Two of the things about serving in a home mission I've had to get used to again are the statistics and reports. There is a ditch on both sides of that road, and I need to be careful not to fall into either.  On one side of the road, I need to avoid becoming annoyed by these reporting requirements or blowing off these reports and statistics as being "unspiritual." God's people are putting serious dollars to work in this aspect of kingdom work and it's only right that we make sure we are being good stewards of those offerings they dedicate to God's glory and the spread of the gospel. On the other side of the road, I need to keep these reports and statistics in perspective so that I don't conduct my ministry a certain way in order to make these reports and stats look good.  I need to be careful that they are reflecting what is happening in ministry and not let them drive my ministry. 

I like to consider these reports and the stats and stories they contain as God's fingerprints. They are evidence that God is at work among his people and through his people. It's exciting to "dust" for those prints and find that evidence, and these monthly reports give me the opportunity to do that.  It’s good that I take the time to dust for his prints.  I could get so busy with the work of ministry that I don’t take the time to see and celebrate the good things God is doing through his Gospel.   And let there be no mistake – God is doing good things.  The evidence of that is there if one only looks:  new faces in worship, strong and steady involvement in Bible study, a growing children’s ministry, and offerings that reflect the thankfulness in the hearts of God’s people.

At the same time I know that mission work is not always sunshine falling on fields of roses. There are setbacks and disappointments and challenges. The key will be to remember that God gets his work done at his pace, where and when he will. All in all, it's a real blessing to be serving in this time and place. Every week seems to bring some wonderful surprise, some evidence of God's power at work, and some invigorating (or perplexing) challenge. That's good! God's fingerprints are all over those things, too!

(I just ran out of time this week and did not get at writing a new blog.  So I thought some might find it interesting to see some of the “backstory” to what goes into preparing a sermon for Sunday.  What follows is a rather typical text study.  It is a study of the sermon text in the original Greek language of the New Testament.  The translation is the New International Version.  If this sparks some questions, please don’t hesitate to ask by emal:  revdsimons@gmail.com!)

 

 

Philippians 3:8-14 ~ A Text Study

Dan Simons, Pastor – Ascension Lutheran Church, Macomb MI

Introductory Thoughts:

This text is the epistle reading for Lent 5, Series C (coming up on March 13th).  The theme for that Sunday is “God offers us the precious treasure of salvation.”  This text urges God’s people not to trade down from that treasure to a gospel that is no gospel at all.  It is from one of Paul’s prison epistles.  The best evidence favors Rome as the place of origin, about 61 A.D., probably in his own rented house rather than in the Mamertine dungeon.  Despite the circumstances of his writing, Paul’s letter to the Philippian Christians has a joyful tone – a welcome thing so deep into the solemn days of the season of lent.

The opinio legis (the idea that we earn God’s favor by our own good works) is strong.  Ever since Adam and Eve acted on Satan’s work-righteous lie that they could only have God’s image if they acted autonomously (and against his clear will), the opinio legis has been “hardwired” into the mind of man.  It is the stuff of which all man-made religions are composed.  But it is so strong that it often leeches even into the proclamation of the gospel and into the hearts of those who know Christ.  Case in point:  the Judaizers.  The Judaizers, Jews or Gentiles who had converted to Christianity, claimed to believe in Jesus as Savior but also insisted that certain ceremonial laws also had to be observed. Circumcision was one they particularly emphasized.  As soon as they mixed works with grace, it formed an unstable and brittle alloy that fell apart.  But because the opinio legis is so reasonable to man, the Judaizers had some success in turning early Christians away from grace alone to works.  Paul contended with them often.  All of that experience honed his ability to respond to their insidious claims boldly and effectively.  Maintaining the positive tone of this letter, Paul remains the happy warrior against the faith-killing, grace-nullifying message of the Judaizers.  He does it here in this text in a way that is powerfully positive.  If you want a more tough, earthy, and pugnacious response from Paul to this error you will find in the early verses of chapter 3.  It is as though when he squares off against work-righteousness of the Judaizing sort he punches for the throat; when he addresses the Philippians who must stand up to that error he takes a clear, but positive and encouraging tone. 

Paul’s repeated use of words related to γνῶσις suggests that he’s also taking a shot at and armoring the Philippians against the false claims of the gnostics who preached and promised a false knowledge based on a mystical and distorted understanding of Scripture and of Christ.

Verse 8

8 ἀλλὰ μενοῦνγε καὶ ἡγοῦμαι πάντα ζημίαν εἶναι διὰ τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς γνώσεως Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου μου δι’ ὃν τὰ πάντα ἐζημιώθην, καὶ ἡγοῦμαι σκύβαλα ἵνα Χριστὸν κερδήσω

8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ


ἡγοῦμαι – present active middle – to think, consider, regard.

ζημίαν – damage (detriment); a mercantile term for "loss"; a "bad deal" (unsuccessful business transaction) which results in loss. 

ὑπερέχον (from hypér, "beyond, above" and exō, "have") – properly, "have beyond, i.e. be superior, excel, surpass"; to exercise prominence (superiority). 

γνώσεως (a feminine noun derived from ginṓskō, "experientially know") – functional ("working") knowledge gleaned from first-hand (personal) experience, connecting theory to application; "application-knowledge," gained in (by) a direct relationship.

ἐζημιώθην - aor pass indic, 1 s  -  ζημιόω  (only in pass) lose, suffer loss

σκύβαλα - (from kýōn, "dog" and bállō, "throw") – properly, waste thrown to dogs, like filthy scraps of garbage (table-scraps, dung, muck, sweepings); (figuratively) refuse, what is good-for-nothing except to be discarded (used only in Phil 3:8).

κερδήσω – aor act subj - properly, to profit (gain), an ancient mercantile term for exchanging (trading) one good for another; (figuratively) to exchange (trade out) what is mediocre ("good") for the better, i.e. "trading up" (cf. Js 4:13).

Comments

No matter what anyone says – especially the Judaizers – Paul continues to regard everything a “bad deal” and a “downgrade” compared to the superior thing of really knowing Christ Jesus his Lord.  The middle voice of that verb, the noun γνώσεως, and the personal possessive μου bring a definite personal flavor Paul’s words.  “For myself, I have reckoned that everything is a bad deal compared to the superior blessing of my personal knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”  Paul gets it that Jesus is his Lord on a very personal level.  Remember it was Jesus who confronted him on the Damascus road.  Paul never stopped marveling that though he was the worst of sinners, Jesus had reached out with grace to forgive him and make him what he became.  Paul had experienced that grace in a very personal and profound way.  He now lives as though all other stuff and every other consideration in life was just so many scraps to be tossed out, now that he has “traded up” to the best.

Verse 9

καὶ εὑρεθῶ ἐν αὐτῷ, μὴ ἔχων ἐμὴν δικαιοσύνην τὴν ἐκ νόμου ἀλλὰ τὴν διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ, τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ δικαιοσύνην ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει,

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.


εὑρεθῶ - aor pass subj, 3 sing  -  εὑρισκω find, discover

ἐκ – properly, "out from and to" (the outcome); out from within.  One of the most under-translated (and therefore mis-translated) Greek propositions – often being confined to the meaning "by."  Has a two-layered meaning ("out from and to") which makes it out-come oriented (out of the depths of the source and extending to its impact on the object). 

διὰ - properly, across (to the other side), back-and-forth to go all the way through, "successfully across" ("thoroughly"). 

ἐπὶ - properly, on (upon), implying what "fits" given the "apt contact," building on the verbal idea.  It  naturally looks to the response (effect) that goes with the envisioned contact, i.e. its apt result ("spin-offs," effects). The precise nuance is only determined by the context, and by the grammatical case following it – i.e. genitive, dative, or accusative case.

δικαιοσύνην - ("divine approval") is the regular NT term used for righteousness ("God's judicial approval"). 

Comments

ἐν αὐτῷ  (and the ubiquitous “in Christ”) is a loaded expression.  These expressions are found in excess of 75 times in Paul.  You won’t read very far in virtually any of his letters without running into this phrase or related phrases. He writes that in Christ there is no condemnation, we are sanctified, there is life, we are a new creation, etc. etc. etc.  It is worth looking at the other places where Paul uses the concept of being in Christ, to be able to understand why he thinks it is so vastly superior to anything else and that everything else is junk by comparison.  At the heart of it is the truth that blows up the lie of the Judaizers:  righteousness does not come from the law.  It comes from God, from Jesus Christ, through faith in him.  The righteousness that I need to stand accepted by God now and in eternity is Jesus’ doing and its benefits/status come to the individual through trusting in what Jesus did.  This is salvation by the active obedience of Christ – an important reminder in the Lenten season when so much emphasis is placed on his passive obedience.

Verse 10

τοῦ γνῶναι αὐτὸν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ καὶ κοινωνίαν παθημάτων αὐτοῦ, συμμορφιζόμενος τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτοῦ,

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,


δύναμιν  - power

ἀναστάσεως  - aná, "up, again" and hístēmi, "to stand") – literally, "stand up" (or "stand again"), referring to physical resurrection (of the body). 

κοινωνίαν - properly, what is shared in common as the basis of fellowship (partnership, community).

παθημάτων - (from pásxō, "the capacity to feel strong emotion, like suffering") – properly, the capacity and privilege of experiencing strong feeling; felt, deep emotion, like agony, passion (ardent desire), suffering, etc.

συμμορφιζόμενος - (from sýn, "together with" and morphḗ; "form embodying essence") – properly, sharing the same form from embodying the same inner (essential) reality; to be conformed to the glory of Christ.

θανάτῳ (derived from thnḗskō, "to die") – physical or spiritual death. 

Comments

Paul use of γνῶναι continues the thought of verse 8 – namely that he considers it a superior gain to have an experiential knowledge of Christ  in a number of things.  First, the power of his resurrection and all that it means for being justified (Romans 4:25), for being dead to sin and alive to righteousness (Romans 6), for his own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15), etc.  Second, he wants to know a closer fellowship with Jesus in suffering – and Paul had plenty of his own.  None of them atoned for sins, but they all were evidence that Paul followed one who was persecuted, and so Paul would be, too.  Third, he wants to be like Jesus in his death, that is, enduring scorn and persecution with the quiet and calm confidence that God will not abandon him any more than God abandon his own Son to the grave.  This is a kind of personal knowledge of Jesus one can only gain by living in Christ in the world.

 

Verse 11

εἴ πως καταντήσω εἰς τὴν ἐξανάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν.

and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.


Καταντήσω - (a) I come down, either from high land to lower (or actually to the sea-coast), or from the high seas to the coast; hence met: I arrive at, reach (my destination), (b) of property: I come down (descend) by inheritance to an heir.

ἐξανάστασιν - (from ek, "completely out from," intensifying anístēmi, "rise up") – properly, rising up to experience the full-impact of resurrection, i.e. thoroughly removed from the realm of death (the grave).

Comments

 

Here Paul states where wants the knowledge of Christ to bring him:  to the resurrection from the dead.  Paul knows that God’s goal for him is one he has, too.  When all the hardship and scorn and persecution and shipwrecks and beatings and imprisonment and one day even life itself end, he will live again.  That is the future glory that makes his present suffering not worth comparing.  What an awesome way to encourage the Philippians to stay in the fight, to hold to the truth, to look to Christ alone for their righteousness!  - look where it all lands for the believer!  Slogging through the dark days of lent and witnessing at every turn the sufferings of Christ, this little foretaste of Easter is welcome.  Hang on through the passion, because Easter’s a-comin’!

 

Verse 12

Οὐχ ὅτι ἤδη ἔλαβον ἢ ἤδη τετελείωμαι, διώκω δὲ εἰ καὶ καταλάβω, ἐφ’ ᾧ καὶ κατελήμφθην ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ [Ἰησοῦ].

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.


ἔλαβον - "actively lay hold of to take or receive," see NAS dictionary) – properly, to lay hold by aggressively (actively) accepting what is available (offered).

τετελείωμαι – to consummate, reaching the end-stage, i.e. working through the entire process (stages) to reach the final phase (conclusion). 

διώκω - properly, aggressively chase, like a hunter pursuing a catch (prize). It is used positively ("earnestly pursue") and negatively ("zealously persecute, hunt down"). In each case, it means pursue with all haste ("chasing" after), earnestly desiring to overtake (apprehend).

κατελήμφθην - Verb, aor pass indic, 1 s  -  καταλαμβάνω - obtain, attain, sieze;

Comments

 

Jesus reached out to Paul when he was totally lost and sinking fast and he grabbed him.  The picture of a rescuer who reaches down to grab the arm of the one who is dangling over an abyss and slipping away is not overly dramatic.  Not to Paul.  That’s what Jesus did – at the cross and on the road to Damascus.  Paul response to that? – he wants to aggressively chase down all that Jesus has in store for him.  That would refer not just to eternal glory, but to all the things Paul has just mentioned.  Paul is determined to aggressively pursue knowing Christ.  What an important encouragement for God’s people to hear!  Don’t stand around waiting, don’t procrastinate in your spiritual growth.  Get after it!  Chase it!  Hunt it down in every valley, glen, and mountaintop in Scripture!  There will never be a time this side of heaven when we will be able to say, “There, I’ve got it all now!”  Growing in the Word is a life-long pursuit for the believer!

Verse 13

ἀδελφοί, ἐγὼ ἐμαυτὸν οὐ λογίζομαι κατειληφέναι· ἓν δέ, τὰ μὲν ὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος τοῖς δὲ ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος,

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,


Λογίζομαι - (the root of the English terms "logic, logical") – properly, compute, "take into account"; reckon (come to a "bottom-line"), i.e. reason to a logical conclusion (decision).

ὀπίσω – behind

ἐπιλανθανόμενος – forgetting

ἐπεκτεινόμενος - (from epí, "on, fitting" intensifying ekteínō, "extend") – properly, extend (lay hold of) what is divinely acceptable.  Note the force of the prefix, epi) = aptly stretching intensely towards". 

διώκω – (see verse 12 again.)

Comments

 

Paul continues his thought from the previous verse.  By his use of ἀδελφοί he gathers his readers then and now into this same pursuit with him.  Believers of every age are in the same pursuit of knowledge of Christ now and of glory in eternity.  Unlike the Judaizers who boastfully claimed that one could achieve righteousness or perfection in this life by works, Paul describes the race of faith as always straining for the goal.  “I’m not there yet, but it is there, just ahead!  I’ll stay on course, and keeping reaching!”  This is not at all unlike the thought the writer to the Hebrews expressed about Jesus, and in turn, about the Hebrew Christians:  “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  (Hebrews 12:2)

 

Verse 14

κατὰ σκοπὸν διώκω εἰς τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.


βραβεῖον - (from brabeúō, "act as an umpire") – properly, the prize awarded to a victor, i.e. the reward (recognition) that follows triumph. 

Comments

 

Again, this continues and repeats Paul’s personal commitment for his life moving forward:  He won’t stop pressing on toward the goal of eternal life through faith in Christ.  It will be his life-long pursuit.  Don’t miss what he says here in confidence about God’s place in all of this:  God called him, and God is drawing him heavenward (and here comes that expression again) in Christ.  The call came to him in the person and work of Christ proclaimed in the gospel.  Christ is the one in whom he will safely and surely get to eternal glory.  Paul’s words remind us that we did not set up the prize – God did.  We did not line up to run this race – God called us to it in Christ.  We won’t get their by our effort – God will bring us across the finish line God will be the “umpire” who will be there to hand us the crown of righteousness that he holds in store for us.

Some Homiletical Suggestions

 

The season of Lent is dominated by the proclamation of Jesus’ passionate pursuit of our salvation. We hear him express his gritty and gracious determination to get to the cross to save us in Isaiah 50:7, “Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.”  Not the murderous attempt to thrown him off a cliff by enraged hometowners, nor Peter’s misguided attempt to dissuade Jesus from an ignominious death, nor the burden that pressed on his shoulders in Gethsemane turned Jesus from his course. Jesus fought through it all and pursued the cross.  He strove for it.  He was driven to get there, because there and only there could God’s holiness and grace, his justice and mercy, find the perfect resolution of which we are the beneficiaries.

Now look at Paul in this text:  he has come to know that Jesus – up close and personal.  Elsewhere he has marveled that Jesus would expend all of that effort and energy and endure all that suffering for him.  But Paul knows that Jesus did.  And it changed him.  The gospel has drawn him to respond with a determination to hold on to the righteousness of Christ at all cost, to pursue knowing Christ better, to chase down everything there is to know and have in Christ.  Paul uses himself as an example to encourage the Philippian Christians to reckon things as he did.

What an excellent encouragement for me and for all of God’s people!  This world has so much to offer, but everything is a downgrade to scraps that aren’t worth saving when compared to the superior blessing we have in knowing Christ.  In him is righteousness!  In him is strength and comfort in suffering!  In him is the assurance of our own resurrection from the dead!  In him God has reached out into the world and seized us, and in him God is drawing us up and homeward, heavenward.  We are not there yet.  False teachers – especially that one that lives in me, that is, my opinion legis – will always be there to tell us to settle for the kind of do-it-yourself righteousness the world settles for.  He will always be there to try to twist our worship, our service to the Savior, our love for our neighbor into an effort to pay for righteousness instead of letting it be the thank-you for the righteousness we have in Christ. Brothers and sisters, don’t settle!  Don’t trade down for rubbish!  Hold on to Jesus!

Since Paul is responding to and inoculating the Philippians against the false knowledge of the Gnostics as well as the false hope of the Judaizers, and since both live on in the “new agey” ideas and opinio legis of pop religion, an outline might be something like this:

God Has Given You a Treasure of Surpassing Worth! –

   1.  Knowing Christ and his righteousness  (8-9)

   2.  Knowing the power of his resurrection and of participation in his suffering (10-11)

   3.  Knowing where you’re going in Christ (12-14) 

I got an email recently from a friend in another state who was struggling with a really deep question:  “How can I pray for an organ to become available to save the life of my loved one when that would mean the death of someone else?”  She asked me that question because twice our immediate family has been in the position of needing an organ transplant to survive.  We had to struggle through that question in a very personal way.  She was simply asking for advice from someone who’s walked that road.

It is quite a dilemma, isn’t it?  It seems to be one of those situations where doing God’s will for two different people is in direct conflict.  Do you remember Martin Luther’s explanation of the Fifth Commandment?  It goes like this, “We should fear and love God that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need.”  So looking out for my loved one who needs an organ transplant would mean praying for that organ to become available – which would mean someone would have to die for that to happen.  Looking out for my neighbor who would have to provide that organ would mean praying that they survive, too.  Which means my loved one wouldn’t get the organ and would die.  It seems no matter what I pray for someone is going to die.  Right?

Well, here’s one of those places where our human reason and logic can put us in a box that our big, wise, and powerful God is not locked in.  God teaches us in his Word that he holds the decisions about life and death – for everyone.  Whether they have signed a donor card or not, God is the one who decides.  Consider these statements:  "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  (Psalm 139:16); "My times are in your hands."  That is true for my loved one who needs a transplant and it is true for everyone else – including those who have signed their donor card.  People don’t die because I want my loved one to have an organ.  People die when God decides that it is their time.  He decides, not me.

God also teaches us that he gives careful thought and care to when he allows death to come to one of his own:  "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants."  (Psalm 116:15)  So God will give careful thought to when he permits death to come my loved one.  It may be that the illness which makes an organ transplant necessary is what he will use to call them home to heaven.  And God isn’t going to abdicate his prerogative about the death of someone else to me.  He will decide for them, too.

So where does this all get resolved?  Not in my prayers, but in the fathomless wisdom of our gracious and compassionate God.  The depths of that wisdom are just too much for me to plumb.  I can only leave this matter in the hands of God who is smart enough to coordinate someone’s passing with someone’s need, if that is his will.

In the end, I came to offer this kind of prayer – and it’s what I suggested to my friend:  "Lord, you know that my loved one needs an organ transplant.  You also know how much we want that to happen so that her life may be prolonged.  And we also know that you, Lord, hold these decisions in your hands and that you are wise enough to coordinate someone's passing with someone else's need.  So do that according to your wisdom and will.  If it is your will that my loved one is to be helped by someone else's kind and generous decision to be an organ donor, then your will be done.  If it is your will that you use this illness to call my loved one to yourself, then may that be done in your own time and way.  Just give me the patience to wait for your plan to unfold and give me the trust to accept it."

Let’s not forget, however, that people decide to be organ donors before they die.  It’s as easy as signing on that line on your drivers license.  Why not give that prayerful consideration now?  Signing your donor card means that when God decides to take you home to the glory of heaven, someone else will benefit from parts of you that were “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and which served you well for many years.  It also means that this tough decision won’t have to be made by your family when they are in the midst of the heartache of your sudden passing.  Think about making it easy on them and think of the joy that decision could bring to someone else when they are having the worst day imaginable!

The backdrop against which all of this plays out is summed up really well by the apostle Paul who wrote this:  “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or image, according to his power that is at work within us, to him by glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!  Amen!”  (Ephesians 3:20-21).

So pray with confidence.  Pray with an open heart.  Pray that God’s will be done. Pray that God’s precious gift of life is honored – both by those who generously have decided to be an organ donor and by those wonderfully blessed by that decision.  It’s all in the hands of our gracious God!

I’ve never eaten at the Golden Corral.  People who have say it’s pretty good.  I hear there is a chocolate fountain and that it’s a favorite of many.  I guess I’m just not a buffet kind of guy.  When I go out to eat I know what I want and I know where I need to go to get it.  If I want Italian I know some really great places here in Clinton Township Michigan that serve good authentic Italian.  If I want really good Mexican food, I just stay home because I am married to a wonderful latina who makes the best.  Buffets strike me as trying to do too much.  Besides, if I had the option to skip the brussel sprouts and head right for a chocolate fountain, I know myself well enough to know what I’d do.  That would not be good for me. 

But I sure get it while a place like the Golden Corral is popular.  People like choices, that is, having lots of different things to choose from.  And people like the freedom to choose – what to eat and how much of it and what to skip.  People even like the choice to be able to skip all the things you’re Mom would make you eat before you got to dessert and just go directly to the chocolate fountain.  And all of that is just fine for a buffet restaurant.

But the Christian Church is not a buffet restaurant.  At least it’s not supposed to be.  God has given very specific instructions on what she is to do:  “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) That means just what it says.  The Church is to go into the world and make disciples of Jesus by baptizing and by teaching everything he says in his Word.  The Church is not anywhere told that it has the authority on its own to decide on the menu, to make decisions about what teachings of the Bible it is going to include, which ones it is going to leave out, and which ones it’s going to change to suit people’s taste.  The Church is to be God’s witness to what he’s written (Acts 1), not the author of what it thinks about God.  The Church is to hold on to everything God has said in his Word (John 8), not pick and choose.  The Church is to be Christ’s ambassador to the world (2 Corinthians 5), proclaiming and representing what he says in Law and Gospel, not formulating its own policies.  If God said it in his Word, then the Church is to proclaim it. 

But we look around the American church and we see that some churches have walked away from historic teachings of the Christian faith about origins, about God’s will regarding human sexuality and marriage, about what the Lord’s Supper and Baptism are and what they do, about what the Bible is, even about Jesus himself.  I’ve been at this pastoring thing a long time and I have my own ideas about why that has happened.  Indulge me.

First, when churches no longer regard the Bible as that which it claims to be – the divinely inspired Word of God in everything it says – that church becomes unmoored.  It will tend to be blown about by popular thought, the world view of the time, human reason alone, or by the personal whims of its human leaders.  Its goal will be to “become relevant,” or to get big, or just to try to hang on.  Those things are not the same as being faithful to the mission by being faithful to the Word.  It seems to me that this is also why people will sometimes look for a church that suits their tastes in teachings as opposed to looking for one that is faithful to the Word.  Don’t like what God’s Law says about what sin is and its consequences?  You can find churches that redefine sin or even some that don’t even use the word.  Don’t like what the Scriptures say about Jesus being the only Savior the world is ever going to have?  You can find ones that don’t say that.  Don’t like what God says about his roles for men to be servant leaders and women to be servant counterparts in the Christian church and in the Christian home?  You can find a church that walked away from that, too.  Want a church where human sexuality and the definition of marriage are in tune with the current zeitgeist and explain away what the Bible says?  Yes, you can find churches like that, too.  The farther you get from the Bible as the Word of God the more the church starts to look like a buffet – lots of choices, take what you want, leave what you don’t like, and no one will say a word about it.

Second, when human beings try to engineer outcomes that they want for the visible church that are not what the Holy Christian Church is supposed to be about, really bad things happen in the church.  Jesus said the Church would be wide.  Just look at the inclusive language God uses.  Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for the whole world (I John 2).  God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  (2 Corinthians 5)  Whoever believes in Jesus will be saved.  (John 3)  Jesus said to go and baptize and teach all nations.  (Matthew 28)  John’s vision of heaven reveals people there from every nation, tribe, people and language.  (Revelation 7). The gospel casts a wide net, but Jesus never said that the work of the Church is to be big.  In fact, he talked about many being called but few chosen.  (Matthew 22)  He said that few travel the narrow way.  (Matthew 7)  And besides, it’s his business how big the church is in that it is only God the Holy Spirit who can create faith.  The Churches job is to be faithful proclaimers of the Word of God and faithful administrators of the sacraments; it is God’s work to grow the church by leading people to faith.  So if I think it is my job to make the church big, then I will be sorely tempted to do and say things – and not do and not say things – that I think will be most likely to result in big numbers.  And before long, you have it:  The Golden Corral Church of the Perpetual Buffet.  Lots of choices, take what you want, walk by the rest, and in the end we all end up at the chocolate fountain.

I’m not picking at people who get attracted to those churches.  Hey, it’s what’s being served.  But I would challenge people to look beyond the décor and the house band.  Take a closer look at what’s on the menu, what isn’t, and why that is.  Make it your new year resolution to get more deeply into the Word.  Get a good translation and start reading your Bible.  Find a Bible class taught at a place where there is a high respect for the Bible as the Word of God and go to it - regularly.  Embrace the truth that God’s wisdom is bigger than yours and that means he will call you to believe things that don’t make sense to you and may even seem hopelessly out of step with the times.  Remember, it’s not a buffet; it’s a feast at which God serves everything he wants us to have.