Holding on to the Birthright (Genesis 25:29–34; Hebrews 12:7, 16–17)

There was once a boy  named Paolo. Paolo’s parents worked hard to give their children decent lives and education. The father always told his children that their education is the only thing they could leave them, for they owned no property or business. Soon, Paolo had a girlfriend. And because he wanted to prove that he was a real man to his friends, Paolo slept with her. The girlfriend got pregnant. Because he didn’t want to shame his father further, he married his girlfriend to give their child a proper family. But to support his new family, Paolo had to stop schooling to look for a job. Because of his pride and his desire to fit in, he lost the only inheritance his parents could leave to him.

            How many of us are like Paolo? How many of us give up what is good because of the pressures of this life? The pressure to belong? The pressure to conform? The pressure to provide? The pressure to please others? The pressure to survive?

Esau despised his birthright (Genesis 25:29–34)

Esau was the firstborn of the twin sons of Isaac. As such, he was sole heir of everything his father owned. Moreover, he was second-in-command to Isaac over the whole estate. On top of all that, he is to be heir to the covenant promises that God made to Abraham passed down to Isaac, despite the fact that Abraham had seven other children (Genesis 25:1–2, 5–6).

On Eagles’ Wings (Isaiah 40)

A few years ago, a good friend of mine shared one of her favorite verses to me when I texted her about my troubles: Isaiah 40:31. I was encouraged by that. Now, in the midst of my current personal problems, I revisited that verse and went backwards seeking how is it that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

A prophecy of comfort

Isaiah 40 is a message of God for His people who are exiled into Babylon. It speaks of the forgiveness of God (v.2), and the coming of God Himself for which repentance is needed (vv. 3-5), as fulfilled with the coming of Christ as heralded by John the Baptist. It is meant to comfort them in their troubles. But how is the message comforting?

True love waits with enough oil (Matthew 25:1–13)

 Introduction

With all of the hoopla of the failed prophecy of Harold Camping and his Family Radio ministry (May 21, 2011, the End of the World? 'Judgment Days' That Have Come and Gone - ABC News), I am reminded of this message I delivered in June 2009. I eagerly await for Messiah Yeshua. May He come soon, even now....

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Who among you here would like to see Jesus now? Who among you here would want Jesus to come back now, and reign for all eternity? Why not? Let us look at a parable that addresses this situation.

The coming of the groom is a time of joy (v. 1)

Who among you here have relatives or loved ones abroad? When you receive news that they are coming here for a visit, what do feel? Do we not feel excited that this loved one is coming? And because that person is coming, what do we do? Do we not prepare the room where she will stay, plan where we could take her, clean up the house, plan the meals?

Let’s take it one notch higher. To the men who are married, do you still remember the time when you waited for your bride at the altar, and the great joy you felt when you saw her walking down the aisle towards you? For the wives, do still remember your arrival, and as you enter, you see the man you are to marry waiting for you at the altar? How did you feel? How different did it feel from when you were just meeting for a date?

This is the kind of anticipation that the virgins, who were the bridesmaids, were experiencing. They were excited! Maybe the bride is their close friend or relative, maybe even a sister. And they were excitedly waiting for the man who will marry her and so complete her joy. The groom is not coming for an accounting, nor for judgment, but for love and a celebration of that love that is to be joined. This is a happy occasion, not a fearful one.

Weddings in the time of Jesus

To help us better understand the situation, let us look at the marriage practices of the time of Jesus. During that time, marriages were arranged by the parents of both the groom and the bride. The man may have chosen the bride, but it is the parents who do the negotiations. Then they are betrothed and they are wed soon after. On the night of the wedding, the groom and his groomsmen leave his house and parade to the bride’s house, where the wedding ceremony takes place. Then they all go to the groom’s home where the celebrations will be held. The wedding celebration lasts for three days up to a week, depending on how long the newlyweds can supply food and wine to the guests. All this during a time of great oppression; weddings are a welcome break from the hard life, and here the people really have a good time.

            Here, we can see a parallelism with our own relationship with Christ. Christ is the bridegroom, and we the Church is His bride. We are now betrothed to Him and we are His, but He has yet to come to claim us fully. And when He does, it is a celebration of cosmic proportions.

The bridesmaids sleep (vv. 2–4)

There are two kinds of bridesmaids here: the wise who packed extra oil and the foolish who did not pack. The foolish are those who are so excited about the coming of the groom they cannot think of anything else.

But the wise are those who are also excited, but are realistic enough to see what could happen and prepared themselves. By packing extra oil, they are in effect saying, “We are here for the groom no matter how long it takes.”

            Looking at the wise bridesmaids, did they prepare out of duty, or obligation, or out of love? I honestly believe it is out of love that they have done so, love for the bride whom they serve, and for the groom whom they wait for. Isn’t it that we would go to great lengths for those we love without even a second thought?

            But the bridegroom was delayed in coming. The excitement wears off and the bridesmaids — all of them — fell asleep. Waiting can get very boring, even when the one we are waiting for is someone we love. Similarly for us who wait for the coming of Christ, as the months and years pass, we cannot help but fall asleep. We get bored, frustrated, discouraged. We even fall into sin.

The bridegroom comes (vv. 6–13)

The groom and his party finally comes, parading to the bride’s home for the ceremony. Thus the arrival would be announced. The bridesmaids get up and trim their lamps to light the way for the groom and his groomsmen. But they all saw that their lamps were going out. The wise take out the oil they packed and refilled their lamps. The foolish ones asked for some from the wise but the wise only packed enough for their own lamps. So they went off to buy from the dealers (At midnight?! Good luck!). While the foolish were gone, the groom and his party arrived and the wise were there to meet them. They performed the wedding ceremony and they all left for the groom’s home where they celebrated, and the doors were shut. The foolish bridesmaids, after finally getting some extra oil, proceeded to the groom’s home but he does not know them, since they were not there to meet him.

            In the same way, it is not those who “prayed to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior” who will be saved, but it is those whom He sees are trusting Him as their Savior and are following and obeying Him as their Lord when He returns. It is those who love Him so much that they eagerly await His coming and wish it was now, but they are also ready for a long wait, coming into a closer relationship with Him in spirit through prayer and the Word, and working hard in the tasks that He has entrusted to them. 

            Notice that I put the relationship first, for it is this relationship that drives us to work hard and faithfully for Him. It is our love for Him as manifest in our desire and preparedness for His coming that is important. It is not that we are perfect when He arrives, but that we are working to become like Him. And if we do not want to do this, if we don’t feel like preparing for His coming or, worse, we don’t want Him to come yet, we had better take a long hard look at our relationship with Him and what He really means to us.

Challenge

As we partake of the Lord’s Table, let us remember what Christ did for us on the cross so that we could freely come into His presence now and have fellowship with Him in the Spirit. Let us also remember that, as we eat of the bread and drink of the cup, we are having a taste of the heavenly banquet that Christ promised He would eat with us when He returns. It will be a celebration like no other, for it will be a celebration of the greatest love finally fulfilled!


*Preached as a sermon on 7 June 2009 at Jesus Christ Our Hope And Redeemer church, San Mateo, Rizal

When Unity Goes Bad

Every time there is a crisis or calamity, people often unite to help those in need or to make a strong stand against evil in our society. When the earthquakes occurred in New Zealand and Japan, people from all over the world united to help those affected. Even during our own crises like Ondoy, people united to bring relief to the victims. United peoples toppled repressive governments in Egypt, Eastern Europe and our very own country the Philippines. But unity can also be a bad thing. A united people, if not under God, will only be successful in bringing destruction upon themselves. Let us look at what happens to a people if they are united in rebelling against God.

The Story of Babel: Why did God Scatter Them?

The descendants of Noah began to move out into the new world. When they found a good land, they decided to settle there. Having one language, they came to an agreement to build a city where they will live and a tower to make themselves great. Then God saw what they were doing and said that in their unity they are able to do this, then nothing will be impossible for them. So He confused their languages and they scattered all over the world.

For the longest time this story troubled me. Why did God confuse the people when they were on the verge of doing something great? Was God insecure? Was God being a bossy lord where He is forcing people to follow Him or else? The people were not hurting anyone! They were just making life easier for themselves; is that sinful? The key is in what they built and what they built it for.

The tower is like a huge pyramid and is meant to be their stairway to heaven.


Ziggurat of Ur photo from http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/759360

But this is not a stairway to reach God. No, this stairway was for something else entirely. The best description for their motive of building the tower can be found in Isaiah 14:13–14. This motivation to reach heaven is born out of the root of the very first sin (Genesis 3:5). They were not trying to reach God; they were trying to become God. They want to have dominion over the earth by means of this tower. They want to rule over the earth apart from God. And if they succeed in building this tower, God saw that whatever they plan to do they can accomplish. And since every inclination of their hearts is evil, even after the flood (Genesis 8:21), the “great things” that they are able to accomplish will also be corrupt. And by these accomplishments, they may very well destroy themselves and the rest of the world with them. And God, in His goodness, will not allow that to happen.

Modern-day Towers of Babel

Yet Man still continues to build his tower that reaches up to heaven, even to this very day. We see nations united in their production of oil which gives them control over such resources. Oil production brings fuels to power our generators and fuel our vehicles, but also pollute our air to the point of creating global warming, disrupting our weather patterns and bringing about floods and droughts in various parts of the world. Scientists united to create energy by splitting atoms and thus nuclear power is generated. From there, electricity is produced in many developed countries, but at the same time provided the material for weapons that could destroy the world many times over. Academics and philosophers united to push the idea that there is no God and there is no absolute moral truth, and thus we see our world steadily sliding into chaos. Government officials united to create a culture of corruption in government designed to enrich those in power, but plunged the nation into widespread poverty and social injustice. This is what happens when people are united in their pursuit to become gods themselves.

But what of we who profess to know the Truth? We ourselves have built our own cities and erected our own towers. Just like those people who, by staying in one place, went against God’s purpose for people to fill the earth, we too have become comfortable in our own “saved” place and will not move from where we sit. Just like Peter who, upon seeing Christ in all His glory wanted to stay where he was to enjoy that glory for himself (Matthew 17:4), we are content to keep our Christianity within the walls of our churches instead of incarnating Christ to the unbelieving world. We are only Christians among Christians in church, but outside we are no different from everybody else. We who are meant to be the salt of the earth would rather stay inside the saltshaker. Even in our prayers, more often than not we seek to make God conform to our will instead of seeking His will and asking for whatever we need to fulfill that will. And often, we mistakenly claim His promise that “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20) without first seeking His will and thus be truly coming together in His name. Otherwise, in coming together with our own agendas, we are building our own spiritual tower reaching up to heaven with the express purpose of bending God’s will to conform to ours. Even if we are united in our fellowship and in our prayers, it is still God’s will that will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Challenge: The Example of Christ

Christ, who could have just stayed in heaven, came to earth and became like us in every way except sin. He showed us how it is to be like God by walking with God. And He who was without sin died on the cross so that we who sin could have life where we need not sin anymore. We need not build towers to reach the heavens because heaven came down when Christ was lifted up on that cross, suspended between heaven and earth. If Christ is truly in us, we need not build cities for us to be united, for Christ Himself is our unity. And wherever we go we will never be alone for Christ is ever with us (Matthew 28:20). And wherever there are fellow believers, we can find a home. Let us then stop building towers that reach up to heaven, but instead build our houses upon the Rock who is Christ, and be united that we might be a temple where dwells the Living God.

(Message given at Jesus Christ Our Hope and Redeemer Church, San Mateo, Rizal, 3 April 2011)

Stewardship: The First Command

What is the first command given by God to human beings? We can find this in Genesis 1:28 where God commands humans upon being created:

1. Be fruitful
2. Increase in number
3. Fill the earth
4. Subdue it
5. Rule over all other creatures

These commands can be encapsuled into two general commands:

1. Be fruitful
2. Be in control

The role of humans is repeated in Psalm 8:4-8. Humans are meant to be stewards — lord-servants — of creation, rulers and managers of the whole created order as representative of God, the image of God. The invisible God is visible in His physical creation through His image. God rules over the earth through Man.

Fall of Man brought mismanagement

When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they did not lose their being as the image of God, that is, the mandate to be fruitful and rule; but they do so now under Satan, and thus the whole of creation was cursed. They were called to be fruitful, but they are now unable to be because they now have a corrupt sense of what being fruitful means. They are called to be in control, but they are now unable to control because they have a corrupt sense of what being in control means.

And as they were, so are we.

We are called to be fruitful, but we are unable to be because they now have a corrupt sense of what being fruitful means. We usually think of fruitfulness in terms of numbers: How much money we have, how many people have we shared the Gospel with, how many friends we have on FB, how many church members we have, how many gadgets we have, how many…, how much…. Thus we think we are being fruitful, but we produce no fruit in the things that really matter: good relationships with others, an unblemished name, changing of lives, a preserved ecosystem, justice, mercy, the things that God values.

We are called to be in control, we are unable to control because we have a corrupt sense of what being in control means. We usually think that being in control means the freedom to do what we want, when we want, how we want. So we indulge. And then we find that what we want has enslaved us to the point that we can no longer do anything other than “what we want,” as any addict will attest.

In addition, we often sacrifice one for the other. In our desire for more fruit, we sacrifice control, like the student who spends long hours studying to graduate with honors only to later find that she is getting sick from over-fatigue, alienated from her friends and family because of her withdrawn and irritable disposition, and depressed because of lack of sleep. Or the control freak team leader who wants to do everything himself, only to find himself hated by his team and their project in ruins.

Redemption of Man and Man’s original purpose

The good news is God the Son came and became the Son of Man that He might reclaim for the rest of humanity the purpose that was lost at the Fall. When Christ was crucified, our greed for false fruit and our lust for control was crucified with Him. And when He rose from the dead, these stayed dead. So if we choose to follow Him, we are free to be fruitful and rule over creation in His name, as we are designed to be. For if we died with Him, we will rise with Him and reign with Him who is the Son of Man (2 Timothy 2:11-12).

Christian Stewardship: fulfilling the first command by obeying the first commandment

But the full redemption of creation is still yet to come, and perverted fruitfulness and dominion still plague this world. How then can we be good stewards of everything that God has given us? First, we have to know Whose stewards we are. We have to acknowledge that it was God who gave us authority over everything, but our management has to be according to His will and to fulfill His purpose: the redemption of all creation. But to manage and bear fruit according to His will, we must know what His will is. And to know what His will is, we have to know who He is and for what His heart beats. And the only way to know this is to love Him. Thus the first greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and have no other.

But how does loving God make us better stewards? One of God’s favorite images for His desired relationship with His people is that of a groom with his bride. Anyone who has loved can tell you that it is a pleasure and a privilege to seek knowing what would make the beloved happy, and do those things, just to see that happiness. In the same way, loving God creates in us a desire to make Him happy, to do things His way, to be more like Him. Our view of time, money, resources, and people will shift closer to how He views them. Our sense of fruitfulness will conform to His purposes, and we will see our authority over creation as a trust that He has given to us.

But how can we love Him? If we are honest, we are like Theresa of Avila who prayed, “I don’t love You. I don’t even want to love You. But I want to want to love You.” If we want to want to love God, we have to acknowledge that we can’t do it. But if we really want to, God Himself provides the way: “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) We are to receive His love, feel His love and let it overwhelm us. Look to the Cross and feel the love that would and did give all. Only then are we able to know Him, love Him, love others and this world as He does, and thus be the stewards that He intended us to be. Only then can it be said that we are made in the image of God.


Note: This message was given at the 6th College Summer Break Camp held by Passionate Community for Christ, Inc. (PCCI) last April, 2011 at Ifugao academy, Kiangan, Ifugao Province. I got some of the insights from Dr. Melba Maggay's talk on "Christian Writers as Channels of Social Transformation." during the Christian Writers' Fellowship last Feb. 25, 2011.