Thoughts from Pastor Stan

PASSING OF THE PEACE (Plato “Euthyphro”)

SCRIPTURE:

QUESTION: Is it righteous because God declared it righteous (pious)

Or

Did God declare it righteous because it is righteous (pious)

(chicken or the egg?)

CALL TO WORSHIP (Nietzsche, Dostoevksy, or Satre)

If there is no God

all things are permissible

QUESTION: What if there is a God? Then what?

IMPLICATION: Well, maybe some things are not permissible?

QUESTION: According to your way of thinking are there some things that are permissible and some not? Why? And do you know some folks who have more and less things that are permissible, and why is that so?

PUPPET MESSAGE

QUESTION: To be good nor to be good, that is the question

INTRO TO CLIP (Speech of Emisory “Bishop”)

A ship comes through the worm hole near Deep Space Nine. On the ship is a well respected poet named Akorem, who lived 300 years ago. Apparently for the last 300 years, suspended in time (or time-warp), he spent with the prophets of the Bajorans.

At first Sisko is very happy to relinquish his role as emisory ("religious leader) to Akorem. But he is troubled by Akorem's attempt to put "old wine into new wineskins." The return to the ways of the past (seems like a step backward). There is tension between principles of the day and the principles of the religious life of the past.

In this speech, of Akorem, he decrees that the “prophets” want the people to return to the old ways (“dejara”). This system is a caste-based discrimination. If your family were painters, then you return to painting. If your family were farmers, then you return to the farm.

QUESTION: If religion is contradiction to principles, which wins out?

Is it a deal breaker? Show Stopper (for the adherents)?

IRONY: Sisko is violating his own “religion” (the Federation: Prime Directive) and speaks out against the return of the old ways. However; the “casted-based” discrimination is forbidden under Federation law.

CLIP (15:06 - 18:08) A “NEW” DECREE

The new decree is actually the old decree (putting old wine into new wineskins)

QUESTION: Has there ever been a religion that went “back to the old ways”?

Why?

THE QUESTION: How do you know what decrees to follow?

What do you do when the decree(s) goes against your principles?

LAST WEEK

Question: What “decree” would happen in church that would cause you to leave the church? (Deal Breaker? Show Stopper?)

SCRIPTURE: Acts 10 (Peter’s Vision) unclean food descending on a sheet)

SCRIPTURE: Romans 14 (Divided Church: obey the law and nope)

POINT: New wine/wineskins was a new perspective of the law which was a deal breaker for the observant jew.

INTRO TO GENESIS 22 (Another Deal Breaker)

Question: What do you do, when it’s not the church, but a decree from God that violates your principle (deal breaker? Show stopper?)

SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 22: 1 - 10 (sacrifice of Abraham)

1 Some time later God TESTED Abraham.

TESTED

God is testing Abraham for a value and quality. The concept of test is to stretch to its limits. When god tests, God tests for faith and faithfulness. Thus the individual is expected to obey in difficult circumstances.

QUESTION: Do you like to be tested?

It’s not a simple test of coffee with or without milk or sugar

1b He said to him, "Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

QUESTION: What would you do if you were Abraham?

TEST - is beyond any test we will hopefully experience

This test will test the question on how one makes ethical decisions. This test will force Abraham in a supreme ethical decision dilemma. Will Abraham obey God?

Let’s test this:

Which test wold you rather have:

1. Sacrifice your only son
2. Or, be obedient to the 10 commandments

The test of the obedience to God

Door #1 - Sacrifice only son

Door #2 - obey the 10 commandments

Door # 3 - Follow the Sermon on the Mount

POINT: Yet, every day we, at some level, are being tested.

Door # 1 - follow God

Door # 2 - follow own desires

Door # 3 - follow someone other than God or self

Which door do you choose?

How do you choose? Do we choose wisely?

so, back again, IF YOU WERE ABRAHAM, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

ABRAHAM

Can’t imagine abraham happy about his prospects

obey God and loose son

or

Disobey God and keep son

HISTORICAL SETTING

What makes this test even more difficult for Abraham is that the sacrifice of a child is not shocking in this historical setting.

Canaanites, his neighbors, are doing it

YOU KNOW HOW TEMPTING IT IS WHEN EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT

Canaanites believed their god who provided fertility had the right and was entitled to demand a portion of what had been produced (from grain and animal sacrifice to children)

POINT: If Abraham passes this test,

he then demonstrates his obedience and trust in God

It is a test of Abraham’s relationship with God

it also demonstrates to himself, to Isaac, the world and to God that his faith is not driven by what he will receive out of his relationship with God but by his commitment to God

He is willing to give up everything because he loves God that much.

Kierkegaard (“Fear & Trembling”) “teleological suspension of the ethical.”

Meaning: teleological means “end” or goal

Point: killing of Isaac is ethically wrong but religious right.

SO HOW DOES ABRAHAM RESPOND TO THE TEST?

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

THIRD DAY

ABRAHAM had time to think about it. He is traveling not just one day, but on the third day he can see the mountain in the distance. He has time to think about it.

GOD PROVIDED

1. Not only did God provided the lamb
2. god provided the land (renewal of covenant)

COVENANT - AGREEMENT within a RELATIONSHIP

(WEDDING: CHURCH(BRIDE OF CHRIST

1. When we trust God - we say “I DO”
2. When we obey God - we say “I DO”

TWO WEEKS AGO

Thus one is forced to ask: how much evil was in Abraham to follow through with the attempt to kill his only son while exhibiting his faith?

QUESTIONS:

1. Do you follow decree (religion) with all your heart,

or do you follow your principles?

1. Or, are you tempted to say, my principles is my religion and my religion are my principles? (if so, what came first? Religion decreed and therefore it became one’s principles?

What happens if a time arose that your religion and your principles collide? (deal breaker)

1. Do most moral codes depend entirely on the divine will, or do they somehow exist independently of it?
2. Do you follow your faith/religion with all your heart, soul or mind; or do you follow your principles?

PASSING OF PEACE QUESTIONS (revisited)

Do moral codes depend entirely on the will of God; or do they somehow exist independently?

Is it righteous/pious because God declared it so, or did God declare it so because it is righteous/pious?

DIVINE COMMAND THEORY) (Dostoevsky)

An act is either moral or immoral solely based on God’s decree (command). The only thing that makes an act morally wrong or right is God’s command. There is no right or wrong outside the decrees of God (If there is no God, then all things are permissible)

RESPONSE: The thing in itself is intrinsically good or bad (irrespective of God’s perception). God, hence, only recognizes it as good.

SCRIPTURE: JOSHUA 24: 1 - 8

14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

CHALLENGE: Know Thyself

Whom do you follow?

Why do you choose (decide) the things you do?

TUESDAY: DEEP SPACE NINE

6 p.m. light dinner

6:30 p.m. Viewing of the episode

7:15 p.m. Discussion of the episode

PRAY

that God will use this week of wrestling to discover why we do the things we do, and don’t do the things we don’t; and why sometimes we mix them up (Romans 7:14 (two weeks ago)