Take off your glasses
1 Amens
Take off your glasses and see
“The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” Psalm 24:1
“And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." Isaiah 6:3
“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” Colossians
Introduction
I had the privilege of going to
One of the most powerful places for me though, still has got to be Ground Zero. You can go there and visit the site, which is pretty much a construction site as they are still going down, building the foundations for the Freedom Tower, which will eventually replace it. Just opposite Ground Zero, incredibly close to it, is a church, called St Paul Chapel. Amazingly, it was unharmed when the two towers collapsed. They still have memorials up for some of the people who died that day - the photos – it’s quite moving.
But what happened was very quickly after 9/11, the church became a centre for rescue operations. Firefighters came there from all over the world. The church looked after and fed the rescue workers, volunteers donated their time and money, provided counselling, they put beds up and let the workers sleep there and on their pews, supplies were shipped in from around the country. The church had a sign up that said, “God loves you - and we do too”. And this went on for months.
And so in the midst of all the evil that took place on September 11th, right next door to it, God is in the centre: there was love, there was unity, there were incredible acts of kindness and generosity not just locally, but from all over the world. And there was this sense, that evil will not triumph and that in the midst of the terrible suffering, God is still there. God is still there.
And you’ll see how this connects with what I’m talking about in a little while.
The glasses we wear
I’d like to talk this morning about the way that we see life. You see, not many of us are aware, but we all have a set of glasses through which we see life. And you, me, our families, our friends, our politicians, our celebrities, our society have a certain way of looking at the world that affects the way that we understand everything. You will have a different set of glasses to someone brought up in
There is no such thing as being neutral. We all wear a set of glasses. We all have a perspective on life. And our glasses, our filter of seeing life, means that we interpret some things some ways and other things other ways. Some of which is good and some of which is not so good.
Our glasses, our way of understanding the world is very much influenced by the society that we live in and it’s very hard to notice that we even do it. We are all affected by the values of the past few hundred years of living in our society. Even if you’re not aware that you are wearing the glasses, it doesn’t mean they’re not there. They are.
And this applies to the way we live out our Christianity aswell. We have a set of glasses that hears sermons in a certain way, it interprets conversations in a particular manner, it filters the way we see people behave, it affects the way we do church and it even (dare I say this) affects the way we understand the bible. It’s true.
As Rob Bell says, “When you hear people say they are just going to tell you what the Bible means, it is not true. They are telling you what they think it means. They are giving their opinions about the Bible. It sounds nice to say “I’m not giving you my opinion; I’m just telling you what it means.” The problem is it is not true. I’m actually giving you my opinion, my interpretation of what it says.…..
…. When was the last time you saw a Christian greet another Christian with a holy kiss? But it’s right there in the Bible…. Or how about women having to wear head coverings? Or cursing people who don’t love the Lord? Or selling all your possessions and giving everything to the poor? Or men raising their hands when they pray? Or slaves having to obey their masters? These are all commands that appear in the Bible. And yet they are rarely followed. This is because someone somewhere made a decision about those texts; someone decided that Christians didn’t have to greet one another with a kiss or wear heading coverings or curse people who don’t love the Lord.”
We interpret. We all wear a set of glasses. I appreciate it’s difficult to see that they are there. Someone once said, “trying to criticise your own culture is like trying to push a bus when you are sitting on it.” But trust me, it is. We all wear glasses.
Hebrew or Greek?
I’d like to help you take off your glasses this morning. I’d like to help you to see Christianity, your walk with God, the world, with a fresh set of eyes, or a new set of specs at least.
The way that the ancient Greeks saw the world and the way that the ancient Hebrews saw the world were two very different ways. They had two very different sets of glasses. The Hebrews believed that God covered every aspect of life, they could see Him in their every day dealings. To the Hebrew, the world was brimming full of His presence. That’s why they said things like, “The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” (Psalm 24:1) or “7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?, 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” (Psalm 139:7-10) The Hebrews participated with God completely in his creation. Their God was the God of the heavens and the earth and He interacted with his creation all the time in everything.
The Greeks however saw things very differently. To the Greeks, God was very separate from his creation. God was contained within the heavens and the heavens were high in the sky away from anything that we do. The earth was our realm for humans and heaven was God’s realm. Human beings were chained to this world and humans longed to escape from the bondage of this body and return to their original source which is God and heaven. Heaven and earth: the two didn’t interact much. To escape and meet with God in the afterlife was the main goal. God didn’t play much of a part in our day to day affairs, although we could occasionally worship Him in the temple. That was how the Greeks saw life. Everything was separate: heaven and earth. God and us. Natural and supernatural. Spiritual and secular.
I want to suggest to us this morning that our Christianity is most influenced not by the Hebrew way of seeing life, but by the Greek way. And I want to suggest that we could learn a massive amount by removing our specs and looking at the Hebrew way of life.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: but I do see things the Hebrew way aswell. I believe that “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” I know that God is active here on the earth. I know He is with me.
And the truth is, I think most of us probably do believe that. But the problem is most of us don’t act like we believe it. Most of us still in reality separate the spiritual stuff from the secular stuff.
So if you’ve ever said, “Now we’re in church, let’s forget about our problems, let’s leave them behind us, and come and worship God”. If you’ve said that you’re probably seeing things the Greek way. Because with the Greek way God and the world of our problems are very separate. To meet with God was to escape our problems and ultimately leave them all behind. A perfect God for the Greeks could not be involved in our problems.
If you’ve said, “I go to work. The reason I go to work is to earn a living. I go to church to worship God, but I go to work just to earn a living.” If you’ve thought that, then you are probably affected by the Greek way of thinking. Because in the Greek way of thinking God is not involved in our work and our toil. God is in the heavens. He does not concern Himself with our world and especially not our work.
If you’ve said, “I wish I could spend less time with my family, and more time in ministry in the church.” Then you are probably wearing a Greek set of glasses. Because the Greeks say, on this earth God is predominantly in the temple, and ministry only takes place there. That’s where the spiritual stuff is. It cannot happen in my unchurched family.
If you don’t get a sense of God’s presence as much when you see a beautiful summer sunset or take a walk in the woods as you do when you’re singing songs on a Sunday morning, then you probably see things the Greek way. Because the Greeks didn’t see God in his earthly creation. They would rather get away from it.
If you’ve said, “We don’t want to bring the world into the church, whether you’re talking about humour, or fun or special interests and hobbies”, then you’re probably seeing life the Greek way.
Did you know that the Hebrews didn’t even have a word for “spiritual”, you won’t find it in their bible, because to the Hebrew, everything is spiritual? The whole world was saturated with His presence. They could see God in a sunset, they could see God in children playing, they could see God in a family meal, they could see God in laughter, they could see God on the road, they could see God in the love between a husband and wife, they could see God in their workplace, they could see God in the elderly, they could see God in the poor and they could see God in society. To the Hebrew, God is in all things.
The Lord your God is One
Now the verse to follow on from that is this: Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
“4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deut 6:4-9
Here we have a beautiful picture of the Law. It’s something that forms an every day part of your life. You write it on your doorframes and your gates. It’s something that you would be a part of your household, the beauty of the law is something that your would talk about in the day, it’s something that would form part of your children’s upbringing. Let them be written on your heart, says God. It’s a powerful passage.
But one thing that gets me is this. It’s that phrase at the beginning, where it says, “The Lord your God is One”. The Lord your God is One. Have you ever wondered why it keeps saying that in the Old Testament? Why does it say, “The Lord your God is One”? Why does Moses write down, “The Lord your God is One”?
And today, if we look at it through our 21st century glasses, it doesn’t really capture the true meaning. When you say that here in church, it’s like, “well yeah, of course, he’s one. He’s the Trinity – three persons – one God. We know that. We believe in one God. Of course.” But what is God actually getting at here? What does it mean? What situation is He addressing, when he says, “the Lord your God is One?” Well to get the real meaning from what’s being said here, sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the people that were listening to this at the time.
How would a person in the ancient
Polytheism. Who knows what the word polytheist means? Anyone? It means “Belief in more than one god”. People living in the
There’s a guy called Alan Hirsch and in his book, “The Forgotten Ways”, he talks about what life would be like for someone living around that time.
“So for instance, if you were a practising polytheist living at that time and wanted to draw water down at the river, the trip would take you past fields on which you depended, past the forest, and down to the river. The religious dilemma you would face in such a seemingly simple activity is that because there were different divinities ruling each aspects of life, this was no easy thing- it was fraught with spiritual danger. In order not to offend the Baal of the field that you would pass along the way, you would need to take a sacrificial offering and perform a religious ritual at the shrine of the field. Then you would have to pass that old foreboding tree. Imposing trees were often thought to contain nasty spirits called dryads, so you would have to be sure not to stir the dryad, and once again you would need to follow a prescribed ritual required to appease that particular dryad. Once again, your belief system would inform you that if the river goddess was offended the river might dry up or flood, either way causing catastrophe and suffering. So once you reached the river, the goddess of the river, a particular unpredictable deity, would also have to be placated with a sacrifice. Thus, the simple action of going to the river was actually quite a religiously complex process.
The polytheistic view extended way beyond rivers and fields. There were deities that presided over every possible sphere of life: the state (politics), the family, war, fertility etc. Life as a polytheist is not only complex….. but it is thoroughly superstitious….. and also dangerous. This was the overwhelming religious context of
So into this context, we have this,
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Deut 6:4-9
This has MASSIVE implications for a religious person in that context. What this means is that there can no more be different deities for the different aspects of life, one god for the field, one for the river, one god for fertility, one god for the temple, one god for politics. Instead, the Lord is the One God who rules over EVERY sphere of life and of the world. The Lord, our God, is Lord of the home, the field, our work, our environment, everywhere and everything.
And can you see that it’s good? God doesn’t want his people to live under the tyranny of a range of different gods for different situations in life. This is partly I think why he prohibited idols and false gods. God is good, the earth is FULL of his presence and He wants to embrace every single element of our lives in this world. He is One.
And that is why the Old Testament is so random in the way that it reads. God’s ways embrace everything. He completely encompasses all of life and all of his creation. As Alan Hirsch says, “One verse deals with the Israelite’s approach to God in the temple. The next verse deals with what one does when one’s donkey falls into a pit. The next might well deal with the mildew in the kitchen, the next with the female menstrual cycle. It seems radically discontinuous ….. What is going on here? How can we comprehend the meaning of this?..... The implications of following the Torah (the law) faithfully will be to connect all things in life directly to Yahweh, whether it be the mildew or the temple worship and everything in between. Therefore, everything- one’s work, one’s domestic life, one’s health, one’s worship-has significance to God. He is concerned with every aspect of the believer’s life, not just the so-called spiritual dimensions….. All of life belongs to God, and true holiness means bringing all the spheres of our life under God. This is what constitutes biblical worship- this is what it means to love God with all our heart, mind and strength.” (p90-91)
Read Average Jane (p238) if time!
Miracles every day
I want to challenge you this morning to open your eyes. I hope I’ve helped you take your glasses off a little bit and see that there are other, better I think, ways of seeing things and living in the world. I hope you are a bit more aware now of the 21st Century, Western, living in
I would encourage you now to embrace a bigger, broader, healthier spirituality. Ask God right now to let you see Him in the things outside of church. Ask Him to show you His beauty in His creation, in his people. Ask Him to help you connect every single element of your life and make it spiritual.
Ask Him to show you miracles. Miracles are happening every single day; we just don’t call them miracles. Did you know God is turning water into wine, every day? He is. In an amazing process, just two things, soil and rain, can make a bunch of grapes grow on a grapevine. And then they are picked and yeast cells ferment the sugars of the grape juice and turn it into wine. That is phenomenal. Soil and rain turn into wine. How on earth does that happen? Can you not see God’s hand in that? And this miracle and a million others are taking place every single day in this world.
I pray that you will be able to see the miracle that God is in all things. That God is at work all of the time inside the church and outside of the church. That you will be able to live a fuller Christian life.
Let’s pray.
30 Day D+L
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