Under His Roof
Notes
Transcript
New Sermon Series, Bethel: House of God - it’s series talking about Kingdom of God, and Jesus’ invitation to be part of his kingdom, his royal house. It’s invitation to live under reign of God, how God designed it to be.
When we use language of “house”, not talking about physical structure, but as it’s often used in Britain - house as in House of Tudor, of one of the houses of school of Hogwarts - Gryffindor, Slytherin, etc.
It’s no secret that there continues to be tremendous unrest and division in our nation. These are difficult times, sparked by the terrible killing of George Floyd by Officer Chauvin.
Protests continue around country - and even in other parts of world, many of which have been done appropriately.
But many, sadly, have not been - acts of rioting, cars and buildings set on fire. Stores broken into, looters emptying shelves, and worst of all, acts of violence perpetrated by both police officers being too aggressive and by protesters who have attacked officers and storeowners and others. A number of people have died as result: federal agent in Oakland, retired police officer in St. Louis, young biracial woman in Iowa.
We should rightly mourn what’s happening and why they’re happening - we see these things happening and we know they are wrong.
And this may seem like strange question, but it’s important to ask - why are they wrong?
Why can’t we beat others up to get them to do what we want, or simply because we have ability to do so?
Why can’t we just go into a store or someone’s house and set it on fire or take what we want?
It seems like ridiculous question to even ask - of course it’s wrong!
But why? What makes it wrong? It all has to do with how we were created, and for what purposes.
And that’s key, because evil is always a violation of purpose.
Prayers / Genesis 1:20-31
We picked up middle of creation story, in order to give you sense of patterns throughout days of creation
This is day 5, when God creates all fish and birds
Beginning of each day, God makes declaration that begins with “Let” - let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.
When God makes declaration, when God speaks, it will be. His Word is truth - when I say that, I don’t just mean it’s factually accurate (it is), it means that what God says, is. It is reality itself. God speaks these things into being.
Which is actually what happens. Creation happens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves and every winged bird according to its kind.
Next in pattern is this, always this…And God saw that it was good. God speaks, results in creation, and it’s good!
Day 5 finishes with God blessing fish and birds, “Be fruitful and multiply” - fill waters, fill air. Let life flourish!
So that’s pattern. And as we come to 6th day, we see same pattern as God creates all animals of earth.
God declares, he speaks - let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.
And it was so. Because when God speaks, it simply is.
And God saw that it was good.
But there’s more here on 6th day, there’s a change, something different. God’s not done (pattern is broken)
God declares again, but it’s different - when he speaks, he says, let us. Every other time it was let there be, or let the waters, let the earth. But this time, it’s more personal, more significant…let us make.
And it is. Very different creation. It’s us, mankind, humanity. And it’s significant in two ways.
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. God is making us like him.
And second, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth (basically, everything else in all of creation).
Stop for moment here - because now we’re getting to heart of question - the good and evil. Of purpose we were created for (and therefore, why certain acts are evil, violation of that purpose).
We are created in God’s own image. In ancient world, image was believed to carry essence of what which it represented - it didn’t have to look exactly like what it represented - it was all about carrying essence, deity’s work was thought to be accomplished through idol.
We are to carry God’s essence. His work accomplished through us.
We are to reflect his character, his attitude, his heart.
And in that likeness of God, we are to exercise dominion, rule, he has given us. And this is huge. And it’s important to understand what God means by giving us dominion, to rule like he does.
God does not rule like dictator, ruling over others, so they all serve him.
In other ancient creation stories, gods created humans for themselves, to serve their needs.
That’s why Jesus was confronting his disciples when they were arguing about who was greatest, don’t be like Gentiles, who lord it over one another.
God shares his rule with us. He gives us both responsibility and the authority (amazing about that this says about who God is). You and I have dominion.
When I was kid, Saturday mornings was all about cartoons. One of my favorites was Tarzan: Intro, every week: talking about growing up in the jungle…And this is my domain and I protect those who come here, for I am Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle…(aaahhh)
I did learn something from watching cartoons! That’s idea here, to have dominion over, not for your own good, but for good of all.
Dallas Willard writes that dominion, our kingdom, is simply range of our effective will. He says this: Whatever we genuinely have say over is in our kingdom. And our having the say over something is precisely what places is it within our kingdom. In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited sphere. Only so they can be persons.
God has given us free will - ability to enact our will, to act freely and creatively. Wonderful gift. No other creature has it in way we do. It’s what makes us persons.
See this as children grow - at first, very limited range (cry, move their arms, be real cute). Toddlers, start to enact that, want to do everything themselves. That’s point, to let children take more on as they grow (that’s often clashing point, isn’t it?). To become persons who enact their wills.
Willard says that attacks on our personhood always have to do with diminishing what we can do or have say over. Opposite of king is slave. Some people have been so beat down, so oppressed, lost sense of that reign - spouse that’s been abused, child raised by domineering parent, someone imprisoned unjustly.
That’s been at heart of both series of protests we’ve had in our nation
Lockdown protests - people who got tired of government asserting its authority over their lives - we want to be able to run our businesses, live our lives.
Black Lives Matter protests have been about idea that blacks are being systematically oppressed, can’t go about freely for fear of law enforcement, racist system working against them.
Agree with either of them or not, I’m simply trying to point out how powerful this sense is within us, that we ought to be free to reign, to enact our wills. No one likes to have their will thwarted. Their personhood denied.
But here’s critical question: How will we use our reign? What will we do with range of effective will God has given us? That freedom, that creativity?
Under His Roof
God’s design here is that we would take that reign, that dominion that God has freely shared with us, and freely and willingly and bring that reign in line with his. That we would act in every area of our lives in cooperation with God, his good purposes.
To do it like he would (in his image), and for his purposes (for good of all his creation, that it would flourish. That all of it would flourish).
When that happens, it is very good. Which is exactly how God saw it when he stepped back at end of day 6, seeing humanity, made in his image, exercising dominion over all birds and fish and beasts and even stuff that creeps on ground. “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” God: “this is awesome!”
Psalmist shares that same perspective: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (God, you are awesome! You put an amazing plan into place!)
But here’s problem, when we don’t do this, if we don’t freely and willingly live in image of God, honor image of God in others, freely and willingly bring our rule in accordance with God’s rule - it’s bad. It’s evil.
I’m guessing most of you have heard of Megxit. It’s term giving to Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, their exiting, leaving all their royal duties. They were coming out from under House of Windsor.
Had to give up their titles (Royal Highness), salaries they received, can’t act as representatives of royal family, pay rent on royal “cottage” in Britain)
Had made decision to strike out on their own.
This is essence of sin. We chose to exit. To take reign, rule, God shared with us and strike out on our own. To do what we want to do, rather than acting in cooperation with God.
We want self-rule, to live for our own purposes, rather than God’s. But that’s not purpose we were created for - and to violate purpose is evil.
And it can be as terrible as we’ve seen across nation this past week.
And it can be as subtle and seemingly innocent as living quiet, self-centered lives.
Jesus is inviting us back into Kingdom of God. Or, as we’ve been calling it, Bethel, House of God. To come back under his roof, in accord with his reign.
He is inviting us to willingly and freely align our wills, our dominion, with him. Not my will, but thine be done.
Just like ours, God’s rule or kingdom is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. God could coerce all of creation to obey his will, has that power. But that’s not how he chooses to operate. He wants us to willingly “seek first kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Why at heart of Christian faith is self surrender, our wills freely surrendered to Jesus. Why faith can never be coerced or argued into…only comes from humble, willing submission.
But when we do that, beautiful things happen.
One, is that our rule, the range of our effective will, gets extended. Now we’re working with God, in his power. We’re going to talk more about that next week.
But second is that good and beautiful things really do happen.
When we’re all trying to live our own kingdoms separately, there’s going to be clash. My range is going to extend into yours, vice versa. I want to effect something this way, you want to effect it this way. So we fight. We dominate others - with words or manipulation or guilt or deceit or actual brute force.
But it’s only under God that we can learn to mesh our kingdoms with kingdoms of others. Why first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Second comes right after, Love your neighbor as yourself. Or as Paul puts it, Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but the interests of others.
Dallas Willard puts it, Only as we find that kingdom and settle into it can we human beings all reign, or rule, together with God. We will then enjoy individualized “reigns” with neither isolation nor conflict.
It’s kinda hard to imagine in this moment. All of us, living as full persons, enjoying our reigns, that we would have dominion over some part of God’s creation, doing good work - without isolation or conflict.
Blacks and whites, working together. Police and protesters. Democrats and Republicans. Marshall and West Virginia University.
If we look, we can see that happening, people living under roof of House of God, doing his kingdom work
I think about volunteers who immediately went to areas of our cities that were destroyed and began to help clean up.
I think about police officers who “serve and protect” well (my niece, Kristin)
I think about those who are making honest and humble efforts to break down walls of hostility to work towards racial reconciliation and justice for all.
God gives us clear image of Kingdom of God in Revelation - that because of Jesus, his work on cross, there will be members of every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth.
Here’s challenge I have for us today…what will you do with the reign God has given you? Your kingdom? You have one.
Are you withholding some of it for yourself? Just giving God some, a little? Are you exiting?
Or are you freely and joyfully coming and saying - I want to be with you, Jesus, part of your house, my kingdom as part of yours?
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 8:3–9). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.