Church Family Update - May 15, 2020

Good morning everyone! Another week is winding down and It’s that time again. Brew a cup of coffee or tea and sit down in your favorite chair and get ready for another…

Friday Book Discussion!

Thanks for joining me. This week we read chapter 2: “Modern Religious Sacrifices and the God Who Ends Religion” from Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper.

Summary: Early in the chapter Mike makes the statement that “Religion is in the business of pleasing the gods.” Specifically, he focuses on the ancient practice of offering sacrifices to the gods in order to appease them, and then he interprets that practice through the filter of the biblical narrative. 

According to Cosper, the story of the fall isn’t about breaking rules but breaking communion with God. As a result, humans experience a deep sense of alienation and a longing for connection and affirmation. Of course, only God can fill that void but because we have broken fellowship with God and turned away from him we now seek that affirmation in other places.

In ancient times it was common to seek to appease the gods by offering blood sacrifices. In other religious contexts self-improvement became the way people sought to breach the gap between us and God. “If only I could live righteously and meet God’s standard then maybe I could climb my way back up to him.”

In our increasingly secular and disenchanted age, many people have given up the quest to connect with God and are turning to other people for the affirmation and acceptance they long for. Which brings us to the phenomenon of social media and the attempt to find meaning through the number of “likes” and friends your social media posts can generate.

Cosper proposes that the solution to the problem of our alienation isn’t to continue offering sacrifices to an unknown god. The only sacrifice that matters isn’t one that we can make but one that has already been made. God himself satisfied his own terms of justice through the sacrifice the Son made to the Father on behalf of God’s children. This is sufficient and no other sacrifices are required. 

And because God has already provided the sacrifice necessary to reconcile us back into a healthy relationship with him, we do not need to earn our way back onto his good side through our self-improvement projects. Yes, a child of God will take delight in obeying His will. But we no longer feel the unbearable pressure of trying to earn His favor through our efforts. What a relief!

And finally, because God has accepted us and received us into his family and given us unconditional love and eternal life, we are now released from running on the hamster wheel of finding our value and meaning in the opinions of others. God’s acceptance means that we’re free to be our true selves and liberated from the tyranny of measuring our self-worth based on our fear of what others think of us. That’s real freedom and it’s offered freely through Christ!

This is the rest that Jesus offers when he tells us to come to him and find rest for our souls. We rest from the burden of trying to appease God through sacrifices or good works. We rest from the burden of trying to appease others with our actions and words. We rest in the sure knowledge that the chasm has been bridged by the sacrifice of Christ and we are eternally reconciled to our loving, triune God. 

Commentary: This chapter is a fairly straightforward explanation of the gospel of God’s free grace to us. Whenever I read a chapter like this I am reminded of the liberation that we experience in Christ. The invitation to rest in Christ is a beautiful and blessed thing.  

So many things in life try to steal our rest: Our own awareness of our shortcomings and failures; relational conflicts and misunderstandings; circumstances beyond our control; anxiety over our mortality; a never-ending to-do list that only gets longer and never gets shorter; etc, etc.

In the face of all those potential sources of anxiety, there is always a temptation to grit our teeth and push harder and get through it. So it’s helpful to read a chapter like this that reminds us to slow down, breathe and rest. Rest in the grace of God. Rest in the love of Christ. Rest in the sure knowledge that there is ultimately only one opinion that matters and he has spoken and it is finished. Everything else is just details on our way to heaven. 

Application: I’ve never been one for social media so that part of the chapter didn’t resonate with me personally. But by way application, I will set aside some time this weekend and think carefully about where I look to find my value and meaning in life.

• Do I care too much about what other people think of me? 
• Have I rooted my identity too much in the work that I do instead of in my status as a child of God? 
• Are there subtle ways in which I am attempting to earn God’s favor through my actions instead of resting in the finished work of Christ?
• What are the areas of my life right now where I am needlessly anxious and what would it look like to rest fully in Christ?

How about you? Did you like this chapter? Did you get the same things out of it that I did? What did you see that I missed?

Have a blessed weekend. Enjoy the rest that is yours because of Christ.

Pastor Jason