The Simplicity of Saintliness
CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 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 – The City of God by Chaz Holsomback
Song 2 – The Love of God by Rich Mullins
INTRO | Simple Saints
What have we discovered and been reminded of thus far in our Fall series, Simple Saints? We are given “both a gift and a task” in our faith family name. Like the names by which you and I are known, our faith family name is given to us. It is something granted to us that distinguishes our identity in relationship. And, like names of old, this name also comes with the expectation that we will live into who we are known to be.
Our name, saints, reveals us to be those set apart by God, whose person and purposes—who we are and what we are for—cannot be accurately or aptly described apart from God's intentions for us and His persistent attention to us. 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."
While saint may be the name of our faith, simple saints is the qualifier we have striven to live into as a unique community of saints in this place and at this time in history. 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.
Indeed, as we have come to see, to be simple saints 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)
We have devoted our lives together to this harmony within our complex, wondrous, and gracious identity as saints, experienced, matured, and growing up into, through the simple, unadorned practices, habits, and dispositions that have formed us and continue to shape us as this embodied family of faith. Simple practices that help us become who we truly are in Christ together.
So, will you pray with me as we enter into the simplicity of saintliness together this morning?
PRE-SERMON READING | Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
SERMON | The Simplicity of Saintliness
Over the past few weeks, we have, echoing Paul, described the complete human as “spirit, soul, and body.” This threefold vision of the human person, often called trichotomism, was also articulated by one of the earliest shapers of Christian orthodoxy, St. Irenaeus of Lyon:
"…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...”[1] (St. Irenaeus)
We are, as Saint Paul and Saint Irenaeus have contended, “a mixture in union,” simple yet not uncomplex beings composed of the relation of Spirit
"Spirit is the thing in man that is essentially more than man, something which does not 'rise from below' but 'comes down from above.'"[2] It is the very life, or breath, of God that begins us, persists us, and through which we are born again.
to soul
That three-part self: Mind (discernment or reason), Heart (desire), and Will (devotion). The soul is the place or part of us where we are most uniquely ourselves; it makes up the inner person and is therefore also where we experience the rest (satisfaction) of sharing in life with God and the unrest (dissatisfaction) of life apart from God most acutely.
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 we should pay close attention to as we experience day-to-day existence through our…)
the spirit-soul inhabited body.
As we were reminded last week, the body is not a throwaway part of our true selves. It is transient; it passes through existence into extinction (as Augustine called it), but will also be resurrected (as Paul told us). The body, then, as Irenaeus contends, is what is saved and formed by the Spirit, the space where we experience both the stings of death and, at the same time, the restoration of Life and so, where our soul (mind, heart, and will) will find rest.
This is why we can say that our day-to-day practice of making a life is saving and forming us, whether we recognize it as such or not. We are being saved and formed in our bodies through our participation in Life. Therefore, to be kept blameless in body, "bring holiness to completion in the fear of God" (7:1); we offer our embodied selves (outer and inner persons) as a living sacrifice.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present [offer] your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship .” (Romans 12:1)
An act of Spirit-embodied living that we enter into with our soul,
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
It is with our whole self – spirit, soul, and body – that we live according to God’s nature and purposes, living a life of beauty – displaying the good of which we are by living true to whose we are: saintified, set apart, completely.
The simplicity (harmony) of our whole self, aligned and matured through the simple (unadorned, ordinary) practices that renew our whole self, not just part of us. Practices we have mentioned over the past weeks, experienced together over the past decade, and which we enter into now, on this day.
The unadorned practice we are practicing today is, like them all, not new to us, nor is it our design. Rather, it (they) have been handed down to us across millennia and traditions. They are habits of our faith lineage that help us remain those who, in our bodies and as a body, amid the seen things, attend to the unseen things (spirit & soul) which make a life whole and holy.
This is a habit meant to help us Hear God, to attend to the Spirit of God in us and with us, through the practice known as Lectio Divina, or divine listening.
Lectio (as we call it) is the practice of listening through both the written word and the leading of the Spirit of God. There are four movements of Lectio:
Lectio (listening via reading)
Meditatio (meditating on what is heard)
Oratio (responding in prayer)
Contemplatio (contemplate in rest)
The best way to practice Lectio is to do so with either a familiar text or, as we will do today, with some preparatory context to help us be in a mental space to truly listen. Today’s passage will be 1 Kings 19:1-18. In case you are not familiar with it, let me give you a bit of context before we read, reread, and renew our spirits by listening to the voice of the Spirit.
CONTEXT
There is an almost mythic story in 1 Kings 18. The people of Israel, led by King Ahab, have, at least from the formal state-sanctioned perspective, all but abandoned God by mingling faiths. Yahweh remained part of their national identity, but so did Baal, the Canaanite god of rain. Baal worship had worked its way into Israel’s formal religious practices through Ahab’s wife, Jezebel. Jezebel was the daughter of the priest-king of Tyre and Sidon, and she perpetuated her father’s faith by establishing formal worship of the god who could ensure good soil.
The establishment was comfortable maintaining the traditions of Yahweh worship, even as the nation’s foundations remained as they were, but they could not be described as faithful or godly leaders. Nevertheless, there was a significant minority in the country who were not apathetic or lukewarm to God, but devout and exclusive in their worship. One of these God-devotees was a prophet named Elijah. As is true in all times, most of the visible religious leaders found it advantageous to be connected with the powers of authority, so Elijah consistently thought he was the lone voice in the fight for God’s honor. Perhaps it was this idea of being the sole defender of God, and his propensity for the dramatic, that drove Elijah to consistently confront the compromising king of God’s people.
During one of these confrontations, reminiscent of an after-school brawl on the playground, Elijah challenges Ahab and the priests of Baal to meet him on Mt. Carmel to prove which god is truly the God of gods. Instead of a dance-off, the priests of Baal and Elijah have a sacrifice showdown. Both groups build altars and sacrifice a bull, preparing to interact with their gods. Then, as Elijah says, “you call on the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.’ And all the people gathered around answered, ‘It is well spoken.’” (1 Kings 18:24) Well, to make a long story short, Yahweh is the only God who answers, and the people follow Elijah in revolting against the gods of the system and their priests. At the end of the day, the priests of Baal and Asherah (the queen and eldest deity of the Canaanite pantheon) are dead. And to rub in the humiliation, Yahweh sends a great rain upon Ahab and Israel, ensuring good soil and showing himself to be the true God of rain (see 1 Kings 18 for the full backstory).
Elijah, rightly so, is full of confidence. He acted on behalf of the Lord, and the Lord honored and answered his actions. The pride and power of the oppressive and unholy authority were shown their limits. But Jezebel was not there. She only heard the story but didn’t witness the works and words of God. She is told that Elijah is behind the massacre of her sacred priests, and so she is a bit put off. Jezebel then does what those in power do; she exercises her influence against the annoyer of the status quo, “the troubler of Israel,” Elijah. That’s where we pick up the story in 1 Kings 19:1-18. Let me read our passage for us.
“Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then [Elijah] was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ [Running from fear and losing faith.] Then Elijah lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food, forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place, he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’
God said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still, small voice [a gentle whisper, a thin silence]. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your alters, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be a prophet in your place…I will leave seven thousand [of my royal priesthood] in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
LISTEN
Now that you are familiar with the context and words, close your eyes and take three deep breaths.
As you breathe in, pray “Holy Spirit…”
as you breathe out, pray “…Give me ears to hear.”
Ask God to open you to hear whatever the Spirit wishes to bring to you today.
If (when!) your thoughts wander in the stillness, breathe the centering prayer to quiet your mind. Focus on your breath as you envision breathing in God’s presence.
Now, I will reread the passage slowly, and as I do, immerse yourself in that particular encounter. Remember, those who lived through this experience felt very much as you would if you had been in their place. As the passage is read,
Listen for a word, phrase, or detail in the story that stands out to you. Don’t choose it yourself; let the Spirit bring it to your mind.
Think about where you find yourself in the passage. Do you identify with Elijah, Jezebel, the angel, Ahab, or someone else? Which scene in the story grabs your attention most: the running, the resting, the cave, the hurricane, the wind, the answering voice, etc.?
In any case, do not choose this yourself. Let the Spirit bring it to you. Even if you don’t like it, try to welcome it with humility (it’s key!)and see what happens.
MEDITATE
As you meditate on the passage, consider:
What word or phrase stood out to you? Why do you think these words resonated with you?
Which scene in the passage do you find yourself identifying with?
How does it feel to be that person or to be present in that moment? What draws you to them or to it?
What are you thinking or feeling about God?
Then, ask God, “How does this connect with my life today? What do I need to know or be or do?”
RESPOND
I’ll read the passage one last time. As I do, prepare yourself for what you want to say to God about what you think the Spirit might have spoken to you or what came to you as you imagined being in the story.
Pray whatever you need to pray.
You might…
thank God for something,
confess something to God, or
ask God for something
CONTEMPLATE
In this final movement, rest. Rest with Jesus.
You may wish to wait quietly on God—to simply be with Jesus.
You may want to pay attention to God, pondering a little longer all the ways God interacted with and spoke to Elijah in this passage.
Consider what in this story makes you want to worship Jesus, or at least be with him.
Sit in the companionship of Jesus—the one who never leaves us alone.
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.[3]
Song 3 – Hear Your Voice by Young Oceans
Song 4 – The Love of God by Traditional/Lehman
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.
Holy Body
CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
Song #1 - Only Ever by Cory Asbury
Song #2 - Jesus the Lord My Savior Is by Sandra McCracken
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 we are after in looking at our name, Saint, as the series title says, is 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)
This harmony in the holiness of our whole being we persist in through the simple, unadorned practices, habits, and dispositions that have formed us and continue to shape us as a faith family. To be whole in spirit and soul (as we’ve discussed) and in body (as we will discuss today). To be already “saintified” and becoming holy, sainted, complete, together.
With our aim aligned, will you pray with me as we enter into dialogue with God through the Scriptures, history, and the Spirit?
PRE-SERMON READING | 2 Corinthians 6:11 – 7:1
We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
SERMON | Holy Body
Over the last few weeks, we have, echoing Paul, described the complete human as one who is “spirit, soul, and body.” This threefold vision of the human person, often referred to as trichotomism, was also articulated by one of the earliest shapers of Christian orthodoxy, St. Irenaeus of Lyon:
"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 [i.e., spirit]. 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 [spirit] 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... 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...” (St. Irenaeus)
We are, as Saint Paul and Saint Irenaeus have contended, “a mixture in union,” simple but not uncomplex beings made up of the relation of Spirit
"Spirit 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 the very life, or breath, of God that begins us, persists us, and through which we are born again.
to soul
That three-part self: Mind (discernment or reason), Heart (desire), Will (devotion). The soul is the place or part of us where we are most uniquely ourselves; it makes up the inner person and is therefore also where we experience the rest (satisfaction) of sharing in life with God and the unrest (dissatisfaction) of life apart from God most acutely.
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 we should pay close attention to as we experience day-to-day existence through our…)
body.
Unlike the first two “parts” of us, I do not think we need to demonstrate, historically and philosophically, what the body is. We know it intimately and commonsensically, as Aristotle noted; trying to prove that nature (natural things) exists is an absurd exercise. It is a self-evident truth that you exist as an embodied thing.
Nevertheless, it might be helpful to briefly state some truths about what the body is and is not.
First, as we saw last week,
“Though our outer self is wasting away…” (2 Corinthians 4:16)
Indeed, the older one gets, the more acutely aware one is of this fact, that the body is temporal. Or as Paul says,
“the things that are seen are transient” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Our bodies [and “natural” things] are “transient,” or passing through existence. This leads us to the second point about the body that we need to note: it will be resurrected,
“knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” (2 Corinthians 4:14)
The reality that our bodies will one day be resurrected is why Irenaeus said that what is “saved and formed, [is] namely the flesh…” Because our bodies are passing through death into life, we, as Paul would say, can experience a bit of the future now. After all, our family name says we are “the people of the coming age, who will reign with God...”
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11)
So the body feels the stings of death, yes. And it is the place where we will experience the end of sin. But that does not make the body the seat of sin or the flesh a thing of evil. Rather, as Paul described, because the body dies, so too can sin be put to death (share in the death of Jesus) in our bodies. Thus the body is saved and formed both temporally (transiently) and eternally. The body indeed is the mode by which we experience both dying and rising -- physically, spiritually, and psychologically (souly) -- now and someday fully.
This is why Paul can say, as _____ read for us earlier, that we, our individual body, and our collective body, “are the temple of God” (2 Cor. 6:16). So let’s look at 2 Corinthians 6 a little more closely to see how this body, along with our spirit and soul, might be “kept blameless… saintified completely… at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.
Something restricts or makes life less than it should be, but it is not the gospel. Not a life of faith. Rather, they and we are restricted by our loves (desires, their souls). Here is how Saint Augustine describes the wonder, tension, and resolve of living eternally in a transient existence:
“Turn us toward yourself, O God of Hosts, show us your face and we shall be saved; for wheresoever a human soul turns, it can but cling to what brings sorrow unless it turns to you, cling though it may to beautiful things outside of you and outside itself.
Yet were these beautiful things not from you, none of them would be at all. They arise and sink; in their rising they begin to exist and grow toward their perfection, but once perfect they grow old and perish; or, if not all reach old age, yet certainly all perish.
So then, even as they arise and stretch out toward existence, the more quickly they grow and strive to be, the more swiftly they are hastening toward extinction. This is the law of their nature.
You have endowed them so richly because they belong to a society of things that do not all exist at once, but in their passing away and succession together form a whole, of which the several creatures are parts…
Let my soul use these things to praise you,
O God, creator of them all,
but let it not be glued fast to them by sensual love,
for they are going whither they were always destined to go,
toward extinction;
and they rend my soul with death-dealing desires,
for it too longs to be, and loves to rest in what it loves.
But in them it finds no place to rest,
because they do not stand firm;
they are transient, and who can follow them with the senses
of the body?
Or who can seize them, even near at hand?
Tardy is carnal perception, because it is carnal;
such is the law of its nature.
Sufficient it is for another purpose, for which it was made,
but insufficient to catch the fleeting things,
that rush past from their appointed beginning
to their appointed end.
In your Word, through whom they are created,
they hear your command,
‘From here begin, and thus far you shall go.’” (St. Augustine)
It is our soul (our affections, loves, desires) that restricts us by making us cling to transient things (even, and most especially, the good things). This is a matter of maturity, of growing into who we are and will be, as Paul contends:
In return (I speak as to children), widen your hearts also. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
Yoked should sound familiar to us; it is the way of working (living) we share (we take upon ourselves with another) to make a life, in which we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:25-30), or not. After all, as Psalm 1 contends, how could “those who walk in the counsel of the ungodly” share a path with those who do not know God, who IS truth, goodness, and beauty, lead us to anything good, true, or beautiful?
So, this is not about marriage per se (though it certainly pertains to it), but about a mode of participating in, of how we partake of life. As Paul thus explains.
For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship [participation] has light with darkness? What accord [harmony] has Christ with Belial [Satan]? Or what portion [part of the whole] does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement [covenant or marriage] has the temple of God with idols?
So, the issue is practical and participatory: how we relate to life through our bodies. A living that is not merely bodily, but the whole of us – spirit, soul, and body. How we go about our daily activities is a matter of worship or participation; it is a partaking, not merely existing. Therefore, as complete humans,
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Our distinctiveness is a way of participating and practicing in our daily living. And so, because we are spirited souls experiencing death and resurrection in our bodies now (and one day fully),
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 6:11 – 7:1)
Our day-to-day practice of making a life is saving and forming us, whether we see it as such or not. We are being saved and formed in our bodies through how we participate in Life. Therefore, to be kept blameless in body, "bring holiness to completion in the fear of God" (7:1); we offer our embodied selves (outer and inner persons) as a living sacrifice,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present [offer] your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship [your rational service].” (Romans 12:1)
How are we Simple Saints?
We do this by:
How we Work
Habit of Offering
Holiness of Habits
Whole Body Worship
Through these simple graces, we are made saintly, and our bodies 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 an alignment of your complete self: spirit, soul & body?
What practices are "defiling" your body and spirit? How might you "cleanse" yourself from them today, and 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 - In the Name of God the Father by Ironsides
Song #4 - Christ is Lower Still by Porter’s Gate
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.
Simply Soulful
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.
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
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
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.