2 Corinthians 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Psalm 103
Jeremy Pace
Simple Spirit
CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 104:19-34
He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures...These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath [their spirit], they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit [your breath], they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
Song #1 – Psalm 34 by Shane and Shane
Song #2 – Goodness of God by Jenn Johnson
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INTRO| Simple Saints
"To the church of God this [Christ City Church], having been sanctified [already made saintly] in Christ Jesus, appointed or summoned to be saints [to become holy ones] together with all those who in every place who appeal to evoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ... Grace and peace to you..." (1 Corinthians 1:2-3)
We are “made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints together in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is our charge; that is what we have been doing as a faith family for almost 14 years now, and what we will continue to do together. Indeed, saints is the name we are trying to grow into together.
So, what is a saint? Saints are those set apart by God, whose person and purposes—who we are and what we are for—cannot be accurately or aptly described or known apart from God's intentions for us and His persistent attention to us. We are "anointed ones," covered in the life of God in Christ.
The name saint, scholar, and theologian Michael Gorman contends, "is both a gift and a task,” our “mandate and [our] goal, or telos”[1] as God’s community, present and future. We are, paraphrasing the apostle Paul, ones "made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints, together in Christ Jesus our Lord."
But our series is titled “Simple Saints.” So, what about simple? We said simple has (at least) two meanings:
1) To be simple is to be plain or modest, unadorned by elaborate decoration, ordinary. Modest and unadorned certainly describe the simplicity of our faith family’s external presentation! But simplicity also gives shape to the heart of what we are after: a life in which our saintliness is distinguished in ordinary contexts and modest spaces, in unadorned rhythms, habits, and dispositions.
2) To be simple is to be unmixed, not subdivided or composed of many similar units. This understanding of simplicity is a bit more complex. At least, it allows for harmony of complex reality.
To understand simplicity, including ours, we start with God. To say God is simple is to say that God is whole and holy. What He is is without mixture, confusion, or contradiction. God is not a combination of his attributes, actions, and attitudes. God simply is.
Every attribute of God—which is revealed in his actions and consistent with his attitudes (dispositions)—is identical (soft identity) with his essence. This is why we can say, God is not one who loves; God is Love. God is not one who does good; God is Good. God's nature and actions are God. Yet this does not reduce God to some uniformed blob of existence. Remember what Peter Leithart argued,
“…the Cappadocians affirmed the complexity of God’s properties and acts, and used simplicity as a caution that “one should not take these attributes as contradicting one another—since only complex beings can have contradictory properties at the same time. To say simplicity is to confess the harmony, not the identity, of all that is in God.”[2]
And so, while we cannot be simple in the same way God is simple, we can be, and become, those whose nature and actions are true, and truly who we are. Where our attributes, actions, and attitudes, as richly deep and complex as they are, might be in harmony within ourselves and in relation to He who is simply Real. That, indeed, all of us, and all that is us, is “saintly.”
In a world that divides us, to be a simple saint is to be whole, unadorned yet exquisite (glorious) in our lives with God, together; whole and holy, in harmony within ourselves and in God. The Holy, Simple One. Or, as Paul encouraged us,
"…saintified completely... your whole spirit and soul and body... kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
What does that mean, and how does it look to be completely sainted? To that end, labor today, and we pray.
PRE-SERMON READING | 1 Corinthians 15:43-45
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being (living soul)”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
SERMON | A Simple Spirit
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify [saintify] you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
Today, we are going to look at what it means to be simple saints, particularly those who are "saintified" completely in our whole spirit... kept blameless by the faithfulness of the one who "called," summoned, and appointed us, “the last Adam,” who “became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:43).
Let us begin by understanding the relationship among our complex self: spirit, soul, and body. Then we’ll describe what “spirit” is, and conclude with how we live whole in spirit/Spirit.
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul describes the complete person as spirit, soul, and body. In theological terms, this is called Trichotomism. Like Paul, many of the early church fathers (and mothers) contended against a dualistic view of the person. According to most ancient, especially Greek, thought, we are body (corporeal) and soul (incorporeal or spiritual), so we are a “spiritual soul” in a physical body. In some ways, there was a conflation or confusion of soul and spirit, at least that is what Paul and many in the early church held.
Ted Peters, a Lutheran theologian, describes the concept of trichotomism this way,
“According to trichotomists, it is acceptable to identify the soul with the mind [and we’ll argue that it is more than this, as the soul as mind is, in my estimation, a Platonistic compromise] with the individual mind that does the thinking. The spirit, on the other hand, makes possible a supra-physical unity or bond each individual can share with others, with the church, and with God. Soul and spirit are two dimensions of the incorporeal.
Each of us enters the world at birth with both a human soul and a human spirit. In baptism the human spirit is replaced [we’d say recapitulated or joined or born again] by God’s Holy Spirit. It is in the dimension of spirit, not the soul, where the overlap between human life and the divine life initially take place.”[3]
The spirit, argues Peters, is the source of relationship and the means of unity within our complexity. Catholic theologian Hans Urs van Balthasar contends,
"Spirit is the thing in man that is essentially more than man, something which does not 'rise from below' but 'comes down from above.' ... The background of this doctrine is a vivid idea of man's profound dependence on, and adherence to, God. He does not so much 'exist' as 'partake'."[4]
The foundation for this understanding comes not merely from Paul’s words to the Thessalonians but from the very beginning of life itself. Our life is derivative of Life. We do not begin; we are begun, as our origin story describes:
"then the LORD God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath [spirit] of life, and the man became a living creature [soul]." (Genesis 2:7)
This view shaped the people of God’s understanding of themselves, as the prophet Isaiah attests, writing centuries later:
"Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it..." (Isaiah 42:5)
So, it is the spirit that distinguishes humanity from all other creatures, or in the word of our scriptures, “living souls”:
“Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature (literally, every living soul), that was its name.” (Genesis 2:19)
What elevates humanity is not that we are embodied souls (though we will see that what our soul is, as Aristotle rightly observed, is of a higher order), but that is because we are spirted, embodied souls, receiving from God the spirit, His Spirit of life.
This is why St. Ireneas could contend that,
"Just as the animated body is not itself the soul, but partakes of the soul as long as God wills, so the soul is not life, but partakes of the life God gives it. That is why the prophetic word says of the first man: 'He was made a living soul' (Gen. 2:7).
This teaches us that it is by participation in life that the soul is made alive; in other words, the soul and the life that is in it are to be seen as two separate things...
The soul (psyche) and the spirit (pneuma) may be part of man, but they are certainly not the man. The complete man is a mixture and union: the soul, which has received the Spirit of the Father, mixed with the flesh fashioned in the image of God...
If you take away the substance of the flesh, in other words, the shaped clay, and consider just the naked spirit, what you are left with is not 'the spiritual man,' but merely 'the spirit of a man,' or 'the Spirit of God.' However, when this Spirit is blended with the soul and united to the shaped clay, the result, thanks to the outpouring of the Spirit, is a spiritual and complete man, and it is this, the complete man, who is made in the image and likeness of God...
…the complete man is made up of three things--flesh, soul, and Spirit. One of these saves and forms, namely the Spirit; another is saved and formed, namely the flesh; another finds itself between the other two, namely the soul...”[5] (St. Irenaeus)
That spirit is what is more than us, what forms us into the image and likeness of God. To be spiritual is not to be Spirited, as Eugene Peterson so astutely pointed out. To be spiritual is merely to long for and recognize that there is more to existing than just us. That indeed, our life, true life, comes from without, not merely from within.
To be Spirited requires a rebirth via submission. That’s why Irenaeus continues,
“The 'breath of life' (Gen. 2:7), which makes man an animated [psychic] being, is not the same as the 'life-giving Spirit' (1 Cor. 15:45), which makes man spiritual. That is why Isaiah says… that the 'breath' is given to all the people on earth without exception, whereas the Spirit is given exclusively to those who 'tread' down all earthly lusts...
Now there is a difference between what is made and the one who makes it. The breath is temporal, the Spirit eternal. The breath briefly increases in strength, continues for a certain time, and then departs, leaving its former abode breathless. But the Spirit, having pervaded man within and without, remains for ever and never leaves him.
But the apostle says [in 1 Cor. 15] it is not the spiritual which is first but the psychic, and then spiritual…He has good reason for saying this. First man had to be shaped; having been shaped, he had to be given a soul; then and only then did he receive the communion of the Spirit. The first Adam, therefore, ‘was made a living soul, the second a life-giving spirit’ (1 Cor. 15:45). He who was made a living soul turned to evil and lost his life, but that very same man, when he returns to the good and receives the life-giving Spirit, shall find life…
As the Lord says, though ‘the flesh is weak,’ the Spirit is eager (Matt. 26:41); in other words, capable of doing whatever He is eager to do. If then, you join the eagerness of the Spirit, as a kind of spur, to the weakness of the flesh, the strong inevitably prevails over the weak. The weaknesses of the flesh will be swallowed up in the strength of the Spirit, and because of the communion of Spirit [and flesh], such a person will no longer be carnal but spiritual…
Thus the flesh without the Spirit of God is dead, without life, incapable of inheriting the Kingdom of God…
At present we receive a part of the Holy Spirit to perfect us and to prepare us for incorruptibility. In this way we become gradually accustomed to receiving and bearing God. The apostle calls this gift a ‘pledge’ (Eph. 1:14)…a part of the honor promised us by God…This ‘pledge’ here and now dwells in us and makes us spiritual… Those then who have the pledge of the Spirit and are not enslaved to the lusts of the flesh, but submit themselves to the Spirit… are rightly called ‘spiritual’ by the apostle (1 Cor. 2:15; 3:1). Such spiritual persons are not bodiless spirits, but our very substance, that is, the union of soul and flesh, which when it receives the Spirit of God, constitutes the spiritual person.”[6]
To be a truly spiritual person, completely saintified as a Spirited embodied soul, begins with rebirth through repentance (baptism) and continues to mature through freedom via submission in relationship.
To be simple is to lead a life in which our saintliness is distinguished in ordinary contexts [our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our relationships & responsibilities] and in modest spaces, in unadorned rhythms, habits, and dispositions. How then is our spirit kept blameless (made completely saintly)? Well, through these unadorned rhythms, habits, and dispositions in our ordinary contexts and modest spaces:
1.CONFESSION
Irenaeus argued that those Spirited with a capital “S” are not merely those who breathe, but whose breaths “tread down earthly lusts” (disordered loves). There is no simpler way than through confession. Confession, you’ll remember, comes from two Latin words: “fessio,” which means to reveal something that would otherwise remain hidden or out of sight unless spoken, and “con,” which means with. To bring to light what is true and what is false, what is good and what is off. With God. This indeed is a turning to the source of our life, a regular, habitual practice of acknowledging the true life we have been given.
2.HEARING GOD
Hearing God is a skill. Not like a gaming or athletic skill per se, but like a crafting skill. Rather, it is learning to work with something, to understand it, and to both submit to it and work with it to make something beautiful, useful, and good. Hearing God is not the product of the skilled, but the skill of living itself. [Following Jesus on the Tap Card – Become Like Jesus]
3. ATTENDING TO LIFE OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES
Hearing God leads to seeing Jesus through a habit Julian of Norwich encouraged and that we’ve adapted: “I look at Jesus. I look to you. I keep looking at Jesus.”
‘look at Jesus,” praying: Father, let me see you with us and for us, in our past and in your presence.
“look at you,” (the other person), praying: Holy Spirit, let me see your searching and leading in my friend’s [co-worker’s, child’s, spouse’s, enemy’s] life.
“look at Jesus,” praying: Jesus, let me see how I can join your Way for their good.
4. WORSHIP
Gathering weekly to remember that we do not begin but are begun, and to return (repent) and receive (submitting to) the source of Life now and whole and holy forever.
Through these simple graces, we are made saintly, and our spirit is kept blameless at the coming of the Lord.
Pray with me before we take a few moments to reflect and consider, and then confess and receive.
REFLECTION |
REFLECT & CONSIDER
Where, when, and in what circumstances am I most aware (and experiencing) that there is more to me, than me?
Where am I living as if enslaved to lusts rather than submitted to the Spirit?
CORPORATE CONFESSION & COMMUNION[7] |
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid:
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name;
through Christ our Lord whose Life has and is becoming our lives.
Gracious Father,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word and deed,
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
you have shown us mercy and forgiveness,
that we may be blameless,
called and becoming saints,
set apart for You,
loved by You,
completed in You.
Amen.
Song #3 – Great Are You Lord by All Sons and Daughters
Song #4 – So Will I by Hillsong
BENEDICTION | Romans 8:27-28
As we rest in the day made for us, we prepare to enter into the work for which we are made [LIGHT THE CANDLE], remembering to…
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
[1] Michael Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: kenosis, justification, and theosis in Paul’s narrative soteriology, 108.
[2] Peter Leithart, “What Sort of Parts is God Without?”, in Theopolis. Accessed here.
[3] Ted Peters, “Body, Soul, and Spirit. Soul 3,” Patheos, accessed here.
[4] Hans Urs van Balthasar, The Scandal of the Incarnation, 94.
[5] Saint Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, 2.34.4, 5.6.1, 5.9.1.
[6] Ibid., 5.12.2, 5.9.2-4, 5.8.1-2
[7] Adapted from The Anglican Liturgy
Simply All
CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 116:1-9
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
Song #1 - I Believe by Johnathon and Melissa Hesler
Song #2 - Goodness of God by Jenn Johnson
Dismiss Kids
INTRO| Growing Into Our Name
Paul, at the midpoint of his first letter to the faith family in Thessalonica, writes:
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13)
Paul, like James, desires that his “brothers and sisters loved by God” (1 Thes. 1:4) be both sure of something, steady in something, even as they actively await something. As it was for James, so too is it for Paul; the way we live today is shaped by what has happened, what will happen, and so, is happening. Remember what James said,
“Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits patiently for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord.” ( James 5:7-8)
Both the leader of the first church in Jerusalem and the founder of the first churches in the Gentile expanse exhort us to be steadfast and faithful, to establish our hearts not only in what we believe but also in how we live, for in doing so we become who we truly are.
Last week, we began our transition from James’ letter to our focus for the Fall. We moved from James’ final exhortation to draw one another into life, true and good life, through his departing image of anointing and pouring out in our words life over another, to Paul’s favorite reference for the faith-filled. An distinguishing term that has guided our lives together for the last decade-plus as we organize and strive to live into our name.
While the name “Christian” is the most common identifier for people of our faith today, the title appears only three times in the New Testament. The first generations of those seeking to grow into the fullness of who they are in Christ, the ones to whom James wrote directly and to whom Paul also wrote, had other self-identifiers. And while there are several, the most common (used by Paul thirty-nine times and by other New Testament authors another twenty times) is the name “saint.”
A simple name that says who we are and who we are becoming. A simple name that gives shape to how we live, together.
So, to enter into our endeavor this morning, let us begin as we concluded last week, and were encouraged by the Pastoral Note midweek. Let us hear Paul's greeting as a greeting to us and as an invitation into conversation with the Scriptures and history, through the Spirit.
Pray with me.
PRE-SERMON READING | 1 Corinthians 1:2-3
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified [already made holy] in Christ Jesus, called to be saints [holy ones] together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SERMON | Simply All
We concluded last week by considering our name: saints. A title not of distinguished accomplishment but of received blessing, which in turn gives shape to the identity and actions of the person so blessed. Ones “made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints together in Christ Jesus our Lord,” as Paul’ greeting reminds and encourages.
As a quick recap, our family name:
“The name [saint] means that Christians are expected to be holy... consecrated to God as a holy priesthood... [having] rejected the ways of the world... they are the people of the coming age, who will reign with God over the earth and over angels. The early church could hardly have found a more exalted name for itself.” (Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible)
Our name, while simple, is profound. We are not merely the people of the now but of the will-be. Set apart for life forever, amid a life that is passing by. The name, which the apostle Paul uses more than any other to identify his fellow sisters and brothers in Christ, was, as Eugene Peterson contends:
“Paul deliberately chooses a word that identifies us by what God does in and for us, not what we do for God… [Saint is] a word that defines you primarily in terms of who God is for you and what God is doing in your life, a person who is growing up in Christ, a person who cannot be accurately identified apart from God’s intents and persistent attention: saint.” (Eugene Peterson)
We are people whose person and purposes, who we are and what we are for, cannot be accurately or aptly described or known apart from God’s intentions for us and His persistent attention to us. We are “anointed ones,” covered in the life of God in Christ.
While our name describes who we are, it also shapes who we are becoming and how. For, as Paul says in a later letter to the Corinthians,
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding [reflecting] the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another [from glory to glory]. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
This thing that is, life with God in Christ via the Spirit, is also the thing that is becoming. For Paul, argues Michael Gorman,
“The purpose of God, in Paul’s view, is to call out a people into Christ, which in itself sets this new community apart as God’s holy people [saints], and also to form them into a people that see [saintliness] as its mandate and its goal, or telos. [Saintliness], for Paul, is both a gift and a task.” (Michael Gorman)
We are, to say it again, paraphrasing Paul, ones “made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints, together in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is the name. A name that is wondrous, yes, but simple? How can one so esteemed and so commissioned be labeled simple?
Saints, we get, I think. But notice that the title of our series is not merely “Saints” but “Simple Saints.” Why “simple”?
The word simple, at least according to Merriam-Webster, carries a host of meanings. Still, two stand out for our purposes.
First, to be simple is to be plain or modest, unadorned by elaborate decoration, ordinary. Modest and unadorned certainly describe the simplicity of our faith family’s external presentation! But simplicity also gives shape to the heart of what we are after: a life in which our saintliness is distinguished in ordinary contexts and modest spaces, in unadorned rhythms, habits, and dispositions.
We’ll come back to this meaning of simple again, but today I want us to look at a second meaning of the word simple. To be simple is to be unmixed, not subdivided or composed of many similar units.
Do you mind if I get semi-technical for a moment? Our family name, saint, is derivative; it is not something we inherently possess by existing, but something we are gifted with in our existing through, in, and with Christ. Therefore, it is based on and modeled after another source, God Himself, who is Holy. This reality is articulated by the apostle Peter, who, referencing the God-given expectation from Leviticus, constructs our reality:
“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being soberminded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I AM holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
Because God is holy, we are to be holy and are able to be holy. This holiness, or saintliness, as we discovered last week, is, in part, an act of nonconformity and an ability and expectation not to be conformed to the “passions” (changing or opposing desires) of our former ignorance, when our knowledge of God, of ourselves, and of the Good was dim. A way of existing before we were enlightened to what is Truth through the second person of the Trinity, the Word (Logos) became flesh, Jesus dwelling among us who,
“This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person.” (John 1:9, NASB)
Existing unenlightened, absent the revelation of Jesus Christ, we know ourselves as a combination of things. We are, in part, what we can and cannot do, who (and what) we are related (or similar) to, how we act, etc. We exist as an admixture of attributes, actions, and attitudes that make up our character or nature. And in truth, the complexity of our essence remains even after the revelation of Jesus Christ. But what changes at the Advent of the Word made flesh, tabernacling among us, is the harmony of our admixture, or at least the opportunity to enter into a rhythmic harmony that already exists.
Unlike us, whose identity is derived through an admixture of attributes, actions, and attitudes that make up our character or nature, God is simple. God is not a combination of his attributes, actions, and attitudes. God simply, is.
Every attribute of God—which is revealed in his actions and consistent with his attitudes (dispositions)—is identical (soft identity) with his essence. God is not an eternal essence to which attributes have been added. He is not essence plus attributes. He is essence in attributes. The very foundation of Being itself. So we can say, God is not one who loves; God is Love. God is not one who does good; God is Good. God’s nature and actions are God. Or, as God revealed to Moses, his identity, self-descriptor is:
“I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14)
“I AM WHAT I AM,” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.” God is not material, nor is he a combination of things. He is simple, as Aristotle postulated, “That Which Is.” And yet, what God is simply is a grandly wondrous harmony of deeply rich and paradoxical features.
Listen to Augustine’s wondering, wondrous parade of paradoxal praise in prayer:
“Since, then You fill heaven and earth, do they contain You? Or, because they do not contain You, do You fill them, and yet something remains over ? And where do You pour out what remains of You when the heaven and earth are filled ? Or, indeed, is there any need that You who contain all things should be contained by any, since those things which You fill, You fill by containing them ? For the vessels which You fill do not sustain You, since should they even be broken You would not be poured out. And when You are poured out on us, You are not cast down, but we are uplifted; nor are You diluted, but we are drawn together. But, as You fill all things, do You fill them with Your whole self, or, as all things cannot altogether contain You, do they contain a part, and do all at once contain the same part ? Or has each its own proper part-the greater more, the smaller less ? Is, then, one part of You greater, another less? Or are You wholly everywhere while nothing altogether contains You?
What, then, are You, O my God-what, I ask, but the Lord God ? For who is Lord but the Lord? or who is God save our God (Ps. 17:32) ? Most high, most excellent, most powerful, most omnipotent ; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beautiful and most strong, stable, yet contained by none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud without their knowing it (Job 9:5); always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting ; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. You love, yet do not burn; are jealous, yet free from care; You repent, yet do not suffer; are angry, yet serene; You change Your ways, leaving Your plans unchanged; You recover what You find, without ever having lost it; You are never in want, while You rejoice in gain; never covetous, though requiring interest.' That You may owe, more than enough is given to You; yet who has anything that is not Yours? You pay debts while owing nothing; and when You forgive debts, You lose nothing. Yet, O my God, my life, my holy joy, what is this that I have said ? And what does anyone say when He speaks of You? Yet woe to them that keep silence, seeing that even they who say most are like the dumb."
To call God simple is not to make God something less than the incomprehensible, something other than the One who cannot be fully captured by our minds or utterly known by observation or experience. To say God is simple is to say something else. In an article on divine simplicity, Peter Leithart comments,
“…the Cappadocians affirmed the complexity of God’s properties and acts, and used simplicity as a caution that “one should not take these attributes as contradicting one another—since only complex beings can have contradictory properties at the same time. To say simplicity is to confess the harmony, not the identity, of all that is in God.”
And so, while we cannot be simple in the same way God is simple, we can be, and become, those whose nature and actions are true, and truly who we are. Where our attributes, actions, and attitudes, as richly deep and complex as they are, might be in harmony within ourselves and in relation to He who is simply Real. That, indeed, all of us, and all that is us, is “saintly.” That, after all, is what Paul exhorts the faith family of Thessalonica to believe and to live toward when he says,
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify [saintify] you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
To be a simple saint is not to become complete and completely sainted. To be one who, in spirit, soul, and body, is unmixed, not subdivided, not a competing compilation of parts—whether an admixture of emotions and beliefs or a compilation of various parts we play—but whole and holy in harmony with the Holy One. In a world that divides us, to be a simple saint is to be whole, unadorned yet exquisite (glorious) in our lives with God, together.
What does it mean to be made holy in the whole of ourselves (spirit, soul, and body)? And how? These questions will guide our time together over the next few Gatherings. But today, I want us to consider the simplicity of our name.
REFLECTION |
REFLECT & CONSIDER
Where, when, and in what ways have I experienced the “wholeness” of being set apart by God (being who I truly am)?
Where and in what ways am I feeling divided, mixed-up, in spirit, soul, and/or body?
CORPORATE CONFESSION & COMMUNION |
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid:
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name;
through Christ our Lord whose Life has and is becoming our lives.
Gracious Father,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word and deed,
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
you have shown us mercy and forgiveness,
that we may be blameless,
called and becoming saints,
set apart for You,
loved by You,
completed in You.
Amen.
Song #3 - Almighty God by Sandra Mcracken/All Sons and Daughters
Song #4 - Just Because You Wanted Us by John Van Deusen
BENEDICTION | Romans 8:27-28
As we rest in the day made for us, we prepare to enter into the work for which we are made [LIGHT THE CANDLE], remembering to…
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
A Family Name
CALL TO WORSHIP | 34:1-10
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Song #1 - Psalm 34 by Shane and Shane
Song #2 - Just Because You wanted Us by John van Deusen
Dismiss Kids
SERMON | Our Family Name
James wrote to encourage our maturation in faith, to help us recognize and participate in faith at work within us so that we might reach our telos, our good end, individually and together.
“Count it pure (unalloyed) joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials (process of testing) of various kinds (all sorts), for you know that the testing (purifying) of your faith produces steadfastness (perseverance, resilience). And let steadfastness perfect its work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4)
James contends that life's disturbances help ensure our maturation and completion. Indeed, God-orchestrated exposure to the trials of making life, good, activates and purifies our faith, ensuring we reach the end of our potential: the work of God being complete in history through our maturation.
James concludes his letter, exhorting us to use our words to help others in the same way James' words have helped us, to anoint one another in the life of Christ amid our weaknesses, so that what is compromised might be healed and what is lost and wandering might be found and restored, so that we might indeed reach the end of who we are:
My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the tuth [of faith at work] and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner [someone whose living “misses the mark” of the complete, the perfect life] from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:13-20)
The final exhortation and image of James’ letter: speak life over one another; draw one another into life, can be said another way: live into who you are, live into your name.
Historically, names have carried a lot of weight. Often, parents named their children not for what sounded good or was unique, but rather as an expectant descriptor of the child’s future. One of the main reasons we named our son Cohen Mattox Pace is our prayerful hope that he would grow into his name: a Priest of God who is Benevolent and Peaceful. Same for Lily Alana, to be a beautiful woman whose character matches that of her ancestors (Alana is a family tribute) and whose life is at Peace.
Whatever reason a name was given (sometimes negatively, like Jacob, which means “he takes by the heel” (cf. Hos 12:3), with the derived meaning “to supplant, deceive, attack from the rear”), the name had weight. It describes the character of the person or at least the expectant hope of the parent for the child; a name to grow into. So too is our collective name, not the name of our church but the name of us who are the church, is an expectant descriptor of our future as God’s children.
When you think about our faith family name, what name comes to mind right off the bat? Probably the title “Christian,” right? Most of us have known this term since childhood, whether we grew up in a “Christian” home or categorized certain people by their behavior as “Christians”—often as self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental prudes, or, hopefully, as kind, loving, servant-like, and giving. Regardless, most people in the world today would call those who are members of a church a “Christian.”
Did you know that the name “Christian” appears only three times in the New Testament? And that it was a name given to our early church family, not by themselves as a self-identifier, but by Gentiles at Antioch who noticed that this group kept talking about Jesus the Christ (Acts 11:26)? One author argues that,
“When the Christian movement reached Antioch in Syria, the gospel was preached to Gentiles as well as Jews. Such evangelism marked the sect as more than a new type of Judaism; it was a new religion. The Gentiles in Antioch invented a name for the new group. Since members of the group constantly talked about Christ, they were called Christians, meaning the ‘household’ or ‘partisans’ [followers] of Christ.
Our early church brothers and sisters talked about Jesus so much that those outside their faith recognized that the common denominator in their relations and the trait that set them apart from others of similar history (i.e., the Jews) was their association with Jesus (i.e., partisans) as members of his family (i.e., household)! It was a name that distinguished them; a name that was born because they were explicitly and evidently Christ followers in words and actions
Obviously, the descriptor stuck, and soon the term “Christian” became a self-label, especially when Christianity became a legitimate religion under Constantine. Yet “Christian” was not the common way our early church family designated themselves.
I think that, in order for us to understand how our family name defines our distinctiveness, and our prayerful end to which we labor, and to do so without as many cultural, historical, and personal understandings of the term “Christian,” we need to ask what name our early church family took for themselves.
First-century Christ followers referred to themselves as “the church”, “the flock”, “disciples”, “slaves”, “believers”, “the elect”, “children of God”, “brothers and sisters”, “the righteous,” and even “friends”. Yet perhaps the most common self-reference in the New Testament—used by Paul 39 times and referenced at least 20 more times by other NT authors—is the term “Saint”.
Saints were, after all, the ones to whom Paul wrote:
“To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:7)
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:” (2 Corinthians 1:1)
“All the saints greet you.” (2 Corinthians 13:13)
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:” (Ephesians 1:1)
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.” (Philippians 1:1)
“To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (Colossians 1:2)
“I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints” (Philemon 4-5)
The title “saints” to whom Paul writes, contends one biblical encyclopedia, is a:
“The name means that Christians are expected to be holy (Heb. 12:10; Rv. 22:11); they have been consecrated to God as a holy priesthood and have rejected the ways of the world (1 Pt. 2:5, 9; cf. 1:15, 16). More than that, they are the people of the coming age, who will reign with God over the earth and over angels. The early church could hardly have found a more exalted name for itself.”
The term “saint,” strictly speaking, is one set apart by God, for God; “holy ones,” ones who are “distinct because of their relationship to God.” Our brothers and sisters used a term with deep Old Testament roots that identified a people distinguished by their relationship to the one, true God.
Perhaps the most interesting mark of this self-identifier is that it is a term not associated with the accomplishments of the bearer, but rather centered on the actions of God. Pastor Eugene Peterson describes the God-focused nature of our family name when speaking of Paul’s use of the term this way,
“Paul deliberately chooses a word that identifies us by what God does in and for us, not what we do for God. He re-identifies us as creatures of God, saved by Jesus, formed for holiness by the Spirit…behind all the roles and functions, [Saint is] a word that defines you primarily in terms of who God is for you and what God is doing in your life, a person who is growing up in Christ, a person who cannot be accurately identified apart from God’s intents and persistent attention: saint.”
“Saint”, someone so closely associated with God’s intent and attention that he or she cannot be described or understood apart from such an association. A title not of distinguished accomplishment but of received blessing that in turn gives shape to the identity and actions of the person so blessed.
Let me demonstrate. Once again, Paul, writing to the faith family in Corinth, begins his letter,
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:” (1 Corinthians 1:2)
Notice that Paul writes to those who already are “made holy,” hegiasmenois, the word we read as sanctified, and yet are called to “be holy,” together, to become who they truly are as ones whose lives are bound to Jesus our Lord and Christ.
Theologian and scholar Michael Gorman puts it this way,
“The purpose of God, in Paul’s view, is to call out a people into Christ, which in itself sets this new community apart as God’s holy people [saints], and also to form them into a people that see [saintliness] as its mandate and its goal, or telos. [Saintliness], for Paul, is both a gift and a task.”
Similarly, James Dunn argues,
“Paul can use [holiness or saintliness] to mean both the beginning of salvation, when ‘individuals were set apart to discipleship,’ and the process of salvation.”
Following suit, John Webster proclaims,
“Holiness [or saintliness] is indicative; but it is also imperative; indeed it is imperative because it is the indicative [saintliness] of the triune God whose work of sanctification is directed toward the renewal of the creature’s active life of fellowship with him.”
This is why Gorman would go on to contend that “The meaning of this [saintliness], according to 1 Corinthians 1:2, derives its shape and substance only ‘in Christ.’” Indeed, as Paul said, and now we can paraphrase, we are “made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints together in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Gathering together as those begun and in process, made and becoming who we are in Christ in the everyday roles and relationships, disturbances and difficulties, joys and graces through which we are maturing, is what we have been doing for the last fourteen years. Becoming simple saints in life together, ones who are so closely associated with God’s intent and attention that he or she cannot be described or understood apart from such an association, will direct our gathered time over the coming weeks. Looking at who we are and how we might live because of who we are over the years to come.
But today, let us begin by considering our name: saints. A title not of distinguished accomplishment but of received blessing that in turn gives shape to the identity and actions of the person so blessed.
REFLECTION |
Process with the Lord any emotions, thoughts, doubts, or affirmations that arise as you reflect on our family name, reading Paul’s greeting as to you:
To the church of God that is [Christ City], to those sanctified [already made saintly] in Christ Jesus, called to be[come] saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ… Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:2-3)
CORPORATE CONFESSION & COMMUNION |
(Celebrant)
The table is ready,
here waiting for your arrival.
It is the table of company with Jesus,
and all who love him.
It is the table of sharing,
with the poor of the world,
with who Jesus identified himself.
It is the table of communion with the earth
in which Christ became incarnate.
So come to this table,
you have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been for a long time;
and you who have tried to follow Jesus,
and you who have failed;
come.
It is Christ who invites us to meet him here; on the day made for us at the table he prepared for us.
Invite People to the Table to Receive the Communion elements
(ALL)
Loving God,
through your goodness
we have this bread and juice to offer
which has come forth from the earth
and human hands have made.
May we know your presence
in this sharing,
so that we may know your touch
and presence in all things.
We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared
among his family of faith through the centuries,
and shares with us now.
Made one in Christ
and one with each other,
we offer these gifts
and with them ourselves,
a single living act of praise.
Amen.
Song #3
Song #4
BENEDICTION | Romans 8:27-28
As we rest in the day made for us, we prepare to enter into the work for which we are made [LIGHT THE CANDLE], remembering to…
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose.