God Speaks Outside the Church

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[0:00] Good morning Foothill Covenant Church. Once again it's a pleasure to be with you virtually in this time and this space together. Hans-Erik says that we are celebrating the missions work that Foothill Covenant Church is doing and what a wonderful season after just last week celebrating Epiphany where the light of Christ was announced not only to Israel but also to the Magi and to the Shepherds and to all the world. So what a wonderful way to celebrate that together. So I wanted to thank the congregation not only you not only do you corporately support us which is so necessary to our ministry but we receive less than 10% of our funds from churches and the vast majority is from individuals and many of you individuals have been supporting our work and we are very grateful for that. And so we're so thankful for your continued faithfulness to the work that God is doing through us and through Wycliffe Bible Translation. So thank you. This last year has been strange but we have been able to continue to work via Zoom with our main translator Alfredo. He has an interconnection in his house that we set up for him and so we work daily mostly daily because the internet goes out sometimes and there are some days where we have to

[1:24] figure out some sort of weird distribution problem with Linux and so sometimes we spend more more time doing tech support than we do work in a day but as we all know we have that's just a fact of modern life that happens from time to time but we've been able to continue to do our work.

[1:46] Isabel was able to be trained in grant writing and is now the head grant writer for the Americas Area and has been able to successfully find or to find and successfully apply for funding for several different Americas Area projects. Now the reason that we need to be finding grants for this is that money that comes from Wycliffe Bible Translators is now earmarked for directly things work that is directly tied to Bible translation so some of the the secular prerequisites are now being used to help people with Bible translation. We're also working with the American Library of America to find grants for other programs that are currently underfunded and so we're trying to find ways to find ways to find grants for other programs that are underfunded and so we're trying to be creative and find new ways of funding these programs that are that are now chronically underfunded and so Isabel has been really important in doing that work and so we're very thankful for the kind of work that God is doing through her and that we'll do will do through her and the the partnership that and the collaboration that that allows for for us to have not only within the church community but also collaboration outside the church community to have our work embraced and

[3:03] made central in the work. Now one thing that we have not been able to do over the past year is to do any community checks at all and the reason we do community checks with our translation which is basically where we take a text and we bring it into a home church that well there are a couple others if you want to look for them couple churches, churches in Mazatlan, but they're all fairly small. We do this for three reasons. One, we're sincerely interested in what people, the perspective that they have on the Mazatec and if they're understanding everything, or if they have any questions about the words, but basically if they're tracking the information well in Mazatec. So that's one. And we're very, very glad that when we do these studies, these community checks, very rarely do we have any substantive change in the translations that we're doing, which indicates that we're doing pretty well. People are understanding things well in Mazatec, and that's very rewarding. But two, we also want the believers to start to develop the habit of understanding that their ponderings of the Scripture, their insights of the Scripture, are going to be better in their native language. And those, the way that God will work inside of them, will happen better in the language of their heart, because they

[4:27] have a greater facility with this. And as you and I know, there's a lot of pretty sophisticated concepts in the Bible, and we want the people to bring their highest cognition to this work, and not simply the cognition that they can get through studying a second or third language. If any of you have learned a second or third language, you know how much can be lost as you study things in that language, and even how you contemplate or pray in the other language. Many times it's much more sophisticated in your first language. And then third, we want them to be on board and to really be following us as a Bible translation project, so that they're invested in the work that we do, so that they will use our Scriptures more. We haven't been able to do that, and so we're really looking forward to the time where we can be vaccinated, and we can return to Mexico. So you can be praying for us in that.

[5:18] Since we studied John, we've been studying John for a long time. And we've been studying him for a long time. And we've been reading the epistles of John over this last year. And we have some really good drafts that I really want to check with the community. Those words have been in my head. And so as we are in this season, one week after Epiphany, I am continually drawn to John. But the word of Epiphany challenges the epistles of John in a pretty particular way that I wanted to explore.

[5:48] So, John was writing to some fellow believers who seemed to have been influenced by Gnostic teaching. Gnostic, you know, you've probably heard the word from the Gnostic Gospels. They tend to think about a hidden truth. Think of the movies, The Matrix. There is a wonderful Gnostic sort of worldview. It's that the world is a lie, and there are secrets to uncover the actual truth that's inside all of these things.

[6:18] Well, John is writing. He's writing about the Gnostic Gospels. He's writing to these people, and he is telling them, one, that Jesus was indeed a man and not solely a spirit. Two, that what they do with their bodies is indeed important and not solely what they do with the spirit. And then three, how they live in community and interaction with their brothers and sisters is indeed important and not simply what happens in the spirit world.

[6:49] So, we have John telling this church to not be influenced by Gnosticism. And then we have Epiphany, where we see that we celebrate that Jesus was born, and he was communicated not only to the Jewish world and the religious structures, but also into people outside of the religious structures.

[7:12] So, we have a conflict there. Okay? Um, one seems to be God is working outside the church, and the other one seems to be don't listen to things that are not from the Gospel that you have received. Sometimes, um, exploring these sort of, lining these two ideas up side to side can help us reflect on a deeper truth, and sometimes more difficult. Let me read the passage from 1 John 1, verses 5-10. Once again, that's 1 John 1, verses 5-10.

[7:47] This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. And will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word is not in us.

[8:26] I have felt this tension all year since we've been back from Mexico. As we were thrown back into the political life of the United States, which is very divided, things were made all the more tense by this pandemic, where even when we were in the midst of a pandemic, we were still in the midst of a crisis. And so, one's response to the pandemic takes on a valence of one's political alliance.

[8:54] And I found that my faith in God was not giving me a very good perspective on things. I was tired and anxious, and instead of being heavily minded and getting a transcendental expression, I was totally here on Earth and totally worried about earthly things, and just mad about earthly things.

[9:18] And so, there was sin in me as I walked in the light. That became apparent to me. I was sinning as I walked in the light. And as John tells me, you'll know that you're walking in the light if you love your brother and sister. Well, I was hating my brother. I was hating my sister. I was irritated. A lot. I was angry.

[9:47] Perhaps you, I would ask you, have you hated your brother for asking you to wear a mask? Have you hated your brother for not wearing his mask? Have you hated your brother or sister for voting for a senile puppet?

[10:04] Have you hated your brother and sister for supporting or being sympathetic to insurrectionists? I think we're struggling with that. Verse 6 of the first chapter of 1 John tells us, Verse 6 of the first chapter of 1 John tells us, If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. And in verse 8 it says, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. So it seems that we should not claim to be in fellowship with Christ if we are sinners, and if we say we are not sinners, we are not liars. So are we not to be in fellowship with Christ?

[10:44] Well, I conveniently skipped over verse 7, which is of course the key. It says, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from all sin.

[11:00] Now let's think again about Epiphany, and the role of this physical light in heaven that shined. It's such a beautiful image. And it's worth thinking about the role that light played in the story of Jesus. So, this light was noticed by the Magi. Magi who were magicians. They were holy men, probably holy men of a different faith, a pagan faith. Holy men of a faith that Jeremiah or Isaiah would have railed against.

[11:37] Because this is teaching that was outside of the covenant, the Jewish covenant. Well, they saw this light, and they responded to that light. And they responded to something that was true. Okay, so that's interesting. The light also shined to the shepherds, and the star appeared to them. And they saw it, and they witnessed the angels singing. They witnessed the angels singing, which is such an interesting thing to say.

[12:06] Randy Woodley, who was a Cherokee pastor and theologian, notes in his book, The Shalom and the Community of Creation, that shepherds weren't even allowed to bear witness in the courts of the temple, in the Jewish courts at that time, in Jesus' time. And so, he writes that, saying that this is a familiar theme to Cherokees, whose witness in court has been denied, and whose legal complaints have similarly been denied. And he sees that disenfranchisement in the shepherds. And then God speaks to them. So he speaks to the magi, who were outside of the religious tradition. He speaks to the shepherds, who were outside of the legal tradition.

[12:54] And also, when the angels announced themselves to Mary and to Elizabeth, these are women outside of the religious tradition, outside of the patriarchal traditions of the time. And so, there is something so inclusive about all of this. And lest we think that the religious tradition and men at the center of religious power during this time had no role, it's worth reminding that when the magi came, they came to Jerusalem. And they asked Herod where the king was to be born. And it was Herod who talked to his scribes and the priests, and they looked through the scriptures. And they said, ah, he's going to be born in Jerusalem. So the scribes did have a role. They had the text. They had the scriptures. Which, of course, is super, super important. As a Bible translator, I know that.

[13:45] But it wasn't the only piece. It wasn't the only piece. There were a lot of pieces to this puzzle of absolute truth. This wondrous act, which is Emmanuel, God with us. Most of the pieces were outside of the religious structures of the time.

[14:04] Now, what does John mean when he says to walk in the light? What does he mean to walk in the light? As Jesus is in the light. And so, as a kid, as a religious kid, wanting to be good, I always wanted to be good. For me, that meant being a good Christian. Being a good Christian meant church going and being a good church member.

[14:29] Even being a missionary. I wanted to walk in the light. I wanted to be a good church member. But the story of Epiphany seems to say that God is doing things outside of there as well. So, the story of Jesus' birth tells us that walking in the light does not just mean living your life out in the confines of church activity. God has important information out there in the hands of the Magi as well. And in the hands of the shepherds. He has important information out there in the hands of the academic atheist elites. He also has important information out there in the hands of the rural socialist farm worker.

[15:07] In Colossians, chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, it says, For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him speaking of Christ, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Let me repeat that phrase. To reconcile to himself all things. To reconcile to himself all things.

[15:40] Um, I don't think I have understood what that means. I still don't get it. I struggle with it. What it means. And I think the church, the western church, the eastern church are still struggling to understand what that means.

[16:01] But, if we take the word of the epiphany, or the message of epiphany, to heart, then as we share the good news we must also listen to the atheist academic who is perhaps studying dark matter or quantum quantum physics. We must listen to them and try to determine what Christ, who has made all things, has shown them.

[16:27] We must do this sincerely though, and not simply as a as a method to dismantle their arguments so that we can be praised in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. But we must listen sincerely to what they are saying. As we share the good news, we must also listen to the socialist, mastic farm worker, or the postmodern cultural critic. We have to listen to them. We have to seek what God is doing in all those places. The revelation of epiphany that God has dwelled among us, and is bringing all things to himself, has not been understood. We, the church, have so much to contribute to the spreading of this good news.

[17:08] I, as a bible translator, have something to contribute. We have read the text, and we are bursting with desire to share that text with everyone, to share the news that is in that text with everyone. But we must also understand that God speaks to people outside the church, and they might have information and perspectives that we need to hear. Not because they are separate and equally valid truths, but because they are part of the real truth, part of the Immanuel truth, part of this Yahweh truth that we have seen, but do not completely understand.

[17:49] So walking in the light includes loving our non-Christian brothers and sisters and testing their words to know if they are from God. We can't, though, assume that the atheist, the fundamentalist, the socialist, or the anti-vaxxer have nothing to contribute. We can't. In our church, we have progressive, in Foothill Covenant, we have progressive Christians and we have conservative Christians.

[18:17] And we are seeing eye to eye less and less. We are loving each other poorly. We have gotten to a point where we are not only ignoring perspectives that are coming from outside the church, we are even ignoring perspectives that are coming from inside the church.

[18:34] We are not walking in the light well. We know that. Because John tells us that when we walk in the light, we are loving our brothers and sisters. That's how we know we are walking in the light. We are not doing that well. We are falling short.

[18:53] And so, I will encourage us as we walk into the light to try to understand and listen to other people better. When we listen to people that are outside, we need to have not the bias that they are wrong and everything that comes from their mouth must be evil or tainted. But as we listen, we should enter into with the bias that God speaks to all people and all things. God may be speaking to them and showing them truths that we need to hear. And we will measure everything against the light of scriptures. But we have to have a bias that they have something to contribute. If we are completely disregarding people, then we are in error.

[19:42] Our bias, let me say that again, is that God is speaking to all people and all things. And bringing them to him. And he is telling them things that we as a church do not know yet. Brothers and sisters, let me close in prayer.

[20:01] Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be walking in the light. To be in this process of finding darkness in us. Confessing our sins. And knowing that you are faithful to forgive us our sins. I confess, Father, that I have sinned against my brothers and sisters in hating.

[20:27] I pray that you would open my mind and open my heart to listening to what you are doing outside of my tradition. Help me to listen and to hold the light of truth. Not in order to ignore it, but in order to find the truth in what is being shared.

[20:46] I pray this in your name. Amen.