Matthew 17: 1-9

Mountain Men

Moses was a mountain man. He was called up Mt. Horeb to meet with The Lord, and from the mountain he brought down to the people The Law. The tablets of the Law were God’s grace to the people, a code and a means of being in relationship with God who is holy—a way to preserve their blessedness. Moses asked to see God’s glory, but God knew it would be more than he could bear, so he allowed to see God’s back for  a mere second. That was enough to change Moses forever. He came down the hill looking  like a man who has stood in the very presence of God. Moses is the The Law, the prophet who delivers the Law of God.

Elijah was a mountain man. God called Elijah to stand before him at the top of the mountain. There was wind, and an earthquake, and fire, but God was not in these. Elijah met The Lord as a whisper amidst the silence. He came out of his cave with his face covered so that he would not see the glory of God and die. Elijah is the prophet of prophets. He symbolizes all the prophets and was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets.

Both Moses and Elijah were reputed to have been bodily assumed into Heaven. Moses died but was not buried in the Earth. His body was taken up. Elijah did not die, but was taken up in a chariot of fire, superceding the image of Ba’al, the pagan storm god.

Jesus is also a mountain man. He ascends the hill, but unlike Moses and Elijah, he brings three witnesses: Peter, James, and John. While on the mountain, Jesus is transfigured before them, appearing a dazzling—literally lightning—white. Peter, James, and John hit the ground and look up to see Jesus there with Moses and Elijah—the Law and the Prophets—gathered there with him.

God’s own voice testifies to Jesus: "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" This is the ultimate in authorization. Jesus is revealed in the glory of God the father attended by all the weight of the Old Testament. Unlike with Moses and Elijah, there are three first-hand witnesses to this miracle.

Peter, who was so afraid he had no idea what to say, does his best: "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

When the earthly meets the divine, the earthly clearly has very little to offer. Christ appears transfigured in glory with the two main players of the Old Testament, and what does humanity offer?  Some pup tents. But he meant well, and I’m sure that counts for something.

It’s very normal, very human, to try and capture something of the mountaintop experience and try to contain it, to possess it, in order that we might access its power later on. It’s normal and natural to want to make some kind of souvenir out of the experience, but trying to do so is kind of like trying to put a lion into a birdcage. It doesn’t work.

Like Peter, Christians have been trying to encapsulate that glory ever since. At first, we tried to capture it institutionally—by turning the Church into a worldly, imperial power. The Pope took on the name Pontifex Maximus and we tried to encapsulate the authority of God in the magisterium—the authority structure of the Church. Then it was in artwork—statues of Mary and Jesus that seemed to contain the presence and power of God; the consecrated bread that was the promise of God’s actual, literal encapsulation; holy relics that contained healing powers, etc.  That’s all pre-1600.

In our time, what are some of the pup tents we invite God to inhabit? For some, it is the church building—the sanctuary pews and windows that represent hundreds of hours of faithful meditation. It has been said—wisely, I think—that there is nothing quite so traumatic to a congregation than to build a new sanctuary. I get it! With the investment of years and dollars we come to think of this space as a dwelling place for The Lord, and if we mess with it, that might all change!

More significant in our time is the ongoing attempt to capture or encapsulate the Holy Spirit in ecstatic worship. The idea that the Holy Spirit can be rounded up and manipulated into making a “special appearance” if we are all just sincere enough, or authentic enough, or if we observe the liturgy just right.

I think we are all embarrassed by televangelists selling prayer cloths, olive oil from the Holy Land, or vials of water from the Jordan river, not because they are trying to capture God’s power and presence, but rather because they are trying to exploit it.

Again, it is normal for us to want to contain our special experiences of God in some way, but we  willing to simply accept and work with whatever God gives, rather than trying to bottle it or trying to make God perform for us. We work with what God gives us as it is, not what we would like to make of it.

What God Gives is Enough

To seal this point, let’s remember what Jesus said to Peter, James, and John as they came down the hill together. Think of it: they have just witnessed the glory of God in Jesus, supported by Moses and Elijah, in a transcendent moment of transfiguration. This is every bit as big as the burning bush moment of Moses or Elijah’s encounter with God on the mountain. As they descend, they’re saying, “Wait until the world hears about THIS one!” when Jesus says, “Not a word, boys—not one word—not until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The most exciting and wondrous thing has happened to them. Something life-changing and world-changing—a revelation worthy of a new book in the Bible—and they  can’t tell anyone!  They have to bury it, sit on it, and wait until God’s time for sharing it is ripe.

At a certain level, new converts are perhaps the best evangelists. They’re lives have been turned around and changed forever by Christ. They have the joy of the new life and are bursting with urgency to tell everyone of the good news that redeemed them from sin and ruin. With wide-eyed enthusiasm they will tell anyone within earshot of their journey and the difference Christ made in their heart, life, and hope. New converts are a blessing to the Church and their energy can be an eye-opener for many of the hard-hearted.

Even so, it’s not usual to see that same energy and enthusiasm play out over the long-term journey, especially as others follow their lead but do not have the same experience. Or worse, such folks try to turn the whole church into a factory to reproduce that spiritual high experience. Again, the Holy Spirit can not be engineered by us.

We must take what God gives as enough for us.

What we have is his self-revelation in Christ as witnessed to in Scripture. That is our source, and even this is prone to pup tents and reductive encapsulations. Make it simpler, boil it down, or turn it into a 3-point doctrine that we can easily  memorize—these too are attempts to put the lion into a birdcage.

The truth is, God is not ours to proffer or sell. Our witness cannot make the great revelation of God in Christ simple and we shouldn’t try to simplify it. When and wherever our evangelism says, “It’s easy,” “It’s simple,” or “All you gotta do is this,” we misrepresent The Lord. We offer people our pup tents rather than the glory of God.

Truer that we should say

It is better and truer that we should say just the opposite.

“It’s not easy; it is hard and takes your entire life to work out.” 

“It is not simple. It may seem simple at first, or at peak moments, but it is very deep and complex. The longer you look into it the deeper and broader and higher it goes.”

“Following is a major chore. After decades I’m still working stuff out in my life, my heart, and my behavior. Sometimes I wonder if I’m making any progress at all.”

[Protesting voice]: “But if you said all that, then who would follow?” A good question.

The hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the lame, the blind, and all prisoners of sin and darkness who are truly called—in short, the true believers.

As evangelists, people will connect less with the ideas we tell them than they will with changed lives. What is every heart secretly hungry for? Peace. The peace of Christ that this world cannot give. A satisfied mind, made whole and complete by mature faith. To be loved, for exactly who you are as God made you to be. Some grace—forgiveness for being a sinner. Mercy—a helping hand now and then.

These are the most effective evangelical tools with which you and I can be equipped. They are not ideological, nor are they strategic or tactical. They are personal, and every one of us in this room can manifest them.

Our central evangelical task is not to transmit information about God’s plan of salvation; it is to show them Christ resident within us. Otherwise, what is the point of all our attempts to “grow into Christ” or “into the full stature of Christ”? Our best evangelism is to give people Jesus through ourselves. Yes, the teaching accompanies it and the new disciple’s soul grows into alignment with God’s will, but by many markers, not just one or two popular symbols like the Sinner’s Prayer or a one-time attempt at producing a born-again experience. 

Offering the knowledge of salvation through Christ is part of sharing the gospel, but we must not reduce it to a formula or a single, one-size-fits-all plan or prayer. Love persists, and those who are beyond belief deserve better than a drive by offer.

Perhaps the best evangelism is the kind that takes place while one is being discipled. We proclaim Christ and share his good news as we go, offering people the peace, the contentment, the love, the grace, and the mercy of Christ through our words, actions, and deeds. †

Romans 11: 25-32

Sorry, not Jewish

I wanted to be Jewish. Ever since Fiddler on the Roof hit the theaters, I felt I was Jewish inside, despite my German/Swede heritage. My junior high school—Lewis and Clark—was known throughout Omaha as “Lewie Jewie” because we had such a high Jewish population. Half of my friends were Jewish. Although a devout Christian from an early age, I wanted to be in on all of that chosenness.

A couple in one of my former churches were life-long Jews that had come to follow Jesus. It was traumatic to their families and a difficult road, but they found a home in our church. The woman was one of these who knows who is and who isn’t really Jewish. I always had a sneaking suspicion that my mother—while ostensibly German—might have actually been Jewish in her background, of which she knew very little. Her maiden name was Kutz, so I went crazy on the internet looking up the name, only to find “Camp Kutz” out east, whose mission statement was “Keeping Jewish children Jewish.” So there was hope.

In time, my friend, after speaking with a very knowing rabbi in the Valley, proclaimed to me: “Yes! Your mother is most likely Jewish!” Hallelujah! I thought, Praise G_d! No one was more surprised than my mother, who took some fascination and delight in the news. I called a couple of my old high school friends. “Guess what?” I said, “I’m a Jew too!”

Some years later, my brother availed himself of the DNA tests at ancestry.com. I was so looking forward to the results; I just knew there would be a  circle somewhere surrounding Israel. Well, guess what? Not a drop. Not a stinking iota. What’s more, there’s not even a drop of German blood (which I don’t at all mind), but rather I am Scando/Eastern European. I haven’t told my old Jewish friends anything just yet. I expect they’re all just fine with me being a Christian.

THE HARDENING

Paul speaks of a “hardening” that came upon Israel in the birth of the Church. That hardening of heart is the same kind God effected in Pharoah. God can harden hearts as well as soften them.

It is, of course, my deepest wish that my Jewish friends might have a softened heart about Jesus, but I think it best to leave that to the work of God himself. The good news is, God is in perfect control.

I think of that hardening of heart this way: Imagine that there is an unbelievably-great concert coming to town. Tickets go on sale the day of the show and you and your friends find yourselves in a very long line to the ticket booth. You’re all excited to see the show and happy to pay whatever it costs.

As you’re waiting there, a guy comes around from the side of the building and announces: “Hey everybody, the son of the concert-owner is handing out free backstage passes back here!” Some people immediately leave the line and disappear around the corner, but others neither believe nor trust the offer. “It’s a trick to take our places in line!” some say.

Others stay in the line, saying, “Thanks, but no thanks—we’re happy just to wait our turn and purchase our tickets properly. We’ll pass.”

Yes, you and I have been given free backstage passes by the son of the owner, but that does not mean that those who wait in line and buy their tickets will not be getting into the show!

The Old Testament covenants are covenants-in-perpetuity (berith olam), which means they are still in effect.

Another biblical image of this hardening is the parable of the Prodigal Son, which we tend to think of only as a story about the younger son, but it is every bit as much a story of the older son who resents the party thrown on behalf of the wastrel’s return. The father goes out to plead with the older son, saying, “All that I have belongs to you!” and implores the son to come in to the party.

This is about Christians and Jews. The younger son—the wastrel—represents the nations, the gentiles who are grafted in to the family promises by Christ. The older son is Israel, still full inheritors of the promises of God. Like that older son, our Jewish brothers and sisters might not like to recognize that we have been brought into the House of God by the Father’s unreasonable generosity while they have to work it all out the hard way.

Now the chief problem with Christians trying to evangelize Jews is like this.  How effective do you think that younger son would be going out to the field with a drink in his hand while wearing his father’s robe and ring, saying, “Come on, brother! Come on into the party!” In his present state, the older brother would be more likely to punch his nose than entertain his invitation.

One of the most common questions I get when working through the Old Testament with congregations is: “Why don’t the Jews receive Jesus?” It may seem natural, logical, and theologically coherent to us, but we’re working with a hardened people with good reasons to avoid our invitations.

A VERY UGLY HISTORY

Christians and the Church have a horrid historical relationship with Jews. It is to our enduring shame that we have persecuted and oppressed our spiritual siblings over the centuries as we have.

I regret how some of the New Testament—particularly John—reflects the initial antipathy. Yes, in the first hundred years, the Jews persecuted Christians. I’ll only say that in those stages, it was Judaism seeking to purify itself—the persecution was essentially Jew-on-Jew. But from there on, it has all been a monstrous campaign of abuse and injustice for which “Christians” were responsible.

The first 500 years saw constant debasement and vilification of the Jews, including the prohibition of marriage. The Jews were accused by early church fathers such as Origen, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and St. John Chrysostom.  They blamed the Jews for Christ’s crucifixion. To be clear, the New Testament “condemnations” were always of the political Temple Establishment, and never against Jewish people (like Jesus himself and all the Apostles!).

The venerable Council of Nicea—at the center of Christian orthodoxy—forbade even eating with Jews.

In 413, Christian monks desecrated Jerusalem’s synagogues and massacred Jews at the Western Wall (ever wonder why they call it the “Wailing Wall”?). Once Constantine established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, things just stayed bad. The Emperor Justinian forbade all Jewish Scriptures and Jewish Studies. Up to the 1100s, a series of Popes repress and condemn Judaism, offering at best a kind of unfriendly tolerance, but interspersed by periods of persecution. In the12th century—three Crusades (ostensibly to take back the land stolen by Muslims) go out of their way to attack Jews as well.

The Black Plague, aside from affecting Jews and Christians alike, is blamed on the Jews.

Up to 1300: Jews throughout Europe forced to wear round patches to identify themselves Jews. This begins 600 years before Nazi Germany. Almost routinely, Jews are blamed for infant mortality, and are said to be witches.

Between 1340-1550.  Jews are expelled from almost every major European city.

In 1826, Pope Leo XII confines all Jews to ghettos and seizes all of their property.

And then we get to the 20th century and the Holocaust, of which I need not tell you more.

In short, we Christians, like the Prodigal Son, have little-to-no credibility when it comes to speaking to Jews about God! Not a few Jews have come to believe that the New Testament is little more than a manual on “How to kill and persecute Jews.”

HOW DO CHRISTIANS REACH OUT TO JEWS ABOUT JESUS?

1. 1.We don’t
   
2. 2.We spend the rest of our lives earning the right to be heard and re-establishing trust and credibility through a campaign of humble servility to our Jewish friends.
   
3. 3.We give love and support to them at every turn, owning the worst details of our ugly history. [Aside: you may be thinking, “What? That wasn’t us! That was those awful Catholics, politically-motivated and mad with power! That’s not Christianity nor has it ever been!”  I agree almost completely, but it is not our time to avoid blame, but to pick up the cross and show them Christlikeness that the Church has failed to show them for nearly 2000 years.]
   

JEWISH SUMMER CAMP

I loved summer church camp. I lived for summer church camp. When one of my closest Jewish buddies came back from Jewish summer camp, I was wanting to hear all about it.

I assumed it was just like church camp but with Jewish themes. I imagined them sitting around the campfire at nights, recalling the mighty acts of God through the Old Testament. I imagined them singing “Father Abraham” and other songs celebrating Jewish heritage. I imagined sermons exhorting the campers to live with moral fortitude and align their lives, hearts, and souls with The Law. “Is it like that?” I asked my friend.

“Not so much,” he said, “The only message was ‘Whatever else you do, don’t become a Christian!”

Do I even need to say more about the need for Christians—especially evangelicals—to be cool and something like extremely tactful?  I suspect most of us had no idea what kind of a hole we had dug for ourselves over the centuries. The hole may not be our fault, but be clear: we are born standing in the bottom of it.

what is even more disturbing to evangelicals is paul’s clear wording

Some of you will hate this, to which I’ll say both sorry and too bad. Paul makes it crystal clear that God is not done with the Jews. Verse 26:

And so all Israel will be saved

Look at those words a moment.  Read on, v 28:

as regards election they are [the] beloved

Paul says, “They are the Elect.” Paul elsewhere makes it clear that we Gentiles who receive Christ are simply grafted into the Elect People through him. We are not a people unto ourselves, but become part of the Chosen People through Jesus, and our election depends upon our being brought into those promises made to Israel.

WE are the adopted, immigrant, children in the household of God—the bastard step-children now putting our feet up on the very Jewish coffee table. How DARE we act like we own the place!

In case you doubt, or think that because we’re Christians we sit at a superior table, Paul tells us in verse 29:

the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable

You and I are only “saved” by the promises of God which we access by faith in Christ. Our standing with God is entirely dependent upon the gifts and the calling which he gives us. Those gifts and callings went first to the children of Abraham, and they are not annulled by Christ, but rather affirmed by him and our presence in God’s house will only be managed by Christ’s grace in brining us in under his own authority.

BACK TO EVANGELISM

To put it briefly, the best evangelism to Jews is Jewish evangelism. It seems to me it requires Jews who believe in Jesus to talk to other Jews about Jesus.

I pray for my Jewish friends. Nothing would bring me greater joy than to hear that any of them had come to faith in Jesus. I consider them brothers and sisters even now, as we all should, for they may very well be at that table with us in heaven. Do not imagine—as some have—that God will not fulfill his every promise to them.

“But he DID,” you say, “in Jesus!”

I agree with that, but I think we must remember that we have gained access on very easy terms—the Grace of Christ—and I will also proclaim that all who shall be saved—every soul at that heavenly table in the great banquet—shall be there only because they have been saved by Christ.

Will Jesus save all of Israel? Scripture proclaims a yes. Where we differ with Judaism, we should keep our mouths shut. We are the lucky guests, not the natural children.

What we can do and ought to do is prescribed for us in  1 PETER 3:15:

In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

Let us earn the right to be heard first. Let the people of God see us as their loving servants and meet them with humbleness, kindness, and mercy, just as Jesus showed to us.

We are the younger brother, the adopted, immigrant child. Let us pray that the Lord will now soften the heart of our older brother, that he may heed the call to come in to the house, join the party, and welcome his wayward sibling back to the family. †