Preached · May 18, 2014
Text · Exodus 19:5; Exodus 19
Good News, Bad News
All right, let's play a little bit of good news, bad news. Good news: Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world, bar none. Every single day, all year long, there are about 80,000 new Christians in the world. There are about the population of four times Dickinson County new Christians every day in the world. That's pretty good news, yeah?
Now, bad news. That happens not here—not in the United States, not in the Western world. Bad news, I guess, depending on your perspective. But if you happen to live here, it's not necessarily the best news. Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in places like China and India, and in the nations of Africa, and in the global south, and in Latin America and South America. But when you're talking about the U.S., England, Europe, Australia—kind of the Western world—Christianity is not growing, it's shrinking. We actually lose Christians every day. Wherever people do church like the United States does church, the church shrinks. It doesn't grow.
Now, we've all probably bought into a lie that says if we could just do church better, we could get more people saved, we could have more Christians. And we've all said things like, "Man, if we just had a bigger budget, if we just had more staff, if we had slicker programs, if we had more small groups, if our children's ministry was better, if our recovery ministry was better, if our nursing home ministry was better—if this or that or the other thing was better, slicker, better funded—wouldn't we just be awesome? Wouldn't we really be the coolest church in town?"
But—no, wait, wait. We've had a 40-year experiment on that kind of thinking. The church in America has experimented with this idea: if we just did church better, if we just had more money, more programs, more staff, we could be growing. We've run that experiment, and it doesn't work. The church has shrunk in the Western world. We've never done church better than the United States church has done it today. We've never had more money or more programs or more staff than we've had right now, and yet the church is shrinking. So it doesn't work. It's a lie.
What Is Church?
So what makes the difference? Well, there's obviously a lot and a lot and a lot of things that we could talk about, a lot of different issues that we need to discuss in order to talk about what makes the difference between the shrinking Western church and the growing church of the rest of the world. But one issue that I want to narrow in on today is this: if I were to ask you the question, "What is church?" could we give an intelligible answer?
I don't think we can. Our language betrays us—I use these words too. Language like, "Let's go to church," or "I'm going to invite you to my church," or "I want to try a different church, because I don't like this church." When we use phrases like that, it betrays what we think church is. We think it's a place and a program. We think it's a what. We think that, just like the McDonald's and the Walmarts of the world, we are a distributor of religious goods and services. But that's not church. If I were to go to Peter and to Paul and to Jesus and say, "Hey, come to my church, let's go to church," they would stare at us, not knowing what we're talking about. Church is not a place or a program. It's not a what. It's a who.
And so this morning, I want to answer this question: what is church? And in order to do that, I'm going to take a look at the book of Exodus chapter 19. So if you have your Bibles, turn them on, right? Go to the book of Exodus chapter 19. We're going to narrow in specifically on verses 5 through 6.
Background
Now, over the past couple months, we've been exploring the stories of the Old Testament. We started with Abraham. And in Genesis chapter 12, Yahweh, God, goes to Abraham and says, "I am going to bless you." And why? This is a phrase we should know well by now: blessed to be a blessing. God goes to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and says, "I'm going to give you a son, and that son is going to be the father of many nations. And out of your offspring, out of your descendants, Abraham, they're going to be blessed." For what purpose? To be a blessing to the world.
And so we see these stories of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and his family, which goes down to Egypt. And in Egypt, they grow and multiply, and then they're caught up in slavery to Pharaoh. And so in Exodus chapter 3, we talked about the story of Moses, who comes across this burning bush, this mundane thing that he paid attention to. And God goes to Moses and says, "Go to Pharaoh and say, 'Let my people go.'" And so Israel, after 10 plagues, and a couple movies, and a musical, and an animated film, get out of Egypt. And they travel, and they go across the Red Sea, and they travel through the wilderness, and they end up at the foot of a mountain called Mount Sinai, what Scripture calls the mountain of God. And God calls Moses up to this mountain once again, and has a message for Israel.
And so there's this moment—what is God about to say? Because Israel has already screwed up multiple times on their way to the mountain of God. What is God going to say to Moses to say to Israel? And this is what he says, starting halfway into verse 5 of Exodus 19:
Out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Now, it's my conviction that in this verse, in this passage, we get the definition of church. We get the definition of what church is. And so I want to narrow in on these three phrases, and we're going to go in the order of: treasured possession, holy nation, and a kingdom of priests. When God says this to Israel, what do they hear? What do they think it means?
Treasured Possession
So we're going to start with treasured possession. It's the Hebrew word segullah. And segullah is a thing, a belonging of the king. And so kings in this time would, of course, have plenty of segullahs. They would have plenty of treasured possessions. And they were usually things like swords and jewels and daggers and baseball cards, stuff like that. It was things.
But something unique is happening in that God is going to Moses to tell Israel that a people, a community, is going to be his segullah, his treasured possession. So that's weird, just by the fact that it's not a thing. It's not a dagger or a sword. It's a people. Secondly, it's weird because God is saying it. Now, if you're an ancient Hebrew, you have a certain idea of what gods, false gods, idols, are usually like. These gods saw humanity as an accident, an unfortunate accident.
There is one story about these two gods who were wrestling. They got into an argument, and they started fighting and wrestling. And as they're wrestling, they're, of course, getting kind of sweaty, and the sweat is dripping down from the heavens onto the dead planet, earth. And as that sweat drips down onto the planet, it accidentally creates human life. And the gods stop their wrestling because they realize, "Now we have this shared problem called people." People were an unfortunate accident. Not a very happy way to look at your gods, right?
But compare that to Yahweh, to the Most High God, to the true God, who in Genesis chapter 2 kneels down into the dust of the earth and crafts and molds out of the clay man and woman, and bends down and breathes life into their nostrils—divine CPR—and calls them a living soul. Contrast that God, Yahweh, with the gods of the ancient Near East. And so when God goes to Moses and says, "You, O Israel, O people, are my treasured possession, my segullah," this is different and unique. This is unlike any other god that the Hebrews have heard of. This is a God of love and compassion.
Now, isn't this a message that we could stand to hear today? Because we all are part of families and communities and cultures that tell us that we are unfortunate accidents. That tell us that we should find our identity not in what God says, but on what the commercials say, on what the newest product is—the products that tell you, "You aren't good enough yet, but if you just had one more thing, you would be okay." We've all been part of family debates or friend debates that say, "Man, you're just not good enough. You're not what I thought you would be. I thought you were going to end up being this kind of person. You ended up that kind of person. What a disappointment."
But before you're ever tempted to listen to any of those voices, remember the voice of God that says, "You are a treasured possession. You are made and crafted in the image of God, the Imago Dei. You are a segullah, a belonging of a king."
And, considering that, we should act like treasured possessions. If we live like things other than treasured possessions—stop it. Not because God's so angry or so disappointed with you. Stop it because of the reality of who you actually are: God's son, God's daughter, heir of the king. This is how C.S. Lewis puts it:
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when an infinite joy is offered us. We're like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
You are treasured possessions of God. And to live like anything else reduces your own worth, your own value.
A Holy Nation
So, our definition so far of what is church? Treasured. Treasured what? That takes us to our second phrase, a holy nation, a community. The church is treasured. God is where we find our identity, the Father who loves us. And from our identity, we find our community. We are a nation—the Hebrew word is goyim, a people.
Now, God always works within communities. When he called Abraham, he didn't just tell Abraham, "You're going to be blessed to be a blessing." He said, "Your family, your offspring, your progeny is going to be blessed to be a blessing." When God went to Moses, he didn't just say, "I want you alone to be a blessing to the world." He said, "I want you to call out the community, the people, the nation of Israel." God is always working, not with individuals, but with groups of people, with communities.
And we shouldn't find this surprising, because God is a community within himself. He is a triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this triune God is in this divine dance, always calling us up, beckoning us upward into their community. The triune God, though self-sufficient, though perfect, is not content to work alone. He asks us to join him in it. You are invited into the community of God. Jesus puts it like this in John chapter 15—we heard this once already today:
I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
Do you catch that repeated word? Abide, abide, abide. God abides in us and invites us to abide in him. Our community is called to live like a community. Peter puts it like this:
Through God's glory and goodness he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.
You, treasured people, are called, are invited, are beckoned up into the divine dance to participate in the very nature of God, our community. We are a nation, a treasured nation. But not just any nation—a holy one.
Holy means to be set apart. It's the Hebrew word kadosh. It means to be set apart, set apart for a purpose. Now, this is what's interesting about this word: most commonly in scripture it's a word used to describe God. "I am holy," says God. But what's the next part? "I am holy, therefore be holy." And in Exodus chapter 19, God calls Israel holy. The adjective that God uses for himself, he applies to his people. What is true of God is said of his people.
This should shake us—to realize that this perfect, self-sufficient God not only invites us up into his community, but also declares us treasured and holy like he is. And so when we hear those voices coming into our mind—"You're not that special. You're not that good. Actually, you're condemned"—don't listen to that voice. If you're part of a religion or a community that tells you that your God calls you anything but beloved, leave. What's said of God is said of his people.
Paul says these things of the church in Ephesians chapter 3. Church, you have the power of the Holy Spirit. Church, you have Christ dwelling in your hearts. Church, you have the power to grasp God's infinite love. And this is one of my favorite phrases of Paul—he's almost tripping over his own words—you have been filled to the full with the fullness of God. This is what's true of you, O treasured people.
A Kingdom of Priests
Now, our definition so far is that we are treasured, we are God-empowered, and we are a community. And we are set aside, holy, set aside for a purpose. What is this purpose? To be a kingdom of priests.
Now, this is a truly bizarre phrase. Of course, there were kingdoms back in the day of Moses, and there were priests back in that day. But a kingdom of them—what does that even mean? So let's talk about priests and sacraments. A priest is a person who brings unity between the divine and the human. They are a mediator between God and people. They bring the two together. Therefore, God is calling this entire nation, this entire people, to be priests to the world.
When God, in Genesis chapter 12, says, "I'm going to bless you to be a blessing"—now we know what that blessing is. The blessing is to know God, and to be called the same word that God has called, and to invite others into that community. This is election. Good old reformed word. Now, election is never about isolation. Election is never about seclusion or supremacy or exclusivity. It's not about shutting the world out. It's not about becoming a conclave or a Christian ghetto or a hospice where the elect go to die and watch the world burn. No. Election is about mission, proclamation, action. It's a vocation, a calling to call more and more people into God's beloved community of treasured possessions. They are a sacramental presence to the world.
So let's talk about sacraments. A sacrament is a physical object or action that represents or mediates a spiritual reality. And so, when we gather together on Sundays, when we do communion, we have the sacraments of the bread and the cup. And this not only reminds us, but it gets us into contact with the body and the blood of Jesus. It's a physical object that represents, that mediates, who Jesus is.
Faith needs something to see. Faith needs something to touch. We see this over and over again in the life of Jesus. Remember the story when a blind man goes to Jesus and says, "I can't see." So Jesus spits into the dirt, creates some mud, and puts it on the man's eyes. Faith needs something to see. It needs something to touch. And that's what a sacrament is.
Now, if we were to ask, "What does it look like for God to become human? What does it look like if God were to take on flesh and walk around his creation?"—we can confidently answer that question by looking at the life of Jesus, who shows us the heart of God. When Jesus comes across sin, he heals it. When he comes across disease, he heals it. When he comes across mental illness, he heals it. When he comes across despair and brokenness and anger and sadness and rage, he heals it. He heals it. He heals it.
And so we see that Jesus is the sacrament of God to the world. Just as communion is the sacrament of Jesus to the church, therefore the church is the sacrament of Jesus to the world. You, treasured, holy people, are a kingdom of priests, sent out into the world—not for exclusivity and supremacy and to hide, but to mediate the very presence of God to people who don't know him yet.
And so our definition of church is: a treasured, God-empowered community, sent to the world. Or, to turn a phrase: the church is the people of God, on the mission of God, with the presence of God. It's not a place or program, it's a people. It's not a what, it's a who.
Now, this is represented by our mission statement as a church. Good News Community Church wants to see thousands of men, women, and children across northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota become transformed into radical, reproducing apprentices of Jesus Christ. How? By connecting. We are a people of God, called into community. By serving, sent out into the world to show people: if God were to walk around like a human, what would he do? He would come across a disease and he would heal it. He would come across poverty and heal it. And we are the presence of God, called to grow up into our identity, to grow up into the reality of who we are—sons and daughters of the king. This is the church.
What This Means for Our Lives
So let's talk about two things. What does this mean for our lives, and what does this mean for our specific church here?
One, it means we need to align our identity with the one that God gives us: sons and daughters of the king. To reorient our lives around community. To leverage our finances and our time, our creativity and our minds, for the sake of that community. When we leverage our resources outside of this community, we all suffer. But if we were to decide together to bring them in, to build up a community of love and compassion and forgiveness, of non-judgmentalness, of being known for our love for each other and for our love for the world—wouldn't you rather be part of a community like that?
And we need to wake up to our sacramental presence in the world. When we go to work, do our co-workers know that they are a little bit closer to God because we're there? When we go to school, do our classmates know that they are just a little bit closer to God because of our presence there? When we go to our soccer games and our little league games and our PTA meetings, do they know that they are a little bit closer to God because we're there? If we were to move out of our neighborhood, would our neighbors care or notice that there's just a little bit less Jesus in town? If this church were to shut down, would the community care or notice that there's just less God to be shared?
What This Means for Our Church
So that's what it means for our lives. What does it mean for our church? Well, if you were part of our elder-deacon meetings and you heard our commitment to have 20 missional communities by the year 2020, that means that we want to staff people in groups of 30 to 50 to come together and live this kind of life—this in-out-up life—as their day-to-day existence. Not just something that they accidentally practice sometimes every other Sunday, but as something that defines their lives, who they are, what they're doing. This is our vision.
And if that were to happen, you would have 600 to 1,000 people dedicated to the notion that where we go, we share God's presence. We give people something to see, something to touch, to know what God is like. We're not defined by our address or our building or our ministries or our budget or our staff. We are defined by our sacramental presence to the world. And so, can you imagine what 600 to 1,000 people could do if we came across disease and sickness and sin and despair and hurt and pain and anger, and just like Jesus, healed it, healed it, healed it? Then, instead of Six Flags Over Jesus, I think we could have a church that would grow leaps and bounds. The church is the people of God, on the mission of God, with the presence of God.
I'm going to invite the ushers up to take our offering as we pray together. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for calling us your treasured people, for applying the word that you use for yourself to us, for giving us the identity of Jesus in this world. Now, Father, would you empower us with the faith and the grace necessary to be your sacramental presence in this world, to show people what it would be like if there were a group of a thousand people dedicated to the notion that if God were to walk around, he would find brokenness and heal it. God, we want to be not just a church. We don't want to be just an address or a name or a building. We want to be the church—your people, with your presence, on your mission. May all other agendas fall aside, God. We pray this in your name. Amen.
Response
Church, if you were wondering how to respond this morning to what you've heard, I want to point out just a couple things. One, like Denise mentioned earlier, our small group sign-up starts today. Hidden in Christ is an eight-week series that explores the topic of what it is to be the treasured people of God, what it is to be hidden in Christ, what it's like for our lives to be found by Jesus. So if you're interested in a small group series over the months of June and July, I invite you to go back to that table, find a group, a day, a time that works for you, and sign up.
Maybe you're interested in what it's like to be part of a missional community, and you just want a taste of what that's like. At that small group table, there is a small group led by Jeff and Bev Birkland that's actually part of the Step in Faith missional community. So if you don't think you're ready to make that full-fledged commitment, that's okay—sign up for that small group and get a taste of what that's like. If you're interested in making that full step for a missional community, go to gncconline.com/mission, and you can sign up there. So a small group, a missional community taster, or just a full-fledged missional community—you can do that at any point.
So, beloved people of God, go into the world with the power of God, showing them what it's like for God to walk around, putting flesh and blood to the idea of healing to the world. Go in peace.
This is a transcript of the sermon as preached, lightly edited for readability.
