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.