Pastor John Wright

We live in a culture that lives on a distinction between the "inside" and the "outside" of human life. Real life, real emphasis is placed on the "inner life" that is seen as independent of the "outer" realm where we live. Watch Oprah or Jerry Springer or any "reality" TV show. The "outside" is the stage on which the "inside" -- the place of our true life -- takes place.

There is a real sense that the Christian tradition has historically made this distinction between the internal and the external -- and emphasizes the internal. It is necessary, lest we fall into a legalism or a moralism. One can feed the hungry through resentment, not love; one can remain faithful to marriage vows out of spite rather than mutual submission. Yet the tradition, particularly in our Wesleyan branch, does not allow this wedge to be drawn between the two. The Gospels tell the story of the two sons, one who said to the Father, I'll do it, but didn't; the other that said, no, but did it -- which one did the will of the Father? Thus while we have to make a distinction, we have to recognize the movement of the external into the internal, even as what is internal to us moves externally. We must avoid legalism and moralism, whether of the right or of the left; yet we commit outselves to certain external goods and practices so that the Spirit might sanctify us to bring for faith, hope, and love within.

I'd like to order our Scripture readings from this week to show this movement from the "outside" to the "inside" -- how we are made righteous, justified, by internalizing what God has objectively, externally brought forth in Jesus. To do this, it might be helpful to begin with the Epistle reading, turn to the Gospel, and then finish with the reading from Deuteronomy.

Romans 3:21-25a,28

Translation issues make a big difference in this passage. So I'd like to correct it from its modern translations -- the King James translation is more like the one I am offering, I believe. It has been an important shift in understanding Paul the past 25 years. So here is a revised translation:

Now outside the law, the righteousness of God has appeared being witnessed to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God [has appeared] through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; we are now made righteous/just as a gift of his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood through [his] faithfulness. . . . For we hold that a person is made righteous by faith outside works of the law.

This is tough stuff to read, very confusing and technical. But let's try the "external" and "internal" distinction. With whose "righteousness/justice" is the passage mainly concerned? To what do the Law and the Prophets refer? Where does one see the "righteousness of God" or the fact that God is just? Is this internal or external to us, something that first happens in us or for us?

Now obviously, I think that Paul teaches that it happens for us -- in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood through [his] faithfulness. Now how does Paul see us becoming righteous/just? Does our righteousness begin inside us or outside us? How do we then become "internally" righteous? By works of the law? How does believing/trusting/being loyal to Jesus allow us to become righteous? Whose righteousness is it then? What is it to be made righteous/just by faith outside the law?

How do we participate in a righteousness not our own so that it becomes our own? Maybe the gospel reading can help us.

Matthew 7:21-27

This passage ends the Sermon on the Mount. Given the content of the sermon on the Mount, why is it only the one who externally does "the will of my Father in heaven" and not the one who claim to have done acts of power, prophesy, or exorcisms in Jesus' name, that Jesus welcomes into the coming kingdom of heaven? Where does one see or know the will of the Father? Is this will found through internal self-examination or something external to us? What is the point of the parable at the end of the passage as the summary of the whole Sermon on the Mount?

Deuteronomy 11:18-21,26-28

The Deuteronomy passage emphasizes the response to the Law as given so that Israel might prosper in the land that God has promised to give them. Given that the Law witnesses to the righteousness of God in the faithfulness of Jesus, why would the Deuteronomy passage emphasize the immersion in the God's word. How does the passage tell Israel to put the words "internally" "in your heart and soul"? Are these words internal or external to Israel? How do these words help us avoid idolatry?

The modern era has witnessed the split between "authority" and "meaning" -- the "external" and the "internal". Churches, which use to emphasize the external, now focus strictly on the internal -- we have "worship celebrations" to pump us up from inside to face the outside. The temptation is to conform the life of the church to what we have already experienced or desire internally rather than to let the external shape our internal to let us desire what is good rather than what is comfortable from our culture as we have internalized what is external to us so that we think that this is natural.

Yet we know, in all our experience, that life is external to us, something into which we are born that we then participate in. Yet participation is of different types -- there is mindless conformity whereby moralistic actions become an end in themselves and there is an internalization that comes from participation that allows a skill and wisdom to arise to live life well and constantly amid all the different circumstances in which we find ourselves. Salvation is granted us in Christ that we then participate in through faith; it is not something that is first internal to us that then finds external manifestation. The internal is the external with becomes the internal externally seen in the world in witness!

Early Christians had a term for this internalization of an external good -- a habitus (it always sounds fancier in Latin). It is like the process of becoming an artist -- I think all the bible studies has people who have art in your background. How does one become a good artist?
Early Christians held that the church is the hospital of the soul in which our internal life is healed from its sin by participation by faith in the external practices of the church, instituted by Jesus, as described in the Scriptures. We try at Mid-City to recover this -- to call to certain practices in faith so that the "Word" might be in our soul and our hearts by immersion in the practices commanded as central to Jesus -- and thus that we might received the sanctifying presence of the Spirit -- indeed, we must or we will not last. Maybe you might end the evening with a good Nazarene "testimony" time of sharing how God has pulled you deeper into the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ through the internalization of what you have participated in externally.

Finally, I hope now to start blogging regularly. I'm going to work through some books that I've read as means of understanding more deeply the world around us and how we might faithfully respond to God's call in our lives as part of this congregation. I hope you all will check and join the discussions!

Have a wonderful bible study!