0:04

Hello and welcome to the John Mark

0:06

Homer Teetons podcast. My

0:08

name is Yinka Dawson and I'm your host.

0:11

Each week we feature Teetons by John

0:13

Mark or others talking about spiritual formation

0:15

in the body of Christ. Happy

0:18

Easter everyone. We're

0:21

still in the middle of our For the

0:23

Sake of Others series, but in light

0:25

of the holiday, we decided to pause

0:27

that series and share an Easter teaching

0:29

with you from John Mark on the

0:31

hope of the resurrection. He

0:33

is John Mark. Romans

0:38

chapter eight.

0:41

Well again, welcome everybody. If you're walking in late,

0:43

my name is John Mark and I'm another one

0:45

of the leaders and we're so happy you're here. It's

0:50

been a wild ride since last

0:52

Easter. A

0:55

white supremacy rally in Charlottesville

0:57

turns into a war. A

0:59

car turns into a weapon,

1:02

three dead, 33 wounded, and the

1:04

soul of our nation cut

1:06

open yet again. Then

1:08

on the other side of the world, in Myanmar, our

1:11

hopes for a transition to democracy

1:13

under a Nobel Peace Prize winner

1:15

were smashed by the ethnic cleansing

1:17

of the Rohingya, part

1:19

of a much larger refugee crisis that

1:21

we can't even agree on much

1:23

less fix. And to

1:26

top it all off, you have world leaders

1:28

now threatening nuclear war on Twitter. Is

1:31

it just me, or does it feel

1:33

like the world is falling apart at

1:35

the seams? And it's not just the

1:37

classic, why do bad things happen to

1:39

good people? It's deeper than that. It's

1:41

like, I feel like, so many of

1:43

the people and places that we put

1:45

our hope for the future in have

1:47

been dashed on the rocks. If you,

1:49

like me, grew up at all in

1:51

and around the 80s and 90s, we

1:53

grew up in an unprecedented time of

1:55

peace and prosperity, at least all across

1:57

the Western world. You had Clinton, you

1:59

had an economic boom, you had Baywatch,

2:01

like remember back in the day, an

2:03

emblem. of a gender, like not the

2:05

new one, like the original, not, I

2:07

was homeschooled, I had nothing to do

2:09

with that, but, you

2:11

know? And all of

2:13

that was parallel to an unprecedented

2:16

time of secularization, the overall

2:18

death or at least decline of

2:20

faith and religion in the

2:22

US. And a lot of us

2:24

bought this PR campaign, waged

2:26

by everyone from progressive professors in

2:28

academia to marketing gurus in LA

2:30

or New York, that we could

2:33

create our own little utopia without God.

2:35

That religion, if anything, was part of the

2:38

problem, not part of the solution, part

2:40

of the past, not part of the future.

2:42

We don't need that anymore. We have

2:44

been set free to create our own utopia,

2:46

but that lie has been exposed. We

2:48

put our hope in science to arrest

2:50

global warming. We put our hope

2:52

in the school system to end the cycle

2:54

of poverty. We put our hope in psychology

2:57

to end all of the chaos and neuroticism

2:59

in our mind. We put our hope in

3:01

Washington, DC to pull us all together. We

3:03

put our hope in Hollywood to make us all

3:05

happy. We put our hope in Silicon Valley for

3:08

pretty much everything. Instead,

3:10

it was let down after let

3:12

down. I think this image does such

3:14

a great job of capturing our

3:16

cultural moment. Mark Zuckerberg, the poor

3:18

guy in the front cover of

3:20

wire, beat up, black eye, cut lip,

3:22

the social network that was supposed

3:24

to bring all of us together, at

3:26

least those of us over 35, instead

3:29

used by Russia

3:31

to tear America apart.

3:33

Yet one more

3:35

failed attempt at utopia.

3:38

Well, at least we still have Instagram until it

3:40

goes out of business. And then

3:42

it's dystopia. Decades

3:45

ago, the theologian and philosopher Leslie

3:47

Nubigan said that secularism will eventually

3:50

expose itself as the untrue story

3:52

that it is. And when he

3:54

said that everybody thought, this was

3:56

back in the 80s, everybody thought

3:58

he was out of his mind,

4:01

like you're clearly not watching Baywatch

4:03

Nubigen. But he said, eventually

4:05

it will expose itself and all

4:07

that we will be left to put

4:09

our hope in is Christ himself.

4:11

He said, not even the church will

4:13

escape our cynicism. and let down

4:15

and disappointment. We'll be left with nothing

4:17

and no one to hope in

4:19

but Christ. Here we are decades later

4:21

and his words feel more prophetic

4:23

than ever before. By the

4:25

way, welcome to church. We're so happy you're here.

4:27

Just here to, you know, encourage you. So

4:29

you're like, what is this like photojournalism from

4:31

hell? Is this like an April Fool's thing?

4:34

Is there a joke coming? No

4:36

joke. Church is the

4:38

place that we come not only to

4:40

celebrate that Jesus is alive, but

4:42

also to process the pain of life

4:44

this side of resurrection. And if

4:46

we're all honest, it has been a

4:48

rough year. And yet, on

4:51

the other hand, in spite of the fact

4:53

that I just read this study a few

4:55

days ago that asked Americans, do you believe

4:57

the world's getting worse, better, not changing, or

4:59

the same? And 71 %

5:01

of Americans said worse. In spite

5:04

of that, depending on your

5:06

metric system, the world has never

5:08

been better. Johann Norberg,

5:10

in his book, Progress, which made waves

5:12

just a few years ago, measured

5:14

10 areas. Food, sanitation, life expectancy, poverty,

5:16

violence, the environment, literacy, freedom, and

5:18

equality, and made the point that by

5:20

every single metric, we are at

5:22

an all -time high. Did you know

5:24

that in the last two decades, we

5:26

have cut global poverty in half? Just

5:29

a century and a half ago,

5:31

most Americans and Western Europeans were living

5:34

in far worse conditions than most

5:36

people are today in sub -Saharan Africa

5:38

on the equivalent of less than a

5:40

dollar a day. Quote, despite what

5:42

we hear on the news and from

5:44

many authorities, the great story of

5:46

our era is that we are witnessing

5:48

the greatest improvement in global living

5:50

standards ever to take place. Poverty, malnutrition,

5:52

illiteracy, child labor, infant mortality are

5:54

falling faster than in any other time

5:56

in human history. Life expectancy at

5:59

birth has increased more than twice as much

6:01

in the last century as it did

6:03

in the previous 200 ,000 years. The

6:05

risk that any individual will be exposed

6:07

to war, die in a natural disaster,

6:09

or be subjected to a dictatorship has

6:11

become smaller than in any other epoch.

6:14

War, crime, disaster, and poverty are

6:16

painfully real, but they are rapidly

6:18

declining. What we see now are

6:20

the exceptions where once they would

6:22

have been the rule. Now, Norberg's

6:25

ideas, or really it's just research,

6:27

have been popularized by Stephen Pinker,

6:29

whose best -selling book, Enlightenment Now, is

6:31

literally on the end of every

6:33

other end shelf at Powell's. It's

6:35

very popular in our city. The

6:37

basic idea is, wake up everybody.

6:39

We are living in the golden

6:41

age of human history. Pinker's

6:43

famous and the critique of him from

6:45

a number of sources is that he's rewriting

6:47

history to make the Enlightenment the hero

6:49

of the West, not the Protestant Reformation. But

6:51

even if he's right on that note, what

6:54

Pinker and Norberg and friends have

6:56

to admit is that even though by

6:58

that set of metrics we are

7:00

in the Golden Age, the

7:02

hard truth is that very

7:04

few of us feel that way.

7:06

In fact, since the 1960s,

7:08

happiness has been on the decline

7:10

in the U .S. Mental illnesses

7:13

through the roof, psychologists are

7:15

using the word epidemic for anxiety,

7:17

depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, all

7:19

sorts of other shades of

7:21

that. Antidepressants have become a multi

7:23

-billion dollar industry. The best -selling

7:25

prescription drug in the U .S.

7:27

is an anti -psychotic with sales

7:29

over $7 billion in 2015. The

7:32

family is breaking down. Divorce is at

7:34

an all -time high. Now, Pinker and

7:36

Norberg both argue that the problem is

7:38

the news media. Because we see the

7:41

world now through what Norberg calls the

7:43

distorted filter that is our smartphone, which

7:45

curates a hand -picked selection of all the

7:47

worst things that have happened over the

7:49

last 24 hours, right? That's the problem.

7:51

And so we think that the world

7:53

is getting worse when really the world,

7:55

if you look at the data, is

7:58

getting nothing but better. And there's no

8:00

doubt that's true. And we can't blame

8:02

the news media. It's

8:05

a for -profit industry. You get what you

8:07

pay for. It is the human condition.

8:09

We all know this. We gravitate toward bad

8:11

news. If it came out this week

8:13

that one of the Bridgetown staff members was

8:15

an international arms dealer, right? Gavin

8:17

down here like secret RPG cash in

8:19

his garage in southeast or whatever if

8:22

that came out You would all know

8:24

about it within ten minutes text message

8:26

Facebook Instagram story It would be all

8:28

over the city front page of the

8:30

New York Times the next morning But

8:32

when somebody's life somebody comes to faith

8:34

in Jesus through Alpha and somebody's life

8:36

is transformed and the story I was

8:38

just hearing about a few days ago

8:40

where there's a couple that divorce and

8:42

then is now getting back together through

8:44

apprenticeship to Jesus when a marriage is

8:46

healed when a when a body is

8:48

healed, we have to stand up here

8:50

on stage and tell that story. I

8:53

do these things, not a lot, but don't

8:55

think more of this than there is, but

8:57

I call them Jesus experiments once in a

8:59

while, where I just play around with a

9:01

habit or a little turn of thought to

9:03

index my heart toward the kingdom. And

9:06

so in my morning routine, normally I read the

9:08

news for 30 minutes, start with the times, and

9:10

then read the right, and then local, and that's

9:12

kind of my morning routine. It's a great way

9:14

to just start depressed. So

9:17

I thought, OK, what if just for,

9:19

and I know some of you think this

9:21

is scandalous, but what if just for

9:23

one week as a thought experiment leading up

9:25

to Easter, am I teaching on bad

9:27

news? What if I just don't read the

9:29

news for a week? And instead, in

9:31

that little half hour time block, I just

9:33

spend a few minutes just drinking a

9:35

good cup of coffee and thinking about things

9:38

I love in the world, in our

9:40

city, in springtime, and just practice gratitude. So

9:42

guess what? I did that for an

9:44

entire week. And guess what? me

9:46

a whole new outlook on my life

9:48

and our beautiful city this time of

9:50

year, and I was happier. But

9:52

did it solve all of my problems? No,

9:55

did it solve all of my issues? Of course

9:57

not, because we all know that's true for sure,

10:00

but this goes deeper than our

10:02

penchant for click -baity bad news.

10:05

Andrew Sullivan, in a scathing critique of

10:07

Pinker, his recent book, in the New

10:09

York Times magazine, had this to say, As

10:12

we have slowly and surely attained

10:14

more progress, we

10:16

have lost something that undergirds

10:18

all of it, meaning cohesion

10:20

and a different, deeper kind

10:22

of happiness than the satiation

10:24

of our earthly needs. We've

10:27

forgotten the human flourishing that

10:29

comes from a common idea of

10:31

virtue. For most of

10:33

the ancients, freedom was freedom

10:35

from our natural desires and

10:37

material needs. It rested on

10:39

a mastery of these deep,

10:42

natural urges in favor of

10:44

self -control, restraint, and education

10:46

into virtue. They'd look at

10:48

our freedom and see licentiousness,

10:50

chaos, and slavery to desire.

10:53

They'd predict misery, not happiness, to

10:55

be the result. And

10:57

they would be right. The modern world,

10:59

for all that is good about

11:01

it, the science, the technology, the

11:03

lifespan, the mortality rate, the luxury that

11:05

we all, now like every condo that

11:07

goes up, is a luxury condo. Is

11:09

there a non -luxury condo anymore? Everything's

11:12

luxury, right? Have you,

11:14

as anybody had, it just started

11:16

a few weeks ago, the honey cardamom

11:18

latte from Hart with house -made cashew

11:20

walnut milk. Have you had that?

11:22

There's like a war going on in

11:24

Portland, so you know, COVID

11:26

just opened. few blocks down the street. It's like

11:28

the first real competition to heart on the west

11:30

side of the river. And they started with this

11:32

new honey latte that's all the rage. So then

11:34

Hart then had to come back out with the

11:36

honey cardamom latte. How do you

11:39

top that? It's the best $13

11:41

you will ever spend in your

11:43

entire life. And if you don't

11:45

believe in God, just drink that.

11:47

And then tell me you're an

11:49

atheist. It's impossible, right? But

11:52

as great as the

11:54

honey cardamom latte is, especially

11:56

with the house walnut

11:58

cashew milk, still it has

12:00

no meaning. As

12:02

Victor Frankel pointed out, as

12:04

human beings, we crave meaning. Our

12:06

brains, evolutionary psychologists, the reason

12:09

so many of them are coming back

12:11

to faith right now is because discovery

12:13

of the brain is making what we

12:15

have said for thousands of years true.

12:17

The human brain is hardwired to search

12:19

for meaning and purpose in life. to

12:21

search for a meta story to insert

12:24

our micro story into. Frankel's famous line

12:26

was, those who have a

12:28

why to live can bear with

12:30

almost any how. He said that after

12:32

concentration camp under Nazi Germany. Yet

12:34

our society no longer has a why

12:37

other than maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

12:39

And when it comes to pleasure, we're

12:41

killing it, at least if you make

12:43

enough money to live it. Ah,

12:45

we're doing great. But it

12:47

still comes up empty. Positive

12:49

psychologists have now pointed out there

12:52

are five levels of happiness. Level

12:54

one is material needs, and that's

12:56

beautiful. Money, food, drink, eat, all

12:58

of that, a roof over your

13:00

head, but that's the base level

13:02

of happiness. After that is meaning,

13:05

after that is community, and the

13:07

highest level of happiness is what

13:09

they call transcendence, or what we

13:11

would call life in Jesus. So,

13:14

my point is, we live at a

13:16

cultural moment. Where there are two narratives about

13:18

the world at the same time one

13:20

says it's all going to hell in a

13:22

hand basket So just pack up. It's

13:25

only a matter of time until like it's

13:27

Hunger Games all over again, right? The

13:29

other says it's never been better.

13:31

Welcome to utopia. Have a honey

13:34

card in mum latte Both have

13:36

data to back up their point

13:38

study after study both feel kind

13:40

of true yet at the same

13:42

time not all the way true

13:45

It's almost, I feel like

13:47

we are progressing materially and

13:49

technologically, but regressing psychologically and

13:51

relationally and spiritually. The sense

13:53

that, yeah, grandma and grandpa

13:56

didn't have a car sharing

13:58

app or third wave coffee

14:00

or a luxury condo, but

14:02

they had something else. My

14:04

point is we live in the

14:06

tension between two narratives about the future

14:09

of the world. Interpol, now we're

14:11

ready for Romans, chapter eight, verse 18.

14:13

Read with me. I

14:17

consider that our present

14:19

sufferings are not worth

14:21

comparing with the glory

14:24

that will be revealed

14:26

in us. For

14:28

the creation waits in

14:30

eager expectation for the children

14:32

of God to be

14:34

revealed. For the creation

14:36

was subjected to frustration, not by

14:39

its own choice, but by the

14:41

will of the one who subjected

14:43

it in hope. that the creation

14:45

itself will be liberated from its

14:47

bondage to decay and brought into

14:49

the freedom and glory of the

14:51

children of God. We

14:53

know that the whole cosmos has

14:55

been groaning as in the pains

14:57

of childbirth right up to the

15:00

present time. Not only so, but

15:02

we ourselves who have the first

15:04

fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly

15:06

as we wait eagerly for our

15:08

adoption to sonship, the redemption of

15:10

our bodies, for in this hope

15:13

we were saved. But hope that

15:15

is seen, it's no hope at

15:17

all. Who hopes for what they

15:19

already have? But if we hope

15:21

for what we do not yet

15:23

have, we wait for it patiently. Okay,

15:26

before we make sense of Romans 8, a little

15:28

bit of backstory for those of you that are new

15:31

to the Testament. Before Paul... became

15:33

a follower of Jesus, he was

15:35

a Jewish rabbi. And like

15:37

most rabbis in the first century,

15:39

he would have divided human history

15:41

into two ages, this present age

15:43

and the age to come. This

15:46

present age, and this is of course language out of

15:48

their world, not out of ours, was the

15:50

entire story of humanity from Genesis

15:52

3, if you've read the Bible,

15:54

until now, was life post garden

15:56

of Eden. And it was

15:58

marked by evil, human evil, oppression,

16:00

injustice, racism, sexism,

16:04

all of that scandal, natural

16:06

evil, a hurricane, global

16:08

warming, famine, natural disaster, and

16:11

even more than that spiritual evil.

16:13

They believe that behind so much

16:15

of the evil and even even

16:17

people of the world was a

16:19

personified evil that was spiritual or

16:21

immaterial, but yet it was just

16:23

as real as the human or

16:25

the material. The age to come

16:28

on the other hand was a

16:30

time in the future marked by

16:32

the exact opposite by peace and

16:34

prosperity No more evil at all

16:36

when human history would reach its

16:38

glorious climax under the rule and

16:40

reign of God what the Hebrews

16:42

called the kingdom of God and

16:44

the seam between this age and

16:47

the age to come was in

16:49

Hebrew yama Yahweh or the day

16:51

of the Lord we would say

16:53

judgment day, but we think of

16:55

that phrase as a pejorative, as

16:57

a negative thing. For in

16:59

ancient Hebrew, though, judgment day was a

17:01

good thing. If you're a poor and you

17:03

are oppressed, you want the judgment of

17:06

God. You want freedom from

17:08

all of that poverty and oppression. You

17:10

want judgment. Even if there's violence

17:12

with it, you crave God to step

17:14

into human history, to put the

17:16

world to rights, to eradicate and stop

17:18

out and end evil. And even

17:20

if that means evil people and to

17:23

usher in a new reality of

17:25

peace and equality and justice. And so

17:27

this was the framework, this present

17:29

age and the age to come with

17:31

this scene, this transition point in

17:33

between of the day of the Lord.

17:35

Now, the resurrection of Jesus on

17:37

the first ever Easter, messed all of

17:39

that neat, tidy theology up. The

17:42

rabbis were expecting the resurrection of all

17:44

humanity at the end of history. Instead,

17:47

what we got was the resurrection of

17:49

one man right in the middle of history.

17:52

This was a twist in the plot. what

17:55

JR Tolkien of the Lord of the Rings,

17:57

what he called a eukatastrophe. Have you heard

17:59

that phrase before? It's a

18:01

Tolkien original, a literary advice that he used.

18:03

You know the word catastrophe. You

18:05

is a Greek word, a prefix that

18:07

means good. So a eukatastrophe is like

18:09

a good catastrophe. He defined

18:11

it as, quote, a sudden happy

18:13

turn in a story that pierces you

18:15

with a joy that brings tears. So

18:19

in Lord of the Rings, it's when

18:21

Gandalf, you know, that scene, he appears, you

18:23

think he's dead, but they're about to

18:25

die. It's about to all end, like halfway

18:27

through, is that movie too? I can't

18:29

even remember. And then Gandalf appears back from

18:32

the dead to save the day. That's

18:34

a eukotastrophe. And Tolkien, in an

18:36

interview, who was a follower

18:38

of Jesus, said that Easter was

18:40

the greatest of all eukotastrophes.

18:42

And Paul is the first Jewish

18:44

rabbi, or one of the

18:46

first, to work out the implications

18:48

of this particular eukatastrophe. And

18:50

he, and not just him, along with the other

18:52

writers of the New Testament, interprets Easter

18:54

to mean that Jesus has opened

18:56

up a portal to the future.

18:59

And in doing so, he

19:01

has dragged the age to come,

19:03

the future into the present, the age

19:05

to come into this present age,

19:07

put another way, heaven into earth. New

19:10

Testament scholar, N .T. Wright, puts it like

19:12

this. a

19:17

rebel leader that some had supposed.

19:20

He was the leader of a far

19:22

larger, far more radical revolution than

19:24

anyone had ever supposed. He was

19:26

inaugurating a whole new world, a

19:28

new creation, a new way of

19:31

being human. He

19:33

was forging away into a

19:35

new cosmos, a new era, a

19:37

form of existence, hinted at

19:39

all along but never before unveiled.

19:41

Here it is, he was

19:43

saying, this is the new creation

19:45

you've been waiting for. It's

19:47

open for business. and join in.

19:50

This is what Paul is getting at when he says

19:52

things like this in his letter to the Corinthians, this

19:54

world in its present form

19:56

is passing away. A lot of

19:58

people misread here, Paul, including Christian fundamentalists, to

20:01

think that, you know, planet Earth is doomed.

20:03

It's all going to hell. Nothing

20:05

could be further from Paul's point. By

20:07

this world, he doesn't mean planet

20:09

Earth. Notice that phrase in its present

20:11

form. In Greek, it's one word,

20:14

schema, where we get the word schematic.

20:16

It means the world as it

20:18

is set up now with all of

20:20

its systems of oppression and injustice

20:22

and an evil. This isn't about

20:24

the end of the world, but the

20:26

end of a world. and the beginning

20:28

of a new one. And for

20:30

Paul, we live in a time

20:32

of overlap between these two worlds

20:34

or these two ages, the age

20:36

to come, the present age, what

20:38

one scholar by the name of

20:40

Ladd called the time between the

20:42

times. In Paul's mind, there, think

20:44

about this for a minute, there is

20:46

a world that right now as we

20:49

speak is dying off, it's going away. And

20:51

there is another world that right

20:54

now, as we speak, is being born.

20:56

It is coming to pass. Hence

20:58

the word picture at the center of

21:00

Romans 8, right open in front

21:02

of you of birth pangs. On

21:04

that note, now we're ready to work

21:06

through Romans 8. Paul, in this story,

21:08

and all for the New Testament, tells

21:10

a third story. Beyond the option A,

21:12

it's all going to hell. Option B,

21:14

it's all better than it's ever been.

21:16

Have a latte. Paul

21:18

tells a third story about

21:20

the nature of reality. Notice

21:24

three things about this third story from

21:26

the passage open in front of you.

21:28

First off, for Paul, life

21:32

is full of suffering,

21:34

frustration, and groaning,

21:37

all language right out of the passage. 18,

21:39

I consider that our present sufferings

21:41

are not worth comparing with the

21:43

glory that will be revealed in

21:45

us. 20, the

21:47

creation was subjected to

21:49

frustration. 22, we know

21:52

the whole creation has been

21:54

groaning as in the pains of

21:56

childbirth, right up to the

21:58

present time, not only so 23,

22:00

but we who have the

22:02

first fruits of the Spirit, we

22:04

groan inwardly as we wait

22:06

eagerly. Paul's metaphor for

22:08

the felt experience of

22:10

life in the time

22:12

between the times, is that of a

22:14

woman in labor, groaning for the

22:17

pain to end and the baby to

22:19

come out. Mothers, are you with

22:21

me? I'm surprised I

22:23

did not get more than that. All right.

22:26

But that's how we all

22:28

feel. When will this

22:30

pain end? When will

22:32

the school shootings end? When

22:34

will the acrimony in the

22:36

political sphere end? When will the

22:39

gap between rich and poor,

22:41

between this color and that color

22:43

end? When will the racial

22:45

divide heal? When will utopia come?

22:47

We groan with the ache

22:49

of unfulfilled desire. No matter how

22:51

good our life is, as

22:53

Carl Reiner so famously said, in

22:55

this life, all of our

22:58

symphonies remain unfinished. What

23:00

he meant was no matter how much money

23:02

you make, or how many lattes you

23:04

drink, or how good you have it, or

23:06

healthy your body is, or your marriage

23:08

is, your family, no matter how good or

23:10

high up the socioeconomic ladder you are,

23:12

there's always this sense of an unfinished symphony.

23:15

It's like almost but not quite,

23:17

not there, not enough. There's an

23:19

ache, there's an inco -hate longing for

23:21

a better life and a better

23:23

world. Maybe you're here this evening

23:25

and you're groaning and you feel

23:27

it in a cute or a

23:29

dull ache underneath the distraction of

23:31

your busy life, or far more

23:33

than that, an acute pain over

23:35

your marriage, over a child, over

23:37

your career, over the death of

23:40

a dream, over a failure, or

23:42

a disappointment over whatever happened in the

23:44

news that I missed this last week. You're

23:47

here and you're groaning. Yes, welcome

23:49

to the human condition. So

23:51

the one thing that the West

23:53

just cannot figure out how to

23:55

handle, and that is suffering. We

23:57

thought we could create a utopia

23:59

with no suffering. And while

24:01

we can mitigate so much of the

24:03

suffering of the world, at least at a

24:05

material level through science and medicine and

24:07

technology, and well, we cannot stomp

24:09

it out because to be human

24:11

is to bleed and in the

24:13

end to die. And ironically,

24:16

when you expect life to be easier, it's

24:18

so much harder than it has to be.

24:20

And when you expect life to be

24:22

hard, as Paul, who's not a pessimist,

24:24

right? But he's brutally honest about the

24:27

human condition. Actually, life

24:29

is far more of a

24:31

gift. You receive every

24:33

sunny day, every gift

24:35

of grace, every hug, every

24:37

smile, every meal. as

24:40

gift to be enjoyed, not as

24:42

a right, but as icing

24:44

on the cake. But if you're here and

24:46

you are groaning for a better life

24:48

and a better world, you are not alone.

24:50

Paul is open about that. Secondly, for

24:53

Paul, and forgive

24:55

me, I'm sick down right

24:57

now, I apologize. Hopefully we'll make

24:59

it to the end. For

25:01

Paul, the main problem in

25:03

the world, isn't the Republican

25:05

Party or the Democratic Party

25:07

or this president or that

25:09

or immigration reform or refugee

25:11

reform or poverty or the

25:13

education system or whatever, the

25:16

main problem is the human

25:18

condition. If Paul were here

25:20

he would say all of those

25:22

other things those are problems But those

25:24

are the symptoms the root issue

25:26

the disease if you prefer is the

25:28

human condition what we call the

25:30

human heart what Paul would call our

25:32

flesh this primal animal like part

25:34

of us that is a desire we

25:36

can't or don't Control that we

25:38

are enslaved by where we have to

25:40

do this thing that we don't

25:42

want to do But we kind of

25:44

want to do because it's not

25:46

right for us for our mind for

25:48

our body for our relationships, for

25:50

our city, for the environment itself. The

25:52

humanistic anthropology that so many of

25:54

us grew up on, that we're all

25:57

beautiful little snowflakes who are corrupted

25:59

by this big bad society. And the

26:01

problem is external, not internal. It's

26:03

out there, not in here. If we

26:05

can just get the right candidate,

26:07

the right legislation, the right technology, the

26:09

right killer app, the right business

26:11

set in place, then we can fix

26:13

all that is wrong. And while

26:16

I love that heart to make the

26:18

world better, that anthropology just isn't

26:20

working. It's losing not

26:22

only to theologians like Paul, but to

26:24

evolutionary psychologists like Jordan Peterson who

26:26

writes, quote, if society is corrupt but

26:28

not the individuals within it, then

26:30

where did the corruption originate and how

26:32

is it propagated? rhetorical

26:35

question. The data is

26:37

in. There is no question now. Scientists

26:39

finally backing up what writers like

26:41

Paul have been saying for millennia, that

26:43

something is off, not outside of

26:45

us, but inside of us. And all

26:47

of these other symptoms are part

26:49

of a much deeper problem. As

26:52

the saying goes, we have met the enemy

26:54

and he is us. That saying,

26:56

by the way, was made popular by the

26:58

first, I read this a few days

27:00

ago, the first ever poster for Earth Day

27:02

in 1970. I

27:06

think that's really funny. Yeah, a few of us

27:08

do. We're not the only sadists in the room.

27:11

I love 20, Paul

27:13

writes, for the creation

27:15

was subjected to, oh

27:17

my gosh. Was

27:20

subjected to frustration, not by

27:22

its own choice, but by

27:24

the will of the one

27:26

who subjected it in hope

27:28

that the creation will be

27:30

liberated from its bondage. Meaning,

27:33

we're not the only ones who

27:35

are frustrated. Creation itself

27:37

is to the animal kingdom, Mount

27:39

Hood, the Pacific Ocean, is

27:41

frustrated, it's suffering, it's groaning, just

27:43

like we are under the

27:45

weight of corrupt human means. The

27:48

reality is, so many of us want

27:50

to save the world, and that's not

27:53

all bad. But we

27:55

need to be saved. And Paul, that's

27:57

the beginning point. For the healing

27:59

of the world is the healing of

28:01

the human condition. For the

28:03

transformation of the world, or of

28:05

society, or of the school system,

28:07

or of government, is the transformation

28:09

of the human heart. We need

28:11

to be saved by something or

28:13

someone outside of ourself. And it's

28:16

not a killer app. It's not

28:18

a technology. It's not a law.

28:20

It's not a business. It is

28:22

Jesus of Nazareth. He is the

28:24

great hope of the world. And

28:26

that is Paul's third idea. For

28:28

Paul, number three, the

28:31

main hope for the world and

28:33

the human condition is resurrection. that

28:35

of Jesus and of his

28:37

followers. 22, we

28:39

know that the whole creation

28:41

has been groaning as in the

28:43

pains of childbirth right after

28:45

the present time. Not only so,

28:47

but we ourselves who have

28:49

the first fruits of the Spirit

28:52

grown inwardly as we wait

28:54

eagerly for our adoption to sonship

28:56

the redemption of our bodies. That

28:58

line, the redemption of our

29:00

bodies, is a nod to

29:02

resurrection. That's code language. That's

29:04

insider language for resurrection. Notice

29:06

not Jesus' resurrection. Who's resurrection?

29:10

our resurrection. Keep in

29:12

mind, make sure you get your head around

29:14

this. A lot of American Christians get this

29:16

one a little bit wonky. A lot of

29:18

people think of the future as a two -step

29:20

process, life followed by life after

29:22

death in heaven or hell, depending on

29:24

what you believe. Actually, what you believe

29:26

has no bearing on what's true, but

29:29

that's a separate teaching. But in

29:31

the scriptures, It is a

29:33

three -step process, life

29:35

followed by life after death,

29:37

followed by what NT

29:39

Wright calls life after life

29:41

after death, or resurrection. And

29:44

the idea is very simple. What happened

29:46

to Jesus, one day in

29:48

the future, will happen to all of Jesus'

29:50

followers. We, like Him, will die. We,

29:52

like Him, will go into the

29:54

ground or to the wind or whatever

29:57

it is. And then we will

29:59

be raised from the dead by the

30:01

power and the authority of the

30:03

Creator over all the creation, the God

30:05

who spoke the universe into existence. The

30:08

metaphor used by Paul both here in

30:10

verse 23 and Corinthians all through the

30:12

New Testament For Jesus resurrection is that

30:14

of first fruits. It's an agrarian metaphor

30:16

There's one farmer in the house tonight

30:19

other than that most of us miss

30:21

it But we get spring right we

30:23

look forward to it all year long

30:25

and then it's such a letdown But

30:27

we just more mud and rain, but

30:29

you don't get to wear a scarf.

30:31

It's like come on But

30:34

it's very similar to the idea of

30:36

spring. Those bright buds

30:38

on the trees outside that

30:40

green or the beautiful pink

30:42

growth is a sign of

30:44

what's to come. That summer

30:46

is coming. That a picnic is

30:49

coming. That a bike ride

30:51

to work or I'm not sopping wet

30:53

and my hands don't ache with

30:55

pain from the cold. That is coming.

30:57

Growth and fruit and life is

30:59

coming. I believe it in faith. But

31:03

read carefully for Paul

31:05

that future has already started

31:07

with the coming of

31:09

the Spirit. Just like

31:11

summer or the new season has

31:13

already started. Was anybody around

31:15

yesterday afternoon? Holy cow. It feels

31:17

like an eternity ago, but I was

31:19

outside yesterday. I put on

31:22

sunscreen yesterday afternoon and I

31:24

sat on my front porch with

31:26

sunglasses and I read a

31:28

novel on my Sabbath in the

31:30

sun. It was glorious. And

31:33

then I woke up this morning, but...

31:37

It's already started. Summer has

31:39

already started. It's been

31:41

inaugurated. It's been set

31:43

into motion. And if

31:45

Paul were here today, he would have

31:47

words with the secularists. He would say the

31:50

Enlightenment wasn't the turning point of history.

31:52

Not even the Protestant Reformation wasn't. The resurrection

31:54

of Jesus was. There is

31:56

a reason that we measure time from

31:58

before and after Jesus. His life, his

32:00

teaching, his example, his way to be

32:02

human, his miracles, his kingdom work,

32:04

his stand for justice and truth.

32:06

and righteousness, his arrest by the

32:08

religious authorities, his execution under the

32:10

Roman Empire. Three days later, his

32:12

resurrection from the dead by the

32:14

father, his ascension to the right

32:16

hand of the father, the pouring

32:18

out of his spirit, that

32:21

set, that inaugurated a whole new

32:23

world right in the middle of

32:25

this one. It set into motion

32:27

the death of one world and

32:29

the birth of another. And Paul,

32:31

listen carefully, for Paul, we groan,

32:33

yes, life is hard, there's frustration.

32:35

There's unfinished symphonies. We groan, but

32:37

it is the groaning of a

32:39

woman in labor, and you can

32:41

only be pregnant for so long.

32:44

We groan not in grief

32:46

over the past, but in

32:48

hope for the future. for

32:50

Jesus to come back and

32:52

finish what he started. And on

32:54

Easter, that's why on Easter

32:56

we look back, but we also

32:58

look forward. And we celebrate,

33:00

but we also groan, living in

33:02

this moment where one world

33:04

is dying and another is coming

33:06

to birth. And we put

33:08

our hope, we put

33:10

the weight of our life,

33:13

we set the aim of

33:15

our future on the return

33:17

of Jesus to make all

33:19

things new. So to end,

33:21

we come to the waters of

33:23

baptism. This is the

33:26

way that you join the story

33:28

of Jesus, that you make your

33:30

micro story or mine about the

33:32

macro story of the healing and

33:34

the renewal, not only of humanity,

33:36

but of the cosmos itself. Notice

33:39

that Paul's vision here of the

33:41

future isn't just you doing better. It's

33:44

the whole cosmos set

33:46

free from groaning. And this

33:48

rhythm, this ritual of

33:50

baptism is a symbol. It's

33:52

actually more than a

33:54

symbol. We believe something happens

33:56

in the moment. But

33:58

it is a symbol of

34:00

death, burial, and resurrection. Death,

34:03

you go under the water. It's

34:06

a symbol, not literal. Don't freak out.

34:09

But you go under the water

34:11

as a symbolic way of dying

34:13

to your old pattern of life

34:15

that matched the old world that

34:17

is dying away. burial,

34:19

you wait, you trust all

34:21

that you are into the

34:23

love of God, resurrection,

34:25

you come back up out of

34:27

the water to a new way

34:29

of life based on the example

34:31

and the teachings of Jesus of

34:34

Nazareth and a new community, a

34:36

family to your right and to

34:38

your left with the new spirit

34:40

and the marrow of your bones

34:42

to match a whole new world,

34:44

death, burial, resurrection and

34:46

baptism. We identify with

34:48

Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection,

34:51

we put our hope in that.

34:53

We say yes to that

34:55

narrative arc for our own story.

34:57

And water itself is a symbol, an

35:00

evocative one at that, of the

35:02

Holy Spirit. And if you're new to

35:04

that language, what we mean by

35:06

the Holy Spirit is the person and

35:08

the power and the presence of

35:10

God. In baptism, you are

35:12

immersed, like full on, we don't

35:14

sprinkle, we dunk, right? All the

35:16

way. in all the way under.

35:19

We are immersed in the person

35:21

and the power and the presence

35:23

of God, and he becomes the

35:25

new air that we breathe, the

35:27

new reality that we inhabit. Portland

35:29

becomes our secondary home, and the

35:31

reality of God are true north.

35:33

Jesus called this the life that

35:35

is truly life. Jesus talked a

35:37

lot about eternal life in the

35:39

Gospel of John, but a number

35:42

of scholars have said, actually, that's

35:44

not a great translation of the

35:46

Greek, because the language there has

35:48

to do with this idea of

35:50

the age to come, Jewish language.

35:52

And a lot of scholars have

35:54

made the point, a

35:56

better translation is the life

35:58

of the age to come. Because

36:01

for Jesus, this life wasn't just

36:03

about quantity, but about quality. It wasn't

36:05

just about the future, what happens

36:07

after you die or after you went,

36:26

I like the idea that

36:29

John Mark shared about a

36:31

eukastrophe, a sudden happy turn

36:33

in the story that pierces you

36:35

with a joy that brings tears. Isn't

36:37

that what we're all yearning for

36:39

in all the big and small groanings

36:41

of our lives? The

36:44

hope of Easter is that

36:46

the eukastrophe of Jesus' resurrection

36:48

opens the door for eukastrophes

36:50

in all of our lives

36:52

as the heavens invade our

36:55

earthly reality. So

36:57

to end today, let's take a

36:59

moment to take our groanings and

37:01

pains to Jesus and ask for his

37:03

resurrection power to meet us in

37:05

those places. Start

37:07

by taking a few deep breaths

37:10

with me, setting your

37:12

attention on Jesus, and

37:15

ask the Holy Spirit to

37:17

bring to mind a particular area

37:19

of your life where you

37:21

most need God's resurrection power. And

37:37

with that in mind, offer

37:39

it to God in trust

37:42

in his redeeming resurrection

37:44

power. Thank

38:05

you, Jesus. that

38:07

in you every sad

38:09

thing is becoming untrue. Help

38:12

us to live each moment

38:14

in alignment with the reality of

38:16

your advancing kingdom, that

38:18

we would become vessels for

38:20

your goodness to break into

38:22

every facet of our lives

38:24

and those around us. Amen.

38:39

Thanks for listening. This podcast

38:41

is from Practice in the Way. We

38:44

develop resources to help churches and small

38:46

groups apprentice in the way of Jesus.

38:49

If you enjoy the show, consider leaving

38:51

a rating or review. It helps others

38:53

find us. We're a crowd

38:55

-funded non -profit, so everything we make

38:58

is completely free because it's already been

39:00

paid for by The Circle, our

39:02

community of monthly givers. Special

39:05

thanks today goes to Alyssa from

39:07

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Terry

39:09

from Dublin, Georgia, Jacob

39:11

from Edmund, Oklahoma, John

39:14

and Vicki from Bend, Oregon,

39:16

and Vanessa from Los Angeles,

39:18

California. Thank you

39:20

all very much. To

39:22

join these friends in the circle or learn

39:24

more about our resources, visit

39:26

practiceintheway .org. Until

39:29

next time, may you go

39:31

in peace to love and serve

39:33

the Lord.