Pastor Jonah Sage preached on “What We Love” in our Orientation series. He said that we love truth, beauty, and goodness because they lead us to God.
Pastor Jonah Sage preached on “What We Love” in our Orientation series. He said that we love truth, beauty, and goodness because they lead us to God.
We all say we love truth, very few people walk around saying they prefer lies and delusion
But when was the last time you thanked someone for correcting you?
Or how do you typically respond when someone has a different point of view?
Do we not get defensive, or aggressive, or critical?
This is where the Christian claims around truth become so fascinating and personal.
We love the truth for those people out there, but most of us squirm when it's pointed at us. What does it mean to love the truth, then?
Loving the truth means knowing the PLACE of truth
WHERE is truth? WHO does truth belong to?
John 18 helps us answer this question. Jesus is on trial for his life. Pilate asks Jesus if he is in fact a king, and here's what Jesus says:
my Kingdom is not of this world...I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.
-John 18:36, 37
Perhaps most obviously, Jesus is showing us that truth exists outside of us.
Truth came from OUT THERE down here.
Truth is not something we make up.
Truth exists as an objective reality outside of us.
Learning 2+2=4 did not suddenly make it true; you just learned something that was true already.
Loving the truth means believing truth exists outside of yourself
What's more, Jesus said he came to reveal truth. Not only does truth exist outside of us, it does not belong to us, either.
Truth is something revealed to us, given to us, shown to us.
It's not something we invent or create, because truth does not belong to us.
Loving the truth means believing truth belongs to God
The PLACE of truth is God's hands. This necessarily shapes how we embody it.
If you notice, Jesus NEVER waters down the truth, is never embarrassed by it.
In this interaction with Pilate, he told him if he were an earthly king then his followers would rise up and fight. Jesus does not back down from the truth.
To love the truth is to be faithful to it regardless of circumstance or convenience.
Jesus could have back pedaled here to save his life, but he didn't.
We embody the truth with CONVICTION
Even though Jesus was steadfast in his convictions, do you notice he was never mean?
The only people Jesus was ever forceful with was RELIGIOUS PEOPLE acting like they knew everything.
Like Jesus, our CONVICTION must be married to HUMILITY.
We embody the truth with HUMILITY
Truth exists outside of us. It is revealed to us by God. Often in stages, and our ability to understand the truth develops over time.
This does not mean we go around assuming we are wrong about everything...
But it does mean we hold our positions loosely, generously, humbly.
If we have been given some truth, we must remember we have been GIVEN SOME
Given: it's a gift, revealed to us.
SOME: none of us are capable of holding the whole truth.
This will be important for us, because there are a lot of differences in this room.
Democrats are in this room. And democrats are right. Sometimes.
Did you know that? If you don't know that, then you don't love the truth, you love your side.
Republicans are in this room. And the republicans are right. Sometimes.
Did you know that? Again, if you didn't, you don't love the truth, you love your side.
We are not a republican or democrat church. We are a KINGDOM church.
And if the truth belongs to God, then we can rejoice whenever and WHEREVER God's truth shows up, even if it's from a democrat and even if it's from a republican.
This is another reason we recite the Nicene Creed every week. These are the most important truths revealed to us, and these are the truths we will embody with conviction and humility.
For Jesus, the truth was never an abstract principle, it was always a personal invitation.
At Sojourn, we believe that Christianity is not a list of beliefs
At Sojourn, we believe the truth is a person, and the invitation of truth is to follow a person, Jesus.
For Jesus, truth exists in service of relationships
To love the truth means we wield truth for the sake of relationships
Which means we love the truth by pursuing Jesus together
To love the truth means we are honest about ourselves, we put our weak foot forward
To love the truth means we ask questions and listen well
We have a firm center, defined in the Nicene creed, and then we pursue greater knowledge and love together.
Loving the truth should never make us less like Jesus, which means loving the truth should never make us mean or harsh.
One of the ways we can understand what this means is by talking about our second value, BEAUTY.
A big word, what theologians call a summary attribute of God.
The closest synonym for beauty in the Bible is glory. What is glory? It's beauty.
Now what's fascinating about this is the way the Bible talks about beauty.
For us, beauty feels like a nice perk. When I have some money, I'll buy a beautiful painting. Or install beautiful landscaping. It seems like a nice thing when we can get around to it.
But for the Bible, nothing leads us to experience the presence of God like beauty.
It is not a bonus, it is a necessity.
In the Psalms, King David said there was one thing he wanted.
Most powerful man in the world, had access to anything his heart desired.
And listen to the one thing he wants most of all:
I'm asking God for one thing, only one thing: to live with him in his house my whole life long. I'll contemplate his beauty; I'll study at his feet.
-Psalm 27:4
Fascinating how David puts truth and beauty together.
What does he want? TO live with God. Be with him, in his presence.
What does that mean? Contemplate his beauty, learning more about him.
We think of beauty as physical attractiveness or ostentatious displays of wealth.
But that's not what the Bible means.
It sometimes talks about beauty as physical attractiveness, like 2 Sam 13
It's used to describe nature, Ecc 3, or cities, Ps 50.
It also describes the joy of loving God, Ps 29, Is 4 etc.
what is it, exactly, though?
3 words when you think of beauty:
Something is beautiful when it is excellent, attractive, and transforming.
Excellent means functioning according to its design.
Something is excellent when it does what it's supposed to do.
Your lawn is beautiful when you cut it just right, sip lemonade, and say "that's how you do it."
Fishing is beautiful when you hit that perfect cast and land a beautiful rainbow trout.
Beauty is excellent, functions according to its design.
Beauty is attractive, meaning it draws you in. Not that it looks good, it draws you in.
Have you ever been to an art gallery and seen a painting that stops you in your tracks?
Ever listened to a song and completely zoned out, engrossed in the song?
Ever watched a movie and lost all track of time?
Beauty draws you in and slows you down.
This is what David is saying. I want to come to you and behold you.
He wants to see the beauty of God, it's drawing him in.
And beauty is transformative. You cannot leave the presence of beauty unchanged
I went on a brutal hike in Colorado one time. Rocky, straight up, cold and snowy.
Surrounded by trees. Tripped several times. Cuts, bruises, elevation, exhaustion...
Guides kept saying "it'll be worth it, it'll be worth it..." so hard, so tiring.
And then the tree line broke. A little further, we went around an outcropping...
And behold, we could see the entire continental divide of the Rocky Mountains.
Suddenly, I felt refreshed. I felt alive. I wasn't thinking about my mosquito bites or sore quads...I was ALIVE. In the presence of beauty, I was transformed.
Fatigue was replaced with gratitude and hope.
Beauty is excellence that draws us in and changes us.
So, TRUTH is meant to lead us to experiences of BEAUTY
If you pursue truth to win, you'll only end up tired.
We cannot know all of the truth, because truth belongs to God!
If you pursue truth to win, you'll only end up alone.
Truth is meant to unite, heal, and transform, because truth is meant to lead us to God
David said he wanted to be with God his whole life.
That's how I felt on top of that mountain, like Peter at the transfiguration "let's just build houses here and stay forever!"
This is what is so profound about beauty:
Beauty brings deep contentment to the human soul
This is why you keep dreaming of a beach vacation
This is why you go to that restaurant that makes steak just the way you like it
This is why you bought a print of that painting, or planted those roses, or keep going back to that fishing hole
Because when you experience something beautiful, you are getting a taste of the presence of God.
This is what beauty does!
Beauty provides us with tangible experiences of God's presence
TRUTH leads you to read about the continental divide
And when you rightly understand it, truth moves you to experience the continental divide
Would you rather hear a lecture about the world's greatest cookie or take a bite?
Would you rather decorate your first child's nursery or hold your baby in your arms?
We were not created to simply think about God or study God.
We were created to EXPERIENCE God.
We were created for a relationship with God, and our souls will remain hungry until we find satisfaction in his beauty.
Psalm 135 says God's name is beauty.
Psalm 50 says the presence of God is the perfection of Beauty.
We love beauty here because we want to experience the presence of God.
Why did we labor over the shade of gray for the lobby? We love beauty.
So we picked a color that looks gray, green, and blue in different light.
Helps us subtly, indirectly experience some of what God is like.
Why did we redo the playground? Or take down chain link fences?
Why do we pay artists to make bulletin artwork?
Why do we pay extra for delicious locally roasted coffee?
Why do our musicians practice so hard to play such wonderful music?
Why do we plant gardens, partner with local farmers?
Why does one of our pastors make his own custom spice rub for the most perfect chicken you've ever eaten?
Why do our members wake up in the middle of the night to smoke a brisket for hours?
On and on we could go...we do this because we love beauty, we love beauty because we want to experience the presence of God.
Maybe this makes you feel a little out of place. "I'm not an artist" you're thinking.
Hear me, maybe for the first time: YOU ARE AN ARTIST!
I know this because you are made in the image of God, the most creative, abundant, generous artist of all time.
Art is the expression of human creativity and imagination
Historically, followers of Jesus saw themselves as cultivators, curators, and creators of beauty.
Anywhere human creativity and imagination is brought into the world, art is created.
Farmers, hunters, craftsmen, painters have all seen their work as art done for the Lord, providing the world with something beautiful to show them what God is like.
Christians have led the way in astronomy, mathematics, literature, and engineering.
Anywhere that requires human creativity and effort you will find an artist at work.
As writer Dorthy sayers once said:
The only Christian is work is good work well done.
-Dorothy Sayers, Why Work?
We all have an artist inside of us because we all bear God's image.
So, whatever that might mean for you, we cultivate beauty here.
We slow down and get curious around whatever it is we find beautiful.
And we celebrate beauty wherever it's found.
We are bloodhounds for beauty! Looking for it everywhere, JUST LIKE THE TRUTH, and just like the truth we celebrate beauty wherever it's found.
And perhaps the most practical way we do this is by becoming a people of GOODNESS.
Truth. Beauty. Goodness. All lead to each other, all require one another.
And just like beauty, GOODNESS is another big word that's hard to define.
And unfortunately, we have baggage around words the Bible uses to define goodness
But we love the truth, amen?
If you hear a word that sounds like a word someone you don't like uses...remember these are GOD'S words.
Our culture loves taking things God has given to us and twisting it to mean something else. So many examples.
But goodness, like beauty, is one of the core attributes of who God is.
Which means if we want to experience God, if we want to love truth and beauty, we must become well acquainted with these words.
Micah chapter 6 opens up with a heart broken God. Artists are sensitive, amen?
Like God, we feel deeply. And in a moment of heartache, God asks his family "what have i done for you to respond to me like this?
He rescued them, provided for them, and passionately loves them.
God's family is heart broken in response. They want to make it up to him.
They start throwing out wild ideas. We'll give you ten thousand rivers of oil! What?!
They even wonder if they should sacrifice their own children to God.
Something their neighbors did...maybe it will work for them?
We pray these kinds of things, don't we?
We make wild promises to God, we wonder what we must do to be with him again.
But God, like a good, patient father, says to them:
No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good
-Micah 6:8
No, I don't need elaborate sacrifices. Don't kill your children! Good grief!
He says I've told you what is good. He defines goodness for us
Goodness is what he's asking of us, and here's what it means:
Do what is right...love mercy...walk humbly with your God
-Micah 6:8
He has 3 words he uses to define goodness.
If you want to know how to love truth and love beauty, love these words.
These 3 words will lead us to truth and will fill the earth with beauty.
Goodness means JUSTICE
"Do what is right" is often translated as "justice" in English.
In the Bible, justice most simply means the proper ordering of society.
It's first a community word, not an individual word.
In other words, it's a relational word before it's a legal word in the Bible.
Biblical justice means honoring the inherent rights of every human as an image bearer of God.
Loving goodness means living a life of justice. The Bible uses this word almost exclusively to describe how we relate to the poor.
"Justice" means making sure the vulnerable, the oppressed, the people living subhuman lives, are treated with the dignity they deserve as God's image bearers.
It means making sure everyone is treated like a human.
What if we don't agree with them? Love justice.
What if they're mean to us? Love justice.
What if they're lazy or addicted? Love. Justice.
These words are meant to establish how people treat others, how we set up our societies and economies for the flourishing of ALL people.
Goodness means justice. Wherever we see injustice, the people of God go to work.
Goodness means justice, but that's not all it means.
Goodness means MERCY
Mercy is the posture of heart required for a just society to flourish.
Justice without mercy becomes cold and cruel. It becomes legal, not relational.
Before we can show someone mercy, we have to see them as a human made in God's image.
Before we can show someone mercy, we have to care about their circumstances.
We care about their circumstances because we love GOODNESS.
Whenever someone is treated unfairly, whether by an individual, a corporation, or a government, God's people say "THIS IS WRONG" and we take concrete steps towards justice.
Some people have found this incredibly bizarre at Sojourn over the years.
Because we think it's wrong when democrats devalue the lives of unborn children...and we think it's wrong when republicans put children in jail because they crossed the border without papers.
We are kingdom citizens who LOVE GOODNESS, we want Justice.
So when democrats have a just solution, we say thanks be to God!
When republicans have a just solution, we say thanks be to God!
We can do this if we are a people of mercy.
Listen to me: none of us want to get what we deserve.
If we all received what we deserved in this life, if all of our sins were brought to account...what a frightful, terrifying thought that would be.
Justice without mercy is a cold, cruel reality, but mercy without justice is meaningless!
We want both, and biblical justice requires both.
Goodness means mercy...but that's not all it means!
Goodness means humility.
Without humility we will look at those suffering and wonder what they did to deserve it.
Without humility, we will look at unjust situations and, at best, feel a slight sympathy.
Without humility, we will look at the good things in our lives and assume they are the fruit of our own individual efforts.
God has shown us through Micah that goodness means justice, mercy, and humility.
In Micah, the goodness of God is revealed through his rescue of Israel from Egypt.
Why did he do that? He loved them, and they were suffering injustice.
Corporate, government sponsored oppression and discrimination.
Goodness moved God to be merciful to the people suffering there.
And shortly after their rescue, they doubted God. Almost immediately.
They fantasized about returning to slavery.
When we forget WE NEED justice and mercy from God, we grow arrogant and self sufficient.
We turn to other Gods.
To walk humbly with God means we acknowledge we are limited creatures who both suffer injustice and perpetuate injustice.
To walk humbly with God means we are aware of our neediness.
And so we are a people who love justice and mercy as we pursue humility in our walks with God.
So what will this all look like for us...loving truth, beauty, and goodness.
Well...we want to be a GOOD church! There are two kinds of churches we will not be.
Good WORD churches prioritize words over people
These churches value doctrine and information above all else. This is not us.
Words like "justice" are an offense to these kinds of churches because they see acts of goodness as encouraging a works based salvation.
When people cry out for justice, these churches shout back "JUST PREACH THE GOSPEL!" What they mean is saying Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
That is true, he did, but that message is complete.
"Believe this personally and everything will work out" is not the message of Christ.
These churches elevate TRUTH above beauty and goodness.
Good-word churches create arrogant, rigid, uncaring people.
Good WORK churches prioritize people over words.
These churches value acts of service above all.
They'll say "preach the gospel at all times; use words when necessary."
They tend to think what you believe isn't so important, what you actually do is.
Your belief about any issue is not as important as how you treat people.
"Just do this. Work really hard. Everything will work out."
That's not the message of Jesus either!
Good work churches create deceived, passive, misleading people.
These churches elevate GOODNESS over truth and beauty.
We don't want to be a good word OR a good work church. Just a GOOD CHURCH.
A GOOD CHURCH marries good words with good works by embracing a whole gospel
Remember: what is the gospel?
The gospel is the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand
A real place that we want to experience in truth.
The Kingdom of God compels us to fulfill Jesus' great prayer: God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
How will that happen? Through Christian's living lives of goodness!
The Kingdom mandate makes us a people of justice and mercy.
How is this possible?
We are adopted into the Kingdom of God through the CROSS of Jesus Christ: his life, death, and resurrection
This new life is given to us. We receive it as a gift through Jesus.
So what we believe about Jesus, what we say about Jesus, and what we say about what he said, is VITALLY important!
We want to know the TRUTH about who Jesus is.
And we believe that loving the TRUTH will lead us to lives of goodness
We don't elevate words over people or people over words, they are interdependent, necessary parts of what we live.
Why would God give his son's life for us?
God adopts us because of his extravagant love for us. It is by GRACE we are saved.
And what would we call this kind of love if not BEAUTIFUL?
What is our mission as a church? REACH. BUILD. SEND.
How will we accomplish this? By rooting ourselves in our great loves:
Truth, beauty, and goodness.
Let's pray