Resurrection Life: Loving LIfe

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

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you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Let's pray

again. We pray that your words this morning for

us would bring life. Where so often our words

are used to bring death, to cut down, to destroy,

to deface. Gotta pray that your words to us would

bring life in us and that we would be those who

love life, who cherish it, who delight in the

life of others, the life of your world. that

we would see that you're the one who spoke goodness

over the world. And you said it's very good when

you made mankind, humankind, male and female

in your image to bury your likeness into the

world. And so I pray Lord that we would be people

that love life, that cherish the life of others.

And you speak to us this morning, Lord, through

this commandment. That we would find your commands

to be those that give life to our bones. That

we speak of them on the way, that we teach them

to our children, that we live into them. For

your words are life. Praise in Jesus name, amen.

Right there, there's a cartoon, and in this cartoon

there are two school administrators. And what

they're doing is they're watching as children

entering the school, kids are entering the school,

and as they're having to enter the school through

a metal detector. Some of you likely went to

schools that had those kinds of devices where

you had to go in and you had to walk through

something. And one of these school administrators

is talking to the other and he says, it's the

latest school safety device. That light and that

horn will go off as students try to smuggle in

a gun or a knife or a bomb or the Ten Commandments.

Which is to say that some people think the Ten

Commandments are dangerous. Of course, right?

Many people think religion is very dangerous.

I'm sure you've heard that. It's one of the great

sort of objections to Christianity. how violent

religions are in general. They promote violence,

and it's even worse than promoting it. They do

it in the name of God, a divine sanction for

it. You can think of how people think of the

Ten Commandments as dangerous. The First Commandment

rules out other gods. How can that be used, right?

For violence it has been. People are confused

maybe about the day of rest, but we certainly

want to indulge a little bit here and there,

sexually. I don't like people to tell us what

to do, God included, with our bodies. But most

people, interestingly, I think most people agree

with the sixth commandment. Most cultures have

laws against taking of another's life. Murder.

David Paulson some of you are familiar with his

work. He wrote a book called good and angry good

and angry and He has a chapter in that book.

It's titled. Do you have a serious problem with

anger? Y 'all thought about that probably some

of you It's the shortest chapter in his book

It is one word Yes It's kind of simple yes Now

I've suggested to you that part of what we do

at the Commandments is we simplify them. We simplify

them so that we can check them off, right? We

want to define them in such a way that we can

meet them. Check. And this is the way of the

human heart. But Paulson's answer, his long chapter,

doesn't really give room for that. Doesn't allow

for that kind of simplicity. A few weeks back,

about a month ago, I said that we ought to do

this approach, take this approach to the Ten

Commandments as sort of a checklist so that we

can hang our heads high and we can look down

our noses at others. We can say, I am among the

righteous. Of course, this often leads to a kind

of hypocrisy that invites so many others to dismiss

Christian faith. I'm engaging with the law of

God in a way that is for them and not for us.

Because as soon as we see the commandments as

the one, as soon as we see us as the one who

keep the commandments and others as the one that

we don't, we often inflate ourselves and deflate

the image of God in others. We live life properly,

so we think, and so we can diminish others who

do not. We can deface them. Now here's Here's

an odd thing. So this morning, I actually want

to start with the idea that there is a simplicity

to this command. I said our inclination is to

simplify them, but in a way, this is actually

kind of a simple command. Partly it's simple

because if you were listening as Chuck read it,

the first five commands are decent. They're not

long, but they're more than two words. And you're

like, well, maybe this is this. You shall not

murder. It's actually, that's just two words

in the Hebrew. Low rot suck No murder don't murder

Don't do it now That's kind of simple. All right

We say this there's actually eight words in Hebrew

that we might trans kill Okay, there's quite

a few words that That talk about this idea of

killing in the in the Bible in the Hebrew Bible

And this word is not one of the ones that's used

a lot. It's used number of times it's used here

it has a specific meaning this word is not the

one that is used for hunting or for killing animals

it's actually not the one that for the vast majority

of the time is used when you talk about the law

of god when there's certain types of killing

that happens or even in the context of war it's

not one of the ones that's used in the context

of the military now this is a malicious this

is an unlawful taking of the life of another

It's talking about the taking of a life of another,

whom God has given life and who God is sustaining

life in them. It's saying, it is not yours to

take. It is unjust to take another's life. It

is wrong. No, Ratzach. It's manslaughter. Now

this is kind of, so there's a way that we can

kind of... What does this mean, right? Well,

one thing that it doesn't necessarily mean is

that this is a prohibition against self -defense,

okay? Just a few chapters later, actually, like,

you know, we're in Exodus 20, if you just go

two chapters later in Exodus 22, you can read

in verse 2, if a thief is found breaking in and

is struck, meaning actually somebody strikes

him because he's breaking in, and he dies, there

shall be no blood guilt. Meaning the blood is

not on your hands and you actually won't be liable

to judgment Your life will not be demanded This

is something I have to skirt very carefully around

because it's very complicated which I'm going

to kind of get to that a little bit But it's

also not a complete prohibition against capital

punishment Meaning that one's life is not taken

when they take another's life It's not at least

an outright command against that. Genesis 9 verse

Genesis 9:6

6, maybe some of you remember this, we went through

Genesis, the beginning of Genesis a couple years

back. Genesis 9, 6 says, whoever sheds the blood

of man, by man shall his blood be shed. Why?

For God made man in his own image. The command

is actually an upholding of the reality of the

sanctity, the beauty, the gift of God making

humankind in this image. It's precisely because

murder is an assault on the image of God that

some forms of punishment are properly administered.

It's actually a defense of the image of God in

Genesis 9. Human life is so precious that taking

it was to be severely punished. Cannot take human

life and think that it is just something easily

done and to be dismissed and to be sort of let

go In some ways, this is what's at play actually

in the famous Principle of the Lex talionis,

which is the law of retaliation, which is actually

in the very next chapter in Exodus 21 An eye

for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, a wound for

a wound, which is the principle that the punishment

actually must fit the crime. Something that we

still uphold to today. But we also have to admit

that to a degree Gandhi was absolutely right,

that an eye for an eye makes the whole world

blind, right? If we keep gouging out each other's

eyes, nobody's gonna see. But here's what you

have to understand in the ancient Near East when

that was written in Axis 21. The law of the world

was not eye for an eye. It wasn't actually a

proper judgment on the deed done. Instead, it

was your head for my eye, your family for my

tooth, retribution. The command also doesn't

prohibit all war. Once again, I actually think

we need to be extremely careful here. Peace is

always the goal. To live at peace is always the

goal. But God does send Israel to battle. That's

hard. Romans 13 tells us that the state does

not bear the sword in vain, which means it does

bear the sword. And also it actually says more

specifically, it is not a quote, terror. to good

conduct, but to bad. The state actually has a

level of terror to bad conduct. When Jesus met

the centurion, he did not say, go and sin no

more. And part of your sinning is that you are

a centurion and you must exit the Roman army.

John the Baptist had the same thing. He had soldiers

that came to him because he was calling to repentance

and they were like, what do we have to do? And

he says, don't extort. What he doesn't say is,

leave this whole sordid army thing. He doesn't

tell them they must resign. Which to say, in

a way, there's a simplicity to this kind of,

and that this is focused on manslaughter. The

intentional premeditated taking of a human life

that God has given into the world. My mother's

womb you formed me. my inmost being, that the

image of God is always given by God into the

world. But what's interesting is this command

also does seem to include a sort of a negligent

homicide. In Deuteronomy 22, the guilt of blood

was upon your house. The same kind of idea, the

guilt of blood. So you were going to be liable

for shedding blood. If you didn't put a parapet

around the roof of your house. Here's what would

happen is that people would often, in the cool

of the evening, they would go outside and they

would hang out on the roof of their house, kind

of like another room. And if you didn't put a

fence around it so that your neighbor wouldn't

fall over and die, you would be blood guilty.

If your neighbor fell off that negligent homicide,

you'd be blood guilty. In Exodus 21, again the

very next chapter from what we're looking at,

if your ox was known for being violent and you

did nothing about it, you would be blood guilty.

What I'm saying is that in a way there is a simplicity

to this command to say all of human life is sacred.

All of human life is sacred and no human life,

not one single human life is exempt from that.

All are made in the image of God. Therefore,

murder is prohibited. Here's the thing, is that

at this point, you're looking at the checklist

and you're going, right. I don't have a parapet

around my roof. I don't need one. I don't have

any ox. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know,

you make your list. But do not be so quick because

the parapet and the ox may be far from our experience

But the principle is that we must do all that

we can For the well -being of others lives all

that we can to protect the life of another to

protect to love the life of your neighbor You

cannot just look at this command and see it as

a prohibition to cold -blooded premeditated murder

that can't be allowed from the Old Testament

itself. You can't just look at this command and

look at those who practice suicide or euthanasia

or abortion and feel good about yourself. You

can't. You also can't just look at this and say,

I get a stamp on state violence. You can't. You

cannot look at this command and say, I get a

stamp on capital punishment. You can't. Why do

I say that? If I start out with the idea of it's

sort of simple, and you're like, well, it's getting

a little more complex. It is simple because it's

a rather specific word in a way. But how the

Bible applies it is so vast. For the one, let

me give you a few examples. For the one who committed

unintentional murder, for the one who had blood

guilt because of their unintentional murder,

meaning that their life could have been demanded

of them, there were six cities of refuge throughout

Israel, strategically placed, geographically

spread out so that you could flee there and you

would not die. It was not just the case. Look

at what you did. You allowed your ox to gore

people. We're going to take your life. Your life

could be preserved because the desire was always

peace. The desire is always the well -being of

our neighbors. The passage that I read from Exodus

22 about self -defense, right? And how it said,

and you will have blood guilt on your, you know,

you won't have blood guilt if you're acting in

self -defense. That's verse two of that chapter.

The next verse says, but if the son has risen

on him, meaning the one who you acted against

in self -defense, the son came up and he's still

living, there shall be blood guilt. Meaning if

you didn't do all you could to actually spare

the life of the one who was coming into your

house, you were not loving your neighbor. You

were not promoting life. And even for war, the

Israelites were commanded to offer sacrifices

before going to war. Partly they were seeking

God's blessing, but also it is a truth that we

find all throughout in the wars of the Bible

that so often the innocent blood is shed. So

often. And it's actually something that happens

quite a bit in the Bible to Israel that they

are punished because of how they enacted wars.

It is not so easy. Murder may be a fact of life.

War is a reality of life. Jesus says in Matthew

24, that we will always have wars and rumors

of wars until the end has come. But let's not

pretend. That the difference between murder and

war can at times be paper thin And the Bible

I think seems to make this rather clear The truth

is that untold multitudes of human beings have

had their lives taken away from them by crimes

or war And sometimes this difference seems we're

not sure always where the difference is Let me

give you an example. A few decades before the

birth of Jesus, Julius Caesar spent 10 years

in Gaul, modern -day France. He made a great

name for himself. He became famously wealthy

during those 10 years. What did he do? Well estimates

is that he killed upwards of a million people

in this conquest. People against whom the Roman

Empire had no specific grievances He kept because

by killing them he gained power he gained wealth

People people don't really think back on Julius

Caesar as the mass murder we might put Nero in

that category But he was Murder always seems

to be this selfish action. And here's the thing,

Christians, it's sort of easy for us to look

at the massive bloodshed that happened with the

rejection of God and the communist revolutions.

And by the way, there actually is something really

important to hear in this. If you get rid of

religion, it does not mean you get rid of violence.

And part of the hope many have I'll do away with

religion. It's a violent thing what we have seen

is when that happens exactly Violence seems to

skyrocket, but it may be easy to kind of look

upon those We think of the 21 60 million people

who died under Stalin the 40 to 80 million under

Mao Zedong One and a half to two million who

died in the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge

And we may go look at all that those people out

there But Christians we have we have to actually

also say if we are going to tell history Well,

we have to also recount the wars of religion

in France in the 16th century They did their

own killings two to four million people the French

Huguenots the Protestants against the French

Catholics in the name of Christ There's a book

that I read about I did not read titled a distant

mirror the calamitous 14th century And it recounts

how noblemen fought untold wars to gain land

against each other. How they sent their men into

others' lands to gain power and to gain wealth.

How they taxed their citizens beyond their livelihood.

They were dying so they could pay for their war

to gain power and to gain wealth. And this was

done by one Christian nobleman against another.

It's titled A Distant Mirror. Why? Because we

need these mirrors to see what would we do if

we had this kind of power? What could we do if

we ordered people around and they did what we

said? And the truth of history seems to be that

we diminish. We deface. We take the lives of

others made in the very image of God. This is

what we do. It's what we do with power. What

I'm saying is that this may be a simple command

in some regards, and in some regards it is. But

it is far from simple, which is why one of the

things that our Lord is saying is that we all

break it. What Jesus is saying there in Matthew

5 is that murder is just the most obvious violation

of something that is so all -encompassing, so

much bigger. And partly that's because the thou

shalt nots in the commandments are always accompanied

by the thou shouts. And the command throughout

the Bible is always to seek the well -being of

your neighbor, to love. to act for the good of,

to love your neighbor as yourself. If you found

your neighbor's lost animal in the Old Testament,

you were to return it. There were no finders,

keepers, losers, weepers. If you plowed your

field, you were commanded to leave some of it

for those who did not have food. Why? So they

could live. They could have life they would starve

Get this if you gained a slave because a man

had debts that he could not pay There are a number

of specific ways that you had to look out for

the interest of that person and Actually went

beyond this because when he was able to gain

freedom, you were actually supposed to set him

up so that he was financially better off than

when he had to go into that kind of slavery.

Why? Because you were to love your neighbor as

yourself. You have to lift up the image of God

and others. You had to be generous, not just

fair. You had to be generous. Life from conception

to the grave. Life to be loved and delighted

in and cherished protected the prohibition of

murder Was not just the prohibition to not harm

but to love protect To care for to tend to feed

to nourish to seek life To love others as you

love yourself Listen to some of the passages

from the New Testament that were commanded This

is from Romans 15. We who are strong have an

obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.

I mean, if you look at history, for the most

part, the strong have abused the weak. Romans

tells us you have an obligation to bear with

the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

That's what it says, not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good,

to build him up. That's what we're commanded

to do. 1 Corinthians 10, let no one seek his

own good, but the good of his neighbor. Philippians,

do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility

count others more significant than yourself.

It's not just fair, but generous. Titus, show

perfect courtesy towards All people. We still

want that to say people that look like me and

vote like me and all the rest. All people! But

the consistent thing of the Bible is that life

is given by God, that there's no one who does

not bear his image, and there is no one for whom

you are not to lift up, to care for, to tend

to. Of course, Jesus' own words, which may be

the hardest, Matthew chapter five farther along

than what we read, love your enemies and pray

for those who persecute you. Love your enemies.

And none of this is in contrast to the words

of the Old Testament. that Jesus is expounding

upon there in Matthew chapter 5. None of this

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

is sort of fighting against what we had in the

Old Testament. Jesus says, you've heard that

it said, thou shalt not murder. What people were

doing is they were trying to take that command

and say, well, if you just do these things, then

you're fine. No, His words are not against the

Old Testament. Not against it when He says that

if you harbor anger against your brother, You'll

be liable to judgment and to the council. When

he says that when you call somebody fools, you'll

be liable to the hells of fire. It's not against

this command when Jesus tells us that we ought

to actually go and be reconciled to our brother

when we're going to offer our gifts. Stop if

you have something against your brother, make

amends, live into peace. None of that's opposed

to this command. This is actually the right outflow

of this command. Because your brother, the one

that you are tempted to say, you fool, use your

words to cut down is made in the very image of

God. No, this is a command to live in peace,

to seek life, to love life, to cherish it. There's

a... It's kind of simplicity of this command

that you might use to let yourself off the hook.

I think if you simplify it too much, actually,

what you may be able to do is write others off.

Because that's what we can do. When we can check

it off, we can say, I can check this off and

you can't. And then I can begin to actually look

down on you and write you off. I did not commit

manslaughter. We can simplify others. We simplify

others all the time, right? We put people into

categories. Racial categories, of course. Age

categories. These people are too old. They're

a strain financially on society. Maybe we can

decide when they live or when they don't. These

people are so young. They're a strain on society.

Maybe we can decide when they live and when they

don't. These people vote that way. I can use

my words however I want. There's a simplicity

to this command. If you take it that way, you

can speak to your wife in that tone of voice,

those harsh words. You can tweet and post and

say whatever you will about those people, those

political enemies. But there's another kind of

simplicity of this command, I think, that invites

us into this all -encompassing thing. And the

simplicity of this command is the dignity of

every single human being and the call for every

single one of us to love life, to pursue the

well -being of our neighbors, that we are to

actually love them, as Jesus says, as ourselves.

And if we look at it like this, it's almost impossible

to not see that each one of us is blood guilty,

right? That each one of us breaks this, that

each one of us should actually, that it could

demand our life. If we understand this command

rightly, we may want to be the ones who bar it.

from the entry of schools and of our houses and

of our hearts, because what if it demands our

life? What if it makes us blood guilty because

we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves,

us all? Because the real right answer to the

question of, do you have a serious problem with

anger is what? Yes. Yes, we do And I've got to

tell you about good news or he does not tell

you about good news It's been mentioned this

is Trinity Sunday One of things that we see when

we reflect on the Trinity is that the Trinity

Father Son, the Holy Spirit is the God who loves

life just consistently God loves life. We can

read of God the Father that He gives everyone

life and breath and everything else in Acts 17.

We can read there in that same passage, but also

elsewhere, in Him we live and we move and we

have our being. But there is no life that does

not exist without the will of God. We can read

Jesus say in John chapter five, for just as the

father raises the dead and gives life to them,

so also the son gives life. That's what it says.

That's what Jesus does. That's what the father

does. Gives life, loves life. Of course, we can

recount as we have so many times the Nicene Creed.

And the very first thing it says about the Holy

Spirit, is that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and

giver of life. It is who God is, the one who

loves life. Of course, when we look at the life

of Jesus, we see that the command of Jesus is

also, it's not just His command, it is His character.

If we look at the Gospels, we don't just see

that Jesus commands us these things, but He lives

them. It's His character. It's who God is incarnate.

I shall not kill. God does not assault the image

of God. What does Jesus do? He doesn't assault

it. He restores it. He doesn't take life. Jesus

doesn't take life. What does He do? He gives

life. Jesus doesn't wound. He heals. His life

not only generally, but he says he gives it abundantly.

He just loves it. He's always promoting life,

life to the fullest. Jesus does not oppress others,

but he liberates them. His words, even his harsh

words, which are harsh at times, are words for

life and repentance. He does not will that any

should perish, but that all should come to life,

everlasting life. Friends, Jesus had all the

reason in the world to seek vengeance, to seek

retribution, right? Blood guilty. He had all

the reason in the world to exercise ultimate

judgment, to say, you're liable. You're liable

to the council and to the judgment and to the

hells of fire, as he says. But what does he do?

Said he suffers Instead he is murdered his life

is taken unjustly He dies that we who murder

might live Murder in our hearts murder in our

words murder in our writing Sometimes murder

in our hands He dies that we might live. He doesn't

murder, but he dies the victim of murder so that

we who are the murderers might actually have

some life because why? He loves it. He loves

life. He's restoring the image of God in the

world. That is all throughout the Bible. It is

central to the scriptures that God loves life.

The lover of life is who our trying God is. From

beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible.

This is who he is. It's also who he calls his

people to be. What he's doing in Christ and through

the work of the Holy Spirit is he is recreating

us into his image. What happens when we reject

his image in the garden, the first sin after

they are expelled from God's presence? Murder.

And then Jesus comes to restore this reality.

of the fullness of the image of God in His creation.

This is who we are called to be. And as sordid

as Christian history has been, the truth is there

has also been vast multitudes of Christians who

have sought to love life and to do it in the

name of Jesus. And as they have done that, a

cruel and a violent and a murderous world has

seen it. and has given their life to Jesus, or

has at least questioned what's going on. Let

me give you a couple of examples. Julian the

Apostate, some of you are familiar with that

name, no friend to Christianity, writing in the

fourth century said, let us consider that nothing

has so much contributed to the progress of the

superstition, which is what he called Christianity.

Now, nothing has so much contributed to the progress

of the superstition of Christians as their charity.

love to strangers, and he didn't like it. But

people came to know Jesus because they loved

their strangers, people that weren't like them.

The 4th century church father Basil said that

nothing had rendered the Christian faith more

famous in those early times, and it made for

more followers of Christ than the bounty of Christian

charity. Let's fast forward a bit to the 19th

century. Charles Darwin, no friend of Christianity,

again, he observed the inhabitants of Tierra

del Fuego, which is on the far southern Pacific

coast of South America. So they were degraded

people, violent and miserable. And then some

years later he came back after some missionary

work had been done there, after Christians went

there to love them and to tell them about Jesus.

And some of those missionaries gave their life

to do so. So he stops again on one of his expeditions.

He sees how completely changed these people are,

from their violent ways to living a life of love

for others. And so he actually writes to the

missions agency that was caring for these people.

And he says, the success of the Tierra del Fuego

mission is most wonderful and charms me. As I

always prophesied, utter failure. I always prophesied

to be utter failure to go and work with that

violent people. He says it's a great success.

I shall feel proud if your committee think it

fit to elect me an honorary member of your society.

He wanted to be an honorary member of the mission

society because God's people went and loved life

and brought peace into a violent world. Is that

not beautiful? It is. It's lovely. So what should

we do? Will we find, as so many Christians have,

that this command is just the beginning of loving

your neighbors as yourself? Seeking the life

of others? Will we find that our neighbor's well

-being is our concern? Will we find that our

words, spoken and written, our actions, our hands

and our feet, our bodies, are not made for cutting

down, saying, you fool. But that God made us

to reflect Him, to create beauty and goodness,

truth in the world, to lift up life rather than

to tear it down. Will we find? that this command

is sweeter than honey and more to be desired

than gold. I think that if we do this, if we

do this, the Julian apostates and the Charles

Darwins might go, I want to be a part of that.

There is something lovely there. May it be true

of us. Amen. Lord God, may we never use your

law to beat down. May we see it as a lovely call

to love you with our whole heart and mind and

soul and strength and to love our neighbors as

ourselves. May we see the sanctity, the holiness

of you when we are called to love first. and

of those made in your image, our neighbors, who

we are called to love as ourselves. God, I pray

that this would start in our homes, with our

friends, with our children. May it start in our

church. And may it overflow into the world, a

world that is so fraught with violence, so fraught

with power grabbing, pushing others down, angry

words. Would your beauty extend through us? And

as you are the Lord and the giver of life, as

you're the one who authors it, who perfects it,

the one in whom we live and move and have our

being, Lord, would we live into your way? of

loving life. Amen. Thank you for listening to

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bless.