We Can Overcome Evil with Good?

Scientific thought through skepticism and curiosity to attain knowledge of reality have historically undermined religious or spiritual claims for how or why the world works. This mode of thinking ought to continue upon science and religion and all other thought-systems, including itself. 

In the personal experiences of real life that evoke fear and injustice, suffering and hopelessness, how explain it on a mass scale despite educated efforts to unmask truth? Why does evil still persist? 

Is it merely education? A matter of desire? From whence does evil come, despite best attempts to do good, to love the neighbor next door and all neighbors in the world? 

Until science reveals a rationalistic and materialistic explanation that reverberates with reality, religion will continue to expand its presence with observations and lessons on why. But religion and science have both been a source of evil. 

Is God the mere personification of what is the ideal good across all humanity of all time? Is evil personified by Satan? We may doubt the existence of a being named "the adversary" but we do not doubt the pain and agony of evil as it wrecks our world and homes and hearts. 

So how do we begin to grasp the magnitude and depth of evil that persists, generation by generation, a ill-fated metamorphism, from the crawling barbarianism of swords and spears to the winged terrorism of jets and drones which pollinate the flowers of the earth with scorching devastation? We look within, and despair. We collaborate for a solution and become enmeshed in a net of violence guised as justice and peace-keeping. We name the evil that pervades and perpetuates throughout the whole world as the scheming of a being adversarial to all that is good and true, to love and all that is beautiful. 

The ancients used many names, we still use the devil, the evil one, the Satan, the accuser and tempter and liar, trickster and deceiver. We may doubt his existence, but not the evil we feel and see and do and suffer. What to do about the evil we see and feel and do? 

We must name it, bear responsibility for our part in it, be humbled and broken by it, and then overcome it with good. But what is good? Who will decide? What is the truth of what is good? Who will we follow? Who will we trust? Will we make it up as we go along? With the pervasiveness of evil, what confidence do we have that our skepticism and curiosity won't be infected by evil, co opted so that our conclusions are just one more variation of deceived, tricked, missing the mark of truth and reality. 

This far in humanity, we have an extensive historical list of human atrocities committed against our enemies and the innocent - it is vile and absurd, disgustingly revolting and scarily re-emergent in successive generations. Who will save humanity from itself? Is there anyone on earth who could show us, lead us, help us overcome evil with good? 

It is shameful what men have done in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He who demonstrated a unique response to evil, he who unveiled a radical and yet reality-rooted wisdom about life and love, of what and who is good. While we may wonder why Jesus does and says -or is recorded and remembered as such - and in light of the countless perversions leeching to his Way, it takes faith to trust him, his words, his ways. 

Every generation must survive the evil thrust onto it from the prior generations, and Jesus of Nazareth must be rediscovered as a King unlike all others who can subvert evil, heal the wounded, bring together communities of shalom amidst a world at war with itself. 

It is glaringly obvious the ways the strong and privileged enforce and expand their wealth and power, exploiting any who are weaker then they. It is evil and the way of the world. And Jesus defies it, seeking to destroy it on his terms: with existential truth proclaimed in word and deed with love that seeks to redeem from evil, establishing a justice that heals rather then perpetuate injustice. 

Why does it seem that evil is more powerful then good? Why doesn't Jesus overcome evil with good now? Why put off tomorrow what could be done today? Unless Jesus can't do it today. Unless he has bound himself to time and flesh, he has entered into our world to work within it.  

He is seeking to quell a rebellion while desiring to rescue those who rebel against him. There are those in each generation who lay down their arms and surrender, ending their rebellion to King Jesus. For every man and woman who joins Jesus, they become like leaven in the world, like candles of light in a stormy dusk, seeds of hope. Striving against the evil within and the evil out there, they join with Jesus in their counter-rebellion of truth in love, grace with peace, standing firm amidst the whirlwinds of madness and chaos. 

Jesus sent twelve men, then seventy two disciples, and then hundreds of men and women into the world to call everyone to repentance and the forgiveness of their stupidity, their brutish or sophisticated arrogance, their insatiable appetites of the flesh and so on. To repent is to wake up, to see the evil within and emanating from and around and infecting you and to rebel against it, to reject evil in all it's forms. 

This requires a return of sorts to Jesus, which implies he has always been with you, striving unceasingly to free you from the bondage and lies which enslave you and us. To turn, or return to Jesus begins a new way of humility in light of truth as you come to ascertain it. We learn to live by the light we gave been gifted. 

With it begins a new chapter in the stories of our life, of our generation, amongst humanity across the ages. We are glorious characters in a dramatic story unfolding with every sonrise. Evil mars and distorts every one who emerges in the story, poisoning the gloriousness that is written into every life. 

Jesus emerges from the story of Israel, a somewhat obscure nation caught up in the rising and raging empires. In his historical and narrative context he lives and leads humanity into a new way of loving in the face of terrifying evil. 

Much like you can doubt Satan, you can doubt the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There is enough historical veracity to support belief, which also leaves room for disbelief. In the story of Jesus his resurrection is a vindication by God that Jesus is who he claimed to be, that his words are right, his way will lead to life. 

For all who trust Jesus, like him we seek to make the most of every day in this brief but glorious life. Like him we stand firm together in a world gone mad, sowing seeds far and wide of subversive truth, radical love of enemy, faithfulness amidst tribulation, and a vision of the reconciliation and renewal of all things. 

We believe in this story where good overcomes evil, within us and through us. We confess our ongoing temptation to evil, we continually repent and stand firm again in our rebellion against the evil one who seeks to devour and pervert all that is beautiful and good. 

The church ought to repent of our complicity in the worst evils of our history. For initiating them. Sustaining them. For doing nothing to end them. For joining them. We repent. And go forth humbled and chastened and deeply aware of the allure and lusts of evil, but we also remember the rot. No more violence, or coercion, or injustice or hate.

We now have a vision and experiences of hope for overcoming evil with good, striving in our generation to bring peace in the way of Jesus. By his Spirit which forges unlikely unity and fuels scandalous hospitality, enabling us to continue what God started in Jesus of Nazareth. Until he himself returns in the same way he left, we stand firm by his Spirit in faithfulness and love, truth and grace.

Move Forward In Your Understanding of the Bible: the Exodus stories (part 3 of 5)

'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be more me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'

What a fascinating summary God has of the exodus experience!

He glosses over the whining and doubt, the resistance and fear while re-emphasizing why he delivered them from slavery and to what end he envisions the purpose of their new life.

To move forward in our understanding of the Bible, we need to go deeper in understanding the connection between the exodus story and the rest of the stories.

There are five big over-arching narratives in the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures): Creation, Covenant, Exodus, Kingdom, Exile.

The story of God and Israel is always moving forward: in relationship with God, each other, and the world. It grows more complicated as more people join the story, and it grows more intriguing as we wonder how God is going to continue to move his plans forward in light of the real people he is choosing to work with.

There is so much to be said about the Exodus story and how it undergirds the Hebrew Scriptures (or First Testament) and the New Testament (or New Covenant). It reveals so much to us about the God of Israel: he is the initiator of deliverance, he calls men and women to serve, he works with real people, he influences without forcing his will, his work is rooted in justice/righteousness/goodness, he is faithful, loyal, patient, understanding - but he is also angered by blatant and repeated mistrust and rebellion. As we would be, and He should be.

Below is a brief overview of the exodus: an exit from and an entrance into a place, participation, and perspective. 

PLACE: Exodus From Egypt; Entrance to Promised Land
In Exodus chapter one we read and discover the centrality of place to this story. It recounts the original place Jacob's family sojourned from years ago. They had come from Canaan and settled in Goshen to escape famine and be cared for by Joseph. But the years pass, the famine ends, and the people of Abraham stay in the place of abundance and safety. Eventually a new dynasty comes to Egypt and the place becomes dangerous for the Israelites, they become a threat to the new rulers. What was once a place of peace and prosperity becomes a place of slavemasters and empire construction projects.

By Exodus chapter nineteen Moses has led the children of Israel from a place of slavery to Mount Sinai, the place where God is waiting for them. Here he will instruct them and re-covenant with them as the descendants of Abraham, the nation promised to him long ago. This is preparation for entering the Promised Land, which is part of the covenant-promise. The Promised Land: a place of prosperity and flourishing, where they will be a light to the nations and kings of the earth will come to this place to see the glory of God.

PARTICIPATION: Exodus From Pharaoh-slavery; Entrance to YHWH-covenant
In chapter six of Exodus God explains to Moses why he is being sent back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from slavery. God initiated a covenant-relationship with Abraham many years ago. God intends to keep the promise he made to Abraham - not just about place and a people, but about a special kind of relationship. God would be there God, and they would be his people. God intended to bless all the world, and he wanted to do it through the people of Abraham. They would be like a kingdom of priests, mediating between the nations and God. As a holy nation set apart for this purpose, they would be an treasured instrument in the hand of God by which the nations of the world would be blessed and praise the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The covenant wasn't just what God could do for Israel, or what Israel ought to do for God, but about participation together for the blessing of the world.

It's a beautiful plan, and unique. The Ten Commandments (or 10 Words) in Exodus twenty are an example of what the covenant-laws were for Israel, defining a way of life that made them holy or different from the other nations. They were laws that also shaped them into a way of life where justice, mercy and humility would prevail amongst the people. These laws would direct them into a way of life that resulted in prosperity and flourishing for all, which would inspire the other nations to come and learn from them. The laws shaped the kind of participation required of Israel in order to produce the blessings that God had promised to Israel and through Israel to the world. What a stark contrast the YHWH-covenant with Israel is compared to the expectations and plans Pharaoh had for the house of Jacob.


PERSPECTIVE: Exodus From Godisnowhere; Entrance to Godisnowhere
At the burning bush, which you can read about in Exodus three, Moses is introduced to God. It's maybe more dramatic then when Noah or Abraham meet God, but it's probably just as startling and disturbing. And unforgettable. There Moses perspective is completely changed about himself, God, and reality. Moses is eighty years old, forty years a shepherd in the Sinai peninsula, having been an exile since he was age forty when he became a murder. Moses had no idea he was being prepared for anything. But his perspective is radically altered: the God of Israel had been non-existent to him - and now the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is here present and calling him to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

It would be a similar radical introduction for the people of Abraham - when Moses announces that their God had sent him to rescue them, they doubted it. For them, Godisnowhere. But Moses was proclaiming: Godisnowhere! Even though they couldn't see him, touch him or smell him (in contrast to the Egyptian gods and goddesses they had become accustomed to) - here is wild and dangerous Moses returned after forty years to declare deliverance. It's actually what they had been praying or, crying out for, but with no idea on how it would occur. So even though Moses is announcing the good news that Godisnowhere, it still seems like Godisnowhere.

For those that eyes of faith, they begin to see God at work in the plagues (Exodus seven), but they never actually see him until they actually leave Egypt (Exodus thirteen) and God leads them as a pillar of cloud by day to shield them from the desert sun, and a pillar of fire by night to light their way. Israel's perspective changed - they were introduced to the God of Israel, the Creator of the heavens and the earth how keeps his covenant-promises. There was no other kind of deity like this in the world. Their perspective changed about the gods and the goddesses, about themselves, about their future, and about their purpose.

Most nations have a god by whom they seek to defeat enemies and expand borders and subjugate others into slavery so that they might enrich themselves at the expense of other peoples. But here is a God who wants to establish a nation where justice and shalom prevail, where hospitality marks their politics not just their homes. Their perspective changed on what kind of nation they were to be, what kind of people they were to be, what kind of world it was to be. And they learned that even when it seems dark and it looks like Godisnowhere, Godisnowhere just as surely as the sun will rise in the morning.


Questions from SermonSequel - Exodus 19:3-6
A helpful way to read the Scriptures is to approach it with curiosity. Presume that there is plenty that doesn't make sense. Seek to make connections, to understand by asking questions. During SermonSequel on Sunday I asked the congregation to text in questions they would have about the following text, a central one to understanding the Exodus story.

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be more me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.


What does it mean "on eagles wings"?
What does it mean "I brought you to myself?" Sarah


Why didn't he offer the covenant to everyone? - Nate
Why the Israelites? - Jason

Why would he favor one nation above the rest? Jeff
Why does God pick favorites? - Dave

The text says that we will be his treasure. Does that mean everyone or just those who obey him? - Adam

How are we not being Jews now see that we are his treasured possession outside of Jesus - anonymous


How do you know if you are fully obeying God? - Tomi and Marisa

How do you think Moses felt when God chose him to lead his people? - Gary


What did God do to Egypt? - anonymous


What is an Israelite? Sheri

Move Forward In Your Understanding of the Bible: the Covenant stories (part 2 of 5)

"I will bless you, I will make you a blessing, and I will bless all the world through you."

How's that for a promise?

This is essentially how God initiates his covenant relationship with Abraham.

If we want to move forward in our understanding of the Bible, we need to remember the significance of the covenant stories.

There are five over-arching stories in the Old Testament: Creation, Covenant, Exodus, Kingdom, and Exile. They are ultimately tragic stories full of irony and hope. They are very human stories retold by ancient Israel as there way to remember where they came from and where they were headed amidst national uncertainty and existential wandering.

The many stories that make up the Old Testament are about the God of Israel and the outworking of their covenant relationship. It's a stunning covenant - the Israelites believe that the God who created the marvelous, beautifully dangerous, life-sustaining and wonder-inducing universe had chosen them to be his special people. With the gloriousness and unfathomable power of this Creation God, Israel struggles to come to terms with the covenant that he initiates with them.

Like all covenants there are blessings for keeping it and curses for breaking it. The Old Testament is the stories of them continually breaking the covenant and God creatively compelling them to return to keeping it. God demonstrates his loyalty to this newly created nation - undeserved loving kindness and faithfulness to a people who forget, complain, rebel, deny, and abandon him in droves. It's real humanity and a real God interacting in the real Earth amongst real tribes. The stories are shocking at times and inspiring. Much like our stories today.

What is a covenant relationship?

“A covenant is a solemn formal commitment made by one party to another party to one another; its seriousness is normally undergirded by an oath or rite undertaken before God and or before other people. A covenant is thus a little like a contract, but the commitment is moral, not legal. A covenant involves something more like a personal relationship, but no ordinary relationship: it presupposes a level of commitment not required of most relationships, and it involves a formalizing of that commitment that shows we really mean it.” [John Goldingay]

An obvious image of a covenant relationship is that of holy matrimony. The heart of marriage vows are moral commitments, not legal, though it is both. It's the binding together forever of two friends, though it will become unlike all other friendships. It has it's own symbols and public declarations to indicate the sincerity of those making the vows. It's a covenant that requires hard work to keep, which has it's blessings, and when broken has obvious curses.

But within that covenant relationship of marriage is a loyalty that transcends the keeping and breaking of the covenant. Repentance rebuilds trust and leads to re-keeping the covenant, which can lead to blessings that remove the curses. We see this promised in the Torah and throughout the Prophets.

In the Creation story we have the account of God making a covenant with Noah and all humanity to never respond to violence - no matter how vast and ugly the scale - with mass-scale extermination. The rainbow is a public sign of this vow. The creative God must now find other ways to subvert evil hearts and bring about peace in nonviolent ways.

The original covenant for Israel itself begins with Abraham in Genesis 12, 15 and 17. We have three successive stories where God introduces himself to Abraham, and their coming to terms with each other over what the promises and covenant will look like - not only now but in the far future.

The creative God picks a man from a moon-worshipping tribe and promises to make his descendants more numerous than the stars of the sky. This requires unbelievable faith. And some important questions from Abraham about how he and his aged and childless wife will give birth to a son, let alone a new nation. Secondly, they have no land, they have sojourned from Ur to Haran and have never been to Canaan - how and when will they settle into this promised land?

Covenant-encounters with God induce plenty of questions. And some doubt. And the scale of the promises are so grand that it's tempting to take matters into our own hands to help God out. Which lead to tragedy. The creative God is not thwarted by our bumbling faith, but there are consequences to our actions to which we must make the best of in our life.

It was the same with Jesus and his disciples. It took extraordinary trust for them to believe that he was of God and that his instructions and way of life would lead to a new exodus and God's kingdom on earth. When they took matters into their own hands, Jesus had to step in and intervene. And so it is with us today. We can barely believe that the way of Jesus is the best possible response to empire-evil and entrenched-injustice in our culture and economic systems.

Just as the covenant stories with Abraham increase the scope and understanding of the relationship requirements and promises of blessing, so it goes when God connects with Moses and the people of Israel. Prior to the Exodus God re-introduces himself and his covenant with Israel to Moses and to the descendants of Abraham in Egypt. They agree to the covenant and pledge to follow him out of slavery and into the promised land. The story is more complicated then that, as it always is, but they go along. The covenant is formally renewed in dramatic and public fashion at Mount Sinai, on the far edge of the wilderness.

It's here that God is covenanting - not just with a person like Abraham or Moses - but with a whole people, the twelve tribes of Israel and their families numbering in the thousands and thousands. At this encounter it's more then just promises of blessings and curses for keeping and breaking the covenant, but detailed instructions for the basics of life for this new nation so that they more clearly understand the covenant laws.

It starts with receiving the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and from there and throughout Leviticus we learn more and more laws for ancient Israel for keeping the covenant with God and one another. Much of Leviticus includes laws for what to do when you break the covenant, for God understands the reality of humanity and their penchant for failure.

Reading further into the Old Testament stories we continually learn how often Israel breaks the covenant and God is forced to bring about the consequences of curses. It's clear that Israel is struggling to keep the covenant with God. Moses and Joshua try their best. The judges that follow get progressively worse.

Samuel the prophet is effective for a generation. But his leadership prompts the people to beg God for a real live king like all the other "real" nations and tribes around them. This is a rejection of God as sole king of Israel and a further deterioration of their trust and allegiance to Him. God assents to their requests though, and eventually strikes up a covenant relationship with David and his family, promising that someone from his family would always be king of Israel. 

God is strained by this covenant, as the descendants of David descend into decadence over the centuries. Though God sends prophets to plead with the people to repent and keep the covenant, they end up declaring the coming doom due to the ongoing covenant-breaking. Injustice towards the poor and oppressed, the widows and orphans, the laborers and sick - all this increased the ire of the Lord.

He determined to initiate a new covenant with Israel, one that he introduced through the prophet Jeremiah. He declared that instead of inscribing his words on stone or parchment, he would put his laws into the hearts and minds of his people, drawing closer to them in order that they might keep the covenant and fulfill their destiny as a blessing to the world.

It's centuries though before Jesus of Nazareth walks the hills of Israel, recognized as a prophet who calls his people to repentance. Jesus is full of promises and hope: God's kingdom is coming, he will end the exile and bring forth a new exodus for all those who will turn away from covenant-breaking and recommit to keeping the covenant. Jesus affirms the centrality of love for God and neighbor as the heart of living out the new covenant. How far is God willing to go with helping his people keep the new covenant? Even when his people crucify Jesus, whispers of forgiveness and promises of his Spirit pour forth from his body. God is radically committed to helping anybody who wants to keep the covenant.

The covenant is attractive with its blessings and scary because of its curses. But the covenant-relationship is always initiated by God towards us, and it's about love and flourishing in community within this good yet corrupted world. There are natural consequences for breaking covenant with one another and with God - rarely are supernatural disasters needed to make a point. We create our own hell on earth through our disloyalty and immorality towards one another and God. But God in Christ through his Spirit is present everywhere at work to invite everyone into a covenant relationship.

To those that assent, they become part of a new covenant-people through whom God intends to bless the world. They are a blessing because of how they care for one another and their welcome of the stranger and their love for their enemy. They are a light to the nations for how laws can add to the flourishing of all instead of to the advantage of the powerful and the demise of the weak.

They become like priests who mediate between the world and God, connecting people to this covenant-inducing Creator of the universe. They mediate, not like a bureaucracy but rather as a picture of what God is like and capable of - his faithfulness and patience and creativity and wisdom. An example is worth a thousand words.

Covenant-stories originate in the Old Testament, but they explain the story of Jesus and the early church in the New Testament. The Gospel of Jesus is the proclamation and introduction of the new covenant through this king of Israel from Nazareth sent by God to atone for our sins and empower us to live by his Spirit as participants in the coming kingdom.

We are like kings in the way that Jesus was a king, using his royalty and power to heal and restore, connect and educate, welcome and send with good news. Jesus, and we in this new covenant-community, use power and knowledge to build people up and spread the way of love as a blessing. We are just as human as Abraham and Moses, David and Jeremiah and the people of Israel and Babylon and Rome. It is by grace that we can become kings and covenant-keepers, and this so that we can do the good works for which God has created us to be and do.

The corrupting idea today is that we enter into a primarily enter into a co-dependant relationship with God in order to be saved from hell for heaven. But this does not reflect the reality of the covenant-relationships that God initiated with Abraham or Jesus. The covenant-relationships are first about life now on this good-earth, about love of neighbor and stranger and enemy now. Covenant-relationship with God in Christ is about justice now, the humble awareness that we will be judged for our injustice now, and that it is only by grace that we can repent and make amends for our sins. The reward is not just later, but also now.

God has come to earth in Jesus and is always with us through the Spirit. The covenant-relationship is about this generation right now - and whatever rewards await us in the afterlife, they are directly connected to our love now. If we don't want God and his way of life now, we won't want it for eternity. But if we respond to God's grace and invitation to a covenant-relationship now, the rewards begins now and continues without end.

God's covenant-relationship with Israel was complicated and turbulent and reflected the real interaction between real humanity and a real God.

So it is with us, a real Jesus is really at work in this new covenant-people, redeeming us from our sins and reconciling all people to himself through us without forcing his will on anyone and patiently staying faithful to humanity despite our penchant for destroying creation and abusing one another.

Amidst this terrible tragedy is a new-covenant people who seek to move forward, bringing light and hope and faith and love into the world - themselves in need of it and willing to be an instrument of it. 

The invitation continues to be put out there: Jesus is the new king welcoming all who want to be in a covenant-relationship with him for the good of the world and love of God.