The Sin of Certainty

The Sin of Certainty

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Experience
September 8, 2024


1 John 1:1-3, Romans 8:16

see also:
John 5:39-40, Matthew 7:15-23

We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.  The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.  What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:1-3

_______________

“We announce to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.”  In other words, what we proclaim to you about God is what we ourselves have seen, heard and touched.  Or to put it another way, we are sharing with you our “experience” of God.

Some have said that we cannot trust our experience because we are fallen human beings tainted by sin.  While there is certainly truth to the ways sin skews our perspective, it is equally true that we cannot know  anything except through the lens of our lived experience.  There is no idealized form of any object that can be described apart from the way one perceives it.  If ten people were to describe a particular tree, for example, there would certainly be similar elements such as color, parts like bark, leaves or branches, perhaps certain textures, etc.  And yet each description would be so unique in other ways that one might wonder if they are all describing the same tree.  One person might notice tiny holes from bugs that were eating at it, and another might notice the moss along the base.  Still another might zero in on a birds nest or a particular knot where a branch seemed to grow in an unlikely direction.  All of these details say as much about our experience of the tree as they do about the tree itself.

If each person would notice different aspects of a tree, how much more will each person have their own unique experience of God.  Even scripture is not “immune” from the impact of experience.  The Biblical writers to not have an objective source of information about God that is universally accepted as scientifically tested and verified fact.  Rather, they each write through the lens of their own experiences of God in their lives.  Abraham encounters God in the visitation of three strangers.  Moses experiences God in a burning bush.  Elijah sees God in the all consuming fire, hears God in the silence, and is nourished by God through bread and rest under the broom tree.  

People experience Jesus differently too.  The lepers and the tax collectors, for example, have a very different perception of who he is than the Jewish leaders who put him on trial.  Everything we know about God is mediated through someone’s experience and more likely, through the culmination of many people’s experiences throughout the centuries including our own.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that we “...received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children.  (Romans 8:15-16). 

God sent the Spirit so that we could fully experience his loving presence and share that experience with others along the way.

We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are

~ Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani, as quoted in the Talmudic tractate Berakhot (55b.)

More With Less

More With Less

Now What? - Part 3

Sunday, August 27, 2023
Exodus 5:6-20, Luke 9:1-6, Philippians 4:19 

Pharaoh replied, “You are lazy bums, nothing but lazy bums. That’s why you say, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’  Go and get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you still need to make the same number of bricks.”                                                                         -                                                 

Exodus 5:17-18

Jesus called the Twelve together and he gave them power and authority over all demons and to heal sicknesses.  He sent them out to proclaim God’s kingdom and to heal the sick.  He told them, “Take nothing for the journey—no walking stick, no bag, no bread, no money, not even an extra shirt.  Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place.  Wherever they don’t welcome you, as you leave that city, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.”

Luke 9:1-5

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

_______________

Most of us have heard Pharaoh’s words echoing through various seasons of our lives and certainly in our culture.  Work harder!  Produce more with less!  And of course we know all that is produced goes back up to pad the pockets of those at the top.  Meanwhile, the laborers pay double and triple the rent on salaries that are lower than they were 20 years ago.  When they struggle to make ends meet, we all become Pharaoh’s declaring - “You are lazy… get back to work!”

Sadly this same mentality seeps into the church world.  When our churches struggle to pay the bills or attract new members, we feel like we are not “producing” what we should.  And there are countless “church growth gurus” selling overpriced quick fix programs that make us feel like we are lazy and good for nothing if we don’t have all the same programs as the mega church down the road.  Pharaoh’s voice is prolific and his words haunt us everywhere we turn.  We think of ourselves as hard workers, but in the end, we find ourselves like the slaves in Egypt, working ourselves into the grave in every area of life with very little to show for our efforts while Pharaoh continues to make us feel like we haven’t done enough.

Then we turn to the gospels and find Jesus, our kind our loving master.  Finally, we’ve gotten Pharaoh off our backs and we can live under the gift of mercy and grace.  But wait… Jesus tells us to go out with nothing as well.  Like Pharaoh, it appears at first glance that he expects the disciples to make bricks with no straw, to heal the sick and cast out demons without even so much as a guaranteed place to sleep at night.  Is Jesus just another hardened task master making impossible demands on our lives?

If we look a bit closer we find that Jesus does give them one thing Pharaoh did not, and it’s the thing that makes all the difference.  Luke 9:1 tells us that Jesus gave them all the power and authority needed to do the work he called them to do.  Matthew’s gospel ends with a reminder that Jesus will go with them, that he will be present with them even to the end of the age.  In Philippians 4:19, Paul tells us based on his own experience that God will provide for our every need. 

What if we took Jesus’ command to take nothing with us seriously? 

What would happen if we trusted in his power, his authority, and his presence more than we trusted in our own limited resources? 

What if the greatest power of all comes from the humility of dependence rather than independence? 

What if we stopped working for Jesus and started letting Jesus work through us?