CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Song #1 – Everything With You by Nathan Partain
Song #2 - Simple Gospel by United Pursuit
Dismiss Kids
INTRO| Simple Saints
Who are we? According to our faith family’s founders, we are saints. 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.
This name is "both a gift and a task,” our “mandate and [our] goal, or telos” as God’s community, present and future. We are, paraphrasing the apostle Paul’s greeting to the faith family of Corinth, ones "made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints, together in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So what are we after in looking at our name, saint? Well, as the series title says, simplicity. When we say something or someone is simple, we are not saying they are unlearned, shallow, or even easy to understand. Rather, as we have discussed, to say God is simple, and so to say we are simple, is to describe the existence of a complex harmony of the whole self. Harmony, not identity, but of all that is our identity in harmony.
In other words, to be simple is to be,
"…saintified completely... your whole spirit and soul and body... 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)
A harmony in the holiness of our whole being through the simple, unadorned practices, habits, and dispositions that form us as a faith family. To be whole in spirit (as we discussed last week), soul, and body. To be already “saintified” and becoming holy, complete, together.
With our aim aligned, will you pray with me as we enter into a dialogue with God through the Scriptures, history, and the Spirit?
PRE-SERMON READING | 2 Corinthians 4:13-18
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
SERMON | Simply Soulful
Now, last week we introduced the understanding of what a human is called trichotomism. A description of the human developed from the Scriptures and common in the early centuries of our faith, a Jewish faith that was expanding and intermingling with a Greek (and more) thinking world.
Our scriptures, like most ancient texts, describe the human person as both material and immaterial. We are bodies, but not merely flesh and bone. We are more than our physical makeup. We think, we feel, we desire, we devote, and we recognize these internal activities not merely as chemical reactions in bodily parts, but as something (or at least coming from something) real in itself.
In much of Western thought, the immaterial part of us came to be known as the soul. A part of us that is, like the wind or breath, something real but that we are not able to grasp like other real objects. So one might even consider such a thing a spiritual soul—a real part of us that is somehow connected to, but different from, our physical self.
Again, our scriptures attest to the truth that we are indeed more than just our physical bodies. But the scriptures and the early church understood that there is an important reason to consider that the "other" part of us is actually two parts. The soul, yes. That part of us that thinks, desires, and devotes, as we will see today, but also the spirit. A part of us related to, but not to be confused with, the soul, as Genesis 2:7 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)
Now, admittedly, you may think the distinction is merely semantic, since other passages seem to conflate the two or mention one rather than both. And while it is true that holding to a three-part person is not a demand of orthodoxy, I believe the scriptures' revelation and the early church's descriptions of what a human is (spirit, soul, & body) help us both understand and become who we truly are.
To sum up a long and much more detailed conversation from last Sunday, the spirit, as we come to describe it in the scriptures and the early church, is "the thing in man that is essentially more than man, something which does not 'rise from below' but 'comes down from above.'" It is, in other words, the very life, or breath, of God that begins us, persists us, and through which we are born again.
"Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God... You must be born again.... born of the Spirit.'" (John 3:5-8)
For indeed, as Jesus tells us,
"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)
That is why Paul would say,
"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16).
To say we are spirit or spiritual is to say that there is more to being human than what is going on inside or outside of us. Spirit is what is more than us, what forms us into the image and likeness of God. To be spiritual is to recognize that our true life comes from without, not merely from within. Or, in the words of von Balthasar, we "do not so much exist, as partake."
Our life begins in and continues in the Life that God gives us. What was true at the beginning remains true. What is different is that after the Fall we were separated from direct communion with Life Himself. As a result, like our bodies and souls, our spirit diminished and will ultimately do so unless we are Spirited with a capital “S” anew (i.e., “born of the Spirit”), unless the Life of God is present to and in us again as it was before. Or, to say it another way, until our life is baptized (immersed) in the life of God: Father, Son and Spirit.
So, we are made to partake of life, not to possess it or merely exist in it. We, unlike any other creature on earth, can participate, share in life with God by taking responsibility and shaping and forming life through and in cooperation with the Spirit, as St. Irenaeus contended.
“…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...” (St. Irenaeus)
For, as Ted Peters argues,
“It is in the dimension of spirit…. where the overlap between human life and the divine life initially take place… The spirit… makes possible a supra-physical unity or bond each individual can share with others, with the church, and with God.”
The spirit, argues Peters, is the source of relationship and the means of unity amid our complexity, but as Irenaeus says and as Paul and Moses describe, we are not only spirit; we are also soul (and body).
So, what is the soul? Well, let’s look at Plato’s argument for the tripartite soul in his Republic and see what it is and is not. Now, admittedly, what I am about to say is a bit reductive and does not fully capture the nuance of the argument, but we are not in philosophy class, so no worries then!
For Plato, the soul was made up of three desires:
Reason, which desires truth and knowledge and is meant to govern the other parts.
Spirit, which desires honor, and is the seat of emotions.
Appetite, which is the base desires for the necessities of life as well as the lust for more.
Now, we can already see that something is off. For Plato, spirit was mingled with the soul and was no longer a means of relating to something beyond ourselves, but rather a part of the self that merely longed for honor and glory. A part that drove us to be part of something more enduring. To strive to be like the gods, the virtus human.
Ultimately, this view of the soul sets reason, the faculty by which we seek and know truth and live wisely, as the chief end of what it means to be human. But that is, obviously, very humanistic. Who we understand ourselves to be, is who we are. Rather than who we are is because of who God is, as our name and the story of our name continually return.
So, what might be a different way of looking at what the soul is? One not too dissimilar from Plato’s, but, in my estimation, more biblical and holistic, and thus honoring of what is true.
I want to contend that the soul is:
Mind (reason/discernment – Heb. 5:14)
Heart (desire)
Will (devotion)
Mind (discernment or reason), Heart (desire), Will (devotion). The soul, then, is the place or part of us where we are most uniquely ourselves, what makes up the inner person, and therefore also the place where we experience the rest (satisfaction) of sharing in life with God and the unrest (dissatisfaction) of life apart from God most acutely.
This is why Irenaeus said,
“…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...” (St. Irenaeus)
And it is this part of us that is “between” the others, which, as Paul said to the Corinthians, is renewed by the spirit of faith, even as the body is fading away so that it might be resurrected (reformed). Let’s look again quickly at Paul’s words:
“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. [What we share (Peters)… a faith from outside of us and yet within us.]
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. [The spirit persists us.]
Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. [body and soul]
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, [sounds like James]
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. [Pay attention ot the immaterial things of life – spirit and soul—because]
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” [These are the things that persist in between the renewal, and so allow us to partake of eternity.](2 Corinthians 4:13-18)
If our soul is the inner self that, by the spirit, allows us to partake of the life that is and is not yet, and is that which lies between the spirit (which is unseen and eternal) and the body (which is transient but will be “raised with Jesus”), and is that which we should pay close attention to, then how is our soul being renewed day by day? Well, through the unadorned habits and practices which we will outline below.
How are we Simple Saints?
The Examen
Conteplation & Conversation
Devout Participation (The Committed Life of Joy – Becoming a Faith Family, Together)
Sabbathing (entering into rest with God)
Through these simple graces, we are made saintly, and our souls are kept blameless at the coming of the Lord. Pray with me before we take a few moments to reflect and consider, then confess and receive all that we need for our souls to rest.
REFLECTION |
REFLECT & CONSIDER
Where, when, and in what circumstances have you experienced soul satisfaction?
Is your "inner self" being renewed day by day? If so, how? If not, why, and what could you do differently tomorrow?
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 – Mercy Mercy by Hillsong United
Song #4 – More by Urban Rescue
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.