the spiritual energy flowing when we come down from the mountain? Peter says let us build a tent. I have thought that as well at times. I personally often have great spiritual experiences when I go to the mountains of Colorado. I am fully aware that if I were offered a ministry position in the mountains, I would struggle to say no. I would want to stay because in my mind I would be closer to God in that place. But life must go on. We come down from the mountains and the struggles of daily life come back into play.
But Peter sees something that we often miss. He wants to build a tent not only to preserve the spiritual experience but also to restore Eden. The tent or tabernacle in ancient Israel was where God dwelt with them in the wilderness. Peter desires intimacy with God. He desires the restoration and reconciliation. He might not have understood what he was saying completely but God sees through our intentions and reveals the truth.
At that moment, a cloud came and overshadowed them. What is the cloud? A cloud overshadowed the mountain when Moses received the law. The cloud entered the tabernacle in the desert and entered the temple of Jerusalem. The cloud is God’s tabernacle. And through the cloud they hear a voice. “This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to him.”
Peter made a confession, and God confirmed his confession. Jesus the embodied word of God came to dwell with us. He pitched his tent among us. He did this so that we could be restored to our rightful place. From the beginning of time God’s only desire was to dwell with his creation not because he needs us but he wants us to dwell with him.
God desires to dwell with us, but the war rages on. Just as the full nature of Jesus was shrouded, the origin of our desires and will is shrouded. We are not always aware of where our ideas come from. Are they from God or the kingdoms of men? Where does our help come from? And can we be deceived? We are surrounded by spiritual powers and desires of this world. Where is our attention?
Peter had his heart in the right place, and yet in his desire to follow Christ he opposed the will of God. He wanted God to dwell on earth. He so desired this that he was blind. The glory of God and his desire to be close caused him to forget the ultimate mission. We have always been called to make the world around us like Eden, the kingdom.
And we come back to the eighth day. God created the world and commissioned us to make the world like Eden, while He rested on the seventh day. The eighth day all things are restored. Peter wanted to jump to the eighth day without fully completing the mission set before us. And Jesus shows them this. The next day they went down and continued to minister. They pushed back the forces of darkness and reflected the light of God. I ask if this is where we find ourselves?
In our desire to be close do God, do we pray that the Lord will return? I know we do, how could we not. It is our greatest desire. In that day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. But the reality is that God so loves the world that he does not wish that even one person will pass into eternity without knowing him. As we wait for that day, God also waits. And as time continues to move forward the distractions get greater. And we are called even more to love God, embrace the Holy Spirit and to live the love of Christ with others. God revealed the truth, and he called us to listen to him. But will we listen? Will we enact? Will we participate in the prayer of Christ that His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven?
The world around us is filled with fear and turmoil. In the kingdoms of men, we find only uncertainty and postures of power. We like to say that we are the good and they are the bad, but the reality is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God does not want Christian governments, he wants us. He wants his people, those that believe in him to reflect the divine light he shares to those who are in the darkness. This Transends the kingdoms of men and extends into the heavens. But that does not begin in Washington DC, or Kyiv or Moscow. That begins right here. It begins in our hearts. Will we stop looking at the kingdoms of men and begin to live Eden in our communities. Will we stop waiting and pitching tent, and instead share the hope that we have in Christ. Will we listen to Him?
If you would like to help support the continued Ministry of Willow Creek Friends Church please consider donating online:
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/nlcsJT87/Willow-Creek-Friends-Church/
To help support the personal ministry of JWQuaker (Jared Warner) online and in the community click to donate.