Archive | Matt W Cook

June 30, 2010

What Makes a Good Sermon

I’m always a little sad when I see that sermons are starting to get weeded out of most people’s spirituality. I mean, I agree that sermons and listening to sermons should never be the main part of your Jesus-life, but I think they have a place. Or, at least, a use.

I’ve always liked good sermons. And I enjoy preaching them. But, as much as I like good sermons, bad ones kill me. And if they kill me, I often wonder what people are going through when I preach a bad one. So I started to think, what makes a good sermon?

A good sermon is exciting. I don’t think excitement is optional when we are discussing Jesus. If you can discuss the Jesus-life and Jesus himself without a raised pulse, then you’re doing a lecture, rather than a sermon. Jesus is exciting. People who think he’s boring have only heard boring people talk about him.

A good sermon makes me want to be a better person. If I walk away from a sermon the exact same person I was when I walked in, I have to wonder why I went. Sermons are tools to prod us on to doing wild Jesus-filled things. They aren’t lectures on impersonal metaphysics.

A good sermon is true. It’s a poor preacher that has to lie to get his listeners to do what he wants. A good preacher only wants his listeners to fall more in love with Truth and to live it.

A good sermon is honest. People can smell hypocrisy a mile away. Do you know what hypocrisy smells like? It smells like poo. And when people think of your sermons, you don’t want them thinking about poo. Trust me.

A good sermon is clear. Preachers gain no points in being vague or aloof. No one thinks you’re smart because you know words like supralapsarianism. The preacher’s goal is to communicate divine messages. Not to impress.

A good sermon may rock the boat. The sermon on the mount rocked the boat. Just because everyone nods theirs heads and mumbles ‘amen’ does not mean the sermon is of any use. A good sermon changes people and makes the world a better place. And to do that, it may need to rock the boat a little.

What do you think makes a good sermon?

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June 28, 2010

As You’d Be Done By

So as Jesus is closing off his famous sermon he encourages us to do to others whatever we’d have them do to us. And he backs it up by saying that this wild ethic is the embodiment of the Law and Prophets (which, I imagine, would have bothered the religious people listening).

It got me thinking about how I’d like other people to treat me. If I could work my way in the world and dictate how people treated me, I think my list of demands would look something like this:

Love me. Give me attention when I want it. Give me affection. Show me respect. Speak of me in a positive way.

Help me. Bend over backwards to help me whenever I need it. Support and encourage me and my wild ideas with consistently positive energy. Heal me when I hurt and own my dreams.

Empathize with me. Rejoice when I rejoice. Weep when I weep. Do your best to see things from my point of view, even when you disagree with me.

Pretty selfish list, eh? But I guess that’s the point. If you were to make a list it might look different from mine in some point, but the basic foundation would be the same. We want the world to revolve around us. That’s just the way it is.

And so, when Jesus tells us to treat others the way we want to be treated, it’s a pretty tall deal. That list is no longer and expectation or a hope to be called on from others. It’s a model of how I should treat those I am in contact with.

Thank you, Jesus, for such a wild ethic that proves you’re different from everyone else!

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June 25, 2010

How to Get to Heaven According to Jesus

How do you get to heaven? How do you get to God? How do you get mercy and forgiveness? How do you get whatever it is that our hearts are yearning for? Jesus knows. He’s clever about stuff like that.

Be born from above (John 3:3). The classic answer to the age-old question. And it’s still a good one. Be new. Be new from above. Change.

Be spiritually destitute (Matthew 5:3). Not nearly so classic, but it’s still what Jesus said. It’s neat that he doesn’t say the kingdom of heaven is for people who know they are poor in spirit, but for those who simply are. Only the spiritually impoverished are eligible for what Jesus has to offer. Only the broken. Only the screw-ups. Thank God for that.

Be pure in heart (Matthew 5:8). Is that all?

Be more righteous than religious people (Matthew 5:20). At first glance this seems tough. I mean, look at all the stuff religious people do to stay righteous! But, when we take a first and second glance, we see that religious does not mean righteous. Religious does not mean good. In fact, I’m tempted to say that religion and righteousness are mutually exclusive.

Do the will of God (Matthew 7:21). And then Jesus went and lived a life that shone with the will of God. Thanks for the good example! I’ll need a hand with trying it out, though.

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, invite the homeless into your house (Matthew 25:31-40). This is one of those sayings where I want to say ‘Hold up, Jesus! That doesn’t sound like justification by faith! What do you mean by that?’ But I’m not really going to ask Jesus that. I think he’d rather me assume that he meant what he said. I know I like it when people assume I mean what I say. I figure I ought to extend the same courtesy to Jesus.

Obey the commandments, sell your stuff, follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-21). Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. What am I supposed to do with this one? I want to say that you were joking with this guy! I want to say that you were trying to be really subtle and, in your subtlety, didn’t actually mean what you said. But how can I say that? I cannot assume that you would be so subtle as to mean something other that what you said, can I?

Go through Jesus (John 14:6). Jesus is the enabler. He’s not the obstacle in the way. He’s the unlocked door. He’s the moving staircase. He’s how you get there. Yay for that.

There’s more, y’know. Jesus talked about how to be spiritually successful a lot. I wonder if all the different way he talked about it are really just the one way looked at from different points of view. In my circles we focus on rebirth and belief. But what is rebirth if there is no re-lifestyle to prove it? Maybe feeding the poor is a part of rebirth. Maybe shedding the superfluous is the arm of faith.

But do you know what he never said? He never said to invite him into your heart. He never suggested to pray a prayer and sign a card. No matter how you slice it or define it, the Jesus way is a lifestyle, not a conversion. It may look like a conversion. It may start with a conversion. But, following the language Jesus used, it’s something that starts and lasts and grows and moves until we die.

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June 11, 2010

Statement of Faith[fulness]

I was a bit of a punk in Bible college. If you knew me well during that time you’d probably agree. I was high on theology, I think. My drug of choice was Calvinism mixed with a bias against anything popular. Not so good, looking back.

Whenever I was introduced to a new ministry or organization I would look it up in order to decide whether I liked it or not. How would I make that choice? Was it by looking at what they did? Was it by finding out how they had made a difference in the world? No, of course not. It was by checking out their statement of faith. The closer it was to what I had already decided was true (I had all of theology figured out back then) the better I liked it.

I look back at all that and I realize I was looking at the wrong things. I wonder, now, how I could have possibly thought that a statement of faith would have been able to tell me anything useful about a group or person. Isn’t a life of faithfulness better than being right about the inner working of the Trinity? So I had an idea. Instead of making a statement of faith for our lives, why don’t we make our lives statements of faithfulness?

A Statement of Faithfulness:

We will be born again from above and strive to be filled with the Spirit, as he was filled with the Spirit (John 3:5-8).

We will live a life of service, as he lived a life of service (Matthew 20:28).

We will lay down our lives to benefit others, as he laid down his life to benefit others (Mark 10:45).

We will love God with every fiber of our being, as he loved God (Matthew 22:37).

We will love our neighbours in the same measure and fervency as we love ourselves, as he loved his neighbours (Matthew 22:39).

We will live out the Sermon on the Mount, as he lived out his own preaching (Matthew 5-7).

We will shun religion, as he shunned religion (Matthew 12:1-8).

We will salt (preserve) the world, as he salted the world (Matthew 5:13).

We will identify with the scum and outcasts of society, as he identified with the scum and outcasts (Luke 7:34).

We will agree that anyone not against us is for us, just as he said (Mark 9:40).

We will forgive all and hold grudges against none, just as he forgave while being murdered (Luke 23:34).

We will assume suffering is normative, just as he assumed it to be normative (John 15:20).

We will live simply, just as he lived simply (Matthew 8:20).

We will rejoice with the rejoicers and weep with the weepers, just as he was also empathetic (John 11:35).

We will make disciples, not converts, just as he made disciples (Matthew 23:15).

We will refuse to commercialize or politicize this lifestyle, as Jesus also refused (John 6:15).

We will turn no one away, as he turned away no one (John 6:37).

We will pray long and hard, as he prayed long and hard (Luke 6:12).

After praying, we will serve long and hard, as he served long and hard.

We will take and make opportunities to attack injustice and hypocrisy and make things better, as he also did (Luke 11:37-38).

We will be Spirit-filled and wild, as he was Spirit-filled and wild (John 3:8).

We will make no apologies and will not conform to what the world or what religion demands of us, just as he refused to conform.

Instead of working hard to find the right words to explain what we believe, I want to work hard to live out what I believe.

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June 9, 2010

When It’s Not a Heart Matter

Okay, so Jesus is giving his sermon and he says some pretty wild stuff. One of the wild things was that you can be guilty of cheating on your spouse without actually doing anything physical with anyone else. How so? If you do it in your heart, he says, you did it. He says all sorts of other things in the same vein. Jesus focused on the intentions of the heart in a way that revolutionized ethics forever. His cry was not just ‘serve God and help your neighbour.’ It was ‘love God and love your neighbour.’ Wild, eh?

But is it possible to focus on the heart too much?

Jesus said, “If someone hits you, let him do it again.” How should we take that? Well, obviously it means that we ought to have an attitude of peace and love even in the face of people who are mean to us. Right? It is, after all, a heart issue. Right? So much of a heart issue, in fact, that I don’t really need to do what Jesus is suggesting here, so long as my heart is in the right place. And the same goes for his idea that we should help thieves rip us off, give to every bum who asks from us and become new people. Right? Right?

So, give to whoever asks = Have a giving spirit (actual giving optional).
Don’t retaliate = Have a non-retaliatory heart (and retaliate if you feel the need).
Be born again = Be willing to become a new kind of person (and it will happen in some intangible, non-real kinda way).
Love your neighbour in the same way you love yourself = Love him internally (little outward action necessary).

Does any of this make any sense?

Can I actually say, when the dude on the street asks me for money, ‘I gave him money in my heart, just like Jesus told me to’? Only if I can say, after being caught cheating on my wife, that I didn’t really do it because I didn’t do it in my heart.

Not a chance – it’s not just about the heart. When Jesus gathered the people together and separated the accepted from the rejected he didn’t say to the accepted:

Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, for I was hungry, and in your heart you gave me food, I was a stranger, and in your heart you welcomed me in…Whatever you did in your heart to the least of these, you did in your heart to me.

And he didn’t say to the rejected:

Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry, and you did not feed me in your heart, I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me in your heart…Whatever you didn’t do in your heart to the least of these, you did not do it to me.

The focus on the heart was meant to spur us on to deeper good works, not give us a cop-out.

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May 24, 2010

Revisiting the Wolves

I’m working through a preaching series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And so I have read it more than a few times over the past few months. And nearly every time I go through it I am blown away. Pick it up, read it through. Matthew 5-7. It’ll only take a few minutes.

Wild, eh? It’s so clear and simple and sharp. Its scandalous ethic embodies love to such a perfect measure that I have never heard a sermon that referenced it without trying to weaken it.

Yes, Jesus said we shouldn’t go to church if we know we have relationship problems that need fixing, but since our bodies are the gifts we lay at the altar, that doesn’t really apply to us.
Yes, Jesus said that we should turn the other cheek, but since he mentioned being slapped on the right cheek [insert poorly researched and irrelevant cultural info], he didn’t really mean it.
Yes, Jesus said to give to whoever asks of us, but since one of his allegorical parables involved people taking care of money, we don’t actually need to do it.

On and on it goes. I’m no theologian, but it almost seems like an attack on the direct and simple teachings of Jesus, eh?

The neat thing is what he said near the end, and I’ve already alluded to it on this blog. False prophets and fruit.

Picture this: Jesus has just finished unpacking and defining his ethic in the simplest, plainest language possible. The only way to screw this up is to have serious vested interests. He anticipates, I think, that others will hear the sermon and spread / explain it (as if it needed any explaining!). And so he gives us this criteria by which we can tell if someone is really on board with him or not. Fruit. Outworkings. The stuff you see.

Apply that to the sermon and what do we have?

A man claiming to speak for God is a liar if his ethic does not match up with Jesus’.

I’m not suggesting, of course, that if we’re not perfect we’re false prophets. I’m suggesting that when we explain away and neuter the direct, simple and honest ethics of Jesus, we are false prophets. Wolves. Diseased. Blood-thirsty. Very very bad.

Is that scary? I think so. It’s scary because it’s so very subtle.

The wolves are dressed like sheep! You can tell if someone is off-base instantly if his off-based-ness is due to a wild and incorrect philosophy. But when the philosophy and doctrine is right but the ethic is off you can hardly ever tell.

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May 17, 2010

Barking

Have you ever looked up the definition for cynic? The origin of the word is related to dog. Woof woof.

I used to be a cynic. A certain part of it still lives in me, though I honestly try to kill it. A cynic, I think, is generally a pessimistic person who assumes the worst for everyone. You know, the kind of guy who is certain that everyone is motivated by they own greed and self-interest and protests against it in a very contemptuous way. As much as I loved my time at Bible college, I think it made me quite cynical.

I don’t think cynics ever change the world, as much as they’d like to. They’re too…mean. They’re too pessimistic. They’re too unlike Jesus, who advocated for wild optimism (see Matthew 7:7-8). The key to changing the world, I think, lies in lifestyle. Unconventional living wins over cynical remarks.

Why unconventional living works better than cynicism.

Cynicism has its roots in anger. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but either is used in anger, they only hurt the wielder. You cannot be a cynic without being angry. Yes, there is a time for anger, but cynicism is born and nursed on anger and anger alone. Lifestyle, though, is multi-faceted and pregnant with much more power than angry rhetoric can muster.

Cynicism is impotent. First, it cannot change the world because the cynical man is too cynical to lift a hopeful finger to help. Second, cynicism never converts anybody. Few people comes to care about things because someone called them names and used angry words about it. Change is inspired through life. The pen is not mightier than a living example.

Cynicism is toxic. It’s hard to hang out with the cynical because nothing is good to them. Cynicism is rooted in pessimism and its only happy when its ranting. The cynical mindset poisons everything, expanding and growing until there is nothing sound left in the world. It kills where is spreads. Lifestyle, though, gives new hope and life wherever is spreads. It’s unfortunate that it’s harder to give it root.

Cynicism destroys work ethic. This is because it’s so damned easy (I use that word literally). Anyone can be a cynic just like anyone can be a critic. All you need is a little dissatisfaction. Lifestyle breeds discipline, because it forces you to work for the glory you yearn for.

Cynicism is arrogant. To be a cynic you need to assume everyone out there is motivate by pure self-interest. Except for you, of course. You and the people you look up to. But everyone else is evil. Lifestyle refuses to comment on the complex inner workings of others because it recognizes that my own inner workings are complex. Why would anyone else’s be less so?

Cynics are not happy people. How can you be happy when you’re the only sane person in the world? How can you enjoy life when it’s full of crap? When there is no tangible hope? But living the change you want to see brings joy because fruit does come.

Cynicism is mostly barking at a problem. Teeth bared, ears flattened. Lots of noise. Lots of disturbance. Lifestyle is walking up to the problem, calmly and quietly, and taking a big bite.

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May 14, 2010

Bad Grapes

False prophets. It sounds so scary, eh? The Old Testament says they should be killed. The New Testament isn’t much easier on them. They seem pretty bad.

How do you tell someone is a false prophet? Most religious folks would say something like ‘anyone who teaches something about God that is not true.’ But I’ve never really been satisfied with that, have you? To me, God is just too … mysterious. He’s hard to pin down.

Example:
Is God omnipotent? Yes! Of course! In fact, why would you even ask a question like that?
Can God forgive sins without the shedding of blood? No. Of course not. Yet another question that you shouldn’t ask!
So is he still omnipotent even though he can’t forgive without killing something first? Uhh… Suddenly things are a little to complicated to be angry about certain disagreements.

But who am I to argue for false prophets?

And then I caught what Jesus said during his sermon.

Beware of false prophets … You will recognize them by their fruits.

I’ll be honest, that threw me for a loop. I always thought that false prophets were false because of their bad doctrine. But Jesus suggests that they are false and dangerous because of their bad fruit. That puts preachers and teachers and leaders into a whole new light.

Back in KLBC, I had a list. It was my mighty list of things that itinerate preachers needed to say / not say in order for me to be willing to listen to them. Basically they had to say good things about people like Calvin, Piper, Edwards and every puritan while saying bad things about Wilkinson, popular worship music, popular books and anything else that was popular and/or new. That was how I judged whether someone was a false prophet or not. Pretty crappy list, eh?

But if the best way to decide if someone is worth following is by his fruits, then we have a totally different list. It looks something like this:

Is the leader:

Loving

Joyful

Peace-making

Patient

Kind

Good

Faithful

Gentle

Self-controlled

Just a few verses after Jesus points to this new list, he mentions how it’s going to be on the last day, and it throws everything into sharp perspective. He’s got people all around him, people who did mighty and famous works and prophecies. And Jesus rejects them all. Why? They were not nice people.

On the last day, why do I suppose that Jesus will ask us to sign a statement of faith? Why do we think that we will get in based on how close our thoughts of God are to the infinite truth? Jesus never, as far as I can tell, equated theological correctness with goodness. He said pick up your cross and follow. Not just pick up your cross and agree.

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