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
Dismiss Kids
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