The Importance Of Being Earnest Religion Essay

The Importance Of Being Earnest Religion canvassThese be the folks that always know what new natural contingency has just struck, what local businesses argon around to go bankrupt, whose marriages ar on the rocks.How could we survive flavour without these wrong-side-of-the-bedders?How could we get around without the black clouds and gloomy forecasts.Without wrong-side-of-the-bedders, we would n constantly fully appreciate how miserable life sentence re exclusivelyy is.The book of manifestation is often perceived as sharing that same sort of unsanded perspective a wrong-side-of-the-bed view foretelling pestilence, punishment, famine, death, destruction. scarcely the disclosure of rescuer to backside is non a narrowed d take version of despair, a nerve-racking romance of wrath.Here in todays schoolbook we ar addicted celestial glimpses of glory.What might it be like to enlist in gods sway and exist in graven images peace?The divisiveness of nationality, the prejud ices of particularity, are forgotten as completely peoples forge forward to praise God.There is 1 congregation, mavin church building, and it joins either(prenominal) its separate voices together in a sonorous harmony of glorifying God. toilet saw this as the church of the future.John also saw this as our template for bringing the church to life in our possess epoch. rather of being just a nonher organization lobbying for what it deems important, the church is challenged by this vision in disclosure to itself become an pricey of paradise. promptly theres a article for you burning.Its not a word use much in church nowadays, although it is a familiar one in Scripture (Psalm 8617 Romans 823 Ephesians 114, etc). barely it whitethorn be a word that the church needs to proclaim.For our text calls the church to be what in biblical language is an earnest of the eschaton.In the Hebrew the concept is conveyed by the word Shamayim, which literally means a foretaste of promised lan d.If you gull ever had an encounter with the middle, if you are alive and aglow with life, you know the meaning of Shamayim, or earnest.In Greek the word for earnest is arrabon, a legal boundary denoting a deposit made that renders the contract binding.An earnest is a promise, a pledge, a foretaste, an embodied symbol of something which is to come in its fullness later.When a young couple plants a spindly little oak sapling piquantness in the middle of their new backyard, it is an earnest of the future they envision in that space.Someday the tree leave alone grow to shade their yard with an terrific umbrella of green.Its sturdy branches leave hold the tire swings and treehouse platforms of the children yet to be born.It will carpet the ground with its brilliant fall foliage and endure a legion of squirrels with its annual crop of acorns.It might not project like much when planted, and the some spindly limbs of that sapling oak permit the exercising weight of a tremendou s earnest.Although the ultimate earnest is the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthinans122 55 Ephesians 114), as Spirit-empowered people we are each called to act as earnests of the ultimate triumph we know Christs salvation has in store for all creation.On the day of salvation, todays Revelation text proclaims, all believers will loudly praise Gods blessing and glory and science and thanks grownup and honor and power and might (712).Are you an earnest, a kick upstairs of heaven?Does your life attest to the presence of these divine gifts to the gentlemans gentleman?When others hark to you speak, watch you officiate, see your home, do they experience that encounter as an earnest of Christs victory, of Gods redeeming fare for the world.We are all earnests, we who are part of the proboscis of Christ.Is our church an earnest of the future benignantity conduits of the divine return pass others little glimpses of the brilliance, the glory, that awaits redeemed creation?Is our role in this community a leaven of heaven?Missionary/physician/musician/historical theologist Dr. Albert Schweitzer gave his life to serve the needs of those who lived in the African jungle.He was to the starting cadence half of the 20th century what Mother Teresa was to the second half.He gave one of the best definitions of ethics Ive ever seen, and lived what he definedLet me nominate you a definition of ethics It is grievous to maintain life and merely life it is bad to damage and destroy life Ethics is the maintaining of life at the highest point of development my have got life and other life by devoting myself to it in help and love, and both these things are connected. (Reverence for Life New York philosophical Library, 1965, 34-35.)Schweitzer allegedly hung a lamp in front of his hospital that shone brilliantly throughout the jungle darkness for a wide area.The light became a pharos of wish and healing for the areas sick and dying.He is said to have hung chthonian the lamp t his signAt whatever hour you come, you will find light, and hope and gay kindness. *Both the sign and the lamp were earnests of Schweitzers ministry.Is there a lamp for your church that says to the world, practise by Here. For Here is a Leaven of Heaven?Schweitzer practiced his earnestness with full knowledge of the worlds cruel ways, and a clear vision of mankind frailty and sin.Nonetheless, Schweitzer maintained his focus on eternity, and leavened heaven with all(prenominal) fiber of his being.To the question of whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic. I am pessimistic in that I experience in its full weight what we conceive to be the absence of purpose in the course of world happenings. Only at quite rare moments have I mat up really glad to be alive. I could not but take int with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not just now that of men but that of the self-c oloured creation. From this community of suffering I have never tried to film myself. It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the institutionalise of pain which lies upon the world (Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought New York Henry Holt and Company, 1933, 279).Albert Schweitzers incomparable life and witness touched me as a child ontogenesis up until he became in my life an earnest of the person I pauperizationed to become.Schweitzer was able to offer me and others a leaven of heaven in each of the three types of needs outlined in todays text.Though characterisation an ageless future, this mornings text focuses on the three most basic human needs of our frail and mortal present.Physical Needs The vision from Revelation promises that when believers are gathered around God enthroned they will hunger no more, and thirst no more (v.16).In other words, we will be delivered from physical needs.As a physician, caring for the bodies of thos e who caught sight of the jungle clinics light came naturally.But each of us is capable of providing some measure of make out physical comfort to those whose physical needs are consuming all their energy and hope.Welfare reforms have made the churchs role as a cordial service agency even more vital.Its hard to work on an empty stomach its hard to learn when youre cold and trite its hard to play when youre weak and malnourished.Spiritual Needs delivery boy vision to John revealed that divine deliverance involves more than just filling up stomachs and banishing carcass aches.There are other aches that have no neurological cause.There are pains suffered by a parched soul.Without addressing the uncanny needs of the human condition, one finds there is no true earnest of salvation present.Saving the body is not enough, for it will fail to fly high unless the spirit is nourished and nurtured by a community of faith.In our Revelation text the enthroned Lamb offers believers springs of the water of life as . . . sustenance for an eternal soul.Earnest up headspringings of this same spring are already acquirable from our own faith community.Emotional Needs As frail and failing human beings, however, we find our emotional needs are perhaps the most heavy to satisfy, and are even more demanding when denied.Without emotional strength and suppleness, even the strongest body will fail, even the surest spirit will falter.When our body labors, it needs a quiet center, a sense of emotional ease, in range to prove the physical hardship.Our spirit can soar precisely if it knows there is a safe and secure emotional scaffolding resting under its flight path. maven of the most tragic figures in biblical history is Israels first elect king, Saul.Although he was a great and strong warrior and commanded the 12 tribes of the new nation, although he experienced the exalted presence of Gods Spirit, Sauls body and soul had a calamitous weakness.Although he enjoyed physical an d spiritual triumphs, Sauls own emotional melancholia destroyed his faith, his vision, his purpose, his will.In todays Revelation text God meets our emotional needs in both ways.The text promises God will wipe away every rip suggesting that the emotionally honest and cleansing tears will first be allowed to flow, but that these tears will then be dried by Gods own tender hand.As an earnest of this quality of emotional care, we, too, mustiness not be afraid to show the same depth of touch perception and to let others do the same.In response to a genuine boot of emotion, an earnest of the coming age does not judge, but offers what is needed to change a cheek, to hold a hand, to show empathy.In a productive writing class, a young teenage girl wrote this short numbersDont criticize.Dont analyze.Dont even try to sympathize.Dont say you understand because you dont.Just hold me in your gird for once.And love me as I am.Like my mommy used to dobefore the world grew up on me.(John Fischer, In value of the Unrenowned, CCM Magazine, October1997, 84.)Will this church hold the world in its arms and love it, as an earnest of Gods holding the whole world in the arms of the Almighty and loving it?Will you be a leaven of heaven in your family, your community, your world?Tracking the SheepJohn 1022-30 4/29/2007We live in a changing new world of computer-raised sheep, but theres fluent just one guard to go after.In Psalm 23, the sheepherder leads the sheep beside cool waters. In century 21, the guard weighs the sheep beside cool waters plot of ground he sits behind a laptop miles away.We are used to the page image of the Bedouin shepherd crook in hand, flowing robes, Middle easterly head-covering. We remember a young David, tending his fathers flocks alone in the cold, battling lions and bears, winning the God of creation in songs and poems that he would later pen into psalms.Now consider todays e-shepherd Bluetooth headset in ear, Blackberry PDA attached to belt, Venti Mocha perched background knowledge alongside GPS receiver. He sits remote from his flock in a sore ranch house, a crook exchanged for a mouse, perhaps performing a game of Internet Spades magical spell still on the clock.That may be the appropriate picture in New South Wales, Australia, where new wave technologies are being applied to an age-old industry. Ranchers attach tiny GPS transponders to the ears of bobble lambs, and as these sheep grow up, they can be watched from a computer monitor. passim the day, sheep move freely from grazing areas to drinking areas to rest perioding areas. Each crinkle between areas is wide enough for only one sheep to pass at a time, and as they pass between fenced-in zones, their transponders alert the shepherd where they are going and when.We can keep tabs on a single sheep from the time it is a little lamb to the time that it becomes lamb chops, says Bill Murray, part for the Australian Sheep Industry. However, the main adv antage is in sheephandling, because the transponders allow the sheep to make their own decisions, without being hassled by people or dogs.In such a hyper-individualized world, why not extend the power of choice to flocks as well? With these e-sheep, its all up to ewe.But allowing free-range grazing isnt about having self-actualized herds. Its about having unhassled, unhurried, tenderized ones. Apparently, sheep autonomy equals appetite appeal.Beyond tastier flocks, e-shepherds also have well-organized flocks. remotely controlled adits determine which grazing and drinking areas sheep are channeled into and for how long they dwell there. Electronic scales are placed within each passageway so that every time a flock is shepherded from one area to another, each sheep can be weighed as it passes by. As a fully gravid sheep passes through, a side gate opens sending it into a yard for those animals headed to market. As a pregnant ewe near birth weight passes through, a gate opens to sen d her to a prenatal area. In the future, animals due for vaccination will be given remote shots as they pass by and ghoulish animals can be detected and quarantined for medical treatment.All from a distance. All without human contact. All electronically.If David had controlled his flocks in e-shepherd fashion, he might have blogged the Psalms, text messaged Jonathon, and sent a fatal hard-drive virus to Goliath.So the lesson from e-sheep is this 21st-century techno-culture metaphors are light years away from biblical, agrarian culture metaphors. noning this, consider John 1022-30. saviour, the well-behaved Shepherd, is so not like the impersonal techno-shepherd. Here, as elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus uses a metaphor his audience will understand Hes the shepherd, and his followers are the sheep. So to understand what Jesus wants our present-day(a) audiences to understand, we must culturally unpack and translate what this sheep imagery means.Begin with our non-agrarian understand ings of sheep. They arent sparkly animals. Theres no parlor game question that ever asks Which is the smartest animal? The horse, the pig, the sheep, the dog, the put? Wont happen. Sheep sleep and eat in the same fields in which they defecate and urinate. They blindly follow each other around with an aseptic herd mentality. They need to be constantly provided for and protected so they dont thirst to death or become wolf-lunch.So is this the way that Jesus wants us to see ourselves? Maybe yes, maybe no. What is clear is that sheep are needy. They not only need a shepherd, they need a good shepherd. healthy ones take their job seriously. Good ones take care of the sheep. They protect and fend for the sheep. They lead the sheep to still waters and green pastures. They lay down their lives for the sheep. They typeface for lost sheep.In Jesus day, shepherds didnt have the fiscal means to own sheep, thus many were mercenary care givers hired to live and sleep with the herds. Many w ere 8-12-year-old boys in the family business, out in a field because few opportunities existed for them. In our Western career caste system, shepherds wouldnt be white-collar or blue-collar theyd be no-collar.Is Jesus this kind of shepherd? Obviously not. assimilator Mary Schertz notes that in this text its not like every ovine analogy carries meaning for us or that sheep are commended as models for imitation. Sheep in the fullness of their animal existence are neither a good model for Christian life nor any other kind of human life.Instead, what does this short passage ask our e-shepherd culture to understand about the Good Shepherd and his relationship with the sheep who follow him?The Shepherd. John emphasizes two elements of setting. The time is the festival of Dedication, or Hanukkah (v. 22) the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus desecrated it while trying to force Greek religion and philosophy upon them. The place is the portico of Solomon (v. 23) the only remaining relic of Solomons sacred temple which still stood, and the place where the Jewish king would make judgments and exercise justice.So a controversial rabbi is doctrine radical ideas and taking controversial theological positions at a time when Jewish culture in the presence of the Roman occupation, and the traditions and history of Jewish religious milieu are being honored and glorified. And Jesus is doing this in the very place where Gods kings had always talk to Gods people.The Jews question and request (v. 24) are therefore painfully rhetorical. How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.Theres no suspense. They know on the button what he is saying because of when and where he is saying it.Who does this Shepherd claim to be? someone who works in the Fathers name. Someone whose sheep hear his voice. Someone who knows the sheep. Someone whose sheep follow him. Someone who gives to his followers eternal life. Someone who defends his sheep, because no one will snatch them out of my hand. Someone who is one with the Father.In alone Christian, scholar N.T. Wright notes that human yearning for things like justice, relationships and beauty are echoes of a voice. On the deeper spiritual level, these universal desires are pointing both to their Author and to their Fulfiller. tour these hopes can be met incompletely through what the world offers, they are only met perfectly and completely through Jesus as Savior, the Good Shepherd of the sheep.Jesus is no e-shepherd who engages his sheep remotely. The Shepherd maintains intimacy and proximity in order to meet the needs of his sheep. He is at least within voice-distance (v. 27). Jesus is a hands-on, high-touch Shepherd.The Sheep. Jesus speaks of his sheep in front of an audience who does not hold up that category You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep (v. 26).Not everyone is a sheep of this Shepherd a difficult and sobering reality . The Shepherd does not crook-beat people into following him. He allows for some goats instead of all sheep.But those who are Christ followers are described this way My sheep hear my voice (v. 27).For intrigued sheep then or now, a natural question emerges from this text. How do we hear our Shepherds voice? Is it like Moses who comprehend from God audibly at Sinai? Is it like Elijah who heard the sound of sheer silence as God spoke? Or is it like pastor and author Rob gong describing his call to preaching I heard a voice not an audible, loud, human kind of voice but inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise. What I heard was Teach this book, and I will take care of everything else.Dont we all long for a voice like those three experienced?Notice, though, that Jesus describes voice- perceive in two different ways I know them, and they follow me (v. 27).When Jesus knows his sheep he does so eternally (v. 28), and they are offered the Shepherds pr otection and security. But this security is not earthly. Sheep may lose their life, their financial comfort and their social acceptance because of their faith. Yet those who have heard the saving call of God and responded can never lose their souls and relationship with the Shepherd. Some of you pastor-theologians might want to amend that sentence so it reads like this Yet those who have heard and are hearing the saving call of God and who have responded and are responding can never lose their souls and relationship with the Shepherd. In any event, hearing his voice includes being known by the Shepherd.NOTE The question that needs to be addressed is, How does one know, or hear, the voice of the Shepherd, so that we can be obedient and follow? See another Homiletics installment (based on this text), available online at www.HomileticsOnline.com, Jesus IS Ovine-Lingual. There the following observation is made Yet, sometimes the problem is not that we, the sheep of his pasture, do n ot make out the voice of the Shepherd. Rather, we recognize it and refuse to listen. Or we listen selectively.In biblical times, shepherds had shrill yells that would recoil through the wadis and across the hills where their sheep grazed. The Shepherds voice was firm, clear, loud and there was no misunderstanding it. It told the sheep, I am your shepherd. I know the best path. Follow me.When is the go away time we have sensed God leading us to still waters and green pastures? When have we been asked to follow Jesus even when it is costly? Sheep regularly hear from their shepherd, they trust his voice and they follow.Jesus doesnt fit the shepherd stereotype and its probably fair to say that we arent the brainless herd animals that we develop sheep to be. But the biblical metaphor is still timeless and rich, ultimately giving us a picture of relationship, protection and provision, allowing us to hear a clear voice that bids us follow toward soul-satisfaction.