Restore, or Reform, or?
21 July 1999
Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you were to ask me why I would like to
take an old ship around the world in Y2K and my answer would be to help the
church get its eyes off its circumstances and its religion and focus again on
the reason the church exists. That is to be a diverse community of eternal
personalities working together to proclaim the Good News that man's
relationship with a personal God has been restored by the work of Jesus Christ
on a cross, near a dusty old city in the middle east, nearly 2000 years ago.
We live in the now, we don't have time for
the old, tear it down and build it new that is our cry. Too often that goes for
the church as well as a baseball stadium. Last week Seattle opened its new home
for the Mariners, I had the opportunity to watch my first game last night,
sitting in the $5 center field bleachers. Was the new stadium needed? Baseball
under heaven played on grass is the way it supposed to be, or so goes the
Mariner hype. But perhaps it is more a commentary on trying to play baseball on
concrete, covered with plastic, in a concrete barn.
The Kingdome has only a 20 year history. The
church however has a 2000 year history in its present building, and as God's
people it goes back to the beginning of time. Should we tear it down, replace
it, revive it, reform it, restore it, or? The prophet Isaiah speaks to that
many places, but perhaps the most illusive follows:
"Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people of their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek Me daily,
And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And did not forsake the ordinance of their
God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice'
They take delight in approaching God.
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have
not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take
no notice?'
"In fact, in the day of your fast you
find pleasure,
And exploit all your laborers.
Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day,
To make your voice heard on high.
Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict is soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the LORD?
"Is this not the fast I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the
hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who
are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him.
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the
morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear
guard.
Then you shall call, and He will say, 'Here I
am.'
"If you take away the yoke from your
midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking
wickedness,
If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do
not fail.
Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many
generations;
And you shall be Called the Repairer of the
Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
Isaiah 58:1-12
This is a beautiful passage because, as the
reformers taught it contains both law and gospel, even in the Old Testament. As
law it says that we are those persons fasting, we do it for the wrong reasons
and are so religious about it in our zeal. So also goes our hope for our
self-centered revival.
I have had the opportunity over the last
couple of weeks to meet with a whole lot of nice people, outside the church
cloister, who as we would like to say, "Don't know Jesus!" Most of
them know of Jesus, the Son of God, who died for sinners, who rose from death
on Easter. They don't need Jesus however, for they are not sinners who one day
must stand before a holy God to make an account of their self centered lives.
They are nice people who when they die will go to heaven, just like on
televison's, "Touched by an Angel". Who is really to blame? Of course
in the ultimate sense they are, but we in the church must also take a long hard
look at ourselves. Have we been trying to play church in a concrete barn, with
a concrete floor covered with plastic grass? How well the metaphor fits. In
many respects it is no wonder we play before an empty house, if not in bodies,
but in empty minds. Even so we still play on the eternal winning team.
Isaiah makes it clear what we need to do.
Only what we can do, and it is not practice our religion. Is it not:
"To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who
are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him.
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
"If you take away the yoke from your
midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking
wickedness,
If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then. . .
Then the Lord will restore his people, in
their promised dwelling place. The living temple of God Almighty and He and the
whole creation has said and again will say: "And you shall be Called the
Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
In order to do that we must get our eyes off
our selves and our man centered culture. Toward a god centered culture and a
diverse communion of eternal personalities. That is the true focus of St.
Paul's Mission on the SS Diversity. That is what the last few weeks articles
have attempted to do. To provide a diverse background for the journey from
here. We must focus our preaching and teaching on both law and gospel. But more
than that, we must articulate the gospel in such a way that this act in time
and place 2000 years ago, means something in a western culture where true
Christianity is an alien religion.
Prayer Plants:
In retrospect, it was again pointed out to me
that most of the New Testament was written by Paul in jail, or those serving
Paul when in those trying circumstances. John wrote the Revelation when in
exile. "Pilgrim's Progress", the second most popular book of all
time, was written by John Buchan while in prison. In a way I look at this time,
in my own shallowness, is somewhat the same light. But if it were not for this
time I would have been too busy to pull these thoughts together in this format.
To God be the Glory1
I would gladly leave these circumstances
today, should that be the Lord's provision. To be busy with the work of the
Lord. If not, through your prayers, God's grace shall be sufficient.
I have finally gotten around to doing
something with the webpage stuff. You should be able to respond to this at
diversitycruise@meyersfalls.com but that is conditioned with a should. There
also should be some stuff on the web site within the week . Should conditions
still apply. Please plant prayers in this work. I have tried to begin this
several times in the past and have had trouble with the servers, software and
the like.
Amen.
Shalom
Jerry