August 31, 2014 National Presbyterian Church Abraham: The Best Guide in the World Acts 13:1-3, 15:1-6 David A. Renwick In our sermons in August we ve been looking together at the story of Abraham, one of the greatest figures in the Bible, and in human history, a person whose life has impacted billions of people not only through Judaism (as the ancestor of the Jews), but through Islam, and through our own Christian faith as well. In the Bible, Abraham is mentioned over 200 times. Just under half of these references are in his story, initially told for us in genesis 11-225. The remainder are from verses widely scattered throughout the Bible from Old Testament times to New Testament times. Jesus is, of course, mentioned far more often, but it s worth pointing out that Abraham s name is mentioned 50% more than that of the Apostle Paul!! So, Abraham s impact has been enormous, and what we ve been focusing on is not only the story of his life his geographic journey from modern Iraq, north to modern day Syria, south to Egypt, and then settling down, more or less, in modern day Israel and the West Bank but we ve been focusing as well on his spiritual journey (which, in the experience of many, is often related to a geographical journey) from idolatry and paganism in his home town of Ur, to a profound, life-changing trust in God. Indeed, in this spiritual journey we ve focused especially on Abraham s ongoing discovery of who his God is not just in his head (as an academic exercise) but in his heart (as a matter of practical experience). So we ve watched Abraham grow in his understanding of God as a god who speaks and calls and directs and guides; as a god who promises and keeps his promises (how incredible, that God should bind himself to his creatures with promises!); as a god who is patient, yet judges (holds us to account, not because he doesn t love us, but because he does he created us in his image with the ability to make choices that count); and as a god who tests our faith (we saw this last week in genesis 22 with his son, Isaac). These tests function to see if our faith is real and to make faith grow (remember: iron only turns into steel in the heat of fire!). With a few more twists and turns we come to the end of Abraham s story as told in Genesis, with the upshot that Abraham has become a person whose faith has so grown that in the new Testament it becomes a pattern for our own faith today (e.g. Romans 4;1-3). BUT, having said that, there s one more thing that needs to be said or explained in our series, which brings us back full circle to the beginning, and it has to do with the fact that Abraham experienced God as a god who speaks, calls, directs and guides. And the question is HOW? If Abraham is a model for our 1
faith, and if Abraham s God is our God today, then we need to ask how Abraham s God spoke then and how Abraham s god speaks now, today... Let me put it like this: if Abraham actually heard a voice from heaven and knew that it was God (which I think he did), or if God stayed in touch with Abraham through angels (which the Scriptures say he did), then WHY don t we see angels or hear voices in the same way? OR, if we do, how do we know that we re not simply going mad, nuts, or are deluded? That is: how does God normally communicate with us today? Or, let me put it personally: I cannot think of a single time when I can say categorically that I saw an angel. To be sure, there are people who have been the source of God s voice to me I can think in particular of a great aunt I met for the first time, in Vancouver, Canada, in the summer of 1972, and out of the blue she asked me if I was thinking about entering the ministry. She had no clue that I had been fighting this call all year long, and that her voice was like a thunderbolt from heaven! I felt like turning on her and asking: Has my mother been talking to you? Who spoke to you about this? It was a profound experience: Divine?! Angelic?! Yes! It was a vital voice in the path I was to take but having said that, I cannot categorically state that I ve seen an angel. OR, with regard to hearing a real voice from heaven well, there have only been a couple of times where I could say that God has spoken to me in a voice that was real. But this has not been God s normal course with me... which means that we need to get some clarity on discerning God s normal way of speaking and guiding. And this is what I d like to do in the time that remains for us. For me, at least, hearing God s voice has always been a matter of tuning into the right station! That is, my assumption is not that God s word is scarce, but that the universe is filled with the voice of God, just as the air is filled with radio waves! The question, then, is: HOW DO I TUNE IN? How do I get on the right frequency? Do I hear God s voice on Fox news? NO! Or MSNBC? NO! Or CNN? NO! (I m an equal opportunity offender!) Do I hear it by tuning in to ESPN... or Netflix... or by going to the movies? To which I d also answer, NO!! If you tune into those stations, from time to time, maybe you really will hear a message from God, but more often than not the message from God will not be clear... No! It s not Fox, or MSNBC; it s not or ABC, or CBS or NBC; it s not CNN or even ESPN... that we are to tune in to, to find the will of God, but it s another station altogether... perhaps it s unexpected, though you might have guessed it, coming from me: it is, of course... the B.B.C.!!! Not the British Broadcasting Corporation (Downton Abbey, Fawlty Towers or even the BBC World Service, won t help us out here!)! No! What I mean by B.B.C. is B for Bible and B for Believers; and C for Conscience. When these three hold together by the power of God s Spirit, like a system of checks and balances, you can become pretty sure that God is trying to get your 2
attention. This is God s normal channel to speak to us today, who have consciences (as Abraham clearly had!), and have the Bible (as Abraham did not! since it was not yet written!), and who have each other (God called Abraham to a pretty independent living situation, without many believers around him; but they are all around us!). So let s look at each of these three briefly, and we ll begin with the last: C for CONSCIENCE! Conscience. Let s think about our consciences for a moment. Our consciences: we all think God uses conscience as an aspect of moral guidance through which the Holy Spirit works to help us know what is right and wrong, and at times to help us know what to do. We just have this gut feeling, we say, our conscience speaks, and this is what we do: we listen to our consciences. But any understanding which says our conscience is a foolproof source of guidance is surely slightly naïve, because we know we have the power to deceive even our consciences if we want to. One author, Joni Eareckson Tada (in her book, A Step Further), tells the story, for example, of a young man in his mid-twenties who came to her house. He had driven hundreds of miles to come to her house and was convinced that God had led him there. Joni had become famous through a book she had written about a serious swimming accident she had had when she was 17 that left her paralyzed. She hadn t been healed from the accident but she had come to faith through it, and had written about the experience in her first book called by her name: Joni. More than that, she was really quite attractive. This young man came to her door, and said: God has led me here and then added this bombshell:.. and wants me to marry you!! Joni took it all in stride, and they talked about this sense of God leading him to her house through conscience, until she dropped her own bombshell; that he was not the first young man whose conscience had led him this way with a proposal of marriage. He was in fact about number nine or number ten who had come that way. All but one, at the least simply had to have been deceived! And, then she wondered why it was that God has spoken to so many people in all these ways, but hadn t spoken to her?! So, sometimes, our consciences can lead us astray. By themselves our consciences can become weak, merely following the norms of our culture. Indeed, we know that our consciences can change with time. They change along with society, for good or for evil. And, there is within us this capacity for self-deception - so that at times our consciences will not only tell us what God wants us to hear, but what we want to hear. Though our consciences are important! They are a gift from God through which God works and speaks and guides - but our consciences need to formed, and reshaped, and remolded again and again if they are to be a reliable means through which God can guide us. Bible. So C for Conscience, and B for Bible. Indeed, it is in particular, through the reading of the Bible that our consciences need to be reformed and reshaped and remolded through the reading of the scriptures that God gives to us, through the stories, through the wisdom, through the laws, through the examples that we read within that book, so that our minds and consciences, are constantly being reshaped and honed to reflect the will of the living God. But -- even listening to 3
God speaking to us through the pages of holy scripture is not easy. This book that God has given to us is a big book. It s hard to develop the habit of reading it until it becomes a part of our lives, and yet, that s exactly what we need to do. Reading the Bible sufficiently so that it shapes our consciences is somewhat akin to learning a new language. 20 minutes a week just won t do the trick on the other hand, 20 minutes every day will absolutely move us on the right path. Clearly, the best way to learn is through total immersion, but failing that, at least focusing on the subject for 20 minutes every single day will move us ahead. Without this, to be sure, we ll pick up some vocabulary. But knowing vocabulary is not the same as being fluent. But it s fluency that is always the goal with a language, and once we have it, the culture of the nations that speak the language become an added bonus. And, similarly, with the Bible... we are to read it until the message of Scripture affects and molds our consciences, and empowers us to interface with the more secular culture around us. There are no short cuts to this though once in a while we try them (and sometimes they seem to work!!). Have you heard about the flip and dip method of using the Bible for guidance There was one man who tried the flip and dip method (and I really don t encourage this, and I m speaking somewhat tongue in cheek just now) who used the flip and dip method of seeking guidance in the Bible by closing the book, opening the book, pointing his finger at particular passages of scripture, hoping and praying that God would speak to him through that particular passage. Well, he actually missed all the major parts of the book and landed in one of the spaces between the paragraphs. He was in financial difficulty at the time, and it was actually the chapter heading that he arrived at. It said Chapter 11" at which point he immediately declared bankruptcy -- and said: God has surely guided me in this. Sometimes it works out that way, other times it s not nearly so good - God can use all kinds of means to guide us... but when it comes to the pages of holy scripture, God s passion, I believe, is that through the stories, read over the long haul, not only in a moment of emergency, but when things are good; through the wisdom, through the laws, through the examples that become a part of the world in which we live - that our consciences are reshaped and reformed. And so the dominant story that determines who we are, our sense of God s direction in our lives, increasingly becomes neither the story of our family or nation, nor the stories of movies or television shows, but of God, made known in his ancient people, and in Jesus Christ in particular. Just before World war II, in 1934, some courageous German and Swiss Christians wrote what is called the Declaration of Barmen (see www.creeds.net), which says: Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. So we meet Jesus, our guide and good shepherd, in the book, which fills our consciences. And this takes place, especially I believe, when we read this book not only by ourselves, but when we read this book and talk about our faith with others - other believers. 4
Believers. So, C for Conscience, and B for Bible and B for Believers God s system of checks and balances! What we gain from listening to our consciences and reading the Bible is never to be purely private and personal, but needs to be brought into the public sphere. [Remember: the idea of a personal or pocket Bible is new since the printing press: for most of history, the Bible has been a big book, kept in the church for corporate worship!]. If we cannot bring ourselves to do this, then we may well be entering the realm of self-deception. This sharing with each other was the practice of the early church, and needs to be ours too. Indeed, this was the practice of the Apostle Paul, even after he had had an overwhelming vision of the risen Jesus on his journey to persecute Christians in Damascus (Acts 9). Jesus spoke but Jesus didn t tell his whole will to Paul, but told him to check in with another Christian, a man named Ananias who lived in Damascus. It must have been humbling for Paul to have to do this, but he did. Check, check, double check! This corporate double-check also occurs in Acts 13 (1-3) when Paul and his friend Barnabas are commissioned as missionaries from the church in Antioch. The Holy Spirit confirms their calling when the congregation is together, in worship. We don t know how exactly, but we do know that this experience of guidance was not merely solitary. And then, in Acts 15, this corporate sharing happens again. Acts 15 is the tail end of a meeting that took place in the early church. An issue had arisen that was going to divide the church. It was a massive issue. It would divide the church between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Almost all of the first Christians were Jewish, but then as the gospel spread, more and more Gentiles, people like you and me, began to believe and these two groups were butting heads with one another, asking difficult, confrontational questions: Who was here first, who, as it were, owns the church? Who were the first class citizens in Heaven and who were the second class citizens? (Imagine for a moment, the clash of culture that would take place if 200 charismatic and pentecostal Christians decided en masse to join we Presbyterians at National!! It would not be easy!! Well, in Acts 15, the elders of the church met together to consider the matter. They came together to look over what the scriptures said, they looked over what God was doing in the world. They thought about their consciences, how they had been shaped in the past, and they reshaped their consciences through the scripture, and through the events round about them, and through their discussions together. And God led the Church through that time when division could have torn it completely apart in the early days simply through their corporate discussion. God works through other Believers. B for believers! God works through the Bible. B for Bible. God works through our Consciences. C for consciences! The BBC: All together, wrapped up with each other, as a habit to guide our lives. So back to Abraham... Abraham believed that God was a God who tested faith God did so with Abraham, and he ll do so with us. 5
Abraham believed that God was a judge who believes our choices are important, and who will hold us to account. Abraham believed that God was patient and kind, and experienced God s patience repeatedly. Abraham believed that God made promises, and in his own experience saw those promises being kept. And Abraham believed that God was a God who guided, directed and called and SPOKE!! To ordinary individuals like him And we are to have the same faith today as he had back then. His God is our God. So we need to listen for his voice, and tune into the right station. Not MSNBC, and not Fox News... Not CNN or ESPN... but... the B-B-C: Bible, Believers, Conscience, working together by the power of the Spirit to be channels of God s word, so that Abraham s God can become for us too, the best guide in the world! David A. Renwick Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved. To listen on line go to: http://nationalpres.org/~natio100/sermons To watch full services go to: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nationalpres THE NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 4101 Nebraska Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016 www.nationalpres.org 202.537.0800 6