Seeking the Hidden Thing Podcast

Scripture Reading
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Pulpit Notes
[n.b. This is one of those instances where the variance between what was spoken and what was on the page in front of me is significant]
Today is the fifth Sunday of Easter. In this period between Easter Sunday and Pentecost we spend our time meditating on passages that explore and open up for us the meaning of the death and resurrection of Christ for the world and in the life of us as believers.
We struggle to properly relate to the New Testament scriptures in part because we live in an age of technology, of science. We live in a time where there only things that matter is what we can see and observe, the material world that can be measured and observed scientifically, that can be controlled through technology.
Ours is a materialist world. What is most real is the things we can see. The unseen world of the supernatural and the metaphysical is less real to us than it was to those who lived in the period when men like Peter and Paul wrote.
In their day, it was simply accepted that our world is a reflection, a revelation of the unseen spiritual world. In many ways that supernatural world was more real, more important, than the world that can be seen. The visible world is dependent upon the unseen world.
The most important things that Jesus did were accomplished in this spiritual realm that is the foundation for the visible world.
What Peter is doing throughout much of the book is helping the young church understand these realities and what Jesus did and how they shaped the universe within which we live.
The task of our spiritual life is not to build things materially, whether churches or organizations or even nations; rather, our task is to reveal what is there in the unseen spiritual realm, this place where all things have been accomplished. Just like the Lord’s Prayer, we want to reveal the Kingdom and will of God as they already exist fully formed in the unseen heavenly realm.
Our text builds in a progression, one thought building on the other. The lectionary actually begins mid sentence in the Greek. But this is fine, because it allows us to emphasize the point I open up with here this morning.
“Like newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk.” This is one of those moments where letting scripture interpret scripture can sidetrack you. Paul uses the image of “milk” in contrast to “meat” or “solid food.” But this is not what Peter is doing. He is not even telling his readers that they are immature, like babies. What he is doing here is saying that like babies, you need to eat the very best food you can eat, which is mother’s milk. What Peter is saying is that spiritually we need to eat the very best food we can eat.
The word that he closes to use here, that is translated “spiritual,” is λογικὸν and not πνευματικός as he does in verse five. The choice of λογικὸν, especially in regards to this teaching is that Peter is urging his readers not merely to be “spiritual” but to seek the essence, the hidden reality that gives words their power.
Something that we don’t often think about is that words and their meanings are separate things. People can use the same word but have very different associations with those words. You might have had a loving relationship with a pet dog while another person got bit by a dog. For one person the word “dog” evokes fear, and the other something warm and positive.
So “pure spiritual milk” here means to seek the full divine truth, the supernatural and metaphysical realities that lay beneath the words we use to talk about the gospel. The idea is that we are in touch with the unseen part of the teaching of the gospel that gives it its power.
Words are good. But they can only carry us so far. We can use a word like the “Trinity” or say that Jesus is fully God and fully man. But what does this mean? This is what Peter is getting at, that we get fed with the unseen power of God that is the foundation for reality, for the teaching of the gospel, for all that we are as believers.
The words that we hear, that we read on the page, words that we profess are given to us by God, these words are the anchor, but beneath the surface there are depths that we likely can never fully know. But it is these depths that are the best food for us as believers.
You cannot grow if you are not immersed in the teaching of the gospel. But this is not a scientific thing. These words are the path, the door, that open us to full mind of God. They help give us access to the heart and mind of God in which all things find their meaning.
If you want to grow in your salvation, you need the right food.
Peter shifts images, but this new image builds on first insight.
Jesus is the cornerstone of a great building of which we are the stones. This building is the household of God. He is using temple imagery here. We, as the community of believers, the Church, are being build into a house where God will dwell.
No longer is the temple a building of wood and stone. We are God’s temple. We are his house. We are “living stones.” We are being built up into a spiritual house.
We are the place, the location, where the invisible unseen world becomes visible. We are the temple of God.
Not only are we the stones of the temple, but we are priesthood that both offers worship to God, spiritual sacrifices, as well as ministering the presence of God in Christ to the nations.
We have tasted that the Lord is good and so now we share this with the world.
As Peter continues, using OT prophetic texts, he makes the point that Christ the cornerstone is focal point, the dividing line in the world. You are either part of the dwelling of God, the new household of God, the new temple of God or you are on the outside looking in.
More than that, Christ becomes the stumbling block the world. He is the thing they trip over because they cannot accept that everything, all of history, God’s saving work, his presence in the world all revolves around Jesus and the people for whom he is the foundation.
We are built on Jesus Christ.
Peter shifts the imagery. Not only are we a new temple where God dwells and where he is worshiped, where the fullness of the spiritual realities that lay beneath everything are revealed; but we are also now a new nation, a new people.
Most nations grew up as ethnic tribes, a people with tribal connections and intermarriages. The old covenant people were descended from Abraham the patriarch through the twelve sons of Jacob. From this family a whole nation was born, God’s people.
In Christ, this people is now reconstituted and reformed by the spiritual realities of God’s saving work in Christ.
In the NIV it says that we are God’s chosen people. The word for people here is “γένος” from which we get the English word “genes.” This is a similar understanding to Hebrews 2 that we looked at not long ago where it teaches that because Jesus came in the flesh, he is not afraid to call us brothers and sisters. We are a new tribal people a new family, but we are bonded together spiritually “in the flesh” just as we are bonded to Christ “in the flesh” because he was fully human, and now through faith have this family like relationship – we are bonded together in the flesh -- because we are in Christ.
This joining is not just an idea. It’s not like membership at the club or like belonging to Rotary or some such. We as a church are bonded together like we are an actual extended family. This is the importance of being able to see the spiritual. These spiritual realities are what is truly real. This is why Paul tells us that we don’t see like we once did, from a worldly perspective, but we see with the eyes of faith the spiritual realities that truly define who we are.
Additionally, we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We have been separated from the world, set apart and dedicated to God. We are sacred.
Within the boundaries of this holy temple, this household of God, we declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into light. As God’s holy people, we are the light to the world, like a lighthouse in a world of darkness.
We are the burning bush. Among us is holy ground.
When you are in Christ, you have a people, you have a home, a place, a purpose. We are the people of God.
We are a nation unto ourselves. We live as strangers in the world. This creates a divide between us and our neighbours. They stumble over Christ and they wonder why won’t join them in their ways.
But who we are, if we are revealing who we are in Christ, the world will see us, see our good deeds and they will be forced to praise God.
We are those who respond in obedience to the call of God and we respond in obedience to the spiritual, supernatural world that underlies everything. We show the world what is truly real.
We sing the praises of God. We also reveal him to the world in our worship and in our lives. We are set apart. Dedicated to God. We are the new temple, the priests within that temple. We are a new people, a holy nation.
This is the picture that Peter paints for us as to who we are and what our identity is. This is who we are in Christ.
Peter urges us to feast on this image the way that baby feeds at its mother’s breast.
Live into these realities. Be who you are.
Living stones built into a holy temple.
You are God’s chosen people, his tribe, his race.
We are people of priests who worship within the temple. That temple is us.
You belong. To God and to his people.
This is who we are. This is our identity. Be who you are.
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Ben and I get together to talk about the Reformation, what caused it, and how we should properly think about it in the context of the times and the flow of historical events.



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I have Garen Kaloustian on to talk about the central organizing force of America and American society. Is it Protestant Christianity? Anglo culture? Enlightenment liberalism? It's commerce.

Ben Fleming is back to discuss a work, Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground," that underscores the thesis that the west is largely "stuck" playing out the same themes and ideas from the 1850's-1920's.
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Pulpit Notes
Note: the spoken version of this message diverged quite a bit from the text that I brought with me to the pulpit.
Today is Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. Deep into Lent, we are boring into core Christian teachings. Who is Jesus? Who are we as Christians?
The text we have in front of us is thought to be an early Christian hymn that Paul is using to make a point, likely because of its familiarity with the Philippian church.
The English here in the NIV smooths out the language here in verse five, but in so doing obscures the point that Paul wants to make.
It reads literally: “Let this mind be in you which also in Christ Jesus.”
We have talked a lot about this fundamental Pauline concept of being “in Christ.” Salvation happens “in Christ.” We have been taken from “the world” and are now “in Christ.” In Christ we are a new creation. In Christ we are raised from the dead.
But as we have learned, we don’t yet fully experience this reality today. A big part of the core of our faith is believing in this reality, that “in Christ” we are all these things.
We know that until Christ returns this new reality remains hidden “in Christ.” This is why we lift our attention to heaven to where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
In the way that Paul lays out his opening sentence here, what he is telling us is how to make this “in Christ” reality something that is revealed in our lives and the life of our community.
Interestingly, the “in you” here is actually the plural form. What Paul is saying is that revealing Christ in our lives in not something we do individually, although we all participate as persons. But this is something we do as a community.
So, Paul is teaching us that our mind, our thinking, our attitudes, our actions should reflect what is “in Christ.” Our mind is Christ’s mind. What is in you, among you, should be what is in Christ.
So, what is “in Christ”?
We have talked about this as a change in being, of our essence. We have gone from a space where our essential being is “of the world” to one where we are now “in Christ.” We believe, a core part of our faith is that this transformation has taken place, even if now this new essence is hidden “in Christ.” What is this essence? What does it mean to be “in Christ” to be a new creation, to be the body of Christ?
It is easy to read the opening of the hymn and place the emphasis on the fact that the Son of God gave up his equality with God the Father to empty himself to become a servant to humanity to sacrifice himself for us, and if we combine this with Paul’s urgings in the first five verses that we should do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit and that would should consider others as better than ourselves as us being urged to be pushovers, or weak, or to put ourselves and the church at the mercy of bad actors would take advantage of all of this.
This is not a call for weakness, but rather one of radical obedience to God the Father. We choose to be gentle not because we are weak, but because we are obedient.
We are not the people who get walked all over. We are not a people who get taken advantage of. We don’t let bad actors take us for a ride.
We can take a stand and hold our ground. We can say no. We can say, we don’t do that here. We can tell the truth about the reality of sin. We don’t have to ignore sin or bad behaviour. We can tell the truth. We can draw lines in the sand. We can hold each other accountable.
Jesus did all of these things and they put him to death for it.
The reality that Paul is talking about here is not one of being weak or giving excuse for passivity or to justify Christians being pushovers.
In reality, this thing that Paul is calling us to is one of tremendous strength and discipline.
What he is calling us to is a life of radical obedience.
So here is how it works.
You live in community. What do you pursue? Do you pursue what you want, what your plans are, what your ambitions are? Are you thinking about how other people need to be meeting your needs and accommodating you in what you want?
Is it all about the respect you deserve? The recognition you deserve? Is it about people acknowledging how much you do around here? Is it about people noticing what you are going through and asking you about what you need? Is it about being upset because no one acknowledges you and your situation?
You get the idea. It is not about you. It’s not about me.
It’s even not about what I want for the church. And it is certainly not about trying to manipulate people by tugging on their willingness to sacrifice so that you can push your agenda on to people as if your plan, your vision for the church as if it is God’s vision.
This is radical.
It also means that because this is a communal thing, that when the Spirit of Christ is truly living in us and we are practicing the kind of radical obedience to God that Jesus did, that we can also call people to account for their bad behaviour, just as Paul is doing here in the previous five verses.
It is ok to put our collective foot down and say, “This is not how we do things here. We are “in Christ.” We can be firm and bold about this.
Jesus was so radically obedient to the agenda of God that he was willing to set aside his position as second person of the Trinity, become human, and live among us, and die for us.
How badly are you going to push your agenda? How important is it that you be “the man” at the church, calling all the shots. For example, it might even be the pastor who is wanting to push institutional growth at the expense of the spiritual discipling of the people because it makes him look good at pastors’ meetings or when he is out with other professionals of similar education. He can show off his growing church. He can show off his “compassionate” church that is a shining beacon of “social justice.” But in the end, its all about the ambitions of the pastor.
The church is not a place for my ambitions, for my personal gain, or my personal power, or yours. The church is about radical obedience to what God wants. Primarily, that is revealed in the cross, the day-to-day sacrifices we make. Sacrifices that are made consciously and purposefully so as to keep the community unified around what God is doing, his work in, around and through this congregation.
Ours is not primarily an abstract faith. It is not about theological ideas. It’s not about turning Christian teaching into a set of plans and policies, making it into an ideology. Ours is a faith that is lived. Ours is a faith that is made real in how we act, how we carry ourselves. Do we share the kind of radical obedience that Jesus had, where it was more important to the Son that he obey the Father than he maintains his position as the second person of the Trinity.
This is the narrow path. This is what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. This is what dying to ourselves so that we can live to Christ is all about. This is key part of who we are “in Christ.” We fixate ourselves on Christ and we reveal in our actions who we are in him. It is not about us. It is about Christ living in us.
The promise of our faith is that in dying we will also be raised again. We are not, like Jesus, going to be seated at the right of God with the nations bowing before us. We don’t sacrifice our ambitions transactionally planning even as we make the sacrifices the kinds of rewards we expect from God. This is not a tool for career or social advancement.
We sacrifice ourselves in radical obedience to God, putting the ambitions of God for this community ahead of our own, putting the work of God ahead of our own status or importance within the body of Christ, without any expectations of being elevated or rewarded for our sacrifices.
This is the desert. Will you serve God obediently even though you get no reward for it? Even when no one says thank you? Even when no one nominates you for elder? Will you still obey in the way that Christ obeyed?
Even with Jesus, it was not Jesus who exalted himself. It was God who lifted up his Son in obedience and gave him the highest of all places. The Father mad his Son Lord of all because of his obedience.
Only God exults.
So, we wait on God. In obedience. Putting others and the work of Christ in the community ahead of ourselves. And we rely on God to lift us up and fill us up.
Here is the thing. If everyone is doing this within the body of believers, I am pretty sure that that the needs we have will be met. And it is ok to acknowledge that we have needs. It’s also good to sacrifice ourselves and those needs and look out not just for our interests but for the interests of others. It is this sense of sacrifice, spread out and made real in the lives of believers that reveals Christ and who we are in Christ to each other and to the world.
This is the question that Paul leaves with us as we enter Easter week. Are we willing to be like Christ? Are we willing to reveal in ourselves, what is in Christ?
How far are we willing to go to be like Christ Jesus? How obedient are we willing to be?
Are we willing to have within ourselves, in our minds, in our actions, in our attitudes, to have the same mind as Christ?
Paul tells us that we are “in Christ.” So let us show it by having the same mind as Christ Jesus.
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