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.
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