Religious Miss the King

Why is it that the most religious people miss the King? This last Sunday we looked at the passage about the Wise men in Matthew 2:1-12. In this passage, we saw 4 different responses to the birth of the Messiah and King Jesus. We saw King Herod violently against Jesus; we saw the people of Jerusalem complacent against Jesus; we saw the religious leaders religious against Jesus; and we witnessed the wise men passionate for Jesus. It is the 3rd response that I want to focus on here. Below is the passage that deals with the religious leaders. King Herod heard of the news of the wise men coming to Jerusalem to look for a newborn king and he was troubled. He was troubled for he knew that he didn’t meet the qualifications to be the king of the Jewish people and he didn’t want anything to interfere with his rule. So he wanted to find out the veracity of their claim and he calls in the religious leaders of the day (the theologians and high level priests). This is how they respond to Herod:

4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
 are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; 
for from you shall come a ruler 
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

The Jewish religious leaders know the truth, they know Scripture but they use it to serve Herod and not their God. They have all the right answers, quote Scripture beautifully and yet they refuse to go and check out this newborn King. Jewish religious leaders had head knowledge but no heartfelt love for God and His word! Contrast their knowledge and response with the wise men. They were not in the religion business. They were advisors to rulers (much like a chief of staff to the President) in ancient Babylon or somewhere east of Palestine. They were Gentiles and had very little knowledge of the Bible but they heard the news about this newborn king and wanted to discover him. Once they did see him, they bowed down to worship him and gave them their best gifts—gifts fit for a true king.

Why do religious people like me miss the King! Why do we choose to ignore Him rather than to embrace Him? Why do we pursue being right more than pursuing Him? Why does the knowledge of Scripture puff us up and not draw us to devote our lives to Him? Why doesn’t the news of the newborn King amaze and impact us and thus bring us to be passionate for Him? Don’t miss the King: The Son of God left his glorious and awesome throne room in heaven enjoying an intimate relationship with His Father to come down to be born in a broken down stable to a poverty stricken couple and laid in an animal feeding trough. He humbly came down to experience the brokenness of the world and suffer ridicule from his people, rejection from his friends and family, physical and emotional pain and horrible and inhumane death by all for you and me. He sacrificially came down to provide us forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, freedom, rest, joy, and hope.

As he began his service as an adult, listen to some of his first words to the religious, those who were proud and arrogant, Jesus challenges them:

31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Lk 5:31, 32)

Let us not miss those words as well. Don’t miss the King for He doesn’t miss us. That is why He came down to save religious people like us. Even when we are not passionate for Him, Jesus and his work shows us that He is passionate for us. Even when we don’t embrace Him for we are busy being religious, He embraced us at the cross. Don’t miss the King this Christmas season for he didn’t miss us!

Advent Thoughts, Week 2 - The Light of the World

I have been reading a very rich and timely book over the past week. Thabiti Anyabwile (http://purechurch.blogspot.com/), a brother I had opportunity to meet and speak with a couple of times this year, has written The Decline of African American Theology, From Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity. I don’t think that there’s another work out there like it.

In the chapter on African American Anthropology titled, “Ain’t I a Man?”, Thatbiti quotes from Dr. Francis J. Grimké (1850-1937). Dr. Grimké was a former slave who ended up studying at Lincoln and Howard Universities as well as Princeton Theological Seminary. In a 1910 address Grimké lamented the existence of “white churches” and “black churches.” Here’s what he asked,

"Why should there be churches made up of white Christians, and churches made up of colored Christians in the same community, and, where all speak the same language; why should white Christians and colored Christians not feel perfectly at home with each other in the same religious gatherings, if they are all Christians, if they all believe in the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man, id doing by others as they would be done by, in loving each other as they love themselves, in their oneness in Christ Jesus, and if the same Holy Spirit dwells alike in all their hearts?"

Wow. This pastor of 15^th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, during a period of pervasive overt racism in our land, was bold to assert that if white Christians wanted to continue to embrace race prejudice, it would be better for them to renounce Christianity and embrace race prejudice with integrity.

When Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus into the temple, Luke tells us the words of old man Simeon in chapter 2:29-32,

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

Here in the Temple, the center of Israel’s world, God discloses through Simeon that salvation for Israel includes salvation for the nations (meaning the ethnic groups of the world). This is the unfolded mystery of God’s plan for redemption. Paul says in Colossians 1 that this mystery was hidden for ages and generations, but is now revealed to his saints. To them, Paul says, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That’s what Simeon is revealing here in his song, CHRIST FOR THE NATIONS.

This is why the church I serve, City of Hope, is driven by what we believe to be a gospel imperative:

We will boldly pursue racial, cultural, gender, socioeconomic and generational reconciliation. For it is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are thoroughly reconciled with God and with one another. Therefore, we will prioritize and invest our very lives to reconciliation that is empowered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ who has come to break down the dividing walls of all kinds of tensions and divisions.

All because Jesus is the Light of the World.

In Christ's Love,

Pastor Irwyn Ince

Advent Thoughts, Week 1 - The Tree

The pastor of my childhood church, Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church, used to say to us every Sunday, “Merry Christmas,” no matter what season of the year it was. He did this, I think, because he rightly realized that the celebration of the incarnation, the celebration of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us in the person of Jesus Christ ought not be limited to one day or one month out of the year. The significance of God the Son taking to himself a human nature is immense.

As we enter the Advent season we would do well to remember that the significance of the incarnation is not limited to baby Jesus being born to Mary and Joseph in a feeding trough in Bethlehem. As we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ, putting up and decorating pine trees in our homes (which my family has already done), let’s remember to focus on the tree at the center of human history, his cross. What’s more, let’s focus on what it means to be united to him by faith. The apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

I really don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade this Christmas, but Peter makes this statement in the context of exhorting Christians to glorify God while enduring unjust suffering. Peter actually has the audacity to say in v.21 that we have been called to this. He says the radical implications of being united to the Christ crucified on the tree is enduring sorrows while suffering unjustly. He says this endurance through unjust suffering is a gracious thing. He says if you sin and endure the beating, the consequence of your sin, that’s no big deal. You’re just getting what you deserve. Ah, but if because you’re doing good you suffer and endure it, this is grace before God. 

This is a message that shakes us up. It’s strange to us and hard to hear. It’s strange because on places like The Baal Network [TBN – thanks for that Pastor Lance Lewis; http://blaquetulip.blogspot.com/], we’ve been sold a bill of goods. We’ve convinced ourselves that the most effective way to witness the grace of God in Christ to the world is to show people how God in Christ wants to provide all of your material desires, how you can have the American dream in Christ. But that’s not the testimony of the Bible.

The testimony of Scripture is that our most effective witness to the world of the grace of God in Christ is when we’re suffering well. When we’re enduring the sorrows of unjust suffering because we’re doing right, that’s gracious in the sight of God. That’s the witness he’s looking for. Contrary to popular belief union with Christ does not mean that you will be healthy, wealthy, and wise in this life. It does not mean that God wants me to have the gifts that will make me happy wrapped up under the Christmas tree on December 25. Peter's point is that the Christian life is indeed the best life now. But it’s the best life because the blessedness of the Christian life is joy in the midst of suffering. The blessedness of the Christian life is being able to witness to this world of the power, glory, and grace of God in the middle of intense trials and suffering. It is the reality that when Christians suffer unjustly it brings glory to God.

Where did we get a Christianity where Jesus does all of the dying? Where did we get a Christianity where Jesus is the only one who bears a cross?

If (when) you find your self unjustly suffering as a Christian, it’s not because you don’t have enough faith. It’s not because you’re not praying enough. It’s not because you haven’t fasted in a while. Its because the past suffering of Christ is the present condition of believers, while the present glory of Christ is the future glory of those who follow in the steps of the suffering Christ.

1Pet. 4:12-14 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Irwyn Ince