All My Heroes Are Sinners Too

Heroes in the Bible

Make no mistake.  The Bible is a story filled with many heroes.  Just don't forget or avoid this truth:  They are all sinners as well.

Abraham was the first "Man of Faith."  His willingness to leave his home and follow God's promise is a case study in "faith counted as righteousness."  (Genesis 15:6 & Romans 4:3)  But he also betrayed his own wife, not just once but twice (Genesis 10:13 & 20:3)  Hero of the Faith?  Sure!  Sinner, as well?  Obviously.

King David had faith enough to stand against Goliath when he was only a shepherd boy.  But he also committed murder and adultery as well as let sexual abuse go unpunished in his house.  Yikes!

The pattern carries in to the New Testament.  Peter would stand up and preach the "first Christian Sermon" in Acts 2:14-41.  Tradition has it that he would be crucified upside down.  But along the way, Paul would need to challenge him publicly for not "living in line with the Gospel."  (Galatians 2:14)

Every hero in the Bible is also a sinner.  Except for one.

Heroes in History

All this is true of characters that fill the history of the world and our nation.  All my heroes in American history are heroes that are sinners as well.

George Washington led his soldiers against tyranny in the face of long odds.  Even more, he stepped down after two terms as the president when he could have been made a king.  Sacrificial leadership based on humility is an inspiration to me.  But he also kept a plantation with enslaved people.

Martin Luther King, Jr was a Baptist preacher who called every American to make good on the promises and hope of our founding.  He also had a dark side that he himself recognized and discreetly referred to.  

Robert E. Lee was a brilliant general who wrote against slavery and succession from the Union.  And yet, he led the Confederate Army in the Civil War.

Every human hero you and I will ever have will always be both hero and sinner.  Those come together in one package the Gospel tells us, because every human is an image-bearer of the Great Creator-King who is broken in some way by sin.  That means heroes are all sinners.  It also means that even sinners can sometimes in some way be heroes.

Confusing?  Not really.  It just means that we all need to be rescued from our sin.

Don't Be Fooled About Your Heroes Or Your Own Sin

I'm a history nerd, so I must confess that seeing historical monuments being pulled down is unnerving to me.

I know each person represented by a statue being pulled down is both a sinner as well as - in some way to some people - a hero.  I think it is important and honest to be clear about the sin of those persons, but I also want to learn and be inspired by their heroism when it is there.  And sometimes - as with Robert E. Lee - ponder the irony and sadness of their decisions and life.  If I can be inspired by heroics, I can also learn from the mistakes of others.

Sooner or later, if I am unwilling to deal honestly with both the hero and the sinner in each person - canceling anyone for a single expression of sin - I will have to either falsely deny my own sin, or else live under the weight of my own canceling conscience.

The Apostle Paul knew this from his own experience.  He writes in Romans 7:24, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

This is the life-giving beauty of the Gospel of God's Grace:  though all our heroes are sinners, there is One who is both Hero and Sinless Savior: A rescuer for every image-bearer broken by sin.

What Do You Mean By “Gospel-Centered” Preaching?

Several decades ago, while “mid-career,” I underwent a paradigm shift of life and ministry that I often refer to as a “Gospel Renaissance.”  Neither my doctrine nor my personality changed appreciably, but the effect of my beliefs on my life were – at least in my mind – dramatic.  A key place that people have noticed it was in my preaching.  Since then, I’ve studied, reflected and practiced a lot on what I now call “Gospel-Centered Preaching.” (GCP) Some of that follows, in answer to the question: What do you mean by “Gospel-Centered Preaching?” 

NOT A Particular Style of Delivery – I certainly DO NOT mean some sort of stereotypical “tent-revival with hell-fire and brimstone altar calls.”  The Gospel of God’s Grace is first of all Good News.  It is the announcement of what God has done to redeem His broken creation through the death and resurrection of God the Son, not a style of emotional abuse or manipulation.  GCP is about the motivation and direction of the message, not the style of its delivery.

Biblical – GCP grows out of the text of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  It recognizes the authority for “faith and practice” that resides there, and the preacher’s dependence on the Holy Spirit to understand and communicate those texts with transforming power for the hearers.  But GCP is more than just academically sound or doctrinally pure exposition of ancient books, it is communicating a timeless message from these ancient texts so a needful world can hear and respond.

Christ-Centered or Christocentric – Jesus Himself gave us the hermeneutical key to understanding all 66 books of the Bible: it was Him.  Listen to what He says in 

• Luke 24:27 (NIV) - 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. 
• Luke 24:44 (NIV) - 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 
• John 5:39–40 (NIV) - 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. 

Understanding the identity of Jesus as well as his life, death and resurrection is the meta-narrative that draws every verse of the Bible together.  CLICK HERE for an artful 2-minute video of Tim Keller demonstrating this through the Old Testament. 

God/Jesus/Spirit Is the Ultimate Hero of Each Story – There are stories in the Bible that have human heroes: David conquers Goliath (I Samuel 17), Daniel is faithful in prayer and survives the lions’ den (Daniel 6), Esther risks her life for God’s people and all are saved.  While these human heroes may be models of a Spirit-empowered life that can inspire us to faithfulness in our own setting, they are also humans, impacted by their own sin and shortcomings.  More importantly, they are intended to point us beyond themselves to the “True-and-Perfect” Hero of the greater story.  If we focus exclusively on them as human heroes, we are prone to moralism and miss the Gospel which is actually the power of God to transform our hearts.  

For example: If David is no more than an example of human bravery born of trusting God, then we exhort people to “be brave,” and hope no one asks about Bathsheba.  But if David is a brave deliverer that God has raised up to rescue Israel, then we see in him a “shadow” of the Great Rescuer who will conquer the giant of our sin – as well as David’s - at the cross.

So be inspired by David, Daniel and Esther.  See what it looks like to live trusting in God no matter what we face.  But in each of them, let your focus be on the True-and-Perfect One that they point to – the person of Jesus.

“In The Shadow of the Cross” – If the Gospel of God’s Grace is the central, meta-narrative of the Bible itself, then the cross is at the center of the Gospel – and of GCP.  Everything leads up to that ultimate moment, and then everything flows from it as well.  The Apostle Paul demonstrated this focus for his own ministry, writing in I Corinthians 2:2: For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  What happened on Golgotha has impact for all humanity and all human endeavors.  GCP aims to make that connection and impact clear for the church and the world.

Heart-Focused – The behaviors and words of a person flow from their motivational center – what the Bible calls “the heart.” (Luke 6:45, Mark 7:20, Matthew 12:35).  This means that the fundamental human problem is not behaviors that can be trained, educated or shamed away by preaching.  It is the heart that needs transformation.  When that happens by the power of the Gospel, then the behaviors and words that flow from that Gospel-transformed heart become different.  GCP understands the fruitlessness of behavior-based, moralistic preaching, depending instead on the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel of Grace proclaimed to effect a change of heart in the hearer.

Questions to Ask – There are a variety of questions that I ask myself as I prepare that help me keep a Gospel focus to my preaching.  They include:

• Have I helped my listener see Jesus as the ultimate hero of this text?  
• Who is the main or active character in the sermon?  The listener?  Me?  Or God?
• Did Jesus need to die and be raised for anything that was said in this sermon?
• If Jesus had not been crucified, would it change anything I said in this sermon?

Resources

• The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
• A priceless book for all ages.  Each story is told for children with this Gospel-Centered perspective.
• Preaching: Communicating Faith In An Age of Skepticism by Timothy J Keller
• Keller is a prime practitioner of GCP in our time.  This gives you a look at his practice of it.
• Preaching Christ From The Old Testament by Sidney Greidanus
• An academic work that is very accessible by a CRC pastor and Calvin Seminary professor

Why I Will Not Tell You Who To Vote For From The Pulpit

Actually. I would be happy to tell you who and why I am voting for.  But it will cost you some time and a cup of coffee.  If you want to hear more about the issues and convictions that bring me to those votes with some references, it will cost you even more: the price of a lunch!  But you will not hear about my voting plans from the pulpit.  In that position, I deal with things that matter for eternity, not just this election cycle.

There is a good deal more to say about this than I will take room for here.  Instead, I will simply focus on four reasons that I won’t be telling people at Celebration - Harderwyk how to vote.

Broken People - Part 1

The reason that we need police in the first place, is the same reason there will always be “bad cops” in some place.  We’re all sinners who need a savior.  That goes for every aspect of life and society.

Once I understand the Gospel of God’s grace, I can begin to figure out that no human being or human society will ever produce the “perfect system” of any sort.  Broken people will always create broken systems – broken somewhere, somehow or in some way. And even if we could produce the “perfect system,” we are then left to populate that “perfect system” with less than perfect people.  Even a hypothetical perfect system will be less than perfect over time when it is implemented by broken people.

That goes for police forces, school systems, local churches, denominations, political parties, nations, corporations, garden clubs, family budgets, the front lawn and everything else.  As a Calvinist, I recognize this as “Total Depravity;” the “T” in my TULIP.  I may not be as bad or broken as I can be, but every part of me is affected by my brokenness in some way.  As a believer, I recognize that there is no escaping that sad reality until Jesus returns and He sets everything right.  Until then, every believer is letting His grace flourish more and more in their life and relationships.  Still, even on a good day, we are only seeing approximations of the true and perfect that is to come.

So, what do we do about that?

First, don’t plan on perfection for any system, plan or person.  Build in checks and balances along with points of accountability.  How will you discover a breakdown?  How do you make restitution, learn from and then implement changes that will minimize the chance of any future breakdown?

Second, have enough humility to recognize that even if your answer is “better” than the other person’s, it still won’t be the “perfect answer.“  There will come a time when circumstances change and the brokenness will work its way to the surface in whatever system or answer you propose.  Breakdown is a “when” not an “if.” 

Finally, don’t give up.  With accountability and humility, things in any system or situation can improve, and everyone benefits from that.  The Apostle Paul writes “do not grow weary in well-doing.”(Galatians 6:9)  Those of us living by His grace, are kept and strengthened in that grace in the pursuit of His glory.  (Hebrews 12:3)  Keep hungering and thirsting for His righteousness and justice.

All this to say: I was horrified to watch George Floyd die.  There clearly needs to be some accountability established, and then changes identified and implemented for policing.  We can do – and desperately NEED TO DO - better for every American.  But we will never get it “perfect.”  We will always need accountability, change and restitution.

So for now, let’s come to grips with the problem, identify some steps to make things better, and get to it.  Quickly.

What Do You Mean By That?

When I first heard the phrase “Defund the Police.” I was astonished.  I’ve done ministry in neighborhoods where the police did not go after dark.  It was awful to see what resulted – especially for the impoverished residents that I knew and loved.  I would not want that sort of circumstance for anyone, so how anyone could advocate THAT was beyond me.

STUPIDEST THING I CAN EVER IMAGINE! Was my natural response.

Thankfully, I have learned to ask instead, “What do you mean by that?”

A little time on Google and some reading across various news sources that I know – not one of them on FaceBook, but that is a different conversation – and I began to see the slogan “Defund the Police” a bit differently. CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE for two examples.

It turns out that others have noticed the same things I have. Over just the course of my lifetime, we have all grown to rely on the police to take care of more and more things: school disciplinary issues, my neighbor’s kid’s garage band, homeless people panhandling near the parking lot.  What if we began steps to let law enforcement focus on enforcing laws rather than ridding my life of inconveniences like those?  Policing that is more connected with the community and people equipped to handle other problems – like addiction – more available for those interventions.

To be honest, when people explain what they mean with this slogan, I’m still not convinced - in fact, I'm kind of alarmed!  But that too is another discussion.  My point is that asking “What do you mean by that?” rather than simply screaming “THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING I CAN EVER IMAGINE!” moved my own thinking in an entirely different direction.

So ask the question and listen.  You don’t have to be convinced, but we’re all better off if we take that step in pursuit of understanding.

"Loving Your Neighbor" From Six Feet Away

I’ve said clearly and will continue to say: “It is NOT fear of disease that motivates our social distancing and not gathering for worship on Sunday mornings.  It is love of our neighbor that keeps us apart.”  (CLICK HERE and begin at 9:30 to hear this in our "Celebration Easter Sunrise Service")  Let me explain further:

• The practice of maintaining a safe distance is presently the best-known way to slow the spread of this virus, maintain the health of all and protect vulnerable populations.  By not gathering – for church and otherwise – we are practicing the best medical response that we currently have for keeping people well and alive.  That is what loving your neighbor looks like in this circumstance.
• Fear – whether of death or disease or otherwise - is never a Gospel motivation for our response to the challenges of life.  Meditate on I John 4:18 if you find yourself facing fear as a motivation in your life.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 
• Wise Choices – Those with known risks – age, chronic respiratory conditions, diabetes, etc. – act wisely when they take even further precautions to avoid infection.  That is stewardship of life, and again need not be motivated by fear.  The Book of Proverbs is filled with this sort of "wisdom-for-living."  Those with lower risk factors are in a position to serve and support those with higher risks.  That is wisdom and gospel expressed in our current situation.
• Good News!  Unlike many other religions and worldviews, Christians are not tied to a building, a style, a time or the like when it comes to worshipping God. (John 4:23-24) What matters for this is the work of the Holy Spirit – Who gathers two or three (Matthew 18:20), Who inspires the Written Word (II Timothy 3:16) and Who meets us in the sacrament (Matthew 26:26).  I was particularly struck this Easter that as we at Harderwyk were dispersed and separate in gatherings of worship, there were many, many other fellow believers around the world who were just as dispersed and separate for different reasons – Pastor Wang Yi imprisoned in China, believers in secret in Iran, senior saints in our own community who are bed-ridden or otherwise incapacitated, to name just a few.  I will be the first one back in the building when we can once again gather and lift our voices to God.  But reopening the building does not mean the church has not been meeting.
• Added April 23 - 7 Ways To Love Thy Neighbor In A Pandemic - I came across this helpful listing of other potential ways to think about Loving Our Neighbors in this time.  Let it stimulate your thinking and prayers.  CLICK HERE

I get a bit miffed when the 3% of churches and pastors who are rejecting precautions and gathering get higher profile than the 97% who are taking the precautions.  More often than not, these people represent something other than Gospel-centered, historic Christian faith.

• Several of these jokers are not Christians in any historical meaning of the faith.  Over the years, I’ve actually had contact with some of them or their movement.
• One is Rodney Howard-Browne (Pastor of The River at Tampa Bay Church – CLICK HERE) with whom I had experience while pastoring in Mt Pleasant, MI in the ‘90’s.  He was a scoundrel then, and I see he continues in that behavior.  If you are interested, when we can get out, let’s get a cup of coffee and I’ll share my recollections!
• Tony Spell and his Life Tabernacle Church outside of Baton Rouge, LA is connected to a regional movement that departed from the historic Christian faith in 1916.  They reject core Christian beliefs like the Trinity and salvation by grace.  The movement has an ongoing history of political power play in rural Louisiana.  This church fits the dictionary definition of a “cult,” not a Christian Church.  News media refer to Life Tabernacle as a megachurch, but that refers only to the number of seats filled on Sunday, not the substance of their beliefs and motivations.  There are so many stories here, it will take a lunch if you want to hear them.
• Note the focus on “our rights” that marks the conversations of pastors that continue to lead their churches to meet.  This is a political statement, not a faith statement.  Unless of course, their faith is ultimately in their political stance.  I am willing to cooperate with local, state and federal government directives regarding public health.  But the final motivation for our not gathering on Sunday is not government directing my life, it is Jesus calling me to love my neighbor.  My support for duly-placed authorities as Paul writes about (Romans 13) is based on respect for God’s final sovereignty and love of neighbor for the common good, not surrender to any demand of any human government.  There is room to respectfully disagree with various policies and directives in pursuit of the common good, but the principle for the believer is the same:  Jesus is Lord, and He empowers me to lay down my life for the needs of others.
• And then there are the ones who say that their “faith” will keep them safe from the virus.  This is using faith as a “means” to get a particular outcome. ie. “My faith is strong/true/good enough for me to get good health in exchange.”  This is faith in (my!) faith, and not faith in Jesus.  CLICK HERE for a sad and ironic story of what this leads to.

I'll say it again:

“It is NOT fear of disease that motivates our social distancing and not gathering for worship on Sunday mornings.  It is love of our neighbor that keeps us apart.” 

Mary Magdalene, John Prine and the Surprise of the Empty Tomb

In my "Easter Sunday COVID Homily" I look at John 20:1-2 and try to point out that no one – despite all that Jesus had said while He was with them – expected that Jesus would actually rise from the dead on the third day.  Mary Magdalene showed up at the tomb to do her work, not because of any hope that Jesus would be raised to life as He had said.  “The Hurt of Her Circumstances Overshadowed even the Hope of God’s Promise Until She Saw the Risen Jesus and heard Him call her name.”  That kind of abandonment is so painfully real that it hurts us to look at it.  And impacts us in a similar way when it is our own pain.

I was a student intern with the NC Prison system in 1974 mostly processing papers for vets who had come back from Viet Nam with a heroin addiction, committed a crime and were jailed.  I had heard John Prine’s song Sam Stone, but was suddenly seeing it in the eyes of vets sitting across the table from me.  “With a purple heart and a monkey on his back .  .  .  . There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.  Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose.  .  .  .”  If  you don’t know the song, you may want to give a listen, but be warned, in typical John Prine fashion, it is a hard reality - https://youtu.be/Sl9ZkYViEIs 

John Prine captured - and those vets lived - the same hopeless abandonment that clouded Mary’s heart and mind when she saw Jesus and thought He was the Gardner.  (John 20:15)  I’m really praying that the Holy Spirit would move on hearts and minds in everything we do this week at Harderwyk.  From Thursday's Maundy Thursday Online Service on through to our online Easter morning offerings, I am praying that the Spirit would awaken people to hear their name spoken by the Risen Jesus, just like Mary did that first Easter morning.  

It has been a Holy Week like no other in my experience.  During the time, I am thankful to be a part of all the effort, gifting and prayer that has gone in for these next few days by those I share ministry with.

I’ll be missing John Prine who passed away from complications with COVID-19 this week as well – and praying that he too came to hear Jesus call his name and to realize that Jesus did, in fact, die for something and that He is risen.

The Tomb is Empty!  He is Risen!  He is Risen, Indeed!!!

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

CLICK HERE to hear my homily as part of our Easter Sunday Worship for Easter 2020.

CLICK HERE to hear a more in-depth (You understand that "in-depth" is how preachers say "longer!") presentation as part of our "Celebration Easter Sunrise Service," a special video done by Harderwyk's Celebration team.  It's a more classic or traditional setting for Easter with organ, brass, hymns and sermon like we do each week in "Celebration,"  the particular worshipping community that I serve at Harderwyk.  The sermon starts at about 24:30.

Praying As Bullets Fly

Like many people, I find myself struggling to cope with the sadness and horror of what now seems commonplace: mass shootings in the United States.  Our son was a student at Virginia Tech and on campus though not involved during the shooting there in 2007, so the pace and regularity of these events strikes us close to home.

I feel the same press to "Do Something, ANYTHING!" and  "do more than pray!" so I do have a number of legal and cultural steps I would like to see implemented.  But I do continue to know that prayer by God's people is an important part of the turn-around need to "fix" our national sickness.  Here are some prayer resources that have helped me:

Grieving The Tragedies in El Paso and Dayton - Click Here

From Heavenward - the Daily Prayer Post of Scotty Smith on Sunday, August 4
As Providence would have it, Mary Lynn and I were driving through Dayton, OH on our way home less than 18 hours after the shooting there.  There was an eerie sense of normalcy as we drove the sign directing people to the "Oregon District" - typically a local, social hotspot, but on that day a crime scene.

I’m a Shooting Survivor. If You’re Going to Pray for Us, Here’s How. - CLICK HERE

Posted August 4 on the Christianity Today site immediately following the El Paso and Dayton shootings. Talk about timely!  Author Taylor Schumann is a writer, shooting survivor, and contributor to the forthcoming book If I Don’t Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings. She lives with her husband and son in Charleston, South Carolina.

Emanuel - The Untold Story of the Victims and Survivors of the Charleston Church Shooting

This is a critically important documentary that was developed in part with NBA star Stephen Curry’s initiative.  The film was publicly available for two days on the anniversary of the shooting this summer.  Mary Lynn and I saw it and were deeply, deeply moved as well as informed.  CLICK HERE for website.  At this point, the DVD is waiting to be released - CLICK HERE for pre-order - but I can whet your appetite with the trailer:

Emanuel – The Untold Story of the Victims and Survivors of the Charleston Church Shooting

A Painful National Anniversary

It's been an interesting summer for anniversaries:  Fifty years ago some 400.000 people found their way to the Yasgur Farm in Woodstock, NY, the Beatles' Abbey Road album was released and Charles Manson began his murder sprees.

But go back four hundred years and you find the sad beginning of "man-stealing" in America.  Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University writes: In late August 1619, a shipment of “20 and odd Negroes” arrived on a ship to Virginia. They were not the first Africans in Virginia, but this human cargo is widely viewed as the beginning of slavery in the English colonies.  I am familiar with Kidd's work, and this article is well worth reading.  CLICK HERE  He goes on to say that recent archival discoveries indicate that these African prisoners may well have been familiar with the Christian faith through Jesuit missionaries in their land of origin.  Could it really be that slavery in America began through the kidnapping of fellow Christians?!?  

As we began our Summer Sermon Series in the book of Philippians, I pointed out that the form of race-based, chattel slavery practiced in the United States, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, was not to be connected with the slavery referred to in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  To put it directly: What was called "slavery" in the history of the United States, is called "man-stealing" in the Bible. This is the KJV wording, and It really stuns our modern ears.  "Man-stealing" is rarely referred to in Scripture, because it such a vile and reprehensible practice.  In Israel, those who did it were to be executed (Exodus 21:16).  In I Timothy 1:10, Paul includes "man-stealing" (the NIV translates the word "slave traders") in a list of behaviors that are "contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel."  

However we choose to translate the Greek word "doulos" - whether "slave" or "servant" - it is clear that Paul did not have in mind, and could not have even conceived of, the race-based slavery that began here in the United States four centuries ago.  And don't forget that Paul refers to he and Timothy as "doulos/slaves/servants" of Christ in Philippians 1:1.  In Philippians 2:7 he goes on to say that in the incarnation, God Himself took on "the very nature of a doulos/slave/servant."  Because of this, following Christ is no sort of dehumanizing oppression.  Instead, it is about a redeeming love that sets us free to lay aside the demands of our own self-interests and then freely act in the loving-best-interest of others, just as Jesus Himself did for us.

If you would like to dig deeper into both the Bible and American history on the issue of slavery in light of the Gospel of God's Grace,  I can recommend these four blog posts from the Gospel Coalition as a good place to start:

• Does the Bible Support Slavery?  CLICK HERE
• How and Why Did Some Christians Defend Slavery?  CLICK HERE
• A British Baptist on the Civil War and Slavery  CLICK HERE
• Why It’s Wrong to Say the Bible Is Pro-Slavery CLICK HERE