Tag: Old Testament

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Unhealed: Origins

To paraphrase M. Scott Peck, life is difficult, and once we accept that, we can transcend it. Much of this difficulty stems from the dysfunction we all have in our family of origin. There are generational messages transmitted, both purposefully and otherwise, that impact our lives.

So no family is perfect – and when we look to scripture we see this emphasized. The families in Genesis paint a clear picture of dysfunction and generational trauma. From Cain & Abel to the Jacob/Rachel/Leah love triangle, we get many, many stories of people chosen by God but still hurting within themselves and hurting others. But out of that chaos comes the legendary 12 Tribes of Israel, the People of the Covenant the line of Christ and the mechanism by which God saved the world.

We can take some comfort in this, that we are not alone – there is nothing we have ensured or are enduring that God has not seen before, that God has not used for the good of His people and the glory of His name.

The dynamics in our families of origin still impact us. They help determine how we interact with people we love, what we value, and how we respond to both hurt and success.

Scripture tells us that the sin of parents impact their children and their children’s children (Exodus 34:7). But it also tells us that His grace is even more pervasive.

We get a picture of this grace and healing in a family, also in Genesis. Joseph came out of this same dysfunctional brood, with favoritism, pride and jealousy all coming together to leave him considered dead by his family and enslaved in a foreign land. But Joseph turns his focus to following God even in his circumstance, so that when he is brought face to face with the brothers who wronged him, he (eventually) finds a way to forgive and find healing. First, though, he is overcome and finds a private room in which to weep. What are your private rooms, where you go to when triggered by a reminder of past hurt?

When Joseph finally confronts his brothers, he does so with mercy and forgiveness that is nearly unfathomable. The story of Joseph is the story of the Gospel, turning trauma and tragedy into salvation.

In the same way, our misery becomes our ministry. When God takes us through healing, He gives us the words and the ability to reach others with that same message of healing. Sometimes that trauma itself will even push us to God and to that healing.

Joseph’s brothers deserved to be cursed and to have revenge taken on them. Instead, God made their sin the mechanism of material salvation for their family, and even of healing for the relational trauma of the family.

What are the traumatic events of your past that have wounded you? God is big enough. There is nothing too bad or too overwhelming such that He cannot bring healing and redemption.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 2, 2024

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God Your Protector – Psalm 121

Why doesn’t God take away our problems and suffering when we ask Him to? Why does God tolerate so much suffering in the world? We heard last month about God as Immanuel, this notion that God through Christ is present with us in that suffering.

But the question remains – if a chef makes terrible soup, does it make it better if he comes out of the kitchen and eats it with you?

But then, the soup isn’t always bad. In fact, often the soup is incredible – but when we are in the midst of those bouts of “bad soup” out makes us question God. Academically we can recognize that we are not in a position to question the nature and decisions of the creator of the universe. But if we are His children, as He tells us, maybe we do have a relationship where that kind of question is ok to ask. Maybe He even welcomes it.

We can all agree that a good parent does more than be present in the pain of their children, but they do what they can to take away that pain. So if God can do that, why doesn’t He always?

Psalm 121 sure makes it seem like there is more of a role for God to play. The word “Protector” or “protect” appears six times in the eight verses. The single word šāmar or “your protector” appears at the exact syllabic middle of the psalm.

The psalm begins with a question and is followed with an unambiguous answer. The psalm includes multiple “merisms” or contrasts between two opposites in order to demonstrate the totality of something. God protects by night and day; from the physical danger of the sun and the emotional danger of the moon (i.e. lunacy); in the going out of the city walls to work to the returning from the fields to our home. And not just now, but from now until eternity.

But what does this protection entail? It doesn’t mean we won’t be hurt. It never has – no ancient worshipper singing this song on the way to the temple thought they would never see any problems. So what does it mean? As a child we definitely see it as a simple protection, but as we mature and faith matures.

Losing that simpler understanding is a real loss, and we do need to work through the “tasks of grief” and reassess our relationship to what has changed for us.

So what does that protection mean? It’s not protection from pain or sadness. It means, for one, that he will not let us get lost. No matter how far we wander, he will not leave us. He knows how he will bring us home, no matter how far we go or how long it takes. This is the heart of the gospel – no matter how lost we are, we are never lost to Him.

When we are in dark seasons of loss, that is probably not what we would pick. We would want the pain gone and the loss restored, right away! But God’s protection means that the doubt and pain will not take us away from Him. We don’t need to be afraid of our feelings – we can feel our feelings and God is still there right beside us.

It also means that there is no journey to God out of grief. God is there with us in the midst of it, and the moment we need Him, He is right there.

— Sermon Notes, Denise Lindberg, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, April 21, 2024

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The God Who Sees… All of Me – Genesis 16

As we walk through the names of God, let us pray that we learnThis passage is about God seeing us in our suffering, but it is also about much more.

First, God understands us within our context – the context here is thorny. Second, God restores – what did God say that changed things for Hagar?

This story takes somewhere around the turn of the 19th century BC. Sarai and Abram cannot have children (we know that changes, but at this point they don’t). It takes place in a culture where there were various forms of servanthood, slavery and concubinage, all of which were very different than American chattel slavery or modern human trafficking. The idea of a servant coming in as a second wife and bearing children was a well accepted concept, and the raising of Hagar’s status was a natural result.

Unfortunately, Sarai’s messy response was also natural. Often our best laid plans go wrong and when they do, we often blame other people.

So Hagar is sent away, and is then met by the angel of the Lord who asks her two questions. “Where are you from, and where are you going?” But Hagar only answers the first one, because she does not know where she is going. And so the angel provides an answer to that question, and the answer is, back into the context she came from. That’s where a typical sermon might end, with the idea that sometimes God keeps us in our hard situations in order to bless us further.

But that’s not this sermon, so let’s go back to verse 4. Hagar begins to despise Sarai. This despising comes out of pride. CS Lewis sets the stage for this particular sin:

There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are  more unconscious of in ourselves.  And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others…

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.  Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind…

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of
it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

So what we can learn from this story is that God sees us not just in our suffering but also in our contempt and our pride.

— Sermon Notes, Paul Cabellon, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, February 18, 2024

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Wait and Be Shaped – Isaiah 64:1-9

This poem is a prayer of lament. The Prophet is feeling a desperate desire for the presence of God, for God to make Himself known.

This comes in the third part of Isaiah. The second part is actually more hopeful than the third, as the people of Israel look forward to returning from exile and being restored. The third part, though, comes as the restoration has happened and has not gone as well as they would have liked. There was conflict between the exiles returning and those who had stayed in the land. The people feel much like the Israelites coming out of exile in Egypt, resenting their very deliverance because it was not playing out as they expected.

The desire for something that isn’t happening is intensely frustrating. We see it in the tantrums of a toddler, but we also see it in ourselves when we see injustice or suffering, when we feel like our own goals or health are slipping away.

That is what the Prophet is experiencing, a deep desire that God would just come down and fix things. He understands the immense power of God and just wants so badly for it to be unleashed on the broken world he sees around him.

This is the longing of Advent. This is the time when we wait actively for “He who began a good work in you” to “be faithful to complete it.” We seek to be intentional in our waiting, to be purposefully engaged in the “already but not yet” of Christ’s work.

Ironically, this time of waiting is itself a time when the world hates waiting. There is so much to do and so many places to be and people to see, all these demands on our time and all of them immediate.

But the alternative to this active waiting is outlined in this passage – we wither and are carried away on the wind. When we wait badly, we move outside of what we should do because we grab for security even when what we grab is ephemeral. “No one calls on your name; No one bothers to hold on to you.” When our hearts are sick, we turn from holding onto the creator and instead grasp at straws and withered leaves.

So as the passage asks, how then can we be saved? We’re called here to remember and to praise as we wait, to act righteously and do so gladly, in anticipation of Jesus’ ultimate victory. We actively live into the hope that we have, living out the way we want the world to be.

How is not contingent in cumstance – the circumstances might change or might not change, but that should not change our posture because it’s a gift.

The changing itself comes from God – He is the potter and we are the clay. We are being shaped by Him, even in the waiting.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, December 3, 2023

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Vashti the Prophet – Esther 1:15-20

The Old Testament is full of prophets speaking “truth to power”, advocating for the marginalized and oppressed. Today we’re going to look at one of those prophets that often go overlooked – Queen Vashti of the Persian Empire.

Queen Vashti’s refusal is prophetic because it reveals the injustices of patriarchy in the Persian kingdom. Her denial threatens not only King Xerxes, but the entire Persian Empire and its family structures, revealing the fragility of masculinity and its systems. What unfolds are the layers and manifestations of toxic masculinity: rape culture, victim-blaming, and patriarchal protection.

Bianca Mabute-Louie, Inheritance Magazine

King Xerxes is having a drunken, debauched gathering of nobles while his wife Vashti is having an “alt-party” – he demands that she come and appear to them, but she refuses. She asserts her own autonomy and control over her own body. In response, not only the king but all the nobles explicitly see this as a challenge to not just the king but the entire system of patriarchy that is at the heart of the empire. And so this goes from a simple issue of the king’s harem to a decree to all the lands of the empire codifying the patriarchy and enforcing the idea that husbands rule their households just as the king rules the empire.

We see images of Christ in this story – Jesus’ truth offended those in power, and He was killed for not going along with the systems of oppression that were embedded in His culture.

And we are called to the same thing in our day! At the expense of our own reputation, at the expense of church growth, at the expense of any earthly benefit, we are called to advocate for the oppressed, whether by government, economic systems or sin.

One of the things this means is putting aside our preconceived notions about what roles are appropriate for what people, about what men and women do, what leaders do, what strength looks like and what weakness looks like. Often we put aside the true gifts we are given in favor of who we think we are supposed to be, with expectations and assumptions built by our culture, our family of origin, even our churches. But Christ calls us to be who He made us.

This is particularly true of how women have been treated in the church, where leadership is often seen in the same way that the Persian nobles saw it. But in reality, both men and women are made in the image of God, and God is described in feminine and maternal terms all across the scriptures. God as father and God as mother are both metaphors that speak to the transcendental truths of a God that is far beyond us.

So let women come into the fullness of what God has called you to be. Let men do the same, even when counter-cultural. Let us look within ourselves and see where we have assumptions and expectations that put others in the role of serving us, where we take the role of Xerxes to the women in our life, or others who we see as less than us in anyway. God is doing a work in us and will continue to sanctify and forgive as we seek to serve Him and the others in our lives.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, August 5, 2023

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Competition – Ecclesiastes 4:4-16

Competiton is a natural state of humanity, and isn’t necessarily even a bad thing. Good runners get better when competing against other good runners. But as followers of Jesus, we cannot let competition get in the way of the command to love our neighbor.

Even outside of our specific religious commands, though, Ecclesiastes describes how this focus on competition can turn into a life alone and isolated from one another. We see this in the story of the childless man who nonetheless works himself to death in isolation. We see this in the story of the arrogant king who will take no advice.

That story calls back to the beginning of the chapter, which laments the oppression and evil of the world, to the extent that the Kohelet calls the dead and unborn better off than the living.

As a church, we have a different priority than competition with others, both corporately and individually. Our purpose is to love God and love others, and that toil is never wasted.

— Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 25, 2023

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The Call – Genesis 12:1-4

One of the patterns you see in Genesis is the “tôlḏôṯ” structure, which means “generations” or “account” or perhaps most accurately “story of what came forth.” All the patriarchs get their own toldot structures, as do the heavens and the earth.

At a high level, Genesis is broken into chapters 1-11 which covers creation, fall, flood and Babel, and then the rest of the book which tells the story of the patriarchs and forebears of Israel. The first part sets the stage and provides the context, and the second part is the story of Israel within that context. One of the key takeaways of this whole story is the unmerited favor of God, because these patriarchs did not earn that favor.

The toldot of Haran is where we come in. Terah has left Ur and is supposed to be heading to Canaan, but Terah stopped in Harran, in the north. The family is in a hard place. Terah’s son Haran died in Ur, with his only son Lot unmarried. Nahor, his other son, is married to his niece, Haran’s daughter, but they have had no sons. Finally, Abram is married to Sarai, but they are aging and have no children either.

Part of the context set by the creation story is God’s instructions to humanity, “be fruitful and multiply.” Terah’s family is in danger of failing this and dying out.

And into this, God steps with an incredible promise – “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Children are always learning and changing. They have more elastic brains and are able to absorb new situations and information. For adults, true learning and adapting requires a disorienting experience. That is exactly what Abram got in this case. It’s not clear if he even knew who God was before this call – his father came from Ur and worshipped the pagan gods of the Mesopotamians.

At the same time, God did not bring an entirely new concept into Abram’s life. Terah was already journeying to Canaan, but got stuck in Harran. God brought context and purpose into this process – the journey that had petered out made sense in the context of God’s call and direction. God turns this into a generative story, a toldot.

And there is even further purpose behind this call. God promises Abram that he will bless all of humanity through him and the nation God will build from him. That blessing is ultimately the person of the incarnate Christ, both Abraham’s offspring and the God who called him into the land where He would die and be raised again, in order to make a path for all of us to have a relationship with Him.

God called Abram “into the unknown 🎶” – where is He calling you? Where is He calling us as a church? Let’s continue to seek those answers as we serve the God who called us.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, March 5, 2023

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His Face Shine on You – Numbers 6:22-27

The concept of light is seen very early in the Bible – almost immediately, as God separates light and darkness, order and chaos. He does this in our lives today as well.

This passage is still used today as a Priestly Benediction – the Aaronic priests were instructed to bless the people with this same benediction, and both Christians and Jews still use these words in blessing today. (In fact, Gene Roddenberry used this as the model for the Vulcan “live long and prosper.”

The Ketef Hinnom scrolls, discovered in 1979 are the oldest biblical texts found, dating from 600 BC, and contain this blessing.

The structure here includes a preface and a postscript, opening with the instructions to the priests about how to use the words. The blessing specifically references Yahweh, the Covenant Name of God, pointing back to the promise made to Abraham, and to the love and mercy of God, in contrast with Elohim, the term for God that speaks more to His strength and justice. The pronoun used here is the second person singular, not plural, like your might expect, a reminder that this covenant relationship is not only a corporate thing, but intensely personal between each person and their Creator.

The blessing itself grows progressively, with each line being longer than the one before, a growing tide of blessing that builds on itself. The term “bless” here is barak which also means “kneel” and is an intimate picture of a father kneeling to comfort a child. The term “keep” is “shamar” which can also mean to watch and guard.

This concept is continued in the next verse, where the face – in fact, the plural “faces,” possibly a reference to the Trinity – shines on us. His face becomes the illumination to our lives, His guidance the direction for our actions. But that comes in the midst of Him being gracious to us, “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior”. This is the grace made ultimate on the cross and offered to each of us through that work of sacrifice.

The next verse returns to the Face of God, which turns to us, in contrast to turning away. This combined with the kneeling imagery creates an intimate picture of our relationship with God, going beyond the transactional concept that we often think about in relation to how we interact with God.

The blessing then closes with the concept of shalom, nor merely the absence of conflict but the restoration of relationships and the making whole and complete what was broken – personally, societally, environmentally, restoration in all things.

Lord, help us to receive this blessing, pass this blessing on and play a part in bringing this blessing to pass.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, February 5, 2023

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Hope – Isaiah 2:1-6

Christianity is sometimes accused of being naive, the hope offered dismissed as a false hope or crutch in the midst of a hurting world. But in reality, life in Christ is lived in the tension of “now but not yet.” Christ has come, but will come again.

We see this in the Old Testament prophets at well, as they proclaim the coming kingdom and the promise of ultimate peace, but also prophesy judgement and captivity. In this passage, Isaiah proclaims the hope of the mountain of God in the midst of the Assyrian Empire conquering the kingdom of Israel and going into exile.

The mountain of God is identified with the Temple Mount, even though it is not the highest in the region. The imagery is of the mountain rising above all others, and of the peoples of the world’s streaming towards it like rivers. The law of God, the life-giving teachings of God, go out from the mountain, and God Himself judges between the nations and settles disputes.

This justice brought by God is itself a prerequisite for the peace promised in the second half of verse four – you cannot have peace without justice.

That’s the vision we seek to live out as a church, a diverse group of people, like all the nations streaming to the temple to receive life. It is easier to work as a homogeneous group, but we seek out brothers and sisters different than ourselves because that is the picture of God’s kingdom we are promised here.

And so we walk together in the light and hope of God. When people are fighting, we walk as ambassadors of peace. When people are selfish, we walk in generosity. When people are in conflict, we walk as reconcilers. Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, November 27, 2022

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Wonder: Who is Like Our God? – Exodus 15:11-13

Advent starts in about a month, which is a preview of the birth of Christ, so we’re going to do a preview of that preview during November called “Wonder”.

Children are the best examples we have of wonder. Everything is new and exciting and they have not yet become disappointed or jaded. They have an openness and vulnerability that we would all like to emulate. When do we lose that? When did the what-ifs become no-we-can’ts? When did curiosity give way to caution? There are obviously good reasons we do this, but it’s still a tragedy, and we should seek not to throw the baby off wonder out with the bathwater of irresponsibility as we mature. As children of God, we should have a childlike wonder for Him and the World he made.

The passage comes from the song of Moses after the passage through the sea – Moses has led the people of Israel out of Egypt, pursued by Pharaoh’s army, trapped between the water and the chariots. What a conflicting time that must have been – on one hand rejoicing at the freedom gained and justice done, on the other hand terrified at the doom bearing down upon them.

But we know the story – God rescued the Israelites miraculously, leading them through the sea, and destroying the army that pursued them. That is the context for this song of relief and rejoicing and wonder.

In our lives, we have also experienced these moments of salvation – job offers at the right moment, just the amount of money needed arriving in the mail, other such rescues. But like the Israelites, we often forget. So let’s reconsider the wonder we should hold at these events.

Wonder is a catalyst for praise and worship. In this story, we see Moses’ song of rescue lead into Miriam leading corporate worship and the spontaneous dancing and playing of musical instruments. Much like David’s dancing before the Ark of God, when we are overcome with wonder it naturally leads to a joyful overflowing of worship.

Second, wonder activates covenant. Even when we have wandered, when we see the wonder of God’s goodness and creation, that re-engages our covenant relationship with God. That wonder itself is a core piece of that relationship. We are saved through faith, but too often we see “faith” as meaning “knowledge” and knowledge becomes the focus of our walk with God. And while that’s a part of it, wonder is unavoidably the core of our relationship with a God as mighty as ours.

That recognition of the greatness of God can also open us up to possibilities and transformation. The mystery of God is core to our relationship with Him, just as mystery is key to love. Our own smallness and the massiveness of the universe and its Maker, opens us up to the changes that God seeks in us.

But often these mountaintop experiences give way to the wilderness and the desert. We can easily follow the pattern of the Israelites, losing our wonder and going right back into “adulting” and the cares of daily life, and the griping that often comes with that. We hold onto the things we have done in the past, instead of being open to the new things God may have for us.

This is why we gather, to come together in worship and wonder, to refresh after our weeks in the desert. But we need to be sure to come in the childlike wonder that Jesus explicitly calls us to.

As we prepare ourselves for Advent, let us do so with that openness, wonder and vulnerability of a child.

–Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, October 30, 2022