A Missional Re-definition of Community.
Today, we will be examining Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9:4 – 19, but before we get there I want us to take a moment and look at Revelation 7:9 (NIV):
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”
A couple months ago this verse struck me. John, a first century Jewish man, was given the ability to see heaven. Among the persons in heaven worshipping Christ, John, a first century Jewish man, was able to recognize nations, tribes, people and languages. The characteristics that make us different here are preserved in heaven. Our diversity and differences are not necessarily evil because they remain when we get to heaven and they remain in a way that John was still able to notice them. Often we use our differences to divide and segregate and create prejudices with them so therefore we often see our differences as a result of sin and see our differences as evil. But if we are still different and diverse in heaven, then the differences themselves are not necessarily evil, just our reactions to them. We often use our differences, whatever they may be, to create an “us versus them” mentality.
A few months ago on Drexel’s campus, I had the privilege of listening to a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, who had trained under the Dalai Lama. He talked about the circumstances between Tibet and China. The dialogue was interesting in how it compared to so many other situations in our world currently and throughout the past. The conflict stemmed around the simple concept of “us” and “them.” Who are “we” as a group? Who are “they” – the group that is not “us”; the group that is “different from us”? In Tibet the Tibetans see themselves as distinct from the Chinese. They say we are Tibetans and Chinese are not us, however; the Chinese have a different definition. They say that the Tibetans have been and are a part of China. They are not distinct from us but one of us. The Chinese say what is good for China is also good for the Tibetans because the Tibetans are part of China. The Tibetans respond saying what is good for China has actually been bad for Tibet and the Tibetans. China points to the roads, schools, businesses and homes that they have brought into Tibet. They point to the way they have developed Tibet. The Tibetans see these things and point out that these developments have only been good for the Chinese residents of Tibet. The Chinese rebuttal is that all the residents of Tibet are Chinese.
We try to define “us versus them” in terms that are most beneficial to us. We label them as different from us. What is different from us is necessarily wrong. What is wrong now becomes evil and eventually what is evil can be punished. This can happen because of differences in skin color, sex, ability, financial standing, ethnic heritage, lifestyle, religious beliefs and nationality. I am always right and you are different than me so that makes you wrong. Because you are willfully wrong you must be evil. Because you are evil I can be justified in my hatred, prejudice and violence toward you. This is the common course of human thinking. Black versus white, Croats versus Serbians, Russians versus Georgians, Shiites versus Sunnis, Jews versus Gentiles, Christians versus Muslims, Americans versus Communists, Eagles versus Giants all are tainted with an “us versus them mentality.” The “us versus them” I want you to have in mind as we travel through the rest of today is the “us” that is inside these walls versus the “them” that is outside: Christians versus the lost; sinners versus saints; the church versus the world.
The current and popular remedy for the problem of “us versus them” is to deny the existence of any differences whatsoever. All people are exactly the same. All cultures are equally good and valuable. All thoughts and ideas are equally valid. All religions are equally true. All moral choices are equally justifiable. Right and wrong are no longer absolute choices but a matter of personal preference like eating ice cream. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Tolerance is today’s moral buzz word. We must be accepting of those different than us. God is handled the same way. What is your favorite flavor of God? Yet this brings up some logical absurdities. If there are no moral rights and wrongs how do we label things that we know as true evil? How do we say the prison camps at Auschwitz were true evil? How do we say something is truly good? If there is no absolute good and bad how can the sacrificial love of a mother be truly labeled as good? Even the very statement “there are no moral absolutes” is an absolute moral statement. In classical logic that is called a self-defeating argument. A self-defeating argument is one that if it is true, it is also false. If there are no moral absolutes then even the statement there are no moral absolutes is not absolute. Tolerance and relativism is not the answer we need.
Miroslav Volf, a professor at Yale Divinity School, changes the discussion. The destruction of differences is not the goal. There will always be the categories of us and them. There will always be those people like us and those unlike us. We will always separate, categorize and differentiate between people. There are some differences that cannot be overlooked. What is necessary is that we must become the type of people able to embrace or love the “evil other.” Volf’s hometown is Sarajevo. He was actually interrogated / tortured as a Christian while serving in the Yugoslavian army. He then watched his country and city be torn apart by violent civil wars. The “evil other” is not an abstract idea. To him the evil other is the Yugoslavian Army captain that brutally tried to force him to confess crimes against the state. To him the evil other is the Serbian Cetnik Terrorist that mortared his hometown. Miroslav Volf truly knows the concept of the evil other. He cannot deny that some actions are atrocious but how does he live in this world in the presence of true evil? How does he love the evil doer?
For answer to these questions we are going to look at a particular passage of Scripture found in Daniel 9. This is a prayer uttered by Daniel for his people the Israelites. I’m going to read it in full stopping from time to time to make some commentary.
Daniel 9:4-19 (New International Version)
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
Did you notice how many time Daniel uses the first person plural when referring to the sins of the Israelites? Daniel intentionally, willingly, freely and deliberately accepts the sin of his people as his own. From a human perspective he did not necessarily have to do this. He was taken captive into Babylon as a man probably in his late teens. He could have easily distanced himself from the sins that Israel had committed in the land because of his young age when he went into exile. He could have prayed about what they did back then. He chose not to. He chose to accept moral responsibility for the sins of his people. Also, in scripture Daniel is one of the few people not directly implicated in any sin. He is pictured as a morally righteous person. He is shown as someone who is willing to do the right thing for God no matter how it will affect him. The story about Daniel and the lion’s den is a prime example of this. He could have separated himself from them by his upright and righteous life. He could have been like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable and prayed
11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Instead Daniel through his pray becomes one with his people. Their sin is his sin. Their suffering is his suffering. Their punishment is his punishment. Harold A. Sevener says, “Never once does Daniel exclude himself from the sins of the nation. Never once does he blame the people, while claiming to be exempt from their sin problem.” Often we try to define us and them in the most beneficial way for us. We try to use the categories of us and them to limit the guilt we have.
Allow me to illustrate. 91% of outsiders to Christianity between the ages of 16 to 29 label Christianity as anti-homosexual. Sexual morals are important to us and they should be but sometimes we present them to the exclusion of persons. 91% of outsiders don’t think that we are against homosexuality and for “family values.” 91% think we are against the homosexual. We have created an “us versus them” mentality. Peter, age 34, says, “Many people in the gay community don’t seem to have issues with Jesus but rather with those claiming to represent him today. It’s very much an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality, as if a war has been declared. Of course each side thinks the other fired the opening shot.” We should proclaim the idea of a Biblical marriage and stand up for moral values. That is a good thing. But how will a homosexual ever come to Christ if we allow them to have the idea that Christ’s representatives here on this earth, Christians, are his mortal enemy? How will he ever come to know the life changing grace available through Christ if we are afraid of being contaminated by his guilt? By the way we don’t have to worry about his sin condemning us. We already have enough sin of our own to do that and even if it did Christ’s grace is sufficient for that, too. Then again how does it look when we are defined within society by screaming a certain set of moral values and then Catholic priests get on the news for abusing children and then a Mormon compound is taken into federal custody? To the outsider this is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. Our typical response is to isolate ourselves from the moral guilt by saying “Catholics are not real Christians” and “Mormonism is a cult.” While this has validity within these walls to an outsider it looks like political waffling, name calling, blame shifting and trying to weasel out of trouble.
Instead of trying to remove himself from guilt, Daniel accepts full responsibility for the sin of his people. As American Protestant Christians are there sins that we need to truly own? Who are our people and do we as a people have a collective, moral guilt? Is slavery still an issue? Do we owe something to Native Americans? Japanese Americans? The Jewish people? Muslims? Women? The unborn? Quite often as Christians we try to separate ourselves from the sins of others. We claim that we had no part in slavery. We claim that we had nothing to do with the Crusades. We claim that abortion is their problem and not ours. We claim that homosexuality is not our issue but others. We distance ourselves so that the stink of their guilt doesn’t rub off on us.
15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. 17 Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
Daniel then turns in his prayer to petition God for grace and mercy for his people. God’s deliverance in the past gives Daniel hope for deliverance in the future. God has shown himself to be merciful in the past so we can expect him to be merciful in the future. God has shown himself to be a gracious and loving God. We can trust in him to be gracious and loving once more. Daniel does not demand that God fulfill his prophecy. Daniel does not claim that he has any right to be heard or any special knowledge of God’s will. Daniel merely and meekly petitions for mercy. His petition for mercy is not based on merit at all. No one not even Daniel deserves the mercy of God but everyone can request it. In so doing Daniel becomes like Christ. In accepting the sins of his people as his own and asking for mercy he models Christ. The grace that is available to Daniel and through Daniel to his people is only available because of Christ.
Allow me to read to you a quote from Watchman Nee, a Chines Christian from the beginning of the 20th Century.
Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. We ask ourselves, “Have we been justly or unjustly treated?” and we think thus to vindicate our actions. But that is not our standard. The whole question for us is one of cross-bearing. You ask me, “Is it right for someone to strike my cheek?” I reply, “Of course not! But the question is, do you only want to be right?” As Christians our standard of living can never be “right or wrong,” but the Cross. The principle of the Cross is our principle of conduct. Praise God that He makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good. With Him it is a question of His grace and not of right or wrong.
Watchman Nee goes on to illustrate his point with a story.
A brother in South China had a rice field in the middle of a hill. In time of drought he used a water-wheel, worked by a tread-mill, to lift water from the irrigation stream into his field. His neighbor had two fields below his, and, one night, made a breach in the dividing bank and drained off all his water. When the brother repaired the breached and pumped in more water his neighbor did the same thing again, and this was repeated three or four times. So he consulted his brethren, “I have tried to be patient and not to retaliate,” he said, “but is it right?” After they had prayed together about it, one of them replied, “If we only try to do the right thing, surely we are very poor Christians. We have to do something more than what is right.” The brother was much impressed. Next morning he pumped water for the two fields below, and in the afternoon pumped water for his own field. After that the water stayed in his field. His neighbor was so amazed at his action that he began to inquire the reason, and in the course of time he too became a Christian.
Let’s take a step back and see this story replayed on a cosmic scale. The Trinity eternally existed in a perfect community, a Holy symphony of us. You have the Father who intimately and passionately and completely loves the Son and the Spirit. Then you have the Son who is perfectly united in love with the Father and the Spirit. Then you have the Spirit who dwells in an eternal Holy relationship with both the Father and the Son. Three persons so completely united in an eternal loving relationship that they are truly one being. The Trinity is the true definition of community. They are the true definition of an “us.” This Trinity creates. This Trinity creates humanity to be in their image. Part of this image was to be in relationship with God; however, because of sin we have severed that relationship. We have become unlike God. We have destroyed relationships. If God is an eternal community of loving relationships, that is the Trinity, and we are the destroyer of relationships, that makes us completely and totally unlike God. We are the antithesis of God. In God’s eyes we are truly the “evil other.” Every single one of us is the “evil other.” The destruction of our relationship with the Trinity has created a true “us versus them.”
From a human perspective God had every right to sever all ties with us. He could have easily chosen to distance himself from us. He would be just to allow us to eternally exist separated from Him. He doesn’t want His holiness to get contaminated by our sin. He doesn’t want His perfection to become infected with our guilt. But this is not the God I serve. The Trinity intentionally, willingly, freely, and deliberately sends Jesus directly into our mess. God becomes man. He lives a perfect human life. He suffers enormous human suffering. He takes on all our human sin and human guilt. On the cross Jesus stinks of the worst of humanity. He dies an atrocious human death. Then three days later he is resurrected into new life. Making his life our model, his death our atonement and his resurrection our hope. Through Jesus, the community of the Trinity missionally leaves heaven and sacrificially becomes human so that He can redemptively restore us to a right relationship with him. As humans this is our God, our savior and our redeemer. You don’t make Jesus Lord. You don’t make Jesus your savior and redeemer. He is the only Lord and the only savior and the only redeemer humanity will ever know. He is God coming into our situation an atoning for our sin so that we can get back right with God. The question is not is Jesus your savior. The question is have you admitted that you need a savior and have accepted him as the only savior you could possibly have.
For the many of us in this room we have a restored relationship with God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, let’s now turn our attention back to Daniel. Because Daniel knew the grace of God he was able look at his community with grace filled eyes. He wasn’t worried about their sin contaminating him. He was able to be Christ-like and enter into his community and pray the grace of God into their lives. My question for each of you individually and as a church corporately; what communities are you intentionally reaching into to redeem with the grace of God through Jesus Christ. I would like to see the church defined as a people not by the community that sits within these walls but defined by the community outside of these walls that we are intentionally, willingly, freely, deliberately and sacrificially investing ourselves into for the grace of God. When we see the homeless in our community they are our homeless. When we see broken families in our communities they are our families. When we see single mothers in our community those are our mothers, or our sisters or our daughters. When there is financial greed in our community it is our own sin. When there is sexual sin in our community it affects us as if it were our own sexual sin. When there is evil and pain in our community it should be our evil and our pain. There is no “us versus them.” We missionally, sacrificially and redemptively enter into the sin that is all around us as “little Christs,” as Christians.
The final question we have to answer is who our community is. Who is God directly calling us to minister to? Who is God calling us to minister to individually and who is God calling us to minister to corporately? It is the question that was asked of Jesus so long ago; “Who is my neighbor?” I cannot answer that for each of you but let me share one conversation with you that I had with the Methodist Minister at Drexel. Tim says to me, “I really feel like I’m neglecting my community and my church because I spend so much time here on this campus with the students.” My reply was, “I know exactly what you are talking about so much so that I have just completely accepted Drexel as my community that I am going to intentionally invest in.” I think each one of us will personally have a different community in which we will invest ourselves into for the sake of the kingdom of God. For some it will be children, others students, others the homeless. For some it will be a geographic location like their street or their apartment building. For others it will be a life situation, pregnant teenagers, or football players, or homosexuals. Ethnic groups are a possibility as well. Religions and worldviews are another category. Then as a body, as a church, you also need to answer this question on a corporate scale. Who is the community, who are the communities that God has called Lifeway Christian Fellowship to minister to? Who are you ministering to locally, regionally, nationally, internationally? Like I said before I pray that someday our community is not defined by who sits inside these walls but by the lives we touch outside of these walls.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version)
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
That verse is quite of ten used to call “them” back to God but if read carefully it is not talking to “them.” It is talking to “us.” May we like Daniel be the humble, prayerful, repentant God-seekers who lead our entire community into forgiveness and our whole land into peace.