The Divine Crash

Good morning! We continued to look at the gospel and where it is true in our daily life. Feel free to enjoy the audio at the bottom or on iTunes.

1 Thessalonians 4:14

Prayer:

I make salsa.  I make amazing salsa.

This salsa is amazing and what is most amazing is that lately I have gotten into the habit of eating.

Have you?

How many of you are in the habit of eating? You eat on a regular basis? Sometimes you even enjoy eating?

But you find that you have gotten into this habit over time and you don’t know when it started but you have this habit of eating and if you don’t eat you will get hungry and there is something about eating that keeps me going and when I don’t eat I lose energy

And when we see footage of famine’s and hunger and without food people starve and they die.  So there is something about food that gives us life and an absence of food brings death.

What is fascinating about this salsa is that the primary ingredient is the tomato which at one point was connected to a tomato vine.  The vine is connected to the soil where it gets its nutrients and minerals.  In order for the tomato make it to my mouth it must be pulled from the vine.  It must be harvested. It must be disconnected from its life source.

No matter how good the tomato looked before I ate it, it is dying because it has been disconnected from its life source.  Same with the onion and the celery.

They were disconnected from what gives them life and they are now dying.

Everything in this salsa is now dying.

It had to give its life for me.

Everything in this bowl of pure joy is dead.

A tip of advice: If you are in a restaurant and some of your food is not dead, leave right away.

Food, for it to give us life has to die first.  That is why Twinkies are not good for us. And Mountain Dew has nothing alive in it.

The food that is best for us is the food that was most recently alive. Therefore the food closer to the moment at which it was severed from its life source the better it is for us.

The longer it is dead the less nutrients it has.

In the nutritional realm: Death brings life.

If you eat lunch today the things on your plate are dead and it is their deadness that brings you life.

Now, lets step back and circle out a little.

A worm is eaten by bird which is eaten by a cat which dies on ground and decays where it is eaten by the grandchildren of the worm.

- Built into eco-systems is death.

For eco-systems to have life there must be death.

In the Natural world: Death brings life.

Manure. Is dead, it is decay. yet we use it, and place it, on top of a field to give life.

In the physical realm: Death brings life.

So then, in our diets, in our world, and in our environment, death brings life.

To bring this one step farther

One of the most moving things on 9/11 are the firefighters who gave their lives to rescue people in the towers, especially those who died doing it. Those who died so others could have life.

When we hear about a firefighter who rescues someone and dies in the process it moves us in ways we can’t explain.

Something within us says that is beautiful even if we can’t explain it.

Something within us says it is beautiful when one human being gives their life for another.

Would you agree?

When we talk about this we say things like: Inspiring.

Inspiring means it breathes life into us.

When we talk on 9/11 about someone giving life for another as being inspiring.  In some mystical way it is like their death brings us life.

When someone sacrifices something of theirs that is above and beyond a normal relationship for us it gives us life and inspires us to do something.

- It is someone dyeing to themselves to make you better. It inspires you and moves you because death brings life.

let’s explore this because we see it is true:

- emotionally

- Physically

- socially

- nutritionally

- environmentally

what about the Bible?

How does the Bible talk about this?

1 Thessalonians 4:14

- Jesus died

- The central belief of the first Christians was that Jesus died.

The cross and Jesus death somehow brought them life.

Romans 5:8

- Jesus died while we were still sinners

1 Corinthians 15:3

- Jesus died according to scriptures

Romans 6:10

- For Christ died for sins once and for all

So death brings life is true all over the universe?

God gives life through death.

The Biblical writers and the first Christians understood that not only is death through life is true all over the universe but that when God gives us life How does God do it? God does it through a death.

God gives life through Jesus’ death.

Is the gospel then some sort of abstract idea of “Jesus died for you” or is the cross already true in millions of different ways about how the universe already works.

Is the gospel a new thing God cooked up before that has never been done or is the death-bringing life something that has already been true about how the universe already works?

Is the Gospel then simply god working in way God already works?

Now, Have you ever had somebody, try to witness to you about how you need to become a Christian? they had little pamphlets and when they were explaining it to you they kept saying something to the effect of “Jesus died for you and you have a big problem.”

And you were not aware there was a problem. And that person responds over and over again “Jesus died for you.” and they kept insisting Jesus died for you and the more they did it the more confused you got.

How many of you have seen,  or you have done this when trying to convert someone to Christianity just say “you gotta believe and invite Jesus.” the person fires back some simple questions like “why did Jesus have to die?” or “Why couldn’t God just forgive us since God is all-powerful?”

And as a result the Christian gets backed into a corner and says something like “You just gotta have faith.” and then storms away.

Or to get real honest in this place

Have you ever tried to explain what it means to be a Christian? and the more you tried to explain it, the more you realized that you just didn’t get it. and the person you tried to explain to asked questions that were great and you left feeling more confused than ever? And if anyone was converted, you were but you converted to doubt.

How many of you have tried to convert someone by quoting Bible verses and then thought to yourself “What am I doing?”

Anybody?

Let’s begin to understand the gospel that is already true all over the place and the truth of death-bringing life is true all over the place.

And you begin with “Hey do you like salsa?” “Do you realize everything in it is dead?”  Maybe this is obscure but it is better.

Maybe a better approach to tell people about Jesus is to start with something that everyone already knows to be true. Something that our guts already resonant with.

“Have you ever had someone sacrifice for you? Do something for you out of no where?” “Do you remember how life-giving it felt?”  Have you ever had a tear in your eye over pictures of firefighters at 9/11?”

So then, Were you moved by the firefighters or were you moved by the gospel?

We already are moved beyond words and maybe the pictures of 9/11 are God saying “Do you understand Jesus now?”

Maybe the moving moments in 9/11 are the message of Jesus on display.

When you become a Christian you begin to see the world as God intended it and that these are not random theories but that this is true all around us.

Maybe those pictures are God’s way of saying that in the midst of tragedy and horror Do you understand me giving my son? and why it is such a big deal?

Because it moves and inspires us.

So then instead of starting with something that is true over here and trying to get people over here maybe we should start by trying to talk to them about what we all already know is true because this is how God works.

God doesn’t start in some weird vague way that is disconnected from how we really live. God always enters into how we live and works into the flow of how the universe really functions.

Let’s go farther.

If the cross is true then what does this mean tomorrow.

We talked about how love wins, and the ground is level at the cross which helps me, but what about those who have never heard?

Matthew 16

- Jesus among us he keeps talking about how to live and interact with the world

- A life that is amazing, beautiful and free.

- A life characterized with a certain way of relating to others

Verse 24

- If anyone wants to follow Jesus (become a Christian) they must take up a cross

When Jesus talks about real life that is fully alive and we are getting everything out of it that God put us here for and we are living our best life now he talks about it in terms of death and denial of ourself

Yet if we hold on to it we will lose it.

I would suggest that Jesus is talking about if we are selfish live in progressively shrinking world.

If you are here and you are selfish your world is getting smaller because your world is getting smaller and less and less about others.

- These people are the ones who will never apologize.  they will go down in a ball of fire even if they know they are wrong because it is all about them.

- it is because they refuse to die. When we apologize I am dying to having to be right.

- when people refuse to die it is not life-giving.

Yet when we deny ourselves and live for others and die to our selfish parts our world gets bigger. because they are serving others.

I would argue then that people who are loving Jesus and serving others are more open-minded, have a bigger world view, because the Jesus world view is bigger because it is not about us, it is about you, and you and you and you and you.

Jesus says we take up our cross to live for others.

Jesus says if we are holding on to our life this tightly then we will lose it but if we give it away we will find it.

What a fascinating way to articulate what it means to really live.

So when someone did something that inspired you and moved you, that is the cross on display, whether you realized it or not and whether they are a Christian or not that was the cross on display.

Now to take it even farther.

God gives life through death.  God gives us life through Jesus’ death. God gives life through our death.

When I die to greed I get to live.

So then the cross is not some random obscure thing God did 2000 years ago it is how God set the world up to function and moves in harmony with how things already are.

Check out this scripture

Ephesians 5:21

“Submit to one another out of reverence and respect for Jesus laying down his life.”

- It seems then that laying down our life is the mark of a Christian and central in the life of a follower of Jesus.

One of the defining characteristics of a Community of Jesus followers is people who give, serve, and die for each other.

Because they understand that death brings life.

Or this scripture:

Ephesians 5:25

Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave his life for her. It appears then a marriage only functions if both people die to each other.  Because if it Me, me, me, the marriage falls apart. Why?

Because the Gospel message of Jesus is true in marriage.

And it is true in cultures, and on 9/11, and the way we eat, in eco-systems, it is just true all over the place.

This priest named Robert Capone Frock “Death is the engine of life. It is what drives life.”

So if I really want to live I need to die.

So let’s go to what we have been exploring the last couple of weeks.

The Gospel is God’s way of saying:

“Are you dying to live?”

“Do you want to be fully alive, not some lame shriveled life but a full life?”

“Do you want everything out of this life? Then you have to die to that stuff in your life that keeps killing you?”

The question for us today then is: Do you really want to live? How far are you willing to go to really be alive?

Maybe you should take out a piece of paper and write down the things you need to die to.  The things you have been pursuing that are not life-giving. Because only when you die to those things will you live.

Put to death the stuff that doesn’t bring life;

Colossians 3:5-8

- sexual immorality, lust, evil desires, greed (which is idolatry)

Is there anything you need to die to this day so that you can be free and fully alive?

Anger isn’t life.

Do you need to die to flying off the handle?

Slander/gossip isn’t life.

Hatred? Obscene Language?

Anything else?

what does it mean to die? What specific things do you need to die to so that you can live?

As I pray and as we sing our last song, please stay seated and sing if you want or don’t if you want, but pray and think about what you can do to die. Take your paper that you have written on and on your way out throw it away. Leave it here. Don’t take it home.

May today be the day you die to the things that hold you back from being really alive.

Dear God, Thank you for this. for these kinds of truths I confess that we are just scratching the surface and we know that your truth is bigger, deeper, and wider than anything we have covered here.  But this is what we need a reminder, please help us to move the cross into the center of where we live.  We don’t want an oppressive religion we want the real thing with the cross at the center of our life. Help us to move in that direction help us to die to ourselves and the things that we struggle with. Help us to make it bigger than just writing, make it into life.

 

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