[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to the collective table, where we celebrate the intersections of Jesus, justice, and joy.
This podcast is brought to you by Oceanside Sanctuary Church. Each week, we bring our listeners a recording of our weekly Sunday teaching at Oceanside Sanctuary, which ties scripture into the larger conversations happening in our community, congregation, and even the podcast. So we're glad you're here, and thanks for listening.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: All right, good morning. Welcome to OcEanside Sanctuary. For those of you who are new, my name is Jason, one of the co pastors here at OSC, and we have been going through a teaching series that we have called setting collective tables. Sort of general theme that has been tying this teaching season together is how we are learning to set tables for people who are different than us. That it just might be possible that in our culture and our society today, that we are struggling to relate to people who are different than we are, that we might be struggling to not judge people who don't think the same way we do, don't believe, you know, religious things the same way that we do, who might vote differently than we do, that this is contributing to a significant amount. Okay, just on the record, Janelle just brought me a cup of coffee, and that is. I don't want you to think that that's a normal thing. Like, I don't make Janelle bring me coffee, but it is often the opposite. That's true. Thank you very much.
Yes. Okay. Anyway, where was I? So, obviously, a sense of division, a sense of judgment, a sense of even the willingness to do violence, seems to be a problem for us in our culture. Increasingly so and so, we've sort of asked the question, what would it mean for us to set tables where we were willing to encounter differences, where we're willing to interrogate what it is about ourselves or our beliefs, our way of seeing the world that are contributing to those issues? And so this goes hand in hand with our podcast season. We have a new ish podcast called the Collective Table, and we've been talking through these same themes a little bit more conversationally. But today, I want to continue this series by taking a look at what fragmentation or division looks like internally. Last week, we talked about the whole idea of sort of ancient jewish monotheism, the idea that there was one God, and how this revolutionary idea in ancient hebrew culture really significantly changed the way that they saw the world, because they rejected a God who was tribalistic, who was sort of willing to go to war on their behalf, and instead began to see that God was one, that God was no longer a reflection of their own petty beliefs or ideas or prejudices, but that God transcended those things.
Today, I want to take a look at how that might also be true inside of us. So we're going to look at Romans chapter seven. This is a familiar passage. If you have your bible, you're welcome to turn there. I want to go ahead and read it to you first, and then I want to just share with you some of what I'm noticing in this, and then also some of Jesus's teachings. Romans chapter seven, verse 14. Actually, I'm going to jump ahead to verse 19. Says this, for I do not do this is Paul speaking of himself. I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want is what I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it's the sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law or a kind of rule that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self. But when I see my members at another law at war within my body, the law of my mind making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Would you just pray with me for a moment?
God, we thank you again for today. We ask that you would meet us in this time and in this place.
We are grateful for the opportunity to come together and to connect to each other, to connect to you, to be challenged and stretched and provoked by ancient words from a distant people who nevertheless, we share a common faith. We ask that you would join us together, not only with them, but with each other and with others around us in a way that helps us to recognize your unity and your goodness, and therefore a greater sense of your peace. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.
This is sort of a famous passage of Paul's in Romans. Sometimes it has been referred to as sort of Paul's schizophrenic moment, sort of enact, you know, in a sort of incorrect way.
But it is Paul at a place where he is internally, psychologically, emotionally, very divided against himself. He's describing this circumstance that's almost driving him crazy, where he sees what's good, he sees what he believes to be good and right in the world and within himself. He wants to do that. He has a deep desire to do what is good and right. But his body, he calls it, his body seems to have a mind of its own right. It has its own desires, its own impulses that want to lead him to do things that he also believes are bad. And so he has these two natures, these two desires at war within him. In other words, he is divided. He is sort of territorialized by different gods, if you will, even within himself.
And so he has become internally a reflection of those sort of ancient tribal deities that the ancient Hebrews were trying to distance themselves from.
And I think there is a connection between that sense of God being one and God being through all and in all and for all. And Paul's wrestling with this internal division, because prior to this, he's talking about how his exposure to the goodness of God, the oneness of goddess, the law of God, even that has stimulated this internal division that he experiences.
And I think what's happening here is that Paul is suffering from something that Jesus diagnoses and talks about in the sermon on the mount. And it sounds a little counterintuitive to say it, but I think Paul's problem here is that he has a bad eye, he has a bad way of seeing. It's nothing helping him to recognize what is good and true in the world around him and integrate that oneness within himself. Jesus puts it this way in Luke. Jesus talks about this idea actually in Matthew and Luke. But we're going to go ahead and pick up the passage in Luke chapter eleven, where he says this in verse 34. Your eye is the lamp of your body.
If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But if it's not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, consider whether the light in you is not darkness.
If then your whole body is full of light with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays. And he ends this saying with this idea of that light, whatever that light is that's inside of us, that somehow has to do with our eyes, that it also gives off a kind of light, which actually is appropriate, because at the very beginning of this passage, the portion that I didn't read, he talks about that old saying that we have, like a song about when we were kids that talks about not hiding your light under a bushel.
Now, we tend to think of that bit not hiding your light under a bushel as a kind of saying about evangelism, right? Like, we ought to do our good deeds in front of others so that they might see them. But then Jesus pivots to talking about this sort of puzzling idea that the eye is the lamp of the body.
This has been a confusing saying of Jesus for a very long time, but it turns out that it connects rather obviously and rather well to an ancient jewish idiom called ayin tova. Ayin tova literally means good eye.
And the ancient Hebrew word if you were ayin tova, if you had a good, it meant that you were the kind of person who was kind to others, that you treated people with compassion, with dignity, that when you saw that there were people who were in need, you gave generously to meet their needs.
But if you had a bad eye, then you were cruel to people in the world, you were unkind to them. You didn't meet needs in the community when you saw it, you were a greedy, stingy person.
So when Jesus says, the eye is the lamp of the body, and through that lamp you are either filled with light or you are filled with darkness, it seems fairly obvious that he's referring to this really well known ancient jewish saying.
And this really shouldn't come as a surprise to us, I think, because what Jesus is saying essentially is that there's a good way to see the world and a bad way to see the world.
And perhaps more importantly, the way that you see the world affects how you are on the inside.
And how you are on the inside affects the way you act towards the world.
We see this sort of idea throughout the biblical literature. In fact, the whole notion of seeing in a particular way is all over scripture. The word revelation itself means to see in a new way.
There's something really critical to the life of faith about this idea of seeing and seeing properly. I love the way these two psalms characterize it. Psalm, chapter 13, verse three. The psalmist here is talking about a place of fear, living in fear, afraid of their enemies. And the psalmist says, in verse three, consider and answer me, O Lord, my God. Now, up to this point, the psalmist has not heard from God. The psalmist is, in fact, lamenting the fact that they don't feel connected to God, that they aren't hearing from God, and that because of that, they feel like they're in danger. They are deeply afraid of their enemies. So in verse three, he cries out, consider and answer me, O Lord, my God. And then says this, give light to my eyes or I will sleep the sleep of death.
The psalmist here recognizes that his fear, his state of crisis, can be characterized as an inability to see, to lack that sort of inner light that is allowing him to see things right, rightly. And that if he continues in this condition, it will be like death.
On the flip side, psalm, chapter 119, verse 18. Here the psalmist is praying to experience the goodness of God. The psalmist says, open my eyes, verse 18. Open my eyes so that I may behold the wondrous things of your law.
Here the psalmist seems to have appropriated that good eye, so much so that when this person sees the law of God, the guidance of God, the righteousness of God, they're filled with delight.
They see good things in the law, and their body is full of light.
And of course, we see this sort of language all over scripture.
Having a good eye or a bad eye, then, would seem to have certain effects on us. If we see the world in a certain way, we see good things even in God's law. We see good things even in the community around us. We see good things even in the people that we are surrounded by. In other words, that good eye fills us with love and beauty and peace, and conversely, tends to shine a light of good and beauty and peace in the world.
The ancient, I say ancient because from where I stand, he seems ancient. But the old philosopher, dutch philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, told a parable of two artists. Maybe you've heard this. The parable of two artists goes like this. He says, suppose there are two artists, and the one says this, I've traveled much and I've seen much in the world, but I've sought in vain to find a man worth painting.
I found no face with such perfection of beauty that I could make up my mind to paint it. In every face I have seen one or another little fault. Therefore, I seek in vain.
On the other hand, Kierkegaard says, the second artist says, well, I don't pretend to be a real artist.
Neither have I traveled to foreign lands, but remaining in the little circle of men who are closest to me, I have not found a face so insignificant or so full of faults that I still could not discern in ithood a more beautiful side and discover something glorious.
Therefore, I'm happy in the art I practice. It satisfies me. Without my making any claim to being an artist. Kierkegaard asks, which of these is the true artist?
The one where no matter where he goes, he can't see anything beautiful enough in any person's face to actually bring his attention, his skill, his time to it, or the one who sees beauty everywhere?
No matter where he goes, Kierkegaard says, it's the second one who's the real artist, even though he doesn't consider himself to be one, because Kierkegaard says he brings something with him that enables him to see beauty everywhere.
Jesus, I think, would say that something with him that he brings is that light.
It's the ability to see goodness and beauty in everything around us.
But what exactly is it that we see?
What exactly is it that if we have a good eye, if our eye is full of light and we look to the world, what is it that we're actually noticing? What is it that constitutes beauty? I think Paul gives us the answer to that, too. In Ephesians, chapter one, verses 16 through 19. Listen carefully, and try not to listen with religious ears, because if you do, you will likely hear some guilt in this passage.
And I agree with Jen. Sometimes guilt is good, but often in religious settings, it's nothing.
So hear this passage. Paul's writing to the Christians in Ephesus. He says, I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. There's that vision word again.
May give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you?
What are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power, Paul sees three things with his eyes of the heart, his eyes of faith, his eyes that are full of light. He sees hope and riches and power where your natural eyes see none.
And this is, I think, a remarkable skill, a remarkable ability that is much like having the eyes of an artist, the ability to see things that otherwise are invisible, that don't actually appear to be there. Because if you look at our world, my question to you today is, do you see hope?
How hard is it to see hope in a world that seems to be increasingly full of violence?
How hard is it to see hope when you open your news app on your phone, like I do at 532 every morning? And I read the latest stories of violence in the Middle east, of Israel continuing to expand its war, not only against Gaza, but against, now, Lebanon and Iran, the never ending sort of circle of violence that seems to be characterizing that region where one act of senseless violence leads to another act of senseless violence.
And here in the United States, as far away as we are, we are divided about whether or not there is hope in that situation, much less hope in our own situation.
Thanksgiving is coming.
I hope you have a strategy for what not to talk about when your friends and your relatives are showing up just a few weeks after the latest presidential election.
We're talking about it.
Are you able to see hope in that?
Are you able to see hope in our circumstances politically? Are you able to see hope in our circumstances religiously? Are you able to see hope in the fact that every single day, laws and policies at the local and the state and the federal level seem to be impinging upon the rights of people who have been marginalized and oppressed continually? Are you able to see hope in the fact that the people who tend to show up for those oppressive policies share your identity as a christian?
I find it hard to hope these days.
Are you able to see riches in a world where there is increasingly more and more economic inequality, where the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and bigger? Even here in the United States.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Where.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: People in their early twenties with college educations and six figure incomes can't afford to buy homes in the towns where they live, do you see riches in that other than for the Elon musks of the world?
What kind of riches, then, is Paul talking about? Are you able to see that the hope of God might be different than the hope of the world, that the riches of God might be different than the riches of the world?
What about power?
When you look at the world, can you identify a power that is available for those who are suffering, that doesn't look like force or violence or military might.
Are you able to see the kind of power that Jesus was talking about when he said, I tell you the truth, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of seeds, but eventually it grows to be big enough to shelter and house others?
That is not the kind of power that we tend to want. But do you see it?
Having the eyes of faith, having the eyes of an artist, I think, are all about being able to see these things when our regular eyes don't recognize them.
And if we're able to do that, if we're able to recognize the reality of the hope of God in a world that seems otherwise utterly hopeless, if you have the eyes to see that there are riches available to those who are connected to a sense of faith, riches that are available to all of us, if you're able to see those riches in a world where riches are increasingly elusive, then that fills you with light.
If you're able to grasp that the power of God is not the power of force, then it fills you with the ability to bring that power to bear on hopeless situations.
It would be so trite and so cliche and so predictable for me to say that all of these things revert to the power of love.
But I might as well say it because we're that kind of church and I'm that kind of preacher.
So at the risk of being trite or cliche, maybe what Jesus is talking about here is the ability to see the oneness, the unity of love for us to be filled with that sense of who God is, so that just as God is one, we can also be one in God. Amen.
Would you pray with me? God, we thank you so much for today. Again, we ask that you would fill our hearts and fill our minds, fill our prayers and fill our songs, fill our conversations with the light that comes from having a good eye, the eye of faith, the artist's eye, who sees possibilities and beauty and goodness in all things. In spite of the difficulties.
We ask that you would give us strength to be the kinds of people who can speak that goodness into the world, who can shine that light in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools, that we would be stubbornly insistent about seeing goodness everywhere, about seeing God everywhere.
We pray that you would do this work in us. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us for this Sunday teaching. No matter when or where you're tuning in to learn more about our community or to support the work we do, visit
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